Quarters on the airship were cramped, and unpleasant. Three students to a room, and the rooms were much smaller than those back at the temple. Instead of mattresses, they slept on hammocks, that slowly rocked back and forth with the swaying of the ship. Airsick students made the whole of the lower decks smell of vomit, causing even the most strong stomached among them feel nauseous. The entire student body was thankful that the voyage would only take two days, as no one was sure they would last much longer then that.

Lila and Suishou shared their room with a fire dragoness in her late teens, that neither knew terribly well. The first night the two tried to get to know their temporary roommate, but she was awfully shy, only speaking when spoken to, and replying in short, one or two word answers. After about twenty minutes of this, the two got bored and went to explore the airship.

The ship was huge, but most of the below deck floors were dedicated to sleeping quarters. As such there wasn't much to explore beyond the boiler rooms, which the two soon found were off limits to passengers. They argued with some of the ship's crew for a while. "Shouldn't the purple dragon and her friend get special privileges?" Suishou reasoned, but to no avail. They eventually decided to go up top, and watch the stars.

"The stars are boring," Suishou complained as they climbed the stairs to the main deck, "You can look at them whenever you want."

"But there's no clouds up here. I've never seen such a clear sky!"

"Yeah, but we're going to be living on Volans for who knows how long. You'll have plenty of time to look at 'em, then."

"Well, do you have anything better to do?"

"I still think we should sneak into the boiler room," Suishou grumbled, "There's gotta be something cool in there if they're not letting us in."

"Yeah, well I'm still in hot water over the whole science lab stunt." The duo emerged into the cold night as Lila spoke. The purple dragoness shivered, "Damnit, I wish I knew how to breathe fire, not ice."

"Thank you very much, my ungrateful apprentice."

Lila looked over her shoulder and flashed a toothy grin at her friend, then ran headlong into someone.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," Lila stammered, trying to regain her composure.

The person she'd run into, a burly, and surprisingly tall mole, wearing a scowl across his wide face, grunted in response, "Just watch where you're going Purples. In the city, not everyone's going to be as tolerant of your bullshit as these people have been."

"Geez," Suishou grumbled, "Who shoved a stick up your butt?"

"You keep out of this girl-y," the mole growled as he pushed past, and disappeared below deck.

"The hell was his deal?" The purple dragoness asked, after a moment of shocked silence.

"He's probably one of those Fireclaw asshats."

Lila was quiet a moment, "Fireclaw... Aren't those the people who've been in the paper a lot recently? Like, those dudes that hate dragons whatever?"

"Yeah, I think so," Suishou said, moving towards the edge of the deck "But, from what I understand, they don't hate all dragons. Just powerful ones. I think"

Lila lowered her head, "Like... me?"

Suishou frowned, "I meant like... politicly. I don't know what they'd think about you."

Lila nodded, "But... I thought it said in the paper, that they like, protested against that statue of Spyro the city of Volans put up?"

Suishou shrugged, as they reached the taffrail, "Y'know, I don't really keep up with this stuff. But, didn't the board try to make Spyro's likeness a national symbol or something, a few years ago? If they did, I bet that's why Fireclaw was all worked up."

Lila nodded again as she dangled her forepaws over the railing, and stared absently into the cloud sea bellow, "Yeah, they did. I bet he's rolling in his grave. He hated politics."

"Didn't he compare politicians to vampires in one of his letters?"

Lila shook her head, grinning slightly, "Nah, that was Cynder. Spyro wasn't quite that nice."

Suishou laughed, "Daaaamn, what a dude."

Lila laughed too, "What a dude," she agreed.

Dalr lead Breeze and Tremor though the early morning, garbage covered, streets of the Volans slums. The siblings had never ventured far into this part of the city, they'd been warned as children that dragons weren't well liked here. They found out that morning, that they had been lied to. There were a good number of dragons, particularly wind and shadow, living there in the filth and squalor. Breeze figured that they'd been told this lie because she and her brother would have been recognized by these people. They would have been known as the children of Viento. If either had visited these streets, it would have put their father's secret at risk of being exposed.

The lie had been effective though. Breeze and Tremor had been living on the streets for nearly a month, and neither had been brave enough to come here. At least, they hadn't been until they'd met Dalr. According to the dog, there was a Fireclaw safehouse near the northern edge of the city that would be more than willing to offer the two assilem until they found a more permanent living situation.

As the three walked further from the city center, the more depressing the world seemed to become. At first the tall buildings Volans was known for were merely rundown, with an occasional broken window or missing door. Life, and business seemed to be proceeding as normal for the people living there. Then, after about a half mile, the buildings were missing walls, and roofs. Soon, buildings were replaced altogether. Instead there were shacks thrown together from anything, and everything. Two shipping pallets holding up a tin panel, or a pile of cardboard boxes would house an entire family. Untamed animals roamed the streets, Cowleks that might have once been pets, scavenged and fought amongst the garbage.

And the smell was something else entirely. Volans, despite being cleaner than most ground based cities of the day, never smelled great. Breeze and Tremor were used to the inner city stink, but as the trio reached the northern edge, the siblings found themselves feeling increasingly sick. The scents of garbage and waste mixed with those of unwashed bodies and dung filled the air. And the stench of death floated above it all.

Unlike the inner city, the outer edges of Volans had no graveyards, no imported land in which to bury the dead. Because of this, the inhabitants of the slums would have to wait until the city passed over a large enough body of water to give their passed loved ones a proper burial at sea. So bodies rotted, sometimes for weeks at a time, before finally being disposed of.

The three walked for some time, the two dragons taking in the slums in silence. Dalr didn't say anything either. He knew the siblings had been sheltered from this side of the world. He knew how hard seeing this was on them. So he let the silence stand.

Or at least he did for a long while. The group was nearing the city's northern edge, and the Fireclaw safehouse, when a short, middle aged, fire dragoness approached them. Dalr smiled at her arrival, "Hello Azar."

"Where in the fuck 'ave you been?" The fire dragoness snapped back, "We'd thought ya'd fallen off the edge of the city!"

Dalr laughed, "Well, I'm sorry to say, but you can't get rid of me that easily."

"We weren't tryin' to get rid of you! We wanted you to do your damn chores!"

Dalr, still smiling softly, lowered his head, "I do apologize for leaving so suddenly. With Mr. Viento's death, a lot fell into my lap all at once," He gestured towards Breeze and Tremor, "These are his children."

The harsh look on Azar's face melted immediately, "Oh, the poor dears," She moved forwards, and very suddenly scooped the two into a huge hug, "Come, come you two. Dalr here wasn't too cold was he? Oh, I do wish I had a warm drink to offer you both."

Breeze was too taken aback by the stranger's sudden affection to say anything, but Tremor smiled and sweetly said, "Thank you ma'am, but you don't need to offer us anything," He glanced around, "We're all in the same boat here."

Azar smiled, "You sound just like your father, so polite, and collected..." She shook her head, "But that doesn't matter. Please tell me Dalr was kind to you two. He was a shoulder to cry on, yes?"

"He gave us the answers we were looking for," Breeze said curtly.

"Oh, sweety..."

They were silent. Azar hugged them tighter. Both siblings felt like crying, but neither was brave enough to start.