PART ONE: The Calm Before the Storm
For Nacreous, every morning went about the same: wake up, brush his teeth, eat breakfast, and — except on the weekends — go to school. And this day was no exception.
Almost as if his sixth sense kicked in, Nacreous's eyes flew open mere seconds before his mother's voice could be heard from the other side of his door. "Nacreous, school!" his mother hurriedly yelled. "I woke up late, breakfast will be done in a few minutes!" Looking over at the sundial, the little ray of light was right in the middle of six and seven. Only thirty minutes… Nacreous thought.
Groggily, Nacreous rolled out of bed and grabbed his scroll satchel, into which he stuffed the scroll he had yet to finish the night before — sleep took him before he could finish and he almost woke up to a crumpled-up piece of paper that once resembled a scroll.
Thankfully, he didn't have Kasai at the school breathing down his neck, waiting to turn Nacreous's newest scroll into his newest torch. His parents talked to the school after his beatdown, and, after some grilling, they managed to get Kasai's name out of him. Dragons still picked on him, although if he had to choose between the two, he'd pick the new bullies even though he'd only had to tolerate them for a year — they picked up almost immediately after Kasai's expulsion, giving Nacreous little time to recuperate.
Most of the time they were harmless. They'd ask for lunch money and occasionally shove him when they passed him in the halls. Nacreous didn't care too much though — he never had too much of an appetite for school food.
After brushing his teeth, he made his way downstairs to see his mother washing the dishes faster than she ever had before. As usual, his father had left for work early that day; sometimes the bakery would need him to come in early to help prepare for opening as they were short-staffed.
On the table, breakfast had already been made and set up. There were bagels, cream cheese, sunny-side-up eggs, toast with butter, and orange juice already in a cup for him. It wasn't the most impressive breakfast, but it was certainly an achievement given the time constraints. "Oh, and your lunch money is on the table," his mother chimed in. It wasn't like it'd matter too much anyway though.
"Okay," Nacreous responded. And with that, Nacreous sat down, filling his plate with as many bagels, eggs, and pieces of toast as he could before gulping them down, knowing he wouldn't be eating lunch that day.
Most mornings went like this — his mother haphazardly made breakfast while simultaneously washing dishes, knowing she wouldn't feel like doing it when she got home before sitting down to talk to Nacreous about whatever was happening at work or around town.
As he munched on his food, he looked out the window, dreaming of what life would be like if they lived like RainWings — no responsibilities, no school, and getting to sleep all day, every day. Maybe if he lived in the Rain Kingdom he'd have friends…. Dragons that didn't care how small or young or smart he was.
Dragons that didn't care that he was the first animus of his kind in multiple centuries…
He wished he could cast a spell to change everything, and he probably could. But then he'd risk damaging his soul, and then what? His hunger for power would destroy the perfect life he just created. He'd only want more and more and more with a spell that big, and his soul would be almost completely gone. At least, that's what the scrolls he read always said. He promised himself he'd never use his magic, no matter the situation; the thought of just being normal comforted him.
He hadn't realized his mother finished the dishes until she sat down at the table in front of him and began filling her plate just as Nacreous had before. "How's school been so far?" she asked as she dropped a few bagels onto her plate before adding cream cheese and eggs. Nacreous always wondered how she could stomach it — cream cheese and eggs seemed like an awful combination to him.
"Good," Nacreous said, taking a bite of his egg-and-toast sandwich.
"What about friends?" she asked. "Is there any girl you're interested in yet?" she asked. "Or boy…?"
"Mom!" Nacreous protested, half embarrassed and flustered. "I already told you I'm not…you know."
"Gay?" Arcus finished. "I don't really care if I'm being honest. You could bring a guy home tomorrow and I wouldn't bat an eye." Nacreous nearly spit out his orange juice at the thought. Truthfully, he'd never been interested in guys, even though his mother made it a little too abundantly clear that she didn't care.
Nacreous hid his flushed expression by taking another bite from his sandwich. She was always open with him about those kinds of things — maybe even too open. Once she told a story about how one of his father's exes was a male SeaWing. Maybe she thought that because his father was like that he might be too.
As his mother took the last bite of her sandwich, she stood up and put her plate in the sink, leaving the others on the table. "Alright, we better get going now. I'll be late to work and you'll be late to school soon if we don't hurry." Following her lead, Nacreous did the same, taking his lunch money and throwing it in his scroll satchel for him to dig out later.
They walked outside and went their separate way as they did every morning. "Have a good day at school, Cloud Jumper!" his mother waved, bidding goodbye as she went on her way.
He liked that nickname. He didn't know why, but she'd call him it so often that it stuck with him. He didn't hate it, but it just felt natural.
He launched himself into the sky, watching as the house behind him got smaller and smaller before falling out of sight. On his way to the place with nothing but reminders of his status as an outcast. Maybe if he was normal, other dragons would like him. Little did they know that was further from the truth than they could've ever known.
As his talons touched the front of the school, a few stragglers hurried into the building along with Nacreous. Thankfully, he made it to his homeroom before the doors were closed — one more time being late to school and an after school detention would be guaranteed.
Once Nacreous was taken for attendance, homeroom ended swiftly and he was sent out into the hall for his next class. At least, that's all he hoped would happen. But when a group of three SkyWings walked up to him — who were all also reasonably bigger than him — he didn't take it as a surprise when they demanded his lunch money. "How much do you have for us today, Nacreous?" a SkyWing in the front named Slate said.
He always assumed they did this to a few other dragons other than him because the few suns he gave them would hardly be enough to buy a lunch split among the three of them. "Two suns," Nacreous said, sighing. Even though he didn't eat lunch often, it would've been nice to get a pudding or something, at the very least.
"That's it?" he asked. "Yesterday you had two and a half." Even though his face displayed anger, Nacreous knew he wouldn't do anything more than give him empty threats.
"Sorry," Nacreous apologized — he didn't have enough courage to speak up and say anything to them, even if he knew they wouldn't do anything. He dug around in his scroll satchel until he found the coins, and Slate angrily snatched it from his talons when he presented them. At the very least it was a better alternative to having his scroll turned into ash.
"You better have more tomorrow," Slate said threateningly. A bit of smoke rose from his nostrils. Fake or not, Slate was still older and bigger than him, and it was three-on-one if they ever decided to do anything. Nacreous wouldn't take the chance, especially not after Kasai's beatdown.
Sate and the others turned around and walked away, finally allowing him to go to his woodworking class.
After about an hour of carving and cutting wood, Nacreous could feel his talons aching from holding the chisel he moved on to his next class. And then the next one, and the next one, and the next one. Every day went like this, working away at school and getting almost nothing in return. He went to school to get bullied, worked his tail off, went home, and had to repeat it all over again.
But at the very least, he had his mother and father to look forward to at the end of the school day. They were good to him, and they did all they could to make him happy — Nacreous knew that. He knew that they were the only ones in his life who genuinely cared about him and didn't use him as a means to let their anger out.
The flight home was routine, as usual. As long as he gave Slate what he wanted then he was left alone. Sometimes though, if he saw him at the end of the school day, he'd throw a joke or two at him. Nacreous had gotten pretty good at ignoring them to the point where he stopped recognizing it was him they were speaking to.
When he finally arrived home, he opened the door, expecting to see his mother lying down on the couch in an empty house after a long day of having to deal with rude dragons and reluctantly taking their money — what he actually saw was quite the opposite.
With the scent of freshly baked pastries filling the room, Nacreous watched as his father tried to teach his mother to crack an egg with one talon. And for what he assumed was the hundredth time in a row, the egg shattered, dropping a bunch of eggshells in the batter. His father carefully picked them out soon after. "Remember, stab with your talon and then pull it apart."
A smile grew across Nacreous's face. After all, he didn't see his father often; the bakery had him work pretty hard. But in return, they got a lot of money from it. He was the reason they were able to maintain a nice house in a nice city in the Sky Kingdom, so close to the palace that a good chunk was visible through his room's window.
As his father picked the shells out of the bowl and turned to throw them in the garbage, his and Nacreous's eyes locked. "Oh, hey Nacreous!" he said happily.
"You got out early?" Nacreous asked with a smile still wide. Usually, he'd go to work at around six and get home at four — ten-hour-long shifts daily, disregarding the weekends. To say he worked hard would be an understatement, but that day was different. He was home before Nacreous for the first time in a long time.
"Yep. Boss let me go early today since the bakery wasn't booming with activity, like usual," he said happily. Once his mother washed her talons off, she turned around and stood beside his father.
"And that means that we're not going to let today go to waste," she said, twining her tail around her husband's before drawing him in for a kiss a few moments later.
"Gross," Nacreous commented as he shielded his eyes, sticking his tongue out. Watching his parents kiss was the last thing he wanted to see, even on a good day. They did it so often that anyone would assume he'd be used to it, but something about it always made him shiver.
"What?" Arcus asked as she pulled away. "You're going to do this someday too, you'll quickly realize that you won't care who sees."
"Only if all my dignity goes down the drain by then," Nacreous responded plainly. He couldn't count how many times his mother tortured him by kissing his father in front of him. It was almost as if she did it on purpose. When he had dragonets, he already promised himself he'd never put them through the disgust of seeing that.
"You'll see. Once you find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, you won't wait for others to leave to show your love to them," she stated as she began washing out the bowl she used to practice cracking the eggs in.
"Even more gross," Nacreous said again in significantly more disgust than last time. "That's definitely not going to haunt my dreams tonight." There was an awkward silence for a few moments before Nacreous interrupted it by turning around to walk up the stairs to his room when his father suddenly stopped him.
"Uh- hey, why don't we go to the beach today?" his father quickly blurted. It felt like he was looking for any reason to keep Nacreous downstairs. It wasn't like he didn't want to spend time with his father, but if that's what they'd be doing with him around he'd gladly wait until they were done. "It's nice and hot outside and we all have the rest of the day free to relax. Plus, who knows when we'll get another opportunity like this?"
Nacreous turned his head around to look at his father. "Really?" he questioned as a jolt of surprise and excitement went through him. It'd been forever since they last went to the beach — at least a year or so. It just so happened that it'd been just as long since he'd gone swimming — not like he'd gone much in his life. Moons, a newly-hatched SeaWing was probably better than him.
"Sure, why not?" he said. "Not like we'll do anything meaningful together by sitting in this stuffy house all day." He looked over at Nacreous's mother with a questioning stare. "Arcus?"
"Sure, but I've got some errands to run today, so why don't you two go along ahead of me? I'll be there the moment I'm finished." She looked over at Nacreous with a smile on her face. Nacreous wasn't a detective or anything, but something definitely told him that his father made her happy — he never saw her expression light up like that while his father was at work.
"I'll go get some towels," his father said. He walked into the bathroom, flicking his tail back and forth in a bit of excitement. Nacreous knew his father liked spending time with him, regardless of how tired he was or how hard he worked that day.
Once he went inside, his mother spoke up. "Oh, and Nacreous, don't be afraid to talk to anyone you might be interested in over there," she teased.
"Mom!" Nacreous complained. Why she still insisted on Nacreous getting a partner? He didn't know.
"Kidding, kidding. As long as you have fun, I don't care what you do." Truthfully, Nacreous wanted someone to love someday. After all, all the dragonesses at his school were immediately drawn away by him being used like a coin machine for lunch money every day. But before any of that, what he wanted most was a friend.
Just then, his father walked out of the bathroom with a few beach towels in his talons. They were custom-made towels with each one with one of their faces on them. He was so young when his towel was made that he hardly remembered getting it. "Oh, and Mammatus," she said to his father as he began walking to the door. "Our anniversary is in a week, don't forget." A smile formed across her face at the mention.
His father reflected the smile as he made it to the door, staring her in the eyes all the while. "Not even death could do us part." He looked away and opened the door with a flick of his tail, and the hot summer sky started pouring in. "I'll see you when you're done. C'mon, Nacreous." And with the towels still in his talons, he launched himself into the sky.
Nacreous quickly did the same and caught up closely behind him. Flying was the only thing he loved more than going to the beach. In fact, just about every SkyWing loved flying more than the beach. Not only that but they were the only tribe to have competitions for flying. At least, serious flying competitions.
Queen Phoenix would always show up to watch the Sky Kingdom's fastest flyers race. She was probably the one that brought most of the attention to the races — most SkyWings flocked to them to see their queen. Nacreous, though, not so much.
As they flew side-by-side, Nacreous could see the beach ahead. At least a hundred different dragons populated the beach. Some were playing with their dragonets in the water, some were alone laying in the sun with their wings stretched out, or making sand castles with others.
They landed at a free spot and his father laid down three towels in the sand before setting down another three to dry off with. Now that he was on the ground, he could see the big waves that built up before crashing into the beach — they were bigger than he was. A few seagulls flew in the sky. It was certainly an unwise decision if a MudWing decided they wanted a snack.
He looked around a bit more and he could see some SeaWing lifeguards watching over the beach from their tall posts. There was enough space at the top for them to lay down and still have space for snacks, water, and all the equipment they would need to save someone if they had to — which wasn't often as most of the dragons there had gills anyway.
His musing was interrupted by something — no, someone catching his eye. In the distance there was a Nightwing, and for a brief moment, they locked eyes before a panicked expression crossed her face and she darted off — he hardly had any time to get a good look at her before fear filled her eyes and she was gone. He was confused for a brief moment but it quickly slipped his mind as his father was in the distance beckoned him.
"You coming?" he shouted as the waves crashed behind him. "The sooner you get in the water, the more time you get to play in it!" Nacreous could hardly make out what he was saying through the chatter of other dragons and the splashing of dragonets in the background but understood it nonetheless.
"Coming!" Nacreous shouted. As his talons dug into the sand, he ran towards his father who was already knee-deep in the water and was only walking further. Nacreous didn't waste any time jumping in alongside him, except instead of the water being knee-deep it went up to his chest. The water was cold, but that was expected — it was summer so he knew he'd adjust to it within a few minutes.
His father only swam out further past the point where Nacreous's feet weren't touching the bottom — it was far enough out to avoid the crowds. He felt himself hesitate as his feet left the ground but he knew his father wouldn't let anything happen to him.
After just a few more moments of swimming, he made it to his father as he waited patiently. "It's alright, Nacreous," he said, noticing Nacreous's slight fear. "The water's not that deep. Besides, if you ever feel like you're going to drown, remember your body is buoyant enough that you'll naturally float to the top."
As Nacreous floated there, his father gave him his talons as support. He used his legs, arms, and wings to keep himself afloat and even though he hadn't swam very much in his life, it was still relatively easy for him. It was certainly the first time he'd swam in water that deep.
Continuing to use his father's talons to keep him up he dipped his head under the water to see how deep it truly was. He could see that his father was reasonably high off ground-level but it wasn't anywhere deep enough that he felt like he'd drown. Besides, he knew he was safe with a SeaWing lifeguard watching his every move and his father right next to him.
He let go of his father's talons and let himself do all the work. "See? You're getting it," his father congratulated. "At this rate, you'll be swimming like a SeaWing in no time!" He pushed away from Nacreous a little, leaving him to swim completely solo.
He began swimming over to his father, but he took a stroke backward. "You're gonna have to try harder than that if you wanna catch me," he challenged.
"I'm not-" he tried, but quickly realized the game he was trying to play on him. A bit of a smile formed on his face at this realization and he quickly tried to lunge at his father. But because of how little he'd swam and how much his father had, he was far too slow and he swam to the side, causing Nacreous to miss. "Hey!"
"Too slow!" he teased. "And here I thought you were trying to catch me!" Nacreous tried to lunge at his father again, but just like last time, he moved out of the way too fast. "That's it? I take back, you're more like a SlowWing."
"I'm not a SlowWing!" Nacreous protested. But before he could react, his father quickly dove under the water. He watched for a few moments as a red blur beneath the water swam towards him. A few seconds later, he felt someone spring out from beneath him. The next thing he knew, he'd been launched into the air. For a few brief moments, he was able to see every dragon around and miles out into the sea, until water covered his eyes and he began holding his breath.
He resurfaced faster than he ever had, completely unaware of his surroundings. After a moment he felt his father grab a talon as he wiped the water from his eyes. "You alright?" he asked with a chuckle under his breath. "That was a little more rough than I thought it'd be."
"I'm fine," Nacreous said, mimicking the smile his father had. "It was just a little scary."
"Just wait until you drop into a cannonball in the sky," he began. "When your mother and I were dragonets, that was our favorite thing to do when we went swimming." His father darted his eyes around at the beach for a moment. "Speaking of your mother." He pointed over to their towels where his mother was setting down a basket of what he presumed was food, along with a few drinks.
Nacreous grabbed onto his father as he began swimming, allowing him to drag him along. After all, his father was much faster at swimming than he was, not only from his larger wings but from more experience. When they got to a spot where Nacreous could touch he let go.
"That was fast," his father said to his mother as he walked up to her. Nacreous was still a ways behind trying to get the sand out between his talons.
"Well, I figured I couldn't keep you two waiting and a lot of it would take longer than I would've liked, so I packed some food, bought a few drinks, and headed straight here," his mother explained. As Nacreous got closer, she took a glance at him. "Seen anyone you like yet?" she teased but quickly retracted. "Kidding, kidding. Have you two been having fun?"
"Well, I brought Nacreous out to the deep end for the first time," his father explained. "He's old enough, so I figured it'd be fun."
His mother took out a few sandwiches from the basket and handed one to Nacreous and his father. "How'd you like it?" she asked Nacreous. "I heard that there are many cool rocks and seashells at the bottom. SeaWings love to collect those from time to time."
"It was fun," Nacreous said happily. "But I don't think I could hold my breath that long," he continued. As he unwrapped the plastic around the sandwich, he saw turkey and provolone cheese inside. He lay down on his towel as he ate, allowing the warm sun to dry his scales. It was probably the most relaxing thing he'd done in forever, especially when dealing with school. "Are you going to swim, Mom?"
"Eh, maybe later," she said. "I wouldn't wanna miss out on the sun today. But hey, I'll go and collect some seashells for you when I do go in."
"Oh, alright!" As he continued chowing down on his sandwich, he looked beyond at the ocean, feeling the wind between his scales and the warmth of his parents beside him. His life wasn't perfect by a long shot, but at the very least at the end of the day, he knew he'd always have someone there for him — his parents.
And soon, school would be over for him and he wouldn't have to deal with bullies anymore. That's when his life would be perfect. But that was a couple of years into the future, so for now, he just had to endure like he had all along.
Keep your magic hidden, at all costs, he told himself.
Author's notes: I hope Nacreous can fulfill that last line… Anyway, there's a long journey ahead from here, and all I can say is that it won't be as smooth as you'd hope it'd be.
Thank you Arkaiid (lady of the shittiest aim (her request not mine LMAO)) for helping me with proofreading, you really help out a ton!