Book One: Onnu and Pannu

The Mystery of the Spires

No one, save the winged ones, wanted to try to make the climb on her back. Nor did anyone want to try to climb without her. There were a few who wished they could stay outside the shattered dome, but there was no shelter to be had elsewhere. It was an unbroken plain of grass and rocks, and the odd formations.
   "What if they're..." the human who'd confronted the dragon gulped visibly. "Could they be the lair of something? Something she's going to feed us to?"
   A gargoyle snorted. The sound was like grating rocks. "She's giving us the option to stay behind. That doesn't sound like someone looking for sacrifices."
   A centaur filly pranced nervously. "We're no safer out here than in there, if that's the case. Something big enough to do that?"
   The dragon rumbled beneath them. "How do we know it is occupied?" she asked. "Perhaps my kind is drawn to the nearest available nesting site. We do not know."
   "It's the not knowin' that's the problem!" Stella's owner said. He'd almost lost his dog once today to the unknown. His wife hadn't made the Crossing, so Stella was all he had.
   "Would it help ifff one of usss looked innn?" a gryphon asked. "We would not feel thiss insisstent pulll that you dooo."
   "But what if you get eaten?" the combative man asked.
   A different sort of gryphon, a leopard/owl hybrid, puffed out their chest. "I am not afraid. I will go."
   Without waiting for anyone's input, they launched into the air. The dragoness let them go. After all, free will was still a primary tenet of her spiritual beliefs. She believed that God sent them here. As such, she would continue to live by His rules. The rest were free to do as they chose.
   Some of them did cry out in warning, fear, and objection, but the dragon let them go. This caused some of them to doubt her, which was all to the better. She was not omnipotent, nor did she pretend to be. Perhaps this would dim their borderline religious aspirations for her.
   Unless, that is, the gryphon returned with word that the Bowl seemed deserted.
   She sighed internally. This isn't going to be easy, is it? She sent up a fervent prayer for guidance. This could go awry far too quickly, if she wasn't careful.
   "The question now becomes: how do we transport the kin who wish to live here into the Bowl?"
   "Kin?" many voices asked.
   She ducked her head nearly low enough to touch her shoulder. "Apologies. I shortened 'kinds of people' to 'kin', in my head. We are all people, just in different shapes. You may disregard it for your own use, but that is what I mean when I say it."
   Murmurs moved through the crowd as those who could understand Draconic translated for those who couldn't. A large percentage liked her word. Those who didn't were, as she said, welcome not to use it.
   As for how to transport people, the debate went on for some time. While they discussed, some of the smaller kin rode winged ones down to the Bowl. She saw, and did not dissuade them. The little ones were the most likely to fall off of her back, no matter what her wings did or didn't do. An elf here and there went with them, but it was slow going. Those with wings were outnumbered by those without, and the winged ones tired quickly. Unlike her, they hadn't eaten yet; nor had they fully adjusted to their new bodies.
   "Okay, what if, and you can call me crazy, we all hang on to the wings, all stretched out? Like it's a life raft, y'know? 'Cause the problem with hanging on down the back is, ain't nuthin to hold onto. Plus it's all slanty. But if we're on the wings, we've got the edge to grab hold of."
   The ogre's suggestion was met with mixed reactions. The centaurs couldn't do what she suggested, nor could they walk up the spires. Some of them had already tried, though she'd wondered what they would've done once they got to the end of the spiky bits. Stella's owner wouldn't leave her, and he said she couldn't hold on with the odd cat-lizard paws. The dragon secretly thought she could, but she offered to carry her anyway.
   "You can't carry the dog and walk up the rocks!" The obstinate man seemed to find fault wherever he could, but she reasoned that if everyone agreed all of the time, one hundred percent, no one would ever have an original thought.
   "I can make more than one trip," she suggested. "My paws are large. I may be able to carry those with hooves and paws in one or two additional trips."
   "But whoever gets left behind will be defenseless!" the man objected, once her words had been translated.
   "So you're saying you wanna go in the first trip, eh?" a strange, furred, wingless gargoyle-like kin asked, a twinkle in their eye. It wasn't a very subtle challenge, but it was a challenge nonetheless.
   "I don't know," he hedged. "I want to see it done first, but I don't want to risk being stuck out here if the dragon becomes enamored with the new digs."
   The dragoness, who had been slow to rile, growled. Not very loudly, or with much aggression, but she was offended that he thought she would abandon the more helpless kin. He might've been equally offended that she thought him helpless, but like everyone else, he was naked, without a single tool. She and some of the others had sharp teeth, and/or claws. Even the centaurs had large hooves, whether they were solid or cloven (single toe or two-toed, if you knew that hooves were really big toes with funny looking nails).
   "I have vowed to help you reach safety, have I not?"
   When he heard her words in English, he was quick to point out that she'd made no such promise.
   "By carrying you on my back, I have tacitly agreed to carry you to your destination. If the Bowl is your destination, then you have my word as a dragon. And since I've been nothing but compliant with your decisions thus far, you have little reason to doubt the word of a dragon."
   "Which, I mean, she's got a point," her friend added. He'd been relaying her words to the stubborn man, and had lost his patience before the dragoness had. "Even if she's the only dragon you've met, she's been nothing but honorable."
   The man obviously had some reservations, but neither of them thought they would like the thoughts he was having. No one pressed the issue when he dropped it. Nor was anyone surprised when he opted to remain on the ground, near the biggest creature left in that group.