Book One: Onnu and Pannu

Songs and Changes

The dragons hadn't intended to take a turn performing, but the littles insisted. None of the other dragons were there, by the time they were beseeched. They were winding down for the evening, before Charon's approach.
   Onnu couldn't sing, and she didn't have a story short enough to tell before dark. Pannu could sing, and was more than happy to do so. The littles made her promise to tell them a story the next day, before they would hear a word of song from Pannu.
   He chose something bouncy first, having been told by Radar that they had time for about three songs. Second was a slower, more soothing piece. Last, he chose a feel good song. When asked why he didn't sing the slowest one last, to lull them toward their beds, he said "You might have fallen asleep on the grass. I gave you the calm to sleep, and the motivation to reach your niches."
   As usual, no one could argue with the logic of a dragon.
   Some of them had a hard time sleeping, being promised a story from Onnu. None of them even knew she'd written in her human life. Most, though, were exhausted from walking around all of the stalls. While it was comfortably cozy for a dragon, it was a lot of walking for anyone else. Some had paired with a winged kin, but most of them had been too busy being taxis.
   Nearly every winged kin was out cold as soon as their heads hit the carved crystal alcoves they all slept in. The distance from Hold to Hold was negligible for a dragon, but again, that was not the case for everyone else. The unfledged kin had plied them with every tasty treat available, to keep them in the air as long as they could, but the body has its limits.
   As his head settled on his forearms, Todd thought there has to be a better way. There are only so many with wings, and so many more that want to commute. He absently scratched his ear, which had begun to grow fur. His hair had grown longer as well, so he had yet to realize that. Now that they'd fashioned clothing, he also hadn't noted the thicker hair on his body. Without mirrors, he didn't know that his nose had begun to change shape.
   He did, however, feel the hard lump on one side of his head. He didn't remember falling, but maybe he'd bumped the roof of his sleeping niche in the night. It bore monitoring, he thought, and was quickly drawn back to his musings.
   How would we have done it on Earth? He ran through the different methods, but none of them fit. Bridges were out, and they didn't have anything to make stairs with. No technology for elevators. They didn't have explosives, so they couldn't blast a road through the crystals. Not over them, not up through them.
   But wait, we don't need to blast through them if we go under them! Why haven't we thought of tunnels before? We've got plenty of people who can dig! Maybe we can use bone to shore up the tunnels? There don't seem to be many rocks, but there is clay. The question is, do we tunnel the whole way, or just under the crystals? Maybe have a main tunnel with offshoots up to the surface?
   He resolved to bring it up in the morning.

   Except he'd forgotten about the stories they were promised. When they woke, the excitement was abuzz, and he didn't get a chance to talk to anyone.
   Onnu waited for the kin to assemble, though she wasn't sure how she'd know when everyone was there. She relied on them to sort of nudge her when they were ready, and she wasn't disappointed. Dragonfriend and Tandy took stock and reported in on their own, without prompting.
   Onnu settled in for a long day. She debated whether to tell her own stories, ones she remembered, or...
   Or do I tell them what I know, couched within a tale?
   She'd been getting snippets here and there, whenever she flew Above. Some information was immediately useful, and some wasn't. It might be little things about specific kin (she was right about personalities determining what kin you became), or taxonomic tidbits about the creatures and plants.
   She thought she'd let them work out the natural world on their own, because it gave them something to do; but if they were particularly stuck, perhaps she would inspire them toward certain pursuits.
   As for the personalities, she wavered. Would it become the new horoscope, or would it predispose them toward bias? Again, they were supposed to be better after they were transmogrified, so she wasn't sure how concerned to be. Was she helicopter parenting? God had kept humans from the Tree of Life as long as He could, and look where that got Him.
   Or was it the Tree of Knowledge? Maybe that was it. Are we the new Trees? Did He think it wiser to bestow knowledge on sentient gatekeepers, rather than an all-knowing frui--wait, what am I even thinking right now? This place really does keep you on your toes! I've thought things that would be insane, on Earth-that-was!
   But the smaller kin were forgetting more and more about Earth. Even "Earth-that-was" had been shortened more and more, over the past year. It was currently "Erdewaz". She didn't know how much more it would morph, as they forgot more of their former lives.
   "Nothing is the same," she began. Many of them had heard her tell the newly hatched kin this, but what had come after was usually basic knowledge that they already knew.
   Today was different.