Book One: Onnu and Pannu

Alistair

"Look, I'm sorry your Holds are full, but so are ours."
   Onnu tried to be patient with the dignitary from Dragon City, and she did find that she had more ready stores of patience on Tupino, but he was sorely testing what she had left, after dealing with her Brothers.
   He looked pointedly around the Hold they were still setting up as the main campus, as it were. "Seems to me you've got a way to expand that we haven't. It's only fair that you take some of our overflow."
   A healthy Elder Dragon was nothing to trifle with, when her ire was riled. She knew that he was no match for her in battle, which made her reluctant to show her frustration.
   "Our scouts saw a similar Hold form thrice now. Have you filled those already?"
   His eyes narrowed. He was hoping she didn't know about their failures. "It is not the dragons we have trouble housing."
   "Because they didn't survive, you mean? We saw the Charon feeding on the same days, so I can only presume they were fatal creation events."
   The dignitary, whose name was Alistair Penn (which she found suffocatingly pompous, because his second name became "Penn dragon"), paced in front of her. "Failed matings, it seems to be. Couldn't figure out how all these Holds got made, if dragons died every time they made one. But you..." He stopped and aimed a talon at her. "You survived. You could make more Holds for us, if you won't take our overflow."
   Onnu's already eerie eyes flashed at the last word. Kin were living beings, not some unwanted substance they had too much of!
   Alistair took note of her reaction. It didn't escape him that she was no ordinary dragon. Some kin might feel threatened, or jealous. A dragon of his stature saw opportunity, instead. A powerful ally to help him maintain his tenuous position within the City.
   The flash was gone in an impressively short period of time, he thought.
   "We will have a centaur brought to assess the resources north of the mountains. If he or she deems there to be enough to support another Hold, I will consider your request. However," she hastened to add, "I cannot leave my hatchlings until they are fledged. I'm afraid you will have to make do in the interim."
   The excitement in his eyes was quick to snuff. "And how long might that be?" he asked.
   "I have no more idea than you do. This generation is the first to take flight from the egg."
   His patience snapped first. "And what do you expect us to do while we wait? Starve?"
   She stared passively down at him. "You could explore the mountains around you. Some of our littles found caves that were habitable, even profitable. Amber tells of an ocean to the north. You could plumb its depths for new food sources. I am confident that the Lord provided for our inevitable expansion."
   She paused and looked up. "Or you could brave Between, and try a new world altogether." She met his eyes again. "We do not know which kin can survive the trip, save your dragonkith. Dragonkiths? Do we have a plural for them? I haven't asked."
   Alistair puffed up, his scales sticking out diagonally from his body. He would never dare fluff them completely horizontal, but he was Not Happy.
   "I will return when our first hatchlings take wing."
   "And you will wait," she rebutted.
   "What?" he near-roared.
   "I did not lay when your dragons did. I was recovering from laying the Hundred Little Eggs. My clutch was laid several months later."
   The faint red tint to his eyes faded, but she could hear his teeth grinding.
   Then her words sank in, and his face took on a cast that made her very uncomfortable. His scales settled flat, gaze hooded.
   "We have heard of the Hundred Little Eggs. Their hatching had some... wide-spread consequences. One of which being the population boom that brought me here," he said rather pointedly.
   Onnu sighed. "For the last time, that was not intentional! I didn't ask to bring them here, it just happened!"
   She bent to sort out a scuffle between her children, and Alistair was left aghast. The Hundred Little Eggs were a legend by now. Spoken of in hushed whispers, or heated debates. Some said it was a metaphor, others said it was a real event. In certain circles, the dragon who bore them was said to be some mythical creature sent from God.
   Here she was, in front of him, and he wasn't sure who was right. Yes, she was clearly larger than anyone in the City. Her scales were more fantastic than any he'd seen, and then there were those unnerving eyes.
   And yet... She behaved no differently than the dragons he knew. She was not pious, nor righteous. No holy light blazed from her scales. She coddled hatchlings smaller than her feet, scales dingy where they'd laid against the blasted firth.
   Her littles, he heard, governed themselves with little input from her, or her mate. That was unheard of, in the City. Yes, they had Judges handle menial tasks, but they had daily reports in many of the Holds to the north.
   He would need to think on what he'd learned this day. The other Councilors would say that he'd wasted his time and theirs, if he returned empty-handed. The ocean and mountains had already been suggested, so that was nothing new. All he had was this dragon, and her ability to create new Holds and survive.
   Word had not made it that far north that two dragons had created this Hold. The roar was heard, yes, but the mountains and many Holds had distorted the sound so badly, they could not tell how many dragons roared that day. True, she had a mate, but he did not possess her... otherworldly qualities, so he would not have lived to tell the tale, had he fallen with her. They hadn't seen a Hold made without mating gone awry, but they also hadn't seen a dragon with gem-like scales and unsettling eyes, either. Nor was there another her size, save the Nomad, and he hadn't seen that one since his visit the year prior.
   How do I spin this, so I retain my position? he thought.
   Onnu's neck stiffened, but that was the only indication that she'd heard his last thought.