Book One: Onnu and Pannu

Draconic Vows

The kin called the newest Hold Capitol Hold, over her protests. She'd called it Trey Hold in the early days, but didn't feel comfortable saying it aloud. Besides, it would put his stamp on the Hold where she raised her children, and she was stoutly loyal to Pannu.
   It did bother her, though, what happened. She and Pannu had been drawn to the same Hold, so she was supposed to be his mate. Why, then, had she felt momentarily drawn to her Brother? Was it to establish a bond for later? The Fall had forged a connection between the three of them, and triggered some kind of evolution in their bodies.
   Or was the whole thing just to make it rain? She thought that was an aspect of it, but not the end goal. Not that she entirely understood The Plan, of course. She saw glimpses here and there, and guessed most of what she "knew". She didn't have questions clear enough to ask, so she had to work through her confusion on her own, until she did. At the moment, all she had was "why?"
   She wouldn't believe that she was supposed to be polygamous; no matter what Trey said, or what the other dragons in the neighborhood did. None of them were in a committed relationship.
   But then, neither are we; not formally. I know Trey said I couldn't, but he's not the final word on anything, as far as I'm concerned.
   What sort of thing would dragons, or I guess any of the kin, do on Tupino? Nothing is the same, but there must surely be some sort of Thing to solidify, or at least signify matrimonial bonds. Even if we don't call it that, we'd need something, right?
   She didn't know, though. And she didn't know who to ask, besides Pannu. He might get ideas that were more grand than hers, but his opinion was important. Not impartial, but important.
   Her Brothers were another source of dubious notions. She didn't know what they would suggest, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. The Charon weren't exactly worldly in these matters, as they were genderless forces of nature. And she couldn't very well ask God. That would be like talking to your... firthly..? father about boys.
   She could, however, ask the kin what they were doing to mark their mates. She didn't expect a large, showy production, because they'd have noticed such events. They were so small, in relation to her, she wouldn't see rings or other jewelry. For all she knew, they wore some sort of pouch with special items in it. Well, once they'd garnered the materials to make such things.
   Maggie approached her around midday. There wasn't anyone nearby who could translate for her, so Onnu wasn't sure what she wanted, but she would listen, and communicate as best she could until someone came along. It usually wasn't very long. Besides, her thoughts weren't leading anywhere productive.
   "Onnu, ma'am?"
   "Yes, Maggie?"
   "Do we know how dragonkith work?"
   "What do you mean?" She hoped her tone would convey the gist of her question.
   "Well, the working theory is that each dragon gets one--except us, of course, since you two seem to share Firmen--but my daughter is showing signs of becoming one."
   It was then that Onnu noticed the toddler clinging to her hip, among the reddish fur. She could not deny, upon closer inspection, that the child's skin had taken on a greyish hue. She couldn't see if she'd grown gills yet, but the process was slow, and she was still quite young.
   "At the moment, all we can do is observe how things work, and make educated guesses. It does make sense that we'd need to grow his replacement, or someone else's, before we actually needed one. Perhaps that is what's happening. It's not like we'd be gifted a full-grown dragonkith at a moment's notice!"
   "I dunno, you might," she retorted.
   "Fair," she laughed. "Might I ask, though, why you thought I would know?"
   She flushed and scuffed her toes in the firth. "You seem to know everything. Like, even more than the other dragons do."
   "He does not tell me everything, Maggie. Some things we must work out on our own." She stopped, looked around, and gaped at the furgoyle.
   "Like, for example, why you can suddenly understand Draconic."
   Maggie's eyes grew round. "I did? I just... There's usually someone around to translate, I just sort of... forgot I couldn't understand you directly."
   Onnu's eyes rolled back in her head as she focused inward. It wasn't as good as being Above, but blocking out the physical world seemed to help her attune to the Verse a bit better. It was sort of like praying, but more listening than speaking.
   What she heard, or felt, or whatever, was that it was oddly specific timing. As in, the first interaction she'd had with a non-fluent kin since First Rain.
   Her eyes rolled forward. "Yeah, that tracks."
   "What?" Dragonfriend asked, huffing and puffing to a stop.
   "You won't need to translate anymore, which will free you up for other pursuits, I suppose."
   He looked up at her in confusion.
   "It appears that with the First Rain on the Fortnight Worlds came universal language."
   Maggie's face cleared, but his clouded. She hastened to tell him that she would still need his services, just not for such a menial task as translation.
   "And hey, there won't be so many misunderstandings now. Like with the pilgrims and their dragon." She looked off toward Solar, and abruptly supposed they did have two dragonkith in their Hold, they'd just sort of... forgotten him.
   Dragonfriend and Maggie followed her gaze. There were many people around him, but they'd been talking about dragonkith and the pilgrims, so it made sense that he's who she would've looked at.
   "Why didn't we send him to Marla, again?" Dragonfriend asked.
   "Because she already had a dragonkith. You wouldn't think it, since she only had twelve with her, but she managed to keep hers alive. Maybe you didn't meet Shellby? They weren't here that long, it's okay."
   Dragonfriend frowned. He didn't like being out of the loop. He'd been acting as her dragonkith, since he also had features in common with her. To find that she already had one was upsetting. Then he remembered that she'd forgotten about Solar, and relied on him instead.
   "That brings me back to my original question," Maggie said. "Why is Mia turning into a dragonkith?"