Book One: Onnu and Pannu

Tandy's Tallies

Things settled, and evolved, as things are wont to do. The basketnuts took root, and grew where Dragonfriend planted them. The second generation of tupins continued to grow, and the native species finally got its name.
   As they were the "OG tupins", they went from "OG toops" to "ojituups" to the final evolution, "ajitups". Onnu didn't know why they shortened all of the vowel sounds, but perhaps it was just the way of things.
   Similarly, they decided that "wolmod" was just too unwieldy for the wolf/komodo dragon looking things. Somehow (and she wasn't sure how), they just got called wolmos. She didn't see how dropping the "d" at the end made it more palatable, but if they liked wolmo better than wolmod, so be it. It wasn't a unanimous decision, either. Some left the word as it was, because they felt that the "d" also stood for "dragon", and they wouldn't erase the dragon from them. Onnu hadn't an opinion either way, and used both interchangeably.
   She began to grow restless when the hatchlings were fifteen months old. They knew roughly when that was, because they had the time markers of Crossing Day and Hatching Day. With the advent of emdief, from Steel's craftskin, they had more durable calendars in their future.
   His kin had created emdief while attempting to make doors for the sleeping niches. The bampa and clay mixture was thinner than they wanted for doors, but his dragonkith had seized it for writing purposes, and began arranging export. It was time-consuming to make, so it was reserved for more durable records-keeping.
   Tandy kept using bampa for things like consumables, but the emdief was put to use recording names, and soon, the days. She'd wait for Crossing Day to begin crafting the first calendar. Since they didn't yet know how they would arrange the months, she kept the tally system she'd been named for. She felt bad using such a time-consuming resource like emdief for it, but the whole reason they hadn't yet marked a year was because the bampa and papygrass were all too likely to blow away. Bampa, however, could be anchored to the rocky base of Capitol Hold's crystal spires with the simple, crude nails that she'd commissioned from Mountain Clan for the purpose.
   Now, she had the emdief nailed in place quite securely, and with every day that Onnu grew restless, the ajitup spent perfecting an ink that would hold up for an entire year.
   We'll finally have a way to arrange our time! She thought, with excitement that no one save Onnu would understand.
   What concerned her, though, was Onnu's behavior. Last Crossing Day had caught them unawares. She'd put it down to the dragoness being distracted by the hatchlings, but she still had them, and Tandy believed her to be showing signs of Crossing Day's approach.
   Unless we're getting a new batch of little kin eggs... That hadn't occurred to her. She'd been preparing for the new calendars, but what if it was something else?
   She shuffled her bampa records, doing what math she could, but they'd had to redraw some of the sheets from memory when a page would blow away. They lay on top of them at night, but that didn't always work.
   She looked longingly at the sheets of emdief. Soon, she hoped. Then maybe we can devise some sort of durable time measurement system.
   Tandy looked up at the dragoness, for possibly the hundredth time that day. Would she lay eggs, or would she glow for Crossing Day?
   The other thing making it difficult to know when Crossing Day would be was her new eye color. They were the same color as Crossing Day, just without the glow.
   Will the other dragons' eyes glow, then? How else would every Hold know? Wait, did they all glow last year? I didn't ask Mirrim, Bert, Moira, or Shellby! We really ought to have a meeting with all of the Holds periodically. How am I supposed to keep accurate records, if I can't talk to the other dragonkith? It's not like Firmen or Solar would know. They're so busy with their solitary pursuits, they may as well not even be dragonkith at all!
   That was a sore spot of hers. The other dragonkith acted as their dragon's right-hand kin, interacting with other Holds as needed, and generally organizing things.
   Which was what she did. She didn't get the recognition of the position, but she did all of the tasks that they were supposed to be doing!
   She worked herself into such a tizzy, she actually talked to Onnu about it.
   "Well, it would be awfully difficult to have two dragonkith in a Hold," the dragoness reasoned. "Perhaps that is why you were drawn to us? To organize two dragons' worth of... well, everything, might be too much for one dragonkith.
   "There is, too, the fact that this is the first generation on Tupino. Our dragonkith, as you may have noticed, have taken up scholarly pursuits. Firmen focuses on the stars and nature, because his dragon goes Above regularly. Solar assists with the star maps, but generally keeps an ear to the ground among the kin, since he has a talent of being forgettable. One Above, one below--just like their dragons.
   "You, my friend, are the mistress of the details they don't have the time or skill to grasp. Dragonfriend is my gauge of the overall mood of the people. So, in a way, we have four kin doing the work that one does elsewhere.
   "Our Hold is the largest, and thus requires more than one mediary between dragons and kin."
   Tandy stood there, her ire deflating more with every word. She hadn't realized that their dragonkith were doing productive things! Sure, she knew that Firmen fiddled with things here and there, but she didn't know precisely what he'd been doing in those experiments of his. As for Solar, she never saw him doing things! He just seemed to lounge about in the background.
   "So, Solar is your... spy?"
   Onnu laughed. "Not intentionally, no. His knack for being invisible just means that he hears things my other advisors might not. His lack of a filter means that he tells me those things, which, again, others might not."
   "So all that... awkwardness... is a good thing?"
   "Bingo!" Onnu grinned.
   Tandy thought on it for a while. Onnu let her mull it over. The hatchlings were napping, and she had timeless patience.
   "So, who goes to meetings with you?" she asked slowly.
   "You and Dragonfriend," the dragoness said without hesitation. "One for the kin, and one for the state of things in the Holds. Maybe Solar somewhere nearby," she winked.
   "And Firmen?"
   Onnu chuckled. "Would rather be off studying something anyway. Although... maybe Wraith could be useful to have around? So, I guess, the answer is all of you? I mean, you could all hang out on my back, or in my palm, and hardly anyone would notice. There are advantages to being the largest known creature on Tupino."
   She didn't lie, of course. She knew that there were two others her size, but they were currently on Dwayne's world.