Book One: Onnu and Pannu

Holdshires

They got tired of calling their part of Tupino a neighborhood. It didn't really fit.
   "We would be a shire, if one only counted the dragons present, but we do not. The Holds alone would be towns, if one counted the more numerous kin. So, then, would we be a holdshire?"
   The others seemed to like Onnu's term, but they still needed a name for their holdshire.
   "If you, again, go by dragons, we could use your first initials?" Solar suggested. He liked the opportunity to tackle a puzzle. The letters they had could spell any number of names:
   "Opswam, Mopsaw, Sopmaw--" that one elicited an enthusiastic "ew" from the kin gathered round. "Okay, okay, there's also Sapmow, Mapsow, Swampo--"
   "Solar!" they groaned.
   "And Sowamp," he finished quietly.
   They argued about the names for days. Some liked Opswam, some liked Mapsow. It was unanimously agreed that Sopmaw sounded like a drooling dragon, and none of them wanted to think about it overlong.
   And then Pannu said, one day, "You know, the City is close to the sea, but we aren't. There's the pondlake, but that's not a sea, or ocean."
   "Okay," Onnu said slowly. "What is the point that you are making?"
   "Well, we're trying to make initials work, but none of us will be here forever."
   Onnu couldn't argue. Not with the knowledge she'd gained recently. She would be alive, but not here.
   "But the name would commemorate the dragons who founded the holdshire!" Dragonfriend objected.
   "True, and I don't argue that, but we haven't come to a consensus. Why not call ourselves the Inland Holdshire? Short, sweet, easy to remember."
   When it was suggested to the other dragons, Steel objected that there were possibly other inland hold shires, so how would they distinguish themselves from the others?
   "None of us have managed to travel far enough to even see another Hold. What are the odds that we would receive visitors from other Holds in the future?" Amber said, quite reasonably.
   "Trey has. I could ask how far it is to the next nearest Hold, and if any of them have names."
   Weaver didn't look very happy that she could speak to someone, no matter where on the Fortnight Worlds they were. There wasn't much she could do about that, unfortunately.
   "Oh, that's handy," Marla smiled. "I know we don't have to conform to what everyone else is doing, but maybe it'll give us ideas!"
   Thank you, you sweet child, Onnu thought. She didn't think that Marla intentionally defused the situation, but she had, all the same. Not that Weaver accepted the state of things, but seeing the other nodding heads put her opinion in the minority, spoken or not.
   Onnu asked Trey, and Wayne for good measure, how place names seemed to be going.
   :Oh, we're just naming them after the dragon in residence,: Wayne said.
   :So are we, at least the dragon's colors, for Holds, but what about groups of Holds?:
   :No such thing,: Trey said, from what sounded like a long way off. :Yours is the only cluster of Holds, besides the City.:
   Onnu looked around, not really seeing the faces around her. "We're the only collection of Holds?"
   Since she'd thought it and said it at the same time, he replied. :There are some within half a day's flight of one another, so there is trade, but things don't happen near as fast as they do there. You're at the epicenter of culture, babe. Stuck between city and rural life, as it were.:
   Onnu didn't enjoy being called "babe", and it showed; at least to the other dragons. They couldn't exactly blush, but body language and ear posture betrayed her.
   "Your boyfriend have something helpful?" Amber asked with mock sweetness.
   Onnu scowled. "My Brother tells me that we are the only group of Holds, besides the City. The rest are scattered half a day's flight from each other, at best."
   She wasn't going to address the flush, but if she didn't, it would grow out of proportion. "And I do not express the kind of agitation you seem to think I have. He merely uses some... colorful language sometimes. It still catches me off-guard."
   Amber had been on the receiving end of Trey's overt familiarity, so she laughed. Steel, Weaver, and Marla assumed that she meant the occasional swear word that would escape him, so they, too, laughed.
   "Well, it seems we are to be pioneers in this naming, as with the others. If they do expand into communities, as we've found here, I would assume that they would adopt whatever terminology and naming system we use, but I do not know."
   "'Specially if you mention it in your Crossing Day dispatches," Marla said. "That really is an efficient way to spread news."
   Onnu nodded. "Yes, He really did think this through, didn't He?"
   Amber frowned. "Except it's only once a year. I wish we could talk to each other whenever we wanted to, so we didn't have to leave the Holds, or send messengers."
   "We don't need cell phones," Steel snapped. "Sometimes, the slow way is the best way."
   "Of course you'd say that!" Amber snapped right back.
   "It does allow for greater variety of innovation," Onnu said, as calmly as she could manage. She didn't like conflict, but her size alone made her more responsible for settling disputes than she liked. Were she not an Elder Dragon, she may have ceded the task to Pannu or Steel.
   Except Steel is too rigid, and Pannu is too fluid. Going with the flow is nice, but sometimes you must be the rock in the stream, she thought. Damn, I need to remember that one! She mentally added it to her list of parables to write.
   "Once per year is often enough to share new ideas, without dictating the path that others choose. I do not question His wisdom in that. As for the other dragons, should there be an emergency that affects all of the worlds, I will certainly petition Him for an open channel out of schedule. I doubt it will be needed, as He would be aware of the situation. We would ask, of course--both God and the other Elder Dragons--but I do not see an issue with instant communication when necessary." She stressed the last two words, and Amber reluctantly subsided. Onnu hated being an immovable object, but as she'd just told herself, sometimes one had to do just that, or everyone would flow over you like a flooded stream.