Book One: Onnu and Pannu

Travel

As if the subject of inter-planetary travel summoned Him, Onnu was called Above for a chat, the next day. She went Above every day that she could, so it wasn't something to give Pannu cause for alarm.
   :What's up?: she asked. As soon as she said it, she worried she'd been too familiar, informal.
   In three days' time, you will make a delivery.
   She hovered in the ether, waiting for details. She knew better than to rush Him. But she waited for quite some time, without anything else.
   :Don't suppose You'd tell me where, or what, or... anything?: she asked timidly. Something about the way He spoke made her nervous.
   Not on this world. You will orient on your Brother, deliver there, and remain for two weeks.
   She waited some more, which was pretty easy when her head was spinning. He didn't say anything else in formal words, but the knowledge settled into her mind that she could orient on a planet by focusing on either of her Brothers, or a blood relative. The knowledge, and its timing, told her what He didn't: after two weeks, she would fly Above again, and pull herself towards the distant pings that were her children.
   :Does that mean that... Are my children going to be scattered throughout the Fortnight Worlds?: She wasn't sure she really wanted to know, but they'd just been talking about it.
   Again, there was no answer, but she got the feeling that the answer was obvious. In a way, it was. Trey would learn to tell the worlds apart by repetition. Dwayne was content to stay put. But Onnu was the mother. Of course she would orient by her children. No one had yet found a way to chart the planets and suns. It seemed impossible to fathom. How else would one navigate, besides latching onto a living being on one of the worlds?
   She nodded, and drifted back down to give her little family the news.

   "Two weeks?"
   "I know, I know. And no, I don't know what I'm delivering."
   "Or who," Dragonfriend said dryly.
   She hated to say it, but that was her best guess, as well.
   "I thought we already established that you won't be able to find our planet," Firmen fretted.
   "That was before I had blood ties to Tupino," she said slowly. "It would seem that their purpose, at least in this, is to help me find my way back home."
   "But what if they're asleep?" Pannu blurted.
   Onnu laughed. He scowled, but she let him. "I'm not asking them for directions. I'm focusing on that bond that parents have with their children. I dunno, maybe all dragons can do it, maybe just Elder Dragons, but the point is, I can come back. I will come back." She nuzzled Pannu extra hard to reinforce her words.
   He was upset that their bond wasn't strong enough to call her home. If they didn't have hatchlings in the nest, would she just... never come back? His old fears of her leaving and never returning haunted him. But we do have hatchlings, so she will come back, he told himself.
   Onnu lavished her dragon family with extra attention that day. The smaller kin brought them food so they wouldn't have to hunt, and they treated it like a little holiday. The craftskin showed off their latest creations, as if it were a Hatching Day. After all, they reasoned, there was no way to know if she would really make it back before the triplets' second Hatching Day, so they had to celebrate with her. Just in case.
   "But that's seven months away!" she laughed.
   "Things happen," Grim said, well, grimly.
   Pannu worried that this was a trial run, to get them used to living without her. Onnu knew better, had he said as much. Well, it was, and it wasn't. It would show the City that she would not always be available to bail them out, but she would remain on Tupino for at least the formative years of their children's lives. Beyond that, she could not say.
   :Hey, Trey?: she asked.
   :Make it quick.: He sounded further away than ever.
   :Do the Mountain Clan dragons mate for life? If they don't have to worry about Hold size, or Charon...: 
  :That's what you bothered me for?:
   Her nares flared. :I'm over here trying to figure out why dragons are the only kin who seem to be polygamous, and mountain dragons would help. Don't act like it's trivial, dude.:
   Trey's emotions were faint, as far as distance, but whatever they were, he definitely felt them. :I'll tell ya tomorrow. Kinda busy.:
   Onnu hadn't asked which Brother she was supposed to be homing in on, but she supposed it made sense. Wayne's world wouldn't need an infusion of kin, would it? Nooo, she'd be sent to what felt like the furthest planet from Tupino, to that Brother.
   She didn't think it wise to tell Pannu about that little fact. If it made her wary, it would drive him--and the entire Hold--to distraction.
   Luckily, the craftskin had a decent enough innovation to pass the time until she left. One that required experimentation with dragonfire. See, Clay had been playing around with Tupin glass, and he'd found that it would fuse to rock when hot. That was how Steel was able to anchor one of his domes to it.
   "The point of this is?" Onnu asked. "What new wonder would you create with glass and stone?"
   Clay beamed for a moment before enlightening them.
   "Houses! Right up against the walls! None in the Bowl proper, of course. Too much hassle for you dragons to walk around. But we could store craft supplies for Pazday, lose fewer supplies overall, perhaps have nurseries for plants and kin... the possibilities are endless!"