Cloudchild

Chapter 2 - Princess

While citizens' clawed feet clicked against the reflective road, Annani skittered to an analemmatic moondial made of weathered, cracked stone. Nearby stood an elderly astronomer with his mounted telescope, both nearly doubled the average height of adults. Head unmoved from the telescope, he extended an immense arm and repositioned the gnomon.

Annani leaned back as the astronomer adjusted the telescope.

"Wow, you're really old."

The astronomer dryly chuckled. "I thought you wouldn't notice how tall I was! Nice to see you're back!" He tilted away from his telescope, unhooded himself, and lifted his eyeglasses. Everything about him was bright blue.

Annani's mouth and tongue dropped. "You're thho bwwue!" She sucked her tongue back in and gestured with her bowl. "I've never seen anyone with anything blue!"

The astronomer chuckled again. "I was born with cyanophorism. Gives me excessive blueness. But look at you! You are very, very white, like snow! But your eyes are not pink or red or... Yet your quills and brow are black, white body with black spots, so... Ah! Little egg, you must have piebaldism!"

Annani blinked. "Does that make me special?" Her tongue hung out again as she combed her quills with her claws.

"It does indeed! We have different colours than most people. You naturally have a mix of melanism and amelanism. That's what gives you white scales over black patterns."

She sucked her tongue back in. So that's why I have dark spots.

"I have a similar condition to you—but a total lack of melanism—but also with an overabundance of blueness."

"Oh? I think it's very pretty. Is there anything else like that?"

"Of course! When you see people with white scales and quills but red or pink eyes, they are albinos. If their scales, quills and eyes are black or brown, they are melanistic."

"I have a friend who is pitch-black, even his eyes! Is he melllanssstic?"

The astronomer nodded. "If they are white but their eyes are of common colours, it is leucism. If they are white but have coppery or bronze quills, they are amelanistic. When people are wholly yellowish, that's xanthism. When coloration is reddish or pink, it's called erythrism. And if you ever see someone with white and dark patterns, they are piebald, like you! You might even see someone with different colours loosely separating around the waist or neck, we call them two-toned."

Annani blankly stared, lost amid details. I have no idea what you just said...

The astronomer chuckled. "Isn't life strange?"

"Umm, yeah."

Annani and the astronomer lifted their heads at the same time—a shooting star flashed. "Like the stars," they commented together.

"Did you ever notice speckles in people's eyes? It's like stars are in them," Annani said.

The astronomer nodded. "That is why we are called Star Eyes." He motioned to the heavens. "As if pieces of the cosmos manifested themselves into our very eyes. It is no wonder, then, that we are attracted to wonders up high."

Another shooting star blinked.

"Oh. So...what's this?" Annani tapped the moondial.

"This device is a moondial. Nobody knows who made it, perhaps the Moon Owls? It shows you the shadow of the moon. I have studied it with Theophilus long before Wyvern City was built. It even predates the sky hooks from long ago. We cannot quite figure it out... The shadow never changes direction, yet the patterned carvings all around clearly signify measuring of some sort."