White Quartz | Xaden Riorson | T/T

V

・・・　・・・　・・・

     I take a few careful steps forward, casting an ominous cloud on Fior's quartz-white scales from the firelight Imogen holds behind me. She doesn't move, and in this overreaching darkness, I still can't tell if she's breathing. She's so... still.
     "Is she alive?" Would I be dead if she was? Or would my bond with Tairn save me?

     Xaden moves to stand by my side but I don't bother to look at him. I reach out and press a hand to her scales. They're warm, thank the gods, and I release a breath of relief.
     "Why is she white? Can dragons be white?" I question Tairn as I lean into her flank. She's giant, disastrously larger than the last time I saw her, and I realize suddenly in that moment how fucking long it's been.
     "We're unsure," he answers.

     I furrow my brows at the response. My hand sweeps over her side but she still doesn't stir. Last I knew, she was in the Vale in Dreamless Sleep. I wonder if this is her first flight since waking.
     "It's the first of any distance," Tairn tells me. I sigh and sink to the floor so I can rest against her. "She's tired, as any adolescent would be."
     "Is it a new den?" I look over toward the cave's entrance, seeing the shadows shift and his scales glimmer as he steps inside, but he melds into the darkness perfectly.

     "Only the elders of our dens can sense a hatchling's pigment," he tells me with far more patience than I'm used to hearing from him. "They have never been able to sense hers. They fear she has none."
     I lean back into her scales as I sigh. My head rolls to the side, and then I notice it.
     "Imogen," I stutter, sitting up again quickly. She walks closer, which also brings the only light source toward me. "Gods."

     They're clear. Her scales are clear.
     "What is it?" Xaden's voice sounds like fallen timber and rumbles through my chest. I hate the ease he puts on my heart, but nothing could slow its pattern right now.
     My hand cups one of the scales poking out a bit on her elbow. I can see right though, wavy but perfectly clear, like glass.
     "What are the odds I bond a dragon with no pigment when I suffer the same?"

     "Silver." I jerk my head to the left, barely able to see Xaden's silhouette a few feet away. I pull my hand from Fior's scales and push myself to a stand.
     "We have to go back." Xaden takes a step closer. In response, I cross my arms over my chest. "No matter what your Assembly or whatever says, they'll kill every marked cadet if we don't show our faces."
     "Do you want to stay?" I have to blink away the warm thought of being in Aretia for the cold truth of this situation.
     "It won't matter if I do."

     If Xaden is alive, they'll know I am, too. It'll only send out missions to find me, and when they do, they'll destroy Aretia more thoroughly and I'll still receive the punishment in store for me.
     Xaden watches me for a moment, then nods once, arriving at the same conclusion.