To Begin Again

The Calm Before the Storm

Cynder made it down to the breakfast hall just before the moles were passing out the food. She glanced through the room. The older dragons seemed to be gone, leaving the younger dragons and dragonesses to themselves.

"Cynder," called Brell. She was sitting at one of the circular tables towards the wall that was completely open to the air. Aradare, Joul, Tourmalin, Spyro, and Feuer sat with her.

The black dragoness strolled towards them, feeling eyes from the other tables follow her across the room. She slipped between Feuer and Aradare, offering the table a small grin.

"What did Terrador want?" Joul asked, always curious. He was examining a grape with extreme scrutiny but flicked his eyes over to Cynder.

"Just talking about my House," Cynder said and shook her head as she found a piece of sausage, as the moles called it, and popped it into her mouth. She glanced across the table at Spyro, noticing the question in his eyes. "I'm going to stay undeclared. Terrador said he'll manage the courtings for me until I decide on a mate."

"Smart decision," Feuer and Aradare chorused, throwing each other confused looks.

"It's easier than having a matriarch breathing down your neck," Feuer said before sipping at the water in front of him.

"And having Terrador in charge is a smart move," Aradare added. "He's not going to let just any dragon try to court you."

"I told him I could handle myself," Cynder said and looked at Brell with a bit of an exasperated expression.

"But that's not how things are done," the wind dragoness finished, shaking her head. "I'll never understand why we aren't allowed to handle our own courtings! It isn't like we're all idiots."

"The older dragons like to keep as much power for themselves as possible," Joul said and curled his nose. "If you let even a little bit of control slip out of your fingers--"

"You can lose all of it," Spyro finished and shook his head. "I guess we're naturally greedy."

The table lapsed into silence as they finished up breakfast. Cynder glanced over her shoulder, feeling a disturbance in the air as a few dragoness stood up and strolled towards their table. Cynder recognized Nadine at the head of the trio. The deep pink dragon's yellow eyes flashed a bit, and Cynder realized what seemed so familiar about her.

"What's Nadine's element?" she whispered to Aradare, focusing her Wind power and allowing only him to here her question and only her to hear his answer.

"She doesn't have one," he replied. "It caused a bit of a stir when her mother named her the successor to Holorare, but no one really can deny her her birthright."

"She does have one," Cynder replied before turning around to meet Nadine. To the left of the dragoness was an deep green and beige earth dragoness who was very small for her element. The dragoness was not only shorter than Nadine but also much slimmer, though not as slim as Brell or Cynder. To Nadine's right was a buttercup yellow dragoness. The dragoness's secondary color was a vibrant orange. She was definitely eye-catching, and Cynder had to admit that the dragoness pulled off the strange combination of colors.

"Always a pleasure to see you again, cousin," Feuer said as he turned and stood, smiling a bit to the smaller dragoness. "I assume you've already met her, right Cynder?"

"I've had the pleasure to," replied the black dragoness, unable to keep from smiling at Feuer's words.

"Indeed," replied Nadine and focused in on the dragon across from Cynder. "Spyro, we were wondering when you'll be able to give us that demonstration."