What if...? JALGFY AU

Pear Told Rainkeeper What Was Going On Sooner?

A/N: Wow, I wasn't expecting so many questions! But the once I've gotten are really damn good so far. I think I will do Sunday updates for this book, as I will be busy with school during the week. I will get to all questions eventually, trust me I won't forget about them (some of them are already keeping me up at night and making me rethink everything I know about life), but I will likely just do them in order of whatever I get an idea for first. I apologize for not updating this sooner, I wrote half the chapter and then got super busy, but I'm getting into a routine again, so that should help.

What if Pear told Rainkeeper what was going on at the time of their meeting at the tree?

Rainkeeper had only known Pear for a few days, but he was already certain she was one of his favorite dragons in the whole world. How could she not be when she was so fun? She was slowly teaching him how to climb trees, and although Pear claimed she fell a lot when climbing, Rainkeeper had yet to see her do so. He had only fallen once so far, but it had been miserable. The branches on the way down had slapped and sliced at his scales, and one had gotten him nice enough in his face that Pear had taken him to the healer's hut. Glory hadn't been thrilled, but the scratch had healed quickly and left no mark at all.

It was easy to avoid falling, Rainkeeper learned quickly, if you dug your talons into the bark of the tree. At first he had been too gentle, not wanting to damage the tree, but Pear insisted that he could hold on tighter. The trees were used to it, she explained. With the sloths, monkeys, and all the other creatures of the forest clawing and marking at the bark, a few dragon talons weren't going to hurt it. Once he figured that out, tree climbing became a lot simpler, and he and Pear reached the top of his first tree within a week.

"That was easy!" He said proudly, and Pear smiled at him.

"See? I told you! There's nothing to it. Tree climbing is simple."

"If it's so easy, then how come you keep falling?" Rainkeeper asked. He pointed at the freshest of Pear's scratches. "That one looks like you got it yesterday, but you didn't fall at all when we were climbing." 

"Oh.....yeah....um..." Pear looked down. "I didn't get that one from a tree."

"You didn't?" Rainkeeper tilted his head. "What happened? Did Tree-Bud scratch you?"

"No! Tree-Bud would never do that!" Rainkeeper stared at her for a moment.

"....Sure. Did you get into a fight?"

"No- well....Sort of..." She fidgeted uncomfortably. "MY dad did it."

"Your dad scratched you?"

"Yeah."

"By accident?" Pear didn't say anything. She stared out at the forest, and Rainkeeper frowned. 

"Parents aren't supposed to hurt you, Pear."

"It's not so bad. Father says a lot of dragons have it worse."

"That shouldn't matter." Rainkeeper's frown deepened. 

"Just don't tell anyone, okay? I don't want to get into trouble."

"Okay." Rainkeeper said.

He didn't keep his word. How could he? If he said nothing, then Pear would only keep getting hurt, and that wasn't good. Sure, she'd be mad at him. but wouldn't it be better if somebody taught her parents not to hurt her? Rainkeeper wasn't sure, but he knew he shouldn't keep it to himself, so he went to the dragon he trusted most.

"Pear's parents hurt her," He told Glory, with the bluntness that only a small dragon could muster.  Glory froze and stared at him.

"What?" She asked, her voice soft.

"Pear's dad hurt her. She has a lot of scratches. She said they were from falling out of trees, but that's not true, they're from her parents." Glory went very, very still and then she jumped up from her seat.

"DEATHBRINGER!" The assassin popped up a second later. "We have a problem."

****

Two days later, Pear's parents were gone. Glory said they had been banished from the forest, but Deathbringer had an extra layer of toughness to him that made Rainkeeper wonder if something more had happened. As for Pear, Glory had struggled at first about what to do with her. Lots of the Rainwings didn't have parents. They were raised by the whole tribe and they turned out fine. But Pear didn't know most of the dragons in the tribe. She was hesitant to get to know any of them, let alone all of them. She had been glued to Rainkeeper's side since Deathbringer had dragged her parents away from her by the ear.

And Rainkeeper didn't mind. He thought Pear was going to be mad at him, but she just seemed so scared. Rainkeeper stood closer to her. He wanted to protect her, and she wanted him to do it. At the end of the day, Glory didn't feel right just letting the whole tribe take care of Pear. Not when she was so vulnerable and scared.

"So what do we do?" Deathbringer asked her. "You can't just debate about what to do with her forever." Glory thought for a moment.

"What if we took her in?" She said.

"What?"

"You see how close she is to Rainkeeper. She trusts him, and she needs to be with dragons she trusts right now. We can handle it, and I'm sure it would go over fine with the tribes if we-"

"You want to adopt her?"

"In a sense....yes," Glory admitted. "If you're up for it." Deathbringer thought for a minute.

"...Alright," He agreed. "One more dragonet for the army." He grinned.

"Our dragonets are not an army, Deathy."

"Oh, yes they are."

And so Glory and Deathbringer unofficially adopted Pear. Rainkeeper was thrilled about it. He got to see his best friend all the time now! What could be better than that? Pear was happy with the arrangement as well. Glory and Deathbringer were much nicer than her parents had been. They were nice to her, and they never yelled. Well, they never yelled at her. They yelled at each other plenty, but Rainkeeper insisted that that was just the way his parents worked. 

So Pear grew up happy. Joy treated her like a sister, and some Rainwings even started to refer to her as a princess. She knew she wasn't one, not really, although Glory disagreed. The princess side of things didn't matter to Pear. She was just happy to be cared for. 

She was sent to JMA with Rainkeeper and Joy. Tree-Bud was NOT happy about her leaving, but the sloth would live. Deathbringer promised to look after him while she was gone, which really meant that she got a lot of letters about how badly the ex-assassin had gotten beaten up by the furious sloth. Rainkeeper was still her best friend, but she made others as well. She got closer to Air and the other Skywings, something that Rainkeeper was highly jealous of, especially since he had a crush on Air. Pear tried to play matchmaker for them, but it just wasn't meant to be. Air ended up dating Nightflyer, and Rainkeeper moved on, finding a new crush on one of the Rainwing girls who hadn't gone to JMA.

No one knows what became of Pear's biological parents, but she suspected more and more that Deathbringer killed them. She doesn't mind that fact, and while Deathbringer denied all her theories, she decided that she doesn't need to know. Her biological parents were awful, and they don't matter. Glory and Deathbringer were there for her. If anyone deserves the role of her parents, it's them, and Joy and Rainkeeper approve. If anyone asks, Pear is their sister through and through, and while she might not be an official princess (Glory did ask if she wanted the title once, but Pear said no), she is considered apart of the Rainwing Royal Family, and she is happy with that.

Tree-Bud, however, has been crowned an honorary prince. It occurred in a ceremony that Joy and Pear roped Glory into. They made him a crown and everything. He is not pleased with the title, but he has used the influence to become the King of the Rainforest sloths.