The Price of Magic

~ CHAPTER ONE ~

Two thousand years earlier . . .

VAPOR

An IceWing sat behind a bar, polishing clay cups and staring at the doors on the far end of the room.

Outside those doors was the oasis town of Possibility. It was originally a SandWing town on one side and a SkyWing town on the other, but eventually the two sides merged and a tolerance for dragons of all shapes, sizes and colors became what it was famous for.

"Vapor! Whatcha doing?" a small RainWing, only a year younger than Vapor herself, suddenly appeared next to the blue-silver dragon. The IceWing's dark indigo eyes darted away from the doors, and trained themselves on the cup she was polishing instead.

"Not much, Dew," she replied wryly. "We haven't had any customers all day. I'm beginning to worry. And what will Slate say? You know how grumpy she gets when we don't meet the quota."

Honeydew shrugged unhelpfully, her orange-yellow-green scales turning a sort of blueish puzzled color. Vapor tried not to sigh just as a little SkyWing hopped up to one of the chairs. Both IceWing and RainWing flinched or leapt back - the dragonet had not triggered the bell on the door and here in Possibility, even though it was supposed to be a place of acceptance and peace, you still had to be ready for nearly anything.

"What in the three moons of Pyrrhia . . ?" Honeydew wondered aloud. "Little dragonets shouldn't be wandering around Possibility alone.

"I'm Cloud," the tiny dragon chirped. "I'm looking for my mommy," he added with a glance at his talons. "Can you help me look for her?" He smiled hopefully at the older dragons. Now that he was sitting still, Vapor could see that he was quite a young dragon - only a few months old - maybe a year, but it was a stretch - by the gleam of his teeth and the way he flapped his wings around as if he wasn't completely comfortable with flying yet. By her measurements, the dragonet was about the same age as Prince Cliff, Queen Scarlet's grandson.

"Where did you last see her?" Vapor cocked her head at the SkyWing. "What's her name?"

"I lost her in the Market," Cloud said. "Her name is . . . uh . . . Gust, I think."

"We'll help you look for her," Honeydew placed a talon on the dragonet's shoulder, pink slowly leaking into her scales. "Promise." Behind her, Vapor nodded, her expression serious.

The dragonet's eyes lit up.

"Oh, thank you, pretty yellow dragon!!"

Honeydew nodded and got up to go outside, probably to start looking for this Gust dragon. She instead collided head-on with a SeaWing, and Vapor's head shot up from the little red dragon before her.

"O-oh my goodness! I'm so sorry," the sky-blue SeaWing apologized vigorously, rubbing his head, blinking.

"I should be sorry," Honeydew replied. "It's not your fault."

Once he had gathered his wits, the SeaWing came to sit down next to Cloud. The blue dragon looked about four, a year younger than Honeydew. He turned towards Vapor and a shiver ran down her spine.

"What is this place?" he asked her.

"This is the town of Possibility," Vapor said, spreading her wings and reciting what she'd been taught since she hatched, "where dragons from all of the tribes are welcome. We believe that what matters is on the inside, not the outside." She internally wondered how he didn't know where he was. Most dragons who came to Possibility were looking for it - it wasn't that its location was a secret, or even at all hidden, it was just that it was a relatively new town and it was a strange place to put a village. Most dragons stayed away from the area it was built in. "How did you get here?"