S A L M O N

***

Salmon arrived on the later side of the day. The dragonets had all found their caves and grown accustomed to their clawmates.

Salmon spiraled down towards the big, open area. His parents followed, slightly behind.

A family of five waited for the descending dragons.

"Auntie Sahara!" Salmon yelled. The female SandWing turned from chatting with the NightWing at the desk to watch Salmon whistle through the air towards her.

The three dragonets at her talons all sprung up and flapped around to make a landing space among them.

"Salmon! Salmon, look at my jewelery! Salmon, this is so cool!" they all chorused.

"Cousins!" Salmon exclaimed gleefully. Of course, they weren't biologically related, but they were the next best thing.

"Topaz, Gold, Ruby-Salmon needs to get his welcome scroll." Starmind instructed calmly. The dragonets scrambled out of Salmon's way.

The NightWing at the counter chuckled. "I see it's a family reunion." he stated. Salmon laughed nervously.

The scales at the corners of his eyes shimmered as the NightWing shifted his head to look for a scroll in the almost-empty basket.

"Salmon, hmm? Three rights down the first tunnel and your cave will be fourth on the left."

Salmon nodded and wordlessly took his scroll. He returned to the wings of his parents hugged them super tight.

Then, he and his cousins set off down the halls to their cave.

---------------

There was a chilly aura emanating from the cave entrance. Salmon almost didn't want to go in, fearing for some icy monster to live in it.

He stepped a claw in. Immediately there was a bit of a hiss.

"Who goes there?" someone called out. Salmon stepped in, revealing his face to the dragon inside.

The caller was a tiny white-pure white dragon with azure markings around his face. Silver wires twisted down his horns and held pieces of glass in front of his eyes.

"Zounds!" The dragon yelped, leaping back. Salmon strode forward.

"Who are you?" Salmon asked inquisitively. The IceWing quivered and shrunk under his gaze.

"W-What is your name?" The IceWing challenged, clearly trying to be fierce. Salmon sighed. Great. He had a nerd as a clawmate.

"My name is Salmon." he said. The IceWing drew himself up and put a friendlier expression on his face.

"Ah, Salmon! Food of the fierce ice dragon! I am the one they call Enderby!"

"Enderby." Salmon said. "That's...an odd name."

Enderby made a fierce expression. "You may tower over me, but you are no fierce predator!"

Salmon thwacked his tail on the stony ground. "Stop talking like some kind of ancient nerd."

Enderby nodded. "Apologies. My mother always said to be imposing and fierce towards strangers. And I like your necklace."

The IceWing pointed towards Salmon's amulet.

"It's an amulet." Salmon stated, "And you seem to favor the word fierce." Enderby shrugged and pointed to his own neck. A fine silver chain hung with five circles dangling off.

"My father said I had to wear this to school. I told him it would be embarrassing, but he said I had to or else I didn't get to go."

That made zero sense.

"But if you have more circles-"

"Ah, you do not understand. The IceWing ranking system goes down to seven circles, seven being the worst. Our rank is represented by our circle, and our circle is represented by our necklace. As you can see, I'm not the best."

Enderby pointed to the circles on his chain. Five.

"So.. Fifth Circle?" Salmon asked. Enderby nodded.

-------------------

Later in the day, Salmon had gotten accustomed to his little shallow sleeping pool. He didn't dare remove the amulet, though. He was unsure whether or not it was safe.

Enderby had frosted over the other half of the cave. Icicles dangled from the ceiling and slush encroached dangerously on Salmon's half of the cave.

GOOOONNNG

GOOOOOOOONNG

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG

A gong rang out thrice. In a matter of moments, a dragonet unfamiliar to Salmon sped into the cave.

He was white like an IceWing on his wings, top of legs, and beginning of his tail. His head, legs and tail were a deep navy blue, fading into the whiteness. His eyes were  a quiet, dark blue and he had a silver ring on one of his talons-studded with tiny turquoise gems. 

Salmon realized he'd seen that ring before.

"Ahem? I do believe this cave is meant for two." Enderby said, puffing out his chest. The newcomer glanced at him. 

"Seemingly not." The dragonet responded, his eyes flicking towards woven-leaf canopy suspended from the high ceiling. "Besides, I was told my cave was this one."

Salmon sighed and slithered into his water pool. There were vibrations across stone as Newcomer and Enderby talked and dragged tails into their sleeping areas.

He tried to sleep, granted, but after a few minutes he got antsy and stuck his head out of the water. 

Enderby was curled up in his little ice area, chest rising and falling softly. Every time he exhaled, little snowflakes would crystallize around his nose and in the air.

Newcomer was curled over his canopy with his neck over the edge. 

"Helllllllo there." he called down quietly. Salmon snorted.

"Whatchur name?" Salmon asked. Newcomer flopped one of his white wings over the edge and craned his neck farther down. 

"Nightfall. Yours?" he answered. 

"Salmon." 

Nightfall snorted a lick of blue flame. It singed the leafy organic underside of his canopy.

Salmon unhappily splashed his tail in the water. "What's so funny as to warrant almost setting your bed on fire?"

"Nothing. You just look very odd for a SeaWing. I mean-shouldn't your little webby crest thingy start at the base of your head? What about your neck web? And-"

"Alright, don't drown on your words. Sure I'm odd, but what happened with you? What tribe are you?" Salmon cut him off.

Nightfall rolled his shoulders back and swung down from platform. A few globe lanterns were suspended underneath, hooked tight into the woven material. He craned and twisted and turned and writhed and ew it was just unnatural how he curved down from the leaves and hung upside down like a monkey. 

Salmon shuddered. Nightfall twisted towards one of the candles and blew it alight. 

"What are you, some kind of RainWing amalgamation?" Salmon asked. 

"You say it like it's a bad thing. And no. Well...My-what, great grandmother? She was a RainWing, but everything else is pure NightWing." Nightfall answered, pulling himself up. 

"Pure." Salmon echoed. 

"Pure. Buuuuuuuuuuut...my father had some dominant IceWing genetics in his blood-so I got the colors. Yay? But everything else-pure NightWing." 

"By all the moons, will you two stop your incessant yapping?" cried Enderby, snorting a spectacle of frosty snowflakes. 

"You haven't given me a clear explanation on your glorious difference." Nightfall scorned Salmon, ignoring the disturbed IceWing. 

"I'm sure it'll come up in group discussion." Salmon retorted, sinking under the water as to hover his eyes above surface. 

Enderby curled up with his wings over his head once more. Nightfall showed off his tail strength again by stretching under the leaves and blowing out the flames of the lantern. 

Darkness spread over the cave and Salmon sank under the water into sleep.

-----------

Learning to speak was hard. Words flew past Salmon's head, incomprehensible.  Mother would point to objects and talk and Salmon would repeat them and Father would smile and that was what Salmon lived for.

"Salmon!" Mother called. He looked up from his two-year-old thoughts and saw his mother point at a pebble in front of her. 

"Pebble!"  Salmon exclaimed. Mother clapped her talons together. She pointed at another thing.

"Fish!" Salmon said. Mother pointed at an array of items. "Apple! Goat! Leaf!"

"Good job!" Mother exclaimed, wrapping her black wings around Salmon. Father swept over, clearly pleased. 

Father whispered with Mother. It wasn't like Salmon could understand them anyway.

Finally, Mother turned away. "Salmon, come with me."

Salmon  looked at his parents, confused. Mother opened her wings and started walking, imitating for Salmon to follow. The dragonet ran after his mother.  

Mother leaped into the sky and circled around to face Salmon. He furrowed his brows and snapped open his wings. 

Mother beckoned. Salmon tried to imitate her-jumping into the air and flapping to keep his balance. 

But finally, after the year stuck underwater-

He could fly.