Uhhh I'll fill this out later probably, WIP, by Angel, you know the drill at this point.
Prologue[]
One year after the brightest night...
Deep in the rainforest, hidden just past the village, were three gigantic egg-shaped domes. The three hatcheries were left alone for the most part, but a dragon was gliding towards them now, grumbling about it the whole way down.
Exquisite's scales rolled with silver and a smidge of white as she aimed for the yawning mouth of the leftmost hatchery. Sent to check on the hatcheries, she thought irritably. And in the middle of my mid-morning nap to boot! She found herself giving a disdainful snort as slowed a bit.
She precisely angled herself downward, towards a large tree, and wrapped her tail around it as she passed, swinging herself full circle. Settling on the branch, Exquisite gave a moment of rest. The branch was almost as long as an extended dragon wing, and at least as thick as her neck around. All in all, the perfect tree where she found some of her sloths resting.
With a dreamy sigh, Exquisite extended her arm into the leafiest parts of the tree, waiting for only a moment before a shaggy thing with silver fur clambered onto her arm and burbled sleepy hellos at her. Exquisite giggled at the small creature, her sloths being one of the few things that made her find joy in life. It wasn't long before two more climbed out from the leafy cover and settled on her shoulders and neck.
"Yes, darlings, Momma is back," she cooed, stroking the fur of each one and gently nuzzling them. Her sloths were the cutest in the rainforest, she was sure of it. "And I love you all so, so much, yes I do~" (Thankfully, no dragon was around to hear baby-talking her sloths)
Exquisite pondered whether or not she really needed to check on the hatcheries as her pets settled on her. She could wait for some other dragon to do it, and instead spend more time with her darling sloths. She'd only finished her turn as queen a few days ago and passed it to Dazzling, so surely they'd cut her some slack there. Being queen was so awfully tiring, sometimes she regretted stepping up entirely.
"Momma was supposed to be coming with another dragon, yes she was," Exquisite told her sloths, still petting them, "But they never showed up. Probably still sleeping or something," she said with another dreamy sigh. She expected it to be agitated again, but she couldn't think a single negative thought around her babies. Bright can be so fluff-headed sometimes, she thought with a roll of her eyes.
"Oh well." She shook her tail out as she released the branch. "The hatcheries aren't going to check themselves, unfortunately. Let's go see if any new little members of the tribe hatched." Exquisite hoisted herself into the air and swung through the trees until she landed on the tightly woven branch-and-vine flooring of the hatchery. She hadn't stopped too terribly far from it, anyway, so there wasn't a point to backing out now.
All around her were pale, white eggs, though some seemed a little bit more rainbowy from the dragonets inside being ready to hatch. To Exquisite's delight, though, there weren't any missing eggs or tiny dragonets scampering along the ground. Less work for me! Her brain chirped cheerfully.
"Maybe next week, on some other poor dragon's turn," she told her sloths, scratching them under their chins. One of them gave a contented burbling in response, and Exquisite fought the urge to squeal with how cute they were. She turned to leave, but her eye swept past a missing egg in one of the nests. A gap she hadn't noticed before. More that than, there were eggshell shards all around.
So a dragonet did hatch . . . she thought, looking around. Where did they go?
Eventually, her eye caught a deep, royal blue dragonet with yellow and gold bars along her back, scratching at one of the hatchery walls and squeaking quietly like they didn't understand. Exquisite sucked in a sharp breath and started towards the hatchling.
"Hello there, young one," she said, crouching down near the dragonet, looking them over for their health. That was when they locked eyes with the child and Exquisite nearly fainted.
Their eyes were a pale blue, like the moons were in her head. They had a glossy kind of glaze over them, and when Exquisite reached out a talon with claws, acting like she was going to attack the little dragonet - they didn't even flinch. Exquisite's scales rolled all sorts of colors, from red to orange to white, before finally settling on clamping them down to her usual silvery white color streaked with crimson dashes here and there.
Exquisite sighed and gently scooped up the dragonet. Nobody in the tribe would be pleased. Blindness meant she'd be incredibly hard to teach and work with. This was a case for Dazzling to address, partially for the blindness, and partially since Exquisite had forgotten which name in the list they were on for baby dragons. Hm. Were we on Anaconda just yet, or - No, wasn't Gleaming before that? I feel like I skipped a few names. "This is why I'm visiting Auntie Dazzling today, dears," she told her sloths, who gave a helpful 'brrrrp' in response as she took off. "Because a dragonet decided to hatch on me and decided it needs special care."
She touched down onto the vine walkway leading to queen's hut, a place she'd been resting in not but a few days ago. The dragonet in her arms wiggled a little, but mostly just reached out for Exquisite's sloths. Her snout twitched in irritation about it - she'd lost at least three sloths lately and was getting protective of her dozens of others. Only one dragon stood in line between her and the queen - None other than Bright herself.
Exquisite fought the urge to growl as she tapped on the other dragon's tail, shooting a venomous glare. Bright turned around with a somewhat startled expression as her own pet sloth looked over. "Um . . . oh! Hello Exquisite," she said, smiling softly. "Ooooooh, a dragonet! Can I hold them?" she said, noticing the blue-and-yellow dragonet curled in her arms.
Exquisite shook her head fiercely. "Bright, you were supposed to come with me to the hatcheries. You could have been holding them then. What are you doing now instead?" She let amber take over some of the silver in her scales and the two dragons' sloths chirped and burbled in their own language. Bright subconsciously reached a talon to protect her sloth. Exquisite knew she'd also lost one not but a moon ago.
She blinked her wide eyes and shrugged, but waves of purple drifted through her scales. Guilty as charged, Exquisite thought with a smug grin. "Oh. Was I?" she asked, tilting her head. "I was teaching the newer dragons how to take care of the royal flower garden. Y'know, in case they decide they want my job." Bright giggled warmly as yellow burst through the purple. "They're certainly adorable, I'll say!"
"Bright, knock that off. No, you can't hold her since you couldn't be bothered to come check the hatcheries," Exquisite said. Her sloths slowly bobbed their heads up and down like they were nodding, and the sloth perched on Bright did the same. "What do you even need to see-"
Exquisite didn't get to finish her sentence as a bright yellow and slightly pink dragon burst out of the queen's hut, grinning madly. Considering what Dazzling was like, Exquisite wondered if he'd come in with armfuls of fruit and left with permission to do something decidedly stupid and crazy. She gave Bright a nudge forward, eager to get this dragonet out of her talons as soon as it started nibbling on her claws.
One of the sloths climbed down from Exquisite's neck to curl up with the dragonet, who was practically as small as the it was. She reached a talon to take her sloth back, but stopped and left it curled up with the newly hatched. I suppose it's nice for my sloths to enjoy themselves a little.
After waiting for what felt like forever, Bright stepped out of the hut and looked at Exquisite. "Hello, have you been here this whole time?" she asked. "I was just asking if I should go out and find newer species of flowers for the garden," Bright nodded to herself and flew off without giving Exquisite a chance to respond. Poisonous frogs, I almost forgot how annoying she can be.
Exquisite stepped through the flower curtain and stared Dazzling in the face. She was sprawled across the throne like an overgrown monkey, yellow and green drifting through her scales as she held a half-peeled banana. Piles and piles of fruit lay before her like offerings to a great divine being, and one of Exquisite's sloths reached out lazily for an avocado. The dragonet wriggled free from Exquisite's arms and stepped forwards, flicking her tongue and squeaking blindly. Suddenly, Dazzling's tail swept around and spooked all three sloths, but not the dragonet. Exquisite gasped in horror.
"Don't touch my fruit," Dazzling hissed, breaking the spell of silence as she stuffed the rest of the banana into her mouth. She tossed the peel away, with it luckily sailing out a window instead of splatting inside. "You know how much it means."
"Don't scare my sloths," Exquisite shot back, scooping the three back up. "I checked the hatcheries."
"And . . . ?" Dazzling said with a yawn, tossing herself a mango with her tail. She's already fatter than a full moon, Exquisite thought. That little glutton can spare an orange or starfruit here and there. Toe-Fur must be starving! She grumbled unspoken words in her head as her claws twitched. There was another mango just within reach, after all.
"It's not like those eggs are going anywhere," Dazzling suddenly said after a long pause. "And if a dragonet hatched, that's kind of not my problem." Her scales shifted to match the mango in her talons as Dazzling peeled it with expert claws. "Unless someone forgot what name we were on," she teased.
Exquisite's scales rolled with red for just a moment as she picked up the tiny dragonet again before she could grab any fruit. "Well, so what if I don't remember? The more important issue is this," she said, turning the dragonet's head so that Dazzling couldn't miss those eerie pale eyes. The queen gave a surprised stare before yawning and rolling fully onto her back.
"So she's blind," Dazzling said, taking a bite of mango. "We'll make sure she's always got someone helping her. We're not a helpless tribe, and we won't raise a helpless dragon," somehow, while talking her mouth full, Exquisite thought that Dazzling just wasn't that good of a dragon at all. "Anywho, for needlessly bothering me, have you at least brought some fruit, Exquisite?" she asked, her ruff perking up at the prospect of more food.
"No," Exquisite said coldly, hunching her shoulders to keep her sloths closer to her. "Besides, what is her name? Since clearly you seem to know."
Dazzling tapped her chin as the mango disappeared into her jaws. "Bring me a clawmentine and then I'll do it," she said. Exquisite turned red all over before grabbing the small orange fruit from the pile below and tossing it at the queen. "Very good," she said with a smile. "Now, as promised, the next name is Starfruit, so that shall be her-"
"No," Exquisite said again. Starfruits were a golden-white color, but this dragonet was mostly blue. Plus, something deep in Exquisite's mind rang out like she was naming a pet sloth of hers. But I'd never name a dragon Toe-Fur or Ancient. "What's the next name on this list? Something a little more fitting this time," Exquisite demanded. Dazzling made a tsk sound and shut her eyes. "Alright, the next name is Tamarin. Like that one better?" she said, rolling over in a conversation-ending way.
Exquisite stared at the young dragonet and repeated the name. "Tamarin," she said, whispering to the dragonet. Their blue scales turned gold and she smiled. "I suppose you like it, that means." Exquisite gave a bow and left the queen's hut, heading to the heart of the tribe. The best dragon for first leading this blind dragonet would be Handsome, since he was tolerant and gentle and perfect in every way. Well, that was a lie, he didn't have a sloth pet, so there were improvements to be made. As Exquisite called down the older green dragon, she set down Tamarin and took the sloth back.
Or, at least, tried to take it back. "Come on now, Fuzzball, come back to Momma," she whispered to the sloth. It firmly stayed wrapped around the dragonet, and the dragonet stayed firmly wrapped around it.
Exquisite felt deflated and depressed, her scales turning dark blue and gray. Fuzzball chose a dragonet over me. I . . . I can't let her go, but is this what she wants? She bit back a swear as she stepped away. Handsome will find someone new who can help take care of Fuzzball now. It's . . . It's what she wants. She held her tongue and didn't say a word as Handsome landed next to her.
Tamarin, a lovely dragonet who hatched likely minutes before Exquisite saw her.
Tamarin, the dragonet she felt like maybe, in some other place, she could have been a mother to.
Tamarin, the dragonet who just ripped away one of Exquisite's favorite pets and didn't even know it.
Tamarin. Tamarin. Tamarin. The name rang in Exquisite's brain like a taunting voice. She blinked her eyes to fight tears and went back home. Someday, she'd get her precious sloth back, she knew. She only had to figure out how.
Chapter One[]
Three years later . . .
Tamarin reached out her talons beside her, fumbling for a grip of some kind. Beside her, she heard a disapproving tsk noise and she turned around to face the dragon. Even though she wasn't sure if she was looking at them, it was the thought that counted, right? She'd forgotten which dragon was watching over her for a moment, but the faint noise had reinforced who it was in her head.
Tamarin didn't understand why Splendor didn't like her. She always tried her hardest on learning basic skills, but the older dragon had always looked down on her. Figuratively, at least. She took a step forwards, trying to confront the older dragon, even when Splendor was more than triple Tamarin's size, and-
She crashed off the ledge with a cry. She reached around, trying to find something to grab onto, but couldn't. A stray branch snagged her side and tore a painful slit underneath her wing, while her body spun out-of-control and banked painfully against a tree trunk. Startled birds and frogs chirped and screeched, presumably out of the way of the crashing dragonet. Tamarin felt like the world was ending, the could hear the ground coming closer and closer, ready to swallow her whole.
Suddenly, talons wrapped around Tamarin's midsection and the sound of wingbeats filled the air. Splendor's voice shot through all the hurricane-like noise, loud and clear, "Second suns, are you alright?!" she yelled while travelling upwards. The blood rushed in Tamarin's ears and head, hurting like a steady pounding beat. She cried, stressed, but it hardly made a sound in all the noise. Tamarin could hear more muttering and even some new words, like 'Mistake' said with such disdain she guessed it meant horrible things.
When she finally felt the smooth wood under her talons again, she dug into the platform with tiny claws and stayed perfectly still. "What are we going to do with you, little problem dragonet?" Splendor muttered quietly. Tamarin squeaked and flicked her tail, wrapping it tenderly around one of Splendor's legs, who shook it off as if Tamarin were no more than a problem pest. "I suppose that's enough walking of ledges for you," she muttered. "Time to pass you off to another dragon," Splendor said, before calling out with a loud bird trill. Tamarin listened closely, before mimicking the sound in her own way.
All around them, smaller, lighter wingbeats rushed around her as Tamarin felt feathers ticking her scales. She giggled and felt yellow washing over her scales like a tidal wave of happiness. What had she been worried about just then? It didn't matter anymore, she was safe now.
A second dragon shook the platform as they landed, and Tamarin's ears perked, eager to learn everything that went on around her. "Finally," Splendor said, adding a little huff at the end. "I figured you'd never show up," she shot.
They gave a small balking noise and Tamarin heard the distinct sound of someone getting whacked with a wing. "Well par-don me!" they said, their voice more cheery than truly mad. "Ooh, this must be our resident little Tamarin!" the dragon suddenly said, and Tamarin felt herself being whisked into the air and spun around. Green shot through her scales as the world seemed to be dizzy without truly knowing if it was. "Does she know who I am yet? Does she?" they said eagerly, and Tamarin felt scales close to her-a heartbeat in her ear, and warmth flooding through her.
"I doubt it. You never SHOW UP ANYWHERE!" Splendor shouted, forcing Tamarin to cover her ears and squeak pitifully.
"Aw, you're scaring her. Here, Splendor, give me her sloth and we'll be gone," said that dragon that Tamarin didn't know yet. Her talons reached up towards their face, or where she thought it would be, and they made a surprised sound. "Hm? Oh, I guess this would help you!" Tamarin felt them twist around and her talons wrapped around their snout. She gently felt around their nostrils, cheeks, and even around their eyes and horns before she thought she had a pretty good idea of what they looked like physically.
"Here. Take it and be on your way," Splendor said, and Tamarin heard the soft sound of her beloved little friend as she was put back down. She chirped eagerly, flapping her wings and reaching her talons, almost falling off the ledge again. Claws gently pressed against her chest as the new dragon helped her back up, and then draped Tamarin's sloth on her back. Their friendship had lasted nearly since Tamarin hatched. It was one of her earliest memories, and the waves of yellow, gold, and pink drifting through her scales couldn't be helped. She'd named it 'Moss' after learning how slowly moss grew, and how slow sloths were.
She was picked up again as the platform fell away, wind rushing over her face and whistling off her ruff. She gently flared it up, and was amazed at the change in the wind around her. Tamarin started to chirp happily, and her sloth joined in with soft burbling noises - indistinguishable to another dragon, but crystal clear to her ears. As they flew, the other dragon began to talk. Quite a lot, actually.
"So, little Tamarin and Fuzzball," they said, joy practically bursting through their voice. Tamarin tried to hold onto that mental image of what their face might look like, and imagined the yellow overtaking their scales beyond what they might have been. "I'm Loris. I really hope you'll remember my name well! I'm the dragon usually assigned to take care of funny little dragonets like you, since you're blind, but like, we had this other one a long time ago. I think it was maybe . . . " her voice trailed off, before piping back up again. "It doesn't matter how long ago it was, but he was so weird! He couldn't change his scales. The healers thought it was something with his snout, but I remember taking care of him before they banished him. It's funny, I really didn't like him - It felt weird to be around him, like talking to a toucan or something - but I miss him. Anyway . . . "
The dragon - Loris - kept talking, but Tamarin sighed and tuned her out. She was pretty tired, and the scrape on her side was beginning to hurt. Why hadn't Splendor taken her to the healers? With a start, Tamarin realized the wound was probably hidden by her wing. That or Splendor just didn't care enough about her, she thought with sudden sadness.
Her scales slowly turned to a sullen blue, like drops of rain changing them one at a time. Loris never stopped talking to comment on it, so she just guessed that it wasn't noticeable enough. Tamarin tried to think of happier thoughts. Think of Moss. Or flowers. Or Kinkajou. Or the scent of fresh rain. Think of anything else, Tamarin.
Slowly, she let her mind wander and her eyes close, placed her trust in this dragon talking a mile a minute, and fell asleep in her arms.
Chapter Two[]
Tamarin shuffled in her hammock, not wanting to get up. She didn't even know how she got here, since she'd been asleep in a dragons arm what felt like seconds ago. Maybe I slept longer than I thought I did. The fall she'd taken then had been particularly nasty, after all, and her head hurt. She yawned, and something gently tickled her nose before she sleepily batted at the air near her snout - and felt contact with dragon scales. She shot upright suddenly and felt the ground sway beneath her talons, emerald and green shooting through her scales like neon streaks. "Who's there?"
The dragon nearby gasped and Tamarin felt someone attach themselves to her snout, muffling her hearing and sense of smell. Well, only one dragon ever did this to her. She pictured the image of her friends' cheery golden scales, ripped through with bits of pink and rose. While there was a small age gap, Tamarin never found it weird that her best friend was a one-year-old dragonet, whom a lot of other dragons found annoying. "Kinkajou?" she asked suddenly. "Get . . . off of my snout please."
The dragonet giggled, but did as Tamarin asked. "How bestest friend?" she chirped excitedly, hopping up and down and making Tamarin's hammock shake. Her scales shivered with a lime green color, scared that Kinkajou would make her fall. "Answer me!" the pink-yellow dragonet practically yelled, her enthusiasm hopefully not contagious. Tamarin shuffled and spread her wings, which made Kinkajou suck in a breath and wince.
"Ooh, there more angry lines on your wing," she said, before placing her front talons against Tamarin's chest and steadying herself. Tamarin was shocked at first, but slowly put one of her wings around Kinkajou.
"I know, I know," Tamarin whispered. She remembered how only a few days ago, she'd been brought to the healers because she'd fallen off a ledge again and torn part of her wing. (At least she didn't agitate that injury when she fell with Splendor and Loris) It would . . . probably heal, but the faint whispers the healers just thought Tamarin couldn't hear. Talking about all her scars. The weird film over her eyes. How unnerving they looked. From bits of conversation alone, Tamarin knew how many scars she had - or, as Kinkajou called them, 'angry lines'.
Dragons just assumed that since Tamarin couldn't see them, a three-year-old dragonet couldn't possibly tell how they were feeling when they spoke. It was the one thing Tamarin found herself hating: Dragons just seemed to act like she . . . wasn't there. Maybe if she curled into a ball and shut her ears, the world would forget about her the way everyone did now.
"No sad! No blue!" Kinkajou suddenly burst, headbutting Tamarin squarely in the neck, causing her to lose her balance and fall backwards. At first, Tamarin felt like screaming. Her heart was in her throat, the world spun in an unpleasant way, and Kinkajou let out an earsplitting yelp. Moments later, though, Tamarin was able to safely turn her body and flap her wings once, avoiding all of the rough branches and landing on the soft, moist earth below. If there was one place she had memorized best, it was the jungle around her hammock.
A small flumph sounded beside her, and Tamarin tilted her head to try and guess who it was. It wasn't exactly hard, though, since Kinkajou began talking again right away. "Me so sorry! No mean hurt Tamarin!" she bellowed, and Tamarin heard distinct hiccups and the swallowing of air. She'd figured out last year - that sound meant a dragon was crying.
Gently, Tamarin put her wing around Kinkajou, missing the first time but succeeding the next. "No, it's okay, I'm okay, I promise," she whispered, but Kinkajou kept on bawling and gasping. "Please, Jouie, it's alright," she said, trying to comfort the dragonet to no avail. It was time to resort to the last measure, the last thing to calm down her friend. Tamarin lifted her head and let out a soft, gentle chirping sound, followed by a sweet purr. The leaves around the two dragonets rustled, splattering droplets of water onto Tamarin's snout, animals croaked and chirped and hummed, before something shaggy and warm settled on Tamarin's arm.
Her sloth, her best friend from hatching, and the most effective device for cheering Kinkajou up. Moss' name didn't have a lot of thought put into it, and a lot of dragons didn't know yet. Tamarin started speaking much later than a normal dragonet, and even now she found herself getting tongue-tied whenever she talked to adults. Yet she worked hard at it, and she loved living her life the way she was now - even if she was worried about where she was going fairly often. She had the heart of the village memorized, but beyond that, she kept finding herself smacking into stray branches or crashing into the trees themselves.
"Here, Kinkajou," she said quietly, "Take Moss for a bit. That'll help you relax a little, right?" she whispered, drifting her scales back to blue and gold. Kinkajou made an excited, gasping kind of happy noise, and Tamarin couldn't help but let her scales brighten up further. She was just happy that Kinkajou wasn't crying anymore, probably golden with joy. Moss was such a tolerant sloth for the two young dragons, and yet Tamarin couldn't remember where the sloth had come from - all she knew was that she'd hatched with a sloth curled around her and the two bonded tightly.
There was also a lot of yelling when she first hatched, and words of disgust, a lot of sloths, and the distinct smell of fruit, similar to when Dazzling was queen. Tamarin shuddered, feeling her scales go green for a moment. How awful it would be, having dragons talk to you all day and whisper about you. Being queen was something she knew she'd never be interested in, even if dragons already whispered about her endlessly.
While Kinkajou and Moss babbled nonsense endlessly, Tamarin began picking her way through the densely packed forest to get something to eat. She paused, inhaled deeply, and exhaled. Then again, inhaled and exhaled, testing the air and smelling for anything edible nearby. She picked up the scents of several animals that ran away and screamed and chirped, and she knew they were moving because the scent traveled further from her nose. Once she finally found a scent that didn't move, she moved towards it, taking deep breaths to find her way. After a long stretch of the scent being directly in front of her, Tamarin decided to take to the air.
At first, her wings smacked against bark every time, and when she finally did get aloft, a vine caught her talon and threw her for a loop - literally. She was thrown back to the ground and into the wet earth, sighing. What she didn't have in sight, Tamarin made up for with her determination and willpower. She got up, and didn't even stop to brush the mud off her scales. Instead, she spread her wings, aimed directly up, and felt the sweet rush of air past her face and neck, rolling down to her shoulders and back.
This time, she made a slight adjustment so she didn't hit the vine that sent her flying before, and the smell got stronger until she could pick out exactly what it was: Starfruit. The smell brought back more memories of her hatchling days, and it tasted wonderful as well. Gently, she reached out until her claws brushed the plant, and she plucked the fruit down as she drifted back towards the forest floor.
"TAAAAAAMARIIIIIIIIIIIIN!"
Kinkajou's voice broke through the chatter of the rainforest not but a short distance away. Tamarin smiled and briskly walked over, pausing for a moment to find the spot below her hammock again. "Hey, Kinkajou! Did Moss help you?"
"Uh-huh, uh-huh!" She giggled, then made an 'ooh' sound. "Ooh, have food! Is for me?"
"Well, I- " Tamarin paused, hearing a slight sniffle nearby. Oh, Jouie. I don't want to make you cry again. She sighed. "Yeah. We can split it. You know about sharing, right?"
"Shearing?" Kinkajou made a confused chirp.
"Sharing," Tamarin affirmed. "It's when you evenly give another dragon something of yours, or they give you something of theirs, so that you both can enjoy it." She held up her talon. "Like this starfruit."
"But why I can't eat all?"
"Well, I'm your friend, right Jouie?"
She cheered and made a loud cry. "Of course, Tamarin my bestest friend!"
Tamarin laughed, but brought herself back together. "Well, sharing is one of the best things you can do for your friend. It shows them you really care. Like how I'm going to share this starfruit with you."
The resulting silence was somewhat nice for her, because at least she hadn't confused the young dragonet. Taking a moment to focus on the fruit in her claws, Tamarin visualized it in her head before taking a claw and slicing it (what she believed to be) perfectly down the middle. "Here, Kinkajou. Take one piece."
The small hatchling eagerly grabbed it and began chewing loudly, giggling while she did. "Sharing! Sharing with me bestest friend, Tamarin! Thank you!"
"Aw . . . " Tamarin took a small bite and patted the little dragonet. "You're welcome, best friend."
Chapter 3[]
"No!"
Tamarin stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she heard their voice. "Suns, were you listening at all, Tamarin?"
She shuffled her talons awkwardly and hung her head. "Um . . . sorry, Bromeliad."
"Sorry isn't going to cover that," her mentor's clipped voice stung in Tamarin's ears. "You missed the target worse than anyone I've seen before!"
Well maybe it's because I can't see my target, she thought bitterly, unable to fight to scarlet poking behind her ears. "Like I said, I'm sorry. I really am."
"You're lucky you didn't hit anything." Bromeliad grumbled and lifted her head, barking orders to the other dragonet beside her. "And you, Kinkajou, are just about the worst yearling I've seen before! If I had to pick which one of you two was worse, I'd have an easier time catching a monkey!"
"Eeeeeek, why you catching monkey, they're friends!" The young dragonet squealed, horrified.
Tamarin sighed. She wanted nothing more than to sweep Kinkajou away and fly as far from Bromeliad as was dragonly possible. Their shared venom trainer was temperamental at best, snapping and hissing at all her students, not giving Tamarin any kind of a break considering the fact she was blind.
Venom-spitting wasn't even something she liked to do, anyway. She'd never know what she was aiming at, or if something was going to move in the way, so it always just seemed far too risky for any possible benefit. Why did she need to learn how to do this when she could be working on her camouflage, or practicing her scents? She especially loved flowers, after all. Bright was her favorite teacher, gently guiding her and letting her smell each flower and feel it as much as she needed to visualize it. It was wonderful, since flowers didn't whisper about her or judge her every action.
Flowers didn't need to know how weird she was.
"TAMARIN!"
"Huh?" She snapped back to reality, spinning around too fast and disorienting herself as the blood rushed to her head. "Sorry, sorry, what is it?"
Bromeliad huffed. "I said that next time, I'm taking you out alone so that I can beat the knowledge into you. Got it?"
Tamarin whimpered and hunched down. Something told her Bromeliad wasn't being figurative with the language here. Her ruff flattened against her head, and she curled her tail as close to her as she could. "I - I, yes, Bromeliad."
"Good." She snorted. "I'll be seeing the both of you in three sunrises, then. Don't embarrass me." In a flurry of wingbeats, Tamarin heard their teacher take off without waiting any longer.
Kinkajou made a 'bleh' noise, probably sticking out her tongue again. "Good! Go away foreverer and don't come back, meanie!"
Tamarin snickered, fighting to resist as she pat Kinkajou. "Goodness, you can't say that!" As true as it is.
"One day I'll be the bestest venom spitter and Bromeliad can go SHOVE A MANGO UP HER SNOUT the next time she be mean to me. Or you."
"Someday, Jouie."
"Promise?"
Kinkajou grabbed Tamarin's claw, and she giggled. "Promise. On the moons, one day, you'll make history with your venom spitting." Kinkajou giggled and wrapped Tamarin in a small hug.
"I know I will," she chirped, burying her snout in Tamarin's shoulder. "I'm gonna be queen one day with venom spit! Ragh!"
She blinked. "Queen? You sure, Kinkajou?" From what Tamarin had heard, it sounded like so much work. Far too much for any dragon to handle, let alone a blind one or a dragonet so full of optimism.
"Surest in the rainforas!"
"Rainforest, but great try," Tamarin laughed, patting her friend. "We should be heading back to village soon. It's almost sun time."
Kinkajou gapsed and launched herself off Tamarin, startling her as her best friend stared excitedly shouting. "Sun time! Sun time! I love sun time! More than my mazing spitting powers! More than banananas! More than bestest friend Tamarin!"
She laughed. "Alright, come on, you little rascal. They'll be wondering where we if we take much longer."
Chapter 4[]
In the village, Tamarin had nothing to worry about. It was perfectly memorized and familiar, each bump in the wood and every trickle of sunlight through the leaves.
Trivia[]
-This was written for Mezephele's Canon Character Fanfiction Contest (Links have been lost, sadly. It's an old fanfic.)