ok this is a fanfic based on this bae dont mind me itll probably suck, yay
credit to proud for the name apis!!! :D
Sugared Lemons[]
Chapter 1: nothing ever happens
[]
It was a crisp spring day, the sun shone on the open wingtips of the early rising shopkeepers as they casually strolled to their stands. The sky was stained a pleasing peach and cyan, while streaks of pale grey clouds floated lazily here and there, like a perfectly framed painting. All was well, all was perfect. The air was sweet of the aromas of freshly baked pastries MudWing cooks carried to their stalls, and the scented pastel candles, that always seemed to smell of dew kissed grass and strawberries.
It was a normal morning. Nothing unusual, nothing dangerous, just a peaceful day at the markets. But sometimes, too much safety and fufillment left an acrid taste on the tongue, like an overly salted dish appalls the senses, so does immense predictability.
Perched on a glassblower's rooftop, a small, bendy silhouette graced the sun-light with its shadow. The figure was sprawled across the rustic adobe shingles; lounging like a listless leopard, after a filling meal. Wispy honey-hued wings buffeted in the wind, and a round-tipped black tongue flicked through white teeth. The being remained there, basking in the puddles of sunshine, that reflected off every circular amber scales making them dance and shine like molten maple.
"Zest," one umber eye peeked half-way open, to glance at the middle-aged SandWing beneath her, "Honey we need to unload"- the dragon paused mid-sentence, licking his lips and rethinking his wording. "Well we need to unload the honey, Honey," the golden dragoness snorted a laugh and flicked her long, crooked tail to the right. Sweeping a few bits of pollen this way and that.
"Coming," she said through a smile, as she stretched into movement, her muscles complaining for leaving such a wonderful, languid sun-spot. But she didn't leave too quickly, in fact, she never moved faster than the situation need be. Her movements always held a graceful, yet lazy sort of honeyed gesture. After a yawn, and a wistful glancing at the pool of sunbeams beneath her, the creature opened her wings to their full extent, and jumped downwards, catching a drift of wind to glide herself below. Blunt talons gripped soft, pebbled ground, and she turned to meet the eyes of the larger male beside her.
"I said I was coming," she coyly admitted, folding her wings gently into her sides, her copper jewelry glowing warm hues in the now broad daylight.
"As slow as mollases dripping from a spoon," he chuckled, and she rolled her eyes, playfully batting him with a paw.
"How's Mum doing? Are the cakes ready?" She inquired, padding beside the long-legged SandWing's steady stride,
"She's doing fine, she made at least a dozen of 'em anyways," he drawled, brown eyes glinting with his daughter's shared mirth, "cept I think we might be a little short of them today," he added. Zest frowned at her father,
"She specifically told us not to touch them," she scolded, waving a ring-adorned talon in the nothingness in front of her,
"I know," he agreed, "but we ate one anyways,"
"Two," she corrected him, passing a SeaWing hybrid with a bouquet, "now we better make it up to her," the sand-hued dragon nodded, and the two made their way to a shaded corner of the bazaar. Rows of rustic tables, colored with chipping white paint were adorned with countless pieces of abstract jewelry, cakes, and jars of glowing golden liquid. Behind the stands the scowling face of a pale blue RainWing pinned the warm-colored duo.
"Good morning mum!" Zest announced cheerfully, waving her paws around, and giving her mother a quick embrace.
"Good morning, Love," mumbled Apis through a nervous smile,
Moonflower arched an eyebrow at her mate and daughter, her lips curved into a glower that she fought quite fiercely to hold on to. "It's mid morning," she stated, "you told me good morning at the stroke of sunrise, I would like to know why you are bidding it to me now?"
An awkward silence lapsed over the family, but the small, yellow hybrid absolutely did not allow silence to exist for long, not now, not ever.
"Because we love you Mum, now are we going to stack those vials or not?" she asked with a broad grin, her talons thumping against a countertop. A wistful sigh escaped her mother's mouth, as a smile cracked through her rigid exterior, ripples of amber alighting her body. Like serpentine shards of sunlight across a cloudless sky, before her entire being was a similar hue to her family's.
"Alright then, let's get to work," the trio nodded in unison, as they began carefully lifting pots of honey from the splintering cart. One by one, claws picked them up; from long and graceful, worn and dull, to ringed and slender. The dragons busily worked until the tables were fully covered with the gooey, golden substance.
"Wonderful," said Zest promptly, beaming at their finished task. Already, a straggling line of hybrids and MudWings gathered behind the tables to peer at the spoils they offered. A SeaWing dragoness with rounded features, and grey eyes lifted a crystal pendant from a stand, her stormy gaze fastened. The lemon-colored dragoness felt her wings jump in anticipation as she slipped over to her side. "Claw-made, with the finest copper and sunstone," she said proudly, watching the SeaWing's upturned gaze.
"I've seen better," she finally snapped, before turning briskly away, dropping the object. It clattered against the wood, before her warm talons could embrace it, and Zest could feel a sharp sting of annoyance. It's better quality than your earrings you snooty wing-wart, she thought, before nestling it back with her other creations.
She sighed, and watched her parents sell and barter with the locals, her father sliding rusted coins into the same worn bag, and her mother arguing the prices with the cheap customers. Her eyes wandered to the sturdy, well built structures around them, and the orderly lines of merchants stationed as far as her gaze could see. Quiet, peaceful, safe. Is this all life can be? Selling jewelry and sweets to dragons who barely appreciate their values? Everyday, for all eternity?
Zest shook her head, causing her amber teardrops to sway with her motions. Her gaze finally lifted upwards to the sky, the welcoming open plain. As blue and wispy as the colors of a blue lace agate, she smiled and stared into it.
This isn't all that's out here, she thought to herself, there is more to life than bees and honeycakes. She turned then to her parents, who smiled and waved at her from their own sections of the booth. A small pang of sadness lilted inside her, but to experience freedom, would she have to leave her loved ones? The hybrid shook her head, returning her attention to a bored looking MudWing, who dabbled through her collection,
"Got anything silver?" he asked dryly, internally, she snorted.
"No," she said, blinking sweetly, "only warm palettes, besides, copper would compliment your facial structure. You have a very nice snout," she told him, he tilted his head then smiled, revealing a few missing teeth.
"Why thank you," she nodded politely, lifting a copper chain, fire opals dangling from tiny hooks shimmered in her careful claws.
"This would look absolutely dashing on you," the dragon nodded, completely believing, and he slid her the payment, as she placed the necklace into his broad claws. As he turned to leave her eyes, once more, fell to the horizon.
There has to be more, right?
Chapter 2: lies and lemons[]
Night was slowly falling over the quaint MudWing market, as just as the sun and clouds tucked themselves into blankets of ebony; the townsfolk scurried away, sweeping their belongings into the warm little houses.
A few hours had passed since she and her parents had left the market, taking their remaining items back into the sun-baked clay hut. The clay hut that always smelt of freshly baked goods, honey-combs, and metals.
From atop the roof of the make-shift structure, Zest stared awfilled at the gaping night-sky above her. She waved at the constellations, and made note of the moons' current phases. A waning crescent and a half crescent. She smiled, inwardly pleased at her knowledge. But astronomy was not something the dragons of Diamond Spray Delta appreciated. The small dragoness slumped her freckled shoulders, and ran her claws over the bumpy yet smooth surface of her home's rooftop. The breeze was warm, and smelled richly of pine-needles, mud, and dandelions. Large cypress trees rose like rigid centries around her, alotting the landscape with dark, shadowy silhouettes of boughs and foliage. It was beautiful. A quiet, calming beautiful, as if this certain moment in time had been carefully carved out of the universe and left in a perfect replay. Over and over, each time just as lovely, yet, unnerving. Was everyone's life just a constant reprise of the same actions that they've known forever?
She shook her head, flicking her rather large ears, causing the amber earrings to chime against the other metal adornments that shimmered from her membrane. Zest then turned her attention to her chesnut hued satchel slung across her middle-section. Carefully, she retrieved a bound scroll, and unfurled the wearing page, glancing longingly at it. It was a story her mother had given her on a hatching day, many moons ago.
An appealing tale of a SeaWing explorer that left all he knew to see the Kingdom of the Sand. It was a well rehearsed epic in her mind, she and her family had read it countless times, and never once did it dull her. The beautiful writing always made her mind drift off to faraway places of enchanting worlds and exotic tribes. But lately, she noticed, its affect was far less vivid and wonderous as it usually was.
Perhaps because she was tired, she thought, perhaps if she read it tommorrow it would be as intruiging as it always has been. But for some vague reason, she doubted it. Then maybe she was growing out of fairy tales? No. Of course not. Fairy tales and magic had always been the little escape from reality she had used since dragonethood. Then what was it? She ran a claw over the dog-earred edges, and creased parchment. Its writing was faded from years of use and sunlight, and it no longer smelt of adventure and inkspots. Inside, she knew the answer, her mind was becoming sharper, slightly bitter at years of repetitive nights of longing and stillness, she was no longer fooled by childish promises and make-believe lands. Because, she was learning, it felt unrealastic, as if she'd never escape a lifetime of predictablity.
The golden hued hybrid folded the scroll, tucking it gently back into her pouch. Her gaze fell onto the ebony horizon, and unknown emotion swelling inside her. What if she didn't give into monotous mundanity, and left to find a quest of her own. Perhaps, her eyes falling back to her bag, to the Sand Kingdom? With excitement blossoming into her wingtips she soared down off the roofs, bursting inside the quaint little hut.
"Mum! Da!" she cried, closing the door, sides rising and falling in an uneven fashion. It usually wasn't off her nature to do anything hastily, and her body disliked the notion very much.
"Yes?" answered Apis, poking his broadly horned head from inside the small study, Moonflower hummed in response, eyes flicking from her daughter and back to her work as she busily crushed herbs in a marble bowls. Sweeping them up in her talons into small crystal vials.
"Mum, Da," Zest echoed, "I-I want to leave," she breathed out shakily, her mother arched an eyebrow, a frown lacing her cerulean features. "I mean," she pondered her response for a few moments, deciding the wisest way to word it. "I'm almost out of silver," she stated, "and i'm awfully tired of boring old copper and brass; I was wondering, if perhaps I could travel to the Beetle Bazaar in the Sand Kingdom, they have the greatest wires in Pyrrhia," the young hybrid bit her lip in anticipation, studying her parents expressions.
Moonflower scrunched her forehead, and Apis blinked in midthought, "I'm supposing you can't get off using materials found here, or Possibilty?" her mother asked simply, the yellow dragon shook her head,
"Mum, remember that rare root you needed, nightshade or something?"
"Yes, Nightcall," Moonflower corrected, ears flicked back in subtle annoyance.
"Well, you traveled all the way to the Rainforest, remember? It took four whole days to get there, and then to fly back..."
"I actually see her point," Apis interrupted agreeably, earning a displeased snort from his mate. "you know, she is old enough, and responsible enough; she ran the booth last week when we were off on errends,"
"Hm," Moonflower murmured, her prehensile tail twitching, sending nebulae of ochre and indigo across her scales.
"I vote yes," the SandWing said again, Zest beamed at him, and he grinned back. The three waited in silence for a bit, two of them watching the RainWing with earnest faces.
"Fine," Flower finally said, causing both son and daughter to break into a strange, joyful little dance. Tripping and flapping their wings around the small, well lit quarters. It was quite obvious then, that the hybrid had enherited her father's rythm rather than her mother's. While the poise blue dragoness watched them in good-humor.
"But," she interjected, two sets of warm-colored ears perking upright, "you'll have to bring a friend with you,"
Zest's shoulders fell slightly, this was supposed to be her adventure, not a trip where she'd be monitered like a hapless dragonet.
"But mum," she pleaded, Moonflower shook her head, opposition stern,
"Either two of you, or none of you," a sigh rolled off her chest and she looked back up to her mother, previous excitement returning.
"Well, its better than nothing," she said with a grin. it's better than nothing, perhaps?
Chapter 3: the journey begins[]
After hugging her parents countless times, the small hybrid dashed into her room in an overjoyed frenzy. Her wings at their full length, brushing against the maple furniture and hanging potted plants. She seized her largest satchel, and stowed as many metals, adornments, and objects as she could; her gaze falling to a worn bag of herbs and other healing essentials, a gift her mother had given her years ago. It wouldn't hurt to have it, she thought, and neatly pressed it along with her other items.
Apis, who had been awkwardly standing within the chambers of the hall, placed a small claw-written notebook on insects to her, while Moonflower pressed a vial of some strange glowing plant into her talons.
"Runespoor," she told her, exoression emotionless, "it can paralyze you as soon as your tongue touches the frond. Use it wisely," Zest nodded and threw herself into her mother's arms, the RainWing sighed, and returned her embrace. Her SandWing mate shuffled his talons before the yellow dragoness grabbed him by his wrist and into the array of wings and hugging.
Moon pulled away first, giving the two sun-hued dragons disheveled appearances an amused gaze. While Apis squeezed his daughter's talons,
"You should go tell Laotong," he insisted, the wrinkles beside his eyes creasing, in the way they always did when he smiled. She nodded,
"I will," with one last grin, she pulled away from her parent's stares and out through the circular, splintered door. When out of their dragonet's earshot, Moonflower sighed once more, noticing this, Apis leaned into her side, his barbed tail carefully intertwining with her own, strong serpentine one.
"She'll be alright," he told her firmly,
The blue dragoness nodded, "I know," she answered, removing herself and padding back to her study, "I know,"
Meanwhile, bouncing gleefully in the dark shadows of the moon-lit town, the hybrid padded onward, to see Laotong, to tell her of the adventure that lay waiting before them.
That night, Zest lay awake, countless ideas bounced around her skull, and excitement sizzled through her wingtips. This was it, her first grand adventure. Although, it wouldn't be as grand, perhaps, but nevertheless, she got her wish.