Arefe walked towards the main gate, his feathered wings folded to his sides. Speeding up, he loped past houses and shops until he reached Possibility’s main gate. The city was wrapped with thick stone walls, and two gates. On either side of the massive, iron doors were towers with alabaster colored stones. He marveled at their height as he walked through the gate, letting the guards check him for any dangerous materials.

“Be careful, I heard something about the folks you’re helpin’ and it didn’t sound good, not that I care though! Go get yourself some deadly dragon friends.” his father remarked as he ushered him out the gate. Arefe’s parents were opposites. His mother loved peace and unity and his father loved war and blood shed. His father had joined the guard as a gate watcher and his mother became the city’s healer. Arefe, on the other hand simply did what had to be done. Sometimes he helped out with guard duties or tended to the sick with his mom and sometimes he helped other’s move in to the town. Today, he was helping dragon siblings move in. The older of the two was to be a guard and the younger one was simply tagging along. From what Arefe had heard, they were in a cave at the top of the mountain Skotádi. He dashed off toward the mountain, leaping into the air and soaring to the top. His freshly groomed mane was already a mess. The mountain overlooked the city, so it was not very far. Arefe stretched his griffin wings and caught a warm updraft, soaring up towards the clouds. He alighted on a rock outcropping near the entrance to the cave, only to immediately take to the air again. The ground was scorching.

“Oh, I forgot to warn you! My brother was practicing fire breathing. Land over there, it’s much cooler.” a dragon said, pointing to the left of the sizzling rocks. When she walked into the full sunlight, Arefe got a good look at her. She was a light purplish-blue with a pale blue underbelly. Her neck was crowded with a spiky frill and she had two pairs of wings. The bottom pair was smaller and feathered with a light green shade. Her top pair of wings were the same color as her head and body and were membranous. She folded her wings and looked at him. “Haven’t you ever seen a dragon?” She asked, a little rudely.

“I’ve seen many dragons, but they usually only have two wings.” He pointed to her folded wings. The dragon never answered, because the next moment a smaller, black dragon crept out of the shadows.

“Boo!” he whispered in Arefe’s ear. Arefe gave such a start, he nearly jumped off the cliff.

“Raven, I told you not to scare him!” The older dragon scolded. The young dragon looked at Arefe for a long moment, before turning back into the cave.

“Okay, let’s start over. My name is Kiara, and that was my brother Raven. You must be Arefe.” Arefe nodded. “Thank you so much for helping us! My brother was so excited to finally meet someone his age.” Kiara ushered him into the cave and Raven bounced happily to his side. Arefe looked at him and saw that he also had two pairs of wings.

“So, Raven, what do you like to do here?” Arefe asked, trying to be as friendly as possible.

“Oh, there is so much! I’m so glad you have wings, so you can see it all.” With that he took flight and flew to the roof of the cavern, Arefe trailing behind him. When Arefe got to the roof of the cave, he saw Raven push away some black cloth before squeezing through a hole. Arefe managed to trap his wings to his sides tight enough to get through the hole. He poked his head through the other side and forgot that half of him was stuck in a hole. All around him were glittering crystals. Some were red and green, while others glowed blue or yellow.

“This is my room!” Raven announced, proudly. He reached down and helped Arefe escape the hole. “You can have some, but don’t touch that one.” Raven said, pointing to a large sharp rock.

“How did you find this?” Arefe asked, amazed at the sight surrounding him. He walked over and gently touched a glowing rock with his talon. It felt warm yet left his hand freezing. Arefe quickly picked out two stones, one was light green crystal and the other was a red rock which was glowing.

“I was exploring the cave and happened to find this room.” Raven answered. An uncomfortable silence fell over the room.

“So, how old are you?” Arefe asked, trying to break the silence.

“I’m almost four, how about you?” Arefe looked at Raven’s size and compared it quickly to his own size.

“Wow, you look like you’re my age and I’m seven!” He could not believe how close he and Raven were in size, even thought they were three years apart.

“RAVEN, AREFE! GET DOWN HERE!” Kiara howled from below them, clearly wanting to start her training as soon as possible. Arefe stuffed his gems in his bag and squirmed through the tunnel. He popped out on the other side and snapped his wings open immediately, which resulted in him crashing into the cave wall.

“Oh, I forgot to warn you. WATCH OUT FOR THE WALL!” Raven shouted at him from the entrance to another cave. Thanks for the early warning! Arefe thought, sarcastically. He quickly flew down to the floor and asked Kiara what he could do to help.

Arefe and Raven gathered the sibling’s supplies while sharing a bit about themselves. Arefe started, “My father’s name is Pyro and my mother is Maple. We come from a long line of pure griffins with the standard eagle/lion mix and if you want to know more about my heritage and all that, ask my dad, because I really didn’t feel like memorizing all of it!” Arefe finished, drawing in a long-awaited breath. “Your turn!”

Raven blew out the torch as they loaded the baggage onto their backs. “Well, I never met my mother, but I do know she died protecting me. I think her name was Arowen. My father’s name was Falcon and he was from the Peresma tribe. Are you familiar with different dragon tribes?” Arefe shook his head, Raven continued, “Well, each dragon that is born is placed in a tribe based on the design of it’s wings. No dragon is allowed to marry a dragon from a different tribe, but that is exactly what my parents did. My mother was from the Nych tribe and since her wings were membranous, and my father’s wings were feathered, my sister and I both have two pairs of wings. Her larger pair of wings are the membranous wings and my larger wings are feathered.”

“Is the fact that you are from two different tribes the reason why you are not joining one, but instead coming to live in a Griffith town?” Arefe asked, very curious about their choice to move to Possibility, which was home to many different species, but it was still in Griffith territory. The Griffith species was any mix of canine and bird or feline and bird.

“Yes, but also because my sister is now a guard in training!” he said the last part proudly, jabbing the air with an invisible spear and looking behind him at Kiara, who was lagging behind because of the amount of baggage she was carrying. The friends looked ahead of them again and, together, the two new friends swooped through the air towards the town gate, and a new life for both of them.