Chapter 2

Coquina twisted and dived around the mountain peaks, her wings almost glowing as they captured the light of the twin suns and reflected it in dazzling clarity. She was high now, far too high for any eyes to see anything more than a pale spec twisting amongst golden rays.

With every beat of her wings, the weight of her troubles slipped ever further away. It was easy to forget the world -- the stares, the visions, Tidi’s suspicion -- when up here, with her only company the wind and the sky.

One twitch of her wings and she was flying higher, bursting into the cloud that shrouded the very tops of the mountains. Dampness clung to her scales, hugging her in a tight chill, but she didn’t care. This was a natural cold. Something real to immerse herself in.

She kept flying upwards, slicing through the thick moisture, until she broke through the cloud and was greeted by open air once more. Everything was still up here. She hovered there for a few moments, beating her wings every few seconds to keep herself aloft.

Her breathing steadied, deep breaths slowing, constant. She hadn’t realised how hard her heart had been hammering. The fresh air calmed it, letting everything linger.

This is me, she whispered to herself, gazing down at the blanket of cloud below her. This is what I am when I’m free.

Coquina would trust Tidi with her life. She was an incredible friend. But even with her, true freedom could never be found. Coquina wasn’t sure if anyone provided her with the means to be entirely herself.

But there was one dragon that got very close, and with that, she had purpose. Tucking her wings in, she shot downwards, allowing herself to simply plummet. It made her heart race in a different way. A pure thrill. She passed straight though the cloud, and as the mountains loomed below her, she flung out her wings and halted the fall. Then, with only a quick glance to regain her bearings, she twisted in the air and headed west.

It was time for home.

A few minutes of cutting straight through the peaks was all it took to find it. So many times had she journeyed there, she was sure she could reach it with her eyes closed by now.

Her Mator’s cave carved deep into a mountainside, like thousands of other caves around. But this one was special. A tingle shot down Coquina’s spine as a smile curved her snout, an automatic response to the sight.

Technically, this place shouldn’t be home any longer. A juvenile had to stay with their Mator, but once they took the Efficia and became an adult, most dragons moved out to find their own cave. It made more sense for those who were an official worker or soldier within the clan to have their own space. Yet, even though Coquina’s Efficia had been in the third quarter of Hemï, the previous period, she still couldn’t bring herself to move out. This cave was safety. Acceptance. No other cave could be home.

Besides, she wasn’t sure if she would be allowed to choose any cave she pleased.

The moment her claws touched down on the cave’s ledge, scales shifted from inside, and then a pale grey dragon appeared at the entrance, her eyes lit with delight.

“Greetings, Mator,” Coquina said with a quick bow of her head.

Her Mator smiled. “Coquina! How was training today?”

Coquina couldn’t help but return the expression. But her insides squirmed as she forced out a natural answer. “The usual.” She hurried into the cave’s depths, yanking all her thoughts away from today’s oddities. “Fresto keeps telling me to be quicker.”

Her Mator tapped her tail against Coquina’s back, running it down her stunted spines. “You’ll get there. You’ve only been training as a Proeliar for just over a quarter, remember?” She dropped her tail, instead twisting it around Coquina’s. “You still have lots of time to learn.”

Coquina smiled. “Thanks. I’m sure I’ll pick it up eventually.”

Together, they stepped into the left chamber of the cave. The torch pinned at its wall was starting to burn low, dimming the passage to near-darkness. Cracking open her jaw, Coquina felt for her fire stomach and sparked it to life, releasing a short blast of flame that struck the torch, and then calmed it again. The cave returned to its usual flicker of dancing light.

Nudging Coquina, her Mator gave a proud grin. “You’re getting rather good at that.”

Before she could respond, a scrabbling of claws against stone filled the air, and then a second grey shape shot from the wider part of the passage.

“Mator!” he shouted, tail flicking from side to side in his eagerness. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

Coquina and her Mator exchanged a look, and then burst out laughing. The smaller dragon stared up at them, his head tipped to the side in bemusement.

“You can’t have been looking very hard, Dior,” their Mator said through her chuckles. “I was only in my chamber.”

Dior’s confusion turned to frustration. “But I looked there!” he protested.

Lifting a claw, Coquina poked Dior’s snout playfully. He was almost the same size as her already, despite the three-year difference between them. “Use those eyes. Mator and rock may both be grey, but if you actually look, you might be able to distinguish one from the other.”

“I’m not even the same shade as rock,” their Mator chimed in as she slipped past, sitting down in the corner of the circular space. It was partially true. Though much of her scales were the same light grey as rock when sparkling in flame’s light, there were patches of something paler, a colour almost white, most noticeable at her underscales. She liked to whisper that while Dior had claimed that dominant grey for his own scales, Coquina had taken those rarer whitish patches. She was more special than her brother.

It was for comments like those that Coquina stayed. It wasn’t fair on Dior, but their Mator never acted like she had a favourite. It was only when they were alone, when the youngest of them was sleeping soundly, that she would remind Coquina that her scales were not the work of demons.

“So,” their Mator said, patting her tail beside her to invite them both to sit down, “why is my presence so desperately needed?”

Dior got there first, dashing to curl up beside his Mator and let her tail twine around him. A part of Coquina’s heart panged to be sitting there instead of him. But he was the youngest, and so she hid her jealousy, knowing it was unnecessary.

As she sat down on Dior’s other side, sliding her own tail to rest against his back, he turned to their Mator. “I want you to tell me the story of the Imperium again.”

Their Mator laughed. “That story again?” But one pleading look from Dior was all it took to win her over. “Alright.”

Coquina shifted. The legend fascinated her as much as it did her brother, but recently she’d been making herself scarce whenever the story was told. Yet she had no wish to leave, not just yet, and so she forced herself to stay put.