“GOOOD MORNING KAL!!” The shout alone is enough to wake me into a semi-aware state, and the sudden weight slamming into my midsection winds me enough to nearly knock me out of it. Which would have been perfectly fine, if it weren’t for the fact that my wake-up call hadn’t quite run out of air.

            “Kal, Kal, KAL!! Wake up! Ka-al!!”

            “Ayrannn…” I’m groaning, trying to bury my face into the pillow to shut off the shouting. “Stopit, wanna sleep, go ‘way…”

            “No, nope, Mom says you gotta get UP!” My entire body is wracking against the bed now. For a mere ten-years-old, Ayran can sure put a lot of force into things. Like her seemingly endless supply of breath. “Yer gonna miss breakfast, Kal! Come on!”

            “Fine, fine…m’up…” I’m amazed she even heard me over the racket she was making, but she quickly leapt off and stood bouncing on her feet in front of me as I pushed myself up off the bed to look my comparatively shorter sibling in the eye proper. Briefly, I’m considering going right back to sleep, though Aryan seemed to catch the idea as though I were telegraphing it through my half-open eyelids.

            “No, Kal. UP!” The loud bark was tempered with playful, sisterly mischief, but I was now definitely sure of the fact that I would not be getting anymore sleep today.

            So, yawning and trying hard to keep my eyes open enough so I wouldn’t be tripping over my own feet, I went downstairs.

            ***

            Breakfast is in full force in the main part of the kitchen, with the big windows open so that the occasional dragon claw can reach in and snag something off the table, or alternatively contribute to the conversations brewing over the old wooden breakfast table. Dad says they’re not as used to moving around in a human form as he is, but I’m only seeing Gaotail, Torre, Runeon, Salem, and Shoren out there. Guess Casvar managed to make Cazhene mad enough to hold them up; the pair of them don’t usually miss breakfast.

            Ayran skips around the table ahead of me, moving much faster in her more awake state and leaving me with a distinct envy of folk that can move around like that in the morning. She and Torre both, I swear there’s something a bit funny with that kind of temper-a-ment, as Mom calls it. Different temperaments.

            Well, no one’s gone quiet seeing me, so I’m at least going to get to eat with no trouble today. I’m just sitting down when it seems someone at the window notices I’m present, Gaotail. Even if I’m not looking up, I’d know that voice anywhere.

            “Good morning, Kal.”

            “G’morning.” I mumble, more flopping than sitting in my seat at the other end of the table. Just because they got me up doesn’t mean I have to be pleasant about it.

            Granted, I may still be on thin ice from yesterday, so it might be a good time to try to tone down the remarks and see if there’ll be anything to add to my ‘punishment’. Mom and Dad both mentioned something about chores, and while we don’t have any animals apart from Torre’s cats, working in a field can be just as time-consuming and grueling. Even more so sometimes given the claws, as I still sometimes demonstrate in my less attentive moments.

            Breakfast ends far too soon, and I’m finding myself in that weird state of awake enough to function and yet tired enough to want to go back to bed. But, yep, there’s Mom looking at me as though daring me to make a break for the door.

            “Kal, come here. I have something I need you to do.”

            ***

            Bean-picking. Just…joy. She’s doing this on purpose. Yeah, I get that going into the village is bad, Mom, I get that I broke the rules. But is this necessary? Bean-picking? Am I the only one that remembers what happened last year? With ripping most of the beans I was trying to pick in half? My hands just don’t fit around them the same way Mom’s do, and we’d only just managed to keep me from entirely shredding them by the time winter set in and we couldn’t pick anymore. What was it she always told me about this sort of thing? Twist and pull, right?

            No, not entirely right, and now I’m holding half a string bean. Kind of remembering that’s for apples. Alright. I can fix this. Just be careful with the rest. Just remember what Mom said and twist…nonono, not like that…darnit, no…

            Maybe she won’t mind if a few of them are in pieces. She asked me to do this, after all, so getting a few, alright maybe more than a few, in pieces should be something expected. You the one who sent me, Mom. Remember that when you complain.

            …When am I going back inside again? Hopefully soon. Shredded beans for dinner really doesn’t sound that great.

            Wings thundering overhead is a pretty regular thing around here, but I still look up right away anyhow, trying to look busy in case it’s Dad. Seeing silver pretty much confirms it is not; black and gold stand out pretty well against blue anyway. Gaotail comes down a little ways from the fence, landing lightly to not knock anything over. He pads to the edge of the patch, leaning over the wooden fence as he smiles with his eyes. He never likes showing off his teeth.

            “’lo in there.”

            “…hi. Where’ve you been?”

            “About, mostly. Flying around.” He lowers his head to be next to me, nostrils widening for a moment as he breathed in. Smelling me. He always does that. He’s such a worrier.

            “’m fine.”

            He snorts, and I wipe a smear of dirt into the top of his nose. His eyes briefly shine before he nudges me over, nosing and snorting at me enough to tickle.

            “Stoppit, stoppit!” I’m saying through giggles before very long as I push at his face. “C’mon, I have to get this done!”

            “Need help?”

            I’m half-ready to take him up on the offer, this is really, really annoying. But…

            “Think Mom wants me to do this on my own. What happened to the boy?”

            At this he’s less calm, eyes cutting in the direction of the road before looking back.

            “We took him to town, left him with the innkeeper. They did not know him, though, which…seems odd.”

            “Why?”

            “Well…” He tries, I can almost see him mentally putting together what he’s going to say. “…It’s a small enough place that everybody knows everyone, at least, if they live there. If he had grown up there, they would have recognized him, but…they did not so…”

            “He is not from Kryoto? It’s small?” It didn’t look that small when I was there. It was bigger than the farm, at least. “Where did he come from?”

            “…He is not. Compared to other places, yes it is. And I do not know.” Gaotail answers back after a minute, and in order too. Nice of him. It’s not as though the outside world has not been talked about before; Mom always said she came from a place across somewhere called the ‘Rift’. It just seems…different, all of a sudden. Like…

            “Have you been…to lots of other places?” I ask. Gaotail gets nervous about things, but he doesn’t often lie. I just have to…not push too hard. Or at least, I hope he’s up to answering me today. Why wouldn’t he though?

            I can see his jaw clench for a moment, tail and wings drawing slightly inward and close. He’s looking away now too. Oh no, not now…I really, really want to know! But if he starts getting upset…

            “…please?” If this doesn’t work, I’ll ask somebody else. His wings are relaxing, though.

            “…Th-There is a place I remember. It was not a human village, though. It was for…dragons, I think.” His eyes close. I wonder if it helps him to remember… “There was a human, I think, but…It was so long ago for me, I was very young at the time.”

            “…Is it near here?”

            “I….do not think so?” He replies, head remaining low and looking me in the eye. “It was a long time ago, long before you were born.”

            Well, that doesn’t help at all. Part of me wants to know more about a dragon-city, but the rest of me remembers how different the human village was compared to my home. Maybe just stick with that for now…

            Just figure out the human bits for now, then the dragon. Though I already know a lot about being a dragon from Dad, Gaotail, Torre, and Cazhene whenever he wants to talk. I just get the human from Mom, and from what I’ve seen, there’s way more than just what I learn from her. Maybe it’s the same with the dragon stuff…?

            I’m yanking more of the beans out as I think. They’re still ending up in pieces, but right now it’s not the biggest thing on my mind.