Coastal Town by Oridian

Coastal Town

Oridian, Adolescent, Adventure, Aroused, Beach, Character Development, Clit, Clitoris, Coastal, Cock, Cowgirl, Creampie, Cuddle, Cuddling, Cum, Cumming, Cumshot, Cute, Dick, Dragon, Dragoness, Drake, Ejaculation, Erection, Explicit, Feeding, Female, Fingering, First Time, Flight, Flying, Food, Food Play, Fortune telling, Friendship, Frostbreath, Game, Games, Gift, Heterosexual, Humping, Infatuation, Jewellery, Kiss feeding, Kissing, Knot, Love, Lust, M/F, Magic, Male, Male/Female, Mating, Multiple Orgasm, Necklace, Non-Anthro, Ocean, Oracle, Orgasm, Overstimulation, Paw, Pawing, Paws, Penetration, Penis, Post orgasm, Pre, Precum, Pussy, Quadruped, Relationships, Romance, Scales, Sea, Sex, Straight, Tail, Tail Sex, Tailplay, Teenager, Teenagers, Vagina, Vaginal, Virgin, Vulva, Wings, Worldbuilding, Young Love, Young Romance, airship, berry, carnival, coast, crush, edging, embarrassed, expedition, festival, friends, fruit, harbour, independence, lake, semen, storm, talking, town, travel

#9 of Breakhorn (Series)

As Pyxis and Nerlin journey back home, their exploration of the world (and each other) continues.

_Thanks again to those who read this series! This chapter is a longer one. It starts with more plot and worldbuilding, but the last third or so is character interplay. _

"Ahk... kaff... khoff!" The next morning, Pyxis had a coughing fit so bad that she woke herself up. Her throat felt parched and itchy, making her hack and cough for what seemed like an absurd length of time. When she finally managed to control her breathing, she raised her head to see Nerlin awake and staring at her.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Pyxis hastily nodded. "Throat... dry. I'm fine," she insisted, reaching over to her flight harness and taking out her water pack's drinking tube. She put the tube in her mouth, then pressed her paw down on the water pack to squeeze out was left of her drinking water.

It was cool liquid relief to her throat as she swallowed. Pyxis drank until her water pack had been completely emptied, then she let out a satisfied sigh which unexpectedly ended with a tiny blast of frost magic. "Ahh... Oops!" A cloud of cool, foggy air washed over towards Nerlin, and Pyxis hurriedly covered her muzzle with a paw. "Sorry!"

Nerlin snorted amusedly. He unfurled a wing and flapped down, blowing away the foggy air. "Did you do that accidentally?"

"Sorry! I'm still getting the hang of this." Keeping her snout facing towards the wall, Pyxis took a few deep breaths. Her frost affinity felt like raw power in her chest just waiting to leap out through her jaws, but she kept control over herself. Pyxis let out a small, controlled blast of frostbreath. The intensely cold air caused water vapour to condense out of the air, forming a small billowing cloud which briefly caught the sunlight streaming in through a window.

Pyxis snapped her jaws shut, cutting off her magic. Using magic required exertion, but it did give her a sense of strength, for she could change the world. As the frostbreath cloud quickly dissipated, Pyxis leapt to her feet and trotted over to the window. Looking outside the window, she saw a lovely sunny day. The sky was mostly clear with a scattering of white clouds, and the ocean was calm and smooth, with sunlight glinting from numerous wave crests. It looked to be well past sunrise already. "Uh... Did I wake up late? It's bright out. Is that because we're flying west? So the sun rises earlier?"

"It's the other way around. The sun rises later," Nerlin replied. He was grinning at her. "You did wake up late, but that's alright. All this long-distance flying is tiring."

Pyxis felt a bit silly for having slept so long. Because of the storm yesterday, they'd gone to bed earlier than usual, yet she had still slept far past sunrise. Her body's internal clock had apparently given up trying to properly regulate her sleep. "Oh. Did you... How long have you been awake?"

"I woke up just before sunrise."

"Aww, you should have woken me up too!" Pyxis gestured towards the stairway leading upstairs. "Then we could've gone up and watched the sunrise over the ocean together."

"The ocean is to our west. The sun would have been rising to the east, in the direction of the mountains," Nerlin pointed out.

"Oh. I'm dumb. My brain is still half asleep," Pyxis said.

"No problem." Nerlin spread his wings open wide and stretched himself, and Pyxis could hear some of his joints cracking. "Good morning, by the way," said the red-scaled drake.

"Good morning!" Pyxis happily replied. After all that had happened last evening, she suddenly felt energized and ready to continue on their journey together. Trotting over to her flight harness again, she joined Nerlin as they both gobbled up a ration bar each for breakfast, then they quickly packed up their sleeping bags, lanterns, and everything else back into their flight harnesses.

After looking around to make sure they'd left nothing behind, the two young dragons donned their flight harnesses and prepared to resume their flight.

Pushing open the lighthouse door, Pyxis stepped out into a sunlight and took a breath of the fresh air. A warm ocean breeze was making the grass sway, and the wind ruffled her scales. "Ah, freedom. I love it!" Pyxis loved the wind, and the smell of the ocean, and all the nature and beauty around her. And also Nerlin.

Nerlin shut the lighthouse door behind them, and he stepped up to stand beside her. "Ready to continue?"

"Indeeeed I am!" Pyxis flipped open her wings and leaned back on her hindlimbs, but Nerlin gently tugged on her tail before she could leap into the air.

"Wait. We should go top up our water packs before we fly off. The lighthouse had a map indicating a river just to the southeast," he said.

"Ok then." Pyxis shut her wings and nodded her head in agreement. "Let's do that. Lead the way!"

The two dragons started walking. Soon enough they came across a small river which cut through the rocky cliff side, emptying out into the ocean. Pyxis detached her water pack from her flight harness and filled it up in the stream. Once the water pack was full, she unwrapped a small crystal charged with water magic and tossed it into the pouch before sealing it--the small pill-shaped gemstone would sterilize the water and gather up any suspended dirt, rending the water safe to drink, although it would also add a noticeable and somewhat odd taste.

Nerlin did the same with his water pack, and then the two dragons nodded to each other. One after the other, they opened their wings and sprung to the air. Pyxis could feel the added weight of her refilled water pack as she climbed into the sky.

With Nerlin leading the way they flew southwards, following the coastline. From up high the coastal areas were even more impressive--jagged rocky cliffs and smooth sandy beaches, with waves crashing down in rhythmic patterns as the ocean met the land. The ocean extended all the way to the horizon, a flat line that stretched to the limit of what they eye could see. Inland, the last remnants of the Julnir Mountain Range were still visible, but almost all of the land was flat and level, and soon the mountains were completely out of sight.

Even as Pyxis enjoyed the beautiful scenery far below, she also took the time to admire an attractive sight which was much closer--her expedition partner. Pyxis was flying behind Nerlin's left wingtip, trailing him in a wingmate position for efficiency, and every now and then we she would take a few moments to stare at her friend. Idly she wondered what mating in the air would be like--dancing through the air, locking claws and going belly to belly. Or would Nerlin have to sort of fly behind her, and attempt to twist his body around and under hers?

Pyxis felt a tinge of arousal just at the thought, but she dismissed the idea and pumped her wings to keep flying. She hadn't even mated with Nerlin on the ground! Trying to execute a complex manoeuvre in the air was overly ambitious. Or was it? Pyxis contemplated bringing this topic up with Nerlin to get his opinion, but then he suddenly spoke up first.

"There! There it is. You see it?" Nerlin changed heading so they were flying inland and slightly away from the coast, and then Pyxis spotted what he was talking about. In the far distance, a cluster of boxy shapes was on the ground next to a large body of water, partially obscured by a low-lying fog.

Pyxis triggered her farsight. Inside her eyes, natural lenses slid down into position, followed by transparent eyelids which combined to magnify her vision. This let her take a closer look which revealed the boxy shapes for what they were--buildings. It was an Outer Colony.

"That's Tris," Nerlin continued, mentioning the name of both the lake, and the drakken settlement which was next to it.

A thick fog covered much of Lake Tris and part of the similarly named village. As the fog shifted, Pyxis could just barely make out the sight of a dragon walking from one boxy building to another. The buildings looked tiny at such a great distance, but as they approached, Pyxis realized that the buildings were genuinely small. Compared to Avaeria's dense, heavily-packed architecture with numerous tall skyscrapers of stone and glass, the buildings of Tris were tiny. Most of them were one-level, or at most two-level structures, and some of them even appeared to be constructed from wood. They all had the same boxy cuboidal style, though every building was unique.

But of course, the requirements for the Outer Colonies were very different from that of the City of Wings. As a flying city, Avaeria's space was at an extreme premium and buildings were usually very tall. In comparison, Tris was a ground level settlement where buildings could be spread out and built out of weaker materials like wood or sheet metal, not something like stone or reinforced concrete that would require the expertise of a construction team of rockshifter affinity dragons.

"Should we go check it out?" Nerlin asked.

"But we only just started flying. Do we want to stop so soon?" Pyxis replied.

"We'll be coming across more Outer Colonies on our way, like Maringe Harbour, so we don't have to visit Tris," Nerlin said. "But then again, we're not in a rush to get back to Avaeria."

"That's true. Alright! Let's go see the place!" Pyxis agreed.

As they approached, the fog would occasionally clear in parts, letting them see the full extent of the village. Tris was made up of several dozen small buildings, most of which appeared to be houses. Several short floating docks stretched out into the lake, with fishing nets tied to the ends. A dragon was swimming out on the lake, cutting through the water with such speed that at first Pyxis thought that they were flying. But no, it was a just a dragon with water affinity using their magic to propel themselves through the water with great speed.

Coming in for a landing, Nerlin aimed towards an open field just to the east of the village. As they touched down one after the other, no one came out to challenge or greet the two young dragons. Compared to the densely-packed areas of Avaeria where dragons were numerous, Tris seemed quiet and almost deserted.

Pyxis folded in her wings and took a breath of the moist, foggy air that was rolling off the lake. "This is Tris," she murmured. The grass beneath her paws was moist with dew.

"Yeah. Have you ever been to an Outer Colony before?" Nerlin asked.

"I've been to Diracore Quarry, but that's a much bigger settlement." Pyxis hesitantly nodded towards Tris. "Shall we go take a look?"

"Alright." Side by side, the two dragons walked towards the village.

From up close, Tris had a distinctive feel of simple peacefulness. Some of the houses had tendrils of smoke slowly rising up from chimneys, and through the windows Pyxis would occasionally see movement inside the buildings, but everything was quiet and calm. A pair of small black birds flitted from rooftop to rooftop, chirping their songs to each other.

"It's so quiet here. Where is everyone?" Pyxis said, in a voice that was almost a whisper. The atmosphere of Tris just seemed to encourage being quiet and solemn. The streets were unpaved dirt which made no sound under their paws, and the foggy air seemed to absorb and dampen all noise.

"Do you know much about the Outer Colonies?" Nerlin asked.

Pyxis made a hesitant shrug of her wings. "My clan's business involves Avaeria's mineral processing supply chain. So I know a bit about how the Outer Colonies work, although that's more of the central outposts like Northpass, Grendium, or Diracore Quarry. Those are the bigger outposts which supply resources to Avaeria--ore and crops--the sort of things which the city can't produce on its own."

Nerlin nodded. "Exactly. Whereas Tris is a small fishing village, and I'm guessing they don't send much fish to Avaeria. Maringe Harbour is the main settlement responsible for exporting fish to the city." Nerlin gestured around the foggy town. "Tris is a tiny settlement. They don't have much to do with Avaeria, and we don't have much to do with them."

They continued walking through the village, heading to the shore of the lake. "Do you know much about the Outer Colonies?" Pyxis asked.

"I'm not an expert at all, but I have read a bit about the Outer Colonies, especially the Aquatic Communities. I have a friend who left to go live in Abyssal." Nerlin said. "Have you heard about the Aquatic Communities?"

"Uh, I've heard that phrase before. I think there was a brief mention in history class?"

"Oh ho, finally something I know which you don't." Nerlin grinned. "The Outer Colonies are divided into two different categories--the first type are supply outposts with farms, mines, and other resources which the city needs. If you trace out Avaeria's flight plan, the city is usually bouncing back and forth between these resource locations, along with intercepting thunderstorms from the Glassy Sea for their energy, of course. But the other type of Outer Colonies are the independent settlements, which don't provide much for the city and live mostly on their own. Those are usually next to lakes, rivers, or the ocean."

"So that's why they are called the Aquatic Communities," Pyxis said.

"Exactly. Where water affinity dragons can use their magic properly--diving, swimming, and doing things they can't do in the city. Hunting for fish when they're hungry, and roaming the open wildlands. No hustle and bustle, just quiet wilderness and a close community."

"Maybe you'll end up getting water magic. Could you see yourself living out here by the lakeside?" Pyxis replied, playfully nudging Nerlin's side.

Nerlin snorted. "It's peaceful here, but it's... I don't know. It's not the sort of place I would live in. Tris seems too quiet. I might enjoy a short vacation here, but I wouldn't live here."

By now they were just about coming to the edge of the lake. The hardened dirt paths gave way to a gravel beach, where small waves were gently lapping at the shoreline. The fog was still thick over the water, and a long wooden dock extended out into the lake.

Pyxis sat down on the beach and stared out over the water. Nerlin sat down beside her, and they both just enjoyed the calm.

After a few minutes of quiet, a dragon came out of the fog, swimming through the lake. The water was smoothly rippling around her as she used her water magic to propel herself forward. It was an older drakka with scales of a dulled greenish-grey, and she had a large fish in her jaws that was still flopping. Stepping out of the water and onto the beach, the drakka nodded her head to Pyxis and Nerlin. "Good morning. I haven't seen you two youngsters before."

"Good morning," Nerlin replied. "We're just visiting Tris and seeing the village."

"It's a good place. If you like eating fish, of course. It's good fish, but there's nothing but fish," said the drakka. The large fish in her jaws flopped again, so the drakka shifted her jaws to grab the fish by its tail and she slapped it against the ground. "And where are you two from? The City of Wings, I assume? You look like city dragons."

"We're from Avaeria," Nerlin confirmed. Pyxis nodded her head.

"Of course you are. Tourists, I suppose. I'd love to sit and chat, but I have a hungry hatchling waiting for breakfast. Have a nice life!" Carrying her fish, the older drakka trotted off, leaving Nerlin and Pyxis all alone again. Though they continued sitting at the lake side, nothing else happened.

"So this is Tris. Just a quiet, foggy little fishing village," Nerlin said after a while. "Shall we continue flying?"

Pyxis nodded. "I suppose there isn't much to do here. Unless you like fishing. Or swimming. Do you want a swim?"

"Not really."

"Me neither. Alright, let's fly." Pyxis flipped her wings open and ran down the short incline leading to the lake, but her wings caught the air before she reached the water, and she took to the skies. Nerlin was right behind her, and together they flew out over the lake. With each wingbeat they left ripples in the calm water, until they climbed upwards and away from Tris.

Pyxis glanced to her expedition partner, who now had his map out again. "Ok, Lake Tris. Nice place, very scenic, not much to do. Let's move on. According to our plan we should continue heading south along the coastline until we reach another settlement. Next up should be... Maringe Harbour by the end of the day, then tomorrow we'll turn eastwards and hit the central flyways."

"Onwards," Pyxis agreed.

Over the course of the next few hours, they continued to head southwards, and signs of drakken civilization grew increasingly obvious as they kept flying. There flew by farming homesteads with huge fields of crops or herd of countless animals, and every hour or so they would fly past a proper village on the size of Tris. At the coast, they flew by working lighthouses with their beacons lit and spinning around, not abandoned like the lighthouse they'd slept in last night.

Even the wilderness stopped being so wild as Nerlin and Pyxis flew towards civilization--random hilltops would have a flag pole on their tops, just to indicate the wind conditions there. What might seem like a natural river bend from afar would be revealed as a dams or dyke up close, regulating water flow and redirecting it towards nearby farms. From high up in the sky, they saw orchards and vineyards, mines and quarries. Rows of trees and plants, and deep holes in the ground.

Nerlin found it fascinating to see all these different types of settlements. It was very different out here, seeing how people lived away from the bustle of the city. Avaeria relied on the fruits, vegetables, meat, metals, stone, and all manner of resources from these Outer Colonies, but this was Nerlin's first time seeing all these goods as they were produced. He and Pyxis would occasionally land at a settlement just to take a look, or sometimes even to chat with the drakken who lived on a farmstead, and he found it a truly interesting experience. Most of the drakken they encountered were very friendly--quick to give a welcome, and happy to show off their homes.

Pyxis commented on this in the afternoon, after they'd just met a farmer who'd happily offered them apples from his orchard. "Everyone we've met has been so nice and friendly! From the way people talk in Avaeria, I was expecting more hostility in the Outer Colonies."

"When people think about non-city dragons as being unfriendly, that's because they're thinking only about the Aquatic Communities, where the dragons don't associate much with the city. On the contrary, supply colonies are usually run by people with strong clan ties to the city."

"Oh, that's true! My clan has contacts with Diracore Quarry," Pyxis said.

Nerlin was flying just behind. "Exactly. It's a symbiosis. Avaeria relies on the supply colonies and the supply colonies rely on Avaeria. But then there are the Aquatic Communities where water affinity dragons go so they can use their power--most of them are friendly too, but some are a bit more...independent. Some of those wavebreaker dragons love their independence from the city. Have you ever heard of Abyssal? It's an underwater colony on the seabed, inhabited exclusively by water affinity dragons. They use their magic to breathe underwater, living completely independent from Avaeria."

"What makes water affinity dragons--wavebreakers--so special?" Pyxis asked. "I thought it was just another type of magic, like frostbreath, stone affinity, or healing?"

"It is just another type of magic, except that you can't use really water affinity in the city. Think about it--you're a frostbreather and you can always just use your magic whenever, right?" Nerlin said, to which Pyxis blew out a quick puff of frostbreath to demonstrate.

"Yes?"

"Haha, my point exactly," Nerlin continued. "Same with stone affinity, or healing, or whatever--as a frostbreather, you can use your frost affinity to its fullest in the city. But as a wavebreaker, you would need water to use your affinity. I have an older friend who's a wavebreaker; he can pull the water out of a cup and make it dance, but that's nothing compared to what he can do when immersed."

"There are swimming pools in the city."

"Those are tiny compared to a proper lake, or the ocean. I mean, just look at the ocean and think about how big it is! And if you were a wavebreaker, you could use your affinity and swim wherever you want. Did you see back at Lake Tris--that wavebreaker swimming across the lake--how fast she was going? That's water magic. It's the freedom to cross the seas, swim up rivers, and dive to the ocean depths. Would you be happy swimming in a pool? It would be like flying in closed room."

Pyxis nodded, acknowledging this was true. "Fair enough. I guess we'll see when we get to Maringe Harbour."

They paused for lunch when Pyxis fortuitously happened to spot a deer. A sudden flash of motion made her glance downwards, and she quickly identified it as a buck bouncing through the forest "Oh hey, look! It's a deer," she said to Nerlin, to which he immediately folded his wings shut and went into an attack dive.

"Oh! Well, uh... Ok then," Pyxis murmured to herself. She circled around and watched as Nerlin swooped swiftly down with great speed, then she tilted her wings and entered into a slow descent.

A few minutes later, Pyxis landed beside Nerlin with a gentle flutter of her wings. Her expedition partner was standing proudly over the slain deer, with blood staining his muzzle. "I got it. I got it!" Nerlin triumphantly declared, tapping his paw on the freshly-hunted deer.

"Hmm." Pyxis peered amusedly at the deer, then nodded. "Yes, you sure did! I guess this means we're stopping for lunch."

"Did you not want to? When you pointed out the deer I thought you wanted me to, umm, catch it," Nerlin said. He looked embarrassed, which made Pyxis snigger. She leaned in and licked the side of Nerlin's snout, and she could taste some of the deer's blood on his muzzle.

"Hahah. You're the best, you know that? I just point my paw and you--" Pyxis made a thumping noise by slapping her tail against the grass. "--just go like that. Haha, that was such a fast dive. Impressive."

"Yeah, let's eat." The two young dragons began tearing at the carcass and eating the meat. As they were eating, Pyxis saw Nerlin reach up to his own head and rub his horns.

"What are you thinking about?" Pyxis asked.

Nerlin pointed towards the deer's head--the animal had been an old buck in the middle of shedding, with only one antler instead of two. "I was just imagining what it would be like if dragons shed their horns instead of having them grow continuously. Can you imagine that? Or what if we... we butted heads to compete for mates or something silly like that. Like deer do with their antlers."

Pyxis licked her paw clean and rubbed the top of her head, feeling the sensitive membrane of her neck frill and the dull bumps at the back of her skull which would have been where her horns would have grown if she'd possessed the genetic trait for it. However, horns weren't a common trait in her family. As far as Pyxis could remember, one of her grandmothers was her closest relation who had such a trait.

Pyxis stared at Nerlin's horns even as he continued to tear strips of meat off the deer's carcass. From young she had never been particular fond of dragons with horns, but now she found herself admiring Nerlin for it. His horns pointed backwards from the top of his head with a slight rearwards curve. Overall they weren't very long, but they were a nice medium size and gave his head a nice shape. Having horns was a complex recessive trait, so Pyxis suspected there was the chance she carried some of the genes necessary. As such, theoretically if she had a hatchling with Nerlin, there was a chance that their offspring might have horns. Not that Pyxis was planning to have a child anytime within the next decade or two. She shook her head and went back to eating the deer.

After their impromptu lunch stop, the two young dragons climbed up to a short hill nearby and sat under the shade of a large tree to give some time for their stomachs to digest the meal. Nerlin unfurled his wing and put it around Pyxis's back, and she snuggled against his side comfortably. The sky was partially cloudy, and the hill gave them a good view of the surrounding countryside. The ocean was still visible just over another hill to the west, though rolling grassy plains and long stretches of woodland took up most of the land now.

In the distance, Pyxis spotted something up in the sky, moving between clouds. At first she thought they were dragons, but triggering her farsight revealed that they were actually airships--transport craft like Majestic, presumably carrying supplies or passengers to and fro destinations. "Look, it's an airship convoy," she said, raising a paw to point.

Nerlin followed the gesture, turning his head to look. "Oh, yeah! How many are there? I see...three? No, four?"

"Five. The one in front just went behind a cloud. If we're seeing airship convoys, that really means we're getting close to the central regions. Only the heavily populated colonies need convoys of airships," Pyxis said.

Shifting his weight slightly, Nerlin opened his flight harness's chest pouch and took out his expedition map. "Those airships must be heading to Maringe Harbour, I assume."

"Must be. Just like us," Pyxis replied. She leaned into Nerlin's side and enjoyed the cuddly warmth. "Hmm, I feel like taking a nap, but if I go to sleep I'll end up sleeping too long. So we'll just wait here for a little bit and let the food digest. Maybe...half an hour, then we fly again?"

Nerlin affectionately licked the side of Pyxis's snout. "Sounds good to me." He curled his tail and entwined it with Pyxis, and they spent the next few minutes quietly enjoying the cool afternoon breeze and the warmth of the sun.

Far in the distance, the airship convoy continued making its way slowly across the sky. By the time the metal airships had passed out of sight, the two young dragons were ready to continue their journey.

Pyxis and Nerlin flew onwards, and soon enough the airship convoy came back into view. The airships were flying on a steady course, all identical models going in a straight line southwest. Just like Majestic (the airship which had carried them out for the survival expedition) these airships were large and elliptical-shaped with fins jutting out at regular distances along their angular metal hulls. Pyxis and Nerlin didn't get too close to the massive craft, although they were close enough to make out the names and clan insignias painted on every one of the five airships' sides.

"Hey, Nerlin! Can you see the wording on those airships?" Pyxis asked, as the two young dragons slowed their flight and briefly flew in parallel with the convoy line.

Nerlin squinted at convoy. "I can see some of the names. The closest one looks to be...Mintaka Recursive Grey, and that one is Mintaka Cottonside. Why?"

"Just curious," Pyxis replied. The two dragons sped up their flight, swiftly overtaking the airships and leaving them behind. "The third one is...Mintaka Excedia," Pyxis said.

"Looks like they're all Mintaka airships. I've seen Jarzyl wear her wing pennants enough times to recognize her clan's insignia," Nerlin said.

"No surprise there. Almost all airships are run by one the big five clans, and it's usually Mintaka or Taslin. So Nerlin, you're from clan Erkotas, right? Which of the five is _your_clan allied with?" Pyxis asked.

"Strictly speaking, our clan runs neutral in general council votes. But unofficially we tend to side with Hasilt," Nerlin replied, briefly thinking about the complex politics which ran Avaeria. Every dragon had a clan, and clans had wingleaders who voted on important matters in accordance with the wishes of their members. Since a clan's size was directly proportional to its decision making power, the majority of dragons in the city belonged to one of five major clans which each had tremendous influence. Smaller clans usually allied themselves with one of the five major clans, throwing their smaller but still significant weight behind the clan which most closely aligned with their interests. Nerlin wasn't particularly interested in politics, but he was interested in Pyxis. "What about your clan?" he asked her.

"I'm from Regil. As I said--my clan works in the mineral refining supply chain. Which of the big five clans do you think we're allied with? Guess!" Pyxis suggested.

"Mintaka, Taslin, Dirak, Hasilt, Krin. It must be, uh..." Nerlin thought about this. "Mintaka and Taslin control the airships, and they handle trade between the Outer Colonies and Avaeria. One of those?"

Pyxis did a quick loop, spinning her wings to invert herself briefly. "Nope. Hint--remember how I said we have contacts in Diracore Quarry?"

It took a moment for Nerlin to understand. "Oh, right! Diracore Quarry. Run by Dirak clan."

"Indeed." Pyxis playfully spat a puff of frostbreath at Nerlin, creating a cloud which he flew through effortlessly. "I am a proud frostbreather of clan Regil, which is under banner alliance with clan Dirak. Isn't politics great?"

"Not really." Nerlin glanced over his shoulder, looking back towards the slow airships which they were leaving behind. "So you know a bit about the Outer Colonies supply chain, yes? Do you know where those airships came from?"

"Well they're almost certainly headed towards Maringe Harbour just like us, because its location makes it the major trading hub for the western coastal outposts. Mintaka airships could be carrying anything because that clan is so big, but I'm guessing that convoy is carrying lumber from Grendium."

"Maybe we should have gone to visit Grendium. I heard it's a real sight, the sort of things they're doing there," Nerlin said.

"Grendium--home of the hypertrees! Why dig up stone when you can try to persuade a tree to grow for you?" Pyxis laughed. "Hah, but who knows. Supposedly the trees in the High Forest of Grendium grow tall enough to reach into the clouds, and so big you could fly circles around their trunks. Where the air is warm and so moist that it gets hard to breathe...or so I've read."

"Unique a place as it is, Grendium would have been quite a detour--the Julnir mountains were in the way." Nerlin took out his expedition map and briefly glanced at it. "Two more nights, and we should be back in Avaeria. We can rest in Maringe Harbour tonight, then tomorrow we'll be on the central flyways."

As their journey continued, the airship convoy gradually disappeared into the distance behind them.

Finally just a few hours before sunset, Maringe came into view. The settlement was much bigger than Tris, with hundreds (or possibly thousands) of small to large sized buildings arranged in semi-neat rows.

The Julnir Mountains had been raw, natural beauty untouched by civilization, and Tris had been a quiet fishing village which smoothly blended into nature, but Maringe Harbour was a chaotic mess where dragons had made their mark on the world.

From the sky, Pyxis could see large market squares filled with trading stands, amd numerous dragons wandering all around. Even from the air, they could hear the sound of the crowd, supplemented by buskers playing their instruments--wingharps, drums, bells, and even more.

No question about it now--they were back in drakken civilization. Maringe was far smaller than Avaeria, but it was still a large sprawling mess of buildings and roads. The settlement was in the crook of hilly terrain which surrounded it on several sides, with buildings haphazardly scattered on the flat terrain and also up and down the gentle hill slopes. Several airships were landed up on the top of the hills, their landing gear extended and their ramps lowered to load or unload cargo. Pyxis counted eight different airships sitting on the hills, and she wondered what they'd carried--was it cargo for trade, or was it mostly passengers visiting from the city? Dragons could fly twice as fast as airships, but going on a vacation was about leisure, not speed.

Out towards the Glassy Sea was Maringe Harbour. The coast curved in a crescent shape, forming a natural harbour. The settlement of Maringe continued out onto the ocean, with a half-dozen huge piers stretched out far onto the water over the harbour. There were whole buildings constructed on pylons driven into the ocean floor, or even just placed on pontoons which bobbed in the waves, floating over the deep, dark water. The piers served as the equivalent of roads and connected the various buildings built above the water.

Pyxis grinned excitedly as they slowly circled the settlement, observing it from the air. She adjusted the timing of her wingbeats, making her strokes in time with the rhythmic beat of music echoing up from the marketplace. "Wow, this place is loud!" she yelled, raising her voice to be audible over the sound of music and chatter.

Nerlin laughed too. "Hah. I've been here before, vacationing with my family. Trust me--it's just as loud up close."

Swooping down, the two dragons landed in a streetway which was less crowded. Pyxis felt her claws click against the ground; whereas Avaeria's streets were made from magic-smoothened stone, and Tris's streets had been simple dirt pathways, the streets in Maringe were made from numerous grey-coloured bricks arranged in lines.

"Alright! So this is the famous Maringe Harbour." Pyxis glanced around. "I've heard it was a noisy, messy, uncivilized place."

"An accurate description!" Sitting back on his haunches, Nerlin unclipped the drinking tube from his own flight harness and had a sip of water. "Maringe Harbour is great if you like carnivals, parties, and lounging on the beach. This place is for those who think Avaeria is too boring with all its rules and laws, but who still enjoy the comforts of civilization."

Pyxis also had a drink of water from her own water pack. "When you say it like that, you make this places sound lawless and dangerous..."

Nerlin clipped his drinking tube back to his flight harness's shoulder strap. "We're not in the wild anymore, but that doesn't mean this town isn't wild. Who knows what naughty things could happen?" He grinned at Pyxis and winked at her in a casual, yet confidently attractive way which made Pyxis's neck frill perk up.

"Oh, you... you! Yes..." Pyxis tried to come up with a witty, preferably flirtatious retort, but her verbal creativity failed her at that moment, and all she was left with was a dumb grin crossing her snout. "I mean... no? I hope no naughty things happen to us, like getting robbed."

Nerlin chuckled. "Haha. We won't get robbed! I hope."

"I hope so too," Pyxis agreed. She shifted her weight from paw to paw, feeling the mass of her harness weighing down her body. "So now what? Our plan was to spend the night here, right? Should we go find an inn, or should we find a place outside town to set up camp?"

"We've already slept out in the forest, and then in an abandoned lighthouse. I vote for sleeping on a proper bed tonight, not just a sleeping bag. After all, this is a proper town," Nerlin said.

"Sounds good to me."

They began walking through the town of Maringe, looking for an inn to stay in. Pyxis glanced from building to building, fascinated by the sights. The street they had landed in was a residential area filled with a long terraced row of houses side by side. Each house seemed surprisingly large, but Pyxis realized this was because she was used to comparing things to Avaeria. Living in a flying city, the heavy requirements on space and weight made big houses prohibitively expensive. In comparison, a town built on the ground would have no such limitations against building a larger home.

At the end of the street, they turned down the road and entered a row of shops. This street had restaurants and cafes, shops filled with all manner of trade goods, and numerous other types of businesses. Compared to the rural simplicity of Tris where almost every building stood alone and looked like someone's home, Maringe resembled a slice of the city with rows of buildings connected by streets, with all its urban commerce, comforts, and services. There was an auction store for antiques, spas to get your scales polished and your claws trimmed, tailors who would make flight harnesses, carts filled with snacks and drinks, buskers playing their instruments or performing tricks, and of course, a large crowd of dragons wandering around, browsing or moving from point to point.

As they were walking down the street, Pyxis spotted a drakka wearing wing pennants and a flight harness styled with a familiar grey-white striped design. "Oh, look--it's an enforcer," Pyxis said, nudging Nerlin's side.

"Hm?" Nerlin glanced over. "Why do you sound surprised? Did you literally think Maringe was a lawless free-for-all? Enforcement Division runs security here, just like how Transportation Division oversees the airships. Same as in Avaeria."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense," Pyxis conceded. And to be honest, if Pyxis hadn't known where she was, she could easily have been convinced that she was back in the city. It was quite a contrast to the quiet wilderness solitude they'd been experiencing in the past few days. There were numerous dragons wandering around the street--Pyxis wondered how many of them were residents living in Maringe, and how many were just visiting from elsewhere. Back in Avaeria, Maringe was one of the top destinations for dragons looking to leave the city for a vacation.

As the two young dragons reached the end of this shopping street, they found themselves at the top of a small hill. Pyxis reared up on her hindlegs and stretched her neck to look around. A signpost helpfully pointed the way to numerous points of interest--that way to the airship landing zones, that way to the beachfront, that way to the visitor centre, and so on.

Nerlin gently tugged on Pyxis's tail to get her attention. "This way. I think I saw an inn from the air while we were flying in--it was this big building on the beachfront, with the roof marked to make it visible from the air."

"Ok." Pyxis trotted after Nerlin, sticking to his side. She felt strangely out of her element here in this new unknown place, somehow more so than being out in the wilderness. After just a few days all alone with no one but Nerlin, she felt self-conscious being surrounded by all these strange dragons she did not know. It was odd! Maringe was no more crowded than Avaeria, yet there was some subtle element about it which made Pyxis feel like an outsider. She felt like a visitor--a tourist who had come from afar to gawk at the sights--and this was arguably an accurate description.

As she was walking, Pyxis felt the bricks beneath her paws. The material felt like stone, but slightly softer than the magic-hardened stone used in the city. Walking up to a nearby building, Pyxis saw that the buildings in Maringe were all made from bricks of this same material, though they were dyed with different colours. "Everything's made from this stone."

"It's clay, dredged from the harbour and the nearby rivers," Nerlin explained.

After a few more minutes of wandering, the two young dragons managed to find the inn Nerlin had spotted as they'd been flying in. The inn was a large, multi-storey building located on the seafront, facing out towards a portion of the beach which was in between the piers. At each pier there were numerous floating or anchored structures, but here the ocean was allowed to splash against the shore unhindered.

Pyxis took a few steps out until she was standing on the beach. Here the clay bricks which made up Maringe's roads gave way to natural sand, though she could still see mineral clay in the sand.

"It's the ocean..." The abandoned lighthouse they'd stayed in last night had been high up on a cliff, but here they were right up at the ocean. The Glassy Sea was just a short distance away, and suddenly Pyxis felt a desire to run down the beach and get her paws wet in the waves. There was dozens of dragons lounging around on the beach--some were sunning themselves lazily on mats, others were swimming in the water, and several younger hatchlings were using buckets and spades to either build a sandcastle or bury each other.

Nerlin gently tugged on Pyxis's tail, pulling her attention back around. "Do you want to go to the beach? You can leave your flight harness with me, and I can find us a room at the inn."

"No, no. Let's find accommodation first, then we can think about what we're going to do afterwards." Pyxis glanced up to the sky, checking the position of the sun. Although she had a clockwork pocket watch in one of her flight harness pouches, she had not yet adjusted it to correct for the distance they'd flown. Looking up at the sky was the simplest way to tell what time it was--based on the location of the sun, it was mid-afternoon and they had about three to four hours before sunset.

A sign outside the inn gave its name as The Maringe Nitel Inn. Just like most every building in Maringe and the roads too, the inn was built from clay bricks. It was a five-story rectangular building, with the longer side facing out towards the sea and covered by individual balconies belonging to rooms of the inn. Large open windows allowed sunlight and wind into the building's front lobby, and a small bell mounted on the door jingled as the two young dragons stepped in. As they entered the establishment, Pyxis carefully wiped her paws on the floor mat placed in front of the door, cleaning off the sand and dirt from her paw pads.

The interior of the lobby was clean and neatly decorated, furnished with seating mats for waiting dragons, and a wall filled with information pamphlets about Maringe. Nerlin and Pyxis walked up to the front desk, which was staffed by a middle aged dragon wearing a pair of pennants (triangular fabric flags which were tied around the tips of her wings) which were dyed black and labelled with fancy silver embroidery which carried the Nitel clan insignia. The receptionist was using a metal file to grind and trim her claws, but she retracted her claws and smoothly put away the file as the two young dragons approached.

"Good afternoon, welcome to The Maringe Nitel Inn. How can I help?" said the receptionist, bowing her head politely.

Nerlin bowed his head smoothly, while Pyxis make an awkward bob of her head. "Um... We could... We need to rent a room for tonight," Pyxis said.

"Certainly. How many people do you need accommodations for?"

"Just the two of us," Pyxis said.

"Alright. Let's see here," said the receptionist. She reached for a document folder and dipped the tip of her own tail in an ink pot, using it as a brush to write in the listing. "How many nights are you staying?"

"Just tonight," Pyxis replied. While she was speaking with the receptionist, Nerlin trotted over to the wall and took a few pamphlets which gave information about the town and its various attractions.

"Sure thing." The receptionist gestured towards a sign on the wall which listed the various prices for different sizes of room. "These are our prices here on a per night basis, all inclusive of breakfast."

Pyxis looked over the prices. Since it was just the two of them, they could take the smallest room, and the price seemed reasonable. It wasn't cheap, but it was much cheaper compared to the prices of housing in Avaeria, where homes were so expensive that young drakken often continued to stay with their parents, family, or clans even after reaching adulthood, because buying your own home was such a major investment.

Nerlin was still looking at pamphlets. Taking a few steps to the side, Pyxis stretched out her tail so she could poke Nerlin's side. "We split the cost of the room evenly? I was thinking we take the smallest room cause it's just the two of us. Is that price alright with you?"

Nerlin put away a few pamphlets into his flight harness, then he looked over the prices and nodded. "Yeah, that's fine. It's a nice price. Not too expensive to be absurd, but not too cheap where I worry that about the standard of the room."

Pyxis turned back to the receptionist. "Ok, we'll take the standard room."

"Sure thing. Do you want two separate beds, or a single double-sized bed?"

"Uh..." Pyxis glanced to Nerlin.

"Oh, one bed, definitely!" Nerlin replied confidently. He gave Pyxis a faintly suggestive grin which made her neck frill perk up.

The receptionist nodded indifferently. "Alright, that's fine. If you two are the occupants, I'll need to get your names and clans for the record."

"Pyxis, of clan Regil."

"And you?"

"Nerlin, Erkotas."

The receptionist's tail smoothly darted across the paper, jotting down their names. "Alright. For a one day stay, this establishment requires full payment upfront unless you have membership with Nitel, Sraldin, the five major clans, or certain related affiliate clans."

"The five major clans...? Does a banner alliance with Dirak count?" Pyxis asked.

"Dominion alliances--yes. Banner alliances--maybe. Let me just check for you." The receptionist took out a second document folder and flipped through it. "Your clan was Regil, correct? That is... Yes, Regil is here under the deposit exemption listing. I need you to identify with your clan insignia to make it official, and then give me one of your loose scales to seal the transaction."

Pyxis sat back on her haunches and reached for her left shoulder pouch. She took out a wing pennant and tied the flag loosely around her wingtip, then she showed the pennant to the receptionist, displaying the insignia of her clan--Regil.

This was all standard procedure, and these sorts of arrangements were a common practice from the City of Wings. A dragon's clan was more than just their friends and family; clans controlled businesses, and even the simple business transaction of renting a inn room was affected by your clan membership.

Nitel--the clan that ran the Maringe Nitel Inn--evidently had sought out an agreement with certain trusted clans. The inn's policy was that members of this preferential group would be trusted enough that Nitel (and their inn) did not require payment upfront or a deposit. The reason for this being simple--if you abused this privilege, Nitel would come after your clan instead, and your clan would come after you.

By wearing her wing pennant, Pyxis was formally associating herself with clan Regil--which she could do as a rightful member of the clan, which she had belonged in ever since her egg had been laid.

But if any dragon fraudulently claimed to be associated with a clan which they were not a member of, and that clan found out about it, that clan would be free to hunt the fraudster down and extract due punishment. And with the very largest clans (the big five) having membership numbers of more than ten percent of the drakken population each, it meant you would be making an enormous number of enemies at once. Once upon a time, clans had been nothing more than just simple tribal divisions, but now they were serious business--they were the corporate and social building blocks of drakken society.

The receptionist compared Pyxis's wing pennant against a printed version of the Regil clan insignia which was in her document folder, and then gave a nod of approval. "And one of your scales?" she prompted.

Pyxis ran her paws over herself, searching for a scale which was older and on the verge of being shed. As with any dragon, her whole body was covered in numerous scale plates of various sizes. Scales were hexagonal-shaped, smooth, lined up in neat tessellating rows, and they were not inert body parts. Just like horns, claws, or a neck frill, a dragon's scales contained living tissue. Each scale had a tiny network of blood vessels and nerves to sense physical contact or the movement of air in flight, and they were always in the process of growing out and being shed, after which a new scale would rapidly grow in.

Pyxis found a small scale on her right haunch that seemed numb to the touch, meaning that it was old and soon to be naturally discarded. She used her claws to pick at the scale and pluck it off--this action caused a small drop of bleeding, but only a tiny prick of pain, meaning that she'd correctly chosen an old scale. The scale was a small hexagonal plate about half the size of her palm, and like any other scale it was thin as paper, fully rigid, but also incredibly lightweight.

Handing the scale over to the receptionist sealed their business arrangement. This was how a business or service contract was enforced--you had to associate yourself with your clan, and your clan would come after you if you violated the contract or acted in an objectionable manner. But if a dragon falsely claimed membership of a clan they did not belong to, then the clan would have their scale to identify and track them down. The requirement was for a dragon to pluck one of their scales and have that tiny bit of blood proving that it was one of their scales and not someone else's. It wasn't absolutely impossible to cheat, but this sort of arrangement was an old and reasonably effective tradition which had yet to be replaced.

The receptionist took Pyxis's scale, carefully holding it so she didn't touch the spot of blood which marked where the scale had been attached to skin. She put the scale in a small wax-lined envelope and used an ink stamp to label and seal the envelope, before sliding it into a desk drawer. "Very well. For a double bed in a single room, we have rooms available on the second, third, and fifth floors. Do you have any preference?"

Pyxis glanced again to Nerlin, but he shrugged indifferently. "Your choice," said the red-scaled drake.

"Ok. Let's go with the fifth floor," Pyxis decided.

The receptionist nodded and placed a pair of keys with lanyards on the desk. "Excellent. These are your keys. Your room is ready now, and you can head up at your convenience. Breakfast service tomorrow starts one hour before dawn, and check out is by midday. Our restaurant is also open for lunch and dinner, and we offer a discount to those renting rooms if you show that key to the waiter. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Nerlin took one key and hung it around his neck using the cloth lanyard. He passed the other key to Pyxis. "I think that's all, thank you."

"Enjoy your stay!"

"Now this is how an adventure should be done." Pyxis sprawled out on the large bed set in the middle of their room and let out a pleased hum. "Hmmmrrr... Everything is exciting and novel, but comfortable."

Their inn room was reasonably sized, clean, and well-furnished, which was just about everything they could have asked for. The only inconvenience was having to climb up five stories worth of stairs, but this provided other benefits--being higher gave a better view over the beachfront, and it also meant that they could jump off the balcony and straight into flight, saving energy instead of having to gain altitude from a ground-level takeoff.

Nerlin used the key tied around his neck to open the balcony doors, and a cool afternoon breeze washed into the room, smelling of salt and the sea. "This is quite a different experience from living out in the wild and in sleeping bags. I'm glad we decided to chart our return journey through Maringe, not just through the wilderness all the way back to the city."

"Variety--variety is good. We saw the wilderness, and now we saw the Outer Colonies. It's good." Pyxis rolled onto her back and unfurled her wings, going completely limp as she relaxed against the big, comfortable bed. "So many ways to enjoy an adventure... This bed is lovely! Though I supposed there are some people who love just sleeping out in the wilderness and feeling tired and sore."

"Jarzyl, maybe?" Nerlin suggested, mentioning their mutual friend.

"Yeah, she seems like the sort who would like camping." Pyxis closed her eyes to relax, then changed her mind and opened her eyes again. She rolled back onto her belly and reached for the quick release catches of her flight harness. Taking her harness off, she kicked it off the bed and to the ground, before closing her eyes and relaxing again.

Pyxis felt the bed shift as Nerlin hopped up to sit down beside her. Her eyes were closed, but she felt him reach for her wingtip and untie the clan pennant still tied there. "Regil..." he murmured. "Allying with the big clans has its advantages, I suppose."

"Yep. My clan allows dual membership, and it extends membership rights to the pair-bonded mate of any member. Uh...wait..." Pyxis's voice trailed off as she thought about what she'd just said. She cracked an eye open and stared at Nerlin. "Not that I'm suggesting we enter a pair bond. Nope. That discussion can wait at least a few years, I think."

Nerlin chuckled. "Haha. Yeah, it can. No need to plan for the far future. How about we decide on something more short term, like what are we doing for the rest of the day?"

"We could go take a look around Maringe? See the shopping streets, lounge on the beach, swim in the ocean," Pyxis suggested, closing her eyes again. "Just now, I heard someone in the crowd say something about the night carnival being quite impressive."

"It is. There are lots of things to do in Maringe. Theoretically we could even spend more than one night here. We could drag out this expedition as long as we wanted," Nerlin said.

Pyxis's response was make a pleased rumble which dragged out into a purr. "Hmrrr..."

The two of them sat quietly for a moment, then Pyxis felt Nerlin poke the small spot on her right haunch where she'd plucked a scale to seal the inn room contract. Her skin was exposed without the scale plate there, and it felt sensitive.

Pyxis giggled and squirmed away from Nerlin's touch. "Oh, heheh... hey!"

"What's the matter--you ticklish there?"

"Yes! Ohh!" Pyxis's giggles became outright laughter when Nerlin grabbed her hips and pulled her close, tickling her belly instead. "Haha, hey that's... Stop, stop that's... Nerlin! Nerlin... Mmm..." Pyxis managed to get Nerlin to stop tickling her by pressing her snout against his in a kiss, letting her tongue dart out and brush against his.

Nerlin moaned as they kissed. "Mm, wait. The balcony doors are wide open. Anyone could... could see us."

"Oh, so you want to stop?" Pyxis pressed her body against Nerlin's, feeling a chill run down her spine. It felt deeply satisfying to pull him against her, feeling his warm, muscled flesh against her body. "Ok then." And then she pulled away and stopped.

Nerlin laughed again playfully. "Haha, spoilsport. Seriously though, we only have a few more hours of daylight today." He showed Pyxis a few of the information pamphlets when he'd taken from the hotel lobby; there were advertisements for stores, restaurants, and even other recreational activities. "If we want to go see the town, we should go while it's still bright."

Pyxis was tempted to reply that what she wanted most was not anything out in the town, but already right here in the room with her, and in fact lying on the bed right beside her. Then again, those were not necessarily incompatible goals, and she was entirely happy to spend time with Nerlin in any way. As fun as it was, kissing, cuddling, and other related intimate activities were not really time-limited, and could easily be scheduled later in the evening. "Yeah, let's go do something," she agreed.

While Pyxis flipped through the leaflets providing information about Maringe, Nerlin took a few minutes to reconfigure his flight harness. Now that they were out of the wild and back in civilization, what counted as necessary equipment had changed. The sleeping bags, tent, fire starters, and other survival equipment could be left here in the inn room, but now things like coins and clan identification became more practical. Having removed about half of the pouches from his flight harness, Nerlin put on his gear again. Now there was much less weight to carry.

Trotting over to the inn room's attached washroom, Nerlin rinsed out his water pack and refilled it straight from the tap. Clean drinking water was conveniently available right on demand; as mentioned in one of the information pamphlets, Maringe was much like Avaeria in that regard, with plumbing and sewage systems to pipe in clean water and take away waste. No need to fly out to a river, or use firebreath to boil water.

Yet unlike the City of Wings, Maringe had a certain historicity about it, visible even in here. On the washroom's wall, Nerlin could see how the piping system had clearly been a later addition to the building. In contrast, Avaeria's limited space and dense population meant that everything--houses, roads, schools, airship dockyards, shield spires, office towers, apartment complexes--was in a continuous state of redevelopment. Buildings weren't allowed to get old before one clan or another bought over the property and tore down the building to construct a new, bigger, better one in its place.

Nerlin snorted, mildly amused by that thought. Even if the underlying building was old, The Maringe Nitel Inn was clean and neat, and the furnishings appeared to have been renovated relatively recently. He glanced at the shower and contemplated washing himself; it had been a few days since he'd had a good proper cleaning, and a layer of dirt, grime, and even some blood from hunted prey stained his scales. But then again, going out to the beach or the town would likely get him dirty again, so a bath could wait.

When Nerlin left the washroom, he found that Pyxis had also finished reconfiguring her flight harness and was sitting by the balcony entrance, once again reading information pamphlets. Now that Pyxis's flight harness had less pouches, more of her scales were visible, and Nerlin took a moment just to admire her. It seemed impossible to disentangle the many reasons he was attracted to Pyxis--much as they had already been friends before, in the past few weeks he had really come to know and understand her. From their time in school he had already known Pyxis was very smart, and that inquisitive curiosity extended to her personal life as well. It was so easy for them to talk, to exchange views and just share their opinions. She was clever, awkward, and that way she smiled happily when she forgot to be nervous--that made Nerlin want to just run up to her and kiss her, touch her, huge her, and run his paws all over her body.

Nerlin's gaze slowly moved across Pyxis's body, taking in every scale, every curve, every detail of her from snout to tail tip. Pyxis was pretty. She seemed not to realize her own physical attractiveness, but Nerlin felt such an intense desire for her that he had never felt for anyone else. Thinking about what they'd done yesterday evening made a chill run down his spine, and he felt a tingle in his underbelly just from the idea of getting to do it again. He wanted to touch her body again, and watch as she shuddered and moaned quietly from the pleasure. More than just touching, he wanted to taste her--not just her lips and her mouth, but her genital slit too, pleasuring his partner in a way he had heard about but never tried before.

Most of all he wanted to mate with her properly, feeling that warm, wetness of her genital slit around his erect length as they cuddled against each other and thrusted like _animals_desperate to satisfy primal desires. He wanted to see her clench her paws and twitch her neck frill as simple, sexual satisfaction seized control of her body. And he wanted to hold her so close, hugging her against him and feeling all her scales rubbing against his in a delightfully intimate embrace.

Nerlin blinked and snapped his attention away from sexual fantasies. He clenched up the muscles of his underbelly just in time, halting the growth of his erection and preventing his penis from slipping out of his own genital slit. Though he wanted to mate with Pyxis, that could wait. For now, they were other things to see and do. "So where do you want to go?" he asked, walking up to the balcony, where Pyxis was sitting.

Pyxis had been chewing on the tip of her tail as she read through the information pamphlets, though she hurriedly took her tail out of her mouth as Nerlin walked up to her. "Hmm... I was thinking we could start by doing a quick flight around Maringe to get a good look at the whole town, then we could walk through the streets for a few hours. Then maybe we end of the day by going to the beach? Does that sound like a good plan to you?"

"That's fine with me," Nerlin agreed. They both stepped out onto the balcony, and Nerlin used his key to lock the balcony door behind them.

Pyxis spread her wings open and flapped them a few times. The two dragons looked to each other, nodded, and leapt into flight.

It was nice to fly with Nerlin, Pyxis reflected. He was a stronger flyer than her, and he led the way while she smoothly trailed in his wake.

Climbing out from the inn, the two dragons gained enough altitude to clear the tops of most buildings, but not too much whereby they could no longer see the ground clearly. Slowly they began to fly around Maringe, taking in the busy coastal town. Dozens of other dragons were flying around in the airspace around them--enough that Nerlin and Pyxis had to actively watch their flightpaths, but it wasn't quite at the level of congestion as the city centre in Avaeria.

They spent about half an hour slowly circling and crisscrossing Maringe, looking over the town and spotting points-of-interest from the air. As they were scouting out the place, another airship approached from the east and landed on one of the hills surrounding the town. From afar, they watched as dragons began to disembark from the airship, walking down the boarding ramp or leaping from the top deck into flight.

A few minutes later, Nerlin pointed out something to the north--the convoy of cargo airships they had passed in the morning had now reappeared in the far distance, slowly making their way towards Maringe. Beyond just airships, drakken on the wing could be seen flying in groups or individually, making their way around the town or flying into or out to other destinations. The busy inhabited regions of drakken territory were a stark contrast against the isolation and raw natural beauty of the Julnir Mountains. Here there were tourists, traders, and travelers of all kinds.

After they had seen enough of Maringe from the sky, Pyxis and Nerlin descended towards one of the more busy streets--the logic being that a crowded area was likely to be a shopping or trading area. There wasn't enough space for a landing directly in their chosen street, so they instead landed in an adjacent street which had houses and was far less crowded.

"Ok, ok. We're down." After landing, Pyxis fluttered her wings and shook them, feeling the strain in her muscles. "We've been doing so much flying these few days...more than I've ever done before. My wings are feeling sore."

Nerlin landed beside her, skipping a few steps as he cut his forward momentum. "Are you feeling tired?" he asked. "We can relax and take it easy if you want. We don't have to go out and run around exploring Maringe just because we're here."

Pyxis shook her head. "No, no. I'm good to go! I'm just thinking that I could do with a massage. There's probably a place where they do that."

"Or I could just massage you," Nerlin said, grinning suggestively.

Pyxis felt her neck frill perking up. "I'll hold you to that later! Now let's check out the street."

"Is there anything in particular you're looking for?" Nerlin asked, as they were walking towards the busy street. "From what I recall of my previous visit to Maringe, most of the shopping streets are fairly similar to each other. There are carts and stores selling trade goods from all the Outer Colonies. Things like geodes and jewels from the mining colonies, artisan leather and fabric from the farms--all sorts of stuff like that. There are even things like pearls or clamshells from the deep ocean."

"Hmm!" Pyxis made an intrigued sound, and she hopped from paw to paw excitedly. "I'm not looking for anything specific. Just anything that's interesting, maybe?" As they turned the corner and entered the shopping street, she took a deep breath. "Ooh, is there food? Something smells nice."

"There's definitely food, whether you mean food for eating later or eating right now," Nerlin replied. "Most of the vendors running their food carts are firebreathers--they can cook your food right in front of you, just like in the city. The part which is different from the city is that the seafood is freshly caught from the ocean."

"You mean that you eat the fish raw?" Pyxis wondered. She had no qualms about eating raw meat, given that they had been eating wild game for the past few days, but she felt that cooked food was easier to digest.

"You can get raw food if you want, but I think it tastes better cooked." Nerlin nodded his head in the vague direction of the hill outside Maringe where airships were landed. "Those airships that bring seafood from here to the city use frost enchantments so that the food doesn't rot. You might think that freezing doesn't affect the flavor or texture, but it absolutely does."

"Cool. Hehe." Pyxis blew a small puff of frostbreath in the air, and giggled at her own silly joke. The tiny cloud of condensation was briefly illuminated by the late afternoon sun before dissipating almost instantly. "I'll have to try the food, then. I feel like having fried fish... No, grilled."

As they walked down the street and through the crowd, Pyxis excitedly looked over all the stores and carts, where merchants were proudly hawking their wares. One merchant in particular managed to catch her attention--not because of his merchandise, but because of his appearance. The merchant was a youngish dragon, perhaps about ten years older than them, with a lanky frame and scales that were a dull bluish-green. He was slowly cooking fish fillets over a small wood-fueled grill, occasionally feeding the grill with a blast of firebreath from his jaws.

What had first caught Pyxis's attention was the merchant's long neck frill, starting from the back of his head and stretching downwards to surround his neck and touching his shoulders. Pyxis felt her own neck frill twitch from bemusement, but the more she watched, the more intrigued she got. A large neck frill was an uncommon but not unusual trait. However, the merchant's tail also looked odd as it curled behind him. Instead of narrowing to a simple tip like normal, this drake's tail had a series of large, asymmetrically-swept scale plates attached horizontally to both sides of his tail--it almost looked like there were flight scales on his tail, in addition to just on his wings.

Dragon scales were smooth, flat, rigid, hexagonal plates which were anchored to the skin on one side, meaning that they could move slightly instead of being completely fixed in position. Over most parts of the body this movement was very limited and hardly even noticeable, but not so on a dragon's wings. Dragons did not have leathery, membranous wings like bats--instead, their wings were covered in rows of scales which grew to be the largest on their body. Elsewhere scales normally grew no larger than the size of a paw pad, but flight scales could be larger than both paws put together.

These rows of flight scales had exactly one purpose--they were aerodynamic control surfaces. These large plates could be voluntarily moved up and down, or extended forward and back, changing the configuration of a dragon's wing to alter their flight profile. Extending all flight scales increased wing size, providing greater lift and drag--ideal for takeoff and landing. Or alternatively, raising flight scales on one wing while lowering them on the other wing provided a rolling motion, and so on for control of flight. All this Pyxis had learned in flight school when she'd become a fledgling many years ago. But now she saw this merchant drake with flight scales on his tail, and she found that so oddly curious that she couldn't stop staring.

Nerlin chuckled and nudged her side. "Heh. Try not to stare too hard..." he murmured.

The merchant also noticed Pyxis's attention, and he didn't hesitate to use this opportunity. "Fish for you? Delicious. Caught it myself, cooked it myself, just for you," he offered, raising a wooden skewer which had several chunks of fish and vegetables. "One stick for a hex, three sticks for two hexes. How about you get the first one for a hex, and when you agree that it is delicious, you get two more for another hex?"

Feeling hungry and enticed by the smell of the grilled fish, Pyxis agreed. "Hmm, sure!" She sat back on her haunches and reached for the harness pouch where she kept her money. Draconic currency took the form of metallic coins minted in a hexagonal shape similar to their scales--hence the name, hex. However, unlike scales, hexes had a large hole right in their middle. This hole reduced the amount of precious metal needed to mint each coin, but it also served a second purpose--a loop of string could be threaded through the middle of multiple coins to link them all together, making them much easier to carry and count. Sixteen hexes put together formed a hexstring, which was a larger unit of currency for bigger transactions.

Pyxis took out a hexstring, loosened the string line, and took out a single golden hexagonal coin to pass over to the merchant. The merchant bowed his head in thanks and placed her payment in a small metal box under his cart. "Would you like it charred?" he offered, and when Pyxis nodded, the merchant raised the skewer and blew a small jet of firebreath, which he swept across the food skewer. The sauce which was coating the fish and vegetables caught fire for a brief instant, then the merchant handed it over to Pyxis with a flourish.

Pyxis's food skewer was still smoking as she took it. As she was receiving her purchase, she noticed that the merchant's paws were odd too--at first she thought he was wearing gloves, but then she looked again. The scale plates on the merchant's paws were shaped differently, extending between his digits almost like webbing.

Pyxis took a bite of her purchased food, and a smoky, salty-sweet taste exploded in her mouth. "Mm... This is good," she mumbled, her mouth well occupied. The fish meat was flaky and flavourful, while the various chunks of vegetables provided different textures ranging from soft and leafy to a hard, satisfying crunch.

Pyxis took a few more bites, and the food was so hot inside her mouth that she blew a few small puffs of her frostbreath to cool it down. She offered the skewer to Nerlin to let him try, before changing her mind and keeping hold of it. "Here, try it! No wait, let me get you a fresh stick. I want more," she decided.

The merchant bowed his head in a slow, graceful manner, and his long neck frill rippled as he flicked it. "Delicious, yes? Two more sticks for another hex."

"I'll take them," Pyxis decided. She switched from holding the half-eaten food skewer with her paw to holding it with the dextrous tip of her tail, then she took the appropriate coinage from her flight harness and passed it over to the merchant again. He readied two more skewers, blew flames on them both, and passed them to Pyxis.

Pyxis gave one skewer to Nerlin. "Thank you very much," he said. Nerlin carefully blew on his own skewer to cool it down, though he couldn't use frostbreath like Pyxis had. Then he took a few small bite and shrugged. "Not bad."

Meanwhile, Pyxis had finished off her first skewer and had started on the second. "Not bad? This is so good... Is this what freshly caught fish tastes like? It's great."

"I assure you. I caught the fish myself this afternoon," said the merchant. Pyxis was still staring at him, looking curiously at his webbed paws, finned tail, and all his oddity. The merchant seemed amused by her gaze. "You must be a visitor to the harbour. Is this your first time seeing an aquatic dragon, or am I truly that appealing for you to look at?"

Pyxis felt her neck frill drooping slightly in embarrassment, and she glanced away towards Nerlin, who just grinned at her. "Sorry. I haven't... I've heard of aquatic dragons before, but never met one in person. I didn't mean to be rude," Pyxis said.

"I take no offence from curiosity. In fact, I welcome it." The merchant curled his tail forward and raised it, letting Pyxis see the large flight scales attached to his appendage. "I grew up in a town called Abyssal. It is located leagues away from here, deep under the ocean. There every dragon is like me, and someone like you would be an oddity. You would drown, of course, since I presume you are not a wavebreaker, and your magic does not let you breathe underwater."

Pyxis was curious, but she tried not to look too curious as she peered at the merchant's odd features. "I've heard a little bit about Abyssal before," she replied, though she didn't mention that she'd only just heard about such a place from Nerlin earlier today.

"I am a trader. I bring goods between Abyssal and Maringe, though sometimes I also catch and cook fish for extra coin," explained the aquatic dragon.

"I've... I've never seen anyone who looks like you before," Pyxis admitted, looking at the merchant's tail and his paws.

"We are as much dragons as you are, although we have... distinct features." The merchant gestured towards his eyes. "Some dragons are nocturnals, with their night eyes and their silent wings, and similarly we are aquatics, and are adapted to living in the water. Or under it."

Pyxis nodded. Back in the city where she had grown up, nocturnal dragons made up one-fifth of the population, and she had several friends who were nocturnals. They weren't a separate species--they were just a slightly different subspecies of dragon, and it made sense to compare nocturnal dragons to aquatic dragons, though she had never seen an aquatic dragon in the city.

When she mentioned this to the merchant, he shrugged his wings. "We mostly remain in our communities here. Maringe Harbour, Lake Tris, Abyssal, the Klakatarin settlement across the delta of the Julnir River, amongst others. And when we visit the City of Wings, we do try to fit in."

As the merchant explained it, his traits wouldn't be too difficult to hide if he actually tried to do so. Nocturnal dragons could not avoid the fact that they had eyes adapted from night. They needed to wear darkening lenses over their eyes during the day, and they're scales were usually duller, less vibrant colours. In contrast, the noticeable traits which gave away that this merchant was an aquatic dragon were his webbed paws and his fluked tail. Both these features which derived from modified scale plates, and scales could be trimmed. If he had carefully altered his scales and kept them trimmed to a normal length, it was possible he might be able to pass as a non-aquatic dragon, explained the merchant. "These traits help me to swim, but they aren't the best for flying."

"Wow. That's... that really weird!" Pyxis said. Realizing what she'd just said, her neck frill went flat and she could feel her scales tinting as she blushed. "Wait, no. I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean--you're different, but in an interesting way."

"We are all different, some in more ways than others," replied the merchant. He bowed his head to her and Nerlin, then he turned away as another customer came up to order food.

By now Nerlin had finished his fish and vegetable skewer, and he discarded the used wooden stick into a nearby trash bin. Pyxis had finished her first skewer and eaten half the second. She offered it to Nerlin, but he shook his head. "No thanks."

They continued walking down the street, but had to go slowly because Pyxis was still eating her food. If she held the skewer with a forepaw, then she had to trot slowly three-legged; and if she held the skewer with the tip of her tail, then she had to keep sitting down so she could curl her tail forwards to take another bite. After a minute of this awkwardness, she just sat down by the side of the road, where there was space in front of several more stores and carts. "Hang on. Let me just finish this."

"No rush," Nerlin replied. He sat down next to her, and after a moment's hesitation, entwined his tail with hers again.

A nearby busker was playing a wing harp--a musical instrument which resembled two rows of pipes, strapped onto a dragon's wings. As the busker enthusiastically flapped her wings, the airflow created melodic sounds as wind rushed through the various pipes, and by moving her flight scales she controlled the tune being played.

As the two young dragons sat together, Pyxis nodded towards several of the nearby stands which had games or activities--ring tosses, ball throwing, and other simple games for prizes. "You know, this is probably some sort of planned thing. They put the food merchants to sell food to people, then because you have to sit down and eat the food, people come over here where all the games are. It's a clever trick to get you to spend more money."

"Or maybe it's just a coincidence. No need to be so cynical about everything," Nerlin replied. "Anyhow, are you enjoying Maringe?"

Pyxis curled her tail, letting Nerlin feel her squeezing his entwined tail. "It's different! There's so many people and stores and everything, but it's different from the city. And very different from the wilderness. I just met an aquatic dragon; that was a new experience." As Pyxis looked around, she realized that aquatic dragons were far more common than she had noticed--the food merchant's tail fin scales had been very large and obviously different, but now that she was looking around at the crowd, she noticed that about a quarter of the dragons here had some sort of modified scales on their tail, marking them as at least having some aquatic ancestry.

Maringe was a town of crossroads. There were airships coming and going, and dragons flying in and out on the wing. There were merchants bringing goods from other settlements both land-based and aquatic, and also numerous tourists from the City of Wings--all converging in this coastal town to trade, visit, and intermingle.

As Pyxis was eating her food skewer, Nerlin enjoyed the festive atmosphere. Maringe was as noisy, crowded, and entertaining as he remembered it being, and it was truly a joy to be here with Pyxis, sitting with their tails entwined together, leaning against her side.

The busker with the wing harp was still enthusiastically waving her wings back and forth, playing a cheerful, uplifting song. A second musician set up a collection of drums which he started to beat with his paws, adding a rhythmic tone to the music. Nerlin tapped his forepaw in time with the beat, and Pyxis nodded her head to the music.

Something else occurred to Nerlin, and he reached for his flight harness. "How much was that fish skewer I ate? I owe you a hex. Let me pay you."

Before he could take out the appropriate coins, Pyxis shook her head and gently pushed Nerlin's paw away from his harness pouch. "No need. What's a hex between us? That's not a debt I want to keep track of."

"Fair enough," Nerlin agreed, and he tried to shake the subtle feeling like he owed Pyxis. One hex was just a small amount of money, after all, and their relationship was vastly more than that. By now Pyxis had finished her skewer, and she threw away the wooden stick into a trash bin. Now that they'd enjoyed a snack, that would be enough to tide over their hunger until dinner later in the evening. The two dragons resumed their leisurely stroll around the shopping street, browsing through stores and looking at stands and carts.

One particular store caught Nerlin's attention--it was a row of game booths, with open shelves filled with target bottles a set distance away. "Hey, check that out," Nerlin said, leading them over. A drakka was already at one of the booths, using her magic to spit acid and knock over the targets. She finished up his game and left just as Nerlin and Pyxis were coming over.

The shopkeeper was waiting by the side of his game booths, and he readily beckoned them closer. He was an older drake with scales of a faded dark purple, and he had several colourful streamers tied to the tips of his wings. "Fire, frost, or acid? Rock, water, or air? Whichever your magic is, test your skill! Take four shots for a hex. Knock the bottles over at least three times out of four, and you'll get double your coin's worth in tokens."

"Tokens?" Nerlin asked.

The shopkeeper took out a bucket filled with wooden chips, each a small flat square and carved with some sort of symbol. "Tokens, yes. You can use these at any of the stores in exchange for food, toys, gifts, games, and such things. One token is worth exactly one hex."

"So you take money and give us back wood?" Pyxis said.

The shopkeeper guffawed and shook his head. "Haw, haw, ho! As if money is so special? Hexes are just pieces of metal, my dear, and is metal inherently better than wood? No! The value of money is what you can do with it, and these tokens are usable almost anywhere in Maringe's streets. What I offer you is entertainment--the chance to test your magical skill, and the possibility of gaining back more value than you paid. Have a look?" He offered one of the tokens to show them, and Nerlin took the wooden chip and peered at it.

The symbol on the small wooden square was very intricately carved with several different clan insignias--Nerlin recognized clan Nitel from the inn, but there were several other insignias he did not know. Clan insignias lent weight to this token as it meant that clans were backing it up, though it did not answer the question of why tokens were needed at all. Nerlin tossed the token back into the shopkeeper's bucket. "But why? Why give wooden tokens as prizes instead of just hexes?"

The shopkeeper bounced his bucket up and down, making the wooden tokens rattle. "Ah, well that's a bit of a... requirement thing... from Enforcement Division. Strictly speaking, I can't offer you monetary rewards as the prize for a game, since that would be gambling. These tokens are not money. They are coupons of value which can be exchanged with other storekeepers."

"That sounds a lot like the tokens are money, but you just call it something else to get around the law against gambling," Pyxis said, though Nerlin could see that she was grinning faintly.

"Oh, non-sense!" said the shopkeeper, dragging out the word dramatically. He shook his head, feigning offence. "What silly talk. I am a good, honest, law-abiding drake, from a good, honest, respectable clan!" He waved his wing at them, making all the colourful streamers on his wing tip flutter through the air. "Come, let us not bore ourselves with such distasteful talk about laws and Enforcement Division. Let us have entertainment! Tell me--what sort of magic can you two use? Our game awaits."

Nerlin turned to Pyxis, but she shook her head embarrassedly. Before either of them could speak, the storekeeper continued on. "Come now, don't be shy! Let me guess your magic." He turned to Nerlin and fixed him with an intense, one-eyed glare, his face contorting expressively. "What's your name, son?"

Nerlin almost laughed, but he managed to hold it in. "Nerlin."

"Good name. Very strong." The shopkeeper sat back on his haunches and tapped a forepaw against the table. "Hot. Aggressive. Passionate. I'm thinking... firebreath!" Snapping his head around, the shopkeeper spat a burst of firebreath towards one of his target bottles, knocking it over to the ground, where it bounced around noisily. He turned back to Nerlin. "Firebreath is good magic! Take a shot! Knock those bottles down. Win!"

Now Nerlin laughed aloud. "Haha, no, I don't have firebreath. I don't have any breath--fire, frost, or acid."

The shopkeeper frowned incredulously, looking shocked. "Impossible! I was so sure. Are you sure you aren't misremembering? If not firebreath, let me think now." He reached under his store table and took out another small bucket, this one filled with water. "Surely you don't have water affinity? Your tail isn't trimmed, so you aren't from the aquatic communities. But perhaps you are a wavebreaker who lives in the city, coming out here for a vacation? Can you control this water? Toss it at the bottles, knock them down. Win!"

Nerlin shook his head again, and the shopkeeper quickly swapped out his water bucket for a small, polished rock sphere.

"Nerlin sounds like a solid, well-grounded name. Like some sort of mineral. Do you have rock affinity? Throw the rock! Win! No?" Without a pause, the shopkeeper moved the rock back under the table. "I'm usually very good at guessing people's magic, I assure you. Perhaps electric affinity?"

Nerlin shook his head one final time. "You're just guessing randomly, and you're not going to guess correct. I don't have my magic yet."

"Oh, no matter, no matter at all. You're as good as an adult drake in my eyes, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise." The shopkeeper put the polished rock sphere back on the table. "I'll let you use your paws to throw this rock if you want. One hex for four throws. Knock over three bottles, and you win back two hexes' worth in tokens. Double your value from an easy game."

Dragons were, in general, very bad at throwing things with their paws because their quadrupedal limbs simply lacked the reach or dexterity to perform a complex throwing motion. "No thanks," Nerlin decided, but he opened his wing out and pulled Pyxis against him. "But she can use frostbreath."

Pyxis looked embarrassed again. "No..."

"Frostbreath! Such an excellent type of magic. What's your name?"

"I'm Pyxis..."

"Alright, Pyxis! Come, come! A hex for four shots. Knock over the bottles at least three times, and you'll win the prize!" the shopkeeper said.

"I can't! I _just_learned how to use my magic," Pyxis replied. "My aim is terrible. I'll miss everything and it would be a waste of money."

"Surely you can't be _that_bad. I tell you what, Pyxis--I'll let you take five shots instead of four. You can miss twice instead of just once. Eh? How's that sound?" said the shopkeeper.

Pyxis still shook her head uncertainly, but Nerlin was eager to see her play. "Come on, you can do it!" He reached into his own flight harness and took out a hex, placing it on the table.

The shopkeeper tapped the table though the hexagonal gold coin's hollow middle, though he didn't take the hex yet. "Yes, that's it!" He smiled at Pyxis warmly. "Are you up for it, my dear? Your friend is putting his money on the line--don't you want to impress him? At least give it a good, honest try!"

Pyxis nervously shifted her weight between her paws, but she finally nodded. "Alright, fine... I don't think I'll do it, but I can try."

"That's the spirit!" In a smooth motion, the shopkeeper swept the coin off the table and into a small metal lockbox. He opened a wing and gestured to the whole game booth, where there were numerous freestanding shelves at various distances, with glass bottles of differing shapes and sizes, all partially filled with water. "Rules are simple. I'll point out the specific bottle you need to hit. You use your frostbreath to knock that bottle over, but without knocking other bottles over. You need to make the shot three times, and you can only miss twice. Three out of five! It's simple to win. Step up and get ready!"

Nerlin sat back and smiled encouragingly at Pyxis, who shrugged her wings and walked up towards game booth. "Ok. Huuuh." She took a deep breath, and when she exhaled, Nerlin saw tendrils of frosty condensation in the air. "Which target?"

The shopkeeper swept his wing dramatically, and the shiny streamers attached to his wing drew colourful lines through the air. He pointed over all the bottles before settling on one particular target. "Your first target! Green bottle in a square shape, topped by a blue stopper, right at the top shelf. You see it?" he asked, pointing.

"I see it." Pyxis said. Nerlin could see the bottle as well, and he noted that it was a large bottle that was standing alone, and it was almost entirely empty of water. It would be easy to hit, and it would topple over without much force needed.

Pyxis took another deep breath, then she opened her jaws and jerked her head forward, unleashing her power with a sharp exhalation. "Huh!" Her blast of frostbreath billowed through the air, striking the target bottle and sending it sliding off the shelf, and bouncing noisily around on the floor.

"Nice!" Nerlin exclaimed.

"Well done, very well done, my dear! Magnificent! Excellent use of your magic." The shopkeeper thumped his tail against the ground in an applauding manner. "One down, just two more to go! For your next target let's have... that blue bottle over there. Skinny and tall, topped with a white stopper. Top shelf," he continued, pointing accordingly.

Pyxis took a few more quiet breaths, not saying anything, then she spat her frostbreath again. "Huh!" This time she created an even bigger blast of magic, and her aim was true--the bottle went flying backwards and tumbling through the air, landing somewhere in the rear of the game booth.

"Good shot. You're good at this," Nerlin said, and Pyxis acknowledged the compliment with a grin.

"Indeed you are," agreed the shopkeeper. "And you claimed to be new to your magic? Clearly I've been misled!" he said, in a joking, light-hearted manner. "That's two targets down, and you just need to hit one more. Next target is... that bottle over there. Middle shelf, round, blue glass and blue stopper. And remember--you have to hit _only_the target bottle. If you hit other bottles and knock them down, it counts as a miss."

Nerlin smiled to himself. The shopkeeper was playing the game just as much as Pyxis was. By choosing the targets, the shopkeeper could alter the difficulty to keep things interesting, providing a decent challenge without making things impossible and therefore frustrating. The first two bottles had been relatively isolated and only partially filled, making them easy to hit. In comparison, this third target was completely filled with water (which made it heavier and hard to knock over) and it was also closer to other bottles. It would be a greater challenge for Pyxis to hit it, because she had to make her shot precisely and avoid hitting the nearby bottles. Without any experience in magic himself, Nerlin had nothing to offer Pyxis other than an encouraging nod.

Pyxis nodded back. "That's hard. That's, uh..." She let her breath hiss out through her teeth, then she opened her jaws and used her magic again. "Huh...!" This time Nerlin could clearly see that Pyxis was trying to moderate her frostbreath. The billowing cloud of chilled air was more limited than before, and came out in a more precise cone that she tried to direct at the bottle. For a moment the cloudy condensation obscured the view, and none of them could see what had happened until Pyxis had cut off her magic a second later.

"It's a miss! Good try, good try. Better luck next shot," declared the shopkeeper. The target bottle had moved from its initial position and half of it was covered in frost, but it was still standing upright. "That's one miss. You have two more shots, and you need to make at least one of them. Do you want to try the same target again?"

"Uh..." Pyxis sounded indecisive.

"You should try it again. That bottle's already moved backwards on the shelf, so it should be easier to knock off," Nerlin suggested.

"Ok, ok, here we go..." Pyxis said, and then she used her magic once more. "Hah!"

Frostbreath had a whooshing sound rather like wind, and immediately they also heard the clinking sound of the glass bottle hitting the ground, but it wasn't alone. Pyxis's aim had been off this time, and the bottle just beside her target had also been knocked off the shelf. The bottles were made from thick glass so they didn't shatter on hitting the ground, but instead bounced around noisily.

"Oh, no! You hit it, but it doesn't count because you knocked down two of them," said the shopkeeper. "Now your last shot--hit or miss? What will it be?"

Pyxis sighed, and her neck frill drooped slightly. "Probably a miss?"

"One way to find out! Last target--that bottle over there! Red coloured with a black label, and a black stopper on top."

"You can do it!" Nerlin said, but Pyxis shook her head.

"Don't set me expectations I might not meet! I suck at this! Let me concentrate." Pyxis looked nervous and uncertain at first. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and when she opened her eyes, her gaze was cool and steady.

Nerlin watched with bated breath. There was something deeply alluring about seeing Pyxis calm herself; when she got that look in her eye that meant she was taking things serious, it was almost as if she was too in control of herself to be embarrassed or nervous.

One moment of calm, then Pyxis unleashed her newfound magical power. Her mouth went open and close, and her shot of frostbreath was quick and exact, striking the target bottle and nothing else. The bottle slid straight back on the shelf, staying upright. Nerlin felt a surge of disappointment when the bottle didn't topple over immediately, but then it wavered right on the shelf's edge and tumbled to the ground when a faint gust of wind fortuitously blew through the market square. "Yes! Yes! You did it!" Nerlin yelled, slapping his tail against the ground excitedly.

Pyxis slowly licked her lips, letting her tongue clear away a few drops of condensation that were wetting her snout. It was such a confident, empowered, satisfied action that Nerlin wanted to just kiss her. Then she grinned widely and laughed. "Haha, I did it."

"You did it, Pyxis!" agreed the shopkeeper. He too slapped his tail against the ground, making a thumping sound of celebration. "A superb shot! Well done, very well done!" Reaching below, the shopkeeper took out two tokens and spread them on the game booth's table. "Here's your prize. You earned it!"

Pyxis took her tokens and stared at them. "Hmm..."

"Would like to try again?" offered the shopkeeper. "Now that you've earned two tokens, you could take four more shots for the hope of doubling them. Or perhaps you want to use more hexes? After all, you clearly have some skill with these shots. Care to double up?"

Nerlin was feeling energized by the win and if it had been up to him, he would have gone again to try doubling those two tokens into four. But Pyxis tightened her paw around the tokens and shook her head. "Nope. Thanks for the game, but I'm done."

"Ohh, you're done? Awww." The shopkeeper shook his head dramatically, as if this was an incredible disappointing idea. "But you've only gotten started. One more game, surely?"

"Done is done." Pyxis passed the two tokens to Nerlin, bowed her head politely at the shopkeeper, and turned to go. "Come on, let's go," she said, wrapping her tail around Nerlin's paw and gently tugging him away.

"Thank you for the game too! And remember, you can always come back if you want to play again!" said the shopkeeper, bowing back and smiling warmly. He gestured to Nerlin, just as the red-scaled fledgling was turning away. "Oh, Nerlin. Hang on just a moment. Come back. No, I'm not going to keep asking you to play--unless you want to?--but listen..."

The shopkeeper beckoned with his paw, gesturing for Nerlin to lean in close. He spoke in a softer voice, as if sharing a secret. "If you want to learn about your magic and what it's going to be... No pressure on you, but if you're curious... I have a good friend who can help you out. Down the street there's a store with a big green sign at the front--Jewellery and Readings, something like that. Go in and ask for Drak Faodil Sraldin--she's an oracle. Tell her that Lom (that's me) sent you, and she might give you a discount. Might. I make no promises. Just if you're curious about your magic, and want an expert to help you out." The shopkeeper leaned back and smiled. "And enjoy your time in Maringe!"

"It was all a fancy trick," Pyxis declared, as they walked down the street. "He acts like the game is about my skill with magic, but that's not true at all. Obviously he was choosing targets that were easy at first, then he made the last few shots harder so I was more likely to fail. Heavier bottles clustered close to each other--harder shots."

"But you won anyway!" Nerlin replied. "So why not play again? Wasn't it fun?"

"I wouldn't have won if I played again. That's how they do it. They start you off easy to make you feel good about succeeding, and then once they've got you hooked in, they push up the difficulty until you're losing money. They'll give the occasional win to make it seem fair, but secretly it's all rigged." Pyxis flicked her neck frill, looking pleased with herself. "The only winning move is to not play."

Nerlin shook his head, amused. "You're so sceptical! The point of the game isn't just to make money. The game is also for fun. And who is 'they'?"

"Hmf. I've seen people like this back in the city. They are tricksters. Not criminals, not bad people, but tricky. Take this oracle he was telling you to go see--obviously they're in a league with each other. They send each other customers."

"There's nothing wrong with that. That's a reasonable business tactic," Nerlin countered.

"Even still, an oracle? Does she see the future?" Pyxis snorted dismissively. "Pfft. As if! You can't predict what magic a dragon has until they _get_their magic. My brother's a doctor in the medical centre, and he told me that you can't detect magic until you _have_magic and you're an adult. All these predictions are bad science. Just think about it logically."

"Logically?" Nerlin laughed, and he leaned over and licked the side of Pyxis's snout. "Sometimes you don't follow logic. Sometimes you follow your feelings."

"That doesn't make sense," Pyxis said, but she was grinning and her neck frill had perked up. "Although I will admit that my feelings like it very much when you do that."

"I'm glad to hear it. Anyway, hang on a moment." Sitting back on his haunches, Nerlin took out the two wooden tokens which Pyxis had passed to him. "Here, these are yours."

Pyxis pushed them back. "No, you keep them. It was your money we were wagering in the first place."

"But it was you who was playing the game, and you won these tokens," Nerlin replied. "Alright, fine. Let's split them one each."

"Fair enough." Pyxis took a token and slipped it into one of her harness pouches. "These things are probably another sneaky business tactic--you can only spend these tokens in Maringe, in shops which are affiliated with these clans. It's all sneaky and tricky."

Nerlin chuckled, and he bumped his shoulder against Pyxis's as they continued walking. "Don't be cynical! Enjoy the atmosphere!"

"I'm not being cynical, I'm being logical. So what are you going to buy with your token?"

Nerlin nodded towards one particular store by the side of the street, which had a sign which read, Quality Jewellery & Oracle Readings. "I don't know. One hex isn't much anyway. I was thinking maybe I'd see what that oracle has to say about my magic, actually."

Pyxis snorted dismissively. "It's your money to waste! This so-called oracle is probably just going to give you all sorts of vague statements that you won't be able to prove either way."

"You're probably right," Nerlin agreed, but he led them into the store anyway. "Let's go find out."

Inside the store, shelves and stands kept jewellery on display within glass boxes. Illumination crystals were mounted in the ceiling, sending down beams of focused light which carefully lit up the displays. Despite being sceptical about the authenticity of anyone who claimed to be an oracle, Pyxis found herself intrigued by the jewellery.

There were bracelets for fore or hindlegs, necklaces, amulets, small pins which could be worn pierced through a dragon's neck frill, thin chains which could be wrapped around a wingtip, and so on. Pearls were used in much of the jewellery, but some of the items made from precious metal also had engravings which looked like waves, or seaweed, or even swimming fish.

"Welcome to my shop. Do you have something in mind, or perhaps you are just browsing?"

Pyxis glanced up as the jeweller (and presumably also oracle) came strolling over. She was a drakka with dark, elegant green scales which were interrupted by irregular patches of dark blue. She was also an aquatic dragon, with the long neck frill and flight scales on her tail which was common amongst the subspecies. Her manner of speech was slow and measured as if she was carefully considering every word.

Nerlin was beside Pyxis, also peering at all the various different items of jewellery. "I don't think any of this comes anywhere near my budgetary range."

The jeweller slowly moved about the store, peering at the various displays. She had a careful, graceful way of moving which made Pyxis think about someone moving underwater, with water causing drag and hindering movement. "Craftsmanship and quality is not cheap. Some of these items are extraordinarily rare and valuable, yes, but there are other items available which are not as costly. And a cheaper item does not cheapen the value of a gift. So tell me--what are you looking for today? Beauty? Charity? Friendship? Love?"

Nerlin briefly glanced to Pyxis, and she glanced back at him. Neither of them said anything, but the drakka nodded as if they had. "Love, then. Ah, I miss the days when I was young, when it was him and I against the world and nothing might come between us."

The jeweller moved over to one particular display and beckoned the two young dragons over. "Come see these pieces. She opened up the glass display box and used the tip of her tail to snag a thin chain bracelet made from a dark grey, lustrous metal. "They go around the wrist, but can also fit around the mid-tail. Very affordable, and they have an interesting little feature." Can you tell what it is?" asked the jeweller, handing bracelet to Nerlin.

Nerlin sat back on his haunches and took the bracelet carefully. He peered at the bracelet and tried moving the chain around. "Hmm. It feels almost... squishy? I don't know how to describe it." He handed the item to Pyxis, and when she handled the bracelet she immediately discerned what made it special.

"It's made from lodestones. These chain links are all magnetized." Pyxis waved the bracelet near her head and felt her a slight shift in her internal compass, confirming her theory. The bracelet was made from small links of grey metal, and each metal link was itself rigid, but the innate magnetism caused the chain links repel each other and the bracelet had a tendency to spring back into a circular shape. A clasping mechanism could adjust the size, so it wouldn't fall off the paw while being worn.

The jeweller nodded. "Try it on," she suggested.

Pyxis was slightly reluctant, but she slipped the bracelet over her right forepaw and locked it around her wrist. The bracelet chains were small and it didn't actually look gaudy; in fact, the dark lustrous colour of the metal was subtle against her bluish scales. The jeweller handed a slightly different bracelet to Nerlin with a few more chains because his paw was larger than Pyxis's. He put it over his wrist and stared at it, seeing the contrast against his red scales.

"So these bracelets are, as you were clever to realize, lodestones. The lodestones were specially mined from Diracore Quarry, and carefully crafted into shape by a master stoneworker who could also work metal with his magic, and a minor protective spell keeps them resistant to rust or scratching."

Given her clan's ties to Dirak clan, Pyxis knew a bit about mining. "Diracore Quarry exports a huge amount of minerals. Lodestones aren't rare at all."

"They are not rare, no, but that makes them more affordable than precious gemstones and expensive metals. Just look at the intricate details--that is the real value imbued in these quality pieces! And they come in a pair, both crafted from different parts from the same chunk of a lodestone--very popular amongst couples." The jeweller took Nerlin's right paw and Pyxis's left paw, then she crossed their limbs, and the bracelets pulled their wrists together from the force of their magnetism. "Opposites attract, and this is what these pieces symbolize. What do you think?"

Pyxis thought this was an incredibly silly thing to say (and do), and she exchanged a look with Nerlin. The jeweller was watching them and laughed at their facial expressions. "Haha, he thinks its sweet, but she thinks it's overly sentimental. You two are precious. Our differences are what make us unique, and everyone must have their own take on life."

Nerlin grinned in a slightly sheepish way which made Pyxis grin back at him. "It is a very sentimental thought, and matching bracelets is far too obvious," he said.

They both pulled off the bracelets and handed them back to the jeweller, who took the pieces of jewellery and carefully returned them to the display box. "A different approach, then." The jeweller opened up a locked metal cabinet at the end of the store. The cabinet was filled with various small wooden boxes, and after looking through the labels, she picked one box. "What about... this one?" she suggested, opening the box and passing it to Nerlin.

The inside of the box was lined with cloth, and Nerlin carefully lifted the piece of jewellery out. It was a simple silver necklace with a small attachment. The attachment was a tiny gemstone shaped like a hexagon in the shape of a dragon's scale, though it was similar in size to only the smallest of scales. As it spun around, Pyxis saw that the gemstone was red on one side and blue on the other, almost like Nerlin's red scales and her own blue scales.

"The band is silver, and the crystal is corundum--the mineral which makes up both ruby and sapphire, for the red and blue sides respectively," explained the jeweller. "What do you think?"

Pyxis shrugged. "It's alright."

Nerlin glanced at the necklace, then to Pyxis, apparently imagining what she would look like wearing this finery. "More than alright. It's beautiful," he said, and Pyxis got the sense that he wasn't just talking about the necklace. "I'm almost afraid to ask, how much does this cost?"

"The price is more reasonable than you might think, because it's an artificial gemstone grown at Diracore Quarry. Now, there's nothing wrong with artificial crystals--instead of being mined from the ground, that just means that a dragon used their magic to create the gemstone. That little gemstone comes from the same masterworkers which produce the power cores in airships." The jeweller walked back to her cabinet and picked up a ring-bound document folder. She flipped through the folder to one page and showed it to Nerlin. "This is the price for that piece, in hexlines, all fees and taxes included."

"That's... hmm..." Nerlin said, looking thoughtful. He nodded towards Pyxis, showing her the necklace. "If I bought this for you, would you wear it?"

The question caught Pyxis slightly off guard, and she nervously tapped her paws. It made her feel slightly awkward that Nerlin was considering buying a gift for her. Her clan, Regil, was not overly large or the wealthiest, but they were medium-sized and relatively well-off. Frugality was one of the clan's (and therefore her family's) values, and gifts or presents were a rarity. As such, she had never really thought about buying a gift like this for anyone, even Nerlin. At best she would have given him something practical such as food, a book, or even a coupon for a new flight harness, but not something which didn't have an obvious use. And was it vain to wear a necklace? It was a very simple and small one, so probably not, and it was appropriate that the gemstone was red and blue like their scales. But it was still spending money on something which was not a necessity or a convenience. This sort of gift was as an expression of love, which brought up another potential sequence of deep thoughts--did Nerlin love her? Oh, that was not something she was going to worry about now...

Pyxis snapped her thoughts back into focus before she lost herself in wondering about life. "Uh... How much is it?"

"You're not supposed to know how much a gift costs, are you?" Nerlin replied. "Don't overthink it. Just on a purely neutral basis--what do you think of this necklace?"

"I mean, it's pretty and the colour is nice? I think I would wear it...?" Pyxis said, slowly and rather hesitantly. "But you don't need to buy me things. Jewellery is just... Don't waste money on me."

"Oh, but remember that you just said that my money is mine to spend? And what if I want to spend some of my money buying a gift for you?" Nerlin grinned at her, then shrugged his wings and put the necklace back in its box. He turned back to the jeweller. "We didn't actually come here to buy jewellery. I was curious about getting a reading, actually."

"Readings are three hexes. But if you choose to buy the piece, I'll give you a reading for free," offered the jeweller/oracle.

Nerlin glanced again at the list of prices, which Pyxis couldn't see. "That price is still a bit high. How about... two hexstrings less than that."

The jeweller flicked her neck frill in a slow, graceful motion. "I can do one hextsring less, but no lower, although the offer for a free reading still stands."

"Done." Nerlin reached for the harness pouch where he kept his coins.

Once Nerlin had handed over the proper payment to the jeweller, she gave him the necklace and the wooden box it had come in, wrapped up with a ribbon. At first Nerlin was going to give the necklace to Pyxis right away, but then he changed his mind and told her that he would give it to her later when they were back at the inn, when it was just the two of them. Pyxis seemed embarrassed but also pleased by his gift, and she repeatedly thanked him.

Keeping away the necklace and it's wooden box into one of his harness pouches, Nerlin then followed the jeweller into a back room. "Would you like to have your reading alone, or with her too?" asked the drakka.

Nerlin glanced back at Pyxis. "Want to come see? Test out the limits of your scepticism," he offered.

"My scepticism knows no bounds," Pyxis muttered.

The back room of the store was messy, filled with various tools and objects which Nerlin didn't recognize but which he guessed were for making or polishing jewellery. The jeweller led them over to an empty space where there were several floor cushion so they could all sit down.

"What sort of things can you read about the future?" Nerlin asked, sitting on a floor cushion. Pyxis sat beside him.

The jeweller sat down opposite them. "Reading the future is an interesting thing. It's no magic, of course. But when you've lived long enough and spoken to enough people, you can start to get a feel of things. From the past and present, we try to understand the future."

"That sounds more like something an analyst would say, not a fortune-teller," Pyxis said. She sounded faintly surprised by the tone the oracle was taking.

"Did you expect mysticism? I'm afraid I'm not too good at that. The only reason I stare into crystals is to carve them into jewellery, not to access some psychic power. The things people come to me to ask: Will they have a long life? Will they find love? Happiness? Will they finally be able to conceive? Will they be successful in their latest business venture? Will something happen or will it not? What should they do? All these things are part of the future, but they can be predicted by knowing the past. So what would you like to know about?"

"I'm curious to know what sort of magic I'll have," Nerlin said.

"Ah, a common worry amongst fledglings, and for good reason. Your magic determines your future and your job, perhaps even your clan. But this particular type of reading is rather special. I have something here..." The oracle stood up and walked over to the side of the room, before tugging over a circular wooden box, carved ornately and coated with a lacquer finish. The box was large and roughly the size of one of the seating mats, and it had a rope handle which the oracle used to pull it over and place in front of Nerlin.

"What's this?" Nerlin asked. He could see that the wooden box had been intricately painted with numerous lines forming all sorts of different patterns, swirling and tumbling chaotically like turbulence in the air.

"This is a toy with a purpose. We used something like this back in my hometown, letting the hatchlings play with it to see what sort of results we could find. It may work to help you discover your inner affinity," said the oracle.

"You use this toy to try and predict the magic a hatchling will eventually have? But I thought that you can't predict a dragon's magic until they've reached adulthood?" Nerlin asked, quoting what Pyxis had said to him before.

"Not true. I can give you a specific example." The oracle glanced between Pyxis and Nerlin, smiling faintly. "Have you heard of Abyssal?"

Nerlin nodded. "The deep sea town, inhabited only by aquatic dragons."

"Yes, that is my home where I grew up, before I came to live here in Maringe." Flicking her tail forward, the oracle showed off the flight scales on the appendage. "We have different beliefs than you land dwellers. You believe magic that only shows at adulthood, but we know otherwise."

"You know?"

"Oh, yes, we know. Tell me--how do you think our hatchlings live and breathe underwater in Abyssal, if a dragon can only use magic as an adult? Using water magic to breathe underwater... that is clear evidence that hatchlings can use magic."

Nerlin admittedly had not thought about this. He glanced at Pyxis, and clearly she hadn't thought about it either. "So you mean that there's a way to know your magic for sure, even from young?"

"There's a way to know if you have water magic from young. As for the other types of magic, that is harder to tell. This device was made to try and answer that question. It is not perfect, but it is often better than wild guesses. See here."

The oracle removed the circular box's lid, showing Nerlin and Pyxis what was inside. There was a rotating platter that was divided up into eight sections, with a metal pin embedded through to the bottom of the platter so that it was leaning slightly towards one side. The oracle began to fill up the different sections with various crystals taken from a smaller compartment in the side of the box. She spoke slowly as she did so, "Magic comes in many different forms. It originates from living beings, yet it can exist in the environment without us. These crystals are stored with different types of magic. This is a healing crystal for healing affinity, this is a fire-starter crystal for flame affinity, this one is enchanted for frost, this one teleportation, and so on. We shall see which calls to you."

"Interesting! I see how it's supposed to work," Nerlin said. He glanced to Pyxis. "Would that work?" he asked her.

Pyxis didn't verbally reply, but she looked doubtful and made a small shake of her head.

The oracle did something which made the rotating platter stand upright balanced on its central pin, and then she closed the wooden box's lid. "Alright. Touch the marked section there."

Nerlin placed his paw on one section of the box as indicated. With the lid closed, it was impossible to see the rotating platter inside the box. "Try to focus your inner power. Project your affinity outwards, and try to affect the objects inside the box," said the oracle, then she pulled a lever on the side of the box, and Nerlin could feel the box shudder as some sort of clockwork mechanism made the platter begin to spin like a top.

Nerlin wasn't exactly sure if this would work, and he definitely wasn't sure how to 'project' his affinity as the oracle suggested. The box kept shuddering slightly as the platter spun, but soon it started to run out of momentum. It got slower and slower until finally falling silent. After a few seconds of quiet, the oracle nodded. "Let's see what the result is."

Nerlin moved his paw away, and the oracle lifted off the box's lid. Inside, the central platter had tipped over towards the left. "The closest crystal to me is...uh...healing?" Nerlin supposed.

"Hmm, it doesn't count unless it's tipped towards you," said the oracle. She balanced the platter back upright again and closed the lid, then Nerlin put his paw back on top of the box and the oracle spun the mechanism again.

They kept trying this several times, until the platter had eventually tipped over towards Nerlin four times. Once had been for displacer magic, once had been for acid spitting, and the other two had been air magic. The oracle finally nodded. "Well, this is the result the box has given. That's your reading--the most likely magic it suggests for you is air magic."

Nerlin slowly opened and closed his paw as he thought about this. "Air magic..." Dragons who had air affinity were called windriders because their magic let them control the air around them, creating gusts, breezes, and even focused blasts of air.

The oracle/jeweller then went on to talk about air magic, discussing it with Nerlin. It was an interesting type of magic because it allowed certain unique modes of flying, whereby a windrider could use their magic to control their flight, instead of being entirely reliant on their wings (as other dragons were). In this way it was similar to wavebreakers with their water magic, though that worked for swimming and diving instead of flying.

Dragons with air magic (windriders) were often couriers or traders because their affinity let them fly slightly faster than other dragons. Though since it was a moderately common affinity, it was also entirely possible that a windrider would end up taking some other vocation that did not involve their magic. Nerlin found all the possibilities intriguing, as he wondered what his future would hold.

The reading now done, Nerlin thanked the oracle and he and Pyxis left the shop.

"Well that was interesting," Pyxis commented, as they slowly strolled down the street again.

"So it was a good idea seeing the oracle, wasn't it?" Nerlin said.

"I don't think she said anything genuinely revelatory or future seeing, but I will admit it was a unique experience. What she said about hatchlings being able to use magic... that makes some sense now that I think about it. But that spinning top thing was definitely just a toy. If something that simple was able to detect magic, every clan in the city would test their hatchlings for magic."

Nerlin chuckled. "Wind magic... I think I like that!"

"We don't know for sure that you have wind magic. Even that silly toy was rather indecisive, wasn't it? Hmf." Pyxis snorted. "You can't just... Even though certain types of magic do let you affect physical objects, like rock affinity moving rocks, you can't just grab a bunch of crystals and spin them about. That doesn't work."

"Maybe it doesn't work, fine," Nerlin conceded. "But it's still interesting. Maybe I do have wind affinity, maybe not, but thinking about that idea is interesting to me."

Pyxis suddenly made an annoyed noise, clicking her tongue. "Tssk. Oh, I should have asked her to test me! That would have settled it, when her silly toy pointed to me having rock affinity or some other wrong type of magic." Opening her jaws, Pyxis exhaled a small blast of frostbreath.

Nerlin shook his head, grinning at her. "Fun times. Now what?"

Pyxis trotted forward, alternating from paw to paw. "We just keep walking, and enjoying the surroundings."

As they continued to walk through Maringe, Nerlin stopped at a few more stores to buy souvenirs--simple things like toys, tokens, or even a wing pennant.

Pyxis was also rather less sentimental about this sort of thing, which surprised Nerlin. "But you've never been here before, and who knows when you'll next come back?" he said. "Don't you find this place interesting?"

"Yes, but why would that mean wanting to buy these... knick-knacks?" Pyxis replied. "They don't do anything."

"They're reminders! That's the point of a souvenir." As Nerlin tried to explain it to her, he peered at a tiny model of an airship made of cast metal. "Decades in the future, you can look at this thing and think back to this moment, remembering what we did here and the things we saw. How this place was noisy and lively, and everything was so different and interesting compared to just everyday life in Avaeria." He put down the model and looked at Pyxis instead. "I don't know. Maybe your memory is just so good that you don't see the point of needing a reminder?"

Pyxis shook her head in response. "It's the opposite! I think my memory is awful. It's so... leaky."

Nerlin laughed. "Hah. Says the person who scored top marks for the end-year school assessments. If your memory is bad, then everyone else's must be downright terrible. You can be modest, Pyx, but you're really clever. I love that about you."

Pyxis's neck frill drooped slightly, and she looked self-conscious. "Thanks, but it's almost... the opposite? I feel like my memory is bad, and that's why I score well. Am I making sense? I don't know."

That was an intriguing thing to say, and it made Nerlin curious. "Bad memory helps you out on tests? Explain?" he prompted.

"Ok, it's... it's..." Pyxis tapped a paw against her head. "Fine, maybe my memory isn't bad, but it's not like I can just read pages of a book and recite everything back to you, days later, word for word. It's more like--when I read or learn something, my brain just takes everything apart and strips away extraneous detail until only the important parts remain, and then that little fragment gets committed to memory. I think that's what I'm good at--taking in big chunks of information and simplifying. And sometimes I feel like I'm too good at that, and it happens to my past memories too. That's why I said my memory is leaky. I forget people's names and faces so easily because if don't see them often enough, then my brain just decides they are unimportant and stops remembering them really quickly."

"Interesting! Now that makes sense," Nerlin said. "But if your memory is, as you said, leaky, then why don't you want souvenirs to remember this place? Wouldn't they help?"

"They would, but... How do I explain this...?" Pyxis's voice trailed off for a moment, and she frowned. "This might sound mean, but I feel like I don't need to remember all this? Not to say that I'm not having a fantastic time. Nerlin, I'm really, really enjoying this expedition with you, and I don't ever want to forget our trip together. But that why I don't think I need_souvenirs to remember? I mean, I'll easily forget the exact location of all the streets and shops, or the exact details of where we went or unimportant stuff like that, but the important stuff just sticks without any reminder because it's _important. If something is worth remembering, then I'll remember it. And if it's not worth remembering, then I don't think I need some little tourist souvenir keychain thing to remind me. The important part is us spending time with each other, getting to know one another, and that's what I want to and will remember."

When Pyxis put it like that, Nerlin couldn't help but agree. "That... actually makes a lot of sense. I'm still going to buy souvenirs, but what you said makes sense. And I _understand_you now." They continued strolling down the street, browsing the market as their conversation continued.

"Oh, but what about souvenirs as gifts? I'm not keeping most of this stuff," Nerlin said, nodding towards his side pouches with which he was carrying his purchases. "Most of this is gifts to family, friends, and clan members. What's your opinion on that?"

Again, Pyxis looked slightly self-conscious, but she didn't avoid the question. "This might be selfish of me to say, but I just... don't really give people gifts? My clan has this policy of frugality. If you want something because you need it, then that's one thing, but most of these souvenirs aren't useful or practical in the slightest."

Nerlin chuckled. "Again, that makes sense, but now I don't know if I fully agree with that ideology. You sound like the hatchling who's hatchday presents were always practical, boring things like flight harnesses, or even just money, which you weren't allowed to spend cause it had to be saved in your clan's treasury saving account."

"Oh yes. My parents never surprised me by buying toys. I always had to make a specific request, and then they would consider it based of educational and entertainment value." Pyxis grinned. "What we're doing is so great! I love that I can just talk with you, and you understand me. I love that. What about you? Tell me why you like gifts."

Nerlin used his wingtip to nudge Pyxis's side. "Who doesn't like gifts? And it's nice to have someone give you something for free, isn't it? It makes your whole day happy to know that someone was thinking about you. Which reminds me..."

As the road ended and they came up to the beachfront, Nerlin sat back on his haunches and took out the necklace he'd bought from the jeweller earlier, still in its small wooden box. "This is my gift to you. You're right--it probably doesn't have any practical value and it's not going to have a return on investment. It's not going to offer you any convenience, or educational value, or anything like that. But it think it looks pretty, and you're pretty. I want to express how I feel about you, so that's why I bought you a gift."

"I... I..." Pyxis was actually speechless for a moment. She glanced away but smiled, embarrassedly wrapping her wings around herself. "Thank you. Thank you! Was it...? I hope it wasn't too expensive..."

"I'm not bankrupting myself, don't worry. You're so clever and analytical, but sometimes you don't need to think so hard. You can't really analyse people to say, 'this friend is 15% better than my other friend', or something like that. I didn't analyse and say, 'Pyxis is worth this much money to me, which equals a gift of this certain value and a certain period of time.' Love is hard to put an exact value on, probably because it's priceless." Nerlin paused. "Was that too cheesy? Anyway, here."

He passed the necklace in its box to Pyxis, and she took it and profusely thanked him again. "Thank you! I can't... I'm not going to think about this too hard." She took a deep breath, sat up straight, and leaned forward to kiss him.

What a shame they were out in public, for that restricted just how much kissing they could do. Even as Pyxis touched her snout against Nerlin's, she wanted to just grab him and hold him close, feeling their scales all pressed up against each other, kissing and licking and hugging and humping, and that was why it was unfortunate that they were in public.

The streets of Maringe were moderately crowded, and that made Pyxis feel a streak of self-consciousness which had her pulling back after just a quick kiss. But she made no effort to hide her happiness. "I just... I... This is... Yay! I've never really... Should I wear this now?" she asked, opening the box's lid and staring at necklace.

Nerlin grinned, and though Pyxis had seen his smile a thousand times, it still made her smile back instinctively. "You could, but maybe you shouldn't? If we're going to the beach, sand or seawater might damage it?"

"I didn't think of that. Ok!" Pyxis carefully closed the box and placed it in the shoulder pouch of her flight harness. She bounced excitedly from paw to paw. "We're on an expedition, and it's great! And we're in Maringe! At the beach! And I'm with you! Come on!" Pyxis trotted forward, using a flick of her tail to beckon Nerlin after her.

Maringe's beach was slightly less crowded than it's streets. Ignoring the other drakken lounging around and the hatchlings scampering about and building sandcastles, Pyxis and Nerlin went to an empty spot of the beach and sat down. Pyxis used her paws to knead at the sand, then she stared at the waves. "So this is... this is the beach! I guess this is what people come to Maringe for? To just come sit on the beach? What's the point of this activity?"

"Haha." Nerlin laughed and playfully nudged her side again. "It's relaxing! You can just sit around and do nothing."

"That sounds boring. Can't you just sit around and do nothing back in the city too?" Pyxis retorted.

"Yes, but here you can also smell the ocean and feel the sand." Nerlin dug up some sand with his paw and tossed it in the direction of the ocean. Just a short distance away, waves were rhythmically crashing against the beach and slowly receding, before the next wave surged forward and stuck. "Want to go for a swim?"

"We'd have to take off our flight harnesses and leave them here. What if someone steals them?" Pyxis said.

"We'd be right here and watching. No one's going to steal our things."

Regardless, Pyxis shook her head. "Let's just relax like you said. Sit around and do nothing."

So they sat around and did nothing. Pyxis entwined her tail with Nerlin's and leaned against his side, and they just enjoyed watching the surrounding scene. The beach was a long stretch of fine, off-white sand, bounded by piers some distance away to the left and right. Out to sea, numerous floating or offshore buildings bobbed in the waves. There were dragons sitting or playing on the beach, but some were also splashing about in the water.

The sun was low in the sky and quickly approaching the horizon. A reddish-orange hue lit up the clouds, and the sun appeared as a ball of red, dim enough to stare directly at without hurting the eyes.

"We can see the sunset twice," Nerlin suddenly murmured.

Pyxis had been leaning against Nerlin's side, letting her chin rest against his shoulder. "Hmm...? What?" she murmured.

"I said, we can see the sunset twice," Nerlin repeated.

"How?" Pyxis squinted at the setting sun, which was now low enough to be partially obscured behind the horizon. "Once the sun has set, it's gone for the day."

"No, I'll show you. Just wait."

The sky was a vibrant gradient; near the horizon it was a deep orange, lightening to cyan blue at the zenith. As time passed, the sun continued its descent. It's movement wasn't quite visible to the eye, yet Pyxis would glance away for what felt like just a few seconds, then she'd see that the sun was even further below the horizon when she glanced back. Slowly that circle of red went lower, and lower, until there was just a thin silver of light left, and then it was completely gone.

"That's a sunset." Nerlin jumped to his feet and prodded Pyxis. "Come on, come on. Let's go!"

"What? Where are we--" But before Pyxis could even finish her sentence, Nerlin ran down the beach towards the water and threw open his wings, pausing only to glance back to make sure Pyxis was following him. He leapt into flight, as did Pyxis after him. "Where are we going?" Pyxis yelled.

"To see the second sunset!" was Nerlin's reply.

They flew out over the water, with no apparent aim. Nerlin was just pumping his wings hard and climbing, and Pyxis struggled to keep up with this rapid gain in altitude. But then she saw it--the horizon had lowered and a sliver of sun was visible again. It was a simple trick of geometry and perspective, as this sudden gain in altitude briefly reversed the sunset. "Oh, oh I see what you meant about two sunsets! Haha..."

Nerlin levelled out of his rapid climb, allowing Pyxis to catch up and fly beside him. The two young dragons flew wingtip to wingtip, watching the sun as it set for a second time. Suddenly it was like they were all alone, surrounding not by a crowded beach but only just the empty air above the ocean. Instead of hearing the chatter of drakken talking or the chirps of hatchlings playing around, there was just the quiet sound of the wind.

As the sun once again vanished below the horizon, Pyxis wondered if gaining altitude once more would allow them to see the sun again and catch a third sunset. They could not climb indefinitely, of course, and she didn't try. Neither she nor Nerlin said anything. Instead they just flew on quietly, watching the orange hues of the sunset slowly fade away and grow darker.

Finally Nerlin spoke up. "Nice! Let's get dinner, and then we head back to the inn?" he suggested.

"Sounds like a plan," Pyxis agreed. In unison, the two young dragons turned around and headed back towards Maringe, flying fast and low over the ocean. In the fading illumination of day, the town was starting to come alight as magical lamps flared to life, giving the streets and buildings a different look compared to the natural sunlight.

After wandering around Maringe's streets for a bit longer and being very indecisive about where to eat dinner, Nerlin and Pyxis both agreed to go for the boring option. They went back to the inn's restaurant and had dinner there. The food was satisfactory in taste and quantity, and they got a discount because they were renting a room.

"Mm. I'm so full..." Pyxis said, after she'd cleared up about three-quarters of her plate.

"You're full already? After only one serving?" Nerlin asked. He was still busy eating, and had already eaten more than her. Whereas Pyxis had gone for a simple dish of grilled fish with roasted vegetables, Nerlin had opted for a more varied assortment of seafood including clams, shrimp, jellyfish, and other sorts of oddities.

The two young dragons were sitting down together at a table, in an outdoor part of the restaurant that overlooked the beach. A cool breeze washed in from the ocean, and distantly they could hear the sound of waves.

"I'm not a heavy eater," Pyxis started licking her paws clean. "How's your food?"

"It's pretty delicious, actually. Not the best seafood I've ever eaten, but surprisingly tasty. Want to try some?"

"Oh, I don't think I'm adventurous enough! Shrimp are disgusting," Pyxis said.

"You don't like the taste?" Nerlin asked.

"No, I don't like their tiny little wriggling legs and feelers and their horrible insectoid shells. Uggh!" Pyxis shuddered as she watched Nerlin eat a shrimp which had been grilled and buttered. "They are the centipedes of the sea."

Nerlin laughed. "Haha. I suppose that shrimps do look like insects? But some people enjoy eating insects."

"Not me! It's disgusting."

"What about crab?" Nerlin suggested.

Pyxis shook her head. "Crabs are the spiders of the sea. They also have too many legs."

Nerlin picked up an oyster and offered it to her instead. "Ok, then what about an oyster? No legs or feelers, just a shell and meat." He picked up a second oyster and slurped the meat out of the shell. "Tastes like a gooey, smooth bit of the ocean."

"No thanks. I prefer my meat to have once had blood in it, like that breakhorn we hunted, or things like that. I'm not a fan of seafood. I'll eat fish, but that's about it. Maybe seaweed too." Pyxis started munching on the sheets of dried seaweed provided as side dish to her meal.

"Good thing we didn't go to some expensive seafood restaurant then," Nerlin said. "The food here is decent, but it would've been a shame to have gone to a fancy restaurant out on the pier if you're not into this sort of food."

"Uh, I don't really eat at fancy restaurants. Seems like a waste of money. Food is food, and it fills the belly."

"Food is also good to taste and smell and eat," Nerlin countered.

Pyxis shrugged. "Did you _want_to go to some fancy restaurant? I guess I'm too boring. Sorry."

"Don't apologize for having an opinion. I'm happy to eat anywhere, fancy or not, with you," Nerlin said.

"Well, one other good thing about eating here is that afterwards we can just head on upstairs back to the room when we're done. No need to walk or fly. I don't think I could even fly at the moment. I'm so full..."

"And I'm just getting started," Nerlin replied. He continued eating his dinner, and their conversation continued as well, meandering from topic to topic.

As time passed and evening transitioned into night, Nerlin felt a building sense of anticipation. The food was good and his discussion with Pyxis was pleasing, yet he was also looking forward to what would come after they'd finished eating.

It started with small things. Sometimes their conversation would quieten down, but the silence never dragged too long, and the discussion flowed smoothly. Then there were other times when Nerlin would catch Pyxis staring at him with a look that was more than just casual interest, though she glanced away embarrassedly when he stared back at her.

At one point Pyxis was telling a story about a time when she'd been exploring an old warehouse with her brothers. She paused and made a surprised noise when Nerlin moved his tail under the table and poked her paw. "...shards on the ground, and we guessed that--oh! Was that you?" Pyxis glanced under the table.

"What? Was what me?" Nerlin replied, acting ignorant. He lowered his head and lapped at his soup.

"Something just poked my paw. That was you, wasn't it?"

"I don't know what you mean," Nerlin said, though he couldn't entirely keep the grin off his face. "Keep telling your story."

"It was you! You sneaky little... you!" Pyxis glared at Nerlin with an expression that was half-frown and half-grin. She used her own tail to try and poke Nerlin's paws, but he made no outward reaction. "Now, as I was saying, what happened was that..."

Nerlin nodded attentively as Pyxis told her story, but then he again started to poke one of Pyxis's hindpaws. Pyxis kept talking, acting as if she hadn't even noticed this. "...thought she was going to rob us, but then I just ran off and both my--eeepp!"

Pyxis let out a shocked, hushed squeak as Nerlin ventured even further, gently letting the tip of his tail snake between her legs and brush against her underbelly. Pyxis hurriedly moved one of her forelegs down and grabbed Nerlin's tail. She embarrassedly glanced around, her eyes darting towards the various other patrons of the restaurant. "Nerlin! Are you actually...? But we're in public!" she whispered, sounding nervous but also excited.

"Hmm? Aren't you going to finish your story? Stop getting distracted," Nerlin said, once again playing ignorant. Even with Pyxis holding his tail, he could flick the tip about, lightly caressing her underbelly. They were sitting in the outdoor area of the restaurant, and the only lighting came from magical lanterns placed on top of each table. The light wasn't bright enough for what he was doing to be obvious to anyone else. All they might see was his tail curled forward and underneath the table.

Pyxis's scales were flushing, their natural blue turning to a faint purple as blood flow tinted the colour of her scale plates. She looked embarrassed, but also amused. "Nerlin, you are one dirty drake, aren't you?" she murmured, squinting her eyes at Nerlin. "How would you like it if I used my tail to... to... on you?! In public! I bet you would."

"I seem to recall that earlier today you said that you wanted a massage. Did you change your mind?" Nerlin asked. He flicked his tail against one particular spot on Pyxis's underbelly which felt faintly warmer than its surroundings.

Pyxis squirmed, and she looked to be biting back a grin. "I said my wings were sore and could use a massage, and it seems you've gotten a little bit lost. That part which you are trying to touch is most definitely not my wing muscles."

Nerlin just smiled. "Are you done with your desert?" he asked, pointing to a small bowl of fruit which Pyxis had half eaten.

Pyxis leaned forward and stared at Nerlin. "Why do you ask if I'm done with my desert? Are you in a hurry for us to finish dinner and head back to our room? I think you are."

Nerlin playfully met her gaze. "I'm not in any rush. Are you? You were the one who said that you were tired from all our flying. You ought to sleep early and get a good night's rest, now that we finally have a proper bed instead of sleeping bags."

"Oh, yes! Our nice big bed, which we're going to sleep on together. Just sleep, of course. Nothing else." Pyxis snorted, and glanced down at her desert. "Heh. I think... that both of us know we are most certainly _not_going to be sleeping early."

Nerlin was finding it all very amusing. Pyxis was such an odd conundrum sometimes--she could flip-flop between embarrassed and confident in rapid succession, acting all shy and then suddenly becoming bold. "I like the sound of that," he said to her.

"Great." Pyxis gestured towards her small bowl of fruit. "I'm done with these. Do you want it? I'm too full to finish it."

Nerlin nodded his head. "Sure."

But when he reached out to take the fruit, Pyxis snatched the bowl back. "No, not that easy!" She plucked a single red-coloured berry up with her paw and showed it to Nerlin, then she put the berry on her tongue and closed her mouth. "Mm. Come get it now," she said.

Pyxis managed to keep a straight face for just a brief moment, and in that moment she looked so confidently sexy that Nerlin was left speechless, then she burst out into laughter, spitting out the berry onto the table from the force of her mirth. She covered her mouth with both paws as she giggled incessantly. "Ahahaha... I just... I can't believe I just did that! Hehehe... What came over me to make me do that?"

"Wow, this is really a new side of you I've never seen before." Nerlin gestured to the small bowl of berries. "Do it again! That was hot."

Pyxis shook her head. She wrapped her wings around herself, raising them high so they covered her head. "Hehaha! No! That was so stupid! I read about that in... in a magazine once, where it talked about seductive moves to flirt with drakes, and I remember thinking it was such a stupid thing to do. And then I did it, and it was definitely stupid! Hehehehe..."

"No, I'm serious! It wasn't stupid, it was sexy! Fine, if you won't do it, I will." Nerlin reached forward and took the bowl of fruit. Pyxis lowered her wings and watched him as he snapped a berry off the cluster. "Let me show you." Nerlin held the berry in his paw, showing it to Pyxis. He popped it into his mouth, not biting on the small red fruit but letting it rest on his tongue. "You want to eat this berry? _Take_it from me. Out of my mouth. Via kiss. Mouth to mouth, berry transfer. Mmh."

Both young dragons stared at each other silently for one instant, then simultaneously they both burst out into laughter. "Pfffftttt! Ahahahaha!" Pyxis was laughing as hard as Nerlin had ever seen her, and she wrapped her wings around her head to quieten her uncontrollable laughter.

Nerlin laughed too, unable to deny the silliness of what he'd just done. "Hehehehe! Ok, you were right. You were definitely right! Hehe... That was very stupid! Maybe a little bit sexy, but mostly very stupid. Oops, I bit down on the berry. So much for that."

Pyxis slapped her tail against the floor, making a faint tapping sound. She'd laughed so hard that she was out of breath. "Oh... oohh... Ahah... Hahahahh..." Grabbing her table napkin, she wiped away some snot dripping from her nose, then wiped her snout clean of the sauces and oils of the food she'd just been eating. "Ok, let me just... You know, I bet that sort of stupid move might actually be seductive if you could did it seriously, but that's a big if."

"Kissing is fun, and food is fun, so you would think that doing both at once would be fun too," Nerlin replied. He licked his plate and bowl clean, and the wiped his own snout with a napkin. "Are we done here?"

"I think we're done here," Pyxis agreed.

Nerlin snapped another berry off from the cluster and ate it. "Onwards, then."

Inhaling sharply, Pyxis held her breath for a moment then slowly exhaled. "Ok. Ok, I'm ready."

"Are you sure?" Nerlin asked.

Pyxis tried to mentally prepare herself. It was just him and her, together back in their room. "I'm sure. Just...just do it. Let's do it."

"Ok." Nerlin plucked a berry of its cluster and put it in his mouth. Then Pyxis tried to kiss him, and they got as far as her snout touching against Nerlin's before he started sniggering again. "Heheh.."

"Oh, now it's your fault!" Pyxis exclaimed, leaning back and chuckling too. "Hehe, this time you laughed first!"

"No, it was you! You made that look on your face, and I couldn't help but laugh!" Nerlin retorted.

Pyxis shook her head. She glanced towards the small cluster of berries which they'd brought from the restaurant. Despite her and Nerlin's repeated attempts, they were finding it entirely impossible for one of them to eat a berry, then transfer it (intact) to the other's mouth via a kiss. As far as sexual acts went, this was just such an utterly ridiculous thing to do that they couldn't stop breaking out into giggles.

"Ok, your turn," Nerlin said, but Pyxis shook her head impatiently.

"Enough turns! I think we're doing this wrong. Who cares about berries, anyway?" Leaning forward, Pyxis kissed Nerlin, and it was so good to feel his body against hers, letting her tongue lightly brush against his. For the next few moments they both stopped thinking and just let their desires dictate action, meeting each other in an intimate embrace.

When Pyxis finally pulled back, her desire for Nerlin had ignited into a hunger that seemed to run through her whole body. Just looking at him made her feel happy. When they talked, interacted, and spent time together, it just felt so right like nothing ever had before. They were alike in many ways and yet different in just as many ways, as if they were two opposing puzzle pieces which fit together neatly.

And looking at Nerlin now, Pyxis wanted to grab him and feel his scales rubbing hers, and there was no denying that his close presence got her aroused. He was just there, right next to her. His body so close that she could see all the tiny imperfections in the lines of his scales, and she could look into his eyes and have him look back at her, knowing that they were sharing something here.

Pyxis reached for the berry cluster and snapped off a berry, which she put in her mouth. But instead of trying any sort of silliness, she simply bit down and chewed slowly, letting the sweet juicy taste fill her mouth. "Nerlin, I'm not sure if you've noticed by now, but I think I've got a bit of an attraction to you."

An amused smile was the response she got. "That's good, because I think it's mutual," Nerlin said. He leaned forward and used his tongue to carefully lick the side of Pyxis's snout, cleaning off a bit of juice there.

"We... should go talk a bath," Pyxis finally decided. "It's been days since I've gotten to wash my scales properly. I feel dirty."

Without letting his gaze break from hers, Nerlin reached up his paw and pulled the shoulder quick release catches on his flight harness, letting the gear drop off his body. "We wouldn't want to get the bed all dirty, would we? When we sleep on it."

"We won't be sleeping on it so soon... you owe me a wing massage," Pyxis replied. Carefully taking off her own harness, she moved her equipment over to the side of the room.

Nerlin was already in the washroom, running the shower and adjusting the water temperature. "Do you want to go first? Or should I?"

"You can go first. Or maybe we just go together?" For a moment this seemed like a moderately sexy idea, but then Pyxis reconsidered after thinking about the size limits of the shower. "Then again, we probably won't both fit in. Ok, you go first."

Having gotten the water temperature to a satisfying warmth, Nerlin began rinsing his body then smearing soap across all his scales. Pyxis watched him for a moment, then she turned around and walked across the room.

Pushing past the heavy curtains, she stepped out onto the balcony. A faint breeze sent cool night air washing over her scales, and Pyxis blew out a small puff of frostbreath that ended in a quiet sigh. Things wouldn't be the same as before. Just a few days ago she'd been a fledgling, eagerly anticipating getting her magic and finally becoming a drakken. Now she had her magic and was technically an adult dragon, but was she really ready to leave childhood behind? To say goodbye to simple innocence and dependence on others, and to take up independence, responsibility, and maturity? Because whether or not she was ready, she'd reached a turning point and there was no going back.

This whole expedition had been an adventure, travelling through the Julnir Mountains and then down the coast of the Glassy Sea, and now getting to explore Maringe and see its sights. Hunting wild prey, sleeping in the forest and then an abandoned lighthouse, flying so far and wide. All these new and exciting things which she had never done before, but soon it would be over.

Acting on a sudden impulse, Pyxis flicked open her wings and leapt over the balcony edge into flight. She circled around, looking at the sight of the town from the air, but not getting too far from the inn. The night sky was dark and clear, and she had to keep at a low level where the lights of Maringe could guide her way, lest she accidentally collide with another dragon flying in the darkness.

Pyxis had no destination in mind. She merely flew in circles, looking over the lighted shopping streets which still held merchants, festivities, and a crowd to enjoy them. The rhythmic beat of music could be heard echoing up from parties and entertainment venues. Most the beach was dark and empty, though the waves continued pounding away at the shore, kicking up sprays of white foam. In the distance, Pyxis could see an airship slowly manoeuvring up from the hills, taking off and leaving Maringe for destinations unknown.

Over the past few days, Pyxis reflected, she'd spent so much time away from her family, her friends, and her clan, being independent like never before. The only constant in all this had been Nerlin, and he'd progressed from friend to expedition partner, and now to even more than that--lover, perhaps? Flying just around the town, Pyxis took the chance to enjoy the quiet, bleak solitude of being completely alone. Yet it wasn't fun to be lonely. There was something so comforting about having someone whom she knew, truly knew, and shared an intimate, close relationship with. Someone she could hug, and hold, and talk with; someone who she cared about, and who cared about her. How had she been happy before this, being alone?

Because of her frost affinity, the cool night air didn't bother Pyxis. She completed her circling pattern and flew back towards the inn, adjusting her flight path to aim directly for the balcony of their room. They had one more thing to settle.

When Pyxis pushed past the curtains and re-entered the inn room, Nerlin had finished his shower and was using a towel to dry his scales. "You're back. Where'd you go?" he asked casually.

"Just went to do a quick circle over the nearby area. To be alone with my thoughts for a moment." Pyxis shut the balcony doors behind her and trotted up towards the washroom to take her turn in the shower, but midway she stopped and just stared at Nerlin. Throughout this whole expedition they'd been side by side. They'd travelled out together on the airship Majestic, eaten together, flown together so far, and even slept side by side together. What would it be like when their journey was done tomorrow? When they returned back to Avaeria, going back to being surrounded by their usual friends, family, and normal life, instead of spending every moment with one another?

Nerlin noticed Pyxis's stare. He wiped his horns with the towel he was holding, and then nodded towards her. "What are you thinking about?"

"The future..." A shudder ran down Pyxis's back. "We're nearly done with this expedition. We're almost home and it's almost over."

"Almost, but not quite. We still have about one more day's flight tomorrow. Why? Are you missing home already? Or are you sad for the expedition to be over?" Nerlin asked.

Pyxis took a moment to collect all her scattered thoughts. "I'm not really sure. Everything we've been doing has been so much fun, but it's just... not normal. It's an exceptional adventure, and life isn't a nonstop adventure, is it? We're going back to the city, and then we'll go back to our regular, normal lives."

Nerlin put down the towel. "Yes, but we'll still see each other, right?"

"I sure hope so! Not all the time, not for everything, but we'll still do stuff, I hope. We'll meet up and go on dates, and talk about life, and do all sorts of things. Kissing too. And other things." Pyxis shook her head and refocused her thoughts on the present. "Eh, let's not worry about that. We're still on our expedition for now!" she said cheerfully. "I'm going to take a shower, and there's going to be hot water and soap and all that good stuff. It's going to be good! And then when I'm done..." Pyxis trotted forwards towards Nerlin, until her snout was almost touching his. "When I'm done and we're both clean, I'm going to kiss you again! And that'll be even better. Yeaaah, I've been thinking about this for so long."

Nerlin chuckled and nodded his head. "I like this plan."

Pyxis took her shower. There was hot water and soap and it was good. She took her time and carefully scrubbed every scale on her body, methodically cleaning everywhere from her claws and her tail, to her ears and under her neck frill. She even paid special attention to her underbelly, making sure that she got the external part of her genital slit properly cleaned. The thought made her feel faintly embarrassed, but also eager. "Need to get that part clean, because it's going to be used soon..." she thought to herself.

When Pyxis was finally done, she shut off the shower and shook herself all over, sending water droplets flying off her scales in all directions. After this she grabbed her towel and wiped herself down to catch any remaining wetness. Now that she was feeling all clean and warm, she stepped out of the washroom and back into the bedroom.

Nerlin was lying on his front on the bed, facing away and reading something between his forepaws. Pyxis trotted over and jumped up onto the bed. Then before Nerlin could react, she leapt on top of him and lay down on top of him, with her chest against his furled wings and her limbs going around his body.

"Hmmrrr..." Pyxis let out a pleased rumble as she hugged Nerlin, enjoying the feeling of his scales against hers. He was warm and clean, and it felt delightful. "What are you reading?" she murmured in his ear.

Nerlin twisted his neck to look back at her, then he showed her the pamphlet he was reading from. "Just one of the visitor information pamphlets. That was a long, long shower you just took. To keep myself entertained, I was thinking about things we could do tomorrow."

Feeling a sudden surge of boldness, Pyxis hugged Nerlin even tighter and moved her hips to rub her underside against him. "Hnnggg... Not thinking about what we could do today?"

"Oh, I did plenty of that too! But I can't spend all my time just fantasizing about how beautiful you are, can I?" Nerlin grinned in that cheeky, self-assured way which always made Pyxis's hearts leap. "I contemplated just lying on my back, waiting for you here with a full erection, but that seemed too crude."

At that mental image, Pyxis felt her neck frill swish up, standing right up around her head. "Oh ho, you should have done that. Sexy! I would've loved to see that." Pyxis thought about Nerlin, just lying back on the bed with his erection fully protruding from his genital slit, just waiting for her to finish her shower, and it sent a tingle to her own genital slit. She humped Nerlin a few times, wondering if he could feel the warmth of her slit against his tail base or lower back.

Instead of commenting on this rather sexual move, Nerlin reached over and took his expedition map, which had been on the bedside table. "I was just running the calculations. Tomorrow we're flying west to east, and the winds will be with us most of the way back to the city. But according to the location weather and navigation information, the winds won't really pick-up until about mid-morning, so we can spend a few hours here before we fly off and we won't lose much time. We'll still arrive back in the city by nightfall."

"Mm, yes. What did you have in mind?" Pyxis asked. She still hadn't moved from her position slumped on top of Nerlin, pressing her front against his back.

"There's a few points of interest we could go see tomorrow morning." Nerlin flipped through the pamphlet. "There's a nice clifftop lookout point over to the south, we could fly over there and check it out. There's also a historical monument dedicated to, uh, those who died in the Alliance War, all those years ago. And a museum. Yes, there's quite a few attractions we could go see."

"Attractions...? If there's one thing I'm attracted to, it's you." Pyxis ground her hips against Nerlin again, and she playfully bit the back of his neck, like in a mating bite. "Hnng... Mnrnnr... Mine... Sorry. I mean, uh, those all sound like great ideas. We don't need to plan it out now. How about we just see what we feel like doing tomorrow when we wake up?"

"What an excellent idea." Nerlin suddenly pushed himself to his feet; and though Pyxis was lying on top of him, he lifted her weight up too. Before she could even react, Nerlin rolled over and then twisted so that Pyxis was left lying back on the bed, with him crouching over her. "Who knows? Maybe tomorrow we won't even feel like leaving this room. Maybe all we'll want to do is mate with each other nonstop, because I know that's what I really want to do right now."

Pyxis was speechless for a moment, stunned to silence but the sudden intensity of the moment. Lying underneath Nerlin, with her blue scales pressing against his red ones, she'd never felt more aroused. He looked so intense, so powerful, so attractive. "Oh! Oh! Ok... Yes, yes! Let's do this! How do we do this? Do you know how this is supposed to work? I never mated before..."

A flicker of amusement tempered Nerlin's hungry gaze. "Me neither. But I know the general concept."

"Eh, everyone_knows the general concept. I mean, you just need to _hump, right? That's all there is too it," Pyxis replied. "But what about the specifics? Should I be on my back, or should you be on your back? Or maybe I crouch down on my front and you stand over me to... you know? Stick your thing in?"

"My thing?" Nerlin asked. "Don't be embarrassed to say the word. We're about to do much more than just talking."

Pyxis flicked her neck frill up and down. "Ooh! Don't you call me embarrassed! I'm an adult and I can say all the adult words! I'll prove it: Penis, vagina, sex, mating! Intercourse! Orgasm! Vulva! Genital slit! Ovaries, egg-laying ducts, clitoris! Breeding, mounting! Masturbation! Knot! Hah! So there, I'm not embarrassed!" Pyxis managed to keep a straight face for a grand total of two seconds after this explicit outburst, then she burst into giggles and used one of her wings to cover her head. "Heheheha..."

Nerlin laughed too. "Haha, so you've done it! Well done, Pyxis. Well done! You've clearly proved you know how to be an adult."

"No, this is terrible. Is this how sex is supposed to work?" Pyxis dropped her wing and stared up at Nerlin. "Shouldn't we be acting all sexy and seductive? I feel like we're just laughing nonstop and acting like fools."

"What's wrong with that? The point of this activity was to have fun, right? So we're literally fooling around," Nerlin grinned. "But ok, let's try to be more serious about it. How should we... initiate activities? Foreplay, or...?"

"I have no idea. No idea at all. I vaguely recall that in school they only talked all about consent and communication in a relationship, but no actual details on how to do the dirty deed. I know how biologically the process of reproduction works, but mating is a whole different thing," Pyxis said.

"Speaking of reproduction, you're... not in heat, right? Not that I want to pry. It's your body and your personal business. But... it's best if we don't accidentally make an egg. Cause I... I remember that in the sexual education classes, they mentioned that drakka can become reproductively fertile for a few days even before the outward signs of being in heat start to show. I just... don't think we should... accidentally..." Nerlin's voice trailed off. Apparently all this discussion about reproduction made him embarrassed.

Pyxis found that amusing. Biology and reproduction she could talk about without embarrassment. For her, it was socializing or relationships which made her feel self-conscious. "It's weird to think we're both adults who are 'reproductively fertile'. Can you even imagine that? If we tried, we could just make an egg--a new little hatchling dragon that is half me and half you! But don't worry about that. I am definitely not in heat. I was in heat just a few weeks before the expedition, and that's done with."

"Ok. That's good."

"Alright, so now what? How do we transition from the state of not having sex into the state of having sex? How do we act seductive and sexy?" Pyxis wondered.

Nerlin grinned. "If I knew, I'd have tried to seduce you already."

"Whatever. We'll figure it out as we go along."

Pyxis glanced down towards Nerlin's underbelly. His genital slit seemed slightly swollen, but his penis hadn't yet presented itself. Reaching a forepaw down, Pyxis started feeling up and rubbing Nerlin's slit, hoping to resolve this issue. "Let's get this thing out so we can progress onto actual sexual acts. Maybe we start by just doing what we did yesterday--touching each other for a while, then we progress onto proper sex?"

"I like this plan," Nerlin said. Balancing on three limbs, he reached down his forepaw and began gently touching Pyxis's genital slit, letting his paw rubbing the sensitive flesh there as they both touched each other. She could soon feel Nerlin's phallus responding to her attention, swelling with blood and pushing out of his genital slit, rapidly growing in size and rigidity as it prepared for what was to come next. Her own genital slit was feeling increasingly wet and ready as Nerlin gently touched her, lightly caressing her clitoris just like she'd shown him yesterday evening, though her arousal wasn't as outwardly obvious as his. Pyxis nodded her approval, then suddenly she stopped as she remembering something. "Wait no, stop! Hang on a moment."

"Oh?" Nerlin instantly froze and glanced at her, wondering if he had done something wrong, but Pyxis squirmed out from under him and hopped off the bed. She hurried over to her flight harness, lying at the side of the room.

"You're going to wear your flight harness?" Nerlin asked confusedly, sitting back on his haunches and watching her.

"No." Pyxis grabbed the small wooden that had been in one of her harness pouches, and then she leapt back onto the bed and sat down beside Nerlin. She opened the wooden box and took out the thin silver necklace inside, with its small gemstone that was half ruby and half sapphire. "I'm not going to wear my flight harness, or my wing pennants, or anything else. I'm just going to wear this gift you bought me. Wearing nothing but this necklace..." She leaned in close to whisper into Nerlin's ear. "...and then we're going to mate like animals."

Her words made the red-scaled drake shudder, and Nerlin took a few deep breaths. "Wow. Wow, ok, Pyxis--_that_was seductive."

"Great!" Pyxis lifted the silver necklace and tried to put her snout through it, but it couldn't really fit. "Hmmm." She tried several different angles, to no success. "Wait, this isn't working. Is this the wrong way?"

"Hang on. There's a little clasp, and it'll be easier that way. Relax, let me help you." Nerlin carefully pulled the necklace off Pyxis's snout, then he carefully manipulated the chain and unclipped it. Pyxis turned around, and Nerlin helped her to put the necklace on, clipping it together again to form a complete loop around her neck. "There, done."

Pyxis glanced down, and she could see the thin silver chain surrounding her neck, with the small gemstone attachment resting against her chest. The crystal's red colour stood out in contrast against her blue scales, then she flipped the gemstone over and its blue colour blended in nicely. "Um, how does it look?" she asked, turning to face Nerlin.

Nerlin nodded slowly, and he smiled warmly. His gaze swept over her neck, then her face, then her whole body. "It looks good. You look good. You just look so..." Nerlin shuddered, and then he reached out and pulled Pyxis against him, wrapping his wings around her back. He didn't say anything more, because his mouth was now busy with kissing Pyxis.

"Mmm. That was pretty seductive," Pyxis moaned, feeling her snout pressed up against Nerlin's and her tongue gently touching, tasting his. Was there any place on the body which was quite as sensitive as the tongue and mouth? Well, there was one place... Pyxis slid her paw down Nerlin's chest until she was fondling his underbelly again, and she played around with his now fully erect length. She also tried to entwine her tail against his, but this was slightly awkward with them both sitting upright and still kissing.

Nerlin tried to shift his hindpaw and move closer to Pyxis, but then he accidentally stepped on their entwined tails. This didn't actually hurt because they were on the bed, but he hurriedly lifted his paw, which resulted in both young dragons losing their balance. "Sorry, I--whoa!"

"Oh!"

Nerlin threw open his wings to cushion his fall, catching the air to slow his descent as he fell backward onto the bed, with Pyxis still hugging against his chest.

Pyxis laughed again. "Haha, was that intentional? It didn't look intentional. If it had been intentional, that might have been sexy."

Nerlin was lying on his back, Pyxis now lying on top of him, and the two of them were chest to chest. "How would falling down be sexy?" he asked, staring up at her curiously.

"Not falling down, but if we were mid-kiss and you just grabbed me and pulled us back into a position like this, it might be sexy?" Pyxis supposed.

"Sexy for you, maybe. Less sexy for me, when I've got to worry about organs getting crushed."

"No way." Pyxis casually slapped a forepaw down on Nerlin's belly, feeling the hard muscles of his abdomen. "You got all this muscle here and you're worried that I'd crush your organs?"

"Not those organs! One particular organ, which is rather inflexible and not meant to be crushed," Nerlin retorted, and Pyxis felt him twitch his phallus, which was pressed up between their underbellies.

"Hehe, right. Let's not damage that before we get to the fun part." Pyxis adjusted herself and sat backwards so that her hindlegs were taking most of her weight, instead of her chest resting on top of Nerlin's supine body. Nerlin's penis was a solid rod of masculine flesh, proudly poking up from his underbelly right in front of her. Pyxis grabbed Nerlin's length with both her forepaws and gave it a few firm strokes, spreading the pre-ejaculate that was readily starting to drip from the tip of his penis, as well as leak from the base of his genital slit. "Looks like you're ready for action."

Nerlin grinned and didn't reply, but Pyxis saw him shift, and then she felt his tail curl around and brush against her genital slit. Shifting her hips gave him a better angle, and then the tip of Nerlin's tail slipped in. Pyxis felt his tail push in and out of genital her slit slightly, then flick around inside her, rubbing her walls. "Seems like you're ready too," Nerlin replied. "It feels so... warm and wet in there. I really want to find out what that'll feel like against my penis."

"Let's find out," Pyxis murmured. A cloud of lust and arousal had descended over her mind, helping her to easily ignore any embarrassment or hesitation. She reached down and tugged Nerlin's tail out of her, then she moved forward and slid her underbelly against Nerlin's under his erection was rubbing against the outside of her genital slit. His reproductive organ felt warm against her sensitive flesh, and Pyxis could feel that slight bump at the base that would eventually swell up into his knot.

Pyxis slid her hips forwards and back, still not yet attempting penetration, but rubbing her genital slit against the underside of Nerlin's erection, pressing him against his own belly. Nerlin moved his hips as well to add to the motion, and each rub sent sparks of pleasure arcing through her body. Finally Pyxis felt like she could wait no more; her insides felt like they were clenching up and just desperate to be filled, and she wanted Nerlin to fill her.

Straightening up her hindlegs, Pyxis lifted herself off Nerlin's underbelly and used a paw to line his penis up. "Ok, I'm going to... We're going to do this properly. Are you ready?"

Nerlin was watching her with a wide-eyed, eager look. "Yeah! We're... we're actually going to mate. Ooh, I've been wondering for so long what this will be like. I hope it's good."

"Time to find out. Let's do this! Should I... Should I do a countdown or something? No, wait--that's a dumb idea. Don't you laugh at me! Shut up! Ok, for real now." Pyxis took a deep breath to steel herself, and then she slowly lowered herself down onto Nerlin, letting his erect penis push up into her. Even just taking the very tip, Nerlin's phallus felt large, like it was forcefully spreading open her vaginal walls which were all clenched up and tense. Pyxis paused and straightened up her legs, reversing her motion. She tried to calm herself and relax her muscles, and then she sat back down on Nerlin's erection, letting his reproductive organ spear up into her vagina.

Neither of the two young dragons said anything as Pyxis slowly lowered herself down. Despite the fact that she'd held Nerlin's erection in her paws, feeling it inside her was an altogether different sensation. His penis felt far longer and thicker than it had looked, going surprisingly deep into her body and pushing at sensitive spots. Pyxis almost chuckled, but she was too engrossed by the feeling of being slowly spread apart as she went lower and lower, and Nerlin went deeper and deeper into her. When she got to near the bottom, Nerlin's uninflated knot provided a brief bit of resistance before it slid in smoothly. And then that was as deep as it got.

Pyxis's genital slit was pressed up against Nerlin's, with his rigid penis buried inside her. His reproductive organ felt surprisingly warm against her insides, far more so that a mere tail, toy, or anything else she'd ever tried. It was throbbing faintly in time with Nerlin's heartbeats, as his penis twitched to the rhythm of the blood flow which kept it rigid. It really felt very filling, like it was spreading her apart in just the right way.

Pyxis moved her head around to peer at their touching underbellies from different angles, then she looked up at Nerlin and their gazes met. "So... we're mating," Nerlin commented.

"Yep. For the first time I ever, I've got a drake's penis inside me." Pyxis hadn't moved yet from her crouch over Nerlin, just letting him penetrate into her. Experimentally she tried clenching down her muscles, feeling that warm, rigid male length inside her providing a firm resistance.

"Oh, did you...? I felt that," Nerlin muttered, sounding surprised.

"Really?" Pyxis tried to do it again, using her muscles to squeeze down on Nerlin's erection, and she felt his length twitch inside her in response. "Haha, this great! I can feel you and it's... it's inside me. How's it for you?"

"This is the best thing ever. It feels so warm and wet. Like this... squeezing everywhere around." Nerlin reached out his paws and gently held Pyxis's hips, but he didn't push her or start thrusting, he only just laid back and held her. "And you?"

Pyxis nodded. "Good. It's very good. Mating is fun!"

"Fun? We've only just started. This is maybe the first one percent?"

"Yeah, I know. We haven't even gotten to the humping part. But this is so... I mean, think about it--you've got a part of you inside me!" Pyxis rubbed her underbelly, and by pressing down on her scales, she could even feel the faint outline of Nerlin's phallus inside her. "A part of you... is inside me. And then we're going to move so it goes out, then in again, then out again, and so on. There will be all this rubbing of you against me until finally that part of you goes crazy and starts to spray out semen. And that'll contain all these little sperm cells which could fertilize my eggs if I was in heat, and that's weird to think about, but also kind of sexy?"

Nerlin blinked, and then he slowly nodded. "Sexy indeed. You've just summarized the general concept of mating. Shall we get on with it?"

"Sure." Pyxis slowly straightened out of her crouch, resting her forepaws against Nerlin's chest and his wing to keep her balance. She lifted her hips off his until he was barely penetrating, and then she lowered herself back down again, feeling him once again push up into her. "Hmm, this is... it feels nice," Pyxis murmured. Slowly she started to pick up the rhythm, lifting herself up, and then lowering back down again. After a few moments she realized that it was much less tiring on her legs if she simply rocked back and forth, sliding herself against Nerlin instead of lifting vertically away from him.

All the while every stroke sent a tingle of pleasure through her body, and Pyxis found herself increasingly engrossed by just how good it felt. Then all of a sudden she slid just a bit too far forward, and Nerlin's penis slipped entirely out of her slit. "Mhhh... Whoops. Sorry." Pyxis let out an annoyed grunt. "Grrah, I was just getting into a nice rhythm too." She once again lined Nerlin's penis up and slid back to let him penetrate again, then she restarted her back and forth motions. "And again..."

Nerlin used his paws and held on to Pyxis's hips, and his tail entwined with hers. He helped her to get into a steady, rhythmic motion. "I... Oh, I really... Ah, I'm not sure I can quite describe..." he murmured, his sentences getting distracted by moans of pleasure. "You're beautiful, Pyx. Absolutely beautiful. I can't believe that we're actually... You and I are mating! It feels so good."

"Yeah, I know," Pyxis agreed. She stretched forward and bumped her snout against Nerlin's, then he darted out his tongue to lick her.

"Aah! Wait, don't--you shouldn't..." Nerlin pushed upwards with his paws, lifting Pyxis's hips slightly away from his groin. "Don't go all the way down onto my knot!"

Pyxis continued thrusting her hips, though she went shallower. "Hmm? Why? What's wrong with your knot?"

Nerlin looked faintly embarrassed again. "There's nothing wrong. It's just... very sensitive, and if you keep going all the way down, you'll rub it and I don't know how long more I'll last."

"Haha. Really now?" Pyxis licked Nerlin's snout, then she made a few deliberate thrusts which went all the way down, bumping her genital slit against Nerlin's and making sure that his knot slid in and out of her vagina. Nerlin's knot was still unswollen at the moment, but Pyxis felt like even those few bouncing strokes made it grow just a little bit more inflated with blood. "You like it when do this?" she murmured.

"Yes, and I'm serious! I can't hold back when you do that," Nerlin warned, and Pyxis relented and made her strokes shorter and shallower.

"Ok, ok. I guess I'm just too sexy for you to take," Pyxis said playfully. Even as they kept coupling, she smiled at the sight of Nerlin sprawled out beneath her, his jaw open as he panted from the sheer pleasure they were sharing. Pyxis ran her paw over Nerlin's chest and then his wings, feeling all the lines of smooth scales and the taut muscle underneath.

Despite her light-hearted teasing of Nerlin for being so quick to approach orgasm, Pyxis realized that she too wasn't too far off from her own release. Her motion had reached a quick, almost frantic pace, sliding forward and back, forward and back over Nerlin's supine body, letting his penis push in and out of her. Everything felt glorious wet and messy down there. Pyxis reached a paw down and directly rubbed her clitoris, massaging that extra sensitive nub of flesh and further accelerating her ride towards orgasm.

Pyxis glanced down and watched as she humped Nerlin. After the first minute or so, that initial sensation of his erection being almost uncomfortably large had faded away, as her muscles got used to the act. Now Nerlin's phallus felt just right--large and stiff enough to be deeply pleasurable, yet not hard like some lifeless inanimate object, but instead delightfully warm and ever so slightly squishy like a tool designed to fit perfectly into her and unlock pleasure. Pyxis chuckled at this idea, and she leaned forward so she could kiss Nerlin again, snout to snout.

How long more until one or both of them hit their climax? Pyxis could feel her muscles tensing up as pleasure built up inside her core, like water rising behind a dam and waiting to be released in a flood of raw sexual energy. Her paw rubbing her clitoris was sending such delightful pleasure through her body, yet Pyxis craved something that went a bit further. Sliding all the way down, she began to use Nerlin's knot instead. That spherical bulge at the base of his erection was just slightly larger in circumference than the shaft above and below it, yet Pyxis could distinctly feel it as it slipped in and out of her body, repeatedly rubbing at just the right spots of her anatomy.

"I'm going to... Pyxis, I'm getting real close here..." Nerlin warned, but Pyxis just grinned and kept going.

"Me too." She was getting close to orgasm too, and idly she hoped that perhaps they might even be able to hit climax at the same moment. That seemed like it would be a nice thing, if they could somehow time it right. Pyxis gave Nerlin a quick kiss again. One kiss led into another, and then ended up just repeatedly licking each other's mouth, snout, even neck, just enjoying the intimate touch they were sharing.

Nerlin's grip on Pyxis's hips had been getting tighter, and suddenly she heard him groan. "Ok, yes. That's it. Done, and done. Ahahahhh..." The red-scaled drake let out a noise that sounded like a laugh which dragged out into a moan, and he bucked his hips upwards, thrusting his penis deep into Pyxis's slit.

"Did you just...? Oh, you did!" No longer able to move her hips, Pyxis watched with some mild amusement as the beginnings of an orgasm washed over Nerlin, and he started to lose control over his body. Thrusting his hips up, he used his paws to pull Pyxis down, firmly shoving him phallus as deep as it could possibly go. Immediately Pyxis also felt an increasingly pressure on the outer portions of her vagina as Nerlin's knot swelled all the way up inside her. She couldn't see it, of course, but just remembering what she'd seen yesterday made her feel very aroused. That thick, blood-engorged, sensitive bit of phallic flesh was now bulging up within her, locking Nerlin in as his body prepared for ejaculation. It was definitely stretching her, yet Pyxis felt no pain or discomfort--instead that stretching sensation felt uniquely pleasurable, and it made the rest of her vaginal muscles follow a reflex and tense up, clenching down tightly on the rest of Nerlin's erection. Pyxis got just a few brief seconds to enjoy this sensation, knowing what was about to happen next. "That's a first! You just knotted me."

Nerlin's gaze was just blankly staring at her, and he was repeatedly making semi-coherent moans. "Pyx, Pyxis... So good... I'm going to... Pyx... That's... Oh, oh yes... Ahhhh!" His moans were choked off by a desperate grunt, and Nerlin jerked and started repeatedly shuddering.

The first time Pyxis wasn't sure if she'd imagined it, but on the second pulse she distinctly felt a splash of warm liquid deep inside her slit as Nerlin's phallus did its job, delivering his semen into her in steady spurts. It was an incredibly intimate, deeply sexual moment to feel Nerlin shuddering underneath her, and Pyxis felt her own pleasure surge every time he twitched and his knot pulled at her slit, rubbing and pressing against sensitive spots in her anatomy.

Pyxis guessed that if she'd continued rubbing her clitoris for just a few more seconds she'd probably have joined Nerlin in climax, but at that moment she was enthralled by a desire to just watch and feel as her partner endured his own pleasure. Just the intimacy alone was enough to make her breathless. Pyxis's tail was still entwined with Nerlin's, and she could feel his appendage flag rhythmically in time with each pulse as all his muscles twitched, his body working hard to fill her with his seed.

Nerlin's orgasm seemed to last longer than before, longer than the previous day when Pyxis had used her paws to rub him. Finally Nerlin seemed to slowly come down from his high, and he gradually slumped back against the bed. His tongue was lolling out of his mouth, and his whole body seemed totally relaxed, as if his orgasm had drained his strength. Pyxis also found that faintly amusing, thinking about how it had literally took something out of him.

After a few moments more, Nerlin blinked his eyes open and stared at her. "Uh... Ok. I can now say from personal experience, mating is the best thing ever."

"I'm glad to hear you think so too," Pyxis agreed. "That was hot!"

"Did you... um... Did I last long enough to... to satisfy you?" Nerlin asked, looking concerned by the idea that Pyxis might find him inadequate. He looked so adorably embarrassed that Pyxis giggled and rubbed her cheek against his.

"I haven't hit my peak yet, but I'm sure that's something we can work on." Pyxis experimentally tried lifting her hips, and she found that Nerlin's knot had deflated back to normal size, though the rest of his erection remained fully rigid. As she slowly slid upwards, a mess of bodily fluids started dripping back down, but Pyxis didn't care. After a few hesitant strokes, she started humping Nerlin again, sliding his erect length in and out of her slit.

"Huuh! Ha!" Nerlin made a whimpering sound and his body jerked, half sitting up as he tried to buck his hips backwards away from her thrusting.

Pyxis paused. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. I'm just really, extra sensitive right after I finish."

"Oh, sorry," Pyxis said, but Nerlin shook his head.

"You can keep going. Just keep going."

Pyxis moved her hips up and down, and Nerlin grit his teeth and made that gasping, whimpering sound once more. His wings were pressing back against the bed as he tensed up. "Hah..."

"Are you _sure_you're ok?" Pyxis repeated. "You don't need to insist on being able to keep going just to please me. If you're too sensitive down there to continue mating, you could just use your paws... or maybe your mouth instead?"

Nerlin looked a bit embarrassed, but he nodded. "You can keep going. I'm really sensitive down there, but it's a good type of sensitive? Like it's so intense it's almost painful, but it's not painful. It's almost like being tickled through my underbelly?"

"And... you _like_being tickled?" Pyxis asked. Her neck frill was perking up as she learned something about Nerlin.

"Well I don't like being tickled, but this is a different sort of tickle. Anyway, keep going. Please?" Nerlin looked up at her with wide eyes, and Pyxis grinned.

She starting moving again, rocking her hips forwards and back and watching with amusement as Nerlin shuddered and whimpered at the overstimulation. He almost looked like he was in pain, but the moment she stopped he would ask her to continue. So Pyxis continued, soon speeding up as her own pleasure quickly climbed back up towards a peak. Her body felt like it was humming with sensation, and all her scales felt like they were getting more and more sensitive to even the slightest touch.

After about a minute or so, Nerlin's desperate whimpers became moans of pleasure again, and he began bucking his hips to thrust in phase with Pyxis, instead of instinctually trying to resist the overstimulation. "Nerlin, use... use your wings to hug me," Pyxis suggested, and Nerlin unfurled both his wings and wrapped them upwards around her, meaning that she was almost completely surrounded by him.

Pyxis could sense her orgasm arriving with rapidly finality. Her whole body was growing tense as that pleasure inside her tightened until it was almost unbearable. "I'm going to--mmmh!" she murmured, only to be cut off when Nerlin touched his snout against hers in a kiss.

Pleasure arced from her genital slit straight to her core, than jolted out through her whole body. A supernova of satisfaction exploded in her head, disintegrating all her thoughts and turning them to mush. Pyxis collapsed down against Nerlin, resting against him as the pleasure seemed to explode, then implode, then explode again in waves of overwhelming warmth. It made her lose track of everything except that drake holding her close, their chests and underbelly pressed together, and his wings wrapped around her back in a tight hug.

In the end, Pyxis wasn't sure if her bliss had actually been so intense as to briefly send her into a doze, or if she'd just been so overwhelmed that her thoughts needed a while to refocus, but finally she seemed to awaken back into a more coherent state of mind. Nerlin was still clutching her against his chest, and his phallus still felt fully rigid, faintly twitching inside her.

"We just mated... and it was good," Pyxis muttered, her words sounding slurred up together. "So good."

Nerlin leaned in and took a deep breath. It was a weird thing, but he had really come to love the way Pyxis smelled. Now there was a distinctive musky smell which clung to them both, the odour of sex created from various messy bodily fluids, but that wasn't what he was thinking about. At almost all times, even after Pyxis had just bathed, she just had this faint _smell_about her which Nerlin could detect if he got close. It didn't obviously smell like soap, perfume, food, or anything recognizable at all; it was just this very faint, unique smell of Pyxis. Maybe it was what her scales or skin just normally smelled like. At first Nerlin hadn't even noticed it, but the more time he spent in close proximity, the more he was growing attracted to it.

Snapping his attention back to the present, Nerlin nuzzled at Pyxis, who was still slumped over his body. He wrapped his wings tight around her and clutched her close, enjoying that intense intimacy. There was so much raw physical contact. Nerlin could feel every one of his scales pressed warmly against Pyxis's scales, and it was simply delightful to feel her weight resting down on him. They had contact in other areas too--their underbellies were pressed up against each other, and Nerlin penis was still fully erect and buried deep inside Pyxis's genital slit.

Nerlin started to make small motions, gently thrusting his hips and feeling that wet, warm, slick friction right around his most sensitive of organs. Pyxis noticed what he was doing, and she grinned. "Again?" was all she asked.

"Again!" Nerlin agreed. And they did it again.

Pyxis was still crouching over Nerlin's body, but this time she mostly kept still and let Nerlin do the work. He took charge of the motion, repeatedly bucking his hips upwards to thrust his erection in and out of Pyxis's slit. It was deeply pleasurable as they coupled with one another, obeying primal instincts to breed.

Despite Nerlin's prior arousal, this time Pyxis was the first one to reach a sexual peak. The blue-scaled drakka pressed her head against Nerlin's neck and made a quiet, desperate moan that sent a chill down his neck. Pyxis tensed up and her paws clutched Nerlin's shoulders, holding him close as she shuddered through a second orgasm. Her tail twitched, but Nerlin kept going, thrusting steadily even as Pyxis climaxed. He could feel her muscles clenching down on his length, squeezing him in a wonderfully pleasurable way that felt far better than anything else he'd ever experienced.

After a few more seconds of mad, desperate humping, Nerlin felt his own orgasm wash over him. Tight, tingly pleasure had been accumulating inside his underbelly, and now it surged outwards and he lost all control over his body as instinct overwhelmed him. "Grrahh... Pyx, Pyxis..." he moaned, clutching her close. Nerlin felt his knot bloat up again in a burst of incredible pleasure, then his groin muscles clamped down and sent even more of his semen pumping into Pyxis, flooding her egg chambers with sperm to fertilize her eggs, and nutrients to help her create the yolk, shell, and everything else needed to fulfil that basic biological imperative.

The pleasure was like a wave which crashed over Nerlin's entire mind, knocking all his conscious thoughts asunder. Reproduction was what every living creature strived to accomplish, and it felt so deeply rewarding for them to be coupled together, interlinked and sharing sexual release. Eventually that pleasure finally started to fade away, receding and leaving behind a deep layer of satisfaction that blanketed his whole body.

The two young dragons panted softly, still entwined in each other's grasp. Pyxis had bumped her snout against Nerlin's, not quite in a kiss, but just touching their heads together. When she straightened up, a thin strand of saliva briefly connected their mouths before she hurriedly licked it away. "That was fun..." she murmured.

"It was." Nerlin reached up and lightly batted at the necklace dangling from Pyxis's neck, watching the small gemstone spin around, glimmering red and blue in the light. They'd just mated. Was there any possible greater intimacy? After sharing pleasure together, it felt like there was an emotional link bonding the two of them together. Nerlin yawned, suddenly feeling sleepy.

Pyxis slowly lifted her weight of Nerlin, straightening her legs to separate their underbellies. Nerlin's penis slid out of her, along with a dripping mess of bodily fluids which dirtied his groin. "Oops," Pyxis murmured, then she giggled. "Hehe. That's a mess."

"It's a mess," Nerlin agreed. He used a paw and dabbed at his genital slit, feeling all the slick liquids. Idly he wondered how much of that had been from him, and how much from Pyxis. His penis was still erect, though his desire had been well satiated.

"Really, quite a mess!" Pyxis muttered. She awkwardly held a paw to her underbelly and did a three-legged walk to the washroom.

Nerlin raised his head to watch her, then he dropped back down at stared at the ceiling. For a moment he was lost in thought, then he rolled to feet and went to the washroom as well.

A while later, both young dragons were properly cleaned again and snuggling together on the bed. They were both avoiding a small wet spot which they'd created in the sheets. "We should have put a towel down, I guess. Mating involves way more clean-up than I realized," Pyxis said.

"It was worth it, though," Nerlin replied. He was lying on his side, with Pyxis cuddled against his back. "That was... unlike anything I've ever done before."

Pyxis made a pleased, satisfied rumbling sound. "Mmhhmmrr... I kind of want to do it again, but we shouldn't..."

Glancing over his shoulder, Nerlin made eye contact. "We could, if you want? I'm good to go again."

"But we just got all clean! I don't want to wash my scales so many times in a day." Pyxis yawned, and smacked her lips. "I'm feeling all warm and happy. You're so warm... Nice. I could just fall asleep right now."

"After all these nonstop days of travel and adventure, I'm not surprised you're tired. I'm tired too." Nerlin shifted position and licked Pyxis affectionately on the snout, and she made another happy sound. "Have I mentioned it's just so nice to hold you close?"

"Hnnmg... Yes... You still owe me a massage, though. Remind me to claim that tomorrow morning. Before we finally fly out of the city." Pyxis blinked, then she shut her eyes and snuggled up even tighter against Nerlin's back. "Good night..."

"Good night," Nerlin replied. He reached out to the bedside table and pressed a button to shut off the lights. Few pleasures compared to the comfort of falling asleep snuggled up next to someone you loved.

END

Next (and final?) chapter coming soon.

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