Twin Tail
Story by Oridian on SoFurry
Jarzyl goes exploring and does her best to remain an only child.
This story is self-contained and can be read alone. (2,258 words).
Reaching outwards, Jarzyl grabbed the vine that was hanging down the wall. She tugged the creeper once just to check that it was secure, and then she grabbed it with all four of her limbs and swung herself off the ledge. The clinging vine stretched slightly, swaying under her weight, but it remained embedded in the cliff side.
The dragon fledgling started to climb, pulling herself upwards one leg at a time to slowly ascend the cliff. She climbed until she reached a small outcropping that jutted out of the rock face. Carefully transferring her left fore and hind paws to grab on the outcropping, she kicked off the wall and used her momentum to swing herself onto the ledge.
Jarzyl sat back on her haunches and paused for a moment to catch her breath. Casually she stuck her head over the ledge to look down. Her room window, from which she'd started climbing, jutted out of the cliff a short distance below. That was all she could see as the early morning fog obscured everything else. If the air had been clear she would have been able to see that the drop continued much further, all the way to the ground, far, far below. Technically it wasn't fog but thick clouds through which the city was flying, but the effect was the same.
All that distance had once intimidated Jarzyl when she'd first peered out of her window years ago, but that had soon faded away. What sort of dragon would be afraid of heights, anyway? Now she climbed with no fear at all, completely confident in her grip, and if that were to fail, in her wings.
The fledgling started to stroll along the ledge, leisurely walking down the small outcropping of rock that ran along the cliff. She stepped over vines and roots, and even passed a large spider's web coated with tiny shining beads of dew. Jarzyl paused briefly at the sight and tried to spot where the spider was waiting, but the arachnid escaped her gaze and the young dragon walked on. The vines brushed her sides as she walked past them, leaving her orange scales wet from the morning dew. She had to shake herself dry, sending the water flying off in numerous droplets.
The whole roost had been built by her father, who'd used his magic to build with concrete, metal, and stone—creating rooms, doorways, windows, balconies, and even a small landing strip that protruded out from the cliff. The ledge which Jarzyl was now walking on was meant to prevent the rain from coming into their home and was supposedly also aesthetically pleasing. “This is our home! It's not just construction, it's architecture. A work of art," Jarzyl's father had said once, but her mother had just rolled her eyes. Jarzyl wasn't even sure what was the difference between construction and architecture, but she was personally glad that her father had put in this ledge, because it let her climb all around the outside of their home.
Unfortunately once her parents discovered her pastime, they had declared that clambering on ledges was far too dangerous for a young hatchling and swiftly banned Jarzyl from the activity. Of course that hadn't stopped her, but she just had to play safe and make sure she never did it when her parents could catch her.
Jarzyl slowed to a stop as she came to a break in the ledge. The section here had crumbled away, leaving a gap that had to be jumped. She had thought about asking her father to fix it, but she couldn't think of a good reason to explain how she knew it was damaged. The cloud was too thick for her to see the opposing side, but she hesitated for barely a second before bending her hindlegs and leaping forward into the mist.
Her claws slipped on the rock as she landed; she had fallen just a bit short, and the condensation had made the surface slick and slippery. For a precarious moment she was thrown off balance and sent slowly sliding over the ledge, but then she threw her wings open and flapped them in a quick downstroke. The move stabilized her and let her dig her talons into stone, gripping the ledge securely once more. “Yes!" Jarzyl muttered to herself, disproportionately proud of the move. She'd fledged only just a few weeks ago, and was still getting used to the idea of being able to fly everywhere by herself instead of just walking or being carried by her parents.
Jarzyl continued down the ledge, heading to one of her favourite spots. In a cleft in the rock, an owl had set up its nest, and it greatly amused Jarzyl to see the large bird quietly napping next to the small mound of carcasses that were the remains of its prey. Sometimes if she was too noisy the owl would crack an eye open to give her an annoyed look, and then it would turn its head all the way around to ignore her.
In a way, the nocturnal bird reminded Jarzyl of a nocturnal dragon she was good friends with—much like the owl, her friend often slept in the day and roamed in the night. Just recently they'd both learned how to fly, and she'd realized that even his wings were like the owl's and near silent in flight. That had come as a surprise. Jarzyl had compared her wings with her friend's, but neither of them had been able to determine what made his wingbeats so much quieter than hers.
A nocturnal dragon had as much right to be in in the city as she did, but how had an owl come to Avaeria? They whole city was flying high in the sky. Why had the large bird decided to fly all the way up here and live next to thousands of dragons?
Suddenly Jarzyl came to a stop as an odd noise came to her ears. It sounded like two dragons growling at each other, as if they were going to fight. She peered around trying to see through the fog and then quickly decided to investigate the sounds. The owl could wait—all it did was sleep through the whole day anyway. Because of the fog, she couldn't tell how far she'd been walking on the ledge and which part of her house this was. Grabbing the vines that still covered the rock face, she clambered down and headed towards the noises.
As she approached, the sounds got louder and she saw that the noises were coming from a window balcony much like hers. The fledgling let go of the vines and dropped onto the platform, rolling in mid-air to land on her paws. Her claws clicked loudly on the stone as she landed. She was on the balcony of her parents' bedroom, and both her mother and father were on their bed doing…something.
“Good morning!" chirped the fledgling cheerfully, “What are you doing?" Her mother was lying belly down on the bedding, and her father had climbed on top of her, resting his chest against her wings. Both of them had been tussling around, but they immediately froze when they saw her.
“Jarzyl!" exclaimed her mother, raising her head at the sight of their only child, “You're up early!"
“Well it's not that early if you two are awake as well," Jarzyl retorted. “What are you doing?" she repeated, but irritatingly her parents didn't answer the question.
“Did you climb the cliff side again? I thought I told you not to do that," said her mother.
“You said that it wasn't safe because I might slip and fall out of the city, so I shouldn't climb it. But…now that I can fly, I won't fall off the city and it's all safe. So what are you two doing?"
Her mother raised her wings slightly, as if trying to block something behind her from Jarzyl's sight. “We're uh, just playing around."
“Are you duelling? I like duelling! Is father alright? He looks weird. You look weird!" Jarzyl happily noted.
Her father had an odd expression on his face—a slight grimace, a dash of annoyed frown, and faint hints of something else which might have been pain or perhaps some other intense emotion. “Uh, I'm fine. I'm just… I was rather close to… finishing this duel, I guess you could say."
“Oh. So you won the fight? Because neither of you seem to be very good at it. But I'm good at fights! I always beat Atlas, even though he says it isn't fair because he only has three legs," Jarzyl declared. She gestured to her mother. “You're just lying there, letting father pin you down. You should get your paws under you and use the leverage to push him off. He hasn't even pinned down your neck, so you could try—"
“My dear," interrupted her mother, “I'm sure you're very good at fighting, but this isn't that sort of fight. It's, uh, a special sort of fight that adults do when they are mates. It's not just about winning."
“What? You don't try to win? So you just lose? Isn't that boring?" Jarzyl asked.
Her mother struggled to give a response. “We, uh, take turns winning. Or we try to fight in such a way that we both win at the same time. As long as everyone is happy in the end, that's good."
“What? Either you win or you lose in a fight. How do you both win?" asked the young dragon curiously. “How come father's got that face if he's winning too? What are you hiding behind your wings? How come I've never seen you do the special fight before? Why—"
“Okay, okay. Enough questions!" said her father suddenly. He made an odd back-and-forth motion with his hips, jumped off the bed and ran over to her, and then used his jaws to pick her up by the nape.
“Eep!" Jarzyl squawked loudly as she was carried out of the room by her scruff, lifted by the back of her neck between her wings. “Hey! What are you doing? Nooo! You can't just pick me up like a hatchling! I'm a fledge now! Put…me…down!"
Jarzyl thrashed around, but her father's jaws were firmly holding her by the scruff and she was still barely a third of his size. “I give the best advice! I'm a great fighter! I could beat you both, together! Without using my claws! Blindfolded! I'll show you!" As she was struggling, she caught sight of something between her father's legs. “Oh, your second tail is showing again. What's up with that? Doesn't that make it uncomfortable to fight? Hey! Stop ignoring me! I'm your daughter, you have to love me! Noooo, put me down!"
Ignoring her protests, her father slid the wooden bedroom door open, unceremoniously dropped Jarzyl in the corridor, and then he pulled the door shut again. The locking latch shut with a click.
“Oh, fine! Be that way!" Jarzyl grumbled. She pulled herself back to her feet, indignantly flicked her neck frill, and trotted off to the kitchen to find breakfast.
Inside the bedroom, Galon slammed his paw down and channelled his magic through the ground. The stone walls shifted and flowed, moving as if they were liquid and forming a solid rock barricade around the door. After a moment he turned and did the same thing with the window, so that they were enclosed on all four sides by solid stone. The early morning sun was replaced by the dim light of magical crystals, and the drake sighed in resignation. “Argh. Alright, I'll say it! Zil, you were right—I should've just removed that ledge. Children only know curiosity, not privacy."
“That's soundproof, right?" asked his mate, pointing at the stone blockade, and then she started laughing uncontrollably. “Haha, you should have seen your face! Hahahahaha!"
“Oh, you laugh!" Galon replied sarcastically, trying not to grin as his neck frill perked up. “Our moment of intimacy gets interrupted, and it's funny to you, is it?"
“It shouldn't be, but it was! Hehehe," Zilarin said. She took a deep breath and tried to restrain her giggling. “Watching you try to keep a straight face while your... was buried in me… your whole—what did she call it? Your second tail? Hahahaha! Hehehaha!" She burst out into fits of laughter again.
“You're the doctor! You can go explain to her the proper medical term if you want," Galon retorted, even as Zilarin kept giggling incessantly.
“Haha…"
Galon growled softly and playfully nibbled on his mate's neck. “Grr… keep laughing and I'll show you what I can do with my second tail," he added, which just made Zilarin snort and laugh even harder, slapping her paws against the ground.
“Pffft. Ahahahaha! Second… tail! I can't believe she actually said that." Zilarin flopped back down on the bed mat, rolled over onto her back, and spread her legs. “Show me! Finish it off then. Let's practice making an egg again…" she said, flashing a naughty grin.
Galon growled again, but this time in approval. He climbed over her prone form.
In the kitchen, Jarzyl hopped up onto the counter top. She popped open the lid of a glass jar and stuck her head in to snag out one of the cookies from inside. “A fight where both people win? How would that even work?" wondered the fledgling.
END
I actually wrote this story a long time ago, whereas the previous story (Flight School) was written just this week and immediately uploaded.