FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The dragon hatchling stared intently at the tip of her tail, watching it flick from left to right. "Grrr!" she growled, though the noise coming from her throat sounded more like a childish purr than the deep rumbling growl of an adult dragon. The more she watched, the more excited she got, which in turn made her tail twitch faster.

"Rrrrr...hah!" Finally all her pent-up energy exploded outwards as she attempted to pounce on her own tail. The young dragon flipped, twisted, and somersaulted in a burst of motion as she tried to chase the appendage. "I'll...get...you!"

Zilarin Mintaka glanced up from her paperwork and noticed her daughter's display of childish energetics. Clearing her throat, she looked across the table to where her mate was sitting. "Galon? Jarzyl seems bored. Do you want to take her out for a walk?"

"Hmm? Well since you ask, not really," replied Galon Mintaka without looking up. The drake was busy using his stone magic to carve a small block of stone. It was going to end up as a cup, but for now it still looked like a cube of rock. Carving was delicate work; it took great patience and concentration as he slowly chipped away at the stone with his claws, scraping away thin layers with each move. Strictly speaking, it was still possible to carve stone even if one didn't have stone magic, but nevertheless his mate had never shown much interest in picking up the hobby for herself. In Galon's opinion, Zilarin didn't know how much fun she was missing out on.

Jarzyl was still spinning in circles, twirling round and round endlessly as she tried to catch her tail. She wasn't watching her surroundings as she spun, and she ended up crashing headfirst into the wall. "Oh!" exclaimed the hatchling as she dropped to the floor. Zilarin looked over to her daughter in concern, but Jarzyl just blinked and rubbed her nose with her paws. "Ow, ow, ow. I'm okay. I meant to do that. I did!" She jumped up from the ground, before leaping onto and somersaulting off from the wall, flinging her wings open in a flamboyant gesture. "Ta-dah! Take that, wall!"

Then she resumed whirling and chasing her tail. "RRRrrrRRRrrrRRRrrr!"

Zilarin nodded, and then she stood up and walked over to the other side of the table. She cleared her throat again, louder this time, and gently took the stone cube from Galon's paws. "Let me rephrase. Jarzyl seems rather bored. We're going to take her out for a walk."

Right, so that been one of those questions that wasn't really a question. "Hmm? Oh. Yes. That's a great idea," said Galon. He took his stone cube back from his mate and carefully placed it up on a shelf that jutted out from the wall, just high enough that a curious young hatchling couldn't reach it even by tiptoeing on her hindlimbs.

Noticing that her parents were standing up, Jarzyl whirled over in their general direction until she smashed into her mother's side. The hatchling wavered from left to right as she fought a wave of dizziness, then she shook her head and launched herself at her father's tail. Jarzyl still had at least a few years to go before she'd hit the fledgling growth spurt and learned how to fly, so her whole body length was still barely a fifth of her parents'. Yet her miniscule size didn't stop her from trying to sink her teeth into her father's tail and endeavouring to tug him to the ground.

"You're...going...down!" she exclaimed, between unsuccessful attempts to pin down her father's tail with her forepaws. Galon started walking out of the living room and Jarzyl ended up pulled across the ground. She tried to hold on to her father's tail with her jaws and dig her claws into the floor, but without enough traction she ended up being dragged across the room behind him. She released his tail and scampered up onto his back, opting to switch tactics. "Ha! You're running away, so that means you're losing! I win!" declared the hatchling triumphantly, deciding to settle for a psychological victory.

"Yes, dear, very good. Now we're going to go for a walk, okay?" said Galon.

"Okay! Where we going? Are we going to the pools? Or the aerodrome? I like watching the airships fly," said Jarzyl.

"How about we just go visit the market?" suggested Galon. He glanced to his mate for confirmation, and got a nod of agreement in reply.

"That works," said Zilarin. "We can look around the marketplace and find dinner. What do you think of that, Jarzyl?"

Jarzyl jumped off her father's back and trotted beside her parents as they entered their bedroom. "Okay!" chirped the hatchling. She liked the market! There were so many interesting things to see, and all sorts of strange smells and sounds to experience.

Galon started putting on his flight harness, which was a grid of leather straps and pouches that helped a dragon to carry things whilst walking or flying.

"Oh, hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!" exclaimed Jarzyl, jumping up and down excitedly. "Should I wear my harness too?"

"You don't have to," replied Galon. Flight harnesses were worn for convenience, not modesty, and if Jarzyl needed anything carried about she could just pass it to him or Zilarin.

However, that answer didn't satisfy the energetic hatchling. Jarzyl frowned and turned to her mother, who was pulling on her own harness as well. If her parents we wearing their harnesses, she wanted to do so as well. "But I want to! Can I? Please? Please, please, plea--"

"If that's what you want, go ahead," replied Zilarin.

Jarzyl jumped onto her father's side and used his flight harness to clamber onto his shoulders. The hatchling flipped onto her back and pedalled all her legs forward and back. "Yes. Yeeesss!" She flipped back over and leapt across the room, bouncing off her mother's back to land on the floor. The two adult dragons watched as their daughter scampered out of the room.

"How is it possible for one hatchling to have so much energy? Is there a medical condition for having extreme amounts of energy and being completely unable to sit still?" Galon asked.

"Yes, it's called being young," replied Zilarin. "One day Jarzyl will be all big and grown up, and you'll miss the days when she was small enough to climb on your back."

Jarzyl zipped back into the room, fully equipped with her own miniature harness in record time. "I am back! Did you guys miss me? I missed you," she chirped.

Her father patted Jarzyl affectionately on the head, ruffling her neck frill. He reached down to his flight harness and took out a pair of triangular flags made of cloth--his wing pennants--which he then attached to the tips of his wings. The pennants were dyed to an azure blue colour.

Jarzyl reared up on her hindlimbs and tried to bat at the pennants dangling from her father's wings. "Why are you wearing those? You only wear them when you're with mother," she observed.

"He wears them because I gave them to him, about nine years ago," Zilarin said. She reached over to a shelf and snatched up her own pair of pennants, which were coloured yellow-gold. "And then he gave me this pair of pennants in return. Can you guess why?"

Jarzyl tilted her head as she considered the question. "Were you swapping presents? Pennants aren't good presents. You can't do anything with a pennant except wear it. That's boring."

Zilarin chuckled and swept her wing across Galon's back, letting her pennant slide over his scales. The triangular flag matched the colour of his scales exactly, just like how Galon's azure-coloured pennants matched her scales exactly. "These are mate pennants. We wear these as a symbol to the world that we're mates." The drakka swept her wing shut and looked at her daughter thoughtful. "Maybe one day when you're all grown up, you'll give someone a pair of orange pennants."

Jarzyl glanced down at all the orange coloured scales covering her hide, then she shook her head. "No way! I don't want to be someone's mate. I am self-motivated! I can make it all alone!" she decided.

"That's what I thought when I was young too, until I met your mother and she stole away my illusion that I could be happy with solitude." Galon flicked his neck frill. "But you don't you worry about all that, Jarz. The future can wait."

He filled one of the pouches on his harness with money for the outing, which made Jarzyl nudge his leg with her nose. "Hey, what's that? What are you carrying? I want to carry something too!"

"Alright, here you go. This is for you," Galon said, giving her a single small coin that was minted in the shape of a hexagon. It was far from a fortune, but Jarzyl took it like she'd been handed all the wealth in the world.

"Gold! It's shiny! It's mine now. All mine," exclaimed the hatchling. She clutched the coin to her chest, and then carefully slipped it into the harness pouch on her left shoulder. "Uh, is there anything else I can help carry?"

Zilarin chuckled at their young daughter's enthusiasm. The azure-scaled drakka took her mate's stone cube from the shelf and handed it to the excited hatchling. "Why don't you carry this?" she suggested.

Jarzyl took the stone cube and carefully tried to squeeze it into one of harness pouches. It would only just barely fit into the largest pouch on her back. She appeared happy to carry the cube, even if it was just dead weight. "Okay! What is it? Is it a rock? It looks like a rock."

"It's one of you father's very important rocks--an artistic rock," explained Zilarin.

From her tone of voice, Galon suspected this was a jab about his enjoyment of artistry, but he didn't mind. The point of taking Jarzyl for a walk was to give her an outlet for all her energy, so letting her carry more weight would help. "Just don't lose it," he told his daughter, "It may just be a rock, but even a simple cube has aesthetic appeal."

"Huh? What's 'aesthetic appeal'?" asked Jarzyl.

Galon cocked his head and raised his neck frill as he thought about that question. "Aesthetic appeal means...being artistic and beautiful. Think about this: A cube is simple, symmetric, and the most basic building block. It has six different sides, all the exact same size, and each side has four edges, but they are all of the exact same length. It's symmetry within symmetry. That's art."

Imitating her father, Jarzyl tilted her head and raised her own neck frill. "Okay! Yes! I don't understand. How does that make it art?"

"It's very hard to explain exactly what art is. Even some adults still don't know how to fully appreciate art. But not me! I've got an eye for beautiful things," Galon replied, casually unfurling a wing and wrapping it around his mate's back.

Zilarin chuckled and licked the side of Galon's muzzle. "Speaking of which; after this walk and dinner, you and I should do some mutual appreciation of the sensual arts. It's been quite a few days, hasn't it?"

"I completely agree," said Galon, exchanging a lewd look with his mate.

"I still don't understand," said Jarzyl, looking very confused.

Galon smiled at her innocence. "It's a grown-up thing. All you need to know is that if you want to carry that cube, go ahead. Now, let's go."

Then the three of them set out, walking to the city centre and the marketplace.

---

---

Jarzyl pranced between her parents as they walked, taking five steps for every one of their strides. Far overhead, an airship flew above them, its thrusters making the air shimmer and distort around its metallic hull as the craft powered its way through the air. Jarzyl sprinted ahead excitedly as she tried to stay under the airship's shadow.

As she rushed ahead a bit too far, Galon used his magic to tug on the stone cube Jarzyl was carrying in her harness--just a gentle pull to remind her not to get too far from them. "Slow down, Jarzyl! Wait for us."

Jarzyl turned around obediently and trotted back to her parents, but as they approached the marketplace she jumped up onto her mother's back so she could see through the growing crowd. "I can smell the market! It smells like tasty. I like it. Tasty! Mmm."

Avaeria's market square was a large open-air area filled with stalls selling various goods. Jarzyl bounced up and down on her mother's shoulders. It always amazed her how the world could be so interesting. Commotion and activity everywhere! Traders were loudly hawking their wares, while merchants excitedly showed off their products. It was so noisy and crowded and colourful.

Dragons of all colours were walking around or browsing, looking at everything from food to healing crystals. There was so much to see! Tiny glittering gems embedded into jewellery! Intricate clockwork mechanisms that clicked and spun! New flight harnesses, boasting the latest designs and fashions! Snack food, freshly cooked and ready to be eaten! Puzzles, toys, games, newspapers, stationary, books, cleaning products, fresh produce, groceries, cakes, candy, soap; there was so much of everything!

Jarzyl jumped down and ran over to watch a street performer who was spinning a baton around his tail. The performer tossed the baton high in the air, ignited both ends with a blast of firebreath, and caught it with his tail again. Without a pause, he continued twirling the baton and spun it around with his forepaws as well, and then he flung it into the air again and hit it with a blast of frost, extinguishing the flames with an exhalation of icy magic.

"Wow! I want to learn how to do that!" exclaimed Jarzyl, pointing as her parents came up behind her. She was still not even a fledgling, and dragons didn't develop their magical affinities until they reached at least thrice her age, but that didn't stop her imagining how fun it would be to breathe fire. She'd burn everything!

"Galon, since it's my turn to cook today, why don't you keep taking Jarzyl around why I go look for groceries for dinner?" suggested Zilarin.

"Sure. See you back here in a while," agreed Galon.

Zilarin licked her mate's neck affectionately. "What do you two want for dinner? Any opinions?"

Jarzyl was happy to express her preference for food. "Fried fish! Or fried chicken! I want to eat something fried. I'm hungry," she declared.

"You can't eat fried food all the time. It's unhealthy and you'll end up fat," replied her mother.

"I need to get fat!" replied the hatchling, turning to stare at her own sides with a critical gaze. "I'm too thin; I'm not like you."

Zilarin raised an eye ridge, wondering if she had just been insulted by her own progeny. "Oh, you're saying that I'm not thin like you? So I'm fat?"

"No, you're not fat! You're medium!" insisted Jarzyl, with the sort of innocent enthusiasm that only a hatchling could pull off. "Except maybe here...this part is a bit fat..." she added, pointing towards her mother's belly.

Galon did his best to keep a straight face, but his neck frill stood all the way upwards as he tried to avoid laughing. He hurriedly picked Jarzyl up and let her rest on his shoulder before she could point out more supposed flaws with her mother's figure. "Jarz! No, you're not allowed to say that!"

Zilarin shook her head in an amused, exasperated manner. "Alright, I guess we'll be eating salad."

Galon responded by affectionately licking the side of his mate's snout. "Just so you know, I think you're perfectly medium."

"Thanks. Your adoration keeps my self-esteem reinforced. I'll see you two later," Zilarin said. She licked the side of Galon's snout, and Jarzyl's whole neck, much to the hatchling's embarrassment.

"Don't lick me! I'm a big dragon! I can clean myself!" Jarzyl insisted. She raised her wing and waved goodbye as her mother vanished into the crowds.

Jarzyl kept watching the street performer twirl and throw his batons for a few minutes, but then she grew bored. She bounced up and down on her father's shoulder to get his attention. "Let's look at something else. Go that way, full ahead!" ordered the hatchling, pointing a tiny paw in the direction of another stall. Galon had recently bought her a children's book that talked about airships and how they worked, and Jarzyl liked to pretend that she was captain of one of the huge, floating, metallic craft.

"Full ahead means going straight ahead at full speed. We'll need to turn before we go straight if you want to go that way," explained her father.

"Oh, okay. Fire port thrusters!" declared Jarzyl.

"Isn't port to the left? Don't we want to go to the right?"

"Yeah! You fire the left thrusters to go right. Onwards! Ahead! Go!"

"Aye, aye, captain." Galon turned and started walking towards the stall Jarzyl was pointing at. He sped up until they were going at a slow jog. Their target was a balloon stand with a large bundle of balloons floating in the air, each tied down with string. "We're getting close now. Don't you think we should slow down?" he asked as they approached.

"What? No...? Never! No slowing down! Engines to ramming speeds! All crew brace for impact!" insisted Jarzyl. "Hehehe..." She giggled softly, and Galon felt her tiny claws prick his shoulder as she held on tight.

Yet despite Jarzyl's orders, Galon slowed down to a stroll and then stopped completely so he didn't walk right into the stand. "Sorry, the airship doesn't want a crash," he told her.

"Mutiny! I am the captain! Captain says ramming speeds! Onwards, onwards!" ordered Jarzyl. When her father refused to ram himself into the stall, she jumped off his shoulder and trotted up to the stand. She put her forepaws up on the table and gazed up at all the balloons floating above the stand.

"Wow. Colours!" she chirped, staring up with a fascinated expression. Jarzyl started identifying the colours of each balloon, proudly demonstrating her knowledge of colours to everyone within earshot. "Red! Blue! Purpule...? No. Purp--purble...whatever. Green!"

The elderly merchant chuckled and bent his neck to smile at her. "You're a clever little one, aren't you? And what colour is this one?"

"Yellow! It's yellow." Jarzyl turned back to make sure her father was giving her his full attention. "Look, look! It's yellow, like you!" she repeated.

"That's right, I've got gold scales," agreed her father. "Now which balloon is the same colour as your mother?"

Jarzyl paused for a moment, and then she pointed a claw towards a different balloon. "There, that one! It's azure just like how she is. It's not exactly the same colour, but almost."

"Yep. Now, which balloon is the same colour as you?" asked Galon.

Jarzyl pointed her paw again. "That one! It's amber. I'm amber," declared the hatchling, proudly spreading her wings to show off her orange colouration. "There are so many colours! I want one. Can I have one? Please? I'll use my coin."

Galon flicked his neck frill and nodded his head. "Alright, Jarzyl, but only one."

"Yes! I want, uh..." Jarzyl ran around the stand, looking over the cluster of balloons to choose her favourite. If she only could have one balloon, then it had better be the best balloon. "That one!" she decided, pointing at a specific balloon that was a suitable orange and also pleasingly large.

The merchant untied the balloon, but he hesitated before handing it too her. "This one's a bit big for you. Maybe a smaller one? We can't have you floating away."

"No, I want that one. I want it." Jarzyl turned to her father for support, but disappointingly he also had an unsure expression on his face. "Why do grown-ups have to hate fun?" wondered the hatchling.

Galon could recognize the wide-eyed, pitiable, "I'm your daughter, please love me, please, please," expression that Jarzyl was giving him, but he wasn't going to let her bite off more than she could chew. The balloon Jarzyl had chosen was bigger than she was, even with her wings fully extended and tail stretched out. Dragons had hollow bones and they weighed far less than any similarly sized creature that could not fly, so it was entirely possible that Jarzyl didn't weigh enough to hold down the huge balloon she wanted. "Let's see about that."

Galon bent down and used his paw to pick Jarzyl up by her scruff. "Eep!" squawked the hatchling in protest as she was lifted off the ground.

With his other paw, Galon took the balloon and compared its buoyancy against his daughter's weight. "You've gotten heavier than I remember. Actually, I think you're probably heavy enough." The downwards force was just barely greater than the upwards, so he carefully tied the balloon to Jarzyl's flight harness and let her back down.

"Yes! Thanks! I love you! You are the best!" declared Jarzyl. She turned from her father to the merchant. "Uh, how--how much does it cost?"

"Half a hex," replied the merchant, gesturing towards the painted sign that held all the prices.

Jarzyl took out the small hexagonal gold coin from her shoulder pouch and passed it over to pay for her balloon. The merchant took her payment and returned her the excess change in several coins made of lesser metals. Jarzyl carefully inspected and counted all the coins to ensure she'd been returned the correct amount. "I guess I'll save the rest," she decided, putting the coins into her pouch. Galon nodded in approval, feeling rather proud that his daughter hadn't impulsively tried to spend all her money on balloons. It was a small thing, but financial responsibility was still a crucial life skill.

Now that the transaction was complete, Jarzyl stopped being serious and went back to being exuberant. She started jumping around and immediately realized that with her weight partially offset by the balloon's buoyancy, she could easily spring over her father's back in a single leap. "Look at me! I'm flying! Whee!"

Galon smiled at his daughter's excitement, and the merchant couldn't resist grinning as well when the hatchling started doing twists and spins as she jumped up and floated back down. "Ah, your daughter's an adorable little bundle of energy, isn't she?" said the merchant.

"Indeed she is. Jarzyl's got more energy than both me and her mother combined," agreed Galon.

"Hey. Heeey!" chirped Jarzyl, waving at the merchant with one of her wings. "You've got all the colours, right? But how come there's no black? I don't see any black balloons."

"Ah, so you're not just clever, you're curious! There aren't black balloons because I only have brightly coloured balloons, and black is a very dark colour. It doesn't stand out," replied the merchant.

Still trying to do spins, Jarzyl turned to her father. "Black doesn't stand out? But Atlas is black! Does that mean he doesn't stand out?" she pondered, thinking about one of her friends who had jet-black scales.

"Well, dear, that's because Atlas is a nocturnal dragon," explained Galon. "He's a little bit different from me and you, that's all. If Atlas was in the wild he would hunt in the night, so he's dark in colour to blend in with the darkness. Nocturnal dragons are still dragons, they're just a bit different."

"Night? Dark? But--oh! That... that makes sense!" exclaimed Jarzyl, briefly filled with wonder at this incredible revelation. She'd long known that her friend was a night dragon while she was a day dragon, but she'd never realized that this was why his scales were darker in colour. Amazing!

"Maybe I should start stocking black and grey coloured balloons," mused the merchant, "I never really thought about it, but I guess a nocturnal would definitely want a balloon that was the same colour as their scales."

Suddenly Jarzyl had an idea--it was a good, no, a great idea. She kicked herself into the air, and flapped her wings until she landed on her father's back again.

"Hmm. That's one _really_big balloon. Where do you even get balloons so large?" Galon asked the merchant.

The aged drake scratched his head. "Eh, most of these are just for decoration or parties, but the bigger ones were made by the Avaerian Upper Learning Institute for one of their research projects. It didn't work out, but they were willing to sell me their excess."

Neither of the adults was paying attention to Jarzyl, which was (for now) just fine by her. She twisted her neck around and reached for her flight harness to pull open her dorsal carrying pouch, and then she carefully tugged out the stone cube that she was carrying and dropped it onto her father's back. Great idea, great idea!

"A research project? What would they need huge balloons for?" wondered Galon, unaware of his daughter's scheming.

"Uh, I think they wanted to try using balloons to measure the weather instead of having a dragon carrying the instruments into the clouds," replied the merchant. "As I'm to understand it, they attached this fancy magical contraception that could sense the winds and temperature and all that. It was supposed to save effort, but in the end I think the problem was they had to send out a dragon to catch the balloons anyway. I think. My great-grandson could probably explain it better. Hey, uh, I suspect your daughter is up to something..."

Without the added weight of the stone cube, Jarzyl found herself being tugged into the air by her balloon. She held on to her father's flight harness for a few seconds, and then she released her grip and was quickly lifted into the sky.

"She's getting away! We've got an escapee!" exclaimed the merchant.

Heeding the warning and sensing the sudden loss of weight on his back, Galon spun around to discover that Jarzyl was casually floating away on the breeze. "Jarzyl!"

"Look at me! I'm flying!" chirped the hatchling. Looking straight down, it was an intoxicating feeling of freedom to see the ground falling away below her. There was nothing under her paws but air! She could spread her wings and imagine that she was actually soaring. "Hah, haha! Wheeee!"

"Jarzyl!" Galon saw the rock cube sitting on the ground, and he instantly realized why his daughter was now light enough to float away. "Jarzyl, come down!" he yelled, although he wasn't quite sure he she was going to accomplish this. The drake hurriedly leaned back on his hindlegs and tried to jump vertically upwards to catch her, but she was just a bit too high for his leap.

Jarzyl waved at him with her wings as his outstretched nose just barely passed under her own paws. "Hello!"

"Can't jump, you've got to fly to catch her!" called the merchant.

Galon tried to look around, but in the congestion of the marketplace there was no room for him to takeoff. There simply wasn't enough space to do a short takeoff run. If it was windier he might have tried to jump directly into flight, but near the ground the air was completely still and calm.

As Jarzyl floated higher and higher into the air, she had a bird's eye view of the whole marketplace. She had no fear of falling; even if the balloon had somehow popped, she assumed that she could open her wings and try to glide down safely. "Wow..." she murmured. This was different from riding on her parent's backs or sitting in the carrier pouches on their flight harnesses while they flew; now she could turn her head and look in all directions to see whatever she wanted without any obstruction.

A sudden gust of wind hit Jarzyl from one side, and she reacted by immediately twisting her wings, which spun her around until she was facing directly in the direction of the breeze. Jarzyl didn't know what she was doing, but her natural flight instincts were intuitively telling her to face into the headwind.

Back on the ground, Galon and the balloon merchant were both trying to signal to someone who was already in the air, but there weren't that many dragons flying near the marketplace, and in the crowded space they couldn't stand out enough to wave anyone over. "Excuse me! Anyone? I need some help over here!" Galon yelled.

Floating high above the marketplace, Jarzyl was feeling a deep sense of calm. This was an exquisite, unique experience for the energetic hatchling--everything was just so peaceful in the air, so free. "Is this what it's like to fly with your own wings?" she wondered, "It's amazing... I can't wait to fledge."

Her tranquillity was interrupted when she spotted an airship powering through the air. Jarzyl perked up and looked over excitedly; the airship was getting closer! In fact, it appeared to be coming right towards her, so she'd get to see it up close!

When Galon noticed the airship, his reaction was far less positive. "No, that transport is going to hit her. Jarzyl! Jarzyl, break the string and I'll catch you! Or just take off your flight harness! Pull the release catches! Jarzyl!!"

As the airship approached her, Jarzyl was watching with a mesmerized fascination. When she happened to glance downwards, she noticed her father was making noise and seemed to be waving his wings. Why was he doing that? She couldn't quite make out his voice, but he seemed rather agitated.

But when she glanced back up towards the airship, all of a sudden it seemed much closer. Its angular metal hull resembled a rounded cylinder with fins jutting out at semi-regular distances, and she could see the air tremble and shake from the force of its thrusters. For the first time Jarzyl felt a tinge of worry, and her fascination was replaced with a growing trepidation. Instinctively she knew that she had to avoid a mid-air collision, but without any training or experience with flight, all she did was stare at the airship as it came closer and closer on its collision course.

Galon was almost panicking. He needed to get into the air and fly to catch his daughter, but there simply wasn't enough space for him to do a takeoff run. "Hey, hey! Clear the way, I need to fly! Get out of the way!" he yelled, but the crowd was too noisy for his voice to have an impact. A few passers-by turned to look at him, but there were only a few people who cared to hear what he was shouting about and even fewer still who noticed the airborne hatchling and her balloon.

He felt someone tap him on the shoulder and he spun around, only to discover that it wasn't the elderly balloon merchant. A pair of enforcers was standing behind him; one was a corporal, the other a lieutenant. The lieutenant's scales were dark green, and they were both wearing grey-white striped harnesses which proudly marked their authority.

"Is there a problem here, drak? You're making a commotion," asked the corporal. She was a nocturnal drakka with slate-grey scales on her back that lightened to a blue-grey on her belly. Like all nocturnals, she wore a pair of darkened lenses over her sensitive eyes to shield them from the blinding light of day.

Trying to remain calm, Galon whirled back around and pointed right at Jarzyl. "That's my daughter! I need to fly to catch her--"

"Oh, nullfire!" swore the corporal, as she spotted the hatchling dangling below the balloon, as well as the airship flying right for her. "Not something I see every day..."

Immediately, the lieutenant reached down to his flight harness and started speaking into a radio set in a quick but practiced tone. "Attention airship over sector zero-six, identification...CP-95-32. Traffic, traffic. Watch your front. Check course and adjust immediately." He repeated the message a few times, but there was no response over the radio and the airship didn't appear to change its course. The lieutenant growled in annoyance. "Grah. They can't hear us. It looks like they're not on the ground frequency. That is against regulation! All airships operating within city airspace should have an active comms set tuned to ground frequency--"

"We can lodge a complaint with transportation division later! Right now there's a hatchling in trouble," said the corporal.

"Of course," agreed the lieutenant. He took out a red-coloured cylindrical tube from his harness's chest pouch. "I've got a flare; we can try and signal--"

"No, there's no time for that," replied the corporal, shaking her head.

At this point the airship was almost on top of Jarzyl. They were seconds away from impact. Galon glanced around; even with the two enforcers, most people in the crowd still weren't paying any attention. "If you get the crowd to clear some space, I can fly to--"

"No time for that either. I'll get her!" The corporal pushed him aside and threw her wings open. Her flight scales extended fully and locked, which surprised Galon. The crowd was dense and dragons were moving in all directions around them. There simply wasn't enough space for her to perform a takeoff, except that she didn't need to takeoff. A whirling sphere of magic spun into existence around the enforcer, and then she vanished in a burst of chromatic light as she channelled her power.

"Terras, whatever you're thinking--oh, she's already gone," said the lieutenant. He and Galon both swung their heads upwards and watched the skies. A sphere of magic had appeared just above Jarzyl and her balloon, marking where the enforcer had teleported to. As they watched, the corporal dropped out of the air and dived towards the hatchling.

Jarzyl was calmly singing a tune to herself. "Hmm, hmm. Wings will take us high, let's wave the ground goodbye; wherever we go we fly, won't stop till we touch the...sky!" She swung her wings forwards and back, which made her rock from side to side below the balloon. Down on the ground, she could see her father talking with a pair of drakken who looked like enforcers. She hoped that he wasn't in any trouble with them. Enforcers were in charge of being serious and catching bad people, which was cool, but also scary, which made them even cooler.

The airship was much, much, closer now, but it didn't seem to be moving that fast. Jarzyl's encyclopaedia book had said that the fastest airship still couldn't fly anywhere near as fast as a dragon, so surely it wouldn't hit her that hard. She was slightly below the airship's flight path, so unfortunately she couldn't see the top deck superstructure or the command bridge. All she could see was the huge metallic hull, but wow it was big! It was so close, almost close enough to touch. I want to touch it, Jarzyl decided. She stretched her left wing forward and extended it towards the airship as it bore down upon her at speed...

Suddenly there was flash of light above her and to the right, accompanied by a sharp snapping noise_. "_Whoa!" squawked Jarzyl as paws closed around her and gently tugged her to the side.

"Don't worry, I got you!" said someone. Jarzyl glanced up and saw that it was one of the enforcers her father had been speaking to. She wanted to reply that she wasn't worried at all, but then before she could speak up, they smashed into the airship. The drakka who was holding her took the brunt of the impact, but even as they were thrown aside by the airship's slanted hull, Jarzyl managed to extend a wing and brush the tip of her limb against the metal. I touched it!

Galon's breath caught in his throat as the corporal teleported just above Jarzyl and barely managed to snatch her aside before the airship hit. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the enforcer crashed against the airship's hull. Airships couldn't fly that fast and the collision had just been a light impact, but then they got caught in the wake of one of the stabilizing thrusters. The rushing air from the thruster shoved the dragons downwards and sent them spinning down through the air.

Jarzyl felt a sharp jerk, and then the world was whirling around her with wonderful speed. The ground was rapidly approaching. "Wheeeeee!" she cheered gleefully.

The enforcer mistook her exhilaration for fear. "You'll be fine!" she yelled, trying to reassure the hatchling. "I'll keep you safe, just hang on to me..."

Jarzyl threw her wings open and felt the air rush around them. She couldn't see what was going on, but her internal sense of direction was spinning madly. This was so much fun! "Ahhhhh--oh! Oof!" Suddenly there was a huge gust of wind that blasted them, and then she crashed against a flat, grey-blue wall. No, not a wall but scales. She was lying flat against the enforcer's chest, still being clutched protectively in her paws.

They were on the ground.

Jarzyl raised her head and saw her father scrambling towards them. "Jarzyl, Jarzyl! Are you alright?" She wanted to raise a wing and wave at him, but then someone grabbed her firmly by the scruff and all her muscles instinctively went limp.

"Eep..." squeaked the hatchling.

"I believe... I believe this belongs to you," said the corporal, passing Jarzyl over to her father's waiting paws.

"Yes, yes, thank you!" Galon nuzzled his daughter, uncaring about the passers-by who had stopped to watch. Despite the dramatic rescue and follow-up crash landing, most people were still going around their business as usual. "Jarzyl! Jarzyl. Are you hurt?"

Jarzyl used a paw to playfully try and bat at his nose. "No, I'm fine. That was fun!" she said.

Galon shook his head. "Never, never do that again! You hear me? That was dangerous! You could have been badly hurt!" He clipped Jarzyl's flight harness onto his, letting her weight sit in one of the chest pouches. After that stunt she'd just pulled, he wouldn't be letting her out of his sight for a good long while.

"Don't let me catch you doing that again," was how Jarzyl interpreted her father's message. The whole escapade had been tremendous fun! Unfortunately her balloon was gone now, and it didn't seem like she'd be getting a new one. Not today at least. What a waste of her coin.

The corporal rolled over and slowly pushed herself back to her feet. "That huge updraft, that was you?" she asked, turning to the other enforcer.

"Yes. If I hadn't used my air magic right before impact, you'd have hit much harder," replied the lieutenant. "This was quite unorthodox, but it worked."

"Thank you! Both of you!" exclaimed Galon. "That was incredibly brave what you did there, officer...?"

"Corporal Terras, at your service," said the nocturnal drakka. She made a short bow, inclining her neck, and then she shook herself all over, dislodging a few scales that had cracked or come loose when she'd crashed into the airship and then the ground.

"And I'm Lieutenant Mirntalian," said the other enforcer. "Drak, I'm incredibly glad that your daughter is safe, but I do suggest that you take more care next time. Balloons aren't really supposed to be dangerous objects..."

"Yes, of course!" agreed Galon. He just couldn't quite express how relived he felt. "This has all been... When you teleported right above her and snatched her out of the way, taking that hit yourself, that was just heroic! I'll write in. You deserve a medal for this!" he said.

Corporal Terras shook her head modestly. "That's not necessary, drak. Saving hatchlings, dodging airships; just another day's work in Enforcement Division."

The lieutenant raised an eye ridge; from his expression, Galon suspected that he was equally impressed by his colleague's display of bravery. "Your work days must be much more exciting than mine..." commented Lieutenant Mirntalian. He glanced upwards--the airship had cleared the marketplace and was heading off with no indication that anyone on board had even noticed the minor collision. "I'm going to submit a report, detailing how that airship wasn't listening to the proper radio frequencies and failed to maintain visual awareness of the surrounding airspace. And I will mention your quick thinking and selfless initiative."

"Thank you, lieutenant," said Terras. She bent down and tickled Jarzyl under the chin, making the hatchling giggle. "As for you, you'd better be careful next time you fly."

Galon peered down at his daughter, sitting in his flight harness chest pouch. "Did you hear that, Jarzyl? "Say 'thank you' to these brave enforcers for rescuing you."

Jarzyl grinned at the two enforcers and dipped her head. "I'll be careful. Thank you!" she chirped. Her father seemed so relieved about her safety that he appeared to have forgotten the whole thing had been her fault. She put on her most innocent, wide-eyed expression, which from experience was often cute enough that she could avoid punishment.

Galon thanked the enforcers again, mentally making sure to memorize their names so that he could write in to their superiors and commend them. Then he brought Jarzyl to the side of the market square, where it was quieter and less crowded.

"Hey, what's 'heroic'? You called that enforcer heroic. What's that mean?" asked Jarzyl, as she was carried across the marketplace.

"When someone is heroic, it means they are acting like a hero. It means being brave, and courageous, and fearless," replied her father. "That enforcer protected you from getting hit by the airship. That was heroic."

Galon unclipped Jarzyl from his harness, sat her down on the ground, and looked her right in the eye. "We need to be serious now, Jarzyl, this isn't a game or a joke. You could have been hurt when you floated off with that balloon? Do not do that sort of thing again. Do you understand me? It was dangerous."

Forced into sudden seriousness, Jarzyl nodded submissively. "Ok. I understand. It was dangerous and I--I won't do it again," she promised. She would keep her promise, but that brief experience of flight had been far too fun to forget. Even if she couldn't use a balloon, surely there were other ways to feel the wind under her wings. Maybe she'd climb a tall tree and try jumping off...

Galon sighed quietly, hoping his daughter had learned her lesson. "Good. I'm just so, so glad that you are safe." He affectionately licked the side of Jarzyl's neck, and she purred in contentment as he cleaned her scales.

"Rrrrrr--um," said Jarzyl, halting her purr as she spotted someone walking up behind her father. Her neck frill drooped. "You aren't going to tell mother, right?"

"Yes, of course I am," replied Galon. "Your mother is your mother, and she loves you just as much as I do. We'll keep you safe from harm even as you try your best to do otherwise. And she is not going to be happy at all when she hears about all this."

"When I hear about what?" said Zilarin. "Sorry I couldn't find you two earlier, but there was some sort of commotion in the marketplace." The azure-scaled drakka came up from behind her mate and nuzzled the side of his snout. Then she sat down and fixed Jarzyl with a stern gaze.

Uh, oh. Jarzyl tried to evade the imminent rebuke by running up to her mother and hugging her tightly. The hatchling wrapped her wings around her mother's leg and started purring again. "Rrrrr... Mother! I love you! Hmrr, I smell food..." she remarked, nosing at the pouches of her mother's flight harness which were now filled with various foodstuffs.

Unfortunately, distracting tactics could only go so far. Zilarin returned the hug, patting her daughter on the back with a paw. "And I love you too, my dearest daughter." But then she repeated the question. "So, Jarzyl Mintaka, what have you done now?"

Jarzyl felt her tail tap against the ground nervously. She glanced up at her mother, then to her father, then back to her mother. There would be no use denying it, so she might as well embrace her boldness. "I was...um...I was being heroic!" she declared, raising her wings proudly.

---

---

END