Juniper Grenleff | Demi-Boy | 22 | Serpent-Tongue Speaker | M: Ejiah

“Well, I think you’re delusional,” Juniper chuckled as they shook their head from under the dragon at Ejiah’s comment. “There is no way there are more dragon riders than Serpent’s Tongue speakers. My whole family speaks Serpent’s Tongue and they all rarely ride dragons. Except for Henry and Mom of course. Henry was the fastest dragon racer ever even though he cannot speak Serpent’s Tongue. You should have seen him!” Juniper smiled fondly as he scrubbed and brushed the scales of the dragon above him. “He could race from the Valley to the ocean and back before you could bay an eye if he was riding Zoomy.” Juniper frowned a bit and sighed, as a knot formed in his throat from speaking of Henry. Juniper forgot what he was doing and almost forgot to continue brushing until Pavi gently tapped his feet reassuringly with her head. Juniper startled at the contact before they smiled weakly to Pavi, sighed, and continued to brush the dragon.

“Oh me? I’m from the Valley,” Juniper replied with a warm smile to Ejiah’s question. “You should visit! No one visits anymore.” Juniper paused as he seemed to be lost in thought. “The last person visited… umm… ten years ago I think?” Juniper mumbled under his breath for a moment as he tapped his finger to his chin. “Well, I was about twelve when someone last visited. God that was traumatic…. She called me ugly and almost bought Pavi.”

“You’re being dramatic, she did not call you ugly!” Pavi giggled softly, giving a quiet snort while shaking her head left and right a little.

“No, but she called me funny looking, which is basically the same thing!!” Juniper huffed, glaring as they waved a finger menacingly at Pavi, like they were attempting to threaten her. Juniper huffed before crawling out from under the dragon. “Well, Atayi, it was super nice to meet you and you should be all clean now!” Juniper put on their metal gloves back on before stroking Pavi’s head. “Pavi, do you mind telling me the friend you made??”

“Super small and super sweet!” Pavi stated, rubbing into Juniper’s hand like a cat with almost her whole body weight but Juniper still managed to keep her supported. “I like them! Can we keep her??”

“Well, it’s up to her,” Juniper chuckled faintly before gently cupping the Winterwinder’s face in his hands. “Hi, what’s your name?”

~~~

Freya Rouge | Female | 24 | Dragon-Rustler | M: Thea, Vinnie, + Lumi

“Ah, well, I suppose that’s a no…,” Freya mumbled as she suggested Lumi get sniffed for where the trappers could be. Hayden shrunk a little at her strong detest of him with weak whine, leaning into Freya with whimpering coos like a child holding onto their parent’s pant legs. “If you could at least tell us the general area of where these trappers went, that would be great.”

Freya nodded as Vincenzo gave her his name before jotting down his name with a small, cheerful smile. Freya did not give many signs of her pride or her joy rarely ever, if at all. Her eyes may widen or the corners of her mouth may twitch, but for once she genuinely smiled at Vincenzo in an attempt to be “friendly” like Bella had suggested.

“Well, it is a pleasure to meet you Vincenzo Quincy Ellis,” Freya replied warmly, although her words still came across as rude and heartless from her tone. “I am glad to have met you. I patrol through here twice so perhaps I will see you again in the near future.”

Freya gave a low whistle and Hunter quickly scrambled over after he let his tongue stick out of his mouth at the bigger, meaner dragon. Freya struggled a moment to mount Sylvi due to her metal leg that was mostly concealed but grew more visible as she finally got to the saddle. Hunter hobbled onto Hayden who stayed as close to Sylvi as possible. Licking his face, Sylvi gave a few quiet coos as Hayden stood rigid from the surprise of the bigger dragon’s actions. Freya chuckled faintly before patting Sylvi, whispering softly to her.

It seemed as if Elijah's puzzled expression was permanent. "Perhaps you should look around you. About ten years ago, the Serpent Tongue speakers began to dissappear. Probably killed by the rogue dragons. Many of the owned dragons you see here are owned by people who don't understand a word of Serpent Tongue." The Valley? There was another one Elijah did not understand. He glanced at Atayi, who looked equally puzzled. "..Yeah, maybe I will visit. How far away is this?"

Atayi shifted, happy when the sun set which meant the temperature would cool down a little. "Likewise." She muttered, glaring at Pavi. There was something about that dragon that she didn't like. Of course, she was more of an independent soul, instead of lovey-dovey. She loved Elijah, sure, but she didn't act affectionate often. Especially out in public. This horrified the dragon whose personality was aloof, like a cat. She growled, outraged at the nerve of Pavi. "No! You can't keep her!"

Zai made a squeak of alarm at being touched by an unfamiliar hand. Her playing along immediately broke as she leaped off Atayi's head and bumped into Elijah. She gripped onto his shirt tightly, her tail and wings wound around his torso. Without even thinking, Elijah supported the Winterwinder with an arm to make sure she didn't slide off and rip his shirt into shreds as she went. Elijah blinked, suddenly aware of what happened. He let out a nervous chuckle. "Heh.. Didn't I mention? These are my dragons."

-

Thea looked up at the hole with dragons streaming in, many carrying dinner after a nightly hunt. "Hmm... Will have to get that more camoflauged. Should check the other tunnels as well." She fiddled her hands together, muttering about dragon rustler risks and the shelter dragons need to be more careful. Soon a Twisterwing emerged from the main cavern tunnel, blinking in disgust of the coolness in the room. He glanced around, bounding over to Thea and Okami. "Oh? What's the problem? Usually its only big things when all the climate leaders are called in." His hazel brown eyes flickered to Alexis, narrowing in suspicion. "Only the leaders are allowed in these meetings. You will have to go to the winter climate, where Northern dragons like you belong." The Twisterwing was heavily scarred, and his eyes flickered everywhere, noticing everything. Soon enough there were wingbeats, and a white Wind Dancer with crimson accents landed beside them. He acknowledged them all with a respectful dip of his head. Thea spotted Sebastian coming in as well, leading a cobalt blue Tidalwing. They landed together and dipped their heads as well. Each of the dragons radiated a certain level of power and leadership. "Good. Now we're all here." Thea began. "Sebastian, Aramis, Levia, and I encountered a dragon rustler earlier this morning. We retreated here, and this Ice-Cutter found the hole in the ceiling." She gestured towards Alexis as she spoke. "We need to camoflauge it better. Dragons who are unaware of the location of the shelter should not be able to find it. If they can find it, the rustlers can find it. I want each of the tunnels checked and re-camoflauged. We also need to expand our caves, more dragons mean more space to be made. Reubin, you and your climate need to expand further down and out," The white Wind Dancer nodded, tucking his tail around his talons. "Okami, you need to expand outwardly and either import or make more snow." Okami dipped her head, flicking her wings back. "Scorpion, you will need to expand down and import more sand. Your climate is too close to the surface." The Twisterwing nodded as well, shooting Alexis another venomous glare. "Ryoko, you need to go down and out. I'm getting complaints of the water not being deep enough. You may need to get more kelp as well." The Tidalwing blinked, as a way of showing understandment. "I know I've said this a thousand times before, but you must tell your dragons to be careful. Stop going out in large groups, it'll make the island more suspicious."

Aramis finally made it out of the desert climate. He sighed, muttering. "I'll never get this sand out of my scales." He weaved his way past Rippers, letting his electrified tail flick around carelessly.

Levia spread her wings and flew to Thea, who was now surrounded by Scorpion, Okami, Sebastian, Ryoko, Reubin, and an unfamiliar Ice-Cutter. She flew past them and went into an open window in Thea's hut, dropping off the first-aid supplies before heading out the hole in the roof. She had not had lunch either, but she would not complain like Aramis.

Juniper Grenleff | Demi-Boy | 22 | Serpent-Tongue Speaker | M: Ejiah

“That’s not something nice to joke about…,” Juniper said in a hushed voice, chuckling softly until he realized the man was being serious before slipping his gloves back on mainly out of worry that this man might be threatening him. “I don’t know what you’re on but dragons would not randomly attack their friends like that unless they eat some berries or something that would drive them crazy. They would not hurt their friends…, and now I know for a fact that you’re delusional. That or you’re just lying. You are lying.” When the man soon revealed that he owned the dragons, Juniper was taken aback, stepped backwards into Pavi who looked up at Juniper as he shook a bit. Nervous, distrusting, angry, Juniper clenched his fist and narrowed his eyes. “So not only have you— not only are you joking around about dragons killing people, but now deceiving me?? This whole time you did not even think to help your dragons out of this weird—” Juniper motioned to the leather creations that they had just unlatched from Atayi— “stuff but you— you—”

Juniper was boiling over with anger so much so they could not even finish their sentences. Juniper huffed, grabbing Pavi’s horn until their gloves sparkled with electricity. Pulling a dragon scale bracelet with runes, metals, and wires covering it out of their satchel, Juniper held onto it until it gave off faint purple sparks. Juniper shook the bracelet off a bit before bending down and tying it around Atayi’s wrist. Almost instantly, it began cooling the dragon down.

“It’s a smaller version of those temperature changers,” Juniper explained to her as he hopped onto Pavi. “Not sure how long it will last for you, but it should be enough for you to get back to the arctic place you came from.” Juniper tossed the comb at Ejiah’s feet before looking between the dragons. “I’m leaving. You two have a good night.” Pavi tilted her head to look back at Juniper with a quiet whine as he pulled his mask over his face, the machine giving off a loud whirring sound and some steam as he glared at Ejiah through the green tinted glass.

“Are we leaving now, Juney?” Pavi asked softly, sounding much sadder and meeker than normal as Juniper just nodded. Juniper felt somewhat bad for not waving or saying goodbye because they remembered how their parents used to always tell him to say goodbye to people who left the Valley and be as polite and nice to them as possible. Juniper still could not believe the audacity of someone to make up all these stories and continue to deceive him. Pavi spread her wings out taking a moment to push off the ground without a running start and in such a tight street. As soon as they got high enough above the ground that they were several feet above the houses, Pavi glanced back to Juniper again. “Are you alright?”

“Let’s get fish and go home. I’m tired, Pavi.”

Elijah sighed, shaking his head. His temper lost, he was beginning to lose his friendliness. "I'm not joking about this, Juniper! Ask the dragons, sooner or later you will come against a rogue dragon and not know what to do! As for not taking care of my dragons, Atayi has this way of telling me when she needs to be brushed or cooled off. Believe me, I've owned Northern dragons since I was eight, I know how to take care of them. And the halters? Those are common between dragon owners. Atayi and Zai would've ripped them off easily long before this if they were uncomfortable. Besides, I didn't decieve you of anything. Did I say anything about not owning the dragons? No!" Elijah watched as Juniper bent down and tied a bracelet around Atayi. She did not move, but stiffened and growled threateningly. "I'm perfectly fine. You have no right to yell at my owner." She took a step forward, angling her tail so it made a small circle around Elijah and Zai.

Zai unwound one of her wings and waved at Pavi, looking sad. She had quite liked the friendly Lightning Runner. As Pavi took off, Atayi roared, "Good riddance! Hope you two run into some rogue dragons!" Her roar earned some alarmed looks from the people that were passing them and dirty looks from the few that owned dragons.

Elijah bent down and grabbed Atayi's halter, wrapping it back around her face gently. "..That's not too bad, is it?" He murmured, testing if he could fit three fingers between the leather and her scales. She shook her head, it was clear that she was pitying him. Zai was still firmly wrapped around his torso and when she was like this, it usually took an hour to convince her there was no danger. He grabbed his backpack and put away the vension and brush, taking out a leather strip with a clip on it. It was dyed silver, the same color as Atayi. He wrapped it around Atayi, clipping his backpack to the clip. He looked up, watching Pavi soar away. Without even thinking, he climbed onto Atayi's back. "Let's follow them. I want to see this Valley. Its unnatural for someone to not know about the rogue dragons." Elijah knew how to ride without any dragon tack, he just preferred to ride with it. It gave him a sense of security that he was not going to fall off. Dragon scales were very slippery. Without it, he felt as if the wind was going to whip him off the dragon's back.

Atayi nodded and walked along the streets, the people scattering to make a path for her.

Juniper Grenleff | Demi-Boy | 22 | Serpent-Tongue Speaker | M: Ejiah

So that was Juniper’s first human interaction with someone outside his family in ten years and only the third time he’s spoken to someone from outside the valley in his whole life. The most depressing realization of this was that he could still count the times he’s interacted with people on his fingers whereas dragons, from what he observed over the course of his whole life, interact hundreds of times a day. Dragons seemed so much better than humans in every way. For example, Juniper’s mother warned him against lying from a young age and that even hiding information was a terrible thing to do. Unlike humans, dragons always seem to be truthful, honest, noble but albeit dorky creatures that were incapable of using the sin of lying and yet the moment Juniper attempts to talk to someone, he’s met with someone who hides the full truth from him. Maybe Juniper was misreading the situation, this was his first interaction in a long time after all. Maybe Juniper was in the wrong, Ejiah had been nice prior to his departure. Maybe he should have trusted this man and believed all that he said, but it was just too fictional and if dragons were truly killing people outside the Valley that reignited Juniper’s fear that Henry was not missing but dead and that Zoomy— lovable, sweet Zoomy— killed Juniper’s brother. That was an idea Juniper refused to accept and, because of this, the man had to be lying.

The two of them were back to the ocean in a short amount of time and Juniper rolled off Pavi’s back, flopping into the sand. Juniper did not even care that they could feel the sand seeping into their clothes. They were just too tired to care as they sighed and rolled onto their side and curled into a ball.

“Why’d we leave so soon?” Pavi asked, nudging his back with her large head as she laid down beside him. “The small one was so nice to me! Even though the bigger one— what was her name?”

“Atayi,” Juniper replied with a huff.

“Yeah her! Even though. Atayi was mean to me, she still seemed somewhat nice. Do you remember when Humpback first arrived? Remember how mean he was? He used to bite all the dragons. He bit me once. He wasn’t very friendly, but more friendly when you got to know him.”

“She said that she hoped we would die even if I was just trying to help her. I was— I was just trying to be helpful.” Juniper paused and sighed. “Let’s just stop talking about them now alright?”

“Humpback bit you once. Didn’t he try to kill you? How is that better than what she did?”

“That was different.” Juniper involuntarily let his hands grace across his chest where the old scar was at the mention of Humpback’s claws. “He was just scared and confused. She— She hated us though!” Juniper curled into a tighter ball in the sand. “The smaller one was definitely shyer and sweeter, but Atayi hated us. I think Ejiah hated us too.”

“But we could have stayed!” Pavi shot back as she stood, shaking herself out from the sand before looking down at Juniper. “Maybe if we had just stayed longer they would have come to like us just like Humpback.”

Juniper was silent for a while. “I just… I don’t want to continue talking with humans who will just lie to me again. This is why I never trust them!” Juniper finally sat up and glared. “You of all dragons should know this.” Pavi looked at Juniper with hurt eyes as she lowered her head. Going silent, his eyes softened and he looked away. “Sorry, I— Do you mind catching fish by yourself tonight? I did not mean to snap at you and I just— I need— I—”

Pavi gently licked his face and gave a low purr with understanding and kind eyes before heading to the water as Juniper took out one of his sole surceases of negative emotion: his journal where he captured, drew, and wrote about every dragon he’d ever met and what he knew about them.

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