I take a step back, feeling a little overwhelmed with such an atmosphere of power emanating from each of these people. Even in human form, they’re giving off so much pressure, it feels almost unbearable. However, compared to Aurexiar, their combined aura isn’t quite on the same level. I smile and thank each of them for the warm welcome.

  While Caliban gripes about the situation with his sister, Maren tugs my hand. “C’mon, let’s show you our home! And yours, for the next few months!”

  I let the dragon-girl pull me out onto a balcony. My jaw falls open and I stare, speechless at the sights id out.

  The Drakeblooded Cities are… vast. The centre, where this… temple, I guess, stands, is suspended over an expanse of clouds, a floating isnd in the sky! Bridges connect eight other isnds, each with a distinct architectural style, floating at different altitudes. They don’t bob up and down, instead seemingly fixed in pce. Dragons of all sizes and shades are visible, flying between ndmasses and meeting in midair.

  There’s one isnd with a volcano in the heart of it, the buildings designed to withstand intense heat and force. Elio’s home city, judging by how many red dragons roam the streets and bathe in the hot springs.

  There’s an isnd covered in verdant, beautiful forests and fields, with many green and brown dragons all over it. Some working the fields, others harvesting fruits and crops that seem to grow faster and more bountiful than anything Earth could dream of.

  Maren points at her own territory, an isnd surrounded in beaches, with a never-ending tide flowing in and out, fish visible through the crystal-clear water as blue and turquoise drakes spsh and frolic in the waves, diving dozens of metres under the surface without any trouble. “That’s my paradise! Leave all the worries and stress on the shore and let the waves carry them away!”

  The next, a rocky, storm-shrouded pteau of stony spires, echoes faintly with the sound of thunder. Yellow dragons dive into the thunderheads, emerging with ball lightning clutched in their cws as they bat it around between each other with their tails.

  The next is an isnd shrouded in snowy coniferous woodnd, buildings of delicate abaster forming a picturesque town amidst the forest, even one that I can tell is a library. The kinds of books that dragons read… I wonder what they’re like. Snow just… falls, from a thick bank of dense grey cloud that hangs over the isnd.

  There’s another isnd, with a building that looks remarkably simir to the Roman Colosseum, on its own floating atoll, bridges connecting it to the nearest two Cities. One is Elio’s. The other, an ominous craggy mass of what might be obsidian, with dark buildings lit by vender-fming torches, looks… kinda scary.

  Maren nods. “Yeah, that’s Caliban’s City. It’s… kinda gloomy, but most of the folks there are okay. Don’t worry, though. You’re friends with Aurexiar, and now me, Indra, even Khione! As one of her people, you’ll be protected by the Law!”

  I smile at the cheerful Deepwater dragon. “So, what’s that one about?” I point to the colosseum. Her eyes light up.

  “Oh, that’s the Arena! If there’s a dispute, it gets settled there by fist, fire, and fang! We duke it out, and the st one standing is decred to be in the right!”

  I gulp, eyes widening. “You… F-fight to the death over stuff?”

  Maren notices my expression, and waves her hands frantically. “Not like that! Fights are only ever to knock-out or to surrender! No-one’s been killed in the Arena for hundreds of years! And there’s no fighting permitted OUTSIDE the Arena! Stuff like arguments or the like don’t warrant its use, either! Only a direct challenge, or if someone’s caught breaking the Law!”

  I pause. The Law. “I’ve heard Aurexiar mention the Law a couple of times. Can you expin it to me, please?”

  Caliban’s deep, menacing voice interrupts before the priestess of Deepwater can answer.

  “As Lawmaster, I can answer that… the Law is quite simple. No dragon may interfere in another’s affairs without good reason. All affairs that affect the whole of the Drakeblooded Cities must be ratified by the entire Council. Any disputes between dragonkind that cannot be settled amicably must be taken to the Arena. For any and all crimes committed, the victim is given the opportunity to either enter the Arena, or send a proxy to fight in their pce. Humans are not permitted to know of the existence, location, or methods of ingress to the Drakeblooded Cities under any circumstances.”

  Caliban shrugs, dismissing me from his mind. “I could go on, but it won’t matter. You won’t st a week away from your own kind. You are not wanted here.”

  He leaves without another word, his bck duster fpping about him like wings. I just sort of stare after him. “I really don’t think he likes me very much…”

  Maren shrugs. “Hey, don’t worry; he doesn’t like ANYONE very much. Anyway, I think, since you’re technically affiliated with the Winterwing faction due to your elemental affinity, you should head over to Khione’s City, get yourself settled in!”

  I nod. “Um, should I just… fly there?”

  Maren ughs, “Well, you DO have wings, little scalesister! If people see you flying, it might set their minds at ease a little more than you just walking everywhere.”

  I nod, transforming back enough so that only my wings are out, before taking off and heading for the snow-covered floating isnd, a few dragons flying past, shooting me curious looks as I sail through the balmy air, my wings beating steadily. Maren and Indra fnk me for part of the journey, before peeling off to their own cities, and the colder air buffets me as I come down in the snow on the outskirts of the city, the wooden, snow-covered buildings as picture-perfect as they were from a distance.

  The cold doesn’t bother me, anyway, so I walk in, my clothes mostly shredded from my repeated transformations, as I pass by multiple groups of white and ice-blue scaled dragons, in both human and dragon forms. I smile, and a couple of them nod. The snow is unceasing, and I smile, noting my exhations fogging and curling in white plumes. Back on Earth, we’d call that Dragon’s Breath as a joke. But me, being part-dragon, I actually HAVE dragon’s breath. XD

  I see a few younger dragons in human form, whispering as they stare at me curiously. I smile, shaking out my long hair, before focusing, causing my mane to stiffen and form a frozen river down my back, like a draconic back-ridge, making them gasp and whisper frantically.

  I look around, before spotting what I’d thought to be an ice mountain. Up close, I can see windows and doors, ramparts, bridges and spires, all carved out of the ice, a clear, fwless blue of true ice.

  Khione hasn’t arrived, but there are plenty of people around. I take the time to familiarize myself with the locale, delighted with how peaceful it is here. The Winterwings seem to grow accustomed to my presence, allowing me to feel a little more at home.

  By the time the faction-leader meeting is finished and Khione arrives in a swirl of white wings and freezing wind, her pale skin and white hair blending in with the chill of this floating demesne, I’ve started receiving calm greetings from a few curious Winterwings, including a small child. She asks,

  “Lady? Why aren’t you in dwagon form?”

  I smile. She’s so chubby and cute!

  “Because I can’t do it, I’m only half-dragon. I can still do this, though!” I gesture to my cwed hands and feet, my scales, my tail and wings, and coat a tree-stump with icicles from my breath.

  The tiny girl cps her pudgy hands. “That’s cool!”

  Her mother smiles, coaxing her to move along, and the little dragon-girl waves.

  “Bye-bye, pretty dy!”

  I smile and wave as she leaves, as Khione approaches me. “It looks like you’ve started to settle in, little scalesister. Welcome.”

  I nod, looking up at her. “I think I’m going to like it here. Everyone seems so nice, and it’s so beautiful, too! Like something out of a painting…”

  Khione pces a gentle hand on my shoulder. “We strive to be more accepting of others, even when it’s hard. Caliban has…. Trouble with that. He’s proud of what we have built here, and with good reason, but his pride can blind him to the value of those born without our abundant gifts. Our strength, our abilities… we may not always be amongst the mightiest. One day, it may be another in our pce. And he does not wish to accept that. Even now, Humanity waxes in number and ingenuity upon the world you come from, and yet innovation and progress abound. We…. Do not have that driving spark. We have been the same now as we were ten thousand years past and even the countless millennia before that.”

  I tilt my head. “I’d never thought of that. When you live for hundreds of years, there’s no incentive to rush and improve. But humans, with our short lives, don’t have that kind of luxury. We MUST progress, even if it’s risky and foolish, because we don’t have the time otherwise…”

  The Winterwing leader smiles. “Oh, your lifespan’s not that of a normal human, you know. You won’t live as long as us, but you might pass four centuries, or even, should you be blessed with enough dragon blood, live for a thousand years or two. I… understand you have family back home. However, you must accept that your path is not theirs to decide, but yours. Only you can make that sort of decision.”

  I look down at my hands. “This power… it gave me something I’ve always longed for, but… I should have known it would come at a cost. Things like this always do, don’t they?”

  Khione smiles, a cold, but very gentle smile.

  “You are wise beyond your apparent age, little scalesister. I think you will fit in here very well. Now, would you prefer to stay in the city, or in the Cloister?”

  She gestures to the ice castle. I bite my lip.

  “Where do you think I should stay?”

  Khione sighs, wrapping me in another gentle embrace.

  “The choice is yours, little sister. While you are here to train, we wish you to feel comfortable, as much as possible.”

  I think about it for a few more moments. “I think the city would be nice. I might even make a friend, who knows?”

  “Then I will make the arrangements. We have plenty of space; you need not feel that you are inconveniencing anyone.”

  Khione raises a hand to her ear, and her eyes glow softly for a minute.

  “There. I have requested accommodations for you opposite a wonderful bakery that I very much enjoy frequenting. Their breakfast rolls are simply delightful.”

  I smile. “Thank you so much, Khione. I’ll be sure to try one!”

  Watching from the branches of a pine tree, hidden within the needles, a pair of purple eyes watches the scene unfold. A hissing breath exhales, the mist going unnoticed. A quiet, ominous whisper hisses out. “Her? She doesn’t look like anything special… Uncle is overreacting, surely? She looks frail; I could snap her in half. But, if he wishes me to challenge her, then I will do as he demands….”

  As I follow Khione through the powder-snow-dusted streets, a flicker of movement causes the elder dragon to sh out with her suddenly-present tail, swatting something to the paved path. It’s a sharp spike, bck, with a purple inner core that sparks and glows slightly. With a chill in her tone, Khione roars, her voice louder than it should be, “SHOW YOURSELF! WHO ISSUES THIS CHALLENGE?!”

  I blink as a figure appears, her dark hair tipped with glowing purple, a pair of curled horns jutting from the sides of her head, her tail coated in bck scales that shimmer like onyx. Her tail ends in a bouquet of spikes, just like the one lying on the stones. She scowls at me.

  “You, strange half-dragon! I challenge you to face me in the Arena! I call for a Trial of Blood Judgement!”