As he tried to muster the last bit of energy to make it up the mountains from Flag 14 to Flag 15, Chatter said to Avari, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can….”
Stroking the scales of Chatter’s neck soothingly, Avari clicked his tongue in a gentle, chiding manner. “Well, that really does explain why you’ve been having so much trouble…You shouldn’t think you can, you should know. I knew the outcome of this race before it even began. As you get older, you’ll learn that conviction is the most powerful force in the world. So don’t think, little one. Know.”
Chatter cocked his head from side to side, finally quiet; perhaps he was exhausted and had no energy for more speech and he huffed and puffed, flapping his small wings. Finally, he said, “I knew we were going to win…. huff….. hufff…. puff…. I … knew… puff… it. I …. said so….. at the first gate…. remember? But I didn’t know the mountains… huff… huff… would be so…. puff…high … huff… and steep.”
As Avari’s stroked Chatter, he could feel the heat of his body escaping and steam rose from his small frame. His pounding heart and labored breaths could be felt through his body, the same way one can feel a horse’s exhaustion by touching its neck after a hard gallop.
Smoke looked back at River, not exhausted at all since they had been lollygagging around the mountains. “I suspect that our family structure would seem odd to you. We are hatched from eggs, and our parents, if we are lucky to have two living parents, care for us but a short time, perhaps less than four years. The father usually leaves as a dragon becomes a juvenile, at the 4 year mark. We then stay with our mother for another 2 years, and then we head out on our own, as young adult dragons, to find a lair and began to gather our hoard. We seldom see other dragons, as we tend to find lairs that are quite secluded. When mating season arrives, females, when they know their time, look for a mate. Some male dragons will actually stay with the female until birth. It is very rare for a male dragon to stay much after birth. Even mothers do not often see their adult children. Is that like Tabaxi?”
Smoke used the term YEAR, but River didn’t think that his definition of YEAR was the same as hers. After talking more with Smoke, she realized that when Smoke said “a year”, he really meant “ten-human years.”
“You did, but I think you and I have different ideas of winning…That’s alright though. You’re going to reach the top, and you’re going to be respected by even that large, cocky dragon. I have only pushed you so hard because I know you can do it.” Avari kept up the petting motion, filling the silence while Chatter struggled to breathe through his exertion. Hopefully having something to listen to and focus on aside from the burning of muscle pushed beyond its limit would help the young dragon. “You act as if you’ve never ascended a mountain before…Ah, I suppose you would be accustomed to more of a desert terrain, wouldn’t you? I used to be that way as well.”
Chatter said, “Brass dragons are, well, and this is what Sue told me, you know, the weakest of the metallic dragons, and also one of the most benign, you know, the most friendly …. yes, we are the best… we love to tell stories. One time I when I was just 5, [NOTE: that would be 50 in human years, and would be considered a juvenile and still under his mother’s care], my mom was off with my sister, something about scouting for a lair for her… BOOOOORRRRRRINNNNNGGGG… Anyway, well, there I was sitting on top of our mountain lair, standing guard, yes, standing guard and surveying my future kingdom, just like she told me that my dad did, before the…. . Well, what do I see but a band of hobgoblins headed for a small keep that mother likes to call our ‘Pantry’ on the account that she occasionally, swoops down when we are hungry, blasts her sleep gas on the town and comes back with a nice cow for dinner. She says that when they see her coming now, they flee into their ‘Pantry’ and she can grab a cow that they have left outside. And let me tell you, that sleep gas is no joke, one time when I was little, much little then now, I will have you know that I am this many years old.” As he held up 6 claws. “Well, I was being naughty and crusin’ for a bruisin’ as my mother likes to say, and I wasn’t listening… Oh I didn’t think I wasn’t listening back then, but now I know that I wasn’t, anyway, mom always threatened to put us down by the Keep if we were misbehaving and see how we like to run from knights on horseback as we couldn’t fly back then. Well, my sister and I were continuing argue and wrestle and mom came over and yelled ‘ENOUGH’ and blasted us with her sleep gas and we immediately went to sleep! For like a week! Yeah, now that I am older, that doesn’t work anymore but I listen now, I really listen now.”
“So here I was and saw those hobgoblins heading for the keep! I knew that if they got in there, they would kill everyone and then there would be no more cows! No more cows! Can you imagine? So I knew that I, Chatter, needed to drive off those Hobgoblins. So just like mom taught me, I dropped into the downdraft off the mountain peaks and flew down towards the hobgoblins! Oh, you should have seen them run, I snapped and spun, swooped and slashed, I even got to use my breath weapon for the very … first… time…… yeah me! I drove off those hobgoblins, but then I started to feel sharp pointy things hitting me and I looked back at the keep and the humans were not cheering me! Can you believe that!? No, they were shooting arrows at me! At …. me…. hello, like… their savior? Yeah… like the one that kept them from being killed by hobgoblins? Really? Well I flew back up to the top of the mountain and that was when i knew I was ready to find my own lair. So when my sister and mother returned from lair shopping, I was like ‘Guess who is the male dragon of this cave now? No seriously guess.’”
“And they laughed. And I said, I am a male brass dragon, and I am ready to get a lair. No Mom, I don’t need help finding a lair. I can do it. And after a few hugs goodbye, my mother wished me well, and gave me part of the left over cow to take in my claws in case I got hungry. I looked at my sister and said ‘Sis, you are looking at the next Great Wyrm, get used to calling me ‘King of the Brass’’ and she said something that sounds like ‘kiss my brass’ and I flew out into the Vala, looking for Lair. And that brought me to Varoon, because I knew I needed to be near the dragon shrine, you know the place where the dragonborn seek to connect to us, the true dragons, by testing their true blood against to see if they have pure ancestors. And well, I was only here for year and Sue asked me to participate in the Dragon’s Call— something about needing to have a dragon that actually wouldn’t scare the dragonborn. So this is my first dragon’s call! My very first one!”
Avari listened to the story and did his utmost throughout to keep from laughing, extremely amused by this eager child. “Mm, you’re very brave and heroic for defending your pantry like that. Not just for your own interest, but your family’s and the humans living there as well, even if they were ungrateful. Very fitting of a monarch, King of Brass. Clearly Sue must not find you as weak as he says if he thought you were ready to participate in this after only a year. I’m sure he’ll be very impressed when you beat him to the finish line, as will everyone else. Not bad for your first time, hmm?”
Chatter seemed to glow after Avari’s latest comments, “Do you think my dad would be proud? You know, with us leading the race so far, and Sue far behind? That is pretty cool!”
Chatter’s reaction caused a smile to cross Avari’s face, glad that the dragon’s mood had lifted. He really was quite cute when worked up like this. “Of course he would. I’m sure of it, and I’m never wrong. Any dragon worth their salt would be proud to have a son like you.”
“I hope so— I never met my father. Well, I guess technically I did, but I was so little, I don’t remember, He was the King of the Brass my mother said, but she also joked that someone had stolen his crown so no other dragon knew it… but with a wink, she said, that she knew it and she wanted me to know it too.”
“After….. dad….”. His voice cracked and he choked back tears and tried again with a firm teenager voice, “After dad valiantly defended the brass dragons against the giants of the North, he passed to the Dragon Plane …. were we are now….”. He paused. “That is why I came to Varoon…… to find my dad.”
“He sounds like quite the dragon. You’ll certainly grow up to be the same.” Avari patted Chatter’s neck reassuringly, speaking with a measured assuredness. “You will find him. Nothing in this world is permanent, and that includes the absence of your father. Remember that.”
Chatter continued to rattle on about this and that, and stories of his mother and sister and lair. As the race continued and Chatter made it to Flag 8 with the Purple Worm, he saw Smoke and River flying in an apparent dog-fight with a black dragon, “What is your friend River doing up there? She is not even near a flag!”