{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/endless-stars/10",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/endless-stars/10",
  "publishedAt": "2019-02-09T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": ":::\n    subchapter\nI watched Ushra's black eyes as he stepped in. They were orbs almost\nsunken in a face hundreds of gyras old, and there were depths to those\neyes. Whatever sense of dragons I might have, I wouldn't push it trying\nto read Ushra.\n\nThose eyes were lingering on the orange drake high-walking in. The\nancient alchemist was frowning.\n\nUnder that gaze, Adwyn entered. A red dress was flowing under him,\nswishing as he walked in, gleaming in the fain light of the loversuns.\nHis metallic-red eyes met mine as he entered, then he glanced around the\nroom and his gaze settled on the dark-jade wiver.\n\n\"Ah, Gronte-gyfar. Greetings,\" he said, and inclined his head with it.\nHis brilles were clouding in a way which had them glinting slightly in\nthe sunslight, and he may have missed the brief frown on the old wiver's\nface.\n\nTurning to our end of the slab, he added, \"And hello, Specter-eti,\nGären-eti. I was looking for you both, in fact.\"\n\nI saw Hinte lean forward, and I waved my tongue, murmuring, \"What winds\nthat we're both here, then.\" Stabbing a bit of chicken and lifting it\nto my mouth I stared at him through a window's reflection. I wondered\nwhether someone could have listened in on our conversation last night,\nand I chewed.\n\nThe military adviser looked to me, smirking. He said, \"Not quite a\ncoincidence, you see.\"\n\nI coughed a bit, the meat choking a little in my throat.\n\n\"I had come to meet you first, Kinri-cyf. But then I saw you flying and\ndecided to follow you here.\" There was a careless toss of his head\nbefore he added, \"You aren't quite observant.\"\n\n\"Come and sit, Adwyn-sofran,\" Gronte said, waving at the two empty mats.\n\nThe orange drake lay down in the spot beside me. He did that on purpose,\nhe had to.\n\n\"And now, we only need to wait for Digrif.\"\n\nI glanced up to the ceiling, some tile pattern looking even less\ncolorful than the black and brown floor. Up there were thirty-six\nhexagon tiles in a skirmboard pattern, dark gray on darker gray.\n\nI tapped a thoughtful rhythm on my snout. Would it take long for Digrif\nto get here?\n\nThe warm-gray drake would show up to games long past the first act,\nsometimes past even the second act. When he checked out scrolls from\nthe library, he'd always turn them in late, at least back when I had\nbeen volunteering. And while he often came by the Llygaid Crwydro\nputting in orders for tools or supplies, not once had he come by to\npick them up. Someone else always had.\n\nBriefly, Digrif was terrible about showing up to anything on time. But\nhe'd seemed excited about Hinte's exploits last night. Maybe he'd show\nup earlier because of that?\n\n...After Hinte had finished her plate, after I had started my second\nchicken, after Staune had fully crunched Ushra's proffered nut, after\nGronte finally started eating her food, after Ushra had filled his leaf\nof fernpaper and then begun talking with Staune in whispered\nDrachenzunge, after so many well-measured moments, it really seemed I\nhad been expecting too much.\n\nAfter more conversation, after more impatient glances leveled at Hinte,\nthere at last came that long-awaited knock⁠ ⁠---⁠ it could only be\nDigrif. Ushra left again and you heard a quick exchange from the hall\nand then a slam of the door.\n\nThe light-green drake returned alone.\n\n\"Who was that?\" I asked.\n\n\"Some of those ashwitted Dychwelfa ac Dwylla dregs. Such a waste of\ntime.\" Then, almost under his breath, he added, \"We never would have\ntolerated these orts back in the forests.\"\n\n\"Why not?\"\n\nHe whisked a wing. \"Religions and similar residua are banned in the\nforests.\" He settled back on his mat, letting his parrot Staune nibble\non his sweet root.\n\nGronte coughed, said, \"Were banned. You know that's not the case\nanymore.\"\n\nThis time he whisked the wing at Gronte. \"Feh. It is their own\nerosion. The ashes are not the forests, and I shall not consider them\nso. I've nothing to do with them.\"\n\nDropped my chicken, peering at Ushra, I asked, \"How is that even\npossible?\" My foot was still tapping on my snout. \"That's like saying\nyou've banned art or something.\"\n\n\"Ah yes, we did try that once, but it... did not work so very well.\nEasier to let dragons waste their and energy as is their wont.\"\n\nAt that I widened my frills a bit, and saw the adviser do the same.\nGronte let her head rest on a foreleg, clouding her brilles. Before I\ncould ask what he meant, a purple parrot bounced back in through the\ndoorway and fluttered onto the slab.\n\n\"Ceya, I have returned!\" said the bird. Wasn't he checking on some\nMonsoon or something?\n\nGronte looked at the parrot, a glare angling into her frills. \"I didn't\nhear the hatch open, Versta. When ask you to do something, I expect\nthat you do it, not lie about it.\"\n\n\"But⁠ ⁠---\"\n\n\"Check on Monsun, Versta.\"\n\nThe bird spread his wings and fell backward from the slab. Landing on\nhis feet he disappeared through the door once again.\n\n\"What is Monsoon?\" I asked.\n\nGronte glanced at the dark-green wiver. Tapping her locket, she said,\n\"Another parrot of ours, one who is not in adequate health.\"\n\n\"Why doesn't Versta want to check on them? Is it just him acting hatchy\nagain?\"\n\n\"It is... private. I'd rather not discuss it with strangers.\"\n\n\"Oh oops, I'm sorry.\"\n\nAdwyn was still looking at Ushra. \"Did the forests truly ban art? It\nseems a little... difficult to believe.\"\n\n\"No,\" started Gronte, \"Ushra is just twisting history for a joke. There\nwas a time when the paints and parchments used by artists were scarce\nand restricted for us in war, but that was long before even the rule of\nclans, and it was hardly systemic.\"\n\nBeside me, Hinte clenched her feet together and looked at the orange\ndrake. She asked him, \"Why were you looking for us.\"\n\n\"Ah yes, that. I⁠ ⁠---\"\n\nAnother knock came from the door, just before the first long ring. In\nreply a trill came up from the empty mat and Versta poked his head up,\nlooking to Staune, who was perched over the nut I'd given her.\n\n\"Ueh, Toastyfeathers! Wanna bet that's not the one either? I'll take\nyer nut.\"\n\nThe old wiver stood up with a sharp glance at the purple parrot. Her\nvoice came slow and deliberate, sounding more dangerous than when she\nhad seemed a pitch from shouting. \"Versta, what are you doing in\nhere?\" I found myself almost dewing sorry for the little bird.\n\nThe purple parrot ducked back under the slab while the dark-jade wiver\nstalked around to him. He darted out from the slab between me and\nHinte, running then leaping for the doorway while we watched. Gronte\nfollowed him out, slipping into muttered Drachenzunge that didn't sound\nvery nice at all, at all.\n\n\"Poor bird.\" Hinte dipped her head. \"What was he expecting?\"\n\nAdwyn had watched this happen out with that same disquieted look he had\nworn when he saw the humans. \"What is this all about?\"\n\nI glanced around the slab. Gronte had left, and so had Ushra sometime\nwhile I hadn't been looking. \"This is the third time Gronte-sofran\nasked him to go check on one of their other parrots, who's sick.\"\n\n\"Ah.\" Adwyn licked his eyes, and said, \"It's unsightly, you know.\nHearing an animal talk. Is it a forest-dweller thing, or are Ushra's\nmagics stranger than I've heard?\"\n\nThe red bird squawked at Adwyn and spread her wings, but Hinte stopped\nher with a tonguesnap. \"Come here, little hen,\" the wiver said, and she\nheld out her alula and the red parrot flew over to perch there.\n\nLooking back to the drake, Hinte said, \"No.Dragon-tongued parrots have\nbeen around for thousands of gyras. Our histories speak of our parrots\nin the same breath as snakes or monitors.\"\n\nStaune cawed and added in Hinte's voice, \"And Ushra is an alchemist,\nnot a magician.\"\n\n\"You hardly have a head large enough to correct me, little hen.\"\n\nWhen Staune squawked and flew at him the dark-green wiver didn't try to\nstop her ---⁠ but Ushra stepped through the door just after the red bird\ntook to the air.\n\n\"Staune,\" was all he said.\n\nThe bird landed just so, and looked back at the old drake. But her head\nlowered, and she scuffed her way back to Ushra's filled\nfernpaper⁠ ⁠---⁠ not before kicking her foot out at the orange drake.\n\nBehind Ushra, a familiar drake dragon trailed into the room.\n\n\"Wow Hinte!\" was his greeting. \"I knew you were up to something\nawesome, but I didn't expect you had been adventuring!\" His wings\nhitched up and down in excitement. He vibrated.\n\nHinte groaned. \"I was not adventuring.\"\n\n\"She wasn't,\" I echoed in her defense. \"It really wasn't that much of\nan adventure.\"\n\n\"You traveled deep into unmapped parts of cliffs! You fought monsters!\nYou two are totally adventurers,\" he said as he stepped into the room,\nlaying himself on the other side of Hinte. Hecking Adwyn. Why did I\nhave to sit next a freaky canyon-dweller instead of Digrif?\n\n\"We didn't do a whole lot, though,\" I said.\"\n\n\"The point is moot, perhaps,\" said Adwyn. \"I glimpse Hinte is the hero\nof the day.\"\n\nAdwyn saw me frowning at him, and he returned a pale-eyed, lip-twitching\nglance.\n\nI was a hero too, wasn't I? I sighed, my frills drooping like the sad\nwillows in the front yard. I returned to staring at the tiles on the\nceiling.\n\n\"Digrif-ychy has finally arrived,\" started Gronte as she high-walked\nback into the room. She continued, \"So, now that we are all\npresent,\"⁠ ⁠---⁠ she tapped her locket, Hinte, can you tell us what\ndid happen out in the lake last night?\"\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nHinte told her story, one foot held over the other. Looking down at her\nfeet, she started only at smelling the blood and sweat.\n\nGronte had stopped eating partway through, watching her granddaughter\nwith worried looks and clutching her locket. Ushra, on the other foot,\nseemed to continue eating his meal as he listened, moving his utensils,\nbut on closer inspection, no part of his plate had grown smaller as the\nstory went on. Adwyn picked at his claws, looking around the slab at\nUshra and me. And on the last foot, Digrif hadn't wavered a bit in his\nexcitement.\n\nWhen Hinte reached the point where the humans attack",
  "title": "Covet"
}