May Breeding Room 1

Noa stared out the window at the canyon. It yawned below, a chasm at the bottom of which he could faintly make out the river, snaking its way along the bottom. The same river ran through portions of the outskirts around the city where he lived, but it took on a different character here, cutting through miles of stone.

It was a good window, well made. Glazed, which was as much a show of wealth as it was any stylistic choice; windows were often left as carved holes in the stone, with nothing to block the air from coming through. Draconics weren't bothered by drafts, apparently; and the Canyons were rather warmer than the city, truth be told.

Well. Marric did also want to appeal to human tastes, and he understood, at the very least, that humans minded the drafts.

Noa was here on business - with Marric's family, whose connection had been forged with either Noa's parents or grandparents. He couldn't quite recall. But Marric recognized him as 'Elena's boy', which was not quite irritating enough for him to take the pains to correct. He much preferred to deal with Arianza, who was less prone to tangents and disdained remembering any human names at all.



Steps alerted him to the approach of another Draconic - ah, one of the youngers, Noa realized. He hadn't recalled this one the last time he was here. Tall with dark scales, not at all the Riverhold look.

1

Marric's hide was a tealish blue that had passed onto most of his close descendants, though the question of it had actually gotten kind of muddled around Azarius's children. Zelkova had been pale, and now those two had younger half-siblings, one of whom had children of their own. He didn't know the specifics; the complicated family tree of Marric's clan wasn't necessary knowledge to conduct business, so he hadn't bothered learning the details.

This dark-scaled Draconic inclined his head at Noa, and so Noa returned the greeting in kind. "My apologies for the wait," said the dark Draconic. "And thank you for accompanying me today."

"Oh, you must be Sable then," Noa said. Also not the Riverhold style of name, he noted. Maybe he wasn't a part of the family after all. But it had been one of the family members that had asked him to accompany Sable, so he must have been a ward of the clan in a much more intimate way than the other members who weren't direct relations to Marric's bloodline.

{Not at all! We're happy to help,} Rhys chimed in, whiskers waving. Sable seemed surprised to find himself addressed telepathically, while Noa tried not to laugh.

3

It was always funny when the Draconics came into contact with Rhys. Between the telepathy, and the coherent and sentient conversations, and the way he looked... He knew many of the Draconics in these parts really didn't care for the lab-made creatures, and to be honest he brought Rhys along as much for the discomfort this caused in his hosts as anything. But the fact that Rhys could address them, on terms usually reserved amongst Draconics for the most intimate of human-draconic bonds, always added to the mix.

Arianza hated Rhys, but then she didn't like Noa either, and Noa highly suspected there wasn't a single human she would actually approve of, whatever her father's thoughts on the matter. Still, there was a reason that Marric's family had never proposed that Noa soul-bind to any of them. Rhys wasn't it, but Noa was sure the Faeron didn't sweeten matters any.

Sable seemed to take things in stride though, relatively speaking. "You have a... curious companion," he said. That was the end of his comment on the matter. A little disappointing, but not inconvenient, considering it sped up the process. Rhys might not have minded, but Noa thought it was a waste of time.

5

It wasn't something he would say aloud, since he understood the importance of preserving the business relationship that his predecessors had established with the clan, but all the same, accompanying a younger Draconic who wasn't even a scion of the clan itself on some sort of... meeting wasn't exactly high on Noa's list of priorities. It was only in the interest of preserving that business relationship that he had even agreed to this in the first place.

Wordlessly, Sable led them out of the room, through the halls and out of the main entrance. The sunlight hit them almost immediately, and Noa grimaced at the sudden invasion of the bright light. Sable glanced at him, then extended one wing part-way, to serve as a shield against the sun.

Noa looked up at him, a slight smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. "What fine manners," he said. "A little human might almost get the wrong idea."

"Courtesy to a valued ally of the clan is the least I can offer," said Sable evenly. He really did seem like a cool, collected type - if not a bit detached, Noa thought. Maybe there was a story there, but he didn't know it.

7

As they walked, Noa deliberately slowed his pace - and observed as Sable did the same. Given the size difference between them, this must have been woefully slow. An individual like Marric hardly noticed a difference; curious that so small a Draconic commanded a clan whose members all outstripped him in size. But for a Draconic of Sable's stature, this must have been little better than a snail's crawl.

What fine manners indeed.

"So remind me again," Noa said, quickening his pace again to something that was comfortable for himself. "What sort of meeting was this that I'm accompanying you to?"

"We are to attend the first meeting of a potential union," Sable replied.

"A union. I see." Noa had picked up on enough of the clan's talks over the years to understand that this meant a mating, and if all went well, perhaps even a permanent addition of the partner to the clan itself, though this last wasn't necessarily a given. Draconic conventions regarding mating and progeny were downright blase compared to the prevailing human views on the subject. Not that this was a bad thing, of course. If anything, Noa thought this aspect of Draconic culture to be preferable.

9

{Are you the one who's going to have eggs?} Rhys asked, piping up from his spot on Noa's shoulder. He was enjoying the shade too; he wasn't sensitive to light the way true albinos were or anything, but his white hide did burn if left under harsh sunlight for too long.

Sable glanced at Rhys again, and this time Noa caught sight of something wavering ever so slightly in Sable's eyes - a shade of dark gold that verged on warm brown instead. In the sunlight they flashed like pale honey, accentuated by his mane. Noa studied his features, and remembered that he was still young by Draconic standards, despite his neat manners and stoic bearing.

"I am not the one bearing the eggs, no," said Sable. "But I am the one being... offered upon."

{Oh, so you're meeting a partner then! Do you like hatchlings?} said Rhys.

"Or was it the family's idea?" Noa added.

Sable wasn't as stoic as he had first appeared. He stiffened at Noa's words, and that was all the answer Noa needed. "Hmm," Noa said. "But you aren't a direct relation to the clan, are you? They would have given you one of those overwrought names if you were."

11

Noa found himself the subject of scrutiny now. He inclined his head and smiled, while Sable's eyes narrowed. "You are perceptive," said Sable, his words carefully chosen not to betray any of his own feelings on the matter, Noa was sure. Rhys's question went unanswered, and that too was an answer in its own right.

"Well, I try," Noa said. Though privately he thought it wasn't so hard to guess, if you had the information that Noa had. To an outsider who didn't know the workings of the Riverhold clan at all, perhaps it would have been a little more inscrutable. "But what do they mean by sending me, then?"

"A demonstration of the clan's patronage," said Sable. "As you pointed out, I am not a proper scion, but your family is known to be longtime partners of Riverhold."

"Ah, I'm there to blunt the insult then," said Noa, still smiling. This time he had the pleasure of seeing Sable flinch.

{Noa...} There was something like reproach in Rhys's voice, though the Faeron wasn't presumptuous enough to chide him outright. But Noa paid him no mind. The words were already spoken, and more to the point, it wasn't as if he was wrong.

13