Grim, Grinning Ghostly Auras (Clan Adeptica) (Story)

=== The Chronicles of Clan Adeptica ===
==== Chapter 9: Grim, Grinning Ghostly Auras ====
August 30 - September 1, 2015
Not long after Clan Adeptica had established its charter, the other two Lia sisters, Talia and Cerulia, hatched their own first clutches. Jareth was ecstatic to become the father of a Mirror daughter, Selina, as well as a Guardian son, Heath. He began teaching them the Mirror way of life as soon as they could understand speech. Soon, they were joined by two little Tundras, Lazuli and Malachite.
The four hatchlings spent the long, languid summer days playing and learning together in the clan's cavernous home. Their favorite game was tunneling; they tried their best to dig tunnels through the mountain, like the ones they saw their older relatives digging. Theirs were only little, hatchling-sized tunnels, but their elders encouraged them to keep working on them. They said that someday, when the hatchlings grew up to be big and strong, they would be able to dig real rooms and lairs for themselves and their clanmates.
As she was the only one of the four whose claws weren't really built for digging, Selina's job during these games was to carry the glowing pocket baubles they used to light their way, and to act as lookout, keeping all four of her eyes open for any hostile intruders they might encounter. All she ever found in the small tunnels were Mana Thieves and satin mice, which she either ate herself, scared away, or captured to give to Shadowspell, if she could. Her father had taught her never to kill merely for the pleasure of killing.
One early evening, while the four hatchlings were exploring the shadowy depths of the miniature tunnel system they had created, they heard the sound of wind whistling. Heath cocked his head to the side. Where was it coming from?
He padded cautiously along the tunnel, his sister and cousins following. A glint of light from the pocket baubles caught his eye. There was a small crack that he hadn't noticed before in one wall, and the whistling sound was coming from it.
"There must be an empty space behind there," Heath said. "One that leads outside. The wind must be coming from somewhere."
"Let's find out!" said Malachite.
Heath nodded and set to work making the crack wide enough to climb through. There was a tinkling crash as the thin wall of pink chalcedony crystal gave way to his claws. He carefully poked his head into the hole in the wall, then withdrew. "Hey, you guys!" he exclaimed. "Look at this! I found a cave!"
The others came closer and helped him make the entrance big enough for all four of them. "Careful not to cut your-"
"Ow!" Malachite exclaimed, recoiling from the broken edges of the crystal wall and licking a paw pad.
"-selves," Heath finished with a sigh. "Maybe you'd better let me finish." He clawed and kicked away the rest of the crystal shards near the floor of the cave. "Watch your step, now." He entered the newly-discovered cave ahead of his companions. The others followed, little Malachite limping along on three legs.
There was a little more light in the cave than the glow from Selina's pocket baubles. A weak shaft of sunlight was coming from above them, from the end of a long, narrow shaft that had to lead to the outside of the mountain. The walls of the cave formed a nearly-regular octagon, with the end of the shaft in the exact center of the ceiling. The entire cave sparkled with chalcedony, onyx, kunzite, azurite, and many other crystal formations.
"Wow," said Lazuli.
"I can't wait to tell Mommy and Daddy about this," agreed Malachite.
Selina looked around cautiously. The complete lack of any heat sources other than themselves told her that there were no other living things in this cavern at all. In fact, she wondered if they were the first living things ever to set foot in this place; it certainly seemed like they might be. She shivered a little and gazed up at the ceiling. Was that - something moving?
"Look up there," she said to her brother. "Do you see that?"
"If it's a bird or something, no, I don't," Heath said.
"No, it's not," said Selina. "I don't know what it is. It kind of looks like smoke, only it's blue. It makes light, but no heat. It's moving in a circle up there."
Heath looked up for a long moment. "I do see something," he said. "I don't know what it is, either."
The unknown thing suddenly made a low, moaning sound. Lazuli's and Malachite's ears stood on end, and they froze in place for just a moment, then ran back through the miniature tunnel system to the main lair, crying out for their mother. Heath and Selina listened to the moaning of the blue, smoke-like thing for a moment more, then turned to follow their cousins.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Cerulia and Magatama were quick to comfort their terrified children. While the two little Tundras were still incoherent with fear, Heath and Selina tried their best to explain what they had seen that had frightened them so badly. Magatama seemed to understand, nodding when Heath described the blue smoke thing. He told all four of the hatchlings that it would be wisest to abandon that branch of their tunnel system. He said it wasn't safe for them to go back there.
"But was so pretty!" Lazuli protested.
"And there were so many useful and beautiful crystals there," Heath said.
"I still think it's too dangerous for hatchlings to be in there," Magatama said. "Maybe when you're older."
Heath sighed, but nodded. He and his sister and cousins had had enough of tunneling for that day, but Lazuli was right. Heath didn't really want to wait until he was all grown up to return to the beautiful crystal cavern they'd discovered.
The next day, when they were alone, Heath whispered to his sister to ask if she wanted to sneak back to the cavern with him. She said yes; like him, she was more curious about what she'd seen than she was afraid of it. The two siblings managed to use some of their older miniature tunnels to slip away from the rest of the clan and make their way back to the crystal cavern. When they came to the entrance, they carefully stepped over the few remaining jagged points at the threshold and gazed intently up into the highest reaches of the cavern's ceiling.
After a few moments, they gasped in unison when they saw the mysterious whatever-it-was again. It looked like a wisp of blue smoke, but now that they stopped to take a better look at it, they saw that it had holes for eyes and a mouth. It circled the end of the air shaft at the top of the cavern, moaning and taking no notice of the two dragon hatchlings on the cavern floor.
They watched in silent astonishment as another smoke-wisp came down through the air shaft and joined the first one in its circling, then another and another. The cavern's ceiling gradually became a vortex of swirling blue smoke, and the moaning became louder with each new wisp that joined the throng. Selina sat on the ground, holding her forepaws to the sides of her head. Her brother gave her a sheltering embrace with one of his royal-purple wings. "It's all right, Selina," he said. "I don't think they've seen us."
Suddenly, a shadow blotted out what light there was coming through the air shaft. Selina shrieked and closed her eyes. Heath tried to comfort her, while at the same time trying to see what was happening at the top of the cavern. He was sure he had just heard the sound of wings coming from up there. All he could see was that there were two darker shadows amidst the faintly-glowing blue smoke.
"Selina," said Heath, "look up. I think there's something alive up there. I'm not sure, because I don't have heat vision. Please. Don't be afraid."
Slowly, Selina looked up and opened only her heat-eyes, one at a time. Then she opened her light-eyes in surprise. "You're right!" she exclaimed. "There are dragons up there!"
The dark shadows at the top of the cavern definitely had wings, leathery ones from the sound of them, and were using them to fly in circles, matching the speed of the blue smoke-wisps. One of them spoke a few words in a language neither of the hatchlings understood, and there was a flash of blinding white light. Heath and Selina both shut their eyes and looked away. When they looked back up, the blue smoke was gone and the uppermost reaches of the cavern walls were glowing with a purple light. The light gleamed off the faceted scales of one of the two horned, unfamiliar dragons still flying in circles there.
The two strangers flew in an expanding spiral path down to the floor of the cavern. Selina gestured to the entrance with her head, asking if they should run, but Heath shook his head and turned to face the strangers. "Good evening," Heath said. "My name is Heath. We're not invading your territory, are we?"
"No, you're not," said the purple, black, and orange dragon in a deep, rich tone. "Don't be afraid."
"Wait a minute," Selina said to Heath. "Aren't they invading ours?"
"Umm..." Did Heath's discovery of the cave mean he had claimed it for the clan? He wasn't sure, but if he went and asked his parents, they and Magatama would find out he had been here, and then...
"Well, if we are, we apologize," the purple dragon said. "We didn't realize there were other dragons living in this mountain."
"Neither did we," said Heath. "Do you live here?"
"Yes. We've been living here for a little while now. How did you find us?"
"We dug a tunnel, and it led us here. See? That's how we got in here." Heath pointed out the entrance he had made by breaking through the crystal wall.
"Ah, so that's why there's a downdraft now," said the other dragon, the yellow-and-orange one, whose voice revealed her to be female.
"Oh, no," said Heath. "Is that bad? I'm sorry. I'll fill it in for you, if you want."
"No, that's all right. It does no harm; in fact, it's an improvement. The draft will draw the spirits further down into the cavern than they ever came before. Makes our job easier."
"S-s-s-spirits?" said Selina, speaking for the first time since the strangers had landed. "I-is that what those things were?"
"That's right," said the yellow dragon gently. "My mate and I have always had a talent for attracting them. They've been following us around for as long as we can remember. We've been looking for a good place for them to stay, where they can find rest, and this cavern is perfect for it."
"So what you just did was... gave them somewhere to rest?" Heath said, looking up at the purple light.
"Exactly. That's what we do - it's our strongest magical talent. I hope you don't mind that we used this cavern to do it."
"I..." Heath didn't know what to say.
"He's just a hatchling," said the purple dragon with the deep voice. "Do you have parents, young one?"
"Yes."
"Would you take us to meet them?"
"I... don't think you could fit through our tunnels. We dug them ourselves."
"No matter. Is there an outdoor cave entrance somewhere?"
"Yes. It's on the west side of the mountain."
"Heath!" Selina hissed.
"It's all right, Selina," Heath said. "I think if they were going to hurt us, they would have by now."
"We're not going to hurt you," said the yellow dragon. "My name is Leota, by the way."
"My name is Thurl," said the other stranger. "Heath and Selina, right? It's a pleasure to meet you two."
"Same to you," Heath said. "If you want, we can get our parents to come around to the main entrance, so they can meet you. Maybe our grandparents, too. They're the clan leaders."
"All right. We'll meet you there."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Heath and Selina hurried to find their parents. They had to confess that they had gone back to the crystal cavern even though Magatama had told them not to, but this was quickly forgotten amid the news of the two strangers who had come. Talia, Jareth, Devon, and Adeptica all came out to meet the newcomers and settle the question of who had claim to the crystal cavern. After Thurl and Leota told them the story of their talents and what they had done to the cavern, everyone involved agreed that the simplest and most mutually-beneficial way to handle things was for Thurl and Leota to officially become members of Clan Adeptica. Shadowspell brought out the clan charter, and the two Nocturnes both signed it. From that day on, they were part of the extended family.
Leota proved to have other talents besides charming and calming restless spirits. She also knew every trick in the book for starting a fire through mundane, non-magical means - odd for a Shadow dragon, but highly valuable to the clan. Snowblossom, the clan chef, was especially grateful to have her around, and they became fast friends.
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