Planet Zar: Nexus

AGE 10 ~ FIRELIZARDS

"Tallon, get up!"

Something soft and heavy flumped across Tallon's face. He bolted upright, blinking blearily through the darkness. Vin's silhouette blotted out the moonlight from the tent entrance but Tallon could makeout the white of his teeth stretched in a grin.

"What time is it?" Tallon dragged a hand over his face, yawning.

"Doesn't matter." Vin grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet. "Those eggs are hatching. Grab a bit of dried meat and come to the beach. Hurry."

Tallon stood, stunned and confused for half a breath before he realized what his brother said. The firelizard eggs. He grabbed his shawl and wrapped it tight around his shoulders, snatched a satchel of dried wherry meat, and raced off after Vin. The moon was high and bright casting its silvery reflection over the lapping beach. Just enough light to navigate the rocks and crags. Vin beat him to the shore and sat crouched over a half-buried nest of fist-sized eggs.

Vin waved him over. "You've got some meat?"

Tallon pulled some strips from his satchel and offered one to Vin. "We just... wait?"

"Can't just yank them out of their shells!" Vin laughed and slung an arm around Tallon, knocking them close together. They huddled together, shivering a little in the night breeze, watching fault lines crack along the surface of the eggs.

Eggshell chipped a glimmer of bronze peeked through the darkness.

Vin grinned. "That's good luck, you know."

"I though that was just dragons," said Tallon.

"Firelizards are dragons, just... little." Vin broke a sliver of meat from his strip and placed it in the palm of his hand, holding it steady near the eggs.

The bronze chirped and chittered as it struggled out of its shell. It's eyes glimmered a kaleidoscope of emotions, nostrils flaring whuffs of misty breath. It scrambled from the sand and leapt at Vin's hand, pinprick nails digging into his fingers as it gobbled the crumb of meat. Vin laughed and offered the rest of the strip to it.

"He's yours?" Tallon whispered, eyes wide.

The bronze stared up at Vin, eyes flashing rainbow.

Vin grinned. "I guess so!"

Another eggshell cracked and a slinky blue extracted itself. Tallon grabbed for the meat and thrust it toward the firelizard. It shrieked at the sudden movement and scrambled off the nest, hissing and flapping its wet infant wings. It turned tail and scurried into the darkness. Tallon groaned.

"Too fast!" said Vin. He grabbed Tallon's wrist and steadied his shaking arm. "They're little enough that a lot of things eat them, you've gotta go slow so they don't spook."

"Alright..."

The bronze clambered up around his shoulder and trilled.

It wasn't long before the next egg hatched, a petite little thing with a creamy sheen to its shell. A crack raced down the middle, spilling goo and revealing a glimpse of shining green. Tallon held his breath and shook, but Vin kept his arm steady. The green squalled and wriggled through her egg, panting from the effort.

"Steady now," Vin whispered. He eased his hand from Tallon's wrist.

The green scented the air, fluttering her tiny wings. She cocked her head, examining Tallon with one eye, then the other. Finally, she chirruped and dashed forward, landing on Tallon's palm and gulping the strip of meat in one hasty gobble.

Vin laughed. "She's as eager as you! Look at her, she's going to choke herself!"

Tallon gathered the green against his chest and stroked her delicate head. "No she's not, she's fine. Aren't you?"

The green belched and stared up at him with rainbow faceted eyes.

"See?" Tallon grinned at Vin. "She agrees, she's fine."

Vin elbowed him in the ribs but his smile, his joy, was unmistakable. Elation rose between them, palpable and warm as the sunrise crested over the horizon. They watched the rest of the clutch hatch: greens glimmering like emeralds, blues as bright as the morning sky, browns rich and sturdy scratching their way out of the hot sand. Tallon fed smaller bits of meat to his little grin, who curled sleepily in his lap and accepted the food without lifting her head. Vin's bronze snuggled into the heat of his neck and watched waves kiss the shoreline.

Finally, all but one egg had hatched, leaving the nest a littered mess of broken shell.

"Is something wrong with it?" Tallon reached carefully for the egg. It rocked at his touch, but the movement was weak.

"They don't always hatch," Vin replied with a shrug. "Especially if it was a green that laid the nest."

Tallon frowned. "Isn't there anything can we do? Can we crack it open?"

"You can try, but there might not be anything alive in there. It might not be pretty. Probably best to just leave it."

"I'm gonna see, just in case." Tallon dug his fingernail into the only fracture he could see. The shell chipped and flaked away, leaving behind a flimsy membrane. He glanced at Vin - was that normal? But his brother only shrugged. Tallon marched again, picking pieces off in careful increments until the membrane deflated and flopped away, revealing a tiny brown hatchling.

"It's not moving." Tallon jerked his hands from the egg. "Is it...?"

"Get a piece of meat ready." Vin picked the remains of the egg up and inspected it. His bronze lowered its face and crooned, pawing at the hatchling itself. Vin tipped the egg and the brown slipped out, limp as a yolk. He held it out to Tallon.

Tallon frowned, hesitating with the piece of meat.

"Go on."

Gulping in a deep breath, Tallon took the limp hatchling, cradled in one hand, and waved the bit of meat under its nose. A warm gust brushed over his palm.

"It's breathing!" he gasped.

The brown's eyes fluttered open - grey-yellow at first, but edged into a curious blue. It snapped its jaws around the meat with a sudden voracity that nearly made Tallon drop it.

Vin laughed. "He's alright after all! Baba might not be happy with you for bringing back two firelizards, you're going to have to do double-time foraging."

"I will," said Tallon, stroking the brown's delicately striped neck. "I'm gonna get so good at it."

Vin grinned and hugged his brother to his side.

AGE 13 ~ HUNTING LESSON

Tallon concentrated on his breathing, keeping it steady and silent as he peered between the tall stalks of grass. Not a blade stirred with each exhale. His fingers gripped his bow, the shaft of an arrow tucked between his fingers, ready to be strung. His heart pounded, his arms as tense and quivering as his bowstring.

The flock of wherries grazed ahead, pecking dumbly for insects on the ground, entirely unaware they were being watched.

Tallon crept closer and readied his bow, pointing his arrowhead at the fattest wherry.

A series of dry coughs exploded behind him. The wherries jerked their heads up and shrieked alarm, taking off away from him in a stampede of feathers and dust.

Tallon slammed his bow on the ground and whipped around with a snarl. "Vin! Seriously!"

Vin held up a placating hand, the other thudding on his chest as he spasms through the last coughs. "Sorry," he choked. "Dust caught in my throat."

"Ugh. There goes dinner."

AGE 14 ~ THREADFALL

Dusk hissed and snapped his wings at the empty air, eyes whirling furious red.

"Don't you dare go out there." Tallon scooped the tiny brown up with one fist, holding tight as he struggled against Tallon's grip. "You'll be fizzled away by thread in seconds."

Dusk chirped and send a burst of disgruntlement through their bond. On Tallon's shoulder, Quickstep twittered and ducked her head against his cheek. They huddled together with Tallon's family beneath the lip of a cavemouth, watching through a tiny crevice in the rock as thread reined down outside. The rocks were slick with rain and smelled of petrichor. The dirt beneath Tallon's feet had slurred to mud, cold and cloying as it gripped his shoes and pant-hems.

It was cold, he told himself. And that's the reason Vin was doubled over in the corner coughing a dry rasp that made Tallon's throat hurt just listening to it.

It was just because of the cold.

AGE 15 ~ HELP

"He needs a healer!" Tallon wanted to hurl something hard enough to break it but there was nothing in grabbing range that would satisfyingly shatter. Instead, he flexed his fists and grit his teeth. Dusk and Quickstep squawked and flurried around him, confused and upset by his anger.

Tallon's mother watched him with a tight expression. Her eyes were red and sunken. "There's nothing that can be done."

"There has to be," Tallon snarled. "We have to do something. Can't we-"

"It's okay," Vin croaked, appearing in the open flap of the tent. He clenched a blanket around his shoulders. His bronze clung to his arm, looking less glossy by the day. "I'm okay."

"You're not." Tallon rushed to him and grabbed his arms. Vin winced, but Tallon didn't want to stop. He wanted to grab harder and shake him and force him to... to... "You're not."

Vin wrapped an arm around Tallon and drew him against his chest. Tallon let his head fall and grit his teeth to hold back tears. The rattle in Vin's chest deafened their parents' platitudes.

AGE 15 ~ GONE

The funeral was simple and quiet. Done and over in the course of hours.

Tallon turned his back to it and watched the ocean roll grey and bleak across the horizon. A metallic twinkle flit seaward - Vin's bronze setting himself free.

On one shoulder, Quickstep churred, her mind whirling with questions. On the other, Dusk sat solemn and silent.

Tallon watched the sky turn black and the air turn cold. He didn't return to his tent.

AGE 15 ~ SEARCH

"I've never been to a weyr." Tallon watched Dusk and Quickstep fly circles with the rider's pair of flits. He should be more wary of the massive white dragon looming above him, but there was no trepidation there. "I've barely spent any time in a hold."

"That doesn't matter," said the rider. Her smile was soft and her tone patient. She'd introduced herself as Orana, a wingrider for Isla Weyr. "Esarith thinks you'd be a good choice to stand at our sands."

Tallon had never put much thought into dragons. He and his family huddled their way through threadfall without their protective flames burning overhead. He'd never seen any dragon up close, let alone a white one. He cast a glance back toward the ocean, where his parents' tents swayed in the breeze. Their runnerbeasts watched with ears pricked, wary of the giant predator only a few dozen strides from their hitch posts. His family was small, smaller now, and their life a difficult one. He loved his mother, his father, his aunt and uncle, the cousins that remained.

But there was pain in his heart that threatened to consume him, growing black and sharp inside his chest.

He didn't want to be here anymore.

"Alright." Tallon turned back to Orana, nodding. "I'll come with you."