BACK!

The group of elves had a ball in the island dragonry. For one, the climate was one they were far more familar with than the chill of a hilly, wintry place. For another, there were cliffs very similar to the ones they lived near. The choppy waters below was their playground, until the hatching call went out.

A few humanoids, humans, dragons and other assorted people were attending along with the elves. One of them appeared to be abjectly terrified of dragons. Or... was it butterflies? How could that be? Urchin and Wire exchanged a glance at that, how strange.

The little dragon-butterflies that hatched alongside the fuller sized dragons were adorable, with annoyingly cute voices.

"They talk?" Asked Rise. Podwave nodded and shushed him.

A whole flock of the little things nested on one of the dragons attending, obviously that would be a good place for them! Another flock was on their way around the hatching grounds when they were shooed in the direction of the elves.

Five of them, in fact, spotted Wire and Podwave. Three of the things, called Butterflyts by the locals, landed on Wave. A blue male, purple female and a pink male. While they were busy flying about wire's head and shoulders, digging into his shirt and trying to hide under his hair, Podwave was having trouble with her two, an orange and a red, both females. She wasn't enjoying their angry fluttering, because they appeared to be frantic about something. She let off one of those strings of sailor-like swearing that only she could (hardly anyone on the Coast could understand how she knew such words - but she did) until even she had had enough.

"Calm down, you nitwits!" She said. "No one is going to hurt you! Now tell us your names!" The other three chirped loudly and were joined again by the two on Podwave. Finally Urchin stepped in and grabbed the blue.

"Shhh, there's no danger. So what do we call you?" She asked, aware that Podwave was much better at understanding predators than prey - maybe they considered her a predator? But then why choose to flock to her?

The little blue was first to say, "Zephyr," in a little squeaky voice.

The purple said, "Amatis," while the pink nuzzled Wire's ear and said, "Quartz," adding a moment later in a whisper, "really, no danger?"

Chuckling, Wire nodded. They turned to Podwave who was busy with her pair. "How about you? Come on, I won't bite."

"Pyrit," said the orange, boldly.

"And you?" Podwave asked, of the red who was attempting to get away - like she really did think the elf was ready to eat her!

"Ruby," she said. But before they could establish anything more, there was a cough that came from a dragon behind them.

"My name is Lei," it said. The elves turned around and saw an orange and brown butterfly dragon (the full sized kind) there.

"Whose is he?" Podwave asked, as Ruby kept attempting to duck into her shirt.

Rise stood up, after having examined the eggs on the ground. "He's mine, I guess," he said. That seemed to suit Lei, who was a magnificent creature.

A few minutes later, when all the other eggs had broken and only a few of the little ones were left, the last of the big eggs broke. Blue green and fragile seeming, the butterfly dragoness went across the grass toward the elves and their flits. She asked of Urchin, "room for one more?"

"Always," Urchin replied with a smile. The female told Urchin her name was Ralde. They would certainly have a lot of fun on their way home!

Urchin's guess was right. After a few weeks of growing, and stocking up on supplies for their trip home, the elves and their new friends made their way back toward the Hall of Portals' entrance to the Nexus world. Only they could see it, apparently, no one else knew it was there hanging near a large tree.

"Well, we can always come back," said Wire. The flitters were still absolutely hyper all the time, except when they'd eaten - so the elves determined to make the little things as fat as they could...

The swamp where they emerged from the Hall was just as spooky as it had been before. But their wolves would be waiting in Dare's Valley, right? Indeed! They traveled quickly this time, aware that the colorful butterflyts would attract the wrong kind of attention from the swamp dwelling tribe of rather less nice elves.

They avoided detection there, but were all aware that their journey would be quite long. After only a month or so rest?

"We could wait, we could go in spring," suggested Wire. They made arrangements at the Valley to remain. Besides, the locals really wanted to see the dragons up close! Who could resist these guys?

Ruby was still adamant that someone or something was going to eat her. Half the time, she was complaining so hard about it that she'd have missed any real predators if they were behind her... Pyrit kept warning her, and every once in a while Podwave's wolf friend Steel would take a playful nip at the butterflyt.

That probably just made it worse, but hey. It was fun.

During that time, the larger sized dragons grew bigger. They were quite small compared to other dragons, but big enough for the elves to actually ride properly. Somehow their wings supported the weight of not just the heavy dragon body but the elf!

Lei offered rides to whoever was near, the few children residing here loved him. Ralde was a bit more picky, allowing Urchin to ride her properly but merely having the patience to stand and let the others touch her or oggle. She would feel more comfortable when they arrived at the Coast once again.

In the spring, after the snowy storms stopped hitting the east coast where the Valley lay, the group bid the Valley people farewell. Taking the same route around the coast - because they were familiar with it, at least - would take until the middle of summer. Perhaps a year gone wasn't so bad...

What, more?

That's what it was looking like, for this group of travelers. A shimmering portal hung in the air quite where it hadn't on their last leg of the journey. Or perhaps, it had been and they hadn't noticed, or again, it might have really not been this direct route that they took? None of them were positive, after all the jungle and trees grew quickly around here.

Several moments went by, as the hyperactive butterflyts urged them on, and then Lei simply stood up underneath it. Ruby bolted into Podwave's green hair, but came out to see a number of odd looking small eggs tumble down.

Lei's tail caught them, before they went bouncing down the cliffside into the waves. Rise thanked his dragon friend, and held the eggs in his hands. Shaking, the eggs broke open and squawking noises came from each little mouth.

"One for each of us," Rise said, and the others grasped at a freshly born dragonet. They were clearly dragon-like, but tiny. As each looked up into the face of their new holder, a new wave of feelings came over the group. Hunger - it was the same as the flitters and dragons!

Urchin's was a male, silver-grey in color, from whom she got a pleasant sensation of the babbling of a brook. "Brook, is his name."

Wire showed Zephyr and Amatis his new female forest-colored dragonet, who he called Bark.

Podwave urged Ruby out again, to look over the grass colored male, and said, "he looks like my hair!" Stem became his name.

And Rise held up the female that looked a lot like Brook, naming his Babble - because the moment she started peeping, she wouldn't stop!

Urchin

Wire

Podwave

Rise

Urchin, female, young adult

Sending - high; Magic Feeling - very high
Fireshape/Heating - very high; Boneshape/Shell Shape - above average

Healing Lore/Acupuncture - extremely high; Mechanical Lore/Tools - very high; Gambling - average; Trapping/Nooses-Ropes - low
hunting Scimitar - above average

Wolf friend - Redoaks, female greater wolf (small, cream, tan, brown fur, red eyes, shapeshifting/Adaptation)

Dragon: Blue-Green Ralde (female butterfly dragon); dragonet Brook from Shar

Standing: Lantessama

Wire, male, teen

Sending - high; Magic Feeling - very high
Cold Creation - very high; Healing/Body Sense - above average

Elf Lore/Gossip - extremely high; Body Communication/Posture reading - very high; World Lore/Mapping - above average
Hunting Parry/Net - very low; Kris - below average

Wolf Friend - Greyeyes, female (average size, red and grey fur, pale blue eyes)

Butterflyts: Blue Male Zephyr; Purple Female Amatis; Pink Male Quartz; dragonet Bark from Shar

Standing: Lantessama

Podwave, female, young adult

Sending - very high; Magic Feeling - very high
Teleportation/Leap-to-Place - very high

Body Communication/Sign Language - extremely high; Verbal Communication/Taunts and Insults - very high; Animal Communication - average; Animal/Predator Communication - above average
Hunting Net - average

Wolf friend - Steel, female (huge, white and cream fur, black eyes

Butterflyts: Orange Female Pyrit; Red Female Ruby; dragonet Stem from Shar

Standing: Lantessama

Rise, male, adult

Sending - below average; Magic Feeling - low
Fireshape/Flame Blast - extremely high; Fireshape/Light Shape - average; Levitation/Telekinesis - very high

Manipulation/Whittling - extremely high; Dodge/Weaponry - high; Long Jump - average; Mineral Lore/Gems - below average
Hunt/Mace - very high; Crossbow - above average

Wolf Friend - Shale, male (smallish, grey and cream fur, pale blue eyes)

Dragon: Orange-Brown Lei (male butterfly dragon); dragonet Babble from Shar

Standing: Lantessama

Palace Doll maker, with improvements