"Dragons live in our own city, called The Dragon's Keep, and it is the most glorious place in Nodd.

The City has within it several rivers, a water based ferry system, enough land that we can breed and herd our own grazers, tend and harvest our own crops, and even a few of our own mountains. It's said that our wall is the tallest structure in the world.

I've lived in the city all my life, as has every Dragon in my generation, and hundreds of generations before us. Soon though, we're changing things.

The Furred are having troubles, and as much as we'd like to ignore them, as we have for time out of mind, this time the races cannot face their issues alone. I won't pretend that I understand the blossoming interplay of the races, the way the Dragons, Avians, Merfolk, and Furred relate to eachother on the social and economic levels. The only thing that I really cared about, when I heard about this shifting paradigm, is that I would get to meet people other than Dragons.

This had been a fascination of mine since I was very small. There has always been one member of the other races allowed within the Keep, from a list of each race that their governments select. They have to follow a strict set of rules while within the keep. The Avians have their wings bound and legs weighted, for instance, so they cannot fly, and the Furred must shave their faces, so that we can better understand their facial expressions. I don't know what the rules are for the Merfolk, since though they would be allowed if they sent someone. to my knowlage, they never have. I can't imagine how they'd get from their waters to ours, and apparently they couldn't either. A family of Dragons are selected to house and guide and ambassador while they're here.

This is not an honor, it's a punishment.

My Family had had a member that had broken a law so egregious that he had been banished to the edge of the world, but whatever he had done was so bad that leaving him to die in the wastes wasn't enough atonement for our family. The City's Elder counsel had decided that we would be the go to house for housing and guiding any of the Furred ambassadors until we were told otherwise.

So, when I was but a kidlet, I saw my first Furred. He was what they call a Felis, with tall, pointed ears, a boxy snout, and no beak! I watched my Mother walk with him through one of the house's gardens, talking about appropriate clothing. The Furred had not yet shaved his face, and I wondered why. His face was impossible to read, covered in a thick layer of cream fur and fanned by pale whiskers, but his eyes were incredibly alive, glittering, blue, arresting.

Mother paused when she saw me, and the Furred seemed to notice her hesitation. Though his face gave nothing away, his blue eyes scanned the garden and then locked on me, peeking from behind my hiding place behind a pillar.

Seeing him seeing me, my Mother told him my name.

I was not a loved child, among most of my family. My Mother treasured me, and my Sisters thought the world of me, but most everyone else saw me as a nuisance. My Mother's insistence acknowledging my gender instead of erasing it put strain on an already fragile house. The family was staggering under the weight of our banished member, the public scorn, the internal shame, but none of this meant anything to a child.

All I knew was that I felt alone most all of the time, and that most of the people in my house, my relations, seemed to either think I was disgusting, or something to be feared. My opinion of myself as anything good was tenuous, my attachment to the people that should be my loved ones frail. It wasn't that I longed to escape, or be free, because I loved my home, the Keep, the Dragon's culture. I was desperate to prove myself. If my Family thought of me as good, then surly that would mean I was.

The Furred's furry face shifted, lifted, revealing a row of teeth. He was smiling. This was something I could easily recognize, and something I desperately searched for daily on the faces of my family members. His sparking blue eyes and pure, white teeth were like a bright ray of sun after weeks of cloudy weather, rousing, clarifying, warm.

I couldn't help but smile back."

World: Knights of Nodd.
Characters: Veli.
Media: Easy Paint Tool SAI and Microsoft Paint.
Art, characters, designs, and ideas © me.

-Topknot