Sparkling Stones [Private/Kenma]

What a beautiful morning! Just as beautiful as a sun setting in the west, letting the other suns light the sky but that's beside the point. Kyuurei was such in a good mood today, and he wanted to spend today on going outside and explore the areas of Kaamil or maybe even beyond it. Though he has some studying to do, sure, but he doesn't feel like doing that at all.

So he got out a scroll that holds the illustration of Layrian and checked searched for the locations he hadn't been to or visited often. One place stood out to him; Fairysnow forest? What an odd name, I wonder if it has fairies like its name ha claimed. He pondered, deciding that this was the place he wanted to visit. He took a gulp of water and put on his feathery earring on before leaving his home, bringing Faye with him once again.

After a somewhat slow hike, Kyuurei has finally made it to his destination, and he has already noticed that the trees in the forest seemed out of place especially for the fact he was still in Kaamil's territory. He and Faye went further down the path until they had arrived at a forest clearing filled with assorted types of colourful flowers. Deciding to take a break there, Kyuurei ran around, fooling around with the flowers while his birdy friend Faye was just sleeping on a logged tree trunk.

Kenma had watched the morning sun slowly climb up the sky into its heavenly throne, illuminating the whole world as it did so; the night faded, pale blue staining the sky, wisps of white appearing. It was on that particular day that Kenma felt an odd determination to set out and explore (the weather seemed particularly fine that morning too, so why not?), shaking off the inner voice that nagged at him to not go, to stay at home and finish up on that particularly interesting book he'd stumbled across the day before, when he was wandering in the library, one of the places he frequented in the Kaamil territory. He had packed it into his satchel, and thankfully it wasn't thick, fitting into his bag, but just barely. He hoped that his fur wouldn't hinder him on his exploration that day.

Removing a scroll that he always carried around in that small brown satchel of his, he unfurled the time-yellowed paper with care, the delicate sheet making soft crinkling sounds as it did so, one of his favourite things to hear. Onto it was etched map, done in black-and-white, lacking colour, but enough to guide him around as best as a piece of paper could. Fairysnow forest was one of the places he had not visited yet, and it snagged his attention; turning the paper around, he scanned, with squinted eyes, the messy scrawl that was cramped into whatever available space there was in the paper. At last he found it.

"Fairysnow Forest -
A well known forest within the Kaamil territory. It earned its name from the fact that the forest always seems to have an enchanted feel to it, and many have claimed to have seen fairies and other magical creatures within. It is usually covered in at least 3" to 1'2" year round, and the plants that grow here are a mix of conifers and deciduous trees, which is unusual for this far north. There are also many herbs here, and there is usually very little rain. It is mostly either sunny or rainy."

Fairies? He sincerely doubted it, but why not go and explore? So he spread his wings and took off, but not before tucking the scroll back into his satchel and ensuring that none of the items he carried would fall out during his flight, which, judging by the map, would be a short one, thankfully. But it seemed that he had estimated it wrong, for he took half an hour to reach his destination, not the fifteen minutes that he'd promised himself. At last he landed, trying to control his panting breaths, which came in quick and short huffs. Looking around, he spotted flora of all kinds sprouting from the ground, and bent down to gently touch a lone flower, its long red thingies poking his paw.

He looked up when the muffled sounds of paws hitting the ground reached his ears, only to see a fellow Kaamil frolicking around. Kenma watches with eyes slightly widened, and said cautiously, "Hello...?"

In a playful stance, Kyuurei flicked the flowers heads (without damaging them) with his tail which is covered in abnormally long, dark blue fluff. He raised his wings in the air, making some squeaking noise that what meant to sound like a victory roar. The sunlight was reflected off by his cyan wings, making them very glossy. However, they seemed too small to lift Kyuurei up to the high skies. His dark greyish blue fur stood out against the white and several snow-toppled floras that this doesn't seem to bother him that much.

At first, Kyuurei was unaware of the arrival of another dragon. That is until the newcomer had spoken, a single "Hello" was enough for Kyuurei to stop what he was doing and looked around with alarm. Once he has found out that sound was coming from another dragon, Kyuurei blinked with awe. A silver dragon who looked a bit like him, and assuming that he also lives in the Kaamil tribe as well, because rogues don't usually trespass into claimed territory... Right?

Kyuurei walked forwards, approaching the silver dragon with a grin on his face, "Hello there! This place is pretty nice don't you think?" He chirped enthusiastically, trying to not jiggle around so much as it may scare the dragon away. Usually, Faye doesn't allow Kyuurei to talk to strangers just like that, but he is still asleep on the tree trunk so...

Kenma watched in curiosity as the dragon's long, furry tail shot out to gently smack against some of the flowers, their thin, fragile stems whipping backwards; the tail was long and thin, and had glossy dark blue fur as a layer over it. This was followed by a noise that he guessed was meant to be a fierce (or trumphant?) roar, though it didn't really sound like one, tumbling from the dragon's maw in a high-pitched yip.

The stranger seemed quite unaware of Kenma, lost in the action of enjoying his time in the clearing, but finally noticed him at Kenma's cautious greeting. He saw the stranger look him up and down, and tried to smile. The other dragon's enthusiasm and friendliness took him completely by surprise, but it did make his smile sincere. "Yes, it is," Kenma agreed with a nod, his gaze sweeping from left to right, once more taking in his surroundings. The trees, flowers and ground were all frosted with a thin layer of snow, and the sunlight that peeked through the cracks in the trees' thick cluster of leaves gave it a mysterious, enchanting look. "May I know your name? Mine is Kenma," he said, thinking that introducing himself would be the best way to continue the conversation.

Awaiting for the other dragon to contribute to the conversation after the nod, Kyuurei has noticed several times that the dragon was more focused on the surroundings from time to time. Kyuurei then wondered to himself if this dragon was different from the others. But the thought didn't last long as the dragon finally spoke, revealing his name to be Kenma and asking for his name.
"My name's Kyuurei. It's nice to meet a fellow tribe member like you, Kenma!" Kyuurei responded almost quickly.  

Several moments later, Kyuurei had found himself glancing around too. Stopping when he looked backwards to check on the tree trunk where Faye was still sleeping. Although his white feathery coat blends into the snow toppled surroundings, he gave off a pink glimmer. When Kyuurei realised how much time he spent looking away from Kenma, he quickly turned his attention back to him and asked another question. "So what brings you to this enchanted place?" His tail began shaking wildly, but it was slow enough to indicate happiness and warmness than danger.

"Kyuurei," Kenma said in his soft voice before he could stop himself; he was testing out the name, something he always did when meeting a new dragon; it was fun to learn and pronounce their names, as most of them were unique and interesting to play around with in his mouth. When his brain registered what he was actually doing, Kenma scanned Kyuurei's face frantically, for any sign of discomfort or an expression that said "You're weird / crazy," something that showed on the faces of most dragons when he repeated their name. "Sorry," he apologised, the word falling quickly from his mouth, as if he had uttered this word very often. "It's just... Your name is cool." He blushed, though it was mostly hidden by his fur.

"Curiosity, mostly," Kenma said in response to Kyuurei's question. "I read about it here, you see," pulling out the parchment and unrolling it, showing Kyuurei its description on the back, "and I wasn't sure if I believed the stories about fairies... So I came to see for myself. You?"

Nodding in approval, Kyuurei beamed at Kenma correctly pronouncing his name correctly. "No need to be sorry" Kyuurei said, leaning closer to the parchment Kenma had open up. The description on the back was the exact same as the scroll's description of the land. "Huh, this parchment looks similar to my map on a scroll." Kyuurei partially lied, "I suppose I came here for the same reason as you."

The lighting in the forest had shifted, although still early in the day the shadows had grown darker. The beetles had began filling in the shaded areas and their abdomens lit up the place in a heavenly pink light. Kyuurei took the time to look around the place put in a new perspective. Their pink butts giving off pink highlights on the trees, leaves and snow. Kyuurei then saw that Faye was awake and he was hovering behind Kenma for some reason.

(Do I win a trophy for world's latest reply?)
(Also no coloured speech because I'm on the tablet sorry)

Don't worry about my new username as Ken, Kenma's still Kenma in this topic. --

"Oh. Yay." Needless to say, Kenma was relieved that Kyuurei didn't mind his weirdness. He tapped a claw against the ground, waiting as Kyuu ran his eye over the drawing on the parchment he held. The already weak sunlight grew dimmer as time passed, but it was still enough to illuminate the sheet of parchment. "That's good. It means my map isn't inaccurate. Can I see yours?" he said when Kyuurei was done, carefully rolling up the frayed sheet and tying it with a thin white string.

He felt fluttering behind him, and turned his head to look for the source, but was distracted halfway by the pink glow on the trunks. His surroundings seemed ethereal suddenly, the dim light streaked with little hues of pink here and there from what he assumed were beetles, and the pale uncertain light added to this effect. "It's as beautiful as I'd been hoping," gasped Kenma, walking towards one of the beetles.

"I don't have it with me sadly," Kyuurei said as he scanned the area around him once more and noted that there were more beetles crowding on a circle of stones in the dark. He left Kenma to investigate the stones, shooing hundreds and possibly thousands of beetles. As he watched the sky become shrouded in pastel pink, a glimmer of light from the ground caught Kyuurei's eye and began digging into the center of the circle of rocks. It didn't take him very long to find two oddly coloured sparkly gemstones, "Kenma! Look at what I've found!" Kyuurei said excitedly as he brought the two gemstones with him to show Kenma, the gemstones gleam at their full potential. "Aren't they beautiful? Here, you can have one of them." He offered a gemstone to Kenma and tossed the other to Faye, who had caught it mid-air. "Oh, before you ask anything, that is Faye, my loyal companion!" Kyuurei presented so his birdy friend won't have any added stress to him.

---

Kyuurei and Kenma have chatted for a bit as the day pass by, but as the noon strikes, they eventually went separate ways. Kyuurei probably went somewhere else to spend the rest of the day...

Five years later.

Paws crunched against the snow as Kenma - now Ken - sauntered around with his head held high, trying to give off the impression of a confident Icien. Which of course he wasn't, but nobody needed to know that. His tail dragged on the floor behind him, leaving a thick trail of crushed snow. He was at what they called the Celestial Stone, rumoured to be the reason for the long life of Krakareen. It was right in the middle of the entire Kaamill, and he hoped that by putting himself there, he would be able to encounter at least someone to chat to.

Rough, chilly winds bounced off the thick white fur coat as Kyuurei troded through the blizzard. It was not the worst storm he had ever encountered but it still greatly hinders his movement with all of those strong wings. He was trying to make his way to the Ice Palace for some tutoring as he was an Inira now but it seems it has to be postponed til later.

Waiting for the winds to die down, Kyuurei sat on the snow and endured the passing blizzards. Strangely enough, his purple bird friend had joined him in his journey, hiding in his fur coat to block out the cold. As Kyuurei has proven himself to Faye, he was now less wary of dragons. Kyuurei looked down to his crystal which he had found five years ago and it was now part of a necklace hanging around his neck.

When the storms had eased down, Kyuurei found that he was close to the Celestial stone, a completely different direction from the Ice Palace. Ah well. Spotting another figure from the same distance as the stone, he decidedly approach close to their locations. At a certain point in time, Kyuurei instantaneously recognised who was the figure was and quickly approached him. "Hi Ken!" Kyuurei greeted, looking and feeling a little surprised that he had encountered the Icien in the likes of a place like this.

He stood in awkward silence, growing more and more uncomfortable with each second that ticked by. He was beginning to question whether he should go home and attempt this another day, or was there something wrong with the method he was using? Last time he tried knocking on dragons' doors, but that was unsuccessful as well, his dignity saved only by the appearance of Katyusha, and now he was standing here like some status idiot. Where exactly was he going wrong? he wondered despairingly, and then a voice broke into his thoughts.

Ken stared at the stranger for three solid seconds before something in his brain just clicked. "Kyuurei!" he said with no shortage of enthusiasm, gratitude and relief. Kyuu greeted him by his new name, to his surprise, but Ken didn't question it. He only knew that there was someone here, and his efforts hadn't gone to nothing. "I haven't seen you in a while. How have you been?"