Green and Grey

Jolene was tracking a pair of cryos. They were so wrapped up in their own conversation that they hadn’t noticed her yet. The pair didn’t look similar in the slightest; one was dark and feathered, the other light brown and scaled. But their scents were so closely linked that Jolene hadn’t realized she was trailing two cryos until she saw them.

And there was something else to that scent, too… They smelled a little bit like Kyrien. But only a little bit. They were his packmates, rather than blood relations, which lined up with what he had told her of his old pack. But Jolene had never actually met any of his packmates. She was very curious to see what kind of cryos he’d grown up with.

“Hello!” she called out from her vantage point. “Are you two new around here? I haven’t seen you before.”

With Kyrien, she’d been slower, tailing him as he traveled, gathering information. But Kyrien was alone when she’d found him; these two were a pair, and she didn’t want to be overwhelmed if things didn’t turn out in her favor. So today, she would make herself apparent right away.

They both looked back at her, the feathered one wary and the scaled one growling. “And what makes that any of your business?”

Jolene expertly hid her irritation with a calm, friendly tone. “I’m a friend of Kyrien.”

“Kyrien?” If the feathered one’s reaction didn’t give them away, her companion glaring daggers at her definitely did. “Is he here?”

“Not anymore, I’m afraid. I could let him know you’re here if I see him again.”

“You don’t have to do that,” said the scaled one.

“Frasil, aren’t you even a little worried about him? He just went and vanished one day, and now we know he’s out there somewhere, alive and well!”

“She could just be lying.”

“Why on earth would she do that?”

“I’m not lying,” Jolene said. “I really am friends with Kyrien. He told me about his pack, you two must be… Vanim’s children?”

It was a bit of a shot in the dark. Vanim was the only one of Kyrien’s packmates that she knew the name of, and if he was their alpha, it should stand to reason that these two were related to him somehow. And since they were younger than her and Kyrien, they were probably from one of his nests, rather than breeding females.

“Yes!” It was the feathered one talking again, evidently the more trusting of the pair. “I’m Fainel, and this is my sister, Frasil.”

Frasil rolled her eyes, but she didn’t attack or demand Jolene leave them alone, so Jolene counted that as a win.

“Jolene. It’s nice to meet you two. So, what are you doing out here? Looking for something?”

“Crystals,” Frasil said. “We hear there’s big clusters of them in these ravines. Know anything about that?”

Jolene was, admittedly, a little impressed that Frasil was trying to play her own game with her. Both of them were poking around for information. “I heard the same thing from a flock of tapejaras the other day,” Jolene said, lying through her teeth. She prided herself on being unpredictable. “I was thinking about looking for them, too. Why don’t all three of us search together?”

“It sounds like you’re from around here, Jolene, so having you help us would be great! Wouldn’t it, Frasil?”

“Yes.” Frasil’s voice was slow, measured, carrying a threat that couldn’t be ignored. “It would.”

Jolene refused to let herself be shaken. “Let’s find those crystals, then!”

Jolene led the two of them down into the winding chasms, carefully keeping both of her new companions far enough away that she would have time to step away if one of them—Frasil, most likely—tried to jump her.

It wasn’t long until they found a cave, and the shimmer was already visible from the outside. Jolene ducked her head low to fit through the entrance, but inside it was much more spacious. The walls and ceiling glistened with crystals and gemstones, shining in vivid greens and complementary grey, white, and black.

“In here,” she called, but the other two were already on her tail.

“Amazing!” Fainel gasped, walking all the way to the end of the cave, mesmerized by the crystals the whole way. Frasil tried to keep her amazement to herself, but she was just as enraptured by them, mouth agape in silent awe.

“I’m going to find something to help us get these out of the cave,” Fainel said, making her way back to the other cryos. “If you want to take some too, Jolene, you’re more than welcome to. Without you, we never would have found them!”

“That would be lovely,” Jolene said, stepping aside to let her leave.

And then it was just Frasil and Jolene in the cave. Jolene had no intention of talking to Frasil, not when she was so prickly. She could save her energy on worming her way into Fainel’s heart.

“You did a good job of finding these crystals,” Frasil remarked, much to her chagrin. “Almost like you always knew they were here.”

“You can’t prove that.”

Frasil huffed. “Like I need to.”

Jolene didn’t protest. If their argument went too far, not only would she be outnumbered when Fainel returned, the sharp crystals surrounding them could turn their squabble deadly in an instant…

A shadow forming outside informed them of Fainel’s return. She carried a styracosaurus horn in her jaws. That could make for a deadly weapon, too. But Fainel was smiling sweetly, unaware of what they’d been talking about, and went to work carving out shiny crystals for them to take home.

Jolene didn’t even have a nest to put them in. But this adventure had been useful regardless.