Events of Arrival

Episode 10: Opposing Elements

Two straight days of sleeping in and the flock was still whiny. The juvies had all been thrilled yesterday when they had to take more action than making a racket to get their breakfast. Calder hadn't cared. She'd given everyone their shares after a quick jaunt to the grocery and then enjoyed her own slow breakfast in the Zebulon house. She didn't even return to Aegis until late in the afternoon, but when she did, there was a new air of relief that had settled in the fifth floor of the East dorm.

It felt really good to wake up in that air on Saturday morning. No longer was her alarm the noisy idiocy of the juvies, but the little mewls of the baby dragons down in their corner of the room. It was easier to be sympathetic of them, since they were gentler and later about telling their foster mom that it was breakfast time. Eventually, the rest of the flock would come to understand the change.

Eventually.

Today, the fifth floor was out of coffee. Calder tucked the flock's turkey under one arm and shuffled downstairs with a flat look on her face and five dragons under the age of nine hugging her shoulders. The first floor had the best coffee.

The first floor was also a goddamn madhouse, for reasons yet to be discerned. It was either because every room on the floor was occupied, or because the rooms were all occupied by men. Or maybe it was just really bad on Saturdays. That seemed to be the norm so far.

Speaking of norms, there was another video game tournament happening, this time with a game that made no attempt at hiding its violence. One character ripped the other's head off, spilling blood and gore across the stage and camera. The room erupted in men cheering and yelling. The dragons attached to Calder's shoulders cowered under her hair as much as they could.

The line of sight immediately above the heads of her babies led to an out-of-place figure standing awkwardly in the kitchenette, waiting for her turn while the guys hovering over the counter made no effort to notice and move.

In her hands was a mug, and Calder got close enough to see the bottom obscured by some fine brown powder.

"Hey, Khireas," Calder chirped, shoving one of the guys into his buddy and claiming the coffee pot for her own uses. "Need something?"

Khireas stared for a beat, frozen in terrified attention as the noise moved around her. "I wanted cocoa," she whispered eventually.

Calder thumped the coffee pot down now that her mug was filled and reached for the hot water kettle, all heated and ready. She held the lip of the kettle out, and waited until Khireas timidly held out the mug to start filling it. She also kept pouring until Khireas told her to stop.

The hypothermic girl grabbed a stir-stick from the cup on the counter and began shuffling out of the area. She wandered into the cacophony and sat down beside Oblisk, who seemed to be waiting on a free controller. He looked over his shoulder and waved. Calder raised her coffee mug in greeting, and disappeared into the staircase from whence she had arrived.

***

While mid-June heat was usually too much for normal people to endure for long periods of time, Calder's fireproof skin withstood it fine. She spent well over an hour sipping her coffee and tossing little pieces of sliced turkey off the roof for her juvenile dragons to dive after. Eventually she stopped feeding them and plopped down on the edge of the roof, nursing her drink as her legs dangled off the edge.

She almost leapt straight off like a twitchy cat when her phone jumped to life in her pocket. Half the flock screeched and the other half with wings screeched and made an exodus. While the dragons panicked, Calder pulled the offending device out of her pocket. Her glare was cut short when the time read eleven and the text read "Time to head over!" and the sender's name read Yoyo. She pocketed the device again and began gathering up her dragons, plucking the ones still panicking out of the air and telling everyone to head to a home point until called later in the morning. The last thing she grabbed as the portals began opening and closing was the empty coffee mug, forgotten off to the side for the last half hour or so.