One of the eggs moves, slightly. A crack forms on its surface, then the broken shell lifts just enough to allow a little golden eye to gaze out upon the world. Apparently someone wants to investigate before coming out into the world properly.

Sneaky little trickster. Alexstrasza hums softly to herself, pretending not to notice.

Hmmm. Mhmmmm. Yes, yes, this whelp definitely understands everything she's seeing here, yep. The little whelp squints at her mother from her egg, clearly judging carefully with every ounce of her five seconds of life experience.

Then her judgement concludes, and the little whelp bursts from the egg all at once, flings herself towards her mother on clumsy fluid-soaked limbs, and gives a mighty squeak! of delight.

Oh no! She is caught completely off guard by this sudden ambush and is bowled over by the impact!

She lands on her back and lets the whelp crawl all over her face and chest, a wide grin on her face.

Excellent. Her daughter squeaks in victory and immediately begins investigating the most interesting thing she's ever seen! Alexstrasza is sniffled, nosed, crawled on, and a bit of her necklace is Industriously Nibbled.

Then the whelp carefully inspects her mother's face. Her grin is nosed at, complete with a tilted head and a pair of curious eyes, and then—

—there is a warm rush of the feeling of lovelovelovelove, and a little whelpling snuggling happily into the crook of her neck. She makes happy little chirping sounds.

That's her baby, yes it is. She sends the lovelovelovelove right back. Along with pats. And snuggles.

Eeeeeeeeeeee this is a happy little baby that loves her very much!! She nestles happily into her mother and coos contently.

There are crackly noises from the other eggs back by the shellshards that the baby had recently abandoned.

!!!!!

The whelpling gives a little chirp of surprise, then turns to look at the source of the noise. She spots the eggs.

Squeak!!!

She scrambles back to her siblings on awkward limbs and squeaks impatiently at them. Do they need help getting out of their eggs??? Because she can help, the world is very neat and if they're having any trouble getting out of their eggs she can be so helpful, she wants to meet them!!!!

They seem to be doing all right on their own! No one's exploding out like she did, but shells are being nosed aside with a reasonable amount of vigor.

Clearly they are going far too slowly. They must need help! She will assist with perfect precision and accuracy!

She attempts to bite and drag an eggshell off of one of her slower siblings, and sort of succeeds at this, but mostly succeeds at breaking the bit of eggshell into smaller pieces. Mission success.

"Careful there, small one." Alexstrasza's voice is warm and amused. She reaches past to brush the eggbits off, carefully and gently. The whelp squeaks and grabs onto her hand, riding it up and back as she pulls it in.

But the whelps require assistance!

She's marginally better at removing the next eggshell wrongly keeping her sibling captive, in that she noses it more than bites it, which results in less eggshell breakage and more eggshell removal. Then she nuzzles her little gooey sibling! Hello, little whelp!! You are alive and it is great!

Chirrup chirrup! It is indeed great to be alive! This whelp seems interested in the project of getting everyone out of their shells and into the world. They are somewhat clumsier at it.

That's okay! With the power of their combined might, they will rescue their siblings from the foul shells and all be out in the world together!

Hooray!

In short order, the project is achieved and the area of full of coos and stumbling legs and flapping wings. One of the babies is momentarily alarmed when a period of too-vigorous flapping lifts him off the ground.

!!!!

This is an important discovery!!! The little adventurous whelp chirps, then attempts to replicate this most impressive feat! Come, siblings! The skies will be filled with tiny flaps!

So many flaps! All the flaps! A bustling cloud of flaps, bumping into the leaves and shaking the branches!

Alexstrasza laughs delightedly.

Her adventurous whelp thinks flying is the best. She figures out how to go up and down soon enough, then how to steer, and then figures out how to swoop. After this is achieved, it's quite obvious that the thing to do is to swoop down upon her mother, land clumsily on the top of her head between her horns, and nestle regally to make a cozy little nest. From her new perch, she sends lovelovelovelove at her mother and each and every one of her siblings!!! They are so great!!! Everything is so great! The world is big and beautiful and it's very exciting and she's definitely going to go ruthlessly explore every inch of it, but first she will let them know that she loves them so much!

Aww! All babies are good babies, but her babies are the best babies.

Lovelovelovelove!! She nuzzles her mother's hair and coos again.

Once she feels this is sufficiently communicated, the whelp swoops off of Alexstrasza's head and immediately begins investigating all of the everything. She makes a little squeak of follow me!! as she flaps off to investigate the grove. So much stuff to see!

She's followed by a cloud of flappy red bodies.

There's the trees, of course, and there's a patch of flowers, and there's a family of rabbits, and there's a squirrel trying to fit its jaw around an enormous red acorn, and there's a hole under that root wherein a badger lurks, and there's some dragonkin tending to groups of eggs that are not ready to hatch yet, and there's a pair of dragons napping in a patch of sunlight, and there's coterie of drakes swooping lazily through the sky.

Aaaaa so much stuff!!

She loves the trees, and the flowers, and gosh, the animals are really neat and deserve some sniffing and some draconic love. The whelp investigates the rabbits immediately. To do this, she dives into the burrow that is their home to figure out how it works. She is just the right size for this, this is an excellent use of resources! Hi, rabbits!!! This little whelp loves you!

One dragon whelp investigating the burrow is fine. The six or seven more that follow, well. It's a somewhat crowded burrow now. The rabbits are somewhat distressed by this.

The others are still milling around outside. The entrance is too small to fit more of them, so they begin looking for alternate routes in. The thud-thud-thud of these attempts does not alleviate the rabbits' discomfort.

Squeak! This was clearly a miscalculation! Too many whelps in the burrow!!!

Does this burrow have a back exit or something, or does she have to go through her siblings to leave? Oh, and while she's here, she should make sure everything is good and sniffed, so she doesn't have to come back. Especially the rabbits. It's okay, rabbits, they're your friends! They love you!

Rabbits: quivering.

But also slowly backing up in the face of the inexorable advance of dragonkind, backing up a tunnel that carries a faint whiff of fresh air at the end.

Oo! Okay, then it looks like the rabbits are Good and Investigated, and she can just squirm past them out that clear exit at the back. Excuse her, rabbits, she'll be out of your way in just a bit, there are more things to look at!

Rabbits: vaguely traumatized. And Investigated, thoroughly.

A trail of whelps spill out of the burrow and take off again. Their fellows leave off the dive-bombing now that it seems there's no longer anything interesting belowground.

Excellent! Freedom in the skies, with her siblings behind her, investigating all the wonders of the world! Clearly there is nothing better.

She briefly investigates the squirrel, then almost moves on to the badger, but: aha, she learned her lesson! Leading a pack of whelps into a small enclosed space is a bad plan! Never let it be said that she cannot adapt!

Instead she goes to investigate the dragonkin. Since they're not in a burrow. Hi, dragonkin!! This little whelp loves you! Gosh you have so many limbs, and four of them on the ground, that looks very stable, what have you got over here, oooo, are those eggs, can she acquire more little whelps to follow her around, she must clearly investigate that right away that's definitely the most exciting thing in the last five minutes!

The dragonkin tolerates his investigation with the patience of a being who has been dealing with whelplings for a hundred years.

These eggs are not ready to hatch yet. Their occupants are curled up inside, still sleeping a deeper than she can wake them from.

Gosh.

She geeeeently baps one of the eggs with her little head affectionately, then flaps off to go investigate something else. Like those napping dragons! Those napping dragons look neat, they should be swarmed by whelps and informed that they're loved!

The dragons blink lazily at the whelps, one set of eyelids and then the other, twitching their wings to encourage them to not land there. The whole cloud together is only a little bit bigger than the head of one of the dragons.

That's very interesting, because, hm. Wow, these dragons look like bigger versions of them! Is she going to get that big? She would like very much to get that big.

She lands carefully on a dragon's forelimb, in their view, and chirps inquisitively up at them. Her little wings twitch too, and she looks at them with big golden eyes.

The dragon yawns hugely, exposing all of his big sharp teeth. There's a morsel of food stuck between two of the ones near the back.

The little red whelp continues staring at the dragon with her big gold eyes, completely unfazed by this display of sharp. Maybe one day she will be that sharp!!! She hopes so.

Another whelp darts in and snatches the morsel out from between the teeth. It chirps happily as it flaps away.

She gives a little squeak of alarm and worry at her sibling! Sibling! Sibling, what! Those were sharp! You are small! What if you were squished by accident (the idea of being squished on purpose doesn't occur to her at all), what then? Then she would have a squished sibling and that would be awful. She does not want any squished siblings! She wants only perfectly whole and flapful siblings that can adorably follow along after her into—

—wait.

The little whelp lands carefully on the ground and folds her wings, and looks at the swarm of whelps around her. She tilts her head, and chirps at them inquisitively.

Chirp? Chirpchirp! Chirpchirpchirpchirpchirpchirpchirp.

...

Yeah, okay, so, clearly: her siblings are idiots. They're her idiots, but they're idiots. Well. She'll just have to keep each and every one of them safe and happy. That is Her Responsibility As The One Smart One.

She considers possible safe activities for siblings of the not as smart as she is persuasion. Uh. She's done about four things in her life total. So let's do a review of them. Saying hi to Big Whelps: kinda boring, alarming closeness to sharps, not worth risk, avoid. Saying hi to bunnies: fun, but crowded, and demonstrably there were too many siblings to fit into a burrow, so, avoid because ick uncomfortable. Flying is fun, flying is a Sanctioned Activity, how about she leads them off to flap around safely instead of keeping them near the sharps. Yes, that, she does that.

Granted she doesn't have any kind of plan for... direction. Or anything. But she's sure she'll figure something like that out.

Flying! Flapflapflapflapflapflap.

After a little while, they are joined in their expedition by an extraordinarily big and beautiful dragon who feels just like her mother did.

!!!!!!

She squeaks in happy recognition at her mother!!! Hi mom! Gosh you're pretty, how are you so big, you were not so big before, wait now you're shaped like she is??? How'd you do that!!! It's so cool, her mom is so cool and so powerful and she's just going to flap over and land on one of her giant horns and coo lovingly at her because so great!!!!

The rest of the flock similarly finds purchase and Alexestrasza rumbles in happy contentment,soaring through the sky with her brood upon her back.

They circle back around to the base of the tree, where two dragonkin are tending a fire over which is roasting something that smells delicious.

Oooooooo.

That's for them, right? She hopes it's for them, it smells so good. She looks at her mother and chirps inquisitively, edging closer to the delicious smell on her perch.

The fire-tenders lift the roast off its spit and lay it out. Alexstrasza gives a nod.

Well then. Come, siblings! It is time to feast!!

The roast will fall before the unstoppable might of a swarm of hungry whelps.

Yes. Yes it will. Truly, there are no more fearsome forces in the (her limited experience of) the world than a swarm of hungry whelps.

There are probably more fearsome and unstoppable things than a swarm of hungry whelps, but that says more about the potential fearsomeness of things in a world with the likes of dragons and Mom in it than it does about the whelps' fearsomeness.

She eats her fill quickly and efficiently, then gets to monitoring her siblings. Siblings, are you playing nicely with each other? No biting, no fighting over food? You all followed your big sister's example and didn't mess with anyone else?

There's plenty for everyone, and no one seems to feel the need to take from their neighbor.

Good.

This assured, she finds an appropriate nook on Mom to snuggle in, and settles in for snuggling. She's feeling a bit lethargic after eating so much, and snuggling seems restful.

The days pass in a peaceful idyll, one after another. The whelps learn from their various experiences. Some, admittedly, more quickly than others. The big dragons show up and disappear according to some inscrutable whim or schedule, but the cast of dragonkin stay constant, and of course, Alexstrasza is always around to watch over her clutch. She spends more and more time talking to her whelps, waiting for the day when they begin talking back.

One of her whelps (rather predictably) takes to this faster than the others.

She listens with watchful eyes while her mother speaks, at first finding it an interesting thing to observe, and then a neat thing to mimic for the novelty. It's fun to squeak back as if she definitely understands why this is happening and what's going on, when she really has no idea at all. Mom seems to think it's rather important, for some reason. Eventually she figures out how to form distinct syllables instead of indistinct whelpish squeaking, and finds it wonderfully entertaining to repeat the noises her mother makes. Especially when her siblings echo her like little parrots, that's the best part.

Then she slowly starts to realize that sounds have meanings, and that sentences have patterns, and her babbling starts to have more of a purpose.

She's talking! Eeee! That means it's time for names!

Mom is Alexstrasza, and that big dragon is Tyranastrasz, and that one's Lirastrasza, and that's Belnistrasz. The dragonkin are Hylat and Mara and Kellit and Ryze.

She dutifully repeats these names, and even goes so far as to realize these names correspond to people! She even makes a game of flitting from name-bearer to name-bearer, chirping their names at them and watching them react. It's fun! She likes this game.

The whelp needs a name too.

"What about Ranaestrasza?" says Mom, poking her nose. "Are you Ranaestrasza?"

The little whelp blinks. She checks her surroundings for any hidden dragons anywhere (she has figured out by now that the 'strasz' part corresponds to the large and impressive dragons) and notes that there very definitely aren't any. Just... her. Huh.

"Ranaestrasza," she repeats thoughtfully, tasting the word more than electing to be called by it. So... she's a dragon? She'll get to be big and impressive?

She chirps in approval. "Ranaestrasza!"

"Ranaestrasza!" This calls for cuddles.

Cuddles, yay!!!

"'Strasz'?" she chirps thoughtfully, looking at one of her siblings.

"Not 'strasz'. But how about you help me pick different names for everyone else?"

She gives an affirmative (if somewhat sad) chirp. Then she can help with names! She can come up with many syllables that she's heard before, and put them together into different combinations to see if her siblings like them!

Now there's Neol, Amaet, Tarek, Kadhil, Herathe, Ulvern, Rova, Kolob, and many more. Everyone's happy to have a name! They all mill about chirping their name at each other.

Aww! Yay, her siblings have names! She can snuggle them and chirp names at them, too!

Names!

Downside of having names: now when some of the whelps dig through the firepit and get soot everywhere, they're held individually responsible. Upside: the incidence rate of that happening goes down a lot.

Ranaestrasza is okay with this. Actually, if they're being held individually responsible, can she be The Most Helpful Whelp? She would like very much to be The Most Helpful Whelp, that sounds very exciting, she's going to flap around and ask if she can assist with things and then do that!!

She can help with things! The alchemists need more earthroot, if she can gather up some of that.

She will be the best earthroot gatherer!!! ... Just as soon as she knows where it grows and what it looks like. But after she learns that, she will be the best herb gathering whelp the world has ever seen! Do siblings want to help?

Siblings can help! Siblings can gather not only earthroot, but dirt, grass, bugs, peacebloom, and an armful of fallen leaves!

Okay, uh. No? No. Yes to the peacebloom, she saw that at the alchemist’s place, so that’s useful for something, probably, but uh. Everything else can just. Go back? Or the bugs can be reward snacks if anyone wants those. Good job, but everything else is not needed right now. Maybe later.

She sorts through it and brings back earthroot, and then also the peacebloom, if it is acceptable extra tribute?

Yep, that's always useful. Good job Ranaex, very helpful.

Yay! She's helpful!

She alternates between working on the whole 'talking' thing and leading her fellow whelps on Missions To Be Helpful! Being helpful is fun.

Her fellow whelps get the hang of the being helpful thing over time. And everyone's willing to take some time to talk with Ranaestrasza.

Yay!!!!!!!!

As soon as she's got a good grasp of language, she's a curious little chatterbox that wants to know all about everyone she talks to. Actually, she's a curious little chatterbox before she's got a good grasp of language. Also a little snugglebug that loves everyone pretty unconditionally and wants to help everyone!

She gleefully helps her siblings figure out how to be helpful because clearly this is the best thing ever!!! And then she snuggles them. And Mom. And other dragons and dragonkin that she recognizes and likes, which is all of them that she's met before. The ones she hasn't met before she happily introduces herself to, and then loves them unconditionally. Hi! She's Ranaestrasza, and she is excited to meet you, and she loves you!!! Is there anything she can help with??

One day, a dragon different from any others she has seen before shows up to speak with Alexstrasza.

!!!! Gosh!

Ranaestrasza flaps over to this fascinating new color of dragon, entranced.

"Hi!" she says, "I'm Ranaestrasza!! It's nice to meet you." Followed by lovelovelove, because she loves pretty much everyone unconditionally.

She's so cute when she's a baby!

"Hi Ranaex! It will have been nice to meet you too!"

The baby blinks, confused. "Don't you mean is nice to meet me too? 'Will have' means... not now."

"Well, yes. This is the first time you meet me but I've met you before. You don't remember because it hasn't happened yet. But it'll be a lot of fun, so look forward to it."

Slow blink.

And then she just happily accepts this. "Okay! I will!"

"Great! Can you show me where your mother is? I need to speak with her."

"Yeah okay!"

She keeps a general idea of where Mom is most of the time, because Mom is one of her favorite people, and also really big and therefore hard to miss, so she can happily lead this strangely colored dragon to her mother, she absolutely does not see anything wrong with this!

Mom is perhaps not as pleased to see the visitor as she could be. "Mezan."

"Allie! How nice to see you. Your clutch is looking well, you've got some clever ones here."

      "I dislike the versions of you that are old enough to feel comfortable calling me 'Allie'. What brings you here now?"

"Oh, nothing urgent. Just a small bit of business with the elves. My present self would have come, but there's some things happening in the south, you know how it goes."

She snuggles Mom lovingly.

"What things?" she wonders, curiously.

"You'll find out when you're older."

     "I think Kelt wanted help with the beavers down by the river, sweetheart. Why don't you go see how she's doing?"

"Oh. Okay! If I'll find out when I'm older anyway, since there's time stuff," she agrees, and then she nuzzles Mom and flies off to help Kelt.

"You can definitely see who she turns out to be from here."

     "Please don't involve my daughter in any of your harebrained schemes until she's old enough to have a clutch of her own," Alexstrasza says tartly.

"She involves herself, most of the time. But your meaning is taken, I promise."

Meanwhile: beavers! They are round and fluffy and have big tails and big teeth. They are also trying to dam an inconvenient point and need to be encouraged to move a bit further downstream.

Hmmm! This is a difficult conundrum. Maybe if they start setting up a bit of a dam for them where they'd like the dam, to give them a good spot to build? And then geeeeently break the dam they're making. Gently. Ever so gently. Maybe move the pieces to where they want the dam to actually be.

That sounds like a good strategy. But in the course of beginning the setup of the second dam, she comes across a complication. There's a nest of crocolisk eggs! The parents aren't home right now, but if they come back, they might be inclined to eat the beavers.

The plot thickens!!!

Hmmm moving the eggs somewhere not near the beavers sounds untenable. She doubts that the beavers would move further downstream, because they'd have to go past the crocolisks. She doesn't particularly have a problem with the crocolisks themselves; she could make a fight of it, and would probably win, but that seems mean. The crocolisks haven't done anything wrong except needing to eat things to live, and what does that say about her if she condemns them? She needs to eat things to live. So. Hm. Hmm hmm hmmmmm.

Is there another spot that the beavers could have a dam, away from the crocolisks, even further downstream??

There is, in fact. It's a bit of a hike, but it should be safe from the crocs.

Well fortunately, she has wings.

Okay! So how about this plan: they start setting up a new dam here for the beavers. And then they go back, and they catch the beavers, and they fly them here to their new home. What then? That sounds brilliant to her.

The beavers are (understandably) a little shy of dragons, so catching them will take some work.

Yes, that's very fair of the beavers. On the other hand: she is definitely smarter than a beaver. She constructs an ambush site in the dam the beavers are building, and she waits.

After about an hour, the beavers come back.

Okay this will take careful timing and perfect finesse, but she believes that she and Kelt can successfully snatch these beavers.

She gives the little squeak of attack and dives to snatch a beaver to carry it to its new home!

Beaver: is slightly heavier than anticipated. Also less than cooperative on the 'staying still so as not to keep changing your lift's center of gravity' front.

Nrrgh she! Will not! Be defeated!

She flaps as hard as she can and tries to steady the beaver as much as possible, and goes for the beaver's new home!!!! Beaver this is for your own good.

It can be inferred from the beaver's behavior that it is skeptical of this claim.

Kelt meets her at the new dam site with the other five beavers in tow, all caged up.

The beaver can just get over it, she is Ranaestrasza, daughter of Alexstrasza, and she will not be defeated by a beaver!

She successfully brings the beaver to the new dam site, without dropping it even once, looking very pleased with herself. She did just bring the one beaver, but! But Kelt is bigger than she is, and, and, okay actually the cage idea was way better than just literally picking up a beaver and flying it over here, but you know what, she succeeded, and that's all that matters in the end.

Live and learn, as they say. And success does count for a lot.

Indeed it does!

Okay now to help get the beavers settled in. ... Probably the best thing to do there is to go away and let them do their thing, because dragons and dragonkin are kind of intimidating. They can keep Careful Watch over the beavers and see if they make their dam at an acceptable location?

Once the dragons depart, the beavers spend a while sniffing around their new spot. Eventually it's deemed Acceptable, or at least too much trouble to get back to where they were, and they start work on construction again.

Yay! Mission success!

She cuddles Kelt in celebration of this achievement, sending more lovelovelove at her.

Mission success! Everyone likes having Ranaex help them, it's always adorable.

Ranaex likes being so well liked! And being helpful! She's learning lots of new things and making lots of new friends and everything is pretty great!

The beavers taken care of and Kelt properly snuggled, she chirps a goodbye and flies off to go see how Mom is doing. Is that weird strangely colored dragon still there?

Seems like they've spent all the time here they need to.

Oh, all right then. That's a bit of a disappointment, but there's weird time stuff going on, so she'll probably find out when she's older. She can still find Mom so she gets good and snuggled!

"Hi Mom! The beavers have been moved! Where'd the yellow dragon go, and actually why were they yellow, are lots of dragons yellow?"

"The yellow dragon was Mezadormu, and he is a member of a different family, the bronze dragonflight."

"Oh! Okay. Can I meet the other dragonflights eventually? How many colors are there?"

"There's the red, which is us. The bronze. The green, the blue, the black. And a few smaller clans, here and there."

"Ooo! Okay. Are there differences besides colors and family members?"

"Of the five main dragonflights, each was given responsibility for a part of the world by the Titans, who shaped Azeroth when it was young, because I and four others did them a great service. To Neltharion and the blacks, the earth, its substance and form. To Malygos and the blues, magic and all its uses. To Ysera and the greens, nature and all growing things. To Nozdormu and the bronzes, time and its conservation. And to me and my reds, they set the task of protecting all life, dragon and mortal alike."

"Ooooooo! Does that mean it's also my responsibility to protect all life?"

"Not all, perhaps," Alexstrasza smiles. "But yes, as much as you can manage. Your brothers and sisters and cousins and I are also here to do the same."

"Okay!" she agrees, cheerfully. "I want to be good at it. It's important."

"It is. And you are already good at it, dear heart."

"I try very hard, but I'm little and don't know enough and things don't occur to me! I want to be better at it."

"That experience comes with living life and seeing more of the world."

"Yes. So I just need to wait and explore and help with things and I'll learn a lot!!" She gives a little happy squeak and snuggles closer into Mom.

"I will need to visit our dragonshrine soon; would you like to go with me?"

"Oo! Oo! Yes! Yes definitely!! ... What's the dragonshrine?"

"It is where members of our flight are returned to the earth when their time has come, and where we pay our respects to them."

"Oooooh. Yeah, that'd be nice!"

"All right. Not today, but soon."

"Okay!" Snuggle. "I'll look forward to it."

Later arrives eventually, as laters are wont to do. Ask any bronze and they'll tell you all about it, though you will need to set aside a while of your immediate later. Actually on second thought, it would be better to not ask a bronze and just take it as read.

The dragonshrine is too far for Ranaex to fly on her own, so she can ride on her mother.

'Too far to fly on her own' is a very exciting distance! She has never been that distance before, and so she's looking forward to it very much! She is an excellent passenger for her mother, sending lovelovelove all the way as she watches the land below speed by.

The land flows on and on underneath Alexstrasza's shadow as she flies tirelessly across rocky mountain and secluded vale, placid lake and ancient forest.

To pass the time over the days of flight, she tells stories of days gone by, of adventures with the Titanic Watchers. Mighty Odyn, who generaled the armies that beat back the Black Empire. Fierce Ra-den, who subdued the rogue elemental lords and sealed them in their planes. Vigilant Tyr, who roamed the world as the first warning of danger.

Oooo. These are excellent stories!! She listens to them raptly, and asks leading questions and about where all of the involved people have gone and what they're doing and if she can ever meet them. Will the Black Empire ever be good? Can they be friends with everyone else and then everybody gets a happily ever after, once everyone has learned how to be better and understands everyone else's point of view??

Mostly the Watchers have retreated their citadels and remnant Titan installations. Their great tasks are done, and the world now belongs to those they made it safe for.

The Black Empire was made up of the forces of the Old Gods, and the Old Gods are embodiments of the Void, which is hostile to all life. They wish nothing more than for the world to be wiped clean of all inhabitants and torn asunder into its constituent parts, as it was before the Titans came. Even their own servants they drive unto madness, twisting them until they tore each other apart as much as those who opposed them.

Oh. Okay, so those guys are no good and cannot be redeemed and are distinctly not friend material. That's a pity, but oh well, Ranaex understands and thinks it's good to know these sorts of things early. Any other groups that are distinctly not friend material that she should know about in case they want to drive her mad or eradicate all life or something?

There are still some Twilight cults that pop up from time to time, but there aren't really any remaining forces that pose the same level of threat.

(Alexstrasza is quietly relieved.)

Oh! Okay, good, that's how things should be, then. Ranaestrasza is pleased that the world is so conveniently nice.

They pass by a large, ornately scuplted tower of white stone. This is Wyrmrest Temple, says Alexstrasza, and it was constructed as a neutral place for the dragonflights to meet when something important needs to be discussed.

Ooooooooo. That's smart. Wait, they need a neutral ground? Do the dragonflights fight sometimes? Is it a just-in-case precaution if they start fighting later so they can have peace talks??

It is more that it is place that no flight claims, so there are no questions about territoriality or rights of ownership. And it also serves as a reminder of duty, as it was constructed for the dragonflights by the Titans themselves.

Oh, okay. But if they do ever fight (which they shouldn't because they're all working together to protect the same thing) then they have a neutral ground for it. It is smart to have these things. She thinks. With her minimal life experience.

It's good she's thinking!

The Ruby Dragonshrine is just a little further past Wyrmrest Temple, in a comfortingly green valley with an enormous oak with red leaves at the center of it. As Alexstrasza circles in to land, an elf emerges from beneath the roots to greet them.

Ranaex thinks this place is very pretty, and stares accordingly. She waits patiently for her mother to land, then cheerfully flies up to the elf to say,

"Hi!! I'm Ranaestrasza!! What's your name?"

She curtsies smoothly. "My name is Dahlia Suntouch. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ranaestrasza."

Alexstrasza shifts into her elf form as well. "Dahlia is the Keeper of the shrine, and one of the red flight's oldest mortal friends."

"It is my honor to serve, Dragonqueen." Dahlia curtsies deeper.

"Nice to meet you too!!" And there it is, lovelovelove from the little baby. "What does the shrine need in order to be Kept, is it hard? Do you need help? May I snuggle you?"

"You may, if you wish. I tend to the grounds and watch so that nothing disturbs them, and remember all those who come here."

Snuggle!! Dahlia now has a little whelp curled around her shoulders, humming contently.

"What does it mean to be mortal?" she asks, next.

"It means that I will grow old and die, in time."

"Oh. Why?"

"It is the balance of the world. Mortals are born, we live, we age, we die."

"That seems sad."

"It does not have to be. Life and death are what you make of them."

She hums thoughtfully. Internally, she's unconvinced, but there's no reason to argue. Instead she can just offer the elf snuggles.

Pat pat.

     "When is Seriss due?" asks Alexstrasza.

"By noon today, my queen," Dahlia says, glancing up at the sun, about halfway through its climb. "Rielstrasz and Lyastrasza are accompanying him. Vorastrasza should be here soon as well."

"What's the meeting for?" she asks, curiously, realizing that she doesn't actually know this answer already. "To pay respects or are there other reasons too?"

"Seriss has decided his time has come. We are here to see him off."

"Oh. 'Decided'?" She tilts her head, curiously.

"Though dragons do not age and die as mortals, we may, if we choose, return ourselves to the earth."

"Oh." She considers this. It doesn't really make sense for someone to choose to do that, but she is very young and doesn't know very much about the world yet, so she's maybe missing something. "But it's fine if I never do that?"

"Of course, sweetheart."

Dahlia pets her shoulderwhelp.

"Okay!" She snuggles Dahlia. "Then I'll wish Seriss a good goodbye. I'm glad I'll get to meet him before he's gone."

Alexstrasza and Dahlia move inside the tree, where there is a homey little nook of living arrangements. Dahlia offers Alexstrasza a cup of tea, which she accepts. Ranaestrasza can try a little bowl too, if she wants.

Oooooo. New thing! Yes she does want! She will even try to have something resembling table manners, she is aware that whelps are considered impulsive and somewhat impolite (if adorable), and she wants to be the best whelp ever. Which means trying to be polite! Even when it's hard and kind of silly!

The bowl she is given is rather sturdy, so breaking it shouldn't be a concern. She should probably not try to drink from the shoulder, though.

Oh. Yes. That would be bad. And probably also messy. Dahlia gets a little goodbye snuggle, then she flaps off to land neatly next to her mother at the table (sitting on it instead of sitting at it) and carefully begins sipping tea from the bowl. She is actually very polite. ... For a whelp, anyway.

Truly, she is the epitome of etiquette. The tea itself is hot, and certainly has a flavor. Definitely not plain water, this tea.

Eh. It's okay? She doesn't love it, she doesn't hate it. It's fun to sit at the table and drink it politely, though, so she keeps doing that even though she's ambivalent about the tea itself.

Her companions sit at the table and sip their own tea, discussing matters at the Shrine and its upkeep and the state of the world. Dahlia has recently had a letter from a cousin in Suramar; it seems the Grand Magistrix has renewed the fashion for walking in bare feet as the trolls do, eschewing slippers and shoes and prompting a quiet panic among the cobblers.

Neat! She listens with fascination, and asks occasional insightful questions such as 'What is Suramar' (followed by 'What is a city?') and 'What are shoes.'

A city is a place where a lot of mortals live in close proximity to each other, with a lot of buildings. Suramar is one such elf city, noted as one of the centers of magical learning.

Shoes are articles of clothing worn on the feet to protect them from the ground; like other articles of clothing, they also serve a decorative purpose.

Exciting stuff! She thanks Dahlia and her mother for answering her questions politely, and continues showing remarkable tea table manners. This is a Good Trip that is Very Important and she wants to be the best at it so she can persuade Mom to take her on more. She wants to see the whole world if she can!

There's more talking, and eventually, their guests arrive.

Seriss is clearly Very Old. He's not quite as big as Alexstrasza, but he's in her weight class. His wings are tattered along the trailing edges and he has a large scar across the right side of his face, cutting across a milky-white eye. The two dragons on either side of him gently support him as they descend to the ground.

Ranaex is very impressed. She has the urge to pester him with questions immediately, like how he got that scar and how his wings got all tattered, and how old is he really, but she has just enough social awareness to understand that... maybe... she should not do that just yet. In favor of being respectful. Or something. What does being respectful look like? Well, she guesses she'll just try her best and see if that's acceptable. As a starter, she'll let him land without being pestered, and also let Mom talk first, and then, uh. She'll. Figure something out?? Probably? Gosh he's neat though, she is so lucky she got to meet him, at least the once!!!

"Seriss," Alexstrasza says. "It has been some time."

     "Alesxstrasza. It is good to see you once more. How long it has been since we burned the cultists from Ashenvale." He swings his head around to regard the group with his good eye. "And who is this whelpling? Hello there, child."

"Hi!" chirps the little whelpling, flapping up to his nose. "I'm Ranaestrasza! It's nice to meet you! Why were there cultists in Ashenvale? Were they Twilight cultists, or are there multiple bad cults that need to be burned out of places?" She is briefly distracted considering if one cult of baddies would be better or worse than multiple cults of baddies. On one hand, if there's just one, there's just one, but on the other hand, if there are multiple, then maybe they could be turned against one another and the bad guys could take out the bad guys! But then there is not just one, so, hmmm.

"Not Twilights, only simple necromancers. But still a plague upon the world, for that."

"Oooo. Okay. And what do necromancers do that's bad?"

"They pervert the natural order of the world by raising the dead as their slaves. Their magic is mockery of life, and there is no creature more foul."

"... That's rude of them!! Especially if some people want to rest!!" She puffs up, annoyed. "If a necromancer attempts to raise you I will bite them for you," she adds, firmly.

"I thank you for that, young one. I can see the future of the flight is in good hands."

"I will do my best," she promises Seriss gravely. "Though if a necromancer shows up to raise you while I'm still small, I'm getting mom before I bite them."

Seriss chuckles at this, though it turns into more of a wheeze by the end.

"Hn!" He coughs. "Best we were getting on with this. Where is Voran? Always late."

Her first urge is to offer to go find Voran, but actually, she's clearly not nearly as fast as any of the adult dragons present, so:

"Should we go looking for her?" she asks her mother. "I can go on my own but my wings are small so I wouldn't be very fast at it, and also this is probably the sort of place where you'd rather your whelpling not go haring off to find a dragon on her own with no idea where to look or what Voran even looks like."

"I believe that's her now," Dahlia says, pointing to the sky. There is indeed a dragonish silhouette visible in the distance.

Well, that's that problem solved, then. Would it be impolite to pester Voran with questions about why she's late? ... That would probably be impolite, even though Ranaex is very curious. Probably it's hard to say goodbye after knowing someone for so long. Ranaex doesn't really want to say goodbye to Seriss either, but she thinks it's better than keeping him when he doesn't want to stay.

"Yay!" This problem solved, she gets to the next important bit of business, looking to Seriss and asking, "May I snuggle you?"

"Of course, little one." He dips his head.

Glomp!

She hums happily, purring and sending lovelovelove at her snugglebuddy.

He appreciates that.

Vorastrasza lands soon enough and takes a humanoid form, taller and more muscular than the elves present. She and Rielstrasz have a brief exchange about her tardiness, which has the feel of dialogue long-practiced.