Night and Day, Balaale and Balleaa, keepers of Drak lore at Dun Keiba

Somewhere along a long line of Drak breeding, the 'quintessential Draks' from Dun Keiba chose to remain there rather than join the ranks of other locales with knights bonded to them. It became clear that they are at least slightly unusual in that they are quite chatty and willing to listen to both humans and draks as they breeze through the Castle, and over time they have decided to become lore-keepers. Balleaa is the more personable of the pair, as her brother is shall we say, a little quick to scoff at the embelishment of a story being told to them. But both will mull over details, fit events into a timeline, and if needed ask more direct and pointed questions about those events, those riders and mobs and adventures, to make sure everything is correct. Or at least, 'accurate'.

They both determined it would be nice to have an apprentice. They'd noticed how many humans came and went with their young charges, learning tools of their trades and passing on their wisdom. But they had not yet found mates among the ranks of Knight pairs, although eventually they certainly might. No, they wanted someone new to come home with them, and learn if they could. Both also knew that it was an unusual feature that Balaale has such a keen memory and mind for details, so his sister tempered his expectations with nudges about 'they may be gifted in other ways'.

So as a team, they briefly left their home of Castle Dun Keiba, bearing an assortment of trade gifts and goods from the population, the Prince and his sister, and the healers who needed other herbs and bits that the local area didn't have. They would at the very least come home with other things, of course. They knew that not every drakling might want such an arrangement as they offered, but...

But it was possible, since it appeared the pair in the Deep Caverns of Chindor at this time had... almost a similar arrangement themselves? They would wait and see, but in the meantime enjoyed catching up with the locals about any given subject - they would sort all that out later!

**

(Some from hatching)

There were more draks present at this Joining than either of these siblings had seen in a while, and they were proud to be among them. But they weren't the only ones, there were of course young humans ready for their new lives. It was nearly midday when they started filing out. Balleaa thought it was adorable that the dam of this group had a pair of faerie draks of her own. She knew better than to think that her brother would want more of them around 'his' records...

The draklings mother introduced her young one at a time. Balaale and Balleaa had such fond memories of their own hatching and emergence, but hardly anyone at their home Dun Keiba remembered it. Perhaps that was why they were now posing as the lore keepers there... First to emerge was an unusually colored Forest, a 'Steppe' they would call it. Announced as Bephaz, she strutted directly toward the Night.

"I have questionsss, and anssswerz!" She told Balaale with a big grin on her muzzle, "but I want to hear your besst sztory firsst!" He would oblige the little female over her first meal.

After this there was a bit of ruckus since one of the draklings chose the sire of the nest to go home with - to the surprise of said sire. A very pretty variant they'd call a 'Thunder' Rain went to one of the other draks attending. When a local man was chosen by a 'Drizzle', another Rain variation, everyone seemed both curious and amused - a difficult man, a charming drak, what could go wrong?

It was during all of that, when a Mud had come to Balleaa, and they had been very quietly chatting. Parazph had asserted his desire to listen in on the story being related to his sister, from his joined 'uncle' as it were. They would make such a good team - the four of them - but he had to learn how to listen for details first!

The last of the draklings was a Wind, who had been practicing her enunciation the entire time after hatching (and maybe before by the sound of it) and finally got the chance to use that practice on her chosen human!

**

They did make a very good team, in fact! Over the next two years, albeit with help from some of the humans and other draks at Dun Keiba, Parazph and Bephaz took to their tasks eagerly. While paired with each one, they learned almost equally from the other drak - how to sort out those obviously false details from the ones that made much more sense, how to reach out to knights or locals when information was spotty.

How to move through space, fly, and groom... Everyone participated in that! But it was while they were learning about animal tending and how it related to their own hungry tummies, that they encountered their first real problem.

"Szometimess they want to keep petss," Balleaa sighed, "but the needz of the community come firsst."

The child that was sobbing uncontrollably had drawn more attention than her parents wanted. But while the adult draks and Parazph moved to ask them about how many chickens or roosters needed to be culled and eaten rather than laying their eggs, it was an impulsive Bephaz that put her newly-learned Portal to use. She zipped through it, and was back in only the time it took for the others to even notice she'd been gone.

Because she landed lightly and carefully near the still-sobbing girl (who had really, really loved that rooster - even if that rooster was really, really aggressive to everyone including her, she had scratches! she had bruises!) and nudged her with her muzzle. "Thiss iss a much better pet for you," Bephaz said, gently. In her big paws she held a faerie drak egg.

Which thing seemed to surprise the girl more? The fact that she had a potential new pet, or that it had been hand-...paw-delivered by a drak?? Sniffling, drying her eyes and conscious now of how deep those scratches really had been on her arm (they scraped her face? ow?) she presented the drak with a bold "thank you!" and ran over (well, carefully trotted) to her parents to show it off. "Lookit! S'a drakpet!"

Balaale looked just - just a touch - perturbed that his trainee, even though his sister's pair, had vanished without telling them where she was going. But it was obvious where, and pretty soon he would be even more perturbed. Because it was clear by the way she held her mane delicately there were other eggs nestled in it. He gave a bit of a glare. His sister let out a drak-chuckle.

"Mother had herss," Bephaz announced. "Now we have ourss!"

"We."

"Yess! We do!" Bephaz seemed quite pleased with his turn of expressions. Though she hardly was a prankster, she did think that he needed just a touch of loosening up. Maybe a faerie drak friend would help do that. Maybe it would just cause trouble. As they wrapped up their interviews and made sure that Parazph knew the right words to describe any given coloration or breeding line of those birds, Bephaz indicated they should return home 'quickly'.

Of course that was because the other four eggs were going to hatch, just like the one that had hatched for the human girl as they were leaving.

Parazph helped his out first, he wanted to see a little more of how it looked 'from the other side of the shell'.

His egg had opened to reveal a lovely brilliant white and gold, a Day by any description. Parazph proudly looked at his Pair. "You are the other way around," meaning obviously the white on her wingsails and gold on her body.

"Persceptive as alwayss," Balleaa chuckled warmly. It turned into quite the afternoon of feeding tiny scraps, sorting out who was where, making sure that no one sat or stepped on these new little faeries. Of course the Wind made her way to Bephaz, no surprise as they had similar moods and would appreciate some amount of whimsy.

A Plant attached itself to the Night Balaale, also no surprise to the other three. And finally the little Water nuzzled Balleaa with a sleepy chitter.

Name: Balaale (bahh LAH lay)
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: Medium-Small 8' shoulder / hip (mainly bipedal but still walks on all fours) / 27' l / 28' and 26' ws
Colors: Night, with strong gold body and vibrantly black wings and mane
Features: Dun Keiba styled drak with four legs having 3 toes + thumb fore and 3 toes+heel claw hind, four leathery wings with one strong digit; head has two back-pointing upswept horns, larger in males; dorsal fur from head to large tuft on tail tip following spine
Powers: Winged Flight
Portal Creation including Nexus Portal
Verbal Speech
Weak Empathic Bond, stronger with sibling
Acid Spit
Parentage: unknown parents, when mated will pass to females aa-, and to males -le
Origin: Dun Keiba progenitors
Other Info: Studious and smart, picky, and blunt; he will organize what he knows and he has an extremely effective memory; he can tell the difference between a 'story' and an 'adventure', picking out what facts are common to them but weeding out the clearly made-up bits
Faerie Drak: Plant, unnamed (also from Chindor)
Pair: Bephaz

**

Name: Bephaz (bee FAZ)
Gender: Female
Size/Shoulder/Length: small 6'8" s
Colors: Steppe, Forest variant;
Features: Drak as shown, Chindor variation with large wings and a heavier mane than some breeds
Powers: Winged Flight
Portal Creation including Nexus Portal
Verbal Speech
Weak Empathic Bond, stronger with sibling
Acid Spit
Parentage: Day Gül-Solmaz and Agave Asaph
Origin: Chindor Castle clutch 9
Other Info: Steppes take their Forest personality and bring it up a notch, "Unbridled with a love for adventure" is her motto!
Faerie Drak: Wind, unnamed (Chindor)
Pair: Balaale