Breath of Fresh Air

The small orange dragon chirped and rested his chin on Lily's shoulder, closing his eyes.

"Every dragon ya go near gets spoiled," Mr. Jenkins called from the other room. "I can hear 'im chirping from here."

Chaital was more than delighted to take on the goat. She let out a shrieking call that she often made just before a big kill, snapped her wings open, and used them to propel herself forward towards the goat.

The animal never stood a chance.

Noah turned his back to the sounds and focused on Jasper instead. "Well, uh - I'm glad to hear that, I think. But I know there'll be places dragons can't go. Not to worry, though - I'll make sure to stick by you, or Lily, or someone else I know when I go places, at least until I figure out where I should and shouldn't be. I tried my best in Upper Floaten, but - Father was busy a lot, so it was mostly just me, learning from experience."
 
"He deserves some spoiling," Lily called back, a bit embarrassed, and cradled Pumpkin to her shoulder without any complain about having to continue carrying him. "We were having a nice little chat!" She gave Pumpkin a little kiss again, rubbing between his wings and rocking him gently back and forth with an almost unconscious little tune hummed under her breath. "You must miss her, too. . ." People weren’t the only ones that felt loss, and her heart was moved for anything that breathed, really. As much as Noah and Mr. Jenkins had lost Anna, so had Pumpkin.


Jasper watched the dragons go, Infernus giving Chaital room to make the kill before he followed after, and only sighed to himself. As much as he tried to stay a bit distant, both from his own learned nature and from an unconscious need to not attach himself to people he could lose, he couldn’t help seeing a bit of himself in Noah. An only child, often alone with not a lot of friends. At least he’d been able to work at his grandfather's side most of his life, though he knew he should have been off playing with kids his age.

"I’m sure you'll be fine," he said with a little shake of his head, doing his best to stay a bit removed, though he knew already that he wasn’t. It was too late for that. "But if somebody gives you trouble, you come to the shop. I’ll deal with it." He'd shatter their teeth with his heaviest wrench.
 
Chaital made room at the kill for Infernus at once, more than happy to share. And she settled down contently to dig into the delicious meal, tearing chunks out before tilting her head back to swallow them.

Mr. Jenkins chuckled happily. "He certainly does. You've got a talent, Lily. Ya can make anyone feel at home - dragon or otherwise. By all means, give that fella some extra lovin'."

Pumpkin chirred and nuzzled his face info her arms. He did miss Anna, very much, and sometimes went to sleep on her grave. Or he had, until he'd met Noah. Having Noah back was a great comfort that would at least keep him near the family.

The brunette smiled and tossed his messy brown hair out of his eyes. It was nice to know that he had family in both places now that cared for him, and would come looking for him if he ran into trouble. "Thanks, Jasper. I appreciate it," he said softly.

He couldn't help but notice Jasper hadn't even mentioned a fee that time. Come to think of it, neither Jasper or Lily had mentioned anything about money for quite some time. It was awfully refreshing.
 
Lily flushed a bit at the compliments, but nuzzled Pumpkin back and held him close anyway. Forgetting half her brownie on the counter, she took him back to the living room to sit on the couch and hold him close, pulling her legs up to make him feel warm and safely enclosed. Quiet and sad for him, she made sure to give him gentle, soothing pets, a soft little lullaby murmured quietly just for him to hear. It wouldn’t be the same as the one he knew, but it was enough, she hoped, to just make him feel cared for.


"Don’t get used to bein' spoiled." Jasper grumped, but smiled just a little afterwards and reached out to muss up Noah's hair before turning to walk away. "Come on. Let’s head back while they eat like terrifying machines. I gotta make sure the littles aren’t causing trouble, and you’ve gotta ask Lily your questions."
 
Noah gave a small, happy gasp. Jasper had missed his hair the way he and Grandpa Jenkins often did with each other. He chuckled and followed after Jasper towards the house. "Too late! I'm used to it," he teased. ". . . But yeah, I do wanna ask Lily about going to Upper Floaten to meet my father."

He pulled open the door a few moments later, and his expression softened when he found Lily cuddling Pumpkin on the couch. "Awww. Look at you two," he murmured.

Pumpkin glanced up, and then snuggled a bit closer against Lily with a soft huff. She was warm and comforting. He didn't plan on moving any time soon.

"So Chaital and Infernus are sharing a goat," Noah began, "And if you have time, Lily, I was wondering if I could ask you about visiting Upper Floaten with me?"
 
Jasper only gave a little laugh under his breath at Noah being cheeky, but didn’t press. When they got back to the house, he let Noah go inside and went to the shelter to check on Nobu and Naga so the younger man could talk to Lily alone.

Lily was distracted petting at Pumpkin and murmuring quietly to him, but smiled when she noticed Noah coming in. "Oh, you’re back!" She said quietly, not wanting to be too loud next to the little dragon's head. When he snuggled in closer to her, she just gave him a little squeeze to let him know she wouldn’t let him go, and kept her arms and legs curled up around him.

"Topside?" She asked, blinking owlishly at Noah in sheer surprise. "What for?" She paused, considering, and gave him a more sheepish smile. "I just mean, I wondered why you’d want me to come." She wasn’t saying no, but she was just a working class girl from Lower Floaten, and after living her whole life that way it was hard to imagine why anyone would want her to be in Upper Floaten. Most people would rather just sign the appropriate papers and send her away.
 
The dragon gave a soft chirr of relief, nestling his head against the crook of Lily's neck.

"Well . . . for one thing, I want you to meet my father," Noah said with a grin. "You did save my life. He's going to want to thank you in person, I know that much." He chuckled and nodded to Pumpkin. "We could even bring Pumpkin with, if you wanted. It's been a while since he's seen my dad, and I bet he'll be excited."

Then his eyes glittered. "Plus, I could show you what it's like to fly in a space cruiser. They're a bit different than dragons. Nowhere near as fun in my opinion, but pretty cool all the same."
 
Lily sat up just a little more, cradling Pumpkin safely within her limbs still but making it easier for Noah to see her past her own knees. "I - I didn’t do anything very impressive. . ." She insisted shyly, a faint blush coming to her cheeks, and petted Pumpkin to distract herself. "But I've never ridden in a cruiser before! They look really cool! Is it really okay for Pumpkin to come, since he’s so small?"

She didn’t know what, exactly, all the different regulations were for dragons up top. She knew that dragons above a certain size weren't allowed as pets - even Naga and Nobu were probably too big - because of their penchant for destroying property, among other things, but she wasn’t sure if they would just be allowed to bring Pumpkin with them or if they would need some sort of special permission first.
 
Noah scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Excuse you? You borrowed me an air mask and kept me safe. Considering you didn't even know who I was, that's pretty impressive to me. An impressive heart, if nothing else. And also you practically carried me all the way to your house, so - "

He chuckled, nodding and flopping on the couch beside the pair. "Oh, yeah. He's plenty small enough. Besides, if anyone could get away with having a dragon on their property, it's the Harn family." He laughed again. ". . . No, like actually. I just realized in an emergency, I think we're authorized to keep dragons in our hangar bays. Too bad becoming a dragon rider isn't considered an emergency, otherwise I could've kept Chaital up there."

"Like hell ya would! Yer stayin' down here with me, ain't ya?" Grandpa Jenkins called from another room, mostly in a teasing tone.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just saying," Noah said with a laugh.
 
"Carrying heavy packages makes me stronger than I look!" Lily insisted, squirming a bit under the praise and thus focusing on things that were less important. "I couldn’t just leave you there. . ." She wanted to say that anyone would have helped, but in the moment she knew he had been ignored by more than one before she got to him. People could be cruel, when their prejudice against members of 'high society' got in the way of their judgement. To her, people were people. That was that.

"If he’s okay to go up, I’d love to come with you." She said finally, smiling a little and then laughing softly at Mr. Jenkin's eavesdropping. "I don’t . . . I won't exactly blend in, but I guess that’s okay if we're just going to see your dad." She would wear her nicest clothes still, probably, and not the things she usually worked and lived in on a daily basis. But it wasn't as if they were going to some fancy party or anything like that. It would be fine.
 
The young man shrugged and playfully bumped her shoulder with his. "Well, hey. In any case - thank you. But you won't even need to blend in." He pointed a thumb at himself. "You're gonna be accompanying a Harn. You'll be fancy by proxy." Then he burst out laughing. "Whether you like it or not, I suppose."

He rocked to his feet, stretched his arms over his head, and nodded. "So, uh - when would be a good time to go up? We could leave sometime today, if you want. Or another day if you're too wiped out from mail delivery." He cast a hesitant glance upward. After only a few days in Lower Floaten, he was already dreading returning to the stuffy culture that populated the upper city.
 
Lily's eyes followed the way Noah pointed a thumb at himself, and she burst into a little fit of giggles at the pompous of it. "Fancy by proxy," she repeated, laughter in her voice still. "I like it!"

"It's gonna be dark not long from now." She said thoughtfully, eyes drifting aside as she considered. "How soon do you need to go? I’ve got some vacation hours saved up. . . And Grayson's been looking for more work lately. I could probably ask him tomorrow to take one of my days from me this week, if you don’t need to go right now." They could make the trip tonight, but she didn’t know how much safer flying in a cruiser was at night than flying on a dragon. As much as she liked Noah and wanted to be able to spend more time with him, spending the night would make washing up and getting to work the next morning pretty difficult.
 
Noah's gaze traveled toward the window. "Oh. Good point. There's no rush, but with my communicator broken, I'd like to go sooner rather than later. Father might actually start worrying about me. Usually I check in at least once every twenty four hours, so - "

"Ya can use my pipeline phone if ya like," Grandpa Jenkins said, ambling past the pair towards the kitchen for a snack.

"Oh, thanks! In that case there's no rush," Noah said with a grin. "Just let me know what day works for you, Lily, and we can head up there. I'd take Jasper too, but . . . you know how he is about Upper Floaten," he added, shrugging and heading off to follow Mr. Jenkins toward his phone.
 
Lily was a little worried about the timing, but relaxed when Mr. Jenkins offered an alternative. "I’ll try to ask Grayson tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have an answer for you then." She gave a skeptical sort of smile at the idea of Jasper going to Upper Floaten ever. "I won't get into specifics about why he doesn't want to go, but suffice to say he hates everything about Upper Floaten, and would definitely knock someone’s teeth out if he had to be there for more than a few minutes."

His reasons were his, and she would let him tell them if he wanted to. For now it was enough to know that he hated everyone and everything up above on principle, and if he were forced to be in someone from Upper Floaten's presence for any significant amount of time he would probably snap.

"What d'ya say, Pumpkin?" She gave the small dragon a little nuzzle again, smiling and cooing gently at him. "You excited to go see your old house, and Mr. Harn?" He had to have been with Noah's mother at some point when she was married, Lily was sure. Maybe he would know the house, or maybe he’d been separated from them because of Upper Floaten's rules and would only know Noah and his dad.
 
"Hey, it's all right," Noah said, waving a hand. "I don't need to know everything about Jasper. It's enough for me to know there's no way in hell he'd ever go to Upper Floaten, and I respect that." He gave a soft laugh. "Even I don't like going to Upper Floaten much now, and I lived there almost my entire life."

He followed Lily's gaze to Pumpkin and smiled. The dragon was clearly excited. He flapped his wings and squeaked, eyes sparkling. He recognized Axle Harn's name, and had a good idea of who they were going to see. He scrambled out of Lily's arms and bounded towards the door. Then he glanced back over his shoulder, watching intently.

"Aww. Sorry, buddy, not tonight. Tomorrow," Noah promised. "But do you want to help me call father?"

Pumpkin chirped and came over at once. Noah followed Mr. Jenkins to the pipeline phone, and a few moments later, his father was on the line.

"Harn Saddles, Mr. Harn speaking."

Pumpkin let out an excited shriek so loud that Noah had to clap both hands over his ears.

Axle laughed in delight. "Wh - Pumpkin, is that you?!"
 
"Thanks, Noah. . ." Lily murmured with an expression gone a bit soft when he didn’t press for details. Noah really was a very nice person, more honest and kind hearted than she had ever expected someone from Upper Floaten to be, given all of Jasper and even Mr. Jenkin's rants about how horrible it was.

She made a soft 'aww' when Pumpkin left her, wanting to keep her small, cuddle-sized friend around for longer, and got to her feet to follow after when they went to make a phone call. Pumpkin's shriek made her wince, but she was used to being around dragons, and one’s with bigger lungs, so it didn’t scare her off.

"He remembers you!" She blurted out, startled, and slapped a hand over her mouth a second later to drop her voice to a whisper, not wanting to disturb their phone call. "Sorry! I didn’t expect him to know your voice so well, Pumpkin." She spent a lot of time around dragons, and even she got their sounds confused.
 
Axle burst out laughing again. "Of course I know Pumpkin! I'd recognize that shriek anywhere. Where did you find him? Also, who is this?"

"It's Noah, Father!" Noah replied, giggling. "And my friend Lily! She saved my life, you know. And also I found out Mr. Jenkins is my grandfather, and, uh - I may have been chosen by a dragon?" he added, wincing slightly.

Mr. Harn blinked in shock. ". . . Oh. My. Well. That . . . certainly is a lot to take in," he admitted after a few moments of silence. "And you being picked by a dragon is such a - Wait, she saved your life? What happened?" he asked with concern.

"Oh, right! I never told you. I, um . . . I may have fallen through the floor of Upper Floaten and dropped all the way down," Noah mumbled.

"Excuse me? How badly hurt are you? H - how did you manage to get - you fell through the floor?!" Mr. Harn spluttered.
 
Lily blinked owlishly at the phone, and at Noah, looking back and forth as the conversation went on. "Y - You didn’t tell him when you went home?" She asked in a hushed, confused voice, hoping she wouldn’t be heard. "Did you not see each other?"

That was the sort of thing people shared, wasn’t it? Noah had gone home for days before coming to visit again, and it boggled her mind to think he hadn’t told his father that he’d almost suffocated to death after falling who knew how far into Lower Floaten. Surely he had mentioned something.

"
H- He was okay!" She hurried to say, a bit louder. "Just some bumps and bruises! My dragon and I flew him back after, when we could so. . ." That didn’t make it any better, did it? Oh, she hoped he wasn’t mad that Noah hadn’t said anything, or that she hadn’t taken him all the way home when she’d flown him back.
 
Noah cleared his throat, blushing. "I, uh . . . no," he admitted. "We were busy, and I - I didn't really have time to - "

"Noah, you can tell her about the factory fire. It's fine," Mr. Harn said, nodding.

"Thank you," Noah replied, deflating in relief. He turned towards Lily and let out a breath. "I couldn't say anything because of security reasons, but one of our machines malfunctioned and caught on fire the other day. So we were pretty preoccupied with that," he admitted with a chuckle. "No one got hurt, though. Don't worry."

"Anyway," Mr. Harn added, letting out a deep breath himself, "Thank you very much for saving Noah's life, and also for bringing him home. I appreciate it very, very much. You have my utmost respect and gratitude. How are things in Lower Floaten?" he added politely.
 
"What!" Lily couldn’t keep the shock and worry out of her voice, eyes going a bit wide at the revelation. "A fire? What happened? Was anyone hurt?" It would be bad for business if their equipment was damaged, but to Lily all that mattered was if there were any people inside when it happened. She hoped no one had gotten injured.

"It, um . . ." She fidgeted with her fingers a bit uncomfortably, uncertain how to handle speaking to someone she'd never met in person and Noah's father who tried to praise her as he had, at that. "It’s all right. . ." she managed with an awkward little laugh. "Same as ever." Her daily life down under felt insignificant when compared to a potentially dangerous fire.