One

Pine effortlessly climbed up one of the vines in the Ring. Her eyes shone happily and called out her sister's name for the fifth time since she had gotten back from training. "Sage! Sage come here!"

"Hold ON, I need to finish eating if you don't want me to starve to death!" Sage called back from the other side.

Pine shrugged to herself and settled in her favorite spot in the entire underground hollow of safety the Everfall family had found: Balancing right on the giant leaf on the tallest vine, overlooking the biggest of the three rooms.

After a minute, Sage still hadn't come. "Sage!" she yelled. "Sage Sage Sage, Sage come here!"

"Don't be so loud," Jay, the strict male caretaker told Pine firmly.

 Pine sat down in defeat. "Can you tell Sage to come then?" she said to Jay.

"I'm sure she has her reasons for not rushing to your side every time you call," Jay said wryly.

Pine wrinkled her nose, offended but understanding what he meant nonetheless. "Fine!"

So she waited.

It was another 10 minutes before her sister finally visited her. "What did you want to show me?" Sage said, running over with a grin on her face.

"Why were you so late?" Pine demanded, ignoring the question.

"They made me search for my food as part of my Scout position training," Sage rolled her eyes. "I mean seriously, I just had to do a very complicated obstacle course 5 times. You think they'd give me a break, but nope."

Pine felt a little guilty now but brushed it off. "Well, I wanted to show you how I mastered my dragon! Look!"

The little Young curled herself into a ball, concentrating hard. Changing. Change. She felt her skin grow warm and the dark green glow that came with it fill her vision even with her eyes squeezed shut. Her skin pricked and itched, a sign that her scales were coming. She started slowly uncurling herself as her tail grew and extended, and rose gracefully when the transformation was done.

"So?" Pine asked Sage. "Do you like my color? I think it fits my name well, according to the Elders' stories of pine trees."

Sage smiled warmly, almost wistfully. "It's a beautiful scale color," she said. "Mine's kind of that color too, but lighter and tipped with white. Like sage leaves." 

"Do our names always match our scale colors?" Pine said curiously.

"Not always, but usually yes. The Elders told me that Mothers can see both of their Young's forms when they are still inside the mist and smoke. That's how their named, they said. I'm not sure if it's true or not, but it sounds really amazing."

Pine nodded.

"January is coming up soon," Sage added. "I'll be 8. Another year closer to finishing training! And you'll be chosen by the leader for a job." Unsaid words flashed through Pine's mind, because she knew that it would come if Sage wasn't kind enough to not say them. Unless they send you back into the Fire of Life. Because they think you'll turn into a danger. A monster. Like the first cursed one.

"You won't get sent back," Sage whispered to Pine as if she knew what she was thinking.

"But what if they choose so?" Pine said, her voice trembling a little.

"Oh they'll try,"  Sage said in reply, her eyes darkening. "But they won't succeed. I won't let them succeed." It was like a plan was forming in her head already.

Pine blinked. "How?"

But Sage shook her head. "Come down, get some rest. It's around nighttime and you know how strict they are about the morning wake-up times."