Elvenbane

As Shana watched, Keman seemed to ripple, and then to blur, as if she were seeing him from underwater. It made her a little sick to watch, and she closed her eyes for a moment.

When she opened them again, there was a lurcher in Keman's place, but a lurcher with blue-green, scaled skin instead of gray, leathery hide. There was a second ripple, this time as if he were in the middle of a patch of heat-haze...and then he was properly gray and leathery.

Shana jumped to her feet and applauded enthusiastically.

:I can't talk right in this shape,: Keman complained in her mind. :I guess I'll have to talk to you this way until I change back. It makes you tired, you know, I won't be able to shift back for a little bit. It's kind of like running a race; you can't just jump up and run another one right away.:

'That's all right,' Shana said quickly. 'I don't mind talking to you that way. Now what was it I do first? Find the energy center?'

:Right. Just like Mother showed us both when we were learning about thought-exchanging. Remember?:

'I think so,' Shana said. 'All right, I find that place, and think of the animal I want to be, and squeeze...'

'You squeeze what?'

Shana and Keman both jumped; Keman blurred again, and was back to his own shape by the time his younger sister Myrenateli came around the boulder that hid them from the main trail. Her pale green and yellow coloration was unmistakable; there wasn't another dragonet of the Kin in the entire Lair with those colors. 'You squeeze what?' she asked again, petulantly, her yellow-green eyes narrowed unpleasantly with suspicion.

'Nothing,' Keman said quickly, before Shana could think of anything to tell the younger dragon. 'Nothing, Myre. We're just playing a game.'

Shana winced. Fire and Rain, that's the worst thing to tell her. Now she'll be certain we're hiding something.

'If it's nothing, how can you be playing it?' Myre demanded. 'I want to play, too! Mother said you had to play with me! Mother said you leave me out of everything!'

Shana was fairly certain her foster mother hadn't said anything of the sort, but Keman looked guilty. She decided she'd better intervene before he said something stupid and they were stuck with Myre for the rest of the afternoon.

'It's a...a special exercise Mother showed us,' Shana improvised. If there's one thing Myre hates, it's exercise. 'You put your hands together like this, then squeeze...'

She put her hands palm-to-palm at about chest-level, and pushed as hard as she could, to demonstrate.

'It's supposed to make your arms really strong,' Keman said glibly, following Shana's lead. Shana felt a burst of thankfulness towards Foster Mother, who had thought up these particular exercises and drilled Shana in them. 'It keeps you from hurting yourself exercising because you're only working against yourself, see?'

Myre watched them both squeezing and letting go, a crease of puzzlement forming along her nose as she wrinkled it.

'I thought you said you were playing a game,' she complained. 'That doesn't look like any kind of fun to me. I think you're both making a loon out of me!'

'Well, it is kind of a game,' Shana said. 'Only it isn't, you know? Why would we want to make a loon out of you, anyway?'

You take care of that quite well on your own, you pain, she thought spitefully.

Myre shook her head, and her spinal crest flattened. 'No, I don't see, and I think it's stupid,' she snorted. 'What's it supposed to be for? What do you need to have your arms strong for, anyway?'

To hit you back when you tease me, Shana thought, but wisely kept her mouth shut.

'So...uh...we can c-c-climb the mountain with Mother,' Keman stammered, obviously trying to think of something quickly. Myre did not look convinced.

'You don't need to climb to get up the mountain,' Myre sneered. 'You can fly. This little rat is the only one that has to climb. And I don't know why Mother wants you on the mountain, anyway, either of you. I'm the one that's supposed to be a shaman. I'm the one with the right name. And I never get to go anywhere, I never get to do anything, Mother just likes you best because you're older. You get everything you want just because you're her favorite!'

'I do not!' Keman replied, stunned at this injustice. 'I never...'

'Then how come you get to go on the mountain and I don't?'

'Because I'm old enough...' Keman began, when Myre interrupted him with a cry of thwarted triumph, bouncing on all four claws, her spinal crest as flat as it could go.

'See! See! I told you so! You get everything you want, just because you're older! You even get to have pets and I don't!'

'You could have pets if you wanted them...' Keman began unwisely. And as Shana had feared from the beginning, Myre seized on his words...and on her.

'Good! I want her!' The dragonet grabbed Shana by the arm and pulled at her, with a great deal of unnecessary roughness, making her stumble and land sprawling at Myre's feet, bruising both hands and reskinning her knee.

'Myre!' Keman snapped, shoving the dragonet away. 'You leave her alone! Shana is not a pet!'

'Is too!' Myre sneered, snatching at Shana, who tried to crawl out of the way of her claws. 'And I want her!'

'Is not!' Keman replied, going red-eyed with fury, shoving his sister again.

'Is too! Everybody says so, except dumb-butts like you!' Myre danced in place, her talons narrowly missing Shana until Keman shoved the dragonet back against a rock and kept her there by keeping himself between her and escape.

'Is not! Only dumb-butts like you think so!' Keman snarled, as Shana tried to scramble to her feet to get out of the way of the impending fight.

'Are you calling me a dumb-butt, crybaby?' The new voice, a supercilious sneer, made all three heads swivel in the direction of the newcomer.

The male dragonet was big, bigger than Keman; that, and his deep-red and orange coloration told Shana which of the other youngsters it was...not that there was any doubt in her mind on hearing that scornful voice. Rovylern, Myre's confederate, and the biggest bully in the Lair.

Rovylern was the same age as Keman, but he 'played' with the dragonets of Myre's age-group because he had no friends among those his own age. Not surprising, considering that he had pushed them around until they refused to have anything more to do with him. There weren't that many in the group to begin with; five, counting himself. Keman, Asheanala, Lorialeris, and Mereolurien. Keman had his own interests to keep him out of Rovy's way, and the other three finally banded together against the bully, excluding him from their pastimes entirely by the simple expedient of flying off somewhere he couldn't find them.

So he bullied the younger dragonets, with the exception of Myre, who helped him think up tricks to play on the others. And he bullied Keman, who was smaller and weaker than he was.

He and Myre, however, got along like two of the same litter.

Shana thought they suited each other perfectly, and would have been completely happy if they had just left her and her foster brother alone.

But of course that was impossible. As long as Keman lived at the Lair,, he would be a target...and as long as

Shana 'belonged' to Keman, she would be a bone of contention between them.

'Are you calling me a dumb-butt, pea-brain?' the bully repeated, swaggering towards them, his tail lashing the ground, his wings held half-open to make him look even bigger.

Keman stood his ground. 'I didn't say anything about you, Rovylern,' he said stoutly. 'People who eavesdrop usually don't hear things clearly, and what they do hear, they usually don't understand.'

Shana flinched. Tact was not Keman's strong suit. Keman, that wasn't too