Hearing pings going off on her UI, Gaelia wakes up. She yawns as her mind moves around files and folders with her mind, revealing a notification from Gokin. Before she reads it, she looks at the window. Although light has no reached around the horizon yet, she could tell that dawn was approaching. Focusing back at the notification, she opens up the file containing it. Reading the contents, she frowns. She had received emergency orders to scout out a possible hostile force emerging from the northeast border. They were detected by the active radars along the region. Their race and faction are not clear, but their numbers posed a major threat to the frontier towns and villages. Gokin assigned her to scout of their behaviors, flags and banners if any are found, and intentions if observable. She is not to make contact with the force and are to observe only. Grabbing her pillow, she screams into it as she had looked forward to shopping with her son and Noriko. Letting the pillow fall, she gets off her bed and cleans up.

Noriko wakes up and walks out. Naturally a morning person, her usual schedule comprised of washing up and then making breakfast before waking up Gaelia and Aldrich when morning comes. She is surprised to see Gaelia up and walking around when normally the mother dragon would sleep in when possible. Noriko walks up to her in the bathroom and speaks behind her, “Good morning Gaelia”

“Morning Noriko.”

“You’re up early today. Finally becoming a morning person?”

“I wish, no. Gokin has a urgent mission for me.”

“Oh… is it later today perhaps?”

“Again, I wish. No, the mission is in effect as soon as I’m up. Can’t tell you much about it but I have to go early.”

“I see… when will you be back?”

“Considering the distance and mission… maybe in 2 days.”

“2 DAYS! Aldrich’s first birthday is in 2 days. You, out of all people, must be there.”

“I know I know, but it’s an emergency. I can’t ju-“

“Have you told Gokin and the other dragon guardians?”

Gaelia stays quiet for a moment before responding with,

“They know.”

“Do they really?”

“They must. They must know that my son’s birthday is in 2 days, but they still assigned me there. You know as well as I that strange events are taking place. The guardians are down in numbers so everyone must do their part.”

Now is Noriko’s turn to be quiet. She then replies,

“Then come back as soon as possible. You know that a dragon parent is to teach their child how to fly on their first birthday. It has been tradition since the dawn of dragons.”

“I know. I hope they’ll let me off early.”

As Gaelia finishes dressing up in her uniform, Aldrich pops out of his rooms, yawning. Gaelia heads over to him and rubs his head and scales before saying to both of them,

“I’m sorry Aldrich. Gokin wants me for an important mission so I won’t be joining you two for today.”

Aldrich’s look of disappointment saddens Gaelia.

“I know that you looked forward to shopping with me and I too wished to go but duty calls. I’ll see you later okay.”

“Okay mother.”

She rubs his cheeks before exiting the apartment. To get Aldrich’s mind off of his mother leaving him, Noriko asks Aldrich,

“Wanna help me with making breakfast before we head out to the market today?” “Sure.”

They quickly prepare and eat breakfast, consisting of Azure rice and the remaining Kiiroi eggs. Finishing up their breakfast, the morning sun can be seen shining through the main window. They dress up and head out. Exiting the apartment, they see small groups of diplomats and leaders walking about. Some seem to be leaving, with weary eyes while others are entering with yawns. The guards are seen switching out with the night guard. Noriko and Aldrich head to the elevators heading downwards. Entering it, they make small talk before exiting it at the bottom of the dragon roost. Heading through the side entrances, they enter the village ring that surrounds the dragon roost. The village is designed to have different segments surrounding the dragon roost. Each segment contains bits of other segments such as having houses in the industrial segment or shops having second floor housing, but most segments are fairly split into different functions. The four main districts are housing, industrial, markets and shops, and military and administration. The military and administration are closely located for their small sizes but important duties. Surrounding the entire village is a massive star shaped palisades and 4 gates are located in the North, West, South, and East. These gates are extremely large and accommodate for the largest of creatures. While many races live inside the residential area, plenty of others do not. They live out in the wild lands in their own villages and come into the village for trades and diplomacy with the dragon guardians who rule over the entire region. Such races could be beetlemen, vermin horde races such as rats, weasels, and other small sized mammalian races. Back at the main village, the industrial segment contains both underground and overground facilities . Underground industry are well maintained by dwarves and other ground based races who like working in smaller and closer environments, often using elevators and building intricate structures made to never collapse. It is often always producing some sort of product. Overground industry usually are used by races who work during the day, usually shutting down during the night. These segments extend both upwards and outwards as a the village grows until reaching the walls in which new walls are created and then the segments are rotated to have a different segment.

As they head in the direction of the market Aldrich asks Noriko,

“So what should we buy for this week’s groceries?”

“Hmm… I don’t know yet. Let’s check out what’s there before deciding. We should try to save some money so let’s look for cheap ingredients that seem good and decide what we could do with them.”

“We’re getting eggs though right?”

“Definitely. It’s always good for a quick cook.”

“Yay.”

Passing by the numerous buildings, the duo see a variety of races going about the morning. A beetle mercenary group is seen gathering supplies at a small warehouse. Though they may be smaller in height and size to Aldrich, they are veterans to many conflicts and skirmishes outside of the Dragon lands. Bee drones can be seen overhead, flying to their locations and leading carrier bees to construction sites. Small races can be seen trading with larger races and other events. As they pass by a bark skin treant who is holding up a sign to be nailed onto a building, Aldrich and Noriko enter a large clearing full of market stalls. A busy scene unfolds as races of every variety set up and start selling their products. Despite the traffic, it is mostly organized as the people make room for each other and accommodate for the different sizes and structures of different races. Aldrich and Noriko start browsing through the numerous stalls, examining through different products. Milk based products, egg based products, pastries, lots of honey based products, and plenty of others. Noriko takes her time looking at certain fruits and vegetables before bartering with the stall keeper. By the time they’ve finished, the markets are fully stocked with people. Traffic is massive as several bee guards can be seen overhead directing the ongoing traffic. After a few minutes, they get out of the marketplace and into the outer ring of the village. Noriko makes a breath of relief.

“Okay we’re out. I though we’ll be stuck there for a lot longer.”

“I though the same too. I think there’s less people than usual.”

“True, it did feel that way too.”

Stretching, Noriko yawns as she looks for the sun.

“Seeing as it’s mid morning, you’ll need to head to the gates and meet up with the volunteer defense. Do you know who are meeting up with you?”

“Hmm… I think most of the usual children are volunteering for this week’s defense group. We discussed it the other day, although Kyrie is busy with Queen Sun-Crested today.”

“Shame Kyrie won’t be able to join. Well then I look forward to hearing about what my students do. Come back safe.”

“I will.”

Aldrich and Noriko goes their separate way with Noriko heading towards the dragon roost while Aldrich heads to the outer village gates.