"Alright then," Ayra said out loud. She turned another time and looked around. The walls were covered in huge wooden plates, that had scratches all over them. This wasn't what she'd expected in a House of Art, not even one made by dragons.

Impressive, don't you think? Ruby (that was how Ayra had named the red dragon) thought to Ayra. On these plates it says the oldest text in our dragon language that we ever found. It's the play they're performing tonight.

Ayra turned her head to the side and followed the seemingly random lines with her eyes. This is text? she asked.

Sure is. Doesn't your text look like this?

No, Ayra replied. Do you have ink and paper somewhere? Then I can show you what eminn text looks like.

Ruby shook her head. I'm afraid I don't understand it. But come now, hurry! I can hear the doors opening again. If we're in the great hall the first, we have the best places by the stage!

She dashed to the opening on the other side of the room, and Ayra ran after her. She had trouble keeping up with Ruby, who leaped from one room to the next, and the distance kept increasing. At one moment, she saw Ruby disappearing around a corner. Ayra rushed to it, turned right, and Ruby was gone. The corridor was empty. At the end of it, Ayra saw two signs. One pointed to the left and one to the right. However, the marks on the signs were a mystery to Ayra. She had no idea where to go.

"Ruby!" she called. "Where are you?"

No response.

Ayra sat down under the signs and thought. She could just pick one of the sides and go there. The chance of her picking the correct one was 50%. However, the chance of her picking the wrong one was just as high. Ruby had to turn around some moment and realize Ayra was missing. It was best to just wait here.

"Grrr?" sounded a very familiar dragon's growl.

Ayra looked up. "Jewel!" she called out, and embraced him. "I was hoping I'd see you again!"

I'm not just disappearing, Jewel's thoughts sounded softly in Ayra's head. He only came through in waves, because his ability was a skill rarely practiced. However, it was clear enough to Ayra.

"What way is the stage?" Ayra asked him.

Jewel gestured with his head to the left. He bent his knees and let Ayra climb on his back. Then, he dashed through the left corridor, through a curtain of hanging leaves, and into a huge hall. There was only one other dragon in this hall, and that was...

"Ruby!" Ayra called her. "Why didn't you wait for me?"

Ruby turned to her. As Jewel was approaching quickly, Ruby could think to Ayra: Excuse me? I didn't understand that.

Why didn't you wait for me? Ayra asked in thoughts.

Ruby opened her eyes wide. Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't realize you wouldn't find your way on your own. I'm só not used to humanoid visitors. They can't read our language, they don't know our habits... It's like going to the play with a deer, you get what I mean? But then with a smart deer, obviously.

Ayra repressed the pain of the insult and forced a smile on her face. What's the play going to be about?

It's a real classic, Ruby thought. You'll love it. It's called The Great Dragon's Egg in the Night Sky. With that they mean the moon. You see, our ancestors believed that it was an egg. Inside it, there was...

Suddenly, the room went dark. Only on the edges of the stage, little fires were lit. The glow of the flames was reflected in their little crystalline bowls.

The play begins! Ruby's thoughts sounded softly. You'll see what it's about. Don't think to anyone!

The play started simple. Two dragons, a red child and a silvery adult, stood on the stage and thought to each other. For some reason that Ayra didn't understand, she was able to follow the whole conversation, as if it were spoken:

"I was awakened. I heard a soft crackling. Did you hear it too?"

"I heard it, little one. It must be some wolf sneaking through the bushes. The farmers will catch it. Go sleep."

"But what if it isn't?" The child paused and ran a circle around the adult, out of nervosity, and probably because it was too energetic to go to bed. Then he continued: "It sounded like the cracking of an egg. And there aren't any eggs left in the cave; Grayah was the last, and she came out two days ago."

"If there aren't any eggs, it isn't an egg."

"But what about the one above?"

"The one above?"

Ayra had trouble to not cringe at the acting. It didn't look natural at all. She looked from side to side, but both Jewel and Ruby seemed to be enjoying the play very much. She decided that it would probably get better later, and focused her eyes on the play again.

"The one in the night sky. That great one."

The child paused again to run another circle around the adult dragon. Though this time she picked him up by the tail and dragged him back in front of her.

"What do you mean, the one in the night sky?" she thought firmly. "That is nonsense. You know we should not believe that it is real. If there was a dragon baby inside, it should have come out long ago, back when we fled from the Spring Mountains, and there was already moonlight to guide us."

"It is the Astral Dragon, so great, that they require much more time to develop in the egg."

"It is nonsense."

Suddenly, a loud cracking, as if a wooden wall was breaking, sounded on the stage. Ayra was startled; over the stage ran humanoids! They were shorter than dwarves, shorter even than emmins, and they weren't wearing shoes. Before Ayra could make out what they were, they had already disappeared again on the other side of the stage.

"Halflings!" the adult dragon thought with disgust. "What are they doing here? They're waking up the kids! They should be roasted!"

A dragon roared mightily, and at the same time, a deep voice sounded in the audience's thoughts: "You better don't!"

From the left side of the stage, from where the halflings had appeared as well, stepped a great blood-red dragon. There was a burning torch attached to his tail with some sort of wax, that made it seem like he himself was a source of red light, like a setting sun. There were little pink gemstones stuck to his scales, like stars. Finally, even his horns were painted red, so that Ayra couldn't see their original golden colour, but the voice of his thoughts was so clearly male that she didn't need it.

"The Astral Dragon!" the child cheered in their minds, and he flew in a looping (which clearly took him a lot of effort). "I knew it!"

"That is nonsense," the silver dragon insisted. "This must be a joke of some kind. No dragon descends from the sky so fast."

"Ah, but I do." With that, the Astral Dragon spewed a flame, and when it was gone, the silver dragon had disappeared- completely and utterly.