#mrytle

It felt like a death sentence when Ouřa Thorn got the notification from North that someone was here to see them.

Who would want to see them?

No one, was the answer. They knew no one aside from one critter, outside of the citadel. And that one exception would never come here, never in a million years.

The others got things like this. Visits. Packages, sent from their families- or distant friends. Or at the very least- calls. Zelda was the only other one that didn’t get this treatment— and Thorn didn’t need to ask to know it was probably a sensitive topic.

And we’ll, they were almost jealous, in a way. They shouldn’t be, after all the ones they envied were their family- but maybe it wasn’t that, maybe it was the connection.

Maybe it was that they’d grown with those other critters- they had relationships, ones that had started when they were born and had grown and developed in time.

And Ouřa Thorn?

They had been alone.

They exhaled harshly, spines clicking and clunking as they smoothed them back, shoving their complicated tangled mess of emotions far down into their chest.

Who would want to see them????

Could they be in trouble?

Had the Captains come together again, and changed their minds on what to do with Thorn?

No, no. They told themselves, letting out a slow breath, staring at the door still. North Heat would never let that happen. He would tell me. You're getting worked up over nothing.

Ouřa Thorn pressed a talon to the door, feeling over it. They could hear murmured voices; multiple voices, though their hearing wasn't good enough to make out what they were saying.

Ouřa Thorn took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Scales.

Spines.

Horns.

Thick, plated scales, ones oh so akin to their own—

Ouřa Thorn stared, frozen in doorway, at the three, towering lizards; the three, towering lizards that looked just like them.

The tallest, a bristled darker male the colour of fire soot and burnt amber snapped his gaze from North, who he didn’t seem pleased with, to Thorn, and his face crumbled, gripping at the female glued to his side, her scales the paler shade of Thorn’s own golden yellow.

She looked over to, and instantaneously, her eyes watered, breathing hitched on a guttered sob.

“Oh…. could it..” Breathed the third one, another female with crooked horns and mangled spines. A string of Lavender hung around her neck. Her scales made her look like a damaged sunflower, sunny yellow and deep near brown amber.

The pale female took a gentle step forward, tears threatening to spill over her gorgeous pale gold scales. Her muzzle was the exact shade of soft storm clouds.

Oura Thorn couldn't think, watching this beautiful lizard that was all too similar to them approach, wondering faintly if this was a trick somehow.

“Bree?” She whispered, and something in Thorn ached. “They probably have another name, by now, Dottie,” Mumbled the smaller, sunflower looking one, offering a smile so soft that Ouřa Thorn wondered if it was weird if they cried, too.

“Who…?” Thorn croaked, taking a shaky step back, unsure and confused.

Thankfully North was there. The dragon sweeped over, wings flapping enough to have the lizards move back as he came to stand beside Ouřa Thorn. “Thorn, this is Myrtle, Hale and Dottie. They are from the Cordylidae system.” North pursed his lips, looking to Thorn, almost wearily. “Their egg was taken 20 years ago, and their kind dont leave their planet due to cultural reasons. When they heard about you through the space rider database they wanted to meet you,”

20 years.

And they…..

Thorn took a slight step forward, shakily breathing out.

“Your…”

Dottie shifted closer, reaching out, but not touching.

She looked so similar to them. Too similar. Surely..?

Thorn had never thought about their bio parents- about the possibility of a planet they were meant to hatch on— it just hadn't been something they considered.

They thought no one wanted them.

They thought they were abandoned.

They were looking for me? This whole time??

“You're my parents..?”

Parents. They had parents. Real parents.

The male- Hale— their DAD— put a claw gingerly on Thorn’s shoulder, meekly smiling, his eyes glossed with tears. “Have a seat kid…. We have lots to catch up on, yeah?”

Thorn felted winded, eyes wide, scales flat. They managed to look to North, baffled. The captain smiled gently, and nodded softly. “You know where to find me Thorn,”

They nodded, slowly, then faster, turning back to the lizards— their parents. “Okay… okay,”