It took Fia a few tries to remember where Soria lived, but the pink dragonette endeared any dragon who answered her knock. Viliant hung back, so his presence did not interfere with Fia's charm.

  "Hello!" she trilled after she had knocked on the sturdy, whalebone frame of another hut.

  A bright yellow and orange dragoness curled her tail to match the mood which her scales inspired. "Why...! Hello, Fia. What brings you here?"

  "I want to play with Scoria."

  "Scoria already left to play with Pumiro today," Scoria's mother said with a click of her fangs. Despite the twist to her tail, the dragoness with sunburst scales had her wings angled in a strict line. Her dark amber eyes flitted up to regard Viliant, Fia's distant shadow. This dragoness must be among those who regarded Viliant with the distrust of a bad omen.

  Unaware of this, Fia cheered, "I'll meet up with them! Where can I find them?"

  Scoria's mother swayed her head this way then that. "I'm not sure where Scoria went. I'm sorry, Fia. Maybe you can play with her a different day—just you and her." Once again, the adult dragoness glared at Viliant who swished his agitated tail.

  "Thanks, Scoria's mom!" Fia left her doorstep and retreated back to Viliant. "Looks like it's just you and me then." Her light blue eyes, wide as the sky, blinked a couple times completely unbothered by the rude adult.

  Viliant tilted his head, making his left horn dip closer to Fia's even though no telepathic connection moved between them. I wonder.... Did she not notice or not care? Either way, he was happy to bound after her, just the two of them.

  The dragon huts thinned out along the mountainside. Fia led Viliant down to the cradle of a valley where the earth was hewn open. The pink dragonette waited at the cave's mouth with her happy wings and tail poised. "Welcome to the lava tubes, Viliant!" Fia cheered, but her giggle thrummed over a darker note. "The shadows have been waiting for you." She opened the magenta underside of her wings, previously wrapped around herself like she hatched a great scheme within them.

  "Ha," Viliant scoffed. As the shadow dragonet caught up with her at the cave's entrance, he felt no presence other than Fia in the darkness beyond. While he could sense the long tunnel ahead of them with magic, Viliant said, "Strike a light would you?"

  "Tag! You're it!" Fia whacked Viliant's scaly cheek with the tip of her tail as she turned heel. The pink dragonette spat a fireball ahead of herself. The flash illuminated the tunnel beyond the reach of sunlight. Fia snapped open her wings and hovered to land in the dark.

  Fine, Viliant thought. Two can play that game. I can use my magic too. In addition to the presence of Fia's life force in the murk, Viliant could feel the contour of every rock.

  The rocky ceiling overhead was an uneven, cracked geometric pattern—not quite squares but closer to that than anything else. About halfway down the wall, horizontal lines flowed through the rock. Viliant was pleasantly surprised by the cool, dark, and quiet cave without the angry glow of lava anywhere in sight.

  While Viliant chased down Fia in the dark, he shouted in her direction. "I thought the lava tubes were supposed to have lava in them!"

  "Nope! We couldn't play here then." Although Fia was still within earshot, the ring of her voice did not carry like he had expected. Her voice was absorbed by the porous rock around them.

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  By now, Viliant came close enough to pounce on Fia. "Tag," he droned in a monotone voice. "You're it." The shadow dragonet disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel.

  "I'll get you back!" Fia bellowed in a playful roar at him. As she chased after Viliant, she soon realized she was at a severe disadvantage even with fire to light her way. Fia's fiery breath trailed off with a hiccup. "Hic!" That little lurch made her head tilt back to the ceiling.

  A thin line of light emanated over her horns. Even though her claws skidded to a stop, Fia marched them in place out of glee. This emotion was slammed by Viliant's confusion who had also stopped up ahead. Fia…? Is that lava up there?

  The thin vein of glowing rocks widened to cover the whole ceiling. Their orange glimmer framed Viliant's six horns in a spiky silhouette.

  Instead of answering him, Fia crept up behind him. "Tag! You're it again."

  When she skirted away, Viliant still demanded an answer. "Fia! What are these?" Upon closer inspection, the dragonet noticed it was not the rocks themselves that were glowing but a thousand—or million—tiny specks that clustered on top of the rocks.

  Once she realized that Viliant no longer threatened to tag her, Fia trotted back to that spot. She sat next to him, perched under his wing. "These are glow stars."

  "And those are...?"

  "Tiny magic creatures of light!" Fia's neck swayed with her tail as she continued to look at them.

  Viliant cocked his head to the side. "That means they must be edible—"

  "No!" Fia gasped. "Elder Nura says we should just look—not touch. If you bask in their light, it's enough to restore mana."

  Viliant raised his chin, impressed by that quality of the glow stars. He did not want to lick them off the rocks anyway, so he let the glow stars go unsampled by him. Their light restores mana, huh? I guess that's why Pinkie has gotten energy back for her fireballs again. Viliant swished his tail to the side, now overlapping with Fa. "Tag. You're it!"

  "Hey! No fair!" Fia howled in a burst of fire. The walls of the lava tube shimmered with extra energy, absorbing her magic fire. The orange glow stars flickered yellow and red, shredding the shadows where Viliant hid. There was always more darkness ahead of him, so he rushed onward.

  An unexpected fireball came the other way down the tunnel. "Gah!" Viliant sputtered from the sudden burning sensation which assaulted his cheek.

  "Tag!" An annoying dragonet shouted the name of the same game, even though he was deeper in the cave system than Fia. "You're it!"

  Over Viliant's growl, the voices of two other dragonets piped up.

  "I don't know, Arenis," squeaked a dragonette. "You didn't hit me."

  "You didn't hit me either," said the husky voice of the third dragonet.

  Viliant sensed the three other lifeforms in the dark, all about the same size as Fia. When the name of Arenis was mentioned, the snarl in Viliant's throat rose to a savage sound.

  "Ah!" squealed three dragonets in unison. The farthest dragonet, Arenis, jumped forward with another fireball in the same direction as before. This one was aimed for a much bigger, imaginary target to better match Viliant's growl. The fireball sailed over his horns, harmless.

  "Wait!" Fia whistled. The pink dragonette dashed in front of Viliant, balancing a flame on her snout like a candle.

  None of the dragonets could see Viliant in the shadows behind her, but a chill ran up all their spines.

  "I'm it!" Fia proudly declared, defusing the dangerous game which the other dragonets unknowingly played with Viliant. The flame on Fa's snout swirled and swelled into a fierce fireball. "I'm it," Fia repeated, "and I'm gonna get you all!"

  Her fireball spewed from her mouth and glistened with the sparkle of the glow stars. Fia's fireball ricocheted from one wall to another, lighting up the terrified faces and flapping wings of three dragonets.

  First, the fireball exploded in front of a yellow dragonette and reformed behind her. "You're it, Scoria!" Fia cheered.

  Next, the fireball sought out a pale dragonet whose scales were barely hidden in the dark.

  "You're it, Pumiro!" Fia sneered.

  Lastly, the fireball careened for Arenis whose chest, puffed up in bravado, made for a perfect target.

  "You're it, too, Arenis," Fia squealed. "All of you!"

  All the dragonets froze in the lava tubes, trying to figure out over telepathy how a game of tag worked where everyone was 'it' but one.