Once everyone was done, Erghak gave the signal to put the item back into the pile and step away.
"What do you think you are doing, kid?" An athyst-scaled Dragon grabbed Aran's wrist in a steel vise.
"I'm not doing anything and you're hurting !" Aran struggled and failed to break free.
"What's happening here?" Erghak's voice was calm, but his gaze was cold and hard enough to force the other Wyrm to release his prey.
"I saw the human taking sothing from the pile." Calling the boy human instead of hatchling sounded like condemnation to half those present and like an insult to the rest.
"I'm not a thief!" Aran said in outrage.
"That's a serious accusation, Shabar:" Erghak replied. "Are you certain?"
"I couldn't be more certain even if it was my own treasure that got robbed." Dragons had keen eyes that could notice a single missing coin or just out of place.
"Aran?" Erghak looked straight into the boy's eyes without softening his gaze one bit.
"I didn't take anything. I swear!"
"Please!" Shabar scoffed. "We all like treasures, but stealing from the dead at his own funeral is low even for a human."
"I'm not talking with you, Shabar." Erghak replied. "Don't make repeat myself. You have already disrupted Valtak's funeral and there's only so much ti until the sun goes down. If the mont is lost, I'll hold you responsible!"
"? I'm not the one who saw sothing shiny and thought I could pocket it without anyone noticing. Being a kid is no excuse for such rotten behavior."
"Shut up." Quashol grabbed Shabar's shoulder, draining the heat from his body and with it his strength. "The longer you speak the more you sully the funeral."
The Wyrm would have liked to reply, but his jaws were frozen together.
"Aran, I have to search you." Erghak said. "If I find nothing, the rude uncle and I will apologize to you. Okay?"
"Okay." Aran stood still while the Fire Dragon placed his hand on the boy's head and used Invigoration to check for hidden pockets or dinsional items.
"The Hatchling has nothing but his clothes and a bunch of handkerchiefs." Erghak said, restoring Aran's honor and drawing countless glares on Shabar's sorry figure. "See? I told you, a Verhen never lies." Aran said while puffing his chest out with pride. Lith, Solus, and Tista looked around nervously, neither confirming nor denying the boy's claim. Kamila had a hard ti repressing a peal of laughter at their evident discomfort,
but managed to keep it in thanks to her Constable training.
"I believe you." Erghak nodded. "But I also believe Shabar. There's no way a Dragon can make such a blunder and this can't just be an attempt to fra you because it was too easy to disprove
"How can you believe us both?" Aran swallowed a lump of saliva.
"Because of your choice of words." Erghak sniffed the boy and then the pile of treasures. "What's this?"
By following the scent, he found a wooden dragon figurine hidden under a piece of Dragon eggshell.
"I'm pretty sure that Valtak never had such a toy and it only carries your sll."
"It's not a toy. It's my treasure." Aran said with a guilty look on his face. "It's the first toy my father carved and my brother enchanted for . It's half of our family emblem." Erghak took a good look at the figurine, noticing it had been carved with great care but limited skill. The enchantnts just made it durable and emit light from the hands to mimic spells and from the mouth to mimic fire.
The countless scratches in the paint were a testant to how much it had been played with. What struck Erghak the most was that the base color of the miniature was black, like the Dragon on the Verhen's coat of arms, but it had been recently and clumsily painted over with red.
"I know that Dragons like treasures so I wanted to give Grandpa Valtak the Dragon while I kept the tower half. I didn't an to be rude and disturb the ceremony, mister Erghak. "He knew you all for many years while we spent just a few months together. I don't want him to forget ." Aran sniffled, trying to hold back the tears.
"You don't have to apologize for this. It's a thoughtful gesture and a wonderful present." The Fire Dragon knelt down, putting one hand on the boy's shoulder and caressing his head with the other. "You should apologize for quibbling.
"As I suspected, you specified you didn't take anything instead of saying you didn't tamper with the pile. I guess Verhens never lie but they sure withhold part of the truth when it suits them." He said with a laugh.
Aran felt ashad for humiliating his family while Lith, Tista, and Solus steeled themselves not to show any reaction to the spot-on observation. Kamila cried from hilarity, but managed to make them pass for tears for the touching scene.
"Are there any objections from the Fire Dragon Brood to add this fellow Dragon to the pyre?" Erghak asked receiving no answer except for one raised hand. "Elder Ronak?" "Not an objection, a request." The Elder Wyrm took a childish drawing of him and his father out of his dinsional amulet. "Can I add sothing of mine as well?"
" too." Said an old female Fire Dragon holding a badly crafted fire crystal in her hand.
One after the other, the Fire Dragons pulled out small items of great sentintal value that bound them to Valtak.
"Unless you all object to your own proposal, I couldn't turn it down even if I wanted. And I don't." Erghak took a crudely purified silver bar the size of a pencil out of his dinsional amulet. "I guess our Hatchling has just added a new page to our tradition." The Fire Dragons nodded solemnly and gave Aran a small bow that lasted long enough for everyone to rember that the Hatchling wasn't just a guest. He carried the blood of a Fire Dragon, making him one of the Brood.
Aran beca beet red from the attention while his mind went blank.
"I'm not of your Brood, but I ask to add my share to the lot." Quashol pulled out a letter from his breast pocked after the Fire Dragons had placed their gifts on the pyres.
"Sure." Erghak nodded.
The Father of All Ice Dragons left the letter under a heavy gold coin and moved to Aran's side.
"It contains all the things I couldn't say to Valtak over the millennia because of my stupid pride and my apologies for abandoning him when he needed the most." He said. "Why are you telling ?" Aran looked around like a trapped mouse, feeling the burden of such confidence.
"Because it's only thanks to you that my stupid pride failed to stop again. Quashol replied. "I had your sa idea but lacked the guts for it. Now Valtak won't have to wait until we et again to listen to my whining and I'll live what's left of my years with a lighter conscience. Thank you, Hatchling."
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