The next day the trio set off in search of the plainsmen. Doran said he was still curious about humans, and tagged along with Serali and Kethro. A few days of steady flying brought them through the wild lands west of Land's End and out onto the Ocean of Grass. Serali turned north, avoiding Dragon Stone, since the plainsmen were not likely to be found there.

The bite of winter was in the air as they flew over the unending expanse of brown grass. No snow lay on the ground yet, but it was only a matter of time. The wind blew into their faces, carrying the scent of snow. They talked as they flew, the conversation drifting in among topics. The subject of families came up, and Serali speculated a moment on her own possible future family.

"How long does it take for a pair of dragons to have eggs?" she asked. She still sometimes felt horribly ignorant about dragon life.

"Depends, really," said Kethro. "It can happen right away, though it will be at least a few years for us yet."

She looked over at him as they flew. "Why do you say that?"

"Because you're still too small," he said with a grin. "A mother has to have reached her full adult size before she can clutch. I've seen an adult royal gold, love. You ought to be much larger than I, and you're still a good bit smaller, though you're growing fast."

Serali blinked. "Oh."

"I saw the old queen, in fact. At my first moot after I reached adult size myself. Though she wasn't the queen then, this was after Skrissish took over."

"After?" Serali was puzzled. "I thought he'd chased them out when he took over. I guess I don't know the story. Tell me what happened."

"Well, the old king and queen hadn't actually ruled that long. A century or so at most. The old queen's mother, who was the daughter of Brethor, that's the old gold scribe you saw at the moot, was the queen before them, but she died. It was a freak accident, a cave-in somewhere that really ought to have been stable. But after she died there really wasn't any question of who would rule next. The king and queen had just mated, and they were the first gold with gold pairing in thousands of years, I think there's only been two others since Arvass and Alora.

"Everybody liked them pretty well, I know my parents thought very highly of them. But they were both peaceful sorts, not at all aggressive. Sirissish though, he was very aggressive, as you well know. He kept pushing at the king, finding every excuse to try and pick a fight, and eventually he just outright challenged the king. Well, you can guess how that turned out. So Skrissish took over. And really it didn't make much difference for a long time. The king doesn't do all that much. But eventually people started getting dissatisfied anyway. Particularly when he began changing the singing at the moots. There was some muttering about asking the old king and queen to take back the rulership. Skrissish chased them out of the mountains not long after that. We all thought they'd just gone somewhere else for a while and they would come back, but they never did. There are rumors that Skrissish killed them, which I didn't give much credit to until recently, but after how he's been acting of late, I could believe it."

"I wish I knew..." Serali sighed. "I'm almost certain they were my parents, the timing is right. But I can't be sure. My human parents only saw my dragon parents in human form, so there's no way to be certain. Though I guess if they were the only gold dragons in the world at the time, it's pretty likely."

"Well, it's possible for two parents to have a gold even when they're not gold themselves, if they both have gold in their line. Neither of my parents were green, my mother was a red and my father a copper, actually. But both my grandfathers were greens, so here I am." He smiled at her. "Though I think you're probably right. Which means we could have greens, or golds, or reds ourselves, there's red in both our lines. If there wasn't red in yours Skrissish wouldn't be around."

Serali blinked. "Wait. Skrissish is in my line?"

"I thought you knew," said Kethro. "Yes. He's the old queen's brother. Their parents were a gold, the queen before her, and a red. That's why he's a royal red. And if we had a green or a red, they'd be royal as well, the gold always comes through."

Serali was stunned. "My uncle. But wait... if he did kill my parents, that would mean that he killed his own sister!"

Doran broke in. "I'm confused. You both keep talking like Serali is the daughter of the old king and queen, but she can't possibly be, they vanished less than thirty years ago and they didn't have any children at the time."

Serali chucked. "And I'm less than thirty myself. I had to grow up fast, as an orphan."

"You're less than thirty?" He eyed her with disbelief. "If you say so! But you look like you must be nearly a century old."

She shrugged. "I'm twenty-three, actually. I know that sounds very young, but in human terms I've been an adult since I was sixteen." Doran shook his head in amazement.

"It's probably for the best that you look much older than you are," said Kethro. "If everyone knew that you were the daughter of the old king and queen, I think there would be a lot more trouble. There's enough dislike between you and Skrissish as it is."

Serali nodded. "Perhaps. But I think someday there's going to be trouble no matter what I do."