Luna had been called away by Krystal, who, Chanyeol learned later, was the same cordial lady he'd first met in the quarters, just a bit later after they'd bantered some more. Luna was a sweet girl, and a wise one. 

Mood considerably brightened, he set about making himself comfortable. Looking around, he realized that the window wasn't barred. He looked at it questionably for a moment. Why make it so easy for servants to escape? Surely they're mistreated on some level and would want to leave unnoticed. 

The shadow of a rather large passing dragon swept across the window and suddenly he began to feel a tad disturbed. Did that mean that these runaways were killed or eaten once noticed by the sky patrol? A sound from below prompted him to balance himself on the sill and he peered over the edge, only to hear the sound again and see its source.

There was a moat as wide as the eye can see, with three thunder dragons slithering below the surface, the sound of their crackling electricity prickling the water.

A little unnerved, Chanyeol set to--. Kyungsoo still had his things.

Chanyeol did little to resist the urge to hit himself in the forehead, slightly irritated. Well, then, he should wander the quarters then. Maybe if he ran into Luna again he can help her with whatever she had to do. With that thought in mind, he meandered out the door. He moved to touch the knob to bring it to a close behind him, and realized that there were no locks. He frowned mildly at it. There was almost no measure of real security in the quarters other than no one can get in or out via the moat. But to know that anyone can just barge in however they feel was just a side of...wrong. He held the bar at the middle of the wooden door and brought it to, and headed out to the main corridor. 

The halls were eerily quiet. Everyone must have been moved to their duties in order to get ready for the feast. His footsteps echoed loudly in the corridors. As the silence got louder to him, and his thoughts a little too clear, he began to realize that there was something thick in the air. Curious, he let a tendril of his hair slip from its curly confines of a disguise and probed the air lightly. A small yellow puff of tiny dust crystals appeared and fell toward the ground, fading just before they hit the ground. 

Magic.

Strange, he thought. Thinking about it now, it felt a tad familiar. Almost like the same kind of magic used to keep him imprisoned as a child in Dredlin. It's nowhere near as strong. There was no need for something like that in slave quarters. The idea of it made his blood boil, and his stance against the dragons became all the more rigid. 

It was still evening time, and the sun was just about to begin its descent so that left him time to circle back to the way he came in and find a way into the fields. He needed fresh air after his recent discovery. He withdrew the tendril and continued on his way, his pace a tad quicker. The only truly lit part was the main hall. Small torches lined the branches, some of them disappearing into the darkness. The slave quarters seemed more and more like dungeons than a place to live. He couldn't imagine what actual jail cells looked like.

It wasn't long before he found a path he had never traveled. This corridor, by the mixture of scents he picked up, seemed ot be frequently used -- at least more than the usual. Curious, he continued down until he got to a rather small door. It was just large enough to let the average dragon-kin male to slip through, although barely. Like all the others, it wasn't barred, and so Chanyeol pushed it open.

Stepping down into the very low-set room, he looked around. It was a wide room, almost as large as the courtroom that allowed an audience of nearly five thousand. There were counters everywhere and furnaces in almost every other nook or cranny. Meat hung high from the ceilings, coated in thick layers of ice and vegetables sat sorted in large bowls in a complete row along all the walls. 

The sound of rattling caught his attention before a voice wafted in his direction. He looked a little to his left to see a man, shorter than he, really, with a fair bit of meat on his bones, stand up and turn to the door. He was fair skinned like the Queen, his eyes a woman's envy. If it weren't for the light tenor and Chanyeol's better senses, he would have first thought the other a woman.

"Thank the gods, Hae, did you get--." The man stopped short at the sight of the elf. "You're not Donghae."

Chanyeol shook his head negatively. The man sighed and shook his head before heaving a rather large pot into view and onto a counter. The muscles in his arm bunched, fairly thick and completely unexpected.

"Who are you then?" the man asked, continuing with his tasks. "I've never seen you in the kitchens unless they picked you up off the streets today."

Chanyeol took that as an unwritten invitation to enter the room completely and closed the door behind him. "I'm not from here."

The man seemed to ignore him, placing another, larger pot onto a second surface. "Do me a favor. See that griffon's leg right above you?"

Chanyeol looked up at the mentioned object  and his eyes went wide as the pots he'd just seen. Sense found him and he gauged the size of the meat. As high up as it was, it seemed as if it were hanging right in front of him.

"Here." Chanyeol's attention shifted quickly to capture a knife by its handle. He looked at the other man who glanced at the griffon's leg.

"Cut that down for me and bring it here."

Chanyeol looked up at it again, marveling.

"Don't tell me you’ve never seen one before," the light tenor sounded amused.

Unconsciously, Chanyeol shook his head again. 

"Well get your wings out and cut it down, and I'll tell you about it."

"Wings?" The red eyed elf's head snapped down to look at the shorter man incredulously.

"Are you not a--," the man stopped short, seeming to really look at Chanyeol for the first time.

"Far from it," Chanyeol said, remembering just in time to be a bit more polite. After all, this kitchen was a closed unknown territory. It would be suicide to trash the place and he and Kyungsoo would be kicked out of the kingdom -- again. 

"I see," the cook said. "Toss me the knife."

Chanyeol did as bade. The knife was barely halfway to the cook when the solid man sailed through the air to catch it by its blade and soar upward toward the rope that held the leg in place. The man made it to the top of the leg and balanced on the frozen object. He cut the rope with dexterous ease and gravity took charge. As swift as the drop was from such a height, crystalline wings unfurled from the man's back and he glided down gracefully, the large leg landing into the first pot he had put out and the cook's feet touching the ground a considerable time later. Chanyeol blinked.

"Your wings," he said. "They're made of ice."

The cook looked back at the rather large appendages and they immediately fell to the floor in chunks, the sudden action causing the elf to start.

"That they are," the cook murmured softly. The jovial look in his eyes were shadowed by something different, Chanyeol saw, though the man didn't look at him, but away, seemingly lost in thought. He shook himself out of it fast enough and if the elf hadn't paid attention he would have missed the look of melancholy.

"Well," the cook said. "come along. You have a leg to look at."

Chanyeol wasted no time, though still a bit dazed, rounding the counter and standing next to the shorter man. He wasn't shorter by too much. He made it to Chanyeol's shoulders. The man looked up at him with a broad, boyish grin on his face. It made him look young. Sinfully so.

"Well," he beamed before frowning thoughtfully. "What's your name, son?"

"Son?" Chanyeol snorted, almost amused.

"Well, it's only fair considering I'm nearly five hundred moons," the cook shrugged.

The mildly stunned look on Chanyeol's face made the other's thoughtful frown turn into a knowing smirk. 

"It's Chanyeol, sir," the elf said, remembering his manners. 

"Ah, call me Xiumin," the shorter man chuckled. "Sir makes me feel aged."

The incredulous look he got made him laugh outright. "Calm down, Chanyeol. Moving on, though, this is the leg of one of the fattest Griffons the hunters have ever come across."

Chanyeol had to look up to take the entire thing in. "And it looks so heavy, so dense," he commented. This man must have the strength of a thousand giants.

"Nothing compared to that of a Colossus," Xiumin said with a wince.

"Colossus?"

"They're tamable, man-like stone beasts. Excellent mounts and their meat makes for some of the best stew I've tasted."

"Meat from stone?"

"The meat lies underneath the stone, boy," Xiumin answered, not sounding annoyed in the least. "And the gold from its head is priceless. The sapphire that runs through its veins is a hard thing to preserve as well. It's rare and hard to extract safely. And then there's its brother the Magna. Its stones are like onyx and its helmet obsidian. Ruby runs through its veins, an even more difficult jewel to extract. I've never known how they come to be made, though. There are no females..."

Xiumin seemed to pause in his work, as he was gathering knives and fished for a torch to melt the ice. Then he shook himself free, almost as if he just remembered he had company. He smiled sheepishly. "Apologies, Chanyeol. It's just that some of the things we take for granted have so many interesting theories and mysteries it's mind boggling."

Chanyeol was mind blown. So much so that he didn't realize his next thought had slipped clean through his lips.

"Are you sure you're a dragon?"

"Every inch of me," Xiumin said. "What makes you ask?"

Chanyeol leaned casually on the opposite counter near the furnace. "Every other dragon I've come across haven't been exactly hospitable."

Xiumin opened his mouth to say something but seemed to think  better of it and shrugged. "If it wasn't your looks that put them off it may be something about you that made them uneasy. Don't quote me, but I took a gamble on you when I realized that you weren't a dragon or anything of the sort."

Chanyeol blinked.

Xiumin smiled. "You turned out alright, though."

Chanyeol huffed indignantly and crossed his arms. "I'm amazing, thank you very much."

Xiumin laughed outright before setting down the knives and picking up the torch which he wet with oil. He turned before the furnace and Chanyeol stopped him. 

"Need to melt the ice?"

"Yeah," Xiumin said.

"Then let me handle it."

Chanyeol stood upright, and blew once to dispel some of the charcoal gray smoke from his lungs before moving toward the leg. He knocked the ice to test how hard it was. He whistled. "What froze this?"

"I did," Xiumin said proudly. 

"What with? You do magic?"

"I'm an ice drake, boy."

The moment of silence that passed between the two was confused. Chanyeol turned to face him slowly, eyes widening a fraction. "Ice drakes were rendered nearly extinct a few centuries ago."

A pained look flashed across the chef's visage but it cleared up just as quickly as it appeared, but his expression seemed to start to close itself off. Chanyeol mentally smacked himself for his callousness. He started to apologize but Xiumin held up a hand to stay any words.

"I know they were," he said. "I'm the last one."

He took up a knife and face the elf. Ice quickly crawled up its stem and devoured the blade. The chef let the now frozen knife fall to the floor and shatter.

"I'm--."

"Don't be sorry," Xiumin sighed. "It's already done."

Chanyeol nodded his understanding and delved no further. He understood not wanting to be questioned about his past a tad too well.

With a sigh, he turned to the frozen leg and tapped the ice once more to gauge its thickness and white tongues at his lips. It would take extreme heat to get all of the ice off, and mere furnace flames on a torch wouldn't do it fast enough. 

"Lift it out of the pot," he said quietly. "As far above it as possible so that the water won't splash."

Xiumin nodded and unfurled his wings. He gripped the rope and ascended a fair distance up, the leg suspended just high enough.

The white hot flames laved at the ice, melting it down evenly. Chanyeol dutifully ignored the impressed look on Xiumin’s face and hurried with his task, He lessened the temperature of the flames as they got closer to the meat, careful not to actually cook it. By the time he was done, the meat looked freshly cut and cleaned.

Xiumin set the leg into the pot and found purchase on the ground once more before collapsing his wings.

“Say,” he said thoughtfully, looking at defrosted griffin's leg. He looked up at the rest of the hanging meat before glancing at Chanyeol. “Do you have some time to spare?”

"Thanks for all your help, Chanyeol," Xiumin called with a grin.

Chanyeol returned the gesture with a smile of his own and closed the door behind him. He'd defrosted all of the meat Xiumin thought he would need for the feast and said he would be able to take it from there. Just before leaving, Chanyeol belatedly asked for directions to the nearest empty field in which he could lie low for a while. He bee-lined through the halls, whistling to himself whilst cooling his rather warm mouth. At first a small but rather thick trail of smoke followed his trek but soon it had faded into nothing.

Well through Xiumin, he can finally concede that not all dragons were pompous imbeciles. 

But the majority of them still were.

It wasn't long before  he found himself before the door he'd come through a mere few hours prior, and he took the first left he came across just as he was instructed. 

His mind went back to the conversation he and the butcher had while he’d helped out.

They held each other‘s gazes for a moment, Chanyeol unable to look away due to the intense but thoughtful, almost conflicting look in Xiumin‘s eyes.

“I‘m going to explode in to dozens of curious pieces if you don‘t tell me what‘s on your mind,” the elf drawled, just barely keeping the small bit of caution out of his voice.

“Are you Devan?”

Chanyeol drew his lips into a thin line. Taking a breath he calmed himself and reminded his mouth that Xiumin was nothing but kind to him and he kind of owed the ice drake after touching on a sore spot. It still didn‘t feel like a fair trade, but it didn‘t matter in the long run he guessed.

“I‘ve always been mistaken for one, but I am not,” he answered tiredly. “I am a bit tall for an elf and my eyes are of the wrong color.” Chanyeol threw the dragon a lopsided smirk. “I‘d like to think I‘m a fair exception to the rules of a midget race.”
 
Xiumin huffed out a laugh. 

“Although,” he turned to look at Xiumin curiously from the side of his eye, “why do people constantly think so? The Deva are either partially or completely soulless. I’m not soulless and I’m quite sure I have an entire soul.”

Xiumin folded his arms and leaned against the wood of the preparation table. “Well,” he spoke slowly. “Like elves, dwarves, elves and the like, we dragons consider ourselves sentient. Unlike animals we use reason, logic and negotiations to make our way through life. We’re constantly evolving, you see?”

Chanyeol nodded his understanding.

“The dragon kingdom has gotten a solid handle on magic if you hadn’t noticed.”

I’ve noticed, Chanyeol thought, thinking back to the corridors with moderate distaste. But he nodded again.

Xiumin continued. “So we’re taught to sense souls and the essence of different creatures. Or, at least, their magical signatures.”

Chanyeol tilted his head. 

“Yours isn’t what we’d consider normal.”

“Story of my life,” Chanyeol couldn’t help muttering with a derisive snort. He matched Xiumin’s raised eyebrow with a wry smile.

“You do have a complete soul, I agree,” the ice drake sighed. “But it feels like it just doesn’t fit, yet it does.”

“I can’t help what I am,” the tall elf shrugged and made to leave. “Thank you, though, for the explanation. I won’t hold you up much longer. You know how impatient you dragons can be.” 

It wasn’t a lie, what he’d told Xiumin. He actually was grateful for the insight on why the king and his subjects kept labeling him. It still didn’t make it any less rankling. Ignorance was nothing to excuse. 

The tall elf put it out of his mind to gather his belongings from Kyungsoo for the moment, instead just wanting the acquaintance of nature until it was time for the feast. 

He rounded another corner where there were was a corridor with actual windows. 

“What?” he muttered to himself. Quickening his pace he almost ran to support himself on the sill and look out.  He must have been getting closer because when he looked outside he saw a large pasture with sheep and horses dotting the grass nearby. The field in the distance, however, caught his interest. All he needed to do now was find the door. He would have darted through the window with the Float  incantation but, for the sake of being left alone for the rest of the time before the feast, he’d resisted. Dropping back to the floor with a soft pat he quickened his pace for the nearest doorway that led outside.

In such a haste, he didn’t really register the voices that were coming from a corridor at a cross path. He was turning right when his left ear twitched at a familiar sound. He’d heard his name. Pausing, but not really wanting to, he looked in the direction of the summons and saw Kyungsoo dashing toward him, leaving a very puzzled Sehun behind to catch up to him. The faint feeling of pride that Kyungsoo would run to him rather than stick around with a snot-nosed dragon brat swelled in his but he was careful to hide the smirk.

“Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo breathed. 

“Hello,” Chanyeol replied lamely. A look of confusion flashed across Kyungsoo’s face before the shorter of the two shook it off and seemed to bounce on the balls of his feet. It was something he usually did when he was either bubbling with excitement or extremely anxious about something.

“About the feast,” the earth elf began but quickly stopped when Sehun finally caught up. Kyungsoo didn’t miss the malicious glare launched at his companion. Chanyeol definitely noticed and stared blankly at the dragon prince. He blinked his red eyes once then uttered something that made Sehun’s face scrunch up in confusion. Chanyeol looked at Kyungsoo in silent askance.

Does he know how to speak Elvish?

The large eyed elf shook his head negatively. And almost immediately, Chanyeol’s blank expression hardened into one of absolute distaste.

“Why am I in the servant’s quarters?”

“What was I supposed to do?” Kyungsoo adopted an outraged look. “Had I not passed you off as an obnoxious servant who didn’t know any better, they would have had you killed!”

Chanyeol snorted, looking away.  “I’m not afraid of death and you know it.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to die foolishly!”  The last of Kyungsoo’s words was a rumble of thunder that caused Sehun to start.

“I’d rather do it defending the truth than to lay here and pander to these self righteous asses!”

“That is ridiculous and stupid!”

“They keep their servants trapped with magically locked doors and moats filled with lightning drakes. If that doesn’t stop them, then the airborne guards would have them for a tasty treat!”

“It’s their way of protecting--.”

“Imprisoning,” Chanyeol sneered. But he was dutifully ignored.

“--their servants. Now you will act your age and be sensible during our stay here, do you understand me?”

“And who are you to command me, master?”

“They only damned friend you’ve got, that’s who,” Kyungsoo snarled, stomping his foot.

“When is the feast?” Chanyeol responded coolly, completely dismissing the other. When Kyungsoo didn’t answer right away, Chanyeol glanced at his friend just in time to catch the tail end of a conflicted, poleax expression. He definitely did not expect Chanyeol to succumb so easily.

“An hour past sunset in the King’s Hall.”

Chanyeol sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, ears fluttering with irritation. “Let me guess, I’m not invited.”

“Chan--.” Kyungsoo reverted but flinched at the open disappointment and tired anger on Chanyeol’s face.

“Eating with the servants, I presume.”

The shorter elf merely nodded.

“Just leave my stuff where I can find them.” The tall night elf ran a hand over his face and tried a smile that they both knew was fake. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Prince,” he added in acknowledgement to the boy and mocked a sweeping bow before leaving through the corridor, hearing but refusing to acknowledge the questions Sehun curiously asked the earth elf.

“The only damned friend you’ve got…”

That was hitting below the belt and Kyungsoo knew it. 

A/N: There was a part here that I couldn't seem to get right so axed it and left the chapter here. The grudge against Kyung is ON. Hopefully he redeems himself soon enough.

I'm so sorry for ths like....super late post, but ...yah. My writer's block and will to write have all been having parties in my soul, but here something is until I can figure something else out for this fic. TEWDULS!