Page 52 of Meet Me in the Stars

“Everyone has a job,” Elio shrugged.

“How does that work here?” I asked.

“From how Marsin explained it, most things are the barter system. The leadership takes care of water and the crystals used for what they call electricity. Their food set up is an interesting one. Anyone can hunt on the hunting grounds on any of the three worlds. No questions asked unless you’re leaving the things you kill instead of taking them to be eaten. Other food is measured by draconic weight. Everyone gets so many points based on that to be used at the grocery stores or restaurants. The point cost is calculated by nutritional values for each food.”

“More or less,” Elio nodded. “Though, if you run out of points by the end of the week – you still eat. They still feed you and report the ‘underage’ to the dragons who calculate things like that. Your points might be adjusted, but it’s not really to do with how much you can have. It’s more a way to calculate how much food we need to grow to sustain the three worlds and possibly build another one in the next couple of centuries.”

“So the points mean nothing?” I blinked.

“That’s what I asked too,” Izora chuckled.

“To the hungry? Nope. To the stores? Nope. They mean nothing but numbers that will be reported to the Food Council,” Elio explained.

“How do you spend points, though?” I asked.

“They ask your name at these places,” Izora explained. “I guess the ‘cashier’ puts it into the computer or something and the computer does the math on how many points you have. Unless you check your flight app you won’t ever know if you go over or not.”

“You keep points you don’t spend. They roll over forever because the council figures you’ll be hungrier at some point in the future and make up for the points you didn’t eat that week,” Elio said.

His fingers trembled again. If we were pregnant like my dragon figured we were, this would be my fifth kid. It was Elio’s first. I squeezed his hand and stroked his blonde hair. He was fucking beautiful. I watched him as Izora pressed the wand to his belly.

“What about the gel?” I asked the doctor.

“Gel?” Elio blinked.

“That’s out of date now,” Izora grinned. “The new wand isn’t only smaller and attached to an easy to carry around device. We’ve also done away with the need for gel. The wand has disposal covers that dissolve in hot water because they’re made of a plant material akin to gelatin.”

“Nice,” I grinned. “They used to spread gel all over carriers.”

“Ewwww.”

“A lot of my patients felt that way,” Izora laughed and pointed to the television mounted on the closest wall.

My heart leapt into my throat the way it always had the first time I laid eyes on one of my kids. There almost lost in static was the tiniest egg. Elio squinted at the monitor. A second later a red circle appeared around the egg on the screen as Izora fiddled around with his handheld device.

“That’s our egg?” Elio asked, not looking away from the screen.

“That’s your egg,” the doctor nodded.

“It’s tiny.”

“It probably will be for some time. I take it sex and reproductive education is up to par, and I do not need to explain the growth cycle of a dragon egg,” Izora said.

“It’ll grow as big as my body can reasonably handle while absorbing nutrients from the food I eat. No two eggs are ever the same. It only comes when it’s ready, but most folks have at least three moon swirls to prepare the nest.”

“Moon swirls?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Elio nodded. “You know. Moon swirls. Our one shared moon swirls around in between the worlds and the sun.”

“Is that what you all really call it?” I asked.

“What else would we call it?” Elio laughed. “That’s what it is.”

Izora pulled a little notebook out of his pocket and scribbled something down.

“I’m keeping track of things I might need to remember,” Izora shrugged.

“How do we get the photos?” Elio asked, unphased by our amusement and confoundment.

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