This story is written in the same universe as Oridian's 'Avaeria' series, taking place in the City of Wings. a young dragoness has moved to the big city! With a new career and plenty of new dragons to meet, her story just begins!

Drakka: a term used for female dragons.
Drake: a term used for male dragons.

(Thank you so much for the support and permission to write in your wonderful universe Oridian!)

The rattling buzz of a crystal powered alarm sprung to life, shaking violently against the small desk next to her bed. Viridia jerked awake at the moment that crystal came to life, almost sensing its activation even before the alarm even began. With a groan and blind swat of her paw, she reached out for the button atop the round device, trying to hit snooze and give her a little more time to rest. It felt far too early to be waking up for the day, though with a lack of a window in her small apartment room, it was hard to tell exactly the time of morning it was. Growling and rolling over onto her belly, the young drakka glanced towards her alarm, showing the exact time she had set it for. 

“Rrrrff… darn…" she huffed into her pillow, paws cutching around it as if to hold onto her dream. Five more minutes went by until the young drakka finally flipped off her blankets with a sweep of her tail. She stretched on her side, arching her back and pushing her fore paws outwards against the cheep wooden headboard. 

Slumping out of the warm embrace of her bed, the grey-green scaled drakka stumbled in the dark room, reaching out at the vague shape of her work harness hung up. Her eyes were still bleary with sleep as she drug the utility harness off its hook, letting it thump down onto the floor bellow. She groaned and slowly stepped into the leg straps of the used leather gear, her wings drooping low to either side of her and idly clawing to grab the straps and hoist it up her limbs. 

Why does work have to be so early in the morning? She questioned as she fumbled with the straps, seemingly tangled bellow her. Most of the dragons who worked in this field were nocturnal, she saw no reason that they needed to be up at the crack of dawn… The drowsy drakka, frustrated with her harness' lack of cooperation finally gave up and yanked the straps upwards, revealing that she had the wrong legs in the wrong holes,

 “woah-ohh!" Thud… her jaw hit the floor along with her chest, her fore paws crossed in opposite directions under her. Guess turning the lights on first would have been a good idea…

Stepping out of her small apartment room, Viridia finished adjusting her harness against her, paw checking the various pouches along her chest and hips. Torch, check, snack, check, keys, check. She looked to her wings, adjusting the old clan insignia attached to each thumb claw, though she doubted anyone here would recognize them. The young drakka locked her door and peered down the hall of the dim corridor.

 The complex was made primarily for housing nocturnal dragons, though it wasn't exclusive, and with the modest rent and proximity to her new job, she figured it couldn't be too bad! besides her mother was a nocturnal Drakka, so her eyesight could handle the dim hallways and common rooms. She just wished there were a few windows so it didnt feel so eerie sometimes… 

Shaking her head, she tucked her keys back into her side pouch, then padded down the hallway to the stairs, leading upwards to the main undersurface thoroughfair. She was always fascinated with Avaeria, The City of Wings, yet most of her learning about the city and its opporoations were above the surface, in the sprawling cityscape and high rise buildings that caught lightning for energy. They rarely talked about the underbelly of the massive sprawling megastructure. 

But that's where her career led her, or more specifically, her magical affinity. Even here, she could feel the buzz of the entire local sector, its massive power crystals like a beacon for her navigate. At least she wont be too lost, though even with the navigational signs and presence of that massive power source nearby, she still got a bit confused down here.

Trotting quickly through the dense thoroughfare, Viridia tried to hurry to her job, ducking under a large Obsidian drake's wing as he showed off a few customized shaded goggles to a couple of other dark scaled dragons. “Sorry!" She called out as her tail bumped one of those shades off his wing. She carried on still, moving along with most of the traffic though in the dense and somewhat cramped thoroughfare, it was a slow and adjuous journy across the underbelly of sector thirty eight. 

While most businesses were held above the B1 level of the city, there was still plenty of oportunity, and dragons to make some money. Small shops and food stalls were set sporadically into the walls of the main thoroughfair, with the occasional corridor branching off either sides that led to other residential complexes. 

Viridia took one of these corridors down two floors, then turned another corner before stopping outside a small maintenance office. The young drakka panted softly as she paused outside the main office doors of her job, reading the sign above her. 'Clan Dirak Avaerian Maintenance: sector 38', it was a subsidiary of the main branch that operates all over the city. She then took a quick to catch her breath, and stepped inside. 

“Your late" the sudden voice of a drake called out, causing Viridia to jump a little and fluff up her wings in surprise. 

“S-sorry! I uhh… traffic and, hey I'm hardly a minute late!" She turned from the clock on the wall to face her accuser. Sitting at a nearby table, drinking something steaming, A larger male dragon looked back at her with a slight tiled of his head, before he examined his claws passive. His scales were of a muddled crimson, though in the dim light of the office, he almost looked completely black. 

“Still late, and you know Clorris wont be kind to lame excuses. She'll probably write you up if you keep showing up like this, wasting everyone's time waiting on you." Dakkon took a sip of his drink with a smug look on his snout. He then stood up. “Any way, we shouldn't waste anymore time, we have work to do."

 Viridia huffed softly, ruffled her wings, then followed behind her superior. “Why weren't you out working anyway?" She asked with a small huff, following closely behind his sweeping ebony tail.

 “Simple. I was making sure you showed up, in case I had to report to the boss that you got cold paws after just one week working here." He casually commented back as he led her through one of the side corridors and to the back supply closet. “ quick, grab what you need, Clorris and Erllon are already waiting on you." 

She held her tongue, not really wanting to argue so early in her day, and grabbed some fresh conduit crystals, a light crystal, some cable casings, and clamps. “Any idea what is on todays schedule?" She asked, wondering if she needed to fill her pouches with any more supplies, already she felt weighed down. 

“Something about a power outage at the edge of the sector, someone must have made some shoddy conduit crystals." Dakkon said while grabbing his own supplies. “Lets hurry up, faster I can get my job done, faster I can go on break.

Despite Dakkon's insistence that they hurry, he took his time padding through the service hallways. At some point, Viridia might have thought he got lost, until he made a sudden left turn and further down the hallway, two dragons came into view in the dim light. A larger, sooty colored drakka stood next to a scrawnier mottled brown and black drake . They bother turned their heads to acknowledge the two trotting over to them, Viridia's snout dipping just a bit as they got closer. 

“Got lost you two?" The older, large drakka spoke out. “Just waiting on a straggler, Clorris." Dakkon mentioned before Viridia could speak up.  Her cheeks burned under her scales and she drooped her tail closer to the floor. 

“It's fine, we were just tracking down the root of our little blackout issue. Luckily it just seems to be in the lower levels, so most of the dragons around here aren't making tons of complaints. Still, this side of the sector needs power." Clorris of house Dirak, one of the major clans of the city waved her paw dismissively. Her age and experience brought on an air of authority anywhere she went, or anything she said. Viridia could see how Dakkon shrunk ever so slightly in her presence, and already in the brief time she has worked with this team, she could tell the crimson drake envied her status.

“Here, check out these fuses." Clorris turned and pointed her claw at a box on the wall, filled with small crystals lined in two columns. She brought a talon close to one, and a small jolt of electricity sparked from its tip, hitting a crystal and causing it to briefly flicker and glow. She repeated the process a couple more times on further fuse crystals. “They all seem to be working, yet there is no electricity getting to them, which means its further down." The big drakka tilted her snout towards a tight looking maintenance tunnel, where a couple pipes and thick power lines were lined along one of the walls, heading deeper inside. 

“Must be a failure deeper in there, but I want you and Erllon to check further down this hall, see if there are any other issues." She pointed to both the drakes. “I'll be right here, so if any of you need my aid, just report back to me." Clorris said, nodding to her team. 

Erllon gave an acknowledging nod, and little else of focalization's, as he tends to do. Dakkon glanced to his fellow drake, then back to Clorris, before giving an overt bow. They both headed off, turning a corner, and were quickly out of sight. “Viridia, your small enough to get in that vent and follow the power line. Find that failure and either fix it, or report back to me if you dont have the right equipment." Clorris said, turning back to her fellow drakka.

“Yes drak, I should be able to see if a line has power." The younger drakka said, flicking her tail slightly behind her at the opportunity to prove she has some value to her team. Sensing Electrical currents was one of her affinities after all.

Viridia tightened her harness and peered at the small, almost vent sized tunnel. Whoever built this Maintenance shaft must have been quite small of a dragon! With determination, the drakka hopped up into the small space, having to rough down and tuck her wings in tight to her body. She paused to retrieve her torch, twisting the end to let the crystal inside flash to life and send out a beam of light in front of her. She placed the device in her muzzle so she can use all four of her paws to crawl forwards, following the power line. She could have told everyone that there was no electricity going through this line, able to sense the aura if she was close enough, yet this line held no such sensation, so she kept crawling forwards. 

Two air duct pipes followed along the power line until a converging vertical vent led them upwards, most likely towards the surface. That's how the lower levels got fresh air, or semi fresh at least. But without power, they most likely wouldn't be pumping the air very far. She needed to find this issue. She could sense the Massive power source of the conduit crystals that power this sector from further ahead, still a ways away, but the buzz of their energy made her scales tingle slightly. Shining her light further up ahead, Viridia, soon came across the clear problem of their power outage. 

“Oh my…" she muffled around her torch. It wasn't hard to see the issue now close up, some furry critter seemed to have gone and chewed right through the casing of the power line. And promptly exploded into fuzz and… other bits… The young dragon shuddered a little, but crawled closer to take a look at the damage. Sparks of energy were escaping the casing of the power line, which could have been dangerous for other dragons, but for her, it wasn't that much of a hazard. “Found the issue! Shouldn't take much effort to fix!" She called back.

Viridia reached a paw over to the live side of the line, feeling the buzz of energy under her paw. She concentrated for a moment, willing the energy flow to back off while she peeled open the torn casing. The smaller conduit crystal inside would be used to conduct electricity from one adjacent crystal, to another, all the way to a destination. But it seems the wild discharge earlier that fried the scavenger critter seemed to have cracked the crystal. She cut more of the casing open with her claw, and extracted the long cracked crystal, then set it aside.

 Reaching back into one of her waist pouches, she retrieved a fresh crystal, eying it to make sure it would fit, then slid it into place of the old one. She then extracted a fresh casing from her pouch and cut a bit off one end to fit it to size before wrapping it around the exposed crystal. Placing two clamps around both ends, she secured it, then ran her paw over the live side and focused, permitting the energy to flow. The wire suddenly buzzed to life, and she heard Clorris let out a pleased trill as the fuse box lit up at her end. 

“That seems to have done it! We will have to check the area to make sure power has reached the rest of the zone, but good work down there!" Clorris called out and Viridia smiled, feeling a little better about today, now she just needs to figure out how to get back… it was too tight to turn herself around, so she began to back her way from where she came. Slowly backing up into the darkdrakka, she glanced back with her torch to make sure she didnt bump into any of the conduit lines. 

Passing back under that vertical tunnel, she froze as she heard a soft clank above her and slowly pointed her snout up. Shining a light upwards, she came snout to snout with an Indigo scaled drake, who seemed to be suspended upside down, somehow? “Mrrrf?!" She exclaimed in muffled surprise, not expecting to meet another dragon in the tight corridors, especially not one hanging upside down! 

With the only source of light being the torch in her muzzle, his features were slightly blocked by shadow, but she could make out that the odd inverted drake wasn't much larger than herself, certainly snug in the tunnel like herself, but not squeezed against the walls. His main scale color seemed to be a vibrant indigo, with his neck blending to a darker navy as it ran towards his throat. Viridia could just make out the outline of a large neck frill folded back snuggly to his spine, running down almost the full length of his neck. He had a strong build it seemed, but not overtly muscular, or else he probably wouldn't have been able to squeeze himself in the position he was in.

“Oh! Great you came back this way, I didn't want to bother you at first since you seemed busy with your little job… but my torch seemed to have run out at the worst time and I mayyyy have forgotten an extra light crystal to replace it. Do you mine shining a light here real quick?" The peculiar drake pointed his claw Forwards to one of those ventilation pipes, and Viridia's glanced over that way, bringing her light towards the clear lack of a pipe in one section. 

“Wonderful, now hold it steady for a moment while I…" The drake brought a sheet of metal down from his harness , holding it in his paws, and with the ease of crumpling a piece of parchment, he bent that sheet right around the piping. Viridia's eyes lit up again as she watched the dragon fit the pipe with that fresh piece of metal. “perfect! Ahh thanks again, I'll let you get back to your, well whatever it was you were doing. Oh, you dont think you have a spare light crystal, do you?" He grinned toothily, a bit silly in his upside down position, and ran a paw along his neck frill. 

Viridia blinked, then gave a slow nod and muffled “rrrf sure." And reached down to her front pouch to retrieve her spare crystal, handing it over to the drake. How was he even hanging there??  

“Ahh thanks again!see yah around." The drake gave an appreciative nod of his head, then grunted and wriggled, and pulled himself back up into a higher corridor, out of sight. Well that was odd, but she was glad she could help a stranded drake in need! A diurnal dragon like that one would have a hard time finding their way around in these dark tunnels! 

“No!… problem…" Shaking her head with an amused snort, she continued to back her way out of the maintenance channel, until she suddenly found empty air on her back paw and meeped as she fell backwards out of the tunnel. Strong paws caught the drakka as she flopped back, catching her. “Gotcha Clumsy, so what happened in there? Get stuck on your way back?" Clorris rumbled with amusement, then helped to right the smaller drakka. 

“Ahh not exactly stuck, I just… well its a bit odd but-“ The sudden boisterously loud call of Dakkon came around the corner “

“Heyyy I fixed it! Look the lights are all back on! Didn't I fix it Erllon?" The other drake grunted and shrugged. Clorris shook her snout and flicked her tail. 

“Sure you did… anyway, see any other parts of the zone with lights out on your way back?" Clorris stood up, backing away from Viridia and closing the fuse box. “Uhhh, no?" Dakkon tilted his head, trying to remember anything of note. “Hmmm well we still need to check every fuse box in this zone, make sure that the power outage didn't crack any other conduits. I'm assigning everyone a quadrant of this sector to check, report back at the office if you find any other issues." \

Viridia could see Dakkon's posture sag a little at the thought of this “pointless" scavenger hunt, but she didnt mind so much since her assigned quadrant was the closest to their current spot. She also couldn't stop thinking about her odd encounter with the indigo drake. She hoped he wouldn't be unprepared the next time he found himself in one of those predicaments!

To be continued…