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Moonwatcher slipped under her blankets with a stifled sigh. She couldn't hear any thoughts from the other dragons in the room; they were all fast asleep. With a quiet grunt, she reached over her shoulder and pulled off a small bag, the same shade of dark emerald green as her eyes, then clicked it open and rifled through its contents.
"Finally," she thought. "I've been waiting all day for this."
Moon pulled back, and in her claws was a sleek grey laptop dotted with sparkly stickers. She set it down, snapped it open, and tapped the power button, holding back a hiss when its bright light blared in her face.
"..."
The mystery dragon in her head was quiet, sifting through her thoughts silently as she typed in her password with an excitedly lashing tail. From his thoughts, Moon could sense bewilderment and curiosity.
"What's up with you?" Moon asked him. She scrolled her mouse past her purple space desktop background and opened a browser.
"...What in the world are you thinking about?" he responded--she could almost imagine his confused expression.
"What do you mean?"
"All day, you've been thinking about things I do not understand. That MudWing from this morning 'fixing the lights', that SkyWing and their 'electric guitar', and now this...? What did you call it?"
Moon blinked. "My... laptop?"
"That. Yes. What on earth is that?"
Moon narrowed her eyes. Who ever was this mystery dragon that had no clue what a laptop is? Or an electric guitar, or that microwave in the cafeteria, or a phone--whoever this dragon was must've been ancient. Moon could feel his confusion rising with each of her passing thoughts about basic technology.
"A laptop is... well..." she shook her head exasperatedly, "I'm not sure how to describe it. I've never had to."
She flicked through tabs on her browser idly. "Here, maybe I can show you. If I think hard enough about what I'm seeing, maybe you can see it too?"
The voice hummed. "I suppose it is worth a shot."
Moon flicked her ear. "Right. Um..."
With all her might, Moonwatcher focused on what laid before her. Her laptop in her talons, her open tab a wiki page for her favorite game. She popped open a new tab and tapped away on her keyboard, and she was quickly scrolling through pictures upon pictures of sleepy cats. The mysterious voice hummed in her ear.
"Fascinating," he said. Moon could hear the confused smile in his voice. "Absolutely fascinating. We never had anything quite like this in my time."
"In your time...?" Moon thought. "...What year do you last remember living in?"
"Hmm... around, ah, 3,015 AS."
Moon recoiled with shock. "I-it's 5,012 AS now!"
The mystery dragon fell silent. Not even another low, rumbling hum. Moon found herself feeling sorry for him.
"That explains why you barely know anything. Most of these things were invented around 30 years ago." Moon shook her head tenderly.
The voice didn't respond. Moon searched for his thoughts and found that it felt like she was pushing against a wall... he must've been deep in thought if he didn't want Moon to hear. She was curious, but she let him have his privacy. Moon sat in silence under her covers for a while or two, taking a moment to admire beautiful artworks and skim through literatures to check if a new chapter was added to her favorite writings. Slowly, she began to feel his wonderment fade back in.
"...I've said this before and I will say it again. This is truly fascinating."
Moon chuckled softly. "It really is wonderful if I look at it from your perspective. Wait--let me show you something that's sure to surprise you even more."
Moon's browser was closed and her space desktop glittered before her once again. She tapped on a small icon laid in the corner of her desktop and quickly turned down the volume on her laptop--then the title screen for her aforementioned favorite game was before her. She could imagine the familiar grand menu music blaring in her ears despite the sheer quiet.
"Oh?" the voice gasped. Moon grinned.
"This is what we call a video game," she replied.
Moonwatcher jumped at a sudden sharp BWEAAAAW from across the room. She heard the dragons sitting off in the distance's thoughts before she turned to see them--A SkyWing she didn't recognize seated on the ground with their searing red guitar held in their talons, reciting their sheet music over and over in their mind. Kinkajou by their side holding a bass guitar, her thoughts filled with her usual bouncing joy, and Qibli seated behind a drum set with a pair of drumsticks in his grasp, a calculated excitement in his head. With a flick of their tail, the SkyWing lifted one talon into the sky.
"A-one! Two! A-one two three four!"
Immediately, the room was filled with a burst of song. Moon found herself, and many other dragons passing by, pausing to listen to the music--no echoing thoughts in the room other than the consistent metronome playing in Qibli's mind. She flicked her ear when she heard Darkstalker make a soft astonished noise.
"My," he whispered, as if still wishing to hear the music under his thoughts. "The instruments of my time didn't sound quite like this."
Kinkajou's and the SkyWing's singing began to echo throughout the halls. Moon didn't expect her to have such a voice.
"Yeah," she whispered back. "I wouldn't expect them to. It's nice, though, isn't it?"
A soft 'mhm' was Darkstalker's only response. Moon bobbed her head gently to the song as Kinkajou and the SkyWing sang (all the while attempting to ignore Qibli shooting her a wink when they made eye contact), and she imagined Darkstalker bobbing his head alongside her.
Moonwatcher padded carefully after Turtle as he raced along the cave walls on a small scooter crafted from wood, decorated with glitter and paint the same gold as the armband wrapped around his forearm. His tail was held stiffly behind him to help steer, and occasionally he'd flap his wings to keep himself from falling. Moon could sense Darkstalker analyzing this curious contraption.
"...I've never seen a scooter like that before," she said quietly, almost to herself. Turtle turned back to face her for the briefest moment.
"Oh, yeah. I made it myself."
Moon lifted her head slightly. "...Y-you're a prince, aren't you? Couldn't you have...?"
Turtle shook his head. He pushed himself farther forward with one of his back talons. "I could have, but I thought... I don't know. I thought making it myself would be interesting."
Moonwatcher hummed in thought. "That's... cool," she said. The bioluminescent scales on Turtle's face flickered for half a second. "...Thanks."
She watched him roll along the tunnels in silence for a moment or two after that, focusing on the sound of the scooter's wood wheels rolling along the ground. It was a rather pleasant noise.
"H-how did you know how to do it?" she asked him. "Did you figure it out yourself, or...?"
Turtle shook his head once more. "Nah, I watched a tutorial on Fireflicker. I don't think I could figure this out myself."
Moon blinked.
"But... how do SeaWings use computers? Wouldn't the electricity harm it?"
Turtle looked back at her again, a curious glint in his eyes. "SeaWings have waterproof technology. I thought everybody knew this stuff."
A small nervous laugh from Moon. "A-aha..."
They continued along in silence for the rest of the journey, until they stumbled upon a massive underground lake, the light of the moons flashing onto the water's surface from breaks in the ceiling. Turtle's scooter rolled to a stop. "We're here."
The entire time, Moonwatcher took note of Darkstalker's fascinated mental note-taking. He'd been doing that for quite some time, and would probably be doing that for quite some more.