The only plus side that Damien could find to sleeping was passing time. He doesn't need it, or not as much as full Mortals, but he doesn't dream or see things in his head at all, for that matter. When he closes his eyes, there's no pretty pictures, no relaxing scenes, just darkness. He doesn't like darkness. The only time he sees it is when his eyes are closed, given his night vision, which all Elementals have, and it makes him feel vulnerable. One would think, as a Devil Elemental, it should make him feel at home. But it doesn't. It makes him feel like he could be attacked again at any moment, mauled in his sleep, waking only to feel pain and knowing there was no way to escape other than to just die.

    At Ashe's castle, he was taken to a room to sleep. Deigo, one of Ashe's advisors, had led him there and given him some clothing to wear. His original outfit had been made of a leather-like material called Leha and was quite uncomfortable, but here he was given something far nicer.

    It was like silk, called Kilska, and was beautifully colored. It was dark purple with golden lining, sewn into a sort of night-shirt. It hadn't been fitted for him, so it was a little big, but it still fit okay. It was quite comfortable, the most comfortable thing he'd ever worn.

    After he was settled in, Deigo began to talk to him about where he wanted to go. Damien only knew of one other continent on Zanzus, and that was Leafly. So Deigo told him about Airplix.

    "It's like Leafly, in that they're extremely welcoming. If you go into a Leaflean home, chances are you'll be offered food and a place to stay for the night should you need it. They're more sparsely populated in the east half, they do their best to preserve the rainforests and the other life around them. Airplix is like that, in a way. You can walk into someone's house and they'd be more than happy to let you stay there a few hours. On Leafly, if you happen to be carnivorous, they might have no food for you as they don't usually save meats in their own homes. Air Elementals are omnivores, so they have lots to choose from in their own homes, as well as the fact that quite a few different Elements live there."

    "That sounds nice..." Damien murmured, doing his best to process all this.

    "You could get an education there, too. Leafly schooling is one of the best, but their programs are more... Cut and dry, maybe? They don't have a lot of different classes for if you need help, but on Airplix there are many different schools that teach Elementals that come from tribes, Feral Societies-"

    "F-Feral Societies?" Damien interuppted him.

    "Well, sometimes children are abandoned by their real parents. Fire Droggons have a tenancy to drop their children off they don't want on places like Airplix. There's some places there where groups of Fully-Feral Air Elementals live. It's a reserved area for them to live. They don't even have to stay there, there's quite a few parks built in those areas. Fully-Feral Air Elementals are passive until provoked and have some of the sharpest reasoning skills a Feral could have, so they understand when one of us who are younger accidentally hurt them, they don't mean to. Sometimes they nip back, show 'em it hurts."

    "They sound nice..." Damien said.

    "They are. I take it you'd like to stay there?"

    "Yes please..."

    "Alright, get some rest. You must be tired after walking for so long. I'll go speak to Ashe about finding you a new place to stay." He got up, leaving Damien in his bed to sleep like a rock.

    The next morning, Damien was fed some breakfast, given a box of items, mostly clothes, but quite notably a little plush Zolt. It, like Damien, had a paw on its tail, though that was a distinguishing trait for them, all of them had it. Zolts are quite strange creatures, otter-like with feline heads and tails, with the paw on the end, of course.

    Damien nuzzled the plush softly before putting it back in the box, changing into the colorful robe he was given to wear until he got some "normal" clothing to wear on Airplix from his new adoptive family.

    Oh, and the adoptive family.

    "We've narrowed it down to two pairs of candidates, Damien," Ashe explained to him as she escorted him to the ship, "You'll get to meet them when you get to Airplix. None of them have any criminal record, except for one, but it was for shoplifting once when they were sixteen, so you'll be safe with them. You're going to meet another Elemental, she's Ester. She's quite kind but very old and hard of hearing, so you'll need to speak up around her."

    "Okay..." Damien whispered. Ashe could tell he was close to tears, so she bent down so she was face to face to him.

    "Everything's going to be alright, Damien. Nobody will hurt you, I'll make sure of it." She said with a confident smile. "I'll make sure to watch over you."

    "Thank you..." He hugged her, nestling into her scaled neck brefily, mostly trying to stop his tears from flowing.

    "It's okay to cry, little one," She hugged him back, patting his feathered wings. "Just don't worry too much, okay? You can express your emotions, but don't worry about them too much. Just let it all out..."

    He did so into her neck, sniffling and whimpering. She picked him up and carried him to the boat, staying for part of the journey before teleporting back to her castle, leaving Damien on the boat with Deigo, who was only with him for the journey.

    It was quite a long trip, about a week long. It was a long, boring ride, but Damien got to eat some decent, cooked food again, so he was happy. Once they arrived, Damien was told he had to fly up. Other, older Elementals began to carry crates into the sky, and when Damien looked up, he was shocked. It was just a huge patch of cloud, really, that was it.

    He was lead upwards, they did some walking, and then he was in a small building. It had a bit of furniture dotted around the place, the walls painted light blue with white in the shape of clouds, and the room smelled like plain vanilla, and he spotted a couple of scented candles around the area.

    There was an older looking Dranda, with thin, pale blue fur, kind, green eyes, and of Air Element. She smiled at the two who entered and waved,

    "Hello," She said, probably a bit louder than she'd meant to as Damien approached the counter, "You must be Damien,"

    "I-I am," He said shyly.

    "You'll have to speak up, dear, I'm getting old," She said loudly with a smile.

    "S-sorry, sorry! I-I am Damien, yes!" He squeaked.

    "It's alright, dear. Come with me, you've got to meet some of the Elementals who want to adopt you," She lead him off into a room to the right, where two different pairs of Elementals were. Each were sitting right next to each other. One was a pair of Fire Droggons, which immediately put Damien off, and the other were an Air Droggon and a Water Dranda. Damien was nervous, of course.

    "He-hello..." He said quietly. The air Droggon, female, immediately offered him a small smile,

    "Hello, sweetheart. Are you doing okay?" She asked kindly.

    "N-nervous..." He mumbled.

    "It's okay, no matter which of us you pick, we'll just be happy you get somewhere nice to live," The male air Droggon said. Damien sniffled a bit, wiping away a tear.

    "Thank you..." He murmured.

    "We've already done a formal interview, Damien," Ester said, "You just need to spend a bit of time with them and decide."

    "Okay..." He said quietly. Ester went back to the other room, leaving Damien there alone with the four.

    "You've got such a cool tail, bud," The male Water Dranda said kindly.

    "Thank you... Everyone from my tribe hated it... Th-they said I was a curse from the Deities..."

    "They didn't deserve to know such a wonderful Elet. Did they bully you a lot?" The Air Droggon asked.

    "Yeah... They were very physical... Before a couple of days ago, I had a really tight ring around the end of my tail so I couldn't even use the hand on it..."

    "Oh my... That's terrible..." The Female Fire Droggon said.

    "It hurt when they welded it on at first, but after a while it got numb..."

    "How did you get it off?"

    "I'm... Not sure... I just... It was? I don't know, it's strange and I don't understand it..." He murmured.

    After a while more of talking, Damien decided he wanted to pick the Air Droggon and Water Dranda. The two Fire Elementals understood just fine, telling him it was okay and they weren't upset as he cried. After signing some papers, Damien got to go home with the Water Dranda and the Air Droggon, both female, who happened to be named Ocea and Tropia.