Blythe rose to her feet and positioned herself between the arguing pair. They continued to squabble around her until she grabbed both by the hair and tugged to get their attention.

“What are you so upset about, anyway? We’ll find the bracelet and… we’ll get you more sand?” Blythe realized how stupid this sounded before the words finished leaving her mouth. She rallied and continued, “Arguing over what’s more important won’t fix anything.”

“No, but it makes me feel better,” Firedrake muttered as they carefully disentangled themself from her grip.

Blythe kept hold of Etri’s hair, counting on Firedrake to follow through in a way she thought they might. Sure enough, Firedrake reached up to free Etri far more gently than someone might expect from two people who had just been in a heated argument. This is, if that someone didn’t know them. As annoying as it was, bickering was how their friendship manifested. The only way she’d found to reliably stop one of their squabbles before it got to the point of wanting to bang her head against a wall was to give Firedrake and Etri a mutual enemy. Usually it forced them both to work together for a few minutes of blissful quiet. Occasionally it backfired and all three of them ended up covered in oatmeal. That had been a strange day.

- excerpt from “Is This Closet Mine or Yours?”

Unlike Adair and Sol who started up a friendship as soon as they met, Etri and Firedrake gradually stumbled into theirs with no intention of this being their end result. Over the course of a few months they went from “you’re the most obnoxious person I’ve ever met” to “you’re okay, but still kind of annoying” to “crap, when did you become my best friend??” They toss insults at each other with ease, Firedrake using scathing sarcasm and Etri using dry wit, but woe on anyone who would dare say something bad about the other. Only they’re allowed to do that. While they would never admit to how much they care about each other, their friendship becomes as solid as Adair and Sol’s. Much like that other pair of dorks, Etri and Dray share overlapping interests (e.g. they both love to read) and personality traits (e.g. cynicism and low self-esteem). They’ve been kicked around by life and having someone to vent this frustration to who won’t take it personally means the world to both of them. It's an unconventional, dysfunctional friendship, but they wouldn't have it any other way.