"Quith!" R'vel called, jumping up and down with glee. "C'mere! You gotta see this!"

The young dragon with the amazing multi-hued hide grinned at his rider's enthusiasm and leapt to the challenge. He was hatched at the nearby Cincanta Weyr, from a clutch unlike any other. The resulting hatchlings were normal in every aspect except their colours. Instead of gold, bronze, brown, blue or green, the young dragons were coloured in terms of ice cream flavours!! It was an unexpected and welcome difference. Mantequith was known as Chocolate Peanut Butter. It consisted of a rich chocolate coloured base with swirls and neck-ridges of peanutty tan, emphasised by patches of deep dark brown. At their hatching, the people of Cincanta had done some research and come up with what they hoped to be a good description of the typical Chocolate Peanut Butter dragon.

"Steady, responsible, and persevering, Chocolate Peanut Butter dragons are mild-tempered and always ready to work. No matter what job you have for them, they'll get started and do their best. A good lifemate for a confident rider, since they'll be ready for any challenge you can throw! Male, 30 to 35 meters."

As far as R'vel could tell, Mantequith was somewhere between a bronze and a brown. Of course there were your typical remarks about such a funny-coloured dragon, but being so special was worth it. Besides, he would have loved Quith if he were a 'normal' colour or not.

The young ice cream dragon made it to his excitable rider, still grinning, and cocked his head, feigning slight curiosity. What is it?

R'vel stuck his tongue out at the dragon, sensing the vast curiosity and humour under the facade. "Just c'mon, silly dragon!"

They raced outside to a spectacle worth the effort. Butterscotch Mariamanth and Raspberry Sorbet Habloth were preening to an audience of a good quarter of the Weyr, and loving every moment of it. The soft buttery gold combined with the bright patchy pink was certainly a sight to see. The hatchlings were only a sevenday old, but R'vel supposed the Weyr would grow used to them. Imagine what had happened when the first white dragon had hatched... Well, this wasn't much different. Was it?