[Statistics] [Bonder] [Hatchling] [Adult]

"Freak!" "Weirdo!" "Talashai's a freak!" "Get out of here!" "We don't want freaks!" "Get lost, weirdo!"

Talashai, tears streaming down her face, hands over her ears, protecting herself from the verbal bombardment, fled from the playground to the sounds of children's laughter and cruel, taunting words. The girl ran, legs burning, pale hair flying out behind her like a banner proclaiming her freak, weirdo and all-around misfit.

Days ended this way regularly these days. It didn't used to be the way, but since she'd begun to change from girl to woman, it seemed that somewhere along the way, things had gone awry. Along with the development of pert breasts had come the ability to see into and change the thoughts and emotions of others. With the feminine expansion of her hips, a strange talent to move and float things, including herself, with her mind. And finally, the most recent development, and perhaps the most startling to the schoolyard, and herself, was the sudden overnight transformation of her appearance. Her hair, once thick and dark had bleached ash-blonde, almost pure white, and her eyes, once a rich chestnut, were pale, icy blue.

Her mother, of Islander origin, who had not known of the prior changes in her beloved daughter, had cried out and spoken rapidly in her native language of demons and possession and had eventually dragged Talashai past her alarmed white American (and somewhat more rational) father to the hospital. There they had waited for some hours before the doctor on duty had seen her and, sounding somewhat bored and a little annoyed, pronounced that it was most likely stress.

Admittedly, it was known that a small patch of hair could lose pigment under great stress or injury, but Talashai's hair wasn't innocent of pigment - it was just very, very pale blonde. And that didn't explain her eyes. Blind people often develop a cloudy coating on their eyes which can give a similar appearance, but Talashai's vision was, if anything, sharper than it had been before, and her irises were anything but cloudy. Despite this, her mother seemed satisfied with the explanation given her. They left the hospital after being there almost all day and went home, where dinner was served and life attempted to return to normal.

Every morning, for some days after that night, Talashai had woken and hopefully sought the mirror. Perhaps it had been a dream, and she would go back to being a normal kid again. But every morning when she stared at her reflection, ice-blue eyes blinking in the morning light, she would see that strange apparition staring back at her. The pale hair and eyes contrasted quite beautifully with her somewhat caramel skin, but it didn't matter to her that it was attractive. All that mattered was that she was a freak. After that, she tended to avoid looking in mirrors.

"Don't bother coming back!" one of the girls called after the retreating Talashai, laughing proudly.

Tripping over the kerb, to the delight of the watching girls, Talashai skinned her left knee, her books sprawling across the roadside and landed on her front. She squeezed her eyes closed and clenched her fists tight, then felt a familiar tingling all over her body. Her eyes snapped open, the pristine icy colour now swirling rapidly about itself, becoming a pale, opalescent violet hue. The world seemed to rush about her, suctioning past her ears with a sound like a passing train, and wind seemed to blast across her face and through her hair. Some part of her knew she was still lying face down on the roadside and that her hair, in fact, had not so much as stirred in the stale summer air, but that did not make the sensations any less real. Her mind sought those of the kids back in the schoolyard, searching the surrounding area like a roving second sight until, one by one, she latched onto them. She felt some natural resistance from each, but it wasn't hard to reach their inner-most desires. One would think that changing a person's thought was a delicate and difficult task to achieve, but Talashai had nothing to go on except her own experiences, and based on this, she had never had any difficulty in completing the most complicated and intricate things within the apparent solace of another's thoughts.

After a moment, a slightly-less-upset Talashai rose and brushed herself of, wincing a little as she put weight on her injured knee, and gathered her books. Her eyes had returned to their normal, if normal it was, hue, and a smile hung about her full lips. As she walked, head held high, from the school, the puzzling sound of young women barking and mewing and neighing like animals followed her up the street.

The heavy wooden front door swung back on recently-oiled hinges, brass handle gently bumping the well-worn spot on the wall behind it. Her parents being out for the night, Talashai had the house to herself. She didn't bother switching the hall lights on but went straight to her room at the end of the hall, pulled open the sticky door and closed it behind her. She leant back on the cool wood of the door, taking a deep breath and relaxing somewhat in her own private space. The door was painted glossy black, along with the skirting boards and the single window frame. The walls, however, were quite stunning - when the family had first moved in, Talashai had invited her only friend, Marten, and together they had painted a beautiful flowing, inter-crossing, random design. The overall effect was, she thought, rather Escher-esque.

Talashai dropped her school bag by the door and flopped on the soft cotton doona, a brilliant crimson hue. The sensations of being in those girls' minds were still with her. The wind rushing through her hair, over her body; so streamlined, smooth, powerful! She could only imagine that it had been some sort of astral current, or mind-wind. She'd read all the fantasy books. Kerr and Eddings and Feist. She knew how it worked. Funny; she'd always thought that they were just stories. She'd read a book by Mike Jefferies where fantasy novelists were windows through to other dimensions that actually existed. She wondered idly if it were possible.

Shortly, her thoughts returned, as they often did, to her strange talents. What did they mean? Was she unique in the abilities she had gained, or were there others, out there, like her? Perhaps, almost eighteen years ago, she had been switched from her hospital crib and somewhere on a strange magickal planet was a plain girl with none of the talents of her peers. She, then, was as much a freak as Talashai.

But it was all dreams. Other planets and fantasy worlds and magick and changelings and... None of it was real. She was just different. Marten was the only one who knew the full extent of her affliction, and his family had moved interstate. The joys of email had kept them in contact, but she often felt very alone these days. ICQ and Yahoo! Messenger just weren't the same as friendly cuddles and long nights of whispered words.

Talashai propped her head on crossed wrists and stared at the wooden slats under the top bunk. She'd had the room to herself since they'd moved in, but the bunk-bed was a leave-over from her older sister, who had moved into her own apartment some years ago. She slept on the bottom; it was cosier and made her feel safe and secure. She idly focused her mind on the air around her and soon she was floating somewhere between the two beds. Somewhere between. She sighed.

The phone rang, but Talashai ignored it. She wasn't in the mood.

Somewhere, at the other end of the house, the cat-flap banged open and closed as Bill the cat came home for the night. It was almost dark, now. Evening stars had begun to show in the sky. The strange, blonde girl could see them sparkling merrily at her through the sheer white curtains. The sun had not gone far enough beyond the distant horizon to keep its penetrating rays from colouring the sky an odd, two-dimensional grey.

The bedroom was silent, still, peaceful. The clock on the wall - a pewter dragon entwined around its face proudly - made soft, clicking, mechanical noises. The world was so very black tonight. No moon, no soft, obscuring clouds. The stars were so small, so deceptively insignificant in the vast, upturned-bowl of the heavens.

Talashai still floated in-between.

The same thoughts flitted through her head, lingering here, speeding past there, circles and spirals at ever-increasing velocities. She was going insane. It was the only explanation. Her thoughts slowly gathering the momentum of a great boulder rolling and bouncing and crashing its way down a thickly-forested hillside, Talashai, that strange girl with the powerful mind, was convinced she was mad. And if she was mad, then what couldn't she do? The insane were the only people the world truly had to fear. Mad scientists, and insane criminals, and screaming, drooling, violent loonies out to get all the people imagined to have caused them harm. All of them, and Talashai.

But she didn't want to hurt anyone. Making the girls at school into barnyard animals was just a little fun, and it would have worn off pretty quickly. Talashai was, at the heart of the matter, a nice girl. And she liked being nice. She liked dropping coins to the bum on the corner because she knew he didn't buy drugs with it. She liked smiling at the bus driver, and chatting to the lonely old lady, and playing along with the games of the kids down the street. And she didn't want any of that to change. But at the same time, she wished everything would.

Years ago, when she read books, or wrote stories, or watched TV shows or movies, Talashai would squeeze her eyes shut and chant a mantra to herself over and over; something to the effect of "I wish I was there, I wish I was there." She would read something set on Pern and think of the mighty dragons and cry out in wonder at what it might be like to live in such a place! Even when she read the books by John Norman, set on the barbaric Gor, she would wish that she would be one of the Earth-girls stolen by slavers and sold into a Gorean society. She loved it all. Magick, or dragons, or romantic notions, or anything! As long as it wasn't here, on boring, lonely, unaccepting Earth.

With such notions floating, slower now, around her head, Talashai allowed herself to fall gently to the bed, lying in the cushioning doona for a moment before swinging her legs out and sitting carefully so as not to smack her head on the upper bed. She rose with a deep breath and tried to shake the cloying reflective feeling. 'If only' meant nothing. She really would drive herself insane if she didn't start living in the real world.

Despite this, Talashai stepped across to her desk and flicked on the computer screen. The draconic screen saver flashed off and a half-read story crackled onto the screen. She was in the mood, now, for some good escapism, and the story she was currently working through suited her perfectly. She sat back in the black, deep-seated chair, crossed her hands in her lap, and used her mind to scroll down the page.

This particular story was set on Alskyr. It had dragons, and gryphons and sea-serpents, all of which were ridden by brave warriors to fight off encroaching giant Ant hordes. The civilisations were rich and the characters beautifully described. It was a world which had been created by a group of people who had once written stories and characters on Anne McCaffrey's world of Pern but were forced off by lawyers and threats of action to be taken. In anger and disappointment, this group of highly talented and creative people, some as young as eleven and twelve years old, had abandoned Pern and Alskyr was born.

The story in which Talashai was currently immersed was that of a hopefully bonder - one who would stand to be chosen by a newly-hatched dragon, gryphon or sea-dragon. It was written by one of the regulars of Alskyrian-creation and it was written well. A gentle wood-grain background with three-dimensional golden bars and buttons lent it a sophisticated feel, and the female candidate in question was much the same.

Her eyes scanning the magically-scrolling page rapidly, Talashai found herself hardly noticing the words as the images they spun wound themselves around in her head. It was beautiful writing; if she closed her eyes, she could almost smell the mountain air of another world. It was at these times that she felt the yearning most. The overwhelming desire, the need to be out of this place. Not only this town and this country, but this world. The air just smelled so fresh...

To Talashai's momentary terror, she felt a familiar feeling.

And then not only could she smell the air, but she could feel the grass beneath bare feet and the dirt between her toes, she could hear birds cawing overhead and sense a great difference in the faraway minds around her. And she could feel her thick, oddly pale hair flapping in the astral wind. Why did the astral flow around her now?

Her eyes were still squeezed tightly shut. Her breath came in short, quick gasps. Desperately she tried to focus on her surroundings; feel the comfy black seat beneath her, hear the low hum of the computer screen before her, smell the familiar scent of her own safe bedroom. But all she could manage was to marvel at the freshness of the mountain air in her lungs.

"Toto," she said softly, starting at the sound of her own voice, "I don't think we're in Kansas any more."

And then, she opened her eyes.

Words cannot describe.

Talashai was most definitely not in Kansas. She wasn't even on Earth. Nothing on Earth could be this beautiful, but at the same time, this completely alien. It wasn't anything in particular that gave it away. The grass was still green, the sky still blue, the trees still reached for the sky and the wind still stirred the leaves into whorls of colour. But somehow, when everything combined - the very texture of the air, the shade and hue of the grass, the shape of the millions of tiny purple blooms - it was so very different.

There could be no doubt about it. Talashai was on Alskyr.

For about the first hour, the girl with the strange talents, was largely in denial. She had wanted this all her life, in some form or another, but now that she had been granted her wish... How was it possible? It couldn't happen - Alskyr didn't even exist! It was a made-up world with made-up characters and dragons and... "Dragons," the girl whispered suddenly. "Oh my God, there are dragons here." She looked sharply at the sky, half expecting an army of Alskyrian dragons to be soaring overhead. But the sky was empty; the only thing soaring were the sparse, friendly, cotton-wool clouds.

And soon instead of asking "How is it possible?" Talashai was asking "How did I do it?" And to that answer, she had some idea. She knew, no matter how impossible it seemed, that she was special. She could reach into and, to some degree, influence the minds of others. She could lift and move things, including her own body, with her thoughts. She had read enough books to know the names of those; telepathy and telekinesis. But what kind of weird mind-power was the ability to travel into a story? She supposed it could be a combination of both. Stranger things had happened. She paused on that thought and blinked at her Alskyrian surroundings. Actually, maybe not. She had a brief thought for her family, but it passed. They seemed, now that she was here in reality, like a dream.

Ok. So she'd come to the conclusion that this was not a dream. The painful thumb-shaped bruise on her left shoulder could attest to that. She was really here. What next? She supposed that she should find some people - a Caer, most likely. Aeries tended to be on high, inaccessible mountain-peaks and Coves were a little too wet for her liking. Besides, the landscape in which she found herself lent her towards the belief - and hope - that perhaps a Caer was nearby. If not, then surely a village or, preferably, a House, could be found. She had no idea what was good to eat around here - she doubted she could even count leaves on trees to find out its edibility like she had been taught by Girl Scouts long ago on Earth. Water would be easy enough to find in such a fertile place, but that would only hold her a few days. She had to find civilisation, and soon.

And so Talashai, pale hair flying out behind her, ice-blue eyes shining out from her caramel-skinned face, ran joyfully as she had never run before. She galloped, she cavorted, she even cart-wheeled. It was a good day, and the girl, once of Earth and now of Alskyr, was on top of two worlds.

The day slowly waned, the sun falling to what she intrinsically assumed was the Western horizon of this world. By late afternoon, her step had slowed considerably. Talashai wondered how cold the nights grew in this place. It appeared to be Spring or Summer, but even back home Summer nights could be chilly. When the golden globe that was the sun had disappeared half beyond the horizon, Talashai took it upon herself to find, or construct, a temporary shelter.

For whatever reason, wood was sparse on the ground, and trees were highly-branched in this place. She'd have to climb, but this did not phase her. She'd always been good a climbing trees. She had learnt at a young age that they made excellent hiding-places.

And that's when she saw them.

Halfway up the tall, slim-trunked tree, her perspective was at a greater angle and her view of the land considerably greater. And there, on the other side of a low grassy hillock was a beast of such magnitude and construct that it could only be one thing. Talashai had seen her first dragon. The first thing that struck her about it was its solidity. This creature wasn't something imagined or some spiritual-being that floated about the world causing mischief. This was an animal - just like a horse or a lizard or a human being. It was real.

The second thing she noticed was its colour. It was gold. She knew that gold dragons didn't have the same rank or place in society as the golden queens of Pern, but she couldn't quite shake the connotation. Since she had read her first Alskyrian story, she always thought it somewhat odd that golden dragons weren't the best, the biggest; the leaders of the dragon world.

She could only see about the top quarter of what she couldn't help thinking of as a great winged lizard (which, after all, technically it was), but even at that she - or he - was enormous. At the base of its shingled neck Talashai could see the top of a dark leather saddle. The dragon, then, had a rider. Her heart leapt. This was a very good thing. Ignoring the fact that wild dragons were probably vicious and most likely territorial, finding its rider would be her first human contact on this world.

Talashai dropped to the ground with a thud and stumbled, arms flailing, across the evening-lit grass and towards the hillock. Ignoring the tearing in her little-used muscles, she ran. Eyes bright, heart aflame with hope, excitement and exertion, she ran. She prayed to every God she knew of (and wondered idly what they would think of her predicament and if they presided, as such, over fantasy worlds) that they would wait long enough for her to reach them. While she was sure seeing a dragon take flight would be an awe-inspiring experience, if it did, she would be, again, stuck.

She rounded the hillock and slowed to a walk. The thought that the rider - or the dragon - may no be friendly did not enter her mind. She was usually pretty good at sensing those things, but even if she weren't particularly talented, the thought of a nasty Alskyrian dragoner simply did not occur to her. It wasn't done. At least not in any of the stories she'd read.

The gold dragon swung its head around and regarded her mildly.

Talashai froze.

For a long moment, the only sound was the birds overhead and the only movement the breeze in the long grasses of the plain. And then, "Ho there."

Briefly, Talashai thought it was the dragon who had spoken - she wouldn't be surprised, with her mental abilities - but then a dark-haired boy of perhaps nineteen years poked his head out from behind the golden beast. "Ho," the girl from Earth replied, faltering with the unfamiliar greeting.

"Niral, rider of gold Caisilk," he offered, looking at her for introductions.

She stared blankly for a moment. "Talashai," she replied, then stopped. What was her rank? "Just... Just Talashai."

Niral smiled. "Ok, then, Just Talashai," he said. "What are you doing out here? Are you alone?"

Talashai nodded, not quite able to elaborate.

"Are you ok?" the dragoner asked, sounding a little confused and a tad worried.

The girl hesitated, then, haltingly, nodded. She wasn't sick, or upset, or in grave danger. She was just a little... disoriented. "I'm a long way from home," she finally said, "I'm ok, just a little lost."

Niral nodded curtly. "I see." Then he paused in thought and cocked his head a little. "Do you know where you are?"

Again Talashai hesitated. But what did she have to lose? "I think so. I mean, not exactly, but... this is Alskyr, isn't it?"

The dragoner seemed a little taken aback by her answer. Not quite what he expected to hear. "Of course. We're on Paniya Island. I'm from Caer Paniya."

A Caer! There was a Caer nearby! She couldn't help grinning. Her nerves seemed to evaporate and she looked at Dragoner Niral, ice-blue eyes twinkling. "I've never been to a Caer."

The dragoner laughed heartily, warming to her new excitability. He was young and vital, and she was attractive and unusual in an exotic kind of way. And she wanted to go to the Caer with him. Was he going to object? "I'm about to leave, if you want to come with me. I'll give you a tour. We've even got eggs on the Sands. If you ask the Caerlady nicely, you might be able to see them."

Talashai could hardly breathe. Not only was she going to a Caer on a dragon but she was going to have a chance to see dragon eggs! A sudden notion made her heart leap into her throat. If there were eggs on the Sands, then there was a need for bonders. Dragoners were in the making, and she was here! "Stop it," she thought. "You'll give yourself an aneurism."

"You might even get to meet a Searcher," Niral called over his shoulder casually, as if reading her mind.

She almost fainted. This was a dream. It was too good to be true. There was just no way it could really be happening. It was a dream. It was a dream. "Ouch!" she cried, rubbing her bruised shoulder and wondering at it all.

Niral turned quickly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," replied she, quite honestly. "Nothing at all."

Caer Paniya was like nothing Talashai had ever seen, but, strangely, at the same time, it was remarkably familiar. She felt at home almost instantly.

As she and her goldriding guide walked across the Flat, she was given a brief history and a few interesting facts. Paniya was, she was told, a relatively small Caer, with the capacity for perhaps a few hundred dragons. Those hatched at Caer Paniya seemed huge to Talashai's unaccustomed perceptions, but she was told by a mildly amused Niral that they were, in fact, quite small in comparison to the dragons of other islands of Alskyr. The island where she had entered this world was, incidentally, also called Paniya. The small mountain on which the Caer was situated was known as Mount Ghera, an old volcanic peak that was inactive in the volcanic sense, but still had enough life left in it to warm the Hatching Sands via its own natural geothermal energy. Talashai also learned that the Caer had only been established twenty or so years earlier, and that its leader was Caerlord Qalam.

They had almost reached the far end of the Flat, which led on to the Caerlord's quarters and other such places of importance when something struck Talashai. "Is there an inn or something I can stay at in the Caer?" she asked Niral.

He looked at her a little strangely. "I'm not sure about an inn, but we do have visitors' quarters, of sorts. Assuming you don't greatly offend the Caerlord, and," he added with a wry smile, "Qalam is not easily offended, I'm sure you'll be welcome to stay there. Here we are," Niral added as they reached the entrance to the Caerlord's rooms. "You can ask him yourself. Ready?"

Talashai grinned. "As I'll ever be."

Chuckling to himself, Niral knocked on the door.

Talashai, the girl once of Earth, found, to her surprise, that she was homesick. It was true, she didn't have many friends. True, also, that she had never been particularly close to her family. But nonetheless, the girl with the strange powers and unnatural appearance missed just a few aspects of her old life. Her mother's cooking, for example. Not that the Caer kitchens produced particularly bad food - in fact it was quite good. A lot of the vegetables they served were

similar to those she knew from home, but some were completely alien to her. She hadn't quite got the hang of those, yet. She was, however, more than happy to discover that delicacies such as chocolate existed in this place, though she doubted if she'd ever see a Mars bar again.

The breakfast meal was served earlier than Talashai was used to waking up in the morning, and thus she began to make a habit of begging, as such, for leftovers at the kitchens. Duly, the first friends she made on Paniya Island, and Alskyr, were kitchen staff.

"Divi, you coming?" Talashai called through the serving window.

A pretty, dark-haired, blue-eyed girl of perhaps a few turns Talashai's elder popped up from behind the counter, holding a saucepan. "I gotta finish this, I won't be long!"

Divilara was a perky young woman who loved Talashai's company as much as the younger girl loved hers. Being a serving girl in a Caer, she was often over-looked by the popular youth in the area; of course since Talashai was not really aware nor affected by ranks and social standings in Alskyrian society, she didn't take note at all. After all, half the girls at her school had worked behind the counter at fast-food places and as far as she was concerned, this was no different.

After a few minutes, Divi, and her friend Kiola appeared at the side entrance of the kitchen and, jumping in anticipation, beckoned their newest friend outside. "C'mon!" Divi called. "We'll miss it!"

Grinning eagerly, Talashai raced after the two girls, following them out of the eating hall and down the long winding pathway that led through the Caer and out to the fields beyond.

It was a stunningly beautiful day, mused the girl once of Earth as she cavorted towards their regular 'hang out', but then again, it seemed always to be a beautiful day on this world. Maybe it was the lack of pollution and concrete and automobiles and neurotic bus drivers and kids playing with ring-tones on their cell phones. Even when the sky was overcast, the air seemed fresher and sweeter than any she'd tasted in all her years on her home-world.

As the three girls exited the Caer, the incline of the gentle natural path took them past a loose copse of young, straight trees; along the edge of a small, mostly-underground stream that emerged for perhaps a hundred yards, then disappeared once more, and out onto a sweeping grassy plain that eventually led to the sea. A flock of white birds with long slender wings tipped with black dove past them, soaring within an invisible eddy, on their way to to coast, most likely, to hunt out some morsel or another for their young, nested in the cliffs further inland.

"Here?" Divi asked, gauging the distance they had come from the Caer.

Kiola squinted against the sun and looked back and forth. "A bit further, I think."

They walked about another ten yards, then turned again. Talashai smiled. "Perfect."

The view was a vision of the West side of the Caer, the globe of the sun a width above its highest ledge, not yet at its zenith. There were one or two cotton-wool clouds in the blueberry sky, but not enough to mar the beauty of the vista. Divilara and Kiola had come to this place, whenever they could get a break from their work, for a long time, and it had been to their elation that Talashai had, firstly, befriended them, and, secondly, enjoyed the spectacle as much as, even more than, they. And a spectacle it most certainly was.

"Here they come!" Talashai cried, ice-blue eyes sparkling up at the heavens.

And suddenly the sky was filled with dozens and dozens of dragons of all colours, shades and sizes. Gold and white and purple and orange and green and blue and everything possible in between! Talashai's mind boggled. There were just so many! Were there this man yesterday?

Kiola, knowing the pale-haired girl was new in the area, poked her. "It's the whole Caer, Tala," she said, in awe. "Every able-bodied dragon on Paniya is here today. They only do it once a month," she explained. "It's a Caer-wide drill."

And so they watched. The drill lasted for perhaps an hour; sweeping formations and aerobatics , acted injuries and emergency procedures. They were stunning. Occasionally one of the riders would fly above or below the general formation to observe and then return to his or her position when satisfied.

After about an hour, Divi and Kiola regretfully took their leave back to their kitchen duties, leaving Talashai alone beneath the wings of dragons.

She'd been at the Caer for about a month, now, staying in the visitor's quarters and helping in the kitchen on weekends to pay for her room and board, even though the Caerlord insisted it wasn't necessary for guests to pay for their rooms, she knew he appreciated the gesture and it was always good to keep on the Caerlord's side. But at that moment, Talashai had other thoughts on her mind.

Words could not describe the feeling of lying on the soft, wild grasses of Alskyr and looking into a blue, blue sky; almost feeling the wind stirred up by dragon's wings; across her face, through her hair. They were so beautiful. If she closed her eyes, she swore she could smell their musky scent, hear their deep, raspy breaths, feel their hearts beating between her legs as she rode through the vast, unending skies.

Talashai's eyes snapped open. She screamed!

Her hair billowed behind her, slipping from the loose tie that had held through the astral wind that has stirred it first, directly into the face of the man sitting behind her, astride a great blue dragon. "Damn!" he yelled, hands fumbling at the riding straps that held him in place. "Damn it!" he repeat, his dragoner instincts kicking in automatically. He wrapped the emergency straps around the magickally-appearing girl in front of him, securing her in place practically sitting in his lap. "What the hell is going on!"

Some part of Talashai's mind noted that he swore rather like a man of Earth, even using a word such as 'hell' when she was pretty sure no such belief existed on Alskyr. Most of her, however, was busy hyperventilating.

"Aranik," he said, assumedly to his dragon, "We gotta land! Tell Hayvil what's going on before breaking formation."

Talashai held on for dear life as the blue dragon veered out of formation and towards the green grass below. Aranik alighted with a gentle, rocking thud and they sat still for a long moment. Talashai didn't say a word; just let her heart slow and her breath return to a normal rate and rhythm. Then, slowly, she turned.

"Hi," said the bluerider.

"Hi," said the girl.

"So," said the bluerider, casually, "How'd you do that?"

"It's a talent," said the girl, casually, "I've developed of late."

There was a long silence. Then, shaking his head and letting his breath out explosively, the bluerider laughed. "Why me?" he called to the heavens. He looked to the girl still seated before him, and said, "Lesaille, rider of blue Aranik."

"Talashai," she returned, grinning wryly. "Traveller." She had come across some confusion when introducing herself as 'Just Talashai' and had thus started referring to herself as a traveller. It made life a lot easier. "Uh... sorry about that."

Lesaille looked at her, still shaking his head in amazement. "You're..." he sputtered, good naturedly, "You randomly appear on my dragon in the middle of a Caer-drill without so much as a cry of warning, and you're sorry? Talashai, you owe me big for not dropping you off mid-air!"

The girl looked at the ground haltingly, unsure whether he was serious or not. Drills were pretty important things, she knew. She wondered what Divi and Kiola would say about all this.

"And do you know why I didn't?" he continued.

Talashai looked up, meeting his eyes nervously.

Lesaille leaned across her and thumped the blue's neck affectionately. "Because of Aranik here."

"I don't think I understand," she said.

The dragoner smiled. "I didn't expect you to. Aranik and I are Searchers. Do you know what that means?"

Talashai's heart almost stopped. "S... Searchers? Uh... Yes."

He laughed softly. "And, Talashai, you have just been Searched."

The girl, once of Earth, without rank or home, now Talashai, of Alskyr, bonder for the clutch at Caer Paniya and, perhaps, future dragoner, slipped out of the grasp of the loosely-strung riding straps and hit the ground with a dull thud.

The first rays of daylight filtered into the room, lighting the dancing dust particles in the cool morning air and playing softly across her face. She was beautiful. Her hair, a lustrous ashen blonde, was splayed across the blue cotton pillow in thick waves. Black eyelashes, however, lay against her cheeks. Her skin was darker than seemed natural; a warm caramel shade common to those with some portion of Negro blood in their veins. Her features were fine and alluring, her cheeks well-boned and her neck slender and graceful even in slumber. The pale blue sheet was drawn to her young breast, held loosely by a draped arm and slender hand, ill-concealing her desirable physique.

Behind closed lids she saw a world that she now only visited in her dreams. Once she had been of Earth; a place where magick existed only in storybooks and dragons only in the minds of their children and hearts of writers; a place where she had been scorned for her gifts and laughed at for her talents; a place where anybody who didn't have the same hair colour or shop at the same mall or read the same valley-girl books was a second-rate human being. But now, now Earth mattered little. Now she lived amongst heroes and dragons and, it seemed, people with morals and children who played instead of fought and tears of joy instead of sadness. It was a not a perfect world, but, to her, it was magickal.

The morning's first breath stirred her body and arms stretched above her head, running up against the coolness of the wall at the bed's head. Blinking against the light, she opened amazingly pale, clear, ice-blue eyes and felt happiness swarm over her consciousness.

She sat up slowly and brushed her hair behind her ear. Looking across the room, she spied a glass of water and reached out a hand towards it. Her eyes seemed to swirl into themselves, the irises spinning into a slightly clouded violet whirlpool. She felt wind through her hair, though at some level realised that on the physical plain it did not move. With a flash, as if by magnetics or a hidden wire, the glass snapped to her hand without spilling so much as a drop. Smiling softly, she took a sip and put it on the floor beside the low bed.

Taking a deep breath, Talashai, bonder at Caer Paniya, closed her eyes in exultation. "Yes!"