Hefting my heavy purse, I edged around the house and crept toward the woods. Scout was barking like mad, as were the dogs of my neighbors on the right and left-hand side. Still, I persisted. Curiosity killed the cat, no? My bookbag was much heavier than my purse, but it was large and unweildly, no weapon of good use. My whole one year of karate in the 7th grade came back, all I remembered was the throat chop and stiff-arming someone in the nose slightly upward would kill. (the latter I learned from sci-fi books)

Deciding to give them fair warning before I screamed bloody murder, I hollered , "Who's there? I warn you...I've, er...I'm a 6th-degree black-belt!" The shuffling stopped briefly but the cheeping and murmuring continued. Then, of all the things I expected to happen, the one at the very bottom of the list happened. A firelizard, a real, bona-fide firelizard darted from the stand of bamboo, closely followed by a second.

I stood dumbstruck. Two firelizards had just flown from a bamboo stand in my backyard and were currently circling my head. Frantic for an reason for me to be seeing them, my hand flew to my forehead, then I wondered if I hadn't been slipped something in my water at lunch. I wouldn't put it past the people I sit with. "Rest assured, you're not ill." came a man's voice from the bamboo, and two extremely bedraggled looking men stumbled out. "They're real." the one who had spoken finished.

He was tall, fair skinned and haired, and looked every bit the classical image of the elves I'd seen of Lord of the Rings. The other was darker, with tawny-amber eyes and short brown hair. He lugged with him an overflowing pack. The pair looked as though they'd been wandering the extensive forests behind my house for at least three or four days. The firelizards landed upon their respective bond's shoulders, the darker blue upon the elf-man's, the lighter upon the brown-haired one.

"Do you have anything to eat?" the darker man asked, rubbing his stomach. "Er..." was all I said and turned toward my house. They followed and examined the large amount of eclectic decorations my mom insisted upon filling both the front and back yards with. They heads nearly swivled off as I unlocked the front door and stepped inside. They watched, fascitated, as I reheated leftover meatloaf and mashed potatoes in the microwave. They devoured it fast enough, barely tasting or chewing. At last, my voice returned, but the question I asked wasn't the one I wanted too.

"Are your flits hungry?" I blurted, my mind casting back to what I remembered from the Dragonrider books and stories I'd read. "No," the elf said, "they ate yesterday, they'll be good a while yet." I nodded, and, not knowing what else to do, went to drop my bookbag and purse into my room. When I'd returned, the men were washing their plates and glasses in the sink. "Oh, you didn't have to do that, we have a dishwasher."I pointed to the black appliance under the counter next to the sink. The dark-haired man reached out for the handle and pulled but the dishwasher didn't open. "You have to...push the button under there." I said in a small voice. "Ah!" he said once he found it and pulled the door down before poking his head physically into the dishwasher, no small feat as it was full of dirty dishes.

"I don't see how this washes your dishes..." the elf said, also sticking his head inside after the other man had moved. Quietly, I took the dishwashing liquid from under the counter, filled the proper places, shut the door and pressed the "wash" button. The men jumped slightly as the water started running. They tried to open the dishwasher several times to see how it washed them, but the machine always stopped once the open button was pushed. "Er.." I interrupted their struggles. "I, er...what are you doing here?" The lighter blue flit cheeped and turned as though it was murmuring something in the dark-haired man's ear.

After a few moments with a glazed look over both of their faces, the elf suck out his hand and said, "I'm Philippe, this is M'len. We're from Falas Weyr." Dumbstruck once more, I didn't even try to stop my jaw from dropping as I shook both men's hands limply. "But...but..." "Falas isn't real? Falas is just a website online?" M'len finished for me. "Well, yeah..." I said, Tiny popping from wherever he stayed in my mind and perching on my shoulder in the silvery flit form, much the way the two men's flits were.

"Falas is real, don't ask me to explain how." Philippe said, idly scratching between his flit's headnobs. "We've come to Search out possible candidates for a special Earth clutch for the F.G.P.C. Both my Faroth and M'len's Jesioth agree you'd make a worthy candidate." Three times in a row, my voice left me. I sat down hard in one of the chairs the men, no, Searchriders, had occupied earlier. "Me...candidate...Falas..." I babbled, one of the cats coming and winding his way between M'len's boots.

After a few moment's silence, something in my mind clicked. "Wait, Faroth, Jesioth....those'er dragon names. Where are your dragons?" Philippe held out his arm where the dark blue flit was perched like a hawk. "They're wearing magical chains that make them flit-sized. It'd be kind of difficult to wander around your planet with two full-grown dragons, no?" I nodded. A few more moments, M'len cleared his throat and elbowed Philippe discreetly, gesturing toward the clock that hung over the sink in the kitchen. "Well?" he asked. "We are due back at Falas tonight, and I estimate it's almost time for us to be off..."

"Yes....yes!" I answered, my brain finally absorbing the information. "Just uh...just let me pack." I dashed off to my room and hastily empited my school stuff from my bookbag, filling it with my favorite jeans, t-shirts and senior throw and sweater, a few books, sketchbooks and plenty of pencils and erasers. Into my purse went my wallet (with earth money I didn't even know why I was bringing), my laptop and extra batteries, various toiletries, my CD's and portable CD player. I ran into the living room and stuffed a few DVD's I thought would be popular, Lord of the Rings I & II, Harry Potter I & II, Finding Nemo, The Fifth Element (mainly because it was my favorite) and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen into my positively full bookbag.

I returned to the kitchen to find M'len and Philippe still trying to catch the dishwasher washing dishes. I cleared my throat and said, "I'm ready." They both smiled wearily and opened the door for me. "We found a very sheltered clearing in our impromptu trek through the woods, it'll do for Faroth and Jesioth to return to their normal size and take off." "What made you trek through the woods?" I asked, less shy now that I knew who they were and why they had been hiding in my back yard. "There were alot of those cars with flashing blue lights on top near the highway...policemen!" I laughed out loud. "Oh, that's because a convict escaped from a police man, they must've been looking for him..."

We conversed little once we got into the deeper part of the forest. The ground was dense with clinging pricker bushes and fallen trees, we were all panting slightly once we reached the clearing. The two flit-dragons Faroth and Jesioth leapt from their bonds shoulders and landed in the center, tilting their necks to allow Philippe and M'len to remove the small chains. Instantly, the dragons resumed their normal sizes. I was caught by surprise and nearly toppled over a log, but Philippe caught my arm before I fell.

"Well, all aboard." M'len said, mounting his own blue Jesioth. Philippe's darker blue Faroth helped him up then offered me a leg up, and I hesitated. "Don't worry," Philippe called down to me, "He's a gentle giant, and he wouldn't let you fall." Cautiously I stepped onto the great foreleg offered me and staggered as it lifted me. Philippe's outstretched hand stablized me and he pulled me onto the night blue's back. "Now, I'm sure you've written enough about how between is, correct?" M'len called to me as I clutched Philippe around the waist in fear. I was probably crushing the breath out of the poor man, but I didn't care. I'd neglected to inform them that I was terrified of heights. Faroth was turning to face a hole in the canopy of trees and, while I was used to a horse's movement, a dragon's was far different.

"Er..." was all I had breath for because the night blue took to the sky, the wind whipping my breath away. The pair of dragons hurried to get above the low, grey cloud cover without being seen. "Here we go!" Philippe shouted over the wind just before Faroth took us between.