Shakaina sat outside in the shade of the trees. The leaves were big and umbrella like, bright green and waxy. The trunks were thinnish, light brown, smooth and tall. She lay on a fabric stretched between so that it swung in the breeze. She wore a white shirt with the sleeves hacked off and brown breeches also cut off at the upper thigh. She was a tallish girl, with long legs. Her hair was long, to her waist, and coal black. Her skin was smooth and a deep bronze from the heat and the sun. Her eyes, big and dark brown were shaped like almonds. She held in one hand a cool glass of water, beaded drops forming on the side of the glass. In the other, she held a hide and was engrossed fully in the story. It was not a story really, but a note from a friend that she bound together to form a whole hide full of letters from her friends. She had friends all over the place. The one who's note/story she was reading now was about something Shakaina had never seen before. Something she had heard about. It was hard to believe it was real without seeing it- it sounded impossible. Frozen water made ice. And yet, this thing called snow. Supposedly, according to Garen, this snow was made of frozen water. But it was not hard. It was soft, and flakey, and like powder that would melt to the touch. And according to him, you could eat it.
"Oh, what it would be like to eat snow." murmurred Shakaina. Not just eat it, but to see it also, of course. Here in this tropical so-called "paradise", the weather was always hot and humid, making it so that clothes stuck to the body. Shakaina's body was usually slick with perspiration. She stood finally, and walked from the trees with the hide in her hand. She stepped from the shade to the sun, and squinted her eyes. The sun was so bright. She walked slowly to her home, a small house at the edge of the Hold where she lived. She walked in, and tossed the Hide onto a table. She called out to her mother and sisters. Hers was a family with all daughters, no sons. And every girl was identical with long, straight black hair, bronze skin, and dark almond eyes. The youngest was Asalie, at five turns. The second was Hashuka, at thirteen turns, and then Deidree at fifteen turns. Shakaina was the oldest at nearly seventeen turns. She was greeted, to her joy, by Tropica, Garen's green flitter. Her own flit, Ice, was perched on a chair, waiting for her. He was slightly jealous, as he always was when Tropica brought her a message. Shakaina grinned as Tropica held out her arm for her to untie the tube attached. She unrolled it quickly and skimmed it. She then smiled at let out a whoop of excitement, threw the letter into the air and went screaming happily into her room.
"It says:
"Isn't that wonderful?!" Shakaina smiled at her parents happily. They smiled back, her mother somewhat sadly. She was all packed and ready, though she knew she would not be leaving until soon.
"How do you know this boy again? This-what's his name?- Garden?" Shakaina smiled.
"No, Da. It's Garen. And I know him because I met him when he came to visit his cousins last summer. His cousin is Bedin, you know."
Bedin was one of Deidee's many boy friends. Bedin had brought Garen over last summer to say hello to Deidee, and Shakaina had been interested in the new fellow. He was tall, with light skin, not pale, but no where near as bronzed as her own. He had sandy blond hair, curly and sort of long. It wasn't long enough to where he could pull it back, but it wasn't short. He had blue eyes like nothing Shakaina had ever seen- as pale and pretty as the sky on a clear day. He had smiled shyly, and Bedin introduced them. They had become fast friends after that. He told her of 'snow', and she told him about the waterfall in the forest. When it came time for him to go, they hugged for a long, long time before he finally climbed aboard the dragon's back. And that was when he surprised her. He climbed back down with a pack in his hands. Two flit eggs from a Weyr where he came from, called Ryslen. He took one, and she took the other, and together they waited for the eggs to hatch. Somehow, probably using Bedin's flit, he had asked the rider to bring two eggs. Shakaina's hatched first to reveal a blue, whom she named Ice after the snow Garen told her of. And his egg hatched to a emerald green, which he called Tropica in honour of the Tropical place where he was. Then they really had hugged, and she even placed a gentle kiss on his cheek to bid him farewell. When the dragon disappeared between, she felt like half of her heart had gone with it. She had continued her life then, afterward, playing with Ice. And then, one day, out of the blue (quite literally- the skies where Shakaina lived were all too often completely clear blue and void of clouds) came Tropica with a note attached. From then it became a trend. They wrote to each other very often, sending the flitters back and forth between. And Shakaina was happy. And when they began to plan her visit to his home... she was ecstatic. And now she was going!
A while later, there was a commotion outside. Shakaina knew immediately what it must be, and she peered out the window. A brown dragon was landing out in the grass behind their house. The rider was tall, and bundled in clothing from head to foot. He lept off and immediately began to strip off his layers as neighboring children came to see the new dragon. Some looked hopeful that he may be here on Search, but they were disappointed when the rider told them otherwise. She grabbed her bag, which was rather bulky, and fled from the house, kissing her parents and siblings on the way out, and hugging the smallest. She walked up and said hellow to the rider shyly. He said hello back, and to her embarassment, looked her up and down from head to toe, eyes lingering on her face, chest, and everything below her waist. She saw her father getting ready to come over and teach the boy a thing or two. So she climbed aboard the dragon and they disappeared between, her waving goodbye to her family right before they disappeared.