Rank: Rukel/Candidate
Gender: Female
Age: 3 (Adult)
Family: Unknown
Height: 1'9
Fur: Pink with a red rose on either shoulder
Mane: Red
Wings: Pink, Red, and White
Eyes: Green
Personality: Carys gives new meaning to melodrama. Very emotional and prone to startling and sometimes violent mood swings, she has a very short temper and is not very patient. She is a hopeless romantic, and believes with all her heart that love will conquer all, and woe to anyone who says otherwise in her vicinity. Those claws can hurt.
Past: Carys has lived a very sheltered life in Darkling Dawn. As a rukel, she lives in the dragonry, though she doesn't 'belong' to any one person. She hunts for her food and helps with pest control, much like a cat. She has rather too much spare time on her paws, and is unhealthily addicted to soap operas.
Pets: Indigo Flower Fazzle, Miage
Grey-Black Flower Fazzle, Rulla
Violet Flower Fazzle, Ailasc
Orange-Black Forest Flower, Syusha
Yellow and Blue Twin Swing Fazzles, Neep & Neptu
From: Lantessama Isle
"I know, Maria, but I have to go. I don't have a choice. Just know that, no matter what, I will always love you."
"I...I love you too, John."
"No you don't! You're in love with his brother, Jack! Even though you're carrying Jason's baby, which both Josh and Jack thinks is theirs. And John is actually in love with your best friend, who's been cheating with him behind your back for the last two months, and..." Carys stopped to catch her breath, but she was interrupted before she could continue by the soap opera's abrupt cut to a commercial.
"As the Earth Rotates on Its Celestial Axis will return after a short message from our sponsors."
"Nooooo!" Carys wailed. "Maria was just about to tell John that she was pregnant! You can't just stop it there!" With a growl, the rukel leapt at the television screen, claws outstretched. Her furious attempts only caused the screen to fade out, and an army of white and black dots filled the screen.
Carys sighed. "Whoops. Second tv ruined in a month. What am I gonna do now?" Terran products at Darkling Dawn were rare, and trips to ancient Terra were strictly forbidden unless on Search; which, naturally, made the illegal black market of Terran products all the more successful.
Carys sniffed to herself, wrapping her long, plumed tail around her body for comfort. "Now I'm going to miss my soaps, and I'll never find out who Maria marries. Oh, the injustice of it all!" She yowled to the sky.
Actually, the sky was not, strictly speaking, currently visible, as she was sitting in a dark corner of an empty weyr which she had claimed as her own. However, the yowl was directed upwards, towards what she supposed would be the sky, were it not blocked from view by the large mountain above her.
After she had finished voicing her complaints-loudly-to the empty air, she looked around the weyr. As previously stated, no dragons or riders were living here, which was why the rukel had been allowed to claim it. The stone floor was dirty with mud tracked in from outside and covered with dark brown paw prints, and the few old peices of furniture were covered in dust.
Carys wrinkled her nose in distaste, vowing to get one of the human servants to come up later and clean it out, but for now all she wanted to do was go out and sulk in the sun. Some people might find it odd that she would choose to sulk outside, when it was bright and sunny, but Carys usually ignored those people rather easily, and had quickly developed a talent for seeing right through them as if they were invisible. It was much better to be comfortable while sulking, after all.
She fluttered her red-and-white wings as she strode over to the weyr's exit, and flapping her wings, jumped up and took flight. She flew through the mostly-empty corridors of Darkling Dawn; right now, everyone was probably outside enjoying the sun before the midday meal.
Sure enough, there were several fully-grown dragons lounging about in the grass, soaking up sunlight, and several half-grown weyrlings and their riders-to-be were splashing in the closest lake and laughing.
Carys watched the dragons with interest for a while before flitting off into the forest. She soon came to her favorite place, a clearing surrounded by densely clustered thickets that prevented anything larger than a medium-sized canine from entering. Several small, plantlike objects stood in the clearing, spreading their petals lovingly skyward, waving slightly in the warm breeze. At Carys' approach, however, the objects shifted their faces downward, and made several strange, chirping-like sounds as they crawled and scuttled their way over to the cat-sized rukel.
Carys giggled to herself as she was surrounded by fazzles. "Hello there, Miage, Ailasc. Syusha, watch the hair! Hahaha, Neep, Neptu, that tickles!" She surrendered to the plants' vinelike arms as they twined around her body and neck in a hug. The last fazzle stood back by itself, but was making happy cheeping sounds.
Carys would have grinned, had she had the facial muscles to do so. "Hullo to you too, Rulla." The black-tipped grey plant perked up, cheeping happily.
There was a total of six fazzles that called Carys friend. The two largest were flower creatures, one a dark blue indigo called Miage, the other the grey and black flower named Rulla. The dainty, elegant violet flower fazzle was called Ailasc, always cheerful and happy. A dark orange and black fazzle that looked more like a tree than a flower chirped to draw the rukel's gaze. That was Syusha, always wanting to be the center of attention. Finally, there were the two long, vinelike fazzles, Neep and Neptu. Twins since hatching, the two were always together and usually tangled up in one big pile of vines.
Carys laughed and giggled, bestowing love and attention on her pets. They were like flitters in their intelligence and loyalty to their owners, and easier to take care of.
The fazzles cheeped in alarm as several fairly large somethings crashed through the underbrush and into the clearing. Carys hissed in alarm, hackles raised as she glared at whatever had the nerve to stumble into her secret place.
First was a black and white-striped flitter which stared at her bemusedly. A two-legged black-red-white creature hissed irritatedly at her. Then she saw him, and her heart stopped.
He was tall and graceful, with a mane of wild black hair, strands falling into his face occasionally. His dark blue-green eyes shone brightly in the shaded bands of sunlight. And his long, silky fur was a beautiful shade of dark forest green. She was in love. She had found her mate. She-
"AACHOOOO!!!!"
She jumped back as a huge fireball a full-grown dragon would have been proud of roared through the air, leaving a trail of charred grass and terrified fazzles in its wake. Her fur was standing on end in fright, but she smoothed it down quickly, so as to appear at her best for the handsome young male rukel in front of her.
"Sorry, I think I'm allergic to something in the air here. Pollen, maybe." Carys turned to see the speaker, and creator of the fireball. A tiny, cream colored flitter stood perched on the rukel's back, barely larger than a dragonfly. A strange group indeed.
"You know, you really shouldn't be out in the forest then. You could get sick.You should go back to Darkling Dawn, Irile." The rukel told the flitter on his back, though Carys wasn't sure whether he was saying that for the flitter's sake, or the forest's.
The flitter giggled sheepishly. "Right, Tyreon. 'Bye then!" The flitter jumped into the air and fluttered off in the direction of the dragonry.
The rukel turned, and only then seemed to realize there was somebody else there. He blinked in surprise. "Oh, hello. What are you doing here?"
Carys was speechless. She had already fallen in love with this young male named Tyreon. She felt that of course, he must feel the same way about her. They were soulmates, destined to be together. Surely, he must have realised that?
She was wondering what he was doing there, though. "What am I doing here? This is my place, known only to me and my fazzles. What are you doing here?" She answered haughtily. Tyreon glanced at the group of plant-like creatures, huddled on the far side of the clearing from the two miniture dragons still watching silently, shaking with fear.
"Hiding." Tyreon answered simply.
"Hiding?" Carys repeated.
"Hiding."
"From what?"
"Humans."
"Why?"
"...You don't want to know."
"Yes, I do."
"No, you don't."
"Ye-Oh, never mind!" Carys gave up.
Tyreon cocked his head to one side. "My name's Tyreon, what's yours?"
"Huh? Oh, Carys." She may have blushed, but it was difficult to tell underneath her pink fur.
"Hello." He seemed to smile at her, and her heart melted. "These two are my dragons, Tyuan'Assp and Teset." Tyreon said proudly, motioning with one wing first to the black and white-striped one, then to the bipedal red-white-black. Teset snorted and tossed her head, and Tyuan didn't move, in fact, didn't react at all, and just stared at her.
"Dragons? Oh! I thought those were flitters..." Carys blushed again, and Teset growled warningly.
"They're size-shifters." Tyreon said matter-of-factly, as if every dragon could randomly change its size at will. Carys didn't answer, and there was a moment of ackward silence. "Umm, bye." Tyreon ran off, followed closely by the two flitter-sized dragons.
Carys stared after him wistfully. "He's wonderful, isn't he?"
The fazzles cheeped in exasperation as they huddled in the bushes.
If Carys didn't know better, she'd think that Tyreon was deliberately avoiding her. Of course, that wasn't true. Although Carys firmly believed that Tyreon was and always had been in love with her, in truth, it was unclear whether he even remembered she existed once he'd left her company in the forest. He was much too busy with his trio of bonds to so much as acknowledge her presence.
Carys sulked in her weyr. The tv was still broken, and she had yet to be able to find another one. Anyway, she was much too interested in her own love life to get distracted by the tangled loves in her soap operas.
"How am I ever going to get Tyreon to notice me!?" Carys whined. She was answered by a chorus of sympathetic chirps from the fazzles.
She could never succeed in getting him off by himself, he was always with one or another of his dragons, or else with the fire-breathing flitter, Irile. He didn't seem to be keen on being alone with her himself, and certainly wasn't helping. If only she had a dragon of her own...Carys mused silently to herself.
Her ears perked up suddenly as a brilliant idea came to her. She could get a dragon! Tyreon would have to notice her then! She stood up happily. "Carys, you are brilliant!" She said to herself joyfully.
She dashed out of her weyr to find the nearest searchdragon. The fazzles watched her leave in puzzlement, and then quickly went to sleep, and thoughts of their eccentric owner soon vanished from their minds.
"What do you mean, I can't stand for the clutch!!??" Carys hissed at the dark blue dragon.
Aavaanaath was not intimidated or impressed, however. I'm sorry, but you show no potential for Impressing a dragon. It's rather unlikely you'd ever bond a dragon from Darkling Dawn's sands. The search dragon told her frankly.
Carys sniffed indignantly and her emerald green eyes glared up at the dragon. "Tyreon Impressed. He managed to bond three times." She pointed out.
Yes, well, sometimes I think there are some riders who never should have Impressed in the first place. Some people simply should not bond dragons. Aavaanaath stated dryly.
"How dare you!" Carys growled. Angrily, she turned and stalked away from the blue dragon, who was only too happy to let the rukel leave and let him get back to his nap.
The next dragon Carys came across was, fortunately for her, the moonlight dragon, Birayen. The silver-starry dragon opened his eyes and hissed at her in annoyance. What are you doing waking me up so early? Do you know what time it is? He demanded.
Carys blinked in confusion. "It's the middle of the day."
Exactly! Birayen said crossly. From now on, don't wake me up before the sun goes down. He grumbled and climbed into a sitting position. He gaped his jaw and yawned before continuing. So now, what is it that caused you to wake me up from a rather nice dream just now?
"I want to get searched so I can bond a dragon." Carys said, looking up at the unbonded dragon hopefully. "But the searchdragons here won't let me. Do you know of someplace else that would let me stand for a clutch?"
Birayen stared at her and mulled over it for a few minutes. Well...for someone of your species, that might be a bit difficult, especially considering your...modest size. He said carefully. Carys' face dropped. However...Carys perked up, looking up at the dragon hopefully.
There is a special clutch at the place of my birth, Lantessama Isle. In celebration of an event called Valentine's Day. I dare say you would fit in well there. He said with a rumbling chuckle. Carys ignored it, too intent on his words, and the chance of Impression and finally winning Tyreon's heart.
"That's perfect! Can you take me there?" Carys asked.
Birayen sighed and glanced outside, where the sun was shining brightly. Can't it wait until night? Due to Carys pitiful look of defeat, obviously not. Oh, alright, then. But it'll have to be quick. The moonlight dragon relented.
"Yay! Thank you, Birayen! Let me go get my fazzles, they wouldn't like to be left behind till I come back." She dashed out of the weyr, leaving Birayen to himself. Reluctantly, he stood up and stretched, yawning sleepily. He blinked his eyes against the sunlight as he looked out of his weyr, where Carys was appraoching with a small herd of creatures, all chirping excitedly.
The silver-starry sighed and spread his wings. Well, might as well get this over with so I can go back to sleep. He mused.
