She stepped out onto the black-and-white tiled floor of the restaurant as a group of four opened the door. There were two men who looked to be in their late twenties, a younger man and a girl about Julie's age. They sat down at one of the booths as Julie walked over to them, pad in hand. "Welcome to Suzie's, can I take your order?"
"I don't know, can you?" The younger man asked with a smirk. On closer inspection, he was probably only a few years older than her, in his early twenties.
Julie rolled her eyes, brown in color, and blew a strand of hair out of her face. "Alright then. May I take you order?"
He looked as if he was about ot make more trouble, but a swift kick under the table and a stern glance from the girl shut him up. "Yes, we're ready to order now." She said with a warning glare at her companion.
Julie took their orders, then left the strange group to themselves.
B'tius rubbed his bruised shin painfully. Faranth, but that girl could kick. He grimaced and looked across the table at Ellone. "You didn't have to kick so hard." He grumbled.
Ellone sighed in reply. "Let me make this simple for you. We are currently situated on ancient Terra. We do not belong in this time period, nor on this world. Ergo, we must blend in to the local populace. Your heckling of the...server-"
"Waitress." G'vin corrected her.
"Whatever-does not contribute towards that goal, B'tius."
B'tius looked at G'vin inquiringly.
"She means you're blowing our cover." He supplied helpfully. Ellone rolled her eyes as the waitress returned with their food.
"Bleah. What is this?" G'vin asked, holding up a long, thin golden brown thing.
"Terrans call them french fries." Ellone replied.
"I hear they're not even French." B'tius put in helpfully. Everyone else ignored him.
C'rin snorted and spoke up. "I'll take decent Pernese meatrolls and bubbly pies anyday."
G'vin wrinkled his nose, tossing the 'french fry' away, and cocked his head curiously. "What's in the meatrolls, anyway?"
C'rin smiled grimly at him. "You don't want to know."
Julie blinked in confusion as she watched the straangers. What kind of name was B'tius, or G'vin? And why didn't they know what a french fry was?
She shook her head. They must be foreigners. That would explain the odd, subtle accents they had.
"You know, we still need to search someone." G'vin pointed out. "That is why we came here, after all."
C'rin snorted. "I don't know about you, I only came for the food." He said, grinning as Ellone frowned in dismay.
"He does have a point." B'tius replied. "How 'bout her?" He said with a nod towards Julie.
Ellone blinked. "What?"
"Okay." C'rin shrugged and aquienced.
Ellone's eyes narrowed as she grimaced. "You can't do that!"
"Watch me." B'tius answered as he stood up.
"But-the dragons are supposed to search, not you!" Ellone protested, looking to C'rin and G'vin for support. They glanced at each other, shrugged, and followed B'tius. Ellone sat fuming, then gave up and followed the others.
"Excuse me." Julie turned as someone tapped her shoulder. The young man from before stood behind her, smiling winningly. "I have a bit of a...a proposition for you." He said.
"If it's illegal or sexually oriented, the answer's no." Julie answered coolly.
The man's face dropped as he blushed. "That's...not what a meant. Look, could you come outside, just for a moment? It'll be a lot easier to explain if I show you."
"Show me what?" When he failed to answer, she rolled her eyes to the ceiling and laughed. "Okay, sure, why not? It'd better be quick, though, I really need to get back to work."
B'tius grinned. "Nah, you'll be back in a minute."
"Better make it five minutes." C'rin said, coming up behind them. "To give us time to get away. Wouldn't want to run into ourselves." He added with a wink.
Julie blinked, confused, but no one explained. She let B'tius pull her outside, towards a large, dark alley. She gasped when she saw what was crouching in the shadows.
You're five minutes and seventeen seconds late. The large, blue dragon said accusingly.
"I'm sorry, Rigelth! We got a bit...sidetracked." C'rin said placatingly as he rushed to the dragon's head.
The dragon snorted, glaring suspiciously at Julie. Who's she?
Julie stiffened in fear, but B'tius nudged her forward. "You've just searched her, we're taking her to Lantessama Isle." He said.
The dragon would have cocked an eyebrow if he had one. Dryly, he said, We did?
We are? Another, smaller and paler blue dragon asked.
"Yes, Alerath, we are." B'tius fixed a glare on the smaller dragon. The dragons both shrugged. Okay. They said together.
"Excuse me?" Julie asked once she finally found her voice. "What's going on?"
C'rin glanced at her apoligetically. "Sorry, perhaps we should have explained earlier." He quickly launched into a quick explaination of bonding dragons. "Lantessama Isle is a place where humans and dragons live together, and there's a clutch on the sands. Do you want to come?" He finished finally.
Julie blinked, taken aback. "A dragon? Well..." She bit her lower lip, then smiled. "I guess I'll have to." She said. "You still haven't paid your bill."
She jumped as the first egg split apart with a loud crack, and a bronze dragonet rolled out onto the sand. The little male jumped up and walked towards a larger green dragon.
Two foliages emerged, and one knocked over a larger egg before being saved by her bond. The egg split into twin blues-one with purple wings-as the other foliage bonded to a young Pernese man.
Another egg hatched to the gasps and whispers of the crowd. The golden-colored sun dragonet was revelling in the attention. The rain male didn't seem happy with that, and dashed past his sister, knocking her over as he raced to the male candidates. He was lightly reprimanded by his bond, but they were interrupted by his Nebula-winged rain sister. Though she didn't bond, she was allowed to stay with her brother and his rider for a while.
The sun struggled to her feet again, bugling to draw the crowd's attention back to her. With a draconic smile, she chose her rider-to-be, who smiled and lead the gold dragon away.
There were two eggs left now, and there was a slight pause in the hatching. Julie looked around, and realized she was the only human candidate left. A brown flitter stood perched a little way away from her, guarding 'his' egg zealously. Her eyes turned to the other egg, wondering what was inside.
Slowly, the egg fell away, leaving a green foliage dragon sitting in its place. With a shake of her emerald head, the foliage went straight to Julie. Hello! I'm Riasiith. The hatchling said cheerfully.
"Hello, Riasiith." Julie answered politely. At the dragon's pointed stare, she started, realising the dragon had chosen her as her bond.
You have a lovely mind...I can't wait to try these french fries. Riasiith exclaimed.
Julie grinned. "Well, it's all meat for you here. Besides, you don't want to become so fat that I'd have to roll you through the caverns, right?" She joked.
I can roll myself. The dragoness answered cheekily. But meat sounds good for now.
The last egg was hatching behind them as Riasiith and Julie left the sands to eat.
