Gender: Female
Age: 17 at Impression
Birthday: February 15, 1987
Residence: West Virginia, USA
Family: Father-Stephen Drake
Mother-Anne Drake
Older sister- 23
Older brother- 21
Older brother- 19
Build: Average? Maybe a bit on the chubby side...
Skin: Pale
Hair: Brown, to high back, wavy
Eyes: Brown
Likes: Reading, writing, drawing, dragons and fantasy, anime, cyber-dragonries
Dislikes: People in general, little kids in particular, wasps and bees, people, heights, being cold, people...
Personality: Really really antisocial. Also really really mega shy. Not a good combination for meeting people. Just let me curl up in a corner and daydream, and I'll be fine. I tend to stay to myself and I hate talking to people I don't know really well, so I rarely talk outside of my house. I suppose I'm slightly better online, but I tend to still be a lurker most of the time. I can be rather sarcastic at times, but most of the time I'm pretty polite and good-natured. When I actually speak up, that is.
Pets: A boxer-mix puppy, Cody
Male Black-blue fire lizard, Castor
Female Gold w/ Blue fire lizard, Pollux
All past events mentioned happened pretty much as stated in the story. (With the obvious exceptions of the dragons...) Yes, there really is a green pond near my house...
Although I think right now, Wet and Wonderful would be a better description. Or even Wet and Not-so-wonderful. Not that I don't enjoy snowdays, but there is such a thing as a bit too much snow. Especially when you need to get to class the next day to make up a test.
And, of course, the reason I missed the test in the first place is because of snow. Needless to say, I'm getting a tad sick of snow.
I woke up at 6:00 in the morning, waited for my dad to come and 'officially' wake me up, (I'm one of those rare and elusive creatures known as a morning person) and was in the car by 6:30, while my dad drove me to the bustop. My dad always drives me down to the bustop and waits with me in the car until the bus comes. I don't know why, since it's really not that far away, but I get to sit in a nice, warm car with the radio on and laugh evilly at the people who have to wait outside in the cold and snow, so I'm not complaining.
All that just to sit out there for 30 minutes, with no sign of my bus coming. Eventually, we had to leave, since my dad had to get home to get ready for work and didn't have time to drive me to the school. So I got to stay home. If I had realized I had a test that day, I might have been more upset. I'm typically pretty bad at making up work, so I try not to miss school if possible.
As it was, I spent the day working on the computer, writing stories for some of my dragon stages that have been terribly neglected. That's what I do when I get home, work on stories and candidates for dragons and read fanfiction. I even have my own dragon-adoption site, Darkling Dawn, a little over a year old now. Television was only a recent entertainment possibility; until about two days ago, we had no cable at all and could only watch videos and DVDs. I can't really say I'd missed the tv much, anyway.
Of course, it wasn't until the next day I found out I had to make up a test for my fourth block class, so I would have to come in on friday. Only problem was, friday was a snow day. Normally, this wasn't much of a problem, but there was the test...There were also rumors that if we got any more snowdays, they'd have to get rid of spring break. That would not be good. As it turns out, I would not have to be taking that test after all.
So, I was sitting at home, alone. Or, as good as alone; my older brother, Matt, was home, but he works as a night manager, so he sleeps most of the day. I was working on Ialee's story, a dragon candidate I was going to send to Ryslen's Flurry while I still had a chance, when my dog began barking.
Cody is a part-boxer, part-mutt puppy that my sister and I brought home one night. My father was not too happy about it, but that's another story. As he barks a lot, at other dogs or people walking by, heck, anything that moved, I was not too much concerned. I went to the window to see what the fuss was about, but nobody was outside. This didn't surprise me much either.
I thought I saw a flash of something small and blue move just outside the window, but when I looked again, I didn't see anything. Whatever it was sent Cody into a barking frenzy, though, so I had to put him in his crate-the large, blanket-filled cage that doubles as his bed-and locked him in.
Then something chirped behind me, and I thought a bird had gotten into the house or something. But the door was closed, so I wasn't sure how it had managed to get in. I turned around to see what had chirped, but it was definitely not a bird. It was too big, for one thing, and a deep blue in color.
It landed on the arm of the couch, and I got my first good look at it. It had four claw-like limbs, and leathery, batlike wings. It's skin seemed to be tough hide, and its whirling, rainbow eyes were faceted, like an insect's. In fact, it looked just..like a...dragon...
I gasped, and stood there looking at what seemed like a Pernese fire lizard sitting in my living room. I looked at the ivory claws gripping the cloth arm of the chair carefully, so as not to rip it up. The creature had three forward-facing claws, and one thumblike claw. I remembered reading in Dragonsdawn that fire lizards had one forward-facing claw, and two backward-facing ones. The claw shape had changed in the dragons, which meant that this was not a fire lizard, but a flitter-sized dragon...
Cody was growling in his crate, but I ignored him, caught up in the impossibility of the creature in front of me. The 'dragon' chirped, cocking its head at me curiously, then seemed to stare past me through the open doorway of the kitchen, where the front door was barely visible.
A knock at the door made me jump, and drew me out of the stunned amazement I'd been in since seeing the dragon. Cody started barking again, and I tried to get him to settle down, or else he'd wake up my brother. The dragon turned its head to look at the dog and growled. Cody sat down in his crate and whined.
I went to see who was at the door. Two men stood outside. I wondered if they had anything to do with the dragon sitting in my living room, and opened the door cautiously. One of the men smiled reassuringly. "Hi, I don't suppose you've seen a small, blue creature flying around lately, have you?"
"Very inconspicous, M'len..." The other man groaned and muttered, more to himself than anyone else. The name sounded familiar, though. By the time I got into dragon adoptions, Falas Weyr was already getting ready to close, and even though it had since reopened, I wasn't very familiar with that Weyr. I'd only sent a few candidates there, but I thought I recognized the name as one of the searchriders.
I was still gaping slightly and hadn't answered yet. Fortunately, I didn't have to, because the dragon appeared above my shoulder just then, and disappeared into a backpack the first man was carrying. "Ah, there you are, Jesioth."
I must have been staring, because the second man cleared his throat. "That was a...dragon." He said. "We're from a place called Falas, and Jesioth and Faroth think you should stand for a clutch..."
I couldn't believe it. I thought I must be dreaming, except I rarely dreamed, and they were never this detailed. I was being searched, by riders from another world that I thought only existed online. If Falas existed, what about the other sites and worlds I knew? What about Darkling Dawn?
Of course, it would mean leaving everything and everyone I knew behind, but that didn't mean I couldn't come back. I could leave a note in the meantime. Outside of my family, there wasn't really anybody I'd miss much. I'd always been a loner, so I didn't really have any close friends. Plus it would mean I wouldn't have to take that test...Why not?
I nodded and mumbled a okay, and went to pack the things I thought I'd need. My glasses; I didn't really need them at home, I needed them to see things far away, and I really only really used them at school. I emptied out my backpack of most of my school things; though I kept my pencils and pens, plus lots of blank paper, for drawing. Clothes would likely be provided for me, I just grabbed my jacket. Some books, my collection of Ragnarok Mangas, and that was about it. Unfortunately, I could not take the computer, for obvious reasons, and I didn't have a laptop.
I wrote a note on the computer; short, but I didn't think anyone would believe everything if I had told them, and assured them that I would come back. I slung the backpack over my shoulder-considerably lighter now that it no longer held my school books-and met the Falas riders at the door.
"Do you know a secluded place we could go so Jesioth and Faroth can revert back to their original sizes?" M'len asked me.
I thought about it, and decided the woods were probably the best choice. I only hoped there was a clearing big enough for two full-grown dragons.
A year or so ago, I'd gone with my brother Jeremy and one of his friends and skipped school. (The only time I did so, and I even had my parents' permission! It was a shortened day anyway, and not much would have been happening.) We decided to go hiking up in the woods, and we got lost. We eventually came to an area where apparently logging or something had been going on, because there was a huge area cleared of trees. There was even a small, green pond. Yes, green. My brother said it was probably because of algae in the water, but it was light green.
That place should be more than big enough, and more than likely far from any people. It was a hard walk in the snow, but we found it.
M'len brought out the tiny flitter-sized Jesioth as Philippe looked around. They each removed a chain from around their dragon's neck, and I was looking at two full-sized blue dragons. I had to crane my head up to look at them. One was bright blue, the other a darker blue that faded into black, which I recognised as a Ryslen Night blue. At least I knew Ryslen existed.
I approached Jesioth nervously, and his rider helped me onto his back. I glanced down and began to feel dizzy. I hated heights; I only hoped I'd feel safe enough to handle flying, especially if I was going to Impress a dragon of my own.
Between was colder than I imagined, and I was glad I'd brought along my jacket. It only lasted a few seconds, but it seemed a lot longer. Finally, we appeared in air much warmer than what I'd come from, and I was glad Yakima had put her Weyr on a tropical island.
Jesioth landed at Falas Hold, where I knew the FGPC to be. I had thought I was to stand for a normal clutch, (Or as normal as they got at Falas) but perhaps there was another clutch? "Which clutch am I standing for?" I asked as I climbed off Jesioth's back.
"There's a special clutch for Earth candidates at the FGPC." M'len answered. I nodded, wondering if I would know anyone there. Another thought occurred to me. If I knew about Falas already, would the other people who had been searched know already? I was apphrehensive about meeting someone I'd only known from online.
I went inside the FGPC and quickly wound up at the fire lizard incubators. Excitedly, I looked at the eggs as one of the scientists explained that the eggs on the right side were special requests only, and the eggs on the left were altered by journeymen and available to anyone.
I had a choice of a solid or 'special' firelizard, or a two-tone or speckled fire lizard. Images of a black flitter with blue wings invaded my mind; I'd always wanted a black-blue dragon, and even though it was highly unlikely, I could always hope. I chose the two-tones and speckleds.
I selected a rocking egg, and a scientist lifted the egg out of the incubator and gave it to me, along with a tray of meat for the hatchling.
I watched the large egg excitedly as it rocked, and a tiny crack appeared at the top. The ivory shell shuddered, then split down the middle, and for the first time, I set eyes on my new fire lizard.
Or rather, fire lizards. Not one, but two, creeling firelizard hatchlings lay in my hands. I gasped as they plucked strips of meat out of my hand. The female was much larger, and her gold-I Impressed a gold?-hide was speckled with blue. Her tiny brother crawled out from beneath the queen he'd shared his egg with, and I gasped in delight. His black body pounced on the meat as he spread his dark blue wings wide for balance.
A black-blue! I felt like jumping up and down for joy, but all I did was smile as the fire lizards gorged themselves, and fell asleep in my arms. As different as they looked, they were twins, and I found the perfect names for them. The black-blue would be named Castor, his gold and blue sister was Pollux. (I completely ignored the fact that I had a bluerider with a pair of canines by the same names; it wouldn't be the first time I'd reused names.)
I carried the sleeping flitters in my arms as I was lead to my room. I hadn't decided who would be my roomate, I wasn't even sure I would know anybody here, so for now I had a room to myself. For now. I wondered how long that would last?
I'd often thought about what color dragon I would get if I were ever searched. I'd eventually decided I would be a bluerider. Blues were supposed to be outgoing and cheerful, everything I wasn't. I figured that would be a good thing, it might help me get used to people better. Of course, I probably could have gone with a green just as easily, but...well, I didn't want a female dragon. The thought of a dragon rising, and having no say about the outcome, frankly, it scared me. At least if I had a male, I wouldn't have to worry about the mating. At least, not as much, anyway.
With Castor and Pollux sleeping on my bed, I took out one of my mangas (Sort of like a comic-book, only anime-style and with an actual plot) and began to await the hatching of the clutch. Of course, it wouldn't be hatching for days and weeks, but there would be plenty to do in the meantime, right?
