Another sigh. "I'm tired.
A third sigh. "I'm bored.
"Shhh!!" Someone hissed. "I'm reading!"
Seventeen-year-old Ryan stared at his younger sister with a startled and bewildered look on his face. "You are such a freak."
Sophie, a small girl with a long, black ponytail and hazel eyes, looked up at her brother from behind thick-rimmed glasses. She frowned and set down her book, obviously a fantasy novel, judging by the picture of a dragon in flight, with a woman upon its back. She glared at her brother as the other two kids, Sean and Madison, watched in amused silence. "At least I don't spend my summer vacation lounging around the house, doing nothing. I actually study, which is why I always get better grades in school than you." She finished smugly.
Ryan continued to stare at her in horrified awe. "That's the whole point! That's why it's summer vacation!"
Sean and Madison nodded hurriedly in agreement. Sophie just rolled her eyes and picked up her book again. "Besides," Ryan added. "That doesn't look like summer reading."
Sophie didn't answer, but her ears turned bright red, and she refused to look at him. Ryan rolled his eyes and repeated, "You are a freak."
Ryan was a seventeen-year-old, soon-to-be-senior at high school. He was tall, with light brown hair to the nape of his neck. His slender body was a surprisingly light shade considering all the time he spent outdoors or at the beach. He and his sister shared the same hazel eyes, though Ryan's were more green, while Sophie's were more of a hazel brown.
His younger sister, fourteen years old, was a definite bookworm and teacher's pet. She got all the good grades and flaunted it over him. Her black hair reached halfway down her back, though it was usually in a ponytail. She was much shorter than her older brother, and very skinny.
Sean, on the other hand, was tall, dark, and reasonably handsome. He was also seventeen, and Ryan's best friend since pre-school. His black hair was very curly, and cut short, reaching just past his ears. His amber-colored eyes seemed to hold a mischievous light that told people to beware of pranks and general annoyance, which Sean was very good at.
Finally, the one who seemed to constantly be picking up after Sean and keeping him out of trouble was Madison, a sixteen-year-old senior who had managed to skip a year of school. Small and thin, with olive tan skin, she was very pretty. Her hair, though originally brown, had been dyed a dark green, and it fell below her shoulders. Her eyes were dark blue, a fitting match to her strangely colored hair.
These four were sitting in the living room of Ryan and Sophie's house, Sophie reading a book while the other three complained about how hot, and tired, and bored, they were. Summer vacation was almost over, and they were all dreading the coming of the school year. Well, except for Sophie, of course.
Ryan threw a last, disgusted look at his sister and turned to his friends, sighing. "Well, we've got a couple hours to kill, wanna go to the beach?"
Sean shrugged, and Madison sat up, smiling. "Sure!" The three teenagers raced out the house. Sophie watched them, considered for a moment, then sighed and closed her book, standing up to follow them.
Splash!
Ryan had been studiously avoiding getting unseemingly wet all afternoon. This ended when Sean decided to literally soak his head with cool seawater as Madison and Sophie giggled at the boys' antics. Ryan shook his dripping head like a dog, sending water everywhere. He looked up, pushing his wet mop of hair out of his face as he glared at his friend. "Sean, do you really want to repeat the incident with the toaster oven and the Tesla coil?" He asked.
Sean's face took on a look of shock and terror, and he shook his head quickly. "Good. Then don't do that again." Ryan said as his friend tossed a towel to him, and he promptly began to dry himself off.
Sophie blinked her eyes in surprise and confusion, and turned questioningly to Madison. She opened her mouth to ask something, but the other girl cut her off.
"Don't ask." Madison groaned. "Trust me. You do not want to know." She left it at that.
A dark shadow passing quickly overhead caught Sophie's attention. She looked up from the book she had been reading, laying on the quickly cooling sand on the beach. A large shape passed over the sun, shaped like a bird, except that it was much too large to be a seagull, or she wouldn't have been able to see it at all from this distance. It was much, much too big. As suddenly as it had appeared, the shadow was gone, and the blink of an eye.
Hazel eyes blinked as Sophie turned to Madison. "Did you see that shadow?"
"Probably just a passing cloud." The other girl answered, not looking up.
Sophie opened her mouth to protest, then thought better of it. I guess I'm just seeing things...She thought to herself. With a final shrug, she picked up her book and began to read again.
A while later, Ryan and Sean came up to the two girls, both dripping with water. By now, the sun was setting, and the beach was mostly deserted. "Hey, Sophie? Madison?" Ryan began unsteadily.
The girls looked up in curiosity. The two boys glanced at each other worriedly, then Sean spoke up. "I think...you two should come see this..."
"What?" Sophie asked, wrinkling her brow in confusion.
"Come on." Ryan said, waving for the others to follow him.
With a sigh, Sophie stood up and walked after her brother, and Madison followed.
Ryan stopped suddenly, and pointed to something in the sand. There were tracks, very, very large tracks, in the sand. They looked roughly like the footprints of a bird or lizard, but with four digits, and much bigger.
There was an uneasy silence as the four friends studied the odd footprints, then Ryan spoke up. "So, what do you think made these?" He asked, mainly to his sister, since she'd probably be the most likely to know.
She shook her head. "I don't know of many creatures around here that are that big, definitely not a lizard or bird. Besides, this has four digits, a bird would have three. Whatever made this had to be as big as a truck, or maybe bigger."
"That makes me feel better." Sean said sarcastically.
Madison tossed her dark green hair back behind her shoulder and glanced at her watch. "It's almost dark, you guys, and I need to get home."
The others nodded their heads, and they all turned to head back to their houses. "You think maybe what made those tracks was, like, an escaped animal from the zoo or something? Like, a komodo dragon, maybe?" Sean said as they walked.
Madison snorted. "Do we even have a zoo around here?"
Sean grinned and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Ah, good point."
Sophie had stopped, and was staring at something to their left, down by the water's edge. "Guys? Whatever made those tracks...I don't think it came from a zoo. Or anywhere else on Earth, for that matter." She said weakly. She pointed a finger at a pair of figures standing on the beach, by the shore. One was relatively small and looked like a human male, though from where they were standing, they could hardly see more than an outline. The other figure was much larger, with four long legs, a long tail and neck, and a pair of bat-like wings folded to its back.
Sophie gasped as the others stared. "It's-"
"It's a dragon." Sean stated in disbelief. "A real, frecking dragon."
They all began to walk towards the dragon, trying to get a better look at the formerly imaginary beast. The man standing beside the teal-blue colored dragon seemed to be talking to it, but he looked up as they approached. He had blond hair cut to his ears and gray-green eyes. He really didn't look much older than any of them. "Oh, umm...Hi." He said, moving in front of the dragon. Perhaps he was trying to hide the dragon from view, but that, of course, was hopeless, and it was far too late now, anyway.
Hoflichth just rolled his eyes at his rider and stepped out from behind Kelduen. That's completely pointless anyway, mine. Besides, The blue added, glancing at the gawking kids. I think they'll be seeing a lot more dragons shortly. They will make good candidates for Illumin's clutch. Kelduen rolled his eyes and turned back to the teenagers.
Sophie glanced back at the human, who was beginning to talk to them again. "My name's Kelduen, my dragon here is Hoflichth. Don't worry, he won't hurt you." He added quickly. "Umm, we're from..."
"You're from the book, aren't you?" Sophie asked excitedly. "Did you come from another planet where you Impressed a dragon, and came here from between? And you're searching for candidates to stand for a clutch? Am I right?"
Kelduen's eye began to twitch in annoyance. I had this nice, big explanation planned out, and she just ruined it! Hoflichth's laughter echoed in his head. "How did you know that!?" He demanded. "I mean, you're right, for the most part. Got a couple terms wrong, but..."
Sophie had run off, and came back with her fantasy book. "See! It's all in here. Oh my gosh, this is so cool!" The other kids were staring at her, which Kelduen would probably have been doing also if he hadn't taken an interest in the book she'd brought.
"Dragon Riders of-" He began, but was once again interrupted by Sophie.
"Are you really from Pern?" She asked, eyes wide with excitement.
Kelduen exchanged glances with the blue dragon. "Never heard of it." He said, without batting an eyelash.
Hoflichth burst into silent laughter, which only Kelduen heard. The dragon's only physical sign of his amusement was that his eyes whirled faster and turned a deeper shade of blue. Ridermine, you are evil. He announced to his rider.
Kelduen allowed himself a small grin as he continued. "But we came from Danach, which is sorta similar. Anyway, Hoflichth here says that the four of you could try to Impress-er, Imprint, I mean, dragons, if you want to."
It didn't take long for them to decide. "Cool!" Ryan exclaimed. "When can we leave?"
Kelduen shrugged. "Anytime you want. You can always come back to this same point in time later, if you Imprint." He said with a wink.
They all grinned, and apparently it was unanimous. "Let's go!"
