“I guess not,” Mraz muttered, “but I still mistrust this.”
Blinking their eyes clear, both looked around, puzzled. The world seemed faded out, as if it seen through a mist.
A rustling at her feet caused her to crouch down and look around. Wide eyed, she carefully lifted a brown ferret out of the underbrush and stroked it. Its blue eyes examined her closely, just as she was examining it.
“Found another pet?” Mraz asked, amused. She had always seemed to attract animals to her that were thieves of some sort, a strange matter that got most people she came into contact with either annoyed or, if they were of a certain sort, amused.
She smiled as the ferret scampered up her arm and settled down around her neck, poking his nose into her feathers.
“Looks like he found me,” she answered as she ran the back of a claw across the ferret’s fur.
Soberly, Mraz looked at the faded landscape, looking for anything to orient himself upon, “Where should we head from here?”
“Good question,” she answered.
“I’ve got another question!” a little creature remarked, perching on the tip of a limb right in front of Sala’s face. Forest green butterfly wings fluttering slightly, the little fairy creature tilted its small, fox like head, “Why’re you here?”
Sala blinked, but then quickly recovered, she had met up with odder creatures than this in her travels, “The Goddess led us here, why?”
The little creature yipped sharply, “You shouldn’t be here! You’re not forgotten like everyone else!”
“Why should we be forgotten?” Mraz asked, puzzled.
“Because this is the land of the forgotten of course! I’ll have to call Kardaren back here from that place he’s living at now to get you out of here. This is no place for you two,” the little creature’s eyes fell upon the ferret, “or that pet you just claimed.”
Suddenly, above their heads, an iridescent blue dragon appeared, then started circling down, a man on his back. Short, cheetah colored hair was slightly messed up from his ride, and his clothes looked like he had been awakened out of sleep when he had been called.
“You called, Guardian?” the man asked as he slid to the ground.
“Yes! These two shouldn’t be here! Take them away, they disturb the realm!”
The man smiled slightly, then turned to look at them. His odd colored eyes took them both in, even the ferret who was still curled up around Sala’s neck. Both of them fidgeted slightly under his gaze, but then he turned and beckoned them both to approach the dragon.
Cautiously they did, their only experience with these beasts was one short encounter in the dangerous wastes of some land, where dragons ruled the sky and land, and all other beings avoided them or met their deaths.
The man, apparently named Kardaren, swung up onto the back of the iridescent dragon, then helped the other two up as well.
“We’re off then,” Kardaren told the two, as his dragon leaped into the air, his wings beating strongly, then vanished between.
______________________________________________________________________________
Thye came out over a large complex carved from the red stones of the mountain it was part of. Dragons of many different sorts flew or perched, their hides glistening in the sunlight.
"Welcome to Ryslen Weyr," Kardaren yelled over his shoulder, his voice swept away in the wind almost before they could realize what he had said.
Silent, they watched dragons flitting in and out, with and without riders. It was an amazing sight, beautiful beyond belief, with golds, bronzes, blues, greens, browns, and many other colors or combination of colors, it looked like a rainbow had taken up residence.
With a light thump, they landed in what appeared to be the courtyard, and were helped down by Kardaren, who glacefully slid down to land lightly beside them.
"Hmm... the search dragons seem to like you two," he remarked, slightly amused, as several blues and a dark green landed nearby, watching Sala and Mraz with interest, "Perhaps you would like to stand for a clutch? Black Dusky is on the sands right now, but if she doesn't accept you, there's always clutches after the flurry to stand at."
Mraz, puzzled, looked at the blues and single green, "Search dragons? Standing for a clutch? What?"
Sala rolled her eyes, "Think, silly. Dragons lay clutches, we learned that on that one world. Apparently here they're not... Kings and Queens of the land and sky, because they're allowing people to ride them. Maybe that has something to do with this standing."
Kardaren looked at them, interested, "Kings and Queens of the land and sky? Why would they want to control the land and the sky?"
"Because they can... or at least those dragons there can. Vicious, but very intelligent, creatures they are," Sala answered, absently stroking the ferret.
Suddenly, Kardaren grinned, obviously amused at something, "Ivsibarth tells me to tell you that enough talk is enough and that I should answer your question already. Standing means to participate in a hatching, and bond one of the dragonets that hatch. Mind bond, so that they're always there for you, and you can speak mind to mind with them."
The two glanced at each other, would they ever want to be that close with a creature, even a dragon? But yet...
"We'll stand." Sala answered, adding in a murmur that only Mraz heard, "Anything has to be better than those brainless ninnies at the palace."
Mraz, to the puzzlement of some people, suddenly burst out laughing, and couldn't seem to stop.