If God doesn't destroy Hollywood Boulevard, He owes Sodom and Gommorah an apology. - Unknown
Hey, man, I’m alive. I’m taking each day and night at a time. I’m feeling like a Monday, but someday I'll be Saturday Night... - Bon Jovi
* * *
Li sighed for what seemed like the millionth time since she'd arrived in this gawd-awful thing they named candidate classes. She realized how lucky she'd been when she'd first arrived here and everyone thought she was too scarred to be forced into social encounters. Truth be told, she was, but she didn't understand how leaving her alone in her room was any better until she was actually forced out and started jumping at every little shadow and every little sound. A classmate had put their hand on her shoulder and she'd broken out in tears.
On the other hand, Li'd picked up the habit of talking to herself. How else to they expect me to react? It just keeps playing itself out again and again and again...
"Miss Li?"
"What?!?" She jumped back several paces and just about fell out of her chair. In an attempt to find her balance she stood up. Someone tried to touch her to calm her down and she started and backed up against the wall, dangerously close to crying again.
The person who was leading her course, luckily a female in an all female class, smiled sympatetically. "Why don't you go to your room for a while?"
Li just nodded and walked out. She felt herself blushing, and knew she was being stupid. She knew no one in that class would think of hurting her...in fact that all female class had been put together for her benefit. But every time someone touched her...
"Hey." Sherry smiled brightly. "Finished with 'how to season yourself 101'" They'd both come to grips with the fact that neither of them were probably going to get eaten, or even hurt, but Sherry knew it still made Li smile. That and the fact that her hair still brought a smirk to everyone’s face.
"How 'bout 'how to make a damned fool out of yourself'." Li kicked at the ground as she walked along beside her friend towards the room they were now sharing. A'diar had made some comment along the lines of 'just like old times' when he saw their joint room. Li had replied with a vengence that even surprised Sherry. 'God I hope not...'
"Give yourself time Las." Sherry, purposefully was trying to stop calling her Li. She knew Li reminded her of all the things she'd never wanted to become, she knew that her effort was appriciated, if not acknowledged. She raised her hand to put it on Li's arm as a gesture of sympathy, caught herself, and let her hand fall limply to her side. There was a time when the touch would have been welcome, but not any more.
Li sighed again. "I hate this place." She eyed everyone as they walked down the hall.
"Liar." Sherry smiled. She started to say something else, but realized that there was nothing she could say that could possibly help.
One of Li's problems was the fact that her concept of dealing with everything was to pretend it never happened. She ordered herself to stop thinking about it. It didn't work, but by feeling bad about remembering Li somehow felt she was acomplishing something. Li flung herself down on her bed, ignoring Meow's protests.
Sherry sat in silence, just watching her friend. "How can I make it better?"
"Hm?" Li hadn't been paying attention.
"How can I make it better?" Sherry was amazingly the one closer to crying. "God Li, I just want to help and I don't know how. No one ever told me how to handle this situation. You're always crying and depressed and I know why but I can't make it stop!"
Li looked at her friend in amazement. "You...you..."
Sherry blushed. "Okay..." Li smiled and Sherry saw everything she needed in that smile. She grinned back at her friend. "How did I end up the messed up one?"
The two girls giggled. They both realized how long it had been since they’d giggled, like plain normal girls. Not ‘working girls’, not actresses, not candidates, not dragon-food, just girls. It felt good.
"So I ask the teacher ‘Are you sure, Las seemed fine last time I talked to her?’ And she says. ‘Poor girl, maybe you should talk to her.’ So I come wandering all the way over here and find you giggling." A’diar smirked. "Methinks your just trying to get out of your studies."
The two girls looked at him, looked at each other and giggled again. A’diar shook his head. "Not the normal reaction I try to get from women."
"We-we-we..." Sherry was gasping for breath. The indignant look on her friend’s face was just killing her.
"A-a-a-‘diar." Li couldn’t stop giggling either.
"That’s it!" A’diar threw his arms in the air. "I’m not telling you now." He did his best to look like a rich little brat being denied his fun.
"C’mon." Sherry pleaded as she got up and walked over to him. She began to pull on his arm. "I can keep this up all day."
Li noticed that Sherry really started to act...well...weird around the brown/black rider. The girl figured her friend had a new crush. She smiled happily to herself, glad that she could still take pleasure from the concept that one of them was able to meet her prince charming. "Fine. We won’t talk to you anymore."
A’diar smirked. "Do you think you two are my only companionship on this rock?" He paused a moment, and over-dramatically let his face fall as if he’d been deeply wounded. "Okay...so you are."
Both girls laughed. "C’mon Diar." They spoke in unison. He always cheered Li up, she smiled as she noticed him watching her. Uh oh...Li he’s Sherry’s. She turned her attention to her black kitten who was feeling rather left out.
He remained silent another few minutes before finally cracking. "Okay fine." He grabbed Sherry’s hand and pulled her over to Li’s bed. He was acting like an over-excited teenage girl, he had both his friends in stiches. "C’mere, c’mere." They all leaned in like a football huddle, but both Sherry and A’diar were careful not to touch Li. "Shhh...." He waited for the girl to stop giggling. "Listen listen." The girls were on the edge of their seats in anticipation. "Shhh...." He looked around to make sure no one else was in earshot and paused until the giggling quieted again. "They think the clutch might hatch in two parts, they think one part might hatch say...now."
The two girls waited for that information to sink in. "Is this normal?" Li asked.
"What if there aren’t enough candidates?" Sherry was full of questions too.
"Do all the eggs hatch?"
"How many do they think are going to hatch early?"
"How do they know when they are going to hatch?"
A’diar remained silent until both girls finally grabbed the full meaning of his words.
"NOW?!?" They looked at each other before taking off for the sands. A’diar stood in the room, holding Li’s candidate robe. She returned and grabbed it with a smile. A’diar shook his head and followed them.
"More shardin’ earthlings." A random idiot mumbled as Li passed with Sherry. A’diar heard it as well, but ignored it, hoping the two earthlings would ignore it. "Ruin their lives on their own planet, then come here to ruin ours."
Li stopped dead in her tracks, the words, mainly because they came from a male, cutting her deeper than expected. Even Sherry seemed to feel rotten. The fact that he’d made himself look like an idiot to keep them giggling, made A’diar even angrier that one idiot could ruin it all. Something inside him snapped.
He took a page from his ‘friend’ M’slin’s book and decked the man. The entire hall went silent for a moment. A’diar wasn’t violent. He was a pest, a pain, a thief, and a joker, but he always ran from a fight. He’d never hit anyone in his life before. Sherry and Li were just as shocked as the rest of the room. A’diar couldn’t help smiling. "Don’t badmouth my girls." With a grand, over-exaggerated flourish, he whirled put a hand around Sherry’s waist and Li’s waist before escorting them to the Hatching Grounds to scattered applause and a few laughs. As he tried to walk both girls onto the sands, he was stopped by a large man firmly telling him that only candidates were allowed on the Sands. He shrugged, smiled at the crowd he was gathering and couldn’t help himself. "I appear to be stuck..."
Both Li and Sherry giggled. A’diar smiled and let Li go on to the Sands. The crowd clapped and laughed or booed and threatened, but none of them mattered. The giggle was all he’d needed to hear.
Li snuck past the burly man and onto the warm sands. She flattened her robe, kind of liking the way it fell around her. She’d been told that she didn’t need to wear it, in fact most candidates weren’t, but after hearing A’diar’s stories about his encounters with the god forsaken fashion statement, Li couldn’t help herself. She quickly found both Sherry and A’diar in the crowd...Sherry was very easy to spot now-a-days. She couldn’t help wondering how A’diar had talked her into it in the first place, but she was glad he had. In a warped sort of way, the style suited her.
The hatching started, and Li felt like all eyes were on her, yet she was completely alone. She flinched as a man brushed her as he walked by. Get a hold of yourself Aelorni! Eventually someone is going to have to touch....you.... She trailed off as she realized A’diar’d had his hand around her waist. She hadn’t noticed. She smiled, feeling a much needed sense of peace wash over her. It didn’t last long.
The queen’s scream as her eggs were attacked chilled Li to the bone. She shuddered, saw the man the evil green thing had impressed to and just about died. She felt like curling up into a ball and crying again. The fact that men like him could get away with things like that...
Honestly, Li couldn’t say she remembered much of the hatching at all. She was too obsessed with her own feelings and ignoring her fears. She spent most of it looking to A’diar and Sherry for support, rarely looking at the amazing little creatures, and completely ignoring the cries of the people around her. It’s not really a surprise she missed the little gold/orange’s hatching.
They are not all like that, you know. Most males know how to keep their paws to themselves. And if they don’t, then I will show them. Li was entirely shocked to hear the voice in her mind. Doroboth, A’diar partner, had spoken to her once or twice, but this powerful feminine voice was something else entirely.
"I...didn’t know that. It seems like all I ever meet are jerks." She turned back to A’diar and Sherry, needed their support. The black/brownrider made her smile. "Mostly..." She saw the look on Sherry’s face and felt horrible.
Well I will change that. They will respect us both. The little dragon was so sure of herself.
"Why is that?" Li was not responding to her lifemate’s question, but wondering how Sherry could look so happy when she must be so jealous.
Why are you sad? Fifteen seconds old and already more observant than most, not that Li was doing a good job of hiding her feelings.
Somehow the truth seemed like a good idea. "Because my friend, Sherry, isn’t meant to impress. And here I am with the most beautiful ... gold...” Li had finally turned to look at the web-footed dragoness who spoke to her. Orange-gold body with a deep speckled black scaled underbelly, and wings of molten sunlight. She was taken away by the beauty of the creature, and the patience reflected in it’s eyes.
Perhaps she will, there are yet many more eggs on the sands. They will wait. Perhaps she will be one to take care of a hatchling, even if they do not bond. Do not be sad any more! I do not want you sad! The dragon was finally beginning to behave like a normal new-born and sounded on the verge of tears.
Li smiled at it. Enchanted. "I promise I’ll try and be happy for you." She smiled, feeling tears coming to her eyes again, this time in response to a joy the runaway had never known. A thought came to her, and she wondered where it came from. She hadn’t had a drink in a long time...although bacardi had always been one of her favourites. Finally, it hit her. "Bacardi?!? Is that really your name?" She laughed and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.
Yes. The dragon stated in a matter-of-fact tone. Should it not be?
Li smiled, giggling again. She’d forgotten how much she’d missed the simply luxury of giggling in LA. "It’s just that...oh never mind." She waved Sherry and A’diar over, and to the protest of the candidates, hatchlings and most of the stands, the brown/blackrider dragged the girl out of the stands and onto the sands. Together they all went down into the kitchens. A’diar demanding to know her lifemate’s name.
Li grinned, holding the orange/gold head in her hands. "Bacardi."
A’diar smiled. "It’s beautiful."
Sherry gasped. "Get out."
Li grinned and rubbed under Bacardi’s chin. "A new way to get away from my troubles..." The two girls giggled...and A’diar sighed. He liked to see them happy, but they were getting a little high pitched. Now how do I turn them off?