Earthen

"That won't work," Mivi sighed. "The Theatre department is doing Henry the Fifth as their production this year. Here's something. Blood is vital to maintaining a stable body temperature; in humans, body temperature normally fluctuates within a degree of 37.0° C (98.6° F)."
"Blood! Mivi!" Sijxa sighed, putting her book down. "I'm sure that we aren't going to be able to find a subject for our project."
"Why don't we do something we all want to know about?" Lopa sighed.
"Like what?!" Yikran exclaimed.
"Dragons," All three girls said, smiling at each other.

***

"But Dragons aren't Earthern," Yikran sighed as the left the classroom. "They are local."
"But they have legends about dragons," Lopa said.
"And all those novels!" Mivi exclaimed.
"Do any of you have a book like that?" Yikran asked, still very skeptical of the idea.
"I do!" Lopa said, raising her hand. "I'll bring it tomorrow so we can look it over."

***

In certain mythologies, the dragon is more generally credited with beneficent powers. The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that dragons had the ability to understand and to convey to mortals the secrets of the earth. Partially as a result of this conception of the monster as a benign, protective influence, and partially because of its fearsome qualities, it was employed as a military emblem. The Roman legions adopted it in the first century AD , inscribing the figure of a dragon on the standards carried into battle by the cohorts. The folklore of the pagan tribes of northern Europe contained both beneficent and terror-inspiring dragons.

"Terror?" Mivi questioned. "They aren't all that scary."
"These are Earthen Dragons," Yikran said.
"These are Earthen Myths," Lopa sighed. "Dragons didn't really exist on Earth."
Yikran sighed, shaking his head, "Why don't we just go and bond. Then we won't have to work about this project."
"Yikran, hush, you've been itching to get out of here since your mother made you come," Lopa laughed.
Suddenly, a large dragon landed outside. Yikran smiled as he lept to his feet and rushed out. The girls followed him in a more orderly fashion. Just as Lopa set foot outside she heard a voice scream.
Her! I want her!
Lopa looked about, realizing no one else had heard it, "Me?" She questioned.
"It's a good thing you spoke up," The Dragoneer laughed. "I wasn't sure which one of you he meant."
"Lopa? You were searched?" Mivi asked.
"I...I..." Lopa stammered.
Yes, love, you are the one I have chosen, the voice sighed again. I have chosen you because of your past. You need someone, and I think a gold would suit you well.

***

As Lopa packed her bags, the others hovered around her. Yikran helped her get all her books together as the girls asked her a bunch of questions.
"Which Caer was it?"
"What did the dragon say to you?"
"Why did they pick you?!"
"Shut up, all right!" Lopa finally shrieked.
Everyone stopped and stared at her. Lopa was normally well tempered. It wasn't like her to yell.
"I'm sorry," Lopa sighed, sitting on her bed. "I'm...I'm just not taking all this in."
"Don't worry about it, Lopa," Yikran sighed. "We just won't ask you anymore questions until you get there, all right?"
Lopa sighed as she lifted her bags off her bed, "Why don't you guys come and watch the hatching? It would be good to have some mortal support."
"We'll be there," Mivi sighed. "I'll contact V'lok and have him take us."

***

As Lopa looked down at the Institute, she sighed. The view from a dragon's back alway gave someone a new prospective. Maybe she should take this oppurtunity to muse about what the dragon meant by 'because of your past.

Fire. Lopa's first memory. Hot and painful. Fire. Her parents were running from something, and she could see everything from where she was slung over her mother's shoulder. Their village was burning. It seemed so odd. There were things she saw in that memory that she hasn't seen since. There were several buildings which reached to the sky, and two of them, some of the tallest, were on fire. She didn't remember much after that. She could hear her mother sobbing as she ran, but then she heard her gasp. Lopa remembered her father's hand latching onto her shoulder and a comforting voice echoing in her head. After that, she feel asleep. She had been so young and hadn't remember much about her life before that, but she knew that that was the first time she had heard a dragon.

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