Name: Rantoro

Title: Rantoro, son of the Gryphon Kin

Gender: Male

Age: immortal, looks about 25

Origin: Rayllom

Rank/Job: Lookout

Voice: Harsh and demanding but not raspy, deep but not bass deep.

Origin: Rayllom

Hair: Muddy brown with tan tips

Eyes: Hazel

Height/Weight: 7'2"/160lbs.

Clothing: tight brown turtle-neck shirt with a gold twisted spiral thing I the middle, baggy brown carpenter pants, and a long dark brown riding cloak that has lops that attach to his carpenter pants.

Jewelry: A sliver ball necklace

Dragon: ???

Rank: ???

Family: unknown

Sexual Orientation/Relations: Strait, has a fondness for shifters and cat or hawk like people because of his bizarre shifting ability.

Talents: Can shift into a Golden Eagle/Lion Gryphon at will, and is very good at reading people's expressions. Has very good eyesight at all times (from his gryphon side) and can see much better than most normal people.

Personality: Rantoro is Shy and conservative most of the time. He likes his privacy and tends to do better alone. When he threatened he can be extremely dangerous (hint: he never trims his claws) and can strike without warning.

World: Freedom

Death to: Loud annoying people who can't keep their mouths shut.

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Rantoro sat on his post watching the people of his so called town going about there business as usual. He swished his extremely long lion like tail and looked down at his feet half smiling. He wasn't an ordinary gryphon, he was born of gryphon kin. He had one eagle like foot with black sharp talons, and the other like a lion with long black claws. His front arms were totally missing, which would have made is balance awkward if we didn't have that long cat like tail. He had two large dark brown and tawny wings, that grew out of his shoulders, giving him the pleasant ability to fly. His head was like that of and eagle despite the two large cat like ears growing out of them. However, the feature that Rantoro most liked about himself where is hazel eyes, green and brown they shimmered in the daylight and glowed under the pale light of the moon.

Hazel is incorrect...Rantoro thought to him self silently, as he liked to when no one else was around. It was quite a boring job, being a lookout but they payed him well fro his time. It was not everyday that something amazing or frightful happened, but when it did the people of this small town where thankful to have the watchful all seeing eyes of Rantoro.

they are green on the outside and blend into tawny brown.He thought to himself again while scanning the sky watching the usual town dragons burst in and out from between. The 'normals' where a pair of browns that belonged to two very awkward brothers, very awkward. In Rantoro's town it was very unusual to have a dragon. If you did however, it would probably be Alksyrian or Rayllomain, but no these brothers had two 'Pernese' dragons, old world dragons. Rantoro snorted it was common knowledge that pernese people and dragons weren't as advanced as Rayllomains, Alskyrians, or any of the other fine nexus dragons. Smiling to himself Rantoro watched over the town, trying very hard not to drift off into thought again.

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Rantoro walked in the ale house in the heart of his small town. He had just been relived from his guard, and owl shifter had taken his place. Rantoro snorted, that owl was too cocky for his own good. He was always bragging about how he could see in the dark, and about what a good watchrider he would make. The cocky tawny owl had failed to do his duty so many times, for many bad things happened at night because of him. And the townspeople never gave him the respect that they gave to Rantoro.

Rantoro sighed, he did feel that this was a little unfair, after all this owl was very young, and defiantly a mortal. He had not seen the things that Rantoro had, the blood-spill and chaos that made the town hire a lookout, though how corny it seemed, Rantoro was proud to help out these people, most of them were pleasant.

"What'l it be?" The bartender asked Rantoro as he sat down looking quietly around the room. He grinned kindly at Rantoro, "Hi `ol lookout, anything interesting toady?"

Rantoro managed a small smile. "Beer, anything from the northern continents please. Only the gods know how they make such good stuff...." Rantoro said.

The bartender chuckled. "Ok Rantoro, whatever you want." He said and poured Rantoro a glass of brewskey.

Rantoro sipped the beer, and let all of it's goodness soak in. He had had a long day, but it was usual, nothing to bad. He sat back and watched people talk about there long days at work, about the outside world, and about the return of Sargon? Rantoro heard a faint whisper from the back of the bar and abused his privilege of good hearing.

A smallish orange haired person was sitting in the back with golden bracelets dangling from his wrists. He looked almost devilish with two very large ears, and each had seven gold earrings. He had a pair of head phones around his neck which where of course orange in color. He was deep in conversation with another equally odd looking guy, dark blue hair and very odd light blue eyes. Rantoro stared at them out of the corner of his eye, not wanting to be seen. They looked like they were from out of town, definitely from out of town, Rantoro had known every person to live in this town since the fall of Garth, which was centuries ago.

"I dunno Kurt, it just seems to soon. I wish he would wait until Isemoth rises, so we don't have to go world hopping yet. I mean, everyone here is going to notice, aren't they?" the small orange haired one said expressing his feelings with wild hand movements.

The blue hair nodded. "Jaquin, they will notice it is part of Sarg's plan. Once Miza and Typhin arrive..." He sighed and looked out the window. "they are sure to wake the owl, and Typhin can't use his minds games on that thing..."

Rantoro chuckled slightly but nervously, what where they planning? A loud laugh from the orange haired fixed his attention on the speaker. "`Ol Hawk will take care of that. You know the spring frenzy Pelar was having? He almost made a fool of himself Miza tells me. Flirted with a purple in the beginning and got a few good snarls."

"Thank the gods my Phantom is smarter than that. It takes guts to flirt, but even more not to. That's how he'll catch Paianith, you wait and see."

"Sargon would kill you Kurt! If he even got close!" the orange hair said looking out the window. "Well....that didn't take to long, maybe Xeno will scare the birdy..."

Rantoro sighed he knew that the odd owl shifter was probably about to be hurt and he better go help him, after all it was the right thing to do. But, he couldn't help listening in just one more time, the orange haired one, who he thought to be Jaquin, had this glazed over look. "Jangelith says that Xenoyth tells him there is a problem, they didn't find the owl..."

Rantoro felt his blood run hot in his veins, it was not that he liked the owl shifter it was just that he didn't want to see anything hurt, he had seen to much blood shed in his past years. He walked over to the Jaquin and Kurt's table and stared at them and just stood there. The orange haired guy looked up at him and smiled. "Hi, are you one of the Sargon's searches?" Jaquin asked.

Rantoro shook his head. "I don't want to be rude but do you two have dragons here?" He asked putting two and two together, Jaquin's glazed over look and 'searches?', a term used for 'searchriders'.

the blue haired guy smiled. "Yes in fact we do, sorry to disturb our town and all, but we where just waiting for-"

"KURT!!! Why in the name of Sabbar did you not tell me about that pesky owl???" Rantoro whirled around to see a tall brown haired girl clad in ice blue walking over to the table followed closely by a man cloaked in black.

Kurt, who was obviously the blue haired man walked up to the brunette and grabbed her a little harshly on the shoulders. "Miza, you are loud enough to wake the dead." He said sitting her down nest to Jaquin who blushed to the shad of his fire orange hair.

And all the while Rantoro innocently stood there, wondering if the owl was in trouble. Miza, the brunette stared at him. "Erm...who are you?" she asked twisting her head to the side.

Rantoro cleared his throat. "I am Rantoro of the gryphon kin, and who may I ask are you?" Rantoro said begging to wonder if this was some sort of conspiracy, and his curiosity was getting the better of him.

"I am Miza!" the brunette said in an awkward tone. "Haven't you heard of Azon? And the searches? And me?" She asked in a rather harsh tone.

"Now now Miza, don't scare people. After all this town doesn't have that many people in it and they seem a little behind on technology. They were looking at me like and idiot with my head phones.." Jaquin said half smiling.

"Not to mention your hair..."The cloaked man said pulling back his hood. He had slivery blue eyes, which were very creepy looking. "And then there's Kurt's odd, oddness.."

"And your eyes!" Kurt snapped back. "Not all us halves are bad you know.."

all the while this group of awkward people stood and talked most of the time insulting each other Rantoro just stood there feeling very out of place, not to mention that the whole ale house was looking in his direction.

Just as he was about to speak up, the door which was just to his left flung open and in ran a very short very large eyed boy. "Rantoro! There's dragons! A giant orange one with stripes and one with stars and a black and green!" He screeched skidding to a halt and grabbing onto Rantoro's sleeve. "and this cocky one, he chased me down here treating to burn me!" The boy said looking around him. "and these weird people! One has orange hair, and one..." He leaned very close. "Is a half demon."

Rantoro shuddered it was the blue hair, definitely. Half-demons were considered one of the worst and most evil beings around. "Ok, Calm down little dude, just calm down. Dragon's aren't going to hurt anyone..." He turned to face the group of people who were listening intently. The brunette, Miza, was giggling so hard, she buried her face in the white eye's cloak and burst into a fit of giggles. "Especially not Searchriders dragons.."

The blue haired cleared his throat glaring at Miza. "Sorry to disturbed your town, but we needed a place to land. We all needed to get back here, important business from the Sargon." He explained twiddling his fingers.

the owl shifter hid behind Rantoro and cowered murmuring, "He's the half!". Rantoro sighed, this was going to be a long night. Knowing the puny boy would want him to stay up on the cliff and keep watch with him, incase the cocky blue came back.

"Sorry if Hawkey scared you little dude, he's just full of hot air." Miza said in between giggles. "sorry, but it was quite funny.."

The 'little dude' snorted indigently from behind Rantoro. All four of them got up to leave at once and nodded as they walked out the door. Rantoro pulled the shifter out from behind him and placed him on a bar stool, trying to forget this whole mess. But as he ordered another beer he thought he heard the faintest sound of a dragon's roar. Rantoro knew only one reason why a dragon would roar....

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Rantoro sat again on the large stoney cliff surveying the country side. The mountains large and slate gray bordered the town in which he lived in, giving it a kind of quite seclusion. The trees had turned vibrant shades of purple, gold and red just last month. But now all that remanded of the beautiful colors where great mounds of brown dried leaves ready for burning. Rantoro could sense the coming of winter in the air, for as he breathed in and out he could see his breathe as little puffs of smoke that disappeared after a few seconds. The town was just now eating breakfast, and some of the night workers where just heading off to sleep.

Rantoro wished he could go to his nice warm loft and sleep for a good many hours, he had been up all night with the owl shifter Tael. Rantoro felt his eye lids dropping and had to shift feet every so often, so he wouldn't drift off.

Looking up he sensed a coming storm, probably the first of the winter. It had been a good while since his little town had seen a real snowfall. It was not like when he was only a good hundred years old. Back then, when snow fell, it fell in great amounts, one or two feet. He blinked a few times, watching white flurries swirling down from the now gray and cloudy sky. One landed on his beak and he stared at it going cross eyed until it evaporated from his body heat.

He tried catching more on his beak, making a sort of game out of it. When you are lookout you have a lot of time to think, and play silly games. Yesterday he tried counting the number of people who walked out of the ale house drunk, and the day before he counted the number of somber ones. Smiling he wondered if he could number the snowflakes, a task impossible but somehow entertaining.

On reaching the one thousand five hundred twelve his thoughts stared to drift away. He kept thinking of last night and the dragons roaring, but mostly of what the half demon had said. Sargon's business? What could that mean, where the rumors true? Was Sargon truly bringing the Sanrix back? Rantoro pondered to himself watching more snow swirling to the ground.

Snow was quite pretty, and Rantoro wondered if there were any snow-like dragons. Thinking of how foolish that would be, asking someone if they had snowflake dragons at their Weyrs, Cears or whatever. But then why dose the word flurry dragon ring a distant bell? Rantoro wondered. flurry dragons...how cute...

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about two months later...

Rantoro sighed pulling himself out of bed, it had been a while since he had thought of the night in which he heard dragons roaring. But since then, he had many a strange dream. One about a distant place with 'flurry dragons' another about the strange visitors who had been under orders from the Sargon. And the dreams got worse each night, not that they where graphic or rude, just weird...Shaking his head Rantoro wolfed down a bagel and brushed his teeth, then head back to his post.

The snow had kept falling for a good long time, covering the trees with white crystals and making them shimmer like gems when the sun reflected off them. The ground also covered in the white powerdery stuff shimmered just a beautifully but made it hard for Rantoro to see, for his gryphon eyes where light sensitive and the reflection off the snow didn't help.

He watched a few small children build a fort of snow and chuck snowballs at one another. Wishing he was still young he sighed wondering if he'd ever get to do something more interesting, something bold and daring. Rantoro had always wished to do something like that, but he was shy and meek, but not to shy. If he saw anything bad happening he'd always lending a helping hand, or wing, to the person in need.

And that is how he came to be lookout, he did it for his only love. A small but shapely red head named Sahsha. She was just as shy as him when it came to anything romantic, but she was very outgoing when it came to other things. She had fallen ill when she was only a few hundred years old, young for a immortal. She had asked Rantoro, who had sat faithfully by her bed until her final hour, to protect the city in which her only living relative, her god mom lived. Rantoro promised he would, wanting to make Sahsha happy for her last days, and promised to watch over the town. Sahsha had smiled and told him a gryphon should make a god lookout and then passed on to the other realms of existence.

Immortals can die, but not from old age...Rantoro thought to himself. He had watched faithfully over the city for a scorn of years now, even though Sahsha's aunt had passed on only 3 years after Shasha's death.

Staring intently now at a particularly odd looking oak tree Rantoro wondered if Gryphons could cry, and if they could he would have cried for Sahsha. But even after she passed, he found that he could not cry, not even a tear. Maybe it was because he had been harden by the way people had treated him when he was young, or maybe it was because of begin orphaned when he was only ten. Ever since then he could never cry, or feel sadness, in fact his hope was slowly dwindling, he was loosing all of his goals and dreams being secluded in this forsaken town.

And Rantoro only wanted to e happy, and help people, so he stayed on his post and watched over the town. I will watch over this town until the day I leave this world and go live with the immortals...Rantoro sighed thinking of his beloved. I just wish I still had someone to love, someone who was bold and daring like Sahsha...

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Rantoro sat on his post once again. In fact he was thinking even more about Sahsha and the dragons lately. He wondered why vaguely he couldn't just have gone with them. At least he would have had someone to talk to, instead of sitting her thinking and watching snow fall. As he wallowed in self-pity he didn't notice the bright blink of two giant shapes popping from between.

The shapes belonged to Phantom and Jangelith, Kurt and Jaquin's dragons. They swooped low up to the cliff and grabbed Rantoro off of it and popped between again. Rantoro shrieked, still in his grpyhon form feeling the cold sting of nothingness.

A second later he was flying over a large Weyr in the middle of Pern, he had seen it before somewhere and he thought it was called Ryslen. He calmed a bit knowing that he wasn't a least being mugged.

He was on the back of the large orange and highly decorated Jangelith. Jaquin turned to him grinning. "Welcome to Ryslen!" He said loudly over the rush of wind.

Rantoro sighed, he was just wishing he'd be doing something more interesting, and now he was wishing he wasn't. Ryslen was a Weyr and Rantoro feared anything that big....

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Rantoro wondered aimlessly through the large halls of the Weyr in which he was obliged to stay. He found himself in a long dark hallway that seemed to lead to nowhere. He thought a few times he heard something, or someone walking behind him, but he figured it was just his wild imagination. Finally getting sick of the dark, Rantoro sat down and stared at one of the dimly lit torches. "I don't want to be here..." he mumbled to himself rather loudly figuring no one was around to here him.

no one dose...a strong deep voice rumbled into his head. Rantoro jumped, he knew it could only be dragon speech. He looked around himself wondering if a dragon could fit into such a dreary and small corridor. Then he wondered why a dragon would be here. It is the corridor of he abandoned, no one comes here wanting to, we all are just sent here.. the proud strong voice rang again into Rantoro's head.

Rantoro smiled innocently. "I mean no harm to you, I just got lost. I do that when I think sometimes, for I have a lot of time to think.."

The voice almost chuckled, which was rare for dragons to do. When you have no one to talk to, you talk to yourself through thought. I have done it many times, for I am one of the abandoned, I am here with one other, a blue.

"You poor thing, I know what it is like to be abandoned, my parents died when I was very young." Rantoro said wondering what had caused the poor what seemed to be a dragon his abandonment, he seemed quite nice.

I was not wanted by my rider, and I do not know why, but I am glad you have come for it has been a long time since I've seen a human face. Follow me, I know of lighter place. the dragon commanded Rantoro who did as he was told and followed the sound of dragon's claws clattering on stone out in a better lit part of the dark corridor.

Rantoro looked up to see a giant white bronze dragon towering over him. His front was that of a normal bronze with two muscular legs, but his rear end was bright white, and made him look almost like an appaloosa horse. Rantoro noted that they must feed the abandoned because this dragon was defiantly not starving and looked to be in good shape. "Wow,your..your...tall.." Rantoro stuttered gazing at the dragon with awe.

So are you, for a human I mean. Most of the humans I have seen are under seven foot. He mumbled. And you have quite nice eyes, I've never seen eyes that color... he said cokcing his head to one side.

"and I've never seen a dragon like you. Why your back half looks white a snow..." an idea dawned on Rantoro. "This is going to sound weird but are you a flurry dragon?" he asked.

the bronze rumbled. One of the first! He said proudly. I am Erynduth, and who are you?

"Rantoro, of the gryphon kin..." He smiled suddenly another idea popping into his head. "Can people 'bond' abandoned?" he asked wondering if this was his chance to be happy again, and have someone to talk to. Rantoro knew that this bold and daring dragon would be a good match for him.

The dragon purred happily. I have been waiting a long time for someone to say that... he said with a happiness in his voice. But first we must talk to Tiyanni about that, she will decide.

Rantoro smiled, he thought he was good enough for Erynduth, no he hoped he was good enough. If only Tiyanni would think he was good enough....................

________________________________________________-* Visit Ryslen? *-___________________________________________________

Rantoro shurrged walking out of the abandonded hall things had not wokred out and ended up not rescuing Erynduth. Another person came and took him away. Rantoro sighed and walked to the sands wodnering if he could impress a new dragon. Maybe he could talk to Tiyanni about that...