"Can't you see it's just never going to work..." She pleaded with him, turning her huge golden eyes to his cold blue ones. Tears had run lines of mascara down her reddened cheeks. The man she was pleading with had hardly an expression on his stony face.

"Victoriana," he said, "It's done. I couldn't wait. What else can I do?"

Drawing in a shaky breath, Victoriana cried, "Zachary! We agreed you would - we would do this together!" Her voice caught, "and you've gone and done it without me?" She clasped her hands to her face, and turned, sobbing loudly.

Zachary placed his manicured fingers on Victoriana's hair, but then pulled away. His face almost betrayed an emotion - but it was so quick that no one could tell quite what it was. It looked as though he was about to speak.

Zachary's stone facade fell into a twist of anger and bemusement. "I... can't remember my line... crap!"

Victoriana, or more accurately, the actress playing the distressed mistress, busted up in a fit of hysterical giggles, doubling over. "Oh you miserable idiot..." she gasped between giggles.

The crew and director of the soap opera "Smoky Wings of Fate" groaned but couldn't help but laugh as well.

"Come on, Tim, can't we get this guy some lines he can remember?" The director shouted and someone in the back of the set area yelled something back.

The director glanced at Grace and Kimball, his starring actors, and sighed. This take was dead. Time to move on.

Over the course of the afternoon the pair finally resolved the dilemma of giggling and lost lines. While the day's shoot was winding down, other scenes were finished and edited. At last, the group of soap opera stars and teamsters broke up for the evening. It had been a long shoot, with multiple mistakes and many re-writes along the way.

In the actor's changing rooms, Grace slumped against the wall and drew her fingers through her matted hair. The wig she had to wear made her mousy brown hair so sweaty and gross, but she didn't have much choice because she didn't dare get a dye job to keep this role. Her face ached from the crying she had to perform, along with the dull but memorable hurt from all the times laughing so hard. She took her latest fabulous dress off and put it onto the hanger where someone from costuming would pick it up later.

A knock at the door drew her attention away from removing the last of her makeup. "Uh," she said, and listened for the person at the door to leave or enter. Kimball cracked the door and poked his head in. His own hair was always perfect, but the intense blue of Zach's eyes were contacts over his grey-green colored eyes.

"Hey - I'm sorry about today..." Kimball said, swiping his hand over his black hair.

"Oh, don't worry - I think we all needed that." Grace said, barely turning away from her dabbing at her eyelids. "I mean, come on... You know the season's shaky ratings are getting even shakier."

"Yeah, I know... Why do you think they've killed off Zach's wife?" Kimball smirked.

"Apart from firing that bitch? I don't know why they didn't just get a replacement. I mean, I'm a replacement." Grace laughed, remembering her original post on the show was as the sister of some long-gone character who'd gotten pregnant and couldn't continue filming.

"The show's dead," Kimball said, sadly. "And you know we're going to be out of work again."

"Don't say that," Grace warned, dropping the wet-nap and turning to face her co-star. "Don't say that."

"But it's true. I've been looking at heading back home. Maybe going back to school..." Kimball pressed up against the wall, "If we don't get renewed."

Without hesitation, Grace stood and put her hands on her friend's shoulders. "Kimball, you're getting all depressive again. Are you taking your meds?"

"I'm drinking, if that's what you mean..." He said, looking away.

Grace grimaced, fishing around for the hidden bottle of -- "there it is," she said, locating a small mini-bottle. It read 'mint schnapps' but it smelled of vodka. "You've gotta stop drinking, Kim, if you remember it's a depressant..."

Kimball didn't take the bottle away from her - it was almost empty anyway. But he couldn't meet her eyes... Those big brown eyes of hers, they always bored right through him.

"Look, let's just get out of here for tonight. Steak?" Grace said, trying to get him to lighten up. He agreed silently, and they left the studio into the darkening evening of downtown.

Over a dinner at one of those "serve yourself" places, the silence was unbearable, until finally Kimball announced, "I can't be alone tonight, Grace."

She furrowed her brows, and put her hand over his. "Okay. Can we head to my place so I can pick up some clothes?"

"You're driving," he said. "I can't stop you."

They tripped across town, gathered Grace's essentials and the next day's clothing, and went back to Kimball's apartment. While both of them made a decent amount of money at this soap opera gig, neither of them had found a cheap enough house or a place close enough to the city that they felt comfortable with.

During the night, Grace pried out of him that he'd listened in on the director and producer's last conversation and knew without a doubt they'd be on the cancellation docket come Fall. Kimball had always been a bit hard on himself, and his depression came and went with the whim of their show.

Grace settled in on the couch, but couldn't get to sleep. What could she do - she could only keep Kimball from getting hurt, but if they cancelled the show, then what? He'd be off on his own, and frankly she felt a bit of responsibility toward him. He hated it because she mothered him.

As Grace drifted off to sleep, Kimball tossed and turned in bed, the lights from the nearby video-shop/ liquor store across the street burned into his dreams from their blinking reflection on the ceiling. He thought he heard something, and his eyes reluctantly pried open. The blue contact lenses were scratching his eyes, they were reddened and a bit swollen.

But what he saw wasn't quite what he expected. There was a small object, something flapping at the window. "A bat? Here? There's no bat caves in LA..." He got out of bed and hesitated. Didn't bats carry diseases?

But this one wasn't really acting much like a bat - in fact it had settled down and sat rather like a cat on the small balcony. It looked for all the world like a little winged lizard.

"... Grace?" He said, quietly. She was probably asleep. He didn't want to scare this thing off, but... He lacked the courage to move. "Grace?" He said louder, until he heard her respond in the living room.

"You've gotta come in here..." He said, and his voice was expectant rather than frightened. Grace slipped out of the sheet and pulled it along with her into his room. What she saw was Kimball, lean and handsome and scared, standing in front of the half-lit window... And a thing sitting there like it owned the place.

"What is that?" She said, pressing forward, and before he could stop her, she'd pulled the window open to investigate.

The flitter opened its wings, and flew into the dark room. Kimball dove behind his bed and hid his head, "get that thing away!"

"It's just a... a...thing..." Grace said, still more curious than anything else. She held her hand out, and the flitter landed on her arm. Its small claws dug in, but she didn't do more than wince. "Look at this," she said, "it's .. really cute. Let me get the lights."

"I'll get them," Kimball said, trying to get away and get some light on the subject. The light came on and the flitter cheeped loudly. It was colored dark bronze, with paler tan wings. At this point, finally, Kimball's courage kicked in. "That thing isn't a bat," he said.

"Duh," Grace laughed. "But the question is what is it, if not, and what's it doing here?"

While they were busy looking at the flitter, a sound came from outside, a heavy sound of what might have been fabric flapping in wind. It was the sound of groaning brick that alerted them to something more.

With all the drama of their own soap opera show, the pair of actors looked up over the flitter perched on Grace's arm. Their gaze traveled to the dark window, where the flashing light from below illuminated ... something big.

Crossing the street, from the roof top of the short building which housed the video and liquor store, there was a long slender object stretching. Lit half a moment and then darkened, this long slender object seemed to end in a wedge-shape that had a fin on its top.

The flitter cheeped happily and flew off Grace's arm and out the window, only to perch again on the narrow iron railing outside. The big thing looked down into the window.

"It's a dragon," Kimball whispered, and lost his balance. He sat on the bed, abruptly. Still staring out the window at the blinking form of the dragon.

"It sure is," Grace said, half tempted to join him on the edge of the bed. "But... w-"

"I was hoping to find someone here," a voice said from above, grunting a bit. "This is so uncomfortable. I can't see how you people can live in places like this!" The handsome brown-skinned young man said as he dismounted from the neck of his sturdy blue-skinned ... dragon.

He held his arm out, and the bronze flitter flew to him. "This is Bolder," the man announced. "He has been getting quite good at leading me places... That I don't usually go-" the man landed on the foot-wide balcony, and looked uncomfortable. "This isn't very sturdy, is it?" He asked, and abruptly Kimball stood and beckoned him inside.

"Sorry - come in."

"Thank you. I'm Levar, and that is Diosth, he's a dragon from Dark Moon. He got us here. We followed Bolder... I don't know how he knew where to go, though..."

"Um, your dragon is... sitting on the video shop." Kimball pointed out.

"He is. What's a 'video shop'? Other than that thing under him?" Levar chuckled.

"Could he maybe break the lights so they're not on all the time?" Kimball said and Grace snorked out a laugh.

"Well..." the rider said, looking around and getting a vacant expression on his face. "I don't think you ought to worry about it for very long."

The seriousness in Kimball's face returned, suddenly. "What do you mean," he demanded, almost angrier than he was afraid.

"I mean - hey, relax..." Levar held his hands up carefully, as Bolder fluttered excitedly. Levar's strange expression returned, and the dragon outside made a noise. "I mean that Diosth has brought me here to ask you - both of you - if you want to come to our world for a dragon hatching."

Grace stared at the man, and if he hadn't just come in from the window across his dragon's neck, she might not have any reason to believe him. But she did.

Kimball was a bit more perturbed. "Hatching? What in the world are you talking about? Maybe I should be taking my meds more often..." He shook his head and scratched his stubbly chin.

"Well my Diosth came from an egg, and grew. You didn't think they just sprang out fully grown, did you?"

"I never gave it any thought," Kimball said, and while he was being sarcastic, the rider didn't realize it.

"Well, they do. And, they need human help. You could be that help for a dragon, you know. I don't usually search for candidates, but since Bolder decided we'd head out, I really didn't have much choice."

"So... what would we do with a dragon," Grace asked. "I mean, bring it back here? Or what?"

"This is no place for dragons," Levar said, flatly. "But you'd always be welcome in many places. The dragons often fight off threats on worlds - things fall from the sky, or crawl out of the water, or even burrow through the ground."

"I thought dragons ate people." Kimball said.

"Well, I've never seen one do it. Not our kind, anyway. I've heard bad things about hydra and other kinds of dragons that are really dangerous. These kinds," he tossed his head and the blue dragon beyond mimicked the action, "they need someone to bond to, at birth. Otherwise often they die because they're not ready to face the world."

"They die?" Kimball said, furrowing his rich black eyebrows. "Well you didn't say that..."

"You've always been a sucker for sob stories haven't you?" Grace said, with a grin.

"And you haven't? Look at you, you've taken me on, haven't you?" Kimball smirked right back.

Levar watched this with interest, but then his dragon made a noise and called his attention to flashing lights below.

"Oh crap!" Kimball said, "the police... The video people are probably freaked out - you've got to get that dragon the hell out of here!"

Levar glanced at the street below, and there were some blue and red flashing lights around the corner - and a howling sound which set Bolder into a tizzy. "Go - the hills are good..."

"No! The hills - you mean the one that has the big 'Hollywood' sign!?" Grace yelled, "He can't go up there, there are always bums and tourists and drug dealers out there!"

"Then let's go, now," Levar said. "Or you can try and explain it to your 'police'."

"Go - you mean with you?" Kimball said, "with the dragon?"

"With the dragon," Levar replied. Panic was obviously setting in on the man's mind, while the woman was being rather more practical about things. She'd grabbed a robe out of Kimball's closet and thrown it on him, and then rushed to get her bags that she'd packed earlier.

"Get your overnight bag, Kim," she said, curtly. "We're good to go. They can figure it out themselves."

In a daze, Kimball obeyed his friend, and stuffed some clothing into a small satchel. His robe fit him, the one that Grace dug out from his closet for herself was way too big, but she didn't care.

The trio gingerly made their way across the street while two police cars pulled up. The cops who emerged from the cars shouted at each other and then pointed up at the people - and the dragon.

"We're out of here," Grace hissed, as Diosth grasped them in his sturdy arms and took off. His rider nestled quickly onto his neck, and with one mighty heave they took off.

On the ground, there was some confusion. There would be more, of course, when people called in about seeing some gigantic monster flying around in the skies over Hollywood. But of course it was tinsel town and most everyone out at that time was on some kind of party drug.

Except for the police who arrived at the scene. But that's their own story...

Grace and Kimball clung on to the warm blue hide of the dragon, and to each other. The exhiliration of takeoff was then coupled with the terror of traveling the nexus. When they arrived at Ryslen Weyr, the pair were chilled to the bone but wide-eyed and amazed.

"This place is... wow..." Grace said, holding her bags to her chest.

"Yeah - what you said..." Kimball announced. They were led into a place to rest - they had been rudely awakened anyway, before they were taken from Earth and led here.

Later on, they would be able to view the red sands and the round eggs under the watchful eyes of the great trio of queens who had laid them. They finally understood - all these dragons had bonds! Well, except the shimmering green one whose bond was a big light-brown one.

They had to learn the ranks, the castes of the weyr, and that kind of thing. And it came remarkably easy to both of them. They were used to quickly memorizing lines, and discarding them when they weren't needed any more. But this heavily repetitive use of information exploited their ability to read a script.

Finally, then, they were told to add their names to the big listing of candidates near the sands.

Name	Grace	Kimball
Gender	Female	Male
Age	32	28
Born...	Earth (Los Angeles)	Earth (Marston, AZ)
Job	Actress	Actor
Hair	Mousey Brown	Black-Brown
Eyes	Golden Brown	Grey-Green
Height	5'9"	6'1"
Build	Healthy, rounded	Lean, strong
Dragon	?	?
Born At	Ryslen	Ryslen
Dam	?	?
Sire	?	?
Mate	?	?