. 
Aya Sengihr-Dahash and Megami Sengihr, candidates to Ryslen
Their day was in fact a good one. The pair of Breeders strutted through the mall until they could carry no more goods. Then they set about locating their carriage, and even on Zekiran soil, remembering where you parked IS a problem.
They stood around for just a minute, and finally their coach came up. The Steeds were handsome, and Aya commented on them.
"Oh - I suppose they are nice," Megami said, faintly distracted by something off in the distance.
"Now," Aya said, as they sat down among their goods and bags, "why would you say just nice? They're actually quite sturdy Steeds. You should know that, didn't you buy them?"
"Well, of course I did, but I hardly pay much attention to them," Megami admitted. "Like father says, they are smelly beasts you know."
"Of course he'd say that," Aya laughed. "But you? Your mother would hardly approve of your attitude toward animals, Meg."
"I realize that, Aya, but I didn't go into Animal Mastery because I have no penchant for ... well, Animals. You do, you're all over that. But I just can't sense them really."
They were chatting pleasantly in the coach while on the way back to Megami's Behat homestead, when the alarms began to sound. There was an attack? Here?
The Steeds almost spooked, but with the driver of the cab's soothing voice and Aya's slight influence psionically, they calmed and trotted home as though nothing were wrong. However everything else seemed in chaos.
They looked up, now used to doing so as a people for not just recreational purposes in watching Steed racing in the skies. They waited and saw then, a squadron of five alien jets.
"I do wish they'd leave," Megami muttered. "They interrupt so much."
"Well there's one way to help," Aya said, with a gleam in her eye. "We could find someone to take us to that dragon sand. And we could ... fly dragons."
"What, against those?!" Megami yelled suddenly, pointing wildly at them with her red-brown hand. "I'm a Breeder, Aya! Not a fighter!"
"Are you afraid to pair a dragon?" Aya asked. They stood in Megami's large home, its huge north-facing window wall suddenly filling with the wings of Sky dragons from Behat's local Dragon ranks. They swept around the jets, engaging them with blasts of air, fire and sound. The Masters of these dragons remained on the ground, of course, some of them riding Steeds below the action so they could maintain closer contact mentally.
"I'm not afraid of a dragon, Aya," Megami said, "They fight those creatures, in their jets. They have weapons that we can't combat, armor that not every dragon's talon can breech. I'm not afraid of the dragons, at all. I'm afraid that those... things would kill me. And you."
"... It's always a danger in our lives, now," Aya admitted. "And we do our best."
Aya took a step closer and hugged her sister, their empathic bond was strong just then.
"I know you're crazy, Meg, but you aren't that crazy. They wouldn't make us fight, you know, not on those dragons. Our Zekiran dragons are for that. The other ones... They're good for lots of other things."
Megami wiped away a bit of a tear from her eye. "Well what would I do with one anyway? And you? I mean, other than scare your animals half to death? You know how badly most other animals feel when dragons are near. They're monsterous in size if not in attitude."
"I know," Aya laughed, and it turned to a bit more of a relieved cheer when she saw out the window that two of the jets had been torn into pieces by a trio of large Sky dragons, and another was streaming smoke from its engines, while the other two were turned around headed back the way they came. "Where do they come from, I wonder," she said quietly before continuing, "my Steeds and everyone else think they're terrifying. They're always afraid they'll be eaten."
"And I don't see why they shouldn't be afraid, they do get eaten." Megami said with a bit of a grin, "Steeds are pretty, but they can't stand up to a dragon's hunger can they?"
"Oh - how you say such things..." Aya said.
They sorted through their newly purchased items, as a pair of Megami's Slaves took away the packaging and served sandwiches and creamy warm drinks. Eventually, surrounded by a gigantic pile of stuff, most of which they could never use or even need, Aya looked back at Megami again.
"So, would you go with me to Ryslen? If I find someone to take us?"
Megami paused in her energetic 'grinding pepper' motion with her new cooking tool. She looked up, and swept a long curly fall of hair away from her eyes. "Of course I would. We'd get to actually use some of that interesting nonsense information that Amaranth keeps spouting, then."
Aya clapped her hands and cheered, "yes! Amaranth! She can take us! Her dragon is huge!"
Not quite expecting Aya to have solved the mystery of how they would be getting to Ryslen this quickly, of course, Megami almost immediately regretted telling her anything. But... There was the possibility that they could both come back Breeder-DragonMaster-whatevers. That had potential.
And Megami knew potential...
***
Amaranth was grinning widely, the normally sedate daughter of Mirage and her Night Gold Racynioth was almost bouncy. "I'm so glad you've asked. I wanted to head back there and tell them what I've planned, anyway."
"And what would that be, Am?" Aya asked.
"I'm going to be splicing Ryslen dragons with Sky dragons here. Can you imagine? Smart dragons like these?" She waved her pale lavender hand at Racy, "combined with the strength and size - and independance - of a Zekiran Sky dragon?"
"I suppose I can, but it would be best if I saw them for myself, first," Aya said. "She's beautiful, Amaranth, I think I've told you that."
"Everyone has," Amaranth said. "Now, are you ready? Packed?"
Megami nodded, "I've left instructions with the Slaves and Bayaran, we'll be back with time to spare, right?"
"Yes, if you learn your lessons well," Amaranth said. "They're difficult, but you can just concentrate on a year and the stars. You'll learn. You're bright girls."
They all laughed, and then got some help mounting up on the Night Gold. Racy was patient, she almost glowed with happiness at being chosen to head back. There was always a chance that she was going to find a male to bring back with her, even though Wavkokuth and Haesh were firmly 'their mates' at home. She was ready to drop some eggs for her rider, whether they were fully Zekiran, halfbreed or Ryslen, Racy obviously didn't mind any of those.
Aya caught most of her thoughts, while Megami sort of listened in on Amaranth's mind - she allowed it of course, they were really good friends being Breeders and among the more perfect of the people on the planet.
And arrogant? Why yes. But their Breeding, their parentage, and their appearances certainly bore that well.
Amaranth instructed her passengers how to cling on to Racy's wide back, and they took off. "Try and remember this scene, down there," she pointed to a game being played by a group of young Zekirans, "it'll help you remember how to focus on this time. And... we're going to be quite chilled - it's cold through the nexus..."
They arrived moments later over Ryslen, and the atmosphere was so different than on Zekira that all three of them breathed in with surprise. Dragons of many colors and faintly different descriptions flew around, and caught Aya's eyes.
"There's one without a crest! And look, that one has four wings!" She called out, "they're more marvelous than in my vision!"
"We'll see what happens next," Megami said, "let's get down and start filling out their forms, right?"
Amaranth nodded, "not much work, but you'll be expected to contribute as well as pass your candidate classes in Dragon information. You won't have any trouble at all..." She reiterated, "you're bright girls!"