Flight Story of Shaeya and Scleanth Her long coppery hair flew about her face in wild curls and strands, having a mind of its own liberated by the wind soaring around them. Warm green eyes smiled, and Shaeya spread her arms to her sides and closed them, letting out a gleeful laugh as Scleanth flew smoothly through the air. You should do that more. Scleanth scolded, turning a sharp, gently swirling blue eye on her rider. "And you," Shaeya retorted, "should concentrate on where you're flying." Etln let out a trill of agreement and darted ahead, her amber body twisting around Scleanth's neck. I am an amazing flyer, Scleanth countered, snapping dark green wings and turning on her wingtip to lazily drift through low-hanging clouds that clung to both hide and skin. "Scleanth!" Shaeya shrieked, tightening her knees and grasping the spine in front of her to keep her balance. "You're supposed to warn me!" About what? The dragoness asked lazily, but Shaeya sensed the tension behind those words. "What do you think?" She questioned her bond sharply, searching her mind for something she should be warned of. Keeping her tone light, Scleanth answered, I think it's a beautiful day. "You hate it when it's this warm," Shaeya prodded. "You said it's too hot with such a dark hide." I changed my mind. Scleanth hissed more forcefully than necessary. "Scleanth," Shaeya groaned after a moment of silence. "That's why all those stupid men are approaching me, isn't it? I know we'd signed up, but flaming ants!" What diid you expect? Scleanth brooded. A shimmering hide and flam.ing eyes? "Yes!" Shaeya cried angrily, slapping her hand against her thigh and closing her eyes against the pounding that was beginning at the base of her skull. "How long?" Days. Her bond answered glumly. Hours. I don't know. Etln let out a loud shriek in Shaeya's ear and grabbed it to turn her head. Below, a male bugled a challenge and followed Scleanth's smooth flight with bright and quickly-whirling eyes. "I have a guess," Shaeya murmured, her fists tightening to a white-knuckled grip on her harness. I'm sorry. Scleanth whispered soothingly, and both let out tired sighs. "Back to the Caer," Shaeya muttered, and Scleanth performed another flawless turn, carrying them both down a path they should have known was inevitable. ~ * ~ * ~ After their flight two days earlier, Shaeya had been convinced that Scleanth was going to drop her off at their caerlet and decide it was her time. She was wrong. So she got to spend the next three days chewing her nails off, snapping at anything male, and resenting the attention any other women received. I don't understand! She'd wailed upon bursting into her caerlet, but Scleanth was deeply asleep and offered no answers for her bond. As duties for the day were done, she had no where to go and no one she wanted to talk to. Curling up in a plush chair, Shaeya chewed a full bottom lip and studied the sleeping Scleanth. Just as the awkward black-green hatchling had matured into a lithe and smooth dragoness, Shaeya was no longer the gangly, painfully thin child she'd once been. Large folds of clothes hid a lean but decidedly feminine body, and her large green eyes, tilted up slightly at the edges, gave her face an exotic and unique look. Thus the reason she had grown her hair so long and left it loose. It was much easier to hide behind bangs and long strands of hair than to stare the face head-on as so many of the female dragoners were now choosing to do. Etln, who had been draped across her shoulders, stirred with an irritated trill before letting out a surprised squeak and vanishing between. Thinking nothing of the odd behaviour, Shaeya started in on a nail and wondered if maybe it wasn't too late to pull out of the flight and just take Scleanth away until her days of rising had passed. It might be a pain to disappear once or twice a year for days or weeks at a time, but to avoid men, it was a price she was willing to pay. Scleanth stirred on her bed, and Shaeya rose, hurrying towards her and reaching out to touch minds. She came to a standstill, however, and recoiled from the rage and untapped anger surging under the calm exterior the dragoness possessed. "Scleanth," Shaeya whispered hoarsely, and red eyes opened to study her dispassionately before she was all scrabbling claws and outstretched wings. Instead of immediately heading to the hunting grounds, Scleanth spread wide her powerful wings and let out a mighty treble bugle, crouching at the edge of the caerlet and snarling when a neighbouring male crooned appreciatively of the signals the black-green was giving off. Scleanth! Shaeya silently screamed when the dragoness dropped off the side of the cliff and soared but feet from the caer floor, red eyes flashing as powerful wings carried her to the hunting grounds. Blood it! Shaeya warned when two beasts where captured beneath her unforgiving claws, and Scleanth let out a hiss and turned to stare at Shaeya, their minds clashing as Scleanth struggled for the right to rip into the warm flesh. Throwing back her head and letting out a mournful howl, Scleanth tore open the throat of one of the beasts before tossing it aside. With a hiss, she settled her teeth into the other, and Shaeya, with her heightened connection, could feel the warm blood bursting in her mouth and sliding down her throat to her stomach, where it spread to give strength to already well-rested limbs. Settling into an almost trance-like state, Shaeya was barely aware of the door to her caerlet being opened by Istin and the men participating being allowed past. Scleanth, aware slightly of what Shaeya was seeing, lifted her head to study the males gathering around the hunting grounds with distaste and scorn. None are worthy, she told Shaeya in a moment of sanity, before snarling at a female diving for a kill and taking down another beast of her own. From Falas, there was R'shaw with his blue Eth, and R'non with his brown Roulth. Both were strong, kind, good-looking, average dragoners, and Scleanth immediately discounted both. From the seas around Falas, and both riding FGPC dragons, were Kindin and Loyan with Red Sun Baharith and Gold Gasparath, respectively. They provided, to both rider and dragon, an enigma, and one they weren't quite yet willing to sort through. As a last minute sort of thing, Tynan and his Blue Abhayiak, Quacar and his Bronze Kambruth, and Caiseal with his Blue Chwilioth decided to give the non-Brynmor dragons a run for their money. Scleanth didn't even bother looking at them. Growing anxious with her tarrying, Chwilioth gave a taunting bugle, and Shaeya was vaguely aware of Caiseal's groan of displeasure even while his hand closed gentle on her upper arm. Responding to both the call and Shaeya's outrage at being touched, Scleanth let out a belch of fire in Chwilioth's direction and shot off the ground. Instead of heading toward the sky, where she had been told to on numerous occassions, Scleanth headed straight for Chwilioth and raked at him with her claws. Luckily, he had seen the retaliation coming and slipping under the claws, almost grabbing her tail as she shot past. His jaws closed on empty air, and overcompensating for the miss, Chwilioth lost his balance and remained earth-bound a moment too long. One down, Scleanth bugled, red eyes glaring against the pink sky before she disappeared into the clouds, her black tail twitching gaily from side to side as she began her game of hide and seek. Completely enthralled now in her bond's flight, Shaeya closed her eyes to stop the double vision and smiled as the wind blew over her, or Scleanth's, scales. Her wings pumped powerfully on either side, and for a moment, they both forgot about the flight and the males closing in behind them and took joy in the wind and the setting sun, the feel of the cool clouds against her warm hide, and the way the ground fell away beneath them. Eth's arrival behind her was an unwanted surprise, and Scleanth let out another small burst of fire, performing one of her flawless turns and soaring right over the blue. He had chosen too early in the flight to close in on her, and, not being prepared for the sudden change in direction, let out an angry bugle as he struggled to turn and had to concede defeat. Are you growing tired? She taunted the males, pleased with their angry, amused, and stony, answers. Another quick change in direction dropped out Blue Abhayiak, and he complained all the way to the ground about how he should know better, living at the same Caer as such a conniving female. The speed, Scleanth quickly came to realize, was much faster than that she was used to flying at. No longer leisurely, it was an escape she was trying to perform, and one her wings were beginning to protest at. My rider... she began, but feeling Shaeya's involvement in the flight, both knew there could be no turning back. Her eyes still a gleaming red, they no longer whirled out of control, but with calculated precision. Being smaller than any of the males, Scleanth stopped flying parallel to the ground and rose higher, into the thinner air of the atmosphere. She could sense, through Shaeya's connection with the males on the ground, the frustration her move caused, and though her own wings grew tired, it was not hers that gave out. Brown Roulth let out a groan of defeat and spiralled back down to the ground, where he joined the grumbling about stubborn females. Bronze, Red Sun, and Gold, Shaeya needlessly reminded her bond, and quickly shared feelings on the males. The reflecting was brought short when Kambruth, studying his competitors, shot forward with a burst of reserve energy and snapped at her flailing tail. Knocking said tail against his head, Scleanth performed a risky manuever Shaeya would never have allowed. Over backwards she went, twisting at the top of the spiral and leaving Kambruth staring into thin air where only moments before he had smelled victory. She now had to drop down into the thinner air, and Baharith and Gasparath followed gladly, eyeing each other as they began to close the distance between themselves and their quarry. I am tired! Scleanth informed her rider with some amount of amazement. I would have this done. Shaeya, whom had been holding out for the unwarranted drop-out of all the males chasing her bond, felt her resistance to the idea crumpling, and felt, if she could not see, the two men standing near her. As was she, they were covered in a light sheen of persperation and caught up in the minds of their dragons. Their hands rested on her waist and interlocked with her fingers, and Shaeya squeezed her eyes tightly together, trying to stop the burning behind her lids and the tears that spilled, unnoticed, from her eyes. Have it done, then. She allowed, and Scleanth let out a tired yet triumphant bellow, eyeing the males behind her. She had no doubt they would not yield until either she did, or all were too tired to continue, and as she had no desire to repeat her flight, as she no doubt would, the dragoness realized she might have to choose. For one so against the rising and joining of herself to any male, Scleanth's plotting over the next few seconds would have amused many. Shaeya, however, was not amused, and Scleanth was deadly serious as she contemplated the two. font color="006600">Trust me, she whispered, and Shaeya bit into her lip and waited. Two more strokes of her wings forward, and Shaeya could feel her muscles bunching as Scleanth performed another of her turns, this time up and back. Gasparath and Baharith had not, however, chased her thus far and learned nothing of her tactics. As she turned, Baharith, who was closer to the side on which she turned, mimicked her movements and came up beneath her, avoiding sharp claws and a lashing tail to flip upside down and, in a move of which she was most appreciative, intertwine his neck and tail with her own before flipping her upside down and wrangling from her a cry of exhaustion. The golden Gasparath returned quickly to the ground, too tired to complain about the lose, and Loyan slipped from the room as Shaeya finally gave herself over to the raging hormones and emotions her bond forced upon her. Opening teary green eyes to watch her fingers skim lightly across the tan skin of Kindin, she finally met his own green eyes framed by dark brown brows and watching her with barely contained restraint. "Don't ever think of trying such a move on me," she warned, and warm laughter bubbled up from his wide chest. "Stubborn," he whispered against her mouth, and Shaeya agreed with an accepting sigh. Shaeya bonded at the Healing Den Etln is from Falas Weyr