Ibej and Beji Peli

Beji and Ibej Peli

Twins running around Eden's Gate, children who grew up on Alskyr but were familiar enough with their parents homeworld.

No one had even noticed when they had vanished, into the peak and its mysterious caverns. It was hardly forbidden, at least for Eden's Gate people, to head up to Blackstone's 'weyr', it was just usually a good idea to tell someone about it.

The twins were energetic, but smart. Hardly a day went by when they weren't getting into some new kind of trouble, really, though they were very difficult to pin down and educate about normal things. Both of them can read and write, but... You don't really want to try and read their script.

Nor do you really want to know what those words they're scribbling on walls and in corridors mean. Somewhere along the way they located an old, old book on slang. How many different ways can you insult someone's size, parentage, or background? Plenty. Just ask.

Because they were brought up in the free state of Eden's Gate, their one trip into Dawnlight Hold was miserable. They had to behave themselves, which they tried but failed, and very shortly their trip was ended by angry admin. Apparently, it has been their sole concern to become good enough to pull a real good prank on those people, for the last six years.

And in order to do that, they had to have dragons.

They could have asked their friends, but no. They had to be their dragons, because anything less would surely misinterpret their goals. They didn't want to hurt anyone, seriously anyway, but only inconvienence and make them rather irate - more at their own system than the kids.

So they stole off into the big computer chamber where they located an ideal clutch. Mischief abounded in legends about green - the Green, the Green Man, Puck, Luck, all that. Ryslen was perfect. Ryslen had greens aplenty.

No one knows, still, whether they passed themselves off as Novos, or just walked right in. Additionally - no one really ever will know, they're not talking, and neither are their dragons!

Verdath was slightly bigger, shoulder to paw, than his sister. Plus, he was male, and that itself kind of wigged out a few of the folks at the Weyr. Glaucouth on the other hand was a long green, lean and quick. Even as young as they were when the pair returned from the Weyr's caverns (how had they even gotten there and back? who was helping them!?) it was easy to see how this pair worked together.

They were more secretive than they'd been before, Ibej and Beji had normally been vocal, friendly and busy with their time around others. But now, they were a bit more serious. What were those dragons telling these kids?

They took to the air as soon as they possibly could. Though neither green would be bigger than average, they were healthy, strong, and all muscle. Rather a lot like the twins, really. They spent a lot of time learning the hard wind currents over the Isle, taking note of choppiness and where it was smoother, planning. Always planning.

Eventually they loosened up a little, their young friends wanted rides, they obliged. If anything, to make sure that the dragons could carry extra weight...

"We're ready," Beji said. She'd fallen more than her brother, once badly on her head over a rock which cut her forehead open. Scarred, but more embarrassed than wounded, she had learned her lesson. Don't dangle off the neck, and definitely don't dangle where there are rocks.

"We are," Ibej nodded. They had both grown into handsome teens, almost adults now. Their dragons were mirthful around others of their kind, and especially so when they knew they were going to race or hunt.

It was a hunt, of sorts, that they were planning now. Dawnlight had some great and interesting artifacts. Ones which their normal population weren't either aware of or allowed to see. The pair wanted those things, and they'd have them before the night was out.

Night flying, over turbulent seas between the Isle and Paniya, in the summer right before the rainy season... It could have gone badly.

It did not. Luck was with them, luck and skill. The pair of dragons landed on the Hold's biggest building, a stone, mortar and metal thing which made a strange hollow sound when the dragons walked. The teen riders broke into the building through its rooftop access, and simply strolled around until they found what they'd been looking for.

Then once it was in their greedy little hands, they did something quite odd. They took a camera, one which they'd found yet again on some trip to a Nexus world they ought not to have known about - let alone visited - and snapped a picture of themselves with the big metal object. They knew what it was, what it could do.

Hardly anyone else in the Hold did. It was broken, but they didn't care. The snapshot developed on instant polarized film, and they stuck it into the display case where they'd liberated the item. Then, back up to the roof, and back across the waters. The first spritz of rain followed them, but they were warm and dry and telling tales of adventure with their dragonriding friends now, inside Blackstone's huge cavernous dining hall. Showing off the item, what was it? Who cared. It was the adventure that counted.

***

Hollis looked at Shard, and they both turned to Rue. She scowled, and leaned into her blue man. "They'll get hurt," she said.

"They'll bring life back into the place," Shard reminded her. He was right, and she knew it, and Hollis did too. They hadn't tried stopping the kids, ever, because though they knew it was dangerous and often illegal to tamper with things... The riders of Blackstone Weyr and Eden's Gate were bored.

"There are riders from Dawnlight who will try fighting them," Rue stated. Hollis nodded at that.

"Yes, they will. And I hope they enjoy themselves too."

"You're both crazy," Rue sighed. "That's why I love you guys..."