Zheun
Female, age 17
Stands 5'5" tall, is built thin as a twig and unbelievably sturdy
Platinum blond hair, very pale skin, and forest green eyes
Parents: Both alive, but never were married to one another (bastard child), father is a master Tanner, mother is a cook
Siblings: father's side, 2 girls (both older)
Born: Guild house near Dun Keiba, by the river

She was beautiful, this daughter of professionals. It was, some said, a shame that her parents wouldn't be able to get a dowry for her if she married. But she hardly cared anyway, and she always met those critics of her birth with the same bright smile that she carried with her all day. If she was affected by their comments she never showed it. According to Zheun her only failing was that in the time she was learning her disparate family trades, she had never had time to really learn to read beyond a few cooking ingredients and measurments, math for either trade she loved.

There were many young men vying for her attentions too, but Zheun wasn't really interested so much in settling down to marry or to become someone's workaday baby factory... She enjoyed her jobs more than that!

Her father, though he was a randy man and hardly spent two nights with the same woman, was also generous and honest about his affections. He knew that his daughters were scattered about the small city, and all three of them, though they were not close as sisters, thought that he was absolutely wonderful. He tried very hard to make sure they each felt loved and attended to, though they spent their time mostly with their mothers. However it was Zheun that took after Zhorg, and it was she that he decided - because he so far knew of no sons - to bring into his business of the tannery.

It was smelly, and hard work, but Zheun took to it with incredible ease. It was also nice when she'd fix him that big dinner she learned how to make from her mother Una. Zheun spent about a third of her time with her mother, and was constantly kept busy making shopping runs and deliveries. It wasn't that Zheun wasn't talented enough to help run the restaurant where Una's whole family lived and worked, it was that she was ... well, for lack of a better word, far more attractive than most of them, and could get better prices - and better tips - for the work she did!

The tannery was where she felt most at home though, among the thick hides and the buckets of chemicals. She made sure to keep heavy gloves on when working with the smelly compounds. She had an eye for the colors and dyes, but also for suppleness and workability. Perhaps she might make a master tanner, but more likely she'd spend the rest of her life working happily as a journeywoman for her father.

Then one day, things changed.

They had lived under the protection of Dun Keiba for some time, this riverside community, so the sight of draks flying overhead in formation was nothing new. However it was quite rare when they landed anywhere near - and even more rare when they came down fighting the Nex! People were scattering, running to and fro, some even yelling or screeching. As though that would help.

Zheun was seated in her father's cart, reins in her hands and with the thick draft runners shifting angrily. "Easy, easy," she said, trying to calm the pair of animals. Their four upper limbs gripped the harnesses unsure of what to do.

They were about to sprint off, but a firm command from Zheun kept them in check just long enough to see her first up close Nex Necis. It scuttled by, nearly twice her height and as long as the runners and cart combined. It had vicious clawed forelimbs, and the rest scrabbled at the cobblestone road leaving gashes where it turned. She was stunned, Zheun didn't quite know whether to be entranced or terrified.

The problem soon became that the runners were now petrified, they would not run even if Zheun begged them. They would only attract attention! Standing still in the middle of the road, with two draks above and one somewhere beyond the first row of shops lining the road, Zheun knew that this horrifying creature would surely eat her if it got close enough.

It wasn't facing her, it had turned to snap at another runner as it tried springing past. Their bodies were too long to be easily turned, Zheun thought. She dove into the back of her cart, she knew there was something she could do...

She came up with a long bolt of tanned hide, which was thick and dark, not her best work and certainly not fit for human clothing. It had two long slender tags coming off of it, where the legs of this animal had been, and she gripped those in both hands. Then, abruptly, she lept from the cart onto the back of the Nex!

The Knight and drak nearest shouted, both of them, but they shortly moved in. Zheun had secured the leather over the creature's head, where it was obviously in danger of decapitating itself if it tried ripping at it with its claws! She tied it quickly, it was not loose but it wouldn't hold with the thrashing about they were doing. When she realized just what danger she'd put herself in, was just about the same moment that the Knight and drak were in range to sweep her off the Nex's back!

It was that moment, with the drak's paws clutching her sides and pulling her upwards, that she realized she'd never even been this close to one of them before - nex be damned, she'd like to have had a little warning!

"Put me down!" she squawked, perhaps the least ladylike she'd ever been. She began pounding her strong fists on the drak's leg but to little avail. She heard the knight on its back saying something but she wasn't sure what he'd said, the wind in her ears and the blood pounding in her head mixed it up.

At last, though, after what felt like hours in the sky but was likely only a few moments, the Knight commanded his drak to land and gently set Zheun down. Her legs were like jelly, but she refused to fall. She forced herself to believe she had not just been abducted - she didn't even know where she was! The surroundings were hilly, covered with the scrub plants and trees she was used to in the town, but when she turned around she couldn't see the river.

Though she wanted to scream, too much habit intervened, and Zheun said, "I do appreciate the rescue, good sir... But... I would like to be home, not here! I don't know where this place is..." She knew that the tone of her voice was wavery, she looked up at the drak, and found herself for no good reason, to be afraid.

The drak, an Earth male, settled to the ground and let his knight down. Though she was terrified, and growing more agitated, Zheun had to admit that the beast had grace. But he was so big... The rider, a redheaded man with strong shoulders and a confident face. "I'm sorry about that, but it would have trampled you and your cart - the other knights have taken care of it."

"Well that's... good," Zheun said, turning and trying to keep the rider in her view as he walked around her - but she didn't want to turn her back on the drak! "And I should get back and check my cart - my father's goods, we need those to sell!"

"And that was an incredible thing you did! That was amazing, you moved so fast, I could hardly believe it!" The knight seemed genuine, but continued to ignore Zheun's bewildered look. "I'm glad that Urncheu didn't start his acid spray, you would have been hit! That was a very brave thing you did." He finally extended a hand, "I am Knight Rowan, this is Earth Urncheu, and ... well, even though it's not normally my job to do it, I want to say that you've been Judged worthy for Aspiration! I want to bring you to Dun Keiba after the Nex are cleaned up and settled, you've got to come up and be properly Judged!"

Zheun stood for half a second almost completely still, and then began crying - her big green eyes filled with tears and began all but splashing on the ground below. Her lips, normally held in a perpetual smile, had puffed up and were held in such a pout that Rowan had never seen. Zheun put her hands up to her face, sobbing into them, "But I'm not good for a rider, I don't want to leave my home! Please, bring me back home! Or just... leave me alone!"

Normally she was not impulsive, but this time Zheun had had enough. She bolted past the drak, heading downhill - she knew that somewere down there was her home, somewhere was the river that led muddily to the delta and into the southern seas...

She tripped twice, and the second time tumbled down to a tuft of sicker bushes, where she gingerly picked herself up and tried to slow her descent. She could hardly see, of course, because of her crying and the smudge of grasses and dirt on her hands. Drak fur mixed with it, she could feel it clinging to her cheek and trailing off... She hazarded a glance over her shoulder and did not see the drak nor rider. Good. Maybe they'd just let her be!

"Ma'am, you really should try calming yourself," Said Rowan, from atop his drak, who had quietly glided downwards. "We're really too far from your home to just run there. I'll... I'll take you home, now. I'm sorry for the shock..."

"I - I," She stammered, "Please don't pick me up! Please don't pick me up!"

The drak descended and landed - again all too quietly for Zheun's taste. "Come along, then, up on his shoulder, it's not that hard. You can fit in front of me, you're not that big a girl."

Zheun hesitated, here was the same drak that had abducted her, they expected her to just get on its back? Rowan extended his hand and she finally took it, he helped her up and gripped her snugly - but not rudely. "You can close your eyes if it makes you feel better, but if you keep them open I guarantee you'll like what you see."

Zheun still trembled, she almost wanted to leap from the neck of the drak - but they were in flight. How had they gotten into the air so smoothly? So swift? She knew she couldn't turn and look at the drak's four wings, she'd just see Rowan's sizable chest instead. Was she reviled by touching the drak? Or just scared silly? She hardly knew any more. But what she did know was that Rowan hadn't lied to her: the town was miles away - the drak's quick progress down the hilly slope made it look so close. It would have been after nightfall had she continued to run, and even then she would have likely run into a Nex or two. They had been rousted from the town, but a couple had scattered, and were in hiding. Her cart and runners were of course nowhere to be found, but she directed Rowan toward her father's shop.

"This will do, I am sure that someone will return our goods... Oh look, the cart's here, someone has brought them home already... " Zheun all but flew off the neck of the drak, landing in a heap by her father's cart. Rowan could tell she was trying to maintain that air she'd had before he spoke, she was brave beyond belief but ...

"Ma'am, if you don't mind me asking, what's got you spooked? You lept on that Nex like it was a runaway goat, not like it would tear you to pieces. Yet you fall to pieces when a good Knight like myself comes along?"

"Don't be mean to her," said the drak - the first time (again) that Zheun had heard such speech. He had a rough, low voice, this Earth drak named Urncheu, and he respected the distance she wanted. "Sssshhe will need a proper judge, yessss. And time. Perhapsss much of that."

"Oh you're not ... serious about that are you? I mean... I can't ride and be a knight! I'm a tanner! I just got my journemanship!"

"Well then your trade routes would be much wider with a drak carrying your goods, eh?" Rowan said with a smirk. "I'll be back tomorrow with a real Judge, you think about the good things, and - you're very brave. I expect you ought to be rewarded for your action too. I wasn't the only one saw you do that." he thumbed toward the group of people who were approaching, and Zheun could hear them speaking exictedly about her leap upon the wild Nex's back. She blushed, and gave a half-hearted wave to Rowan as he saluted her and flew off. She turned to the group, unsure of what she ought to say or do. She must look a mess - her hair wild, and her face full of grime!

"Thank you all for coming to see I was all right," she said, giving a curtesy, "But I really must get in, and clean up, it's been quite a day for everyone out there..." Though some tried to remain on she ducked quickly into the shop's back area, and sent someone else out to make sure the cart was secured.

***

A day later, nearing evening - probably knowing that they would be home and likely eating, two draks entered the air above the shop, and landed deftly in the wide street. They would come knocking, and a weird fear gripped Zheun's stomach. She would have to face not just one but two draks, their riders... be Judged? Her? She -- got up and answered the door when the corded bell was jingled. Curse those habits of being nice to everyone... She just couldn't stay mad at anyone but herself for it.

The two men were Knights, of course, their draks behind pleasantly different. Rowan bowed, and the man behind him smiled. "This girl? Did that?" he said, chuckling. "Then there's no doubt at all..." He moved Rowan aside, and gazed past Zheun at her father and his scattered age-mate relatives who helped him run the shop. "Greetings," he said, "I'm Istvan, Judge for Dun Keiba. I've been told about your daughter's encounter yesterday, her bravery, and the rest... I'd like to say, she's more than adequate for Aspiration. I would like to take her to a dragonry to see if she'd pair with a ... rather unusual kind of drak."

Zheun tried to convey her distress at this, by widening her eyes and giving a kind of pouty look. But, heroically, her father misinterpreted it as begging to go. "Of course, I'd be proud to have a Knight in the family - and say, we've got enough room for two more tonight, come on and help yourselves, it's not Zheun's momma's recipie but it's good enough!" He scooted his wooden chair over, and the others did likewise. Zheun stood dumbfounded, but managed to sit herself back down and finish her meal, among all the talk of adventures and joining and knighthood. Her father was ecstatic. Her uncles and aunt were too. But... She glanced out the window and saw the eager looking face of the rain-colored female that the Judge rode.

She sighed. It would be a long long time before she'd feel at ease again...

***

Zheun fiddled with her fingers, wondering when she was going to be able to work leather again. Anything, to avoid looking up at the earnest, intense faces of the draks. They were pretty - she didn't think they were hideous or anything. But they were scary. The reward for her having helped with the Nex aside, Zheun wondered if she was going to have to really become a Knight? Really?

Well here she was at a place called Mirus, waiting for the hatchlings to be shown. Or something, it was weird because she did know enough about drak culture that the young draklings were supposed to be introduced by their dam, not seen in their eggs like this! They were rocking, the eggs, and then they started to break open.

The second to last egg erupted into another beautifully hued female; she was gold all over, but with red points to all her appendages. She shook her head to rid herself of the last fragments of her egg, the motion betraying a certain hot temper, as if irritated by the shell fragments. And then she stepped forward, immediately claiming the human Zheun has her bond. It was an odd coincidence, really, that her new rider was from the planet Icarus, and this dragon's colouration was oddly similar to that of an Icaran drak. It was only coincidence, however, for Leikoytta was  a duo-wing of Ryslen heritage rather than Icaran. Do you still regret the chance to become a Knight, Zheun? Would you reject Chiretahm-leidra?

She wasn't sure what to say. This was so odd - mental contact? And what kind of name was Chirrrresomething?

Chiretahm-leidra, the drak supplied.

"I ... suppose I have no choice now," Zheun said. While she was a bit excited, it was in a fearful, almost frantic way. Surrounded as she was on all sides by exotic draks (some with only two wings) and all these weird colors on them... Her head swam. Do not worry. I will help you... But I am hungry. Can't I get something to eat? Do you know where the food is?

That shook Zheun out of her haze. Even if she wasn't planning on being a Knight, there was the fact that she was now responsible for a young drakling! "I'm sorry, Chiretahm," she said, stumbling over the name. "I don't mean to be like this... I'm just not... really what you'd call Knight material."

Oh I think you are - at least, rider material, and I will help you out. I want to see those things, the Nex. My sire knows of them!

The next worry flooded her: what if these other ... oddddly colored draks visited their sibling? How could she explain their coloration?

Hush! My sire has a Knight, see! And they do not worry about his colors! Chiretahm said angrily. I do not want this to be a hard life to live, aren't you going to get me that food?

Zheun finally laughed a little, "yes, I should do that. Just... remind me when I'm being offensive, Chiretahm." Zheun gulped. Well, might as well start acting like a Knight... "You do sort of look like a Fire drak," Zheun said.

Name: Chiretahm-leidra
Gender: Female
Colour: Gold-Red
Adult Height: 13'
Adult Length: 26'
Personality: Chiretahm-leidra has quite a temper to her, but she is nevertheless a strong, determined dragon, a characteristic she shares with her bond. She's always ready to fight for what she believes in, but she worries that Zheun didn't really want to bond her at all.
Abilities: Telepathy, Fire Breath, Bend Light