Bond animal - male giant hawk (dead before Blue Mountain fell)
Ride Hawk: Extremely High

Dragon bond:  Iceso Promontores from the Bower

Rescued! Back!

** this part takes place before now**

His name was Uktui, and he had been from Blue Mountain. He now knew that his birth place (had he really been among the very last actually born to the Gliders? had he? he'd never even seen a child until...) was gone, in its place nothing but rubble and bones and flies. Even the humans had gone, apparently.

But now they called him Bones - because he was a bone-shaper. He wasn't even really fit for the Glider title, he couldn't fly. But he did have use once... while in Blue Mountain. He shook off those thoughts. He hadn't been there for many, many eights. No, he'd left long before the mountain fell, and considered himself lucky now to be alive at all.

Alive, and in good company! Bones looked around him: he was in a new Mountain holt - Bald Mountain. Where others even older than he lived, but most were all but children compared to Uktui's age. He felt the stirrings of life, all around him. And, there was one who he favored with company, more often than others.

She too had been a captive of the Trolls, below the wide plains where they'd been captured. He had been taken long before she, but Soothe was kind and enjoyable, and she always mananged to do what her name implied. They were not really lovemates, and certainly not going to Recognize, but they were friends.

And he had something he wanted to give her. They'd escaped the Trolls with the aid of the very clever Weeds, but while they were there, each of them had made their own way around life. Soothe had a strong mind and a caring heart - but she was also sturdy in body and had a spirit that could not be defeated.

She'd lost her child and her Recognized mate before being pulled under ground - lost those to Humans before her eyes. Eventually after arriving to Bald Mountain, she grieved - it was hard on everyone, because no healer could truly wipe away those blood-born tears.

And she was so young! Well, nothing could replace the life she'd born, but she could be urged to move on with her own. Since arriving here to this place where elves rode great dragons and patrolled their territory (which included friendly humans as well as other... things...) Uktui felt renewed. His ability to shape bone had kept him busy in the Aeries at Blue Mountain, so now he knew he still had good work ahead of him. But he sought out another whose magic would be useful for his needs: Kolgar, the rock-shaper.

It didn't take even a few moments to do what was needed. Kolgar hinted that the gift would probably lead to better things - but Bones waved that off, knowing that this was merely for friendship.

He then looked around for Soothe herself. He found her shortly, she was mending some cloth with the aid of a sharp needle and thread - which even he was keenly aware had been made by the Humans in their village some hours walk to the west.

Soothe looked up, eyes blinking from refocusing from her close up work, to him. He grinned, "I have something for you, Soothe, I wanted to give it to you earlier, but couldn't find a way."

"Oh you don't have to--" She said, putting down the sewing, but he urged her to take it anyway. Soothe tilted her head, "it's heavy..."

The package was wrapped in a scrap of leather, simply covering a rounded object. She pulled a flap open, and saw a glimmering item. A heavy bracelet, one made of gold and fit with gems!

"Oh this is ... this will go very nicely with my arm band," she suggested. "How did you get it!"

"When we were captives, they would leave those things just laying about, all the time." Bones said. "And you know Trolls, how often they liked to indulge in their drinks. They have games, at least the guards in the forge pit played one. They had a big barrel which had those awful spiced roots - those things that get shriveled and smell so bad?"

"The pickled beets and greens, oh I remember... they'd come out whole sometimes..." Soothe shuddered and gulped back the memory of dumping out their waste into the big pit...

"Well in that barrel they had a contest. Apparently someone'd once lost a chunk of gold in it, but no one wanted to go in and get it. Too deep for an arm, and apparently their women wouldn't lay with them if they came back to the den smelling of that juice!"

"Well I can't blame them!" Soothe laughed.

"So one night after my shift they were drunk, and one of them asked me to fetch that chunk of gold." Bones said, casually. He noted Soothe's expression. "So I did, it was horrid, the stuff burns, but I just... held my breath and dug around at the bottom."

"They could have sealed the barrel on you! You'd have been pickled elf!"

"Well they didn't, I don't think they even thought of it. I found it, brought it out, and they were so impressed - and so drunk - that they let me keep it." Soothe laughed, and put on the big bracelet. It was heavy but it felt right. "And then I had Kolgar shape it, for you. The stones are from his den, they're everywhere."

"Well I love it, it's wonderful!"

Bones let her get back to her work... And set out to find his own gift to himself too.

** back to the present**

In a trivial way, the little hatchlings did resemble their ancestress Eurani. They were mostly light in color, and had a way of moving that reminded Bones of the Chieftess' dragon.

One of them wobbled up, but was reasonably sure of himself already. He had just eaten, and a dreamy look crossed the youngling's muzzle.

*I was just thinking about how nice it'd be to see new things,* The dragonet asserted mentally. Bones delighted in the airy, chilly quality of his mind-voice. *Can I go with you? I won't be a bother.*

"I dare say you won't - Iceso, that's your name is it not?" The dragon nodded lazily. "You'll fit in nicely around Bald Mountain. And, you'll be around some relatives of yours too."

If the dragon had been a little less sleepy from his meal, he probably would have bubbled over at that. Instead, he merely bumped into Bones' leg and waited to be brought back to this new place he'd live.

***

*So you shape that thing and then use it to hunt, I see,* Iceso thought, watching Bones as he shaped some arrowheads out of the spare pile of rabbit bones that had been left after the last feast. He had just started to get good at his own variety of magic. Though it was hard, the elder Awlvon could detect all manner of magics in the dragon. And he was growing quickly too, so a larger, slightly distant aerie was put in near by so they could have privacy. In winter, Iceso lived up to his name.

He crunched through the woods, almost as tall as some of the bare trees, and went crystaline-clear blue. Bones knew he was practicing his magic, that which allowed him to literally turn to ice. He wondered absently if someone with the power to manipulate ice could .... No no, that was silly! Bones chuckled. He didn't ride Iceso, at least not while he was in this state, because it was ... well, far too cold!

*Oh you elves, always concerned about warmth. I don't see the big deal!*

"Well you wouldn't," Bones called down in both voice and mind, "But I'd like to see you hold your shape like that while you're swimming in the lake about now!"

That was one thing that Iceso knew better than to do. In the lake, all his cold would seep out - and ... perhaps cause damage, he'd stepped into water once or twice while in that shape and it wasn't pleasant. He shifted back into flesh, and flew up into the chill sky. Then, Iceso let off a long plume of icy breath: he carved a figure eight in the sky and spiraled down, still putting out a stream of iced particles. It was quite dazzling and those below appreciated it as well as ones who flew above.

Apogee and Eurani landed, and Eurani asked with a nudge of her muzzle on Bones' shoulder, "I wonder why he doesn't shapeshift?"

"I think we have enough shapeshifters in the Holt just now," Apogee laughed, "But he's definitely coming along with those patterns. I wonder if he's planning something?"

"I think he's trying to court another dragon," Bones admitted. "Since we're not truly bonded, I don't quite know what goes on in that icy little head of his. But I suspect that."

Over time, too, Iceso learned more magical ways to enhance his breath - he could blow it into shapes with a bit of pressure, or he could change its color - a lot of things changed around him, if anyone allowed it. While most changes weren't permanent, some were - specifically the colors of pure crystals which the rock shapers would bring up.

"Look at that," Bones said, of Iceso's latest project, "that's beautiful!" A multicolored pillar which faintly reminded Bones of something long-forgotten. Egg, in Blue Mountain, would have known. Light shifted through the tall crystal, it was at least as tall as Bones, and thicker around all the way up.

*I am making it able to reflect moods,* Iceso said. *It is difficult, I do not want to risk too many people all being happy or all being angry around it, and making it too much of one thing...*

Little did he know that eventually that ability to embue might come in handy for the Chieftess' daughter...

***

Name: Iceso Promontores
Gender: Male
Breed: Whorling/Asandus Hybrid
Colour: Pale Blue
Size: Medium-Large (15' tall, 37' long)
Abilities: Psionics, Functional Magic, Icy Air Breath Weapon, Alter Physical Structure (Ice)
Basic Personality: Daydreamer, Artistic
Requires a Bond?: No