Zora Domina, cast page

Zora was growing a bit melancholy. Here she was, the head of her own House, the pioneer of new methods of locating magic students... Sending her precious instructors and many students to bond with dragons from exotic worlds, even teaching the occasional class in another Universe at Carramba High school... But she herself didn't seem to have time to devote to getting her own dragon! They were smart, beautiful creatures - not like the local ones, those which were often used to battle but were hardly containable in most ways. Eating machines, mostly. Not to 'dis' Lucas and his family of more civilized dragon kin, but they were also rather intimidating to most other dragons.

So Zora sighed, drawing in a whif of the incense she was burning, and thought about what to do with herself. Should she continue to deny that she wanted to befriend a dragon? She really did want to. They were all so gorgeous - some were shapeshifters, some mages, some tiny and many huge. But all of them seemed to give their partner a sense of belonging, a wonderful air of familial love... Had it been so long that Zora had lost...

She had lost her family, true. But that was almost a century before, she was indeed much older than she looked. Not nearly as aged as Lucas was, but then he was a very special wizard. Most of the students assumed that Zora was in her thirties, perhaps a well-preserved fifty, but the truth of the matter was that her family was long gone and dust before the grandparents of most of her current students had been born.

Zora's perceptions of the bonded dragon-pairs in her care were not exaggerated. Sometimes she was able to sneak little samples of their emotions, caught in a piece of sweat or a wind-torn tear. Often those were mixed with dragon spittle, a feather, scales. They had the same feeling from pairs: joy, elation, completion.

Zora wanted to be complete. It was true that she had her children - future? past? at some point she'd have/had kids with Lucas' otherworldly doppleganger Crazy Doc Sanger, and they were a joy to hold. But they wouldn't be old enough for their own bonds (at least in this time line) for a while. And that left Zora wondering again. What about her? She'd been told to be selfish - half the people around her thanked her for the things she did for them, but they always asked - what about you? You doing okay?

She was, but she did want more. So to that end, she walked to Lucas' end of the House and plopped herself at the table that he normally used when researching a dragonry.

The desk was a big thing, modified over the few years they'd been using it to include a scrying crystal and automagic notetaking quills. A very similar thing existed in the Healing Den's chambers - operated by electricity instead of magic. Zora sat herself down and concentrated on activating the scrying crystal, and it whooshed to life. Green and gold sparks swirled around the sphere and images began to flash within.

Zora asked the question, "Where should I find my dragon?" and the images began to take more firm shape. Dragon images began to stir, and with each one Zora's heart fluttered. So many, so varied. One with four wings, another with feathers, another without legs, one with three heads... Black, blue, orange, white... How could she possibly decide, with so many possibilities?

But shortly, the images began to slow. Some repeated themselves, and then an egg appeared. It stayed in the crystal ball, shimmering a bit. "Where is that?" Zora asked, and waved her finger at the auto-notetaker. The quill sprang to life, and started writing - an image of a starfield. Why that? Why not a name? Well, a name was added shortly: Mirus.

Zora nodded, "Mirus, huh. Well, then it looks like I'm going to have a little vacation."

***

There were a lot of eggs. A lot a lot. Zora looked around and saw a dozen or more people like herself, eager to find their new friend or willing to help out new hatchlings... Zora suddenly realized that a couple of the 'creatures' there were also considered 'people', and at least a couple of those were walking away with hatchlings! Heck, even a number of other dragons were doing it! Why had she waited so long? Zora was being swept up in the excitement of her very own ...

The eyes were green, still covered with eggy goo. The starts of fitful flame-colored fur or feathers had sprung already on the top of her head, while the wings she sported were covered in what looked like painful pinfeathers and little else. The hatchling that walked toward Zora cried out loud, a mewl of need and anger and hunger. Far from just a motherly urge to help, Zora's heart felt that cry from within.

"Don't worry, I'm here... I'm here..." Zora stretched her hands out and the hatchling tumbled toward her. "Calmath, don't worry. There's food ready, and I can clean you up a bit." Zora incanted a spell that she'd developed long before she met the entirely too vain Lucas Kalkin - they both had a version that did the same thing: make things clean!

Gold. Her skin was shining and glimmered a bit, never having had light upon it until now. A sort of burnished, antique golden color. But clearly not green, white or other such shades of typically female dragons of Pernese descent. While anyone else familiar with the concept of Pernese rank was busy applauding and whispering and congratulating her, Zora had no real clue what it might mean to have bonded a Queen. All she knew and all she wanted to know, was that now she had her own dragon bond - one whose mind was complex and new, fresh and open. And hungry.

After a few minutes, Zora did get the feeling (aside from the great relief in her dragon's mind and the sense of immediately full belly from that trough of fresh meat they were eating) that something extra special had happened. There was one other Golden dragon, already paired off. "Well what did you expect?" Zora said, smiling widely and allowing people to gawk, "I'm the head of my own House, and a mother to boot. We'll make a great team, Calmath, we really will!"

The dragoness, now fed and sleepy, looked up and crooned quietly.

***

The location that Zora brought Calmath to grow up wasn't quite House Domina, but it made a good substitute. Somewhere between Nexus worlds, where time works differently and where magic of convienence was more important than any other effect. There had been other children raised in this space before hers - Pat and Uzume raised an adopted child, Thanatos. Perhaps he'd be around here somewhere too, at the Healing Den's more Nexus-webby corridors. No one was quite sure when they'd arrived or gone, or whether they were there from the start of time til it's end. "We won't be here til the end of time, Calmath, don't worry," Zora assured her dragonet. "Just long enough to grow you up a bit. Then you can come back to House Domina with me, and join the others."

Won't I be lonely? the dragonet asked. Zora shook her head, but before she could even respond someone else did so.

"Hardly lonely around here," said Baeris, with a smile. She appraised the dragoness, her bond, and tilted her head. "You're Zora, aren't you. About time you bonded a dragon."

***

Zora visited her own House from the Den - it couldn't be said the other way around, because she truly spent most of her time in the Den. For two full years, as the hatchling grew into a fledge - but she was not ready to fly yet. Her plumage had come in at last, covering her wing sails with a lovely thick mass of fire-colored fluff. She was going to be a large dragon - probably a combination of her queenly Pernese expectations, and her Avengaean Fire heritage. They were some large dragons, all right.

Around the time her wings were strong enough to try flying for the first time, was also when she began thinking about something else. Humanity. From at least one or two sources, Calmath began to learn her Aven heritage's ability of shapeshifting. Though she was confident enough after this long being around two of the strongest-willed women in the known Nexus, Calmath had not quite gotten the hang of her shifting and got stuck halfway between draconic and human. Some folks liked it, and said so, but she wasn't happy at all. She wanted to walk upon two feet, to need no tail for counterbalance, to have one of those short little necks. In time, after months of practice, she did so. When Zora came to retrieve her from the Den and take her at last to their permanent home in House Domina's dragon-dens, a girl who stood little more than four feet tall and looked to be around ten years old stood waiting in the nook where Calmath normally was. She had bright yellow-orange hair, big green eyes, and a kind of sheen to her skin that gave away her draconic reality. "Calmath! You've done it!" Zora exclaimed, and swept her dragon-girl into her arms. Giggling, furiously hugging her bond, Calmath nodded. She was ready to join the other students at House Domina and begin magic studies, as well - that would be great fun!

***

Considerably later in their history... Zora and several other 'important' people among the riders of the Kshau Protectorate assembled to welcome a new dragonry leader, Keenan Lane. Calmath would have to wait a little before she got bold enough to start looking at the Rookery's dragons, at least those that drifted through both the magical realm they lived in and Carramba where Zora taught magic. But they would help out another Pernese dragonry too, Dragonhope Weyr, when students were to be collected and put in front of a succession of clutches!