Standing At Falas Special Clutch

Name: Drew Robb

Aliases: Darth Medusa, Suburban Ninja Cracker Goth, others

Gender: Male

Gender preference: Female, but would jump into a woman's shape if given half a chance

Age: 22

Hair: Dark Brown/Black, usually cut short, curly

Eyes: Blue, pale like ice

Skin: Light Cracker, ... hairy. :)

Rank: Resident Ninja, Comic Gallery

Marital Status: Single, but looking for true love

Pets: None at this time

Talents: Video Game expert, DDR, Martial Arts (very strong), Costuming, Gunz (airsoft and real), Anime

It was a long journey and it was hot. The sun had risen and there were only scant clouds to cover the sky. Avoiding the blinding gaze of that yellow orb, a figure slipped from its cavernous home up the road, and around a torturous path. Vehicles went by at breakneck speeds, but they did not slow for him - he had to leap in and out of the dangerous wheeled traffic if he was to reach his destination.

Soon it came into view, a sprawling two-story edifice surrounded on all sides by black tarry courtyard broken by lines of white. The roads cornering the building were the final challenge, and the young yet experienced ninja made his way unseen across the wide street. Several trees blocked the sun, and he relished the shade that they delivered, before he crossed the final portion of the courtyard, and brought himself near the glass and metal and stucco building. There was no breeze to cool his brow, and what was worse was that since there was no breeze, his cloak did not stir in dramatic fashion the way he would have preferred it to.

The Suburban Ninja Cracker Goth entered the building with his typical stealth. Hood up, weapons at the ready, he snuck around the corner and slipped into the doorway. Checking to see that the way was clear, he did a drop and roll to come up in front of the counter, placed his back pack on it, and lept over it to check behind for any enemies. Or food he'd left behind the day before. As he checked, he was startled briefly by motion beyond the brilliantly-decked wall.

"Oh, you're here already," Lethe muttered as she came from the back room of the Comic Gallery store where they worked. Drew dropped any silly pretense at his game, and nodded.

"Yup." His cloak was folded gently into a pile, and put onto the batch of books and returned items behind the counter, and Lethe would take an appreciative look at it before setting to memory not to step on its hem as she passed it during the day.

"Good. We're running a bit late.." She started to set out cards in packs, and put signs over things that said "madness all day! 10% off!" on them. "Stupid sales. Stupid boss."

They chuckled a bit, mocking their bossman relentlessly as they set the store up for the current LeapDay sale.

"You're being quiet today," Lethe commented, as they were ready to open. She twisted her key in the lock, threw the metal security grating aside on its track - loudly, Drew winced - and opened the door. True to form, typically on a sale day, there was no one waiting outside for their 'great deals'.

"I had a funky dream," Drew replied once the light of day subsided and he could see clearly in the artificial light inside. Lethe finished up the straightening she'd been doing and then settled into her 'I'm listening' posture. "Okay," he continued as though there had been no pause. He knew she'd keep the train of thought alive. "So I was at home, but I was Palpatining the back yard to keep the zombies from coming into the house."

Lethe nodded. Zombies were common themes for him - it was all the survival-horror video games he loved to play. And 'Palpatining: verb - to destroy something via cool bolts of lightning coming from one's fingers, in the same manner as Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars universe does.' Known constants. The scene was set. His back yard was big, sloped on the back because it was a canyon-rim type house. And the house was well worth protecting from zombies - it was gigantic and filled with cool swag.

"Zombies, got it. Were they fast ones? Or the normal ones?" Lethe settled in and leaned on the counter.

"They were slow," Drew said with a grin. That stupid fast-zombie crap from monster movies today. What were they thinking? "So anyway I was out there trimmin' the zombie hedges, and then I needed to get some sushi." This was popular with him too, and he liked the expensive stuff. "So I go inside only it's Onami now, and everyone from the Cosplay forum is there in costume."

"And were you?" Lethe asked.

"Of course," Drew said with a gloating grin. He'd been working on a beautiful costume for an upcoming anime convention, and preparing himself for the body waxing that would be required for him to wear it. "So we were eating sushi and getting drunk, and then this Brom-chick came strutting in like she wanted to join us."

"Batwings?" Lethe asked, knowing the answer already by the wide grin on her face.

"Of course." He said simply. That was another thing: if it was pale, female, with big batwings, he was on it... "She was like that last statue I bought." Lethe nodded again, he'd brought it around to show off, before putting her on the big console where his game stuff was. "So she had this wicked scythe and I started showing her how to use it better to look cool."

"You would," Lethe laughed. "Like she wasn't cool enough being a Brom girl?"

"You'd think." He agreed. "So then the zombies caught up with us, and instead of being me any more I got to be the Brom chick, and I spent the rest of the night zapping at them and cutting them down with the scythe and flyin' around and lookin' cool and shit."

"That's so effin' cool," Lethe muttered. "All I had was one of those internet dreams. I was forgetting to go on a forum and they started using my artwork without my permission again."

"That sucks," he said. But they both agreed silently that it did not suck because it was one of those lame reality-nightmares. It sucked because her dream had been so hopelessly mundane in comparison to his leet uber-ninja night.

The day wore on, but both of them wanted to be elsewhere.

That would be arranged, later on.

***

"No, you can't use the gift certificate at the other store today, sir, it does say specifically on the flier that it's for after the sale." Lethe said, in a patient but weary tone.

"But I'm not going to be here next week," the annoying customer whined. Lethe cut him off before he could make that bunch of bullshit rise to the surface.

"It doesn't have an expiration date, sir, they're good forever. They're like money, and in California, gift certificates don't expire."

"If they're as good as money then why can't I use it today?"

Lethe put down the sale flier she had, and simply walked away. Drew watched her with a taint of envy. She was the manager after all. She could do that. Besides, if she didn't, she might wind up using the Stupid Stick on the guy, and not in the kind friendly 'plastic lightsaber whack on the head' way that they did with regular customers. It might wind up getting kind of messy, in fact.

Drew took up her spot behind the counter, and looked the guy in the eye. "Dude, it's not good until after the sale. There's no exception. That's why we put that on the flier. It's a disclaimer."

"Like that, 'not good on new comics' thing at the bottom? What kind of sale are you guys having anyway?" The guy asked, hard.

"The kind that says if you don't like it, you can leave, since we're not pleasing you as a business." Drew said. He said it politely enough, but the man got the idea. His crap wasn't going to fly with either of these people - he had thought maybe that dealing with the Man of the Store he would be able to get what he wanted. Obviously, that woman had this boy pussywhipped or something.

'Or maybe she was just the freaking manager', Drew thought as he saw the expression on the guy's face, 'and was right, and maybe they didn't actually need this kind of customer ruining their day after all?' The guy stormed out - having bought enough to get a five dollar gift certificate, which he took - and would try using it at the other store later on anyway... To be told the same thing by the other manager. Who was also a woman. Go figure.

"He's gone," Drew said, and Lethe grunted from the back room.

"I heard," she said. Her color had gone back to its normal red-nosed-pale, which was good. When she was angry she got a strong blush going, which gave her away. At least, to some people who knew her. Drew could read her pretty well - but then he was good at that anyway. She started muttering about the man's behavior, how he was so typical of the 'other store's' customer base, how she could live without this crap in her life...

"What the hell do people think I type that stuff on the flier for?" She demanded, on a good rolling rant, "I mean, to take up blank space? Or what?"

Patiently, Drew listened with half an ear and helped the actually good customers who bought up their last stock of Lord of the Rings cards and other such doodads - all at a 30% savings. One or two of the customers laughed about it with her, but frankly they were kind of scared when she did that. Interrupting that storm front? Not a chance.

Eventually, the ranting subsided, and they got back to a quiet sale day afternoon.

Quiet enough that the computer in the back got some decent use. Lethe struggled with the dialup until it worked, and finally got online. She chuckled to herself about some forum or upload, and then traded off with Drew so he could check his Cosplay stuff. Both of them took a lot of time, because of course image-heavy sites on a dialup computer ...

When Lethe was back on, she glanced over a batch of links to dragon online sites, and said something about how Falas just kept coming back from the dead - it was where she'd sent at least two "last candidates" to the "last clutches" on their sands. Twice. Smirking, she twiddled a pen on the desk and wondered if she ought to try sending more than one or two candidates like the others - what was that one, with like thirty? Whew...

Drew watched the store quietly, pulling out a book on ancient weaponry and sword techniques. When there was no one in the store (which was frequent as the day progressed) he would leap about with an imaginary sword - or better yet with some prop he'd found in the store's promotional 'stuff' pile. He didn't stop when two people came into the store, they looked at him and didn't laugh - they watched intensely.

"You're a... warrior tending a store?" Asked the smaller of the two.

"Just practicing," Drew said, with a smile. His face showed the conflict of being royally embarrassed by these guys coming in during his 'performance' and being extremely happy by the fact that they recognized his very real talent at that sword play. "Can I help you find anything?"

For a moment, the pair simply stared at him. Then the taller one shook his head briefly, "no, not just yet... What ... is this place?"

"We sell comics, games, miniatures... Videos, cards..." Drew said, slowing down in the hopes that one of those things would spark a distant memory or realization in one of the strangers.

They were both a little odd. The smaller one, did he have... pointed ears? Just faintly? Maybe that was just how his hair fell over his head. They did have some nice jewlery on them though. Cool silver and gold stuff, nicely forged. Drew presumed that they were either gay or costumers, by the way they held themselves - but he said nothing about either because he was wise enough not to actually act on a presumption.

Of course, he would have been wrong in both cases, really, had he said something...

Drew noticed that the one guy's backpack (a sturdy leather one, didn't look like a new REI nylon model did it? they must be renfaire people!) was... moving. His friend noticed this too, glanced worriedly at Drew and then hustled to bring his friend around to the other side of the back issue bins. Out of view - or so he thought.

First off that brought both of them closer to the back part of the store - which was where Lethe still sat reading up on whose sands had eggs - and it also took them directly into view of the video camera that was installed for burglaries and such. Drew stood at the front of the store and casually looked down at the monitor. A split screen showing the pair, and the front of the store which glared with the afternoon sun.

The bag was still moving, and the taller guy tried to stuff his hand into it. He pulled it out a moment later, wincing and giving off a slightly stifled 'ow!'

That brought Lethe's ears open, but she didn't leave the back room. Instead she stood up quietly, and went into the restroom just next to her seat, and turned on the other video monitor. To see...

"I can't stop him from moving," the one man said quietly and Lethe heard him on the other side of the door. She watched as Drew did as the taller man struggled a bit and then...

A little thing came out from the backpack. What... was it?

"M'len...." whispered the one guy, "he's out - I can't..."

Then something flew out of the bag. It was like a big bird, or a bat...

Up front, Drew stood and then looked at the men in the corner, his eyes tracing the motion of the big blue ... thing, in the air. It wasn't quite a bird, not since it didn't seem to have feathers. But it wasn't flying like a bat either, and yet had tined fingers and leather wings.

Drew rather liked bat wings, as has been said before. It warranted another reminder, because that was why he stepped out and held his arm up, for it to land upon him.

Which it did.

Right about that time, Lethe came from the back, and her eyes were huge. Her mouth worked a bit, and she said, "that's a fire lizard?"

"It's... not exactly," said one of the men. They hadn't realized that there was another person in the store with them, and the smaller one almost lept out of his skin.

"But... it is." Lethe asserted, and walked with purpose to the front where Drew stood proudly displaying a dark blue flitter. Almost black, in fact it had a....

Lethe blinked as Drew made cute noises at it. "That's a Ryslen dragon," Lethe said quietly. "I'd know one of those anywhere. I have a huge collection of them..."

"Well, that's ... see," said the other man, walking hastily behind her. He nearly bumped into her when she stopped a few feet away from Drew, who held his arm out still, and the dragon-let was preening himself. Apparently he liked the strong muscular limb just fine.

Drew wouldn't tire of this for a while, Lethe knew that. He could hold his arm out maybe half an hour. He'd been in martial arts that demanded certain tests of endurance, and she didn't doubt for a moment that he could be this flitter's perch indefinitely.

"Faroth," growled the one man, "Get back in there. Someone will see you."

"Someone already has," Drew said, grinning like an idiot. "This is the coolest thing, where'd you get it?"

"It's - a - Ryslen - dragon," Lethe repeated stubbornly. "He got it, presumably, at Ryslen. Which is an online dragon adoption center." She turned her head abruptly, "which I haven't heard much from in the last couple days..."

"Couple days?" The man exclaimed, "how can you have -" His partner nudged him sharply with an elbow to the ribs.

By now, of course, the other man's pack was moving. It jutted here and there and finally another lighter blue head popped out of its flap. Drew exclaimed, "cool!" And Lethe peered closer.

"Talor - anyone would be able to see that." Lethe said. She blinked and then looked at the pair, while Drew was still busy softly touching the night-blue's neck with a longish fingernail. Apparently the dragon thought that was the best thing ever.

"What's going on here?" Lethe asked. The gentlemen straightened and the second flitter thing flew out to land on Drew's other shoulder. Apparently the pair of dragonets thought this would be riotous fun posing as flitters.

One started to say something but then the other interrupted him, they went on this way for a while. "Where are you from?" Asked Lethe when it didn't seem like anything other than nonsense would be coming from them.

"Falas," said one. "The FGPC sands," said the other.

Lethe went white, and Drew saw her stiffen up oddly. The dark blue flit on his arm flew over to its owner, and the lighter one shortly did the same.

"What's that stand for?" Drew asked, and Lethe answered.

"The Falas Genetic Program Center," she said, "I think. I always confuse the letters." She remained stiff, like her back was hurting. Drew went over the counter top, flipping himself easily and with some flourish, over it. He closed the front door and stuck the "back in a bit" note on it with tape.

"From the web sites you talk about?" He asked. Lethe nodded slowly, eyes still fixed on the Ryslen Dark Blue. "Sweet!"

The pair of men, one blond and the other with more brown hair, turned to look at him. Their little dragons were obviously talking to them telepathically - even Drew knew that much about dragons, given what Lethe had told him over and over while writing their stories up.

It was true: the men's eyes kind of blurred up, like they were struck a bit dumb by something, or they were trying to see something at a distance and it wasn't coming into focus. Then, both relaxed and looked at the pair of comic store clerks.

"They want to remind us that we're here for you," the blond said, pointing at Lethe. "But that you are invited too." He looked at Drew who went all chibi-cute.

He really did - that was one of his weird Suburban Ninja Cracker Goth powers. His eyes all but screwed into little arch-shapes. The hearts and wavy lines were clearly visible, though.

"That's his way of saying 'thanks'." Lethe said. And then it hit her, what he'd said. "... For me. And so, you - from Falas, have come here, to Earth, to pick up me."

"And meee!" Sang Drew, who was busy prancing and posturing. He was quite good at that too.

"And him." Lethe said, not flatly, but still in a bit of shock.

"And others," the brown-haired one said. "I mean, we're doing our job, and it's pretty tiring." His blond friend agreed with a wishywashy grin. They were clearly worn out already just from watching Drew dance around. Lethe laughed when the little blue dragon-flitter landed on his head again.

"Well," the one with the long blond hair said, "I'm M'len, and this is Philipe." The shorter one bowed slightly. "We will be able to come back for you, give you some time to sort things out and gather what you want to bring."

Lethe looked from one to the other, Drew stood there nodding a bit. He asked, "what can we bring? I thought this was..."

"We've got electricity," Philipe said with a grin. "Remember: genetic engineering program?"

Lethe suddenly clued in, and grinned widely. "Excellent. See, no wonder it was built where my..." She blinked. "Whoa."

Drew wasn't sure he knew what the look on her face meant. Faintly concerned, a bit of bemusement, and over it all was the shock from the prior few minutes.

"They all exist," she said. Turning to Drew with a narrowed-eye look, she smiled and added, "if her world exists - on Falas - which was an island, on Pern... I had that island before, in time. The history of that world has been altered by the fans." She snickered and then muttered something about how McCaffrey would shit a brick. "But it also means that your worlds are real, Drew. Think about that."

He went to a pause-screen too. That was new to the search riders. Sure the shock of discovering that your world is real had been something they'd almost gotten used to seeing recently. But this was something different. It was like all functions were down for the moment, and Drew's mind was processing entirely on internal ideas.

Lethe muttered to the riders, "he's thinking about Palpatine," and laughed when Drew's face twitched into a broad smile over the course of the next couple moments. "And batwinged chicks with vampiric powers..."

It took a little while before Drew came back to reality. Lethe conversed with the pair of dragon riders, and eventually they came to the conclusion that they'd have to do "something" about their job situation, while they were away. The riders would return with Drew to his place which was relatively nearby - they could walk to it with no trouble. They would later head off to Lethe's place, and from there, go to Falas.

Every time they mentioned that, Lethe snickered, and got a greedy look in her eyes. "Means that my Sangers are real too, doesn't it," she said. "Mmmm."

Drew and Philipe plotted out when they would be going. Normally on a Thursday Lethe would be working until the afternoon, and he'd take over later. But today? Lethe would have to just talk to the boss and tell him that something had come up. They heard her in the back room arguing with him on the phone - they were understaffed anyway, and this would mean they'd be down two at once? In one store? For how long?

"It won't be long," Lethe said clearly, and Drew tilted his head.

M'len explained: "well, we got here from our world and time. It's been known to happen - frequently," he glanced at his partner in crime and they shared a guilty chuckle, "that when a rider and dragon are late to a meeting or need to be a specific time and place, they can just teleport through time - it's not easy, it wears out the dragon and if flight and teleportation isn't hard enough," he sighed, "it really takes a lot out of you. It's disorienting. But... You both seem to have a grip on your situation here."

"Or not," Drew said, "I might wind up teleporting into a survival horror shootie." He paused, and then started giggling madly again. "Zombies."

Lethe came from the back room with a broad grin and a faintly red face. "He's so pissed," she said.

"That figures, that tightwad, hire some lackeys!" Drew said. They laughed again, but both riders could tell they were getting nervous.

"Why don't you guys head out," Lethe suggested, "and I'll close up."

"Now?" Drew asked.

"Yup - but when we get back it's going to have to be just a weekend. I told him there was something that we'd both won tickets to or something, and there was no way he could stop us from going. When we get back," she snickered, "we'll explain. That might be a while..."

"If we go back," Drew said, and the older woman nodded. "Thinking where you wanna go?"

"I know where I want to be, I just don't know if I should go there."

Drew gathered up some things that he'd had stored at the shop, and they struck out for his house.

The trip to Drew's place was only about a mile, but over a hilly street. He dressed up in his cloak again, but even the riders wondered how he could stand it: it wasn't cold at all today, the sun was out, and he was wearing a full black hooded cloak? Weird.

Dodging traffic on the way back to his house, and walking along the manmade lake just past the main road, Drew asked a few more questions. Where they'd be, what it was like, how many people lived there, what the dragons were like. He wasn't as hot to trot on the whole draconic bonding thing, but as with most of Drew's activities, he was open to suggestion. He seemed especially interested in the connections to other places, and the magic that the winged wolves carried.

"Mmmm, magic!" Drew said, as they neared his home. It was a huge place, relatively speaking, a nice two story home nestled on the canyon side. The spacious and tall ceilinged first floor rooms impressed the riders only mildly - they were both used to the large dragon-dorms of Falas. A queer assortment of stuff and posessions met them when Drew walked them upstairs. His 'room' was at least as large as one rider could expect, but it was... filled... with stuff.

Weapons of all descriptions - swords, spears, guns, a couple odd things like a scythe and several prop items that were of no actual use, shuriken, ninja weapons, body armor and camo gear - all these things were slung on the walls and set onto nooks. Bookshelves were covered with statuettes, toys, books, videos, games... All manner of things to delight the senses.

"So - you are a weaponmaster, yet you work in a ... retail outlet for silly books?"

"Comic books, and I'm not a weapon master yet." He grinned widely. "But I've been trained in martial arts for a long time." He listed off a number of martial arts styles that went right over the riders' heads - they'd never heard of them. But Drew seemed intense and demonstrated a few interesting moves, landing Philipe in the pit of pillows and comforters that posed as Drew's bed, and giving M'len a bit of whiplash as he tried to follow the motion of Drew's arms in an aggressive dancing move. He was good - quite good - at these things.

It had taken years of practice, and a kind of sensible diligence that most people didn't have. He switched around in different arts, but only to acquire a new talent or skill that the other didn't offer. As he packed away clothing and items, Drew spoke about those skills and how he had hoped to use them to become a movie or game designer, fight choreography or instruction, something that allowed him to not only use his physical skills to their utmost, but to give his artistic and flower side a workout. Costumes, several of which he thought about packing away, but didn't, lined the one open closet he had. Capes, velvet and leather and silk clothing, fineries that looked expensive but then were found to be merely accessorized... Drew was a young man with not only many talents, but many directions to head into.

"There aren't any metal detectors or import laws where we're going, right?" He asked, and the pair looked up (Philipe was looking at a beautiful statue designed by Brom, while M'len was trying to figure out why the one television box had so very many hand controllers and game units attached to it).

"No, not that I know of," M'len stated.

"Then I'm taking this," Drew said of his sniper rifle. "Took me long enough to get it, I don't want someone coming in and taking it while I'm gone."

"You have ... so many things," Philipe said, quietly.

"Yeah?" Drew said.

"What do you do with all of them?"

"I play with em," Drew said, indicating the game systems. He launched into a gloating story of how he conquered this or that game, in more than one system since they were different... Mostly again, over the rider's heads.

Packed now, Drew had two large sacks - the kind that sports equipment would go into - filled with his clothes and weapons, and he looked lovingly at the game machines. "You said there's electricity?"

Hesitating now, Philipe nodded.

"Can I take my system?" Drew indicated the large television and the X Box, Game Cube and PS2.

"How about we come back for that, if you need it?" M'len said. "We can only carry so much."

"Then I'll just take my gba and extra batteries," Drew said, and added a batch of games, cd's and a couple movies he enjoyed into the spare space in one sack. When he needed to be, he could throw a little 'practicality' into his routine.

M'len offered to carry one of the bags - which was almost a mistake. Even with years of being a rider, he felt the weight of the bag and grimaced. Drew seemed to carry the other - the one with the weapons and electronics - with ease. He was much stronger than he looked.

Drew picked up his small oval shaped dark sunglasses, and put them on with a grin. "Shall we go?"

***

They picked up Lethe at her place. Drew hadn't visited her house, and was apparently a bit stunned. She'd complained about it, living in a trailer with her mother for several years while her financial situation got stable. But he hadn't realized that yes - in fact - her whole house would fit into just his room.

The pair of blue dragons stood in the relatively narrow street, attracting only a small amount of attention. After all, there weren't too many kids here and it was getting into nightfall. Most of the more elderly people living in the trailer park didn't bother to look outside unless it was to gossip, and rarely did they even bother to look Lethe's way. Her mother wasn't the most popular of people, nor was she well and truly hated. She was merely another elderly woman with bats in her bellfry.

Lethe was in a bit of a huff, especially about what exactly her mother was to do "without her". The tattooed woman dragged out her travel baggage, recently bought and used during the fires for a brief evacuation. She turned to M'len and said, "why don't you guys take him and his stuff and get back to me, okay?"

Her mother called weakly out from the house, and Lethe turned with such a dark look both riders were taken aback. They heard her distinctly but quietly say, "why can't you just die you crazy old woman?" But she re-entered the house and began a loud discussion again.

The dragon riders took that as their cue. They had 'unloaded' the blue dragons to their full size somehow, it had to do with some magic spell. Drew was absolutely entranced. Getting onto the dragon's back, behind M'len, Drew kept his eyes open and his legs firmly snugged to the dragon's riding harness. They'd spoken briefly as they got to Lethe's house about how the trip Between would work. Drew got it, he practiced breathing and holding his breath, it wasn't like he couldn't survive a minute or so in the depths of chill.

They took to the air, over the small trailer park. It was dim, just past sunset, and no one even noticed from the freeway nearby. They might have thought that they were just low-flying jet planes, since the trailer park was situated directly south of the Miramar marine air base.

Then the dragons vanished Between. And Drew loved it.

His cloak was snug around him, and it kept him warm. He loved the cold, cold weather anyway, because it gave him the chance to be snugged into a nice velvet blanket. The excuse to remain in bed longer. The nothingness of Between changed rapidly to the bright sky over an island...

Falas.

Another. Planet. The enormity did hit him just then. But he didn't give up his hold on the dragon's back, instead Drew found himself looking at the sky - where the gigantic red 'star' loomed at a bit of a distance. It dominated the sky, so unlike anything on Earth.

His heart raced, he swallowed a bit of panic. The place was big, isolated, the only way off it surely was a dragon. Right?

But they had magic. What about that? All the things in Drew's mind led him back to a certain character that he'd played once in a role playing game with his friends. They were shocked and dismayed, when he pulled this one stunt.

"What about the magic?" Drew asked, as they came into Falas for a landing. Philipe dropped Drew's bags off and headed straight back to Lethe's place - somewhat grudgingly. They were tired, men and dragons.

"What about it?" M'len said. "We've got certain magic going. Why?"

"Do you think there's someone I could talk to? It's ... not really important," he lied. Drew lied poorly.

"Probably in the morning," M'len said. "Right now, let's get you situated. We can have you sign in, and find a dorm. You'll be in a room with a couple other candidates, so you know."

"That's fine," Drew said quietly. He had to think. He was ... he wasn't sure. What he wanted might be possible now. It - might. Would he really want to go through with it?

There was a person or two or three he should have been paying some attention to, while they took his bags and dragged him into the Weyr. It was a labyrinth, but he was told that this was merely the FGPC building, not the full fledged weyr. That, they told him, was up in the mountain where the real dragons rested. The whole bunch of riders, their magnificent dragons.

There was a wolf walking with them, about half way down. And that wolf had wings. Drew looked at it and nodded appreciatively. "Pretty wings," he said.

"Thank you," the winged wolf said. They parted ways at a numbered door.

"You'll be in here, dorm 57. The restrooms are down here, and the kitchen will serve food at certain times of day. Tomorrow you'll probably want to talk to the others, and get a map." Said one person, who gently set down the bag of electronics. The other dragged his clothing into the room and panted as he walked away.

"Thanks," Drew said. He pulled the other bag into the room, noticed that there was in fact electric light and probably some kind of heat, and three beds. He chose one, while another seemed to be occupied if only by someone's bags.

Drew lay there, deciding whether he liked the bed or if it were uncomfortable. He could hardly even feel it. It was the faintest of distractions. What his mind kept coming back to, rolling around like dangerous surf, was that they had magic.

Mages could do things. If only limited by the world's magic rules, if only limited by one's imagination. Drew's imagination knew very little of rules or boundaries. His imagination had long since played with this idea, and he liked it. He thought of it clearly. He wondered if they could do it for him.

If they could take what he was, and make him into something new. Something different. Female, for one thing...

***

The next morning Drew woke and wondered if it was all real, and sure enough it was. He and the other occupant of the room went off and had their bit of orientation, and Drew tried desperately to find a way to formulate the words he wanted. Who should he ask? One of the scientists? That would be ridiculous, right? They were scientific, not magical.

While he pondered these things, however, Drew found himself walking along a corridor and into a warm room. There were people busily working in the lobby beyond, where he'd just walked right through, and it appeared that something was going on in the warmer area here.

It was a girl and a couple of the scientists, apparently talking about something. They seemed a bit surprised, and it rapidly appeared to Drew that they were unexpectedly noticing something bizarre about an egg they had.

"It was quite large, though," one said, and he suddenly fell back a foot or two as something dark flew in front of him. "Whoa!"

Drew's instincts took over, and he reached out with a lightning fast strike, at the dark thing in the air. It made a squark noise, and then calmed. He looked at it, in his hand. It was a violet and black colored flit. Just like the way that the blue dragons were little, only this one was just barely the size of his fingers. A hatchling.

"Oooh, that's the same as mine," said the girl as she left.

"There were a couple in there," said one scientist, and he took a long look at Drew before holding out something. "You need to feed her, or else she'll get away. And frankly we worked hard on those for that color combination, so you'd best not lose her."

Drew took the meat that the man had, and the little flitter eagerly bit into it. Nearly biting his fingers, but he was careful of her sharp little teeth.

"What am I gonna call you?" He said. There wasn't any question that he had to keep her now - he could feel the gentle tug of her stomach on his, and the happy-pleased-yummy feel when she ate. This was weird. She was sharing her mind, her emotions.

Was she going to be as confused as he was, when he started sharing his own?

"Nightwind," Drew said, "right now, you're going to be the happy one."

He just couldn't work up the courage yet, to ask if the mages were around. And what would they say, if he did ask? Anyway? He considered that maybe, in reality, he was supposed to be this way. That thought faintly disappointed him. Maybe he'd do it later. Maybe... Some day he would. Maybe after he found his dragon.

Then he would find a world where he knew he wasn't going to be made a pariah for his desires. That'd throw a monkey wrench in returning to the comic store, but to hell with it. If he was going to become what he truly could be, he'd be able to do it in style, and he could come back to gloat some day.

That would rock. For the moment, Nightwind fell to sleep nestled gently in the crook of his arm, and he carefully took her back to his dorm. They would wait, do chores, learn, and wait some more, before the eggs they were supposed to be getting would hatch.