Tabitha loved roller coasters. As a very young girl, she would assemble her own rides out of cardboard boxes, various bricks and stones, and her big brother's skateboard. The moment she was big enough to ride even the 'kiddiest' of kiddie rides, she almost never stopped.

With that in mind, Tabitha's unusual powers kicked in right about the same time that she began to ride a local coaster. The Earthquake, a big old wooden coaster not known for its speed or size - but more for its appearance and duration, and the shuddering of its cars over the old metal tracks, was where she first met aliens.

A girl about her same age, only with brightly green skin and little antennae sat next to her on the ride. When they went down the first of three big hills, the girl clenched onto Tabitha's arm and didn't let go for the duration of the ride. Tabitha, being an old pro at the riding game, let her do this... And then when they got off the ride, they both were literally bouncing with joy. The alien girl had somehow let Tabitha 'borrow' her Bounce power! It wasn't too long after that, that Tabitha tried it on someone else, and found she could utilize other powers.

But there are no superheroes in her lineage, there's no good reason - at least none that she's been able to find - that allows her to do this.

She's been on a search ever since. Bouyant and friendly all the time, but tingling with the desire to locate some kind of 'origin story', Tabitha is almost obsessed with these powers. She also wants to try every one she can find. Her 8th Period class is ideal for keeping her on the ground when she doesn't have a flight power...

***

With the stresses of daily life left behind, Tabitha and her family had gone on a camping trip during Spring break. The mountains were nice and clear, some snow still on the peaks but most roads open, and no chains needed for the tires.

Tabitha gazed out at the hillsides, as they climbed steadily into the mountains. She loved being outdoors, it was very ... freeing. But also, she really missed her friends. A couple birthdays, presents left for the girls, and some homework that got done before they left... She sighed.

The thing she missed most was being in contact with proper aliens and superheroes. She wasn't sure, but she felt strongly that there wouldn't be any flying around or shapeshifting up here in the boondocks.

They reached their camp site, which was a nice wood house cabin out near the wooded lake, overlooked by a towering snow-capped mountain. There were a dozen other such houses scattered around the lake, and perversely Tabitha wished that maybe a deranged killer or some tentacle monster would show up just so she could steal its powers and turn them back on it...

But she still enjoyed being out there. The air was so fresh - she rarely noticed when they left Crescent City that the air down there was very thick with sea salt and a bit of polution. The air here was heavy with sap and pollen. It made her mother sneeze, and their dog came back covered in some ... thing... from the tall grasses.

Tabitha was assigned to clean the dog. She really didn't want to but did it anyway. That was what her Optimism Under Duress class was all about, anyway.

They walked toward the lake shore, hoping that the water was not totally freezing. "Come on boy, you can't come into the cabin smelling like that." She said. The dog barked happily and lept into the water, causing a plume of cold ice-runoff to land on Tabitha.

Drenched, but laughing, Tabitha waited until the dog had gotten good and wet before calling him back out. "Now don't go rolling in any more ick!" She warned him. She wished she'd had the time to find one of her friends that could talk to animals for this trip, because she could hold on to a power for a while if she concentrated on it, and there was wildlife aplenty out here.

While they were walking back to the cabin, Tabitha saw two deer, a load of bunnies, chipmunks, birds and even some fish that lept out of the lake water.

"They probably think it's cold too," she muttered.

When she looked back to the trail, her family dog was running on ahead, but there was a small trail that she hadn't seen before. Glancing to the lake, back to the cabin and then the trail, Tabitha decided to explore. She wasn't all that wet, and the day was young - she could dry on the trip. The dog reached the cabin, greeted happily by mom.

She walked for a while, twirling her long brown hair around her fingers. This wasn't so bad - the day was getting warm, and though there was a breeze, it was only helping dry her off. She made very little noise on the underbrush, getting over one hill. Then Tabitha stopped.

There was something there - and she'd never seen anything like it before. It wasn't very big, not much larger than their dog. But it was pastel beautiful, with wings, and an almost canine build. A doe-face, odd. The creature looked up when Tabitha came through the twin trees at the crest of this little glen, but it did not run away.

"You have found me," it said. Tabitha jolted back - not thinking it could speak.

"I guess I have," she said, trying to act casual. That was another aspect of her Optimism class - if she acted like she knew what she was doing, half the time, she really did know what she was doing...

"I have something for you. You are a very special human." It said. Then it nuzzled something small, bigger than a softball, but smaller than a basketball, with its nose. "Take this, and keep it safe. You will teach it all it knows. Do you think you are wise enough to do that?"

Tabitha's eyes grew wide. "I ... I'm just in high school, I don't know everything."

The creature seemed to smile and rolled the egg thing toward Tabitha. "Now I know you are the right person for my child..."

"Your - child!? You lay eggs?" Tabitha thought that was pretty weird. She thought mammals laid eggs. But this thing had wings.

Before Tabitha knew it, the creature had flown off - or maybe just vanished. Left in the shallow depression where she'd been laying, however, was the egg that she wanted Tabitha to keep. It was nested in something feather-soft, which had a kind of ...

"Power?" She said, eyes going wide again. When she touched the egg's protective feathers, she herself grew strong, passive, knowing. "A Marella," she said. "You're a Marella."

Her own powers adopted the effects of the mother's magic - she'd be a great guardian, and she hoped that this feeling wouldn't run out. It felt wonderful - like she was being protected too. Tabitha slowly made her way back down to the cabin, staring at the egg the whole time.

"T-tabitha?" Called her mother, slightly worried. "You've been gone for a w.... You have wings!" She said, suddenly.

Tabitha turned and looked around, comedically turning circles before she realized that the Marella's powerful protective spell had changed her too - she had the same kind of fluffy wings draped around her as the egg.

"Well, that's me, you know... I found this," she showed the egg, "but it's only for me. I guess it'll be okay to keep it here, the wings protect it."

Her father leaned into the room when he'd gotten back inside from flying a kite with Tabitha's brother, Tommy, and merely blinked a couple times. "That's never happened before," he said. He flashed Tabitha a grin, and then went back outside to make dinner on the grill.

As the evening progressed, Tabitha watched her egg - but it wasn't really doing anything much, so eventually she joined her family again. They chose not to comment much about her own temporary wings - after all, she'd been 10 feet tall and green, made of stone, vapor shaped, and even vampiric before. It just depended on who she was hanging out with that day...

It was a few days later, almost at the end of the camping trip, when the egg finally cracked open. A tiny nose could be seen. Brilliantly colored, like the shades of sunset. Then, it all tumbled out of its shell. It looked fragile but brave. The Marella rested on the bed next to Tabitha, its wings wrapped around it like gauze.

Finally it lifted its head. His eyes opened slowly, but they glowed beautifully. He made a sound like purring, and fell to sleep. Tabitha hardly noticed that the protective wings that she'd grown were now gone. But she wouldn't have even cared. There was a warm, beautiful Marella with her.

***

When they got back home, the Marella and the family dog weren't exactly on speaking terms. Tabitha had to keep Skylar, the Marella, from trotting behind the dog all the time. It made their dog nervous. He just wanted to see the sights, to learn things. Tabitha laughed, and clutched the flame colored cub, and kept him safely in her room.

"You're going to be my sidekick. Right? Or maybe you can be like a familiar, be my eyes and ears." She said. Though the Marella didn't really know what she said, he listened to her voice as though it were everything to him. She was proud when he stood up and opened his wings, and not worried when he accidentally tumbled down the stairs - he was durable, and she knew it.

When they had to go back to school, Skylar wanted to come with. What would happen then?

***

Skylar made a cute noise, but Tabitha could only shake her head. "No, Sky, I'm sorry! This is a track meet! I can't take you with me today..."

But I love you, and I want to protect you!

"I won't fall," Tabitha said, holding her professional grade skates. "I don't fall any more. I'm good, Sky!"

Then I want to see you! I wish to watch!

Tabitha paused, trying to think. What would the others be doing at the meet? She was the only one in the competition, and she knew that as many of the Ten would be there if they could. And since it was a Saturday, they couldn't say no pets, right?

"Well.... Okay, today's okay for you. Come on Skylar, we'll head there together, and when I meet up with the girls we'll have to part again. They can keep you up in the stands, I guess."

Sullen about that, but excited to be going, Skylar moved his wings open and wanted to fly there. "You're not strong enough to lift me yet," Tabitha reminded him, "and besides, I need the warmup. Okay?"

Okay...

***

Skylar grew quickly and ... loudly. The fire's protective streak eventually extended to Tabitha's other friends, too. As long as he was there, they were all proclaimed "safe". At last, the large deer-like winged creature could say he was an adult. A beautiful, calm, but strong willed adult.

As Skylar grew, and the suggestion to go out and find a dragon was placed before the Ten, Tabitha had a hard choice to make. Skylar at that time was too big to come with her, to some place where dragons lived, but he really wanted to come along.

She'd chosen to go to a place called Cormwood, where the dragons were said to be very exotic and elusive. Generations had gone by without seeing them, so now that they were there, she figured, why not?

But how to get Skylar to... "Aha!" She called out during her Geography class. She stifled herself quickly, everyone had been studying. She realized what exactly she could do...

She had to wait until lunch, though. She'd looked over every one of her classmates (though it was Wednesday so it was just Geography, Optimism, Speech, and Physics) in her mind, and come up with nothing worth what she needed.

At lunch, then, Tabitha broke from the normal group of people she ate with, and stood up in the Speakers Square. "AHEM!" She said, loudly. "I have a request!"

She waited until many heads had turned - the Caffetorium was nearby, but the speakers area was where many people usually ate lunch.

"I am in need of someone who can do a particular power!" She belted out. Her Speech class was really helping her - she'd have to ask for extra credit (and she saw a couple of her classmates in the crowd, they could back her up) for doing this... "I need someone who can shrink other things! I need to borrow your power - you'll still be able to use it, I just want to use it for a minute at home!"

Since she was well known around campus for having such a strange power herself, word got around quickly. It turned out that no one in the direct crowd knew how to do it, but one of the aliens living in the off-world dorms had someone down the hall who could. They arranged a meeting for after school.

It went really well. Tabitha was introduced to this meek and quiet little mustelid-type, maybe she was a Ferilon with a big brain or something? But she could in fact touch things and make them shrink!

"Just concentrate on how small you want to make it," she said in her furry purring voice, "and then later on it'll grow back to its regular size."

"How much later?" Tabitha asked.

"About, mmm, maybe 12 hours or so. Half a day. And then you can do it again if you have to."

Tabitha nodded vigorously, "this is just perfect! As long as I don't run into anyone and accidentally take their power later on, it'll do just fine!" She shook the ferilon-creature's hand, and voila! Suddenly she could feel the ability moving through her.

"That's all I need," Tabitha said.

"What are you shrinking?" Asked the alien.

"My Marella, Skylar, you've seen him at games, I think." She said. "I need to take him with me, but he's too big to go on a dragon back without getting hurt."

Then, they parted and Tabitha had to wait it out for the trip to her chosen destination...

***

Cormwood's hatching had already occurred, even though it was after a long long wait. Tabitha was disappointed, down, even though the trick of shrinking Skylar worked well. He'd followed her around as a tiny model-horse-sized flitter for half the day, and then returned to his normal size to lounge around the stables.

T'ver and her big brown waited for them, talking to the riders (few though there were at Cormwood right now) giving them pointers and showing off her Dawnlight tack and gear, since it was different from theirs.

"But what do I do now?" Asked Tabitha.

"Well," Fanny said, being the one in charge of the place, "you could wait for the next hatching - there will be another."

"But how long will that take? I have to get back to school with a hatchling, we've got classes!" She was now worried.

"Or,....." Fanny said with a strange look in her eye. "There were several hatchlings who chose not to bond at their arrival. We didn't have enough to go around then anyway. I wish that your Hollis person had informed me that there would be another... Ah well."

She shrugged, and then led Tabitha toward a secluded but well-made dragon area. "The four are here. There are two yellow females, a blue male, and a red female. They're each a bit different, every one has their own personality. Don't assume they would take you on as a bond. Just... be yourself." Fanny advised, and Tabitha nodded.

"Got it. I can do that."

She carefully walked into the dragon's dens. One by one, though two were asleep and one was busy gobbling down some meat, she watched them. It wasn't like getting a kitten at the pound. It wasn't like looking at adoption papers.

It was watching real live dragons, alone, who were watching her right back. Even the sleeping ones, they seemed to be prying into her mind and walking around. Like they were actually looking at her to determine whether they wanted to adopt her.

"I ... I don't know if any of you would like to have me as a friend," Tabitha said, "but I'd be really happy if you would. I didn't mean to miss the hatching, but I won't blame you if you hold that against me." She didn't stumble on the words, in fact it felt like they were falling right out of her mouth. "But I really want to make sure that every one of you has the right bond, the right rider. It's a life long partnership, I know that, and how could anyone let you go through life alone?"

The dragonets, still less than half a year or so old, seemed to mull this over. Tabitha didn't know what they were thinking, of course. No one did.

Perhaps one of them would come to her. She decided that if she would be here, she'd help out. She'd cut up meat for them, make sure their water was fresh, and if they wanted a scratch she'd definitely try to find their itches...

***

It wasn't much more than a week later, while Tabitha busied herself by helping sweep and maintain the dragon dens. It was quite hard work, much more work than she'd had to put into any other classes. But she wasn't going to give up. Not yet. The dragonets would still look at her and then gaze at each other - maybe they were talking about her behind her back...

Until the one day when she felt a strange sensation, a steady warmth brushing her neck and back. She was resting her head on her folded arms just outside the dens, the sun coming down seemed to have vanished.

"I will take you as a partner," said a voice. Perhaps she'd imagined it.

"Ahem," the voice said again. It was male, and came from just behind Tabitha's head. "I said, I would take you as a partner..."

When she turned, her hair stuck in her eyes - because there were tears in them. "You mean it?" She said, and then she felt an interesting new sensation. Within her mind, a warm-cold feeling. And words.

I mean it. My name is Uthmus, I like you. I would have come to you at my hatching, if you had been there! Come - there is something I want to show you!

The dragon was blue, a beautiful sky pale blue, with the start of a lovely mane and beard in white. His wings were strong, yet his eyes were sparkling. They had been a bit dull when she first saw him a few days before. Perhaps that was because he hadn't been able to share a bond yet.

He wasn't nearly big enough to ride, yet, but he was still bigger than a pony and had that long neck so he could stretch and look over things. He did just that, instructing her to 'shhhh!' and be very still.

Down in a little gulley were a pair of local kids, entertaining themselves by skipping pebbles on the puddles at the bottom. Tabitha almost giggled - but Uthmus mentally shushed her again.

I think we can scare the wits out of them, he suggested.

'But that's not nice!' Tabitha thought at first, and obviously the dragon caught her thought. He looked a bit downcast. 'We can still do it, we won't be here much longer...'

Though he did not question that particular statement, Uthmus cheered up at the thought of darting into trouble headfirst. At least he wanted to scout it out beforehand!

They snuck up, with Uthmus suddenly flaring his wings open and giving off quite a bellow, as Tabitha shook tree limbs and made leaves tumble all around the kids. True to form they blanched, screeched, and bolted back up the crumbling side of the gulley into their homes!

"I'm going to like being with you, Uthmus," Tabitha said, grinning ear to ear. "Let's get you back to the den, and then, I guess we go home to Carramba!"

The blue tilted his head, and butted her shoulder. I want to know how I am to go? I am bigger than your little friend - who I also like. He is very protective of you, and I appreciate that. He kept you safe for me.

Skylar perked up, since they were nearby, and gave a proud snort.

"I'm going to do the same thing with you, as I did with him!" Tabitha decided. "You'll both be traveling right with me, on the back of Nukath!"

Not that long after their graduation from Carramba, and a four-year stint at C4, shortly before the startling changes made to both campuses, Tabitha realized what she really wanted to do with her life. Her dragons were proud of this too, as they were part of it!

So she set up a meeting with the administration for Carramba, presented her modest paperwork, and proposed that she become a guidance councelor. It took maybe 10 minutes of discussion for the group of existing councelors and staff to decide. Of course she would be welcomed for such a role!

Now with the changes to the campus she has her own office space with a dragon-ledge entrance on one side and a lovely frosted-glass-enclosed private space, office area, and amenities for both groups and private talks.