The beach was Val's favorite place on Twoarth. It was where she could go and just be herself. She'd been sunning herself under the bright rays of light as long as she could remember. Her folks would take her to the beach as a young child - she yearned for its smell of brine and seaweed and salt and suntan lotion. She loved hearing the sounds of people talking and radios playing and the endless hisss-shhh of the waves. The feel of sand under her toes - when it was cool in the morning, when it was blistering hot in the afternoon, when it was packed and soaked full of water and held weight, or when it would part to allow passersby to sink just enough to dust everything over the tops of their feet and leave big runnels of footprints...

"Valerie!" Said the teacher, "you are clearly not paying any attention!"

Val sighed. "Sorry, Miss Prescott," she said. "I'm trying. But it's so hot..."

It was true, the day was really warm - especially for June. It felt more like August, the way that the heat would settle onto Carramba High's sidewalks and grassy hills. The buildings did little to impeed the heat - when the air conditioning worked, it was great. But Prescott didn't seem to understand how to operate the thermostat, and their class sweltered. There had always been talk that she was some kind of demon. Maybe this proved it?

Prescott's lesson wasn't all that interesting, but it was more true that Val didn't much care for the subject matter at hand. Locals History? Been there, done that. What she didn't know about wasn't her problem, so far as Val was concerned. She held out awake just long enough for the bell to ring and lunch to start. Maybe... Maybe she'd just ditch the last class of Thursday and ... well? Why not!

Val wasn't known for being a remarkable student. She was extremely pretty, with volumes of beach-bleached blond hair, rich tan skin that was so soft it was a wonder anyone thought she'd been born a dozen shades lighter. Her eyes were usually covered by mirrorshades, but she had greenish blue eyes. They were often bloodshot, because of the sun or sting of the beach air. She was often mistaken for a stoner - when her shades were off, she had the look of someone who had to squint to see past their own nose, and didn't care to do so unless there was something pretty important at the end of it.

Val 'did' lunch, with the typical crew. Tets was there showing off some new device she'd made in shop, and her crew always took center stage when they had something cool. But Val wasn't interested in following the crowd. She was interested in seeing if the waves had gotten any bigger since the early morning.

Val didn't surf every day, but as it got into Summer like this, she would start. School was in the way of that. But, it was June. School would be ending soon and she'd be free again. Free to taste the pungent salt water, free to dangle her feet off the board and ride the swells until she nearly fell to sleep rocked by them.

It was only about noon, the hottest part of the day here at Carramba high wouldn't come until later on. So she went to her locker after eating, and in the bustle of the rush to get back to class for 6th period (she had Math, what a waste of a day) she simply lost herself out from the halls.

It wasn't hard to leave Carramba high. It was an open campus, people were allowed to leave for whatever reason, as long as... she wasn't going to get caught. No way. Buck the hall monitor was busy with some pack of kids that Tets had glue-gunned to the ceiling during lunch - so she was safe from his wrath. She snuck down the hallway, and went directly to the parking lot.

Past it was safety, and past the few blocks to the west was her beach. Precious beach...

The day was just sweltering. It wasn't all that muggy, but the closer she got to the beach side, the wetter the air got. She was wearing a nice skirt and shirt, but under her shirt she always had her bikini. It wouldn't do to have anything else - why bother? Guys were always trying to get a look at her chest anyway, and she'd blossomed earlier than most of her friends and fellow students. She removed her pink and white shirt and stuffed it into her baggy purse.

With the way guys looked at her, Val reasoned, she would never need a college education, nor maybe even a passing grade in High school. Who cared? She would bat her eyes at someone, or shift her hips, and she could get anyone - any guy anyway - to do whatever she needed. Money? No problem. She'd have gifts by the dozens if she ever gave her address or phone number away. Some guy stalked her in January, but he was okay - just a geek and she got him off her chest (so to speak) by giving him a mercy ride... And then having one of the football guys beat the crap out of him.

Let's see what kind of twisted jerk that would make him into later in life. She grinned to herself on the way down the stairwell into the cavernous pier area. There was a nice breeze this close to the beach, and she relished it. It would bring the smells of hot dogs and barbeque over the endless spray of water.

There weren't many people on the beach this early, and in June the kids obviously hadn't gotten out of school yet. At least, not the ones unlucky enough not to think of just leaving. There were always a couple people down here, and Val located one of them easily.

"Dude!" She said, and a youngish man with a scraggly beard and a well-and-truly too-bright Hawaiian print shirt looked up from waxing his surfboard.

"Hey Val, how are you?" He asked. "You're ditching again," he noted, with a grunt and grin.

"I'm okay, it was really freaking hot in class. I just didn't feel like listening to that witch drone on and on about whatever the hell she was talking about..." Val sighed and sat down on the warm mound of sand next to Dude's towel and board. "You don't go to school."

"I'm older than you." He replied.

"Well, you don't look like you -" Val started to say, but she realized that saying 'you don't look like you ever finished high school' was going to be really rude.

"I have everything I need with me," Dude said, "I have my board, and my towel, and my bag and radio. You don't know what there is out there until you try looking for it." He seemed somewhat wistful, at that, and looked into the sky for some reason.

Val followed his gaze, but then just layed down upon the warm sand and closed her eyes. She listened to the waves, they were hollow and nice, and Dude would have a good time riding them. There were people off to the right playing volleyball. A child had just dropped his ice cream cone on the ground, and mom wouldn't let him eat it now.

Val drifted to sleep without even realizing that she was tired. The heat certainly had done a job on her.

Much later, she woke with a start. There were motors gunning in the beach's parking lot up on the cliffside, and the warmth of the direct sun had gone from her skin: it was evening!?

She sat up and looked around, sand tossed from her voluminous hair, and saw that it was true: night had fallen and there was a car club up there having a burnout contest. Val sighed, and pulled her knees up to her chin. She could see the reflection of the moon down on the water, it had smoothed out a lot, but there were still sets about 2 or 3 feet now and then.

Something interrupted the moon's light briefly, and Val wondered if it was a hang glider this late in the evening? They didn't usually let people do crazy stunts off the cliffs nearby - at night at least. She furrowed her brows, and squinted. There was something moving in the sky, over the water. Something rather large.

When that something large came to rest on the sand near Val, she was hardly able to stand. She had a sunburn, but it would fade into the dark tan she already had soon enough. She was more unable to stand because of the ... thing... near her.

It sniffed at her, messing her hair. No one else seemed to notice it, not the guys in their cars up on the parking lot area.

"Hello?" Val said softly, clearing her throat. "Hell-o?"

"Hey - sorry!" Said a woman's voice, from behind the creature. A red-haired woman dropped to the sand deftly, and she shoved her green dragon's head away from Val. "My dragon here, Maoith, says that you need to come to Utopian."

Val blinked, and swayed gently with the motion of the sea. "What?"

"... Oh - sorry. I'm Rubiae, and this is Green Maoith, and we're riders for Utopian Cathair. It's a dragon site. We ... well, there are dragons in eggs, wanting people to care for them."

"And somehow you think I am ... supposed to do this?" Val said.

"It'd get you out of classes for a while," said Dude, startling both women and the dragon.

"It would, huh?" Val said, thinking only for half a second on this. "I'll go. I don't think anyone's gonna miss me. They never say anything about it when I see the councilors."

"Well Maoith seems to think that being a dragon rider is what you're meant to do with yourself anyway, so ..." Rubiae smiled and extended her hand, helping Val up to the dragon's wide shoulders.

"What about you?" She said to Dude. He shrugged his shoulders, and shook his shaggy head.

"Nope, I can travel just fine with my board." He patted it, it was planted in the sand next to him.

"Okay, well, if you change your mind, I'm sure that there's a dragon on our sands for you."

"Only if they can surf," he replied, and the dragon lifted off....

***

It wasn't too long before the hatching occurred at Utopian. The place, Danach, was just incredible. It was nothing but coastlines, eternally in sunset or sunrise. Darkness covered half the world, while the bright side was bathed in too-hot-to-live-in sunlight constantly. The habited islands ran all along the twilight between.

This was a decent enough place, Val decided.

The hatching itself took place decently far from where the eggs had been lain, and apparently, Val learned later, they'd been moved carefully when they began to shake apart. Val was brought to the beach with the others, and the whole place just sang to her. The waves were endless, and they echoed across the bay.

She smiled, looking at one rider and then the next, those who stood watching. They were handsome men, these riders. She liked it when they looked at her. She was still watching them, when the first egg broke open on the beach. The hatchling that sprang from it was still messy with the goo inside, and then covered in fine sand when she dragged herself out. Disgusted, she made her way quickly to the water line, waited for a wavelet to approach, and dunked into it to clean herself off. Satisfied with this, she then turned to the candidates.

She was a confident, plump looking dragonet, mixed colors of teal and seafoam. She looked at everyone before deciding that Val would be her bond.

Val, let's blow this joint, she told the surfer. The voice in Val's head was feminine, but husky with the same kind of grit that Val had - too much weed, and perhaps a bit too much swallowed seawater. But it was a lovely voice, and it was only for Val. I'd like to see a real beach.

Val went to hug her new bond, the sand was warm around her knees. "Her name is Praiadoceth," she said to the others. Together, they swayed back to the barracks to get food and cleaned up.

This would be a grand adventure, Val thought.

Would you show me where the good surfing is? Can I surf?

"I don't know, Praia," Val laughed. "I don't know how big you'll get. But while you're little still, I think you will be a great surfer."

Just like you!

"Just like me!"