Standing At Falas Special Clutch (ISLA)

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: Purple Black Nightwing from Isla flitter enclosure (hatchling down in story)

Dragon: see below

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

**2022 NOTES** have condensed this with page 2, any links to drew-dragon2.htm can go here instead

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 Isla 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. (they did not say Isla this time, lol)

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 Isla, 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 Isla - 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 Isla.

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 Isla. 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...

Isla.

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 Isla 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.

Drew watched with interest as the mages did their work. He was trying to pick up anything - words he could use, phrases chanted... But it wasn't Latin, it was some other language, and he only knew a little Latin. Well, he knew something dubbed at the store, 'pretentious Latin', which one of his RPG characters taught in another universe.

He'd been talking to Lethe too, about this. Discovered that somehow they'd brought Nik to the hatching too, and he was pleased. They at least could hang out and have predictably silly conversations. But what conversing with Lethe brought him was that Melora Nightwind existed in some form or another, in several universes already.

"Look," Lethe said, late one night snuck out of her dorm, "if there are elves, and I mean 'lord of the rings' elves here, there are also elfquest elves, and all kinds of other stuff."

This seemed to pleasantly surprise Nik, who was off in his own world - happily forcing himself to draw, even though it was late and he should have been sleeping.

Then finally, after another couple weeks, the hatching was called. Drew was still apt to follow the mages around, listening keenly. It was very likely he'd picked up a few words by then, but their meaning might escape him. He'd just repeat them later on in private and see what happened.

What happened at the start of this hatching, was that one mage particularly spoke an enchantment to assure that the dragons here would hatch in proper Pernese colors, and be safe.

It had rained for days, but that didn't bother Drew or Lethe, nor Nik for that matter. Everyone liked the sands regardless of the weather outside - Drew had been known to just sit on a ledge and watch that rain. Whatever went on in his mind was only for Nightwind to share.

The hatching proceeded shortly, with a bronze breaking out of his shell first - a terrific sign in terms of Pernese tradition. He bonded off, and everything got rolling. Several eggs would hatch at once, because they had all been laid around the same time. A batch of them impressed their earthly friends. Then, a batch more opened.

Like any hatching, the eggs seemed to take the first few as a cue to hatch at one. A mess of dragonets were suddenly on the sands, and for the candidates it was as confusing for the hatchlings. Out of the group, a bronze had begun to sneak around all of the candidates, to the back, being as quite and as stealthy as possible. Suddenly, the bronze sprang right onto his stunned rider - only it wasn't a ‘he' and it wasn't an ordinary bronze. She was a night bronze.

I gotcha, Drew! the young dragoness grinned, looking down at her pinned, surprised rider. Then she tilted her head to the side. So, am I any good?

Drew Robb was still staring. “Yes...at...huh...what are you good at...Mahtarth?”

Yes, my name is Mahtarth. Yours is Drew Robb. I am your dragon. I was wondering if I was good at sneaking up on you.

He laughed, and told her that yes, she was good - but she could be better, perhaps, with practice. They went off to find some of the meat, which Drew was almost half-tempted to eat bloody raw as well. Five thirty in the morning was hardly a good time to be awake. Meat would be good for that... Nightwind thought so.

***

It came time shortly - rather more quickly than anyone seemed to realize - for the dragons to learn their first flying lessons. Drew almost balked at that. He hated airplanes.

I am not an air-plane, Mahtarth reminded him. None to gently, she bumped her head against his hand and pushed him toward the flying tack. I wish you to ride me into our adventures. Isn't that what we are supposed to do?

"I guess so," Drew said. He noticed that Lethe was having about the same problem with her blue, and he knew she was terrified of heights. He shrugged and picked up the riding gear. Holding it in his hands like it was a greasy dead animal, he turned it over and over. "I know we went over this in the weyrling classes," he muttered, "but it's not like this is a fashion show."

That strap goes over my shoulder, and you sit here, Mahtarth picked at it with her rather nimble forepaws. If you just think of it as clubbing gear won't it be easier to do?

"How do you know about-- never mind," Drew said, laughing. Anything she could pick out of his mind, she'd mention or bring up at just the right moment. Of course she was right. Putting on the harness was a lot like dressing up for a bondage party or something. Not that he had been to any of those. Really. Honest.

Shortly they were geared up, ready to start flapping. The only problem that Drew had of course was that this all had to happen in broad daylight, under the beating rays of the unrelentingly bright sun. It wasn't a yellow sun. It wasn't earth's sun. That was weird. It was a kind of orangey red shade, but he had hardly even noticed that originally. It was Lethe who had pointed it out, and they went around looking at all kinds of things comparing the colors they 'knew' to the new colors under this light.

Distracted by those thoughts, Drew was startled when he and Mahtarth were next up. The dragoness was excited, the months they'd spent together were busy and filled with discoveries for her. Now, about eight months into her life, she was going to leave the ground.

Her wings spread open expertly, she'd practiced posing with the other two dragons for Lethe and Nik and whoever else wanted to draw them. Many artists in this clutch of course, almost every dragon wound up doing that. Mahtarth's strong shoulders felt like rollers below Drew's legs, as she tested their strength.

"Ready - shoulders forward - not yours Drew, the dragon's!" Shouted the weyrling master, "fingers spread, sails feel that wind? Go go GO!"

With the others encouraging her, Mahtarth began to run quickly toward the short gulley ledge. It wasn't a true cliff, that would be disasterous. By the time she got to the edge of the grassy area, all four of her feet had left the ground and her wings were doing all the work. She flapped four, five, six times and then looked down in surprise.

We are flying! I am flying! Look at me!

Beside himself with either glee or terror, Drew let off a rare shout of surprise. He clung on with his knees like he was taught - those martial arts exersizes he was so fond of doing every day had really paid off for him. He wouldn't fall from her back. With her nose up in the air Mahtarth began to climb a bit, but couldn't really gain too much air. I am not strong enough to fly yet, she commented as they landed a bit roughly onto the gulley's other edge. Those who had made it across formed a kind of chanting circle, happily including anyone who came by. Those that didn't make it grumbled at the bottom of the shallow gulley, and had to walk back around to the back of the line, to try again until they succeeded.

***

Everyone participated in the classes, but Drew's mind was on other things. Where he could go, who he'd be able to meet. Lethe was in the same boat, he wasn't sure what was up with Nik. But... One of those classes he had to attend, by virtue of Mahtarth being female, was the Dragon-Rising course.

Filled with girls, as the hatching had been almost entirely female candidates and many of them bonded off to equally female dragons... Drew was one of the background participants. The girls asked good questions. The poor weyrling master had to make due with answering and occasionally had to resort to 'Do it my way because I'm in charge' tactics. Drew couldn't blame him - obviously he'd never had to deal with a group of young women who had a far better education than he...

But I will rise some day, Mahtarth reminded Drew quietly. The class went on, but Drew patiently listened to his dragon.

I know you will.

And you are not worried? There will be male riders and... The night-bronze female fretted outside, as many of the females were doing. Their riders were agitated by what was being said in the class, and that made all of them a bit antsy.

I know, Mahtarth, you are female and I'm male, and I don't much care. I mean, I'm pretty sure you'll find a nice guy-dragon to fly with, and I'll find myself a nice ... whoever it will be, to be with me.

He said 'consumed!' Consumed with lust!

I've been consumed with lust before, Drew grinned to himself. I'd like to see a guy come on to me then... He chuckled, but fortunately the class was filled with animated discussion and his laughter was lost among it.

Well I will try and find you a good partner too, then. Because if you will not be picky someone will have to be. The dragon harrumphed.

I never said I wasn't going to be picky. It'll weed out the weaklings, Mahtarth. Drew snickered again, and as the class ended he picked up his pack and headed to the weyrs. All through the dorms and class halls, were people with that dazed look upon their face. They were all talking to their dragons. It was now second nature to Drew and the rest, to avoid collisions in traffic - foot traffic - while speaking through the mind.

***

The dragons would learn so many flight drills, and Drew seemed to be interested in following through on at least a bit of that. The trio of older riders, he, Nik and Lethe, had already begun to make arrangements to be leaving the Weyr instead of signing on as fighters. While Drew and Nik were certainly able to do so, the intellectual pursuits available on dragon-back were more intriguing than life-endangerment remaining on this Pern of theirs.

I know you want to fight Thread just once, Mahtarth commented as they lay in their newer more private weyr. The night had fallen, but as always there was the baleful red glow just under the horizon - that hideous and huge red star. The planet that he'd learned about, that cast off a buttload of the fiberous Thread shit. Why not just get rid of the thing... Hell, if there were talking winged wolves and magical elves here, couldn't they do something about it?

I do want to but... you know me and pain, Mahtarth, I'm not going to endanger my complexion any more than it already is... He thought back with a smile. He'd already wheedled out of one of the magic practitioners a permanently binding spell of hair-removal. It was painless, fashionable.

Keeping Mahtarth off the firestone while the others had to feed their females was an absolute nightmare. "But you're male, she's not going to rise with you and all," or "you fight well enough to warrant it," or "every dragon needs to flame some times," they weren't enough. Just because Mahtarth was female, did not mean that she was going to become a victim of this process.

Besides, some day she'd have a beautiful clutch of eggs - and how could you do that without having a nice fertile dragon? Huh?

But they did practice with the others, formations and marching for the humans and flight drills for the dragons, and more drills for everyone later on. Flamethrowers were handed out to the ones who refused firestone.

Drew had the biggest ass smile on his face ever.

"A flame thrower," he pointed out to Lethe. He whispered, "cooool!"

Lethe busted up, "that's... so dangerous in your hands." She glanced at her blue, "at least we can do the stuff, but coal's so disgusting. When we're out of here I expect not to use it ever again." She wiped her hands clean by habit, even though they had no firestone residue on them. "This place is so... grimy..."

Drew grinned widely, "but flamethrowers are great!"

Waving him and his enthusiasm off, Lethe wandered away to try and complete another exersize. She didn't much care for the very hard work, it was too exhausting and made all of her really want to be back at home. Drew played with the flame thrower.

You remember that you must not burn my head off, right? Mahtarth commented as she watched him tossing the gout of flame around.

"Yeah, yeah," Drew muttered. He would remember, actually. In practice and in form, he was careful.

***

Though Nik was going to stay on a little longer, having some experience with animal medicine and being needed in the infirmary for Thread emergencies coming up, Lethe and Drew approached the Weyrleader for the formal conversation they'd need to have to leave.

Drew was quiet, patient, nicely professional, when Lethe was talking about exploration and world hopping. Mahtarth outside was excited. Did this mean they were going to leave soon? All those places which Drew had imagined and seen, she welcomed them...

"It's a shame to see you going, you're a good asset in a fighting wing," said the man, whose weary expression told of a number of people already before them having this conversation.

"Distractions like the ones Lethe was talking about would always be in my head," Drew admitted. "Even this world is not just about flying against this stuff and marching in formation. I haven't even seen half the place."

"There are parties to attend, people to show off to," Lethe muttered with a grin, and that even elicited a chuckle from the Weyrleader.

"Yes, yes, we all know about you and your fasion sense..." He said. Eventually he would grant permission to the pair to transfer out. To Drew it was a relief, it was a freedom that was attained.

We were not captives here, Mahtarth reminded him.

"No, but we weren't signed on as military ranks either, that's not what the deal was. It turned into that, just beacuse that's what everyone here expects to do..."

So he began packing up, and trying to prioritize. Who should he visit first? Where would they go? Suddenly the universe was much bigger and harder to comprehend - too many choices existed. First, like Lethe, he'd head home briefly.

I want to see where you were before I came along, Mahtarth commented with a draconic grin.

"Well you're way too big to stay there full time," Drew laughed, "even though my house's back yard is pretty large..."

You have mentioned this house thing often... People do not live in houses here.

"I know and it's pissing me off," Drew smirked. Everyone here lived in freaking caves - yallayalla - and they were big and cold most of the time. And in volcanoes! VOLCANOES! Why in the world would anyone choose to live inside a place that could blow up from under you?

Didn't they learn? Well, better the long-term geological events like volcanic eruptions than the hurricanes or tornadoes that people were well known for living around on Earth.

Packed up, Drew was ready to fly home. As the others - perhaps called more brave by the locals - set off to their first Thread fall, to injure themselves in battle against a completely witless force of nature, Drew and Lethe bid their friend Nik a temporary farewell. Lethe had disappeared for a couple days before this, and Drew suspected that after their betweening practice she'd slipped away almost by accident. Whatever first adventure she'd had, she didn't share or talk about to anyone save Sunny in her dorm. So now that they were ready, they both tried to picture their home clearly in their minds.

It wasn't so much like teleporting in regular space. It was cold, hard travel. But the warmth that would greet them both when they arrived would be well worth that pain...