Battalion Chief Manny Steele has spent most of his life trying to live up to his name. His parents knew just what they were giving him, when they named him after Superman after all.

Born in Talon City, 54 years ago. Steele has greying brown hair, bronzish-tan colored eyes, and leather-shaded caucasian skin with several scars visible from fires and other work-related injuries. He has lost both his parents to old age, and one of his two brothers in a fire. It was that event when they were younger that caused him to wish to join a fire fighting squad. He is divorced, and has a daughter 13 years old. He currently has only visitation rights, and his ex-wife and daughter live in Phoenix, making it that much harder for him to visit. He misses both his child Nina and married life, but he's decided that the Station is now his only love.

With duties that comprise all the firefighting he knows how to do, as well as command and administrative efforts, Steele is an ideal leader. He knows how to devote attention to five or six people at once, and often can be found intently studying someone to see how they act. It is so he can help put them in the best spot for their job, but in reality it's also why his wife divorced him - a combination of his intense scrutiny and her jealous belief that he was 'girl watching' in the Station and ignoring her.

Manny wandered around the Isle's library, trying to figure out the script. At last, someone said, "you're not from that planet, why are you trying to read about it's fauna?" and took the book from him gently. She handed him another book - "you might like this one better."

"Thanks," he said weakly. This place had taken him by surprise. It was not a tame world - there were dragons and creatures, wilderness and ... It was like a place out of a fantasy story. But then, that's why he was here at all. For the dragons.

The book that the smiling woman had given him was about the local dragons - their history and their physical makeup. So many varieties, but they all somewhat came down to a few colors and a number of abilities.

He read up, after sitting at a large table, about their history. They had spread to different worlds after leaving their first. Some colonies thrived, while others failed. Chewing his lip, Steele wondered what would happen to their own colony - the Station's colony.

How were the others faring? That was his typical thought for the rest of the day. Once he'd gotten a better grip on how things worked here, who was attached to whom and what the ranks of the inhabitants might be, Manny dwelled upon his friends and coworkers.

He didn't know who'd bonded or who had to wait. But they were all assured a place, and they were all somewhat convinced that each would do well.

"Of course we will," he muttered, sipping at a cup of tea. "We're the 108..."

***

Shortly, after a few days and more reading, conversing and learning than he'd done in years, Steele was brought to a large cavernous locale, where a dragon and her mate were carefully looking over the people that came in.

"Not him," she said of one, who was led away. "But her," she added to another excited younger girl. "And you," she told Manny. "You're here from very far away. It would be too sad to send you away empty handed. Take good care of this."

The egg was large, almost too big to carry - and he wasn't meant to really carry it around. The egg would hatch... soon, he thought. It was time now to catch up on the care and feeding parts of that book...

The day finally came when Manny heard the distinct sounds of motion within the pale colored egg he'd recieved. Even though he was a grown man, had had his own children... He was excited like a young boy.

He had the right kinds of food and liquid available for the dragonet, waiting. He wasn't sure what to do really, other than wait and watch. And so slowly, carefully, the shell began to splay and crack. First here, then there, a bulge would appear and then soften. Finally with the shell laced with fine cracks, it was soft enough for the hatchling inside to emerge.

Nose first, with eyes shut tight against the sharp edges of shell, the little dragonet came out into the light of day for the first time. Black as night, but colored softly because it was in the egg for so long. Perhaps it would darken down into a rich color, maybe it would turn graphite in the sun.

Manny wasn't sure.

But he didn't care what color the dragonet would be, all he knew was that this dragon was hungry fresh out of the shell!

He also knew... Something deep inside his heart told him that this dragon was a male. He needed food and a good name! Crouching close to the young and still-wet dragon, Steele made a little cooing noise that he hadn't made since his own daughter had been a child many years before. The dragon lifted his heavy head and finally cracked his eyes open.

"It's all right, the shell's all gone now," Steele said as he pulled bits off the dark skin of his dragon. His. Dragon!

"Now..." He said as the dragonet began to swallow the small pieces of cut up fish and meat he was offered, "what are we going to call you?"

"Call him something special," suggested Eaaeril, who had appeared abruptly behind Manny and caused a bit of a shower of fish parts over the black dragonet.

"You need to make a lot more noise than that, Eaaeril," suggested the fire chief. "Something special, no kidding..." His brown eyes shone with happiness when he watched the little dragon scooping up every bit of the food that had landed around him. The red eyes of the dragon turned up to the winged wolf, widened, and then the dragon scooted behind his bond friend, hiding.

"Hey, you don't need to be scared of him," Manny said, laughing and trying to pull the dragon out from behind him. "This is your friend, he belongs in the fire station. Eaaeril, that's who that is." Steele spoke carefully and quietly, in a soothing voice. He was quite good at this, really. Considering how gruff he could be on fire sites, this was kind of a switch for the winged wolf.

"Well, what name would you suggest, then?" Steele said, "I mean, sooty and rex are kind of stupid for a dragon I know is going to grow up to talk back to me... I don't want him complaining that I've given him a dumb name."

"Good idea," Said the wolf, who sat and looked smug. He tilted his furry head, and said, "Ishamashii!"

The dragon yelped, tried scooting even farther under and behind Steele, but that only caused him to topple over and wind up dragon-face-to-wolf-face. The wolf licked the little dragon's nose, and said again, this time more quietly, "Isamashii."

"And... that means?" Steele asked, trying to get his own mouth around the word. eesh-aah-mah-shee-ee... What a weird word.

"It is Japanese, it means bravery." The wolf nodded a third time, and lay down. Nearby him was one of the discarded pieces of meat, which he quickly licked up. The dragon took a cue, and lay down next to the wolf. They were almost the same size - an indication of the greatness that the dragon would achieve?

"I'll call him that, when I learn to pronounce it..." Steele said. "But now that he's got the hang of it, I think you're right. Brave little guy."

Steele scratched the sleepy dragon's shoulder, was made to do the same to the wolf, and he watched them sleep.

Name - Ishamashii, meaning Bravery

Gender - Male

Color - Black!

Parents - Denkou and Shandra, clutch 10 at Isle of Mirrors

Ishamashii grew rapidly. And, he got used to the idea that his human friend would give him far more attention than the furry creature - but that same furry creature followed them around an awful lot. They currently resided in the Talon City area of the Healing Den's 'other levels'. Meaning, they had easy access to the rest of the Healing Den - it's infirmary, strange doctors, and many other dragons; as well as access to the portal back to Talon and the fire station.

Today was a day that Manny decided they would take a brief trip back to Talon to see how things were going. It was at least as much Manny being homesick, as he wanted to get Ishama used to the noises and the machines, cars, and people. As they made their way to the big cement and stone portal, Eeaeril said something.

"I thought that Glenn types learned to speak when they were young." He said. They trotted along side one another - but Ishamashii was already bigger than the fral.

"I ... I don't know - do they? I know they talk but no one said when!" Steele said, suddenly nervous. "Do you think he's okay?"

He turned and looked seriously at the black dragonet, whose eyes blinked carefully. Manny was so distracted that he hardly noticed when Ishamashii glanced briefly at Eeaeril with a kind of draconic sneer.

"Now, Ishama," Steele said seriously, "I know you understand me, but... aren't you going to talk? I don't even know what you'll sound like, you've been so quiet all this time."

A bit of a growl came from the black's throat, and he said in a kind of husky but high voice, "he started it," and then bolted to the portal. Eeaeril flew after him, wings pumping and what sounded like a tittering laugh coming from his jaws...

"Great -" Steele said, "I didn't think it would make the wolf get younger, having a baby in the house..."

(( Child stage))

Ishamashii was begining to get his full sized flight wings, but he was still too inexperienced for Manny to allow to fly over the city. In the Healing Den's safe flight dome, that was another story. There, he was aided by the expert older dragons, who all seemed to want to help him learn.

They all knew how important he would be, to the Fire Station.

I will want to know the layout of the city too, Isha said, privately. Manny had gotten used to the warm feeling of Isha's mental voice. He prefered it to the somewhat strange croaky voice he had, actually.

"Well I'll be back with a map then. And we've got one in the station." Manny said. "I can order one for the dragon lair too, we'll blow it up to a bigger size so you can see it."

"We can see just fine from a distance," Ishamashii pointed out. "We've got good eyes."

"But the others might want to be closer, and more of you together you'd crowd up. If we have one about ten feet to a side, it'll be better than the small one we've got in the station. Trust me. You've seen it, you know how big that one is."

Isha seemed to think it over, and then nodded. His eyebrow antennae bobbed up and down. "I think you are right. Make it as big as you can afford."

"The dragon project has an unlimited budget," Manny almost giggled. He went off, and Isha shook his head - he'd bonded a weirdo, that was certain...

Name - Ishamashii, meaning Bravery

Gender - Male

Color - Black!

Type - Fire!

Stage - Adolescent!

Because some of the others had also brought their bonds back early to check up on things, Ishamashii got the chance to show off his beautiful self to the other riders. He was impressed by the variety of the dragons, and gryphons, and stood proudly by his rider.

The others seemed to enjoy looking at their commanding officer and his lovely black dragon. And what was best was that though the males would certainly be competitive in ways, and the females would bring a bit of conflict if they went into heat, because all the riders were so used to the structure of the place and the people in it, they didn't argue at all with the idea that Ishamashii would be their leader.

They respect you greatly, Manny, Ishamashii told his rider. Their minds are very happy for you and me. I like that.

"Good, Ishama, that's good." Manny said with a broad grin. They weren't yet ready to return to work, the temporary group of firefighters that inhabited the place currently were glad that they'd be able to go back to their regular stations soon.

Name - Ishamashii, meaning Bravery

Gender - Male

Color - Black!

Type - Fire!

Stage - Adult!

Parents - Denkou and Shandra, clutch 10 at Isle of Mirrors