Captain Lewis Temple, working the Talon City fire department for 16 years, all of them spent in one or another of the Stations here. A respected and well-established man in the community of fire fighting. Temple does have a bit of a drinking problem, however he would never allow himself to drink on the job, nor fail to do any of the hard work required of him when needed. His duties often include training young men and women in the station, showing the tour groups around, and working as liason with the city commissioners. He has spent 2 tours in the Navy, working on planes and having been involved in at least one protracted battle in the Middle East during the last one.

An imposing black man of over 6'3" tall and broad shoulders, his skin is quite dark, which makes the grey in his black closely cut afro stand out even more. His oddly hazel green eyes are what most people remember about him, however, rather than his age (which is 44).

He has a daughter who lives with his ex-wife in San Francisco, but no other family alive. He tends to spend his evenings alone, or going out to drink - again alone, usually without the company of the other officers or fire fighters of his squad. He is fighting depression and losing.

Here is an egg. Handed to him by Steele (with an onlooking crowd of giggling Station folk), this egg is from the Keltic Rose Isle adoption center. Though he insists that he didn't want this pet, Lewis is growing to understand that it will help him concentrate on things other than his own lousy condition.

Shortly, only three days after Steele handed off the egg, it hatched! Inside it was a red-orange colored Chesmu! Feeding it properly and caring for this little bundle of 'joy' has got Temple interested in the fun of life again. He's decided that because of its color (and it doesn't have a gender, how odd!) Lewis is calling this chesmu Flicker.

Lewis watched the little Chesmu rolling around on the desk, and sighed. "Flicker, that's my paperwork..."

Apparently the red creature had decided that paperwork could wait. Right now, there was a stronger concern of reaching an itch that the little thing had developed. None of its limbs would reach quite-right-there... Temple laughed, and scratched between the shoulders, right at the base of the neck. "There, huh? I guess I know what that's like..."

It had been a while since anyone had been there for him, to scratch those itches. Okay, that wasn't fair - he was going to concentrate on being positive, being here and now. Not that he had a hard time. Flicker bit his finger, just a nip, to keep the attention coming.

"Ow!" Temple menaced the little creature with his thick finger, but Flicker only batted at it like a cat would. That melted the dark-skinned man's heart yet again. "Okay, okay. I'm going to have to get you a scratching post..."

Before anything else could happen, though, the alarms started going off for the medical emergency side. Grinding his jaw around, Temple noticed that not everyone in that section was responding as quickly as they could. The regular staff were still out for the week with their dragons, so Captain Temple became their focal point. With Flicker clinging suddenly very seriously to his shoulder on his rank patch, he strode into the med bay and shouted. "Get that truck started!"

The group moved into action. There was no doubt why he was a ranking officer here, he had a way with his voice. The group piled into the ambulance and Temple took his chief's vehicle. Together they hit the park, where someone had collapsed during a soccer game.

The fire fighter chief stood by and watched with calm pride, as the group of younger emt's did their work. She'd overheated, needed liquids, nothing more serious than that today.

"It's a good thing we were nearby," Temple said with a smile to one of the emt's, "they'd have left her laying there in the sun..."

Flicker chirped in Temple's ear, and while they were still out in the park, a dragon flew overhead. To the excited squeals of the crowd, it actually came down to land nearby.

"Hey boss," Temple said with a grin to his coworker Manny Steele. He and his big black Glenn dragon always made a terrific impression.

"I found a place," Steele said, as the station's fralamar winged wolf jumped off his special harness from the dragon's back, and flew down to entertain the crowd that was forming. He always knew just how to distract everyone else while the boys and girls of 208 got their work done.

"A place, you think? The last thing you did for me was plop this little red menace on me," Temple said, of Flicker who was angrily chewing on his ear. "Nothing dangerous I hope..."

"No more dangerous than we're used to, Lew," Manny laughed. "Come on. I can take you straight off."

"... What, right now? I don't have any-"

"You can get your stuff. I can get your stuff. It's all packed in your office, right?" Steele said. Reluctantly, Lewis nodded and glanced around. The EMT's had cleared out, and one of them had snuck the keys to the suv to take it back to the station. Almost like they knew...

So he went. What else could he do? Temple would have to swallow this adventure just like everything else in his life. At least this was supposed to be doing him some good...

***

"Myrsilk," Steele said, throwing his arms open. Temple wasn't as confident on the dragon's back as he, nestled between the rider's harness and the fralamar. "It's new, new enough, and they have some very interesting things going on here..."

"You always say that," Temple said, "what kind of interesting things?"

Just then, naturally, a group of these Myrsilk dragons flew by. Colorful and proud looking, with long long tails and bright markings... Temple just let his jaw drop. One of them produced a splashy spell in mid-air, countered by another's. They were merely showing off.

Suddenly and for the first time in many years, Lewis Temple believed in magic again. He'd seen lots of it recently, but his stubborn opinion was that it was all just science. But this... was something else. This was dragons like ... Like Redburne would talk about them. His heart raced.

"I'll take it," he said, eyes still fixed on the big shining dragons flying away.

Lewis Temple stood nervously on the sands, like all the other folks. Well, he noticed, the dragon-kin over there were just fine with it. And he had to admire the other girl who'd come from Earth with him, Taaj. She was one of those types that he'd seen hanging out with ... Well, regular gangs weren't her thing.

They weren't his thing either. Ever. Temple concentrated on the sands, the eggs were hatching. Above everything, the voices of the dragons sang the newcomers into the world. First one egg, then another, two, a few more. Taaj actually paired off with two dragons. Temple wasn't sure he was ready for this.

Flicker had flown off, to where he didn't know. But ... he started to get kind of nervous when there were fewer and fewer eggs. True, one hatched with two dragonets in it, and that left a roughly equal number of people waiting and eggs. But... Some of the other dragonets didn't even pair off, why was that? Didn't they care that there were people out here who needed them?

Something deep inside Lew's throat tightened. He did need them. It was worse than any need for a drink, far worse than any desire he'd ever had. Not for the first time in ages, but certainly for the reason he was alone, Temple's eyes were going to well up with hard tears. This couldn't happen to him. He was too old for this... No more rejection.

Flicker returned, somewhere between the hatching and bonding of the last couple dragonets. Two still eggs were laying on the sands, were they dead? Cold? Or just ... not going to bother hatching? He found comfort in Flicker's nibbling of his fingers.

Scratching the head of his little chesmu, he made as if to turn, to leave the cavern and the oddly colored sands, head down…

You wouldn't leave me, would you, Lewis?

“Wh– … I…” Blinking, Lewis Temple looked back at the sands… only to come nearly face-to-face with a fiery dragon who was, somehow, standing on his hind legs, wings spread for balance. Ruby, sapphire, and pale blue markings added spots of different color to the dragonet's hide, as bright gold eyes stared calmly into Lewis' hazel green eyes.

I –am– sorry for making you wait like that. None of my siblings bothered to tell me that I was almost the last left, and I was enjoying the welcome-song. The dragonet sounded almost contrite, as he let himself settle back down onto all fours. With a draconic smirk, he nosed at Temple 's free hand, tilting his head back as the firefighter obliged him with a scratching under the chin. Ahh…

Lewis had to laugh at the sigh of pure bliss that his dragonet gave, “You're going to be just as bad as Flicker, aren't you, Aerison?”

Mmm… worse. I get bigger. And I can nag you with words.

“No one told me dragons were such attention-demanding creatures,” the firefighter muttered, shaking his head in amusement as Aerison's golden eyes closed in near-ecstasy at the scratching.

Hey, I think I deserve a little pre-payment for all the work I'm going to be doing, yes? I'm a Fire with Water and Wind powers. I'm –more– than sure you can find ways to use that to your advantage, Fire Captain.

That surprised another laugh out of Lewis, “Great, just what I need, a dragon who's aware of each and every little thing owed to him.”

Aerison grinned as the two of them strode off the sands, shooting back, Oh, and little Flicker and I are going to be plotting ways to get you to lighten up. You can't be so serious and dark all the time!

“… Thanks for the warning. I guess.”

Flicker gave off a tiny chittering laugh, and flew over the dragon's head. They would make a good team, Lewis thought.

All three of them.

Name: Aerison

Gender: Male

Element: Fire

Bond: Lewis Temple

Powers: Fire (9), Water (6), Wind (4)

Adult Size: 60' long, 30' high at the shoulder

***

Aerison and Lewis mastered control over fire very quickly. Almost before he could fly, Aerison was putting out or changing the flames that could be produced around him. He was best at creating them, but with skillful manipulation on his part, and suggestions from Lewis, he could change fire into something less deadly. Turn it to light, shift the heat, or combine it with the other elements that he knew how to use, into steam or merely a column of heat.

It would still be dangerous for anyone in the way of that heat, but that was the job of every fire fighter to do. Get the innocents out of the way, and prevent the spread of the flames.

I will not be the only dragon around to do that, now, will I?

"Of course not Aerison," Temple commented. "We've got a whole squadron of them now, you're going to be a welcome addition! And a big one too," he chuckled. "Steele's black is going to get a good run for his money with you on the way..."

Oh, jealous of size, mmm?

"Nope, I've never had that problem myself." He laughed again. Now he suddenly realized that he was happy - for the first time in years. And proud - not only of the dragon and his abilities, but for himself, to command and observe. This was his life, and he was ready to live it again!

When Lewis Temple and his huge flame-colored and marked Aerison arrived in the airspace over TCFS 108 it was to a huge hush and then gigantic cheer. Though Steele's black dragon was impressive, nothing beat the morning sun glinting off the golden-orange hued wings of this dragon.

"Down there," Temple said, and Aerison complied. There was a large landing space - bulldozed old warehouse and parking lot - made into a dragon landing. The others who had come back before now gathered, from the diminutive green Plurimi, to the dashing bronze Agranoth. "Where's Steele?" Temple asked.

"Up there," Heller said, pointing up to the Alabaster tower nearby. They could barely make out the jagged shape of his dragon on the corner of their helicopter landing pad. There were other dragons up there too - there were always dragons there. Before Temple could stop him, and while Flicker gave off a cry of distress, Aerison launched himself into the air with great power.

"Hey!" Temple shouted. "Where are you going?"

To check out the competition, was the dragon's reply. Lewis got a tightness in his gut. He was - he couldn't be considering that Isha was his enemy or ... could he?

"They're gonna fight," Yuri said, almost excitedly.

"No they are not," Temple growled. He started walking with determination in the direction that Aerison had gone. He felt a hand around his arm, and turned with a snarl to see Davies there.

"Let him go, they're going to do whatever they will. I'm surprised Agranoth didn't get this treatment." The musician turned public servant shrugged as the biggest dragons took to the air as well. His own, and Nhamante's brown Yeridunth, followed Aerison.

But it turned out that no, in fact, they weren't going to fight. Though the big black and the huge fire dragons circled one another, it seemed all they wanted to do was in fact check each other out.

He is proud to be bonded to your friend, Aerison said mentally. They make a good team, as we do.

Temple let his breath out - he'd been holding it almost the whole time as they watched the dragons circle above. "Thank goodness," he said.

Arriving to the landing area, the bunch of dragons could barely even fit on the same spot of asphalt. There were still a couple out, waiting for their bonds to hatch too. This would be a great photo op - it's a shame that no camerapeople had bonded dragons there yet!