A new rider, a new destiny (Open)

[silver]

Stiarna gently petted the hatchling’s head, and the dragon answered her pettings with a soft purring, the newborn dragon’s scales had a soft texture if you passed your finger in the same direction they grew, but if you passed the finger in the contrary direction they became really sharp and hard, thing that amazed Stiarna a little. His purple scales had such an intense color that they were easy to mistake with gems, gems that grew on the dragon’s body somehow, and the dark ones gave him some mystery. The dragon yawned lightly and stretched, obviously happy to now be out of the reduced space that his egg had. Stiarna smiled and walked out of the building where the eggs were kept, some guards looked at her, now obviously aware of her presence, and some people even gave her a couple of greetings and congratulations when they saw the baby dragon that she had, obviously thinking that she was brought to the place in purpose, so a dragon would hatch for her, if any of them actually knew that she wasn’t even supposed to be there in the first place. Stiarna couldn’t help but chuckle a little with that thought as she got out of the building.

The dragon hatchling jumped on her shoulders and got comfortable, since his newborn size allowed him to do that for now, but said ability wouldn’t last very long, even Stiarna knew how big the dragons could grow only by looking at some of the older dragons that were all around the place. Usually the potential riders were already under the wing of an older rider and his/her dragon, who were ready to start their training if any dragon hatched for them, but since she never came with the original idea of becoming a dragon rider, none of the older riders knew about her, and if any saw her they didn’t bothered themselves in asking her about where was her mentor, assuming that she was going to her mentor’s place or she had some free time. Stiarna didn’t knew that she needed a mentor neither, she knew she had to learn to be a rider, yes, but not that she had to start her training immediately after her dragon was born.

Humming a happy and relaxing song, she kept walking around the place until she reached a lonely cliff on the very limits of New Doru Arabea. She sat on a rock, enjoying the view, and took a deep breath; she liked to be alone sometimes, since she grew really used to that since the people of her caravan took different paths. The hatchling growled lightly and pushed her head with his muzzle, successfully dragging her attention. Stiarna smiled and petted him again, realizing that she wasn’t alone, and it was more likely that she would never be it again with her new companion.

[Tismri]

Don't strain youself, Garrus said. He was perched outside Teza Mae's home while she went for a walk. It was still difficult; everything seemed off to her. Her legs sometimes just didn't seem to want to work and she would collapse on the ground, or her arm would begin to spasm in pain.
I'm fine, she insisted, tired of his constant hounding. Him, Dad, Jason, Aradan, they all seemed to be worrying over her every minute of the day. Not that she could really blame them. She'd nearly died, and they all would have suffered from it. But it felt as if they were all expecting her to make another ridiculously stupid mistake like last time. They didn't trust her on her own anymore.
Her left eye blurred for a moment, rendering her nearly blind as nothing but a sea of smeary redness presented itself to her. She almost cursed herself for being Ismalian, causing magic to affect her so negatively. It would be impossible for her to every fully recover from her torture because of it. But she stopped herself; she was the princess, after all. She couldn't go around despising herself because of her birth or else...she shuddered for a moment as the vision from the exam returned to her. She was determined to be a great queen for her people, the exact opposite of what she had seen.
When her vision cleared, Teza Mae found herself a few uncomfortable yards from the edge of a cliff. She nearly turned away when she stopped a strange girl with a new hatchling sitting near the edge. She knew everyone who was still in this part of Bromsland, friends, foes, and rivals alike. She made it her business to know who her peers were, at the encouragement of her mother, who wanted to ensure her daughter had as many allies as possible.
"You must be new around here," she said, taking the liberty of sitting next to her. "I'm Teza Mae."

[silver]

Stiarna had her mind somewhere else, she loved to be in high places like that cliff. Her hatchling was resting at her side, enjoying the peace and view like his rider, he couldn’t help but start thinking on flying, wishing to be old enough to do so very soon. Their focus on the beautiful view was suddenly interrupted by an unknown girl. Stiarna smiled at her in a friendly way, while the newborn dragon started to study her, like trying to guess who she was and her intentions. Stiarna nodded after Teza talked “Yeah, it’s my very first time here” She said with her usual friendly and relaxed tone while Teza sat her side “My name is Stiarna Dreyma, nice to meet you Teza” The hatchling snorted to drag their attention, not liking to be left out of the conversation. Stiarna looked at him and chuckled before talking to Teza once more “He hatched for me a few hours ago, when I was exploring a building, I had no idea that the eggs were kept in there, in fact I never saw a dragon egg before, so you can guess how surprised I was when he hatched just a few seconds after I touched his egg” The hatchling jumped on Stiarna’s lap and got comfortable, still looking at Teza “He still doesn’t have a name though, I heard about dragons picking their own names and I don’t want to make that choice for him” Stiarna scratched gently the scales under her hatchling’s maw, making him purr softly.

[Tismri]

Teza Mae cleared her throat as she stared out past the cliff. She was always bothered when people got her name wrong; having a two-part name was a long tradition of Ismalian princesses. The only one she tolerated calling her "Teza" was Jason.
"Teza Mae," she corrected as she eyed the dragon in her lap. She smiled slightly. Even though he was just hatched, this dragon was nearly twice as big as Garrus had been when he'd hatched. Of course, now he was just as big, if not larger, and most of his peers.
"Really?" she asked, stunned that the dragon had hatched so quickly. "That's amazing. I visited the egg chamber for weeks, and even after I knew Garrus had chosen me, he still took several hours to hatch." She eyed the northern horizon. Her dragon still had yet to see her homeland. She was beginning to miss the crystal city, but her parents, along with Tismri and everyone else who had helped to heal her, thought it best that she stay in New Doru Araeba to recover.
"So what are you doing here? Are you visiting someone, or coming to train, or what?" she asked, curious.

[silver]

Stiarna immediately noticed the bother on Teza Mae’s face and tried to fix her mistake “Sorry, Teza Mae, for where I come it’s really unusual to have people with more than one name, and when they do we usually call them only by the first one, I didn’t mean to offend you in any way” Stiarna said, hoping to not had earned a bad first impression from Teza Mae’s point of view. Stiarna smiled and looked at Myrkr “Maybe he knew that I was going to leave if he didn’t hatched quickly, as I just said, I was just passing by, not even knowing where I was” The hatchling literally dug his small claws on Stiarna’s leg when she talked about leaving without him, like if he was fearing that she decided to do so at any moment, Stiarna growled lightly in pain whit said action and gently made her hatchling to stop digging his claws on her, earning a soft whimper from the dragon, that quickly faded as Stiarna scratched his scales gently again.

Stiarna couldn’t help but laugh a little when remembering the reason “I’m a merchant, and also a herbalist, I was sealing some medicinal herbs and a couple of previously prepared natural medicines to a man when he realized that he didn’t had money, so he decided to make a deal with me, I would give him everything he needed if he let me come here with him. I obviously didn’t reject the offering, since only important people and potential riders come to this place; it was a golden opportunity that I couldn’t let go just by a couple of coins. Who would have known that by coming here I would become a rider by a chain of mere coincidences?” She smiled and looked at her hatchling, who looked back at her with wide open eyes and a small smile.

[Tismri]

Teza Mae smiled slightly, letting Stiarna know that she had taken no offense to her mistake.
"It's all right," she replied. "My name is more of a family tradition, but it's like I identify myself by my name, and if you leave off part of it, it's as if I'm not whole." She shrugged, then tried her best to keep a straight face as her right arm seized tightly, the pain reminiscent of the agony she had experience during her torture.
Her interest was piqued when the girl mentioned that she dealt with medicinal herbs. She had been treated with some back in the mountains when she was being healed, but they did little except ease the pain. But she found herself wondering if additional spells of healing might be placed upon them. Enchanted items, she knew, would affect an Ismalian the same as it would any person from Alagaesia. It was an odd fact, but she thought it might be one that could help her.
"Fate has a strange way of revealing itself," she said softly. "Out of curiosity, what sort of medicinal herbs do you sell?"

[silver]

Stiarna nodded with a smile, happy to know that she didn’t offended her new friend. She noticed a quick glimpse of pain shoot through her eyes, but it faded as soon as it came and Teza Mae’s expression didn’t changed. She was curious about it, but decided to not ask, if she didn’t wanted to share it by herself, as she could say by how she acted through it, she wouldn’t even try to make her reveal said secret. To avoid thinking on that and avoid curiosity she started to play with the small hatchling, grabbing him by his front claws and making him stand up on his hind legs, like she would do when playing with a cat. The hatchling snorted in annoyance after a couple of minutes, so Stiarna soon let him go.

She looked at Teza Mae when she started talking again and nodded in agreement. The question about her medicinal herbs made her smile “Almost any kind actually, as long as I know the herbs perfectly and it’s different uses, as well as where I can find it and how, they are immediately added to my selling inventory. When I find a new kind of plant or I’m simply not sure of all its functions or uses I keep it out of said inventory, since I don’t want to cause any harm to anyone if there is a side effect or a characteristic that I hadn’t noticed yet” She said at her with a smile “Also, as I said, I can sell potions or infusions, since some plants healing abilities are greatly enhanced when you put one alongside one or more herbs, and even sometimes some characteristics can change” She took her backpack, opened it and gently took out some fresh herbs from it “The man I talked you about took almost all the herbs and potions I had, but I always carry extra ones in case of emergency” She said, handing the herbs at her so she could see them.

[Melantha]

occ: Sorry for this monster... this is what happens when i get my muse and don't use it for a while.


Dubhan held his mothers hand as they walked towards the edge of the cliff enjoying the breeze that buffed his face and swept his hair into a tangled mess.

"How about here?" Melantha said stopping a sensible distance from the edge “this looks good.” She said setting down the basket in her left hand and the blanket she had under her left arm. She was quite mindful of Dubhan’s safety when choosing a spot to have their picnic.
Dubhan nodded looking at view past the cliff in the distance fascinated by how the ground could just drop off.

Andromeda plodded along a fair distance behind her rider noticing they had stopped. “I’m going to go for a fly to stretch my wings” Andromeda declared before takeing off and flying off and over the cliff, She turned and continued along parallel to the cliff face her black scales reflecting light from the sun as she went. She wanted to leave Melantha and Dubhan alone knowing Mother and son needed to spend quality time together before it was time for them to depart and return to battle.

Melantha lay down the blanket across the ground so that they could sit down comfortably.

Dubhan sat down quietly, he could sense tension in the air but he didn’t quite understand.

Melantha sat down next to her son, and smiled at him hopping to raise his spirits no matter how short lived their happiness would be. Eventually she would have to explain to him that she had to leave him with his grandmother and why. It would be a difficult enough tasks without added task of explaining in terms a child could understand. She had gone over it in her head a thousand times each time bringing her to tears which made her dread the moment even more.

Melantha took the cloth off the top of the basket and reached extracting several small sacks of fresh vegetables, nuts, dried and fresh fruit and bread “Hungry?” She asked

Dubhan stared out in the distance his expression vacant he turned to his mother and nodded taking an apple from the fruit bag and then returned to the view as he took a bite. Looking out he wondered how many boys and girls like him where being hurt by the Red eyed bad guy’s. The monsters that had chased him into the spine hurt all the people in the village. The same monsters that had attacked at the wedding only days ago. Dubhan was scared that they would come and find him and his mummy and Grandma and Andromeda and take them away from him like they had to his Daddy and Abaddon.

Melantha watched her son concerned, he was not acting like himself at all; he was unusually wasn't so quiet lately he had been waking every night because of bad dreams and neither of them would get any sleep. She knew he needed her now more than ever after all the things he had been through and seen but she could not abandon her duty as rider when there were so few experienced riders like her self available.
Melantha put her arm around Dubhan and hugged him tightly. “You are safe here and I won’t let any one ever hurt you same goes for Andromeda and Grandma, and Daddy and Abaddon, we all love you.”

Dubhan snuggled next to his mother and munched on his apple. A long moment passed before Dubhan spoke asking the question that had been on his mind for a while now. “Is Daddy going to find us here so we can go home?”

Melantha struggled to hold back the sudden wave of emotion that hit her, tears welling up in her eyes as she struggled to answer her son’s innocent question. It had caught her completely off guard despite the fact that she knew he would eventually ask about his father. The truth was she had no idea what had happened to her husband and his Dragon partner. Where they captured or dead, or worse they could have been turned into shades. She didn’t want to lie but she couldn’t tell him the whole truth either. He had been through enough and he didn’t need the added stress of worrying about his father while she was gone he was too young to carry such a burden.
Her voice caught as she began to speak and shook as tears rolled down her cheeks “Dubhan, honey, He has gone to fight the bad people and i-I don’t know when he will be back, for now this is place is going to be our home, Okay”

"okay mummy"Dubhan said as he turned to looked up at his mother. He felt sad when he saw her crying, He reached up with to her face and wiped the tears off her cheeks with his hand “Don’t worry mummy you will find him again, like the story.” he said with a hopeful smile.

Melantha looked at Dubhan and smiled back. She took his hand in hers and put it to her lips gently kissing his fingers as tears continued to stream down her face. The story of the last time she thought she had lost Seth was a story Dubhan would often ask for before bed time his favourite part obviously being the part where his mummy and Daddy found each other again.
“Your right, we will.” She said staring into her sons face mesmerised in how much he looked like his father. He was almost the splitting image of his father everything except for his eyes. She knew with out a doubt they were her own, her Mothers and perhaps her grandmothers before that.


Andromeda resisted the urge to connect her mind to her riders knowing she needed space, she need to be along with her son but the feeling was strange not having Melantha in her mind they rarely disconnected from each other unless they were doing personal things.
Andromeda flew over the cliff line when she spotted two people sitting on the edge of the cliff in the distance. Curious she decided to approach hoping to distract herself from the empty part of her mind that Melantha’s thoughts would usually fill.

As to not startle any one Andromeda approached slowly, figuring that a big black dragon might scare the living daylights out of the two young women that sat on the edge of the cliff, the thought was sort of amusing not that she wished to harm the two strangers.

On the approach she smelt something oddly familiar, another dragon was her first thought. She sailed up and over the Cliff edge and landed a fair distance away from them. Without Melantha she was much more cautious about how she approached other humans and such creatures because they could easily mistake her movements as being hostile. Andromeda sat her rear end down on the cliff and watched the two women and the hatchling , hoping they would be curious enough to approach.