She stood there, her feet braced against the wind and her arms held tight to her body. Thick plastic and sturdy, but hollow, weed stems extended from both arms, fashioned into an almost perfect set of wings, with them she could become a wyvern human and fly on the winds like a real dragon. It shouldn't have been possible for her to fly like a bird, or the mythical dragon, but she was so light...
She was Tearis, pronounced Tears, and a strange abnormality. She was eighteen years old, but, while other college age humans were heavy, entirely ground bound, she was almost as light as a feather, a normal eight-year-old child could lift her easily and not think that she was over twelve. She wasn't exactly tiny, but she was only about five feet tall, thin as a rail, and looked like a healthy twelve year old. Maturity wise, she was an eighteen year old in all respects.
The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with her, her DNA had been checked and rechecked with every single method there was, but never once was there anything that would have made her body build itself like this. They said that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her, but that she should avoid childbearing at all costs, since her slight frame probably wouldn't support it, killing both her and the baby.
With an almost audible snap, she spreads her made wings and curved them, letting the strong winds of the plains fill the plastic until she was almost dragged off her feet. Tearis leaps strongly into the air, her wings fanning the ground and lifting her higher, with help from the strong wind.
She was an abnormality, an outcast, a stranger in her own world, but in these peaceful flights she could forget everything. Angling her body with the wind let her fly the way she wanted, high, above the clouds, to the point where most birds didn't fly because they couldn't.
Tearis caught another thermal and spiraled up even higher, into the densest cloud in the sky, covering her sight of the ground. This was what she had wanted, total freedom from the land bound, if only for a time. They had such strange problems, such strange desires, they were impossible to understand at times.
Breaking free of the cloud placed her above where she normally flew, in the realm of the crystal clear air and the sharp, cold taste of complete separation from everything ground bound. Sunlight glints off of her bronzed skin, the silvery birthmarks that had given her her name shine in the light like crystal tears.
She tilts her head to one side, breathing deeply of the sharp air and half closing her deep blue eyes in pleasure, reveling in the feel of the wind over her flesh, this is what she loved, the pureness of the few moments that flight provided.
All good things had to come to an end, even flight sustained by the wind with only a few tiny adjustments provided by her body. With a sigh she folds her wings slightly and spirals slowly down to the ground, aiming herself back at her large country house, barely giving a thought to the ruckus this would cause.
Tearis lands beside the porch, wiggling out of the wing set and folds it up, strapping it across her back like a sword on some ancient warrior. She steps up onto the porch and opens the door, quickly going over to the fridge and taking out some meat to quiet her empty stomach.
She walks through the house, idly chewing on a mouthful of the tender meat. Tomorrow was a school day, so of course she had to get to her dorm in time to get a decent night's sleep. Tearis was forbidden to drive, and had never been taught too, another disadvantage of her small stature. She had willing friends to take her back and forth wherever she wished, of course, but she really didn't like depending upon others so much. Some said she was too independent for her own good, but she just ignored them, what did silly ground boundeds know anyway?
Pausing for a moment to take her wings off of her back and hang them up, she then sprawls out on her favorite couch, her right arm falling over the edge and, unknown to her, taking on the position of a dragon wing, elbow slightly bent, fingers spread and forming a ninety degree angle with her lower arm, and thumb hooked like a claw. Her golden gray hair is shoulder length, and its strange coloration just seemed to be another birthmark, although the doctors had located the gene for that specific strangeness. Her eyes open again, an almost cloud color now instead of the deep blue of before, her family had a record of color changing eyes, so that was nothing special. Hers always stayed in the range from icy blue, cloud colored, or deep blue, although any color in between those three was possible as well.
Tearis rose then, and walks over to her phone. She had to call her friend, of course, but that wouldn't take long and she'd be back at her dorm within an hour or so.
The next day was a typical school day, boring but fairly challenging subjects, strange ground bound people, and annoying males. One of which was being very persistent.
"Hey girly, hows about you'n me takin a little trip to my place and havin a bit a fun?"
She snarls at him, he wasn't even cute! Tearis didn't buy into this version of fun anyway, it was too... personal.
He tries to grab her, but she twists and lashes out, landing a few good blows on sensitive portions of him, leaving him hunched over long enough for her to break away and find some of her friends.
Slipping into their group was easy, they always welcomed her, but their conversations were definitely weird.
"Have you seen that new guy? Isn't he sooooo cute?" one asks.
"He's perfect, not to muscular, not to skinny, handsome, courteous, and his clothes are a definite plus," another remarks.
Tearis rolls her eyes, remarking, "I still think 'Rif is better, he treats everyone like equals."
The others all shake their heads, laughing softly behind their hands, "Griffon isn't an equal to anyone except the street toughs, because he is a street tough. Just because he taught you how to defend yourself doesn't mean that he likes you."
"And Griffon isn't even his real name, he dresses badly, has the manners of a fish, and has all these ugly scars on his body," another one remarks.
"And I suppose you've seen those scars personally?" Tearis asks, her soft voice hardening.
The girl that had commented on Griffon's scars rolled her eyes, "Of course I haven't, you ninny, you're the only one that dares go into the stinking rat pit to find him."
Tearis shakes her head and walks off, wondering privately how many brain cells those girls had all together.
"Probably not enough to make a real brain," she mutters to herself.
"The problem with them," a deep but soft voice says, "is that they never grew up from high school."
She turns around and looks up at the man who said that, his dark gold hair cropped short with what looks like a knife, golden brown eyes shine out from a strong face that is enhanced by the scars that run across it. He grins, showing off white teeth with one of his side teeth missing, the result of a street brawl. His clothes are a dark tan, and in amazingly good condition for one of his sort, having only a few rips in them.
He steps forward, a light, gliding step that would have done a princess proud, the sun glinting off his few tattoos, which are collars of red gold feathers around his neck and wrists. Those had been given to him when he was still making his name in the streets.
"Hey 'Rif," she says as she falls into step beside him, having to step quickly to keep up with his long legged stride, it didn't help that he was over six feet tall anyway.
Griffon throws an arm around her shoulder lightly, more like a father than a lover, and asks, "Hey Te, how's it going?"
"Right now I'm happy that you gave me that training in fighting dirty."
"Another one of those stupid men?" he asks.
Tearis smiles up at him, "Of course, what else? I don't think he'll be able to have fun for a while though."
Griffon throws his head back and laughs, "You, Te, are mean."
She smiles up at him innocently, "He was asking for it, though."
"Gerrout you little liar, you probably taunted him just so that you could do that," he remarks, his eyes dancing with laughter.
Tearis's eyes take on a look of pure innocence, "I never."
"Uh hu, riiiiiight," Griffon replies, looking down at Tearis with amusement.
Time slowly passed, and even more slowly another break came about that was longer than just a weekend, and Tearis had quickly phoned her friend to take her back to her house. Dorms in the city just weren't the same as a giant house with no other houses for miles in all directions.
She slipped quickly into her friend's beat up car, relaxing in the back.
"Going to do more of your flying? I honestly don't see what you see in that, it sounds just horrible! Nothing under your feet, miles above everything with nothing between you and falling but that flimsy contraption you've made," her friend comments, shivering slightly at the thought.
"Oh give it a rest, its perfectly safe the way I see it, because I mean, come on, if I'm going to fall, well, I'm going to fall, right?"
Her friend shivers again as she drives out of the city and into the country, "I don't see how you can be so... so calm about it!"
"Give it a rest, Cria."
The rest of the trip passes in silence, with Tearis leaning against the door and staring up at the sky, her eyes half closed as she recalls the feeling of freedom, the feeling of air flowing over her body.
Calling out thanks to Cria, she leaps out of the car before it even fully stops and bolts into the house, slamming the door closed on the sound of Cria's yelled threats about what could happen to her if she kept doing that.
With quick steps she walks into the living room and grabs the bundle off of the wall and straps it onto her back, humming softly to herself as she turns back around and heads back outside.
Once outside she races across the lawn towards the field behind her house and up onto one of the small hills, small in terms of the fact that it was only two feet above the normal ground level.
Tearis takes the bundle off her back and shrugs herself into it, adjusting small things here and there to get it to settle properly. She watches the way the grass is blowing for a second then spreads her wings and lets them fill with wind.
Tilting her head back, her now deep blue eyes examine the sky, noting the lack of clouds with some interest, but then shrugs and leaps into the air, fanning her wings strongly and gaining height.
Flying low, she glides over to the highway not too far from her house and catches a thermal rising off of it, spiraling higher. Tearis sets her arms into a gliding position and starts gliding out over the land, letting the wind blow her where it would, in this case towards the city.
A speckled starling shoots past her, chirping a distress call that makes her turn her head and look back. Two specks, one green and one blue, are flying in her direction.
She frowns, a green bird and a blue bird? Not possible, not that large at that distance.
"Stupid meddling scientists," she grumbles then turns her head back and examines the land. With a careful eye she recognizes the outskirts of the city and, a little farther in, the beginning of Griffon's territory.
She folds her wings slightly and arrows down, snapping her wings open when she reaches a better height, so that instead of flying far above the city, she's almost skimming the top of some of the taller buildings.
Tearis adjusts her flight constantly, aiming towards the spot where Griffon usually is, his lookout spot as he calls it, a building in almost the exact center of his territory and taller than most of the others by a few stories.
Looking back, her eyes take on a dangerous, icy look, those large shapes had gained on her and now were almost recognizable, but unless some stupid scientist had found out how to create the legendary dragons, these two had to be something else, they just had to be.
Griffon sees her and stands up, waving. He was used to these strange flights of hers, and didn't seem to care either.
She flies closer, preparing to land next to him, when his eyes suddenly open wide and she feels strong claws wrap around her outspread arms, puncturing the thick plastic in several places. Tearis snarls and reaches her hands up, grasping at the thick legs of whatever has her and trying to find a pressure point to make it let go of her.
She glances down... On second thought, no pressure point, lets just hang on for a time.
Turning her head slightly gave her a glimpse of 'Rif pulling himself up onto the green... dragon... in midair, then everything went black.
The next thing she knew, she was flying over the cone of what looked like an extinct volcano. Whatever had her suddenly dived down into the cone and landed lightly, letting go of her a few minutes before it landed.
Cursing softly to herself, she shrugs out of her wings and examines the damage to them, not much considering what it could have been. She folds the set up then straps it across her back and turns around, glaring up at the beast and... its rider?
Her eyes narrow, a dangerous icy color as sharp as newly broken ice, this was all messed up, dragons weren't real and people didn't ride them.
'Rif comes up beside her, murmuring softly for her ears alone, "I don't think we're on our planet anymore, so don't try to murder anyone until we know what we're in for, deal?"
Tearis turns her glare on him then elbows him in the stomach, smiling slightly as the air leaves his lungs in a big rush.
"I'm sorry about that harsh pick up, but the ground didn't seem safe enough to land and get you properly mounted," the blue's rider remarks as he slides down off of his dragon.
She glares at him, then asks, "Where is this place?"
"Cathair Fionabhainn, on the planet Danach."
'Rif looks at the rider, puzzlement on his face, "Danach? Are you trying to fool us into something?"
"No, I'm not. Look, there's a clutch of eggs on the sands and when we," he indicates himself, his dragon, and the green dragon and her rider, "entered your world, we first felt you," he motions towards Tearis, "and followed you. The next thing we knew, there were two possible candidates for the clutch."
Tearis and 'Rif exchange glances, then both shrug.
"If you want us to be candidates I guess we have to be. If this truly is another world, there isn't much of any way to get back, now is there?" 'Rif asks.
"Not really," the rider responds.
"Fine, we'll be candidates. My name's Tearis and his is Griffon, sometimes just called 'Rif."
It was as Illiaen and Alotanath began their magical and draconic mischief that the second egg hatched. This hatchling did so more gently than it's brother, almost seeming reluctant to have attention drawn to it. The small dragon was, unsurprisingly, a green, but a real beauty of a green she was. Very small, and of such a delicate frame that it looked as if a strong wind would break her, her hide was a soft pastel green in colour.
She too seemed to have someone specific in mind, and quickly found her way to the only girl who seemed to match her physically; the delicate Tearis. ::Now you don't need wings to fly, because I, Anastoyeth can take you much higher, and protect you.::
Tearis smiled, then walked off the sands with the pastel green at her side.
They stood there, side by side, and watched Griffon and his Blue Senostrith fly through the air.
::Lets join them,:: Anastoyeth commented softly.
Tearis nodded, then climbed up onto her fragile dragon and held on as she leaped into the air. A smile spread across her face as she felt the wind whistle past her.
"This is where we belong," Tearis remarked.
::Agreed.::
With that, they twisted and turned their way through the air, Anastoyeth's light frame giving her an advantage over the heavier Senostrith, who still followed as best he could, trying to tag her.
::Can't get me,:: she sent, laughing, then dived towards the ground and pulled up sharply, sending Senostrith into a hard landing.
He just snorted and leaped back into the air, determined to tag her someday.