Dally muttered obscenities to herself as she pulled on her new black fur lined boots. Druid Krieger had sent for her, saying he had a surprise in the training den for her. She had been trying to nap before the meeting on the fortification event, and was not happy that she’d have to go without the extra sleep. Still, the Druid was not one to disturb anyone without good reason. He had asked permission earlier that day to use some egg tokens, but would not say what for. She wasn’t up for an inquisition so she’d given him permission and waved him off. She hadn’t given the conversation a second thought, until now. She bounded down the stairs and onto the base, then jogged across to the Training Den.


Dally called to the Druid as she entered the training den and stopped dead in her tracks. The hulking beast standing on the platform before her was not like anything she ever could have imagined. Ever.


Her first impression was that it was a giant hippopotamus. With wings. And spikes down its back. It had more pink in its coloring than the dull grey most hippos seemed to have. It also had toes. The creature seemed to be smiling as well. Dally walked slowly around the dragon, at a safe distance, until Druid Krieger appeared from the shadows.


“Well, what do you think?” he asked excitedly.


Dally paused, looked at the creature then looked at the creature maker. “Well, first off he…she?...is absolutely adorable.”


“He is a he. Chunk.”


Dally nodded, then looked back at Chunk. “Where…I mean…how…what the heck did you do?”


Druid Krieger clapped his hands together excitedly. “Well, I’ve always wondered what we would get if we bred Etzel and Drude. I’d tried several times, unsuccessfully, but finally it actually worked! And, well, you know the rest.”


“What does he do? Spells and such?”


“Well, he’s a warrior class, with Super Rejuvenate and Cloak. His big spell though I call Belly Flop. It’s kind of like self destruct, only he lands with a thud and destroys everything around him. He’s done after that however.”


“Ah…huh….”


“Oh! And also, he’s a herbivore. Most of the time anyway.”


“Most of the time?”


“Well, yes. He eats wood, unless he’s standing on something high up, like a perch. Then he will eat meat, because he’s afraid of heights when he’s not flying.”


Dally shook her head in disbelief and sighed. “Well, he is adorable anyway.” She slowly approached Chunk, who was very eager for her to pay attention to him. “Will he tolerate being flown?” she asked.


“Yes, I’ve flown him personally.”


“Ok good. This is just…well…I’ve got to see this guy in action for myself!”

Timur sat silently at the far end of the long table, just watching. Watching Dally, watching the Druid Krieger, watching Angel and the Tor, but mostly watching “the new chick”.
Stormryder.
Timur was not one to judge on looks. Groggs were not an attractive people on the whole, so he knew what it was like to be judged at first site on appearance alone. So the fact that Ryder had horns like a demon didn’t bother him. He had them on his helmet too, so no big thing. She seemed to be very strong willed, but had been extremely polite and respectful to all those she’d met so far. He wasn’t concerned about her being disrespectful.
He was worried about what would happen if someone disrespected her.
She had been a mercenary, of sorts. Not like the mercs he’d worked with whose services were bought by the highest bidder. She was motivated by revenge. Now that Necryx was no longer a threat, since he was under Dally’s influence, what did she have to motivate her?
Dally seemed to trust Ryder, and the boss was a very good judge of character. Although it was difficult to tell what she was thinking as of late. She’d shut down emotionally over the last few weeks. Her hardened presence was noticeable to everyone, but no one approached her on the subject. He hadn’t seen her smile in a few weeks now…
Timur realized he’d lost track of the conversation, and repositioned himself in his chair as he honed in on the sound of Dally’s voice.
“So we’ll switch the dragons and riders up a bit,” she said.
Timur opened his mouth to object.
“Angel, you will team up with Aibrean. Ryder, you can take Avyx. I think he’ll be best suited for you, for now.”
Ryder and Angel both nodded. “Sounds good,” Rider said confidently.
Timur started to speak again, but was interrupted by the Tor, who preferred to be called Buff. Timur referred to him as Buff Santa.
“What about us?” Buff asked, gesturing to Timur. “Are you switching us too?”
“No,” Dally replied firmly. “Since the ‘incident’ with Necryx, I’m not trying to do anything radical with him, just in case. Timur has handled him from the beginning, so he will stay with Necryx.”
Buff laughed. “Good. I’d have hated to fight him to keep Borgian.” He looked over and winked at Timur.
“Yeah?” Timur replied with mock indignation. “And you’d have lost. I’d have two dragons then!”
Dally shook her head. “All right you two,” she chided. “PVP island is up in 15 minutes. Go fight with someone who doesn’t work for me.”
“If you can call what they do work,” Driud Krieger chimed in with a laugh. “All they do is ride around on dragons all day! How easy is that?”
Buff clapped his hand on the Druid’s shoulder. “It is a sweet gig if you can get it!”
As they exited the tower onto the base, Dally said, “Fly well Dragon Riders. And stay alert; you never know where Gustav and his goons will show up.”
“We will be ready,” Ryder replied. “We are always ready.”
 

Dally climbed down off of Aibrean's back slowly, admiring the magnificent addition to her dragon den. He'd flow well, better than she expected for the small amount of training he'd had so far. Behind her Necryx landed almost silently. She watched Timur jump off the dragons back. She looked him over and raised and eyebrow.

"What are you wearing?" she asked in mock horror.

Timur shrugged. "What? These are my crimson battle pants!"

The laugh burst out of Dally's mouth before she could stifle it. "Groggs don't wear pants! You all wear those fancy skirt things!"

Timur stared at her blankly for a few seconds. "Meh," was all he could think of to say. Dally laughed again and they gently led their dragons into the den. After getting the dragons settled, Timur walked Dally back out onto the base, bowed and quickly headed to the Meeting Hall for a pint and some team conversation.

Dally turned and went into the Breeding Castle. The eggs for Renard and Jul sat on ornate stands, surrounded by buckets of egg tokens and mystic fragments. The tokens reflected the light in such a way that it seemed as though the eggs were floating on a cloud. Dally smiled, and turned her head to her right as Druid Krieger came to stand beside her.

"Beautiful isn't it, Dragon Lord Dallyah," he asked softly.

"Yes it is," she replied. "Will we have enough tokens to finish Renard?"

"If my calculations are correct, and they always are, yes."

Dally nodded. "So we can use the fragments to start Jul?"

"Also yes."

They both turned toward the door as they heard a horn sound outside.

"Event time!" Druid Krieger called, summoning his druids from the shadows.

Dally watched them toss the tokens and fragments at the eggs, and walked with them as they carefully carried Renard's egg to the incubator. As they began to chant to summon the liquid fire to heat the eggs, a thought came across her mind.

"Do I have enough timer spells for this?"

The growling dragon outside her window woke Dally at dawn. "Dammit Volos!" she exclaimed with a sigh. She sat up, knowing going back to sleep was no longer an option, and climbed out of bed to check her screen, pausing to glare out the window at Volos, sitting on his perch announcing the sunrise. There was a message from one of her team officers. She tapped her screen and heaved a loud sigh as she read:

"Three more officers leaving team later today. Just wanted to warn you. Please stay."

Dally dropped her arms and turned to crawl back in bed. Those officers had been the ones to rally the rest of the team just last week. They'd been through countless wars, tough ones, and vowed to stick together. As a team. As a family. The team had fallen in the ranks, but the officers encouraged everyone to stay and rebuild. Now even they were leaving.

Dally stared at the ceiling for a while, then she got dressed and went to the training hall. She wanted to wait for the soon-to-be former team mates to come and say their good byes.

They didn't.

They just left.

Those who were left behind vented their frustration, hurt and anger. For Dally it was mostly anger, she was too hurt to be sad. But leaving was not an option. There was nowhere else she wanted to go, nowhere else she wanted to be. Except out of the training hall. She slipped out silently and climbed up the side of Volos' perch and sat. Volos inched cautiously toward her, his head bent down so he could gage her reaction to his presence. She laughed and put her hand out to him. Volos placed his muzzle in her palm, and she began to cry. While unsure of the situation, Volos let her wrap her arms around his neck as she sobbed. He gently rested his head on her shoulder and tried not to do anything to make her cry more.

Once it seemed she'd cried all of the fluid out of her body, she slowly unwrapped her arms and placed her hands on either side of Volos' face. The dragon nuzzled her cheek, telling her he was glad she'd stopped crying. Dally gave a short laugh and kissed the top of his muzzle.

"That's what you get for waking me up, my friend."

This is based on my submission for the Name the Dragon Rider contest. Stormryder is from a tribe of elemental beings who were destroyed by Necryx. She has been hunting him for months, and at last has tracked him down-to Dally’s base.

“So explain to me again how my Necryx isn’t real?”

Druid Krieger sighed. Lord Dallyah was not pleased to be woken up in the literal middle of the night, and was even less pleased to have to comprehend a lecture on genetic magic.

“Well, to put it simply, Lord Dallyah, the PG sorcerers find these divine dragons and make genetic copies of them. Not exact clones, per say, they each have their own individual personalities, but by appearance they are exactly the same. The eggs the druids obtain for you are copies of the originals.”

“Does it happen often that the original dragon seeks out its copies?”

“This, honestly, is the first time I’ve heard of this. If that’s why it’s even here.”

Dally glared at the Druid. “He. Not ‘it’.” Dally strode into the Training Hall where her Necryx and his rider waited. Timur climbed onto the beasts back and helped Dally up behind him. They then took off toward the end of the base where the original Necryx was sighted.

Stormryder carefully climbed the back of the empty perch and crouched as low to the ground as possible. She saw her undead quarry on the island below. She had no idea whose base she was on, but Necryx had been drawn to it like a pirate entranced by a mermaid song. Before she could raise her bow to take aim, she heard approaching wings and quickly scrambled down the side of the perch to the island below. She crouched down into the shadow of the perch and watched as a copy of her prey swooped down from overhead.

Dally landed her Necryx clone and she and Timur dismounted. She motioned silently for Timur to stay put. She stared at the “real” Necryx, who roared and stomped his feet. She heard something in his voice that she was sure no one else did, and started towards him.

Stormryder stepped cautiously from the shadow of the perch and raised her arms. “I am Stormryder of the Elemental Beasts,” she announced. “I apologize for trespassing, but I followed this beast here with the intention of killing him. Again.”

“I am Dragon Lord Dallyah. This is my base. You will not kill this dragon unless I say so.”

Stormryder smiled. “I’ve heard of you. You understand these beasts. You talk to them.”

Dallyah nodded. “Yes, and I’d like to try to talk to this one.” She looked over at the Beast and said, “Although if this does not go the way I’ve planned, please kill one of us.”

Stormryder nodded, and Dally approached Necryx with her right hand extended in front of her, palm facing the sky. The dragon growled and its red eyes began to glow.

“Shhhhh…” she sounded as she slowly took a step. “No one is going to hurt you. Not again.” She took another step, which yielded another growl. “Shhhh…” she breathed, stepping forward again.

Stormryder watched as Dally stepped and shushed, slowly, and to her amazement the closer Dally got, the calmer Necryx became. “It’s ok boy,” the Dragon Lord cooed, reaching slowly to stroke his neck. The moment she touched Necryx, a beam of light shot from her hand into his neck, then across the island to the cloned dragon. The clone slowly dissolved into dust, which swirled around inside the beam of light for a few seconds, then shot into Necryx. A silver glow covered the dragon and Dallyah, creating a bond between the two. The glow faded quickly, and once it had Necryx turned and unexpectedly licked Dallyah, covering her in blood and slime.

“Thanks buddy,” she said softly, “but EW!”

“What was that?” Stormryder and Timur said in unison.

Dally shrugged. “I have no idea. But I bet Druid Krieger will have plenty.”

“I have hunted this beast my entire adult life,” Stormryder said slowly. “I do not know what I shall do now.”

“Do you like dragons, in general?” Dally asked.

Stormryder nodded. “Other than this one,” she replied with a laugh.

A brilliant smile slowly crossed Dally’s face.

“How would you like a job?”

Stormryder smiled. “I’d like that. But do me a favor? Call me Oksana.”

Obsi wandered aimlessly through her Training Den, taking stock of all her precious dragons. She was proud of the progress she’d made with breeding, but simultaneously sad that some of them were now useless to her. Not that their lives would be bad in any way. All of her dragons had access to a vast amount of grazing land, magically enclosed so none could wreak havoc on nearby bases unintentionally, so she knew they’d be safe and happy. Obsi thought about the dragons she’d need to breed in the near future, and wondered what the PG Sorcerers might have in store for the realm.

As this thought finished the dragons became restless – nervous almost – and her heart began to race. She heard several “thud” sounds coming from outside. Her blood went cold and her body froze, begging her to stay in place. Her head won out and she cautiously made her way out onto the base. The snow had disappeared and was replaced by newly growing grass. She was surprised to find nothing on the base had been damaged. The sound of flapping wings drew her gaze upwards, and she saw three dragons silhouetted against the starlit sky. The first one landed in front of her, almost silently. She could tell it was a hunter by its birdlike appearance and sharp gaze. Just looking at this dragon made her feel happy, like spring was here and all was right with the world. “Aibrean?” she asked with a slight curtesy, remembering the lore of the Avatar of Spring. The dragon nodded once in confirmation, then looked up at the second dragon making its descent. The hulking dragon landed and the ground shook, and the ground surrounding the dragon turned white with frost. Her blood ran cold again as the beast shook its head, snow falling from its antlers. “Nollaig,” she whispered, curtseying again to the Avatar of Winter. The dragon snorted, white breath shooting from its nostrils. She looked up at the third dragon, who was still circling above them. Slowly the largest of the three dragons landed right in front of Obsi. She was filled with dread as the beasts name escaped her lips. “Corthanak.” The dreaded Avatar, the second largest threat to the land next to Necryx. The beast lowered its head and put its face close to Obsi’s, its red eyes piercing her soul.

“We bring you the unveiling of the Springvale Season, Dragon Lord,” Corthanak said in a deep, echoing voice. All three dragons bowed their heads and in one simultaneous motion they took to the skies, flapping their wings in concert as they flew toward the horizon.
Obsi wasn’t sure how long she watched them, or how long she stared at the sky after they disappeared. She sighed loudly and turned to go back into the training den. “I have to make sure a stall is ready for one of those dragons,” she said.