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There are so very many people here... Ainea is a bit intimidated. But she is accepted like some others, oddities in a human world. Her leather working ability gives her quite the edge when the times came to show off.

If she couldn't be big, she could be talented.

And actually, it seems, talent is the only thing that was on the minds of the search riders. Some very strange people indeed have been brought to Ryslen. Ainea stands nervously like the others, lined up on the hot sand.

She is almost too hot! Never having been around anything other than the occasional hot spring, or warm sunny day, these sands are so warm as to make her dizzy!

But what bothers her more is that she must stand here, among her peers, as they all bond away... Her heart begins to sink a bit. Where before, there was a brilliant hope, now there is a dull ache.

So many eggs, and so many candidates, but not all the eggs are even visible! The last batch, is it the last? They finally start to hatch. Ainea takes a good look at one as the pair of bronze and rider dig and uncover more eggs.

There is a tiny egg, the smallest on the sands, the smallest apparently that many here have ever seen, and it breaks open. A very small dragon creeps out, snow-and-ice wings draping over white body. The winter-white speeds over to Ainea, tiny Ainea, the only candidate good enough, and small enough, for this teeny dragon.

Hello, friend, Ainea sends.

Hello Ainea, I've been waiting. My name is Adisath.

She nuzzles the little elf woman, and the bond is complete. Now, to feed, sleep and think only of the now...

I could never have guessed how wonderful this could be! Ainea laughs mentally.

Which part do you mean, my friend? The part where we are learning to fly, or the part where you and I are together forever?

Both! She laughs. The icywhite dragoness spreads her wings out, and though she is small by typical standards, her wings are now large enough to support a flight or two. The other young fledgling dragons are in the air, too.

Adisath springs into the air with ease, and Ainea clings on for dear life. Slower! Slower! We'll crash!

I will not allow us to crash, my friend!

Then you should look where you're going!!!

With her heart thumping hard in her narrow chest, Ainea breathes a sigh of relief as they narrowly miss hitting one of the other new fliers. Because she is connected to her dragon, and telepathic to begin with, Ainea can tell that the rider of the other dragon is just as glad to have escaped disaster -- and neither blames the other.

I will do better keeping my eyes open, Adisath says. I promise!

The time has finally come... They tell me that we are big enough to leave. Ainea sends to Adisath. There is a tint of sadness in her mind.

We could stay, Adisath wisely returns. We could find a place.

I want to go home, and didn't you want to see where I live? Where we live?

Of course I do! Adisath turns on her side, the silver sheen of her skin reminding Ainea ever so much of that very same home which she misses so much. It has been the only thing to keep her from being far too sad.

But I will miss my clutch mates, and you will miss selling your skin-things.

I can make more. And... The elf got a gleam in her dark eyes, and we can always get back here to sell them. I never realized how much I liked being around people. Even though they are all bigger than me...

And all the other dragons are bigger than I am, but that does not stop me! Adisath laughed.

So we will go, then. I know my home well, and I remember the stars there. I will be able to show you exactly how to get there. And I will memorize this place, too. Ainea sped off down the hall, however, to pick up something from an office.

When she came back, Adisath was waiting with her head tilted.

What is that you have?

It is called a star-chart. This way I can plot where we are. I know how to use these number-things now. They show how long it takes for these stars to rise and set.

Ah, I remember watching the stars with you. So... they will be different stars where we will live?

Very much so, Adisath. It is a whole different world, and I do not even think there are any dragons there.

Adisath gasped in her draconic way, but Ainea was quick to calm her.

But I think that we will visit here often. And besides, perhaps there really are dragons there, and we just haven't been able to find them. After all, I'm the only elf I know with a dragon! There could be more. Or maybe even the humans there have matured enough to bond. But... I doubt it.

Ainea smirked, and arranged her items carefully into a smooth carry sack, which she rolled up as a kind of front-harness that sat in front of Adisath's neck and over her shoulders. That way, her pack would not interfere with the white's wings.

They bid a quiet, mentally loud, farewell to Ryslen, with a promise that they would someday return!

Adisath's success at the Flurry was a triumph not just for the icy-colored dragoness, but also for the tribe of elves which Ainea had searched. The Bald Mountain elves would never quite be the same tribe, after this.

It was with tremendous pride that one of Adisath's offspring with Ice Blue Juyath chose Rib of the Bald Mountain for a bond, Kylionith grew to be a fine dragoness. While her other tiny offspring, Jaziath, was paired off to an even stranger bond than merely an elf...