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With only a couple days behind them since leaving the Holt, Shatter and Farfire were sent to the Sands rather hastily. Shatter could smell fresh meat cooking, and he knew that that would be the feast for everyone's celebration. Apparently it was unexpected that the hatching was to take place right now.

Farfire was so excited. She was perhaps a little too jumpy for Shatter's taste. He knew she had a crush on him, but frankly she was sweet in the way that a little sister was, rather than a way that he'd prefer a lover. He would oblige her if she asked to share the bedfurs with him, of course - surrounded as they were by humans, she could hardly choose one of them!

The dragons crooning in the sands was music to Shatter's ears. He even thought about trying to add to the sounds with his magic, but then realized that he was too excited about the shells wobbling on the dunes to really concentrate on using any magic.

A dramatic blue hatched first, followed by a pretty green. It took no time at all for Shatter to realize that something was going on - something buzzing in his head like magic.

A strong brown dragon came from his shell and started drying his wings, but halfway through he spotted Shatter and went right for him.

Tzchen.

Shatter moved ahead, with a bit of surprise and worry on his face. No one else had heard his soul name being spoken - it was to him alone. That was the buzzing, this dragon's mind near his. He knew his name. "Mortyreuth, how did you--?"

You know my name, is it not right that I should be the first to call you by your true soul's name?

Laughing, and privately sending, Shatter and the brown left the sands where Farfire was to bond a fantastic black.

You are right. No one else knows my name but you, and I know you won't give it away.

Maybe to the right person, he said, making Shatter suddenly worry - but there was nothing to worry about. The brown was a proud jokester indeed.

This intimate bond was as good as Recognition, Shatter decided. As if he'd ever known it, himself. They felt each other's pain, pleasure and emotions. Shatter always knew where to scratch when the medium sized pale brown needed an itch gotten at.

They flew, for the first time, when the weyrling trainers told them it was time. Since the dragons had been busy flying on their own, without any weight, both elves knew that it would be easier for their bonds to fly with them on their backs, than the heavier humans. Plus, these dragons of theirs didn't much like the idea of harnesses.

For Shatter, it was a little easier because he had some amount of flight magic. Just enough to keep him clinging on to the neck of the dramatic brown. Farfire knew ways to hang on from her bird-bonded days, and seemed to blend into the back of her black dragoness with no trouble.

So now, this left their graduation and the eventual return to Bald Mountain. Shatter had been entrusted to keep the paper which had the star chart on it, and he'd done so very carefully. No water or dirt damaged it, it was kept flat in a drawer in his den's cabinet. Even though many other people had items spilling out from their dressers, Shatter and Farfire only had small collections of clothing and jewelry to their name, so it was much easier for him to locate the paper when they wanted to return.

"The others will have their dragons too - all grown up!" Shatter laughed. "This is so strange..."

Farfire nodded, and they mounted up. Bidding farewell to Abri, with an indication that they'd surely return when the time was right, the elves and their beautiful dragons took to the sky, then vanished into the Nexus...