Image from Tektek.org's Gaia Dream avatar maker

"Did you even know?" Kate laughed, as Photha graciously accepted his son into his life.

"Of course I knew, ah, you Americans, you forget," he tapped his wand to his forehead, "in Britain children often are away from their homes and family to go to school, for long periods." It was a lie, Photha hadn't actually remembered that one witch a decade and a half ago - but she'd never insisted he participate in the boy's upbringing, and it was easy to ignore when there were so many other enjoyments around.

"It's barbaric," Kate muttered, "but he's a fan, and that's awesome." Kate wandered back down the hall, and chucked a signed copy of the latest Melora and Nabib comic onto Zahid's bed. He'll like that, she considered, and even more, she was already getting inspirations for new stories because of it.

Zahid fit in reasonably well at Domina, after five years at Hogwarts. He even fit right in beside his father - they'd barely even met during Summer, and it was patently obvious that he took after Photha in most ways. He was energetic, almost always smiling, and quite intense with his orange-colored eyes staring at everything.

So they kept it to themselves, both Photha and Zahid, that they'd barely known one another for fifteen years. They made far better friends, at this point, especially because they could more enjoy similar interests. Soon enough Zahid would be an adult himself - they would probably go bar-hopping together.

Zahid quickly made friends among his age-mates at the small school. It was more to his liking anyway, even though Hufflepuff had been his chosen House at Hogwarts, he was made to mingle with people he didn't altogether like from the other Houses. Here, it was all more like one huge family.

All right, a family with some downright weird cousins and kin...

After all... It had been Lumiere Kalkin who 'searched' him and told the others that he'd probably be good to stand for a dragon somewhere.

He hadn't seen that coming. At least, not specifically. He had seen her, and that was why he wanted to hang around Domina all summer long anyway. Who wouldn't want to watch a beautiful half-dragon shapeshifter as she prowled the halls? To be fair, Lumiere had not only a dragon but a strange 'boyfriend' who occasionally showed up - and Zahid wasn't sure at all whether he would be willing to share the dragon-winged girl or not.

And what with Zahid's lack of protective warding spell ability, it might wind up being rather messy...

At the very least, once they'd gotten settled in together as father and son, or merely roomies, Photha discovered that his son was quite gifted in other ways than his own talents for dueling and dark arts prevention. He had watched as Zahid stared blankly into space: his eyes changed from their blood-orange shade to a brilliant amber, and Zahid described something in words that would come true a few days later. A quidditch accident that would stick a broom straight through Photha's tower wall!

"You should concentrate on that ability," Photha said, "I'm not certain if it's possible, but it might help far more than any wards and spells to protect you."

Zahid took that advice to heart. And while he was not quite able to really focus on anything specific, he made himself far more open to the moments when he'd have visions - and then, by the time the school year was about to start, he had begun taking lessons from Kate about how to enchant while having a vision. He could not only take notes - he could fire off minor predictions and log them at the same time.

In the anteroom where Zahid's comfortable bed and low dresser had been put, he'd decorated the walls with pictures that moved and some that didn't, many of his own design and enchantment. Professors from Hogwarts had word balloons above their heads that made them say hilarious things, lines describing brooms chased after the quidditch players, and then there were the drawings that Kate had made for him.

In fact, she'd met him long before Photha had - at a small convention in a big city, signing copies of one volume or another. She had almost commented on his appearance at the time, his budding black head-wings (when precisely had Photha been with Magda?! that long ago?) were a dead giveaway. He'd have his father's nose, but with luck he'd also have his mother's lack of hirsuit men's genes.

Zahid stared up at the ceiling, which was also decorated and plastered with pictures. It was the first weekend after school started, and he'd had a big day.

The dragons had come back from their summer exchange programs, and were now getting back into the swing of things here at the school. Some of them shapeshifted, some were humanoid and abruptly altered themselves - others were simply huge beautiful things, graceful on the air like snowflakes.

"Winter will come early," he said, absently. Photha in the other room grunted, "I'll have a dragon then."

"Will you now?" Photha said, smiling. His own dragon Lunarwisp was comfortably lounging in the 'dragon corner' - a bit of warped space which led from almost every room in the little keep, into an underground cavern big enough for a dozen or more dragons to sprawl.

"Yes, I will, but it'll be a while before I need to go." Zahid took what he'd said, wrote it down, and a strange image appeared on the scroll he was decorating. A Wintry scene, but with deep red within the white coccoon of snow. Blood? He didn't get that feeling at all.

It would be four months before he really was called off to Ryslen, the longest prophesy he'd ever had. In that time, though, he filled his days with learning and finding friends. He was never late to classes, and usually excited to be there. He wasn't much for potions, and certainly the runes class he had to take was almost exhausting to him. But he excelled in certain other areas, and Zora and the other professors knew better than to force him into studies he wasn't apt at.

At long last, Lumiere tapped him on the shoulder after lunch, and indicated the snowy skies outside. "It's time," she said. "Gather some clothes and whatever else you need with you, I don't know how long you'll be staying."

Zahid nodded. Lumiere dressed warmly, herself, and had reduced her wings down to tiny nubs very similar to those on Zahid's head. She kept her tail, and Zahid unabashedly watched it as she walked before him down the hall.

He came up short and gave off a tiny 'yeep' sound, when he nearly crashed into ...

"That is my daughter you're staring at," Lucas said quietly, staring down his long face at the boy. But his thin lips transformed into a smirk, and Zahid's lip-biting worry changed to bemusement.

"And a lovely daughter she is," Zahid said, "she's taking me to Ryslen, I'll come back with a dragon!" That even got a smile out of Lucas, who patted Zahid's shoulder and wished him luck.

However, they weren't taking Lumiere's ... rather odd multi-headed hydragon there. It was actually Zora's gold who took them, big and beautiful, eager to watch a hatching since they hadn't been allowed to really go breeding here at the House. Over the last few months, Zahid and others had been trained by those with dragons on how to ride, how to get a feel for the different sizes of dragons they might encounter. It wouldn't do to come up to a huge dragon expecting them to be chatty like the littler ones, nor be intimidated all that much by a human-sized one.

When they teleported from House Domina's blustery snow-filled skies, it was to an equally snow-filled mountain peak area. Forests dotted the place, evergreens full of beautiful boughs covered in flakes. When they arrived, Calmath bugled loudly as was the Pernese custom, to announce them. They found a place to land, and then were guided into the warmth of Nidus Ryslen.

"The sands are red," Zahid breathed, a plume of mist drifted downwards from his lips. Lumiere gently snapped his mouth shut, he was in awe for long minutes.

There were eggs - and a reasonable number of them - dotting the sands. Zahid thought that he was reasonably well-prepared for the journey and for dragons... but ... He bit his lips together, and pretended he had something stuck in his eye, when he turned away with tears of joy in them.