Hita - Male, age 13, and Pinto Copper White Zalmaji

Hita wasn't at the Ring of Fire very long. His brief stay with the Healing Den people made him aware that Humans weren't all that bad - and there were lots of human and mostly-human people there.

There were some pretty odd mostly-humans. But he didn't even have time to concentrate on those. Hita was brought with the others into the hatching sands area where the eggs were literally glowing!

"Wow, that's really neat," he whispered. He was quite excited, this was going to be a good day, if the eggs hatched.

"Now remember, these dragons may not bond. It really depends on what happens," the Firelancer, Lani, announced. Hita wasn't too happy about hearing this. Lani continued, seeing his frown. "Now don't look at me like that. If this doesn't work, we'll put you into the first Fira clutch we have on the sands."

There was a phoenix, Sunrise, who said something deep and meaningful, but all Hita could think of was 'what if I don't bond? I was sent here to bond...' The tribe would be disappointed if he didn't go back to the Plateau riding a dragon!

Lani went on, though, "and now, the moment you've been waiting for. Follow me please. Spread out in a semi-circle in front of the nests." Lani showed the two nests off, one was packed with grasses, feathers and all sorts of fluff, while the other was slightly more sandy.

As Lani went away from the nests to watch with the other onlookers (they hadn't mentioned that lots of people wanted to see this too! Hita was very self-conscious right now!) the first of the eggs broke open quietly. The hatchling was beautiful, rainbow wings and mane shining. She paired off with the phoenix, who seemed rather pleased with herself.

Two more, twin blue-whites of opposite coloration, came out next, and did not pair off with the other candidates. They were announced by their mother, and apparently made the choice not to pair off even though they could have.

Then, a somewhat bumbling male emerged, mostly white-shining, but with markings of copper danced across his hide. He had lovely pale yellow-gold wing sails, and silver mane. His horns told Hita that he was male, he'd learned that much at least.

He came out, lurching around until he rolled into Hita directly. That was apparently where he wanted to be, as he chirped and looked up.

"Hi!" he said, giving off another squeaky chirp. "I'm Zalmaji!" He nodded to make sure that Hita knew his name, and folks (including Hita) laughed.

"I'm Hita," the cheetah kin announced with a broad grin on his muzzle. He helped the dragon up, he was still rather unsure of where to put which foot when, and they watched the rest of the slow hatching.

***

Hita was still young - younger than most candidates in fact - when Zalmaji and he had completed their year-long training at the Ring of Fire. They were adept at flight and landing (not for lack of trying, Zalmaji almost broke his own neck the first time he landed!) and swooping about, but they were quite good at soaring high above everything.

Hita enjoyed looking at the Ring of Fire from above, but knew that it was now time to leave. "The Plateau will be the same as when I left it," he kept muttering to himself. "So now, we should find Lani and say good bye."

"Do you want to leave?" Zalmaji asked, "I like it here."

"But you'll have a great time at the Plateau. We could become traveling healers, too."

"Your memory told me you should be with someone at this Den place." Zalmaji said, "who is Baeris?"

"Oh!" Hita yelped, "That's right! She wanted to see me about my healing skills."

"You've been practicing too," Zalmaji said proudly. His rider was going to be a good healer, some day.

"I have. We need to go back there, then. First, I think. I don't want to head back to Planet Twenty without being the best I can!"

And, he thought, maybe he'd get to see that human girl Disruptor again... What if ... what if she could get him into that school she'd talked about? Hita's mind was washed with possibilities!