Talm-Dai Silvermine's Story

Talm-Dai had actually been sleeping, the deep, nearly unresponsive sleep of the not-quite-hibernating, when the earth rumbled warningly over her head at the landing of something very large and alien to the humble, Mythicalaean dirt. Winter had set in, with snow as she'd predicted, and Tavarez had not come back in over a month. Now she was far underground, and only the small, watch-dog magic she'd put in place at the main entrance to her myriad tunnels and dens told her that there was something strange afoot.

It also told her that whatever was afoot, it wasn't going away. It was sitting at her doorstep, large and strange, and apparently it was several somethings, for the sense of "presence", once grounded, had separated into three sets of feet. And at least one of those three sets of feet wanted something of her, because it left the spell's field of "vision"-- in the direction of the deeper caverns.

Houghing sleepily, in full, furry bear form, Talm tried to bury herself under her furs and ignore the intruders, wanting to go back to sleep. Maybe whoever it was wouldn't know how to navigate her burrow and find her sleeping cave. It wasn't horribly complicated-- it hadn't needed to be-- but if you didn't know your way around, it would be easy to overlook the little side-tunnel with its well-worn floor, in the darkness of an unlit den. There was still the possibility that she would be left alone to dream in peace.

"Talm-daaaaai?"

It was not to be. Even half asleep and grumpy, and even after a month without it, Talm recognized that voice. And that distinctly rodent-like smell. "Tavarez?" she mumbled, squinting in the dim firelight at the short, rat-like-though-human-formed Rattai.

"In the flesh, my dear Ursael." He sounded disgustingly cheerful for the middle of winter. "Get up! You have visitors!"

"Tavarez, I told you, I don't see people in the winter...."

"You'll see this person, or she'll come down to get you!" the rat-shifter cackled at her. "And I don't think you want that. Come on, just for a few minutes. The snow is lovely, you know, so you'll like the view, at least."

Talm couldn't really argue with that; she did like looking at snow. It was just so much effort to move, when it was so cold, and she was so tired... trying to catch her attention while in the middle of a two-day nap wasn't the easiest of things.

So, Tavarez didn't really try. Rather than trying to wake her up, he just coaxed her, not giving her time to think. He somehow managed to draw her out of bed, out of the shaggy, sleepy bear-body and into her tall, bulky human body-- which wasn't quite as sleepy, but was still feeling quite slow-- and out of her bedroom. She was following him down the hall towards the chill of winter, just outside her door, before she quite knew what was happening. By then, though, it really was too late to get back to sleep, and she was awake enough to be curious-- and wary-- at the strange presence waiting outside. So she decided to humor Tavarez so he and whoever he'd brought with him would go away.

Yawning, Talm followed the diminutive rat-shifter came into the large, open-mouthed cave that served as her front door. She squinted at the light. Though there was no direct sunlight-- or even reflected sunlight; the sky was cloudy-- even a largely cloudy sky reflected on the snow outside made her eyes water a little, after the unlit tunnels and the dimly illuminated sleeping den.

Then the light suddenly dimmed, as if a shadow had passed over the cave mouth. Talm blinked. Actually, a shadow had passed over the cave entrance, and the maker of that shadow was peering in at her with one whirling, opalescent eye, set in a massive, green head. Talm gave a deep-voiced yelp of surprise and took a step back, nearly dropping the blanket of fur she'd added to her normal winter wools.

"No, no," Tavarez laughed. "That's one of your guests! Auspexeth!"

Feeling quite a bit more awake now, Talm blinked in disbelief and pulled the thick furs up around her ears again. "I have a dragon for a guest?"

"Just a temporary one," Tavarez assured her. "Miss Minaeya?"

A human-- and honest to ancestors human-- poked her head around the cave entrance, dark hair falling out from under a leathern cap of some sort. "Yes? Is this our potential?" she asked. She sounded even more chipper than Tavarez. It was ridiculous.

"That she is! Meet Miss Minaeya, Talm, rider of night-green Auspexeth, that lady-hulk outside, and Searchrider for Nidus Ryslen."

None of that made any sense to Talm-Dai's winter-fogged mind. "Rider? Searchrider? What in the world is a nidus ryslen?"

"It's a weyr," the human woman chirped.

"A where?"

"A dragonry, like an aerie for those odd native dragons, or like Shivran Aerd," Tavarez explained, which made a little more sense. Even a self-exile like Talm-Dai had heard of the Aerd called Shivran.

"And a Searchrider?" she repeated.

"We Search," Minaeya answered this time, just as incomprehensably as before, but then she elaborated: "A Searchrider seeks out people of a caliber to bond dragons. With the right mental and personal skills, the desire, and... well, whatever it takes to handle a dragon!"

"Isn't bonding a dragon dangerous?" Talm said, squinting suspiciously, remembering her dragon-lore about the Mythicalaean breed, which demanded a sacrifice of whatever one held most dear in return for their precious bond.

"Of course not!" Minaeya looked affronted.

"Just for the native kind, not for the kind the good lady Searches for," Tavarez chuckled. "I've seen a number of other types, from other worlds, who don't have to give up a thing, except maybe privacy."

"Come with us," Minaeya coaxed, noting Talm's skeptical expression, "and you can see them youself."

"I was in the middle of a nap," Talm protested.

"You're not napping now," Tavarez pointed out wickedly, earning a faint glare which did nothing but make him grin rattishly. "It'll be warm and underground there, too-- and think of it, no Ursael except you!"

"Now I know I didn't say anything about Ursael to you!" Talm-Dai exclaimed.

"I found out anyway!" the rat laughed gleefully. "Go on, make yourself a real friend-- what've you got to lose?"

"Sleep and privacy," Talm-Dai muttered, but she stepped out into the snow, anyway-- but she was taking her fur blanket with her! "Just how did you get an alien dragon here, anyway? You're just a common rat...."

"Rattai!" Tavarez squeaked, sounding very rat-like, indeed. "And that's hardly important. I have connections, rat or not. Now off you go. Shoo."

Talm glared at him, but let the human-- the very small human, it seemed-- guide her up onto the crouching beast's shoulder. At least once they got to this Nidus Ryslen place, maybe they'd let her get back to that nap.

... Probably not.