This is a Candidacy Page for Cy Dragon Stake

STORY

Vern turned round as he heard his mother call: "Vernon honey!"
He turned round, gritting his teeth and yelled back: "Yes mom?"
"You forgot your lunch!"
"I don't need lunch today mother, don't you remember I'm having lunch with Derby?"
"Who is this Derby?" she asked, blinking her eyes.
Vern sighed as he tried to explain it to her one last time.
"Derby is my friend mother."
"Like a playdate?"
He nearly slapped his hand on his forehead. He closed his eyes, counted to 5 in galactic speed and said: "Yes mom, a playdate."
She nodded and smiled: "Be home for dinner!"
He waved and quickly ran to escape her loonyness for the day. He was 21 and she still treated him like a 5-yearold. And she would never allow him to talk about his true feelings. Not in her home. Not in a million years. He took a very deep breath and said:
"I don't really care mom. Nothing you can do will ever change my nature."
It didn't make him feel better, but at least he admitted it to himself. He would never make her proud, he would never give her grandchildren. He was a big failure in her eyes.
At this point he started to run. He didn't want to feel bad for what she said, but he always did. She was his mother and she had raised him alone when her husband had left her only a month after he was born. Maybe she just hated men.
A big crash sounded high above him and he felt the slow warm dripping of starting rain. He looked up and saw the sky was as dark as his mood. Good. The world had to be dark and gloomy today. Derby would make him feel better. There was something about thunder and lightning that made you feel safe in the arms of a loved one.
He smiled as the first lightning lightened the area and he felt the hair in the back of his neck stand up. He felt powerful walking in the thunderstorm. Even though he was scared he knew nothing would happen to him. Why would lightning strike him when there were all this high buildings just yards away?
He walked by some lit shopwindows. He looked and smiled at his reflection. He was wet, dripping water on the ground. His dark black hair hung straight down to his back. He had forgotten to comb it. He wiped some raindrops of his brow and laughed as one of them escaped by running down his nose, tickling him.
He returned to the street, striding slow to the rain, letting it wash all his troubles away. He saw people running by, giving him stares of disbelief and some looked even frightened. He apparently looked crazy.
Suddenly lightning struck, just inches away. He had only enough time to smell the burning scent and worry about what would happen when the second beam hit him.

"Hello stranger, I know you are awake." the girl said.
"What time is it?" Vernon asked, hoping he would still have time enough to reach Derby.
"Night." she said.
He cursed softly. No-one knew where he was. He didn't even know where he was.
"Where am I?"
"Safe. I will be leaving soon though. I'd hoped to find some good people to take with me, but I haven't."
He tried a bit harder to focus his eyes and saw that she was odd. She was small, with blond hair and she wore the strangest clothes he had ever seen. He couldn't even say where one part ended and another began.
"Are you in a cult?" he asked.
"No, but I am a knight in a Crescent." she answered, proving him she was totally insane and possibly dangerous.
"Where did you bring me?" he demanded to know. He was getting scared. Maybe she was getting ready to kill him.
"Cy. you got blasted towards me just when we leapt out and you came with."
"Leapt out?" were they underground or something?
"Yes, maybe you understand teleported better."
"There's no such thing. We haven't been able to make a teleporter!"
"not humans, but dragons. Maybe you could stay, my journey wouldn't have been a total loss."
"Dragons?" now he was convinced she was high on some drug.
She softly pointed to a big pile of green closely behind her. "My dragon." she said as the two eyes opened. He fainted.

"You shouldn't be so casual about it, he has never seen dragons."
"I know, but I thought he might stay once he saw them." the girl said.
Vernon didn't know the other voice, but he kept still and listened.
"This isn't the right way to fill our clutches. You know that."
"I do, but we've been waiting so long."
Vernon almost felt sorry for the girl, apparently she wasn't a drugged up sociopath after all. He carefully opened his eyes and squinted to see the other person. A man by the sound of his voice and older.
"I see he's awake." he said and turned to him.
"yeah." Vernon said... "What did I see?"
"A dragon."
They all kept their mouths shut for about five minutes before he said: "I can stay."

HATCHING

Vern looked at the eggs that lay before him. None were the same. He looked at all of them seperatly and didn't know which one was prettier. Nor was he able to tell what would be in an egg. Not the gender, not the colour. Somehow that struck him as odd, these dragons were so different from each other, something must tell you what they were. He didn't much care which dragon he should get, he just hoped he would get one. There was no way of getting home, better to stay here and make one useful.
Finally one of the eggs started rocking harder. Slowly a hairline crack appeared on it and finally a little dark blue nose found it's way out into the world.
When the rest of his body emerged from the egg everyone could see he had inherited the lightning stripes of his father. It was almost ironic that Vern would stand at a hatching with lightning striped dragons.
The dragon must have thought the same as he came closer to Vernon and said:
"Are we going back to your planet? I don't think they would take a dragon easily."
Going back was impossible, and what was left on Earth if he had his dragon here?
"No, they wouldn't. I'm not sure what we're going to do, Reven."
Maybe the people of Cy would take him in, he could go just about anywhere with Reven. Time would sort things out.

LIGHTNING BLUE REVEN

"What are we going to do today?" Reven asked Vernon.
"Today we're going to get far away from Cy so we don't disturb the Valentine Frenzy." Vern answered.
"But what are we going to DO?" Reven insisted.
"That's a secret." Vern felt Reven feel around in his brain, "Don't do that! You'll see." he said and grinned, it would be a good surprise.
Vern saw Reven get that look in his eyes. A look that said: 'Watch out, I'll find out what your doing'. That look reminded him of one of his high school teachers. The man had been feared by all students for his pop quizzes. Vern shivered as he thought about Earth. He was much better of here. Reven filled up a big gap in his heart, but there was still a small sore dot that told him Reven wasn't all he needed. He would need to find a friend sooner or later, Vern didn't want to spend the rest of his days alone. He had always been social and loved the company of others.

The afternoon came faster for Vern than for Reven, who still tried to find out what they were going to do. Vern only smiled and shook his head.
"Only 5 more minutes, you can wait 5 minutes?"
"No." Reven said.
"Ok then, we are going swimming." Vern shouted.
"Swimming?"
"It's a shame you haven't gone further than knee-deep in a lake, swimming is great!"
Reven looked a bit scared, but Vern knew he wouldn't back out. He took out his riding gear and prepared Reven for a nice trip to a nearby lake. He had no idea how he could learn a dragon how to swim, but somehow they would manage.

About  one and a half hours later he wasn't so sure about it. Reven splashed around in the lake, barely staying above the surface and getting really scared and frustrated.
"Close your eyes and spread out your wings." Vern said again.
"I AM doing that." Reven said.
"Well, if you relax you should drift right to the surface."
"It doesn't work on me." Reven said.
"You're not telling me that the basic laws of physics don't affect you."
"Well maybe they don't, I'm a dragon."
"I've seen other dragons swim." Vern said, trying to shake of some of the wetness Reven had splashed on him.

"Let's go home." Vern said after another 5 hours, he was wet and tired and he thought he could use a bath and a manicure more badly than a homeless person after three months on the street.
Reven was clearly relieved. He sighed and put his head back. Vern waded to the shore of the lake and climbed out.
"Erm, Vernon?" Reven asked.
"Yes? You can come out, right?"
"Something is pulling me."
"Down?" What could be big enough to pull a dragon down?
"Up!" Reven shouted.
Vern turned around. "You're floating silly dragon! Try moving your paws to get to the shore!" Vern yelled, laughing. Reven had done it afterall.

REVEN

After their swimming escapade Reven felt a lot more confident about his own skills... but he didn't quite trust his rider anymore when it came to secretive trips. You just couldn't trust sneaky humans. That's why Reven refused to go bathing.
"But you need the practice Reven!" Vern said.
"I absolutely do NOT." Reven answered and softer and with a sigh "I'd rather stay here."
"Why?" Vern asked,
"It's dry here." Reven shrugged.

Later that afternoon Head Knight G'non entered his chambers. Vern was surprised. As low profile as he had tried to be, he was surpised to find out G'non knew he existed. G'non didn't feel too comfortable around that other homosexual rider... Vern couldn't remember his name and Vern had just asumed G'non didn't much like them.
"Welcome Head Knight." Vern said.
"Yes. I have a question for you and Reven."
How odd. What could it be? "Yes?"
"There isn't much room here for practice and we all felt it would be better if some of our riders trained elsewhere to gain new techniques. Your name came up."
"My name?" Vern was confused. Why on Earth... well that wasn't correct anymore.
"You seem absent in the courses. We thought a change of scenery might do you well." And just getting out of my way might serve you too, G'non thought along with that sentence.
Reven opened his eyes and watched the Head Knight more closely. Carefully he shielded his thoughts from his rider and waited.
"Where is this change of scenery?"
"You don't need to concern yourself with details!."
"What would I be learning?"
"Flying in formations and team building. The regular stuff. It would be great for mutual relationships." No kidding.
"Oh... ok. Reven, do you want to go?"
"Yes." The blue said, highly interested, but sounding sleepy.

"Can we go bathe today?"
Vern was doubtful about Reven's sudden-found pleasure in bathing. Ever since they had taken a short leave  to improve their riding skills Reven had been bathing daily.
Maybe that dragoness in the distance had something to do with it. Vern could see that she was glowing. She'd fly soon. When he thought about what happened on a flight his heart ached. Nearly two years had passed since he had impressed his lightning blue and still he missed the company of Derby. Someone to keep him company, Someone who looked you in the eyes when sitting on a beach in the moonlight... Someone.
God! He sounded like one of those bad song writers. But the fact remained that Vern was becoming aware of his needs. Some belonged to Reven, but some, and that hurt, were his. Once he had pledged his love to Derby and the ghost of him still wandered in his memories. Perfect.
"She is pretty isn't she?" Reven asked.
"What? eh Who?"
"Her." Reven said and sighed.
"What is holding you back?"
"You. You weren't ready."
"Then why ask now? I haven't changed."
"My opportunity will be over soon."
"Why her? Why not some Cy green?"
"This dragoness has something not all the Cy greens have."
"And that is?"
"The chance to make you forget him."
"Who?"
"Don't start!" Reven said and turned away, looking longingly at the green.
Reven shut up and wondered. He had always tried to think about Derby in the night, when Reven was sleeping. The nights were the hardest anyway. But why would Reven think the rider of the green could make him forget about Derby? Vern wasn't bisexual like some of the other riders. Girls just didn't appeal to him that way.
"What's so interesting about the rider?"
"He kinda looks like that ghost image of you."
"He?" Vern's heart (and some hormonedriven parts) were immediatly interested at that one pronoun. Unless a big change had taken place, that one was used for males only.
"Yes, she has been on the boards for months now."
"Will he like me? It is a he right?" It never hurt to be sure.
"Oh yes! He asked for male riders. So I'm guessing he would like you. What's not to like about you?"
"You're prejudiced." Vern said.
He still had to smile at the loving words of his dragon.

Lantessama Isle