Icelandic
Kids
PART 1: A
SURPLUS OF PETS
"I can't believe I didn't find anyone right for me." Dreaem
huffed.
Koy ignored the flurry dragon and in stead focused on Yzel. Several months
had passed and already the Glenn Dragon had grown large enough to ride. So
they were now getting ready to return to Lantessama Isle, presumable much
sooner than the Laedrys would expect them to.
"Oh she knows." Dreaem answered.
"She does?"
"Communication between agencies has never been more common. How else
would we have gotten the request to join? Some sort of news-item should
have been dispatched only a day or so after the hatching."
Yzel nodded, "It is so."
Dreaem sighed: "Though I don't know if they'll know just how many
pets you'll be bringing back. Did you have to take that many? And those
wolves don't exactly seem like pets to me either. Do we need permits for
them?"
"They're coming on their own accord to play with the other 2 winged
wolves at Lantessama, insisting those 2 must be lonely." Koy tried.
"Whatever."
Dreaem launched carefully, cradling the wingless cat in his arms. He was
followed by a flock of Isla Weyr firelizards, 3 winged wolves, 2 winged
cats, a brown Kreenasa dragonet and an orange Shylock.
Yzel helped aim the pets in the right direction with his localisation
skill and with a short darkening of the air around them, like a blink,
they appeared above Lantessama Isle.
They were greeted with screams and whoops of excitement as the younger
IceLanders saw the flock of pets appear in the air above them. Though Yzel
was the serious kind, he did pick up on the excitement and decided to add
snowflakes to the warm summer day with his breath.
"You do realise that you've just made yourself the party-prop for
years to come, right?"
Yzel sent the equivalent of a shrug to his rider and decided it wasn't
that bad if the children loved him so. Braking as he descended the last
metres to the ground, Yzel touched down with a soft thud in a flurry of
snowflakes.
"Are you Koy's dragon?" Keryk asked, always the first to
interact with new people.
"I am." Yzel answered.
"Yzel doesn't say much." Koy added, "He is a Glenn Air
Dragon and as you can see, he can make it snow."
"And all the other creatures?" Xandrya, the youngest of the crew
asked.
"Well they wanted to come and meet you guys. Wait for a bit and
they'll let you know if they like you."
The older children promptly settled down to let the pets sniff them while
the younger children seemed to chase after the pets they wanted. But as
pet-bonding goes, the pet has final say in the matter.
The Firelizards were the ones that made the first move, feeling well at
home with all these people who'd been raised around dragons. A beige
cookie-coloured firelizard flew up to Vaughny and settled down,
immediately falling asleep as it tucked herself around the young woman's shoulders.
"I think I'll call you Aura." she commented.
Her pale blue sibling fluttered around a bit before settling for Giye, a
serious and studious boy, whispered: "She's crystal." afraid the
firelizard might decide to go for someone else in stead.
The chocolate brown firelizard went next. He made a great show of swooping
down and up again, playing with the younger children who tried to catch
him, but after a couple of these swoops he landed on Theyan shoulders. The
girl smiled and said: "I'll call him Bark." I wonder if he'd
like some ribbons. Which the firelizard answered with an excited chirp.
That left the two green firelizards. One was a sparkling green, almost
reflective and the other was adorned with spots of colour, resembling
little lights. These two sped to the girls who'd clustered together. They
seemed to spiral around each other, maybe arguing a bit about which human
they wanted, before finally settling down. The green tinsel perched on
Renylde's shoulder, quietly waiting for the girl to share some of her food
with her. Meanwhile the green lights firelizard took hold of one of
Xandrya's braids and carefully lifted it to make the girl follow
her.
"Spark knows what I want." Xandrya grinned as she approached the
wolves. Hugging the rust-brown female around the neck, Xandrya looked her
in the eyes and asked: "Will you stay with me?"
So far for letting the animals choose for themselves, Koy thought, but he
and the others waited with held breath to see if the wolf would fall for
the girls charm.
"I will, Xandrya." she said, "You can call me Wahka."
With the female wolf bonded, the other two, a golden yellow and a
grey-white male seemed to be ready to make their choice. The golden wolf
looked the IceLanders over one by one and finally let his eyes fall on
Yavis, a bit of a reclusive boy who was in full search of his place in the
world.
"I think you can use a companion." the wolf said, "You can
call me Uhrmyn."
Getting up from his sitting position, the grey and white winged wolf got
up and headed for the IceLanders, finally stopping in front of Giye. His
newly bonded firelizard Crystal seemed to approve and landed on the wolf's
head.
Giye, worried the firelizard might hurt the wolf, tried to take her away,
but the wolf said: "leave her, she likes me and I like you. You may
call me Wyse."
There were now five children without pets and five pets left. Koy hoped
everyone would get a pet and all of the children would leave satisfied but
you couldn't always be sure. The rest of the pets were all creatures he
hadn't seen before and he couldn't begin to think how they'd choose.
It was the little orange shylock who made the next move. The creature had
feathered wings, tail and crest and two strong back legs making it look
like a bird or raptor. Wobbling on it's small legs, it walked toward Durya,
the young girl with a love for the paranormal. She was positively stoked
to be getting the weirdest creature in the line-up.
"I'll call you Yahtzee." She laughed as the little shylock
nuzzled her neck.
Next up, the wingless cat made it's move. The pure white feline with a
mysterious crystal on it's forehead seemed to know just where it was
headed. With confidence and poise the feline strode toward Havoy and
purred. Sitting down to stroke his new pet Havoy added: "I'll call
you Stryk."
Not wanting to be left out now that their wingless counterpart had made a
choice, the other two cats, both winged, decided to make a move. The grey
and brown-striped white looked at each other before both of them got up.
The white male stroked his body along Yishia's leg and meowed softly.
"You're so cute Delio." Yishia giggled overjoyed.
The grey cat leapt in the air and flew a couple of circles around Keryk,
before finally landing on his shoulders and forming a little collar of
fur.
"You'll keep me warm up north, right, Dove?" the boy said
excitedly.
That left only the little deer-dragonet that seemed to be very shy. The
Kreenasa dragonet had peeked from behind Yzel's paws every now and then
but did not seem inclined to join the fray. Only Guryn was left without a
pet and being the quiet and protective older brother he was, he took up a
slow approach. If the dragonet didn't want to come to him, then maybe
going to it would work.
The dragonet whimpered a bit, but Guryn hushed his voice and started
talking, holding out some meat. And finally the small brown winged pet
skipped out from behind Yzel and allowed itself to be petted.
"I'll call him Geyt." Guryn grinned.
Read Vaughny's
impression
Continue to Part 2: Setting up the
Camping Trip
MAIN - PROLOGUE -
STORY
STATS: [Koy] [Vaughny] [Yavis]
[Theyan] [Giye] [Rakyu]
[Yishia] [Renylde] [Keryk]
[Havoy] [Durya] [Guryn]
[Xandrya]