STATS

STORY

DRAGONS
Draca - Yndra - Guy

"Babysitting?" Draca asked horrified.
"Yes. You know I have to leave for a few days... I don't want to leave little Yndra alone." Kathleen answered.
"But mother... She's 20!"
"I couldn't trust you when you were 20... running around getting that awful tattoo."
Draca winced. It wasn't exactly her fault that she had gotten that tattoo, well, not unless you blamed genes.
"And you can trust me now?" Draca asked.
"At least you got a job... What was it again?"
"I find people." Draca said, bending the truth more than a little.
"If you lose Yndra, I can at least be certain you'll find her." her mother smiled leaving the conversation as the winner. She closed her suitcase and waved as she lugged it out. Draca followed her, still pleading not to leave her in charge. "I'm on call duty!" she tried.
"Well then take her with you!"
"She won't want to do..." Draca started.
Suddenly Yndra appeared behind their mother. She had grown the last year, Draca noticed. Sometimes she had felt sorry to leave her sister alone in a world that had completely changed now she knew who she was. But she couldn't stay any longer. Out in the universe people didn't mind that she was a shifter.
Draca noticed the eyes of her sister where upset. Small tricks of red came through the gold. 
'Please don't change now... not in front of mom.'  she radioed to her sister.
'I can't stop it!' a panicky thought came back.
Draca hastily grabbed a hold of her mother and turned her away from Yndra. Her mother looked a bit surprised but soon hugged Draca when she thought she had figured the gesture out.
"I'll miss you too." Kathleen said.
'Hurry! Get away! I'll say you had to go!' Draca messaged.
To her relieve Yndra disappeared to her room. Draca let go of her mother and took a step back. Maybe it was for the better that Kathleen was away on a time like this. By the time she got back Yndra could be balanced again.
"Where's Yndra?" Kathleen asked.
"There was someone on the phone. She waved and said to give you a hug." Draca said.
"How sweet." Kathleen said, "But I really wished I could have had a few words with her before I left."
Draca shrugged. "Maybe you could wait a few minutes till the conversation is over." she suggested.
"I know Yndra... If she's on the phone it will take at least half an hour."
Kathleen stepped out the door, waved one last time and left. Draca, standing in the door let out a sigh of relieve. She went back inside and went to Yndra's room.
"Yndra?" she asked.
"Come in." a muffled cry came.
Draca entered and saw her sister sitting on her bed, her face rather calm now. Draca knew what her sister was going through, she had had to deal with the same problems. Their was only one difference, Draca hadn't known what was happening to her. She had fled away from home for a week. Travelling Winlau alone until she had found someone she hadn't expected to see again in her entire life. At first she had suddenly heard a chaos of sounds in her head... and finally one that called her. She knew this voice to be far away, unreachable. And yet she got there. Her first shift had gone by unnoticed. The voice, her father, had explained her heritage. Draca understood then why he had left them, but that didn't make her feel any less abandoned. He should have sent a message, something to warn them about this. 
A week later her shifting had stabilised and she had returned home, with the tattoo now permanently on her face. The same thing would happen to Yndra too. But at least she knew what was going on.
"Will it ever get better?" Yndra asked as the still vague yellow lines on her face started to twist again.
"Eventually it will. It just needs time." Draca answered sitting next to her sister. Trying to comfort her though it was hard when you had never had to bring solace.

The phone rang and Yndra picked up. Her face had settled again though the two wavy yellow lines were still present. 
"Yes?" she asked.
Yndra listened and then passed the horn to her sister, "It's for you." she said.
Draca looked at the phone and knew instantly that she had a job. How these people knew to find her telephone number was beyond her... normally they just contacted her telepathically. 
Yndra put on the speakers and listened to the strange conversation her sister was having. While she was listening she rubbed the two small lines on her face. They felt so odd... why hadn't she known they were there before? Well they weren't there, but wouldn't she have been able to feel them under her skin?
"Yndra?" Draca asked.
Yes?" Yndra said waking up from her thoughts.
"Mom said you had to come with me when I had to work. Do you want to come with me or would you rather stay at home?"
"You can't leave me now!" Yndra said, dreading the possibility of her shifting in the house wrecking a room or two..
"Coming with it is."
"Do I have to pack?" Yndra asked.
"Not really. It's a gig for Darkling Dawn again. I know what they need. Searching isn't that hard if you have the right instincts."
Yndra started walking and immediately stopped. She knew nothing about this finding business. What was she supposed to do? She looked at Draca.
"We go outside and then you climb on my back and we'll go on a roadtrip to earth. You'll love it there, there's this dancing called The Rave you'll just absolutely love..." Draca started.
Yndra followed her sister out into the back yard. Yndra knew her dad had made the plans for the house. She had only known him until she was 5 but now and again memories trickled back, most of those memories were in fact stories she had been told over and over again... they didn't feel any less real.
Zaldoon had built a secluded house with a sheltered back yard. There was a wooden fence that extended 3 metres into the sky. More than high enough to conceal the small dragons they transformed in. 
Draca shifted slowly, her body stretching and gaining strange proportions as her skin darkened and her hair paled. A black-silver dragon stood in the garden. Yndra had never actually seen her sister shift so she was quite surprised at how fast it happened, but also kind of repulsed by the way it looked. She could now better understand why Draca didn't want her to shift in front of their mother... 
Yndra climbed on Draca's back.
'Am I doing it right?' she asked mentally.
'Perfect.' Draca answered back.
Draca lifted her wings and flew up about a metre off the ground. Then she shifted into the Elsewhere.
'Are you ok?' she asked her sister.
Yndra had to struggle to hear the non-sounds her sister was making. Finally she puzzled the message together and nodded. Then knowing Draca couldn't see her, she answered: 'Yes.'
'Elsewhere can be scary but nothing happens to dragons knowing the way.' Draca grinned.
'How do you find your way?'
'You think of where you want to go. We are going here now.' Draca said showing Yndra a picture of an abandoned parking lot.
Suddenly the air warmed, though it was still dark around her. All her senses returned one by one. First she felt the warm hide of her sister below her, then she heard the flapping of wings and the smell of an unknown food that made her mouth water. Last of all her eyes adjusted to the night on this alien planet. One by one stars lighted up and a neon glow in the distance showed a yellow beach with a palmtree and a raven flying in front of a blue moon.
"What's that?" Yndra asked as her sister shifted back.
"That's the Rave." Draca answered, "Tonight we party, tomorrow we find." she grinned.
"I can't go like this!" Yndra answered, pointing to her short and t-shirt. "I need something to wear."
"Yeah, you do... Aren't you happy your sister is someone that thinks ahead?" Draca said holding up a bag of clothing she had hidden here just in case.
"You didn't exactly leave me room to think." Yndra answered.
"True, you couldn't even pack." Draca smiled, "Let's see what we have here."
Yndra went through the bag of clothes. There wasn't much she could use since her sister was a lot taller than her but finally she found something. A trendy blue jeans and a yellow top with two strings she could wrap around her back. 
"Ready to go?" Draca asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be with what you've given me." Yndra remarked and followed her sister to the nightclub. Draca snuck them in through a back door and waved to a few people she knew.
'I'm getting a drink' Yndra told Draca and disappeared in the crowd.
'Put it on my tab and run out the way we came in when you feel strange, k?' Draca called after her.
'Sure' a faint reply headed back.
Yndra made her way to the oval bar in the center of the club. The stroboscope lights above her were flashing which made everyone seem to move like robots. But it also made her feel safe, no-one would notice anything if her face twitched.
"One beer!" she yelled to the bartender.
When the beer came she told the bartender to write it on Draca's tab like she had said. The reaction of the bartender was rather unusual though. He noted something down and left without saying a word.
'Draca what's wrong with this bartender?' Yndra asked.
'Is he by any chance a cute surfer-type?'
'I think so...'
'Darn... Reggie is going to take revenge. I didn't know he had switched jobs. Hell I didn't even know he was back' Draca's voice sounded worried over the link.
'Revenge?'
'Don't worry. Have fun while I solve this.' Draca ended the convo.
Have fun... that was rather difficult, Yndra thought. Should she find her sister? But where start, there were like 500 people in here. 
"Can I help you?" a young woman asked.
"No thanks, I was served." Yndra said holding up her glass.
"You seem familiar, it's something about your eyes... My name is Ravenna." the woman said.
"Sorry, I can't say I've seen you before."
"My mistake then." the woman said and left.
All the people talking to her made Yndra feel just a teensy nervous. She felt like she should know something that Draca hadn't told her. Not much later the fuzzy feeling came back to her head. It couldn't be the beer since she had only had one, but it could be the shifting.
'Draca?' Yndra called disturbed.
'Yes?'
'It's happening again... Where are you?'
'Eh... do you see the door marked Personnel only? Go through it and open the first door to your right.'
Yndra ran as fast as she could to the door and slipped inside.
"Guys, I'd like you to meet my sister." Draca said when Yndra entered.
"Do you spawn from eggs? How many of you are running around?" the bartender Reggie asked.
"I don't know how many of us are around...lets just say there are enough." Draca said, "Yndra, I'd like you to meet Reggie and Ravenna, two of my previous finds."
"Oh we weren't found..." Ravenna said, "We were coerced into going."
"Don't say you didn't impress!" Draca said.
"We did." Reggie interrupted, "But we couldn't leave this all alone. Kaoverth and Rixorieth are around back, hidden from any unwanted eyes. 
Ravenna turned to Yndra who was feeling rather pointless to be here, "I told you I knew you from somewhere... Say what's that going on with your eye?"
Yndra suddenly realised why she had called Draca. "It's started again." she said.
"It's only a little blurred." Draca said, "Can we crash here tonight? Maybe where the dragons are?"
"Sure." Ravenna said before Reggie could object.

Draca awoke the next morning feeling rested. The night-blue duowing Kaoverth was laying stretched out beside her, while the green-silver Rixorieth was cuddled around Yndra. Draca looked at her sister and was half disappointed that she still saw a humanoid girl laying there. Once that first shift was over it all became so much easier. Draca had really hoped that the presence of dragons would speak to Yndra on a more basic level.
"Hey Yndra!" she said waking her sister.
"What?"
"Are you ready to go searching with me?"
"Won't I hold you back?" Yndra asked worried.
"Not really. Plus I want to stay close to you, just in case. I don't know how many people get around here, but if someone hears you or sees you we're screwed."
"What if it happens in the middle of the street?"
"I hope we'll be a bit faster than that."
"You hope!" Yndra shouted incredulous.
"Well, it's not exact science. For all I know it will happen so fast nobody will even notice it though I doubt it since nobody's calling you."
'I could call you.' The silver-green dragoness butted in. 
"But how would I find you anyway? As long as I don't shift it won't do much good." Yndra said.
'But that is how she did it.' Rixorieth pointed toward Draca.
'We've tried that already.' Draca said, switching to mental speech. 
Yndra strained to keep following the conversation, but it soon became too chaotic for her. Colours, names, images and words all coming to her in a distorted way. 

Finding Guy (Guy-Draca)

"Yndra! Come back!" yelled to her sister as she stormed outside as fast as she could.
Draca slowed a bit when she saw her sister skid and come to a stop. Yndra turned around and watched her sister drag the boy she had searched toward a dark alley. 
"Look! That alley is all we need." she said as casual as possible. 
Yndra's eyes lighted. Yes it was all they needed. If anything happened that was more than her face whirling with colours she wanted to be somewhere hidden from even her sister's eyes. And she certainly didn't want Guy to see her in that state.
Draca relaxed a bit when she received faint images from her sister. It woudln't be long now, maybe they had to wait it out in the alley
"Hey what do you want from me?" Guy suddenly asked, trying to pull back.
"Shh." Draca said, suddenly watching more carefully. There was something she had missed.
"What?" Guy asked.
Draca reduced her eyes to slits as she carefully stared

Darkling Dawn (Guy)

Draca is a candidate at Lantessama Isle
Yndra and Guy are candidates at Darkling Dawn

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All background images made by me