Jemin's impression

Jaskana was absent that afternoon; the first disappointment had been enough to send her home destitute of hope. Zaddizh had not given up on Jemalrymin however, and could be seen grinning down at his beloved sister. She might have been devastated if her brother had, she was not sure. But she didn't want to know, she didn't particularly want to think of that possibility. Nor, she believed, would she have to find out ... tonight felt different somehow. Perhaps it's the atmosphere.

It was a warm, almost muggy sun-showered evening. As the eggs on the sand began to roll and crack, releasing shimmering winged rainbows that upstaged even the vivid sunset above, she knew it was more than the surreal event unfolding before her, something definitely was different tonight. She held on to this belief like a rope, she grasped onto it tightly, setting her jaw and watching intently every hatchling that spilled forth onto the sands.

This determination buoyed her, cutting short any disappointment that she might feel as each hatchling moved past her and up to their new lifemate. She was enchanted by a Rainbow, a bright spectrum of every color, that impressed her Shadow. She watched a Green-Blue-Purple impress a winged centaur. Ah, to fly alongside one's dragon! Then a citrus-rainbow, an Orange-Yellow-Green, impressed, and was promptly cleaned off by his towel-toting new rider. And then...

As the first star twinkled in the sky, the shell of an egg fell apart, and a dainty dragon came forth, her wings casting light about. Jemalrymin! she called in a lilting voice turned sing-song with happiness. The girl looked at the dragoness and about fell over! A second fully rainbow hatchling! “Adwendaweth...!”

~ Exerpt from the hatching story at Ryslen.

There she was, glimmering in the dim light like a dream. "My Adwendaweth." She dropped to her knees, burying her face into the neck of the tiny dragoness. When she finally rolled back on the balls of her feet, tears smeared her cheeks.

Adwendaweth gazed up at her lovingly, her voice trilled in Jemin's mind reminding her of a songbird at dawn. I am very hungry, Lary, she said politely, using Zaddizh's pet name to address her. Jemin's insides suddenly felt like water and she wasn't sure she could hold herself upright much longer. Then she wondered, would he never share this experience with her? Were the problems of Gyness so much more important to him? But instead of helplessness, the nickname's utterance made her that much more determined to convince him to stay. I want to meet him. Please, Jemin?

She looked at Adwendaweth with a radiant smile, taking a deep breath before she spoke. "No, it's all right. You can call me Lary, I just feel so..." She paused, unable to find a fitting word. "Happy," she said lamely.

Beaming, Adwendaweth said, And we'll work on that too.

In confusion Jemin rose to her feet. "What do you mean by that, Adwendaweth?" she asked, following her dragon off the sand.

* * *

Above their heads, Ziyazh sat staring at the doorway long after his sister and her new bond had exited, hands pressed together flat as if in prayer. His smile had spread from ear to ear. His sister had risen above her own family's pathetic standard. Their father must surely be smiling, or perhaps crying, had he been alive. Ziyazh himself was caught searching his pockets for a handkerchief.

* * *

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