Rell is from a long line of wandering starfarers. Her parents landed on what has come to be known as "the old world" only to move along with the Kshau protectorate when they went to Alskyr.
Now, she is on the move. Having cornered a rider who was on their way past Danach, Rell has begun to put her family-born talents to work.
As a navigator, she is peerless. One look at the sky or stars and she can tell what world she's on, whether she's pointed north or south, and if any time has passed between where she'd been and there.
Some of that is knowledge. Most of it, however, comes from her long genetic heritage. That and the engineering that went on in her family's deep past. They were meant to fly between the stars.
Rell herself is a beauty of a young woman. At just about 19 years old, all of her hormones have settled her into a curvaetious adult. Her skin is richly golden and has a healthy sheen to it, her hair is vibrant sunlit yellow. Her eyes are an eerie amber shade. Her lovely face rarely shows more than a serious smirk, though when she cuts loose she has a wonderful smile. Her narrow eyes never open more than you see them there.
She is around 5'10" tall, slender with some beautiful accents on her clothing that make her look even taller. She prefers clothing that are pretty and sturdy. They usually reflect her navigator's rank, being in colors of starry white and night-violet.
Rell has a small stock of items with her at any given time, notably among them an ancient spy glass of brass and finely ground glass. Her clothing is her next favorite bunch of possessions, but they are always secondary to anything regarding her profession.
Rell has little memory of her actual parents - she was raised as a young child by them, it is true, and somehow they conferred to her their knowledge of the stars and planetary body. But her teenage years were spent at Mama Tani's fosterling home, and then more recently she enjoyed watching the skies while the Protectorate transferred to Alskyr.
"They always said that the stars were in your eyes," Emser said with a sly, lusty look on his asian-seeming face. "But I think they're wrong. I think they're in here," he tapped Rell's forehead. She blinked with each tap of his finger, but did not flinch otherwise.
"Of course. They are in my head. All of them. All of creation I think," Rell said. Her voice was a whisper and she wanted Emser to kiss her instead of making small talk. So instead of waiting for him, she drew him near and kissed him long and deep.
Far from backing away from her, of course, Emser participated. The apprentice glazier admired the young woman he was with, pehaps more so than even his guild masters. Here was a woman who knew the directions of space without having been there.
Rell watched Emser's sneaky looking face turn from his typical thoughtful gaze to a pleased immersion into passion. The stars above seemed to spin, for both of them.
As one of the suns of the system began to crest what little daylight they would see here on Danach, Rell wondered if she would be able to view this planet from above, instead of from the ground up. Her body still tingled from their lovemaking and shivered a little bit at the chill in the dawn's wind. Emser thoughtfully pushed himself closer to her - but perhaps that was just because he was chilled too and wanted her to warm him up.
"It's a strange world we're on," Rell commented. "But I think I like it. At least for a while. Then I wonder how I'm going to find a way to travel? I mean," she sighed and turned to be hugged by Emser's craft-strengthened arms, I got here on dragon back, but leaving on a ship is really expensive, and I don't have the proper credentials or the money."
"I can't believe your famliy doesn't have a whole list of passports or degrees or something," Emser said. "They're all very well known."
"Except for me," she muttered. "I grew up on some dumb backwater planet that doesn't even have a starport. The one that was there was put down on a freaking volcanic fault, and they lost it. Can you believe that?" She sat up and looked at Emser's bemused face, "They lost their landing space? Idiots!"
She flopped back down on the soft blanket they'd brought out to the tall mesa. Beyond, the light of day would be blotting out the faint glow of Fionabhainn which lay beyond the canyon they had to traverse. The stars would always flicker during the half-day of this world. Unless they were to travel to the dark side.
But even Rell wasn't stupid enough to do that. Emser had come from a family who made a dangerous trade route through the dark side, but most of his relatives had met with quick, nasty deaths there too.
"But there's a clutch of dragons at Fionabhainn," Emser said. "And I'm going to stand there. And, I'd be honored if you could come with me, because I think there's enough eggs on the sands." He waited for the response, which was to see Rell's face turn from a slightly disgusted mask of annoyance, to a beautiful hope.
"Do you ... think I could? I mean, I don't want to come unannounced."
"Your family is well known. Maybe with a dragon that can teleport you'd be able to go wherever you wanted to." Emser tempted. Finally he stood up, and pulled his girlfriend to her feet. He tossed her her nice dress and put on his own tunic and leggings, and they bundled the blanket back up before heading back to the Cathair.
They made it back in time for breakfast, which both ate almost without tasting it. Rell was thinking too hard about the clutch, and Emser was thinking too hard on her reaction. He wondered absently what she might say if he'd asked her to marry him instead...
When noon came, they headed at Emser's insistance to the hatching sands. The icy colored blue dragoness who protected her eggs on the sands didn't glance up at the pair, as they looked down from the highest possible observation point.
"I think you could come with me. She's going to have to announce their hatching soon, I think." Emser said, quietly. Even then, his voice seemed to echo in the huge cavern.
Rell looked at the ice blue and tilted her head. "She isn't lonely, she has no mate and no rider. Yet she wants her offspring to have all of those things." Rell looked at Emser. "If you think I'm going to stand a chance, I'll go. Let's talk to the Cathairte about it."
Shortly, Rell was in Kataela's presence. She was slightly nervous but didn't show anything more than a bit of obvious self-conscious humble actions. "I hear you're short a candidate or so for the sands... It would be a terrible shame to have a dragon not get the opportunity to choose among candidates."
"Not all dragons choose a pair," the Cathairte said, eyes narrow in examination of the pair of young folks. "But in your case we can give you a little good advice. Be on the sands, when you hear the call."
Rell finally looked at Kateala and smiled widely. "I surely will."
They exited the office, and Rell finally breathed out again. Her held breath caught every time she thought about it. Even this mask of a young woman could be shaken by excitement. Emser smiled as well. "See, that wasn't so hard. Now comes the hard part... The waiting..."
"You would know," Rell said, looking out the nearby window at the skies beyond. Her mind was always on the sky, but now it dove down with the beautiful dragons into the volcanic caldera and hovered around the ice blue's presence. She could almost say that the dragon looked up at her mental image.
Perhaps she could see much farther than other people could, after all.
"I would actually," Emser said, "I've been waiting for almost a decade now."
At that, Rell stood frozen. "What do you mean?"
"Well... let me tell you a little about how it is to wait on the sands for a dragon who won't come..."
Emser's Tale (tblinked)
Then, a darkish green came carefully out of her big shell. She gazed at the walls and the dunes, after her eyes cleared of the shell-mucus. She then walked toward Rell.
I am Jeleneresth. Can you show me some stars? I want to remember them all. All the stars in the world.
Rell laughed, so pleased and surprised that she wasn't quite sure how to answer the dragonet. How lovely, and the mind! Her dragon's mind was rich with questions, all of them Rell wanted to answer. They found some food waiting in the feasting area, soon enough. Rell barely remembered, though the thought nagged at her when she did think, that Emser was still on the sands...
Though they both had to learn how to fight while flying, and Emser certainly liked that part, Rell really wanted to get into the navigation and cartography aspects of dragon riding. There was nothing like having a flying companion whose eyesight worked best in ANY light, whose tireless wings would stretch out for hours as she needed. Recording small islands on a map, Rell dotted her page with ink.
She'd had to come up with a new sort of flying harness, one which almost looked like a hut balanced on the neck of her dragon. Jeleneresth didn't think it was all that odd, because she'd been the one to suggest it.
The papers keep falling from your lap my rider. Let us find a smithy or craftsman that will make a nice table. I remember playing with you in your class room.
"Yes," Rell muttered, "when you nearly knocked the whole map table over... I remember too... You didn't have to work in the latrine for three days, did you!"
That was ... eew. But your table works right, now, doesn't it?
"It works great!" Rell said, over the wind. There was a buffering shield that kept her hair and papers from flying around, along with a clip band around the top of the papers. Even her ink had a special slot where she could dab it into a hole and not get the pen messy.
Will we fly tonight? In the stars?
"... I don't know, Jel. It's been said there are raiders out there. I don't know if I'm all that comfortable with us out there with just a table and quill to --"
I will defend you! Jel cried out, and Rell laughed.
"Okay, okay. But if things get nasty, we'll call Emser and Kendorisoth, all right?"
I would call them anyway. Let us go back in, I want to rest before tonight...
