Ferilon Candidates for Dragons!
Mahno had made his decision, and was taken to Lantessama Isle. It was a bright, happy place. People still kind of stared at him oddly because of his .... deformities. He wasn't all that proud of them. He wished his antler would grow back once and for all. He had hoped that Vanya's genetic manipulation that left him immortal would have rubbed off on those parts - but alas, they remained as exposed and gruesome as ever.
His wanderings took him around and about the isle. He was always surrounded by huge people. Even though he was bipedal, and as a Ferilon was pretty tall, he was still quite tiny as far as sentient creatures went. He barely stood over the waists of most adult humans, and that was starting to give him a bit of a complex.
For that reason he began to wander farther from the main areas, into the hills and woods, lakes and shores of the Isle. After three weeks of just being looked down upon, Mahno had had enough. He was always known as a sensible, level headed individual. And his time at Planet Twenty had been quite nice, really. People respected you there.
He was just frustrated. There were few people who just ambled up and liked to talk about nothing in particular. Well - that wasn't true. There were dozens of them. But they always got that disgusted look on their flat faces, and then begged out of the conversation when they saw the hints of maggots on his exposed arm.
It wasn't his fault he was born with these weird problems!
So he stomped around until he found a glade that overlooked a bit of the lake. It was peaceful here, hardly any noise. Birds called, there were distant dragon rumblings. He began to drift to sleep, sitting under one of the squat trees... When the snap of a branch called his attention. His one good ear perked up, and his little nostrils flaring, Mahno looked around and tried to spot the intruder.
Without any more warning, something came upon him there in the forest, and so Mahno leveled it with a blast of mental energy that would normally strip the soul right out of a small animal. It didn't look small - it was almost twice his size!
"AAAAIIIE!!!" screamed a woman's voice, a human voice. She staggered backwards, dropping a basket which had fragrant herbs in it. Tossing her head around, the red-haired female felt around with one hand for something to steady herself, and the other clutched to her forehead.
Mahno realized his mistake quickly enough. "Oh - no!" He bolted to her side, and grasped at her hand, trying to prop her up. She didn't refuse his help, her eyes were clamped shut.
"I'm so very sorry!" He said, "that was my fault! Are you okay? Do you need a -"
"Get away from me!" She shrieked, and Mahno backed off immediately. But all the woman did was sit down, carefully, and groan a little. Her head would be pounding something awful, Mahno knew, if it hadn't killed her she must be quite strong.
"I apologize," Mahno said again. Eventually, the woman's posture changed from clutching her head, to resting back on the tree trunk, and finally to gazing at the Ferilon.
"You. Did that. To me?" She said. Mahno nodded. "Do you know who I am?" She said it in such a tone that Mahno immediately regretted ever having gone past his home territory.
"No, miss, I don't. I'm kind of new here."
"I am the healer..." she tilted her head, and looked at him oddly. "Say, that's an interesting.... malady you have there. May I look at it?"
He knew she meant his arm, so he knelt to let her rest while she looked. He was being very accomodating for someone who usually was shunned.
"And it's all been like that for how long?" She asked. Genuine curiosity played in her face.
"All my life, miss, healer, ma'am..."
"Davaria," she said curtly while she examined him further. "And you're not sick from infections, and there's no sign of any regrowth nor rotting..." She mostly quipped these things to herself. Mahno hardly played into her conversation save for answering a couple questions.
"I am Mahno, of Zekira. Do you ... think that you can heal that?" He finally asked. She was a healer, she was interested... He could ply her with compliments, after all he just tried to kill her half an hour before.
"I don't think it needs to be healed," she said.
"I've heard that before," Mahno said. "It isn't exactly appealing to the eye."
"Doesn't have to be. That whallop you gave me - that was mental? You're a psionicist?"
"A.... Zekiran, yes. We do that." He decided to answer. He likely couldn't pronounce that word if he tried. Too many weird letters.
"Well that explains it," Davaria said. "We've had dragons hatch that were burning, some with rotted wingsails, and exposed skeletons. I've heard of one burning skeleton dragon somewhere. Obviously this isn't harming you. Best to just leave it be."
"It's so unsightly," he sighed.
"Eh, whatever. It's not killing you and it's not infectious. That's all that matters. Hey, maybe you could donate some cells and see if you can't help me with a certain... project I've got going?"
Mahno wasn't sure what kind of project involved cells - he knew the basics from Vanya, but this didn't seem like his work. "I could do that, but I will help you gather these roots and herbs up first. I should have looked before striking you."
"Eh, it's just a headache now, no worries. Come on, I want to get you back to the lab..."
Mahno was amazed at the number of people who lived at Lantessama, and the number who came and went freely. The dragons were bigger than he was, but entirely smaller than those he'd seen at Planet Twenty. That was a bit of a relief. He wondered what in the world he would have done with a dragon that could eat steeds for breakfast...
The hatching was called, after a while. Mahno was not sure what was going on in the big cavern, but there were decorations strewn about and boxes with odd things in them lining the area where the dragons would walk. Why did they need those?
It became clear, after the first couple dragonets broke their shells. The boxes were filled with holiday costumes, and real weapons. Swords, axes, spears... all kinds of things that did some sort of damage. Mahno found it faintly distasteful but kind of fun.
The hatchlings themselves were not like any other dragons he'd seen on his journeys. The hatchlings looked like... little people. They had manes, which made them look like Zekirans (or, humans) and they walked or toddled upright straight from the shell. It was an amazing procession of beige and brown and pretty colored dragons.
And one, a last one from a batch that everyone expected to be hurt by another's antics, came from her shell. Mahno watched her, but was also attentive to other parts of the sands. She had been very picky, putting on strips of cloth and trying things on for size before all but giving up. She found a last box, and grasped the weapon she found there.
A set of stones, a slingshot? Bolos? It was worth watching her as she strode forward and then sat down cutely beside Mahno. "I'm Sling," she announced to him. Her voice was high, would it stay that way?
She was half his size already, Mahno wondered how big they'd get. "Well, I'm-"
"You are Mahno," she said. She spoke, most dragons Mahno had met which admittedly wasn't many, didn't. "I chose you because I like how you do not use your horns for hitting things."
"Antlers, actually," Manho said.
"Well you learn something new every day."
As Mahno and Sling practiced together, the Ferilon noticed that Sling had great balance and strong power in her limbs. Yet she had no wings, wasn't that odd?
"I do not need wings," she called over her shoulder. "I only need to run. Besides, isn't the place you're going to take me covered in woodlands like the Isle?"
"It is, yes," Mahno said. "You know you could ask before just reading my mind," he sighed. She knew far more about his moods than he wanted to let on. She'd chided him occasionally for being shy, trying to reassure him in a way that usually made him even more self conscious. She meant well. Her execution was a bit flawed though.
Her aim, however, was dead on! They would hunt, while others were practicing for war or battles. Theirs was still a fight to survive in the big wide world - even though he was immortal now Mahno and his peers felt the pangs of hunger, the stiffness of winter.
"I will like this place you will bring me to," she said. "And you can snuggle up with me if you want to keep warm. I think you're warmer than most. You're furry!"
"Thank you, I am," Mahno laughed. They were on their way back now, nothing could stop them. Hitching a ride with one of the other Zekirans, Sling and Mahno went home to Zekira, to find their friends.
