"No I do not want to join in the dragon sport team," Inae said, "In fact I think I detest the idea."

"Oh come on Inae, it's fun! Look at them!" Donovan watched from one of the lower floors of House Domina as the group of dragon riding students and staff had their weekly battle. They would return the field to the normal broom-riding team midweek, but for now it was all wings.

The ghost sighed, "well, fine. I guess I'll never get to join in any wizarding games." He shuffled away, fading in and out of view. Perhaps fading from human view, for Inae, even though she was still young, had mastered her power to communicate with spirits such as he.

And though she was put off by the whole 'riding around slapping balls into hoops' thing, there was the fact that Don was her bond, and he was disappointed. She felt waves of it coming from him: spirits were pretty good at that whole 'emo' thing.

"Fine, fine," she grumbled, butting her head onto his bottom and nearly tumbling him over. She could do that: her ability with spirits extended quite physically, so in effect even though he was a ghost, he was still her rider.

They flew from the back entrance of the keep, out over the low forest and then burst into the field, Inae howling and cackling. Donovan had 'hitched' rides with people before, particularly with Iris and her lovely Spirit dragon, but this was something else... quite the wild ride but he held on because Inae wanted him there.

"I'll be the smackerball thing!" she bellowed, and Donovan saw the terrified looks on some of the kids as they whooshed past. But then, he started laughing so hard - this really was great fun! Even if he couldn't be a wizard, he was a dragon rider!

***

Eventually, because his friend Trudy wanted to rediscover her 'roots' in socal, she dragged him and Inae back to Talon City. There were plenty of ghosts there, some even working nine to five just like they had before their abrupt departure from the realm of the living.

They had been back on Twoarth with House Domina up there in the northern Washington State area a while, but it seemed like Trudy would be working full time at that high school she was fond of, Carramba. To Donovan's memories he hadn't really noticed that there were furries and aliens when he was in this area. Truth be told he wasn't from Twoarth, but things got wobbly for everyone when magic was involved.

She'd taken that job and because he was bored, Donovan would become her assistant, not really instructing but definitely present for teacher's aide purposes!