** Kayt's story will be coming at some point. She does darkity dark things, and flies.**

Was it irony that brought a fire-bearing dragon to a light-sensitive dark-controlling woman? Possibly. However, aside from the obvious annoyance factor that each did something the other had trouble dealing with, having a dragon the size of Nalina on your side made fighting crime a lot easier. With Kayt giving simple directions on where they would go, and what kinds of things they would be hitting, Nalina's duty was more often than not simply to stand guard. If they could fit her into a warehouse or the occasional factory floor, that was perfect, because absolutely nothing said 'you lose, criminals' like a burning-headed dragon blocking the way out.

"I am not a sidekick," Nalina muttered.

"No you're not a sidekick," Darkflash said, "you're my partner, I keep telling you that. We do things together."

"You do a lot more, I would like to arrest some bad men too. There are plenty of them. Look there," she nosed downwards, and Darkflash looked the way she was facing. They were flying over Paragon and of course what they saw was crime. A pair of Hellions were roughing up a lady for her purse.

"Well then, now's your chance, I won't interfere. Go for it." Darkflash floated in the air, fully capable of flight on her own. If need be, she could always whip out a dark-patch or lob a confusing spat of darkness at the gangsters, but it turned out Nalina did just fine. She dropped to the ground, behind the pair, and the woman they were accosting fell on her butt when they realized that the heavy breathing sound wasn't their own.

Nalina was massive, compared to them. If the taller of the two came up to her mid-arm, it would be impressive. So she arched her long, burning neck and snorted once at the men. "You're under arrest," she said.

Both of them passed out straight away. Nalina giggled a little, and accepted the praise that the woman she'd rescued gave her. She retrieved her partner, feeling much better about herself as they headed back to the school grounds and more practice.

With a graduated Kayt and a group of other heroic types in tow, the dragons of the Paragon Special Studies program went out into the world. Darkflash was more attuned to her needs now, and realized that any chance to take the dragon on an 'outdoor' misison was one she had to grab. No need in having an uppity dragoness out there in the city.

They fought a lot of magicians, dangerous mages who trapped souls in gems and who apparently had a huge underground city below Paragon. It was there that Nalina surprised Kayt, squeezing into some of the long narrow hallways and proving her worth by helping defeat a particularly dangerous summoning. The huge vaulted underground chambers were actually well suited to Nalina's flight, she could snake through the doors fairly well, though some of the broken coridors no one dared enter were obviously off limits.

They went after more and more of these missions, and in the process, Nalina's flight skill became quite well honed. Around Steel Canyon, they could fly past office buildings and startle even the most jaded Paragon citizen. Nalina was apt to show off during flights, and especially at night when she could light her own way.

It wasn't long though, before Kayt realized another important thing: Nalina would get horny while they flew around, looking at other dragons and wondering. Though they weren't particularly well-joined telepathically, Kayt was observant enough to know the signs of a dragon that needed a mate. In her discussions with Silverfish and the others, they realized there weren't really good mates for her here, just now. Somewhere else, they had to find a place for her to mate.

That somewhere presented itself in a roundabout manner. One or two heroes were known to hop from world to world, and Retail Retali8r was such a person. With her own unique dragon, and another who seemed almost like a third member of her team almost always with her, she would bring back gossip from the far reaches of multiple worlds.

And one piece was extra juicy, because it involved a certain red dragon named Diorul hosting a flight at a snowy location called Kilandaia. RR actually took the pair there, because unlike some of her ancestry and relatives, Nalina could neither teleport nor nexus-jump. "You'd think," Rita commented carefully to Kayt, "that with all those dragons in her lineage she'd be able to do a lot more than control her own fire..." But she didn't say it all that loudly, and thankfully Nalina didn't overhear. It was true, she hardly did much more than fly and burn - but that was in fact a lot more than she needed to do, when facing down demons or mages!

The snowy countryside was chilled, but enjoyably dim. Kayt's eyes got a break, while she relaxed in the lodge. She did hear a little of Nalina's annoyed voice, "I'm not here to talk philosophy, I'm here to find a mate!" Soon enough the dragoness was signed up, and would have to wait for others to join in before claiming Diorul for her own.

There was definitely a complication: Diorul had a female bond. A dragon female. Scathing looks, and rather sinister muttering would follow whenever Nalina passed Scolskoot, but she was assured that nothing would befall her while she was still waiting for the flight.

Both Nalina and Kayt really hoped that would remain true afterwards too... And woe betide anyone who suggested the smaller red just step aside while her bond chose his mate...

Personality: Nalina is an intense character, and though she is usually surrounded by a good number of people, she really doesn't have many good friends. She is a charismatic creature, despite her tendency to be arrogant and controlling. Strangely enough, despite the image of strength that she perpetuates, everything that Nalina does is underscored by an overwhelming fear. She hides it well, but anyone who truly knows her knows it's true. Nalina fears being seen as anything other than what she shows the world, the confidence cannot falter, the strength cannot fail. If she isn't on the top then she has failed. She is confident in situations and places that are familiar to her, but anything too new and Nalina is thrown off balance.