The Fyreborn Islands, Saturday, Fandom Time

[glacial_queen]

So after a week like the one they'd had, Karla's desire for a cheerful day at the beach had grown to something akin to need. In fact, she'd sent Jaenelle and Lucivar early to set up so that by the time her guests arrived, they could just pile into a Coach and go.

Which, in fact, was exactly what they did. Kyle barely had time to boggle at SaDiablo Hall (or the portal or even Warren's wings), before Karla and Holt were herding them into the Coach and leaping up to catch the Opal Wind to the Fyreborn Islands.

By the time they arrived, Jaenelle and Lucivar had set up the picnic--packed by Mrs. Beale and more akin to a movable feast--including a veritable mountain of small green berries to eat and share with the wildlife.

What wildlife?

Oh, you know. Just dragons. Just your usual, every day, average dragons. Pony-sized--not counting wings and the tails. Didn't anyone say, Kyle?

In Kaeleer, dragons were real.

[NFB, for those who know who they are]

Comments

[wwiii]

"You know," Warren said, fairly casually as he took in the mountain of berries, "I almost think the pickleberries are harder to wrap my head around than the creatures we're going to be sharing them with?"

He'd eaten a pickleberry before. It hadn't been bad, but it had certainly been weird.

He was still kind of trying to wrap his head around the experience.

[gothamlights.livejournal.com]

Kyle... had no response to that.

He might be swaying in shock a little. And staring with his mouth open.

Because, okay, he was a geek, and he'd DM'd games with giant flying lizards and even though she'd told him, he'd thought Dinah meant something along the lines of Komodo dragons and...

whoa.

[wwiii]

That sway was met with a faint smirk. And possibly a light ruffling of feathers. Just because.

"You get used to things like this after a while," Warren offered, stifling a laugh. "Kind of. Even I think the dragons are a big deal."

And he was the guy with the wings. For the sake of perspective.

[glacial_queen]

Karla laughed and popped a few more in her mouth, chewing gleefully. "I don't know what you mean. They're delicious."

She sent a few spiraling up into the sky with Craft and one of the younger dragons swooped out of his dive to catch them, then grinned and held one out for him to nibble.

[wwiii]

"Your friend seems to agree," Warren laughed. He was still a tiny bit antsy coming to Kaeleer at all, but it was difficult to freak out too much when everyone seemed so at ease. And honestly, the dragons were awesome enough to be effectively distracting, too. "I'm a much bigger fan of honey pears, though."

Even if he generally ended up wearing more than he ate.

[gothamlights.livejournal.com]

Karla, Kyle had decided, had a definite evil streak. Probably why she got along with Dinah so well.

"You have weird taste-buds," he told her, then smiled. "And I'm really glad you wanted us along, even if it meant getting pranked. Finals week was brutal."

[kindrednotkind.livejournal.com]

A little while later, a younger dragon made his way down to Warren's side. He was the size of a foal, and his oversize wings made him a little clumsy. Which explained his rather ungraceful landing, getting a faceful of sand for his troubles.

That didn't stop him from bouncing up immediately and grinning at Warren. *Hihi!* he sent, his psychic voice bubbling with enthusiasm. *I'm Threwl! I know the Lady! You know the Lady, too! It is good to meet more friends!*

His gaze darted to Warren's back and now that the formalities were over with, Threwl decided they could get down to the really important topics.

*I like your wings! They look very soft! They are not like Eyrien wings--or dragon, either! See, I have wings, too!* He flapped his wings a few times, in case Warren hadn't noticed.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was determinedly not thinking of all the badness over the last two weeks, and shucking off her shirt and shorts to let the sun hit her skin. And casting hopeful glances at Kyle, in case he felt like taking off his shirt too.

She beamed and waved at the dragons as they came in sight. "Hi guys! We brought food!"

[offers-choices.livejournal.com]

"Oh good," Lucivar drawled. "I was worried we'd run out."

[kindrednotkind.livejournal.com]

After visiting with the winged male, Threwl bounded over to the pile of pickleberries, giving it a very pathetic look.

*I'm very hungry,* he announced. *It would be nice if someone chose to share.*

[gothamlights.livejournal.com]

Kyle finally took off his shirt (to a wolf-whistle from Dinah), and got into the water, giving the dive-bombing (wave-whomping, Dinah had said?) dragons a dubious look of speculation.

[offers-choices.livejournal.com]

Lucivar--who was also shirtless, it must be noted--leaned against one of the rocky outcroppings and gave Kyle a sardonic look right back. "Welcome to the Fyreborn Islands, boyo," he said. "Word of warning. The fruit bites harder than the dragons do."

Yeah, okay, so he'd seen Warren already give Kyle a pickleberry. Someone thought he was funny.

[kindrednotkind.livejournal.com]

An adolescent female was wave-whomping at just that moment. A huge wave of water rose up, high over Kyle's head as she landed in the ocean.

*Yeeeeeeeeeeeeee!*

[trigons_child]

Raven was happy to drag Jono along on the trip. Dragons and the need for someone to apply sunscreen were excellent lures, it seemed.

Unlike her friends, she had on a one-piece swimsuit as she relaxed on the sand, looking up at the dragons soaring above.


[Passing out now but will merrily ping tomorrow.]

[glacial_queen]

"I'm glad you convinced Jono to come," Karla said, sitting down next to Raven for a few. "Does this mean I don't get to yell at him for being dumb?"

[furnaceface]

//Dragons,// Jono intoned, for what was probably about the thirtieth time, as he took a seat behind Raven with a bottle of sunscreen in his hand. //Those are dragons.//

He'd seen stranger. Honest. He'd jumped on the head of a giant dinosaur-turtle-ox before, and he'd been attacked by pterodactyls from hell in Silent Hill, and there were the man-eating vegetables and the insulting onions. But.

Dragons.

Huh.

[gothamlights.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Raven," Kyle said, a little embarrassed and shy since the last time they'd met, they'd both been buzzed and pigging out on ice cream. "How's it going?"

[changeable-eyes.livejournal.com]

Jaenelle was sitting slightly off to the side, content to watch and nibble. The last time she had seen Karla's friends, she had been under the influence of safframate and caused the death of six thousand Jhinka. She wasn't entirely certain if any of them would really be able to relax around her.

So she would just sit over here in her modest Kaeleeran swimsuit--it didn't show off her legs, Karla--and enjoy a relaxing day as well.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was happy to do enough showing off for both of them. Or everyone else! Although that was less the point, than being able to wave-whomp with dragons easily.

After almost an hour of this, she staggered in from the surf and flopped down on her stomach near Jaenelle, and beamed at her for a second, and said, "Can you drop food in my mouth? Hmm, maybe I should make Kyle do it. I can't move."

[offers-choices.livejournal.com]

After some good-natured tussling with the dragons and some time wave-whomping, Lucivar settled down in the sand to make hefty in-roads into the picnic Mrs. Beale had packed. For the most part, though, he avoided the pickleberries, unless he was tossing them to the dragons.

Lucivar didn't like eating pickleberries in front of the dragons. The first time he'd tried one, they'd assumed he was demonstrating a mating ritual or a territorial claim. Comments like that bruised a male's ego.

[furnaceface]

Dragons and sunscreen. Jono was here for dragons and sunscreen.

Jono was not here for the swimming, as sorely tempting as it looked. The Fyreborn Islands were aptly named, at least. And there he was, without... Well, without much of an inclination to strip down to next to nothing to dive in.

He wasn't made for beaches in the summertime. At all. But for dragons and sunscreen, he'd peel off his jacket and cope.

[glacial_queen]

"Jono!" Beware that grin, Jono. Karla looks far to happy to see you. "I want you to try something!"

She held a few pickleberries in her hands. "They're the local fruit. And delicious! The dragons love them!" She popped one in her mouth. "Wanna try?"

[gothamlights.livejournal.com]

Kyle didn't want to ignore Jono-- the guy was right there, not swimming. But he didn't want to make him feel bad about that either. Or ask what was up with the bandages, although Dinah had vaguely said 'power thing, don't ask. He might talk in your head.'

So after he got back from flying with Warren, grinning and happy, he just settled for a nod and a, "Hey. You ever done that, flying with Warren?"

[kindrednotkind.livejournal.com]

There were dragons everywhere, sunning themselves on high rocks, swimming in the ocean, eeling through the underbrush of the woods that ringed the beach, and, of course, shooting longing looks at the piles of pickleberries the humans had called their own.

[trigons_child]

Raven released her Soul-Self to fly up among the dragons. She circled slowly, not wishing to startle them. "Hello," she said.