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New Friends
Daddy said it was going to be spring soon. Sharona wasn't entirely certain what that meant, not exactly. She got the feeling it meant the snow was going to go away, but she wasn't totally sure where it was going to go. Evidently it was going to 'melt'. That meant, as far as her sparse reading said, that it would turn to water.
She was down towards the shore while she was thinking this. The saltwater had kept a good deal of snow away from the beaches. They were colorful refuges from the biting cold of the snow and ice. She wondered if maybe the snow turned into the many many many little inlets the islands had.
*No, that can't be right,* she said to herself. *The stuff tastes different.*
"Oy!" someone shouted.
Sharona looked around carefully, her back spines tingling in anticipation of a threat. She couldn't see anyone approaching from the beach.
Suddenly, there was a whistle, and she looked up. And she let out a surprised chirp and tried to swat the thing with her tail. It fluttered out of range and giggled.
"Oy, Rudie! She's just like ol' blackie himself, all right!" the thing shouted.
"Yeah?" another thing, this one brown as opposed to white and spotted, called fluttering into view.
Sharona let out a scared little chirp. She would have shouted, but she was too far away for anyone to hear her. Not even Löwen or Daddy or Daddy would have heard.
"Aww, Li'l Miss. Don't be scared," the spotted one said, touching down. It grinned in what Sharona assumed it thought was congeniality. It just made her feel very uncomfortable.
*What are you?* she asked, surprised at finding her voice, but a bit ashamed that she was being rude with it.
"What're we?" the one called Rudie asked, cocking its brown head to the side. On top of its head rested antlers, and it wore a harness. "We're angecur. An' you're a right red dragon, you are you are, like that Mistress Gunnhild."
Sharona was suddenly speculative. *How do you know about her?*
"We've met her. Few times. And your dad. And your other dad. And the little green weasel thing. Met that, too. That was the nicest one of the lot, gotta tell you."
"Rudie, don't be rude," the other cautioned.
"Right, right, Clet," Rudie replied. "We should rightly introduce ourselves, we should."
"We should, we should," the one called Clet agreed. "I'm Anacleto. Herder and messanger extraordinaire."
"And I'm Rudolph. The sidekick."
"You're a bit more than that, Rudie," Clet said carefully.
"Well, it's what I like being most. The straight-man, the funny guy, the guy who goes on an adventure and doesn't risk his neck because he's just too cute and charming."
*You certainly think highly of yourself,* Sharona interrupted carefully.
They both stared down at her. "You're still here, Li'l Miss?"
Sharona boggled at them both. *I'm Sharona,* she said matter-of-factly. *And yes I'm still here. I was, after all, here first.*
"Right li'l pistol she is," Clet laughed. Rudie chortled.
*What?* Sharona asked. *What's so funny?*
"Just thinkin' of your daddy," Cleto replied. "Y'know. The mean black one."
*My Daddy is not mean!* Sharona shouted. She wrinkled her muzzle in distaste at these two and did the most "so-there" thing she could think of and stuck out her tongue before starting to slither off.
She heard the angecur hurrying after her and slithered further and faster than she'd intended to, and fell in a ditch in the crystalline sand. She squeaked and rolled to an upright position before discovering the ditch was sloped in such a way that she couldn't easily get out. Every time she tried, she fell back in.
It was then she realized it wasn't a ditch so much as a hole, since none of the sides extended for very long. She glowered and pouted at the walls and then at the sky above her. *If I was bigger...* she muttered to herself.
"What's the matter, li'l dragon-miss? Too proud to ask for help?" one of the angecur asked, the white one, the one with spots. Anacleto? Yes, that was what he said his name was.
"Tch," said the other. Rudolph. "Problem with a lot of dragons, I think. Too proud to do a lot of things."
Sharona wrinkled up her snout and hissed a little. *We have every right to be proud!* she snarled.
That just set the two angecur to laughing.
*It's true!* she shouted over their hysterics. *Dragons are among the most elegant and eloquent and perfect species on this and every other planet!*
"Y'know, it's funny, Rudie."
"What's that, Clet?"
"We say the exact same thing about angecur as a whole, don't we?"
"We do."
"I'll take odds that every creature with an ounce of brains says the same thing."
"Oooh. Those sound like good winning odds to me, Clet. I'd take 'em."
*What do you want?* Sharona demanded, glaring out of the hole.
"Ah, just making new friends," Clet replied amiably.
*You're doing a right poor job of it, let me tell you,* Sharona replied. Her back spines twitched a little as a shiver ran down her spine.
"Ohp, there goes that pesky lack of fur again," Rudie sighed, sounding sympathetic.
*Are you just going to stand there staring all day, or are you going to get me out?*
"Umm...."
"Well, Clet, if we let her out, she could run home to Daddy and Daddy."
"And if we don't, we could be accused of excessive cruelty. Couldn't have that."
"Not at all."
"So. What to do, what to do. Tch tch tch."
*Just get me out of here! Please!* Sharona sighed, exasperated.
"Shall we?"
"She did say please."
"She did indeed."
"Would you like the honors?"
"Oh, I don't know. You seem so eager..."
*ONE OF YOU GET ME OUT OF HERE!*
Suddenly, Sharona found herself picked up by both angecur at the scruff of her neck and the tip of her tail. With an "ally-oop!" they tossed her onto the sand on the other side of the hole. She caught a mouthful and spat it out for a few moments.
*Thank you,* she said peevishly.
"Well, who'd've thunk it," said Rudie.
"What?"
"The dragon's got a touch of manners after all."
"Huh. Guess she's not all Daddy's Little Girl."
"Nope. Must get the rest of it from her Daddy."
Sharona sighed. *Now what do you want?* she asked.
"Well, to be frank, li'l miss..." Clet began.
"You're not Frank! You're Anacleto!" Rudie tried to joke, but he was backed down with a withering stare from Anacleto and Sharona. "Right..." he ammended weakly. "I'll be quiet for a bit, shall I?"
"As I was saying, to be frank, we're looking for a spot of fun. Not to have it at your expense or anything, just to have it. You dragons always look the work-work-work types. We was hoping you, li'l miss, you'd be a touch, well... different."
*Different?*
"Compared to your stodgy friends all over this bloody mess of islands."
*I dunno.*
"Surely you know lots of good games and that stuff."
*Games?*
"Y'know. Play time."
*I play by myself. I've never directly played with others before.*
"That sounds tragic. Like the beginnings of the life of another stodgy dragon."
*I certainly hope not,* Sharona said matter-of-factly. *Grandmas Gunnhild and Clarinet are ridiculously boring. I want to be something better than that.*
"And your grouchy and studious fathers?" Rudie prompted.
*Well, Daddy knows how to get Daddy to have fun sometimes,* Sharona observed. *And Löwenherzchen helps a lot. But yeah, they're kinda dull, too.*
"Well as long as you don't hope to be as hopeless a case as they all are..."
*Oh, no! Not at all! I hope more than anything to be exciting enough to let people bring me along on their adventures so I can chronicle them properly!*
The angecur blinked and exchanged a puzzled glance. "Uh..." Clet began.
"Why?" Rudie finished.
*Well, I like stories, and if I like hearing them so much, I figure I'd like telling them. I tell myself stories, y'know. And they're lots of fun. I make up stuff, about me, about other people, about the deities like Gratira and Aritarg...*
"Who?" the angecur chorused, still a bit perplexed.
*The great balancing forces in the bishel mythos, of course,* Sharona explained matter-of-factly.
"Daddy must have explained that one," Clet muttered.
*He did,* Sharona said proudly. *But in more words with a boring speech about the necessity of gods and goddesses and all sorts of other rubbish.* She blinked. *But yes. That's what I want to do for my life.*
"Wouldn't you rather, um... go on your own adventures?"
Sharona blinked. *No. Should I?*
"I thought red bishel were supposed to be all outgoing and adventurous and all that jazz," Rudie observed.
*Well, by that argument, blacks are all unapproachable and evil and mean. Daddy's none of that. And blues have healing properties. And Daddy can't use his; I think they're broken. And, well, the color/personality thing is all just a generalization, anyway. Reds make better warriors, but if my heart's not in the warrior path, I don't need to take it.* She nodded as if affirming this to herself.
"Daddy tell you that, too?" Clet teased.
*No. I told myself that.*
The angecur exchanged another glance.
*You two aren't psychic, are you?* Sharona wanted to know.
"Umm. No. Why?"
*You keep looking at each other with words written all over your faces that I can't read right.*
"You just keep amazing us, li'l miss."
*Well that's just silly. I mean, I'm just talking about basic fundemental rights, right? Nothing surprising or amazing or anything.*
Rudie shrugged. "She's got a point."
*I've got several,* Sharona said with a grin. *They're mostly on my back.*
The angecur chuckled appreciatively.
*But...* Sharona said, pausing to yawn. *I'm really tired. Can we talk about this and more stuff tomorrow?*
"If it's all right with Daddy," Clet said with a grin.
*Pff. Daddy Daddy Daddy. I can make my own decisions regarding who to play with. And frankly, Daddy's always busy and Daddy's always brooding and no one else is really fun enough to play with. You guys, you might be.*
"Well, then we'll see you tomorrow, li'l miss."
*My name's Sharona. I'd like you to use it.*
"You need a lift home, then, Sharona?" Rudie asked congenially.
Sharona looked him over. *If you don't fly, I'd be very much obliged to that.*
Anacleto blinked. "Why's that?" he asked.
*Scared of heights.*
"Takes a big dragon to admit when she's scared," Clet admitted and nodded.
Rudie shook his harness. "Come on, then. Let's go. You live in that big ol' ugly tower, right?"
*You think it's ugly from the outside? You should see the inside! Whoo...*
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