Jasien was nervous as he began to catalogue the different riders into actual wings. It had long since needed to be done, but Lani had never gotten around to it. Perhaps she had never expected the dragons to actually be used in battle...or maybe she just felt that they didn't have enough to divide up into fighting squadrons. Either way, Jasien had decided that he would take that on as one of his tasks to accomplish before he officially became the leader of The Ring of Fire dragonry. He was just happy that he didn't have to deal with leading Mixed Media on exploits where there wouldn't be dragons involved. Well, the bonding type anyway.The past few weeks had been hell with his preparation of ideas for how to run the place, drills with others, and a crash-course on successful strategy at the General level from Meeko. Jasien'd been quite good at strategy before then, at least in a simulated setting; and it was thought that he didn't do too badly when he'd commanded the dragonmages of RoF in the battle on Tris'Hath before his mother had been able to arrive and take over after finding a replacement Wingleader. Of course, then they'd been fighting directly under Mystic... After all, it had been her people in peril.
In addition with the worries of taking over the leadership, his girlfriend had been an exceptional shrew lately. She was snappy and aloof, wanting nothing to do with any male. Not even Jasien himself... Sharuu had decided to make a game of it and had found that it wasn't certain he'd have children in the future. From Jasien's Pheodian's reports, Iulia's translucent orange-blue Serienth was in an even worse mood, a sign that she was preparing to mate. Jasien could forgive Iulia for her moods, it was common knowledge how bad a rider could become when their dragoness was due to fly. It certainly didn't help that both rider and dragon knew that Pheodian would be the most likely to take the lead of the flight when it happened.
He'd nearly finished deciding on the names for the Wings when a light tap came on the door to his personal quarters. Jasien straightened in the chair at his desk, rubbing his eyes wearilly before calling,"Come in."
The person who came walking in was the one Jasien had most expected to see. His mother, Lani, who was soon to step down from being Firelancer. She seemed to be in good spirits, even happy in her mood. Something Jasien hadn't frequently seen her in unless she was having a good time with her friends for whatever reason. It almost appeared that stepping down from being Firelancer was lifting a weight off her shoulders that wore her down. Jasien didn't mind however, he'd grown up with the woman and felt strongly that he could handle the responsibility better psychologically wise. Let her lead Mixed Media alone, it was what she did. He could handle the Ring of Fire.
Lani sat down in a large, overstuffed black leather chair near Jasien's desk that would likely be used for interviewing new candidates when he took on the leadership of the dragonry and looked at her son. She couldn't really believe it in a way, she certainly didn't -feel- old enough to be the young man's mother. Heck, she was only still a kitten by Katri standards... but there they were. It felt odd to be 'mom' to a guy who physically looked older than she did. Shaking off the creeping feeling of awkwardness, she gave him a smile and spoke the reason she'd come for.
"I heard that Serienth's going to have her first mating flight soon," she began...the paused, clearing her throat then said something that seemed to the young man almost entirely off-topic. "You know what Friday is, right?"
Jasien blinked, wondering why she'd brought the upcoming holiday up so abruptly. "Yes, it's Halloween. Why?"
"Well..." Lani continued. "The first flight to be flown at RoF was Halloween-themed, as was the resulting clutch... Serienth's dam, our Watchdragon Yureith, hatched from Faith's part of the clutch. She was...the third undead dragon to hatch from RoF. Something people had never really seen before. So I was thinking...about Serienth's flight, perhaps ask Iulia and Serienth if they'd be willing to make it into an Undead Frenzy? Pheodian and Serienth are both undead, after all."
"....An interesting idea," Jasien said, trying not to sound too uncertain. "But...are you certain we could handle an entire frenzy of undead dragons? Undead tend to lean towards being evil, after all..."
"I think we could, but to be safe I'm sure I could convince Azon to have a hand. They handled the clutch Pheodian hatched from alright, after all," Lani replied simply. Seeing the look on Jasien's face that told her he was wondering how he could convince both Iulia and Sargon she gave words and a smile of reassurance. "You just take care of Iulia, I'll handle Sargon."
Sanrixan Sargon was leaning back in a chair, wolfen feet up on his desk as he sipped at his coffee leisurely. His favorite holiday of all was coming up soon and perhaps this year he'd be able to just enjoy it rather than keeping track of a bunch of vicious candidates and Pain-in-the-butt-ith's hatchlings like he'd spent one of his previous Halloweens...and the next few Halloween cleaning up after those who'd remained as unbonded. It seemed perfect this year, the Dark Was Rising and he was going to make sure nothing would get in his way of revelling in it... That was what he thought, until the door suddenly swung open startling him and causing him to fall back in his chair, slamming to the floor. The coffee mug crashed to the floor and the caffeinated liquid went everywhere.Lani leaned against the doorway, her flight jacket looking much to big for her slender frame, as she eyed Sargon with one eyebrow raised in an expression of curiosity. "Redecorating, are we? I think perhaps you love coffee a bit too much," she joked, eyeing the spill she'd caused the Sanrixan to make.
Sargon pushed himself to his feet, glaring down at the coffee stains on his shirt. Well, morely glaring at the fact that his coffee was now spilt all over his shirt when he wanted to drink it. His eye was twitching. "You know, you should at least let someone tell me you're here before just barging in like a bat out of hell."
"I'm a cat, not a bat," Lani said with a mock-scowl. "And letting them tell you I was here would just ruin all the fun. It's your fault, you know, showing that you weren't at all prim and proper like some of the other dragonry heads expect. If you hadn't, I would probably be on my annoyingly proper behaviour; but since you're a little bit more of a playmate..." Her eyes twinkled, then she grew more serious. "I have a proposal, Sargon."
Sargon gave her a wry look, wondering what was stirring in her head. "Enlighten me..."
"Well," Lani began, walking over and setting the Sanrixan's chair upright much to his surprise. "I was talking to Jasien earlier. Serienth's due to fly soon, and it's likely that Pheodian will be the one to catch her. Since both are undead, you know, I was thinking... Perhaps have a joint frenzy? Lighten the load for both of us and still add our little bit of darkness. An undead frenzy, for undead dragons. Hopefully not all...too vicious."
The idea was intriguing to Sargon. Yes, he had hoped to spend a quiet evening; but this seemed like an...interesting opportunity. Maybe he could find some time to play some Halloween pranks on this little Katri who'd so rudely burst into his office, as well. "It sounds like a great idea, but let's keep it small. Only a select few."
Jasien, after speaking to all three of the other parties involved in the human-side of the planning: Iulia, Lani, and Sargon; as well as convincing Serienth and Pheodian to let it be a frenzy plopped down in his desk and pulled out pieces of paper, beginning to write. He knew where to look for the participants they'd wanted and once he'd written the note he whistled shrilly, calling his Azonese Wyvern to him.Pretty soon, the little silver-red beast had gone to the Leaders his owner had sent him to, bearing an "Important" message: Jeyann of Ryslen, Ketrenal of Fionabhainn, Baeris of the Healing Den, G*non of Cy Dragonstake, Drakiera of Shivran Aerd, Efellai of Moire, and...interestingly enough, Bekirol of AAM...
We of RoF and Azon are planning on holding a frenzy for this upcoming Halloween in honor of RoF's first clutch and Azon's first frenzy. The criteria the dragons who can participate have to fit is simple, but somewhat rare: they have to be undead. The 'head' dragons of this frenzy are both undead, my bond Pheodian and Iulia's Swimming-wraith Serienth. Please send anyone you can find, but limit the numbers to about 16 or 18 total. If we get more, we'll send you back a message with who can fly. The theme is known as the "Flight of the Dead". Thank you!~Firelancer Jasien
That's right! Azon and the Ring of Fire are having a combined frenzy! Woohoo! Sargon and myself have already selected the dragons we want to participate, though we may still be asking for more. The hatchlings from this clutch will be verrrrry interesting and will have either an Azon-type or RoF-type image. No date is set for the flight to occure or the clutch to hatch, as Halloween is coming up soon; but the hatchlings will still be cool!UK=Unknown
Female Male Orange-Blue Wraith Serienth Phoenix King Pheodian Dark Teal Wraith Chelyth Skeletal Blue Geferixnuth Rainbow Silver Tassanadrath Undead White-Green Pollux Duo-winged Green Ainchisth (UK) Panther Wraith Kageth Skeletal Starry Vesosatheth Fire Gold Teineirith Black-red Conquex Black Opal Torn-Winged Dvamsak Radioactive Black/Green Henshuth Radioactive Black/Red Aldyss Glitz Wraith Rubi Yurei Dracolich Ghora-bazh Earth-air Queen Moriaiux Blood-brown Xion Green-white Ghostly Tariath None I'll put the links up once people get a chance to write a pre-flight story. If you don't want to write a story, just E-mail me and tell me then give me their links!
(Special thanks to Efellai for the background!)
