Sky stood towards the back of the candidate crowd.  She was too scared to 
move.  What if she didn't get one?  What if she did?  She loved dragons, 
but these ugly little things didn't quite look like the majestic beings 
that soared through the air.  

She watched the mad scurrying as the candidates swarmed over the hot 
sands.  She watched as they paired up with their dragons, often calling 
out their names.  She saw the scramble as the Queen candidates 
frantically searched for the metallic egg that had been the talk of the 
warren since Alicynth first flew.  

Sky heaved a sigh and resigned herself that this time she wasn't getting  
a dragon.  She might not ever get a dragon.  Maybe she just wasn't dragon 
material.  The idea didn't comfort her, and she closed her eyes for 
moment to keep the tears from falling.

And felt something nudge her leg.

She opened her bright blue eyes and looked down in shock.

The four foot long bundle of vivid orange scales with red swirling 
patterns was shifting.  She couldn't seem to move as the little dragonet 
stretched out and pulled itself up onto its back legs, using her blue 
breeches for leverage.  She could see the long tail twitch as it  
stretched to reach her face.  

She fell to her knees in the hot sand, shocked, overwhelmed, and amazed.  
The orange dragonet fell back to the ground, but came at her again.  The 
soft new scales were like warm satin as the baby dragon nuzzled her 
neck.  It pulled back then and opened it's huge blue-green eyes and 
looked straight into her heart.

{I'm Sarathain.  I want you to be mine now.}

Sky felt enveloped in happy warmth and fierce joy as her mind bonded to 
that of her dragon.  Her dragon.  Her DRAGON.  

She threw her arms around the vivid colored dragonet even as it was 
pushing against her happily and fluttering its useless wet wings.  He was 
the ugliest, most wonderful thing she'd ever laid eyes on, and she knew 
that he would be with her no matter what.  They were forever.

Sarathain knocked her over then and came over her and started licking her 
face.  Giggling, she rolled him on his back and started rubbing his red 
and orange striped belly.  He stretched out with pleasure, then twisted 
to toss her back into the sand.  Sky wiggled beneath him, both of them 
wrestling for dominance, before they both gave up. 

The orangy red dragon and the young chestnut haired girl lay side by side
wrapped in each other's arms and fell in love.

--Sky and Sarathain
yes, Sarathain is a boy.  But Sky won't understand quite what that means 
just yet.=)