Evelle was restless.  Word of the wraith attack on Ralengarde had 
spread quickly through Keldarra Warren.  Evelle's mother, Kalera, on the 
violet Bareuth and her father, V'redan, riding his emerald Lixanth, were off 
to battle.  "S'brogh, the brother just two years older than her seventeen, 
rode with them for the first time.  He had joined with Iganeth, a deep 
Indigo blue, at the time of the last hatching.  Evelle was concerned for 
them, for all the dragonriders that would face the fearsome wraiths, but it 
was not uppermost on her mind.

	The new hatching, only days away, was the focus of her thoughts.  
Her heart had swelled with pride when S'brogh had found the dragon who 
would bond with him for life, but Evelle had been sorely disappointed 
when she had not been chosen.  Her deepest longing was to bond with 
the dragon who would belong to her, to whom she would belong.  And 
then to find her own mate, the rider of the dragon hers would choose.

	Too restive to stay indoors, Evelle went out for a walk.  Normally 
friendly with the other unjoined warren girls, today she sought solitude.  

	She was dressed in deep brown slacks with a gold and orange 
long-sleeved blouse tucked in at the waist.  The soft fabric clung to the 
curves of her body.  Rarely did she choose colors very different from 
those she wore today.  Her hair, the color of burnished copper, hung in 
rich waves, halfway down her back.  The tone of her skin had a golden 
cast, and the variety of shades in brown, gold, and orange compliment her 
coloring perfectly.

	The day of the hatching couldn't come fast enough for her, yet 
there will a sense of trepidation deep within her.  What if another hatching 
went by without her dragon finding her?  The distress would be almost 
more than she could bear.  She would be embarrassed, too, with her 
family and the other warren girls.

	"There *is* a dragon just for you," she told herself with resolution.  
"She just hasn't hatched yet.  There is."

	The warren was unusually quiet with all the dragonriders gone off 
to fight.  Evelle longed to go look at the DragonLady's Empress and her 
eggs as if she could try to pick out the egg that would hatch her dragon.  
But it was not allowed.  Only Christalla could be with her dragon at such a 
time.

	Evelle's admiration of the DragonLady was unlimited.  Christalla 
had such awesome responsibility for the welfare of all the Dragonlands 
and it inhabitants... dragons, dragonriders, and landbound alike.  True, 
the landbound had their King and the nobles, but if not for the protection 
of the dragons, there might one day be no lands left at all.  The warrens 
had self rule, but when crisis struck, as it had today, the mantle of 
responsibility hung like a cloak on the DragonLady's shoulders.

	Her walk passed the time, but did her little good.  Evelle returned to 
her apartment no more relaxed than when she'd left it.  A fire burned 
within her waiting to be banked, then stoked to rise again.  It was a fire of 
her drive, intelligence, and sensuality, and it burned brighter and hotter 
with each passing day.  Her mother and father had first come together 
when Bareuth and Lixanth had found each other and mated.  The bond 
was still strong and passionate, one which they'd never hidden from their 
children.  Soon S'brogh and Iganeth would find their mates as well.

	This left only Evelle alone and unjoined, eager and yearning for her 
dragon and her lover.

	Evelle sighed and went to prepare dinner for her family, hoping that 
the battle would be over and they would have returned by nightfall, 
neither they nor their dragons injured.  For now, it was all she could do.  
But promise lay just a few days away, a promise she'd pray would, this 
time, be fulfilled.

Evelle
Dragonrider-to-be?