As Pyree stepped through the portal, she found herself wishing fervently that she'd gone with Modomnoc. Maybe entering the portal together would enable them to end up together where ever it was going to send them. Either way, it was too late and she went alone into the glowing-blue abyss. The first thing that hit her was an oppressive wave of heat, followed by strobe-flashes of blue and white light. Then an expanse of cold, black nothing to be dropped rudely into a snowdrift on the other side.

When she thought the sickening ride was over, Pyree found herself beginning to roll out of the drift and down a large hill. Quickly, she grappled for purchase, something to hang onto and stop her fall, but there was nothing but cold snow. On she fell until she came to a rocky outcropping and grabbed hold, clinging to the edge of a precipice. She struggled to pull herself up, with no avail. Finally, she called out, "Help! Someone, please help me!" The drop was too great to risk, for a human or a bear, and she was too afraid to move and lose her grip. "Oh Modomnoc, I wish you were here..."

Out of the white expanse, Epochith heard a muffled shout. The black-silver was on Search at Ryslen briefly, and about to leave with her rider Aislinn. Narrowing her eyes into the snowy landscape she was used to, coming from the almost permanently snowbound Draco's Inferno, the dragon sensed more than saw a struggling brown shape on the edge of a cliff in the distance. Her Search-sense so finely attuned to those with gifts, she was able to pick the bear-shifter out of the blinding mass of white. With a sweep of her wings, Epoch took to the sky in a flurry of scattered flakes, showering Aislinn. "Where are you going!? We're due back at the weyr soon!" Bugling from the sky, the black-silver said, Someone is trapped on a cliff, I must help! Aislinn glanced about the area, seeing nothing. But the black-silver shot toward a distant ridge and hovered, so there must be something there.

Pyree was sure the was going to die, plummet from this cliff top and slam into the rocks below when out of the blizzard came a huge black shape, flapping enormous wings and breathing hot, sulfurous breath. At first she thought it was some great cliff-ghast, come to eat her and spit her bones into the abyss when she noticed the sparkling blue eyes and outstretched claws, ready to pluck her from the ridge and carry her off. "No!" she shouted, instinctively shifting to her bear-form for defense. Unfortunately, even with their opposable thumbs, bear-hands are not very conducive to clinging to cliff sides, and Pyree fell with a howl of bearish fear.

"I'm going to die..." she thought. The world moved in slow-motion; the cliff-face dropping away as she twisted around; the wing-beats of the monster as it dropped after her, black claws outstretched. They wrapped around her middle carefully, and she felt her fall stop, felt the direction change before she passed out from fear.

"What exactly did you catch, Epoch?" Aislinn had just caught up with Epochith, only finding her in the blizzard with Swift's help. The green flit was currently twittering above the black-silver's head as she laid the armored bear down before her rider. She was a girl before I got close to her, then she shifted to this. I think she has never seen a dragon before, she seemed very afraid of me, though I tried to be gentle. the dragon responded, gently nudging the bear with the tip of her muzzle. She groaned and curled up in a tighter ball, armor rattling against the chains that held it on. "Well, let's get her up to Ryslen." Aislinn mounted Epochith as she carefully lifted Pyree up to carry her off.

Y'know, if you worked on your TK a bit more, I wouldn't even have to be doing this...

"Shut up."

Slowly coming to, Pyree screamed to find she was still in the clutches of the black monster. She began to bite, scratch and kick with all her might, not noticing that she was several hundred meters from the ground. A voice filtered down from above, a human voice that startled Pyree enough to make her look up. "Don't be afraid, Epochith isn't going to hurt you!" Seated upon the monster's back was a woman, leaning down with a hand cupped to her mouth to be heard over the wind. She stopped struggling and only trembled with fear and curiosity as the monster neared what looked like a mountain castle, bustling with activity and more of the flying monsters.

This made her none-to-eager to land anytime soon, but once they neared the castle, "Epochith" (since that was what the woman had called the black monster) flew low enough to lightly drop Pyree into the snow and land nearby. The woman riding the monster quickly leapt off, and Pyree reluctantly prepared for a battle. Suddenly, the monster snarled and knocked Pyree away with her tail, those once-blue eyes spinning an angry red. "Epochith! What the hell are you doing!?" the woman yelled as Pyree lay still, all the wind knocked out of her. She was going to attack you! a gloomy voice filled with anger echoed in Pyree's mind as she struggled to stand and shift to her human form. Once she had accomplished this, she turned to face the pair.

Aislinn was positively fuming at Epochith for hitting a possible Search, even if it was with the intention of protecting her. "She's frightened! You said yourself you thought she'd never seen a dragon before!" Still growling, Epochith glared out into the snow as the bear-shifter approached, now in her human form and limping slightly. "I am so, so sorry... Epochith is sensitive to emotions and also very protective of me, so when she sensed you defending yourself, she reacted." Aislinn hurried to the woman's side, noticing that her hair was the same color as her fur in bear-form, and that the clothes she wore had an ill-fitting second hand look too them. There were also several dark stains around the collar and at the cuffs of the jacket she wore. "Are you okay?"

Wincing as she moved, Pyree nodded. "I'm fine...tougher than I must look." she managed a pained smile before she saw the woman's wary looks at her clothes. "I'm Pyree." introducing herself, she glanced warily in turn at the "Epochith" who watched her as well. "I am Aislinn, of Draco's Inferno...this, as you know, is my dragon Epochith. May I ask, where are you from?" She didn't know how to answer, would these people think she was crazy? Would they laugh her out of the castle? Pyree decided to lie. "I was...wal-hunting...up there on the ledge. I guess the snow blurred the edge enough so that I just, walked right off." she finished with a "stupid me" shrug and a laugh. "Well, why weren't you in your other form? A bear would probably be better adept at hunting in this weather." Aislinn looked out at the steadily increasing snow.

"Er...uh, my armor...rattles too much...What is this place, by the way?" Changing the subject a little too abruptly to be nonchalant, Pyree hoped that Aislinn would just drop it in favor of a tour. "This place is Nidus Ryslen. Would you like me to show you around? Mind you, I'm not sure where anything is except the sands..." "Sure, that sounds good!" Pyree was anxious to get out from under the burning gaze of Epochith, and hurried into the nearest door.

Luckily, it was the right direction, for they soon arrived at a huge cavern currently occupied by dragons of various hues of white, silver, pastel-anything...Each dragon appeared to have around two eggs, though some only tended a lonesome one, others appeared to have none and milled around near their mates, Pyree assumed, for they looked more masculine than those relaxing on the heated sand. Aislinn looked about and sighed, glancing back after her own dragon, who lingered outside in respect of the mothers. "What is this?" Pyree breathed, watching the clutch-mothers tend their eggs, some keeping a wary eye on the humans and other dragons around, others quite relaxed and comfortable.

"This is the annual Ryslen Flurry, where dragons of a lighter coloration come to mate and produce like offspring. It's very fun to watch a hatching, the colors are magnificent. Every now and then, you'll get a variation, however, like the pair of hydra's that hatched...and the feather-winged ones." "Oh..." Still marveling at the huge multi-colored orbs protruding here and there about the sands, Pyree sighed. "Is this a...a bonding place? Like, how you get a dragon, like your Epochith?" she asked excitedly. This must be why she arrived at this Ryslen place, to bond one of these dragons!

Smiling, Aislinn nodded, "Yes it is, though Epochith came from a different weyr, and a very different hatching..." A rush of saddened feelings flowed from Epochith to Aislinn at the memory of her own birth. Trying to comfort the black-silver, Aislinn cooed aloud unintentionally. "What is it?" Pyree asked, noting the empathy on the woman's face. "Oh, it's nothing...Epoch doesn't enjoy being reminded of her birth...I get mixed feelings..." Another pained look crossed Aislinn's face, remembering a loved one lost in sacrifice, to protect her and her newborn dragon. "Well, no need to dwell on such sad thoughts, would you like to try and bond a dragon of your own?"

"Would I?!" Pyree grinned from ear to ear. "Of course I would!" Aislinn smiled, "Follow me, we'll get you signed up!" Afterwards, Aislinn went off and left Pyree to marvel more at the sands, basking in the glow of the thought that she soon might have one of these beauties to love and cherish...so she would never have to fight or kill again...When Aislinn returned, she held two things, a small egg and a black kit-looking creature, fast asleep. "What is this?" Pyree asked as Aislinn handed over both. "Congratulatory gifts, a flit and a ferilon." she smiled, also handing a bowl of meat to her. "When the egg hatches, feed it. And that little guy could probably do with something to eat as well. As for me, I must be returning home, Epochith and I have some business to attend to ourselves, Good luck, Pyree!" With that, the woman waved and exited, leaving Pyree calling "thank you!" after her. The kit mewled with hunger, the egg shook, both calling for attention at the same time.

Soon, Pyree sat with two creatures gorging themselves from the bowl, the egg had yielded a small, mottled green mini-dragon thing that was cute as a button. "I think I will call you Isone, little one." she beamed to the flit, and to the ferilon she said, "You will be Fade." Snuggling down with the pair in her quarters, Pyree smiled happily, content to wait for what may come, and dream of what that might be.