I was jarred from my fitful sleep by my father. "Come, my son. I... I have
something to show you."
	Stealthily, we crept from the rear entrance of the house to my father's
woodsmithing shop, extremely careful not to get spotted. As he opened the
door to the well-lit shop my mouth dropped with awe.
	Inside was the single largest suit of armour I had ever seen, laid out on a
wooden bench. It became immediately obvious that it had been built from
Marlack shell, and that it had been designed to fit over the slender body of
the blue dragon...
	"Father..." I exclaimed breathlessly. "Marlack shell is so expensive...
And, and a Rison horn?!"
	My father ran his hand down the slender white horn jutting out from the
ivory armour, smiling fondly at me. "For luck..."
	"I can't, father. It's too much, you could feed yourselves for three years
for the price this would fetch..."
	"That's not all there is, my son." He interrupted, disappearing behind a
wooden partion. When he reappeared, he was carrying a human-sized suit of
armour made from the same shell as the dragon armour, and was carrying a
weapon that looked strangely familiar...
	It was all too much. This was what father had been working on all night?
Tentatively touching the armour, I could tell it had been hardened and
lightly coated in K'saa sap, making it extremely tough and light. "But...
I... I am no warrior! How can I...?"
	I stopped as my father gripped me by the shoulder. "You must," he stated
firmly, "or all is lost."
	"But I do not even know if the dragon will return..." I said despondently.
	My father smiled slightly, then walked over to the large wooden partion
that segregated the work and storage areas of his shop. Pulling it back, I
was astonished and overjoyed to see my friend, the blue dragon, wounds
treated and healed. I ran to it and embraced it around the neck, surprised
to discover just how attached I had become to the Kouriheat. The dragon let
out a soft welcoming chirp and bobbed its head. "Father, how did you..."
	"He must've recognized me..." my father said wistfully. Confused, I turned
towards him. "Son.... *I* was the young boy who rode the red dragon many
years ago. We defeated the black dragon at the cost of my friend's life, but
it lives again. I... I am too old to fight now. *You* must take up the
battle." He said, shaking me slightly.
	I was speechless. My father was the red dragon rider? Now I recognized the
weapon he held in his hand; it was the same beam weapon I had seen in my
vision, albeit with some slight modifications. Then it began to make sense;
*that* was why the blue dragon had sought me out. 
Still, I was unsure.
	"Surely, father, a great many people more talented in combat could be
found. I am merely a failed hunter, what could I possibly hope to accomplish?"
	"There is much more to dragonriding than being able to fire a weapon!" he
snapped, perhaps growing weary of my obstinateness. "You have the mind and
body necessary for the task!" My father stopped, taking a few breaths to
calm himself. "It is your decision, Yara... but there is no-one else..."
	This was an impossible dilemma, I thought to myself. Then the reality of
the situation settled in. If I refused, I'd be dead anyway, so the choice
was a simple one: get killed fleeing this tiny burg in the middle of the
night, or take up a monumental battle against the forces of darkness... and
get killed. By all rights my life was already forfeit; why not go out in a
blaze of glory?
	"Very well," I said finally, "I will do it."
	I looked up as my father nodded approvingly, beaming. Together, we lifted
the surprisingly light armour up and onto the dragon's back, gently settling
it down for a snug fit. The Kouriheat fidgeted slightly as we strapped it
securely to its body, but seemed to tolerate the armour.
	After securing the last strap, I began donning my own armour suit,
strapping it tightly to my form. Finally, I accepted my helmet and weapon
from my father, embracing him one last time before mounting the dragon, *my*
dragon, and preparing to take off.
	It was at that moment that several dozen townspeople pulled open front gate
of the shop. They had obviously seen the light from the lamp and come to
investigate. They were brought up short by a bloodcurdling scream from the
blue dragon, but soon regained their wits and began firing. I almost laughed
out loud as their arrows bounced pathetically off the armour of both myself
and my dragon, when I realized that one of us wasn't protected...
	An arrow protruding from his abdomen, my father slapped the blue dragon on
the hindquarters. It wasn't much of a push, but was enough to prompt the
dragon to start running forward, bowling over the townspeople and taking
flight after clearing the door. Concern for my father made me look over my
shoulder, but deep down I knew there was no going back...

	Several days later we sat around a Feska campfire, the steady orange-white
glow from the slowly burning plant essence warming us against the frigid
desert night. I was still concerned for my parents; I shuddered to think
what might've become of them, and wondered if I shouldn't have stayed...
	The blue dragon snorted, jarring me from my reverie, the odd phosphorescent
blue-white marking on its throat casting a constant dim light into the area.
Unlike young and adolescent Kouriheat, dragons didn't seem to ever need
rest, nor food for that matter. I had shed my armour, but the dragon seemed
not to be bothered by its protective suit, so I left it on; removing it by
myself would have been a rather ardous task at any rate.
	I was absentmindedly gnawing on a shank of meat from a large rodent I had
shot and partially cooked from the air earlier that same day; it seemed that
I could somehow *sense* where the creature was before I shot it. I surmized
that my link with my dragon also joined our senses to some degree. I found
myself intimately aware of my surroundings while riding my dragon, even
those outside of both of our fields of vision, and concluded that it used
some form of echolocation to monitor everything from canyon walls to the
tiniest of insects scurrying along the desert floor. I also apparently had
access to my dragon's improved vision and hearing, but my brain seemed to
shut those out to a degree; getting two conflicting signals regarding the
senses tended to make me rather queasy.
	We had yet to encounter any Empire or Mechanian forces, which in itself was
strange considering our proximity to the front lines. We had also failed to
locate any trace of the black dragon, although not for lack of trying. We
seemed to be heading inland, although what my dragon expected to find there
was beyond me. I began to wonder if we'd ever encounter anything more
significant that a few Kanta rays and assorted other bird life.

	Almost a week later we passed over a site near the mountains that had been
absolutely devastated; broken hulls of Mechanian airships littered the area,
and what had once been a village had been reduced to rubble. It had
obviously been many years since the cataclysm that destroyed this place
occured; the desert was slowly reclaiming the land, and sand coated most
everything.
	Glancing around at the mountain range, I got the feeling that I had seen
this place before. Then it dawned on me; this was the village I had seen
destroyed in my vision. I had no idea what my dragon intended by bringing me
to this depressing pile of rubble and debris. Perhaps it thought I still
needed convincing about the consequences of not defeating the black dragon.
If that was the case, its point was clear; no-one could have survived this
calamity.
	I snapped my head up, alert. Movement. Behind us, below us, and *massive*.
Turning, I could see something huge burrowing through the sand behind us,
following us. I brought my beam weapon around to bear on it, and not a
moment too soon. Horrified, I watched as a massive sandworm forty times
longer than my dragon leapt from a dune, straight for us.
	Responding to my panicked urging, my dragon dove and the sandworm passed
overhead. I will never forget that moment, however, when I was mere meters
from the sandworm's tentacled, multi-eyed face, acidic green fluid drooling
from what passed for a mouth. Driven partly by fear, partly by revulsion I
opened fire, a steady stream of blue energy pulses ripping into the
sandworm's soft underside as it flew overhead. At my mental urging the blue
dragon started firing as well, long blue energy beams arcing out of its
mouth, *changing direction*, and them slamming into the worm's red
underbelly. As the sandworm passed over us, I stared at its stinger-like
appendage. I was so engrossed we almost died; it shot the mucus-coated
needle at us, which we barely managed to dodge. Firing now into the tough
grey armour of the sandworm's dorsal surface, my dragon shed some altitude
as we became the hunters.
	The worm let out a scream of pain as I blew off a chunk of its armoured
skin, exposing the reddish meat below to the harsh light of my Feska-essence
laser cannon. After what seemed like an eternity of steady fire, the
sandworm broke apart into three segments, each segment becoming a new baby
sandworm. Not desiring any more of those monstrosities, I disintegrated them
one by one. This time they stayed dead.
	For a long time I just sat there, breathing heavily; that had been quite
the baptism by fire. Never berfore would I have had the courage or skill
required to face and defeat a sandworm. What was coming over me? And how
much of that was due to my apparent psychic link to my dragon? Shuddering to
think of what other changes in personality and ability I might undergo, I
returned my attention to the devastated village below. We seemed to be
leaving the area, not that I minded after our little encounter. Still, I
wondered where we were going. I sat back in the rudimentary saddle and
sighed, figuring I'd find out soon enough.

	Three days later we had travelled a great distance from the ruined village.
We had also gotten our first glimpses of the Mechanians; several times their
flitters had almost spotted us. Flying sometimes less than a meter above the
ground through caves and canyons, however, had thrown them off our tail.
	I sensed our destination long before I saw it; from my link with my dragon
it felt like a part of the mountain range, but somehow... wrong. Despite its
mammoth size it was most definitely man-made. Getting closer I also realized
it was not alone; several airships and flitters surrounded it, but that
didn't seem to be dissuading my dragon. Several minutes later I saw what we
were headed for and gasped; it was the wreckage of the airship that had
destroyed that village in my vision. The sheer size of the ship rivaled that
of the mountain it had crashed into!
	It was at that moment that we were first spotted. A Mechanian flitter dove
at us, orange laser blasts leaping from its needle-shaped body. Jarred from
the view I raised my own cannon and returned fire, clipping one of its four
stabilizer wings. The tiny aircraft went into an uncontrollable spin and
spiralled towards the ground far below. I wondered about the hostile
reception but realized we would be easy targets at this altitude, so I
prompted my dragon to drop all the way to the desert floor. The cracked
surface of the desert blurred by underneath us as we shot forward, the
massive ruined airship looming in the distance. It was obvious that that
flitter had alerted its brethern because from what I could tell, the
Mechanians were heading to intercept us.
	First came the speedy little flitters like the one I destroyed. Smiling
grimly as the first twelve came into range, I simply pictured them in my
mind and gave the dragon a little mental prompt. That was all it needed, as
a dozen azure beams leapt from its throat, arcing off into the distance and
totally disintegrating the incoming Mechanians. In the interim, however, the
remaining six flitters had closed to nearly point-blank range and were
strafing us from above. Firing steadily from my inexhaustible laser as they
approached, I destroyed the three closest to us and dodged the fire from the
others. Holding the saddle with my left hand, I turned my body around to
shoot at the nimble fightercraft as they passed behind me. I surprised
myself as I killed two of them in rapid succession, then tracked the final
flitter and blew it out of the air.
	So concerned was I about the flitters that I had forgotten about the
airships. When I turned to face forward again, I had three seconds to gasp,
urge my dragon into a sharp left bank, and return fire before no fewer than
eight cannon shots from three Mechanian destroyers could collide with us.
	Looking for all the world like mastless naval galleons save for the mammoth
humpbacked white structure hovering over each of them which permitted them
to fly, the destroyers turned to pursue us, firing flaming projectiles from
their many cannons. Again we banked sharply, coming all the way around and
charging straight at the first destroyer.
	Crew scattered as we flew between the brown wooden main hull and the white
Marlack-shell flight hull above it, strafing the wooden deck below. Somehow
I had managed to blow out two of the ship's three heavy cannons and seven of
its eight light gun emplacements in a single pass. The other two destroyers
had to refrain from firing as we passed within centimeters of the first
ship's hull. The damage we created also had a bonus side effect; as we
passed behind the damaged ship we were sheilded from enemy fire by a thick
plume of smoke that had emerged from a fire we had started aboard the destroyer.
	I can only imagine how the crew of the second destroyer reacted as we shot
out of our smokescreen and blasted the stabilizers off the port side of
their flight hull, causing their ship to list violently to port and
destroying their manoeuvrability. On a second pass we attacked the
K'saa-soaked structure itself, fracturing it and causing the airship to
slowly lose altitude before slamming into a rock outcropping and breaking apart.
	The fire aboard the first destroyer had worsened and the crew had abandoned
ship, permitting it to coast softly to the desert floor where it shortly
thereafter exploded violently as the fire interacted with the pure K'saa sap
in the center of the ship's flight hull.
	The third destroyer rushed at us, firing with abandon as we juked, dodged,
and blew out of the air the many flaming cannonballs they shot at us. Diving
almost to the desert floor they passed overhead by only a few meters as I
fired into their underside. Bits of wood rained down on us but we were saved
by our armour from any shrapnel injuries. From somewhere inside the ship
came a massive explosion, and we had to dodge quickly to avoid being crushed
by the wreckage of the destroyer.
	Glancing skyward I saw our final - and most dangerous - foe: a battleship.
The huge white pyramidal airship lumbered towards us, holding its fire for
the moment.  Hovering alongside the huge warship were eight conical flight
towers which were technically the ship's biggest weakness. Destroying those
would sent the airship drifting earthward as its sheer mass overwhelmed the
ability of its hull alone to keep it aloft. We were almost hovering over the
desert as we waited for the battleship to attack. We did not have to wait long.
	Energy pulse after energy pulse tore up the desert around us as laser fire
rained down from the ivory ship. Dodging left and gaining altitude, I opened
fire on the flight towers, mentally urging my dragon to do the same. Beam
after beam of sky-blue energy arced from the throat of my dragon, slamming
into the white flight towers. At first, they seemed to be having little
effect, but then cracks appeared in the towers' smooth surface. We were
forced to break off our attack run early by a furious hailstorm of red
energy blasts, diving and banking to avoid the worst of them. We weren't
entirely successful as a handful of the blasts struck home, singeing the
armour and causing my dragon to cry out briefly in pain. Perhaps motivated
by my friend's injury, I brought us close to the battleship's hull and began
hammering away at two of the flight towers from a lethally close distance
before their weapons could be fully brought to bear on us. By the time they
started firing, all their laser blasts found was empty air where we once
hovered, and plummeting wreckage where the two towers once floated.
	We dove into the battleship's shadow, dodging yellow blasts from its heavy
underside guns, and climbed sharply up its starboard side, strafing one of
the towers. It blackened, fractured, then literally disintegrated under our
heavy fire. We shot up past the hull faster than their guns could track and
looped backwards, heading for the ground once more. Two more passes had
destroyed another tower on the starboard side and crippled one on the port.
The battleship was flying erratically now. As we destroyed a fourth, fifth,
and sixth tower it began to lose altitude, and I could sense several escape
flitters being launched from its lateral bays. We rocketed up the hull once
more, taking out a seventh tower on our way up, and kept climbing until we
pierced the cloud layer. I nudged my dragon into a wingover and we plummeted
as I fired like mad at the enlarging shape of the battleship. The tower
blackened under our heavy fire long before I could even properly see it, and
disintegrated just as it came into my view. Flapping hard, my dragon pulled
out of our death dive just above the desert floor and we rocketed towards
the massive crashed airship. Looking over my shoulder I saw the battleship
plummet and crash hard into the cracked desert surface, exploding soon after
impact.
	I was exhilirated. This was a million times better than hunting Vind!
Adrenaline flowed through my body as my heart pounded. Alone, we had just
destroyed a respectable-sized Mechanian flotilla! Those were four Mechanian
airships that wouldn't be destroying any more villages! Yeah!
	I forced myself to calm down as we came up on the wreck. My dragon wasn't
flapping at all, using the pure momentum of our descent to propel us
forward. It didn't even seem tired, despite the exertion and heat. For that
matter, niether did I. Shrugging it off as one of the countless things I'd
probably never understand, I turned my attention to the charred ivory form
of the demolished airship.
	The front end of the airship was buried in the face of a fair-sized
mountain, broken off but not detached from the main body, which lay
basically intact on the desert floor. The aft section, however, was pointed
almost straight up after apparently crushing some sort of rock formation.
The airship was a complete wreck, most likely beyond any hope of salvage.
	We cruised forward at a leisurely pace now, gaining a little altitude as we
approached the scarred and fractured hull of the main body. When we reached
the top I gasped; someone had cut a huge hole in the dorsal hull.
	It was then I sensed it. Movement. Not much, but enough to set of warning
bells in my head. It was coming from... the hole. We drifted cautiously down
to the lip of the wound, peering warily into the absolute darkness below.
	A massive shape bolted out of the dead airship, very nearly ramming us. It
halted and spun, and I found myself three meters from the most horrifying
visage I had ever seen in my life.
	The black dragon....

	Its two red eyes seemed to be laser beams boring straight through my skull.
Its mouth was small like my dragon's, but its teeth were longer, sharper. It
had a much larger body than the slender one of the blue dragon, and its
massive wings beat slowly at the air.
	The black dragon let out a blood-curdling scream and lunged forward, trying
the snap at me with its vicious mouth. If my dragon had not dodged on its
own I would be dead; I was too paralyzed with fear to do anything. The black
dragon screeched again, then spun and soared off faster than I would've
thought anything could travel, vanishing from sight in a matter of seconds.
	We drifted once more to the surface of the airship, landing this time on
its broken hull. My hand was at my chest as I gasped for air; I had not been
prepared for that. Glancing off in the direction the black dragon had
vanished in, I wondered if I was up to this...
	It was at that moment that I realized my dragon had hopped down into the
gaping hull puncture, landing us in a poorly-lit hold of some sort. I stared
at the armoured back of its head questioningly, but there was no response.
After a moment I slid off the dragon's back, armour clacking as I hit the
airship's deck. I walked forward, and peering into the darkness I could make
out a doorway of some kind with light coming from it. I looked over my
shoulder at my dragon. It warbled, then gestured at the door with the long
Rison horn jutting out from the nose of its armour. Uncertain, I turned back
and walked towards the door, listening to my dragon trot along behind me,
its heavy footfalls reverberating throughout the massive hold.
	Upon nearing the door I saw several long gashes in the bulkhead. It dawned
on me that the black dragon had been trying to break it down, but why? And
why was the black dragon in league with Mechania?
	Upon entering the room I looked around warily. It was fairly well-lit, a
hull fracture high above allowing rays of sunlight to waft in. Everything in
this hold had been tossed around and banged up pretty good, but I failed to
see anything of value. Then I looked up.
	In the center of some sort of circle rested a skeleton.

	A dragon's skeleton.

	The skeleton of the red dragon.

	Behind me, my blue dragon moaned morosely, staring at the remains of its
fallen brethern. I started to approach the skeleton but a sharp chirp from
my dragon made me stop. Turning, I saw it straining against the doorway,
about half of its neck in the room. Looking around once more I still
couldn't see what was so impor...
	I flattened myself against the deck as a dozen blue beams leapt from my
dragon's throat, impacting against the ring mounted on the wall where the
red dragon's remains rested. I turned to the doorway in confusion, but the
blue dragon wasn't there. Looking back at the now-destroyed ring, my
confusion turned to terror as a massive secondary explosion erupted, with
every indication that a more devastating one was to come. Dashing out the
door I spied my dragon, vaulted onto its back, and we sailed out of the
opening seconds before a huge fireball annihilated the top decks of the
airship and blew chunks of its cracked hull high into the air. Again I
stared questioningly at the armoured back of my dragon's skull, and again it
remained stubbornly silent...

									- MW
  /---------------------------------------------------------------------\
 /"The secret sits: we dance around in a ring and suppose, but the secret\ 
|            sits in the middle and knows." - Robert Frost               |
 \=---===---===---Co-Moderator of the Robotech Cantina---===---===---===/
  \---===The Robotech Cantina <cantina@paulm.chemistry.uq.edu.au>---===/