((Oh dear. Gonna have some trouble catching up...))
Charlie did his best to fade into the background. None of the other chosen kids seemed to have noticed him yet -- they were too busy arguing among themselves. Charlie settled further back into his chair, which seemed to be on the verge of breaking down. This room was not very well made -- it's obvious that they are not supposed to stay there for too long. But where will he go? This was a cave in the middle of nowhere, and there was, as far as he could see, only one entrance. Basically, he's trapped here if anything happens. And the only thing he could do was to wait.
The other kids seemed to feel the pressure of waiting, too, as the argument seemed to turn into a fight and the noble girl burst into tears. Charlie flinched inwardly -- he could never deal with crying girls. He shuffled deeper into his corner, away from the commotion. It was a good thing too, as, just then, a previously invisible wall opened and almost hit him on the head. A ragged man walked in, and, introducing himself as Mister Lanhol, invited everyone to go through the door he came in. Although the man said that leaving was optional, his meaning was clear -- go through the door, face all the tests, or else you're doomed.
The other kids all seemed a bit nervous -- of course, anyone who isn't nervous probably is insane. But, they suddenly got quite excited and, one by one, they filed out the door. Charlie quickly stood up and followed, not wanting to be left alone in the room, where anything may happen. After all, whatever those "tests" the man mentioned couldn't be worse than what he had already been through, right?
Little did Charlie knew that he was wrong. Very wrong indeed. As they exited the cave (which was actually more of a tunnel), he found himself staring at a huge green head, with glittering green scales and long, sharp fangs. A dragon. Charlie had never had a good impression of dragons -- all he had heard was that they were evil, vile creatures that pillage villages for fun and eat humans. There had been stories of whole villages burnt down by dragon fires and all their inhabitants eaten, even the children and the weak. There had been stories, terrible tales of dragons slaughtering innocent villagers who accidentally came too close to their caves. Charlie had never imagined that he would see one in real-life, and he had hoped that he never will.
Charlie stood there, frozen from shock and fear from the huge creature in front of him. The tales of horror swirled in his head, making him dizzy. Yet, the longer he stared at the dragon, the less afraid he felt. The huge dragon, although terrifying and dangerous, was, somehow, beautiful. The green scales reflected the light and shined magically, and the long, sharp teeth, although deadly, had a strange charm to them. The way its eyes glittered with intelligence and wisdom and its huge, muscular chest heaved with each heartbeat was all, in a way, spectacular.
"....or Zz'lara can also carry you in her hands, whichever you wish." The words snapped Charlie out of his daze. He was supposed to ride this huge thing? This evil, horrible... Charlie found that he could not think of such creatures as vile anymore. He also found that he was on longer afraid, but, instead, shaking with a strange new kind of feeling -- excitement. Charlie quickly scrambled up onto the dragon's open paws after the other boys, marveling at the long sharp talons.
Charlie felt a strange shuddering, and the ground suddenly dropped away beneath them. They were flying. Flying. Charlie gripped at the dragon's huge fingers tightly, feeling the wind blast against his face. He was flying. Like a bird. He knew that he should be afraid, for there were countless things that could go wrong, but, somehow, he was just excited. The ground rushed away -- was that a village in the distance? -- and Charlie found himself grinning happily. The dragon suddenly stopped, and they landed into a temple.
The temple was huge. It was beyond huge. It was the biggest structure he had ever seen in his life. The green dragon looked tiny compared to it -- Charlie couldn't help but gasp in surprise. The green dragon went into the building, and came out again with several other dragons following her. Wait. The dragons will be choosing their partners? Charlie found himself staring at the huge row of glittering scales and sharp teeth. A few dragons seemed to have made up their minds already and whisked up their partner -- Charlie felt sorry for the guy who ended up with the black -- while others seemed to ponder over their decisions. Suddenly, a huge, slender purple dragon walked over to him and asked him to become her partner.
"Uh, I'm, um..." Charlie found himself at a loss for words. After all, what is one supposed to do when a dragon about a gazillion the size of you ask to be one's partner? "Uh, well... Sure..." Charlie gulped, "Nice to meet you, I guess." Then, almost as an afterthought, Charlie added, "You have very pretty wings."
----
Razkr snapped out of his staring when Zz'lara landed in the temple. Although the shiny, sparkly cloud had long faded, he had been too occupied by trying to figure out how the cloud had been formed to pay any attention to his surroundings. However, humans were another thing altogether. The bronze dragon quickly ran up to the front of the temple and lined up with the other dragons, his whole body vibrating excitedly. Humans! What do they look like? What are they going to do? What do they eat? Despite all the questions running through his head, Razkr managed to keep his mouth shut. Mustn't give the humans a bad impression, right?
"It's time, children. Time to decide your destiny..." Zz'lara boomed, and the black dragon immediately begun to inspect the humans. Razkr tried to keep out of the way -- the black dragon is eeeviiilll -- and he didn't want to accidentally hurt any humans. After all, they were all so small! Their thin pink legs barely seemed able to support them, and they all looked rather nice.
"Hi humans! This is so awesome, right? I mean, this is the first time I've seen you humans before, but I suppose that's fine. Anyway, I'll take whoever wants me~" he shouted cheerfully, his voice booming across the temple, unable to hold in his excitement any longer.
