Carlie slept in her bed at night, her dark brown hair spilled across a pillow, delcate mouth closed, long dark eyelashes covering her eyes. She was dreaming of kisses, of danger....of magic. At that moment a vigorous wrapping came upon the wood door of her and her mothers little home. Carlie stirred, she would not let the cold slip its fingers over her skin. She pulled the covers higher. The wraping came again, more urgently. Carlie groaned and welcomed the cold as she got out of bed and walked down into the moonlight and opened the door, no one was there. Carlie almost dismissed it but noticed a package on the ground adressed to her in curly wrighting. She furrowed her brow for moment before pulling at the string holding the paper together. The paper fell to the ground and revealed two books, the top one was smaller, and said 'The dragonology handbook, a practical course in dragons.' The pages were worn but all the work pages were blank, it almost looked like a homework book. She pulled out the larger one that was red and had a shinning red dragon on it and read 'dragonology' this book was brand new. Carlie took the books inside.
Carlie sat in bed pulling the covers over her crossed legs. The larger book opened to all pages, flaps and little suprises hidden on the pages, however the work book would only open to the first page, she read it then it would flip. It was obvious that it wouldnt let her look until she did the assigment. She sighed and worked through a couple that involved identifying dragons and dragon bilogy before falling asleep with the books open in her lap.
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The next day Carlie emersed herself in her dragonology, the more she knew the more it pulled her to the work, to the dragons and what they did. At the end of the day she knew quite allot, and had completely finished the first third section of the book entitled junior training. She was quite proud of herself, Carlie excused herself from dinner and ran outside looking for dragon involved stuff.
Carlie ran to the forest near the village, but found nothing. Carlie began walking her breath going in and out hurridly. She sighed before sitting down her back against a fairly large rock. Carlie's eyes looked at the sky, she felt like giving up, this book was left for her for a reason, the pages of the already used workbook, somehow seemed familiar. Carlie pondered this a while before turning arround and getting up. But as she did so she realized something. The rock had ancient runes on it! the language that she had studied that dragons used. She laughed in exasperation and happiness as she dropped to the floor with her pad and pen hurridly writing down the symbols she had memorized, which at the moment was very few, and the ones she didnt know. But just as she was going to run home she saw the shadow of someone standing above her before she turned arround.

Carlie's heart jumped, in the book it explained how no one else must know, they may want to kill the dragons. Witth care carlie turned and used her back to cover the runes and sat on her notebook, looking ujp at her unexpected visitor

apiros had visited estolad to take a break and recover his long-lost land legs. He has spent so much time on the open waters that it fealt... Strange, to be on the ground. The half-fragon had been so used to the rocking and tipping of the boat, that the stillness of dry land. It was unsettling to Apiros, who generally had a room reserved for him on each ship. Oh well, it wasn't good to spend one's life always on the sea. Just, hopefully he wouldn't become sick the next time he arrived on a boat. This wasn't the first time he had been near Estolad, let alone in it. But, this wasn't nearly as interesting as the runes his father had shown him when he was much younger. Perhaps he could remember the way, oh boy, this was going to be hard. Apiros had spent several years on the waters, he almost forgot the path completley!

He made his way from the city and followed a trail for a while that had been laid out for travelers. He made his way down for about a half mile (He believed this is how far he had went with his father) and cut into the woods. He was worried he overshot the right point, but he would have to continue on! He was already lost in the forest, so he might as well continue forward. The echoes of the native animals was a reassuring tone, but he was still lost, he had no clue where he was supposed to go to near the runes. He let out an exhausted sigh as he leaned forward between two trees, his claws dug into each one.

Apiros looked up to see a young woman who was holding some book. She quickly turned and sat on the book, leaning against the rock. She seemed to be hiding more than the book, finally! apiros must have reached the runes. He let out a relieved sigh along with a chuckle. "Good lords!" Apiros said rather loudly, "i've finally found the blasted runes!" He stumbled a bit further and collapsed next to the young woman, "Hello, I'm Apiros Kilmore. What brings you to this rock?" He held his hand out for the young woman to shake it, he had been lost for a couple hours at this point.

Carlie immediatly panicked. The book said she was to protect dragons so they would not be killed, if this man was looking for the runes it was to either distroy the dragon race or save them like herself. But the answer she did not know. So, she must lie until she knew exactly what his inetensions were. Her brown hair fell across her cheek before she used a hand to push it behind her ear. Her legs were out infront of her and the rock forced her to sit up straight, this was something her mucles were not used to, she was not this flexable. She tried not to wince.

How dare he ask? I must protect the dragons here, but...he doesnt seem human. Maybe he is a worse threat. She thought to herself before smiling and gently shakiong his hand with hers. She giggled nervously. " I must say, you are crazy. There are no runes here, in fact, I dont even know what those are." Carlie said creating a dimwitted look on her face. "I just saw it and wanted to use it for a rest while I wrote in my journal. Its soo relaxing out here." She said trying to give a reason for her strange acting. "I didnt want you to see my journal." She said pointing to the journal under her bottom and the grass.

Carlie was now aching to look more for runes and possibly a jewel or two to use later on to lure out dragons, it looked like this man was fairly confidant and stubborn. The two would talk about this for a long time, but if he were to help dragons, maybe they would be freinds, if not, well then that was another story.

"Oh, is that all? So..." Apiros kilmore didn't belive it in the least. He gave her a look that practilly said, "Yeah." He shook his head and kept from snickering at this. She apparently wasn't a very god liar. "You just happened to stumble across this place, and then you decided to... What was it? Right in your journal. And, while sitting there, it hasn't beckoned in your head to copy the runes into your journal...?" Apiros wasn't going to let up for a while. He was tired, older than her, and still childish! He knew it, he wasn't going to admit it to anybody but himself, and he was going to keep harassing this girl.

"And when you cover up your journal, you also try and hide the runes, which based on what you said you don't really care that much about? And that," Apiros said, pointed a clawed finger to the book, "Is a normal journal?" Apiros had noticed a small little emblem on the book he had seen before when he was younger. He became light headed as he laid back against the rock and tried to search his memories for the emblem.

It taunted him,eluded his every thought. He had seen it before, studied it, examined it. but where? when? "I got nothing..." He said finally, his mind returning to normal. "I have got nothing to add, other than pointing out how bad a liar you are. I, am Apiros Kilmore. Preformer of the seas, and half-dragon. Make one comment about my lack of wings and you may regret it." He said with a serious look on his face. He put his hand out once again for her to shake. Whoever this girl was, chance didn't just have it that she found the runes.

When the words half dragon left his lips she decided that it was best to not make him mad, dragons could be feirce, and he probably knew that it was runes she knew. But she would have to play her cards well, this rune could be a valuble riddle, or a worthless sentance. So she simply sighed and relaxed her muscles, it was time to show him out smart she was, and that she could play rough. She sat in another position. And she was about to take the biggest gamble she could have taken, weather he be good dragon or not.

Carlie smiled, her smile radient and highlighting the sparkle in her green eyes. "You are right. I was lieing to you but somehow I dont regret it. Apiros I would like you to know that I greatly respect you and your dragon blood." She said shaking his hand and making her smile a tad bit more gentle. I'm Carlie. I knew exactly what I was looking for." She said pulling out her journal and keeping it close to her chest. "However I dont know if this is the place to talk about it. Meet me in the tavern tomorrow at 1 o'clock at night. Hope to see you there." She smiled again before standnig up and running away giggling. Her brown hair bouncing arround her face as she ran.
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The next night Carlie changed into a dress that had white off the shoulder sleeves and a shorter skirt showing her long legs (see avatar picture) she flounced out of the house and walked to the tavern in the dark night. The night closed arround her making her heart beat faster.
Soon she got there and walked in quickly yearning for the light once more. There was a busy hustle and bustle, musty air filled with dancing bodies, others drinking some talking. She couldnt see her dragon freind yet so decieded to join the dancers. At first the music was slow, the singer's words diliberate, tehn the tune sped up, they all jumped up and down together, Carlie moved her hips and body with the tune of the music and it played through the tavern, as the song ended she saw her freind in a table in the back.
Carlie walked to the table and took a seat turning the seat around and siting on it backwards. "So your here!"

Apirso smiled and waved good-bye as Carlie ran off giggling. so, now he was to meet her at the inn tomorrow night? He enjoyed the thought, but his mind flashed with that sign he saw on the side of the journal. What was that emblem? He had seen it before, but when? Where? Bah, it would come to him in time. He sat there a minute or two longer before turning around and dragging down a rock to sit on. He looked the runes over, he would never forget these runes, they spelled out a story that his father had told him. Nostalgia filled him and a smile cracked at the side of his mouth. Yeah, that girl wouldn't even get to know the full story just from these runes. Apiros stood up and left his clearing and headed back to Estolad. For some reason he couldn't get that girl from his mind, oh well, he wondered if the feeling would pass.

It wasn't long before Apiros was lost, both literally and in thought. He stopped and looked around, he once again regained realization that he was, once again, lost. He leaned over onto a tree and sat for a moment. He looked around for a bit and saw Estolad behind a group of trees. It was going to cost several gold to spend the night so he reached into his pocket and pulled out some gold. He had enough for the night, but he hung around in the woods just outside for a while until the sun set. After it had become dark he went into the inn, dodging a drunken body being thrown through the window. He was alive, but unconcious.

The next day was uneventful for Apiros, the only thing to do was keep some drunks from crashing through his table. He knew he souldn't have gone to the very table into the middle. What finally decided that he move was another brawl making it's way through his table. Now he chose a seat near the back, no more barwls interupted his boredome. Waiting was such a sorrow, and since this wasn't Lomedor there wasn't even some thief trying to steal some gold from Apiros.

Finally the sun had set, the night became active with music, and the time passed quickly listening to the music play and echo through the inn. It was funny to see some of the people dance, they were so horribale and they made a frequent crash into another set of dancers. Apiros couldn't help but laugh at them from his little seat. After a while the music changed, and so did the dancing. Near the end of the song Apiros saw Carlie approaching the table. She took a chair and turned it around before sitting on it, "So you're here!" She said.

Apiros smiled and nodded, "Yeah, like I would miss out on having a bunch of drunks crash through my table in the day!" He said jokingly as he brought a mug up to his mouth to drink. After he put the mug back downhe leaned backwads, more music started up and it began to get more difficult to speak, "Okay, so... One more time, how did you end up out at the runes?" Apiros shouted, desperatley trying to succeed over the music.

Carlie had come knowing what she would and wouldnt tell him, she still didnt know what his alignment and meaning with the dragons were. She was not going to give him too much information, in the end it could help or hurt her. So, because of the loud music she could take her time to think of the answer, pretned she didnt hear him though the answer came to her. "I am a scholar, and the last assignment had to do with learning the art of reading ancient runes. I was simply doing what my instructor had ordred me to do. It was simply an assignment, he rock did not say anything very interesting." She said shruging and handing him a paper with the runes she had copied and decoded.

On the paper it had the runes, exactly as they were on the rock and below in her handwrighting it held what she had decoded. 'Here lies a dragon tamer, his efforts could not have been lamer.'

Carlie pushed the paper to his end of the table and smiled. Luckly for her that particular set of runes had no real importance though it could have ment that dragons had or still inhabited the place causing a fellow dragonologist to die or be killed.

Apiros took the paper and read what she and 'translated.' 'Here lies a dragon tamer, his efforts could not have been lamer.' the half-dragon mouthed the words and began to chuckle, followed by an eruption of laughter. "No offense, but I can note here that you are recently studied?" He said with a smirk. He shook his head and looked at the paper, "You got most of the runes correct, except for the last few. 'Here lies a dragon tamer, His valient efforts give him a the dragons' favor.' My father read it to me when I was young, the rock that hold the runes is his tomb, he served in the first dragon war. After his death the dragons sealed his body in stone and put him on the outskirts of Lomedor, 'So his spirit would forever live on'. There's more to that story, but it's a bit long." A feeling of homesickness had come over him, he hadn't yet visited his parents in the Losamalda Forest.

He put the paper down and let out a sigh. "However, I do applaud your work for someone who must be new to dragonology. Please tell me, who is your trainer, I feel as if I must meet him or her in person. Perhaps he or she is a friend of my father. And once I know, maybe I can stop going 'he or she.'" apiros chuckled as he leaned back in his seat some. This young woman was already fairly studied in dragonology. But perhaps it was just Apiros' view since he was raised around it. "Or maybe would could save that for another day, it's not like I'm leaving Estolad any time soon, but when I inevitably do I must go see my father and mother." Oy, the music seemed to get a bit louder.