Kira's Story

Connor woke with the sun, greeted by the last vestiges of morning's chill. He looked around, rubbing his eyes, Kieran had gone out, he wasn't in his bed. However, someone who hadn't started the night in his bed now was. Connor wasn't at all surprised to find Zephyr in his own bed, snoring quietly. She always ended up there anyway. As for Kieran, Connor wasn't that worried, Kieran could never sleep the night before a race. He was probably out hunting for breakfast or something like that, just the way dad taught them. Finally throwing the sheets off of himself and putting on his robe, Connor got out of bed and walked over to their kitchen and started up breakfast.

Connor pulled out a container of mixed flour, sugar, and baking powder from the cupboard, some eggs, milk, bacon, and butter from the cellar, and a skillet. Connor then walked over to the wood burning stove and tossed some more wood into the dying embers of last nights fire. The Cliffs were notorious for their cold nights, and the wood stove was perfect for keeping their house warm through the night. Connor snapped his fingers and a spark arced from his hand to the embers and wood, igniting the fire instantly. Connor then pulled out a bowl and tossed the eggs, milk, and powder from the tub into the bowl and mixed it with a spoon until the lumps were gone and the resulting paste was smooth. By then the fire had heated to optimum temperature and was ready for cooking "pancakes" just like their mum used to make. Before he started the pancakes, Connor cooked the bacon. The grease from the bacon would ensure that the pancakes didn't stick to the oven. Then Connor cooked four eggs to absorb the majority of the grease and then went the pancakes. Just as Connor had finished their breakfast, he heard the door open and Kieran walked in.

"Got some rabbits for Zephyr!" Kieran called to Connor.

"She's still on my bed sleeping, you know how she is." Connor responded. That silly dragon could sleep all day, but the second you wake her up she's as alert and intelligent as any of them.

Kieran drops the rabbits on the floor next to the bed and attempts to shake Zephyr awake. She is resistant, an immovable sleeping dragon, until he waves a rabbit in front of her nose, the delicious aroma of fresh meat tempting her until she wakes up and snaps it up.

"Thank you Kieran, I do love a good breakfast." She said sleepily, her neck snaking down from her spot on Connor’s bed and snapping up another rabbit. Kieran headed into the kitchen, where Connor’s breakfast was just getting finished. Connor slid Kieran’s plate across the table to him. It was piled high with pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Connor knew Kieran always loved a huge breakfast before a race.

Connor finished cooking his own breakfast and set the dirty dishes in a bucket to be washed later. He walked over to the table with his own plate as well as two large cups of milk, and sat down to begin eating, ignoring Kieran’s greedy and uncivilized manner of eating. Connor picked up his knife and fork and began eating the way his mother taught him, small bites, chewed thoroughly. Watching the two, you could easily see who spent the most time with which parent. Connor was almost a perfect personification of their mother. He was cultured, intelligent, and very proper, though whimsical and childish when excited, which was often. Kieran on the other hand was like their father. He was blunt, reasonably intelligent, very excitable, and without a single spec of table manners. However, the two didn’t care about their distinctions. They were brothers till the end and they loved each other. Connor finished eating after a while and sat back in his chair, patting his full stomach,

“Delicious if I do say so myself, I’m so happy Mum taught me how to do that. Anywho, we should clean up before we leave for the race, dishes and all that, I don’t want the house to smell when we get back. We’ve got plenty of time to finish up, they moved our race back till after the qualifier, so we don’t need to be there till about noon-ish. Shall we?” Connor asked his brother.

“Blegh, chores already?” Kieran asked. “Jeez, you’re turning more into mom everyday.”

“Well, we can do them now so we don’t have to when we get home tired from the races, or we can wait till we’re exhausted and try to do them when all we really want is to go take a bath and sleep. Your choice.” Connor said, smirking as he trounced his brother’s complaints with cold inescapable logic.

“I suppose you’re right, jeez, no need to get so serious, I was just joking.” Kieran said, feigning hurt feelings. The two smirked at each other and started laughing before getting to work, cleaning up the dishes and washing the stovetop before getting their races supplies all ready to go.

Finally, they were all done, they’d dressed up, washed up, and were ready to head over to Cadence City, they had a big race today. After that, they planned on visiting their mom and dad who still lived in the city limits. Walking outside and saddling Zephyr with her lighter racing saddle, Connor took to the sky. There was nothing like the raw joy of flying, feeling the wind blow through your hair, accompanied by the low buzz of Zephyr’s wings. After doing a few loops and taking a lap or two around the house, Connor shouted over to Kieran, his trademark mischievous grin lighting up his whole face, “Hey, whadd’ya say we race to the City? First one there gets to win the actual race!”

“Come now Connor, we don’t want to make them feel too badly before their race, you know how they are, one loss and Kieran falls apart!” Zephyr interjected. “It’ll be fine,” Connor assuaged his partner, “if it looks like we’re too far ahead, we’ll just ease up and let them win.”

“That’s all well and good, but I want to win!” Zephyr told Connor, letting loose a battle cry that sounded like a mixture between a wolf’s howl and a bird call.

Just then, Connor’s decision was made for him. “Oh you are so on little brother!” Kieran replied to Connor’s challenge, a huge smile showing on his face. At that, the brothers took off, making a beeline to Cadence City as fast as they could go, a five minute trip usually, and a good warm up for their dragons. It’s always best to stretch your wings before an actual race. The brothers didn’t stop at just racing straight there. They wove through trees and preformed aerial combat maneuvers around each other, using their drafts to their advantage. The pair looked like poetry in flight as they raced to Cadence City, eyes set on taking the cup.