Dragon Rider Play

The group paused, their confussion apparent.  "New rider?" Alistair repeated.
"It's a long story.  I can explain later," Pat said with a smile.
"Ah.  I am Alistair.  This is Robert, Emmanuel, and Eric and their dragons," Alistair introduced.
Eric was still carrying his cloud dragon, though the other three weren't.  The boulder dragon was just plain too heavy to carry!  Eric's dragon chirped in a friendly fashion from his perch, pink skin and thin scales still showing through where his fur had been torn off, but wisps of fluff were apparent.

Luke grinned and offered to shake each of their hands. "Luke Drake. Mark's little brother. You're dragons look well taken care of." He complimented.

"Thank you," Alistair said.  "Shall we continue to Fight Class?"

Luke smiled brightly. "Sure!" He started to chatter to Alistair and his team. He seemed ignorant of the awkward and slight hostility between the two teams.

"What is wrong with your dragon?" Emmanuel, Rider of the Boulder Dragon, asked, watching Warrior prance.

"And so it begins," Pat sighed to Nightshade.

"He wishes to prance, so I say let him prance!" Luke declared again. "Besides, maybe we can be riders as well as show dragons. And for showing dragons, you start young. That way they know what to do correctly when the time comes for the actual show."

"Is he serious, Blade?" Alistair asked Jeremiah.  "He wishes to show his mighty dragon?"

Jeremiah looked at Alistair. "I go by my birth name now, not my assassin name." He told Alistair. "I prefer to be called Jeremiah now. And if Luke and Warrior are happy with it, I don't have the heart to crush their dreams. Besides," He smiled. "He wants to show off his dragon, and that part isn't bad, is it?"

"Well, Jeremiah, I have no desire whatsoever to have a Show Dragon watching my back, but do as you will," Alistair drawled.  "After all, it is your team now, isn't it?"

Jeremiah shrugged. "I think Luke intends to have Warrior as both." He smiled at Alistair. "Also, if being a rider falls through, I have heard you can make a very strong business showing dragons." He pointed out.

"Indeed.  A wonderful career choice.  If you fail to be the best," Alistair said with a thin smile.

Pat set Nightshade down and stepped between them, facing Jeremiah but not totally with her back to Alistair.  "Please, enough.  We need to get to class or we'll be late," she said softly.  "Luke is behind enough as it is."

Jeremiah nodded. "Yeah. We better get going. It would show ill if the top team showed up late, as well as Alistair's team."

Alistair gave a slight bow.  "I wish you luck today, being one short is bad enough without throwing a new element in the mix."  He turned and strode off with his team.
Eric just shrugged to them and followed his team.

Pat patted Jeremiah's shoulder.  "Not bad.  I think Tithenor would be proud."

Jeremiah looked at Pat. "Of what? Trying to diss Alistair?" he started to walk with Pat and Luke to the island.

"Of staying calm and in control and not losing your temper to start a fight," Pat told him, trotting to keep up.

Jeremiah smiled. "You really think so? I was just trying to stay halfway friendly."

"I think you did good.  You make a good second in command."  She smiled at him before checking on Nightshade.  They'd missed a lot of fight class.  The Professor was not going to be easy on them.

Warrior gave up his prancing for swift bounding.  Fight Class!!  Fun times ahead!

Alterrion was not happy. He made the three riders work hard and grueling sets to make up for it.

At least by now Pat could more or less keep up, but it was not easy.  Even so, she felt bad for Luke and did what she could to help him.

Erika, meanwhile, followed Alterrion quietly.  He sometimes dropped shiny things when he got all worked up.

Luke struggled, but didn't let how far behind he was deter him. He kept trying to do his best and gave it his all.

Alterrion moved about the students and helped where needed. Alistair's group also got a challenging set for showing up late to his class. However, Alterrion was not worked up today.

Warrior "helped" him as well, though the excitable dragon was more in the way than helpful.

Erika stuck with Alterrion, determined to score at least one shiny today.  That would make up for everything!

The most Erika got was a few of Alterrion's feathers were loosened when he ruffled his wings during a sharp breeze.

Feathers were nice, but hard to store.  Finally, at the end of class, Erika gor tired and decided to take the more direct route.  She lunged and latched onto a shiny thing on Alterrion's belt, intent of scarpering off with it.

(Whatever's on his belt, I can't think of anything, or maybe his belt itself... Up to you.)

Alterrion caught Erika and held the dragon to eye level. "And what do you think you are doing?" He asked the dragon in an icy tone.

(I have an idea of what it was; a silver carved medallion with small sapphires and diamonds spiraled around in it.)

Erika growled, her tail lashing.  Exactly what it looked like!  Collecting for her hoard.  And that thing was Shiny!  She wanted shiny.  Now put her down!  Only her Rider was allowed to hi=old her!

(Wow, now that's shiny!)