Meditation.

<font color='#000000'>Quarter: Tessera
Day: 1
Year: 81377 (3)                

There she sat, ingulfed by sweltering mirages and shadowscapes, ignorant to the world around her in every retrospect. There she sat, eyes closed, horns down, tail curled, in a meditative stance. She raised her left paw and unsheathed a single talon, moving it up and down with rhythmic beats. The glowing white orb at her feet trembled before rising into the air steadily, and Jatei withdrew her limb so it floated serenely at eye level.

She opened her eyes and watched the sphere hover in position before bowing her head. Then the alabaster female violently jerked her head to the side, sending her obsidian horns into the ball of light. It split into several smaller circles, which levitated in unison and circled her head like UFOs. Underestimated flying orbs.</font>

 

<font color='#F9DAE9'>OOC: Okay, I wrote it!

IC:

A pink ball emerged from a swirling cloud of sands, romping wildly through the desert. Her soft velour pelage shined in the blazing sun, and the black feathers that wrapped her neck, tail, ears and paws ruffled a bit in the incessant breeze. As she leapt and ran about for no apparent reason, sands leapt up around her little legs and swirled away. The little pendragon was laughing as she seemingly played in the desert, a bundle of energy unleashed in the wide expanse of nowhereland.

The reason for her romping became no more apparent when she stopped and looked straight ahead at a point on the horizon. Fixed upon her face was a large pair of technologically-rigged goggles, extending from which were two recievers that looked a bit like miniature satelite television dishes. Her focus was fixed on something a way away which burned brightly in her machinatronic vision. So brightly that she had to squint and finally look away. With her right forepaw, she brushed the goggles off of her eyes and let them dangle around her neck.

Regaining her run, she moved steadily towards the object of her attention, until finally it came into a view. It turned out to be a pendragon of white and rainbow hues. Staying a good ten meters away, the pink 'dragon noticed that little orbs were circling the other's head. Once or twice she had seen that in her life, but never on someone so young. But the fact of the matter was, what was a young meditator doing in the middle of a scalding and windy desert?

Unknowing if her presence was percived as of yet, the feathered pendragon, did the first thing that came to her mind. Rolling up from deep in her throat came a sound immitating that of the bark of a small Earth dog, and she clicked her jaws together as if biting the air. All in all, it was a very silly and pointless gesture, but if you had to be serious in the middle of nowhereland then something was deeply, deeply wrong with society.</font>

 

<font color='#000000'>Jay sealed her eyelids shut once again, chanelling the energy from the orbs into her own mind and finishing off the short bout of meditation for the most part. The spheres shivered and trembled widly, spinning in erratic paths around her head as if in orbit.

The presence of something else was imminent — the feeling was ever further aroused by her heightened mental state, so Jay could practically feel the small pendragon creep closer to herself. She smiled and opened her eyes again, the colour of her irises melting into a cool, neutral, silver. Jatei turned to the pink and fluffy Master, dipping her horns in silent greeting and preparing a telepathic thought.

{ Hello. What would your name be? }</font>

 

<font color='#F9DAE9'>Mia couldn't help smiling as she watched the ivory and iridescent young 'dragon lower her head. Finally, living on Ramath-lehi for ten thousand years had gotten the pink pendragon some respect! She was tired of everyone looking at her and thinking she was only ten hundred. Ten hundred! A joke is what it was. And she treated those unobservant fools like they were the ones who were, in fact, fifty hundred years younger than she. And she was always right, too. But the master knew this young 'dragon was smarter than that, and intelligent enough to be practicing the focusing of energy.

The message came through calm and clear, ringing like a warning bell in Mia's mind. Hello. What would your name be? At the question, Mia tilted her head back in deep concentration, staring at the sky as she thought of an appropriate answer. She was asked what her name would be. Would be. What would her name be if what? If she had had different parents? If she was blue rather than pink? If she was climbing a tree? So she telepathed the young femme back with this message:

<font color="#3366FF">Not what it would be if it wasn't Mia Day. And I trust that yours would also not be what it isn't?</font></font>

 

<font color='#000000'>Jatei cocked her left eyebrow. She hadn't quite expected a reply like that, or at least, she hadn't expected anyone to ever pick up her theoretic suggestion. The pendragon had started conversations with the line for hundreds of years, and not one had replied as Mia had, with the hint of intelligence that graced her every word.

The glowing spheres began to slow down, before they shimmered for a few moments and utterly faded away. Jay, still more comfortable with telepathic speech at the moment, continued their exchange of thoughts with a well-thought reply. The first line held a rigid kind of pride to it, and she gazed at the elder with slight awe.

{ You are no Dragyn, Mia. For years have I spoken in that form, but none questioned it. I'm sure it will enlighten you to learn that my name is Jatei. }</font>

 

<font color='#FF66CC'>Mia had renewed hope for the younger generation now. All the 'dragons in their mid-twenties she had met recently were cocky and immature, so proud to be journeymen and acting "cool" while in the presence of those of the opposite gender. Mia always wanted to break out laughing when she saw a male shape change into a big, dark image to impress females. How worthless! How degrading. And the females who were wooed? She had little respect for them as well. But this Jatei, and Mia was very much enlightened by learning the small fact of the name, was practicing a very impressive skill in the middle of nowhere. This made the pink pendragon smile for a better reason.

<font color="#3366FF">"I am quite enlightened,"</font> Mia spoke out loud. <font color="#3366FF">"It is a pleasure to meet you, young Jatei."</font>

The quite persistent winds blew up small dust-devils of sand out here in the desert, and the senior pendragon felt sand tickle her nose. In a moment's time, her body began to convulse and her eyes water with an oncoming sneeze. Finally it rose to the surface and the 'dragon sneezed, a little pink energy ball flying from her mouth. She then looked up and grinned at Jatei. The energy ball bounced on the ground in a flurry of golden dust and then spiraled off into space, disappearing into the infinite oblivion called The Universe.

Shaking her head back and forth, dangling her satellite-rigged goggles from around her neck, she cleared the water from her eyes and the tingling from her ebony nose. <font color="#3366FF">"Excuse me,"</font> she asked in her flute-like tones.</font>

 

<font color='#000000'>"And mine," she smiled.

Watching Mia sneeze suddenly, she chuckled at the pink sphere of energy that bounced along the desert sands into the horizon. The small pink pendragon then cleared her eyes, mumbling a friendly request to be excused for her actions. Jatei herself saw nothing of it, as a common bodily function was scarcely something to be ashamed of. Though she doubted the elder was ashamed, it was a valid comparison in any sense. It wasn't like you could control something like that, could you?

"Given." Jay smiled and dipped her head, clearing its thoughts instantly and switching back into the mode in which it started. Conversing with Mia, of course. "I trust you too practice the art?"</font>

 

<font color='#FF66CC'><font color="#3366FF">"Oh, no, I can't do anything like what you can; only imitate it,"</font> Mia replied quickly to Jatei's inquiry. <font color="#3366FF">"My attention span is much too short for something like meditation. I'm just old enough to know a few cheap magic tricks."</font> Then, as if to prove her point, Mia struck a pose comparable to a stone cherub spitting water. But instead of water spilling from the fluffed 'dragon's slightly parted jowls, satin pink rose petals flew instead, a flurry of flowers swirling around the pendragons' heads, caught in the wind.

The elderly 'dragon again stood at ease, losing the fountain pose. The goggles swung from her neck, and as they dangled like a pendulum she seemed to just remember that they were there. In a sudden epiphany marked by the elevation of her voice to an even higher pitch than normal, she said, <font color="#3366FF">"I'm an engineer in general machina technology, and also a biologist. That's what brings me here. I'm conducting a study that compares plants that live in harsh desert climates to their cousins of the same species that live in rainforests and and other places with a high annual rainfall rate, but I found you."</font> Mia looked around, as if trying to continue her search from where she stood. <font color="#3366FF">"You're more interesting than a cactus, though,"</font> she added with a little laugh.</font>