"The desert will be miserable," Ryan said. He knew Yue was going to absolutely hate it. It would be far too hot for her taste, and he had to agree with her. They were both too used to the north.

"I might end up agreeing with you," Faith said. "I don't like the heat at all. It's cooler back home, because we're higher up." The River and the Lake weyrs didn't sound too bad, though. Just wet.

"I say we all just skip the desert. Other people can go there while we go back to the Mountains or something."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Faith replied. "Skipping the desert it is. That way, none of us have to broil in the sun or anything."

Ryan chuckled.

"I wouldn't mind skipping the desert in favor of the mountains," he said. "I'm sure there is snow on the mountains, if you go high enough. Maybe Yue and I will go looking for it."

"Yeah, you can see snow from the weyr. I've never been up there, though." Corey shrugged. "I'm pretty sure Vyren wouldn't like it. Either that or he'd have fun melting the snow or something." He shook his head, amused.

"Lapis and I never bothered to go see the snow," Faith added.

"Well, we'll have to go and see," Ryan said. "I'm sure Yue will appreciate it after being so far south for so long."

Corey snorted. "Yeah, we better keep her and Vyren away from each other. Vyren gives off heat. All the time." He shook his head, rather amused. "Ah, well."

Ryan laughed.

"Yue's mentioned that, actually," he said. "She said something about one of the others in the eyrie interfering with her attempts at making the eyrie 'more comfortable.'" He grinned. "Not in so many words, of course, but that was the basic meaning."

"That would be Vyren. He hates cold. First time he went in the ocean he heated up the water around him to be more comfortable." He shook his head, amused.

"Well, that just means that in the future, they won't try to keep a fire dragon and an ice dragon in the same weyr," Ryan replied. "It's strange... I thought you said you were from the mountain weyr. How did you manage to get a fire dragon?"

"He's not. He's half fire half mountain. Don't know how that happened and why he's the only one, but I'm not complaining." Corey shrugged. "We don't know what he'll be able to do, either. I know he can control his body temperature, and therefore influence the temperature around him, but that's it so far. Otherwise he's seemed pretty normal. For a dragon, anyway."

"I've never seen a hybrid quite like him before," Ryan said. "I've seen part ocean and part ice, and I saw a half-river and half-lake before, but fire and mountain? Never seen that before your dragon."

"He's special," Corey agreed, with just a hint of sarcasm. Vyren snorted and 'accidentally' whacked Corey with his wing. Corey just brushed himself off. "See? Very special."

Ryan chuckled.

"Yue is very proud to be a purebred ice dragon," he said. "Of course, you know, except now. She's perfectly happy making a run through Glacier Pass, but going any further south than the Frozen Coast and she's miserable."

"I get the feeling Vyren would either hate it and leave, or he'd heat it up to his temperature." Corey paused.

"You know, maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to take him up to the far north or far south..."[/color]

"It would be interesting, to say the least," Ryan said. "Our entire eyrie would hate him, I'm sure, but he might have fun."

"Oh I'm sure he'd have fun. He has fun just about everywhere he goes." Corey rolled his eyes. The dragon had an easier life than he did, for crying out loud. That was nowhere near fair, but oh well.

Ryan glanced over at where Yue was dozing in the shade. Her white scales still seemed to glow slightly, but that was normal. She stuck out because of her scales, she had ever since they'd left the north, but neither of them really minded at all.

Corey shook his head, plopping down on the sand to relax for a while. He didn't think they had anything else to do today.

Faith was already relaxing, but she was still thinking had happened while they were at the ocean weyr.

"I wonder how often everyone goes into town around here," she mused.

Corey blinked. He had forgotten about that.

"I don't know. I haven't heard anyone mention anything about town. Maybe we should ask?"

"I was thinking about it," Faith replied. "I kind of want to see if anything odd is going on here too, and even if everything is normal, I want to see if I can't get those sapphires cut."

"Town's not far from here," Xander said without opening her eyes again. "We could just go check. Not like we're doing anything here."

"Not really," Corey said. "But I don't think we should just wander off, either. What if they need us for something?"

"They'll survive. You can go now and find out for yourselves or ask later and trust what they say." Xander shrugged.

"Or just go and ask if we can go into town," Faith pointed out. "We don't have to ask if anything strange is happening, just if we can go into town for a little while to get some things done."

Xander wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, you could do that too," she admitted. "If you want. I think I'm just going to head over there. I need to leave first anyway, since it'll take us the longest to get there."

Corey couldn't help but snicker. "Regretting not having a flying dragon?"

"Not for a moment," Xander said vehemently, rubbing Calypso's head.

"We'll meet you there, then," Faith replied. "I know Lapis will enjoy a little field-trip, if nothing else." She glanced over at her dragon, who was still dozing in the sun. "I don't see how she doesn't overheat like that. Black scales must absorb a lot of heat."