Ciqala watched the tall, black-haired girl from underneath the water. He liked her, she talked to him sometimes. And she had pretty hair.
It was mostly black, but there was almost always at least a few streaks of some other color in it. She said she 'dyed' it every now in then, although why she'd want to kill her hair was beyond the young dolphin.
Today it had dark purple streaks in it. Ciqala decided he liked it.
"Hello, Ciqala." She smiled, holding out a fish in one of her hands.
"Aamayaa..." Ciqala was still quite young for a dolphin, but he liked the the young dolphineer-in-training.
Amaya didn't seem to get along as well with her human friends as she did with her dolphin ones. So Ciqala tried to make up for that by playing with her more.
Maybe they'd even be paired together, once Ciqala was full-grown and Amaya was a full dolphineer. But that was a while away for both of them.
Amaya smiled as Ciqala quickly gulped down the treat, her bright green eyes laughing.
"Aamayaa, come play today?" Ciqala was bored. It had been raining almost non-stop, but the silly humans had stayed inside during all the nice weather. The high waves were fun, and the water drops felt good. He couldn't understand why the humans didn't like rain, after all, they swam with the dolphins all the time. He guessed the humans were just weird like that.
Amaya smiled sadly and shook her head. "I'm afraid not, Ciqala. I think it's gonna rain later." Ciqala snorted. Why should that stop anyone? Amaya didn't notice and kept talking. "And besides, there's gonna be a couple of searchriders coming soon. Apparently they're looking for candidates for Falas Weyr."
"Who wants a drragoon? I'm much better, I can swim!"
Amaya grinned. "I can see that! Maybe the dragons like to swim too! Would you like to play with them?"
Ciqala pretended to think about it. "Noo, I like youu more."
Two large dragons, one blue, the other green, suddenly appeared. Amaya looked up. "Well, those would be the searchriders, then. See you later, Ciqala." With one last pat on his nose, she got up and walked away.

Amaya came back later that day. She was carrying a small, rocking thing in her arms.
"Ciqala, look! I got a fire lizard egg!" Amaya grinned at the rocking egg in her arms.
"What's a fire lizar' egg, Aamayaa?" Ciqala reared up, trying to get a better look. Amaya lowered it above the water so the dolphin could see the egg, where a small snout was already poking out.
"It's a pet, they look like dragons, only smaller. The searchriders said this one was from the FGPC."
Ciqala asked what the FGPC was. "It's where they make a bunch of rare colored flits."
Sure enough, a small amber-colored head was poking out of the top of the egg. Amaya grabbed a fish out of the bucket beside her, breaking it into smaller peices for the fire lizard.
"Aamayaa, what's it's naame?" Ciqala asked.
Amaya paused. "Why don't you decide, Ciqala?"
Ciqala stared at the tiny amber flit. What did the humans call those funny...what are they? Flames! Ciqala had always liked watching the danceing flames that would hurt if you touched them. He was fascinated by them. He noticed the flit was about the same color. What was another word for them...?
"Blaza!" Amaya cocked an eyebrow.
"Don't you mean Blaze?"
Ciqala shook his head, causing tiny waves in the water. "Noo, Blaza!"
Amaya smiled. "Okay, then, Blaza it is!"
"How you get egg, Aamayaa?"
Amaya's face reddened. "Well, the searchriders wanted me to stand..."
"What that mean? You standing right now!"
Amaya laughed. "Right, Ciqala. Anyway, when I turned down their offer, they gave me that egg instead."
The tiny flit was already asleep in her arms.

A few years later...

Ciqala had hardly noticed when the silver-blue dragon had appeared. He only looked long enough to note it's odd coloring, then went back to playing with his family.
He did notice when Amaya came, her face tear-streaked. Blaza, now full-grown, crooned from her shoulder, her eyes whirling.
"Amayaa?"
She looked at him through teary eyes. "Ciqala...I've come to say goodbye."
"Why?"
"The dragon that came earlier was searching. It chose me. I'm leaving for Abri Weyr tomorrow."
Ciqala squeeled worriedly. "Why now? Amayaa?"
She just smiled sadly. "Ciqala, I don't feel like I belong here anymore. You're practically my only friend. I don't think I'm cut out to be a dolphineer."
Ciqala stared sadly. He had noticed that she had slowly withdrawn from the other dolphineers, spending more and more of her time with the dolphins.
"Amayaa...Goodbye."
She reached down to hug him. "I'll come back, someday..."
She stood up and walked over to where the dragon and it's rider were waiting, and never looked back.