As usual, on some Saturday night in June, I was calmly sitting at my computer desk in the basement of my house, with one thought running through my mind. I'm bored. Truly, utterly bored. My ICQ was running, my Internet was running, but it didn't change the fact that I was bored. Sleepy, too, but my hair was wet and I didn't feel like drying it. So, stuck at my computer desk, I brought my Internet window forward and began surfing. Naturally, the first page I loaded up was Cynthia's Youth Centre, it being the premium website that it is!
Upon my arrival, what page should I stumble upon but Muse Central! I surfed around for a little bit, but could barely keep my eyes open. I made the mistake of laying my head down on my desk, thinking that the music from the Backstreet Boys Millenium CD would keep me awake. Big mistake.
However, I woke not soon after to the sound of a crash in the far corner of my basement room and hushed whispering. Great, I thought. I'm being robbed. I'm going to die. I paused. Who's going to finish my Reunion series?! Slowly I cracked open one eye and looked around. Much to my shock, I saw a little puff of smoke coming from the corner. Throwing caution into the wind, I quickly rose from my chair to find...a pair of three-inch tall dragons sitting on the floor??
"What the hell...?" I murmured in amazement, rubbing sleep from my eyes.
"Uhoh, Kiara, we've been busted," one of the dragons said to the other. The second dragon looked up at me, half-excited, half-scared.
"You're Brooke, aren't you?" the one named Kiara asked me. I nodded slowly, trying to give my brain time to take this all in. "Great! I'm Kiara, and that's Raidan. We're-"
"Don't tell me, you're my muses?" I asked. Kiara nodded enthusiastically. "I must need a vacation. I'm cracking up!"
"Cracking up? Need crazy glue?" Raidan asked me. I raised an eyebrow, and shook my head. "Oh, that's good. Otherwise, we'd be a pair of homeless muses."
"Cynthia might kidnap us and hold us hostage with Windflame," Kiara added with a small shudder. Without saying anything, I wandered back over to my computer chair and collapsed, thunking my head down on the desk. Kiara and Raidan winced at one another.
"That had to hurt," Raidan observed. Kiara said nothing, just flew over to my desk using a pair of wings that, until that point, had been flattened against her back.
"You all right?" she asked, perching on my hard drive.
"Other than going insane, I'm fine. Thanks for asking," I replied, unable to believe I was talking to a little three-inch dragon. "Pinch me." Kiara hopped off my hard drive and took a small bit of my skin between her petite fingers and squeezed. "Ouch!"
"Well, now you know you're not dreaming," Kiara said helpfully, jumping back up onto my hard drive and sitting on the edge.
"I'm every girl's dream," Raidan said, puffing his chest out as he, too, landed on my hard drive next to Kiara. She snorted.
"Closer to nightmare," she retorted. Raidan glared at her and shot a small flame at her feet. Kiara yelped and flew up into the air.
"Hey!" I shouted. "That's valuable, sensitive equipment you're about to flame-broil there!"
"Sorry," Raidan said sheepishly.
"Hey, Brooke, you have writers' block, don't you?" Kiara said sympathetically, floating down to rest on my left arm. I nodded and sighed.
"I have three or four fics in progress, but none of them are really going anywhere!" I complained. My brain was obviously beginning to accept the fact that these two little beings were real.
"Well, we can help you with that!" Kiara announced. "That's why we're here!" What have I got to lose, I thought, other than my sanity? Quickly, I loaded up the fics I had started and let Kiara and Raidan take a look at each of them in turn. They gazed at the typed words for a long moment before going into a huddle. I eyed them suspiciously while typing a few words into one of the fics that was displayed on my screen.
"OK, we'll help you, but we have some conditions," Raidan announced. I shrugged.
"Fire away," I replied without thinking. Kiara and Raidan exchanged glances. "Figure of speech!"
"First, you have to feed us and give us a nice place to stay," Raidan told me. I nodded and he continued. "Next, we'll need at least 4 weeks of vacation time per year." I nodded again. Hell, if I was ever caught actually talking to these two, I'd probably be sent on a very long vacation. To a place with a padded room and an inclusive white jacket with long sleeves.
"We also need you to keep us away from that dog and cat you have in this house!" Kiara added, glancing towards my door suspiciously.
"What, you're afraid of my animals?" I asked incredulously. "They wouldn't harm a fly!"
"Keep 'em away," Kiara repeated.
"No problem," I replied. I was beginning to catch my second wind, and was eager to get writing. "Now, then, ideas, please?"
"Shake on the deal first," Raidan insisted. I extended my right hand but Raidan collapsed, squirming and trembling. Kiara laughed and he was positively hysterical. I rolled my eyes. How do Cynthia and the others deal with these guys?!
