Untameable Earth

First of Three

Venetia Castaldi sat tapping her foot nervously waiting for her name to be called by the receptionist. She was in Seattle, California sat in the massive, yet still airy foyer of one of the twelve newly operational contribution assessment centres, along with several hundred other people, which had opened its doors for the first time this morning.

Her fingers toyed with the bracelet her uncle had given her yesterday when he'd gone over her mission for the last time,

'Always wear this charm bracelet, V. Obviously you will be able to identify the charms gifted to you by your mother, father and brother; but the other charms have been added as a security and safety measure for you and the other two contributions we are sending along with you to uncover the truth of whether there are real threats to Earth's survival.

The gold and silver 'key' has been through a Fey ceremony that will allow Princess Amelia's position to become a known place in the universe for you - she will approach you in your dreams, on the seventh night from tomorrow night - and also for you to have access to her healing abilities in a dire life or death situation. This sounds odd, but suck the charm into your mouth to release the healing into your body. One other thing, if you ever are forced to use it, you'll have to 'travel' to her so that she can rejuvenate the healing element for further use. That will mean accessing a ship, so only do so in the most extreme situation,' V had been impressed; that could be very useful wherever she ended up,

'The onyx pentagram and platinum halo were gifts from the hybrid twins, Ariana and Harley. When you have their charms on, they'll be able to astroproject to you; with their memories you will be able to identify their location and 'travel' to their new planetary or space craft homes as well again, only if a life or death emergency arises. If you have an emergency situation where you are unable to 'travel', use your thumb and middle finger to rub the two charms together - it will call them to you. But only use that safety net in an extreme situation as it could reveal their hidden nature to whatever alien race they and you end up with. It goes without saying that you only 'travel' or move yourself in cases where you are certain there is no risk to your safety and/or the ability to keep your talents secret,'

Her uncle had then gripped her chin and looked directly into her eyes - when he blinked, the vertical, elliptical black lines of his pupils indicated that she was being addressed by both her uncle and his Welsh red dragon - as he explained the last unknown charm,

'V. We both know you have the gene to shift but it's never manifested. We haven't trained you since you were 22 since we all agreed you were unlikely after that age to ever shift into your dragon form. But we have no idea what technology these aliens have or how using those technologies or your abilities in space might affect you biologically. And we still can't rule out finding your mate will trigger your first shift, irregardless of what you think,' Her uncle gave her a pointed stare out of his dragon's eyes,

'Because we cannot rule out that you could still shift... The black dragon charm is from me, it's made out of 'dragon's blood', black obsidian and if you shift into your dragon, I need you to gently blow your dragon's fire over the charm. The Fey have given the charm properties so that if your dragon heats the charm, it will trigger my dragon to recognise a new clan member has been 'born'. We'll make any necessary arrangements for you if that happens, ok?' Venetia had nodded solemnly, making sure to maintain eye contact to appease the dragon half of her uncle.

Part of her yearned for a dragon of her own but part of her shied away from the renewed hope of receiving her dragon now; it had been painful and isolating the first time around she'd had to accept that she would be the only member of her blood family to never have a dragon... She really didn't want to go through the two edged sword of hope and then despair a second time...