Atreya's Adventurous Ice-Cream Green Ghiath
Egg Name: Mellifluous Mint Egg
Egg Desc: Fresh, frisky foliage shapes flicker over the elegant simplicity of this herbal-green egg. Against a background of blackish frost, peppermint's shades beguilingly soothe a darker stalk of color, and each fractured edge is lined with winter's pale promise. Rare scattered drops of emerald-jeweled glory dapple the egg, standing out against the otherwise unpretentious green surface. Above the egg's sand-buried base, warm otherworldly hues almost seem to shimmer, their heat tempered by creme de menthe's cool.
Hatching Message: The Mellifluous Mint Egg gives a shiver, a shudder, and then an explosion of peppermint shards drop to the sands as the egg's occupant rises from the destruction. With a shake of her head, she's ready for adventure, this Adventurous Ice-Cream Green Dragonet.
Hatchling Name: Adventurous Ice-Cream Green Dragonet
Hatchling Description: Peppermint and cream vie for domination, battling over the petite green dragon's pale hide in a never-ending mosaic of interconnected swirls. Her slightly twisted headknobs crown a head tilted with an air of defiance. Her chin is flecked with the beginnings of a serpentine vine of much darker spearmint which flickers along her jaw line and down her slender throat and body, splitting her coloration into two distinct halves. Her limbs darken along their elegant length, drawing the paleness of her torso into more base levels as they shade down to chocolate tinged talons. Her overlarge wings draw on the dark chocolate also as a flurry of bubble-like smudges ripple along her minty wingspars and pour down over the sails, paling as they drop till they gild the trailing edge of her wings with a miniscule hint of cocoa frosting.
Impression Message: The heat of the sands is gone, in a blast of cold so intense that your teeth start aching. A glimpse of a small, green body before you is all you're allowed before your vision fades, giving way before an onslaught of pastel blues and greens that melt into your mind, taking up residence comfortably after a couple of shuffles back and forth. And then her voice, laughing, feminine, travelling down your spine like a shaft of ice. «/Yes!/ Found you! Oh, this is going to be /fun!/ » Acceptance. Love. A partner in adventure. «I'm Ghiath, by the way.»
Name Info / Intro: Ghiath (ghee-ath) comes from Ghiaccio, the Italian for ice a name that seemed to fit so well with your minty ice cream dragon.
Personality Info: The personality of your lifemate, Ghiath, is based on Cimorene from Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest series. She's an adventurer at heart, and always searching for new and interesting things to do. That isn't to say that she'll be interested in everything, however. Some things - like sitting through Weyrling lectures, for instance - are just too dull for words. She'd much prefer to see what lies behind the next hill, or try to figure out new ways to "flavor" her lifemate or, well, anything really! And she'll want Atreya to come along, and not sit there reading hides: «Honestly! There's so much more /real/ stuff out there to see - look! A trundlebug! How nifty is that! I wonder how it does /that/? Look!» She'll push for Atreya to join her, and to experience new things so that Ghiath can experience them through her. «Try some wine — I want to see what happens! No, more than that. It's not going to kill you, now, is it? Or at least, I hope it won't. More! Drink more!»
She isn't usually the kind of green who swoons over any dragon with a nicely shaped tail. Flirt? Her? She just doesn't understand why some greens act the way they do, and will do almost anything to prove to the masculine dragons that just because her hind is colored a certain way, doesn't mean that she's going to be particularly impressed by them. Instead, she prefers to view them as mates - or occasionally brothers that she can tease and play with. And she will play - get her in water with another dragon-friend, and she'll try to tussle with them, the dragon-equivalent of mock-wrestling. There'll be a lot of splashing and people who aren't aware of what's going on might get a little concerned. "Your lifemate's trying to bite that blue!"
Ghiath is very interested in taste - if she were human, you'd probably expect for her to be a cook. She's always trying new things to try "add flavor" her meals - "herding" a herdbeast towards a clump of herbs, for example. Or taking one bite of a wherry, and one bite of a herdbeast, to see what the resulting flavor is. «Mmmmm. a little more wherry, I think!» She'll be trying to get Atreya to contribute: «Could you get a jug of klah, and then we could pour it on top, and then see what it's like? Take a bite, tell me what you think!» She'll also ponder tasting - not eating, mind, just tasting - the strangest things. «How attached are you to that runner? Really?»
Ghiath is a little stubborn, especially about her Opinions. She believes certain things, and you'll find it nearly impossible to change her mind. She'll loudly assert those beliefs. Amongst these are that hides aren't as good as the real thing. She's into experiences, she is. And Different Is Good. She wants to be unique, to be an individual. Arguing that she should try something because it's expected of her is the wrong way to try and get her to do it. Instead, she'll stubbornly decide that she won't. "But, Ghiath, everyone else is sitting still for lessons. Why can't you, too?" «If they decided to stay between would you like me to do that too? I don't want to stay still. Lets go. I want to go. Atreya!»
Ghiath's sense of humor can be a little sharp at times, but not because she wants to be mean. In fact, she usually wants to do something helpful for a person - or dragon. But she might roll her eyes, or mutter an aside to Atreya in the process. And she's not going to let herself be the butt of Atreya's own humor - she'll fight back, and she'll fight dirty. After all, she knows all Atreya's innermost - and most embarrassing - feelings and thoughts. Sometimes, having a lifemate snuggle down near your mind is just not that good a thing!
Proddiness: When it's that time of the turn, Ghiath's going to turn into the one thing that she tries her best not to be. A princess. She'll be content to look pretty and not do anything, and will suddenly become quite selfish. «I'm sorry, and tough stuff but I'm not going to give the Lord a lift. He can walk. I'm much too busy.» "But you're just. sitting there!" «Exactly. I'm busy.» Normally, she'd never, ever, ever flirt. But when proddy, if she had eye-lashes they would be fluttering so much they'd probably fall off. Afterwards, of course, she'll deny it all, and anyone who tries to remind her will be slain by her very sharp wit!
Mating Flights: Catch her if you can! Ghiath's instincts scream at her to run, and run she does - she flies as far as she can, usually getting higher-and-higher in the process. She'll do her share of darting and diving but the general path of her flight will be long and gradually ascending to an appropriate height.
Physicality Info: Your lifemate is on the slight side, a delicate looking thing - but as far as she's concerned, she's as robust as the largest bronze. In fact, you'll have to keep an eye on her or she'll keep on going when she should be taking a break. She'll push herself as far as she can go, trying to keep up for others, and not hold anything back!
As a weyrling, Ghiath will be one of those lucky few that catches on very quickly to The Limb Problem. No gangly teenager type here! She'll always be graceful, but not elegant - more like a well-trained sports athlete who has a well-shaped awareness of her body. Not that there won't be a few tangles in the first few days, but before you know it, she'll be racing around with you trailing behind her!
Ghiath really, really loves the feeling of water, and the buoyancy it adds. Sometimes she can almost look more like an extra large dolphin than a dragon! During the winter, she might sulk a bit when the lake is more ice than water, but snow has its own pleasures and possibilities.
Cleanliness is important to Ghiath. Sometimes she can carry it a little too far - she insists on everything being cleaned. She'll even try and get Atreya to clean her herdbeast-snack once or twice, too. She doesn't mind getting herself dirty - especially when it's doing something like digging her own pond, or "playing" - but when the "job" is done, she'll insist on being cleaned all over. Not a speck of dust must remain. Not one! And polish those talons, girl!
In the air, she's like most greens - lots of agility, but very little stamina compared to the larger colors (not that she'll admit to it!) Her favourite trick is a tumbling downwards turn before flicking her wings as wide as possible - much like a fan flickering open - and pulling up. Unfortunately for the larger dragons who chase, she'll often resort to it in flights while teasing the poor males.
The scent that clings to her hide? Mint of course! But it's a subtle fragrance that's accompanied by essence of summer, the sweet smell of honeysuckle. When you wash her hide, you can breath in and almost taste that lovely aura that she's got! While you're washing, concentrate on itching the neckridge on the highest arch of her back. It's hard to reach, but is unfortunately the one spot where she's almost constantly itchy. Other itches will come and go throughout her life, but that one will always be there.
Mindvoice and body voice: If ever one word was needed to sum up the voice of your lifemate cold would be that word, her thoughts contain a natural icy snap that could easily chill your brain. Each tinkling, wind chime like thought is threaded with emotion and color, turning them into a veritable paint box of iced feelings. Happiness comes in forms of pale greens and blues, with an unmistakable hint of mint in the background. Restful thoughts become creamy, almost golden at times, with the barest touch of vanilla. Anger is the problem though. Should she be ever roused to anger the first thing you'll notice is an intense headache and flashes of brilliant white to accompany each now harsh sounding word, gone is the nice hint of mint and vanilla and in it's place is the unmistakeable odour of soured milk.
Credits: Egg: Yli. Inspiration: R'sin & S'ren
Recipes:
Non Dairy Mint Choc Chip 'Ice-Cream'
Ingredients
1 packet of polo mints! (1 1/2 if you want it even more "distinctly minty")
340g/12oz (1 pack) soft tofu
2 fl oz soya milk (about 50ml)
2 fl oz vegetable oil (about 50ml)
4 level tablespoons caster sugar
100g plain chocolate - preferably minty, or 100g of plain chocolate chips
Green food coloring (optional)
Instructions
If you too have failed in your quest for mint essence, grind up your polos in any way you see fit! I used a mortar and pestle but was contemplating bashing them with a rolling pin! A coffee grinder would be a good choice, I suppose.
Cut the chocolate up into small chunks with a sharp knife.
Put tofu, soya milk, vegetable oil, sugar and green coloring in a blender, until smooth.
Stir in the chocolate pieces.
Pour into an ice-cream maker and churn until frozen!
Chocolate-Chip Mint Ice Cream
Yield: 2 Quarts
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3-3/4 oz package instant vanilla pudding mix
13-oz can evaporated milk
1 oz squares semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup finely chopped buttermints
2 cups half-and-half
In a large bowl, beat eggs until blended. Gradually beat in sugar until thick and lemon colored. Beat in vanilla pudding and evaporated milk until blended. Microwave chocolate until melted or melt over hot water.
Stir constantly while slowly pouring hot melted chocolate into egg mixture. Add chopped mints and half-and-half. Pour into ice cream canister and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.
