Brianna Hollion & Xenil-Palm(Water)

[Brianna Hollion]

Brianna (Bri) Hollion
17 years old
Female

Appearance

Brianna is short for her age, standing at 5' 3", her build is slender with little in the way of curves and a pale complexion with a dusting of freckles over her nose. She's got warm, laughing brown eyes and a button nose. Her face is heart-shaped, with slight acne scarring on her forehead beneath her bangs from a nasty bout of acne when she was 14. She has a mass of unruly, curly, thick, bright red hair falling to just below her shoulders, with bangs cut straight so that they hit just above her eyes.

Brianna dresses simply, in jeans and a T-shirt with the same plain black and white converse, these days she often wears a bathing suit under her clothes. She's never been very fashion-forward, especially not now that she's on the run with a sarcastic dragon spending most of her time underwater. She often has duct tape somewhere on her person, or worn as a bangle-style bracelet, because duct tape, like Windex, can fix almost anything. Her idea of formal is a nice dress and a set of heels, she likes getting dressed up occasionally, and while not exactly a swan, she's graceful enough to pull of a set of heels, anything to add a bit of height.

The mark on her left palm is a dark sapphire blue, the same color as Knucker's scales, but glows a brilliant paler shade of blue, much like a blue glow stick, when she's near one of the other four. Much to her dismay the mark stubbornly refuses to be covered up by make up. As a result she can often be seen wearing fingerless gloves.

Personality

Bri was raised the only child of two older parents, and as a result is slightly sheltered. She doesn't swear, has never been kissed and expects the best from people because she can't imagine ever lying or betraying someone. She's a terrible liar, and while not resourceful in the traditional sense she's good at mazes and puzzles, and excels in Science, especially Marine Biology (go figure) and watches far to many movies and TV, she reads a lot as well. Her quick, scientific brain allows her to think her way out of tight spots when need be, although creative she's not. She can follow recipes well, instructions, scientific processes, but when it comes to improvisation the more creative side of her brain comes up short. In her heart of hearts she's not very self confident, she worries that she'll make the wrong impression on people, she'd rather blend in.

She's not a violent person, but that doesn't mean she won't defend herself, she's never been trained in fighting though so her defense consists mostly of scratching and biting which isn't considerably useful when her future consists of facing down dragons.

She's often quiet around a person when she first meets them, but once she considers them a friend she's much more relaxed around them. She trusts easily, and holding grudges isn't one of her talents. Once she gets to know someone she's not afraid to pull little jokes or tease them a bit, but doesn't let others tease her friends. When angry or sad she tends to stuff her emotions to avoid conflict. She reads far to much, has an obsession with Mario Bros video games and loves walnuts in both her Top Ramen and her oatmeal. Recently, she's picked up a fair bit of sarcasm from Knucker, but she's not outwardly sarcastic, she saves the joking and teasing and ranting for people she's really comfortable around.

History

Bri grew up in a small town in Ohio, thoroughly average and middle class. She was fascinated by the discovery of dragons, but they didn't get many in Ohio so she spent most of her time focusing on her school work. As a kid, her room was tidy, except for the occasional stack of books. Most of her down time was spent reading and studying, she was always fascinated by the ocean, even long before she had met Knucker, she spent every summer with her cousin Nick, he even taught her to surf (although she doesn't surf well). She graduated at sixteen, seven months ago, and as a reward her parents took her on a Caribbean cruise before she left for Europe. In a moment of sheer Bri-like grace she fell overboard and sank beneath the waves. There she found a strange round egg which hatched into a baby dragon. After a few weeks she decided she couldn't keep Xenil, who she calls Knucker, a secret any longer and moved to England early.

In High School she wasn't particularly popular, but she wasn't an outcast either. Her silence and kinda (although naive) nature made her friends, but some took advantage of that. After she graduated, before she left for college she had a job in an Ice Cream shop downtown, a mindless job that she wasn't particularly fond of.

( The following is just a time line of the major events between when Bri discovers Knucker and when she moves to England. It's more for my own reference than anything else, so I don't get mixed up.)

-Bri falls off the cruise ship and gets Knucker's egg.
-Back home in Ohio, Knucker's egg hatches.
-One week of age, Knucker almost gets flushed down the toilet. He's still small enough to fit in the sink in the bathroom.
- Two weeks of age: Bri and Knucker spend a weekend together watching movies, including Titanic, Star Trek, and a few episodes of Merlin. He's about three feet long.
-Three weeks of age: Bri moves Knucker to a lake outside of town, he's about 4.5 feet long.
-Two Months: Knucker encounters the dragon hunter, he's about 12 feet long.
- Three Months: Bri and Knucker move to England, he's 18 feet long.
-Four months: Knucker has just discovered the fun in hunting dolphins for his meals.
-Five Months: Knucker is nearly full grown, about 30 feet, Bri's college classes begin.
-Six months: Knucker is full grown at 36 feet in length.

Spiffy Dragon Powers

>She can breath underwater, and withstand underwater pressures most people can't.
>She is most comfortable in Salt Water, then Fresh. She can't breathe in polluted water.
>The more polluted water is, the less easy it is for her and Knucker to breath. A few scraps of trash would be uncomfortable, progressing up to not being able to breath in an area where the water is totally polluted, like a chemical runoff from a factory or an oil spill.
>It's been implied that she can survive a fall from great heights into water better than your average Joe, although she's never actually tested this theory, only the one time falling off the cruise ship.
>She needs to drink more water than your average person to stay hydrated.

[Brianna Hollion]

Xenil (Knucker)
6 months
Male

Xenil (Pronounced ZEE-nil) is a water dragon, bonded with Brianna Hollion, called Bri, who calls him Knucker.

Appearance

Knucker is long and slender, about 36 feet in length with a streamline build. His body is a deep blue, almost saphire color with silver talons. His head is triangular in shape, with dark, wide eyes. His neck is long and slender, thickening a bit as it nears his chest, long enough to be useful for holding it, periscope-style, above the water (Similar to the neck of another famous water dragon, the Loch Ness monster.) Down the back of his neck runs a short, webbed ridge, silvery-blue in color, only three or four inches tall.

His mid section is long in length and athletic in build, thicker near his front legs but growing more slender towards his rear legs, similar in shape to that of a cheetah. His legs are long in length and of average thickness. His paws have four long, webbed digits with silver talons with rounded pads on the undersides of his feet. On the palm of his left front foot he bears a silver mark, matching Bri's.

Unlike most dragons, he doesn't have wings or the capability of flight, preferring the water over the sky. His tail is as long as his body, thinning until he has a leaf-shipped fin at the end. The fin is set up with the end of his tail in the center, and then on either side there is half of a silver-blue webbed fin, he can fold it like a fan if needed.

References:
General Body-shape: www.nationalgeographic.co.jp/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/cheetah-leaping.jpg
Neck: edubuzz.org/blogs/kingsmeadow/files/2010/02/loch-ness-monster.jpg


Personality

At first glance Knucker's personality is dark and sarcastic, brutally honest, and a quick thinker. His sharp mind is best at battle strategies and sneaky-spy like behavior, able to think his way out of a tight situation quickly. He enjoys complaining and can seem a bit condescending at time, but his heart's in the right place. His rougher personality contrasts his bonded human nicely. He's hard to get to know, a fierce friend with an all-or-nothing personality. He's an excellent fighter (unlike Bri), though impended by his lack of flying ability, heaven help you if you get on his bad side because he doesn't forgive easily. Get to know him better, however, and you'll find him to be loyal, protective and perhaps even a bit sweet, not that he'll ever admit it.

His fighting style mainly consists of making use of his long tail, wielding the fan at the end like a club and the length as a boa-constrictor might use its body, snaking it around his hapless victim and squeezing. In a pinch, he can also use his talons or even his teeth.

History

Knucker was an egg in the bottom of the ocean off the carrabean islands when Bri found his volley-ball sized shimmering blue egg after falling off the cruise ship. She hatched him in her parents bath tub and kept him in a nearby lake upon their return to Ohio, but after a while realized that was no life for a dragon, moved early to the sea-side college she was planning on attending in England.

Super cool scientific Dragonly information

Knucker's ancestors were a peaceful species of water dragon, built for quick swimming, with a neck for periscoping above the water. His species can defend themselves, but they're not built for hunting. Knucker, however, has developed his own fighting style that works for him, using his neck and tail to catch and squeeze his hapless victim. He naturally eats underwater grasses, plants and small fish although Knucker has grown to enjoy the occasional dolphin. The ridge along his neck is the remnant of a larger fin his ancestors once possessed, as is the fin on his tail. He is most comfortable in salt water, however he can get along just fine in fresh water, although he's a bit slower and can't breath as easily in fresh water. He's even less comfortable on land, his movements slower. He's uncomfortable in chlorinated (or chemically tainted) water, it leaves him with a slight burning feeling. Neither he nor Bri can breath in polluted water, although he's better off than she is because he can hold his breath longer.

[Brianna Hollion]

.:. How Bri met Knucker, a love story .:.

Bri stood at the railing of the cruise ship, allowing the sea spray to coat her face, reflecting on the work she had done to make it here. She had always been considered a nerd in High School, but that was only because she was. She didn't regret seeming weird to her peers though, it had allowed her to graduate almost two years early, at only sixteen and a half. She rubbed the mark on her palm absentmindedly, not wanting to admit, even to herself, the reason she had been so eager to come on this cruise. The luck dragon had told her that she would find her egg in water...

"DOLPHINS!" Cried a voice from down the boat, she opened her eyes and gazed over the side of the ship, searching the water hungrily. No dolphins. She leaned farther over the rail, and was rewarded with the sight of grey shapes flickering beneath the waves far below her. She hadn't realized just how far over the railing she had leaned until she found herself loosing her balance, scrabbling for a grip, heart in her mouth, plummeting towards the water. From this height, she'd be crushed against the waves from the force of the impact.

She vaguely remembered screaming until, swoosh. She hit the water in a white out of bubbles. She turns her face upward, feeling dizzy, to find that the surface is endlessly far above her. She screeches again, kicking towards the surface only to find... she's breathing!

She takes another hesitant gasp, sure she'll drown, but doesn't. She inhales again. Amazing! Glancing down at her palm, Bri finds the sapphire mark is shimmering with a subtle green light, almost like magic. She twists around, curious in spite of her every instinct screaming at her to kick as fast as she can for the surface. She swims down, drawn towards a dark smudge on the ocean floor. Propelling herself downwards, she finds that the smudge is a cave. A wondrous grotto, reminiscent of that annoying scene from The Little Mermaid. She approaches the mouth of the grotto cautiously, pressing her body flat to the rocks and army crawling to the mouth, peering carefully inside. Laying at the opening is a dragon, a real dragon, icey blue and glaring right at Bri.

She swallows, scooching back. Bri means to say something intelligent, to haggle her way out of a tight spot, but all that comes out of her mouth is "Please don't eat me! Please don't eat me!"

I shall not eat you small human, I know why you are here A tired voice sounds in her mind, she swallows, reminding herself that if the luck dragon didn't eat her, maybe this one won't either, and steps out into full view of the creature.

"You do? Because I sure don't." She says before she can stop to think that it might not be best to mouth off to a creature larger than the ship she just fell from.

You have come for my son

"No! I didn't, honestly! I should be getting back actually..." Bri reals back from the dragons gaze, smiling guiltily.

I grow impatient And, to Bri's utter surprise, the great dragon moved aside. Bri couldn't think of anything else to do except slink past her.

Nestled in a nest of stone lay a small egg, roughly the size and shape of a volley ball, shining blue. Stretching across what looked like the top of the egg was the very same mark that decorated Bri's palm. She gave a little intake of breath, and, keeping one eye on the dragon behind her, lifted the egg to cradle it in her arms.
"Woah."

Return, take care of my son. The dragon blew a great poof of bubbles at her, and Bri felt herself blasting towards the surface, still cradling the egg.

She emerged on the deck of the ship in a great splash of water. Without thinking of how she got there, Bri glanced around frantically, if someone saw the Egg they'd sell it, or kill the baby dragon inside. She quickly stripped off her sopping sweater and wrapped the egg in it, dashing towards the cabin she was sharing with her parents. Blowing past her mom, she headed for the bathroom.

"Bri! Honey, where have you been?" Her mom called from the other side of the door.

"Um...swimming!" She lied, telling herself it wasn't really a lie, she just wasn't telling the whole truth.

"In your clothes?" Her mother sounded perplexed.

"Of course! Don't you keep up with the fashions these days?"

Her mother was silent for a minute, but then she heard a mutter of 'Teenagers', her mothers favorite curse, and the sound of footsteps moving away from the door. She gave a gasp of relief and unwrapped the egg, pressing her nose close to the shell, as if that could help her get a look at whatever was inside.

[Brianna Hollion]

.:. The Hatching, why Bri refuses to call Knucker by his real name, and the time he almost got flushed down the toilet. .:.

When Bri returned home from the cruise, she hurried into the bedroom to pull the egg from her backpack, hurriedly checking it for cracks. She ran her left palm, the one with the mark, over it absentmindedly, puling it close to her. She had always been told that dragons were dangerous, murderous and of more value dead. She'd never really put any thought into it though, until now. If that was true, why hadn't that dragon in the grotto killed her? Because she could have, easily. For that matter, why had Bri been able to breathe underwater?

"Bri sweety! Dinner's ready!" Her mom's voice floated up the stairs. Bri bowled the egg under her bed, surrounding it with blankets to keep it from rolling away. Straightening up, she hurried downstairs to dinner.

That night, she slept with the egg tucked under one arm, and dreamt of being flushed down the toilet, falling over the side of the ship, and little blue dragons. She awoke around midnight to the egg shuddering beneath her arm.

Blowing a fly away lock of red hair out of her face, she sat the egg in her lap. Sure enough, there was a long crack in its side. Then another. The egg gave a moan, and a network of cracks rolled down the length of the egg. A tiny little silver claw poked out of the egg, scrabbling at the shell. After a great deal of work, a small blue dragon flopped out of the egg, making tiny little retching noises.

"Hello." She whispered, running her hand over the little dragon's triangular head. As she stroked him, he flipped over on his back like a cat, clawing at her palm. With a shock she saw that the mark on the underside of his left front paw matched the mark on her hand.
"Look, we match." She showed her palm to the dragon.

He made another trilling noise and pressed his mark to hers, then nestled close to her side, snorting. She brushed the remaints of the egg off of her bed and fell back on the pillows, the little dragon curled against her side.

She had been asleep from a while when a most curious mental image interrupted her dreams. The dragon watched as she yawned and sat up in bed, scratching his head.

She moaned and rolled over snuggling deeper under the covers. She felt a scratching at her head and another image floated through Water, oceans of water.

She groaned and flung the covers off, glaring at the dragon. "Was that you?" A sense of affirmation floated through her mind. "Right. One of these days we'll have to teach you to speak, er, think, in English. I suppose you want food?"

The little dragon trilled, clawing up her side to perch on her shoulder, nosing her ear. "What's your name anyways? I suppose that's my job, but I don't know what to name a dragon."

Xenil.

She frowned at him in surprise "Xenil? How would you know?" It was dark inside of the egg, lit by a blue light, the dragon felt sleepy and comfortable... only the occasional whisper of 'Xenil' interrupted the silence, in a voice he knew was his mothers.

"Woah." Bri rubbed her thumb along his triangular head, mulling over this new turn of events, the dragon chirped his agreement.

Down in the kitchen, before anyone else in the house was awake, she opened a can of tuna and then jogged back up the stairs to one of the two bathrooms in the house. No one ever really used this bathroom, so she hoped that if she locked the door he would be undisturbed. A terrible thought occurred to her though, where was she going to keep him? He couldn't live in her bathtub forever, and she was going to college soon.

She filled the tub with water and Xenil jumped in, swimming happily from one end of the tub to the other, streaking through the water as if born for it. She smiled, and dumped the tuna fish straight into the water, watching as he darted about, chasing after the little pieces of fish.

Days passed, it didn't take him long to learn English at all, and only a few hours to develop an attitude. It was as if Xenil had been born sarcastic.

"Dad, what do you know about dragons?" She asked her father one morning over a plate of his famous waffles.

"Dragons? I don't know, as much as the next person I guess. I never gave it much of a thought, why sweety, what's up?"

"I was just curious about...water dragons."

"Oh, those aren't seen very often. The ones that are left sulk at the bottom of the sea, hiding from humans. Can't say I blame them. I only know of one type, Knuckers. Old English water demons. They eat fish, that's about all the information I can give you though," he said with a laugh.

"Thanks Dad." She stuffed another bit of waffle in her mouth, slightly dissapointed in this lack of information. She knew Xenil wasn't a Knucker because she'd seen pictures of them, his build was much more elegant and although he was long and skinny, he wasn't worm-like. And from what she'd seen of his mom, she knew that when he grew up there was no way he would fit in a well. Her thoughts were disturbed by the open and shut of a door, she glanced up, and then realized. IT WAS THE BATHROOM DOOR! The one Xenil lived in, jumping up, ignoring her dad's questions she took the stairs two at a time, banging on the door.

"I'll be out in just a minute sweety!" Came her mom's voice from inside the bathroom.

NO! She thought as hard as she could at Xenil, Hide! Hide! She wasn't sure if he got the message though...

Xenil was floating in the bathtub on his back, cheerfully mutalating a little rubber duck with his claws when the door opened. He twisted over, poking his head over the side of the tub to greet Brianna... Except it wasn't Brianna. She looked like Brianna, but her hair wasn't as crazy, her eyes were blue, and she was much older.

"Why is the bathtub full?" The woman mused, turning to grab a towel off of the rack, Xenil had a split second to hide. He sprung from the tub and into the strange white bowl just to the side of the tub with one quick jump, pressing himself to the side of the bowl. Brianna's mother pulled the drain on the bathtub, wiping the water dripped on the floor up with the towel.

He waited for her to leave, but she didn't. Instead she sat on the bowl, right on top of where Xenil was hiding. Xenil pressed himself to the side of the bowl to avoid being hit by he didn't want to know what. The woman stood, threw some white paper into the bowl and pressed a button on the side. The toilet gave an enormous roar and the water inside began swirling around, sucking him down into the dark hole at the center of the bowl. Xenil scrabbled at the sides of the toilet, hooking his claws over the edge and hefted himself out, panting.

The door shut behind Bri's mom and Bri herself entered, looking slightly panicked. She stopped when she saw Xenil. "What happened?"

I hid in the toilet. His mental voice sounded miserable, and Bri just couldn't help herself. She laughed, doubled over, tears streaming down her face. Glad I amuse you. He drawled drily.

Still chuckling, Bri wrapped him in the towel her mother had used to whipe up the floor and dropped him into the sink, running hot water on the dragon. "You idiot Knucker," She scolded, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

How is this my fault? And I am not a Knucker. I am much more handsome.

"You are a Knucker." She said as she dried him off, rubbing the towel along his length. "Hiding in the toilet, really. She could have flushed you!" She laughed again, and from that moment onward, refused to call him anything except 'Knucker.'

[Brianna Hollion]

.:. Extra Stuff .:.


Palm/Water:

Friendship:
–noun
1.
the state of being a friend; association as friends: to value a person's friendship.
2.
a friendly relation or intimacy.
3.
friendly feeling or disposition.


Honesty:

–noun,plural-ties.
1.
the quality or fact of being honest; uprightness and fairness.
2.
truthfulness, sincerity, or frankness.
3.
freedom from deceit or fraud.
4.
Botany. a plant, Lunaria annua, of the mustard family, having clusters of purple flowers and semitransparent, satiny pods.
5.
Obsolete. chastity.


Resourcefulness:
–adjective
able to deal skillfully and promptly with new situations, difficulties, etc.



**Notes to Self**

Knucker is most comfortable in Salt water, okay in fresh, slower on land and has a hard time breathing in polluted water.

Bri, like Knucker, can't breath well in polluted water.

*Polution: in bays/marinas or right off shores, around islands or tidle zones polution is very, very bad. and even in the open ocean (though not as much) once you get down to about 1000-2000 feet you get what is called 'marine snow' its mostly scraps of dead animals, poop ect, but it also consits of small trash particles.