My two dragonriderboys, in their AU setting of the Rifted Riders (which in itself in its current incarnation is an AU of the original RR, which was set in a sort of bastardized FFIV Blue Planet which was partly Wayriftian and partly very much not). I’m working on a story to go with this painting. This depicts them just before they met their dragon partners, when they were two semi-irresponsible (can you imagine Hrulash being irresponsible? NO YOU CANNOT) noble brats running around a city in Quintus, getting in trouble, honing skills they never imagined they’d seriously use in real life.

Here’s an excerpt from what I’ve written so far:

“Hrulash and Tseo were as different as rain and sun. Tseo was a year older, golden-haired and green-eyed, bold and forth-right and full of laughter. Hrulash was an inch taller, brown-haired and brown-eyed and perpetually dour. Tseo was always active, getting in fights with the street kids near his father’s townhouse, and then inviting them to dinner afterwards; he was a natural leader, a hero in the making. Hrulash wanted nothing to do with such shenanigans and preferred to spend his time studying, or reading, or best of all, something that challenged his keen mind with odds and variables. Which meant more often than not that he did participate, and Tseo played the general while Hrulash played the strategist.

But Tseo was his best friend, and when he appeared at Hrulash’s window with that gleam in his eye, there was nothing else to do but to find his sandals and go outside, where things were unpredictable and disorganized and noisy and full of adventure. Hrulash loved adventure as much as the next child. He just wished other people were more careful with it, that was all. It wasn’t his fault that Tseo broke his leg when he was twelve, falling down a cliff just outside town, being chased by wild dogs. But he held off the dogs until grown-ups came to help, despite not being as strong as his cousin.

So they grew up together, living utterly prosaic, boyish lives, the best of friends despite their differences, Tseo getting them in trouble and Hrulash getting them out again, waging war on the urchins down the way, and occasionally dressing up in fine clothing to go to some noble function or other.”