{ Insert Nallath's current description here}

All the colors covering the smooth shell of this egg appear somewhat diluted, as though they were meant to be vibrant yet translucent - like carefully placed pieces of glass. With this effect each tincture forms its own shape, fitting into one another in an intricate puzzle. Orange is the first hue to appear, marring the top and bottom of the egg and forming two half squares, with the inner most side curved in a semi-circle manner. Against this curved edge arrives a thinner band of creamy yellow that mimics the same form as the previous tangerine shading, the only difference being that splotches of emerald green lay in the center of the yellow, placed in such a way to resemble a pointed three-leaf design. Reaching now towards the center of the egg are two strips of blue, separating each design to its own point in a wave like pattern. Following the cobalt stain, curved lines of faded crimson then aqua leave almost the exact center of the egg, to become a ghostly shade of icterus.

The inspiration for this egg was an American Stained Glass Window that I found on a website that sells Antiques. The brief description on the website says "American stained glass window, circa 1870's with gold decorator colors. Framed in oak. Very stylish Dim:30"x25 1/4" Take a look for yourself here: http://kaleden.com/items/47935-1043.html.

Vibrant color shudders and undulates one last time before contracting and exploding outward. Out of the shard-like and splintered ruins of what was once Stained Glass Egg, marbled bits still clinging to his form, Majestic Mahogany Brown Hatchling staggers out. Wings spread to help maintain his balance, the weak muscles of the newly hatched dragonet belie subtle grace - he stumbles, then recovers. Whirling with impatient red, the hatchling's eyes focus off to the side and then slowly track across the candidates before he takes one precise step forward.

A carving of exquisite, classical work has been sculpted from the rich reddish-brown of mahogany. Sinew and muscle are flawlessly shaped over the limbs, each curve molded, sanded and defined to perfection to create the form of a sleek, strong dragon. Weathered and aged oak, still bearing a patina of rich color, melds together with cedar around the head and muzzle, creating an impression of delicate age. Subtle textures limn his shoulders and flanks in a layering of chestnuts, rose tones, ebony, and blue-brown hues, as if carefully painted to create a solid, strong, timeless brown. To compliment the darker hues, the golden-glossed color of pine decorates the belly of this dragon, stretching down along throat to the base of his tail, as well as across the span of nearly translucent wings. Burnished brightly, the gleam of honey-toned wood slowly fades along the fragile membranes as it edges down across his spine into the rest of his body.

Although Michaelangelo sculpted stone, Nallath is a masterpiece carved from wood, smoothly and lovingly polished by unseen hands. Italy is known for its many and different types of wood, and Nallath is also a representation of the diversity of the forests to be found, including beechwood, pine, olive, chestnut, and elm as well as many more. All of these types of trees are found in abundance in the still-extensive woodlands that help add to this country's history of beauty - in natural and created art.

From the depths of your soul a dark, smoky-toned and elegant voice reverberates. The softness of its cadence suggests beauty and grace, but the timeless quality is somewhat marred by the actual words that echo through you, << There you are! You were supposed to be just there when I got out of the egg. I am hungry. I am sticky. And I itch. >>Even as the sound fades away, leaving behind nothing but comfortable silence, a more physical presence takes the place of the disembodied one as a brown dragonet comes to rest at your feet to look up at you with steady admiration, his muzzle stretching forward to make the lightest of contacts against your hand. Almost as an afterthought he adds in those well-modulated tones, love sculpting a dragon-sized hole in your heart and then promptly filling it, << I am Nallath, Ilesyn. .>>

Majestic Mahogany Brown Hatchling turns his head and looks intently at his chosen candidate, standing right where he knew she would be. Wings flutter and then fold back neatly before he crosses the small patch of sand still to be traversed, his movements careful and concise and not at all clumsy anymore as he comes to a halt before his chosen candidate. He extends his head to touch his muzzle to the hand of the white-robed figure - she may be plain of face and sallow in complexion, but to him she is beauty personified and perfect, or so his steady admiring and expectant gaze would suggest.

Nallath (pronounced Nahl-Lath), comes from the name Michaelangelo, the theme of this dragon. Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475, in the small town of Caprese, which is tucked into a fold of the Apennine mountains in rural Tuscany. His father, Ludovico Buonarroti, was a minor Florentine official and the local governor. After his six-month term of office, Ludovico moved the family back to Florence, where they owned a good-size farm in the little village of Settignano overlooking Florence. Here, and in the surrounding hills pock-marked with quarries, Michelangelo grew up and was first exposed to stone carving. Appropriately for a son whose family had noble pretensions, Michelangelo attended Latin school. But as so often happens, the boy's aspirations were different from those of his father. Michelangelo was drawn to art rather than to the world of the Florentine banker and merchant.

This dragon is Michelangelo to a T. He's artistic, talented, and very devoted to the details. Every detail. To a fault. He may drive you crazy as he wants to understand everything - right now - in detail, before you can move on. Precision is his middle name. Every class, he will probably pester you for more complete explanations, and if you aren't careful, you will miss the next thing the Weyrlingmaster says because you are explaining it. But, who could not help but love him?

In flight, he prefers beautiful arches in the sky, lovely dives, pretty curls, and precise formations to anything zany or crazy - he is built for stamina and steadiness, not speed and quick turns, although he has more abilities in that direction then say his clutchmate, Vith. While in flight, he will constantly be distracted by clouds time and time again as they take on interesting shapes that remind him of tangible objects he has seen. He will then forget that he is supposed to be doing drills or learning a new formation and will only be brought back to reality with words from you. Or he will be watching some of those more acrobatic greens with definite admiration, opining to you that his lumbering form cannot be quite so graceful, full of such beauty - and wishing it were not so. Constantly, even when not in flight, he is watching his fellow dragons, observing the way they move and their individual forms with admiration or critical regard - and all his thoughts and ideas and comments he will share with you. At the same time that he is so fascinated with the physiology of his fellow dragons, he is rather solitary. Few others will meet up to his precise expectations and need for perfection so he would rather be alone than in a crowd, to think his thoughts and just see the beauty in everything - all that chatter of other dragons only serves to distract. Only you, his lifemate, can meet and exceed his expectations. He chose you because with you he can be himself and know that he is accepted for what he is, who he is - he does not have to put on an act at all.

With his first attempt at chasing a female dragon, he may spend most of his time trying to impress her with his artistic abilities, using tail and claw to draw pictures in the sand before she goes up, using his solid flying skills in the air to draw her admiration. Of course, he cannot compete with smaller, more acrobatic males - but he can endure and he has the soul of an artist and this seems to shine through in his precise movements, his quiet yet enduring devotion to whichever female has caught his eye. Expect him, too, to be verbally admiring if a female goes proddy - he will become positively chatty as he pays compliments upon form and face, beauty and grace, slavish in his praise of what he sees as the ultimate in perfection. <<Ilesyn, I have never seen such a perfect tail as Llianth has. It is just perfect in every way, don't you think?>> or <<Mioneth, you are so graceful in flight - I could watch you for hours. Could you perhaps show me how you do that dipping movement again? It was lovely!>> And on and on the compliments and observations will come, until the proddy one rises and he moves from words to motions to express his desire. Only when the flight is over will he see that there are flaws that lust had blocked from view, and if he loses his bitterness and melancholy might well be laced with vituperative slurs on the once-beauteous female's doubtful charms. If he wins, his rose-colored appreciation will last a bit longer - at least until the memory of the pleasure fades away. Unfortunately or fortunately, it is doubtful that he will ever settle for just one female in his lifetime - this is due to the fact that he seeks perfection. Having found it in you, he does not need to seek further. No one, dragon or human comes close to you in his eyes.

Really, nothing makes Nallath happier than spending time with you - especially just dreaming away the day in contemplation of nothing more complex than a single flower on a trailing vine. He can stare at it for hours, seeking out every little perfection that nature has wrought, admiring its symmetry. He is somewhat like you in this, since he has a thirst to see what makes this tick, why things are as they are, and his constant questions can sometimes distract you from your own contemplation <<Ilesyn - why are some flowers one color and others another? Why are they not all blue like the sky? I think blue is a perfect color. But then, green has its merits. And purple. I don't like red, though.>> Actually, he loves all colors - and the more vibrant the better. He will constantly be urging you to wear bright things and decorate the weyr with them too, maybe even add some murals on the walls or...ceiling? Nallath also has a fascination for all things rocky - Like Perymith, in fact, although perhaps for different reasons. He won't admire just /any/ rock, of course - he wants them for beauty - in color, in symmetry, in some way that only he can admire. But he wants them, and you will probably have to suffer having them underfoot in your weyr. He especially likes rocks that are sculpted in some way - perhaps by wind or water, and have a definite shape to them - expect to spend quite a lot of your free time combing the beaches of Pern looking for such prizes.

Nallath also adores trying to 'stump' you and loves jokes, when he can remember them. Of course, he may have just shared it with you previously and has forgotten, but he expects you to listen attentively to each one every time he tries it out on you. If you are wise, you will laugh even if you have heard it before - his delight in your laughter is well worth the cost of the deception. Of course, since what a dragon considers amusing doesn't always even register with humans, you will sometimes rather say 'huh?' than laugh. But again, if you are wise, you will play along. Luckily, dragons have a short memory, so you don't have to hear the same concepts too often - or at least you can hope.

Physically, Nallath will be quite large for a brown, perhaps even as big as a smaller bronze, and this sometimes causes him that regret previously mentioned, because he is not as quick or light or elegant as smaller dragons. But it serves him well when strength is required, or stamina during Threadfall, and despite being so large he is not lumbering. Rather, he is precise in his movements, graceful in a studied, careful way - as an artist must be when creating a masterpiece of a portrait or sculpture. This way of moving is consistent, whether in air or water or on land. In eating habits, Nallath is probably the slowest dragon around. This is because he has to take the time to inspect each carcass and its insides, trying to discover why it is the way it is, then ask questions about why it tastes the way it does, and what makes it that way. Anything that crosses his mind he will ask and wish a satisfactory answer for before he will deign to actually /eat/ the 'beast or wherry.

Expect to spend a lot of time waiting around for him to finish his victuals - and be nauseated by his vivid descriptions of each bite in taste and texture. Threadfall is where Nallath will be in his element. Despite his thinking Thread to be beautiful <<Really, Ilesyn - it is a shame that something so lovely is so dangerous. Look how it twines and dances through the air so elegantly!>>, he will be one of the first dragons to flame it from the sky. After all, it threatens all the other things he finds beautiful and he cannot stand such destruction. Besides, even in fighting it and charring it to nothing he can find beauty - in the contrast of orange flame against the sky, the way the flames sear the silvery strands. He can find beauty in anything.

In the end, all of this comes down to one thing - Nallath chose you, Ilesyn, to be his lifemate. Out of love, out of need - because you are who you are and it calls to something in him. Whether you are truly perfect or not, in Nallath's eyes you will always be so - and don't let anyone every say differently in his presence. If you ever had doubts about the reason why riders become what they are with hardly a fight, and risk their lives daily in the war against Thread - impressing Nallath will be the answer to the question that seems to have plagued you forever. It is because the bond is so strong and so complete, there is no room for doubt left once it has been made.

Rich, dark, and full-bodied like fine wine, he sounds like he has been drinking in a smoky bar. Despite this, vibrant colors and impressions accompany it and its soothing quality can have an almost soporific effect at times. Never excitable, his voice is rather smooth and even, well-modulated and as careful and well thought out in diction as are his physical movements. Anger is rare too - instead, disappointment comes in a muting of brilliant shades and a slight rasping quality to the tone itself.

The personality was Michelangelo was one of the greatest marble sculptors of all time. Quite astonishingly, given the years required to master a craft, he was also one of the greatest painters, architects, and poets. Few artists have been as prolific; fewer still have succeeded in creating enduring masterpieces in so many different media. Had Michelangelo only carved the David, or painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, or erected St. Peter's, he would have guaranteed his place in history. Rather, he made all three works, and each is a central achievement in the history of human endeavor. His was a creative genius unmatched in ancient or modern times.