Big Draggies

Our Big Draggies and our Italian Friend Cillian

Written 26 June, 2007

Big Draggies

Perhaps the neatest thing about Second Life is you can be anything or anybody you want.

And you’re not stuck in one guise, either.

If I had to choose one avatar, it would be me, Cheyenne, just as I am—but from time to time I enjoy turning into a tiny bear, a little green robot, an energy being, or a dragon.

As much as I enjoy being a dragon, I’m always relieved to turn back into Cheyenne the young woman.

But it’s fun being for a while someone or something else.

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I’d known one of my best friends only a short time when I discovered she was a part-time dragon.

She put on her Luck Dragon avatar just outside her house in Dreamland Asia to show it to me.

I was mightily impressed, for she was my first dragon.

Awhile back, she and I went to the cathedral on the Isle of Wyrms and bought wyrmling dragon avatars—she an aquatic dragon, and me an ice dragon.

Wyrmlings are adolescent dragons, about half the size of adults and far bigger than hatchlings, which are so tiny they sometimes walk around with signs requesting other avatars not to step on them.

The wyrmlings are a good size, quite impressive, and ours are complete with a HUD that allows them to roar and screech, twitch their tails, and customize their colors and textures.

But nice as they are, they’re not adults.

Adult dragon avatars from the Isle of Wyrms are available only twice a year, at the summer and winter solstices, and require pre-registration with a significant ($3500L) refundable deposit. Only 120 or so eggs are sold, so registering doesn’t guarantee you’ll be allowed to actually buy one—but my friend and I registered.

We were both sick at the thought that one of us would get an egg and the other wouldn’t, but as it turned out we both got the chance to purchase an egg, woo hoo!

I originally selected a Fire Dragon, but upon reflection decided to stay with the Ice Dragon. Sweetie chose a Spirit Dragon, which is wingless and looks rather like a cross between a greyhound and a raptor from the Jurassic Park films.

Notifications of winners were sent out by IM on the 23rd at noon Linden time. I never in fact got a notification, but as soon as the lottery ended I put on the little HUD I received when I registered and found I had won. Woo hoo!

For some known-only-to-her reason, Sweetie had abandoned me, going off to show Spider some of her favorite places in Second Life.

As you might imagine, the IoW was crowded, so I idly orbited myself a time or to two until I was able to get there and pay my $3500 and pick up my egg.

Back on Pele, it took me all of two minutes to unpack my egg and become an adult ice dragon. Woo hoo!

My friend was shocked that I had already picked up my dragon, and I’m sure she chewed her nails until she was able to log onto Second Life and see if she, too, had won one.

And of course she had!

I had great fun turning into an ice dragon and flying Boofhead Oh around a little cluster of sims my friend Peter Stindberg had showed me (xxx, they have very inexpensive dragon avatars, only $750, and other nonhuman avs as well).

My adventures as a dragon are just beginning!

nb; look on the Isle of Wyrms for these dragons