'what's the deeeeal with [s]airplane food[/s] dragonriders??'

sorry, not trying to make fun of you, but now i'm imagining a stand up comedy routine solely about dragons.

[@Gisk] to actually answer your question, though, you're right, there's no actual telepathy. a dragon does not think in complete sentences to its rider. however, they do project strong emotions, and the longer a pair have been bonded, the more specific those feelings are. for instance, because anara and inirath have been bonded for so long, she receives a broadcast consisting of 'excited' and 'expectant' and translates that into a feeling of 'this is going to be fun'; or 'disgruntled', 'haughty', and 'resigned' and translate to 'i don't WANT to do this because it's beneath me, but i'll do it anyway.' 

in the reverse, a rider can coordinate their dragon's movements by thinking 'fly' or 'run forward', usually by clearly picturing the action. in the same way as vice versa, the longer a pair is bonded the faster and more accurately a dragon responds to their rider's commands.

hopefully that makes MORE sense, not less...