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| "Doesssn't it ssseem kind
of...empty around here lately?" Kortrvan asked his Knight as they walked down
the hall of the castle to the Deep Cavern. Missalenai had announced the hatching
of her clutch and then promptly disappeared into the Cavern to watch over her
newborn children.
Lian blinked and looked up from the book he was reading
while walking, and pushed his glasses further up on his face before answering.
"Does it?" He'd been lost in his own little world again, and he hadn't actually
noticed anything. Anyway, a whole bunch of Knights and their draks had just
transferred in from some other place, hadn't they? He went back to his book, but
Kortrvan wouldn't let him.
"There'sss only two aspirantsss for thiss clutch,
and four eggssss. Not to mention Qugi's eggsss, which won't take more than a few
daysss more themssselves." The earth drak explained patiently.
"Oh...well,
we've got that sponsorship spot for Mindspace as well, we can send some of the
draklings there. No problem." Lian gave a shrug and went back to his book.
Kortrvan threw his head back and sighed. "I don't think they can handle all
thossse draksss at once, though."
By now, Lian was trying very hard to
ignore his drak and go back to his book. Lian, obsessed? Well, yeah...
Unfortunately, he wasn't looking where he was going, and hadn't realized
they'd already come to the entrance of the Deep Cavern. Lian crashed into
something large and hard, sending his book and other materials to the ground and
setting his glasses askew. Only then did he look up, and he realized he'd walked
straight into the mother of the clutch, who had finally emerged from the Cavern.
He heard snickers from one of the two aspirants, and started to blush. "Sorry
about that," he told Missalenai.
She just shook her head, and then four
tiny, gangly newborn draks followed her out, gazing at the two aspirants with a
mixture of excitement and nervousness. Two male draks, a desert and an ore,
gamboled out and collapsed in a heap together in front of Lian and the
aspirants. A shy forest hesitated to come out from behind her mother's foreleg,
while a female day drakling tried to push her sister along helpfully.
"Leave
me alone! I don't want to leave!" The forest wailed, clutching Missalenai's paw.
"But, Chakiai, we have to find Knightsss of our own now! Come on, you don't
want to get ssstuck with a crummy bond becausssse you waited too long, do you?"
The day replied.
"No!" Chakiai shut her eyes and clutched all the tighter.
Missalenai sighed, and then glanced at Lian. "I'll try to talk to her. Why
don't you consscentrate on the othersss?"
Lian nodded. The two males were
chatting amiabley with the aspirants when Lian approached. Their mother must
have explained the process to them, because before Lian could ask anything, one
of them said, "Oh, we're not going to Pair with them. We jussst wanted to talk.
Ssorry."
"Right, great, you two can go to Mindspace, then," Lian told them.
"Okay!" They both said cheerfully.
"I need your names."
The desert
gestured with his wing--both wings, actually, on his left side--to his brother.
"He'sss Banaiki, and I'm Dritaiki."
The mud sulked for a minute. "Could let
me ssspeak for mysself once in a while, you know." He muttered crossly, but his
outgoing brother cheerfully ignored him as Lian recorded the information.
"Ooh! Wait!" The day drak cried as she came flying toward them, crashing
headlong into Lian's side and all but knocking him over. "Sssorry," she said
sheepishly, and then turned to the aspirants. "I'm going to
Pair, and I choossse you, Dachara'ta!" She stated grandly, sitting in front of
the dragon. "My name is Kryokiai."
"I don't want to go anywhere," the sulky
voice was Chakiai's, the clingy forest. Apparently, Missalenai had managed to
extract the drakling from her limb, but she hadn't seemed to change her mind.
"I guessss sshe'll jussst have to ssstay here," Missalenai told Lian
apologetically. "Will you take care of her?"
"Well, I'm sure someone in this
castle can look after her," Lian answered, but Chakiai looked up at him with an
entirely new expression.
"Really, I can sstay here with you? You'll never
leave me alone or go away, will you?" Chakiai bounded up to him and snuggled
into his side.
Lian's face fell. "Uh, wait a minute--"
He could hear
Kortrvan sniggering behind him, and Missalenai gave him a somewhat toothy grin.
"I'm sssso glad to sssee my daughter iss in good handsss with you, Archivissst.
Take good care of her."
Lian fought the urge to run away from all these
crazy draks. "Ugh."
Draklings
Dachara'ta and
Female Day Kryokiai (Trainers: Ontesso and Fire Quaylan)
DNS's Desert Dritaiki (Trainers: Leath and Rain Liundmore)
DNS's Male
Ore Banaiki (Trainers: Tindel and Jungle Omaes)
Drockh-Tallahn's Forest Chakiai (Lian
and Earth Kortrvan, also her sponsor)
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