Olanuh laughed. "Oh, come on, Aciron, surely he's not that bad." She pointed out. She was, of course, referring to Coniceth, Acrion's headstrong and arrogant sponsor-charge. "You two used to get along just fine when he was a hatchling."
"That's because he was too scared of me to mouth off." Aciron grumbled in reply. Now fully grown, the Danachian-Alskyrian red was almost as big as his former caretaker and was no longer intimidated by the fierce-tempered dragon.
"Why don't you convince him to go stand? That should give you a nice vacation. Who knows, it might even fix his attitude problem." Olanuh suggested helpfully.
Acrion snorted. "Would you believe that he actually thinks that no dragon is worthy of bonding to him?" He asked wryly, his face twisting into a sneer.
Olanuh only chuckled slightly, shaking her head. "I suppose I'm lucky, then. Tucine isn't nearly so much trouble. The biggest problem we have is trying to decide where to send her to stand." Curiously, the water dragoness tilted her head to one side. "Do you suppose we should go and talk to the others? It seems they're having similiar troubles trying to find places to stand for their charges."
"Or getting their charges to stand." Aciron added wryly, to which his sister only laughed in reply.
A day later, Aciron and Olanuh had gathered the rest of their siblings in the center of their territories, bringing their unbonded charges with them.
Coniceth scowled as he lounged back on a large, moss-covered boulder and flicked his tail impatiently. What are we all doing here, anyway? I wanna go back to swimming in the lake. He said crossly.
Oh, stop complaining. Tucine reprimanded him. We're here so Olanuh and the others can find places for us all to bond. The cream dragoness said sensibly.
And what if we don't want to bond? The red grumbled.
"Then you're being kicked out." Aciron growled at him.
Coniceth seemed visibly shocked at this. What!? He shrieked. You can't kick me out, it's my home!
"I beg to differ." Aciron replied with a far too toothy grin. "Either you go somewhere else and come back with a bond, or go somewhere else and don't come back at all."
Coniceth looked furious and locked eyes with his caretaker. However, the bipedal crossbreed was the first to break his gaze, and he resided, fuming silently.
Olanuh winced and whispered to her brother. "Don't you think you were perhaps a little too hard on him?" Aciron's green-eyed glare was the only answer she needed.
"So, what's the plan?" Aseunel spoke up, eyes flickering with good-natured curiousity.
Aciron answered her. "We're going to take a trip through a couple different worlds until we find places for you to stand. All of us." He added with a meaningful look at his brothers and sisters.
Coniceth snorted. Great plan. He said sarcastically.
"I think it's a good plan." Okael said shyly. When everyone's eyes turned to her, she abruptly turned away, looking as if she would blush if she could.
Aciron smiled at her reassuringly. "Thanks, sis. Okay then, here's how it's going to work: Aseunel, you take Harruarhijeth and go to Pern. He's familiar with that world, so it shouldn't be a problem finding someplace that could use some more candidates." The young black perked up at the mention of his name. Yay! He exclaimed, excited.
"Raith..." The ill-tempered shadow wyvern regarded him coolly. "I've been doing some checking up on, er, slightly less than happy clutches," Raith made a noise that could have a snort of amusement. "And, well, it seems there's not really any xeno clutches right now." Xylet looked disappointed at that, and Aciron hurried to continue before the xeno-crossbreed could decide to go after him. "However, there's a xenoqueen rising at Star City right now, and well, Xylet doesn't qualify to chase her since he's not a pure xeno," Xylet snarled, drool dripping from his fangs. Raith turned his head to stare at the xeno-hathian warningly, and he subsided.
"Anyway," Aciron continued. "I figured, since he couldn't participate in her flight, maybe he'd like to try bonding one of her children when she does clutch. I mean, a purebred xeno, right?" He finished nervously.
Raith and Xylet both stared at him. Aciron began to shift his weight nervously, ready to run if they were displeased. Finally, Raith nodded his head with a glance to his xeno charge. "Okay...We'll go to thisss....Ssssstarrr Csssity." Raith hissed.
Aciron sighed in relief as Raith and Xylet abruptly turned and wandered off. Gathering himself together again, he turned next to Okael. "Ceidel still wants to bond, right?" He asked his quieter sister.
Okael craned her head to glance at the young, scaled earth dragon, who shrugged. I suppose so. What's having a bond like?
If we knew, would they be sending us away like this? Coniceth responded acidly.
Aciron glared at the red warningly before continuing. "Why don't the two of you check out Lantessama Isle? It's a nexus planet, and they have dozens of different types of dragons. I'm sure one of the clutches will be good enough."
Okael quietly accepted as Ceidel nodded. What about me? Ulipath quiped curiously, twitching her limbs excitedly. Beside her, her brother Utumith jumped up expectantly. Yeah, where do we get to go?
Aciron frowned at the Pernese duo, still practically hatchlings. "You're not even adults yet, how do you expect to take care of hatchlings?" He asked in exasperation.
Ulipath stomped her forepaw angrily. Hey! You're not going to leave us out of this, are you? That's not fair, letting everyone else bond, and leaving us behind!
Her night blue brother nodded in agreement. Come on, let us come too! You'll regret it if you don't!
Aciron was saved the aggravation of dealing with the children by Olanuh. She took the two dragonets off to one side quietly. "We have a special job for you two." She whispered conspiringly to them. "We want you to go to a planet called, um...Avengaea, and find about the dragons there. Then you come back and tell us so we know if anyone should go there to bond. This is a very important job, and remember, it's secret, okay?"
The dragonets' eye went wide at the very mention of 'important' and 'secret', and they both nodded eagerly. As one, they each placed a foreclaw over their snouts to promise their utter secrecy and ran off excitedly.
Aciron gaped as his sister strode back to the main group nonchalantly. "What was that about?" He asked softly.
Olanuh smiled slightly and shrugged. "I just told them we had a special job for them and sent them off to Avengaea. They should stay out of trouble there."
Aciron shook his head slowly, grinning to himself. Then he turned to his largest brother, Ryaan, and his gryphon charge. Aciron cocked his head thoughtfully as he stared at the gryphon. "Okay, um...I'm not sure how many places let a gryphon stand for a dragon..."
Ryaan spoke up then. "Beesaoze doesn't want to bond a dragon, anyway. If he bonds at all, he wants to bond a fellow Avian."
Olanuh's eyes lit up then. "Hey! I think I heard about something like that. An Avian clutch, or flight, or something. Where was it at?" The water dragoness pondered, wracking her brain for the location. Finally, she sighed, and said, "Well, I'm not sure of the exact location, but I'm pretty sure it was somewhere on Pern. You might want to go there and start asking around." She suggested.
Ryaan craned his head to look at the gryphon, who only shrugged in reply, making Ryaan sigh. "Well, alright, I'll go then. And try to find this Avian-whatever."
With that finished, there were only two dragons left, and they were Aciron and Olanuh's own sponsorlings, Tucine and Coniceth. Tucine looked excited at the prospect of bonding at last, while Coniceth just lounged againt a boulder, looking thoroughly bored.
Olanuh? Tucine spoke up hesitantly. I'd kind of like to see Calyeni Caverns, where my parents were born. Do you think we could visit there real quick first?
Olanuh smiled and nodded. "Certainly. They may even have a clutch open."
Aciron, meanwhile, turned to Coniceth. "Well, do you know where you want to stand?"
Coniceth grunted noncomittedly in reply, not looking at his caretaker. Aciron rolled his eyes. "Fine then, since you obviously don't care, you'll go to Ryslen." Coniceth only grunted again in reply, and Aciron finally just turned and walked away.
