Kalaia Tenat's Story

"You'll be careful."

"Of course I'll be careful, Keren."

"You'll be even more careful?"

The large horse-faced police officer-- literally, horse-faced, as he was an equine anthromorph-- gave Keren Tenat a very serious, and admittedly somewhat annoyed, look. "Of course, Tenat," he rumbled at her. "You may stop hovering; I am perfectly capable of doing my job."

"Sorry, Darel...."

Kalaia's sister backed off with a sour expression, her irritability only just masking her anxiety. Kalaia couldn't blame her, really. She was excited, of course-- but she was also scared. For the past months, she hadn't even thought about the dangers of attending a xenodragon hatching, not even really when Uncle Gavin had first introduced her to her bodyguard for the event, Darel Tonn, the massive anthromorph her sister had been pestering. She'd been eager, when it was all something to look forward to, because her bond was here. She knew her bond was here, she could feel it with everything in her. How she knew, she didn't know; she never did, when she got feelings like this. But after waiting for so long, this certainty felt good, and it was enough to make her excited, excited enough to forget the dangers.

Now, though, she couldn't stop thinking about them. Xenodragons were dangerous; she'd even healed up her sister's arm two years ago after her own hatchling bond, Nekeress, had torn it up-- after the newly-hatched dragoness had rather messily killed a convict. The multi-headed dragons from Arx Atra Mons were dangerous; they were known to eat each other upon leaving their shells. The shadowy, furry-looking Chaos dragons from Lantessama were certainly dangerous, though Kalaia hadn't heard anything specific about them; she could, however, sense the aura of Dark around the two who were fathers at this hatching.

At the same time, though, Kalaia remembered that not everything was how it seemed. Sometimes horribly mean people were just afraid, or hurt. Sometimes an act or word sounded cruel when there wasn't intent behind it. Sometimes dangerous creatures could still love. She certainly loved the double-bonded Igess that tied her surrogate uncle and her sister together, and he was a "dangerous" xenodragon. Well, it, not he, but the principle was the same.

Standing in the resin-coated hatching bay drove home the sense of "danger". As candidates were arriving, eggs twitching, and inyu trapped in the walls lowing with distress, Gavin Vance's security officers were stationing themselves all along the walls, the stands, as close to the eggs and inyu as brooding parents and excited candidates would let them. The brooding parents themselves, "dangerous" and not-dangerous alike, were all in attendance, hovering over and around their soon-to-be offspring with warning looks, threatening growls, and disdainful hisses for unworthies.

Then the "hatching" itself began, and Kalaia made the mistake of actually watching the first hatchling, double-headed and green and black, xenodragon and Arx Atra Mons Beast. It looked like she had chosen a bond in one of the candidates who came forth to touch her, and Kalaia almost smiled-- but premonition failed her, and she was caught watching when the hatchling attacked. Struck dumb for a moment at the sight of so much violence and blood-- and for no apparent reason!-- Kalaia stared for a long moment until, very belatedly, she gave a frightened little squeak and buried her face in her hands, to hide further such sights from her eyes. The sounds of inyu deaths, hatchling screams, and dragon growls was bad enough without having to actually see it all.

"Are you all right, young Kalaia?" her bodyguard asked with some concern. She shook her head vigorously without moving her hands. How could anyone be all right in the midst of such violence?

"Should I escort you off the floor?" Officer Tonn persisted.

"No!"

She'd waited so long. She couldn't leave now! Despite all the blood and violence and fear, her dragon was still here.

Kalaia peeked at Officer Tonn through her fingers. "I'll be okay. I can't leave yet."

"If you're sure," the big police officer said dubiously. Kalaia knew from the start that bringing her here made him uncomfortable-- he had a daughter who looked about the same age Kalaia looked-- but he was doing his duty. She didn't think there had been any trouble near her, but as soon as she'd finished speaking to Darel Tonn, she'd immediately hidden her eyes again. Now and then she could hear her bodyguard moving, doing something that she was blind to-- throwing things, it seemed like. A singular peep through her fingers caught a glimpse of him throwing a slithering, snake-like, bloody burstling away from them, and she immediately covered her eyes again.

The chaos continued, and Kalaia continued to ignore it, focusing only on the thought that sustained her: her dragon was here, somewhere, amidst all the horror, and she just had to wait for it. She didn't know which dragon it was, from which clutch it would be... but her dragon was here, somewhere. It was, she thought, she hoped, even hatched by now, maybe even approaching her, hopefully, expectantly.

Officer Tonn went still and tense in front of her. Kalaia braved another peek through her fingers, and this time... kept watching.

A dragon was, indeed, standing in front of the equine police officer. She was fluffy and furry-- or, she would be, once she was no longer sticky and stuck-together with egg-goo-- and brazenly brass-colored and splashed with red that didn't... seem to be blood, but rather her own fur color. Her eyes were a demonic red color, but she didn't look particularly... evil, exactly. Or at least not angry, or murderous, or likely to rip her to pieces. She seemed... amused, if anything. She looked past Officer Tonn at Kalaia for just a moment, and Kalaia blinked, but then she focused wholly on the massive obstacle in her path. Was she just trying to get to the nervous girl behind her to hurt her, testing herself against a powerful foe like the policeman, or actually coming for her bond? Kalaia couldn't tell.

Then she heard, in a mindvoice very much unlike any she'd ever heard, ::You're far too innocent for me, little girl... but then, I like a challenge.:: Kalaia blinked, but the hatchling didn't seem to have even said anything-- though Kalaia knew she had.

"Stay behind me," Officer Tonn warned without taking his eyes off the hatchling. Kalaia didn't move obediently, but her eyes did, looking up at his equine profile and wary expression. Looking back down, she saw the dragon was drawing shadows around her magically-- a Dark sort of magic, the opposite of Kalaia's Light auspice-- and, as her eyes fell on her, suddenly charged.

Though she dearly wanted to, Kalaia couldn't hide behind her hands again. She watched as the hatchling lept at Officer Tonn, magic coalescing around her with some kind of spell. Somehow that power made her loom larger and weigh heavier, because even her small body, launched into the police officer's chest, sent him slamming onto his back on the deck. Kalaia gave a wordless squeak as the shadow-enhanced hatchling, landing squarely on Tonn's chest, grinned a feral grin, with all her teeth, at him.

She had to do something! This was her bodyguard! He wasn't supposed to be hurt by anything!

But no magic sprang to mind, and there was no way she could pull the hatchling off him, she wasn't strong enough for that. All she could do was....

"Netahiln!" she heard herself cry in a high, frightened voice. "Stop that right now!"

To her surprise and relief, the dragonet, with one snarl right in Officer Tonn's muzzle, hopped off of him with her chin in the air and ragged, sticky plume of a tail waving nonchalantly, as if he wasn't worth her time. Kalaia, trembling, hugged the creature around the neck, gave her bodyguard a tremulous smile, and then shakily led Netahiln off the floor and to the feeding tables, where her sister waited.

Netahlin. Her dragon. Who was not, at all, what she'd expected.