"Kalaia! Hey, Kalaia, we're home!"

The girl fairly leapt from her seat in front of the computer and raced out of the room, down the hall, and around the corner towards the street-side entry into the huge apartment-suite at the sound of her sister's voice. That call heralded the return of not only her sister, but the Minister of Security Gavin Vance, whose home they all shared, and five xenodragons. The xenodragons were probably coming in the wider balcony entrance, meant for dragons to land on from the open air space beyond, seeing as they simply had a hard time fitting in through the door. Nekeress, of course, would be the only one to actually land, unless one of the others came in crawling on the ceiling and jumped down to the floor.

In fact, there they were. Kalaia paused long enough to wave cheerfully at the whole pack of them. Nekeress alighted gracefully, fanning her wings against the air to slow her landing, and bobbed her head to the much smaller child. She had only grown to her full size recently, right around her first birthday, but she was much larger than any of the others, and a brilliant gold-on-black coloration that she was very vain about; apparently, she'd discovered that queens of other dragon species were gold, and fancied herself very important because she shared the color.

Smaller, wingless, brown-and-black Igess came bounding in ahead of the larger, winged dragoness, eager for a scratch along the round, brown, elongated dome of its head, tail lashing back and forth like that of an eager puppy. Giggling, Kalaia obliged it, eliciting a thrum of pleasure from the creature. Igess was the one who liked her the most, of the five. When it-- the creature was a neuter, with no gender to speak of-- was much smaller, back when Kalaia and Keren had shared a tiny apartment on a different residential deck, Keren had sometimes had to leave Igess at home while she worked, and Kalaia had been the one to keep the lonely xeno company. Perhaps because of that, even once it'd grown up and was no longer left at home but rather taken along as useful and, finally, well-behaved, it was still very friendly towards her. Given that some of the others were less friendly, Kalaia was grateful for that.

Jugess, pale aqua contrasting sharply with black, came creeping in along one wall, avoiding Nekeress and shooting an eyeless glare at Kalaia. Of the five, Jugess liked her the least, but Kalaia was content with not being allowed to pet her; she liked the pretty, fierce xenodragon anyway. Quess, bronze on black, trotted in behind her, indifferent to everyone else in the room. Kalaia waved at him, getting no response, but not expecting one, either. Instead, the brilliantly indigo and black drone Ytoss dropped down from above, landing behind her and squeaking for some petting, too. Of Gavin's three, only Ytoss actually paid her attention and tried to get some in return. Kalaia willingly rubbed its nose, as well-- Ytoss as another neuter, like Igess; perhaps that was one reason it was more friendly to both her and Igess, or perhaps it was just because it was a more friendly kind of xenodragon.

The four-legged residents welcomed, Kalaia freed herself from the butts and nuzzles of the two neuters and jogged across the room to the more human-sized entryway against the wall. Just shutting the door behind her was tall, mannish Keren Tenat, and shrugging off his metallic-thread suit jacket in front of her was Gavin Vance, the Minister of Security on the station, his little white fire-lizard clinging to his shirt-front. Since he was closer, Kalaia launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his waist and crowing gleefully, "Welcome home!" Talek scrambled out of her way, only to leap onto her head and nestle into her hair, crooning happily to see her; she'd won over the tiny dragon very soon after she'd met him. 

Though she was normally an exuberant child and certainly an affectionate one, today Kalaia was more excited to see the pair than the usual after-work greeting, because they'd been gone for a full three days this time on some kind of business trip. Just what kind of business would take the Minister of Security off the station, Kalaia didn't know, but it meant she had to be lonely for three whole days, because where the Minister went, so, too, went her sister, because of the bond they shared with Igess. And since it was business and not pleasure that sent them away, Kalaia couldn't come along. It was very boring, and very lonely, to be home alone. Kalaia hadn't spent much of her time actually in the apartment to stave off loneliness, but rather wandered around the station-- chatting cheerfully with friendly residents, helping dragoners care for their dragons, hanging wistfully around the hatching bays, and poking her nose around the twists and turns of streets and alleys-- by some miracle never getting into trouble. This afternoon, though, she'd been inside, waiting for her sister and "uncle" Gavin to come home.

"Uncle" Gavin wasn't the most affectionate of people, but a year living in Kalaia's very affectionate company had at least gotten him over the awkwardness of her hugging him. He chuckled and settled an arm briefly around her shoulders. "Thank you, it's good to be home," he said, and she released him obligingly, scooping Talek from her head instead to cuddle him, like some small, purring stuffed animal. Just because Gavin was used to being hugged didn't mean she was going to push him by hanging all over him all the time.

No, that's what Keren was for! Detached from Gavin, Kalaia now tackled her sister, hugging her tightly with one arm, Talek snug in the crook of the other, and receiving an equally tight embrace, in return. "I missed you!" she exclaimed, clinging to the tall blonde-- just how her sister had ended up blonde while her own hair was dark brunette had been a wonder to both of their parents-- with every evidence that she had missed her.

"Missed you, too, kid," Keren answered, smiling.

::Is this Kalaia?::

Startled, Kalaia let go of her sister and blinked, looking around for the source of the voice. It didn't sound anything like Nekeress-- and Nekeress knew who she was, so wouldn't be wasting her rare sendings to someone not her bond on asking-- but Keren wasn't a mind-speaker, really, and the voice was at least somewhat feminine, so it couldn't be Gavin, who was masculine to the core-- not that he was much of a mind-speaker, either, except with his three xenodragons. And, of course, Talek didn't use words. 

"Yes, it is," Keren said. "Kalaia, meet Charity. She was interested in meeting you."

Stepping out from behind Keren came a furry, feather-winged, opal-white creature who looked something like a lop-eared dog. She blinked at it-- at her, she thought, for the mind-voice had been at least somewhat feminine-- and she blinked back, her eyes pale blue and faintly glowing. Oddly enough, her long tail was spiked down its length, and even more oddly, a golden ring, a traditional angelic halo, hovered over her head. ::It's a pleasure,:: the voice said again, and the creature bowed her head in greeting.

"We picked her up on the way back," Keren explained. "Had a nice conversation with her, she was interested in seeing another way of life and meeting someone with a different kind of magic-- and we thought, well, you're alone most of the time. You could use a friend."

::So they adopted me formally from my squall, and here I am,:: Charity finished, sounding a bit smug, as if the whole thing were her idea and her doing, and that the two humans had only done all that at her behest. Which, who knows, they might have.

"Oh!" Kalaia exclaimed, pleased and surprised. Taking a breath to look, she did, indeed, realize that this Charity, whatever she was, was magical. A quick, innocent "taste" proved that it was magic at least somewhat like her own, aligned to Light and goodness, and it seemed oddly woven, like a tapestry or a blanket. She crouched down to be at a better height to speak to her, still carefully cradling Talek, who didn't seem to be alarmed by the white furry thing. "Well, welcome home to you, too, then! I like your magic."

A similar "taste" snaked out to touch her own core of power, and the creature responded with a smile-tinged, ::I like yours, too!::

"Good," Keren said, beaming like she was pleased they were already off to a good start. Gavin had already moved off with their bags-- very few, for both of them packed ridiculously lightly-- and the xenodragons were prowling around their lair, as if making sure everything was the way they left it. And because Keren, though easy with affection, wasn't one to linger on it, asked, "Don't suppose there's anything to eat around here, is there?"

Kalaia hopped up again. "We can go out!" she suggested hopefully, to a laugh from her sister.

"We just got home! We could order in, though. Hey, Gavin, you up for pizza?"

With not only a new friend, but her whole "family" back, Kalaia skipped after her sister happily, tickling Talek's belly as she went. Pizza or not, a dragon of her own or not, for now, she could be content with this.

Chapter Three

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