Gods and Royals... why is my life never normal for more than a few months at a time!

Hey, Arnie. Yeah, the usual.

What'm I talking about, you ask? What, you really wanna know? Sure, I'll tell ya. It's Nekeress, that's what it is. Stuck up, high-headed, high handed, horrible Nekeress.

It's been, what, three months since the Mayonaka hatching, right? So things've just started calming down a little back at the apartment with Gavin and the rest. All the burstlings've grown up-- seven now-- seven! Throw in Nekeress and Netahiln.... It's madness. But it's been about long enough for everyone to figure out their places in the apartment: all the bickering has started to die down, at last.

Of course it's been hectic! With the bursters, man, it's been like having a pack of dogs who don't quite know what to do with each other. With Netahiln and Nekeress, it's like neither one will accept the other as queen of the apartment, and Netahiln is constantly, constantly picking at Nekeress.

What? Well, of course Nekeress picks back. Or, well, she snarls and screams back. "Picking on" isn't exactly her style, ya know? --Well, yes, sometimes she starts it, too. She's been queen of the roost for ages now, and suddenly this little furry thing pops up and starts acting like she rules the place? Of course she's going to start a few fights, just to establish dominance-- or try to, anyway. Sadly enough, though, the furry one always seems to win, since it never comes to blows and Nekeress isn't the brightest beast, not when it comes to snide comments or verbal arguments.

But I'm not here to be defending her, dammit, I'm here to complain! Why else does anyone go into a bar? Well, besides to get drunk or find a one night stand. The regulars, I mean. 

Anyway-- you would not believe what she's gone and done, now!

Here, here, you need the whole story. Ever since the hatching, she's been complaining. Too many xenodragons, she says-- too many with tainted blood, of all things. See what I meant by stuck up and high-minded? She's especially angry about the new queen on board, you know, the one bonded to the sotiel. Hatchling or otherwise, Nekeress can't stand her. Hardly a xenodragon, she says.

So she's been complaining all this time, and I figure, hey, it's just her thing. She complains. She grumbles. But she never really does anything, especially not when there's nothing she can do. Or, at least, when she thinks there's nothing she can do. I certainly thought there was nothing she could do about this-- I mean, really, short of going on a killing spree and taking out all the "tainted blood" xenodragons, what could she do? What else could she possibly do?

Yeah, you get it, don't you? I didn't. Not until she went and did it, and then came to tell me about it after. Gods and Royals, I was stupid to not think of it. She's gone and signed herself up for a flight; she's gonna make more of the "pure" xenodragons, to balance things out!

No, can't do much about it now. I mean, really, even if I managed to somehow talk the Flights Ministry people into taking her name off, I bet she'd go any do it, anyway. She's already got a couple suitors, after all. Besides, isn't it this... biological thing? I don't know about xenodragons, but regular dragons, they do the flight thing every couple years, whether they like it or not. And Nekeress isn't about to talk about it with me; she'd probably say it was biological whether it was or not, just to spite me.

Gods and Royals, this is not something I'd thought about when I went to bond a dragon.

What are you laughing about? It's not funny!

... well, all right, maybe it is, if you're not me. I'd like to see what you would do in my place!

Ha ha, very funny. I don't even really like men-- gods, I look like one!

No, I don't like women, either, thank you very much. Not like that, anyway.

So yeah, I'm pretty much screwed, and my dragon's about to go make another logistical mess for poor Gavin and the Ministry. You can be damned sure I'm not letting there be another of those frenzies for my dragon's flight-- I am not going to be responsible for something like that.

So there it is. I'm gonna have a proddy xenodragon on my hands in a couple months, once that flight happens. She's bad enough now, I can only imagine what she'll be like then!

You know what? I think I'm gonna get good and drunk tonight-- since I sure as hell better not be then, no matter how much I'd like to be!

The Flight

Chapter Eight

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