It was a strange sensation, standing amidst a crowd of strangers, on a ship where her kind was decidedly unwelcome, even with the quiet encouragement radiating from her smaller bond on her shoulders. She might have felt better if Shishayair had come with her, but he said he didn't want to cause too much trouble, so he stayed behind. He'd been busy lately, anyway, he and his daughter Kae-Ryss often gone from the hive for some reason unknown to Proquess. Proquess was too excited to really be concerned, especially since he was so supportive of her desire to add one of Dark's own children to the hive.

But excitement didn't quite cover how nervous she was. She wasn't used to being out where people could see her; usually she was hiding up on the ceiling, or in a shadow, or in a side-hall, if she absolutely had to be around other people. Usually she just wasn't around large groups. And she was entirely certain she could sense the brooding, unhappy presence of the yautjadragons just on the edge of her mental perception, not hovering but still paying attention to her and her actions nonetheless. That the leader of this particular "hive", Doctor Schroeder, seemed to trust her not to kill something out of pique didn't help as much as it could have.

But Dark had said hello to her. That had helped more, even though it was only a brief greeting. That was all right. Proquess was not important enough for anything more lengthy, and Dark had not only her synthed children to keep her occupied, but some actual ones, as well. That she remembered her and thought to smile and say hello-- and pause long enough to give Mu-Lin a scratch behind two sets of ears-- was quite enough for Proquess.

The children in question-- the synthed ones, the ones Proquess was here to adopt from-- really seemed nothing like Dark in shape. They had many legs, pebbled scales that made an interesting texture to Proquess's mixed senses, and the softness of fur in some places. From what little she could glean from Mu-Lin's more conventional senses, really, the only similarities they shared with their primary mother were inverted-colored eyes. Just how Doctor Schroeder had managed to come up with these strange little ones from what Proquess knew of Dark was a mystery, but not one she particularly cared about. They were Dark's, she knew that, even if they didn't look like her. Their heat signatures and scents and minds were like hers.

Unlike the previous hatching Proquess had attended here, when the candidates and sponsors and audience were finally ushered in, there were no eggs or even remains of eggs. The hatchlings were all gathered around their breakfast table, finishing off their first meal, and turned many, many pairs of eyes on the incoming crowd as the doors opened to let them in. Well, Proquess didn't mind that; the less time she had to spend feeling like everyone in the room was staring at her and expecting her to suddenly go berserk, the better.

Perhaps someone had heard that thought, for to her surprise, almost immediately she found one of the hatchlings galloping straight towards her and the candidates, hotly pursued by one of his siblings. He seemed rather unhappy about being chased, actually, and kept trying to dodge away from the direction his sister was herding him in. Well, really, who would want to be chased towards something, rather than making his choices himself? Someone with enough rank to be allowed such things, at least. Proquess lifted one foreleg tentatively, aiming to step out of the way if it saw fit to careen right into her.

Instead of hitting her, though, he just ducked behind her leg, trembling and glaring nervously at his sister, who skidded to a stop, radiating satisfaction. The little boy cringed when Proquess turned her attention and muzzle towards him, but didn't go anywhere. There was a moment of tense silence as he stared up at her, but then he broke it himself by squeaking nervously, "I'll go with you if you won't eat me." 

After a moment of surprise, Proquess managed to answer blankly, :: ... I won't eat you.::

Mu-lin, on her shoulders, let out a series of soundless breaths that passed for her laugh, her mind swelling with amusement. The hatchling, oblivious to Mu-lin's silent laughter, heaved a heavy and almost melodramatic sigh of relief. "All right... all right. Good. That's good, then. Um, and the little one won't eat me either, right?"

That sent Mu-lin into more fits of silent giggles, leaving Proquess to assure the hatchling awkwardly, ::Of course not. No one is going to eat you.::

Another relieved sound, and the child gave himself a little shake. "So are we going home now?"

A little concerned what such a nervous-seeming child would be like in the hive, with bullies like Alladross and Uecoss around, Proquess was less than certain when she replied, ::Um. All right.:: At the hatchling's slightly confused-- and wary-- look, though, she firmed up her answer for his sake. ::Yes, let's go home.::

On the trip home, during which they all introduced themselves-- or rather, Greolis Tah introduced himself and Proquess introduced both herself and her small bond-- Proquess learned that little Greolis was not just nervous, he was pessimistic, panicky, and paranoid. To the point where everything seemed more scary and more dangerous than it really was. The prospect of climbing the walls themselves to get home positively terrified him, and he didn't even really like the idea of teleporting. Though since Proquess couldn't actually teleport that point was moot, after the fit of shuddering the thought of clinging to a wall-climbing xenodragon caused, she did bring it up just out of curiosity. And rather regretted it, for though Greolis had been too petrified to say much about the wall-climbing, he had plenty to say on teleportation.

"What if you envisioned the place wrong?" he fretted. "We could wind up never appearing at all, or appearing missing pieces, or-- or appearing in some kind of alternate reality where everything's all wrong and messed up?" He shut his eyes with another shudder.

So they were left with either endless flights of stairs, or the lift. At least they could use the lift, since one of them could work it this time. Proquess told Greolis which deck, level, and crossing they needed, and Greolis said it aloud for her. Shishayair kept saying that it was nothing but prejudice against xenodragons and their kin that made getting around so difficult-- How hard could it be to install textured or heat-differentiated panels for eyeless and voiceless creatures, instead of this useless computer touch-screen and a voice recognizer? he commented more than once-- but Proquess didn't really mind. Wall-climbing was more fun, anyway.

Apparently even the lift was scary, to Greolis, though. "It could stall, couldn't it?" he said. "Or the grips could fail and it'd fall. Or someone could come in with us and be a murderer, and mark one of us to kill!"

::You're safe from murderers, Greolis,:: Proquess assured him, though she didn't know how to reassure him about the other things. She wasn't entirely sure what "stalling" was. ::I'm a xenodragon, we're very difficult to kill, disable, or get past.::

"Well, that's something, at least," he muttered nervously, though he didn't look all that reassured. Thankfully, the lift slid to a stop and the doors opened before he could find something else to worry about.

About the lift, anyway. He made Proquess step out first, since she was so difficult to kill, disable, or get past, just in case someone was waiting outside the lift to do him in. She did so, bemused, while Mu-Lin sat on her back and laughed. At least he didn't seem to find anything too frightening in the street as they made their way to the very end of the alley and their "stolen" compartments. Proquess decided not to mention that she didn't know how they paid for the rooms they stayed in anywhere they went; he might find something to worry about with that, too.

Finally they were home. The doors slid open, recognizing her automatically, and Greolis followed her obediently inside. Many heads-- eyeless and not so eyeless, eared, not eared, running the gamut from curious to annoyed-- turned to see who was entering. Proquess ducked her head-- Shishayair wasn't there, so she felt no need to pretend she had a high enough rank to not be respectful-- and came inside. Mu-Lin waved a wing cheerfully at Lohress.

Greolis screamed and went running back out again.

Proquess just sighed and turned to chase him down. There would be a lot of explaining to do....

Abstract Destiny

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