Ominous could not believe what a mess had become of the mass frenzy. It had been the perfect opportunity-- perfect!-- and it had gone all wrong. Not only had she not caught Shishayair, a xenoqueen had caught him! A horrible, eyeless, heavy-headed xenoqueen! Not only had she not caught Shishayair, she'd been caught by a single-headed creature she'd not looked at once before he caught her! Not only was she not carrying Shishayair's offspring, she was heavy with someone else's!

Everything had been all wrong at the frenzy, but everything had continued to be all wrong after the frenzy. Shishayair wouldn't even look at her-- he avoided her, and when he couldn't avoid her, he sent with a painful detachment and looked at a point above her head. Uecoss and Alladross snickered at her every time she walked by, well aware of her loss in affections. Shishayair's various byblows with other dragons reminded her of her shame and failure every time she looked at them, and that damned nursemaid Carskadei kept lifting her multitude of chins at her, as if she somehow deserved what she got. Her new "mate" tormented her at every turn, determined to act "mately"-- and while he was cute, in a clean sort of fashion, and he certainly hadn't hurt her during their flight, but he just wasn't right, feather-winged or not.

Worst of all, though, was that little white runt, Proquess. Shishayair's bond. Normally the little xenodrone was subservient, retiring, and submissive, the lowest of the low despite her supposed "rank" whenever Shishayair was around. Now, somehow, she'd found not only the reason but the nerve to start growling and glaring with that eyeless head every time she saw Ominous! It was, to say the least, the most horrible role reversal Ominous could have imagined, and it had happened to her. By being looked down on by both Proquess and Shishayair, Ominous had suddenly been toppled to the very bottom of the hive's hierarchy, even below nursemaid Carskadei herself, who didn't want to be part of the hierarchy!

So, all in all, Ominous was miserable, and she didn't even have trying to win herself back into Shishayair's good graces to keep her occupied, because he avoided her entirely. He spent more time with that xenoqueen who had stolen him from her than he did with her. In taking her chance at the bipedra-- and letting it slip through her talons-- she had possible irrevocably lost his favor. Forever, disdained and reviled, mistrusted and avoided. And that thought was enough to try her promise to herself that she would never cry.

It was a relief, at least in that way, when she finally clutched and had eggs to look over, because it meant she spent less time in the company of the hive. It was a mixed blessing, because she missed the mass of hydras and xenocreatures. It was hard to be alone-- or merely hounded by Se'lere, which didn't count as company. Not really. He only had one head, after all. And eyes. No hydra, no xeno, just simple dragon. Or-- whorling, whatever that was. Bipedal and well-feathered and friendly though he might be.

He did tend to talk a lot, though, particularly when they were sitting together with the eggs both of them had a part in making.

Ominous thought her part was rather worse than his, personally.

The Black Sands, where the mass of eggs from the bipedra frenzy were traditionally kept until their hatching, was constantly full of a low burble of sound: a mix of conversation, growls and snarls, great creatures shifting and moving, and the occasional scream from someone who got too close to one of the more violent mothers. It was dark, unsurprisingly, and, with the sounds to go with the lack of lighting, was more than a little creepy. Ominous, for all she had a foreboding name and looked rather creepy, herself, didn't like it much.

That, she told herself, was the reason she hadn't yet chased Se'lere away when he came to visit or, joy of joys, take over egg-watch. Whether or not she could consider herself "motherly", she knew that if her few eggs were left unattended on those sands, they would likely be smashed by the time she returned. She wasn't willing to let that happen, no matter how much she resented having to watch them, and she was more than willing to let Se'lere take over now and then, particularly when she was hungry.

But when he just came to keep her company, she let him chatter, because it kept the creepy feeling away.

::So what are you going to do?:: he asked one afternoon. He didn't often ask her questions that she bothered answering-- some of his questions were just to annoy her, so she ignored them. That time, she thought it was an actual question he wanted an answer to. Unfortunately, she didn't know what he was talking about.

::Going to do?:: she repeated blankly. On the Black Sands, she spoke the same way he did-- telepathically-- not wanting to add her side of the conversation to the Sands' noise level. That and she didn't like the idea of being overheard, even if nothing she said was particularly important.

::After the hatching. Going back to staying with that bunch of monsters?::

There was only one answer to that. ::Of course I am. They are my family.::

Se'lere rolled his eyes at her. ::They're a bunch of horrible monsters, if you ask me.::

Of course they were. But they were still hers. ::If you look at it that way, so am I.:: Two of her snake-heads snapped at him idly, to make her point.

::If you look at it that way, every last one of us is,:: Se'lere smirked. ::Particularly out here on these sands.::

Ominuos couldn't agree more, but she didn't comment, and Se'lere added, ::I wonder how many of the hatchlings will be all monstrous. Not ours, I bet.::

::You're not very monster-like,:: she agreed absently.

Se'lere waxed eloquent on his own monstrosity and that of his children-to-be for a while, and Ominous listened with half an ear, rolling the eggs over to make sure all sides got warmed. Then one phrase caught her attention, and she flicked an ear at him. ::Say that again?::

::Maybe you should get yourself a bond and start off new,:: Se'lere repeated cheerfully.

::I already told you, I'm not leaving my family.::

Se'lere shrugged his feathered wings, said, ::Well, it's your life, I guess,:: and moved on to another topic.

But Ominous couldn't forget about the first half of the suggestion. She couldn't leave Shishayair, but....

~~~~~

Though Shishayair was making a point to ostensibly avoid Ominous, he still liked to keep track of her, just in case she got any ideas. She might have been the worst attention-seeker and toe-licker he'd ever met, but she was clever and determined, and he didn't like the idea of her trying to smash his eggs because they weren't hers, or something equally melodramatic. He might not have been a particularly attentive mate, but he was still proud of his progeny-- or, rather, that he was having them. He didn't know much about them yet, still in he egg.

So he made sure he knew where she was and what she was doing whenever he could-- using other hive members to spy on her was quite useful. He would have liked to question her mate Se'lere, as she seemed to spend more time in his company than in the company of her hive-mates, but he seemed to waffle between ignoring him and doing his level best to annoy him. Shishayair made do with what he had.

Still, it was with mild surprise that he discovered her name on the candidates list for the upcoming mass hatching they both had contributed to. He gazed at the carefully written signature-- she had long ago made a point to learn how to write, as she had foreclaws suited for such a task, though she tended to write very big compared to a human-- for a long moment in thought. Ominous Corollary wanted to bond, did she? He could guess where that would lead: she would want to bond one of his children, since she was deprived of him.

Shishayair smiled a bit at the signature. Well, they'd see about that....

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