Sentio thought he might have been over the shock of imagining twenty-three children coming from two parents by the time they reached the Abstract Destiny, a real, honest to gods space ship, docked on the lowest floor-- deck-- of Star City. As they entered and the big doors slid open, revealing stairs down, bleachers, and the actual, giant clutch itself, he realized he was wrong: he stared, open-mouthed, at Chiya Diemicana, snuggled in the midst of so many round, white objects that he couldn't, at first glance, even begin to count them.

Chiya looked up as the doors opened, and burst into a smile. "Cacopheny! You made it! Hello, everyone!"

"Hi Chiya!" Akija called down, waving. Cacopheny even smiled down at his rescuer-turned-mothering-friend.

Sentio was just glad that he wasn't entirely the only one of them flabbergasted all over again by the sight: Chario stood and stared down, as well. Chiya, seemingly oblivious to their shock, got to her paws. "Come down, come down! I've warned everyone you were coming, they've been quite curious about you."

"Everyone?" Sentio repeated in a small voice, as Cacopheny, at least, cheerfully went to obey, starting down the stairs again.

Sentio's barely-voiced question was answered almost before he gathered the focus to take another step, in the form of a wash of telepathic greetings. He could barely tell one voice from another, there were so many:

::Hello hello hello!::

::Mommy said you were coming!::

::Are you gonna tell us stories like Kenedi?::

::Hiiii!::

::Who're you? Which one's which?::

::Hi Mister Aedelian!::

::Oooo, I bet that one's the Cacopheny-person, he feels all different!::

::Which one's like Mommy?::

::Which one's like other Mommy?::

::Come down!::

::Why're you still all the way up there?::

::Did we surprise you?::

::Hello.::

::Hello!::

Chiya chuckled and clucked lightly, causing the ruckus to muffle itself a little, as Cacopheny, apparently unfazed, continued down the stairs, pausing only for Akija as the telepathic bombardment made her freeze, clinging to his arm, until whatever buzzing or itching it caused her died down, as well. Even Chario seemed stunned. Only Cacopheny made no comment or motion of disbelief or discomfort. Then again, Cacopheny was probably used to hearing voices out of nowhere, and so many of them that he couldn't tell which was which.... Sentio gave up, didn't bother trying to answer, and just continued down the steps, carefully, half-afraid that disorientation and shock would send him tumbling down, instead.

"I knew kits could talk to their moms," Chario gasped, a couple steps ahead of him. "But that-- yeesh!"

"It seems they all inherited my own psionic ability," Chiya admitted, a little bashfully. "I'm not sure whether that was intentional on the doctor's part, but I'm glad he did-- it's nice to be able to talk to my children before they hatch and disappear...."

::Aww, not all of us'll disappear!::

::We'll keep in touch!::

"I know you will, darlings," Chiya smiled.

"Ssere are so many," Cacopheny commented, looking around at the widely spread clutch from the bottom of the stairs.

"Apparently Avengaean dragons are popular for adoptions and bondings," Chiya shrugged, her cheeks turning a little rosy under her fur.

"Incredible," Chario murmured, running a hand through his hair as he made it to Akija's side again. Kenjista also made it down to the floor, but seemed to give more attention to investigating the moss-like substance that made up its surface and finding a comfortable place to sit.

Cautiously, Akija asked, "Do they all have names yet?"

"Yes," Chiya nodded. "We've largely agreed, Ketvia and I, and the kits, on their names. They're supposed to announce them to their chosen bonds and sponsors upon hatching, so we had to decide early."

"That must've... taken a while," Sentio commented, resuming his staring once he had no more stairs to negotiate.

"You can come closer," Chiya suggested with a smile. "They won't flood you like that again; I hadn't warned them of your, ah, allergy, Akija, and they aren't always certain what the 'considerate' thing to do is, telepathically." She chuckled. "It's not quite the same, when they are thinking at someone all at the same time, as opposed to trying to make themselves heard vocally."

::But we're learning!:: one piped up.

With that reassurance, Akija gave in to the urge to investigate, and everyone else followed after her-- with the single exception being Kenjista, who had stretched herself out on the strange stuff covering the floor and looked as if she wasn't about to move anytime soon. Sentio brought up the rear, still feeling overwhelmed by the idea of twenty-three little crossbreeds. The Ampilae would positively have hysterics if they found out.

"They're so small compared t'you!" Akija observed, halting beside one of the eggs, examining it. As it came up to Akija's knees, it was large compared to her, but next to the full-grown Light dragoness, it was positively tiny.

"I know, aren't they?" Chiya smiled. "Live-born kits are very small, too... it's funny to think about the difference, really."

"No kiddin'," Akija chuckled, lightly running her hands over the egg's faintly textured shell, then kneeling and putting an ear against it. "Hellooooo?"

::Hiya!:: a voice giggled back, and this time Akija didn't wince. ::You're Akija?:: The little mind-voice was masculine and cheerful, but rather sedate in comparison to the bubbly outburst that had first greeted them. ::My name's Fidelan.::

"Feelin' all cramped up in there, yet?" Akija grinned.

::You have no idea.::

Now the daemon snickered. "That's true. I don't really remember my own hatching."

Everyone else looked over in surprise, but Chario voiced it first. "You hatched?"

Akija cackled. "Yup. There's yer random fact of the day!"

"Wow, that's... weird," Sentio blinked. "Though I suppose Air dragons do it, and bonder daemons, so why not other daemons?"

And Cacopheny, from the puzzled look on his face, didn't seem to get it. Well, Sentio wasn't about to explain it to him-- not right now. Maybe later.

::You hatched, too?:: another of the little egg-voices piped up, presumably another male. ::Really? What was it like? Do you remember any of it? Anything would be nice, really!::

::Since, you know, we've gotta do it in a couple days,:: another voice, this one definitely masculine, added with amusement. ::And he's probably the only one who would mess up something that simple!::

::Would not!::

"Vir," Chiya smiled, pointing to the appropriate eggs, "and Regius."

"Well I definitely wasn't talkin' through my shell like all you are," Akija snickered, standing up again. "I dunno if you could really compare the hatching you all gotta do t'mine. I mean, I wasn't helpless, but I wasn't born talkin', either. I don't even know if the stuff I do 'remember' is real, or just my imagination makin' up pictures from what Mum and Pop told me. Hard shell, bright light, cold air, warm voices.... What?"

Chario was staring at her. "I just... can't imagine you in an egg! I mean, look at you! You shoulda been a kitten!"

The daemon laughed, and then grinned. "Well, I was! After I hatched!" As Chario shook his head a bit, she added, "I can get Mum t'show ya a picture when we get back. One a' Pop's brothers has a hand fer charcoal, and she traded a dinner fer a portrait when I was tiny."

"Definitely something I've got to see," chuckled her bond.

Sentio caught Cacopheny smiling, at that, and could almost hear his thought: I bet she was a cute kitten. Sentio tried hard not to start laughing, then and there, and embarrass him.

He was, thankfully, distracted by the doors to the bay opening again, revealing the large, shaggy Fire that was Ketvia. "Well, look who showed up!" she rumbled, trotting down the stairs easily.

"Hiya Ketvia!" Akija called, as she got off her knees and started a circuit of some of the other eggs. Ketvia made it down the stairs and gave Cacopheny's outstretched hand a butt with her muzzle. Sentio got a ruffle to his hair, to which he sighed heavily and attempted to rearrange it, while the Fire snickered.

Chario remained beside Fidelan's egg, thoughtfully resting a hand on the shell. "Makes me think of when Torva was just born… except for the whole egg part," he added with a blink, and looked over at Aedelian. "Didn't you say one had already been hatched?" He swung his gaze to Chiya."Where's that one?"

Chiya's eyes darted to Ketvia, and for a moment her smile faltered. "She's around. I'm sure you'll meet her later-- at the hatching, at least. She is a busy kit, always into things...."

"She bonded," Ketvia said shortly, her amusement gone. Sentio stared at her in mild surprise: even her voice had gone flat. The expression on her face wasn't something he'd ever seen on her before, and he almost couldn't recognize it. When she continued, after a pause, her voice was brisker: "The little wolfdragon of hers and I don't get along much, so we tend to avoid each other."

::That's not it,:: Cacopheny commented to Sentio with a small frown, presumably for a lack of anyone else to comment to privately, ::Something about it... makes her sad. Her shadow's talking about it.::

Everyone was, briefly, stuck in an awkward pause. Chario himself, having asked the question, was wide-eyed with the startled embarrassment of one who accidentally hit a sore spot. Sentio, rather less socially adept than the Fire, had no idea at all what to say, and Cacopheny was still frowning at Ketvia's shadow, presumably trying to puzzle out what it was talking about.

Thankfully, a telepathic voice picked up the conversation, starting things up again. ::Callidei's prolly off hanging out with Grandpa again. You met him yet?::

"We've only just got here, uh-- miss," Sentio answered, guessing as to the hatchling's gender from the mind-voice. "We haven't had a chance, yet."

"Alcedonia," Chiya supplied with a slightly relieved smile, as Ketvia slumped down to lay beside her. "They call Doctor Schroeder 'grandfather', because he-- engineered them, or whatever you'd call what he did."

"I wanna meet this daemon that helps him," Akija muttered, albeit at a conversational level. "Get their clan… Aeta's gonna wanna know all about it."

Chiya and Ketvia shared another glance, this one less uncomfortable and pained, and more uncomfortable and... amused. "Are you sure?" Chiya asked. "It can be arranged, you know."

"If you're sure," Ketvia added. She was the more amused-looking of the two.

Akija looked back and forth with a small frown, wondering what she was missing. "Well, yeah. What, are they a grump or something?"

"A bit of one," Chiya admitted uncomfortably, "but that isn't why we asked."

"Want me to go get her?" Ketvia asked with a smirk. "I can, you know. Won't take me long."

"Actually, it might be better if Akija went to her," Chiya suggested. "It might be a bit overwhelming, in here."

"Okay, sure." Akija blinked a bit, glancing sidelong at Chario, who only gave her a befuddled look and clueless shrug. Sentio was just as clueless. She looked back to the grown dragons. "Works fer me."

"I'll take you," Ketvia chuckled. "I wouldn't miss this for the world." Ignoring Chiya's frown for her amusement, Ketvia stood again, gave the nearest couple eggs a brush with her muzzle-- to a soft chorus of "good-bye"s-- and started for the stairs.

Cacopheny, expression oddly wary, reached for Akija's arm. "Do you vant...?" Whatever he wanted to know if she wanted went unasked, as if he couldn't decide what to ask.

"Maybe you'd better," Akija answered the unspoken question, after a glance between him and the departing Fire. She plucked at his sleeve, which he responded to by finishing his reach to cup her elbow almost protectively, and Chario fell in line, as well. That just left Sentio and Kenjista.

::I think I'll stay here,:: the latter drawled, sprawled comfortably on the moss. She looked as if moving was the last thing she wanted to do. ::Wake me when you get back.::

Not wanting to be left out, Sentio trailed after the other three, not exactly sure what he was getting into.