Chiya and Ketvia had left Cacopheny and his little house behind an hour ago, but Chiya kept looking back towards it with a strangely sad expression. Kevtia, sorting through a stack of messages that had piled up since the last time they'd checked at Sanctuary last spring, didn't know what to make of it. The demon's-get was doing well, for someone psychotic and totally out of his element; his motley little family was doing even better. Ketvia actually really liked that daemon girl he was so attached to, and Chiya seemed quite fond of his little Light bond, Sentio, for all the kid made the Fire laugh. Three years seemed to have done quite a bit for his stability, and he was even starting to tentatively learn how to use that strange magic of his. So why the sad face?

"You all right?" she asked finally, as they found a seat at a cafe on one of Sanctuary's main thoroughfares, after making a request for a meal from the host of the place. They weren't due back on Tris'Hath for a few hours, and there was lunch to be had.

"Hmm? Oh, yes, I'm fine...."

Ketvia gave her mage-partner a hard look over a note from her disgruntled father, which she only glanced at before tossing back onto the pile. "You don't look fine. What's the matter?"

"It's nothing, really!" Chiya exclaimed, and turned her eyes to the tabletop and putting her ears back.

"Don't have to get all annoyed," Ketvia huffed back, focusing on the next letter, this one from an old acquaintance begging her to come visit once in a while. That went onto the "read and answer sometime" pile, as well. "You just look all sad, that's all," she added.

Chiya folded her forelegs on the tabletop and put her chin on them. "Well, I am, I a little...."

"Whatever for?" Ketvia snorted, perking her ears and arching her brows at her friend. "Can't be Cacopheny; whelp's doing just fine, nothing to be sad about there."

"Oh, it's not him... not really." Chiya sighed heavily. "It's just-- Ketvia, I never thought I'd spend my life always at war, like this.... I thought, maybe, there'd be skermishes with demons, or bandits, with plenty of time inbetween for... for... you know, a family."

Ketvia's ears skewed in confusion and a little dismay. "Uh, you want a family?" she asked. "Like... a mate? And kits?"

"Well, kits, yes," Chiya admitted, not looking up from contemplation of her claws. "Not sure about the mate part... I haven't found anyone that I... you know, like."

Well, that made things a little better. Not much, but a little. "You can't really have one without the other," Ketvia pointed out wryly.

Chiya sighed again. "I know. But I can still wish...."

Shaking her head for strange, motherly Light dragons, Ketvia looked down at the next message in her stack. Aedelian Landwerlen... that wasn't a name she'd heard in a while! She broke the seal and unfolded the parchment. Aedelian sure could write... there were three whole pages worth of his small-yet-relaxed handwriting! "Well, look at that!" she chuckled. "Old 'Del's finally settled down again! Got himself a lady-friend on one of those other worlds he's always talking about!"

That was the wrong thing to say, she could tell immediately, for Chiya's ears drooped further. Ketvia put down the letter, reaching over to give her friend's horn a little shake. "Hey... hey, Chiya, you'll have kids someday! Don't get so down about it. You're still young! Demonsblood, you're younger than I am, and I'm not exactly an old biddy!"

Chiya sighed again, but smiled a bit at her. "I know, I know... maybe I'm just tired of the war. Seeing a little new life just sounds so good, after all this death...."

That, Ketvia could do something about, and she grinned. "Well, 'Del's got youngsters, two of 'em, hatched just last year. How's that for new life?"

The Light dragoness' pale eyes turned up at Ketvia hopefully. "But we're supposed to report back this evening...."

Ketvia waved a hand dismissively. "We've got a few months' leave racked up, one for each year we've been in service! I'll just send old Commander Irithisian the message, and we'll hop off to this 'Star City' to see his kids. Come on," she urged, grinning more widely. "It'll be fun!"

Though she looked a little skeptical, Chiya agreed, and Ketvia settled back with their newly-arrived lunch and a very satisfied feeling. If playing around with little Air dragon hybrids didn't cheer Chiya up, she didn't know what would!

Chapter Two

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