Keshnarmeynee Adumbra's Story

Being paired with a strong but stupid, fierce but friendly dragon wasn't what Keshna had intended when she had decided to try bonding, but she could deal with it. Verklei was easily controlled, if it came down to that, as long as she kept an eye on her. Being paired, again, with a scatterbrained, air-headed, affectionate, but still somehow brilliant dragon wasn't what she'd intended, either, when she snuck a ride back to Star City for another clutch a few months later, but she could deal with that, too. Iszgih, at least, had managed to get it through his head not to go spilling her secrets all over the demonic capitol.

But when, before those two were even half-grown, she somehow picked up a third dragon-- full grown and set in her ways, seeking the protection of Verklei, the companionship of Iszgih, and the supposed safety of a place to stay from Keshna herself-- Keshna thought things were getting out of hand. Gibelettes was annoying, useless, and not even particularly interesting, all rolled into one, and she had the audacity to call herself a demon. Somehow, she'd latched herself onto the trio, turning it into a foursome, and would not be shaken free. Since Verklei put up such a protest whenever she had the thought to simply kill the wretch and be done with it, Keshna let her stay, but she didn't like her one bit.

However, her last-ditch effort at losing the demon-thing-- leaving Vuil and taking to the deep tunnels of the underground and the southern peaks-- backfired. Gibelettes, uncomfortable with the presence of so many evil creatures, actually seemed relieved to be leaving, despite losing her so-called "place to stay". They couldn't go back; Keshna, having run away, would be killed or at least beaten severely if she dared return. At least she found a use for Gibelettes: the mutt turned out to be a good huntress, so none of them starved, despite Verklei and Iszgih being in the middle of growth spurts and so demanding more meat than usual.

So now Keshnarmeynee, one of the most intelligent demons in Vuil, finally had her three bonds, to match the highest number her fellow demons at the very first hatching. There was so much irony in the fact that they were all useless bonds, but by Zenite, she still had them. She just, now, had to figure out how to actually organize them into something more useful.

No matter which way she looked at it, though, Keshna felt like she needed more power-- more malice. Of the group, she was the only one who had any ambition, and the only one who actually wanted to hurt someone to get where she wanted to be. They were content to follow her lead, for the most part, but it just wasn't the same as having the initiative to cause trouble. How could she possibly put her plans into motion with a reluctant following?

So she started making use of Gibelettes's teleportation ability, leaving Verklei and Iszgih behind while they explored other worlds with other bonding opportunities. Or, at least, sponsoring opportunities. There was Halloween clutch, with vampire-dragons, but she wasn't willing to attach herself to something which would literally live off her and her blood. There was a Flurry, but it was liable to produce nothing but sweetness and light-- not even Gibelettes recognizing her brother as one of the fathers could convince her to try there. With her luck, adopting something related to Gibelettes in her little pack would probably be worse than Gibelettes herself.

Keshna seriously considered and event called a Bipedra, at a place called Cy Dragonstake, as it was likely to produce a dangerous batch of hatchlings. However, the thought of bonding again was a little tedious, and that massive clutch was largely meant for bonding. Before she could decide whether trying to talk a possibly willful hatchling into coming with her without the stability of a bond would be worth the effort, a much more interesting offer caught her attention.

It wasn't even something she discovered while looking for a clutch to sign up for. Rather, she'd taken Verklei and Iszgih to Star City to redeem cyborware tokens and, while Verklei was gushing over the huge variety of rings she could choose from-- being a xenodragon, at least in part, her blood was dangerous and, thus, only non-intrusive decoration was allowed-- an advertisement on one of the many screens on the walls caught Keshna's eye. Though Star City had closed its doors not long after Verklei's hatching, there was another agency on board, a docked ship called the Abstract Destiny, that was still adopting out regularly. And there was a very interesting-looking clutch there, too....

Gibelettes, apparently, had seen it, too. ::Hydras and Hathians? Aren't those species supposed to be incompatible?::

"They'd never mate," Keshna explained absently, "but that's not a mating. Not really. They didn't even know about it until later."

::I bet they were angry, when they did find out,:: Gibelettes murmured.

Keshna's wouldn't have taken that bet, because she expected they had been, as well. But hydras were supposed to be vicious creatures, particularly Tris'Hathian hydras, so the clutch had promise. Before she could comment further, however, Verklei came trotting proudly back from the counter. ::Look at me, don't I look cool??::

Since she'd decked out all four of her back spines with as many rings as her free token would have afforded-- and each one, it seemed, was a different color. "Cool" was not the word Keshna would have chosen. "Stupid" might have been one, or maybe "garish". When Iszgih came out from the back room a moment later sporting fangs so huge they would probably stab him in the throat the next time he looked down, forgetting they were there, she actually groaned.

An hour later, however, she'd gleaned quite a bit more information about this clutch of "abominations". There were a lot of unhappy people on both sides of the family, and the hatchlings were expected to be various forms of disabled: mentally or physically mutated. The rumored descriptive word was, actually, "insane". They were not to bond, but they needed experienced caretakers to adopt and raise them.

"Well, 'insane' describes my life well enough," Keshna muttered to herself, frowning at the terminal. Insanity, to her mind, equated to violent-- wasn't Keerebane a violent creature, a condition only exacerbated by her insanity? Nothing could be worse than what she already had, and if they really were insane, she could easily overwhelm one's mind to keep it from causing too much damage. To her own group, anyway; she didn't care how much damage it caused to her enemies, in her name.

::Those poor things!:: Gibelettes's mindvoice startled her, and she looked over her shoulder with a scowl.

"What?"

::Those hybrids!:: If she didn't know better, Keshna would have called the tone in the gray dragon's voice indignant.

"What's so poor about them?"

::They're not even hatched, and already this... Mystic person wants to destroy them! As if it's their fault that they're created of two species who hate each other....::

"Don't go feeling sorry for them," Keshna snapped. She'd long ago put her submissive act behind her, and had no qualms with growling if she wanted to. "They're little monsters, powerful and unpredictable, and I'm going to adopt one."

Gibelettes glared, back, but didn't try to answer. The mutt didn't agree with a lot of Keshna's ideas, but she never stood up for her opinions. She rarely even voiced them in more than a mental grumble, and even that she frantically denied when called on it. Keshna wasn't worried that she'd make trouble. The only thing she worried about, actually, was Gibelettes trying to subvert any child she brought into the pack with her archaic, useless notions of nobility and honor. But she was confident that she could deal with that if it came up.

So, it was with no second thoughts that Keshna signed up online for the eighth biosynth at the Abstract Destiny.

She didn't even bother to wonder what Giblettes was doing at the dragon-sized console across the room. She followed her out meekly enough to rejoin Verklei and Iszgih, at any rate, so she put thoughts of her annoying tendencies out of her mind for the moment. They'd be back in a few weeks for the hatching; if there were problems, she'd deal with them then.

Now she just had to deal with explaining to Verklei just why they were adopting another dragon....