Changeable as the Sea

When Keren saw Inbere coming towards her, her face felt like it would break, she was smiling so brightly. She barely noticed the flash of light that marked Adara bonding beside her, except with a passing "good for her!" sort of thought. All during the day she'd fretted, and Adara had fretted, over whether or not they would bond and continue to uphold the standard Anderson had set. Keren, though she had made a stronger, earlier connection with the Water kits Onis and Inbere, was more prone to worry than Adara, but as Adara had only met one dragonet who had seemed even a possibility, they both were anxious together. It came out in the oddest of ways, too: in Keren's case, in laughing too much and too loudly. Not that she didn't have a seal's bark of a laugh that cut through other sounds like a hot knife through, anyway.

But now there were no more doubts. Adara had bonded, probably that Air dragonet she had been talking to and then about the night before, and now there was a kit approaching Keren, as well. Not only was Inbere a Water dragon, and a valid excuse to take regular trips to the ocean, he was the one she had secretly been hoping would choose her. He just seemed... right, somehow. Now, as he walked-- almost waddled, with his rounded build and long, webbed toes-- towards her, his head low and eyes nervous and excited at the same time, she felt like she might just explode with happiness. Or at least let loose a whoop and jump around a bit.

Still, she managed to contain herself to a grin that probably looked ridiculous, but she didn't really care. Inbere stopped a few paces from her, transferring the scroll he'd picked up to one long-fingered paw-hand, and looked up at her with a shy, sheepish little grin.

"I hope you don't mind it's me," he said apologetically, "Onis wanted to, kind of, but, well, we decided it should be me." When her grin only broadened, though it hadn't felt possible, his smile turned into an answering one. "You just seem... right."

At the mirror to her own thoughts, Keren laughed and dropped into a crouch, exclaiming, "O'course I daenna mind!"

As soon as her fingers touched, there was a light like sun reflecting off the ocean on a day more clear than any she'd ever seen on earth, and it briefly dazzled Keren's eyes. When sight returned, Keren blinked still, feeling like she was seeing double, and feeling like there was something there that hadn't been there before. Someone giggled, and she focused on a pair of plum violet eyes, and laughed. Oh, yeah... guess thaere is somethen new.

::Ya think?:: came the foreign thought that somehow didn't seem foreign at all, but as familiar as running water, and as bubbly.

::I dinnae knoo ye were eh psionic!:: Keren's own thought burst back at Inbere-- with more ease than any sending she'd ever managed before.

::I'm, er, not,:: he responded, looking vaguely surprised.

::I guess thes is what thae bonden does,:: Keren answered.

::I guess so!::

Someone was talking. Keren glanced over at the Air dragoness who was presiding over the ceremony, whose name she hadn't ever caught even if it had been mentioned at one point, and rose. "And so concludes the second Avengaean Bonding," the dragoness was saying, smiling brightly over all assembled. "Congratulations to all the new pairs."

"We'd better turn in our scroll!" Inbere exclaimed, grabbing the now-inert item in his mouth and bounding, finned tail bouncing along behind him, over to where a dragon official was collecting them. Keren laughed and trotted after him. Adara stood there, having just turned in hers, and she shared a grin with her friend.

"Fidena, raight?" she asked the dragonet.

"That's me!" the Air answered confidently. "And you must be Keren. Inbere chose you, huh?"

"Yeah," Inbere agreed, having deposited the scroll neatly with the other two already there. "So we'll probably be spending a lot of time together now."

"You think so?" Fidena asked, wrinkling her muzzle slightly as if she wasn't sure about that idea.

"Well, Keren's on our team, so probably," Adara pointed out.

"An Adara's my baest friend, soo certainly," Keren added.

"Well, then, I guess we will be," Fidena acceded, and managed a grin for the smaller Water kit.

There might have been more conversation, and Mullen was trying to catch their attention from where he stood with Anderson and the twerp, but a familiar shade of green attracted Keren's eye, and she turned her head sharply towards the tunnel leading out. There, lurking in the shadows, was none other than Viatoro! Inbere followed her gaze, curious what had distracted her, and blinked in confusion at someone he'd never met but who Keren obviously knew well.

Keren laughed. "That's th'dragon who taekes me tae thae oocean," she explained. "Come on, ye've gottae meet him!" Adara and Fidena were left looking after them, the former shaking her head with a grin and the latter frowning in mild confusion.

"Viatoro!" Keren called, waving, as she ran across the hall, deftly weaving through the crowd with Inbere at her heels. The dragon blinked at her, and smiled, currently human-formed, presumably so he wouldn't stand out around all the other human-sized people in the room, as there was plenty of room for even an Earth dragon. Then his eyes fell on Inbere, not even coming up to her hip, and they widened with an emotion Keren couldn't place from so far away.

Then they were there, and she tossed her arms around him, beaming. "Viatoro, yeh came!" she cried. "I didnae knoo if ye'd come all thae way tae Sanctuary."

"Of course I would," Viatoro answered. "It's your bonding. Yours and Adara's," he added, as if by leaving her out, he might somehow offend the grecian. "I see you bonded, then."

Freeing him, Keren ushered Inbere forward. He'd been hanging back by the table, as if Viatoro made him suddenly shy. The emotions drifting through the bond seemed to support that. ::He's naice,:: Keren promised. ::Rehlax.:: Aloud, she told Viatoro, "This is Inbere-- uh, what was yer las' name again?"

"Fragaltus," Inbere said with a kind of shy dignity. "Inbere Fragaltus."

"Viatoro Nuntiumi," Viatoro introduced himself solemnly. For a moment they stared at each other, then suddenly, before Keren even had a chance to react, Inbere had swarmed up her front and was perched with his hind feet against her shoulders and stomach, and his forepaws on her shoulders.

"Ack, Inbere!" she laughed as he balanced there on top of her, trying to help steady him with her own hands at his middle and her arm under his rump.

"There, now I'm taller than you," the little Water told Viatoro, staring at him with a cocky little grin from just a couple inches higher than lofty Viatoro himself. The Earth just blinked at him.

::Be nice, Inbere!:: her thought bubbled at him, laughing. ::He's my ride tae thae ocean, remember?::

Surprise burst into her own mind, and he slid down into her arms with a little squeak. It sounded almost like a dolphin, and Keren giggled. "You take her to the ocean?" he asked, sounding both awed and hopeful all at once. At Viatoro's bemused nod, he put on a simply adorable little pouting face. "Will you take me, too?"

Both of them were startled into a laugh, and Viatoro nodded. "I doubt I could separate you."

"Sae ye'll keep taekin me?" Keren asked, feeling a little breathless with relief.

"Why wouldn't I?" Viatoro said.

Laughing at her own doubts, Keren hugged him again, squishing Inbere between them and making him squeak again in surprise. Almost before Viatoro could return the favor, Keren backed up. "I gottae go-- thae others'ell be waitin for me. I'll see yeh at thae fort?"

"Of course," Viatoro said, nodding, though he looked a little frazzled still. "Same time and place?"

"O'course! See ya!" Then, still carrying Inbere, his forelegs slung around her neck and tail dangling down around her knees, she darted back to Adara, Anderson, and their Captain, leaving the Earth dragon staring bemusedly after them and Inbere peering over her shoulder at him, confused by the expression on his face.