So what'm I doing here? Well, what do you think I'm doing here? You saw me walking out of the bonding complex, I'm sure you've seen Ty wandering around that courtyard out there. We're here for that.

Of course it wasn't my idea. As if I'd want anything to do with all this dragon-stuff. Wasn't Tyrolean's, either, but I'd never come without him, and they know it. They being the family, of course. It was all the elder Makers' idea, of course. Decided I'm a rotten mage, of course, but they still want to do something with me. Something spectacular-- spectacularly good, I mean, not a spectacular disaster, like that time. Not with Ty, of course, just me. Maybe being a disembodied soul animating a suit of armor is unique enough for them, when it comes to him. Being the one that put him there isn't unique enough, obviously, so they're back to pushing me to make a name for myself.

Then they heard about this whole thing. This whole... bonding thing. "Great!" they say, "we'll let Kienn be the first daemon to bond at this thing! That'll be something special enough! That'll get the world's attention! That'll prove that the daemon blood is still strong!" Yeah, whatever. Turns out their news was old, too. I'm not even the first one to try it. Me'n Ty, we're not even the only two daemons here, half or otherwise, there's this little kid who lives in the city who's tryin his luck, too.

But, old news or not, they figured they could just ship me off here, have me get myself a dragon and be famous, and then they'd be happy. Oh, no, don't worry about what Kienn thinks of doing this, what Kienn might want to do, no no no. Just ship him off so he'll be a good little boy and go get himself a dragon. As if any of them even like dragons. Really. Gods. It's so freaking ironic I could just scream sometimes.

But whatever. They sent me here, I let them, but I made 'em send Ty with me. No way in hell I was gonna leave my brother alone with that pack of wolves-- not like they'd probably have paid him any attention, but still. Made 'em send him with me, you know, to see the city and all the dragons and whatever. I found him a big ol' mage's robe, too, one of the old fashioned kind that not too many people wear anymore, unless they wanna be official, one that's juuuust big enough to cover alla that metal. So now he looks kinda like a big, black ghost, or something, since, you know, there's either only a helmet visor or only shadow under that hood-- but hey, ghosts are better than walking armor with nothing in them, right?

So he was incognito, he got to go on tours, and he gets to meet dragons. He even made a little friend, some little human kid who bonded here about a year ago. Catmi, Cati, something like that, I forget his name. I figure, good for him. He'll at least get something out of this whole experience, since he refuses, understandably, to come to all those classes with me. But I figured that'd keep him occupied while I went to those classes-- some of 'em are pretty interesting, you know. Never learn things from the dragons' perspective, back home, and nobody here knows the daemon perspective-- well, none of the teachers, anyway.

So yeah, I figure he's having himself a good old time, lots better than he would have at home, and he'd be at least a little happy while I got this whole farce over with and got to go home. Then, though, I come home from the last class a few days ago, an' you know what he said? He said he wanted to bond! Good one, huh? I actually laughed at him, the poor kid, thinking he was kidding me, but turns out he was serious. The lady in charge of it all, Aloia's her name, some dragon mixed breed, she came and chatted with him and convinced him to go through with the whole thing! Can you believe it!

First off, after I knew he wasn't joking-- what? He really did sound like he was kidding me, when he said it! All, "Maybe I should just go out there with you, you know?" You know? So once I knew he wasn't joking, first thing I'd thought was that this woman bullied him into it, trying to get more candidates, or trying some sick experiment on him to see what'd happen to him out there with all those dragons and dragon-magic and whatever. But he says no, so then I think she's just giving him false hopes, you know, that these dragon-kids aren't gonna be all scared or freaked or whatever, or worse, call him a freak.

But, you know, turns out that it might not be such a bad idea. I've heard of some other freaks coming to bond, and actually bonding. I heard that there was even a demon at the last one-- half demon, anyway, but still! All creepy and demon-smelling and insane, too, is what I heard. And if he bonded, I can't imagine that Ty has too bad a shot. At least he's nice, and cute in that little kid way he's got, once you get past all the metal-- and he does have that robe to hide most of him in, at first, anyway.

So I'm thinking, why not? Give him something to keep him occupied, gives me a reason to actually want to go to these stupid bonding meetings-- no, I don't really wanna bond anything. Heh. How'd you guess? But if Ty's there, I got a reason, to look out for him, ya know?

What? Well, what if some dragon-baby wants to bond me? I kinda doubt it'll happen, I'm too mean and bitter for a dragon to take a liking to, doncha think? Heh. Even that demon-guy was supposed to be kinda withdrawn and child-like-- childlike demon, now that's weird-- but not outright abrasive. Great words, abrasive. I get it thrown at me a lot, you know.

Well, I'll think about it if it happens, or if I even think it'll happen, I'll worry about it then. Right now, I'm just ready for it all to be over, and maybe for Ty to get a friend in the bargain. That'll be good enough for me.