The next few minutes seemed to fly by. Actually, the next two days seemed to fly by. In the ten minutes after Gomorrah had shown Cath and Sam Infusco and started down the hill with the pair of them in tow, they had been swarmed by the specus' inhabitants, bundled up inside, and separated from the only person they knew. Everyone had seemed genuinely concerned about them, pushing on them dry clothes, warm drinks and food, and a whole room to themselves. Once past the worry for their health, though, the dragon-riders and other Infuscans were jovial, bordering on celebratory-- because of the hatching, like Gomorrah had said.

On the plus side, they were given free room and board, out of the kindness of the Infuscan's hearts, and free run of the specus. Cath, with his sprained ankle which turned out to be even worse than they'd thought, aggravated by walking all the way to the specus on it, didn't make use of his freedom, though, as was to be expected, being restricted in any way made him irritable. So, though Sam's back was still bruised-- he suspected he had smashed into a rock with it-- he made a point to be out of their room as often as possible to avoid Cath's unpredictable temper. He found plenty to occupy his time, watching people at their work, getting to know a few of the dragons, and spying on the metallic eggs on the hatching sands when their chrome mother would let him-- or when she couldn't see him.

It was hard being back at Infusco. No one seemed to have recognized them yet, especially as Sam had avoided people for the most part and Cath was confined to their room and the immediate area, but he was sure they would soon-- how many gypsy-pirate twins were there were one couldn't talk and the other was as unique as Cath? And when they did, the questions would start again, the concerned looks, the earnest attempts at getting Sam to speak or Cath to open up. Memories of when they'd lived here years ago kept resurfacing at odd times, freezing him and making him forget whatever else he'd been doing, and the nightmares from when he was young went on all night now.

One way to distract himself was with work. Sam loved fixing things, working with mechanical things, so he found himself slipping into the ranks of the laborers just long enough to set their small mechanisms right or add the needed finger or grip or steady hand where it was needed, then slip out again. His hands itched to have his gadgets from their room at Port Kahlon, where he stored them when he and Cath were at sea. It had been over a year since he'd been able to actually work on them.

That did not fill up nearly enough of his time, however, but Sam discovered another pass-time that worked nearly as well: contemplating the imminent hatching. Sam spent a lot of his time daydreaming what it would be like to attach himself one of the hatchlings, wondering what it would look like and act like, what he would do if he could fly instead of sail. It was a pleasant dream, though contact with Cath ruined it, because he was still adamantly against either one of them-- though especially himself-- even contemplating bonding to a dragon. For some reason unfathomable to Samuel, the idea of sharing his soul with anything made Cath shy away and balk like a mule. Sam had to wonder if Cath resented their own link, too.

A couple other thoughts drifted across his mind now and then while he silently haunted the more out of the way corners of the specus. The first was that, though he had seen many dragons, he had not again seen Sodom, the young bronze who had rescued him and Cath, though Sodom had claimed this as "his" specus. It was possible that he and Gomorrah had been transferred to a different specus, but Sam doubted it. His past experience with specii-- Infusco in particular-- was that transfers were rare, and certainly not going to happen directly before a hatching. After, possibly, but not before.

Also, Sam noted a few rather... strange people in the specus. They mostly kept away from the population at large, especially the dragons and their riders, and they often dressed very strangely. While most of the specus, most of Vere in fact, dressed in simple tunics and trews or skirts, maybe with a sash or embroidery for decoration and color, these people wore clothing of a much different style and make. Sam never had an opportunity to meet one, for he didn't make an effort to meet of anyone except the dragons, not wanting to explain his lack of speech, but no one else seemed to find their presence amiss, so he tried not to worry about them. It seemed, though, that more and more of the different people were showing up, trying to mix in among the Infuscans, as the date for the hatching grew closer. Perhaps they were from an inland specus which had different customs, here as bonding hopefuls....

Then, on the morning of the fifth day of their stay, it was finally time.