The most recent clutch at Shivran Aerd had finally hatched. No one was surprised when Lucan met them for dinner without a hatchling in tow. None of them had bothered to attend, with the exception of Furbaide, who hadn't been able to get a seat with any kind of view except of the massive Ursael who chose to sit in front of him. Not even someone as tall as the tiger Felisian could see past the bulk of a bear-shifter in any form. So, he'd obviously missed whether their somewhat odd human friend had been chosen. He hadn't expected him to be, but since he tried to keep an open mind about such things, there had always been the possibility that the human might have surprised them. He didn't.

"How're your feet?" Cypress asked simply by way of greeting as Lucan slid into the seat beside her with a little sigh.

"A little sore," he admitted. "The sands are hot." Humans in particular were sensitive to that, Furbaide had come to realize. Hot sand. Most of them leaving the sands, bonded or not, had been shifting from foot to foot, even limping. Since seeing people leaving was about all Furbaide could manage from his seat in the crowded stone tiers, that was what he'd paid attention to. Not seeing Lucan among those who left paired should have been his first clue that the inevitable had, indeed, occurred.

"So should we be offering condolences?" Enth'old Kay asked with his usual tactlessness, but with the charming smile that made it all right to be tactless.

Lucan gave the faun an arch look. "I'll just have to try again, that's all."

Cypress and Furbaide exchanged twin rueful looks. Lucan's determination to bond a dragon, and thus somehow raise his stature in the eyes of the Aerd-lady Drakiera, though quite serious to Lucan, was something of a joke among his friends. Wanting to impress her for political of material gain was one thing, and though impossible not uncommon to attempt, but that wasn't what Lucan was after. Despite having acquainted himself with the bulk of the Aerd-folks, Furbaide had yet to find another person who lived there who was in love with the enigmatic, asocial, eccentric, and decidedly not human Drakiera. Besides Lucan, that is.

"You know, Lucan," Cypress suggested carefully, shifting on the bench and tucking an errant strand of dark hair behind her ear, "you've been at this for a while now, with no results. Maybe you should just give it up."

He gave her the same arch look he'd given Kay, with a hint of "that was a stupid suggestion, but I'm going to humor you anyway" thrown in for good measure. "I'm not about to give up," he stated firmly. "I know I'd be a good choice for some dragon out there. Why else would Drakiera have so much faith in me? Just about the only thing that catches her attention is good bonding material. So I must be."

No one mentioned that Lady Drakiera had no faith in him, whatsoever. The subject had been broached, and Lucan's mind could not be changed when it came to her: he loved her, she loved him, the Aerd-lady just... couldn't show it, for one reason or another. Nearly everything he did, from performing his duties in the kitchen admirably well to standing at both of the Geperna dragon hatchings since they'd begun again, was aimed at pleasing her. He even let her twin minions Kin and Gin corral him into donating blood and skin and a willing test subject for whatever she needed them for, whenever she needed them, something not many others in the Aerd were willing to do. The Aerd-lady had too much love for experimenting, and once had even gotten poor Lucan horribly ill, supposedly just to see what would happen. Not even that could shake his deluded faith in her hidden affections.

"Well, you aren't having much luck with the Geperna dragons, anyway," Furbaide had to interject. "Maybe you should try a Hunt, or something."

Cypress kicked him from across the table. He was absently glad, as he winced and rubbed at his shin with his other paw, that she wasn't wearing hooves today. "How about not," she said coldly, giving him a quelling look which also quelled Lucan's sudden look of inspiration. "They're full for the next year or so, anyway." ::He'd get himself murdered out on those Hunts, Fur, and you know it,:: he heard silently, in a somewhat rusty projected thought, ::so don't you dare mention it again! I don't want to give him any ideas!::

::Might be too late for that,:: he answered apologetically and with more mental ease; telepathy came much more naturally to him than to Cypress. ::Sorry. But he'd have come across the idea, eventually, anyway, if he hasn't already. He may be silly, but he's not stupid, you know.::

::I wish he were,:: she grumbled. ::He's only just clever enough to get into trouble, and then need rescuing.:: All he could do to answer that was chuckle softly and apply himself to his dinner once more.

"You know," Lucan was saying thoughtfully. Fur looked up again and Cypress's dark olive complexion went a little green as she paled just a little. "You know, you might be right, Fur...."

He gulped down the meat in his mouth. "About which?"

"About the Geperna... maybe they're not what I'm destined for." Cypress' skin went back to its usual color, probably relieved that he wasn't thinking about Hunting any Wyld dragons. "They might be her life's work and her other passion--" besides me, of course, he prudently didn't reiterate, "--but maybe I'm supposed to do something else."

"What?" Kay snorted around a large mouthful of broccoli. Being a goat, in a sense, he ate anything, even disgusting things like broccoli. "Don't even consider going after them Mythicalaean breed dragons. With you're luck, they'll make you give her up and never see her again in exchange for that precious bond of yours."

Though he paled, himself, at the idea of never seeing his so-called beloved ever again, he gave a little swallow and said stoically, "If it aided Drakiera in any way, I would make the sacrifice. But no, that's not what I meant."

"Then what?" Cypress asked suspiciously. Furbaide chuckled again at her tone; she mothered Lucan, as if he were a child who needed protecting. In some ways he was, perhaps, but Furbaide for one wasn't about to treat him like he wasn't also a grown man.

"Isn't it obvious?" Lucan's blissful smile held more than a hint of his odd obsession in it. "I'm going to go off-world."