Furbaide hadn't bothered trying to explain to the people at the Ring of Fire that he wasn't really a candidate. If he had, they might not have given him a room, even if he did have to share the one he had with Lucan, and they certainly wouldn't have given him that drake egg. And, since Lucan didn't want his, he ended up with both of them. The hatchlings they produced were quite enchanting, and thought he hadn't had a pet since he was a cub in the old manor, he thought this pair might be fun to have around. They were company for the road, whenever he hit it again, at least.

They ate a lot, though. Sitting on the bed he'd been assigned with a plate of diced meat, popping bits into first one open maw and then the other, he listened to Lucan chatter from the other bed.

"You know, the other candidates here are so different! Almost as diverse as the people who went to the last hatching at Shivran, don't you think?" Without waiting for an answer, he rambled on: "Though I don't think I've seen anyone as interesting as those winged wolves here, yet, I still think Drakiera would love to meet some of them. She has such a thing for strange genetics, you know."

"Slow down, Clamant," Furbaide chided the gray and bronze, fire-winged and fire-crowned drake as he nearly took fingertips with his latest morsel. He was the louder, more demanding of the pair-- which made sense, given his fiery form, and was the reason for his name, which was one of the many words for "loud"-- and also usually the hungriest, or at least the greediest, little creature he'd ever seen. If he wasn't careful about feeding him and making sure he got his exercise in, Furbaide thought he might end up something of a butterball.

"But have you seen the dragons that came out of that last wave yesterday?" Lucan continued. "They're all so different, and so colorful! They remind me of the Wyld dragons from that Whirl a few years ago-- none of them the same! There's even some with multiple heads! Can you imagine? I wonder how they think or make decisions? I bet Drakiera would know. I wonder if she'd like one? Do you think there will be any more of them in the last wave? I can only imagine what it'd be like to bond something with three heads. What if they all talked at the same time, saying different things?"

"There, there, Aspen, full, are we?" Furbaide purred to the smaller and quieter of the drake pair, scratching under her chin as she settled down with a sigh, her ice-fire wings folding over her back with a little sigh. She was pure black in coloration, with chilly blue paws and wings, crest, and tail-tip of blue fire which burned cold rather than hot. She crooned back at him, then put her head down on her paws and watched her brother, if they really were even related given the eggs might have come from any parents at all, snap up more meat.

"But even one head would be enough for me," Lucan was still talking, not listening for a response. "Did you see some of those dragons' colors? And patterns? And the wings! Feathered wings, on some of them! Gods and ancestors, what Drakiera would think of them--"

"I don't care," Furbaide interjected, picking up Clamant as he eyed the now-empty tray of food, before the drake could start squalling for more. Somehow, his fiery wings didn't burn him, perhaps simply because the creature didn't want them to. "As long as you take care of anything that comes out of that shell." He was, honestly, getting a little tired of Lucan's incessant referrals to what the Aerd-Lady-- who never spoke to him and probably cared nothing for him aside from his uses as a test subject, no less-- would think about everything.

Lucan blinked at him from where he lay stretched out on his own bed, arms behind his head and ankles crossed. Furbaide continued sternly, wanting to make certain the human knew exactly what his responsibilities were, "If you do end up bonding a dragon, Luke, you can't just turn it over to Lady Drakiera for experimenting. Any dragon who chooses you will look to you to take care of it, and you have to do that: feet it, clean it, play with it, give it attention, all that."

"I know that," Lucan said simply. "Really, Fur, as if I wouldn't take care of someone who needed me to! Especially a dragon."

"From the way you talk, you haven't thought about it at all," Furbaide answered; Clamant, finally believing that he must be full since there was no food left, snuggled into the crook of his arm and fell asleep. "All you're saying makes it seem like a dragon is just a prize to you, a gift for the Aerd-Lady, not a sentient creature who will probably trust you and love you to death. Especially not a baby creature who will trust you and love you to death."

"I've thought about it. Trust me, Fur, I'm not about to neglect any dragon who might choose me, Drakiera or no Drakiera. How could I?"

That simple question made the tiger-shifter relax, and he settled one hand over the now-sleeping Aspen, rubbing at her neck gently with a thumb as he answered. Lucan might be highly deluded and downright silly about some things, but he wasn't negligent, rather, he was always diligent, and even if he did care about the oblivious Aerd-Lady more than anything else, that didn't mean he didn't care about other things, too. "All right, I was just making sure. You never know, with some people."

"I suppose not," Lucan agreed, then smiled. "But don't worry about it. I like children, and I like dragons, and there's no way I could let anything in my care be neglected. You ought to know that about me by now."

"I guess I forgot, then," Furbaide answered agreeably.

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"You haven't said a thing about what will happen to you."

"Me? That's because nothing will happen to me. I'm here to find out about off-worlder people and make sure you don't get into trouble."

"But you're going to the hatching."

"Yes, so?"

"What if a dragon chooses you?"

"They won't."

"But what if?"

"Then...." He shrugged and smiled. "I'll deal with that if it happens. I expect, if a dragon liked me, it would be unorthodox enough to like to travel, or at least not mind it."

"I wouldn't be so sure nothing will happen," Lucan grinned. "You've already gotten yourself attached to a pair of tiny fire-drakes."

"Aw, they're pets, that's different."

"If you say so."

"Hmph." He wasn't here for a dragon; the drakes were plenty, and they and what he'd already learned in the past few days had already made the trip worthwhile. Besides, a dragon wouldn't be so bad, when he thought about it. Plenty of people had dragons, they were dead useful-- look at how they'd needed Ageon to even come here!-- and usually friendly, if only to their bond, to boot. "We'll see what happens," was all he said.