A year really wasn't as long as it sounded. Riya and the twins kept themselves busy with classes, drills with UNIS that Riya only reluctantly participated in, attending the next bonding, and, in Riya's case anyway, working. The classes were sometimes interesting, sometimes boring, but all three grew more skilled with their psionic gifts: Riya was nowhere near as good as the twins, and Evoli wasn't as good as Evola, but none of them would ever be capable of such advanced talents as metabolic shape-shifting or future-seeing. Riya didn't even have a twinge of telekinetic ability, only a moderate talent with telepathy and just enough metabolics to possibly hold himself together temporarily if he ever got wounded and ensure that he never suffered colds for more than a day.

The twins continued in their magic abilities, especially Evoli, who seemed very gifted with magic, though Evola had a fair dose of an Air's innate touch with the field, as well. Both tended to focus in air-element magic and related fields, like weather and sound, but Evoli had an odd attraction to light-based magic, and Evoli found the explosive, expressive fire-based magic enjoyable, as well. All three endured history, geography, and tactics lectures-- what tactics the Avengaean dragons could come up with, anyway-- and while the twins practiced flying around the city and surrounding mountains, Riya went into town and mixed drinks and served simple meals at a couple moderately respectable taverns where he was actually becoming fairly well-known and respected for his talent at fixing up excellent, unique beverages.

The three of them were still in their military-owned apartment on the fringe of Sanctuary, surrounded by the rest of the bonded cadets, though Evola hardly fit, anymore, when she was in her full dragon form. The past twelve months had seen her sprout like a weed, turning ungainly and leggy and somehow still looking adorable in the process, as she grew from just over three feet in height at the shoulder to over five, with a wingspan three times that. It was a lucky thing that she had finally managed to master her human form, or they would have had to dip into Riya's small but slowly growing savings to find her, her own apartment that was more dragon-sized.

Evoli, as he hadn't bonded and thus wasn't under the influence of the aging spell accompanying the mental connection, was growing nowhere near as quickly as his sister. Beside her five and a half feet, Evoli, at half her size, hardly looked like her brother, much less her twin brother. He had, however, mastered his human form even before the more quickly-growing Evola had-- it had been his learning more than her size that had prompted her to try so hard to gain it, just to keep up with him-- and was often found lying on his bed in the form of the little dark-haired boy, pouring over his spell-books and histories.

Riya, himself, felt no different than he had when he first arrived-- no older, anyway, for all he had celebrated another birthday, making him twenty-one. His mind felt much broader than he could ever have imagined it to be, but there were still times when he longed for the dusty red landscape of his home, for the maze-like underground tunnels he grew up in, for the rumbling laugh of his father, even for a good television! On of the biannual trips to Earth he had managed to procure a high-powered stereo-box and some speakers, as well as some heavy-duty, rechargeable batteries and his collection of music, so at least he had that distraction-- but it wasn't quite quite the same as vegging out in front of the colorful screen. Usually when he was feeling homesick, though, Evola would come find him and rest her chin on his knee, if she were a dragon, or hug onto his waist, if she were human, and that helped.

His relations with the other cadets had not improved a whole lot-- Keren and Adara had gained dragons themselves in the last bonding ceremony, but it hadn't warmed them much to the smart-mouthed, long-haired "kid" very much. Andy's hatred had cooled into an indifferent tolerance, however, and he tended to leave the tormenting of his former rival to Adara these says. That, at least, was a relief, for he was forced to spend most of his time in classes and drills with the guy, as their dragons were of the same bonding batch and their dragons knew each other so well. Riya half-thought that Cemitae's liking of Evola, and thus Evola's bonded, was at least partly responsible; Riya, himself, found it difficult to dislike anything Evola-- Evvie, as he'd taken to calling her-- took a fancy to.

The passing year had also brought a deeper settling of the bond between himself and Evola. At the beginning, it was mostly just emotions and immediate intentions that drifted across the link. It wasn't invasive at all, and it wasn't enough to make anyone fear for their own mental privacy. As time passed, however, and they grew to know each other better, they found themselves sharing less obvious emotions, walking in each other's daydreams, even listening in on each other's random musings. Riya had to wonder what she picked up from him that he wasn't aware of, because he knew for certain that there were times she didn't realize he could "hear", in a sense, what she was thinking, without even trying. Thankfully, they were beginning to learn how to more adequately filter what came through to each others minds when they were paying attention-- provided they were paying attention.

On the whole, Riya was mostly content with his life at the moment. He had a secure home, a job he enjoyed, a new albeit rather different family in the twins, and the prospect of actual friends. There was still the nagging feeling of guilt that there was nothing he had done, or even could do, to help his father on Mars. He'd done his best to send him a message, the last time they went to Earth, but he had no way of knowing if it had even been received, much less answered, though he might be able to find out in a little over a week. The third bonding ceremony was planned for the end of the week, in four days, and it would be after that, that the cadets and Riya would be making their first of the two yearly trips "home". If Riya was very lucky, he would be able to contact one of the very few people he knew could get in touch with Malagai, and find out what was going on on the home front. If only there were a way to make a portal go straight to Mars....

Someone knocked on the door to Riya's apartment. He looked up from where he lay on the couch, listening to some quiet jazz on the stereo in the dim living room, but Evola came bounding in from the bedroom to open it before he could do more than sit up. For a girl who looked twelve years old, she was very pretty, in that cute, flirty sort of way-- if you didn't mind her odd coloring, of course. Her hair was a sparkling, pale silver, almost white in direct light, and her skin an equally pale, dusty sort of gold that seemed to glow just faintly. She had a turned up little nose, a generous, laughing mouth, and dancing silver eyes. As she passed Riya's couch she gave him a wink, and then she opened the door.

Andy stood there, with the head of a round, gawky Cemitae peering around his shoulder from the wide, dragon-sized hallway. Andy was the only one of the three cadets who would even knock on the door to get him for their weekly transports to the fort or for classes. "The rest of the cadets're here," he said neutrally. "You comin'?"

"Yeah," Riya answered, swinging his feet off the couch and reaching over to turn off the music. "I'll be right there."

"All right," Andy said, nodding, and stepped away. Cemitae, who looked as awkward in the beginnings of adolescence as Evola did graceful, gave Riya a grin, butted his floppy-haired forehead into Evola's middle, eliciting a giggle and a surge of friendly affection from her, then padded to follow his bonded.

Riya stood up, stretching, and Evola drifted over, leaving the door open, to wrap her arms around his middle and rest her head against his chest-- she stood a good five feet tall already, in human form, and was likely to grow further. With a chuckle, he hugged her around the shoulders in return, then slid free. "C'mon, they'll be waiting on us."

"Don't know why you even bother going," she snorted with a wave of her usual proprietary indignation at the cadets' treatment of him. "It's not as if any of them are going to be pleasant to you. Or me," she added, thinking of Fidena, Adara's bond, who was usually stirring up trouble between the two of them, not much liking Evola's airs.

"You should get used to it, Evvie," Riya pointed out. "I have. Evoli?"

From the twins' bedroom, Evoli called, "I'll stay here, thanks. There's a test coming up in Elemental Magic class, and I really need to study up on the theory." Despite not being bonded to him, Riya and Evoli were also fairly close, and knew each other's habits and intentions well. It was kind of like having a little brother. Riya had not really expected the dragon-boy to come along-- he felt uncomfortable around so many bonded pairs, sometimes, especially when it was with more than just Riyikith himself and Andy-- but it was polite to ask, at least.

"All right, we'll be back later, then," he returned, then headed out the door, with Evola catching his hand and skipping along beside him.