Wasting Time
Chapter Twelve: Moonlight Meeting
The rest of the day wasn't nearly so spectacular, but it was still memorable. After lunch and another educational lecture, this time on Avengaea's religion and surprisingly interactive gods, during which Riya again heard stories of the four Lords and Asuka, the Air siblings-- Riya now knew that they were actually twins, hatched at the same time, which made Evola's claim that she was older literally based off minutes-- introduced Riya to several other kits. They seemed to think it fair that he know at least one dragonet from every breed, as if giving the others all a fair chance at making friends and possibly deciding to bond with him. Riya privately thought that none of them would be someone he'd want to spend the rest of what was likely to be an unnaturally long life with, but they were nice, all the same.
Evola had led him into the dragon-side lounge where Evoli and the rest were waiting and there introduced two Water kits, two Lights, an Earth, and a Fire. They whole group of them chatted away for several hours, though the Waters and Evola seemed to be doing the most talking, and Riya came away from the afternoon feeling a little overwhelmed. He did note, however, that the Fire, whose name was Cemitae and who had been one of the two who had spoken to Andy at the meeting event, seemed on particularly good terms with Evola, joking with her and even tussling playfully as children will do. Evoli confided privately that they were good friends, having grown up in the same village. When Riya asked whether Evoli had come here with any friends, the little dragon had mumbled something unintelligible and let one of the Waters take over the conversation.
Now, after a rather large dinner-- they had served the most excellent meat, some kind of deer, in a sauce unlike anything Riya had ever tasted before-- that made sitting through the lecture on plant and animal life on Avengaea without falling asleep a definite difficulty, Riya had escaped to a grassy hillock bare of trees and partway between the bonding complex gate and the earth cathedral. He lay there on his back, arms folded behind his head, staring up at the stars. There were remarkably few bugs here, too, a fact Riya was rather enjoying; mosquito bites on skin as fair as his tended to be rather ugly on top of being ungodly uncomfortable.
Tomorrow is the big day, he thought, for perhaps the tenth time since he'd gotten out here. His mind kept going back to that. Dinner the following night would be a banquet for the candidates and guests, followed directly by the ceremony and choosing of bond mates. Riya could very easily imagine one of the twins choosing him, they both seemed to like him a lot, but at the same time he didn't want to get his hopes up. Everything had been going so well so far-- well, other than being stuck in a room with Mister Military-- that he didn't know if his luck would continue to hold.
::Thinking hard, there, Riya?::
Riya jumped, quite literally, and sat up sharply, heart suddenly beating at twice its normal speed. Mullen was striding towards him, grinning wryly. Riya hadn't seen him since he dropped the two candidates off for their first meeting with the dragonets, and he'd hurried off immediately once they knew where they were going. Why was he here now? Had something changed? Then, for a horrifying moment, all of Riya's worries from back on Earth came screaming back: he'd been found out, he was going to be arrested, yanked from the program and sent back to Earth in chains for being a Martian spy, he'd never see a dragon again--
Reason reasserted itself before Riya could experience more than a split second of panic: if he were being arrested, there would be UNIS soldiers, not just Mullen, and Mullen would certainly not be smiling. He was probably here for the bonding ceremony tomorrow, only a little early. Maybe he had things of his own to see to in Sanctuary. Check that, he probably did have things of his own to see to. The captain's life hardly revolved around Riya and Andy, after all. Even so, that moment of fear left his heart going unnaturally fast and a slight dizziness in his head as the after-effects of an aborted surge of adrenaline. He gave Mullen a slightly light-headed grin and fumbled for some sort of an answer to his half-way rhetorical question.
"Uh, yeah, sir, I guess I was thinking hard," he finally managed. He made as if to climb to his feet, but Mullen held up a hand to forestall him and, instead, sat down beside Riya.
"Thinking about anything in particular?" he asked conversationally.
"Uh... well, the dragons, and tomorrow night, I guess was about it," Riya answered, sure he sounded like an idiot. And, quickly once he realized he'd forgotten it, he added, "Sir."
Mullen chuckled at that, folding his hands around his knees, slightly raised. He fell silent, then, looking up at the sky, and Riya shifted uncomfortably. For a long, awkward moment, both were quiet: Mullen obviously thinking, Riya unsure of what to say, and even if he had thought of something, not sure he wanted to interrupt the captain's train of thought. Somewhere in the trees, a foreign night-bird called, and a cricket-like insect chirped.
"How're you and Anderson getting along?" Mullen asked suddenly.
Riya blinked and, caught off-guard, answered honestly: "Miserably, actually. I think he regularly curses the day I was born."
Another chuckle, though a smaller one, and another long pause. This one wasn't quite as long, but it felt like it was, because now Riya was quite keen to hear his next words. Why would he even bring up Mister Military, anyway?
"I think you two could be a good team, if you ever learned to get along."
Whatever Riya had been expecting, that wasn't it. He laughed, a short, surprised, disbelieving laugh. "Are you kidding? Sir? I mean, he thinks I'm a rude little prick, I think he's a stuck-up asshole, and I really don't think anything short of a miracle is going to make us friends anytime soon."
"You could be surprised," Mullen said simply, somehow taking Riya's minor outburst and quite non-regulation language in stride. "This whole project is something of a miracle." Riya stared at him, half-convinced that the man was crazy, but he couldn't think of anything to say to counter that.
Finally, after another stretch of silence, Mullen picked himself up, brushed off his uniform slacks, and gave Riya a small smile. Riya scrambled to his own feet, if just so he didn't feel so small looking up at the man. "Good luck tomorrow night, Riya Keth," the captain said softly, holding out a hand to him. Riya took it hesitantly and Mullen shook it gravely, released him, and turned, walking off into the forest, away from the bonding complex and the rest of the city.
It took Riya a moment to shake free of whatever stupor that strange interaction had cast on him, but when he did he suddenly wanted safe walls and clean lights around him, not the shadows and open space of the night hillock. He hurried back down the mountainside and headed for his room. Right then, he didn't care if mister Military was there, he just wanted somewhere that felt a little less weird than the moonlit forest.