Kenist Miana Stories: Koaekaeala and Dune at the Abstract Destiny

"Where should I wait?" Dune asked, bouncing excitedly with each stride as she trotted to keep up with the larger enkeyn.

"There are places for the audience to sit," Koaekaeala answered serenely, as if he wasn't about to be mentally bound up with a newborn-- new-hatched?-- little dragon-creature. "I'm sure there are seats there that will accommodate someone like you. They have seats that will accommodate someone like me, after all."

They were back on Star City, just leaving the moving room-- "lift"-- that had brought them to the place where the Abstract Destiny was tethered. Parked. Docked? Dune was still sorting out what words meant what; given she'd only started studying the Nexiian language a week and a half ago, she thought she was doing a fairly good job of it. Though her own terigon egg was not yet available-- apparently they were behind in producing them due to certain events on the ship, whatever that meant, but she had been told she would be contacted... somehow... when things were ready again-- the eggs Koaekaeala had signed up for were ready. And somehow or another, she'd wound up able to come to watch! Dune still wasn't sure how that had come about, exactly, but she wasn't complaining. She thought it would be very exciting, watching a hatching.

"Through here," Koae said, leading the way into the ship. "We're early, but I didn't particularly want to fight through a crowd to get here."

"I'd probably get trampled," Dune agreed, glad he'd brought them early.

Already the hatching bay-- which was much larger than Dune had expected!-- was busy. Though there were only a couple people in the audience, but there were ushers everywhere-- oddly, moving about in groups of three-- and a set of three tables along the far wall were manned by three aides of some sort arranging platters of meat. All looked human, or mostly so, so they were familiar despite their strange outfits-- but not everyone was familiar! An elderly-looking human shadowed by a pair of bipedal creatures the likes of which Dune, at least, had never seen. They reminded her of Sharians, vaguely, only with such clothes on them, and in such colors...!

More, different odd-looking creatures stood on the floor of the hatching bay itself, two standing back and watching a third make its rounds among the eggs. The latter looked like someone had taken the three brightest shades of red, blue, and yellow and splashed him liberally with them. He had a mane like a Plains enkeyn, but no wings or horns. The other two were equally wingless, but neither were so colorful.

"Those," Koaekaeala explained, "are the parents."

Dune blinked. "Which ones?"

"Those three."

Well, now, that was just silly. "How can anyone have more than two parents?"

"I don't understand it, either, but it's true. Why don't you get settled? I should go stand with the rest of the candidates."

As she did so, climbing up into the stands and perching delicately on a chair in the first row, she peered at the group Koaekaeala joined, and Dune was even more amazed at their sheer variety. There were a few humans-- one with bright pink hair!-- someone who looked like a human crossed with a cat-- however that was possible!-- and a creature that reminded Dune of a monkey, but which seemed far too intelligent for a mere animal. There was a thick-bodied red dragon with three heads, and a giant... mechanical... thing? Dune was wide-eyed, staring at it all as more of the audience straggled in, trying to wrap her brain around so many strange things.

And she'd thought her home had a wide variety of sentient creatures!

Capering around the floor was a trio of mottled young ones-- each of which bigger than Dune, herself, she guessed-- which, given their appearance, belonged to the whole group's "parents". Just as Koae had said, they looked very much like a combination of all three of them, not just two: they had the cat-like one's patterning, the bejeweled one's odd tail and a smattering of his gems, and the brown and cream one's fringe-like mane. Dune had no idea how it was possible, but it was obviously true. The three already born-- hatched-- didn't inherit their feline parent's vibrant coloration, being a patchwork of small swatches of brown and red, with bright blue eyes. They were actually rather cute.

Others, however, did inherit their feline father's bright coloring. The eggs hatched almost entirely at the same time, or certainly within the same two or three minutes, and became a very colorful mass of lively pups. Nine of the eggs resulted in nine very different pups, but the rest-- divided into groups of three, oddly enough, though not so oddly when she saw what came out of them-- produced sets of identical triplets... in varying colors, some of them quite bright!

As she'd never seen anything like this before, Dune watched avidly, though the crowd around her was far too loud-- and the action too far away-- for her to actually hear much. Still, sight alone was plenty! She felt like she had too much to look at. There was so much that she actually missed Koaekaeala's bonding! The last of the triplets were making their choices-- the big mechanical thing was the last one, and it was being approached by three brown pups-- when she realized the enkeyn was no longer there. She had to stand up and crane her neck around to see him, because he was, to her surprise, at the meat-laden tables along the far wall! She couldn't see a pup anywhere, but he was also blocking her view quite nicely with his large self.

Since she'd sat in the very middle of the stands' front row, hoping for the best view of as much as possible, all Dune had to do was leap free and glide down to the floor itself. She much preferred that to trying to push her way past the rest of the crowd-- many of whom were trying to leave, themselves, now that all of the pups had bonded or chosen a guardian. She kept close to the wall, not even sure if this was allowed, but she wanted to see the pup who'd chosen him!

Either no one had a problem with her presence or no one noticed it, for Dune reached the busy tables without mishap and wove her way to where Koaekaeala-- one of the largest of the mixed group-- was sitting. He looked over his shoulder at her as she approached. "Ah, miss Dune." He wasn't smiling-- she hadn't really expected him to, for as far as she could tell, he didn't smile much-- but his ears were perked and alert, his feathers slightly fluffed, and tail flipping fairly energetically, like a happy cat's. He didn't have to smile; Dune smothered a giggle.

However, his bulk still blocked her view of whichever pup was eating its first breakfast on his opposite side.

"Are you going to introduce me?" she teased, craning her neck in a vain attempt to see.

"Ah, yes. Come over here, then...." Dune obediently trotted around him as he shifted his hips to the other side, revealing a calico in various shades of brown peeking over his haunches curiously. "Miss Dune, may I present: Terynesa Selamputo."

Terynesa Selamputo wiped her mouth self-consciously, then smiled brightly. Dune couldn't help but grin, back: well this would be an interesting change for stoic Koae!