"Do you think we should?"

"I don't know," Rythrys answered yet again. It was the third time he'd asked. "There isn't really any reason to do it... but there aren't any reasons not to, either."

"I think we should," Ssubyrsyn said, also for the third time, leaning back on the sand and staring up at the dully darkening sky. "So do you-- don't lie, you do. That's a reason, right there."

"Only if Rysaa wants to, too," Rythrys reasserted. "We do things together."

"It'll take us weeks to convince him," Ssubyr said glumly. "We'll be gone by then, and we'll have to wait until we find someplace else."

Thrys just shrugged. Ssubyr had the distinct impression he had a different perspective on the subject, but he had yet to divulge it, and Ssubyr couldn't imagine what it could be. Ssothrysaa was slow to come to any decision, much less a major one like this.

They'd already exhausted the subject, really, and were now just repeating themselves. But what else was there to talk about for hours and hours while they waited for their brother to finish his scrying? Especially when it was something on both of their minds that no decision had been made on yet.

There wasn't even much to look at. The wind was still so that the only thing it carried with it was right where they sat, not a cloud graced the sky to pluck shapes from, the sunset in the desert was boring and hardly colorful at all, and there weren't any people around to watch. If it wasn't for his own speculations and imaginings, courtesy of that well-discussed subject, Ssubyrsyn would have been extremely bored. In fact, even with his own speculations and imaginings, he was already a little bored.

So it was with grateful eagerness that he sensed the stirring of air and heard the approaching footsteps in the sand. They weren't paired footsteps, unless it was two people walking out of step, one of them with a pronounced limp, but it didn't sound like two people. He sat up quickly, twisting around to see who it was. Thrys looked over his shoulder; he hadn't heard the sound, as his hearing wasn't quite as good as Ssubyr's, but he couldn't exactly miss the motion.

It was one of the little dragons from before, when they'd introduced themselves so flamboyantly to the big fish's class. She was be-finned and a smoky shade of purple that shimmered faintly in the dying light. No wonder it hadn't sounded like a two-footed person: she had four feet! The "limp" he'd guessed was because she had a slightly crumpled-looking roll of paper in one webbed, long-fingered forepaw and was walking awkwardly because of it, as if trying not to squish it further. Actually, she looked a little awkward, anyway, with her webbed feet. She gave Ssubyr and his brother a quiet smile, then looked past them at Ssothrysaa, who was still focused intensely on the stream.

"Can I go talk to him?" she asked very quietly, as if not to disturb him. "To-- Ssothrysaa?"

"You can try," Rythrys answered in careful Nexiian, shrugging. "He probably will not answer. He is-- busy."

"I know," the dragon nodded. "I want to help."

Both of them stared after has as she continued her shuffling walk down to the riverbank and sat down beside their motionless brother. She watched his still face silently for a very long time before either of them looked away. Ssubyr was the first to move, and he glanced over at Thrys and whispered, "Do you think that scroll was...?"

"I don't know," Thrys frowned.

"If it is... do you think Rysaa will...?"

"I don't know. I wouldn't think so, but...."

"You could look!" Ssubyr suggested excitedly. He knew Thrys hadn't peered into the future at all yet for this trip-- which was unusual, as he usually wasn't at all shy of seeing what was to come-- but this seemed the perfect occasion to do so, to Ssubyr! Who wouldn't want to know whether their grumpy brother-- who they were sure would take forever to bring around to the very idea-- would be the first to choose to bond?

Thrys just gave him a dirty look, however. "That'd be a waste of time."

"Why?" Ssubyr demanded incredulously.

"Because all we have to do is wait a little and we'll find out for ourselves," Thrys replied with maddening reasoning.

"I hate waiting," Ssubyr sighed, flopping back onto the sand and folding his arms behind his head. "And knowing Rysaa, it'll be a long wait!"

"It'll be good for you," Thrys said loftily, looking back at the pair by the water. Ssubyr didn't deign to answer: the stars were starting to come out, and since they looked different on every new world they visited, he liked picking out new pictures whenever he had the chance. And here, outside the city proper and a comfortable distance away from the bonding complex, there were enough stars visible that he could make out whatever pattern he wanted. That could keep him occupied until Rysaa was done with his magic, his decision, or whatever.

Today, all the pictures he found were dragons. He had dragons on the brain, what with one sitting on the riverbank in front of him, a whole school full of them behind him, two members of the Search team on another planet bonding them, and the possibility that he might get to do the same! Ssubyrsyn didn't really know why the idea fascinated him so, bonding dragons. He was, after all, already bonded to his brothers, and that ought to be enough for anyone, right?

But he knew his brothers, inside and out, like he knew himself. They'd been together for as long as they could remember, for what felt like aeons. The feel of being in each other's minds was a familiar one. and they could usually predict each other's actions fairly closely. They loved each other, of course, but that were all so-- so-- familiar. Dragons... they were different, they were new, they were so alien and exotic that Ssubyr was considering adding one of them to the trio-- or three of them to the trio-- that they'd been for... forever.

That wasn't all of it, though, and he knew better than to think that the exotic would stay so for very long, so it would have to be more than that. It was strange, actually, how intrigued he was. Usually he didn't think so hard about anything, just let things flow as they would. He didn't usually want anything, not particularly strongly and not for very long. Well, all right, "very long" could be relative, but the inclination was still stronger than he was used to. It was possible that it would abate after a while-- inclinations usually did, unless he bothered acting upon them-- but what would happen if it didn't?

Well, it really depended on his brothers, he decided after he found yet another constellation that looked dragon-y. Rythrys was right: they did things together. If Ssothrysaa decided to bond the dragon who offered that slightly crumpled scroll-- that had to be what she had, right? one of the scrolls they said many of the dragons used to bond?-- then he and Rythrys would bond, too. If not... well, the inclination would probably pass, and he wouldn't have bothered to act on it, so he'd eventually forget about it.

At the moment, though, as he picked out one more dragon-shape in the stars, he rather hoped Rysaa would chose yes.

Chapter Nine

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