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"Stop screaming!" Yelled a man's voice, over the wind and the sound of wing beats. "We're not going to hurt you!"

There was a momentary pause in the foursome's passionate wailing. Four cats, just coming into their maturity, they sure knew how to howl.

The pale bronze dragon gave a loud bellow, and sent to their minds a warning. If you do not stop yelling you WILL fall. I have you, you will not be harmed!

They stopped. Their sensitive telepathic minds had almost never (read: only once) been contacted by another sentient life form. This was totally different.

"Did you just -- that was the dragon -- how did we not die? -- I gotta pee!" Came from the four kittens.

The ground was still looming, but slowly. They could finally see that the dragon with sharp wings and long thin tail was landing on its hind legs - it didn't need all four feet to land. That was a blessing.

The bronze placed the foursome onto the stony outcropping where he'd landed, and the rider jumped down.

"What in the world did you think you were doing? Where did you fall from? You're furry!" He exclaimed. His hair was curly and held back with a bandana, and he looked rather youthful to have such a large dragon in his care. The Kittens didn't know that - well, one seemed to think so anyway.

"Now, wait a minute," Kashmir said. She brushed herself off, and all four of the Kittens had to preen for a moment before they would even really address the situation. They were still cats at heart, after all. "Now, look. You - this, is a dragon." She held her hand up, and the rider nodded.

"His name is Curiosith." He announced. "And I'm Booty."

Three of the four snickered, while Kashmir remained calm. "Of course you are."

"No, really, that's my name," He said, looking away and getting a chuckle from his own dragon. "I was born Boroty, and when I bonded Curiosith my name was shortened."

"Nice sword," Grafitti said, looking at the curved blade in a scabbard at his hip. "Can I see it?"

"No you can not see it," Booty said, not harshly but they could all tell that the sword was an important piece of equipment to him. They were somewhat posessive (witness the dice incident) but none of them considered weaponry to be something they would fight over - there was always another staff or numchuk or something in the training hall.

I think they should stand. The dragon abruptly said to them all. Only Coda had a clue what that could mean.

"Where? Here? They barely belong here, we've only come back," he explained, "because I like to see this old world - it's where I was born. But see, we travel through... time and space," he kind of stopped talking, because the girls were muttering to one another the way bickering Hold girls did.

"He's cute." "No, he's not, he's silly." "The dragon wants to bring us to a -" "We're already standing, why stand? I'd like to sit if you don't mind."

"Girls - please," Booty said, waving his hands to try vainly to get their attention. "Look, you don't belong here. But neither do I any more. Our home was moved from this world to another similar one. Do you understand that much?"

"If we didn't understand it," Sith said, darkly, "we wouldn't be here in the first place."

"We traveled through a doorway," added Grafitti.

"We didn't mean to," Coda said, glancing at Kashmir in apology.

All their words to each other while they were falling caught up to them, and they gave each other an abrupt group hug - yet again interrupting themselves and Booty. He had to learn patience.

His little blue flitter landed on his shoulder, and Booty absently rubbed it's hide while he waited for the Kittens to adjust to being alive instead of being squished flat. He'd felt that once or twice, anyway, so he knew.

"Now that you're all happy and finished," he stressed the last word, "could I explain what I want to do?"

"Please do," Kashmir said.

"Well, look. This world is not suited to your ... well, your fur. Humans are here, and very few other things. But since I'm from a group that actually does know about your type, I can probably arrange a good place for you to stand."

"Now... Standing," Coda said, looking back into her memories of a poorly written set of books she'd barely scratched the surface of, "means that we'd be up to bond with one of these dragons. Doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does. Curiosith thinks you'd be good. He doesn't usually Search like that, but I guess you're right for it."

"Are we," Kashmir said, tilting her head and thinking to her sisters. How is this possible? This is a fictional place, you said so? What happens when we get home?

If we get home, Coda thought back carefully. The others remained silent mentally.

"So do you want to try?" Booty said. He thought about it for another moment, and added, "If you need to get back to your own world, your dragons could do that for you. Like I said, we're here visiting briefly - but this isn't even my real time or location. We were just exploring."

"We could go home?" Sith asked. "Cool." She started looking over the narrow-bodied dragon, and examined his claws. "These'd make great crime fighting partners."

"We don't fight crime," Kashmir said, flatly.

"Not yet we don't, because Catherine said we can't. But if we got back with these..." Grafitti said, smiling.

"Where, Curi?" Booty asked, and the bronze Adanuk dragon shifted his gaze over the four Kittens.

Not the same place for each of them, I think. There are many nexus places needing them.

"Well I know that. Let's head back to the Isle." Booty turned to the girls, and said, "we've got a big database of worlds with dragon sands. We can fit you to the right place. Come on. This time, you get to ride, instead of being picked up."

"Oh, it was kind of fun," Grafitti said, laughing.

It was a good thing that Curiosith was as large a bronze as he was. They fit along his narrow neck, but since Booty flew without a harness they didn't really have any other way to hold on but to gently dig their claws into his thick hide.

"Is it okay?" Asked Coda, holding up her open-clawed fingers.

"Oh yeah, they're designed to travel through the Nexus, between times and places. So it gets kind of cold there. He's got lots of extra skin. Don't worry."

You tell them that, because you do not have to feel their claws poking you!

"Aw, hushup," Booty muttered to the dragon. They jumped up, soared into the sky. Since the portal door was still open, they could still see into the hallway where they had fallen. Someone would doubtless close that door eventually, but for now, it remained open.

Then, the dragon lept through the Nexus.

***

It was cold, strangely silent. There was almost like a hush, though, because there were usually a lot of things going on in this part of the Nexus. Spirits accumulated around the travelways of the Kshau protecotrate's riders, because they were the only ones who listened when they passed through.

The kittens were stunned. The whole place had a resonance to it that their minds were capable of feeling due to their own psionic ability. They didn't quite feel comfortable here, but it wasn't something they could not do again.

They would have to, of course.

***

When they arrived into normal space again, it was over a brilliantly daylit island paradise. The green and tan island below stretched off into the distance, the far peak of its eastern mountain barely visible even from this height. A smaller island also had its own mountian, and that was where Booty and Curiosith carried their passengers.

Trumpeting loudly, the bronze announced himself, and they lit onto one of the higher landing flats carved onto the side of the big mountian. Several people came from a passageway nearby, and all four girls sighed with the same voice.

"Ah, Booty, you're back. And you've brought us ... who?" Hollis, the caerlord/weyrleader for Blackstone said. The girls bounded off the dragon - not needing any assistance to land on their feet of course - and over to the pampas-haired man.

He was so used to this kind of reaction from girls, that he obviously seemed to enjoy it. With a loving, almost fatherly smile, though, he opened his arms and welcomed them to Blackstone.

"Curi says they're to stand," Booty said, as Hollis looked each feline over.

Nodding, Hollis agreed, "they certainly are. Where do you suppose needs these wonderful kits, now?" He led them into the hallway, which was lit by electric lights. Coda seemed surprised, but didn't say anything.

Booty and his dragon remained outside for a while, in case they were needed for transport again. They doubtless would be.

Hollis introduced them to the computer room where all the data on dragon sands - both old world and nexus - were kept. The girls knew how to use them, it was clear, so he didn't really have to do anything other than show them which program to run.

After gazing at the images and snapshots of the dragons at each sands, each kitten was drawn toward a certain place.

Kashmir sensed great power and strength in the dragons found on the new Kjanli'eyr. Not only that, but she found that she could pronounce the name of the place. Kash only hopes that there won't be fur flying - she read about their Eyrlass who is a shapeshifter. KASHMIR HAS BONDED to BLACK OPAL KREASIATH!

Grafitti has chosen to bond at Cathair Utopian! She is waiting for a small clutch to hatch, and noticed early on that there was another rather handsome cat-morph waiting as well! GRAFITTI BONDED SILVER (m) OSSERVITH!

Coda looked at the beautiful land of Vella Crean, and sighed. Here was a place that had, the advertisement said, strong unusual dragons, a history of new types, and a genetic engineering program that she was kind of intrigued by. She decided that was where she'd go. CODA BONDED BRONZE (f) YAOITH!

Sith... was attracted by the big, stunning Moire Protectorate dragons. As rare as they come, Sith wants to show off. She has finally BONDED TO BRONZE BLUE GREEN (f) STVARI!