Iryudyo liked it at Azon. Everything there was dark, somewhat dangerous, and more than typical numbers of people liked either being hurt, or hurting things.

He almost thought he fit right in. Every once in a while though, he'd see one of the locals yelling - at Sargon, the leader? That guy kind of scared Iryudyo, and his ... what, daughter? Grand daughter? Something like that, she snarled and hissed and puffed herself up on occasion. Rather like Ivo did, so he guessed that she was some kind of shapeshifter.

But no one had seen him when he was watching them. He kept it to himself, why bother messing with the authority figures when there were far more fun people to hang out with?

Iryudyo watched the eggs too, absently at first but then later on in the evening it was basically time for them to hatch. He'd spent weeks there, trying to listen and understand about the dragons anatomy, why some had more heads than normal, and all that guff.

He'd rather have been out hunting. At least the day before, he'd helped take something down for the hatching feast. He felt itchy, all over. Like he needed to scratch fleas - but he didn't have fleas, did he?

Of course not. And if he did, he'd have gotten them here. All those odd little ligon things outside? Feh! They probably had all kinds of parasites.

It became apparent that not only was this a huge hatching, but it was an unusually violent one. Even considering the hydra mothers and fathers there, whose children normally would have fought each other to the death for their first meal. He'd over heard that too - wow.

He lost count of the beautiful and deadly hatchlings coming from their shells. Iryudyo could hardly believe some of them. Many headed, some with too many tails, and a couple of them that had been born with earrings.

He wanted one - now that he'd seen a bunch of people wearing the things. But he realized that they'd just get caught on things out at the Plateau.

The itching on his skin grew more intense by the minute, toward the middle of the hatching. But he couldn't be that infested, could he? Really?

Then - Iryudyo heard a dark, gruff voice from the black sand. "Iryudyo." Everyone seemed impressed that the hatchling could talk. It ... walked up to him, and the cheetah Kin stood almost mute before the three-headed oddly winged hy-king. "It is you I choose since we are two of a kind. But I have to ask you to do something very important."

The strangely marked hy-king paced around, making several other candidates back up over themselves in the process. They didn't want to get speared by his many claws, nor his horn buds. They looked odd, if sharp.

Before Iryudyo got the chance to wonder out loud what his draconic friend could want from him, the hyking said, "Dude, you've got to take a bath. You smell like ass and cheese."

"... wha?" Iryudyo said, taken aback. Did he mean that? He laughed, still a bit confused, and he wanted to smell himself. He didn't really stink like ass?

The dragon spread toothy smiles across his three heads. "I am Reinnakiegin, but you may call me the Jester!"

The queen of the unbonded Royals announced them as such, to the crowd at large. Iryudyo was stunned. He'd bonded. And what a bond...

They headed away from the sands, toward the smell of fresh meat and foods, and Iryudyo said, "you and I are going to really amaze my tribe, you know that? We're going to slay em."

"I like that thought, more than you think..." Jester hissed, and dug into his meal.