"Psst!"

"Psssssst!"

Atenu glanced around, her three smaller heads gazing in different directions. It was her main horned head that spotted an intruder in her doman. Suddenly bristling with anger, the Hydragon flung open her dark wings, and hissed with all four heads. She was about to take in a deep breath and spit something nasty at this intruder, when her counterpart slipped into the area.

"How did you get in here?" Eusith demanded. He was a huge black Hydragon, with six heads total, and a huge crown on his main head which showed all manner of gems. His smaller red heads writhed, as did those three on Atenu. They finally truly agreed on something - this intruder had to go!

"I'm here to tell you both something, I think you'll be interested...." The brown colored dragon said, half a growl and half a conspiratorial whisper. It suddenly struck Eusith that this dragon had spoken aloud, something that not many could do.

He put his wing out in front of Atenu when she almost rushed the intruder. "Wait," he growled, and because his tone was so serious, Atenu paused. Two of her heads snapped at his wing sail, though.

"Who are you, and what is this proposition of yours?" Eusith said, his smaller heads hissing and whispering, and one of them reaching back to snap at Atenu who was snarling.

The brown dragon was muscular if a bit hunched over, but as a brown he was somewhat small. He had an oddly broken looking tail, and on his head was a fold of material that made him look... rather silly to Eusith, but to Atenu, he suddenly seemed a bit rakish.

"I am Booyath," he said, pronouncing it BOOyath, "from the Healing Den. We've heard about a flight. You might like it."

"Who is we? What is this Healing Den?" Atenu asked, pushing her way past Eusith's black wing. He let her pass, because she was not trying to claw through it.

"We, just a few dragons here and there," he said, "and the Den? It's .... well, it's like this place," he said, looking around and admiring the scenery - since this was an interdimensional portal bubble that had their living arrangements set into it, all via magic, he could appreciate the whole place pretty well. Being from something similar. He described, in short, clever terms, how the Den floated in the Nexus waiting for people to come and bond their dragons, or to heal them if they've been in a battle.

"So there is a flight at this Den," Eusith said, and Booyath shook his head. He made a little rude gesture with his forepaws, which both Hydragons noticed he kept off the floor in general, he was mostly bipedal. If a bit hunched.

"No, no, it ain't there, it's at a Dragonstake called Cy. You've heard of that I think..." He winked, and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. They smelled up the air, but not as much as Atenu and Eusith's bonds when they were making magic stuff.

"Cy," it echoed around among the smaller heads of the hydragons. It was their birth place, if not their home for a time.

"It is for our kind? Most places and people do not seem to like us." Eusith said, glancing at Atenu with his crowned head.

"I wonder why," she replied, "I don't like you either."

Eusith gave the hydragon equivalent of an undefeated sneer, and looked back at Booyath.

"How do you know of this flight, then? And .... you are planning to attend?" Eusith said.

"Of course I am. But I got a couple other dragons to invite. You hurry along. Oh yeah - you got bonds. Y'might tell them first." Booyath sucked on the large cigarette, it was hardly fit for human consumption, being dragon-sized. Booyath tilted his bandana lower over his eyes, and then vanished into the shadows of the Nexus, before the pair of hydragons could stop him.

"That was ...... odd." Atenu said. Her heads agreed.

"Do you think that you could keep up with a flight? Or are your silly long wings too narrow for quick movement?" Eusith said.

"I'll do just fine, you big lummox, I'll out fly you that is for sure." She huffed, and folded her long slender wings over her striped back, kicking backwards as she left the chamber to find Geline. Shivt would have to find out if Eusith told him - she still did not like the furry man very much, and the feeling was mutual for her bond from Eusith's point of view. Why she'd want to bond a pale, hairless creature like that in the first place....

***

"Psssst!" Booyath said, hissing from around a tree. He felt exposed and uncomfortable, until he realized that there were no people around to see him. Even though he was on Earth, or an Earth, it felt a little safer here than many other worlds which hated dragons.

Of course, around this particular locale, a scientific lab and hospital, with a nearby military training ground complete with a lake and fields, the people hated dragons less than they hated a group of people. It was one of those people who turned her head to see Booyath, not her pink and splotty colored dragoness.

"Oooh, a dragon - male, say, do you have a rider?" Candi asked, skipping up to the brown. "You look like a hoodlum," she commented.

"I know," Booyath said, exposing his teeth in a big nasty smile. "You look like a slut."

Candi grinned, "I know."

"Then we're even. Can I talk to your dragon, or are you gonna waste my time all morning?" Booyath walked by her, on his two chunky hind legs. His wings didn't look remarkably strong, but they were large enough to fly when he was out of the woods. How had he gotten in there without diving in from the sky?

When he reached the side of the hill, where the trees had thinned and he could look over everything, Booyath sat on his round ass. There, down by a pile of what looked to be barrels of waste and grime, was a fantastic glowing green and black dragoness. He knew it was a she - but had no clue why he knew that.

"Oh, that's Henshuth," Candi said, noticing that Booyath was looking her over. "She's quite radioactive."

"She's a biped," he said, almost in awe. "And, I think, so is your friend there." He tossed his head at Tynieth.

A gleeful twitter came from the pink marked dragon, and Henshuth looked up from her study of the newest batch of toxic biohazardous wastes. She looked directly up at Booyath, and then with a bit of distaste, at Candi.

"They can both come to a flight - it's at Cy." Booyath announced. "Your Tynieth is from there, I can tell."

"Ooh, you're good, well traveled." Candi said.

"Not really," Booyath said, "just smarter than I look..."

"I would hope so," said a male voice, from behind Candi. She almost jumped, but she realized that her 'father' Virus had been there for a while already. Her blood and his - both tainted but intense.

"Oh, dad, he's not all bad. I'm sure if he found just the right girl she'd be able to fix him up."

Booyath looked at Virus - almost as if for help. Virus rolled his handsome eyes and weakly grinned. Women who thought they could change their men, next on Jerry Springer. Of course, his daughter Candi did change men. Into ravaged std-ridden outcasts from their annoyed girlfriends.

Her pink and amoeba-marked dragoness, Tynieth, flapped a bit and came up the side of the hill, to look at Booyath and wonder if he was worth letting him fly her. Henshuth slipped up the hill on two legs, her wing-arms balancing her so gracefully. In the daylight, her bright internal glow was a bit dimmed, and her black hide could actually be seen. In any kind of shadow, however, her skeleton glowed green, and her four red eyes could be seen gazing over anything that moved.

"I will go, yes." She announced. "My rider, will you see to it that Tynieth does not infect anyone I might mate with?"

"She wouldn't do that!" Candi cried.

"Of course she would," Virus said, looking at the rancid pink creature. "And yes, of course I will. That is your job, my love."

Henshuth drew herself up proudly and then flew off, sharp blue and pink wings coming off her arms rather than her back.

Booyath mentally conveyed the time and place, 'soon and Cy' and vanished again...

Booyath

Brown, Male, Unbonded

Hatched at Healing Den April Fools Abandoning - has been abandoned again, and resides there.

While he is rather hunched up now, he does walk on two legs, it's so he can better convey his gang signals with his hands.

He's a smallish brown, about the size of a typical large blue, and he is around 8 years old.

Tynieth

Pink-Amoeba-Marked, Female, Bonded to Candi

Hatched at Cy's first Valentine's frenzy clutch, offspring of Tuberculosith and Soneth

Tynieth seems to have similar powers to her bond, however, she chooses dragons to infect with a variety of diseases or ideas.

Candi is a form of virus cloned by her father Virus, and can control a limited number of sexually transmitted diseases. She doesn't limit herself to who she spreads it to though.

Tynieth is around 2 or 3 years old.

Henshuth

Glowing radioactive black, green, pink, blue. Female, ridden by Virus

Hatched at Ring of Fire Halloween clutch, offspring of Mayath and Scythe

A small sized dragoness, around 20' long, but bipedal and strongly perceptive. Her glow is dangerous. She has four eyes, and dangerous horns, and her wings are connected to her body with her forelimbs.

Virus is a handsome looking man, however he is hardly human on the inside. Able to produce viruses, bacteria and the like at will, and kill the same if he must, he and his offspring have brought a taint to the dragon community... He relishes any contact with other worlds - their foreign bacteria are interesting to him.

Henshuth is about 5 years old.

Atenu

Green Red-striped Hydragon, 4 heads, no crown, bonded to Geline

Hatched at Cy, offspring of Dohosh and Birana

Though less huge than her black 'friend', Atenu is still a large hydragon by any standards, probably shy of a bronze, but certainly bigger than most browns.

Geline is a mage, learning both white and black magic. Her partner Shivt doesn't get along with her bond. Of course.

Atenu is around 4 years old

.

Eusith

Black Hydragon, 6 heads, Crown gold with sapphire, onyx, emerald, diamond and a couple other things...; Bonded to Shivt, Hatched at Cy, Dohosh and Birana parents.

A gigantic black and red hydragon, with wings that are simply massive. What's impressive about him also, is that he appears to also be bipedal if he wishes to be.

Shivt is a black mage, descended from a feline humanoid and an electricity elemental (static elemental...). He and Geline both teach magic.

Eusith is around 4 years old, from the same nest that his green companion hatched. They are usually at each other's throats. But they may yet choose to mate.