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In the morning, Alexander had fixed some breakfast from the food that his sister had gotten. The smell of it brought her awake first, Istvan was still crashed out and more unconscious than asleep.

"He's been like that all night. I hope he's okay," Alexander said, chewing on a sausage. The fire he'd made would have to be put out soon because the grasses might catch.

At last, Istvan roused and sprang into a fully-aggressive fighting stance as he did so. His eyes darted back and forth around him. Seeing the stream, draks in the distance, and the pair of his old friends brought him slowly back to reality.

With his head hanging he apologized. Rey held out a sausage that had been sizzling on the end of a twig. "Here, eat. You'll be okay. No need to apologize to us. You know that."

"Do I?" Istvan said, quietly. "I'm sorry... I'm not hungry. I don't eat much."

"With that body?" Alexander laughed, "no way."

The look that Istvan leveled at him stopped that laugh halfway in his throat. "I don't need to eat. He taught my body how to consume everything it was given and live on it."

Alexander didn't question what it was he'd been fed at that point.

The draks stood up and bugled for attention, as another pair of their kind dropped to the ground. To Istvan's inexpert eyes, the Draks were monsterous. Fur and skin and too many limbs... To Rey and Alex they were Mi'ihen draks with soft manes and sweet faces. Their Knights - both had riders - dropped to the ground and walked toward the humans near the stream, as their draks went to the others to gossip.

Istvan openly stared at the draks, in the time he'd been at the Institute draks had never been allowed near it. Though it would have meant quicker travel, they were to be avoided at all costs. The only mention of Draks were in the bio department where it was assumed that at some point, Renaud wanted to dissect one.

"What's this all about," said one of the Knights. He rode an Ore drak, who was busy watching them instead of preening like the other three. "We've been getting all kinds of interest from the draks about you three."

"Sorry," Alexander said, "We didn't really mean to keep the draks this long." He indicated the pair of communication draks, but the Knight shook his head.

"No, they're not even ours. But they've been babbling about you three all night. They wanted me to come see about Judging you."

Reynate stood up, surprised. Half on impulse and half because it ought to be done, she tossed dirt on the fire to put it out as if that was all she'd stood to do. "Really. To judge us? But we're already kind of spoken for. I'm headed to be a Peacekeeper. And my brother is a philosophy instructor."

This, the rider took in stride. He looked from Rey to Alexander, then to Istvan. "And you? What are you doing that is so important you must miss being judged as an Aspirant?"

Istvan gave off a bitter laugh, but said nothing. He looked away. Finally, he said, "I'm terrified of heights, and draks are dangerous. Why would any of them find me interesting?"

"Well, they do," the Knight announced. "There is certainly something about the three of you. Perhaps not all at this nest, but surely at a clutch soon enough, you'll have to stand as Aspirants at Mi'ihen. It's not very far away. Do you have to collect any belongings? We can get them on the way."

"I am not going to pair a drak," Istvan said flatly. "I do not want to. I barely want to be around them."

"Then get used to it." The knight said curtly. "These two can get your things, if you wish," he said to Rey and Alexander. His drak had apparently told him of their flight from Windresh's university. He turned again to Istvan. "I don't know what it's going to take to convince you, but you're going to be an Aspirant."

"Whether I want to or not, huh? Story of my life." Istvan stood and walked around to get the ache out of his limbs. He realized that most of his bruises and cuts from yesterday's fight had all but vanished.

"Istvan, what else is there for you to do?" Alexander asked. "Renaud will be looking for you. But from what you've said the last thing he'll do is look at a Castle."

By this time, several other draks and their Knights had arrived, and it was discussed among them. They would take the trio to Mi'ihen, but the local Dun Keiba riders wanted to know about this Institute on their coast. Since it was in their Territory, they should have been asked permission to build it in the first place.

Istvan got a dreadfully angry look on his face, and they stopped talking about it. "I'll inform the Prince that you'll eventually come and speak to him about it, if I may?" The Knight said, hoping that Istvan didn't up and kill him right then.

"Do that. I will want to. The things that go on there are filthy. But I would expect to encounter some resistance. He's bred small, obedient Nex you know."

That led to an animated discussion among the riders, and another glare and silence from Istvan. Finally, as the sun had come up a little more and the draks were eager to fetch things and go, Istvan agreed to be taken to Mi'ihen and become an Aspirant. He had nothing else left to him anyway. He assumed that his family had abandoned him, and never once questioned about it, even when given the opportunity.

That guilty secret was one that Rey and Alex would have to keep for themselves, until the right time.

For now, with the Judge carrying Istvan gingerly on his drak, and the other two helping get what few things were required by Rey and Alex, they headed to Mi'ihen.

NEXT!!