Hard green eyes glared at forest-shaded ones. Then, Churana looked down first. "Yes, grandmother. I will wear the dress."

"Good. It was made for you, and you will look fine in it."

"But it *itches* and it is tight around my--"

"You will wear it and enjoy it, and you will say not one more word about it. Do you understand?" Shezumi blinked and her daughter's daughter ground her jaw shut and nodded. "You will eventually learn that style and substance can never be enough. Reflect on the restraint I have shown you and be ready to enter the festival within an hour. Wearing the dress, and a smile."

"Yes, grandmother..." Churana continued to stare at the stone floor of her room, while Shezumi strolled away. The pure control in the older woman's stride, her tone, and her ... well, her magic, always won out. She always looked so young, so perfect. Yet she was now perhaps more than two hundred years old, that Shezumi.

She looked so human, too. Most of the time. But Churana knew, as all the descendants of the dragon knew, that she was hiding something below her yellow-pale skin and brilliant tattoo. Behind her mask of perfect calm lay a raging fire, thrown into relief by her training as a mage.

"I hate this dress," Churana griped, when her grandmother had gone. Down the hall, surely, she could not hear her hissing curses. But what if she had? She would be so angry...

"No, she'll be perfect and calm. I have to learn... Calm and perfect. And wearing this damnable dress." Churana slipped into the bath, spread her wings and floated. Then, finally, just before the hour she was alloted was up, she drifted out of the bath and into her snug dress.

It was a dress not unlike the one which Shezumi usually wore, a wrapped kimono of sorts. But since Shezumi did not always bear her wings on her back, nor her tail out of her rear end, Churana decided that she knew nothing about how annoying it was for her offspring. The dress fit around her wings, and left a slit which her tail could fit through without revealing any of her private parts.

Not that Churana and her generation cared at all about modesty. They were not on Earth after all, they were in the Dragons house! And if they could not be happy with who they were, as dragon kin, then ... How could they even hope to impress anyone with their magical or social arts?

"Hate this dress," Churana muttered once more, while she fluffed her hair dry with a little air spell. Shezumi detested the casual use of magic that most of the younger dragon kin adopted. But she noted well that they were all apt to learn strongly and quickly, where as her mother's generation faltered and had trouble with even the most simple spells outside of fire and flight.

Glamours, scrying, elemental magic, all these things were available at the Dragons House, but Churana only wanted to concentrate on a few arts. She had all the time in the world, supposedly immortal, but wondered if it were really true? After all, her mother was slightly more than half human, and the dragon which sired her in Shezumi was mortal.

Churana did not dwell on those thoughts. Instead, she gathered her wits and tried to take a deep breath. The dress let her barely take half what she wanted to into her lungs, and she cursed again. Then she plucked herself out of the room and strode down the richly appointed hallway to the party.

"It's so true! I cannot bear to hide them, but when Diylar asked me what those strange marks were on my back... I could not bring myself to show!" Then, a gasp. Several others turned when Churana entered the main hall. Kazoku no Ryu had always been a haven for dragons and their kin. Tonight was a ball to celebrate the graduation of several young mages in their ranks.

Tonight was a time for humans. Churana bit back anger at how those eyes stared at her in her own home! She flexed her wings and threw her head back, daring anyone to comment more than a mere whisper. No one did.

Nearly everyone in the hall could claim blood kinship with the lady Shezumi, rider of special green Tesimith of Ryslen weyr. But Churana was one of her primary students, so naturally they assumed that she would be among the graduates. Not so. She was not to be expected to show off any of her arts -- especially not in that dress!

Churana glared at Shezumi, as the whispered comments flickered like wildfire around the room. The graduates wore comfortable working clothes, though they were of a fine quality, they were expected to show off their abilities to the assembled crowd.

Seven of them were lined up, and Churana found herself stepping down the stairs into the room with every eye upon her. No one else was wearing their true form. Not a one.

Not. One. Single. Wing.

Not a tail, nor a long ear. Not a finger out of place. Perfect humans all groomed to their finest.

And if Shezumi had meant for Churana to be anything less than devistated by embarrassment, she would have told her not to keep the wings when at this party. If there had been even a hint that no one else would be sporting their magnificent --

Churana made it to the table nearest, where someone simply got out of her way for her to sit. They did not bother to help push in her seat, the way a gentle man would. She wrapped her tail around her ankles, and set her wings at an angle which allowed her to protect her face from the stares all around her.

Never did her eyes stray from Shezumi. It was tunnel vision, everything else in the room faded to a dim violet haze. Even when the graduates worked their shimmering glamours and spells, Churana glared hard at her grandmother. She picked at the small plate of trendy food set before her by a servant, but did not even blink away.

Her blood boiling, Churana waited for the gala event to loosen up, as the musicians (all of them more human than not) played for the gathering. Everyone else made the attempt to ignore Churana. They danced with gusto, and with big skirts and flowing robes.

Churana stood very slowly, getting up from the human-intended chair, and kept her eyes on Shezumi as the grand-damme of the House chatted with some visitor from another mage academy. Churana walked toward them, and the grey-bearded man shrunk away from the bat-winged girl, as she came up behind Shezumi.

While Churana wasn't overtly draconic in size, she was more than seven feet tall in her normal shape, and could grow to three times that in her full dragon shape. She had no intention of shrinking to her diminutive five-foot-nothing human form, not now. She towered over her grandmother, angrily.

"You'll want to get your books sent on ahead," Shezumi said, not even bothering to end her conversation with the other mage properly. "You're going to be representing us at Talor Cliff's last clutch."

"What?"

"You will be representing us," Shezumi repeated pointedly, low and almost angrily, "at Talor Cliff's last clutch. It is not a normal clutch, and I expect it to be quite a send off for them."

Churana shook her head to clear her mind. She blinked but her eyes remained glued upon her grandmother's form. "Grandmother. I am a student."

"Not if you continue to argue with me," Shezumi countered harshly. "I will have you silent, and if I must make you so myself, I shall. Do you understand?"

Churana remained aghast. Her wings had come up to their full flare, and her tail shifted angrily below her colorful dress. She wanted to breathe in deeply and scream. But this blasted cursed dress constricted her neck so! And her chest could hardly expand.

The third-generation Kazoku dragoness felt faint suddenly. She remembered to breathe, only barely.

"Is this meant to be some kind of honor, or is it a punishment, grandmother?" Churana growled out. "Because it is punishment enough to be made to leave my home. It is even more so that I must disguise myself among my peers and my family --" she finally looked around at the gathering, who were again riveted to her. "You shame me? In front of everyone that means anything to me?"

"I do not shame you, Churana, you do it to yourself." Shezumi replied, not even with any effort.

That drove Churana over her already-precarious edge. "You witch!" She screamed, hoarse. A gasp of terror spread through the room, even the musicians were silent by now. No one confronted the Mother of Dragons this way! "I will not have this! Not in my own home! I will not wear this human trash!" She stripped the dress off herself, using her barest dragon strength to do so. It burned her neck where it tore.

Throwing the tattered dress off to the side, she dared to take a step toward her grandmother. "You might be older than any of us but I swear you do not rule me if I do not wish it! I will go where I please, and it pleases me to remain where I am!"

"Even though you have just ruined your own reputation among your friends and family?" Shezumi whispered, with the hint of a smile on her tiny lips. A dangerous spark danced in her eyes. "Think on it, Churana, you are clearly not meant for this House to hold for very much longer."

"Only because you have pushed me out of it!" Churana screamed. Then, she breathed deeply -- finally free of the confines of the dress. Her golden tan skin glimmered in the fire light, as well as the magical orbs of colors which bobbed here and there. Her wings fanned out, then folded back down. She stood proudly, glaring at her grandmother. "If I leave, it will not be to your little last-clutch. Why should I bother myself with them?"

"Because you may be meant for a dragon there, you ungrateful brat," Shezumi replied, "because you may find a partner there. A mate. As I found mine at Ryslen, and later at the Den."

Churana's forest green eyes widened. "You would have me mate with another mortal dragon?" Before she said anything more, however, Shezumi waved her hand. The silence was overwhelming, and the sudden darkness and chill stunned Churana.

"You will be silent now and you will listen to me." Shezumi glanced around, nodded to herself. "We will speak here, you and I. And you will keep a civil tongue in your head or I WILL have it cut out. You do not speak to your elders in such a tone. Particularly not at my social events."

"You planned this! You PLANNED to shame ME! How dare you!?" Churana squealed, unable to even keep her anger in check now. "If you had just ASKED me, do you want to go to this last clutch at Talor, Churana? I would have said, perhaps! Maybe I might be able to stop my studies, but they are more important to me!"

"Your studies will be here. The dragons may not. They will certainly not be there forever, in fact they will not be there for a moment longer than necessary, I have heard. Just as the Protectorate faded from their home world, back to the nexus, and we have found this place, Talor will be locating themselves where they are needed."

"Then let someone else take the duty. I don't belong there!"

"You belong everywhere a dragon flies," Shezumi said, and then sighed. "I had hoped you would take this sensibly, but I can see that you will still be trouble. So be it. You have a temper that would make my mother pleased, you know."

Her mother -- the dragon herself. Not a shred of human about Churana's great grandmother, no.

"So... What is that supposed to mean?" Churana asked, her anger finally deflating.

"It means that I am proud of you for standing up to me, but I will be expecting you to bond well to your partner. As Tesimith and I are deep partners, and her mates have been mine. There are other beautiful dragons yet to come, Churana. What if one of them is waiting at Talor?"

Completely broken now, Churana looked away. The darkness of this not-world Shezumi brought them to was not unnerving, but the closeness that it created between the two women was uncomfortable at best. Even at her proud tall stature, compared to the sheer calm grace of her grandmother, Churana could only admit defeat by nodding once.

"And I believe they will take you any way that you come to them," Shezumi commented, "but you will have to wear something. You will choose the right things to wear, the climate is not harsh there."

"I can make my own climate," Churana muttered, a last effort to subvert her own demise. "And I hate wearing clothing."

"I know sweet thing. But you must. You are human *enough* to make anyone uncomfortable with your form. They have never quite gotten over a nudity taboo, and besides, sitting on bare stone seats or someone else's chair with nothing between your butt and it is very very rude!"

Taken aback by that comment, Churana let out a broken laugh.

"So go back to your rooms, and take what you would like to study while you are there. You will also be expected to learn their riding rules, but I do not expect them to keep you to them tightly. You can fly yourself after all."

Churana nodded, and numbly allowed Shezumi to guide her back to the party... Where no one remembered the tiniest thing about the incident...

Because I want you to teach me how to fly. Remember? You wanted me to fly off a cliff or something.

"I told you to... ahhh, what's the use... You're just a little boy aren't you." Churana folded her wings back and knelt next to the bronze dragon. "No one understands about you being a bronze and me being a female or something. What's up with that, huh?" She chuckled, scratching the bronze's head until he gave off a croon of draconic delight.

Grandmother will be proud of me... Churana thought. Here I've gotten myself a beautiful bond in Raiokh, or is he a mate? Hmn... I'd best not let her know until he's grown.

Churana remained at Talor Cliff until the dragonet had gotten big enough to fly a bit. Then, she decided, it was time to take him somewhere more private.

It is dark here. Are these the cliffs you wish me to leap from? I think you are insane. The dragon looked down at the churning dark waters, and pulled his head back into the den.

"I think you should keep your thoughts to yourself!" Churana laughed. She spread her wings, and said, "now, you know how to fly, we've got to work on strength training. You're a big boy, come on and follow me."

I want to eat first, Raiokh muttered mentally, and true to form he somehow got his stomach to grumble at the same time. Churana wasn't impressed.

"Now, look, you can dive for fish if you fly." She indicated the waves below their cavern. "And I know you love fish. The way you eat I'm surprised there's anything left in the sea."

But then I will have to fly back up!

"That--" Churana hissed with her eyes finally blazing, "is the POINT! Now move! You're able, now you've got to get WILLING!"

Churana's face fell from a smile into a smirk of anger. "Rai, you're kidding. I swear you come up with the silliest-"

It is not silly! I am serious, Churana! I need to mate!

"I can tell! You're ... hormoning all over the place!" Churana groaned. "Do you have some plan for finding a female? I mean, it's not like they're flocking around here on the dark half..."

They aren't. That is why we must go to the light side again. I like it there, my hide shines best in the sun you know.

"You certainly haven't gotten any less egocentric these last couple months. I take it you do have a female in mind then?"

I don't know yet. I must look around. You got me into the air, Churana, now you've got to fly with me.

Laughing, Churana took wing with her big bronze companion, looking for love...

He found a location called the Ring of Fire, and mated with a stunning nebula colored female named Kviyath. She produced three offspring - Ralinkaiath, Hyioshisan, and Washitaru. No one knows what became of them. But Churana also found 'love' somewhere at the Ring of Fire with a dragon shifter, a 'drasis' named Tenma, and brought back with her a son...leaving her daughter Chennaih with the capable people from his own world. She would not return to her grandmother's home at Kazoku no Ryu, not after the events of that flight.

** from said flight **

"Are we not here on the occasion of a flight, though? Not a comparison of whose bond is cool?" a loud feminine voice said, drawing Jasien's attention away from Turmoil. When the Firelancer-in-training looked back, the man was gone then Jasien noticed he was over by the dragons who were still having a chat.
"Yeah..." the young man said a little sheepishly. "How are you, Shezumi? Svedok? Churana?"
"We're fine...except for my grandmother being here," Churana responded a little spitefully which earned her a glare from Shezumi. Evidently the young dragon-kin had wanted to be in a flight without her grandmother; and worse, her grandmother had made her wear clothing in order to not attract the wrong kind of mate! Hmph!
The dragontaur Svedok merely chuckled, apparently not caring about who was there and who was not so much. He seemed just happy to be there. "Dairruinith and I are very well, thank you."
--
The Drasis, Tenma, and his white were introducing themselves to Churana and the others from the Healing Den's 'allies'...or was Tenma flirting? It appeared that he had a thing for Churana. Well, perhaps that was the best way as they were probably the only two very humanoid there.
--
Darreon sat in a folding chair that had been sat out, partially cross-legged. Calca stayed nearby, but not close enough that Shezumi didn't almost immediately sidle up to Darreon's side. But then again, a male's mate too close by for Shezumi? Never! "I hear you're an Eastern Dragon Shifter...."
"And I hear that you will try everything to get a male you are interested in's attentions, married or not," Darreon responded without giving Shezumi time to get past what she'd already said. "Now I suggest you stop where you are and leave me be before I turn you into a toad."
Shezumi left him be, rather reluctantly and huffily. She would have much liked to 'fly' with him--but his threat was more than serious, and she'd rather fly than be sitting on the ground as a toad. From her position about ten feet away, Calca was heard giggling.
--
The shifters, perhaps as excited as their dragons, proceded to do so. Noor and Vee combined into the darkly golden Western male dragon, Shezumi's bizarre transformation to her true form left her as an Eastern gold, Svedok evidently decided that his full dragon form was more appropriate than his dragontaur one, Shannon changed to a furry white-gold swimmer, Reshi to an irridescent black-green raptorlike dragon, and the strange Turmoil to something like a cross between a dragon and a seahorse...
The only ones that could shift that remained in their regular forms were Calca, Darreon, and Churana. Churana because she'd already chosen her mate and decided her regular one would be her best form, and Calca because she was trying to convince her husband to shift to his dragon form...
--
Although Tesimith had been caught, Shezumi was still flying high. So high she was in the clouds, in fact, with Raiokh following her. Raiokh was a fine male, but the Eastern gold shifter didn't want to be caught by the dragon of her granddaughter and she was still hot-headed from Darreon denying her. She turned sharply and wove around Raiokh too fast for him to catch her, he barely missed her tail.
However, Shezumi and Raiokh were not the only dragons in the clouds. Reshi, who had been deftly avoiding all the females in the sky for the entire flight suddenly found Shezumi flying at him like a bat out of hell and it didn't look like she was going to change course! He swerved to the side, missing Shezumi and Raiokh as they zoomed past but slammed into another female who had been going upwards.
~Sorry!~ Reshi yelped telepathically, and attempted to pull away but the female held onto him with her talons.
Reshi Aricoli? a familiar voice asked. I didn't know you were a dragonshifter!
~...Headknight Sherra?~ Reshi replied in shock as the trio-winged Starry nearly twice his size twined with him.
Not anymore, really... Sherra chuckled. I died, I'm sure you know that. Then I hatched...as a dragon! This is a strange way to mate, isn't it?
~Yeah...~ Reshi agreed, but soon enough Sherra convinced him that it really wasn't so bad to mate like other dragons did.
Churana had been playing with Tenma since the beginning of the flight, making him dive in amongst the other participants and chase her around dangerously close to the ring of fire around the lip of the volcano. Tenma was rather quickly getting very sick of this flight and was attempting to hover while Churana literally flew circles around him. Finally when she swung close to him he reached out and caught her by the arm, pulling her over to him. She looked miffed at having her antics interrupted but quickly planted a forceful kiss on his almost hidden humanlike lips. Still dressed and doubtful if they wanted to strip nude and attempt to mate midair like dragons (though Churana probably wouldn't have minded...) the Drasis and the Dragonkin made their way down to one of the tents.
--
Raiokh had given up his pursuit of Shezumi, evidently she wasn't ready to be caught. Instead he'd turned his attention to a particularly sparkly green female. Kviyath didn't even bother to try to outfly the big bronze as he neared her, she crooned enticingly and let him sweep her out of the air.
--
The rest of the late arrivals were still in the air, the silver-blue Eastern female weaving around males tauntingly while the Duowinged Night-Purple was flirting with Night Brown Azth. However, the green-blue was looking rather confused as Shezumi wove around him seductively. He appeared to have no idea what was going on.
Great, one denies me and the other's completely clueless, Shezumi thought to herself spitefully. Well it looks like I'll just have to convince him. Shezumi spun in the air and twisted around him. Finally, the blue-green called Ryoke seemed to understand and although he was a bit reluctant, he joined in the festivities with the gold female.
While her bond had finally found her first mate, Tesimith was up a second time flying low towards the base of the crater with Ingoriteth, also a returner, chasing her. She saw the Siamese twin dragons ambling up ahead. They didn't look like a "threat", however...that was, until they leaped up in unison off the ground and grabbed the Light green. Tesimith didn't mind, however...she found that even though Chak and Krith were connected at the sides they knew how to make a female croon!
--
Churana had finished with Tenma and was peering out of the tent they'd claimed. She pulled her head back in and smirked at Tenma. "Come on! Let's go buzz the observation tent!"
Tenma stared at Churana, aghast. "But...but...we're...naked!"
"That's the POINT!" Churana exclaimed gleefully, grabbing the drasis by the wrist and dragging him out into the open, still nude.
** Later at the hatching ** nothing I don't have records of that whoops

*** (( there is probably some weird shit with the hatching that never got posted, because lumiere 'went home with' churana's son and that just does not sit well with me in any way at this point))

Ah, 'fond' memories of a life long ago.

Churana's life was her own, and now she had a son to tend.

In this process, she also learned of a realm where she might enjoy residing for a time. Magical, with dragons but also 'other' dragons. And strange versions of people she almost thought she knew, and certainly recognized. House Domina on some version of earth that was clearly not where her line came from, would become their home. Aqqanat was raised from the time he could toddle around, until he found his own dragon, at House Domina, and perhaps... might even find himself a shifter companion himself. Weirdly though it might feel now that she thought about it, Churana did bring up the fact that her line descended from men that were very obviously Lucas Kalkin here at this place. But not him. She had only barely been introduced to 'multidimensionality' and hadn't been aware that it wasn't just whole dimensions that were 'slightly different', but individuals. She idly wondered whether there was another of herself somewhere.

But in the meantime Raiokh had found a mate on a place called Darkling Dawn, a lovely gold dragoness named Alequveyth. He sired ten amazing dragons, though there were also several that the gold laid with some other dragon, Herionth or something. A mere brown. Perhaps some day he'd pair up with one of these local Domina dragons! There certainly were some good options it looked like...