The foursome of Tag, Ladylace and brother-sister team Threads and Threads marveled at the scope of their 'choice' of Azon. The place was much bigger, and moodier, than they ever expected.

Tag looked the most intimidated. Here were huge dragons, sharp ones with spines and claws and--

"That one has an earring," whispered Ladylace. "Lookit. It's cute."

"Cute?!" Tag hissed back, "they're scary!"

"You are such a mamma's boy," Lace said, and grabbed his hand to drag him toward some dim corner.

Threads stood with his hands on his hips, appraising the situation. They had been left by Shard who hastily bid them farewell and good luck in bonding. Apparently, he was also feeling a bit intimidated by the dark scary queens and sires on the sands too.

Or, he was full of it, which is more likely. He probably had places to be. Threads thought so, anyway. He saw his sister poking at something.

"Stop that, you'll hurt yourself."

"Since when are you so concerned about it?" Treads laughed. "Besides, what I can't outrun ought to be good to see." She bounced on her nice thick running shoes. "Man," she added, "Creepie would just love this place."

Tag seemed to agree, as he was dragged around from one dark nook to another.

"Ah, you are here," said a man's voice, low, behind them all. They turned to see a young looking handsome man whose eerie yellow eyes glimmered from below a head of black hair. "Shard told me to expect some folks. I hope he hasn't misjudged you lot."

He turned, and was probably going to just leave them where they were, but Threads stepped forward.

"Sir? You're the person we're supposed to talk to about getting at the sands, right?"

"That... is one thing I do, yes." The man said, stopping, looking over his shoulder, but not turning to face the foursome.

"Then could you tell us? I mean," Threads gave an exaggerated chuckle and looked at his friends who were not quite amused, "it could be anywhere. We'd get lost just looking in every corner."

Ladylace blushed, but grinned.

"Yes," Sargon said, "you would. Have fun." He then strode away.

After half a moment, Treads stifled a snorking laugh, then just about collapsed as her brother stood with his finger up in the air in a 'but wait!' gesture.

"I think we ought to do as he suggested," Ladylace said, pawing at Tag's shoulder to calm him. "If we get lost, I'm sure there will be some people to help us find our way. And we could meet everyone else."

"I'm not sure I want to meet 'everyone else', Lace," Tag muttered, but as usual she kind of ignored him and took Treads' hand. Together, they linked arms and walked - like Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion and Tin Man and Scarecrow... They were missing a 'dog Toto too'. This was not lost on them.

"You're the cowardly lion," Threads stated to Tag.

"Then I'd suggest you're the Tin Man," Tag muttered under his breath. Treads already got there, laughing and repeating what he said so everyone could hear.

"If you only had a heart," Treads announced.

"I have a heart - I love so many things! And people adore me," Threads countered, acting all wounded.

"You love yourself, most," Treads said.

"Are you the Scarecrow then?" Lace asked, "Does that make me Dorothy? I wanna go home! Heh - I sound like you, Tag." She elbowed him.

"Oooh, look," Treads said, utterly distracted by something, "we need to check this out."

The strange shimmering doorway beckoned. The foursome found themselves looking down a corridor that had a fresh breeze, and the sounds of wildlife.

"This is too weird." Tag said.

"It's not nearly weird enough," Treads laughed. "Come on, let's see what's in here."

They examined the smaller doorways, halls and such. Eventually they came to a spot which opened out onto the plains - apparently Azon's digs were a lot more complex and far reaching than they could know. Someone approached them, and there was a large maned lionlike creature with them. It had wings, and a scaley tail.

"What is that?" Treads blurted out.

"That," it said, "is a whom, not a what, and I am a Ligon." It swished its tail angrily.

"Cooool!" Treads said, approaching it until it held up a big clawed paw. "Dangerous too..." She said, backing into her brother.

"Well, I'm sorry for how my sister behaves," Threads said, putting himself between her and the creature. "Forgive her. She's an idiot."

She poked him in the ribs, with a sharp fingernail.

"Idiot or not, you're here for Azon's hatching, aren't you?" Said the humanoid with the Ligon. They nodded. "Well, that's nice. You could look around here for a while, it's nice and warm. Don't annoy the other Ligons."

"There are more of them?" Ladylace asked, curiously.

"Oh yes, there are many here. Some are aquatic," the young woman (?) said, and the Ligon with her made a 'pshaw' noise, "some are more exotic than others. Would you like to try caring for one? It'd be good practice for your dragon care needs."

"Ooh! A pet - well, not a pet if it's going to be your size!" Ladylace said looking at the big Ligon. "And pets don't talk."

"They most certainly do not," it replied settling down on the warm grass.

The group went along a small stream, and saw there were several little baby Ligons at play. They were of varying types, it looked like, and the girls got all giggly-excited about it.

"They'd make great guardians at the Mall," Lace said. "And I bet they could hunt all for themselves."

"If it flew, it could transport stuff quickly back and forth," Treads added.

"You'll have a dragon for -" Threads started to say, but Tag waved him to shut up.

"They're going to do this for a while, you want to look at the rest of the caverns while they're out here? If we can even get back?" Tag said, looking slightly nervously at the distant entrance to the caverns.

"Naw, let's see if they come out with one of these little guys..." Threads looked away, trying to see if the big Ligon was there watching. "If they'd stay little and cute..."

***

A bit later, Threads watched as his sister and Lace brought out from the tall reeds, a pair of small, green colored ...

"Those are ligons!" Tag exclaimed. "What? How did you -"

"Breathe, lover," Lady Lace laughed. "Little Ozgons. Love you!" She cuddled closely to the darker one, who batted at her hair. The smaller paler colored one purred at Tread's feet, until the dark one lept down and gave a hesitant swat at Tread's shoelaces.

"Hey, watch it boyo!" She said, scolding him gently. "Come on, I heard that this way's the eggs and dragons and stuff."

"You're not Dorothy, let Lace show the way," Tag said with a broad grin. The green Ligons - or as they'd been dubbed, Ozgons, pranced behind them.

"What should we name them, anyway?" Treads asked Lace as they went through the halls. They felt more comfortable with the pair of beautiful creatures, than without them.

"Ozma?" Lace said to the pale green one. The ozgon looked up curiously and tilted her head.

"Does that make him Toto, or ..." Tag said. "Nah - that's way too silly. I never thought toto was a real good guy's name, huh?"

The dark green ozgon charrufed at that, and tried saying 'you're right' but he didn't quite have the practice speaking yet.

"Ticktock," Threads said, "that's another name."

"That's kinda weird for him, though..." Treads said.

"He really likes your shoelaces," laughed Lace.

"Then he's gonna get a boot to the head pretty quick," Treads mockingly said. "Ruby, how's that?"

"Ruby and Ozma," Tag asserted. "I think they like it."

"Then let's get going. I can hear people collecting at a big hall - I bet it's the eggs." Threads beckoned them, while Lace rounded up the pair of Ozgons.

NEXT!