Back to the last event?
Henshuth and Virus make a point of wandering to different locales. When they are resting back at home, however, they recieve a strange letter.
"Look at this," Virus says, unfolding a piece of parchment which has arrived from the Healing Den of all places. "It's from a woman who claims she knows all the dragons in this Protectorate thing."
Oh that - I know what that is.
Virus tilts his head curiously. "How do you know?"
I am a dragon, of course. She stands up and fusses with her wings and makes a gloaty-full of herself noise. We know many things.
"Well, did you know that the Ring of Fire and Sanrix Azon are holding a 'Flight of the Dead?'" Virus asks. The glowing green whips her head around so fast that the sharp horns make swooshing noises.
I did not know that! We would be able to find a good mate again.
Henshuth apparently likes the last flight they participated in, why not another?
"Baeris says that we are the only undead-type in the Book," Virus says. "I wonder what book that is, and I wonder," he leans back onto the cushioned chair he keeps in their lair, "if I could get a look at it?"
I would think she is a bit more protective of her log books than that, Virus my friend...
"I bet you are right, Henshuth my dearest. But this flight bears investigation!"
Prepare yourself for flight, then, I know where to go.
"That is right," Virus gives a bit of a chuckle, "you are a dragon, and you know everything."
***
Henshuth is a smallish rare, only 20' nose to tail. She has four red eyes, many spikes, and is literally glowing with radiation. She has flown in one prior flight (at Cy) and enjoys the thrill of locating a proper male among the frenzied participants. She actually doesn't think the idea of a plain one-to-five ratio flight is exciting at all.
Virus is a handsome 'man' - a sentient billenia-old virus dna in a human's body. He has the ability to manipulate viruses, bacteria, cancers and many other kinds of disease. His children - his "cloned" children that is - have more minor versions of his power. He currently does not have any 'born' children, and is looking to see what might happen with one or two of those. He is looking for a female partner at this time, since his last one was male.
Name: Henshuth (from
henshu--"mutant" in Japanese)
Bond: Virus
Gender: Female
Style: Radioactive
Breed: Fira/Shadow/Desmos
Colors: Black, fluourescent green, pink, blue
Adult Size: 20'
Abilities: Shadow Magic, Regeneration
***
Henshuth raises her head gracefully, and tilts her four eyes toward the sky.
My rider, there is ... a visitor.
"That's nice," Virus says, content to be reading about the latest plagues to be a problem in some jungle land to the south.
No, I think... a rider and her dragon, lost. They have traveled far, and this is not quite where they expected to be.
Virus puts his paper down, and finally looks for himself. What he sees is a glowing green dragon with dramatic wings, horns and a woman on her shoulders.
"This is a development," Virus states.
You like her already, Henshuth says, privately grinning. She can feel her rider's senses seeking the female's biology - and when they do, he is in for a strange surprise.
"She's not human, she's a plant," he says, with a bit of incredulity. "A cloned plant-human splice. How ... Innovative." Virus waves his arm, and Henshuth quietly instructs the glowing green to land nearby. As they do, Henshuth rises to greet them.
The woman on the dragon's back lands on the ground softly, and Virus' world seems to tilt. Not only is the woman beautiful in the way that humans can be, but she's also putting out a complex set of scents, pheremones that command his own human-formed body.
He falls in love as she speaks for the first time.
"I guess this is home, if you're keeping dragons next to this hospital huh?" Ihrinnah asks. Mutely, speechless for the first time since gaining a voice, Virus merely nods.
"Oh - I'm sorry," Ihrinnah says, and the winds change the scent of her attraction to a less potent one. Virus shakes his head to clear his eyes.
"Welcome," he says, "I-"
Uteneth, the glowing green, standing behind her and next to the smaller Henshuth, nudges her rider carefully. Ihrinnah blushes, hemming and hawing about anything new to say.
She means to say that her name is Ihrinnah and she is pleased to call me her soulmate, and I am Uteneth. The dragoness speaks mentally to both Henshuth and Virus.
And since we're doing the introductions, he is Virus, my rider and my friend. Be careful of him, he is usually much more charming than this. Henshuth counters, pleased to have a companion that understands their sudden dilemma.
Ihrinnah is tall, almost taller than Virus. The pair of female dragons knew that this was true because within a few moments, Virus and Ihrinnah were walking quite close to one another toward the hospital buildings.
***
***
Their whirlwind relationship is something that Virus' offspring follow carefully. They respect this strong willed woman, easily starting to like her simply because she is as curt toward their human observers as they are.
Not more than a few weeks after her arrival to the Labs and their dragon-dens, an unusual change begins to take hold of Ihrinnah. Her faintly green-tinted skin darkens, becoming more and more emerald - or more accurately, more leafy. Her orange-red hair brightens, blossoming into a brilliant saffron. Her small green lips are usually formed into a smile, her high cheeks flushed with color.
Candi bumps up against her father's 'girlfriend'. "You're pregnant," she says.
"I most certainly am," the plant-spliced woman replies. "We worked for days on this... I just knew that I'd be able to breed, but only Virus has been able to ... do it for me." She gives off a uniquely human giggle, and Candi shares it.
Within another month, it becomes quite apparent that her 'pregnancy' is going to be a short one. Though her belly is swollen, Ihrinnah is determined to continue to walk through the sunlit gardens that she's assembled on the far side of the lake. Uteneth summons Henshuth, when she loses sight of her rider.
Flying above, the pair of dragonesses can see where Ihrinnah has sat down, below one of the shade trees. There is a little room on one side of the hedge nearby, so Henshuth settles down while Uteneth finds a place to land elsewhere.
Your partner is worried about you, Henshuth says, are you well?
"I'm wonderful," Ihrinnah says. "Go get Virus, he should see his new children..."
More than one? So soon? Is that not unusual?
"I'm not human, remember?" Ihrinnah says. Henshuth climbs back into the sky, and brings Virus back, while Uteneth makes her way to her bond's side carefully avoiding crushing any of the plants.
Virus finds his way around the tree, to see his beautiful green-skinned mate holding on to what appears to be ... a vine with odd knots here and there.
"They will grow best in the sunlight," Ihrinnah says. "Look at them all, my love!"
Virus holds out his hand, and he can feel the life within the bulbs that Ihrinnah has created. As though they're sheltered by leaves, and strung on a vine, these new children will be something even more special than either of their parents.
And when they grow? What happens then?
***
Virus bonded Henshuth at the Ring of Fire Ihrinnah bonded Uteneth at Firestone
Cholera ... Variola ... Typhoid ... Candidiasis ... Escherichia ... Pylori