Back to the last event?

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Virus and Ihrinna are walking through the garden, their garden, when Virus' sense of 'life' starts to glimmer.

"Do you feel that?" He asks his lovely green-toned mate, who shakes her head.

"Feel what?"

"It's not one of yours, then," he says with a bit of confidence. If it were a plant, she'd be able to locate it too. He takes a moment and looks around the garden, and then realizes what he's sensing isn't quite right up there, it's down the sloped hill that is near the hospital's biohazardous waste area.

Perfect, of course, for whatever nasty goodness he and Ihrinnah are planning...

There is something visible there, though, that wasn't there a few hours before.

***

They take a look at it closely, examining it from all angles. It looks like a big white bowling pin from far off - but then they realize that it's actually a soft warm coccoon.

"What in the world is this doing here? Of all places?" Virus asks.

"It's warm," Ihrinnah says. She places her hands over it, and then gives off a grin. "Henshuth should come look too. She'll like this. It's quite radioactive, I think."

"Is it?" Virus perks up. "Well give it here."

Laughing, they take the coccoon back up to the garden, where it gives off a soft white glow.

It shows no sign of moving, but it is alive. "I wonder what is inside it?" Ihrinnah asks.

"We'll see," Virus tells her, "I think something will come from it, but give it some time. It's not done deciding what it will be, I think."

"How mysterious," Ihrinnah comments. They leave the coccoon to its own devices for a while, as the grass around it withers...

Shortly, though, within a week or so of waiting, the coccoon begins to shake and move. A tear across it in the middle reveals a brightly glowing sickly green color.

"It sure is radioactive," Virus says. "But what is it?"

"I am an Egyptan," says the creature that crawls from it. "What are you?"

"I'm Virus," he says, "and this is Ihrinnah, my wife."

"It is nice to meet you. Oh - I have killed the grass."

"Only for a moment," Ihrinnah says, as she applies some of her well-practiced powers and regrows it with a resistance to such deadly toxic waves.

"We know what you are now," Ihrinnah says, "but ... Do you know how you got here?"

"No," the Egyptan says, having finally pulled himself all the way free of his silken coccoon. "But I like it here. I like you two - I think you can take care of me."

"But you're already walking and talking," Virus laughs.

"It isn't like we've got any new children on the way just yet," Ihrinnah says with a grin. "Of course we can take care of you."

The Egyptan proudly stands up, revealing his multiple tails, and his short still-developing wings.

"What will we call you?" Virus asks, pacing about. "The children were easier, because they were quite obvious..."

"It is still quite obvious," Ihrinnah states. "Tabiti, after a goddess of fire and animals."

"Do you like it?" Virus asks.

"It's a girl's name," the Egyptan snorts.

"Tabito," Ihrinnah corrects herself. The Egyptan - Tabito - seems to be happier with this.

When Virus and his family next looks up, the beautiful sheen of the radiation Egyptan Tabito almost blinds them. Virus scratches him behind the ear, and Tabito leans into it almost falling over.

"That is bliss," he says, "but I want to find out more about your dragons... Can they carry me?"

"I don't know if you want to get too close," Virus says, smiling, "even though you're a radiation yourself, you're also 'morsel-sized' to my dragon."

In response, Henshuth bellows and licks her chops menacingly - but then gives her own kind of laugh and picks up the teenaged Egyptan.

Do not worry about him. I like him. Perhaps he and I will find a nice place to burn.

***

When at last it looks as though Tabito is fully grown, everyone has certainly gotten to like having the warmly glowing Egyptan near them. He rests near Henshuth when an announcement is made.

"I wish us to have a flight!" Virus says, loudly and while everyone is near. "There are many of us, but there could be more. My scattered children - come home to me, and we will see which of our dragons chooses one another!"

Powerfully sending, mental images come from the viral creation. His mate and adoring friend Ihrinnah claps with glee - their children will come home, and they will be able to show off their lovely dragons to one another at last!

next?

Custom made by Gwyene

Virus bonded Henshuth at the Ring of Fire Ihrinnah bonded Uteneth at Firestone

Cholera ... Variola ... Typhoid ... Candidiasis ... Escherichia ... Pylori

Digitalis ... Conium ... Zigadenus ... Atropa ... Calla ... Amanita ... Datura ... Disporum