Read Aevan and Iva's story first as it comes before this part!

** Note that this page was aevan-solo, and aevan-solo2 is now completely separate
Follow Siren ; Follow Iva ; Follow Ebalogar

Aevan loved the flight over Xidaver, because he could see so very much down there. Spotted with people, animals, dragons... Activity of all kinds. He got a good vibe off the place. The big gold and black dragon landed in the main flat area, attended by several locals. They seemed curious about the coloration of this big male, so while Fate was busy with them, Aevan took his things and started off to find where to sign up.

He promptly got lost. Now, this was directly because he heard some pretty noises in the forest beyond the pathway, so he followed them. When he found a nest of busy creatures begging for food, Aevan's animal-tunings shot through the roof again.

"Okay okay," he said, smiling, "you're hungry, I get it..." He scrounged around in the leafy underbrush, and found a nice rock - turning it over, he discovered enough worms to make Iva squeal if she'd been there. "These will do won't they?" He dangled one above the nest, and one blue and white hatchling snapped at it.

"Well you're an aggressive one, aren't you?" he said to the air-colored creature. It flapped hard but still was too little to fly, so he looked around, and then picked it out of the nest. "I'm pretty sure your folks will be back to feed the rest of you, so..."

He hurried back out to the trail and eventually found his way to Xidaver. There, he found out that the creature he'd found was called a drache, and it was by pure chance and very rare that he'd found a nest in the wild. "They're extremely rare, so you've got to tell us where that nest is!" Said the man who walked with him to the sign-up area. "We don't want to have any of them dying out, or being stolen. They make exceptional messengers."

"They make great noises," Aevan said, seemingly ignoring the content of what the poor man was saying. He did eventually point out where (approximately) in the woods he'd seen the nest. He doubted he'd ever be able to find the location again, but these folks were local. If he described a split-trunked tree surrounded by three red-flowering bushes, they'd know where it was, right?

When Aevan settled in, and got to see the place a little better, he liked it even more. The people there were open and friendly, but still fierce when it came to defending their territory. They understood well his need to acquire a dragon for his homeworld.

Within a week, his drache which he'd named Eddy (because he liked to fly on currents of air, eddies in the wind, not because he thought the drache looked like an edward) had learned to fly and was now getting ready to hunt for himself. Aevan made sure to keep him good and happy, well-groomed, scratched and cuddled, so he knew where to come back.

When the mice and small lizards started being dropped by his bed, Aevan knew he had to increase the amount of food-rewards...

"Now you've got to learn how to focus on me, and where I want you to go..." He said, "it's just like training a full sized Pernese dragon to teleport, isn't it?"

The drache gave a mewling call, vanished, and then came back a moment later with yet another dead mouse.

"Thanks, Eddy. I love you too."

***

A beautiful sound filled Aevan's ears. Not only was there a great big storm front that settled over the place for the duration, but Aevan heard the distinct sound of draconic crooning moving through the halls. He and the others went down to the sands, accompanied by the thunder and rainfall outside.

"It's a good sign," he heard a local say, "when it storms like this! There's power in the nest, power in the sky."

Aevan tucked that away for reference. Maybe it was a sign, maybe it was the dragons, or something more. He certainly felt a tingle when he got to the sands.

There were a batch of eggs rocking and bulging, and quite shortly one broke open. The blue and white hatchling bonded off, and another dragonet took its place in the spotlight. Though everyone expected the earth toned dragon to bond, he didn't feel like it. Aevan knew that he'd find someone, maybe, but everyone else was all up in arms about it. They went a bit wonky the next moment when one of them bonded a dragon who had been on the sands.

Eddy bit down on Aevan's ear, wanting attention. But there were more exciting things to be had than an antsy flitter. A large hatchling quickly followed his sister. The hatchling was sandy brown in color. Mith assumed at once that it was another earth. He is not. Azairael remarked as the little dragonet sneezed, causing a few nearby riders' hair to stand straight up.

"Static electricity?" Mith asked her Bond, puzzled. Electric or lightning dragons as they were more normally referred to as, were usually gold or yellow. Azairael nodded as they watched the electric pick his Bond.

The odd hatchling walked confidently up to one of the more strange off worlders - that being Aevan, the dark-green-brown colored guy with two fathers... Hello Aevan, nice day. He glanced up at Eddie. Got any more mice, I'm starving. Syyle asked.

Eddy perked up at that thought, and immediately went to find some. "But... Syyle there is meat, already cut up!"

I will eat that too. I am really hungry.

***

Fortunately, Syyle didn't continue his odd eating habits for long. Not for lack of trying, Eddy kept bringing him treats for weeks on end. When the dragon finally could hardly even see the mice - and certainly his mouth was far bigger than Eddy himself by now - Eddy stopped and sulked.

Scratching the blue, Aevan gave a little nudge mentally to the electric dragon. "Why don't you hunt for him, Syyle?"

There is a thought! I have been seeing big fish in the sea nearby. Should I go get one of those?

The dragon's eager prancing about made Aevan laugh. "Yeah, but don't bring back something too big. I want to make sure that we don't stink up the place."

It turned out to be a good exersize for the young dragon. His flights had been short until then, but now he strengthened his wings and muscles on the powerful winds there over the water, plus learned a lot about depth and distance, by diving for his prey. He was perhaps less successful than some because of his coloration. It was hardly likely that fish had seen sand colored things above them!

***

Syyle and Aevan along with the excited Eddy soared over the blue sparkling waters near his Pesht Hold on Zekira. The marshlands spread into large lakes, and back to tree-covered swamps in a haphazard manner. But Aevan's large estate there was set up on stilts on one end, and on solid land near the back. Roads connected certain parts of the marshlands together - but suddenly Aevan started laughing loudly. **(2024 note they do not have a pesht property any more)

"I'm going to be the first real Dragon Master on my block!" He cheered. There were other dragons, but the swamp held their exotic reptilian forebears as well, and the guard dragons were bred only for loyalty, not for size or intelligence around here.

Once Syyle got down to business though, things would change.

It is so ... wet! Syyle bespoke. Once back on Zekiran soil, Aevan realized how much he'd missed it. The power of the place was everywhere. Syyle spoke mildly into his mind, it is lovely though.

"It is, and we've got to talk to Iva and her dragon. And, find out what's keeping Siren. She really should be here." The fondness that Aevan had for the non-Zekiran girl was strong, but the life he wanted to return to here was more powerful for the time being.

"We've got to get back to Vesi and then see if those desert dragons are growing okay," Aevan announced. The dragon made a wet but perfect landing near the mansion's high-stilted porch. "And then, we'll do some flying!"

--

They did fly! At the Everrealm's Chaos of Color. Aevan could hardly believe his dragon's success. Syyle found a beautiful Hathian mate at the Everrealm, Rheera, who produced for him a lovely set of eggs. Each a bit different than their parents but still so amazing. But then a young reptilian male approached Aevan.

"I would like to come with you, sir," said the creature. He reminded Aevan of the dragon-like creatures he and his half-sister tended... Sort of.

"Well of course," Aevan smiled and nodded. The dragoness that the boy had bonded, Dzontre, from Syyle and Rheera's clutch, would not be parted from him. They headed to Zekira, where both would learn the arts of fighting aliens!

** 2024 addition

"I didn't even know this was here," Aevan muttered, "but I'm glad it is..."

There were several heavily mutated Zekirans in gear, as well as numerous dragons - local mostly, but some very obviously not local. Like his own, but unlike them. "Oh I like how your dragon blends in with the sand here," said one of the riders, as they made sure that everyone was settled after the sandstorm that had blown over the desert. Kiran's deserts weren't getting 'worse', they were being tamed by brave souls all around the edges of it, but there would never be a time when the entire thing was gone. Sand storms would blow over small settlements all the time, and the locals would just dig out and dust off their crops and keep going. Hardy folk - almost like those up in Emer or that swamp in Pesht he'd sold off.

One of the nearby people was arriving with an entourage of oddities, though he himself bore no small resemblance to both of Aevan's fathers with somewhat stern features, widows peak, and a tall, upright look. But he was a paler brown, almost like Syyle's base color, black hair though, for sure he'd fit in with Vanya's family.

"Oh we have tried to avoid too much of that, this generation," the man muttered, his turquoise eyes glittering in the early evening dusk. Like a cat's, like Aern's sort of. Unfazed, Aevan's mind continued to make comparisons and finally the man realized, "Oh, you're a Peridian no wonder." He waved his long fingers and summoned Aevan to walk with him with another gesture. "Your dragon friend will be able to rest here, I notice how... different it is from the local population."

He stretched out that word, difference, like he was pulling on gloves. But then, Vanya gave off way spookier vibes just getting a coffee, so that was fine!

The Atasan was finally introduced: Kallah Vahh, a name that was oddly familiar but still somewhat tantilizingly unknown to the Dragon Master. The man took a data pad and glanced at it, "Aevan, is it? You..." he tilted his head and looked more closely, "were born barely a year before the invasion began."

"Yeah, that's something people remind me about all the time," Aevan muttered. He recovered quickly though, "that's not a local dragon," he nodded toward one that seemed like a liberal mix of stone, sky, and forest dragon.

"It is not local, that is correct," Vahh said, "nor is your own, though I'll admit I do not know where it is from."

"He, he's from Xidaver. I'd love to go back to-"

"It no longer exists, I'm afraid," Vahh cut him off, and there was a distinct air of psionic energy surrounding them both. "But we have alternatives. And I think you might need to be among those privileged enough to view our... home."

The mesa itself was unassuming, dark, with what looked like crystal shaped windows, ledges, and... the interior was hollow. Aevan marveled at this: "what... is this place?"

"Ski'nahket, or you may refer to it as Black Mesa," he was told, "a research facility that finds itself duplicated across dimensions."

Though he was distracted as always, Aevan perked up at that thought. He knew of this, vaguely, that Xidaver had been nowhere you could fly to in a spacecraft from Zekira. Something else distracted the man, "you have a dream lab," he said, "oh and breeding labs too?"

Aevan didn't detect the slight grin on Vahh's face.

Eventually this would lead to an investment for land-holding, one which he ditched the Pesht marshland - the dragon wasn't fond of it, squelching around in muck all day was decidedly not his style. But out here in the scrub? It was still just as far from the White Valley area as anything else, across the Le'ret desert, but close enough to civilization to the north. And while somewhat easily reached: secret enough that most folks in neighboring areas had no idea of its existence at all. A place like this, with thousands of Units just in the sheer scale of its perimeter, and probably tens of thousands, if not hundreds, on the inside. Aevan wanted to tap Iva's knowledge about how to best put this on the roster.

"You don't need her to do that for you, we have ... one of her relatives, for this," Vahh said with a soft smile. A grey-skinned woman with long slightly-wavy green hair came into view, and Aevan's senses went off.

"Who are you?" Aevan blurted out before he could - or ever would - stop himself.

"Chakra," she said, bowing, and then looking through the paperwork and a data pad. "We can keep it quite private, we're used to it."

"But who are you related to?" This time he wouldn't be dissuaded.

"Chanay's daughter, and mine," Vahh announced quietly, with a soft smile and a touch of sadness.

At first Aevan was going to ask 'but Iolen is married to-' but realized. No, not Iolen Chanay. THE Chanay, her mother.

The questions battering Vahh's brain from the man were obvious and many. He chose to simply say, "Some of us are less mortal than others, my good man, and Chanay... was truly a marvel of her era - or any. And her children all live up to their potential."

Aevan thought on Iva, and finally decided just to nod and go with it. It was true. He wondered briefly whether Iva even knew she had an aunt.

"She does not," Chakra said, distracted, while working out the papers...