To Those Pensive, closed

[Kitzu]

"Well. That was-"

"Odd?"

The two were walking the canyons again, as there was seldom much more to do. Luke wasn't at leisure just yet to wander to the Labs, and he had no immediate wish to be there presently. From what she'd told him of the creatures she worked with, most were terrifying. However, neither of them seemed to feel the press of time presently as they walked the early evening. Her hand was on his shoulder as always, and though they felt no different individually, together... Well, something had changed, surely. However, neither of them could quite figure out what it was.

"Spooky, more like," Kitzu said, shuddering slightly. True that nothing bad had happened, but the ritual... No, best not dwell on that. She felt the fur along her neck and spine beginning to rise again, and it was only with visible effort that she managed to make her pelt lie flat again. Luke laughed.

"Yes, it was unsettling," he agreed, his tail lashing gently, contemplatively. His profile was becoming thoughtful, as his fathers was, though he was taller and looked younger at the same age. He hadn't the brooding nature that Marric had, the need for solitude; he wasn't prone to distance. And that had been precisely why Kitzu could not grow to love the elder Nanaiyesh as she'd come to love Luke: he had never, in all their years together, deigned to let her in.

Oh, he was a doting father, yes. But even Ari had to agree that Marric was... not always accessable.

"What do you suppose we do now?" Luke said, snapping her out of her thoughts. His eyes, a pale and limpid blue that reminded her of pearls, held her own; she blinked at them. Eyes to lose onseself in, she thought. Pity he hadn't even the vague possibility of a mate... Ari already had children, for Pete's sake. But his question was pressing for an answer, and she was on the verge of drifting off on another tangent.

"Whatever we want to, I suppose," she replied carefully. "After all, it's not as if this particularly matters, is it?"

[Kitzu]

... Which wasn't true at all. But Kitzu was afraid that- She was afraid that if she let it matter, if she let it be what it was, overwhelming and more real than she could ever ignore, it would become unbearable and frightening and she would turn from her one sure friend, whom she trusted more even than Daimon. The irony of it was just so strange, wasn't it? The one confirmation of their bond was terrifying enough to drive them apart...?

No, that wouldn't happen. She had to remind herself that it was Luke, her Luke. But perhaps it was best that she really didn't dwell on what this all meant, not just yet.

Luke, who could see (could feel) her hurting but didn't really know the cause, tried to lead her away from her thoughts. "I don't know, those Bonded being so rare," he said, pretending not to see how she flinched at the word, "but I know that my brother is Bonded to Kyle. Perhaps we could ask them?" He smiled hopefully at Kitzu, nudging her with his muzzle, and she turned to him for a moment, dazed, then grinned back and pet the soft skin of his nose. Still, the gesture seemed somehow alien, as if she had someone else in mind. He wondered if this was how she pet that Thundergug of hers.

"Yes, I guess you're right... We could ask Ky," she said slowly, the familiar light returning to her eyes somewhat. Blinking, as if still trying to rid herself of something within her mind, she sat down suddenly; he curled up around her, as he'd often done on rainy nights while she read to him. She laid her head on his long, sinewy neck, breathing in the familiar scent of rain and the vague accents of salt, for sometimes Luke ventured to waters she had no knowledge of while she was away, which she often was. Taking care of all the creatures she was responsible for was near constant work, and she was ten yet. In fact, to be away as often as she was was likely quite a strain.

"Won't you tell me what's wrong?" he said, unable to hide the concern in his eyes any longer. She flinched as if struck, suddenly aware of a pang that was not her own, and turned to stare incredulous at Luke. "I'm sorry," he said haltingly, "it's just that... I'm worried about you," he murmured quietly. His pain would not help her now, but his own feelings were a little difficult to foresake. He supposed he would have to practice.

[Aleksander]

"You're homesick again, I can feel it."

Aleksander sighed to himself audibly; he had never realized just how much he had let the great dragon in. He could still remember the ritual, the low chanting of the priest, the darkened room. The memory seemed so vivid, but he still felt as though it were simply a dream. To think that beneath his chest now beat the heart of a dragon, and that beneath Merrow's beat his own familiar heart, it was almost too much. At the same time though it was an exhilarating thought to be bonded forever with such a magnificent beast. He had heard legends in his homeland of dragons, but he had never believed he would meet one. Yet here he stood, bonded forever. If only his friends could see him now.

There was a sharp twinge and his stomach felt sick again.

"There it is again, homesickness."

The draconic sighed and nuzzled the young man's neck ever so slightly, it was a gesture that had until recently been completely alien to the pair, but in the previous weeks it had become almost normal. Merrow had never really been one for physical contact, but that was slowly beginning to change. He knew that physical contact with those you loved caused endorphins to swim through your bloodstream, this was simply common knowledge, but lately these blissful reactions had increased . Every nuzzle from his mother; every time Kiyoshi would lay his head upon his side, every touch from his grandfather, they all seemed to make him so... happy. He simply couldn’t explain why, but they did.

Oh sure, he'd been an affectionate child, but with his passage into adulthood he had become colder, almost unapproachable. He had hidden behind a mask of apathy and scientific curiosity and had been unwilling to let anyone close. This may have been in response to the death of his uncle, or it may have just been a flaw in his character. In any case, he had deprived himself of allowing people close and was now making up for lost time.

“You know, Merrow, you don’t always have to vocalize how I feel.” Almost as soon as the words had left his lips he regretted them. Here he was trying to push away one of the only people in his entire life that could understand his situation. Grand.

“I-I know,” the dragon looked away as though he had been shamed, “it’s just that I’m worried about you, you miss your home so much.”

The young man sighed again, “I know.”

“Besides, I was hoping the more I state it the more you would like to talk about it. You know, about Almathaea…. I-it sounds fascinating.”

“Same old Merrow.”

They were both changing, hopefully they would be good changes.
Oh sure, he'd been an affectionate child, but with his passage into adulthood he had become colder, almost unapproachable. He had hidden behind a mask of apathy and scientific inquiry and had been unwilling to let anyone close. This may have been in response to the death of hiss uncle, or it may have just been

[Kitzu]

"Well, speak of the devil."

"That's a horrible expression."

"Oh, don't be glum. Look, my brother is here." Luke uncoiled enough to point a claw in their general direction, and Kitzu sighed, looking up with some reluctance. Luke, however, was much more glad to see Merrow and Kyle; the two of them might better distract Kitzu than he was able. The failure made him sad, but feeling sorry for himself wasn't going to make her feel any better. And perhaps a change of tack was in order; gentle prodding wasn't helping her, so cajoling was worth a try. He nudged her up and towards company, himself following behind, trying not to put too much stock in the way that she stumbled.

"H-Hullo," Kitzu called over to them, waving. Her greeting seemed more conservative than usual, as Luke was accustomed to see her sticking her entire arm out and waving exhuberantly, looking every inch the peppy ten-year-old. She'd always reminded him of the sun then, flashing lights and auburn hair, but now she looked like the rain. He didn't have to work too hard to imagine her damp, fur slick and dripping with water.

But he tried to be cheery, for her sake, and to make up for the lack; he smiled and called out a louder greeting, despite usually being the more subdued of the two, if not quite depressed or somber anymore. "Merrow! It's been too long. And... Grandfather, yes?" He didn't see Kitzu, roughly the equivalent in his own close family, as a grandmother in any scope, but that was what Merrow called the young man, so Luke thought it best to follow suit. Merrow was perhaps the easiest of his clutch-mates to get along with, though he didn't know much about Kris, having not seen her in ages. Certainly, he was more agreeable than Ari or Lucy, who seemed intent on out-snooting each other. He sighed at the thought of his sister, a stunning beauty but impossible to please; at least she'd mellowed out some with the birth of her own children.

Besides, Kitzu was too young and far too small to be grand-anything. At least the term sounded not completely foreign on Kyle; he was no great judge of humanoid age, but he knew a child when he saw one.

As Kitzu didn't seem intent at all on making conversation, looking more as if she would rather hide behind his opposite flank from Kyle and Merrow of all people, Luke decided he ought to try. "I heard that Lucy is leaving the nest, so to speak... Whatever happened? Were there not enough luxuries to be had?" His tone was light and jovial, something he'd learned to emulate from Azarius, strangely enough. It felt a little pretentious still on his tongue, but he was well enough acquainted with happiness these days to make it convincing.

Kitzu hung around rather like a shadow, eyeing them as if shy. Luke didn't know how the bonding had muddled her; perhaps his own heart in her had dampened her spirits... No, that wasn't possible, was it? Her mind was yet her own. But hopefully company would fix that.

[Aleksander]

Aleksander prickled ever so slightly at the use of the word grandfather, this was all Ellie's fault. She'd been alling him father or daddy ever since he could remember and now he had full grown second generation dragons calling him Grandfather. He was too young to be a grandfather! Hell he was too young to be a father, at least in his mind anyways. Even though he was railing against the term on the inside, deep down he enjoyed it to some extent. It was his identifier, his moniker, and he doubted that it would ever fully disappear.

"Oh hello, Kitz, Luke," he gave a strange sort of half-smile that didn't quite reach his eyes,"congratulations on your bonding." From the way he smiled Merrow didn't need their bond to notice that something wasn't quite right. Could he have been having second thoughts about the bonding, obviouslynothing could be done about it, but if he had doubts, well he wasn't sure if he could let it sit like that.

"I'll second that, it's good to see you brother," he would certainly have to have a talk with Aleksander later,"oh and, ah, Lucy weeeeell." He didn't quite know how to explain the situation with Lucy. Essentially she had left because she was feeling stifled by the rest of her family, well stifled and jealous. She was jealous of the blossoming relationship between himself and Kiyoshi, she felt stifled by their mother who was just now trying to patch the rift that had formed between the two of them. And she probably was also hurt that Momo was going to try and see someone other than her, god forbid she lose her safe bet.

"She's just going through what everyone goes through I suppose, she's trying to push her family away in order to try and become close to them again."

Ah, that was the perfect way to express it, Grandfather did have his moments.

"How are things with Arianza and father, Luke? I suspect she must be quite the proud mother."

Aleksander had clearly felt a twinge of anxiety coming from Merrow, and he knew exactly what it was about. He didn't know how to broach the subject of him having found a mate, a male mate mind you, to his brother. To him it was a tad ridiculous, then again he'd never been in the same situation as Merrow nor would he ever have to. He had no siblings, he had no one to justify himself to.

"Well she shouldn't be the onlye one who's proud Merrow."

Why on earth was Kitz beinf so despondent? It was almost as if they were acting like they'd never met before.

[Kitzu]

Kitzu could see Kyle twitch slightly as he heard the word 'grandfather' fall from Luke's mouth, and for the first time that day, she smiled. It was a small, secret smile, belonging to a much less outgoing child, and it didn't quite sit right on her face, but it was a smile nonetheless. She knew that Kyle was young, much too young for the term, but she never thought to explain it to Luke. She supposed she was spared of the same fate mostly because Marric realized very early on that she was yet a child herself, and after he grew into maturity, he'd looked at her more as a best friend or a younger sister or, occasionally, a daughter instead. She was mildly surprised to feel a pang of sorrow at the thought, for she hadn't recalled the time when it was just herself and Marric for ages, and the feeling of loss that accompanied it had grown unfamiliar.

Still, better Kyle than herself. It would be horrendous to be called 'grandmother', and Zair would probably have shortened it to something ridiculous like 'great-grand-nanny' or something. She was ten.

However, her expression faltered further when she saw the look on Kyle's face. She'd always known Kyle to be a friend, a very good friend even, but he didn't look pleased at all to see them... This wasn't true, of course; at least he went through the motions, but she was feeling especially insecure just then, and all negatives were made more drastic in her eyes. She wondered whether it was her own demeanor, or some other fault of hers. Instinct bade her to ask what was wrong, but she didn't know whether that would bring about further rejection. "I-I've started working with Duchess," she said hesitantly. Luke's gaze snapped to her. "She's not trying so hard to bite my face off anymore." She managed a wan smile.

Luke, who had followed her shift in emotions, decided it was best to let her come out of her shell on her own. Kyle didn't look particularly cheery either, but he knew better than to ask, as it was hardly his place. "I'm glad Ari hasn't gone through that," Luke said in reply to Kyle's comment concerning Lucy, making a face. "I can imagine she would want us to vacate the premises, not the other way around, and the way she goes on, I suspect we would have to.

"As for her and Father... Hmm. I'm afraid Father is a bit distant now, though I suspect it's not intentional," Luke said contemplatively, as if he hadn't himself thought upon the subject in some time. "We... Well, he tends to favor Ari, and he doted on the twins for a while, but he's been poring over his books again. I've seen it before once, when I was younger; the urge comes over him in fits sometimes." He tried to sound reassured. Father was too young, surely, to be going senile yet. "Ari's been her usual self, though she did do a commendable job with Zeth and Zair, considering how she might have been. That reminds me, have you met them?"

Kitzu finally perked up at the last comment, frowning not with sorrow or consternation but thought, in the way only children could, scrunching up her face. It didn't sound quite right to her. "Merrow, you've... clutched?" That was the only logical conclusion she could come to. "Who's the lucky girl?" Luke waited patiently also, having much the same question on his mind, his eyes alight with uncertain joy and curiosity. As far as children went, Merrow was definitely more suited than Ari was for them.

[Aleksander]

"Ah mother's a little like that at the moment as well, she's busy trying to make our family seem, erm how to put this," he thought for a moment before finally finding a suitable adjective,"prominent? I don't know, she's acting as if she's creating a legacy."

She carried herself in a different manner than Merrow remembered from his young life. Back then she had carried herself, well for lack of a batter word, normally. Presently, however, she carried herself in an almost calculated manner, as if she were measuring how graceful she could make every step appear. She had always appeared graceful, afterall Kitava were a quintessentially beautiful race of draconic, but the way she moved now, well suffice to say Merrow had seen more than one male cast a glance her way.

And honestly? He disliked it.

A genuine smile split Aleksander's face, "Haha it's good to know that old sourpuss is behaving herself...well partly anyway." He had always found Duchess to be one of the most interesting crosses he had ever had the pleasure to count as one of his companions. In the end, however, he had decided to sell her to someone who would give her the stimulation and attention she needed, Kitzu was obviously the right fit. "She an absolute beauty int he water isn't she?"

Merrow made a face, apparently Arianza was still just as he remembered her, "Yeah we were the lucky ones in that respect. I do wish her all the best though in her endeavors, and I hope she knows she always has a home."

Just thinking about ther sisters was something of a surreal thing. Raised seperately under the care of only one parent both had managed to turn out remarkably similar in how they acted, really what were the chances of getting not one, but two pompous snobby female hatchlings in one clutcch. Astronomical that's what.

You've... clutched?

If Merrow had had within him the ability to turn as red as a sunburnt Lashak during sunset he would have been blazing brighter than any red dwarf star. Or at least that was the intensity with which his internal-blush seemed to hit him,

"Haha, I haven't clutched. There is, however, um..."

Aleksander could feel the anxiety practically radiating from Merrow's golden hide. He wasn't ready just yet to reveal that Kiyoshi was his mate. He'd have to stall for him until he felt comfortable with broaching the subject to his brother.

"Well she's not his special someone, but she is quite beautiful."

A wave of realief sprung over Merrow.

"Yes, she's a beautiful bloodred lashak, we haven't set a date just yet, but you should expect some new nieces and nephews by the autumn equinox I would think."

The thought filled Merrow with such joy that it was nearly palpable to Aleksander, he was sure of it. Him a father to a new clutch, a clutch of young bright minds. He was goin to have children, grandchildren for his mother to preoccupy herself with. And best of all? He was going to raise them alongside the male he loved...

[Kitzu]

"A legacy?" Luke managed to make his expression just the right balance between confused and bland. "What, aren't we enough of one as it is? Probably one of the biggest in the area, what with us and all five of Ari's children too, with two Soul-Bonded to boot! One would think her descendants have made quite enough of a nuisance of themselves," he said jokingly, letting a more playful smile come to his face on those last words. However, he did cut a quick glance to Kitzu to see if the comment on soul-bonding had dampened her mood any; too late, he realized that it might, and they would lose all the wonderful progress she'd made towards being herself again just now. But to his relief, she was too caught up discussing what was apparently a somewhat vicious creature with Kyle. Why did she wear a big grin when she talked about things that wanted to kill her?

"She is!" Kitzu sounded so obviously enthusiastic about the crossbreed. "Once you get past some of her more awful tendencies, she's quite the charmer. I bet she'll be great once I really get to working with her." Kitzu had been training a copious amount as of late, and the pets she'd worked with showed good progress; Duchess was lined up as one of her next projects, and Kitzu dreamed of going Beyond with the Sea Lion at some point. Duchess was definitely powerful enough, and could carry her where Azalea couldn't. "Azalea's been keeping her in line, if you can believe it. She's come a long way, too." Thinking of the Lovern made Kitzu smile, not the least of which was because Azalea was one of the few pets who neither tried to harm her nor griped (much) about the training.

Before Luke could comment on any of what Kyle and Merrow were telling him, Kitzu's eyes went wide. "Nephews and neices? Oh, we have to go see them! Tell us as soon as they're old enough for visitors, will you?" There, she sounded like a little girl again, and not a suicidal maniac. That was a relief. Luke grinned sheepishly.

"Er, not to trouble you, of course... I don't know about Mother or Father, but Ari was more tempermental, if you can believe it, after the twins. Not with them, surprisingly," he added contemplatively. Everyone had been surprised when they weren't busy trying not to set her off. "I imagine it's tiring, or... something." Luke had enough tact not to point out his brother's awkwardness, but the prospect of youngsters did cheer them both.

"Oh, the twins ought to meet their cousins too! Zair's been bugging me for a while to find some playmates for them... They're in that 'filling out their frames' stage now, but Zair's immature enough that you can't tell sometimes." Kitzu grinned at the idea. "Luke's right; at this rate, our family'll be known around the Canyons due to sheer size."

"You know, we were on our way to the river," Luke said, as other subjects came to a close, and it wasn't a lie so much as... they were meandering, that was all, and the river was inevitably where they meandered to. Besides, it was hot in summer. "I've been trying to get her to swim, but I'm afraid it's not as easy, apparently, as it looks."

"Hey, I did just fine for a beginner! You said so yourself," Kitzu shot back, indignant. "It's just that my fur gets all soggy and I haven't practiced enough, that's all."

"Which is why we were going in the first place." Luke made a face. "Anyway, would you like to come with? Er, Grandfather," the name still sounded slightly awkward, but less now, "maybe you can help her where I can't... I've very little knowledge on humanoid techniques."

<Luke: 3/76>

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