Kakanorii's Flight
| Kakanorii
basked on the low ledge of her Weyr, eyes half-lidded in delight as the fresh,
spring sun warmed her deep green hide. Everything was perfect with the world:
the birds were singing, the plants were blooming, and the clouds of mosquitos
that plagued most of Darkling Dawn's inhabitants (there was such a bad thing as having a
bathing lake nearby the singular mountain!) left Kakanorii alone. Marie, her
beautiful bond, was lying in the back of the great cavern that was their home,
head in the clouds, pleasurably riding a high that her dragon shared. Nevermind
that the human rarely seemed to be without one of her half-dozen drugs, and that
because of her addictions, she was usually useless for any chore that was
assigned to her... she was happy, and Kakanorii was happy for her.
No one had
ever said that greens were intelligent enough to realize when their bonds have
had too much of a good thing.
The dragoness wasn't concerned about this at
the moment, however. Aside from her transferred euphoric mental state, the
gold-striped female could feel a furnace-like heat somewhere in her belly, as if
her body were soaking up the sun and the crisp, perfect air, and were turning it
out again in spades! In fact... she was glowing with her heat, and before she'd
even realized it, the green was on her feet, and soaring down to the feeding
pens that lined the cleared area around the mountain's base.
If she hadn't
taken much notice to her own behavior, several males certainly did!
Hacksaw
Gao, for instance, never missed an opportunity to scope out the ladies. In fact,
upon his arrival at the Weyr-turned-interdimensional-dragon residence, he'd
managed to win the attention (and maybe even the hearts!) of several of the
opposite sex. A veritable meterosexual mutt, Hacksaw seemed to be on the leading
edge of just about everything... so obviously he was one of the first to notice
when Kakanorii's hide began to glow.
Ihanuus, unlike the self motivated
purple mutt, wasn't here because he'd chosen to be. In fact, the Moirean hadn't
even heard of the flight until his rider had told him! Jade, Inhanuus' rider,
had been moping around Cy Dragonstake until his sister, Era, had ordered him to
attend Kakanorii's flight... and while Jade wasn't in the least happy with the
prospect, at least Inhanuus could make light of it. Life was a melodrama, he
sometimes thought... might as well make the most of it!
While Starlith, an
almost-Old Worlder blue, latched his eyes on to Kakanorii's progress, Xandoh was
already heading for the green's low weyr/apartment. Was it, like, a billion
degrees outside? Wait, no, he was just incredibly nervous... he had been ever
since he met the orange-haired beauty. Xandoh had choked up the moment he'd
tried to get a few words out to her, and now he was supposed to... you know...
Even dragon hormones couldn't wash away his inhibitions. That was when he met
his 'competition'. Standing on the weyr ledge were a trio of other men, one dark
and broody (that would be Jade), another a freaking huge viking of a man (that
would be Rolvaag), and the last a somehow generically handsome man... (and that
would be Hacksaw's filler-human!) Well that was just great. Xandoh tried, but
found that he couldn't take much consolation in the fact that, while all of
these guys could probably beat him up (...well, maybe not Jade, but that was a
different case altogether), at least it was their dragons that were the key to
getting Kakanorii--and thusly, her bond, Marie's--heart. He only hoped that
Starlith could out-perform these men's dragons!
Back near the feeding pens,
Kakanorii was just finishing off her second herd beast. She wasn't the most
practiced killer, and the gore of her last victim had the penned beasts
stampeding to the other end of the coral, lowing in terror.
Nezza, the
peculiar Drak, watched all of this with something akin to humor. While he would
have intentionally stirred up this much trouble with the herdbeasts, it seemed
like the striped green wasn't even trying! Either she was incredibly stupid, or
incredibly talented... The orange and blue Drak decided upon the latter, just
because of the grace of the female's movements. Boy, would he be proven
wrong!
Lastly, Grouith was poised on the ground nearby, his aura of
confidence and determination extending to his violet-whirling eyes. He was only
chasing because his rider, the massive Rolvaag, had wanted to visit a friend
here. But by all that was holy, he wasn't going to lose just because of this
casual encounter! If he sired a clutch, it might be a reason to remain here
longer... and the last thing that he wanted to do was to uproot himself
again! Kakanorii would be his... or so he planned.
The
green conveniently chose that moment to leap. All of the males that were going
to come after her were here, and she could feel their lust directed towards
her... It was nice!
Kakanorii wung her way into the air, all five of her
chasers in hot pursuit. Grouith was the first, of course, followed closely by
Starlith and Hacksaw. Nezza flew half a length behind the jockeying pair, and
Ihanuus trailed somewhere behind. This was only a practice flight, after all,
and his rider's apathy was a strong factor in his urge to win.
While the
gold-striped green wasn't the fastest, nor the trickiest flyer. She led quite a
merry chase! At first, it seemed like Grouith might capture her, but with
Starlith and Hacksaw riding his air-currents, he was being
very closely trailed.
Kakanorii failed to pay the least
attention to any of them. She was high on her own sense of ecstasy, now,
launched further then she ever had been by Marie's mind-altering addictions. She
hardly thought of the orange-haired woman... hardly noticed if anything was
wrong.
Back at the weyr, however, something most certainly seemed out of
place. "Where is she?" Rolvaag asked, impatient. "Isn't it supposed to
be that the woman comes out, or at least invites us in?"
"We could just go in
and check," Hacksaw's Temp worker suggested, shrugging manly
shoulders.
Xandoh wasn't so sure... if something was wrong with Marie,
certainly it would translate to Kakanorii, and Starlith would tell him about
that, right?
~Kakanorii is flying a bit
funny,~ the
blue replied, uncertain. He'd never participated in a flight before... so he
couldn't be sure!
Rolvaag harumphed and uncrossed his massive arms. "Enough
waiting, I'm going
in."
----------------------------------
Nezza watched the trio ahead of him,
pondering ways to disrupt their rapt attention on the green. Not that he was
incredibly intent upon winning, himself... but trouble making was just so much
fun! It was surprising when not just Grouith faltered, but
Starlith as well... Hacksaw seemed just as confused about his competitor's
sudden slow-up. ~What ever's matter?~ he asked, half mocking the two blue
dragons.
~Something's wrong with Kakanorii's
rider,~
Starlith replied, the lust draining from him as Xandoh filled him in. Grouith
seemed to similarly be losing his chasing urges. Kakanorii, meanwhile, remained
blissfully unaware of them.
~What? What could possibly be
wrong?~
Hacksaw asked, eyeing the female. She was pulling away,
now...
----------------------------------
"She's not dead, is she?" Jade stood
at the foot of the palette, eyeing the prone figure upon it. They'd found Marie
half-sprawled across her cot, thankfully clothed, but other then that,
completely undignified in her situation. A puddle of drool soaked her pillow,
her skin seemed even paler then it had to those who'd seen her earlier. On the
bedstand nearby, several open baggies revealed an impressive spread of various
legal and illegal drugs. Most of them weren't even easily identifiable! Whatever
the sorry case might be, it appeared that the woman had over dosed, one way or
another...
Things didn't look good.
Xandoh bit his lip. "We should alert
healers or something."
"Right," Rolvaag announced, "You, boy, go find
someone. We'll stay here."
The light-weight blue-rider didn't even bristle at
Rolvaag's insinuated insult. He just
ran.
----------------------------------
It was wrong to chase a dragoness who
wasn't even aware of her partner's own illness, wasn't it? Well... it was a
major turnoff for Hacksaw, anyhow. He was torn between capturing her in order to
keep her from careening into the ground, or exhausting herself. At the rate that
Kakanorii was flying, she couldn't possibly keep up for a while. On the other
hand, there were other dragons here that could do the dirty work, and he wasn't
exactly in the mood anymore.
In the end, he didn't have to do
anything.
Nezza zipped by overhead, cackling at the trio of suitors. "Hah,
can't handle a little competitssion, boysss?" the drak called, rocketing after
the green. He was going to win this thing for certain... of course, default
wasn't the best way to do anything, but he wasn't in the loop!
Kakanorii was
half-surprised out of her ecstatic self-stupor when Nezza descended on her...
but still she was unaware of Marie's condition. It wasn't until she and the drak
parted and came to a somewhat awkward landing that she got any inkling of what
was wrong.
A pair of dragons were waiting for her, one emerald green, the
other charcoal black. ~Sorry to interrupt your flight,~ the smaller black said, his voice
grave. ~But
your bond is very ill.~
~What?!~ Kakanorii exclaimed. Endorphins rushed through her
veins, and even her small wits were stretched to their limits.
"Don't worry,"
The new green soothed, "we're looking after her, but how could you not know?"
She sounded skeptical.
Kakanorii wailed. ~I couldn't
feel anything wrong! I didn't know!~ She crashed off in the direction of
Darkling Dawn, keening all the way. ~Marie, don't be sick! I'm coming!~
The pair of newcomers looked at one another, then looked
at Nezza, who was standing nearby. Then at each other again. "Well," The drak
said, "Thatsss more trouble then even I wasss expecting."
The newcomers gave him a grave
look. ~That's
not funny,~
the black said, and he and the green got ready to take to the air.
Meanwhile,
Xandoh was one of the few to remain behind once medical help had arrived. A tall
woman, her skin nut brown and her eccentrically long, blonde hair tied in a
braid behind her, was leaning over Kakanorii's bond, a first-aide satchel spread
out before her. "She's going to be all right, isn't she?" The blue-rider asked.
He still wasn't sure of what to do.
"I don't know," the woman replied.
"Whatever she's done, it's enough to put away a dragon... but she's still
breathing, and while her heart beat is a little erratic, she doesn't seem in
critical condition." She looked from the orange-haired woman up to Xandoh, and a
faint smile crossed her wide lips. "Thanks for staying... I appreciate it.
Weyrhealer A'ros will be up soon, and then we should be able to sort this all
out."
"...All right," the blue-rider said. He looked down at Marie's
unconscious face, feelings that he couldn't really describe locked around his
heart. Here he'd thought that she was perfect, but that couldn't be true. He
wasn't sure what to think, right now. Maybe it was pity that held him in its
grip. Embarrassment for being so gullible? Maybe resentment.
Whatever the
case, it had been a strange flight... Hopefully the hatching would prove to be
more
auspicious. |
Written by
Dracothrope