Order and Chaos

[Mystic Dragon]

((Copied from the end of Nairyg's hatching story))

Faust strutted out of bravo bay with as much confidence as a crowing rooster. Not only had he gotten his science experiment, Schroeder had seen fit to give him a silver; the best of the Hathian bloodline. Perhaps the man didn't hate him as much as he had thought.

~So what are you going to start with, hmm?~ Nairyg inquired with a bored list to her mental voice. ~An inquiry of my mental state? A few blood samples?~ The young silver turned her sleepy eyes upwards, reflecting the scientist's goggled eyes in her own violet ones. ~Or maybe I should just find a table to lie down on.~

"Oh nonsense!" Faust replied with a scoff and flippant wave of his hand. "You and I are going to be good friends. "After this we'll go back to my place in Star City and have tea and crumpets." His guileless smile did not convince Nairyg of his credibility.

~Right.~ She said with a snort. ~And then Pretentiouth and I will frolic in a field of daisies. I'm no idiot, Faust.~

The pale, little man grinned from ear to ear and put an appreciative purr into his voice. "No, I can see that. You're quite the perceptive little thing. Which makes me wonder why Schroeder was so kind as to hand you over to me. Does he think you'll be able to escape?"

Nairyg responded with a barking laugh that made her whole body tremble. Fortunately, they had already arrived in the feeding area so her abrupt halt didn't hold up the others.

A bowl was placed in front of her nose, filled to the brim with fresh meat. While the silver hatchling was preparing a snide reply for her new sponsor, she turned her snub nose towards the tantalizing smell. No sooner had she opened her mouth than something in her mind suddenly switched off. Nairyg keeled over, face first into the bowl with a wet splat. Muffled snores were soon drifting up from her blood spattered muzzle.

Faust frowned, staring long and hard at his new charge. While he couldn't understand why she had suddenly fallen over, he wasn't concerned about her health. Her sides were still moving evenly with ingoing and outgoing breaths. In fact, they were moving evenly enough to resemble a sleeping pulse. But how could that be? She'd been talking only moments ago. The geneticist nudged her limp back with the foot of his boot.

Nothing.

~Well isn't this a fine mess?~ Pretentiouth sneered. ~She's a Hells-sent narcoleptic! How do you expect to get any work done with that thing?~

~Shut up!~ Faust snapped with a vehement spike in his mental threads. Hairless brows converged angrily over his shaded eyes, forming deep creases in his milky skin. His cheeks turned an ugly, splotchy red that his makeup could not hide.

The ruffled man kicked his charge again, harder this time. Nairyg only snorted in her sleep. Nothing Faust said or did would wake her until her mind was ready to relent itself again.

"Mystic!" The little geneticist roared when the Red Mage strolled slowly out of Bravo Bay, trailing the last of the hatchlings. The mage turned her hooded head towards him and made no reply. None was needed, for Faust would have spoken over it anyway. He pointed a knobby finger at the snoozing dragon and demanded loudly: "How am I supposed to work with this?! I need a conscious subject! One that I can control with drugs and commands. Even an insane charge would be better than one that will fall asleep in the middle of a session!"

Mystic looked at the quiet, silver body. The lidded eyes circled by Hathian eye horns and the tiny wings; the short tail that would soon be as long as the body itself and the serpent-like head. She looked upon Nairyg and saw so many of the promising young Hathians she had sent into the Nexus to live and learn. All the little hatchlings, so full of hope, and even Tear of the World. The hatchling fated to die because of the nature of her birth, saved by Myrah'Care.

Their lives lay before her in a sudden tapestry that stretched from one end of the Nexus to the other. How easy to ignore the undesired half of this life? As so many of her friends had said, they had as much Hathian in them as they did hydra. The potential for good or evil was equal. Yet she was not like the true Hathians Mystic had helped raise on Tris'Hath. Nairyg's life was similar to theirs, and yet entirely different at the same time.

Mystic looked upon the helpless, slumbering dragonet and saw Toth.

She turned away and began walking towards the outside hallways, where Myrah waited for her.

"That is your problem." She said to Faust over her shoulder. "I expect a report on your status every week, regardless of her condition."

((end copy))

~This doesn't bode well.~ The silven dam commented to her rider while Faust fumed in the background.

~Perhaps not, but I don't doubt that Faust will find a way to make it work. He has been waiting for a chance like this for ages.~ Mystic felt dirty. This entire mess left a slimey layer overtop of her conscience. Though she tried to ignore it, she knew she would always feel that filth whenever she looked at Nairyg.

Thankfully, this would be the only hathydra to set foot in the Warren.

Or so she believed at the time.

[JKatkina]

Onithris had seen Mystic at the hatching, and really, it was impossible for a dragoness of her size to make herself inconspicuous, but she had done her best, even when young Nydag had been sent to her. But after that, her new charge had demanded attention; he was a big youngster, and hungry, and despite the conflicting emotions that were making Onithris's insides melt to mush behind her hard exterior, enchanting. She walked him to the feeding tables, slowly to accomidate the tics that, she assumed, were his particular peculiarity, and found herself utterly uncertain as to what to say.

"I'm Nydag, um, but you, tskk, already know that." He houghed a strange interrupted kind of laugh.

~I am Onithris, but you may know that already as well,~ she replied automatically.

It was a beginning, in any case, and from there the little white began to work his magic on his new guardian.

It didn't take long at the feeding table for Nydag's small stomach to fill, while Onithris watched the varied peculiarities that his siblings displayed. One, a little silver, collapsed in her bowl, and her guardian -- aah. Onithris recognized that one. Someone who had lived at the Warren could not help but recognize Faust. That was not neccisarily a good thing, and Onithris had to fight her hackles back down and remind herself that the young silver was not her charge when the despicable man began to hit the hatchling. She turned away deliberately, and fortunately, just then, Nydag had decided he'd eaten enough.

Yawning and licking red from his small maw, he looked up at Oni with wide purple eyes. "Can we go home? Chkk, whereever home is now," he said, and grinned. Oni nodded and turned to leave, beckoning the dragon-child on...

And taking pause at the sight of Mystic, leaving the bay.

It was no secret the Red Mage hated the hathydras. Oni could practically feel it, resonating with the part of herself that always wanted to be angry. She moved with caution towards the bay's exit. ~Stay close, Nydag,~ she told him, feeling strange and conflicted. She watched Mystic as she moved, torn between hostile caution and confusion. The human had always been kind to Onithris where few others would give her the time of day, but then, all Hathians were precious to Mystic. And Onithris was feeling strangely... maternal. Mystic's hostile intent towards her new charge would not be tolerated.

She pulled herself just short of tripping on Nydag as they walked, discovering the young hybrid had taken her instructions to heart and was trotting along between Oni's forelimbs. He noticed her looking down at him, and asked, "Who is that?"

~Someone who might wish you ill,~ Oni told him broodily, ducking out the big doors of the Destiny's hatching bay, and keeping an eye out for the Red Mage.

[Mystic Dragon]

~What should happen if the hatchling proves to be more Hathian than hydra?~ Myrah'Care was questioning her bond as the woman moved out the exit. The silver dam waited nearby, wedged into the hallway like a circle peg in a square hole. She had never been very fond of technology, and her wariness was evident in the way she refused to touch the walls or ceiling with any part of her being. It was likely that, if she could, she would have been hovering over the floor as well.

~That too I doubt.~ Mystic responded with disdain riding her mental threads. ~They have already proven my theory of mixing the bloodlines. They will amount to nothing more than a nusience for everyone who has claimed them.~

~Mystic...~

~I will not be persuaded otherwise.~ The mage forced an edge into her tone. Myrah could feel the blunt stubbornness pressing against her mental boundries. ~We will gain what we need from Nairyg and then dispose of her.~

It was the right thing to do, she told herself. Nairyg was a mistake. She had to be, else everything Mystic believed would be shattered. She could already feel her tenacious hold on reality beginning to fray. Insanity was a scary, lonely void and she refused to go there again. She was right and that was all there was to it.

Then the mage heard a sound behind her. Of course the other newly bonded and spectators would be leaving now. However it would be rude not to give them the room they needed to pass. Mystic glanced over her shoulder as she moved to the side of the hall.

It was only a glance, but it was enough. Mystic froze in place, whipping her head back around to stare at the two draconic beings behind her. One was familiar, and the other bore a nauseating similarity to Nairyg.

"Onithris." The mage hissed, planting the butt of her staff firmly on the steel planking. The two metals collided with a hollow thud that resonated throughout the hallway. "What in the name of the gods is this?"