As soon as Qaevuss finished eating, Rek abandoned the Caer. She did not like being in the midst of an alien civilization. Though it had been explained to her, through a dragon, that there were classes in which the newly-bonded could learn about the raising of a hatchling, Rek would have none of it. She didn't need some pink, sloppy human telling her how to take care of Qaevuss. She wasn't a xenophobe -- the Tlahsn had met many other races as they'd expanded across the stars -- but most of the time she didn't enjoy dealing with aliens.

::But I'm an alien, aren't I?:: Qaevuss asked wryly, lips pulling back from her chrome-coloured teeth in a feral grin. ::I'm certainly not from your planet.::

But the little xenodragon (as her breed had been dubbed) was happy enough to leave, and the Caerfolk would certainly be happy to find them gone. Rek made no goodbyes and strolled away from the Caer with her new bond in tow. The Outrider's scout-ship awaited them, having been sent down by remote -- over their transmitters, Rek had ordered Dnyl to do so while Qaevuss had eaten. A remote of her own let them both inside, and within twenty-four nahtt they were back on the Outrider.

The scout-ship docked inside the larger Outrider's hangar, and when Rek opened up the side door and stepped out, Dnyl was there to meet her. He smiled and spread his lesser arms in the proper greeting of subordinate to superior. "Welcome back, Tkalohtek," he welcomed her, using the word of respect that basically meant 'commander', and looking deferentially to the green-armoured beast beside her. "This is your new..." -he fought a moment with the alien word- "...bond?"

Rek nodded. "Her name is Qaevuss," she stated, watching as the hatching stalked towards her assistant. Qaevuss had her head dropped and wings half-flared aggressively, but through their bond, Rek did not sense anything like intent to kill, or even hurt. The xenodragon was testing him.

As Rek expected, Dnyl calmly stood his ground, tracking Qaevuss with his eyes and affecting a confident, but not aggressive, posture: one that was generally a safe bet against an unknown predator, but could easily be adapted. Rek would have been sorely disappointed in him if he'd acted any other way -- he'd hunted with her too many elyh to cower from any manner of creature. Only once did he glance at her, likely to gauge her reaction to this investigation and incorporate it into his own.

Qaevuss suddenly lunged at him, baring her chrome teeth with a snarl. Startled, Dnyl tried to jerk back and away, but stumbled as the hatchling latched out a forepaw and yanked one of his feet from under him -- for all that the little beast was a newborn, she was fast, and there had been nothing to forewarn her sudden action. The younger Tlahsn cried out in surprise as he hit the floor, and then froze as Qaevuss threw herself onto his chest.

Rek remained unmoving.

Qaevuss dropped her eyeless face close to Dnyl's, wings spread over him like a raptor with its kill. She opened her mouth and her secondary jaws slid out, primed and ready to attack, a rod tipped with teeth of its own. Dnyl's eyes were wide, his antennae protectively curled flat along his head.

"Tkaloh-" he started to murmur, and Qaevuss snapped that secondary mouth right in his face, cutting him off.

No sooner had he winced, that Qaevuss retracted her tongue-jaw, folded her wings, and stepped off and away from him with a complete air of disinterest. She padded back to Rek's side and butted the female Tlahsn's leg, leaving Dnyl to stare in bewilderment and -- likely -- wonder if he should've been worried for his life or not.

Beside her, Qaevuss made a soft, whuffling kind of noise. ::I am your equal, and he is your subordinate,:: the hatchling observed, ::and so he is my subordinate as well.::

Rek made a quiet, hmphing noise that could've been a laugh, and looked back at her assistant. "Come on then, get up."

The lad's antennae curled up again, twitching unsurely, but he climbed to his feet again, watching the newborn xenodragon all the while. "Tkalohtek... what was that about?"

A smirk cracked along Rek's mouth. "Establishing dominance, that's all. She wouldn't have hurt you."

Dnyl's expression made it clear he wasn't too sure about that, though he didn't say anything in that regard. "You mean that... You think I'm inferior to that thing?" he sounded incredulous, and hurt.

"I said nothing of the sort... but she sure seems to think so, wouldn't you say?" Rek responded casually, turning and heading off towards the lift that was the only way off the hangar-level of the Outrider.

Qaevuss hung back, interposed between her bond and her bond's assistant, poised with all the haughtiness she'd portrayed back on the hatching sands after choosing Rek as her own. Dnyl eyed the emerald-and-ebony creature warily, until Qaevuss broke her sightless stare with a disdainful, cough-like sound that was her version of a snort, and turned away from the young Tlashn with a flick of her bony tail. Dnyl had no choice but to follow in the hatchling's wake.