Lucas has always wandered the worlds between magical and mundane. He refuses to call mundanes by that name, though. Not out of respect, but more out of the way that he dislikes saying the word. He is a man of few words, though not in the sullen way of most of his other-dimensional counterparts. He would rather reserve comment, until necessary.

The first years of his life were in the mundane world, as many Mages' often are found. However, he distinctly had no potential as a magician at all - until the dark mage Renaud swiped him from his bed at the age of 6 years.

The next torturous decades under Renaud's harsh rule left Lucas with emotional wounds - like all the other Sangers out there - but also with the infusion of magical ability that the wizard had been trying to do.

When Lucas attempted escape the first half dozen times, Renaud simply sent out a couple spells and retrieved him. But Lucas learned from these experiences. Quickly he became adept at concealing his magical presence from these elementary spells, so Renaud's punishments got more and more harsh.

For almost two hundred years, Lucas and Renaud went back and forth with a volley of tactics that made both of them far stronger than they had been before. These events were interrupted by long stints of almost-friendly behavior, researching spells, cooperating to perform bigger rituals. But there was never a moment that Lucas wished anything other than freedom from this monster who had created him.

Then Lucas attempted another escape, almost succeeding in removing his entire presence from the magical lands. After more than forty years wandering, and knowing that he'd be found eventually, Lucas was frantic to get somewhere he could be safe. This was the first time he encountered the official schools of Magic - one in particular - and the first time they realized there was a much bigger problem than they thought with helping him.

Renaud had entered a pact with a demon to get back at him. This was no imp, no small change. It was not the first time Renaud had used this particular demon to do his dirty work, and apparently the pact was a mutually acceptable one. The creature enjoyed its work, and Renaud certainly seemed to enjoy bringing it on the world. By the time they knew what had hit them, the wizards at That School had no choice but to break off their defenses and allow the demon to have his prize.

Renaud got his servant back. The demon got rewarded in other ways. But this was not over by a long shot. Actively attempting to fight Renaud, Lucas earned himself decades in stasis which were punctuated by years spent toiling as a magical battery for Renaud's experiments.

Lucas changed tactics around his three-hundreth year. He simply stopped responding to his Master. Refusing to give Renaud the benefits of his mind, withholding any magical power for work, and certainly refraining from offering (voluntarily anyway) any of his physical pleasures, Lucas attempted to become undesirable to Renaud.

And perhaps that worked a little too well. Renaud's ritual was complex, and one that Lucas recognized the components of a bit too late to do anything about it to defend himself. A demon summoning at Renaud's dank castle was nothing new. But the subtleties of this spell included things that Lucas hadn't expected.

This demon was far greater than the last - one of the Lords that the retrieval demons often paid their tithes to in Hell. Lucas was rendered immobile by another spell, before he could react.

Effectively sold into slavery to a demon of one of the more prestigious levels of Hell, Lucas was unable to perform even the simplest magical tasks without punishment. Dragged into Hell itself, a human normally stands little chance of survival. However, Lucas was no ordinary man, even then.

The decades spent in this demon Lord's posession are ones which Lucas would far rather forget. His duties were so horrific emotionally that he refuses to speak about it unless absolutely necessary (and there have been times, to illustrate a point to an obstinate wizard or other). Lucas just leaves this part out of his "background check". But it has left him with a truly haunted past, and an equally haunted look crosses his long face on occasion. Especially when he thinks about his living children...

Events in this nether realm have a way of changing even the most well-laid plans, however. After more than forty years of agony, the demonic Lord's lands were overthrown. In the chaos of monsterous battle, Lucas managed to escape into the wilds of Hell. The Lord was not killed, but was not powerful enough when all was said and done to try getting him back. A human in Hell without the protection of a demon lord? Think 'snowflake'.

But this snowflake was made of sturdier stuff. He hadn't lived this way for that long without learning some things. Though his magical skills had become dusty after disuse, Lucas did not forget any of his spells. It took him several more years (a mix of running from and beating up various demonic entities) but Lucas developed a portal spell which he used to exit Hell.

It would be too much to ask that Renaud some how be dust when he got back. But rather than showing up on his Master's doorstep, Lucas began to plot a way around ever having to deal with him again. While he wandered the northern realms he encountered another magic school - however this one had been warned generations earlier about this strange man. Giving him only enough time to rest, and a meal and clothing, they immediately kicked him back out into the world. Demons powerful enough to push aside the complex web of defenses around a full fledged magic school like That One were more than enough to warrant a stiff regulation against Lucas ever entering one of their schools again. While on the surface Lucas understands this, he also greatly resents it. The only people able to help him are also the only ones unwilling to do so.

But while out in the middle of nowhere, Lucas discovered an invading army of dark forces. Having a 'bit of experience' in this field, he assisted with tactics and spells in the quelling of this invasion. In the process, he met up with a pocket of dragons - whose territory was the first the demonic army would have taken down. Sleeping dragons are usually 'bad' to awaken, but in this case they were in fact somewhat glad he did so.

Remaining with them for another half-century, Lucas developed his shapeshifting powers more extensively. Mostly in order to keep up with the dragons themselves, but also to gain the confidence in his own abilities that he'd needed for centuries, Lucas enjoys a tremendous freedom flying under his own power in the skies above the dragon territory.

With a grudging admission of great importance, the elder of the dragons expressed to Lucas that if he could fully transform himself, he might be the last hope for their little band's survival. All three males of their tribe were brothers, and with but one sister who had deserted them some time back, they had little hope of finding another female to carry their line. Their sister might have been willing to carry their great eggs - but for the shame of not being able to fly.

Within the first ten years of his life with the dragons, he began to seek out this missing sister. While the thought of being pushed into siring children made him ill (his years of service in Hell bitterly come to mind) the desire to help his draconic companions was far stronger. And, his curiosity at this missing sister was overwhelming. Dragons are a strange lot, Lucas had learned. Their overt expressions of love and friendship changed tone when they would speak of their sister. Because she'd lost her wing sails during a fight with another invading Wyrm, they were repulsed by her appearance.

Lucas couldn't quite understand this, being 'only human'. Even though he could adopt their shape for a while, he would never quite be one of them. Determined to help, and determined to try and change their minds about their desolate sister, he began tracking her through the wilds.

Villages with rumors of a dragon having passed through, whispers of a great black beast hiding among the shadows in the hills, these things allowed Lucas to at last locate the missing sister Lennuv.

Approaching carefully, and fully human, Lucas explained his presence to Lennuv. Long before she even emerged from her dark cavern den, Lucas could tell that she was still in great pain physically from her wounds. Her wing sails in tatters, unable to rise and fly - and thus grounded she had to hunt like a Wyrm, an embarrassment greater than her brothers disgust at her appearance.

Because of his centuries-long captivity and regular torture at the hands of Renaud, Lucas had a large selection of healing spells on hand. Not having had to use them for quite some time, he prepared to use them on her to repair her wings. Lennuv at first refused, but eventually accepted the gift of his healing hands.

When he transformed into a dragon to help her re-learn to fly, was when Lennuv accepted him as a partner. She still has difficulty flying, but with regular spell application she will eventually grace the skies properly with her brothers - and her offspring.

The fact that he is in reality a human showed through on the first of their eggs. Though Lennuv laid eight eggs all at once in their now-shared den in the northlands near House Domina*, two were far smaller than the others, and seemed to mature more quickly. One hatched after only two years (only!?) into a human-shaped slightly draconic female. Lumiere! She has a long (and some would say shapely) tail, and a strangely draconic face, plus wings in addition to her human shape. Another eight years later, her brother, a stranger looking half-dragon half-human 'centaur' type, named Svedok hatched.

The other six eggs remain on their nest, maturing for decades. The first of those hatched nearly thirty years after being laid, into a beautiful female fully-dragon-shaped dragon. The promise of this new life has brought the little family of dragons closer together again.

Lucas, occasionally accompanied by his two half-dragon children, had begun to wander again, and located Domina. Curiousity and an old ache to be among his own kind for a while caused him to ask about remaining there. He was eagerly accepted, since House Domina and the school there had never quite gotten the 'lesson' of That Other School's refusal to allow Lucas entry. His children learn as students, while he occasionally pretends to teach.

Lucas has been aided in his search for his soul, by Iris - now his paladin - and her story can be found HERE.

((Below, Lucas as a half-dragon. In full dragon form he would be considered a "dark/Brown" by many cultures.))
* note that these eggs and their cavern also made the swap from one dimension to another, and from europe to the pacific northwest on Twoarth

Lumiere and Iris seemed to have conspired with each other, to bring Lucas news of the Avengaen bonding ceremony. It was something that he'd heard of, faintly in the past - perhaps when they had a bit more contact with other worlds.

But Avengaea wasn't Earth, and it wasn't another dimension. It was another planet, somewhere far away. It could be reached by portals - but from what his daughter said, they were difficult to use and unreliable at best.

It was his best chance, Iris told him.

Her beautiful dragoness Mistylia offered to take the risk of opening their portal. Supplying power to him wasn't going to be the problem, he'd said. It was keeping it open and locating a way back, once the portal closed...

Lucas packed up a few scant things, those he often traveled with. But noticably he left books, items, and a number of personal things that he'd acquired during his stay at House Domina. That meant - his room was still his, he would be back to it someday.

Hopefully soon. Zora and the other instructors, as well as the students who had been learning from him (he'd been teaching shapeshifting techniques, to those who could learn) came out and bid him farewell.

The portal opened - wavering. And there was a smile on the man's face as he looked over his shoulder. So many people who hoped he'd be back? That was a switch for him, and it lightened his heart considerably.

***

When he moved through the portal, there was a feeling - a pop in the fabric of the universe. It alerted someone, sitting half-asleep on a nice couch in a nice room, surrounded by terrible things. The man looked around, wondering what that feeling was, why he'd awakened so suddenly.

His dragon, Morkilanth, gave a grumbling sound from outside.

That was familiar, somehow, he spoke through Julian's mind. The well-dressed and casually cruel man stood up and moved around the tools he'd been working on for the later party he'd be hosting.

"Yes, yes it was. But not 'our' boy, no... Not ours. Where's he gone... Let us find out. Shall we?" Julian tossed his head and waited for the dragon to rise. They would go out and find some companionship for their troubles. Then, he thought, they'd find every one of the worlds that still had a Sanger on it and destroy them.

***

Avengaea had waited for a long time to accept people from other worlds, apparently, into their dragon-bonding program. And it was worth the wait, to Lucas.

These dragons - shapeshifters by birth, and some of them better at it than others - walked the same paths as their human companions. They studied, they worked, they had lives and jobs. It was a fine place. Their library was huge, well stocked with things that Lucas would have loved to learn about.

Had he not been busy already, working out the details of standing as a candidate in their bonding program. Normally somewhat forceful if he knew what he wanted, Lucas was hesitant to bother the people in charge. He stood carefully at the edges of gatherings, worried. But the whole time, there were dragons willing to talk with him, their own bonds happily discussing daily events here.

So it went for more than a month, as they waited for the called hatchlings to arrive. They were young dragons, but they weren't fresh from the shell. That struck Lucas as odd, since all the other dragons he'd researched for bonding were usually impressed upon their lifemate at their hatching.

But these? They had the choice of looking over their potential friends long before they needed to make their decisions. And it was a voluntary one - they were not forced to do anything. If they did not wish to bond, they would not have to choose. They would become loners or just plain old members of their society if they did not join up.

Lucas liked it there, quite a bit. His restful gaze across Sanctuary was interrupted by the tolling of a bell. It was dinner time, it was going to be an interesting celebration.

Tonight was the night that the candidates were to meet the young dragons for the first time.

Pulling in a deep breath, Lucas moved himself to the dining hall, and endured a lengthy session with the younger bonders, listening to the details of what they were and were not allowed to do during this meeting... Well, it was interesting enough. But Lucas got the impression that if the dragonets were interested, they'd be able to do whatever they felt was appropriate. Short of just bonding then and there of course.

The scrolls would be doing that job, later. This worried Lucas a little, these scrolls were the embument of the bonding, since the local dragonets did not have the innate magic for it. But, that was irrelevant. When they had eaten and they were led into the meeting rooms, Lucas was drawn toward a grouping of Fire dragons. One was just surly, he clearly did not want to be there at all. The other male largely ignored Lucas.

The female seemed to gaze at him with large, open eyes. Many of the others who had arrived - including a very pregnant woman from a place called Vella Crean (who stared at Lucas so intently that he wondered what was wrong with him now? what had he done?) - milled about. The eventuality was that each person got the chance to talk to a number of the dragonets, if they so wished. Learning about each other, their worlds, their passions...

But Lucas was stuck at this little red-colored Fire female. Quietly, she asked him, "where do you wander? Is it a place that I could go too?"

"It is," he answered. "But it will take some time to explain where. I've wandered quite a lot."

"We like to wander, or so I've been told," the fire gave a grin. "But there is more to you. I can just see something about you."

"Ah-" Lucas said, with a grin. "I'm human enough, but I also take a dragon's shape. My world's magic users can sometimes do this." He extended his arm which grew scaled skin and long nails upon the tip of his clawed hand. "I fly with dragons. Even though it's somewhat dangerous where I'm from."

That seemed to surprise the little Fire. "Why would it be? Are there Demons? We will fight them, if we have to. Right?"

"There... are demons everywhere," Lucas said, with a faintly haunted frown. "But enough about those things. My friends brought me here, I ... hope to find someone to help me."

"Well, that might just be in order. And you know that some dragons can shapeshift!" The female seemed quite proud of herself for knowing this. Lucas wondered just exactly how old this hatchling was, if not fresh out of the egg. She seemed to carry herself with a kind of maturity that experience could give. But she was indeed the same size as some of the others present - and they were probably less than a few years old at best. They couldn't be newly hatched.

Could they?

"What is your name, little Fire girl?" Lucas asked her, still entranced. Her tail flicked, and she pressed her hand onto it so it wouldn't keep embarrassing her.

"Audeo Rufaincul," she said. "I am pleased to meet you."

"Lucas," he said, holding his hand out. She took it - she was warm, furry. It was almost enough to make him laugh - her furry fingers tickled.

"It's time to go," she announced when the rest of the humans and bonders had begun to leave. "I will see you again, Lucas. In three days."

"Good," Lucas said, as he too left the meeting chambers, "and I'm looking forward to it."

***

The speech that Naio gave was... long. Almost interminably so. He apparently liked to speak, at length. Lucas half tuned him out, since there were other more interesting conversations within his sensitive ears' reach. Something had happened with the scruffy looking Fire dragonet, trying to leave or escape. Why would he want to do that? Oh - perhaps it was that he wasn't there really of his own volition. His mother sent him.

What went through Lucas' mind then wasn't a fearful reliving of his own captivity. It was a pang of jealousy that the dragon had a mother to send him anywhere. How odd.

Eventually, after maybe a lengthy 10 or 15 minute speech, when most of the younger bonders were just about ready to fall asleep, the dragonets were led into the chambers. There at the head of the room was a dais built for them to stand upon and do their choosing from. Several dragonets moved almost immediately, right to their chosen. But it would be several minutes later when another batch had finally gone out to their bonds, that the fire female came into view.

She picked up a scroll from the basket, the scroll which had the spell that would bond she and her choice together. Eagerly she went through the milling candidates, until she did something that no other dragonet had done.

She glowed brightly red, and as she walked, her shape changed from a four-footed dragonet into a red-skinned biped - still holding on to the scroll. There was a collective gasp - mostly from the humans and their humanoid-shaped bonds. This was so unusual, for a dragonet this young!

Such talent - and that talent could not be wasted. She was wearing clothing, and Lucas wondered absently whether she'd had to buy them, or get someone to make them, and if they'd stick with her without her bipedal form. She was young, a child of no more than 9 in human form, but that meant merely that she was not set in her ways. She could do whatever she wished, with this power. She sensed Lucas could help her learn more about it, herself, and ... there was something else she felt too, when she looked at the man.

She came right up to Lucas, who was smiling but a bit surprised too. She held out her hand with the scroll in it - he was meant only to touch it and the bond would be made.

"Hello Audeo," he said, quietly with a smile. "I didn't know you could do that."

"I know," she giggled, and waggled the scroll slightly. Lucas took it as it shone brightly. Their bond was made. It was done.

They were to help each other. Audeo got a bit more serious, when she felt the deep wounds of Lucas' scarred soul. But they both walked up to the line of bonded pairs, when their names were called at the end of the night. They accepted the applause and praise, and made sure that the paperwork was right - it had their names, the time and date, and the location. It was a clever scroll, that spell. Not only did it seal them together officially, but it made sure that mundane tasks like records keeping were taken care of too.

They made their way back to Lucas' dorm, silently. It was a happy silence, not a sullen one. A mood that Lucas hoped he could keep with him forever.

"It is not so hard, come along and come in with me! Spread your wings if you have to!" Audeo called out. Behind her, Lucas was flying as his dark dragon shape. But she was flying over the lake. He balked, and skirted it deftly.

"Not... just yet," Lucas said, his dragon voice loud but subdued.

Audeo's ears flattened, and she sped ahead. Her strong wings would carry her anywhere. And Lucas' could do that too. Only, he was afraid of so many things! So. That wouldn't do at all! Audeo swept down over the lake again, and let her head dunk into the water, the wingtips splashing into the surface. She came back up, refreshed.

"It's chill but it's so fresh! Come on, my friend, you've got to do it some time." She called. "I'm sure you can swim if you try."

"I have tried," Lucas said dismally, "and I float like a stone!" He switched his wing gait, backwinged a little and headed down to the side of the lake. The shore was pebbly and slick, but with his dragon-feet he could walk easily.

Audeo had grown, her dragon shape was strongly muscled. Her half-human form was pleasantly pre-teenaged, her mane of orange-fire hair would have made any humanoid look twice. Many did. Especially when the two of them were in the library or attending some function socially. Audeo was a knockout.

What was she doing with such an old man, that was the main question.

"You can float if you concentrate on it," she said, bringing Lucas' wandering mind back to things at hand. "The water here isn't deep. I will never let you drown. Nor would the other dragons," she nodded at the elves and the dark-skinned one's water dragon lept from the lake again. The smaller light-skinned elfess dove from an outcropped stone, into the deeper part of the lake. She shot up again, screaming that the water was frigid. Yet - she went right back in again.

"What's wrong with that girl?" Lucas muttered.

"There is nothing wrong with her," Audeo nudged Lucas toward the water, "the water is not that cold, and you can float just fine."

Lucas put one clawed foot into the inches of water nearest him.

"I - am - not - going - swimming - in - this." He said, abruptly turning human and realizing just how frigid the water was. Apogee was right... How could she stand it though?

"Ah -" Lucas said, as he watched her. "She's never in the water more than a few moments at a time. That's how she can stand it, Audeo," he tried to beg out of it, but the large fire dragoness would have nothing more. She pushed her head against his back, and he had no choice but to stride toward the water again.

"I - but - I don't!" He protested, and finally fell on his butt into the water. With a gigantic splash, Audeo followed him. Her furry skin would be soaked, heavy, but she felt like she could still handle it all. She swished around in the shallow, and finally Lucas waded out to greet her.

"If you ignore the chill, it's ... kind of fun," he said. "But I still have to say, I might never sire another child again what with the ice in the water..."

She'd grown so much in just a few years. Though dragons and their ilk had such long lifespans, they all seemed to grow up fairly fast off of Earth. And they just kept getting bigger and bigger, didn't they? Lucas was perpetually amazed at how large Audeo's full grown dragon shape really was.

And how ... fluffy. Her adorable face and swishy tail would nestle among her great frilled wings, long ear twitching sometimes. And at other times, she would sleep beside him as a two-legger, with those great wings protecting them both.

There was no doubt in his mind: Audeo was ideal as a friend, a partner. Perhaps as a lover, she would have to decide that. After letting him go off to Moire, he knew that even Lennuv would like her.

And their shapeshifting contests! When she was littler she would challenge him, and he would come through - shifting quickly from one shape to another. But now? It was amazing. So fast, and so sure. After five or six years practicing, of course, she was ready to take on the world.

"I am ready to help you find your soul," Audeo said one day, surprising Lucas out of his reading. He put the book down, carefully, and avoided looking at her. "I know it hurts, but we should find Iris and Mistylia, and go looking for it now. You are strong, healthy. I am old enough and strong enough - and I know magic to help you."

Lucas gulped quietly. Perhaps she was right - this was time. He felt a cold, shivvering sensation at the back of his mind. It would mean he would have to go back into Hell. And while he did have 'friends' there, they were not to be depended upon to help him overtake a demon lord.

Or Renaud.

Lucas turned his peacock blue eyes toward Audeo. She stood as a humanoid, her fluffy wings gracefully standing behind her, her red skin the only other show of draconic influence. She was not innocent of the danger - one look at her and Lucas knew that she'd been studying up on it.

"Then we should find Iris, yes." Lucas sighed.

"I know you do not want to face it," Audeo said. "But... We have played enough, to take your mind off it. We should get serious and finish this. And then we will have all the time in the world to play again." She tilted her head, and placed her warm big hand on his shoulder. "Right?"

Lucas weakly smiled, "you are right."

"Then you will be surprised at how fierce I can be, to defend you. I know your paladin will lead the fight - I will be your shield." Audeo said.

They collected up books and clothing, items they'd bartered for or found or borrowed... Back to House Domina they would go! And some day after that, they would face the dangers of returning the last piece of Lucas' soul to him.

It wasn't working. Lucas stood at the edge of the cavernous ledge and looked down, felt his stomach crawl, and turned away. "There's no point in going after it," he said, "it'll be long gone into its own dimension by now. And I'm just too exhausted to follow it right now."

Iris looked at her mentor with her eyes wide, "we can't just give up, Lucas!"

"I can," he replied tiredly. "For the moment at least. I know where it is, I know what might meet us there, and right now, I am not going to follow it."

Audeo put her red-skinned hand on his elbow. She still looked rather young, but had blossomed into a beautiful young woman appearing perhaps in her late teens. "We will go home," she said.

"But -" Iris started, but Mistylia interrupted her.

"He is tired, my friend. We will pick this up again when he is ready." The spirit dragoness glanced at the dark haired man and his Avengaean partner, "you need a break. And we can prepare further, in the mean time, right Iris?"

She nodded, and turned to see Lucas whispering something to Audeo. The fire dragoness kissed him on the cheek, and then shifted into her full sized draconic form. With some obvious exhaustion, Lucas rose to her neck and held on as they lept into the air. It was up to Iris this time, to provide the portal back to their home - he was too drained to do it himself.

***

Their homecoming was quiet, though it should have been triumphant. Zora rushed up with a big smile on her face, but it was clear that they had failed in the quest to retrieve Lucas' soul - every part of the returning group said so. Zora wisely decided that announcing their return would wait until Lucas asked her to do so. Instead of asking him about anything, she went to Iris and got the story from her.

Souls of lesser beings, mortal humans, were typically devoured, not bartered. But Lucas' soul had been sold off more than once to demonic bidders in a bizarre kind of auction. Sold to a demon of such greed that it would be difficult at best to even approach him, let alone defeat him or try to reason him out of the trinket. He had to have 'one of everything' or some such desire.

Their trail went cold however, when Lucas learned that the piece of his soul had been sundered into two parts. Magic like that was usually done by the person whose soul it was - not by its 'owner'. Yet, there it was. More proof to Lucas anyway that this idea of getting it back was growing worse by the day. They had been gone for seven weeks, trailing after imps and curriers, higher demons and devils. They only knew for certain the location of one piece, not both.

Shattered, like his soul, Lucas decided they would return and try later. Iris seemed miffed, angry, righteously so. But Zora mulled this over.

"Give him some time, time to recover. He needs some good in his life to counteract the bad. He needs to play," she said. Iris scoffed but Zora said, "It took him decades to work the courage up to train you - someone who could help him. It will take time. Forcing him to go after it is almost as bad as having his soul stolen, dragging him along for a ride. Let him be, he'll be all right soon enough."

***

Though he'd maintained a brave face with Iris and Mistylia nearby, Lucas broke down in huge wracking sobs when alone with Audeo. She held him, cradled his head and cooed at him softly.

"It was right there," he hissed, coughing out a laugh. "So close."

"Guarded by two demons I've never seen the likes of," Audeo reminded him. "No sense in getting everyone killed, we know where to go now."

He was about to say something, something bitter, but Audeo added, "nothing is ever as sure as we want it to be, love. Nor as easy. We will have to go back with more strength on our side."

"Recruiting others?" Lucas said, trying to regain some composure. He pushed his fingers through his messed hair, "but who?"

"Well there are your other-selves," she said, rolling her eyes. "There are enough of those to choke the biggest demon out there, I think."

"But I don't want to risk them," Lucas whispered.

"They know your situation, my love," Audeo said, snuggling up to him and closing her eyes. "They don't judge you by it. Why every time someone even mentions something like this to that Cynonix fellow he practically leaps from his fur."

"He is a bit... jumpy," Lucas said, letting a hoarse chuckle out. "And ... now that Crazy Doc has impressed, perhaps."

"That's it. But not right now. Right now," Audeo announced, "it is bath time. You are filthy."

Lucas' shoulders dropped, and he adopted a silly puppydog look, "well I've been dragged through six layers of hell, you get a little dirty doing that..."

***

Before they announced their return, at least Lucas and Audeo's for Iris refused to hide herself at House Domina, the pair took their leave again. It was for the best: Audeo had decided now was the time to begin her own quest for mates, offspring, love. But it was also time for Lucas to admit some things... To Iris.

And for her to admit that she had fallen for him long ago. Audeo was ready for them to just 'boink' and be done, but she had another tactic in mind. She plotted for a day or so with Mistylia, and then they sprung this new quest on the pair of humans.

Hardly a quest - really, more like a spot to find where they could allow her to drop her eggs. It would be far too much of a distraction for both of them to do it at House Domina, so they went looking.

"It would be good," Audeo said to the surprised paladin and her charge, "to get this out of your systems." She smiled broadly. "I want to get it out of mine too. You both drive me mad with it."

Lucas ducked his head and pulled his hair back, while Iris blushed something fierce. Eventually, with a heated (and probably comical) conversation with her dragon, they agreed to go along with this plan.

It turned out that there was, not coincidentally, such an event waiting for them to attend. It was Audeo who read the invitation to Fa's little shindig and decided that would be perfect. Her island in the tropics of ... wherever it was, is where Audeo, Mistylia, Iris and Lucas went.

Mistylia wasn't going to be flying, this kind of thing wasn't really her style. She was in fact reserving herself for exactly the right partner. If she found a permanent mate, though... that might get sticky for everyone. However this place wasn't where she needed to worry about that! Maybe she might ... find someone to play around with though. There would be plenty of dragon riders around! And they were here to relax and have fun...

There were tents down by the beach, and Mystylia settled onto a shady spot near them. Iris chose one, brought some drinks and drew up a chair to watch the sun set. Audeo and Lucas - both in their dragon forms for the time being - chased each other around until they were both exhausted.

Thus began their first day of many like it, relaxing and fooling around... It was very likely that Lucas would pair up with both females, and very likely that he'd be looking at whoever else was at the place. Iris worried: what if she did ... well, become pregnant? Fa assured them there would be more than adequate resources to take care of everything. She did seem a bit put off by the weird woman's insistance that they remain, should that happen... But what might happen would probably shock her anyway.

Twins did run in the Sangers, after all...

Dragon

Name: Audeo Rufaincul
Gender: Female
Size/Shoulder/Length: large, 18' s
Colors:
Features:
Powers:
Parentage: none known, progenitor
Origin: Avengaea as above
Other Info: doll wizard (long gone T_T )

Location / Partner: Driolo Fur and Feathers Frenzy / Redux as well, Lucas; Herilect Kalkin, Idargo Kalkin, Xerena Rufaincul (Cy)
Redux Jeoju K (DF), Arin K (Neishai), Volkan K, Van K (Kin), Cuso K (Ktrenal), ? (SF), Rey K (Trix), Cicero K (Molly), ? (Ty), Incendi K (Phe)