Of all the pairs of people to arrive at Carramba High School, this one beat the rest. When Magg wears clothing, he's quite the lady-killer. When Anima stops touching people, she's rather a nice normal girl.

Neither of them want to do those things, of course. Touching people is Anima's perrogative, and Magg... doesn't much like wearing things that do not show a lot of his skin.

Together, they are Animal Magnetism. Apart, they're what some local priests and politicians like to call 'the ruination of today's moral structure'. To hear Anima and Magg say it, they're the liberation of the human soul and body. All in one (or two, as the case may be) pretty package.

***

"Are you ... sure you're not an adult?" Cybill asked Magg. She eyeballed him as he sat uncomfortably in a sweatsuit on the chair opposite her desk. "I mean, you look pretty mature. And you're what, six-one? Six-two?"

"My copyright date says 1987," Magg announced. "I do look a bit old for my age. Don't I?" He leaned in, feral green grey eyes gazing at the woman. "And I guess height runs in my family. I wouldn't know..."

"Why is that?" Cybill asked, and Magg narrowed those eyes a bit. He looked away.

"I don't know my family, I can only guess who my parents are. I've heard rumors, but when I asked the ... people in question they were pretty put off by the idea."

Cybill furrowed her brows, and wrote 'orphan' in the section of her notes appropriate to parentage. She gazed down further on the page, and tilted her head. Then, she shuffled out Anima's paperwork and compared the two.

"You two can't stay in the same dorm room," she said flatly. "It's totally against policy."

"But... we're together." Magg said, softly. "And she is the only family I have."

Cybill was firm. "You'll just have to learn to get by separately."

Magg's face showed that he knew just what to say. He was a white mask, pale skin perfect and unmarred by any teenage acne or blemishes. His hair was a wild mop of silvers and greys, not prematurely white, but obviously born that way. Whoever his father or mother was, they were handsome - their features showed beautifully in this mature young man.

"Then you'll have to imagine what trouble we'll get into separately, if you put us into other people's rooms..." He grinned widely, big teeth showing.

"Okay, you win," Cybill said, shortly. "I swear. Kids today. If I hear any complaints about it though, you're going to be split up!"

"Fine, that's fair," Magg said. "Is everything ready to go?"

"Not quite, you and Anima have to choose some classes first." Cybill handed him a folded up pamphlet, which contained the course load schedule for Carramba's classes, along with a map of the campus.

"Thanks. Will tomorrow be good?" Magg asked, standing and adjusting the chair. Cybill chastised herself for watching a sixteen year old's butt. It did look good under those sweats...

"uh - Yes. Tomorrow will be fine," she snapped herself out of it, and didn't notice Magg grinning wildly as he left the room.

Cybill breathed out a long, careful breath. That pair would be the death of her. Or, they'd be invited to some interesting parties when they graduated. Probably both.

***

"So you got us in?" Anima asked, excitedly and in a hush. Her big hair flew slightly in the breeze, and she could hardly contain herself. But that was perfectly normal for Anima. When was she ever contained? Magg nodded with his big smile unable to be hidden.

"Yeah, but we have to choose classes now. And the dorm thing is okay." He said, as they walked along the cement walkway into the 'alien/humanoid' dorm building at the north end of the campus. "I can't believe she fell for that..."

"Don't let it get out," Anima said. "We'll get separated and I don't want that."

"I told her not to want that either, I think it worked." Magg winked at his partner.

Anima swayed around him, swooshing her long hair, entwining her long tail around his midsection. "I want to tour the place, can we do that? It's a nice campus. Not like that last place. Not like with those Vocorr jerks hanging around."

Magg shuddered. Their travels around the galaxy had finally brought them here, not for lack of trying. They weren't really ready to settle down on a planet, but this one had a lot going for it. It was free-raced, meaning that most of the people on the planet didn't much mind that aliens and furries and multidimensional travelers were there, and in fact they all also had rights if they remained on the world long enough.

Perhaps they should become more goal-oriented, Magg thought. He looked at Anima, and wondered if she could ever have a goal beyond the next five minutes. They found a nice flat area with chairs, stools and a big round table that had an umbrella shading it, and sat down. A couple other people were nearby, getting coffee from the gigantic java-mug shaped reactor core building. They paid only enough heed to the pair to notice that there were two wildly attractive people new to the campus - the locals threw the pair a wave and a hello, and went on their way.

"I really like this place," Anima said. "Now, what's on the course list? How many things do we have to take?"

This went on for a while, they looked over the requirements. They'd both passed entrance exams that put them at Sophmore level, meaning they would have a total of three years at the school. They had to pace themselves for that. Nothing too outrageous or advanced.

"This looks fun, 'Hyperdimensional Calculus'." Anima said pointing at the course description.

"Are you insane? We don't even have a credit for Just Math!"

"But it looks fun," Anima said. "And I bet I could do it."

"You can if you put your mind to it," Magg said. "But let's assume that they won't have first-years in that class, right? Realtime Geometry sounds about the right speed for the moment."

"Hmn, I guess." Anima deflated a bit. They moved from one course area to the next, history and science, literature and finally electives.

"This one. I want to be in that class." Anima punched her sharp nail onto the page. It impacted precisely over the "Dragon Riding and Tactics course.

"Well, it's a special trade elective. Let's write it in, and see what we get. What else?"

The course booklet filled out, as the sun went down over the campus. The western side of the campus held the two six-story high Staff and Resident apartments, and two more beautiful glass-walled buildings, which lit up with the sunset. Their dorms were a bit more mundane, set in the north building and spacious enough for them to have a bed each, a big shared table arrangement, and room to set up some 'stuff' if they had any. The kitchenette and bathrooms were down the hall, and they would welcome the bathing facilities - if they could use them together. Probably get kicked out for that, though.

***

The next morning, the campus started to come alive with more students. Anima and Magg had arrived just in time for the fall season to start, and within one week or so, the whole campus would be at its peak again. They handed in their course requests to Cybill, who ran them through the computer at her desk (which connected directly to her head via a pair of thick wires at her temples).

"Everything looks okay. Do you think you want to stick with this Advanced Cheerleading, or head over to the Closed Circut class for performance, Anima?" Cybill asked. The morph fox-demon perked up.

"I wasn't sure what that class was for," she admitted. "What's closed-circuit?"

Cybill explained that the campus had a local broadcasting booth, for both radio and television. They had an acting course, but also a live-broadcast news station simulation, which Cybill thought she might get a kick out of.

"Maybe next year," Anima said. "I want to fit in first," she added quietly.

"Oh, don't worry then. You'll do fine in the cheer course. I just wanted to try filling up Vax's class room is all. There'll be other kids wanting in there, so..." She wrote down their final schedule. "Well, I'll see you around. Don't get into trouble."

"How much trouble can we get into, we've got no cash." Magg said, half smiling, as they left. Once the door had closed, Cybill shook her head and laughed.

"More than you could possibly get into with money, sweetcheeks...." She said.

***

"But we've only got three classes together!" Anima said, half exasperated, half bemused.

"That's what happens when we choose different classes," Magg reminded her. Their first day of school was mostly getting to know how to get from one class to another. The campus was large, but they both could move through crowds easily, and both of them got used to the campus before classes started. Living in the dorms helped too, as they would be able to look out their window and check which building was where and plot their day.

They had Realtime Geometry first, which was as Magg expected more than enough for Anima, but didn't much challenge him. Next up was Locals Only History - a history class taught by what appeared to be a humanoid construct but she didn't let on. Magg and Anima couldn't seem to "influence" her with their odd little ways and means - they both concluded that they'd just have to learn the history of the place they were staying at, instead of goofing off.

After that, Anima headed off to Optimism Under Duress - an interesting class that her endless enthusiasm and bouncy air helped with a lot. Magg went to the Public Relations class held by none other than Cybill herself, and she knew right off that this was a field he'd excell in if he only chose to wear some clothes.

They shared their Dragonriding course, but this early in the year there wasn't much going on. The instructor wasn't even there yet, he had to go somewhere quick and only got back at the end of class. It seemed that Hollis had done this on purpose, too, to allow the students some time to look at the big tactical maps, glance at the anatomy and egg growth charts, and just chat about what they would be doing later on.

Fifth period also brought changes between their schedules, as Anima went to the Interpersonal Relations class taught by Zeth Rubio - and he knew the class wouldn't be the same any more with her in it. Of course, Sanger's Posing and Weight Training class was mostly 'posing' with Magg there. He could almost pass as a young, very pale version of the instructor - but neither of them would admit that.

Then it was off to Music Theory for Anima, and Speech for Magg. They'd chosen their classes well, even if they didn't get to see each other except for the mornings. Seventh period was fun for Magg, in Fashion Tech, because the instructor Urd immediately began using him as a model for certain lovely wraps and silken garments. He'd get a kick out of that class all year. Unfortunately, English 101 was a bit dull for Anima.

Their last classes, Political Science with Helen Graves for Magg, and Advanced Cheerleading for Anima, went well enough. Graves was a bit insistant that if Magg was going to be taking a Fashion class he'd have to actually show up in her class with some on him. The cheer class went so well that they stayed late on the practice field, with Anima learning chants easily and making friends quickly.

Their first day done, both students collapsed in their dorm and didn't even bother trying to do their homework until very late.

***

It was during their first real Dragon Riding class that they both got a taste of things to come. Hollis paced around, framed by two or three of his 'local' riders. He gazed at the group of students, and cleared his throat.

"Now, I'm going to say this at the start of our course, because I don't want this to come as a nasty surprise to anyone later on. Some of you will not be finishing the course properly - because some of you won't be bonding dragons."

There was a sigh and shuffling from many of the students, muttering that 'he can't mean me' or 'that's got to mean someone else'. He waited for the muttering to cease before continuing.

"This is not through any fault of your own - remember that on almost any dragon bonding world, Nexus to Old World to Historic, dragons do the choosing. Not the other way around. You can't just walk up to a nest or clutch and say 'I want this one!'. It just doesn't work that way."

Anima could tell that the girl beside her was about to burst into tears. She raised her hand, and Hollis allowed her to speak.

"Sir, does it matter if we don't bond? I mean, there will probably be people who won't, but none of us has a dragon yet. And, how are we supposed to get one, then? I didn't see anything about it in the manual."

Hollis nodded his head, mop of pampas silver hair dancing - almost like Magg's did when he walked. Only, tamer.

"We'll be doing a tour of several dragon Sites, based on what our search riders here come up with." He indicated the trio of people at his side, the first of whom was a yellow-eyed white-haired man. "Ard is from Blackstone, where I'm from. Viyan is from Zekira," the four-armed extremely dark man nodded. "And Temih is from Planet Twenty and the Healing Den." The feline cheetah-Kin used her human-instinct and smiled, baring sharp fangs. "Their dragons are outside, and if you're all ready we can go do some searching."

Hollis indicated that everyone get up, file out of the room, and down to the field. Near the track area was a newly added arena locale, which currently doubled as the dragon landing flats. Four dragons rested there - a big sharp blue, a gigantic brown, a mid-sized dappled brown and green, and a gigantic bronze. From the first sight of them, the whole class paused and some gasped in awe.

"Never seen one before," someone said. "They're amazing!"

"They're scary, I.... don't think I'm cut out for this after all--" Said one girl. It was the one who was fearful in the class, and Anima turned to her.

"Now cut that out," she said, hooking her elbow around the girl's arm. "Even if you don't ride one, there are always things to do. Right?"

Hollis paused, and looked at the girls. "Yes, yes there are. There are many recordkeeping and technical details to look over, health issues, and location details. Most of those would usually be taken care of by a staff of the site involved," Hollis took that as his cue to continue the instruction, even with the search dragons standing there. "There is upkeep that can't be ignored. When a hatchling is young, they must be fed regularly and with the right kind of meat or foods. They usually have to be washed and scrubbed every day until their skin, hide or scales are sound."

Hollis walked around to Viyan's brown, Ummidvarth. "Ummid, here, is a large sized brown. Browns are what most Sites use as their "average" dragons. They aren't as common as most places have for greens or blues," he nodded to Ard and Trelerth, "but not everywhere can support dragons either as large as Synesth," he waved at his own giant bronze, "or as differently colored as Kelssyroth," he indicated Temih's female brown.

"They've each got different features," Hollis continued as the search dragons sniffed over the group. "You'll note how one wing is very long, this other is curved, and some have solid leather instead of finger spars," he discussed the basics of dragon anatomy as those same dragons got right up close and personal with the students.

There were twelve students, and of those, three of them seemed of no interest to the dragons at all. However, not to Anima's surprise, the fearful girl was not one of those three. She was nudged by Kelssyroth into the circle where the "chosen" students stood.

"Now," Hollis continued, "you might wonder what you three will be doing from here on out?"

The trio, a jock and two aliens who looked somewhat unhappy about this, stood and grunted some answer.

"Well, you'll be there for any hatching we attend. There is always the chance that your enthusiasm for bonding will actually wind up getting you a hatchling." They perked up at that, visibly. Magg kind of snickered, because he was the first searched.

"But it will also get you a lot of work, along side your friends here. They'll be needing help cutting meat, washing their dragons, and in any case, cleaning up after them." Hollis smirked at the distasteful remarks that came from that revelation.

"So this is them, then?" Hollis said, privately to Temih. The feline nodded, and handed Hollis the list of their results. "All right. Well, back to the classroom and - I hear the bell anyway. You're free to go, and I'll see you in two days. You all need to make sure your travel forms are filled out, because we're going to be flying at the end of the week."

Giddiness thrilled most of the class, as they went to their Sixth period classes. (The school's schedule was odd and even classes every other day and all 8 on Fridays, just so you know.) But a bit of hesitation came from Magg, on his way to Speech. He mulled over what he'd do about getting a permission slip signed.

Surely they could arrange something, he was an orphan - so was Anima for that matter. He'd have to talk to Cybill the next day about this.

"I see," Cybill said, looking over the permission form. "Well, it's supposed to be for everyone, but I guess when you're an import orphan, it's a different story." Cybill walked from one end of the room to the other, conversing with someone on her headgear. She apparently saw a little holographic image of the person in her eye, but it was invisible and of course inaudible to those watching her end of the conversation. The whole class sat there watching, as Cybill got more and more annoyed.

"But - no, just listen," she said, finally starting to snap. "They're not from here, and they're both - you aren't listening are you." She sighed, and then rolled her eyes. Her vivid hair with the black-bottom dye job marked her as a member of a strange cult - and suddenly she realized that again. Sometimes she forgot.

"Never mind, Kade, just never mind, I'll get it myself." She said, and snapped off the phone in her headset. "I'll handle this. You siddown," she pointed to Magg, "and you," she pointed to a shy little girl who sat in the corner, "time for you to start digging for information about how to gather a mob."

While the girl hemmed and hawed, wondering aloud what she was doing in a class this crazy, Magg watched Cybill. She appeared to be clicking something on her cyberdeck, and then got a response. But she was subvocalizing, not audible to the class. However Magg was not your typical student. He was attuned to things such as sound - it was what got him into trouble back at home anyway. When Vocorr took the lives of his parents, and threw him in a temporary jail - where he got aquainted with Anima....

'Good,' Cybill was saying, 'okay. I can get your signature and no one will even bother looking it up. Yeah well Kade is an idiot and I don't know who put him in charge of off-world relations, I thought that - yeah I know. Well, okay, gotta go. I'll have the paperwork in my office. It's due soon. Get your butt on over here. Thanks.'

Her conversation was far more intriguing than Sally's treatise on mob rule. Magg caught Cybill's eye, and she smiled widely and nodded. She mouthed 'it's going to be fine', and they got back to their class work.

***

When Anima found out what they had to do to get their permission slips signed, she was a bit flustered. The man standing there in the darkened courtyard (it was nearly the middle of the night, for some reason he'd decided to only show up after sunset - maybe he didn't want to be seen by anyone important) was another BlackBottom, like Cybill, but he had a dragon with him.

"That's a really pretty boy," Anima said with a purr, trying to distract herself. "Pridath," she said, and the dragon turned his head.

How did you know my name? The RainBlue asked.

Taken aback just a bit, Anima shook her head, and her ears were down. "I... I don't know, I might have heard them talking. I'm sorry," she stated, hoping that this didn't change things.

Blitz, the dragon's rider, gazed at her with a bit of a leer, but shortly it turned to a wide-eyed look. He and Pridath were obviously communicating, and even Cybill remained silent for his private talk.

"She's ready to bond," Blitz said, "hand over the paperwork. I can't stand the thought of Kade preventing anyone like this from standing somewhere. Just because of a little signature," he muttered while he took the papers, read the contract over first (which Magg noticed, but Anima barely even saw, since she was still rather enamored of Pridath) and signed two places, then the second sheet for Magg.

"Thank you so much," Cybill said, "I owe you."

"No you don't," Blitz said, smiling. "All you need to do is ask. Even though the Blackbottoms are scattered to time and space," he said significantly, "we're still as close as we need to be for help."

Pridath pushed his wings up, their rainbow hues reflecting the small light from the nearby lamp post. Blitz got onto his dragon and they swept into the air, silently. They vanished a moment later, teleporting back to who-knew-where.

Magg thought he sensed a direction, they were headed to a Saturn base that existed only in a couple realities.

But how he knew that was as much a mystery as how Anima knew the dragon's name without being told. Cybill hadn't primed them for it, and they hadn't gotten it from her mind the hard way either.

"Now don't forget to do your other homework," she said, "because you have to remember, if you go out somewhere and you do bond a dragon?" Cybill waited for both of them to return their attention to her steady gaze, "you're going to still be expected to complete the courses you've signed up for here too. We know there is no excuse, even for all Hollis says about the work? He's always got a boatload of volunteers to help out with the duties. It's hardly as much work as he claims it is."

Both students were a bit relieved. But they were similarly disappointed - they didn't get out of their other classes if they bonded?! Gyp!

***

For the next two days, their classes went as normal, except for that the Dragon class was put on hiatus and the students were allowed to do a bit more private study and homework for their other classes, pending their trip. In the big Dragon Studies room, the twelve students were mostly silent, except for one or two who had to practice their Sumerian Dialog for their Language class.

"So are you ready?" Anima asked the girl, whose name was Juniper. Juniper Jones.

She nodded eagerly, "I think so. Even if I don't bond big, I know I'm going to have fun. This will be my first time offworld, and my mom is totally frantic. She's never gotten used to me going to a school like this, but she'll have to just chill."

"That's the attitude," Anima giggled. "You could come to the cheer rally, later on. Heckle the visiting team."

"You guys compete, that's right," Juniper sighed, "I don't know, I'm still getting used to the idea of being around such amazing people..." She glanced to Magg, "your boyfriend's really cute," she stated obviously.

"I know," Anima grinned. "He is."

Of course he heard them, and his gaze moved to the girls. Anima showed her teeth in a wild smile, while Juniper blushed almost maroon. How could she know that they would eagerly share? That couldn't get out - and certainly could never get back to her mother - it would ruin a lot of people if they started acting that way. It faintly disappointed not only Anima and Magg, but Juniper and a dozen other people they'd flirted with over the last two weeks.

"I hope I have time for Cheer," Anima said as an afterthought - she just realized that the effort of a dragonet would probably be exhausting.

"Don't worry - I think you will," Juniper said. "You guys are totally inexhaustable."

"Good word," Magg asserted, "I like it when applied to money, good times, and new music."

They shared laughter, and a bit of nervous chatter. They'd long since finished their homework and class preparations. Now they merely waited for the bus.

***

"Well you didn't think we'd be going by bus, did you?" Exclaimed Hollis to Kade the rather annoying admin assistant. He waved his arms in exasperation and Synesth gave off a large rumbling snort of bemusement.

"These... creatures? They are completely non-standard and - and -" he seemed to be searching for any excuse, "they aren't covered in our insurance!" Kade announced. He was a middle aged man with way too much time on his hands, not enough good sense, and hardly an ounce of humor to him.

The whole dragon riding class stood around hoping that they didn't get delayed too much by this guy. They'd all run into him one time or another - especially those in their Junior or Senior years. Most of the class was younger, but they all had heard how he'd tried to stop Anima and Magg's paperwork from going through.

"Kade, you're going to let these kids go now, because they will more likely than not be coming back here on their own dragons. They've got to learn how to ride, and frankly we can't reach half the places we need to be by using an interstellar transport. Plus that would take for ever ." Hollis heard a couple people chuckling, he'd spoken a bit about travel with dragons being far superior to almost any other form - and he only knew one or two people who could teleport themselves as well as dragons could.

"The teleportation clause in our contract does not cover ... biological means!" Kade insisted. He was all but exploding. Magg had finally had enough.

He walked up carefully, towering over the admin by at least a full head, and he looked down his beaklike nose at the ruddy-skinned human. Blinking, Magg watched as Kade noticed he was being stared at. Everyone on the dragon landing had stopped bickering or talking - they were waiting for Magg to do something.

It felt like there was music playing loudly somewhere nearby, but no one could hear anything. In fact it was pushing at the insides of everyone's chests - almost like standing too close to a bassbox at a concert in a small arena or dance hall. The thumping of everyone's hearts threatened to make a couple people scream or faint, but they kept it together.

"Mister Kade," Magg said, very low and with a faint growl in his deep voice, "we have all had our ... parents or guardians," he read over Kade's clipboard, "sign on the dotted line that our lives are now in our own hands and that you and Carramba High have no liability in this matter. I do believe that we all have the sense in our heads to not try to get hurt on our way. But if you prevent us from being on our way there is no telling quite what will happen. To you." He paused, "by accident of course. These dragons are getting a bit antsy. They'd like to be on their way. As would we all..."

While there was a clear threat in his speech, Kade almost ignored it. He was too busy watching the dangerous gleam of green and lightning behind Magg's eyes. Something about his eyes was completely entrancing - those almond shaped eyes played games, and often won them. The music in the hearts of everyone nearby was deafening without causing a sound.

"I see." Kade said, curtly. "Well. Then. We will be awaiting your return. Have a .... good trip." He spun on his heel and left the dragon flat. Everyone watched him go, and the music they all could feel faded as Magg's anger left him.

"Well," Hollis said, "that was different. Let's go. You two," he pointed at a pair of burly boys, "the big brown is waiting for you. Mike, Taylor, you're on the blue there," Hollis gave instructions for everyone, now that they had the full field. "I want you two with me," he said to Anima and Magg. "There is somewhere I want to take you and talk. About what you just did," there was a faint warning in his voice, but both Anima and Magg nodded. How could they refuse?

***

It was an asteroid, a tiny one, that somehow supported atmosphere. It was hardly big enough for a dragon, and there was not really any place to get comfortable. There was, really, but it wasn't meant for these people - in fact this asteroid should not have technically even existed. But it did, so they were there. Reality was being seriously bent for this group.

Hollis didn't even bother waiting until the pair had dismounted from the wide back of the huge bronze. "What was that? That you did?"

"I was giving him a piece of my mind." Magg said simply.

"Well you almost gave me a fucking heart attack, so don't do it again. Some of us are a lot more sensitive to psionic energy than others - and you two have been all but pouring it on since you got to Carramba."

With an embarrassed start, Anima said, "sorry."

"I'm not sorry," Magg said. "You have to know that we're not just kids, right?"

"Of course you aren't kids. Carramba is a refuge, though, and you're still welcome there." Hollis said. "But don't do that again. Not unless you really have to and I'm not there."

"I'll check the psionic registry next time I want to threaten someone," Magg said. He had gotten kind of cold, eyes narrowing and back straight. Hollis didn't want this.

"Don't get all huffy, frizz boy," Hollis said. "I could just leave you here. One of those accidental things you mentioned."

"You wouldn't do that!" Anima said, surprised.

"Of course he would. He's supposedly ruthless sometimes." Magg said. "But I was under the impression that we were on your side of the tracks. And your ruthless behavior never extended to your friends or allies."

"You've done some studying."

"I've been around," Magg said. "Your warning has been taken, don't worry. I was not going to let that jerk stand in our way. Would you rather have stood around arguing with him all day? He was ready to."

"I know," Hollis said. "Come on, I'm sorry - and be careful. Next time someone starts to get on your bad side, Magg, just walk away."

"We've been running all our lives," Anima said. "And we're both tired of walking away. We've never made a stand."

"It's going to change," Magg said. "We will be making a stand. Not yet, but we will."

Hollis prodded them back onto the bronze, and they headed away again. He was worried - they were still kids in many ways. Impulsive, yet smart. Experienced but only in things that kids shouldn't be. They both showed signs of never having had a proper childhood - so they were trying hard at Carramba. He could hardly blame them.

They were good kids - old kids - and he hoped they came back to Carramba side by side with him and Synesth.

***

Back at Carramba High...

In a narrow office, with no extra decoration and no frivolous papers to get in the way, Kede sat down and stared at his telephone. The safe window would open shortly. What would he tell them?

Finally the phone rang, and he picked up the reciever gingerly. "Hello," he said.

"You let them go?" Said a slightly garbled voice on the line.

"I had to - the male has certain ... powers. Dangerous ones."

"Yes, agent KD, that is why we needed you to restrain him on Earth for pickup."

Kade swallowed, hard, but said nothing. He knew that this was going to end badly. Unless... "Sir, if I may suggest? Perhaps if one of our other agents in the field ... went along? I am certain that they could be caught up with, it has only been a few minutes since they left. I realize that teleportation is instant, but they have yet to complete their training, and locate bonding sites."

There was a pause on the line, but then the voice came back. "Well, Agent KD that seems to be a better plan than merely allowing them to escape. We will be handling that on our end. If they come back, your job will be to continue to observe. If they do not, you will know that your idea worked."

Kade smiled a bit, and hung up.

Vocorr would be attending dragon hatchings - that was almost blasphemous.

Though he couldn't keep his eye specifically on the pair of orphans, Hollis knew better than to leave them alone for any length of time out here. Space was the domain of Vocorr, and about a week after sending the kids on their way to their many dragonries, he'd gotten word of the sinister and hyper-conservative organization.

"We get enough of this crap at Dawnlight," Hollis muttered to himself, after being given the heads-up by Cybil. He snuck around and hung out at the Abstract Destiny long enough to find Kade - or, as he listened in on the man's mind, Agent KD.

Right about the time that Anima and Magg were headed into the bays where their particular dragon bonds might wait, Hollis was busy escorting the Vocorr agent 'out'. They wouldn't hear the last of this group - Hollis knew that much. But now they knew who to look out for. Their intolerance wasn't looked upon as an acceptable behavior at Carramba, so he'd probably be looking for a new job soon enough.

But Hollis knew that they'd see him again... He was just hoping that it would be later, rather than sooner.

***

There were so many people - pairs, Anima noticed right off. And that was probably because... the dragons were pairs. Sort of. The massive room they were in resembled a chamber she'd been in in her youth, as a captive, and made her ill at ease. But Magg gripped her hand and smiled, his charming eyes held her and made her fear vanish. He could always do that.

Except when he was afraid, then it was her turn to comfort him. His father, or the person they suspected was his father, made him sad and depressed and angry. Anima turned those feelings into other more constructive ones by reminding him that perhaps having a father who was as insane and weird as Tresis Arregon wasn't all that great a deal - maybe they could find a better one. Hollis for instance, and at that they laughed the night away.

A motion at the end of the chamber alerted the pair, all the pairs really. One after another, these long, slinky and multiple limbed creatures trundled toward the pairs of candidates. All but one - well, was it two? Or one? Found who they were looking for right off. However it was all the way after everyone else had found their friends, that one stunning dragon came toward Anima and Magg.

She/He moved without faltering, even as a hatchling it was clear that this dragon knew where to put what limb. The others had been somewhat awkward, tripping occasionally or having to tell their other half where to go. With all the feet and wings it was certainly no wonder that others fell or hesitated. But this one...

Purely black and white, but contrased on either side with wingsails and feathers...

"We are Taijitu!" they announced, their voices speaking in union, their young tones already a choir-like complement to each other. "We are Yin and we are Yang—we are Unity! Anima and Magg, you are ours!"

Anima grinned broadly, holding even tighter onto Magg's hand. The hatchling didn't come up to Magg's waist, but would be big, only the weirdly dark and spotted Chaos and Order twins would come close to the size this dragon would. The female portion, smooth and dark, grinned and nuzzled Magg's outstretched hand, while the male portion of infinite light and puffiness rested his muzzle on Anima's hand. They were in a word, perfect.

"Taijitu, sweetie, are you hungry?" Anima asked.

"I am," Magg muttered, holding his stomach.

"You're a big baby," Anima chuckled.

"I am a big baby! He's nowhere near as big as I am!" Taijitu chimed with both voices. "And yes I'm hungry!"

***

Hollis stared openly at the pair and their.... dragon... He blinked, and then got a nudge from his huge bronze. "Er, yah! Yeah, Synesth wants to take you back to Carramba now... I think the dragonry quarters will be big enough for you... all?"

"Thank you," Taijitu said, both heads dipping down and several wings folding in unison. Anima and Magg just stood there with the biggest, silliest smiles on their faces...

read about Taijitu on their own page now!

Taijitu and their bonds enjoyed the attention that they got on campus, though some of the other dragons were quite put off by the weirdly conjoined creature. While the older and more traditional Pernese dragons hardly spoke or even acknowledged Taijitu, some of the younger upstarts actively tried badgering them. Every once in a while a couple would try distracting each head, Yin and Yang separately. To no avail, however... Because not only were Taijitu just together enough not to find it 'distracting' (rather, more refreshing that they each had something to do), but their respective bonds were always looking out for such things. With a few bemused and well placed comments aimed at the male riders, Magg could cause their dragon to withdraw to comfort their rider... And pretty much the same went for female riders and Anima's veiled (or not so veiled) advances.

They want distractions, they got em...

So it went through the end of the year. Taijitsu wasn't fully grown by that time, and it was obvious that it would take a lot more time before they were ready to fly. It wasn't that they could not coordinate their wings on each side, it was their wing strength still needed a lot of work before their long, slinky body could leave the ground well. Plus, they were quite large, even in the half-year since their hatching they towered above most heads of other dragons. Their adult size would be enormous, but both Anima and Magg reveled in that too.

They would trade off, mood dictating which head they'd pay more attention to or hop on their neck. Hollis had to admit that the foursome of personalities meshed beautifully, more so than almost any dragon rider pairs he'd ever seen. Their patience for the antics of their classmates was almost infinite, many other students would have broken down into tears, or gone into a rage with those annoyances.

It was during the post-Finals rush of graduation for some, re-application for many, and college for still others, that Hollis brought himself up to the dragonry at the school.

He noted that the dorm shared by this weird group was an organized disaster - there were books everywhere from their studies, paperwork from applications and the like, notes of all kind, along with artwork they'd collected or made, musical instruments, and such scattered on the floor and any flat surface. But Hollis (and perhaps only he, a less discerning eye would have missed it) noted that they were all put down in the order that their classes occurred. The pair would probably pick up a pile of stuff and cycle through the room during the day. And beyond that: they were in alphabetical order .

He smiled to himself, and gave a little whistle. "Hey, anyone home?"

Taijitu trundled around the corner, into the semi-messy chamber (there was a wide swath of space, obviously Taijitu was used to greeting visitors) and cheerfully exclaimed, "it's Hollis! Did you bring us something?"

"Always," Hollis said, "though this time it's something a little... different."

Taijitu clapped, "we like different!" By this time, Anima and Magg had appeared from their room. They looked, as always, slightly disheveled and slightly like they'd been doing the horizontal bop - but they looked that way when they entered a classroom too, so that was hardly an indicator.

They chatted for a moment, Hollis was pleased to hear that the pair had gotten high scores in almost all their subjects, and would be on for classes next year (the applications assured that). Then, Hollis indicated they should go to the fields below.

There, a smallish group of people had gathered already, around what appeared to be a young dragon. Taijitu was excited, curious and eager to get by the group. They gave off a tittering cry, "move! We want to see!" Which cleared everyone around to a good distance.

Hollis led the humanoids up, saying, "well ... she? Appeared here just this morning. It was too late to get ... her? Registered for housing in the summer... And we thought that maybe you wouldn't mind putting ... her up for the summer?"

"Why do you keep saying it that way?" Anima asked, "she's a she - it's clear."

"I beg to differ, he's definitely male," Magg said, looking at Anima with a confused shake to his head. Before Anima started in on why he would say that , Taijitu surrounded the newcomer with their body.

"It's pretty obvious that they're both," Taijitu announced. "And hir name is Naayab, isn't it?"

The newcomer nodded. Shhee was being rather quiet, but allowed Taijitu to speak. "Shhee wants to apply for school."

"We wondered why sssshhhee," Hollis slowly wrapped his mouth around the new pronoun, "was here instead of Alabaster. Usually dragons that are alone will go there first."

"But shhee is not just a dragon," Taijitu said, placing hands on 'hips'. "That much should be obvious to even you."

Hollis' eyebrows went up, but he laughed anyway. "Well I guess it's all right that Naayab will be here with you. Be careful if you go anywhere this summer," he warned Anima and Magg. "There are ... those people around."

Magg and Anima looked at one another with wide eyes, and Magg whispered, "Vocorr is here?"

"They've always been here," Hollis said, "we've just learned the name of their organization though, don't worry. But be careful."

"I will protect us all," Taijitu said, fluttering their wings. Naayab the new dragonet came out from under the flourish of feathers and fur, barely squeezing by the dragon. "Oh, but not too closely," they said and nudged Naayab toward hir new room mates.

Naayab displayed a lot of traits in common with Taijitsu, inlcuding lots of legs. But shhee had more than just 'arms', shhee was clearly a 'taur' dragon of some sort. A few people claimed that they'd seen something like hir but no one could name from just where. To some, shhee was more Zekiran than anything else. That proved to be the important bit, at least when it came to figuring out who could best tutor the young dragon in hir powers and abilities.

Shortly after the school year fully let out and summer session began (Anima and Magg were taking this summer off now, deciding that spending this quality time with not 'one' but two young dragons was more important than trying to jam more classes into their brains), it came out that Naayab was a shapeshifter! So any Zekiran help would be good, and fortunately for the group there were such shifters on the campus year-round. Soon enough, the yearling dragonet had not only learned to fly (with Taijitu finally gaining the strength in their wings, and Naayab having massive flight muscles developed to lift hir weight) but had begun to learn how to reduce the size of hir wings, pull legs into themselves, and approximate a more four-legged 'taurtype.

That said, even the Zekiran Treason (who taught one of the shapeshifting courses) admitted shhee may never lose every limb and go bipedal. He encouraged hir to learn to create extra arms, wings and such, compensating for the lack of legs - a lot of Zekiran shifters would do that trick. It would take a while to learn, however. And fortunately for Naayab they had a lot of hours in the afternoon at the Carramba dragonry to mess around with this.

It also became clear after a while, just before the next year's first semester was to begin, that Taijitu were rather enamored of the bigendered dragon. They were around the same age, after all, even though one could trace their lineage and the other could not. It mattered not in the slightest to Taijitu that their future partner didn't even really know where shhee was from.

Hollis put his foot down on any activities that would lead to effectively a 'teen pregnancy' - and even though Carramba High had a great student-run preschool and childcare service for students in that situation as well as employees, Hollis managed to convince them all that they had best graduate first, all of them, before supplying the world with more many-limbed dragons.

So in the meantime, the dragons got their specialized classes, while Anima and Magg proved themselves able to adapt to life at Carramba.

They were wary, as always - since Hollis told them that Vocorr was present they never quite knew who was watching them. Neither of them let the other get too paranoid, but never quite relaxed around unfamiliar groups of people.

Of course, Taijitu and Naayab reassured them time and time again: that nothing would befall them while they were around!

Read about Naayab on their page!

It wasn't as though they were too bored, when the school year started and they all headed into classes. Naayab and Taijitu studied in special rooms - filled with other larger size students. The group bond didn't require each other at all times, after all.

But they did begin noticing the presence of shady types. Vocorr people, certainly. The school tolerated them as much as they would tolerate racist groups - they could have their own opinion but they didn't dare force it on anyone else. Magg thought it would be funny to see what would happen if they required the Vocorr plants to attend music classes.

It wasn't all fun and games though. Anima and Magg had to really watch out for themselves and their fellows - anyone who showed real promise in music or arts, they would be targeted. So they asserted that no one should wander alone.

While it seemed a little paranoid to some, the school administration took it seriously. Any threat to their students might put a serious mark on their records, any danger might spread into the city. They wouldn't have that. Then again, Carramba was such a school that they'd always dealt with cutting edge ideas, and always had some kind of looming threat. When the motto of the school included ideas of peace, freedom and equality - someone was bound to think "but not for those kinds of people".

Those kinds had once been black skinned. Those kinds had once been gays. Those kinds had once been furries, suddenly encroaching on once-Human territory. Those kinds were aliens, mages, dragons.

So Carramba was used to it, even if the individuals involved weren't. Anima and Magg had been used to it too, but not with a whole administration to back them up!

It was during Spring Break, while some were off celebrating wild egg-festivals or dancing with flowers in their hair or even attending church services, that Anima, Magg and their entourage discovered word of another odd bunch of dragons awaiting retrieval.

"It's at the Bower , we have to go!" Anima exclaimed, "I mean, there must be something cool, right?"

"We're plenty cool," Magg laughed. "But we can always stand more."

"MOAR!" Taijitu called in unison. Naayab chuckled quietly, slinking along wondering what the fuss was all about.

The fuss, it turned out, was over a number of extremely wiggly, limbless creatures. Shhee glanced over hir shoulder and gave the others a look. "We have way too many limbs, these hardly have any at all!"

They squirmed around, obviously aware of the people around them, but some unwilling to approach. There were several that Anima and Magg noted more so than others, echoed by Taijitu's pleasant rumblings. Naayab had hir own opinion about these creatures, mainly how would they hold a pencil in school?

***

There was one specific little legless creature that came slithering up to the group. Unsurprisingly, he was black and white, and seemed to seek out such a large group for his friendship to bloom.

Want another pair of eyes to watch over you and your friends? He asked, and while his mental voice was small now, there was a wise edge to it that caught all of them by surprise.

"I think that would be excellent," Taijitu replied first, Nayaab chuckling to hirself.

"He's like you, very pretty," shhee said.

It took very little time for the group to get back to Carramba and make sure that nothing had gone wrong in the meantime. Ohda fit right in, though he was far less inclined to attend classes - he knew already what he wanted to, and what he needed in life. Through the Hivemind, distantly felt by the other dragons in the group, he already knew how to control his abilities, and what he could do with his Sight.

That Spirit Sight saved them a bit of trouble at the beach, when a seemingly harmless homeless man came up to them apparently to beg, but then as Ohda hissed and summoned the others, he pulled out a neutralizer gun - ready to render any organic life inert.

"We really do have to be more careful," Magg muttered, working on his tan - it wasn't coming along very well, after all he didn't have melanin in his skin and he'd always be a pale bronze shade...

"No, we have to simply trust our friends," Anima smiled, looking at Ohda and Taijitu and Naayab. "They're so much better than a car alarm."

Read about Ohda on their own page now!

And then... they went to the Checkerboard Ball!