The turbulence was horrendous once the pair was inside the portal. It knocked them to and fro while the blue and white lights flashed all around them. Nin and Rue clung to one another for dear life, each praying desperately that they would not be seperated. All of a sudden, and empty black void swallowed them, and they feared they had been seperated in that unfeeling space.

Blessedly, the emptiness ended and they toppled out onto warm, sandy ground. A low growl roused both of them from their shock, Rue turned and found she was face-to-face with a huge, blue beast with a larger silver-crowned head and four lesser, snake-like heads. It snarled viciously at them, flashing sharp claws and flickering it's forked tongue. "Threat!" Rue screamed, a signal used within the Guard to alert the others. Nineveh leapt to her feet and switched with her sister to bear form.

Their armour shimmered dully in the overcast grey sky as they shifted into an attack formation. The beast howled with barely suppressed rage at being even so minorly threatened. Nin and Rue paid it no attention as they crept steadily forward. They were attempting to bait the creature in to attacking, and it nearly did. A voice cried out at the precise moment as it lifted on heavily clawed paw to crush them, "Facinarose!" It paused, growled in irritation before turning and bound off with one more roar of frustration. It never got to have any fun!

The twins still remained on the defensive, how welcoming could this place been when visitors were greeted by a many-headed beast so eager to kill? They whirled on the woman who the voice belonged to, but she had already dissappeared. "What now?" Rue mumured. There were still plenty of the lizard-ish creatured wandering about, though none took much notice of the pair of armoured bears in their midst. "Human forms." Nin responed. It would be easier to travel unnoticed as women.

They wandered the place for a few hours until they found a small cavern containing a hearth with crackling fire, two baskets and a winged wolf guarding them. It growled softly and informed them that if they chose to bond a myph or firelizard, they must follow guidelines mentioned upon a sheet of parchment he slid toward them. They nodded, unsure what it meant by bonding, but each chose one egg from each basket. They promptly began to shudder, Nineveh's firelizard hatching first. It yeilded a smaller, golden version of the winged beasts that inhabited the place and crealed up at her demandingly as the second egg began to tremble.

This one deposited a much different creature into her hand, one that was grey feathered and bird like. It mewled up at her with brilliant green eyes flashing."Well, what will you name them?" Rue asked, her eggs trembled but took their time in hatching. "I think the little gold will be Sekkou, and the grey bird will be Zahali." She smiled at the pair who were gobbling meat from a bowl.

Since Rue's were taking their time, the twins exited the stifling warm cavern. They noticed a huge, sandy cavern with many of the lizard beasts tending clutches of eggs. A man approached, gave them appraising look and said, "You here to stand as candidates?" "Candidates?" Nin began, and Rue finished, "For what?" "To Impress a dragon, are you signed up. "No,"

"We're not." He nodded, "Would you like to be?" Nin and Rue conferred silently. "What can we loose?"

"Nothing. What can we gain?"

"Everything." The turned back to the man and agreed to stand at this clutch. He looked ecstatic and swiftly signed them up. "Your quarters are down there, dorm G01." As the pair proceeded to their room, Rue's eggs finally reached the hatching point. First came a white version of Zahali, whom she named Inken. It crooned and purred softly, rubbing in a cat-like way against her arm as the second egg hatched and produced a silver firelizard. Rue called it Krizi

It too crooned lovingly, eyes shifting from red to blue and back to red. "At least something good has come of this." Rue murmured once they had settled in their dorm. She was cradling her new pets affectionately. Nin sighed resolutely and turned to her sister "Something far better may happen as well, we'll just have to wait and see."