The first egg wobbled and cracked, leaving a wet ball of copper feathers and black fur on the sand. Looking up, it didn't take long for the copper to decide not to bond at all.
A female white-black hatched and bonded, followed by a green. The next egg began to rock as the two bonders left watched hopefully. A black head poked out, followed by a tawny brown body as the gryphon hatchling climbed out of his shell. The bonders were disappointed; the hatchling did not bond. I wish to go to Darkling Dawn. My name is Yeressssss.
The black hatchling was quickly lead away to get food as the rest of the eggs hatched, alone.
The adolescent gryphon grew aloof, and began to treasure the time he spent by himself. He avidly avoided humans, who he found suspicious, since they often cast him wary looks, and couldn't even pronounce his name right! The air dragons were little better, though a fair few were alright, and he talked to some of the unbonded dragons occasionally.
Yeressssss, who had never been very sociable to start out with, grew more and more aloof, and was seldom seen around Darkling Dawn, and even rarer, heard. He distrusted humans greatly, and seemed in no hurry to find a bond. So his time was spent by himself, ever alone...
He convinced himself that he was just fine on his own, that he didn't need a bond, didn't want one. He never saw any of his own kind, and decided he didn't want anything to do with them, either.
That is, until he saw Her. Her feathers were golden bronze, turning cleanly into smooth, tawny fur, with a large, brushlike tail made of feathers and fur. Her eyes were fierce, golden amber in color in color, and beautiful. Everything about this gryphoness was, to Yeressssss, beautiful.
Her name was Ashv, and he was surprised that they had not met at Darkling Dawn before; the gryphoness had actually been living there far longer than him.
But Ashv utterly ignored him, and he was beginning to think that the gryphoness didn't even know he was there. He sulked for a week or so, then decided there was only one thing to do. He would get a bond, that would be sure to impress her. Not a dragon, because he was still an Alskyran gryphon, and they just didn't do that, but he'd find someplace that had a clutch of gryphon eggs available for bonding.
Of course, he failed to realize that Ashv, being from a place called Athanasia, had no such reservations and was in fact bonded to a beryl-nebula dragon, but he didn't know that. He continued his searching in ignorance of the flaw in his plan, and eventually stumbled upon Enzan Shi Deragonray. He found that there was a small litter of five kits waiting for bonders, and eagerly awaited to see whether he would be accepted.
