Breeders of Ablan

The year is 10412, in the middle of the Alien invasion of Zekira. It has only been a couple years since the discovery of dragon kind being the bane of the Aliens existance, but the influx of dragons from other worlds has also begun.

***

"Did you get my note?" Aya asked as she poked her head into the office where her half-sister was doing filing work.

"I got it, I didn't 'get' it though." Megami looked up at the grey-black colored woman, "what exactly did you mean by 'I saw something you want, even if you don't know you want it yet'?"

Aya grinned, her sharp face displaying bright teeth. "I saw a vision, while I was on my break today."

"You are prone to them..." Megami said, dropping a file into its slot in her cabinet and closing the door with a clunk. "And it was about?"

"There were dragons," Aya said with a dreamy lilt. "They were lovely. They're like that one girl, Amaranth, bonded. You remember Amaranth?"

"How can I forget Amaranth? Father fawns over the girl like she's a pet project." Megami sighed.

"Maybe she is. We don't need to know." Aya stated. "So, don't you want to hear about the vision?"

Megami paused, and then put a smirk on her shapely lips. "Of course I do, I haven't chased you out of the room yet, have I?"

"So - " Aya sat down onto Megami's desk, and told her, "there was this place, it's the same place as Amaranth went. The dragons there are just lovely things... They're kinda like Stone dragons, with the four paws, but they have those big Sky dragon wings?"

"I've seen them," Megami said, "she parades around on that dragon every chance she gets..."

"Right, so I was watching and they have this big chamber carved out of stone, it looks like the Guys' spook cave." Aya giggled, thinking that Megami really did know what she meant because that was one locale that they could go and be weird, get flogged or something, and not get an angry eye at them for it. "But it had a big batch of red sand in it, and several beautiful dragons there."

"I'd expect that," Megami said. "And...?"

"Well the dragons were standing over these big eggs, and they hatched while I was watching. It was so beautiful! There were people everywhere, and the dragons went to their partner."

"..." Megami said, "okay?"

"You don't like my vision?"

"I think you've had one of these before, about a billion times..." Megami said.

"But I also saw something really close up..." Aya said, almost with a pout. She wasn't apt to really do such things as pout or be silly, but in this case she obviously had something more important than telling Megami a story she well knew took place all the time both here on Zekira and offworld. Especially at Ryslen.

"Okay, I'll bite, but we've got to go, the shops will be closing soon and I want to get ahold of some frames for my latest pictures." Megami hefted her sister off the desk with a broad sweep of her dark hand, and they exited the office.

"So at the entrance to the sands place? They have a big board that has the names of the dragons with the eggs there. And," with a wave of her own hand, Aya described, "it's got names of the people signed on to be there for their hatchings."

As they walked out of the big facility, into the carriage lot, Megami whistled for her driver, and then without even turning to face Aya, she said, "and our names were on it."

Aya actually paused, and then blinked almost audibly. "How did you -"

"Aya, sweet, you wouldn't be telling me this story if that weren't going to be the punch line, now would you?"

Aya stepped up with Megami in the richly appointed cab, the grounded Steeds harnessed in with bright red leather reigns moved slightly and jostled them into their seats.

"Why are you always right?" Aya sat with her mouth slightly open and her bright eyes wide.

"Because I'm the smart one?" Megami said, completely serious for all of a moment. The differences in their minds went more deeply than just what qualified as a few points on a scale (yes, the Zekiran Breeders do keep track of such things!) in fact they always thought differently. Megami's ability to 'forsee' the genetic future of something by merely looking at it must have had something to do with her general ability to predict results. She bet on Steed races frequently, because of her luck with it. Aya on the other hand lived largely for the moment, enjoying the empathic wash of animals, and the way that she could see through someone else's eyes kept her dreaming all the time.

They laughed together, and Megami directed her driver to the big Behat Emporium, where almost any good or item could be located for a decent price. This time of year, mid summer, the weather held up to a nice warm day and chilled into a skin-prickling level at night without really making anyone sweat or freeze. It would change soon enough of course, into fall when the days were sweltering and the nights very cold indeed. So they would get their shopping in when they could.

The big Emporium was enclosed - most buildings in the chilly far-northern city were. In fact most streets were not only paved but covered, protected from the constant Winter snowfall. Of course that meant that the place was deafeningly loud to both women. Their sensitive ears needed to be plugged - and both of them always had something to stuff into their ears for an occasion like this. They'd learned - their father never had. But then, he relished any kind of wince-inducing moment that he could. They wanted some in particular.

There was supposedly-pleasant music coming from many small speakers in the place, which stung both women's ears and made them wince when static filled announcements were broadcast. "Let's make this quick," Megami said, and Aya agreed without pause.

They soon found the bounty of artwork and framing supplies that Megami was looking for, and made haste to get what she wanted. The portly supply clerk, a Free Worker with a too-big smile and a too-narrow look in his eye, obviously wanted to comment on the sisters and their dramatic appearances. He had the good sense in his head not to, when Aya said, "Meg, don't you think that father would like one of these to display the skin he took off that thief last month?"

Megami grinned - she wasn't facing the clerk and knew exactly what he was thinking. "I think it would do fine. But maybe something in chrome instead of black. You know how his trophy room is all bright and shiny."

"Not like the dungeon," Aya played along. "That would need some nice leather or some exposed bone - say, I know a way to shape bones so they grow outside the skin. Wouldn't he be proud?" They could both hear the clerk's stomach start to churn, and his teeth clacking in a mockery of fear. As one, they turned on him with a stack of metal and wooden frames, glass, and fixtures in their baskets.

There was a moment when the man blinked, almost as though he thought the women would be sinking those beautiful long nails or their bright big teeth into his own skin. He gave a weaker version of his smarmy smile, and rang them up. He even forgot to ring up their wall-fixture kit. How nice of him.

They left the art store and decided that perhaps an afternoon of play might not be bad after all.

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