Kalkin has lived a long time - much longer than his claim of "around eighty" years. Like his Nexus counteparts, including Baeris, Kalkin enjoys a certain kind of immortality - but as he and many of his other dopplegangers across reality would claim, it is immortality at the cost of a horrific life.

Whether his life continued to be "horrific" after the Protectorate left the "old world", is debatable. Since Alabaster's move to the isle of Paniya on Alskyr, Kalkin has spent time both there and in the Nexus with Baeris at the Healing Den. It is the one place that Sixth is absolutely certain to reach when he's needed.

Here is a lovely image of Sixth's hatching - brought to us by Neishai! I only wish there were sounds that could possibly match his creeling and later his speech!

These are blue Echo and bronze Courage - two flitters that Kalkin bonded when he was still rather young and under a different name. Given as gifts from one weyr as he transferred to another, both flitters have rarely left their beloved owner's side since he vanished and came back to them displaced in time.

Echo's name refers not only to his coloration - that of Kalkin's eyes - but to the manner in which the little blue immitates his owner's moods.

Courage could hardly be farther from the truth - in ways. He is a huge bronze, and always the first to think of something naughty to do. He always defends his egg brother Echo and Kalkin now, but upon coming from his egg the only thing that could bring him out was the smell of food.

Between the two of them, the flitters have been responsible for tremendous trouble. Everything from stealing hair combs and shiny things, to creating new "food" products from the middens of kitchens everywhere.

Courage is used often as a relayer of messages, while Echo rarely leaves Kalkin's shoulder, nestled in his long hair.

Kalkin wanted to strangle the idiot who asked for this machine to be in working order by next week. He lay with his shoulders pressed into uncomfortably gritty cement below a framework of half-rusted metal. The dust from the rusted spots occasionally drifted down onto his face and he couldn't exactly take his grease-covered hands and wipe it out of his eyes, now could he?

Outside, a chirpy song came into the machine shop. Kalkin's blue dragon Sixth said, "I think you should take a break! I want to fly and you could use something to drink. You are making me thirsty."

"Ever so sorry," Kalkin grunted as he tightened down a bolt under the framework of the machine, "but this piece of garbage isn't getting any closer to done with me goofing off."

"You do not have to goof off to take a break," Sixth said, his whistling words sounding to others like the chirping of birds or dolphin speech. Because Kalkin's brain had been irrevocably burnt in the process of making him "more than perfectly human", he could hardly stand to have a telepathic contact from the dragon - and thus many years before they had to develop a better way of communicating. When Sixth spoke now, he could be heard forming long strings of chirp-whistle-meep noises, which only Kalkin seemed to understand. Otherwise, when Sixth was excited or forgot to do so, Kalkin would suffer anything from a migrane-powerful headache, to nosebleeds and small hemmorages, to complete catatonia - all due to the interferance of one extremely dangerous (and extremely dead, in the Old World universe) mad scientist.

Sixth wasn't happy that Kalkin wanted to do nothing but work on this nasty-smelling device. He was not certain what it would do, once his rider finished putting it back together. If that happened - the way Kalkin was swearing and the mood coming off him (the mental contact worked just fine the other direction of course, Sixth was always privy to his rider's emotions and commands, even if Kalkin could not properly form words to do it in his mind) it looked as though the device was never going to be more than a rusted pile of components.

"I still think you should take a break," Sixth whistled. He did something unusual then - he aimed a purposeful thought at his rider which placed a painful gnawing headache into Kalkin's forebrain.

"You did that on purpose," Kalkin groaned, sliding out from under the machine and trying to avoid putting his dirty hands up to his head. Not that his hair wasn't already a hopeless mess. His long black hair was kept back in a tail at that moment, but it was still almost waist length now, and was tinged with the smelly rust and sticky stuff that he was working on.

Sixth denied any wrongdoing by chirping something cute and suggesting that Kalkin start getting himself cleaned up. "We have places to be, you know!"

Kalkin stopped, and leaned against the wall. His dragon was laying under a small fruit tree near the work shop, he was so tiny compared to most other dragons that he could almost tether to a horse post. That thought made Kalkin grin, and it brought Sixth to his feet.

"You would never do such a thing to me! You do not even like it when ... oh wait, you DO like it when you are tied up to things. My mistake." The dragon smirked, and rustled his wings over his back. "We do so have a place to be. Tehndarinth and I have been asking around for something to do, and I know you will like this thing to do. We can all go."

Kalkin's eyebrow lifted up, "And what is it that you think we all could enjoy, now eh?"

Sixth indicated Tehndarinth and Engell, who started to approach. "We will go get drunk! I know you like doing that because it always takes a lot more alcohol to get you fuzzy around the brain and I like watching other dragon's riders when they are falling over themselves."

"That's.... pretty funny, actually," Kalkin muttered, with a grin. He looked at his 'employer' Engell. There was so much more to him than met the eye - always more. Kalkin had learned over his travels (accidentally teleporting to another dimension or time, because flying on Sixth was like riding a river rapids while blindfolded) that there were also many versions of Engell, and they usually had some kind of relationship with his own counterparts. At least that was consistant. Of course, there were always down sides. This one, he'd never found someone to replace his wife - and he would never agree to 'have' Kalkin as his acknowledged partner. Even though they had in fact shared more than just intellectual or 'friendly' company in the past, there was never a time that Kalkin wanted to intrude on Engell's privacy.

Sixth told him that Tehn thought he was lonely and wanted some company - and who better than the person who'd been with him through so many things?

"Of course, who better?" Kalkin said to himself as they approached. He still had three things under the carriage of the broken flying machine to fix, so he slid himself back under it to finish off today's work.

***

Read Engell's current critter page for the "what happens next" part!

***

When Kalkin had been fully cleaned up and dried off, he considered walking out to the waiting dragons and Engell buck naked - but he knew that wouldn't exactly fly. So he chose to put on something nice and complimentary to Engell's grey and charcoal - a long-sleeved black shirt with equally black jeans, no shoes. He rarely wore shoes. He left the corridor where his lush apartments were, and ran into someone else on the way out.

"Daverin... Brianna," He said, looking at the dyed-redhead and the real-redhead in turn.

"Where'ya goin'?" Asked Brianna, bobbing on her toes and making both Kalkin and Daverin glance down at her rather boingy breasts.

"I do not know yet," Kalkin announced, placing his arms over their shoulders - he was quite a lot taller than either woman and he liked how they framed his dark self. "But if you want to come along, I am certain that our Lord Rider Engell won't mind some company. Perhaps take a bit of my attention off him, as he would want."

"Ooh, attention? I can give you attention," Daverin snickered. Brianna giggled and pinched her girlfriend from around Kalkin's back. The trio walked back to the entrance of Alabaster's dragon glade, and saw Engell talking to Tehndarinth and Sixth.

"Oh, we need dragons - should we get dressed up too?" Brianna asked.

"You look perfect the way you are, my dear," Kalkin assured the curly-haired blue-rider, "but yes, you will need your dragons for this. I do not think that Tehndarinth and Sixth can carry all four of us."

Giggling again, Brianna summoned her blue as Daverin mentally whistled for her green Askabeth to show up.

"This ought to be fun, where are we going?" Daverin asked, as they neared Engell and the silver-marked white Tehn.

"Ah, you brought cohorts," Engell said, with a sigh that told Kalkin he would be far more relaxed now - around the girls, they were always more friendly. And it was true that the four of them felt more love and adoration together, than apart.

"I did, you do not mind, that's good," Kalkin said. "So, where is it we're going?"

Engell said, "there is a place called Lantessama Isle, it's a nexus world, so we can get there and back without losing any time here. Sixth told me about how you were trying to fix that thing you're working on."

"What is it, anyway?" Asked Daverin, Askabeth peering over the wall into the work room too. "I bet I could fix it."

"I bet you could. In fact," Kalkin said, "I may hire you to do so, if I screw it up any more than I have already. It is a flying machine of some kind, and you know how I adore flight."

Sixth chirped loudly, protesting, but they soon all mounted up their respective dragons, and followed Tehndarinth away to Lantessama Isle!

***

Read Daverin and Brianna's page!

***

Then, come to the DRINKS BAR!

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Or visit the aftermath...