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Outside Maslin's wooden caravan the wind howled as it carried bitter cold and snow across Serenia. Fortunately for hybrid boy he was safe and warm inside. The heat coming from the small black iron stove was enough to keep him from freezing. seated comfortably on his bed Maslin was focused not on the wind outside nor the fact that he could need to shovel a path to the center of camp in the morning.

His focus was on the large, dark blue egg that rested heavily upon his legs. It had begun to rock slightly earlier this mornings and throughout the day tiny hairline fractures had woven a spiderweb like pattern of cracks across the shell. Slowly but surely the creature inside had begun to chip it's way to freedom, Maslin would have loved to help but he'd been told earlier on that if creatures couldn't hatch by themselves then they likely wouldn't survive. All he could do was try and keep the egg steady while it's occupant found the strength to escape.

Time passed slowly but little by little the rich blue shell cracked and fell away . revealed at first only darkness inside and then a scaly pale blue muzzle poked out briefly. That was concerning, Maslin was pretty sure lizards didn't lay eggs this big and he'd already ruled out that this egg was the wrong size to be a dragon egg given it's colouring. Could there really be a, oh what was it, a drakein inside the egg. If so, he was more than little concerned now that it was resting upon his lap.


~~
A small exhausted keinling freed himself of his egg with great effort. He lay panting amongst the remains of the shell. A noise from above caused him to raise his head and his bright green eyes met with a pair of equally bright yellow. There was something about them, and the face of the one that they belonged to that soothed the hatchling.Still tired from the ordeal of hatching, the little one let out a tired chirrup of greeting and then rested his head against the body of the one holding him.

There were more more noises from above but the keinling paid little attention to them as he half closed his eyes and rested. All was well, he was free and the bright eyed one was removing the last of the egg fluid and shell bits that had stick to his scales. The little peisio keinling was warm and cared for, everything it could have wanted at the moment.

~~~
Maslin had lost ownership of the foot of his bed. Lazuli, as he had named his new charge was sprawled out down there and any attempt to move him, Maslin was pretty sure it was a him, to the pull it bed below or the next of sheets near the heater ended poorly. While the young hybrid boy was not particularly tender hearted he couldn't deny Laz the ability to stay on the bed when attempt to move him resulted in sad warbles and a most pitiful look in the hatchling's wide eyes.

Maslin hadn't bargined for this when he'd made the choice to take responsibility for Lazuli's egg. he had a feeling there was a lot in store he hadn't planned on and he could only hope most of it would be pleasant. Outside a winter storm raged but inside the caravan there was peace and the potential for a vastly different future than Maslin had ever imagined.

Maslin had never been particularly interested in sex. As a small child it had been a thing which was for adults and that he paid no attention to. As he aged and began to learn more of it Maslin determined that it was one, too much effort, and two didn't actually sound all that enjoyable based on his peer's comments. While he hadn't ruled it out forever there was nothing in the hybrid that saw sex as worth pursuing right now.

His opinion of animals mating displays was one of equal disinterest. Maslin would never understand why people though it was interesting to watch birds hop about showing off their feathers to attract the females. Nor did he care for the sight or sound of stags locking antlers and wrestling with each other for the chance at a doe. Maslin knew that some songs bird's sang were for the purpose of attracting mates but damned if he could tell them apart from the normal ones.


Now the young man had even less positive thoughts about the whole thing. He and Laz had watched, hidden in a small copse of trees, as a pair of peisio dragons had fought quite viciously over the right to approach a nearby female. It seemed that no matter how wise the ancient species was, some instincts in them still lead to such violence displays all in the name of reproduction. The victor and his prospective mate had flown off but the loser remained grounded near the lake, clearly injured and in no way capable of defending itself.

Maslin was tempted to walk away, he wouldn't prove anything by killing a downed dragon. Despite being far from the honour and glory warrior type Maslin did have a sort of code of morals he followed and killing the defenseless was against it. The war was heating up again and with the Drakein now embroiled in it and he yanked off the sidelines due to his accidental bonding with Laz Maslin was going to see enough fighting and death int he future. The last thing he really wanted was to cause an avoidable death. there would be other dragon's to hunt , ones who posed a threat to camp or were at least looking for a fight.


From where he stood Maslin could see the large Peisio breathing heavily as bright red blood leaked out of it's wounds and trickled down it's scales to pool around the massive blue body laying on the snow. It seemed that the dragon's innate healing magic was failing it, or perhaps it simply didn't have the strength left to summon any. If left unharassed it might yet summon the ability though.

Lazuli let out a a sad warble, detached himself from Maslin's side and began to run towards the injured dragon.The keinling could not stand to see a much bigger version of itself in pain. He wanted to help make it better, somehow even if his young mind did not know what to do.

Maslin swore and began to chase after his bonded companion, yelling for him to come back. The dragon might be heavily injured but it could still swallow Laz whole if it decided to get aggressive with him. Besides dragon's didn't exactly look kindly upon drakein from what he had been learning. Unfortunately for him Lazuli was much faster than he was and in far better shape, sprinting to the dragon's side before he do anything about it. There might be a bond between them allowing them to share power and feelings but it seriously didn't allow Maslin to bend Laz to his will, even for the keinling's own good.

Fortunately both the boy and his bonded the dragon gave minimal reaction to their presence. An unhappy rumble was issued at their approach but the peisio made no effort to attack. Whether it was unwilling or simply unable to harm the pair they would never know.

As he tried to catch breath after sprinting after Laz, Maslin watched as the keinling keened softly and paced as close to the grumbling dragon as it would allow. It was quite clear that the hatchling wanted to heal it's larger brethren. Laz had shown no sign of magical skill as of yet, but the peisio drakein had a definite instinct to heal and had attempted several time to help Maslin by pressing his head against a bruise or a cut and has even once licked the wound like cats and dogs sometimes did.

Now though there was nothing he could do but whine saw and give Maslin a most pitiful look that clearly meant he expected his bonded to help. Maslin hated that he could not live up to the keinling's expectations. He knew no healing magic nor any sort of support magic that might boost the dragon's own. All his training thus far had enabled Maslin to kill and to keep himself from dying but that was it.

Maslin simply didn't know what to do here, he didn't even know if this was normal, if dragons actually died all the time from mating fi-

End this, the wounds will not heal.

Maslin was immediately drawn out of his thoughts and raised his eyes to meet the pale milky blue eyes of the dragon. End it! " I'm not, you're not," he struggled to find the right words. This was wrong, he didn't really want to be killing dragons to begin with never mind ones that couldn't defend themselves. A tiny voice in the back of his head said it'd be the other soul he needed before he could stop all this nonsense. Most of him was against the idea though even if the dragon was asking.

You would see me suffer, then take your prize. The words rung in the boy's mind, tinged with pain.

" N, No, I won't" Maslin swallowed back the bile raising in his throat and moved forward, towards the dragon. Removing his gloves he placed his hands on the scaly hide of the dragon;s chest as close to the heart as he could reach. This was far closer to a living dragon than he had ever been before and closer than he ever intended to get again. If he had not someone felt the sincerity in the dragon's request he would not have dared to approach.

Maslin would do this though, kill this dragon as an act of mercy and then hopefully never have to kill again.

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Lazuli likes Kadryn when she's not hurting Maslin.

A meeting long overdue

Lazuli gets to meet Damian and see Kavanna again.

Here fishy fishy
Another hybrid is met while fishing, he has neat magic and Lazuli is impressed.