After all, he was a draconic Geomancer! A human-dragon crossbreed of sorts, not an actual frigging dragon! His kind were supposed to marry and have lots of kids with that one person, not go about chasing each other in mating flights! It was that blasted dragon's fault for wanting to do this in the first place...mating flights, hmph. Well there was no helping it now--the flight was scheduled for this date. Perhaps he'd just have to avoid being caught by a female...easy enough, right?

"All ready to catch you some booty?" Searchrider Mitchell joked as Reshi entered the tunnels.

The draconic shifter blinked, running a hand self-consciously through his thickly spiked deep green hair. "Erm...not really. Any idea where Lani is? The others outside are getting anxious and it seems the...decorations aren't in place yet. She didn't forget that the flight was today, right? Guests are going to start arriving soon... You guys should really be ready for them."

Mitchell rolled his eyes, leaning back against the smooth obsidian wall of the tunnel. "Yeesh, man...you used to be cool before you became the rep for your race. Now it's all formalities and parties and blah blah blah... Lani's in the lab, workin' on something I think...she probably did forget, y'know."

"Thanks, all I needed to know," Reshi continued off down the tunnel, hoping that Mitchell would leave him be. However, the pesky human Searchrider decided he should follow the visiting allied rider.

"Y'know, you need to lighten up," Mitch continued upon the subject of Reshi's formalities. "Everything isn't like...balls and stuff, this is a frickin' dragonry! Not everything's going to run like clockwork."

Reshi continued to put up with this sort of talk through the caverns until he came to the intersection with the directory reading "Resident Wing", "Hatching Areas", "Library", "Dining Hall/Kitchen", "Storage", and "Laboratory" respectively. At that point he turned to face the young human and shoved a finge in his face.

"Look, I'm already having enough trouble coping with the idea of....mating with a dragon, probably bigger than I am. I don't need you or anyone else telling my to lighten up, okay? Especially not YOU, human-boy," He gave a glare and Mitchell held up his hands defensively.

"Okay okay...yeesh...calm down," Mitch heaved a sigh. "Come on, let's just go find Lani, okay?" The human started off down the tunnel the sign saying 'Laboratory' pointed to. Reshi shook his head with a sigh of his own then followed.

The change in scenery was quite startling as the two descended the staircase into the lab. The coloration went from red-brown and black with dim lighting to white walls, tile floor, and stainless steal furniture with comparitively bright lighting. Bright enough to do delicate work with, hospital bright. In the center of the room amidst the tables and cabinets was something that looked like a giant egg with a flat bottom made out of black metal; and sticking out from under it was a pair of legs in black slacks and sneakers.

"Do you know what date it is, Lani?" Reshi asked, putting a foot on one of her legs and rolling her and the 'table' she was on out from under the Universal Holographic Viewer.

"August first, and you're...A) lucky I'm done, and B) lucky that Tevr doesn't mind you touching me," Lani responded, giving Reshi a glare from where she was laying on the floor. "After all, he's sitting behind you."

Reshi turned and waved at the decently-sized black anthro wolf sitting crosslegged on one of the lab tables that was, indeed, right behind him. Tevr gave a wolfen grin and waved a paw back, not really saying anything. This was morely a conversation for his mate, not for him.

"Yeah, August First....Summer of Flames flight, remember!?" Mitchell cut in before Reshi could respond. The dragon shifter shot him a glare.

Lani smacked herself on the forehead, leaving her hand there. "Damn it! I completely forgot...stupid stupid stupid...!" She slid further out on the wheeled table and jumped up. "Come on, we have decorations to do!" She ran out of the room, behind her the three males blinked.

"She should really learn not to stress so much over things," Tevrilkhan commented, flicking one ear. "Guess we should follow her, yeah?"

"Yeah, probably..." Reshi agreed.

"We're ready--so what is it we're doing?" Jasien asked, he was the only one to speak. Iulia evidently didn't have anything to say while Shannon and Darreon looked pissed about the flight, Calca was trying to calm Darreon, and Jinira was busy trying to fix her dragon's pack which was slumping down one side of her shoulders.

"Well, we really don't need that much in the way of decorations since we have the ring of fire and everything... I was thinking of bon fires and strings of oriental paper lanterns," Lani replied, looking over the assembled group. She didn't comment on Darreon and Shannon's grim expressions. "Jasien, help me with the bonfires... Iulia, Grandma, and Jinira can string up the lanterns while Grandpa and Shannon can mope."

The last two gave Lani poisoned looks as the decoration committee got to work. Luckilly it was only the afternoon and the flight was -actually- scheduled to be held that night. Despite overanxious participants who had been gathering around the crater earlier.

As they were finishing the decorations the first of their guests who hadn't been staying at the Ring of Fire arrived, Sargon and Kat with their dragons and two participants who had signed up not too long ago. Sargon raised an eyebrow at the paper lanterns hanging between several set up tents for participants who wanted more privacy.

"I prefer something a bit more...angsty myself, but I must admit that the lanterns are...cute," the last word said sounded rather odd coming from the yellow-eyed shifter's mouth. "I suppose this isn't Halloween, though...so...."

"It's summer, dear," Kat said with a smile, patting her husband's arm. Behind her Peridot Paianth gave a snort.

Summer...winter's better but I suppose it'll have to do, Paianth muttered and her bond giggled.

Meanwhile Lani was eyeing her friend, Sargon, with a mischievious grin. "Not going to participate, Sargon? You can shift to a dragon after all... Chameleon shifter."

"No," Sargon snorted. "I'm married, you know--and you do the same. So don't gripe, you're not participating for the same reasons."

"Ah, yes...but I didn't have a message painted on my dragonry's wall in blood saying 'If you want hot guy on guy action give Sargon a ring'," Lani chortled, watching Sargon's jaw drop and his eyes bug out as he realized that the Firelancer had somehow gotten a glimpse of it. No doubt he'd never live that one down.

Sargon quickly composed himself, however, folding his arms over his chest. "Hmph, but even then this flight is for breeding purposes, not your sick mind."

"Your mind's sicker, bloody boy," Lani shot back, sticking her tongue out at Sargon and not bothering to act mature. As she saw Kattahrina roll her eyes, however, she pulled it back in. "By the way, Sargon...there's cupcakes and coffee in the observation tent. Once we're done greeting guests we can--"

"CUPCAKES! COFFEE!" the chameleon shifter exclaimed and in an instant he was off and running towards the tent without waiting. Ha, who was loud now. Kat sighed and followed her husband while their dragons chuckled. Tevrilkhan blinked.

"So that's your friend..." The black wolf muttered, watching the strange wolf-phoenix-whatever man disappear into the biggest tent in the crater. "He's...odd."

"Yeah..." Lani admitted, then her eyes found the man and silver-white dragon Sargon had brought with him. "You must be Turmoil and that's Kioli, right? It's a pleasure to meet you."

Neither bothered to extend their hand in greeting, the brown-haired man just kind of looked back at the shorter brown-haired woman coldly and in a way...questioningly. Lani tilted her head, giving him a softer but just as questioning look. Finally 'Turmoil' decided to speak. "Seto Kaiba, actually... God of Turmoil."

"Turmoil Seahorse..." Lani said with a grin, translating his name. "Interesting name for a god. I'd appreciate it if...you didn't cause any trouble while here, yes? I know that Sargon doesn't like you very well, I'm sure he has good reason. I'd like this to be a...non-violent occasion."

"You speak Japanese," Turmoil noted. He was a bit surprised at how calm Lani was acting. She'd been rather...loud and childish at the Azon hatching, now it seemed her roll and Sargon's were reversed. It was the Sanrixian, son of Zaeltella, who was acting childish instead of the Firelancer. Turmoil seemed to decide that the Firelancer really wasn't too bad--if somewhat annoying at times. "I suppose I can grant you that."

"Okay, good--now if you'll go excuse me, I have to go help Kat make sure Sargon doesn't eat all the chocolate. Jasien, can you greet the guests for me?" The odd-eyed young man nodded and Lani left, with the black wolf Tevr following her like some sort of dog...

Jasien glanced at Turmoil a little suspiciously, mismatched eyes searching his face. "Hello... I remember you from the hatching..."

"And I remember you," Kaiba replied with the same wariness that Jasien held. "You Impressed Kioli's brother, the white phoenix dragon called Pheodian I think... He's a cool dragon, I'll give you that."

The aforementioned dragon gave a sudden birdlike twitter, having come down from his and his bond's quarters and discovered that his father and white brother were both attending to the flight in their own ways. The orange-white quickly engaged the two larger dragons in discussion, evidently happy to see them. Too bad his buddy, Thorian, wasn't there to visit as well.

Jasien blinked...then laughed. "Thanks. Kioli's really cool...I like the spikes."

"Are we not here on the occasion of a flight, though? Not a comparison of whose bond is cool?" a loud feminine voice said, drawing Jasien's attention away from Turmoil. When the Firelancer-in-training looked back, the man was gone then Jasien noticed he was over by the dragons who were still having a chat.

"Yeah..." the young man said a little sheepishly. "How are you, Shezumi? Svedok? Churana?"

"We're fine...except for my grandmother being here," Churana responded a little spitefully which earned her a glare from Shezumi. Evidently the young dragon-kin had wanted to be in a flight without her grandmother; and worse, her grandmother had made her wear clothing in order to not attract the wrong kind of mate! Hmph!

The dragontaur Svedok merely chuckled, apparently not caring about who was there and who was not so much. He seemed just happy to be there. "Dairruinith and I are very well, thank you."

"As are we!" the last voice was louder--and definitely masculine. Grinning, Noor of Vella Crean joined the small gathering around Jasien along with his lover and other half, Vee, and the strange albino basilisk-woman, Sha-ne. Not far behind was Sha-ne's notorious golden male Dorado, that dragon would never leave his beloved bond's side...

"Sha-ne, Dorado," Jasien greeted, giving each a nod in return. "I hope you're okay with this whole...mating thing, Sha-ne."

"Of course," the woman replied, a wane smile just visible behind her veil. "I was not forced into this... Dorado and I will be participating together most definitely."

Jasien didn't ask; he didn't want to know... Besides, all manner of participants were either coming from their temporary quarters from within RoF or from above in the sky. Most were without the leadership of their dragonry as they were...uncomfortable with them being there or the leaders were uncomfortable being there or some such thing. Neva', her bond Iozabinith, Domalith, and Uziondeth appeared in representation as the riderless of Ryslen and were greeted.

The Drasis, Tenma, and his white were introducing themselves to Churana and the others from the Healing Den's 'allies'...or was Tenma flirting? It appeared that he had a thing for Churana. Well, perhaps that was the best way as they were probably the only two very humanoid there.

Meanwhile the knightly Cortheus was having second thoughts while his lovely gold-red mate was trying to soothe him. It didn't seem to be working very well, but the big red was effectively 'wipt'.

Closest to the drasis and the dragon-kin were the two draces from Cy Dragonstake who continually stuck close to each other. Both black male Silent Wind and golden female Whispering Leaf were present together, each had their tail curled around the waist of the other. Not far behind was the reincarnated Head Knight Sherra with her gold Delith... Or was she Delith's Raug Trio-winged Sherra now? Who knew.

"Where's your mother?" Silent Wind asked Jasien when he and his mate were close enough that the boy could hear him over the dull roar of chatter that was erupting both mentally and verbally.

"She's...babysitting Sargon," Jasien replied with a chuckle, for at that moment Lani did emerge dragging a Sargon with a chocolate-smeared face and lapful of cupcakes along on his furry black rump.

"Hello everyone!" Lani said loudly, that'd have to cover it. She let go of Sargon's collar to allow him to finish the chocolate cupcakes he'd already licked all the frosting off of. "Um...hi, Silent Wind...I have to go get our participants, please keep your hydra from eating anyone while I'm gone." The big 10-headed beast wasn't there yet, but no doubt he'd turn up soon... Probably in the company of that bratty young HyKing from Azon, Diamadsama. Lani left quickly, and soon returned with the dragon shifters who had managed to slink back inside.

Darreon sat in a folding chair that had been sat out, partially cross-legged. Calca stayed nearby, but not close enough that Shezumi didn't almost immediately sidle up to Darreon's side. But then again, a male's mate too close by for Shezumi? Never! "I hear you're an Eastern Dragon Shifter...."

"And I hear that you will try everything to get a male you are interested in's attentions, married or not," Darreon responded without giving Shezumi time to get past what she'd already said. "Now I suggest you stop where you are and leave me be before I turn you into a toad."

Shezumi left him be, rather reluctantly and huffily. She would have much liked to 'fly' with him--but his threat was more than serious, and she'd rather fly than be sitting on the ground as a toad. From her position about ten feet away, Calca was heard giggling.

It looks like everyone's here, Sunset Starry Duowinged Alanarosth announced once some fifty-five dragons, dragonshifters, dragonkin, and to everyone's surprise Sha-ne and a young griffin called Ashv had gathered. Let's get this flight moving, shifters shift to your used forms! Alana' was the one who had called for the flight, so evidently she felt she was the unofficial queen...not that anyone was going to argue with the Raug dragon. Not even her nervous Summon dragon mate.

The shifters, perhaps as excited as their dragons, proceded to do so. Noor and Vee combined into the darkly golden Western male dragon, Shezumi's bizarre transformation to her true form left her as an Eastern gold, Svedok evidently decided that his full dragon form was more appropriate than his dragontaur one, Shannon changed to a furry white-gold swimmer, Reshi to an irridescent black-green raptorlike dragon, and the strange Turmoil to something like a cross between a dragon and a seahorse...

The only ones that could shift that remained in their regular forms were Calca, Darreon, and Churana. Churana because she'd already chosen her mate and decided her regular one would be her best form, and Calca because she was trying to convince her husband to shift to his dragon form...

"I cannot believe you and Liojuth talked me into this," the grumpy archmage in green bitched. "I am more cultured than this! So are you, Calca!!"

Calca rolled her eyes and promptly smacked her husband in the back of the head. His glasses fell off into his lap and he raised a hand to rub at his head. "Stop moaning and shift to your dragon form."

Reluctantly, Darreon began to shift...but he stopped halfway. He was now a mostly human-proportioned anthro Eastern gold with gold armor, a long tail, and huge wings.

"ALL THE WAY!" Calca nagged, and reluctantly Darreon continued. His spine extended into a snakelike shape and he grew and grew and grew until he was even bigger than Sargon's bronze-black Bolton by perhaps eight feet. His tanned skin turned golden and into hard scales, his dark brown hair into a white-gold mane, and his copper eyes into solid red ones. The last change, a red pearl engulfed in flames appeared on his forehead?

~Happy?~ the archmage groaned.

~Now you know how I feel.~ Shannon muttered mentally, her fluffy white-gold tail flicking. Males were eyeing her and she was irritated...

"Much better," Calca replied with a grin and shifted to her own dragon form. A very...catlike or canid dragon with silver-white fur and huge feathered wings.

Very well then! Alanarosth announced ecstatically and her red-gold-silver bond groaned. Let the flight begin! And she lept at the pens where cows, goats, and various other creatures were kept.

"I'd like to see how you handle all those shifters on the sands," Sargon commented, poking Lani in the ribs. She smacked his hand.

"We'll deal just fine, we're used to that sort of thing here." Lani plopped down in one of the folding cloth chairs, grabbing a cupcake while Sargon went to work on his fifth cup of coffee. Jasien grinned, sitting next to Iulia.

"I'm going to go out and watch, keep track...this sort of thing doesn't really bother me in either way," Jinira explained as she left the tent, clipboard in hand.

"Good, 'cause I sure don't want to watch it... Especially not with shifters in the flight," Lani murmured into her cup of coffee.

Brown Arajaxth, intent on catching one particular female among any other in the flight, immediately sought out Akshaeth's green body and white wings darting in amongst the flurry of flapping wings to grab the flurry born dragon around the middle and twine with her as they tumbled from sky to ground.

Akshaeth's bond and Arajaxth's both skipped a beat, unfortunately for Kashatarieth she was female and narrowly avoided being snagged out of midair by the sly sunset brown Liojuth. She gave an irritated squawk and went for height, hoping to get as far away from those pesky males who would mate her as possible.

The females spread out into different groups, enabling more movement throughout the crater, and then as they climbed up past the lip of the dormant volcano and the ring of fire that gave the dragonry its name, the sky. Now there would be less collisions, and perhaps a lesser chance of being caught so early in this flight.

Azth, Zath, and the Noor-Vee combined into the golden western-style dragon had slipped off in a group of their own. Noor-Vee was merrily chasing Zath across the skies while Azth seemed to be waiting patiently higher above. Zath was winding in a downwards spiral as the golden Western dragon suddenly came at her from the side and grabbed her out of the air, the Light Green let out an irritated squawk at having her antics interrupted and struggled to get away but soon relented. She was caught.

While Noor-Vee and Zath were spiralling towards the ground, another Light Green--Tesimith, to be exact--zipped past with several chasers hot on her white-tipped tail. Blue Reiyth flapped his wings hard and attempted to grab hold of said tail but it drew back then slapped him across the face, he fell back behind the others and Rainbow-silver Qualrien who had been slightly about the others went into a dive and grabbed the white-green by the shoulders. Tesimith was all too happy to give into the studly Shinoku dragon.

Should we pair up with each other or pursue other mates? Glitzy Blue Iozabinth asked his glittering snow-spotted white bond.

It's always nice to have a variety, Neva' responded. The two were flying side-by-side a bit away from the immediate frenzy of wings. I was looking at Zirarnalth myself... She flicked a wing towards the copper-bronze who was in pursuit of the golden Delith along with Svedok below.

Are you considering what I am? Io' asked Neva', a mischievious glint in his swirling eyes.

Yes, I think so! the white said excitedly giving Io' the que to fold back his wings and dive from their post above, right onto Delith which sent both glittering white-blue and gold tumbling down through the sky in a dizzing spin back towards the crater.

Zirarnalth let out an annoyed squawk but was hushed when the other half of the Flurry duo pounced on him. Neva' wasn't as big as him, but she was still at least as good as any other female there!

Somewhere over the mountain range surrounding RoF Whispering Leaf forgot to flap her wings when her dragon's passion hit her. Luckilly, Silent Wind was right there and caught her around the middle before she could drop too much and crash into a peak or cliff. "Zirarnalth caught someone already?"

"Actually, he got caught," Whispering Leaf responded with a slight giggle. Silent Wind released her waist once he was certain she could fly without falling out of the air from her link to the copper-bronze. "I think it's time to land." The two drace set down on the nearest secure ledge and proceded to make out, however it is that anthro dragons do such things.

Meanwhile back above the dragonry, Noor-Vee and Zath had finished their first mating. Zath decided to head back to the dragonry while the golden male Noor-Vee landed and split back into Noor and Vee. Then the two recombined, this time into the Vee-Noor dragon...a silver Asian-looking female. They retook to the sky and Azth immediately swept down to claim his turn with his and Zath's "riders".

"Oooh...threesome," Searchrider Dameon said, looking up at the sky. He'd come out from the tunnels to see what was going on and was walking along with a stupid grin on his face as he neared the tent. "Looks like fun."

Lani grabbed the nearest thing she could find and threw it at her half-brother. Unfortunately for Sargon it was his coffee mug and now the precious dark brown liquid was splattered all over the Searchrider who looked like he could've been from Azon.

"HEY! MY COFFEE!" The Sanrixian yelled, glaring at Lani. His eye was twitching and he looked angry to say the least.

"Here, take mine," Lani handed him her full mug and he immediately quieted down. The Firelancer rolled her eyes wondering why she hadn't heeded everyone's warnings and not given the Sanrixian coffee. He was usually rather calm and cool but he must've had several pots before he came to the flight today because he was a spaz. Lani shook her head and turned to the recordkeeper. "How's it going?"

"Only five pairings that I've seen so far," Jinira answered. "There's still quite a few more that will mate. With the singular definite pairings that flew off for privacy there's nine total certain pairings. We're probably still going to be here for a while, though..."

However, Shezumi and Raiokh were not the only dragons in the clouds. Reshi, who had been deftly avoiding all the females in the sky for the entire flight suddenly found Shezumi flying at him like a bat out of hell and it didn't look like she was going to change course! He swerved to the side, missing Shezumi and Raiokh as they zoomed past but slammed into another female who had been going upwards.

~Sorry!~ Reshi yelped telepathically, and attempted to pull away but the female held onto him with her talons.

Reshi Aricoli? a familiar voice asked. I didn't know you were a dragonshifter!

~...Headknight Sherra?~ Reshi replied in shock as the trio-winged Starry nearly twice his size twined with him.

Not anymore, really... Sherra chuckled. I died, I'm sure you know that. Then I hatched...as a dragon! This is a strange way to mate, isn't it?

~Yeah...~ Reshi agreed, but soon enough Sherra convinced him that it really wasn't so bad to mate like other dragons did.

Churana had been playing with Tenma since the beginning of the flight, making him dive in amongst the other participants and chase her around dangerously close to the ring of fire around the lip of the volcano. Tenma was rather quickly getting very sick of this flight and was attempting to hover while Churana literally flew circles around him. Finally when she swung close to him he reached out and caught her by the arm, pulling her over to him. She looked miffed at having her antics interrupted but quickly planted a forceful kiss on his almost hidden humanlike lips. Still dressed and doubtful if they wanted to strip nude and attempt to mate midair like dragons (though Churana probably wouldn't have minded...) the Drasis and the Dragonkin made their way down to one of the tents.

Sorceress Shannon, in her white-gold furred swimming dragon form was on the verge of being pissed about the whole flight. She had a few medium to large males after her including Darruinith and Svedok. Still unwilling to be caught she went into a deep dive straight through the middle of the ring of fire, to her annoyance the males following. She adjusted her angle and went into a turn crashing into the lake and pumping all four legs and both wings hard to shoot herself downwards out of their reach. Darruinith plunged in after her, attempting to grab her but couldn't quite reach the same depth. Shannon was homefree.

Or so she thought, another water dragon had been lurking around the lake until he would decide to come out from beneath the darkness and perhaps catch himself a mate for this flight. However, Turmoil the seahorse-dragon hadn't expected one to just fall into his lap like this. He'd liked Shannon's attitude and now that he saw her dragon form right there above him he decided it was time to make his prescence known.

Shannon hadn't even known that Turmoil/Kaiba was there until he grabbed her out of the water above him. She was still pissed off, but after only a short struggle decided that trying to fight being in this flight really wasn't worth it...

Little ghost-white Yureith was one of the more...tricky participants to catch. Whenever a male would dive at her she wouldn't even move, just turn insubstantial and they would pass right through. It was a fun game for any of the males who dared try to catch her as she spun 'round and 'round the inside of the crater. Still somewhat a child and up for a game, Svedok flipped backwards and grabbed the little white around the neck as she flew overhead. Both crashed into the lake Svedok had been over from his attempt at catching Shannon. Surprisingly, Yurei' let him hold onto her and happily participated in the mating as they floated on the top of the water.

Raiokh had given up his pursuit of Shezumi, evidently she wasn't ready to be caught. Instead he'd turned his attention to a particularly sparkly green female. Kviyath didn't even bother to try to outfly the big bronze as he neared her, she crooned enticingly and let him sweep her out of the air.

Ashv found herself caught when her bond allowed the bronze to take her. White Ingoriteth, a particularly bird-like white, had been fascinated with the gryphon and had been following her. He didn't even seem to mind when she squawked almost the entire rest of the time that their flight together took up.

Domalith was enjoying herself, diving around the ring of fire which hid her glowing red hide and daring any males to come and claim her. It was tricky and many of the male dragons were edgy about getting burned by the magical hoop of fire. However, Domalith's bond Uziondeth kept taking the challenges long after all the other males had given up. Soon the clouded red dropped low and flew beside her bond, allowing him to wrap himself around her for a 'Summer Fling' of their very own.

A sudden, loud screech pierced the air as another four dragons made their arrival known. Two of the dragons were evidently Eastern in origin while the other two appeared to hail from Ryslen. The first Eastern was apparently female and furred in silver and blue coloration while the other was a male with blue-green scales, fur, and a finned crest. One of the Rysleners was a silvered copper while the other was much darker, a duowinged Night Purple!

Oceanic Arinqueth was distracted by the appearance of new prospective mates and didn't see one of the most fearsome participants in the flight coming towards her. Ten-headed Dohosh had come in a little late as he was associating with his grandson, the only hydra at RoF who the Firelancer had had to convince to go back to his den by a burst of fire in front of his face. But now, he had his chance and tackled the blue variant out of the air roughly. Arinqueth gave a shriek and bit him on the neck of his central head, several of the heads bit back and Arinqueth unhappily relented so he could mate with her in peace.

Far below, Darruinith lept from the bank onto Shannon as she surfaced for air after her romp with Turmoil. Once again, the sorceress in the form of a white-furred swimmer was caught; but this time she didn't really care. Even Shannon had to admit that frenzies were fun. Besides, the big black kind of reminded her of the werewolf-vampire she liked so much.

The two drifted on top of the lake, which had been vacated by Yureith and Svedok before Darruinith had managed to catch the female he'd been after on her second round. ~You know, you're stuck with me for a while now,~ Shannon informed the black as he twined his neck and tail around hers, spreading his wings to keep them both afloat with the smaller shifter on top.

I don't mind so much. You're a sorceress, are you not? Magic fascinates me. For instance, I've learned how to shift among other things...

~Oh?~ The two proceded to discuss various things while enjoying Shannon's second catching.

Green Kashatarieth soon found, much to her dismay, that she'd acquired a rather adamant chaser from the quartet of latecomers. The Ryslen-born silvered-copper Tiessiapa was following the smaller green, eating up the air with his smaller wings while 'Rieth was tiring from having been in flight since the frenzy had started.

Go AWAY! Rieth screeched as Tiessiapa grabbed her tail. I don't want kids!

Then I suppose I'll just have to take care of any that don't bond,

The rest of the late arrivals were still in the air, the silver-blue Eastern female weaving around males tauntingly while the Duowinged Night-Purple was flirting with Night Brown Azth. However, the green-blue was looking rather confused as Shezumi wove around him seductively. He appeared to have no idea what was going on.

Great, one denies me and the other's completely clueless, Shezumi thought to herself spitefully. Well it looks like I'll just have to convince him. Shezumi spun in the air and twisted around him. Finally, the blue-green called Ryoke seemed to understand and although he was a bit reluctant, he joined in the festivities with the gold female.

While her bond had finally found her first mate, Tesimith was up a second time flying low towards the base of the crater with Ingoriteth, also a returner, chasing her. She saw the Siamese twin dragons ambling up ahead. They didn't look like a "threat", however...that was, until they leaped up in unison off the ground and grabbed the Light green. Tesimith didn't mind, however...she found that even though Chak and Krith were connected at the sides they knew how to make a female croon!

Farther out from RoF than the two drace had gotten, Dorado finally set Sha-ne down and joined her on the ledge large enough to accomodate both of them...

Several males had been trying to catch the furry, snakey silver-blue Ryuuhikari out of the air but it was finally blue Reiyth that caught her when Night Brown Azth claimed her Duowinged Night Purple bond, Oeraeinse. It hadn't been hard, once Ryuuhikari was distracted with her bond's passions...

Tenma stared at Churana, aghast. "But...but...we're...naked!"

"That's the POINT!" Churana exclaimed gleefully, grabbing the drasis by the wrist and dragging him out into the open, still nude.

Are you enjoying yourself, my love? Vestiso asked sweetly as she spun around to fly back past her mate.

"Indeed, my lady..." Cortheus responded with a draconic smile. "In the company of a beautiful lady such as yourself, why would I not be?"

I'm glad. Vestiso turned and caught her bond in a hug as he came at her, still chasing. What she'd had on her mind wasn't really unlady-like...after all. She and Cortheus had been like a human couple for years now.

Blue Ciqantath spotted a mostly red form below him and dropped straight onto one of the few remaining unflown females in the flight, the white-marked red Datzchlynth. Meanwhile Brown Durth, after some courting for the female he was after didn't usually fly in frenzies, convinced Lyn's bond Shirena to accept him as her mate for this frenzy.

Some of the other dragons in the sky turned and looked below as yelling erupted. Evidently Churana had gotten Tenma to go bother the observers...

Sunset Brown Liojuth had yet to catch himself a mate. The females had all avoided him somehow...but it seemed that his 'partner in crime', Rainbow White Gzrieth had avoided being caught thus far. He dropped in next to her and to his surprise, was greeted warmly by the pretty light-colored dragon.

Took you long enough! Clutch together already or not, you're the one here I really want...

After being caught by Svedok, Yureith had rejoined the flight; but she was only flirting and flying for one dragon. After a fairly long, playful flight she allowed the smallest bronze in the flight to catch her. Partial Glitz Bronze Idolon only wanted his bond...

Sherra had Arro chasing her, he'd been playfully chasing females the entire flight but hadn't really bothered to attempt to catch one. The ex-Headknight was simply having some fun with him when she nearly ran into her half-sister and clutchmate, Alanarosth. While missing the other starry, the reincarnated human ran into the big white King from Azon who'd been chasing her. Kioli, while not having caught Alanarosth, seemed happy enough to twine with Sherra for the second mating of the trio-winged Starry's flight.

Arro finally decided it was time to end his participation in the flight and quickened his wingbeats, catching his duowinged Sunset Alanarosth by the shoulders. She crooned to him welcomingly, she'd finally gotten the mate she'd wanted since her hatching and bonding with him.

The only two dragons left in the sky over the Ring of Fire were the Silver-blue Ryuuhikari and White Ingoriteth. Hikari eyed the smaller male from across the sky, he was small but so was she quite technically being all length and no bulk. She slithered her way across the sky towards him.

"Thirty-two, including those that left on their own..." She finished scribbling down the names, having caught the names of the unexpected participants from the silver-copper Tiessiapa.

"This is going to be another large hatching...at least we know where to find good candidates," Lani said with a yawn, rubbing her eyes. She prodded Dameon who was looking outside. "Right."

"Uh huh.." if Dameon's wife had seen the look on the Searchrider's face, she would've slapped him...

~I...guess so...~ Darreon answered reluctantly, he'd never done this and was thinking better of it as his mate rubbed up against his side.

~Certainly you can't be that unknowing...you're a dragon, you have your instincts.~

1 Red-gold Vestiso and Red Cortheus
2 White Drasis Tenma and Red-gold Humanoid Churana
3 Gold Darreon and Silver-white Calca
4 Brown Arajaxth and White-Green Akshaeth
5 Sunset Brown Liojuth and Rainbow White Gzrieth
6 White-gold Shannon and Black Darruinith
7 Gold Shezumi and Blue-green Ryoke
8 White Neva' and Copper-bronze Zirarnalth
9 Clouded Red Domalith and Rainbow Uziondeth
10 Oceanic Arinqueth and 10-headed Dohosh
11 Ghost-white Yureith and Glitz Bronze Idolon
12 Ghost-white Yureith and Dragontaur Svedok
13 Beryl-Nebula Kviyath and Bronze Raiokh
14 Gryphon Ashv and White Ingoriteth
15 Light Green Tesimith and Rainbow-silver Qualrien
16 Sunset Starry Alana' and Red-silver-gold Arro
17 Gold Delith and Glitz Blue Iozabinth
18 Trio-winged Starry Sherra and Irridescent black-green Reshi
19 Gold Delith and Dragontaur Svedok
20 Red-white Datzchlynth and Blue Ciqatanth
21 Red-gold-black Shirena and Brown Durth
22, 23 Noor+Vee and Azth, Zath
24 Light Green Tesimith and Siamese Chak and Krith
25 Basilisk Sha-Ne and Gold Dorado
26 Silver-blue Ryuuhikari and Blue Reiyth
27 Gold-white Shannon and Turmoil
28 Green Kashatarieth and Silver-Copper Tiessiapa
29 Duowing Night Purple Oeraeinse and Night Brown Azth
30 Trio-winged Raug Sherra and Silver-white Kioli
31 Whispering Leaf and Silent Wind
32 Silver-blue Ryuuhikari and White Ingoriteth