The king had no problem with the unicorn's request, and he even allowed him to heep the jewelled collar that had originally marked him as a member of the royal house. Nikyje wanted to keep it as a memento of his life there and the girl he had tried so hard to save. The king booked him passage on a ship heading for a place called Star City; there were dragons there but they were intelligent, and didn't usually have an appetite for unicorn flesh.
There were also numerous other places he could go, if he so desired, as he found out on the ride to Star City. There was the Abstract Destiny, or Driolo, the planet below Star City. Either was a good choice, if he wanted to bond a dragon, which is what the captain assumed he wanted to do. And after hearing about it, he decided he would look into it when he got to the space station.
The captain had told him that Star City used to hold hatchings, and there were still a couple of bays set aside for them, but they were only rarely used. Most hatchings took place on the Destiny. But when Nikyje disembarked from the ship, he saw a notice for a "clutch" in one of Star City's bays. Deciding to check it out, he discovered a litter of twenty live-born dragons!
The mother was looking for good people to take care of them, and interested individuals were invited to come and talk with the kits. The unicorn debated, wondering if non-humanoid candidates were allowed, until he saw a few draconic individuals and various other sorts of creatures entering and leaving the bay. So he decided to give it a shot.
Entering the "hatching" bay, he was overwhelmed by the cuteness of the younglings, and almost had to step back out. He'd never seen so many cute babies in one place at the same time! Several of them stopped what they were doing when he walked in, their attention caught by his gold horn (and they probably had never seen a unicorn before, maybe hearing about them in bedtime stories).
A couple bounded over and began to ask him questions. As they flung questions seemingly from nowhere, he would pick their name from their head, so he would know who he was speaking to, as they seemed too excited to introduce themselves first!
The little silver female, Tatama, wanted to know if he could shapeshift; someone had told her they could. One of the males, a copper named Amerinicu, wanted to know if his horn would melt in fire like regular gold. He answered them, as best he could, and any other questions they had, and after spending time with them, dearly hoped he would be chosen to care for one. They were absolutely precious. |