Ryslen was a pleasant place - filled to the brim with dragons and candidates both. The Doc made a point of keeping himself busy and away from the 'kids' or the younger candidates. There were a lot of people who wouldn't feel comfortable with someone like him near younger units. Himself included.

Mostly because there was another version - one that the group of Sanger Hoppers hadn't found - at the sands too. He was accompanied by several others, a group of younger people including one girl who simply was the object of much unabashed staring on the Mad King's part.

With several clutches always present, Ryslen was a place where anyone - including himself in multiples - would happily find dragons. When the call went out for the candidates, Novos as Baeris had explained to him a while back, Crazy Doc and all the others wove or ran or meandered down to the red cavern.

It was raining, a good fresh storm. The last couple days were wet and sticky, not in the good way. Everyone felt refreshed.

It was ironic as well, because the parents of this clutch had beautiful lightning markings, appropriately their offspring seemed to be either cloudy or bolted, in their skin. Several eggs hatched, and though he'd seen hatchings before, the Crazy Doc really enjoyed watching these bond. Even up to the big bronze that strode up to the Mad King, how appropriate - he sought out the sapphire of the taller (than him? wow) man but shortly felt a little nudge at his elbow.

Hey. I'm here.

Smiling and turning to the source of the mental voice, which was a smooth surfer-style sounding one, Sanger said, "why hello there, Umpteenth."

That's my name don't wear it out. I'd like some food, and then you need to expain to me why my brother has bonded someone just like you only not you.

"I'm sure that it'll make sense later, Umpteenth, it does to me."

Satisfied with that, the little blue waddled away to find the food.

"I had no idea they grew so fast," Crazy Doc said, smiling. The smaller blue and the large bronze lightning-winged dragons belonging to the Sangers who attended the hatching were both ready to learn to fly. Since Crazy Doc had been flying for years with Sixth and Kalkin, he had no trouble teaching the small (but bigger than Sixth already) blue how to adjust to his weight on his shoulders, and how to bank and turn without tossing his rider onto the ground.

It was when one night, as the Carramba High school teacher and genrehopping immortal slept, that Umpteenth took a dream to task. His rider had some odd dreams, the dragon had known that since their first night together. But it seemed as though Van never remembered them at all. Or at least, he stuck them back in the depths of his mind where they'd be forgotten soon.

This dream however was so vivid, something clicked in the blue's mind. It was his home, Carramba High. The man who shared the Doc's apartment, a tall blond and handsome one, named Gabriel, featured prominently. I would like to meet him, the fledgling dragon thought to himself, while peeking in on the Doc's mind. It wasn't hard. This one's mind was wide open and strong. The impression the dragon got was that Kalkin and Sixth shared an odd bond because mental contact hurt him, and others of the Sanger bent were of varying degrees of this. His own Crazy Doc was just fine. Maybe even better now, because in times past, he would have winced when another person's dragon addressed him. Now that he was bonded, the Sanger's mind was protected somehow - quite unlike Kalkin.

But back to the night, when Doc Sanger slept along with everyone else. Soundly, in their semi-private den. Mad King Van wasn't in this one, fortunately. That would only confuse the dragons. Another weyrling pair was slumbering in the area on the other side of a privacy screen. When Umpteenth stirred and crept somehow silently around that, to his rider, he knew just what he would do.

When he reached for the Doc's shoulders, to drag him from his bed, he suddenly realized something though. Humans liked clothing. And the Doc had enough to take with him, even though he preferred being naked. A private thought, Umpteenth realized. So he couldn't just up and take his rider away, could he? He'd have to pack, and then...

".... Um-teeth?" Doc Sanger muttered half in and half out of sleep. "Wha'r you doing?"

The blue looked sheepishly around and sensed that the other rider was still asleep. Privately and quietly, the dragon said, I am sorry, I wanted to go see your home now. You miss him, that man Gabriel.

With a start, Sanger sat up and blinked away his sleep. "... Yes, I do. But I've been apart from him longer than this before, and I'm sure we'll be parted again some day. It's all right."

You dream of him, a lot, the dragon told his rider, who adopted a kind of faint blush.

"I love him," Sanger admitted, "dearly. And you'll like him too. Maybe..." The blue eyes that were echoed in the brilliant shade of his dragon glimmered with a nasty thought. "Maybe he should get himself a dragon. An angel riding a dragon isn't unheard of."

There are plenty at other places, I have heard. Angels at the Flurry. The dragon nodded. So will we meet him here?

"I never said we'd bring him here right now-" Sanger laughed, "go back to sleep, Umpteenth, and be patient. When we learn to teleport you'll be able to see him whenever you like. But I want to make it back safely."

You do not trust me?

"You know how I dream of Kalkin and the other me's?" He asked with a grin.

Yes, of course. And they have sometimes come here too. They come to Carramba.

"By accident," Sanger said. "They come there because they're on their way somewhere else and can't remember how to get there. So they reach the next best place."

Our home will not be second best! Umpteenth gave a quiet snort. I will do my best and you will get home every time. You are attached to that place.

"Good," Sanger said. "Sleep. We've got more flight exersizes in the morning."

They both drifted off to sleep, shortly.

Umpteenth went through the air over Carramba High School at the head of a wedge of other dragons. His arrival prompted a bit of an aerial show, just the dragons. Their riders stood below in the courtyard answering question after question.

"No, not everyone can bond a dragon," said one. "It's a complicated process, and you need training," said another. Yet a third added, "I don't think most dragons could have a mathmatical construction as a rider, guys, what do you think?"

The Crazy Doc stood silently though, with unshielded eyes watching his brilliant dragon swoop and dodge in the air.

His dragon. HIS. Not a loaner from someone else in another dimension. Not a hitched ride.

The well of pride inside his chest was filled, and he couldn't contain it. Sanger's smile widened as the dragon came down for a precise landing in the courtyard. The Speakers Plaza was packed, but they made room for dragon after dragon.

Doc's room mate, the angel Gabriel or, as he liked to be called, Angelino Gabriello, approached. "So you're one of them now," he laughed. "Nice work. Great markings."

"I know," Doc said. "What about you? Any chance you'd be -"

"No way," Gabriello waved his hands. "If I fly it's under my own power, and I don't fly often. And what would the rest of the Host think if I were to be seen riding the very symbol of the devil?"

"You live with me," Crazy Doc Sanger announced with a sly grin, "you've already way broken that mold. If we find a place, you're going to stand, and that's that."

The angel, blond haired and fair skinned, shrugged. "If one came right up to me and insisted I wouldn't refuse, but I won't go seeking them out. I've got work to do, are you going to get back to class after this?"

"Maybe," Sanger said. "Maybe I'll just ditch. Half the class is here anyway, maybe I should make it an event."

As Gabriello walked away, Umpteenth pushed his way through the kids. I do like him. We need to train him to tell you how much he cares for you.

"You don't need to do that," Sanger said with a grin, as he watched his room mate and protector, "I know. And he knows."

"Knows what?" Asked one of the kids nearby, and Sanger distracted her by doing some 'dragonrider posturing'. That always worked.

"Where exactly did this come from?" the Doc asked, and Gabriel shrugged.

"Could be anywhere." He tilted his head, and said, "it's got a note, why not read it?"

Sanger picked up the box, which he'd found on the kitchen table in their apartment. He could feel something of uneven weight inside, and looked at the folded note which read 'happy birthday'. "It's not my birthday," he muttered. "Oh wait. Yes, it was. How long has this been sitting here?"

"Since before you passed out from the vodka kamikazis," Gabriel chuckled, trying to fill out a request form for one of his classes.

Sanger carefully opened the box, which was wrapped in a simple blue and gold design paper. There was an egg in it, which he held gently. "Flitter egg?" He said, and Gabe muttered something about needing to concentrate. So Sanger went to his dragon's dorm, across campus, to wait for it to hatch.

"Said it's from Fukeru Ukuure," Sanger explained to Umpteenth.

Oh those are nice. I like that place.

"How often have you been there?!" Sanger said, but he could hardly chide the dragon, after all he had daily classes to plan for and teach - what else was there for a group of restless dragons to do on campus all day?

The egg hatched into a dramatic blue and green flitter - oddly enough he had markings on his head, tail and shoulders looking like tattoos!

What will we call him? Asked Umpteenth.

"... Tats?" Sanger said, while feeding the flit a little scrap from the trough where some of the dragons ate. Tats was ready for more, and then ready for sleep. "Apparently," Sanger said, "it's good enough for him. You feel that?"

The flit was so satisfied and full that the dragon almost belched. Will you take him to class?

"Like I have a choice," Crazy Doc Sanger said, moving back up to the apartment to pester Gabe.

It was during winter break when Doc Sanger was approached by one of the 'Sanger Twins', Soren.

"Hey, Doc," the young darker-skinned version of Sanger said, "Look what I found."

He presented a small creature, grey with violet wings, who raised her head and blinked carefully. She turned to Soren and gave a chirp, which Doc Sanger interpreted as 'stop waking me up'.

"Interesting, but...Oh." He realized there would be one for him, coming from this, of course.

When he looked up, just past Soren's shoulder, there was a brightly purple creature with equally bright yellow wings heading right for him. He pulled up short of landing on Sanger's head, dropped down expertly in front of his sapphire eyes, and let off a cheerful whir of sounds.

"Well he says his name is Ochau and that he's a Wind Devi. I'm guessing that yours is different."

"Yup, Daruka's a Smoke. Gonna go play at the Caffetorium, want to come?"

Sanger paused for a moment, as Tats surveyed the newcomer. It was patently obvious that Ochau was far smarter than the blue-green flitter, though not communicative in the traditional way for dragons. Ochau twittered again, and both Sangers thought it sounded rather a lot like how Sixth would speak.

Gifted with language decoding, Doc Sanger knew that Ochau was announcing that he'd claimed this shoulder in the name of all Devi everywhere, watch out and woe to those who attempt to take it from him. To which Tats let out a chirrup and sat on Sanger's other shoulder. "So where do they come from?"

Soren grunted, "Chi'Golden Plain, it's a bit vacant but these guys are from there. Maybe they're trying to get their numbers back up. I got the impression from Daruka that she'd once been befriended by someone, but they vanished. You know how that goes."

Doc Sanger nodded solemnly and then wondered why there was a weight at the back of his head: it was Ochau dangling as though in a hammock of his rich black hair. "Oh now don't start that... I see enough of that with poor Kalkin and his flits..."

That got a response, chittering to the effect of 'I am not a flit! And you know it!'

Laughing, Doc Sanger said, "I know, I know, but ... do you have to do that?"