He turned to meet the woman, his nares pulled up in a grin as he eyed her most obviously. "Whadda ya want? The money's good, so're the perks, if I say so myself." He hefted his pack as he lifted his gaze up to her face.

Crossing her arms over her parka-covered chest, the Gryphosi snorted and rolled her slitted eyes. "Oh please," she said, switching to verbal speech as she waved him off. "And here I thought that you were a gentleman of at least some decency!"

"Decency shmeecency," he replied, trying hard not to shiver. "I'd better've made it on time, this time," he said, changing the subject, "Where's the Esher Hunt team?"

"You mean Esh'hir?" Another slight grin. "They're assembling in the main hall, of course. Wait, there's Jos' now, she'll take you." Fevrie waved a hand at an approaching Felisian, this one dressed in only light clothes.

The spotted female rubbed her arms together, glanced from Fevrie to Frank, then winked at the other native. "Oh, am I interrupting something?"

"Only rather impolite conversation," the Gryphosi replied, darting a look at Frank.

"D'I look like I'm bein' impolite?"

"No, you look like you're being frozen to death, wearing nothing but the feathers you were born with." Fevrie smirked.

Joscia interrupted, "Why are you two standing outside, anyhow? C'mon, we'll take you to the main hall...?"

"Frank Lambara," the bird-anthro supplied dutifully.

"Frank.... Lambara?" The Felisian asked, more to herself. "I could have sworn that there was an Alamoss signed up for this Hunt..."

The brown-feathered bird's expression fell a little, he crossed his own fluffed arms over his chest. "I'm no goddamn 'Alamoss', who keeps sayin' dis shit? Lambara. Starts with a fuckin' 'L'!" If he weren't fluffy looking before, he was now, but it was more out of sheer frustration then out of a need to stay warm.

Joscia blinked at him, gave him a strange look, then shrugged. "Whatever you want, babe, let's just head inside!"

And soon they were. There were a couple of pack-geperna; transports for those that didn't have their own dragons. Frank headed to one of those, glancing as he went at the other Hunters. A wide variety of people--nothing he wasn't used to--and most of them looked at least half competent. This was a good thing... he missed most of the banter going on between their Hunt leaders... two orange dragons (what was it with those, anyways?) and a pair of Felisian chicks that could have been sisters. Checking his gear once, and checking it again to be sure, he only turned to them when he heard the quieter of the two clap her hands for attention. "Okay," the Felisian declared, "well, the rules are easy. Don't die, don't get hurt, and everyone walks away happy." Frank snorted, albeit quietly. What did she think they were, green horn idiots? But then, what was she expecting, some zombie-horde to attack? It seemed pretty unlikely... they were, after all, only going out to subdue a few wild dragons...

The speech was so short that, already, the Hunters were moving out. Frank gave his gear one last look-over, then scrabbled up onto his temporary mount's back as they made their way back into the freezing cold. He resisted the urge to dig around for a cigarette as they formed up in the courtyard, and then resisted the urge to hunch down against the cold. He wasn't a weakling, after all! It made no difference, in the end. The blue he was riding took off, and Frank had to hunch low against the ripping wind, cursing the entire way--and then, as suddenly as any teleportation portal he'd ever been through, the wind turned from seering cold to seering hot, and it wasn't snow that was battering his inner eyelids, it was sand. Now this, this Frank could deal with.

He scanned the horizon as they circled to land. A wind was blowing in from the East... some kind of sand-storm was heading their way, and quickly. Shitty place to touch down... at least there were a few huts to take shelter in, if they were still here when the storm hit. Good enough for this bird-anthro!

The blue landed with a bone-jarring thump, and waited only for Frank to unbuckle his gear, before taking off again. Frank, left holding the bags, was blasted with salty dust and sand from the wind brought up by the dragon's backwinging. "Fuckin' wait a goddamn second, why don'tchuh?" he called after, wishing he had a fist to shake at the departing blue shape.

Instead, he stalked over to the gathering Hunters, threw his gear to the ground, and then, with the most disgusted look to cross his beaked face yet, he floofed and shook his body free of all of that dust. It came off of him in a cloud--and god, was he getting soft? What was a little dirt, after all? Well... whatever. He placed his hands on his hover-pack enhanced hips, and waited for the leaders to speak up.

It was one of the orange dragons that spoke. "Best get movin', I reckon'," he drawled, earning a chuckle from a couple of the hunters. Frank snorted again... maybe these people weren't as competent as they looked... in any case, he was leaning down to fish out a stun gun, and a more deadly semi-automatic, when the tall chick with the black hair spoke up.

"I hope there aren't any undead this time," she muttered darkly... and Frank paused for just a moment. A bad feeling welled up from the pit of his stomach.

And then, as if on cue, all hell broke loose around them. The earth trembled just a little, and suddenly these monstrous beings of flesh and muscle and bone and rot began to roil up from beneath the crusted salt-plains. Frank swore--more vehemently then usual, anyways--and unslung his rifle. "What duh hell did you have to open yuh goddamn mouth for?" he called, eyeing the monstrosities with no little horror. Most of them towered over the hunters, dragon-sized. Impossibly reanimated, Frank assumed that magic was involved, of some kind. So, basically, they were screwed. He wasn't a magic kind of man, he didn't know any dispelling chants or gumbo jumbo on that particular note. So he did what he knew how to do. He shot things. And he dodged, and pretty well retreated.

One of the giant beasts was trained on him--this one a disgusting grey colour, its flesh hanging off of it in ribbons. It wasn't that fast, but then, it didn't seem to want to give up, and it was huge. It roared--gurgled?--and stomped at the bird-anthro, and it was all that Frank could do to keep backing up. No fuckin' way was he going to lose sight of the other Hunters, but then, there was only so much he could do.

A high-pitched shriek sounded from behind him, and he turned just in time to see a raptorine zombie creature leaping at him. Faster, this one, and much more dangerous! "Fuckin' christ!" he cried, emptying a full clip into the zombie, to no visible effect. The huge monster was behind him, now, the smaller one circling around... Frank fumbled with another clip, trying to reload. He was toast, he knew it--and then out of nowhere, a couple of other huge beasts tackled his opponents. One, a hairless-looking pink-skinned dragon--the ugliest mother that Frank had ever seen, really--trounced the smaller of the two zombies, roaring in her own right. The other, a giant, deformed yellow, smashed into the larger monster and proceeded to stomp it into the ground. Frank stared on, more then a little amazed.

The pair of them finished with the zombies in no time: The huge armless dragon began a sing-song chant that, as far as Frank could tell, caused the beasts to stop moving. Then a sudden wind whipped up, and the monsters were buried beneath sand and salt.

"Well, shit," He muttered. Was that awe in the birds tone?

The pink freak stepped away from the now-buried bodies, and posed before Frank. (( Seisaeth at your service, )) she stated, her tone proud and her head held high. she tilted her neck just slightly to look down at him, to gage his reaction.

The yellow, too, hopped over to them, and while he was much larger then either of them, he didn't seem like the brightest dragon. He gaped down at Frank and flapped his arm-wing-stubs, excited and happy to be of help. (( And Zoxiz, as well! Take us with you! ))

Frank lowered his weapon. "What?" He hadn't expected to pick up Wylds like this--not after the last two had come to the station, kicking and screaming the whole way, and then disappearing when they had he first chance!

(( Zoxiz likes leader! Take us with you! )) The yellow cripple repeated.

(( You would honor us, Lambara. )) The rat-skinned dragon added.

The fighting was raging on around them, and yet, it was as if a bubble of calm had surrounded this trio. It was odd, to say the least. Frank wasn't sure what to say, so he said what he most normally would. "What, a pair of rejects like you? Jordan'd kill me, seeing a naked-mole-rat like you and a deformed freak like you. Fuck off, I can fight my own battle."

(( Leader doesn't like Zoxiz? )) The yellow asked, his mental voice quavering, high-pitched.

"I dunno how even your mother could like a mutated creep like you. Like I said, fuck off."

The pink dragon took a step closer, lowered her head so that it was directly over Frank, and opened her mouth. (( You see these? )) she asked, her many shiny teeth poised over him. He could see chunks of rotten meat stuck near the back, could smell her horrible breath as she exhaled. (( You want them on your side, or against you? )) And then, without waiting for a reply, she finished, (( Scared 'shitless', aren't you? ))

Wide-eyed, the yellow male leapt forward and butted the pink dragoness' head. (( Don't hurt leader!! )) he cried, his voice pitiful.

Frank cringed beneath the both of them. If he wasn't going to get chomped by one, he'd get squished by them rolling around and fighting! "Shaddap!" He said, as Seisaeth growled at her larger companion. "Fine, I'll take yah both with me, yah big freaks." 'Just don't kill me, wouldja?' he didn't add.

Both of the Wylds seemed to settle down quickly after that... and to Frank's surprise, the battle around them died just as soon. The undead creatures that had boiled forth were now disappearing underground again... but why, he didn't know. Were they regrouping? Giving the camp a look-around, he saw that most, if not all of the Hunters had a dragon or two by their side that wasn't there before... go figure!

He searched for his gear, but found that it'd been trampled into the sand. Even his smokes were gone! Dismayed, now, Frank looked for the leaders. "We gonna get this show on the road or what?" He demanded. And, thank god, they were.

Seisaeth demanded that Frank get on her back for the departure, and Zoxiz hovered near enough to sit on the mole-dragon... but she didn't seem to mind. The group gathered to depart just as that sand-storm hit... but Frank wasn't sure if he'd rather have endured that to the Aerd's freezing weather.

"No kiddin', you think you're the only one?" Frank tried to slide down Seisaeth's shoulder, but the pink would have nothing of it. She followed behind the Geperna scouts, into the main hall, and Zoxiz trailed quickly after. "Lucky you're with me," he said, on an after thought. "Star City's the furthest place from this freezing hell hole I've ever seen."

(( And what's this about desert-planets? )) Seisaeth asked, out of nowhere.

"What--you're reading my mind, aren't yuh?"

(( That's what bonds do, after all, isn't it? )) The peachy beast replied, smirking over her shoulder.

Frank floofed. "Wait a fuckin' minute. I didn't say you could bond me, yuh idiot, I just said you could come with me!"

(( So you did. But how could I possibly be of service without that vital link, hmm? I need to know what you're doing at all hours of the day, if you need help. )) She ignored the big bird as he dug his spurs into her neck, making all kinds of sputtering, angry noises. She sniggered, reading the thoughts that surfaced in his mind. (( Yes, I'm going to be keeping tabs on you while doing that. And that. And--you should be ashamed of yourself for even thinking that, Lambara. ))

"Stop fuckin' doin' that!!" Frank cried... he decided that he could feel it, now, that twisting mental grasp, the reading and assessing of all of his thoughts, even the ones he did not want to be sharing with others!

"Doing what, up there?" It was Fevrie--appearing again, she approached the trio from the back of the hall.

(( See you! )) Zoxiz piped up, and made ready to stomp the apparent threat. Stopped, of course, by not only Frank and a rather startled Gryphosi, but Seisaeth as well.

(( We're not in the wild anymore, cur! Lambara's our leader, you listen to him! ))

"What the hell was that all about?" Fevrie interrupted any bickering that might have gone on, noteably unsettled.

Frank visibly deflated on his new bonds back. "I went out and hunted, is what,"

(( And he saved us! )) zoxiz added, flapping his arm-stubbins together like a seal. Seisaeth snorted, but did nothing to discredit the yellow beast's statement.

Fevrie smiled up at Frank, giving the Wylds only the briefest look. "Impressive," she said, then winked.

Frank blinked, not sure if he'd seen what he thought he did. (( You did, she is, and you don't have time for thoughts like that, Lambara. )) Seisaeth informed and reprimanded, all at the same time.

The bird anthro hmphed and, for good measure, dug his spurs into the pinky dragon once more. "Sure it is," he answered the Gryphosi, "what'll be more impressive'll be getting them t'Star City without them stompin' anyone or some shit equally stupid 's that." He glared at zoxiz, who made an audible 'meep' noise. Dear god, he hoped that he'd manage to wrestle somedragon worthwhile to the ground on the next Hunt... if he kept coming back with rejects like this, the Minister who'd hired him would have his tail-feathers on a plate!

(( We'll prove our worthiness to you, Lambara, just give us time. )) His bond sent, via private band. (( Don't judge us by look alone. We didn't judge you. ))

I didn't need'ta judge by looks. Yer both as dumb as bricks, but at least yer both good at killin' shit.

(( You wait and see... )) Seisaeth smirked in her very thoughts.

After that, she finally let Frank dismount, and he was allowed to have the rest of the day to himself... or to spend with Fevrie, anyways, without zoxiz popping in over them, or the 'cream's mind snooping about his. Then, inevitably, it was time to go home...

For Frank, at least. For the two Wylds who came with him, it was the beginning of an entirely new adventure.