No one had ever said that greens were intelligent enough to realize when their bonds have had too much of a good thing.

The dragoness wasn't concerned about this at the moment, however. Aside from her transferred euphoric mental state, the gold-striped female could feel a furnace-like heat somewhere in her belly, as if her body were soaking up the sun and the crisp, perfect air, and were turning it out again in spades! In fact... she was glowing with her heat, and before she'd even realized it, the green was on her feet, and soaring down to the feeding pens that lined the cleared area around the mountain's base.

If she hadn't taken much notice to her own behavior, several males certainly did!

Hacksaw Gao, for instance, never missed an opportunity to scope out the ladies. In fact, upon his arrival at the Weyr-turned-interdimensional-dragon residence, he'd managed to win the attention (and maybe even the hearts!) of several of the opposite sex. A veritable meterosexual mutt, Hacksaw seemed to be on the leading edge of just about everything... so obviously he was one of the first to notice when Kakanorii's hide began to glow.

Ihanuus, unlike the self motivated purple mutt, wasn't here because he'd chosen to be. In fact, the Moirean hadn't even heard of the flight until his rider had told him! Jade, Inhanuus' rider, had been moping around Cy Dragonstake until his sister, Era, had ordered him to attend Kakanorii's flight... and while Jade wasn't in the least happy with the prospect, at least Inhanuus could make light of it. Life was a melodrama, he sometimes thought... might as well make the most of it!

While Starlith, an almost-Old Worlder blue, latched his eyes on to Kakanorii's progress, Xandoh was already heading for the green's low weyr/apartment. Was it, like, a billion degrees outside? Wait, no, he was just incredibly nervous... he had been ever since he met the orange-haired beauty. Xandoh had choked up the moment he'd tried to get a few words out to her, and now he was supposed to... you know... Even dragon hormones couldn't wash away his inhibitions. That was when he met his 'competition'. Standing on the weyr ledge were a trio of other men, one dark and broody (that would be Jade), another a freaking huge viking of a man (that would be Rolvaag), and the last a somehow generically handsome man... (and that would be Hacksaw's filler-human!) Well that was just great. Xandoh tried, but found that he couldn't take much consolation in the fact that, while all of these guys could probably beat him up (...well, maybe not Jade, but that was a different case altogether), at least it was their dragons that were the key to getting Kakanorii--and thusly, her bond, Marie's--heart. He only hoped that Starlith could out-perform these men's dragons!

Back near the feeding pens, Kakanorii was just finishing off her second herd beast. She wasn't the most practiced killer, and the gore of her last victim had the penned beasts stampeding to the other end of the coral, lowing in terror.

Nezza, the peculiar Drak, watched all of this with something akin to humor. While he would have intentionally stirred up this much trouble with the herdbeasts, it seemed like the striped green wasn't even trying! Either she was incredibly stupid, or incredibly talented... The orange and blue Drak decided upon the latter, just because of the grace of the female's movements. Boy, would he be proven wrong!

Lastly, Grouith was poised on the ground nearby, his aura of confidence and determination extending to his violet-whirling eyes. He was only chasing because his rider, the massive Rolvaag, had wanted to visit a friend here. But by all that was holy, he wasn't going to lose just because of this casual encounter! If he sired a clutch, it might be a reason to remain here longer... and the last thing that he wanted to do was to uproot himself again! Kakanorii would be his... or so he planned.

The green conveniently chose that moment to leap. All of the males that were going to come after her were here, and she could feel their lust directed towards her... It was nice!

Kakanorii wung her way into the air, all five of her chasers in hot pursuit. Grouith was the first, of course, followed closely by Starlith and Hacksaw. Nezza flew half a length behind the jockeying pair, and Ihanuus trailed somewhere behind. This was only a practice flight, after all, and his rider's apathy was a strong factor in his urge to win.

While the gold-striped green wasn't the fastest, nor the trickiest flyer. She led quite a merry chase! At first, it seemed like Grouith might capture her, but with Starlith and Hacksaw riding his air-currents, he was being very closely trailed.

Kakanorii failed to pay the least attention to any of them. She was high on her own sense of ecstasy, now, launched further then she ever had been by Marie's mind-altering addictions. She hardly thought of the orange-haired woman... hardly noticed if anything was wrong.

Back at the weyr, however, something most certainly seemed out of place. "Where is she?" Rolvaag asked, impatient. "Isn't it supposed to be that the woman comes out, or at least invites us in?"

"We could just go in and check," Hacksaw's Temp worker suggested, shrugging manly shoulders.

Xandoh wasn't so sure... if something was wrong with Marie, certainly it would translate to Kakanorii, and Starlith would tell him about that, right?

~Kakanorii is flying a bit funny,~ the blue replied, uncertain. He'd never participated in a flight before... so he couldn't be sure!

Rolvaag harumphed and uncrossed his massive arms. "Enough waiting, I'm going in."

~Something's wrong with Kakanorii's rider,~ Starlith replied, the lust draining from him as Xandoh filled him in. Grouith seemed to similarly be losing his chasing urges. Kakanorii, meanwhile, remained blissfully unaware of them.

~What? What could possibly be wrong?~ Hacksaw asked, eyeing the female. She was pulling away, now...

Things didn't look good.

Xandoh bit his lip. "We should alert healers or something."

"Right," Rolvaag announced, "You, boy, go find someone. We'll stay here."

The light-weight blue-rider didn't even bristle at Rolvaag's insinuated insult. He just ran.

In the end, he didn't have to do anything.

Nezza zipped by overhead, cackling at the trio of suitors. "Hah, can't handle a little competitssion, boysss?" the drak called, rocketing after the green. He was going to win this thing for certain... of course, default wasn't the best way to do anything, but he wasn't in the loop!

Kakanorii was half-surprised out of her ecstatic self-stupor when Nezza descended on her... but still she was unaware of Marie's condition. It wasn't until she and the drak parted and came to a somewhat awkward landing that she got any inkling of what was wrong.

A pair of dragons were waiting for her, one emerald green, the other charcoal black. ~Sorry to interrupt your flight,~ the smaller black said, his voice grave. ~But your bond is very ill.~

~What?!~ Kakanorii exclaimed. Endorphins rushed through her veins, and even her small wits were stretched to their limits.

"Don't worry," The new green soothed, "we're looking after her, but how could you not know?" She sounded skeptical.

Kakanorii wailed. ~I couldn't feel anything wrong! I didn't know!~ She crashed off in the direction of Darkling Dawn, keening all the way. ~Marie, don't be sick! I'm coming!~

The pair of newcomers looked at one another, then looked at Nezza, who was standing nearby. Then at each other again. "Well," The drak said, "Thatsss more trouble then even I wasss expecting."

The newcomers gave him a grave look. ~That's not funny,~ the black said, and he and the green got ready to take to the air.

-- Meanwhile, Xandoh was one of the few to remain behind once medical help had arrived. A tall woman, her skin nut brown and her eccentrically long, blonde hair tied in a braid behind her, was leaning over Kakanorii's bond, a first-aide satchel spread out before her. "She's going to be all right, isn't she?" The blue-rider asked. He still wasn't sure of what to do.

"I don't know," the woman replied. "Whatever she's done, it's enough to put away a dragon... but she's still breathing, and while her heart beat is a little erratic, she doesn't seem in critical condition." She looked from the orange-haired woman up to Xandoh, and a faint smile crossed her wide lips. "Thanks for staying... I appreciate it. Weyrhealer A'ros will be up soon, and then we should be able to sort this all out."

"...All right," the blue-rider said. He looked down at Marie's unconscious face, feelings that he couldn't really describe locked around his heart. Here he'd thought that she was perfect, but that couldn't be true. He wasn't sure what to think, right now. Maybe it was pity that held him in its grip. Embarrassment for being so gullible? Maybe resentment.

Whatever the case, it had been a strange flight... Hopefully the hatching would prove to be more auspicious.