Mythicalae was hosting not just one Whirl, but half a dozen!

The Magenta daemon's mind-voice could be heard from the hatching sands to all the way past the D-ring apartments. ~But Aesta my love! Imagine a romantic getaway--~ followed by a short pause, within which closer people could hear the high-pitched, almost desperate sounding reply of the Nidus' resident loafer, the Avengaean Water dragon, Aesta Fadenul, and then Okera's response: ~Of course it's not an 'orgy', well... but what's the fun of travel if you can't have a little entertainment along the way-- of course I wasn't thinking of giving you away to some dirty old male! We're meant for each other, dearest Aesta! The Whirl'd be a perfect event to express such deep-seated passions and tender love!~

And on and on. There'd be much speculation about just who let the cat out of the bag to Okera, and many people would cast Franco suspicious glances. One of the resident Custos, Franco was Aesta's bond, and he and a number of other people had made a long-standing bet over just when Okera would win over her heart. Conveniently, for him anyways, the Whirl happened to be falling around the same date as his bet. This didn't make Okera's warbling, sappy soliloquies and heartfelt confessions any less ear-pluggingly annoying, however.

It was only later that evening, when most of the Optio's had returned home, that there was any serious discussion about attending such a... well, a rather sketchy event.

There were five dragons gathered, now, lounging in the center courtyard of the Nidus and making small talk. They were all fast friends... or... mostly so, alliances forged long before they made the move from Sanctuary to the relative peace of the tropical dragon-home. They, like a number of other groups, were talking about the Whirl. After all, it was the hot topic!

"Believe me," Cemitae was saying, tossing his impeccably groomed, firey mane, "it's worth going, if just for the vibe!" He'd been to Tris'Hath's Victory Dance already, and would probably have attended many other frenzies if he'd heard about them. A handsome dragon, and still young enough to have the opposite gender on his mind almost constantly, of course he wanted to attend the Whirl. Others weren't so convinced, however.

Fidena twitched her tawny ears back, her expression thoughtful as she stripped a branch of fruity-flavoured vegetation. After a few minutes of consideration (and chewing), she replied, "we've got jobs here, 'Tae, we can't just up and leave to attend some get-lucky-party. And besides, aren't the point of those things just to get pregnant?" She wrinkled her nose at the thought of meeting some male for one day only, then having to bear his children for the next few months while he traipsed off. Pregnancies were hard on Avengaean females... usually it was the other way around: once pregnant, a girl in need could show up on the doorstep of any male and demand protection and provision for however long it took to bear her young. This kind of instinct ran especially strong in a social-oriented Air like Fidena. To her, one night of pleasure did not outrank several months of difficulties.

Cemitae shot her a mollifying look. "Well I'm sure they'll set up provisions for anyone who needs them. And, if you're really worried, you could probably come back home in the meantime or something..."

"Yeah, but drop our babies off on some unknown world, to goddess knows what kind of danger? You've heard the horror stories that some of the Wyld tell..." Fidena flipped her silver tail-fin in irritation. "There's no way I'd want to participate in something like that."

~Aesta and I are,~ Okera interjected, a magenta ball of floof curled up against the Water Dragon's side.

"Shut up!" Aesta retorted, her cheeks going red beneath her pale fur. Everyone turned to look at them.

~But I can't!~ Okera replied. ~You admitted that you'll come, and we'll have such a great time!~ He sighed dreamily, ~and then our children can romp through a new land and spread through the water and sky, and we can be proud of them...~

Equia, another Water in their mottly group, made a snrking noise while Aesta, gone from embarrassed to highly indignant, gave Okera a warning nip. "I said, shut up!"

Cemitae cleared his throat, drawing attention back to him. "Okay... so maybe it's not your average sort of side-trip... but think of it like a Fire festival, or maybe one of those Water..."

"Swims," Equia provided.

"Right, Swims!" Cemitae's radiantly red fur floofed a little, and he flicked his tufted ears as he continued, "they're pretty much the same thing. We're all old enough to have children... and this Nidus could use a little filling out..."

Fidena fidgeted, but everyone's attention was on the Fire. He went on to say, "if anything, we can go and take part in the sideshow... I'm sure they'll have one." A pair of half-Fire dragons passed near to them, the Dux and Alaris of the small Fire Ala, to be specific. Cemitae, a part of the Ala himself, called out, "Oh Ny'aetia, dear, would you mind giving these dragons a bit of sensible advince?" He was familiar enough with the orangey dragoness, even if she rarely acted anything more then cooly civil towards him. She paused, interrupted from her conversation with the darker coloured Aukeli, and cast Cemitae a skeptical eye.

"What do you want?" She asked, the words more a challenge then a polite enquiry. She didn't really like these full-blooded Avengaeans... Cemitae was nice enough, but his friendliness was alien against her childhood of independance in a vicious world. The others... she rarely talked to, and didn't really want to begin to.

"I'm trying to convince these guys to come to the Whirl with me." His corn-yellow eyes wide, comically watery, Cemitae looked like an overgrown puppy.

Ny'aetia gave him one long, piercing look, and then rumbled, "don't even bother," and then turned her tail on the group of them.

"Oh my god," Aesta muttered, rolling her eyes.

Cemitae looked like a hairy, deflated balloon.

Equia took the uncomfortable silence in stride, dropping a few words into it like a warm salve. "Well, Cemitae, I wouldn't mind going. I'd like to see another world, and hey, if they're willing to put me up for a few months, I wouldn't mind the vacation." She paused, hesitating. "Though... I think Unano and Michael'll probably stay behind. I can't really see either of them wanting to go." Michael, her bond, was terrified of most things, relationships being one of them. Unano, her brother, wasn't much better. Maybe if she took some time off, the two of them would forge a stronger friendship... they didn't talk much, as it was, but they might as well start learning!

The Fire nodded, then grinned. "Technically, we don't need to bring our bonds... if we don't want to." He glanced pointedly at each of them. "The actual event won't last for more then a few days... and Onessa and Auhato probably won't begrudge us for taking off for too long!" Though they were both responsible for the Nidus' budgeting, and thus for ensuring that the residents paid their rent in time, Auhato's womanizing tendancies were well known all over the establishment... and Onessa... well, she was such an advocate of the non-bonded society that she'd probably encourage the Avengaeans to go off and do something independantly, away from their humans.

"I don't know..." Fidena was saying, her fidgeting now something that drew everyone's eye. "I just... it doesn't feel right." She ducked her head, for once in her life uncertain.

Equia placed a webbed hand on the Air's arm. "Oh, come on, Fidena. You don't have to participate, if you don't want to. Just come to keep us company?" she smiled warmly.

"Well..." the Air seemed to be thinking about it, at least. Regaining her usual composure, she finally said, "okay, fine. I'll go... but I'm not promising anything!"

Everyone was sitting about the table in human form--Mullen because he was a human, Ceekay and Kacey because they didn't have the shifter ability, and the rest, to accomodate these three. And while the two girls were literally cramming their faces with food, the rest of the family found themselves without much to do.

Mullen eyed Shoky, who gave him just as helpless a look. He cleared his throat, then said again, "So... how about that Whirl?"

Shoky paused, a forkfull of peas half way to her mouth. She looked at Mullen. Mullen looked at her, his expression completely innocent, as always.

"Agh," Kacey's attachment, the overweight and undercivilized daemon, Rotanme, wiped his mouth on the end of the tablecloth. "Eht'd beh just liyk ah family rehooneeun!" He elbowed the half-breed girl sitting beside him, who only grunted and reached for a chicken leg.

"..." Mullen blinked, while Shoky put her fork of peas back on the plate. Rotanme grinned devilishly.

And then snorted. "Ah'm onleh kiddin' yeh!" He barked, slapping a meaty hand on his thigh, causing his betoga'd mass to jiggle slightly.

Mullen forced a chuckle, then looked desperately at his bond. What on Earth had Kacey been thinking, picking up this bizaare daemon?

Meanwhile, there was a conversation going on at a level that was not immediately apparent. Either it was a natural twinly connection, or Ceekay and Kacey had developped their own language--each was equally as likely. In any case, an unspoken agreement had passed between them. Unluckily (or maybe luckily, depending on how you looked at it) for their two mates, and for the other Whirl-goers at large, the Cymbol Kid twins were going to be taking a little trip to Mythicalae...

And the dinner went on.

"After all, at the very least, maybe we'll find some Wylds who want to join the pack for a while. At the most, there's nothing wrong with having a little fun," the Light had said. True, he might be an orderly sort of dragon... but he was no different from any other Light. (And, well, there was a reason that most of the half-breed Avengaeans out there, at least until recently, were half-Light!)

Jesreaea had been tapping her fingers together the whole time, making her bond nervous. The Air dragon had been plotting for a while now... after all, she knew that her bond, Calisto, was interested in Reverie, but there hadn't been a good time to try to set them up. But now... what better way to spark her bond's passion with some of her own? True, it made Jesreaea nervous when she thought about it too much... but she had a goal now. And she would succeed.

The others of the group were set variously about it. Elsie's bond, Aduri, and Stake were dead set on going, of course. While Aduri, the Fire Avengaean, had started off cold towards the peculiar Chyrith... but by this point, they'd rather warmed to one another. Pun not intended.

Anyhow, a pack like Visio and Reverie's was rarely adverse to such freestyle living... a Whirl like this would be something new, true, but something they could probably easily adopt into their lifestyles!

And, while they didn't know it, there was another creature who had been close by in their conversation. Boa, another Avengaean Daemoness, had finally tracked down one of her kind--Pehtaeo, Stake's bond--when the pack came to Star City. Initially, the seductress had considered winning the peculiar male over to her side, but this... this sounded much more interesting. Besides, if she could find someone worth breeding with to further her line in a tasteful manner (somehow, Pehtaeo didn't quite seem to cut it), so much the better. So while the Chyrith pack made preperations to make a trip to Mythicalae, Boa made a few little plans of her own.