~And you said I shouldn't be swearing. Tsk.~ Ahvi reclined on Crank's cot, her wings spread so as to take up the entire bed. She watched Crank with a smug sort of satisfaction as the girl rooted through the room. The place was a horrible mess: clothing was strewn everywhere, and any moveable furniture in the room had been shifted away from the walls, into the middle of the room. Crank had spent the entire morning searching her shared flat, hoping that magically, Vanar would appear.

He had disappeared.

"And you're sure you have no idea where he went?"

the young girl asked, seated on a stool opposite her cot, shaved head in her hands.

~Well, I didn't necessarily say that,~ Ahvi replied, chewing on a claw as she darted a glance at her bond. ~I just said I didn't know what he was up to.~

"Ahvi..." Crank growled, warningly. The last thing she needed was to have to go around Zion, asking if anyone had seen a silver dragonet wandering around. People were nervous enough about the dragonets. She didn't need to panic people into thinking that one of them was loose among them!

Only... Vanar was loose. Somewhere. Crank knew that he wouldn't cause any trouble--no, that was Ahvi's job, the little runt of a--

~Runt of a what?~ the hatchling asked, giving her bond her full attention. ~How dare you insult me, when I'm your only source of information.~ she huffed, her tail twitching in minor annoyance.

"Argh!" Crank glared at the dragonet, more then a little annoyed, herself. "How dare you keep information from me! You know how much you're stressing me out! You're supposed to be my bond, a good person, you're supposed to help me!" She buried her face in her hands again, almost in tears. "I'm going to have to go tell Fire-Eater now, and she's going to get all mad, and it's all your fault!"

Ahvi sniffed, then said, ~Why should I care?~

The girl slowly raised her face to stare at her striped dragonet. For a long time, there was only silence and the flickering of flourescent lights, as blue eyes met amber, the two of them trying to stare one another down. "You're impossible," Crank finally said, looking away. Ahvi sniffed again, not in the least chastened.

When Crank told her story, however, Fire-Eater wasn't sure what to say, at first. They'd only just rescued the dragonet, and now he'd run away?

"I'm so sorry," the girl was saying, "I looked everywhere for him, but I couldn't find him, and I don't know what to do!" She was looking down at her hands, which were pathetically gripped together in her lap. "I'm sorry," she repeated, sniffling.

Fire-Eater moved to comfort the girl, rubbing her back to calm her down... even as her own mind was racing. "Relax," she said, "this isn't your fault..." Of course it wasn't, not when she had a pretty good idea where Vanar was, or at least, where he was headed. Of all the dragons they'd saved, all but one had had their bonds to confront the confounding differences between Vere and the real world. Vanar, the captain thought, was probably searching for his own bond. In fact, she'd bet her ship on it.

She told Crank as much, and the girl seemed to shake a little of her melancholy off. Ahbreviaka made a noise from her spot near the door, her metal-clad muzzle curled into a devious grin. Fire-Eater glanced at her for a moment, but turned her attention back to Crank. "Technically," the woman said, "we're not supposed to be on shore leave, so we'll have to leave dock by the end of the day. You, however, have a new responsibility."

"But I--"

"You have to take care of that dragonet of yours," Fire-Eater interjected, standing now. "In the mean time, we'll find Vanar, if we can, and take care of him. He's not your responsibility." She helped Crank to her feet, and led the girl back to the apartment's entrance. "Thank you for informing me of this, Crank. The situation will be dealt with as quickly as possible."

As she stepped through the metal portal, Crank turned, and gave Fire-Eater the saddest look in the world. Ahvi waited, wings half-unfurled and tail twitching, at the girl's feet. "Thank you, captain." The wait until her ship was re-docked would be unbearable, but at least the situation was in capable hands, now. Her lips quivered a little as she tried to smile, and then she turned and walked away.

"You think the little guy's still alive?" Swift asked, glancing sideways at the captain as he made adjustments to the hover pads.

Fire-Eater didn't answer at first, for she was concentrating on nudging the ship forward, through the hatch, and into the tunnels beyond. After a moment or two, she answered, "he'd better damn well be. We didn't go through all of this trouble just to have him get lost and starve to death."