Spores were curling through the dragon-beast's blood. They carried through him, replicating, cleaving to flesh and clinging to bone where they found it, seeking their goal: the nerves. There they patterned along the lines of neurons, sparking and flashing and speaking and linking to the Queen who carried them.

The sense of welcome and well-being bloomed. Warmth truly blossomed. All was well. There was a sense of bliss, of joy, as the appropriate chemicals were tapped, as others were blocked away.

"Do not... be afraid," came the sudden, soft, distant voice--and with this, another starburst flash of warmth--of love. Further speech came--whispers of thought, tendrils of emotion--but they were broken up by the weakness of the still-forming link, a thread that could take cycles to fully stabilize. "You are... in my home... but I welcome you. If you have... needs, I will... care for you. My intrusion is not... deliberate. But if you wish to stay with... my family... your family... I welcome you." This last repeated, the voice fell momentarily silent, but there was a lingering sensation of happiness left behind. There was then a last, thoughtful concept, this one wordless: that if Charon wanted to break free of this, her 'accidental' bonding, she would (with sadness, of course) show him how.

And then, Mother awaited her newest child's response.

@Charon

CHARON
The very mountains whisper your name...

Charon nodded, ”Broke my rib because of the cough. I think I caught it somewhere in Eridanus. I went from Monoceros, Orion, Eridanus, Polaris, then here. I got a bit uh... lost.”

He shrugged and sniffled, wiping his runny nose with the back of a three-fingered hand, his breaths feeling raspy deep in his chest. Nothing he wouldn't survive.

Happiness flared suddenly as well as a fondness for Bone, ”I'd like to stay here, I think. Once I knock this cold I'll be peachy, I just need some time and food.”

He heard a voice and turned to try and find it, confusion clear in his features as he tried to find the source of the kind, soft words.

”Do you hear that?”, he asked, tail lashing nervously as he stood up, ”Family? What family? Mine's right here, thank you very... much...”

Mother. Tahi-shei had told him of her when he was a young drake, a child aching for action only to get himself lost in Eridanus and miss the battle entirely. This was the parasite he'd been told about, he was sure of it.

”Get out of my head,” he said, backing up until he hit the wall, ”You're evil! You just want me as a slave!”

His head snapped over to glare at Bone, chest heaving as he tried to resist coughing his damn lungs out, ”That damned lesser was poisoned!”

But there was a flicker, deep down. A childish longing for family, for stability, for people who wouldn't leave him.

@Bone

"Oh, damn," she answered, glancing out at the snow with concern. She had little experience with sickness, and-

When Bone swivelled her head, startled, at Charon's outburst she was seized with a sudden fit of silence. It was as though a great fist had clamped her chest, her jaws shut, and a whisper of knowledge and warning threaded into her mind. She wasn't to speak; it would, for whatever reason, endanger her. In fact, she felt the link with Mother somehow stifled, as if her benefactor were controlling what came and went. It felt... more cut off than usual, and Bone felt suddenly afraid.

Alarmed, but obedient, speaking the words Mother fed her at a drip (and thinking them her own), Bone spoke. "What? I'm not in your--a slave?"

She came upright, hesitating. "Poisoned..?" she echoed, and hesitated. But she had a piece of knowledge strong in her mind: Mother would take it from here.

There was a strange flicker of sadness--of grief, of a guilt at feeling rejected, unwanted. It wasn't Charon's; it was Mother, or so it seemed, hurt but accepting.

"If you wish... to remove my link... you may seek..." For a moment, the link--weak as it was, fresh as the snow--faltered, and whatever descriptors Mother offered went missing. But the end of the sentence flickered back into being. "...as Tahi-shei. He can... remove our... link." There was a moment's... sorrow? "But I do not... wish slaves. Those who..." (another flicker, a jump, and this entire section of thought was simply lost, as if dropped into the white void outside;) "...not hurt you." The feeling came clearly enough, with this: quiet, warm reassurance; a oh-so-selfless motive.

Mother did not wish slaves. How could anyone think as much? She only wanted family. And to that end: "This one... is your... sister? Perhaps she... can join us... in time... if you choose to-..."

After another gap, there came a final piece of whispered communication: with reassurance, again, and a sense of something drawing away. "I will... close you away... so you are not... troubled. Call upon me if... you need me." It was like a distant voice, fading; and as it did so so did the link seem to do, with Charon fully cut away.

It was cold, empty, by comparison. Suddenly and irrevocably silent.

@Charon

CHARON
The very mountains whisper your name...

Charon clenched his eyes shut and huddled in on himself, wishing he'd learned the spells Tahi-shei had tried to teach him all those months ago. But he had almost no patience for magic. The only actual spell he knew was as violent as his claws, anything more detailed was lost to him.

But those feelings... could you fake feelings? Doubts were seeded, it would only be a matter of time before they started to grow.

Then it was gone. All of the warmth, the welcoming. It physically made him collapse, the chill from outside bombarding him suddenly, the loneliness he'd felt since Monoceros closing in on all sides. He coughed once, twice, and then he couldn't stop, his rib threatening to break again under the onslaught.

'I don't want to be alone.'

Finally he managed to inhale before he passed out, breathing in and out without breaking into another fit. He pushed his head between his forelegs and trembled, unable to even start trying to figure out what to do. He wasn't smart, he'd never been smart in his whole life, always jumping into things or relying on others to make the complicated decisions. His life so far had been simple and that was how he wanted it to stay.

He felt helpless knowing that it wasn't simple, that it would never be simple.

”... I don't know what to do,” he mumbled, curled up in his tail, wings covering him like a blanket.

Charon felt more lost than ever.

@Bone

Bone peered, prodded and guided but genuinely somewhat confused. Also very worried; his coughing fit was a violent one, and she feared what illness he might be carrying.

"Do-? What's wrong?" Her natural warmth (the emotional kind) had her worried. Mother had kept him from her; she had no idea he was now infected.

"You--there's nothing to worry about," she tried to reassure. She wasn't sure what else to do. "Just rest, okay? I know--Charon, I know someone who has sickness-magic. They can heal sickness, I think, if that's what it is-? Do you want me to try and find him?"

She studied the white outside, for a moment, pensive: she was tired from her own magic, and venturing out into the cold so soon might be dangerous. But if he were suffering so badly, she had to try, right?

@Charon

CHARON
The very mountains whisper your name...

Charon wiped his face and shook his head, ”N-no, don't go out. Flying in that's suicide and even more if you're already tired. Just... sit down, Bone.”

He put his claws over his snout and just... sighed. Either he braved the storm and died trying to find Tahi-shei or he accepted his fate and gave in to Mother.

”I'll be fine,” he said, ”I ain't no whelp, I'm Charon, I'll live.”

The wyrm folded his arms and shuffled his wings into place on either side of him, head low, ”... What was mom like? And uh... and everyone else? I never really knew them before the family kind of just... left. 'Cept Carja but I didn't know her too well either. She told me Dread was a dick though, seemed upset about it for some reason.”

@Bone

She sat herself back down, as bidden--which was a strange feeling, really. She wasn't used to just taking orders like that; her family had been one of suggestions, mostly, but she knew that Charon meant it as a kindness. It was still an odd sensation, and one she sort of noted for later, though she didn't know what to make of it; unbeknownst to her, Mother's form of control had always been suggestion. Bone had barely taken an order in her life.

'I ain't no whelp, I'm Charon, I'll live.'

"That's a good attitude," she told him, in encouraging agreement. "We'll both be fine after a rest, I guess, yes?" If her draconic face could've smiled reassuringly, it would have; her eyes crinkled up as best they could, in any case, and her voice was warm.

It was strange watching her brother fold his only set of non-wing limbs; she couldn't quite tell if they were legs, or forearms, and for a moment she studied his odd, but interesting, build. Ahh--her attention was taken as he spoke of Mother (real Mother-), asked of her, and at once she felt saddened. "You didn't know her-?" she half-blurted, in surprise. The mention of Carja (and she placed this name correctly to the face; this was the dragon Svartis and Blight had adopted, she thought) and Dread had her snorting back sour amusement.

"Dad is... ah, he's not as smart as Mom. As Asimona," she explained. "He loves family but he tends to get angry at things he doesn't understand, and that's... a longer list than it is for most. But he'll defend us with his life," she said, then realized that maybe "us" wasn't the best word to use. She'd meant herself, Svartis, and so on, but now it sounded like she was including the whole extended family in that, and she doubted Dread would defend anyone he didn't know. He was more likely to warn them away from those he did, she guessed. "He's had a lot of big threats attack the family, or our home, so he's pretty suspicious of others. If you ever want to meet him, I can introduce you so he knows you're family; he's very kind if he knows who you are." The implication and acknowledgment, of course (a little dry) being that if he didn't, he wasn't. She didn't blame anyone for calling him names, though she still loved her father.

"I'm sorry you didn't get to know Mom better, though. To be honest, she didn't stay around long after Svartis and I were hatched, either, but she was very kind. She used ice magic, like Svartis does. But when we moved to Dad's cave--he was back in Monoceros, then--I think it was mostly too warm for her. We ended up with a cooler... sort of iced? Section of the ravine, there, but I guess it wasn't the same as Pisces for her. She's--hmm. Gentle? Attentive? I think she could be as dangerous as Dread if someone threatened us, but it never happened. And she was definitely smarter than Dad," she repeated, with amusement. "Svartis is... Very nice? He's like Mom, actually, really. I guess we both are, sort of. He uses ice, too, and if you want to visit him he's around here, sometimes, or sometimes visiting Dad in Leo. He's smarter, too, and he likes kids, but he's usually pretty quiet."

Bone considered, shifting in place. It was pleasant, talking about family; and it was a nice distraction, too, from both of their situations. She hoped it'd be the same for Charon. "There was Blight, too. A kid Svartis picked up, one day. He's sort of... green, and smaller than us, and his magic is different--he's the one who can heal or make things sick. He's a good kid," she added, though he wasn't any more of a "kid" these days than she was. "Then there's... Bug; she's part cat? And part dragon. She's a troublemaker but she's sweet. I've no idea where she's living, these days, but that's the whole family, I think."

There'd been others, after she'd left, but she hadn't known them either at all or any better than Charon did, so she wasn't too confident of speaking about them. "Svartis or Blight could tell you more about Carja, I think," she added, thoughtfully; and then, half to herself, she said:"-am I missing anyone?"

@Charon

CHARON
The very mountains whisper your name...

”Yeah,” he agreed, ”Just a little rest and I'm sure I'll be okay. But once this storm is over I need to visit a fr- a uh... acquaintance. He'll probably know what to do about the voice I heard in my head.”

Charon listened intently to Bone's description of the family and winced, ”Ah, Carja did tell me she went to find Dread... don't know much else than that but I suspect their meeting didn't go very well. Judging by the fact that she used a swear, for one thing.”

He shrugged after a moment and leaned his chin on his claws, ”But as for mom? Didn't know her well. I hatched and we had a week or so to ourselves before I left. Haven't seen her since. Kind of wish I didn't leave now.”

He loved hearing of their family. Maybe if he was lucky he'd get to meet them all someday. It was a relief to know he wasn't alone, that he'd simply had to wander a bit further to find them.

”Wyvern,” he said, ”Another sibling of ours, looks kinda like a bird? They had a kid recently, a nephew named Jaques. Seems like our family's growing bigger by the day. Makes me wonder how Carja's doing. I might go see her once I've gotten rid of this damn cold. Would you uh... wanna come with? I don't really like the idea of traveling alone anymore.”

That was the closest he'd ever admit that he was clingy.

@Bone

There was a rush of joy at the invitation to meet new family. Of excitement.

It wasn't wholly Bone's.

She did not recognize this.

"Oh, I'd love to," she responded happily, in a rush. "I was just about to say, I hope I get to meet them some day. I didn't know! -What are they like--do you know?"

Her tone was easygoing, happy; friendly. She'd told Charon all about her side of the family; could he tell her about those she hadn't met, in turn? "And I'm sure we can visit Mom again. She's probably back in Pisces," Bone reasoned, all optimism and hope. Was it her real mind driving these emotions, or was it Mother--prodding, poking, pushing her toward interaction with others, with carrying these wretched spores?

Maybe it was a bit of both.

@Charon