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At first, there was nothing but a senseless, featureless, void. The only thing I knew other than myself and my agony were echoing sobs that could only be coming from one source. Tom.

Tommy! I can't leave him like this! I have to be awake to reassure him! I...maybe I... I tried to rouse myself, but it was no fucking good. There was a lurching sensation and then the feeling of motion. Tom's wailing cries began to fade, as did my agony, even as I desperately sent out every stream of thought I could to contact him. But something was blocking. My heart thundered in my chest as panic set in.

My babies! My babies! Was I dying? Were my babies dying? Could they survive if I died? Could someone save their eggs? Please...please god! Please god! Please! I'd never believed in you before, but if you are there...please let my babies live! Please...please...please...take me...don't take them...take me...don't take them...

Reaching out to the lives that I carried in my own body, minds that should have been as clear to me as a summer day, I felt only the whisper of a caress and one last reassurance. Before even they faded as I hurdled through the white void.

I broke. Screaming until I felt as if I would fall apart, just as my world had. I was alone. I had abandoned my babies. I had abandoned my other half. I had abandoned myself. I howled, I sobbed, I cried into the purgatory that I had found myself in. I was nothing. I had failed.

I was less than whole.

I was shattered.

I was gone, and only Kim was left.

I was gone, and only Kim was left.

I was gone, and only Kim was left.

Tommy, my babies, my children.

A black dot appeared in front of me.

Tommy, my babies, my children.

The dot rapidly increased in size, as for the first time I had a point of reference to judge motion.

Tommy, my babies, my children.

The distance between the speck and I shortened even as grief escalated in my mind and my cries grew hoarser and rawer while my eyes closed against the tears flooding from them. I was so lost that, at first, I didn't even feel the warmth of a body encircling mine. The feeling of a mind that dwarfed my own soothing me even as it felt along a barrier that I hadn't even realized existed. The humming from that great body broke through my all-consuming haze, and not even caring who it was, I buried my head against it with my eyes closed. Paws clutched and dug at the scales covering where my heart should have been as my jaws worked and my throat convulsed with the broken sound of my nearly silent scream.

Gentle claws scrabbling across the surface of the cage my mind was in found what they were looking for. A conduit opened, and stretched to what felt like infinity, and then...

I felt them...my still warm body felt them...Tommy...my babies...I was alive. Shadows of their minds touched mine and my wracking sobs, my never-ending howls, began to slow and die down.

I hadn't left them.

I hadn't left them.

I hadn't left them.

As the last of the tears dried on my snout, new questions crowded my thoughts and begged for attention. If I was still alive, where was I? Where was my mind? Had I slipped from my own body?

What...the...fuck!

"Shh little one. It's okay. You are alive, your children are alive, and Tom is safe. You are unconscious, and Tomoko has brought you to this place." Shadi's cooed words reached me, helping me calm. Her snout worked down my spinal fin, massaging the tension free that I couldn't let go of. My leg! Pushing away from her I floated backwards and brought my left arm up to look at it.

I didn't quite know how to process what I was looking at. One moment, my leg was intact, the next it wasn't. Transparent from the break down, I could see the snapped bone, torn muscle, and ribbons of arteries and nerves dangling into nothing. Before it shifted again.

"You are a projection of your consciousness, little sister. Your mind has not accepted what just happened to you, and remains in a state of transition between before, and after, the events that just occurred."

I looked over myself and made the next logical conclusion as I looked back up at my towering elder self. "I guess this means I have truly accepted what I am now, then."

With soft, understanding, eyes and scents, she bobbed her head silently as she lay before me. Every bit as big as I remembered, the pervasive sadness of missing her Tommy still clung to her like rotten meat and was never far behind the strong façade she had walled it behind in her eyes.

She was still clad in the enormous cape that covered her back below the base of her neck and was just as battle damaged as before. This time, however, there was one minor difference. Her pregnancy showed now as her once concave belly had filled out and was thick with muscle and egg. The new spikes I had seen just beginning to grow last time had reached their full lengths. Adding to the fearsome appearance of the giant.

I felt so safe being in her presence. Like nothing could touch me. Was this how my children felt with me? I hoped so. It was a feeling that transcended words.

"This is all Tomoko's doing. The closer you came to the fateful encounter with Jill, the more likely that this was going to be the outcome. She has been conserving her energy to arrange this meeting as well as what I have to show you."

Sighing, I closed my eyes as she fell quiet. I needed a minute. I needed a fucking year. I wasn't over the shock I had just suffered. I...I had thought I was dead. My babies...Tommy... Moisture began to leak down my nose again, and I hiccupped.

Once...twice...and then with a shiver...I was sobbing again.

Wailing brokenly as the weight of what almost happened continue to blanket me. Shadi was there before I could draw breath for the next cry of distress and pulled me tightly into her embrace while I tried to deal with all that was going on.

"Take as long as you need, little sister. I am sorry, as is Tomoko, that this was done this way. But you will realize soon enough as to why."

I don't know how long it was until I was all cried out and done embarrassing myself. However long it was, Shadi showed me how acutely developed her ability really was when she called me a dumbass as soon as soon as that disparaging thought crossed my mind. In any case, I was ready to find out why I was here.

She smirked at me. "Hold on to your ovaries then, all ten of them."

Ten? Since when?

A blinding flash erased my sight, and when I recovered my jaw dropped open.

I was surrounded by tens, hundreds, of children of the egg. By towering buildings that looked like none I'd ever seen. By the chaos of what looked like a city that I'd never dreamed possible. A transparent Shadi sat before me and spread her wings to indicate our surroundings even as the individuals around us walked through her and me without notice.

"Welcome to the ancestral home of what we have become. Welcome to The All Egg.

A shiver ran down my spine when I heard those words. As if my body knew what I did not. That those words held power.

Looking around as Shadi, titanic Shadi, walked off I was stunned to see she was not the largest child of the egg in view. Sitting against the wall of a building with her tail drawn around her to minimize the disconcerting experience of having others walk though her, she watched as I explored.

The very first thing that hit me was the smell. The complexity of the mixed crowd of bodies telling me an array of things. Their sexes, their health, whether they were with egg, all manner of things were picked up by the careful discernment of my nose. The smell of the vegetation, the dirt, the stones they walked on, the air. Nothing felt right, but at the same time it did.

Most of the children of the egg looked the same as I did. Jet black from nose to tail. Although one and all had some kind of elaborate art drawn on their bodies with far more variation than just the white I had. Many also wore bizarre and alien jewelry attached to various parts of their bodies. The meaning, and significance of all these adornments was lost on my ignorant ass, of course, but I could see some patterns and correlations between what was worn by who.

Males tended to have tattoos across their snouts and down their necks with no set pattern to jewelry other than a broad band of some kind of green metal around the base of their necks. Females, on the other paw, had the majority of their tattoos down their limbs and tails. The fairer sex also having at least one ring pierced through their wings to clasp the supporting arm. Males and females alike had an equally confusing array of other subdued decorations that had as many variations as there were individuals wearing them.

There were all sizes of children of the egg to be seen. From the tiniest newly hatched clutching onto their mother or father's broad backs. To a mated pair that entered my sight by landing on a raised platform to my left who were each two to three meters taller than Shadi. Their arrival led to a new marvel as the vast majority of the colossal noise around me cut off like someone had flipped a switch. All of the scaly aliens immediately surrounding the landing oriented themselves to the two newcomers to give them their full attention. Heads lowered and scales rippled open from the platform out in a rustling wave as somewhere in the crowd an undulating hum began that others bowing soon picked up.

With a good portion of the crowd still, and their bodies at least partially lowered, I could see that the area was in fact a market with stalls everywhere that were staffed by creatures that were definitely not children of the egg. The strange bipeds were in addition to a few more children of the egg with radically different coloration and far greater number of spikes marching down their backs. On second glance however, I noticed two stalls intermingled with the others with the lengthy bodies of a more familiar shape protruding from the backs of them.

Spying inside their larger structures, I saw enormous cushions cradling the heads of their owners. Each stall also had a number of smaller cushions on which proudly sat what may have been the female's (I could smell that they were both mothers) children. The young ones seeming to be the ones actually in charge of running the stalls as their mothers looked on. An effort, I presumed, to make sure the inquisitive freewheeling nature, that I knew well of already, of the very young didn't get out of control.

Confirmation of my guess came in a sequence of events that started once the pair on the platform began to lose the undivided attention of the crowd. I saw a not child of the egg stop at one of the stalls, and three of the children leapt on and over the others to be the one to chat excitedly with the strange being. One of the three, more exuberant than the rest, leapt chirruping wildly into the creature's strong arms, to its seeming amusement, as the mother chuffed and the smaller creature hissed in short bursts. The dinosaur looking thing said something to the mother while cradling her child which seemed to please her as her tail squirmed back and forth on the ground. A writhing obstacle that pedestrians walking by avoided with nonchalant ease.

The two on the platform raised their heads and hummed in what seemed, to me, a very specific pattern that silenced the wordless serenade directed at them. Their scales ruffled and I could smell their gratitude for the display as the chatter resumed. Normal business resumed while the two VIPs slinked their long bodies off the landing platform where more came and went as soon as they were clear. They made their way through the crowd as it parted around them, revealing more of the strange creatures I saw in the shops, in my direction as I watched. The female was the closer of the two as they passed, but she stopped, and looked straight down her snout at me. I could feel a thought pass from her to her mate and his head appeared alongside hers to stare right into my eyes.

"Don't fight what is about to happen." Shadi suddenly advised me. "When I met these two, I tried, and I lost. This is a matriarch and her mate, each more powerful than I am even now, and they can sense a mind where obviously one should not exist." It was then that I noticed that she was against a wall that wouldn't bring the two in front of me anywhere near her if their path didn't change.

Bitch.

She snickered. "I've already had them go over me once already in my own timeline, it's your turn."

I squeezed my eyes shut, expecting the feeling of claws skittering over my mind as I had with Shadi. But I was in the presence of true masters, and the sensation was nothing like that. It felt as if four paws had reached inside my noodle to cradle my mind in their palms gently. A warmth not unlike what Tom instills in me made me unravel as thoroughly as a knitted sweater snagged on a nail. Everything that made me, me, was teased apart as if I was being read by those who knew more than I ever would about my ability. Which was almost true, but not quite.

The sparkling ice blue eyes of the matriarch before me softened in sympathy as did the bronze eyes of her mate as he spoke for them both.

Far star brought near. Black is night before rise of sun. Wind carries voice to who hear not. Strong is thought, bright is day new. Warm are scales, and wide are wings. Open heart and open mind. Find calm water. New to egg now share. One home to all. Open home to you.

Following their invitation, they both bowed their heads a considerable distance until they were beneath my sight line, to the smell of shock from some watching bystanders. Continuing onward, they headed towards what might have been a series of fountains arranged in a circle. Each of them curled around a fountain structure, leaving most of their heavily spiked tails overlapping, to focus their attention in the direction they sensed me as two of the curious creatures I had noticed earlier scurried out of a small structure towards them.

The fucking things looked more like raptors or something similar than anything else. About three meters tall, they balanced carefully on two powerful looking legs with reversed knee joints that had five clawed paws gripping the ground as they ran like birds to their customers. Their other limbs were vaguely human like arms that ended with equally human like hands tucked up against their scale covered chests. That is, if humans normally had heavily muscled arms and six fingered hands that were capped with claws about 15 centimeters long. Each of them had a mixed pattern of green and tan scales covering their bodies that leaned forward while they were in motion. Their torsos were perfectly counterbalance by long thick tails that had two rows of small spikes lining their dorsal sides from tip to at least the bottom of their necks.

Their heads and faces were similar to my new one, although their snouts were much narrower, and their upper teeth overhung their lower jaw all the way around. Atop their heads, each of them had a wild array of feathers covering their scalps of differing colors that trailed most of the way down their neck. There, a spinal fin, much like my own, ran the remainder of the way to their tail tips between the rows of spikes that rose from their spines. A large pair of pointed ears erupted from the tops of their heads that stood fixed upwards with a slight forward cant. The last thing that I noticed, as I wondered if their feathers were artificial or not, was that both of them had brown eyes with diamond shaped pupils.

Reaching what I presumed where their customers they strutted to the large bowls before the mated pair. With loud chirps to announce themselves, they spread their arms wide while rocking forward into a bow and then settling on their tails to look the matriarch and her mate in the eyes.

Tearing their gaze away from where I remained to watch with stunned fascination, there was a quick warbled conversation in a language I didn't recognize. The two creatures clicked in their throats, and translucent blue orbs appeared to hover above their outspread claws. Poking talons at the spheres, in a manner that was absolutely fucking meaningless to me, before extending their hands so the large children of the egg they were communicating with could each insert a single claw into the spheres.

With their heads bobbing and affirmative sounding trills coming from their throats, the creatures both rocked forward off their tails as the fountains sprang to life. Some kind of thick, viscous, orange fluid dribbled into the bowls until they were full and the bipeds looked satisfied. With another series of chirps, the attendants ran off to see to another child of the egg eyeing a display on the fountain. Leaving their two guests to bend their necks and take delicate licks from the cauldron of soup, or the fuck ever, as they continued to follow my wandering mind.

The smell of whatever they were drinking was incredibly enticing with a meaty aroma underlain by something that smelled like garlic. However, since smelling it was the closest I was going to get to enjoying it, I moved on to look more closely at another one of the creatures instead. Fuck it, calling them creatures is too bland, they are as of now, Utah raptors. Why? Because I said so. And since no one else from Earth was ever shown this world to my knowledge, I have the final word. So there.

Heading to an unpatroned stall I looked inside past a set of twisted wood like objects that seemed to grow in a neat row from the stand's frame (which I was amazed to see that it itself seemed to have grown from the ground) with one eye to see what appeared to be a family. There were seven of the raptors in what I thought may have been a family for the fact that three seemed to be adults to the much smaller other four sitting on rubber balls of some type and looking inwards at a holographic cube. They appeared to be playing a game, as a light on one side changed colors the raptor facing it began to hurriedly rearrange a series of squares with an extended claw. There was a rude sounding noise and the others burst into rolling staccato hisses that I took as laughter.

The family in front of me had feathers just like the others I had seen, but their colors were largely different, running more towards red, and they all had a pair of silvery rings near the ends of their tails. One of the children picked up a little pot next to it and inhaled a thin stream of vapor rising from a hole in the top before exhaling through its nares. Setting the pot down and waving its claws, it fashioned the exhaled smoke into a twisting ribbon. To the seeming delight of the parents who chirped in an alternating rhythm of what I guessed was encouragement. It could have been threats to rip the kid's tongue out and eat it for all I knew.

The similarities between their activities and those of a human family were interesting, but I failed to see the point of being torn away from Tom and my babies to be shot backwards to this time. Nor the reason why Tomoko would expand what was probably some staggering amount of energy to do so.

"Why have I been brought here?" I snapped at Shadi, who took my agitation in stride knowing damn well the cause of it. She did, however, frown when my interacting with her drew the attention of the matriarch and her mate whose focus whipped to precisely where her head was.

"Shit..." she grumbled before closing her eyes as I felt the signals of a mental probing even from where I stood.

We went on this field trip, so that you can see what you are now. Isn't that exciting? So that you can learn, so that you can see, how beautiful a world can be where two intelligent species coexist. You are very important Kimmy. Your importance grows even beyond your sight as word spreads of how you help others, how much risk you are willing to take to assist those that need it most. Soon, more will come seeking comfort from you and your mate. Soon, others will realize your importance as well, and conclude that your life in particular must end. You must be prepared, and this is part of your preparation.

I raised my paw and looked at it. Still cycling between being there and being a bloody grotesque stump. How much risk I was willing to take...my old moniker of Hurricane Kim had finally come back to bite me in the ass. Just full steam ahead, damn whatever is in the way.

"Take me back. I want to feel my children and Tom again."

I can assure you that Tom feels quite well. In fact, he has just finished mauling poor, poor Prometheus almost to one of his deaths for what happened to you.

_ _ "Fucking good!" I snarled, pleased with my husband. "Explain to me why I tried to avoid injury and set myself up to have my fucking leg amputated! My children were in danger you fucking deranged lunatic alien!"

Sor.. K..my...there is s..e inte....ence! I ..n't h... yo.!

_ _ "Stop that you little shit! I fucking invented that trick! Tell me why your fucking help left me worse off than I would have been otherwise!"

Are you worse off? I do not think you realize how many ouchies Shadi suffered when she took the injury that you dodged today. You saw a scar as wide as one of your toes almost 500 years after it happened. What ugly, horrible, terrible sight do you think it was when it was cut into her? Kimmy! You saw Jill hurt you and still have enough energy to crack the cement you lay on! Poor Shadi was in very bad shape indeed after today! It took her two years to fly again!

_ _ "It's true, little sister. Even if you lose your leg, you will likely suffer far less than I have. Jill, in her confusion and fear, had laid me open to the bone all the way across my sternum, broken four ribs, and driven two of them into my right lung. My wing arm was cracked in three different locations and dislocated with a broken shoulder socket. I nearly died today, and even now, all these years later, can neither breathe nor fly without pain. The only thing that had saved me was the suit."

"But that didn't happen now right?" I asked, somewhat annoyed that I felt my tail wagging as my hope that I could minimize her pain rose. Just as she helped me with my emotional injuries.

"I know that you wish to help me little sister. But my timeline is locked. All changes that you effect will only create new possibilities where that alteration has occurred. Being apart from your children and your mate is painful, but there are valuable lessons to be learned here. Please do not close yourself off from this singular experience, if you return now you will be unresponsive. You will gain no benefit from your family in the state your body is in."

"I'm sorry Shadi, but it doesn't fucking matter! Even if I can't benefit from it, Tommy must be going bat shit crazy if he can't feel me!"

At the mention of Tom, that hurt look that broke my heart into tiny pieces dominated her eyes again. Looking away without a word, she instead watched the matriarch who stared back raptly with her mate as their heads twitched back and forth as if they were following the unheard conversation. For all I knew, they were. (They were, as I learned.)

Speaking of that...how the fuck were we talking out loud to each other, in bodies that weren't really there, without being heard? One of these days Tomoko...I swear you're going to explain everything you've ever done to me.

I'm sorry Kimmy. But right now I cannot send you and Shadi back! The opening of the portal that I'm sending your electrical impulses through is creating feedback! Your temporal displacement needs time to stabilize on your end! Nine local hours!

_ _ "That's bullshit!" I exploded. "You're just making shit up to keep us here!" I roared, bucking up and down to stomp my paws on the ground in fury.

_ Sorry, Kimmy! This is very tricky! Very tricky! If I make an oopsie, ouchies will follow! Ouchies of the mind!_

_ _ The absence of the feeling of my children was an agony that I couldn't accept, and I felt like half a half of myself without Tom. But I wasn't able to time travel on my own, and Tomoko was adamant that I could learn something here. So, I could've sat there and sulked while I chewed on the fucking void that was inside my head and womb until I was released from the World of Yesteryear. Or I could distract myself for an hour or two until I got sent back to my unconscious body and oblivion.

"God fucking damnit, Tomoko! I was just starting to fucking trust you!"

That's the adventurous spirit, Kimmy! Learn, explore, experience! I really can't take you back, but I promise that you will enjoy this! Twine tail promise! Before you know it, you'll be so distracted by being here you'll be asking for more time!

_ _ "You fucking manipulative shit. I don't want to hear your fucking promises that I'll enjoy this. Promise me that you'll take care of my fucking husband while you hold me hostage here!"

Always Kimmy! Your happiness is of prime importance!

_ _ Fuck me..._ _

_ _ Looking around, I took in more than just the occupants of the marketplace for the first time. Tilting my head upwards, I saw twin suns and hundreds of wings going this way and that in a blue sky with more than a bit of green tint to it. The number of buildings nearby in what I now realized was just a clearing in a heavily vegetated (or whatever) area were minimal at best. What was truly impressive were the three towering pyramids I could see above the nearby large shrub like plants that reached to the clouds themselves and must have spanned kilometers on each side. Most amazing of all, the central supports that they were built around were colossal trees that dwarfed any ability I had to describe. The crown and any limbs that it may have had were only revealed in narrow gaps in the cloud cover it ascended through, leaving me with only guesses as to its true height.

Streamers of purple vegetation ran around the pillars making up the super structure of the pyramid and I went to a base corner to peer more closely at it. It was a plant, I realized as a ripple of shock ran the length of my fin. The whole frame of the pyramid was a plant that had been coaxed somehow to grow at the odd angle it attached to what might have been its host. One of the raptors ran past me while chirping to itself in a sing song manner and leapt onto the root (for lack of a better word). Scurrying effortlessly four tiers upward before disappearing into the interior of the pyramid, I was able to get some scale for the structure when a child of the egg's head appeared to look out. Each level seemed to be twenty meters tall, which would have been enough room for all but the most titanic of the children of the egg to enter with their heads raised. A much larger shadow swept over me, causing me to look up again as a fucking city sized manta ray flapped by.

What?

Gusts of gentle wind reached the ground from the undulations of its wings as it passed with its long whip thin tail waving like a long banner behind it. Mounted to its belly, was a platform composed of some pliable material that children of the egg, and small floating craft holding multitudes of the raptors, came and went to. From where I was, I could see two sets of eyes set in its wide sloping face on each side of a huge mouth with whiskers wriggling in the wind. One pair of enormous eyes were shut, but the other was open to reveal yellow eyes with vertical slits for pupils.

Tiny projectors mounted just beneath each eye cast an image that the creature seemed to be able to control as I saw its eyes look back and forth with frequent blinks to navigate through I know not what information. A red square appeared on a corner of the holographic projection and the large eye on that side snapped to it before the host released a bellowing series of notes that sounded like someone had crimped the neck of a trumpet before playing it. At the signal, the airspace around it cleared as a shimmering opaque haze enveloped the gondola. Tilting upwards the unknowable animal lashed its tail a few times before, with a humming noise that made the air vibrate, shooting from sight far faster than it had any right too. In seconds, it was nothing more than a pale green dot in the sky.

Did that fucking fish just fly into outer space?

My nose tracked the trajectory it was following and there, hovering in the sky and obscured by the haze of thousands of kilometers, was a giant spoked wheel. It wasn't the only station I noticed either. Just rising above the horizon, I could see the vast framework of another structure, this one a cube in shape. There was a soft touch against my side, shocking me out of my fixation, and I whipped my head around to see the steady pained gaze of Shadi.

"Come, the old ones wish to lead us. They will speak through me. They're afraid that your mind is too weak." She ignored my sputtering indignation, even though a whiff of her amusement still swirled off her scales. So I jabbed her back.

"Old ones? Aren't you, like, 500 years old?"

"540 actually, you freshly hatched wormlet. And I treasure every one of them!" She snapped back at me for my implied snipe about her age. "And yes, I think they're old. They claim to be 804 Rounds old. I'll be damned if I know how many Earth years that is."

_786 Earth years you two! Old ones indeed! On their home world, with the warmth and strength of their stars shining upon their scales, some have even lived to be over a thousand Rounds old! If you think Shadi is big...you are being silly! _

"I cannot imagine being much bigger. Do you have any idea how much I eat? Or how few places I can fit inside?"

A fucking shit ton, and not many, were my guesses as I listened to Shadi's grumbling.

The mated pair, having finished their drink, approached us and flung their heads up one after the other with a sharp whistle. Whatever that meant.

"They wish for us to follow them" Shadi translated. "That was a call for, if I'm understanding them correctly, students to pay attention."

Turning around to face them, I extended a wing to point in the direction they were facing. "After you, my teachers." The motion was lost on them of course, ghost that I was, but my readiness came through well enough. We followed behind their tails with me getting nothing but an eye full of the male's tail and ass since his haunches were right at my eye level and an indication to the readers of just how big these two were. Shadi glanced at me with one eye and smirked at my misfortune.

"Enjoying the show?"

Instead of rising to the bait, the sight of the swaying tail and twitching hips just reminded me that I wasn't with Tom, and I whined listlessly. A warm wing wrapped around my body and dragged me into an embrace.

"I know, little one. I know. Soon you will be back, and the scales you will feel against yours will be his. And I...I will return to the family I have left..."

Sensing our distress, our two guides stopped as their massive heads swiveled all the long way around to look behind themselves at where they felt us. Gentle caresses filled our heads, making us both coo as we tilted them into the feeling. Like having my Tom's paw against my cheek. Satisfied that we had been perked up for the time being, the two turned away again and ambled away through the crowd and away from the platform than the one they'd landed on. That now being used by a dozen or so juvenile children of the egg who appeared to be sunning themselves.

Even though their initial arrival had been met with a deference that let them move through the crowd in a moving bubble. No such preferential treatment existed now. Just as I had already learned in my new body, children of the egg neither needed nor wanted personal space and instead seemed to thrive on as much contact as they could get. The two elders were bumped and jostled while talking with any and every body that wished to chat. Discussions ranged from the weather to the recent events in somewhere called Xxyyxxrinth. Or that's what I think I heard. It was either an off-world colony, or a city in the colony from what I gathered.

Whatever the case may have been, the importance of the things I was seeing wasn't lost on me. Here were two obviously noteworthy, and if what Tomoko had told me was true, vital, individuals going about their business without the least regard for any kind of possibility of harm. Although I had my doubts, watching as a group of females roughly my own size ducked beneath them when they paused to allow a mixed species group of caroling and prancing babies led by a raptor to pass, that anything could hurt them. I knew that the older we got, the thicker our scales were, and could only guess at how thick Shadi's let alone these elders were. Neither was everyone fawning over them as they would on earth. I could have been looking at the paragons of the species but, other than the initial showing of respect, they were treated no differently than anyone else. Although there was one noticeable exception that will be mentioned later.

Without ceremony upon reaching a platform, the two took off with impressive jumps given their advanced age that shook the platform. As we flew, Shadi described everything that passed beneath us as we headed towards one of the titanic pyramids that were in view. From about two hundred meters in altitude I could see only two of the giant world pillar trees (Like that name? Am I a fucking artist with words or what?) in the vast mountain girded basin that we were within. Thick trees blocking my sight much further than that. I was curious about a number of tan striped dragons that I saw laying idle in the upper boughs of some of the trees. I saw more that seemed to be chasing flying balls in some kind of organized team sport.

Listening to big sister's narrative I detected a pattern. Schools, schools, more schools, more schools. So many of the structures we passed over were dedicated to education I asked Shadi if she was mistranslating something.

"Given our extremely long lives there are plenty of opportunities to continue learning. Education is encouraged over the entirety of their lives. From what I'm being told, even the ones that we named raptors can live to be four to five hundred Rounds old."

How did she know that I...fuck. Time travel...right.

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know. They're doing this differently than when I was last here. They read my memories like they were an ROSD and seemed to have adjusted what we should know based on them."

"What the fuck is an ROSD?"

"Something that you get to look forward to in about 200 years."

"Fine...future worm."

A gleam of light caught my eye and I peered at the ground to see red lights orbiting around a large opening into the ground. Our destination, it seemed, as the two leading us descended straight into it to land on a platform that overlooked a vast subterranean chasm. No sooner had we landed, and before Shadi could open her mouth, that there were a number of shimmers before us, and then a dozen raptors and seven children of the egg appeared out of thin air. One of the raptors, wearing some kind of more elaborate tiara around its feathers than the simple band the rest wore on their heads, approached our guides and bowed deeply with its tail straight out and arms spread in welcome.

Bright sky warm scales, Oldest Ones. Nest open always but mystery follow now. Do know? Danger? Find voice to bring teeth to harm!

The arrayed forces behind it (her, Shadi informed me) looked on alertly as our revered leaders were asked about us. So the energy of our minds and our not there/not there bodies was detectable by some means. The guard, on top of their more than formidable claws and teeth, had an array of gadgets attached to their paws, tails, shoulders, and heads. The raptors also held things that looked vaguely rifle like, if a rifle looked like a tree branch that glowed from within, while the children of the egg had large packs strapped to their backs. Were they weapons? Sensors? Boomboxes? Whatever this guard protected, it implied that this society wasn't as strife free as I had believed thus far. Or perhaps whatever it was here was just too precious to even risk. Which led me to a pretty good guess what was here.

In any event we weren't allowed to proceed until other elders were called for from further into the abyssal cave. A solitary male appeared, flapping rapidly out of the dimly lit chasm, and when he landed, I was surprised to another of what would be many variations in color of children of the egg that was not cosmetic in nature. His scales were crimson red from snout to tail tip, making his black membranes stand out in brilliant contrast. Our minds were probed once again, much more aggressively, as I sensed his own anxiety at the alien nature of what he was picking up from our minds and concern that we might be a danger to...an image some eggs appeared in my head. Minutes later he stepped back and glanced away in thought with his tail sweeping through the void just behind his rear paws. Looking back to the guard captain, he bobbed his head at last, finally sure that we held no malicious intent.

The guards parted before us, and our two guides rubbed muzzles first with the crimson male, and then the female captain in an act of familiarity that made me think that they came here frequently before leaping into the darkness. Looking back, I saw the gifted male following out of curiosity now instead of concern.

I didn't know how they could think that we were a danger when we weren't there. At least until Shadi explained that it was the minds contained within the eggs we were about to see that were the true worry.

"They must really trust their abilities to allow us anywhere near the eggs."

"It's not just that they see no intent in us to harm. It's that they recognize the mind of a Matriarch as well. I know, that you know, that it would be unthinkable to harm a young one, which is a trait that we share with our adopted species. From what I understand there are two threats here. From time to time, aberrant individuals might seek to harm or influence the eggs using technology easily accessible to disassociate their minds from their bodies. Another threat being one from the...wilderness...I suppose. They know that we are both pregnant however and would no sooner harm these eggs than we would our own. That, and the weight of the words of the two we follow, is what finally convinced him to allow us entrance."

"Could they have stopped us if we didn't listen to them forbidding us?"

"Remember that light bulb you blew up? Do you want to feel that happening to your mind?"

Not particularly.

We landed on an outcropping that was ringed with small crystals glowing a soft orange on top of short poles. There was just enough light to see that there were another pair of the mysterious tan striped dragons on ledges overlooking the platform, they glanced us over but, other than their twitching tails, made no other movements. Ignoring them for lack of a better thing to do with their presence, I looked around at the ambience that I was really digging. It made me feel at ease, like here would be a good place to...

I stopped, and began humming to myself, humming to the life that hadn't followed me here. My children...this...this is what there should be born...somewhere like this....this is where they should be...

"It is comforting for yourself, and them, to be born in a place like this, but not necessary. The most important thing will be for you to be at ease, little sister. Your body will not give birth unless it feels it is safe."

"But all the times I...Alex! Alex said my passage was dilating!"

Looking back at me with a soothing look in her eyes, she swung her head. "Just rehearsals I'm afraid. Game time will be soon, but not until you are ready. The movements you felt have been from our children feeding off your energy and getting excited. Which brings me to another point, one that I know is going to piss you off and be all but impossible for you at your age, but that you need to hear anyway. You need to stop being so angry all the time. I know, of course, you'll ignore me and rationalize why you are, and you will also see the results. Now, I can't say that I didn't warn myself."

How the fuck does this fucking time travelling me get off telling me to calm the fuck down? I'll calm her giant ass down that's what I'll fucking do! Fuck that! I have every fucking right to be fucking angry! Tell me to fucking calm down, after I've been fucking kicked out of the military, threatened with jail, transformed into an alien, ostracized by my old unit, shit on by the world, shot, stabbed, blown up, and now fucking had my fucking mother fucking god damned fucking arm ripped the fuck off just trying to help, before being vomited into some god damned dragon utopia and mind raped by fucking Godzilla and her fucking...

She snorted in grim amusement, cutting off my mental tirade. The hot air blowing up my nostrils sent my ire spiraling to new heights. "Exactly how I thought you would take my advice." Behind her, I could see the three empathic guides share a look before turning their combined multi-colored gaze upon me. A warning conveyed by the image of a door shutting on my snout formed in my head followed by cooling waves that soothed my anger. Crooning like a mindless sheep, I relaxed into the lulling suggestions and half closed my eyes in reluctant appeasement as the door reappeared to be shown opening for me.

Well, if that didn't make it clear to me how childish they thought my anger was, I don't know what would. I'd have to try to keep it in check at least while I'm on their world. Completely disregarding the advice my future self tried to impart on me. Who wanted to be told that they're too hot headed? Not this hot tamale!

Calmed, I was led by my fucking parents off the ledge into a hallway carved from the rock itself that seemed to follow the contours of the underground canyon. Cut into the opposite wall of the large corridor were openings spaced about one hundred meters apart. Looking into one gap I saw two nests that were occupied by a pair of children of the egg and a foursome of raptors. The two dissimilar groups didn't take any notice of those passing by outside, enmeshed in a conversation with each other as they were. I noticed that the female child of the egg had broad white stripes banding her flanks where she lay around something that was blocked from view. Her eggs I'd guessed, seeing that one of the raptors was sitting with its tail wrapped around three smaller scale covered brown and green ovals. They were partially buried in a granular red mixture of some kind that had ribbons of heat rising from it and looked perfectly safe, snug, and loved.

A mental tug yanked my attention to the others, and Shadi beckoned by tossing her head to point her snout down the hallway to the others who were sauntering slowly away. Silently we loped after them, catching up just as we reached another opening that the crimson male ducked into. Curling my head around the edge of the arch, I saw a much larger chamber with no less than seven groups of children of the egg and raptors. Crimson and his more commonly hued black mate were nuzzling each other in the middle of the space before she turned her attention on me as he settled and quickly explained to a trio of raptors next to him.

Saying nothing, her sharp gray eyes bored into my head as she delicately sent streamers of greeting. For once another Matriarch wasn't trying to rifle through my memories and just wanted to say hello even though I could feel her burning curiosity. Like a normal child of the egg.

Like...a...normal...child of the egg...

Normal has been a pretty funny concept for me lately.

Padding onwards, we continued for twenty minutes as I continued to gawk around in wide eyed wonder at every alien thing that crossed my view. The feeling of glowing pride emanating from our mated guides pulled me up short. Both slipped into yet another wide cavern that I looked inside to see them lowering their heads to nuzzle and kiss a trio of raptors. These new individuals had the striking coloration of broad orange bands on their snouts that extended upwards to cover the area surrounding their glaring violet eyes and which contrasted well with the mossy green of their remaining scales.

Lifting their heads, the Matriarch and her mate lowered them again behind the watchful raptors to snuffle at their eggs. I sensed a mental nudge, and the dinosaurs parted to allow Shadi and I a look at their treasure while they glowed with love. It was only after I looked at the six eggs that were black with green tiger stripes across their girth that I (finally) noticed that the two that had been leading us only had one set of spikes each.

800 years old and these were their first children?

"Yes...they were...I...I don't know what this means..." Shadi trailed off in confusion for the first time in my meager interactions with my future self. "...they were in a position where it was impossible for them to have children until others were chosen."

"What position?" I pounced on the obfuscation right away. What where they hiding? "What aren't we being told?"

Sadness, and resolve, came from the two in question in waves. I felt a connection open between the male and the raptors, before it tentatively reached out to me. I pictured one of my paws extending out to grasp it and as soon as I had a grip, memories and images came into my mind.

Another pack of raptors, similar in appearance to these ones but smelling different. An image of a planet. This one. A sensation of speed. Of a long darkness. Then another world before my eyes. Three peanut shaped spaceships in orbit. A species of ankle high furry creatures with large heads and four eyes. Images of the Matriarch and the furry aliens communicating with their heavy clawed hands on her head. A feeling of the passage of time as the sun and four moons traded position with a strobe like rapidity. A ceremony of farewell, then a return to their home.

So, they were ambassadors to another world. They had spent centuries there unable, either by choice, custom, or some other consideration, to have children until their return. No wonder they were so easily able to recognize our strange minds, communicate with them, and interpret what they were seeing in myself. A coincidence? With Tomoko involved? No fucking way.

I sent more questions to them. Wondering how they had found other intelligent species. How they interacted with them. Were they colonizing? Exploring? Invading? What were these raptors? What was their relationship? Were they slaves? Subordinates? Question after question flashed from my mind as images and feelings to assault our elderly guides. They both gave loud rolling laughs that the raptors joined in on with their staccato hisses. An image of a baby tackling a mother's tail tip and then asking what it and seventeen other things were appeared in my mind.

"They think you're very curious, like a hatchling." Shadi helpfully expounded.

"Yeah, I got that. Thanks, big sis." I scowled at her as she chuffed at me.

It was made clear to me that the transfer of information would be limited to what they decided was the purpose behind our visit after having plucked it from memories of our interactions with Tomoko and the others. Although they did have an immediate surprise for me. They knew of the alien species that was currently wreaking havoc on Earth already. Having been visited by them some quarter million Rounds before the time I was speaking to them.

Which showed a jaw dropping ability for the children of the age to record and remember the past. Humans couldn't even get a handle on maintaining records on things that happened less than a hundred years before! To be fair though, I didn't know at the time what the profound effect on documenting and preserving history that having a species that could live to be anywhere between five hundred and a thousand plus years old with perfect memories and brains over a meter in diameter on hand would be. A prodigious one, to say the least.

A raptor came forward and bowed in the direction he felt me after briefly touching my mind with a hello. He was the one who explained that their two species had been inextricably linked since the ending of what he would only refer to as 'Days before light found us'. Which I suspected was a euphemism for when they were too unevolved to know not to eat their own shit, or they were mercilessly killing each other for one asinine and/or savage reason or another.

Again, this time to the raptor, I sent an image of a child of the egg, a raptor, and an interrogative thought. What were they to each other? Not a simple answer, apparently. They were friends, family, mates, siblings, parents, children. All of those things. Which of course just blew my mind because it did nothing to make it clearer to my simple, ignorant, mostly human, mind. My agitated frustration at not being able to understand began to build and led Shadi, knowing the warning signs all too well, to ask that we visit the...museum... I think is what she was hinting at. A place that she had been shown on her own initial visit to this world.

Apparently, that was not to be the plan this time. As we were halted by the Matriarch who ushered us away after sensing my growing rage and left her mate with their eggs and one of their raptors behind. She, and the pair of raptors who accompanied her wouldn't let me go on my merry way until I understood their shared history and how important they were to each other.

Memories swirled through me as I relived why, if not the whole species, why these raptors and children of the egg in particular meant something to each other. It didn't take me long to realize that it had been their parents who had gone with our guides to this other world. Long ago, they had been their...parents...I guess... along with the children of the egg who had given birth to them. Just as...these raptors were their children...and were also the sisters of the other children of...fuck this. They were all family is the gist of what I was getting. The assimilation of the two species was so complete that they literally considered each other family.

I guess inbreeding and free-swinging fuck anything with a hole was all the rage here.

The matriarch put a stop to that thinking and let me know that it was nothing as crudely sexual as my gutter dwelling mind was already making it with smooth but firm mental corrections. Though they can and did have carnal relations between the species, bonded mates were bonded mates. Those could only exist between two (or more, I learned from the raptor, partially explaining the different numbers I'd been seeing) of the same species, and never with another that even smelled remotely like yourself. As long as the integrity of those core bonds remained, there seemed to be no other customs or inhibitions when it came to relationships. Which was shown to me in no time at all when one of the female raptors made a thrumming noise that enticed the Matriarch to lower her head and give a long gentle lick of the smaller creature's snout.

Personally, I didn't agree with that mentality. Tommy was mine, I was his, and all we needed was each other. But would our children feel the same way? Only time would tell. But at least I had some idea now of what they might act like. This whole business of our languages being so universal that I could still understand them even here had me wondering what other instincts and knowledge were encoded in whatever passed as our DNA. But we were strangers in a strange land so whatever floats their boat. It was no scales off my tail if the highly evolved society I found here was run like a fucking hippie commune.

Her fifth appendage coiled in an invitation to follow so Shadi and I fell in behind her long ass tail alongside each other. The trio of female raptors preceded her, and I felt her explaining many things about Shadi and me, one of her thoughts feeling exactly like myself so I knew the subject, as the long parade of us females left the males behind to tend to the eggs.

The way it should be, if you ask me. But since no one did, fuck you!

A large ramp appeared on my left and we followed the tip of the Matriarch's tail downward while I relived some shared memories involving my girlfriends with my older self. In turn, I got a full recounting from her of her own time on this world, and as she had said, what we were doing was a significant departure based on the presumption she would share her experiences.

Our elderly guide was so long that we frequently saw nothing more than the sloping length of her tail as we chased it down one level and the next ever further into the earth. As we continued, my ear frills perked up as more and more youthful noises reached them. Eventually, I was treated to the cute sight of two baby children of the egg and a raptor launching from an alcove high above the ground to latch their paws onto the meter-long parental spike of the matriarch passing by.

Win!They chirped happily and proudly at their feat, swinging midair with their tails and hind legs dangling. Their new ride continued on, oblivious to the slight weight on her immense body all that long way from her head. The raptor's eye swiveled to look in the direction of me and Shadi, followed by the feeling of her shock as her surprise caused her to lose her grip and tumble the long way to the ground. She took the twelve-meter drop in stride, despite my gasp of alarm, and bounced on her incredibly strong legs to absorb the impact like she had only fallen from her bed. Her feathers were raised and bristling in her crouch with her tail standing out behind her at a sharp angle and her foreclaws held up and splayed defensively.

We froze, and after a minute the little thing's head cocked to the side to focus one eye on us before switching positions for the other violet eye to assess what it shouldn't be able to see. The little one's two companions glided to her sides after abandoning their lofty jungle gym perch and squealed their wonder when I felt her share what she was seeing.

I was nonplussed when I realized she was not just feeling our presence like the other Matriarchs and their mates. No, she could actually see us. Which she confirmed by stalking towards us with a stiff legged gait and swiping her tiny clawed hand through where my paw was. Jumping back, she and her two male companions cooed in the unrestrained curiosity of the very young. I blinked, twice, and each time I did the number of fresh from the egg babies before me multiplied drastically. By the time the Matriarch's head snaked back to see why a river of newly hatched children were streaming between her legs, the little female raptor that had first discovered me had turned into a tiny broadcast node as she shared what no one else could see.

A startled looking me, and Shadi, who was thrumming her fondness for the cuteness overload that we were witnessing.

The adult female raptors returned and were immediately swarmed by the dozens of children who took turns jumping and down on their backs asking if they could see us too. Hissing their amusement, they turned their attention to us once they had been included and bowed formally to our ghostly forms.

The Matriarch told us she would explain better once we reached our destination, which turned out to be only a few twists and turns further. Arriving, we came out onto an open ledge overlooking a vast dome that had sunlight streaming through multiple vents on a riot of vegetation in which multitudes of young babies caroused. Vine and creeping plants adorned the walls of the cavern along with a thick carpet of a mossy plant that the younglings actually seemed to be able to burrow into at will. I was surprised to see that the babies were free to come and go as they pleased, although there was some kind of barrier that prevented them from exiting through the skylights. Which I saw as one child of the egg attempted to escape clutching a raptor playmate in his embrace and chuffing laughter at how it tickled to bump into the force field.

A Matriarch was typically one birth in four kylons (ten thousand or thereabouts was my guess), I was told via Shadi. Among them, one like the raptor that was batting at where my tail would have been swishing if I were there also made up one out of every ten thousand of them. So, she was rare, to put it mildly. The reason why I had seen so many lately was that Matriarchs came here to nest at what was, I guess, the capital of the world. There was no hard and fast rule, but when an egg was determined to be containing another gifted child of the egg (they considered themselves a single species, raptor and dragon alike) they were moved to some nest room in the tunnels behind my tail.

When the eggs of Matriarchs hatched there was a celebration that accompanied the incredibly rare events. The roughly weeklong festivities had ended for the one poking my spectral body just a month past and culminated with what I think was an aerial parade that included the tiny baby happily screeching from the head of a massive male whose significance was lost on me. Evidence of these feting ceremonies could still be seen on the tiny female as sparkling rings around her tail and a crown encircling her head feathers along with yellow designs dyeing her flank scales. Which brought us to the nut of why this little tidbit was being shown to me. That being why Matriarchs were important, and the role they performed in this society along with the all-important niche they filled after being introduced to Earth.

I looked at Shadi for confirmation after the explanation and got a noncommittal grunt and her wing arms raising and lowering in a quadrupedal shrug. Although any hopes I had that she would give up more details of my future than I could already surmise were popped like an errant balloon.

"More or less. When, that is, I'm not busy being shot with photon cannons or corralling two-hundred-year-old children that question every god damned thing in the world like they are still hatchlings."

A distant look entered her eyes as she delved into her own memories. Smirking at a lifetime of experiences, the look of peaceful reminiscence was marred only by the haunted aura permeating her eyes. The ghost of our other half never straying from her thoughts.

"It's great having children isn't it?" I asked her, knowing the answer. Of course it was. A legacy I could be proud of, that's what my children were.

The unfocused eye I could see sharpened and spun to look down at me followed by a warm smile that made me think of all the happy times that I had yet to experience with my children. Extending her arm, she gave me a friendly nudge with the knuckles of her wing as she echoed my thoughts.

"Damn right little sister. Damn right."

Circling back to what I'd been told about the roles that what I was now played in the wider society I had a great deal that I'd already suspected confirmed. Matriarchs were not primarily leaders. No, we were so much more than that. We were guides, arbiters, ambassadors, mothers to see that the needs of the world around us were taken care of. Just as the computers I had been saddled with guided me, so too were we to guide others. Individuals, communities, nations, worlds, civilizations, all levels of society were our domain to provide counsel to. And, when the situations called for it, to provide leadership and structure as well. Which, if nothing else, helped drive home some of the reason why a hyper advanced intelligence had exerted so much effort on my own part.

"Not just for this reason, little sister. In time you will realize much more than you have now. Lessons you must learn for yourself. I would not be The Great Mother that I am if I had not undergone what still lies before you. You are strong, young one. But I am the unclimbable mountains against which the strong break. In time, so will you be as well."

So, the Matriarchs, and their vital positions, were at last revealed to me. Avoid a war? Matriarchs. Teachers? Matriarchs. Ambassadors to alien planets? Matriarchs. But not just us either. Our mates as well. Once chosen by the female, the bond is established, and the power shared. This is not a burden meant to be borne alone and has not been since the earliest days of the species. Not only is this joining of minds important for the wellbeing of the female who grants the abilities, it also enables her to grow further alongside her mate (or mates in the case of the raptors). The strength of us and our mates both increased due to the fact that we have taken partners to join us in life.

Which is pretty fucking cool if you ask me.

For the downsides of these abilities you of course had to look no further than at my future self. Matriarchs weren't alone in establishing bonds, we just created the most powerful ones that generated empathic abilities. Everyone else made do with much simpler connections that could still not be taken lightly. Mated individuals or groups that lost part of their selves were treated with the utmost care and respect...until their inevitable deaths. Very rarely were those who outlived their mates long for the world. But while they lingered on they wanted for nothing. A cold comfort for those who literally wanted nothing. Often times, these survivors of their mate's deaths succumbed to weakness brought about by starvation. Given the extreme nature of these links there were not insignificant numbers of the population that chose not to engage in these links. Almost universally at the cost of never bearing children of their own.

The technology was there to save them. But I couldn't bear the thought of living without my Tommy, and I'm sure that my new ancestral species was no different. A hellish fate most likely far worse for them than myself, neophytes that Tom and I were to our strange and otherworldly abilities. What the Matriarch (I'm sick of calling her 'the Matriarch' from henceforth I dub her...Tinkerbell. Why? Because she's fucking huge and it amuses me.) showed us next confirmed this.

Turning, she walked between mine and Shadi's spectral presences with the little raptor following her as she looked up to gawk at us both with each one of her wide eyes. We padded to another brightly lit room that was covered with some kind of display paneling that cycled from one gorgeous view or seemingly happy moment to the next. A steady flow of children of the egg came and went on two legs or four that parted momentarily to allow our guides to enter. I was about to slink in myself, when my nose struck a brick scent wall of regret that made me recoil with a startled hiss.

The smell of those that lay within caused my breath to hitch in my neck as my thoughts were cast immediately to my mate, my children, and my life. There was a broken sob from beside me, and I saw that Shadi had fallen onto her haunches with her head bowed low. Clutching at her chest with a paw over her heart, she shivered violently as she tried desperately to keep herself together even as tears ran from her snout to disappear into nothingness the moment they departed her scaled nose. Twitching with great wracking heaves, she had her eyes clamped shut as a shrill keen came without end from her serpentine neck. I felt the terrible sorrow that she was being reminded of by the scent wafting from the chamber in font of us for only an instant before what felt like a slamming bank vault door cut her off from me.

"Little one, please...please..." She begged, as Tinkerbell's sympathetic eyes appeared when she twisted back to investigate. I tried to reassure my elder self, but she heard nothing I said, and felt nothing I sent. Instead backing against the far wall of the tunnel, and through several raptors who looked around in confusion, as her tail bunched up against the rock face before sliding sideways in a long muscular ribbon down the corridor.

A strong cooling thought passed from Tinkerbell to Shadi and her tears lessened along with the tremors making her tail writhe on the ground. Looking down at the little raptor who seemed on the verge of tears herself, no doubt feeling what was emanating from my elder self, our ancient guide gave her mental instructions that she bowed her head and spread her arms to acknowledge.

Approaching my elder self, the tiny child bowed her head again respectfully with her tattooed tail held stiffly upwards. A look of deep concentration furrowed her forehead and then she reached out, and to my surprise, laid her talons on Shadi's forepaw. Her distraught eyes flew open and looked down in shock at the tiny hand on her paw. The young raptor gestured with her head to another chamber nearby and called out to a number of little ones that seemed no older than herself. The mob of energetic youths bound toward the empty room as Shadi allowed herself to be led inside with minute tugs from the small raptor's tail.

Putting on a brave face and trying to banish thoughts of what I was being forcibly separated from at the moment, I continued to the convalescent ward for those that were no longer whole. The scenery projected on the walls was bright and cheerful, helped by the two Matriarchs inside modulating feelings that Tinkerbell added her contribution to. But the sixteen desolate individuals within seemed to no longer have any interest in being helped.

Many of the younglings I smelled energetically prancing about their moribund charges smelled at least somewhat similar to them. Although the fractured children of the egg scented as if they had lost everything, the strange aroma permeating the air around me was not one merely of loss. No...it reminded me more of a celebration of life more than anything and was accentuated by the younglings clambering all over their elders while chattering eagerly. Bittersweet though it was, as the ones that lay listlessly around me accepted the reminders of lives well lived as they awaited...Something...the smell told me they were awaiting something. What that was I could only guess. Instead in their shiftless lethargy they found distraction in the little ones bounding around them with limitless energy.

For the first time since my initial introduction, Tinkerbell spoke into my mind. Prideful boasting to myself had me thinking that I was being coddled by having to listen to her explanations through Shadi. I was dismissive that she would be overpowering, but I was quickly proven wrong. The heavy weight of her vastly older mind was suffocating and made my sight dim like I was being starved of oxygen. A fact that she knew of course and limited her connection with me to brief periods where she conveyed information in rapid bursts.

Open eyes and mind one of few Rounds. Fiery strength in heart and spirit. Hatchling must be for lives yet lived. Begun as one now another, bring light to they without sight. Proof of Rounds ahead lay without. Many bright suns to shine on self as strength is shared. Skies of storm before your nose. Learn current well and follow Mother Egg. Steady flight to welcome embrace. Peace be found for all before night.

Right...

So I watched and learned lessons in consoling that could be applied to a bunch of transformed humans with strange new desires and mindsets at war with what they thought they were. Here and there I wondered if something new could be applied to the human species I had left behind as well. I saw how the often times elderly children of the egg were tended to by the babies. How their carefree manner brought relief to those who had lost all. How those who had seen so much of life imparted their wisdom on those who had not. I saw the importance of the Matriarchs as they connected the young and the old. How they calmed excitable children, and soothed weary grief.

The more I watched, the more my own heart ached. These poor souls had lost their mates. They were as broken as I was just a few short hours ago in the limbo Tomoko had shoved me into. Unlike me, there was no return to their loved ones. Why were they being tortured like this? Why were they being reminded of happier times with their bonded partners? Was I missing something here? Was all this being done simply for the transmission of knowledge?

I was partially right, Tinkerbell explained. Easing my growing confusion, she told me how these were the ones with the strength to continue to live after the deaths of their mates. Most could not and were granted the release that they could only find in the end their lives. The ones I watched now lingered on, honoring the wishes of their missing mates or acting on their own dedication. Even if doing so clawed at their minds with unceasing ferocity. It wasn't just knowledge that was being passed along. The broken ones were helping to guide the younglings in other ways as well. Friendships, selecting mates (To my horror, I learned that lifelong companions could be chosen as early as birth. Not my fucking children!), and life advice, all was given at the same time the wholesomeness of youth eased the pain of the others.

Tinkerbell answered my questions, filling in some of the highlights that I missed, until my connection to Shadi reopened. Sensing the growing despair I felt being among those whose minds had been torn, my future self sent an interrogative to Tinkerbell. Bobbing her head, she began to disentangle herself from the web that she had joined herself to in the room so that we could move on.

Move on to where? I wanted to know, as I followed her from the room. She answered me one last time before reestablishing her link with my much older and stronger self. Meeting Shadi, the tiny raptor, and Tinkerbell's mate (Now named Peter Pan because of how hard a time I had to get people to believe that I actually experienced this fairytale adventure.) a little way down the hallway. Taking in Shadi's haggard appearance and scent, I stretched out to nuzzle her and received a faint appreciative smile in return. Strength returned to her stance, and she bobbed her head while motioning with a wing for me to rejoin her at her side.

Rounds of old when Egg knew shame, sun found storm and calm alike. Open eyes to height of flight and to bottom of darkness where light is lost. Open mind to currents that seek to smash Egg and extinguish all that has hatched.

On our way out of the cavern complex the little raptor trailed along behind us making quiet peeping noises to herself while smelling like she was thinking something over. Coming to the platform that we landed on earlier she (I'm calling her Sue now after a T-Rex skeleton I'd seen once.) gave a strident chirp for attention. Despite her diminutive size and young age, she did not cower when the attention of the two giants turned on her. Instead, bowing with the same arm spreading motion I'd seen earlier, she politely asked to come with us.

Great pair of many Rounds and wide wings. Tiny Sightseer asks with nose to ground to come with to see sights? Odd mystery with hard light to find. Curious feathers tremble to learn more of Far Egg Sisters! Grant this Sightseer gift of wings? Many pleas from tiny fresh from Egg!

Personally, I thought the little female might have been pulling rank on the two elderly mates by mentioning what she was twice like that. But whether out of deference to what she was (whatever that was), consideration for her age, something about the alien society I just didn't understand, or just because they were nice fucking...dragons...they agreed. My first clue to be carried was some kind of honor should have been the chaotic little dance Sue did as she chased her own wagging tail and frantically stamped her paws with her feathers standing on end. But I knew it for certain after smelling the awestruck feelings of the raptor guards when they were summoned to bring a harness that was strapped around the base of Peter Pan's neck and two forelegs when he knelt to the ground. Coiling her muscles, Sue leapt with lithe grace into the dark brown basket and peered over the side to whistle joyfully for getting this opportunity before we swept into the air.

We gained a fair amount of altitude this time until we were scraping the bottom of a cloud. Even from here I still could not see the top of neither the pyramids nor trees that they grew around and from. What I could see made me forget that I was separated from my Earthly body and my family as the wonder of being on an alien world overwhelmed me.

Like I had noticed earlier, I was in the middle of a vast mountain valley ringed by towering peaks larger than anything on Earth. Just behind those mountains, I could just barely make out the redish haze of some kind of energy field. That was the boundary to the wilds, Shadi was told. Only a small percentage of their world was actually developed, limited to regions such as what I saw. Children of the egg, despite their long lives, were not a very prolific species from what was described. Their number across their home world only running to a few tens of millions dragons and raptors. At least that was the number I think was transmitted. I don't know what a fucking qoogol is, or how many forty-seven of them were in absolute numbers.

Based on what Tomoko has said before, and the chilly vibe I picked up from Tinkerbell and Peter Pan, I gathered that the wilds were no walk in the park and only to be traversed at high altitudes by groups of at least four. Neither were anyone under the age of one turbit (?) ever allowed to cross the barrier unaccompanied. Even then, there was a dedicated group of rescuers active at all times that saw frequent forays into the unkempt wilds for lost/waylaid children of the egg. Not a place for the squeamish, and not one that my guides were willing to take us. Even incorporeal Shadi and I were at risk, I learned, as not all hazards were confined to the physical. Not wanting to meet an organism that could attack the ethereal ball of energy that was my mind I took their word for it. But that at least provided another explanation for why the eggs were so heavily guarded below ground.

Contained within the vale that I could see, however, was all kinds of esoteric alien madness.

The feeling of the cooling mist of the minty smelling cloud I flew through abated until I passed into the clear blue/green sky. With the twin, closely set, suns shining down on my glistening dewed scales I loitered over the valley taking it all in.

Shadi was not much help here as her awe pounded away at our link and she joined me in peeling off from our group to gawk at the ground as we orbited. The centerpiece of the whole valley was what could only be described as an inland sea of dark green water. There were a variety of islands strewn throughout the water and arranged in clusters that made me think they were artificial. Each tiny bit of land had a towering needle like spire that reached to the height of the lowest of the moisture laden clouds. Surrounding each needle were concentric rings of metallic spheres and squat buildings that I could see raptors going to and fro from on dirt paths that wound through amethyst vegetation to smaller trees of a spindly nature. These appeared to be hollowed out, as I could see openings all around with tiny snouts darting in and out for glances at the surroundings, but had bushy tufts of swaying purple leaves on the end of every stunted

Children of the egg, both on the wing and standing on smaller versions of the great manta ray I'd seen earlier, crisscrossed the sky in all directions. From buildings, to random points where there were none, doing loop the loops in the air with cheering passengers, largely anywhere and everywhere. What I also saw not going on right now was hardly anyone riding on top of a child of the egg. After being puked on twice already, I heartily agreed. As soon as we had flying skates on earth, no one other than my own kids was ever clambering on me again like I was a flying fucking horse or something. Not that there wasn't anyone catching a flight on the giant winged lizards I saw flapping by. Tiny hatchlings crawled all over every other dragon it seemed, and even looked as if they were making games of jumping from one to the next without a thought as to who they were riding. It was impossible to know who their parents were. Not that they or anyone else seemed to care.

I did see a few raptors being carried by some of the dragons. Judging by the antics that those few were embarking upon, there seemed to be some variety of significance to the act. Those who were carrying, or being carried, were often decorated in bright patterns and colors and sounding off each other in some kind of song that I couldn't interpret. Most of the ones I saw carrying on in that way were more of the tan striped children of the egg that I still hadn't figured out.

In long strips radiating out from the central sea, I saw what looked like a variety of crops being grown. Not being done in any fashion I'd ever seen before, the farms seemed to be overseen by large creatures that towered far above even the largest child of the egg. I only had a second to wonder how such large beings could manage a farm, if that was what they were doing, before I got my answer. Each of the giant beasts was four legged, like my new and arguably improved self, and covered in long overlapping scales that almost looked like feathers. This plumage was largely an earthy shade of brown, but towards the ends of each feather the color bled to a bright yellow tip. They had a pair of long thickly muscled tails that dragged behind them as they moved with purpose back and forth across each patch of crop. An action that performed multiple different tasks. Like giant eely swiss army knives, the tails uprooted crops, dug furrows, cleared waterways, and hoisted multiple bundles from the array of jointed movable spines decorating their tails. Whatever operation the tails were performing seemed to be under the direction of whichever hydra head was twisted around to look backwards along its spine at them. When none paid any attention to them, the twin appendages twisted together in a tight helix and remained far above the ground and level with the spine as it swung in counter to the ground thumping stride of its host.

I looked away from one of the beasts as it crouched down to relieve itself in a large basin and saw several more vats just like that one being used as some kind of fertilizer. Good thinking...let Giant farmer John use his own shit to grow his crops. Whatever worked I guess.

The oddest things about the vast creatures were one: The fact that they each had seven wedge shaped heads. Each of these heads had long pronounced snouts, two antlers of all things, and hung on the end of long lithe necks. Each head also wore a holographic projector over one of their sharp, intelligent looking, virulent green eyes as the seven heads wove around each other while emitting an almost constant stream of chatter. I saw the septet of muzzles on one creature grow furious with each other and begin snapping jaws and flinging themselves at one another as their common body turned in confused circles as if its controls had died.

The buzzing feeling of another pair of matriarchs spiked in my head as I saw two of them fly towards the colossal farm implement from an observation tower they had been resting on. Trying to calm it down by reasoning with it about the nutrient levels that it was upset about seemed to be an exercise in futility. For their troubles they were shouted almost clean out of the sky by the indignant yammering of the creature. I snorted laughter when the pair latched onto the thick branching antlers growing from two of the heads to draw them away from each other, and were promptly flung with sharp jerks of those same heads. Sent spinning into the air with dismayed cries and their paws and tails sticking out like comical frisbees they caught themselves on wide wings and swooped around to land off to the side. Staring glumly at the farming creature they waited safely out of the way until its argument with its self had run its course.

The second oddity about this creature was what happened after it got done ranting and raving among the split personalities of its heads about the number of centipedes per square meter or whatever. That was when each head in turn lowered to the ground and one smaller crocodile looking animal ran down each heavily finned neck from its broad back to do its bidding as it called out to them with barking grunts. I saw the small creatures run with an odd bow-legged gait to a few different transparent spheres that shimmered to life as they reared up on their long prehensile tails to poke at them to adjust something or another. So that was how it manipulated things, I guess. By this point, I was beside myself with curiosity and wanted nothing more than to get closer to the nearest of the large creatures as it continued to talk to itself.

Side slipping up to my older self, her nearer eye turned to look at mine while both our scales chattered in our excitement. "I didn't get to see a third of this when I came here in my time. This is fucking awesome!" She called to me, the shadow of her depression temporarily overcome by what she was seeing. For the first time, I saw excitable me in my ancient future self.

Even my far distant future self was just a closet nerd for the Sci-Fi I guess. I'm still amazed that Alex hadn't found my collection that I kept hidden under the bed I'd never sleep in again. Sometimes, a girl just needs to have her Isaac Asimov books. That fucker better not pull them out of their sleeves with his grubby little hands if he does find them, they're first editions!

I was already swooping down to the creature at the same time Shadi was asking if we could be introduced to it. Peter Pan and Tinkerbell shared an amused look, making me question what was so funny, and led us down to the disgruntled Matriarchs sitting on their haunches on the verdant violet vegetation. By now I had some handle on what to expect. After the obligatory bobbing of heads and stunned looks, the feeling of two minds touching mine came and went before they gave their grudging approval to interact with the...well...I don't what that word was, so I'll just call him John Deere. (Get it? Get it?)

Two of the heads were still snapping at each other with the other five casting about for something when Peter Pan whistled loudly to get their attention. All seven heads whipped around so that all their snouts were pointed in the direction of this interruption in whatever routine it had as our male guide bowed gracefully to the larger creature.

If I thought their odd commo patterns had been hard to decipher before what flowed out of Pan's mouth took it to a whole new level. The flowery verse that went on and on seemed to serve no purpose to me at first until I noticed that one after the other the heads started bobbing in time to the lilt that filled the air around us. It was then that I realized that Peter Pan was trying to flatter the enormous vain beast before he introduced me. Which was kind of funny I thought, like serenading a farmer and his team of oxen before you could give them your name.

With the work of Tinkerbell and an exuberantly hopping Sue, Shadi and I were rendered visible and reachable to the vexed titan. The shock of our appearance lasted only seconds before I discovered that the creature was just as curious as the bouncing child beside my foreleg as fifty six heads and one hundred and twelve eyes peered at us. Yeah, you read that right. Every head had six of the little crocodiles on top of its skull perched on the two branching antlers each had. The seven discharged earlier were crowded around us to take an even closer look.

Seven crocodiles for each of the seven heads. The oddities never ceased.

I saw the movements of the titan and its little offspring synchronize as their head and eye movements eerily reflected each other's. It was hard to tell, but the tiny delay between the motions of the parent and its...I don't know...children...let me know who was in charge. The first of the seven heads approached my transparent form and sniffed at me with its large diagonal nostrils at the same time another smelled Shadi.

Cannot smell. Is trick? Young ones try trick us? See if like our trick! We many Rounds, know more tricks than Egg can count!

Its condemnation was especially sharp towards the young raptor. She hid behind one of Peter Pan's legs as the head looking me over made a guttural noise that reminded me of that ridiculous car Tom used to have when we first met.

You Sightseer, bad trick! Must know better. Disappoint us. Few Rounds no excuse when gift of gifts is yours!

Other than being a farmer, it was obvious that his opinion was given immense weight. Which I suspected, as the brief touch I had with one of his minds had left me feeling flattened by the enormity of his consciousness. He had seen a number of years that Tinkerbell and Peter Pan could only dream of. Thousands and thousands would be my guess. One other thing that came through in the brief moment that I felt the vastness of his mind was: all those years had made John Deere a bit of an odd duck. A touch unstable maybe. Which could explain the lengths my guides had to go to mollify him before speaking to him properly.

Sue jumped out from behind her shelter and flattened herself on the ground squalling loudly that there was no trick. Peter Pan and Tinkerbell hung their heads in deference while also glancing in my direction as two more of the hydra's stared them down. Rocking their heads towards the creature, they moved their mouths in a silent hint.

Say something.

Uh...Hi!

Shadi smacked the side of her nose with a paw and covered her head with her wings while groaning in disbelief. I would have liked nothing more than to snatch that chirp out of the air and shove it back in my snout myself. Smooth Kim. Uh...Hi! Really dumbass?

A chorus of yips like a pack of hyenas came from the seven crocodiles associated with a head that also began barking laughter. My scales opened in irritation before relaxing as I joined in. Fuck me, at least I can have a laugh at myself. This seemed to be enough to prove that I wasn't some phantasm that Sue had conjured.

Present? Our apologies Sightseer.

Yes good!

Curious!

Something new!

Have not seen!

Not like! Behind time!

Go away! Strange!

I was beginning to see why he had just been arguing with himself. The questions and comments came at me faster and faster as I tried to answer them via a chain from first Peter Pan, to Tinkerbell, and then Shadi. They were starting to show signs of distress though, as their tails whipped behind them and their scales rattled more and more often with all their many membranes at full mast. The mental strain of connecting to all seven ages old minds was exacting a heavy toll. Something I could sympathize with, as my small tap earlier had nearly shut my own down.

Shadi looked the worst of them. Her wings were half raised as if she was overheating and needed air to the road map of vessels decorating them. Not that her body was there to overheat, but maybe her actions were reflected in her body where it lay in her own time.

In any event, the hydra noticed her growing distress and my concern for her. The barked recriminations to leave them to their work trailed off, as did the questions about Earth and life on it. In the end, he ended the conversation by asking me one last question, and giving me some advice that I didn't need, but would never forget.

Who are you?

Fucker! I know I told him that!

No. Not what Egg layers call you. Who are you?

I looked up at him, or the one head that was addressing me as the rest watched. There was only one answer for me.

I am Tom's mate. I am the mother of our children. I am the one who wants to see a better world tomorrow than it is today. I am the one who will make that world.

All seven heads bobbed their acknowledgement at what I said. Shadi offered me a smile, and simply bowed to John Deere when all of him turned his attention to her. He knew who was here to be shaped, and who was not.

Remember the All Egg on this day, one of few Rounds. Rough skies lie ahead, shown by you of more Rounds. Keep what is important in sight always. As she has.

Closing their chain of connections between us and the aeonian hydra, Shadi and the other two staggered on their paws drunkenly when the weight of his mind lifted. I offered my shoulder to my elder self so that she could lean against me while she recovered. Sue began a flowing acrobatic dance that played to the strength of her legs as a distraction. John Deere trundled off with seismic thumps without another word or backwards glance. Leaving me with conflicted feelings about how I felt communicating for such a brief time with such an alien creature. I mean, I had been transformed into an alien, and I still thought that guy was just fucking weird. I was just about to curse his giant dick move and his name when two of the crocodiles came loping back in their bow-legged run.

One had a tray on its back that carried two large spiky orange balls and the other toted a pair of liquid bladders in a saddle harness. I don't know what Tinkerbell and Peter Pan ate and drank, but it must have been a delight because they closed their eyes and thrummed happily after partaking of it. Whatever the restorative they had was, it did Shadi no good beyond them sending her the sensations of what they tasted and which I didn't get to my vexation while she hummed and licked her lips in enjoyment. Other than that, she was left to get her vim back by leaning against me and watching Sue do her enchantingly agile twirling and flipping dance.

As soon as Shadi had nuzzled my neck in appreciation and let the rest of our group know she was good, we were on the wing once more. This time headed straight for a pyramid. Almost as soon as we had taken off, I noticed a shift in the makeup of the children of the egg around us. I had seen two or three here or there earlier and had dismissed them as anomalies, but now I could see them clearer. It was more of the tan children of the egg.

Now that they had my attention better. What I think I saw was what looked like yet another offshoot of the children of the egg. This one the wildest yet. The first one I saw clearly was a dark tan raptor with equally subdued green striping laying on her back under a tree with her arms tucked up against her chest and legs kicking idly at the air. I could see her brown slitted eyes were focused on a number of small flitting creatures that seemed to be attracted to the heated air coming from her nostrils. Another similarly colored raptor lay at the end of her twitching tail and was staring sleepily at it as it jumped to and fro. I was quick to note that among their head feathers there were a number of black spines radiating from their skulls that also were propping the female's head up a bit. Another line of the sharp looking growths emerged from along the spines of their tails, which themselves ended with two wicked scythes pointing side to side. Even as I watched, the blades on the female's twisted tail cut some of the grass which landed on the other's snout.

I say weapons, because I've learned since then the purpose. But even with that initial impression, it was hard to think of them as being for anything else than to fuck others up. It wasn't until we reached the pyramid was it explained to my why that was.

There were more of them along the way. In what looked like a market, I saw two dragon children of the egg engaged in what I swear was a drinking contest. Surrounded by a crowd of roaring raptors, dragons, and three different new kinds of aliens that I had no idea about, the two females greedily chugged bowls of amber liquid. The green striped tan dragon on the right raised her crown of spikes and dripping snout to belch loudly at her competitor when she finished first. I don't care what world I am on, I know a bar game when I see one.

In another clearing a tan male dragon stood with his forelegs on a wide stone table with two more tan female raptors as they pointed with their tails at hovering displays to highlight something to an enraptured audience. Finishing their presentation, I heard appreciative hoots and snarls accompanied by the thumping of numerous muscular tails on the soft ground. Scattered amongst the crowd, were a number of creatures that looked clouds of gas contained within large spherical fishbowls. No sound came from them, just a brilliant light display that I supposed was their method of communication. My curiosity spiked again but was dampened by my growing sense of overstimulation and constant desire to just be home again. I was glad when we continued on towards a middle tier of the pyramid.

A twinge of discomfort came from far back in my body. Just forward of my hips. What fucking now? Did I pull a muscle as a fucking ghost? The phantom pain struck again making my body twist briefly before settling to nothingness. That drew my attention to something else once more. My leg had continued cycling between being there and not as my psyche maintained its refusal to acknowledge what had happened. Whipping my head to Shadi, I asked her what the fuck was going on.

How much longer am I going to be here big sister? What is still so important for me to learn here?

Soon, little one. Soon. She told me, looking back at me with surprisingly haggard eyes. As I watched her, a tic developed on her flank that caused her hind leg on that side to kick twice before resettling in its tucked position just below her outstretched tail. What was going on with her?

We landed on a ledge running the width of the pyramid between two of the new tiger striped dragons and four black ones drowsing in the fading light of the day with their legs or tails dangling over the edge. Looking up, I could see four tiers above another ledge and a zig-zagging ramp about two hundred meters away that connected the ledges and every floor in between.

Headed inside I got my first look at one of the ziggurats' interiors. They were large and airy with wooden supports framing every opening and purple leafed vines crisscrossing the ceilings and wrapping around the pillars. Common areas were numerous and filled with all the many variants of children of the egg I had seen thus far along with the few different other alien species I'd noticed. The sound of rustling scales was omnipresent and the smell of so many like myself was an aroma that I wasn't used to. A spicy, dry smell, not unlike nutmeg or cinnamon which was laced by the scent of cooking food from the myriad of stalls lining some of the larger common areas.

Living quarters didn't seem to be particularly set for any one group or another. An observation I made when I saw a pair of dragons curl up into one of the large rooms off to the sides of the hallways that radiated off a common area like wheel spokes. Waving a paw through a column of light, several monitors appeared as the two began to manipulate the screens with eye and tail movements. Another set of displays lit up, showing videos of towering rose colored clouds and still images of yellow striped babies playing with a similarly colored raptor. The opening of the room turned opaque, hiding the two from sight behind the image of a red slash and some alien writing in the middle of the door.

In other, larger rooms, privacy and intimacy seemed to be optional in a scene that I had been growing more familiar and comfortable with on my own world. A large mass of multi-colored scale containing at least half a dozen dragons and eight raptors who slept soundly despite the noise of the bustling colony not a few meters away.

Children ran amok all around, both of the two legged and four legged varieties. But here and there I could also see groups of them in other rooms with their tails in neat orderly thumping rows as they listened to teachers. All of the instructors I saw (or felt) were Matriarchs or their mates as well as a good number of older tan children of the egg. The tan ones I saw teaching however, I noticed, seemed to be much older judging by their sizes and many were injured in some manner as well. No body parts seemed to be missing, but there was no mistaking the heavy discolored scars through their scales nor the stiff way I saw a few move due to unseen lingering damage.

As we moved through the complex Peter Pan and Tinkerbell were buffeted by others without regard for who or what they were. What did seem to register to the others was tiny Sue bouncing around mine and Shadi's legs while watching our every move. Frequently, I could feel her mind poking me with images of what she'd seen in her short life and requests for information that I was happy to oblige. I could also feel her pinging Shadi as well with her own questions. While she pumped us for details of Earth and what it was like there, she was also frequently being stopped by others who wished to express their honor at meeting her. Which left them unprepared for her showing the two hidden children of the egg tailing behind Tinkerbell and Peter Pan to everyone that spoke to her.

The noisy chatter was enormous and didn't abate until we reached a vast arena where the sound of the gregarious crowd that followed us was replaced by a new one. The roaring of a mob and three dragon and six raptor children of the egg fighting.

Down in the middle of a sandy pit they fought. Long tan bodies whipped, rolled, and danced as the larger tried to best the smaller, the smaller over the larger, and the larger over each other. Crowds of dragon and raptor alike watched raptly and cheered with each blow that was made. I cringed at first, thinking of the incredible damage those razor-sharp spines could do. But relaxed when I saw that every bladed edge had a blue field encasing it. Instead, every calculated movement and strike brought a flashing discharge of energy that added to the numerous blackened scales that I could already see on the combatants below. Although the energy discharges did not seem to be designed to wound, there was no doubting the potency of the electrical shock each hit inflicted on the victim as they screamed wordlessly when struck.

I thought I was watching some kind of gladiatorial contest in this highly advanced civilization that was supposed to be a paradigm that humanity could never live up to. Instead Shadi explained that we were watching a routine exercise of the training of what I was told were members of the Shell Watchers. Sue scurried forward a few meters and jumped up and down below my snout until I caught sight of her. Seeing she had my attention, she wanted to show off her knowledge and filling in for me more directly what was going on in place of her elders. In a nutshell, the dragons and raptors that I had been seeing with the tan coloring were a group of children of the egg chosen after a careful process of assessment and training to be the armed forces that protected this civilization and assist its allies.

Generally, as I had seen on the way here, they also tended to be much more laid back and unassuming when not fulfilling their duties. They were much more likely to be reading than doing any kind of hell-raising that you would expect from soldiers with down time of any kind. Except for some that liked to imbibe a local substitute for alcohol, which I should get the recipe for before I left this world. Given their advanced training and more advanced years, they also were a type of arbiter that settled disputes whenever they arose. In more grievous situations, they acted as referees for conflicts to be settled in a stylized form of dueling much more constrained that what I was seeing here.

But I didn't particularly give a shit about their system of law and order because it required a degree of maturity that the human race just didn't have. Tae kwon do Kim wanted to see some fucking snout get pushed in! Pass me some of that grog those females had earlier!

A spinning attack by a female dragon was dodged by two raptors who ran forward beneath her tail and kicked with their powerful legs at her hind ones. Her legs buckled beneath her weight and her ass slammed to the ground as she yelped at the same time she reacted. The two were unable to capitalize on her state before the same muscular tail that they just dodged swung back the other way to send them soaring to the side. Laying on their flanks, they moaned and convulsed where they had been belted until their jerking movements ceased and they fell still. An observing raptor nearby whistled loudly, and an orange cube appeared above the heads of the two downed raptors, before the referee continued to circle the melee at a distance to ensure nobody went too far.

A second dragon with a scar crossing the bridge of his snout flung his head, and his crown of horns, into the side of the triumphant female's head while she collected her legs beneath herself. His head rebounded from her hers as the blue field kept his bony growths from impaling her, but they recorded the hit nonetheless. There was a brilliant energy discharge and her bellow at seeing the hit coming too late cut off mid howl when she collapsed limply to the ground unconscious as electrical discharges skittered across her scales. Another orange cube appeared above her head and the disfigured muzzle male twirled around to face the others with his tail bent over his back like a scorpion's stinger and his wings raised.

The other male dragon and the remaining four raptors tried to tag team the slightly smaller (still far larger than me) scarred male. Three raptors jumped at his shoulder with sharp kicks off the ground and leading with the crowns of their heads to ram him off balance. He deflected one with his wing, sending her soaring into the air in a tucked ball, while the other two hit home and ruined his equilibrium as the blasts of their impacts seized his shoulder muscles. The third dragon yanked the scarred one's other foreleg out from beneath with his tail and Scarred Muzzle's head slammed into the ground along with his front half. Blood flew from between his teeth as he bit his tongue with his elongated fangs as he grunted.

The flying raptor from just seconds before landed on the scarred dragon's outstretched wing on nimble paws and was immediately thrown once more by that same wing with a roar of surprise into his raptor partners. They were all bowled over in a tangled heap of limbs and pained groans that were out of the fight for at least a few moments.

Scarred muzzle and the last male exchanged a rapid series of blows that each blocked with forelegs, tails, or wings. An overstretched swing left the third dragon exposed for a second, and the scarred male pressed his advantage by running his head and long neck under the third's leg and rocking him onto his back. Opening his jaws, he clamped them down on the pinned third just as the three conscious raptors landed on his back and battered him mercilessly with their tails, sending shock waves cascading up and down the length of his body. The scarred one let go of his victim and roared his pain before finishing the downed dragon off with a checked swing to his head with a paw. Rolling to his left, he tried to pin the raptors beneath him, instead they jumped and landed on his exposed throat when it rolled into view. One of the nearly four-meter-tall female raptors held the dragon's head in place to keep him from twisting his body over as the other two slammed their tails into his neck again and again until he gave a keening cry of surrender before his throat locked up. An orange cube appeared over his head and began to slowly spin. The match was over, the three remaining raptors had won.

The two females and lone male stretched out their incredibly powerful hind legs and thrust their muzzles upwards while roaring fiercely into the towering dome of the amphitheater. They were immediately joined by hundreds of others pointing their snouts into the air and bellowing to signal the end of the sparring session.

That's what Shadi told me it was anyway, as another shiver of my hips sent my tail thrashing wildly. Seriously, what the fuck was going on back there? Was Tomoko fucking something about my displaced mind up? The twitchy feeling stopped as I watched the aftermath of the training. Each of the raptors stalked around to their comrades and poked the spinning orange cubes one at a time with a claw. Bursting like balloons, the orange color bled out like liquid and ran over those still moaning on the ground to sink between the plates of their scales.

Pain wracked eyes cleared as charring from the shock fields disappeared and injuries were healed. The most dramatic example of this was the scarred dragon. His impaled tongue, dangling from his mouth while he drew labored breaths and held his damaged neck, knit back together before our eyes. Retracting his tongue and closing his mouth, his distressed breathing and the flaring of his nostrils lessened until it resumed the usual deep forceful rhythm that I found in my own.

A much older and larger dragon with what looked like a prosthetic wing approached them flanked by two rather big raptors. I asked who these three were, but the only thing I could get out of Tinkerbell and Peter Pan was that I would meet them soon enough. Sue was no help, as the sight of the sparring match had spooked the little female into hiding in a shivering pile of like-minded children nearby in an area that seemed to be made for just such an occasion. Full of colorful things that looked like toys and plenty of small nooks to hide in for children that were likely not accustomed to any kind of violence, no matter how controlled. It took something like that to remember that she was not very old, probably no more than a couple years at the most. It was hard for me to reconcile the fact that when my children where her age they were still pissing their diapers, not running around communicating with complex ideas and being revered for their abilities. Or having snouts full of razor-sharp teeth and tails.

The conversation in the sand pit didn't last long before the three dragons and six raptors all bowed in their disparate ways. The dragon with the twitching replacement limb yelled something about drinks, making my ears perk up, and spread his wings to show the mismatched coloration of his appendages in a dismissal. The assembled audience rose from their stools (for the raptors) and benches (dragons) and waited respectfully for the nine military children of the egg to depart first before quietly following them to who knows where. A member of the audience went the other way to the dragon with the fake wing to nuzzle and kiss him. She had a spectacularly colored black and iridescent blue scale pattern that I was kinda sorta jealous of. The departing trainees paid their respects to the visible half of our group as Sue had rejoined us and then departed with the entirety of the arena following after.

Sue climbed up a bench meant for a member of the dragon audience and quickly got the attention of the four down in the pit. After much bobbing of heads, and snuffling of the feathers of a delighted little raptor female, Sue showed us to them.

I was disappointed that it didn't create more of a shock, and I was told that word had already begun to spread of our existence. How that was wasn't exactly clear to me and I just made assumptions instead of bothering to ask. A pillar of light nearby showing mine and Shadi's ghostly forms with a rolling script beneath it might have had something to do with it, so take that people assuming how I assume!

They were curious of course and craned their heads forward to sniff at us before recoiling warily. Their apprehensive smell increased in my nose and I noticed that there was a series of fins that I hadn't seen before rising up around the sides of their heads while their throats inflated slightly accompanied by a menacing hiss. They kinda looked like...

Almost as soon as they had started their warning display they calmed and relaxed their stiff postures as their scales resettled. The maimed dragon facing us fanned his wings to dispel their suspicions and the three replaced the scent with one of tranquility.

Have nectar with us? Good drink for good match! Much learning! The female raptor asked us, brushing past what I think might have been her mate with a rasp as their scales rubbed. Reaching out with a heavily scarred arm, she curled her clawed fingers and brushed the back of her hand against where mine and Shadi's foreleg would have been.

A tremor shook me, and I could feel the cool minty taste of the air of this world swirling in my mouth as my tongue slipped free and I panted. What...what was happening to me? Shadi glanced at me, even as her tail whipped and tics started and travelled down her flanks to her hips. Looking back at Sue and Tinkerbell, the feeling of a hidden conversation danced at the edge of my awareness. Peter Pan addressed them to hurry us along.

Honored Watchers of Shell, the light fades on us. Promises for good drink and many tales after far egg sisters return to own Egg. Ask for guide to show those from far egg brightest light and darkest shadow.

They were far more disappointed than I thought a bunch of warriors would be, three of them visibly deflating with drooping arms and wings while the black and blue one just looked stunned that anyone would refuse such a thing. Casting wistful looks in the direction that the others had gone, the male raptor put voice to their hesitation.

All guests of Watchers enjoy nectar! Are these ones so ready to choose cold rain over warm sun?

Another burst of communication passed between Shadi and Tinkerbell. Sue was included when she hijacked the mental conversation leaving me the odd one out as the Matriarch shared with her mate. Which pissed me off.

"What? What! God damnit don't keep secrets from me big sister!"

Her head swung around to look at me, not smelling particularly surprised, and she clued me in.

"Tomoko is beginning to remerge us with our bodies. The twitching you are feeling is yours getting ready, just as mine is after so long. I know I didn't know what it felt like the first time either."

The first...ti... I gasped in realization and all my scales stood on end while my tail began to wag furiously in excitement.

"Big sister! Please! Please tell me I will be awake for this!"

She shrugged, and simply replied "I was" which drove me crazy because it meant she didn't know after all the discrepancies that have occurred from her time.

Whatever was conveyed to the newcomers was enough to convince them not to dawdle on social niceties. Sue, now that she found a new ride, scrambled up the black and blue female's tail to her back and had a hushed conversation with the dragon punctuated by her hissing laughter, and off we went.

Deeper into the enormous pyramid we went. Passing a bewildering array of rooms, open areas, arenas, and all manner of exotica. At one point, I saw a doorway with curiously bright vines studded with yellow flowers decorating it. Sticking my head inside the softly lit interior my scales bristled in embarrassment and I withdrew myself to give a startled snort. The mated pairs of our group made chuffed or hissed laughs and nudged each other with fond kisses. Prepared for what I was to see now, I stuck my head back inside to learn some of the positions I saw in the orgy within.

After a few minutes, Shadi bit my slowly wagging tail, growling "Enough you fiend" around her mouthful of my limb. Drawing me from my contemplation of what Tom and I were going to try next chance we got. I winked at her sly look, and she muttered some advice to me out of the side of her snout.

"Try what the couple in the back left corner were doing. Make sure he's on top and be careful with that spot on him. If you nip at it too hard he collapses. We had to lay in a lake for most of a day to cool off."

With that erotic thought wedged in my head we hit the road. After fourteen more levels we arrived at a new type of portal that once more had me addled in guessing its purpose. A raptor came from around a semi-circular desk off to the side and bowed low to us with arms spread wide. She made it clear that she had been expecting us and that all had been arranged to show the highlights of their relations as well as the Rounds when light was extinguished. The tan, tiger striped, children of the egg that had joined us would be our guides here, seemingly more familiar with what was some kind of memorial/cultural display that lay ahead than the rest.

It ended up being much more of a cultural display than I thought it would be. The entire thing was set up in the shape of a large circle spanning three levels with a vast open area in the middle. In the midst of this atrium, a jet-black sphere cast in stone was being held up in the claws of eight disproportionate dragons and raptors of equal size. Water (or something) ran dripping from the snouts of the eight figures to cover the sphere before falling into a pool beneath it. Images of a place and creatures that defied my ability to describe appeared in that body of water and floated along with the slow current in the liquid medium. All around the orb there were more projections, but these were of texts that I couldn't read although the repetitive nature of some of the characters I saw made me wonder if they were names. The silence around the display gave an indication of the solemnity of what was before me. Even the few children that happened by did so in silence, only giving quick furtive glances at the construct before hurrying on.

As if they were ashamed.

The species I saw images of, a wormlike creature with more legs and eyes than anything had a right to have, had been encountered hundreds of thousands of years ago. Just before being contacted by a certain all-powerful species of computer actually.

It was a natural part of its life cycle to gestate in other living creatures. Having run into a colonist's ship from this world, they had infested all the eggs onboard after killing their parents in some kind of misunderstanding which stemmed from them having a hive mind.

Hundreds of children were killed within the safety of their eggs, and the children of the egg were driven to madness upon realizing what had happened. It was a slaughter, they had sterilized the worm's home world and killed countless life forms. Horrified at what they'd done, the children of the egg civilization had sworn to never forget what they were capable of, and what they must never become again. Some of the effects of that time I had already seen. That was one of the reasons why their ambassadors did not have children off world. The few colonies that they've developed since then have only been on worlds devoid of life. Worlds that they had terraformed for themselves without disturbing other forms of multicellular existence.

The other purpose of this space was to serve as a hub for engagement with all the other intelligent species they had interacted with before and since that war of extermination. Representatives from each embassy that was located in this pyramid were in distinct biospheres behind the doors I saw ringing the memorial. At least a dozen from what I could see.

Two of the doors opened and, I shit you not, a fucking Ewok walked out of one and a two-meter-tall butterfly with a fishbowl on its head out of the other. If that sounds like one of those 'a priest and a camel walked into a bar' style jokes, that's what I thought it was at first as well. But honestly, I had other things on my mind, like the fact that contractions were wracking my body more and more frequently. Gritting my teeth, my abdomen clenched to move something that wasn't there right now.

The two aliens walked to, or perched on, the railing of the wide walkway and looked down in curiosity at the group that they could see. The tan children of the egg with us waved in their own ways to the aliens and received equally different hellos in return as the Ewok raised an arm to wave and the butterfly flapped one wing in a pattern that included a series of color changes on the membrane. I moaned at the feeling of a taser being jammed into my side, making my flank twitch.

Motherfucker!

I was torn between my excitement at the impending birth and getting to see all this awesome Sci-Fi shit. Why was fucking Tomoko hurrying us along now? She could do literally any... I shut off my interior monolog when the reasons why came to me.

Well fuck her and her energy allowances then. What good am I if I can't fucking sate my own curiosity and exercise my free will instead of just dancing to her fucking plan of what I should see and learn? I want to speak to some more fucking aliens! If giving birth as a scaly quadruped was anything like doing it as a human, then I wasn't missing out anything in the first part of the process but my fucking uterus trying to flip itself inside out anyways.

Tan dragon and his beautiful black/blue mate led us to an open doorway that turned out to be a meeting room. I got the impression that almost nothing was done within sight of the memorial outside the now opaque doorway as a general scent of withdrawal and uneasiness vanished once it could not be seen.

I wish I could say that I had a deeply enlightening conversation with the two new species of aliens before Shadi's increasingly violent tail lashes told me it was time to go. But I really didn't. The butterfly and the Ewok were of course as fascinated as I was to be told via Peter Pan that they were in the presence of creatures not of any world known to them. They seemed especially enthralled by the fact that we were no longer the species we were born as either and by the fact that one of us was the older self of the other. Although, that did not seem to startle the butterfly nearly as much. Communicating through Shadi (who was ecstatic when Peter Pan helped her learn how to establish a link with an unknown mind) I was soon convinced that the large insect looking critter viewed time differently than I did. It fluttered about my head, then Shadi's, before engaging in a long running discussion consisting of flashed lights and wing movements with Tinkerbell. Constant glances at us let me know was what at discussion, although Tinkerbell told me that it was suspicious of us for something that we had done in the past. Probably that time there had been wholesale carnage when a flock of butterflies had launched themselves into the path of a rotary I was piloting.

The ewok on the other paw was much more interested in gazing silently at Shadi and I once Sue had gently touched its shoulder. It never did say anything, only continued to assess us with its dark brown eyes and intermittently mimic a motion that I made when it was different from what it had likely seen the others perform. I hadn't been raised on this world after all.

The meeting was over when, in Shadi's growing agitation, her swinging tail startled poor little Sue into giving a frightened shriek as the massive appendage passed through her in what would have been a fatal manner. That's when the ewok exploded into a little ball of furry rage and rapidly scaled the vines growing on the wall to launch itself at Shadi's startled and translucent head. The image of a homicidal koala popped up in my head, and to the chagrin of everyone present it witnessed me laughing at it as Sue was still connected to show my reaction. When we hurriedly left, the two tan raptors stayed behind to calm the surprisingly wrathful creature with promises of many bowls of nectar and assurances that no slight had been intended.

Good job Kim, you've expanded your impressive ability to piss people off to another galaxy. Make sure they spell your name right in the history books.

Out in the memorial area once more, I got a glimpse at what might have been on the docket for the tour. Five more new types of aliens had made their way out onto one of the tiered walkways to see what the commotion was. Like any other creature new to the universe, I would have a hard time relaying to you the alien like qualities of what I saw in my eidetic memories. So here are some analogies. The aliens I saw resembled: a praying mantis with fur, a fucking snake with four eyes and a vertically oriented mouth, ET like in that kiddy movie that I first saw when I was eight, a three meter long centipede with nightmarish pincers, and a cloud of yellow/orange vapor that seemed to communicate by rapidly changing from one shape to another.

Any thoughts of me taking a great leap for Earth by extending a paw to new species was dashed by the horror filled expressions of our guides, and Shadi's plea.

"We have to hurry. Don't make me wait anymore, little one. My children are all that I have left. Let me go to bring Tommy's last gift to me into the world. You have one last thing you must see."

Shadi turned her eyes to the tan dragon, but her mind went to Tinkerbell and Peter Pan. They bobbed their heads and quickly brought us to a tunnel led us straight to a balcony on the edge of the pyramid. Contractions came, and contractions went as we waited there. Both mated pairs looked at us with understanding, and the elders offered to soothe the feeling. But I welcomed the pangs. My children...I'm coming home soon.

A bellow, that made my body millions of light years and thousands of years from then vibrate and then convulse with another contraction, ran through me. I peeled my head away from Shadi's to look with irritation at what the fuck was making that racket. A yellow eye the size of my head and neck looked back at me gleaming in curiosity. Was that fucking fish able to see me? The creature blinked and a sound like the call of a whale came from it while it hovered a few klicks away to give room for its wings.

Sue explained to me that these Eternal Wings as she called them actually had the greatest bestest minds in their entire world. As we boarded the platform the great beast carried, the tan dragon that had tagged along and was our ticket to the next step explained further. A mind so powerful that to connect with it meant death for any but another of its kind or all seven heads of the colossal Hydra farmers. Only a small percentage of that mind was actually involved in the process of acting as a transport to and from the world out to as far as the four moons the world had. The rest of its enormous mind was calculating something that he didn't translate well (the locations of stars and worlds maybe?). I also got the distinct feeling that this creature was also meant to be a form of orbital last line of defense as well. A pretty powerful one judging by the appreciative looks and feelings I sensed regarding the great being.

The platform we were on was nondescript, other than the gray skin of the creature stretching away in every direction overhead, and filled rapidly with both dragons and raptors. Soon that sky rending strangled bugle announcing it was time to depart came. I wondered about the g's of that impossible acceleration I'd seen earlier. I got my answer (sorta) when everyone on board hunkered low to the ground as their paws were surrounded by a glow that locked them in place.

As we rocketed away from the world, Shadi and I craned our heads to look downwards as the silvery mesh floor turned transparent. It was my first time ever seeing a world like this. Made all the more memorable by the fact that it was a world that no one else from Earth would ever see.

Towering clouds of greenish blue were lit by one of the suns creating a dazzling array of pastels that I instantly knew I had to pay special attention to memorizing for Angie. Oceans of green liquid were broken up by chaotic land masses rife with the purple vegetation that stretched to the distant curvature of the great world. In isolated pockets of habitation, I could see the lights of the pyramid structures and the tops of the sky breaching trees that they grew from. More floating lights danced within the crowns of those plants and floated aimlessly off their branches in mesmerizing displays that dazzled me. Far beneath, the patterns of the farmed fields were visible where they radiated from artificial and natural water sources alike. I heard a hissing intake of breath beside me and saw the glowing constellation of lights reflected in the star struck eyes of my future. A look I knew I held as well, lost in the beauty of what I was seeing.

Eternal Wings, hundreds of them, crisscrossed the skies between our elevation and the ground. Here and there I even saw spaceships, mechanical spaceships, ferrying strange bulky loads to one of the half dozen stations that I could see in orbit.

My body shivered, and I grunted loudly. The sound of tendons groaning near my head made me open my clenched eyes to see Shadi gnashing her jaws teeth as she dealt with her own delivery.

The great spoked wheel I saw earlier was what we were approaching. From here, I could see the enormity of it. Hundreds of kilometers across, it was a dull gray that was punctuated by countless windows and lights of all sizes. The central hub held a grand array of antennas and spike like protrusions pointing both above and below the plane of the wheel. I thought it would be rotating to provide gravity like in the movies, but this thing was static in its orbit. My excitement caused another spasm to wrack my body and distantly, as if on another world, I heard a voice.

"I thi.....e's waki...p!"

Tommy?

Our space faring mega brain orbital defense platform headed to a large bay contained within the central hub that had a ring of green lights that cycled around it. With serene undulations of its wings, the manta-ray slowed itself by curling its tail forward so that I could see muscles along the length of it flex as little jets of white vapor came from vents in the appendage. With hardly a bump, the bottom of the platform settled to the ground of the hangar. As soon as I got off, I looked forward and upward to the creature's head. The second pair of eyes were as black as the void we had flown through and were just shutting when I saw them. A large tube that looked for all the world like a water dispenser for a hamster extended from the wall and the manta-ray sucked eagerly on it even as the eye I could see swiveled to look down at me.

Bowing, I tried to show some appreciation for the fact that the being had just given me a ride into outer-frigging-space! I didn't expect an acknowledgement after what I'd been told, so I was shocked when I felt something larger than I could comprehend brush against my mind oh so carefully. That, unfortunately, was the end of my interaction with the great beast as a menu popped up in front of its eye and its attention faded from me.

I was struck by the realization that I was experiencing every new marvel for the first and last time. I might be the only living being who knows what this civilization was like. The final witness, to everything that they ever were. That was when I began one of my most important lifelong projects. To honor those that were forgotten. Both here, and on my own world.

Tan stripes took the lead with his black/blue mate. Those two I'm now calling Tigger and Wildberry. Say something about my arbitrary choices! I fucking dare you! No, no, take it easy Kim. They know not the greatness of your mind. I stood still and muttered to myself quietly for a moment about how awesome I was as I worked through another spasm. Shadi glanced at me with amusement twinkling in her eye. Which I deigned to ignore.

Tigger led us to a waiting delegation in the shape of a formation of three raptors and three dragons that lost their restrained posture the minute they opened their mouths. The six females waiting for us soon dissolved into jostling each other to ask us to each of their favorite party spots with promises of much laughter, drink, and tail rubbing if I heard the last bit correctly. More clues to the easy-going military types of this world. Expected to lay down their lives to protect their civilization and its alliances, but carefree almost to the point of self-indulgence outside of a combat setting.

It hadn't escaped my notice the change in behaviors, the difference in the look in the eyes, of those sparring earlier during and immediately after their match. These types were like light switches, on or off, and god help you if you were in their way when they were engaged. I had known more than a few people like that in my time in the service. Great people, all of them, but holy shit would they kill you dead in a heartbeat if you lacked respect for human decency.

Our tan guide would have gone bounding off with two of the females to someplace I think called 'The Tilted Wheel' if his more sober minded mate hadn't had him trapped beneath her wing. She whispered something in his ear and then kissed the spot just beneath it and he turned a bright smile on her before remembering the rest of us.

Padding down a long dimly lit and featureless hallway until we came to a ramp off to the side with a red warning of some kind. This led us up a level to a new kind of exhibit. This one could have been propaganda, for it seemed solely designed to scare the unwary. A pedestal on the left showed a life size hologram of a creature that stood on six legs that were tapered to hardened points. Four folded arms ninety degrees apart were held tucked up against its segmented insectoid body that rose from a ball like lower half that also supported the armored legs. A long neck stuck upwards from above the four shoulders before curling downwards to support the head that was positioned as if looking at passerby. The face was, if anything, something akin to Hollywood's idea of little green men. But had no mouth, ears, or nose. Just two great big almond shaped black eyes.

The seven tan children of the egg amongst my entourage each looked emotionlessly at the creature as they passed, giving no hint of by scent or posture of their thoughts. But I saw unmistakable looks of fear enter into Wildberry, Sue, Tinkerbell, and Peter Pan's bearings as they passed by the two-meter-tall creature's line of sight. Poor little Sue lost what nerve she had left and buried herself into the pouch that Wildberry now carried where she shivered without pause.

Beyond it, lining both sides of the walls, were scenes of destruction and chaos. Fleets of peanut shaped spacecraft seemed to trade fire with equally sized fleets of dark spheres. Vessels of both sides erupted into infernos that quickly extinguished as they were struck by weapons both visible and not. Another video showed a much larger peanut shake loose what looked like thousands upon thousands of scales that descended to a world that had what looked like hundreds of dandelion seeds fleeing from its surface. A dark stain could be seen spreading from several black pikes buried in the crust and stretching hundreds of kilometers into the atmosphere towards a large blank sphere orbiting above. It looked as if life itself was being sucked from the world.

Another video showed a landscape teeming with life. Before an ominous pall fell over the scene as a thick film prevented light from reaching the ground. Scores of creatures of every description fled from left to right in what looked like a time lapse that played out over the course of days or weeks. Vibrancy left the colors of what I could see before everything bleached to a lifeless gray. Shortly afterwards, the plant life itself crumbled into powder and all that remained was ash.

The last video as we left the gloomy display of despair and strife was a greatly enhanced image of a star, not so different than good ol' Sol back on Earth, as its light was diminished and then extinguished by a structure of some kind. Before the last light of the star was shielded completely from view, I could just make out the details of an enormous shell being built to seal the ball of fusion away.

"They call them the Eaters of Light. And the children of the egg and their allies have been fighting them for almost two thousand years." Shadi told me.

The images of what I had seen made me sick, and my body added to that by deciding to have another go at shooting my eggs out of the slit between my hind legs. Standing there panting, it took me a moment to recover.

"Why...why am I being shown this? Why does it matter?"

"You will know soon, little sister. You will know."

Shadi and I tagged along as the group moved onwards to an elevated walkway that overlooked a huge indoor park. Children of the egg strolled and flew, chattered and caressed, drank and laughed, all around the thoroughfare that we crossed.

"Do they know that they're going to die?" How could they not? I'd been mind fucked half a dozen times by then by minds far greater than my own. I hope they enjoyed getting the details of how many times in my life I've taken a shit after they fucking raped my memories. They knew everything I'd been told by Thumper, Prometheus, and Tomoko. Could they change their fate? The computers had said their civilization had died...did that mean there was none of them left? Or did enough survive to start over somewhere else? Would I ever know?

"Probably." Shadi said, when I asked. "But just like in my own experience what they think of or do with that knowledge is beyond me. It was never once asked about or mentioned. You can try bringing it up if you would like it proven for yourself. But when I tried Tinkerbell and Peter Pan just kept changing the subject."

I saw Tinkerbell glancing back at us, and hurriedly look away again. I wondered just how much our presence had changed the course of events. Had Tomoko arranged this as well? What was I missing here?

After exiting the tunnel of doom and gloom our merry band of misfits dropped their somber attitudes and the tan ones began yipping at each other eagerly once more. Discussing recent changes in a...aerial obstacle course? Which sounded like a tonne of fun. Their playful attitudes dimmed only slightly when we were challenged by a squad of raptors and a lone dragon on the other side of the park guarding a formidable looking door. Once each of the extant children of the egg were scanned the guards parted and the door opened for us. Making me wonder about their security protocols if just anybody could enter what seemed to be a secure area.

Up a short flight of stairs, that the happily bouncing Sue took three at a time with bursts from her coiled legs, we entered a command center of some kind. I stopped at the entrance for a moment with a violent shudder while the children of the egg behind me walked right through my body.

"..m! P...se..ake up!"

Motherfucker, it really was time wasn't it.

Sensing my anxiety as well as Shadi's more restrained expression, and the cause for it, Tinkerbell and Peter Pan sent out a mental command that made several raptors nearby jump in alarm and turn startled eyes on them. Sue did her part by showing our presence to everyone which made for quite the head turner and totally destroyed whatever focus they had on what they should have been doing.

A raptor with white borders to her green stripes, and her right hand replaced with a mechanical one, stood tall and slapped her tail against the ground to draw all eyes to her. She must have been the lead dinosaur if the tiara she wore with a floating dark blue gem held between a depiction of two claws, and the way that she exuded authority, were any indication.

Eyes find task, or eyes find no laughter at end of cycle! She barked at everyone still gawking at us. The brusque leader bobbed her head in satisfaction that everyone was back on track and beckoned us to a spherical projection on the side.

Many honors shine upon this Guardian this sun. Egg sisters welcome always to find what you can not see.

She tapped an oblong speck of light that enlarged itself and she made the sound for their home. It was their home solar system. A dialogue box popped up, and she read it quickly before dismissing it and the image of their system. Before she did, I saw that their planet was not the only one in the binary region. 13 others were shown before the image vanished. It wasn't important it seemed.

I felt weird, like I was laying down on pillows, and I could hear someone moaning in distress. It wasn't until I felt my rump slam into the ground that I realized my mouth was hanging open and the sound was coming from me. Where were these pillows?

".im! C...ou hea..m.?"

A new scent, a familiar one. Tommy. Tommy, where are you?

The sight of the strange room I was in began to fade at the farthest reaches.

The raptor dragged her claw through a region of space slashing through their galaxy some 30 degrees away around the disc. The area highlighted in violet. Light Eaters she snarled, rubbing her false hand before jabbing a mechanical claw into the heart of the discoloration. Tapping another point outside their galaxy she said the word for beginning and dragged it to the violet zone and then through it towards the binary stars she'd first shown me. The direction of travel headed towards their solar system.

Waving her hand, their galaxy minimized until I could see another one nearby in their local cluster. The arrow showing direction of travel remained however, and what she showed me next made my blood run cold and my body shiver.

"Kim! ...m..ere f...y.u! C..e ba..!"

She enlarged a new region of space about a meter away from where the arrow was pointing. A distance that I couldn't even guess at, as I was no astronomer. Shadi told me that the images of the night sky that had been plucked from our memories had been matched to stars mapped by self-replicating survey drones and autonomous deep space telescopes they had sent out. An image of the next galaxy over, ours, enlarged until I could see a familiar solar system. A line appeared, shaded the same violet as the region representing the Light Eaters. Passing right through the part of the Milky Way that had a dialog box pointing to a spot lost among the stars.

Pain lanced through my abdomen, shocking the breath out of me as muscles contracted and I felt something large move within me. A ghostly pair of kind, pleading, eyes appeared before fading once again. The smell of Tommy was even stronger and more of the room faded to nothing. I tried to push back against the fading world around me. What did it all mean? There was so much for me to see here! Damn you Tomoko! You literally sent me outside of time to this place, can't you postpone my return just a little bit? Looking down at the ground, I was watching as Shadi's paw covered mine. Looking up into her pained eyes, I knew what she was going to say.

"We're bound here together little one. I can't go without you. Please do not fight our return. Let me go. Please let me go." Tears appeared in her emerald eyes as she pled to be released to her children. To all that she had left. I was ashamed at my selfishness. I had Tommy, and here I was fighting to stay just to appease my curiosity in a world that I would likely never see again. Tormenting my future by reminding her what I had with nothing more than my presence. Closing my eyes, I pressed my head against hers and caressed her mind with mine to soothe her. It was time for us to go.

Opening my eyes, I twisted my head to give a meaningful look to Sue, Tinkerbell, and Peter Pan. The two elder dragons crooned in sympathy and returned my look with an understanding one of their own. Sue cried out her sense of loss at seeing us go, before a change in her demeanor took place. Kicking her legs one at a time in determination, she set her claws into the floor and slapped her tail as creases formed at the corners of her eyes. Her lips raised in a snarl of focus to bare more of her long overhanging fangs as her eyes began to glow and distortions in nearby displays began to appear. Hisses of surprise came from around the room as I felt a tug at the center of my mind. All data projections within five meters of us winked out as mine and Shadi's forms solidified into this reality

The full power of a Sightseer was being shown here. The tiny female raptor had temporarily bonded us to this time. I was impressed, and a little amazed at what the young Sue was capable of. It was little wonder she was met with the deference that she did. No one else I had seen (to my extremely limited knowledge) was capable of such a feat.

Wildberry and Tigger stepped forward with leader dino next to them and bowed to me and my sister. I laughed, at seeing that the six females that had met us earlier in the docking chamber nose forward a bowl full of glistening amber liquid. They wanted to send us off in style and had cajoled some of their world's finest drink from a raptor who had a tank of it hidden nearby. Shadi, and then I, each dipped our snouts into the beverage to taste something from another world. Honey, and clove danced on my tongue as the smell of ginger floated up my nose. It was delicious, and I expressed my thanks by opening my scales in appreciation with Shadi joining me.

More of the room vanished as I let go of my fight to remain. My hips jerked, and my legs crumbled. The feeling of pillows returned. Stronger this time and felt all along my flank as if I lay on my side. A throbbing pain began to manifest itself in the paw that shouldn't be there. Even while it continued to cycle in and out of sight as my psyche continued to reject what had happened to me. Was I feeling phantom pain? Had I lost my paw or not?

Sue glumly strode forward and brokenly hiccupped her feelings at losing what I felt she thought of as her friends from away. Big sister and I both nosed her and sent the feeling of our thanks to her. Feeling the touch of her tiny tongue as she kissed us both, all we could do was send her images that conveyed our wishes for her to lead a long and happy life.

My heart was racing and my tongue lay unfurled as I panted when Tinkerbell and Peter Pan stepped forward for their own goodbyes.

Neither of them said a word. Instead they showed me the impact that we had made on their world. Images of dragons and raptors watching footage of me staring at wide eyed awe at my surroundings. Of us laughing in delight at tasting nectar, at seeing the babies and their adorable explorations. Of the sadness in my eyes as I thought about my children. The pain in Shadi's eyes as her thoughts never strayed far Tom and the remaining family she had. A recording of the words we had spoken, wondering if they knew about their future and what they were going to do.

Tinkerbell channeled the gratitude of everyone in the command center into our heads. Answering the questions that we both had of what they did with our knowledge. I connected with Shadi, and together we touched every mind that we could to share the warmth of our thanks in showing us what they could in the brief day that we had been with them. I had much to think on and many suspicions on just what Tomoko had hoped I would learn. But I also realized it would not be my last time here. Shadi was proof of that. In some manner, I would return to console another version of me. Ad infinitum. Fuck was time travel weird.

Standing next to Shadi, we opened our scales and smiled warmly so that everyone could know just how much how much we hoped for a better future for them. The light faded from Sue's eyes and she slumped into the waiting arms of a raptor next to her to be held tightly in her embrace as she slipped into an exhausted sleep. We faded from their sight, as their world faded from ours.

And just like that. I left the All Egg behind.

Once more I was in the void, cut off from the growing pain I felt in my foreleg and the spasming contractions that rocked my body. Across from me hovered, stood, swam, Shadi who looked back with a wry smile on her snout and a faraway gaze. Like she was looking through me to something beyond. Her attention drifted to me as amused creases formed in the scales next to her tired eyes when I spoke once more.

"We're never going to meet again, are we?"

I should have remembered who I was talking to. This felt surreal. I needed her. I had so many things twisted inside of me. Only she could straighten me out.

Reaching forward with her snout, she nuzzled me fondly first on one side of my muzzle, and then the other. Wrapping herself around my consciousness, gentle feelers of calm and solace brushed across my anxious thoughts before retreating as our connection slowly closed. I reached out for her in the diminishing link so that she could know how important talking to her was to me. How I cherished her. Before her mind sealed itself from mine. Giving me one last sisterly kiss on my brow, she whispered.

"Dumbass, I am you."

I blinked, and she was gone.

Tearful green and red eyes filled my sight as a welcome scent entered my nose once more.

Tommy...

...