Niko stifled his own annoyed grimace but he waited for Temmy to get close enough before he climbed up, offering Cal a hand. He knew Cal didn't like this, and he rather echoed the sentiment. But that didn't mean he was going to be a dick about it.

At least not at the moment.

"Never again," Cal grumbled as he accepted the hand from his brother.

"You don't have to," Andy said as she climbed up easily. "I make everyone go once to test how they react. Every trip after that is optional." She paused, then added as an afterthought, "unless the global technology goes down again, but then everyone's miserable anyways."

"Again?" Niko asked, looking over at her. He did not look pleased with that thought. But he was happy to hear that they wouldn't have to go through this again.

"It happened not too long ago," Andy replied as she gave Temmy the all-clear to take off. "The whole global network went down for a few days. Wireless, trainer gear, even the bishiball system. Took a little while for it to come back, and we had to stay in town in the meantime. It was a bit crowded, and I had to stick close to these three, since most towns are not designed for thirty-ton dragons." She grinned just a bit. "Poor Kaelas, he doesn't fly well at all."

Niko might have muttered something like "I wonder why" but he didn't say it loud enough for anyone but Cal to hear. One of his hands was fisted in the harness. Just in case.

Cal snorted. Giant death-cat? Yeah, no kidding Kaelas didn't fly well. He held onto the harness with both hands, not even going to tempt fate like his brother seemed inclined to do. And forget the trainer, she was just insane, sitting there without even holding on to anything.

Andy noticed and snickered a bit.

"Really, flying with Temmy is easy, when he doesn't have it in his head to do funky maneuvers," she said. "I tend to fly with Li, and all she has is the golden mesh, she doesn't have a harness."

Niko bit back a retort and stayed quiet until they got back. As soon as Temmy was on the ground, he slid down, glad to have his feet firmly on the ground again.

He did not like flying.

Belle looked up from her work. "How'd it go?"

"They fly better than Kaelas, but not as well as we do," Andy replied as she slid back down to the ground. "About average-ish." She meandered over to Belle. "So what's this going to be?"

"I've got a list of things we need next time we're in town. And I've been looking at books again to see if anything sounds interesting. Just in case." She grinned briefly.

"I think I have a few on my list that have come out recently," Andy commented. "Speaking of..." Going over to her bag, she dug around for a moment before digging out her copy of Sebastian. She handed it to Niko. "Here," she said to him, "knock yourself out. There are two more after it."

Niko nodded and found a good place to settle down, starting to read. It was practically research, anyway, he reasoned. Researching these crazy people he was stuck with.

Belle snickered and shook her head. "There's one that's been out for a few months now that I didn't know about. I have to go yell at Al for that later."

Andy snickered.

"Welcome to my world," she said. "I would snark at Temmy for not telling me about the newest book there, but I won't for the moment." She looked at Belle. "And you're behind on your reading as it is, you're at least two books behind me."

"Yeah I know. I haven't been able to settle on one book. I know it's horrible, but I keep skipping around." Belle made a face.

"Then start with Ghost Story," Andy said. "That one's been waiting longer, and it has this horrible, horrible ending that makes me glad the next title has been announced already. Then go to Doubletake, because that one's hysterical when it's not blindsiding you with shit." She grinned. "Then you can jump around as much as you like."

"I already tried reading them. I couldn't stay focused on them." Belle made a face. "But I'll ready reading Ghost Story again."

"It starts off a bit slow, I'll give you that," Andy said. "Changes had such an epic cliffhanger, after all. But it's still amusing. Dark as hell, and grittier than usual, but still."

"He always has humor in there, or else I don't think we'd manage to keep reading. It would just be too much." Belle shrugged. "Eh. I'll get around to reading again soon."

"There were quite a few comic references in here," Andy said. "Quite a bit about X-Men, I think, and a few others." She shrugged. "Something about Star Trek, too, and the obligatory Star Wars bits."

"Ah yes. All the references. I love his references." Belle grinned. "He has the best references. Plus he knows a lot of my favorite things."

"There are a bunch," Andy said. "The Nightcrawler 'bamf' noise being the most common." She rolled her eyes. "Go figure."

Belle snickered. "Yeah, yeah. At least the series is freaking awesome." She looked over at Mouse and Thomas, since they were bonding while sprawling on the ground.

"Aw, nice to know we're loved, doll." Thomas grinned at her briefly. "Can we get more love?"

"Ha! Good luck."

Andy just rolled her eyes and glanced over at Harry, who was doing his best (and failing) to look like he wasn't interested in the conversation.

"If you're that bored," she said to him, "go and talk to Temeraire. I'm sure he'd be willing to indulge you."

"Don't trust her," Cal grumbled. "Dragon rides are evil."

Harry just raised an eyebrow, and Andy shrugged.

"He doesn't fly well," she explained simply. "Very few in my group do."

"And how do you know?" Harry asked.

"I take them on dragon rides," Andy replied, sending him a Look. "Not a difficult concept, really."

Belle hid a snicker, biting her lower lip. "Really, Harry," she teased. "One would think that a wizard of your status would get that."

Thomas snickered. "It's okay. Normally he's a little brighter. I think he's still getting over being owned."

"You make it sound so wrong," Andy said, looking at Thomas. "Granted, that shouldn't surprise me, but still."

"They do that," Bob's voice drifted out of the pocket of Harry's duster.

"Eavedropping is rude," Andy commented.

"You act as if I care," Bob replied, still a bit muffled.

"Eavesdropping is probably what he does best," Belle put in with a grin. "I mean, who'd suspect the skull?"

Thomas snickered at that. "Not anyone normal."

"Define normal."