It turned out to be a small apartment located in the back of a shop. The lizard entered through an appropriately sized door into a cavernous room. The human slid off and instructed the lizard to kneel so Athenai could dismount. For that she was thankful, sliding the ten or so feet to the floor seemed impossible. And still, that human was there. Athenai awkwardly dismounted and found herself in her arms. She would have pushed her away if it weren't for the shooting pain in her leg that make her cling tighter for support and whimper softly. She then turned in alarm for Zaiaku, but the lizard was lowering him gently to the ground. She released the human and stumbled to his side, beside herself with worry. Though Athenai would never admit it, she had come to depend on and even love the sweet creature, he had been the only protector she had ever known. Yetemna settled on his shoulder and made soft, concerned noises as Athenai gently wiped the caked blood from his eye.
"C'mon Zaiaku, you're tougher than this..." she murmured softly. "Here." The human knelt nearby, a damp rag held in her outstretched hand. Athenai took it and carefully mopped the blood off of the Sinu's face. One yellow eye opened slowly, then another and Zaiaku uttered a reassuring purr-like sound. "Ah, you stupid beast." Athenai sighed in relief. He shifted a bit and slowly lifted his head, then turned to peer up at the great gold lizard who loomed overhead. "Is he your bond?" Athenai blinked, her head suddenly heavy. She turned to look up at the human and in the process, crumpled to the floor and passed out.
"Oh for Bast's sake." Thea sighed in exasperation after the strange girl collapsed. She carefully turned her onto her back and lifted her, appalled at how light and thin she was. Are you sure keeping her here is wise? Esyscth asked worriedly as Thea ventured from the dragoness' sleeping room into her side of the apartment and laid the injured stranger on the couch. "She's hurt, and her bond is hurt-" It isn't her bond, it's more like a... watch weyr from the old world, though smarter. I've already tried talking to it and it doesn't speak. "-either way, we can't very well send them off into the station injured and covered in blood. I'm not even sure most of this is hers..."
Thea took a clean, damp cloth and began to wipe the many-hued bloodstains from her face. When she lifted her head from the arm of the couch, she noticed the long pair of serrated, steel-gray horns that sprouted from her skull and curved back to end in sharp points, or they would have had the tips of each not been broken off. These too were coated in blood and what Thea sincerely hoped wasn't gobbets of flesh. Cringing, she began to mop the sharp ridges across the top of one when it snapped off in her hand. "Ah!" Panicking, Thea dumbly tried to press the broken horn to the remaining inch or two still attached to the girl's head, but the stump only continued to crumble as if it were made of ash. Soon enough the end Thea had in her hand also began to crumble.
The flurries of movement and sounds of distress - coupled with Esyscth's rumbles of mirth at her bond's frantic flailing - brought the injured girl back to a tenuous consciousness. "Wha-" she muttered and struggled to sit, feebly defending herself against Thea's attempts to "help". "I'm sorry, I swear I just barely touched it and it broke!" The girl blinked and looked at the gray crumbs of her horn that littered the couch and Thea's hands. She made a soft sound of recognition and reached up to the intact horn and pulled. It broke off in her hand just as the other had done and crumbled into ash. "They're temporary." she said softly, plucking at the remaining stubs until they broke off, leaving two circular wounds on her scalp. "O-oh." Thea relaxed, but still looked concerned.
"I'm... I'm Thea..." she said, unsure of what to do with this strange, battered girl. "And this is my bond, Esyscth." Esyscth rumbled welcomingly, dipping her head. The girl eyed them both calculatingly. "Athenai." she said simply. The silver flit on the floor screeched indignantly, refusing to be ignored. "Oh, and Yetemna and Zaiaku."