Atheos stood there before them, looking around with, her enormous tail brushing the scared and broken ground, as her horny head frill shifting with her head as she seemed to admire the domain.

Unlike Trengor's imposing dragon form that was all hard, sharp edges, Atheos's form was majestic, almost regal.

Her frill, crest, or whatever it was, falling back over a shock of contrasting black hair that ran down the central spine of her neck, framed her head like a massive golden halo or delicate crown. Sharp, long, elegant, notched, almost El'viairen ears flicking about as she studied her new surroundings. Her scales were a light golden yellow tinged with green in a shifting pearlescent shimmer as she moved. Her body was trim and lithe, making Trengor's slightly more muscular build seem almost bulky in comparison.

Seemingly satisfied with her immediate surroundings, she spent a long time looking up at the constellation of cores in the sky above before she let a long weary breath and she shook her mighty form, sending hundreds of her scales cascading free to land on the blackened ground, where they glowed and dug deep into the soil where life began to re-emerge in every colour of the spectrum.

"My apologies. I knew this might happen. And for it to happen so soon… I was not prepared," she intoned regretfully.

"You knew that this would happen?" Syl asked, her exhaustion clear as she let most of her weight fall on Kai as she slumped into him.

"That the bond would grow, that Alicia could be bound, that your domain would come under attack? Yes..."

"Warning would be nice," Kai groaned as he let himself sink deeper into Syl's side.

"Do not misunderstand me. I said I knew this might happen… Many a vague possibility culminating and colliding in a dangerous mess. An event I did not, could not truly anticipate. I am sorry… I had hoped it this would not come to be."

"Why?" Syl said, the concern in her voice only amplified by how tightly she squeezed Kai's arm.

"When a dragon forms its first bond, it is flexible, adaptable and less susceptible to causing damage should either member of the pairing pass prematurely. That bond only growing stronger with time when the pair have had time to grow and understand one another," Atheos explained as she tilted her head back in a gesture to the cores above. "Those bonds are far too robust. Separating any of you would have dire consequences for the rest. That you have also brought both Alicia and Gift into you communion is troubling…"

"So I fucked up… is there any future where I don't fuck up regularly?" Kai asked sincerely, hoping for some good news.

"You haven't… fucked up. Merely set yourself on a path to greater power with far greater risk. Increased your vulnerabilities. As I have said, troubling."

"I saw no other way," Kai said as he tried to justify what he had done. "I mean… I think I could have left Alicia and gift out of it and the way the cores were connected, they should have still amplified one another."

Atheos lowered her head, turning it to the side to bring a big purple pupil close to Kai. There was a long moment in which she studied him, before eventually she pulled away and in a flare of golden light appeared in her humanoid form. Her aery golden dress lying still about her person as she no longer cared for pomp or pretence with them.

Stepping forward so that she was on the edge of Kai's personal space and looking down on him, she said, "Making Synergistic bonds at your level is impossible. That you even attempted it, Kai, you're insane."

Kai just fell back into the grass.

He was getting sick of hearing that.

There was a long silence as Kai felt his body settle wearily.

"Can we go see them?" Atheos asked suddenly, "I did not think I would be here. But I would be honoured if you allowed me to be present."

See them? Who were 'them' that Atheos would want to see them? Surely not the dwarves or Cillian's team… "The eggs!" Kai cried as he remembered why the sky above had been cracked open in the first place.

Syl was already climbing back to her feet, the strained sigh she made as she moved somehow making Kai's tired brain activate at the oddly sensual sound.

"Are we secure?" Syl asked, with a glance up at the fractured sky, then back to Atheos.

A single shooting star moving past the domain, showing that there was still something nearby but there was no sign of the activity they had seen earlier. The meteor showers they had witnessed earlier were totally absent now.

Atheos nodded, confirming they were safe. "I have already told that little girl, Tally, she can bring people back through."

"Who is Tally?" Kai asked as he did his best to sit up, ignoring the sharp pains as everything seemed to complain with the movement.

"Talious," Syl said, as if it was obvious.

Kai guffawed in amusement. "She is the last one I would think to call a little girl," he said as he resisted the urge to lie back down and roll over in the grass to get some rest.

"Yes, though she is millennia or two older than the two of you. She is still what I would consider a young whelp that has yet to leave the safety of her nest…" Atheos glanced upwards to the set of cores bound together above them and paused as she thought through her next words carefully before she continued to say, "I would be careful around that one… she is enthusiastic. But be patient with her. If she had not called me when she did, I might not have arrived in time."

"Oh, so now we get a warning and it's about the one who is the only reason we are still alive," Kai blurted out, the strain he was feeling making him unusually snappy as he stood up.

He was starting to wonder how much damage he had done to himself; he had been next to useless in the confrontation, that he had affected something as simple as the system action examine, couldn't be a good sign.

"I am sorry. Though you have been harmed, the chances of your demise were limited. Perhaps this is the wake-up call you need to construct some true defences instead of relying on your unusually high natural defences," Atheos said, as she held her ground next to Kai.

"I am doing what I can to help repair the damage cannot remain here long. If I flex my power too much, I will pop this domain like a bubble," she continued as she took a careful step forward, her godly pretense absent as she clasped one hand in another to stop herself from visibly fidgeting.

"What is it?"

"I would very much like to be there. It is something my kind rarely experiences once we reach a certain tier. It has been so long since I actually witnessed a child coming into the world and while it is considered ill form for the one who gave their egg away… I would like to be there. That there is a bond already means there should be no unintentional imprinting on me. It is a unique opportunity-"

Syl gave Kai a look as Atheos spoke. He just nodded, and they appeared in the egg chamber.

"-I understand if you wish to keep to the two of…" Atheos trailed off as she looked about in relief.

She must have been worried they would say no, Kai thought as he said, "You have no idea how many questions I have. I tried asking Talious. She just said figuring things out was part of some trial. Wouldn't say much more than that."

"The trials are a simple thing."

Kai and Syl moved back to their couch and slumped down into it on each side, Syl tapping the space in the middle for Atheos to take.

She blinked at them before smiling at them softly and taking the offered position.

"The trials won't actually apply to you two as they have already chosen to bond… you know, I don't think I've ever heard of the young having enough awareness to form a bond while within the egg. Like any infant, they should be driven by instinct. There is certainly nothing in the ancestral memories I have access to. Another reason why I was caught off guard."

"Talious said something about not making her bond until she was just starting to take flight," Syl said thoughtfully.

"That's usually when dragons decide if the one we were given to are right for us or we leave to strike out on our own or find someone else… I went through three people, only choosing a hunter who challenged me for the rights to a kill when they interested me."

"So the trial Talious mentioned is all about the young dragon deciding if someone is suitable and bonding them," Kai said, as he thought about the implications. "In your visions, divinations, or whatever they were, you didn't see all this happening as it has?"

Atheos scoffed, "If only things were so easy to interpret. For one thing you wouldn't have had to go through the trail dungeon… though that helped shape you, so I hope you two don't see that as a bad thing... But to answer your question, the easy answer is no, the complicated one is I didn't interpret anything this way. That you would bond was almost certain, when and how, that varied."

"Is there anyway to know how long this will take? You were vague when we received them, but this seems to be the last step," Syl said as she adjusted her sitting position to take hold of Atheos's fidgeting hand.

Atheos seemed to relax visibly as she gave Syl a smile before she turned her attention to the two dimly glowing eggs. "Any moment now," Atheos said confidently.

Kai was awoken five hours later when he was jostled from behind by Talious rocking eagerly back and forth as she held the back of the couch in a death grip. "Mistress, they are ready!"

Kai sat up, only for a large golden scale to roll off his chest and fall into her lap.

"That's yours, don't sell it. The life energy that's within has been helping you recover," Alicia said from where she sat at his side stroking a curled up a black ball of fur that was Gift in her lap.

Kai picked up the scale and cradled it, feeling that yes, there was in fact something happening to him as he held it. He was a little worried that he might absorb the scale, but then he realised it was Atheos's scale, and that it was probably at a similar level to Trengor's scales, which were currently too much for him to absorb.

Syl stood off to the side, her arms held up and crossed over her chest, where she held her own large scale the size of a dinner plate tight against her.

She was standing with Atheos and two others, Hoshi and Tsuki, by the thick set of tails that bloomed out from behind them and the tall fox ears they both had on the top of the heads. Their thick, voluminous white hair falling to either side of their faces, leaving Kai to wonder if they also had human ears to match their humanoid form.

The two Kitsuné that helped to defend the domain bowed and then disappeared as Syl and Atheos turned to walk back to the centre.

"Everything okay?" Kai asked.

"Yes, they were just asking for permission to stay in the domain."

"I'm surprised they don't want to leave," Kai said as he looked up to see that the sky above was still fractured and broken, hemmed by an aurora of light as it tried to heal.

"They wish to invite more of their kind in, a defence specialist among them, and numerous young families. A domain with divine favour is a rare thing. Ours… even rarer."

Atheos frowned. "I told them I wasn't able to protect this place… they were more interested in the domain's other properties. It's hard to believe one of their kits is so advanced," she said as she glanced over past behind Kai.

Kai followed the glance to a beaming Talious. Sicily, resting comfortably between Talious's horns, her head positioned to look down on Kai with her big bright pink fox eyes.

"Why is everyone here?"

"They asked," Syl said as she stepped to the edge of the nest the eggs were in.

If they asked, that was fine with him. He shrugged and got up, feeling that a lot of the pains he had felt before his long nap had now passed, though he still felt something was off within him.

Kai moved to take a position by Syl's side, where they both looked down on the two eggs.

His first observation was that they had stopped glowing. The second was that the dragon eggs still weren't scaled. Honestly, how people thought scaled eggs made any sense he didn't know. Sure, it made them more fantastical, but it was just illogical. An egg was as strong as it was because of its shape, surly add scales did nothing that a thicker shell couldn't achieve. If anything, it would cause the pressure points on the shell as it was laid by the mother.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

No, these dragon eggs, despite starting out clear with amorphous lights within them, were just eggs now. Their shells were now matt and mottled. The first egg was white with black mottling, while the other was its opposite with a black shell covered in white mottling.

"Why did I think they would be, you know, flashier?"

"Preconceived notions."

Kai sighed, ignoring the verbal jab he asked, "Do I dare ask how long now, or do I have time to take another nap?"

"They are just waiting for you," Atheos said as she moved around to stand beside the two eggs. "Take yours and the little one inside will come out to great you."

Kai stored the golden scale he was holding and reached out for the white egg as Syl reached for the black, the two of them both knowing intimately which one had tried to bond them specifically.

Holding the egg, he was surprised by how light it was. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought there was nothing inside and still he knew the thing was so robust he could probably drop the thing and it would be completely fine.

Crack, the egg jostled in his hands. Crack, crack. The weight of the egg shifting slightly as he felt what was inside moving about to break free.

Syl squealed to herself and Kai looked over to see the egg she was holding had also started to jostle slightly in her arms.

Clack!

He looked back to see that part of the shell had fallen inwards, creating a hole about the size of his hand. A hole he could reach right in to the empty egg had he wanted to.

He looked inside the egg in confusion, then over to Atheos for answers.

The moment he had taken his eyes off the egg, he felt something shift, the egg somehow getting even lighter as something ran up his arm, over up the back of his neck to then stop on his head.

A little upside down dragon head appearing out of nowhere, as delicate, white scales and big, purple, glowing eyes became visible to him as he looked up past his eyebrows.

"Hello," Kai said at the little thing.

It let out a cute little cry of triumph before it promptly vanished again.

Kai looked to his shoulder as he felt it shift its position.

He couldn't see it, nor could he really feel it. The little thing was far too light and agile as it moved about.

But through his connection with it, he could tell where it was and, more interestingly, what it wanted.

He put the egg down and pulled the front of his shirt open slightly for it to crawl in.

It investigated the inside of his shirt, doing a lap before it popped its head out, visible once more, out of the gap where Kai could tie his loose linen shirt closed with tassels if he wanted.

Satisfied, it chirped in thanks before looking across to Syl, who looked down in confusion at the at the long black tail poking out of the top of her cleavage as it flickered and shimmered between being visible and not.

She looked to Kai with his patient little friend poking curiously out of his shirt and she sighed, "If dragons didn't start out hermaphroditic, I would have guessed this one was a boy by how obsessed with my tits they are."

"Hey, girls like tits, too. Just ask Ester next time you get a chance," Kai said.

"I'm surprised you picked up on that one," Syl said as the tail disappeared and a little black dragon head appeared between her breasts to look over at him with large, glowing orange eyes.

Kai looked down at the little dragon that was currently rubbing the round little nubs that crested the back of its head into his chest and used an examine on them.

… Lv.10 Primordial Dragon hatchling, Age: 0

Kai didn't know what a primordial dragon was, and while he was happy using examine hadn't hurt him anymore, the '…' in the little dragons information annoyed him.

"These guys are hermaphroditic, meaning they are neither male nor female, right?" Kai asked as he started to think what would be a good name for them.

"It is more that they are both male and female, the two of them able to produce young on their own should they need to. I settled on a female persona when I started to pursue Trengor. He had already taken on a distinctly male persona when we first met. It was long before we both ascended and it just stuck. Though most dragons will take on the gender associated with them when they first hatch," Atheos explained.

"I just thought woman were superior…" Talious added from where she was sitting on the edge of the couch.

"So… Atheos, you going to name your children or?" Kai said, letting the question hang, half hoping he wouldn't have that added pressure.

He was terrible with names and he felt a little anxious about the prospect; he had worked on a list, knowing that this was a distinct possibility.

Atheos shook her head vehemently, "You have no idea how many people I have had the honour of naming. I ran out of names I liked years ago. And, this is also seen as somewhat of a trail among my kind. It speaks to you as their mother and father."

Talious scoffed amusedly as she rocked back and forth, eager to share something relevant. "Storm Talon thinks he is cool, and his rider's not bad. But then there is You, she killed the one who named her… stolen eggs usually don't end well. Still, she is ferocious, and she keeps the name to send a message, though it does get confusing when more than one of us meets up."

"Someone seriously called a dragon You?" Kai asked in horror.

"No… You, she never officially got a name from the one who hatched her. The woman kept ordering her to do things. You stop, You move, You please need to stop eating me aargh! That kind of thing. At some point in all the abuse poor, little You thought that was her name, and the system slotted it in. It actually amuses her when the meat sacks, as she calls them, get confused. She likes to pester the Shattered Kingdoms, thankfully."

Kai felt that 'meat sacks' was too close to the old meat suit jibe Syl liked, and he hoped she wouldn't pick up on it.

"So we name them. You won't do it?" Syl asked Atheos.

Atheos agreed with a smile.

Syl gave him a look that spoke volumes, and all the cool and clever dragon names escaped him. His mind betraying him as it went blank now that the task was put to him.

Kai was shit at names and he knew it.

The little white dragon looked up at him angelically, its big purple eyes seeming to swirl with innocence and a depth of intelligence that belied its age. He hadn't even got a good look at the little thing yet, but its head which seemed a little large for the little body curled up in his shirt. They were all soft edges and young, adorable cuteness that made Kai's natural instincts scream 'protect this little thing at all costs,' it was just so cute, and his mind went back to how pure and again, angelic, it was.

"Castiel, Cas for short, and if you decide you're a little girl, it still works… we can even call you Cassie, though I think Cas is androgenous enough," Kai said, talking to his little dragon.

The little thing rubbed its head against his chest in appreciation, a deep crackling purr emanating from within her. Or him, it. Ah shit, they would worry about what it was later.

"Supernatural, really?" Syl chided. "Do you even know the meaning of that name?"

Kai shrugged as he scratched the bridge of Castiel's snout. "Does it matter? We are a world away from Earth. And Cas was always pretty cool to me… Shit, I never finished watching the show."

She rolled her eyes and looked down at the little dragon that was submerged in her bosom. She sighed and said, "This is Fayriel. First impressions aside, they have taste and they are beautiful. And it matches their sibling somewhat."

"They're not technically siblings…" Atheos said, "I always feel weird explaining this little piece of trivia. You humanoids always look at me funny."

Everyone turned to look in Atheos's direction. Even Talious wandered over to stand by Alicia as she carried a still sleeping Gift over.

"So, how is that different to being siblings?" Alicia asked.

"They are nestmates, or clutch-mates. You know how our form is determined by where we are incubated? How even an egg of a greater dragon like myself or Tally here could, depending on the circumstances, result in a wyvern, drake, or any of the other Draconic variants?"

They all nodded.

Talious, however, looked confused and raised a hand.

Atheos nodded to her.

"I've never heard of a wyvern or any lesser variant coming from one of my kin… is that really possible? They sometimes come from rifts, sure. But you're saying we are the same species?"

Atheos sighed, "You have lived your entire life on an A-class world, one rich with eather and abundant in different forms of mana. Of course, all the young would come out fully formed here."

Talious shifted uncomfortably. "I need to get a message to Karg and his kin."

They all looked at her for an explanation.

"They're a bunch of wyverns who escaped a rift when it collapsed… there's also a few that have hatched from late stage eggs that were recovered from other dungeons and- and it's a mess. They have been forced out into some of the crappier territories."

"Yes, you should take the time to reach out. But don't feel too bad about the wyverns. They're a bitter lot. For some reason, they are more suited for battle than anything else. And I hate to admit it, but they're not too bright. They never really learn to master magic or change their form. That and they can't decide when to stop growing. Trengor has a bit of a rivalry with an old wyvern that just barely reached divinity. The two of them are so stubborn, they won't admit they are friends."

Talious nodded along.

"Now, as I was saying, Fayriel and Castiel, they aren't siblings, or at least my kind shouldn't see them as such. If Thanric ran one of his basic genetic tests on them, he would find no connection between the two of them. Their genetic code will be so scrambled for there to be a familial match. It's how we were designed and, again, this has a lot to do with how we propagate. Mainly how we spread to new worlds without any dragons. We don't just pop up naturally like nearly everyone else."

"One greater dragon in the star wandering tier can seed a world. It's why you start out hermaphroditic. If there is only one of you on a planet, you can still populate it. And in the early stages, when the populations are low, there is no risk of inbreeding because of the genetic deviation," Syl concluded.

"That is it precisely."

"How did I not know this…" Talious asked in surprise.

"We believe it's restricted. To stop the spread of dragons. And it's only ever an issue on newly seeded worlds. The reason I bring it up is merely to inform. Don't be concerned if they like each other. It will most likely not be an issue. The odds of two nestmates kept together getting together is unheard of. Them staying together in itself is rare."

"Scale blight! Atalas and Shendor are in exile," Talious said to herself. "I need to pop out of the domain. Explain some things to my kin on Alea."

"That might be for the best, though it might be hard to overcome cultural bias after so long. If any of your kin have questions, remember, you are my champion and I ask little if they wish to contact me."

Talious nodded, stepped forward to give Castiel a scratch, then Fayriel before she turned to walk away, Sicily jumping gracefully from atop her head to land in the nest and sniff at the eggshells.

Talious got to the edge of the clearing before she turned and walked back.

"What is it, Tally?" Syl asked with a smile.

"I still have no idea where we are in the domain," she said, her white cheeks turning a shade of pink in embarrassment.

Politely ignoring Talious' little mistake, Kai examined Castiel again.

Castiel Lv.10 Primordial Dragon hatchling, Age: 0

Satisfied the name had stuck, he looked over to Fayriel and examined them.

Fayriel Lv.10 Primordial Dragon hatchling Age: 0

That name had stuck too, but something was odd. He examined Talious as she tried to explain she was tired.

Talious ( ??? ) Dragon, ( Ember Aspect,) Age: 3569

Then he examined Atheos, trying to confirm what he was seeing

( ??? )

"What is it, Kai? Something on your mind?"

"What is a primordial dragon?" Kai asked, "Can't examine you, but you said Tally is a greater dragon, and when I examine her, it lists an ember aspect." He scratched Castiel again. "The little ones, they show as primordials, no aspect… that and they are both already level ten."

Atheos's mouth fell open. She actually looked confused. "Level ten is normal, but..."

She looked to Fayriel, then Castiel in turn, before she said, "I- I don't actually know. My divine examine just states… well, this."

Kai felt the information Atheos passed to him. She was right; it was annoyingly vague.

Castiel Lv.10 Primordial Dragon hatchling, Age: 0

Primordial Dragons are theoretical beings.

"One extra line?" Kai asked with a click of his tongue.

"Yes," Atheos said as she was overcome with a distant look, her eyes glossing over in a perfect white glow. A moment later, she blinked, her purple eyes coming back to focus as she scrunched her face in confusion. "It's- it's almost as if it was erased from the ancestral memory… something deeper than a simple restriction on the information."

"Mistress, that can't be good," Talious said softly.

"No, it's not. I found one thing… it was vague. 'They were the greatest of us, all we were meant to be, our destiny before the new system came.'"

"New system?" Talious asked.

Kai went to explain, but found the words stuck in his throat, Syl, Alicia seeming experiencing the same thing as Atheos just stood there and looked thoughtful, a sly smile curling the corners of her lips.

Talious looked at the three of them, then sighed, "Forbidden knowledge, and your domain is not yet strong enough to lock out the system."

"Sorry Tally," Alicia said as she patted the little dragon woman on the shoulder, her gesture causing Gift to stir in the one arm she held him in.

Talious groaned, "I can't stop my Mistress from using the nickname, but please don't make me beg you three to stop."

"Sorry, I meant it purely as a term of endearment. I won't use it if you don't want me to," Alicia said apologetically as Gift pawed at her to let him go.

"It's not a problem, just… some people might think I'm going soft. I have a reputation that's already taken a hit with some of the more distant council members. If they hear you calling me Tally, well, I'm going to need to assert my dominance again. And I haven't done that for at least three centuries. It's a pain."

Gift jumped down to rub against the patiently waiting Sicily. He circled her once, then twice. On the third time he noticed the two eggs and cried "Siblings!" in a panic as shoved his head into one of the open eggs.

Castiel and Fayriel both disappeared. Kai didn't even feel the little dragon crawl out of his shirt. They were just there one moment and gone the next, his shirt falling flat on his chest as Syl squeaked in surprise.

The sound of happy chuffing and yipping filled the nest as Sicily had to jump into Talious arms to escape the rolling ball of fur and scale that was Castiel and Fayriel, greeting their old nestmate in the flesh for the first time.

Syl stepped forward in concern as Fayriel chewed on one of Gift's ears as he inturn tried to sit on and seemingly pin Castiel.

She was stopped by Atheos when she stepped forward to stop her from interfering. "They're level ten. Play fighting like this can't hurt them."

Kai saw something in Atheos eye, but he said nothing, he was more interested in Castiel's counter attack as the little dragon broke free, jumped high flapped once with surprisingly large wings then dropped back down onto the larger Gift to take hold of him by the scruff.

A minute later Gift had shifted his form to a slightly larger, two tailed wolf and was sitting on the two little dragons.

"I win!" he declared before he shifted back into a little fox and jumped off the two of them.

Castiel and Fayriel looked at each other, then after a moment of silent communication, both wrapped themselves around Gift.

"Oh!" Alicia said as she raised her hand to her chest, feeling something within her.

Atheos just nodded in satisfaction, as Gift seemed to shrink down smaller than he normally preferred. The two little dragons separating from him as he curled into a perfect ball, his fur absorbed and a shell with black and gold mottled surface took over.

"I had wondered how it would happen."

Alicia turned sharply to Atheos, "What's happening to Gift?"

Kai realised he was right. There was something in Atheos' eye when she had stopped Syl. "They gave him their form… all of it, just like he said they had promised they would," he said thoughtfully.

Now that Gift had turned into what could only be an egg, the two little dragons curled around him again.

"You knew this would happen, part of the premonitions?" Syl said as she came to the same realisation.

"I saw three dragons in parts in of the premonition. I never actually understood it until now."

"Gift's becoming a dragon?!" Talious asked, unable to contain herself.

"He will never be a true dragon… at least, not really…" she paused for a brief moment, looking thoughtful. "If you boil a dragon down what are we but artificial beings," Atheos sighed. "Gift is Gift, unique. An artificial growth item with an ego, turned true polymorph, enhanced by Kai and removed from his host, then bound to a greater whole… Then two little primordials did something." Atheos gestured all around them. "He is an artificial being that was forged from the same domain those two hatchlings were incubated in… honestly, I dont know what is happening. If you ever have a premonition, don't dig into it. They're worse than an ingrown scale."

Alicia sank down to place a hand on Gift's shell. "Why is he like this? He's taken on many different forms, mixed and merged them, but he has never done this before."

"It's too much information shared all at once. Normally mimicked dragons are shit imitations… they can't process all of what a dragon truly is. Gift's special. He is taking his time. He won't have enough of that energy he uses. So until he can process everything, he's gone dormant, incubating…" Syl said, as she reasoned out what was happening.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.