Bonding

     Unlike many other dragon species, bonding in the suva culture is relatively rare. The reasons for this are varried. It could be as little as the suva simply choosing not to (or neglecting the opportunity to) share it's life that closely with another being, or as large as the suva deciding that their calling is too dangerous for a more fragile bond, since these dragons practically never outlive their bonds; loosing a bond isn't like loosing a pet, or even a family member. It's closer to losing your arms or legs. Loosing half of your self and never being able to replace it. So needless to say, the more dangerous callings don't get many bonds, though it isn't unheard of.
     However, when a suva and their companion do choose to bond, it is an intensely intimate connection the two forge. They can, through the link that bonding creates, share thoughts, memories, feelings and senses, including pain. Bonding is an experience for both bondees, and often suva will treat it with honor and respect bordering on sacred.

Examples:      A suva and rider partnership that is not bonded can fly fairly well, but if the rider knows where they're going and the suva doesn't quite, they can get lost very easily. Guide and his partner would be lost much more often if the suva didn't have a map of the area tattooed on her wing membranes. If the pair were bonded, the rider would not only be able to give their bond specific directions, but share the sensation of their bond's flight, even down to controlling the muscles in his/her wings to steer, if the suva let them.
     An unbonded suva and sira healer pair can share thoughts, since the sira are telepathic by nature, but that is all. A bonded pair of healers can perform miracles, such as the suva channeling their healing gifts through the sira's hands. The Lliyani representative Healer and her sira bond do this when it is needed, as it is much faster and more precise, and the two can simultaneously share knowledge and ideas and experience while working on the wounded.

     Normally, bonded suva don't live nearly as long as those unbonded, but then again, anything less than eternity is short by suvan terms. A suva bonded to a human or sira, both relatively short-lived races, would live only as long as their bond. Fortunately, when bonded to a suva, shorter lived species live long past their respective norm. Bonded humans may live five hundred years with no trouble, while a sira can live up to seven hundred years if not more.
     Bonded suva also usually age much faster than they would otherwise. As a general guide:

Unbonded Suva
Hatchling to Youngling: 2 to 2 and 1/2 years
Youngling to Adult: 3 years
Total time from hatchling to adult stage: 5 to 5 and 1/2 years

Bonded Suva
Hatchling to Youngling: 6 months to 1 year
Youngling to Adult: 1 to 2 years
Total time from hatchling to adult stage: 1 and 1/2 to 3 years
     Keep in mind that the bonded age spans are for mortal bondmates with lifespans similar to humans. Suva with immortal or extremely long lived bondmates age as if unbonded, since their bonds are in no danger of dying before the dragon can fully appreciate them.

     It is unknown how suva could controll their aging in this way, but it is thought to be connected with how certain creatures can regulate their own body processes. For example, when submerged, a crocodillian can reroute it's blood supply to save precious oxygen and send it directly to the brain rather than every extremity. Or how, during cold season, bears can enter a state of hibernation that allows them to go the whole winter without eating a thing. Lungfish and spadefoot frogs do a similar trick, cocooning themselves in a layer of moistness to wait out the dry months, even years. Apparently, suva can speed up their metabolism, growing at a phenominal rate when they bond to shorter-lived species. It isn't quite known why their bonds live longer, though possibly they unconciously slow down their own aging process to meet their bonds halfway, as it were.