Author's Note: As mentioned in my profile, gamefic is what brought me here and what continues to inspire my myriad slowly expanding stories. Flight Rising is a browser based and free game of dragon breeding based in the world of Sornieth. Currently players raise and breed dragons. Currently there are many different dragon races, not all of which may interbreed. There are also many other sentient races, members of which may become allies or familiars to the various dragons. Each player is in charge of a clan of dragons, and may breed them, train them in combat, trade them with other players and many other activities.
Standard disclaimer: I do not own any of the wondrous creations of Stormlight Workshop, LLC,the developers, support, forum moderators and contributors who have created and continue to create a wonderful world including an incredible (and growing) variety of dragon races. I certainly lay claim to misspellings, mistakes, tweaks, spells and the personalities of individual characters of my own invention.
Disclaimer to this story: one of the activities taking place on Flight Rising are the Forums, and specifically a Roleplay introduction that is open to anyone. The background of this story stared there. For anyone interested, check out the clan of the same name as this account, and look for a Dragon named GloomWoken, in whose bio will be found the story of how he came to join the clan.
~~The Search for an Egg~~
GloomWoken glanced up at the colorful banners. The Marketplace was one of his favorite places. Second favorite after the library. Well maybe third favorite after the library and the Coliseum.
Delicious scents of food wafted through the busy place. Everything from Insect infested cotton candy, squirming tentacles wriggling out of a variety of spicy sauces to the scents of roasting sunkernels and sunflower seeds.
Randomly he chose a direction and started walking. He had some treasure from his grandfather RuneSwimmer, and a little more from BattleMaster Ossia who had been pleased with his progress. And then on top of that Matriarch Moonrun had told him that he smelled like he wanted to do some trading. She'd offered him a pack of rolled up things like parchment which she said were "retired decorative skins" that he might be able to trade for something important. He had no idea what "decorative skins" might be, retired or not, but he took them carefully.
Then she gave him hug and an affectionate headbump. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the dark form of First Consort WitCloud, who had a serious expression as he listened to his Matriarch's comments. When WitCloud saw GloomWoken looking at him, he gave an encouraging wave of his tail.
"Going to explore the marketplace?" WitCloud commented.
GloomWoken nodded. He was still a little shy around the clan leadership. "I like the Coliseum, but I also want to see more."
Moonrun was now munching on a Cliff lion, eyes closed and contented.
WitCloud's expression softened as he watched his Matriarch. Softly, so as to not disturb her, he said. "I hope you have a good time."
Gloomwoken shook his head. Adults were generally weird.
He spend the afternoon going from booth to booth. Some of the things that were supposedly food smelled terrible, and some of the clothing that some dragons were arguing over in snooty voices just looked weird and silly. Who would want to hang small rocks from their ears, even if they were sparkly? He shook his head.
He passed by contests of strength, mostly attended by Guardians and a few Gaolers. Quite a few of the audience were placing bets on who would win. Staying there for a bit, Gloomwoken tried to guess in his own mind. He figured if he was pretty good at it, maybe he would place a bet or two.
As it happened, he was terrible. Wrong more often than right, and he couldn't figure out why or what he had missed.
He sighed and walked on, almost bumping into a twirling Spiral dragon next to a giant sort of wheel with different pictures attached to it. They depicted different things; some were tasty looking foods, some were different interesting looking outfits or garments and a very few were pictures of bags of treasure and a couple were pictures of very happy and proud looking dragons with little notes that said things like "Apprentice Archeology Specialist" or "Special Heritage Adoptee". He wasn't really sure what the notes meant other than something about the dragons pictured being important.
"Final tickets!" the dragon was calling in an incredibly excited voice "Final tickets! Hurry this is your last chance this season to win some of these items!" The intensity and enthusiasm in the voice was rather compelling.
Partly in frustration over his lack of success in judging the contests, GloomWoken bought a single ticket. Several other dragons were buying "last tickets" as well. Most of them purchasing five or six at a time. One elderly Tundra bought fourteen.
After a few more tickets were sold, the Spiral slammed closed the box that held the payments, and threw a large switch on the side of the giant wheel. It started spinning, and giving off sparks as it did so. Tinkling music started up, at a slow pace at first, but as the sparks started increasing, the music sped up.
GloomWoken promptly backed a bit away, thinking that anything that started out with throwing sparks might not be safe. Most of the rest of the nearby dragons and beastclan members crowded closer, eager to see more. Some were clutching their tickets and muttering paeans to various deities.
The sparks got brighter, shooting up higher and exploding into colorful shimmers before fading away. Giant colorful bubbles started floating out of the top of it. Gloomwoken wasn't sure how they lasted, being right in among so many sparks, but they too rose up and expanded, eventually exploding into giant clouds of sparkly steam or gas.
The crowd cheered encouragement and the Spiral chanted "Hold you tickets! Keep hold of your tickets! Get ready everyone! Winners coming up!"
With a final flourish of music, the Wheel came to a halt.
There was a ripple of flashes, and all the different pictures on the wheel suddenly changed, one by one, starting at the top, then the next one to the right, and so on. Faster and faster. The pictures had originally been of various items.
One that had been a pouch with treasure in it changed to a picture of a delighted Harpy with white wings holding a bag. The other pictures were changing similarly. Then GloomWoken felt the ticket in his hand change. Suddenly he was holding what had to be a hat.
He blinked, and looked closer. Unlike the clothing he had seen in the stalls, this hat was made not of cloth, but of a large skull. And there were horns. And creepy tendrils of what was sort of like feathers and sort of like tangled hair that hung down from it.
It was definitely the coolest thing he had ever seen.
Around him the crowd dispersed, most disappointed but good natured, and many like him examining their prizes. A soft voice near him asked. "That's quite an interesting piece of apparel you have their, my friend. Would you be interested in selling it?"
He turned to see a dragon. A very very large dragon, of a kind he had never seen; huge and much taller than GloomWoken was, with huge shining spikes in a row down the dragon's back. They looked like they had been polished. And maybe sharpened.
Sharp was definitely a good word for this Dragon. The dragon's expression was clearly intending to be a smile, but the eyes weren't included, and they gleamed as they took in the marvelous hat.
GloomWoken was a little intimidated, but tried not to change his expression. He asked. "Are you someone who can tell me how valuable things are?"
Behind the Spiky dragon, a medium sized dragon with feathers as well as scales suddenly turned to stare first at the new dragon, and then at GloomWoken. She moved purposefully closer to them.
"Ahh..Skatcha, I haven't seen you in a while." Her tone was neutral. "Are you still working with-"
The spiky dragon, whose name was apparently Skatcha, impatiently waved her question away. "No, no nothing like that. I was merely offering to assist this youngster by assessing the value of his prize." There was a slightly sour note to his voice as he spoke.
"Oh, lovely," enthused the slightly feathered dragon, shifting from one foot to another as if practicing a dance step. "I always enjoy seeing you work."
She turned to GloomWoken and bobbed her head in greeting. "I'm MistVoice, and Skatcha here is actually quite good at assessing the value of things, if you are comfortable letting him." She gave Skatcha a sharp look.
GloomWoken was pretty sure that the two of them knew each other, and that MistVoice for some reason wanted to keep an eye on Skatcha.
But grownups didn't like it when you talked about things like that. It wasn't polite. So he said. "Yes, I just won this hat, and I also have some items from my Matriarch that she said I could sell or trade." Then thinking about being polite, he added. "I'm GloomWoken."
MistVoice beckoned the two of them over to a booth where another feathery greenish dragon that looked a lot like her was selling paintings. Mostly they were views from high above. GloomWoken figured that in a way, they could also be maps.
"SingingColors can we use the back area for just a bit?"
The other dragon nodded, and tilted her head at Skatcha. "Sure, mind the wards though, I just had them upgraded." Her tone was amused.
Skatcha rolled his eyes. "One time." He muttered under his breath.
GloomWoken took the "retired decorative skins" out of his pack. MistVoice looked surprised as Skatcha unrolled them.
Skatcha looked down at the first one and made a noise that was halfway between a moan and a short growl. Then he looked up at GloomWoken. "Where did you get these, youngster?"
"Matriarch Moonrun," GloomWoken said. "She said I smelled like I wanted to do some trading."
MistVoice and Skatcha glanced at each other and both spoke at the same time. "Tundra." They said.
Carefully unrolling them one by one, Skatcha made interesting noises as he took them in, muttering comments under his breath. "Rare." "Retired a while ago." "How in the world?" And "What is a Tundra lair doing with these?"
Finally he said, "you have some very good items for trade here. What are you looking to trade for?"
MistVoice looked curious as well.
"Well, I came here because I couldn't find any eggs in the Coli, at least so far."
MistVoice looked shocked.
Skatcha looked intrigued, and held a hand up to forestall any comments on MistVoice's part. "Why might you be interested in an egg, young one?"
"I want a brother or a sister." GloomWoken said. "My mothers found me, well my egg in the library. They don't have nests yet, and I want a brother or a sister so I decided that I need to look for an egg. But they are really really hard to find."
MistVoice's mouth opened, and then closed.
Skatcha nodded sympathetically. "The desire for family."
GloomWoken nodded. "MoonRun is the clan Matriarch and she always is happy to see visitors and says that anyone who wants to can stay, so I know that she would be okay with it. And I asked my moms and they said if I did find an egg they would definitely raise it and take care of it, so I thought that an egg that got lost in the Coli might need a good home, so then I could have a brother or a sister."
Skatcha looked over the collection that GloomWoken had brought. "And your.. Matriarch said you could trade these?"
"Yes," GloomWoken nodded. "She's pretty smart about things that are needed. HeliodoreBlade says she is a-" He scrunched up his face trying to remember the exact words. "She is a portent of the changing of the age, and he has found his charge." He shook his head pretty sure he'd recalled the comment correctly.
MistVoice and Skatcha looked at each other. After a moment GloomWoken realized they were sharing some kind of 'grownup look' and so it probably wasn't anything important. Impatiently he said. "So do you think I could trade these for an egg?"
Cautiously Skatcha said, "Now an egg is a living being, and so it's not really okay to 'sell' a living being, but sometimes it would be okay to 'adopt' one, if you promise to take good care of it and have it be a part of your family."
MistVoice looked for a moment like she was going to argue, but then stayed silent.
Skatcha then asked. "What kind of egg would you be looking for?"
GloomWoken thought that was a silly question. "A dragon egg, of course. One of my clan sibs managed to hatch an excavated Roc egg, but you can't be family with a Roc."
MistVoice asked. "What kind of dragon?"
GloomWoken shrugged. "That doesn't really matter, does it? My mother's are both Fae's, but there are lots of times when a nest has more than one kind of dragon in it. The clan has Imperials and Tundras and a lot of Fae and Guardians and Gaoler's and a LOT of Undertides." He frowned, trying to remember. "I'm probably forgetting some, but Moonrun says if you smell like family, then you are family. So if I hold the egg a lot it will smell like me and I'm family."
MistVoice blinked. "How.. eclectic." She murmured.
Skatcha said nothing, but for just a moment there was a momentary smile that made him look almost friendly.
It was gone fast enough that GloomWoken wondered if he'd imagined it. Probably so.
MistVoice shook her head roughly and then focused on GloomWoken. "You might also spend some time in the Apprenticeship areas. There are plenty of young dragons hoping for a new home, either aiming specifically to learn a particular trade, or to find a mate and link a new clan by marriage. Lots of reasons."
That seemed weird at first to GloomWoken, but then he had to admit that not all the dragons that hatched in MoonRun's clan stayed there. Some went very far away. And some new dragons had come from very far away. It wouldn't be the same as an egg, but it might be interesting to meet dragons looking for different clans.
~~Distraction~~
GloomWoken spent some time wandering around the MarketPlace not really sure where the Apprenticeship areas might be, but not in a hurry either. There was plenty to see. Fortune-tellers promised to open the secrets of the universe. Alchemists offered draughts that were supposed to do anything from making permanent tattoos if consumed, to healing one close to death in the midst of a Coliseum fight.
A mixed group of Fae and Guardians were offering their services in lair construction, promising custom designs of everything from treehouses to caverns to towers.
Eventually he came across an area where the "exhibits" were mostly people; some were dragons and some were beast kin. One stall was entirely devoted to Valets. Not sure what a valet actually was, he went up and asked. Turned out that a valet was sort of a personal attendant that sorted out what clothing, or jewelry or whatever else would make their employer most attractive. Oh. That would be basically what Basil's Harpy Familiar Irmengarde did for him.
GloomWoken thought the whole thing rather silly, but a lot of really expensively dressed dragons were very very interested in getting something called a "makeover".
About to leave, he heard one of the valet's (or maybe valet-to-be?) mention something about coordinating discontinued apparel and limited edition and retired skins. Curious, he came closer.
One of the Harpies in charge of the stall, an older female with smoke grey wings saw his expression. "Might I be of assistance, young sir?"
He nodded slowly. "I don't really need a valet, but I heard someone mention retired skins and I have some from my Clan Matriarch that she said I could trade."
The harpy's eyes lit up and she fluttered her feathers. "Indeed, I would be most interested in taking a look and possibly trading with you, young sir." She beckoned him over to a clear corner, and indicated that he should climb up to an upper balcony in the complex tent structure.
He hadn't really registered how tall the "tent" was, and now that he was up on a balcony, it was clear that some of how big it really was had to be hidden, at least a little, by some kind of magic. "Wow," He said, pleased. "You can see a lot from up here."
The Harpy chuckled. "Indeed, young sir. And if sir will grasp the dark sections of the balcony railing, he will find that whatever he will look at will be easier to see. Just hold on tightly."
GloomWoken did so, and glanced at a random stall a few rows away. Suddenly he felt as if he was rushing through the air, and what he was seeing was much closer and much clearer.
A big dragon with a lot of spikes that rather reminded him of Skatcha, only meaner was talking to a small crowd gathered in front of some kind of platform. He roughly pulled a hatchling forward so that more in the crowd could see her. She looked scared, and as he watched, she started crying.
That wasn't right.
The big dragon gestured down to her with a disdainful look, and some of the dragons in the crowd made thumbs down gestures or even laughed. The big dragon raised his hands again in a "what can I do" sort of gesture and more of them chuckled.
"Why is that dragon crying?" He demanded of no one in particular.
"Which dragon would that be, young sir?" Came the calm voice of the harpy.
He'd totally forgotten about being on a balcony. When he let go, suddenly it was a lot harder to see the tent and platform, as they were really quite far away.
He pointed. "The big pink tent three, no, four rows over that way. That whole row has a bunch of triangle shaped flags with different runes or symbols or something on them."
"That would be the lower end of the Apprenticeship Alley." The Harpy's voice seemed slightly disapproving. "Instead of arranging for a formal apprenticeship, there are some that will seek a more..hasty option."
GloomWoken tilted his head, curious.
"Youngsters that have run away from home, former apprentices that have fled their masters, sometimes dragons from very poor families trying to find a better situation."
"But she is crying." GloomWoken pointed.
Grasping the rails with one taloned wingtip, the Harpy focused, and after a moment asked. "Brown patterned wings, pale body with some light purple markings?"
"And some weird yellow stuff on her tummy."
"Mmmm." Murmured the Harpy, still focused on the scene below them. Then she said. "Oh. Oh I see now, that's the Ugly Dragon Stall."
"She's not ugly." Said GloomWoken, although he had to admit that her colors did look a bit weird. "And anyway it's not nice to call anyone ugly."
The Harpy shrugged, still focused on the distant scene. "I don't think it's personally meant, I mean a lot of Dragons don't see beauty the same way Harpies do. Come to think of it Longnecks are another people who have very different standards."
"Is someone helping her yet?" Asked GloomWoken, interrupting what he feared would be a long lecture on standards of beauty and grooming. He got enough of that second hand from Irmengarde, Basil's harpy valet.
The harpy pulled her talon away from the railing. "Surely the young sir jests. It's not uncommon for youngster's to be distressed, especially in this case if she was hoping for an apprenticeship but has little in the way of skills or noble backing to offer. This stall is known for offering apprenticeships without charge; so she will have to wait and see if anyone will accept her."
"No one is going to help her?"
The harpy regarded him. After a long moment she asked rather pointedly. "Are you going to help her?" Her voice had the kind of grating sound that all grown up voices had when the answer they wanted to hear was "nevermind, you were right" or something like that.
GloomWoken's chin jutted out. Was he going to help her? "Yes." He said firmly. "Yes I am."
So saying he launched himself forcefully from the balcony.
The harpy stepped forward, and once again touched her wing talon to the railing. "Hmmm.." She murmured.
GloomWoken arrowed over the rows of tents and exhibits. There were a number of balloons and flags, and he put his Coliseum training to good use carefully avoiding them at speed. In passing he kind of hoped that BattleMaster Ossia was nearby, or even Cai, a spiral who loved to set up and test obstacle courses partly to help the clan training, but mostly because he loved them.
Those were passing thoughts. He dove down to land next to the stall on the side where the little SkyDancer crouched, wiping at her eyes.
All around him, startled dragons stepped back.
The spiky dragon who had called her ugly looked angry at the interruption. "You can't just interrupt-"
"There is no actual apprentice fee required, right?" GloomWoken did not phrase it as a question; and spoke in a voice loud enough so that the nearby crowd would easily hear him.
The Hawker glared down at him. Up close he was even bigger than GloomWoken had realized. Probably bigger even than HeliodoreBlade, who was the biggest guardian dragon in the clan.
A few in the crowd yelled out things about no apprenticeship fee. One of them yelled that had to be the case or he wouldn't be here. Another yelled out mockingly, "What are you going to teach her, to interrupt and cause trouble?"
GloomWoken could tell that a lot of the crowd were kind of angry, and it was scary, especially with an angry giant of a dragon looming over him. He sort of wanted to fly away again. But he wasn't going to leave the clearly scared little one alone here.
He is so much bigger than me, GloomWoken thought to himself, and then immediately thought of all the insults that BattleMaster Ossia had dealt with because he was "only a little Fae" and could hardly be expected to be any kind of warrior. Little tiny Ossia, small even for a Fae, who was quick enough and ferocious enough to regularly defeat ferberuses and pupowls.
Keeping the thought of his BattleMaster and instructor in his mind, he turned to look up at the Hawker. "As a start I could teach her a bit about some fighting in the Coli when she is a little older. I'm not the best student of my instructor, only having recently achieved the 16th tier in the rankings."
There were scattered murmurs. Quite often even nobles who didn't need to fight would train in the Coliseum for a time, but rarely did they bother to strive higher than rank five. Sensing the change of the mood of the crowd from irritation to curiosity and confusion, he held out his rank badge.
A group of three veilspuns flew in a coordinated spiral and approached the badge. "Legitimate." One said loudly, and another added. "I do agree." The third added. "Respect to you and your instructor, young warrior."
He nodded. "Thank you."
Then he turned to the still weeping skydancer. "Come home with me. I promise it will be okay."
She sniffled and looked up at him. In a whisper she said. "I can't go home. I don't have anywhere to go."
"Then come with me. First let's go get something to eat. Can you fly okay, or do you want to walk?" then thinking of some of the Fae he'd met in the library resting on the backs of a few of the guardians, he asked. "Or you could ride on my back if you wanted."
Slowly they walked away from the stall. Most of the people in the crowd moved back to give them space. A mocking voice called out asking what he was going to name her.
GloomWoken saw her cringe at the insult so he arched a wing protectively over her.
"What is your name? I'm GloomWoken."
She looked up at him. "Hi." She said in a soft voice. "I'm Kistadria." After a moment she said, "I used to have to add 'daughter of Kistra, Eldar of the House of Moons' but I don't think I'm part of that anymore."
GloomWoken said. "That's okay. You can be of the house of Matriarch Moonrun. She's our clan head and she likes it when new dragons come to join."
"Do you think she will let me stay?" Kistadria asked.
"Of course." GloomWoken assured her. "She kept AkaPip and me. Somebody put AkaPip's egg in MoonRun's foraging basket, and my moms found my egg on a shelf in the library. And one time she told the Guardians to go out west of the main clanhome because it smelled like someone needed help, and they brought back GentleSnow, who was lost and kind of sick. She sleeps a lot, but my grandfather RuneSwimmer says that's just because she is old."
"How many dragons are in your lair?" Kistadria wondered.
GloomWoken frowned in thought and stopped to calculate. There were the main caverns, and then the mostly Fae area that everyone called the treehouse, and quite a few had rooms near Vow's tea room. Oh and the pond and deeps where Ddu and most of the undertides preferred to stay. It took him a bit. "A hundred and sixty or so, I think."
Her eyes widened. "Oh. Oh that's a lot. How do you keep track of everybody?"
He shrugged. "It's not that hard. There's lots of ways to keep track. MoonRun knows what everyone smells like, and Cal and the engineering crew make sure that everyone who is family will be able to get safely past the wards."
"But." Stammered Kistadria. "I'm not family."
"Yet." GloomWoken said firmly. "Once MoonRun smells you, you will be."
Then he looked around, not entirely sure where they were. After all, the Marketplace and Auction House were huge and they had been sort of wandering while they were talking.
"Are you looking for something in particular?" Kistadria asked.
GloomWoken sighed. "Well yeah. Despite the fact that our clan is huge, I don't have any siblings, not really. And I was in the library and a lot of the other dragons were talking about their nests and clutches and I wished I had a sibling, but my moms are kind of young, and they found my egg, they didn't hatch it.
"They found.." Kistadria looked up at him. "Oh, you are a Nocturne. I've heard that at certain times of the year Nocturne's will put their eggs in places to be found." She paused. "I was never told why."
He shrugged. "I think it's to learn new things." He said. "When AkaPip and I spend time together, we kind of get stuck wondering what the other one wants to do. Nocturnes together kind of don't think of new things. I'm really glad that I ended up with two moms. Stuff that is different makes me think of neat things." He took a breath. "BattleMaster Ossia had the hardest time getting me to not just copy back what my opponents were doing – and sometimes he let me copy like that just to show me how easy it is to lose when you are always doing the same thing."
"So," He said, "I'm looking for an egg."
"An egg, young sir?" It was a familiar voice, and before he had turned around fully he knew it was the Harpy he had been speaking to.
He thought it would be polite to greet the Harpy by name, and then realized he'd never asked what her name was. Gosh that wasn't very polite. "I apologize." He said. "I never asked what your name was. I'm GloomWoken and this is Kistadria."
"Well-spoken young sir. I am Aello, of the House of Thaumas. I had thought to trade with you, but if you have in mind an egg." The Harpy tapped at her chin with a wing talon, looking thoughtful. "It might be from a-" here Aello paused as if trying to figure something out. "From an off-color market, shall we say."
Kistadria's eyes widened.
GloomWoken shrugged. "I don't care what color of a market it is." He said.
Aello's smile at that comment seemed a bit strange, but the Harpy gestured for them to follow, and lead the way back to the colorful stall.
On the way, GloomWoken pulled out the hat he had won. "If the skins aren't enough," he said, "I would trade this too."
The Harpy nodded. "Indeed."
She settled them in a lounge that had cushions for chairs. It seemed very large for the size of the tent, as if a Guardian or two could easily fit. GloomWoken figured there must be a lot of magic in the construction of this structure.
Aello said. "I must send for a compatriot of mine, if you will be so kind as to wait here."
Kistadria was looking around, and pointed to a board with a lot of little marbles on it. "Is that a Go board?"
Aello smiled. "You play?"
"Not very well, but I thought that if there was a wait, I might try a game with GloomWoken."
"Cool!" GloomWoken said. "I've seen Ossia and BloomThorn play, but I've never had a chance."
Fairly quickly, Kistadria set up the board and they started a game.
When Aello had left, the little Skydancer asked. "You do know that she meant the black market, don't you?"
GloomWoken looked up from the board. "I don't care what color it is." He started, and then paused. "It's not about a color, is it?"
Kistadria sighed. "Well, lots of parts of the Auction House and the Marketplace are not so nice, but there are rules. The black market means that someone is doing some trading kind of outside the rules. Like stealing, or something like that."
"I don't want to steal an egg from it's mother." GloomWoken looked upset. "I just mean if there is someone who doesn't want their egg or wants it raised by someone else."
Kistadria looked thoughtful. "Well," She said. "I've heard that sometimes you can win an egg in the Coliseum, and that place is very carefully managed, so those eggs couldn't be stolen."
"I know you can win an egg there, but it doesn't happen very much." He said glumly. "That's kind of how I got to be pretty good. I kept hoping that I would find one, or win one."
He looked around. "Funny that we are here, with Harpies. I figured that they would know about eggs, so I worked really hard to get skilled enough to battle in Harpy's Roost. I thought that might be a place to find one."
A chuckle answered him. "Indeed, young sir." Aello entered and then held the hangings so that the very large dragon behind her could enter.
"Skatcha!" GloomWoken was happy to recognize him. The hardest part of being in the Marketplace was that there were so many people he didn't know.
The enormous dragon bowed his head slightly. "GloomWoken."
Aello looked surprised. "You two know each other?"
Skatcha nodded to her, a slightly deeper motion than the one he'd greeted GloomWoken with. "Indeed. I had earlier spoken with him about his desire to trade." He glanced at Kistadria with a slightly curious expression, but then continued. "And I think I have something that might be of interest on his quest."
GloomWoken sat up more.
Aello's eyes narrowed. "Oh?"
GloomWoken almost rolled his eyes. The harpy was using one of those kind of voices where grownups told each other things just by the sounds of how they spoke. Grownups always tried to make things so complicated. "An egg?" He asked hopefully.
"An egg," Skatcha confirmed. Carefully he brought forth a very scruffy looking largish pack that was old and dirty. Bits of dirt and mold and even a few wriggling bugs fell off onto the floor.
Aello quickly leaned down, pecked up the wrigglers and swallowed them in two bites. She considered a moment and then said. "Murkbarrow Close, if I'm not mistaken."
Carefully, Skatcha unfolded layers of grimy looking something that could have been very dirty cloth, or very large petals of some weird flower, or maybe just really really old bits of leather. Inside was an egg that was pretty close to the size of Aello. It was dark and bumpy and some of the bumps had a sort of bluish tinge to them. GloomWoken thought maybe they were glowing slightly, but he couldn't tell for sure.
"I obtained this from the clan of an Igueel Matriarch, who claimed that she was told it was found in ruins somewhere between the Foxfire Bramble and Murkbarrow Close." The giant dragon sounded quite pleased with himself.
"Now carefully," Skatcha instructed. "Put your talon here."
GloomWoken did so. After a long moment he felt it. A ripple. Something was alive in there, and also the shell of the egg wasn't hard, it was kind of soft, like really nice leather or maybe someone's underbelly scales. "Ohh." He said softly. Then he added. "Hello there."
Without looking up from the egg, or moving his talons away, he said. "So you can have all the retired decorative skins," He swallowed, and added. "And the hat," and he was proud that his voice stayed steady. "And I can have this egg?"
"Yes, young GloomWoken," Skatcha said in a very pleased sort of voice. "That is exactly the deal that I had in mind."