Nest Egg

Yelrona walks out of an office, puzzled, with a large metal egg in her hands.

Razen notices Yelrona right away, standing at the board with lively interest. He turns away from the various requests for aid and grins at the woman. "Hello there!" His voice booms out louder than he intends it to. "What is that you have there?"

Yelrona smiles. "Hey, Razen. Long time no see! This..." she shrugs. "Well, I'll show you." She twists the top and bottom of the large egg and they separate, revealing a smaller egg inside, which she removes, placing the two halves of the larger egg on a nearby desk. She repeats the process, revealing a still=smaller egg. Four more repetitions reveals a very small egg, the size of a chicken egg, inside which there is a cookie. "There's a new cookie there every time I close and open it," she explains.

The half-oruch stares in amazement and then blinks in further surprise at her words. "Really?! That is amazing! It is a very strange item, but for free cookies it is worth the effort." He cautiously pokes one of the bits of egg. "Of course they are magical cookies. Have you eaten one yet?"

Yelrona shrugs. "They aren't magic as far as I can tell. Not poisoned, either. And they're pretty bland. And there's this:" She takes the cookie and breaks it in half, revealing a piece of paper on which a sequence of symbols are printed.

The slip of paper is worth a stare, and Razen bends toward it to try and decipher the symbols. "What if you accidentally ate that?!" He sounds appalled.

"I ate a few," Rona admits. "Nothing much happens. They say something different each time... this one says 'My muzzle is full!' and 'I am getting annoyed.' I have no idea what language they're in, though."

Razen pulls back and tilts his head at Yelrona. "If you do not know what language they are in, how do you know what they say?"

Yelrona grins. "Magic." She reaches into her hair and removes a green-and-orange hairclip, which promptly turns into a helmet, which she offers to Razen.

The half-oruch cautiously takes the helmet and turns it over in his hands before even more cautiously put it on. It fits him surprisingly well, and when he looks at the paper it says exactly what Yelrona says it does. After a moment Razen takes the helmet off and looks at it with a mixture of amazement and suspicion. He hands it back to Yelrona. "You have some of the most amazing things."

Yelrona shrugs. "They're all pretty standard... any wizard will make one for you if you have the cash." She puts the helmet back on, and it turns back into a hairclip.

For the first time Razen doesn't immediately become disdainful of the idea. "Some of these things do seem useful. If only magic was not so dangerous..."

Yelrona shrugs. "Risks and opportunity costs," she says, somewhat cryptically. "The hat is pretty harmless, though."

There's laughter from Razen as he nods. "I suppose that it is not that much different than running into combat is it? It just seems odd to me to risk... I do not know what for the sake of... free cookies?"

Yelrona shrugs. "I mean, walking out my front door is risky. I figure it's better to just embrace that and move on."

Razen grins. "I see so many people using these things, and it seems as though most of them do not do things that they should not do." He shrugs and changes the subject. "Anyway, have you seen the postings on the board? It seems to be slim pickings lately."

Yelrona nods. "I check them regularly," she explains, "just to keep an eye on what's going on around the city. But you're right, things are relatively quiet today. Which I assume means the world is going to end next week."

Razen laughs. "The calm before the storm indeed." He glances toward the door. "There does seem to be... something gathering of late, perhaps more than just one evil building."

Yelrona nods. "There usually is. Right now... well, let's see," she muses. "There's the sparkly slimes in the sewers. There's the Dragonier Wight Brigade. There's the green-eyed vampire I was telling Kaj about. There's Zeheir and his mistress. There's the plant terrorist thing. I'm sure I'm missing something."

Kaj comes back into the hall, rolled up map in hand. He seems surprised to see Yelrona still hanging about, so he heads over to say hello.

"...and of course there's the killer squirrels," Rona adds abruptly when she sees Kaj. "Oh, hi Kaj!"

The list seems to excite Razen, and the half-oruch grins at Kaj. "Seems that things are heating up then." He offers his hand to the other man. "Hello, we were just talking about the various goings-on of the area."

Kaj smiles down at Razen, engulfing his hand in his, "Hello and well met. I am Kaj uru Thaz," he offers, glancing at Yelrona briefly when she makes the squirrel comment.

His attention back on Razen, he focuses on him again. "Never a quiet day and certainly never a quiet night in fair Alexandros!" he adds, giving Razen's hand one last shake and forceful squeeze before crossing his arms over his bare chest, ready to listen.

Razen seems impressed with Kaj, shaking the other man's hand back firmly. "Razen Diharth, it is a pleasure to meet you."

"Razen... is that Dran?" asks Kaj, hesitating because he is about as worldly as he is short.

Razen smiles and makes a motion with his hand. "Northern Dran. Very northern. My clan hails from the savage north." There's pride in his voice as he explains.

"Admittedly," Rona comments as she puts her egg back together, "lots of things hail in the frozen north."

Kaj chuckles, "Not too frozen," he says, but he nods with respect at Razen. "The Dran are our brothers, well met indeed Razen, well met." He nods again, arms still crossed as he listens to whatever information is being exchanged. He is clearly not going to answer Yelrona's question about the cave.

Razen laughs as well, amused by Yelrona's joke. "Where do you come from Kaj, if you do not mind me asking."

Yelrona is curious about that as well, and leans back, listening.

"Dragonier, originally," explains Kaj, waiting to see their reactions before continuing.

"Really." Razen smiles, seeming largely unfamiliar with the location.

"I'm sorry," Rona replies. "Did your people get out in time?"

"Truly, it is a land of wonder, Razen. I am surprised you have not been there, as Dran is our noreaster neighbour, but I think you are young, and missed the opportunity to see it when its magnificent sky islands were the playgrounds of dragonkind!"

He sighs, turns to Yelrona. "Few, so very few, Heth be damned for all the ages."

Razen glances from Yelrona to Kaj. "I had no idea. You are right, I am only nineteen, and there is much of history that I do not know. I probably passed through on my way south but I made the trip quickly so as to avoid... people."

Kaj places his huge hand on Razen's shoulder. "Another time, I shall tell you tales you will not believe, but all of which are true." He pauses for a little while, a forlorn look on his leonine face.

"For now, I must return to the docks. Well met!"

-End-