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[mordredeschain]

*Mordred has discovered the Sign and has a question to ask.* Have ya ever had the sort o' day where ya wished the universe would just end already? If so, how did ya deal with it?

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[mordredeschain]

When did I say aught about the beasts, sai?

[feathered_mages]

"That's enough, both of you," Arashi says from the doorway to the office. "If you're still hungry, we can send for more food." He's not in the mood to put up with some kind of threat contest that might escalate out of hand.

This gets a 'hmph' from a grouchy Mistral, who points out, "We're still in the Nexus, anyway."

[mordredeschain]

Don’t worry, sai, I wasn’t meanin’ ye any harm.

[feathered_mages]

"Me either," Mistral says with a sigh, stroking a patch of Sealion's scales that are still deformed from old injuries. "Sorry." Even a mistaken threat to his pets tends to make him grouchy at best.

Kitty pads her way over and gives a brief glare to the ice before extending her claws and picking her way across the frozen patch. She will not suffer the loss of dignity caused by slipping! Once she's close to the little red dragon she'll retract her claws and hop up on the hatchling to curl up. One thing about having a little red dragon around, they made for a warm kitty bed.

[mordredeschain]

*Mordred is highly amused by the apparently-floating cat.* I do so wish I had companions such as these . . .

[feathered_mages]

"This isn't even his entire menagere," Arashi says, in a not quite deadpan as he fails to conceal traces of irritation, exasperation, and amusement. "And I don't mean the small army of plants." To Mistral he adds, "You're not keeping them."

"Hmph. Of course not, Arashi. I don't think the cold would be good for them at the lodge, and they wouldn't want to stay in the village with the other mages. Though maybe in the forest..."

"He has a knack for making 'pets' out of creatures anyone sane would consider dangerous," Blaze comments to Mordred.

Mistral overhears that. "It's what Summoners do, Blaze." Nevermind that they still couldn't completely figure out how that particular wild talent had developed. It couldn't have been 'inherited' from Rydia back when he was Black Waltz One after all. But then, he'd only had Sealion then.

[mordredeschain]

Just don't try ta make a pet out o' me, sai. I'd not appreciate it, for all that ya seem likeable enough.

[feathered_mages]

Thankfully for everyone's ears, Sealion has quieted down into sleep by that point.

The shortest and oldest of the Waltzes chuckles at that. "Of course not. People don't make very good pets." Not that he's ever really tried... the dragonlet and displacer beast are the closest to borderline there. Red is still nearly a baby, as much adopted child as pet. And Kitty is just amused that Mistral hasn't figured out just who is the pet from her perspective. "I'm not sure about some of the plants, either, for that matter," Mistral adds. "I think some of the cactus-bug ones were talking to each other before."

"Well, that would solve the problem of who to give the rest to," Arashi says. Though Mistral had still promised them a better home, so there was still the matter of relocating them somewhere.

"Maybe," Mistral says, "but they're scared of the really big one..." And he's most tempted to keep that one, if he can find a way to slowly swing Arashi around to the idea.

"I don't blame them," says Blaze, managing to sound bored of the whole thing anyway. The Waltzes had a high resistance to various mind-altering affects, but he'd still noticed something... unsettling... about the tendriculos. And not just that it was almost two tons of semi-intelligent plant with a 15 foot reach and an appetite for anything it could grab. ... Honestly, he's surprised Mistral isn't already insisting on keeping it. And he'd bet Arashi is expecting that too, given the comments the third Waltz had made since they first saw it.

[mordredeschain]

I'm not always recognizable as a person, sai, an' my other form matches your kind o' pet quite nicely. Not that I'd mind playin' with your pets or huntin' with ya, but I won't be caged or collared. So don't try ta keep me if ya value life.

[feathered_mages]

"I won't," Mistral says. "And I don't like or use cages, unless they won't let us in a town otherwise... and then I'd rather stay outside anyway. I only have collars on Red and Kitty because Red's is charmed to shrink him if we have to go into a town so we don't get chased off by guards. They don't bother us as much if he's the size of a small dog. And Kitty's collar has all kinds of charms on it to help keep her safe."

Displacers didn't have the benefit of dragon-tough hide, if someone happened to work out just where they were. And Kitty's smart enough to have grasped the usefulness of the gift and would likely turn anyone trying to remove it into Kitty Chow... unless it was Mistral so a new protection spell could be added.

"But I don't make pets out of people," Mistral continues - he's not really aware yet of how intelligent Red might be full grown, what with the baby being the only dragon they've encountered so far. "I also don't steal other people's pets or try to use my Bell on fire lizards, since they might be linked to a person."

[mordredeschain]

*Mordred smiles shyly, then changes. It's rather enlightening and quite disturbing.* (Well met are we upon the Path. I would be happy to be thy friend in this form as in the other.)

[feathered_mages]

Kitty perks up from where she's resting to give Mordred a look. Ooo, it's one of those leggy-things! It's so fun to bat those around until the legs fall off... But this one had been someone they were talking to just a moment ago. She gives Mistral a glance and then settles back down in her spot. Not a Kitty-toy then, sadly for her. Oh well. Maybe the next leggy-thing will be.

Kitty's shifting rouses Red from his dozy post-meal state enough for the little red dragon to raise his head and give Mistral's face a nuzzle before curling back up. This keeps Mistral from answering anything right away as he has a faceful of baby dragon muzzle.

"Well, now I'm going to second-guess every spider we come across," says a faintly amused Blaze. Though if they attack him he's still going to set them on fire. Friends/Associates get exceptions... random dungeon crawlers do not.

[mordredeschain]

*Mordred chitters playfully at the ‘kitty’ for a bit, then changes back.* I don’t mean ta make more work for thee.

[feathered_mages]

Arashi chuckles. "It's no problem, you're just not the first giant spider we've seen."

"I'm almost certain you're the first talking one, though," Blaze adds. Not that he'd given others much of a chance to say anything.

Mistral's only slightly disappointed he hadn't had the chance to use his bell at the time. But it was just as well. They'd found Red during that same outing... or rather the dragonlet had found them.

"Our home... doesn't provide the right sort of outlet for some of our needs at times," Arashi explains, hinting that a world at peace was a nice place to live but didn't take the edge off a Waltz's predatory nature. "So we visit another one frequently."

"The best part," Blaze adds, "is that some people will pay us for solving the occasional sticky problem with raiding orcs or goblins or whatever."

"I think the best part is all the interesting animals," Mistral comments. Of course he would.

[mordredeschain]

I would offer my home as a place ta let off steam, but I don’t think you would survive it for long. The very laws o’ physics have broken down in All-World, and o! Discordia.

[feathered_mages]

"That's all right," Arashi says, though the description doesn't scare him off.

"We're well-established in the one we do visit by now," Blaze says, thinking of how all three of them had 'second homes' there that they'd acquired through various adventures. And reputation could be an important thing in their chosen line of work. Once people had managed to mostly get past their non-human appearance, at least enough to pay them to kill things, it had gone quite well. Especially as they had a few advantages over the local mages while still being able to use the spells of that world when they had occasion to learn them.

"I was thinking you might accompany us sometime," Arashi adds, "If it would interest you."

"I should let Sealion go back now... it's too warm here for him to stay for too long, and if I made it cold enough that might hurt the plants." Mistral says, letting go of the summoning magic holding Sealion there. The large creature vanishes in a few sparkles of light, to a slightly sad rumble from Red. But the little dragonlet is used to Sealion disappearing and doesn't get too upset.

[mordredeschain]

I'd be glad to, sai. Not today, mind ya; I have things as need doin' sooner or later.

*He waves goodbye to the creature, then gives Red a careful pat.* Missin' thy friend already, little one?

[feathered_mages]

Arashi chuckles. "We're likely to be busy finding homes for Mistral's latest finds for some time ourselves. Perhaps after that we can get in touch."

Red's already over that, not having much attention span at that age when it doesn't come to food, naps, and Mistral. While Sealion was the 'bigger sort-of-dragony' thing the baby finds comforting to have around because then there's someone bigger to snuggle, Mistral is 'mommy' as far as Red is concerned. Sealion would be back someday, just sometimes they disappeared and sometimes they reappeared. But petting?

Petting is something the little red dragonlet has gotten maybe just a bit too fond of. Mordred might well find his hand headbutted by a bright-scarlet scaled head. Hopefully not too hard, but Red is at least around the size of some of the very largest dog breeds. The wings make him look even larger than that, but he'd actually have trouble getting up with Kitty on his back at the moment. Not that he minds the warm displacer beast 'blanket'.

[mordredeschain]

*Mordred is stronger than he looks, now that he's not sick and starving. He laughs and gives more pettings.*

[feathered_mages]

And Red goes through the tradition of 'pets' everywhere in 'teaching the new person the best places to scritch'.

Mistral just watches approvingly, with a random derisive thought for those occasional stupid villagers and town guards who always took offense to his pets. Always screaming about a dragon... he'd gotten to where he's tuned out anything they might say on the matter. Hmph. Red was perfectly well behaved as long as you didn't wriggle around in front of him like wounded prey or try to take something shiny away from him.

[mordredeschain]

Clever one, this one. Or at least he has good taste in friends, does he not?

[feathered_mages]

"Of course he is," Mistral says, who is of the belief so far that Red and Kitty are the smartest pets he's acquired. Due to his ignoring anything the locals of that world have to say about dragons, he's completely missed that one of the two shouldn't really be considered a 'pet'.

As for Red, he's a little amused by what Mordred said. He's picking up words fast, though he hasn't tried saying them yet and sometimes he misses turns of phrase or idiom. But he does know friends aren't for tasting or eating! Friends are the ones who help you find things to eat and shiny things to keep.

[mordredeschain]

*Mordred notices and laughs.* Not that kind of taste, dragonling; 'tis just a turn o' phrase.

[feathered_mages]

Blaze chuckles at this. He and Mistral have both suspected for a while that Red understands more of what they say than the usual 'pet', though neither of them are close to figuring out just how intelligent Red is (or will be) yet. Arashi has been stubbornly fighting that realization until now, and Blaze can't help a little amusement at his sibling's expense.

"Hmph," Arashi refolds his wings. "Well, at least we know he doesn't plan on eating any of us yet."

Red wriggles, finding that even more amusing. Baby he might still be, but he's smart enough to know that eating the ones bringing you food and sometimes shiny things would be stupid. He likes the shiny things, and he's learning really fast which shiny things are actually good to keep and which are just shiny and pretty but not really 'valuable' by most standards. Not that he thinks he'll ever give up his colored glass and prism mobile. When the light hits it right it puts rainbows and sparkles everywhere and he can watch it for hours...

"Well, of course not, Arashi," Mistral grumbles, and pets the edge of one of Red's wings. "He doesn't have any reason to eat us. Red's a good baby dragon..." If he was going to say anything else it's cut off as the baby suddenly whips a wing over the short Waltz and practically knocks him off his feet for a cuddle.

[mordredeschain]

You give him food and hugs and shiny things, what's not ta like? Even the glass shiny things are entertaining. *Grin.* Something about a prism mobile? That must be very pretty indeed.