The college Esoterica is a very powerful body in Rephidim… but not so powerful that they can afford the price of their own private airship. Instead in instances such as these, the students are rounded up and shoved onto a willing trader vessel. This one bound to Himar so that the minerology class can have some time learning the mining processes used on certain ores necessary for things like magic powders and chalk.

It is currently early morning, the young apprentices below deck are all roused noisily from their sleep by a rattling bell… and then held awake by the thundering of footsteps as the ship's crew begins their morning work. The only welcome thing is the smell of breakfast wafting in from the mess hall.

The young shadow apprentice, Rorshach, has been lucky enough to end up with Skiree as a roomate yet again. She was perfectly happy to sleep on the roof of the cabin (allowing Silhouette to occupy her bed)… but now her own sleep has been jolted as well. She drops to the floor of the cabin as the bell rings and squeals angrily.

"What? Who? Where? Why? How?" Rory shoots up, looking around in a panic, expecting to see cutthroats or pirates or waashus crammed into the room.

Skiree pulls herself from the deck and rubs her bottom. "I was having the nicest dream," she squeaks. "It was about the biggest chocolate covered beetle I've ever seen in my entire life."

Rory wrinkles his nose. He has spent most of the time he can remember in Babel, but he's still not much of one for bugs, especially big ones. "Well … that's nice. I like chocolate, anyway." He sniffs at the air. "What do you think they're fixing for breakfast?"

Silhouette puts her hand to her mouth as if stifling a giggle.

Rory throws together his attire for today (much like his attire for yesterday and the day before that and … you get the idea) and heads over to the mirror to make a pretense of cleaning up for breakfast.

The young Eee sniffs at the air. "Nothing with chocolate I bet." She picks up her stuffed bromthen toy. "Maybe it's bacon… I'd better not take mister porky with me."

The Aeonian smirks. "Of course not. We wouldn't want an angry Bromthen forest hog running about! He might upset Mistress Latania."

Silhouette slowly flows from off the bed and brushes herself off. Not that she looks any different, but it's just a thing that girls are supposed to do.

Skiree gives her toy a quick hug, causing it to squeak noisily, and places it near her duffle bag. She rifles through her clothing in search of something to change into as well.

Rory pulls his hood up over his head, fastening a clasp in front of his horn that serves nicely to hold the hood up even in the wind. "There. I'm all set. All ready, Skiree? Silhouette?"

"You go ahead." Skiree squeaks. "I need to wash up 'n stuff. They usually don't run out of the big fat bugs I like anyhow."

The shadow unicorn examines herself. "I am ready."

Rory says, "Maybe when we get to Himar, Skiree, you can get some of those bugs you can't get in Rephidim anymore."

After that, the strangely-marked Aeonian muses over something, staring at a dark spot on the wall and some signs of patching and other repair. "I wonder if this ship has seen any battles. Maybe a pirate attack. Maybe someone died right here, in this room. Do you believe in ghosts?"

The bat licks her lips at the notion. "Yeah… I miss those little cattypillars that they put in peppermints."

"I don't believe in ghosts." Silhouette signs, she seems intrigued by the patches on the wall despite this proclamation.

Skiree continues to dig through her baggage. She takes out one robe and walks across the room to peer at herself in the mirror, then she'll wrinkle her nose at her reflection and go look for something else.

Rory sighs. "I think that robe will do just fine for today, Skiree."

The boat creeks softly as the crew above continue their morning work.

The Aeonian tries to hide his impatience, not looking forward to cold porridge (or, worse yet, none at all), but it just wouldn't be polite to abandon his friends.

The bat sticks her tongue out at the unicorn. "Foo! You get to wear the same colors alla time. I wanna look nice. If you're in such a hurry to go eat breakfast then go on ahead, I'll meet up with you in a little bit."

Rory wrenches his mouth. There's more than just politeness at stake, after all. "I don't really want to go in there alone. I don't get along with everyone, you know."

Silhouette smiles. "It's another 'silly girl thing', Rorshach"

Rory shrugs. He's outnumbered. He looks askance to Silhouette. "Well, are you ready?"

The shadow does a little pirouette and a bow, indicating that she is indeedly ready.

Rory smiles and bows back. Then, to Skiree, he says, "I'll save you some of the really gishy ones." With that, he grins and goes to the door.

Rory leans back into the room, adding, "If any pirate ghosts show up, just scream, okay? I don't want to miss any paranormal phenomena." He says the last couple of words slowly and distinctly, as if reading them off a chalkboard.

The Eee nods absently in a manner that suggests she might not be listening. She quickly pulls out a bright pink robe, makes a face at it and stuffs it into her bag once again.

Silhouette keeps her eyes outside the door, examining every person that walks by.

Rory clip-clops along as quietly and as unassumingly as he can manage, keeping pace with Silhouette, so she might as well be his shadow. …

The corridor eventually leads into the mess hall where the air smells very strongly of… grease. Most of the students are huddled together at one table, it seems that Vester is making himself the center of attention there as usual. But there are several unoccupied tables, and the breakfast seems to be in a buffet setting.

Silhouette keeps to herself. She doesn't need to eat afterall.

Rory, in a mind for business, and hoping that all the attention might distract Vester from certain unicorns, heads over to the buffet table, hoping something is still warmer than room temperature.

The food has been picked over a bit… but there is still plenty to be had; and most of it is still warm. The food consists of greasy dishes like scrambled eggs, bromthen ham, and bacon. There are also some strange flat breads, plus a large pot of what looks to contain porridge… with a large chitin ladle poking out from the middle of the pot.

Rory looks over the offerings … and goes for the porridge. He's never been much of one for meat and/or grease. He spies the table for any big juicy bugs that might not have crawled away yet.

The bugs are kept in rickety wooden cages… and they don't seem to have been so much as touched yet. Perhaps this has something to do with the distinct lack of Eees on this ship.

The shadow points to an unoccupied table. "I don't think the bully will notice us there."

The Aeonian figures that there's not much risk of all the bugs being taken before Skiree gets to pick from them, but he DID say he'd save some for her, and he's as good as his word. He fumbles for some bugs, avoiding the fuzzy kind, in case Skiree doesn't show up and he feels obliged to eat them himself rather than let them go to waste. He nods to Silhouette.

The bugs prove to be distinctly hard to catch… skittering away to the back of their cages as the aeonan comes close. Some look ready to leap out should their cage ever open.

Rory sighs. It's been a long time since he's dealt with this. If he has to eat bugs, he prefers his to remain stationary, preferably fried and buried in something that disguises their true nature. He checks to see if there are any grubs or slugs. They are sufficiently gishy, yet not as prone to skitter off one's plate.

The more lethargic bugs rest on the bottom of the cages. Most of them look to be bloated grubs and caterpillars.

Rory grins. "'Cattypillars'" He goes for a handful to add to his plate.

The 'cattypillars' squirm a bit in the aeonian's grasp, but don't offer up much resistance. Although one decides to start oozing some icky green liquid from its mouth in a desperate attempt to appear unappetizing.

The unicorn plops the serving on his plate, gets his porridge, and heads to the table Silhouette indicated.

Silhouette grins as Rory approaches and glides off to the side of the bench, offering Rory a spot to sit.

The unicorn sits down and digs into his porridge with a vengeance, not intending to hang around for breakfast any longer than necessary.

A distinguished gentleman, both in age and size, emerges from the corridor and approaches the buffet. Despite the foxtaur's portly build, and the cramped quarters, he moves with a certain grace that speaks of long experience on airships. "Please pardon me" He says, as he squeezes his flanks past one chair, then moves directly in front of the table.

Rory pauses in his dining to take a curious look up at the foxtaur. Not that he hasn't seen them before, back in Ashdod, but he's curious nonetheless.

"Oh, I do believe I'll have some of that, oh and that, and that." The foxtaur picks over the remaining dishes very thoroughly, "I'll need another plate. Oh, Babel Bugs! Why, I haven't had these in ages." He takes the cage and swings it onto his lower back, then looks around for a free table to sit at.

Silhouette gazes quietly at the foxtaur. "Good thing you got Skiree's food first."

Rory sees the cage disappear and reconsiders whether he should have gotten a bit more variety in the bugs for Skiree after all. He nods at Silhouette's comment.

The foxtaur glances at the table full of children, then sees Rory sitting off by himself alone. He blinks, "Oh my" and takes out a pair of spectacles, managing to balance the plates somehow, and puts the glasses across his whitened muzzle, and looks at Rory a second time, "Remarkable."

Some of the children have taken notice of the foxtaur as well. Vester giggles loudly, but is the only one who dares.

Rory shrinks down, and pretends to take an intent interest in his porridge. Well, pretending isn't too hard. He works on gobbling it down as quickly as possible.

He walks towards Rory's table, weaving between the chairs with an airshipman's rolling gait. The bug cage rocks precariously on his back but never falls, then soon is sitting safely on the table in front of Rory as the foxtaur takes a seat opposite him.

Rory scrapes at his bowl, nervously glancing up at the foxtaur while his muzzle is still pointed down at his breakfast.

"Good day young man, I hope you don't mind if I join you." He says, "I do like to try and meet everyone on these journeys, it makes the time pass much more quickly. My name is Naaman." He puts his two plates down beside the bugs.

Silhouette nudges Rorshach. "Don't be rude, introduce yourself."

Rory gulps, wiping his muzzle, starts to talk, then starts coughing, covering his mouth with his hand.

"Rorschach," the little unicorn manages, muffled behind a covering hand. "I'm Rorschach. And this is Silhouette."

Naaman whips a handkerchief out of one the many pockets on his clothing and hands it to the little unicorn, "Here you go my boy. I'm very pleased to meet you."

The unicorn coughs again, then nods and mumbles his thanks as he gingerly takes the handkerchief and dabs at a couple of bits of porridge on his muzzle, then looks at the handkerchief as if not quite sure what to do with it … and then wipes the handkerchief off on his robes, folds the cloth, and hands it back to the foxtaur. "Thank you."

"Ew… he's gonna eat BUGS!" One of the apprentices mumbles.

The foxtaur nudges a chair aside as he settles his haunches on the floor, curling his tail around his seat. He takes the handkerchief back and puts it in a noticeably different pocket. "My pleasure, my pleasure, its very nice to meet you, Rorschach… " His voice trails off as he looks at the empty space identified as 'Silhouette', then he continues, "So what brings you on this voyage?"

"A field trip," says Rory in a low voice. "Mistress Latania, of the Sphere of Life, is taking us on a field trip to study minerals in the mountains of Himar."

Naaman says, "Ah, most excellent. Trips do so broaden the mind, even more so when schooling is involved." He eats afew heaping forkfuls of bromthen hog, then says, "Very good, very good. Are your parents along as well?"

"Parents?" Rory lets his spoon slowly drop to the bowl. "Uhm … No, but I guess Mistress Latania would be my acting guardian. Maybe."

"That is, I don't have any parents," Rory adds.

"Oh, I would so liked to have met them. All the aeonians I've met told me they couldn't have children. You are aeonan, aren't you my dear boy? I know my eyes are failing, but I don't think they are that bad yet." The foxtaur chuckles at himself, imagining if he had made this mistake.

"I don't really remember our parents… " Silhouette signs to herself.

Naaman pauses, "Oh, I am sorry. It is so tragic to lose your parents at a young age." He covers his fox faux paux by eating a few more heaping forkfuls.

Rory pauses a bit, then says, in a quiet voice, "Uhm … I … I'm just Rorschach."

"Now, now. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. Its just I've traveled far and wide, and I've never seen a child aeonan. You most intrigue me my young Rorschach, perhaps you'd rather talk about where you are from." Naaman says.

Rory runs his spoon along the inside of his now-empty bowl. "Well, I'm from the College Esoterica, in Rephidim. But before that, I was from the Guild-Hall of Babel, in Ashdod."

"Ah yes, Babel, wonderful city." The foxtaur opens the bug cage, and deftly snatches the first one to fly out. "Wonderful city. I developed quite the taste for these bugs there. Would you like one?" He puts the beetle in his mouth. crunch "Oh, I see you already have some."

Rory smiles. "I'm saving these for a friend. Skiree. She's my second-best friend. Silhouette is first. But don't tell Skiree that. She might feel slighted."

Naaman says, "Originally I'm from Ashdod, but its so long ago I only remember growing up there from what I read in my diaries. I never saw an Aeonian there though." He smiles, fishing another forkful from his plate, "Much like I don't see your friend Silhouette."

Rory frowns. "Oh. I sort of thought … maybe you could … Oh, nevermind." He looks down at the table.

"Oh my" The elderly foxtaur says, "I do seem to be messing up your breakfast. Buck up my boy, I'm sure she's there. With my eyes I have trouble seeing the nose in front of my face some mornings. I'll tell you a little story instead, that should entertain you."

Rory smiles at this, and looks up. "A story? Is it about pirates or lost cities or ghosts or … Well, what is it about?"

Naaman settles back, chortling, "Oh yes of course, all of those, and lost treasures, strange lands… and… " He leans forward with a husky whisper, "Dragons!"

Before the foxtaur has a chance to continue, a loud shriek erupts from the hallway. Moments later a very flustered brown bat ruches in and pounces on Rory, "He *LIIICKED* me! Ew! Ewwwwwww!"

Rory's ears perk up underneath his hood. "Drag – ?" He turns to look at Skiree. "ACK!"

Skiree hugs onto the Aeonan, currently oblivious to the foxtaur. "That icky lizard guy with the big eyes! He licked me… it was so gross!"

Rory grins, a silly thought coming to his mind, but he suppresses it. "Uhm … Mister Naaman? This is my friend, Skiree. Skiree, this is Mister Naaman. He was going to tell me a story."

As if on cue, a lanky biped lizard walks into the mess hall. His eyes are immense, and are bright yellow in color. The skin that isn't hidden by his clothing is a bright shiny green, mottled with blotches of bright blue, red, and yellow.

The bat quickly ducks behind Rory as soon as the lizard walks in… not before swiping a caterpillar from the aeonian's plate though.

"Very pleased to meet you young miss, you may call me Naaman. Formalities seem so stuffy to me now." The foxtaur says, then looks up at the lizard, "Oh my."

Rory says, "Amazing … a Naga with legs!"

Naaman adjusts his spectacles, and peers across the table at the lizard, "A most fascinating group of passengers on this trip."

The lizard examines the occupants of the room and shuffles lethargically towards what remains of breakfast. He's dressed like one of the many airshipman on board, except for an egg shaped pendant of bright green hanging from a leather strap on his neck.

Rory tries to keep a low profile, not wanting to get licked.

Naaman waves at the lizard, lifting up the cage, "Bug? They're delicious. Do join us sir."

Rory peeks out from under the folds of his cowl at the lizard.

"My my my" The foxtaur says happily to himself, "You can travel and travel, and what you see the most is that you've never seen it all." He helpfully moves a chair around for the lizard. "I can honestly say I've never met an individual like you."

The lizard perks a bit, then slowly drags himself to the table. "Thank you very much." he says in a deep voice. None of his movements are swift, instead he moves with a slow grace, seating himself next to the aeonan.

Skiree quickly sits as far on the OTHER side of the bench as she can.

Rory grabs something off his plate and hands it to the lizard. "Want a gishy cattypillar? It's the kind that spits up green."

"Niton do not travel beyond Lamu." the lizard says. "I was first. Mother allowed me to leave."

*ZZAP!* The lizard's tongue darts out towards Rory's hand… and suddenly the caterpillar isn't there anymore.

The foxtaur nods to the lizard, "My pleasure. My name is Naaman. This here is young Rorschach, and his friend Skiree." He pauses, sweeping his hand in a very encompassing gesture "Oh yes, and his other friend, Silhouette."

"Lamu?" Rory repeats. "You're from Lamu?" His eyes grow wider. Then he belatedly looks at the greenish greasy spot which used to be a "cattypiller" in his hand. "Oops." He wipes his hand off on the table.

Silhouette seems to have taken a keen interest in the lizard as well. She stares at him intently… much more intently than usual.

"I am Reece." The lizard hisses, in response. He fingers the pendant on his neck.

"Oh yes, wonderful Lamu." The foxtaur smiles, "I should have known, everything fantastic is from Lamu. I've never seen anyone like you before though." He chortles, "Or young Rorschach here, perhaps he's from there as well."

Rory shakes his head. "No, Silhouette and I are from Babel."

Skiree quietly eats her bugs.

Naaman winks at the little unicorn, "Do remind me to tell you about the dragons of Lamu. Yes of course my dear boy, I was just making joke. Such a fantastic morning this has been."

The unicorn looks back to Naaman. "Can't you tell me about the dragons now? You were just going to earlier… " His ears droop a bit.

Reece looks from the foxtaur to the aeonan. "Dragons? You mean mother."

"Truly remarkable" He takes a leather-bound book and a stylus out of another pocket and starts writing, "I shall have to make notes of this first, mustn't forget. Actually right now, I'd most like to hear any story you could tell me Reece, I collect them."

Rory looks back to Reece. "You're a DRAGON?" He blinks incredulously. "Can you breathe fire?"

The foxtaur adjusts his glasses and takes another careful look at Reece, certain he wouldn't miss a detail that obvious. "Please, do go on sir. Its most interesting."

Reece looks at Rory, "I am Niton. Dragon is the mother, but not our birth mother."

Rory says, "Oh. I'm sorry, but I don't understand a word of that. Maybe I'll learn someday."

"But you said… oh yes, I see, that's your race name, yes, of course." The old foxtaur scribbles.

"Mother took me into her cave and allowed me to leave." Reece says. He removes his necklace and shows it to the foxtaur. "One of the mother's scales."

"Most intriguing" The foxtaur lifts off his spectacles, and takes a close look at the necklace, holding it right above his muzzle to see it better, "Truly fascinating, do you mind if I make a quick sketch of this?" He places it beside his notebook, and starts making a crude image of it.

The pendant in question looks to be some kind of green stone. It is egg-shaped, and smooth.

Rory sneaks a glance to Silhouette, to see what her reaction is to all this.

Silhouette continues to stare intently at the lizard. Her hands fidget nervously.

Naaman says, "Lovely scale, truly a beautiful gift. Tell me more about your dragon mother, first hand stories are so hard to obtain." He finishes the quick image, and turns the necklace around in his hands, looking at it again.

Rory tries to smile reassuringly at Silhouette, then returns his attentions to the foxtaur and lizardman. "So, are you looking for rocks in Himar, too?"

Rory oops and covers his mouth.

Reece pauses for a moment, as if thinking was quite a chore as well for his slow body. "Mother lives in the cave." he finally says.

"Most appropriate." The foxtaur holds the necklace for Rory to see, if he so desires, "Near a lake, or the ocean, or high in a mountain range?"

"In the green." the Niton answers as his head tracks the pendant path.

The unicorn peers at the necklace. Not that he knows anything about necklaces, but maybe he can say something impressive about it that he learned from his studies before heading off on this field trip.

Naaman hands the necklace back to the Niton, "In the green, most strange, most strange. Were there any towns nearby, you might know the name of. Is this green on an airship route?"

Reece says, "I never seen an airship when I was in the green. But I was too busy eating most of the time to notice."

Rory crosses his eyes at this, then blinks at Reece.

Naaman offers the bug cage to Reece again, "Oh yes of course, we are keeping you from breakfast aren't we. Do eat up, they're quite tasty."

Rory nods. "They're MUCH better than Eeees."

Another bell rings loudly (causing Skiree to hold her head and wince). The lizard rises to his feet and takes his pendant back. "That was the work bell. I must get back to work." His tongue darts out a few times at the bugs and they vanish just as quickly as the caterpillar. The Niton then ambles back out of the hall, his whiplike tail held out rigidly behind him.

The foxtaur scribbles quickly, forgetting totally about the door to the bug cage, and they gradually escape as he writes. "Most intriguing."

Rory smiles. "That was neat!"

Silhouette tracks the lizard's movements until the moment he vanishes out the doorway.

Rory blinks and yipes at the escaping bugs! He grabs his bowl and starts using it as a bug-masher.

The escaping bugs zip and dart about, some of them taking their revenge on the buffet table. Many others meet their end under Rory's bowl.

"Very much so." Naaman says, still writing, "Dragons, in the green! I told you there would be a story about dragons this morning young Rorschach, I just didn't think it would be someone else's besides mine."

Rory pants and puffs, busily making bug pate'.

Naaman says, "Unfortunately, not much to work with, but I'll speak with Reece later, I'm sure he has many wonderful tales to tell."

Skiree helps as well, snapping bugs out of the air hungrily.

Rory, exhausted, gives up the battle. "Uhm … Well, thanks. I don't know anything about dragons. So, they're real?"

Naaman adjusts his spectacles, and sits back, looking at the young unicorn, "Well my boy… " he looks at Skiree, "… and you miss, I didn't mean to forget you. Well Rorshach, I've never seen one myself, and I've never met anyone whose seen one. Excepting Reece of course."

Rory looks disappointed. "Oh."

"But as they say, if you smell smoke, something is burning. There are just too many stories for them not to exist." The old foxtaur smiles, "In fact, I do have one story about why they've hidden away. It's abit long, but I'll tell you the first part of it now."

Rory sits back down, propping his chin on his hands. He smiles at the promise of a story.

Skiree hiccups as she chomps down the last bug.

Naaman says, "I can just tell you the chorus of it right now, its quite memorable. The rest of the story I have written in one of my books." He pats various pockets on his upper and lower body, "I believe I have it in a trunk somewhere. I will find it for you." ahem He clears his voice.

Rory nods and listens.

Silhouette shakes her head, as if coming out of a dream. She turns her attentions to the foxtaur as well.

"Dragons once reigned the lands between, Dakdatpitu and low Lamu." The foxtaur says in a smooth, singsong voice. "In the dark of night, their bellows roar and people fear, they're hunting still."

"So they find someplace safe to creep. Bar their doors, and fitfully sleep. For it is said, that the skulls of the dead, fill their bellies… " Naaman leans towards Rory, "Ten-thousand deep!"

Rory shrinks back at this!

The foxtaur smiles at the young unicorn, "I'm afraid that's all I remember right now my dear boy, but I promise I will tell you the rest."

Rory blinks a few times, then says, "Well … Thank you." He smiles.

The ship lurches a bit as it hits a patch of rough air. Many of the assembled mage students decide to take this as a sign to hurry up with breakfast and get back to the safety of their cabins.

Rory looks about, then stands. "Well … I think everybody is about finished. I guess I ought to get back to my studies. Pleased to meet you, Mister Naaman."

"Don't mention it my boy, the joy of stories is in the sharing." Naaman weathers the lurch, but has to grab his plate before it slides away, "Oh my, we do seem to be in for a bit of a rough spot. It was nice to meet you as well Rorschach, hopefully we can talk later."

Skiree squeaks as she almost falls off the bench. "Me too! Nice to meet you mister Naam-an-an."

Naaman nods to the Skiree, "And you as well. Now, you'd best be back to your cabins, airships are more manageable when the passengers are evenly distributed, and I, had best finish my meal, before it too walks off like the bugs."

Rory nods and puts away his dishes, waves to the foxtaur, then heads back to his cabin with Silhouette. He whispers, "Silhouette? Do you know what he was talking about, calling me an Aeonian… ?"