The Crystal Breeze
A trader's airship, the gentle wind dances across her deck. A ship that has seen much of Sinai and bears many signs of her travels. Pennants and flags from countless cities and countries decorate the riggings and the sail, and many pieces of wood on the ship are different colors, showing signs of repair from accidents… perhaps a pirate attack? Boxes full of mysterious wares sit on the deck, tied down should the air become rough. Below, the ship has had many of the storage areas converted into quarters for passengers… for not only traders wish to see Sinai and its lands.

It's nighttime on the airship. The quiet gentle motions of the moving ship are perfect for lulling someone to sleep and tonight is no different. The young Aeonian, Rory, sleeps in his cabin… and dreams.

The unicorn finds himself on the deck of the airship, the sky is black as pitch, the deck bare, the air still as the dead. Except for a strange glimmer of gold out in the distance that seems to be getting closer.

Rory looks around at the bare deck, then clip-clops across it toward the side of the ship closer to the gold, lifting his hood a bit so he can get a better look.

The golden shape flickers closer, darts away, then zips back into view. The sky above rumbles as a storm begins to form. The strange golden shape zips up into the clouds, and lightning dances around it. It's at that moment… aided by the glow of the lightning that Rory is able to make out the form. It's a dragon. A great golden beast spewing thunderclouds and screaming lightning.

Rory shivers and shrinks down, hiding behind the railing as he beholds the monstrous being. "D-d-d-d-DRAGON… " he stutters, wishing it wouldn't take him an hour or so to make a spell to hide himself …

The dragon flies closer. Its mass is easily double as that of the airship. On the creature's head is a rider, cloaked in black. Somehow the figure is able to actually stand on the dragon's head without falling or getting blown off. It stands with arms outstretched, as if embracing the storm. The rider's black cloak whips wildly behind it as the dragon cuts through the air.

Rory peeks up over the railing, watching the figure. At last, his awe overcomes his fear. He watches, and a single word escapes his lips: "Darrrrrk!" That's Roryspeak for "Cooooool!"

The rider seems to almost hear Rory's words. It regards him for a moment and then makes a gesture towards the ship. The dragon obliges to the cloaked figure's command by angling the path of its flight… directly towards the airship.

Rory says, "Grkxsl!" No, that doesn't really stand for anything, except a random exclamation of "Uh oh!" with less enunciation.

The cloaked rider moves so that they're standing almost at the tip of the dragon's nose. Its arms held outward as if to embrace the airship. the dragon's flight screams closer… and faster… until… IMPACT!! Rory feels himself thrown backwards, then sideways. His ears ring with the dragon's roar of thunder and his eyes are blinded by the glare of lightning.

Wait a second… lightning doesn't glare that long.

The little black unicorn shrieks! "EVERYBODY! ABANDON SHIP! AIEEEE!"

Rory suddenly finds himself lying on the floor of his room, his belongings scattered around… and the bright glare of daylight blaring at him through the porthole in his room.

The unicorn grumbles. "I HATE nightmares. Someday, I'll be a mighty wizard! And if a big monster attacks me … I'll ZOT him one!"

Shouts ring out from outside. "What are you tryin' ta do… turn the ship on its side? Get those ropes secure!" The ship lurches again, followed by a solid 'bump' as the ship gently touches the ground.

Rory sits back on his tail, going back over the dream. "That was a really neat monster, though. Except that it tried to eat me. I wish *I* had one like that! One that wouldn't eat me, that is."

There's a sharp rapping at Rory's door, followed by Latania's muffled voice. "Is everything alright in there? We had a rough landing and set down for repairs."

Rory yipes, then scrambles to his feet. "Yes'm! Stuff just got knocked around, but I'll clean it up right away!"

The unicorn immediately tries to assess – and correct – the situation.

The door opens and the Cervani regards the room briefly. "Yes." she says. "Well, we've arrived in the city. The ship has suffered a bit of damage so we may be here for a day or so. You may step outside for some fresh air as long as you keep out of trouble and don't harass the natives."

The unicorn nods, then pauses, and asks, "Ma'am? Where ARE we? And how did we get damaged? Did we get attacked by any giant monsters?"

The room itself looks like someone tipped it at an angle for a few moments. Many of Rory's belongings sit piled up against the far wall of the cabin. Somewhere in the middle of the pile, Mister Porky's curled tail pokes out.

Latania rolls her eyes just a little. "No. The storms hit the ship harder than the captain thought, and apparently this rotten me-… er… this ship has a few sections that have been left in disrepair for far too long to begin with."

Rory sits in momentary amazement that he's managed to accumulate so much STUFF since moving to Rephidim … then is less impressed once he figures in how much of the mass can be attributed to textbooks and the like… "Ohhh," he says. "Well, thank you, Mage Latania! I'll be really careful and not get myself eaten or sacrificed to dark gods of the underworld or start a war or anything."

"Er… very good." the Cervani says, her tone sounds just a tad confused. "Just don’t get yourself lost… not that there’s many places to get lost in Sunrise City." She nods once and closes the door, vanishing down the hallway.

"Sunrise City… " The unicorn goes over that name, recalling what he first mistook that glowing gold on the horizon for. He gulps, then returns to the task of cleaning up the mess … and securing it a bit better this time. EVENTUALLY he'll learn how to avoid disasters in an airship cabin, after all these storms…

When the room finally resembles something approaching clean (thanks to the bulk of the mess being shoved under the bed – with less distance to fall to the floor, you see), Rory ventures out to the deck to take a look at what might be outside. He figures he won't bother Silhouette until he's certain the natives aren't hostile, and that they don't eat shadows.

Sunrise City
Probably the largest city in Lamu… it still isn't all that impressive. This city functions as a tradeport for the rare and exotic goods that are constantly flowing in and out of Lamu. Although at first glance it's a bit hard to believe. The city is amazingly small… just a street with a row of decrepit looking buildings on either side. Strange canine-like creatures wander the streets, looking for all the world like four legged creatures attempting to walk on two. The air is thick with the stench of animals kept in wooden crates and the aroma of strange plants and spices. The sky above is overcast, the air tinged red by flying dust.

"After all," Rory absently muses to himself, "… with a name like Sunrise City … maybe they're a secret sun cult that has rituals involving the devouring of shadows, or else they think the sun will fall out of the sky and … Hey, that'd be REALLY neat!"

Reece, the strange lizard creature, ambles up the ramp onto the deck, carrying a crate of what looks like three or four little reptilian animals. Their bodies are almost spheroid… but it tapers into a scrawny neck and tail. One of the little things cheebles loudly at Rory as Reece sets the crate down among several others similar to it.

Rory looks at the critters, then at Reece. "What are those?"

"Tups." Reece hisses. "They make eggs."

Rory mouths an "Ohhhhh," and nods. "Don't most scaly and feathery things make eggs?"

Reece ponders this for a moment. "Tups make good eggs." He bends down and pokes at the crate, producing a perfectly round egg in a leather shell. It's colored a strange deep purple/blue.

Rory nods in appreciation. "They look really nice! Why are you taking them with you, though? Are you going to sell some here?"

Several other shiphands are also hard at work loading and unloading crates. Down below, the captain seems to be talking with three strange canine creatures. They look like some distant relative of the Jupani, except their features are more pointed, their fur less shaggy, and their hindquarters are marked with stripes.

"Bought them." Reece hisses. He tears open the shell of the egg, revealing an orangish and red liquid inside… which is quickly slurps down.

Rory says, "Ohhhhh."

Rory looks at the 'natives'. "What are they called?" he asks of the lizard-man, briefly pointing at the natives, then remembering his manners.

Many other shiphands are busy repairing the ship, or are negotiating with the natives outside for materials to do so with. The area where the ship has set down looks almost like a piece of the Bazaar in Rephidim. The canine creatures bark ant any passing person, trying to call attention to their wares. Reece looks at Rory's finger, then follows the path of it with his eyes. "Lacinus." he hisses.

Rory asks, "Are they friendly? I don't want to insult them. And I don't think I know the language."

The crest on the Niton's head flattens for a moment. "Friendly during day. Trade fair. They got passage to Rephidim for me… but I never go. Stayed with airship instead."

Loud barks and howls emanate from below as a Rhian and one of the Lacinus haggle over the price of wood.

Rory asks, "Friendly during day? Do you mean they change at night? Do they suddenly shift form, turning into ravenous, bloodthirsty beasts that howl at the Procession and prowl the countryside, seeking to prey upon the innocent and unaware? Or maybe you just mean they're grumpy if you wake them up at night?"

Reece tips his head sideways. "Can change, but they just not like to be bothered at night. Mother wakes them."

Rory mouths another "oh". "Oh! I had a really scary dream right before the ship rocked. I dreamt I saw this biiiiig winged reptile – a really big dragon, maybe – and it was golden and glowing like the sun, I think, and there was this man who was standing on its head, and not even wearing a safety harness or ANYTHING. I'd get in lots of trouble for pulling a stunt like that. Anyway, they heard me and attacked the ship, which I'm still upset about, because that was really sneaky."

A red-feathered Vartan stomps onto the deck, carrying an armload of wood. He dashes off toward the opposite side of the ship.

"Why would it do that?" Reece hisses. His crest rises up questioningly.

Rory shrugs. "I don't know. It was a dream. Maybe it's because it was big and scary, and I thought it looked really darrrrrrk, and it was upset that I wasn't scared of it, so it had to come and spook me."

Rory asides, in a hushed tone, "My nightmares have bad attitudes. They don't like it when I don't act scared. Sometimes I have to act like it, just so they won't be disappointed." He nods conspiratorially.

One of the Lacinus half walks-half bounds up the ramp. Three smaller cubs stick closely to its side. It begins to poke around annoyingly, speaking snatches of Rephidim standard and bits of some other strange jabbering language as it snuffles through the crates and boxes. The three cubs bound over to some of the other crewmen aboard and begin to make a bother of themselves. "Candy? Toys? Play?" the trio yips.

"But then, the other half of the time … " Rory makes a raspberry sound. "Well, I just hope nobody hears me yell or anything… "

Reece shakes his head. "Never had dreams until I leave the green. Didn't sleep."

The Niton ignores the newcomers. Instead he stoops back down to one of the crates and fetches another egg to eat.

Rory says, "Oh. Well … sorry … I'm not a Dream Mage. I'm glad, too. They're kind of boring. I mean, so they can make dreams. Waa-haa… Hey, want to see the dragon? I can SHOW you!" He smiles hopefully.

"I can show you dragon from here." Reece hisses. He points his arm out to the horizon, indicating a wisp of smoke off in the distance. "There."

Rory says, "Ohhhhh! That … " He gulps. "That must be a BIG dragon!"

The lizard makes a loud slurping noise as he eats another egg. "Mother scares you?"

One of the cubs pokes around the Tup crates, causing the creatures inside to screech noisily.

Rory says, "Is she big and golden, and does she like to ram airships or eat little people?"

Reece stares at Rory, his eyes blink a couple of times before he answers. "No." Behind him, the little cub yelps as one of the Tups nips at his nose. He bounds away on four legs – well, three actually since one hand/paw is cradling his nose.

Rory watches the retreating cub, and adds, "Does she bite noses?"

Reece looks out towards the wispy smoke at the horizon. "Never bit mine. Never bit anyone."

The cub's mother (or perhaps its father, it's a bit hard to tell) picks up the cub and scolds it softly. Then cradles it in it's arms and licks the poor thing's nose. Probably the species equivalent of 'kiss it and make it all better'.

Rory watches the exchange, and hopes this means that these people aren't so bad. He looks around to see what the other students are doing … and whether any of them might be heading into town. Perhaps he could go along with a group – Safety in numbers, in theory (even though it doesn't always apply, since mischief comes in numbers, too).

There seems to be a small gathering of students in the city below. They're mostly playing with one another… although some of the strange Lacinus that seem to be of a similar age have joined in as well. Some of the students are showing off various cantrips, prompting 'ooooooohs' and 'aaaaaahs' from the natives.

Rory waves to Reece. "I'm going to go watch!" He hurries down, curious to see just what sorts of cantrips his fellow students of the different Spheres may be showing off.

The Niton waves to Rory as the Aeonian rushes down below. The 'market' that seems to have been set up is situated in a dusty square devoid of plant life… although outside of the square and the city, the grasses are tall, easily taller than Rory. The student that seems to be the center of attention right now looks to be Walton, an air-mage. His voice is currently high and squeaky – must be that helium cantrip.

Rory snickers to himself. No matter how old that trick is, he STILL gets the giggles from it.

The 'merchants' bark at Rory, trying to get his attention as they hold out bits of plants, cloth, and various animals. It seems the art of hawking is still universal, even if you have no idea what exactly the hawker is saying. Off to the side, Rory can see a couple of cubs whisper to one another, one of them points to the center of his forehead – about in the same spot where Rory's horn is situated.

Rory sinks down a bit, self-consciously, and pads along a bit more quickly, looking for somewhere to slip in amongst some of his fellow students … and maybe fire off an Obfuscation cantrip while nobody's looking.

The sunlight is very bright, even for the morning – or at least the mornings in Himar or Rephidim. Rory feels himself begin to sweat in his thick robes.

Rory pants a bit. He's been dressed for airborne travel and for the cool temperatures of Rephidim for the longest. He looks up, shielding his eyes at the sun, then figures another cantrip he could make use of right about now … Portable Shade. He starts chanting.

There's plenty of places to hide. The students themselves are in the middle of everything and are attracting the attention of some of the natives and even a couple of the shiphands. The city itself, although small offers many out of the way places to hide or seek shelter from the blaring heat. The mud hewn buildings look unoccupied for the moment… as if the whole city moved out to greet the airship.

Rory decides not to head into any of the buildings without permission – That would be rude, and he doesn't know the language to ask properly, and doesn't know if they have strange customs here of hospitality, that he might be unfairly imposing by such things. He settles for the in-some-ways-inferior-but-hopefully-sufficient cantrip for now.

The air mage has taken to demonstrating the cantrip on one of the cubs. The creature barks and squeaks, prompting mad giggles from everyone else. A couple seem to notice Rory's slightly shadowed form, but humor tends to win out over subtle things like this.

Rory smiles. He just waits for his turn to try to do something to steal the spotlight … even if that euphemism doesn't apply very well in light of his Sphere of expertise.

The demonstrations go on for awhile, switching from mage to mage as the canines get bored with one cantrip or another. The ones seem to REALLY impress the cubs also seem to be on the receiving end of gifts. The air mage is now the proud owner of the shed shell of some bug. The shell seems fairly durable, and looks like it could even glide on its own if thrown.

Rory's eyes go wide appreciatively at the toy. He fails to suppress an awed, "Oooooo!"

The shell is a dull brown/red, with four wings still attached to either side of its body. The shell is split slightly at the very top, probably where the creature exited from.

A bit later, a lull forms in the goings on. A perfect chance for the Aeonian to perform.

Rory still has his dream fresh in his mind … and that's a necessary component for a successful shadow play. Using what time he has while he notices the lull growing, and then taking whatever additional time he needs to finish a minor spell, he starts the Shadow Play, using a suitable wall for his backdrop. "I had a really strange dream," he narrates between the times needed to 'recharge' the spell, and then proceeds to try to show it in silhouettes projected on the wall.

"OoooooOOOOOooOOoooooo!" comes the collective response from the canines, and a couple of the students as well.

Rory takes a bit of pause as he figures out how to show the dragon to full effect. Showing a SHADOW of a dragon that was a brilliant light just doesn't quite do the trick. He strains, trying to make an area of darkness on the wall, which the outline of the dragon is a relatively "white" spot against, to give some monochromatic hint as to its appearance. He plays upon his own memories from the dream, before they fade entirely, and filling in the gaps the best he can, with his own mental notions of just what a majestic glowing gold dragon should look like.

"Bark bark!" "Awooooo!" "Yip!" comes the appreceative response from the canines. One of the students, a Rath'ani Scrying mage in his mid-teens just grumbles. "No such thing as dragons." he mumbles.

The unicorn continues, and gives himself the shivers as the image of the gold dragon gets bigger and bigger, at last obliterating the shadows on the wall as it expands enough to fill his available workspace. "… and then I woke up!"

One of the Lacinus rushes up to the wall and barks loudly at it, as if trying to scare the 'dragon' away. As the shadows vanish he begins to sniff at the wall, trying to find out where it went.

This prompts several giggles from the audience. Some of the canines whisper to one another and gesture to Rory.

Rory grins, and then says, "Now … maybe for a story. Do you like stories? That is, ones that probably aren't real, but it's fun to pretend anyway. But you never know! Maybe they ARE real! Well, once upon a time, there was a castle on a mountain… " He conjures up a silhouette of a stylized, ridiculously tall and tapering castle on a crumbling precipice. "… and it was in a place where it stormed all the time!" The scene flashes, replacing light with dark, as traces of "lightning bolts" streak across the scene, following the sweeps of Rory's hand, with a bit of encouragement by a jab of his horn.

The canines collectively, "OooooooOOOOOooooOOOOOooo!" yet again. One of them points to the castle, then points to a series of mountains off in the distance.

Rory smiles, and then continues, "There was a mean old monster who lived in this castle, and he terrorized the countryside … " He uses his fingers to create villagers standing, then running away as a monster (projected from his other hand) bounds along, scattering them. "Nobody knew what to do, until a brave hero came along… " He continues on, with a fairly standard story of "brave hero from nowhere comes along mysteriously, agrees to save people, has to pass various strange tests along the way (for reasons never explained) to ultimately do battle with Great Evil Personified, at last prevailing".

Judging his audience, Rory makes the hero a canine.

Reece appears quietly in the crowd to watch. He keeps his eyes glued on the 'monster'. The other Lacinus, upon seeing the hero park and howl even louder. Hopefully this is a good thing.

Rory really gets into the Great Final Battle, jabbing with his impression of dashing sword techniques, as the hero fights the much bigger monster … then simply hops on top of the monster and begins bouncing on his head … then bites the monster's tail, then picks it up and spins the monster around several times before sending it crashing off of the wall … or, that is, the visible area.

Rory says, "And they all lived happily ever after!"

Rory says, "Except for the monster."

Reece visibly winces as the shadow monster meets his end. The other canines eat it up, one of them flexes his 'muscles' while his companions howl loudly. One of them seems to be walking up to Rory with a small bag clutched to its chest.

Rory looks at the newcomer curiously. "Hello!"

Rory thinks of some other stories, but figures he shouldn't push it while he's ahead. After all, he has no idea how long he'll be stuck here. He'd best save some for later.

The gift-bearing canine barks something in response and wags its tail. He holds out a leather sack with a drawstring top to the Aeonian.

Rory smiles. "Ohhh! For me?" He bounces on his hooves.

The canine bobs his head up and down and pushes the bag into Rory's hands, along with… a waterskin? How strange.

Rory looks at the bag and waterskin, and makes a gesture to undo the drawstring with an inquisitive look. "Can I?"

"Bark!" the Canine answers, bobbing his head up and down again.

Rory sighs, not being the best by any means at languages, but hoping that common sense will be on his side, since none of the other kids seems to have gotten in trouble yet. He opens up the bag, curiously looking inside, but cautious of anything that might try to bite his nose.

Inside the bag, there are several strange seed pods. They're approximately fist sized in shape, the seeds themselves are tightly nestled into a 'cup', an outer covering on the seed that encases all but one portion of it.

Rory oooos! "Seeds! I'll have to plant them when we get back to the College Esoterica. Maybe some of the Earth Mages can help me so I don't accidentally kill the plants. I don't know a THING about plants… Well, except that they're usually green, and they like water, and there are a few really big ones in the Savan that like much more than that, and … ahem." He bows. "Thank you!"

"You not want to put water on those." Reese hisses absently.

"Oh?" Rory brightens at the prospect that someone might be able to offer him some help. "What should I do with them, then?"

The canine just does the head bobbing thing. The kind of thing someone does when you're trying to be nice to someone whom you have no idea what the heck they’re saying.

The lizard weaves his way through the crowd and holds his hand out to Rory. "I show you, let me hold for moment?

Rory is at first hesitant, wondering just how valuable these seeds might be, but then shrugs and hands one over to the lizard. "Okay. Or do you need all of them at once?"

"Just one pod. And waterskin." Reece responds.

Rory says, "So, you DO need water?" He hands over the skin.

The Niton nods his head. He holds the pod out at arms length and uncorks the stopper on the waterskin. The Lacinus dive out of the way as he splashes a little bit of water on the pod. For a moment, nothing happens.

Rory blinks widely in alarm at the reactions of the others! He takes a couple steps back himself.

Then suddenly, BLAM!! The pod loudly ejects its seed… sending the projectile hurtling off over one of the buildings.

Rory says, "YIIIIIIII!"

Reece nonchalantly corks the waterskin and offers it back to Rory. The other students behind him just stare off in the direction of the seed, wide-eyed.

Rory stops shivering, then at last says, "Darrrrrk!" He grins widely, then wonders, "Is this pouch waterproof? I sure hope so… "

Reece nods his head. "Is waterproof." The cubs behind him erupt into a chorus of laughter – they knew what was going to happen afterall.

Rory sighs, and asks Reece, "They didn't really want me to get my head blown off, did they?" He frowns, wondering if his performance was so great after all.

"Think they just not know you not know what Andor seeds do." Reece hisses. "Lamu is whole world to these. They not understand that outside world is any different."

The cubs have already lost interest in Rory and are now pestering the Air mage into doing his helium trick again. They bark at him loudly with goofy sounding high-pitched voices as they try and get their point across.

Rory nods, then says, "I guess I can understand that. Thanks for warning me." He sighs, looking around. "I think I'd better head back before I get into any more trouble. Besides … I want to tell Silhouette all about it!" He grins widely again.

Rory skips back to the airship, carefully clutching his pouch of exploding seeds (surely the best kind!), and composing just how he'll tell Silhouette the day's events – and of his dream – in the most exciting manner possible.