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Post by littlekreen on Sept 22, 2018 18:10:15 GMT -6
As the bloated body finally reformed Flynn inside it the spine gave way with a leathery tear. The inside was more a cocoon than a body the bones change to reflect their natore of supports for the inner container. A black feathered dinosaur rose out of the red gore shaking red from a bright cobalt feathered crest. Flynn stood up to roughly to Molly's shoulders though her natural hunched pose diminished her vertical height. Blue veined black eyes shot a nictitating membrane across as Flynn went into a coughing it of an ill-tuned wind instrument.
After a few wet *hrnks* she spat out bill's human larynx and a few choice vulgarities in her own tongue. Fluted notes, chirps, and growls until her blue tongue began to flicker blue as the spell reseated itself on the true body.
"א♫♪♫ ♯♪ע♩♬♭♫חע♫ ♩האה ♪♭♪♬ח racked human voice flaps! Agh, not the good kind of thing down my throat," said the reacher's normal female voice if often vulgar.
The whelps however knew when they smelled a kill, or in this case a meaty husk, and emerged from the stump. Thebus wide-eyed and chirping spun once at the presence of food under his mother and raced onward. Behind him at the threshold of dark the bulbous human baby that was Quinn emerged as a lime-furred fluff by a blade of light. Where Thebus scampered across back to flute at his mother Quinn stayed and looked at the tree. Mouth wide to a burst of color Quinn bit into the hollow tree by the side of the hole. As his brother chewed on what was left of 'Bill' from Quinn came a harsh creaking noise. The tree's limbs played in reverse as leaves ungrew, dead ones fell free, and fungus burls vanished like prey to an amoeba. The hole closed up under a swell of bark though quite smaller no longer rotted inside.
Quinn started musty hiccups as the lime coated fluff ran back to Flynn who only remarked at Molly, "Second generation yellow are powerful but sterile. I see why clutch mother Yellow wants them. Your brother's nature must be more intrinsic than yours, Thebus. I am sure you will be a good male."
Flynn stomped with her toe-claw to de-arm bill's shoulder as the two whelps murmurred noises while eating. She fished around for the heads of the two and scritched them before moving off to Molly. Eating some food that smelled like sweetwater or medicine. Definitely not food she cared to try the Saurid's blue-veined black eyes narrowed at the scent. If Molly could still see Flynn's soul it was a storm of blood-colored runes that snaked to and from living things as she walked about. As the lines of power beneath the earth beat or the veil moved as did the bloodwrit a tuned venue of magic for others to conduct through.
Her lips pulled back revealing conical teeth, "Ugh, what is that? You humans and your sweet food smells like the moldy fluid I smell in those metal cans mixed with medicine. I will need some water to clean the Whelps after."
Black teeth started eating bill's other arm her fine-feathered brow raised. This arm lacking the black mark that had since faded to grey on the other that she had disconnected from his essence. Meaty bits tore from the bone in a wet squelch. The smell definitely human blood but discerning noses would sense it from a living thing somehow incomplete.
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Post by demikara on Sept 24, 2018 10:42:31 GMT -6
"This is a poptart. It's a high calorie snack food." She shrugged and smiled. "I like them! But I also need the calories if I'm going to take you to another plane. Magic takes energy after all, and this will give me a quick energy boost." Though she knew that it would be temporary at best. She finished it off and opened a second packet of poptarts. Taking others with her took a lot more energy than she had expected.
She enjoyed her snack, and firmly ignored the kids eating basically a human. Yup. She wasn't about to touch that with a ten foot pole. "And there's probably a stream nearby. In the mean time, I'm going to need to know more about your world to get you to it. Can you tell me more?" The more she knew, the more she could pinpoint the world. For now though, she needed to fuel up and let the whelps eat. Hopefully her new dino friend would be fine waiting to eat.
She had befriended a dinosaur.
What even was her life? Molly managed a smile regardless and nibbled her snack, waiting to hear more about the others world, making certain her book was out and floating next to her, flipped to the saurian pages. That seemed to be the best bet, so far at least. She wondered if all the people on the other's plane were saurian, or if it was just the one planet, or just the one species? Well, she'd find out shortly. This was going to be interesting. At least she knew she was likely to be able to breathe there, given the other was breathing here without any significant difficulty. There must be similar oxygen levels then.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 24, 2018 14:44:35 GMT -6
Flynn snuffed in the pop tart's direction, "Still smells like medicine and sweetwater. You humans can eat plants too? We always wondered if it was all or only some. Lost souls populating our rigid dreaming do not speak and it is dangerous to engage Children of Teeth."
"We must eat meat. Even my Quinn and his deformed teeth it is good he is an innate willed. They are all like your bulbous ones," She pried open her lips with a finger and showed the long row of serrated conical teeth of an obligate carnivore.
Then pointed off to the two brothers eating the husk. Thebus tore off a bit of meat with flailing mouth clamp then tore off a small part. Small bit of meat handed to Quinn showing his full set of molars peeping a response then ate a bit for himself. Thus they worked together their aim set high as little predator children are wont to try and consume the whole thing. Thus one lime fluff implored at his brother regularly still very hungry and too young cut his own free by hand. Attentive and concerned chirps from Thebus in response as the fluffs shared food.
Flynn lay down on her haunches curling a black tail around her. Long silken feathers of thin fronts fluffed at the end in more hidden cobalt as she nonchalantly ate a forearm and relaxed. Sheared off white bone sticking out one end where a shoulder once was.
She reaches back to slip the journal free from her backpack, "Well our cities are built atop mushroom boulders that hold their atmosphere in the water. We culture them to span between pillars."
With a flip of pages she shows a white line drawing on pale green pages of an angular boulder festooned with mushrooms the size or larger of the saurids at chain cranks along sides. Fish drawn behind them and all around.
She flips to a view of a city covered in ceramic motif a massive boulder anchored between pillars the size of city blocks in a grid, "Clutch mother has overtaken the first and largest city but none can oppose her when she can will any not her progeny to die. They once followed the Red Lady."
This time after a moment showing an image she'd drawn in a temple of a tall relief, a humanoid over twice the height of others like her shown therein. Skin of the woman drawn with wood grain and angular pointed tufts of hair. She wore no clothing but then Flynn's people did not either. It showed three of their kind kneeling at her feet. One with a open hand vertically and a brush, one with sword and armor with cards laid as if in a tarot spread, the last with a scroll its palm turned up.
She tapped the tall humanoid woman, "The red lady has been quiet for some generations we have good proof of her talking to that first order. I do not think she would approve of them. She is tall and shaped like you. We have not found trace of her in our dreaming but grandfather teeth has tamed all the dreaming under his endless maw. Our Far and Deep still have us look for her."
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Post by demikara on Sept 24, 2018 16:26:58 GMT -6
"We're omnivores. We can have plant and meat. If Quinn's teeth are like my molars, the bulbous ones? Then he may be able to have plants also. They're a sign on this planet of the ability to eat plants." She confirmed and flipped through the pages of her book settling things and comparing information only she could read to what she saw in the book. She settled on one plane and showed the book to Flynn. "Do the pictures look familiar?" There were images of a species that greatly resembled Flynn, and a few other species as well. Molly was hoping that this was the right plane. This wasn't exactly ideal, trying to track down the plane of a lost traveler. She didn't wholly think it could be done, but it was her duty to try at the least. And if she couldn't figure it out, she'd have to report the other and she really didn't want to do so. Molly nibbled on bottom lip and then turned her attention to the pop-tart, finishing it off.
Lets see. Two pop-tart packets was roughly 800 calories. She should be fine once she had digested them some. They were here until then of course. Molly kind of had to process the energy a bit more before she could do anything, but at least she was rather full now. That should be enough though, and if not, well. There had been an unopened pop-tart box. Six packets would be more than enough, even if it delayed everything because she definitely would need to digest. And maybe sleep some too. It was hard to tell. Making certain she had enough energy for her travel was more difficult than she liked to admit, especially here. Here, the foods were...well, they were way tastier than traveler rations, but it took more to get the high levels of calories needed for travel.
Still, it looked like there had been some humanoid life on Flynn's plane at some point. The red lady huh. Sounded like a religion and the images looked like it too. That'd be a good clue. Religions tended to vary by plane, though many of them had the same overarching ideas of a deity or many deities making everything and going on grand adventures.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 24, 2018 18:34:05 GMT -6
Flynn thwipped her head up with a small bark, "*Hep!* Eating medicine as food how strange. I will wait until I have a healer to try. He has food enough for now."
She stood up enough to waddle in closer her toe claw tapping against a stone in time, "Hm. It looks like our dreaming the land slopes away in the holes and the obelisk. We have tried making homes in the dreaming before we met the Children of Teeth. They died of wasting and wracking by the Children of Teeth. It is said when before she founded the orders and gave us the spark of intelligence the Red Lady sent our primitives to the fringe of the dreaming to find her people in Teernog. The Red Lady is a prisoner of Grandfather Teeth."
The smooth back arc of a claw tapped at a stone smoothly twisted in the background. An interlocking pattern that often carried very old missives of seelie and unseelie alike but this one reticent to reveal itself as a message even written down in the grimoire. Covered in subtle but repeated marking of very old magic doing its eternal best to remain uninvestigated. Not quite enough for obsessive saurian translators to figure the erratic tongue even if the subtle texts were noticed at all. In content notable if anything that both identically labeled by the languages of enemies. Neither with good things to say with proceeding further that nothing would ever return whence it came by orders of old and powerful beings.
Flynn's eyes dilated with interest revealing the eye-shine behind them, "Do you know what the words say? Willed found they are words and have tried to discern them but the magic refuses to translate or we have not enough knowledge. Our older twitch say they contain the name of Grandfather Teeth in the dreaming to mark his territory. Newblood twitch say it is a warning to keep out because they are all similar that most are near the fringe and point toward the impassible end of our dreaming. We see reflections of them sometimes deeper past the dreaming looking makes me nauseous like the twisty place you walked us through."
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Post by demikara on Sept 26, 2018 6:37:13 GMT -6
Molly hesitated a moment. "Teernog wouldn't be Tír na nÓg would it?" If it was, their Red lady was fae. That made a difference in many things. She looked closely at the words. "It looks like the fae tongue, if an older version of it. I'm not fluent." She had grown up human after all. She shrugged and smiled uncertainly. "I can take some pictures and try to find out from the fae, but I can't read it myself." She could only pick out the occasional word and that was it. And that was only because she was trying to learn it, in what free time she had.
She considered things carefully. "It's difficult to get a primer in this world, and I try to avoid the fae realm." she didn't want to draw attention to herself at all. "But I believe I can get the three of you home, at least." She smiled, pleased that she had found the right world. "I'll need to digest a bit, and maybe have another packet of poptarts. That's going to be a bit of a walk. Thirty minutes? Maybe forty-five." Her method of travel wasn't instant, it just seemed it on the planet to people who didn't know better.
On her own, she could probably make it faster, but she wanted to go slowly and cautiously if she was going to have passengers, and she wanted to avoid the bad areas on the traveling plane. She could handle them, could fight what was there when she was on her own, but others? She didn't know. She didn't know if she needed to hold onto them the whole time, or if they'd fall to the nearest plane if she released their hand. She didn't know and it was safer to assume she couldn't and that they'd need to avoid the bad zones.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 26, 2018 15:58:40 GMT -6
Flynn turned her head once as the tongues spell translated for her. Blue-veined eyes looked up with her head to think at sounding out the words they used for magic with her syrinx, "*RrRrr* Land of Youth? That matches the old tales better, yes. Our spell knows those words."
Intent to speak another language her dense fluted accent pushed through unperturbed, "((t♪rna knÓg... Teer na ♫nog... T♪r na nÓg)) Little from prehistory and little in our dreaming with the Red Lady's language in it. They do not write things down often or Grandfather Teeth has sought out and consumed it."
A hollow sound of scuffing hand fluff came as Flynn rapped her knuckles together the spread tail feathers thumping periodic dust clouds though steadied in tone, "If you have someone the Red Lady would ask for I would like to read of them! I do not care to talk to things powerful like the Children of Teeth without knowing of them first."
The mother saurid stood up claw toes clacking with a quiver of her jaw to whistle for her whelps whom with bounces that flung gore scurried about. Thebus leaving a pile of thin black and white bones from the chest of the husk they flung themselves headlong. Both pairs of bright pink mismatched eyes no less enthused by the mess their hair showered wildly. They stopped near their mother though Flynn tried to back out of the spray of detritus.
Flynn's third eyelid covered over as her irises furled away and the the eyeshine did too, "We need to get these messbuckets to the water you mentioned. If you travel by dreaming I can follow and keep the real underneath me now so I can hold them both."
Her eyes were wholly flat black as her hunter's sight looked around the area, "I do not see the cold of water."
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Post by demikara on Sept 30, 2018 10:10:57 GMT -6
Molly shrugged. "I don't know the way to the nearest stream. But if I'm not supporting you and the kids, I can probably lead you home sooner." Molly frowned and searched the ground, then picked up a pebble. She examined it for a moment, charmed it a bright yellow, and then twitched her fingers over it, only remembering to explain herself at the last minute. "Sorry I'm...I'm not used to others being around when I do magic other than the investigating bit." She looked a little embarrassed.
"I charmed it to lead us to the nearest body of water. It shouldn't be too far. The reserve is riddled with streams and stuff." It had to provide for the needs of all the residents, so hefty sources of water had been important, especially for water dwelling species. She tugged on her hair. "I try not to travel by dreaming to places I haven't already been. This is my clearing, so I know the path here." There had been a reason the cooler had been there, waiting, and there were small signs of habitation and use in the clearing. This was where Molly taught herself magic. It was, as far as she was concerned, her clearing, and there were ward stones around it to mark the boundaries and keep others out and keep her magic in. Maybe it was a bit selfish of her, but well. It was her magic spot.
Everyone got a little weird about where they did their magic and where and how they learned it anyway. She knew Rahal was obsessed with katas.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 30, 2018 10:38:13 GMT -6
Flynn considered her options but needed to know the way back to her home. The whelps were still fragile and prone to wild impulse though clingy they were. All it would take is one to be distracted in the dreaming and run off in chase of some creature. Neither could they go home with clutch mother looking for them. Hm.
A throaty rumble of consideration from the black saurid rumbled to Molly, "*Rrrrff* Yes, the reacher's life is no place for whelps. Your place of power is as good a place to start seeking a path. The journey will likely pass by clutch mother Yellow too. Walking toward our blood soaked shore full of solidity and the misery of those never reborn."
Her soft feathered hands gently knuckled the two heads beneath the lime floof then shook gore from them, "The whelps must stay in this place until the Far and Deep can secure safe passage to wherever we arrive. Maybe they should stay here until they can defend themselves from clutch mother. I am not decided."
She grinned her crest shooting straight up with a strong snuff of air, "Is the cute human male, Rahal, free to tend the whelps? I do not think you have keepers like we do and a another willed is a good place to see to my Quinn's own."
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Post by demikara on Sept 30, 2018 12:04:56 GMT -6
Molly laughed. Cute human male. She was telling the others that had been said about Rahal. "He's the local emergency foster. He could probably watch them, but we'd have to check." He'd be the only one with the resources, really.Still, it was amusing, the very idea of him caring for the tiny little fluffs that the whelps were. Molly followed the pebble as she considered teh situation. It did sound like the other needed some kind of shelter for the kids. "We have day cares and the like, but nothing long term but fostering. If Rahal isn't able to foster them, he'll know someone who can." That was a given truth. He knew just about everyone who could.
The man wore too many hats, when it came down to it. She was impressed he was ever standing, but it seemed when he wasn't working he was drunk and causing trouble, so it was probably a good thing he was so busy. She followed the pebble a while and shrugged. It dropped with a splash into a small creek, and barely that, and Molly grinned. "Ta da! Water." And not so deep they couldn't see the bottom, which was probably a good thing. This was the reserve after all.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 30, 2018 17:18:43 GMT -6
Flat black eyes bobbed at Molly as she followed ticktacking at the ground, "I know a skilled male when I see them! I've never paid keepers for their service they are very expensive it pays for the children's car. They watch our children otherwise the younglings know who is best keeper."
Thebus darted out toward a bush and Flynn chip-barked at him, "♫♫RRark Agh, come back you! You have no divide between clutch and brood mothers I think? These whelps are so impulsive. I see children following their clutch mothers stumbling along drunk. Yours are thankfully too invalid to move after birth."
Flynn diverted to follow Thebus and the riotous bush fishing out her wayward whelp from a bush. There was louder squeaking, a crack, then smaller squeaks. Flynn huffed and raised from the bush a green fluff had a sharp mouth full of mother shrew and to each hand and foot a pup each. Excited muffled peeping came from Thebus.
The saurid huffed though had a slight smile, "Fffffff Yes, you are a mighty hunter Thebus. Now put those down they might have worms."
Flynn carried Thebus instead the rest of the way though energetic and wriggly for noises he heard in the bush. Rodents wisely running for their lives. Quinn however was less enthused merely peeping worridly from her feet when Thebus left peering with wide eyes at his brother every few dozen steps thereafter from the ground. Once they'd gotten to the water Flynn fished around through the fluff for Thebus' tail.
She bent down at the waterside releasing Thebus into the water arms flailing. The whelp's stiff lime hair turned limp and darkened to forest green. It floated in clumps as two phlox eyes peeped backward from the bedraggled clump of green stands. She motioned to Quinn whom leaped into the water on his own as Flynn hurriedly fished for his tail in the slow-moving creek. They held stock still though peeped softly every so often. Corks with eyes held by their tails.
Flynn dragged Quinn's a bit upstream to offer Molly his tail, "Can you hold on to this one while I clean his brother?"
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Post by demikara on Oct 1, 2018 6:35:22 GMT -6
Molly looked amused and took hold of the tail. "Sure." She splashed Quinn playfully with the water, slipping off her shoes and clumsily rolling up her pants with one hand so she could step into the stream. He was a cute kid at least. "Hold still, Quinn." She said gently, not wanting to hurt the little ball of fluff. Carefully, assuming Flynn didn't stop her, she began to help clean Quinn up, using the water and pouring it over the ball of fluff so she could get some of the mess off of him at least. She wasn't sure how else to clean him up, but it should help some.
"They're cute kids. I take it they can't wear glamours like yours yet?" The other had asked a question though. "And we only have mothers, just the one type." She scratched the top of Quinn's head gently. He was a cutie, that was sure, and seemed like less of a handful than his brother at least. Thebus seemed to be much more energetic and playful, but then again, Flynn had mentioned something about deformed teeth and this one. Molars instead of incisors. If that was true, he may not be getting enough plant based matter in his diet, which might contribute to it. Molars did tend to be for herbivores after all.
Still, he seemed to eat meat well enough. Maybe he was an omnivore? It was hard to say. She didn't know the kid or the species well enough to really know at all. "Are you wanting to stay on this plane, or just the kids?" She could take them back, take them to Rahal's place. The mage shown like a freaking beacon on the traveling plane, even when he wasn't on it. Most magic users were barely even a glow, just a hint of light more than anything else. Rahal and Catherine though were both bright beacons and Molly had definitely used them to navigate before.
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Post by littlekreen on Oct 1, 2018 14:57:58 GMT -6
Flynn bobs at Molly cleaning Quinn though both whelps whistle and squeak complaints at the cold water. Both leave red streaks flowing downstream as Flynn extracts the remnants of their meal from the extensive coating on sodden hair. However Quinn leaches green chunks with small explosions of aquatic life consuming the meaty bits on his hair and skin leaving scattering smoke of other small aquatic denizens. Under her fingers the sturdy hair stalks sprout waterweed leaves as he's brushed with them from underneath. Translucent oval fronts continue to unfurl from hair stalks even on the top of Quinn.
Flynn pushed down Thebus with a finger as the whelp held his breath and flit across his third eyelid, "Bloodwrit can't cast on others like that. We would contaminate adults let alone whelps. The whelps' towers, like a spirit in human terms I think, has walls too thin but adapts quickly. They see the dreaming clearer to draw strength but in too small a path for most to bring harm. We are born in water their life's fire burns away blacken there."
The top of Thebus now clean let him up peeping a spout of water with his breathing, "Quinn is a dualist willed of some kind I think. We have some. They burn very hot. He will be hungry again soon."
Flynn pulls Thebus out by his tail and the small sodden bundle of seaweed with eyes bent up to clutch Flynn's arm, "Rreeeen Like being hugged by a wet cloth. Yes, I think I must stay if my whelps cannot go home. It will take time for our Far and Deep to muster an expedition and distract my clutch mother enough to safely move them. A Reacher always finds work there are always things or people to find even if not in the dreaming."
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Post by demikara on Oct 3, 2018 7:12:47 GMT -6
"Ah, Quinn. Hold your breath real fast okay, so I can dunk you like your brother." If her instruction was followed, she'd dunk his quickly, before she finished cleaning him off gently as possible, cleaning carefully through his fluff as well. Still once Molly was sure he was clean, she'd gently draw him out and pressed some water out of his fluff, so he wasn't dripping at least. Given she was in her work clothes, she hesitated half a moment before holding him to her, so he could share in her body heat. He looked reptilian. She didn't want him to get too cold. "Our glamours can be cast on others. I can probably make an amulet of some type for them so they'll be disguised as...toddlers, given how mobile they are."
Babies would be too immobile and these two were definitely not it. "Maybe two year olds. That'd suit their penchant for running off." She hesitated a moment and considered their shape, then wrinkled her nose. "I...may be the only one who can do the glamour, actually, given their true forms. It's not usually done that a glamour is fully physical, instead of just an image." Most couldn't do it at all. Molly hadn't heard of limits on glamours when she was teaching herself though, and so had handily broken through the limits with all the confidence of a child without rules. Still, she well knew it wasn't actually good for someone so young to stay in a glamour forever. Even Molly had to sleep, after all, and she usually took the glamour on her form down then, now that she wasn't wed.
Her wife had never known the truth. Then again, she and her wife had never been legally married either, but as far as Molly was concerned, saying that to her face was a punchable offense. Who cared about legality when they had been married in the eyes of their gods. "It would take me a bit though. And you guys still may want to live on the reserve in the meantime, for safeties sake."
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Post by littlekreen on Oct 3, 2018 19:25:53 GMT -6
It wasn't as much as Quinn understood as he craned back his neck to look at Molly but the hand on his back. A tiny pitched huff of inhalation set the third eyelid shooting over his eye. The light got slightly darker as his small nostrils closed between wet hair strands. Submerged the leafy texture overtook the lime hair entirely until the waterweed rooted directly to grey flesh deep underneath. As light started to pass through the leaves as if the Elodea rooted to Quinn as substrate. He did start to shiver the small fluff's normal temperature a bit lukewarm. The elodea started to fall away in brown flakes as she pressed the water out of it. Pale lime hair shedding the impressed plant life there didn't seem much water to him after a moment. The wetness draining away to soft peeping. Quinn squeezed as close to Molly as he could. Much like his brother clambering upside down across Flynn's arm that seemed quite a bit more dense fluff than muscled arm. Arriving at her torso Thebus flung himself upside down to channel his inner barnacle in the deep feathers of her side.
She grouped a bit of hair and squeezed some of the water out of the top, "Little clingers should take to objects of willed I think make sure they do not fall off easy. They do not know to resist impulse or spell."
A toothy grin came as Flynn remembered a particular prank the Keepers hated, "A passel of them following keepers scare easily it is best for the figment shaped as your children that can jump. Our keepers hate loud noises. I am glad you are a willed that can cast the spells!"
Absently giving Thebus a few blue-tongued licks to clean up some of the water he started crooning after, "I live on the task. In disused dens and destroyed houses. Our dreaming has few comforts or safety but I will find some for my whelps if this place is safe. Didi would insist so I will give you as much time as you want, Willed."
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