Rivendell sighed despondently as he stood outside the faire for the second day.
Everything will be all right. Yes, my invention has been lost. And yes, I did get caught trying to misappropriate someone else's. And it is possible everyone here believes I'm a petty thief. But I can start over. Have a clean slate... OH FOR THE LOVE OF STORMCATCHER, WAS THAT RIDGEBACK LOOKING AT ME?!?
"You're panicking again. Deep breaths, count to ten. Think of something calming. Think about fish. Swimming back and forth and up and down and back and forth .... "
Glancing up at the sing-song tones of his partner/best friend, Rivendell glared at the larger purple Wildclaw. "If I"m panicking then it would be your fault. You are a menace. You convinced me to
liberate an invention and now everyone here probably assumes that I'm a common thief! Incapable of original thought! I'm going to be the laughing stock of the faire! I'll never be able to show my face again. I -"
"Remember what we talked about Mate," Athos interrupted. "Happy Place, Calm thoughts. Happy Place, Calm thoughts."
Right. Calm thoughts. Be calm. I can do this. It will be fine. No one thinks you're a thief. Holding his head high Rivendell prepared to march into the faire and show all these dragons just what he was capable of.
==========
After dragging Athos away from the vendors selling food outside the faire, and getting directions from a
thankfully different security dragon than the one they had encountered last night, Rivendell finally made it into Storage Room 1. He had been informed that he could borrow any needed parts from the left behind inventions. "But
only parts, not the whole invention mind you", the large Ridgeback stressed.
Did he know about his liberation attempts? Ok. No. HAPPY PLACE. He doesn't think you're a thief, he was being helpful. And clearly he and Athos weren't the alone in their need for spare parts; the room was full of dragons, he would have to be quick if he was to find any decent parts to work with.
"Athos, ATHOS!" confounded Wildclaw, where was he? Whirling around RIvendell spotted his friend leaning against the wall eating a bag of nuts and watching a tiny fae drag a large machinery piece across the room. "Stop eating, and come help me. If we don't hurry there won't be anything left!"
Without waiting for his friend Rivendell turned and dove headfirst into a pile of scap metal. Sorting through the pile quickly, he discarded uneeded items as he went and tossed them into a pile behind him. Still, he had yet to find anything that looked useful and he was beginning to feel rather depressed about his chances of rebuilding
anything out of this stuff when a claw wrapped around his tail and pulled him from the pile.
"How about this?" Athos crowed from his perch atop a large five cylinder engine. He waved his bag of nuts around in excitement. "It's really big! Looks like it could easily power ten of your little coffee maker thingies"
Rivendell circled around the large engine curiously. Yes, it was big. And yes, it could power several of his inventions easily. But there was no possible way that he could move it. Not even with Athos' help. "Nope. It's too big. We need something smaller, keep looking!"
Once again RIvendell dove back into his pile and continued to dig around until he was yanked out unceremoniously by his tail. Rubbing his tail, he glared over at his counterpart.
"Alright Mate. This is perfect. It's not too big. And it should power at least
one of your thingies. I think?" RIvendell watched curiously as Athos' extended his arm and then darted over to examine the small battery case he held out at him.
"This still won't work, it's too small. And we don't have any batteries to put in it."
Turning back to the piles of spare parts Rivendell continued on his search for the perfect power source. Ignoring his friends grumbles about his pickiness and then the quiet singing of "we pillage, we plunder, we rifle, we loot..."
Some time later he was startled by AThos tapping on the back of his head.
Well, at least he didn't go for the tail this time, let's see what treasure he found now...
The purple Willdclaw was nearly dancing with excitement, "I found it! It's perfect. Not too big, not too small, and.... IT DOESN"T TAKE BATTERIES! The perfect bit of loot" Giggling to himself Athos presented Rivendell with a slightly battered hamster wheel.
Stunned RIvendell could only look in disbelief from Athos to the hamster wheel and back again. He couldn't
actually expect him to build something powered by
that? Could he? Sure he was good but he wasn't that good.
He was still staring at the wheel when Athos started to laugh. "The look on your face, you have no idea. I'm sorry, I just wanted to see what you would do. I found these." Extending his other arm, Athos unfurled his claws to show Rivendell 3 small tubes with copper wire inside.
Laughing RIvendell snatched the tubes from his friend and hugged them to his chest. Now these, these, he could work with. He glanced over at Athos and grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry I said you were scatterbrained. And a menace. This is wonderful. Absolutely perfect... matey."
"Ok, no. You can't pull off the pirate speak. Scurvy landlubber that you are." Athos laughed, "now c'mon let's go. We have intventing to do, savvy?"
Choice C: Three tubes with copper wire