Rave

pops up behind you
"Hi there Skeddada Whop, whacha doin?

Gift story written for Niko of the arcane flight

Hello? A voice echoes from every corner. Are you Niko?

You rub your eyes in confusion. Where am I? Who is that? How do they know my name?

I’ve come to say hello. By your response I would say I was correct.

What?

You hear that Hyphae? I was correct! CORRECT! The voice didn’t seem to be directed at you anymore. Hydra says she couldn’t care less about your dumb feats, Rave. This new voice was different from the previous one. It was softer and yet fiercer, tired and yet energetic. The only adjective that could ever fit it... was yellow.

Ahem! Anyways... the first voice continued. Thank you for participating in our- OW-! My study.

Study?

We- The voice paused for a minute. I am very grateful for your selfless donation of 650 gems to fund the vault expansion project!

650?! GEMS?! What is this guy on about? Your mind could not decipher what was happening. When did I donate? To whom? My entire vault balance? I would never!

The yellow voice spoke again, this time clearer than before. Rave means, “Thank you for letting me steal your money, lock you in this room, force you to pass out and then erase your memory of that ever happe-” The yellow voice cut out suddenly, and it was back to the first voice again. None of that ever happened! Haha... Yes! I did n- not, no!

Shut up you little cheeto brained baby! You have to let me get away!

Are they- having an argument?

Rave, you literally stole Niko’s entire savings balance. You have to give it back.

I don’t! I need money! You need money! Heck, even Hyphae needs money!

Her name is Hydra, and we don’t need any money.

The yellow voice spoke to you again. Hey sweetie, you see that door to the right of you? I want you to go there and type in the numbers “7839,” can you do that for me?

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! DON’T DO THAT NIKO!

Be quiet Rave.

You steadily walked over to the door. Noticing a touchpad right above the handle, you hesitantly typed in the code the yellow voice gave you.

Don’t you do it.

7...

Don’t.

8...

DON’T!

3...

STOP IT!

9

The door beeped three times and you heard it make a soft click. You also heard Rave illegibly yelling at you to not open the door, which you of course do.

The instant your hand brushes the handle, the door flings open and you see a very yellow Nocturne staring at you.

“I’m Cheeto! Now you want your money back right?” Her voice sounded exactly like the yellow voice’s, so it was a reasonable assumption to make that it was the same dragon.

Uh-

Right by Cheeto’s shoulder you noticed a very blue, masked coatl death galring you. Out in the corner of your eyes, you saw two, very large, glowing cyan eyes staring directly at you.

Yikes. Who are these dragons?

Cheeto didn’t notice your eyes wandering around the room and continued on.

“Here sweetie, you see...” Her cheerful smile turned serious and in an instant a chill ran down your spine. “You see, Rave has already purchased dragon eggs from the auction house with your stolen funds, so I’m sadly unable to return the direct money to you”

Oh no…

“However!” She smiled again, “I will be able to give those eggs to you as compensation! And who knows, maybe you will make your money back!” Cheeto glided to the other side of the room where the glowing eyes were, and then came back with a basket.

“These are for you,” She opened the basket and handed you a Nocturne egg.

Wait no- I don’t need these!

“Here’s one more,” Another egg was in your hands now.

No! No more Cheeto! No more! Keep them!

“And the last one-” She placed it on top of the other two, forming a very heavy 3 egged pyramid in your arms.

You stared at her blankly. What are you supposed to do with them now? Sell them? Hatch them?

Well... it's all up to you, my friend.