Sorry to hear about your elbow Venusian! No worries about no roleplay, I just hope that your elbow feels better soon!
~~~~~
As they returned to Anemia's ship, Anemia pulled out the bounty they'd picked up.
"Geodes, huh?" She tilted her head, trying to think of where to find those. "Arlo's sure to have dug some up, right?"
"Ehh," Riku said, drawing close to look over the bounty himself. "I don't think those form in the same place as fossils."
"So where do we start looking, then?"
"We should ask Auntie Velvet."
"You're gonna make me go back to the lair again?" She huffed in frustration. "Fine. Go get all your animals buckled in, we're lifting off soon."
~~~~~
Velveteen was in her library again, of course. And sewing something for the newest batch of hatchlings, as per usual. She was a very.. predictable dragon, all together.
"Do you know anything about geodes?" Anemia said, direct as usual.
Velveteen raised an eyebrow at her, pausing in her stitching. "Are you asking because I am an earth dragon, or because I am widely read?"
"Both," Riku said with a chuckle. "We need to find some geodes, for Anemia's newest bounty."
"Odd form of bounty hunting," Velvet said with a smile. "Though I can't say I disapprove. I assume you're less interested in how they form than you are where to find them?"
The pair nodded.
"Then allow me to get a map, and I'll-"
"Stop that!" Anemia snapped, as a pair of hatchlings - a guardian and a mischevious-looking aberration pair - grabbed at her feathered wing extensions.
The two (three? aberrations were so difficult to figure out) hatchlings ran off, the guardian bumping into a shelf on his way out.
Velveteen gasped, as the large vase on top of the shelf tipped, tipped, tipped tipped - then toppled over, off of the shelf to shatter on the ground below.
Hearing the crash, the hatchlings (to their credit) slunk back to the library, heads low.
Velveteen moved over to the pieces of the vase with a sigh. "Was anyone hurt?"
The hatchlings shook their heads.
"Well.... that's all right, then. No one's in trouble. It was foolish of me to keep that there."
"But..." one of the aberration's heads spoke up. "What about your vase?"
"Oh, it's all right. I'll see about repairing it. Just like I did with your mith doll, remember?"
The aberration looked both relieved and confused, an expression easier with two heads. As though they were thinking
I don't think it works the same...
"Anyways. Run along, little ones, I'll see to this," Velveteen said, standing to retrieve a broom.
"Was that vase important?" Anemia asked.
"Oh, not really. Sentimental, more. It was from my previous clan, back in the Earthshaker's realm." She swept up the pieces, then pulled out a small empty chest to put them in. "Hopefully, I'll be able to repair it. If not... well, it wasn't anything so important as all that.
"Anyways," she said, putting the broom back where it had been, "I promised you geode locations."
~~~~~
Anemia walked towards the small clan that had taken up residence next to the ancient dry riverbed, thinking she'd introduce herself first before literally digging around in their territory.
A snapper waved at her, and she waved back, walking closer to him. "Would it be all right if I dug for geodes here?"
The snapper tilted his head at her. "I suppose. You should probably at least say hello to the matriarch first, though. And maybe pay her some for the right."
Anemia shrugged. "Sure. Where is she?"
He pointed one blunt foot at a mostly-outdoor pottery workshop. She waved in thanks, and headed for the shop, glad that it had (so far) been this easy.
The massive kiln radiated heat, and she kept a good distance from it, looking for the dragon that must be in the shop. There were shelves upon shelves of pottery, too - finished, in-progress, unbaked. Some had very intricate designs, even porcelain or lacquer. Some was repaired, too - golden lines streaked across it, showing where cracks had been. Finally, she found the creator - a nocturne, working on the pottery wheel in the back corner of the cave that opened onto the rest of the shop. "Hey," Anemia said, raising her voice a bit to be heard over the wheel.
The nocturne started a bit, then cursed as the wall of the vase she'd been making collapsed with her movement. She fixed it, ignoring Anemia, until she was satisfied and brought the wheel to a slow stop. "Who are you and what do you want?"
"Uh- sorry for startling you. I'm looking for geodes, and I was hoping I could dig around here for them?"
"Odd request. Sure, I don't care - in fact, I've got a few here that you can take. Keep finding them by the clay deposits." She hooked a claw at another corner of the cave, where a pile of ten or so geodes was. "They usually look like that, if you're wondering. Rounded, no sharp edges, a bit lighter than you'd expect a rock of that size."
"Oh, excellent," Anemia said, zipping over to the geodes. "I'm leaving you a bit of treasure in exchange!" She added, quickly bundling the geodes into her pack.
~~~~
Riku poked his head out of his room as Anemia boarded the ship again. "How's it going?"
"Good, already got 13 of them."
"Really? That should be enough, right?"
Anemia fiddled with her claws, annoyed. "I don't know. It doesn't say on the contract."
"Oh. That's frustrating. Any idea how much they want?"
"I just said no."
"Hm... how about... the number you drew to get the contact?"
"71?! Ugh, if I do that many, you're carrying them all when we turn them in."
"No problem," he said. "Did you want help digging them up?"
She shook her head. "No. I want you to head back to the clan, actually. Go get Velvet's vase."
"Why?"
"I've found someone who can fix it. That fancy way, with the gold."
"Oh! Yea, sure, I can do that." He gave her a look, though, smiling.
"What."
"Nothing, nothing. You just always hate going there, yet you want to do something really nice for one of the Aunties."
"Shut it and get things ready for liftoff."
He laughed. "Sure, sure. You sure you're all right with being left here?"
"I can fend for myself. And this way I can avoid an extra trip."
"All right." He turned towards the cockpit, then turned back towards her. "The autopilot can handle getting me to the lair, right?"
~~~~~
I should've made him stay and dig, Anemia thought to herself, stuffing another geode into her bag. She'd had to remove her wing enhancements to avoid getting them dirty, so she couldn't fly. She could feel the grit in her replacement jaw. And she was generally just coated in dirt. All around not pleasant.
Her ears perked as she heard the engine of her ship coming in, and she turned to watch it land. Riku was down the gangplank pretty fast, the small chest from Velvet in hand.
"I see you found it," she said, pleased despite herself. She dusted off her hands, then pulled herself out of the dry riverbed. "C'mon, I'll introduce you to the pottery matriarch.
"And then," she added, walking beside Riku, "you're helping me dig."
~~~~~
"So, now that we're finished," Riku said, looking over the pile of geodes in their crate, "are we going to drop these off first, or the vase?"
"Eh, let's get the vase over with first."
She'd kept her wing enhancements off this time, to avoid tempting the hatchlings that always seemed to lurk in the corners of Velveteen's library. Besides, she hardly trusted herself to walk with this vase now, let alone fly in her clumsy spiral way.
"Velvet?" she called into the library.
The obelisk turned an ear towards her, finishing reading the line she was on, before turning her way. "Ah, Anemia and Riku! Did you need more guidance on finding geodes?"
"Ah- no, actually. I wanted to give you something."
"Oh, that's not-" she stopped mid-sentence, as Anemia unwrapped the vase. "How did you get that? Oh, it's lovely!" She reached a hand towards it, gently tracing figures on the surface. "Wait, this is..." she turned to where the chest of pieces had been, then back to the vase. "Very sneaky, Riku."
"Sorry!" He called from behind Anemia, not sounding very sorry at all.
"Well, that went well," Riku said, midway through their flight back to the station.
"Mhm," Anemia replied.
"I'm still surprised you did it, though."
"Well," she said, her ears turning down in embarrassment, "you break it, you buy it, right?"
Riku chuckled, but didn't heckle her further.
Anemia hit the button on the wall for another number, before gesturing to Riku to join her in the line for the bounty desk. He was only along as a pack mule this time, hefting the crate of geodes for her.
"Here you go," Anemia said as she got to the front of the line. "71 geodes!"
Riku lifted the crate onto the desk, gently asking Misuzu to move before putting it down.
"And if I could get a new bounty while I'm here, too -
bounty hunt number 65."
