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Ehail blinks, when she finds the bar instead of her room.
She goes in.
She looks out the window, at the exploding things.
"I don't think this is my planet," she observes to herself, tucking silver hair behind her ear.
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She looks at him like he's... from another planet.
nonbird
Well, he is, so that's accurate.
"I came to this world with some other people and we just finished going to all four shren houses and miracling everyone, and then I came here to talk to someone that I met somewhere else earlier and I noticed you. Because I can see magic. Would you like to be dragons? And may I have a closer look at your baby dragons? Two of them are in an extremely alarming state, magically speaking."
"I came to this world with some other people and we just finished going to all four shren houses and miracling everyone, and then I came here to talk to someone that I met somewhere else earlier and I noticed you. Because I can see magic. Would you like to be dragons? And may I have a closer look at your baby dragons? Two of them are in an extremely alarming state, magically speaking."
"They're all fine so far," she says suspiciously.
nonbird
"The places where their magic should be are very nearly empty and they do not want to be very nearly empty, dragons without enough magic become dead dragons, that is one of the most visible things about dragon magic is that it is required to sustain life."
"And you can fix it," she says skeptically. "And turn us into dragons while you're at it. Because you can see magic."
nonbird
"I can turn you into dragons, I can definitely turn you into dragons, I have spent most of this afternoon turning shrens into dragons, turning shrens into dragons is a solved problem," he says. "I need large amounts of offworld magic to do it but I happen to know people who have handily supplied me with large amounts of offworld magic. I don't know nearly as much about magically empty dragon babies, and I would like to look at them more closely, because I can see magic, so I can tell how to apply large amounts of offworld magic to that problem without missing any crucial details."
"I - we can't even tell which ones you mean, they're all doing fine so far," says the black opal duck.
The other shren swims out. "But sure," he says. "Go ahead. Turn us into dragons. We're not going to test the claim while our children are right here."
The other shren swims out. "But sure," he says. "Go ahead. Turn us into dragons. We're not going to test the claim while our children are right here."
nonbird
"Done," he says. "I can teleport you to the bottom of the world to fly, or to the shren house of your choice to talk to all the miracles, but I'd rather look at the babies first because the babies look precarious - it's the boy who's your colour and the girl who's yours," he says, indicating the black opal duck and the red opal duck respectively.
"We can't have them out in public here, we're not supposed to be here," says the black opal one. "They'll be taken away."
"Without having to touch us all, in one trip? What will they think up next," mutters the red one.
"Go nuts," says the red one.
nonbird
Now they are all on the bottom of the world. It's very boring here.
Lazarus reaches for a sparkly red baby dragon.
Lazarus reaches for a sparkly red baby dragon.
She peeps at him. Her sister squawks.
Her father turns into a human with a fierce, suspicious expression on his face, but doesn't interfere. His wife shifts, too, when he does.
Her father turns into a human with a fierce, suspicious expression on his face, but doesn't interfere. His wife shifts, too, when he does.
nonbird
He is not paying much attention to either of them right now; all of it is going to the very-little-of-a-dragon.
All the right structure is there - she doesn't have any extra troubles like a shren would - she's just... drastically undersupplied. As far as he can tell, after studying her intently, that is her only problem. The same with the black opal boy - he doesn't have to pick him up to be sure, the cases are similar enough.
He tries filling in the missing magic in both of them, as a batch. The coin doesn't go. In which case... so many problems seem to result from there not being enough of this stuff to go around. He double-checks how the structure will handle it if he puts in extra.
The structure will handle it just fine.
He spends an eight on each, and wishes for the maximum amount of magic the coins can supply. The previously precarious dragon babies are now each carrying a comparable amount of magic to that extremely shiny green-group he saw earlier.
"There," he says, handing the red baby to her mother because she is closer and less intimidating. "All fixed."
All the right structure is there - she doesn't have any extra troubles like a shren would - she's just... drastically undersupplied. As far as he can tell, after studying her intently, that is her only problem. The same with the black opal boy - he doesn't have to pick him up to be sure, the cases are similar enough.
He tries filling in the missing magic in both of them, as a batch. The coin doesn't go. In which case... so many problems seem to result from there not being enough of this stuff to go around. He double-checks how the structure will handle it if he puts in extra.
The structure will handle it just fine.
He spends an eight on each, and wishes for the maximum amount of magic the coins can supply. The previously precarious dragon babies are now each carrying a comparable amount of magic to that extremely shiny green-group he saw earlier.
"There," he says, handing the red baby to her mother because she is closer and less intimidating. "All fixed."
The red baby promptly sneezes a gout of fire onto her mother, who frowns, sets the baby down, and drops to roll over and put it out. Her husband looks alarmed, but doesn't seem inclined to blame Lazarus for that, until he looks at his other newly supplied son.
(The black opal boy has scrunched his eyes shut, curled up in a ball, and folded his ears down.)
"What did you do?" asks the father.
(The black opal boy has scrunched his eyes shut, curled up in a ball, and folded his ears down.)
"What did you do?" asks the father.
nonbird
"I gave them more magic!" says Lazarus. Quietly. "It's safe, I checked - I think they're just not used to it. I, um, gave them lots more magic. They're now - whatever the thing is when you are a lot of extra dragon, I don't think I know the term."
"Uniques? Both of them?" murmurs the mother. "I - if we can't shift how are we going to take care of a unique red opal baby, they're sure to be taken as soon as she set something on fire and we can't -"
"Unless he was telling the truth about the other part too," says the father.
"Unless he was telling the truth about the other part too," says the father.
nonbird
"You know, the fact that shrenness is contagious seems to cause a lot of trouble," he says. "I'm going to see if I can fix that too."
A five won't do it, not that he expected it to. A six won't either. He doesn't have any sevens. He could go back to Ehail or someone and get one, but he'd be leaving these people stranded on the bottom of the world, however temporarily, and that is very different from walking off with someone's communications crystal.
So he just uses an eight.
It works fine.
"There," he says. "Now it isn't. I suppose you don't have a better reason to believe me about that than about turning you into dragons, though. How far away would you have to be before it wouldn't stick - wouldn't catch, I mean? I can take you twice that far that way," he waves in an arbitrary direction, "very quickly, and come back and watch your babies while you fly back."
A five won't do it, not that he expected it to. A six won't either. He doesn't have any sevens. He could go back to Ehail or someone and get one, but he'd be leaving these people stranded on the bottom of the world, however temporarily, and that is very different from walking off with someone's communications crystal.
So he just uses an eight.
It works fine.
"There," he says. "Now it isn't. I suppose you don't have a better reason to believe me about that than about turning you into dragons, though. How far away would you have to be before it wouldn't stick - wouldn't catch, I mean? I can take you twice that far that way," he waves in an arbitrary direction, "very quickly, and come back and watch your babies while you fly back."
"I don't remember exactly," murmurs the mother. "At least - well, anyway, a quarter mile will be safe and I'll still be able to see them from that far away."
Nervously, the mother shifts, first, and peers at the children (the newly uniqued red one is now playing with fire on purpose). Scales clatter off her. She -
Flies.
Her husband's jaw drops.
Flies.
Her husband's jaw drops.
He follows her, and they both fly towards their children and land beside them. He picks up the red opal girl. She breathes fire on him and he does not care. The mother flops down among the babies and lets them climb on her.
(They are both noticeably smaller than Ehail was when Lazarus saw her, and dropped considerably fewer scales.)
(They are both noticeably smaller than Ehail was when Lazarus saw her, and dropped considerably fewer scales.)