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<blockquote data-quote="Enk&amp;D'Shai" data-source="post: 411383" data-attributes="member: 7569"><p><strong>“You Scratch My Back and I’ll Scratch Yours,” or, “What’s Behind Door #1”</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="color: skyblue">Vo-lare, o-wo! Chicken con carne, o-wo-wo-wo-wo.</span> </p><p></p><p>Uhh, D'Shai, it's time to post again.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: skyblue">Shut up! The tsunami scene is coming up! Tsunami! Tsunami!</span> </p><p></p><p>Look, if you don't pause <em>Escape from LA</em> right now, I'm giving the DVD to Yoda the dog.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: skyblue">That's OK, I've got it on LaserDisc and VHS too.</span> </p><p></p><p>My hate for you knows no bounds. Well, it looks like I'll be flying solo for this post of Small Beginnings, so please return your tray to the upright position, and...</p><p></p><p><span style="color: skyblue">You suck! Now move over, I'm doing Tip o' the Day!</span> </p><p></p><p>OK! Stop with the noogie!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span style="color: skyblue">Tip O' da Day</span></p><p><span style="color: skyblue">"666 is not the number of the beast, it is an 18 in your preferred stat." </span></p><p> <span style="color: skyblue"></span> </p><p></p><p>Shoot me now.</p><p></p><p>*****</p><p></p><p>“You Scratch My Back and I’ll Scratch Yours,” or, “What’s Behind Door #1”</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Aurora held her left hand high, the magically glowing wand nestled between her long fingers, and illuminated the dank passageway. Her right hand was firmly in the grip of the small, scaled creature called Meepo. </p><p></p><p>It hadn’t taken long for her to become thoroughly lost, as the kobold had set a blistering pace for one so short and their route had been one of twists, turns, and passed doors. She turned her head over her shoulder to look at the others, and caught Ander’s eyes. Aurora gave a questioning shrug, and the olive skinned young man nodded in response – she supposed that meant she should continue as if all was normal. The red haired sorceress gave a slight nod of the head in return, just in time to have the scaly creature clinging to her hand give another sharp tug as he took yet another turn.</p><p></p><p>Aurora allowed herself to be drug along the corridor by the strange little thing. To say that the kobold was ugly would have been an understatement – scars covered its scaly hide, and its mouth was full of sharp and crooked teeth. Yet, behind that reptilian mask, the creature’s eyes spoke of a great sadness, or maybe a great loss. Strangely, the young woman found herself feeling more than a bit sorry for the poor thing – <em>no, not thing: it’s name is Meepo.</em></p><p></p><p>Several times, they had been challenged by more kobolds. The scaly creatures had mostly been armed with spears, and had looked ready to either charge or run if Aurora or her friends had made a sudden move. However, each time a group of beasts had shown themselves, Meepo had held up his free hand and barked out a greeting. “This Rora burned angel! Take to Yusdrayl!” Each time, the challengers had let them pass, only to fall in behind the group and escort them along. As the throng of kobolds following them grew, Meepo’s high pitched hiss grew in volume: “This a burned angel Rora! Take to Yusdrayl!”</p><p></p><p>The young sorceress despaired of ever understanding exactly what the kobold was saying: he spoke a version of the Draconic she had learned in Tor, but he did so very badly. Or, more probably, he spoke a completely different dialect than she had learned while being tutored. </p><p></p><p>The kobold finally came to a dead end door and halted. He turned back toward Aurora and made a gurgling sound, as if he was clearing his throat. “Rora angel? Yusdrayl inside!” He then pushed open the door and led the red haired sorceress into a long, pillared chamber.</p><p></p><p>The walls of the chamber were covered in kobolds, and each pair of reptilian eyes trained on the group. Aurora walked slowly forward, slowly becoming aware that their stares were not for the group as a whole, but for her specifically. She felt the weight of their collective gaze, and her knees nearly buckled. Only Meepo’s gentle tug kept her upright and moving. Though she knew that her friends stood close by, for the first time on this journey she felt truly alone.</p><p></p><p>At the far end of the room, torches lit a huge stone carving of a dragon, its tail arcing up over its back. There Aurora saw a mass of blankets and pillows acting as a cushion, and atop the cushions sat a kobold, wrapped in an ankle length mantle. Above the kobold’s head, a large golden key hung from the dragon’s stone tail.</p><p></p><p>Aurora looked left and right as she slowly approached the makeshift throne. Ashrem and Ander, their hands gripping their respective weapons, had already moved next to the kobolds ringing the walls of the room. Pack and Theo had moved up behind her, their eyes scanning the crowds that formed behind them. The sorceress kept moving slowly forward, and soon became aware that Meepo now walked beside her. He had not, however, let go of her hand, and clutched it fiercely.</p><p></p><p>“Who be you?” the kobold on the dais demanded. </p><p></p><p>Aurora paused, searching for the right way to answer the question. “We are...</p><p></p><p>“This Rora! She be true burned angel and have dragon magic! She come to rescue Calcryx!” Meepo’s outburst seemed to surprise even him, and the heavy silence that followed his proclamation was followed by a series of gasps and murmurs from the crowd of kobolds now surrounding Aurora and her friends. Several of the creatures fell to their knees and bowed their heads, and a soft chant began in another part of the throng.</p><p></p><p>“SILENCE!” The kobold on the throne swung a pointed finger slowly over the crowd. “Rora angel’s words not for clan! GO!” For a moment, it looked as if the kobold clan would disobey Yusdrayl, for that was certainly who sat atop the dragon throne, but they eventually shuffled away, some through the doors that lined the walls, and some far to the back of the long chamber, lost in the shadows. </p><p></p><p>“Now, why you come here, ‘Rora angel’?” The way she spit the words out made it plain to the young sorceress that Yusdrayl didn’t hold her in near as high the esteem as the other kobolds did.</p><p></p><p>Aurora paused a second, looking at Meepo sternly to stop him from blurting anything more out. She was scared: anxious that their mission, and maybe her friends’ survival, rested on what she would say. Finally, trying her best not to let her nerves show on her face, she addressed the kobold leader.</p><p></p><p>“I am Aurora, and I will ask the questions.” It was a dangerous gambit, but the young woman couldn’t think of anything else. “I demand you tell me why you attacked the surface village of Icemist, and what you did with the children you took!”</p><p></p><p>Yusdrayl looked shocked, or at least Aurora thought she did: the kobold was extremely hard to read. “We not attack Icemist! We…” The chieftain quickly recovered and her eyes narrowed. “If you Rora angel, why you not know we not attack Icemist? Why you really here?”</p><p></p><p>“I could ask the same of you.”</p><p></p><p>“Ahh… you from old master. You tell old master clan have new mistress now. True mistress. Dragon mistress. You tell old master that is why we no attack Icemist like he ordered us to, and clan not play his games anymore. We live here now. And if you come to kill clan, you die first…” Yusdrayl let a hand slip to a pouch resting on her small hip and tensed. Aurora recognized it as the beginnings of spellcasting and quickly backtracked.</p><p></p><p>“No! I am not from your old master. I come to find the children taken from Icemist. No more.”</p><p></p><p>“Why you want hatches from Icemist?”</p><p></p><p>“That is my concern, as the Aurora angel.”</p><p></p><p>Yusdrayl sniffed and cocked her head to the side. “I know where Icemist hatches are.” Aurora could almost feel the kobold’s eyes bore into her as the small chieftain sized her up. “But why I tell you? You great ‘Rora angel.’ You should know. Rora angel should know hatches be sacrificed at first frosts…”</p><p></p><p>The sorceress turned to look at her friends. Ander stood tightly gripping his staff, while Ashrem prowled on the outskirts of the light, ready to pounce: neither would be of help to her right now, though. Instead she sought out the faces of Pack and Theo, standing side by side. “The chieftain knows where the children are, and has said they will be sacrificed at the first frost. What should I do?” she said breathlessly.</p><p></p><p>Theo whispered back, “Get more information. Are the children here?”</p><p></p><p>Aurora turned back toward Yusdrayl and opened her mouth to speak when the kobold cut her off, speaking Torian in a hissing accent. “The hatchlings are not here.” Aurora must have showed her surprise at the language. “Yes, I speak your upworld tongue. And, yes, I now know what I wanted to know. You are not what Meepo said you were. You are simply surface dwellers.”</p><p></p><p>Yusdrayl crossed her small, scaly arms. “None of my clan know your upworld speech, so I will make this short. In return for the information about your hatchlings, you will find our dragon Calcryx and return her to us.” At the sound of Calcryx’s name, Meepo became agitated, but quieted with a glare from Yusdrayl. “She was recently taken from us by the dung grubbing goblins while under Meepo’s ‘care.’ After you return with our new mistress, you will get your information and then leave. You will not return. Agreed?”</p><p></p><p>Aurora replied in the same tongue, “We will need more information about this dragon, you will need to send messages not to do anything to the children.”</p><p></p><p>“Do not try my patience. You will get more information about the dragon, and I will send runners to where your hatchlings are, if you do not do this thing for me, or rather, for us. If you fail, those runners will warn the ones who took them that you are coming. If you succeed, then I will not send runners. Fair enough?” The kobold seemed to mock the sorceress with every word.</p><p></p><p>“We will need somewhere safe to prepare for what is to come.”</p><p></p><p>The kobold seemed to consider this for a moment, while looking at Meepo. “Yes, you will have both information and your safehole. You have until first meal, then you will be on your way.” Yusdrayl switched back to her native tongue and shouted, “Clan to me!”</p><p></p><p>Moments later, the so recently dispersed throng reassembled, crowding forward to hear the news of the deal made between their chief and the Rora angel. Once they had gathered again, Yusdrayl addressed them. “My clan! Rora angel will bring back Calcryx!” Stomping and hissing went up from the crowd and startled the sorceress: the kobolds’ cheers were not what she had expected. “They honored guests till morning meal!”</p><p></p><p>“Meepo!” Yusdrayl pointed directly at the cringing kobold. “For you failure, you punishment to die!” A murmur went up among the crowd, it didn’t seem to the young sorceress that the clan was pleased by this declaration. “But you bring us Rora angel, who here to get back Calcryx.” Yusdrayl seemed deep in thought: Aurora could tell the chief had a sense of drama, and was working the crowd to advantage. “And Rora angel need guide to dung grubbers.” The head kobold raised scaly fists. “Meepo be that guide! Go, Meepo! Come back with Calcryx and clan not feast on marrow of your bones!”</p><p></p><p>The crowd stomped, hissed, and hooted, their din deafening to the sorceress. Several kobolds approached and escorted Aurora and her friends into a large room off the main hall, bowing and scraping as they did. The young woman paused for a moment at the doorway as her companions were ushered inside, almost basking in the stomps and hisses of kobold cheers. Then with a sigh, she trudged into the room, Meepo still in tow.</p><p></p><p></p><p>*****</p><p></p><p></p><p>Tune in next time for....</p><p></p><p>"Calm Before the Storm" or "Can I Still Buy Backpack C"</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Enk&D'Shai, post: 411383, member: 7569"] [b]“You Scratch My Back and I’ll Scratch Yours,” or, “What’s Behind Door #1”[/b] [COLOR=skyblue]Vo-lare, o-wo! Chicken con carne, o-wo-wo-wo-wo.[/COLOR] Uhh, D'Shai, it's time to post again. [COLOR=skyblue]Shut up! The tsunami scene is coming up! Tsunami! Tsunami![/COLOR] Look, if you don't pause [I]Escape from LA[/I] right now, I'm giving the DVD to Yoda the dog. [COLOR=skyblue]That's OK, I've got it on LaserDisc and VHS too.[/COLOR] My hate for you knows no bounds. Well, it looks like I'll be flying solo for this post of Small Beginnings, so please return your tray to the upright position, and... [COLOR=skyblue]You suck! Now move over, I'm doing Tip o' the Day![/COLOR] OK! Stop with the noogie! [COLOR=skyblue]Tip O' da Day "666 is not the number of the beast, it is an 18 in your preferred stat." [/COLOR] Shoot me now. ***** “You Scratch My Back and I’ll Scratch Yours,” or, “What’s Behind Door #1” Aurora held her left hand high, the magically glowing wand nestled between her long fingers, and illuminated the dank passageway. Her right hand was firmly in the grip of the small, scaled creature called Meepo. It hadn’t taken long for her to become thoroughly lost, as the kobold had set a blistering pace for one so short and their route had been one of twists, turns, and passed doors. She turned her head over her shoulder to look at the others, and caught Ander’s eyes. Aurora gave a questioning shrug, and the olive skinned young man nodded in response – she supposed that meant she should continue as if all was normal. The red haired sorceress gave a slight nod of the head in return, just in time to have the scaly creature clinging to her hand give another sharp tug as he took yet another turn. Aurora allowed herself to be drug along the corridor by the strange little thing. To say that the kobold was ugly would have been an understatement – scars covered its scaly hide, and its mouth was full of sharp and crooked teeth. Yet, behind that reptilian mask, the creature’s eyes spoke of a great sadness, or maybe a great loss. Strangely, the young woman found herself feeling more than a bit sorry for the poor thing – [I]no, not thing: it’s name is Meepo.[/I] Several times, they had been challenged by more kobolds. The scaly creatures had mostly been armed with spears, and had looked ready to either charge or run if Aurora or her friends had made a sudden move. However, each time a group of beasts had shown themselves, Meepo had held up his free hand and barked out a greeting. “This Rora burned angel! Take to Yusdrayl!” Each time, the challengers had let them pass, only to fall in behind the group and escort them along. As the throng of kobolds following them grew, Meepo’s high pitched hiss grew in volume: “This a burned angel Rora! Take to Yusdrayl!” The young sorceress despaired of ever understanding exactly what the kobold was saying: he spoke a version of the Draconic she had learned in Tor, but he did so very badly. Or, more probably, he spoke a completely different dialect than she had learned while being tutored. The kobold finally came to a dead end door and halted. He turned back toward Aurora and made a gurgling sound, as if he was clearing his throat. “Rora angel? Yusdrayl inside!” He then pushed open the door and led the red haired sorceress into a long, pillared chamber. The walls of the chamber were covered in kobolds, and each pair of reptilian eyes trained on the group. Aurora walked slowly forward, slowly becoming aware that their stares were not for the group as a whole, but for her specifically. She felt the weight of their collective gaze, and her knees nearly buckled. Only Meepo’s gentle tug kept her upright and moving. Though she knew that her friends stood close by, for the first time on this journey she felt truly alone. At the far end of the room, torches lit a huge stone carving of a dragon, its tail arcing up over its back. There Aurora saw a mass of blankets and pillows acting as a cushion, and atop the cushions sat a kobold, wrapped in an ankle length mantle. Above the kobold’s head, a large golden key hung from the dragon’s stone tail. Aurora looked left and right as she slowly approached the makeshift throne. Ashrem and Ander, their hands gripping their respective weapons, had already moved next to the kobolds ringing the walls of the room. Pack and Theo had moved up behind her, their eyes scanning the crowds that formed behind them. The sorceress kept moving slowly forward, and soon became aware that Meepo now walked beside her. He had not, however, let go of her hand, and clutched it fiercely. “Who be you?” the kobold on the dais demanded. Aurora paused, searching for the right way to answer the question. “We are... “This Rora! She be true burned angel and have dragon magic! She come to rescue Calcryx!” Meepo’s outburst seemed to surprise even him, and the heavy silence that followed his proclamation was followed by a series of gasps and murmurs from the crowd of kobolds now surrounding Aurora and her friends. Several of the creatures fell to their knees and bowed their heads, and a soft chant began in another part of the throng. “SILENCE!” The kobold on the throne swung a pointed finger slowly over the crowd. “Rora angel’s words not for clan! GO!” For a moment, it looked as if the kobold clan would disobey Yusdrayl, for that was certainly who sat atop the dragon throne, but they eventually shuffled away, some through the doors that lined the walls, and some far to the back of the long chamber, lost in the shadows. “Now, why you come here, ‘Rora angel’?” The way she spit the words out made it plain to the young sorceress that Yusdrayl didn’t hold her in near as high the esteem as the other kobolds did. Aurora paused a second, looking at Meepo sternly to stop him from blurting anything more out. She was scared: anxious that their mission, and maybe her friends’ survival, rested on what she would say. Finally, trying her best not to let her nerves show on her face, she addressed the kobold leader. “I am Aurora, and I will ask the questions.” It was a dangerous gambit, but the young woman couldn’t think of anything else. “I demand you tell me why you attacked the surface village of Icemist, and what you did with the children you took!” Yusdrayl looked shocked, or at least Aurora thought she did: the kobold was extremely hard to read. “We not attack Icemist! We…” The chieftain quickly recovered and her eyes narrowed. “If you Rora angel, why you not know we not attack Icemist? Why you really here?” “I could ask the same of you.” “Ahh… you from old master. You tell old master clan have new mistress now. True mistress. Dragon mistress. You tell old master that is why we no attack Icemist like he ordered us to, and clan not play his games anymore. We live here now. And if you come to kill clan, you die first…” Yusdrayl let a hand slip to a pouch resting on her small hip and tensed. Aurora recognized it as the beginnings of spellcasting and quickly backtracked. “No! I am not from your old master. I come to find the children taken from Icemist. No more.” “Why you want hatches from Icemist?” “That is my concern, as the Aurora angel.” Yusdrayl sniffed and cocked her head to the side. “I know where Icemist hatches are.” Aurora could almost feel the kobold’s eyes bore into her as the small chieftain sized her up. “But why I tell you? You great ‘Rora angel.’ You should know. Rora angel should know hatches be sacrificed at first frosts…” The sorceress turned to look at her friends. Ander stood tightly gripping his staff, while Ashrem prowled on the outskirts of the light, ready to pounce: neither would be of help to her right now, though. Instead she sought out the faces of Pack and Theo, standing side by side. “The chieftain knows where the children are, and has said they will be sacrificed at the first frost. What should I do?” she said breathlessly. Theo whispered back, “Get more information. Are the children here?” Aurora turned back toward Yusdrayl and opened her mouth to speak when the kobold cut her off, speaking Torian in a hissing accent. “The hatchlings are not here.” Aurora must have showed her surprise at the language. “Yes, I speak your upworld tongue. And, yes, I now know what I wanted to know. You are not what Meepo said you were. You are simply surface dwellers.” Yusdrayl crossed her small, scaly arms. “None of my clan know your upworld speech, so I will make this short. In return for the information about your hatchlings, you will find our dragon Calcryx and return her to us.” At the sound of Calcryx’s name, Meepo became agitated, but quieted with a glare from Yusdrayl. “She was recently taken from us by the dung grubbing goblins while under Meepo’s ‘care.’ After you return with our new mistress, you will get your information and then leave. You will not return. Agreed?” Aurora replied in the same tongue, “We will need more information about this dragon, you will need to send messages not to do anything to the children.” “Do not try my patience. You will get more information about the dragon, and I will send runners to where your hatchlings are, if you do not do this thing for me, or rather, for us. If you fail, those runners will warn the ones who took them that you are coming. If you succeed, then I will not send runners. Fair enough?” The kobold seemed to mock the sorceress with every word. “We will need somewhere safe to prepare for what is to come.” The kobold seemed to consider this for a moment, while looking at Meepo. “Yes, you will have both information and your safehole. You have until first meal, then you will be on your way.” Yusdrayl switched back to her native tongue and shouted, “Clan to me!” Moments later, the so recently dispersed throng reassembled, crowding forward to hear the news of the deal made between their chief and the Rora angel. Once they had gathered again, Yusdrayl addressed them. “My clan! Rora angel will bring back Calcryx!” Stomping and hissing went up from the crowd and startled the sorceress: the kobolds’ cheers were not what she had expected. “They honored guests till morning meal!” “Meepo!” Yusdrayl pointed directly at the cringing kobold. “For you failure, you punishment to die!” A murmur went up among the crowd, it didn’t seem to the young sorceress that the clan was pleased by this declaration. “But you bring us Rora angel, who here to get back Calcryx.” Yusdrayl seemed deep in thought: Aurora could tell the chief had a sense of drama, and was working the crowd to advantage. “And Rora angel need guide to dung grubbers.” The head kobold raised scaly fists. “Meepo be that guide! Go, Meepo! Come back with Calcryx and clan not feast on marrow of your bones!” The crowd stomped, hissed, and hooted, their din deafening to the sorceress. Several kobolds approached and escorted Aurora and her friends into a large room off the main hall, bowing and scraping as they did. The young woman paused for a moment at the doorway as her companions were ushered inside, almost basking in the stomps and hisses of kobold cheers. Then with a sigh, she trudged into the room, Meepo still in tow. ***** Tune in next time for.... "Calm Before the Storm" or "Can I Still Buy Backpack C" [/QUOTE]
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