Fit for a Queen (Open)

[Rowana]

Zenna watched the small egg she'd placed in a sand filled basket. It wasn't moving yet, but it was still warm, so that had to be good. What is it? Yibelth asked, in her mind. "An egg," Zenna rolled her eyes at the obvious answer. Where did you get it? Yibelth asked patiently. She was used to her rider's moods and never took sarcasm to heart. "Some lady down in the Hold," Zenna admitted, shrugging. "Said it might be a fire lizard."

Yibelth chuckled lightly at the concept. Fire lizards were rare and both she and Zenna knew that the odds of some Holder who just happened to have an egg was unlikely. As if to prove it, the egg began to roll and crack. Zenna's eyes widened as a piece chips off to reveal a tiny, webbed foot. Not a fire lizard, Yibelth hummed smugly. Zenna would have glared at her if she'd been here. "Yeah, rub it in, why don't you."

[Crystalyn]

Ca'ro stirred a bit of honey into his klah slowly, watching as the sticky stuff dissolved into the warm, thick brown liquid. Not just for the sweetening factor, but it was also good for sore throats. Thankfully, while his throat was sore, it wasn't sore from being ill. It was instead sore from yelling in cold weather. Yelling at an idiot, grumpy, upset dragon.

No, he wasn't particularly happy with his beast at the moment. The silly creature had gone and gotten his tail in a twist over something again. Something that Ca'ro wasn't entirely sure what it was. But then with him, it could be something as simple as another dragon slipping up and addressing him as a she. Which ... really was an understandable mistake. All things considered.

Taking a draught off his mug, he looked around the hall at the other occupants of the hall. The usual suspects, as usual. Taking a moment, he topped his mug off again with more of the warm liquid. During which a stray comment caught his ear's attention.

"Said it might be a firelizard." it said. That ... was a rather odd comment to make. Might be a flitter? Flitters either were or they weren't. There were no maybes. Curiosity piqued, Ca'ro wandered over in that direction. There, he found Zenna peering at something. "Rub it in, why don't you." She said. Apparently ... talking to her dragon? For he didn't see anyone else about.

But that made the original comment even more bizarre in his mind. Zenna was from Clydek ... in the South. If anyone had copious quantities of flitters, it was the South. Surely they'd know if something was a flitter, as opposed to, oh, he didn't know. A small wherry?

Poking his free hand into a pocket, Ca'ro took a look at what she was staring at. It was ... an egg. Or used to be. It had a foot sticking out of it now. And ... not a flitter foot. "What's this?" He asked simply, purely out of curiosity. His voice sounded horribly raspy and hoarse though, hardly at all like it usually did, unfortunately. This needed mending; another sip of his warm drink was in order.

Crouching down next to her, he contemplating that little foot. It looked like an aquatic avian foot. But avians didn't tend to hatch foot-first. Did they?

[Rowana]

Zenna looked up from her egg problem to see she had attracted some attention. "Hey, Ca'ro," she waved, frowning slightly. "You sound awful." She remembered the other Aero rider from before, though last time he hadn't sounded so raspy. She sighed at the audience for her bad luck. Her fault for bringing the egg with her in case it hatch. Now look at it. They would all think she was a fool.

"This," she waved grumpily at the egg. "Is probably dinner someday." How awful, Zenna-love! Yibelth was aghast at the very thought. The poor dear can not help what it is. Zenna wrinkled her nose at the egg. The foot had vanished to be replaced by a tiny, billed beak breaking at the shell. What else do I do with it? she asked grumpily. Why not keep it? I am sure it will be adorable! Maybe for the first few days, Zenna thought, but she knew it would do to argue. Maybe letting the little bird stay with her dragon would at least keep her happy.

[Crystalyn]

Ca'ro smiled slightly and nodded a return greeting before uttering a slightly amused and very hoarse "Heh." At her comment at how his voice sounded. Clearing his throat, he tried again. "Just too much cold air down the pipe I think. It'll get better soon." He assured her, glancing between her and the egg. It was doing something again.

"Dinner someday." He repeated, considering the little hatching that was going on. It was mildly amazing there wasn't a flitter here humming its head off, whether it was a flitter baby or not. Flitters were like that sometimes. Maybe not today apparently. Who knew, maybe it was too cold and they were all asleep. For sure, this was not normal flitter-hatching weather! "So I guess you bought, or were given, this egg and got duped?" Ca'ro asked. "Unless ... a duck? ... is what you were looking for?" He looked at her again. "Ducklings can be cute."

'Cute' was not a word he tended to use, but given who he was talking to ... women tended to be all about cute. So it seemed an appropriate word to use to try and say something nice. "Just don't let it swim in the grape juice, okay? It would look really funny being yellow on top and purple on bottom. Stains like no tomorrow... that and you sometimes find lumpy bits in the juice afterward..." He offered a small smile again before taking another sip of his klah.

[Rowana]

Zenna shrugged. If Ca'ro said he was fine, than she believed him. She was no ones mother, not matter what Yibelth was like. As long as he wasn't obviously going to fall over in a heap, she didn't think it was her place to baby him. Her attention returned to the egg, frowning once more. She didn't like admitting she'd been trick, or at least misled. She wasn't stupid and she hated appearing that way.

"Maybe," she admitted reluctantly, scowling at the beak pecking away the egg shell. Cute wasn't what she had it mind at all. Fire lizards could be cute, but they were also neat and useful. Ducks were just food, as far as she was concerned. "I don't want cute," she started, then blinked at him. "Purple," she repeated slowly, wrinkling her nose. The idea of a purple duck was even less appealing than a normal one. Was Ca'ro trying to be funny? It was hard to tell.

The egg shattered completely then, revealing a rather ugly, wet, little baby duck. Oh it is absolutely adorable! Yibelth cried with delight. Zenna sighed. Well that clinched it. She could get rid of the thing now without upsetting her dragon. Well, maybe a pet would be so bad if it was just to keep Yibelth happy. The duckling shook itself and stared up at Zenna. Then it began peeping very loudly. "Hey," Zenna started, reaching out a finger nervously. "What's wrong?"

[Crystalyn]

Ca'ro laughed, though it sounded really strange given the state of his voice at the moment. "Yes, purple. Only at first though. Fades to a funny looking grey after awhile." He shrugged, and offered a grin instead. A purple duck ... now that would be a sight indeed. Not that he'd ever seen one. He was only speculating on what would happen to duck down based on what happened to the cheese cloths that his mother had used on grapes when he'd been a lad.

Zenna was clearly disturbed by the thing being a duck though. Ca'ro could see that without being told. Apparently she'd wanted something else. Crouching next to her to look at the soggy thing, he just shook his head a little bit with a wry smile before taking another sip of his mug. "Give it a little while to dry off and it'll be a lot fluffier." He mentioned. "And ... what it wants is fed and cuddled. It thinks you're his momma now. He's cold and wants a warm wing to hide under now that his shell has betrayed him to the nasty wiles of the air."

He looked around, then patted her on the shoulder as he rose back to his feet. "I'll be back. I'll get him something to eat for you." Ca'ro mentioned before striding off for the kitchen. The least he could do was help her.

[Rowana]

Dry it off, huh? Zenna shrugged and reached for a napkin. She started gently rubbing the ducklings wet feathers. Maybe it would be cuter if he was dry, she admitted. Not that she wanted to admit to liking something cute. Ca'ro's words started to sink in then, though. "Wait, I ain't..." Too late, Ca'ro was gone to get food and the duckling was rubbing against her hand in a very affectionate matter.

"Oh shells," Zenna cursed. It was too late. The duckling had clearly already made up its mind. What shall we call it? Yibelth asked, clearly excited and pleased. "Um..." Zenna wrinkled her nose. She had a few ideas, but none of them were very polite. "Kumo," she said finally. Lovely! I knew you would like him, Zenna-love! Zenna gave a little smile and rubbed a finger down the duckling's back. Maybe it wasn't as bad as all that.

[Crystalyn]

It did not take Ca'ro long to find a boiled egg and a bowl. Peeling the egg, he smashed it up into the bottom of the bowl until it was in little kernelized bits that the duckling could easily swallow, white and yolk all mixed together. Carrying that back over into the Hall where Zenna was with the ducky, he paused a moment then shook his head as he crouched next to her. "Don't dry it off. Just let it air-dry. You'll damage his fluff if you scrub him like that." He held the bowl out to her. "It should be able to eat that fairly easily."

Settling on his heels, the Aerorider just sat and watched as Zenna went about handling the duckling that clearly thought she was its momma. He could only imagine what the Headwoman was going to say when there was a duck waddling down the halls at top speed, chasing the Queenrider around.

For ... there was nothing quite so nasty as a duck. Nothing in the whole world shits quite like a duck.