Shadows In The Night (Zero/Open)

[twitchie]

Zi'axe was a sucker for creatures of Pern, and at this Gather he hoped to add to his growing collection.
The large Flit egg in the Fourth row caught his attention, but any egg would suit his need, but he hoped for a male.
He scratched the back of his neck, realizing the purple haired girl was here too.
"You have a flit that is open for me, perhaps?"
The one thing Zi'axe had no problem talking about would be his many pets.
Rallie sniffed at the eggs, wary of the mother fire lizard.
Monty was still snoozing like the lazy puppy he was.
"If there happens to be one still up for sale, I'll pay."
He smiled, though it disappeared when his eyes met Ekio's. He would never be sure of humans. Humans were hurtful creatures. And he wouldn't be hurt again.

[Wish]

Eiko gulped as gatherfolk after gatherfolk flocked to the little stand, and she visibly shrunk back from the onslaught of people. In the back of her mind she felt Nimarath's sigh, but not because of how her rider acted. Oh no, the Obsidian didn't like crowds any more than she did, especially when it made Hers so impossible to deal with. Giving Eiko a mental shove, the dragonet stretched out her body like a content feline. Back on The Island amongst the large gathering of people, the weyrling blinked her eyes quickly and pushed the hair from her face.

"Okay, yes of course there are plenty of eggs to buy. Flit eggs, Wher eggs we have them both. You want this one madam, just 10 marks. What about this one for you good sir, just 12. Oh sweetheart I'll sell this one to you for four, it's tiny but it's a flit nonetheless." She handed out the wanted eggs, taking money as quickly as she could to shoo them onward elsewhere. At a few interesting looks and inquiries to the wher eggs, she looked at F'lon. "Those are more. 30 marks for the little ones, 40 for the mediums, 45 for the large, and the gold is 60."

She eyed the interested parties carefully, also glancing now and again at the Bronze and Gold that were guarding the clutches, hissing as they were given away one by one.

---

Dalia was forever an opportunist. It was a unique talent of here one might be able to say in fact. She just knew how to play the game, how to wait and how to gamble. She had done it all her life in the crèche and more recently in candidacy, and now she was not a dragon candidate anymore but one for whers. It had become obvious that the girl did not have the attraction to dragons that she should have had, however it didn't mean that her Queen wasn't somewhere.

The candidate scowled as another eyed the Gold Wher Egg and reached to pay for it though, her cloaked figure staying at the back of the crowd. Suddenly bursting forth and causing a few shouts of protest, the girl handed out some marks to the trader with strange hair and pointed to the large egg nearby. "That one!"

Holding out her arms proudly she closed her eyes as of waiting for a Turnday gift....and was surprised to find the egg she wrapped her fingers and arms around was small. Quite small. She had bought the wrong egg! Dalia opened her mouth to say something, but the Large eggs were already gone, the only one left nestled somewhere she couldn't see. Sighing, the girl backed away and looked down at the measely egg. "You're my ticket to the hatching you got that? That Queen will surely swap me out for that Bellatora!"

[Zirin]

If Eiko thought she was the only uncomfortable one than she hadn’t takena good look at Korvin. The poor man looked like he was ready to bowl people over and escape. How could people handle being in crowds like this all the time? He gave a light shove to whoever was elbowing him in the gut, listening to the girl with the ridiculous hair speak.

Fishing out his marks purse, he pulled a quick tally of what he had. The stall had brought in a fair chunk of pocket change but… ah yes, he could just afford it.. but that would be almost the end of his shopping. Would it be worth it? Perhaps…

“The big’un over there. Yeah that one. It better hatch proper.” He held out his marks purse and waited.

[Jilli]

Alessa waved at her brother but that's all she could get before she was jostled by the crowd gathering around the wagon. She stumbled and would have fallen but caught herself on the edge of the wagon, finding herself face to face with what could only be a golden wheret egg. For the barest instant all she wanted was within her vision. The golden egg seemed to call to her, but then she was bumped again and her preoccupation became focusing on not being trampled.

During her attempt to escape, she had time to think. It would feel so wrong, buying the egg of a queen. How could she ever accept that with herself? She couldn't and that was that. Regaining her footing somewhere closer to the back of the cart than she originally had been, she looked over the eggs again. One of the smaller ones caught her attention. a little blue egg.

Just looking at the little thing made her smile so she nodded and raised her voice pulling out the coins and holding them out for Eiko.

"I'll take the little blue wher egg there... the one beside that gold flit egg please..."

[Zero]

F’lon gave Ara a small nod in parting before his attention was pulled to the handful of people gathering around their cart. At least the eggs were getting due attention. That was the whole reason for Ekio and him being here but by Faranath look at the crowd! The hooded thief remained quiet for the most part, only really piping up when a question arose that he cared to answer. He was only the hired muscle after all. Truth be told he was almost bored with the whole ordeal and had fallen into a bout of daydreaming when he heard not one, but two passing egg-lookers mention his name.

“Keep your damned voices down you two,” F’lon hissed through his teeth all the while still putting forth a pleasant enough mask for the rest of the gatherfolk and egg-ogglers. “Are you trying to get me killed?” Shaking his head at the two he glanced towards Eiko as she started to speak about the different prices. “C’mere you, you know they’re not yours..” Muttering to his flit, the thief scooped up the fussy bronze, who was practically clinging to a large wher egg that was being handed out, and stuck him on his shoulder, managing to bribe him to stay put with a bit of dried meat. The flit eggs were going like mad, no surprise there, but how much attention were their wher eggs going to receive?

“Here. All yours.” So began the hand out as F’lon took the marks from one gruff looking man and handed over the requested egg before moving on to the next and taking and filling their request.

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[Bellatora]

Bella sighed. "I'll take the gold flitter egg, the gold wher egg, and that mid-sized egg there," she said, pointing out each egg she wanted before handing over the appropriate number of marks. "And let's hope that I'm lucky," she muttered to no one in particular. It wasn't exactly the most fun thing she ahd ever done... but hey... she had wanted a flitter and here was her chance to get a wher or two. It was best to start out with two she thought.... in case one didn't want her... Though she had heard of dual wher bondings before. And she would feel rather fortunate should such happen.

She took a deep breath. Now was the waiting game... the ever dreaded, ever hated waiting game. She looked at Eiko and gave her a weak smile of reassurance. "Be nicer to her, F'lon," she whispered fiercely at the thief who was likely just as uncomfortable as their Lieutenant Major. he better hope he didn't get spotted. That was another reason to be here.... In case diversion was needed. Or some assistance. Of course... such could land her having to leave Trelis and thus end spying. And remover her from a position where she was close to S'vrin and possibly, just possibly have that possibility to stick one of those knives in his back for what he had done to her family. It wasn't something she ever wanted to forgive him... just somethings he wanted to avenge. And soon. Sooner was better than later.

[twitchie]

Zi'axe fished out the 12 marks from his pocket, handing the to Eiko for the large Flit egg.
Yet another for my collection...
He thought happily, gingerly scooping up the largest egg on the fourth row.
Now came the part he didn't like.
Thank you, Eiko.
He said, licking his lips as had become a habit.
Then, with egg in the crock of his arm, he departed.

[Akira]

Talian looked back over at the people that were handling the eggs, and wondered if she could have one. She pulled out the small purse that her father had given her before allowing her and her sister to go off on their own to the gather. She looked back at the two people and handed the bag out to them and pointed at one of the firelizard eggs, hoping they would understand that she wanted that egg. She looked over at the eggs and wondered if she would have enough marks to get one large one, and a small one. Oh what fun she could have once she had her own firelizards. Pictures of her running around the Weyr with her own firelizards made her smile. She giggled silently at the thought of what her mother’s firelizard would do once she realized Talian wouldn’t be messing with her as much.

[Kitsuneko]

Even as Aristide held out the money for the eggs' owner to take, Kaleo was chirping happily at having gotten his way. All Aristide had to do was follow the chirping noises to where Kaleo sat. The huntyre even make himself helpful and nudged Aristide's hand to his favored egg, which was picked up gingerly.

Aristide didn't have a whole lot of experience handling flit eggs; he had arrived at Kaleo's hatching to find the lunar had already hatched and latched himself onto the man's chest, so he was particularly careful with the egg.

[Jilli]

Alessa just smiled as f'lon snapped at her. He hadn't changed. She hadn't spoken loud enough to be heard clearly by any passerbye. She'd been careful to lower her register. Of course they'd be worried about being caught. She and the others knew who they were. That they came to the gather was a shocker In and of itself, but she didn't want them to get caught.

"Always snippy aren't you friend? How've you been?" She accepted the egg that was handed to her and cradled it to her chest. Momentarily preoccupied. she wandered a small way away from the crowd, toward the front of the cart so she could wait for the wher and still be within speaking range with f'lon. After all, she hadn't seen him since she left.

[Zero]

Theault had been strolling, without a general destination in mind, through the sea of gatherfolk and stalls. After enduring a few candlemarks of constant pestering from his nephew to go out and see the stalls, he had finally just decided to give up and give in. The trio, as the boys mutt was always in tow, made their way through the crowd, stopping every so often as something would peak the boys interest.

By the time Theo reached the mass of people hanging around the egg cart, the boy had wandered off to a meat stall to buy scraps for his pup. So the tired uncle, intrigued by the mass of onlookers decided to look the eggs over while he waited for his nephew to catch up to him once more. Truth be told he wasn't overly interested in obtaining a firelizard but despite that there was still one egg remaining in the bunch that caught his eye. Scratching his chin, the fisherman chewed on his bottom lip as he thought about this possible purchase and glanced up when the prices for the different eggs were called out.

The prices didn't seem all that bad once he thought about it and besides, a new little companion would be nice though none would ever take the place of his lost Thesk. "I'll have that dark little one, off to the side there.." Handing the marks over to the girl he took the egg. Cradling it carefully against his chest with one hand, Theo smirked and thumped the disguised F'lon on the shoulder. "Stay out of trouble brother."
The thief jumped slightly at the contact and had to resist the urge to playfully shove his brother back. "You best not be giving that egg to my son. He doesn't need any more pets."
Theault grinned and gave a half shrug before turning to leave. "You left me here with that mutt of his...I don't know, I just may let him have a whole fair of 'lizards!"

[/font]

||He'll be having the ad contest prize eggie||

[Akira]

Merlin took a deep breath and smiled. He was so used to the smell of the beasts that he helped his family took care of that the smell of the gather was a pleasant change. That’s when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He turned and saw a small gathering of people and wondered what was going on. He hung back for a little bit until most of the other people had left, he didn’t want to make the poor people who he believed were running a stall feel over swamped by people. He walked up and looked at the remaining eggs before taking out some marks and looking at the young woman there. Excuse me, but how much for a wher egg? He knew his family wouldn’t be happy with his choice to buy an egg, but oh well. This wasn’t their life.

(((OOC: Could he have two eggs if possible?)))

[Jilli]

Reina was short of breath as she hurried toward the egg stall . She wound through the crowd with her son on her hip urging her to hurry. He wanted a flit, she knew. He could talk with other people's flits, but she didnt have one. His friends were almost always different. They were always coming and going, never remaining constant.

She rushed, clutching irakune to her side, not willing to let him walk on his own across the crowd for fear of losing him.When they finally broke through at the cart she looked over the few remaining eggs.

"which do you want love?". She asked gesturing to the eggs and readjusting her son on her hip. The boy's smile was radiant. the light caught his eyes under his mop of dark hair and made them sparkle. The boy gestured to the medium sized egg left on the second Rowe almost instantly.

She smiled and sat him down, where he promptly settledpartially behind her leg holding himself against her shyly. With a smile of her own, she counted out the marks and carefully positioned the egg in her child's hands

[Aika]

As weyrfolk milled around the many stands throughout the day, a young woman was there to collect any lost marks from the less coordinated. A man stooped down to pick up something – most likely a small gift for a friend – off the ground. HE never noticed that his pockets were a few marks lighter by the time he had straightened back up. Women never noticed their mark purses grow thinner. From the start of the gather to now, men, women, and children lost a mark or two, never noticing the act.

By the time the sun had dipped below the horizon, Goblenn had accumulated a considerable number or marks. Possibly enough to buy something special for herself. Hazel eyes swept over the expanse of stalls that littered the Weyr, searching for something, anything, to spend her well-earned loot on. Her gaze focused on a small stall near the outreaches of the Gather; many people were flocking to it, and the excited sounds of “eggs!” and “somebody’s selling clutches!” piqued her interest. Drawing her cloak closely about herself, the thief made her way over to the quickly swelling mass of bodies.

It took some effort, but she finally managed to get through the crowd to see the wares and the… questionable salesmen. A quick scan of the eggs was enough to have her eyes locked onto one of the larger eggs that remained. It was red, with golden lines criss-crossing along the surface. It was also big. Her gaze slipped to the few remaining firelizard eggs. The tiny green one was delicate in appearance. Maybe they wouldn’t mind if she took it off their hands free of charge…

Drawing out the number of marks required for the transaction, the thief walked up to F’lon and pointed to the red and gold wher egg. “That one,” she said, clinking the marks together in her hand. Once the marks were taken and she was given the wher egg (it was surprisingly heavy for its diminutive size), she slowly walked around the stall. Keeping an eye on the flitters that lay on the cart, she quietly reached for that small green egg, hoping to get another prize for her efforts.
<OoC: Claiming the Small Flitter Egg!>

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[Akira]

Naomi shook her head as she walked up to the stand that was selling wher and firelizard eggs. She knew she shouldn’t get another one, but she couldn’t help but want one. She had spoken to Nask about it, and even he thought it would be interesting to have a young one with them. She paced back and forth a little ways away from the stall that had the wher eggs, fighting with herself over what she should do. She had the marks to buy one, but the real question was whether or not she should get one. It would be a lot of work raising another wher, but seeing as Nask was fully grown he could help her raise it, couldn’t he? She didn’t know how those things worked, but it intrigued her and that was what had made her come so close to the stall and the eggs.

Naomi chewed on her lip a little while longer before finally coming to a conclusion. She would most likely have kept fighting with herself if it hadn’t been for the fact that all of her mental arguing had roused her sleeping wher. He had been the deciding factor, and had told her that she should either go get an egg or stop talking and forget about it. So there she was, standing in front of the stand with her purse full of marks waiting to be spent. How much for an egg? She spoke softly, her voice showing no traces of the indecision she felt. She was surprised but also very happy with that fact. It gave her a false sense of confidence that she knew she didn’t really feel. But hey, why couldn’t the poor woman have just a shred of confidence in herself, after all, she had lived through one wher she was almost sure she could do it again!