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Faith looked interested, and almost excited. Clearly, it was a female thing, or else Lapis was rubbing off on her.
"You cannot honestly tell me you're not at least intrigued by the thought of interesting things from the seafloor," she said. "Maybe it's like when then find veins of metal in the mountains back home." She grinned. "Come on, let's go see what's going on." |
"Okay, okay." Corey followed her over to the side, where they could actually see, and a few riders parted to give them a better view.
A few minutes later a massive Ocean dragon emerged, half of her still in the water. She hauled up two fine mesh sacks, setting them on the beach very carefully before moving back into the ocean, floating just under the surface to watch the humans. The two sacks were bulging with things like gems and pretty stones, some clams and shells and pearls, and even a few bits of fossil poked through. All the riders descended on the bags, sorting through everything quickly in a sort of organized chaos to take what they wanted. |
Faith managed to squeeze through and snap up a couple of colored stones the size of her fist, as well as a few pearls that had settled to the bottom. Once she'd claimed a few things, she backed out of the frenzy again. Lapis was immediately upon her.
'What did you find?' the dragonet asked eagerly. "Pearls," Faith replied, showing her partner the aforementioned 'gems.' She held up one of the stones she'd managed to snag. She'd only gotten two, both of which were a lovely deep blue underneath the sand and grit crusting the outside. "I'm not entirely sure what these are, though." |
One of the older riders laughed when she saw Faith's find. "Those would be sapphires, dear," she said kindly. "We get all sorts of precious stones on the ocean bottom here."
Vyren had gotten one of the live clams and was poking at it curiously, flipping it over and picking it up in his jaws, trying to figure out what it was. Corey was having more fun watching him than anything. |
Faith blinked.
"These are sapphires?" she asked in disbelief. There was no way. Gemstones like that didn't get this big, it just wasn't possible. |
"Yup, those are sapphires. We've had a couple come up about the size of your head. Most of 'em get broken down and polished and cut to make jewelry, but you're welcome to do whatever you'd like with those."
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Faith tucked the pearls into her pocket, and held on to the sapphires.
"I'm sure I'll think of something to do with them," she said. 'I want one,' Lapis said, staring at the stones. "We should have them set first," Faith replied. 'Why?' "They'll be more beautiful that way." Clearly, that was the right thing to say. 'Okay, then. How do we do that?' "We take them home where someone can tell us how to get our hands on some silver." 'I like this plan.' |
Corey snorted when he heard one side of the conversation. "Women," he muttered under his breath. Vyren was still playing with the clam, throwing it up into the air and catching it again. It landed in the sand a couple times, but that didn't deterr the dragon at all.
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"I can't imagine what kind of things the dragon wanted to keep for herself," Faith mused. "I mean, if this is the stuff she didn't want..."
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Corey shrugged, unconcerned. "Eh. I don't care that much. Although I think watching Vyren play with that clam is more fun than pretty rocks."
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"You just have no taste," Faith teased. She tucked the sapphires into the larger pockets of her cargo pants, intending to put them in a safe place later on.
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Corey rolled his eyes again. Women. Then he paused when Vyren actually managed to crack open the clam, eating it whole and leaving the two halves of the shell on the ground with a fist-sized pinkish pearl.
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Faith blinked. That was a massive pearl. She couldn't help but grin, though, when Lapis darted in and picked up the pearl herself. If Vyren just left it on the ground, then clearly he didn't want it, so it was fair game.
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Vyren hised at Lapis and sulked off into the water to go find another clam to play with. Corey sighed and shook his head, going to find somewhere to flop down for a while and just soak up some sun.
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Going over to Lapis, Faith gently took the giant pearl.
"Let me hold on to this," she said. Lapis tried to hold the pearl a little closer, protectively. 'Why?' she asked. "So that I can put it away with the sapphires until we get back home," Faith replied. "I'll pack them up in my bag so they don't get lost, and you can have it back when we get home so you can put it in your eyrie." This seemed to make sense to Lapis, and she reluctantly let go of the pearl. 'Promise I can have it back?' "I promise. And I'll give you one of the sapphires once I get them cut, too." |
Vyren got bored and went over to Corey, laying out next to him and stretching his wings out to dry off faster. Corey shifted so he was laying under the shade Vyren's wing provided, nice and warm but without annoying sun glaring into his eyes.
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Faith took a few minutes to run inside and stash the treasure in her room. she packed them into her bag, making sure they were safe and secure. She was already thinking of things to do with one of the sapphires. She would have the targer of the two cut for Lapis, of course, but she was thinking of having the second broken into smaller pieces and made into jewelry.
Once the sapphires were safely tucked away, Faith made her way back outside to her dragon. Lapis had decided that lounging in the sun sounded nice, so she wassprawled out on the sand when Faith found her. Faith grinned a bit and settled down nets to her Partner, gently petting Lapis's head. The dragon relaxed and leaned into the touch. |
A few days later, some of the riders that had gone into town to get gems and things cut came back very disgruntled. The nearest city had turned them away, saying they didn't have any business for riders. The mood at dinner was decidedly sour.
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Faith definitely noticed the bad mood that had settled over the other riders at dinner. She heard a few murmurings from across the tables, but she couldn't hear anything really substantial.
"What's going on?" she finally asked one of the others. "Did something happen?" |
"Yeah," a rider across from them answered. "The city folk don't want our business anymore, apparently. Even though we probably bring them half of their income. Apparently they don't like us anymore, or something."
Corey blinked. "That's really bizarre... Last time I was in town dragonriders were still respected and everything." |
"Any idea why?" Faith asked, curious. Riders were definitely respected back in her home city. Why would it be so different near the ocean? "I would think that they wouldn't turn down any good business..."
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"They wouldn't say. Just told us to get out." The rider shrugged, picking at his food. "Damn rude of them if you ask me."
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"No kidding," Faith agreed. She was curious now, though, and was half-tempted to go and see for herself. It seemed strange, even to her.
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Corey shrugged. He didn't have anything to take to a jeweler anyway so he didn't much care. He figured all the ladies would be in a tiff, though. And that rather amused him.
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Faith thought for a moment. It was no big deal to her, she had been planning to have her sapphires cut back home anyways, but it was obviously at least an issue here.
"I may as well just wait, then," she said. "I mean, home is a bit of a haul just to go back to see a jeweler, but we don't get gemstones like you do here. I bet any jeweler worth his tools would kill to cut gems this big, and they seem to like riders well enough." |
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