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Kalysto grinned. “I am setting an example.” She eyed off Milena and tried to out-compete her with the amount of noise being made. “She started it.”
Milena loudly screeched with happiness at her ‘father’s antics. She was normally discouraged from doing this sort of thing, and being allowed to do it meant lots of fun for her.
—-
General Sephiroth stepped back into the tent and sat back down in front of the gathered supplies. “Maybe so,” He grunted in irritation, “But where there was one… at least fifty more are brooding in the same area. Hence, we may be too close for comfort. While easily killable, I’d rather get the real mission done quickly than deal with trash enemies in the area.”
Deisree goraned before she leaned in to latch her hands on Kalysto’s wrists. “Enough. I don’t care who started it, stop it, ok? Now, go ahead and eat your food, you two.”
Desiree slowly let go of Kalysto’s hands before she moved over to her own seat to eat.
Meanwhile, Orpheus slowly crept in to take his normal seat. He gave a wary glance at Kalysto before he mumbled silently and began to eat his food.
–
“UNderstood, sir,” Seres nodded at the general. “Is there anything else that you require of Rhyderi or myself?”
General Sephiroth waved a hand in dismissal at the two recruits, then pointed outside of the tent.
“No.” He stated in a rather bored voice. “We’re done here. There is nothing more to do this evening. Go set up your tents and get some rest. In the morning we are going to investigate our objective in more detail. Get to sleep early. We will be moving out the moment the sun rises.”
–
Kalysto looked much rather like a scolded child. She lowered her ears and made a pathetic face at Desiree, then began to whine. When food was served however, she voraciously tucked into it, behaving like she hadn’t had a meal in years.
Seres nodded at the General before she turned around to move into her tent. While she wasn’t tired, she was more than happy to take the suggestion to rest. So, she slipped into her tent so that she could settle down and relax.
–
Desiree only shook her head as she watched her mate devour her food. However, she didn’t allow her sentiments on the matter effect her own hunger. Instead, she just sat down and began to eat as well.
Meanwhile, Dimitri stared at Kalysto from time to time before he muttered, “Rude to eat like that..”
“Oh hush,” Kalysto replied to her son. “We’re in our own house here. It’s quiet. We’re amongst family. You should be able to eat however you want to.” She licked her fingers momentarily and continued to eat until dinner was finished off.
“That was delightful. Thank you, Desiree. I think I am going to go nap now.” And with that she slipped out of the room to go lounge on the couch in front of the television.
–
Rhyderi gave the General a respectful nod and slipped away to his own tent so he could relax and settle down for the evening. However, he remained rather attentive in-case he should be issued any further orders.
During the next few days, Seres took care to follow out the orders she was given to the word. She didn’t want the General to scold her even more after the water incident. Even though she felt that her deviation had helped. After all, she gathered good water and food from that town.
Meanwhile, Noemi had remained with the camp and the ship for the most part. During the evenings, she helped herself to her mate’s tent. However, other than that, she just observed the others from afar. This was a marine mission, and she was only the escort. Still, she kept a close eye on this world’s Sephiroth’s daughter. For, she was certain that the girl would live up to her expectations.
Now that the territory had been mostly cleared of dragons during the few days that the party had been in the area, (the dragons in the area had either flown off or had been murdered by his travelling party), General Sephiroth was finding himself still quite discontent. He still wanted to do another check of the area for stragglers. Until everything was clear, he would not be satisfied.
In the late afternoon when not very much was going on, he went over to Seres and Rhyderi, interrupting their activities.
“Wrap up what you are doing.” He instructed them. “We depart in ten minutes.”
Seres had been busy cooking some eggs over the fireplace that she had made around the camp. When the General abruptly interrupted her meal, the girl, frowned in annoyance, for she doubted that she would enjoy her food now. Still, she had learned it was best not to question the man.
“Yes sir, I’ll be ready,” the girl complied as she stood up. “Is there anything that I will need to prepare?”
“All that you will need for this mission is yourself, your weapon of choice and quick reflexes. As you were chosen for this job because of your talents, you need not worry about anything.” General Sephiroth stood over the fireplace for a brief moment and then walked away again, smirking.
“Somebody has taught you the standard method of camp-fire building. So inefficient.” He stepped away to find Rhyderi, issuing him the same directions.
Rhyderi walked over to the campfire, feeling rather flustered. “Why do we have to go on a mission now…? It doesn’t make sense…”
“Making a campfire is inefficent..?” Seres slowly repeated in confusion. “But… we’re roughing it.. What am I supposed..”
Sighing, the girl just began to kick dirt onto the fire in order to snuff it out. When Rhyderi came over, she softly replied, “We’ve been assigned to this mission for the last few days, Rhdyeri. This is to be expected. We do as told. That is what a SOLDIER does.”
*Shrugging, the girl moved to the side so she could gather her basic supplies.
“Making a camp-fire in the manner in which you have made it is inefficient, yes.” General Sephiroth nodded as he stepped aside, waiting for his travelling party to get ready. He folded his arms and tapped his boot, annoyed that he had to wait at all.
When the time was up, he stepped off and began moving without a warning or anything.
Seres had just finished gathering her supplies when the General began to move off. In fact, the girl had just stepped out of her tent when the man began to leave the area. So, the girl released a surprised yelp before she jogged after the General.
Meanwhile, Lt. Zack had been prepared the entire time. While he was humored by some of the low-tech ways that Seres and Rhyderi did things, he felt sorry for how much the “greens” were being pushed.
>>_They haven’t been doing that bad, Sephy.
General Sephiroth led the way off the path and walked into the scrub-lands. After an abrupt scan of the area around him, he scowled and decided to stop.
“Something is wrong. This area is flattened down – something has stomped on the vegetation. But there is no sign of activity anywhere…”
>>_They haven’t been doing that good, either. Until I see a quick intelligent decision, I am not going to be impressed.
Seres was silently seething, for she still disliked the fact that her survival skills had been picked on. Her mother and father had taken care to teach her how to build fires and cook for survival. Yet, that wasn’t important, it seemed. The fact that her independence on making her own food was not respected simply disturbed her.
The girl was so wrapped up in her musings that she nearly walked straight into the General’s back when he stopped. Luckily, she spotted his form within a step of colliding with him and stepped to the side to avoid hitting him.
“Hm? I suppose…,” Seres glanced at the vegetation. “But we’ve seen a lot of this sort of stuff. How is this new, sir?”
Lt. Zack raised an eyebrow as he noticed Seres’ near mishap, but he choose not to point it out. Instead, he just glanced forward to examine the area as well.
“This looks larger than the other nesting sites we’ve seen so far, Sephy. We might be onto something here,” the marine suggested.
General Sephiroth either hadn’t noticed Seres’s slip up, or didn’t care. In any case, he was more occupied on the area around him. He crouched down in-front of some flattened vegetation and placed a hand on it, noting the outline of a dragon’s foot.
“Scout the area. See what you can find. I don’t know what we’re dealing with, but stay close. It could be anything. Anything at all…”
Seres quickly nodded her head. “Yes sir.”
So,the girl looked back at Rhyderi before she waved him forward. “Come on, let’s do some scouting. Shouldn’t take long. It’s not like dragons are hard to spot.”
Thus, Seres moved ahead to slip into the trees and search for the signs of the creature that had made the tracks.
Sadly, the dragon that had left he tracks, which indicated quite an impressive sized dragon, was no longer in the area. However, the trail lead to a depression that had been dug out and converted into a nest. The nest itself was surrounded by heated rocks that acted like charcoal.
Rhyderi stepped forwards to examine the immediate area. He wanted to be useful for once and so he followed the tracks and depression.
“Sir,” He quickly called out, “Sir, I found something. They appear to be eggs, sir.” He stood over the heated-rocks and nest, and took out his sword. “It’s still warm, sir… which means that the dragon who dug this out could be back at any time.”
General Sephiroth scowled and shook his head. “Lieutenant. Go to the Greenhorn and see what kind of dragon we’re dealing with.” He grunted as he glanced at Seres. “Then you can smash them.”
Lt. Zack quickly nodded in acknowledgement as he moved ahead to examine the area. As he reached the nest, he bent down so that he could start scanning the area.
>>_The readings do not indicate that this area has been disturbed recently, Sephy. By the looks of it, magic is keeping this nest warm. We probably will never know what laid them.
Meanwhile, Seres frowned at the command that she was given. “Smash them? Sir? They aren’t even born yet.”
>>_ Damn it. They could have been here years and we would never know…. do we have any DNA sampling equipment? Shave off some egg-shell powder, or break one open and find the germinal spot. Or take a blood-sample from the embryos if they are fertilised. Either way, find out what we’re dealing with. I do not want to see space-faring dragons on THIS planet ever.
General Sephiroth stared at Seres like she had gone insane. His left eye twitched and he stood there for a whole ten seconds before he could gain enough composure to speak again.
“That is the general idea of smashing an egg you know.” He grunted irritably. “Smash them and kill them before they hatch.”
“General, I understand that you are at war with dragons on your home.. place… But this isn’t that place! Dragons here are nearly extinct and just lashing out. We shouldn’t be killing unborn members of their species for crimes they haven’t even committed!” Seres objected.
>>_I can gather samples, General. However, we don’t have that sort of equipment here. We’d have to wait until the technicians on the Halcyon can look over it.
Lt. Zack jumped into the next so that he could move in toward the nearest egg.
“Fine…” General Sephiroth hissed. “Get Noemi to bring down the ship and we can put them in heat-storage. Then we can get them back onto the Halcyon and better analyze them… and THEN if they turn out to be problematic species, we’ll kill them.” He growled. “Does that sound better?”
He stepped away to begin summoning Noemi. “Damn nature-loving green-horns…”
Seres released a soft sigh of relief as she heard the General consent to not killing the eggs. So, she just looked back at Rhyderi and grinned. “I knew he’d listen to reason,” she whispered to him.
Thus, the girl began to wander trhough the nest and examine the eggs. After a bit of searching, she began to realize that most of the eggs were duds. “Damn.. dragons sure lay a lot of nothing eggs.”
Meanwhile, Noemi sent a confirmation message back to the General, indicating that she’d be there in five minutes.
General Sephiroth finished his summons messages once he got the word back from Captain Noemi. He moved further from the group and sat down on a fallen branch, sighing with boredom. Collection missions were the pinnacle of unexciting to him and now he was moping.
Rhyderi nodded at Seres as he followed her to the nest. “I wonder why they lay a lot of fakes. It seems like a waste of energy to do that…” He glanced down at the eggs, though he was not able to tell the difference between any of them. “If you want to know which ones have babies inside… shine a light over them? When my mother helped to raise chickens for our apartment block, she used a magic-light to shine through the eggs. The fertilised ones were darker.”
“Huh? You really need to do something like that?” Seres chuckled at Rhyderi. “I can just feel the fact that they have no life.. In fact…”
Seres wandered away for a few moments, looking at the variuos eggs. After quite a bit of wandering, she came back with a singular egg.
“I only feel one life in all of these…”
Rhyderi flicked his ears back rather suddenly, mostly because he thought Seres was laughing at his suggestion and he didn’t very much enjoy the thought.
“How can you even tell? How do you know there’s not more of them? Only one? But… there’s many of them here. There’s no way that can be right.” The Paladin moved around the eggs and tapped on the shells, though he still couldn’t find very much difference between any of them.
One of the eggs had such poor calcification on the shell that it broke open when touched. This caused Rhyderi to stumble back in shock, and he loudly yelped in surprise.
“Sorry!”
General Sephiroth rolled his eyes. “Damn green-horns…” He sighed, stiffening his shoulders as he glared at the ground in-front of him. *”Noemi. Hurry up with that damn ship. Our mission is done here for the time being.”*
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