Secrets and Lore: Gayther and Marelyn's Story

Immediately upon arriving on Star City-- well, after they'd gotten a room, which Naoryn insisted on doing before going haring off somewhere, a choice Marelyn had quietly but inflexibly supported-- Marelyn took to heart Gayther's warning that it might be possible, there, to change into her long-unused human form. More to the point, she made a concerted effort at it, thinking back to her own kittenhood and what it felt like to be so small, delicate, and dexterous, and how it felt to go from that to strong, swift, and deadly-- and back again. Especially the back again part.

And, to her great pleasure, it worked. Multiple times, as she changed rapidly back and forth.

"Marelyn," Gayther told her, exasperated, "that is not why we came!"

"Liatha is not likely to disappear in the two minutes it takes me to enjoy my freedom of change," Marelyn countered, amused at his uncharacteristic impatience, as she admired her long-fingered hands and the black fall of her hair. "And you can always go without me, if you are so anxious to check."

Gayther pulled his whiskers back disapprovingly, but he didn't say anything more, and neither did he leave the inn's room. Or "hotel", as Naoryn had called it. At least Naoryn wasn't going to make a fuss over it: he just smiled quietly at her, sitting back while she went back and forth another times, smirking just to spite Gayther. Then she went back to the mirror to examine herself-- she'd gotten older, apparently, even without having used this form since she was practically a kitten. There was, she realized, a strand or two of gray in her hair. She'd have to pluck those, the way she ruthlessly groomed away the couple gray hairs she'd found in her coat. These, at least, were much more easily dealt with, which she did then and there.

"All right," Naoryn said behind her, to Gayther, "so, we're here. While Marelyn makes a game out of shifting, we can at least discuss what you intend to do next. I certainly hope," he added with a wry grin, "you're not planning to go haring off calling Liatha's name."

"Don't be silly," Gayther huffed. "I thought we'd start with that Abstract Destiny place, really. Just to see if what I think is happening is actually what's happening."

"The garyki," Marelyn put in, now examining her eyebrows curiously. They had a lovely arch to them, she decided. "It does seem a good place to start, Naoryn."

"Well, you don't exactly just go walking into the Destiny and demand to know what clutches they have coming up, either," Naoryn pointed out. "In fact, if I remember correctly, the only place you're allowed to go is the Hatching Bays, which will only help us if the clutch we're looking for is in there. So we can either use the computer to look things up, or we can make our way through the city to the DRM and then head for the Destiny if they do, in fact, have the clutch we're interested in occupying one of their bays."

"We wouldn't be demanding," Gayther said, sounding put out. "A polite question whether or not they had any goprin or dragons coming up... any... er, clutches, did you say?"

"And," Marelyn put in dryly, looking over her shoulder at them both, asking the question that curious Gayther seemed too distracted to ask, "what in the world is a 'DRM'?" It sounded like an acronym, but she had no idea what it could stand for.

Naoryn winced, amusingly. "I was afraid you'd ask that. I can only ever remember the letters. I'm pretty sure the D stands for Dragons, and as it's often referred to as the Ministry, the M is definitely Ministry. But I can never remember what the R stands for. Relationships? Review? No," he sighed, "But anyways, they've got all the records of any clutch or batch of hatchlings being adopted out in the dragonry or on the Destiny, so our best bet is to either check out their web site--" He paused with another wince, and Marelyn imagined a great spiderweb with information somehow on it, "--or go there in person."

"Sounds fascinating," Marelyn said, brows up in amusement, as she finally turned away from the mirror.

"You're sure we can't just check the Destiny first?" Gayther asked, looking overwhelmed, probably for the first time in his knowledge-loving life.

"We certainly can," Naoryn said patiently, "but the Destiny sometimes carries a back-log and just because the Society's been gone a while doesn't mean the clutch is on the sands yet. We don't even know if their clutch was approved! If it is, and it is in the hatching bays, it'll be easier to arrive knowing which bay to go to. Besides, if the Society is up to something fishy, as you think they are, Schroeder wouldn't have approved them-- and if they managed to hide it from him, then you don't want to go in making a ton a noise and have them whisk Liatha away before you can see her, do you?"

Marelyn allowed herself to be a little impressed, and a little amused at the mostly-concealed amusement in Naoryn's eye. Gayther was forced to back down under the weight of Naoryn's inexorable logic and relentless reasonableness. He sighed heavily. "All right... you're right. But I don't know anything about these-- computers-- or this... Ministry."

"Perhaps Naoryn can show us," Marelyn suggested. "I would be interested to learn."

"I know enough to check things out," Naoryn said, heading over to the odd box, tray full of buttons, and odd, circular thing on the desk and sitting down. It didn't look anything like the big, heavy-looking things they called "computers" back at the Lodge. Marelyn came to lean over one shoulder, Gayther over the top of his head, as he continued his babbling: "I'm not great with computers, but Mykha wouldn't send me to Star City without teaching me something. I was a little lost down on Driolo the first time I came, and Mykha didn't want me to be stuck trying to get information by wandering around, if she needed to send me here again."

"That seems wise," Marelyn agreed, watching him work. The circular thing had produced a hovering, glowing picture which Naoryn could touch to choose different things. He touched a number of things, in fact-- bringing up a variety of other glowing pictures, some of which had some very interesting things in them and all which he closed very quickly, to Marelyn's disappointment; perhaps they had been accidents-- before finding something that he stopped at. "Ministry of Dragonic Relations" it said at the top.

"There's your word," she told Naoryn with a smile. "Relations."

From there, finding the picture that popped up with "Abstract Destiny" across the top wasn't as difficult.

"Look!" Gayther cried when Naoryn found the picture titled "Hatching Bays", ears perking ridiculously forward, like he was trying to shade his eyes with them, or point with them. "Look, there! 'Half-goprin creatures called garyki'-- I knew it!"

"So you did," Naoryn agreed, eyes darting over the script. "And you're in luck, because they're currently in a bay. I take it we run over there now?"

"Can we?" Gayther nodded eagerly.

"Perhaps I ought to see about clothing first?" Marelyn suggested delicately, smiling at the two of them.

"Oh, just shift back, Marelyn," Gayther huffed at her.

"But that's no fun at all."

Naoryn finally seemed to realize that Marelyn had shifted naked-- well, really, the last time she'd been human she'd quite purposefully taken off her clothes, not wanting to wear them ever again; she was rather less rebellious about it, these days-- and he nodded in the direction of his suitcase on the human-sized bed. "You can rummage in there, see if anything fits you. I don't think you'll want to trust Gayther or myself to buy you clothes."

"Men's taste in clothing is generally poor," Marelyn agreed, sizing him up by eye-- he was rather tall, wasn't he?-- before wandering over to the bed to investigate his clothing. "I'll just have to make due, I suppose. Unless Mykha dresses you," she added with a wicked smile over her shoulder at him.

He ignored her, silly man, and moved to the center of the room to stretch, blink, shift, and continue stretching. He even yawned, all toothy and catty, and Marelyn chuckled, shaking her head before getting back to hunting for something that wouldn't look like a bag on her. She found a somewhat-fitted tunic, but the trousers would definitely need one of his belts, on its tightest notches. Her hips were perfectly wide enough to keep them on-- she was pleased to remember her human shape-- but then she stepped on them terribly.

"I'm going shopping if we stay here very long," she announced as she eyed her image in the mirror.

Naoryn, who had been grooming, flirted his tail in a shrug. "It's your money to spend. So are we ready?"

Gayther, who looked like he'd been itching to do just this, leapt to his paws. "Very ready."

Laughing, Marelyn said, "As ready as I'm going to be. Go on, Gayther, we'll go rescue your overgrown kitten."

He at least had the grace to look sheepish.