[Kyrit]

His paws padded softly against the rocks beneath them, moving from one tunnel to the next, though he hadn’t been able to watch where they were going in particular. The sight of bouncing wave after wave of champagne locks in front of him was far too captivating. On occasion bits of sunlight would break through the cavern’s ceiling, sparkling off of her hair and bits of scales that poked out from beneath gingerly layered fabrics. He was curious how shape shifting worked. Had she crafted a mental image of those clothes and formed them around herself, or had she previously shape shifted and decided to wear these clothes before shifting back? Were those scales actual armor, or were they just part of herself? They certainly looked the part. He couldn’t bring himself to ask at this time though, his breath taken from him.

[Kyrit]

It didn’t seem like it had been long though before she paused in front of him, causing him to abruptly stop, having to stagger back a bit to keep himself from tumbling forward. His gaze finally broke away from her form, giving a quick glance around to see where they were before snapping back to Vadra as he caught signs of her turning around out of the corner of his eye.

“Welcome,” she started out, slowly opening her arms to gesture to the vast expanse that the cavern tapered out to before them, “to the conversation hall.”

[Kyrit]

As he brought himself to look behind her, a new astounding sight was to be found. This wasn’t just an opening in the cavern like he had expected to find, like the room with the underground pond. No, this was much more delicately excavated from the stone with flat walls that stretched out for what he could only assume was several hundred feet in either direction and a ceiling that reached thirty feet, if not perhaps even higher. Half way on either side a row of pillars added support to the structure of the room.

[Kyrit]

The room was delicately illuminated by an enormous chandelier in the center, the light produced from its candles bouncing off the glass and gems that adorned it, showering the room in an array of colors. Smaller light fixtures dotted the ceiling, particularly around the several tables spread about in a circular formation, though none stood out as strongly as the grand chandelier with vast empty space beneath it.

The longer he stared the more Friend took in the various delicate details, such as carvings adorning the pillars, patterns painted upon the ceiling, and baskets of various fruit and flowers decorating the tables. It was a lot of information to take in at once, all of which he was uncertain of how to process. Dozens of questions were swirling through his head. This place was out in the desert, right? What did a dragon need with a room that could easily sit his entire village? Where did all that fruit come from?

[Kyrit]

He wouldn’t be left to linger in his thoughts for long, as Vadra cleared her throat, drawing his attention back to her once again. Perhaps she had considered it rude of him to stand in silence, or perhaps it was that he realized only now that his jaw had relaxed at some point and he’d been standing there with his lips partly parted for who knew how long in awe. Before he could apologize though, she turned from him and waved after him once again.

[Kyrit]

“Come, pick a place to sit. If you’re hungry there’s plenty of fruit-” she paused momentarily to look back at him only briefly, “though I suppose you’d much prefer meat. I could procure such…” her lips pursed in thought, though her words didn’t break for long. “I’d much rather hear what brought you here though... so that much could wait at least. The fruit is all fresh though.”

He had followed after her, eventually drawing the nearest chair in the interest of keeping her happy, since he felt like she was perhaps getting a bit impatient with his silence. “Fruit is okay,” Friend started out as he collapsed in to the chair, reaching for an orange and beginning to slice the peel with a claw. “Meat tastes better for sure, but fruit is good.”

[Kyrit]

Hearing the sound of the chair pull away from the table, Vadra had turned to watch him before taking a seat of her own. Her eyes, glimmering like polished prehnite, were intently locked on to him as she folded her hands beneath her chin. Admittedly, it was a bit intimidating to him, though he didn’t know how to express it. In this form nothing looked the slightest bit threatening about her, and yet as she waited in silence before him it felt as if he was still being stared down by the same dragon he had initially met. Which.. Wasn’t wrong. Perhaps it was just the thought of disappointing her with what he felt like wasn’t that interesting of a story that was bearing down upon him at this time.

[Kyrit]

She was probably getting impatient too. Friend could feel the sway of the table’s decorative fabric against his fur, which he believed to be from one of her legs bouncing ever so slightly as she waited. Where was he supposed to start though? Did she want his full story from the moment he left the village, or was she just wanting the story of him specifically deciding to venture out in to the desert. He pondered only briefly, picking at the orange’s peel, before deciding saying anything was probably better than nothing with her just staring at him this whole time.

[Kyrit]

“It’s probably not a very interesting st-”

He was cut off as Vadra shook her head and interjected, “Matters not if you think it’d bore me. I can guarantee you that it won’t.” The speed at which she was able to make that decision and insist that it couldn’t be boring was a bit startling, but if she insisted….

He’d start with the short version he supposed. Just from the most recent town to here, and if he was mistaken and she wanted the full story he could elaborate later. This was the easiest as well, since it allowed him to skip over his distrust of water that she had witnessed not too long ago.

[Kyrit]

“I overheard some guys talking in a tavern about a relic out in the desert that sounded really cool, so I decided to go hunting for it. They said it was supposedly only a few miles in to the desert… so I figured I could find it without too much trouble.” His own foot tapped anxiously against the cool floor. Thinking back on it all, it had been really stupid to come out here. They’d only had a vague description of the location of it, no real directions to give. Not that that would have helped much in the desert he’d found.

[Kyrit]

“Ah, a relic. I suppose there are a lot of those around here,” Vadra interjected, cracking a bit of a smile. “Though most of those would happen to be within my lair.”

Across from her, the Tabaxi’s ears shot forward, his posture righting itself as he suddenly leaned forward. “Then they were right! They said a monster was guarding i-” He quickly cut himself off, backpedaling over his words as he fumbled with the orange, stammering out, “N-not that you’re a monster! But I’m sure if someone saw a dragon guarding it-”

[Kyrit]

His words were fast and starting to roll together, making them a bit hard to understand, but she began to laugh softly, her smile widening. “Perhaps, or perhaps there is some monster guarding this relic. Tell me, what relic were you searching for? I could elaborate on if it is one of my own, or if I know of the beast guarding it.” She sounded pretty sure that she would know, as if perhaps she knew almost everything that went on in the desert. He also couldn’t get a grasp on if he’d upset her by referring to her as the monster at first, though he felt as though perhaps he had with how she put emphasis on the word when she herself said it.

[Kyrit]

By now there was a nice pile of peelings in front of Friend, the orange now bare with exception of the remaining white veins of the peel clinging on. It was these that he was anxiously picking at now as he continued on with the story, hoping he didn’t make himself out to be more stupid than he already had. “They said they’d heard of a bird cage that had been left in the desert because it was cursed.”

[Kyrit]

He averted his gaze down to the orange, realizing how stupid he sounded telling her this. It sounded silly that someone would just drop it off in the desert of all places, rather than just destroy it. Not to mention just leaving it out in the desert wouldn’t keep birds from flying in to it, if that had been the original owner’s intent, but he supposed at least there were probably fewer birds in the desert at least. It’d had sounded so cool though that at the time he hadn’t given any of it a second thought like he was now doing before he’d gathered what few belongings he kept and started on his hunt.

[Kyrit]

“They said there was a monster tasked with guarding it, but I figured it was probably a mirage if the cage actually existed. I didn’t think there was much living out here in the desert.”

There was a moment of silence, which was broken by a soft “hmmm” as Vadra watched him closely, eyes straying to the fruit that he had been idly picking at for far too long.
“I do know of the cage, though it is not within my lair,” she finally started out, eyes drawing back to his face again. “Tell me though, why would you want such an item?”