[GrayGriffin]

Gray smiled. "Thank you...thank you all!" she exclaimed. She didn't know what else to say-it just seemed good. But not good enough. Truce solved the problem by racing towards her and hugging her, then turning towards Terra and hugging her as well. He even hugged Sta, before racing towards Jimmy and friends.

"Hugs for everyone!" he cheered.

"That seems like the perfect end," smiled Coco.

"Yes. Yes it does," agreed Nin.

[160, 150, 21, 48, 21, 239]

[Freezair]

Uh-oh.

"AAAAH!" I yelped, and found myself buried in a furry, feathery, scaly, metally pile of hugs.

"Oh, I do like hugs very much!" Fluffy said. He would. With arms like those, he was a born (manufactured?) champion. I felt one of his cold, metally hands on my shoulder.

"Food and presents!" Krii cheered. "We eat cake now, and we haven't even given you the gift we brought yet!"

"Oh, stop thinking with your stomach," Sky teased.

Avani laughed. "Hee! Yeah, it's very nice. Weddings are parties, after all!"

[431, 91]

[GrayGriffin]

"Yay, food!" cheered Truce, racing off towards the food table. "This will taste even better because it's fresh!" he added.

"Yes it will," agreed Tono.

"I'm hungry!" added Nin.

"So am I, sister," agreed Tono. "But I thought it prudent not to mention it."

"You thought right!" joked Coco. "No wife likes to hear her hubsand idscussing food while the wedding's going on! But now it's over-so let's eat!"

"Yeah, yeah..." muttered Sta.

"Cheer up, Sta!" exclaimed Gray.

"Yeah!" agreed Terra.

[161, 151, 22, 49, 22, 240]

[Freezair]

We all rushed the table, except for Fluffy. He just stood by.

"I regret not having taste buds," he sighed. "Biologicals always seem to enjoy eating so much! I've heard some of the nicer models of Rabbot have taste sensors like those of humans; some of them can burn food in lieu of solar fuel, but they can taste a little. Oh well! No use being sad--I'll simply watch the rest of you enjoy your food."

I nabbed some crackers and spread them with smoked cheese. "Mmm. Say, Krii! You should give them our present now."

"Oh! Right!" Krii scampered over to Sky.

"Sky?"

"In the bag," she said. Krii climbed up on her back and pulled something out from one of her saddle pouches.

Scampering up to Tono, he laid the object down at his feet.

"Ahem!" Krii cleared his throat. "In honor of your marriage, we of the Caravan took it upon ourselves to make ya a little gift!"

"Open it up!" Avani urged.

It had been hard to make, too, requiring a lot of complicated magical fiddling. We'd taken a piece of fabric from our tent and made a bag that was a lot like it--bigger on the outside than it was within. You could hold all kinds of things in it--and, if need be, hide in it until danger passed. Very useful. Possibly more useful than ever, if the stupid Society was on the prowl and out to hurt poor Tono and Coco...

[GrayGriffin]

Coco turned away from the platter of nuts she was eating and turned towards the present, tearing slightly with her beak as she opened it. She lifted the bag out, looking curiously inside.

"It's...a bag?" she said. "But it looks a lot bigger on the inside," she added.

"Ooh, cool!" said Truce. "Then you can put all sorts of things inside and take them out when you need to!"

"But how will you get the right thing out?" asked Tono.

"I'm sure there's some way of doing that...besides, I'm sure you won't use it that much, will you?" asked Sta. Coco rolled her eyes.

"Of course I'll use it a lot!" she replied.

"You don't understand females very well, do you?" chuckled Nin. Terra also laughed, slightly, although she still seemed a bit confused. Gray smiled as well, thinking about the various things that could be fit into a bag like that.

[162, 152, 23, 50, 23, 241]

[Freezair]

"It's funny, actually!" Krii said. "Somehow, your fingers always seem to find exactly the thing you're looking for. Like, with our tent, you always seem to meet exactly the member you need to without looking for them forever. Like magic, huh?"

"And if you can get a toe into it, you can climb in yourself," Sky testified. "Very good for hiding in and being sneaky."

"I was gonna get you a gift card!" Avani said. "But Jimmy told me it would be tacky..."

Well, maybe it's just me, but I believe in giving people gift gifts.

"Good! Now we've given gifts," Fluffy clapped. "Will there be Dancing, now? I do so love Dancing!"

[433, 106]

[GrayGriffin]

"Great!" said Coco. "But can you breathe in there?"

"Well, they said their tent is made out of that cloth. If you couldn't breathe in a tent, that'd be very inconvenient, right?" added Terra.

"Yeah, but maybe the tent has some special addition that lets you breathe in it," added Tono. "But I think we should let those people who actually made it answer the question."

"So, what is it?" replied Sta. "Also, do outside conditions affect this bag? What would happen if, for example, it got dropped into the water or into a fire?"

"Don't talk like that!" exclaimed Tono.

"I didn't think you'd be the morbid one, Sta," said Nin in surprise.

"Th-that's scary..." whimpered Truce. "What if you're inside when it's dropped?"

[163, 153, 24, 51, 24, 242]

[Bag of Holding wooooooooooo]

[Freezair]

"It's cloth," Krii said. "Of course you can breathe. You put a scarf over your face and you can still breathe, right?"

"If the bag gets destroyed, the stuff in it all pops out. Hope there's room when that happens," Sky said. "But c'mon! Don't be morbid; this is your wedding, after all. Think of happiness and futures and all that good stuff."

"Dancing?" Fluffy interjected.

"Someone throw the poor squid a bone!" Avani said. "C'mon! Let's not dwell; let's dance!"

[434, 107]

[GrayGriffin]

"Ah, right, dancing!" exclaimed Coco. "I almost forgot. Of course there has to be dancing!"

"I have the music!" added Truce. He fished around in the skull he carried, finally pulling out a small portable radio. It looked a little battered, judging from all the fighting that had gone on, but still servicable.

"Oh, it needs electricity," he added. "I don't know if the batteries will be enough...d-do any of you have electric powers?"

"Not that I know of," replied Nin.

"My power is ice-not much help," replied Sta.

"I can power it, but I'd like to dance..." said Terra a bit wistfully.

"Neither of us have powers," said Coco, looking at Tono. "Beyond a little wind-whipping, but that's it."

"I could do it...if you don't mind the radio possibly acheiving sentience beyond ours and ascending to a higher plane of existence..." muttered Gray. Her light powers, when properly channeled, could temporarily power electronic devices, but if not channeled, they could easily turn normal machines into sentient-or further-creatures.

[164, 154, 25, 52, 25, 243]

[Freezair]

"Ha!" I laughed. I had a suden, unusual mental image. "There's a girl who lives down the street from my parents. Or used to live, anyway. Apparently, her Khalmar did that all the time! I did 'meet' a toaster of theirs. It was... yeah. Weird."

"I still think it doesn't like me," Krii huffed.

"Oooh! Another friend! Sounds lovely," Fluffy cheered. "Do try it, Gray!"

Sky just shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"Fire 'er up!" Avani cheered.

[435, 108]

[GrayGriffin]

"Alright..." muttered Gray. "Hope this goes well..." She directed a finger at the radio, and a glowing aura of light appeared from it. She frowned, and focused, until it was reduced to a small, yet bright, glow hovering in her palm. She then pushed it forwards, allowing the radio to absorb it.

"Ah!" cried Truce, nearly dropping the radio. "It's hot!"

"Put it down!" warned Coco. "Don't drop it, though!"

However, it was already chanigng in Truce's claws. The radio shifted and stretched, finally taking on a whole different form.



"Bzzbzz...analyzing...new capabilites detected..." the small creature seemed to mutter. Truce set it down gently and backed away, going to hide beside Coco.

"What are you? What do you want to do?" demanded Tono.

"Analyzing words...what do you want to do...query-function? Play music...searching database...no music saved...scanning airwaves...no signals detected...bzzbzz...record discovered." The small Velix, which had repeated Tono's words in his own voice, suddenly coughed, "ejecting" a strange cd-player like device from its mouth. Music began to play, a rather jaunty, cheerful tune.

"Wow!" said Truce. "That was cool, Gray!"

"Logic error," said the Velix, its voice somehow not interfering in the music. "Temperature is merely 'warm.' Determinators of climate not sufficient to qualify for 'cool.'" It paused then, eyes blinking. "'Cool' has alternate definition, as in something wondrous and awe-provoking." Its head turned, taking in its surroundings.

"Current scenery can be defined as 'cool.'"

"Huh," said Sta. "It seems to be halfway between full sentience and mechanical calculating."

"I lean towards 'latent sentience.'" replied Terra. "It seems more conflicted about its origins, and I believe that, as a naturally broadcasting machine, it simply thinks out loud, albeit in a way different from ours."

"That seems to have gone rather well..." noted Gray.

[165, 155, 26, 53, 26, 244, 1]

[Freezair]

Woah!

Right  before our very eyes, the radio warped and changed. I thought I knew the tiny creature it turned into. It was a--a--the name was on the tip of my tongue--

"A Velix!"

Thank you, Fluffy.

"Amazing!" He prodded it with one tentacle. "I've seen these before. They're quite popular in terms of ordinary consumer robotics. They're not as advanced as the Khalmar or Rabbot, certainly, but--as Terra so aptly put it--they have latent sentience. I find them quite fascinating!"

"They can play a groovy beat, too!" Krii was up on his back paws and shaking his arms wildly.

"You got it, Bro," Sky cheerfully agreed.

Avani looked to Sta. "Hey, Sta! Wanna cut a rug? I'm bored, and you're the first person I looked at. Let's dance!"

[GrayGriffin]

"Eh..." said Sta, glancing at Avani. "Sure, why not?" he said at last.

"Sta, stop being so depressed!" exclaimed Tono. "This is my wedding!"

"Leave him alone-he just met some members of the organization that orphaned him. That'd upset anyone," replied Gray.

"So..." said Terra, turning to Fluffy. "Shall we dance?"

"I know who I'm taking!" added Coco, snuggling close to her husband. He chuckled.

"Of course you are."

"Hey...you wanna dance, Krii?" asked Truce, hopefully. "You're really good at this!"

"This...would like to dance," added the Velix. It sounded...wistful?

"Then...I'll dance with you!" said Truce, turning around. "But won't it damage the disk?"

"Negative," said the Velix. There was another whirring noise, and the CD withdrew. "Velix are designed well, with little able to damage the outer casing. The CD is now protected."

"Wow, cool!" repeated Truce. This time, the Velix did not give a "logic error" message.

"I'll sit this one out," suggested Gray. "Never was one for dancing..."

"C'mon! You don't even need to dance with someone! Just let your feelings come out!" added Nin. She leapt into the air, turning corkscrews, wings flapping in a shimmer of rainbow feathers.

[166, 156, 27, 54, 27, 245, 2]

[Freezair]

Fluffy took Terra's tentacle. He moved and spun with her on his arms. He had no mouth, but the way the Khalmar moved and shook made it clear he was grinning from ear to ear. Avani, too, offered one of her forelimbs to Sta. But she couldn't really give it and he couldn't really take it, so she just beckoned him to follow and dance beside her as she moved.

"Sure," Krii shrugged. "Let's dance. What harm could it do?" He could awkwardly balance on his back legs.

"Well, looks like it's you and me," Sky said to me. "Wanna dance with?"

I chuckled. "Just don't knock me over with those big wings of yours, alrgith?"

[GrayGriffin]

"Dance," said the Velix slowly. It lifted its legs, high-stepping and turning in an awkward way. Truce chuckled, trying to keep up with it. "C'mon Krii!" he added.

Gray sighed, and leapt into the air after Nin, changing into griffin form. The two avians twisted in the air, the light reflecting rainbows and silver shards. Coco laughed as she flew after them in a trail of colored spray, closely matched by her husband.

Sta sighed as well, dancing next to Avani, his hooves clattering against the stone. Small patches of ice appeared, sparkled for a moment, then melted.

[167, 157, 28, 55, 28, 246, 3]