Egg Hunt

Writers: AL, Cali
Date Posted: 5th December 2008

Characters: F'gol, Sheste
Description: Figol and Sheste go check for firelizard eggs.
Location: Harper Hall
Date: month 13, day 7 of Turn 4

"Hey." Sheste came to the open door and lightly rapped upon it as she spoke. It had taken some searching, but she had managed to finally find him in one of the practice rooms, hunched over a bit of hide with a gitar resting at his foot. "Mind if I interrupt?"

"Mind it or not you have." he growled. He looked up from the hide and his face lightened. "Oh sorry. I'm just a bit frustrated with this line. I'm just not happy with it and I'm _this_ close to pitching the whole thing."

"Well why don't you pitch and come with me." The girl suggested, leaning upon the door frame. "I was going to go see if that gold clutched yet."

Figol hesitated, he rarely got a afternoon free to work on his compositions, and with Turn's End rapidly approaching he doubted he'd get another chance before the new turn. Still, he shouldn't let her go climbing up that cliff by herself, especially if she's going to climb into a small dark hole she might not be able to get out of. He didn't pitch the composition though, but folded it neatly and placed it in his pocket... maybe he'd get a few moments to work on it while they were at the beach. "Okay, I'm game."

"Great." Sheste grinned and motioned for the boy to follow, though there was no need. She turned upon the balls of her feet and set a quick pace. "I get the first choice if the clutch is there."

"No argument from me. I still don't want one." He brought his gitar with him and slung it across his back. "They're nothing but trouble."

"Not if you train them." Sheste flipped her braid behind her shoulder and cast a glance behind her at the harper. "The troublemakers are the ones whose owners don't train them. Are you sure you want to bring that? What if you fall and it breaks?"

Figol frowned at her implication. "I wasn't actually planning on climbing up with you. More just sitting at the bottom and seeing if you need help."

"Then why bother coming with me at all?" Sheste picked up her pace, more in eagerness to see the clutch than anything. "If I really needed help, wouldn't it be best to come with me so that you could get to me quickly?"

"But if I'm with you when you need help then most likely I'd need help too." Figol reasoned, keeping up with her pace, "So it seems to reason that if we're separated we'll be better able to handle any situation that might arise."

"That's not necessarily true." Sheste shook her head, "I mean, if I fall, you aren't necessarily going to fall as well."

Figol relented, they'd spend more time arguing over whether or not he _should_ go up than it would actually take _to_ go up. "Okay, you lead the way. But if we both get trapped or fall off the cliff then I'm going to say I told you so."

"Well, we won't unless you do something silly." The girl lapsed into silence the entire rest of the way to the cliff. When they finally reached it, she paused at the bottom, searching for the path she had taken last time, then started up with the cautioning, "You might want to leave your gitar down there."

He sat it down on top of some rocks, sure he was well above the high tide line, and then started up after her. He went quicker this time since he knew where to step and easily kept up with her as she climbed up the cliff. "What if the queen's there. I heard they attack people who try and take their eggs."

"Shh!" Sheste cautioned. She answered him, but her voice was a mere whisper, "We're not going to take them while she's there. We'll wait til she leaves. They still have to eat you know."

This was why he'd wanted to stay down below. He could have been working on his song, but instead he'd be stuck on the side of a cliff for hours. Why did he let her distract him like this? He knew better, he did. He just couldn't say no to her. "Okay."

The girl resumed her climbing, getting more and more careful to stay as silent as possible the closer she got. Finally she was inching her way to the rocks where they had peered at the gold their previous visitor. Just as she hoped, the gold was there feasting upon a packtail. From the way she had slimmed down, it was obvious that she had clutched. Quietly, yet with great excitement, Sheste patted Figol's arm and pointed at the gold.

"Now we wait?" He asked, hoping that she'd changed her mind but not overly optimistic.

Sheste glared at Figol, her finger against her mouth. When she looked back, the gold was crouched over her fish, eyes darting about. Suddenly she leaped into the air and disappeared /between/. Sheste waited a few moments before finally creeping into the little cove made by the rocks and toward the small cave.

"I'll wait here." Figol reminded her. He wasn't going to be talked into crawling into a dark and cramped space no matter how convincing she was.

"You wouldn't fit." Sheste hadn't really expected him to crawl in with her anyway. She was going to get her dress dirty, but she had worn one that was rather old anyway. she crouched in front of the hole, then lowered herself to her hands and knees, then inched forward.

Figol averted his eyes as the wind wrapped around the cliff and flipped up her skirt as she slithered in. He waited... and waited... and was starting to worry she'd gotten stuck after all when she stuck her head back out. Her face was smudged with dirt, but she was fairly clean as he pulled her out. "So how many were there?"

"There weren't." Sheste sighed heavily as she brushed the bit of dust from the front of her skirt and wiped at her face. She couldn't really see where she had gotten anything on her face and she more smeared it than cleaned it. "Not a single one! But it's obvious that she's lain them!"

He hadn't really cared about the eggs anyways, but he was amused by her antics so he chuckled as reached down to help brush away the smudges. "You're only making it worse. Are you sure you looked everywhere? You couldn't have been able to see very well."

"There wasn't enough room to be able to _miss_ them." The girl pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. "All that for nothing. I wanted an egg!"

"I'm sorry Sheste." He reached for her face again and attempted to rub out another smudge with his thumb. "It was worth a try. Maybe she'll lay the eggs here next time. We can keep a look out."

"Yeah, I guess." The girl couldn't help it, she outright pouted. "Well, I guess we'd better get back." She had expected to go back with a couple of eggs, but it seemed as if her luck was not with her.

The girl looked like she was about to cry. Figol didn't understand what was so upsetting, but it _was_ upsetting to her, so he did his best to try and comfort her. "Hey now," he started, putting his arm around her and pulling her into his shoulder, "I mean it, we'll keep a look out. Once a sevenday we'll check on her, and we'll find her spot next time."

"Yeah, I guess." Sheste didn't protest the embrace, "Well...anyway, thanks for coming with me." Even if it was a pointless journey.

He let go of her, feeling like he'd done his job in making her feel better. "No problem, I've got a little time left in the practice room, do you want to come and listen?"

"Sure." Might as well. She had nothing else to do and maybe it would get her mind off of the failure. "Let's go."

Last updated on the December 7th 2008

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