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It was deep in the foothills that housed the Ruins of Rin, east of a smattering of villages, north of the River Wilde, and south of nowhere. Despite the craggy landscape, the road that wound through it was well-marked by torches and banners. Caves dotted the hills, some little more than holes and others quite obvious, like one of particular size that housed a particular dragon, which had settled down earlier that summer for a nap. And it was Grim Godwell's night, a night of magic, mystery, and true love.

Of course, the dragon brooding in its lair didn't know that. It didn't know that this, the Transrin Lowroad, was special to those that dwelled nearby, for every year on Grim Godwell's night they would don disguises and make a pilgrimage through the ruins. It was said that the veil was thin on this night and in this place, and ghosts and other creatures from the beyond would occasionally make appearances. Sometimes they could even be entreated for gifts and blessings, but this was a special night for them, too, and often they wanted nothing more than to run amok.

Heimdall lumbered to the front of the cave and laid down, watching the blurry torches dance. It smelled their smoke. Were they there when it had gone to sleep? It couldn't recall. There was something restive about this night--maybe the way the air hung or the voices that seemed to float in on the wind ...

A gaggle of fuzzy cheetahfaun triplets, now a year older than the prior one, come upon the dragon's territory.

The barely-of-the-age eleven-year-olds scurry along the torch and bannered path, not a care between any of them. They have dressed up as different roles this year:

Pale and sickly blonde Isaac is a doctor, with a plague mask adorned in cheetah spots. His robes are so dark a green that they could be considered black.

Prim redheaded Ailana is an airship captain, bearing a spiffy little blue coat with a matching top hat and ships' wheel.

And ever-curious brunette Cassius is a guard captain, in a custom suit of armor tailored to his assorted inhuman traits. He's boldly lacking his helmet, cheeky thing!

The "kiddens", nearly "cateenagers", all carry sacks of well gotten goodies from elsewhere in the lands, and they chatter noisily amongst themselves. Cassius leads the pack as always, with Isaac taking up the rear of their party. They know only of spirits in their father's books, and of dragons in their uncle's pet.

Well tonight, the trio will be in for a treat!

Heimdall's frilled ears perked up upon hearing footsteps--or rather, the pitter patter of little cheetah paws! It wiggled its haunches like an oversized cat, dug its back claws into the ground, then uncoiled like a released spring. It landed in front of the triplets like a lightning strike, making the ground tremble.

It had intended this to be a rather fearsome display, but months spent asleep had rendered the dragon rather sluggish and uncoordinated. It stumbled upon landing, letting out a little "yurp!" noise as it regained its footing.

"Who goes der?!"

Cassius halts on a copper piece at Heimdall's appearance, causing Ailana--who followed too closely--to bump into him. Isaac's lagging behind serves to his advantage for once.

The triplets all stare at the beast in their way, stunned temporarily into silence. Heimdall's "graceful" landing doesn't lessen the awe.

"Is that a dragon??!" Cassius yelps before his brain can register the question it asked. No, Cass, it's a fluffy bunny rabbit.

How many years had it been since Vale had been separated from his typically crew? It felt weird that he was back to doing solo mercenary work. Not seeing Jurini nor Liuma find themselves in trouble with a smile plastered on their faces, and not being around Nalia's biting condescension whenever something bad happened had been... well, for a lack of better words, lonely.

Walking the winding paths allowed for Vale to fall into his thoughts and reminisce about how his travels were not too long ago. But now... with people splitting paths and finding their own callings... the roads seemed long.

An audible exclamation pulled Vale out of his thoughts. Looking around, Vale was curious as to what exactly was asking him 'who goes there'. His face scrunched in confusion, and he looked in the direction that the voice had come from. There was another, less distinct voice that caught Valian's attention before he threw excess cloth of his cloak behind him and started running for the direction where the voices had come from.

With a hand upon the pommel of his sword, Vale rushed to the aid of whoever might have been in danger.

Skidding into view, Vale was at the ready. His fingers were curled around the grip of his sword, and his brow was furrowed. What he saw was surprising. Mostly because Liuma was the only dragon he knew about -- and given everything, he thought that she had been the only one til now.

While that was all surprising and frightening in some aspect, another thing that confused Vale was the fact that the kids that he saw were there were all dressed up in costumes. Either an ambitious adventuring party, or there was something more at play here.

The dragon let out a few more BOOFs and URFs just to remind the kittens that it was, in fact, still here--not that they would need much help with that--and tried to puff up in order to save face after its graceless stumble.

Cass's question made the brute tilt its head. "Ya! Dragon!" It dropped down low and trundled closer, jamming its snout towards the three of them to sniffle and snort. "Ve say d'obvious ones now? Sky black! Ground hard! And you--t'ree-head kitten monster!" For all its sass, it didn't try to impede or hurt the kiddos in any way. Even its sniffing was relatively gentle, all things considered. "... vait, I tink am knowing dis kitten-smell."

Those little ears perked again as yet another set of footsteps approached. Heimdall sat up on its haunches and peered at the elf a few paces behind the triplets. "Dis more! More valkers-t'rough! Vhy all is valking t'rough here?"

Three pairs of wings and tails poof and extend in attempts to display ferocity...and unfortunately fear as an unintended side.

"W-we smell pretty!" Ailana pipes up, doing her best to put upon a brave face. Then once Heimdall brings to attention another person, it is she who looks back at Felvalian. The girl is visibly relieved that an adult is here!

"...i-it is Halloween," Isaac addresses the dragon's question after a pause. His often quiet voice strains to be louder.

One near-white hand reaches up to lift away his mask, revealing a boyish face with golden eyes, and white-blond hair to go with them.

"I-it is a tradition? We g-go dressing up, l-looking for candy." His manner of speaking and face may be eerily familiar to Heimdall.

Genie had activated her device, and it hadn't brought her to the Library. That in itself wasn't unusual- sometimes in the past, The Archivist and The Resplendent Personage had been out already in other realms of fiction, and the device would bring her to them, but after several long moments looking around, Genie could not find any trace of them. This place was wild, and craggy. It reminded Genie of when she'd spent time in the realm of Ancient Greek Stories, with hilly outcrops of earth that were shaped by wind, water, and the gods.
She caught a glimpse of a torches below her, and she climbed awkwardly down the rocks to get a better view of the trees. Genie heard a deep rumbling voice comparable to an earthquake below, and she momentarily was afraid that the rocks would fall out from below her. Her nervous foot shifted a few small pebbles that clattered down over the mouth of the cave, and she caught her breath before she tried to move her feet more safely.
She heard the piping voices of small children, and hoped that she had not ended up in the realm of the Insular Celtic Stories, and that they were not the Fair Folk, and she warily called out in a voice that sounded rather more scared than brave,
"Hello--?"

Heimdall squinted hard to see the kids, though its vision was so bad that it struggled to tell them apart. Their poofiness certainly helped. "Ohh ... is not being a t'ree-head, is just being t'ree!" When Isaac spoke up and revealed his face--though the dragon could see little more than a pale blur--it crouched down to put its face right in his. "And dis one ... you are being familiar. I know dis smell, dese words."

A low rumbly hrrrrm left its throat as it sat up again. "So. Dis Hallveen. Dis candy--sveet candy? And you search it?" Another small voice floated in, this time from above. Heimdall inclined its snout towards Genie, whom it could smell but not see. "Đu! Is more Hallveen searcher? Candy-searcher?"

That voice that rumbled like the Earth was speaking, was speaking to her. Genie could not yet see what the speaker was, yet it sounded large and powerful, yet its accent reminded her of a jarl she had encountered in the realm of The Norse Mythic Stories, and she wondered if it had been a jötunn- a powerful giant with bones of ice and iron, and suddenly she felt very small. It mentioned ‘Hallveen’ and it took a second for her to realise that the voice was talking about Halloween. Genie had forgotten that it was Halloween that night, but the thought of candy was definitely tempting.
“I do like Candy, yes. But I don’t feel safe up here as I’ve nearly slipped and I can’t see how far it is down. Is the ground very far?”

Heimdall eased itself to all fours and lumbered towards the cave to find the source of the new voice. Once it reached the mouth of the cave, it grew in size until its head was even with Genie's. The dragon's scales were very dark, making it blend into the night, but its grey eyes very dimly glowed, and the torchlight made its golden tusks glitter.

As it had done with the kittens, it leaned in to thoroughly sniff her, with a breath that felt like cold wind. "Sveet-candy good, ya," it agreed in an amiable voice. "Here. Climb on head. I take you down." It lowered its head for her to climb on. There were plenty of stubby spikes and scales to hold on to.

"...you're a very nice dragon," Ailana finally decides upon witnessing Heimdall's assistance to Genie.

"Yeah, like Uncle Murd's Lillian!" Cassius cheers on.

That may be a silly thing for two kiddens to decide upon, but in their parents' stories and eye witness accounts, there are family dragons like Lillian, or scary ones that eat children who wander!

A good couple moments passed as the white-haired elf watched the interaction, and even saw the new arrival of someone else to the scene at hand.

Felvalian had edged himself closer to the events that had been unfolding, his hand still upon the handle of his sword, ready for any kind of conflict if it arose. However, the more that the interactions rode on, the more that it seemed that the dragon before them actually enjoyed using their words more than anything else at their current disposal.

"Sveet-candy good, ya. Here. Climb on head. I take you down."

And that was when Vale's hand reaffirmed its grip upon his sword.

Looking to the dragon sceptically while keeping the priority of the others' safety in mind, Vale went ahead to ask: "you have candies or sweets within that cave of yours?"

For a long second, Genie was seized with a primal fear that gripped her as she saw the giant grey eyes and felt the rush of cold air, as she pieced together that this was a dragon. She'd seen dragons before though; travels with The Archivist and The Resplendent Personage had sometimes brought them into proximity with dragons or dragon-like beings, but this was the first time she'd ever been this close to something that looked like it could take on any B movie T-Rex or even King Kong himself- and win. Slowly (and somewhat nervously) placing her hand out to touch something she could hold, Genie grabbed tightly onto a prominent spike that was just over the Dragon's snout, and closed her eyes as she readied herself for the descent.

Heimall waited for Genie to adjust herself. When she stopped moving, it took a few steps backwards to reach the lowroad, then brought its head down to the ground for her to hop off. The kiddens' decree that it was a nice dragon made it rumble amiably. "Ya. I can be nice!"

Not seeing Vale reaching for his sword, the brute ignored him until he asked his question. "Hoom? Perhap--I look, ja. Vait here, little ones~" It probably assumed that Vale was a kid looking for candy as well. It turned around and trundled back into the cave. It was gone for a few minutes before returning with some things in its mouth, which it laid down upon the road. There were several cracked geodes and copper coins, now all moist with dragon spit, though that'll buff right off. "Not sveet-candy," it sighed. "I vas not finding. But dese also good for eating! Make scales hard and strong!" The dragon scratched its nose and rumbled, as if just now realizing that none of them had scales at all, but it didn't rescind the offer.

"...?! Copper!?" The shiny coins garner Ailana and Cassius' attention immediately, and the pair dive in to take two a piece.

They make sure to wipe the spit off on Cass' teal cape.

Lil' Isaac eyes a pretty geode instead. He makes no physical move to pick it up; instead, with some thoughtful looks and concentration, he starts telekinetically rolling the geological formation his way.

He doesn't speak, if only because he's thinking so hard!

Cautiously stepping down from Heimdall's mouth and reassured that the ground wouldn't suddenly fall away from beneath her, Genie opened her eyes and gave a small breath of relief.
"Thank you!" she beamed up at the large dragon, then looked around her when the Dragon went into the cave.
Seeing the three fluffy catlike beings dressed in their rather cool costumes, Genie was a little puzzled, and voiced her confusion to the redheaded one in the blue coat,
"I like your costumes! Are you three Sphinxes? Am I in Egypt-- this doesn't look like Egypt."

When the dragon came back with a mouthful of geodes and coins, Genie noticed one particular cracked geode that glinted with an inner purplish-blue colour, and carefully picked it up. It was a comfortable weight in her hands, and aside from being covered in thick dragon saliva that made it smell faintly of sulphur, it was rather beautiful.
Overcome with a desire to thank them for it, she was unsure that a simple thank you could convey just how much she was thankful for it, yet saying it multiple times did not feel the right thing to do. Then she remembered that book with the magic ring and the dragon in it, and how it liked riddles, deciding to try it, she looked up at the dragon and said loudly,
"I want to thank you for the geode, and I'd like to tell you a riddle in return it. May I tell you it please?"

Heimdall sat back with a pleased rumble as the kiddens dove towards the pile to take their shinies, though the feeblest one seemed more interesting in trying out his telekinetics. The dragon couldn't really see what was happening, though. "Ya, is copper. Copper good for growing ones. Baby get gold, soft-metal for soft-tooth. But you, you is get copper."

Genie's offer of a riddle was met with booming approval. It rose to all fours and hopped in place a couple times, making the earth shake wildly. "Ya! Ya! D'riddles are favorite of dis beast! Gif riddle now!"

She had tried not fall over, but was still a little wobbly on standing up again. The way the dragon had excitably bounced up and down reminded her of her neighbour’s dog Fritz, a large Great Dane who would only get excitable if he saw his favourite squeaky-ball, or if he heard the jingle of the Ice Cream Van.
“Okay,”she began, trying to remember the word order,
“Um, I have many tongues but cannot taste
By me, most things are turned to waste
I crack and snap, yet I stay whole
I may take the largest toll
I assisted all of the first men
And I will pay them back again
Around me, people snuggle and sleep
Yet run when I am released from my keep
I jump around and leap and bound
The cold man wishes I he had found.”

Isaac loses his concentration at Heimdall's excited hopping, and the geode wiggles at his footpaws. The feeblest boy scoops it up protectively.

In the background, his younger siblings fall over each other. Elegant!

"...I think I know the answer," he says in response to Genie's riddle, a whisper on the wind.