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"So where are we going again?"
Sparke sighs. He's told Glymmre the answer four times, but the amethyst dragon is much too distracted by their surroundings to pay much attention. "We're going to see the adopted creatures."
This time, Glymmre actually focuses his attention on the small red. "Adopted? Where from?"
"Oh, lots of places." Sparke waves his talon in the air vaguely. "Kagedtiger has a soft spot for strays, in case you haven't noticed."
"Oh." The two lapse into silence as they walk down the corridor. In only a short while they enter into an enormous cavern. The roof extends only over the back half, while the front protrudes as a ledge into the sunlit mountainside.
The room is filled with creatures. Here and there are cages, housing some of the more deadly-looking creatures. Most of those are in the shadowed half. In general though, the creatures roam around freely. Here and there are pools of water. At first glance they appear shallow, but when one takes a closer look you can see multitudes of strange creatures swimming about in them. On the lighted ledge, short grass and shrubberies are growing, providing ideal hide-and-seek spots for young critters.
Glymmre wanders out onto the ledge, blinking at the adjustment from dark to light. There is a mesh fence surrounding the perimeter of the ledge, assuring that no one will go rolling down the mountainside. The amethyst peers to one side. There is a strange indent in the rock to the left of the entrance. An overhang above it makes it look like a small cave that's missing its sides. Within the crevice is a nest, about the size of a tire. It appears completely unused.
"What's that for?" he asks, turning back to Sparke, who is playing with a hatchling dragon.
"What's what?" Sparke looks up.
"That." Glymmre gestures at the crevice.
"Oh," Sparke turns his attention back to the hatchling. "That's the nest for any Mistrals that Kagedtiger might eventually get. They don't cluctch very often, so she thought she should have a place ready for them when they arrive. You can't see it from here, but there are burrows behind it that extend into the mountainside, to insure the privacy of the little guys."
"Huh." Glymmre wanders back inside and sits next to Sparke. As the red dangles his claw in front of the baby for it to pounce on, he notices some other empty spaces. Nearly on the border between light and dark is a small sectioned-off piece labeled "Fliots: remove wire once creatures arrive".
'Hm,' Glymmre thinks, 'I guess they need to parcel it off to know that there will be enough room for everyone.' The space in question seems remarkably non-descript, but Glymmre supposes that that won't really matter if the creatures are allowed to wander throughout the entire cavern.
In the back is another such space with the same label, only instead of "Fliots" it read "Blizzards". The dragon ponders how one can adopt a blizzard, but decides to stop as it makes his head all achy.
Seeing that Sparke shows no sign of stopping any time soon, Glymmre gets up again. Suddenly he notices a sign by the cavern entrance that he hadn't seen when they came in. Curiously he walks over to it and begins to read.
"Attention Adoption Agency owners. If you've come to check up on your pets and discovered that I have not followed all your rules, I deeply apologize. I reorganized lately and a lot of the rules, as well as links to some of your agencies, have been lost. Please contact me with any errors I might have made and I will do my best to remedy them. Sincerely, Kagedtiger."
Glymmre glances back at Sparke and sighs. They could be here for a while.
