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Glymmre stares down into a small pen in the library in disbelief.
"What are *those*?" he asks distastefully. He is looking at a group of about a dozen creatures. They are small and greeny-grey with wrinkled faces, pug noses, and very large eyes. Their hands and feet taper off into long, clawed fingers and toes. They are very energetic, but apparently not very bright as they're always bumping into one another and the walls. One of them looks up at Glymmre and gurgles.
Sparke turns from where he is rummaging through a pile of scrolls. "Hm? Oh... those are some experimental gremlins that someone is working on."
Glymmre turns sharply to face him. "What? Experimental?"
"Mm-hm." Sparke walks over to the pen, a scroll still clutched in his claws. "Someone in the library is trying to make fetch-and-carry gremlins. The implings fulfill assigned tasks well enough, but it's impossible to make them stay in one place for any length of time."
"I see. Isn't anyone afraid that they'll escape?"
"Of course not!" Sparke huffs to himself. "Those are magical locks on that pen. Of course, they're not all that advanced. I could probably break them if I tried."
"Aha~aaa." Glymmre gives the gremlins a last suspicious look before turning to Sparke. "How is it that you always seem to know what's going on everywhere in these caves?"
Sparke holds up his claws in the "V" sign. "I make it my business to know. Now come on and help me sort through these scrolls."
After at least half an hour of scanning and re-scanning the various documents that litter the ground in the continual mess that seems to follow Sparke everywhere, they come up with the particular work that the red was looking for. As they are about to leave, they notice the arrival of a small furry purple creature with very large ears. Wrapped around its waist is a small leather pouch.
"Who's that?" asks Gymmre.
"That's Katieroo." At Glymmre's blank look, Sparke continues. "She's a Rabaroo. They're a race of creatures that Kagedtiger breeds specially. Some of them are up for adoption. Remind me to show you around the Adoption Corner some time. Anyway, Katieroo takes care of the *special* creatures."
Glymmre blinks. "Special? Special how?"
"Oh, you know. High-maintenence. Things that require a lot of care, or are dangerous. Actually, come to think of it, they're all dangerous. But some more than others."
"Wow," says Glymmre, "she must be important. Can we go say hi?"
"Sure, why not?" And the two of them walk over to greet her.
"Hello, Katieroo?" Glymmre says, strangely shy.
She turns to see the source of the voice and smiles daintily at him. "Oh, hello there. And who might you be?"
Glymmre smiles back at her. "My name is Glymmre. I'm new around here. I was just helping Sparke with..." He trails off. He was about to gesture to Sparke, but the little red seems to be off somewhere. Circling around, Glymmre finds him teasing the gremlins. Shaking his head, he turns back to Katieroo. "-with some research," he finishes.
"Well, it's very nice to meet you Glymmre," she says. She extends her tailtip for Glymmre's, and the Amethyst readily touches his own tailtip to it in greeting. "Although I should warn you," she continues, "about your traveling companion. Sparke is a little..."
"Overzealous?" Glymmre finishes for her.
She smiles brightly. "That's a nice way of putting it. Anyway, my break time's almost over. I should be getting back to-"
She's interrupted by a loud crash from behind them. It's so big in fact, that the shock waves knock both her and Glymmre to the ground. The pouch around her waist flies open and spills its contents, seven small objects, onto the dusty ground.
"Oh no, my keys!" yelps Katieroo, scrambling to get up.
Before she can get anywhere however, several small blurs descend on the objects, there and gone in an instant. When they clear out, the ground is empty once again.
"What was that?" Glymmre wonders, rising to his feet. He looks around the room and finally spots Sparke looking sheepish and standing by the now empty (and half demolished) gremlin pen.
"Oops," says the red halfheartedly.
Glymmre frowns at him and bends down to help Katieroo, only to find her frantically going over the ground with her paws, the whole time muttering, "my keys, my keys, I have to find my keys."
"Katieroo?" he asks worriedly. "What's wrong?"
She looks up at him. "My keys, Glymmre! My keys! The keys to the special cages! They're all gone! I've lost them! They're missing! I have to find them again! Oh, Kagedtiger will have my hide... What am I going to do?"
Glymmre puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's okay Katie. Don't worry. They can't have gone that far. And since Sparke knocked over the pen," he spares a withering glare at the other dragon, "we'll help you find them."
"Alright," says Katieroo, sniffing as she stands up. "I... I guess it's okay. Come... come on. I'll show you what we're looking for."
Glymmre and Sparke follow her through the winding tunnels and into a large, dark chamber. The only illumination is from six small torches which burn eerily blue. They are located inbetween seven large cages that are evenly spaced about the room. Water drips from a stalactite overhead into a small glistening pool below in the center of the cavern.
Katieroo hops forward to the cages. "Each of these cages has a different type of lock, to prevent one person from opening them all. I keep all the keys for them with me." She seems not to notice the contradiction in logic. "Each key sort of... belongs with its lock. But it's been so long since I've opened them that... well... I forget what the keys were like. I'll show you the locks, and we'll see if we can tell what kind of key they each need."
Here are the locks. You may find the keys scattered all over the Dragon's Nest:
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