"I can't believe you're doing this to me again," Engell sighed. But the whole batch of Drinks dragons along with his existing faire of flying companions deposited themselves on his desk, pushing paperwork onto the floor in plumes, and generally making a gigantic mess of things.
Not that Engell felt the need to do any paperwork any longer. He'd left that in the hands of the Caerlord and Kyle, his own son, long ago. Now he was just trying to figure out how to feed something like nine hungry dragonets and Tehn, without bankrupting Alabaster.
Yet here they were again, having visited Seiryuu weyr. And, of course, having come back with another egg. Now, to be fair, this egg was quite pretty. Mottled as it was with a kind of marbled look to it.
Engell held it carefully, it was warm and moving slightly so he knew the drill. "Snowflake, Mystere, just ... go get something for it to eat when it hatches."
About the same time the pair of white creatures darted out of his office, Kalkin strolled in. "You know we've been finding more of us," he commented, trying to sit on the desk too but the flitters, rukel, and other animals just wouldn't give him enough room. His own trio of flits were somewhat cowed by this batch - they rarely made trouble around Engell and his whites.
"Well could you maybe have some of them take these off my hands?" Engell said, trying to shoo Barry off his ink well.
"Not a chance, my friend, but if you would, we need to make some room for another of me." Kalkin gave off a grin, and Engell sighed.
"That does not mean you both get to hit on me, is that understood?" He said with a failed glare.
"No, it means that you'll get to take your pick. Your egg is hatching."
"It's not my egg!" Engell said, "it's theirs! They just keep coming!"
"Oh - that," Kalkin said.
"You know something about this egg?" Engell asked, tapping his finger on the desk and hoping that the meat would come soon for this critter. He wasn't even sure where they'd gotten to, but at last they flew in holding a batch of discarded rinds and fatty meat. "Mmm, delicious," Engell muttered.
"The weyrwoman said she'd developed something new, and, well, perhaps one of my flits told one of yours, and..." Kalkin said.
"Well. Fine. Look at this. She knows me, eh?" Engell said, as the tiny marbled white flitter came from his shell. "Alabaster, in name," he added, "and hopefully in personality." He lovingly scratched the flit's chin, watching him eat.
"You're a total sucker for flits," Kalkin laughed as he left. "Maybe I should find one for you."
"Maybe you should try keeping this many and get back to me."
"Sixth and I are running close to it," Kalkin laughed on his way out of the office.
The - DRINKS dragons!
