Slipping between the drawn curtains of the front windows, the warm glow of morning light radiates into the open joined living and dining room and softly spreads upon the worn wooden floors. With his sleek cybernetic hand, Thomas grasps his mug of black coffee and slowly enjoys a long sip, easing the morning stiffness out of his back with a gentle arc. Gazing down at the small dining table, Kaleb calmly grabs hold of his cup of equally dark brew and pours it back into his mouth. His confident smirk curls downwards into a straining grimace upon sun-tanned face, and his nonchalant facade cracks at the edges. Lifting an amused gray eyebrow, Thomas snorts with a humored chuckle. "Hey. You should really stop trying to force yourself to drink the coffee black, if you don't like it that way."

He casually browses through the assortment of collected sweetener packets and array of gathered creamer pods in the bowl on the center of the tabletop. "I mean... You have nice things to put in coffee here. I often just didn't when I was out."

Shadeesa brushes her dark green hair over one of her upward swept horns and narrows her green on black eyes at Kaleb. Sighing in resignation, she rolls her eyes towards Thomas with a dismissive shake of her head. "Gods. I keep telling him THAT. And, it's not like I don't put plenty in his travel pack."

Reaching out, she spins out a glass mason around and showcases the hand made label towards Thomas, tapping the loose metal lid with a long, black nail. "We even have a wonderful jar of honey we got from one of the farmers at the market. Absolutely amazing in just about everything."

Thomas's interest piques, and he curiously tilts his head to the side. "OH. I might try some, then. What type of honey is it?"

Gazing down into her mug of milky tan coffee, Shadeesa smiles and idly wraps her hands around the warm brew. "Protellow. Mostly. If I remember right, she mentioned keeping a field of protellows going in a field in the middle of a large area of forest her family owns. I think it was somewhere on the outskirts of Amaranth Valley?"

A chuckle escapes Thomas, and he slowly shakes his head, his blue eyes sifting through memories. "AH. Which usually means they found an established patch and decided to not throw their money away in trying to remove it. Good gods. All the ways my dad and I have tried to clear out stray protellow plants. Ridiculously stubborn and resilient things."

Grinning brightly, Kaleb laughs and bows his head briefly with a memory popping up to the front of mind. "Oh, YEAH! Hey. Have you ever told Shadeesa about that one time you and your dad tried to use dynamite on one?"

Thomas sighs out old embarrassment and grits his teeth, rolling his cybernetic shoulders. He glances over towards Shadeesa, lifting a curious eyebrow. "I don't actually know. Have I told you this story?"

Puzzling, he studies Shadeesa's flexing grip upon her cup of half-empty coffee. Watching the nervous tension in Shadeesa body language, Kaleb notices her distant downwards stare. He wraps his arm around her and gently rubs her shoulder with a calm, concerned tone. "Hey, you okay?"

Shadeesa blinks back to awareness, glances around with hints of embarrassment upon her light gray, white freckled face, and settles her loving gaze upon Kaleb. "OH. Yes. I'm just a little nervous about seeing a patient here today."

Thomas nods understandingly and smiles kindly with a reassuring tone. "You'll do fine. From what you've said, it just sounds like someone needs a professional to do a check up and provide a proper opinion. Both you can provide, and then some. You got this."

With a long sigh, Shadeesa gradually nods in agreement and twists her mouth, hints of dissatisfaction apparent. "I know. It's just... I really wanted to have all the right things in a nice, professional looking place before people brought their pets here. Going on house calls to farms is one thing..."

Wrestling a flit of unease, she groans, straightening her back against the chair. "But... Coming here..."

Kaleb turns his head of short, blonde hair towards Shadeesa and gives her a quick peck on her cheek. "All in a good time. You need to start somewhere. And, while it could be better. THIS isn't a bad start."

Shadeesa grumbles lightly and smiles with affection at Kaleb. "I know... I know..."

Taking a long gulp of his black coffee, Thomas shrugs his artificial shoulders and smirks humored. "I learned to ride pseudo-dragons in packed mud arenas. If your day doesn't involve getting repeatedly bucked off into a fresh pile, I think you're doing just fine."

A strong breeze blows through the back door screen and drives a draft of air through the living space to the cracked open front windows with a faint whistle. Watching the indoor potted plants sway gently with the wind, Kaleb angles his stare towards the horizon through both outside views, leaning slightly in his chair. He squints towards the dimmer light from the back door and darkening horizon. "Damn. Well, I see that storm they've been talking about is getting pretty close."

Thomas nods slowly and sighs with a trailing grumble, tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Yeah... Been keeping an eye on that one. Gods. I just hope it doesn't cause too much chaos on the roadways. I really need to head back to High Alton, since Albert should be back in a few days."

Brushing stray strands of her dark green hair back, Shadeesa smiles happily at Thomas. "Well. It's been wonderful to have you here. Lagi will certainly miss having his grandfather around."

With a smirk, Kaleb laughs, nodding. "Yeah, really hate to see you go. BUT... I guess you need to get up there and get the place back together for Albert."

A humored snort later, Thomas rolls his blue eyes at himself and holds his hands out to the sides with a shrug of his cybernetic shoulders. "Well... Back together might be asking..."

He casually grits his teeth briefly and sighs. "A bit much. I'm just hoping for cleaning up enough before we start the next PROJECT."

Grinning slyly to the couple across the table, he slightly leans his muscular frame forward and winks with a chuckle. "BUT... If you two are still willing to host, I'm certain after we tear up half the house..."

He draws in a long breath. "We might NEED a break from the chaos. Just to remind ourselves what a nice home is supposed to look like."

With a bright smile, Shadeesa nods, relaxing her posture, and settles to a calmer grip on her coffee mug. "Oh, thank you. Whenever you and Albert want to visit, just let us know. You are always welcome here."

Kaleb thinks for a moment and turns to face Shadeesa. "I'm all for it. And, we could invite Bach, Sebastian, and everyone else down here for the day, too. Get everyone together again."

Craning his black and blue scaled, white plate armored head close to the back screen door, Lagi searches inside with his bright green eyes and spots the three at the table. With a purposeful pattern, he weaves together a series of whirs, clicks, purrs, and whines, pantomiming his front claws towards the other side of the house. Kaleb peeks out a large front window, watching an old pickup truck roll up the long, gravel driveway. "You are right, Lagi. Thank you."

Lagi nods in confirmation and disappears from view of the back door. Thomas perks his brow and curiously gazes between Kaleb and Shadeesa. "By the way, has Lagi been able to vocalize any words? I've been curious if he's picked up anything, since Nachta had a decent vocabulary... Well..."

Narrowing his gaze off to the side, he pauses a moment and lifts an eyebrow with a smirk. "When she felt like using it."

Kaleb thinks for a moment and nods slowly, twisting his mouth in contemplation. "He's getting a lot better with practice. But, he's still not comfortable with words still. We've been trying to push him to speaking, but we don't want to force him."

The truck gets closer to the house, and Kaleb squeezes Shadeesa gently with his arm wrapped around her, smiling lovingly. "Time to be professional."

Blinking to attention, Shadeesa swiftly pours her coffee down her mouth, swallows hard, and scoots her chair back. She stands up with the cautionary assistance of Kaleb, brushes her apron off, and adjusts her clothing as best as she can manage around her pregnant figure. "Gods. I'm glad these scrub pants have a forgiving elastic waistband."

She walks towards the side door of the house, picking up standard diagnostic equipment along the way, and adorns herself to professional veterinarian expectation. Kaleb and Thomas walk from the table, and Kaleb glances over to Thomas. "But, Lagi seems to understand Americ just fine, and he's actually been picking up a lot of Emin dialects from Shadeesa. He just prefers to respond in that dragon language you taught him when he was young."

Scratching his chin of stubble, Thomas ponders for a few seconds and ponders out loud. "Well, that does make sense. The language was designed to use easy sounds that most large dragons can, and it's based on a lot of sounds they've been known to make when communicating out in the wild."

He twists his mouth in contemplation and crosses his sleek cybernetic arms. "BUT, if you can... You should really get him speaking Americ regularly. His voice box should be capable enough with some practice."

Kaleb slowly nods in agreement and glances out a nearby window, humming in thought. "Yeah... Definitely on the agenda for him."

Sighing, Shadeesa rolls the tension out of her shoulders and glances behind her. "I've been thinking of a way to magically help Lagi vocalize words... But, it's still a theory. Still, he should start practicing more."

The darkening sky catches Kaleb's attention through a window, and he sneers his upper lip apprehensively. "MAN, that storm must be closing in QUICK. You want to get your bike covered up and under the carport?"

Squinting towards the horizon out the same window, Thomas grits his teeth with a tinge of concern and grimaces. "Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. It takes FOREVER for the seat to dry out when any water soaks into it."

He glances over to Kaleb and smirks. "Really makes for some awkward looks from people when you make a pit stop at a station."

Snorting, Kaleb furrows his brow and cocks his head at Thomas' imposing frame. "Has anyone ever said anything to YOU?"

Blinking in thought, Thomas slowly nods and twists his grimace. "Yeah... Little old ladies, mostly. Absolutely fearless, I swear."

Standing at the side door to the house, Shadeesa listens to truck doors opening and closing and draws a long, calming breath in. She opens the door in, gently swings out the storm door, and presents a welcoming smile to her clients and patient. "Hello. I'm Veterinarian Serania. I assume you are Mr. Frenzacia?"

The middle aged emin man nods his head and laughs. "I would hope so, else I've been paying some other guy's bills for way too long."

A bit of tension fades away from Shadeesa's posture, she turns her attention to the young teen-aged girl next to Mr. Frenzacia. Pausing a moment to decipher the girl's appearance, she presents a happy smile. "You must be Fawna."

Fawna's long, pointy ear tips behind her head sway in the gust of wind, and her very long, silvery, red tinted hair blows around. She contorts her face in frustration, attempting to toss her head around, and slings stray locks off her horns. She settles to gazing up through a few strands towards Shadeesa with one blue on white eye and one blue on black eye. "Um, yes. Sorry. Uh, the wind."

Mr. Frenzacia rolls his red on black eyes and swiftly assists guiding hair tinted similar as his own off of curled horns familiar to his. Briefly turning to let the wind blow her hair past her horns, Shadeesa sighs understandingly and slides her gaze down to the creature supported in both of Fawna's arms. "Oh, don't worry. We'll be inside soon enough. I just need to check a few things out here first with your whelp, Varan..."

Blinking surprised, she puzzles at the large whelp hanging calmly in Fawna's arms. The huge, pot bellied creature sits upright against Fawna's torso, lower feet upon on an arm, and upper clawed paws idly flexing gently on Fawna's other higher up arm. Varan aims his calm, attentive gaze up to Shadeesa, tilting his head to the side curiously. Seconds later, Varan glances his aqua eyes up to Fawna and softly chirps out a few purposeful tones. Fawna kisses the top of Varan's amber head and smiles warmly at him. "It's okay. She's going to see why you've grown so big and your wings haven't yet."

Varan blinks to a long, thoughtful pause, purrs out a confirmation, and studies Shadeesa with the same calm, attentive aqua eyes. Shadeesa's stare widens in a mix of fascination and bewilderment, and she tilts her head back in thought. Kaleb exits the side door and holds it open for Thomas. Kaleb and Thomas give a friendly wave to the father and daughter, granting Shadeesa distance to perform her work. They both approach the motorcycle off to the side of the carport. Near the bike, Kaleb glances over to the gathering and halts mid way through moving a nearby tarp. Fully noticing the huge whelp in the teenager's arms, he tilts his head side to side. He shakes off his surprise and chuckles with an awkward smile to Thomas. "WOW. That has to be the biggest whelp I've ever seen. Gods, I know a few breeds got BIG, but..."

Furrowing his sun-tanned brow, he narrows his stare, contending with a surge of familiarity on his face. "I mean... He looks just like how Lagi did... When he was really young..."

Thomas stops in place, hearing Kaleb's voice trail off. Glancing over, he watches faint recognition dawn upon Kaleb, pivots around, and gazes over at the whelp. Sensing the new attention from others, Varan cranes his head over and faces Thomas and watches him, glints of curiosity sparking in his eyes. Thomas cocks his head of short, silvery gray back, visually scrutinizing the creature. Varan blinks, tilts his head side to side, and thoughtfully pauses a moment. Focusing upon Thomas, he chirps out a purposeful series of tones and waits patiently, anticipating a response.

Thomas eyes widen in genuine surprise, nods with fascinated grin, and whispers to Kaleb. "THAT is NOT a whelp."

----

Narrowing her golden eyes, Sotalia stares out into the darkening gray horizon through the sliding glass door in the living room. Frustration growing, she taps her foot, swaying her hips with the unease, and crosses her arms. Sparse, occasional drops of rain splatter on the glass. An irritated groan slips out, and she retrieves her aetherphone out of her yoga pants pocket, flipping through the menus. "Gods, it's just getting worse out there by the minute."

Shrugging her shoulders under her plain shirt, she pivots around on the ball of foot and walks with a dissatisfied hum. "Oh well. I was hoping for even a small window to do some magic practice. But, I guess that's just not going to happen today."

Aristespha rolls her violet eyes, glancing away from the gathering at the dining table, and smirks amused at Sotalia. "You can still practice quite a variety of magic indoors."

Sotalia cracks a humored grin and lifts an amused brow. "Oh? Well..."

Flashing an impish smile, she softly giggles to herself. "Not the type I wanted to practice."

She pauses a moment and lifts an instigating eyebrow at Aristespha. "UNLESS, you think we can get away with throwing bolts and streams out the back window from inside this house?"

Shaking her head firmly, Aristespha groans her gaze away from Sotalia and back to the tablet on the table in front of her. "NO. I distinctly remember a SIGNIFICANT section of the lease paperwork from the landlord detailing extensive restrictions about magic use. To be frank and honest, we are already pushing it to the very limits of the wording."

She narrows a violet glare at Sotalia and vaguely snarls her upper lip. "If at all possible, I would very much like to recover some of our sizable security deposit in the future."

Leaning forward on the table, Dretphi studies the dark gray cast upon the outside world past the back glass door, frowning slightly. "It was predicted the storm would be bad tomorrow, Tuesday. It is Monday. This much is already here."

With emerald green eyes analyzing the frames of a radar animation, Cideeda slides a clawed finger on the screen and watches the historical progression of the storm on her aetherphone. "Yeah... This one could be really BAD. It looks like it brushed against the northern edge of the Perimeter Weird Zone and is cutting through one of the local weird zones, too."

Bach shifts his attention to Cideeda and lifts a vaguely worried brow. "Uh, have they said if it's going to go full maelstrom or anything? I mean, if it's passed over that much..."

Narrowing her gaze, Cideeda furrows her light brown brow and reads through the list of update reports, shaking her head. "Well... Nothing headed towards us, at least. There's sections they think are going to go that way, but those are headed above and below us."

Aristespha pauses in thought, taps out of a strategy game on her tablet, and opens up another application with a guild logo splash screen. "With that in mind... We all should keep an eye on the guild job postings for the next few days. There could be emergency response jobs we might be able to do."

Sebastian's ethereal form nods, and he floats nearby, peeking over Aristespha's shoulder. "Thanks for reminding me, dear. Yeah, if anyone spots anything of interest, let everyone know. If nothing else, there will probably be a bunch of small magical clean up jobs."

Blinking a moment, Bach cocks his head and glances over to Sebastian curiously. "Magical cleanup jobs? I mean, what are those exactly? Does the guild get that many requests?"

Sebastian shrugs his shoulders and smirks nonchalantly towards Bach. "Oh yeah, bro. If it's a bit too strange, scary, and weird for the local emergency response crews, they'll often drop jobs to the local guild office for groups to handle them instead. Can't really blame them. Since what they usually request the guild for is not what they're trained to handle."

Crossing his ghostly form's arms, he twists a contemplative grimace. "Most of the time... It's just some weird magical anomaly left over from a maelstrom that needs to be dispelled carefully."

He furrows his translucent brow and tugs at the corner of his mouth. "Sometimes though..."

Gritting his teeth, Sebastian uneasily twists his mouth, past experiences forming his transparent apprehension. "Sometimes... The maelstroms disturb old ruins. OR, drop something that REALLY should NOT be outside a weird zone."

Bach frowns briefly, shuddering away the wave of discomfort, and sighs hopefully. "Well, let's just hope for nice clean up jobs this week. I mean, I'm not against doing a little magical janitorial work."

With an intrigued lift of her eyebrow, Aristespha nods in agreement and smiles. "I am not either. As a team, we are actually very well suited to do such work. We have three mages of different specializations, and now we have a magically familiar technical expert and wilderness expert."

Curling an loving smirk on her ivory, blue and gray hinted face, she tosses back her silvery blue hair and gazes up at Sebastian. "AND, Sebastian, from everything we know, can safely approach anything too suspicious, first. Providing us a good deal of information before we have to risk ourselves."

A toothy grin graces Cideeda, and her furry ears perk up eagerly along with the wags of her long, fluffy tail. "We could EASILY take on a bunch of small jobs, optimize them geographically, and efficiently get decent payouts in a few days."

A smile grows on Dretphi, and her interest piques, processing the plan more in her mind between flicks of her steely gray eyes. "We will need to sort by difficulty. Easy work in the morning. One difficult job after lunch. Easy work in the evening."

Mulling over the suggestion with a lean against the back of her chair, Cideeda gradually nods in agreement. "Yeah. Definitely need to pace ourselves, and schedule possible flex time in case of unexpected problems. We could still get a lot done in even a day at that rate."

Aristespha tilts her head to the side, staring at a thought at the front of her mind, and chimes in. "Also, we need to plan for containment and transport to authorities if there turns out to be something that cannot easily be dispelled or is too dangerous to do so on site."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Following the proposal, Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sebastian exchange ideas and commentary about how to approach possible mission arrangements. Outside of the conversation, Sotalia blinks back to awareness from inside her head and springs up with an excited grin on her face. "Yes! That'll work just fine..."

Rushing off through the archway into the hallway, she points over towards everyone at the table with a happy smile. "Stay here. I've got something we can do for magical training today."

The conversation stalls to a halt at the dining table, and confusion appears on everyone's faces. A minute later, Sotalia arrives back from the hallway with a game box in her hands. A guilty grin graces her light tan face, and she shrugs her shoulders with a bit of humored embarrassment. "I originally bought this at the game store for my nieces and nephews..."

Rolling her golden eyes at herself, she cocks her head of fiery orange, wavy hair. "BUT. I think we could TOTALLY test it out for them. You know. Just to make sure it works right."

She sits down in a chair at the dining table, slides open the box, and starts taking out long, rectangular wooden blocks. Everyone watches Sotalia stack up a tower out of the pieces, three per layer, alternating alignment with each subsequent layer. Tilting her head with recognition, Cideeda cracks a sly smirk. "OH! I remember THIS game."

With a confident, toothy grin, she eyes the surrounding team and flexes her hand of clawed fingers. "I have to warn all of you... I was always pretty good at it. Manual dexterity and all."

Sotalia flashes a devilish smile towards Cideeda and hoists an amused eyebrow at her. "Well, that MIGHT help you. But, THIS version is the magical variant. All the pieces have been treated to be magically reactive. You have to carefully flow your energy into the piece, and then remove it."

Resting her finger against a wooden block, she wills a fine flow, and the game piece glows a faint green. She lifts her hand up with the block sticking firmly to her finger tip. "There's a few different types of blocks. These stick to your finger and allow you to pull them away. There are others that move away from you, lightly cling to other blocks, and some that get really slick."

Fascination dawns upon Cideeda and Dretphi, and both attentively watch the demonstration by Sotalia. Bach chuckles to himself, confidence sneaking out from him. "Oh, man. THIS is going to be fun."

With an unamused frown, Sebastian side eyes Bach and smirks with a mocking evil tinge. "Oh, REALLY?"

Gazing over the rest of the group, he hems loudly. "By the way, my bro CHEATS in these games. Watch him, CAREFULLY."

Bach narrows a playfully insulted glare at Sebastian and raises his hands up, mockingly defensive. "Man. Fuck you. I never cheated. YOU were just really terrible at these games."

Aristespha fights to quell an ill-humored smile on her face and nods gradually to Bach. Glancing between Bach and Aristespha, Sebastian crosses his transparent arms and snorts ethereally. "OH... I don't know if I can do anything to those blocks, but I AM going to try for YOU TWO."

Sotalia finishes stacking up the last long, rectangular piece, and happily drops into an explanation. "Okay! I'll go first. Now, you can feel the blocks first without moving them too much. You must flow until the block glows before you try to move it."

Furrowing her brow, she wanders her gaze around at the team members at the table. "AND... Once you flow a block, you are committed to pulling that block."

Guiding stray hairs over her swept back black horns, she breathes out in preparation and flexes the tension out of her arms. She studies the wooden stack tower and reaches out carefully towards the small structure. "When you get a block free, try to stack it on top. If the tower falls because of you, you take a point and stack the tower for the next round. Lowest score wins after how many rounds we want to play."

With a slight, tense shake, her thick, black fingernail taps gently against a piece. A flow of magical energy sinks into the wooden block, and Sotalia grits her teeth in anticipation. The block glows green, and she releases a sigh of relief. She carefully pulls the piece free from the tower and gingerly places it up on top.

The turns rotate around the table between the team, and the tower climbs higher. Flowing energy challenges Cideeda, her steady dexterity and quick reflexes letting her handle trickier pieces. Dretphi's precise focus and strength restrain a glowing blue, slick piece long enough to balance on top. Aristespha's studious observations guide her, and she finds the most forgiving blocks. Sotalia's experience leads her through difficult spots, quite a bit of luck splitting the difference. With subtle manipulations of flow, Bach carefully maneuvers his pieces, adapting to the type of block with apt counters to effects. Sebastian provides encouragement for Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia, and switches over to playfully antagonistic interference for Aristespha and Bach.

The teetering tower sways more and more with each new wooden piece on top, and tension rises with the expectation for failure. Bach attempts to calm himself and exhales out his nerves. He lowers a new glowing blue block towards the top of the unsteady stack, the rest of the group watching. The piece taps the top of the tower, and Bach lets it go. In the moment, the block remains still, the blue illumination fading. The pillar sways slightly, the piece slides with the gradual tilt, and the balance shifts towards the outer edge. The top of the stack tips further, and the rest of the tower tumbles upon the tabletop, everyone cheering with the crash. Sotalia grins at Bach, giggling smugly. "WELL, you get the first point. Start stacking."

Glancing over to Sotalia, Bach cracks a mischievous smile. His eyes faintly glow blue, and he holds his hands out towards the pile of fallen blocks. Chuckles lightly, he focuses his attention at the table and smirks. "Sure..."

Flows of magical energy radiate out from Bach and coast upon the tabletop. Lifting up into the air without glowing, the horde of blocks rise and assemble into a new tower in front of the group. Sotalia squints suspiciously at Bach during the process and scrutinizes him carefully. Noticing the attention, Bach glances back, perking his eyebrow in confusion. "What?"

With blatant, dramatic contemplation, Sotalia hums in thought and leans over towards Sebastian. "Oh. You might be right..."

Narrowing a stoic stare upon Bach, Sebastian nods in agreement. "Yeah. He's just trying to throw us off the scent."

Bach rolls his blue eyes back to the task with an amused snort.

----

Sheets of rain splatter heavy upon the sliding glass door of the two story house. Water flows from the narrow brick patio into the growing pools in the low points of the back yard. Turning her head, Tassilda watches another wave splash upon the glass and blinks her light blue on black eyes in surprise, the crisp cascade sounding out. "Good gods. They were not wrong about this storm."

Deedri pauses from mixing reagents in a large pot near the kitchen sink, flicks her tufted ears, and listens to the outside din, nodding slowly. "Yeah. I thought it got dark yesterday, but..."

She carefully taps a claw tip upon her aetherphone's screen nearby on the counter and reads off the time. "It's already noon, and it's almost like night out there."

Slowly shaking her head of raven black hair, Tassilda turns her face towards the chime from her aetherphone on the dining table. She reads the new message, a warm smile growing on her gray face. Tapping a few options on the screen, she aims the phone at the dreary, chaotic scene on the other side of the sliding glass door, a strong gust flattening the grass and swaying the trees in the distance. With a quick tap and an indicator beep later, she rights the aetherphone back in her hands and swiftly types up a response. Deedri squints her auburn eyes over towards Tassilda and cranes her head around the kitchen cabinetry, peeking from the side of the room. Growing a sly grin, she directs a whisper towards Tassilda. "So... What's Daedrican saying?"

Briefly startled at the attention, a brief flush of color fills Tassilda's gray cheeks. A moment later, Tassilda collects herself, and a smile graces her face, whispering back to Deedri. Under the cover of the stormy din, the two converse. Through the connecting archway into the living room, Chad resettles himself on the couch and idly watches the television, surfing through a dull midday entertainment landscape. With a bored sigh, he checks his phone, staring at it longingly for new alerts, and rests it back down on the couch arm next to him. Modoran slouches deeper into the cushions and tilts his head back in resignation. Rolling his head side to side, he stretches out his neck and slowly lifts his stare back forward towards the latest programming on the screen. Breaking through a moment of confusion, recognition springs up on his dusky, bluish gray face and realizes the show that's playing. He grumbles heavy with apathy and tilts his head towards Chad. "Is there ANYTHING worth watching on? I am not usually picky, but this is a little sad."

Blinking to attention, Chad gazes blankly at the screen and shrugs his shoulders with a sigh. "Normally. Yes. But, it seems like every damn station we get right now is too busy covering the storm rather than running shows."

He reaches over to a side table next to the couch, plucks up the remote back up, and aims at the screen. "But... Let's see if they've finally gotten around to unfucking some of the other channels."

With a brief glance out the dark, water coated front windows, he taps on the buttons. "Damn. Storm must be disrupting some downlinks, or something. Half the channels have been acting up."

Veevi quickly descends down the stairs and sticks the landing into the living room with a bit of a dramatic flair and physique shaking spring. She fluffs back her long pink hair, wags her long, short-hair tail, and struts towards the couch. Hopping onto the middle seat between Chad and Modoran, she gradually leans upon Chad. With a smile, Chad puts his arm around Veevi, and she quickly snuggles up to him. Modoran glances over, rolls his dark blue eyes, and slides his attention ahead towards the television. A bright light flashes into the space through nearby windows. A low, booming rumble of thunder vibrates the structure of the house. The fur on Veevi's tail reflexively poofs out, and she squeezes her arms gently around Chad. Glancing at the half-fvalian, Chad cracks a humored smirk and comfortingly squeezes Veevi's shoulder. The tension in Veevi's body dissipates. She gazes ahead to the television and cocks her head to the side. "What ARE you guys watching?"

Chad's brown eyes blink to attention, focusing upon the screen, and he shrugs his shoulders. "Uh... Huh, I don't know. I was just flipping through channels to see if we could get anything worth watching. This is one of the channels that's still coming through."

Modoran sighs with hints of annoyance leaking out despite his best efforts in maintaining a nonchalant facade. "It's another one of those Evuukian dramas. They seem to be REALLY popular as of late..."

Sneering his upper lip, he grumbles to himself. "Have not the slightest clue as to why, though..."

Veevi smirks and muses out loud about the subject, her interest blatant with her tone. "Oh, you just don't get it! All the plots, schemes, manipulation, and political power plays... All, so wonderfully done. You just never know what's going to happen next! Just so satisfying to see a devious power move during all the struggles."

Modoran briefly narrows his dismissive stare at Veevi, studies her reaction, and rolls his eyes away with a snort. "Yeah... You say THAT. It's not that great when you are near and in the midst of it all, from my experience."

Pausing in thought a moment, Veevi glances over to Modoran with a genuinely curious tilt of her head and honestly inquires. "Really? Wait... Are you part of a house?"

Chad furrows his brow and slides a side eye towards Modoran, keeping his head pointed towards the television. Modoran springs his eyes wide in surprise, suppresses a tense surge of anxiety within his calm, nonchalant exterior, and plainly states. "OH. NO... I have just been close enough to all that insanity to know to stay away from it. It is really hard to avoid depending on where you live."

Settling back down, he calmly explains. "Anyway, it just boils down to a bunch of Evuukians with too much power and too little to do."

Narrowing a scrutinizing stare upon Modoran briefly, Veevi huffs and resumes watching the show. "Whatever. I still love these shows."

Trakenthin steps into the room from another entry hall on the side of the stairwell, carrying a large hamper of towels. Walking next to the couch in front of an armchair, he places the laundry tub on the floor. Modoran glances down at the container of towels next to him and perks a curious brow at Trakenthin. "That's... That's a lot of towels there."

With a twist in his mouth, Trakenthin sighs and slowly shakes his head. "Backlog of laundry. I decided to clean towels first. We may need them soon."

Nodding in agreement, Modoran glances at the evuukian drama on the television and faces Trakenthin with an amicable smile. "Well, I will help you fold them. Actually got pretty good at folding towels at one of my old jobs."

Trakenthin quirks his brow and smirks amused, gazing over at Modoran. "Can you fold animals?"

A sly grin parts Modoran's mouth, and he chuckles with a proud hint. "Of course. You had to know a few depending on what theme you were working with."

Brilliant light floods into the room from nearby windows, starkly contrasting the previous darkness. A powerful explosion of thunder rattles the window panes and rumbles the very structure of the house, vibrating shelving and items upon. From somewhere in the house, muffled, distant thunks echo into the space, and power completely cuts out in the two story house. In the darkness, startled gaps and confused mutters fill the acoustic void. Chad and Trakenthin quickly pull out their aetherphones and tap on the flashlight function. Deedri and Tassilda both swiftly gesture out simple incantations and present small light orbs in their palms. Sliding out of Veevi's grasp, Chad stands up from the couch and surveys the area. "Okay. Everyone. First thing. Is power out for the neighborhood? Or, is it just us?"

Tassilda walks over to the back sliding glass window and squints outside through the dark, water chaos with an uncertain twist to her frown. "Don't see lights from anyone across the way, but it's hard to see right now with all this rain and haze."

Stepping over to a window on the front face of the house, Trakenthin opens the blinds and scouts the view of the street and neighboring houses that are visible. "Neighbors have power. Street lights are still on."

Deedri leans out past the archway from the dining area and makes eye contact with Chad. "I heard something mechanical and solid switch off hard, somewhere in the house. Maybe a few at once?"

Chad nods appreciatively, breathes in, and projects a commanding color to his voice. "Well. Let's check out the circuit breakers..."

The group pauses, and all ponder a sudden, shared thought. Trakenthin tilts his head to the side, puzzling with a furrowed brow. "Where are the circuit breakers?"

Chad gazes over to Trakenthin, twists his mouth, and contemplatively hums. "Uh. Huh. I don't know. We've never needed to use them before, so no one has told us."

Sighing with a smirk, he shrugs his shoulders. "Well, I guess we need to find them. Okay. Trakenthin. You and I will check the front half of the house."

Directing his voice towards the dining area with Deedri and Tassilda, Chad instructs. "Deedri. Tassilda. If you two could check the back half of the house, that'd help. The breaker box should be on the first floor somewhere."

Modoran ponders out loud a moment. "Yeah. Probably near the laundry room. The main run from the power poles is on that side of the house, and the breaker box shouldn't be too far from there. Probably covered up by something knowing all the random furniture they have here."

Chad nods in agreement to Modoran and leads the way. The two teams of two head out, illuminating small sections of the house during their explorations. A minute later, Veevi searches around the darkened room and stares over at Modoran. "Aren't you going to go help them?"

Modoran nonchalantly shrugs and stretches. "No. They've got it. Four people is enough to hunt down a breaker box. If flipping the breakers doesn't fix it, I'll go outside to scout things out..."

The cacophony of water upon the side of the house rises up in a brief drowning drone, and Modoran wrestles down a grimace. "IF it comes to that. Hopefully NOT."

A smile slowly creeps out upon Veevi, and her body language loosens up. Slinking gradually along the couch closer to Modoran in the dark room, she seductively colors her tone. "You know... I've been really wanting to train more..."

Her smirk sharpens, and she flutters her eyes with a toss of her pink hair. "With YOU..."

Pausing a moment in the near complete darkness, she listens carefully and observes Modoran still seated at the end of the couch. She eases her hands closer and allows her fingers to lead the rest of her body along. "In other aspects of stealth. Especially certain night time activities..."

Within the obscuring shadow of the room and overwhelming din from the storm outside, her body lightly brushes Modoran's form on the other end of the couch. Her arm glides along the back of the couch, and lightly caresses the back of his neck. "Hidden from anyone else."

Flexing her figure, she licks her lips and rests her other hand upon Modoran's leg near the knee. With gentle brushing of her fingers, Veevi rubs sensually up the length. Grinning with accomplished, sinister satisfaction, Veevi slips her hand down between his legs. Perking her fuzzy ears, she turns her head to the side, leaning in for the kiss. From somewhere else in the house, Chad's muffled voice calls out. "...the hell... ...well, here they are... Found them!"

A moment later, the lights flick on brightly, and ambient sounds of power flood the house again. Veevi winces, her pink pupil eyes readjusting. She regains awareness of her surroundings and glances over, witnessing a mass of dissipating magical miasma venting off from a static visage of Modoran. Seconds later, Modoran's illusion vaporizes into transparency, leaving behind a collection of towels arranged in the rough approximation of his volume. Veevi leans away from the rough towel dummy occupying where Modoran was and releases her grip on towels comprising the crotch section. Searching the area completely bewildered, she blinks in a stupor of confusion. A surge of frustration and petulant anger ceases her puzzling, and she topples over the towel collection into a heap off the couch. Standing up, she shudders, the indignant irritation swelling within her, and struts away with frustrated twitches of her tail.

----

A flash of light bursts forth into the massive, dark cavern, spraying the shadowy structures in brief illumination. The rolling thunder rumbles through the partially opened, heavy exterior doors, echoing into the huge airspace. Meredosia stares out into the ongoing chaotic storm, pondering deeply and quietly. The wind sprays waves of water through the wide gap between doors onto the concrete floor surrounding the entryway, layering upon the growing shallow pool. The patter of raindrops reverberates upon all the hard surfaces throughout the massive space of golem parts, manufacturing machinery, and assembly equipment. Meredosia blinks back from her distant thoughts, searches around her modest campsite away from the entry, and scoots her salvaged metal chair over to another stack of aged paperwork. Sorting through the pile of old loose notes, she stops at one section and draws out a collection of sheets. With a long, sad sigh, she settles her dark crimson eyes upon the material and slowly reads the old, handwritten paragraphs. Under her breath, she mumbles to herself in evuukian with her study of the pages, occasionally squinting to carefully reexamine puzzling sections.

Realization sparks in her eyes, and an intrigued smirk appears on her ivory face. Quickly hunting around her immediate vicinity, she swiftly digs through nearby piles of books and grabs hold of one particular volume. Flopping the old tome on her lap, she flips through the pages and reads many samples of the content. A number of minutes later, a proud smile grows on her face, and she nods in agreement with her thoughts. Sliding the loose notes between the pages of the tome, she pulls out a worn notebook from her backpack and opens it to a bookmark. With graceful handwriting, she adds a new entry to the dense, comprehensive journal.

After a brilliant burst of light through the entryway, another concussive acoustic blast bounces around the huge cave. Startled briefly, Meredosia tenses her body overall, dropping back into the awareness of surroundings. Moments later, she finally relaxes with a long exhale and finishes the latest paragraph into her journal. She rests back in the chair, stretches her arms out, and gazes around her campsite at the small orbs hovering midair and radiating illuminating flames. With a content smile, she shifts her stare at the other piles of notes, books, and electronic media nearby, and resumes her research.

Minutes later, a massive gust funnels through the heavy, exterior doors, and disperses into the area. The breeze coasts into the cavern and rolls over the campsite, the flaming spheres flicking and waving. Meredosia slowly lifts her head from her studies, watching the orbs dim briefly and gradually return to normal. She grimaces with worry and concern swelling up and quietly stares out into the storm. A long sigh escapes her, and she gazes out distantly into the chaotic storm, uneasily biting her lower lip. Brushing back her gray hair over her very long, pointed ears, she returns her attention to her chore, focusing herself back on task. Occasionally, she glances out to the storm, her concern obvious on her face.

----

Fighting against the tremendous gusts of wind, two evuukian men in nature themed uniforms trudge through the harsh storm battering the dense forest. With each blast of wind, they brace themselves and maintain their footing upon a waterlogged, mucky trail. The nearby underbrush struggles against the weight of the downpour of rain and submits to the force of the powerful winds jetting through. Slipping in the slick mud, one of the men drops to a knee in the thick mud and spits out a series of angered curses in evuukian. He glances over to the other man, irritably pantomiming out a question incredulously. The other man shakes his head under his flapping poncho and throws his hands up dismissively with a commiserating reply. The muddied man growls and gets back up on his feet with the help of the other.

The two pause their travels and stand against the torrent, witnessing the fury of the storm around them. Tall, ancient trees flex and audibly creak and groan, stretching to their physical limits. The rustle of leaves blends into the back against an overwhelming chorus of wind driven rain. A bright eruption of distant light ignites the darkened sky briefly, and the illumination scatters down to the misty haze filling the thick forest below the canopy. The two evuukian men absorb the sheer chaos around them in pure awe, the cacophony of thunder pulses past them. With a massive burst of air high above, a loud snap explodes out. A tremendous, wooden crackle echoes harshly against the background drone, and a few meter long branch crashes down into a powerful, earth shaking impact. Both men tense up, grit their teeth reflexively, and freeze, motionless. Seconds later, both study the large, fallen limb, and exchange nervous glances. The muddied evuukian man shakes his head and spouts a single explicit phrase. The other nods in total agreement and yells out similar sentiments. Both turn around and quickly rush down another path, towards a distant clearing encircled by giant, ancient trees, barely visible through the haze of rain and mist.

Out into the forest, hidden in the underbrush, a few camouflaged military scouts wait motionlessly against the brutal weather and stealthily watch the two evuukian men depart. Rain rolls along their slick, form fitting polymer suits, beading off effortlessly. The exterior patterns of the suits gradually blend with the environment immediately around them and create an intricate mesh of outline obscuring patterns, weaving them into their surroundings. One operative at the lead finally tilts his visor-covered face and silently glances to both of his sides to the two members in the three person team. Synchronously, the squad precisely gestures out the same incantation. Slowly rising up, their forms fade into the ambient forest haze, and they carefully, methodically slink forward, closing in on the perimeter of the distant clearing.

Seconds later, a dozen lightly armored special ops soldiers in actively camouflaging, hooded cloaks settle into the overgrown underbrush. Readying their compact rifles, the squad observes the area, searching the horizon through advanced technology upon their helmets. A few slide down advanced visors with different optics, and thoroughly scan the vicinity. Minutes pass, and they remain silent and hidden in the churning chaos of the overwhelming storm. The commanding officer rises up from prone on the forest floor and kneels in the center of the team. Visually confirming with his subordinates, he gazes ahead and nods in confirmation. Resting his hand on the side of his helmet, he taps upon a control panel of a radio module and turns his head to stare behind his team.

In the hazy, stormy backdrop of the forest, faint disruptions in the mist swirl around a massive, tall, imposing volumes of empty space. Peaking out from the background din, heavy, muffled, slow, and repetitive noises vibrate out into the thick forest. Muted snaps from the water soaked ground struggle for definition against the noise of the constant, overwhelming drone of rainfall. A blinding eruption of light above ignites the dark sky above to a brief moment of full daylight. In the brightness, half a dozen four meter tall, angular outlines barely contrast against the mist and ambient haze. The massive, mechanical forms lumber closer with slow, methodical steps. Hints of their existence manifest with the warping, refracting view of the forest through them. Sheets of rain blast through the trees above and splash midair upon a huge, transparent volume. The droplets stream along the angular crevices, merge together in hard corners, and flow down upon translucent, mechanical feet sinking heavy indentations into the soaked forest floor.

The giant forms step cautiously and weave between large trees, showing no mercy to underbrush and debris beneath them. Arriving together many meters behind the dozen special operatives, and they wait motionless. The commanding officer at the center of the team studies the area ahead through his helmet mounted visor, remaining thoughtfully still. Quietly prompting his soldiers, he trains long stares in different directions and analyzes distant points of interest. Minutes of still existence pass on by.

With a simple nod, he raises his fist high. Meters behind, the nearly transparent mechanical forms stir. Pairs of weaponized mech arms visually flicker, rising into position, and aim their arsenals, fading transparent back into the background. Soldiers on the ground inspect their weaponry and ready their stances for action, awaiting further orders. Another arc of lightning streaks through the sky above, and brightly lights up the area. The brilliant, brief illumination, reveals hidden details upon the large, mechanical forms. The flat painted, composite shells of mechs reflect back the sudden, intense light, and upon each a symbol of mountains on a flag outline contrasts the dull, dark exterior shoulder sections. Under the flag logo, one word remains clear on all the fading forms.

"Appaland"