Dreamer’s Place to Sleep (Open)

[Reno]

Reno could easily admit he was completely ignorant to dragons and what sort of magic they could possess. He had no idea what was meant by the spell and how simple it really was, but he listened with interest. It would probably do him no good to ask about the dragon lands or the extent of all the hoards that these dragons collected. There was a strong desire in him to ask, or ponder if these dragons guarded the missing links to understanding the past, such as the writing on his arm.

Watching Rufus as he inspected the toy store Reno let his gaze flicker inside briefly and then returned as the other man came back. “Do Rune and Seth have plans to come to Aganthis?” he asked, his gaze flickering back to the toys. If Rufus had reason to buy something it wouldn’t be hard to send it to whoever he desired. As a traveling Mea’lan Reno knew quite a bit about how to send messages. From both the caravans carrying messages, encountering messengers on the road, and just ensuring he possessed the ability to send his student or message back to his people he had learned how the channels worked. And with money or connections they worked well.

Rubbing his brow Reno tried to understand Rufus’s explanation of how sleeping could work, but it didn’t make much sense. He just shook his head slightly and replied, “We’ll figure something out.”

He smiled at the mention of his student needing a healer, “No, he can’t be healed of this or the other things that trouble him. It does no harm him though, and he does well to challenge it. He’s stronger than many his age for the hardship he has had to face.”

With a quick glance around at the fresh familiarity of the surroundings Reno led Rufus out of the Low Market to Rock Run. They didn’t have to go far to find the small one story building that had become the settled home of Reno.

As soon as they stood in front of it Chime burst through the door and grabbed the bag from Reno’s arm, peering into it with his large blue eyes. “We’re the hell’ve you been?” he snapped as he shouldered the bag, “Leaving a growing boy to starve?” He jumped back almost like he was afraid of being smacked and his eyes flickered to Rufus. Sidestepping he came forward again, wiped his hand on his pants and offered it to the red head, “I’m Chime Prakaaza, not Valin,” he glared at Reno as if daring him to speak on the subject, “You should be afraid you’ve caught his interest.”

“Valin,” Reno said firmly.

Chime flinched, ducked his head and grumbled, “Not my name.” Turning his head up to Reno he scrunched up his face and sucked his lower lip in so his front teeth showed and his snakebite piercings stood out. Turning abruptly on his feet he bounced half way to the door, and turned back, “I’ll start dinner.”

He disappeared into the house and Reno sighed. With a gesture of his hand Reno spoke, “Welcome to my home.”

[Rufus]

Rufus just kept fallowing Rene through the city up to his home, “but I really don’t like sleeping alone, well unless it is on my treasure, but since I have people with, I like to cuddle.” He smiles at Reno.

“As for the spell, it really simple, it just give off a scent that belongs to the dragon in question, and so it like I was here first, and the other respect it.”
The rest of his word were broken off by a boy whom came out and accused Reno of starving him and then saying something of catching his eye.
“I didn’t catch it, I kind of fell over him.” Then it dawned on him what he was saying and Rufus called out after him as he took off with the food. “I don’t fly that way, “he looked at Reno, “I fight straight, not crooked, so you don’t have to worry.” Then he leaned in closer to him, “do you fly straight? I mean it is okay, Rune flies crooked, and Kenshin flies crooked, but no one is supposed to know they fly crooked, so you can’t tell anyone that I told you they fly crooked.”
The glanced after Chime, “is he going to eat all of that, I mean he is starving, but I was hoping to get some, not that I don’t really mind, but I am kind hungry, and I thought that was why we went to the shop with the hanging meat.”

[Reno]

Reno glanced at Rufus and smirked slightly. Shaking his head he explained, “Using your terms, I fly straight. My apprentice simply means to say that you’ve caught my interest in a platonic way.” Somewhat dismissively he made a gesture with his hand as he added, “He thinks his bad experiences with me translate to any others I spend any time with.”

As the name ‘Kenshin’ was brought up Reno paused to consider. It was a name he hadn’t heard often, and to think that there would exist two who ‘flew crooked’ seemed far too unlikely.

“By chance, when you say Kenshin, do you mean a blue eyed Osai with a kirin that goes by the name Slug?” he inquired with a small hint of amusement. It seemed his entire world was focusing down to spiral around that one man. All his progress and opportunities seemed to be somehow tied in to the fair skinned Osai, and if they weren’t they still brought his mind back to pondering.

Once more he shook his head at the subject of food. “He’s simply being dramatic,” Reno replied, “He is neither starving, nor is he going to eat it all. He is going to cook it, so that we can eat it.”

Walking into his house Reno glanced briefly around as if deciding whether or not he needed to give an explanation of anything. The house was lightly furnished, and rather modest, the majority of its space being taken up with books and metal trinkets, or left completely empty. Clean as it was, despite Reno’s habit to toss everything around, it was a fairly acceptable place to call residence.

Deciding to leave any necessary touring to later he walked into the kitchen and dining area and cleared the books from the table. Dropping them onto the ground in the corner he proceeded to grab a carrot off the counter and seat himself, watching his apprentice as the boy chopped vegetables.

“Make it sweet,” Reno said, eying the work that was already done.

Looking down at the vegetables the boy paused and nodded, going to the cupboard and pulling out a jar of honey. Glancing at Reno he frowned, “You know how long this is going to take? Get the hell out. Find somewhere to entertain yourself for awhile.”

Nodding he stood and looked at Rufus, “You think we could still go try checking out that treasure of yours?”

[Rufus]

Rufus eyes went to the trinkets and he went straight to the sparklies and shinnies. He was reaching out to take one, when Reno asked him about Kenshin.
He came right over, to see what was going on and sat down at the table as well.
“Yes, Kenshin does have a Kirin named Slug, they are very close, much like Rune is with his horse, Warlord which he named after Kenshin, I don’t know why he named him Warlord when Kenshin’s name is Kenshin, but he did, it could be because Kenshin was the Warlord for a while but then he stopped being the Warlord, and it made Rune sad that he disappeared, he even went looking for him, and he found him, but he left again and didn’t even say goodbye and it made Rune sad, but sometimes they write, and Rune wants to come and see him soon.”
Then he remembered that Reno now wanted to go and see the treasure, and stood up, he looked over at the boy making the dinner, “he won’t beat me because we are friends?”
Rufus decided not to wait for an answer and headed for the door, “we can go through the waterway, it is not far from here.”
And he was out the door and pausing for a moment to breathe the air, and get his bearings, then he turned and headed down the street for a few blocks, turned left, right, left and then he was at the shoreline, well a small shoreline near the pier.
He looked back at Reno, “we need to go down and around.”
He jumped down and turned around and went into a tunnel.

[Reno]

Reno didn´t even glance at Rufus until the dragon was seated at the table, and likely would not have noticed anything having gone missing until he needed or wanted it.

He had to really listen to the words as they flowed out in their normal entangled mess, and then he had to proceed to ponder it a moment, only to find there was nothing he really needed to reply to. It was confirmation of who Kenshin was, that it was in fact the same man and then some bable about his relationship with someone named Rune. He was begining to understand that most of what Rufus said was just scraps and pieces of stories and people that would likely never be explained properly. Not that he was too concerned or curious, but Reno did find it somewhat interesting to hear of Kenshin.

Reno followed Rufus out of the kitchen, and as it was not waited for neither his apprentice nor himself bothered to give an answer to the question. Without pausing he grabbed a bag near the door and pulled the strap over his head so it fell across his body. The Mea´lan simply followed Rufus out of the house and nodded as he followed him down the street.

The edge of the floating islands always made him nervous, and Reno found himself staring over the edge into the sky wondering what it would feel like to hit the water below. Calling the edge a shoreline was almost a joke, but it wasn´t really a cliff either, despite it feeling that way. He was more careful as he followed Rufus down and into the tunnel, waiting for further direction.

[Rufus]

Rufus continued down the tunnel, it kept getting darker and darker, but to Rufus it did not matter as he could see very well in the dark.
Then just as fast he was face to face with Reno, “you want to see something pretty?” he asked in the voice of an excited child. Then without waiting for an answer he went to the wall, or the direction of the wall, as it was too dark to see.

He ran his hands over the wall, and each movement did something, there he dragged his hands, left behind a color, some green, some red, some violet. He did it repeatedly till the tunnel was lit with all kind of different colored lights. He turned back to Reno, “they are plants that grow on the wall, make them angry… and they make colors.” In fact they made enough color to light the tunnel to the end, where Rufus slipped up to a door, and pushed it open.
“If we came the other way, we would of needed a key, but the back way is open, along with the holes I the roof, but I don’t think you can fly down them.” And he was through the door.

On the other side of the door, was not a town, but someone’s home, and workshop, or maybe even a family’s home.
Once through the door it opened onto a courtyard that once house planters, and tables of metal, now twisted, and plants growing haphazardly. Off to one side was a work area with swords, shields and a fire pit for the forging of them. To the other side was an open kitchen with a brick stove that was now in pieces scattered about with broken tables and such.

Rufus headed for what was the main house or what was left of it, the roof was half gone, as was half the building, he pointed to a side room, it once housed a library, it too was a shambles, books made of both silver , bronze and iron littered the floor.

“That is where I found the book, by the sword.” He went into the room, and the only table left in tack, held a sword in a glass case, inside was a sword of magnificent design and great craftsmanship, and tossed around it was more of the silver books.

“Come, I will show you where I like to sleep, “ and he motion for Reno to follow, he lead him out of the room to what was once the back of the house, and through one last door, within this room that now was most of the back of the cave, was gold coins, jewels, treasure boxes, filling three fourths of the way to the top of the cavern.

“I figure a very old dragon lived here, for a long time, but now.” He just turned and lay back against the pile, “It is all mine.”

[Reno]

Following Rufus down the tunnel Reno strained to see him as it got darker and darker. Just as he was thinking of giving up and asking the other if they could create some light the question was asked in that childish voice. Before he could even answer the wall began to glow. The coloured lights were beautiful in an eerie way and catiously Reno touched the wall with the tips of his fingers. "Are they dangerous at all?" he asked not sure if Rufus would even know for sure what the plants could do to humans.

He followed the dragon to the door and listened to the explanations about entrances before following him through into the home. His eyes darted around, straining to see in the dim light that made it down from the holes in the ceiling leaving him to wonder where the place was in the city and who it had belonged to.

Reno followed Rufus into the courtyard and gazed at the twisted metal, almost caught in it until his eyes fell on the swords and shields. He took a step towards them, aching to examine them, to have them, but then he noticed the other heading for what was left of the main house.

Inside it Reno´s mouth actually dropped open, something that had never happened to him before, but his shock at seeing the books littering the floor made him want to fall to his knees and gather them up. With the dust and decay of the place, overgrown and abandoned, the old Mea´lan library was filled with any number of things to study, possibly even things that he had been struggling to learn. Things his people had lost many years ago.

He swallowed hard as he pulled himself free of the trance he was in and walked away from the books. When he saw the sword he froze, literally stunned at the beauty of it. His whole body ached for it, but couldn´t move.

It took him a moment to tear himself away this time, to follow Rufus, his gaze falling over his shoulder on the sword as he left it behind for the other room. After the treasures he had just seen Reno wasn´t surprised by the gold and jewels filling the cavern, nor was he as interested in them. Money wasn´t what he desired in life, but knowledge and the ability to craft and that was in those books, in the sword and if he could ever translate it the script tattooed to his arm. The key to it could be among the books he had seen and he longed to examine them.

He managed to shake his head clean of the thoughts and desires rushing through him and clouding his mind. He smiled, "You like to sleep here? Is it comfortable?"

With the casual questions asked he needed to ask more important things, "Can you tell when humans were last here? Who this home and all those books belonged to? The knowledge they might contain is what I´ve waited my entire life for. It´s what I dedicated my life to. But I don´t want problems if it belongs to someone, that is if you´ll let me have or even study what´s here." He looked around again, "What is this place? Where is it in the city? What does it look like? And does the land belong to anyone?" Reno stopped asking questions, snapping his mouth shut as he realized he was too excited, too amazed by the place.

[Rufus]

It took Rufus a moment or two to try and understand Reno’s questions, as had he not told him this was all his now, and that he owned it and could do with it what he wanted.
Then he thought he should humor him.

“The land above will soon be warehouses, the buildings will be gutted and redone to store things, and even a tunnel to lead up to the storehouse, Lorien usually buys the land over the places I find the treasures, but not in the old city, but no one goes there, and I go there every once in a while, there was an old Meaanie toy maker there, he had all kinds of toys of metal that dance and everything, he had books too, like the ones in the library, but those are mine now too, as I claimed them, but no one goes there, so it is safe, but like I said Lorien bought the land above, she says it makes it safer for me, an do that no one will bother me, which seems like a good idea to me, but then like I said before everything belongs to me now, so I can let you have it, if you want it.” He just smiled at him.

Then he his next words sunk in, “oh, you want to know the history, you want to see the tree, right?”
He was all excited as he got up and “I will need to changed to get the door open, go back to the library and I will move the wall.” Then all of a sudden he began to shrink and soon a red dragon the size of a large housecat came out of the clothes. The dragon spread it wings and then flew up so he was looking Reno in the face, “okay go to the library, the books behind the sword, and I will open it.” And then he was off, flying towards the roof, and then he dove behind the mount of gold and jewels.

[Reno]

Reno found that his communication with Rufus had become something that should feel incredibly awkward, especially to him. Yet it only felt mildly odd that they had large pauses where they fell to the silence of puzzling out what the other said, followed by masses of dialogue that would only lead to more pauses.

This time Reno strained to understand, to determine who Lorien was and how she had the money to buy up land to turn into warehouses. It was likely, in part, due to the masses of treasure the man before him seemed to find, and by the sounds of it he had found plenty other ones. In any case she was likely right that buying up the land would keep Rufus safer, and in turn if he was to study the library, keep him safer as well.

He tried to puzzle out who the old toy maker was, and wondered if he was still alive, still around. The tinkers who created toys and things, things that moved, were worth studying. Only recently had Reno really turned to study the other side of the craft. The stuff that was larger than the little toys he had made to baffle his peers when he was a little boy, before he had been bored by their inability to keep up. The bigger picture to the magnetic boxes and lights that were normal craft to Mea’lan. He wanted to learn the tinker secrets of the Mea’lan, even if he was a sword smith and jewellery maker.

Reno blinked, that was all he could do when Rufus said that he would want to see the tree. He didn’t understand. But he couldn’t even blink when the man before him began to shrink and turn into a tiny dragon. The shape, seemed so much more suitable, as it was the size of a pet, even if it wasn’t the normal fluffy creature that tended to wind up in a person’s house. Rufus had come off as some sort of pet from the beginning, and now he seemed more correct.

After a moment, he obeyed the little dragon’s instructions. He walked back to the library and looked at all those books again. He felt overwhelmed by it all. Knowing that he likely still looked composed, that he had only really had minor slips to the bored expression he normally wore, he still felt like he should be gaping wide eyed at all he had seen. If he had access to this library, if he could read these books, he could potential solve many puzzles he and his people had.

[Rufus]

Rufus flew up and down the other side of the treasure and then crawled through a small hole in the wall into another room.
This room was dark, but once the secret panel was opened then the room would light via mirrors set in strategic places. He paused only long enough to put on a shirt, that was of Mea'lan design, it was silver that was spun and then woven into a shirt of the softest cloth, and also a pair of pant, but they were made out of copper.

There were other clothes as well, as there was a was strange loom sitting there, as well as some cloth still on the loom as well as thread waiting to be woven. There was a huge fireplace, cold from not being used, chairs around it, at one side another long work table, but this one had charts and designs done on silver and gold beaten out as if it was paper.

But the most impressive part of the entire room was the wall hanging that covered the entire wall, it was a work of Mea'lin art, done in a hundred different kinds of metal, but it was the design of a large oak tree, and on each branch was a name and each name trailed off to that person family.

Rufus hurried over to the secret door and opened it, so that when Reno would set in the lights would come on and hit the tree on the wall.
Rufus grinned at him, hoping he would notice the clothes and that they fit him, also he pointed at the tree, "see, the tree, with writing, but I can't read it, it is done in funny letters."

Rufus waited to see if this would make his new friend happy or not.