exploratory kidnapping

[alicornucopia]

In this room are two women, one gray and sixty years old, one just thirty and red-haired, both wearing elaborate outfits. The younger casts a spell.

In this room is now also a third person. (On whom the elder woman promptly also casts a spell, which she had at the ready.)

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"...I don't know what a phone is, but hitting it with something is the operation procedure."

[missnicegirl]

"Okay." She hits the crystal.

[alicornucopia]

The crystal rings. Someone answers it. "What is it?" they ask in Draconic.

[missnicegirl]

"Hello," says Matilda, also in Draconic. "I'm the person who figured out how to fix shrens, and I want to find out why dragon babies die a lot so I can fix that too. Do you know where I can find dragon babies to look at?"

[alicornucopia]

"...You mean, ones less than a month old, who might still die?"

[missnicegirl]

"Yes. That kind," she says.

[alicornucopia]

"You're just going to look at them?"

[missnicegirl]

"Yes. Until I find out why they die a lot, and then I will do magic to them so they don't," she says.

[alicornucopia]

"...My daughter has a clutch right now. Do you need their address, or...?"

[missnicegirl]

"Yes, please. Oh! And I think we also accidentally figured out how to make dragons stop dying of old age," she adds. "But we're not sure yet."

[alicornucopia]

"...That's also very interesting. We'll want to hear more about that later." The dragon rattles off an address in Gibryel.

[missnicegirl]

"Thank you," says Matilda. She hands Jensal her crystal back and teleports to the provided address.

[alicornucopia]

The provided address is a cute little townhouse painted periwinkle.

[missnicegirl]

Matilda knocks on the door.

[alicornucopia]

A fellow with golden eyes answers the door. He seems surprised to see a seven-year-old girl on his doorstep. There is a baby dragon wrestling with his hair. He estimates her likely ethnic background based on incorrect assumptions and says, in Kandaph, "Are you lost?"

[missnicegirl]

"No," says Matilda, in Draconic. "I'm here to look at baby dragons and try to find out why they die so much so I can make it stop. I have a lot of magic."

[alicornucopia]

The man squints at her hair when she starts speaking Draconic. "...Okay..." He gestures at the baby dragon on his head.

[missnicegirl]

"I can't tell anything weird about that one... can I look at more? When baby dragons die is it very sudden and inexplicable like old age, or does it happen some other way?"

[alicornucopia]

"The others are napping. You can come in. They... they cough, and they don't stop coughing until they stop breathing," he murmurs, motioning her inside.

[missnicegirl]

"That's not like old age, then. I might still want to try giving them magic transplants if I can't see anything weird about any of them," she says, lowering her voice on account of napping babies as she comes in.

[alicornucopia]

"Magic transplants?" he murmurs.

There are two more babies, curled up together in a crib with a lid, one malachite and one gold like the hair-wrestling baby.

[missnicegirl]

"...oh," says Matilda, staring at the babies. "That's easy. They don't have hardly any magic at all; no wonder they die. Magic transplants are when I replace someone's dragon magic with ialdae. It does all of the same things, languages and fire and colour-group stuff and everything, but it doesn't get holes in it or suddenly go away. I should do it for those two babies. And then I should talk to the dragon council again and find out where all of the dragon babies in the world are and give magic transplants to all the ones like them."

[alicornucopia]

"These ones will die if you don't?"

[missnicegirl]

"Yes. There's a space in every dragon's magic where if it's empty you die, and these ones are all empty spaces."

[alicornucopia]

"If you can fix them - do it. The one on me is okay?"