05-31-2017, 12:42 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-18-2018, 11:40 AM by Dane Regan.)
Dane had learned or confirmed a few things. Firstly, Omnilium was, in fact, the currency here. And he easily had enough to get what he wanted, within reason. Secondly, if he wanted to make a standing here, he should probably take a look at Coruscant first. The Kingdom (at Camelot) and The Empire (at Coruscant) were pretty much at war with each other, though any fights were small skirmishes, each had a stigma against the other. Dane could either choose one or the other. For now, he'd openly ally with neither. Thirdly, he discovered some general information on Camelot and its ruling system. Someone called Aragorn was pretty much the king, but he didn't want to do the whole dictator thing. He had a close circle of advisers, and joining that could be a worthy aim, should he decide against Coruscant.
After eating something for lunch, and getting Cepheya some actual horse food, the pair found themselves on one of the higher city rings. "So, Ceph, was there anything you wanted to do?"
"Huh... oh. Not really. What about you, Dane? Aren't you excited to learn new magic?"
"Well... I already know a lot of magic, and how to cast the spells. I just have a really poor amount of mana so I can't cast them. I'm too far below the threshold to cast field magic effectively, but I can manage core magic fairly well. Still, comparing theory would be nice. Do you know any magic, Ceph?"
"I don't know what that core or field things are that you were talking about, but I've dabbled a bit to help me fly faster." Cepheya flapped her wings, hitting Dane in the face by accident. They felt pretty soft, all things considered. "O-oops. Sooorrrryyy."
Dane let out a deep breath. "That's probably core magic. Core magic uses your own mana directly on your body or immediate surroundings. Field magic is when you use your mana to influence the magic around you, which is much harder but can be a lot more powerful - but it's the only way to do things at considerate range. Unless you're bending the magic field around you and using the waves to move the air, it's probably just your core magic decreasing the effect of gravity on you or strengthening your wings, and such. While still large, I did think your wings looked a bit too short to-"
"Okaaayy. I get it. Magic is cool and interesting and stuff. We've only just had lunch, no need to put me to sleep already."
"Having more interest in these things could help you fly faster. But fine, your loss." It was a shame really. Ceph was a great partner, at least from what he'd seen of her so far. Maintaining a friendly relationship had been fairly easy. She was a fast mode of transport. She could think for herself. She was fairly good at lightening the mood. All Dane could really ask for was more interest in his hobbies - though to be fair he did consider how he probably wasn't interested in hers. Whatever her hobbies actually were. But all this was fair considering the only payment she seemed to want was company and food.
"I thought you didn't want me to fly any faster, Dane? I seem to remember you pulling my mane and nearly crying in our earlier expedition."
"You almost crashed into a tree. And you definitely knocked a few leaves off. Anyway, let's get going to Dalaran." Dane clapped his hands and swiftly climbed into the saddle, making Cepheya squeak before she tried to mask it with a cough. Dane laughed.
"Give me a warning before you do that. Jerk."
"Give me a warning before you almost crash into trees."
"Will you let that go already? You're fine, aren't you?"
Dane sighed, then perked up. "Wait a second... what's that poster over there?"
Cepheya looked up at where Dane was pointing and trotted over. "Dan-te's A-byss," she said, sounding out the syllables. “Looks interesting, I guess. You planning on entering? Looks like there’s probably a prize. Oooh, you might have to do a few fights though. You sure?”
“I might. It’s not like I can permanently die, I think. And anyway, for competitions like these, I’ve got literally nothing to lose besides some time. No one expects the new guy to win after all, and it might be fun.” Dane shrugged. “I can’t enter for a little while anyway, but it’s something to keep in mind. And I might meet some other Primes and snag some useful info from them. Doesn’t look like I can bring you along though.”
“Oh, I see how it is. You just want to abandon me and take all the apples for yourself.”
Dane nodded, although Cepheya couldn’t see it. She might have felt the motion though. He wasn't sure how much she could deduce from the slight shifting of his weight on her back. “Pretty much, yeah.”
“Aww, I love you too Dane.”
Dane expected her to act more annoyed, even if she didn't mean it, so was a bit put off by her response. Just for a second.
Dammit, she's figured us out.
She's got past our teasing too fast, rip.
She's becoming self-aware.
Those were our only source of jokes dammit, not that they were any good.
"What a coincidence! I love Dane as well." Dane paused and started adjusting his harness. "Anyway, let's stop this dilly-dallying and get moving." He patted Cepheya's side. Dane was anxious to check out Dalaran, then likely go exploring for a short while before the Dante's Abyss thing.
Cepheya slowly walked over to the rim of the city level at a casual pace before extending her wings, hopping off, and falling into a dive - following the curve of the city as she fell in what she'd call a controlled descent. She did keep a reasonable distance from the tops of buildings, but the speed made Dane feel as if they were a lot closer. And any other fliers were distant enough not to be a problem. That didn't mean Dane liked it, not that he wanted to give Cepheya the satisfaction of knowing that, so he bent forwards in his saddle and held on to a handhold he'd added earlier.
"Can't you go any faster, Ceph?" Dane choked out, forcing himself to speak as they reached the outer wall. He was curious how long and fast the Pegasus could actually fly, even if he'd rather not find out first hand. That said, he did feel a need to practice getting used to the speed of the motions Cepheya made in the air. One thing he had noticed was that the strength of the air blowing in his face was lessened compared to his expectations. Now Cepheya had pointed out the magic she used to Dane, it was easier to notice she'd also used it to make her flight paths more dynamic.
Cepheya's wings flared, and beat quickly, as she sharply arced upwards towards the sun. The centripetal force of the parabolic curve made Dane shift in his saddle slightly and tighten his grip. That force levelled off as she became almost perpendicular to the horizon, with Dane feeling the need to hold on to avoid gravity pulling him off. It didn't take long to reach a point level to Dalaran, yet Cepheya rose higher. She began to pant with each flap of her wings, and the air began to feel empty until she eventually stopped and started to hover.
The view was pretty good, as far as appearances go, in Dane's opinion. Although he didn't really care for those things. Views were views and looking at things was more boring than doing things. And looking at things that didn't open up possibilities of doing things. An example would be your average nice view compared with reading a book or watching an experiment: the latter could be used to enhance a skill; the former was only useful for pathfinding, or before a battle.
Cepheya seemed happy to be so high up, even if she appeared strained after the effort. Maintaining a high speed in the thinning air must have been hard. Still, she'd made it far up, and for that Dane was impressed. He'd tried climbing mountains before a few times, but those were three kilometres high at most. Cepheya was getting on for five thousand metres, and as cool as being high up was once he'd gotten over his reluctance (in general, it wasn't that bad - there was something good to be said about the feeling of looking down on the world), the air wasn't easy to breathe. It was slightly easier than he expected though, so he chalked that up to Cepheya's magic.
"I... I expected you... to complain a... a bit more," Cepheya said between pants. "Do you... do you finally appreciate the world of flying, Dane?"
"I can see the appeal. But can you give me some warning next time." He sported a soft grin, taking care to hide any breathy tones in his own voice.
"But the surprise is part of the fun. Seeing where the air takes you. Having the wind brush across your face." She shook her head lightly from side to side, letting her mane sway. "I don't think I should try to go much higher though."
"I don't think we should either."
Little happened for about ten minutes as the pair hovered above the clouds. It was a tad cold, despite the sun shining on them. Dane spent the time thinking - just general things, no specific topic. Camelot was fairly large. He couldn't spot any defining end or border from where he was, but he knew each world in the Omniverse did have a limited size. He could see many towns and villages on the ground, but nothing close to rivalling Minas Tirith. Besides that, there wasn't much Dane could really say.
"Let's get going now, Ceph." Dane breathed in, and then out, before saying something he felt he might regret - but he did still want to see what would happen. "You can do tricks if you really want."
"You sure about that, boss? I don't know if your weak heart can take it."
"I'll be fine." It shouldn't be too bad, Dane reminded himself. The worst that could happen is them crashing into the ground or a building. But Cepheya acted experienced enough that that shouldn't be a worry. Going fast or getting high shouldn't be a worry in itself, it was when they were stopped permanently that worried him.
"Okie-dokie." Cepheya pulled in her wings and legs, while Dane bent down and grabbed on tightly, as she tilted forwards plummeting into a dive.
After a short moment, she re-extended her wings and flapped hard, pushing the two down faster. Dane was starting to get the hang of the jerky motions Cepheya used when flying. He knew she was perfectly capable of flying gracefully, she landed as such earlier, but she seemed to take joy in pushing her body hard with each thrust of her wings. It was almost as if she wanted to avoid any smooth motions, or maybe that was just the cost of speed. Dane was inclined to believe the former more in that case.
The Pegasus curved up sharply to follow the horizon, corkscrewing twice at the same time, then continued to curve upwards in three-quarters of a loop, so she ended it facing down - still with most of her speed intact. Dalaran came closer quickly as Cepheya continued to curve and arc in the air, sometimes bringing Dane upside down. He braced. There wasn't much of a pattern, but the Pegasus could certainly turn and accelerate quickly. While Dane had never done aerial combat before, nor had anyone from his homeland that he knew of, he anticipated that Cepheya could certainly be a useful asset should the need arise. But he did want to first know why she followed him. He summoned her, yes. But he didn't think there was some requirement that forced secondaries to obey their summoners. If that was true, Ishmir would still be alive and Drake would be his henchman.
Cepheya straightened out her wings fully and stopped flapping, letting the two glide the rest of the way to the floating city. From what Dane could see, it looked advanced, like the drawings he'd seen of that foreign human city across the sea back home. They had still been fearful of the demons, but their navy had been successful at holding ground, allowing them to focus more on magicks and sciences. Dane had planned to visit one some time ago, but he hated ships and sea travel, and he hadn't had a reliable ship he could travel on. There'd been too many guards patrolling the accessible coastal cities, all who were happy to arrest or kill him. Without any links with smugglers an the like, he'd had no chance at securing transport safely. It would have been like running around the high church with a big sign saying "I'm a heretic". Every other town person wouldn't care if they spotted him; usually, he carried about potions and the like as bribery for silence - good healing potions sold for a lot. But guards, to their merit, were usually pretty good at actually doing their job. The woes of being a wanted criminal.
Finishing the rest of the glide in a spiral, Cepheya landed, yet again, gently. Dane couldn't hear the sound of her hooves on the stone floor, which surprised him.
"Can I have an apple now."
This girl's got her priorities, at least. I think we're just her personal food dispenser.
You'd think she'd get tired of apples. Is eating this much even healthy for a horse?
Dane reached into bad and took out one of the last two apples to sacrifice as payment to the all-consuming Pegasus. It disappeared quickly. "How do you even eat them so fast?" Dane asked rhetorically, not expecting an answer.
"I just do. I like apples, okay? Surely you eat cakes quickly?"
"No, I take my time and savour the taste."
"What if you had an unlimited supply of cake?"
"Then I'd still take my time because eating too much cake is unhealthy."
"What if you had an unlimited supply of healthy cakes?"
Dane knew the point Cepheya was trying to make: i.e. that he was an unlimited supply of apples. Something like that, he figured. But, he wasn't going to try and make it easy for her. "Then I'd still take my time because eating too much of anything is unhealthy."
Cepheya groaned. "What if you had an unlimited supply of healthy cakes that tasted really nice and you could eat as much of them as you wanted with no negative side effects."
"Then I'd still eat at a reasonable pace because I like to chew my food before I swallow."
"You're impossible."
"No, I'm not. I'm Dane, silly."
Cepheya groaned again, then shuffled her wings. "Wait, are you Dane or Not? You're confusing me."
Oh boy, she's adopting our bad sense of humour.
"Good one." Dane laughed. "Wait. Who's Me and why are they confused?"
"I'm not sure what They's confusion has to do with Me being confused," Cepheya said, making an obvious effort to keep the pride out of her voice.
"Close, Ceph. But that one doesn't work because of how I used 'they' in the sentence. You can't replace it with a name and still have it make sense. For example, shove Jeff and James into it and see what it sounds like: 'Wait, who's James and why are Jeff confused?'. See, that doesn't make sense, I'd need to have said 'is' instead of 'are'. Though, really, when you start needing to use pronouns to make your bad jokes it's probably gone wrong anyway. So at that point, you should probably abort and laugh or sigh or groan."
"I didn't need an in-depth analysis of your bad taste in humour, Dane."
Dane laughed. "Anway, as I was going to say before, You just need to think of a better analogy for your point, whatever it is. An unlimited cake supply does sound nice though."
Cepheya sighed, before breathing in sharply. "Surely though, the speed at which you eat when trying to do so safely without choking is different from the speed you eat while savouring something. Because I bet you eat... umm... cabbage faster than cake."
A few passers-by had overheard the pairs obscure conversation and subtly laughed, nodded, or walked on with a scornful or confused look on their face. This general reaction had been happening since the unlimited cake was first mentioned by Cepheya - not that either of the two cared how others acted. "You're correct, yes. I don't see your point though."
"My point is, say we replace the cakes with apples. Suddenly my quick eating of apples is completely justified." Cepheya grinned and her wings twitched.
"Except you don't have an unlimited supply of apples. I only ever give you a few at a time at best."
Cepheya's wings flattened back down, before perking up again. "When have you ever refused me an apple, huh? Exactly, you are my unlimited supply of apples."
Huh, she has a point.
She's not wrong.
She's not wrong yet.
"That's great Ceph, except I asked how you were able to eat apples so fast. Not why you tried to eat them so quickly. I've seen normal horses take three times longer, at least."
"Oh... well that's because... umm... I really really like apples... I said all that for nothing, didn't I?"
"At least I can be forever safe in the knowledge that my companion is able to fully explain and justify her eating habits," Dane said. laughing at the end.
Cepheya sighed. "Come on, let's go find that library."
"Urgh, where is the bloody thing. I swear we've explored the whole city by now."
It had been ten minutes since the pair started looking for Dalaran's library. They had definitely not explored the whole city in that time. Back at Minas Tirith, one of the shopkeepers they talked to said it could be found in one of the back alleys, and later elaborated to explaining how its location seemed to be random and if you wandered about long enough you could find it. Apparently, the guy got some of his goods from up here, so knew a bit about the place.
"Then why don't you try asking for directions." Cepheya blew air out of her mouth, pushing the front of her mane up in the air.
"I don't need that attitude from you, missy," Dane commented, lightheartedly.
"Excuse me sir, and madam, are you two looking for Dalaran's Unseen Library? If so, perhaps I might come with you. I too find myself looking for it this afternoon, and three pairs of eyes are better than two, I dare say." The man wore a long purple robe and had short, well-cut, dark black hair.
"Please do, we're lost and Dane refuses to ask for directions," Cepheya interjected before Dane got the chance to speak. He heard the slight mutter of 'men' from under her breath.
"Well my dear, the library isn't a place one can simply locate on a map. It doesn't always show itself, though spend enough time looking and you'll be sure to find it. Why it's likely at least one of us has walked past it already." The man reached his hand out for Dane to shake, which he did. "My name is James. A pleasure to meet you."
"I'm Cepheya," Cepheya commented happily.
"And, as Ceph mentioned, my name is Dane. Do you have a plan of where to start looking for this library, or are we just going to wander about?" Dane unfixed himself from the Pegasus and hopped off, landing next to James.
"I do hope you weren't in a hurry. But I find the latter approach is my plan, as frustrating as that may be," said James.
Dane clapped his hands. "We better get started then. I'd rather have some sunlight left by the time we get there."
After eating something for lunch, and getting Cepheya some actual horse food, the pair found themselves on one of the higher city rings. "So, Ceph, was there anything you wanted to do?"
"Huh... oh. Not really. What about you, Dane? Aren't you excited to learn new magic?"
"Well... I already know a lot of magic, and how to cast the spells. I just have a really poor amount of mana so I can't cast them. I'm too far below the threshold to cast field magic effectively, but I can manage core magic fairly well. Still, comparing theory would be nice. Do you know any magic, Ceph?"
"I don't know what that core or field things are that you were talking about, but I've dabbled a bit to help me fly faster." Cepheya flapped her wings, hitting Dane in the face by accident. They felt pretty soft, all things considered. "O-oops. Sooorrrryyy."
Dane let out a deep breath. "That's probably core magic. Core magic uses your own mana directly on your body or immediate surroundings. Field magic is when you use your mana to influence the magic around you, which is much harder but can be a lot more powerful - but it's the only way to do things at considerate range. Unless you're bending the magic field around you and using the waves to move the air, it's probably just your core magic decreasing the effect of gravity on you or strengthening your wings, and such. While still large, I did think your wings looked a bit too short to-"
"Okaaayy. I get it. Magic is cool and interesting and stuff. We've only just had lunch, no need to put me to sleep already."
"Having more interest in these things could help you fly faster. But fine, your loss." It was a shame really. Ceph was a great partner, at least from what he'd seen of her so far. Maintaining a friendly relationship had been fairly easy. She was a fast mode of transport. She could think for herself. She was fairly good at lightening the mood. All Dane could really ask for was more interest in his hobbies - though to be fair he did consider how he probably wasn't interested in hers. Whatever her hobbies actually were. But all this was fair considering the only payment she seemed to want was company and food.
"I thought you didn't want me to fly any faster, Dane? I seem to remember you pulling my mane and nearly crying in our earlier expedition."
"You almost crashed into a tree. And you definitely knocked a few leaves off. Anyway, let's get going to Dalaran." Dane clapped his hands and swiftly climbed into the saddle, making Cepheya squeak before she tried to mask it with a cough. Dane laughed.
"Give me a warning before you do that. Jerk."
"Give me a warning before you almost crash into trees."
"Will you let that go already? You're fine, aren't you?"
Dane sighed, then perked up. "Wait a second... what's that poster over there?"
Cepheya looked up at where Dane was pointing and trotted over. "Dan-te's A-byss," she said, sounding out the syllables. “Looks interesting, I guess. You planning on entering? Looks like there’s probably a prize. Oooh, you might have to do a few fights though. You sure?”
“I might. It’s not like I can permanently die, I think. And anyway, for competitions like these, I’ve got literally nothing to lose besides some time. No one expects the new guy to win after all, and it might be fun.” Dane shrugged. “I can’t enter for a little while anyway, but it’s something to keep in mind. And I might meet some other Primes and snag some useful info from them. Doesn’t look like I can bring you along though.”
“Oh, I see how it is. You just want to abandon me and take all the apples for yourself.”
Dane nodded, although Cepheya couldn’t see it. She might have felt the motion though. He wasn't sure how much she could deduce from the slight shifting of his weight on her back. “Pretty much, yeah.”
“Aww, I love you too Dane.”
Dane expected her to act more annoyed, even if she didn't mean it, so was a bit put off by her response. Just for a second.
Dammit, she's figured us out.
She's got past our teasing too fast, rip.
She's becoming self-aware.
Those were our only source of jokes dammit, not that they were any good.
"What a coincidence! I love Dane as well." Dane paused and started adjusting his harness. "Anyway, let's stop this dilly-dallying and get moving." He patted Cepheya's side. Dane was anxious to check out Dalaran, then likely go exploring for a short while before the Dante's Abyss thing.
Cepheya slowly walked over to the rim of the city level at a casual pace before extending her wings, hopping off, and falling into a dive - following the curve of the city as she fell in what she'd call a controlled descent. She did keep a reasonable distance from the tops of buildings, but the speed made Dane feel as if they were a lot closer. And any other fliers were distant enough not to be a problem. That didn't mean Dane liked it, not that he wanted to give Cepheya the satisfaction of knowing that, so he bent forwards in his saddle and held on to a handhold he'd added earlier.
"Can't you go any faster, Ceph?" Dane choked out, forcing himself to speak as they reached the outer wall. He was curious how long and fast the Pegasus could actually fly, even if he'd rather not find out first hand. That said, he did feel a need to practice getting used to the speed of the motions Cepheya made in the air. One thing he had noticed was that the strength of the air blowing in his face was lessened compared to his expectations. Now Cepheya had pointed out the magic she used to Dane, it was easier to notice she'd also used it to make her flight paths more dynamic.
Cepheya's wings flared, and beat quickly, as she sharply arced upwards towards the sun. The centripetal force of the parabolic curve made Dane shift in his saddle slightly and tighten his grip. That force levelled off as she became almost perpendicular to the horizon, with Dane feeling the need to hold on to avoid gravity pulling him off. It didn't take long to reach a point level to Dalaran, yet Cepheya rose higher. She began to pant with each flap of her wings, and the air began to feel empty until she eventually stopped and started to hover.
The view was pretty good, as far as appearances go, in Dane's opinion. Although he didn't really care for those things. Views were views and looking at things was more boring than doing things. And looking at things that didn't open up possibilities of doing things. An example would be your average nice view compared with reading a book or watching an experiment: the latter could be used to enhance a skill; the former was only useful for pathfinding, or before a battle.
Cepheya seemed happy to be so high up, even if she appeared strained after the effort. Maintaining a high speed in the thinning air must have been hard. Still, she'd made it far up, and for that Dane was impressed. He'd tried climbing mountains before a few times, but those were three kilometres high at most. Cepheya was getting on for five thousand metres, and as cool as being high up was once he'd gotten over his reluctance (in general, it wasn't that bad - there was something good to be said about the feeling of looking down on the world), the air wasn't easy to breathe. It was slightly easier than he expected though, so he chalked that up to Cepheya's magic.
"I... I expected you... to complain a... a bit more," Cepheya said between pants. "Do you... do you finally appreciate the world of flying, Dane?"
"I can see the appeal. But can you give me some warning next time." He sported a soft grin, taking care to hide any breathy tones in his own voice.
"But the surprise is part of the fun. Seeing where the air takes you. Having the wind brush across your face." She shook her head lightly from side to side, letting her mane sway. "I don't think I should try to go much higher though."
"I don't think we should either."
Little happened for about ten minutes as the pair hovered above the clouds. It was a tad cold, despite the sun shining on them. Dane spent the time thinking - just general things, no specific topic. Camelot was fairly large. He couldn't spot any defining end or border from where he was, but he knew each world in the Omniverse did have a limited size. He could see many towns and villages on the ground, but nothing close to rivalling Minas Tirith. Besides that, there wasn't much Dane could really say.
"Let's get going now, Ceph." Dane breathed in, and then out, before saying something he felt he might regret - but he did still want to see what would happen. "You can do tricks if you really want."
"You sure about that, boss? I don't know if your weak heart can take it."
"I'll be fine." It shouldn't be too bad, Dane reminded himself. The worst that could happen is them crashing into the ground or a building. But Cepheya acted experienced enough that that shouldn't be a worry. Going fast or getting high shouldn't be a worry in itself, it was when they were stopped permanently that worried him.
"Okie-dokie." Cepheya pulled in her wings and legs, while Dane bent down and grabbed on tightly, as she tilted forwards plummeting into a dive.
After a short moment, she re-extended her wings and flapped hard, pushing the two down faster. Dane was starting to get the hang of the jerky motions Cepheya used when flying. He knew she was perfectly capable of flying gracefully, she landed as such earlier, but she seemed to take joy in pushing her body hard with each thrust of her wings. It was almost as if she wanted to avoid any smooth motions, or maybe that was just the cost of speed. Dane was inclined to believe the former more in that case.
The Pegasus curved up sharply to follow the horizon, corkscrewing twice at the same time, then continued to curve upwards in three-quarters of a loop, so she ended it facing down - still with most of her speed intact. Dalaran came closer quickly as Cepheya continued to curve and arc in the air, sometimes bringing Dane upside down. He braced. There wasn't much of a pattern, but the Pegasus could certainly turn and accelerate quickly. While Dane had never done aerial combat before, nor had anyone from his homeland that he knew of, he anticipated that Cepheya could certainly be a useful asset should the need arise. But he did want to first know why she followed him. He summoned her, yes. But he didn't think there was some requirement that forced secondaries to obey their summoners. If that was true, Ishmir would still be alive and Drake would be his henchman.
Cepheya straightened out her wings fully and stopped flapping, letting the two glide the rest of the way to the floating city. From what Dane could see, it looked advanced, like the drawings he'd seen of that foreign human city across the sea back home. They had still been fearful of the demons, but their navy had been successful at holding ground, allowing them to focus more on magicks and sciences. Dane had planned to visit one some time ago, but he hated ships and sea travel, and he hadn't had a reliable ship he could travel on. There'd been too many guards patrolling the accessible coastal cities, all who were happy to arrest or kill him. Without any links with smugglers an the like, he'd had no chance at securing transport safely. It would have been like running around the high church with a big sign saying "I'm a heretic". Every other town person wouldn't care if they spotted him; usually, he carried about potions and the like as bribery for silence - good healing potions sold for a lot. But guards, to their merit, were usually pretty good at actually doing their job. The woes of being a wanted criminal.
Finishing the rest of the glide in a spiral, Cepheya landed, yet again, gently. Dane couldn't hear the sound of her hooves on the stone floor, which surprised him.
"Can I have an apple now."
This girl's got her priorities, at least. I think we're just her personal food dispenser.
You'd think she'd get tired of apples. Is eating this much even healthy for a horse?
Dane reached into bad and took out one of the last two apples to sacrifice as payment to the all-consuming Pegasus. It disappeared quickly. "How do you even eat them so fast?" Dane asked rhetorically, not expecting an answer.
"I just do. I like apples, okay? Surely you eat cakes quickly?"
"No, I take my time and savour the taste."
"What if you had an unlimited supply of cake?"
"Then I'd still take my time because eating too much cake is unhealthy."
"What if you had an unlimited supply of healthy cakes?"
Dane knew the point Cepheya was trying to make: i.e. that he was an unlimited supply of apples. Something like that, he figured. But, he wasn't going to try and make it easy for her. "Then I'd still take my time because eating too much of anything is unhealthy."
Cepheya groaned. "What if you had an unlimited supply of healthy cakes that tasted really nice and you could eat as much of them as you wanted with no negative side effects."
"Then I'd still eat at a reasonable pace because I like to chew my food before I swallow."
"You're impossible."
"No, I'm not. I'm Dane, silly."
Cepheya groaned again, then shuffled her wings. "Wait, are you Dane or Not? You're confusing me."
Oh boy, she's adopting our bad sense of humour.
"Good one." Dane laughed. "Wait. Who's Me and why are they confused?"
"I'm not sure what They's confusion has to do with Me being confused," Cepheya said, making an obvious effort to keep the pride out of her voice.
"Close, Ceph. But that one doesn't work because of how I used 'they' in the sentence. You can't replace it with a name and still have it make sense. For example, shove Jeff and James into it and see what it sounds like: 'Wait, who's James and why are Jeff confused?'. See, that doesn't make sense, I'd need to have said 'is' instead of 'are'. Though, really, when you start needing to use pronouns to make your bad jokes it's probably gone wrong anyway. So at that point, you should probably abort and laugh or sigh or groan."
"I didn't need an in-depth analysis of your bad taste in humour, Dane."
Dane laughed. "Anway, as I was going to say before, You just need to think of a better analogy for your point, whatever it is. An unlimited cake supply does sound nice though."
Cepheya sighed, before breathing in sharply. "Surely though, the speed at which you eat when trying to do so safely without choking is different from the speed you eat while savouring something. Because I bet you eat... umm... cabbage faster than cake."
A few passers-by had overheard the pairs obscure conversation and subtly laughed, nodded, or walked on with a scornful or confused look on their face. This general reaction had been happening since the unlimited cake was first mentioned by Cepheya - not that either of the two cared how others acted. "You're correct, yes. I don't see your point though."
"My point is, say we replace the cakes with apples. Suddenly my quick eating of apples is completely justified." Cepheya grinned and her wings twitched.
"Except you don't have an unlimited supply of apples. I only ever give you a few at a time at best."
Cepheya's wings flattened back down, before perking up again. "When have you ever refused me an apple, huh? Exactly, you are my unlimited supply of apples."
Huh, she has a point.
She's not wrong.
She's not wrong yet.
"That's great Ceph, except I asked how you were able to eat apples so fast. Not why you tried to eat them so quickly. I've seen normal horses take three times longer, at least."
"Oh... well that's because... umm... I really really like apples... I said all that for nothing, didn't I?"
"At least I can be forever safe in the knowledge that my companion is able to fully explain and justify her eating habits," Dane said. laughing at the end.
Cepheya sighed. "Come on, let's go find that library."
"Urgh, where is the bloody thing. I swear we've explored the whole city by now."
It had been ten minutes since the pair started looking for Dalaran's library. They had definitely not explored the whole city in that time. Back at Minas Tirith, one of the shopkeepers they talked to said it could be found in one of the back alleys, and later elaborated to explaining how its location seemed to be random and if you wandered about long enough you could find it. Apparently, the guy got some of his goods from up here, so knew a bit about the place.
"Then why don't you try asking for directions." Cepheya blew air out of her mouth, pushing the front of her mane up in the air.
"I don't need that attitude from you, missy," Dane commented, lightheartedly.
"Excuse me sir, and madam, are you two looking for Dalaran's Unseen Library? If so, perhaps I might come with you. I too find myself looking for it this afternoon, and three pairs of eyes are better than two, I dare say." The man wore a long purple robe and had short, well-cut, dark black hair.
"Please do, we're lost and Dane refuses to ask for directions," Cepheya interjected before Dane got the chance to speak. He heard the slight mutter of 'men' from under her breath.
"Well my dear, the library isn't a place one can simply locate on a map. It doesn't always show itself, though spend enough time looking and you'll be sure to find it. Why it's likely at least one of us has walked past it already." The man reached his hand out for Dane to shake, which he did. "My name is James. A pleasure to meet you."
"I'm Cepheya," Cepheya commented happily.
"And, as Ceph mentioned, my name is Dane. Do you have a plan of where to start looking for this library, or are we just going to wander about?" Dane unfixed himself from the Pegasus and hopped off, landing next to James.
"I do hope you weren't in a hurry. But I find the latter approach is my plan, as frustrating as that may be," said James.
Dane clapped his hands. "We better get started then. I'd rather have some sunlight left by the time we get there."