Midge

...Out loud, the captain said, "For now, Midge and dooner will give you a brief tour of the vessel while I write up your contract."

Taio turned just in time to see two guardians, who appeared to constitute the entire crew, doing a high five. They looked quite unabashed at having been caught and came forward to introduce themselves.


Midge had flowing locks that matched her wings, both as blue as the deepest sea. It appeared the rest of her scales were covered in tattoos. dooner was clad in more typical sailor garb along with some protective armor that appeared constructed from the bones of some creature of the deep.

They were kind of a lot to take in all at once. Taio didn't realize he was staring until Midge gave him a friendly if quite firm nudge.

"Well, matey, we best take a look around while the sun's out, eh? We'll show you the works, won't we, dooner?"

---

"It's...nice to meet you!" Taio managed, clearly out of his element among such experienced travelers. He hesitated for a minute, taking in Captain Ragnall's words...the Riot of Rot begins the day after the family reunion ends, meaning the reunion will be his last chance to spend time with his relatives and his clan for quite some time. Not that two weeks is a very long timespan, but to a dragon who had never left home for more than a few hours, it seemed impossibly long now that it's staring him in the face.

Well, there would be plenty of time to sort that all out later. Taio swallowed his apprehension and followed the two guardians across the deck. Even if he was nervous, he was incredibly curious to see how the dirigible operated!

---

The siblings waited until Taio was well and far away from the dirigible, on his way back to Sunbeam Grotto.

"Green. Green, that one is!" dooner chuckled under his breath. "Oh, give off!" retorted his sister. "Give a guy a break!" "We were never that green!" dooner was not one to back down.

"Yeah, sure, we were nearly hatched aboard deck. You cut your eye teeth on the rigging!"

"Yeah...I miss the rigging." dooner had always felt most at home up among the sails, but they were removed when La Fortuna was transformed into a vessel of the air. True, diving off the top of the envelope was better than merely diving off the old crow's nest, so there were pay-offs.

"Did you see how the lad looped his tail under the ropes when we took him topside?!" dooner was chuckling again. "That was a prudent move on his part," Midge corrected. She gave it a thought. "He'll do."

"I'm looking for an inker. An artist." It was clear to Midge that while a bit of a dweeb, this spiral knew his ink. And if he could lead her to Moka, the Moka, well, she was willing to put up with a lot. Trouble was, he kept insisting that she tell him the stories behind her various tattoos. So boring. At least Taio was occupied and not likely to wander off until the end of the show. She pressed her informant for answers.

Moka's Marks