[Kiel]

Like, Kiel was kinda lost. He'd followed Argyris' group to help them look for the eggs, but, like, for starters, what did Ohani eggs even look like? He guessed they were kinda egg-shaped, but how big were they? What colour? Were they round and jelly like fish eggs, or oval and hard-shelled like chicken eggs? Clustered together in a nest, or, like, buried under the sand like a turtle's?

Well, like, okay, so he hadn't seen any sand and he figured it'd be pretty hard to bury anything under the glossy black surface that apparently made up most of the Ohani city, but they were, like, fish people or something, right? So they probably laid their eggs near the water or something, like, right? So that meant getting wet again and, like, probably explained why they were so afraid of the Chaiku.

“Like, ummmm.” He pulled a one-eighty, his head swivelling on his shoulders. Like, he'd run so fast he'd gotten ahead of Argy's buddies and, like, he'd lost them when he turned a corner around a sharp-angled tower. The waves made it hard to see where he was and who was nearby, so he just, like, kept going. Maybe by some miracle, he'd find — “Like, wah!”

Shane barrelled into the backs of his knees and nearly took his legs out from under him when he stopped dead to point. “Dude, like, that's crazy cool, man, for sers.” Ahead of him, a bunch of Ohani bustled about, calling out to each other across broad sections of water segmented from each other and the rest of the city by a spiderweb of black walkways. Like, that in itself didn't look much different from the rest of the city he'd seen so far, but, like, between the walkways, suspended a few feet above what he figured was the usual sea level, was a fine mesh of green. Like, at first, they looked like man-uh, Ohani-made fishing nets or something, you know, but when he stepped a bit closer, he could totally tell it was, like, that stuff that grew on stagnant ponds and looked kinda like the moss on dead trees. His immediate thought was to back away 'cause, like, hadn't the other guys run into something kinda like it, furry caterpillars or something, back in the Badlands and it killed Rusty? Except, like, this was green and that wasn't, and, like, the Ohani didn't seem to fear it. Oh, and also, each 'net' was holding up a bunch of what looked like giant eggs.

“Ooh. Ooh, like, ooh.” He pointed again, bounced on his toes then stomped his foot. “Ooh!”

[Argyris]

"Ah - where did that Dracovari go.. Should we look for him?"
"Mmm? Now's not the t- Hm. Evgeny I think you've had enough of a rest; scout the surrounding area. The eggs are our primary priority."
"Haa... Okay okay..."

The white-winged Anyeli accelerated, overtaking both Argyris and Psyche. With a few powerful flexes of his wing muslces, he was airborne once more. Despite his intention to follow Argyris' orders, he located Kiel first; it was always easier to find something whose appearance one actually knew after all. The Dracovari had entered an area that looked like a black on green spiderweb. There number of Ohani patrolling the area was denser than the other parts of the city. Perhaps this was a weak point in the Ohani's architecture, but it was equally likely that something precious was being guarded. Gliding down closer to the ground so he would not have to raise his voice, Evgeny relayed what he saw.

Now with a clear destination in mind, the trio of Elysians moved quickly. They caught up with Kiel when the latter was still mulling over the viridian moss that floated atop the Ohani waters. Psyche led the group, sneaking up on the preoccupied Dracovari and tapping him on his back.

"Boo; are those things eggs?"

The pale grey objects were oddly shaped, half way between the perfectly circular eggs that newts laid and the oblong oval of avians. The water in the pools sloshed this way and that, and a particularly violent movement bumped a few eggs against the walkway near them. Their shape remained largely unchanged however, indicating that the grey shell was somewhat solid. Evgeny moved closer to observe, only to find himself stopped by an Ohani guard, whose colours flashed warningly red.

[Kiel]

“Wah-augh-ah!” Like, having someone come up behind him like a thief in the night was, like, totally not a great thing to do in even ordinary circumstances, but, like, with everything that had happened, Psyche was kinda asking for a karate chop to the face, okay, and that's exactly what happened. Like, Kiel's girly scream bounced off the sky-scraping pyramids and he shot, like, fifty feet in the air or something, whipping around with his knees bent and his hands up karate-chop style so he could be all, like, “Wahahahaha, I know kung fu!” Except, like, he didn't (it was Judo he'd learned), and when he saw that it was Psyche, his shoulders slouched and he kinda deflated to his knees with an elaborate balloon-like, “Pfarpppp. Dude, like. Dude.” For sers, man. When he got home, he was never leaving his bed, like, ever again, okay?

Righting himself and poking at Psyche's biceps, he waved excitedly at the scene behind him. “Like, dude, look what I found, man. I'm, like, a total genius, okay? Like, right, huh, huh, right?” Poking again, and having totally missed the vamp's question in the first place, he flexed his own biceps and struck a heroic pose. Somehow, despite his exhaustion and incessant hiccups, he kinda felt good about this whole thing right now. Except, like, finding the eggs was all well and good, but what now?

And then one of the Ohani came to investigate the scream, her belly flashing muted reds, and Kiel kinda like semi-cowered behind Argyris. “Like, um, say it was you that screamed, okay? Like, yeah, okay? And keep 'em distracted, Psyche, like, maybe we can be all, like, lift one out and roll it back to the ship or something.”

[Argyris]

While Kiel's reaction to Psyche's half-hearted attempt at scaring were funny, Argyris kept her amusement strictly stifled. Evgeny was too busy trying to express his innocence to the Ohani guard who had accosted him, turning out any and every pocket he, to pay any more attention than a raised eyebrow to Kiel. Psyche though, had neither reservation nor preoccupation. The hunter Vampire burst out laughing, not stopping even an irate Ohani come around to see what the alien creatures were up to. It took a long while for her light alto guffaws to soften into conceited sniggers, and then finally into a sheepish grin.

Argyris pointedly ignored her companion, choosing to put the larger part of her focus into projecting a harmless an image as she could without the use of telepathy. The two Ohani who had taken special interest in their group seemed unconvinced, and were approaching them menacingly. In fact they seemed intent on keeping them as far away from the pools containing the Ohani eggs as possible. Argyris winced; Kiel suggestion was dangerous and risky at best, really. Rather irrationally, she whispered to the Dracovari behind her, hissing in lieu of giving him a withering look.

"Let's see... Do you remember the way back to the ship? 'Cos I don't, unfortunately. Not to mention the Ohani probably know of shortcuts and there's only one possible place where we could go. So unless you're tell me you can turn invisible- "
"Wave incoming! Evgeny! Get off the ground!!"

Argyris had wanted to be much more scathing, but unfortunately the ocean chose to surge inland right at this moment. HIssing her displeasure, Argyris left her tirade unfinished and looked for the nearest steady object she could grab onto. There did not seem to be any, and in mild panic, the Vampire unsheathed her sbare and stabbed it into the ground. At first the blade barely made a scratch, but Argyris put more strength into it, and soon a crack appeared on the glossy black surface, widening just enough for the sabre to slip through. The Ohani too started shifting themselves around the pools, even as they continued to keep a watchful eye on Argyris' group.

The wave hit, and even with the warning Argyris was found herself pushed backwards and then forwards again. She managed to maintain her grip on the sabre whose tip she buried into the Ohani's city's ground however, and as a result was able to see quite clearly the effect the wave had on the egg-pools. Large grey ovals that been previously nestled securely in green moss were rolling about freely on the surface of the moss now, threatening to escape the pools at any moment. Argyris could only imagine what the outer pools were like; the wave had a much greater effect there.

[Kiel]

“Wahahahahaha!” Kiel's giggles turned mad and, like, tears streamed from his reddened eyes, and then he totally realised what they were laughing at.“Hey, hey, like, dude, okay?” He didn't know why Psyche found him so funny, but, like, laughter was contagious, okay? And, like, laughing right now probably wasn't a great idea, you know? So he stuck his tongue out at her and, like, turned away to focus on the problem of the eggs. Except, like, it was kinda hard to concentrate with Evgeny doing a pantomine right next to him, okay?

“Ummmm.” Now that Argyris had mentioned it, Kiel shot her a sheepish grin that was, like, almost a mirror image of Psyche's. He crossed his arms to point in opposing directions and beamed, his voice also hushed as if the Ohani could understand them. “It's thattaway, like, right?” He'd just, like, kinda charged off and got caught up in the moment, even though Zeph kept telling him to check back on his route so he wouldn't get lost. Like, it was kinda hard to glance over his shoulder every few minutes for landmarks when a wall of water was practically chasing you, okay? “Nah, but, like, I'm pretty sure it's that way, for sers.” He jerked his head to their six o'clock rather than point so obviously, then flashed a friendly smile at the two females (he thought) flashing strengthening amounts of red at them. “Like, whatever we're gonna do, we should do it—wah!”

It took too long for Kiel to glance around for a handhold or grip or something. When the wave hit, he was rushed off his feet and slammed bodily into the edge of the, like, pool or whatever. He was pretty sure he heard something crack and, like, totally hoped to Xanth it wasn't him 'cause, like, he didn't think he could fight with two broken arms, okay? His good arm flailed around as he was pretty much washed into a surge that slammed against the side of a building, then yanked back to smash into a hapless egg. Slime sprayed across his face as the huge thing cracked open, but he managed to sink his good hand into the, like, gooey insides and latch onto something solid. “Owwwwwwwwww! It bit me, it bit me, it bit me!” Like, it might have been egg shell rather than teeth, but he couldn't tell because his head was under water, over water. “Dude, my hat!” Under water. “Brglargh.”

Like, when his head was finally above water for real and the wave was gone, save for a few tidal schlops, he realise the Ohani were gone. He heard Shane mewl and found one of the females bent and broken where she'd been smashed into the sharp corner of the pool 'cause, like, apparently even fish people weren't immune to water attacks. “Hey, hey, blgloop. Like, are you seeing what I'm seeing? Like, are you thinking what I'm thinking? 'cause, like, I could totally go for hamburgers right about now.”