Kegger knew a thing or two about the world. After all, she was twice as old as everyone else at the Abbey (except for Eandrae, that is). Evenso, she never thought she would live long enough to witness the events of the past few days: Eandrae bringing an assortment of people (and a bluish-gray creature) in from a blizzard, the destruction of her beloved City of Verdasto, rumors of dragons flying over the land, a visit by a queen and a prince, and now this ...
Drakonis had rushed out of the Abbey as soon as she told him about Sparkl and the kidnapped lady elf. When he returned less than half an hour later, he was carrying in his arms a cute, cuddly, grinning, innocent baby ... DRAGON!
Kegger had nothing against dragons, mind you. But the monks, well, they were all in a tizzy! A dragon here?? In the Abbey?? In the midst of the Lesser Order of Saint George Junior the Dragon Taunter???
"I do believe the world can come to an end now," Kegger mused, as she sat down by the hearth, "for surely I have seen everything."
Drakonis paid no attention to the monks, although their frantic mime, gesturing, and occasional moonings would have been quite comical at another time. Instead, he merely dusted the snow off of his sandals and hair, then carried the baby dragon over to Kegger and waited.
Kegger stared up at the handsome, golden-haired man, and saw the look of a man of power and intensity. His eyes spoke of compassion and urgency. And his posture demanded attention.
"What would you have me do, Prince ..." Kegger suddenly realized that she had never learned the stranger's name. She waited for him to answer both the spoken and unspoken questions.
"Drakonis." he nodded regally. "I need your services, good mother. This newborne infant is a foundling, and my queen has asked me to beg you to keep him safe until his parents can be found or a suitable guardian is appointed."
"I know nothing of dragon infants, M'Lord Drakonis. What does he ... she ... uh, ... what do infant dragons eat? Should I keep it warm, or cool? Will it burp fire when it has a bubble in its belly? ... " and a million other questions flew in circles inside Kegger's head. But, true to her own nature, as Kegger voiced these protestations, she had gently lifted the infant from Drakonis' arms and was craddling the dragon to her bosom and making gentle cooing sounds to him.
"I must find Eandrae." Drakonis announced.
The monks were becoming exhausted, some of them wandering off to recover for a second round of taunting, others shrugging their shoulders at each other as if to say "that's all of the taunts I know, what should I do now?"
Amidst all of this, no one seemed to notice the activities of a certain bluish-gray creature.
