Soup's On! [private, Rhena, Chili]

Year 4. December 17th, evening.

The golden griffon walked around rows and rows of rusted over pipes. The buildings in the industrial district had been exposed from the war. It seemed like only some of them remained intact. After all, there may have been no incentive to rebuild in this location after the fighting had stopped. Her instructions were clear, find a dragon named "Hephaestus" and persuade him to join her at Port De'Luge however possible.

Rhena had felt alone before. Spending long nights traveling alone in the sky with no other griffon to talk to was common for a duelist like her. This area of the city was different. The mangled wood and brick reminded her of what the war must have been like for those involved. Every so often her mind would drift back to her sister and wonder what her last moments were, who she dined with, what she ate, who she slew.

And as always, who killed her.

She came up to a more intact building, the one that supposedly sheltered the dragon during his stay in the city. With a firm talon, she opened the heavy door on the outside and ventured into the smallish building. "Hello?" she called out. "I'm looking for a Hephaestus!"

The only reply that the golden hen received was the cold silence of the abandoned structure. Before the war, the building appeared to be a some kind of metal working factory, but it had long-since been stripped of the majority of any valuable parts it once had, be it by the griffons or scavengers over the course of the occupation.

The ground of the dilapidated factory was littered with trash and debris, seemingly in layers that chronicled the state of the building since its construction. The newest of these "layers was mainly dust and debris that had come loose over the years, but there were also strange, black tri-oval scales, scattered hither and yon through out the ground floor of the industrial complex. 

The scales did not leave any particular trail or pattern, but some seemed to lead toward a stairway that was labeled "2F Boiler Rooms and Forges"

Rhena followed the trail of scales, keeping her eyes to the ground and easily spotted the general path it led. Once she approached the stairway, she carefully read the sign and muttered out loud. With a pair of clawed hands on her hips, the griffoness grumbled, "Great. Looks like a nice, safe place to meet a dragon." With no one around to hear her sharp wit, she continued on to the stairwell and walked up to the second floor.

The scale trail, as she called it in her head, led further into the former metalworks. Once again, Rhena called out the dragon's name, assuming that she got no answer. "Chili!" She used the other name in the hopes that the dragon would respond to that better.

The hen's call echoed throughout the lower level of the factory, which was much warmer than the upper levels, and was filled with a muffled humming sound that emanated from a door at the very back of the room that was labeled "Boiler Room". Overall, this section of the factory seemed to have been transformed into a den or cache of sorts that had been divided into different sections, each that appear to serve a different function.

In the rearmost right corner was what seemed to be an impromptu workshop with various tools and salvaged metalworking equipment, not to mention an organized-yet-eclectic assortment of various parts and pieces, most notably broken umbrellas.

Towards the front on the right was a improvised kitchen of sorts, with a humble assortment of cast iron pits and pans, as well as a few jars of seasonings. By an improvised stovetop sat a large butchers table that was spattered with dried blood and had a wide assortment of dried meat hanging from the ceiling.

The rearmost left corner of the factory's lower floor had numerous corkboards hanging from the walls, covered in an assortment of letters, wanted posters, newspaper clippings, and other documents, some of which were connected with pieces of string and had annotations scrawled in black ink.

However, one of the more peculiar areas of the room was near the front, which looked like all the furniture from a CEO's office had been taken out and rearranged in the basement of the dilapidated factory. On top of the desk was a small note that read "Hibernating. All services will resume during the Spring months. Any attempts to halt seasonal hiatus may result in lawsuit, persecution, or immolation."

The gold hen approached the desk, not particularly concerned with the interesting locales of the entire workshop but certainly careful to make landmarks and take in the sights. Rhena read the sign on the desk and laughed out loud. Her shrill caw of a laugh rang through the dead but messy factory. "That's rich!" she cried out, wondering if adolescent dragons even hibernated. Apparently they did, as she was unable to clearly see where Chili might have been residing.

Again, she called out in the din. Rhena yelled both names back to back, hoping for an answer. After some time, she settled down and growled catlike. "Dammit, Johan. The worst to happen is almost certainly not finding the mark." she mumbled and sat down on the dirty floor to think for a few moments.

The gryphoness' calls echoed around the room, gradually becoming eclipsed by the humming sound coming from the door that lead to the factory's boiler and furnace, which by the sound of it appeared to still be running after all these years. The door to the boiler room seemed to be just barely shut, allowing a dull orange glow to seep out from underneath it. What's more was that its doorknob was adorned with a "Do Not Disturb" tag, as one could potentially find in a hotel.

"No way. Johan isn't the type to be wrong about these things." She scratched her feathers around her beak and stood up, giving the room another search. Attracted to the hum of the boiler, Rhena made her way to the glowing room. "If I were to hibernate in the winter..." she whispered at the door and glanced down at the sign.

With a little barking laugh, she turned the sign around and opened the door slightly and peered inside. "Hey, is there a Hephaestus here? Or Chili or whatever?" she called out into the noisy room. The hen fully stepped in and glanced about, her mind not exactly sure or prepared to see a dragon. Even less an adolescent one.

Rhena's entrance was welcomed by a blast of heat that rushed from the boiler room, rapidly equalizing with the comparatively cooler air that filled the rest of the basement. As it's name implied, the boiler room housed a massive machine that was in the mist of providing a berth to a roaring inferno within its structure. Pressure gauges had their needles buried to the right and the thermometers had long since given up on their task of measuring the heat inside. The floor of the room was littered with smoldered charcoal bags, and the door to the boiler's fuel depository had been left open by mistake, and was the main source of the intense heat wave that had even caused some of the instruments and parts of the machine to warp and scorch.

Though sight and state of the room was something to behold, the boiler's gaping maw granted view to a sight even stranger: the boiler's interior looked like a vast sea of burning coals, atop of which was a large, black form that lay in its center, seemingly unphased by the scorching heat.

Her eyes dried immediately. The sudden equalization blasted the air into her face and made the griffon flinch. The heat was near unbearable, but Rhena trudged into the room regardless, making sure to prop the door open with a metal pipe on the floor. Cautiously, she entered. The floor sizzled from her dripping sweat and after a few paces, she brushed against a pipe. Yelping and jumping away, she held her singed shoulder tightly and grimaced.

"Where is this guy?" she asked herself but learned to close her mouth lest the heat dry her out too quick. Hobbling over some loose coals, her talons able to withstand the heat better than her flesh, the griffon finally reached the boiler with the lumpy black thing inside. "Hibernating." she remembered.

"Hey! Wake up, buddy!" impatiently yelled Rhena.

The black form shifted slightly among the burning coals, but remained unresponsive overall. Near the door to the boiler was a lever with cloth padding that was labeled "Emergency Shut Off". It looked functional, but years of neglect could have very well allowed the handle to rust in place.

Rhena glanced at the handle and put two and two together. Placing a firm grip on the cloth, she pulled down, only to be stopped suddenly. The griffon paused and rubbed her talons together and used both hands to yank the lever down. She grunted against the pressure and lost her balance, her paws suddenly slipping out from under her as her forehead smacked against the hot boiler. "Damn it!" yelled Rhena, hoping her curse would wake the sleeping dragon.

Getting off the steaming floor and back upright, her talons stroked her forehead, feeling the swelling bump grow ever larger. Rhena peered into the boiler with red, dry eyes and couldn't exactly see any change. Desperately, she attacked the lever again, this time putting her entire weight on it. Eventually, the simple machine groaned and bent downwards to what she assumed was the 'off' position.

"There." she panted. "Finally."

As soon as the hen threw the lever, there was a loud groaning sound as all inner workings of the boiler began to grind to a halt. As this happened, vents that led to outside the factory slid open, allowing the stored heat to be ushered out into the cold December air while a large quantity of a quick freezing liquid was unceremoniously dumped into the interior of the boiler, leeching the coals of their heat within moments. 

The black form that was among the coals was now blanketed in a thin layer of ice along with the rest of the boiler's interior, and remained motionless for a moment before shuddering sharply. After another brief pause, the ice coating the form began to crack and break away, revealing a dragon-like form underneath that was curled up in a somewhat fetal-like position with its back turned to Rhena. The the black scales that coated the beast's body were slightly raised like the hairs on a frightened animal, and seemed to be reason why the ice had broken away. There was a quiet grumbling sound as the scales on the creature's body relaxed again, shifting its body as it tried to leech any remaining heat that lingered inside the boiler.

"Hello in there!" Rhena yelled into the boiler. Her face was still flush from the heat. Her nasal passages immediately filled with condensation, making her sniff like she was crying a little bit. With a soft brush of her talon, the hen rubbed her eyes to get some moisture back into them.

She could feel the metal boiler cool almost immediately and she gave it a few hard knocks against the side. The chamber echoed with the three 'bongs' that sounded through the room. "I can't wait all day for a sleeping dragon in a dried up, old pony factory. It's bad for my downy-soft feathers and my luxurious coat!" The golden griffon jested, but then took a run-down of her looks and frowned. "Wake up!" she shouted into the formerly hot boiler.

The dragon inside the boiler slowly stood up after the hen called out to him, his joints crackling as it did so. After taking a deep breath and sighed, causing a small cloud of steam to trail out of its mouth, the dragon stretched out its crooked wings, one of which seemed to be missing the entire membrane.

"Miss," the dragon said in an exhausted, gravelly tone. "I'm going to turn around now, and you better be on fire; you're standing there, in flames and the only one who can put you out is me!" The creature suddenly wheeled around and began to quickly stride across the floor of the boiler towards Rhena. "Because that would be THE ONLY CONCEIVABLE REASON WHY YOU WOULD WAKE ME UP THIS WAY." he yelled in a steadily rising voice, stopping inches from the hen's face.

The dragon opened his mouth to say something again when a look of confusion flashed across his face. Looking behind him, he noticed that the end of his tail had snagged on a rough patch of ice. After pulling his tail free, the reptile returned his gaze towards the gryphoness. "Now, who are you and what do you want?" he said as he looked Rhena up and down, still clearly irritated with the rude awakening. "You don't exactly look like one who would need my services, much less interrupt my hiatus!"

The gold griffon simply stared back at the dragon for a good minute or two. She was not at all impressed by his threats, nor likened to him either. The black dragon's eyes stared at her while her own looked back. Rhena rested her weight against the entrance of the boiler and clicked her tongue on the top of her beak, closing her eyes and bobbing her head back and forth.

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard it all before." she petulantly replied. "First, an associate, or a potential one such as yourself, gets alerted to some help." Rhena opened her eyes and peered right at Chili, "Paid help, mind you. Second, they complain that they already had plans."

She backed off to allow the dragon and her some room, not even knowing if he had violent intentions or not. "Lastly, and this is the funny part, the associate turns on their words and threats just to make sure they didn't offend the messenger or worse, the one who sent the messenger." Rhena hopped up on a tub coming out of the boiler and dangled her arms off playfully. "So, let's cut to the chase. I rudely woke you up because apparently, the Tsar has use for a dragon such as yourself. Or at least some griffon higher than me does."

The dragon sighed as he slid out of the boiler, giving Rhena a wistful look. "And this couldn't wait until spring, mh?" he shook his head as he made his way out of the room that held the furnace, taking a deep breath as the stale air of the factory's basement filled his lungs. "Shame, the least they could've done is send a griffon with a better sense of professionalism." he mused aloud as he wrote a note onto one of the corkboards that made mention of disabling the boiler's emergency shutoff feature later.

"Please, make yourself at home, have a piece of milk." rambled the dragon as he walked over to the improvised workshop and began digging around in a rust-layerd bin. "You already broke into my den, so I don't see why not just let you do anything you damn want."

Rhena kept her eyes on Chili with gloomy suspect. The dragon looked a little strange, not quite as hale as she had expected. Fluttering her wings a bit, she landed softly on the now cold floor and stretched her arms out a bit. The griffoness began pacing back and forth behind the dragon, impatiently clucking a little.

"Professionalism isn't really my thing. Though, you seem to be a little more different than I expected it doesn't change my assignment." She stopped her pacing. "Come back with me to Port De'Luge. My boss wants to talk to you as soon as possible." A thin smile appeared on her beak. "Who knows... if we leave now, I could buy you some gems for that belly of yours." Rhena pointed to Chili's stomach and chuckled slightly. "In any case, I don't want to be around your... home any longer than I have to."

The dragon rose up from the bin, holding what looked like an umbrella that was reconfigured to serve as a prosthetic for his deformed wing's nonexistant membrane. "Gems?" he rasped with a chuckle as he slipped the crude prosthetic onto his wing, moving past Rhena and towards the makeshift kitchen. "Gems can wait. I ate one before I went to sleep." he said as he pulled a suspiciously griffon-like rack of flesh down from one of the many meat hooks that dangled from the ceiling and onto a cutting board, beginning to chop it up into strips with a cleaver.

"So this boss of yours," the dragon murmured as he used his tail to grab a nearby pot and a few jars of seasonings. "Did he say what I was needed for? Or is this one of those "need to know" sort of jobs?" he said before popping one of the dried and salted meat strips into his mouth, chewing on it as he continued cooking. "I'm used to both, I just thought I'd ask."

Rhena did not hide her disgust at what Chili was eating and/or preparing. The griffon simply turned away and wrinkled her beak up. "No, he did not specifically say. He just said that he thought a dragon such as yourself would be good for the job." Upon closer inspection of the hanging meat, the hen lifted a talon and pointed at it. "Is that... griffon meat?" she asked in a wavering voice. Her stomach growled a little at the smell of all the meat, but she slowly wanted to wretch thinking that could be another griffon that was getting consumed by the smallish dragon.

"Don't worry, I didn't have any money on me to purchase any gems." she called her own bluff to quickly take the idea of the mystery meat off of her mind.

The dragon shrugged. "You probably didn't know her, so why worry about it?" he said calmly as he finished chopping the mystery meat and slid it into the pot, shaking out some of the spices on top with his tail as he grabbed a few bottles off of a nearby bookshelf that was lined with cookbooks and other bottles. "Besides, it was natural causes." he continued as he poured some of the liquids into the pot, beginning to stir them before pausing again to look at Rhena. "Though I guess it depends on your definition of 'natural', mh?" he says with a sinister smile as he continues to stir the pot's contents.

"You're disgusting." she replied and meant it. Rhena tried her best to ignore the pot of cooking meat and motioned toward the door, also bringing herself closer to it. "You probably should come with me. I won't be staying here any longer and I'm sure the guards back at the port will be more than happy to rough you up a little." The griffon sneered at the thought. "There's a reason why he sent me in the first place." Rhena unsheathed a short sword and rubbed a claw over the edge. "That reason being you'll be guarded. It's my sworn duty you know." She smiled and flashed a wide grin at the black dragon.

The dragon sighed as he heard the sound of something being unsheathed. Tapping the spoon he was using on the lip of the pot, the dragon finished stirring and grabbed the pot by the handle, holding it over his head. "Whatever you say." he mumbled before he tilted his head back and took a deep breath before exhaling a steady stream of bright green fire up at the pot's bottom to heat its contents. After about thirty seconds, the dragon closed his mouth and set the pot back down on top of the counter, grabbing the spoon again to stir the now simmering contents of the pot, tasting a small amount of it before nodding his head.

"Changing the topic of discussion to something a little more pleasant..." he said as he reached below the counter, pulling out a white gem the size of a mango. "How's the weather outside? We're in the thick of winter now, right?"

Rhena kept her weapon unsheathed but set it on the ground point down, spinning it by the pommel. "Weather's cold. But there hasn't been any blizzards or storms of any kind... yet." The griffon sighed as it was clear this dragon wanted a meal before leaving the security of his home. She noticed the white gem and curled her previous grin downwards. "A lot of ponies and griffons alike dying from the cold. I'd imagine you wouldn't care any in the slightest." she replied, not really caring either, but refusing to keep the conversation light. "No matter though. You're a lot more eloquent than I thought a dragon would be." she mused, staring at the cooking dragon.

"It comes with experience." said the dragon as he weighed the gem in his claw before crushing it and sprinkling the fragments into the simmering pot. "I have found that not acting like a savage outside of work is quite good for business, and makes newer customers feel...safe, I suppose." The dragon shrugged as he grabbed spoon and started stirring again, tasting its contents again before continuing. 

"As for your previous barb, I am well aware that the current climate is claiming the lives of less fortunate citizens, but I'm not entirely sure what you expect me to say or do about it." The dragon hefted himself onto the counter and rested the pot on his lap as he began to eat out of it, not taking his eyes off of Rhena as he did so.

Rhena stared back and then slowly replaced the sword into it wrappings. The weapon knocked back into it with a soft click. Fluttering up lightly and landing on a large pipe, the griffon stared right back at the dragon with a less intense, but still cautious look from her amethyst eyes.

She clicked her claws against the pipe. "Honestly, I do not care for the poor that get lost in the snow. I'm not heartless, but it's not my priority." Rhena stretched out her back and snapped the joints in her talons with balled fists. "I'm Rhena Fullplume, by the way. I didn't think you could be trusted, Chili... or Hephaestus. Not until now at least." The hen gave him a wink and a sly grin, "Wandering duelist. No pony can seem to best me." she bragged openly.

The dragon raised an eyebrow at the griffoness as he raised his spoon to his mouth. "I use the former when I'm off the clock, the later vice-versa...Chili will do for now until we are in the graces of your employer..." he trailed off as he stared down at the pot, which was about a quarter of the way full now. With a shrug, Chili tilted his head back and poured the remainder of the pot's contents inside of his jaw, snapping it shut when the last of the stew came out.

The dragon shuddered as the warmth of his meal spreads through his body, exhaling happily as he slid off of the counter and walked over to beat-up wardrobe near the desk, reaching in pulling out a black wooly pully, which he managed to slip on after a few minutes of struggling to get his wings through the holes that were cut out of the back. Walking back over to the desk, Chili pulled a black attaché out from underneath it before turning to face the hen. "Alright, I believe we've wasted enough time here, lead the way, Rhena."

The quick imbibing of the soup made the hen wince again. Whatever was in that pot was no longer her concern, but the thought still wanted to make her wretch. Rhena hopped off of her little perch and landed squarely in front of the exit to the boiler room. She began to step out, "I'm happy that we are on our way, Chili. My employer will be pleased to meet you, I'm sure of it." stated the hen with a grin on her face.

She pointed to the wooden pully with an outstretched talon, "Need any help with some things?" she asked. The griffon slowly lowered her arms to her side and stood there, leaning against the door frame impatiently. "I mean, no rush or anything. Just don't want to leave him in the cold, so to speak."

The dragon shook his head, gesturing at Rhena with his case. "No no, this will be fine for now; I prefer to pack light on first meetings with potential clients...now lead on! I do not enjoy keeping employers waiting."

Rhena shrugged and stepped off of the door and followed her way out, though she took a few wrong turns at first. She regained her bearings and recalled some of the landmarks she took note of earlier. The griffon wiped some sweat off of her brow, the condensation steadily appearing after the boiler had shut off.

She stepped out into the cold, dry air of the winter's afternoon. The snow was dry and crunchy under her claws and paws. "It's a bit of a hike to Port De'Luge. I hope you won't get too cold in this weather." she started as the hen strode along the street.

The second the dragon stepped outside he stopped moving midstep, his eyes widening a little as he came into contact with the cold air. Clenching his jaw, he slowly began to force himself to start moving, stiffly marching after Rhena as he did his best to not show any reaction to how uncomfortable the cold weather was making him feel. "I take it there is a reason why we are traveling by ground as opposed to air?"

"I may be a bodyguard for this little client pick up, but I'm no musclehead." Rhena responded and marched at a brisk pace to keep her blood flowing. The sunlight peeked out of the clouds, illuminating the industrial district and causing all the nooks and crannies to be revealed. This was not flattering for this run down part of Manehattan.

"You see, it's still midday. What do you think a bunch of ponies would say if they saw a black dragon with an armed griffon soaring over them?" asked Rhena rhetorically. "Trust me, whatever my boss has in store for you, it's best that the amount of beings that see you is kept to a minimum."

Chili nodded stiffly as he breathed hot air into his claws to warm them up a little as the pair continued to travel. "Aha, fair enough. I'm glad to see you can think as fast as you can talk, Ms. Fullplume. That is a good quality to have as a guard." he sighed as he looked around at the snow-laden streets of the Industrial District, somewhat enamored by the way the abandoned structures were laden with snow and ice. "I almost forgot what this place looked like in the winter time..." he mused, trailing off as he found him self ankle-deep in a puddle of slush, shuddering as all the heat was sapped from his lower legs. "Bylah, if it wasn't so miserable I wouldn't mind sleeping through all of this." griped the dragon as he hurried to keep up with Rhena.

Rhena frowned, not really appreciating the comment about being a guard. "It won't be much longer until we get there, Chili. I doubt you'll have to suffer in this snow like you fear." Her serious golden face turned to the dragon. "I've been told to do this job to the best of my abilities. I told you that I'm no slouch when it comes to this." She rapped at her head with a clawed fist. The griffon walked in silence, trying not to bring up any more conversation, knowing that she had succeeded in her task.