Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-One

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Luka made a face. "gross. Computer, regular clothes please." She looked relieved as the gown disappeared and she was just in her usual cargo pants and vest. "Who should we go annoy then?"

"true.. so are Satare.... still, we totally have a ship full of like... last of their kind sorts which is sad but also.. kinda cool because like, they could find love and start a family and save their species right? Okay you need more than one couple for that... but it's a start." Yeah he wasn't sure where he was going with this. He shrugged. "I dunno."

Shane chuckled and nodded "Yeah, we are all different

Ellie giggled. "Yay for making babies." She blushed. So many babies being made lately, omg. "It's awesome how many different species are here," she agreed. "We're like... the ultimate ship of token minorities."

Matt grinned. "Totally." A ship full of freaks of nature, outcasts, misfits and the last of their kind. they were totally an ark.
He laughed at Ellie's blushing. "Hey, no making any more babies for a bit okay? You guys are supposed to be all like.. responsible. " He nodded but he couldn't keep a straight face.

"No way, no babies here," Ellie said, blushing a bit harder. "I am sooo not doing that. Sorry, Shane!" She giggled.

Matt snickered. "Sorry." Poor Ellie and her way too young to be interested in that sort of thing boyfriend. oops.

Shane laughed and shook his head "Yeah, responsible "

Matt winced a little, but he hid it and continued to smile. "Yep, don't be dumb. You guys are way too smart for that kinda thing."

"I mean we might not even be able to prevent it, judging by, like, the medics and Starr and everyone, but we'll try!" Ellie said, still looking a bit pink. "We like being an auntie and uncle, right, Shane?"

Vestia coughed from overhead. "The dirt shipment is arriving, by the way!"

"yay dirt!" Matt scooped up the baby dragons. "we should stand back and let these guys do their magic yeah?" Whoo diversions.

"Thanks Vestia" Dawn said and turned to go help bring the dirt up

The dirt arrived in a big thing that looked a bit like a pickup truck, which rolled out from an elevator door in the wall. It wasn't a truck though, because it appeared to be sniffing at the ground and it was being lead by a handler by a harness around its body.
The contents of the truck bed appeared to be phasing in and out of existence, presumably a spell to make tons of dirt more portable.

"Duuuude, am I on drugs right now?" Ellie asked.

"Not unless we all are." Shane said as he walked over to the truck creature.

Vela and Kerr chirped, wanting to see it closer too.

"is that like... a living... truck.. thing?" Matt looked both amazed and horrified by the thing. "that is so freaky." He moved aside with the baby dragons so the thing could dump the dirt.

The pickup truck... thing... lifted its muzzle (if you could call it that) as it spotted the people coming over to look at it. It sniffed the air through its grille, and tugged its handler over as it tried to investigate the group.

The handler tugged on the lead rope until the truck stopped trying to come sniff them. "Sorry, he's a bit curious about strangers, but he's completely harmless," he said apologetically. He lead it a distance away to start pouring out the dirt cargo.

Ellie just stared at the creature. She'd driven trucks before, she wasn't used to seeing them act like this.

"Its species and mine share a common ancestor," Vestia said helpfully. "Obviously that was a few generations ago."

"Is it... like.. sentient?" Matt asked Vestia. "or more like.. a uh.. pack horse or something?"

"Awesome, so your kind of like cousins." Shane said , watching the truck thing work.

Kerr fluttered down and chased after the truck, running beside it and chirping happily.

"careful kid!" Matt called, moving to chase Kerr and realizing he still had Vela too. "uh.." He hesitated. "watch out." He called instead.

"It's about mentally comparable to a pack horse," Vestia said. "It's not sapient, the species can only be taught simple commands. They're known to be docile and patient, so they're popular pack animals in some places."

The truck, with its handler's guidance, began pouring out a rather impressively large amount of dirt from its truck bed. The handler hastily stopped it which a "Whoa!" when he spotted Kerr.

Vela chirped and bounced a little when Matt stopped, she wanted to run too.

Kerr got in front then stopped and turned, looking at the handler with his head tilted. "Play?"

The handler looked uncertainly at the tiny dragon, then to Matt, because he had the other tiny dragon. "Uhh, maybe later," he said. "You'll have to talk to your... dad, I guess?"

Ellie headed over in case Kerr needed to be picked up or something.

Kerr laughed at that and looked to Matt "Uncle Matt play? Run. Run" He said, bouncing in place.

"away from the big truck... thing yeah?" Matt suggested, nodding toward the faaaar side of the room, well away from teh construction equipment.

Kerr stopped and tilted his head then came running over to Matt "Play!"

The handler hesitantly, so hesitantly, started leading the creature again, keeping it moving so it wouldn't get stuck in the improbably huge amount of dirt it was slowly pouring out.

Ellie followed Kerr over to Matt.

"let's stay away from the truck okay?" Matt told both kids with a smile. "What do you wanna play?"

"Run, chase" Kerr said again, bouncing and looking at the adults again. Vela nodded agreement