All that glitters

Chapter 1: One Crow Sorrow
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The others from her troupe, the Golden Crow Dancers, stood at a distance, blatantly watching the argument between their leader, Orotan, and the would-be leader, Cepeo. Two gryphons and one rider waited, uncomfortable at the open argument, down the road. Cepeo paid none of them any attention.

She held up one gloved, bejewelled hand and saw it tremble with her nearly uncontrolled anger. "This," she gestured violently to their surroundings, "is what comes of speaking of travelling offworld, you know. This is your fault. What are we going to do now, huh? Hope that someone will kindly take us in, watch us Dance with nothing but the clothes on our backs?" She'd stopped pacing. Now she was standing directly before the taller of the two, glaring up into his black eyes. There was a saying among all Dancers: 'Greet your journeys with open arms and silent voices. Speak of adventure and be wary, for and adventure will find you.' Well, adventure had certainly found them.

Orotan, in all of his blind idiocy, had brought up the idea of taking his troupe offworld, away from Star City and Atu, to explore and make a living on one of the recently open dragoner planets... Cepeo of course had protested, told him that he was being a fool even to mention it, but the others had jumped at the prospect, like the bandwagoneers they were. She had tried to be reasonable. They had all of the protection, all of the comfort they could want where they were. Their routes intersected nicely with other Dancers and family members, they were making enough money to buy glo-props and better costumes. But no. 'Adventure calls!' He could have had the sense not to shout back at the top of his lungs that 'here they were', guiding them all straight into its jaws of misery.

So they had gone off-station, through one of the portals. And they had ended up on Alskyr, right where Orotan had wanted them. And then, because he hadn't had the forethought to look ahead and see if there were any dangers, they had been attacked by creatures not unlike the giant sand-beetles that infested certain routes on Atu. The only thing that had saved them had been a flock of passing gryphons, which beat back the insectoid creatures and literally lifted them to safety.

What made Cepeo mad, though, was that their fair-feathered, four-footed friends had not saved their hoverwagon, or anything inside of it. That particular bit of troupe-property had contained their lives and their livings. Never mind that they had all been saved, miraculously, before anyone was seriously injured. Now all they had was the clothes on their backs, and Cepeo was pissed.

"Calm down," Orotan said, controlling his voice perfectly. He watched her with dark, angry eyes, but held himself still, "stop shouting."

"How can I calm down?" She retorted, raising her voice instead of lowering it. "We've just lost everything because of your idiocy! We have no money, no food, no costumes to get either of those, and no way to get home! You are out of your mind if you want me to calm down!" She shook her finger at him, nearly flailing with rage.

He grabbed her by the wrist, forced her to stop for a moment. "This is only a setback," he said, his tone reasonable despite his words. "Dancers always bounce back, it's our way."

"Unless they die first, you bumbling fool!" Cepeo wrenched her hand free, shook it out and cradled it in her other, gloved hand. "A setback, huh?" She sneered. "A minor setback. Of course. What was I thinking? We'll just go over there," she flailed her arm again, this time in the direction of the gryphons, "and ask them to take us in! Of course! For free! And feed us, and why not drop pots of gold on our toes while they're at it!"

The trio of natives watched her as she spoke, glowering--at least, the fair-skinned human was--at her bitter words.

"Cepeo," Xehcken, the tallest of the group, the jokester and general fool, spoke up for the first time. "Shut up. You're not yourself right now."

"We all aren't." The single other female of the group, Neya, replied. Her dark eyes were hidden behind a mourners veil, as if she'd forseen their loss in advance. She turned her gaze from the the tall, gown-wearing man to Orotan. "We could give it a shot, you know: ask them, I mean."

Cepeo seethed, but kept silent as Orotan considered. He looked at the Alskyrian, who looked back at him, no expression in her eyes. Finally, one of the gryphons stepped forward.

~You six have all had a great misfortune,~ it stated clearly, psionically. ~And I assure you, I'm sorry that you had such an encounter... I trust you are not familiar with the ants, by your actions.~ He twitched his tail, looked back at the two standing with him. ~I feel it is up to us to make things up to you. For now, at least, please join us at the Aerie. At least until you've gotten yourself back on your feet.~

"What?!" Cepeo burst out, just as the gryphoner hissed at her own party member. The Dancers stared, all six of them, at the trio, hoping that what the creature had promised would hold. They watched as a small argument ensued between the gryphon and the human, and then as they settled their differences. The gryphon twitched his tail again, and by the rider's sour face, the Dancers knew who'd won.

~Word was sent ahead with the others to expect refugees,~ the gryphon turned his attention back on them, ~And transports will arrive within the hour.~

Orotan stepped forward, away from Cepeo's anger that had now fallen to ashes. Taking a deep bow towards the trio of Alskyrians, he said, "We thank you for your compassion, sir."

~Please, call me Sirisat. This is Mafireh,~ He gestured with one black-barred wing at the second gryphon, who dipped her head, ~And this is Gill,~, he waved a hand at the still glowering human woman, ~My partner.~

"Ah, thank you, Sirisat." Orotan bowed once more, leading the others into slightly shallower dips. "We're honored to accept your kindness."

"Kindness, shmindness, offworlders," the human Alskyrian snapped. Sirisat clacked his beak at her, but she hushed him with a wave of her arm. "You're coming with us because we need standers for Kaeriah's kittens."

"Wait," Cepeo interjected, finding her voice again. "What does that mean?" But before Gill could explain, a flurry of feathers interrupted them all, and the gryphons that had taken off in the direction of the mountains had returned, this time with more people.

Quick introductions were made, the Dancers looked over for injuries, and then they were all whisked away, back towards the mountains this time. Cepeo did not like the way that things were turning out...