You make your way down to the Beaches. Residents at the Cathair had told you about the colorful dragonchen that Utopian had, and at the beaches you can see them everywhere, flying around in the air and on people's shoulders and swimming in the water. At first, unsure as how to bond with one, you fashion a net, much like one used for catching butterflies, out of a piece of fishing net and a stick. You swipe the crude net through the air, missing every time. A young man looks over from the spot where he kneels on the beach, a basket next to him and a shovel in his hand, and shakes his head. He gets up, wiping the sand off of his hands and on to his pants, and walks over to you. He has coppery-colored hair and freckly, tan skin. He smiles easily and chuckles as he takes the net from your hands.
"Hi," he says, "I'm R'bin. You looked like you needed help." You nod, turning red.
"I was having a little bit of a problem," you say. R'bin laughs.
"Haven't you ever imprinted a 'chen before?" You shake your head and R'bin smiles.
"Well, this isn't the way to do it. Here, I'll show you." He leads you over to his bucket, which you can see is filled nearly to the brim with chen eggs. In the hole that R'bin was digging are even more. R'bin kneels again and fills up the rest of the hole, explaining that he was leaving them for other people, as well as the parent chen. Then he picks up the bucket, and you follow him into a low building further up the beach. It is rather warm inside, much different from the chilly oceanside weather outside. R'bin sets the bucket down next to a hearth, which is directly in front of some glowing coals. He takes out each egg, one by one, and lays them tenderly on the hearth.
"I'm a chen-digger," R'bin says, "a person who goes onto the beach and finds chen nests, and brings some eggs back to the Cathair so people can imprint them." A young woman in a pretty dress of seaweed green walks over and places a large bowl of meat next to the hearth. She smiles shyly at you and R'bin, and blushes, looking at her feet, when R'bin winks at her. She turns and walks away quickly, sneaking quick peeks over her shoulder at R'bin. He grins, and looks at you.
"Well?" he says, waving a hand over the chen eggs. "Our limit is three."
You pick an egg...
