" Welcome to Your New Best Friend, If you have any questions please let me know. I Fancy myself an expert tamer and there is not a single animal in the shop that I don't know"
Rahz was already excited and said, "Great we want 4 mounts and we have 400 gold coins with us please show us the pets".
The seller frown but he was not about to turn away 400 gold coins that came walking in. "There is no way for you to get pups or and adult mount but there is a way to get 4 unhatched eggs from our very own Egg of Fortune. Why don't you let fate decide Your New Best Friend!!!"
Rahz clapped while Elune rolled her eyes, since it was the only way to actually get the four pets they both went for it. Your New Best Friend was a tamer franchise own by very powerful business group and had branches all throughout the realm. The Eggs were randomly ship from one of the two big cities so there was always a chance to win big no matter if it was the store in a big town or in a tiny one like Willowdale.
The Game was very simple, there were 50 eggs of different species place inside a room that had an illusion formation as well as an Anti-detection rune place on it. The rune's purpose was to change the visual appearance of all the eggs into looking the same way. There was no way all the species laid eggs of the same size and an expert in the field would be able to pinpoint the best eggs just from the shell or the size and avoid the bad ones.
There was a myth that somebody found a legendary creature in one of them but nobody could tell what the species was. Having a legendary pup was as dangerous as having a legendary item if you didn't have the strength to keep it, you would be better off without it or at the very least having very few people knowing about it.
There was also the story of the guy that manage to get a full Chicken farm worth of chicken for a whopping 2000 gold or the guy that bought a whole can of worms for 1000. The stories of failure with the Eggs of Fortune were too many to count but it was that successful one that always brought the people back for more.
Rahz paid the 400 gold to the manager of the shop and then went inside the room. As they walked through the rows of eggs the size of a watermelon, they had to be very careful as if they touch one it would immediately register as their choice no but allowed.
Elune's and the old soul strategy was very simple, look for a ripple on the illusion and that should correspond to a fairly decent pet. Every egg was on a pedestal that had a number on it so it was very easy to call out your choice.
Rahz embraced the fun of the game and decided to follow the advice of the shop manager and let fate decide his new friend. He walk very slowly through the room and it didn't take long, just at the beginning of the second row as Rahz turned to face the very first egg of the row, the egg jump to his embraced. Everything happened so fast that it look like Rahz had touched the pedestal by mistake.
Once the egg was out of the pedestal its appearance started to change and what was left in Rahz's embrace was a purple egg the size of a basketball.
"Hu Hu Hu! I need to get you a super awesome name!!"
Rahz continued to move through the rows and on the 5th row Elune chose hers. It was almost imperceptible to the naked eye but Elune managed to see the disturbance before it faded away. The egg in her hand was dark green and was half the size of the one Rahz chose.
The final two were chosen from the 8th and 10th row with the biggest one double the size of the one in Rahz's hand and the last one had a very a vibrant blue tone.
"We will give the biggest one to Bhirl and the other one will go to Blaire".
When they left the room the manager was a little at a lost, although he didn't know the identity of any of the eggs in the room, he knew that in every room there were only 5 Eggs that could be good and the rest were all garbage. There was still some doubt as to the quality of the pets inside the chosen eggs but one thing was for sure there were no chickens among them.
Once they exited the room, the shop manager explain the way to hatch the eggs and it was very simple, all they had to do was carry the egg with them specially when they were absorbing the energy of heaven and Earth through their runes. This served two purpose, the first one was to supply energy to the pup so it could break the shell on his own and the second was so that after many days of mutual absorption the child would recognized them as their parent.
The amount of time a pet needed to hatch was different for all the species and the most influential factor was related to the predetermined level they were born with. For example the Arctic Bear was born a Level 3 while a Gryphon was born level 25. The environment around the eggs could also accelerate the process but some eggs took years while others took only days.
Rahz opted for the backpack style carrier while Elune carried hers like somebody would hug a pillow. For the other 2 they were giving isolation containers so they could not be affected by other people's energy and were carry by Rahz one in each hand.
Rahz and Elune decided to returned to the hotel but they didn't get far as they were stopped at the door by a guy in heavy armor that had a scar on his face and a momentum similar to Rahz's father.
"Can we help you?" said Rahz with an inquisitive face.
"Come with me"
Rahz followed behind the guy while Elune was wondering how such a gullible guy had survived outside his isolation bubble.
The truth of the matter was that Rahz was a pretty good judge of character and he didn't see malice in the other person's eyes, furthermore, if they had refused to go... would they be able to escape? the answer was probably not, unless his dad was present there was no way to do anything at all.
The fact that Rahz followed without making a fuzz earn him a lot of brownie points with the Captain of the Guard under direct command of the Mayor of Willowdale.
As a reward the Captain started to explain that his boss wanted to see the Kobold Man for some snacks and some tea. Rahz didn't know what tea was but he was always game for some food and drinks and if they had that fruit juice he loved so much ooof!! he would be a happy camper.
The Mayor's house was humongous, even Elune that had seen a little more of the world was impressed by the technology and the decorations.
The pair was directed to a gazebo where a pretty young looking middle age man was already sitting. On the table there was a massive amount of cookies and pastries as well as very nice tea set.
The moment he saw his guest arrive, the mage stood up and went to receive them. There was no air of superiority or haughty behavior just the gaze of somebody seeing a golden goose.
"Welcome my name is Pryleus and I am the Mayor of Willowdale"
"Hi!! My name is Rahz and I heard you had snacks and something called tea. This is Elune"
The moment Pryleous looked in her direction, Elune couldn't help but covered her neck piece with the giant green egg.
"I would be really happy if you could remove your hood while we talk and what is wrong with your back why do you have a hunch"
Rahz was already destroying the cookies and while having his mouth full said, " I ahso hav' an egg but I cawwy it with a back pouch "
"Oh I see you bought tickets for the Egg of Fortune".
Rahz nodded and continue sampling the spread of sweets on the table. Seeing that the sweets were almost gone Pryleous called a few maids to replenish the food and bring some Fruit Juice as per Rahz request.
Thanks to the Egg absorbing Rahz's chaos energy like a vacuum, to the Mayor of Willowdale it look like Rahz had the same level of power as he did in his previous fights. There was a lot of money on the line so Pryleous wanted to make sure that the Kobold Man was going for the Jugular from the get go.
"How confident are you of beating a Level 12 Warrior?"
Rahz just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Is hard to tell until we fight but my Axe is pretty sharp".
"Excellent Rahz, as a little incentive I am willing to give you 10,000 gold coins if you make sure to destroyed him".
The cookie that Rahz had in his hand felt once more to the plate and even the quiet Elune couldn't help but get excited.
"Let me also take care of those eggs, you can't have much money left after getting those tickets"
Clap! Clap!
A maid brought in a small sack with 500 gold coins on a silver platter and passed it to Rahz who took it and with a big smile on his face said thanks!!.
Pryleous liked what he saw and was eager to head to the Arena and increase the wager even more, it was time to take his rival for all he was worth and he had his eye on a pair of enchanted shoulder pads since their time in the army.
Rahz and Elune were escorted out of the mansion and returned to their hotel to get ready, but to Rahz all that had happened was like a regular afternoon back at Helgahvall.