Archeological excavation, Akryn

Akryn rubbed his head in frustration as he made his way through the desert, towards his newest job. He hated doing jobs alone, and he certainly didn't like the desert. But he needed the money, and kyll was insistent that he get a job done, any job. Though she wouldn't say why. Still, there were worse things he supposed. Some old archeologist would probably not bug him to much and actually let him get it done. He hoped.

As akryn approached the dig site, he would note quite a bit of activity. Lots of diggers and security, with a few younger individuals going about and cleaning and sorting the fossils. Students probably. Akryn made his way towards one of the students, ignoring the glowering guards, before speaking. "So, you guys asked for a wizard? Here ya go. Names Akryn, of eclipse soul, sent here to help professor Biddles. Mind telling me where the old coot is?"

"I'm right behind you. And I do not appreciate being called coot." Said a distinctly feminine voice behind him. Akryn turned an interesting shade of pink and several of the students grinned widely as a tall, beautiful, blonde woman, with an arm full of paper work and tools walked past him. She was gorgeous, with blonde hair pulled up into a bun, skin tanned from years in the desert, and a finely toned body, wearing short shorts and a sand colored tunic. Akryn couldn't help but stare in absolute surprise as she turned to look at him, smirking a bit. "Pick your jaw up. I'm old enough to be your mother." She said calmly, to which Akryn replied, much to his immediate regret, "Any night you want.", producing several snickers from the students.

The professor smirked a bit at him. "Perhaps if you are a good boy." She teased, before picking up a map. "I need you to go here. I found what appears to be the remains of an ancient lizardman, primitive, and even heavier built then our current species. I want those fossils."

Akryn cleared his throat, still a interesting shade of pink, as he took the map. "Ok I have to ask. If you found the fossils, why do you need me?" he asked, unrolling the map to eye it.

"Well, we were forced to return to camp before we could retrieve them because of a sand storm. The storm did a number on our walk way and we cant get back up there. Normally we would just build a new walkway, but there have been several raiding parties in the area, and our security is already stretched thin. We don't have enough funds to hire more either, unless we get those fossils. If we do, we can secure more funding from the museum. So what do you think wizard boy? Think you can get me my fossils?"

Akryn eyed the map as he listened, grinning to himself. Sounded like easy cash to him. "You got yourself the right mage professor. If there's one thing I'm good at, its getting places I shouldn't be."

Soon enough, Akryn stood on a cliff, looking down at what was left of the archeologists walkway. It was way down there. Akryn let out a whistle as he mentally measured the distance. Way to far down to dig through to it, and climbing straight down wasn't much of an option.He didn't see a whole lot of handholds. He saw only one real way to do this. Thankfully, the diggers had left plenty of materials about. It was obvious that once they got the funding, they meant to come back. And he couldn't blame them. Lizardmen weren't known for leaveing whole bodies. If prehistoric lizardmen were the same, then their could be a whole mess of em down there, just waiting for cataloging.

Still, Akryn needed to get the first set for them if this was gonna go anywhere. With that thought in mind, Akryn set about prepping for what needed to be done. First things he would need would be a mallet, four stakes, some rope, and most importantly to his plan, a tarp. A big one with plenty of hold to it. Getting down wouldn't be much of an issue for him, but the fossils had to go somewhere as they were dug out, and he couldn't very well zip back up here after every bone. A makeshift bucket on the other hand would work nicely.

Thankfully finding the things he needed was easy. Ten stakes to drive into the ground? Check. At least two hundred feet of rope? Check, though not in one massive piece. Tools to drive the stakes into the ground, and dig out the skeleton if needed? Check again! Everything he could need was here. "For once an easy job. Bout damn time." he said tohimself as he began driving the stakes into the ground, in two short rows, parallel to the cliff. Once the stakes were secure, the next step was to tie off the ropes. This proved to be a bit more challenging for the young mage however. Combat skills, hunting skills, musical skills, even cooking and minor medical skills! All these things had been taught to Akryn at a young age. However, the being that had taught him, a relatively young storm dragon, had never considered knot tieing as a needed skill. That and those massive claws were not the best tools for teaching that particular skill......

Still, Akryn didn't do half bad, all things considered. After roughly half an hour of trial and error, Akryn finally managed to produce knots he was confident enough in to hang from. He tested these knots by jumping off the cliff. If they held him, then it would work. If not, he utilized his wind walk ability to get back up to the top. A rather time consuming project really, but while Akryn would be fine if a knot didn't hold, he wasn't gonna risk it with such ancient, fragile, and valuable bones. Kyll would murder him if he screwed up yet another job. With that in mind, Akryn quickly got to work securing the tarp. Thankfully it was the same kind that they used for tents, and thus had ring lined holes along the base, perfect for what he had in mind. Again, it took some time to get the rope work down right, but in the end, Akryn had his bucket to hold the bones, and his rope to get in and out of his little....predicament. Time to get to work....

Akryn carried the roped down tarp over to the edge of the cliff and looked down. Even with his abilities to defy gravity, the prospect here bothered him. He would be very vunerable down there, and there was a hell of a lot of room for error. Still, someone had to do it, and those archeologists couldn't push further without the funding this thing would provide. Akryn tossed the tarp down, watching as it came to a stop, bouncing a bit on the ropes. It held, and right where he needed it. Now he just had to get down there himself. This was the part that bothered Akryn. Not the going down part, falling never bothered him. Heights were no problem at all really. Except now he would be exceptionally vulnerable down there. And he did not like that. Still, job had to bedone, and with that thought in mind, Akryn grabbed up his little bundle of tools, took a deep breath, and dove off the cliff.

Akryn managed to get his footing along the cliff and ran down it before pushing off to turn on his wind walk ability, catching himself right in front of the fossils with a grin. For the most part, they were already freed up. Heck, several of the bones were already in bags, ready for transport, sitting on what was left of the walkway. Very precariously. Akryn first snatched those up and deposited them into his canvas bucket. The next step was digging out the rest of the skeleton. Thankfully, the archeologists had gotten the small bones first, so he just had to get the big ones, like the femurs. Femurs big enough to kill a man of course. Of course, considering what it was he was digging out, he wasn't surprised. He would have been far more surprised if their was anything fragile at all on this beast. Hell, even its finger bones were massive!

Akryn was patient and meticulous in his work, applying the pick lightly and the brush liberally, extracting each and every bone with the careful presicion of a seasoned archeologist. He had plans for the money he was going to get from this job. The first part was to pay kyll back for her gift of his gale gauntlet. The second part was to ask one of his guildmates out. Akryn had been with the guild for a few months now, been with people for a while. It was about time he got on the whole being a normal guy bit. Whatever that meant anyway. He had been raised by a dragon, a bloody dragon. By Thorsfells standards, Akryn should have been mated and working on his first clutch of eggs by now, not just now getting interested in girls. Still, better late then never he supposed, with a grin as he fished out the final bone. Time to get back to the group.

Akryn made it back up to the top of the cliff and pulled up his bucket with ease, surprising ease really. But Akryn wasn't going to complain. He quickly gathered up the bones into a nearby cart and hurried back to the main camp. Again he put up with the glares of the security guards, but he ignored them, focusing instead on the beautiful MILF of an archeologist before him. With the exchanging of jewels and bones, and a peck on the cheek that turned Akryn a bright red and got several more laughs from the students, Akryns job was done. With a huge grin, the young storm dragon slayer rushed off, aiming for the guildhall, and towards trouble he could not even begin to realize. His guild master, Lord Zeno Sombras, had gone missing. And Akryn couldn't begin to imagine the hullabaloo such an event would cause......