Arveiaturace tried to sound more sincere. "We need food to raise those little ones... We thought this would be a good time. Even the lowliest White Dragons can survive these days... Hardly any adventurers dare play at dragon slaying anymore.
"So quite a few wyrmlings were born this year... If you hadn't taken Luskan, we'd probably have gone out raiding already.
"But what happened to Claugiyliamatar scared us out of heading south, and the people in Icewind Dale are starving themselves.
"See? We're not about to pick a fight with you now.
"We just want to do some honest business. Dragons don't normally pay for things, but White Dragons can work for our keep!
"We can pull wagons or ships, no problem!
"I asked Laira, but she said I needed your consent. She couldn't decide for you."
Hill looked toward the Otherworld Whale. Arveiaturace caught it and flicked her wings, then casually paced a few steps away. "We rescued him, you know. He had those injuries before he escaped. We never roughed him up."
Apart from the first sentence, the rest was true... though we never roughed him up didn't mean they hadn't laid a claw on him, Hill thought. He motioned for Purvi to go check on the unfortunate whale.
To Hill's surprise, Purvi didn't fly over in his whale body. He emerged from it in soul form and landed directly on the other Otherworld Whale's head.
"I'm Purvi. What's your name? What happened? Are you all right?" It was the first time the tiny orb of light had appeared outside the whale. Ever since the Zhentarim had deceived and hurt him, Purvi had refused to leave the confines of his body. He knew that even if someone injured his soul form now, he could re-form at his core,