Kasey heard the deep breath, and recognized it. That was Marion trying not to get pissed at him, and giving him some sort of "We'll talk later," glare. He wasn't quite sure why she was upset, but he was starting to consider that a standard feature for any time they interacted.<br/><br/><em>It's not like I missed our anniversary, or something. That's still...</em>He frowned, trying to remember.<em>That's... Oh. That's today.</em><br/><br/>He glanced over as he started the descent to the parking region - not that there was any organization or framework on it, it was just an empty lot - and said, "I know that this is our anniversary, my dear," he apologized without quite admitting his mistake,  "but this auction probably won't be around for another 8 to 10 months, and I want to buy something tonight."<br/><br/>He considered for a moment. "I'll make it up to you after we're done here. We can go to a nice restaurant, if you want... Err... we'll have to wait for a seat, of course..."<br/><br/>He landed with a thump, a poorer landing than he could normally make. The flyer was strong, of course, and wouldn't be damaged by a much harder landing than this. But it still shook up the riders a bit. He had to adjust his position before he could unbuckle the safety bands. "That wasn't too hard of a landing for you, was it, Marion?" he asked, turning toward her.<br/><br/>- * - * -<br/><br/>Meanwhile, in the auction, a half hour had already passed by. Lots of small creatures, mostly nonsentient and none of them sexual, had already been auctioned and sold, typically in bulk combos. These were being run by a couple of Bengal's minions; he only showed up to hawk the biggest, best, and most valuable slaves.<br/><br/>Suddenly, Bengal leaped back to the stage. "Okay, folks, I know we've had some excitement already, but now let's turn it up a notch. We're going to offer the first special of the day..." he turned and posed, pointing at the tower with the wood nymphs on it. "Today, we'll be selling a very rare<strong>trio</strong>of wood nymphs."<br/><br/>One of his minions climbed up the tower, and pulled the sapling away from the girls. All three immediately started crying out, wanting to get close to their sapling.<br/><br/>"As you can see, all three of them are bonded to a single plant - something that doesn't happen more than once a decade." He knew that was an outright lie - it was rare, but nowhere near that rare. "Help the sapling grow, and in only a few years, you will have some incredible exotic, erotic plantlife as they grow along with the sapling."<br/><br/>He laughed aloud. "Not that you have to wait that long before you can fuck them!" He waited for the crowd to laugh, and die down. "All you need is the sapling, and the trio will follow you anywhere, do anything you want. I'm going to open the bidding at the stupidly low price of<em>only ten credits!</em>Do I hear twenty?"