Searching for Thanksgiving (Dragonlings of Valdier)

Chapter 10

10

“ M orah, I think Rainbow is tired,” Hope fretted, looking up.

“I’m tired, too. My dragon can’t breathe no more hot air,” James complained.

James had shifted from his dragon and sat down heavily on the floor of the gold basket. Morah scooted back as far as she could, but he still sat on her foot. She wiggled it free and turned to look down at the ground below them.

“Pearl, sets us down there,” Morah ordered, pointing to the ground.

“But… we aren’t near Thanksgiving’s house yet,” Pearl protested.

“Buttercup and Rainbow are tired. Do you wants to fall to the ground or float to it?” Morah replied.

“Float!” came the chorus of replies from the other kids.

Morah gave Pearl a pointed look when she opened her mouth to protest again. Instead, Pearl grumbled under her breath before she turned the golden steering wheel toward the small break in the trees. Morah peered over the side of the cramped golden basket that they had all crammed into earlier that morning. She could feel Prime, James’s symbiot, shimmer under her hands. The symbiot was doing everything it could to stay in the shape of a small basket.

She looked up at the expanded shapes of Rainbow and Buttercup entwined to form a balloon. Tiny quivers ran down the golden ropes that connected the balloon to the basket. Their symbiots were stretched to the max.

Without the heated air from Morah, James, or Hope’s dragons, the gold balloon slowly began to descend. Morah peered at Pearl. Pearl’s face was tight, her eyes focused on the tiny dot of open ground barely visible through the trees. Pearl bit her lip while her twin covered her eyes with her hands, only to peek through them when the basket bumped against the tops of a tree.

Morah’s eyes widened with alarm when the quivering under her hands increased. A quick glance upward told her that the two small symbiots were depleted of energy. She barely squeaked out a word of warning before the balloon above them folded. James’s symbiot, Prime, unable to hold the weight of all of them by itself, broke apart, and they all tumbled through the opening toward the ground below.

“Eeeeek!”

Their shrill cries mixed. Morah, Hope, and James shifted into their dragons as they tumbled toward the hard, unforgiving ground. Swooping down, Morah’s dragon reached out and wrapped its tail around Pearl’s waist. Hope caught Leo, hugging him to her chest as her tiny green dragon’s wings frantically pumped to keep them from falling to the ground. James swooped down and caught Sacha under her arms.

“If you drops me I can lands on my feet,” Pearl said.

“Yeah, and you’ll breaks your leg. You already tried that before, remember?” her twin retorted, clutching James’s front legs.

Morah released Pearl the moment the other girl’s feet touched the ground. Her exhausted dragon wasn’t so lucky. The second her back legs touched the ground, she fell forward. Fortunately, her dragon twisted and she fell onto her back in a soft patch of grass. Hope fell next to her while James crawled over to Leo and collapsed next to him.

“Well, that was exciting. Who’s going to get our food?” Leo breathed out.

Morah followed Leo’s gaze to Prime, Buttercup, and Rainbow, who were draped across different branches of a tall tree. Each had taken on the form of a Werecat.

She released a soft groan when she finally noticed what Leo was really concerned about. The satchel with their food was hanging precariously from the tip of a limb below the exhausted symbiots.

The once sunny spot of meadow was now cast in shadows. The Sarafin cubs had regained their energy after a long nap, but it was taking Morah, Hope, and James longer to recover because they were sharing their essences with the three sleeping symbiots stretched out in the tall grass or lying sprawled out on the large boulder in the meadow.

Morah released a grumbled warning, reached out, and slapped the back of Leo’s hand.

“Ow! Why did you do thats for?” Leo grumbled, rubbing the back of his hand.

“You can’t eats all our food,” she snapped.

“But… I’m hungry! Why can’t we goes home? It’s gettings dark and it’s past my supper time,” Leo complained.

Morah glared at Leo. “Because we are on a quest and you don’t give ups when you are on a quest. Besides, our symbiots and dragons are still tired. We needs to make camp. My daddy says it is importants to do it before it gets dark.”

“My cat’s not tired… and I don’t like making camp. It’s hard work,” Leo muttered, kicking at the grass.

“Well, I’m tired. Now, go and gets some firewood,” she ordered.

“You are so bossy,” Leo grumbled.

“Come on, Leo. I’ll help you,” James said, pushing off the ground. “Maybe we’ll find some food.”

Leo perked up at the idea of finding something to eat. Morah pursed her lips and watched the two boys race off into the woods. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the map again.

“Are we close to finding where Thanksgiving is?” Hope asked.

Morah sighed. “I don’t knows. We are here’s and this is where we gots to go,” she said, pointing at the picture of the little hut on the map.

Sacha peered over her shoulder. “It don’t looks far.”

Morah looked up and around at the woods. On the map it didn’t look far, but her daddy had shown her that the little line on the map meant a long ways. They had at least three of those little lines… if not more… to go before they reached the woods where Thanksgiving lived. Then, they had to find the creature and help it.

“Hey! I found some yummies!” Pearl called out.

The three girls looked up at Pearl when she stepped out of the woods. Sacha’s face lit up.

“You found Sweet Roots?” Sacha exclaimed, rising to her feet with excitement.

Pearl nodded and held up her other hand which looked wet and sticky. Morah and Hope rose to their feet, grinning. Morah’s dragon purred with approval.

“And honey,” Pearl announced. “The boys are gonna be so sorry they took off without me.”