Searching for Thanksgiving (Dragonlings of Valdier)

Chapter 11

11

“ A ny luck?” Paul asked Cree and Calo as they strode toward where a base camp had been set up as darkness descended.

“Nothing. It is like they just… vanished,” Cree stated in a terse tone.

“Trisha, what about you?” Paul asked, turning to Trisha and Kelan when they stepped up behind the twin dragons.

“Nothing… yet,” she replied with a shake of her head.

One-by-one, the group of searchers grew as the last of the light faded. Paul was concerned that Crash couldn’t connect with Buttercup. He looked up as a sleek, black cat appeared out of the shadows. Viper shimmered before striding toward him in his two-legged form. He was followed by his brother, Vox.

“They aren’t anywhere! Vox and I couldn’t pick up even a faint scent of Sacha, Pearl, or Leo. How can they just disappear like that?” Viper growled with frustration, running his hands through his black hair.

“Oh, I can name a thousand ways with James. He learned from the best,” Trelon said, flopping down in the chair his symbiot made for him before he hit the ground.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Vox demanded, glaring at Trelon.

Trelon shrugged, stretched, and yawned. “Let’s just say I’m glad he doesn’t have a twin like Amber and Jade, or we would be in a whole lot more trouble.”

“You don’t look very concerned,” Viper observed.

Trelon chuckled. “Would it help? All I can think of is at least it is James out there. He tends to think things through a bit more than the girls did.”

“You aren’t giving us a lot of comfort here, Trelon,” Calo dryly commented.

Trelon shrugged. “The kids are smart, resourceful, all together, and they have their dragons, cats, and symbiots with them. What could go wrong?” he retorted with a grin.

“Get backs. I don’t likes you no more,” Leo hissed, extending the small, sharp claws of his front paw and swiping downward.

“You are just making it madders, Leo! Go higher. Go higher,” Pearl snapped, pushing on Leo’s rump while she looked down at the creature that had scared them out of their camp twenty minutes before.

Morah’s dragon dug her claws into the tree bark and scooted along the trunk to the next branch. Hope, Sacha, and James had made it farther up the tree and were now peering down through the dark branches at the woverbear trying to eat them.

Leo and Pearl had barely made it to the first branch of the tree before the creature attacked. Morah’s dragon wrapped its paws and tail around the limb she was clinging to and held on for dear life as the tree shook from the thunderous blow.

“We need Jabir. He would talks to it and tells it we don’t wants to hurt it,” whimpered Sacha.

“What did you do to make it mads?” Morah demanded, glaring down at Leo.

“We didn’t do nothings… much,” Leo said, climbing up the tree until he could wedge himself into the fork between two branches.

“I hopes it doesn’t knocks the tree over,” Hope said when the tree shook again.

“Leo was playing with its babies. I told him not to,” James said.

“They was cute and cuddly. How was I supposed to know they bite?” Leo held his paw out. He turned it. There was a small, damp spot along his leg that had tiny spots of blood on it. “Do you thinks this looks infected?”

“It’s too soon to be infected,” Morah snapped.

“You brought a first aid’s kit, didn’t you, James?” Sacha asked.

James nodded. “Pops told us we was always supposed to carry one when we goes camping,” he replied.

“Morah, can’t you tells it that you are a Priestess to the Goddesses and it can’t eats us?” Pearl asked.

Morah scowled. “I’m a Priestess in training. I don’t know how to talks to animals… only symbiots.”

“What’s we going to do then?” Hope asked.

“Well, I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to sleep. Quests are hard and tiring,” Leo complained, wiggling back against the trunk.

Morah’s growl of admonishment was cut off when the tree shook again. Instead, she released a deep sigh and hugged the limb even harder. Below them, the woverbear paced back and forth for several minutes before laying down. Seconds after the momma woverbear laid down, five smaller replicas of the creature bounded out from across the meadow and began attacking the tree, bouncing off the thick trunk, and tumbling over each other with tiny growls.

What do you find so funny? Morah demanded when her dragon snorted with amusement.

I like this quest. It fun.

Morah grunted in disagreement and sighed. Exhaustion pulled Morah and her dragon closer to sleep. Buttercup shifted and carefully wove its golden body around Morah’s drowsy dragon to keep it from falling during the night.

Thank you, Buttercup, Morah silently murmured.

Warmth filled her, and her dragon snuggled under the symbiot blanket. She was almost asleep when she felt a gentle hand caress her head. She murmured in her sleep.

Sleep well, little Priestess. The woverbear and her cubs will be gone when you wake.

Deep in the forest

The cloaked figure moved through the forest with an uneven, but determined gait. A snap of a branch caused the slender young woman to pause and listen before she continued walking. Only the faint glow of the lantern lit her path as she wound deeper and deeper into the woods, seeking solitude from the dark memories that threatened to consume her.

Sensing she was not alone, the woman stopped and turned, holding up the lantern. The distorted shape following her paused in mid-step, frozen along the dark path. The creature’s eyes cast an eerie reflection in the light.

“I told you to leave me alone,” the woman hissed, in a low angry voice.

The creature shimmered in the darkness and crouched down on the path, almost becoming invisible. With a growl of frustration, the woman turned and continued deeper into the forest, knowing that nothing she said would stop the beast from following her. So far it had kept its distance. She could only hope that it would continue to do so. If it didn’t, there was little she could do. After all, she was a human living on a strange alien planet filled with dragon-shifting people and other bizarre life forms.