Searching for Thanksgiving (Dragonlings of Valdier)

Chapter 13

13

“ Y ou are nots eating anymore. You are gonna pop!” Morah snapped, pulling the knapsack away from Leo.

Leo’s face crumbled and he looked longingly at the cookie visible in the opening. “Buts… I’m hungry!”

“You’re always hungry. Go eats some grubs,” Pearl suggested, walking past Leo.

Leo’s face crinkled with distaste. “I don’t likes eating bugs. They gets stuck in my teeth and are gooey in the middle.”

“Ew,” Sacha and Hope groaned together.

“I’m tired,” James groaned, sitting down on a log.

“How much furthers do we have to go?” Hope asked.

Morah breathed deeply and tried to remember that she was the leader, and leaders weren’t supposed to gets mad. She sat down on the log next to James and pulled out the map. Buttercup released a soft growl of warning when Leo inched his hand closer to the cookie that was still visible in the opening of the knapsack situated between the symbiot’s paws.

“Leo!” Morah growled, not looking up.

“I’m going to go exploring,” Leo said, snatching the cookie before he darted away with a laugh.

“I’ll goes with you,” James said.

Morah looked up and glared at the boys. “Don’t goes too far. You might gets lost!”

“I’ll goes with them,” Pearl said.

Morah pursed her lips. Pearl going with the boys wasn’t much better. Leo had already shifted and had his nose to the ground. Soon, Pearl and James had shifted as well. She watched as Prime, James’s symbiot, trotted after the trio.

“Knapsack, I wants a sticky butter and honey sandwich, please,” Hope requested. “Do you wants to splits it?” she asked her best friend.

“Sure.” Sacha said, taking the half that Hope was offering. “How much farther is it, Morah?” Sacha inquired, scooting to sit down between Morah and Hope.

Morah frowned and ran her finger over the map. Fortunately, there was a wiggly line and the map showed where they were so she knew they were heading in the right direction. There were still three lines between here and their destination. She slumped.

“We’ve still got a long ways to go,” she groaned.

“Here.”

She absently reached for the oatmeal raisin cookie Sacha held out, took a large bite of it, and slowly chewed. Tapping the map, she ran her finger down along the winding river. Sacha watched the movement with sudden excitement.

“Can we float down the river? It goes near the X,” Sacha asked.

Morah looked at Buttercup and Rainbow. The only reason they had been able to make the balloon was because the two symbiots made themselves really thin. If they tried to make a boat out of the symbiots, it would still be really small.

“I don’t think our symbiots can make a strong enough boat to floats down the river,” she said with a frown.

“What if we asked the knapsack to makes us a boat? You says the goddess told you it could makes us anything, just like Alice and Adaline,” Hope said.

Morah looked at the small bag between Buttercup’s paws. The symbiot shrugged.

“I don’t know. I guess we could ask it,” Morah replied.

“Knapsack, can you please give us a pretty pink boat for our quest?” Hope requested, clasping her hands together and staring earnestly at the knapsack.

“No! Not here!”

Morah and Sacha squealed the command at the same time but it was too late. The three girls fell backwards off the log when a large, bright pink raft popped out of the knapsack.

“Well, I guess that worked,” Hope replied, lying on her back and staring up at the large floating device that now covered them.

“Yeah, but how are we going to get it to the river?” Sacha asked.

The three girls looked at each other and grinned.

“Leo,” Hope said.

Sacha nodded. “Leo.”

“Definitely, Leo!” Morah agreed, pushing the raft up far enough to scoot out from under it. “Hey, Leo! Do you want some cookies?”

“Leo, you and James can stops,” Morah instructed nearly an hour later.

The two boys groaned and collapsed on the ground. Morah studied the wide bank of the river. It had been tricky getting the raft through the woods. Buttercup, Prime, and Rainbow had created a basic wagon with three wheels and a harness while Leo and James shifted into their cat and dragon forms to pull it. Morah pushed on the back of the raft while Sacha and Hope cleared a path through the woods.

Fortunately, the ground had been flat, and they only had a couple of places where there were fallen trees that they had to push and pull the raft over. Now, they only had a few more feet to go.

She studied the river. The water was flowing fast, but it wasn’t rough. It reminded her of the river near the palace where her mommy and daddy sometimes took her to swim.

“I need more cookies,” Leo groaned.

Morah rolled her eyes. Sacha and Hope had been feeding cookies to Leo to keep him going. She didn’t know where he put all of them!

“You needs to eat something better. My mommy says that too many cookies will make you sick,” Hope said.

Leo lifted his head and glared at Hope. “I needs a cookie. A big cookie,” he stated.

Sacha whispered into the knapsack before she reached in and pulled out a large cookie. She walked over and handed it to Leo. The Sarafin cub grinned and twisted into a sitting position.

“Thanks, Sacha,” he said, reaching for the cookie while sticking his tongue out at Hope.

“I wants a cookie,” James said, sitting up and looking at Sacha.

Sacha rolled her eyes at James, whispered into the knapsack again, pulled out a second cookie and handed it to James. He sniffed the cookie before tentatively taking a bite. His eyes widened with delight and he scarfed down the treat.

“He’s going to gets sick,” Hope sniffed, folding her arms and glaring at Leo. “He better not throws up on me.”

Sacha grinned and shook her head. “It’s a goodie cookie that Grandma Pearl makes. It’s made of carrots and spice and other good-for-your dragon stuff.”

“I don’t cares. It’s still a cookie,” Leo defended, licking the crumbs off his fingers.

“We needs to gets moving if we are going to find Thanksgiving and helps her,” Morah said.

“Do you thinks we’ll be done before dark? I miss my mommy and daddies,” Hope asked.

“Our parents are probably wondering where we are,” Pearl said.

Sacha frowned. “I thoughts you left them the note I wrote.”

Pearl shook her head. “Nah. I didn’t wants daddy to tries to stop us before we had fun.”

Sacha groaned. “We are going to be on restrictions just like the older dragonlings.”

“My mom and dad don’t keeps Amber and Jade on restrictions. Daddy says they gets in more trouble when they are bored,” James said with a grin.

“If we wants to gets back home, we gots to get going,” Morah said, pushing on the back of the raft. “Helps me push this in the water.”

Between the five of them and the symbiots, they pushed and pulled until the raft was in the water. Hope and James climbed in first, followed by Sacha, Pearl, and Leo. Morah and the symbiots climbed in last. The raft slowly twisted and turned as the current caught it. Within a few minutes, it was pulled out toward the center and sped up.

Buttercup and Rainbow wrapped themselves around each dragonling as a life vest while Prime flowed into long lines for the kids to hang onto and a small rudder to help guide them along the river.

Morah lifted her face to the breeze. “I love going on adventures,” she breathed.