Another Bright Adventure // ON PAUSE

Chapter 2 - Missing

Starflight's head shot up as small, light talons thudded into the room. "Is that Kinkajou I hear?"

"No, Starflight. It's me, Fatespeaker." A voice from (somewhere) around the entrance to the library said softly. 

"Oh. Do you need to borrow a book?"

"No, I wanted to ask you something. So you know how the Jade Winglet is always off on adventures?" Fatespeaker answered.

Starflight tipped his head. "...Yes? What about them?" "There are almost always open slots, and so I was thinking that we could offer dragons to come to Jade Mountain while they're gone!"

"Look, the best thing to do right now is find some way to keep the Jade Winglet together" He shook his head and sighed. If only things could ever be normal.

Fatespeaker put on a cheerful tone and said, "Well, things seem pretty normal right now, right?"

"Well, no."
"No?????"

"Anemone disappeared yesterday. We don't know where she went. .....Do you think it had anything to do with Peril?" Starflight was running through all the possibilities.

What would Peril want with Anemone? 

Maybe to use her animus powers to bring back Scarlet? But isn't Scarlet Peril's enemy now? 

"Probably. Peril's the type of moonlicker that might do that." Fatespeaker said to herself smugly, although Starflight wasn't paying much attention.

But that STILL didn't explain why Turtle had gone missing as well. So Peril MUST be using animuses in some kind of way..... But maybe it isn't Peril. And surely, an animus could protect themself from Peril. So it MUST be someone else. 

Who had gone missing recently? Turtle, Anemone and.... was it Pike? So all SeaWings. He made a "hmm" sound.

Suddenly, the sound of frantic footsteps snapped Starflight out of his thoughts. "Thirty-two more reports of missing dragons." He guessed it was Peril, as he could feel the room heating up.

So it still might be her, if she already knows this quickly. "Who disappeared NOW?" Fatespeaker groaned.

"Well, lets see.... Cerulean, Shore, Splash, Auklet, Fin, Octopus, Pirate, Seagull, Tide, Barracuda, Angelfish, Mako, Dolphin, Wave, um.... Squid, Minnow, Beach, Palm, Tuna, Lobster, Ripple, Seaweed, and 10 more SeaWing princes." Peril paused after each name, trying to remember all the SeaWing princes' names.

Even though Starflight couldn't see, he knew that Fatespeaker was probably waving her talons at Peril, like she always did. "OK OK, we get it."

In response, Peril retorted, "Hmph. YOU try memorizing 20 SeaWing names! Bet you can't get even five before your brain explodes!" And then shuffled out of the room without another word.

----------------------------------------

Peril stormed out of the cave. She swore, the next time that stupid NightWing pushed her away, she would SET HER BRAIN ON FIRE.

Wait no, I don't kill dragons anymore. She suddenly jerked her head to look at a passing SeaWing and asked, "Have you seen Clay? Where is he? When's he coming back? Is he here?" She tried to make her tone sound friendly, but it sounded more like a threat, as if she were to add "Answer, or else!" Which she probably might.

The SeaWing turned her head away from a RainWing student and replied, "Get your fiery hands off my friends, will you? We're trying to have some peace and quiet here, but OH NO PERIL IS SO LONELY AND THEREFORE MUST BE COMFORTED AND GET EVERYTHING SHE WANTS ON A SILVER PLATTER. You don't deserve him. You don't deserve anyone. You don't even deserve to be alive! And I thought Clay had a brain, but NO, if he did, he'd be smart enough to kick you out of this place."

"I only want Clay, and that's all! And with dragons like you poking your snout into MY MOONING BUSINESS, do you think I'm getting anything? How can I not deserve something I've never even had?" Peril growled dangerously at the SeaWing, who was evidently Tsunami due to the amount of such hate for her.

"You can hurt me, but I know you won't. Get over with it, it's only a crush. Feel free to stop killing dragons though, not that you ever will." Tsunami tipped her head at Peril sassily, which only irritated her more. Why couldn't this dragon just SHUT UP AND BE QUIET, for FIVE MINUTES????

Peril was about to retort something furiously back at her when the RainWing student-Tamarin, she guessed-interrupted. "Clay is out dealing with a bee hive that was knocked down that is now attacking students." Peril's wings drooped. "Oh."

Peril thought about which of the other dragonets were most tolerable. "Where's Sunny?"

Tsunami and Tamarin just exchanged looks and shrugged, deeply confused, although Tamarin was mainly confused about what face Tsunami was making, as the SeaWing was completely silent.

"Turtle?" They shook their heads again.

"Anemone?" Tamarin opened her mouth to speak, but Tsunami talked over her.

"You were the one who captured Anemone, you know. It's pretty obvious, I mean, who else would leave scorch marks near her favorite pond?" Although Tsunami was only slightly taller than Peril, her pride towered over her, looming down at Peril and sneering bossily.

"What? No, that wasn't me! Trust me, please!" She pleaded. She wouldn't, couldn't tolerate it if she was blamed for someone else's crimes. But Tsunami just turned her back to Peril and spat, "And why would I trust you, of all dragons?" 

She nudged Tamarin with her tail, indicating this was the time they leave so that Peril could cry about how she wasn't perfect like everyone else.

Well, you're wrong. I'm not that kind of dragon. I'm not the kind of dragon that will curl up and cry over her mistakes. You don't know the real me, not at all.

-----------------------------------------

Sunny was jerked awake as her back hit the ground roughly. Her vision was still blurry, and all she could see was a dim light a few dragon-tails away from her. For a moment, Sunny thought she was dreaming, but as a beetle scurried over one of her talons, she definitely felt that and shivered. Where was she? It took Sunny's eyes a minute to adjust to the dim lighting, but she soon figured out she was in a cave.

Again. Sunny growled furiously.

A tap on her shoulder interrupted her anger, and she jerked around to vaguely see a pale green face.

"Who are you?" She roared at the unfamiliar dragon. The stranger had four beautiful wings with gold and blue patches all though it, and her wrists glowed with a mysterious fiery orange. White spikes dotted her arching spine, and antennae beside her horns flicked toward the entrance to the cave, searching for movement.

The green dragon growled softly at the darkness and replied, "I am what you are. What we all are." Her voice was confident, fierce and tough, although it also indicated that she was no more than around 6 years old.

"Royals." 

A silence hung in the air as a million possibilities and questions flooded Sunny's head, before  the dragon hissed at the cave opening and lowered her voice. "They're coming back."

Sunny tilted her head at the dragon as she turned away and began to walk toward the entrance. "Who? Who's coming back?"

In response, she just turned her head to look over her shoulder at the SandWing and replied, "You'll see." Before walking on and disappearing into the darkness.

-----------

A/N: Notice: My update schedule is mostly based on popularity. The more readers that comment, the more common updates will be.

Cliffhanger, again. Who might that green dragon be? See if you can figure it out before the next update! 

Thank you for reading this chapter of my book! If you liked it, please vote and comment. If you have any advice, please comment your suggestion. Please no rude comments, thanks!