Claws of time

Chapter 14- Preparation

I knocked on Clearsight's door and she opened it, greeting me. "Hi Clearsight, I wasn't exactly sure when you woke up so I'm sorry if I disturbed you." Clearsight waved her talons dismissively, "It's alright Shiver, I basically just woke up so you're just in time." I fidgeted with my pouch around my neck, "I have something I want to give you." Clearsight smiled, "Aw, thank you Shiver you didn't have to." I opened my pouch and took out the map and handed it to her. "I knew you were going to make me a map at some point, but I didn't expect it to be this early." She unrolled the scroll to see the full picture, "Three moons this is really well done." She exclaimed, obviously impressed. "I had a bit of help." I admitted, "I'm not the best artist, come to find out." Clearsight laughed, "That's alright, however the map was made, I love it regardless." She walked into her room and motioned for me to follow her. "I'll put this up somewhere safe, and hopefully hidden from Vigilance. I can see that if she finds the map, there could be problems caused for the dragons over there." She rolled up the map and tucked it in an unseen dark corner. "Oh, I wanted to ask you Shiver, are you coming to the jubilee festival tonight?" I snorted a laugh, "Another party?" Clearsight shook her head and laughed too, "I know, Queen Vigilance loves her parties." I looked out the window at the gloomy gray sky, "Is it going to rain again?" Clearsight shook her head, "No, it'll be clear by the time the festival rolls around." I shrugged, "I'll think about it, it's been so long since I've been to a party, plus the last one I was at was by pure mistake, and a bunch of dragons died." Clearsight shook her head, "You sound like Fathom right now, but I can still see where you're coming from. Please Shiver, you're one of my friends, I'd be happy if you came, Fathom is." I hummed, "I don't know, won't everyone freak out because of the war we're having with IceWings?" Clearsight shook her head, "Just stick with us, you'll have a blast!" She reassured me. Finally, I caved in, "Oh, alright I'll come to the festival, what is the attire going to be like?" I didn't have much jewelry besides the ring, the earrings, and my pouch. "Formal." Clearsight responded. I groaned, "Alright... are there any shops I can go to to buy some accessories for the festival?" Clearisight nodded, "Yeah, if you'd like I can show you the best places to go." I smiled, "Sure, you live here after all, you'd know where to go." Clearsight walked over to the desk by her window, "Alright, we can go soon, but I should do a bit of work for Vigilance first." I turned to head out of Clearsight's room, "Alright, thank you." Clearsight waved and I left her room, heading down the hall. The question is, what do I do in the meantime while waiting for the party.
Clearsight, Fathom, and I all walked through the stalls of the markets looking at all of the items being sold. There was a booth of exotic fruits being sold by a red and green RainWing. I stopped and looked at some of the odd shaped and colored fruits. "Hello there, are you interested in buying some of these delicious ripe fruits?" I shook my head, "No, sorry I'm looking for some Jewelry to wear." The RainWing's smile faltered for a moment but they went right back to smiling warmly, "Well, this fruit right here has some beautiful flowers on its vine you could fashion into a necklace." The RainWing picked up a small purplish black fruit that looked similar to a raspberry and the vine that grew from it had about four small white flowers on it. As they were holding it, their scales shifted to match its color. "This fruit is delicious, if you like blackberries, you'll love this fruit! Plus, bonus, the flowers would match your silvery blue scales." The RainWings scales shifted again to match mine, and they held up the flowers to their neck, "See, absolutely perfect! It'd really be something great to wear for any occasion." He set the berry down next to me, and his scales shifted back to the red and green. "A kind offer, but I'll pass." I said, pushing the berries back to him. Behind me I heard another dragon swoop down and land next to Clearsight. "Clearsight, finally getting out of that dark room I see, that's good!" I recognized the voice immediately, but I still turned around to make sure. I craned my neck and just as I suspected, it was Darkstalker. Darkstalkers eyes shifted onto me, I could feel his hatred radiating from him when he looked at me. "Uhm, Hey Clearsight, Fathom, I'm going to continue on looking for something to wear to the festival, you three can stick together and chat." Clearsight frowned in disappointment, "Alright, but I'll definitely see you at the festival, right?" I nodded, "You can count on it." I hurriedly turned to get out of Darkstalkers sight, and I could still hear the RainWing calling, "Aren't you going to buy the fruit! Trust me you won't regret it, I can even lower the price." But I just kept walking to ignore them.