Scales to Skin

XII

Qibli

I awoke to Winter's face directly in front of mine, a panicked expression written all over it. As I brought my talons up to rub my eyes, the sounds of yelling and arguing overtook my senses. 

"What's going on?" I groaned as I pushed myself up and out of bed. Everyone immediately stopped and looked at me hesitantly. Kinkajou bit her lip, then handed me the scroll in her talon. I glanced at the wary eyes of everyone around me, then snatched it from her.

'We have Moon. Bring the Lazulite Dragon,' was printed neatly on the page. I was silent for a few seconds, then nodded.

"This is a start. At least we have a lead," I sighed. Winter nodded.

"So... do we do it?" Kinkajou asked.

"Of course!" Winter cried. "This is Moon we're talking about!" 

"Where do we find it, then?" 

"The Lazulite Dragon is a SandWing treasure that went missing when the scavengers robbed Queen Oasis. It must've been in a different bag than the Eye of Onyx, because Thorn was never able to locate it," I explained.

"Why would someone want it?" Peril asked, examining her claws. "It doesn't sound very important." 

"According to Smolder, it was a gift from the SeaWings, modeled after Queen Pearl. Maybe a SeaWing wants it back? Or a different tribe wants to use it a bargaining chip with Thorn?" I thought aloud.

"Either way, we should talk to Tsunami. Maybe she could arrange for the search party to look for that instead?" Turtle suggested.

I nodded. "We need to get to class soon, anyway. I'll get the scavengers ready to go." 

I didn't wait for an answer before turning to the enclosure, where Moon and Violet were watching us intently. Bandit and Bear were on the far side, doing something with the parchment. When I got closer, I realized they were drawing a bird. I smiled. I had seen some of Flower's drawings, but it shocked me every time. Maybe these things were smarter than we gave them credit for.

I must've startled them as I got closer, because Bandit's hand flinched back, leaving a streak of charcoal across the paper. Moon squeaked at the others, and they slowly came towards the door. Were they beginning to trust me more?

I easily scooped Moon up into her cage, and was shocked when the others went mostly smooth as well. Clay and Bandit both stepped back when I reached for them, but came forward quicker than I expected.

I had kind of gotten used to the feel of the cages on my arms, but something about it still didn't feel quite right.

I pushed that thought away as Winter and I walked through the caves, and tried to focus on the positive. At least we knew what we had to do to get Moon back. At least she wasn't dead. There were far worse situations for us to be in.

"Good morning, class!" Tsunami greeted us as we came in.

"We have a lead," I said, wasting no time. We didn't know how much time Moon had.

Tsunami furrowed her brow, "What?" 

"This arrived in our room this morning," I placed the parchment on her desk. She looked over it for a second, then nodded.

"I will inform the other dragonets of this development, and we will alert the search parties. In the meantime, Sunny says you can keep the dreamvisitor. Other than that, I would like the six of you to stay out of this as much as possible. I don't want to hear of you going out in search of the Lazulite Dragon. Do you understand?" She pressed.