Scales to Skin

XX

Peril

None of the scavengers were chattering or yibbling as much this morning, and I wondered if the Lazulite dragon was part of the reason why. When Turtle arrived early in the morning as we were getting ready for class, only Moon, Bear and Violet were awake. We did our best to keep the dragon hidden, but I'm sure at least one of them caught a glimpse.

We agreed to hide it in the soft ferns that made up where Moon would sleep when we got her back, and we would deal with it after class. Since our morning period was the scavenger project, we had no worries about leaving it alone.

"Listen up! This is important!" Sunny called over our whispering as we made our way to the food table. "Today we are going to be doing class differently, as some new information is leading us in a new direction. According to a reliable source and a bit of your own experimentation, we have learned it is possible to teach the scavengers some words in our own language. Today, before feeding them anything, say the word until they repeat it. Make them work for their food."

I made my way over to Turtle, who was holding the cage that Ocean and Bear were in. I snatched him up with a small growl and brought him over to the section of the table covered in fruits and vegetables.

As per usual, he immediately pointed at the cluster of grapes, which he'd seemed to have taken a liking to. But this time, instead of simply giving them to him, I clearly enunciated the word, 'Grapes.'

He seemed to be confused and pointed again. 'Grapes,' I repeated.

This happened twice more before he slowly opened his mouth and muttered, "Greapas?"

I laughed at the pronunciation, but gave him the grapes anyways. I could tell that almost everyone else was making progress as well, but none of them were saying anything quite right.

"Potato," I said, holding out his second favorite treat. He copied much quicker this time, and I could tell he was getting the hang of it.

"Alright class, gather around!" Sunny ordered when the room had quieted down a bit. We followed her to the center of the classroom, where a familiar wooden structure was set up.

"Is this the same maze as before?" Winter asked. 

"We figured it would be good to test their navigation skills as well as their memories," She reasoned.

"And you were just too lazy to make a new one," Qibli chuckled under his breath. He and Winter shared a look, and I glanced away.

"Set your scavengers at the end and see how long it takes for them to backtrack to the start," Sunny instructed. This time around, no one argued. No one really cared anymore. All that mattered was the Lazulite Dragon, and getting through this class as quickly as possible.

Bear and Bandit took off together as soon as they were set down, with Violet closely behind. She ran into a few dead ends, then began feeling up the wall. After a second, I realized what she was doing.

"Are they going to try to climb it again?" Umber asked, tilting his head.

"We all know how that went last time. Surely they're away of how dangerous it is," Qibli reasoned.

But Violet continued climbing, and didn't stop until she was halfway up the steep wall. At that point, Ocean and Clay had arrived next to her, and they began to help boost her up.

Bear and Bandit had gotten held up a couple of times, but were a decent way through the maze. Moon, however, was taking right turn after right turn. It was as if she could see through the walls.

Once Ocean had boosted both Violet and Clay up onto the wall, they both started yibbling and pointing their tiny talons in all different directions. Ocean took off running where Violet was pointing, taking turns as she directed. Bandit and Bear began doing the same, then Clay dropped down and started running, and soon enough Violet was the only one left in the maze.