𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐖 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐑 || 𝐒𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰

Chapter Twenty-Six: A rather fiery day

Chapter Twenty-Six

After a day of much-needed rest, Matty was feeling better. Ominis and Sebastian had spoken to each other and somewhat reconciled over what had happened. Sure, nothing could fix the fact that Solomon wanted Sebastian nowhere near Feldcroft or Anne, but every little bit helped.

The next day was a Saturday so it meant no school, much to Matty's relief. She spent most of the day in her bed reading books, some that she had brought from home and others that she had picked up in the library. Sebastian had even recommended a few to her so that she could have a nice, lazy day of reading.

But if you were like Matty, nothing could be entering for too long and things became boring after just a few hours. After reading for a few hours, Matty found herself lying in bed wondering what she was going to do next, feeling bored out of her mind.

But then, perfectly on time, Eden came swooping into the room, dropping a letter on Matty's bed before flying to her perch.

Matty sat up and opened the letter. It was from Poppy! She wanted to meet in Hogsmeade, saying she had information about the dragon they had rescued. And as bored as Matty was (even though the past few days had been exhaustion, defeating boredom always wins) she immediately got up and dressed for the weather so she could meet Poppy in Hogsmeade.

After just a quick broom flight to Hogsmeade, Matty arrived and met Poppy in the town circle.

"Hello, Poppy!" Matty said, walking over to her. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting at all."

Poppy shook her head. "Oh no, not at all. I was just at the post office. Gran told me to expect a package, but it looks as if she forgot to send it." She answered. "She didn't send me an owl this week either. Perhaps she's busy with her research."

"You're owl mentioned something about finding out where the dragon's nest was. What were you able to find out about it?" Matty asked.

Over the past few days, Matty had seen Poppy less around the castle and in class less as well. She assumed this was because Poppy was out and about trying to find said dragon-she was extremely dedicated to returning the dragon's egg, it seemed.

"I realized that she didn't know the poachers had her egg. So, when she left Horntail Hall, she would've headed straight to her nest." Poppy answered. "I went back to the tent and tracked her flight."

Tracking a dragon's flight just from the place where they had left? That seemed like an incredible thing to know how to do. "Well done! You certainly know what you are doing." Matty congratulated.

"I can't be completely certain, but I have an idea of one place where she may be headed. I thought we might go and see it for ourselves." Poppy suggested.

Matty nodded. "Of course. Shall we leave now?"

"If that's alright. I want to see how she's fairing if she had a collar on-and she's likely frantic about her egg." Poppy answered. Her tone switched to one of worry for the last few parts of the sentence she spoke. She was truly worried about how the dragon was fairing without her egg.

The two girls then left Hogsmeade and Poppy led the way, before they knew it, Poppy was stopping Matty to talk to her.

"Here we are. I do think this is where we'll find her. The terrain's typical of where the breed would nest." She said to Matty. "I suspect this is how the poachers found her to begin with. They likely camped here and logged her patterns. Perhaps nabbed her first and then her egg. Dragons are hard enough to wrangle, let alone maternal ones."

Something about how Poppy knew all of this was impressive-scarily so. "You got all of that from just standing here?" Matty asked with quite a puzzled expression.