The CloudWings

26 - The Hideout

Lightbringer was desperate. She had broadcasted the thought-message in a last attempt to communicate with Puffin. It had worked, but there were other listeners--unwanted listeners. When Lightbringer had commanded, "think yes", there had been another voice other than Puffin's in her head. Both had said, or thought, "yes." The other voice had been Crystal's. Thankfully she hadn't flat-out mentioned the message, but simply using "it" was surely enough to pique Crystal's natural nosiness. Worse, Crystal could easily find them by following where Lightbringer's thought-message had come from, and every minute they were here, trapped and helpless, they were sitting seagulls for Stratus and Crystal and everyone else who wanted to find and kill them.

She buried her snout in her talons, unable to control the rivers of tears that poured from her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Drizzle asked. They all crowded around her, shielding her with their wings, protecting, comforting. 

Even Sandstorm, who was usually complaining and constantly annoyed about something, asked, "Are you all right?"

Lightbringer shook her head.

"What happened?" Glade murmured. "Actually, never mind what happened. Whatever happened, it's okay. It's fine. Everything's okay, and we're going to be fine." Her voice shook as she tried to reassure them.

Lightbringer looked up at them with overflowingly-teary eyes. There was no way she could explain this to them--this feeling of everything turn to nothing. It was like the time she saw Drizzle use her firescales to burn a small piece of swamp plant--the plant crumpled and disappeared, nothing left of it to show it had ever existed. Nothing left except for a tiny pile of ash. She felt as though she were falling into an endless, bottomless abyss, dragging her sisters along with her. Crystal would be here soon, as soon as she could locate where the thought-message came from. Stratus would be here sooner. And Puffin was nowhere to be found--obviously. Although the MudWing kingdom was right next to the sea. Lightbringer felt tears slip out of her eyes and drip onto her dark scales. It was her fault also--Puffin didn't even know where they all were. She had only been trying to help them all, trying to make sure they could stay safe. But it had all been in vain.

She finally noticed Raindrop sitting off to the side, half camouflaged. "Are you okay, Raindrop?" she quavered.

Raindrop said nothing for a while, staring down at her talons, while her scales shifted between various shades of purple. Suddenly she declared, "I will now be known as Queen Hibiscus of the RainWings."

Lightbringer let out a long, worried breath. Raindrop, or Hibiscus, was merely thinking of a new name for herself. 

Although Lightbringer couldn't explain to her sisters how she felt, she could tell them what happened. 

"Crystal was listening when I broadcasted my thoughts. She can easily locate us now, and with us trapped here like this, we'll all be dead soon."

Drizzle stood up. "Don't worry. There's always a way to fix this. I vote that we put the plan in action now. Who's with me?"

There was a chorus of "yes"s and "me"s. With that, Lightbringer promptly began giving commands, her worry and fear vaporized. "Glade, pack up all our food, and assure me that I was right to trust you with it, basically meaning DON'T EAT ANY. Everyone, pack up whatever you wish to bring with you. Raindrop, I mean Hibiscus, camouflage yourself and sneak out to check that no one's watching."

During the foggy night, the dragons snuck out one by one, Hibiscus returning each time to hide them with her camouflaged wings. They cautiously picked their way through the sticky mud of the marsh, pushing through thick patches of swamp plants. At last they reached the outer fringes of the Mud Kingdom and arrived on the beach. The islands of Queen Puffin's kingdom were dimly visible in the distance through the thick mist.

"Now, if Puffin is as perceptive and smart as we hope she is, she will come to help us within a few minutes. If not, we'll have to find a place to hide," Lightbringer whispered.

They waited, no one daring to make a sound. Sandstorm flattened herself onto the sand of the beach and loudly whisper-yelled, "FINALLY. SOME NICE SAND AT LAST."

Lightbringer clamped a talon over Sandstorm's snout. "Don't say anything."

Without any warning, ripples began appearing on the surface of the ocean near the shore, and Puffin poked her head above the water.

"You've come at last!" she cried. "Follow me, and I will take you to the hideout."

"What hideout?" Hibiscus asked. 

"No time to ask questions. You'll see when we get there," Puffin said mysteriously. "Hope you all know how to swim! Don't forget to hold your breath."

After what seemed like hours of swimming, Lightbringer felt that she could hold her breath no more. Then Puffin used her glowing stripes to communicate something that none of them could understand--Aquatic. Lightbringer assumed it meant We're here. Puffin pushed aside a wild tangle of kelp the size of a whale and led them into a dark cave. They could see nothing but the glowing starbursts on Puffin's wings. When the first ray of sunlight filtered in from an area with a tall ceiling, they could see that the hideout was a series of tunnels with large caves where the water reached only up to their necks.

Lightbringer whirled around suddenly. "Where's Drizzle?" Panic filled her throat. If Drizzle wasn't here, she could be anywhere, lost in the tangles of kelp, trapped in an unfinished cave, crashed into a rock...

"Here," Drizzle said. She was engulfed by a cloud of steam. "The water makes my firescales steam. It's really annoying for visibility."

"You don't say," Sandstorm said. "At least there is sand here!" She happily squelched her claws into the sand covering the bottom of the caves.

"Ugh, will you shut up about the sand!" Glade shouted. The others had finally reached their limit of patience with Sandstorm's complaining about everything possible, and her exaggerated delight upon seeing sand. "And will you stop snatching up every tiny gold-colored little thing you see on the seafloor!"

"All right, all right," Sandstorm mumbled. "But they seem valuable and they're shiny..."

Lightbringer fought the urge to facepalm. "Sandstorm, we could get captured any minute. This is a serious situation, no time to gather shiny things!"

"Everyone stop arguing!" Puffin yelled. "This is my kingdom and I will tell you what to do here. You are to stay here when things are looking bad for you. Like now. I'm always here, so unless any hidden SeaWing spies strike, I'll be okay. Stratus will soon find out that you are not in the MudWing kingdom anymore and will probably start looking here first. I have tried to cover up the hideout as well as I can."

The other dragons turned and saw that both ends of their tunnel faded into darkness, and there were faint silhouettes of rocks and seaweed blocking the entrances.

"You will only venture out to hunt for food. If necessary, I can bring you some SeaWing food." At this, Sandstorm wrinkled her snout, but thankfully did not utter a word.

Hibiscus had stayed oddly silent through all of this, and though Lightbringer may have imagined it, she thought she saw the RainWing flinch when Puffin mentioned the SeaWing spies.

That's right, Lightbringer thought. This is a time when we cannot trust anyone...