Skittles, Marvel, and Quasar are the three young dragons who go to explore Hazel's Haunted Hollow. Skittles is the eldest of the trio by an entire month, while Marvel is only 3 days Quasar's senior. The trio are some of the most inseparable young dragons in the Clan, and Skittles is always getting them into trouble. He dreams of being a fighter, defending his Clan and his Flight. This gives him a grand sense of adventure. Marvel is a bit more down-to-earth, preferring simpler ways of having fun, such as visiting Roundsey's Raffle (his friends are quick to tease that he has a crush on Roundsey, more so than having much enjoyment in gambling), or playing board games. Quasar is just as bad as Skittles when it comes to having grand ideas of adventure, however she is driven by her curiosity. Marvel is not one to miss out on any level of fun, and typically follows Quasar and Skittles anywhere, even if he feels, deep in his bones, that they will be in serious trouble over it.
I think the perspective in my comment will follow Marvel, as I think he'd be an interesting POV.
Skittles was being as loud as a rampaging Emperor. The young Ridgeback insisted on taking the lead, wanting to show off his leadership skills and heroism. But he apparently also sought to destroy the whole forest in his wake - all of his spines and horns kept catching on branches and leaves, and he occasionally got his claws stuck on roots.
"Could you stomp any louder?" Marvel complained, raising his voice to be heard over the noise. He flattened his ears, both in an attempt to keep them safe from swinging branches, and in the hopes of pretending his friend was quieter than he really was.
"Shhh!" Skittles hissed, not even looking over his shoulder at his Pearlcatcher friend.
Quasar, small even for a Fae, fluttered up and perched on Marvel's shoulders, resting her arms on his head. "It's okay, Marvel. Skittles will frighten away anything this forest can throw at us. Look at his size! And his armour!"
"More likely the ruckus he's making will frighten everything off." Marvel grumbled. He was met by another shush from Skittles, followed by a loud alarm call from a nearby fleeing sparrow.
Marvel rolled his eyes. "I should have stayed behind and helped Atreyu with his Arcane studies, or gone with Skycrest to Roundsey."
"I do feel kind of bad not staying with Cobalt." Quasar conceded. "He seemed so sad that we couldn't help him help Partay."
"Oh please." Skittles finally spoke for himself. "Who wants to set up a party that won't even happen for another 9 days, when you can go on an adventure?"
"Me." Marvel said flatly.
"Well, you do think watching a Spiral yell at and sway other dragons into gambling is fun." Skittles retorted. He meant it as a light-hearted joke, but Marvel felt a little pinprick of hurt. Much as his two friends teased him about it, they didn't seem to realize he actually did like Roundsey. She was the newest, and one of the youngest, additions to the Trading Post. He thought she was fun, both to listen to as a bystander and to talk face-to-face to.
Too bad I'm just another customer to her... Marvel thought sadly to himself. And it was in that moment that a branch caught against one of Skittles's various back spines, only to snap back and smack Marvel in the face, barely missing Quasar.
"AHK!" He yelped, more startled than anything - his birdskull headdress had helped shield him from most of the stinging twigs.
"SHUSH." Both Skittles and Quasar exclaimed. A mere moment later, and Marvel thought he heard the sound of heavy pawsteps thudding away.
"Did... did you hear that?" He whispered.
"Could have been a centaur." Quasar said simply, as though that was supposed to be calming.
"No, that sounded more like padded feet than hard hooves." Marvel argued. Nonetheless, he became terrified that an arrow may shoot out from the darkness and strike either he or one of his friends in the heart.
Skittles seemed a little nervous now too, taking a more defensive stance and bringing his wings in low. "Stay near to me. My wingplates will help shield you."
***
The trio peered out from the undergrowth, staring at a dark hollow set against a tall, ancient riverbank, long since dried up.
"Too bad neither of you is good at sneaking." Skittles commented.
"Too bad we didn't bring Tang." Quasar replied.
Skittles scoffed. "Tang couldn't hide or sneak even if she was against a blind, deaf dragon!"
Marvel had to silently agree - the bright yellow and pink Tundra dreamed of being something, anything, that involved sneaking around and hiding from sight, but she didn't exactly help herself by wearing magenta and orange clothing.
"Maybe if we were in the Starfall Isles." Quasar commented.
It seemed to take a lot of control on Skittles's part to not bring his palm to his forehead. "Yeah, well, we're kind of an ocean apart from the Arcanist's lands."
They stayed quiet for a moment longer. For a split second, Marvel thought he saw glowing green eyes flash in the darkness of the cave mouth.
"Are you SURE old lady Hazel ain’t real?" Marvel said, trying to hide the fear from his voice. He hoped he didn't sound whiny.
"Yeah, and I’m gonna prove it! Stop being such a hatchling! That droopy old dragon ain’t nothing but a story!" Skittles said, the bravery returning to his voice.
Marvel's ears twitched as he thought he heard an exclamation out of the darkness. His friends apparently thought they heard it too, for they also turned to stare with wide eyes into the darkness.
And there, for a second or two, all three dragons could see a pair of glowing green eyes disappear into the dark. An ominous chuckle resonated from the shadows, and Marvel's already pounding heart seemed fit to explode.
"Yeah, nope, good luck. See ya!" Marvel turned to leave, but Skittles grabbed his tail.
"Hey, no way! You can't abandon the mission! It's probably just our minds playing with us, or some old loner trying to keep us away from their squatting." Skittles sounded indignant.
"There is no mission!" Marvel snapped. "You two just have something to prove! But I'm not stupid! Looks to me like Hazel is real, and I think I'm going to freaking respect her by LEAVING HER TERRITORY THE HECK ALONE." He turned to try and walk away again, but Skittles wouldn't loosen his grip.
"Come
onnn, grow a backbone! Even if there is someone here by the name of Hazel, ain't no way the myths and stories are real. You don't still believe in Marva, do you? I mean, a dragon delivering jokes to literally every Clan in Sornieth in a single day?" Skittles scoffed.
Quasar seemed a little offended at Skittles's remark. "Marva IS real! She just has magic you don't understand!"
Skittles rolled his eyes. "Look, whatever, just... Nothing is going to happen. There's no scent of any BeastClan, and I can protect us in any case."
Marvel felt his mane bristle. "You are
not some Knight of the Royal Guard, or even one of the rebels! THEY can actually fight! You might as well be a thick leaf."
Marvel felt a twinge of guilt at the hurt look on Skittles's face. The young Ridgeback dreamed of joining one of the Knight factions, or some kind of fighting group that protected the Clan. But his lower ranking in the societal class barred him from some of the factions. He had limited experience because of this. And here Marvel was, snarling in his best friend's face about his lack of skills.
He sighed. "I'm sorry, Skittles. I really am. I'm just scared. And we have no good reason to be here. We've all heard the stories - last year some poor drake got his wing broken. Even if Hazel isn't real, something isn't safe here."
Skittles seemed defeated, despite Marvel's apology. "Yeah, I... I guess you're right." He limply let go of Marvel's tail.
Marvel and Quasar glanced at each other. Their tall friend kept his gaze to the ground.
"Skittles... let's at least check out the entrance. Maybe we can see something?" Quasar suggested kindly.
Marvel felt his fear rise again, but he hid it. His friend needed him.
Skittles sighed, but some of the old light was back in his eyes. "Okay... let's look."
Maybe I'll write more in detail later, but I'm running out of time. The trio get scared by the corpse cleaner, and run deeper into the cave. Here, bats scare them and cause them to separate. Eventually, Marvel is chased by truffles directly into the path of Hazel. But the old witch heard the trio talking earlier, and decides to give Marvel a break. Instead, she starts a fire, and the two chat. Eventually though, Marvel hears Quasar scream, and begs Hazel to let them go. She agrees, but comments that Marvel should keep an eye on his tall Ridgeback friend - he has quite the growing up to do. Marvel reunites with his friends, and they race back home together. Marvel decides to keep his interaction with Hazel a secret, at least for now.
