Zeal

"On one condition, you help me with my little project"
The slow spiral twisted one way then another, as they do.
"Sure thing, mate, oy this is gonna be great!"
Zeal was annoyed by how childish he was behaving. Not everyone needs to know they're working together, and besides, her plan required a certain level of stealth.

"Oh be quiet will you!" She grabbed the annoying little punt and ducked into her cave. Hopefully, no-one had seen.
Finally, the spiral seemed to understand. "Got it mate, but uh, what exactly are we doing?"
Zeal didn't have time to explain. "Just follow me and keep your snout shut, got it?"
"Oy yeah, sure thing mate"
The spiral fell in behind her as she made her way down the tunnel she had been carving for the last couple weeks. It led Northwest, toward the domain of the Water flight. She would have gone the much shorter route to the north Light flight, but there were already too many tunnels in that direction. She wanted to make sure this was her clan's tunnel and no one else's.

As she wound her way through her handiwork clearly evident in the gauge marks created by her spikes, glimpses of moonlight made their way down into the cave via holes drilled in the ceiling. Tucked under her wing was satchel containing all the supplies they might need at the end of the tunnel.
Slowly, the walls of the tunnel became porous, and the lapping of waves could be heard above. The walls weren't grey stone, but lighter sandstone.

"Wait just a second, we're gonna snatch something from the water dragons? Ain't they gonna be a bit, angry mate?"
Zeal turned her head to look at the spiral weaving himself in and out of circles behind her.
"Yeah, you got a problem with that?"
"N-Not t'all mate!"
Dabas was clearly intimidated by her, just the way she liked it.
"Get a move on, we got work to do when we get there."
They didn't talk until they reached the end of the tunnel. There was a flat wall, smooth compared to the rugged sides of the tunnel. She had been particularly careful with this wall. Looking closer one could see a large metal seal in the middle with a valve sticking out. That had been the hardest part to install with water gushing out as she tried to fit the handcrafted metal into the small hole.
"Now here's what we need to do," she announced as she lifted her wing and unpacked te satchel hidden beneath, "we're going to install a pump here and pipes leading all the way back to the lair. I've dug a hole there where we can pretend a spring has developed to keep Elder off my tail. You are going to help me install this and seal the deal by pretending to find the new spring."
"Seems a bit round-and round-and roundabout to me, besides why do we need this much water?"
Zeal snorted, "just think about how long we take getting and purifying water from our land, this water is plentiful, and filters along the pipe will clean it for us, if we want to start building bigger machines, we need water for coolant, much more than would be plausible to collect manually"
Dabas stared blankly at her for a moment, "Once more 'round, just take it bit slower"
She sighed "just do it if you want me to go along with your plan."
"Not a problem mate!"

The next evening Dabas approached her again. "Thanks mate! This work arrangement means we get work done twice as fast and with no mistakes! Even Elder seemed impressed!"
Zeal stared at him with a nonchalant expression. She was actually very proud of her work as well, but she couldn't let it show.
"I guess, but do you think Elder bought our stunt? "
"Totally mate, he never suspected me!"
"Shh! and stop saying mate we're not mates just business partners! If you want a mate ask Arliin or someone else!"
At the name, Arliin, Dabas blushed.
"yo, mate it's getting late and I better get some sleep, we didn't get a wink last night" Then Dabas faked a yawn and flew off to the scraggly tree he slept around.
Eww! Zeal didn't have time for things like that, in fact she was thinking about how a thermal generator could work if she could only tunnel over to the Ashfall wastes. Maybe she could find the tunnel she used to escape from their prison after she was caught stealing metal from the collective stores to support her own forge. Hmm, if only...