Entry Five
Silky Webwing
New Dragon
"I still don't see anyone," Onyx called.
Arkhip sighed. This was the third old camp they'd searched. Bastien was at their side, nose to the ground as he seemed to look for something. Frir stood off to the side, glaring at the camp.
"This is a waste of time," Frir snorted. "The whelp was on its own. It must have rolled away from its parents."
"Be nice," Arkhip said firmly. "He's only a day or two old."
"So?" Frir flicked an ear. "It's annoying. I still think we should leave it here."
"We are not leaving anyone here," Onyx snapped as she returned from her perch at the top of the hill. "If we can't find his parents, we'll take him with us."
"No we will
not!" Frir turned and snapped at her, bristling angrily. "Don't you start calling shots here.
I'm still the one paying you. If anyone should call shots it should be me, and
I say we leave the thing!"
"If you want me to continue helping you fix your stupid mistake, then we take the hatchling. Leaving him here means leaving me here, too."
Frir looked taken aback for a moment, before growing angrier. "How
dare you! You're willing to break our contract for some hatchling you've only known for half a day?"
"If it means the hatchling lives, then yes," Onyx answered firmly.
Frir looked ready to retort, but Arkhip cut in before he could.
"We don't have time for this," they said with a hard look at Frir. "We aren't abandoning a hatchling. He hasn't done anything to you." They gestured towards Bastien with a claw. "Look, he's hardly-"
"He's gone is what he is," Frir pointed out with a huff. "Good riddance."
Arkhip and Onyx both whipped around to see that Bastien was, indeed, missing from their side. Alarm shot through their feathers.
"Oh, Icewarden help me- Bastien!" Onyx turned to call out. "Bastien?!"
"He was just here, he couldn't have gone far," Arkhip pointed out, though anxiety twisted in their chest.
Frir gave an annoyed huff, but Arkhip ignored him in favor of hurrying to a nearby tree and clambering up the trunk for a better view. They scanned the green and brown landscape around them for the black-and-white Snapper.
"Bastien?" Onyx called again. "Bastien, come back here!"
Arkhip whistled high and long, noting Frir and Onyx both flinch. They stopped and listened carefully, straining to hear any squeak or rustle Bastien might make.
"Over there!" Onyx sped off, and Arkhip took flight to follow.
They hurried towards a small patch of foliage, bushes and ferns clustered together in the vast field of grass. Arkhip landed beside it, pushing the foliage aside.
Sure enough, they spotted Bastien's tail. Bastien squeaked and turned to stare at them with wide purple eyes.
"What in Sornieth are you doing?" Onyx chastised. "You scared the lights out of us!"
Bastien squeaked again, then turned and pressed deeper into the foliage. Arkhip lowered their head and tried to follow after. Bastien's tail swished aside ahead of them, and a pair of bright red eyes stared back at them.
Arkhip pulled back in surprise, which startled the red-eyed dragon as they retracted as well. Bastien squeaked again, before he nosed a little Pearlcatcher out into the open.
Her pearl was gripped tight in her front claws, and her eyes were wide. She looked about Bastien's age, scales a mottled black and deep green jaguar pattern. Her wings held the same pattern, though they were more brown than green, and her belly was completely black. She stared at Arkhip, then at Onyx.
"Another hatchling?" Onyx sounded appalled.
"Ugh,
really?" Frir's voice sounded back by the camp they'd been searching. "Not another whelp to have stumbling around my claws..."
"It's a Pearlcatcher," Onyx called back. "A little green one."
Frir's annoyance vanished in an instant as he hurried over to see. As soon as he laid eyes on her, relief and happiness rolled off of him in waves.
"Finally!" He moved close to the little Pearlcatcher, who looked intrigued by him. "A hatchling with some status!"
"Are you kidding me?" Onyx snapped. "Shut up already with your 'better than thou' attitude."
"Absolutely not," Frir smiled back, scooping the little Pearlcatcher up into his claws. "She's coming with us."
Onyx looked appalled for a beat, before anger made her bristle, followed by her snorting in annoyance and moving to Bastien's side. "Yeah, sure."
She turned to Arkhip, voice low, and said "I cannot stand this man." Arkhip stifled their laughter.
They instead ushered Bastien out of the foliage with their tail. "You, little one, can't run off like that. You scared us."
Bastien squeaked at them, eyes round. They used a claw to pat him on the head.
"What do we call the Pearlcatcher, o mighty Frir?" Onyx called sarcastically.
"Lexa," came a distant reply. Onyx rolled her eyes.
"Lexa it is."