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Description
Chapter: 7

“Captain Faier!” one of the younger officers said, running up to the commander.

“Yes, what is it?”

“Strange report filed sir, a Feed station down at the worktown border was raided.”

“Another convenience store robbery?” Faier said. “Hardly anything unusual, those things are like giant targets to desperate men and women.” He continued, moving to enter his office.

“Sir, the report said that Dragons attacked this one!” the young officer said, causing Faier to freeze, the intelligence working through his mind.

“Dragons, you say?” Faier said, turning to look at the younger man.

“Yes! Riderless, rogue dragons! We’re not sure what to make of this, sir.” The officer said.

“This week keeps getting stranger and stranger…” Faier said, putting his head in the palm of one hand and sighing, rubbing his temples, exhausted after a full night of dealing with wraith dragons and a raid on a dragon stable.

<<>>

“Hey Moordryd, did you happen to see the news this morning?” Cain said as they sat down at lunch.

“No, Cain, I was studying as I had breakfast, as you should have. If your grades slip any further you’re going to be on probation.” He said, before biting off a piece of the apple he was eating. “Why, something interesting?” he continued, curious dispite himself.

“Remember how your old man had me plant something on one of Scalesheen’s buildings?” Cain said.

“Yeah, what of it?” Moordryd said, already irritated, his dislike of Guessing games famous.

“Something BIG happened there last night. I mean HUGE, something about ‘the biggest dragon heist of the decade’ they were sayin.” Cain said.

“Seriously?  Bigger than our… uh… well, you know.” He said, suddenly feeling self conscious about discussing illicit acts anywhere within the walls of the academy.

“Yeah, the whole place cleaned out, and Dragon City security can’t figure out how they did it. They couldn’t find any sign of a culprit having even been there in the first place.”

Moordryd and Cain looked at each other for a minute, then Moordryd looked out the window. “What in the magna draconis was that jakk box for anyway?” he wondered aloud.

“I dunno man. WAY beyond me.” Cain said.

<<>>

Compashun led her group back to their temporary ‘home’, the outflow tunnels. They couldn’t figure out how to transport the barrels of feed, so they had to bust the things open on the spot, then hastily eat as much as they could.

There hadn’t been enough to feed everyone satisfactorily, and some of the dragonesses were still hungry. Worse still, they’d not quite finished eating when suddenly they heard a lot of noise… strange high pitched wailings approaching them. It was not a dragon’s call, of any kind, and terrified them, forcing them to flee. Now they returned to their cold, wet, uncomfortable ‘home’ still hungry.

“Well… that could’ve gone better.” Compashun trilled in a downcast tone as they entered the tunnel system.

Behind her, Payshance’s ears pricked up, and she growled something almost inaudibly to two other pack females beside her. Suddenly Compashun looked up and saw them sailing though the air overhead, to land in front of her and go dashing into the darkness of the tunnel.

“Hey!” she yelped in shock. “Hey, wait! What’re you doing!?” she called after them, the other dragonesses behind her picking up speed to keep up.

Ahead, in the pitch dark, Compashun heard a scuffle… claws scraping and draconic bodies slamming into each other, and cries being let out. Most of them aggressive cries from the pack females, but there was also a distressed, frightened voice she didn’t recognize at all, it didn’t even sound like any of the kinds of dragons she’d met or seen yet. It was very high pitched, though it had somewhat of a male inflection.

Finally catching up, along with some of the braver energy and pack class females, Compashun came to a halt where Payshance and the other two Pack females were… holding down a very small bipedal male dragon, not a speck of gear on him anywhere. He was a pale greenish color, and seemed very thin… wiry almost. He looked as though he’d known a fair deal of hunger in his life, for his face was narrow and very angular, and his ribs showed through his hide, though not as much as if he was emaciated. Compashun had once seen a sickly female in the breeding pen, she’d hardly had any meat left on her when the keepers took her away… she’d never seen her after that.

“What is this?” Compashun demanded, growling.

“Leader, I heard him nosing around, so we caught him.” Payshance growl-barked.

Compashun looked down at the very frightened little male. “I see that.” She trilled, then turned to look at Payshance again. “I wish you’d acted like your name and told me instead of just rushing off.” She continued, making the other female hunch her shoulders.

“Nonsense Compashun.” 0144 chuckled, stepping up. “If she’d taken the time to tell you, he-” she trilled in her deeper tone, indicating the young captive male with a claw. “Would’ve heard us coming and got away.”

Compashun’s eyes widened as she realized the other female was right. “I see… sorry Payshance, you did the right thing.” She trilled to the pack female, who nodded.

“Now, though…” Compashun sighed, turning her attention to the light green colored, male bipedal dragon. “Who are you?”

“Me Wydgett…” The male whined.

“Well, Wydgett…” Compashun trilled, bringing her head down to look him square in the eye, making the much smaller dragon look like he wanted a hole to open up below him. “What are you doing here?”

“Wydgett look for… look for things… yes, things fall down from upper city, end up certain places, Keeper’s crew need many things, Wydgett know good places to find things…” He whined in that queerly high pitched voice.

“KEEPERS!?” Compashun roared, while all the other dragonesses growled. “You’re working for humans!?” she continued, growling ferociously.

Wydgett looked at once very frightened and greatly confused. “Stewardd and other keepers build things… We help them…” He started, before Compashun roared again, silencing him.

“Compashun, please stop…” Tendyr whined, coming forward. “You’re terrifying him…”

“And someone’s going to hear you if you keep roaring like that.” 0144 said, shaking her head.

Compashun glared back at the other female for a second, before mastering herself. “Fine then, but if he knew about this place, we can’t stay here any longer.”

“Where are we supposed to go?” Payshance whined. “We didn’t find anywhere else big enough for all of us, especially someplace safe…”

“Wydgett knows safe place!” The male suddenly yapped, garnering the attention of every one of the females.

“Probably where your humans keep you.” 0144 rumbled derisively, before Compashun rounded on her with a sharp snort, silencing her.

“Wydgett…” She rumbled slowly. “My friends and I need a place to stay… somewhere humans don’t go, someplace safe… and we need to be able to find food… do you know of such a place?” she asked the small male.

The little pale green dragon nodded, even as he was still being restrained bodily by Payshance the pack females. Compashun nodded, then looked at the females restraining him, and they slowly let him stand.

“You can’t be serious!” 0144 snorted. “We don’t even know him!”

“We don’t know anything out here!” Compashun growled back at her, then checked her tone apologetically. “We nearly got lost coming back here. He at least seems to know this place.” She said, inclining her head in Wydgett’s direction.

The older female shook her head. “Something’s telling me we’re going to regret this.”

“You’d rather stay here?” Compashun trilled, looking around the dank, moldy tunnel.

“Of course not!” 0144 growled sharply.

“Then come on.” Compashun said. “Wydgett, you’ll lead, but Payshance and I will be keeping an eye on you, so don’t try to run off.”

“Yes, yes!” The small pale green dragon said, nodding his head vigorously. “Wydgett lead big dragons to safe place, Wydgett promise!” he yapped and trilled in a very excited and earnest sounding manner, before he started trotting… deeper into the tunnel.

“We’re going… that way!?” Tendyr yelped, alarmed.

“Just come on!” Compashun growled.

<<>>

“Do you really have to leave so soon?” Lance said, standing next to Fracshun as the three teenagers mounted up.

“Sorry lance, we’ve got classes to attend, important ones, and every one of them counts. There might be one thing taught today that could make all the difference in the rest of our time in the academy!” Parmon said.

“Probably not that earth shattering, professor, but the last thing we want is to let our instructor think we’re slacking.” Kitt said.

“I missed you guys…” Fracshun whined, coming closer to the three larger dragons. “I really did… will you come back soon?” he finished, almost pleading.

“We’ll see.” Cyrano rumbled.

“Yeah, I’m sure if there’s any real trouble we’ll get called in.” Wyldfyre said.

“And knowing Word and his type, that can’t be too long.” Beau laughed in his way, then lowered his head and nudged Fracshun in the shoulder with the tip of his nose. “Just keep safe. I was really worried about you this time.”

“And if there is next time, don’t go trying to play hero with gear you don’t know how to use.” Cyrano added, which set all three adult dragons to laughing, and Fracshun to an embarrassed blush.

Artha smiled as he watched the dragons ‘talk’ to each other. “Ok, you two…” he said, looking at Lance and Fracshun. “Try to stay out of trouble for a while. Dad… I’d say ‘leave it to security next time’ but I know that’s not going to happen.” He chuckled, to which Conner smirked and rolled his eyes. Artha then looked at the dragon below him. “Now if we’re all done with good byes, we really need to get back to the academy.”

Beau looked back at his rider, nodded in assent, gave Fracshun and Lance each a parting nudge, and turned and trotted out to the dragway, Wyldfyre and Cyrano turning to follow him.

“Bye!” Lance called out, waving after them.

“Bye!” Fracshun let out a high pitched call as the three adults left.

<<>>

The tunnels that the young male led them through were becoming progressively smaller. Wydgett had left the main tunnel long behind them and it was now becoming so constricted that Payshance could barely manage to stay alongside him… particularly with her swollen middle. She wasn’t so heavy that it slowed her in normal conditions, but in the tunnel she was now feeling it.

“Wydgett, how much further is it to this place?” Compashun whined anxiously.

“Is not far.” The little male chittered. Normally, something like that would’ve made Compashun feel better, but considering this was the fifth time he’d said that so far, it was starting to become irritating.

“This better be one nice place he’s taking us to, after leading us through this muck.” One of the blues behind her, for once not the sarcastic 0144, rumbled under her breath.

After another three turns, Wydgett suddenly stopped.

“Here we are!” he yipped, triumphantly.

A confused murmur ran down the tunnel after that. “What do you mean, ‘here we are?” Compashun growled, angrily. “We’re in an even less comfortable tunnel than when we started!”

Wydgett suddenly powered up for a mag stream, which instantly had Payshance growling and snapping at him, causing the small male to yelp, then hunker down apologetically.

“Wydgett not lie, Safe place up.” He said, looking at the ceiling above where he and Payshance were standing. There was a large rectangular grate that was almost large enough to let four Energy or pack class dragons through it at once.

“So… this place… is through there?” Compashun said, coming forward, then rising up on her hind legs, bracing herself against one of the slimy walls to get her head just under the grate so she could look out… She saw the purplish colored air of the lower levels of the city, same as when they’d come into the tunnels over an hour earlier. Looking around she saw several buildings around them… but they all looked very dirty, and the doors all looked broken.

“Yes, yes! Move grate, jump through, is safe place!” Wydgett confirmed, looking sideways at Payshance anxiously.

“Open it then.” Compashun trilled to the small male.

Payshance backed off from the small male this time, but Wydgett still looked nervous as he used a mag stream to gently lift the grate out of the way, sliding it off to the side. He then hunkered down, then sprang up through the hole a meter above his head. A moment later he poked his head back down the hole.  “Come, come! Is safe!” he said.

Payshance looked at Compashun. “If you’re sure, Leader.” She rumbled, unsure of the situation.

“I don’t think we have any choice.” Compashun trilled, then turned to face down the tunnel… the line of dragonesses extended down past where she could see.

“Payshance and I are going first to make sure it’s safe. Once we’re sure we’ll be back.” She growled, then barked authoritatively.

Payshance insisted on leaping out of the tunnel first, to check it out before she’d let her ‘leader’ come through. After a moment the pack female looked down into the open hole and nodded, so Compashun jumped up as well.

She found herself in a walled in, open aired lot with numerous large, darkened structures around. The area was quiet… there was the sound of machines from above… and music some levels above, but the immediate area didn’t seem to have any real activity.

“Wydgett… what is this place?” Compashun asked, her voice a low rumble of uncertainty.

“This old Stock yard.” Wydgett said. “Humans used to store lots of interesting things here, but they no longer do. Sometimes useful things drop down here, so we come to see, but not much. Is good place to rest though!” Wydgett said, then trotted over to one of the large structures and easily nosed the door open, and slipped inside.

Compashun and Payshance looked at each other, then followed the green male inside the structure. Once inside the doors, they found their eyes readjust to the gloom inside fairly quickly. The interior was one huge chamber, slowly rotating fans in the walls near the ceiling at either end kept the air from becoming stale. The floor was dusty, but there wasn’t any large debris, and there was plenty of space for all the recently freed dragonesses here.

Suddenly, a bright light nearly blinded both of them. Compashun and patience yelped in shock and whirled around, going back to back with each other, growling in all directions as spots peppered their vision.

“Is ok, is ok!” Wydgett was whining apologetically, yet sounding alarmed. “I just turn lights on!”

“Turned… on?” Compashun growled, but only half heartedly, she was just plain confused. She shook her head a few ties and blinked repeatedly until she became accustomed to the brighter light. As her vision returned, she saw the small green male standing a few meters away looking at her with a concerned expression on his face.

“Not even know that?” Wydgett said. “Wydgett no understand…”

“We just escaped from a breeding pen last night.” Payshance said, shaking her head. “We… didn’t do much for ourselves there.”

“Really?  Wydgett been to many breeding pens… they all closed up tight, can no find interesting things there, they not let any fall…” he said.

Both females looked at each other, then fixed Wydgett with a hard stare.

“Payshance…” Compashun said.

“Yes leader?” The pack female replied.

“Go tell the others it’s safe and bring them in. I need to have a little talk with our new friend here.” She rumbled.

Description
Chapter: 7

“Captain Faier!” one of the younger officers said, running up to the commander.

“Yes, what is it?”

“Strange report filed sir, a Feed station down at the worktown border was raided.”

“Another convenience store robbery?” Faier said. “Hardly anything unusual, those things are like giant targets to desperate men and women.” He continued, moving to enter his office.

“Sir, the report said that Dragons attacked this one!” the young officer said, causing Faier to freeze, the intelligence working through his mind.

“Dragons, you say?” Faier said, turning to look at the younger man.

“Yes! Riderless, rogue dragons! We’re not sure what to make of this, sir.” The officer said.

“This week keeps getting stranger and stranger…” Faier said, putting his head in the palm of one hand and sighing, rubbing his temples, exhausted after a full night of dealing with wraith dragons and a raid on a dragon stable.

<<>>

“Hey Moordryd, did you happen to see the news this morning?” Cain said as they sat down at lunch.

“No, Cain, I was studying as I had breakfast, as you should have. If your grades slip any further you’re going to be on probation.” He said, before biting off a piece of the apple he was eating. “Why, something interesting?” he continued, curious dispite himself.

“Remember how your old man had me plant something on one of Scalesheen’s buildings?” Cain said.

“Yeah, what of it?” Moordryd said, already irritated, his dislike of Guessing games famous.

“Something BIG happened there last night. I mean HUGE, something about ‘the biggest dragon heist of the decade’ they were sayin.” Cain said.

“Seriously?  Bigger than our… uh… well, you know.” He said, suddenly feeling self conscious about discussing illicit acts anywhere within the walls of the academy.

“Yeah, the whole place cleaned out, and Dragon City security can’t figure out how they did it. They couldn’t find any sign of a culprit having even been there in the first place.”

Moordryd and Cain looked at each other for a minute, then Moordryd looked out the window. “What in the magna draconis was that jakk box for anyway?” he wondered aloud.

“I dunno man. WAY beyond me.” Cain said.

<<>>

Compashun led her group back to their temporary ‘home’, the outflow tunnels. They couldn’t figure out how to transport the barrels of feed, so they had to bust the things open on the spot, then hastily eat as much as they could.

There hadn’t been enough to feed everyone satisfactorily, and some of the dragonesses were still hungry. Worse still, they’d not quite finished eating when suddenly they heard a lot of noise… strange high pitched wailings approaching them. It was not a dragon’s call, of any kind, and terrified them, forcing them to flee. Now they returned to their cold, wet, uncomfortable ‘home’ still hungry.

“Well… that could’ve gone better.” Compashun trilled in a downcast tone as they entered the tunnel system.

Behind her, Payshance’s ears pricked up, and she growled something almost inaudibly to two other pack females beside her. Suddenly Compashun looked up and saw them sailing though the air overhead, to land in front of her and go dashing into the darkness of the tunnel.

“Hey!” she yelped in shock. “Hey, wait! What’re you doing!?” she called after them, the other dragonesses behind her picking up speed to keep up.

Ahead, in the pitch dark, Compashun heard a scuffle… claws scraping and draconic bodies slamming into each other, and cries being let out. Most of them aggressive cries from the pack females, but there was also a distressed, frightened voice she didn’t recognize at all, it didn’t even sound like any of the kinds of dragons she’d met or seen yet. It was very high pitched, though it had somewhat of a male inflection.

Finally catching up, along with some of the braver energy and pack class females, Compashun came to a halt where Payshance and the other two Pack females were… holding down a very small bipedal male dragon, not a speck of gear on him anywhere. He was a pale greenish color, and seemed very thin… wiry almost. He looked as though he’d known a fair deal of hunger in his life, for his face was narrow and very angular, and his ribs showed through his hide, though not as much as if he was emaciated. Compashun had once seen a sickly female in the breeding pen, she’d hardly had any meat left on her when the keepers took her away… she’d never seen her after that.

“What is this?” Compashun demanded, growling.

“Leader, I heard him nosing around, so we caught him.” Payshance growl-barked.

Compashun looked down at the very frightened little male. “I see that.” She trilled, then turned to look at Payshance again. “I wish you’d acted like your name and told me instead of just rushing off.” She continued, making the other female hunch her shoulders.

“Nonsense Compashun.” 0144 chuckled, stepping up. “If she’d taken the time to tell you, he-” she trilled in her deeper tone, indicating the young captive male with a claw. “Would’ve heard us coming and got away.”

Compashun’s eyes widened as she realized the other female was right. “I see… sorry Payshance, you did the right thing.” She trilled to the pack female, who nodded.

“Now, though…” Compashun sighed, turning her attention to the light green colored, male bipedal dragon. “Who are you?”

“Me Wydgett…” The male whined.

“Well, Wydgett…” Compashun trilled, bringing her head down to look him square in the eye, making the much smaller dragon look like he wanted a hole to open up below him. “What are you doing here?”

“Wydgett look for… look for things… yes, things fall down from upper city, end up certain places, Keeper’s crew need many things, Wydgett know good places to find things…” He whined in that queerly high pitched voice.

“KEEPERS!?” Compashun roared, while all the other dragonesses growled. “You’re working for humans!?” she continued, growling ferociously.

Wydgett looked at once very frightened and greatly confused. “Stewardd and other keepers build things… We help them…” He started, before Compashun roared again, silencing him.

“Compashun, please stop…” Tendyr whined, coming forward. “You’re terrifying him…”

“And someone’s going to hear you if you keep roaring like that.” 0144 said, shaking her head.

Compashun glared back at the other female for a second, before mastering herself. “Fine then, but if he knew about this place, we can’t stay here any longer.”

“Where are we supposed to go?” Payshance whined. “We didn’t find anywhere else big enough for all of us, especially someplace safe…”

“Wydgett knows safe place!” The male suddenly yapped, garnering the attention of every one of the females.

“Probably where your humans keep you.” 0144 rumbled derisively, before Compashun rounded on her with a sharp snort, silencing her.

“Wydgett…” She rumbled slowly. “My friends and I need a place to stay… somewhere humans don’t go, someplace safe… and we need to be able to find food… do you know of such a place?” she asked the small male.

The little pale green dragon nodded, even as he was still being restrained bodily by Payshance the pack females. Compashun nodded, then looked at the females restraining him, and they slowly let him stand.

“You can’t be serious!” 0144 snorted. “We don’t even know him!”

“We don’t know anything out here!” Compashun growled back at her, then checked her tone apologetically. “We nearly got lost coming back here. He at least seems to know this place.” She said, inclining her head in Wydgett’s direction.

The older female shook her head. “Something’s telling me we’re going to regret this.”

“You’d rather stay here?” Compashun trilled, looking around the dank, moldy tunnel.

“Of course not!” 0144 growled sharply.

“Then come on.” Compashun said. “Wydgett, you’ll lead, but Payshance and I will be keeping an eye on you, so don’t try to run off.”

“Yes, yes!” The small pale green dragon said, nodding his head vigorously. “Wydgett lead big dragons to safe place, Wydgett promise!” he yapped and trilled in a very excited and earnest sounding manner, before he started trotting… deeper into the tunnel.

“We’re going… that way!?” Tendyr yelped, alarmed.

“Just come on!” Compashun growled.

<<>>

“Do you really have to leave so soon?” Lance said, standing next to Fracshun as the three teenagers mounted up.

“Sorry lance, we’ve got classes to attend, important ones, and every one of them counts. There might be one thing taught today that could make all the difference in the rest of our time in the academy!” Parmon said.

“Probably not that earth shattering, professor, but the last thing we want is to let our instructor think we’re slacking.” Kitt said.

“I missed you guys…” Fracshun whined, coming closer to the three larger dragons. “I really did… will you come back soon?” he finished, almost pleading.

“We’ll see.” Cyrano rumbled.

“Yeah, I’m sure if there’s any real trouble we’ll get called in.” Wyldfyre said.

“And knowing Word and his type, that can’t be too long.” Beau laughed in his way, then lowered his head and nudged Fracshun in the shoulder with the tip of his nose. “Just keep safe. I was really worried about you this time.”

“And if there is next time, don’t go trying to play hero with gear you don’t know how to use.” Cyrano added, which set all three adult dragons to laughing, and Fracshun to an embarrassed blush.

Artha smiled as he watched the dragons ‘talk’ to each other. “Ok, you two…” he said, looking at Lance and Fracshun. “Try to stay out of trouble for a while. Dad… I’d say ‘leave it to security next time’ but I know that’s not going to happen.” He chuckled, to which Conner smirked and rolled his eyes. Artha then looked at the dragon below him. “Now if we’re all done with good byes, we really need to get back to the academy.”

Beau looked back at his rider, nodded in assent, gave Fracshun and Lance each a parting nudge, and turned and trotted out to the dragway, Wyldfyre and Cyrano turning to follow him.

“Bye!” Lance called out, waving after them.

“Bye!” Fracshun let out a high pitched call as the three adults left.

<<>>

The tunnels that the young male led them through were becoming progressively smaller. Wydgett had left the main tunnel long behind them and it was now becoming so constricted that Payshance could barely manage to stay alongside him… particularly with her swollen middle. She wasn’t so heavy that it slowed her in normal conditions, but in the tunnel she was now feeling it.

“Wydgett, how much further is it to this place?” Compashun whined anxiously.

“Is not far.” The little male chittered. Normally, something like that would’ve made Compashun feel better, but considering this was the fifth time he’d said that so far, it was starting to become irritating.

“This better be one nice place he’s taking us to, after leading us through this muck.” One of the blues behind her, for once not the sarcastic 0144, rumbled under her breath.

After another three turns, Wydgett suddenly stopped.

“Here we are!” he yipped, triumphantly.

A confused murmur ran down the tunnel after that. “What do you mean, ‘here we are?” Compashun growled, angrily. “We’re in an even less comfortable tunnel than when we started!”

Wydgett suddenly powered up for a mag stream, which instantly had Payshance growling and snapping at him, causing the small male to yelp, then hunker down apologetically.

“Wydgett not lie, Safe place up.” He said, looking at the ceiling above where he and Payshance were standing. There was a large rectangular grate that was almost large enough to let four Energy or pack class dragons through it at once.

“So… this place… is through there?” Compashun said, coming forward, then rising up on her hind legs, bracing herself against one of the slimy walls to get her head just under the grate so she could look out… She saw the purplish colored air of the lower levels of the city, same as when they’d come into the tunnels over an hour earlier. Looking around she saw several buildings around them… but they all looked very dirty, and the doors all looked broken.

“Yes, yes! Move grate, jump through, is safe place!” Wydgett confirmed, looking sideways at Payshance anxiously.

“Open it then.” Compashun trilled to the small male.

Payshance backed off from the small male this time, but Wydgett still looked nervous as he used a mag stream to gently lift the grate out of the way, sliding it off to the side. He then hunkered down, then sprang up through the hole a meter above his head. A moment later he poked his head back down the hole.  “Come, come! Is safe!” he said.

Payshance looked at Compashun. “If you’re sure, Leader.” She rumbled, unsure of the situation.

“I don’t think we have any choice.” Compashun trilled, then turned to face down the tunnel… the line of dragonesses extended down past where she could see.

“Payshance and I are going first to make sure it’s safe. Once we’re sure we’ll be back.” She growled, then barked authoritatively.

Payshance insisted on leaping out of the tunnel first, to check it out before she’d let her ‘leader’ come through. After a moment the pack female looked down into the open hole and nodded, so Compashun jumped up as well.

She found herself in a walled in, open aired lot with numerous large, darkened structures around. The area was quiet… there was the sound of machines from above… and music some levels above, but the immediate area didn’t seem to have any real activity.

“Wydgett… what is this place?” Compashun asked, her voice a low rumble of uncertainty.

“This old Stock yard.” Wydgett said. “Humans used to store lots of interesting things here, but they no longer do. Sometimes useful things drop down here, so we come to see, but not much. Is good place to rest though!” Wydgett said, then trotted over to one of the large structures and easily nosed the door open, and slipped inside.

Compashun and Payshance looked at each other, then followed the green male inside the structure. Once inside the doors, they found their eyes readjust to the gloom inside fairly quickly. The interior was one huge chamber, slowly rotating fans in the walls near the ceiling at either end kept the air from becoming stale. The floor was dusty, but there wasn’t any large debris, and there was plenty of space for all the recently freed dragonesses here.

Suddenly, a bright light nearly blinded both of them. Compashun and patience yelped in shock and whirled around, going back to back with each other, growling in all directions as spots peppered their vision.

“Is ok, is ok!” Wydgett was whining apologetically, yet sounding alarmed. “I just turn lights on!”

“Turned… on?” Compashun growled, but only half heartedly, she was just plain confused. She shook her head a few ties and blinked repeatedly until she became accustomed to the brighter light. As her vision returned, she saw the small green male standing a few meters away looking at her with a concerned expression on his face.

“Not even know that?” Wydgett said. “Wydgett no understand…”

“We just escaped from a breeding pen last night.” Payshance said, shaking her head. “We… didn’t do much for ourselves there.”

“Really?  Wydgett been to many breeding pens… they all closed up tight, can no find interesting things there, they not let any fall…” he said.

Both females looked at each other, then fixed Wydgett with a hard stare.

“Payshance…” Compashun said.

“Yes leader?” The pack female replied.

“Go tell the others it’s safe and bring them in. I need to have a little talk with our new friend here.” She rumbled.