The Smuggler: Chapter Twelve: Preparation

 I include a dragon who turns out to be a, well I shouldn't say, but I got the inspiration picture from https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=3dq-are-you-a-hybrid-of-silkwing-hivewing-and-leafwing. Just don't want to get sued or anything.

Chapter Twelve

Preparation

    It was not like the cavern they had just come through, but it was still huge. Twisting shelves ran through the tall, still underground, room, filled with small glass globes containing some kind of misty substance. Makele paused just outside the door and turned back to them. "This is my Soul Chamber. Each of these globes holds the soul of a dragon. Every dragon who has ever died is here."

    "Are they alphabetized or something?" asked Julia. Her gaze swept over the corridors and Moth could almost see her brain turning, trying to memorize the maze of hallways.

    Makele met her gaze. "If they were alphabetized, it would be like they were considered books or some non-living object. Do you wish for the very souls of the dragons you love to be treated like that?"

    Julia blushed. "No! Of course not! I was just wondering how you find souls."

    "Do you have every dragon who has died?" Moth asked, a distant memory coming into his mind.

    Makele smiled. "I believe you're thinking of..." She turned behind her and ran her talons over a few of the globes before pausing and lifting one off. She turned around and carefully removed the top. A spiral of smoke came whirling out, enveloping them and making Peacock cough.

    It whirled back towards Makele and settled beside her, slowly taking on the form of a nervous-looking brown SilkWing. He turned his gaze on the three of them and blinked, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

    "Gatekeeper?" Moth whispered. "Is it you?"

    Gatekeeper's eyes widened. "It is you. My dragonets!" He threw open his wings in excitement and embraced them, all of them laughing and crying at the same time. "How did you get here?" Gatekeeper asked. "You haven't died, have you?"

    "No," Julia replied, pulling back and wiping away her tears. "We came to get Makele's help. The dragon who helped us to Pyrria, Dragonfly, has been captured by Wasp trying to get Mother out of the cavern, and we're trying to get her out."

    "Get her out?" asked Gatekeeper, alarmed. "How are you going to do that?"

    "They will have my help," Makele said in a soft voice. "I have met Dragonfly, actually. She was one of the few who came searching for me, and even one of the fewer who found me. I never thought she'd get tangled up in this mess. She seemed pretty sensible, but apparently I was mistaken." She gave a little falsely disapproving sigh. "Oh, well. I can't be right every time."

    "Speaking of Dragonfly," said Moth. "When are we going to go get her from the prison?"

    "Ah, yes. Forgive me. I was distracted." Makele turned and called, "Rain!" The word echoed off the walls, until a reply came back.

    "Yes, Mother?"

    "Come here please."

    "Yes, Mother." Footsteps echoed through the corridor until a RainWing came into sight, clutching a scroll which she was staring at intently. She looked up. "Oh. Who are these?" She smiled at Moth, Julia, and Peacock. "How did you three get to the Distant Kingdoms?"

    "It's a long story," Peacock told her.

    "These are Julia, Peacock, and Moth," Makele told her. "This is my daughter Rain, founder of the RainWings. Rain, their friend, Dragonfly, has been captured by Wasp for rescuing SilkWings from Pantala."

    Rain nodded and closed the scroll. "And you were wondering if I could help you with strategizing."

    "Well, mostly the layout of Wasp Hive, but strategizing too."

    "Right. Ice and Night would probably be more help in the strategizing department. Sure. I'll help all I can."

    "Great." Makele turned to Gatekeeper, who looked slightly intimidated in front of the RainWing. "Gatekeeper, could you please go find Ice and Night somewhere? We're going to need all the help we can get. On second thought, if you don't mind, it would be nice to find all of my dragonets. The danger has arisen." She exchanged glances with her daughter. "But not just for you three. Wasp should watch her back."

    And that was how, a few hours later, Moth found himself headed directly towards Pantala again, but this time, aided by the legendary founders of the dragon tribes.

    Makele brought them to her caves. They were off the sides of the Soul Chamber, and had a few visitors, although they were all spirits, who were waiting for Makele to return to get permission to visit the outside world or, as Makele later explained, be reborn into a dragonet, although it was a hard and difficult process.

    Makele glanced at the spirits. "Goodness. There's a crowd today." There were about five dragons. Moth must have been looking at her funny, because she explained, "There are usually one or two, but it must be some sort of occasion."

    Gatekeeper arrived just then. "Makele. Your dragonets are waiting by one of the spirit exits."

    "Oh, good. Thank you for getting them so quickly." Makele had a few whispered discussions with the spirits, usually pointing to one of the caves or the Soul Chamber at the end, and then walked into a tunnel. The three siblings followed her, with their father close behind, and arrived into a well-lit cave. Six dragons were sitting in it. Moth immediately paired each of them with their names that Makele had told them. It was easy. The red SkyWing and blue SeaWing whispering together must be Sky and Sea, the IceWing Ice, the NightWing Night, and so on.

    They all turned as they walked in. "Mother. Thank the moons. Explanation, please," Sky said, standing up. "Something about a dragonfly being caught by a wasp? Why is that our concern?"

    "No, sister," Rain said. "Dragonfly, the HiveWing that visited Mother a few years ago, has been captured by Wasp. You know, Queen Wasp?"

    Sky grunted. "Ah. Well in the future please send someone else other than a babbling SilkWing spirit who apparently has no idea what he's talking about."

    Moth opened his mouth to retort, but Julia got there first. She glared at the SkyWing. "That 'babbling spirit' is our father, thank you. I'm sure we would all appreciate it if you refrained from insulting him right in front of us."

    Ooh, she's in for it, thought Moth. When she's not shy, she's furious.

    "Calm down, you two," said Makele. "We did not come here to argue amongst ourselves. Dragonfly is in trouble, and I need all of you to cooperate to safely free her. Mud, do you know when Silk and Leaf are visiting?"

    Mud (the MudWing, obviously), frowned. "I think they said next time two of the moons were full."

    "Which would be in about three weeks," said Night.

    "We can't afford to wait that long. We'll have to make do without them, I suppose." All of them crowded around a table where Rain spread the scroll she had been looking at on the table. To Moth's surprise, it was a map of Pantala, but unlike any map he had ever seen. Actual clouds hung above the paper, moving the way they were probably moving there. As Rain zoomed in, he could see miniature dragons moving around.

    "Okay. Here's Wasp Hive," Rain said, tapping twice on the Hive. It zoomed in more and the clouds disappeared, allowing them to see it clearly. "Here's the Temple of Clearsight, so Wasp's castle should be somewhere around...Here." Rain paused in her scrolling of the Hive and a picture of the castle formed. She adjusted the view so they were looking at it like a regular dragon would, not from the air, but the side.

    It was huge, with towering spikes and heavy double doors. Guards stood at the entrance, glaring daggers at any dragons who were passing by. Rain touched one of the windows and the scroll's view actually went inside Wasp's palace. SilkWings and HiveWings hurried past, totally unaware of them. Rain looked back up at them. "Thoughts?"

    "Change it to blueprint mode, still keeping the guards and servants," said Ice, leaning over it. "And all of the palace, not just this part." Rain obliged, and the map seemed a whole lot bigger.

    "The exits are here, here, here, and the servant entrances over here," Sand said, tapping different parts of the map. "Most likely heavily guarded. The windows, on the other hand..." He looked up at Night.

    Night closed her eyes in concentration, and Moth realized she had silver scales at the corners of her eyes. She had either hatched under three moons or two. Probably three. "That depends. We have no chance whatsoever of getting through the ones near Wasp's room or throne room thing, and the dungeon doesn't have any, but there's this one HiveWing who has private chambers who likes the sun and leaves her windows open all the time." She opened her eyes and pointed to the map. "There. We could probably get in. It actually faces out of the Hive, so we wouldn't even have to get in."

    "Great," said Sea. "Considering we don't give the dragon a heart attack, we go from there to the dungeon or to find Wasp?"

    "Dungeon," Makele replied. "Wasp can wait. Dragonfly can't. How do we get to the dungeon?"

    Rain sighed and sat back. "That's just the thing. The dungeon is underground, like the flamesilk cavern. The map can't see underground. We may have to resort to the future-telling hologram thingy."

    Makele murmured an agreement and opened her palm, holding it up to the ceiling. A small image of Wasp's castle appeared in it. It spun around until Rain held up her hand in a stop motion and the open window appeared. The image zoomed in and slowly made its way around the palace. Sea grabbed ink and a scroll and began frantically scribbling directions down. Makele's image made its way through the palace before encountering a large, heavily guarded door which, after inspection, led into the dark passageway that was not on Rain's map. It wound down underground until a light shone ahead. It was the jail. HiveWing guards patrolled the passageways, gazing intently at the prisoners.

    Makele's image slowed considerably and started inspecting each cell as they passed it. Moth peered intently at it. Most of them were empty, but there were SilkWings and a few HiveWings in them. Suddenly the vision looked into one of them and Moth's heart pretty much stopped. He blinked a few times, thinking he wasn't seeing straight. The dragon standing in the cell was unlike any he had seen. Not on any dragon, even Makele. It had two wings, which was a start. But there was more. It was mostly green, with yellow stripes. Its wings weren't exactly leaf-shaped, like the LeafWings, which were supposedly dead, but slightly more smooth, sort of like a SilkWing's. There were antennae, though. "Spirit of Clearsight! What is that?"

    He looked around, but everyone else seemed just as stunned as he did. "I've never seen a dragon like that," Sky admitted. The dragon flinched as a guard walked past its cell.

    Night scrunched up her face in concentration. "I'm not actually sure. There are so many futures now. It would take a very long time to find one with them in it.

    Makele sighed. "Mental note. Ask this mystery dragon what they are, then decide if we want to rescue them. Anyway, we have to find Dragonfly." The image turned and continued down the corridor until it paused at the cell.

    "Yes!" cried Peacock. "That's her!" Dragonfly was sitting imperially in her cell, glaring daggers at the passing guards until they hurried away, not wanting to be in her line of fire.

    Ice frowned. "That doesn't really look too hard. We'll have to make a few adjustments and precautions, of course, but otherwise that looks pretty easy. Let's get started."