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Book 2: Chapter 18: In Trouble

He looked back at a squeak from the dragon. Her scales had returned to full vibrancy -- almost eye watering pink. She stood up on newly strengthened legs and launched herself: front and back legs and wings, to capture Cressida in a tight hug.

"I can breathe!" the hatchling said, full throated and happy. "And the world looks so shiny and colorful. Where am I, anyway? Where is my egg-shell? Oh! I'm Joyberry, by the way, but you can call me Joy. What's your name? And who is that?" She craned her head around to look at Arthur, wrinkling up her nose slightly at the end as if in distaste.

Cressida looked bowled over by Joy's... enthusiasm. "I'm Lady Cressida of Icehouse."

"That's a long name," Joy interrupted. "Can I call you Cressida? Or just Cress? Oh! Can we go flying? I can make a quest for it right now."

"Not just yet, I'd rather get you looked over by a healer. And call me Cressida, please."

"Okay!" Again, Joy looked at Arthur. "Is he the one that really long quest is about?"

Arthur was hit with a sense of foreboding. "Quest?"

But Cressida shook her head. She still looked overwhelmed, but seemed to be getting her feet back under her. She gave Arthur a significant look that he interpreted as "We'll talk later".

"What is this place?" Joy twisted her head to look all around the small apartment, going so far as to turn completely upside-down so that Cressida had to hold her stead so she didn't overbalance. "There is so much dirt everywhere. Is this outside?"

Arthur coughed. Yes, he could stand to use his Tidying skill a little more. Things had been hectic over the last few weeks, and he hadn't dusted.

"She looks healthy." Arthur stepped forward, extending his hand as he would a horse or a dog to sniff.

Head turned upside down, Joy watched him.

"It's nice to meet you," Arthur said.

"Your card wasn't right," she replied. "I mean, it was better than most but way, way, way too strong. It would have burned me up from the inside out. Cressida, do you hear that?" she asked excitedly, straightening. "All of those wings? Do you think they're dragons?"

Arthur couldn't hear anything. Joy's senses must be sharper than his own.

"The full hive are mustering, at last," Cressida said on a sigh. "I bet no one took word of a local scourge infestation seriously--"

"It's not all the dragons," Joy said. "Just one and a couple attendants, and it's huge."

"How do you know--" Arthur started.

And that was when the window blew in.

Thankfully, the glass was thick and badly blown enough to fall out in one piece on a clunk instead of shattering like a thinner plane.

Gale force winds ripped through the room after it, blowing Arthur back a step, ripping down the curtain used as a "wall" and flinging loose dust and detritus everywhere.

Cressida shrieked in surprise, instinctively curling around Joy to protect her. Arthur saw a spurt of flame as she tried to summon Wicker, but the raging wind snuffed the bear out before it could form.

He looked at the window, which was now dominated by a single, slitted green eye. The tiny scales around it were a powdery blue.

It was a dragon. A dragon bigger than any he had ever seen, and by the way that eye narrowed, it was a very unhappy dragon.

"CRESSIDA ICEHOUSE. ERNEST KANE." A voice bellowed so loud that vibrate the air around them. Arthur hunched over and Cressida clapped her hands over the sides of Joy's head as if to protect her ears. "COME OUT SIDE RIGHT NOW. YOU HAVE EXPLAINING TO DO."

There was no way they could say no to the dragon. From the size alone, it could rip off the top of the apartment building as easily as Arthur opened a jar.

He suspected he knew which dragon this was. That suspicion was borne out when he and Cressida exited to ground level and got a better look at the dragon.

Not an entire look of the dragon because she was currently perched on a thunderhead. A thick cloudy mist obscured most of the dragon's form. And as she was much too large to fit in the city streets, she stuck her head down from the bottom of the cloud to glare at them. She was an aged dragon, wrinkles running like cracks between her powder blue scales.

She was also appropriately grumpy with them.

"HURRY UP. I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY."

She extended a clawed hand the size of a canal barge. Tentatively, Arthur stepped on the palm. Cressida, carrying Joy, did the same.

While the pink dragon clung onto Cressida, tail wrapped around the woman's waist, she didn't look frightened.

"Ohhh..." she cooed to the big blue. "You look very scary. Will I grow as big as you someday?"

To Arthur's surprise, the giant dragon inclined her head to look down at Joy. With her aged face, she looked a little like a nearsighted grandmother squinting to read a recipe. "YOU'RE THAT RARE HATCHLING WHO HAS BEEN VEXING MY VALENTINA, AREN'T YOU?"

"Yup! I'm Joy! Who are you?"

"Joy!" Cressida hissed, alarmed.

"YOU MAY CALL ME ELISSA. NOW, HOLD ON TIGHT AND NO SCREAMING. I HATE THE SOUND OF SCREAMING," she grumbled, though loudly.

With that, the cloud she was perched on shot straight up into the air, faster than an arrow leaving the quiver.

Arthur's stomach dropped to the floor, the dark city streets below were a glittering spread of lamp lights, like a reverse night sky. Looking at it made him feel so sick he thought he might topple over.

No wonder people screamed.

There was more, too: Though darkness had fallen, he was aware of dragon shapes darting back and forth in the air. Some were punctuated by card abilities, which highlighted a flash of scale, or a rider conjuring a charm. Some dragon's magic made their eyes glow as they searched below.

The hive had been mustered after all, and unless he was mistaken they were searching for the escaped scrougelings.

The ascending cloud didn't slow until they had nearly reached the top of the hive's cone. Curiously, Arthur's ears didn't pop, and the air was still at a comfortable temperature and easy to breathe. He suspected that was Elissa's doing.

Valentina stood at the end of a long open air balcony that looked like a pathway out to the sky.

"I DARE SAY THE RARE WILL LIVE AFTER ALL," Elissa announced as if she had anything to do with it. Then she unceremoniously dumped her passengers on the balcony -- Causing Arthur to stumble close to the edge.

Valentina looked no more happy than her dragon had. She glowered at them like they had interrupted her nights' sleep. Even though the sun had just set.

"I hope for your sake you have cards worth all this trouble," she said to Cressida.

"We do," Cressida said, with a slightly awkward curtsy considering she was holding a baby dragon. "But I come with news--"

"The scholars?" Valentina asked. "Save it. I know. Or at least, seekers already put you two there, in the thick of it. Come on," she turned, a miniature cloud forming under her feet to carry her back across the balcony and to the hive. "Let's get this over with."

"Are we in trouble?" Joy asked in a stage whisper.

Arthur wasn't sure how to answer. Judging by Cressida's silence, she didn't either.