That night, the dragons arranged a small camp where they could sleep. Fia's fire burned at the center where all the dragons lay, creating a cozy atmosphere.

"Come here, Fia," Diwa called. Her open wing beckoned the dragonette away from Viliant and toward herself.

Before their serious talk, Fia would not have hesitated to dive beneath Diwa's wing. Now, one of her hind feet took a distrustful step back. Diwa tried to steal Viliant from me, she thought to herself. Fia glared intensely like a fire smoldered in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Diwa asked with a dismissive laugh. "Did the lemurs yesterday make my breath smell bad?"

From his dusty bed of rocks, Viliant hefted himself up. His body blocked Fia from the view of Sage Rokirith and Diwa on either side of the campfire. I want to make something clear. The two of us are going back to Carlinoa together, and there's nothing you can do to convince us otherwise.

A confounded look crossed the scaly faces of Diwa and Sage Rokirith, especially as they turned to stare at each other. As a result of their surprise, they did not have the patience for telepathy. Between Rokirith's call to rain mountain fire down on the humans and Diwa's plea for the black dragonet to have a cozier life, Fia and Viliant could not understand the exchange. Only a few words did the former dragonette manage to parse out.

"I told you not to mess with Fia!" Diwa roared. "Her parents are waiting for her. They might even be looking for her!"

"And I told you to let them go!" Sage Rokirith snarled back. "If you have to keep one, Fia is a better choice. We're not keeping that other wyrm!"

Over the dancing flames of the campfire, Diwa and Rokirith leered at each other. After seemingly careful deliberation, the green dragoness lunged over the flames. Her small frame was agile enough to latch her claws onto the sage's shoulder before he could stagger back. The larger dragon threw his weight to the side, purposefully crashing to the ground. Diwa squealed under the heavy blow of his muscles and scales.

As the one on top, Sage Rokirith got up faster and shrugged her grasping claws off him. The sage placed a claw over Diwa's body. "Calm down."

"Let go!" Diwa's thrashing caused the sage's claws to tear up some of her own scales. As blood oozed from her injury, she ceased her writhing. Diwa was trapped, still pinned by Sage Rokirith's weight at the point of one foot. Her whole body reduced to trembles after she had submitted.

An amused rumble came from Sage Rokirith's chest. Not in front of the children, Di-Di, he said in their private headspace.

Aside from her labored breaths, only her eyes moved. Her slitted pupils darted to the corner so that she might glare at the sage.

Cowering behind Viliant, Fia peeked her nose over his wings. Why're they fighting?

Because I was right! They were trying to manipulate us. Sage Rokirith targeted you. Diwa targeted me. Now, they're upset their plan didn't work.

The apparent confirmation of his suspicions made Fia's tail drag in sadness. They're not gonna force us to stay, are they?

No. They can try, but it won't work. We're leaving as soon as we get what we need from the badlands.

Fia nodded. Even chains and cages could not hold them back, so she had nothing to fret about.

After the adults' bout, Diwa apologized profusely. “I’m sorry for losing my temper with the sage. You have a home to return to, Fia. I only want what's best for you—for both of you.” Her tone turned stricter as her gaze settled on Viliant. “I hope you rethink this decision. Sleep on it.”

Everyone calmed down and went to bed for an early start tomorrow.

***

Fia's giddiness over flying yesterday had vanished completely. Even after the rush down the mountainside, the barren rock and sand beneath them brought back painful memories. A small grove of semi-arid trees clustered around a visible pool of water below. I almost died there, Fia reflected to herself. Expanding her thoughts to include Viliant, she said, Thank you.

What? Viliant lifted his limp neck upward, trying to catch a glimpse of Fia from his spot in Sage Rokirith's claws.

Thanks for everything you did at the oasis.

You're welcome.

From so high up, Fia could even see where alabaster canyons met the bright sky and plunged into the dark depths. Near a canyon, they landed. "There's three things that we can look for," Diwa instructed them. "In order of value they are: the aloe vera plant, ghast gecko tails, and scarlet sand pockets. If we could find scarlet sand, we'd be rich!" The sense of thrill eased away from Diwa's mind in favor of a more realistic goal. "But we're more likely to be able to find ghast geckos…."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

A gasp rushed down Fia's throat. Not ghast geckos! she thought to herself, mortified. Since she wanted to avoid those at all costs, she broadcast telepathically, Let's look for the plants. And sand! Fia frantically scoured the dirt for plant life other than the thorny shrubs. Once she failed to find anything of notable interest on the surface, she started digging for red-colored sand.

Why don't you want to look for the lizards? Viliant inquired, pointedly. I thought you liked them.

Fia pouted wordlessly at Viliant, feeling betrayed that he would make light of her grave mistake. He's testing me, she told herself. Fia had already vowed never to be so naive again.

Luckily, Diwa had a knack for finding plants and showed them how to identify the long, spined leaves of aloe vera. "It has a lot of medicinal properties…." She explained their uses in the same way as she had done for the jungle herbs.

While Fia and Viliant tried their best to help, Sage Rokirith sunned himself. He only stirred when Fia, Viliant, and Diwa scavenged farther away. The sage spread his wings and glided barely above the ground, moving as far ahead of them as he once lay behind. There, Sage Rokirith settled to sun himself again. By the time they passed him by yet again, he yawned. "I’m bored. I'm going to hunt alligatoise."

Presently, Fia was still furrowing through the clay-packed ground. Not a gleam of red stood out from the rust-colored earth—at least not until a lizard poked its head out of a tunnel that she had uncovered. Its red eyes matched the hollow innards visible from its back. "No, wait! Sage Rokirith, help!" she screamed out of fright, her mind alight.

"Fia!" That level of concern over her name, she had only previously heard from Viliant and Arenis when she had been captured. However, this panicked voice belonged to none other than Sage Rokirith. Already prepared to take off, the sage turned from his crouch and rushed to her aid.

His claws gripped gingerly around the tip of her tail and pulled her out of the hole. Fia dangled upside down with her front legs tucked into the tan crest of scales at her chest. Sage Rokirith stared into the hole that she had dug, growling. When he saw nothing, he asked, “What has gotten the dragonette spooked? Did a beetle crawl over your claws?”

"No!" she gasped. Before she could stop herself and opt for its proper name, she cried out, "It was a Lil Vilie!"

"A little… Vilie?" Sage Rokirith pressed his eye down to the hollowed earth and peered into the hole. "Ha!" he laughed. "And here I thought you found something dangerous like a cracked earthworm. Fia has uncovered ghast lizards. Lil Vilies, you call them? Lil Vilie!" he called again, jabbing at Viliant's mind in particular.

"Ugh." Viliant—who had previously been hard at work, zealously biting the leaves off an aloe vera plant—now lay down in a heap. Privately to Fia, he moaned, Why did you have to say that to the sage of all people?

However, the impact of the sage's teasing paled in comparison to Diwa's assault of faux sympathy. Aw, Viliant, there's no reason to feel shy. She joined him alongside the ground, putting their telepathic receptors together so he could not forcefully block out the older dragoness. The ghast geckos are really cute, just like you!

Leave me alone, he snarled, wrapping his torn wings over his horns.

With his steady, low laughter, Sage Rokirith swung Fia by the tail and placed her on her claws. "Normally, ghast geckos like to attack en masse," Sage Rokirith explained the behavior which Fia and Viliant had already experienced for themselves. "Their brain is just big enough to give the inferior lizards the sense to cower before dragons, but their stupidity precedes them. Watch this." Sage Rokirith backed away from the hole and set himself ablaze with a cloak of blackfire. The dry air gained a harsh chill as the sage's element sapped its surroundings of warmth.

Many, blinking eyes gathered around the entrance to the ghast geckos' underground abode. They marched out one by one and gathered around their idol, Sage Rokirith, and praised him by covering their own bodies in blackfire. The geckos reacted the same way to his magic as they had to Viliant engulfed in shadow.

You're right about something, Viliant retorted to the sage. They'd have to be pretty dumb to copy you.

"Hey!" Fia whined, the one who had initially considered tutelage under the great sage. Somehow, she needed to ease the tension that she had created between all the dragons. "They're not Lil Vilies!" Fia declared. "They're Lil Ro—Lil Rokies!" She felt weird using the adult dragoness's nickname for the sage, but Diwa burst out laughing.

"Yes!" she cried. "Lil Rokies!" Tears beaded from her eyes. Diwa's mouth hung open, gasping, trying to catch her breath between wheezes.

A roar bellowed from the sage's chest to drown out her guffaws. With his deft claws and cleaver tail, Sage Rokirith lashed out against the Lil Rokies. A pile of lizard bodies encircled him, brought to a swift end. For those which managed to scurry away, the sage succeeded at slicing off their tails. "There. I have done more than my share."

"You scared the Lil Rokies away," Diwa said, her voice drooping in disappointment.

"And you've driven the great Sage Rokirith away," the dark gray dragon said, insisting upon his proper name. "I will not hear a peep of this when I get back," he said, red eyes flashing, livid, "or else I'm leaving you all here on the wrong side of the mountains." Sage Rokirith stomped away from the three other dragons, leaving them to collect the gecko tails.

Sorry… my Lil Roki, Diwa echoed to him alone before he slammed her out of his mind.

As for the dragonets, Fia and Viliant did not overhear that last bit, but they did witness Diwa recoil in pain. The receptors at the side of her head visibly throbbed. "Fia, Viliant, let's pick up the tails," she said out loud in simple words, not ready to use her telepathic transmitters so soon. "These are worth a lot—enough to send you home."