Only three of the five dragon elders listened to Vicente's plight. Each sat on raised chairs made of whalebones, looking down on Vicente. They had little reason to call the other two clan leaders, considering how a majority opinion had already been reached.

The three elders bowed their heads in unanimous agreement. "We give our utmost condolences for your loss, Vicente." The earnest, ruby eyes of the dragon elders drifted away from him. Only Elder Kivo maintained eye contact as he delivered the elders' decision. "However, we cannot sacrifice our warriors and the safety of the entire clan for a single dragonette."

"That's my daughter!" Vicente roared. "Do you expect me to abandon her?" With his fangs bared, he huffed smoke with each of his irate exhales. He was about to let them have a firestorm of a tirade, but Evander stuck out his wing to hold him back.

"Are you not the fathers of our clan?" Evander asked calmly. "It is your duty to preside over us all, in the same way that Vicente cares for Fia. The clan elders cannot perch with folded wings and watch the loss of even a single dragonet!"

Elder Kivo, shortest in stature of all the dragon elders, flicked his mottled tail like he intended to swat a fly. His red and black scales gave way to rings of the darker color around his deep-set eyes. "Evander," Elder Kivo snarled, "you are closer to a dragonet yourself than you are to us. What would you know about leadership of the whole clan?"

"I know that all five elders must be present before a final decision is reached," Evander stated simply.

A faint growl slipped past Elder Kivo's clenched teeth.

"We cannot risk grown dragons—trained warriors—for one dragonette who cannot follow the rules," the dragon said at Elder Kivo's right.

"I agree," said the one on the left.

"My mind is fixed," Elder Kivo replied without any further consideration. He punctuated his last word with a snap of his fangs.

"Then all these years haven't made you very wise." Evander turned to gather the absent two elders.

Vicente winced. It pained him to listen to Evander's juvenile tendency to talk back, a physical pang in his chest. This could affect whether Fia lived or died, or how long she must endure alone, captured by those hairless apes.

A rickety roar came from Elder Kivo, reverberating up the loose scales along his saggy neck.

Don't talk back to our elders needlessly, Vicente hissed in Evander's mind. That lapse in judgment withstanding, Evander's cooler head still served them better than if Vicente had responded immediately after the elders had assessed the worth of Fia's life with disdain. They don't think she's worth saving. I have to convince them otherwise. Or else…. Vicente did not want to think of the consequences of his failure. He took a deep, shaky breath and stood before the three elders.

Vicente made another calm, collected appeal. "For what purpose do we train warriors if not to defend all members of the Carlinoa Clan? We are ready to fight and rescue Fia—and I do not say this just because she's my daughter. As you saw, Evander's fire rages." The red dragon bowed his head, hoping he could smooth over Evander's blunt tongue and use it to hasten the organization of a search party.

Elder Kivo rolled his eyes up to the sky. "You tell that wyrm it's about to rain, and he's ready to set the clouds on fire."

The other two elders murmured similar doubts. Vicente clenched his fangs, racking his brain to come up with what sparse power that he had to negotiate. His gaze fell away from the black rings around Elder Kivo's eyes. "Just give me the permission to organize a search party. You can limit it to no more than five dragons." Even with only the assistance of three dragons, Vicente's chances of saving Fia would soar. He stated a higher number first so when the elders thought themselves strict and lowered the number of dragons, there would still be enough to form a proper search party. "Please. That's all I ask. Let those motivated in the clan take this mission upon themselves."

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"He makes a good point. The clan elders are only supposed to adjudicate between family feuds to avoid bloodshed…" one of the elders allowed.

"But if we do not unify our flight, our enemies will view us as weak," the other elder said. "They will circle our island like sharks!"

"The clan elders must coordinate a strategy and lead us to prosperity," Elder Kivo said, nodding in satisfaction that the second elder who spoke seemed to understand that.

Vicente interjected, "If we do nothing, the humans will think that we're cowards! Their advances will only grow more bold." Vicente objected, exasperated that they would let any dragonet get abducted from the island. His eye flitted to the first elder who had come the closest to supporting his plight. Vicente clamped his mouth shut and waited to reiterate his points once the other two elders had arrived.

Three dragons soared through the sky with all haste, drawing the horned heads of the other clan members upward. Evander led the two, remaining elders as they spiraled down toward the council. A small hope lifted in Vicente's heart as he looked up, knowing that these two other dragons most frequently and obstinately opposed Elder Kivo's views.

***

Once all five elders were present, a proper council commenced. Vicente relayed his case first, reiterating the best of his points that he had already tested against the adversarial elders. Evander chimed in to offer support, a second voice who held no blood relation to Fia. As their impassioned speech went on, more dragons were drawn to the public display.

"A lost dragonette…. Fia, a cute, little pink one, too."

"How terrible!"

“Vicente was always too lax of a parent.”

"This is why a dragoness should look after the hatchlings. The males can't do it…."

While Evander was making one of his points, Vicente turned back to growl. If some of the clan thought ill of him as a father, they could at least keep it between themselves over telepathy. They're not wholly wrong about me, Vicente despaired. This incident evidenced how he failed to keep his dragonette safe.

Together, Vicente and Evander finished their appeal to the elders. All five of the wisened dragons ducked their heads together. Their horn tips nearly locked with each other as they engaged in telepathy, exploring the pros and cons of different actions. An elder would lift his head and address Vicente aloud whenever the group had a question for him.

Elder Nura, a dragoness with bright, yellow scales which had aged to some patches of white, splayed her wings. "Who here is willing to fight to get back one of our dragonets?"

Vicente closed his eyes, scared to see the outcome of this poll even from the peripheral of his vision. He sent up a flare between his horns. The flame danced there to represent the favorable light in which he viewed the resolution.

An external heat at his right side also blazed, Evander casting his vote. Additionally, two of Evander's peers lit a torch between their horns. The younger dragons sought adventure with fewer obligations to tether their wings. Any dragons around Vicente's age who had eggs or dragonets flicked their worried eyes to and fro. As much as they wanted the clan to band together and save Fia, they did not want to be the ones to go.

The elders took into account the views of the clan. In the end, the elders' majority opinion was still voiced by Elder Kivo. "We cannot justify sending a search party for Fia when it will put the whole clan at risk. As a reminder, for your safety, only authorized hunting parties are permitted to fly beyond the island's shore!" The red and black dragon shouted louder, suspecting that the quiet dragons retreated to telepathy. "Any who defy this order should not bother to return to the Carlinoa Clan!"

Two of the other elders hung their heads, glaring at Elder Kivo. "However," Elder Nura said sharply, regaining the crowd's attention, "we would be fools to bar a parent from searching for his own child. Vicente, and his mate, Corisande, are given special permission to search for Fia on their own…."

Vicente's teeth clenched hard enough that some drops of blood dappled his tongue. His blazing, blue eyes bore into Elder Kivo and his supporters. I bet they wanted to forbid even me from going after Fia. Tendrils of smoke curled from the corners of his maw, clamped shut. How dare they act like it's a kindness to let me do what I would do no matter what! Vicente turned sharply and thrashed his tail in the process. All the elder council had done for him was waste his time.

"Some victuals and medicine will be provided for the journey!" Elder Nura called after him, louder to ensure that he heard.

At least there's that, he still seethed. Vicente would gather the supplies so that he could leave at once.