We stood outside the cave, surrounded by bushes with golden berries, the dragon sleeping inside. Anaya walked over to one of the berry bushes, and plucked a handful of the berries.

"you remember the plan?" Anaya asked me quietly as she turned away from the bush, towards me

"yep. Step one, we fill our pockets with berries, so we smell like the surroundings, but can easily dump the berries if we need to." I recited easily, walking to a bush of my own and picking some berries.

Anaya smile and put her berries into one of the bags at her waist.

"good, and then what do we do?" she asked, making sure that I knew every step.

I slowed down from picking the berries and said "then, we sneak in, walking the way you showed me so we don't make any noise, and look for scales." I walk a little ways how Anaya showed me, lending back on my left leg, stretching out my right leg and lightly stepping before shifting my weight onto that leg.

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Anaya smiles and gives me a thumbs up before continuing to stuff her bag with berries.

"my bag's full now. Time to sneak in?" I ask Anaya, grinning. At first, when Anaya told me her plan I freaked out. I'll admit. But I know from past experience that if Anaya thought it was getting too dangerous for us, she would bail. I just needed a moment to freak out before I remembered that.

"yep, let's go." anaya said, stepping quietly towards the cave. "and remember, Be. Quiet."