Near the end of the week, after Victoria had returned from her latest tour at the command outpost, the party gathered around a table in the Flopping Fish. The only absence was Eli, who wasn't expected back for several hours. The sconces which usually lit the first floor of the tavern had been extinguished, and the only light in the room was the dim candles Autumn had haphazardly placed across the table where they gathered.

"Is the darkness really necessary?" Victoria asked, looking around the room.

"Absolutely," Autumn said, "you can't hatch a good plot in a well-lit room."

Victoria shrugged, taking a small pastry from a plate in the middle of the table stacked high with treats and speaking briefly before taking a bite, "alright, let's hear it."

It hadn't take much to get Victoria to the table, her only demands were that she get time to take a shower first, and that there were snacks. Now, Autumn faced the hard part, actually getting her on board with the plot.

"What would you say if I told you I could get us a ride out of Giantrock?" Autumn asked.

"I'd ask how," Victoria said around a small bite of pastry.

"Okay," Autumn pivoted, "well what if I told you it was on a boat?"

"You have idea what kind of things grasp my interest, do you?" Victoria asked flatly.

"She wants to get us all spots the Shark Titan's ship," Titus said, "by luring him into a full course dinner that's so good he can't say no."

Victoria choked on a sudden laugh, "and you're going along with this?"

"Tentatively," he replied.

"Tentatively?" Autumn nearly shouted.

"I think it sounds fun," Iris said, blipping a pastry into her hand.

"Look," Autumn turned back to Victoria, "he's hiring a chef for a journey across the continent. I don't meet the rank requirement to apply, but I know if I can cook him a meal I can win him over. Once I do that, I can negotiate spots for the rest of you. I'll halve my salary for it, if I have to."

"You're going to negotiate with the Shark Titan?" Victoria laughed again, "have you considered that he might just eat you, instead of your meal?"

Autumn froze for a moment while she seemed to consider that outcome for the first time.

"We'll just make sure he's too full from dinner to eat anyone," Iris suggested.

"Y-yeah!" Autumn agreed, "we'll do that. I'll add another course to the dinner."

"Do you even know what happened to the last chef?" Victoria asked.

"Well, no--" Autumn started.

"Do you know if there's room on the ship for all of us?"

"I mean, it's a big ship--"

"Look, I'll help," Victoria sighed, then held up a hand before Autumn could celebrate, "but only if you promise to actually think this through before you attempt anything. I don't want to come home and find out you got your head bitten off. Also, I have a few ground rules. Number one, I'm not going to be here when the Shark Titan is. Number two, keep my role small, I'm putting most of my energy into the recovery efforts at the outpost. And number three, do not, under any circumstances, tell Eli I helped you."

"Deal!" Autumn said, holding out a hand for Victoria to shake.

Victoria apprehensively shook it, and then Autumn launched into planning mode.

"Alright, here's the agenda. We have three tasks, we need to get there Shark Titan here on a specific night, make sure Eli isn't here that night, and convince the Fish Wizard to meet with the Shark Titan."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I'll take care of Eli," Victoria suggested, "I already have a pretty good idea how to keep him busy for the weekend without taking up much of my time. I'll be back at the outpost by then, though, so it'll up to you guys to make sure he's actually gone"

"Great!" Autumn shouted, "leave the Shark Titan to me, I know just what will get him here. Titus, I'll need you to deliver a letter to his quartermaster for me. He, uh, kind of banned me from their dock after I said a few things about his mother."

"Alright," Titus shrugged.

"Iris," Autumn said, turning to a surprised Iris who had just taken a huge bite of a pastry, "I'll need you to convince the Fish Wizard."

Iris hastily chewed her food and swallowed harshly, "how am I supposed to do that? Last time they saw each other the Fish Wizard threatened to mount his head on the wall."

"I don't know, just talk to him. You're both wizards, that's something."

"I'm not really a wizard yet," Iris admitted, "I mean I have the hat, and a staff now too I guess, but I haven't actually done any research or anything--"

"None of that matters," Autumn interrupted, "just talk to him wizard to wizard, trust me. Also, lie to him."

"Okay," Iris said with a deep sigh, "don't get mad at me if it doesn't work though."

"Also," Autumn added, "I'll need your help with dinner preparations. We'll need a lot of ingredients, some cookware, and some decorations."

"As long as you're paying for it all," Iris said, "I spent most of my gold on robes and hats."

The door to the tavern flew open and Eli barged in. He marched up to the table, the evident fury on his face momentarily interrupted by confusion at the sight of the four of them huddled around a table in the dark.

"I need to speak to Iris alone," he said flatly.

The others exchanged quick glances and silently rose from the table, awkwardly but quickly heading for different exits. Autumn left out the front, while Titus went out the back and Victoria went up upstairs. When they were gone, Eli took a seat across from a very intimidated Iris.

"Can we, uh, light some of the sconces," she asked.

Eli ignored her question, "I learned something interesting from Cameron today."

A pit was growing in her stomach as she grew more certain she knew what this was about.

"He mentioned the Titans are still looking for the missing wyvern egg," he paused for a moment to see if she would respond, "I found that interesting, considering you told me two weeks ago you'd turned it in."

"If we're going to talk about this, it's not going to be an interrogation," Iris said firmly.

Eli drummed his fingers on the table impatiently, "when we agreed to practice better communication, I assumed that meant we wouldn't be lying to each other."

"I was just trying to buy time, okay," Iris said, "things-- things got more complicated."

"What does that mean?" Eli pleaded, "I need answers, Iris. There are some really powerful people looking for you right now and sooner or later they're going to catch up. You're putting yourself and potentially this entire team in danger."

"Just, promise not to get mad right away," Iris squirmed in her seat, "it really wasn't my fault. It happened just a few days after I picked up the egg, there was nothing I could do."

"Tell me what's going on, Iris," Eli said, half stern and half concerned.

Iris sighed, grabbed a candle, and rose from her seat. She blipped around the room and lit several sconces with the candle before returning to the table without taking a seat. With trembling hands and a racing heart, she took the bag from her waist and set it down on the table. She tugged on the drawstring, but the bag didn't open. She tugged again, and it was still cinched tight.

"It's okay, Abby," she said, "he won't hurt him."

Eli flicked his eyes between Iris and the magical bag as he put the pieces together in his mind. The bag loosened and drooped open.

"Come on out, Littletooth," Iris said with trepidation.

After a short delay, a small wyvern head poked out of the bag. Littletooth looked around the room, cocked his head at Eli, and then climbed the rest of the way out of the bag and tumbled onto the table. Iris clenched her jaw and scrunched her eyes as she awaited an outburst from Eli, but it never came. Instead, he stared slack jawed at the creature.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," he said.

"It was an accident!" Iris pleaded, the words spilling out of her mouth faster than she could keep up with them, "I don't know, I was just trying to wrap my head around everything that happened before I decided what to do, I didn't know it was about to hatch. I didn't even know it could hatch in the bag. I did some research on wyverns at the library and read about imprinting, apparently they think the first thing they see is their mom, so now that he's hatched it didn't feel right to just give him up to strangers."

"He thinks you're his mom?" Eli asked incredulously.

The expression of a stern disciplinarian leader was cracking, and Iris saw glimpses of a young adventurer just as out of his depth and overwhelmed as she was.

She half smiled, half grimaced, "well, actually, I'm pretty sure he thinks Abby is."

Eli followed her glance to the bag, then placed his elbows on the table and buried his face in his hands. After a long moment, he wiped his hands down his face and took a breath. When he looked up, Littletooth had stepped closer and was cocking his head to side to side inspecting Eli.

"There's a lot of things I want to say right now," he said, his voice cold and flat, "but I think it's best if we talk about this another day."

Iris guessed he must be really, really mad, and doing his best to contain the anger. She reached across the table and scooped up Littletooth, cradling him in one arm against her chest while she grabbed the bag off the table with the other. She paused to speak, but wasn't sure what to say, so instead she blipped away and retreated upstairs.