"Why can't he just listen!?" Firedrake roared in anger as he stomped outside of the cave they were resting in. Nobody wanted another cave-in. Ben rested on a nearby rock with his elbows resting on his knees just watching Firedrake for a few seconds while Sorrel stood by nibbling nervously on a blade of grass.
"Well, he is related to you." Ben grinned a little. "That might have something to do with it." Firedrake only snorted at Ben's response.
"Please. When my father told me to stay, I stayed." Firedrake quickly argued with a headshake.
Sorrel scoffed suddenly: "Oh, please. Firedrake, you disobeyed the rules just as much as Junior has. Let's not forget his mother is Maia, you know? The one that refused to stay in the cave? I dunno, it seems like he was bred to be a bit of a rebel if you ask me."
Ben couldn't contain his laugh at that. "She- She has a point."
"Don't encourage her."
"I second that," Twigleg spoke up from Ben's shoulder. Sorrel gave him a playful little glare in which Twigleg shoved his tongue out just as playfully at her. Ben gave a soft chuckle at both of them all these years later and they still behave like children to one another. He knew he couldn't stay for too long, the twins were waiting on him and so was Yui and Amadeus. So, Ben sighed deeply and jumped from his rock.
"Alright… I gotta get back to town. I have a lot to tell the twins." Ben stretched his arms above his head- several joints creaked and popped causing Ben, and Twigleg, to grimace. "I'm getting too old for all this." He sighed but still snatched his jack and made off for the town. "We'll be back!"
In the time in that Ben was gone Alice managed to come on over, wondering where her brother had gone, so by the time Ben had returned the house was plenty full with the Twins, Amadeus, Alice, Ludwig, Yui, Ben and Twigleg. So, needless to say Yui little dinner table couldn't exactly fit everyone, so they all sat in the living room, the twins and Yui on the couch, Alice sitting in an armchair, while Amadeus sat on the floor, Ben was the only one standing up.
"Okay, so tomorrow. I'm going to a reservation to talk to someone named Akando."
"What do the Kaw have to do with these attacks?" Alice asked as she crossed one leg over the other. She had her eyebrow raised and a rather unimpressed look on her face and Ben realized that it might have sounded bad that he was kind of accusing the native people of doing such a thing.
"No, no. We're just asking them on their popular myths or legends. I'm not saying they're the cause but I can't see this being a dragon, I mean what purpose does a dragon have destroying human villages? It almost sounds like the medieval times." Ben explained to the others.
"Why can't you just accept it's a dragon?" Amadeus chipped in. "It's obvious it's not a dragon like Firedrake or Junior. This is a different species of dragon."
"It could be, but I personally can't believe it." Ben told Amadeus simply.
Amadeus frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "Okay, fine, I'm not the dragon expert…" Amadeus finally just dismissed Ben rather bitterly.
"Can I come with you?" Sicily suddenly asked a little excitedly. "I just want to get out of town for a day. I can't stand the dirty looks anymore."
"Yeah, sure, no problem. Kyo? You in?"
"Nah, I don't mind knocking a few heads together if it has to come to it." Kyo leaned back against the couch. It was Yui that spoke next.
"Kyo, please don't attack anyone. I would like to make it to term." Yui then turned to Ben. "Say, Mr. Greenbloom, aren't you afraid of being here? From what I know Agent-"
"I'm aware of O'Neil. I have a passport, it's not illegal to travel, he's got nothing on me." Ben smiled in response. "Ich habe keine Angst vor ihm." Ben then smirked a little, Twigleg shook his head in response to whatever Ben had just said.
"Pardon?" Amadeus inquired.
"He said he's not afraid of O'Neil." Twigleg answered.
"Bravado? Or just plain cocky?" Amadeus asked and Ben kept that little smirk on his face.
"I'll let you decide that."
Junior stretched himself out as he allowed himself to relax after a rather long flight. Silverstorm let out a loud sigh of relief and Junior watched as Silverstorm rolled onto her side and heaved another heavy sigh. "Oh, goodness… My wings are tired…" She whined a little. "I can't believe we flew that fast!"
"Well, we kind of had to, if we weren't fast then Mom or Shimmertail might have caught up with us!"
"Whew… I can't imagine what daddy's gonna say when I come home… He's probably not going to be happy."
"I can't imagine my mom will be too happy either… or my dad… I don't think we can avoid him once we get to Kansas."
"Speaking of Kansas, where are we right now?"
"Uh?" Junior went quiet and made a bit of a confused face. This alone caused Silverstorm to groan out.
"You don't know where we are?! Are you crazy? Oh, we're lost, I knew I shouldn't have listened to you-"
"Silverstorm, please. I know the way to Kansas, I know what it looks like, I may not know where we are now, but just trust me, okay?"
"I guess I don't exactly have much of a choice in the matter now do I?" Silverstorm gave a cynical laugh in retort. She then straightened herself up so she was curled up ready to pass out. "I'll be mad at you when I wake up. I'm too tired right now…"
Junior chuckled at her as she passed out right there. Junior wasn't sleepy, yet, exhausted, but not sleepy. So, until he was able to fall asleep he just looked out at the horizon. He had to admit it was rather pretty watching as the sky went from an inky blackish-blue to a more lively pink, then orange. He never got to watch the sky turn fully blue because he did eventually fall asleep next to Silverstorm.
However; he didn't really get to sleep for too long, as maybe a few hours later he woke up to a ticklish snout. Junior scrunched his nose up before he opened his eyes and looked to see what was tickling him. His eyes were a little fuzzy at first before he blinked a few times and looked at the creature in front of him. It almost looked like a type of Brownie but… different.
This Brownie was black in color with a white stomach and paws. They were smaller than the Brownies Junior normally surrounds himself with. This brownie twitched their little rounded ears at Junior. Their blue eyes were wide with curiosity. They then gave a twitchy smile showing their thin little fangs. "You sure are purty." The Brownie spoke in a slow drawl. Their voice was deeper than Sorrel's so this told Junior that this Brownie was a male, perhaps still just a cub.
"Uh… hello, to you too." Junior spoke. He was still tired and so his mind was still sleepy, he blinked a few more times before stretching himself out to wake himself up a little more. "Where did you come from?"
The Brownie shrugged in response. "I just came a-walkin'."
"Do you have a name?"
"'Course I do! Daffodil!"
"Daffodil, that's a pretty name."
"What-" Silverstorm suddenly spoke up and Junior looked over to the Brownie. "Oh, hello." Silverstorm, like Junior, stretched her body out before suddenly padding over to Daffodil. "Aren't you adorable." She proceeded to nudge Daffodil in the stomach with her snout. Daffodil suddenly became bashful and gave her a playful wave off.
"Daw, I ain't nothin' too special to look at."
"So, Daffodil, you look like a cub. Where are your parents?" Silverstorm questioned as she looked at him up and down.
Daffodil once again gave a shrug. "I dunno. I went off one day and never found them- mouse!" With no warning Daffodil suddenly took off on all fours just a little ways away and suddenly jumped and pounced on the forest floor. Silverstorm and Junior looked at one another. Daffodil had their back to them and was there was a sudden sickening 'crunch' that rang out. Junior actually tensed up at that. Daffodil then turned around- a headless field mouse in their little paws, blood around their muzzle. "Wanna bite?"
"No!" Both of them quickly shook their heads in response. Junior felt a little sick watching as Daffodil shrugged and just continued the mouse as is.
"Brownies eat meat?" Silverstorm questioned Junior is a hushed whisper so Daffodil couldn't hear.
"I guess these types do… I mean, he doesn't even talk like Sorrel or the other brownies, maybe he's like Burr-burr-chan."
"But he doesn't have four arms…"
"No, I mean maybe he's different from the others in the rim, he comes from a different breed or something to that nature, maybe Brownies here in America just eat meat."
"... I guess…" Silverstorm gave an obvious grimace as the crunching suddenly increased next to them. Both Junior and Silverstorm looked back at Daffodil, Who was still eating the bloody remains of a mouse, Daffodil continued to chew as he eyed the both of them.
"So, you guys don't seem like you're from around these parts. What brings you to Kentucky?"
"We're heading towards Kansas." Junior explained to Daffodil who just nodded along with what Junior was saying.
"I dunno why you'd want to go there. Some big scary monster is there-"
"You've heard about it then?"
"Yeah, a bunch of creatures has run from Kansas. Some looking for new homes, others lookin' for a place to stay until the dust settles." Daffodil finally finished his mouse and started to lick the blood off of his fury little fingers.
"Do you know anything about this monster?"
"... Just that they turn the sky black… that's what the other creatures told me anyways… and that just being around the monster strikes a sense of fear in you and you just want to run far far away from it…"
Junior paused and mulled over Daffodil's words. He almost felt afraid by just hearing this Brownie's words. Still, he was going to be strong, strong for the twins, because now he wanted nothing more than to be there for them. He can only imagine that the twins must be feeling so scared right now.
"Do you guys need help getting to Kansas? I could probably getcha there in no time."
"No-" Junior shook his head in response, but then-
"-Yes, that'd be great." Silverstorm suddenly pipped up.
"Excuse me?" Junior turned and looked at Silverstorm.
"Face it, Junior you might need the help. I'm not saying you don't know your way… but America is huge! What if we do get lost? Daffodil here can help us!"
Junior scowled a little, however; after thinking about it he realized that Silverstorm did have a point. Of course Junior knew where he was going, but yet he knew that one wrong turn or shift and he could wind up elsewhere. So he looked at Daffodil up and down once more and then narrowed his eyes a little. "Why would you want to go to Kansas. You just told us that there's a monster, who in their right mind would to go into that?"
"Yo do."
"Yeah, but we have a reason, My riders. They're there."
"Okay, well, I'm bored. There's my reason." Daffodil just shrugged again and honestly Junior was starting to get a little annoyed with all his constant shrugging. "Besides I ain't scared of no monster! I mean some humans call me a monster! So, how scary can this monster be?"
Junior looked at Silverstorm who was looking annoyed. Not at Daffodil but at Junior. "You know, Daffodil, you can ride on me if you'd like." She told him, which just annoyed Junior, but still, Junior realized that he wasn't going to change Silverstorm's mind. Like her father, once she had her mind set on something there was no changing it. Junior lowered his ears in annoyance.
"Fine." Was all Junior had to say about it. He then proceeded to lay back down- but not before heating the ground with his fire and laying down in a bit of a huff. "Now, I'm going back to sleep. Need to be rested."
"Yeah, good point." Silverstorm then laid down as well, not next to Junior, it seemed Daffodil either felt tired as well or just didn't know what to do, because he sat down cross-legged between the two of them and just started to sing. And it was nice to hear. In all honestly Junior was starting to miss hearing a Brownie sing, and regardless of what new breed of Brownie Daffodil was, he was still a Brownie and all Brownies were good singers.
Still, before he went back to sleep, Junior had a thought lingering in his mind. One that made his eyes snap open in worry. Silverstorm's words repeating back to him "A dragon might have destroyed a human village." and Daffodil's presence told Junior one thing and one thing only: There are probably other dragons in America.