"Qibli my boy!" Vulture said, "You made it."
Qibli stepped into the kitchens and shut the door behind him, "Yeah. Stuck with the plan."
"Did you meet anyone?" Vulture asked, taking a bite of roasted lizard.
"Yeah I met Dingo," Qibli said.
"Really," Vulture replied, "Any signs of defection?"
"Maybe," Qibli replied.
Another dragon popped up beside Vulture. She had a nose ring and looked at Qibli.
"Oh hey Aloe," Qibli said, waving.
"Oh hi, I didn't know you knew my name," she replied.
"Yeah, he remembered every spy's name that's here," Vulture boasted.
"So," Qibli said, grabbing some dried dates, "Let's go over the plan again."
"Right you get straight to the point Qibli," Vulture said, picking the dried lizard out of his teeth.
"Ok so," Qibli started, "So I'll put on the cloak. Then go into the room, knock out the Mudwing, kill Thorn, walk out in the cloak, take off the cloak, pretend to knock on the door, walk-in, and yell for help."
"Good," Vulture said.
"But," Qibli questioned, "How will you be able to be there without looking suspicious?"
"Oh, we added my name to some of the Sandwings that Thorn is seeing today," Vulture responded.
Another Sandwing popped up, she was smaller than Aloe and had hints of orange on her snout.
Kangaroo.
"Sir," she said, "I think Qibli needs to get going. The Mudwing is here and ready."
"Oh ok," Vulture said, "Well good luck Qibli."
Qibli took the cloak from his pouch. "Hide," he muttered to the cloak. It grew to Qibli's size and he pulled it over his head. "Assassination." Then he slipped out of the room. Qibli wandered down the hall to the courtyard. He saw lots of dragons and tried to avoid them. Qibli saw a dragon with very pale scales at the bottom of his legs...trimming some plants.
Gobi.
He also saw another dragon with a black spot over her eye, helping Gobi...by lifting him up to get to the palm tree.
Lizard.
He saw a dragon cleaning the floors with a crooked leg.
Hyena.He was so wrapped up looking at them that he bumped into some dragonets. One had his tail up and pointed it up at the other, with his barb in a safety position.
"Take that Thorn," the one with the tail poised up was saying. He had a black cloak on and a snake pendant at the clasp. The other one had a scar running along the side of his face. Qibli had tripped over the scar-faced one.
"Ah," he said, "What in Pyrrhia!"
The cloaked one turned around and asked, "Who's there?" Qibli didn't respond.
"I know someone's there," cloak dragonet said.
Well the jigs up, Qibli thought.
He herded the dragonets to a small corner of the courtyard away from the eyes of the others. They yelped in surprise at the invisible force.
"I knew it, Mamba," the scarface dragonet said, "I knew this place was haunted! But did you listen? Noooo!"
"It's not haunted, Nile!" Mamba said.
"Then what is this!" Nile yelled.
Qibli stopped pushing them and pulled off the hood of his cloak.
"It's me," Qibli said.
The dragonets looked at Qibli shocked.
"It's Qibli," Mamba said. "I've heard about you. My uncle sees you come in all the time. His name is Dingo."
"Oh," Qibli replied, "I saw him this morning with a dragon named Horus."
"Oh yeah," Nile declared, "Dingo is my uncle." Nile gave Mamba a hug and they definitely looked like brothers.
"Thanks for the info," Qibli said.
"But what are you doing here?" Mamba questioned Qibli.
"I'm actually here on business," Qibli replied, "I'm here to assassinate Thorn.
The dragonets looked at Qibli with excited eyes.
"Really?" they asked.
Qibli nodded his head, "But it has to be kept a secret."
"No problem," they said, "We don't like Thorn that much. She doesn't treat my dad/uncle right and gives him less pay than the other guards."
"Well before I leave," Qibli stated, "let me show you how to actually strike an opponent."
He crouched down and pointed his tail to Mamba's heart, but his barb was tucked safely away, of course. Nile tried to do it, Qibli helped position him then tried it with Nile till they were perfect.
"Ok I've got to go," he quickly said, putting on his hood, then dashed away.
Qibli soon arrived in the throne room. He opened the door and took off his cloak. There was a brownish-green-looking Mudwing standing in the middle of the room. He looked bored and dull. A dragon with a metal tooth, which was Chinchilla. Plus another one with an eye patch, Komodo.
"Qibli!" Thorn yelled and raced over to hug Qibli. He didn't hug back and kinda stood awkwardly. "How have you been? Listen, I'll catch up with you at lunch. I have a meeting with this gentle dragon." She pointed to the dull Mudwing."This is Swamp."
"Actually I don't think we'll make it to lunch," Qibli said. Swiping his tail across the floor to signal Chinchilla and Komodo to knock out the Mudwing.
"What?" Thorn asked, "Why not?"
Swamp hit the floor with a THUMP.
Qibli responded with an evil smirk, "Well, you won't make it." Qibli took out a knife from his pouch and stabbed Thorn in her chest.
"Why, Qibli?" she rasped.
Qibli didn't answer but took off his pouch. Under it were two dragon skull tattoos. She took one final look at Qibli in shock and fell to the ground, dead.
