Once back at the stables, Artha and Kitt went inside the house, while Parmon took Beau and the other dragons to their stables.
"Artha, Kitt! I was begging to think that..." Artha's father, Connor greeted them, only stop when he saw what Kitt held in her arms. "Magna Draconis..."
"Father, I can explain." Artha said, holding his hands up defensively as Connor glanced most intimidatingly at both of them.
"To the temple. Now." Were the only words Connor needed to say as both Artha and Kitt hurried to the underground temple, taking Parmon, and with some issues also Beau. Beau was still behaving less than friendly towards the whelp, the latter peacefully sleeping in Kitt's arms.
Only a brief moment after they arrived so did Connor, walking towards with a most intimidating glare in his eyes.
"Artha, you said you could explain yourself. Well, I'm waiting." He said, crossing his arms and staring intensively at his son, which then proceeded to recap that night's happenings.
As Connor listened intently to Artha's recap, disbelief turning to shock when Artha described the stables and the man they saved, almost.
"Old Arcturus? I can't believe it." Connor muttered, a hand scratching his chin in thought.
"Do you know him?" Artha asked, obviously unaware of who this Arcturus was.
"Yes, I do know him. It is thanks to his breeding expertise that I managed to breed Beau." Connor said, which earned him shocked stares from all present except the deeply asleep whelp. "Did you really think that I learned everything I know about dragon breeding only at the Academy? People have been breeding dragons for three thousand years, so neither the Academy, nor the Dragon Priests, are the only places where such kind of knowledge can be found."
"Yes, but how did this Arcturus manage to breed a black and gold dragon?" Parmon intervened, with Beau nodding in agreement. It was then that he noticed something no one paid too much attention to. "Wait a second..."
"What is it?" Kitt asked perplexed as Parmon approached her.
"She doesn't have a bonemark nub!" He exclaimed.
Connor was still in deep thought, how could something like this young whelp be a black and gold dragon without having the same characteristics as Beau?
"Interesting." Connor muttered. "I'll go see Arcturus at the medical ward later in the morning. Meanwhile, all of you must take care of the hatchling. That includes Artha and you, Beau."
"No way, I don't want anything to do with this... thing." Beau snorted, and despite the others couldn't directly understand him, it was quite clear that he didn't like this deal at all.
"Come on, Beau, she's just a helpless little hatchling." Artha said as he patted Beau's neck, who let out a surrendering sigh.
She felt good, despite what happened the night prior. As she opened her eyes, she yawned, stretching her limbs as she laid belly-down on what she realized being a small stack of hay. She got up, looking around her. The little Geeld was in a stable, that much she saw. But she immediately noticed that this was not her parents' stall, in fact she wasn't in Arcturus's stable at all! Her good mood was immediately spoiled by that realization, now feeling uncomfortable as she struggled to remember what happened. She remembered roars, humans, her father, shouts and then that big black and gold dragon, and that's about it. She was about to get off the hay, when she heard some very heavy steps coming from outside the stall. Instinctively, Geeld tried to hide herself under the hay, and that would've worked had it not been that she forgot to cover her tail, which sticked out of the hay quite visibly.
Parmon was one of the first to wake up that day, although Connor already beat him at that and headed out to visit that dragon breeder called Arcturus at the medical ward. Deciding that he still had plenty of time to prepare for the coming day, he went to check on the latest arrival at the stables. Parmon still wondered about Beau's strange behavior towards the hatchling. Perhaps he's just jealous, he mentally mused, but then simply dismissed the thought as baseless speculation. Apparently he wasn't the only one who felt good that morning, as he saw Cyrano approaching him with a cheerful stride to his walk.
"Feeling good today, don't you, Cyrano?" Parmon greeted him as he gave the Bull-class dragon a neck scratch. "First order of the day should be to check on our little guest, don't you think?"
Cyrano nodded, although the hatchling's first reaction to Cyrano's imposing presence was still a vivid image, and sound, in his mind.
Once they approached the stall where Kitt left the hatchling, Parmon was very close to panicking. She wasn't anywhere to be seen! Or at least that's what he thought until he entered the stall, only to see a small black tail sticking out of some bunched up hay. Very smart, but still clumsy, Parmon mentally noted as he bemusedly watched the small tail twitching a bit as the fresh morning breeze brushed against it. It was then that he decided to play along, or at least try to.
"Hmm, I thought that Kitt left that little whelp here last night..." Parmon said out loud, enough to presumably be heard by the whelp without disturbing his sleeping friends. "I wonder where she could have possibly have gone."
It took a moment, but Cyrano eventually got the clue as Parmon winked at him.
"Oooh... Yeah, too bad she's not here." He rumbled chuckling. "Guess that all the candy goes to me!"
"Candy?" Geeld squeaked as her head shot out of the hay, a small patch of hay having managed to stay balanced on her snout. "Ooops..."
Both Parmon and Cyrano barely stifled their laughs at the whelp's reaction. Already she was eyeing them with frightened eyes, and would've been completely frozen, if she didn't visibly shake with fear.
"Don't worry, we don't want to hurt you." Parmon said, taking a Draconola bar out of his pocket, opening the wrapper and showing the bar to her. "See? Candy!"
Geeld kept staring at them, although a small rumbling of her belly suggested that indeed she was hungry. Reluctantly, she got up and walked off the hay towards Parmon and the bar. She still kept her eyes on them, still reluctant to trust them.
As she got within reach, she snatched the bar off Parmon's hand, helping herself with her short but practical arms. She backed off a bit, until she sat on her haunches on the hay, taking small bites, still keeping a wary eye on both Parmon and Cyrano. She really liked the bar, and before one could say 'drac' she already finished it, letting the empty wrapped fall to the floor.
"Well, I guess that settles it!" Parmon stated, proudly placing his hands on his hips, almost as if to make a victory pose.
"Hey Parm!" A voice came from outside.
"Good morning Lance!" Parmon greeted Artha's younger brother, who clearly just woke up with his dragon Fracshun.
"Good morning, Fracshun!" Cyrano rumbled as he turned around to greet Lance's dragon. "We've got a guest!"
"Good morning, Cyrano. A guest?" Fracshun cheerfully greeted.
"Parm, have you seen my father?" The young Lance asked, still rubbing away some sleep from his eyes.
"He woke up early and went out to... meet somebody." Parmon answered, the last part making him sound unsure, as he couldn't know if that's what Connor was really up to.
"Okay... But what are you doing in that stall?" Lance eyed him, not entirely sure what to make of it.
"Oh, uhm. See, last night we went out to stop the Dragon Eyes from stealing dragons and..."
While Parmon and Lance were talking, Fracshun walked over to the stall, without the others noticing.
"Hi there!" Fraschun greeted as he saw Geeld exploring the stall. Unfortunately, the sudden greeting startled her, making her run under the stash of hay to hide. Of course Fracshun's greeting was perhaps a bit louder than he meant, which cause Parmon, Lance and Cyrano to look at him.
"What's wrong, Fracshun?" Lance said as he approached his dragon, which was sporting a rather curious grin. "Is there something in the stall?"
"Oh, yeah, about that." Parmon said, clearing his throat. "Last night we... uh, 'rescued' a dragon hatchling from the stable that was attacked. Since the stable's owner is at the medical ward, there was no one to care for it, so it was Artha's idea to bring it here. Then we talked to Connor and he insisted on us taking care of it. Specially Beau."
"Uh, what do you mean?" Lance asked, tilting his head as he tried to figure out what Parmon meant.
Meanwhile Cyrano looked around in the stall, going wide-eyed as he couldn't find Geeld.
"Oh dear! Fracshun, where's the little whelp?!" Cyrano whimpered in panic, but Fracshun simply trotted over to the stash of hay, and with a couple of nudges with his snout he uncovered Geeld's trembling form.
"Go away!" She squeaked, trying to hide once more under the hay.
"Uh?" Lance turned around to look at the strange squeaking, only to be shocked by what he saw in the hay. "I can't believe it! It's another black and gold dragon!"
"Yes, Lance. Your father has been very specific last night. We must take care of the whelp until he returns." Parmon said, trying to make up a commanding tone. "Besides, where's Artha? He and Beau should be the first ones to look after Geeld."
"Geeld, huh? So that's his name." The young Penn mused.
"Her. The whelp is a she." Parmon corrected him.
"A girl?" The boy complained, a clear frown on his face. "This is just getting better and better."
Connor had in the meantime reached the Medical Ward. Upon being shown to Arcturus's room, he was horrified by the sight of the old man almost being turned into a mummy, most of his arms, his torso and the right leg all put in plaster cast.
"Connor! Long time no see!" Arcturus greeted, wide awake and waving his free left arm. "So, how you doing?"
"Arcturus!" Connor returned the greeting, although he kept a somewhat cautious demeanor, seeing the man's condition. "Are you okay? I've heard what happened last night..."
"Hah! Yeah, I'm fine." Arcturus scoffed. Of course Connor knew an act when he saw one.
"Are you sure?" Connor asked, crossing his arms as he peered down to the plaster-bound man. Arcturus slumped a bit in the bed, although the plaster cast didn't really help in the motion, keeping his form mostly still.
"Is it really that obvious?" Arcturus asked, only peering up to Connor with the corner of the eye. "My dragons... All of them except the little Geeld and her father... They took them all..."
"Who took them, Arcturus? And speaking of Geeld, we need to talk about the whelp as well." The younger and definitely healthier adult asked as he took a chair and put it besides the hospital bed. "I want to know all the details."
"Come on, Connor, don't act like you don't know who it could have been." Arcturus scoffed, pretending to have taken offense by Connor's question. "And regarding Geeld, I have nothing more to say that I was more surprised than you are now when she hatched."
"Really?" Connor hissed, still not convinced of the old man's words. "Arcturus, a gold dragon is not something that can pass unnoticed, and you know exactly who would gladly take a gold dragon if they had the chance. It took me years and countless attempts at breeding one, and that is after I carefully planned every single breeding and match of draconium and species. Despite this, you claim that you bred a gold dragon as an incident? You're one of the most experienced dragon breeders and stable owners in Dragon City that I still respect, Arcturus. Something like this is not something I associate with mistakes and unplanned results."
Connor glared at Arcturus, who simply watched at nothing in particular on the wall in front of him. Nearly a minute passed, silence and tension building up until Arcturus spoke up.
"Connor, something that you perhaps forgot from your... past training, is that fate has infinite ways to cross people's destinies. The possibilities are so many, that no one, in an entire lifetime could ever hope to count them all. And something that I've learned by experience, Penn, is that nothing is impossible, only improbable. Something is impossible only when you don't want it to happen. And unluckily, fate doesn't often listen to our mortal wishes."
"You keep evading the question, though. How did you breed a gold dragon? Why?" Connor kept patiently asking, although his tone clearly belied his thinning patience.
"No, I'm not evading the question. Just accept things for what they are, Connor. I didn't plan for a gold dragon to be born at my stable, just like I didn't want to be robbed of my dragons and end up passing some time in an hospital. Now go, Connor, I think you're needed back at your stables."
With that Arcturus set himself to sleep. Perhaps he's right, but he's hiding something nonetheless, thought Connor as he left the room. On the way out of the ward, he decided to check on the dragon that supposedly was Geeld's father. To his dismay, the Pack-class dragon's condition had worsened during the night, and eventually died.
"Poor little thing, how am I going to explain this to her?" Connor thought out loud as he made his way back home.