Na na na na, go read my chapter! ... Please?
Clay, Reed, Umber, and Crane came exploding through the roof of the Tallons of Power's compound. Throwing ruble, debris, and dust across the room that they burst into.
It was obvious that this was the main hall, from the size and tables. It would have been even more obvious if it had... any dragons to speak of whatsoever.
They looked around the room. From what Qibli explained to them, this place was supposed to be crawling with Vulture's men. There wasn't anybody here?
Clay was starting to wonder if they got the wrong place.
He looked out of the new skylight in the ceiling, "Come on, the place is clear."
Qibli came down first and then the rest of the group. They all landed and looked around too in curiosity, wondering the same thing as Clay.
"Did you already scare them off?" Qibli asked Clay in surprise.
Clay gave him a confused look and shook his head, "there wasn't anybody here when we came through the ceiling."
Qibli's frown deepened, and he started to look around worried, like a ghost was about to appear from the walls.
"What's wrong?" Clay asked concerned with the look on Qibli's face.
Qibli shook his head, this was all wrong, "Vulture would never leave this place empty unless there was good reason, he always had this place manned, even if he was going out of town."
Qibli thought for a moment in silence and then his eyes grew, "Unless he found out that he was about to be raided."
"How would he know?" Reed asked him.
"Grandfather always had a knack for knowing things that he really shouldn't, it would not surprise me if he found out somehow," Qibli said, shivering slightly at the memories of his grandfather always knowing things about him that he told nobody.
"Do you think anybody else is here?" Clay asked him.
Starflight shook his head, "I don't hear anybody's mind, so there shouldn't be."
Clay nodded his head, "Let's look around to be sure, you never know..."
Clay and Peril start to walk off, "Don't forget to watch out for traps, I know for a fact that they set a ton of them in the compound!" Qibli shouted as they walked off.
Qibli looked at the rest of the group, "We all need to split up into groups, this place is too dangerous to go alone, I don't care how powerful you are."
Qibli, Winter, Reed, Sora, and Umber go one way, and the rest of the group goes another.
Clay and Peril were joking with each other as they walked down the dark hallway that was being illuminated by Peril's scales.
"Me and Starflight would always see who was faster when we would train, if I could get him with my rocks or if he could catch me first with his shadow, One time we were doing this practice, and I had actually got to beat him, but by just barely, so my aim was a bit off, he captured me right when the rocks started coming up out of the ground and I got him right in the nuts!" Clay finished as he started laughing with Peril joining him.
"Oh my gosh, I wish I could have seen that!" Peril said between her laughs.
"He walked around with a limp for days!" Clay finished.
They took another step and then something clicked and the sound of something flying came towards him.
Something hit Peril but it was incinerated before it could ever do anything.
Clay stopped laughing for a couple of minutes, with Peril being quiet too.
They both looked at each other for a couple of seconds... and then they both started laughing again.
"Peril, your beautiful scales make you invincible to these pussie's traps!" Clay laugh flirted out.
"It wouldn't have mattered anyways, I have my man to carry me over to Sunny even if it did hit me," Peril flirted back.
They both continued down the hall, Peril staying up front to take the hits from all the traps that got in their way.
Qibli and his group were going from room to room, searching for anything useful at all about what was going on with the strange situation they were currently in.
Qibli had never been in this compound a bunch, maybe around ten to fifteen times in his life. There were always a few things about this place that were very consistent with it.
The creepiness of the place, his menacing grandfather following him around, and the hundreds of dragons that were lurking inside the compound.
Two of these things were not happening right now. His grandfather was obviously not here, and so were the other dragons.
"Qibli, what is Vulture like?" Reed asked him curiously.
Qibli shivered at the memories of his grandfather, "Terrifying, he knew things nobody should know, he had tattoos all over his body for all the dragons he had killed, he would always look at you like he was planning to kill you in every way you could think."
Reed shook his head, "He sounds like a lovely dragon."
The rest of the group weren't having too much difficulty getting through the compound, they had found their way into the underground of the compound, finding multiple armories and storage rooms that held documents or food.
"What do you guys think happened?" Crane asked the group.
"What do you mean?" Riptide asked her as he peeked around the corner.
"Everything, why are there no dragons here?" She asked.
"If I had to make a wild guess, Thorn has a spy," Starflight started to answer, "But we left to go raid this place before anybody could have warned them, so I dont really have a real idea what happened."
They opened up another room, they were all shocked when flames started bursting out the door coming from a fire inside the room.
Icicle ran Infront of the group, "MOVE!" she roared as she started using her ice breath to put out the flames coming from the room.
The room didn't take too long to clear the fire, it wasn't very big.
It looked like another document storage room from all the charred scrolls and paper.
"What happened?" Tsunami asked Starflight.
"Vulture and his gang must have started this before they left, this room must have been important," Starflight thought out loud.
The group looked around the room, trying to find something unusual.
Starflight walked over to one of the charred shelves and dug through the ashes inside of it, he pulled out a scrap piece of paper.
"Regarding your request – as long as the payment is good, I will make sure the job is done," One of the papers said, being cut off by the charred edges.
Turtle dug out another sheet.
"Vulture, I got your request for some new items, I will be there in a couple of days to drop them off, just make sure to have my payment ready."
Turtle looked at Starflight, "This looks like a letter?"
Starflight looked back from his scrap, "Mine does too."
Starflight looked around, "That makes more sense, he didn't want to give away who hires him out."
"So he pretty much got rid of all the important evidence before he left?" Tsunami asked angrily.
Starflight nodded.
The group walked out of the basement and up into the main hall where the rest were waiting for them.
"Did you find anything?" Qibli asked them hopefully.
Starflight shook his head, "Nothing but a burning room that held what was likely information on Vulture's contracts.
Qibli frowned at that answer.
"What about you guys?" Starflight asked them.
Clay shook his head, "Nothing but a ton of traps that were amusing to set off."
Qibli's frown deepened. Thorn was going to be pissed that they didn't have Vulture.
Bonus content
"Qibli, what is Vulture like?" Reed asked him curiously.
Qibli shivered at the memories of his grandfather, "Terrifying, he knew things nobody should know, he had tattoos all over his body for all the dragons he had killed, he would always look at you like he was planning to kill you in every way you could think."
Reed shook his head, "He sounds like a lovely dragon."
Winter shook his head, "Can't be too much worse than my Mom and Dad, they have tried multiple times to get me killed."
Qibli gave him a look, "Bro... same"