Scarab the Fierce

Chapter Seven

It's bright. Too bright. 

Scarab shifted in her sand den, which had filled in since she fell asleep last night, leaving her half buried in the loose sand. She squinted her eyes. She and Qibli had spent so much time up at night that her eyes were unused to the morning sun. She looked over at where Qibli should have been, but there was only a gentle dip in the sand to mark where he had slept. 

Then she heard arguing. Faint, but not far away. Scarab heaved her wings out of the sand and looked around her. When they had gotten here last night, it was too dark to see anything beyond the small body of water, now shimmering with the sun's reflections. There was a small collection of palm trees and leafy shrubs around the water that she hadn't seen before. 

"Qibli?" Scarab said cautiously. "Hello?" She had a brief thought that maybe Qibli had left her in the night because he didn't want to be caught up in her trouble anymore. "Qibli?"

"Scarab!" Qibli's voice responded. Scarab turned to look at him, but he wasn't in view. "Over here!" 

Scarab ran around the side of the pool, following the sound of Qibli's voice. Hidden behind a large patch of ferns and bush was a little wooden house nestled next to the oasis. The roof was rather sunken in, with a squarish window and a curtained doorway. The whole house looked half buried in the sand. Qibli was standing in front of the house with another dragon with him. 

The stranger was a SandWing, with dark sandy brown scales and dark eyes. She had a scar across the left side of her face, leaving her with only one good eye. She was standing rigidly, as if she was upset or uncomfortable with Scarab and Qibli's presence. 

"This is Copper. She lives here and might help us." Qibli said cheerfully. 

"I never said that." Copper said icily. "I said that if you don't leave my oasis right now, I'd feed you to my adder."

"Oh yeah. She has an adder." Qibli seemed unfazed. "Copper, this is Scarab. She's with me." 

Scarab didn't say anything, she was staring at Copper. She looked intimidatingly familiar.

Copper was staring at her as well. Her eyes widened when she heard Scarab's name. "Scarab?" She said in disbelief. "You can't be..."

Did Copper recognize her? Had she seen or heard of her escape from Vulture all the way out here? Was she supposed to recognize Copper? What was going on?

Copper slowly moved closer to Scarab, until she was standing right in front of her. Their height difference was striking now. Copper stood a head taller than Scarab and looked down at her. Her expression was almost warm now, though still surprised. "I thought you weren't allowed out of the Talons' base."

Scarab's eyes widened with amazement. She couldn't believe she hadn't seen it before, although the scar made it harder to identify her. "Arid!" Scarab leapt forward and wrapped her wings around the bigger dragon's body, happy and desperate joy coursing through her body. 

"I knew I recognized those scales somewhere!" Arid's voice was warm and happy as she returned the embrace.

"Hold on!" Qibli said indignantly. "You lied about your name too?"

Scarab laughed. "We learned that from each other, actually. Never tell a stranger your real name the first time you meet." She looked at Arid. "When I met him I told him my name was Arid."

Arid laughed at that. 

Qibli didn't look satisfied. "You two know each other?" 

Scarab flicked him with her tail. "When I was a dragonet, her dad worked for..." She almost said "my dad" but stopped herself. "...worked for Vulture, and me and Arid would play together almost every day."