Wings of Fire: Dragons, Steel, and Pom-Poms

V - General Quarters

>Somewhere in the Kingdom of the Sea, approaching a scavenger Den_

Dawn had broken through the deep a few hours ago, which was when the dragonets had agreed to set off together towards where the group of maybe-creatures-maybe-boats had been speculated to have been going.

They should be approaching the shore soon, by Cuttlefish's reckoning. He had thought to bring a map on this outing, to more accurately assess distances and locations.

Traveling along with the three dragonets was Mako, who had been 'voluntold' to accompany them by Grouper. Because even though the three dragonets were technically old enough to be going about and swimming outside of the enclave, they were still dragonets. And they were swimming somewhere that could potentially prove dangerous.

Mako herself was less than thrilled to be chaperoning the trio on what she believed to be a meaningless endeavor, but the enclave tutor knew better than to constantly snap at and nag them over it. It wouldn't really make her feel any better, and it wouldn't make the trip go any faster.

["At the very least..."] She said ["This can be a convenient opportunity to observe and study scavengers in their natural habitat, which would surely be a benefit to your three's education. I'll of course be expecting a written report about what you learned at the end of the day and you can expect a quiz in the coming week."]

It didn't mean that she wouldn't exact any toll on them for this, to be sure.

Cuttlefish held steady, as he in turn knew better than to grant her any satisfaction by a negative response. A lesson that was certainly not shared by Clam, who flopped dramatically.

["AW, WHAT!?"] He flashed, ["More homework!? Whose bright idea was it anyway to go chasing after Sea Monsters? Isn't just seeing them once enough!?"]

["Because we have to be sure."] Oyster snapped. ["It would be a shame if we just left it up in the currents if these things are still around or not. Besides, Grouper suggested that the things may not even be living creatures, so we should get up close to them to find out."]

["Fat chance..."] Mako flashed dimly.

["How do we even know they'll still be there?"] Clam asked. ["All we know is that this is the direction they were going last, according to Cuttlefish, and that this direction happens to lead to a scavenger den apparently. These things didn't look like they could go up on land, so why would they be going this way? What if they just reached the shore and turned? What then?"]

["I don't know."] Cuttlefish flashed. ["If the things are still near the Den, we can maybe figure out what they are doing and why they went there. If they moved on, then we'll have to try to determine which direction they went by any clues they might have left behind. If they didn't leave any, then I don't know."]

["Then I guess we'll just go look at scavengers or whatever."] Oyster said.

No one else said anything as they continued to swim through the calm morning waters. Eventually, before they came into visual range of the continental shore through the blue, Cuttlefish waved his map and signaled they should be getting close to the shore and should surface. The four carefully made for the surface to get a look around.

Mako gestured to the dragonets to move behind her. If there was indeed a risk of danger, she wanted to be in front of them.

Mako slowly slid her head above water, and froze in place. The dragonets quickly followed her and popped their heads up almost in unison.

They all froze too.

There, on land, wedged between a strip of beach and short cliff into the water and some foothills, was what looked to be an actual castle, but sized smaller, and a collection of small huts around it. That in of itself was surprising enough, because that was probably the large scavenger Den that Grouper had mentioned. Since when did scavengers build castles!? Cuttlefish could make out a bunch of scavengers on and around a weird flat wooden structure-thing that jutted out from the short cliff off into the water that looked kinda like scaffolding. The scavengers on it looked rather busy, judging by how they were moving around. Cuttlefish also thought he could see them carrying things.