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Venturing: Stony Reads

Our mouths glued shut as our eyes kept upon a square tissue. Then it was shattered when Zander exclaimed out loud. "How are we supposed to get the key from the tissue? Rip it open?" Kyro and Natty shook their heads, a frown emerged from upon their mouths without even looking at the black dragon. His claws gripped tightly as he snarled. Giving the tissue an angry look before shaking his head and gaze away towards the outskirts of our surroundings.

In case no one knew what we were staring at. It is a white sheet of tissue cloth. Upon it were four straight lines running across from the edges of the cloth. Crisscrossing one another and forming a plus sign or a cross it seems, resulting in small squares that formed upon the tissue. Half of those squares have huge humps which we guess are the objects inside them and it is our job to grab the contents inside, without tearing a hole upon the tissues and allowing the contents to drop onto the ground.

So that is what it came to be. For the rest of the three days, since the story has started, we kept our eyes upon the tissue. Pondering and thinking, even suggesting what we should do. However, none of those ideas in the past three days have ever worked at all. Leaving us frustrated and growling as if we wanted to keep the plot rolling onward towards the next event.

After a pause in silence, Kyro rose his claw above his head and snapped it as he gave a soft "oh." Sound. Startling us as we turned to him, he yanked the tissue from Yang and folded the tissue until we were left with one square sheet. Then he threw his other claw onto one of the four corners of the sheet and started ripping it. We gasped in shock and shouted at him warning him to stop, even Natty tried to grab the tissue from her mate's claws. But none of us made the move and watched helplessly as the torn piece was ripped away from the tissue and flowed freely out. Disappearing into who knows where. Kyro then unfolded the tissue back into its original square shape form. And there we noticed it.

One of the eight squares had a key inside of it. Yellow and bright it was, heavy when I snatched it out from the tissue hole. Smiling faintly to Kyro as I shoved the key into the door. A click heard as I turned the key and grabbed the knob. Pulling onto it, the door opened in response. Yet it made no noise. As the door opened wider, I and the rest of the unit stepped forth through the door. Entering into a pitch-black room. A staircase to our left, rising in elevation towards the skies above. The walls were navy in color, but it could be the darkness around us. Before us and adjacent to the stairs was a wide hallway leading straight to a brown door on the other side. There were other doors too on the sides. We would have to check them out if they lead to somewhere else

Thus after our site seeing, we quickly turned to Yang who flapped her pink wings gaining our attention as she issued her order to us. "Alright. Seems like we got a lot to cover. Me and Natty will head to the stairs. The boys will check out that brown door there if it leads to anymore. Radio us and vise versa for anything unusual." "Got it." Spoke the Union voice of dragons as Yang saluted before departing from us with Natty on board. For as they grabbed the railing and rose upward, having a conversation amongst themselves which disappeared as they draw far. Me Kyro and Zander all turned our attention towards the door ahead of us

Zander and Kyro gulped nervously. But I remained calm as I stood with my chest out and wings spread behind me, I slowly walk past the two male dragons entering into the hallway without hesitation. This will probably be my mistake. As I walked the few steps forward from the starting line of the entrance behind me, I stopped and turned around. Shifting my eyes towards my two male partners; Zander and Kyro, I found them shivering and shaking as their claws reached for their pistols. I chuckled silently in response to them, shaking my head before raising my claw up and motioned to them. They followed me behind as I resumed my steps

A third of the way and silence remained in our ears. We were all nervous and constantly glancing to the doors, pondering what would come out from them. We have already passed a few doors. All of which were locked to our surprise. There were yellow tags imprinted upon the walls; they were hard to read, however. We continued walking past more doors; not caring to stop and try all the doors. We are currently halfway there. But the silence is killing us.

Ringing echoed in our ears. I tried my best to ignore them and concentrated on my footsteps instead. Steady and to the silent beat. I may or may not know what a steady beat was or imagined in my head as I felt sweat falling from my scales. Dropping from my face as my pupils darted from side to side. Zander and Kyro were keeping their straight face and trying their best not to be concentrating too much on whatever we were doing. For keeping an open mind, they kept their eyes to the door. Thoughts swirled their heads bouncing from wall to wall in ponderance.

I felt my heart increasing in tempo as we were two-thirds inside the halls. In the final stretch, I quickly noticed that there were no more doors. But instead drawings of something. I rose a claw up, signaling Zander and Kyro as they stopped. They raised an eye and frowned, but said nothing in response as I started making my way to the left sidewall. For I leaned forward and squinted my eyes taking a closer look onto the drawing. Only a dragon with wolf fur was drawn. Upon the dragon's face was a wolf mask. White with blue-greenish lines drawn from the corners of the mask. It grew white pointy ears. Its eyes were yellow and there were no pupils within.

The drawing was facing me. It was unknown why. But just staring at it gave me a nervous breath response. A question formed in my mind "Who will it be attacking?" But something attached itself onto my shoulder and with a jolt, I turned around and rose my pistol up growling. Quickly noticing it was Zander and Kyro, I breathed a sign and nodded faintly. Stealing a glance at the drawing again, I pondered before snapping my thoughts away and lead the group.

We finally reached the door. I threw my claw down onto my pocket and grabbed a black walkie. Pressing onto the side button, I began contact with Yang and Natty. "Hello, over"

"You guys answered finally, over." Spoke a dragoness voice with a hint of pride; I could only guess this was Natty.

"Yeah," I answered not wanting to say any more

"Whatcha guys find?" Natty questioned, "There was a pair of statues here. The room is medium size. Checkered flooring."

"What were the two statues?" I pressed seemingly interested.

A chuckle escaped as response before answering "Two foxes. One Black and one Pink. The black is slimmer and has a fat tail. On its forehead, legs and tail were yellow rings. Anyway, the pink is also slimmer. It's tail split into two. A blue gem appeared on its forehead."

I remained silent as I listened to the details spat by Natty and when silence took over, I replied "Alright great. We found nothing on our side either. Just a drawing on the left wall. It's a picture of a dragon with wolf fur and also donning a wolf mask."

"Could that be our perpetrator?"

"I doubt it." I shook my head "Could be something for the near future perhaps"

"Keep looking."

"10-4"

And our connection was off. As I remained standing still and wagging my tail in thought, I watched Zander and Kyro grabbed onto the door ahead of us and opened it. Revealing to us a pitch-black hallway with a brown door on the other side. We all remained silent as I walked to their sides; leaning forward and rose my pupils up towards the horizon. I noticed something different with that door.

"Something is off guys," I whispered, projecting my voice to the others as Zander and Kyro blinked and projected their eyes to the horizon. A collective gasp answered my silence as I found myself smiling faintly before Zander spoke to me "You are right. Something is weird." I nodded with a nervous attitude attached to it.

I felt cold. But not shivering. As a chilling thought came to me, I slowly order Zander to close the door which he compelled me to do. A click shattered the silence. Then the lights shattered and sent the halls into darkness. We raised our pistols immediately and aimed for the horizon awaiting for whoever was there.

But all we got was a humming vibration. It grew louder, almost shrieking in our ears. We flatten them to avoid going deaf as our eyes kept front to the horizon. Awaiting to see who or what would show up to us. The vibrations reached its apex and cause the grounds to shake. It was not enough to break it apart, however. As our feet firmly placed to the surface of the floor below us, we watched as a single light rained down onto us. Blinding our eyes and shrinking our pupils to a reasonable size until we were able to see.

I blinked a couple times to get a bearing of my surroundings. Zander and Kyro blinked less number of times considering their eyes were more adapt to light than me. And once we gained a sight in the light, we widened our eyes and gasped in shock. Realizing where we were in the unfamiliar environment around us. A circular room. Three doors around us. Each of them has its own unique color set. They have no knobs and were cracked open at the time

The walls were moldy and paint was scrapped out from the walls. They were not smooth, a cut could be inflicted if we were not careful where we are running those claws. In the interior of the doors were darkness and silence, we would perhaps need to draw out our own flashlight to even see what was there. We remained still, but Kyro muttered something in suggestion. But we did not hear him at all. Yet he was persistent. I felt a tap onto my shoulder, my wings spread in reaction pondering if it was a ghost behind me, and turned around. Zander did the same

With our undivided attention, we noticed Kyro was smiling to himself as his lips parted he voiced out his suggestion the second time around "We should position ourselves wing to wing so our weakness would not be exposed to the enemy. Whomever it is." "Great idea!" Chimes Zander as I nodded obeying the red dragon. And so we repositioned ourselves where our wings were what Kyro had suggested. I felt tingles erupting from the two other dragon wings that oftentimes I find myself blushing lightly.

With hope that the others would not see me, I drew my pistol and aimed it at the door's entrance. Zander and Kyro mirrored me. We remained silent. Our lips sealed tight. And our eyes and pistol to the doors. We were ready.

There was silence that followed; a slight pause for the ringing sounds to emerge from the depths of silence. We remained firmly planted. Sadly not for long, however. As our bodies soon have out and an exhausted breath left our mouths. We were moving. Our wings spread out and flapped to avoid the cramping that was once beginning upon the edges of them. Zander and Kyro turned to one another, a frown escaped from each of them as they turned to me. I shrugged in response, having nothing to say in my defense.

It took long. But we deemed the place as safe. Even if the darkness surrounded us, silence falling onto our ears as we remained as statues. With the doors always opened and darkness seeping from the interior of the doors. We rested. Our bodies now motioned. I flapped my wings again to rid myself of any lingering cramps left before I opened my mouth and spoke to them

"Now shall we enter into the doors and see where they lead?"

"There are exactly three doors and three of us." Spoke Kyro, logically speaking to me as I did not take that into coordination. I grunted approvingly as Kyro added "The enemy, whoever it is, could pick us off one by one. The best thing to do is to wait for the girls to arrive. Then we will pair.""what about me?" Zander protested blurting out loud as we turned to him, "Either you go on your own or stay with us." That shut him up afterward as I nodded again and crossed my arms, grunting again questioning "When do you think the girls will arrive?"

"No sooner than later," Kyro predicted with a smile leaving me and Zander confused with an eye rose up to him. But he remained smiling. A short time had passed within the following silence until we heard something above us. A series of screams and grunts overwhelmed our ears as me and Kyro flattened them while raising our eyes up to the ceiling above. The sounds grew louder and more clearer until something popped from the ceiling.

And crashed onto the grounds came Natty and Yang, tangled up amongst one another as they groaned in a mixture of pain misery, and exhaustion. Both me and Kyro walked to them, holding out our claws as Natty and Yang grabbed them, pulling themselves up to their feet. They were dirty and cover in dust from shoulder to feet. Their wings ripped, leaving small to medium size holes. Luckily however they were alright. As silence once again took over, Natty and Yang looked about. Blinking over what they were seeing before turning over to us; Me and Kyro nodded their heads acknowledging where we are as Zander shook his head, nudging his head at both me and Kyro with a grumpy sound vibrating from his mouth. Natty and Yang faintly smiled before motioning their claws at us before turning themselves around and started walking to one of the doors.

We were surprised by this and rushed over to them to stop their advancements. But they kept on pushing as our words fell on deaf ears. I growled protesting and Yang answered with a question to us "Have you guys tried entering into the door?" "But there could be something there!" I argued as Yang chuckled and lowered her claws to her hips grinning "No one is within those doors, Ling. Plus did you forget you are an officer and not some hatchling all those years ago?" She gave a smirk at the end of her sentence. I shook my head silently and Yang smiled in response before we closed in onto the door.

We entered in. Never knowing what to expect within the doors as a bright light flashed onto our eyes forcing us to squint, then it was gone. Just like that. And we found ourselves back onto our realm. The buildings were tall and mighty. Some bow to the majority of big buildings. We were closest to the base, our mansion that Natty allowed us to use until everything had settled down. Me and Yang smiled; Kyro and Natty threw their claws into the air. Quickly running towards the mansion and left us all behind. However, Zander was quick to notice something was wrong. A tiny detail that spells the difference between real to fantasy.

A bright red moon hangs above us. It was big that it almost covers the entire sky.