A Dragon's Tale Part4

A Dragon's Tale Part4


I started putting the tents away from the previous night's indoor camp out after we ate breakfast and said "That was a nice way to spend an evening."

"Yes it was" Articus replied as he helped me with the tents and we were soon done cleaning up. After everything as put away, we helped the kids get ready for school and waved goodbye as they flew off to it. I went back inside to look at Thursday's mail, since we had been too busy yesterday to look at it then. I looked through it, found a letter for Articus and gave it to him as I said "this letter is for you and Jessie, from your parents."

"Thanks" Articus replied as he took it and read it "they are having a family reunion and they want Jessie and I to bring our families."

"Sounds like you will have fun, may come along?" I asked and Articus answered "yes, they said you can bring your family along as well and since Harvey is distant cousin of yours his family can come also."

"When will we have to leave?" I asked with a big smile. Articus grinned and answered "We will have to leave for Earth tomorrow."

"That quickly?" I said "Okay, I guess now we know what to do today."

"Yep, get ready for a little vacation" Articus replied and I nodded. I started thinking about what we would need to pack and said "okay we will need the bottles, portable cribs and blankets for the hatchlings and what else?"

"Don't forget the formula for the hatchlings either" Articus replied. I nodded and asked "okay so what will we need to take besides the stuff for the hatchlings?"

"Well we should probably make something to eat, that we can take to it" Articus answered. I nodded and said "we'll have to think on that a bit, so lets start getting everything else ready for this while we do."

"Okay" he replied as we headed to where Aras and Harvey were, to tell them. After we told them about it, the 4 of us told our mates and then we started getting ready. We got everything we would need packed after a few hours and then we started cooking the food. The kids got home before we had finished that and asked "why do you have suit cases out and why are you cooking all that food?"

"Well, we are going to go to earth tomorrow" I answered "and you get to come as well."

Kalia turned toward Articus and asked "dad, why are we going to earth?"

"Because my parents are having a family reunion" he answered and his kids grinned wide and said "we get to see our cousins and grand parents."

"Hehe they sure are happy about this" I said and Articus replied "I'll say, they are just about flying around in here."

"Well you can't blame them for getting excited though" I said and Articus nodded and we finished getting the food for the reunion ready. Aras smiled and said "we finally got the food we are going to take along ready."

"Yeah and just in time" Harvey added "as now the kitchen will be needed for cooking dinner."

I nodded and was about to leave the kitchen but, I could not find the hatchlings "um Firetail have you seen our hatchlings?"

"Not for a bit" she answered as she started looking for them and she chuckled a few minutes later "I found them in the leftover cake batter."

"Hehe that's as cute as it was when Areotania, Hydrotania and Baze did that with pancake batter" I said. Firetail giggled and replied "yeah and now they will need a bath."

"Hehe yep" I replied and they squeaked at me "but first dinner."

Firetail nodded and we ate a quick dinner. Once we were done, we washed the hatchlings and put them to bed, before we rested for the trip that we would be taking.  The next morning we ate a quick breakfast and fined getting our stuff together for the trip. The moment we were done packing; the kids ran to the building, next to the castle, where the teleporter we used to go between the dimensions of Darastrian and Edar was located. I chuckled as I followed them and when I got into the building some of the symbols on the device caught my eye. So I looked at them more closely and Articus asked "what is it you are looking at Thunder Claw?"

"These symbols look like the ones I saw on the scrolls we found at the ruins" I answered and then Articus looked at them and nodded. The kids started to get impatient and said "can we go now?"

"Yeah" I replied as I took one "remote controls" that we use for coming back to Daratres. Articus set the teleporter to open a portal to near where his parents' house was and then he activated it. I grinned and we went though the portal. Once every one was though, I used the remote to close it. Articus smiled and said "it will only be a short flight from here."

"Alight, lead the way" I replied and he started flying. The rest of us followed and Jessie decided to race Articus. Articus and Jessie landed near a large, nice looking house in the country that had a pond near it. The rest of us landed behind them and the kids headed for the pond immediately. Firetail chuckled at that and said "looks like they want to go swimming."

"Hehe they may" Articus replied and the kids yelled "Yay" as they jumped in. Articus and Jessie's parents came out and hugged both of them "Jessie, Articus it's been a while since we got to see you in person."

"Yeah it has" Articus replied as he and Jessie hugged back and she added "we have been rather busy."

"Hi, I'm Thunder Claw" I said to them and Articus and Jessie's dad replied "Hello Thunder Claw I am Tim and this is my wife Sandy."

"How are your kids doing?" Sandy asked Articus and Jessie.

"Fine, they are swimming in the pond right now" Jessie answered and Articus added "and we have a bit more news, we each have 2 more hatchlings now."

"Can we see them?" Tim asked and Jessie answered "sure" as she got her's and Articus got his. I grinned and got mine and Havery did the same.

"They are cute" Sandy said and we talked for a bit before the rest of Articus's family arrived. Once the rest of Articus's family arrived, things got a bit hectic as all of the kinds wanted to go flying. So we ended up giving all of them rides. After we gave all the lids rides, we laid down and rested for a bit and Lavia said "I think things are getting a bit hectic here now."

"Yeah and I don't think the hatchlings like this" Aras replied and Melissa added "I agree and our kids look like they are getting bored."

"Well we are fairly close to the great lakes, so let's go to them and do some fishing" Articus suggested. I smiled and said "I think that would be a good way to pas some time and relax after all the flying we did."

"Alright lets go" he replied as he took off and started flying toward the great lakes. The rest of us flew after him and we landed once we reached the great lakes. We spent a little while looking for a boat being enough for all of us that we could rent and found a suitable one near the end of the dock. Articus took care of getting the boat rented while the rest of us got a few supplies together. Once that was done, we got on the boat and heading out into the lake. We reached a good fishing spot, stopped the boat and started fishing. We decided to go swimming once we were done fishing and while I was swimming, I noticed what looked like ship wrecks on the bottom of the lake. I showed Articus and said "I wish we had the merdragon tf gems with us."

"Yeah I would like to check them out" Articus replied as he swam back to the boat with me and I nodded. I got on the boat and said "I guess we'll have to make a quick trip back to Drekon for them."

"We should have just brought them with us" Articus replied and I nodded and sighed. I started to think about how to get them but was interrupted by Articus asking "who's giggling?"

"I'm not sure" I answered as I got on deck and looked around. I spotted Areotania and Kalia swimming around and the other kids were watching them because they were wearing a pair of the gems and in mer dragon forms at the moment. I looked at them and asked "where did you get the gems?"

"Um we each brought 2 along dad" Areotania answered and I continued "where are the other 2 gems then?"

"In the cabinet under the boat's sink" Kalia replied. I went back into the boats cabin, got the other 2 gems ans gave one to Articus. He took it and asked "how did they get here?"

"Hehe our daughters" I answered as I put one on and got in the water. Articus chuckled, put the other one on and got in the water as well and then we both turned into water dragons as we swam back to where we saw the ship wrecks. I turned toward Articus and said "ready?"

"Ready" he replied with a grin as he dived toward the wrecks and I followed. Our gems glowed and we turned into mer dragons on the swim down. When Articus and I got to the bottom of the lake, we made our markings glow and we looked around a bit to see what was down there. It turned out that there was not one, but several ship wrecks in the area and I said "this could take a while to explore."

"Yes it could but it will be fun" Articus replied as we swam to the first ship. As we got closer I began to be able to make out details of the ship, it looking like it was an old sailing ship with no steam power at all. We swam around the out side of the ship once we reached it and Articus said "It looks to be in pretty good shape."

"Yeah, thanks to the cold fresh water of these lakes" I replied as I looked for a way inside "hehe maybe we can find some treasure on it."

"That would be nice, or maybe even find the captain's diary and the ship's log" Articus answered "and I think I see a way in."

"Where" I asked and he answered "the door to the cabin behind the main mast is missing."

"Alright lets go into it and start exploring" I replied as I swam to the cabin and entered it with him. The light from our markings made it possible to see despite the lack of sunlight and I carefully started looking around for anything interesting. Articus swam into a passage below the deck, found some old lanterns along it, and showed me one of them. I smiled and told him it was a nice find before, I swam down another passage, to see if I could find something interesting. I saw a chest in a room near the end of the passage and said "Articus get in here I think a found a treasure chest."

"Coming" Articus replied and he entered the room about a minute later. He grinned widely and said "hehe this is a great find Thunder Claw."

"Yes it is, GAH what's that" I exclaimed as I spotted something else in the room that was swimming and breathed lightning on it. Articus stared at me for a moment and said "It was just an eel but that's not what has got my attention."

"Then what did?" I asked and he answered "I think your gem was glowing while you were breathing lightning."

"Realy? Okay let's find out for sure" I said and breathed a little more lightning. I looked at my gem while I did it, saw that it was in fact glowing and said "okay this is odd."

"Yeah it was, and I think I have a theory why it was doing that" Articus replied and I said "go on."

"I will but I need to do something first" he said and he breathed a little ice. His gem glowed while he did that and he continued "I think the gems are creating a force filed to keep the water from interfering with our elements."

"That would make sense, after all directly breathing lightning in water might not end well" I replied and Articus nodded. I thought about it for a bit and asked "Do you think that since I have such good control of my lighting that I might be able to control the force field as well?"

"I think you may be able to do that" he answered. I nodded and concentrated on trying to make an independent force field "Is it working?"

"Not yet" he answered and I stopped trying to make one. Then I though about it a bit more and said "any thoughts on how to do this?"

"Just concentrate on trying to make the force field, don't put much effort into the lighting" he replied and I tried that. This time, it worked and I said "I think I got it."

"Yes you did" he replied and I grinned and asked "okay now how can I use this?"

"Well it would be nice to get some pictures of these wrecks, so maybe use them to protect your camera so we can do that" Articus suggested and I replied that I thought it was a good idea. I swam out of the shipwreck and back to the boat. Once I turned back into a water dragon, I got on the boat, grabbed my camera. I dived back into the water, after I protected the camera with force fields and then I swam back to the shipwreck. I had turned back into a mer dragon by the time I got to it and Articus said "I found something interesting while you were gone."

"What did you find?" I asked and he answered "the captain's diary and the ship's log."

"That is the best find so far" I replied as I started taking pictures "we are going to have to figure out how to recover this stuff."

"Yeah but lets explore the other ships first, and think about that while we explore them" Articus said and I nodded and swam to the next ship, after I was done taking pictures of this one. The second ship was and old side wheeled paddle steamer and it looked like it had taken some heavy hits from big waves before it sank.  I took some pictures of the outside of the ship and entered it through an open hatch. Articus and I started searching for anything interesting in this ship and I continued to take pictures of it. I smiled and told Articus that I was going to go into the engine room and get some pictures of the engine. He nodded, followed me into it and smiled as I started talking pictures of the steam engine. While I was taking pictures, Articus noticed something did not look right on the engine and said "look at this, I may have found a problem with the engine."

"Okay" I said as I looked over the part of the engine he was next to and said "It looking like the shaft that hold the paddle wheels is not lined up right."

"That's what I was thought but since you're the expert on machinery I wanted you to verify that " he replied as I took many more pictures of the engine room and engine, to make sure I did not miss any part of it. Once I finished taking the pictures of the engine room, we explored the rest of this ship and then we explored the 3 remaining ships. We ended up finding a chest in each of the ships and amazingly found the captain's diaries and ship's logs in all of them as well. We also found a few more lanterns, some old muzzle loading rifles and a few old swords. I smiled and said "that was fun, now let's head back to the boat and plan how we will recover the things we found."

"Yeah I had fun as well but I'm starting to get tired" Articus replied as we swam to the surface and then we turned back into water dragons as we swam back to the boat. We got on the boat and returned to normal as we took off the gems. I turned toward the others and said "Alright time to get back on the boat and head to shore."

"Aww already?" the kids asked and Articus answered "Yes it's starting to get late."

"Fine" the kids replied as they swam back to the boat and got on it. The others got on it after they did and we drove it back to shore. Aras docked the boat and Harvey said "now I could use some dinner."

"How about we head to the Golden Corral for dinner?" Jessie suggested as we got of the boat and Lavia replied "That will be fine."

"YAY!" the kids replied as they pounced hugged us and Melissa chuckled.

"Hehe looks like you made the right choice Calfury" Firetail said and I replied "hehe I think she did as well."

The hatchlings started squeaking and Articus said "I think we need to feed the hatchlings first."

I nodded and got some bottles of formula out of a travel bag and then we gave them to the hatchlings and they purred a little as they sucked up the formula. While the hatchlings were feeding, Articus checked the phone directory to see where the closest Golden Corral was and gave us the address when he found out. We headed to it once the hatchlings had emptied their bottles and it did not take long to get there since it was nearby. The kids ran to the buffet before we even had a chance to pick out tables to sit at and chuckled "Looks like their hungrier than I thought."

"Are these your kids?" one of the workers asked us and Aras rolled his eyes and answered "We're the only dragons in here so yes they are."

I chuckled and went to the buffet to get some food for myself and then sat at one of the tables and started eating. The others selected what they wanted to eat and stat down as well. They also started eating and the hatchlings looked at the food and sniffed it. Firetail looked at them and said "that's cute."

"Hehe yes it is see any thing that can eat?" Jessie asked and Lavia answered "well there is chocolate pudding."

I nodded and got some pudding to the hatchlings and then we started discussing the ship wrecks. The main part of the discussion centered on how to get the books off the ship wrecks safely. Eventually we came up with a simple solution, take some fish tanks down to the wrecks and put the books in them, so that the books could stay in water until we could get and expert to look at them. It was staring to get late by the time we were done eating, so we started looking for a hotel to spend the night in after we left the Golden Corral. We found nice looking one a bit later and checked into it for the night.