Chapter 3: Quite Smart for a Pack of Strays
Finally able to vent his frustrations without worrying about anygon hearing him, Extraordinaire let out a series of yells that would normally have drawn the attention of half the neighborhood, wandering about the rocky gemfield outside of Dragontown proper. “Blue, pink, and yellow?! That goes beyond the normal color standards of our society into clown suit territory! Blue and pink would’ve been fine on their own, in small amounts, but all three?! Is Goody colorblind? That’s not balance, that’s downright chaotic!” He kicked a nearby rock, sending it flying into the air. Beneath it was a rainbow opal the size of a chicken’s egg. After picking the gem up and stowing it in his bag, he continued his venting.
“And Nightfall! He actually was trying to go for ‘simple and practical’! That is just not done for something as important as the Big Burning Bash! The only thing that could’ve been worse would’ve been asking for it to be all one color!” Extraordinaire shuddered at the thought. “That leans too far in the opposite direction: order to the extreme! Gwynnia only knows what kind of negative impact something like that would’ve had on him and Lord Lumin!” He grabbed another nearby rock and threw it as far as he could, revealing another gem, this one being a sardonyx. He stowed that gem in his bag as well before stomping further into the field, releasing more pent-up anger.
“As for the others? Slice was pretty much fine, but Slash was so hard to work with! Sure, I love a challenge, but the way he acted was downright insulting! He wanted to go first just to ‘get it over with’! Doesn’t he realize that dressing to impress is very important? Especially for somegon like him, who wants to talk to a stunt team as prestigious as the Shatterbursts?!” Taking a deep, agitated breath, Extraordinaire let loose frustration he’d never vent in the company of anygon. “As for Timidwings? I could never bring myself to say it to his face, but being noticed is kind of the whole blasted point, and him wanting to blend in defeats the whole purpose of him attending! We’re national heroes, for Gwynnia’s sake! If he’s not seen with us before we separate, he’ll have dragons looking for him the whole night, I’m sure! They’ll be wondering where the sixth one of us is, and he won’t have a moment’s peace as they look for him!”
His yells finally ended with a loud roar of rage: “Why don’t any of them get it?” His horns glowed a brilliant blue, his fists becoming encased in the same aura before he struck the ground with two magically-enhanced punches, creating a dual shockwave that sent rocks flying, exposing hundreds of gems to the open air.
Panting from the combination of so much force in both his punches and his tirade, Extraordinaire barely heard footsteps behind him, but he did hear them, and immediately whirled around to find himself facing a small group of bipedal canines: Diamond Dogs.
Known for both their love of gems and only being smart if they weren’t “strays”—a term used to denote any Diamond Dog not raised in their home nation—Diamond Dogs were strong, but almost never a match for a fully-grown dragon. Not even a fully-grown Mystic Dragon who had exhausted all of their magic reserves would have much trouble dispatching a large pack of strays, and Mystic Dragons had the lowest physical strength out of the three major tribes. However, young dragons were often reminded that stray Diamond Dogs were known to try to abduct dragons for various reasons, and that even a young Nature Dragon couldn’t fight off very many strays alone.
Taking notice that the group of three was comprised entirely of females—including their rather large leader—the white Dragoon decided to employ his genteel to impress them so as to not have to resort to violence. He preferred to avoid having to hurt a lady, even if she was a Diamond Dog stray.
“I beg your pardon, ladies. I didn’t mean to intrude on your territory,” he began, winking at the Dog to the leader’s left, who immediately blushed and smiled. “I promise to not cause any trouble for you, and to leave immediately, if that would appease you.” He shot the Dog on the leader’s right a heart-winning smile, causing her to swoon a little, visibly fighting the urge to wag her tail.
Before he could try to gain the favor of the leader, she spoke, striking the two Dogs next to her as well. “Fidella, Checkers, no. Dessa take care of white dragon.” Her eyes turned pitch black for a split-second before she began approaching Extraordinaire, the others following her.
Extraordinaire’s eyes went wide, a tremor running through him before stopping suddenly. There was something… off about this situation. An aura of unease was emanating from the Diamond Dog leader; it reminded him a little of the Wild Woods, actually. There was just something vaguely menacing about this; well, the leader, specifically. She looked normal to Extraordinaire; but there was a very predatory vibe coming off of her—and not in the usual canine way, either. He started backpedaling, keeping the three in front of him in his line of sight. “Now, ladies, no need to be rash. I-I, um, was just going to be on my way… back to Dragontown.” Far away from you, he thought.
The Diamond Dog leader, however, was having none of it, her eyes narrowed. “White dragon isn’t going anywhere. White dragon is going to go with us to the tunnels below.” The three of them fanned out into a semicircle, checking to make sure the white Dragoon wasn’t going to make a break for it.
Extraordinaire realized he was in a very tight spot, and from the way things were looking, charm wasn’t going to help him out of this one. “Now, my dear Diamond Dogs, um… what do you need me to go down to the tunnels for? I’m sure I can be much more helpful to you above ground. After all, we dragons need our… umm, sun! Right, we need sunlight to live. We’re like, um, plants, yes. We need lots of sunlight, or we’ll just perish in a flash! We are reptiles, after all…” He stopped, and chuckled nervously at the skeptical look the Diamond Dog leader was shooting him. “…blast, that didn’t work, did it?”
“No, it didn’t. Dragons aren’t reptiles. Warm blooded like mammals. White dragon will come with us, now. No more talking.”
“Now, ladies, I really don’t want to come to blows with you, but if you aren’t going to let me be on my way, I will be forced to defend myself. I’m terribly sorry for my discourtesy, but I’d rather stay above ground, thank you!” With that, Extraordinaire made a break for it, flapping his wings to help him get away. But just as he managed to get a few feet into the air, he felt a tugging on his tail. He looked down to see the Diamond Dog leader clinging to his tail like the end of a rope, dragging him down back onto the ground with her. “Oh, confound it all! Would you kindly get off of me?!” He lashed out with a foot, earning a yelp of pain. However, his small moment of advantage was quickly ended by the two other Diamond Dogs launching themselves at him, and he soon found himself crashing to the ground, fighting fang and talon to try to get these crazy dogs away.
“Fine! You’ve forced my claw here!” He snapped. “I tried to warn you!” Taking a deep breath as he offered a silent prayer to Lady Bellona, Extraordinaire charged up his breath weapon and breathed a flurry of small razor-sharp diamond particles at the Dog on his left, causing her to yelp as the harmful gems tore at her flesh. Next, he focused his magic through his horns and generated blue energy blades extending from each of his foreclaws’ talons, swiping at the Dog to his right with a cry of “Have at you!” The second Diamond Dog was thrown back several feet, a long, shallow gash in her fur. No sign of blood, though. Maybe she’d be scared off, though? After all, these three had to have realized fully-grown dragon plus Diamond Dogs was not going to be an equation with the odds in their favor.
Sadly, it seemed he had given them more credit for brainpower than they actually had, as the two of them immediately got up and decided to abandon all gentle handling to just punch him in the belly. He doubled over, trying to back up again and finding himself flush against a rock wall. “Good Gwynnia, that hurts! Sheesh, Diamond Dogs are not supposed to be this strong…”
The three of them were at least intelligent enough to tell that their target was cornered. Not enough to keep their mouths shut, however. The leader gave him a smug grin. “Dessa had help. Fidella and Checkers, too, but not as much as Dessa. Black cloud made us stronger…” She bared her incisors. “We beat white dragon to pulp if he not give up.”
Extraordinaire was sure he’d heard something like this in the bedtime stories from his Hatchling days. But he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. Either way, he quickly realized his choices seemed to be narrowed down to ‘get beaten up and be dragged with them’ or ‘come quietly with all limbs in working order.’ And neither one of those options was looking very attractive at the time. There didn’t seem to be a way out of this… but maybe he could leave some kind of trail for the others to find him later? It was better than ending up more bruised than he already was, anyways. He put his arms behind him, sneaking a spool of thread from his pack. “Alright, ladies. Fine. I surrender. Now, if I go with you, may I have your word you won’t try to harm me? Well, further?”
The three Diamond Dogs looked at each other, clearly not expecting him to actually surrender, but shrugged. “Yes, dragon,” the leader said. “We won’t hurt white dragon if dragon don’t resist. Now, come with us!” She barked, pointing towards him with an outstretched claw.
Extraordinaire raised one claw in a gesture of surrender, the other behind his back, letting the spool unwind itself as he started to follow them. “Very well, then. I shall go with you to the… tunnels.” He shuddered slightly at the thought; he didn’t like underground places, despite his Greatest Skill being his gem-finding abilities. They were dark, drafty, and worst of all, dirty.
And so, the Diamond Dogs led him away, never noticing the trail of red thread left behind him. He followed them towards a small cave, seemingly hewn out of a large rock. The dragon shivered slightly as he passed out of sunlight into the dark recesses of the cave, looking back over his shoulder to make sure his trail was still being laid; thankfully, it was. But the light at the cave entrance was getting dimmer as he went, until he turned a corner into a tunnel and it disappeared entirely. Extraordinaire stopped, hoping his captors wouldn’t notice if he stayed behind in the dark. However, he was not so lucky, as the leader heard the lack of footsteps behind her, and turned around. “Why is dragon not following?”
Extraordinaire froze, about to try to make an excuse, when a terrible, clever idea came to him. Back in his Dragonling years, his parents had told him stories of the Diamond Dogs; and what to do if one was captured by them. They hated complaining. Loathed it with a passion. “Well, um… It’s too dark in here. I can’t see to follow you in this awful gloom. Oh, and it’s drafty too; have you dogs ever heard of insulation? I mean, seriously! Oh, and by the way, I don’t suppose you’ve swept the floor of this cave in weeks, months even? There’s so much dirt here, you’d think it’s never seen a cleaning day in its whole—”
One of the Diamond Dogs clapped her paws over her ears, visibly wincing with every word. “Agh, make him stop! Fidella can’t take whining!”
“Checkers can’t either!” The other one said, bobbing her head as best she could with her ears covered. “Please can we just let white dragon go—”
“No!” Dessa snapped, surprisingly unaffected by the complaints, and gave her subordinates a clout on their heads for good measure. She shook her head, ignoring the other two’s yelps of pain, and turned around to glare at Extraordinaire. “Lanterns further in. White dragon will have to wait for light. Now shut up, and keep moving.”
Extraordinaire was smart enough to know not to push his luck right now, and quickly followed her further down the tunnel, feeling his way along the rough wall. The tunnel twisted and sloped slowly downwards, enough for him to occasionally need to catch his balance if he tripped on a rough place to avoid going tumbling down. After all, he didn’t want to end up more bruised than he already was. The fact that the tunnel seemed to be getting wetter didn’t help, making the floor slick beneath his feet. Maybe there was some kind of underground channel or cistern nearby? It would explain the sound of dripping water he kept hearing as he went further in.
Eventually, the gloom of the tunnel gave way to the soft glow of lanterns, and he found himself in a massive underground chamber, lit by the flickering orange light of lanterns in crevices in the rock walls. Tunnels radiated out in all directions like spokes of a wheel, though the one they were obviously supposed to head towards was conveniently right across from him. Or so the sounds of whines, growls and barks mixed with indecipherable yelling in that direction indicated.
Dessa looked over her shoulder to make sure Extraordinaire was still following, then said, “White dragon will follow us to other pack members. No take other paths.” Turning to look at both of her subordinates in turn, she commanded, “Fidella, Checkers, watch dragon. Make sure he follow. Dessa lead to pack.”
Extraordinaire nodded solemnly and continued to follow, dropping the end of the red spool into the shadows behind him and quickly fishing a blue one out of his pack. Sneaking into one of the side paths would’ve been a risky move since it could easily get him lost, but he had been considering it. But with the two smaller Diamond Dogs taking turns watching him, there was no way he could even attempt it.
They crossed the chamber into the opposite tunnel in silence, the sounds of more Diamond Dogs growing louder with every step they took. Upon reaching the other side, he found himself in the midst of a whole circle of them, and quickly realized they’d all gone completely quiet.
“So…” the white Dragoon chuckled nervously, “Now that we’re here, may I know what you need from me down here that I couldn’t do for you above ground?”
“Find gems!” A female from the group cried out.
“Yes, yes! Lots of gems!” A male added, nodding his head emphatically, banging his pickaxe against the ground.
“How are you so sure that I can do a better job at it than you?” Extraordinaire asked, hoping to get them to doubt their own odd plan. “After all, you’re skilled miners! You have pickaxes and heightened senses! What could I possibly—”
“White dragon have diamonds on tail,” Dessa cut in. “White dragon is better at finding gems than anydog in pack. Many in pack saw white dragon find big number of gems in time it take Diamond Dog to find pawful.”
Extraordinaire shook his head, starting to get a little desperate to get out of there. “Look, I don’t know what impression you got, but I assure you me finding those was purely accidental! I mean, I just started kicking at the ground and gems started flying about! I can promise you, I’m not very good at finding—”
“White dragon not understand!” the one who had called herself “Fidella” cut in. “Many dogs in pack see white dragon find many, many gems, many, many times! That is reason we want dragon’s help. Dragon way better than anydog in pack!”
Extraordinaire chuckled nervously, trying to not look like he was searching around for an escape route. “Now, I think you’ve got it all wrong; I’m not skilled at finding gems, I just have an experience with it that’s mostly all luck, let me tell you. And I don’t think pure luck is what you’re looking for; you need somegon who has a real skill for it, not—”
“Dragon’s tail show what dragon’s best at, yes?” The one called “Checkers” interrupted, the look on her face indicating that she wasn’t buying a word he said. “If dragon no good at gem-finding, why dragon’s tail have diamonds?” She folded her arms and gave a smug grin.
Extraordinaire opened his mouth to try to deny it further, but then promptly shut it. They were clearly not as dumb as he’d thought, unfortunately. Or at least the leaders weren’t. Still, that didn’t mean the rest of the pack had more intelligence than a sack of rocks to put together. He had one more weapon at his disposal. And I will use it to the fullest measure, he thought grimly to himself.
It was time to turn on the complaining up to eleven.
A couple hours after Extraordinaire had left, Silver Bolt had, surprisingly, not left the Boutique as a smoldering, charred heap of ruins. After all, one didn’t need to cook to take care of a cat. The oven was thoroughly intact, the utensils were left unmelted, and the entire kitchen (and the rest of the building) was mercifully left every shade but sooty black.
Now, there may have been a few claw marks on the ceiling from where Jasper had attempted to hang on for dear life (how, Silver had no idea, but flew up to get him down, much to the cat’s dismay). Other than that, things had been relatively kept in order for the past two hours: the house was clean, no more damage had been caused, Jasper had been fed, and the cat had finally let Silver pet him after realizing the little Dragonling wasn’t going to crush him to death.
There was still one thing nagging at Silver’s mind, though; his brother wasn’t back yet. He’d said it’d be a couple hours, but there were still no signs of Extraordinaire’s return at all. And despite the calm of the afternoon once the earlier debacle had subsided, he couldn’t help but feel worry pricking at the edges of his mind. “He must’ve been delayed,” he said to himself, turning towards Jasper on the counter as if hoping he’d have the answers. “He always likes to be on time, though, ‘fashionably late’ or not. What could’ve kept him out for so long?” The only response from the cat was a plaintive meow, not quite sure what the Dragonling was saying, but knowing he missed his owner, too.
At that moment, the tinkling of the bell above the door could be heard. Silver Bolt perked up and bounded towards the door, eager to see his brother again. “Extraordinaire! Where did you go? You’ve been gone over two…” He trailed off upon seeing that the Dragoons at the door did not, in fact, include his brother. “…hours.” He let out a disappointed sigh.
Nightfall, currently wedged between Apple Slice and the doorway, managed to squeeze himself into the building, glancing around before his eyes fell on the Dragonling in the room who was most definitely not Extraordinaire. “He hasn’t come back yet?” he asked with a slight tilt of his head. “Do you know which direction he left in?”
Silver Bolt nodded, his worry, and the others’, starting to grow as they realized neither of them were sure exactly what had happened.
A certain Unicorn filly was suddenly seized by terror at the thought that anything could have happened to Extraordinaire; particularly something bad. Wishful wasn’t patient enough to wait for an answer, and jumped off of Nightfall’s back, running towards Silver until she was close enough to make Nightfall and Extraordinaire’s first encounter look downright roomy in comparison. “Where’d he go? Tell us now, or I’ll… I’ll…”
“Wishful, you’re scaring the poor Dragonling! This isn’t Midnight Darkscales you’re talking to; he’s younger than you are!” Nightfall chastised, shaking his head, pulling her back to his side with his magic. “Sorry about that, but she gets a little… over-enthusiastic when Extraordinaire’s well-being is in question.”
Silver crossed his arms, “He’s my brother and you don’t see me attacking anygon for information,” he said with a huff.
Wishful narrowed her eyes. “Because you already have it!” she shot back at him with a stomp of a hoof for emphasis.
“Alright, both of ya’ll simmer down now,” Apple Slice cut in, giving the both of them a stern look. “We ain’t gonna get anywhere by shoutin’ at each other.” His look softened as he turned to Silver. “Now, back to the question at claw; where’d yer brother go?”
“As far as I know, he headed towards the gem fields outside of town,” Silver said with a shrug. “It’s where he usually goes when he needs to think.”
At this point, Nightfall seemed to snap out of his thoughts, a light going on in his head. “That’s it! He must’ve headed out there to cool off after our…” His earfins drooped down a bit as he remembered exactly why Extraordinaire left. “…our argument.”
“Hey, no use worrying about it now; we’ve got our friend to find!” Prism Slash said, looking ready to fly out the window by himself. “If he’s got into any trouble, we can easily just go and teach trouble why you don’t mess with us!”
Timidwings finally spoke up, looking around nervously, “I hope there won’t be too much fighting; I’d hate for anygon to step too close to real danger… again. “
Slash scoffed and patted Timidwings’ head. “Relax, Timmy. We can easily beat up anything that tries to hurt us.” He grinned a little to himself. “Besides, ‘Danger’ is my middle name.”
Goody was unable to restrain himself at this point. “Wait, I thought it was—”
“Don’t. Say it.” Slash practically growled, nearly snout-to-snout with Goody in his anger, little prismatic particles escaping his mouth and nearly into Goody’s face.
The pink Dragoon, to his credit, did not bat an eye at the glare. He just shrugged, “Okay!” and pushed Slash’s snout a comfortable distance away.
“Aaaanyways, once you two are done messing around, we need to get back on the task at claw; finding Extra!” Nightfall said, subtly pulling the two further apart with his magic. Slash and Goody, to their credit, had the good grace to look ashamed, pointedly staring down at the floor, the window, the door; anything but each other and Nightfall.
“So… to the gem fields then?” Slice asked.
Nightfall nodded with determination. “To the gem fields!”
The Gem Fields, to their collective dismay, were entirely unoccupied, except by their namesake. Gems lay scattered about in some places, and in the midst of one wide area of uncovered gems was a shallow crater in the ground.
“Well… somegon was definitely mad,” Slash whistled, a little impressed. “Remind me not to get on the end of his claws when he isn’t heading out here to cool down.”
Nightfall scanned the crater with his magic, noting the cause as a shockwave caused by Extraordinaire’s magic. He could tell that magical signature anywhere by now; though this was the first time he’d seen it used violently. “He was definitely here,” He said, glancing around, “But I don’t think he could’ve… wait a minute…” As he looked around, he widened his scan of the area, and little details that were previously at the edge of his senses were now fully exposed. Extraordinaire’s magical signature went from outside the crater to a rock wall, almost like a faint, squiggly line in the air.
Nightfall followed the trail like, well, a dog on a scent, until he found another clue midway between the crater and the rock wall. Clumps of fur lay on the ground, as if cut or torn from their owner; but more importantly, they had his friend’s signature on them as well. “Diamond Dogs!” he said to himself, both shocked and a little confused. Extraordinaire wasn’t there, which obviously meant they had won the scuffle; but how did they do it? “But wait; how exactly could they beat Extraordinaire? They’re not strong enough to overpower a fully-grown dragon, and they’re dumb as a sack of rocks!”
“We could always follow that trail of red thread to find out!” Goody cut in, suddenly next to Nightfall and pointing off to his right.
“Goody, what are you talking… oh.” Nightfall just barely resisted the urge to slap himself for overlooking the bright red trail of thread leading from nearby towards the entrance to a cave hewn into a fairly large rock formation.
The whole group was silent for a moment, before the stillness was broken by the Unicorn in their party, the little filly bounding towards the cave like her life depended on it. “Well, come on guys! Let’s go save Extraordinaire!” And so, the rest of them followed, just barely able to keep up with her on foot.
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Hello there. Thanks very much for getting this chapter up. I really appreciate you going to the effort. Once again, great job on the exchanges, emotional content, action and future chapter set-up in all the right places. I particularly liked the stuff with the Diamond Dogs and Wishful and Silver's argument. Though, I said it before and I'll say it again; If this universe's Diamond Dogs are that tough, I shudder to think about how rough the MAJOR villains are going to be when you get to those stories. At any rate, I will definitely be looking forward to more of this as soon as time and inspiration will allow.
This is great! I enjoy the action scene.
Edit: Okay now I'm curious. What is Slash's middle name?
Good chapter l. I loved how silver and wishful were "arguing" with each other.
7257843 The world may never know his middle name. It's too embarrassing.
Who's Lady Bellona?
I like how these dragons are acting differently from their pony counterparts now.
Nitpick: I know the Diamond Dogs aren't bright, bit being warm-blooded doesn't mean that these dragons aren't reptiles. Leatherback turtles are warm-blooded.
9736638
They have other mammalian traits I'd rather not get into at this time. They're a middle ground between reptile and mammal.
And Lady Bellona is part of their religion. She's one of the Greater Athanatoi one of her multiple dominions is battle, hence why Extra prayed to her.