Garnet walked quietly down the hall. She couldn’t believe that she had been at Jade Mountain Academy a week already, and hadn’t even visited the library. She wanted to kick herself. Garnet loved scrolls. History scrolls, adventure scrolls, all kinds. She had been too busy with her classes and her Quartz Winglet to stop by and get her library card. Her best friend, Peregrine, had told her how the library system worked, but she still didn’t understand it all that much. Now she longed to visit the cave and see the rainforest-leaf windows, and the racks of scrolls. Peregrine had been her best friend since Garnet was a small dragonet. She had been so excited when she heard that they both had been accepted at Jade Mountain Academy after the war ended, even though Peregrine was in the Copper Winglet, and she was in the Quartz Winglet. And now that they were actually here, she found it hard to believe how much time had passed.
So I'd better get to the library before any more time passes, she thought.
She had glimpsed the library several times while on her way to her classes, so she knew where it was. As she entered the peaceful cave, she nearly gasped. Racks and racks of scrolls filled the room. There were several places where someone could curl up and read. There were a few readers there, Mightyclaws, the NightWing from her winglet, and Turtle, the SeaWing from the Jade Winglet. She walked up to the central desk, and Starflight looked up as she approached.
“Hello?” the blind librarian asked.
“It’s Garnet,” she replied.
“Oh.”
Starflight seemed to relax a little, then smiled.
“Have you come for your library card?” he asked.
“Yes,” Garnet said timidly. “Sorry for not coming sooner, I’ve been busy.”
“It’s fine,” Starflight said, reaching under his desk.
Garnet could see that there was a whole drawer, that had several wooden stamps, with a student’s name carved in upraised letters on one side. It looked as though all thirty-five names had been in the drawer, but most of them had already come by and taken theirs.
Starflight touched them lightly until he came to Garnet’s. He pulled it out.
“Do you know how the library system works yet?”
“Not really.” said Garnet, a little embarrassed.
“Well, everyone has a completely blank scroll,” he started, opening another drawer. “When you want to check out a scroll, bring it up to me.” He pulled out a scroll with Garnet’s name carved at the end. “Each scroll has a uniquely carved stamp on the end. Then I stamp the end onto your blank scroll to show that it’s checked out, and when you’re done, we stamp your name over the first stamp to show that you’ve checked it back in. Does that make sense?”
“I think so,” said Garnet, turning the stamp over in her talons. Starflight took out a soft black leather pouch from another drawer in his desk.
“Here’s a bag to keep it in.”
Garnet mumbled her thanks, then went across the library to curl up on a rock ledge, picking up a scroll called History of the Sky Kingdom, and began to read.
Garnet didn’t know how much time had passed, but when she looked up from her scroll, the green tinted light from the leaf windows was fading. She stood up, stretched, and exited the library, walking back to her sleeping cave. On her way, she passed the SkyWing with the scar across his snout, from the Gold Winglet. He looked at her, then flicked his tail disdainfully with a snort, and walked off.
Garnet entered her cave, and climbed up her rock ledge to sleep. Before she drifted off, she thought that she should take off her bag while she slept. She slid the strap over her neck, then settled it along the curve of her tail. She sighed happily, and went to sleep.
Garnet woke up the next morning, feeling refreshed. She stretched, then remembered what had happened the day before, and turned around for her black pouch. It was gone. Garnet gasped, and began searching around her ledge. It wasn’t there. She searched the whole cave, but she didn’t find it. She pressed her front talons to her snout, trying to hold back tears. She hadn’t even checked out a single scroll yet, and now she couldn’t.
I’m glad that my clawmates aren’t here. I don’t know them well enough to talk to them about something like this.
Ermine the IceWing, daughter of one of Queen Glacier’s cousins, seemed haughty and cold on the outside, but was as kind as Sunny on the inside. Garnet had found this out after their first history class. Ermine had made such a hilariously accurate impression of Web’s droning, flat voice, making her and Arid, Garnet’s SandWing clawmate, laugh unstoppably for five minutes. Arid was a nice dragonet, but very shy, and she liked scrolls almost as much as Garnet did. But right now, she needed someone that knew her very well. Right now, she needed Peregrine. She sighed, and decided to go to the prey center to find him.
She walked along the hallway, her wings drooping slightly. She walked into the prey center, searching for Peregrine. There were a lot of students there, eating. She found Peregrine by the fruit, talking to a gold and blue RainWing with bandages wrapped around her. Mindreader, the NightWing from Peregrine’s Copper Winglet was there, too, laughing at something Peregrine was saying.
The RainWing must be Tamarin, from the Gold Winglet, Garnet thought. The one who was injured when the history cave exploded.
“Garnet!” Peregrine cried. “Come join us! Try a mango! They’re surprisingly really good for fruit!”
Peregrine was a funny, excited kind of dragonet, and always had a kind thing to say. Garnet liked him because he seemed like he knew other dragons so well, and knew them well enough to say whatever would make their day. Garnet also liked him because he seemed like the exact opposite of her, with all her worrying and shyness.
“Hello,” said Garnet, walking up to sit between Mindreader and Peregrine.
“Garnet, you have to try a mango! They are soooooo good! Well, you have to slice them first, and Tamarin is waaaay better at it than I am. I mean, the first time I did it, the mango pretty much exploded. Here, try this one!’
Garnet was used to keeping up with Peregrine’s wild speeches. She looked at the fruit that Peregrine had pushed into her talons. It was yellowish-green and red, and the inside was yellow and juicy. She tried to slice it open like Peregrine had told her, but made a terrific mess, squirting yellow pulp onto her snout. But the juicy yellow inside tasted almost cheerful, as though the mango was trying to make her feel better. She felt her crimson snout slowly curl into a small smile.
“Good, right?” asked Peregrine. “Now, why the long face? Did I do something? Was it when I teased you last night for not going to the library yet?”
“No, no, you didn’t do anything, but it does have to do with the library. I went there for the first time yesterday, and I got my library card. I got the pouch and everything, and then I went to bed. But when I woke up, the pouch and the card were gone.”
“Did you see anyone near your cave last night?” asked Tamarin in her soft voice.
“Well, I did see the SkyWing from the Talons of Peace, in your winglet. The one with the scar on his snout.”
“That’s what I thought. Interesting. His cave is right next to mine and Onyx's. He came back pretty late last night. I know because I was up too. I had just gotten back from the infirmary where Clay had been replacing my bandages. I was walking back to my sleeping cave, and I heard him coming back.” Her pale eyes seemed to stare right through Garnet. It was a bit unsettling. “It was very odd.”
“Well, now we have to find it!” said Peregrine, jumping up and almost squashing Mindreader’s half-eaten peach. “Library cards are important! Let’s be detectives! Or heroes! We’ll be the heroes of Jade Mountain!”
Garnet rolled her eyes and flicked Peregrine’s snout with her tail.
“But Peeeeregrine,” whined Mindreader. “You haven’t even finished your mango! Please?”
Garnet searched Mindreader’s face. There may have been something hidden under the whining voice and pleading eyes. Did this strange NightWing like Peregrine? Garnet decided to watch Mindreader very carefully.
“I’ll eat it on the way over there.” Peregrine took the mango Mindreader gave him, and gestured with one claw toward the other side of the prey center.
“Why are we going over there?” asked Tamarin, standing up as well. Garnet quickly stood up too. Mindreader sighed, and dragged herself off the stone floor.
“Flame’s over there. Didn’t you two both confirm that he was a suspect?” He gestured at Garnet and Tamarin. Garnet shrugged, and Tamarin nodded. “Well, then it’s decided!”
“What about me?” Mindreader asked, with a hint of a whine worming into her tone.
“Did you see Flame at all yesterday?” asked Peregrine. Mindreader let out a large sigh, and sullenly shook her head. “Well it’s decided. Let’s go interrogate Flame!”
I think that this is going to go very badly. Flame doesn’t seem like the type of dragon who’d just answer a bunch of suspicious questions. “Oh, excuse me, but have you stolen anything recently?" Yeah, that’s going to work.
Flame looked up grumpily from the dead chicken he was chewing. The other students were giving Flame a wide berth, as he looked likely to throw someone against the wall if they asked him a question. Several other students looked at Peregrine like he was crazy. Garnet and Tamarin trailed behind Peregrine, and Mindreader shuffled along right behind them, still grumbling.
“Before you ask me anything, no you can’t sit by me, and no you can’t have any of my prey. You’re welcome for the answers. Goodbye.” Peregrine chuckled, as though he found Flame’s surly comment amusing.
“Actually, we wanted to ask you if you’ve seen Garnet’s library card.” he gestured at Garnet, who timidly waved. “She lost it last night, and we were wondering if you knew anything.”
Was it just her, or had Garnet seen Flame’s eyes flicker away, as though he felt guilty about something? Garnet narrowed her eyes.
“No,” Flame griped. “Go away.”
As they walked away, Tamarin leaned in and whispered, “He knows something. I can tell.”
“How can you tell without looking at him?” Garnet asked, impressed.
“Most people can’t tell how much I can find from the tone of their voice, or the little huffs they make between sentences, or where they pause.” she said all this automatically, as though she was used to explaining it to other dragons.
“Impressive,” said Mindreader, who had been edging closer. “But what do we do about it?”
“Well we could search his cave, but that would be hard to explain,” said Peregrine, tapping his chin with one of his claws, staring at the ceiling. “Maybe we could get Pike to take us, but I don’t see how we could do that…”
“I can get Pike to take us to his cave,” Tamarin said abruptly. “He likes to think that he’s important to me, so I can probably get him to take me there.”
“This is all really sweet, guys,” Garnet said, shuffling her feet. “But you really don’t have to do this for me.”
Peregrine, Mindreader, and Tamarin all stared at her like she was crazy.
“Are you kidding?” Mindreader said. “This is the whole point of Jade Mountain! To make friends with other tribes and y’know, stuff like that.”
“So of course we’re going to help you.” Tamarin said in an insistent tone of voice. “We want to make new friends and do something more interesting than sit in a cramped cave and listen to Webs drone on about the Scorching all day.”
Peregrine nodded agreement. “So it’s decided,” he said, clapping his wings together. “Tamarin will try to get Pike to take her into Flame’s cave, where she’ll notice as much as she can. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” they all chorused.
The next day, they all met up in the prey center. As they sat down next to the fruit, Tamarin began recounting what she had noticed in Flame and Pike’s cave.
“I could tell that Flame was staring at me, but I couldn’t tell why,” she said, peeling a banana. “I think it might have been because he didn’t want me to notice something, or maybe he just wasn’t pleased about another dragon in his cave. For some reason, he got off his bed and went over to Bigtail’s old bed. It was weird, and I couldn’t think of any reason why he would want to do that.
“My winglet and the Silver Winglet has Herbs and Healing today, but I don’t think that the Quartz or Copper Winglets have anything at that time. While we’re in class, you can sneak into the cave and see if Flame has anything suspicious.”
“You’ve thought a lot about this, haven’t you?” asked Peregrine, around a mouthful of mango.
“Well, I couldn’t stop thinking about it last night.” Tamarin said, embarrassed. Hints of rose pink started to drift through her wings.
“So while the Gold and Silver Winglets are in Herbs and Healing, we’re going to sneak into probably the most unpredictable student's cave, and hunt around his bed?” Garnet asked, peeling a banana for herself
“Well, yeah,” said Peregrine, helping himself to another mango. “How else do you suggest we do this?”
Garnet shrugged, taking a bite of her banana. “So let’s do it,” she said. “ I just thought it seemed a little bit odd. When is your class?”
“In about half an hour or so,” said Tamarin “So we still have time to eat and prepare.”
“Good, I’m still hungry.” Peregrine said, taking a third mango.
After Peregrine had finished his fifth mango, they all left the prey center and headed down the hallway. Tamarin branched off to the Herbs and Healing cave, wishing them good luck. They had a plan. Mindreader would watch the hallway, while Garnet and Peregrine search the room. They would all try to be as quiet as possible, not wanting to alert anyone that they were sneaking around in other students’ caves.
Mindreader nodded at them as they slipped into the cave. It was a mess. Pike had left piles of damp blankets and bits of wet moss from his bed strewn about the room. His mossy bed was messy and nearly all the moss was shredded. Flame’s rock ledge quite the opposite. Bare and bleak, it looked like the last place someone would want to sleep.
Peregrine instantly went to the ledge searching it. Garnet decided to search around the other edges of the cave. Bigtail’s bed was still there, even though there was no dragonet to fill it. Although it gave Garnet the chills, she wondered if there was anything hidden in the piles of rainforest leaves and moss. As she reached into the foliage, her claws brushed something hidden. Something soft. She closed her talons around it and pulled it out. It was a black leather pouch, like most of the students at the school had. She opened the latch, and shook the contents into her talons. Only one thing came out. A wooden stamp, with Garnet’s name carved in upraised letters on one side. Garnet caught her breath. She flicked Peregrine’s tail with hers and gestured him to come over. As Peregrine saw what she was holding, he seized one of her talons and squeezed, a smile spreading across his face. She grinned back, and they both whipped around and headed for the exit.
They both burst out of the cave so fast, Mindreader nearly attacked them. Then they all collapsed into breathless giggles. They ran to the prey center, tripping over one another’s tails, Peregrine and Garnet talking over one another as they rushed to say what had happened.
As they entered the brightly lit prey center, they spotted Tamarin, sitting near the fruit. They ran toward her, and her head jerked up, her sightles eyes staring at them.
“We found it, we found it!” they all said at the same time, skidding to a stop before they crashed into the fruit.
“Really?” Tamarin said, excited. “Flame sounded so suspicious of me during Herbs and Healing today, I knew that he thought someone would come to steal it back today. I was so worried!”
Garnet began to tell what had happened, as Peregrine helped himself to another mango.
Garnet entered the library, a calm smile on her snout. She browsed the shelves, looking for a good mystery story. She settled onto a blanket near the windows, thinking about thieves and scrolls and most importantly, friends. Peregrine, Mindreader, and Tamarin.
I solved a mystery. And I made friends. And they’re actually my friends. Friends from other tribes.
She smiled, and settled down to read.
THE END