A Long Flight Home

Walking along talking and joking the group soon found a large room off to the side of the path.

"Should we check it out?," Peter asked. He didn't want to but wanted the group to think he was doing it willingly. They all rolled their eyes knowing exactly what he was trying to do.

"Yeh can just wait out here by yerself if yeh lizard-chicken," Arholo said poking at him with his axe.

Jessica pulled her wand from her boot then noticed she only had one of her 360 cameras still following her, "Oh, for fucks sakes."

"What?," Harmon asked puzzled by the sudden outburst. Jessica pointed to the camera and he looked, "Oh, only two made into the cave with us. I thought that you noticed and chose to leave one by the dungeon because that is what it did."

Jessica sighed, Thank goodness for intelligent design. Relieved that she would be able to view the dungeon entrance from her holopad Jessica pulled it out and looked to see where all of the camera's were. One was hovering over the time locked valley 2 were offline, still in the time lock, and the 6th was in front of the tunnel they were trying to exit she played back the video to the time of their arrival and saw that two doors just like the ones in front of the dungeon looked like they had been attacked and clawed out of from the inside. Around the time Jessica entered the password unlocking the dungeon the doors had disappeared completely and a screen had appeared at the opening. It read: The Long Path to Glory. Fight your way to Ultimate Epic Dungeon!! She tilted her head reading this, fight your way…, "Guys protection spells on it seems like we might not be alone in here."

Arholo was getting excited he hadn't had a good battle in a long time. They entered the side room. The lighting was bullshit and she couldn't find the lime green light source so Jessica made a new small sun and tossed it up. It was a den, very clearly a dragon den but it was completely empty aside from some bones and a large pile of gold pieces. Jessica used her quickident on the bones and it read: Bones of a slain warrior. There was no further description. She showed it to Arholo and he studied it with his magic for a second.

"Those are'ent bones of any man who ever lived. They are clearly made of the same material but they lack spirit," Arholo declared puzzled.

Jessica pulled a portable dna reader from her bag accidently exposing to the system and when her phone didn't beep she pulled it out.

"Guys, wherever we are right now we have no phone signal," Jessica said waving the phone around.

"I saw you use your pad to check on your camera's how is that possible?," Harmon asked pulling out his own phone.

Nothing about this place made any kind of sense. This wasn't how dungeons worked other than the shitty lighting. The phone system on Karth reached everywhere it was a very reliable resource.

"The camera's are connected to my pad by my own magic and nothing has changed about that," Jessica said shoving her phone back into her pocket.

Peter walked over to the treasure and picked a piece of it up. A notification screen appear in front of each of them say congratulations you defeated the dragon. Each of you receives 150 gold pieces. The pile disappeared.

"Mother Goose Egg," a shocked Arholo exclaimed.

"This is… this is like those stupid low tech video games the OG's played on Earth," Harmon said.

"What in hellscape is this stupid fucking place?," Jessica said stomping her right foot. Suddenly the screen now read you have tried to summon your familiar your familiar is not present would you like to proceed. Jessica had handed Purdy to M.A.V.I.S. before she walked out of M.U.G. to take flight. She was tempted to hit continue to see if it would call him but decided it wasn't worth the risk until she had a better handle on the situation. She hit cancel and returned to the DNA scanner. She passed over the bones and confirmed Arholo had been right it was made of the material of bone but possessed no dna.

"The frack is the purpose of this?," Jessica was getting angry. She thought she had found the path to answers and questions were just piling up.

"I don't want gold for defeating a foe I didn't defeat," Arholo said shaking his head clearly disappointed there would be no fight.

"Who the hellscape would ever in the history of Karth fight a dragon?," Peter asked still confused as to what the screen said the gold was for.

"No one," the rest of them answered.

"Dragons died out long ago after the Fae who cared for them vanished. Their unhatched eggs waiting for her return and are being stored in the museum of the missing Fae. Although, the queen egg is currently on display at the art museum as it so beautiful it is itself a work of art," Jessica said setting her quickident to scan the room for some kind of hidden secrets, finding none she sighed.

"This is ridiculous," Peter was growing more frustrated at the thought that the system might actually believe he had hurt a dragon. His face glowing red with anger.

"Peter, no one would ever believe that we attacked a dragon. Besides everyone knows there wouldn't be a dragon for us to attack," Jessica said trying to calm him.

"How much longer are we going to be in this freaking hellscape?," Harmon asked tired of the world around him not behaving properly.

"Jessica, could I take that bone? I think I may have a use fir it," Arholo asked holding out his hand. Jessica handed it to him she already gained all of the information it had to give and as far as she was concerned he was welcome to it.

They walked out of the now empty side room. Jessica's eyes darting back and forth processing the data. She was on the edge of a theory when she heard a small cry coming from just up ahead and out of sight. On instinct she abandoned her train of thought and raced to the sound the boys following her at her heels. A dragon egg had hatched in a small chamber a little ways off from the empty one.

"BANANA MILK!!," Jessica cried out in excitement. The forgotten train of thought adding this new information to it.

"Is that a dragon hatchling?," Peter went to go pick it up and it bite at him.

"Seriously, Peter, everyone on Karth knows that males can not approach a newly hatched dragon," Harmon said side eyeing him chastingly.

"Unless of course that male happens to be a dwarf," Jessica added as she and Arholo began to run magic and scientific checks on the new hatchling.

"This is odd," Arholo said touching it with his magic and Jessica nodded her agreement looking at her quickident readout and the data she had gathered.

"This egg seems to have been here since cycle zero," Jessica stated.

"Aye and it tis not connected in anyway to the queen dragon egg or the mother of dragons Fae," Arholo speaking allowed his own findings. Jessica carefully studying the information seeing that the species was flight capable and had a strong connection with ground elements.

"Harmon, be careful but come here for a minute," Jessica instructed him. Harmon, a more than a little surprised took a few steps forward Jessica back away and she motioned to Arholo to do the same.

Harmon got a little closer and cautiously reach out his hand. The baby dragon choo'd and he pet it. It snuggled into his hand making happy chirping noises. He picked it up and cradled it.

"Hey, no far how come it likes everybody but me?," Peter whined. Jessica rolled her eyes not even bothering to tease him now.

"Harmon, I want you to give it a name and sing to it.," Jessica instructed him.

Harmon looked up from the creature and at Jessica, "Jessica, that would be an insult to the M.O.D. I couldn't."

"It'll starve tah death if it doesn't have a bonded caregiver it trusts to give it food," Arholo said already pulling out a piece of raw milkworm meat from his bag. He held it out to the creature and it just sniffed it and patted it away.

Harmon knew all of this but he couldn't understand why Jessica was picking him to be the one to take on such an important role. Jessica could see his mind at worked at just smiled.

"Go on, do it," She said expectantly.

"I, Harmon the singer of the clan of the Great Forest name you small dragon," His mind was racing trying to think of a name that would fit.

"Tis a girl if that helps yeh," Arholo piped up.

A smile spread across the elfs lips, "Triple J the 4th leader of all and first of her kind in millenia." He then sang a popular children's song as the baby accepted its name and bonded to him. It glowed and a light pulsed between the two. When the glow began to fade a moment later Arholo handed the elf the meat and Harmon held it for the dragon while it ate at it clearly hungry. Arholo pulled out two more pieces and a bottle of milk. They walked away from where the dragon hatched after Jessica carefully put the shell in a bubble of protection and into her everbag. The shell would need to be added to the museum when they finally exited this cave. They did not want to study any more of the side rooms and they were running low on energy. Learning new things and not understanding burning up their reserves. They stop for a little while and ate a picnic lunch finding some of their favorite foods in Jessica's everbag placed there by her mother. She granted her mother access to the bag now that she thought about it and just to piss Peter off she granted Harmon permission as well.

"I am not taking another step in the aweful stupid place," Jessica declared her legs were burning and this tunnel never seemed to end. The rest of them nodded their agreement. So Jessica, gave Harmon a pair of air wings. Arholo not wanted to be carried like a child anymore also accepted a pair they flew at a fast pace for 15 mins before they finally reached the exit.

Jessica landed and looked around trying to figure out where they were. The others landed and Arholo who had been good the whole trip ducked behind a tree to vomit. Her phone started going nuts.

150 missed calls all from her parents. She ignored it for a second a flipped out the view screen. Pulling up her global map she click the option where am I now. A light appeared and auto zoomed in revealing that they were at the foot of Mount Fuji on New Japan. Jessica was puzzled then remember a little more carefully that she did have to keep making slight adjustments downward and to the left of her flight. The way her legs had burned after only walking for a short time. The slope was so slight her eyes had not registered it but her muscles had. They decided to fly to telepad and just go clean up the stuff at the cave and go home for the day. Jessica wanted to talk things over with her think tank and honestly it had been a big day.

Jessica packed all of her things and retrieved the ident stones but left the statue because she liked how well it turned out and didn't want to have to remake it if she ever had to come back here. She had come alone when Harmon had a change of heart on the telepad and wanted to get the dragon to a vet for its hatchling check and Arholo for his own reasons wanted to go with him. Peter didn't feel like being alone with Jessica still hurt from the way she had snapped at him earlier so he just flew off on his own with saying anything to anyone.

Jessica looked around. She was all smiles. Today she had finally taken her first steps toward finding answers and it felt great. She left one of her camera's behind on alert mode, deactivated the time lock and flew back home. She had felt the telepads magic in a new way today and wanted to take a nap before submitting her finding to the committee to get more brains on it. She had some ideas brewing in her head and wanted to get some sleep to allow her unconscious mind sort out the rest.