Venturing:  Lights Skies

“The door is stuck." I
called trying to opened the doors with the knob as I found myself grunting and
groan at times with frustration emerging upon my own face and snout. “Here let
me." I heard someone spoke behind me and I turned around glancing at Zander who
stepped forth, replacing me onto the front of the door as he set his tools to
the side and tested the knob. For immediately, he went right to work after
noticing that the door would not opened and he hummed alongside the silence as
he digged through his toolbox which he set besides himself. I watched him work
in silence before shifting my head away from his work; towards the midnight
hour surrounding us while exhaling a breath and smiled yet only faintly at the
time.

Midnight had washed over
our fair town where every citizen was glue to their beds. Leaving the streets,
roads and sidewalks empty. Crickets had started chirping around this hour while
the sounds of sirens rang in our ears. I closed my eyes, flapped my wings to
gain some cold air which cause some shivers from Zander as he called out
towards me. “Sorry." I commented responding towards the black dragon as he
glared at me. I turned around so my back was towards him, my mind pondering
over the briefing that our chief had given us at the time. I pondered about the
thief, but shook my head knowing about so little information that we were given
at the time. So with a exhaled of a breath, I turned towards the door and
Zander. Hearing the door clicked opened.

“There." “Great work." I
say, pleased by his efforts as Zander acknowledged it with a nod before heading
through the doors. I followed behind him, questioning about his tool box being
left in the cold. But his claw shook violently, dismissing the question at hand
while I closed the door behind me and turned towards the hallway in front of
us. The first thing we had noticed was the darkening short hallway in front of
us. Whereas lights faded at our sides, leading us towards the door in front of
us. It leads towards a room where three large white tables stretched from wall
to wall. A door was towards the right side of the room and the leftmost table.
I motioned Zander, nudging my claw towards the right side and he nodded his
head before following my order. We split up, each picking a path that was
created by the three tables in front of us and headed down them.

Blank computers were
towards our sides. None of which were working either however. Even a flick of
the mouse that was upon the pad beneath it never work to bring the computers up
anyway. It had startled me that had caused my mind to pondered at this time;
but my head shook. Noticing how trivial it was however. I moved down the line,
fixing my attention towards computer after computer. Till I reached the other side
of the room. I turned towards Zander, his head shook also. Acknowledging the
fact about the computers being blank screens with nothing able to bring forth
their awakeness, I frowned wondering about it. But Zander shook his head, “I
think it had to do something with the electricity here." “The power?" I
questioned him as he nodded slowly. Watching him move towards me, then towards
the door on the other side. He grabbed the knob and tilted it towards the side,
opening the door which revealed a path outside. A cold burst of air flew into
the room, dropping the warm temperature inside a few degrees as me and Zander
shivered so suddenly.

Yet the black dragon
stepped outside, I walked following behind him and headed out the door also as
it closes behind us. Quietness entered our minds and ears as we rose our heads
and glance at the horizon that is now before us. A hallway with flickering
lights above. Green lockers were off to the sides; a series of six maybe seven
of them. A fake tree was in between the lockers as always. No more brown doors
appeared as our eyes stretched far and glance towards the side, hoping to see
more classrooms or something there. Thus, Zander and I turned to one another,
nodded before he started moving and I grabbed hold onto the walkie that was
upon my waist suddenly. For I pressed the button, relaying the information we
found plus the current position as to where we are right now. Releasing the
button, gained static as Natty's voice was called out towards us, acknowledging
the information brought while bringing in her own information.

“There is an ATM
connected towards the ATM inside of the canidae realm. I am trying to get this
to work but the device is unresponsive however." “Cannot get it to work?" I
questioned, Natty answered “Yeah." “Should we sent someone-" “No, I think it
had to do with the black cable that I am seeing upon the ground." “Get it
towards a nearby socket." I ordered while me and Zander continued moving
forward, following the dark hallway with flickering lights as our eyes upfront
stared to the horizon. Often times, glancing to the sides staring down onto the
lockers and trees that were there too. “Got it." I heard Natty responded before
the walkie fell silent as Zander shook his head; a sigh escaped from his snout
while his eyes closed so suddenly. Upon this was when I questioned him, but he
waved it off suddenly before following it up with a statement.

“Look up ahead Ling."
“Seem like something is there at the end of the halls, huh?" I commented with a
small smile, nearly laughing as he turned his head facing me. “No at the end of
the halls was a staircase leading farther away into the hallway that we were
in. What I am talking about is that red arrow at the floor." I blinked, then
turned my head towards him. Back again towards the front before lowering my
eyes to the floor. There I saw it, a red arrow pointing forward. But also,
there was something else too. A red outline box with a four letter word spelled
inside that box. I stopped and allowed Zander to walked a bit ahead as he
turned towards me suddenly with a tilted head and his eyes raised suddenly. For
just as he was about to questioned me, I pointed towards the red outline box
speaking out so causally. “What is with that red box saying 'bank'? I wonder if
our thief is planning to steal from there." “If so, we should perhaps alert the
other dragons standing by. Sure they'd be itching to join the investigation at
most." I laughed, nodding at him. “Including Ozkun, Albina, Takai and Maujur."
“Yeah them." Zander smiled while I lifted up my walkie, speaking right onto the
speaker so suddenly.

“We need officers to
investigate or protect the bank. Southward and a little towards the left from
the center line running down from our town." I ordered as Zander shift his
attention to me and shook his head, “Such vague words, Ling." He commented to a
whisper as he continued onward. I pretended not to hear him except that I
reacted towards him with a small playful smile before following him down the
hallways where we saw nothing but the same things and the exit doors on the
other side of the halls. We immediately exited out and back towards the
midnight that fallen upon our fair town. With the silence and the door closing
behind us, I exhaled a breath and lifted my eyes towards the black skies above
while Zander spreading his wings suddenly and rose from the ground, leaving me
behind a short while as he headed southward to join the rest of the officers at
the bank.

I stayed at the rooftops
for a little while, listening to the ringing in my ears as the cold winds blew
against my warm scales making me flinched and shiver upon their biting. My
thoughts were turned towards the following clues that we had; yet somehow I
felt we were not even closer towards our goal. I pondered over the link of the
clues; creating assumptions and theories that could perhaps make anymore sense.
But a short white later had caused a headache upon my head which suddenly
snapped me from my thinking and onto reality. Around the same time my walkie
was alive once again; Natty's voice spoke out from its speakers requesting my
assistance for something intriguing. As my ears perked upon the interest of
such, I grabbed my walkie and raised it towards my snout. Acknowledging her as
my wings were spread, heading Northward towards where that pink dragoness was
however.

It was an hour and a half
when I had arrived upon Natty's location. Landing upon the grounds which
created vibrations underneath me while the dragoness before me turned her head
over her shoulder, smiling as she caught my sight. I waved towards her in
silence and so sudden while walking forth towards her. She stepped to the side
and lowered her claw, pointing down upon some weird combination at a strip of
paper. “I found this on the ATM, I had wondered what this had meant." “Looks
like a bunch of Is and Os however." I commented glancing at the strip at first
glance while she nodded in kind, adding onto that comment “Yeah, that was what
I thought at first too. But looking at it closely, they show a set of numbers."
“Which is?" I asked, glancing at her while she revealed the numbers she wrote
down onto her pad. “ '3, 2, 4, 8' I had wondered what this would be used for
however." “Maybe a combination lock or something." I say immediately, before
looking back onto the strip of paper again “You did say that this actually came
from the ATM, right?" She nodded her head,

Immediately, I got up
onto my feet and turned my attention towards the machine in front of us. As I
spoke towards Natty questioning about the ATM, she shook her head answering me
so suddenly and was directive too however. “The machine was not working; I
could not find a plug in for that black spinal cord however." “Should we return
it towards a nearby building and have it work then?" I questioned her, she
shook her herald again. “The machine is heavy. Would take two dragons to take
it or a truck or something heavy." “Like a truck?" I asked repeating her second
suggestion before she frowned answering me again, “There is no trucks around
this area." “Thought we knew that however." I say dejected. Nonetheless, we
walked towards the machine. Raised it from the grounds with our claws poking
holes upon the side of the machine after we had stepped to either side of it.
We spread our wings and hovered leftward, towards a nearby building that was
closest to our proximity. Thus, we shoved through the doors and entered into
the darkest room inside.

The room itself was
empty. Nothing was in here anyway. We settled the machine upon the center of
the room while I glanced around it. I had indeed noticed how clean and empty
the room was; with nothing else standing out interesting in the opened. A brown
desk was towards my side; a pair of doors opposite of that brown desk. Each
having their own symbol of dragon and dragoness. Adjacent to the pair of doors
was a waterjug settled upside down, for its waters was drained into the white
machine who owns two small wheels dotted with color. Blue for cold, red for hot
or warm. As I found myself staring around the room, my ears stretched to the
side upon hearing Natty calling my name that I turned to face her as she
pointed towards the brown desk behind me. “Try there. I bet you that there is
an outlet that we can use." “Alright." I say without hesitation as I snatched
the black tail of the machine and stretched it far. I was as bit surprise that
the tail was long and thing, flexible too however after I jumped over the brown
desk.

I planted my feet upon
the grounds, fixing my attention towards the white wall in front of me. I began
looking for that outlet that Natty was suggesting about. FInding it already, I
shoved the plug inside and the machine behind me began humming which startled
the pink dragoness however. I turned around and glanced at the machine while
hoping over the brown desk and joining with Natty afterwards. As she joins up
front towards the screen in front, she lowered her head down and spotted a few
buttons upon the surface in front of her. “There are words onto those screen
buttons." I commented, pointing to them as Natty silently nodded her head and
went to pressed a button. She went on to play with the machine; testing out
each button in accordance in hopes of getting onto the screen that she had
wanted. But she grew frustrated as time went on by and I found myself glue
towards the screen too, sharing her frustration while the surroundings fell
dead silent around us.

It had taken a long time
before the screen popped up a search bar before us. Black words appeared above
it, forming a sentence that tells a direction of what we were suppose to do.
Seeing this, I prompted Natty to type in the symbols of the strip paper that we
had found in front of the machine. She acknowledged it with a nod, smiling only
faintly as she went on to pressed upon the search bar. A keyboard appeared
underneath the search bar and the words as she went on to type. In the
meanwhile, I grabbed onto my walkie and pressed the button. Sending a question
to all that had hear this as I pondered about the progress we had so far. I
heard was this:

Zander, Kyro had returned
back to the station researching about the red arrow. They had gain no progress
so far and only had a bunch of photoshop or real life arrows around the realms.
Nothing new that would gain their attention however.

Ozkun, Takakai and Maujur
gave nothing as their report. Only stating about patrolling the area until such
information is given for them.

I explained everything
what was going on between me and Natty. With everyone's silence, I prompted
myself to speak. Informing them about the machine being hooked up onto a nearby
plug inside a building that was closest towards our original position.
“Anything yet, Ling?" I heard Zander questioned me, I spoke back towards him
“Nothing- wait, Natty said she had some information." I turned back towards the
screen after Natty's claws tapped upon my shoulder. As me and her looked
onward, she noticed a bunch of plus and minus in a certain pattern: + - + + -.
“We found a pattern; but we are uncertain what this would do." “That must be the
directions as to where our thief had went however." Suggested Kyro, “Fly high
and above the town, pinpoint where these symbols would lie and start from
there." “Where shall we start?" I heard Natty spoke through my walkie as Kyro
smiled warmly before responding to her, “From where you guys are now."

Finding our objective, me
and Natty drove ourselves out from the building. Despite me questioning about
the machine being turned on for anyone that would gain access towards it for
their purposes only. Yet Natty fell silent, her head shook in response towards
my concern for as we returned towards the outside realm of the building, we
spread our wings immediately and flew into the air. The cold rushes between my
wings as I shivered so suddenly; we rose deeply into the air, finding the town
below us shrink into a certain size until we were certain that we would be able
to see the whole view however. For from there was when we hovered and flapped
our wings in constant rhythm as we studied the map below us. From a birds eye
view, the entire town was complex with streets going left and right or straight
up and down. It had made my head spin just by looking at the roads below us.
Yet it never deterred Natty however as she continued resetting herself upon the
building's entrance below us and continued onward following the pattern we had
gathered from the machine.

We had tried almost
everything. But the roads seemed to be in conflict with us. Almost everywhere
we go, was either a deadend or a mistake shape of a road and often times than
not, we had to return back towards start. We had committed to this for nearly
an hour; my wings were starting to strain from the constant rhythm. My head
ached and I am starting to feel my whole body numb just by the cold air
swirling around us. I had growled towards Natty who was also starting to feel
the effect too. For we flew towards the rooftops of the building, folded our
wings and rested for a while. I spoke towards the walkie, informing our recent
break as Kyro acknowledged it suddenly and the walkie went dead afterwards. I
exhaled a breath and rose my head towards the skies. Watching the stars that I
had not seen for four pages prior as I chuckled and flicked my tail towards the
side with a thought in ponderance about Yang. As my mind dwelled upon her, I
spotted Natty already stepping forth towards the edges of the rooftops and
glanced outward to the horizon.

Her eyes followed the
roads during our break. She was silent going into this however that I wondered
if she ever takes a break at all. But shaking my head, I closed my eyes so
suddenly and laid down upon the grounds beneath me, opening them again to stare
at the skies once again and allowed my thoughts to continue running wild.
However, it never took long before Natty's gasp started me that i sat back up
onto my tail and fixed my attention towards her as her eyes met with mine.
Getting up onto my feet, I only smiled faintly as I spoke towards her “Guess
you figure it out huh? Where it leads to then?" “You are not going to believe this
at all; but please bring everyone straight towards the museum." “The museum?" I
asked, my head tilted to the side with a small smile exposing the warmth and
friendliness of me. I nodded slowly before bringing my walkie high, speak into
the walkie while me and Natty flew North straight towards the destination as to
where we were suppose to be.

It had taken longer than
before when everyone was gathered in front of the museum. We all stared upon
its entrance, staring down onto the door locked before us. As Zander frowned,
Kyro and Ozkun walked forth towards the doors and grabbed onto the knob.
Pulling it back until the door opened by results which had startled us however.
Kyro shook his head, waving it off while he and Ozkun waltz inside. The rest of
us followed inward, noticing how dark and tranquil the surroundings was
however. We were upon the large room, two hallways were stretched to the sides.
Leading into destinations that we would not know about. Staring down onto the
two hallways, I motioned everyone to lead their attention towards them and pick
a path to their own thinking. For just as I had suspected, almost half of our
unit headed right. The rest started for the left. I joined the left to even
things out and we all headed in.

I was together with Kyro,
Ozkun and Maujur. All three expressing nothing as their ears were stretched and
listened. We walked along the hallway as it went far into the horizon. Pale
walls reached towards the horizon alongside the halls too it seems. With
strange looking paintings hanged upon those walls as well. We stared up ahead,
ignoring the paintings that were to our sides. Walking with footsteps crunching
the solid soft grounds underneath us, we ended up upon the end. Another large
room sinked into our eyes as we fan out and looked about. The room was a mess.
There was indeed a crack in the wall; large enough for the moonlight to sink
through and invade the darkened room a bit. Though it never fully illuminate it
at once however, we never cared. A few steps away from the crack in the wall
stands a white large stone. It had tilted over one of the artifacts upon the
ground; shattering its protected glass while the object in question was stole
however.

“Figures." I commented,
muttering underneath my breath acknowledging it at hand. While Kyro and Ozkun
walked towards my side, lowering their eyes gazing at the object that I was
commenting about. They were a bit surprise into seeing such object taken from
its spot as they turned to one another then towards me, I shrugged stating
nothing else. The rest of the investigation went on without a hunched. For all
we had found was a white stone. I even called the rest of the unit wondering
what they had found too. “Not much." Started Zander as a pause in silence
followed it behind, I prompted him which caused him to answer immediately “Just
a bag of money. Nothing more here." “Not just the money this thief had stolen?"
Questioned Maujur while Kyro crossed his arms and frowned, “This is tricky."
“Interesting too however." Kyro said additionally, much to our surprise.
However, in the end; we gathered up upon the main room once again where we
compared our notes to one another.

Truly as Zander had said,
nothing was interesting over on their side of the museum. For old artifacts was
stolen, paintings became misplace and everything else remaining remained where
they were. However, I began to wondered about the stolen items and the white
stone found adjacent to the crack. As I motioned towards Zander, he followed me
down as sI backtracked to that room once again. Entering back upon the room, I
pointed down onto the open hole on the other side and he walked forth towards
it. Crouched and stared at it momentarily before fixing his attention towards
me, “Yeah that is big enough for a stone to enter in. What kind of a stone is
it?" “White smooth one." I informed him, pointing towards the white stone
adjacent to me. Zander turned towards it in response; inspecting it at once as
he turned it over and over again. Reaching a solid conclusion, he spoke back
towards me. “Seems like this is a big stone. Someone heavy would have to carry
it and push through the cracks of the building to create such a mess." “Think
you know who?" I asked as he raised his head towards me and suggested,

“Try any dragon or species
that had interest in sumo wrestling, wrestling in general or had lifted
weights. Look for any dragon or species with big muscles on arms; legs and
body. Carrying perhaps either six or twelve pack. Additionally…" He trailed and
gaze away while flapping his wings once to cool the environment surrounding
him. “Get a Dragoness to distract him with. Dragons, especially drakes
themselves love to show off against dragoness. Never knew why however." “Got
it." I answered with a nod as we returned to the group afterwards.