Venturing: Burned Panned

Our building went up in flames. We all had mixed reactions towards it. Yet none of us spoke upon the silence of the atmosphere above us. Although, we had mixed reactions towards the problem that is settled before us however. As sirens from the distance drew closer towards their destinations and shouting erupted upon the streets of which we lived in, Natty turned her head towards the rest of us and spoke really calmly. “We should head back towards my mansion. We can set up base there instead.” “Why not the other homes and buildings we each have, Natty?” Zander replied, glancing an eye towards her. She shook her head in response towards him, answering “We should not. Everyone else’s were either too small crowded or noisy that any could perhaps hear from a distance or see our complaints.” “She has a point you know.” Kyro commented, setting his eyes towards the black dragon who grunted but said nothing back as his head nodded slightly, “FIne.” “Besides, did Yang already established that the mansion was going to be our backup base?” “Just lead us there already.” Zander frustratedly responded at her, feelings of jealousy rising from the depths of his stomach with his eyes narrowed upon the pink dragoness.

Kyro stepped in front of Zander. But I stopped the three of them before anymore conflicts or problems could arises from either of them. Thus when they saw me, the conversation was halted. None of them said anything else in response. But Zander’s growling and grunts filled the skies. With the satisfaction looming over us, I shift towards Natty and nodded as she brightly smiled back at me before averting her eyes away. Her wings spread, Kyro followed. I, Ozkun, Zander afterwards. Then flew up into the skies afterwards, heeding straight for the mansion which was Southwest from where we are.

Oh yeah. We never knew how the fire was started or how our own building was in flames. From the citizens we had talked about upon the surroundings of the police station, half of them said about a mysterious canine that came to set it on fire. Natty had wondered about Hunter’s pack and their clumsiness. But I shook my head answering for her, “It cannot be them. They are for comedy and I do not think this building being on fire was a prank set by them.” “Rather.” Zander added as his mind snapped back towards the burning building, “I take it as someone who rather hated us. Perhaps Chaos’ partner?” “Doubt it.” I answered back, shaking my head “But I do agree with you on the first part however.” At this, Zander tilted his head to one side as his mouth was opened about to speak. However, Ozkun and Kyro spoke instead of him, “So if not Chaos’ partner? It had to be from Chaos then, right?” “Which canine in Chaos?” Kyro questioned Ozkun who frowned responding to the red dragon shaking his head, “I do not know.” “See.”

I mentally groaned. We were not getting anywhere with this and soon our time would be up here if we never got this culprit right. Although many of the dragons assumed that the foxes/cannes of Chaos were to blamed. I feel like it would be a bit shallow and immature for the Order dragons. We were just blaming onto them prematurely and without any other evidence. Mainly because of the internal conflict we had with them in the past. With a flap of my wings and my eyes settled up front upon the mansion in front of us, drawing closer to us, I spoke towards the rest of them “We are nearing the mansion. Tuck your wings in and prepare for a dive.” “And landing.” Zander mentioned with no provokes. At once we flapped rapidly in the air. Tuck our wings inward against our bodies and flee downward towards the front of the door where we landed upon the grounds with two feet touching against it. I folded my wings as Natty and Kyro ran to the closed door, opening up as they disappeared inside. Following them were Zander, Ozkun and myself.

The fresh air breezed through upon my face and body as I stepped forth into the main room itself. My eyes opened up upon the complexity of the room too as I noticed sofas and benches. Lamps lights and lanterns hanged upon the walls. A dead dragon at the floor adjacent with a dead bear. I heard a scream that causes some of us to turn around. Pinpointing towards the dead dragon at the center and Natty pointing at it with surprise. “Why is this here?” Kyro grumbled narrowing his eyes at the dragon before him. I stared at the dragon momentarily then lifted my eyes to Kyro before responding, “Someone anticipated our arrival apparently.” “How? This mansion is locked to the citizens of Chaos and Order.” Natty complained, with tighten fangs grounding inside her mouth. Yet no one answered her as she stormed off into the kitchen in silence, leaving me and Kyro alone just as the other officers had arrived too upon the room.

“How did someone get in here?” Kyro asked after a pause of silence. “Did one of you left the key in front of the door? Underneath the carpet?” “no. Although that was one of the hiding spots we considered.” Kyro said, glancing at Ozkun while I nodded agreeing with Kyro before speaking to him, “There are many spots hiding at the front of the mansion. Many of which are fake, only one of the fields are real however.” “One of them huh?” Ozkun muttered, echoing me as he lowered his eyes towards the dead dragon underneath him. Exhaled a sigh and dropped to his knees. He said something after he spotted something upon the claws of the dragon, “Hey guys, as much as I like to figure out how did the intruder got in. There is a piece of paper attached to the claws.” “A paper?” I echoed as me and Kyro lowered our eyes upon Ozkun who nodded and snatched the paper from the claw, hoisting himself onto his feet. “Let me see it then.” Kyro growled stepping over the dead dragon as he and I looked over Ozkun’s shoulder, staring down onto a drawing of a gravestone.

“We have that here.” Kyro mentioned, jabbing his claw upon the surface of the paper. “We just got it yesterday before this story got intact.” “We should see it then.” I started, Ozkun nodded with agreeance as Kyro smiled responding to us. We turned away and walked from the room. Kyro mentioned that the gravestones had a single set of numbers imprinted at the back. They were unable to decipher it however despite being trained for it too. I grumbled in annoyance wanting to say something to him but kept my tongue. As we drifted from the kitchen towards the white silvery door that was already opened before us, we entered through. Ending up upon the backyard.

The field was empty. Nothing interesting popped out however. But we did see ten gravestones lining up against one another. Each of them had a white skull attached at its surface, facing front towards the back of the mansion. Towards us for emphasis. As I shivered and flinched remembering that I had a phobia of this, I closed my eyes and calmed myself down while hearing footsteps fading away with Ozkun drawn towards those gravestones up front. Opening my eyes afterwards and looked, I heard Kyro and Ozkun having a little conversation on their own. It was well within the topic of interest. But even more questions and comments were exchanged between the two. I joined them too just as Kyro mentioned Ozkun to circle the gravestones, looking upon their exposed backsides. We were a bit surprise, seeing a set of four numbers before us. All the numbers were in the range of zero to four. None of them were higher however. As me and Ozkun turned to meet Kyro in the eyes, he explained to us “Each of the numbers shared something with the others. See how zero and three are crossed out? They shared one one, or eleven. So we know the first two are that.” “What about number six? That had eleven also.” I questioned him, Kyro shook his head and frowned “We also thought that too. But shortly after seeing it was wrong and we wanted to figure out why. We saw that the one one or eleven was positioned in front. Or in other words, at the first and second positions.”

“So our object is to…” Ozkun trailed

“Find the other three numbers.” Kyro responded, “This code is five numbers.” He then walked back to the back door. Closing it behind himself as he disappeared from our sights. I turned to Ozkun who nodded his head, a slight smile slapped upon his face as he continued reading off the rest of the numbers at the other graveyards. I went along with him, glancing at the numbers too. But stopped as we approached the tenth graveyard and the very end of the line, I turned towards Ozkun and addressed him. He turned towards me and I spoke, jabbing a thumb backwards “Remember the second graveyard?” “What about it?” “While walking through the set of graveyard’s numbers, I did noticed that two, nine and one were the same.” “How so?” Ozkun frowned, pondering for a bit as he thought back at the numbers. “Ling. Is not the number two is in different spots?” I shook my head, explaining “The two is indeed at different spots. But look carefully. The second gravestone is a bridge for one and nine.” “Oh yeah.” Ozkun remarked, seeing it after a while. He nodded back at me with a smile acknowledging the explanation as I mirrored him afterwards.

But that smile was short lived when Kyro submerged from the door, returning his sights towards us. He approached. I smiled as he saluted me. “We found out the code.” “Oh thank goodness.” Kyro responded immediately as we were taking back at this. “We have a safe in the bedroom that was contains a five number code. These gravestone gives the hint and clues as to what they are. But we were not able to however.” “After a while?” Ozkun questioned me, “Yeah. Mainly because we thought the code was easy and could be quicker when we had noticed that the gravestones share numbers with one another. But the problem is…” “The numbers range from zero to four.” I echoed him, Kyro nodded. “Does this mean you were our culprit for burning the-” “No its is not me.” Kyro exclaimed as Ozkun pounced him. Fighting and flying fists were all over the two dragons as I grew annoyed by them. Growling out and filling the surrounding air with my voice, halted the argument and fighting place between the two of them as their heads were turned towards me. My eyes was narrowed meeting their eyes.

“Anyway. Is the safe opened?” I asked after the two got situated, Kyro nodded his head and grimaced answering me “Yes. Inside is a torch. Natty and I presumed that this was the product used to ignite the building. She had reached forth to touch the torch and reel her claw back, realizing that it was still warm.” “So someone tried to pin the blame on you.” Ozkun concluded interrupting Kyro as he frowned, flatten his ears and reshuffled his wings replying to the blue scaled dragon, “Yeah someone tried to blame us for the attack. I wonder why however.” “Police is not common within Chaos and if they were going to take Order for themselves, it would make sense for them to rid us from this realm.” “Yes.” Ozkun responded, nodding at my comment while Kyro pondered for a while then nodded afterwards, “So about the torch then.” Ozkun commented, stirring the topic of interest back towards the object inside the safe, “Is there anything attached to it? A barcode or something?” “A barcode apparently. Its set at four numbers. Thirteen thirteen is the barcode number.”

“Well it is within the range of zero and four.” I muttered commenting while turning to Ozkun who nodded slightly and frowned. “Anything else?” “Well there is the dart board that me and Natty used whenever we are off duty.” Kyro mentioned, “There are four darts attached to the board by the time either me or Natty had arrived upon the bedroom.” “Numbers?” I questioned Kyro who answered immediately, “Nine Nine Zero Three.” “Wait.” Ozkun replied, “That is Zero three seven.” We turned to him with surprise upon our faces, “How you got that?” Kyro was the first to speak and Ozkun smirked confidently for the first time as he addressed the explanation toward us,

“Zero Three is the first two numbers crossed out. It is the same as the first puzzle we had solve too.” “Yeah.” I said, remembering the gravestones and its set of four numbers, making out the five number code. “Zero three two nine one, I do believe that is it.” “That is indeed it.” Ozkun responded poking his claw at my chest as he went onto explaining, “Since Zero and Three are shared between the two puzzles. Our only problem is the two nines. The store’s barcodes only ranges from zero to four. The gravestones does prove this, including the torch found in the safe. We divide the two nines into threes because we needed to find a whole number that is within the range of zero to four. Finding that number, we got three and three. Upon the number code ranging from zero to nine, we only see one number that shares this pair only. The number seven. Thus, zero three seven.”

“Well we solve that.” Responding Kyro as he swiftly smiled. I nodded in agreeance and flapped my wings while they turned towards me immediately, “Now. We just need to find the criminal booklet that we always kept inside the police building… Wait.” I say before instantly remembering that the building was on fire. “Well we never have to worry about that.” Kyro mentioned turning towards me, I met his eyes with confusion and he smiled replying back “We had not seen Yang all this time, you know.” “Right Ling’s mate.” “She is not my mate.” I snapped back at them while Kyro and Ozkun laughed immediately shaking their heads, “Is she back at your house right now?” Ozkun questioned me while I pondered shortly before nodding, “Yeah. She had to do some paperwork and needed to bring it home. She did bring the criminal records for some reason. When I asked her about that, wondering why it had something related to the work she doing. She never answered.”

“Well we need that now apparently.” Kyro snapped a claw, a smile plastered upon his face. I nodded and spread my wings, jump into the air but the red dragon stopped me again. “Remember to keep yourself hidden. The crowd of canines is lurking upon the streets of Order.” “Seems like they were scouting for us or something in interest.” “Or rather looking for anyone that is closest to the burning building, seeing if the protesters had already started.” Ozkun jumped in which I gave him a hard look back. He flinched and muttered something underneath his breath and lowered his eyes as Kyro nodded, allowing to go. I acknowledged him and flew into the skies. But not towards our usual level of height however. Due to Kyro’s concern about the riots and chaos leaking upon our peaceful town, likely caused by the canines of Chaos, I flew a bit lowered and along the ravens and birds that lurked upon the rooftops.

Fast approaching the burned building, it had seemed that Kyro’s concern had indeed rang true. Canines of Chaos, dressed up as the dragons of Order showed up surrounding the police building. Circling and shouting which filled the dread air. There were at least thirty of them. Perhaps more. Hovering a bit above one of the rooftops buildings underneath me, I scanned around the building they had surrounded. Realizing that none of the dragons have joined them. Perhaps pondering that the canines were indeed crazy and naive towards their plan of domination. But I commented nothing and went on my way across the street parallel to where I was flying directly at. I fled westward from Natty’s mansion with thoughts and concerns running through my head. The topic of thirty seven popped into my mind in wonder of what it had to do with the list of culprits. As such I began to theorized the lists of culprits ranking them with the number thirty seven. I went with the past dragon officers who were bribed, corrupt or self centered and arrogant to their eventual evitable downfall. Additionally, I wondered about the other culprit dragons and reptiles that had been caught in the past. In the span of twenty years ago.

As my wings flapped and my head aching from the popping thoughts, I spotted our house not too far. A smile drifted from my face. But the embarrassment inflicted by Kyro and Ozkun impart upon me. I shivered remembering their teasing. Ignoring everything except for the job at hand, I neared the house and hovered. Landing softly upon the grounds underneath me and right upon the front door. I reached for it, snatching the knob. Tilting it to one side and pulled the door back. It opened automatically which allowed me inside. I went in immediately and called out towards Yang. She responded, but her voice was faint. ‘Perhaps she was inside a room or something.’ I thought to myself, exhaling a breath before climbing the steps. Towards the floor above me where two doors were settle before my eyes. Both of which were opened; a part of the bed emerged from the corner of the left door. I saw light coming from the right; illuminating the pitch darkness that was inside.

As I called out towards her again, she responded back. But she was rather panicky at the moment. A tilt of my head had became my question of concern as I drifted forth towards the source of her voice and the bedroom that locked upon my eyes. Walking straight inside, I was welcomed to the light that shines in my eyes. I lowered, gazing at the bed. But my eyes was widened upon realizing what was unfolded before me. Yang was naked; tied to the four corners of the bed. Her mouth was shut; eyes widening in both fear and something else. Her tail settled between her legs. Adjacent to her was the white desk, a chair was pulled back far from it. Smug marks were attached to the back of the chair and the seat. Upon the desk was a fields of papers. But overtop was the booklet that I needed. Ignoring that for now, I ran half circumference around and untied her from the bed. Ripping off the gray tape from her mouth, she jolted up where her upper body was straightened out. She turned towards me, I met her eyes.

She spoke, barely a whisper “It is him. I can never believe it at once.” “What is it who is it?” “Him, you should know Ling. An corrupt self centered arrogant officer, twenty years from the past. I thought we had gotten rid of him during that…” She shut her snout afterwards, lowering her head into her arms as her wings flatten behind her. I wrapped a claw around her as soft sobbing submerged which filled the silence of the room while I pondered what she meant.

But after a short silence, my eyes widened with surprise. Immediately I drifted towards her. But she was preoccupied with herself. So I turned towards the white desk adjacent to her. The booklet was opened and turned to the page where numbers thirty and forty appeared before my eyes. A red huge circle was wrapped around the thirty seventh’s culprit. My eyes widened, wings pulled back as I immediately turned my head towards Yang who briefly met my eyes and slightly nodded. Acknowledging the familiarity of such a dragon as I turned back towards the booklet again and frowned.

“Zephyr.” I muttered his name to myself and briefly upon the soft silence surrounding the room.