Dragons Pax

12: High Suspicion

*Michael's pov*

I sighed as I got to Pat's door, he had locked himself in there for the past almost 39 hours. Fortunately Bren has been watching over him and seems like Pat is doing a bit better, he's at least away from the alcohol, but he's still a bit out of it.

"Pat" I said while knocking on the door.

I heard shuffling and then a heavy sigh before Pat got up, and I can tell because the boards creaked a bit. He opened the door and looked at me. Seems like he didn't get any or very little sleep.

"Michael, what brings you here?" He asked while trying to perk up.

"Pat, I'm going to need to see you and Bren in my office in a bit. Ritchie and Brandon are also coming over and we have things to talk about." I said trying not to sound like this is an urgent thing because I want Pat to take care of himself, he's definitely doing a lot better then yesterday, and that's for sure.

I walked downstairs and watched as Bren and Colin talked at the C class board. Colin took a job and left and I made my way over to Bren. I told him and he nodded as he came to my office.

It didn't take long for Brandon and Ritchie to get here seeing as Ritchie can simply blink them here. Pat soon came and when he saw everyone he sighed. I let him take a seat in my seat since probably any talk about Mitch is going to be touchy, but I need answers from him.

"Alright I'll start is off. We are here to talk about a very specific group of people. Bri and Silver would have also been here however they are busy with current investigations." I said Brandon nodded.

"Indeed." Brandon said

"What group can I ask?" Pat asked

"The dragonslayers." Ritchie said and Pat looked at all of us and almost got up to leave but my Shadows grabbed him and held him down to the seat for a moment.

"Sorry Pat but we need you here right now." I said and Pat huffed.

"I want a drink after this." Pat said crossing his arms.

"You can have your drink afterwards, but first things first. Brandon care to explain?" Ritchie said

"Yes." Brandon said and he began to explain his whole thing with Mario.

"So It's very clear that the dragonslayers are trying to separate from their guilds but they don't want to just leave like that. They are waiting for the right time to go and leave." Ritchie said

"But why do they want to do that?" Bren asked

"That's what's still a mystery to us and we are trying to figure it out right now." I said

"Now we know one thing for sure Mitch has always been the type to do things his way." Bren said

"Yes I can see this kind of thing coming from Mitch but at the same time I have a feeling that the reason Mitch didn't quite leave on the spot even though we found out that he was planning on leave was because of you." I said looking at Pat.

"....ya..." Pat said looking down

"Please came you explain what happened when you went to him?" Bren asked

"But i-" Pat started

"You were sworn to secrecy. I get that Pat but we need to know otherwise we can't understand the dragonslayers and their motives." I said

"It's would be helpful for all of us." Ritchie said

"I'm surprised your not letting Lo'pho in on this." Pat said

"Bryan is Lo'pho's favorite student. If we tried telling him anything about Bryan he would want to go to Bryan and question him personally and that's just going to push Bryan away more." Brandon said

"I geuss one way to think of it is this." Bren said grabbing a chess board and moved all the black pieces off except for four pawns. He then removed all the pieces except for the king, queen bishop and horse.

"So from what I get each dragonslayer is on a different level of leaving their guilds. The last three spaces of the board is them on the edge of leaving. These four pieces are the different guilds." Bren said pointing and the non pawn pieces.

"Using a chess board. Smart." Ritchie said with a smile

"So I want to say Colin is closer to us but not quite on the edge yet. Mario my be a lot closer to the edge then maybe Bryan, but I could be wrong. Mitch could be right on the edge almost ready to hope over." Bren said moving the pieces.

"And this is one of the reasons why your second command. Your smart, but yes the more we try to get into their business the more we risk having them get closer to the edge. Once they cross the edge that means that left the guild and are on their own." I said

"Indeed. However I have a feeling the people closest the edge is Mario and Mitch." Brandon said

"Put Bryan next to Mitch." Pat said moving the pieces around.

"The one who planned it all." Pat said pointing at the piece that represents Mitch.

"The insecure." Pat said pointing to Bryan's piece.

"The Mocked." Pat said pointing to Mario's piece and this made Brandon and Ritchie look at each other before they looked a bit uncomfortable.

"And the out of control." Pat said moving Colin's piece closer.

"This is why you we're sworn to secrecy." I asked

"Ya...."

*Mario's pov*

I woke up to a dragon nudging me and I groaned and I lightly shook my head. I looked up to see Mitch putting Bryan under a bigger dragons wing.

"Mitch?" I asked and Mitch, after he thanked the dragon, came over to me.

"Hide. People are coming and quickly." He said and I got up. I went to a rock wall and climbed it until I was high enough then I made a small cavern like place and crawled in. Mitch ran and hid under another dragon.

I watched as Bri came down and did a check up on the dragons. Food was passed around while Silver tried to talk to a few, but the dragon that hid Bryan snapped at him and he back up and Bri came and fed them.

I couldn't make out their conversations but I know one things for sure. They weren't talking about us.

I sighed as I looked down at Phantoms and then watched at a hand came out of the shadows while Phantom wasn't looking and dropped something into Phantoms food. I wanted to yell out but I couldn't and I watched as the hand left and Phantom after a bit of watching Bri and Silver ate.

Whatever was put in the food must not be good especially if a mystery hand dropped it in secret.

However at that moment I remember something. Something Ritchie and Brandon spoke about a while back. Someone had killed Reaper from the shadows. This hand came from the shadows.

Reapers killer is making another move and I swear we are going to stop it. I don't know how this will change things but I know for sure no one is going to harm Phantom.

Especially since he's one, a dragon, and two, Mitch's per-say teacher. They are part of our Family.