Wings of Fire: Dragons, Steel, and Pom-Poms

III - Three Moons

The Liberty ships in particular were only built to have a 5 year operational life under the best circumstances.

It was nothing short of a miracle that all of the ships in the convoy had already made it this far without any breakdowns, and that they all had made it through the storm relatively unscathed.

Robert didn't want to push their luck by being at sea any longer than they needed to.

To that end, it looked like, at their current speed, they would probably reach land by nightfall, all else being equal.

Which also meant that the possibility of U-boat attack was significantly unlikely, as they rarely struck so close to the English coast, and any boats that were shadowing them likely lost track from the storm, anyway.

Hopefully all will be well. Robert thought, hoping that his decision to endure the storm would prove worthwhile.

***

>Deep SeaWing enclave, on the outskirts of The Kingdom of the Sea_

["Sea monsters? scavengers? Are you dragonets alright?"] The enclave's tutor, Mako, asked somewhat condescendingly, as much as a visual language could even convey contempt, anyway.

["YES!"] Oyster flashed, a bit too brightly. ["Well, probably. We know what we saw!"]

The dragonets had just arrived back at the enclave, and frantically got to explaining what in the currents they saw to the first adult who would probably listen. That dragon happened to be Mako, the enclave tutor that the trio had been inadvertently avoiding by going on that expedition to look at storm aftermath in the first place.

It was pretty clear that she wasn't exactly buying their spiel, however.

Which is probably understandable, to be honest. Cuttlefish reflected to himself. He didn't flash that out, as both Clam and Oyster were getting pretty animated over the whole thing.

["YEAH! WE DO!"] Clam added, ["A bunch of sea monsters came out of that storm that came through earlier, like, A LOT of them! And they were HUGE! Way bigger than a blue whale! And- and one of them was swimming underwater! It snuck up on us! Well, not really, it kinda just- we sort of... that's not the point! You gotta believe us!"] He flashed and gestured frantically.

Frankly, he probably wouldn't have believed it either.

["Was that the one with the scavengers riding on it?"] Mako said with a smirk.

["Listen dragonets, this all sounds... interesting... but it's absolutely ludicrous. You all should be a bit old to be making up stories like this."]

Before any of the dragonets could protest, another set of flashes came from their peripheral vision.

["Hey now, what's going on here?"] The relaxed lights came from Grouper, one of the enclave elders, his faded dark blue scales making him blend in well with the dim lighting.

The four dragons all turned and regarded him. Elders were figures of respect in SeaWing enclaves, mainly due to the wisdom they accrued through their long years.

Grouper in particular was an interesting figure. While he was rather large in regards to any other dragons present by virtue of being as old as he was, he was still smaller compared to other dragons his age. He also didn't really possess the grim bitterness and general moodiness that characterized old dragons.

Mako was the first to answer the dragon.

["These dragonets claim to not only have seen a sea monster, but several. A whole pod of them, apparently."]