As they descended towards the beach, the familiar stretch of white sand invoked a memory in Vireo. He remembered the feeling of relief, of excitement, of landing here with his friends, the biggest worry being whether they'd find the Cloth Monkeys. Now, everything was different.
They landed softly, their talons sinking into the warm sand. The scarred dragon immediately placed the bronze plate with the Sensors gems on a flat rock. The three milky stones remained dull and lifeless.
"Alright," Xylia said, her gaze sweeping over the dense jungle treeline. "We move inland from here. The last patrol reported a surge from the sensors in this general area before it vanished. We'll start a search pattern. Nomad," she addressed the scarred dragon, "you and Gypsum take the right flank." She nodded to the pale female. "Vireo and I will take the left. We meet back at this beach before sundown. Stay alert."
The dragons nodded. Nomad grunted, "What about prey to eat? We'll be here all day. I'm not eating that six-legged thing again if I can help it. And the Cloth Monkeys are hardly any meat."
That last sentence made Vireo shiver.
"There are wild pigs on this island," Gypsum said, her sharp grey eyes already scanning the edge of the jungle. "Large ones. Their tusks are a nuisance, but they're good eating. And the fish just offshore are plentiful if it comes to that."
"I'd rather hunt the pigs," Nomad rumbled. "More satisfying."
"Left?" Vireo asked very late as he looked at his mother in a slight panic. The left path was the direction him and his friends had taken. They'd be much more likely to find the monoliths if they go in that direction.
"Yes," Xylia confirmed, her voice sharp. "The path of least resistance. Let's go."
Vireo's mind raced. No. No, no, no. This couldn't be happening. He had to do something, anything. He couldn't just lead his mother and her secret society of power hungry dragons directly to the Monoliths.
As they stepped from the soft sand onto the damp earth of the jungle, the atmosphere was completely different from his last visit. There was no excited chatter from Peyote, no curious prodding from Barchan. There was only the sound of their own quiet steps and the hum of the forest. The air was thick.
"Vireo," Xylia's voice was low, right beside him. "Does any of this look familiar from your trip?"
This was a test, most definitely. "A-a little," he stammered, forcing himself to look around as if genuinely trying to remember. "The trees all look, uh, kind of the same."
"Focus," she commanded.
They walked further, and a cold dread washed over Vireo as he recognized a distinctive, gnarled tree with thick, looping vines that looked like tangled snakes. They were in the vicinity of the tablets. What was strange, and also very relieving, was that the sensor gem in his mother's hand was not reacting.
Why aren't they glowing? Vireo thought. He shot a quick, nervous glance at the sensor gem. Nothing. Not a flicker. But this was the area. He knew it. That gnarled tree, the way the ground sloped upwards.
He tried to come up with an explanation. Maybe the Monoliths are dormant, like a sleeping volcano? That has to be it. But that didn't explain why the last patrol got a reading. Why would it suddenly go quiet? What could turn it off so suddenly?
Just then, a sharp crack of a thick branch breaking echoed through the jungle, startlingly loud in the quiet air. It came from their right, deeper into the tangled undergrowth, away from the general direction he had taken with his friends.
"Something big. Dark brown. It was fast," Vireo informed.
Without glancing at Vireo, Xylia shot forward, brute forcing her way through the foliage. Vireo followed, but it was hard for him to keep up. He shortly caught up to her, with a massive boar between her jaws.
"We take this opportunity to eat," she stated.
She set the boar down. With a swift, brutal efficiency, Xylia used a claw to tear open the boar's flank. She ripped off a large, steaming piece of meat and tossed it onto the ground in front of Vireo. It landed with a soft slap, spattering his claws with blood.
"Eat," she repeated, tearing off a piece for herself.
Vireo stared at the chunk of flesh. He forced himself to lower his head and take a bite. The meat was tough, gamey, and coated in the metal tang of fresh blood. It felt like a lump of stone in his mouth, and he chewed slowly, forcing himself to swallow. The silence was broken only by the sound of tearing flesh and their jaws working.
They finished their short meal in silence. Xylia ate quickly, as if refueling was just another task to be completed. When she was done, she wiped her snout on a broad leaf.
"Our time was wasted enough. Let's get back to the search." Xylia turned and started walking back towards the path they had abandoned, roughly towards the area of the gnarled tree.
Vireo was concerned but he needed to hide it. He walked with her some more, and eventually they passed the gnarled tree and entered a slight opening in the canopy. Xylia grunted, shifting the dirt with her talons.
It makes no sense," she muttered, more to herself than to him. "The energy signature was strong here. Now… nothing."
The first day ended in failure. They met Nomad and Gypsum back on the beach as the sun set on the horizon. Their report was the same: no readings from the sensors, no sign of anything unusual besides the island's strange and aggressive wildlife.
The next two days was the same, agonizing grind. The jungle, which had once seemed full of wonder and discovery, became a prison. Each morning they would set out, splitting into their pairs, and shift through a new section of the island. They battled giant, iridescent beetles that spat a foul-smelling goo, avoided the snapping jaws of carnivorous plants, and climbed steep, muddy inclines. Vireo's muscles, already sore from the long flight, now ached even more. The cut on his arm would not heal properly in the humid air. But the mental strain was just as bad as it's physical counterpart. By the third day, the jungle's suffocating uniformity began to work on him. Every tree started to look like the same tree. Every gentle slope looked like the one where their friends were. His memory of the exact location of the monoliths was becoming fuzzy.
On the morning of the fourth day, as they were preparing for another demoralizing trek into the jungle, a dragon appeared in the sky. He landed on the beach with crisp precision, his scales a polished obsidian, a messenger from the palace.
"By order of Their Majesties, King Sotol and Queen Ephedra," the messenger announced, "your search is suspended. You are to return to the palace immediately for a full debriefing."
Xylia didn't argue. She simply nodded, her expression unreadable. "We leave now."
The flight back was boring. In the palace, they were not led to the grand, sunlit throne room. Instead, they were led to a smaller, dimmer chamber deeper within the palace. A massive, circular table of dark wood was centered in the room, surrounded by high-backed chairs. Maps of the continent and unknown islands were hung on the stone walls.
The King and Queen were already there. Their faces were grim.
"Report," King Sotol commanded, his deep voice making the air vibrate.
Nomad stepped forward. "We searched the eastern and southern sectors, Your Majesty. The sensors remained inert. We encountered hostile flora and fauna, but nothing of the power you described."
Xylia was next. "The western sector, where the previous signal was detected, is quiet. The energy has vanished completely. We found nothing."
The king and queen grumbled.
"The energy may be shielded, or dormant, Your Majesty," Xylia added, breaking the short silence. "Our methods may need to be revised."
Queen Ephedra's claws tapped a sharp, angry rhythm on the dark wood. "Revised?" she echoed. "We have tried every method, Xylia. We have sent scouts. We have followed star-charts and references from ancient scrolls."
Perhaps the legends are just that—legends," Nomad grumbled under his breath, earning him a venomous glare from the Queen that made him shrink back slightly.
"The power is real," King Sotol boomed, silencing any further dissent. "Our scholars have confirmed it. What was the energy that was being detected back there then? The failure must be in the execution." He stared hard at the group. "We are missing something."
The room fell into a silence. They were at a dead end. Vireo watched the powerful dragons, the leaders of his world, grappling with a puzzle they couldn't solve. The King's final words from their last meeting echoed in his head: His fresh eyes may yet prove more valuable than our old maps. They expected something from him. He wanted to do or say at least something that would get on their better sides.
And then, an idea sparked. It was a way to explain everything—the sensors working once, and not again.
He took a shaky breath, his heart hammering. "Your Majesties," he began, his voice weak. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Forgive me for speaking."
All eyes turned to him. The King and Queen stared, their expressions a mixture of surprise and impatience. His mother's gaze was a sharp, she was definitely warning him: Be careful.
"What if," Vireo said, "What if it isn't there anymore?"
Queen Ephedra scoffed. "Impossible. It wouldn't just simply vanish."
"Maybe it didn't vanish," Vireo pressed, looking directly at the King, whose expression was harder to read. "Maybe it was... like, taken."
The word hung in the air. Nomad and Gypsum exchanged confused glances. Xylia's face was a mask of stone, but Vireo could see the widening of her eyes. This was a win-win. He gives them decent information, but at the same time if it was true, it could've been any dragon, not one aligned with this faction.
"Taken?" King Sotol repeated, more curious. "Explain this... theory."
Vireo swallowed. "The first patrol," he explained, gesturing to the maps on the wall. "They got a reading. A huge surge of energy. We've been assuming that was the monoliths revealing themselves for a moment. But what if it was the opposite? What if that energy surge was the power being taken from the monoliths... by someone else?"
Sotol let it sink in. "That would explain everything. Why the sensors worked then, and why they don't work now. Why the island is quiet. It's not because the monoliths are sleeping. It's because they're empty. They're just stone now. Someone got there before us."
Queen Ephedra stared at him, her lips parted in disbelief. "A rival? Who would dare? Who would even know?"
"The Ocean-Claws?" Nomad offered, his voice a low growl. "They could've swam under the ocean to the island, evading our line of sight."
"Or that mountainous nation of those dirty Mesa-Claws," Gypsum added, her eyes narrowing. "They border us near the coast."
The King ignored them, his gaze fixed on Vireo, an unsettling intensity in his black eyes. He wasn't looking at a foolish boy anymore. He was looking at a strategist who had just introduced a terrifying new variable into the game. Maybe what Vireo said wasn't so smart after all.
"If this is true," King Sotol said slowly, his voice laced with a newfound menace, "then our mission is no longer a search for a prize. It is a hunt for a thief." He stood up, his massive form seeming to swallow the light in the room. His eyes swept over the maps on the wall, probably examining the list of potential enemies. "A thief who now can kill a nation with the flick of a tail."