Page 16 of Searching for Thanksgiving

“War? Why would they declare war?” Trisha asked, looking at her mate.

Kelan blanched and looked at Vox and Ha’ven. “I’ll explain later.”

She lifted an eyebrow at him. Paul studied the group of older dragonlings. They were frantically whispering amongst themselves… well, all of them except for Roam who was stuck to the floor—literally! Roam’s rear-end was glued to the floor from the sticky goo practically dripping from him. The boy was shaking his front paw as a sticky worm crawled across the back of it.

“What’s going on?” Paul asked the children. He didn’t direct his question at any one teen. Instead, he waited to see who would break first. The kids all looked at each other before they sighed and all began talking at once.

“We’re not sure…”

“It could be…”

“It was just a story, but…”

“Do you think they could have…”

He held up his hand, and the room fell silent. He looked around at the group before finally settling on Alice. The other kids were looking at her with uncertain expressions. Alice stepped forward and clasped her hands. She paused and looked behind her before she turned, took a deep breath, and faced the now silent group of attentive adults.

“We aren’t sure, but… Jade and Amber said their map is missing,” Alice began.

“Map? What map? What kind of map?” Calo growled.

“Oh, man! Please tell me it wasn’t the star map that you were working on?” Cara pleaded.

“Trelon!” Vox growled.

Trelon held his hands up and shook his head. “The kids never finished the spaceship. I swear! Did you?” he asked, looking at the group with an uneasy expression.

“Nah, we gave up on that. It was too hard to build one big enough for all of us,” Jade responded.

“Thank the Goddess,” Trelon muttered.

“Besides, we don’t need a spaceship with Phoenix around,” Amber added.

“Phoenix, do you know where the younger kids are?” Carmen asked.

“That’s what Alice is trying to tell you. We think they might have gone to find Thanksgiving,” Phoenix replied, stepping up next to Alice.

“Thanksgiving? Who is Thanksgiving?” Viper demanded.

“It was a story that we made up last night,” Alice said.

“Oh, no!”

The chorus of adult groans expressed the feeling of dread… no, not dread… resignation, that had been building inside Paul since Morian told him of Morah’s absence. He silently reached out to Crash again.

Do you know where Morah and the other kids are? he asked.

Vivid images filled his head. Morah was riding Buttercup while Leo and James chased each other. He wasn’t sure exactly where they were, but the thick forests told him they weren’t near the palace. He blinked when Morian touched his arm. He gave her a crooked smile and shook his head.

“It looks like the little ones have gone on an adventure,” he announced.

Everyone muttered expletives and groaned.

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