Page 27 of Searching for Thanksgiving

“Well, I guess that worked,” Hope replied, lying on her back and staring up at the large floating device that now covered them.

“Yeah, but how are we going to get it to the river?” Sacha asked.

The three girls looked at each other and grinned.

“Leo,” Hope said.

Sacha nodded. “Leo.”

“Definitely, Leo!” Morah agreed, pushing the raft up far enough to scoot out from under it. “Hey, Leo! Do you want some cookies?”

“Leo, you and James can stops,” Morah instructed nearly an hour later.

The two boys groaned and collapsed on the ground. Morah studied the wide bank of the river. It had been tricky getting the raft through the woods. Buttercup, Prime, and Rainbow had created a basic wagon with three wheels and a harness while Leo and James shifted into their cat and dragon forms to pull it. Morah pushed on the back of the raft while Sacha and Hope cleared a path through the woods.

Fortunately, the ground had been flat, and they only had a couple of places where there were fallen trees that they had to push and pull the raft over. Now, they only had a few more feet to go.

She studied the river. The water was flowing fast, but it wasn’t rough. It reminded her of the river near the palace where her mommy and daddy sometimes took her to swim.

“I need more cookies,” Leo groaned.

Morah rolled her eyes. Sacha and Hope had been feeding cookies to Leo to keep him going. She didn’t know where he put all of them!

“You needs to eat something better. My mommy says that too many cookies will make you sick,” Hope said.

Leo lifted his head and glared at Hope. “I needs a cookie. A big cookie,” he stated.

Sacha whispered into the knapsack before she reached in and pulled out a large cookie. She walked over and handed it to Leo. The Sarafin cub grinned and twisted into a sitting position.

“Thanks, Sacha,” he said, reaching for the cookie while sticking his tongue out at Hope.

“I wants a cookie,” James said, sitting up and looking at Sacha.

Sacha rolled her eyes at James, whispered into the knapsack again, pulled out a second cookie and handed it to James. He sniffed the cookie before tentatively taking a bite. His eyes widened with delight and he scarfed down the treat.

“He’s going to gets sick,” Hope sniffed, folding her arms and glaring at Leo. “He better not throws up on me.”

Sacha grinned and shook her head. “It’s a goodie cookie that Grandma Pearl makes. It’s made of carrots and spice and other good-for-your dragon stuff.”

“I don’t cares. It’s still a cookie,” Leo defended, licking the crumbs off his fingers.

“We needs to gets moving if we are going to find Thanksgiving and helps her,” Morah said.

“Do you thinks we’ll be done before dark? I miss my mommy and daddies,” Hope asked.

“Our parents are probably wondering where we are,” Pearl said.

Sacha frowned. “I thoughts you left them the note I wrote.”

Pearl shook her head. “Nah. I didn’t wants daddy to tries to stop us before we had fun.”

Sacha groaned. “We are going to be on restrictions just like the older dragonlings.”

“My mom and dad don’t keeps Amber and Jade on restrictions. Daddy says they gets in more trouble when they are bored,” James said with a grin.

“If we wants to gets back home, we gots to get going,” Morah said, pushing on the back of the raft. “Helps me push this in the water.”

Between the five of them and the symbiots, they pushed and pulled until the raft was in the water. Hope and James climbed in first, followed by Sacha, Pearl, and Leo. Morah and the symbiots climbed in last. The raft slowly twisted and turned as the current caught it. Within a few minutes, it was pulled out toward the center and sped up.

Buttercup and Rainbow wrapped themselves around each dragonling as a life vest while Prime flowed into long lines for the kids to hang onto and a small rudder to help guide them along the river.

Morah lifted her face to the breeze. “I love going on adventures,” she breathed.

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