Page 56 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
It was disgusting.
“I don’t know why I didn’t think to bring some masks up with us,” I muttered, unsure of how to get any closer to the pixie nest without the required protective gear.
“Here.” Winter reached into his back pocket and pulled out a handful of cloth masks. They weren’t the best at dealing with pixie dust since it wouldn’t cover our eyes and upper facial skin, but it was a lot better than nothing.
“Ugh. This doesn’t match my outfit at all,” Lyric said, though they were obviously joking.
Win rolled his eyes. “Deal with it.”
Lyric stuck their tongue out at them, then sent me a little wink that made me grin.
“Thank you.” I put my mask on as Win and Lyric did the same. “You still have to be careful since your eyes are exposed.”
Win’s mouth was covered, but I could tell from the way his eyes crinkled at the corners that he was smiling. “I know, lovey. We’ll be okay for a quick look at the problem.” He’d been using that endearment a lot lately, and I… didn’t hate it.
“Good. Let’s go.”
Leading the way, I walked closer to the dragon lifecycle area and paused just outside the invisible line the pixies had drawn. There was pixie dust on the floor right in front of my feet, but not on the spot where I stood, as if the little critters had been patrolling around their nest, not wanting anyone to get any closer than this.
That was fine. We were only five feet away, so I could see pretty well from here. Without proper gear, it wasn’t like I could go digging around the area, anyway.
Winter’s shoulder brushed against mine as he stood beside me, his booted toes just outside the pixie dust line with Lyric clinging to his other side.
“Well…” He let out a small huff. “They definitely have a nest right there.”
I nodded. “Sure do. But…”
When I didn’t continue, he asked, “But what?”
“Do you see that… white, speckled thing in the middle? It looks kind of round?”
“What the hell is that thing?” Lyric asked. “Kinda looks like a ball. Where would they’ve gotten a ball from?”
“No idea.”
Winter leaned forward, squinting his eyes. “I… don’t think it’s a ball. It almost looks like… a ginormous egg.”
I blinked. He was right. The white thing looked like the top of an egg poking out, only the egg was even bigger than an ostrichegg. Honestly, I could only see the top of it, but if I had to guess, it was about the size of a football, so maybe eleven inches long?
“That’s the biggest egg I’ve ever seen,” I said.
“I think it’s a dragon egg.”
I turned sharply to him as Lyric gasped out, “What?”
Win pointed at the exhibit. “Well, it’s the dragon lifecycle, right? So it makes sense they’d have a dragon egg there.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, but… it’s obviously not a real dragon egg. No one would steal a dragon’s egg—well, not steal it and live, anyway—just to use it in a museum. And it’s illegal to boot, especially the large dragons. They’re already so rare, I can’t imagine someone being reckless enough to steal an egg so it couldn’t hatch.”
Lyric sighed. “True, but this is a museum, babes. I think that might be a fossil.”
My eyes widened and turned back to the egg, staring at it as I thought over their words. “You’re… right. It’s probably a fossil.”
Win pulled out his phone. “Let me text Ace. He probably knows if it’s a real fossil or a replica.”
“Good idea.”
I watched an angry pixie fly toward us, shaking its fist at us like he was an old man about to yellget off my lawn!The thought made me snort, but for all I knew that was exactly what his little bell-like voice was yelling. I was grateful when the little guy didn’t get in my face and start shaking his pixie dust at me.
