"Angus, as much as I like you, I am not a travel agency."

"I know, I know, but there is a child in danger here! Please, just one plane ticket for Lawrence to London," Angus begged.

Azara sat on the desk beside Angus and watched them. The manager was leaning back in his swivel chair with the lamb Harvey resting in his lap, while Lawrence had taken up a seat across the desk. The debate had lasted several minutes already, and Azara had found her attention wandering to the book titles in the bookcase behind the manager as well as the pictures of sheep and the Causeway that lines the walls. From what Azara could tell, Angus's attempts weren't going very well.

"I would have had the funds for it if I hadn't just had to reimburse a dozen people their entrance fees for having ice cream dropped on their heads," Alastair pointed out, stroking his sheep.

Angus's expression sank.

"Please, sir," Azara started, taking a step forward. "Half those people wouldn't even have been there if Angus hadn't let you slap his picture on your advertisements."

"Baaaaaaaaaa," Harvey commented, as if to say, "she's got a point."

Lawrence placed his hands on the redwood desk. "Mr. Alby, I promise I will pay you back once I have the funds. I spent the last of my money on my ticket here so that I could find these two to help me find my boy..." The old man looked like he was struggling to keep from tears. "I made a promise to the kid's parents before they died that I'd look after him. Please don't let me live out my life knowing that I failed them."

Azara looked to Alastair to see his reaction. The manager's gaze was downcast, but still he seemed reluctant. "But what if something happens to Angus? What if he's taken away again by this Lab? That wouldn't be good for business." His words were cold as ice, but Azara could sense that they weren't what the manager was really thinking. He turned in his chair, staring through the great window that looked out over the Causeway. "Haven't you tried the authorities? The government? Why do you need my dragons to help you?"

Azara felt anger churn in her belly as he spoke, and she jumped into the air and hovered before his face. "Listen, sir. We are not your dragons. We are not Will's dragons. If we want to go and do something, we have the right to do it! And no, sir. If we save Will, he's not going to put us in a cage again and keep us as pets. We wouldn't let him. So once we've freed Will, Angus can come back and be your icon again. If he wants to, because his life choices are not yours to make!" She shriveled her nose at him. "I'd think you'd know that after you helped us at the trial."

The manager had frozen, staring at her. He furrowed his brow. "How did you know I was afraid William would want you back as pets?" He asked slowly.

Azara tapped the side of her head with a claw. "Telempath. Remember?"

She felt a gentle tap on her shoulder from Angus. She could tell from the look in his golden eyes without reading his mind what he was trying to tell her. Be nice. We're trying to get this guy on our side, remember?

The forest-green dragon turned his attention back to the manager. "What my friend meant was... We need your help, we'd greatly appreciate your help... But what we do with our lives is still our choice. Azara and I can fly across to London whenever we wish. We just need to get Lawrence back there with us so that he can help us to find Will. Besides, otherwise he'd be stuck here with no money."

"Baa baaaaaaaaaa!" Harvey agreed.

Alastair scratched Harvey behind the ears and sighed. "Very well. I suppose I do owe it to you." The man put on a smile and straightened his silver jacket. "Welcome to the Harvey & Co Travel Agency, what may we do for you today?"

"One ticket to London, as soon as possible!" Angus instructed.

"Thank you Mr. Alby," William's grandfather added. "It means so much to me."

The manager opened up his laptop. "One ticket to London coming right up... Look's like there are openings on a flight this afternoon, direct from Belfast to Heathrow airport. I'll also arrange for a prepaid taxi service to take you where you need to go from there, as well as some funds for Mr. Bronze to get by during the trip. Will there be anything else?"

"Yes!" Angus said suddenly. "We need a couple of messages sent. One to a priest at the Goddess of the Sun temple in Egypt, and another to a remote village in Siberia."

Alastair and Azara both happened to say the same thing at once. "What?"

Angus turned to her. "We're going on a quest to look for the lab to save Will. It might be handy to have a couple of dragons that knew it well."

"Isis and Frida?" Azara questioned.

The green dragon nodded his head, golden eyes gleaming with excitement. "Isis and Frida," he confirmed.

The manager took a deep breath, continuing to type on his keyboard. "It might be a little difficult to get in contact with them, especially Siberia, but I'll see what I can do. Will that be all?"

Angus was raising a talon with a mischievous gleam to his eye, but Azara placed a talon on his shoulder to stop him. "Yes, thank you Mr. Alby, that will be more than enough."

Lawrence placed a hand on his chin in thought. "One ticket for me, but what about you two? Are you going to just fly there?"

Azara shook her head. "No no no— that would be pointless! We'll ride in your pocket of course!"

Angus clapped his talons together. "I've always been curious about air planes. It's like a machine that flies for you! You don't even have to lift a wing! I bet it'l be amazing!"

"I HATE AIR PLANES!"

Azara clenched her eyes shut, despite the fact that it was already dark at the bottom of Lawrence's pocket. She would have formulated some sort of response to Angus's complaint, but she felt that if she opened her jaw her stomach would launch out of it.

"SERIOUSLY, What's with these pretzels?" Angus groaned again from his perch on the lip of the pocket, a tiny pretzel clutched in a talon. "They taste like PAPER. Where's the ICE CREAM? And POTATOES? And did I mention that these air planes are uncomfortable? Where are the SHEEP to sleep on?"

More like where's the ground?

She heard an exasperated sigh, then a soft thump as Angus slid down into the bottom of the pocket with her. His cool scales brushed past her tail as he settled himself at the other end of the pocket. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "How are you feeling?"

"Mmmmmmmmmm," she groaned, pressing her wings tight against her sides as if that may stabilize her stomach.

"Well, we'll be landing soon I think. After this, how about no more air planes?" Angus murmured.

"Tmmm smmphs gmphs," she mumbled. It was meant to be more like "that sounds good," but words coming together in coherent forms was really too much to expect of a dragon with flight sickness.

Angus offered her a sympathetic wing rub. "We're on our way, though. Off to London."

"Mph tm lmphphn."

Angus cracked a grin. "Off to save Will."

~~~~~

And so it begins! Please remember to comment and vote if you liked!