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Carmen smiled as she nuzzled her face to Loki’s, earning a happy coo and the dragon returning the affection.
Glancing out her bedroom window and seeing the sun barely rising, she sighed and sat up in her bed. Loki dropped his front half off the bed and ran over to the closed door, red puppy dog eyes begging.
“Alright, I’m getting up,” Carmen smiled, sliding out of bed and opening the door for her dragon to rush out.
As usual, Carmen was the first to wake up as the sun rose.
Loki gave a quiet call from the front door, trying to not wake up the other occupants of the house.
“Alright, a quick flight before I make breakfast,” The thief ran a hand over the scales of one of the sleeping Terrors on the rail of the stairs, smiling at the sleepy purr they gave.
Taking Loki’s saddle from where it hung on the wall next to multiple other saddles, Carmen maneuvered to open the door and her dragon shot outside. She followed, taking a deep breath of the early morning air.
Saddling up her impatient dragon, Carmen took one last quick glance at the house before climbing on Loki’s back. The dragon taking off with a roar.
Zack and Ivy stumbled down the stairs right as Carmen finished scraping the last of the eggs onto the fourth plate.
“Hey, you two,” She smiled at them. “Pick a plate and eat up, we gotta prepare for the caper tonight.”
The talk of food immediately snapped Zack out of his post-sleep haze and he rushed forward to grab the plate with the biggest portion.
“Oi! Save some for the rest of us!” Ivy elbowed her brother’s back and picked up her own chosen plate.
The two bickered as they sat at the table, continuing as they ate. Carmen didn’t react, instead calmly eating her own food and watching the two with a content smile.
One of Loki’s ear flaps flicked up and he looked up from his bowl of fish to give a good morning coo as Player made his way down the stairs.
An albino Night Terror was asleep on his head and a purple Terror lunged across his shoulders, also still asleep.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” Carmen pointed to his plate with her fork. Player mumbled his own greeting and made his way to the said plate.
Bard sneezed, waking himself and Aiden up accidentally. Aiden hissed in annoyance and flew off of Player’s head to her perch on top of the fireplace. Bard gave an apologetic snort before eyeing his trainer’s plate.
“No, you’ll get your breakfast as soon as I wake up,” Player poked the Terror’s nose.
Bard climbed off of Player’s shoulders and made his way over to Loki, activating his puppy dog eyes.
Loki gave a draconic raised eyebrow, Bard added a whine to his begging. With a roll of his eyes, Loki moved a paw down from covering his food. An action he took when he noticed the Terror coming his way.
With a cheer Bard snagged a fish and dragged it under the table, two other Terrors quickly following.
A perfectly normal morning.
“So from information one of the Terrors stole, VILE is loading a shipment of dragons and recently mined jewels here,” Player pointed at a small island on a map. “Where the dragons will be sold to a big buyer, possibly to Drago Bludvist, or auctioned off and the jewels will disappear.”
“Our main priority is the dragons,” Carmen’s arms were crossed as she frowned down at the map.
“As usual,” Ivy nodded.
“I’ll distract them by releasing a few of the dragons before going after the jewels,” The thief continued. “Zack, Ivy, you two and the dragons will release all the dragons in the shipment. There’s no information of other Dragon Traders going to be there tonight, so we only have to worry about the ones in the VILE shipment.”
“ You got it, Boss. ”
“And if anyone gets into a pickle, send off a flare and I’ll have the Night Terrors provide a distraction for escape,” Player reminded. “But I’ll stick to whatever cave you guys are gonna stick me in.”
“Like you mind the caves,” Ivy playfully teased.
“You’re correct, but you don’t have to say it,” The youngest gave a pout, earning laughs.
Climbing off of Loki, Carmen adjusted her red cloak and hood. She silently drew a circle in the air with her finger and pointed in the direction Ivy and Zack were waiting for him.
Cooing, her dragon gave her an affectionate nudge in the arm before disappearing into the dark forest.
Carmen adjusted her hood, walking forward with determination sparkling in her eyes.
Expertly dodging Tigress’ dragon claw hands, Carmen grabbed a wrist and judo flipped the other woman over her.
Tigress hissed, swiping at Carmen’s ankles hoping to catch her off guard.
“Give up, Tigress,” The thief was frowning, Zack and Ivy should have released all the dragons by now.
“Not until your body is in the bottom of the ocean!”
After making sure there wasn’t anything tricky going on with the chest of jewels and that she wasn’t being followed, Carmen cupped a hand around her mouth and let out a roar that sounded vaguely like a Nightfury.
In the distance a similar roar answered and a moment later Loki leapt out of the trees with a rumbled purr.
“Good boy,” Carmen gave him a scratch on the head before climbing on his back. “Let’s go pick up Player and go home.”
Loki ran back into the dark forest, expertly weaving between the trees before they came upon a cave.
Player slipped out of the darkness of the cave, a Speed Stringer trailing behind him.
“How’d it go, Red?” Player climbed onto the saddle behind her.
“Perfectly,” She handed him the chest and gripped the handles on the saddle. “Let’s go.”
Loki hovered for a second, picking up Freya in his paws and flying off into the night. A Hobblegrunt and a Rumblehorn soon joining the two, small pack of dragons following them.