Sounds pretty dramatic, huh? TOTALLY IS. Here's last time.
The drakes arrive in the Capital, and marvel at the massive spires and the massive dragons walking and crawling and flying around. Stars wants to go to a library, and picks one in caverns rather than spires (since, y'know, no wings). The clutch arrives and the librarian, Icepyre, directs them on how to chronicle their journeys. OB draws their route on a map, Stars starts adding info about the many wonderful creatures they've encountered, and Zeblek notes their journey to the moons (which Icepyre has them write in a Tall Tales volume; dre clearly does not believe it).
As this is going on, Sprinkles, Toverin's spirit-guide, says that she's feeling queasy, which is odd because she doesn't really have a stomach. Toverin takes her outside and she starts to feel better, and Toverin tells her to just wander around a bit and catch up with them later. Dre then goes back into the library, and the drakes realize that all of them are feeling a little off. Toverin surveys the area and feels Darkness coming from a little hallway off this room, and wonders if that might be the cause of the feeling. Icepyre mentions feeling off, too...but before they can figure out what's causing, the ground splits open!
Zeblek grabs Stars under dris arm and runs for an exit, but the ceiling caves in! There's a gap in the rocks big enough to admit Zeblek's serpenty, sinewy frame, but not Stars, and Zeblek doesn't want to leave dris friend. Stars tells them to go - there's a great big table in the room, Stars can hide under that, but Zeblek refuses and calls on the shadow moon, opening a portal...
...and Stars emerges in pitch darkness, alone.
Meanwhile, Toverin tries to help Icepyre saves some books, but overbalances and knocks books into a chasm! Icepyre yells at them to not make things worse, and Toverin flees in shame, running down the Darkness-tinged hallway. Dre emerges into a spherical room with books hanging on chains from the ceiling, and they start whispering to Toverin. Free us...read us...we are the imprisoned spirits of the natural world...free us... Toverin realizes, on some level, that this is a bad idea, but can't resist. Dre opens a book, and vines erupt from it, wrapping around them, and dragging them in...and the book snaps shut, dropping to the floor.
Zeblek himself emerges in an alley outside the library, but realizes that Stars isn't there. Dre descends into his Shadowself, becoming convinced that Stars will die without dris help. Dre can't call on shadow moons again, but calls on the void moon to open a portal to Stars.
Stars, meanwhile, has felt around in dark and realized that dre is in a tunnel of some kind. It's big - the sides are higher than dre can reach - and there's some kind of liquid on the ground that smells vaguely like old milk. Stars tosses rocks out in front and behind them, but just hears echoing clacks. Shrugging, dre head forward.
Up in the distance, dre hears a low, mournful moaning/singing noise, loud enough to rattle dris teeth in dris skull. And then dre hears a low, rumbly, terrifying growl right next them! Stars says something eloquent like "AAAAAAA" and runs.
Zeblek appears in the dark, grumbling to themself, and hears a scream near them. Dre chases after it, spreading dris wings to pounce, but whatever it is in the dark dodges!
Stars feels dris unseen pursuer bearing down, and rolls! Whatever it is misses them, and dre turns and runs the other way, yelling "NO NO NO NO".
Whatever this thing is that Zeblek is chasing, it has the power of speech. Zeblek breathes a gout a fire to light the tunnel, and sees Stars running away. Deep in Shadowself, Zeblek doesn't call out, just grumbles "I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS," which of course doesn't make Stars feel any better. Dre keeps running. Zeblek grabs the walls and launches themself forward, but misses again.
The loud, mournful song echoes through the tunnel, and the ground beneath them cracks open. Stars finds themself standing on the back of an immense creature, which blubbery flesh and little bristly hairs, but dre can't recognize or remember what it's call (and it's too dark to check dris book). Dre keeps running, and Zeblek keeps chasing. Zeblek finally lands in front of Stars and puffs out more fire, and Stars can at last see who's been chasing them.
Meanwhile, Toverin emerges in the forest primeval, deep and dark and terrifying. There are little creatures much like chiptopi scampering around the trees, but they don't have tentacles - they're like chiptopi without the -topi! Terrified and a little chastened, Toverin reaches out to Sprinkles for help. A distant, echoing voice tells Toverin that dre will need to delve deeper into the Darkness to get out, and Toverin calls on the void moon and opens a portal. The portal empties them out near the library, with Sprinkles nearby.
Toverin tells Sprinkles what happened ("and the librarian yelled at me!"), and Sprinkles mentions that she saw Zeblek appear from a portal over in an alley, and then disappear again. She hasn't seen OB.
Down in the dark, Stars is livid. Zeblek didn't need to portal them anywhere, but certainly didn't need to chase them around in the dark growling when dre could have just used words. Zeblek says next time dre will just leave them to die, since that's obviously what would happen if dre didn't step in, and flies away. Stars calls on the spirit moon and draws on the roots in the ground, making them help them tunnel to the surface.
Toverin is standing in the alley where Sprinkles last saw Zeblek, when suddenly roots start erupting out of the ground. Suffering the worst case of deja vu, Toverin backs up, but then Stars crawls out of the ground and shakes off dirt!
The two drakes talk and Toverin comforts Stars a bit (dre is still pretty peeved), and they go and get a smoothie. Zeblek flies up out of a well and stretches dris wings before the sun, casting a big, bat-dragon-like shadow on the ground (but as dre is still a drake, albeit a Winged Drake now, the bigger dragons don't much notice). Dre perches on a wall and stares down at dris clutch-mates, convinced that they will need Zeblek sooner rather than later.
The drakes go back to the library to help with cleanup, and Icepyre finds them. Dre tells them that dre hasn't seen OB since the earthquake, and dre may have fallen into the tunnels beneath. This quake was caused by tunneling whalphers, immense burrowing creatures. The loud songs that Stars heard was how they communicate, and the songs are powerful enough to cause the queasy feeling they all had. Icepyre muses, though, that whalphers have never come this close to the surface before...
In any case, the drakes need to go find OB! Toverin and Stars go back into the dark (taking some light with them this time), and Zeblek follows, lurking in the shadows.
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