“You guys can wait here,” said Mal. “The mountain won’t let you any closer than this.”
She began to climb, reaching for a foothold and pulling herself up.
But when Jay put a hand on the mountainside, it didn’t push him away, and it didn’t reject Carlos or Evie either. When Mal looked down, she was slightly disappointed to find they were climbing right behind her.
Is it because the talisman thinks I’m weak? she wondered.
With that disconcerting thought, she kept climbing, her friends right behind her.
When they reached the top of Doom Crag, they discovered the dragon’s nest was the size of a small boat. Its burned and blackened branches were twisted and packed tightly, and there was no sign of an egg anywhere. Mal began to search, getting down on her knees, and the rest of the team did the same, combing through every inch of the foul spac
e.
“It’s not here,” said Mal, frustrated.
“It has to be,” said Evie.
“Maybe they got here before us and found it. Cruella, Jafar, and Evil Queen, I mean,” said Jay. “They are supposed to be wandering around down here in the Catacombs, right?”
“Maybe that’s why we were all able to climb the mountain,” said Mal. She’d scratched her palm on the way up, and she pinched it, trying to stop the blood. “Because the talisman’s gone.”
“No!” said Carlos. “It has to be here. If they’d found it, this mountain wouldn’t be here. Remember what happened in the other places? They started to disintegrate once we recovered the talismans. Keep looking.”
Mal searched again, but bumped into Evie, who fell back on Carlos, who tripped over Jay. “There’s not enough space for all four of us,” Mal complained. “You guys need to leave. You’re not helping. Maybe it won’t show itself to me because you’re all here,” she said crossly.
“Are you sure?” said Evie.
“I’m sure,” said Mal.
“Fine,” said Jay. “If she doesn’t want us here, we don’t need to be here. And this place gives me the creeps.”
“But the professor said…” Carlos began.
“He’s not here now, is he? He’s not the one who had to climb this mountain and look for this egg. Get out of here!” Mal shouted.
Carlos, Evie, and Jay exchanged looks with each other. Mal glared at them until, one by one, they climbed out of the nest and began to make their way down the mountain.
Mal didn’t need anyone, she never had. Okay, maybe the four of them had stood together when Maleficent was defeated, but come on, in the end, everyone knew that it was Mal’s will that had broken her mother’s and reduced the dragon to the size of a lizard.
Although Mal’s heart felt small right then, thinking of her friends descending the mountain without her, she couldn’t let it stop her. She covered every inch of the nest, and on the third time through the muck, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Something small and purple.
“Aha!” she said, reaching for it. But Mal had been expecting a green egg, like in the Dragon’s Eye scepter. Why was this one purple?
Only when it hatches does it turn green, a voice answered, as if it could read her thoughts. The Dragon’s Egg does not birth a dragon, but a weapon.
Okay, whatever, thought Mal, stuffing the egg in her jacket. At least that was done. She’d recovered her talisman just fine without anyone’s help. Maybe the professor was wrong about her quest; after all, the old guy didn’t know everything, right?
She stood at the edge of the nest, ready to head down, when a vulture shrieked from above. She startled, losing her balance, and fell over the edge, just barely holding on to a branch at the very bottom of the nest. Her legs kicked wildly in the air.
Great, she was about to fall off a cliff, and she’d gotten rid of the only people who could have helped her. Why did she always insist on doing everything alone?
Her hands were starting to burn.
She was an idiot, that’s why, and she couldn’t hold on much longer!
You’ve held on this long, haven’t you?
She had the blood of a dragon, just like her mother.