They decided to fly to the Dryland district first, an area in the city where there was a store at every corner. As they arrived, they were greeted with an array of sounds and smells. Things like food, home items, jewelry and a vast array of other cool trinkets were lying in in stalls and buildings awaiting to be sold all around the courtyard.
Peyote pointed at a specific stall, his talon shaking slightly with excitement. "Look! Over there!"
Vireo followed his gaze. The stall was, well, it was a mess. Piles of dusty, unidentifiable objects teetered on shelves, spilling out onto the sand-dusted ground. There were tarnished bronze coins, necklaces made of oddly shaped teeth, what looked like dried lizard skins stretched on tiny frames, and crystals that shimmered with quite bright colors. A sign, crudely painted on a sun-bleached hide, read: "MYSTIC MAW'S MAGIC – RARE FINDS! UNSEEN TREASURES!"
"Oh, that stall," Vireo sighed. He knew this stall. Every young dragon who ever visited the marketplace had, at some point. The owner, a scraggly old sand dragon named Maw, who had incredibly pale scales, was notorious for selling junk with grand, exaggerated claims.
Peyote, however, was undeterred by Vireo's obvious lack of excitement. "No, Vireo, this time! Look at that!" He pointed super wildly with his talon at a small, rolled-up piece of old paper tied with a thin, broken-looking string.
"Yeah?" Vireo asked with a puzzled expression. "It probably just has some really bad art on it."
"Maybe, but let's just see," Peyote grinned and gestured for him to follow. He bounded towards the stall, the frill on his back fluttering.
This guy is completely crazy, Vireo thought. He sighed again, a big, long sigh that puffed out a little cloud. He followed Peyote, who was already almost in front if the stall, trotting all happily. The market was loud. Lots of dragons yelling about prices, or their broken carts, or whatever. It was too much for Vireo this early. His head still felt a bit fuzzy from the pot.
"Ah, young ones! Come, come closer! I have every cool object you could imagine!" Maw's voice was all scratchy and gravelly, like sand rubbing on rocks. He smelled a little like old, squishy dates and, of course, lots of dust.
Peyote was already reaching for the paper. "This! What is this thing, Maw?"
Maw's snout stretched into a slow, toothy smile. "Ah, a smart eye, young one! That, my friend, is The Chart of the continent." He leaned in, opening the scroll and revealing a beautiful sketch. "It's a very old version, but it still keeps it's accuracy. Nobody knows of the dragon who made it." he raised his voice slightly. "It's really interesting!"
Vireo blinked and tilted his head a little. "A whole... continent map?" He squinted at the map. It was pretty. But also way too big for what they needed. It was like trying to find one single grain of sand in a whole desert using a map of the entire desert. Apex and Scoria probably knew where the island was anyway.
Peyote however, looked entirely captivated. His frills were perked, and his eyes widened. "Incredible! Look, Vireo! It depicts intricate squiggles for rivers, and those are clearly towering mountains." He pointed with a claw, almost touching a depicted volcano, then pointed to the left. "And there's our desert, here." He moved his claw down the map. "Then the forestlands, the jungle," he moved his talon all the way to the top of the map, "and the taiga and tundra are over here!"
"Yes, we've seen a million maps like this before in studies," Vireo rolled his eyes, nudging peyote with a wing.
Peyote, pushing back with his own wing said, "Yeah, but this one looks like an artifact! And it would be so cool to catch some wild Cloth Monkeys instead of just looking at the study pets." He looked up at Maw and began rolling up the map. "How much would this cost, theoretically?"
Maw squinted his pale eyes, a sly look spreading over his face. "Ah, theoretically, you ask? For such a rare and wondrous item, found only once in a lifetime, a price must match its wonder, young one." He paused, dragging out the suspense. "I'd say... a one gold coin."
Peyote's jaw dropped open. "What?! A coin! Maw, that's way too much for a piece of old paper!"
Maw bristled in response. "Well, it's rare so I think it's quite fair."
"Just come on, idiot" Vireo ridiculed Peyote and grabbed him by the tail. He looked at Maw. "Nice map, I'll see you some other time." Maw gave him a puzzled expression.
"OUCH!" Peyote hissed, headbutting Vireo's flank. "I can fight too!"
Vireo let go of his tail and backed up. "Let's just keep looking around. It's really not worth it."
"Fine," Peyote replied with a defeated tone.
Peyote followed Vireo, who was still grumbling about the map, further away from Maw's stall. Maw, still looking a bit puzzled, just shrugged and went back to picking dust off a fake dragon egg.
"That was a stupid price anyway," Vireo grumbled, shaking his wings. "A whole coin for a piece of paper?"
Peyote kicked at a loose stone on the dusty ground. "But it felt old! And special! You just don't get it." His frills drooped a little, making him look like a sad, deflated balloon.
"I get that old paper isn't worth a whole coin," Vireo said, rolling his eyes. "Now, let's find something actually useful. Like, maybe a very big blanket to wrap you in so you stop whining."
The market was still loud around them. A dragon with bright orange scales was yelling about "freshly caught mudfish!" right into someone's ear. Another vendor was trying to balance a stack of wobbly pots, yelling "Buy three, get a cracked one free!" It all made Vireo's fuzzy head hurt even more.
Vireo closed his eyes for a moment, wishing for silence. Just a tiny bit of quiet. But the market was a roaring beast, full of shouts and smells – spicy food, wet fish, old leather, and too much dust. He rubbed his temples with a claw, trying to push away the noise. It was like a thousand little tiny dragons were tap-dancing inside his head.
"Ugh," he groaned, "My head is going to pop off like a cork. Can we just find a quiet wall somewhere?"
"We can go to the fields," Peyote suggested, waving a talon.
Vireo slowly opened one eye, then the other. "The fields?" he repeated, a hopeful glint in his eyes. "Yeah, That could be fun. Good idea! Maybe they have a patch of grass for me to just lie down on."
"Lead the way, then," Vireo said, trying to sound less eager than he felt. He just wanted to escape the drumming in his head. The thought of wide open spaces, maybe even a soft breeze instead of dust clouds, felt like a dream.
They started to push their way out of the thick crowd. It was like trying to swim through a river of slow-moving, grumpy dragons. Vireo kept bumping into tails and getting strange smells stuck to his scales. A small, yappy dog-like creature barked at his feet, and he had to step carefully to avoid it. "Watch out, you little fluff-ball," he grumbled, walking past it.
Finally, they broke free from the main market madness. The air immediately felt clearer, and the noise started to fade, like a distant roar. The ground changed from rough, dirty stone to softer, packed earth. Soon, they were on a upward path that led away from the city's busy center, winding through a few last, smaller shops and then, poof, they were out.
The fields stretched out before them, a big, wide carpet of green and gold grasses between grid paths, swaying gently in a soft wind. There were a few scattered palm trees in the middle of the paths, their leaves rustling softly, and the sky was a huge, open blue. No yelling. No strange smells, except for the sweet scent of growing things. It was so quiet, Vireo could almost hear his own thoughts again. Almost. Peyote was here, of course.
There were a few other dragons basking around. One dragon with fangs and tan scales like Vireo's, but with patches of gold on his scales, and one with strikingly dark brown scales.
He let out a long, happy sigh, like a leaky balloon finally letting out all its air. "Ah," he said, stretching his wings out wide. "Peace. Sweet, sweet peace." He took a few steps onto the soft grass, feeling it tickle his claws. It was like walking on a giant green pillow.
"You wanna tail wrestle?" Peyote offered with a grin. "I bet I'll win this time!"
Vireo stepped forward. "Sure, bring it," he teased.
Peyote puffed out his chest, his green frills wiggling with excitement. "That was last time! I've been practicing! I'm super strong now!" He whipped his own tail back and forth, like a very happy, very small whip. "Prepare to be... uh... tail-tangled!"
The two dragons circled each other slowly on a clear patch of the grid path, their shadows stretching long in the afternoon sun. The tan dragon with the gold patches lazily opened one eye to watch, a small smirk on his face. The dark brown dragon didn't even twitch, looking like a very still, very brown rock.
"Ready?" Vireo drawled, giving a little flick of his tail.
"Ready!" Peyote yelled, already lunging.
Their tails met with a soft thwack. Peyote tried to wrap his tail around Vireo's, using all his might. He grunted, his face scrunched up with effort. While Peyote was considerably strong compared to vireo, he wasn't strong enough.
"How you doing there?" Vireo grunted. He flexed his tail even harder, pushing Peyote's tail down even more.
"Great, very good," Peyote lied. Vireo could tell by how hard he was clenching his teeth.
"Well," a new voice boomed. Vireo and Peyote looked over in the direction he heard it from. It was Apex and Scoria. "Tail fighting without inviting us, Peyote?"