Missing...

It was Drat who first realized that Dree had been gone far too long.  "I wonder what is keeping him," he thought.  Soon he slipped out of the meeting and went down to the caves to check on Dree.  Shortly he returned to the tea room and slid up to King Dulbbe and whispered in his ear.

​"Sire, Dree is gone.  I went to his cave and he is not there.  I checked the area and finally found tracks in one of the side caves leading to the area of The Wishing Well."

It only took a second before Dulbbe calculated (being a bookkeeper before becoming the Troll King) what Dree may be up to and decided to send his chief minion out to find the missing Dragon.  "I will let the others know, but do what you can to bring him back.  We don't want Siate' or Aralt to find him first," he told Drat.

Again Drat silently slipped out of the tea room as Dulbbe started to make his announcement about Dree's absence.  Soon he was out of the Mansion and traveling towards The Wishing Well.  "I should get there first with this shortcut," Drat thought to himself.  "What is that Dragon up to?"

As Drat was following one trail to The Wishing Well and Dree was on another, Aralt just happened to be in the area sitting on a log and resting his sore feet.  "I have done more walking since Siate' has returned than I have in a hundred years," grumbled the Herald. ​ "When this is over, the Dragons will come to me from now on."  Rubbing his feet, he noticed a well in the distance and decided that he needed a drink.  "And maybe there will be a bucket there I can soak my feet in," he hoped.

As Aralt walked to the well, it was Drat who saw him first.  The rat was very good at not being seen when he did not want to be and quickly hid behind one of the giant mushrooms that grew in the area.  As he watched Aralt draw up a bucket of water from the well and then take off his shoes and put his feet into it, Drat turned slightly green.  "I must remember not to drink from that bucket ever again," he grumbled.  "Augh!"

A Dragon's sense of smell is better than any other animal and Dree was a Dragon.  He too could smell something that was not pleasant as he was nearing The Wishing Well and decided to approach with caution.  As Aralt was facing the other direction, the Herald did not see the Dragon and was unaware that he was now hiding behind the bushes behind him.

"That stupid Dragon better show up soon," Aralt muttered loud enough for both his listeners to hear.  "I'm getting tired of all this looking around and walking."  Taking his feet out of the bucket, Aralt slipped his shoes back on, leaving the bucket sitting on the ground, and started back on his mission to find the Dragon or at least someone for questioning that he could take back to Siate'.  

​When he could no longer be seen, Dree left his hiding place and walked up to The Wishing Well.  Picking up the bucket, he then proceeded to slosh the remaining water around in it and then poured it out on the grass.  As he started to lower the bucket back into the well, he heard a voice behind him.  "I don't know if you want to put that bucket back into the clean water of the well," said Drat.

Smiling to himself before turning around, Dree looked at his friend and asked, "What took you so long to get here?"