With a Dragon's Help...

It took King Dulbbe a minute to put together the pieces from the orb's last answer, but not his First Minion.  Drat's nose started twitching as he mentally started putting together possibilities.  "Sire, I think I know what is needed and how to get the scroll but I think I will need to do this myself.  Do I have your permission to begin?"

Dulbbe had not been king long, but in the short time of holding this new job, he had learned to trust his First Minion.  "Yes, but remember what actions you do will reflect on the Troll Kingdom and myself."  After another thought, Dulbbe added with a smile, "and don't get caught."

If the King had not smiled, Drat would have almost felt offended.  "Don't get caught indeed," quickly scampered through his thoughts, but then he realized that the king was right.  "The Gooblin King doesn't keep dungeons as he doesn't keep prisoners," Drat remembered.  "They cost money to take care of," Hir'aeth, the Gooblin King, had been overheard saying once and everyone knew how ruthlessly efficient he ruled his kingdom.  Shuddering, Drat started out to where he knew he had to go.  Quickly he was out of the Shadows' Queen's library and was leaving her palace.  There might have been a quicker route to where he was heading, but Drat wanted the extra time to work his plans out as he traveled.  "No, that won't work," he decided as he rejected several options but always he came back to the main part.  He would need to convince Dree that this was for the best.  "The question is," Drat asked himself, "best for us or the Dragons?"

Soon Drat was outside of the caves and just as he started to enter realized that he could hear another voice besides that of Dree's coming from inside.  "Hello Drat.  On some errand for the Troll King?" Meen asked smiling.

"I thought I saw you at Queen Ffion's palace a little while ago.  What are you doing here? asked Drat.  Smiling and starting to laugh, Meen jumped down from the rock she had been sitting on while she had waited for the rat to arrive.  "You did," Meen answered, "but you also forget that I am the Queen's Chief Minion."

"I realized that you looked like you were thinking something important the way you were distracted and that it had to do with the Dragon's and I knew that sooner or later it would have to involve Dree.  So here I am."

Slightly annoyed at being so transparent that even a Pyksee could figure out what he was up to and even more so for failing to see how smart Meen really was, Drat quickly decided that maybe this was for the best.  Meen had been one of Dree's first friends while he was still a Wish Dragon and might be able to help convince the Dragon of his plan.  "Meen, I am glad you are here.  I need your help.  We need to persuade Dree to help us find a scroll."

"You mean like finding a hidden treasure?  That is one of my favorite games!" answered Meen.  "Dree always liked playing games with me... It shouldn't be hard to get him to play it with us."

Drat smiled... "This might work out after all," he hoped.