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Chapter Text

Hyena looked out over the trackless deserts of the Kingdom of Sand with a grim expression. Today wasn’t a good day for him; the stump of his lost wing ached, and once again his soldiers had failed at turning up any sign of his missing niece. While the rest of the kingdom had heard that Queen Jackal had died at the claws of a SkyWing assassin that had been killed too late by her guards, every day that Mesa was allowed to remain free put his entire plan in jeopardy.

            All it takes is a single slip-up, and we’ll have the entire tribe beating down our door, he thought to himself. Right now, the success of his plan depended on her; Mesa needed to be out of sight long enough for the tribe to fear her death before she reappeared, miraculously saved from the assassin’s claws by her brave, loyal uncle and ready to do whatever it took to ensure the survival and security of the tribe and the kingdom.

The thought of him being undone because he had allowed a spoiled little dragonet princess to escape his soldiers was unthinkable. Humiliating, even. He was General Hyena, for moons’ sake. He’d kept the kingdom safe from bandits for years, kept everything orderly, intimidated every surrounding kingdom into thinking twice before they sent any scouts into SandWing territory.

            Not that Jackal would have known or cared about any of that. Hyena allowed a snarl to build up in his throat as he turned away from the window and started to pace the floor in what were once the queen’s apartments…and which were now his. Jackal. Stupid, spoiled, naïve Jackal. He’d hoped that his little sister would have continued their mother’s policies towards the other tribes: constant suspicion, unfailing vigilance. The Kingdom of Sand was wealthy, after all, and its border was up against one of Pyrrhia’s largest rivers. No other dragon tribe in their right mind would want the kingdom’s land, but its riches were another matter.

            But Jackal had never recognized just how envious the other tribes were. She’d always sought to be friendly to them. Gift after gift to the surrounding queens, even striking up “friendships” with some of them, making trade agreements that allowed so many foreign merchants into the kingdom that SandWing merchants barely had anywhere to sell their wares to their own tribe. It had filled the tribe’s treasury nearly to bursting, but at the cost of allowing so many strange dragons into the kingdom that Hyena was certain they’d known the queen’s preferred bedtime by the time he’d acted, to say nothing of how weak it had made the SandWings look.

            But Hyena had acted. Jackal had been so careless that he’d been able to get nearly all of the guards and the army on his side with surprising speed. When the time had come, Jackal had been helpless, and so confused as to how or even why this had happened. And that had been her final mistake. If she hadn’t even been able to tell what she was doing wrong, it fell to Hyena to show Mesa exactly how a kingdom should be ruled…but she’d escaped. Mesa had managed to flee the palace, flee the entire Kingdom of Sand, and none of Hyena’s soldiers had been able to find her in the weeks since she’d vanished.

            “General?” Hyena stopped in his pacing and snapped his head towards the door. The soldier that had interrupted him flinched slightly at the angry look on his face.

            “What is it?” Hyena asked testily. “Did you find Mesa?”

            “No, sir.” The SandWing dipped his head in apology. “But we did receive a message from Queen Star.” He held out a scroll. Hyena marched over and snatched it out of the soldier’s talons. “We are still looking for the princess, though. We have soldiers in every town and village now, even in Possibility. She won’t escape us.”

            “Need I remind you that Mesa is an animus?” Hyena asked, looking at the soldier, unimpressed. “If she doesn’t want to be found, then she won’t be.”

            “Then…then what should we do, General?” the soldier asked. Hyena put a talon to his chin for a second, then turned back to the soldier as an idea struck him.

            “Send out messages to the surrounding kingdoms. Ask if they’ve seen her. Tell them that the princess fled in the aftermath of her mother’s murder, and her tribe and uncle worry for her safety.”

            “Yes, sir.” The SandWing started to back out of the room, but Hyena held up a talon and stopped him.

            “But also tell them that until she is found, and no other kingdoms are holding her hostage, that all foreign trade is suspended, and any foreign dragons found in the desert will be arrested on sight.”

            “Yes, General.” The soldier saluted and walked out of the room, leaving Hyena alone. He snorted in satisfaction.

            That should keep any dragons from asking questions they shouldn’t, he thought. Now let’s see what that NightWing wants.

            It had made Hyena uncomfortable to have to seek help from the NightWings to the south, but he couldn’t deny that Queen Star’s sudden offer for an alliance had helped to ease some tensions in the kingdom since he had overthrown Jackal. An alliance with them would make other kingdoms more hesitant to try and take advantage of the Kingdom of Sand’s temporary weakness, and had secured the south against invasion later on. All it had taken in exchange was to allow the NightWings to imprison any dragon from another tribe found in SandWing territory. As far as Hyena knew—and he knew a great deal with his soldiers everywhere—they were performing that duty admirably. Hyena slit the scroll open with a claw and unrolled it, running his eyes across the parchment.

            General Hyena,

            You will be pleased to know that a vision recently appeared to me of your niece, Princess Mesa, once again entering the royal palace in the Kingdom of Sand. While she is not in the company of other SandWings, you need not worry about whether or not you will eventually find her. Simply be patient, and she will come to you.

            I hope that General Steadfast and his troops are also proving to be valuable help to your army. Our agreement still stands; as long as you allow him to work without any trouble, the alliance between the NightWings and the SandWings will continue to grow. In the meantime, General, I hope that you will make good use of the opportunity we have given you.

            Queen Star, of the NightWings.

            Hyena snorted again. Star was useful for now, but as soon as he had Mesa and could persuade her to use her animus powers for the good of the Kingdom of Sand, the old lizard wouldn’t know what hit her. And then the Sand Kingdom can grow even more. Who knows what sorts of old treasures are in the Night Kingdom?

            But, either way, if Queen Star had said it would happen, then it would. It had been her that gave him the final push to launch his coup, after all, when she didn’t see the SandWings being attacked because of her death. Hyena breathed a sigh of relief. She’ll come back to the palace eventually. All I have to do is wait.

            “It’s only a matter of time, my sweet little niece,” Hyena said as he looked back out the window. “You have a duty to uphold, after all.”

Chapter Text

Prince Gallant of the RainWings had always expected for his life to follow a particular path. Or, at least, as much of a path that one could expect a RainWing to stick to. He would grow up faithfully serving his sister when she ended up becoming Queen, watching the borders, ensuring the Queen’s security, and taking on whatever less-important matters didn’t demand her immediate attention. He’d gotten a good bit of practice on the first two instances, at least; as the older of the two royal RainWing dragonets, his mother trusted him with a great deal of responsibility anyway, and checking up on the border guards regularly was part of that.

            That had been an enjoyable part of the job for him, for the most part. He made routine checks of the Rainforest Kingdom’s borders to make sure no strange dragons had been by or allowed to enter without permission, and addressed various weaknesses in the kingdom’s defenses, moving RainWings from one spot to another when necessary. It was an easy job, and gave him plenty of time to think about things; suggestions to Brilliant to help the kingdom, things that needed improving, and exploring the rainforest to find particular places that he could maybe take his little sister to one day when he had the time.

            Of course, his simple yet important career as a prince had been complicated several weeks ago, when Princess Mesa had entered his life.

            It had all happened three weeks ago. It should have been another routine day. Gallant was flying around the rainforest as usual, stopping to make sure that each border guard outpost had been in good order, and that all of its guards were on the lookout for any strange dragons entering the rainforest. Most RainWings thought of border duty as a chore, and a boring one at that; most dragons that appeared at the borders from outside were merchants from other kingdoms, who by this point knew where the RainWing village was. The only issue was making it through the rainforest themselves.

            “I’m going off to the next one now,” Gallant said to the commander of the most recent outpost he’d stopped at, a female RainWing named Macaw. “You know the drill, let us know if anything weird comes into the forest.”

            “You got it, Gallant,” Macaw said, leaning against one side of the treehouse that she and the other guards at the outpost lived in for a week at a time before rotating out.

            Gallant took off from the treehouse’s landing platform and flew back into the jungle, swinging from one tree to another with his tail when he wasn’t gliding from branch to branch or flying through particularly open spaces. The jungle was the same as it always was today. Monkeys screeched and chattered in the branches, sloths hung lazily from vines or nestled in the crooks of trees. Gallant could even hear the laughter of kookaburras deeper within the jungle among the sounds of other jungle birds. A jaguar roared in the far distance.

            And then all of the jungle’s peace was suddenly disrupted by an earsplitting scream that ripped through the noisy peace of the jungle like a sudden storm. The air was immediately filled with flying birds and frightened monkeys, all getting in Gallant’s way as he tried to turn and make his way towards the sound of the screaming. He could hear trees thrashing and branches snapping, and as he finally got turned in the direction the noise was coming from, he could see orange flashes bursting through the greenery.

            Fire? He started gliding faster, hopping from branch to branch. If there was any fire in the rainforest, he had to make sure it wasn’t going to do too much damage…or at least wasn’t far along enough that he could fly back and get help before it started to spread. Or maybe it’s not a natural fire. The MudWings, SandWings, and SkyWings could all breathe fire. Was this the prelude to an invasion?

            He stopped himself at that line of thought. Why would any of them even invade us? We don’t have anything worth taking. Except land, I guess, but it’s not like the SkyWings or SandWings would be happy here. I mean, I guess the MudWings could be, but it’s not like this place is very swampy, either. Either way, it didn’t matter; something was happening in the rainforest, and Gallant had to find out what.

            He finally burst through the trees close to the clearing, breathing heavily but with his fangs out and ready to spit venom at the first dragon he saw…who turned out to be hanging upside-down, tangled in vines.

            The SandWing in question was a female one, but smaller than Gallant was, and younger too, by at least a year by his guess. She was a mess, too. She was covered in sand and ash and what, disturbingly enough, looked like dried blood. Her wings hung slack from the tangle of vines, which had wrapped around her legs, her barbed tail, and in several places, her neck. Leaves and branches had also been caught in her scales and horns.

            Gallant honestly hadn’t expected this. He’d expected an injured animal, or an invading army. Instead, he’d come across a SandWing dragonet tangled up in so many vines she couldn’t even move. All the same, she was a stranger, and he had a duty to be on guard against strangers. He crouched low into a fighting stance as his scales shifted into a dark purple. He looked around as he approached her, on the lookout for any other SandWings. A trap of some kind wasn’t out of the question, but then again SandWings wouldn’t be the stealthiest of dragons in a place like the Rainforest Kingdom. As he looked, he could also see scorch marks on the trunks of several trees. The ashy remains of leaves drifted to the ground, but as far as Gallant could tell, there was no fire. Inwardly, he breathed a sigh of relief.

            He turned his attention back to the SandWing, narrowing his eyes. “Who are you?” he growled. “And why are you in our rainforest?”

            As he got closer to the SandWing, Gallant could see that, along with being filthy and bloody, the SandWing was also crying. Tears slid down (or rather, up) her face, dripping off of her head and onto the ground as she tried to flinch away from him, but couldn’t. “H-help me…” she whimpered, struggling weakly in the vines. “I-I-I can’t get out!”

            “You’re tangled up in vines, papaya-brain, that’s why.” Gallant sat down in front of her, his scales shifting from cautious dark purple to an irritated orange. “But I’m not going to let you out until you answer some questions for me.”

            “No!” The SandWing started struggling again, though she couldn’t do much with all of her limbs tangled up. She wiggled her wings helplessly, glaring at him through her tears. “I’m not answering any questions! Just get me out of here! I’m a princess, you can’t just leave me tied up like this!”

            “And I’m a prince,” Gallant said, arching his brow as he stared at her, unimpressed. “So yes, I can. Stop flapping around like a plucked toucan and I might consider letting you down if you tell me what I want to know.”

            The SandWing stopped, folding her wings in as she sniffled and pouted at him. Ugh, I already want to just kick her out of the jungle, Gallant thought. But so many niggling thoughts kept entering his mind. Why was she so dirty? Why was she covered in blood? Why was she even here? What had made her leave the Kingdom of Sand and come here in such a state? “Let’s start with something simple,” Gallant said aloud. “What’s your name?”

            “M-Mesa,” stammered the SandWing. “Princess Mesa, of the SandWings!”

            “Well, Princess Mesa, of the SandWings,” Gallant said, “what are you doing here, instead of being, oh, I don’t know, in the Kingdom of Sand?” He looked her up and down. She certainly didn’t look like a princess with how dirty she was, but as he examined her closer, Gallant saw that she wore a gold bracelet around one leg, studded with drops of amber. Two gold rings also decorated her horns. Stuff like that could only belong to a princess, I guess, he thought.

            “I-I can’t tell you,” Mesa said. She flinched away with a whimper as Gallant moved his head closer, glaring at her. “I-I can’t! I won’t!”

            “Fine,” Gallant said. He made to stand up. “Have fun getting out of there on your own, then.”

            “No!” Mesa squeaked. Gallant paused and watched her swallow. “I-I’m running! There are S-S-SandWings that want to kill me! I-I have to h-h-h-hide somewhere!” She started rocking in the vines again as she tried to clasp her talons together. “P-Please! Please let me stay! I-I won’t be any trouble, I-I-I swear!”

            They’re trying to kill their own princess? Gallant was doubtful of that, but kept the purple that was trying to creep back into his scales down. He couldn’t let this “princess” see that he was confused about anything. He was in control here, she wasn’t. “Why are they trying to kill you, if they are?”

            “Wh-what do you mean if?” Mesa squeaked. “I’m not lying to you! I promise! Please! Just cut me down!”

            “Then answer me!” Gallant snarled, baring his teeth at her. “Or I’ll leave you up here until you starve!”

            “Because my uncle killed my mother!” Mesa blurted, tears now coming from her eyes thick and fast. “Th-that’s why I ran! That’s why they’re trying to kill me! Please cut me down, please!”

            Gallant took a step back, an emerald wave sweeping across his scales before he forced them back to blue. That’s something Mother might like to know. If she is a princess, and her uncle killed Queen Jackal…The thought of delivering his mother such bad news made him shudder. Queen Jackal was a close friend of Brilliant’s, though Gallant had never met any of her children. Is she really dead? “Fine.”

            He spread his wings and flew up, cutting through each of the vines with his claws. “You know, you only made this worse for yourself by struggling so much,” he said as he worked. He looked down at Mesa, who turned her head up to watch him. “How did you even get tangled up like this anyway?”

            “I…I fell,” Mesa said, the last word so quiet that Gallant almost didn’t hear her. He craned his head down, gripping the vines with his tail and talons.

            “Care to repeat that?”

            “I said I fell!” Mesa snapped, turning her head away and pouting again. “Just cut the vines, okay?”

            Gallant rolled his eyes but continued his work. Under his claws, one vine after another snapped until, without warning, Mesa fell to the ground with a thud and a yelp. Gallant let go of the vines and landed back down on the ground with practiced ease. Mesa remained on the ground like a sloth that had lost its grip on a tree branch, panting heavily. “Okay, you’re free,” Gallant said. “Happy?”

            Mesa grunted, getting shakily to her feet. Even though she was free, her wings dragged on the ground at her side, along with her tail barb. “N-no,” she said. She looked up at him, giving him a dazed, grateful smile. “B-but…thank you…” She fell over with a weak moan. Gallant barely had time to catch her before she hit the ground.

            “Hey!” he exclaimed, sitting down from her weight as she went limp in his arms. “Hey, are you okay? Don’t go to sleep! You have to tell my mother about this! Wake up!”

            Mesa didn’t respond, and now that she was actually in a normal position, Gallant’s eyes widened as he saw how thin she was. He’d heard that SandWings were one of the hardiest tribes and didn’t need to eat much, but Mesa was rail-thin, enough that he could see her ribs through her scales. Her breathing was raspy too, and her chest barely moved at all when she breathed.

            Is she…dying? How long as it been since she’s eaten anything? Or drunk any water? Gallant’s scales turned a fearful pale yellow before he forced them back to blue. Don’t panic. You can still save her, you just have to get her home. But how to get her home? He couldn’t fly back to the village carrying a whole dragon! And if I walk back, she’s not going to make it…Gallant was about to leave and go flying for help, when help thankfully came to him.

            “Prince Gallant!” Macaw yelled as she and a troop of RainWings stormed into the clearing. Gallant fought the urge to cringe; he didn’t like when RainWings said his title outside of his mother’s throne room, but now wasn’t the time to think about that. “We came as soon as we heard all of the—is that a SandWing?”

            “It is,” Gallant said. He laid Mesa down on the ground gently and stood up. “But she’s in bad shape. Some of you grab her and get her back to the village as fast as you can. Get her to the healers, get her fed, watered, and looked after. Understand?”

            “Yes, Your Highness!” A number of RainWings picked up Mesa’s body and flew off into the trees. Gallant watched them leave, his wings twitching slightly. He felt like he wanted to go with them, which he thought was odd; Mesa was a stranger, and one he’d only just met, at that. Am I worried about her? I mean, probably. She has information that Mother needs to know about the Kingdom of Sand, but that’s it. She’s just some spoiled brat of a princess otherwise.

            “Gallant?” Macaw said, breaking him out of his thoughts. “Are you okay?”

            “I’m fine,” Gallant said, shoving his thoughts further down and making sure his scales were back to normal before turning to her. “I need to tell my mother about this. Can you go with the others and make sure they get back?”

            “Sure,” Macaw said. “But—”

            “But what?” Gallant said impatiently.

            “Why’s a SandWing here?” Macaw asked. “I mean…isn’t the desert a long way away from here?”

            “I don’t know.” Gallant shook his head. “Either way, something’s happened in the Kingdom of Sand that Mother needs to know about.” He looked at Macaw again. “So, go with the others. If she wakes up at all, tell her I’ll be by to see how she’s doing.”

            “Will do.” Macaw spread her wings and took off back into the trees. Gallant did the same, but flew up above the trees and flew over the forest canopy. He lost himself in the motions of flapping his wings, his mind racing as he thought more about Mesa, and what her presence meant.

            It had taken Mesa several days to wake up upon being brought to the healing pavilion, Banyan and Water Lily working feverishly to keep her from dying of starvation or thirst before then. Since she’d woken up and they’d been properly introduced, Gallant’s day had turned into a three-phase routine of helping around the village, patrolling the border, and spending time with Mesa…the last of which he did his best to delay until the last possible moment. She hadn’t told Brilliant anything other than the bare minimum: that she was a SandWing princess on the run from her uncle, who had killed her mother. She’d refused to say anything else.

            And then his routine had been uprooted again by the arrival of three more strange dragons in the rainforest, also supposedly running from some assassins that had killed a royal. The thought of it made Gallant’s blood boil. Since when did the Rainforest Kingdom become a hiding spot for exiled royalty? His mother at least seemed to take the whole thing in stride. Then again, she seemed to take everything in stride. Nothing ever seemed to be a crisis for Queen Brilliant; she always made every decision calmly and deliberately, after a great deal of thought. Gallant was half-certain that she should have been born a MudWing instead.

            But at least it was nearly over. After driving him nearly out of his mind with worry the night before, all of the other dragons—Siren, Juneau, Forsaken, and Mesa—were finally getting ready to leave the rainforest and go off on some mad quest to find out what was happening in Pyrrhia. Gallant couldn’t deny that he was curious too, especially if it ended up affecting the RainWings in some way, but once those four were finally gone, everything would go back to normal. The last few days had thrown him off a great deal, but once they had left he could finally get his rhythm back.

Chapter Text

Gallant woke up slowly that morning. After all of the excitement of the previous night, it took him a while to remember where he was; his family’s sleeping space, which he shared with his mother and his younger sister…who at the moment was on her hind legs and peeping at him in his hammock. It took Gallant’s eyes a bit of time to adjust, but he smiled as he looked into the younger dragonet’s eyes. “Good morning, Toucan.”

            “Morning, big brother!” Toucan chirped, grinning back. Her bright orange and yellow scales, almost like the beak of the bird that she was named after, glinted in the morning sun. Sitting up and looking around, Gallant yawned, stretching his tail and talons and flaring his wings out. “You were asleep a lot later than usual,” his little sister observed. “Did something happen last night?”

            “I was up late,” Gallant said. He slowly crawled out of the hammock, stretching and yawning again as he looked around. His mother’s hammock, larger than those of her children, was empty. The rest of the room was quiet, though outside Gallant could hear the sounds of the village humming with activity, full of wingbeats and RainWings calling out to one another. “Talking to the outsiders again.”

            “I’ve seen them flying around a bit,” Toucan said. “That IceWing is really pretty.”

            “Well, I’m glad you got a good look at them, because they hopefully won’t be around much longer.” Gallant looked down at his younger sister. Toucan was only three, half as old as he was, but as the queen’s sole daughter she was still being taught all there was to know about being queen in preparation for when she was old enough to take the crown. She was cheerful, smart, and quick-witted, and both Gallant and Brilliant had high hopes for her.

            “Are they leaving soon?” Toucan asked. Gallant nodded.

            “Hopefully. They’re actually supposed to talk to Mother this…morning.” Gallant jerked upright as he remembered. This morning? They’re probably talking to her right now! “I have to go! Have a good day, Toucan! Be good!” He surged out of the treehouse, taking off into the air and angling himself towards the royal pavilion.

The RainWing village was already humming with activity even this early in the morning—or at least, it would have been early, if Gallant had woken up when he normally had. It looked like it was nearly midmorning, going by the position of the sun. Gallant swept by a mango tree, grabbing one of the fruits off its branches and shoving it into his mouth. Did they really keep me up that late last night? I could have sworn I went to bed earlier. Uuuuugh. He couldn’t wait to get back to his normal routine. All of these new dragons were throwing everything off-kilter for him.

When he arrived at the royal pavilion, thankfully with a clear mouth, the guard ushered him in immediately. The throne room was packed by the time he arrived, all four of the foreign dragonets standing in a line in front of Brilliant. She looked up, and smiled as he entered the room. “Ah, Gallant. I see that Toucan woke you up.”

“Y-yes, Mother, she did,” Gallant said. He skirted through the others and took up his usual position next to her, looking at the assembled dragonets. Mesa jumped and looked away from him as his eyes skated across her, while the SeaWing, Siren, gave him a respectful nod and a smile. Forsa gave him a nod too, and the IceWing, Juneau, waved a bit and nodded to him before she turned her head back forward to focus on the queen. “I apologize for my tardiness.”

“You have nothing to apologize for, Gallant,” Brilliant said. “I was just discussing with our visitors how they would leave our village.” She turned her head back to them. “As I was saying, I’ll make sure that you’re all adequately supplied for the journey to the Ice Kingdom. It’s a long way, after all, and I would be a terrible host if I didn’t make sure you had enough to eat.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Siren said, bowing. “And thank you, again, for letting us stay here.”

“Think nothing of it, Siren,” Brilliant said. “I just wish that there was more I could do for you, or something I could do to help your mother and sister.” She then turned her head left and right, looking at Juneau and Forsa. “But, you do still have your friends with you. So that’s one comfort.”

“When will you all be leaving?” Gallant asked.

“They will be leaving as soon as they’re supplied, dear,” Brilliant said. She turned her head towards him. “And you will be going with them.”

Gallant’s whole world seemed to freeze. He stared at his mother, his ruff flaring outward and his scales blossoming into a brilliant emerald color as his eyes widened. “Um…what?”

Brilliant didn’t answer him. Instead, she turned back to the others, who didn’t look surprised at all. Did they know about this ahead of time? Did she tell them before I got here? He felt dark red starting to creep up his scales, but pushed the feeling and color back down. Now wasn’t the time for anger. Not in front of strangers.

“I’ll have a dragon come by with some supplies before you all head off,” Brilliant continued. “Be careful, all of you; whatever is happening out in the rest of Pyrrhia cannot be anything good.”

“We’ll be careful, Your Majesty,” Juneau said. The four other dragonets all bowed. “Thank you, again.”

Gallant and Brilliant watched as, one by one, they filed out of the room. Mesa lingered behind, looking back at Gallant nervously, before a call from Siren made her fully leave the room. As the sound of their wingbeats faded away, Gallant whirled on Brilliant, his scales now surging red. “Mother—”

“Before you get upset, Gallant, I suggest you listen,” Brilliant said, appearing entirely too calm for Gallant’s liking.

“I don’t need to listen!” Gallant snapped. “My place is here, in the Rainforest Kingdom, with you! Why are you sending me out of the kingdom with a bunch of dragonets that aren’t even RainWings?”

“Because what’s happening out there will likely affect every tribe,” Brilliant said. She climbed down off of her hammock, sitting in front of Gallant. “Including us. And if we don’t help the other tribes, who will be there to help us if the RainWings are ever under threat?”

“We’ve survived this long on our own by staying out of this sort of thing!” Gallant countered. “Even during the last major war that Pyrrhia had, nobody paid any attention to the RainWings!”

“But that was then,” Brilliant replied calmly, “and this is now.” She sighed, looking down at him. “Gallant, I know you’re upset—”

“Oh no you don’t!” Gallant interrupted, lashing his tail angrily. “You can’t even begin to see how angry I am! Why didn’t you ask me about this, Mother? You’re always doing this! You’re always doing things like this and making big decisions without talking to me first! Whether it’s about the kingdom or all of us! What are you going to tell everyone else? What are you going to say to Toucan, and the other RainWings? You can’t just make me leave without telling them!”

"I am the queen here, Gallant, not you,” Brilliant said sharply, giving him a stern look as some angry red of her own flickered across her scales. “I do not need your approval on every single decision I make." She stopped for a moment, shutting her eyes and taking a deep breath. The red faded away, and she looked at him again. "And I’m going to tell them. It will be alright, little bird, stop worrying so much.”

“But why?” Gallant continued, struggling to keep his face from going pink as his mother used her pet-name for him. His brain was going a mile a minute, and he had to concentrate to keep the whirlwind of emotions he was feeling off his scales. He was confused, angry, sad, scared, and any other number of emotions. Why was his mother sending him away? What had he done to upset her? Did she not want him around anymore? “Did I do something wrong? I know I haven’t gone out patrolling the last few days since the other three got here, but I’ve been so busy with Mesa all the time since she doesn’t leave me alone—”

“No, Gallant,” Brilliant said. She gently took hold of Gallant’s face with a talon, lifting his head so that she could look him directly in the eye. “This isn’t about something you did wrong. I’m sending you with them because I know that I can trust you on this.”

Gallant blinked at her, and he could feel his scales turning emerald again. “Mother…My place is here. In the Rainforest Kingdom.”

“That might be,” Brilliant said gently. “But you don’t know that for sure.” She spread out a wing and draped it over his shoulders, pulling him closer to her. “Gallant. You’ve spent your entire life so far helping me, helping the tribe. You’ve always put the kingdom ahead of yourself. But you’ll never really see the world if you never go beyond the rainforest.”

“I don’t need anywhere else!” Gallant said, looking up at her. “You need me here. Toucan’s too young to try and help you with anything, and no other RainWing knows how things work as much as I do! You gave me all of these responsibilities, Mother!”

“And now I’m giving you another,” Brilliant said. “Gallant, I’m sending you along with them for two reasons: so that you can help stop whatever is happening…and so that you can go out and see the world for yourself.”

“What do you mean?” Gallant cocked his head to the side. “I don't need to see anywhere else. I know where I belong; I’m a RainWing, I belong in the rainforest. I belong here, Mother, with you.” He pointed out of the pavilion, to the village beyond. “I may not be able to rule the kingdom like Toucan will someday, but I can at least help, can’t I?”

“And you’ve been doing a wonderful job helping,” Brilliant said. She ran a talon along the top of his head and down his long neck. “But living your life in service someone else is no way to live, especially when it comes at the cost of your own happiness. Who knows? You might find somewhere else that you feel like you belong.”

“But I am happy,” Gallant protested. “Mother, I still don’t understand.”

Brilliant looked down at him and sighed quietly, her scales briefly flickering orange. That puzzled Gallant. Am I really annoying her? Why? She’s trying to send me away and I’m needed here! “Gallant,” she said slowly, lowering her head to his eye-level. “You’ve always been such a good son. And I love you, so, so much. But you can’t stay here your entire life without ever experiencing all of the wonderful things that life can offer you.” She cupped Gallant’s head in both talons, pressing her forehead to his. “I’m not sending you away forever, sweetheart. And you are helping me if you do this. You’ll be going out and seeing what’s happening, what’s driven Mesa and Siren here. And if you can deal with it, you’ll be keeping us safe. So, can you at least do that? For me?”

Gallant flicked his eyes out of the pavilion’s doorway. “But I have so much to do—”

“That can be done by other dragons,” Brilliant finished. “You’re not my only aide, after all. Please, Gallant. It won’t be forever.” Her expression became serious, more serious than he’d ever seen her. “Gallant…I don’t want to hear about any other queens ending up like Jackal. And if what Siren said about her father is true, then she, Mesa, and their friends are all at risk. Please do this for me, Gallant. For my own peace of mind, at least?”

Gallant looked down at the ground as he thought. It won’t be forever. And it might only be for a little while; a few days, weeks maybe, while we figure out what’s going on. If anything, I can see them all to the Ice Kingdom and then come back with what I learned, and then it’ll be like nothing happened. But at the same time…I’ll be stuck with Mesa for that whole trip. The thought made him shudder, some orange flickering across his scales. She’s just going to do nothing but whine and complain and be terrified of everything the entire way. But if Mother really needs me on this…He took a deep breath, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll go.” He pulled himself free of his mother’s wing. “But as soon as they’re at the Ice Kingdom I’m coming back, okay?”

“If you say so, dear,” Brilliant said. She gave him a warm smile. “Now go on and get ready; they’ll probably be ready to leave soon, too. I’ll see you all at the central platform when you’re about to get going.”

Gallant bowed and left the pavilion, spreading his wings and taking off again. He weaved around other RainWings going about other duties, eventually reaching the trunk of one of the larger banyan trees. He clung to it as he climbed around, resting himself on a branch as he looked out at the village. The tree was near the central pavilion, where the RainWings’ Moon Globe Tree and the statue of Queen Glory both rested. Down below he could see a class of dragonets underneath Glory’s statue, scrambling around, wrestling, and playing games of tag. He could hear their excited squealing and roaring from where he was, and allowed himself a small smile. It’ll be safe while I’m gone, he told himself. Mother kept the rainforest safe for years before I hatched.

But at the same time, doubt gnawed at him. The stories that Mesa and Siren had both told Brilliant made him worry. Will those assassins come for Mother next if I’m not here to protect her? Will they hurt Toucan, or any of the other RainWings? If they already tried to kill Siren and Mesa, does that mean…

“Hi, Gallant!” Gallant jumped slightly as the voice entered his ears. He turned around and spotted Toucan reclining on a neighboring branch, lounging across a fork near the end like a cat.

“You scared me, Toucan,” he said mock-scoldingly, resting his head on his talons to look at her. “What are you doing here?”

“I saw you fly out of Mother’s throne room and come up here,” she said. She cocked her head, frowning at him as her scales shifted from her usual bright orange-yellow to a bright green. “Gallant, are you okay? Did Mother yell at you?”

“No, she didn’t yell at me,” Gallant said. “She just gave me a new job to do.”

“What now?” Toucan asked. “Is she putting you in charge of gathering fruit?”

“No, it’s…a bit more important than that.” Gallant turned his head to look up at the open sky above the center of the village. “Mother’s sending me out of the rainforest, with the other dragons that came.”

“Really?” Toucan’s scales ripped from green to a deeper emerald color. “But I thought they were going to the Ice Kingdom!”

“They are.” Gallant shrugged. “But she wants me to go along for some reason.” He looked over at Toucan again. “That means you’re going to have to be the big sibling while I’m gone, okay?”

Toucan giggled. “Okay. I’ll try not to be as much of a squashed mango as you, though!”

“Squashed mango, huh?” Gallant leapt over to her branch before Toucan could move, wrapping one arm around his little sister and roughly running his free talon around her underbelly. “You little spider-monkey, you’d better take that back!”

Toucan squealed with laughter, struggling helplessly. “G-Gallant! Cut it out!”

Gallant held onto her a bit longer, tickling Toucan a bit more, before he finally let go. Toucan giggled a bit longer, reclining back against Gallant’s stomach. “You’ve never been out of the forest, have you?” she asked, looking up at him.

“No, I haven’t,” Gallant said.

“Are you nervous?”

“No, I’m not. Well, not about leaving. Well…” Gallant scoffed in annoyance. “I am. But not because I’m scared of going out into the rest of Pyrrhia. I’m worried about Mother. And all of you.” He looked down at Toucan, who cocked her head to the side curiously. “Mesa and Siren and her friends all came here because something happened in their own tribes. And I’m worried that it might make its way here.”

“That’s what the border guards are for,” Toucan said. “Right? That’s why you inspect them so much, to keep us safe.”

“Yeah. But I still worry.” Gallant sighed. “That and I don’t know what’s going to happen once I leave with them.”

“I think you’ll be fine,” Toucan said. She rolled over, snuggling up closer against him and looking up at her. “Because you’re my big brother. And you always know what the right thing to do is.”

Gallant chuckled, bumping Toucan’s snout with his own. “Thanks, Toucan. I need to go get ready, okay?”

“Okay.” Toucan hopped to the branch Gallant had left. “Tell me lots of stories about Pyrrhia when you get back, okay?”

“I will.” Gallant leaned backwards and dropped off the branch, spreading his wings and flying off into the village, heading for the treehouse where the royal family lived. Heading over to the small shelf that rested next to his sleeping hammock, Gallant swept a talon along it, taking everything. The objects on the shelf were what he normally wore when he went on patrol: a small leather bag full of various bandages and healing herbs he’d collected, a blowpipe, and tranquilizer darts. Gallant didn’t know if he would need any of them, but it couldn’t hurt.

Putting the blowpipe and darts into the bag, he slung it around his neck and left the treehouse again, flying down towards the center platform. By the time he got there, Siren, Juneau, Forsa, and Mesa were all there waiting, chatting idly to one another. Queen Brilliant was with them, but they all looked up as Gallant approached. He scowled. Mother’s already here. Am I that late?

“Ah, there you are, Gallant,” Brilliant said as he came in to land. “Do you have everything you need?”

“Yes, Mother, I do,” Gallant said. Brilliant tossed a bag at him, and he caught it neatly, peeking inside. The bag was full of all kinds of fruit, and he slung it around his body too before he looked at the other dragonets. “Are you all ready to go?”

“I think so,” Siren said. She looked at him and smiled. “Thank you for coming with us, Gallant. I know it means a lot to Mesa.”

I couldn’t care less about what she thinks of me, Gallant said, looking at Mesa and narrowing his eyes. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be leaving…but this is for the good of the RainWings too. And, his own peace of mind. If I didn’t go, and Mother or Toucan paid the price, I don’t know what I would do. But if something still happens while I'm gone... He banished the thoughts. “It’s the least I could do,” he said aloud, catching Forsa wincing. “As long as we’re not gone long.” He turned to look at Juneau. “You’re leading the way, I assume? We’re going to your homeland, after all.”

“Yeah.” Juneau stepped forward, looking around at everyone else. “Everyone follow me. Mesa, stay close to Gallant and try not to get separated from us; we don’t want you getting captured by any SandWings, even if you’re invisible to them.”

“Okay,” Mesa said. She moved over to be close to Gallant. He sighed inwardly, but bore it as everyone else spread their wings.

“I’ll see you soon, Mother,” Gallant said to Brilliant.

“Be safe, Gallant,” she said. Green flickered along her scales, but she kept a calm face.

“Let’s go,” Juneau said. She took off into the sky, followed by everyone else. They traveled upward, through the hole in the forest canopy, and set off northwest. Gallant cast a single, longing look back at the rainforest.

I’ll be back before I know it, he told himself. The rainforest can be without me for a few days.

Chapter Text

“Juneau,” Forsa said, several hours later, “we’re going north.”

            “I know,” Juneau said from ahead of him. “This is the best way.”

            “We need to be going northwest to get to the Ice Kingdom,” Forsa continued. “How is this the best way?”

            “Because we can go around the desert and be closer to the sea if we go this way,” Juneau said, turning her head to look back at Forsa with an annoyed expression. “This is the way my mother and I take across the Kingdom of Sand to get to the Kingdom of the Sea.” She pointed downward, where the Great Five-Tail River flowed steadily south underneath them, their bodies reflecting in the water. “We follow the Great Five-Tail River north to Possibility, then we turn west and get to the Ice Kingdom that way.”

            “Is this really the best way?” Gallant asked. "Seems like it'd be faster to just fly straight there." And the faster we get there, the faster I can be on my way back.

            “Faster, but harder," Juneau said. "It won’t be as hot if we can fly along the coast and not directly through the desert, and that'll make the journey easier than having to be out over the desert all the time.” She looked back at the others. “Most of you haven’t flown through a desert before. Mesa’s the only one that could likely fly without having to stop or drink anywhere, and if we do that, there's a chance we'll get caught.”

            “It really is the best way, Gallant,” Siren said over her shoulder. “Even when I went with my parents to meet Queen Akutan we always met in Possibility instead of crossing the desert ourselves.”

            Gallant shrugged; it didn’t really matter to him what way they passed over the desert as long as it got done. The sooner we stop arguing and get to the Ice Kingdom, the sooner I can go home. “Any idea of how long it’ll take to get over the desert?” he asked.

            “The Kingdom of Sand’s pretty big,” Juneau said. “But if we don’t stop very often I think we could make it in…two days, maybe?” She looked backwards again, fixing her eyes on Mesa. “Does that sound right?”

            “I think so,” Mesa replied, nodding. “Um, Juneau? We won’t be going close to the palace while we’re flying across the desert, will we?”

            “We won’t, Mesa, don’t worry,” Juneau said.

            “I don’t see what you’re so worried about,” Gallant said, turning to her. “You told me a while ago you made that bracelet so that no SandWing would notice you. Why are you still so paranoid?”

            Mesa cringed a bit, rubbing her gold bracelet with her talon. “I just…want to be sure. Like, if it stops working for some reason, and they see us.”

            “We’ll be okay, Mesa,” Siren said. She turned her head back to look at Mesa, smiling reassuringly. “If anything happens, we won’t let your uncle take you.”

            Even though it would be a mercy if he did, Gallant remarked in his head. He looked down towards the ground, looking at the landscape they were flying over. Everything here was so different from the rainforest. The trees weren’t as closely packed, and the woods below them were quieter. Birds that flew around them were less colorful and noisy. In the far distance, but growing larger as they flew, Gallant could see the enormous peaks of the Claws of the Clouds Mountains rising into the sky.

            Everything felt so…open. He’d never felt constricted or cramped in the rainforest, but the amount of space made him marvel. He’d read scrolls about the other kingdoms and how different they were from the Rainforest Kingdom, but seeing it for himself was a whole other matter.

            “How long will it take us to get to Possibility?” he asked.

            “I think we’ll be there by dusk,” Juneau replied. “Provided we don’t stop too much.”

            “I’ve never been to Possibility,” Forsa said. “What’s it like?”

            “Oh, it’s amazing!” Siren said, turning to him with a big grin on her face. “You’ve never seen anything like it before. There’s dragons from all over Pyrrhia there, and all of the different buildings are all pushed together!”

            “All over Pyrrhia?” Mesa asked nervously. “Doesn’t that include SandWings?”

            “What does it matter to you?” Gallant asked. “It’s not like they’re going to notice you. And nobody else will care what the SandWing princess is doing in a place like that.”

            “But what if my uncle hired bounty hunters from other tribes or something?” Mesa asked. “Siren said that they were being hunted by an IceWing and a SeaWing before they got to the rainforest!”

            “If that happens, we’ll keep you safe,” Juneau replied. “We’ve fought them off once, Mesa. And I don’t think they’d attack all five of us together. Even if we’re only dragonets, it’s two against five.”

            Mesa smiled gratefully, though she still looked nervous. “Thanks, Juneau.”

            Two against five won’t matter, Gallant said. He remembered Siren’s descriptions of both of her attackers, turning his head to look around and see if he could spot the glint of IceWing scales anywhere. One of them is an animus, and the other’s the size of a MudWing. How are we supposed to fight off either of them? Especially since it seems like only a few of us might be any good in a fight. He shot a glare at Mesa, though she was so busy looking ahead that she didn’t notice. Has she ever had to get her claws dirty at all?

            Gallant, like every RainWing growing up, had learned to use his venom effectively at a young age. He’d learned not only the right amount of venom to use, but how to use it accurately. He’d never actually had to use it, and he still had his blowpipe, but Mesa didn’t look like she’d ever gotten her claws dirty doing anything related to fighting. If she did know how to fight, he thought, she wouldn’t have stayed cooped up in the healing hut. She would have left at some point. She would have asked what she could do to help us. She wouldn’t have thrown screaming fits every time something mildly inconvenient happened to her.

            It had been like that nearly every day, it felt like. Mesa would be constantly calling for Gallant for one reason or another. She’d screamed when a howler monkey had made noise near the healing pavilion and cried out for him, thinking an assassin had come to kill her. The first time Banyan and Water Lily had given her a new kind of fruit that she hadn’t recognized, she’d yelled for him thinking that they were trying to poison her. Every other RainWing had gotten used to her noise as a minor annoyance…but they weren’t the ones that had to constantly deal with her.

            He looked up suddenly and saw Forsa looking at him, the NightWing’s face twisted in discomfort. Stay out of my head, Gallant thought at him, glaring as his scales briefly flickered into an annoyed orange color. Forsa turned his head back forward quickly, and Gallant scowled. He’d heard of NightWings being able to read minds from history scrolls, but having it actually happen to him was rapidly proving itself to be annoying.

            If anything, the last few days had been full of surprises. Gallant had expected for the foreign dragons to rest up and then leave, leaving him free to return to his old life. Now he was flying across Pyrrhia in their company. He felt the blue of his scales creeping into red as he thought about it. I shouldn’t even be here. I should be at home, doing what I always do. No matter what Mother says.

            Brilliant did this so often, Gallant wondered how he hadn’t gone crazy before now. The RainWing queen was always calm and deliberate in all of her planning, doing things that she wouldn’t tell anybody about until she was good and ready. More often than not, this also included Gallant. She thinks this is serious. But what does it even have to do with us? Nobody cares about what the RainWings do. Whatever this “conspiracy” that the others have filled her head with won’t affect us. He cast a look around the others. All this is doing is wasting my time.

            “Gallant?” Forsa had dropped back next to him, flying between him and Mesa as she moved over to make room for him. “Is something wrong?”

            “You already know,” Gallant replied, raising an eyebrow as he turned his eyes to the NightWing. “Don’t you? Even after I specifically told you not to read my mind?”

            Forsa cringed. “Well…yeah. I know that you’re not all that happy about having to come with us, but we’re all in this together now, aren’t we? We’re all trying to find out what’s happening.”

            “You are all trying to find out what’s happening,” Gallant replied. “I don’t care. My mother sent me here to scout out what’s happening in the Kingdom of Sand, and that’s it.”

            Forsa flinched back. “Well…we all still have to work together if we’re going to get to the Ice Kingdom safely. Who knows if Mesa’s uncle will find us, or Wendigo and Kraken will, or…” He threw up his talons at nothing. “Or something else. We don’t know how far this whole conspiracy spreads, if it does.”

            “Well it’s not in the Rainforest Kingdom,” Gallant said. “I know that much at least. RainWings don’t do that sort of thing. No RainWing in the entire kingdom would hurt another RainWing.”

            “But you don’t know that for sure!” Mesa said from Forsa’s other side. “My mother and I thought we were safe too!” She peeked up over Forsa’s back. “What if there’s some RainWing around that wants the throne for themselves? The RainWings have a challenge system too, don’t they?”

            “The RainWings don’t kill each other over the throne, which is more than I can say for your tribe,” Gallant replied. Mesa flinched, jerking away from Forsa as she stared at Gallant, hurt. “So, no, I don’t think there will be any problem in the Rainforest Kingdom.”

            Mesa glared at Gallant and snorted. She flapped harder, flying forward and up next to Siren. Gallant smirked. Finally, she’s not next to me anymore.

            “Well that was rude,” Forsa said as he watched Mesa fly past them both. He turned back to look at Gallant again. “She came with us at least; doesn’t that count for something for you?”

            “And even though no SandWing will be able to see her, she’s still terrified,” Gallant said dismissively. He turned his head back down towards the land they were flying over. As the dragons passed over a meadow, a herd of deer bounded away towards the woods. “If she’s still scared of trying to go to the Ice Kingdom with you all, she shouldn’t have come in the first place. But now she’s here, and we all have to deal with it.”

            “She’s not that bad,” Forsa said. Gallant looked back up at him, arching his brow. Forsa was looking at Mesa, who was talking to Siren. Occasionally Gallant could see her glancing back in his direction, and Siren was doing it too.

            Is she complaining about me? Gallant wondered. He shook his head. Who cares? I’m not here to be friends with her.

            “She’s upset with you,” Forsa said.

            “I got that much,” Gallant muttered. “When has she not been upset about something?” He looked at Forsa. “You remember how she was behaving when you all first got to the rainforest, right? Always screaming, throwing fits?”

            “That’s not her fault,” Forsa replied. “You don’t even know what she went through.”

            “I know enough,” Gallant growled, “to know that she ran away from her responsibilities. She’s a princess, and instead of doing something like trying to avenge her mother or rallying her tribe to take back her throne from her uncle, she runs away and hides in the rainforest.” He flicked his eyes over at Forsa. “What if Hyena found out she was there? What if he demanded my mother give her up or face war?”

            “She didn’t even mean to come to the Rainforest Kingdom, you know,” Forsa said. “She just picked a direction and flew. She could have ended up anywhere.”

            “And of all the tribes in Pyrrhia she winds up with us.” Gallant scoffed, unimpressed.

            “Still, she’s brave enough to come with us.” Forsa looked back over their shoulders. The rainforest was far out of sight by now. “She could have just stayed with the RainWings, but she came with us anyway.” He looked back at Gallant. “And that’s more than I can say for a lot of dragons, including you.”

            Gallant’s scales pulsed a brilliant red and he glared at Forsa. “Are you looking for venom in the face?”

            “Just saying,” Forsa said conversationally, turning to look forward at the others and ignoring Gallant. “Your thoughts are really loud. But before you insult Mesa again, remember who agreed to come along themselves, and who had to be ordered.” He put on more speed before Gallant could snap out a retort, pulling up on Mesa’s other side and leaving him alone. Gallant snorted and pushed his scales to return to their normal color, but some red stayed, fading away more slowly.

            They flew on for a few more hours as the day wore on, until Gallant called a halt for sun-time. The others took it as a good enough reason to rest, though they all sat together and talked as he laid down on a large, flat rock on the bank of the river, sighing contentedly on the sun-warmed surface. If anything, sun-time was more relaxing here than it was in the jungle. Birds twittered in the forest around them, and they’d set down at a quiet spot next to the river, where instead of roaring along, it trickled and burbled playfully.

            The others at least had the decency to try and be quiet, too. From time to time Gallant could hear their talons shifting the pebbles on the beach, the flapping of wings as one of them flew off to hunt, and the soft hush of voices, but otherwise they left him alone. For once. Gallant did his best to push those thoughts out of his mind. Sun-time wasn’t the time to think. And yet, he thought anyway.

            I wonder what Toucan is doing right now, he thought. Mother still needs someone to help her run the kingdom. Is she taking over my duties? She’s not old enough yet to do it, she won’t know what to do. Mother does have other advisors…but are they as thorough as I am?

            All throughout his life, Gallant had styled himself as Brilliant’s main advisor. He was the one that came up with plans to improve the kingdom, the one that volunteered for royal errands to other parts of the village, the one that took care of Toucan and all of her needs whenever Brilliant was busy. Toucan’s too young for all of that. And nobody else knows all of the other things that I do.

            The more he thought about it all, the more he missed home. He already missed the sight of golden pillars of sunlight lancing through gaps in the rainforest canopy, and the ever-present sounds of jungle animals. He missed the constant riot of colors that were the other RainWings, the sounds of the village. He missed those rare quiet spots in the forest that he could stop by on his patrols around the border. And he missed Toucan already, her teasing, her laughter, her energy.

            The rainforest needed him. His mother needed him. And yet here he was out in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of dragons he didn’t know or even really care about. Did his mother’s fears even have any merit? For all any of them knew, it was just a simple coup among the SandWings…one that Mesa was too much of a coward to stop herself and was just running from kingdom to kingdom to avoid responsibility.

            What will she do when we get to the Ice Kingdom? Gallant wondered. She can’t keep running forever. He shook his head. Stop thinking. Now’s the time to nap.

            Gallant plunked his head down on the rock, emptying his mind as much as he could. This time it worked, and he quickly fell asleep, the sounds of nature and the warmth of the sun and the rock beneath him helping to lull him to sleep. Maybe I’ll wake up and find out that this was all just a dream, he thought as the darkness of sleep overtook his mind. I’ll wake up to Toucan telling me about some new lesson Mother taught her.

Chapter Text

“So that’s Possibility,” Gallant said. “It’s…bigger than I thought it would be.”

            “The whole world is,” Juneau replied with a grin. “Getting out of the rainforest means you can see a whole lot of what the rest of the world has to offer.”

The group stood on a large rock outcropping by the river south of town, looking down at Possibility from their vantage point. From this distance they could see the town’s many winding streets, its closely-packed buildings, and the many bridges that spanned the Great Five-Tail River as it ran south, bisecting the town between its historically SandWing and SkyWing sides. Giant, elegant towers stuck up from among the smaller buildings, and even from this distance they could see dragons from every tribe swooping and flying to and from the town.

             “So, do we go down now?” Siren asked.

            “It’s nearly sundown,” Juneau said, looking west, where the sun was starting to fall over the horizon. “Everything will be closing up down there by the time we get there. We’d have better luck going down in the morning.”

            Gallant heard jingling as Mesa shuddered, jittering her bracelet on her arm. She’d stayed away from him after their stop earlier in the day, and now was standing on Siren’s right, at the other end of the line they’d formed on the cliffside.

            “Don’t worry, Mesa,” Siren said. She nudged her reassuringly. “We’ll all be with you down there. And I doubt any other tribe knows what’s happened in the Kingdom of Sand. Or at least, might recognize you on sight.”

            Mesa didn’t respond. Gallant moved his head to look around Forsa, Juneau, and Siren, watching her as she stared down at Possibility, watching lights be lit within the windows of Possibility’s buildings. The traffic of dragons slowly trickled to a stop, until finally Forsa cleared his throat. “Well, if we’re not going down there tonight, we might as well camp out up here.”

            “Is that safe?” Mesa asked nervously. “This close to town, I mean? Wh-what if someone spots the campfire or something?”

            “We’ll be fine,” Juneau said. “It’s just one night, after all.” She spread her wings, the bright grey-white scales glittering in the brightening light of the moons. “Come on, Mesa, you can help me get some firewood together.” She took off, and Mesa followed after a bit of hesitation. Everyone else watched them go, then Siren looked at Gallant and Forsa. “I’ll wait here for them to get back. Do you two think you could hunt up something?”

            Gallant made a disgusted face. “Ugh. Meat? No, thank you.”

            “Well we’re not all RainWings,” Forsa said. “Come on, you can at least keep me company.” Without waiting for a response, he took off. Gallant watched him go, then groaned and followed him. He caught up to Forsa easily, and the two flew over Possibility and towards the woods that nestled up against the flanks of the mountains that held the town in their shadow.

As they flew over the town, Gallant looked down, taking in more details. Dragons walked to and fro down emptying market streets, making last-minute stops at stalls or passing them by as they hurried home. Groups of dragonets scurried home around the legs of older dragons or flew through the air at breakneck speeds in final, spirited games of tag. Others swam with one another or with older dragons in the river that passed under bridge after bridge, some taking flight or leaving the water as their parents called their names. On the corners of street junctions, some dragons played instruments, spirited melodies floating up into the air to reach the pair’s ears.

            By the time they landed at the forest's edge, the sun had nearly completely set. Weak, pale threads of red sunlight followed them as Forsa led the way into the forest. “Why don’t RainWings like to eat meat anyway?” he asked, looking back at Gallant. “I mean, your tribe are still dragons, right?”

            “There’s plenty of fruit around, we have the sun, and fur tastes weird and gets stuck in your teeth,” Gallant said. “I mean, we can eat meat, but…why?” He flicked his forked tongue disdainfully at the notion. “You all can eat it as much as you want. I’ll stick to what I like.”

            “Suit yourself.” Forsa shrugged. They walked for a little while longer before he struck up conversation again. “So, is this your first time outside the rainforest? Like, ever?”

            “It is,” Gallant said, watching a squirrel clamber up a tree near him. “I’ve never had to go anywhere else before. We have everything we need in the rainforest, so why would I leave?”

            He heard Forsa give a quiet scoff before he replied. “Well…what do you think of it? The rest of Pyrrhia, I mean? It’s a lot different from the rainforest, I know, but we’ve been flying all day. You’ve seen a lot, right?”

            “It’s certainly…different,” Gallant said slowly. “It’s more open. Less green. But quieter, and there’s more variety, most of the time.” Gallant looked up, through a gap in the trees, staring at the massive bulk of the mountains that rose in the distance. He suppressed a shudder, feeling a few of his scales flicker into green. “It’s a lot to get used to.”

            “You’re not scared, I hope?” Forsa asked as he turned around to face Gallant. “I know it’s a big thing, leaving the place you’ve grown up in all your life. I did it too, and I can’t imagine it was easy for Mesa, either.”

            “I’m not scared,” Gallant said, a little too quickly. “I'm a prince, I don't have time to be scared. I’m just out of my element.”

            “It’s a big change,” Forsa replied gently. “You’ll get used to it. When I left the Mud Kingdom I was pretty nervous too. But I didn’t really have any other option. But it’s not so bad, once you get used to it. Besides, I’d never been anywhere else in Pyrrhia before I left home. And now I’m with Siren and Juneau and Mesa and you, and going to places I never thought I’d go.”

            “I just want to get this over with so that I can go home,” Gallant said crossly.

            Forsa shrugged. “That’s fine. But you’re stuck with us until then, so you might as well get used to it.”

            I will, Gallant thought. But I won’t be happy about it. He saw Forsa roll his eyes before the NightWing suddenly lunged off into the bushes. He heard a loud squealing sound that suddenly cut off with a sharp cracking noise, and soon Forsa came back out of the bushes, carrying the body of a huge boar in his jaws. He dropped it on the ground briefly, grinning proudly at Gallant, who looked at the boar with distaste. He felt his scales ripple into pale orange briefly, before turning back to blue. He heard Forsa snort again.

            “With your scales like that I don’t even need to read your mind to know what you’re thinking,” he said. He picked the boar back up and started walking back to the edge of the forest.

            “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t read my mind at all,” Gallant replied, his scales darkening to red. He heard Forsa mumble something apologetic, but he kept quiet as they reached the edge of the woods and took off again. As they approached the cliff that they’d left Siren on, they could see a bright orange light flickering against the deepening night sky. Juneau and Mesa had made it back and were sitting by the fire, talking with Siren as Forsa and Gallant landed on the cliff.

            “Wow, it’s huge!” Mesa exclaimed as Forsa dumped the boar’s carcass next to the fire. She stared at the boar’s body in awe. “How’d you catch something that big?”

            “There’s a lot of things you can learn if you have the right dragons to teach you,” Forsa replied with a grin. “Go on, everyone dig in.”

            Gallant sat slightly apart from everyone else, digging several pieces of fruit out of his bag and starting to peel them with dexterous cuts of his claws. The next few minutes were taken up by everyone eating, the crackling of the fire and the popping of wood competing with the sounds of chewing. Forsa and Mesa stuck pieces of meat on long sticks that Mesa had picked up from the fire pile, cooking them over the fire as Juneau and Siren ate their meat raw.

            “Um…Forsa,” Mesa said eventually, hesitating as she tore a piece off her most recently cooked bit of meat. “Can I ask you something?”

            “Hm?” From where he sat next to Siren, Forsa looked up at her, his cheeks bulging with meat. He swallowed. “What is it?”

            “Your necklace,” Mesa said, pointing to the medallion that hung around Forsa’s neck. The silver moon on it glimmered in the firelight. “What’s it mean?”

            “I…don’t know.” Forsa took the medallion in one talon, holding it up and staring at it. The firelight glimmered off of the silver moon, and the light that it cast made it look like he was holding a tiny star. “My troop said that it was with the basket I came in, before I hatched. I don’t know who gave it to me.”

            “Do you think it might have been from your parents?” Juneau asked curiously. “Your mother or father?”

            “It might have.” Forsa’s tail flicked from side to side as he turned the medallion over and over again in his talons. “I never really gave much thought to it. It was just…something I always had.”

            "It's really pretty; stuff like that normally goes for a lot in markets back home." Mesa cocked her head and frowned. “Did you know your parents at all?” 

            Forsa shook his head, staring into the fire in contemplation. The flames danced in his eyes, reflecting off of them. “I spent my whole life in the Mud Kingdom until now. My brother Gator said that my egg came with a note, but the only thing that it did was name me. Otherwise this medallion was the only thing I came with. They couldn't find my parents.”

            “Maybe…maybe that’s something else we could try and do, while we’re on our way to the Ice Kingdom?” Mesa suggested. “I mean…we could see if any NightWings recognize it. If there are any down in town, at least.” She turned her head to look down at the dark, sprawling shape of Possibility. There were only a few lights in the city now; guards patrolling the streets at night or dragons who were still awake burning the night oil from their windows.

            Forsa stared at his medallion a bit more, then tucked it back into his scarf. “I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, you remember what we talked about, who’s behind this, right? If my parents are both in the Night Kingdom, then…” He shook his head. “No. We already have a place to be and something to do. We don’t need to get sidetracked.”

            “Oh.” Mesa furled her wings in around herself, shrinking a bit. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude or anything…”

            “You weren’t rude,” Forsa reassured her. “It’s just…right now we have bigger problems to worry about. And besides.” He looked off towards the east, smiling sadly. “I already have a family. Whether I know who my parents are or not, I know where I really belong.”

            “But have you ever even been to the Night Kingdom?” Gallant asked suddenly. “How can you be sure?”

            “What do you mean by sure?” Forsa asked, turning his head towards him. “Of course, I’m sure! I didn’t grow up in the Night Kingdom. I don’t even know my parents’ names, or their faces.” He fiddled idly with his scarf, the gold thread catching the light. “If anything, I’m a MudWing in a NightWing’s body. I don’t know anything about being a NightWing, except for these scales.” He lightly brushed the silver teardrop scales by his eyes. “And even then, I only know what I’ve heard about them.”

            “But it might help to know, don’t you think?” Siren asked him. Gallant watched her trace her eyes along Forsa’s scales. “I mean…if I knew that my parents had sent me away to a whole other tribe for safekeeping…I think I’d want to know why.”

            “Well maybe I don’t want to,” Forsa replied sharply. “I know where my home is. I know who my family is.” He folded his arms in front of him, looking down at the ground with a guilty expression. “I don’t need a some NightWing to tell me who I really am. I know that already.”

            It seems I’m not the only one that doesn’t want to be out here, Gallant though. Forsa’s eyes snapped in his direction but he held Forsa’s gaze, flicking his tail from side to side as Gallant narrowed his eyes at him. What’s really going on in that head of yours, hm?

            “Weeeeeeell,” Juneau said slowly into the resulting awkward silence, “the Ice Kingdom’s all the way across the desert from the Night Kingdom. If Forsa doesn’t want to go there, he doesn’t have to. None of us do.” She looked down towards Possibility. “We can spend tomorrow looking around town if we want to, then keep going northwest the day after. If we don’t stop for the night after that, we could make it to the Ice Kingdom early the next morning.” She looked from face to face. “Does that sound alright?”

            “I think so,” Siren said. “We can show everyone the sights!”

            Gallant let out a doubtful snort. “What kind of sights are even in a place like this?”

            “A lot more than you think!” Siren exclaimed. She turned her head towards him, grinning eagerly. “There’s all sorts of things from all the different kingdoms in the markets, there’s dragons from every kind of tribe—I think the last time I went with Mother and Father I even saw some Pantalan dragons around—and it’s…it feels…closer, somehow? Like there, everyone’s friends with each other. It’s a place where all the tribes live together. No fights, no rivalries, no wars, nothing like that.”

            “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything from Pantala before,” Mesa said, her dark eyes widening in wonder. Gallant could see the firelight reflecting in them, making them glimmer like the sky overhead. "I've read some scrolls about it and know some stuff about the tribes there, but I bet it's amazing!"

            “I’ve seen a few SilkWing merchants in the Kingdom of the Sea before,” Siren said. “I never talked to any of them, but they were really pretty. And Mother always loved the tapestries and silk that they showed at the markets.”

            “Maybe there will be some down there this time,” Juneau said. She looked at Siren and gave her a teasing grin. “It might help to get Mother something nice so she’ll be more likely to let you stay with us.”

            Siren threw a bone at Juneau, bonking her on the snout as she giggled. “Shut up!”

            Juneau flung the bone back at her, laughing too. Gallant quirked an eyebrow at the sight, spotting Mesa clapping her talons around her snout to stop her own giggling as Forsa simply rolled his eyes and shook his head with a rueful smile. “Well if we are exploring the town tomorrow,” Gallant said, “we should probably get some rest. Especially since we’ll be flying across the whole desert soon.”

            “Good point.” Juneau looked up into the sky, her eyes searching the stars. “Who should keep watch first?”

            “Keep watch?” Mesa cocked her head, a confused expression on her face. “Why would we do that?”

            “There are dragons out there hunting for us to try and kill us,” Gallant said to her. “Try and keep up, Mesa. Would you want to be caught sleeping by them so their job can be made easier?”

            Mesa shrank away. “Well…no. Is...is that likely to happen?" She looked at each of the others, her expression turning fearful again. "Will they find us?"

            "They might," Juneau said. "But I don't know if they'll attack us. The last time we had a run in with one of them, before we got to the rainforest, we beat them, and now there's five of us. I don't think they'll try when they're outnumbered that badly, even if one of them's an animus and the other's the size of a MudWing."

            “I’ll take first watch,” Forsa said. He stood up. “My tribe is nocturnal anyway…kind of.”

            “No, I’ll do it.” Gallant stood up too. “I already slept some today. You all get some rest. Juneau, I’ll wake you up in a few hours.” She at least seemed to be the most capable out of all of them. He’d feel better about leaving his fate in her talons while he was asleep than he would asking Mesa to take a watch. If she kept watch she'd probably panic at the sight of them, then run away and leave us all behind.

            Juneau nodded and curled up. “Everyone else, try and sleep,” she said as she rested her chin on her talons. “I’ll see you all in the morning.”

            Forsa and Siren laid down too, but Mesa looked at all three of them, then got up and walked around the fire to lay next to Siren. Gallant remained where he was on the rock, sitting and keeping his eyes and ears peeled in case he heard the flapping of wings or saw the shimmering scales of an IceWing or glowing spots of a SeaWing appear in the sky. He turned away from the others, looking back to the south.

            He had to admit, this was one part of his time as a prince he’d never really put much thought into. He had his blow darts, and he had his venom, and his claws and teeth, but he’d never expected to have to use them, even if right now there wasn’t any danger. Can I actually do it, if it comes down to it? All of the things he’d done for his mother, and wanted to do, and never once had war or fighting been anywhere in his plans. Gallant shuddered, taking a deep breath and feeling his scales creep from dark blue to green no matter how much he tried to push them back.

            This is all so...strange, he thought. And tomorrow I'll be out among other dragons for the first time in nearly...ever. There had always been merchants coming to the rainforest, yes, but being in an entire town filled with other dragons from all sorts of different tribes was different from that, or from flying with a small group of them. He was no stranger to crowds with all of the RainWings in the village, yet he couldn't help but be nervous. He took a deep breath and tried to shove the feelings back down. It'll be fine. It's just a normal town. Focus. Keep watch.

            He contented himself with flicking his ears backwards, listening to the sounds of the others as they settled in to sleep for the night. He could hear Juneau’s soft, steady breathing that told him she was already asleep. Forsa was the same way. Siren appeared to be asleep, but he could still hear Mesa moving around, shuffling awkwardly.

            Go to sleep already, you jumpy little SandWing, he groaned in his head. It’s bad enough that you’re whining all the time when you’re awake, but now you’re having trouble sleeping, too? As he heard Mesa finally settle down and, soon after, fall asleep, he turned his head, turning off to the west. Beyond the river, the Kingdom of Sand’s endless expanse stretched out into the distance. Gallant could see for miles, though the desert was empty. By now the sun had completely set, the moons rising into the sky. One of them was full tonight, another following close behind it. The third, however, was a thin crescent, its light weak and faint compared to the others.

            It was peaceful on the rocks, in a way. The gentle sounds of the others sleeping, the quiet, distant rumbling of the river. Occasionally an owl would hoot in the distance, but other than that, the night was calm and quiet. Quieter than the rainforest, which unsettled Gallant slightly, but he banished those thoughts away. Going to sleep out here would be just like the sun-time earlier that day.

            It will take some getting used to, being out here, he thought. But Mother would want me to adjust, so I will.

Chapter Text

“Business being in Possibility?” the MudWing guard said the next morning as he looked down at Gallant and Mesa. He towered over the both of them, and in one talon he held a wicked-looking spear in a guarding position. He eyed them both suspiciously, his amber eyes flicking between Gallant and Mesa, back and forth.

            “We’re travelers,” Gallant said, conscious of Mesa shivering next to him. As if we weren’t suspicious enough being a SandWing and a RainWing traveling together. Calm down, you jumpy little desert mouse. “We’re just here for the day to look around and resupply.”

            The MudWing stared at them for a while longer. Gallant fought against his scales’ urge to turn green. He’d never seen a MudWing up close before, and the dragon’s sheer bulk made him wonder how much force it would take for one talon to crush his head like a grape. He tried to banish the thought, simply wanting the MudWing to accept the lie and let them into town. Or he could have just disappeared, blending into the ground and flying away as fast as he could. He would have even taken the others being here with them both, but the last option, at this point, was impossible.

            Earlier that morning, everyone had decided to split into two groups in order to draw less suspicion. After all, five dragons, each from different tribes, coming in together might draw unfriendly eyes, even in a town like this. Siren, Forsa, and Juneau had gone in first, as Possibility was waking up, leaving Gallant and Mesa to go in several hours later. Gallant had protested going in with Mesa, but as she felt safest with Gallant, he was stuck with her. And for all I know, he thought, she might be the one that ends up getting us caught, if those two assassins are around.

            “Alright then,” the MudWing said finally. He dug into a pouch hanging around his thick neck, taking out a pair of cloth armbands and handing them to the pair. “Take these.”

            “W-what are they?” Mesa asked, eyeing the armband. Gallant looked down at his own band. It was white for the most part, but had a thick green stripe on one segment.

            “They mark you as visitors to town,” the MudWing replied. “That green part there lets you know you’re in the town under the protection of the Enclave, and that you’re not to be stopped. Once you’re ready to leave, find a guard and give it back.”

            “I’ve always heard that Possibility is neutral.” Mesa said as she slid her armband up onto her unadorned arm. “What changed?”

            “That was before those SandWings and NightWings came,” the MudWing said. He snorted and looked back over his shoulder into the crowded streets. “The Enclave’s been fighting with them ever since they got here over who’s authority trumps whose.”

            “SandWings and NightWings?” Gallant cocked his head as his scales briefly turned to a lighter blue than his normal color. “Why are they here?”

            “Looking for anyone who might have helped the assassin that killed the SandWing queen,” the MudWing replied. “Any dragon that’s not a SandWing or NightWing is to be arrested on sight, even here in town. The Enclave had to put their talons down to stop them from arresting every dragon in Possibility.”

            Mesa opened her mouth and was about to say something,, but Gallant swatted her with his tail, making her give a quiet squeak of surprise. The MudWing didn’t notice, and shook his head. “Things are tense right now, is all I’m saying. You two be careful, and try to enjoy your time here.”

            “We’ll do our best,” Gallant said. “Thank you.” With a final nod, he led Mesa past the guard and into Possibility’s streets. She glued herself to his side immediately, looking up at him.

            “What do we do?” she hissed. “If they’re arresting any strange dragon—”

            “Didn’t you listen?” Gallant hissed back. “The town will protect us. The others probably got the same speech, and I bet they're fine, too. As long as we don’t draw attention to ourselves, nobody is going to look our way. And besides, why are you worried? You’ve got your bracelet.”

            “It only works on SandWings!” Mesa whispered desperately. “If there’s NightWings looking around too, they’ll see me! Why are NightWings even here, anyway?”

            “I don’t care why,” Gallant growled lowly. “And if you make a scene in the middle of the street I’m letting them arrest you!”

            Mesa clamped her mouth shut, sticking close to Gallant as they continued to walk, threading their way through the streets. Dragons of all different tribes were everywhere, moving about on their own business. Those that weren’t walking around where manning a dazzling array of stalls, calling out to any dragon that passed by as they hawked their wares.

            “The finest rolls of silk, brought all the way from Pantala! Spun by the best SilkWing weavers!”

            “Fried fish? Desert lizard? Squirrel on a stick?”

            “Exotic fruits from the Rainforest Kingdom!”

            “You there, RainWing! A pretty necklace for your friend?”

            Gallant ignored them all, simply continuing to walk forward. This place was a lot like the RainWing village; full of activity, noise, and color. At the same time, the closeness of the streets, and the press of dragons around him, still made him feel uneasy. He could feel Mesa almost directly behind him, nearly treading on his tail as she stuck as close to him as possible. From time to time he had to quickly stop as dragonets, whooping and laughing, ran around his talons as they played games of tag.

            “I wonder what the others are doing right now,” Mesa said as the street opened up into a large circular plaza. A small tree rose over head in the center of the plaza, a few dragons lounging around it or resting in its shade. Gallant could see at least one RainWing in its branches, napping in the golden lances of light that broke through the tree’s foliage. “Do you think we could find them?”

            “I’m not sure,” Gallant said as he looked around. Three other streets branched off from the plaza, each going a separate direction. They’d agreed to scout out the town and meet back up at the cliff at dusk. “But I don’t think we should try. We’d be suspicious if we were seen together, remember?”

            “But if they’re looking for strange dragons—” Mesa continued, but Gallant cut her off.

            “The town will keep us safe,” he said. I hope, he continued in his head. The news that the town was being watched and any strange dragons passing through the Kingdom of Sand were being arrested under suspicion of being assassins was an unwelcome development. They wouldn’t arrest us, would they? Gallant wondered. I mean, none of us are assassins…but would they balk at arresting so many royals?

            “I can’t believe that my uncle said that,” Mesa said softly, almost quiet enough that he didn't hear her. Gallant turned to look at her in puzzlement.

            “Said what?”

            “That my mother was killed by an assassin,” she said. She looked up at him, glaring in frustration. “She wasn’t, Gallant, I saw my uncle kill her!”

            “He probably made it up to make himself look better,” Gallant said. He spread out a wing and ushered her over to an isolated part of the plaza. They sat against the wall of a building, resting their legs. “I imagine if the rest of the kingdom knew that he’d killed her, he’d have an all-out rebellion on his talons.”

            “And he’s still trying to find me,” Mesa said. She wrapped her wings around herself, shivering slightly. “If any of the NightWing soldiers here recognize me, or they capture the others and make them talk…”

            “The others will be fine,” Gallant said. He snorted. “They’re certainly safer than they would be with you tagging along. Ow!” He jerked away from Mesa suddenly, clutching his shoulder. Mesa’s scratch hadn’t broken through his scales, but it had still hurt. “What’s wrong with you?”

            “You know what? I can find my way around town on my own! I’ll see you later!” Mesa got up and walked away, her tail barb lashing angrily behind her. She quickly disappeared into the crowd going down another street, leaving Gallant alone in the plaza.

            Gallant glared after her for a while, before snorted and got up too. He spread his wings and taking off into Possibility’s sky. Stupid, spoiled little lizard. Not like I was wrong or anything; if she panics and draws attention to any of us, we'll all be in a big heap of trouble. And if the town was being patrolled by soldiers from the Kingdom of Sand, if they were caught with the princess in their company, who knew what would happen to them. I'm the Prince of the RainWings, Gallant thought. They couldn't do anything to me; Mother wouldn't allow it. It's not like the others are in any danger, either.  

           The air wasn’t as busy as the streets were, but it at least let him be more maneuverable. Being in the sky over the town reminded him of home as he ducked and dove and weaved around dragons flying over Possibility’s buildings. There were a lot of buildings, many of them of all different shapes, sizes, and styles. Gallant could see squat MudWing homes, tall towers that SkyWings flew around, and even, around the outskirts of town, several large trees that other dragons with brightly-colored, delicate-looking wings were fluttering gracefully between.

           Gallant had heard about the Pantalan tribes in his lessons, but he'd never met any personally; though he'd seen them in the markets on occasion, he'd been too busy with his work to stop and make idle conversation. Those are...SilkWings, I think. Mother always liked their scarves and tapestries. What he was really interested in, however, were the green and brown dragons that were flapping around alongside them. LeafWings...I wonder how much like RainWings they are...

           He shook his head suddenly as he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. Focus. Find the others. He kept his eyes partly on the sky and partly on the ground, looking around for where Juno, Forsa, and Siren might have gone. With the view he had, he could see why the MudWing at the front gate had been on edge. There were more SandWings and NightWings in the streets than nearly any other tribe, barring the SkyWings. They were even in the sky, flying slow patrols over the town. The dragons that actually lived in Possibility, at least, didn’t seem like it was bothering them. Much like the previous night, Gallant could hear music coming up from certain parts of the town, drums and woodwinds and horns, alongside the usual chatter of hundreds of dragons.

            The glimmering of scales down by one of the town’s bridges finally drew his attention, and Gallant paused to peer down at the source. He could see three dragons down next to the bridge, on the shore of the river. Though only one of them was on the shore itself, the other two were in the water, one of them occasionally dipping under and swirling around before popping back up. The other was simply floating, though its companion kept splashing it with great fans of water that sparkled in the sun. He could hear laughter come up from them both. Gallant looked closer, trying to see what tribes they were. IceWing, NightWing…and SeaWing.

            He dove down to the river, landing on the shore next to them. Juneau tensed briefly, then relaxed. “Gallant, what are you doing here?” she asked, then looked up and around. “Where’s Mesa? She was supposed to stay with you.”

            “I don’t know,” Gallant said. He sat down, curling up on the ground as he shrugged. “She wandered off somewhere and left me behind, so I decided to see what you all were up to.”

            “She did what?” Siren yelped as she scrambled out of the water, dripping. “She can’t do that this close to the Kingdom of Sand with so many other dragons around! Especially with what the guards told us! What if one of the NightWings recognizes her? Or some other dragon does?”

            “She’s an animus,” Gallant said, waving a talon dismissively. “She’ll be fine. If she thinks someone might be onto her, she can just enchant something to fix it.”

            “That’s not—” Siren began, then she paused, frowning. “Okay that is how it works, but what makes you think she will? She hasn’t used her powers at all since she came to the Rainforest Kingdom, has she?”

            “Not that I know of.” Gallant’s scales briefly flashed orange. What’s the big deal here? She’ll be fine. It’s her fault for wandering off anyway just because she was mad at me.

            “Mesa was mad at you?” Forsa asked, frowning as he left the river as well. Gallant flinched. He kept forgetting… “Why?” Forsa asked as he picked up his scarf and medallion from where he'd left them next to Juneau.

            “I said she was overreacting about all of the guards around,” Gallant replied. “She was worried about the three of you getting caught, and I said you were safer than you would be with her, and then she got mad, and scratched me, by the way, and huffed off.”

            “Oh, by the Great Ice Dragon…” Juneau groaned, putting a talon to her face.

            “And you just let her?” Siren asked, glaring at him. “What’s the matter with you? If anyone recognizes her, they could take her to her uncle, or even just kill her!”

            “I said she’ll be fine,” Gallant said, more orange creeping into his scales, tinged with red. “We didn’t get any odd looks while we were walking around before. She’s the one that decided to get upset and walk off into town. Besides, I think there’s so much friction between the town and the NightWings and foreign SandWings that they won’t let her get hurt if they can help it.” He looked around at all three of them. “What about the rest of you? Has anyone been suspicious of you yet?”

            “Not that we’ve seen,” Juneau said. “Nobody’s paid us any mind, but we haven’t exactly been making ourselves obvious, either.”

            “There’s a lot of tension here,” Forsa said, wincing as he rubbed the side of his head. “A lot of voices, too. Most of the dragons that live in town are anxious about all of the soldiers around. They’re wondering why they’re here, who they’re looking for. A few are even wondering why the town isn’t helping them so they can just leave.” He looked up at Gallant. “But I’ve seen a lot of the soldiers’ minds, too. They’re definitely looking for Mesa.”

            “It’s a good thing she has that enchantment for them, then,” Siren said. “What about the NightWings?”

            “They’re looking for her, too,” Forsa said. “But there’s something else they keep thinking about. Someone named Steadfast.”

             “Their leader?” Siren asked, cocking her head.

            “Sounds like it,” Juneau said. “I bet he’s taking orders from Hyena. Maybe Queen Star made an alliance with him to make sure he kept control of the Kingdom of Sand.”

            “Then why do they need Mesa?” Gallant asked. “If Hyena controls the SandWing army, and has the NightWings to help…”

            “It helps to make him seem more legitimate,” Juneau told him. “If he doesn't find her soon, I bet some dragons will start getting suspicious. And if he manages to find Mesa, then he can make her into a puppet queen or something. And she’d have to go along with it if she didn’t want him to kill her.”

            “He won’t kill her,” Siren said. “He can’t. It’d send the whole kingdom into chaos!”

            “And he probably won’t,” Juneau said. “But that doesn’t mean he can’t find other ways to make her do what he wants. Or even just do whatever he wants while making it seem like it was Mesa’s idea all along.”

            “We can’t let that happen.” Forsa stood up. “Mesa doesn’t deserve that. We need to find her before the NightWings do.”

            “As long as we do it quietly,” Juneau said. “We can’t be drawing suspicion, we won’t outrun an army of dragons to the Ice Kingdom.”

            “Then what do we do?” Siren asked.

            “We spread out and look for Mesa ourselves,” Juneau said. “Once one of us finds her, we’ll meet back here. Okay?”

            Siren and Forsa nodded and flew off in two different directions. As they flew away, Juneau’s talon lashed out and grabbed one of Gallant’s horns, hauling him towards her. “And you. We need to talk.”

            “There’s going to be a lot of screaming instead of talking if you don’t let me go right now,” Gallant snarled, his scales flushing deep red as he bared his teeth, letting his fangs become fully visible.

            Juneau roughly threw his head down, glaring at him as she came nose-to-nose with him. “Listen. I don’t care that you’re mad that Queen Brilliant told you to come with us instead of staying in the rainforest. I don’t care that you’re out here instead of back home. Guess what? None of us want to be here. I want to be home, where I’m safe, and so does Siren. Mesa didn’t ask for this to happen, either, and you constantly sniping at her isn’t making any of this any easier.”

            “And I should care about this why?” Gallant asked snidely. “I’m not even coming to the Ice Kingdom with all of you. And just like I told my mother before we left, this whole situation?” He sat back on his hind legs, spreading his talons to indicate the world. “Doesn’t involve the RainWings at all. So, you all can go do everything you want to do after this, but as soon as we get to the Ice Kingdom? I’m going home.” He lashed the ground with his tail for emphasis. “I don’t need a bunch of spoiled princesses telling me what to think or what to do.”

            Juneau stared at him, her bright blue eyes all the brighter from within the black mask across her face. “Fine,” she said, in a tone as cold as her scales. “Then as soon as we reach the border with the Ice Kingdom you can fly all the way back to the rainforest by yourself if you want. But until then, you’re stuck with us. So, unless you want to know what winter feels like up close and personal…” She jerked a talon skyward. “Get up there and look. Now.”

            Gallant wanted to spit something back at her, but thought better of it. If anything, Juneau’s eyes seemed even colder than the rest of her. He spread his wings and took off, flying back into the sky. As he flew back over the river, he let out a growl of annoyance. Stupid princesses. What do I care if she gets captured or not? Not like the Rainforest Kingdom will be in danger because of it.

            But he did care, he supposed. Deep down. Very deep down. He remembered when they had first met; Mesa’s dirty, bloody, malnourished body hanging upside down in the tree vines, her look of desperate fear…her grateful smile when he cut her down. He sighed, shutting his eyes briefly as he hovered over Possibility.

            Why do I hate her so much? Is it really because she’s annoying? Well…she is, but…maybe she wasn’t always like that. With what she told Mother, and everything she’s said…He didn’t know how he’d react if something like that happened to Brilliant. And what did he even have to be scared of? Nothing bad happened in the Rainforest Kingdom. What would I do if something like that did happen at home? Would I want Toucan put through the same sort of things she’s going through?

            The thought of anything like what Mesa had told he and his mother chilled him, but he shook his head to throw it away like a stubborn leaf. No. She’ll be fine. I just have to get her to the Ice Kingdom, and then she’ll be out of my life for good. He swept down towards Possibility’s rooftops. He set down on top of one, sneaking along as low as he could get while still being able to see the street as he searched through the crowd of dragons for Mesa. He narrowed his eyes in annoyance; he saw plenty of other SandWings, some bare, some adorned with various bits of jewelry, others that were soldiers and guards, but no small female dragonets wearing gold. She can’t have gotten that far, I wasn’t gone that long.

            A troop of SandWings flew overhead. They didn’t look down at him, but Gallant huffed. If I have to keep ducking and hiding from dragons I’ll never find her. He pulled the band off of his arm, tossing it down into the street for someone to find later. He shut his eyes, focusing. When he opened them again, his arms had become a perfect sandstone color, blending in seamlessly with the rooftop.

            Nodding in satisfaction, Gallant trotted along the roof, keeping his eye on the street as he kept an eye out for Mesa. 

Chapter Text

Much to Gallant’s annoyance, Mesa proved surprisingly difficult to find. Gallant trotted along the rooftops of Possibility, keeping his eyes on the streets below him and flicking them between every SandWing that he could see. But there were a lot of SandWings, and with most of them being sand-colored, they all blended into one another. Gallant could barely tell the difference between one SandWing’s scales and another’s, and even though he knew Mesa would be a great deal shorter than most of them, there were also SandWing dragonets running around, squealing and laughing alongside dragonets from other tribes as they played games and tussled with one another.

            How hard is it to find a single dragon? He growled in frustration. Only a few days ago he could hear Mesa from any corner of the RainWing village, and now that he actually wanted to find her—at least, for a given value of “wanted”—he couldn’t! Just one more way she’s inconvenienced me. I can't wait to get to the Ice Kingdom so I can just go home and put all of this out of my mind. 

            He stopped at a building at the end of the street he’d been on, looking out over the plaza that it emptied into. This place was another market, full of dragons hawking rugs, jewelry, food, even one stall that was selling exotic animals. Dragons thronged the place, their voices all clashing together like the noisiest sort of jungle clearing. He saw dragons of all kinds moving everywhere, even tribes he’d only ever heard of; HiveWings colored yellow and black, green and brown LeafWings, and SilkWings in every color of the rainbow with enormous, beautiful wings.

            And yet, as far as he could see, no SandWing dragonet. And I thought I hated her before, Gallant thought. When he’d finally agreed to come on this trip he hadn’t expected that Mesa would make more trouble for him. And now she was lost somewhere in a strange town, and he had no idea where she was. Gallant looked up at the sky. Maybe the others are having better luck? He searched among the dragons that were flying over Possibility. There were just as many tribes in the air as there were on the ground, but the skies were clearer. He looked from dragon to dragon, searching for a pale SeaWing, an IceWing with a black stripe across her face, or a NightWing wearing a scarf.

            He’d never felt more out of place. In the RainWing village, and the entire rainforest, he always knew where he was going. He’d learned the entire rainforest from one side to the other, knew where the rivers were, where the trees grew the best fruit, where every quicksand pit and snake nest was. But here, in this town full of other tribes, he felt isolated. He could see a few RainWings among the dragons down there, but unlike him, they all seemed to know where they were going.

            I want to go home. Gallant heaved a heavy sigh. He already missed Toucan and the sights and sounds of the RainWing village. And who knew how much longer he’d be away? He looked around at the surrounding rooftops again, and perked up as he saw a familiar white-blue SeaWing land on one of them, peering into the plaza. Gallant flapped over to the roof, landing behind her. “Siren,” he said.

            Siren jumped and whirled on him, but she relaxed as he let his natural scale colors melt back into view. “Oh. Gallant, it’s you. Any luck?”

            “No.” Gallant huffed in frustration. “She’s one SandWing, how is it this hard to find her?”

“Just one SandWing, huh?” Siren asked, looking down over the SandWing-filled streets of Possibility.

Gallant sighed. “Right. Bad comparison. What about you? Any sign of her?”

            “Nothing so far.” Siren shook her head. “I’ve been looking everywhere I could think of, too.” Gallant walked up and sat down next to her. “I was thinking of enchanting something to help us find her, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to use it for something like that, especially when it’s not an emergency.”

            “You were talking about how we needed to find her,” Gallant replied, raising an eyebrow. “Where’s all of that urgency now?”

            “Well, if Forsa and Juneau are able to find her, then I’d just feel stupid,” Siren replied. She looked at one of her talons. “My parents always said that I needed to use my powers responsibly. There have been a lot of SeaWing royalty that have been animus dragons before, but…” She shuddered. “I’ve always heard stories about how if you use them too much, you’ll go insane.”

            “Really?” Gallant cocked his head. “That doesn’t sound right.”

            “Well, the RainWings have never had an animus before, have they?” Siren sighed. “Thousands of years ago, there was a SeaWing animus named Albatross. He used his powers too much and…he went mad. He nearly killed the entire royal family, except for three dragons.” She looked over at him. “And Juneau told me that when the IceWings had animus dragons, they could only ever use their power once, for the good of the tribe. I want to be like them. Not the using it once part, but at least making sure that I’m never using it for something selfish. I want to use them to protect my tribe. And my friends.”

            “Then that’s a good reason to use them, isn’t it?” Gallant asked. “You shouldn’t be scared of something you were born with just because someone says you should.”

            “I’m not scared,” Siren replied hastily, but then she paused and let out another sigh. “Well…not anymore.” She looked out over the crowds again. “But Mesa still is. She blames herself for why her mother got killed.”

            That caught Gallant off guard. He jerked his head back, blinking in confusion. “She does? Why?”

            “The night before we left, when she ran off somewhere…she told me what happened. Along with wanting her mother to be less trusting of all of the other tribes, Hyena, her uncle, wanted Mesa to use her powers as a weapon for the SandWings.” Siren’s eyes followed a SandWing soldier as he marched past on patrol, his armor clanking. “Mesa would always refuse, and her mother didn't want her to do it, either. She blames herself for not being able to protect her mother. For being scared. She thinks her tribe hates her for it.”

            “She could still go back and do something,” Gallant muttered sourly. “She’s just making trouble for all of us here, running away from her responsibilities.”

            “What about me?” Siren turned to face him, glaring. “Am I making trouble, too? I ran away from home when my father died, does that make me just as much of a problem as Mesa?”

            “What?” Gallant’s scales briefly flushed into a nauseating mixture of orange and purple. “Of course not!”

            “Then what’s the difference?” Siren asked, getting to her talons and taking a firm step towards him. “She and I are the same, but you haven’t said anything to me like you have to her.”

            “You’re different because you’re actually doing something about it,” Gallant replied firmly, the purple dying away as the orange took over the rest of his body. The color paled as he glared at her. Is she going to start blaming me for Mesa running off, too? “You and Juneau aren’t planning on staying in the Ice Kingdom forever, are you? You’re planning on going back and finding out the truth of what happened, and to plead your innocence.” He swept a talon out over the plaza. “Mesa isn’t doing any of that. She just tagged along so she could find somewhere else to hide.”

            “No, she didn’t!” Siren replied. “You weren’t there when I talked to her! Did you ever ask her about what happened?”

            “Yes, as a matter of fact!” Gallant snapped back. “And she never told me! All she ever did in the village before all of you came along was hide in the healing room and scream for me whenever she got scared or wanted something! Do you know how annoying that was? I'm a prince! I had things I had to do! Important things that didn't involve me waiting on some spoiled princess talon and claw!”

            “Well she told me!” Siren barked. She stopped, taking a deep breath. “Mesa decided to come with us because she wanted to know how the Kingdom of Sand was doing. By herself. She’s not doing it to hide.” She looked at Gallant, frustration clear in her face. “That’s more than she was doing in the rainforest, wasn’t it? Don’t you want to see more of that?”

            Gallant blinked, looking down at the ground in thought. Did Mesa really want to do other things? As he stared at his talons, Siren continued, her voice gentler now. “Mesa’s doing her best. She’s still scared, but she’s doing this anyway. She’s worried about her tribe, about her kingdom, about what her uncle is doing. Doesn’t that count for anything with you? I know that you don’t think that anything outside of the rainforest is your problem, but Mesa’s trying.”

            “She…has gotten braver, I guess,” Gallant muttered. She certainly wouldn’t have stormed off into a crowd without me back in the rainforest. He shook his head. “If you're right. But I’ll believe that she’s decided to be brave when I see it for myself.”

            “Then we need to find her,” Siren said. “So that you can see, and she can prove herself to you.”

            “Did either of you find her?” Forsa was suddenly next to Siren as he and Juneau landed on top of the roof with them. “Juneau and I haven’t had any luck.”

            “She has to be somewhere…” Juneau looked around, into the plaza. “She can’t have just disappeared, can she?”

            “Should I try and find her?” Siren asked. “I did it back in the jungle…”

            “It might be our only option at this point,” Juneau said. “She could be anywhere, and there’s only four of us. The longer we wait, the more likely it is that she’ll be caught.”

            “Okay.” Siren looked around. “I need another stick.”

            “I’ll find one.” Gallant spread his wings and took off, back towards the plaza he and Mesa had been to. He reached it in minutes and landed at its edge. The whole plaza had seemingly grown even more crowded since he left, but he threaded his way through the crowd and and approached the tree. As he walked, slipping around the dragons there, he found himself becoming lost in his thoughts again as he pondered what Siren had said.

Mesa’s trying. Hmph. As if that matters in the long run. She’ll probably follow the others all the way to the Ice Kingdom and just stay there the rest of her life, and let her uncle run the Kingdom of Sand.

But she had come with them, Siren and Forsa had both made that obvious enough. She’d stayed with them, never made more than a minimal amount of complaining. She hadn’t screamed, either, mercifully. Gallant felt his scales flush pink in embarrassment, and he scowled, shoving the color back down. If anything, I’ve been doing more complaining than she has. If Mother saw me, I’d be getting an earful every chance she got. He’d never complained when his mother had given him a task before. Then again Toucan was never as whiny as Mesa. And I’ve never had to be out of the rainforest before.

He climbed up to a particularly low-hanging branch of the tree and snapped off a thin twig, then took off again, flying back to where the others were. Mother would want me to at least try and maintain some sense of dignity. So that’s what I’ll do…no matter how annoying Mesa gets. He reached the building and landed on the roof, handing the stick to Siren. “Any sign of her?” he asked.

“Still nothing,” Juneau said.

“I can’t pick up her thoughts, either,” Forsa muttered, his talons pressed to his temple as he screwed his eyes shut. “There’s too many dragons around. I can’t pick hers out. Or she’s just not close enough for me to hear her.”

“We’ll find her now,” Siren said. “Don’t worry.” She clasped her talons gingerly around the stick. “I enchant this stick to seek out Princess Mesa, of the SandWings, and to disintegrate when it touches her.” As soon as she stopped speaking the stick jumped in her talons, pulling Siren off towards another street that led out of the plaza. Siren kept her footing and spread her wings. “Come on!”

The others took off after her, once again flying out over Possibility. They followed Siren as she led them west, towards the border with the Kingdom of Sand, to a massive stone arch that rose over the rest of Possibility’s buildings. As they came closer, Gallant saw that there was a dragon sitting on top of the arch, where a massive spur of stone had been laid over two other pillars. The dragon was staring out over the desert, the rays of the sun making the arch cast a great shadow over the town even as the rays also hit the dragon full in the face.

“Mesa!” Siren called, and Gallant saw the dragon jerk in surprise. He snorted in annoyance.

So, this is where she’s been, making us all worried sick. They came in to land on the top of the arch, Siren letting the stick go. It flew through the air and bumped against Mesa’s wing, dissolving into dust before it even hit the ground. Gallant saw Mesa’s shoulders heave in a big sigh, her tail barb curling up from where it had been lying limp on the rock.

“I’m sorry,” she said as the others gathered around her. “I just…I needed to think a bit.”

“It’s okay, Mesa,” Siren said. “But you should have told us. What if you’d gotten caught?”

“I was careful!” Mesa exclaimed. “I avoided the NightWings and stuff! And I came up here so that nobody could find me!”

“What were you doing up here, anyway?” Juneau asked. She turned her head to look out west. “Were you looking at the desert?”

Mesa nodded. “I’m…I’m nervous. For when we go over it tomorrow.” She looked at them all, and a frightened expression found its way to her face. “What if somebody spots us? What if we’re caught?”

“We won’t be,” Siren said. “I’m sure of it.”

“We’ll be as careful as we can,” Juneau added.

“All the same, we should probably know more about what we’re flying into,” Gallant said. That stopped the conversation cold, and everyone else turned to look at him. He shrugged. “We’re going to be flying into a kingdom that we have no information on. Even if we are doing our best to try and avoid any route that might get us caught, if Mesa does want to see how the Kingdom of Sand is, we need to be gathering information.”

“That can all wait once we get to the Ice Kingdom,” Juneau said. “It won’t do us any good to know anything if we all get captured before then.” She cast a look back over her shoulder towards Possibility. They’d searched for Mesa for hours, and the sun was starting to once again get low, slowly falling over the desert and turning the sand a reddish-gold color. “Come on,” Juneau said. “Let’s get back to camp. We need to get ready to leave for the Ice Kingdom tomorrow.”

They flew back to the rock hill where they’d slept the previous night after returning their armbands to the guards, and built another fire. This time Siren and Forsa went off to hunt together while Mesa, Juneau, and Gallant remained on the cliff. Once again, they found themselves watching as the town’s streets slowly emptied and lights began to appear in most houses.

“I wish we could stay longer,” Mesa mused as they watched. “I kind of liked walking around there. Just being seen as a normal SandWing. Nobody trying to chase me or capture me.”

“You’ll get to feel that again when we get to the Ice Kingdom,” Juneau said. “And you can rest for as long as you want there.”

Mesa hunched her shoulders, looking despondent. “If I can be safe anywhere. If my uncle’s looking for me in Possibility, too, who knows where else I’ll be able to hide.” She flicked her bracelet disdainfully. “Even with this stupid bracelet, what good is it if I get recognized by a NightWing?”

“You still won’t be alone crossing the desert,” Juneau said. “We’ll be there with you tomorrow. Although…” She put a claw to her chin, tapping it in thought as she looked up at the moons. “The fact that NightWings are helping Hyena’s soldiers just makes me even more sure that the NightWings are behind this whole thing.”

“But why are they looking for me, too?” Mesa asked. “Why are they looking for any strange dragons? You remember what the guard said, right? If we hadn’t had those bands, we could have been arrested! All of us! And then they would have taken us to my uncle and...and...done something to us! Why?”

“They might be looking for Siren, too,” Gallant muttered. “Or maybe even all of us. Anyone that might be helping you stay hidden.”

“Then you’re all in danger too!” Mesa exclaimed. She stood up, backing away. “I never should have left the rainforest, I knew it! All I’m going to do out here is get other dragons hurt!”

“Mesa, please stay,” Juneau said as she got up. While her voice was calm, Gallant could see her legs tense, ready to lunge forward and tackle Mesa to the ground. “We’re not in any more danger now than we were before. Remember? Kraken and Wendigo?”

“We’re safer together than we are alone, anyway,” Gallant added. “If you came across a NightWing that tried to capture you, do you think you could get away from them alone?”

“I’d be safe in the rainforest,” Mesa retorted. “Nobody came there! Nobody will—”

She was cut off abruptly as Juneau lunged at her, clapping a talon around her muzzle. “Shhhhh!” The three dragonets froze, all staring up at the sky as the sound of flapping wings began to reach their ears. As they listened, frozen in place, a SandWing flew overhead. He headed for a cluster of lights on the SandWing side of Possibility a short distance away from the town, giving no sign that he’d heard them. Juneau waited a bit longer, then let go of Mesa’s muzzle. “Who was that?”

“A soldier, I think,” Gallant said. He stared at the lights a bit more, narrowing his eyes. “But why would he be coming from the south? What’s over there that the SandWings care about?”

“Either way, he missed us,” Juneau said. “Hopefully he didn’t spot Forsa or Siren, either.”

“Should we move?” Mesa asked. “If any SandWing can just come from anywhere, shouldn’t we move somewhere more hidden?”

“We’ll be fine,” Juneau told her. “Nobody bothered us last night, so I don’t think they will tonight, either.”

“I still want to know what he was doing coming from that direction,” Gallant said. He stood up and spread his wings. “Stay here, you two.”

“What?” Mesa squeaked. “Where are you going?”

“To get some answers.” Gallant walked to the edge of the cliff and was about to jump when Juneau padded around in front of him, her face grim. “What?”

“Just be careful,” she said quietly. “If they find a RainWing spying around, who knows what they’ll do to you?”

“I’ll be careful,” Gallant replied. “Besides, I snuck up on Siren before, didn’t I? They won’t see me if I don’t want to be seen. And I won’t stay long. I’ll just hang around to see what that soldier was doing, then I’ll come right back.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Juneau said. Mesa came around her and looked up at Gallant.

“Be safe, Gallant,” she said quietly. And a bit…shyly? Gallant’s scales pulsed a brief orange but he shook his head.

“I’ll be fine.” He turned back to the cliff and leapt, flapping his way towards the same cluster of lights that the now-tiny form of the SandWing soldier was heading towards.

Chapter Text

It didn’t take long for the cluster of lights to form into something more distinct. Gallant descended to the sandy ground as he got closer, shifting his scales so that he blended in with the darkened sand and starry sky. The SandWing soldier had come to a large camp, row after orderly row of tents sprawling out across the sand. SandWings and NightWings were everywhere, talking to one another, sharpening weapons, fixing pieces of armor, cooking food, or playing music. A gentle undercurrent of noise floated through the air from all of these sources, but Gallant did his best to ignore it as he slunk silently past a pair of SandWing sentries that were looking out over the desert with rapt attention.

The SandWing soldier he was following strode through the camp with purpose, passing by tent after tent and group after group of soldiers. He stopped at one point when a group that was huddled around a fire called out to him. Gallant paused as they did, positioning himself behind the dragon to avoid casting a shadow.

“There you are, Creosote!” one of the four called cheerfully as Creosote walked over to them. Gallant followed after him, still sticking behind the SandWing. “We’ve been worried about you! What happened, did you get lost in the jungle or something?”

Creosote snorted out a laugh. “Nearly. Those RainWings are so deep in the place you’re more likely to step on one before you see them!” He shook his head. “But yeah, I delivered the message to their queen. She said she’d keep a lookout if the Princess came back that way.”

Message? Gallant narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Are they telling all of the other queens to watch for Mesa? Why would any of them care?

“And you didn’t see her?” one of the other soldiers asked. “The princess wasn’t in the jungle?”

“Not that I could see,” Creosote asked, shaking his head. “I kept an eye out, though. They even let me stay in their medical place for the night before I came back, but I didn’t see her anywhere. I even asked a few of the RainWings but they hadn’t seen her, either.”

Thank you, everyone, Gallant thought, smirking. His mother must have gotten the word out after Mesa's explanation.

“I wonder where she is…” One of the other soldiers looked around at the rest, his brow furrowed in concern. “I mean…she can’t be dead, can she? There’s no way.”

“General Hyena said that they killed the assassin, but Princess Mesa fled in a panic afterwards,” said another. “She could be anywhere in Pyrrhia right now. She might have even crossed the sea.”

“Don’t even joke about that,” the fourth said firmly. “If she’s gone to Pantala we’ll never find her. And that crossing is dangerous without a map.” He sighed, staring into the fire. “What are we going to do without her? This isn’t like the succession war all those centuries ago, now we have no heirs at all. And General Hyena can’t keep the kingdom under his control for that long.”

Creosote shushed him, looking around. “Don’t talk like that. What if one of the officers hears you?”

“Oh, let them,” one of the soldiers scoffed. “Doesn’t change the fact that we need a queen, NightWing alliance or no.”

“They’ll find her,” another of them said. “She has to still be alive.”

“Hopefully so,” Creosote nodded. “I need to report in. I’ll see you all later.”

The soldiers said their goodbyes and Creosote kept moving. Gallant followed along behind him as he walked further down the line of tents. As Creosote walked, Gallant kept his head on a swivel, getting as many details on the camp as he could. There were dozens, maybe even hundreds, of dragons in it, both NightWings and SandWings. They moved every which way, sometimes cutting between the two and making Gallant have to stop short before he could run into one.

Do they really need so many soldiers to search for her? he thought. Mesa’s just one dragon. I get that she’s important, but they wouldn’t be putting this much effort into finding her if they wanted to kill her. And why are all of the NightWings helping? If anything, the Kingdom of Sand not having a queen would be a good opportunity for the NightWings to get more land from it.

He put that thought aside as Creosote marched towards a larger tent near the center of the camp. A pair of guards crossed their spears in his path, looking him up and down. “Creosote,” one said in greeting.

“I’m here to report back to the Captain,” Creosote said. “Can I go in?”

“He’s meeting with Steadfast right now,” the guard said. “Make it quick.”

Creosote nodded and the guards moved one flap of the tent aside. Gallant decided not to chance discovery and instead moved around the tent, into an alley between it and another. He lowered himself to the ground and positioned one ear next to the gap between the ground and the canvas as he listened.

“Corporal Creosote returning as ordered, sir,” Creosote’s voice said. There was a clank of armor as Gallant assumed he saluted. “I delivered the message about Princess Mesa to the Rainforest Kingdom as instructed. Queen Brilliant hadn’t seen her, but said she would keep an eye out if she came that way.”

“Thank you, Corporal,” another voice said. “You’re dismissed. Get some food in you and get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning for your assignment in town.”

“Yes sir.” Creosote clanked a salute again and left the tent. Gallant remained behind, still keeping his ear pressed to the side of the tent. He heard a sigh from the same voice that had spoken to Creosote, who he assumed was the captain he’d mentioned.

“Still no sign of her,” he said mournfully. “Every day that passes I get more and more anxious.”

“Don’t worry, Tumbleweed,” said another voice, a deep, warm one that Gallant assumed was General Steadfast. “She’ll turn up. They say no news is good news, after all.”

“What are we going to do without her, General?” Tumbleweed asked. “If we can’t find Mesa—or, moons help us, the wrong SandWing finds her—what are we going to do? We need her, even more badly than Hyena does!”

“I know,” Steadfast replied. “But keep your voice down. I picked all of my soldiers myself, but you can’t say the same. If any of them hear you talking like that and get back to Hyena…”

What is going on? Gallant resisted the urge to try and find an open spot where he could slip inside the tent. Are they…plotting a rebellion or something?

Tumbleweed spoke again, his voice quieter. Gallant strained his ears.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I just…we can’t let him get away with this. It’s a bunch of lizard dung, what they’re saying. SkyWing assassin my tail, everyone knows that Hyena and Jackal were constantly fighting over how she did diplomacy with the other tribes! And if it was an assassin, why haven’t we sent any emissaries to the Sky Kingdom? Why hasn't Hyena asked for any kind of reparations? Why hasn't Peregrine said anything? None of this makes sense, General!”

“I know,” Steadfast said again, just as quietly. “But whether Hyena is telling the truth or not, he still controls the kingdom and a significant portion of the SandWing army. Far larger than our little band of possible rebels can fight. I know that you want to find your princess, Captain, but our work here is delicate. Here, Star doesn’t have any influence on us. If we can upset even one piece in this game of hers, then the entire situation will change.” He sighed. “I am putting a great deal of trust in you on this, Tumbleweed. You’re one of the very few SandWings I can rely on with this sort of thing.”

“I’m sure there are far more SandWings than me that don’t want Hyena on the throne, General,” Tumbleweed replied.

“I have no doubt. Even I know how loved Jackal was. If we could get the word out that Princess Mesa was alive in a discrete way, we would likely be able to gain many more allies. But every new officer that I get in touch with would be another hole in a net where important information might slip through. Our little group can’t hope to fight both the Night and Sand Kingdoms on its own, especially with Hyena on alert for any sort of rebellion that might threaten him. We have to stay small, but hit hard.”

“I understand.” Tumbleweed sighed again. “I’ll keep everyone looking for Mesa. Did your NightWings turn anything up today?”

Steadfast was quiet for a moment. “I have gotten some interesting reports. I’ll need to do more investigating before anything can be done for sure, though.”

“Interesting reports?” Tumbleweed sounded confused. “About what?”

“Nothing you need to worry about right now,” Steadfast said. “Personal business. For now, focus on finding Mesa. Leave everything else to me.”

“Yes, sir.” There were the sounds of footsteps and the tent flap fluttered. Gallant looked back at the entrance to see another SandWing in armor walking away into the maze of tents. Gallant, in the meantime, had heard all he needed to. He stole away from the camp, using back “alleys” in between rows of tents until he was out of its perimeter before he took off and flew back into the sky.

It took him a few minutes to get back to camp. By then, there was another fire roaring. This time instead of a large boar there were a number of fishes, some cooking over the fire and others being eaten raw, mainly by Siren and Juneau. As Gallant landed Mesa charged over to him, but she screeched to a stop and breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re okay,” she panted. “You were gone for so long that I thought…”

“I’m fine,” Gallant said. She was still concerned about me? Even after everything I’ve said? “They never saw me.”

“I still can’t believe you actually went into their camp,” Siren said as she swallowed a mouthful of fish. “Do you know how dangerous that was?”

“What did you learn?” Forsa asked. “Something important, I hope?”

“A lot of things,” Gallant said as he walked over to the fire and sat down. Mesa sat next to him. Gallant felt his scales briefly flicker orange in annoyance, but he let it go. “The SandWings have sent out messengers to all of the Pyrrhian queens. They’re definitely looking for Mesa. Even my mother got one.”

“Then…I can’t go back to the rainforest,” Mesa said. She hunched in on herself, starting to tremble. “They’ll be looking for me everywhere…even in the Ice Kingdom!”

“Calm down,” Gallant said gently. He brushed her wing aside. “It’s not nearly as bad as you think. In fact, you may even have friends here.”

“Friends?” Siren blinked in confusion. “But the entire SandWing army is out looking for Mesa. How can she possibly have any allies?”

“All of them may be looking for her,” Gallant said, “but not all of them want to take her back to Hyena.” He looked around at all of them. “The captain in charge of the soldiers here is a loyalist. He doesn’t want Hyena on the throne. It seems like a lot of the SandWing soldiers actually really want you found, Mesa. They’re worried about you. They want you to be safe.”

“They…do?” Mesa blinked in confusion. “But…”

“I told you!” Siren said, grinning excitedly at Mesa. “I told you, Mesa!”

“But I’m not…” Mesa shook her head. “I can’t be queen. I’m not good enough! I’m not old enough!”

“You’ll be fine, Mesa,” Forsa assured her. "It's not like you'll be doing all of the work yourself, after all." He looked back at Gallant. “Did you find out anything else?”

Gallant nodded. “Yes. Queen Star is definitely supporting Hyena, behind everything that you all guessed was happening. You all were right. The NightWings we saw in town are here to help prop up Hyena's rule. General Steadfast is here too.”

“Really?” Forsa’s eyes widened. “Why?”

“Because he doesn’t like this situation either.” Gallant leaned his head forward, grinning. “In fact, he’s working against her.”

“Rebelling?” Juneau gasped. “Are you sure?”

“He said it himself,” Gallant replied. “He says that kicking Hyena off the SandWing throne is the first step to unraveling her whole scheme.”

“Then…maybe we can try and help them?” Siren asked. She looked at Mesa. “I mean, we have Mesa with us right now. We could just go to camp and show them!”

Mesa squeaked. “Wh-what?”

“Mesa, you do have allies,” Juneau said. “If you show yourself to those soldiers, you can beat your uncle! You can get your kingdom back!”

“But…I can’t lead them!” Mesa said. “Wh-what if we have to fight? I can’t fight! I don’t know how! Uncle never taught me! If I lead them then-then I’ll—”

She’s freaking out again, Gallant thought. He lashed his tail out, twining it around hers. “Mesa,” he said firmly. Mesa froze, turning her head to stare at him, then at their tails. Gallant gently took her muzzle in a talon and turned her head back to look him in the eye. “It’ll be alright,” he said firmly. “The important thing is, you have allies in the SandWings, dragons that want you as their queen and are against your uncle.”

“But…” Mesa sniffled. “What if I can’t—”

“We don’t need to worry about that now,” Juneau interrupted. “For now…” She grinned eagerly. “For now, we know we have allies. And we know that we were right, even with all of our guessing.”

“I think we should stick with the plan we already have,” Siren said. “We can come up with a better one when we’re in the Ice Kingdom. Maybe Queen Akutan can help you, Mesa. Especially if you have other SandWings that are willing to help you, too!”

Mesa hunched in on herself, still looking doubtful. Gallant closed his eyes briefly and sighed, then looked back at everyone else. “So, we’re still going to the Ice Kingdom?”

“It’s the best way to come up with a real plan,” Juneau said. “And I still promised Queen Seahorse that I’d get Siren to safety. We can come up with a better plan once we’re there.”

“We're still going?” Forsa repeated, smirking at Gallant as he arched an eyebrow. “What’s this ‘we’ stuff?”

“Hush,” Gallant said, digging into his bag and throwing a mango at Forsa. It bopped him on the snout, making him break into laughter. Everyone else laughed too, even Mesa, though her laughter was quieter and more nervous.

Finally, Juneau looked up at the moons. “We should probably get some sleep. We’ll be flying across the desert tomorrow, and we won’t be stopping. Anyone want to take first watch?”

“I will,” Forsa said. “Everyone else get some rest.”

 Everyone else laid down around the fire, slowly falling asleep. Gallant remained awake for a time as he watched Forsa walk to the edge of the cliff, turning out and facing Possibility or, more likely, the camp. Gallant turned his eyes away from Forsa, listening to the sounds of the world around him as he closed his eyes. He could hear the hooting of owls, the gentle roar of the Great Five-Tailed River below them. Somewhere he heard the sound of a coyote howling, the mournful noise carrying across the desert.

Next to him, Gallant could feel Mesa shifting in her sleep. She twitched and whimpered, shuddering from time to time. Gallant’s eyes flicked over to Forsa, who was now looking back at Mesa in concern. Gallant saw him sigh, then turn his attention back to the camp, staring at the distant lights. Gallant found himself wishing that other tribes could wear their emotions on their scales, too, which made Forsa glance back at him before he turned back outward.

Eventually, as the night wore on, Gallant felt his eyes grow more and more heavy, until he finally slipped off to sleep too.

Chapter Text

It only seemed like a few seconds later when Juneau nudged Gallant awake. He snorted loudly, shaking himself as he looked up. “Wuh…morning already?” He yawned. It didn’t feel like morning. Or look like it, for that matter. The sky was still full of stars, though a great many less than there had been when he’d fallen asleep the night before. The sky looked lighter, too, though the sun hadn’t yet risen. He could see light starting to stream over the mountains, throwing the peaks into stark relief.

“Not yet,” Juneau said quietly from next to him. “But we still need to get going. The earlier we move, the faster we get to the Ice Kingdom.”

“Right. Right, right, right,” Gallant said. He got to his talons, stretched and yawned, then unfurled his wings as far as they would go. As he uncurled and curled his tail back up, Gallant looked around the cliff. Forsa and Siren were still sleeping, though Juneau moved past him and towards Siren. Mesa was nowhere to be seen around the fire, but as Gallant swept his head to the left he saw her sitting on the rock’s western face, her eyes locked on the desert again. He sighed, already dreading the day's flight. If she’s going to keep moping…He cut himself off in his head and shook it vigorously. No, stop. Remember yesterday.

He squared his shoulders and walked over to the cliff edge to take a seat next to Mesa. “How do you feel?”

“I’m…nervous.” Mesa hunched inward and wrapped her wings around herself, as if she was trying to make herself look smaller. “With everything that happened yesterday…and now we have to cross the whole desert…”

“We’ll be fine,” Gallant said. He was about to tell her to stop worrying so much, but stopped himself. “Mesa…I know you’re scared. But just because you are scared of something happening, doesn’t mean that it will. Especially if we’re careful.”

“But it’s not just that, Gallant,” Mesa said. She looked at him and hunched even more around herself. “Even if we get to the Ice Kingdom without someone catching us, that still means that I…I…”

“You’re still worried about your uncle?” Gallant cocked his head. “Mesa, we went over this last night. You have plenty of allies in the Kingdom of Sand. Your tribe doesn’t hate you. So, what’s wrong?”

“I can’t challenge my uncle,” Mesa said quietly. Her breath started to come in faster as tears sprang to her eyes. “I…I’m not even fully grown yet! I’m not even close! My uncle killed my mother, he’s so much bigger than me and he’s not going to just step aside and let me take the throne! He’ll kill me first!” She whirled on him. “What am I going to do, Gallant? I can’t fight a war for my own tribe! I can’t fight my uncle! I can’t avenge my mother!”

“Yes, you can,” Gallant replied sternly. She's panicking again, why is she always like this? “Mesa, you have to. Who knows what will happen to the SandWings if you don’t?”

“And how many dragons are going to die if I do?” Mesa asked. She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. Or, at least, tried to; she was so much smaller than him that Gallant remained unmoved. “I’m not going to do that, Gallant! I’m not going to get more dragons hurt because of me!” She scrambled onto her feet and backed away from him. “And I’m not going to be queen! I don’t deserve it! The SandWings deserve someone better than me!”

“You weren’t there last night, Mesa,” Gallant said. He stood up and took a step after her. “The SandWings do want you. There’s nobody else it can be!”

“Okay, I think that’s enough of that topic,” Siren said loudly as she pushed between them both. “Mesa, are you okay?”

“I-I-I’m fine,” Mesa stammered. She put a talon to her chest and started to take deep breaths. “I-I’m…”

 “Don’t apologize,” Siren said gently. “It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong.” She then turned and glared at Gallant. “What did you do now?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Gallant exclaimed as orange replaced the dark blue on his scales. “She’s the one that freaked out!”

“Will you all stop?” Juneau asked testily as she walked over to them. “Now’s not the time for this, we need to get going. Everyone up.” She looked back over her shoulder. Dawn was breaking over the mountains, warm rays of gold light starting to bathe Possibility. The group could faintly hear noise from the town as the dragons that lived in it got ready for the day. “If we want to avoid attracting any attention as we leave, we need to do it fast.”

“I’m ready when you all are,” Forsa said, adjusting his scarf. “Juneau, you’re in the lead again, right?”

“Right.” Juneau stepped to the edge of the cliff and spread her wings. The sun reflected off the back of her scales and sendt a kaleidoscope of color onto the face of the rock. Gallant flinched at the sight, and privately wondered how they were supposed to be stealthy when her scales did that. “Everyone stay close to me and try and pace yourselves. We’re not stopping until we get close to the border with the Ice Kingdom.”

They took off from the cliff and flew north over Possibility, as the sun finally broke over the Claws of the Clouds Mountains. Gallant looked down and watched the town be bathed in golden light, then cast a suspicious glance towards the SandWing and NightWing camp. The camp was busy too, dragons running here and there on one manner of morning business or another. He saw wings of dragons fly beneath them, all of them heading towards the town. Another day of looking for us, he thought. He glanced at Mesa. She was flying next to Forsa today, while Siren flew next to Juneau. Once again, Gallant was left at the back.

He found himself occupied with what he had heard in the camp the previous night. All of the queens are on the lookout for Mesa now…at least, all of them except for Mother. Does that mean we’ll be flying into a trap? Even if Juneau thinks that her mother will shelter us…them, he corrected himself, what’s to stop any of the other IceWings from ratting us out? Or kidnapping Mesa themselves?

He looked back at the camp. We’re leaving behind maybe hundreds of allies. If we just talked to them…He scowled. But no, Mesa’s too scared. Who would even think she would have to challenge Hyena for the throne back if she wanted it? It’s not like he can crown himself king.

Then again, Mesa had also said there was no way Hyena would step down. Gallant sighed, putting his talons to his face and dragging them down. This sort of thing is why I’m glad I’m not in line for the throne to begin with. Politics were never his thing. He was an advisor, someone who helped guide his mother on what was the right thing to do. Not that she valued me enough to keep me around, he thought with another stab of bitterness.

Gallant snorted in annoyance at himself and shook his head. No, none of that. She gave you her reasons, you just didn’t like them. He pushed the whole discussion out of his mind. We’ll be at the Ice Kingdom soon anyway. Then you can go home, and all of this will be behind you.

But could he really do it? His thoughts went back to what Siren and Juneau had said. Mesa’s own words to him, and what Steadfast and Tumbleweed had talked about before. This whole situation…and Queen Star behind all of it. He looked back behind himself. Though it was out of sight, far to the south, he knew the Rainforest Kingdom lay in that direction, waiting for his return. What if Mother’s right? What if this does end up affecting the RainWings? Queen Star already has her talons in the Kingdom of Sand. If Siren and Juneau are right and she’s responsible for what happened to King Mako…How many other kingdoms is she trying to move in on?

“You know your thoughts are really loud?” Forsa said, suddenly next to Gallant. Gallant yelped and nearly fell out of the sky in a tangle of limbs and wings, but managed to stop himself and level out. He flew back up to be level with Forsa. The NightWing smirking at him, like he was laughing at nearly killing him. Sunlight from behind Gallant glinted off the silver scales scattered along his wings and the back of his neck, along with the teardrop scales by his eyes.

“You’re free to ignore them, if you want,” Gallant said crossly. Pink started creeping up his scales, but he shoved them back down into being dark blue. Why did he keep forgetting that Forsa could read minds? “It’s not like I want you to be in my head.”

“Believe me, if I could stop, I would,” Forsa replied. He looked back in the direction of Possibility, scowling. “It was taking everything I had to not go nuts back in town. Have you ever heard hundreds of dragons thinking all at the same time?”

“No, thankfully,” Gallant replied. “The rainforest is noisy enough.”

“It is, yeah,” Forsa said. He sighed, sounding relieved. “Thankfully I already had a trick for that sort of thing. Though it was more for swamp noise than anything.”

“Because you grew up in the Mud Kingdom,” Gallant remembered. Forsa had spoken about it briefly while they were flying to Possibility. “How did that help?”

“Well, the swamps are noisy at pretty much any time of day,” Forsa said. “You had frogs chirping, flies buzzing, birds screaming. It was kind of like being in a noisy room all the time.”

“So how’d you deal with it?” Gallant asked.

“The same way you don’t go nuts hearing rainforest sounds all the time, I guess,” Forsa said. “I just learned to tune it out. When we were walking around Possibility I nearly went nuts from all the dragons that were thinking things at the same time. All of that worry about the soldiers, what they wanted to do with their day, the dragons they liked, the jobs they had to do. Dragonets worried about school or what their friends were up to, merchants trying to make a sale.” Forsa shrugged. “I just treated it like all of that swamp noise. Just let it fade into the background unless I actually had to listen. After that, it wasn’t so bad.”

“Hm.” Gallant hummed in response, then looked back towards Mesa. She’d flown upward to fly next to Juneau and Siren, who were still chatting away at one another. “How is she?” he asked.

“Mesa?” Forsa asked. He looked back at her. “If anything, I think she’s more scared now that she knows that dragons are out looking for her and want her to be queen.”

“As if she could be any more scared,” Gallant muttered.

“Well, she is,” Forsa replied. “She used to think that she could just go and hide somewhere until she thought it was safe to come back. Like if she was older, or Hyena died naturally. Now that she knows other dragons want her to be queen, she’s more scared of leading them into a massacre than anything.”

“There’s a simple way to avoid that,” Gallant said.

Forsa snorted. “What was that you said on the way to Possibility? You thought the RainWings were so good for not having to kill other queens to take the throne. But now you want Mesa to?”

“Mesa can do whatever she wants, it’s no scales off my snout,” Gallant replied. 

“But you’re still worried about her.” Forsa arched an eyebrow as Gallant looked back at him. “Don’t bother trying to play it off.”

“I’m not worried about her!” Gallant said defensively. “I’m worried about what all of this means. We know Queen Star is behind all of this. Right now, the question I’m wondering is why? What does she have to gain by keeping Hyena on the SandWing throne?”

“She gets an ally that keeps all of the other tribes away from her, for one,” Forsa said. “That much is clear.”

“But why the SeaWings?” Gallant asked, looking at Siren. “They’re nowhere near the Night Kingdom. What does she have to gain from making them angry?”

“I don’t think it’s supposed to make them angry,” Forsa said. He followed Gallant’s gaze, looking at Siren too. His expression changed to one of worry. “I think it’s to scare them. Their king is dead, and for all they know one of their own princesses did it. Queen Seahorse only has one daughter now, only just hatched. Maybe she wants to head off any further challenges with more threats to Seahorse’s family.”

“So it’s not just the SandWings then,” Gallant said. His eyes widened suddenly as realization popped into his head. “That’s the scheme Steadfast was talking about. Why he wants to stop Star.”

“If she can do this sort of thing with every kingdom…” Forsa mused, “she could take over all of Pyrrhia with it. She’s already done it to the SandWings and SeaWings, but who knows what she could do with the other tribes?”

“Mother…” Gallant’s scales lost all color, turning pure white as more dawning realization entered his mind. “Toucan!” They could be getting killed right now and I wouldn’t know it until I got back! He was about to turn around and fly back to the rainforest as fast as he could, but Forsa was there in front of him as he turned. “Get out of my way!”

“No,” Forsa said firmly. “For all we know, the RainWings might be the last ones on Star’s list. You said it yourself, you barely interact with Pyrrhia. You’re not a threat the way other tribes might be. And if she has all of the other tribes under her control there’s no way any sane queen would try and start a war. They’d be outnumbered by so much that they’d lose before the war even started!”

“Then what do we do?” Gallant asked. He started thinking about whether or not he could claw past Forsa and keep flying. He's smaller than me. More muscular, but I'm probably faster...He disregarded the thought quickly as Forsa's eyes flicked down at his talons. “We can’t just wait for the NightWings to keep up this evil scheme of theirs!”

“I don’t know.” Forsa shook his head. “We can at least get help from the IceWings when we get there. For now, all we can do is wait and try and come up with a plan.”

Gallant growled deep in his throat, starting to vigorously rubbing his face with his talons. “What if we don’t have time?” he asked. “The other queens could be in danger too!”

“Then we work fast,” Forsa said. “Once we get to the Ice Kingdom we can send messages to the other queens that she hasn’t gotten to yet. Until then…” He looked back north. Mesa, Juneau, and Siren had pulled up short and were watching them from a short distance away as they hovered in place. “Come on, the girls are waiting for us.” He took off towards them. Gallant cast one last, longing, worried look south, then took off after him.

Over the next few hours they told the others about their discovery. As they spoke, Juneau’s face grew darker and darker, and Siren and Mesa grew quieter as the magnitude of the threats to their tribes weighed down on them.

“Mother won’t let this stand,” Juneau said when they were finished. As Gallant and Forsa had talked, they had turned west, and the group was now flying over the desert of the Kingdom of Sand, the Claws of the Clouds Mountains rapidly passing out of sight. “She can’t. She won’t. It’s one thing for Siren to be falsely accused of a murder, but if this is a bigger plot…”

“We have to tell the other queens,” Siren said. “As soon as we can.”

“And we will, when we get home,” Juneau told her.

“Then…what do I do?” Mesa asked. Everyone turned to look at her. She fiddled with her claws as she stared down at them, clicking them together. “Even…even if my uncle isn’t in charge of the SandWings anymore…what will she do to me? She’s not just going to let me have the throne if she can help it! What’s she going to do to me if I take it back?”

“We don’t know if she’s going to do anything to you,” Gallant said. "Who knows if she even told Hyena to do anything?"

“And she won’t do anything to you,” Juneau said. “We'll make sure of it. She won’t do anything to anyone if we can help it. Not if we work fast.”

“How?” Forsa asked her. “We can’t just—”

“I don’t know yet!” Juneau barked. She put her talons to her head. “Just…I need to think.”

“What’s there to even think about?” Gallant asked. “We need to stop Star before she takes over the entire continent!”

“We can’t do that by starting a war!” Juneau shot back. “That’s not what anyone on the continent needs right now!” She heaved an enormous sigh. “Let’s just get to the Ice Kingdom, before we try and think of any kind of plan. Okay? Can we at least do that first? We do that, then we can think of a way to stop Star, where my mother can actually help us. How does that sound?”

“Fine with me,” Gallant said.

“Good.” Juneau turned her attention back to her front. “Then let’s keep going.”

They flew on, continuing over the desert. Gallant felt the harsh heat of the sun on his back, but banished the discomfort from his mind. I have to keep going, he thought to himself. I can’t just sit on the sidelines anymore, or just see them there and then go home. If I do…if I don’t help put an end to this…then Mother and Toucan will pay the price.

Chapter Text

They flew on for the next two days, never stopping except for brief rests. They ate on the move, each dragon diving in turn to hunt animals crossing the desert. Gallant didn’t participate, instead eating fruit out of his bag as he flew with everyone else. Juneau set a punishing pace, refusing to let the group stop except for a few minutes at a time to let them rest their wings before moving on. From time to time they passed by small, isolated SandWing villages that they kept well away from.

They didn’t even stop when the sun went down, instead continuing to fly as the moons rose overhead, bathing the entire desert in silver light. In the far distance they could see more SandWing villages, small islands of light on the silver sea of sand. Other closer, even smaller islands of light were gathered around the occasional oasis across the desert, and Gallant could see small, two-legged forms moving between tents as the dragons passed nearby or even, on occasion, directly overhead.

Gallant’s mind grew numb to the flying. The entire Kingdom of Sand was nothing but endless, sun-scorched desert as far as he could see. Dunes rose and fell below them, occasionally broken up by a herd of camels or other animals making their way across the sand. From time to time small spurs of rock jutted up out of the sand and into the air, but for the most part, nothing served to break up the monotony of the landscape around them.

It was close to midday on the second day of nonstop flying when Juneau finally started to descend. They were still out over the open desert, but Gallant had noticed that the air had become cooler as they had continued to fly west. They all set down on top of a dune, one of the many that rose and fell around them. Gallant groaned and stretched his wings, trying to work the soreness out. "Finally," he groaned. "I thought we'd be flying forever!"

“I’ve never flown that long in one stretch before,” Mesa panted as she flopped to the ground. “Are we almost there, Juneau? I’m exhausted!”

“We’re nearly at the border of the Ice Kingdom,” Juneau said reassuringly. “Or at least, the land between there and the Kingdom of Sand. Before we go any further we need to talk about what we’re going to do.”

“What’s there to talk about?” Forsa asked. He jerked his head past Juneau, off toward the horizon. “We go there, explain the situation to your mother, and come up with a plan, right?”

“Well…yes,” Juneau said. “But it’s still not that simple. For starters…” She looked at the rest of the group. “You all need a way to keep warm so you won’t freeze to death. The Ice Kingdom has its name for a reason; just getting to the capital would be hard unless you had any real way to keep warm.”

“I can take care of that,” Siren said. She looked around too. “Anyone have anything I can enchant?”

“Why not have Mesa do it?” Gallant asked, as he turned his head to look at her. Mesa blanched and backed away a bit as everyone else turned to her too. “She’s an animus too.”

“W-w-well I-I-I don’t…” Mesa stammered. “I mean…Siren’s done this more, so…”

“But you did say that you used to make enchantments for dragons back in the Kingdom of Sand, right?” Siren asked.

“W-well I-I did, but…” Mesa backed away a bit further. “Wh-what if I mess it up? Or…or do something that’ll make me go insane?” She hunched in on herself, curling her tail around her body. “I don’t want to hurt anyone…”

“You won’t,” Siren said gently. She walked up to Mesa, wrapping a wing around her. “I know you’re scared, Mesa, but this is important.”

“Your powers aren’t the reason your uncle killed Queen Jackal, Mesa.” Forsa said. Mesa threw him a slightly panicked look, then hunched lower, as if she was trying to curl up into a ball. “They’re nothing more than what you make of them.”

“And you’re not doing anything dangerous, either,” Siren said. “You’re just helping us. There’s no way that can backfire, right?”

“But what if it does?” Mesa whimpered, looking up at Siren. She somehow managed to hunch even lower. Gallant snorted and rolled his eyes.

If she's not going to pull her weight, why did we even bring her? He noticed Forsa glance at him, but glared back unapologetically. Well? 

“It won’t,” Siren repeated, nudging her wing against Mesa’s. “I know you can do it.”

Mesa was quiet for a moment, then straightened up a bit and nodded. “O-Okay. I…I can try, I guess.”

“Good.” Juneau looked at everyone else again. “So, does anyone have anything we can use?”

“I have some bandages,” Gallant said. He dug into his bag, pulling out a bundle of clean white strips of silk and holding them up to show everyone. “Will they do?”

“I think so,” Siren said. She took the bandages from him and laid four out on the sand in front of Mesa. “Come on, Mesa, you can do it.”

Mesa stared down at the bandages in front of her. Her tail barb twitched nervously, and she swallowed as she picked them all up, holding them in her talons. She took a deep, shuddering breath, and whispered, so quietly that Gallant had to strain his ears to hear it.

“I enchant these bandages to keep the dragons wearing them warm, no matter how cold the temperature is.” Mesa then dropped the bandages on the ground as if they were a bug that had crawled onto her, staring at them as she took a few scrambling steps backwards. “There, i-it’s done, I think.”

“Thanks, Mesa,” Siren said. She gave Mesa an encouraging smile before gathering the bandages up and passing them out to Mesa, Forsa, and Gallant, keeping one for herself. As the others tied the bandages around their legs, Juneau nodded approvingly.

“Good. A few more hours of flying and we’ll be there. Everyone ready?”

“Hours?” Forsa repeated. He groaned, rolling his shoulders. “I was hoping minutes.”

“It’ll be worth it when we get there,” Juneau said, grinning. “None of you have never seen the Ice Kingdom before, it’s amazing! I can’t wait to show you everything!”

“I’ll take your word on that,” Gallant said. He got to his talons and shook himself. Ugh, more places that aren't the rainforest. Are there even any trees this far north? They took off again anyway. Juneau changed direction and began to fly north instead of east. Everyone else followed along with her, though Gallant caught Mesa looking back at the desert as they did.

She keeps saying she doesn't want to be queen, or even come back to the Sand Kingdom, he thought in frustration. So why is she acting like she's going to miss it? Make up your mind, already.

As they flew farther north over the course of the next few hours, the air began to grow colder, and the landscape began to change. The endlessly rolling sand dunes slowly became smaller and smaller, the land more and more barren until instead of sand, rocky bare dirt was passing below them instead. The dirt then changed into great stretches of grassy tundra, broken up by forests of tall pine trees that turned the ground into a thick, dark-green carpet of foliage.

The further they got into the Ice Kingdom, the more animated Juneau seemed to become. She seemed to chatter away endlessly to Siren, excitedly pointing out a herd of caribou that galloped off as the dragons flew over them, and gesturing broadly out at the sea as they changed direction again to fly along the coast of the Ice Kingdom. At one point, Gallant heard Siren squeal with glee as they spotted a trio of polar bears, a mother and her two tiny cubs.

White on white on white, Gallant thought as he looked at the landscape below him. The exact opposite of home. Back in the Rainforest Kingdom everything was a constant riot of colors, not just from the RainWings themselves but the flowers that grew throughout the jungle, and the brightly colored jungle birds and other animals that made it there home. Here, except for the occasional animal, the land rarely had any sort of variation. Even the trees had become farther and farther apart as they'd flown.

All the while, as they got deeper into the Ice Kingdom, Mesa’s spell did its work. The cold, though noticeable, was never uncomfortable to anyone. Gallant felt just as comfortable in the Ice Kingdom as he did in the Rainforest Kingdom. He could appreciate the beauty of the Ice Kingdom as they flew over more broad stretches of tundra and flat, snowy ground, but he also noticed that Mesa was lagging behind. The SandWing princess for once flew at the back of the group, not talking or reacting to any of the Ice Kingdom’s wonders when Juneau pointed them out.

Gallant cut his speed, dropping back behind the others until he was next to her. Mesa was staring at the ground, watching everything pass beneath them, but it didn’t look like she was actually seeing anything. “Mesa,” Gallant began, and had to jerk away slightly as Mesa started in surprise. “Are you okay?”

“Oh. It’s just you.” Mesa looked back at the ground. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine,” Gallant said. “Even I can tell something’s bothering you. What is it?”

“What happened before we got here,” Mesa replied in a tired, monotone voice.

“You mean using your powers?” At Mesa’s nod, Gallant cocked his head, frowning. “Are you…upset that we asked you to do it?”

Mesa was quiet for a minute, then held a talon up in front of her face. “I don’t like using my powers anymore.”

“Because of what happened with your uncle?” asked Gallant. “I don’t see how that would keep you from using them for yourself.”

Mesa glanced at him and narrowed her eyes slightly, which puzzled Gallant. “Have you ever hurt another RainWing with your venom?”

Gallant snorted. “No. Of course not. RainWings are trained on how to use our venom safely.”

“Of course you are,” Mesa muttered. Gallant blinked.

She’s never been this surly before. Is it really because of us asking her to use her powers? “Mesa,” he said aloud, “What happened with your mother wasn’t your fault.”

“Yes, it is.” Mesa said. She turned her head to fully face Gallant. “It all happened because I was an animus. If I wasn’t, then my uncle wouldn’t have been so interested in making me into a weapon. I wouldn’t be getting hunted all over Pyrrhia so that he can look good! If I didn’t have my powers, maybe my mother would still be alive!”

“And what if she wasn’t?” Gallant asked. “Mesa, you can’t know what would have happened if you’d never found out you were an animus. From what you told us, Hyena would have killed your mother anyway. And if you weren’t an animus, you might have been caught by now. You might have even been found while we were in Possibility. Did you ever think of that?”

“Why do I even have these powers?” Mesa asked, as if she hadn’t heard him. “I only ever used them to make stupid little trinkets! I couldn’t even save Mother with them! I can’t do anything useful with them, all I do is make things worse!”

“That’s not true,” Gallant said. “Remember what Forsa said? They’re only what you make of them.”

“I want to make them go away!” Mesa snapped. “They’ve done nothing but bring me trouble! The longer I have them, the more everyone else is in danger!” She looked at him, angry tears in her eyes. “The more spells I cast, the closer I get to going insane!”

“Only if you let that happen,” Gallant replied. “Mesa, they’re—”

“Well if you all keep making me use spells then it’s going to happen!” Mesa interrupted. “I’m not just some magic problem-solver that you all can use whenever you need something from me!” She banked away from him, changing position until she was off to the group’s far right, still within sight but out of talking distance. Gallant watched her leave, then shook his head and flapping harder to get back to where he’d been flying.

Don't see what she's complaining about, he thought. Siren seems perfectly fine with using her powers. More confident in them, too; she didn't even blink when we had to use them to find Mesa to begin with. He glanced at Mesa out of the corner of his eye. She could just as easily end this whole thing and use them to kill her uncle, the same way that assassin killed Siren's father. Maybe she even would, if she wasn't such a coward. He thought of suggesting it to her, but having her yell at him was the last thing he needed. He pushed the thought out of his mind and kept flying.

It was hours later when Juneau finally gave a whoop of triumph and did a loop in the air. “There it is!” she shouted, pointing farther ahead of them.

Before the group lay a massive complex of glittering ice spires, each of them reflecting the fading light as the sun set over the now-endless drifts of snow on the ground below them. Even from this distance they could see the glittering scales of IceWings as they flew around the palace, and the city beneath it.

“Wow,” Siren breathed as they all set down on one of the many snow drifts that faced the palace. She looked at Juneau, her mouth open in awe. “You weren’t kidding! It’s beautiful!”

“Told you!” Juneau said as she bumped Siren playfully. Grinning, she turned to everyone else as and bowed while indicating the distant IceWing city with one wing. “Everyone, welcome to the Ice Kingdom!”

“It’s amazing,” Forsa breathed as he stared at the glittering lights in open-mouthed awe. “You live here?”

Juneau nodded smugly. “Come on, we’ll be safe once we’re inside.” She took off again and everyone else followed. Juneau led them over great carved ice walls and over structure after structure, fancy manors that Gallant assumed were for nobles that were less important than the Queen and her family, elaborate gardens full of ice sculptures, and buildings that looked like schools that IceWings went into and out of almost constantly. Other IceWings flew around them, many of them stopping to stare after the strange group curiously. Gallant heard more than a few of them whispering.

Finally, Juneau had them land at the foot of a long staircase that marched upward towards the pair of crystal-studded gates, elaborately carved into the shape of dragon wings. To either side, all along the wall that separated the rest of the city from the actual palace, more sculptures of dragons, wings, and talons topped every column. While Juneau kept her eyes forward as she led them up the stairs, everyone else stared upward as the towering edifice of the IceWing palace cast a dark shadow over the entire group. Enormous spires, high windows, carved ice sculptures, and more all glittered in the fading sunlight.

“Princess Juneau?” one of the guards said in confusion as they finally reached the gate. “But…you’re supposed to be in the Kingdom of the Sea. What are you doing back here? And…with so many foreign dragons behind you?” Gallant saw the guard lean forward slightly, his cold blue eyes narrowing in suspicion at everyone else. Gallant glared back at him defiantly.

“These four are my guests,” Juneau said. She beckoned Siren forward. “This is Princess Siren, of the SeaWings. She’s my best friend. Will you let us in? And tell my mother I’m home?”

“I’ll alert Her Majesty myself, Princess,” the other guard said. He bowed and the two pushed the gate open, the one that had spoken running inside and quickly flying up and through a window. Juneau looked back over her shoulder and beckoned at the others. They walked into a massive courtyard suffused with a gentle white glow that reflected off of the ice and snow beneath them. Gallant turned to the source of the light, and whistled as he saw the massive tree made of carved ice that sat in the center of the courtyard, immaculately carved branches spreading out in every direction.

“So that’s the original moon globe tree,” he said.

“It was a gift from an animus long ago,” Juneau said. “We gave a cutting of it to the RainWings a few centuries ago, that’s where your tribe got it from. Here, we call it the gift of light.”

“Juneau?” Everyone turned as another voice echoed around the courtyard. Gallant saw a huge female IceWing standing in the doorway to the palace, her slim, snow-white body decorated in diamonds and jewelry and wearing a silver crown set with sapphires. She took a few steps forward, moving slowly, cautiously, only to leap forward, her claws scrabbling on the ice as she charged at the dragonets. Juneau ran towards her, a joyful expression on her face.

“Mother!” she cried in relief as Queen Akutan wrapped her arms and wings around her, holding her tight. “Oh Mother, I’m so glad to see you!”

“I’m happy to see you too, dear, but…what are you doing here?” Akutan looked down at Juneau, puzzled. “You were supposed to stay in the Kingdom of the Sea until I came back. Why are you here?”

“It’s…it’s a long story, Mother,” Juneau said. She spread one wing to indicate everyone else, pointing at each in turn. “These are my friends. You know Siren, but that’s Forsaken—you can call him Forsa if you want—Mesa, and Gallant, too.”

“Mesa?” Akutan’s stormy grey-blue eyes locked onto Mesa, who squeaked in terror as she backed away and hunched up. “Princess Mesa, of the SandWings?”

“Yes, Mother.” Juneau looked up at Akutan. “Like I said…there’s a lot to tell you.”

“I imagine so,” Akutan replied, not taking her eyes off of Mesa. “Come inside, all of you. We were just about to have dinner.” Keeping one wing across Juneau’s back she turned and started shepherding her daughter back towards the palace. The others looked at one another and followed, their claws clicking on the ice. As they entered the palace, Juneau and Akutan were chattering away with one another. Juneau was rattling off names—of siblings, Gallant guessed—asking about each one and where they were, while Akutan updated her on what had happened since Juneau had left.

Eventually, following in Akutan’s footsteps, the group came into a large room within the depths of the palace, at the end of a dizzying array of twists and turns. The room was long and rectangular, with a ceiling so high that Gallant was sure he could fly around in it and never worry about hitting the top. In the center of the room a long, rectangular table rested, elegantly decorated with centerpieces and plates and utensils. Multiple other IceWings were already sitting in certain spots, a mixture of males and females, young and old.

“Everyone find a seat,” Akutan said. “Juneau, you may sit with Siren if you like.”

Juneau led everyone down to a spot near the opposite end of the table. Gallant tried to keep his scales their usual color as he heard the other IceWings whispering. What are they saying about us? he wondered. He knew that they were all out of place except for Juneau, but the looks they were giving them were beyond suspicion. They looked...scornful, even. At least, from the older dragons. The younger ones looked more curious than anything. When he took a seat, Juneau was rattling off the names of the various other IceWings at the table, her brothers and other relatives that served as Queen Akutan’s advisors and generals.

“I wasn’t aware we would be having guests, Your Majesty,” one IceWing said, loud enough for the whole table to hear. Gallant saw the speaker, a severe-looking IceWing who had his eyes narrowed at the entire group. “Let alone ones that are not IceWings.”

“They are guests of my daughter, Reindeer,” Akutan said sternly. “I expect you to treat them properly while they are here.”

Reindeer hurriedly bowed his head and Gallant let a flush of yellow brush across his scales before turning them back to their usual dark blue. That's settled that, I bet. Akutan clapped her talons and a troop of servants entered the room, each carrying a platter. Meat and fish were present on every platter, and as one servant set one of them down among the group, Gallant cringed at the smell of the raw meat. Blood still dripped from the cuts, pooling in the plate itself.

“All of you go ahead and eat up,” Queen Akutan said. “We have much to discuss afterward.”

Chapter Text

Dinner seemed to pass by fairly quickly. The IceWings ate silently, barely any small-talk passing between them other than several small, terse conversations between Akutan and her advisors. Gallant caught more than a few curious glances coming their way, mainly from some of the younger IceWings at the table, Juneau’s siblings. There were five of them, not including Juneau herself, all male. Even though Juneau had hissed around their end of the table to let everyone know their names, Gallant had almost immediately lost track of which was which.

Everyone else took part in the food, taking pieces from each platter gingerly and putting them on their own plates. Juneau held a hurried, whispered conversation with Forsa, directing him on the proper way to take food, how to cut it, and where the best parts were. Gallant simply sat, staring uncomfortably at the meat.

“Is something wrong?” Mesa whispered in his ear.

“I don’t eat meat,” he whispered back. “What do I do?”

“Well, just…” Mesa looked around, finally setting her eyes on a plate of fish. “Have some fish or something? There’s no fur on them.”

Gallant cringed, but followed Forsa’s lead as he took a piece. He thought he’d felt out of place in Possibility with all of its different tribes, but now he had absolutely no idea where his place even was. The high, cold ice walls of the palace scattered light everywhere around them, and with the utensils and fancy table he found himself missing the simplicity of the RainWing village even more. There was nothing this formal in the rainforest; even visiting royals had taken dinner with Brilliant by lounging on various hammocks as they ate and talked casually. He stared at the piece of fish on his plate, grimacing at it. “I’m…not hungry,” he muttered awkwardly as he gingerly pushed the plate away with a talon.

“You need to eat something!” Juneau hissed at him from her spot across the table. “Don’t be rude!”

“There’s nothing here I can eat!” Gallant hissed back. He flicked his eyes down the table. Some of Juneau's brothers were watching them, but trying not to be obvious about it. “RainWings don’t eat meat! Not usually!”

“You still need to eat something,” she replied firmly. “You need to keep your strength up.”

Gallant glanced back at the fish, shutting his eyes and grimacing. Doing his best to imitate how Forsa was carving up a piece of polar bear meat, he cut a piece of the fish, stabbed it with the fork at his plate, and shoved it into his mouth. The fish was freezing cold and chewy, though it had a nice crunch to it from the scales. Gallant chewed for as long as he could, then swallowed it, shuddering as he felt his scales shift again to a pale orange color. That was the worst thing I’ve ever eaten in my life, he thought as he looked down at the rest of the fish with distaste. But I guess I have to finish it.

It took him a good while to finish the fish. Each time he downed a piece he had to work up his nerves for several more minutes until he picked another. Eventually the servants brought out wine, which he drank eagerly, doing his best to restrain himself from gulping down the wine’s rich flavor to get the taste of the fish out of his mouth. Finally, what seemed like an eternity later, the only dragons left in the dining room were the five dragonets, and Queen Akutan herself.

“I hope you all enjoyed it,” she said.

“It was delicious as always, Mother,” Juneau said. She looked towards the others, her eyes lingering on Siren. “But now, if I could—”

“Yes, you may,” Akutan said. “Take the others to my parlor, I’ll see you there.”

“Yes, Mother,” Juneau replied. She bowed as Akutan took her leave, everyone else imitating her. Juneau's brothers and the other IceWing nobles followed after her. As soon as the doors shut behind her, leaving the group alone, Gallant spat loudly and repeatedly.

“Ugh!” he groaned as he flicked his tongue in disgust. “That was nauseating.”

“That’s what most dragons in Pyrrhia eat,” Siren said teasingly. She gave Gallant a playful bump with his shoulder. “It’s not our fault your tribe’s stomachs are weird.”

Gallant dug into his bag and bit into the first thing he grabbed, a mango. After his first bite he shoved the rest of it into his mouth with a huff. The others waited for him to finish the fruit off, before Juneau finally said “My mother’s parlor is this way. Everyone try not to get lost; the palace is preeeetty big.”

“It’s nice to see you more cheerful for a change, Juneau,” Forsa observed as they started walking, Juneau in the lead with everyone else following her. “The whole time since we met you’ve always been so…stern.”

“I’m just glad I’m home,” Juneau replied, giving a weary smile. “And safe.”

“Are we safe here?” Mesa asked as she looked around at the palace. A multitude of doors lined every hallway, staircases leading up or down to other parts of the palace as the group walked. They passed multiple guards, all armored and holding spears, who saluted Juneau as she passed but stared coldly at the others. Gallant could feel the cold formality in every sculpture and archway, and now felt even more out of place. “It doesn’t…seem very welcoming…”

“It is to IceWings. Sorry, we don’t get very many visitors,” Juneau smiled apologetically. “We used to, a really long time ago. We had a place where diplomats could meet, a dome that was warmed with animus magic, but when we lost Prince Arctic that all stopped, too.” She looked back at them again. Her expression was much more apologetic this time, but she waited as they passed another pair of guards. “Please don’t feel like you’re not welcome, though; my mother’s a good queen and everything, and my brothers are really friendly. It’s just that when we’re in the presence of other nobles there’s…protocol.” She made a face as she said the last word as if it carried a disgusting taste.

Finally, after they followed Juneau around a dizzying array of hallways and staircases, they came at last to the queen’s parlor as the guards saluted Juneau. Juneau pushed the doors open, revealing a cozy, round room that projected out from one of the walls of the palace. The translucent ice beyond offered a breathtaking view of the dark ocean beyond the Ice Kingdom’s shores, and an aurora covered the sky in light, reflecting off of the ice and bathing the room in color. An elegantly worked crystal table sat in the center of the room, and the room’s floor was covered in animal pelts, the group’s talons sinking into the soft, warm surface.

Queen Akutan sat on one side of the table, her back to the windows, her bright blue eyes watching all of them closely as the group entered. Unlike the finery she had worn during dinner, she had changed, instead wearing only a white silken scarf draped over her long, graceful neck, and her crown. She gestured with a talon to the tea set that was in the center of the table, along with a bowl of various berries, their surfaces kissed with ice. “I hope you all enjoyed dinner,” she said as they entered, the guards shutting the door behind her. “There’s some refreshments here if any of you are still hungry. Although…I suspect at least one of you found the food not to your liking.”

Gallant bristled, but relaxed slightly as he saw Akutan’s teasing smile. “My apologies,” she continued. “Had I known my daughter would bring guests when she came home, I would have had our chefs make something everyone could be satisfied with. I will keep that in mind for the future.” She turned her eyes to Juneau, and patted the spot next to her. Juneau obediently sat and Akutan’s wing unfolded, wrapping gently around her and hugging her tight. The others sat around the table in spots of their own, Mesa sitting between Siren and Gallant as Forsa sat on Siren's opposite side.

“I’m so glad you’re home, little diamond,” Akutan murmured as she nuzzled Juneau’s forehead. “We’ve been hearing disturbing news, and every time something else happened I was worried for you. What are you doing back?”

“I had to, Mother,” Juneau said. She turned her head to look at Siren. “Something…happened in the Kingdom of the Sea. After you left.”

“I did hear about that,” Akutan said as she turned her eyes to Siren as well. “Something about a SeaWing princess being blamed for the death of the king.”

“I didn’t do it,” Siren said immediately. She slammed her talons on the table for emphasis as she glared at the queen. “Please, Your Majesty, please trust me, I didn’t kill my father! I wouldn’t hurt anyone with my magic, I swear!”

“And I believe you, dear,” Akutan said gently. She brought her wing around Juneau a bit more tightly. “I know my daughter is a good judge of character. She wouldn’t have brought you all this way if you had done it.”

“Can she stay, Mother?” Juneau asked. “Please? There’s nowhere else she can go. They’re looking for her in the Kingdom of the Sea, and I promised Queen Seahorse we could keep her safe.”

“I would be glad to,” Akutan assured her, lightly tapping Juneau on the snout with a claw. “But now…” She swept her eyes along the others. “Why have you brought all of these other dragons here? You said they’re your friends.”

“Yes,” Juneau said. “They are. We all met in the Rainforest Kingdom. Gallant is the Prince of the RainWings and Mesa is—”

“I heard about what happened to your mother,” Akutan said. She looked at Mesa with pity. “I’m very sorry to hear it. She was a valuable ally…and a good friend.”

Mesa let out a nearly inaudible, squeaky thanks. “D-did you get a letter from my uncle, too?” she asked. Gallant snorted as she started to shiver, her fear clearly evident on her face. "A-are you g-going to take me t-to him?"

“We did receive a letter, yes,” Akutan said. “I said I would keep a lookout for you, and keep you safe until it was safe for you to return.” She cocked her head. “The letter said you had fled the kingdom in fear after a SkyWing assassin killed your mother.”

“It wasn’t an assassin!” Mesa yelled suddenly, with surprising force. She spread her wings, nearly hitting Gallant in the face as her tail sprung up from behind her back. “My uncle killed her! Right in front of me! He tried to kill me too, or make me a weapon or…or…”

Siren twined her tail with Mesa’s, shushing her gently. “It’s okay, Mesa. It’s alright. You’re safe here.” Mesa pressed herself against her, sobbing quietly. Gallant’s scales flashed orange briefly, but he kept himself from saying anything. Now wasn't the time to snap at her, especially when they were speaking to a queen.

Akutan was staring at Mesa, her eyes narrowing. “Did he now?” she said quietly. She straightened up, looking Mesa over in detail. “Well then, in that case I’ll just let the news that you’ve arrived here sit for a while, shall I?”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Forsa said.

“You are welcome,” Akutan told him. “Though I can’t say beyond my daughter’s introduction I know who you are.”

“I’m…nobody,” Forsa said, suddenly much more nervous. His eyes flicked around for a moment, as if trying to focus on anything else. “I met Siren and Juneau in the Kingdom of the Sea.” He nodded towards Siren. “Siren saved my life.” He smiled at her. “And it’s because of her that I’m here.”

Gallant stiffened as Akutan’s eyes slid over to fix him in their gaze. “I do know a bit about you, at least, Prince Gallant. Your mother speaks very highly of you.”

Gallant’s scales brightened to yellow at that, but he tried to keep a neutral face, nodding. “Thank you, Your Majesty.” Mother told her about me, he said, feeling the surge of pleasure on his scales. Good things, too. To a queen! He quickly shook himself and tried to push the feelings back down. Don't get distracted. This is important. 

“So why are you here?” Akutan cocked her head. “It’s a very long way from the Rainforest Kingdom.”

“My mother sent me with them,” Gallant said, nodding at everyone else. “She had…a sense that something was wrong in the rest of Pyrrhia. She sent me to find out what that was.”

“And something really is wrong, Your Majesty,” Siren said. “We think that what happened to my father and to Queen Jackal are both connected.”

“We don’t just think!” Juneau exclaimed. “We know!”

Over cold tea and berries they told Queen Akutan everything that had happened since King Mako’s assassination. Siren and Juneau and Forsa’s flight from the Kingdom of the Sea, their encounters with Wendigo and Kraken, their stay in the Rainforest Kingdom and then their flight and experiences in Possibility. Gallant took over as he told what he had heard in the SandWing and NightWing camp, not only when their suspicions about Queen Star had been confirmed but about the brewing civil war among the SandWings. Finally, after several hours, Juneau finished up, telling them about the journey until they finally reached the IceWing palace.

Akutan sat back among the furs, her face contemplative as she rubbed her snout with a talon. “This is a lot to take in,” she muttered softly. She slowly ran her eyes over each of the dragonets. “But you’ve all done exceptionally well in making it this far.”

“What do we do, Mother?” Juneau asked. "We don't even know who's behind this...not for sure, anyway, and we can't ask you to start a war or anything!" Mesa flinched at the word "war", but stayed quiet, only cringing.

“I need to discuss this with my advisors,” Akutan replied. “But for now, I’m sure you and your friends are exhausted.” She clapped her talons together and one of the guards opened the door. Akutan gestured to the others. “Find rooms for these dragonets, please.”

“Siren can stay with me,” Juneau said as Siren started to get up. “Put the others somewhere close to the royal apartments, if you can.”

The guard bowed his head and left the room, everyone else following. Gallant looked back over his shoulder to see Juneau and Akutan lingering in the door to the parlor. Akutan bumped her snout gently against Juneau’s and wrapped her in a hug before sending her off after the others, Juneau’s claws skittering on the ice as she caught up.

“She seems nice,” Gallant observed as Juneau rejoined the group.

“Mother always told me that a queen has two faces,” Juneau said. “One for her tribe, and one that she wears in private.” She looked back as Akutan watched them leave, then turned down a side hallway. “When she’s holding court or discussing things with her advisors, she’s like a completely different dragon. But I think the real Akutan is the one that I see when she’s with me and my brothers.”

Gallant felt Mesa shift nervously against him, but she said nothing. The guard led them through another dizzying maze of corridors and staircases, until eventually they came to another hallway. Various doors lined the walls and led to a number of rooms that all looked identical to Gallant. The guard stopped at the door and stood off to the side of the entryway as Juneau led everyone further in. “This wing is where all of the royal apartments are,” she said, waving her talons around to indicate the doors. “There’s a few spare rooms; the rest belong to my brothers, my mother, and I. Pick whichever ones you like.”

Finally, Gallant thought. We can finally rest. The group split up. Mesa and Forsa went towards two separate doors, while Siren and Juneau headed to a room at the far end of the hallway. Gallant tried doors until he found a room that looked undisturbed. It was a fairly small room, with a window that looked out over the palace and the snow fields beyond. The light from the moons, now high in the sky, shone down on the Ice Kingdom, bathing everything in white. Alongside the window, there was also a small desk and a bed that was little more than a block of ice with more fur pelts piled on top of it.

Gallant didn’t care. He shut the door behind him and collapsed onto the bed and the soft furs, sighing contently. He was exhausted; the nonstop flying from Possibility had taken its toll. His wings and shoulders ached, and with the soft, warm furs and Mesa’s enchantment, he felt more comfortable than he had in a while. And yet, despite how tired he was, sleep mostly eluded him. He lay on his side, facing the wall, frowning at himself as he saw his body reflected in the ice.

Well, you’re here, he thought at himself. Now what? You were supposed to go home at the border to the Ice Kingdom, but you came here, ate an absolutely awful dinner, and are now sleeping in the royal apartments. And why?

“To protect Mother and Toucan,” he whispered aloud. He clenched his talons, gathering up part of the furs in them. But he could protect them even better by staying at home, where he needed to be. Is this really the better option? He could leave right now and be back in the rainforest in days, where he could protect what mattered to him.

But you’ve come this far, he thought. Why not see it through to the end?

Because it wasn’t his problem, he told himself. The others had come into the Rainforest Kingdom, upended his life, scared his mother into kicking him out. He didn’t owe them anything. If anything, they owed him for letting them stay for so long.

But what if you leave them and everything ends up failing? His mind raced with that prospect. What if Star decides to throw out any kind of subtlety? Remember your history lessons. Remember what the NightWings would have done if Queen Glory hadn’t stopped them. That filled his head with visions of the rainforest burning, RainWings in chains, and his mother and sister dying. Gallant flinched, his scales briefly pulsing white. No. I won’t let that happen. I’m staying here.

His mother was right. With everything he’d seen, everything he’d heard…how could he go back? How could he just ignore the outside world and everything in it now? How could I abandon everyone else?

I wouldn’t be abandoning everyone else, he told himself firmly. I’d be protecting the dragons that mattered to me. Mother, Toucan, the RainWings. Everyone else can take care of themselves, they got this far.

But what about Mesa? Another part of his mind asked. She’s helpless. And she’s scared. She doesn’t know what to do with this.

If she’s smart, she’ll do what she has to if she wants to help her tribe. Gallant clenched his talons again. But if she doesn’t…

He growled in frustration and threw the furs over himself, curling up and trying to block out the thoughts. How can I protect the rainforest when I don’t know what’s happening? How can I do it when I’m all the way in the Ice Kingdom? Should I try and stop it when it comes, or end it before it happens? How can I keep everyone safe when I don’t even know where I’m supposed to be?

He thought this, his mind going around and around in circles, for hours. When he finally fell asleep, hours later, his dreams were fragmented and confusing, a whirlwind of rainforest foliage, desert sand, and the unnatural quiet of snow fields.

Chapter Text

Gallant woke up the next morning somehow even more tired than when he had gone to sleep. Yawning widely and spreading his wings, he got up off of the furs that covered his bed and walked to the window, blinking owlishly. As he looked out of the window, he could see that the palace complex was busier now. IceWings flew every which way through the air while squadrons of guards flew off on patrol, and even more groups of IceWings carried back large fish or other animals towards the palace or other areas. In the courtyard below the window he could see more IceWings walking around, the sun glimmering on their white scales.

Dragonets chased one another around the courtyard, squealing and laughing and hurling snowballs thick and fast at one another. Older IceWings talked to one another or looked like they were training, sparring with each other in mock combat or racing one another in great loops around the palace walls. He could also hear the shouted commands of soldiers as they drilled, the sounds of marching talons and war cries coming from another part of the courtyard that he couldn’t see.

Out beyond the walls of the palace, Gallant could see the sun reflecting off of the seemingly endless fields of snow and ice. Snow-capped mountains rose in the distance, and Gallant could hear the sounds of the ocean around the palace smashing against ice floes and sheer cliffs, distant yet clearly audible all the same. Everything seemed to echo off of the walls of the palace, the elaborate decorations amplifying the sound and making everything seem louder than it was. In the quiet of the Ice Kingdom, the sounds seemed even louder.

Gallant left his room and stepped out into the hallway, looking around. No other dragons were in the hallway except for two soldiers that stood at the entrance. They watched Gallant as he stepped out of his room, but he did his best to ignore their cold, piercing blue eyes as he looked in each room. Most of them had their doors open, exposing the rooms within. Most of them were also furnished identically to Gallant’s room; there was a “bed”, covered in furs, a small desk, and various other small decorations. Do they not let their royals decorate? he wondered. Or are the royal rooms somewhere else?

When he got to one particular room that he assumed was Juneau’s, the look changed. This room was bigger, and along with the larger bed, Gallant could see that Juneau had a large desk pushed against one wall. Scrolls were stuffed into a large rack next to it with more scattered around the desk, held down with small weights on each corner. Small, ornate ice sculptures hung from the ceiling, reflecting the sunlight and scattering it across the walls. Gallant looked back towards the guards. They were still watching him, but they didn’t move or try and stop him as he walked into Juneau’s room.

He walked over to the desk, peering down at the scrolls that covered its surface. They were maps of Pyrrhia and Pantala, markings of the borders of each kingdom on both continents, notes on who was queen where, and what the names of their heirs were. The Pyrrhia map had been extensively written on, and Gallant could smell fresh ink on the map as he looked over the markings. Queen Jackal’s name had been crossed out of the Kingdom of Sand, replaced with Hyena’s. Settlements had been marked out, and notes pondered which towns were safe and which ones were too dangerous to travel to. Even Possibility had question marks written around it, with a note mentioning the camp of soldiers sitting next to it. More notes mentioned how there were SandWings still loyal to the queen, which then led to the whole kingdom being circled and a large note of “Where would we be safe?”

"Still planning, huh?" he muttered. Juneau always seemed to be thinking. Then again, it was obvious who the brains were in their whole little flight for now; Juneau came up with the plans, gave the orders, made sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to. He snorted as the memory of her growing at him in Possibility came back into his head. But, at the same time, he couldn't be mad at her; he was the same way with the RainWings back in the Rainforest Kingdom. He kept everyone on task, gave orders when he needed to. Though he had to admit, he didn't think about their situation nearly as much as she seemed to.

A knock at the door made him turn. He was expecting a guard, but instead Forsa peeked his head in and smiled at him. “Morning, Gallant,” he said. “Did you sleep well?”

“Not in the least, but I think you already knew the answer to that,” Gallant said. He yawned widely, his tail curling and then straightening back out as he blinked sleepily. “What about you?”

“Well enough,” Forsa replied. He looked around Juneau’s room. “Huh. So this is what a princess’s bedroom is like.” He looked at Gallant, his expression puzzled. “Why are you in here?”

“I was looking around. Just curious, is all,” Gallant replied. He walked out of the room and Forsa fell into step beside him. They walked down the hall and into the next corridor, turning left and walking along the sides. They passed out of the hallway and onto a long balcony, the palace’s wall on one side while the other was a simple ledge, large columns of carved ice supporting an ice awning overhead. “Where are the others?” Gallant asked as they walked. “I’m pretty sure Mesa was in the room across from mine, but she wasn’t there when I looked.”

“Juneau and Siren already went off somewhere,” Forsa said. “Juneau was really excited to show Siren pretty much everything in the Ice Kingdom.” He laughed. “For all I know, they’ll be gone all day.”

“What about Mesa?” Gallant asked.

“She told me she was going off to explore the palace,” Forsa said. “This is the first time she’s been out of the Kingdom of Sand after all. I guess she was curious about how other queens’ palaces looked.”

“I’m curious myself,” Gallant said. “Aren’t you?”

Forsa shrugged. “Sort of. My troop and I never really went near Queen Rail’s palace. The closest we ever got was when we took trips to the lake that it sat by.”

“Do you ever miss them?” Gallant asked, glancing at Forsa and running his eyes down his long neck to his scarf. It fluttered in the cold breeze, though thanks to Mesa’s enchantment Gallant barely noticed the chill. “Do you ever want to go home?”

“Every day,” Forsa replied. His expression turned sad, and he looked down at his talons as they walked. “I miss everything about the Mud Kingdom. The squelch of the mud under my talons, the sounds of the swamp, the feeling of my siblings around me. I miss their warmth at night, I miss how we made fires and when Egret told us stories she made up.” Forsa stopped himself, closing his eyes and sighing. “I miss everything.”

“But you haven’t considered going back,” Gallant said. He looked around, taking in the palace, then turned his attention back to Forsa. He's just as out of place as I am here. “You never thought of just...leaving all of this?”

“No,” Forsa replied with a shake of his head. “Because I know I can’t.” He flicked his eyes over at Gallant. “I know you were thinking about it though.”

“Can you blame me?” Gallant arched an eyebrow at him. “I don’t belong here, Forsa.” He spread one wing out, indicating the Ice Kingdom as it glittered beneath them. “None of us do. This isn’t our kingdom, it’s not our tribe. Any of our tribes. But all we’re doing is sitting here instead of trying to protect them.” He pulled his wing back in and shrugged at Forsa. “How am I supposed to keep my family safe if I’m not there to protect them?”

“You’re not the only one who had to leave family behind,” Forsa said. “Siren’s mother and sister are back in the Kingdom of the Sea, and she has no idea what’s happened to them. Juneau was worried about her mother and brothers too, before we got here. You think I’m not worried about my troop back in the Mud Kingdom?”

“Are you not?” Gallant asked. He stopped, looking down at Forsa. The NightWing was smaller than he was, though not by much. “You apparently just left them on a whim before Siren and Juneau found you.”

“You don’t know anything about why I left,” Forsa growled as he stepped forward. The sudden motion made Gallant take a step backwards to keep the distance between them. “So don’t act like you do. You can’t know what everyone’s thinking just by looking at them.” He poked Gallant in the chest with a talon. “The other tribes don’t wear their emotions on their scales like you do.”

“But you do know,” Gallant replied. He waggled his talons next to his head. “Remember? The mind reading?”

“Like I said while we were on our way here, it’s not like I can turn it off,” Forsa said. “And it’s not as useful or harmless to listen to as you seem to think it is.” He walked to the edge of the ledge and sat down as he looked down into the courtyard. “I can hear the thoughts of every IceWing around us. I can hear all of those dragonets down there, wondering the same kinds of things that the dragonets in Possibility did. Last night I heard the guards that let us in worrying about their families with the rumors that were coming from the rest of Pyrrhia. All of those rumors of war brewing and trouble in the Kingdom of Sand that could spill over into the Ice Kingdom. And every night we’ve been traveling together and even as we were flying during the day, I’ve listened to the others’ thoughts, too.”

He sighed, rubbing his temples with his talons. “I’ve listened to Mesa dream about her mother, and how she died, and how Mesa was too scared to try and save her. I’ve listened to Juneau worry about protecting Siren and her brothers if Wendigo and Kraken were able to follow us here, where we can go to be safe, what we're going to be doing now that we're here, and so much else. And I’ve listened to Siren’s dreams, how she misses her family and kingdom, how she wants to go home but can’t, because they’re probably still looking for her there and the moment she was spotted, she'd be arrested and probably executed. And, she’s worried about what they might do to her mother and sister.” He looked over his shoulder at Gallant. “And I heard everything you were thinking last night, too. About whether to leave and go back to the rainforest or stay with us.”

Gallant watched as Forsa put his face in his talons and sighed. “I know that none of us belong here. But I can’t just leave and go home when things are the way they are. When I’ve seen everything that the others are worried about, the things they’ve gone through.”

“But it doesn’t have anything to do with you,” Gallant said. He sat down next to Forsa. “Do you think you owe Siren a debt because she saved you? Or are you trying to make yourself feel better because the NightWings are behind all of this?”

“I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do,” Forsa replied. He dug his claws into the balcony, scoring small scratches into the ice. “I already couldn’t save one dragon. I failed him and I’m not going to fail any others if I can help it.”

“But that still doesn’t mean it’s your responsibility to save every dragon,” Gallant replied. “Why put yourself at risk for dragons you don’t even know?” He nodded out into the air, to the IceWings flying every which way. “You know Juneau, but you don’t know any of the other IceWings around here. You don’t know any other RainWings except me and my mother. You don’t know any SeaWings except Siren, and no SandWings except Mesa.”

“But all of those other dragons are still in danger.” Forsa said as he turned to look at Gallant again. “If we don’t do anything, and just let Star do whatever she wants, what’s going to happen? You keep telling Mesa that she has a duty to go back to the Kingdom of Sand and save her tribe. But you don’t care about any of the others? What, do you think Siren should go back to the Kingdom of the Sea right now and plead her innocence?”

“Unlike Mesa, I actually expect her to at some point,” Gallant said. He snorted at the thought of Mesa doing anything by herself. “She’s at least out here to help her tribe. She doesn’t come screaming to me every time something mildly inconvenient happens.”

“We’re all out here to help every tribe.” Forsa’s brow beetled as he leveled a severe look at Gallant. “Don’t you remember that? Why we’re here?”

“I care about my tribe,” Gallant growled, leaning forward and sticking his snout in Forsa’s face. “The Rainforest Kingdom. The RainWings. That’s it. I don’t need to know what every other tribe in Pyrrhia and Pantala is doing all the time!”

“Even though we already figured out that Star might want to take over all of Pyrrhia?” Forsa retorted. “You think she’ll just stop at the RainWing border if you don’t make any trouble for her?”

“Yes!” Gallant replied. “Why would she not? It’s worked for us for nearly our entire history.”

“Well not every tribe is like the RainWings!” Forsa snarled as he got to his feet. “You may like to run and hide in the rainforest but everyone else is different!”

“Well maybe everyone should just stay in their own kingdoms like we do so that things like this wouldn’t happen!” Gallant spat. “I don’t want to be here! I want to be back in the rainforest, with my mother, and my sister, and my tribe!”

“So does everyone else!” Forsa roared back. By now he was glaring at Forsa, his wings half-spread. “You’re not the only one out of their element here! Nobody else may want to be here but they’re here anyway! Even if they don’t want to be! At least they’ve accepted it by now! You keep saying that Mesa’s a coward but she’s still here, even when she wanted to go back to the rainforest! Your mother had to order you to come along with us!”

“What is going on out here?” A new voice, sharp and scolding, made both dragonets stand up straight and turn around to its source. Queen Akutan filled a doorway with her size, glaring at the two of them as she approached. A pair of guards stalked in behind her, with both their eyes and spears trained on the pair. “Do you two have nothing better to do than shout at one another?” Akutan snarled as she stormed forward, her back spines rising as a thin, frosty mist began to leak from the corners of her mouth. “Everyone in the palace can hear you!” She spread one wing to indicate the palace’s courtyard below them. Several other IceWings that had been flying around were hovering in place near the balcony, all staring at Gallant and Forsa.

Akutan turned to look at them, glaring. “As you were!” she snapped. The IceWings scattered like frightened parrots and flew away, whether down to the courtyard or out over the rest of the palace complex. Akutan turned back to Forsa and Gallant, her expression severe. “What is the reason for this racket?” she asked.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” Forsa replied as he bowed in apology. “Gallant and I were having a…discussion.” He shot Gallant a dirty look. Gallant growled back at him, deep in his throat.

Don’t you dare try and put all of the blame for this on me, NightWing.

“So I have heard,” Akutan said levelly. She turned her head to fix Gallant in her stare. “Come with me, Prince Gallant. I would speak with you myself.”

Gallant jerked a bit in surprise. Me? Why me? Why not both of us?

“Forsaken,” Akutan continued, turning to Forsa. “Your friend Siren and my daughter are currently down in the bay swimming. If you’d like to go join them, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.”

“Um…” Forsa took a step back, then blinked and bowed. “Yes, Your Majesty. Thank you.” He quickly dove over the ledge and took off, a black shadow among the otherwise uniform white scales of other IceWings. Gallant watched him go, his scales rippling red and orange, one after the other, as anger filled him.

That’s right. Run away and leave me behind while you go off and play. Some of us have real work to do. Or at least I would, if I wasn’t stuck here with the rest of you.

“Prince Gallant,” Akutan said again, drawing his attention. The IceWing queen was standing back at the door she had come through, looking back at him with her brow raised. “Walk with me, if you would.”

Chapter Text

Gallant took a deep breath and nodded. Akutan nodded back and then turned to head back through the door she entered the gallery through. The guards turned to follow as Gallant passed them, their claws clicking on the ice floor as Akutan and Gallant walked ahead. He let Akutan take the lead, and followed her as she turned down various corridors and led him up and down different stairways in massive rooms that stretched above Gallant higher than some of the jungle’s tallest trees. They passed through chilly hallways lined with ice sculptures of other IceWings and rooms lined with ice doors.

“I imagine that you’re wondering as to why I singled you out, Prince Gallant,” Akutan said after a time. She paused as they passed through an enormous atrium that could have held the central platform of the RainWing village with room to spare. In its center was a glittering ice sculpture of some renowned IceWing, her wings spread as she raised her talons to the sky. Akutan turned to him, her head cocked as she waited for him to answer.

“Um…a little,” Gallant said. He huffed, sending a cloud of steam into the air. Not like I was the only one yelling. Why do I have to come along with you but Forsa doesn’t?

“You seemed to be the one that needed this conversation the most,” Akutan explained. She turned around again, beckoning him after her with her tail. Gallant followed as they went into another hallway. Tapestries lined the walls, each one showing moonlit snow fields, IceWings flying over tumultuous grey seas through cloudy grey skies, and lines of noble IceWings, their heads all held at the exact same angle in massed rows. Gallant was unimpressed; while the tapestries were well-woven, the stark, muted colors were nothing like what he preferred from the Rainforest Kingdom.

“I don’t follow, Your Majesty,” Gallant said as he observed each weaving.

Akutan chuckled. She beckoned to him with her tail again. Gallant sped up to match her pace as he moved around to her side. This close, he was aware of just how tall the IceWing queen was. She towered over him, and likely would have even towered over his mother if the two ever met, despite looking younger than her. He could see tightly corded muscle moving beneath her scales, which glistened and glimmered with each movement.

“How much do you know of IceWing history, Prince Gallant?”

“Nothing,” Gallant said. “There was never any reason to learn.” He felt his scales lighten slightly to a brighter, more curious shade of blue as he squinted at Akutan. “Why?”

“I heard a bit of my tribe’s history in your…conversation…with Forsaken,” Akutan said. She turned them down another hallway. Here there was more art, a number of large paintings that depicted IceWing after IceWing, all drawn up in royal regalia. They all were in the same pose; muzzles pointed upward, imperious and noble, of a variety of ages, colors, and sizes, but all unmistakably royal. Akutan looked up at each picture as they walked past them.

“For many thousands of years, we IceWings prided ourselves on our isolation. Our discipline, our training, how we not only lived, but thrived in the harsh environment we live in. We thought other tribes were inferior to us. That nobody could match the might, the sophistication, the grandeur of our tribe. That everything that made those tribes who they were, made them less than us. Weaker than us.”

Gallant cocked an eyebrow at her. “Really?”

Akutan smiled and let a soft chuckle slip out of her mouth. “Yes. It sounds ridiculous, centuries after. But the IceWings did think that way, once upon a time. We always thought that, if we wanted to, we could conquer all of Pyrrhia, and nobody would be able to stop us. Because we were IceWings.” She looked down at him. “We not only thought that of Pyrrhia, but ourselves. For thousands of years, we judged our dragonets on their successes and failures. On how they did things the IceWing way, rather than their own. Their performance with those judgments could bring them to the height of society…or curse them to hardship and obscurity. Any influence from the other tribes was to be stamped out. We even had an enchanted wall, centuries ago, that would fire icicles at any non-IceWing that approached. For thousands of years, the Great Ice Cliff kept any other tribes out of the Ice Kingdom.” Gallant saw one corner of her mouth quirk up in a smile. “Does that sound like a tribe you know?”

“No,” Gallant growled. He beetled his brow as his scales flickered orange. What is she implying? “The RainWings don’t do that. We still let other tribes in for trade and traveling.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “And we certainly don’t think we’re better than everyone else.”

Akutan barked a laugh that echoed around the hall. “Indeed you don’t! Your mother and I’s negotiations have always been lovely. But at the same time…” she looked down at him again, her expression serious once more. “You still don’t see the rest of Pyrrhia as being worthy of your help. Why?”

“What?” Gallant’s scales flushed emerald in surprise. “No I don’t! I don’t think that at all!”

“Truly?” Akutan arched an eyebrow at him and stopped in the center of the hallway. “Then why do you not want to help the other tribes, when they might all be under threat from the NightWings, including your own?”

“They don’t need the RainWings’ help,” Gallant replied. “And we don’t need theirs. Mesa has plenty of support back in the Kingdom of Sand, but she’s too much of a coward to take advantage of it. The Kingdom of the Sea is the same way. At least Siren wants to go back eventually and isn’t just waiting for nothing to happen, like Mesa.” He snorted, and sent up another cloud of steam. “Everyone should just fix their own problems instead of dragging the rest of Pyrrhia into it.”

Akutan was quiet for a minute, her bright blue eyes staring at him flatly. Gallant fought the urge to fidget under her stare; it reminded him of when he was little, whenever Brilliant had scolded him for misbehaving. Finally, Akutan sighed and continued walking. Gallant followed after her. “You know, it was not very long ago that the rest of Pyrrhia thought of the RainWings as lazy cowards.”

“I know,” Gallant replied, his scales again shifting to an annoyed orange color. As if we don’t get enough of that now, he thought angrily, remembering Forsa and the others’ words. He glanced at her. “That included the IceWings, didn’t it?”

“Most likely,” Akutan said casually. “But all the same…Pyrrhia has never been so peaceful as it was when the Dragonets of Destiny were around. They helped keep the peace, settle disputes…and even helped to teach future generations.” She looked up at a certain portrait as they passed it. Gallant looked at it too, then looked down at the nameplate that simply read “MINK” in big, bold, commanding letters.

The dragon that was portrayed in the picture, though in an identical pose to the others, still looked like one of the kindest dragons he’d ever seen. Even though her expression was severe and stern, the painter had been able to portray an aura of warmth and good cheer from her. Her face seemed to look like it was barely holding the serious expression together, as if Mink were about to burst into giggles at any moment.

“That goes for the IceWings as well,” Akutan said. She stopped as they passed Mink’s portrait, and looked down at him. “You may have noticed, Prince Gallant, that the IceWings do not rule Pyrrhia, or have the Great Ice Cliff any longer. We were broken of that unjustified pride when we realized just how much all of Pyrrhia's tribes relied on one another. Each tribe relies on the others for trade, certain food, diplomacy, and more. And what happens to one of us may very well affect all of us. If Hyena were to stay on the throne of the Kingdom of Sand, what do you think would happen? I’m sure that Princess Mesa told you the circumstances of why her uncle killed her mother?”

“Because she was too willing to negotiate with the other tribes,” Gallant answered. He cocked his head at her. “What about it?”

“If every tribe was left to their own devices and to solve their own problems,” Akutan continued, “what do you think would happen if the Kingdom of Sand found out that the RainWings knew where she was, yet had not been truthful? Or, perhaps, if Hyena believed that Mesa was still in the rainforest? I imagine Princess Mesa has told you of her uncle's desire to find her. Do you think he would ask politely for her to be returned?”

Gallant forced his scales to not turn white as the thought struck him. The thought of the rainforests burning, of raging infernos tearing through the jungle as animals and dragons alike fled before it. He tried not to think of SandWings descending on the village, spraying fire everywhere, lashing out with their tail barbs, their claws, their teeth, their weapons. He tried not to think of what would happen to his mother and sister then.

“If the SandWings were to invade the Rainforest Kingdom,” Akutan said with a calmness that was almost disturbing, “what would you do?”

“We’d fight!” Gallant replied, and flared out his ruff as his scales began to turn red. “The RainWings aren’t as helpless as the rest of Pyrrhia might think! We fought the NightWings before! Queen Glory beat them, all on her own!"

“Yes, I have heard more than a few tales of RainWings surprising dragons,” Akutan chuckled. “But do you think it would work? After all, if what you told me is true, and the NightWings and SandWings are allied, do you truly think that the RainWings would be able to fight them off? Without help?”

“Yes!” Gallant glared at her. “We’d fight, and we’d win! We know the rainforest, they don’t! We could hide, ambush them, and they’d never know where we were!”

“But they have fire, and you don’t,” Akutan pointed out. “Where would you hide if there was no more jungle?”

Gallant flinched. Once again he fought to keep his scales their current color as white tried to flicker in. Where would we go? The jungle's our home. If we didn't have it...what would we do? “We’d…we’d…”

“Do you truly believe that you would survive against both tribes?” Akutan pressed. She had fully turned to face him now, and was leaning her head down so that they were nose-to-nose. “Especially without help? But then, I suppose that it would be your own problem, wouldn’t it? Something only the RainWings needed to deal with. No reason to drag the rest of Pyrrhia into a problem that doesn’t affect the rest of them.”

“That’s—” Gallant’s scales flushed even redder. He felt anger building up in him too, but tried to suppress it. She doesn't know anything about us! She doesn't know how we'd react, or what we'd do! “That’s not what—”

“Is it not?” Akutan asked doubtfully. She raised her eyebrows as if surprised. “That is what you said, isn’t it? Each tribe should deal with their own problems and not drag the rest of Pyrrhia into their troubles? Why would the RainWings not simply fight the SandWings and NightWings on their own?”

“Because we’d lose!” Gallant snapped. That's obvious enough, isn't it? What is she getting at? “Even the IceWings can’t fight two tribes at once! Not on their own!”

“So you would require help?” Akutan asked, her voice still carrying a tone of mock surprise as she canted her head to the side. “You would require allies from outside of the Rainforest Kingdom to come and help your tribe to survive? But what about the rest of Pyrrhia?”

“My tribe comes first!” Gallant said. “I don’t care what I would have…to…do…” His mind slowed to a stop as he realized what he was saying. His scales changed color again, changing to pink as he flinched away from the queen. “What I would have to do to keep it safe,” he finished quietly.

“Even if it meant asking for help,” Akutan added. She nodded in what Gallant thought was approval. “You’re already beginning to think like a prince. Your mother would be impressed. And yet something else still bothers you; Princess Mesa, as you said. Do you believe that she should solve her problems on her own as well?”

“Well…no.” Gallant admitted, still not looking at her. “But that still doesn’t mean she can just stay here, or in the Rainforest Kingdom, doing nothing but being a coward instead of helping her tribe! She stayed in my tribe’s village for weeks doing nothing but hide, and even now that we know she has allies in her own kingdom, she still doesn’t want to try and take it back!”

“And why do you think that is?” Akutan asked.

“Because she’s too scared, obviously,” Gallant snorted. His embarrassment was forgotten as he rolled his eyes at the thought of Mesa. “She’s spoiled rotten, never had to do a thing for herself—”

“Would you say the same of any princess in her situation?” Akutan asked.

“No,” Gallant scoffed. “Siren and Juneau both want to go back to the Kingdom of the Sea. They both want to help stop Queen Star somehow, too. All Mesa wants to do is hide.”

“Have you ever thought, Prince Gallant, to think of the reason why Mesa is so terrified?”

Gallant’s scales turned orange as he fought the urge to roll his eyes in annoyance. Is she not listening? I just told her! Just stay calm, Gallant. Don’t roll your eyes at a queen. “Because she’s a coward. She’s too scared to do anything to actually help her tribe. Even if her uncle killed her mother, she has a duty to go back and reclaim the throne.”

“Truly?” Akutan asked. The mock-curious tone was back in her voice. “So, if I may ask, would you think the same of your sister, if your mother were to die and she was too terrified to take the throne?”

Orange turned to emerald once again. “Of course not!” Gallant took a step forward as the surprised emerald was burned away by angry red. “Toucan has no business trying to be queen yet! She’s half my age! She’s younger than Mesa! She’s not ready to be queen!”

“Yet you think Mesa is?” Akutan asked, raising her eyebrows again. “If Toucan saw you and Queen Brilliant be brutally killed in front of her, as Mesa saw with her own mother, do you think that she would be in any fit state to become queen?”

“Toucan is strong,” Gallant said. “She can take it.” But the thought was still there, nibbling at his mind with doubt. How would Toucan do without us? We’re the only family she has…Especially if she thought the killer was still out there. He tried not to think of the sight of his sister covered in his own blood, or how she would react. Toucan’s never had anything bad happen to her in her life…would she be strong? Or would she break down like Mesa?

“It is not an easy thing, to take over from another queen when they have met a violent death,” Akutan said. Her voice had once again returned to that eerie calm. “Especially when it seems like a crisis is brewing.” She stopped in front of another portrait, this one depicting yet another IceWing female. The nameplate at the bottom of the portrait read “SNOWFALL” in the same large letters as the other portraits. “Queen Snowfall here became queen after her mother died of a plague. She came to power fearing that most of her subjects did not see her as a worthy queen, and that her sister would attempt to kill her and take her place.”

“Is that how Queen Mink came about?” Gallant asked, looking back at the previous portrait. Akutan laughed, her voice echoing clear and pure off the hallway’s icy walls.

“Not at all. Not all of the IceWings you see here became queen; Mink remained a princess her entire life, as she preferred. No, Snowfall’s fears were entirely unfounded. Her older sister Crystal couldn’t have wanted the throne less. But even so, Snowfall was not ready to take the throne. She was young, only a few years older than you, when she did, and she feared what other tribes might do to the IceWings in such a vulnerable position, to say nothing of how poorly many of her subjects thought of her.” She looked up at Snowfall's portrait, and smiled at her. “It was not an easy thing for her, to become the great queen that she turned out to be. And she did not come through it all by herself, either.”

She looked down at Gallant. “It was only through the help of other dragons, both IceWings and dragons from other tribes, that helped her to see other perspectives…and help her gain the confidence she needed to be queen.”

Gallant’s scales returned to their normal dark blue as he mulled Akutan’s words over in his head. Akutan lowered her head down in front of him, a small smile flicking across her muzzle. “Not all dragons are the same, Prince Gallant. Some princesses may flourish under pressure and prove to be truly great queens. Others may do poorly. But still others do have the potential to be great…they simply need help realizing it. Do you understand?”

Gallant was about to say something, when the sound of a scraping claw echoed down the hallway. Both he and Akutan turned to the opposite end, where they were just fast enough to catch a barbed tail flicking around a corner, while the sound of scrabbling talons faded away. Akutan chuckled quietly. “Not often I have eavesdroppers. But my question remains, Prince Gallant.”

“I…think I understand, Your Majesty,” Gallant replied hesitantly. He took a deep breath and sighed, letting it out slowly. “I can…try. I guess.” He looked back up at her, quirking an eyebrow skeptically. “But…Mesa, of all dragons?”

“She might have a great deal of potential, if she can be helped past her fear,” Akutan said. She straightened up, walking back down the hallway to her guards. “Thank you for the talk, Prince Gallant. It was enlightening. I shall see you at dinner, perhaps?”

Gallant stayed in the hallway as Akutan walked away with her guards. He stared after her, then turned his head back to where Mesa had run to. Maybe…it’s worth a try.

Chapter Text

Following his conversation with Akutan, Gallant decided to go find the others. It took him some walking around, but eventually, by deciding to just take every staircase he saw down, he began to make his way out of the palace. The place was mostly empty at this time of day; Gallant saw a few other IceWings, but for the most part they were servants tidying up spots of the castle or ensuring things were put in their proper place. Others were guards standing at the entrances to certain areas in the inner palace. They watched Gallant walk by, but otherwise didn’t move or try and stop him.

Gallant once again felt out of place. The high, cold, austere walls of the IceWing palace were nothing like the RainWing village, where the air was constantly filled with noise as RainWings flew in every direction, calling to one another, stopping in mid-air to chat, or passing by on errands. Here in the IceWing palace, the air was quiet. There were barely any other IceWings passing him by, and when they did they were silent, or speaking to one another so quietly that he couldn't hear them, unlike the loud exuberance of the RainWings.

Is this what Mother wanted? Gallant thought as he walked down a flight of stairs, its bannister decorated with tiny IceWing statuettes on every landing. Each one was posed identically, their back spines flared out and their wings spread wide. To be around all of these other dragons? Know how they think, how they live? He didn't think he'd like to live in the Ice Kingdom. With everything so quiet and drab, he thought he might go insane.

Possibility had been something of a new experience. While he’d still felt out of place there, it had at least reminded him somewhat of the rainforest. There was color and music and noise, and he’d even seen a few RainWings among the crowds. The close confines and throngs of dragons had made him almost feel like he was back in the RainWing village. But he’d been so focused on getting to the Ice Kingdom so that he could finally leave and go home that he’d ignored it. Here, separate from everyone else, and now lost in the IceWing palace, it was more like he didn’t really have a choice. The palace’s twisting, maze-like corridors moved him in random directions as he picked hallways at random, trying to keep track of where Mesa might have gone.

He assumed it would be different if he were like Juneau, growing up in the Ice Kingdom and living in the palace every day. But he himself couldn’t figure out where he was at any time. All he could do was just keep going down. This must be how other tribes feel when they go into the rainforest. Except instead of quiet and confusing, there it was probably loud and confusing. And hard to get through. He still remembered following Siren, Forsa, and Juneau through the rainforest as they entered it, creeping silently from tree branch to tree branch as he had listened to them grumble and complain at the snarling vines, the thick branches, the constant noise of the jungle animals.

He hadn’t been outside much in the Ice Kingdom, but seeing the endless snow fields, the broad stretches of tundra, and the seemingly all-too-small patches of trees had made him feel nervous. It was so open here in the Ice Kingdom. Unlike the close comfort of the rainforest’s trees, the forests of the Ice Kingdom were few and far between. He couldn’t imagine living here. But maybe that’s what Mother was trying to tell me. That all of the tribes are different. Maybe everyone else misses their own homes just as much as I do.

He thought of how the Kingdom of the Sea must be; endless water stretching across the horizon as far as the eye could see, only broken up from time to time by islands of all shapes and sizes. There was water in the Ice Kingdom too; he’d seen the dark seas and their crashing waves as they’d passed along the coastline, but was that something Siren enjoyed? Would she want freezing cold water instead of the ocean she was more familiar with? He wondered what it was like, underwater, in the Kingdom of the Sea. Was it like a forest of its own? Was it warm or cold? What sort of things were down there for SeaWings to do? What was their art like? Their music? Brilliant had gone to the Kingdom of the Sea several times, though Gallant had always elected to stay behind, to handle things in the village in her absence.

He found himself wondering about the Mud Kingdom, too. He couldn’t read minds, and Forsa didn’t have scales that changed color, but whenever he’d talked about the Mud Kingdom his face had always taken on a wistful expression, so he clearly missed it. Gallant had run across MudWings many times while patrolling the borders; they’d always seemed calm and deliberate, a little slow but good-hearted overall. But the Mud Kingdom had always sort of reminded him of the Rainforest Kingdom whenever he’d seen it from afar. Thick-set trees and plenty of noise, though it didn’t seem as full as the rainforest did.

 And then there was the Kingdom of Sand. Endless sand dunes as far as he could see, only broken up from time to time by large rock formations that towered into the sky. He couldn’t imagine living in a place like that, but maybe the wide-open skies and rolling sand were just as loved by the SandWings. Maybe the heat felt good to them. He knew that he'd felt good flying across it; it had felt like they were in sun-time, all the time, and he hadn't even had to ask Juneau to stop so they could nap for a while, he'd felt so energetic. But at the same time, there hadn't been any trees except for around scattered oases they'd flown over. He couldn't imagine living without trees, but maybe Mesa wasn't so attached to them? She'd complained about vines more than enough, he thought with a burst of bitterness. For all I know she's, enjoying the Ice Kingdom. Maybe with how empty it is it reminds her of home.

Which brought him back to where he was now. The Ice Kingdom was beautiful, he had to admit, in its own way; the sight of the sun sparkling on the artfully carved buildings of the palace complex and reflecting off of the snow beyond its walls was a sight to see that reminded him somewhat of home, of the sun reflecting off of the leaves of the rainforest’s trees after a storm, or on any normal morning when dew was still on the broad, flat leaves and sparkled in the sun. But he knew it wasn’t the same. The quiet, the empty expanse of white. None of it felt right to him.

The sound of claws other than his clicking on the cold floor jerked him out of his thoughts. As he finally reached the bottom of the all-too-long staircase, he saw Mesa standing in front of a large ice sculpture that depicted a female IceWing, her wings curled around her as a small orb floated between her talons. Gallant walked over, spotting the name “FROSTBITE” engraved in the bottom of the sculpture. Mesa didn’t appear to notice him, and he looked up at Frostbite’s face. “Any idea who she is?” he asked.

Mesa jumped and scrabbled away from him, and let out a high-pitched squeak as she barely stopped herself from slipping on the floor. “By all the snakes, don’t do that!” she gasped. “You nearly scared my scales off!”

“Relax,” Gallant snorted. “It’s not like anyone here will hurt us, if Juneau’s right.”

Mesa frowned as she walked past him, apparently done observing the statue. “If she’s right,” she muttered. Gallant turned and followed her. The two walked down yet another long hallway. A few dragonets went the other direction, chatting idly while glancing at the two.

Gallant and Mesa were quiet for a while before he finally decided to break the ice. If Akutan wants me to understand, I can try, I guess. “So,” he said aloud. “How’s your day been so far?”

“It’s been alright,” Mesa replied, still not looking at him. “I’ve just been exploring the palace, mostly.”

“You and me both,” Gallant said. “I don’t know how Juneau finds her way around here. I’m surprised you haven’t gotten lost.”

“Who knows?” Mesa said. “We might both be lost.” She looked up at him. “What about you? How’s your day been?”

“You probably know by now,” Gallant replied. He looked down at her, arching his brow. “How much did you hear?”

Mesa flinched and stepped away from him, but kept walking. Gallant snorted again, though more in amusement than annoyance. “It’s not polite to eavesdrop, you know,” he said. “Why were you listening to us, anyway?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Mesa muttered. “Not my fault that you two were in the same part of the palace that I was.” She glanced over at him, and her scowl deepened. “Besides, it’s not like I couldn’t hear you and Forsa yelling at each other from the bottom floor. It’s kind of hard to ignore that kind of noise, if you didn’t know.”

Gallant flinched. Did everyone hear us? He shook his head. “Either way. Have you seen anyone else today?”

“No.” Mesa shook her head. “I did run across one of Juneau’s brothers, but that’s it.”

One of her brothers? Gallant’s scales briefly pulsed emerald in confusion. “Really? What did he want? Who was it?”

“Queen Akutan’s oldest son,” Mesa replied. “His name’s Blizzard. And we didn’t really talk about anything; he just asked me how I was, how I slept, if I was enjoying the kingdom.” She shrugged her wings. “He seemed nice enough.”

Eventually they reached the end of the hallway, out into a small entrance hall that was filled with other dragons and dragonets, chatting and laughing with one another. Some were entering the room while others were going out, leaving through the door or splitting off into other hallways that led to other parts of the palace.

“So why are you here, anyway?” Mesa asked. “Were you following me?”

“Not really.” Gallant said as he threaded his way through the IceWings that thronged the floor. Mesa followed in his wake, her tail barb curled up close to her back. “I was actually trying to find everyone else. Forsa went off to find Juneau and Siren, and Queen Akutan said they were swimming by the bay.” They both stopped at the door and he looked down at her, flicking his tail from side to side. “Would you…like to come with me?”

Mesa straightened up in surprise, then turned to look at him. She blinked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes, before she finally flicked her tail barb and shrugged. “I suppose so.” She spread her wings and took off into the cold sky. Gallant spread his wings too and followed after her. He sighed, orange flickering across his scales as he stared at Mesa’s back.

I suppose so, she says. What, is she trying to imitate me because she thinks it’ll make me respect her? He growled quietly. I’m trying to be nice to her now, the least she can do is take notice.

They flew around the palace and out towards the sea. Though the sun reflected off of icebergs floating around near the shoreline, the sea was still extremely dark, a nearly black shade of blue that made the ice floating on it stand out even more. They flew over white-dusted patches of cold, bare earth and snow fields until they reached a grey, pebbly beach, the roar of the surf reaching their ears. Gallant winged forward to be next to Mesa. “Do you see them anywhere?” he asked, louder than normal so she could hear him over the waves.

Mesa nodded and pointed forward. “Down there.” Gallant followed her gaze to where he could see three dragons, two brightly-colored and one darker, blending slightly into the dark blue water, but still quite visible. They were all splashing about in the water close to the shore, and Gallant could hear all three yelping and laughing as they splashed one another and dove under the water. Gallant saw Forsa leap up out of the waves and dive on top of Siren, who squealed loudly before the waves covered them both. They burst up again almost immediately after, wrestling one another before Juneau leapt on top of them and added herself to the scrum. The sounds of the trio's laughter echoed off of the ice floes and short rock cliffs that surrounded them as Gallant and Mesa both flew in to land, their talons crunching on the pebbles.

“There you are!” Forsa said as he heaved Siren off of him. He left the water and gave himself a good shake before he took his scarf off of a rock it had been resting on and wrapped it around his neck again. “How did everything go with the queen?”

“It went fine,” Gallant replied. He sneered at Forsa. “Thank you, by the way, for just leaving me to deal with her alone.”

Forsa shrugged, grinning ruefully. “Sorry. She insisted. And she would have made me leave, one way or another.”

“Gallant!” Siren called as she and Juneau splashed their way out of the sea. “Mesa, hey! You two found us!” She shook herself off, too, sending more water droplets flying everywhere. “How are you two liking the Ice Kingdom so far?”

“It’s…interesting,” Gallant said. "Nothing like the rainforest."

“The palace is really big…” Mesa said. She grinned sheepishly. “I don’t think the royal palace back home is that big. I nearly got lost a few times.”

“And I had a talk with the queen,” Gallant said, shooting a dirty look at Forsa, who simply arched an eyebrow at him.

“About what?” Juneau asked, shaking herself too as she got out of the water and making her spines clack together as she squinted at him suspiciously. “I hope you behaved yourself.”

“I did!” Gallant exclaimed, offended. “I was a perfectly-mannered dragonet the whole time we were talking. But we didn’t talk about much. She asked a lot about me. The rainforest and everything.” He saw Forsa arch his brow, but ignored it. “What have you all been up to?”

“Juneau’s been showing me around,” Siren said. “We need to take you guys to some of the sculpture gardens later, they’re supposed to be amazing! Juneau showed me one carving in the palace that’s a scale model of the whole place, and it has all of these tiny IceWing sculptures inside it, too!”

“Mother promotes the arts a lot,” Juneau explained, with a giggle at Siren’s eagerness. “She says that every dragon has something inside them that wants to come out. To her, art is a great way to do that.”

“Better than what they used to be,” Gallant muttered to himself, remembering Akutan’s words. “So, what else have you two done?” he asked, louder.

“I really only gave her a tour of the palace,” Juneau said. “We haven’t even really gotten to the rest of the city yet. But there’s the sculpture gardens, the schools, the places where some of the more minor nobles live…I could even show you a few of my favorite spots out in the rest of the kingdom, too.”

“Is that safe?” Mesa asked worriedly. “We’re supposed to be staying hidden…”

“I doubt that anyone that’s been looking for us knows where we’ve gone, Mesa,” Juneau replied. “And besides, we’re perfectly safe here in the Ice Kingdom. We told my mother about both Wendigo and Kraken, so if either of them comes here looking around, the guards will know. And my mother isn’t going to write to your uncle and tell him we’re here, either, remember? She promised.”

“Not that he could get here anyway,” Siren said. “Even with these bandages I can feel a bit of how cold it is.” She looked up as a tiny snowflake drifted down in front of her. She craned her neck to look up into the sky, soon followed by everyone else as more snow began to fall. Gentle flakes drifted down onto the ground, melting as they hit the group's scales or the rocks on the shore. There was a brief silence as they watched the snow fall, before Siren turned to look at Mesa. “So we’ll be safe here, Mesa. I doubt any SandWing could get this far into the Ice Kingdom anyway.”

“O-okay,” Mesa said, shakily. They stood there on the beach for a while longer, watching the snow fall. Though the waves still crashed down on the ocean, the snow seemed to lend the beach a sort of tranquility that hadn’t been there from the rocky beach and dark waves when Gallant and Mesa had first arrived.

Gallant made a face as he shook some of the snow off of his talon. He barely felt the cold, but the wetness and shock of freezing as he put a talon into a small, newly-formed snowdrift made him miss the rainforest even more. “So,” he said, as he looked out into the ocean. Grey clouds covered the sky as far as the eye could see, all the way to the horizon. “What do you all want to do now?”

“Can we go to one of the sculpture gardens?” Siren asked Juneau. “Like, maybe your favorite?”

“Sure!” Juneau said, grinning. “It’s been a while since I’ve been to one anyway; I bet they’ll have some new pieces!” She looked at everyone else. “I don’t think any of you have ever seen an ice sculpture before, have you?”

Everyone else shook their heads, and she grinned even wider. “This will be a new experience for you all, then!” She spread her wings and took off into the air. “Come on, follow me!”

Siren was next into the air and flew off after Juneau, the others following after her. Mesa and Gallant flew next to one another, Mesa looking up and around at the snow as it drifted down to the ground around them. Gallant looked around too, watching as the fluffy white flakes swirled and fell around them. He caught one on a talon, peering at its countless tiny connections before it melted away in his palm. He turned his head to look at Mesa, who had turned her head again, peering down into the IceWing city as they flew over it.

Potential that can be reached if she can realize it… Gallant thought to himself. Is that actually true for Mesa? 

Chapter Text

Gallant discovered a new thing that he hated about the Ice Kingdom as the group flew through the ever-thickening snow. While it wasn’t a blizzard by any stretch, the snow fell thicker and thicker as they flew, and Gallant was forced to repeatedly blink flakes out of his eyes as he and the rest of the group flew through them. He could feel his scales flickering orange through the dark blue every time a flake hit him in the face, and he could feel his face running with water from melted snowflakes, dripping off of his jaw. Everyone except Juneau was forced to duck their heads against the snowflakes, and Gallant heard her laugh as she looked back at them all.

“Oh come on!" she called back at them with a laugh. "It’s not that bad!”

“Easy for you to say!” Forsa shouted back. “You’re used to this sort of thing!”

“Are we at least almost there?” Gallant asked. “We’re not going that far, are we?”

“It’s just below us,” Juneau said. “Follow me.” She dove down towards the ground, and everyone else followed in her wake. They set down in a wide-open plaza, snow being thrown into twisting flurries as they flapped their wings to slow their descent and sent them flying everywhere. As they set down on the cold, snowy ground, Gallant looked around. The statue garden was a vast expanse of open land, icy plinths sticking out of the snow and holding dozens of different ice sculptures around them.

“This is the plaza where only the best sculptors are allowed to display their work,” Juneau said proudly. She turned to face the others and spread her wings to indicate the many different sculptures. “Siren, you want to take a look around?”

“Sure!” Siren said, beaming. “Come on, Forsa!”

The three of them walked off into the garden, leaving Gallant and Mesa alone. Gallant looked around curiously at the sculptures. Art made out of ice…weird. RainWing sculptors normally made wooden statues, carving them from lengths of wood taken from the rainforest’s trees or discarded sticks, when they weren’t painting or making flower art from a rainbow of different blossoms. He looked down at Mesa, who was observing the sculpture closest to them. The sculpture was of an armored IceWing warrior, a spear clasped in one talon and with a helmet tucked under his opposite arm. The warrior stared off into the middle distance, ever watchful for enemies of the Ice Kingdom.

It was a nice sculpture, Gallant had to admit. The dragon was so painstakingly carved that he looked almost alive on the plinth, and his eyes were hard and dangerous-looking. But… “It’s a bit…boring, don’t you think?” he asked Mesa. He saw her jump at his words, then look up at him.

“W-what do you mean?” she asked, turning to look back at the statue. Gallant sat down next to her and gestured to the whole sculpture, flapping his talon up and down.

“I mean…where’s the flair? Where’s the passion? Back in the Rainforest Kingdom, every bit of art at least has some color to it.” He looked down at her. “You remember Queen Glory’s statue, right? That was all wood but at least she had the flower crown and everything.” Looking back up to the statue, he scowled. “Here it’s just…an IceWing. Made of ice. There’s no embellishments, no exaggeration, nothing to draw the eye.”

“N-no, I agree with you,” Mesa said. She looked up at the sculpture and cocked her head to the side, then squinted her eyes a bit like she was taking in other details. “And…it’s too cold. I-I mean…” she looked around at the many other sculptures. “I know we’re in the Ice Kingdom and all, but…even with all the detail it looks so…lifeless. Not at all like the moon globe tree is.” She pointed back towards the palace with her tail-barb, where even in the snow Gallant could see the tree’s glow illuminating the palace’s facade. “There’s no…light to it. No warmth.”

“Warmth doesn’t really seem to be an IceWing thing,” Gallant said. He stood up and beckoned. Mesa followed and they walked off into the garden together, towards an area where the sculptures were more thickly packed. “I mean, there’s Juneau, she seems nice enough. But all of the other IceWings we’ve seen don’t really seem to be all that…emotional.”

“Queen Akutan isn’t like that either. Or…wasn’t,” Mesa corrected herself. “Maybe it’s just whenever they’re at home or something.”

“Or whenever she has to be queen,” Gallant said. “My mother does that sometimes, too.”

“She does?” Mesa asked, looking up at him. Gallant nodded.

“Juneau said that her mother had two faces—for when she was queen, and when she was just with her family—and my mother’s the same way. She always tries to be calm for everyone else, even when there’s something happening. She told me that she did that so that when the rest of the RainWings saw her being calm, they’d think she had a handle on things and not panic either.” Gallant looked down at Mesa. “That’s probably why Akutan does what she does. If it looks like nothing affects her, then the rest of her subjects will respect her and not freak out if there’s ever a crisis.”

“Oh.” Mesa looked down at the ground, scuffing through the snow with her talons. “My mother didn’t do that.”

“What did she do?” Gallant asked. “My mother thought of her as a friend, but she never took me along whenever she went to visit the Kingdom of Sand.”

By this point they were walking along the path that looped around the outer edge of the garden. In the distance, Gallant could see Juneau, Siren, and Forsa all walking together, Juneau chattering away about a sculpture they were gathered around. A few other IceWings were also walking around the garden, looking at certain sculptures or, more often, staring at the non-IceWings in their midst. One turned away quickly as Gallant met his gaze, trying to look very intently at the nearest sculpture.

“Mother always tried to look friendly to everyone,” Mesa continued. Her voice became distant, wistful, as she spoke. “She always tried to be one of those kinds of queens that everyone thought cared about the tribe. If anyone had a crisis, she wanted to be the kind of queen that would always be there for them. She said she wanted to be a queen that was among her tribe, instead of above them.” She sighed. “My uncle…didn’t think that way.”

“What do you mean?”

“He always said that Mother should have been above her subjects. Keeping watch for anything that could threaten the tribe from outside the kingdom. The SkyWings, the IceWings, the NightWings, the RainWings, all the tribes around us that he said were just waiting for any kind of weakness.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “He said that if we let anything slip, that they’d invade us and take over. He didn’t even want any other tribes in our borders. My mother had to stop him from taking over Possibility at least once. He said the SkyWings couldn’t be trusted so close to the border. And that the SandWings that lived there might be…corrupted.”

Gallant let out a snort. “Corrupted? Is he serious?”

“He was,” Mesa said, nodding gravely. “He doesn’t want SandWings interacting with any other tribe. He thinks that they’ll get weird ideas that’ll make the kingdom weaker. Things like how we should live in peace with the other tribes and not be so jumpy that we’ll be invaded all the time.”

“Oh,” Gallant scoffed, “he must hate Jade Mountain then.”

“He does.” Mesa cringed, then hunched slightly and ruffled her wings a bit. “Mother wanted to send me there so that I could meet other dragons and learn about the rest of Pyrrhia before I took the throne. He fought with her about it all the time…before…” Mesa stopped talking and she paused on the pathway, fiddling with her bracelet. In the snow, and with the clouds overhead, the amber drops seemed much duller than they usually were.

Gallant’s scales shifted to yellow briefly, though he stopped himself from looking too happy. I’m glad Mother never tried to do that. I’ve learned plenty by staying at home. But at the same time, as his scales faded back to their usual dark blue, he couldn’t help but wonder. But her uncle is…sort of like me. He doesn’t want any other dragons in his kingdom, either. The thought of being similar to the kind of dragon that would murder his queen chilled Gallant, and some of his scales briefly flashed white before he forced the feeling back down.

But I wouldn’t kill Mother over that, would I? I mean…Mother’s talked about sending Toucan to Jade Mountain before, but we let other dragons into the Rainforest Kingdom all the time! They’re just merchants mostly, but otherwise… He felt his scales flush pink briefly before he shoved their feelings back down. I never wanted the RainWings to get involved in the rest of Pyrrhia. I wanted to keep them safe…But I wouldn’t kill Mother over it! I’m not like Hyena!

He shook his head vigorously, then jumped as he saw Mesa staring at him.

“Are you alright?” she asked in concern. Her big dark eyes swept up and down his front, from his talons to the tips of his horns. “Your scales were turning all sorts of colors.”

“I’m fine,” Gallant said impatiently. He started walking again. “Come on.”

He and Mesa moved to another part of the garden where more sculptures waited. Here the sculptures were more varied; one particular sculpture depicted four different spheres of varying sizes. The three smaller spheres hung around the largest in different positions, and Gallant cocked his head as he peered closer at the sculpture. Two parts of it were oddly engraved in shapes that he realized looked like dragons. Not only that...they looked like Pyrrhia and Pantala. “Is this…us?”

“You mean like, the world?” Mesa asked. She circled the sculpture, then nodded in agreement. “I think so, too.” She pointed at each of the circling moons with her tail barb. “If it is, then these are the moons. Imperial, Oracle, and Perception.” She circled the statue again, and gave an impressed whistle as she looked closer at the globe. “Wow, you can even see the continents and the kingdoms carved in. Look at this! It is the world!”

“I never pegged you for a stargazer,” Gallant said as he looked at her. “Isn’t that more of a NightWing thing?”

“There’s a tower in the SandWing palace where you can look at the stars,” Mesa replied. “When I was little my mother took me up there one night to look at the moons. She told me their names, showed me constellations, things like that. That was the first time I’d really looked at the night sky. I mean…really looked at it.” She looked up into the sky, smiling wistfully. “Out in the Sand Kingdom, there’s almost nothing that can block your view of the sky. You could see so many stars out there that I bet you could live forever and still never be able to count them all.”

Gallant looked up at the sky too. It was grey and overcast, and snowflakes still fell all around them. If anything, Gallant thought that they were coming down more thickly than before. “I’m sure it looks better when you’re actually in the Kingdom of Sand,” he said wryly.

He heard Mesa giggle. “Yeah, I think so too. Maybe when the weather clears up we’ll be able to see more. Now that we’re finally somewhere…safe.” Mesa’s voice faltered on the last word and Gallant looked back down at her. Mesa had sat down on the path, her tail curling around herself as she looked up at the sky. Snowflakes landed on her scales and almost immediately evaporated, leaving trickles of water flowing down her body and adding to the tears that began to leak from her eyes. Gallant frowned and took a step closer to her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“No!" Mesa sobbed suddenly. "No, I’m not okay! I don’t want to be here anymore! I don’t want to be anywhere! I just…” She sniffled, wiping her eyes as fresh tears leaked down her face anyway. “I miss home! I miss the palace, I miss the Kingdom of Sand! I want to go home! I…”

“Miss your mother,” Gallant finished. Mesa didn’t say anything, simply nodding and sniffing loudly again. Gallant walked over and sat down next to her, looking at the IceWing palace in the distance. “I don’t blame you,” he said finally. “I’ve spent my entire life in the Rainforest Kingdom until I came on this trip. And now that we’re all the way across Pyrrhia, I…I’ve never felt more alone.”

“What do you mean?” Mesa looked up at him, confused.

“I’m in a place that’s almost the exact opposite of the rainforest, with no other RainWings around,” Gallant replied. “I had to leave my family when they might be in danger.” He sighed. “And…I have to admit, I’m kind of lost.”

“You? Lost?” Mesa asked, now looking even more puzzled. “But Gallant, you’ve never been lost. You always seemed like you knew what to do for everything you had to.”

Gallant snorted loudly. “You’d think that. I did know what to do for everything…When I was in the Rainforest Kingdom. But out here…I don’t know anything, I’ve found. I’ve been so set in my ways and everything that I’ve been approaching everything from that perspective. That everyone should just keep to themselves, and keep everyone else out of their problems.” He shook his head. “But that’s not what my mother wants. And it’s not even realistic to think about, either. It just…took me a while to see that.” Gallant looked at Mesa again. “And that applies to you, too.”

Mesa blinked in surprise. “M-me?”

Gallant nodded and was about to continue talking, but the words died on his lips when he saw an IceWing come in for a landing in the garden. He wore a metal breast plate and greaves, but looked thin, haggard, and exhausted. Around his neck was a small glass vial on a silver chain. “Hold that thought.” Gallant stood up and started walking towards the soldier. Mesa scrambled after him, trying not to slip on the snowy ground.

“P-Princess!” the IceWing called as he staggered his way towards where Juneau, Forsa, and Siren were standing around a sculpture of an IceWing that stood in the shadow of what looked like the moon globe tree, her talons and wings spread around it. “P-p-princess J-J-Juneau!”

Juneau and the others turned towards the guard as he called out to them. Juneau in particular jerked backwards, apparently in surprise, then stepped forward again, cautiously. “Tern?” she called back as Gallant and Mesa reached the scene. “Tern, is that you?”

“Princess…” Tern replied, a relieved grin seeming to struggle its way onto his face. “You’re alive…thank the…ice spirits…”

Why’s he moving so oddly? Gallant wondered. Tern’s movements were random and erratic, like he was barely in control of himself. He hitched in his steps and seemed as if he was trying to walk both forwards and backwards at the same time, his spines flaring up and then falling back down against his neck. Is he sick?

“Tern, you escaped!” Siren exclaimed. “How did you get away? The last time I saw you, you were—”

“Princess S-Siren…” Tern said, turning his head towards her. “You’re alive t-t-too. Good…good…”

“Tern, how did you escape?” Juneau asked. “Do you know anything about what’s happening in the Kingdom of the Sea? What’s happened to Queen Seahorse? Remember? Siren’s mother?”

“Is my sister alright?” Siren asked as both of the princesses came closer to Tern. As they approached him he suddenly dug his claws into the ground, as if trying to resist walking forward any further, or like he was trying to back away, but couldn't.

Gallant glanced at Forsa, who was squinting suspiciously at Tern, his wings half-spread.

“D-don’t!” Tern hissed, even as he took another step forward. “D-Don’t c-c-c…”

“Tern, what’s wrong?” Juneau asked. She stepped forward anyway, closer to Tern. Gallant watched him dig his claws even further into the ice, his talons carving small furrows in the ice as they forced themselves forward.

“P-Princess…” Tern gasped as she came even closer. “D-Don’t…S-Stay away!”

“Tern, what’s wrong?” Juneau repeated. “Are you sick? Or hurt, or something? Did they do something to you?” She turned around and called to some of the other dragons in the plaza. “One of you, go to the palace and get my mother! Tell her Tern is back!”

Gallant saw several IceWings take to the sky and fly back towards the palace, their white outlines quickly blending back into the falling snow. That done, Juneau turned back to Tern. “Tern, if you’re hurt, tell me. You’ve been missing for a week! Did you stop at all on your way here? How did you escape?”

“C-Couldn’t…” Tern stammered. “Y-Your H-H-Highness, please…d-don’t get…closer…”

“Juneau!” Forsa called suddenly, alarm in his voice. “Get away from him!”

“Tern,” Juneau pressed. “What’s wrong? You can tell me! Just say it!”

Tern bared his teeth as he pulled himself backwards, digging his claws so deep into the ice he nearly shoved his whole talon through as he looked at Juneau. In the half-light of the overcast sky, Gallant saw tears start to leak down his face. Tern whispered something that Gallant couldn’t hear, then he roared as he lunged at Juneau in a spray of snow, and everything dissolved into chaos and screaming and thrashing white scales.

Chapter Text

“Juneau!” Siren shrieked as Tern tackled Juneau to the ground, the two IceWings kicking and thrashing and sending waves of snow flying everywhere. Gallant surged forward, his ears filled Juneau’s screaming, Tern’s roaring, and Forsa’s shouting. As Gallant got close, Tern’s spiked tail lashed out of the fog of snow and slammed into him. Gallant went flying and felt his back slam into an ice sculpture that immediately shattered into pieces, sending shards of ice flying everywhere. Gallant slammed roughly to the ground with a groan, feeling ice crunching under his back and blood leak down his shoulder.

He rolled back onto his stomach and shook his head to clear out cobwebs as he turned his attention back towards the fight. Forsa had now charged into the fray and was wrestling with Tern, trying to get him off of Juneau, but the IceWing was bigger than him, and was fighting back hard. Tern’s head darted forward and snapped at Forsa, but he ducked around and under Tern’s jaws and leapt forward, tackling Tern in the chest. The pair of them went rolling in Mesa’s direction and she shrieked in terror, spread her wings, and shot up into the sky. Siren had flown off in another direction, and Gallant could hear her yelling for any guards in earshot as Tern got his back legs underneath Forsa and heaved. Forsa flew over Tern’s head and slammed into the ground with a yelp.

Tern rolled onto his talons again and turned back to Juneau, who was just getting to her talons. She backed away as Tern advanced on her, her face a mask of terror. She was bleeding from a number of cuts and claw marks, and blue blood stained her scales and the snow around her. “Tern!” she cried. “What are you doing?”

Tern didn’t answer. Instead he let out another frenzied roar and lunged at Juneau again. She leapt upward and over him, but still yelled in pain as a wild claw swipe slashed across her ribs. Gallant scrambled to his talons and charged as Tern spun around to attack Juneau again, before Gallant rammed into him from the side. Tern’s claws threw up chips of ice as he was pushed to the side from the impact, but he turned with the blow and slashed at Gallant with his claws. Gallant flapped backwards and barely managed to avoid Tern’s serrated claws as they flashed past him, missing his face by an inch.

“Don’t!” Juneau shouted as Gallant opened his mouth, readying his fangs. “Don’t hurt him!”

Are you serious? Gallant thought, his eyes flicking back and forth between Tern and Juneau as the IceWing soldier snarled at them both. He’s trying to kill you!

Tern roared and leapt at Juneau again. She dodged around him but Tern spun against her, his tail lashing out once again and slamming into Juneau’s side. Juneau howled out in pain as she landed heavily in a snow drift, the impact sending more snow flying into the air. Gallant spat, black venom flying across the distance between he and Tern, but the IceWing darted forward, and Gallant’s venom flew over him and splattered uselessly on the ground.

Juneau was just getting back on her feet when Tern slammed into her, and the two of them went rolling talons over tails before he pinned her to the ground, snarling as he opened his jaws wide. Frostbreath burst from Tern’s mouth and Juneau jerked her head to the side. The frostbreath missed her face and instead coursed down her neck, and she cried out in pain again as she grabbed Tern’s neck on reflex, trying to throw him off of her.

“T-Tern!” she gasped. Her wings flapped frantically as she clawed at his underside, trying to get free. Tern tore his neck free of Juneau’s claws, snarling in pain as they left long gashes behind that gushed blue blood, before he raised his head, opening his jaws as he readied to bite…

But instead, another pair of larger jaws clamped around Tern’s neck and roughly hurled him off of Juneau. Gallant heard Juneau shriek in pain as Tern’s claws ripped through her scales, but watched as the guard flew through the air and slammed through two sculptures before coming to a stop against a plinth. He didn’t even have time to recover before Queen Akutan dropped on him out of the sky like a lightning bolt, fury in her eyes. Tern’s roar of challenge was cut off in a strangled gargle, and quiet finally descended over the garden.

“Juneau!” Siren called as she landed next to the princess and circled her anxiously. “Juneau, get up! Are you okay? Can you stand? Did he hurt you too badly?”

“Move, Siren,” Queen Akutan growled as she pushed Siren aside with her wing. Gallant saw her expression change from rage to concern as she looked her daughter over. “Juneau?” she asked, her voice undergoing a similar change as she softly nuzzled Juneau. “Sweetheart, can you hear me?”

“Mother…” Juneau gasped weakly. “Wh-where’s Tern?”

“He’s dead, dear,” Akutan replied. “Hold on. We’re going to get you help.” She pulled her head up and snapped at two of the other guards that were arriving in the garden, spears in talon. “Get my daughter to the healers! Now!”

The guards galloped over, each one supporting one half of Juneau as gently as possible and carrying her back towards the palace together. Siren flew after them, her wings pumping as fast as she could to keep up with the guards. Other guards were also arriving in the plaza, and even more IceWings hovered overhead and stared down at the garden, at the smashed statues and stains of blue blood dotting the snow. Gallant could hear shocked yelling and chatter from all around him as other IceWings landed.

“What happened? Was there an attack?”

“Was that the princess that just went by?”

“What’s going on? What was all the noise?”

“My sculpture! They just put it up yesterday! Who broke it?!”

“Your Majesty!” one of the guards yelled as he galloped over. “I’m sorry, we came as soon as Princess Siren told us what was happening, but—”

“What did happen?” Akutan asked, her voice once again ice-cold. Her eyes snapped to Gallant, who felt a chill go through his veins as those cold blue eyes locked with his. He had to fight hard to stop his scales from bleaching themselves white, and found himself backing away as Akutan stomped over to him, her eyes narrowed like he was an animal she had just managed to corner on a hunt. The wise and witty queen from his conservation earlier that day had disappeared, leaving only an angry mother dragon three times his size in its place. “Prince Gallant.” Akutan snarled. “Explain.”

“He was enchanted, Your Majesty.” Gallant turned his head to look behind him as Akutan perked up. Forsa came up behind him to stand next to Gallant, his talons shifting nervously. Gallant didn’t need for Forsa to have color-changing scales to know the NightWing was just as scared as he was. “Tern…wasn’t in control of his body.”

“What do you mean?” Akutan narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion.

“Well…um…” Forsa faltered a bit, then turned his head and pointed at the teardrop scales by his eyes. “I was born with the ability to read minds, Your Majesty. When Tern came back, I started to hear his thoughts. And…they didn’t sound natural to me.”

“Go on.” Akutan sat down. Even sitting, she towered over both Forsa and Gallant, and her cold blue eyes stared at both of them, unblinking.

“Well…” Forsa continued, clearly trying not to stammer, “they sounded…conflicted. Like, he was fighting himself. I was hearing all of these thoughts about him and how he had to try and stay away from Juneau, or warn her about something, but there was this…current, in the back of his mind. Just telling him to kill her, over and over again. To kill Juneau, and every dragon with her.” He flinched back, then looked at Gallant. “Including me, and Siren, and Gallant, and Mesa. Every time it repeated it got louder, until Tern started thinking it too. And...and I think he finally lost control of himself.”

“I see.” Akutan’s eyes hadn’t moved from Forsa since he began his explanation, but she looked off towards the palace, then turned and looked towards the endless snow fields of the Ice Kingdom. “Captain Cryo!” she called suddenly.

“Yes, Your Majesty!” The guard that had run up to Akutan before, spouting apologies, was by her side in a blink.

“Gather my generals and tell them to meet me in the throne room immediately,” Akutan said, without taking her eyes from the horizon. “Assemble the army as well. I want them ready to fly at a moment’s notice.”

“Fly to…where, Your Majesty?” Cryo asked. He cocked his head in confusion.

“The Kingdom of Sand,” Akutan said. “And even the Night Kingdom, if necessary.”

“But…” Cryo stared at her, wide-eyed. “Your Majesty, that would mean war with the NightWings and SandWings! What happens if we’re wrong? What if we—”

“They have tried to take the life of my DAUGHTER!” Akutan roared, her voice echoing around the plaza. She turned to face Captain Cryo and bared her teeth in a furious snarl. “Are you going to obey my orders, Captain, or will I have to start clawing my way through the ranks until I find a dragon who will?”

“N-n-no, Your Majesty!” Cryo replied. “I’ll go assemble the generals right now!” He took off without another word and flew off towards the palace. Akutan glared after him, then took off as well. She flew back towards the IceWing palace, too, leaving Gallant, Forsa, and Mesa alone. Mesa landed back on the ground, shivering as she hesitantly walked up to them.

“A-a-are you two alright?” she asked hesitantly.

“I’m fine,” Forsa said. He hissed a bit. “Just…sore.”

“I’m fine too,” Gallant said. He rolled his shoulders, trying to ignore the aches on his side and back from the hits he’d taken. He scooped up a talonful of snow and slapped it onto his side. The snow started melting immediately, but the cold at least helped to deaden the pain. “What about you, Mesa?” 

Stupid question, he thought to himself. She didn't even do anything because she was too scared. Again. 

“I’m okay.” Mesa looked past them both, her dark eyes focused on the IceWing palace. “But…Juneau…”

“They’re getting her to the healers,” Forsa said reassuringly. “She’ll be fine.” He looked over towards the plinth that Tern’s body still laid by, and a frown crossed his face. “What did they do to him…?”

“Let’s find out,” Gallant said. He walked over to Tern’s body, looking him over as Forsa came up next to him. Mesa followed hesitantly, but stopped a short distance away from Tern’s body as she curled her wings around herself.

“A-are you sure you should be p-p-poking him like that?” she asked. “Wh-what if there’s another trap or something?”

“There isn’t,” Gallant said. "Just be quiet and let me...Ah, here we go." He poked and prodded at Tern’s body until he found what he was looking for. Seizing the necklace, he pulled hard. The chain broke immediately, leaving Gallant holding it in his talons. “This is what they used.”

“A necklace?” Forsa asked. “But…couldn’t Tern have just taken it off?”

“Maybe it’s not the necklace itself,” Gallant said. The necklace was a small thing, mainly a small silver chain, but in the center was that same glass vial that he had seen when Tern had first arrived. Gallant hurled it to the ground and the vial broke open, and a small, rolled-up piece of parchment fluttered to the ground and landed among the glass shards. “There.”

“What’s it say?” Forsa asked as Gallant picked it up.

Gallant unrolled it and held the parchment close to his face to read the tiny, yet neat words written on it. “Enchant the dragon that wears this necklace to not be able to take it off of their own free will, and to find Princess Juneau of the IceWings, and any dragons with her, and kill them.” He looked back up at Forsa. “You were right. He was enchanted.”

“That’s awful,” Mesa gasped as she stared at Tern’s body. The IceWing’s neck was clearly broken, twisted at an unnatural angle. His eyes were still open, and they stared sightlessly at the cloudy sky. “He didn’t even have a choice!”

“He resisted as long as he could,” Forsa muttered. “But the magic was too strong.” He snarled and lashed his tail angrily. “Wendigo. It had to have been him.”

“Is he going to come here?” Mesa asked, looking up at him with fear in her eyes. “A-are we safe?”

“He wouldn’t dare,” Forsa said, though Gallant thought that he didn’t sound entirely convinced. “He’s just one IceWing. Even if he were an animus, he can’t take on the entire IceWing army by himself! But at the same time…” He put a talon to his chin in thought. “If Queen Akutan is willing to go to war over this…”

“She hasn’t declared war yet,” Gallant reminded him. “Remember, she just wants them to be ready. Even if Juneau’s hurt, Akutan won’t start a war without a good reason.” He looked at Mesa. “Would your uncle want that?”

“Not as long as he doesn’t have me, I think,” she said. “I would…I would be his secret weapon if he caught me, so…” She shook her head quickly and backed even further away. “I-I-I don’t know what he’d do!”

“And that makes it even more important that we stop him,” Forsa said. “If Queen Akutan does go to war over this, if the SandWings get involved, it might spread, or even mean the end of the Ice Kingdom or…or…something like that!”

“We can talk about this later,” Gallant said. “For now, we need to show Akutan what we found and make sure Juneau’s alright. Come on.” He spread his wings and took off, followed by the others. They flew back towards the palace, flying against the snow. It was starting to come down harder now, and though Gallant couldn’t feel the chill, he could feel the wind blowing. “I think there’s a storm coming,” he shouted to the others. “We need to get inside fast.”

“On the upside,” Forsa said with some forced cheer, “I don’t think Wendigo could get to us through a blizzard!”

Gallant rolled his eyes, but nodded. “Hopefully!”

Within a few minutes they were back at the palace and inside. Other IceWings crowded the corridors as guards made to close shutters over the windows. Forsa was soon able to find a guard to guide them to the infirmary. As they walked through the hallways, following the guard around the dizzying twists and turns of the palace’s halls, Gallant could hear whispers going on all around them. IceWings talked in pairs or small groups, and Gallant had a very good idea of what they were whispering about.

“They’re all worried about Juneau,” Forsa whispered as he walked up next to Gallant. “A lot of them saw her being carried in, but I don’t think they know what happened yet.”

“They probably won’t for a while,” Gallant whispered back. “Queen Akutan will want to make sure Juneau’s okay first.”

“She will be, won’t she?” Mesa asked as she squeezed between them both. “I mean…was she hurt that badly?”

“It looked pretty bad,” Gallant said. He cringed as he said it. Even Juneau isn’t safe here, in her own kingdom…And I couldn’t help her. I was useless. If something like this happened at home…Would Toucan still be alive afterwards? Would I be? Would Mother?

Forsa bumped him with a wing stretched across Mesa’s back. “Calm down,” he whispered as he furled it back up. “Juneau’s going to be fine. And so is your family, Gallant. It might even be like you said; Queen Star might not even do anything to the RainWings.”

“I hope so.” Gallant was still worried, but let those thoughts pass for now as the guard finally led them to a hallway with a pair of large doors. A full squad of armored IceWing soldiers stood in front of the door, and they lowered their spears threateningly as they spotted the trio come around the corner with their guide.

“They’re guests of the princess,” their guide said, and the guards relaxed slightly, but Gallant could feel all of their eyes on them as he looked around the hall.

Siren was sitting against the wall opposite the doors, staring at them as if she could bore her way through them with the intensity of her gaze. As the others rounded the corner and entered the hallway, she turned to look at them and jumped to her talons.

“You all came!” Siren cried in relief as she ran over, wrapping Forsa in a fierce hug and then doing the same to Gallant and Mesa. Gallant’s scales briefly flushed pink in embarrassment, but he tolerated the hug. “Oh, thank the moons, I’m so glad none of you are hurt!”

“How is she?” Mesa asked worriedly. “Is Juneau going to be okay?”

“The healers think so,” Siren replied. “They already got rid of the frostbreath injuries with some kind of animus-enchanted wand, and they don’t think her other wounds are too severe. But…” Siren winced. “Juneau’s in shock, I think. Not from her injuries, but…I don’t blame her. Tern was her bodyguard. He was with her when Akutan came to the Kingdom of the Sea to meet my parents, before my father died. He helped us escape…he sacrificed himself so that we could escape. I don’t understand why he would just…attack her out of nowhere like this!”

“He didn’t,” Gallant said as he showed her the scrap of parchment. “He was enchanted to do it.”

“Wendigo was probably the one that did it,” Forsa added. “Even with the blizzard outside, though, we can’t really put it past him that he knows where we are at this point. If he and Kraken followed Tern here, then we might not be as safe as we thought.”

“Well, Queen Akutan’s been warned about it,” Siren said. “She won’t let them in if she sees them, especially with what happened to Juneau. But…” she scratched her head with a claw. “If Wendigo disguises Kraken as an IceWing with his magic…they might be able to sneak in.” She gestured to the other IceWings in the corridor, the guards and a few IceWings that were passing by the hallway on their own business. Gallant saw a few sneaking glances at both them and the door to the infirmary. “And there’s way too many IceWings around to try and keep a lookout for two specific ones.”

“So…w-what do we do?” Mesa asked. “If they could still sneak in here, th-then that means…”

“It means that we’re not safe in the Ice Kingdom anymore,” Gallant said darkly. His scales started to turn red again. “And we need to leave. As soon as Juneau’s better.”

“And go where?” Siren gasped. “I don’t think Queen Peregrine will risk a war with the SandWIngs to shelter Mesa, especially since whoever’s controlling the Kingdom of the Sea right now might ally with Hyena to invade if they don’t give us up! We can’t go back to the Rainforest Kingdom, either! For all we know, they have SandWings or NightWings watching the borders in case Mesa comes back!”

“There is one place we could go,” Forsa said. He looked at each of their faces. “We go back to Possibility and show Mesa to the SandWings there.”

“What?!” Mesa shrieked. The sound echoed in the cavernous halls and the IceWing guards turned their heads in her direction as she backed away a few steps. “Go back to the Kingdom of Sand when we just left it? Are you crazy?”

“Didn’t you say you missed home?” Gallant asked her. Mesa whipped her head around to look at him.

“That doesn’t mean I want to go back!” she hissed. “What if my uncle hears we came back? What if those NightWing soldiers we saw find us? If they take us to my uncle they’ll kill you! And my uncle will get everything he wants!”

“There’s nowhere else to go where we might be safe, Mesa,” Siren said patiently. She looked back towards the door to the infirmary. “We can talk about it with Juneau and Queen Akutan when they let us in. But until then…”

“Until then, all we can do is wait,” Gallant finished. He walked over to the wall that Siren had been sitting against and sat down against it too, soon after followed by the others.

Even as they sat against the wall, their eyes locked the door as they waited to be admitted, Gallant couldn’t stop his mind from racing. We’re not safe here in the Ice Kingdom, it’s not safe in the Rainforest Kingdom…we can’t go to the Sky Kingdom, or the Night Kingdom, or the Kingdom of the Sea. Is this what Queen Akutan was talking about? Understanding why Mesa was scared? He didn’t know where they could go, who they could trust, what they would run into wherever they went. Suddenly, Mesa’s decision to hide in the Rainforest Kingdom and be suspicious of everyone felt a great deal more understandable.

And then there was what happened with Juneau. He hadn’t given much thought to the possibility of any assassins following them to the Ice Kingdom. While he’d watched out for a time, he’d allowed himself to relax once they figured that they hadn’t been followed to the Ice Kingdom, or even just to Possibility. But what if even that place isn’t safe? It’s an obvious hiding spot, and right on the border with the Kingdom of Sand. If we aren’t safe there, either…are we out of options? They couldn’t just keep running…could they?

How long will it be before we have nowhere to go?

Chapter Text

It was several hours before Queen Akutan finally opened the doors to the palace’s healing room and allowed everyone inside. Gallant, Siren, Forsa, and Mesa all entered into a large, circular room with sheer white walls that reflected them as they moved. In the center of the domed ceiling was a large collection of icicles that Gallant assumed was supposed to be some kind of art piece. Moon globes hovered around it, casting light around the entire room. Cubby-holes were carved into the walls, each one stocked with bandages, herbs, medical tools, blankets, and more. A number of different carved ice beds, each one festooned with furs, were evenly spaced around the edge of the room. A few other IceWings lay on certain beds, but Queen Akutan was next to one in particular, upon which rested Juneau.

“Juneau!” Siren gasped, and ran forward to crouch beside the bed. She lowered herself to Juneau’s eye level as she took one of Juneau's talons in her own. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve…been better,” Juneau said with some effort as she gave Siren a pained grin. The healers had covered her body with bandages, strips of red-stained white wrapped around  her legs, her chest, her sides, her neck, and her face, all where wicked gashes had been slashed by Tern’s claws. There was no rime or frost on her scales from Tern’s breath, however, almost as if the injury hadn’t happened at all.

Those wands that Siren mentioned, I guess, Gallant thought. Is there anything that animus magic can’t do? He flicked a glance at Mesa, who still hung back from everyone else, and snorted softly. Make Mesa brave, maybe.

“Are you all okay?” Juneau asked the others. Siren reached out and gently hugged Juneau to her and she let out a small, pained hiss, but didn’t pull away. Instead she returned the hug, and she and Siren both wrapped their necks around one another. “None of you are hurt, right?”

“We’re fine,” Gallant said. “Forsa and I are bruised a little, and I got hit with Tern's tail, but that’s it.”

“Thank the kingdoms,” Juneau breathed in relief.

"Do you want me to have a look at that, Prince Gallant?" one of the IceWing healers said as she came over. "We can have it bandaged for you shortly."

"I'm fine," Gallant replied. "I don't think it's that bad--"

"I-I think you should let her take a look, Gallant," Mesa said. "Wh-what if it gets infected or something? Back home my mother always said--"

"I'm fine!" Gallant growled at her and let a flash of angry red course along his scales. Mesa squeaked and snapped her muzzle shut, backing away from him and closer to the center of the room. Gallant snorted at her, then let his scales return to their normal color. Little busybody. The wound on his shoulder did hurt, but after that display, he wasn't going to show Mesa that she was right. "Besides," he told the healer, "I'm sure Juneau needs your attention more than I do."

The healer shot a glance over his shoulder at the queen, which Gallant did his best to ignore. She then shrugged and walked off towards another patient, while Gallant turned his attention back to everyone else. They were all staring at him, until an awkward cough from Forsa broke the room's near-silence.

“Your Majesty,” he said to Akutan. “We found something else after you left that might help you learn why Tern did this.”

“You said he was enchanted, did you not?” Akutan asked. “By animus magic?”

“What?” Juneau asked, suddenly lifting her head from Siren’s shoulder. “They enchanted him?”

“They did,” Forsa replied. He unrolled the scrap of paper and passed it to Akutan, who read it quickly, then narrowed her eyes. “Wendigo and Kraken were definitely behind this.”

“Then they know where we are, probably,” Juneau muttered. She groaned tiredly and laid her head down on her bed again. “I thought we’d be safe here…”

“And you are,” Akutan said gently. She lowered her head and nuzzled Juneau with her snout. Juneau raised her head again to lean into her mother’s neck. “You five will all be as safe as we can make you as long as you stay here.”

“But how long will that last?” Mesa asked. She was shivering, her eyes tracing Juneau’s bandages as she shrank in on herself and lifted her wings as if she was trying to hide behind them. “They found us here…they’re looking for us…they won’t stop until we’re dead…”

“It’s okay, Mesa,” Siren said softly. She left Juneau's side and walked over to Mesa, wrapped her wing around the little SandWing's body in another comforting hug. “We’ll be fine as long as we stick together. We just need to come up with a plan, and we’ll be fine.”

Mesa continued shaking as she leaned against Siren, her breath coming in rapidly as Forsa and Gallant glanced at each other. Gallant watched as Forsa turned his eyes upward, listening, then shook his head at him. Gallant stopped orange annoyance from pulsing through his scales, and turned back to Juneau instead. “Do you know when you’ll be up and about again, Juneau?”

“The healers want me to take it easy,” she replied. “At least for a few days. The cuts aren’t very deep, but the best thing that I can do to make them heal faster is to stay in bed for a while.”

“I think it would be safest if you stayed in the palace for now as well, dear,” Akutan said. “You and your friends. If these two assassins you told me about are lurking about in the Ice Kingdom, I want you somewhere that I can get to you quickly, if you need me.”

Juneau, to Gallant’s surprise, didn’t protest. She nodded instead, and put one talon under her chin as she rapped her claws on the ice of her bed. Akutan nodded too, then looked at the others. “I need to speak to my generals. If you all need anything, I’m leaving those guards outside.”

“Thank you, Mother,” Juneau said. Akutan nodded to the others and swept out of the healing room. The guards shut the doors behind her, and like that, she was gone. Quiet descended, the only noise being the clicking of the healers’ claws on the floor as they checked on other patients.

“So…what now?” Juneau asked the rest. She looked from one face to the next, as if searching for suggestions.

“We were thinking about going back to Possibility,” Gallant said. “At this point…it’s the only place that we can really think of. The SandWings and NightWings may be watching the rainforest, the Kingdom of the Sea is off limits, and we don’t really have any allies in the Mud and Sky Kingdoms.”

“And I doubt either of them would want to make Hyena angry and risk a war with the Kingdom of Sand,” Siren added. “We could stay here, but if they were able to make Tern find us, they’ll keep trying. And who knows how long we’ll be here? Or if Hyena threatens war to get your mother to give us up, Juneau?”

“Mother won’t do that,” Juneau said firmly. 

“She won’t,” Forsa agreed. “She really did go off to speak to her generals. She’s ready to go to war to keep us safe if that’s necessary, especially since Tern nearly killed you.” He shuddered a bit. “She’s…really focused on what she’ll do to Star and Hyena if she gets her talons on them.”

“But we can’t let her!” Siren exclaimed. One of the healers shushed her, and she flinched, then continued in a lower voice. “The whole reason we’re doing this now is to stop a war!" she hissed. "Not start one!”

“We’re not to blame here,” Gallant replied. “Hyena is. He’s the dragon that this whole thing spins on. If we get rid of him, then Mesa can take the throne, there’s no more war—”

“But we still have to deal with Queen Star,” Juneau interrupted. She continued to rap her claws on the ice, a soft and steady rat-tat-tat sound dancing at the edges of their ears as the sound echoed quietly around them. “And who knows what she would do if she loses Hyena.”

“And who knows if Hyena was even the one that ordered Wendigo and Kraken to do that to Tern?” Forsa asked. “For all we know, Wendigo and Kraken are working for Star, instead.”

“The best thing we can do is weaken Star’s position,” Juneau said. “If we do go back to Possibility, reveal Mesa to the other SandWings, and kick Hyena off the throne—”

“What?” Gallant heard Mesa squeak.

“—we can make her reconsider this whole conspiracy of hers. I mean, we know she’s doing it, Queen Brilliant knows, and Mother knows. If we can have Mesa know too, she can—”

“Wait,” Mesa whispered hoarsely. She stretched out a talon as Juneau kept talking. “I-I don’t think—”

“—rally the rest of the SandWings against Star, and get the rest of Pyrrhia in on it too! If we can do that, then we can stop this whole plan of hers before it gets going, and nobody else has to get hurt!”

“No!” Mesa shouted suddenly, the sound echoing off of the walls. Every other IceWing in the room looked over at them as Mesa shook herself out from under Siren’s wing and backed away from everyone. Her tail barb flicked up into a defensive position as she crouched, her wings half-spread. “I’m not going back to the Kingdom of Sand! Ever!”

“Mesa, you have to!” Siren replied. “What about all of those SandWings that want their princess back? What about your uncle?”

“I don’t care!” Mesa screamed. In the small room, with its circular walls, the sound echoed and bounced around, making it seem louder than it already was. “I’m sick of you all treating me like I’m just a tool you can use! I came along with you all because you said I would be safe in the Ice Kingdom! Because you said we could get my tribe help if we came here! But every time you talk about me it’s just about how useful I can be to you, whether it’s because I’m a princess or because of my magic!”

“They can still get that help if you take the throne,” Gallant told her. “Mesa, you can’t just ask your uncle to give you your crown, not if he’s willing to kill you! Didn’t you say you missed home?”

“I don’t want the crown!” Mesa shot back. “I don’t care if SandWings want me on the throne! I don’t care if there isn’t a queen if I’m not there! I’m not going back! I’m not facing my uncle! I’m not going to get more of my tribe killed because of me!”

“You don’t have a choice, Mesa!” Juneau told her firmly. “I know you’re scared, but—”

“No!” Mesa said, tears starting to stream down her face. “You don’t know! And you don’t care, either! None of you do! You only want me around because I’m useful to you!”

You’re not even that, Gallant thought, but kept quiet as Siren tried to step forward.

“Mesa,” she said gently. “We’re sorry, okay? But right now—”

“I don’t care what we need to do right now!” Mesa snapped. Her tears were coming thick and fast now, but her eyes were narrowed in anger as her barb shook threateningly and she quivered with rage. “You’re not even sorry! Not really! Ever since we met, all you’ve been doing is wanting me to do things! You want me to come with you, you want me to use my powers, you want me to be the Queen of the SandWings! What about me? What about what I want?” She snapped her head towards Gallant, glaring at him. “But I guess that doesn’t matter, does it? Because it’s never about what I want! Even with my uncle! Because I’m just some stupid, useless, spoiled princess that can’t do anything useful!”

Gallant winced in spite of himself. She did hear me all those times…

“Mesa…” Juneau began as she tried to sit up.

“No!” Mesa backed away even further. “I’m done with this! I’m done with all of you! I’m not going back to the Kingdom of Sand! I’m not going to fight a war for you all! I’m not going to be queen!” She turned and charged out of the room, smashing the door open and knocking several guards over as the sounds of her talons hitting the palace floor rapidly faded away.

In the deafening silence that followed, Juneau winced, and let a hiss of breath escape from her mouth as she laid back down on her bed. “I…messed up, didn’t I?”

“I think we all did,” Siren replied sadly as she sat down. “But…we weren’t…wrong, were we? It’s the best way to stop Star without starting a war. If we don’t do that, who knows what’ll happen?”

“That doesn’t mean that Mesa wants to do it,” Forsa said. He sat down too and heaved a sigh. “Everything we said about it just made her more and more scared. All of those thoughts of her mother the night her uncle took over, all of the dead SandWings she saw before she ran away.” He winced. “Every time we talk about her taking the throne, that night just happens again in her mind. She can’t stop herself. She’s scared, and we haven’t been helping her.”

“But I said we’d be with her when she did it,” Siren said. “Whether or not the SandWings wanted her—and they do want her, Gallant heard them himself—we’re her friends, aren’t we? We need to stick by her!”

“Are we her friends?” Gallant asked. He looked at all of them. “Are any of you? Why did we even bring her along?”

“It was to keep her safe,” Juneau said as she glared at Gallant. “If that SandWing messenger had found her in the rainforest, what do you think would have happened?”

“Well, to start with, she wouldn’t have been found if that bracelet works,” Gallant said, matter-of-factly. “Remember? It keeps her hidden from any SandWing. So, she had nothing to worry about. If it didn’t work, she would have probably been captured and taken back to the Kingdom of Sand. My mother wouldn’t want a war against the SandWings for any reason. There’s no way she would refuse if Hyena demanded Mesa’s return when one of the SandWings had seen her, especially if the rest of the tribe would pay the price if they knew she had her.”

“And then what?” Juneau asked. She sat up, but hissed quietly in pain before laying back down. She kept her head up, however, her blue eyes glaring out at Gallant from the mask of black scales across her face. “You could all go back to your perfect little lives while the rest of Pyrrhia suffered? You could do what you did all the way back in the War of SandWing Succession and just sit everything out?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Gallant said as he put a talon to his chest in mock offense and widened his eyes. He felt his scales flush deep red, and let them. “I’m sorry that we don’t have a big fancy magic wall to hide behind whenever we have to run scared from someone.” He turned to look at Siren, glaring at her, too. “I’m sorry that we can’t just hide in the ocean whenever trouble comes our way.” He then swung his head over to Forsa. “I’m sorry that we don’t have magic powers to tell us when trouble’s coming so that we can be prepared! The RainWings can’t fight two tribes at the same time on our own! Do you think we have an army the way all of your tribes do, or any natural defenses like the ocean or the cold? No! We don’t!” He swept his wings wide, extending himself up to his full height as he glared down at all of them.

“Unlike the rest of your tribes, RainWings have survived this long by staying out of fights. I’m sorry that we’re not like all of you, who are constantly trying to prove your superiority over the others! All of your tribes make fun of us just because we would rather just keep to ourselves than make anyone mad, but you just keep pressing, don’t you? We’re happy with what we have in the jungle. We don’t need anything else. Excuse me for wanting to keep my family and my tribe safe by not getting them into a war!” He snapped his head to glare at Forsa as he saw him open his mouth.

“My mother may have ordered me to come with you this far to see what was happening outside our borders, but that doesn’t mean that I care about what happens to any of you! What makes you any different from the NightWings when you just come into our rainforest, put my tribe in danger to hide you from your assassins, then just leave us? What if Kraken and Wendigo had come into the forest and started hurting RainWings to try and find out where you all were? How many of my tribe would have died before you finally let yourselves be seen? All three of you would have put my tribe in danger just to save yourselves!”

“That’s not true, Gallant!” Forsa shouted.

“We’re trying to save your tribe, you stupid, ungrateful smoke breather!” Siren snarled as she started angrily towards him. “What happens if Star wins and then comes after the RainWings next? We’re trying to help all of Pyrrhia here, and you have done nothing on this trip except complain! At least all of us have been trying to think of a plan!”

“And you’re doing such a good job with that,” Gallant replied snidely. He leered at her as he snaked his head forward into Siren’s face. “You’re all the way across Pyrrhia from your perfect little palace and you’re still not safe and still not a step closer to finding out how to stop Queen Star. Not to mention despite how often she told you you’d be safe here,” he continued as he jabbed a claw at Juneau, “she still got attacked, by the bodyguard you trusted, enchanted or not. You might criticize me for wanting to hide in the rainforest, but how is this any different?”

He snaked his head back and swept his eyes across the others again. “You all are doing this because you have dragons that you want to protect. And I’m leaving, because I have dragons I want to protect, too.” He turned around towards the door, but paused and looked back at them over his shoulder. “I can at least tell my mother what happened. But good luck stopping Star with a single tribe against two…or who knows however many she’s managed to get control of by now.” He stormed out of the room as well, passing among the IceWing guards and down the hallway.

This is what happens with other tribes, he snarled in his head. They support you and pretend to be your friends, right up until they need something from you. Who cares? I don’t need them. I’ll get out of this stupid fancy palace, out of this stupid blank kingdom, and I’ll go home and protect Mother and Toucan against whatever comes our way. I don’t need them. I don’t need anyone.

He walked until he found a window and took off through it, leaving the lights of the IceWing palace behind as he flew off over the snow fields, into the night.

Chapter Text

            Gallant started having second thoughts on his decision soon after he passed over the walls of the IceWing palace’s complex. He’d flown directly into the blizzard that had been barreling across the landscape, and while Mesa’s enchanted bandage kept him from freezing, the constant snow in his eyes and the unpredictable wind blew him every which way. Soon he couldn’t tell north from south, or what direction he’d originally been heading in. He managed to land on the ground, hunching behind his wings as the wind screamed in his ears and nearly blew him off his talons.

            I just had to make a big, dramatic exit, he thought bitterly to himself. He could barely hear himself think over the wind. Why couldn’t I just go back to my room? At least until the blizzard was over? Stupid, stupid, stupid! You should be better than this! What's the matter with you? He tried to look around, but all that he saw was featureless white ground and grey clouds overhead. More snow whirled out of them and battered his face before he could stick it back into the shelter of his wings. There’s nothing for it now, he thought. I have to find somewhere to take shelter until this is over. He looked around, using one of his wings to shield his eyes. Everywhere he could see was nearly-solid dark blue, and snow flurries swirled around him, blocking out most of his vision. The blizzard obscured the moons, leaving it even darker than normal. Gallant could feel his heart pounding. He’d never been this lost before; not even in the deepest parts of the rainforest.

            Where can I…there! Gallant managed to spot a collection of tall, slender shadows through a place in the snow flurries that was less thick than the rest, darker pieces of shadow in an already dark storm. It wasn’t ideal, but there was no other real choice. He started in that direction, his talons sinking deep in the snow around him with every step. With every other step he shook the snow off his talons, and slowly struggled his way towards the trees…if they were trees.

            It took a long time to reach what turned out to be a copse of pine trees, sitting on the top of a small hill. When the wind wasn’t working against him, the snow tripped him up or forced him to shove through ever-growing drifts. The wind nearly blew him over more than a few times as it tried to snap his wings out and pull him across the landscape before he got them back under control. It was almost like the wind was a gigantic dragon, playing with a bug that it had found...and Gallant was the bug. By the time he reached the trees he was exhausted, and could feel cold working at the edges of his body even with Mesa’s bandage.

            The trees creaked and groaned, and their noise added to the howling of the wind as Gallant shuffled in among their shelter. Their needle-filled branches hissed as they rustled together, and flurries of snow trailed off of the branches and trunks like ghostly banners. It was calmer inside the trees’ perimeter, and their thick trunks helped to shelter him from the wind, but flurries still hammered Gallant, and his talons were still sinking into ever-rising snow. It’s not enough, he thought. I need somewhere else. Like…like a cave or something. There had to be one somewhere. And he had to hurry; he didn’t want to know how much snow Mesa’s bandage could hold up against. If it wasn't for her, he thought bitterly, I'd probably be frozen already.

            Gallant struggled around the base of the hill for a while, shoving his body through snowdrifts as he pushed his way along. By now there was so much snow that it nearly came up to the base of his neck. He had to dig through the drifts to make any progress; the snow was packed so thickly that he couldn’t move without using his talons to clear his way.

            He was almost ready to just try and dig himself into the snow and stay there until the blizzard was over, when he finally came across the cave. He almost hadn’t noticed it among all the white, but the great black hole in the side of the hill was difficult to miss now that he looked at it. It wasn’t ideal, but it would do. Gallant shoved his way through the snow and into the cave's mouth, and shook himself vigorously to clear off any last clumps of snow that stubbornly clung to his scales. What I wouldn’t give to be a SkyWing right now, he thought. Not that there’s any wood to make a fire with. The enchanted bandage was still keeping him warm, but even so the sensation of wetness on his scales, combined with the wind, was far from comfortable.

            He shook himself again and positioned himself as far away from the cave mouth as possible. The wind still slipped in through the mouth, but it was blowing in a different direction, rather than fully into the same side of the hill. Gallant breathed a sigh of relief. Another reason why I prefer the rainforest. Any other dragon would probably say the same if they weren’t an IceWing. He brushed a lingering piece of snow off of one wing, and glared at it as it sat on the ground, slowly melting. He shut his eyes and heaved a weary sigh. I want to go home…why is everything here so…white?

            Now more than ever he missed the rainforest. The deep sea of green leaves, the colorful flowers that festooned every hut and pavilion in the RainWing village, the warmth of the sun. Gallant jerked in realization as he thought of it. He hadn’t had sun-time in days. And to top it off…he was hungry. He’d been in such a mood that he hadn’t even picked up his bag—and all the food in it— before he’d left the palace. Stupid, he thought angrily as he lashed his tail against the wall. Stupid, stupid, stupid! All because you wanted to leave and show them you didn’t need them!

            He punctuated his thoughts by slapping his tail on the ground, then jumped as he heard a squeak echo through the cave. Gallant stood up immediately and spread his wings as far as they'd go. He let his fangs show too, and made his scales flush red as he tried to look as intimidating as possible to whatever else was in the cave with him. Is it one of those bears? Or something worse? Are there even any predators here that squeak? “Who’s there?” he snarled. “Show yourself!”

            “G-g-g-g-Gallant?”

            Gallant watched as Mesa crept slowly out of the shadows, her jewelry sparkling faintly in the dim light of the cave. Gallant sighed and felt his scales turning orange as he folded his wings and retracted his fangs. “Oh, it’s just you. What are you doing here?”

            “I-I-I got caught in the b-b-blizzard,” Mesa stammered. “I-I tried to keep going b-but the w-w-wind was too strong, and I e-e-ended up here.” She looked him up and down, and her scared expression shifted to one of confusion. “Wh-what are you doing here?”

            “Trying to wait out this storm,” Gallant replied. “Same as you.” He turned his head to look out of the cave, and snorted in annoyance. “The longer I stay here, the more I hate this place.”

            “M-me too,” Mesa said. She flicked her eyes back deeper into the cave. “Uh…if you want…it’s warmer back here.”

            Great. Once again, I’m shoved into a situation with her. Someone had to be playing a joke on him for this to keep happening. But it was cold at the cave mouth, and it wasn’t like he could find another cave. “Fine.” He turned his head back forward, and followed Mesa deeper into the cave. In these close confines, he could feel the heat coming off of her scales, even in the sharp cold of the Ice Kingdom. Even that sort of faint warmth at least felt somewhat soothing on his scales.

            They sat down together at the very back of the cave. It was fairly cramped; there was barely enough room for the two of them to sit together, and even less to move. But at least it was warmer than by the entrance to the cave; Mesa’s natural body heat, and how close they both were, helped to warm the space, even if it was only a little. They sat there for a while, neither one speaking, just staring out into the whirling snowstorm.

            I wonder how long this will last, Gallant wondered. There are never any snowstorms in the Rainforest Kingdom. Will we be here for hours? Or days? He didn’t know if he could go days stuck in a cave, especially without anything to eat. …or stuck in here with Mesa.

            “So…” Mesa said suddenly. “Why are you out here?”

            Gallant let out a sigh of annoyance. And now she wants to talk. Wonderful. “I was going home," he said coldly. "Back to the rainforest. Stupid storm.” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Mesa was drawing in the dirt, scraping a talon along the cave floor. “What about you?”

            Mesa didn’t answer. Gallant turned his head towards her, peering down at what she was drawing. It was a pair of dragons that he assumed were supposed to be SandWings; they had little spiked balls on their tails that he imagined was their tail barb. One was much bigger than the other, and wore a tiny spiked thing on its head that he assumed was a crown. “Is that supposed to be your mother?” he asked. Mesa nodded slowly, not taking her eyes off of the picture.

            “She would have known what to do for something like this.” Mesa laid her head down on her talons as she stared at the drawings. “When Mother was queen, we never had to worry about assassins or wars or anything. She always knew the right thing to say to get everyone to realize that she was right. She never wanted any fighting, either. She thought everything could be settled by just sitting together and talking things out.” She sighed sadly, then curled her tail around herself. She rested one talon on it, like she was holding a stuffed toy close. “I wish she was here right now. I wish none of this had ever happened.”

            Gallant saw her flick her gaze towards him, and she narrowed her eyes. “But I bet you never had to deal with anything like that in your perfect little Rainforest Kingdom,” she said snidely. “I bet everyone loves your mother. Nobody would ever dream of trying to kill her.”

            “They don’t, no,” Gallant replied, just as snidely. “We don’t worry about things like that in the Rainforest Kingdom because everyone’s happy with what my mother does. Nobody bothers us, we don’t bother anyone else. And we like it that way.”

            Mesa snorted. “And it gives you plenty of wiggle room to feel good about never having to stick your neck out for anyone else, either.”

            “As opposed to you, who never had to do any work in her life?” Gallant growled. “I was at least trying to help my mother run the kingdom before you showed up and ruined everything!”

            “I ruined everything?!” Mesa parroted indignantly as she sat up and angrily narrowed her eyes. “Well, excuse me, I’m so sorry that I threw your whole perfect little existence off-kilter as I was running for my life from dragons that were trying to kill me! I didn’t want to be there either, in case you were thinking anything different!”

            Where did this come from? thought a little part of Gallant’s mind. First the rant in the infirmary, now she was doing it again here; where had this sudden burst of fire and rage come from? But the rest of him was too angry and frustrated to care; days of annoyance, discomfort, and bad feelings roiled up in his chest as his scales began to flush red again. “Well, good!” he snapped. “I’m glad that you didn’t want to be there! I didn’t want you to be there either! I don’t want to be here! I want to be at home, with my family, knowing that they’re safe and some idiot SandWing princess’s insane uncle isn’t trying to have them killed!”

            “And I want to be home with my family too!” Mesa shouted back, now getting to her talons and glaring at him. Her stinger tail rattled on the rock around them. “But I can’t! You act like I decided to stay in the rainforest on my own! You act like I wanted to come along to the Ice Kingdom!”

            “Because you did!” Gallant roared, and stood up too. He spread his wings as far as they could go and reared his neck up as high as he could without bumping it on the ceiling as he bared his teeth and fangs at her. “You came along because you wanted to hide somewhere else! Don’t try and deny it! And now that the others aren’t letting you hide anymore, you’re throwing another tantrum and running away, again!”

            “And what about you?” Mesa snarled. “I doubt that you came all the way out here just to try and drag me back!”

            “You’re right! I didn’t!” Gallant snapped back. “You’re lucky I’m even in the same cave as you!”

            “Oh yes, I’m so lucky!” Mesa said as she rolled her eyes, so hard that she nearly fell over. “I’m so lucky I have to share a tiny cave in the middle of a blizzard with a selfish, bratty, arrogant RainWing prince who thinks he’s better than everyone else!”

            Selfish? The use of the word felt like Gallant had been slammed in the chest by a SeaWing's tail. His mouth opened and closed a few times as he stared at Mesa in shock. I’m not…I’ve never been! “I’m not selfish!” he squawked indignantly. I’ve always done everything for the RainWings, how dare she—

            “Oh please,” Mesa sneered as her tone became even nastier. “As if you haven’t been talking the entire trip about how much you hate being here and how much you don’t care about the rest of us!” She stomped up to him, forcing Gallant up against the cave wall. “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but at least the rest of us are trying to come up with a way to stop Star!”

            That got a snort out of Gallant. “Ah, yes,” he hissed. “Running away from the Ice Kingdom is definitely the best way to do that. Do you even have any idea where you wanted to go? You’re too scared to go back to the Kingdom of Sand. The Rainforest Kingdom isn’t possible, neither is the Kingdom of the Sea. You don’t know anything about the Mud or Sky Kingdoms. The only place you can go is maybe Pantala, and do you even know the way?”

            “I’ll think of something!” Mesa replied. “I just need…time to…think…” She scooted back from him and sat down, staring at the floor. Gallant let out a breath he hadn’t even known he had been holding, then leaned back against the other wall, as far away from Mesa as he could get in the tight confines they both currently found themselves in. He turned his head and looked out of the mouth of the cave. The blizzard was still going, and snow was piling even higher outside the cave mouth. Gallant sighed heavily through his nose, his scales turning orange for a moment before he forced them back to their usual deep blue color.

            How long am I going to be stuck in here with her? There was no telling when the blizzard would let up; if the others came looking for them, they might have to be dug out of the cave. But back here it was warm, at least; warmer than it would be closer to the mouth, even with the enchanted bandages. But even so, the thought of spending hours or days with Mesa until they were found, with no way to at least get away from her for a while, was not an exciting prospect for him. He sighed again before he laid down and curled up to try and sleep. He had no idea of how long he’d been awake by this point, but the events of the day, his flight through the blizzard, and the cold, had finally gotten to him.

            He faced away from Mesa and tried to ignore her as she sniffled and scratched her claw through the dirt. He guessed that she was drawing more pictures of her and her mother. Gallant closed his eyes and tried to sleep. It was difficult; when it wasn’t the howling wind or Mesa’s sobbing that kept him awake, it was his own thoughts running through his head.

            They knew where to find us. They could be looking for us in the Ice Kingdom right now. Do they know who the rest of us are? Do they know our families? If the SandWings are watching the Rainforest Kingdom’s borders, could I even go home? What happens if Hyena finds out about us? Would he punish all of our tribes because the queens lied to him?

            He felt the thoughts in his head race around and around, until, finally, the exhaustion of the day caught up with him. Gallant’s eyes drooped shut and he sank into a restless sleep, filled with the sounds of dragons roaring and fighting, and Toucan’s screams in his ears.

Chapter Text

When Gallant forced himself awake again, he didn’t feel rested at all. If anything, he felt more tired than he had been before he went to sleep. He could still hear the sounds of the blizzard howling outside, so that put any thought of leaving the cave out of reach. He didn’t hear Mesa’s sniffling anymore, either, and lifted his head to look over his shoulder. Mesa wasn’t there. Blinking in confusion Gallant sat up and turned his head to look out at the tunnel that led out into the snow. Mesa was sitting there, her back to him, staring out into the wasteland. Her tail was coiled up around her, her wings were furled in, and her head was slumped.

            At least she’s not crying anymore, Gallant thought. But I should at least make sure we stay hidden… “Hey,” he called to her. “Get back in here. Someone might see you.”

            Mesa didn’t respond. Instead, she continued to sit and stare out at the snow. Gallant huffed and got to his talons, then walked over to her. “What, you’re not actually thinking of going out there, are you?”

            “What do you care?” Mesa muttered, her voice barely audible over the wind. “I bet you’d love to see me frozen solid out there somewhere.”

            Gallant rolled his eyes. “And you wouldn’t do anyone any good if you were dead. Even with these bandages of yours, the wind out there is nasty right now. Besides, the others might be worried about you. You being dead won’t help them any, either.”

            Mesa snorted. “What, so they can keep trying to make me go back and take the SandWing throne?”

            “Why wouldn’t you?” Gallant asked as he turned his head to look at her fully. “You’re the Princess. Your tribe is still going to be looking to you to lead them. All of those soldiers, all of those SandWings that are holding out hope that you’re still alive. Are you going to let them down?”

            “I’ve already told you!” Mesa snapped as she turned to look at him. “I don’t care! I don’t want to be Queen anymore!”

            “Then why?!” Gallant snapped back. His ruff flared outward and he felt his scales begin to turn red. “Why don’t you want to be queen?”

            “Because I—”

            “Because you think you’re not good enough?” Gallant asked. “Because you’re scared of other SandWings getting hurt if you fight? Too bad! This isn’t something that you can just sit out and hope that it goes away! You saw what they’re doing! They’ll keep coming for us until we’re all dead, unless we stop them! You don’t see Siren and Juneau complaining about having to go home! You don’t have any other option! You need to grow up, stop being a spoiled little princess, and actually take responsibility for once!”

            “Be QUIET!” Mesa screamed as she lunged at Gallant and slammed him into the wall of the cave. Gallant was too surprised to push back, and his eyes flicked upward as he saw her tail barb rise into stabbing position over her back. “You don’t know anything about me! From the moment we met, all you’ve ever done is ignore and insult me! You have no idea of what I’ve been through! You don’t know anything about what my life was like before we met, what happened to put me in your rainforest to begin with! I’m sorry that I don’t live in your precious, perfect jungle where no dragon ever does so much as stub their claw! I’m sorry I’m not the kind of dragon you think should be a princess! I’m sorry I’m not a RainWing! I’m sorry that I didn’t just let my uncle kill me! At least then I wouldn’t be hanging onto your tail all the time! Isn’t that what you want?!”

            “I don’t want him to kill you, you idiot!” Gallant shouted back, and shoved Mesa off of him as he got up. He glared at her, and watched as she shrank back against the opposite side of the tunnel. “I never wanted him to!”

            “Then why?!” Mesa yelled. In the light of the sun reflecting off of the snow outside, Gallant could see angry tears sparkling on her cheeks as she glared at him. “Why do you hate me so much? What did I even do to you? Was I that much of an inconvenience to you? Did I annoy you that much?”

            “Yes!” Gallant yelled back, his scales now flushing a mixture of red and orange. “Do you have any idea how annoying you were, constantly screaming for me any time a dragon looked at you funny? Any time you wanted something? I know this might be hard for you to grasp, but I’m royalty too! I had responsibilities! I had my own tribe to protect! I’m not your personal bodyguard, or your servant! You were entirely safe, and you didn’t need me for anything! So why did you insist on calling for me every time you needed something?”

            “Because you were the only dragon I trusted!” Mesa sobbed as she sat down. “You were the only dragon that had tried to help me since I ran away from home! I didn’t trust anyone else, but I still trusted you!” She hunched in on herself and stared at the floor. “I just wanted someone to be there for me…like Mother was.” Gallant watched as she sighed, heaving her shoulders.

            “When I lived at the palace…it was just me.” Mesa looked down at her bracelet, twisting it back and forth on her wrist as she fiddled with it, staring at it with a pensive, sad expression. “Me, and Mother. My mother and uncle didn’t let me socialize with the other dragonets in the palace, and none of the queens that visited my mother ever brought their dragonets with them. Not even your mother. Even the servants and guards only interacted with me when they needed to. They showed me respect, they bowed when I passed them, but they never bothered to talk or anything. Mother did her best to teach me things, like how to rule, and who the more important dragons in the kingdom were, and who all of the queens and their dragonets were, and she wanted to send me to Jade Mountain because she noticed how lonely I was, but she was always so busy ruling…and with everything that happened…and my uncle…” Mesa sniffled again and wiped her eyes. “I do miss home, Gallant, I swear I do, but every time I think about going back, I just get so scared about what it all will mean. Facing my uncle, leading the SandWings, dealing with everything. I can’t take that, watching more of my tribe die because I’m not good enough! They deserve a better leader than me, just some spoiled princess who doesn’t know anything about fighting!”

She dipped her head, and clenched her eyes shut as she wrapped her wings and tail even tighter around herself. “And I know. I know I need to go back. There’s nobody else that can do it, no other dragon that can stop my uncle. It’s just that…I wanted to be safe. Just for once I didn’t want to be the Princess of the SandWings. I just…wanted to be Mesa.”

            Gallant watched her, remembering what she’d said in the sculpture garden as she wept. She wanted to be safe, too. Just like I want Mother and Toucan to be. He sighed, and his scales began to melt an even darker blue as he felt shame work its way into his heart. Just like I wanted my whole tribe to be. Even if she’s too scared to go back…would I be any different in her situation? Are we…really any different from each other? He took a deep breath, then got up and walked over to sit next to her. Mesa flinched away slightly, and Gallant watched her for a time, before he finally looked away again, squared his shoulders, and spoke.

            “I’m sorry.”

            Mesa turned her head to look at him, her big, dark eyes widening. Gallant held her gaze with his own, before he took a deep breath, and kept talking. “I…have been selfish. And bratty. And I guess, everything else I accused you of being.” He sighed. “It’s just…I miss my own home just as much as you do, Mesa. Nowhere that we’ve been is familiar to me, there’s barely any RainWings around, it’s too open, it’s too quiet…It doesn’t feel like home.” He turned his head away from her and looked back outside at the featureless white blanket that had covered the ground. “Especially here. There’s nothing but white everywhere I look, and there’s barely any trees. I feel more alone here than I ever have before. And…” He sighed again. “And I keep taking it out on you. And everyone else.”

            “Why?” Mesa asked. “When we were in the sculpture garden, before Juneau got attacked, you were about to say something about me, but you never got the chance. What were you going to say?”

            “I was going to say that…you and I are a lot alike,” Gallant said. He felt his scales shift to dark purple and saw Mesa’s eyes flick down towards them before going back up to his face. “Right now, I don’t think either of us really knows where we are. When I was back home, in the rainforest, I thought that I knew what I wanted to do the rest of my life. I’d do everything my mother asked me, everything I could to help the RainWings, and then when my sister took over, I’d do the same for her.”

            He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking down at his talons, clenching them together. “And then you came along. You threw everything off-balance. You broke everything that I’d set up around myself. I thought that if we just kept ourselves in the rainforest, and didn’t do anything, then this whole thing would just pass us by. But the more that I tried to ignore it, the more it seems like everyone else didn’t. My mother made me come along with you and I spent all of that time being bitter instead of actually trying to help. And the more we found out, the more I just wanted to go home, so that I could be with my family, and my tribe. I just wanted you away from me, so I could ignore it all. But the biggest part of it is probably that...I'm scared too."

            Mesa's eyes bulged. "Y...You? Scared?"

            "Just because I'm a prince doesn't mean I can't be scared too, you know." Gallant said as he gently nudged Mesa. "But...yeah. I am. I'm all the way across Pyrrhia from home. I don't know what's happening back in the rainforest, or what my mother and sister are doing, or if anything's happened to them...or if anything's going to happen to them. Siren already lost her father, and Juneau got attacked..." Gallant shuddered and tried to stop his scales from turning white at the thought. "I don't know if Star has any more assassins that she's sent there, or what other plans she has with it. I wanted to stay in the Rainforest Kingdom so that I could protect everyone. So that I could protect my whole tribe from all of this. I thought that...if the RainWings just stayed out of it, then it would all just pass us by. But…Queen Akutan told me otherwise.”

            Mesa cocked her head. “How?”

            “Well…I don’t know how much you heard, but…she told me about how the IceWings used to be. How they thought they didn’t need the rest of Pyrrhia for help, and how that turned out. And…she told me about older queens, too.” Gallant looked back up at her. “Mesa, why do you not think you’d be a good queen?”

            Mesa blinked her dark eyes a few times, then hunched in on herself again. “I keep telling you. I’m not old enough. I don’t know enough yet. I thought my mother would be around for longer, I thought I’d be able to learn all of this, learn to be as good of a queen as she was. And my uncle’s not just going to give me the throne back! I can’t take it from him, either! What happens, then? How many SandWings are going to die before we win? Will I even win? If I don’t, what’s my uncle going to do to me? If I do…then what?” She sniffed again as new tears began to gather in her eyes.

            “I can’t do it, Gallant! I can’t handle all of that responsibility! I’m not my mother! I don’t even know anything about being queen and every time everyone else brings it up, I…I just see her again! I want to go back to the Kingdom of Sand, I want to help, I know my uncle shouldn’t be on the throne, but I don’t know how! I’m too scared to fight, my uncle never taught me to! Nobody did! I can’t fight a war for my tribe! I can’t be the leader they need!”

            “Yes, you can,” Gallant replied gently. “Mesa, nobody knows everything when they first start. Do you think Siren and Juneau know how to be queens already? I certainly wouldn’t know how to be king of the RainWings if it ever came to that. When my mother first gave me the duties I had when we first met, I had no idea how to do them. Everything I was doing before we left, I had to learn, and my mother had to teach me about. And back home, my sister, Toucan, she’s still learning how to be queen, too. And I bet when she takes the throne she’s going to ask me about a lot of things that I might know, that she doesn’t. Every other queen in Pyrrhia is probably the same way. Pantala, too. That’s why they have advisors to listen to. You’ll have dragons to help you, Mesa. You won’t be alone. And you won’t be alone when you take your throne back, either. We’ll all be there with you.”

            Mesa jerked in place, then looked up at Gallant. He barely had time to prepare himself before she lunged at him again, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug as she buried her face in his chest and sobbed. Gallant was knocked to the floor, with Mesa’s weight and warmth on top of him. A flash of thought in his mind told him to tell her to get off of him and stop crying, but he ignored it. He wrapped his arms around her in turn, then folded his wings around them both. He feet her shake as she sobbed in relief, her tears wet on his scales.

            They stayed there for a while, Gallant listening to Mesa sniffle and sob and feeling her shake and shudder against him. Finally, after a few minutes, he looked down at Mesa. “Um…”

            “Oh!” she squeaked, and backed hurriedly off of him. She turned away, looking sheepish. “S-sorry.”

            “It’s okay,” Gallant said as he sat back up. He looked back out of the cave mouth. He hadn’t noticed during the argument, but it was quieter now. No wind screamed around the hill, and it looked like the snow had stopped falling. The sun also seemed to now be out, which made Gallant squint from the glare of sunlight on snow. “Do you think it’s safe to go out?”

            “Um…I think so,” Mesa said. The two of them crept forward and slowly exited the mouth of the cave. Pushing aside the snow that had built up in the cave mouth they pushed out into the open, their talons crunching in the thick snow. The snow was halfway up their legs, and Mesa struggled to move as she and Gallant pushed their way out. Gallant grunted with each step as he shoved his way through the snow, then looked over his shoulder at Mesa. “Come on, let’s get to the top of the hill. With the trees, the snow might be thinner there.”

            “Okay.” The two of them spread their wings and took off, flying up and over the top of the hill. As they reached the spot and hovered over the tops of the trees, Gallant heard Mesa let out a sigh of awe. “Wow…Gallant, look at it!”

            Gallant turned his attention away from the hilltop to fly up next to Mesa, staring out over the seemingly endless snow fields. Everything he could see, for miles to the horizon, was a glittering sheet of pure white that sparkled in the sun, like a sea of diamonds. Maybe there is some beauty about this place after all, he thought. He let out an impressed whistle. “I wonder if the others are seeing this.”

            “Should we go back now?” Mesa asked. “They must be worried sick about us both.”

            “You more than me, probably,” Gallant said awkwardly. “I…didn’t really leave them gracefully.”

            “Me neither,” Mesa replied, her tone just as awkward as his. “But they have to come looking for us now that the storm’s over, don’t they?”

            “Hopefully.” Gallant looked down at the hilltop. “Come on, let’s get down to the hill so we can get our bearings.”

            They both landed on the hill, avoiding the trees as they came in. Gallant smiled in satisfaction as he felt his legs only sink into the snow up to his ankles. While the white carpet was spotless everywhere else, the trees around them had lost showers of needles during the storm, and the hilltop was covered with tiny green lines. As Mesa landed, Gallant looked around. “Okay,” he mused. “the IceWing palace is in the northwest of the Ice Kingdom, if I remember Mother’s maps right. I was flying southeast when I came here…Or at least, I think I was.”

            “That blizzard threw me off course too, I think,” Mesa said. She turned around a few times and squinted out at the endless snowy blanket as she tried to remember. “I was…flying…”

            “Where were you planning on going, anyway?” Gallant asked as he turned to face her. “You would have had to pass back through the Sand Kingdom wherever you went, and I don’t think you know the way to Pantala.”

            “I…don’t know.” Mesa looked down at the ground, looking embarrassed. “I was mainly just flying…away. Just to get somewhere else. When the blizzard forced me down I found this place and that cave and just decided to wait it out for a while.”

            “Probably the best option. I’m sure all of the IceWings were hunkered down too.” Gallant walked forward under one of the trees and peered off to the northwest for any sign of the glittering spires of the IceWing palace. “I bet even they don’t want to risk going out in a snowstorm.

            “Did they have storms like that in the rainforest?” Mesa asked as she came up next to him. “In the desert, whenever there was a sandstorm, we always shut up every door and window in the palace to keep the sand out. If a SandWing gets caught out in one they’re usually dead when we find them later.”

            “We get bad storms off the sea, sometimes,” Gallant replied. “When that happens we normally hole up near the ground together. There, what you really need to look out for is falling branches.” He squinted out over the snowfield some more, then sighed in frustration. “We may just need to try flying in one direction until we get to the sea, then head north,” he said. He and Mesa turned around. “If we do that, hopefully it won’t take us too long to—” Gallant froze as he finally spotted the other dragon standing on the hill.

            It was an IceWing, his pure white scales blending almost seamlessly in with the snow around him. A crystal necklace hung around his neck, and a sheathed dagger was strapped to one of his legs. The IceWing stared at the two with an utterly flat expression, though Gallant saw his spiked tail twitch from side to side as a giant, grinning, dark blue SeaWing slammed into the earth next to him and threw up a cloud of powdery white.

            “Well now,” the IceWing said. “Isn’t this a lucky meeting?”

Chapter Text

            Gallant heard Mesa gasp and take a step back, snow crunching under her talons. “Y-y-you’re Wendigo, aren’t you?” she squeaked. “Y-you’re that assassin that killed the SeaWing king!”

            “Indeed,” Wendigo said as he took a step forward. “My associate here you might have also heard about by this point; Kraken. And you two…are Princess Mesa and Prince Gallant.”

            “How do you know us?” Gallant asked. He stepped in front of Mesa and spread a wing to cover her further. How did they find us? How do they even know us? Did they know we would be here? Did they know where we were? Did they follow us in the storm?

            “You honestly think that nobody in Possibility would notice the SandWing princess in the company of a RainWing prince?” Wendigo replied. “You two are not nearly as stealthy as you think you are.” He began to move off to the left, while Kraken moved in the opposite direction. Mesa hunched behind Gallant’s wing as he fought to turn his scales red, rather than letting them turn white. “And Queen Star has eyes everywhere. Not just among her own NightWings, either.”

            “So what do you want with us, then?” Gallant asked. “If you’re looking for the others, they’re not here.”

            “So you know where they are, then?” Wendigo asked, arching his brow at him. Gallant flinched, then hated himself for it.

            Of all the stupid times to let something slip! “No,” he lied. “I don’t know.” Stupid, stupid, stupid! 

            “Is that so?” Kraken growled. Gallant felt his heart flutter with fear as the SeaWing grinned at him, and his scales flickered white. “We might just have to refresh your memory, then.” He took a step towards Mesa but Gallant shoved her backwards, trying to keep himself between her and them.

            “Don’t flatter yourself, RainWing,” Wendigo said coldly. “Neither of you is getting away from us alive.”

            “What about my uncle?” Mesa asked as she peeked over Gallant’s wing. “He won’t be happy to know that I’m dead! He can’t keep the Kingdom of Sand under control without me! He needs me! Y-y-you can't hurt me without his permission!”

            “We don’t take orders from Hyena,” Kraken replied scornfully. “We have our own employer.”

            Then they are working for Queen Star, Gallant thought. He felt his mind start racing, as if it was trying to keep pace with the rapid beating of his heart. Can we outrun them? We don’t even know what direction to go to get back to the IceWing palace. Are the others looking for us? Did Akutan send out any soldiers to search for us after the blizzard? How long would we have to hold out before they find us? Can we even last that long?

            “What do you want with us?” Gallant asked again, taking another step backwards. As he did, Wendigo and Kraken both took a step forward. I could turn white, hide us in the snow…but they’d probably be able to find us. Maybe Mesa could cast a spell or something? But Wendigo’s an animus too…

            “Nothing personally,” Kraken growled, the noise melting into a dark chuckle. “It’s just that the two of you, and your friends, are all loose ends. And loose ends get snipped off.”

            “D-d-did Queen Star put you up to this?” Mesa asked. Gallant could hear her trying to keep her voice from shaking, and he could feel her shivering in fear behind his wings as they continued to back up. “You won’t get away with this! We’re under Queen Akutan’s protection! If you kill us—”

            “Then we’ll be too far gone by the time she finds your bodies,” Wendigo replied calmly. “After all, there’s nobody out here to help you. Nobody out here to protect you. Just a pair of little lost dragonets…against us.” He crouched, and started to walk towards them. No, Gallant thought. He’s not walking…he’s prowling. What do I do? What do I do? No… Gallant flicked his eyes back towards Mesa. What do we do?

            His thoughts were interrupted as, with a roar, Kraken leapt at them both. Mesa shrieked and tried to take off, but Gallant heard crashing behind him and Mesa yelping as she ran straight into the tree branches above them. On reflex Gallant turned his head to look at her, only for Kraken to hit him in the side and slam him into the snow, sending white powder flying everywhere. The impact knocked Gallant’s breath from him, and he let out a wheeze as he turned white and scrambled away. He thought he’d made it only for something thick and heavy to slam into his side and send him through the air. Gallant landed in a snowdrift and immediately rolled back onto his talons, sputtering as he threw his head around.

He could see Mesa back on the ground and backing frantically away from Wendigo as he calmly walked after her. Mesa’s eyes kept flicking to the knife on Wendigo’s leg, her wings half-extended as if she was debating whether or not to try and fly away. Gallant turned his head back forward as Kraken leapt at him again, but this time he was ready and jumped up, latching his claws onto the bark of the tree. Kraken leapt up after him and Gallant leapt up again, shifting his scales to the deep green and white of the snow-covered branches and needles.

Stay still, he told himself. Stay still and they can’t find you.

“Little coward’s hidden himself,” he heard Kraken growl.

“Ignore him for now,” Wendigo said, and leapt at Mesa. She shrieked as he hit her, and the two of them plowed into the snow. Mesa struggled against Wendigo as his talons pinned her to the ground, her tail barb lashing downward again and again in desperation. Gallant’s eyes widened as he saw her barb strike Wendigo over and over, each time bouncing off of his scales with no effect.

He has to have something on him that’s enchanted his scales, he thought. But what? His eyes scanned Wendigo’s body, flicking from place to place on his body as Mesa struggled against Wendigo, who was trying to keep her still as he attempted to remove his knife from its sheath. Where is it? The pouches? His knife sheath? Wait, there!

“Ah!” he yelped as his tree shook suddenly. He fell out of it, barely managing to spread his wings in time to avoid a hard landing before Kraken slammed into him from the side. Gallant felt the breath be belted from his lungs as he went sprawling, sending snow flying everywhere. He heard Kraken stomp up to him, but before he could move his head Kraken’s talon slammed down on top of it, burying him deeper in the snow as Gallant kicked and flailed his talons. He scratched and clawed at Kraken, but the enormous SeaWing didn’t seem to notice. Instead Gallant felt himself be lifted up, and then be thrown again before his back slammed, hard, into the thick trunk of a pine tree.

Gallant let out a loud gasp from the pain and flopped limply to the ground, wheezing as he tried to get his breath back. Half of his face was buried in the snow, but he could still see Mesa’s barb striking, desperately, over and over again, the sounds of scraping claws on scales echoing in the near-silence of the clearing.

Get up, he thought. Get up. You need to fight. You need to do something or both of you are going to die here. And once they’re done with us, they’ll go after the others, and then nobody will stop Star. Toucan…Mother…they’ll both be in danger…so get UP.

Gallant managed to get his front legs under him before he felt a massive talon roughly grab him by the neck and slam his back against tree again. Gallant gasped, his eyes wide as Kraken grinned into his face. He pressed his talon down harder on Gallant’s neck and Gallant gagged, the weight making it harder for him to breathe. Gallant gasped again, wheezing as he tried to pull air into his lungs.

“You know, I’ve never killed a RainWing before,” Kraken said. His voice was an anticipatory rumble, and Gallant watched, wide-eyed, as he bared his sharp teeth at him. Kraken's breath smelled like fish, and if Gallant hadn't been struggling for air he would have gagged. “Probably because you all stay in your jungle all the time. Nice to know at least one of you was brave enough to leave it…pity it didn’t work out so well, though.”

“Stop playing with your food and do it,” Wendigo said, looking over at him as Mesa continued to helplessly claw and stab at his scales. “If any of the IceWings find us out here our job will become much more complicated.”

“Oh, let me have this,” Kraken snarled as he turned his head to look back at Wendigo. “I've had enough of sneaking around and tracking dragons down! I want to take my time with him! Besides, you have her right where you want, don’t you? Just use your knife and finish it!”

“I’m trying, you utter-mmph!” Wendigo’s retort was cut off suddenly as, around him, snow suddenly burst into the air and covered him in a huge mound. Mesa shot out from underneath the mound and lunged towards Kraken. She landed on his back, her claws latching onto him as she frantically raked them down his spine again and again.

“Get off of him, you big, stupid, ugly sack of scales!” she screamed as she clawed at his back. Kraken roared in pain and let go of Gallant’s neck, and Gallant fell to the ground as Kraken thrashed around. Mesa hung on, her tail barb flailing all around as she tried to raise it into a stabbing position. Gallant, still wheezing, struggled to his feet and lunged at Kraken too, grappling him around the neck and trying to hold him still. It was almost impossible; the SeaWing was three times Gallant’s size and his arms didn’t even get all the way around Kraken’s neck; it felt like he was trying to shove a boulder around. Kraken didn't stop moving, either; Gallant felt himself being flailed around as he tried to pull against the SeaWing's freakish strength.

“Mesa!” he wheezed, “Do it!”

“I’m tryi—” Mesa began, before Gallant saw a flash of silver in the sun. Mesa shrieked, louder than he’d ever heard her before, and he saw her fall from Kraken’s back. Mesa thrashed in the snow, sobbing and howling in agony as Gallant saw Wendigo’s knife, red with SandWing blood, fly back next to him. The IceWing stalked over to her, his formerly impassive face seeming now to carry a tiny hint of anger. That was all Gallant got to see before Kraken bulled him backwards and slammed him against the tree once again, belting what little breath he’d regained from his lungs.

“You two are more trouble than I thought,” Wendigo hissed quietly as Kraken pushed even harder onto Gallant’s throat. Gallant saw darkness gathering at the corners of his vision as he gagged and wheezed, his talons scrabbling at nothing as he tried to get air back in his lungs. “More annoying, too.”

“Then let’s kill them and get to the others,” Kraken growled.

“We would already be done with this if you hadn’t insisted on knocking the RainWing around,” Wendigo sniped back. He walked over, his knife hovering at his shoulder, and stood over Mesa. His knife flicked itself downward, ready to stab itself deep into Mesa’s throat as she continued to sob in pain…

Before a black blur slammed into Wendigo’s side, knocking him away. The knife wobbled in the air and then fell towards the ground, missing Mesa and instead burying itself in the snow a claw-length away from her head. Kraken looked up as another pale blue-white blur flew overhead, and his grip on Gallant’s throat eased slightly. It was the opening Gallant needed. As Kraken looked back at him, he opened his mouth and spat a stream of venom from his fangs. He saw Kraken’s eyes widen right before his venom struck Kraken dead in the face, and the SeaWing dropped him, shrieking as he clapped his talons to his face and staggered backwards. He fell to the ground, thrashing and screaming as the sound of sizzling reached Gallant's ears. He tried to block it out, instead turning to look at Mesa.

“Mesa,” he wheezed hoarsely as he crawled over to her. Mesa was still sobbing, pained tears streaking down her face as Gallant looked her over. She didn’t look injured that he could see, but for now they had bigger problems. Kraken was still shrieking, lashing out blindly with his claws and scoring the bark of every tree around him as Siren and Forsa stared down Wendigo. Each movement of his threw up fresh snow or ripped bark away from tree trunks as his howling echoed around the hill. “Stay here,” he said to Mesa and leapt over to join them, the three dragonets surrounding Wendigo together.

“You all really are more trouble than you’re worth,” Wendigo hissed. He opened his mouth and Siren and Forsa dove to the sides as a torrent of frostbreath ripped into the snow where they had just been standing. Forsa leapt around his side and slashed at him with his claws, but barely avoided a return swipe. Gallant once again saw his claws skate off the IceWing’s back. Siren came in from the other side but Wendigo spun, and his spiked tail slammed into the side of her head, knocking her to the ground in a spray of snow. As Wendigo's head was turned to Siren, Gallant leapt forward next. He jumped onto Wendigo and started to scrabble and claw at Wendigo’s chest, his claws skating off of the IceWing’s scales as he frantically scrabbled for his objective.

Get it off get it off get it off! he thought frantically, and felt his talons close around Wendigo’s necklace before Wendigo’s talon came up and slashed him across the face. Gallant roared in pain before he felt Wendigo’s tail slam into his head and throw him away. Gallant landed heavily in the snow, but he felt his scales flush a pale yellow as he tightened his talon around the cold metal of the necklace. He heard Wendigo let out an angry roar. Gallant looked back up and saw Siren on Wendigo's back, holding on for dear life as the IceWing thrashed and flailed, trying to buck her off. Now that he saw Siren, he noticed a spot of brown hanging from her neck—my bag? Gallant thought, with a flash of inappropriate annoyance. She took my bag!—and saw Siren pull his roll of bandages from it, yelling something Gallant couldn’t hear through the ringing in his ears. The roll leapt from her talons and unwound itself, binding itself tightly around Wendigo’s muzzle. He struggled, throwing his head this way and that, but the bandages held firm as Siren leapt off his back. Wendigo spread his wings and leapt into the sky, flying away, towards the edge of the hill, over the trees.

 But Gallant heard Siren yell something else, and Wendigo was suddenly pulled down, struggling as Gallant saw that branches from the trees around them had lashed upward. They grabbed Wendigo around the wings, his legs, and his neck, and dragged him down to their level. Gallant got to his feet, shaking his head to clear his ears as he saw Siren march forward, her teeth bared in an angry snarl.

“You.” she seethed. “You’re the one that killed my father! You enchanted Tern!”

Wendigo’s only change of expression was to briefly narrow his eyes at her, then flick his gaze over Gallant’s shoulder. He turned to follow the IceWing’s eyes and spotted Kraken’s dark blue bulk lying motionless in the snow. Gallant fought the urge to shudder or let his scales change to any kind of white; he knew what his venom could do, and had even tried to use it to stop Tern when he had attacked Juneau, but seeing what he had done to an actual dragon made him feel queasy; he didn’t want to think about what Kraken’s face looked like. He shook his head and banished the feelings from his mind, then looked back at Wendigo.

“Why does Queen Star want to kill us?” Forsa asked Wendigo as he walked up next to Siren and joined her in glaring at him. “What’s her plan? Answer me!”

Wendigo was silent, but Forsa narrowed his eyes and looked at Siren. “He doesn’t know anything. The only thing he knows is that Star paid him and Kraken to work together and kill us. Kill…so many others, too.” His face screwed up as he thought. “Royals from all over Pyrrhia. Once we were gone they were going to go after the SkyWing and MudWing royal families too.”

“But why?” Siren whispered. Her expression turned thoughtful for a moment, then turned back to angry as she looked back at Wendigo. “It doesn’t matter. Either way you’re not going to keep following us.”

“What are you thinking?” Gallant asked. “We can’t keep him here, it’s not like he’ll freeze to death.”

“No, we can’t,” Siren agreed. Over her shoulder Gallant saw Forsa blanch, his eyes widening as he took a few steps back. “But I’m going to avenge my father.”

Gallant’s only warning was hearing tree branches flexing before, through the bandages holding his mouth shut, Wendigo began to scream. By the time it was over, the snow beneath the branches was utterly covered in blue blood, and Gallant’s scales had turned to match the color of the snow as he stared up at what was left of Wendigo in open-mouthed horror. He was jerked out of his shock as Siren roughly shoved his bag into his chest, barely managing to avoid dropping it as she did. “Here. You left this behind.”

“Mesa,” he was able to gasp as soon as he got control of his mouth again. “She’s hurt. Bad.”

The three of them galloped back over to Mesa, where she still lay in the snow, sobbing. Now that calm had once again descended on the hilltop, Gallant sucked in a breath as he got a closer look at her injury. Mesa’s tail was now much shorter than it had been. Her barb lay in the snow in a puddle of red blood, along with a short length of tail before it. More blood pooled around the new end of the part of her tail that was still attached to her body.

“We need to get her back,” Forsa said hurriedly. “The Queen’s healers can do more than we can.”

“Mesa?” Siren said gently. “Mesa, can you still fly?”

“It hurts…” Mesa whimpered through her tears. “It hurts so much!”

“I know, Mesa, but you have to get up. We need to get back to the Ice Kingdom so we can get help, okay?” Siren replied. She ran around to Mesa’s side and started nudging her firmly with her head. “Come on, stand up. You can do it!”

Slowly, and repeatedly gasping in pain, Mesa managed to get to her talons. She sucked in a sharp breath of air as she brushed the end of her tail against the freezing snow. Gallant dug around in his bag, eventually finding another roll of bandages. “Hold still,” he said as he wrapped it around her tail-end. “This should at least hold until we get back, I think.”

“What about you?” Forsa asked. Gallant noticed that he’d picked up the piece of Mesa’s tail, holding it in one talon. “Can you still fly?”

“I think so.” Gallant hissed as he felt the aches in his body. “Enough to get back to the palace at least.”

“I’ll help,” Mesa said, as she pushed up next to him. “Just tell me whenever you feel tired, Gallant. I’ll keep you up.”

“We’ll keep each other up,” Gallant replied. He looked down at her, and felt a smile cross his muzzle on its own as a few traces of yellow flickered across his scales. “You did good, Mesa.”

Mesa jerked in surprise, then blinked and smiled shyly. “…Thanks,” she muttered.

“You two can tell us all about it when we get back,” Siren said. She spread her wings. “Come on, we’ll lead the way.”

The four of them took to the sky again, leaving the hill behind them.

Chapter Text

            “Teeth of the Great Ice Dragon, what happened?!” Juneau yelped as the four of them were helped back into the infirmary at the IceWing palace. Gallant, Mesa, and Siren were helped onto beds as Forsa waved away the healers. Gallant hissed slightly at the cold of the bed, flicking his forked tongue in discomfort, but soon settled in as the warmth of the furs began to sink into his body. “You all ran off and then you come back looking like this!”

            “It’s a…long story,” Gallant groaned as one of the healers walked over to look at his injuries. She began poking and prodding each one, and Gallant did his best to resist trying to wave her away. As sore as he was, he didn’t think he had the energy anyway; his whole body ached, and the injuries from Wendigo’s claws and tail stung.

            “We’ve got nothing but time,” Juneau said. She narrowed her eyes at Gallant. “And it’d better be good, coming from you.”

            “Juneau, please don’t,” Mesa said from her own bed. “Gallant saved my life.”

            Juneau’s brows rose and she looked at Gallant doubtfully, then propped her head up on one of her talons as she watched him. Her tail flicked curiously from side to side. “Okay, now I’ve got to hear this.”

            Gallant and Mesa took turns as they told the story. They told her about their own separate flights from the Ice Kingdom, how each of them had run into the blizzard that had swept over the kingdom the previous night. As they had flown slowly back over the city, Gallant had marveled at it; the city was absolutely coated in snow, though the IceWings didn’t seem to mind as they’d pushed their way through the thick, high drifts or just taken off into the air and flown over it all.

            Following that story, the two had taken turns telling everyone else about their conversations in the cave…and the making up that came afterwards.

            “I suppose I should apologize to all of you, too,” Gallant said hesitantly after some time. “I…I’ve been useless this whole time. I’ve been doing nothing but complaining, trying everything I could think of to try and just go home. I never really bothered to put any thought into how all of you felt about this. All I could think of was just how I felt, when all of you had been in the actual danger up until now.”

            He sighed. “I’m…sorry. For everything. They tried to kill me too, just because I was there, and because I was traveling with you. They really were going to go after the RainWings…and if we hadn’t done anything…” They probably would have killed me. Or Toucan. Or Mother… The thought still made him shudder. Or even all three of us. “And I was so busy thinking about how to get home and protect them…I didn’t realize that the best way to protect them is to cut the problem off at its source.” He hissed suddenly as the IceWing healer gave a firm push on his bruised ribs. “Ow! Watch it!”

            “So…they’re both dead, then?” Juneau asked. “Kraken and Wendigo, they’re both gone?”

            “Gallant took care of Kraken, and I killed Wendigo,” Siren said. Gallant and Forsa both gave her a pointed look that she clearly ignored. “I think we should be safe now.”

            “For now, at least,” Forsa said. He sat down, frowning, his talons reaching into his scarf to fiddle with his medallion. The silver disc flashed in the light of the healing room’s moon globes. “But…that still leaves Star.”

            “Kraken and Wendigo mentioned that she had dragons in all of the tribes watching everything for her.” Mesa yelped as a healer began to unwrap the bandages wrapped around her tail. She cast the IceWing a dirty look, then looked at Juneau. “Are you absolutely sure we’re safe here, Juneau?”

            “I haven’t heard anything that sounds like any IceWings are supporting her,” Forsa said, looking around the room at the healers and other IceWings resting on beds. “So…now that Wendigo and Kraken are out of the picture, we might actually be safe here?”

            “We…should be, I think,’ Juneau said. “For a while at least. I hope. But we still should try and lay low from now on. If we don’t, Star may eventually figure out where we are, especially if Wendigo and Kraken don’t report back. And if what they were both saying is true, and she does have dragons working for her in every kingdom, there’s no telling when they might try and strike next.”

            “And if we do decide to leave,” Siren said, “I have no idea where we’d go. I mean, we could go to the Sky Kingdom and try and get Queen Peregrine to help us, but the SandWings might be watching the Claws of the Clouds Mountains. We could go around the mountains, or maybe swim to the Mud Kingdom—Forsa, don’t make that face, please.”

            Gallant turned his head, spotting Forsa as his expression turned into a weird mix of sadness and anger. Gallant squinted, remembering Forsa’s brief talk about the Mud Kingdom during their argument on the palace balcony. What’s going on that you don’t want to talk about it…? He held Forsa’s gaze as the NightWing’s eyes flicked over to him. “Forsa,” he said. “You know you can always talk about it, right?”

            “I don’t need to,” Forsa said quickly. “It’s too late to try and fix that happened, anyway. We don’t need to go to the Mud Kingdom. It’s too close to the Kingdom of the Sea. Someone might see Siren, and then what would we do?”

            “Forsa’s got a point,” Juneau said. She shook her head suddenly. “We don’t have to talk about this right anyway. What’s important is that we all get some rest. We’re not being chased anymore…for the moment, at least. So, we should try and get as much rest as we can.” She looked up at the healers poking and prodding Mesa and Gallant. “Are they both going to be alright?”

            “Prince Gallant will be, Your Highness,” one of the healers said. He cringed as the other healer held up Mesa’s tail barb with one talon, careful to avoid the barb itself. “But Princess Mesa’s tail…”

            “Can you…can you reattach it?” Mesa asked in a strangled squeak. The healer looked at the stump of her tail, then skeptically looked at the severed barb.

            “I’m not entirely sure, Princess,” she said. “We’ve never had to try and heal anything like this before. We have magical ways of healing, but only when it comes to frostbreath injuries. I’m afraid re-attaching a severed tail piece is beyond us.”

            “You can’t,” Siren said. “But I can.” She stood up from her bed, walking over to the healer and holding her talons out. “May I?”

            The healer looked skeptical but passed Mesa’s barb to her. Siren went to the side of Mesa’s bed, gently taking her tail in one talon and pulling the end over to her. She took a deep breath, looking pensive. “I…I’ve never done this before.”

            “You don’t have to, Siren—” Juneau began, only for Siren to wave a talon in her direction.

            “I want to, Juneau. Just leave me alone, okay?” She looked at Juneau over her shoulder, her brow beetled in annoyance, before she turned back to Mesa. “I have to try at least.”

            Mesa stared down at her tail barb as Siren very slowly fit them together, trying to match the pieces as closely as she could to make sure it healed correctly. Without taking her eyes off of Siren’s talons, Mesa reached out, her talon swiping the air, searching. Searching for mine, Gallant realized. He reached out, took her talon in his own, and gripped it firmly. Mesa shot him a grateful glance, but returned her attention to her tail as Siren put one talon on her tail, and the other on her tail barb, then closed her eyes as she began to focus.

            “I enchant this SandWing’s tail so that these two pieces can be rejoined, and return to how they were before they were cut.”

            Gallant heard Mesa’s breathing start to quicken as he watched in awe. She squeezed his talon tighter, whimpering in anxiety. Mesa’s tail barb slowly inched its way across her bed until it and the stump of her tail came together, the two of them touching their severed ends to one another. Gallant watched, his mouth hanging open, as he saw scales reform over where the barb had been cut, until finally, the barb had healed completely. There wasn’t even a scar, or any kind of seam that had shown that it had ever been cut to begin with. Mesa very slowly lifted her tail, lightly but carefully waving it around as she stared up at the newly-reattached barb and flexed it a few times. “It…it worked?”

            “I think so,” Siren breathed, sitting down and grinning in relief. “I…I honestly didn’t know if it would or not.”

            Mesa was off her bed in a blink, hugging Siren tightly as Gallant sighed and sank back down onto the bed. “One crisis averted at least,” he said, and let his scales ripple with yellow for a moment. “But we still need a plan. Where do we go from here?”

            “We don’t need to go anywhere,” Juneau said. “You heard Forsa. We’re safe now, as long as my mother keeps a close eye out. We’re perfectly safe in the Ice Kingdom now, just like I promised. Star isn’t going to be able to get to us here, not with how cold it is. Nobody can.”

            “Kraken and Wendigo did,” Gallant replied. “And if they can—”

            “I don’t think Star has any other animus dragons with her,” Siren interrupted as she extracted herself from Mesa’s hug and sat on the floor next to Forsa. “Wendigo might have been the only one, and he’s gone now. I made sure of that.”

            I’ll say, Gallant thought, shuddering. “Still, we shouldn’t put anything past her.”

            “But where else can we go?” Juneau asked, laying back down as the healers began to apply herbs and bandages to everyone’s injuries. “Hyena’s watching every kingdom’s borders…and if Star does have agents all across Pyrrhia then anywhere we go she’ll know where we are. Plus, here, we’re protected, my mother’s sent out guards to the borders, and we don’t have anything to worry about. We can work with her to work something out…”

            “What about my uncle?” Mesa asked suddenly. She looked up at Juneau, wincing as the healer gently pressed a poultice of healing herbs onto a bruise on her back. “If…if he finds out I’m here…Do you really think he’d start a war?”

            “He already sent letters out,” Forsa mused. “If he finds out you’re here he could start a war by accusing Queen Akutan of kidnapping you.”

            “And get the whole Kingdom of Sand behind him, if he lets that become public knowledge.” Juneau frowned and started to rap her claws on the bed in thought. “With what we heard about General Steadfast and everything I don’t know if he’d have the army’s full support, but…”

            “It’s still a big risk,” Gallant said. “If we stay here any longer we’d be putting the Ice Kingdom in danger.”

            “No, we’re not!” Juneau exclaimed. “My mother’s already promised to protect us! You saw what happened when…when…” She faltered a bit, clenching a talon before giving her head a tiny shake. “When we got attacked! We’re safest here! My mother’s not going to let anything happen to us! She promised!”

            “Juneau, we just got attacked twice in the span of two days!” Siren said as she got up and came around Gallant’s bed to Juneau’s. “I know you want us to be safe here, but—”

            “And we just got rid of the last dragons that could follow us! The SandWings can’t get this far north, it’s too cold for them! The NightWings can’t, either!” Juneau looked from one dragonet to the next, her expression looking more desperate with each word. “We have to say here! It’s where we’re safest!”

            “But we’re not!” Siren replied. “Juneau, they sent Tern after us! They sent Kraken and Wendigo! They know where we are! For all we know, they’re just going to keep sending assassins after us until they get lucky! What if they find another animus dragon and just do what they did to my father, enchant weapons to kill us instead of sending dragons?”

            “What happened to going back to the Kingdom of Sand?” Gallant asked. “Suddenly you want to stay here now that nothing’s coming after us? You wanted to push Mesa to try and take her throne back.”

            “Well…it’s different now!” Juneau retorted. “You said that Hyena hired Kraken and Wendigo, right?”

            “Well…” Mesa cringed. “We don’t…know that for sure. I mean, they tried to kill me, too, and I don’t think my uncle wants that. And they said they didn’t work for Hyena, either.”

            Gallant laid his head back down on the bed, listening to the others talk. Ugh…what a day. As much as he’d thought he’d gotten over it, he couldn’t help but miss his hammock in the Rainforest Kingdom. No icy bed, no furs, no snow…just me. And sun-time. He almost wanted them to go back to the desert so he could get some sun. The weather of the Ice Kingdom was starting to get to him; even if the day had been clear since they’d left the cave, it still didn’t feel right, being so cold, even if he barely felt it.

            “Let’s all just calm down,” Forsa said suddenly as he spread his talons and wings wide and looked at each of the other dragonets in turn. “We just got out of one fight. Let’s not start another.” Once he was satisfied everyone was listening, he took a deep breath. “Right now, I think it’s best that we all think about this before we do anything. Yes, we’re…hopefully…safe now that Kraken and Wendigo are both dead. Queen Akutan is protecting us, too, so it seems like we’re even safer than we’d normally be.”

            Gallant saw Juneau open her mouth to say something, but Forsa turned to her next. “But we can’t just sit here and wait for something to happen, either. We’re trying to stop a war, not waiting for one to start. If we just sit here, and wait for something to happen, a war could very well be the next thing that happens. And then what would we do?”

            Juneau shifted uncomfortably on her bed. “But we’ll be in danger again, if we leave.” She looked at Siren guiltily. “And I told Siren she’d be safe here. I told Queen Seahorse that I’d keep her safe, that we’d bothbe safe in the Ice Kingdom!”

            “Well…we’re not,” Siren said sheepishly, looking back at her. Gallant flicked his eyes back to Juneau as she jerked in shock, only for Siren to frantically wave her talons. “Wait, wait, wait, no! I mean, we are! But things have changed, Juneau! After everything we found out, about Jackal, about Hyena, about Star and everything else…we can’t just sit here and do nothing! This is just like in the rainforest! I’m not having this discussion again! I know you want to protect me, but—.”

            “But nothing!” Juneau winced as she got off of her bed and limped her way over to Siren. “Siren, just…please. For once let me keep you safe. Let me do what I promised your mother I’d do.”

            “I don’t need you to protect me, Juneau,” Siren replied. “I appreciate everything you’re doing, but I’m done running. Do you really think your mother will start a war? To help my mother?”

            “Of course!” Juneau took a step back, looking offended. “Mother’s her friend! We have an alliance, remember? We just need to wait! Once Mother knows what to do, we can get into the Kingdom of the Sea and help Seahorse!”

            “And what about Mesa’s uncle?” Siren asked. “If Akutan tries to do anything, what makes you think that he won’t start a war? Especially when he’s got the NightWings to help him? We can’t rely on her! And we can’t afford to wait, not when we don’t know what he’d do! He might even send other dragons to try and get Mesa or kill us!”

            Juneau took a step backwards, looking at Siren with a curious mixture of shock, sadness, and…betrayal? Siren brought her wings around to wrap Juneau in a hug. “I’m sorry, Juneau,” Siren said. “I know you want to help, but…we need to do something. All of us. If we keep waiting…things will only get worse.”

            “Fine,” Juneau muttered. She pulled herself free of Siren’s wings and went back to her bed, climbing on top of it and curling up. “Do whatever you want. Not like what I want matters or anything.”

            “Juneau—” Siren began, but Juneau draped a wing over her eyes. Siren winced guiltily and then turned back to the rest. “We should get some rest. We can figure out what we’re going to do later, when we’re all feeling better.”

            “I know what I want to do,” Mesa said. Gallant turned to look at her and she glanced at him, then took a deep breath. “I…I want to go home.”

            Siren and Forsa looked at her in surprise. Even Juneau raised her wing to look up at her. Gallant’s brow rose in surprise as his scales flushed emerald. “Mesa…are you sure?” Forsa asked. “Your uncle’s still looking for you, and if he catches you—”

            “But Siren’s right,” Mesa said. “The longer we stay here…the worse things are going to get. I can’t just keep hiding while my tribe is in danger from whatever my uncle might do. If he does start a war or something…they’re going to suffer.” She took a deep breath, glancing at Gallant. “I…I don’t want that to happen. My mother wouldn’t let it. She wanted the SandWings to be safe. So…I can’t just stand by and let my uncle use them as playthings.” She shook her head suddenly. “I still don’t want to be queen! I’m not going to take the throne or anything!”

            Gallant felt his scales flash orange in annoyance as he suppressed a frustrated groan, shoving them back to their normal dark blue as Mesa continued.

            “But…but they at least deserve someone better than him in charge.” Mesa put one talon to her chest, looking down at it. “And…if the Eye of Onyx wants to choose someone else…then it can. And they can take the throne. Whatever happens, I just want my uncle out of my mother’s seat.”

            “Do you even know what you’ll do?” Gallant asked her. “There’s a lot of ground to cover between saying you want him off the throne and actually doing it.”

            “No,” Mesa said. “But…But I’ll think of something.” She fiddled with her bracelet, then looked back up at the others. “Is…is that okay? Can we do that?”

            “If you’re sure,” Siren said hesitantly.

            “I am,” Mesa replied, then flinched. “I mean…I think I am. But…But I’m willing to try…I think.”

            “Then we’ll go,” Forsa said. He looked around at all the others. “We’ll go with you. All of us. Right?”

            “Right,” Gallant agreed. He sighed as well. “Those two tried to kill me, too, even though the RainWings hadn’t done anything to Star. Who knows what she’ll do to the rest of my tribe if she gets the chance to. I’m not going to let my mother and sister get put in danger because I decided to not take this seriously.”

            “Then I’m coming too,” Siren said. She turned as Juneau opened her mouth to say something. “If you want to protect me, Juneau, you’ll just have to come along.”

            Juneau scowled, then rolled her eyes and sighed. “Fine. If you’re that determined to throw yourself into danger then I guess I have no choice, do I? But!” She raised one claw, pointing at Siren. “We’re not leaving until we’re all recovered. Deal?”

            “Deal.” Siren smiled in satisfaction while Gallant sighed.

            Into more danger. Keeping me away from home for even longer. Leaving Mother and Toucan alone longer…but it’s different this time. I’m not just going along with this because I have to. If I don’t help, and the rest fail…then the rainforest will be in danger. And who knows what Star’s plans for the tribe are. If I really want to keep Toucan and Mother safe…then I need to stop the danger from getting anywhere near them. The others will help…and I’ll help them. That’s how we all get through this. Together.

            He allowed himself to melt further into the furs, still wishing the infirmary was somewhere he could get sunlight. Plenty of time in the desert, he told himself.

Chapter Text

            General Steadfast looked out at the NightWing camp in front of him, running his eyes across the neat clusters of tents and cooking fires that had been set up with painstaking care. The large desert cavern that they were inside echoed from wall to wall with the sounds of conversation, beating wings, and the quiet dripping of water. Most of the NightWings were avoiding the great hole in the center of the cave’s ceiling, where a pillar of bright desert sunlight hit the sandy floor.

Those few that weren’t were the sentries, placed in hidden locations around the lip of the entrance in the roof, and those standing around the pool of light on the ground, ever-watchful for any dragons deciding to come down and investigate the cave. Secrecy was of the utmost importance in this place. He’d talon-picked every NightWing currently in the Kingdom of Sand, all the best soldiers he could get…and all of the ones that shared similar doubts about Queen Star. The sand was scratchy and constantly in his scales, and the cave was too dry and hot to be comfortable, even with the dripping of what little moisture there was into a small spring along one wall. But it worked, for now.

            It’s as good of a place as any, Steadfast thought to himself as he watched his soldiers go about their tasks. And at least here we’re out of the sun. No SandWings knew about this place, either. It was the perfect place for him and his soldiers. Away from the prying eyes of General Hyena’s SandWings, and safe from any dragon loyal to Queen Star that came from the Night Kingdom. As long as we keep this place secret, nobody will find us. And we can prepare.

            “General?” Steadfast was jerked out of his thoughts by a new voice. He turned to look at the soldier that had walked up the small dune he was sitting on. The soldier was having difficulty walking as his talons sank repeatedly into the soft sand. As he finally made it to Steadfast, the soldier saluted with a wing. Steadfast sighed and waved him closer.

            “Has there been any news of Princess Mesa, Keeneye?” he asked.

            “No, General. Not for the past several days.” Keeneye winced in regret. “I apologize. We tried to cover as much of the borders with other kingdoms as possible, but it’s still a lot of land. She must have slipped by us.”

            Steadfast sighed in disappointment. She’s the greatest political tool we have. With her, we can get the SandWings on our side against Hyena. Once that’s done, and he’s out of the picture, we can have the Kingdom of Sand’s support in forcing Star to step down. “And about the other matter we discussed? The NightWing dragonet with the medallion?”

            “Nothing about him either, sir.” Keeneye shook his head again. “It’s likely that he’s left Possibility by this point; he hasn’t been seen in the streets in several days.”

            “Then he’s probably long gone by this point too,” Steadfast mused. “Was he in the company of any other dragons when he was last spotted?”

            “Yes, sir. Two other dragonets his age, both females, a SeaWing and an IceWing. There might be more, as well.”

            “I see.” Steadfast nodded. Accurate to the reports at least. “Anything else?”

            “We stopped three dragons heading for the Ice Kingdom’s borders two days ago,” the soldier said. “Two IceWings and a SeaWing. A big one. We stopped them, as per Hyena’s orders, but we had to let them go.”

            “And why is that?”

            “One of the IceWings presented us with the queen’s seal, sir. They had permission to be going through the Kingdom of Sand, so we were forced to let them go.”

            The Queen’s assassins, Steadfast thought. He sighed. “Did they say why they were going into the Ice Kingdom to begin with?”

            “Royal business, the IceWing said,” Keeneye said bitterly. “But we couldn’t stop them, sir. Not without defying the queen.”

            “Don’t worry about it, Keeneye,” Steadfast thought, taking a glance at Keeneye’s face and feeling a breath of gratitude that the soldier had no silver teardrops next to his eyes; none of his soldiers did, the better to keep his own thoughts hidden as an extra layer of security. If they were going after Mesa and the other dragons she’s supposedly with, there’s no telling if we’ll even see them again. But now wasn’t the time to dwell on those thoughts. “Anything else to report?”

            “No, sir.” Keeneye shook his head. “That’s all, for now.”

            Steadfast nodded. “Good. Go get some food in you and get some rest. The Possibility garrison will be rotating out in the morning.”

            “Thank you, General.” Keeneye saluted again and walked off, leaving Steadfast alone. As the soldier went back down into the main camp, Steadfast went the opposite direction, and walked back into the tent that stood behind him at the top of the dune. It was fairly plain inside; he’d dug out a nest in the sand big enough for him to sleep comfortably in, there was a rack for his armor, and a small chest that held his more personal belongings. Otherwise, the tent was empty.

            Still no word of them, he thought bitterly. How can we even be sure he’s among them if we can’t keep them in one place long enough to make sure? Steadfast opened his chest, taking out one particular scroll and rolling it open. Inside it was a drawing, a detailed picture of a pair of dragons, the male wearing elaborately-decorated armor while the female was festooned in gold, jewels, and white silk. Hanging between them both was a medallion of a NightWing flying across a full moon. The necklace’s chain was slung around both of their necks as they nuzzled one another tenderly.

            Steadfast let out a sad sigh as he gently brushed a talon along the scroll. He laid down in his nest and curled up as he brushed the image of his wife over and over again with a claw, his heart aching. “Wisdom,” he whispered. “I wish you were still here. We’re so close. We’re so close to finding our son.”

            If I can find him, and this goes smoothly…we can force Star to step down…then I’ll finally be able to introduce myself to Patience, too. Steadfast felt his heart shudder with joy at the possibility. He quickly shoved that feeling away, then rolled the scroll back up and put it back in the chest. Now wasn’t the time for those kinds of feelings. If he got too eager, he’d become reckless. He couldn’t afford any mistakes. Not when he was so close. He shut the lid of the chest, then looked out over the camp again, his resolve renewed.

            We still have a long way to go, he thought. But it’ll all be worth it in the end. Even if I only get to spend a day with them both, I will meet my dragonets. No matter what it takes.