Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Part One — We Have Wings (so why don’t we fly?)

Prologue

She was young, when it happened.

One minute, playing with some seashells.

The next, gone.

Everything, gone.

Gone, gone, gone.

She would later learn that what she witnessed was the beginning of an Era of War.

A long Era of War.

A war that would last hundreds of years.

There were explosions all around Pyrrhia and Pantala. At the palaces, hives, and webs.

Everywhere.

Nowhere was safe.

No one knew who did it.

No one knew who set them off.

But all they knew was that Jerboa was dead, and Jerboa couldn’t die.

And then all of a sudden, Animus Magic was back.

And there was more of it than ever.

So they fled.

Fled across the ocean.

Fled as far as possible.

And then they reached Pangerria.

Pangerria of the Shadow Dragons.

Pangerria, their new home.

And now, staring out to the sea, wishing for her old home,

She hopes she will live.

After all, not many would.

Not in this war.

Not with the Shadow Dragons roaming around.

She was alone. Just her and her pearls.

Ha.

What could royalty do for her anyway?

She was smart. Strong.

She was a Warrior.

She will win this war.

It is not a question.

She will.

She will.

Info

Allies

Leaf - Silk

Rain - Night

Hive - Sand

Sky - Mud

Sea - Ice

Main Characters

Splash

The daughter of Auklet, Reef. Siblings: Shore, Wave, Drizzle, and Jellyfish.

Description: Blue Seawing with two pearl necklaces, with a seashell amulet attached on one. A woven seaweed cloth is draped over her, with a ground narwhal horn dagger tied to her tail (to replicate Ex-Queen Coral). She carries a coral bow with sharp seagull-feathered arrows.

Animus dragon, passed down from genetics.

Raincloud

(Note: Due to the loss of many Rainwing eggs to the Shadow Dragons, a list of dragonettes and their respective parents are now recorded.)

The adopted daughter of Jambu, Pineapple. (Genetic parents died before her hatching.)

Description: A small, energetic Rainwing with a pet parrot named Apple. Lacks many accessories except a blooming rose flower headband. (Note: Rose flowers are usually ground up into incenses nowadays. They are known to keep Shadow Dragons away.)

Apprenticed to healer Moth.

Smoke

Son of Falcon, Flame. Sibling to his brother, Stone.

Description: A large red Skywing with a sword hung around his neck. A gold necklace is the only sign of jewelry on this dragon. Three bags are draped across his neck and wings, each carrying different things. (One contains mail. Another holds jewelry. The last one is more of a bag, which is filled with an assortment of goods.)

A Traveler: A dragon who travels from village to village delivering mail, selling goods, scavenging for treasure, and fighting off Shadow Dragons. Smoke is well known for his vast collection of weapons.

Frost

Son of Queen Snowfall, Sky. Brother to Hail and Shimmer.

Description: Pure white dragon with glittering pale orange scales. Collects animus-touched objects, which is favorite is a sharp, bladed dagger. He wears a bandana around his neck, enchanted to make all evil animus spells fail to work on him. (Hail is speckled with pale orange scales and Shimmer is pale orange with cold white wings.)

Collector: His collection consists of: A sharp bladed dagger enchanted to never miss the target, an aquamarine spear enchanted to stab the target’s tail to trap it in pain, a long fishing rod enchanted to bring up five fish each time, no matter the size, and a large cloak enchanted to make the wearer completely silent and invisible. (Five bandanas are also distributed to his family, in which he dug up in an abandoned Seawing den. Wren, Sky’s pet human, share one with Sky.)

Note: Frost is taking care of Daffodil, after Winter was assassinated by a group of angry Icewings who despised the royal family for allowing Icewing blood to mix with Skywing blood. Shimmer is taking care of Axolotl, along with Cricket and Blue, who had decided to reside with Queen Snowfall and the rest of the Skywings (along with Sky) during the summer, and resides with their families during the rest of the year. The rest of the known humans have settled near the new Ice Kingdom on a small island in Seawing territory, where Wren, Daffodil, and Axolotl can freely visit.

Summer

Daughter of Atala, Oak.

Description: A beautiful rainbow dragon with blue, orange, green, and yellow scales. She has leaf shaped wings, two furling antennas, a leaf tail, and a soft personality. Summer loves the beach and partying with friends, when she can.

Cook, who specializes in meat courses dished with vegetables.

Chapter Text

Splash swam through the half-built palace, examining the work already done. She nodded in approval and swam away, silently rolling her eyes at her permanently injured grandmother, who had forced her to do this in the first place. Who cared how much construction had happened from yesterday and today? It wasn’t like it was going to be done anytime soon.

Ex-Queen Coral had been maimed in the explosion back on Pyrrhia, and barely made it to Pangerria alive. Realizing that she couldn’t lead the tribe anymore, crippled and half-dead, she had passed the responsibility down to Anemone, who was the second oldest apart from Tsunami, who had refused the responsibility to instead help the other tribes get to Pangerria safely, due to the fact that only Seawings could really breathe underwater.

Anemone had ruled for a while, not really sure what to do. She had never been in charge of so many dragons before. Not many dragons from other tribes had yet settled, due to their inability to swim, so she made no really horrible blunders. However, Ex-Queen Coral, realizing a bit too late, when all the tribes arrived, soon demanded Tsunami take the post while she taught Anemone to be a bit more mature. These lessons, however, dragged on forever, and seemed to never end. Tsunami was getting restless after two years of ruling, and really, it was quite obvious, according to Auklet, that Tsunami really just wanted to go find her friends and restart Jade Mountain Academy together again.

At the time, Coral was going to put Moray on the post, as she was older and also so loyal to her, but Tsunami shut that down before Moray heard about it. It was also very obvious, to Auklet, that is, that Tsunami, along with Anemone, hated Moray. Secretly, Auklet had agreed. Moray was really just a pile of buttered kelp.

They were running out of time and choices, all seemingly to ignore Auklet due to her age. (She really wasn't that young!) But when a distraught Icewing crashed into their temporary base, begging for reinforcements to help them fight off a particularly large group of Shadow Dragons, none of the supposed “Queens” were prepared to do anything.

Coral was flopped out on the ground, groaning about pain and death.

Tsunami was about to charge head-first into the battle, without any plans or reinforcements whatsoever.

Anemone was intrigued, but made no real move to help.

Moray, who had been there as a part of the council (alone, for some reason, the others must have been resting), had panicked and fainted.

And it was Auklet who had sent out patrols, armed them with weapons, sent out orders. Auklet who had saved the Icewings from the attack, Auklet who had formed the alliance between the Seawings and Icewings, for years to come. It was Auklet who had done it all, and it soon became very clear who should be the queen. Because she may have been young before the war started, but she had grown, matured, and learned, and she was no longer just an incapable dragonette. Now, she was Auklet, the smart one, the planning one, the one who knew things. Now, she was the Queen of the Seawings.

And it would stay that way, for years to come.

Because if anyone was a good queen, it was Auklet.

And no one objected.

Not even once.

Splash was set with the task to visit the Ice Kingdom to meet with their officials. It was usually a task for soldiers, but Splash was no weakling. She could handle a few days without a decent meal, fighting off Shadow Dragons and any trespassing tribes. She was a Warrior. She wasn’t afraid.

She swam most of the way, along the coast of the Sea Kingdom and into the Ice kingdom. When she neared the center of the Ice Kingdom, swimming upstream, she climbed onto shore and called out to the nearest guards.

“Hello,” she said, becoming them to come over. “I’m here for the weekly meeting?” The Icewings moved forwards, nodding to her. One of them was icy blue, with a white tail. The other was really odd. He was a pure white Icewing, apart from his wings, which were a pale orange and speckled with red and brown. He also had a normal, spineless tail and very large wings.

She had heard of the hybrids. They were royalty, she remembered. There were three of them. Hail, Frost, and Shimmer. The queen, Snowfall, had married a fire-less Skywing, hilariously, called Sky. Apparently, this was what the offspring looked like.

“I’m Splash,” she offered, smiling. “You are?”

“Frost,” the hybrid replied. “And this is Polar.”

“Hey,” Polar grunted, a bored expression on his face. “What’s up in the Sea Kingdom?” He fiddled with his spear and eyed Splash’s arrows. “Nice weapon.”

“Thank you,” Splash said curtly. “Best for attacks if you don’t want to get close. Don’t want to risk getting infected.” She flicked her tail, drawing attention to the blade at the end of it. “I also have this if things get really bad, although I don’t think something like that would really happen. I have a sword too, but I didn’t bring it. Too much weight for swimming.”

“Cool,” Polar grinned. “Frost, show her your weapon.” Frost rolled his eyes and almost immediately, he was wielding a dagger. Polar’s eyes gleamed when he saw it, but It didn’t look very special.

“What’s so cool about a plain old dagger?” Splash asked with raised eyebrows.

“It's not just a plain old dagger!” Polar exclaimed, scandalized. “Its animus-touched!” Splash’s eyebrows only rose higher.

“I thought you didn’t have animus dragons,” she said.

“We don’t,” Frost said, rolling his eyes. “Although Skywings might, although my siblings and I aren’t. I found this in an abandoned Mudwing den.”

“Well, what does it do?”

“Directly stabs a dragon’s heart. Never misses.”

“Does it work on Shadow Dragons? I don’t think they have working hearts.”

“They do, actually.” Frost frowned. “I tried, once. It went straight through its body and out the other side, all covered in black blood. The shadow dragon fell, its collar still on its neck. I didn’t think it would actually work.”

“Huh,” Splash wondered. That would be useful. Tearing off the collars off of the Shadow Dragons was, actually, rather annoying, especially when the Shadow Dragon can hurt you, but you can’t hurt it. She should make one of those herself.

“You don’t seem all that surprised,” Polar observed. Frost flicked him with his wing.

“Are you stupid?” He asked Polar.

“No,” Polar denied. “It's a valid observation!”

“An obvious observation!”

“How is it obvious!”

“She’s obviously an animus!”

“She is?” Polar looked at Splash, and back at Frost. “How did you know?”

“Did you pay attention to any of those lessons we had on Seawing Royalty linage?”

“She’s royalty?”

“Yes,” Splash rolled her eyes. “How have you not noticed?” She gestured at her seashell amulet. “It's a family heirloom.”

“How was I supposed to know that?”

“Hmm, good point,” Frost said.

“HEY!”

Splash swam all the way back to the Seawing palace, ready to take a long nap. However, before she could flop down onto one of the beds, Turtle poked his head from around a large coral and waved at Splash.

"Hey!" He smiled, flashing in Aquatic. "How's my favorite niece?"

"Your favorite niece is currently in a great need of a nap," Splash flashed back, slumping onto a pile of seaweed. "I just swam to the Ice Kingdom and back."

"Wow," Turtle commented, amused. "You do know that the Ice Kingdom isn't that far away?"

"It is very far away," Splash protested.

"No it's not, compared to the distance from the Ancient Nightwing village to the Sea Kingdom on Pyrrhia."

"How would you know?"

"I was alive," Turtle flicked his tail. "I also swam the whole way myself. Took two days!"

"I'm sure that was your own fault for being so slow," Splash replied, her scales flashing slower than usual. She was starting to drift into sleep.

"Anemone swam there in roughly the same time," Turtle flashed back, her ears lighting up. Splash knew what that meant. It was a genetic trait; one that Splash had not gotten herself. Some Seawings could flash their ears, some couldn't. Ear flashing typically meant that they were teasing, or in rare cases, annoyed or irritated and they just wanted the other half of the conversation to just go away.

Splash didn't have time to answer Turtle before she drifted into a light slumber, and Turtle, the great uncle he was, lightly patted her head before swimming away to help build the new palace.

There were only so many animuses, after all.

Chapter Text

Raincloud loved her life.

She was a healer apprentice, trained in the most important art. She helped those in need when they were hurt. In the Rainwing’s eyes, healers were the second most important role in the tribe, with the Queen as the most important, of course.

She loved her family, too. Jambu was always fun to be around, even if he wasn’t as much of a good influence as Queen Glory wanted him to be.

Raincloud sidled up to Firefly, her older cousin, and peered at the scroll she was supposedly “reading”, but was really waving around with a grin on her face.

“What are you doing?” Raincloud asked, amused.

“Practicing my swordsmanship,” Firefly said with a very dignified expression.

“With a scroll?” Raincloud took a closer look at it. “Fighting 101 for idiots? Really?”

“It was a gift from Deathbringer. Apparently, I’m an idiot. Although, he also says that everyone in the Nightwing tribe is an idiot until they’re 10 years old OR at least have killed five dragons.”

“Huh,” Raincloud said. “I’m guessing he decided what makes an idiot?”

“Sort of,” Firefly said, setting down the scroll. “He says the “10-year-old part” was created by the tribe, but the “slain five dragons” part he made.”

“Hmm,” Raincloud pondered. “Possibly he has already killed more than five dragons when he was your age?”

“Fourteen,” Raincloud raised her eyebrows. “He says he’s being “generous” by setting the limit to five.”

“He kinda is, though,” Raincloud replied. Firefly smacked her with her wing. Reminder for later, Raincloud thought. Firefly has the same temper as Glory does.

“Anyway,” Raincloud said, trying to change the subject. “Can I join you in your swordsmanship training?”

“Sure,” Firefly shrugged. “You’re gonna have to get your own scroll, though.”

“No need!” Raincloud grinning. She flew up into Pineapple’s workshop and took out her newly polished sword and soared back down to Firefly.

“Talons and tails! Raincloud, IS THAT A REAL SWORD?”

“Yup! Jambu got it for my birthday.”

“NO FAIR! DEATHBRINGEERRRRRRRRRR!”

“What is it?” Deathbringer poked his head out of his “hovel”. “Are you done reading your scroll?”

“No, but Raincloud has a sword!” Deathbringer raised his eyebrows.

“You do? What brand?”

“Its hand-crafted,” Raincloud replied. “Pineapple made it for me after Jambu begged him over and over again. Got it for my birthday. I think it sort of resembles a Sharp-blade, don’t you think?”

“Hmm. More of a Dagger-claw.”

“Really? I thought Dagger-claws were smaller.”

“They are, but Dagger-claws are also known for their claw-like shape. Yours, is, undoubtedly, claw-shaped.”

“Huh,” Raincloud said, for the second time that day. She was learning a lot about sword brands right now.

“DEEEAAAATHBRINGEEERRRRRRRR,” Firefly whined again. “Why can’t I have a sword?”

“Because you’re an idiot,” he replied with the same totally dignified face Firefly had worn just a few minutes ago.

“I bet Raincloud hasn’t slain five dragons yet!”

“True,” Deathbringer mused. “But she’s not half-Nightwing.”

“You’re all so rude!” Firefly grumbled, stomping away. “I’m gonna go make my own sword, and It’ll be better than all the swords that have ever existed!”

Many years ago, when the explosions had first happened, the Rainwings had the hardest time escaping. They didn’t have large wings or strong builds, and most of them still hadn’t adjusted to a more work-filled life yet. So when the explosions hit, many Rainwings died.

The journey was hard, with many Rainwings falling to the sea. There weren’t many islands between Pyrrhia and Pangerria, and many Rainwings failed to complete the journey. However, the lucky ones…

They got to see their new home. 

It was even more beautiful than their old one. A large lake was in the very center, clear and shimmering under the sun. Large willow trees dangled over the water on one side of the lake, while tall, rainforest trees covered the ground around the other sides of the lake. Vines and overgrown ivy covered the trees, and flowers bloomed across every surface.

At first, the Rainwings had been too tired to pay attention to the beauty of the place. They flopped onto the ground and slept for days. But when they woke up, they actually had a look around.

Glory’s sloth, Silver, had made it across the sea alive, somehow. The others, however, had not been so lucky. There weren’t many sloths here; instead, the new rainforest was littered with birds, ranging from the size of a scavenger’s head to the size of a dragonette, these birds flew around everywhere. The Rainwings could barely walk without bumping into one of them.

Almost immediately, Rainwings started adopting these birds. The Leafwings helped them identify different breeds, and told the Rainwings all about these majestic creatures. "Parrots," they called them.

These parrots became the face of the Rainwings. Every day at the marketplace, parrots were sold, bought, and shipped off to be offered to other tribes. Their new tribe flag, that Peacemaker had drawn, had a large head of a green and red parrot on it. Some Rainwings were so devoted that they named their dragonettes after parrots; Parakeet and Macaw being two of the biggest examples. Parrots were the name of the tribe, and the tribe was lucky to have them.

Life was good.

"AHA!" Firefly came gliding down from the trees, waving a chopped stick. "Look at my new sword!"

"Err," Raincloud said, not wanting to hurt Firefly's feelings. "It's... cool?" However, Deathbringer wasn't as kind.

"It's absolutely DEVASTATING to look at! IT HURTS MY EYES!"

"Ehh," Firefly shrugged. "In that case, it should be easy to beat you." She then proceeded to charge at Deathbringer, who was rolling on the ground crying. But the second to stepped near him, Deathbringer shot up and above Firefly's head in a large, majestic arc before dive-bombing her and pinning her to the ground.

"No fair!" Firefly cried, glaring at Deathbringer. "I still don't have a proper sword!" Deathbringer shrugged.

"I don't have one either."

"ARRRGGGGGG," Firefly growled, stomping away. "Well, fine! Have it your way!" Firefly swished her tail, muttering about murder and revenge, and went to go find Primrose, her sister. Primrose was always smart and listened to what Firefly had to say. She was kind and understanding. She would know how to beat Deathbringer, and even cheer Firefly on.

"Hey, bug!" Instead of meeting Primrose, Firefly bumped into her brother, Gorgeous-face. Of course, that wasn't his name, as he looked much more like a Nightwing than a Rainwing, but he certainly acted like one. He was always showing off his stupid YOU'RE SCALES AREN'T EVEN COLORFUL WHY ARE YOU FLAUNTING THEM STUPID scales at everyone who crossed paths with him. The most annoying part? He indeed had the build of a Nightwing, and was a great fighter. He even inherited the Rainwing's death spit, and he DIDN'T EVEN LOOK ANYTHING LIKE A RAINWING. WHYYYYYYY WAS HE SO GOOD AT FIGHTING?

"What is it, Starseer," she grumbled, kicking him.

"Lose to Deathbringer again, hmm?" He raised an eyebrow, staring pointedly at Firefly. She knew he was just rubbing it in. He was the only one who came even close to beating Deathbringer, and he made sure everyone knew it.

"Shut up," Firefly growled, swinging her not-so-Rainwing-tail in his face. Only Primrose had inherited that trait, which was why she was Jambu's favorite. She was the only one who could tree glide.

"Oooo," Starspeaker whistled. "Is the itty-bitty bug mad?"

This caused Firefly to break. She wasn't weak, she knew she wasn't! She was just easy picking for bullies, like Starspeaker and even her own father! She wasn't weak she wasn't weak-

With a flourish, Firefly jerked her head to the right and dashed away, he heart beating as fast as a Skywing could fly, her talons shaking, her tail flicking side to side nervously. She would get stronger. This wasn't a question. She wouldn't get pushed around like this. Not anymore.

It's time to become a warrior.

Chapter Text

Smoke scampered around the littered stones that formed a sort of twisty path through a neutral village. There weren’t many of these, with the world in a war, but they were usually the best, richest cities due to the collaboration in constructing the city. Smoke greeted a small dusty yellow Sandwing almost a gray color called Gravel, who traded Smoke a long chained necklace and offered two dates, which Smoke gladly ate. As Smoke traveled farther into the city, the more faces he met. There was a small stall in which a dusky-colored Nightwing was offering fortune telling, and a stall where Gravel’s parents dished up fancy meals for dragons who passed by and were hungry for a meal. One stall, run by a kind-looking Silkwing was selling beautiful hand-woven silk cloths and offering smaller, white cloths to the dragons who could not afford one of their own. There was even a small stall in which a frantic Hivewing was holding lessons between humans and dragons so they could understand each other better, but a particular human was running away while a Mudwing ate all the snacks.

Smoke stocked up on food and water, before buying a peculiar wooden chest that the merchant had said held a exotic lizard, which Smoke had seen crawling around through the small peephole that had been carved into the box. Smoke had thanked the merchant, a large, burly Mudwing named Swamp, and continued on his journey through the city.

“Wait!” Swamp turned, watching as Swamp ran towards him. “Are you going Shadow Dragon hunting?”

“Yup,” Smoke flicked his tail and anxiously eyed his sword. Would it be enough to protect him? he fretted, fidgeting with the sheath.

“Have this,” Swamp handed him a small coin. “Press on it rub three times in an emergency. The Talons of Peace will come find and save you.”

“Thank you,” Smoke said politely, though he was secretly wishing that he would never need to use the emergency contact method. Getting stuck in that sort of situation was not on his list of things to do on the hunt, thank you. He wanted it to stay that way. With a final wave to Swamp, and Gravel, who had popped out of absolutely nowhere and tossed a bag of spare change to Smoke, he headed into the forest, and into the unclaimed territory of the evil beasts they had stole their home from.

Smoke walked for a while, his tail nervously brushing against the foliage, his wings twitching. He realized how inexperienced he was in this field, and he wished that he had just stayed in the tribe territories instead of parading into unknown lands.

Nervously, he inched deeper into the forest. There! A humongous shadow dragon loomed over Smoke as he padded forward, instantly regretting his whole life. Why did I agree to this? At this moment, Smoke really would’ve preferred to go hide under a rock. Even battling in the war was better than this! Why had nobody told him how large shadow dragons were?

With a leap of courage, Smoke unsheathed his sword and jumped at the shadow dragon. Why oh why did I bring a sword? I know I have a spear in my collection! With a sickening lurch, Smoke realized that he had gone straight through the dragon . It was as if it doesn’t exist!

Maybe it isn’t real! Hope flared back to life and almost immediately sputtered out again when the shadow dragon lunged at Smoke, its talons outstretched, and slashed a long wound across Smoke’s back.

It can hurt me, but I can’t hurt it! Now, confusion was taking the edge off the throbbing pain in Smoke’s back. I’m going to die like this, alone and away from the little family I have-

And as a final attempt to rid the world of the large dragon, Smoke hurled his sword straight at the shadow dragon’s face. His aim was terrible, but it worked for the best. The sword went straight through the shadow dragon’s heart and out the other side, and the last thing Smoke was aware of were the large green eyes, horror in their eyes, as they watched the shadow dragon fall to the ground and wither away, leaving a puddle of black goo in its place.

As if it doesn’t exist .

“It was Morrowseer! I swear it was him! I know what I saw!” Sunny slammed her talon down, exasperated. “You think I would hallucinate a shadow dragon who looks exactly like the ginormous liar of the Nightwing tribe?”

“Sunny’s right,” Clay offered, munching on a chicken leg. “You know how big Morrowseer is. I don’t think anyone can mistake a random shadow dragon for him.”

“But this doesn’t make any sense!” Tsunami paced around the room. “How can a dead dragon be a SHADOW DRAGON ? IT MAKES. ABSOLUTELY. NO SENSE. NO SENSE!”

“But if Morrowseer has turned into a shadow dragon, then are all…?” Starflight trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. All the dragonettes of destiny were tense now; Starflight was shaking, Clay was sad, Sunny nervously twitching and fidgeting with a piece of paper, and Tsunami was angrily pacing with renewed ferocity.

“We need to do something,” Tsunami snarled, wringing her talons.

“Wait.” Everyone looked at Fatespeaker, who had spoken up. If Fatespeaker was nervous to have the attention of (almost) everyone in the room, (the Jade Mountain Academy classroom pet was also attending the meeting), she didn’t show it. Instead, she raised her and spoke up.

“Do all shadow dragons look like Morrowseer? Do they all look like Nightwings?”

For a while, no one spoke up. At last, Tsunami offered an answer.

“I mean, not all shadow dragons are that large,” she mused. “And I swear I saw a really fierce Rainwing shadow dragon before, even though THAT STILL MAKES NO SENSE! ARRGGGGGGG!”

“So shadow dragons are just dead dragons come back to life,” Starflight muttered. “Oh…”

“What is it?” Sunny asked, her fluffy ears stretching in confusion. “This is so much more complicated than I thought…”

“This is no ordinary continent,” Starflight said, his voice shaking. “We’re intruding in the land of dead.”

“What?” Clay asked.

“THIS STILL MAKES NO SENSE!” Tsunami screeched.

“Wow,” Sunny gasped.

Starflight sighed. “This is the afterlife.”

Chapter Text

Frost stalked across the frosty land, his tail flicking around and his eyes narrowing at the white world around him. He spread his orange wings and lifted off into the sky, stretching them as far as they could reach.

It was hard, starting from scratch, all their ancient animus gifts, lost forever. Frost had vowed to make up for it, scavenging for animus-touched objects, but it really wasn’t the same.

Frost dived towards a stretch of ice, floating on the seawater, and snatched up a seal who really should have been paying more attention. Ha.

“Good catch!” Frost’s sister, and the only heir to the throne, Shimmer, She helped him carry the seal back to the unfortunately melting palace.

Back home, Shimmer prepared the seal and cut it in half, toasting the back end and dicing the front. Hail and Shimmer liked it toasted, though Frost disagreed. Who would ever want to eat a cooked seal? That was pointless.

The hardest part was finding berries and nuts in the frozen landscape. While the humans weren’t very picky about the food they ate as long as it was cooked, if it was meat. (cooked again! Why was everyone so weird?) However, Sky was not as generous, and he was all about veggies and nuts. He was still a great father though. Frost especially loved Daffodil, the human he was taking care of. The death of Winter was a tragedy, and the royal family stilled mourned his death, no matter if some of them did agree that tainting the bloodline was a crime that was worthy of the punishment.

Frost disagreed.

“Why are you here?” The frosty dragon growled, his talk smashing into the wall, ineffective. “What’s your motive? Why are you trying to kill me?”

“You tainted the bloodline,” the voice simply said.

“That was Snowfall, not me! What is wrong with you?”

“You’re royalty."

“I don’t want anything to do with you! Why are you doing this? This is pointless!” Daffodil, who was hiding behind Winter, let out a terrified squeak.

“This is revenge,” the dragon finally hissed, his fangs glistening.

And then it was black.

Frost didn’t know why he could see the death of Winter, as if he could live it himself. Actually, he could see the death out of the whole royal family as if it was him, dying like that.

He knew it was a curse. Maybe another way to revenge the royal bloodline.

Why are you doing this? This is pointless! Winter’s last words still rang in his head, loud and echoing, as if it was his own thought.

It might as well be , he thought, rather wistfully, hoping that the curse would go away.

It never did.

The next Icewing queen will be Snowfall .

This isn’t over yet. You will forever be trapped here, for eternity -

Is this your final wish ?

She’s on the ground, why can’t she breathe -

He covered his ears, hoping they would go away.

They wouldn’t, he knew.

They were in his head.

They weren’t there for real.

It was all in his head.

He could survive.

He will survive.

He opened his eyes again, wait — why were they closed in the first place? — and raised his head. He padded through the castle, as it nothing was wrong and his head definitely was not hurting like he had just fought five thousand battles and lost-

“Migraine again?” Snowfall greeted him, and sat down under the light globe tree that twenty dragons had to carefully transport over the ocean. It helped that it wasn’t a real tree. That would have been a problem. “I can show you a cool thing to do to help.” She plucked a globe from the tree and tossed it out the window and into the courtyard. Frost hurried over and peered out the window, managing to get a glimpse of the globe before it floated into some dragon’s room.

“Guess which dragon received the globe,” Snowfall smirked, flicking her tail. “I bet it’s Otter.”

“The resident Seawing?” he asked. “Why?”

Snowfall rolled her eyes. “His room is so large and has so many windows, I would be surprised if he didn’t receive it.”

“Well,” Frost said, thinking. “I bet it's Tern. Or maybe Seal.”

“You can’t choose two, you doofus.”

“Then Tern. She has large windows.”

“Okay then,” Snowfall said, stretching her wings. “We’ll see in the morning.” Snowfall plucked a globe for herself and passed one to Frost. With a nod, she went back into her council room to talk to Lynx and Mink.

Frost sighed, and padded back into his room. He frowned at the mess of snow on his floor. Why was his room the only room without a roof? He brushed snow off of his bed on onto his polar bear rug and flopped down onto the bed, even though sleep was a long time coming.

“What does it mean?” Sunny said, looking down at her talons. “What does that make shadow dragons now? Should we-, I mean, would it be right…”

Starflight nodded. “I think we should still attack if they’re hostile. If we don’t, we’ll end up dying ourselves.”

“But that’s so wrong!” Sunny wailed. “What if, what if the opposing shadow dragon was… was…” Sunny trailed off.

“A dragon you once lost?” Fatespeaker put in? “I wouldn’t know what to do either. I mean, Morrowseer, I could attack. If Starflight died and became a shadow dragon then-”

“That’s enough,” Starflight cut in, clearly uncomfortable.

“She has a point though,” Tsunami mused.

“About Starflight dying?”

“Clay, you blockhead! No! What I mean is what does happen when a dragon dies? Do they become a shadow dragon themself?”

Starflight frowned. “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably.”

“Arrgggggg,” Tsunami growled, likely for the fifth time that day. “That’s it. We’re calling Glory over?”

“Are you sure?” Starflight worried. “She’s running a kingdom right now. We really shouldn’t-”

“Yes I’m sure,” Tsunami snapped. “I’ll go get her myself.” And with a flurry of wings and tails, Tsunami took off into the sky, and disappeared over the horizon.

Chapter Text

With a small hum, Summer flew back into the Leaf-Silk village, carrying a basket full of berries and herbs. She waved at her friend, Maple, and they exchanged their gathered plants before going their separate ways.

“Hey, Summer!” Gecko, her baby brother, was holding a tiny lizard in his talons. “Look! It’s me!”

“Aww,” Summer said. “Why don’t you go find Maple to play with?” With a snicker, Summer bounded away before Maple could attack her. She really didn’t want to be the victim of that . 

All though I do deserve it, Summer mused, padding away. It’ll take Maple a long time to get rid of Gecko . Shaking her head, she walked back into her mother’s restaurant and delivered the gathered ingredients. Oak, her father, was a kind Leafwing. Atala, her mother, was often busy, but their family had a rule that both Atala and Oak had to be home before the sun set so that they could have some time together, as a family.

That was before Oak was sent off to fight in the war.

It just wasn’t the same now.

He was gone.

Atala grew sad, and now her restaurant, though she still owned it, was highly dependent on her friend, Tau, who had agreed to take over the business until she got better.

She didn’t seem to be getting better, though.

Only worse.

There didn’t seem to be much more time until she died. Summer didn’t know what would happen to the restaurant if she passed away.

Would Tau still run it?

If so, would Tau be the owner then?

Or would Summer be?

Summer was a good cook. She could run a restaurant.

But without her mother?

That wouldn’t be possible.

It just wouldn’t.

If only Oak could come home.

But he couldn’t, so what was the point?

“Are you sure you want to attend?” Atala fussed over Summer, even though she was still sick. “You should stay home. It’s too dangerous out there.”

“Mom,” Atala protested. “It’s a peace committee! How can a peace committee be dangerous?”

“Still,” Atala said, examining Summer’s leaf-shaped wings. “There’s a war going on out there.”

“Yes,” Summer rolled her eyes. “That’s what the peace committee is for.” Summer flicked her wings and raised her head, just like Atala instructed. “I’m not a dragonette.”

“You’re still my dragonette,” Atala said with a smile. “And yes, you are a dragonette, you bozo.”

“Have Cricket and Luna’s stories influenced you again? I swear Freedom loved to use that insult.”

“Maybe,” Atala replied, still smiling. “Now, don’t let your overprotective mother hold you up. You have a meeting to attend!” Summer, now also smiling, thanked her mother and scurried out the door, barely catching the party of Silkwings and Leafwings who were leaving for the peace committee meeting. Unfortunately, Maple was apart of that group, and Summer had to quickly maneuver in between a snooty Leafwing and a talkative Silkwing that Summer knew Maple would never walk next to if her life depended on it.

They walked for a while before a Leafwing ordered everyone to stop. “We’re entering unknown territory,” he said. “Better be careful. There might be shadow dragons around.” The group, now uneasy and nervous, marched forward once again and into the foliage. Summer held her head high and hoped no one could see the fear on her face.

They walked for a while, following a twisty river through the forest. They came upon a shadow dragon once, but a Leafwing, the same one who had warned everyone, ripped off its collar before it could even react to the group of dragons.

The group circled around the corpse, and headed further into the territory. Summer was getting used to this now. She could-

“AAAAAAAAAAA!” Summer jumped, her wings flinging outwards, her mind screaming RUN! and her talons telling her to charge forwards and fight off whatever that was attacking.

A shadow dragon? Another tribe? Wait. Are shadow dragons a tribe now? No, that didn’t belong in her cycle of thinking. Why was she thinking of Shadowwings ? She needed to fight, no, run, she had to do something-

“It’s just a pile of shadow dragon goop!” that same voice of authority rang out again. “Nothing to worry about. Although, avoid the goop, please. AVOID THE SHADOW DRAGON BLOOD, YOU HEAR ME?”

“Yes!” the rest of the dragons called back. Summer inched forwards, carefully, before dashing the last part to leave the supposed “blood” behind.

Wait. Summer turned back around and glimpsed a shiny coin lying near, but not that close to the pile of goop. What is that ?

Hesitantly, Summer crawled forwards and snatched up the coin. Peering at it, she gasped.

It’s a Talons of Peace coin! I wonder who dropped it . With a careful, almost secretive gesture, Summer tucked the coin into one of her pouches which she called “safekeeps” and bounded back over to the group to rejoin them.

“Why did you leave?” Maple seemed to have either forgotten or forgiven Summer, and she was fine with either. A mad Maple wasn’t too bad, like a mad Gecko, but it was still sad and just a bit terrifying to have such a peaceful dragon be mad at you.

“I thought I saw it move,” Summer lied.

“You thought,” Maple said slowly, “that you saw a pile of goo move ?”

“Shadow dragon blood,” Summer corrected, but that didn’t seem to convince Maple.

“Sure…” Maple trailed off, and slowly shifted away from Summer.

Great , Summer thought. Now she thinks I’m crazy. Lightly patting he pouches, Summer dashed off to walk beside Butterfly, leaving Maple to question Summer’s sanity herself. She really didn’t want to be around for that.

“Hey Butterfly,” she greeted, teasingly flicking his ear with her tail. He wasn’t her brother, but Summer treated him as one. At least he wasn’t as clingy as Gecko. He was also just a year younger than her; perfect company if you asked Summer.

“Hi,” he replied. “How are you doing? That shadow dragon blood creeped me out.” Butterfly shivered, his ears fluffing up against the cold.

“SEE?” Summer called to Maple, who was on the other side of Pine, who was rearranging his pouches. “IT WAS SHADOW DRAGON GOOP!”

“I NEVER SAID IT WASN’T,” Maple called back. “ALL I SAID WAS THAT IT COULDN’T HAVE MOVED!”

“SHUT UP!”

“ YOU SHUT UP!”

“Settled down,” Pine scolded, finally done making sure his bags were perfect. “We don’t want to attract too much attention.”

“But you already have,” a voice hissed, somewhere in the forest. Summer froze, and then whipped her head around. “And you better get off our land now, before we rip your head off.”

Chapter Text

Splash rolled over and got sand in her nose. Snorting it out, she looked around. There was Turtle, waking her up.

“Go away,” she flashed, burying her head in the sand. This only got more sand stuck in her nose, and she had to snort it out again.

“Auklet wants to see you,” Turtle nudged Splash, and she flicked sand up his nose. 

“Fine,” she glared at him, sitting up. “What does she want?”

“Some kind of animus meeting,” Turtle replied. “Anemone and I are coming too. I’m not sure what she wants exactly , but she needs us to come.”

Yawning, and getting bubbles in her mouth and even more sand up her nose (this was getting ridiculous) Splash swam towards the half-built castle and met Auklet in her council room.

“Why, have you summoned us, your majesty,” Splash flashed, mostly to annoy Auklet.

“Oh, stop it,” Auklet rolled her eyes. “You know I hate it when you guys call me that. Royal family rules, remember? Don’t call me your majesty if you’re royalty.” then, a bit dimmer, “unless you’re Moray or Shark. They can stuff their noses with sand.”

Splash scrunched up her nose. “I just did.”

“Not you, silly,” Auklet beckoned them into another room. “So, I called you in here to discuss the peace treaty the other kingdoms have come up with. Each queen is supposed to send a committee of dragons to attend the meeting, and I wanted to send an animus for protection.” Auklet paused as Anemone bounded into the room, flashing greetings and sitting down.

“What are you talking about?” she asked. “Oh, and, sorry I’m late.”

“No problem,” Auklet replied. “We were discussing which dragons we should send to the peace committee meeting. I was hoping to send an animus for protection.”

“I’ll go,” Splash offered.

“No, you’re too young,” Anemone refuted. “ I’ll go.”

“Well, then I’ll stay home,” Turtle said, looking quite pleased with himself. “I can continue helping the others build the palace.”

“There’s another thing,” Auklet added. “The Icewing’s palace is breaking and melting, and the tribe is miserable. They lost most of their animus gifts. I want one of you to go help them build their palace, too.”

“I’ll do that, then,” Anemone said. “Splash went to the Ice Kingdom yesterday, and Turtle will probably mope the whole time.”

“Okay. So is this final?” Auklet looked around at the group. Splash nodded, Anemone flashed her scales, and Turtle flicked his tail. The three of them left the council room, all with different tasks in mind.

Splash swam to the center of the half-built palace and met up with the group getting ready to travel to wherever the meeting was going to be.

“It’s in a Sandwing village,” Drizzle informed her, placing a tail on her shoulder. As the older sister, she often looked down on her siblings, and Splash was no different. (Even if she was an animus). Drizzle was the same age as Shore, however, and that seemed to deeply annoy her. Wave, who was in Splash’s hatching, had opted to stay behind and hunt, while Jellyfish, Splash's younger sister, was attending Jade Mountain Academy in neutral territory up North.

Splash and the rest of the group of Seawings dove beneath the surface and started to swim towards land. Schools of fish dashed away as the Seawings charged through the water, their wings gracefully spread out and flapping. Splash even snagged a minnow on her claw before it could swim away. She devoured it before any of the Seawings could even react.

“We’re almost there,” a Seawing flashed. Whale , she remembered. The general. They climbed onto the sandy beach and started to head towards the village marked with a large “X” on the map. But before they could take even three steps, the both of the entire Sandwing and Hivewing armies burst out from behind the large wall that they had built to keep out invaders and started attacking the Seawings before they could even blink.

Splash gasped. It was a trick! The Hivewings and Sandwings set up the “Peace Committee” to trick the tribes into this ambush to steal our land! Splash’s eyes narrowed in rage and before she could even think, she shouted out the first thing that came to mind.

“EVERYONE! STOP!” 

And they did. Splash’s eyes widened with wonder. Then her eyebrows remembered she was supposed to be looking menacing, so she started to scowl.

“Hivewings, Sandwings, leave .” they automatically obeyed, and scurried behind the wall again. She was about to march after them, but hesitated. She remembered how so many animuses had gone crazy and evil for using their magic too much. Would interrogating dragons be evil? Surely not…

Splash pushed away her doubt and marched beyond the wall. It really wasn’t that great of a defensive wall; more like a structure to hide behind in this bare desert.

“Why did you guys attack us?” Splash snarled at the nearest dragon.

“We-” the answer was ripped out of the dragon’s throat. “We’re rebelling. We don’t agree with how peaceful Queen Thorn and Queen Jewel are acting. In the middle of a war!”

“Silence,” Splash growled again. “Go fly to the Sandwing Palace and Jewel Hive. Inform them of your wrong doing.” Splash whipped around. “Who is your leader?”

It was obvious the dragons were trying not to give it away, but Splash attached her gaze to the most uncertain Hivewing she had ever laid her eyes upon and tracked his gaze to a Sandwing with so many scars it was a wonder she was even alive.

“Of course,” Splash hissed. “It’s you.” she stared into the glittering eyes, narrowed and completely black. She knew this dragon. She had sought out the Seawings once, looking to form an alliance. They had agreed, thinking this dragon could help them achieve peace and unity. They didn’t know how well known this dragon was in the Sandwing tribe. A long curved tail and sharp claws: everything this dragon did was for a reason. No twitching, no hesitation. And luckily, Splash knew who this dragon was. So she lowered her voice, flicked her tail with the narwhal spear, and hissed with so much malice that every dragon except the traitor froze.

“Well, well, well! Look who we have here.” Splash took a step forward. “Why have you come slithering back to our kingdom, Cobra .”

Chapter Text

“Let me go!” Wriggling in a mass of vines and ivy was a big, ferocious blue dragon. “I’m here to see Glory!”

“ Queen Glory,” one of the guards corrected. “You guys, stay here. I’ll call her majesty over here.”

“Since when did Rainwings have all this fancy talk?” Tsunami muttered, gnawing her way out of the trap. One of the Nightwing guards noticed and jabbed Tsunami’s nose with a stick. Tsunami roared at the guard and lashed her tail, only making herself more tangled.

“What is going on here?” Glory touched down on the platform and eyed the mass of tangled vines and scales. “Tsunami, is that you?”

“Yes, IT’S ME. GET ME OUT OF HERE! YOUR GUARDS ARE REALLY STUPID! DO THEY REALLY NOT REMEMBER THAT I TRAINED THEM?”

“You trained the Rainwing guards,” Glory corrected, somehow infuriatingly patient. As if she was BETTER than Tsunami. HOW DARE SHE. “Not the Nightwing guards. You are in their village, you know.”

“ARRGGGGG,” Tsunami growled. Glory removed the net and she jumped up, shaking her wings out. “Stupid guards.” Glory snorted, amused. “Anyway, I came here to inform you about the discovery Sunny made. There was this Skywing who went shadow dragon hunting, and Sunny saw him fight Morrowseer !”

“Morrowseer?” ripples of red and green appeared all over Glory’s scales. “Is he alive again?”

“No,” Tsunami said, rolling her eyes. “He became a shadow dragon!”

“That, makes no sense.” Glory replied.

“EXACTLY! THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I TOLD THE OTHERS! BUT THEY DIDN’T LISTEN!” Tsunami hissed for a while before continuing. “Anyway, Starflight and the others have come up with the conclusion that when a dragon dies, they become a shadow dragon.” Tsunami frowned. “Wait…”

“Huh,” Glory replied, sitting down. “That explains some things. The other day, a shadow dragon who looked like Queen Battlewinner came attacking the Rainwing village. Are all shadow dragons Nightwings?”

“No,” Tsunami replied. She thought for a moment. “I think they attack their enemies they had when they were alive.” Tsunami frowned. “That doesn’t explain why Morrowseer was attacking a Skywing, though…”

“Hmm,” Glory frowned. “Do you want to come to the Rainwing village?”

“Fine with me,” Tsunami replied, her gaze flicking to the scowling Nightwings spying on her in the shadows. “Come on!”

Raincloud was on a spy mission. Not just any spy mission. Firefly had requested this one, and offered so many coins that Raincloud almost exploded .

Firefly wanted Raincloud to spy on Starseer, who Firefly believed was way too pompous for this to be just a regular “Nightwing superiority” and “Rainwing beauty” passed down from generations.

“Glory isn’t obsessed with her looks, and Deathbringer doesn’t think he’s better than everyone else,” Firefly had pointed out.

She had a good point. That was why Raincloud was currently stalking the loudest dragon ever. In existence.

Starseer was strolling around the rainforest, screaming “HELLO”s at basically everyone he saw. Some dragons said hello back, but most just gave him a funny look before offering him a banana. Raincloud didn’t know what offering him a banana actually meant, because no one just offers someone a banana right after giving that same dragon a funny look, but it wasn’t Raincloud’s job to find out. Firefly could do the thinking, after Raincloud reported all the information she got from spying. Yes, this was a good plan. Nodding to herself, Raincloud camouflaged once more and ducked into the foliage, careful not to rustle too many leaves. Not that Starseer would notice, she realized. He was too busy screaming hellos to everyone he met. After a while, Raincloud considered giving up and just telling Firefly that her brother was a pompous brat and needed to be thumped a few times. The only flaw in that plan was that Firefly might not pay her for that information, because she already knew that. In fact, Raincloud might be the dragon getting thumped in that situation.

Raincloud willed Starseer to do something interesting, and decided to give him half an hour to do that. In half an hour, suntime would be here, and Raincloud wasn’t going to pass-up suntime for anything.

Finally , Raincloud thought, as Starseer rushed into his room, as if hiding something. Something interesting! I was beginning to think that this dragon is as thin as paper ! The poor, dense thing! Raincloud realized her thoughts were beginning to make no sense, even though she knew what she was thinking. Pushing away her thoughts, she crept forwards, silently stalking the half-Nightwing, half-Rainwing into his private quarters.

“Finally,” the dragon mumbled, face planting into his pillow. With a closer inspection, Raincloud realized he was actually reaching for something under his bed without being too obvious. “Aha!”

With a flourish, the dragon produced a sword and held it up. Starseer took a deep before opening his mouth. “I enchant this sword to always stab through a dragon, or shadow dragon’s heart and never miss.” With a smirk, he attached the sword to his belt and sauntered out of the room again, almost trampling Raincloud, muttering “whoever enchanted that Icewing dagger was smart, but haha, I have a better one now!” Raincloud was frozen, flat on Starseer’s floor. Did she hear him right? Was she hallucinating? That seemed very probable. Yes, she must be hallucinating. But as she climbed up from the floor, she knew this wasn’t some dream she made up in her head. She didn’t know if what Starseer had done worked , but he seemed confident, and normal dragons didn’t just say stuff like that. Trembling, Raincloud dashed out of Starseer’s room, and almost ran headfirst into Starseer himself. Screaming at herself in her mind, Raincloud managed to flap her wings and leap on top of him. She could see how confused he looked when she flew over him, but at least he couldn’t see her. He wouldn’t know who had just snuck into his room, if he could connect the dots in the first place.

With a growing sense of dread, Raincloud saw that Starseer’s confusion had turned into angry realization, and Starseer was already charging at Raincloud. With a jolt, Raincloud realized that Starseer probably thought that the dragon who snuck in was actually Firefly, even though Firefly could change the color of some of her scales, including her wings and tail. They were purple, and-

Oh no.

She was purple. The color of guilt.

Forcing her scales to turn yellow, or better yet, camouflaged again, and dodged Starseer’s outstretched talons and flapped away, hoping he saw that she could in fact, change the color of all her scales, and that it wasn’t Firefly spying on him. Raincloud really didn’t know how smart Starseer was, but she hoped he was at least smart enough to realize that , at least. She felt sick to her stomach. Raincloud would probably never see Starseer the same way again. She was terrified . There would be no more taunting, laughing, and joking about the pompous brat he was. Because he was an animus, and now she knew, that anything she did…

He could do worse.

Chapter Text

Smoke woke up a bit dizzy, and quite frankly, relieved. The last he remembered was fighting a large, terrifying shadow dragon, and now, he was in a cave.

Looking around, Smoke realized this must be Jade Mountain Academy. Rolling across the room and peeking out of the cave he was in, he was disappointed to find that it wasn’t very large, and only half built.

Jade Mountain Academy still technically lived on Jade Mountain, as the mountain they started construction on was named after the school, it wasn’t same. Smoke had never seen the old Jade Mountain Academy himself before, but he certainly heard a lot about it from Flame. In fact, his father’s whole purpose of life seemed to be insulting the lot of do-gooders that decided to take on a life of teaching. Not that Smoke agreed with him. He assumed that they saved him, although he suspected that he actually defeated the shadow dragon, although the memory was hazy. In fact, all of his memories were hazy. Maybe he was going crazy. Yes, that must be it. Trying to stand up, Smoke immediately collapsed and let out a small “oof”. Considering what he knew for a moment, Smoke decided upon the explanation that the Dragonettes of Destiny (they really needed a new name! They literally had dragonettes of their own by now!) had kidnapped him right after he defeated the shadow dragon for them . A bit insulted, and also a bit confused, Smoke finally managed to stand up and sidled out of the room, frowning, and also a bit wobbly on his feet.

“You’re awake!” a golden snout was shoved up his face and he almost fell over on his back. With a yelp of surprise, the golden snout retreated and backed away hastily. This must be Sunny , he realized, peering at the dragon more closely. The dragons who had told him the story of the dragonettes were actually really acuate, in terms in how the dragonettes looked. Maybe it was because Sunny was just distinct, in that way. Smoke didn’t think he could forget someone who looked so bright .

Sunny was exactly like how that Sandwing, Gravel, had described. Golden scales, green eyes, barbless-tail, and a kind face that smiled every second possible. Sunny invited him to the meeting cave, which Smoke assumed they were going to use to explain to Smoke what in the three moons had just happened.

“So, you’re telling me that the shadow dragon I murdered was actually an evil Nightwing barbarian?” Smoke stared at the other dragons in the room with an incredulous expression and frowned. Some dream he was having. He wondered what he did to deserve this. Maybe he should try banging his head against that stick in the corner. Unfortunately, Smoke realized that he could be knocked unconscious again, and he really didn’t want that.

“Okay,” Smoke said to the crowd of faces. “Sure. Uh, do you have tea? I would really like something to make this make more sense.” Smoke had first tried tea in a neutral village, and he remembered it was calming. Calming was good. He really needed to calm down right now. This was getting ridiculous.

“Sure,” Starflight replied. “Clay, where did you put the tea?”

“This is so dramatic!” Fatespeaker said, her eyes wide. “You know how cool this sounds? Skywing defeats dead murderer, Dragonettes of Destiny kidnap said Skywing, and Skywing asks for tea after hearing the full story.” Fatespeaker beams at her observation, and Smoke silently rolled his eyes. This dragon was the silliest dragon he had ever met.

“Anyway,” Starflight cut in, “we would like to offer you shelter due to the inconvenience.” Starflight nodded at Smoke. “There is a large storm rolling in; no dragon, even a Skywing, would be fit to travel in that weather. You can stay with us for as long as you like.” 

Great , Smoke thought, grumbling to himself. He had agreed to meet with Gravel in a week; he wouldn’t be able to see him now. Just then, a stricken look crossed Starflight’s face.

“Tsunami might not make it back!” Starflight flung his wings open in panic, accidentally hitting Smoke in the face. Flinging his own wings open, Smoke ended up hitting Starflight back as well as Clay, who was on his left.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, although it was really Starflight’s fault. He wouldn’t mention that. His wings were unnaturally large, after all. It was partially his fault.

“She’ll be fine,” Sunny said. “Tsunami and Glory are both very brave.”

“And grouchy,” Starflight mumbled.

“And grouchy,” Sunny agreed, giggling.

After the meeting, Smoke decided to explore the new Jade Mountain Academy further. It was actually a cool place, now that he thought about it. He met many new dragons, including a Seawing named Jellyfish, who was a royal Seawing princess, and a Rainwing called Hummingbird. He did notice that dark, gloomy clouds were rolling over the sky; the Dragonettes weren’t lying about the storm. He caught an eagle and a goat before depositing them in the hunting cave. The dragons attending Jade Mountain would need to stock up on food if they wanted to survive the storm. Glade, an Icewing, was kind enough to freeze Smoke’s catches so they could be preserved. For now, Smoke ate a rabbit and tried to play cards with the other students. He ended up losing every game, but he felt happy after the final round.

It wasn’t so bad, this school. Flame was a bit biased; Smoke probably shouldn’t listen to him anyway. However, Smoke was a bit old to be attending a school for dragonettes. I’ll leave as soon as the storm’s over , he decided, flicking his tail. He stared at one of the screaming chickens running all over the hunting cave and decided that he would go to sleep early today. Listening to birds scream all day did this to a dragon. Curling up on one of the spare rock ledges, Flame buried his head under his wing and tried to fall asleep, twisting and turning to try to get into a comfortable position. Finally, he fell into an uneasy sleep just as lightning flashed outside and a boom of thunder alerted the world — the rain starting to crash down onto the mountain as just as fierce as the shadow dragon he fought yesterday.

Chapter Text

Frost frowned, internally cursing whichever of his idiotic relatives decided to lock him up in his room for “resting”. It wasn’t fair that his sister or his brother were doing important things right now; he wanted to do those too. Scowling, Frost shifted on his bed and pretended to fall asleep while he thought of escape plans.

He could try to fly out of the large gap where the roof was supposed to be. The only problem with that plan was that there were surely guards and other Icewings flying around, and maybe even Seawings. He would certainly get caught, and he wouldn’t be given another chance to escape. He would be guarded heavily for his “resting”.

Maybe he could search through his animus objects to try to find something useful. He knew Snowfall had invisibility bracelets she had salvaged from the forbidden treasury back in Pyrrhia, but she hadn’t given them to him, and it was pointless trying to steal them when he couldn’t even sneak out of his room in the first place.

Shifting through his animus objects, Frost debated whether creating a distraction or forging a letter would help him. He had enchanted objects for those; one that distracted dragons for up to two minutes or made them remember something important they needed to do, and one that copied the handwriting of any dragon of the bearer’s choice. They could help; maybe Frost could forge a letter from the queen to make his stupid relatives actually listen to him and let him out of the gloomy place. Stupid aunts and uncles and grandparents and stupid world.

“Hey Frost!” Shimmer burst into his room to find Frost gone. Rolling her eyes, she called out into the hallway. “He’s gone! I told you he would find a way to escape.” Suddenly, a blur of white and orange scales flew past Shimmer and into the hall.

“Or not,” Shimmer amended. “Hail, he’s heading towards you!” Frost gripped his seashell tighter and muttered a few words in a different language. He knew Hail was just around the corner-

“Aha! Frost, you sneaky little-” Hail stopped and started dashing away in a different direction. “How did I forget about fishing today?” he cursed, scurrying away. Frost smiled and ran in the opposite direction, finally bursting out of the palace and into the courtyard. Now, he would act normal, as if he was supposed to be here, and not at all disobeying orders. Nope, definitely not. No way. He would never.

Pacing the courtyard purposefully, not too slow; that indicated uneasiness, and not too fast; that indicated distrustfulness. He was almost out of the courtyard when Shimmer burst into the open air and pointed a finger at him.

“You,” she stated, her voice surprisingly even, “are supposed to be asleep.”

“No,” Frost protested, equally calm, even though he was secretly hyperventilating. “I am supposed to be overseeing the queen’s meeting with Anemone.”

“How do you even know about that?” Shimmer’s eyebrows furrowed and she frowned, thinking. This was the perfect opportunity for Frost to escape. He inched away and out of sight, but before Shimmer yelled a “HEY!” and dashed after him. He had already escaped the courtyard, however, and out here, he could fly without looking suspicious. Spreading his wings, he took off in a dramatic flurry of wings and lifted off, leaving Shimmer in a cloud of snow.

“Where are we going?” Daffodil demanded, gripping Frost’s scales with terrified glee. Frost was flying so fast, she felt like she would fly off. She couldn’t wait to tell Violet about this! Her mind would explode.

“I’m going to find a trading village to get rid of this thing,” Frost replied, shaking a pouch of knives. “They’re selling for high prices currently, and I have way more than I need.” Daffodil reached for one, but Frost shifted the pouch away from her. “Don’t you dare. You wouldn’t even be able to lift one.” Daffodil pouted on his shoulder before giving up and eyeing their surroundings. Puffy clouds dotted the blue sky, winds gently ruffling the small trees dotting the landscape below. They had officially left Ice Kingdom territory and were slowly heading into Leafwing/Silkwing territory. Daffodil had decided that if he wanted to sell kitchenware, — “ It’s not kitchenware! They’re very high-tech weapons! ” — she deserved to visit her friends too. Frost had agreed, which was why he was currently flying over trees instead of water. Sure, Daffodil had friends in the Sea Kingdom, but she insisted of visiting “Violet” and “Foxglove” and “Forest” this time, and Frost wasn’t even sure if she really wanted to meet her friends or she just wanted to annoy him knowing that the Silkwings probably wouldn’t even want his weapons — “ Kitchenware! ” — in the first place. They were peaceful, after all. Scanning the ground, Frost’s eyes widened as he saw a group of Silkwings and Leafwings, cornered by some shadowed dragons. He swooped lower, Daffodil squeaking in protest on his back, and examined the exchange.

“We come in peace!” A Leafwing shouted. “For the peace committee meeting!”

“Oh, you naive little dragon,” the voice cooed. “There is no peace committee. You really believed that lie?” the shadowed dragon’s tongue clicked. “Never mind that. Some dragons need to be taught a lesson on trespassing, strangers.” with a hiss, the shadowed dragon, along with its companions, jumped at the Leafwings and the terrified Silkwings, their claws outstretched.

Hivewings, and Sandwings, Frost thought, rage bubbling beneath him. He wanted to help, wanted to intervene. But the most help he could be was to his tribe, by warning them of the danger. He knew Icewings were preparing to leave for the peace committee soon. He knew, that if he didn’t hurry, this was what would become of his friends, his family. So he turned and fled, shooting one, sorrowful glance to the Leafwings and Silkwings, who wouldn’t have that chance to be saved. They wouldn’t be able to avoid it. They were the ones to find out. In the last second, Frost flew back down again, and scattered a few of his knifes on the ground, hoping a Leafwing or a Silkwing would see it, and take it and fight. It wasn’t the best way to help; no. He couldn’t help them in that way. But it would help nonetheless if it worked, and Frost hoped, he hoped it would. With one last glance at the crowd of dragons, Frost flew away, away, and back home.

His family needed him now. Those dragons weren’t his tribe. But as he soared away, he knew his scales shone too bright; too much of a contrast. He was part Icewing; his scales were white and shiny. He would be spotted out here; he was sure of it. Making sure Daffodil was safe, he dived, hoping to hide in the foliage, away from those dragons.

And then they see him.

He knows they do.

He just doesn’t know why they don’t chase, don’t go after him.

Oh well.

At least he’s safe.

Maybe.

He saw amber eyes.

Amber eyes and white scales.

He felt so lost.

He was only in this resistant group to be with his family.

But he saw that dragon, and he couldn’t deny it anymore.

His family wasn’t his family, anymore.

They stopped being his family when they joined this group.

This group of haters.

Evil, heartless dragons who felt glee and pride in knocking down others.

Why was he here?

Why did he stay?

That dragon, he looked so terrified of him.

He wasn’t scary.

He wasn’t, really.

He wanted to fly after that dragon, ask him what was wrong. What he could do. That dragon was beautiful, unlike him.

Not that that dragon would like someone like him, anyway.

He was lost, in this group.

A shell of who he was.

If only he could just fly away.

They wouldn’t allow that, though.

At least here, he was alive.

If only happy.

If only with him.

That beautiful dragon.

But he couldn’t disobey. One wrong step, and he would be one of the prisoners, not guarding them. He held no power in the situation he was in.

Should he run?

How could he?

What was the point?

He was only Beetle, after all.

Just Beetle.

That was who he was.

The useless dragon who followed orders.

Just Beetle.

Chapter Text

Summer sat in her cell, gloomily poking the dead rabbit they had given to her to eat. As a half Leafwing, she wasn’t that picky about meat, but Maple, it seemed, was a bit hesitant. Summer took a moody bite and chewed for a while.

“It’s okay,” she told Maple, nudging the rabbit towards her. “It’s not that bad.”

“It’s dead, ” Maple replied, sniffing it with a disgusted expression.

“Well, you can’t eat it alive, can you?” Summer took another bite after Maple just stared at it some more. After one more bite, Summer pushed away the dead rabbit and sighed. Food here was so plain. If only she could cook it. She could already come up with a dish using this dead rabbit, some oil, and cauliflower. Maybe Summer could convince Maple to eat the cauliflower, and then convince her to eat the rabbit. Maybe if it didn’t look like a dead rabbit, Maple would eat it. Summer couldn’t think of why she wouldn’t eat meat. She wasn’t even half Silkwing! With a sigh, Summer shifted in her position and pulled out the shimmering knife. Who had dropped it? It looked Icewing-made. Was that possible? What would an Icewing be doing so close to Sandwing territory, in their territory no less. An Icewing would have to cross either Skywing or Mudwing territory to get here, and Summer suspected neither of the tribes would appreciate an Icewing flying around their land.

“Maple,” Summer whispered. “Look what I have,” she gently nudged the knife, not wanting to draw the attention of the guards.

“Really?” Maple’s eyes widened. “I have one too! I found it on the ground!” Summer watched as Maple lifted her leaf-shaped tail to reveal a shimmering dagger just a bit bigger than Summer’s own.

“Hmm,” Summer muttered, staring at the knives. Who else had them? Maybe all the captured Leafwings and Silkwings had them. Maybe they could use them to escape.

But how? Summer puzzled over this question for a while before shaking her head and tucking the knife back under her wing. Best not to let the Hivewings and Sandwings see. She wondered what they had done to anger Thorn and Jewel, and if they could still fix it. Sure, they were all in a war, but the last time Summer checked, Thorn and Jewel were pretty intent on fighting the Rainwings and Nightwings for their lake, as their territories were small and Glory had a lot of spare rainforest. Summer had even heard that Thorn and Jewel were going to resort to sending many troops into Rainforest territory to try to steal some land. So what had made them want to attack them? Summer knew many tribes had received the message of the peace committee. Just how many dragons have fallen for this trap ?

Beetle shifted his wings, flicking them up and down in unease. It was his turn to watch the prisoners, and one of them was just staring at him. Staring! At him! It was making his scales prickle, and all he really wanted to do was to march right up to that dragon and to tell her to stop staring at him because it was creepy and got on his nerves.

She stared at him anyway.

Great, he thought, cursing whoever this dragon was. Way to make him feel at home. He thought of the white dragon and sat back down. Maybe he could run away. Which direction had the white dragon been flying? He hadn’t looked like an Icewing, only similar to one. He had weird, amber eyes. That was the weird part. Amber eyes! On a white dragon! Beetle was absolutely mystified.

“Look at that guard,” Summer whispered to Maple. “Look. He doesn’t look very strong, does he? Maybe we can attack him and escape.”

“Without the others?” Maple hissed. “No way.” She curled her tail closer to her in a protective motion. “We either escape together or don’t escape.”

“But this is our chance!” Maple frowned. “Wouldn’t it help if we got away and got reinforcements? Wouldn’t that be better than just sitting here and doing nothing? We could be helping save our tribe, and yet we aren’t!” Maple hesitated.

“I just don’t want to leave them here, all alone,” she finally whispered, sounding so lost. Summer put a wing around her reassuringly.

“It’ll be okay,” she promised. “They’ll be okay.” With a nod, Maple stood up.

“So, how are we going to do this?”

“I think I can distract him, and you can attack him.” Summer nodded at Maple’s dagger. “I’m not that good at using knives, and your mother grew up with the Outclaws, did she not? You should know how to use a dagger.” With a nod, Maple gripped the knife tighter, and they began their plan.

Beetle sat there, wondering what those two Leafwings were talking about. They were both hybrids, he realized. A Leaf-Silk hybrid and a Leaf-Sand hybrid. That’s interesting, Beetle thought, flicking his tail. I bet a Sandwing is feeling very stupid about now.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Beetle jumped, his wings flaring out. Someone was screaming. The prisoner was screaming. Not the half-Sandwing, the other one. Just then, the half-Sandwing jumped on top of him, wielding a knife. How had she gotten a knife ? Terrified and a bit grouchy, Beetle side-stepped the attack and fled down the corridor to fetch reinforcements.

“He’s gone,” Maple called to Summer, who was still rolling on the ground. Summer immediately stopped her acting and looked up.

“Already?” she peered out of the corridor. “Huh.”

“Go, go!” Maple said, pushing Summer out into the corridor. “Stop staring and go !” Summer started down the corridor just as reinforcements started pouring into the hall.

“Run!”

“Stop! Stop right there! We’re armed!” Maple froze, but Summer pushed her along.

“This is not the time to feel guilty,” she hissed.

“Definitely not feeling guilty!” Maple dashed in front of her, hurrying away. Summer risked a glance back, and when she saw the blowguns the Sandwings and Hivewings were wielding, her stomach sank. Those were inspired by Rainwing blowdarts, but were made with Hivewing toxins instead of tree frog venom. These would be much more painful, and also render the victim unable to move instead of just asleep. Cursing under her breath, Summer started to race faster and faster. There! She leapt the last stretch and burst into the open, quickly scanning the sky for Maple. Nodding at her, shh took off into the air as Maple blocked off the entrance with vines and ivy. Hopefully, it would delay the soldiers enough for them to have flown out of sight.

“Come on,” Summer hissed, willing Maple to go faster. With a satisfied nod, Maple flew back up to join Summer, who was hovering over a large tree.

“Let’s go,” Maple agreed, flying away. “Let’s go warn the others.” she looked back at the gloomy prison behind her. “We’ll save you! Don’t worry!”

Chapter Text

Splash’s eyes were narrowed, her breathing even but fast. Cobra stared right back at her, her black eyes gleaming, her venomous tail barb curled and ready to strike.

“You know animus magic runs in the family, Cobra,” Splash hissed. “Do you really want to try?” Cobra hissed, smoke rising from her nose. She tucked her tail back, as if trying to appear harmless, even though it was obvious it was still in a position to attack.

“Leave,” Splash suddenly hissed, whirling around. “Why are you back? When we called off the deal, we told you to leave and to never come back.” Splash flicked her tail dangerously, as if saying See? You’re not the only one with a dangerous tail. I have this spear, and I’m not afraid to use it.

“Ahh, but you never said I couldn’t come back as an enemy,” Cobra’s teeth gleamed. “You know me. I couldn’t resist. A group of tired, defenseless Seawings, just swam half the continent to attend this peace committee. Wouldn’t that be just the right time to attack, after what you have done?” her tone went low, as if it held five hundred threats in just that one word. Maybe it did. Splash didn’t care. She had magic, and she was going to use it.

“Stop,” she commanded, stamping her talon down. “Leave. This time, I command you to. Don’t come back. Don’t attack again.” she lowered her voice, just like Cobra had done. “We won’t be so kind next time.” I won’t be so kind, Splash thought in her head. She stomped out from the wall for good measure.

“I dealt with the problem,” she told the troop. “There was no peace committee. It was a rebellion group run by Cobra against queen Thorn and Jewel. Not our problem.” The dragons’ shoulders sagged in relief.

“Good,” the general leading the patrol said. “Should we send a message to the other queens? Warn them not to come?”

“Good idea,” Splash mused. “The other tribes are close. We’ve already come so far.”

“I’ll warn the Skywings,” Shrimp, a small green Seawing offered.

“I’ll warn Mudwings,” Seagrass offered. He was the youngest of the group, a half-Mudwing half-Seawing hybrid. He was honestly a really cute, but also really strong dragonette. The tribe loved to fuss over him.

“Wait,” Splash cut in. “Shouldn’t we check with the rebellilon group which tribes they’re targeting? It wouldn’t be useful to send off dragons for nothing.”

“Good idea,” the general replied. “You can do that. I doubt they would answer if we asked.” Splash nodded and headed back behind the wall.

“Which tribes are you targeting?” she demanded the second she glimpsed a dragon. Most of them were just lying there in stunned silence.

“Err, all of them,” one answered.

“Which ones have troops attacking them right now?” Splash also asked.

“Uhh, for the Leafwings and Silkwings, it’s too late. The Skywing troop is due to leave tomorrow, and the Mudwing troop isn’t until later this week. The Seawing troop is us, and the Icewing troop is the day after tomorrow.” the dragons shared a glance. “And neutral territory is going to be bombed.”

“WHY!” Splash yelled. The dragons jumped. “We all just lost our homes! Why would any dragon do it again?” her eyes narrowed, her tongue flicking out and in. “Unless you did it in the first place.”

“O-of course not,” the dragon stammered. “We would never!”

“This suggests otherwise,” Splash replied, stalking back out.

“All of them,” she called to her troop. “They’re attacking all of them. Even neutral territory. They sent a bomb.” Gasps of horror traveled through the crowd of dragons.

“They dared- ”

“Why?”

“Who would do such a thing?”

“Did they set off the original bombs?”

“No way, they can’t swim!”

“That’s just cruel!”

“Do you think we can get to neutral territory fast enough to evacuate the place?”

“Maybe we could stop the bomb…”

“How?”

“We’re just normal dragons!”

“I can’t believe they did this…”

“They should be punished!”

“Yes! Punish them!”

“We should fly now. Get there as soon as possible!”

“I’ll go,” Splash offered. “I can fly pretty fast.”

“To the neutral village?” someone asked. Splash nodded.

“Yes. You guys can decide who goes to warn who. Just someone, do it!” she took off into the sky. “I’ll be back before you know it!”

Storm clouds were gathering overhead, but Splash flew on. A bit of rain wouldn’t stop her. However, the farther she flew, the more conscious she was of the impending storm. The clouds grew bigger and darker, foreshadowing thunder and lightning. Uneasy and exhausted, Splash soared down into a cave and spent the night. If only she had kept going, though, as she woke to pounding rain. She wanted to wait it out, but she didn’t know how soon the bomb would go off. Why hadn’t she thought to ask? Maybe she could. She’s an animus dragon, after all.

“Enchant this leaf to tell me when the bomb goes off,” she tapped a large leaf battered from the wind and rain.

“There is some time left,” the leaf tells her. “The Sandwings have to light it themselves, and in this weather, they are unable to.”

“Good,” Splash muttered to herself, settling down again. She wouldn’t be able to travel in this weather too. Hopefully, she would be faster than the Sandwings, and get there before them. She had flown a good distance before the storm rolled in, and hopefully, it would be enough.

Splash pondered how many dragons and cities she would have to evacuate. Maybe, she could send other dragons to help her. Some Seawings living in the neutral villages, maybe. She knew one of her sisters, Jellyfish, went to Jade Mountain Academy. Maybe she could help. Jellyfish always loved being useful.

Splash stared out into the storm, her scales softly lighting up the scales. Her wings were sore from flying all of yesterday. She wondered how long the storm would last. Maybe a few days, so she could rest. She was feeling mighty tired right now. If only she could swim the way there.

Maybe I can ! She realized. A large river ran from near the academy and all throughout neutral territory, bordering Skywing territory. The river also split, with the longer branch running through Leaf-Silk territory and all the way into Sandwing and Hivewing territories. That river was somewhere close by. Maybe Splash could swim upstream. It would be a pain in the neck, sure, but surely it would also give her a head start on warning the neutral dragons. She didn’t know how far the Sandwings had already gotten before the storm. It would be better being safe than sorry. The only flaw in her plan was that there were many shadow dragons in neutral territory, and they wouldn’t wait to know why she was swimming through their rivers. While defeating shadow dragons was easy, she was tired and sore, and really wasn’t in the mood to fight them. Hopefully, she would be able to swim around them. Stepping into the pounding rain, Splash looked beyond the trees and spotted the river. There, she thought, satisfaction running through her bones. I’m coming, Jade Mountain, neutral villages. She thought. I’m coming to save you all!

Chapter Text

A storm was coming.

Raincloud wasn’t sure if this was a normal storm. It was strong, and seemed to have a mean personality.

Maybe Starseer made it , she thought, paranoid. She had been like this all week. She couldn’t shake off the feeling that he was always watching, always plotting. She feared for Firefly’s sake. Had she endangered her, or gotten important information? Firefly was happy with what how much Raincloud discovered, less about the actual news. She didn’t seem worried about what he could do. Why wasn’t she worried? Raincloud certainly was. She was really worried. She couldn’t believe it. All this time, Starseer was an animus. All those times she would have been defenseless against his attacks. All those times she insulted him, laughed at him. Why wasn’t she dead? She could figure out why she wasn’t sprawled out on the ground, bleeding and coughing. Starseer could punish her, and yet he didn’t.

But why ?

She didn’t know. All she knew, however, was that a storm was coming in, and that it wasn’t just any normal storm.

It was magical.

“Yes, we all know that you think the storm will kill us,” Firefly commented from a tree near her. “You’ve told us.”

“But, can’t you feel it?” Raincloud’s scales bristled in anticipation. “It feels… wrong. It’s so obvious! How can you not tell?”

“I think you’ve gone crazy,” Firefly offered. “You’ve been like this ever since the spying mission.”

“I think you’re the crazy one,” Raincloud countered back. “How can you just not care that Starseer is an animus?”

“I care,” Firefly protested.

“Well, you have a funny way of showing it,” Raincloud muttered, curling her tail around her. She and Firefly listened to the rain splashing over the upper canopy of leaves overhead and watched the water run down tree-trunks. It was peaceful, here in the rainforest. Moss grew against trees and on ledges. Excess water from the storm formed little trickling streams that all flowed into the large lake in the center. Silver Lake, Raincloud’s mind supplied. Named after Queen Glory’s sloth .

A tree frog chirruped somewhere nearby. With a small pain of regret, Raincloud realized that she could never sneak those tree frogs into Starseer’s meal anymore without feeling a sort of unease. He was an animus, and she could do nothing about it.

Tsunami, the visiting Seawing, was swimming in the lake. Some of the curious Rainwings were watching her while camouflaged.

“I like your new village,” she had said when she saw the lake. “Nice lake.” Then, she had dived in. “Great for swimming!” with Tsunami’s help, the Rainwings had discovered many different types of fish resided in the lake. Many Nightwings created fishing rods so they could enjoy some meat for lunch instead of fruit. Tsunami had caught fish with ease, without the need of fishing rods or even a net. She had tried to teach a Nightwing dragonette how to fish like a Seawing, but he almost drowned, and the Nightwings refused to let their dragonettes near the water after that. The rain was pounding down hard on the lake, but most of the groud-level forest was undisturbed. The ground was protected from the rain by the layers and layers of large, leafy trees that covered almost all of Rainwing territory. Whatever sorcery this storm was, Raincloud decided, the Rainwings would be safe from it.

Raincloud sorted herbs and dried some leaves that had gotten wet. Today was a great day to start farming, she decided. The rainwater would supply the newly sprouted plants for weeks; there would be no better time to start. She examined the seeds they had and made a note to herself to buy some marigold and thyme seeds from the marketplace later that day. Their stocks were running low after a failed harvest last year.

It won’t be like that this year , Raincloud promised. This year, the harvest will be perfect ! For most of the day, Raincloud filled buckets with rainwater and soaked seeds until they sprouted. Rose, mint, goldenrod, lavender, sage, juniper, basil, chervil, peppermint, borage, dill, parsley, burdock, fennel, horsetail, chamomile, chickweed, feverfew, dandelion, daisy, comfrey, catmint, and also dock. She waited patiently for every seed to sprout. While the seeds soaked, she spent her time gathering plants that had already sprouted; typically leaved off of trees like oak leaves, lemon leaves, and beech leaves. She also collected cobwebs and some moss, and stored them in the healing hut for cuts and injuries. By the end of the day, Raincloud was thoroughly exhausted.

There was no sunlight shining through the gloomy clouds anymore. Raincloud wondered if there would ever be sunlight again. Hesitating, Raincloud brought the soaking seeds and foraged leaves inside her hut. It was the feeling again. Something was trying to tell her that something was wrong. Something was off .

Raincloud curled up in her moss bed when the feeling came back, even stronger than ever. Gather moss, gather ferns , the feeling instructed. Puzzled and a bit annoyed, Raincloud got up again and started to scavenge for moss. Finding the moss was easy, but transporting it was hard. Eventually, Raincloud stuffed all the moss she gathered in a basket and also filled it with comfrey and ferns. Now, even more tired, Raincloud laid down in bed and vowed that if the feeling came back, she would just ignore it and go back to sleep.

It didn’t.

“FLOOD!” The scream woke Raincloud up from her dream. Her feeling was right! Something was off! “THE LAKE FLOODED!” Stepping onto her balcony, Raincloud gasped. The entire jungle floor was covered in water. Water dripped from every surface and choked the plants growing on the rainforest floor.

“Three moons!” Raincloud breathed. “Everything is underwater!” Raincloud was suddenly grateful of the feeling. Now, her herbs and seedlings were alive, instead of ripped up and tossed away by the water. She even had dry bedding that would last days. Hopefully, by the end of all of it, the flood would go down, and she could gather even more moss later.

The whole day, Raincloud tended to her plants and salvaged anything and everything she could. Moss, leaves, fruit, and even nuts; everything was precious. She didn’t know how long the flood would last, but she didn’t want to take any chances.

Raincloud’s tree hut that she shared with her parents was high enough into the air that it was protected from the flood. In fact, her hut was one of the tallest buildings in the rainforest. She knew that if anything happened to other dragon’s huts, Raincloud, Jambu, and Pineapple would be glad to provide safety and a place to stay when the water level was still high.

I knew this would happen! My feeling warned me! Raincloud felt oddly proud. Now, she felt safe. She knew that if anything bad were to happen, she would be safe. I wonder why I have this feeling in the first place , she stared into the flooded landscape, the rain pouring down over the whole canopy. I wonder why this is happening . But all she knew was that a storm had come, and it would last a very, long time.

Chapter Text

Storm stared out into the storm, his wings tucked behind him. Wind howled in his ear. This is one big storm, he mused. It has lasted so long already! But the length of the storm wasn’t the strange bit. It was how the clouds never seemed to move; never seemed to go away. As if the storm was magical.

Jade Mountain was rather peaceful. Some times, Storm popped into an occasional lesson and listened for a while. His favorite by far were the fighting lessons. The school promoted unity, but they also taught self-defense. Now, Storm could successfully ward off any attacks targeted at him. He also learned a bit more about shadow dragons every day. It was nice to know that his time spent trapped in this school wasn’t wasted. He was learning something, after all.

“Hello,” Jellyfish dropped in next to him, peering out the window alongside Smoke. “How are you settling in?”

“Fine,” Smoke replied, getting up. “Don’t you have class?”

“Oh yeah, but I can skip this one.” Smoke gave him a look. “Electives,” Jellyfish explained, her scales glowing softly in the dark cave. “It’s cooking. They’re optional.”

“Hmm,” Smoke said. “Maybe I’ll join.”

“Ooo,” Jellyfish said. “Then I’ll come with you.” Smoke shot her an amused glance and walked into the corridors, poking his snout into each classroom, trying to figure out which were which. He still hadn’t delivered last week’s letter; he would have to leave as soon as possible or he would have to hand out refunds. He really didn’t want to hand out refunds. Maybe he could use the storm as an excuse. Surely the other dragons would understand, right?

When Storm found the cooking class, he even tried to participate this time. Cooking interested him. However, by the end of class, he decided that next time, he would just watch. He managed to burn a salad without even using fire.

“We’re running low on food,” Smoke heard Clay say to Sunny one day. “The chickens aren’t breeding fast enough. None of the dragons really want to make a meal out of baby chicks.”

“Maybe we could send a fishing expedition to one of the underground lakes,” Sunny suggested. “I know there’s a river dam a bit south of here, but it’s too hard to fly and fish in this weather.” Sunny sighed. “I wish the storm would hurry up and leave .”

“Me too,” Clay agreed. “I hope Tsunami and Glory are okay.”

“Uhh, excuse me,” Smoke cut in. Both dragons jumped and turned around, eyeing Smoke a bit warily. “Maybe I could go. I’m a Skywing. I can fly in this weather.”

“Hmm,” Sunny hummed. “Maybe this could work. Send a few Seawings. They can swim and fish, right?”

“Jellyfish is on the older side compared to Crab and Tide,” Clay mused. “You could take Cardinal. She’s strong, and a good hunter.” Clay muttered to himself for a bit. “Yes. You, Jellyfish, Cardinal, Crab, and Pyro. You guys can lead a hunting patrol South.”

“It’s decided then,” Sunny clapped her hands together. “I’ll tell the others. If all goes well, we’ll have a feast tonight!”

Smoke officially hated this weather. The rain was pounding down heavier than ever, and he actually had to fly in it. At least he had good company. While the two Seawings swam, with Jellyfish in the lead guiding Crab, he made talk with the two other Skywings. He had managed to snatch an eagle out of the air and they all shared it. Cardinal was a large red Skywing who loved burning her food before eating it. She talked about history and fighting, and had a large, strong build. Smoke suspected she was doing better flying in this weather than he was, and she was only a dragonette! Pyro was a deep, sizzling red-tinted orange. Smoke learned that he was learning healing and herbs from the academy so he could work at the Skywing that was just Southwest from the academy. He was also, as Smoke found out, much better at cooking than he was. He evenly scorched his eagle wing and also seasoned it with a bit of thyme he had found growing near the river. Smoke was actually impressed. If he had tried something like that, the whole world would be on fire right now.

Suddenly, Crab poked his head from out of the river. “There is an unknown Seawing swimming upstream,” he called. Smoke tensed, and swooped down to the bank. Crab’s head resurfaced again after a few seconds. “Nevermind! It’s Jellyfish’s sister!” Puzzled, Smoke watched as the dragon staggered onto the bank.

“Had to get here-” the dragon took in a gasp of air. She looked utterly worn down. “As fast as possible.” she collapsed onto the shore.

“Are you…” Smoke paused. “Okay?” He knew it was a dumb question. She obviously didn’t look okay, so why should she be?

“Fine,” the dragon gasped. She just kind of breathed for a moment. Smoke thought that honestly, the situation was a bit awkward.

“Sorry,” the dragon said, finally sitting up. “I’m Splash. I’m here to warn you that a bomb is going off in neutral territories, and you should evacuate everywhere immediately.”

“WHAT?” Smoke demanded. “A BOMB? WHO DARED ?” This place, it was his home. Neutral grounds were the home of all his friends, even his family. Why would any dragon want to attack them? They didn’t participate in the war. They were peaceful . But here, this dragon in front of him, she claimed that a bomb was going to go off.

“When,” he demanded, his eyes narrowed, his voice coming out as a his. “How long do we have to warn everyone?”

“But sis,” Jellyfish protested. “Couldn’t you have just defused the bomb with your magic?” To Smoke, this didn’t make sense. His mind was still reeling from all the information that Splash had just dumped on his head.

“I don’t know where the bomb is,” Splash said sadly. “I don’t know if it even is here yet. I know they haven’t set it off, but I don’t know when they’re going to do so. The weather is stopping them from doing any real damage.”

“Who?” Smoke snarled.

“It’s a rebellion group of Sandwings and Hivewings,” Splash informed him. “I think, if we hurry, especially in this weather, we can evacuate every city.” her eyes narrowed, determined. “Starting with Jade Mountain.”

Chapter Text

“So you’re telling me that the peace committee meeting was a lie?” Snowfall frowned. “I guess that patrol isn’t going to leave for the Sandwing territory after all.”

“We have to save the captured dragons,” Frost told her. “They’re being held prisoner.”

“We really don’t actually,” Hail cut in. “It’s not our problem anymore. We’re not in an alliance with them, anyway.”

“But that’s not right,” Frost trailed off. “You’d let them die?”

“They’re only being kept prisoner,” Hail told him. “They’re not dying.”

“You don’t know that,” Frost argued back. Daffodil chittered in agreement on Frost’s shoulder.

“Those evil dragons were scary!” she shouted. Frost shot her an amused look. “No, really!”

“Your dragon is getting really good,” he told her. “Wren’s lessons helping?”

“Oh, yes,” she told him. “I never did get to flex on Violet though…”

“You can still help those dragons,” Shimmer suggested. Frost’s attention was yet again snapped back to the conversation. “There is nothing stopping you from doing heroic things.” Frost looked at Snowfall for confirmation.

“Sure,” the queen shrugged. “Do whatever you want. But be sure to send us updates.”

“I will!” Frost was already out the door. He knew exactly what he wanted to do first.

“Who is that?” Summer whispered to Maple. “He looks like an Icewing.”

“He is an Icewing,” she breathed back. “What is an Icewing doing out here?” Just then Maple spotted the shining knives attached to his belt and she knew .

“What is it?” Summer craned her neck but she couldn’t see what Maple was so excited about.

“This is him!” she whisper-shouted at her friend. “He left the knives! He aided our escape!” Maple almost burst from their hiding place. The rain was pouring down now, drenching both of them and also likely the Icewing.

“Hmm,” Summer mused. “I think this could work.”

“Pst! Over here!” Frost tensed, his dagger already in position. “It’s some escapee Leafwings!” the voice whispered. Curious, Frost peered beyond the foliage and saw a half-Silkwing, half-Leafwing and a Sandwing-Leafwing hybrid.

Huh , he thought to himself. An interesting pair .

“You’re the one who gave us the knives,” the half-Sandwing stated. It wasn’t a question. The other one gave her a startled look.

“Yes,” he replied. “And I’ve been watching the rebellion group all day. I think I know their weakness.”

“So,” Maple said. “Two dragons. Beetle. The guard we attacked. And Dragonfly.” Frost nodded. Summer gave him another side-eye. She had already given him a lot of side-eyes. As if she didn’t really want him there. Maybe she didn’t.

“Yes,” Frost replied, trying to shake off Summer’s glare. “I think we should try to convince Beetle first. He’s hesitant and unsure of himself, unlike Dragonfly. Once we convince him, we can try to convince Dragonfly.”

“Good plan,” Maple told him. Summer just gave him another glare. What’s your problem ? He wanted to ask, but didn’t. He was the guest in this situation. He wasn’t technically allowed on Leafwing-Silkwing territory or Sandwing-Hivewing territory, and they could easily turn him in. He didn’t want to make any enemies in the position he was in. “So. How do we contact Beetle?”

“Well,” Frost started. Another glare. Seriously. Why was this dragon so mad? “He’ll probably feel uneasy if you talked to him. You did attack him, afterall. But he would also feel threatened if you requested a private meeting, in which he would agree to in fear. Then, you could send in Summer,” another glare. Really, at this point, it was getting ridiculous. “Because he would feel less threatened. They could talk, and maybe meet twice this week? I think we could convince him to join us.”

“What about you?” Summer asked. “What will you do?”

“I mean, I think if I showed up at the meetings, I would scare him away,” Frost admitted. “But when he’s on our side, you can introduce us to him. Maple and I, that is. Icewings aren’t supposed to be here. Beetle would surely turn us in if he saw me.”

“Fine,” Summer grumbled. Frost was beginning to think she really disliked him. He wondered why. Was he just not fun to be around? Maple didn’t seem to hate him.

“Did you send the letter?” Frost shifted uncomfortably in the slowly flooding cave. They needed to find higher ground, and soon .

“I sent it,” Maple replied. “We have to wait and see when he replies.” Frost let out a puff of frostbreath and sat up.

“And we need to find better shelter,” he said scornfully, shaking himself free of the rainwater that had splashed onto his scales. “Your territory is miserable. Back in the Ice Kingdom, it would be snowing.”

“Well, excuse us if we don’t want to freeze to death,” Maple rolled her eyes. “How do you live in the weather you live in? It would be so cold! I feel like my feet would freeze off if I set foot into the Ice Kingdom.”

“We’ve adapted,” Frost told her. “It isn’t bad. It’s great, actually.”

“Well, we haven’t adapted to this,” Maple told him, looking out into the rain. “It’s stupid, really, all this rain. I wonder why it’s happening.”

“It was pretty dry before,” Frost agreed. “I think the forest needs the rain.”

“Maybe,” Maple said, unconvinced. “But I’m not so sure.”

They waited in silence for Summer to come back from foraging. The storm prevented them from going back for reinforcements, so for now, all they could do was wait, and spy.

The forest was getting dark by the time Summer came back. Frost realized that he had to go home. He could swim some of the way there. They were close to the ocean here. They weren’t yet near the shore, but it was good enough and would have to do. His family would be worried, and Daffodil was getting cold and wet out here. He said his goodbyes to Summer and Maple, and received a farewell and a glare in return.

Flying in this weather was horrible. Frost hated it, and all he wanted to do was go home. He swam under the darkness of the night and flew in reassurance that at least, in this weather, he wouldn’t be spotted. He was safe, courtesy of the storm.

He had promised to return to their hiding spot later that week. Summer would give him an update on the situation and Maple would spy. Being half Skywing, the horrible weather wasn’t as hard on his wings as any other dragon, but it was hard, flying while rain pounded down on his soft flesh. Eventually, the rain turned to snow, and Frost could fly a bit easier. But by the time he got to the Icewing border, he was thoroughly exhausted, and ready to sleep the morning away. But he couldn’t. He had to get back, didn’t he? He flew on, exhaustion taking a toll on his sore wings as well as his appearance. It was getting harder and harder to stay in the air, flapping and flapping until he felt that his wings would fall off.

I’ll be home soon , he told himself. And then, I can decide what to do next .

Chapter Text

“Hello,” Summer made her voice soft, eyeing the dragon in front of her. He really was a nervous wreck; twitching and shaking and looking utterly miserable. “You’re Beetle, right?”

“Yes,” the guard answered. He looked less of a guard than a prisoner himself. Maybe he was. Summer didn’t know what his punishment for letting her escape was. She hoped it wasn’t cruel. She didn’t want to wish a cruel punishment on anyone; not even this dragon.

“Are you okay?” He was twitching again, stronger this time. “You’re not hurt, are you?” He shook his head.

“Just nervous,” he mumbled. “It’s not every day an escapee prisoner wants to arrange a meeting with a rebellion group’s weakest member.”

“You’re not weak,” Summer said with shock. “I don’t think I could have served for a rebellion group either. I’m just not good at some things.” she paused for a moment. “I just think some dragons should be able to choose what they do in their life.”

Beetle was silent for a long time.

“I’m back,” Summer called softly to the shadows. Beetle poked his head out from behind a rock.

“Hello,” he said, his voice guarded. “Why are you back?”

“To convince you to rebel against the rebellion group,” Summer simply said.

“You know,” Beetle said. “Most dragons are much less straightforward.”

“I’m not most dragons,” Summer said, smiling. “I think I’m better.”

“How long do you think this storm will last?” This time, Beetle was the first to speak.

“I don’t know,” Summer replied, her voice still soft. Beetle was beginning to enjoy her company. She was a kind dragon. “I don’t think this is a natural storm.”

“Hmm,” Beetle sighed. “I think the rebellion group has something to do with it.” Summer gave him a startled look.

“Do you think you can find out?” She asked, her voice hopeful. And just what was Beetle supposed to say to that?

“I’ll try,” he promised. The smile on Summer’s face was so bright it could have lit up the moon.

“It’s not the rebellion group,” Beetle told her the next time they met. “It actually interferes with their plans. They wouldn’t do something that slowed any of their attacks down.”

“Then what’s going on,” Summer muttered, her wings drooping. The soft murmur of bugs in the background and crickets chirping again and again were the only sounds to aid the conversation. “What is the reason for this storm?”

“I don’t know,” Beetle said, and he meant it.

“I wish the rain would stop,” Summer told him, her antennae drooping. “It’s messing with my internal clock.”

“I forgot Silkwings had those,” Beetle commented. “What other traits do you have? I’ve never met a hybrid until you and Maple.”

“You should meet her,” Summer told him. “It’s been long enough.” Beetle let out a defeated sigh.

“I really don’t have a choice, do I?” he flickered his tail over and over again.

“No,” Summer said. “I don’t think so.”

“Beetle, this is Maple. Maple, this is Beetle,” Summer introduced them with a soft smile, hoping they would get along.

“Wow,” Maple whispered to her as he sat down. “I saw that dopey smile you gave him. Someone's in love .”

“Oh, shut up,” Summer told her, but she was secretly smiling. Beetle was an interesting dragon, and if she was in love, she appreciated Maple’s approval.

Frost visited the nest day, while Beetle was still staying with them. One look at Beetle’s face when he saw Frost, and Summer knew that Frost had stolen him from her too, just by existing. It wasn’t fair. First he saunters in here, and ruins all the plans Summer has already made; all the plans she and Maple had made together. Then, he proceeds to steal her best friend and now this ? Jealousy burned bright in the pit of Summer’s stomach. She would not stand for this. Frost could not just come back after leaving for days . Who did he think he was, sauntering back into this cave? He didn’t deserve Maple’s friendship or Beetle’s love.

Silently cruising the dragon, Summer vowed that she would never fall into the endless trap this dragon was setting. She was smarter than that. She would not befriend him. Will not pity him. He is only an acquaintance, or maybe even the enemy in this situation. But Frost would never, ever, in Summer’s eyes, be a friend.

Beetle slept curled up next to the Icewing hybrid, his breathing finally easing into a steady flow. The dragon didn’t seem to mind his presence. He even welcomed it. Feeling grateful and finally happy, Beetle drifted into a dreamless sleep, free of the nightmares that used to plague his dreams.

The storm was getting worse.

There was no denying it now. Maple could tell. She could feel it in her bones .

She had feared this would happen. If the storm only kept getting worse, how long would they have to wait until reinforcements came? How long would her friends be trapped before they were freed? How long ?

It was then she decided that she would fly through this storm. She had to help, somehow. Summer had already befriended Beetle, and Frost did most of the planning. She wasn’t needed here, but maybe, she was needed out there.

Taking a deep breath, Maple launched into the sky. Their camp wasn’t that far away. She could do this. She will do this. And with one last look back at the makeshift camp she had created with her friends, she left, flying into the storm.

“WHERE IS MAPLE?” Summer demanded. “WHERE IS SHE?”

“I don’t know!” Frost was getting annoyed. This dragon had asked him this question way too many times and had spent way too less time actually searching for Maple. He knew he was being a bit harsh; this dragon’s friend was missing. But really, Summer was starting to get on his nerves. He was helping them, and yet she seemed to treat him as a pest instead of a helping hand. Why did she hate him so much? Frost didn’t know, but he desperately wanted to.

“I haven’t seen her ever since the storm got windy,” Beetle supplied helpfully. “Maybe she’s flying in this weather and she just isn’t back yet.”

“That’s it!” Summer’s eyes widened. “She mentioned getting reinforcements earlier today! Oh no! Do you think she flew off to get reinforcements?”

“She wouldn’t!” Beetle’s tail flicked in distress. He seemed to do that a lot. “No dragon in their right mind would fly in this weather!” Frost made no comment. What was he supposed to say? Tell Summer Maple was alright? But she might not be, and what was the point then?

“You,” Summer whirled around and hissed at him. Startled, Frost blinked and stared at her in puzzlement.

“Me,” he said, bewildered. “What is it?”

“You did something, didn’t you,” she hissed. Frost gave her an odd look.

“Do what? Something to Maple? I didn’t do anything!” Frost was seriously surprised at the accusation. What had he done to anger this dragon so much?

“Well,” Summer hissed again, and Beetle stared blankly at the interaction from the corner of Frost’s vision. “What ever you did, I’ll figure it out! And then,” her tone lowered dangerously, “I’ll make you wish you never set foot in our territory ever again!”

Chapter Text

Part Two - A Raging Storm (won’t keep us apart)

Swim. Swim. Swim .

Splash didn’t know how she got in this situation. It started with going to a peace committee meeting, and ended in swimming so hard right now it hurt.

They were evacuating Jade Mountain Academy. Most of the dragons couldn’t swim, unlike her. They needed to get them out of neutral territory fast , but the dragons also needed to be safe. How? They were traveling by underground tunnels.

“How did these get here?” Splash whispered. “When did you discover these?”

“When we first got here, we found tunnels branching out in all directions,” Sunny told her. “We never went really deep into them, but Starflight predicts they come out into Skywing territory.”

“Wow,” Splash breathed. “That’s useful,” and also convenient , she didn’t ask. Why were these tunnels here? How did they get here? Secretly, her scales were prickling with unease. Were they safe? Sunny seemed to think so, but Splash wasn’t so sure.

They walked in silence for a while, the rain pounding overhead in a reassuring manner. It was calm, walking through these tunnels. Occasionally, a large cave would show itself and they would rest; the Skywings starting fires and Icewings sharing preserved food. One particular cave even had an underground lake, and Splash and the Seawings fished and shared the prey with the other dragons. Then, the Icewings froze the leftovers to be carried with them on the journey. Starting from the underground river, however, Splash noticed that the extra precautions weren’t really needed. A river now flowed through each tunnel and cave, and the Seawings could easily travel from one to another while catching fish for themselves. They would grow hungry while in these caves.

Splash enjoyed the reunion with Jellyfish. She hadn’t seen her sister in a while, and enjoyed her company. While Jellyfish was younger than her, the age difference between them wasn’t large enough for it to be too awkward. They talked about food and the kingdom and the storm. Splash even discovered that her sister had a crush on the Skywing that she had met when she first collapsed on that riverbank beach. Splash had screamed a “WHAT” so loud that many of the dragons jumped. She and her sister then proceeded to have the rest of the conversation in aquatic while Jellyfish divulged all her secrets to interested, listening ears. However, soon, the walls started curving East and they never did resurface. Sunny started looking worried, and Starflight looked puzzled.

“I think our estimates were wrong,” Sunny told Splash when she sidled up to her. “We’re heading out of the Sky Kingdom and towards the Rainforest.”

“Hmm,” Splash said, a bit worried.

“It’ll be fine,” Sunny reassured her, although she wasn’t looking that reassured herself. “I’m sure that wherever we end up, it’ll be safer than where we started.”

The tunnels were flooded.

Splash and the other Seawings had to haul drowning dragons out of the water. The emerged, exhausted, onto flooded land. Tall trees grew right out of the water and if Splash squinted her eyes, she could see the ocean nearby, barely separated from the flooded lake by a small strip of marshy land.

“This is the rainforest?” Splash had never imagined this . She didn’t know what she imagined, but this wasn’t it.

“I’m sure it wasn’t wet when I visited,” Sunny said, staring at the mass of water. “Glory! Are you here?”

“Sunny?” Splash looked up to see a rainbow dragon in the trees. “What are you doing here? Is that the whole academy ?”

“Sorry we came on such a short notice,” Sunny said, hanging her head. “Neutral territory is under the threat of a bomb. We had to evacuate the school. We traveled by underground tunnels. Apparently, they end here.”

“Wow,” the Rainwing said. “Well, you can stay. We have a few empty tree-dorms and platforms. You’re lucky we have spares.” Glory sighed and looked at the flooded land around her. “The rain is really coming down, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Sunny agreed. “I hope it stops soon.”

“Me too,” Glory sighed. “Any more rain and I fear there will be nothing separating the lake from the ocean. We’ll lose our freshwater source.” Sunny’s eyes brightened.

“Starflight invented a machine that converts ocean water to fresh water!” she exclaimed. “Using Mastermind’s research!”

“This will be the only time I’m actually grateful that worm exists,” Glory commented. “Speaking of Starflight, where is he?”

“Resting in a tree,” Sunny said. “The tunnels were flooded because of the rising lake. He almost drowned, because he couldn’t, you know, see.”

“We have healers,” Glory said. “Actual ones who know how to heal now.”

“The old Rainwing healers tried their best!” Sunny protested. “You were just skeptical!”

“And I had a good reason why, too,” Glory muttered. “Anyway, let’s get you and your students settled in!”

Rainwing territory certainly was large. True, they had to share the territory with a whole other tribe, but that tribe’s population was low anyway. No wonder the Sandwings and Hivewings wanted to expand into their territory. They had all this extra space, with nothing to do with it.

Splash was exploring the area when she met one of the healer apprentices named Raincloud. She was an energetic dragonette and taught Splash how to make a medication to cure soreness. Interested, Splash had watched as the dragonette mixed together some random herbs Splash couldn’t even tell apart, let alone identify. Raincloud then proceeded to call her “hopeless” and shook her head. However, when she met Pyro, another one of the Skywings on the hunting expedition Splash had stumbled upon, Raincloud’s eyes had lit up and they immediately started talking about healing and other nonsensical stuff Splash couldn’t understand.

Splash went swimming in the lake a few times, admiring the clear water and delicious fish the lake provided. She loved it here. It was beautiful, and she even got to spend some time getting to know her aunt, Tsunami, who was also staying in the Rainwing village. If there was one good thing that happened because of the storm, it was coming here.

Chapter Text

Just an update, I’m planning to rewrite Aurora as I have some major lore, plot, and character updates, so I’ll post a link to the rewritten version when it’s out!

Sorry for the disappointment and the wait :/

Chapter Text

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60498043/chapters/154443082

Link to the rewrite! I am super excited for this >:)