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Chapter Text

"Come on little one, just stay within your egg for just a little while longer."

The mission was a disaster, Asha had got caught in the middle of a skirmish between Blister's and Blaze's forces and died from battle wounds shortly after delivering the MudWing egg. The SkyWing egg that was supposed to be retrieved had been smashed with Hvitur, the one who was supposed to retrieve it, having been killed by Burn, and so Webs was forced to improvise. He retrieved an egg from the rainforest and brought it to serve as a replacement. Not exactly what is supposed to happen, but it'll have to do. But there's a problem, the little Dragonet inside seems to be a bit impatient and clearly wants to come out soon, there's two issues with this.

Firstly, he hasn't even arrived at the cave yet, and if the Dragonet inside decides that it wants to come out now than it'll fall to its death. Secondly, it's best if the Dragonets hatch together since if they don't than getting them to working with each other will be much more difficult, even if it's only one of them that hatches separately. As he approached the cave he heard what sounded like cracking and looked below him to see the RainWing beginning to come out of its egg. Upon seeing this Webs thought "No, not now. Please, just wait one more minute."

He flew inside the cave as fast as he could and his heart nearly stopped as he felt the egg suddenly become much lighter and heard something drop to the ground behind him, prompting him to look backwards. The Dragonet had hatched and was now writhing on the ground in confusion, letting out loud cries that would surely have caught the attention of anything nearby. Webs closed his eyes tightly and whispered "Dammit, dammit, dammit." He was just seconds too late, as if this operation couldn't go any worse. Webs flew forward, picked up the RainWing and put it back inside its egg before going deeper into the cave.

When he arrived at where the eggs were supposed to be put He looked towards Kestrel and Dune and said "I have it." As Webs looked around he realized that this operation could go worse as the MudWing had already hatched from its egg and was now looking around in confusion. And speaking of looking, Kestrel glared daggers at him as she said in a near whisper "Where. Have. You. Been?" Webs gulped and said "Well, doing my job, honestly." Kestrel's gaze went down to the egg that was in Webs's forelimbs and saw the RainWings head poking out of the top and staring at her with a large egg shard resting atop its head.

Kestrel slapped her right talon against her face and said "Webs, that's a RainWing you brainless salamander, and one that's already hatched. The prophecy called for a SkyWing, and you bring us a lazy, stupid RainWing? I suppose it makes sense, you seem to be as lazy and as stupid as they are." Dune shook his head and sighed "Maybe we can salvage something from this?" Webs laughed lightly and said "Yeah, let's just pretend that they all hatched together and never tell the Talons of Peace or Morrowseer what really happened."

Dune glanced at Webs and said "And how are we going to do that, huh? You know that NightWings can read minds, this'll get out sooner or later." Kestrel only turned around and began walking away as she said "You know what? Forget it, it's clear that you care about that stupid poem that we're supposed to follow as much as i do. So just do whatever you want so long as you don't bother me with any more pointless matters." Webs heard a cracking sound similar to the one he heard before and looked behind Kestrel to see the MudWing attacking the SeaWing egg, prompting him to immediately drop the RainWing along with her egg and rush towards the MudWing whilst yelling "HE'S ATTACKING THEM! STOP THAT!"

Kestrel on her part didn't care and only continued walking to where she is supposed to sleep at, and as she did so Webs barely heard her mutter "I already hate this job."

It had been a year since the Brightest Night and so far everything had been going well for the Guardians, as Webs stared out into the rising sun he thought about how lucky they had been that despite being in spitting distance of the SkyWing Palace them and the Dragonets had not been caught yet. And then there's that subject, the Dragonets. Since it's only been a year since their hatching they don't seem to have decided what exactly they wanted to be like yet, there are a few traits which have appeared among them that some have taken to.

Clay has shown to be a heavy eater, so much so that they don't really have to worry about the problem of leftover food, and Sunny seems downright pacifistic, not once has Webs even seen her hurt a fly. A sharp contrast to many other Dragonets her age who haven't quite grasped the concept of not biting everything in sight. But of course, it's not all been perfect. There's still a war going on and there have been a few close calls with SkyWing patrols that have passed them by, he even once saw what looked to be the entire SkyWing army going by a few months ago, the eastern front of the war had been a lot more quiet ever since that happened.

Webs let out a sigh as he wondered why, out of all of the places in Pyrrhia, the Dragonets had been chosen to be raised here? The SkyWing Kingdom is right in the center of Pyrrhia, so of course there's going to be a lot of activity in it, and yet the Talons of Peace had chosen this place out of all of them. If they wanted a safe place for them, why not the Rainforest? The Rainwings are completely neutral in this war. Although he isn't eager to go back, there are plenty of isolated islands out in the SeaWing Kingdom, many of which are covered in dense jungle.

Even the SandWing Kingdom would be better, one can wander for days among its dunes and still not find a sign of civilization. To Webs, these things just don't add up. Either the NightWings and Talons of Peace have some sort of plan going on, or they're just incompetent, he didn't know which of the two was worse. As he tried to enjoy the sun rising in the distance he heard a voice calling out to him from inside the cave "WEBS! GET YOUR SCALY BACKSIDE IN HERE!" Webs sighed at this and thought "Kestrel, five minutes. Can you just not be yourself, for five minutes?"

Webs barely had time to enter the cave before he already saw the problem, or at least what Kestrel thought to be a problem "These little brats won't leave me alone, where's Dune when i need him, dammit?" Webs looked down to see that Glory was tightly clinging to Kestrel's right forelimb while Tsunami was trying to hold onto the SkyWings tail as Kestrel shook it, trying to get her off, while the rest watched Tsunami act like the hyperactive toddler that she was. Webs only grinned and said "Kestrel, they're only playing." The SkyWing growled and said "No, they're trying to piss me off."

Webs's eyes widened at this as he said "Kestrel, language, they might latch onto that kind of stuff." The SkyWing only snorted before she said in a raised tone "I don't give a damn." Webs responded "Listen, they just want to play with you for a bit, to have some sort of mother figure in their lives." Kestrel went still and become silent, seeming to think about what he said before growling out "Fine, i'll play along." Webs eased up at this and watched as Kestrel grabbed Glory by the back of the neck and placed the RainWing in front of her before saying "How about a game of tag?" The RainWings eyes seemed to light up at this as she squeaked out "Momma?"

The SkyWing's right-upper lip raised in disgust at this before she raised her right forelimb and backtaloned Glory, sending her across the cave and crashing into a stalagmite. The other Dragonet's attention was immediately drawn to this and Webs's eyes shot open as he yelled out "KESTREL!" The SkyWing only looked over to the limp RainWing and said "You're it." Webs rushed over to Glory to see that she wasn't breathing and thought "No, no, no, you shouldn't have to die like this, not this young."

After a few seconds the RainWing started coughing and Webs let out a sigh of relief at seeing that Glory was okay, but he felt a chill go up his spine as when she stood she coughed up something onto the ground, blood. Webs immediately started worrying at this, with the possibility of internal bleeding. Webs turned around and saw the other Dragonets running deeper into the cave and said in a near whisper "Why would you do that?"

Kestrel snorted and responded "We can't afford to be soft on them, Sunny has already shown herself to be a weakling and if you cared about this mission of ours you'd do the same." Webs nearly yelled as he responded "That doesn't mean that we should be abusing them." Kestrel said "What it means is that weakness should be weeded out. Besides, if that one breaks than nothing of any real importance was lost." Before Webs could say anything else Dune came walking into the cave and said "There's no SkyWing patrols passing by, just like the reports said they would."

Dune then looked around the cave, with Glory walking away on shaking legs and Webs standing over her before he said "The hell happened here?" Kestrel only said "Nothing important."

Four years had passed since The Brightest Night and since then the Dragonets had been raised by the Guardians Kestrel, Dune and Webs, the last of whom was currently heading back to the cave from a hunt as the Dragonets were still too young to hunt for food themselves. As Webs landed on the ground and went inside the cave with three cows hanging from his mouth he thought about all of the progress that had been made in these past four years.

Raising them had gone better than he had expected, Starflight is hard working always interested in the subjects being taught to them, Tsunami is often interested to learn new ways to fight and protect the other Dragonets, Sunny is always eager to interact with the Guardians and is the one that's most interested in going out into the world and helping other Dragons, and Clay has at least managed to somewhat bring them together and acts as a mediator of sorts, something that's been made a lot easier by their mutual hatred of Kestrel.

But at the same time he couldn't help but notice some strange quirks among them, specifically in Starflight. He seems to have taken the idea of the NightWings being the greatest tribe to heart, although Webs doesn't see how this trait could be a problem, it's simply pride and many Dragons in Pyrrhia are prideful about their tribe. This success however is only for the most part as one among them never managed to fully integrate into the group, Glory. Webs felt his heart somewhat sink as he thought about her.

She's often tried to get the other Dragonets attention, but despite this she's never managed to truly become friends with the others, often simply sulking alone at some corner in the cave whilst the other Dragonets talked with each other and played games. This is only made worse by how Kestrel seems to be getting crueler to her as time goes on, acting harshest towards her out of all the Dragonets during combat training. Webs has always felt sorry for the little RainWing ever since she was first left alone with Kestrel, but there is little that he can do about it.

As he went into the part of the cave where the Dragonets normally go in their free time he saw Clay and Sunny playing catch with a rock, Tsunami playing around in the stream that goes through the cave and Starflight is reading a scroll far away from the other Dragonets, trying to block out the noise around him and likely failing to do so, Glory meanwhile is nowhere to be seen. Before Webs could look around to find her he and the Dragonets heard a pained scream which caused them all to briefly flinch before going back to what they were doing. Webs merely sighed and thought "That isn't training, it's abuse. Poor Glory likely isn't even being given a chance to fight back."

Webs did his best to block out what was just heard as he dropped the cows to the ground and yelled "DINNER'S HERE!" Clay began running towards Webs as fast as he could, not even paying attention to the rock that bounced off his tail, the other Dragonets moved more slowly but still did so. Webs's eyes searched the cave as he said "Do any of you know where Glory is?" Moments later Kestrel walked out of one the cave chambers and went towards her quarters, leaving little question as to Glory's location. Webs didn't want to see her as seeing injured Dragonets in general always tugged his heart strings, but he had to make sure that she's alright.

Webs walked towards the chamber and despite already knowing the answer as he looked inside he said "Glory? Are you alright?" The chamber in question is where the Dragonets are taken for combat training so plenty of blood stains can be seen if one looks hard enough, the blood that he's now looking at would undoubtedly produce the largest stain. There Glory was, in the center of the chamber lying in a pool of her own blood and claw marks covering her body. Webs has always known Kestrel to be cruel to the Dragonets, monstrous at times even, but she's always seemed to focus down Glory as the prime subject of her beatings.

As Webs approached her he heard something that in recent years he's become all too familiar with, crying. Webs saw Glory open one of her eyes as he approached her and whispered "Glory." as he reached out a talon to comfort her. The moment one of his claws touched her left wing Glory flinched and pulled it away from him, this surprised Webs as she's never done this before, he let out a sigh before saying "Glory, Kestrel won't bother you anymore for the rest of the day, i promise that i'll be by your side for today. Now come on, food's ready." Glory slowly stood back up on shaking legs and limped behind him as the two exited the chamber.

After the two left Webs watched as Glory didn't go to eat with the other Dragonets but went towards a different area, the place where she normally sleeps. Webs took a few steps towards her before she stopped and said in a dry voice "Please, just leave me alone." Glory then continued walking away as Webs closed his eyes and let out a heavy breath through his nostrils. Things are already hard for Glory and he knows that the days to come will only get harder for her, especially since she hasn't been getting the support she clearly needs from the other Dragonets.

And so as Webs watched as Glory laid down and rested whilst he did the same, the two of them simply wanting to get through the rest of the day.

"Kestrel wants to see you at the cave entrance."

Tsunami's words had confused Glory, why would Kestrel want to see her? The only interactions that Kestrel has with her specifically are to insult her, abuse her in what is supposed to be 'combat training' or issue a punishment for her over something stupid, so chances are that Kestrel's glad whenever she doesn't have to look at Glory, but at the same time it made her worried. If Kestrel wants to see her when she is supposed to go to sleep, than it must be over something big. Did Sunny confess about that one time that Glory vengefully pissed in Kestrel's favorite food on the SkyWing's hatching day while she wasn't looking?

Whatever the reason for it, it's time to see her. Glory said to Tsunami "For what reason? And why now?" Tsunami only shrugged and said "Don't know, she didn't say. Still, now that we have Morrowseer's approval we have big days ahead of us. Looks like these past six years of getting yelled at constantly is finally starting to pay off." Tsunami turned around and yawned out "I'm going to sleep, you can tell me and the others about what happened between the two of you in the morning." As Tsunami walked away Glory began to think what this could be over.

Morrowseer most likely has a part in it, out of all the Dragonets she got the biggest reaction out of him, just by looking at her. Red spots briefly appeared all over Glory's scales as she thought about the NightWing, he came in acting like he owns the place, making snide comments and looking at them all as if he just smelled something awful. And then his gaze turned to her "What. Is. THAT?" He said it like she was some unwanted vermin, not a Dragon with her own thoughts, feelings and desires in life. This was the first time she's seen Morrowseer but she already doesn't like him.

It's as if he's the embodiment of all of Starflight's worst traits except that all of the bad ones are enhanced and with non of the good ones. She briefly wondered if all NightWings are so pompous before getting her mind back on track. Starflight probably knew why Kestrel wanted to see her, he tends to know more than he's letting on, but even if he does it doesn't matter right now, she has a meeting to attend. And so she left the the part of the cave where she and the others usually sleep, a minute later she arrived to where Kestrel wanted to see her who was coming back from shutting the entrance "You wanted to see me?"

Glory only heard Kestrel let out an exhausted "Yes." Glory waited for her to say something for a few moments, and when Kestrel didn't say anything Glory said "And what is it?" Up to that point Kestrel hadn't even looked at Glory, and whenever she had before it was with disgust, contempt even. But now she saw something different. After a few moments of silence Kestrel finally said "I'm going to kill you." The entire cave seemed to go silent at this as the words repeated over and over in Glory's mind. Glory slowly backed up as Kestrel approached her and said with a shaking voice "Y-you're joking, right?"

Kestrel narrowed her eyes before saying "Have you ever known me to joke? You can make this easier on me by not begging or struggling." Glory began looking around with her eyes for a way to escape as she said "Y-you don't have to do this." Out of the left corner of her eyesight Glory saw a dark hole just large enough for her to fit through, but too small for Kestrel, she knows this one. With a snarl Kestrel replied "On the contrary i do, i have my orders." Glory's mind went silent at this as she came to a halt, and all of her attention was focused on what was just said "Orders?"

Kestrel lunged at her, and with barely enough time to react Glory moved to the left and crawled into the passage, her tail barely avoided Kestrel's grasp as she reached in to try and pull her out. Kestrel left the entrance to the passage and began to look for other ways inside, and all the while Glory's mind was racing, thinking about what she had just been told "Orders... Did Morrowseer tell her to kill me? Why? I did nothing wrong." As she moved through the passage Glory suddenly felt a talon grasp her neck and pull her to the right and out of the passage.

Apparently Kestrel before confronting her looked over the various passages in this part of the cave in case she tried to escape. Glory felt her throat being crushed in Kestrel's grasp and before long she couldn't breath. Acting more on instinct than anything else she slashed the claws on her right foot across Kestrel's chest and created a wound deep enough to draw blood, causing her to drop Glory and giving her enough time to slip away. Glory began changing her scale color to that of stone as she heard Kestrel yell "LAZY FUCKING RAINWING BITCH!"

By the time Kestrel's attention was was drawn away from her wound and back to finding Glory her scales had already finished changing color, she was now trying to slip away as quickly as possible, but not at the expense of silence. As Kestrel began breathing fire around the cave Glory thought "I should find somewhere to hide, maybe i can keep myself hidden long enough for her to cool down and for Webs or one of the others to talk her out of this."

As Glory approached a river that she hoped to hide in looked back to see what Kestrel was doing only to feel a sudden surge of pain across the left side of her face and screamed, she screamed louder than she ever did when wounded whilst sparring with the other Dragonets, louder than she ever had in her life, her voice echoing across the cave. Her scales completely changed color to bright green, and although the left side of her vision was now clouded by red Glory could still see Kestrel standing behind her with blood soaked claws.

Glory realized that she's much more clever than she thought, as although Kestrel couldn't see her, she had used her shadow made by the fire to locate her. Glory crawled over to the water and saw in it her reflection. There were now three deep claw marks going vertically across her left eye from which blood now poured. Although it had thankfully missed her eye so she wouldn't become blind in it, she would bear scars over it for what little remained of her life, a reminder of what had happened here.

Glory covered her wound with her left talon and looked up at Kestrel who was now glaring at her with a furious expression, in a terrified voice Glory said "P-please, just let me go, i-i'll go to the rainforest, i-i won't bother anyone ever again. Please, j-just give me a chance, i didn't do anything wrong." Kestrel only growled out "I told you not to beg or struggle, looks like you couldn't even do those right." Both then heard a voice call out "Hello?" Glory then felt a glimmer of hope in her as she heard Clay's voice and saw him, Starflight and Tsunami all standing at the entrance to this part of the cave.

She hoped that they might be able to convince Kestrel to stop this madness, and even though they had never been especially close to her, Glory had tried all her life to gain their friendship and love, for six years she'd been trying as hard as she possibly could. Glory yelled out to them "STARFLIGHT! CLAY! TSUNAMI! KESTREL'S LOST HER MIND AND IS TRYING TO KILL ME! PLEASE HELP!" Kestrel simply growled "Shut up." before turning to them and saying "Aren't you three supposed to be sleeping? What are you doing up?" Starflight said "We heard a lot of noises and came to see what it was."

Before he could say anything else Kestrel turned her gaze back to Glory before saying "It doesn't matter, go back to sleep." Glory yelled at them again "PLEASE HELP!" They all looked at her, and Glory felt a pit in her heart form when Starflight simply turned around and gone back from where he came. Glory couldn't believe what was happening, were they really just going to let her die? Tears started to form in her pleading eyes as she felt the hope in her heart fade and muttered in a shaking voice "Please." They didn't listen, they just turned around and left, with Clay briefly glancing at her before leaving. Glory felt empty inside as tears began falling from her eyes and and her scales turned blue-grey, in this moment the only thing she thought was "Why?"

Kestrel rolled her eyes before she sneered "See? They don't care. They don't trust you or want you around. Did you perhaps think you all were like family? You'd only hinder their efforts to end the war." Glory struggled to think of something to say for a few moments before she muttered in a shaky voice "No, I wouldn't." Kestrel kept talking "Webs was slow, he was a minute too late in getting your egg so you hatched away from the others, so Clay never developed his 'Bigwing' instinct towards you and never saw you as his sibling. Why do you think they always neglected you? Foolish child. They never cared about a lazy, stupid RainWing like you."

On an emotional level this killed Glory, to be told that the other Dragonets that she had sought the attention of all her life never cared about her. Kestrel's words repeated in her mind "They never cared about a lazy, stupid RainWing like you." That alone hurt her more than any insult Kestrel had ever flung at her. As Kestrel began approaching her a voice echoed across the cave "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?" Kestrel looked to see Webs coming in from the cave entrance, he looked at Glory in shock before glancing at Kestrel and saying "What are you doing?" Kestrel responded with "My job. Stay out of this, i'm the one whose supposed to deal with it."

Webs responded in a raised tone "So you're punishing her? For what crimes? She is a Dragonet of Destiny, have you no regard for her well being?" Kestrel growled out "Morrowseer ordered me to get rid of it." Webs narrowed his eyes, noticing how Kestrel referred to Glory as an 'it' before saying "And did he specifically tell you to kill her?" Kestrel was silent for a few moments before saying "Well... No, but-" Webs interrupted her "Have you ever thought about just letting HER go?" Webs motioned at Glory before continuing "Look at her, you've hounded Glory all her life. You can at least in what might be your final moments with her give her a brief moment of compassion. Or are you truly no better than Scarlet?"

Kestrel growled out "And what if i just kill the brat here and now?" Webs responded with "Than i'll lose all respect for you, not just as a Guardian but as a Dragon. I'll leave the Guardians, stop working with the Talons of Peace and seek to end this war my own way and will tell others of what you've done." Ten seconds of silence gone by between the two before Kestrel growled out a "Fine." Kestrel with her right foot then kicked Glory and said "I won't waste any more of my time on you, you're sad and weak and pathetic. Go on, get out of here, go to your useless tribe, stuff your face with fruit and laze around all day. Never come back, if you do, i won't be so merciful a second time."

Glory was still and silent for a few moments before she got back up and went to leave the cave with her head hung low and staring at the ground, and as she left the cave and went into the darkness of the night Glory finally removed her talon from her wound and gazed at its blood soaked palm. She was never comfortable being alone in the dark, but now she has no choice but to go into it or die. Glory struggled to walk and on shaking legs she leaned her right shoulder against the walls of the cave entrance and let her left talon slide along it, leaving a trail of blood across it as she went.

As she finally left the cave Glory looked behind her to see Kestrel closing the entrance and Webs looking away from Glory with closed eyes. As the boulder slid into place Glory flew off the ground and towards the horizon, her way illuminated by the moonlight, and as she flew Kestrel's words kept repeating over and over in her head "They never cared about a lazy, stupid RainWing like you." When she finally felt safe Glory landed at a small lake in the middle of a forest and began scooping up the water and started cleaning her right talon and face. "They never cared about a lazy, stupid RainWing like you."

As she thought about what had happened to her tears began flowing down her face again, Glory collapsed onto the ground before she started slapping the water, making whimpers as she did. Glory knew that dying would probably hurt. War would probably hurt. Being wounded by ones own adoptive mother whose claws would leave three scars across ones face would definitely hurt too. Like a bastard. But she never, ever, in all the years that she lived, expected betrayal to hurt so much.

Sunny never did enjoy sleeping, she always thought that something was missing when she did so, but that doesn't mean that she hates dreaming. Sometimes, dreams were interesting, and she was awoken from a dream involving Tsunami going into one of the fabled 'brothels' that she heard about with a honeycomb and a jackass by the sound of screaming. Her heart jumped, screaming was never a good thing, it usually meant that something got hurt. In a shaking tone Sunny muttered "W-what was that?"

There was no answer but Tsunami stood up from the ground and said "I don't know, but it sounded like Glory, i'm going to go check it out. Any of you coming with?" Clay and Starflight stood up but Sunny curled up into a ball, and before leaving Clay said to her "Don't worry, we'll be back in a minute." Sunny barely registered this, frantically thinking "Nothing to be afraid of Sunny, the Guardians can protect us, nothing to worry about, it's just random screaming popping out of nowhere in the middle of the night." Clay made good on his promise though, as a minute later him and the others came back, although Clay and Tsunami had worried looks on their faces and Glory was nowhere to be seen.

Hoping to break the silence Sunny said "Where's Glory?" Tsunami rubbed the back of her head with her right talon and said "She's... Well, it looks like she got into some trouble with Kestrel and a fight broke out." Starflight came into view, seemingly not bothered by all that has happened as he said "I can give an explanation. When the two of us were alone Morrowseer told me that Glory would be taken to the rainforest to live out the rest of her days in peace, he said that as a RainWing she isn't cut out to live a life with so much hard work in it. Don't worry though, there's a replacement on its way." Tsunami and Clay stared at Starflight, looking to be somewhat disturbed by his casual dismissal of what they had just witnessed.

After a few seconds of silence Tsunami said "I... didn't know about this, why weren't we told anything? And why was Kestrel hurting her? Glory specifically said that Kestrel was trying to kill her." Starflight merely shrugged and went over the spot where he sleeps as he said "Being a NightWing he thought that only i should be privy to such information. And the answer to the second question is quite simple. It's Kestrel, what did you expect? A hug and a heartfelt farewell? She's always had difficulty getting her message across, so Glory thinking Kestrel was trying to kill her was probably just the result of a miscommunication, it wouldn't exactly be the first time that she wasn't clear stating what she wants."

Tsunami responded with "It didn't sound or look like a Kestrel was being her stupid self, it clearly looked like Kestrel was trying to kill her." Starflight laid on the ground and sighed out "Either way, it doesn't matter now, Glory's gone and she'll be safe in the rainforest. Maybe once the war is over you can visit her? And i'll be gone soon too." Sunny's head jumped up at this as she said "Wait, you're leaving too?" Starflight replied with "Don't worry, Morrowseer only wants to take me to see the other NightWings, see if i'll be happy with them, and if i am? Well, than you don't have to worry about me being too bright around any of you anymore."

Starflight lied down in the spot that he usually sleeps at and yawned out "Anyway, i'm going to sleep, ask the Guardians about it in the morning, they can probably tell you more than i can." Sunny knew just by looking at them that Tsunami and Clay weren't entirely convinced by these explanations, and neither was she, but there's little that any of them can do. For now, all that can be done is rest and wait to see what the coming days bring them.

I would like to say in this note that Glory is probably my favorite character in the series, so all of the pain that she's going to go through over the course of this story will probably hurt me almost as much as it hurts her. And also, if there is anyone who wants to help out, i would happily have someone work alongside me on this story as part of a collaboration, having more people involved is always helpful.

Chapter Text

Glory opened her eyes, having apparently slept after what happened last night, it was hazy and she had trouble remembering what exactly happened. As her eyes opened she was forced to squint with her eyes, covering them with her right talon as she thought "Why is everything so bright?" She almost expected for the feeling of Kestrel's claws raking across her back or face to be the first thing she felt when she woke up, as had happened so many times before. As Glory reached out with her left talon she felt it touch something wet, and as she opened her eyes fully she saw that it was water, a whole lake of it, and she was feeling thirsty.

Lacking the strength to do so with her talons, Glory pulled her head forward and began desperately drinking from the lake, and it was after a few gulps that Glory looked down she saw her reflection in it. She saw that there were now three claw marks going vertically over her left eye. As she wondered how that had happened and how she got here the memory of what had occurred last night came flooding back as she felt a pit seeming to form in her chest. It all seemed so impossible when it happened that Glory had thought and desperately hoped that it was just some horrible dream, but it was now clear that this is the reality that she now lives in.

Tears started forming and Glory's eyes as it all came crashing down onto her, she had lived with them for six years, had tried to gain their friendship for so long, but in the end they had let her get thrown out into the wilderness. She had hoped that at the very least they would say something, object to what was happening, but they just showed up, asked what was going on and then left her to die. Glory didn't try holding back her tears as she remembered what Kestrel had said to her, mocking her for thinking that they were like a family "How could they? We were supposed to be like a family."

Glory stayed like that for half an hour as her scales turned grey and blue as the memories came flooding back, her mind returning to the Dragonets she was raised alongside. Clay may have never shown her any particular attention but he wasn't cruel to her, why didn't he defend her? Tsunami may have been bossy, egotistical, aggressive and even unkind at times, but Glory thought that she would be the first one to come to her defence, she never even liked Kestrel, so why didn't she step in to do anything? Starflight could be annoying and even more arrogant than Tsunami, but he didn't show any hostility to her throughout the years, simply passively ignoring her, why didn't he at least say something?

Only Sunny wasn't present, perhaps hiding after the shriek she let out. Glory thought she could rely on them, perhaps even place her life in their talons if the need ever arose, but here she was, all alone in the world. Glory looked at the rocks that lined the shore of the water, realizing how sharp some of them looked she thought "What do I even have left to live for? I'm all alone and have no one left in the world." Glory picked up a rock with a jagged edge to it and almost brought it up to her neck, and as she did so she thought about all the Dragons she's ever met.

Glory could only feel pain inside of her as she remembered the last image she saw of them, how unconcerned Clay, Tsunami and Starflight looked at how she was about to be killed. She couldn't make any sense of why they would do that, did they truly see her as being such a burden? She never did anything to hurt them. But as her thoughts turned to the Guardians and Morrowseer, the pain inside of her turned to anger and Glory gripped the rock more tightly than before. Webs, Dune, Kestrel and Morrowseer, the Dragons who had put her into this to begin with.

While she certainly felt betrayed at how the other Dragonets left her, the Guardians she felt nothing but hatred for. They stole her egg from the Rainforest, they insulted and abused her, they threw her out into the cold to die alone. And it was as that last part went through her mind that Glory looked at the rock she holding, and both her eyes and talon closed tightly before she threw the rock into the water. "No, it's not going to end here, not like this." Glory dragged her right forelimb across her eyes, wiping away the tears as she opened her eyes.

"I'm going to live, and do so without them, even if it's just to prove them all wrong... So that means that i can't stay like this forever, i need to figure out where to go from here." Although Glory didn't know the specifics she could form a rough map of Pyrrhia in her mind, and so weighed her options. She could go to the Rainforest down in the south and live with the rest of her tribe, but it's a long way to get there and she doesn't know the first thing about being a RainWing or what her tribe is like, apart from the things that she was told by the Guardians, Kestrel certainly never shut up about them when Glory was around.

Alternatively could go to one of the SandWing Sisters and pledge loyalty to one of them, Burn was described as warmongering and murderous but brave and strong, Blister lying and manipulative but forward thinking and smart and Blaze naive and stupid but charismatic and beautiful, but she was told these things by the Guardians, the same Dragons who tried to have her killed. She could even go to one of the Queens like Moorhen, Glacier or Coral and try to serve them, but they could also believe the stereotypes about RainWings.

And that leaves the final option, the wild card of them, to simply go at it alone and try to survive by herself. The most dangerous one to be sure but she would be truly free, allowed to live however she wants, and there would be no Dragons to backstab her. Glory sighed, at a loss of what to do, she never thought she'd be in this position before and didn't know what to believe, which information she was told was true and which were lies. Glory's mind returned to what had happened to her "To throw a frightened six year old Dragonet out into the wild to die alone... The cruelty of it..."

Glory forced these thoughts from her mind and tried to focus on the task at hand, Starflight always said that they were somewhere in the Sky Kingdom, being in the heart of Pyrrhia means she can go in any direction, and going by the maps she's read the SkyWing Palace might as well be a stones throw away. Glory let out a sigh as she shook her head, she was confused and didn't know what to do when presented with all of these choices, and so as she took off from the ground she decided that all she could do now is wander across Pyrrhia and hope that she could find something to give her a purpose in life.

And wander she did, after a few hours a flight Glory felt as though she had finally gotten the feel of flying down properly. She had of course flown from one side of the cave to the other previously as practice, not to mention what had happened last night, but now she felt as though she was starting to get the hang have it and might be able to do it without thinking, given enough time. Glory flew east over the Claws of the Clouds mountains in a flight that took the better part of a day, she never could have imagined that anything as big as what she's been seeing outside could exist, nor that the world could be so bright.

Glory thought back to what she had been told before in the cave, that the Dragonets of Destiny were supposed to save Pyrrhia, now that she was able to see the world around her she questioned why they were expected to save it when they didn't even know what it looked like. Whilst Glory knew that if any Dragons she came across were as prejudiced towards RainWings as Kestrel and Dune that they wouldn't think twice about chasing her away, she didn't really have a choice in the matter, she had to find someone who might be able to help her out.

It took until afternoon until she did eventually find something, although she smelled it first. As Glory passed of the mountains she landed on a hill she saw what it was, a battlefield. Or rather, the aftermath of one. She had heard about the results of battles before, scorched fields, piles of dead, mutilated bodies, streams of smoke rising high into the sky from fires, but it didn't really prepare her for the reality of it. She especially wasn't prepared for the horrid smell, the slightest whiff of it causing her to gag and making her realize that it'd maybe be best if she only breathed through her mouth.

As much as Glory hated the idea, she thought about flying in amongst the piles and trying to find anything that might be of use, at the very least she might find something to defend herself with, camoflauge will likely only take her so far, as Kestrel had demonstrated. Deciding to try and find something amidst the bodies, Glory flew off from the hill and towards the piles, and bad as the dead bodies were before, they were much worse now that she got a closer look at them. Glory's never had to see dead Dragons before, let alone up close, almost gagging at the scent she thought "Ugh, smells like Clay's breath."

The battle looked to be between SkyWings and SeaWings, and as she looked them over she found to her disappointment that it seemed as though the survivors were quite thorough when it came to looting weapons and armor. Glory sighed inwardly as looked over the remains and thought "Figures. It's just my luck to not find anything... Or is it?" Glory looked over one pile of bodies, this one made up of SeaWings as an idea passed through her mind "Perhaps I might find something if I look deeper... UGH! i'm going to HATE this. Not sorry for picking through your tribe's dead, Tsunami."

Glory sat on her hind legs and as she closed her eyes and was about to put her talons inside she heard something, as soon as she realized it was the sound of Dragons talking she thought "Finally, I found someone." It wasn't that hard for Glory to find them, she just had to follow the sound of their voices until she found a group of five SkyWings with rags wrapped around the ends of their snouts, covering their nostrils. The ears of a dark red SkyWing, the one who was closest to her, suddenly perked up before fire began to appear from the corners of his mouth, and Glory backed up a few steps before the SkyWing glanced at her.

As soon as his eyes set on her though the fire faded away and his alarmed expression quickly turned into an annoyed one. In those moments Glory couldn't help but stop dead in her tracks at the sight of this Dragon, she's never met any SkyWing other than Kestrel, and in those few moments it was hard to not see her face in this Dragon. Another of the other SkyWings, this one a female asked "What is it?" The male replied "Nothing important, just some RainWing." He then turned his attention back to the pile and continued looking through it.

Glory shook off her earlier thoughts and slowly but carefully approached the one closest to her, stopping a just out of talons reach before saying "Are you looking for something?" The SkyWing let out a sigh before replying "We're looting, trying to find leftover equipment to sell off. And no, you can't have ours, get your own." Glory supposed that this made sense and responded "Look, I just need a place to settle down at, can i go along with you?" The SkyWing made a low rumbling sound before replying in a louder tone "I thought I said we don't want anything to do w-"

The SkyWing the came to a sudden pause before slowly turning his head to Glory, looking her up and down before continuing "I don't even know why I bothered talking with a RainWing. Your brain's probably so overstuffed with fruit that you hardly even understand what i'm saying." The SkyWing went back to turn over the bodies while Glory's head moved back a bit, her mind needing a few moments to process what he had just said to her. It was only after three seconds had passed that orange started to appear on Glory's scales as she thought "Oh, you have GOT to be KIDDING ME! And here i thought i was DONE DEALING WITH THIS after Kestrel. How silly of me."

As much as Glory wanted to quip back at him, she was able to recognize that it would only hurt her efforts, and so she simply settled on letting out an annoyed snort before saying "I'm not looking to steal any of your stuff, I just want to come with you." The SkyWing simply replied "Piss off." Glory walked closer and responded "Look, maybe I can help you wi-" The SkyWing swiped at her with the back of his right talon, making Glory back up and out of his reach as the SkyWing responded more forcefully this time "Piss. Off. I'm not going to tell you Again."

Glory looked over his shoulders to see the other SkyWings staring at him, seeming to be more annoyed at her than him. Glory briefly closed her eyes as she said "Fine." The RainWing then turned around and took off into the sky. She thought during her flight earlier today that her days of being insulted over being a RainWing were behind her, that Kestrel and Dune were simply outliers and she wouldn't have to deal with it again. As it turned out she was mistaken, at the very least it seemed as though it would follow her wherever she went in the Sky Kingdom.

But there was another thing which bothered her, as soon as that SkyWing looked at her she froze in place, and she knew exactly why she did. Glory hoped that she wouldn't see the Dragoness who raised her in the face of every SkyWing she saw, if she is than just talking to them is going to be hard, and the one who caused that reaction in her wasn't even a Dragoness. And so with a sigh Glory flew north, hoping to at least find shelter before the sun set.

It had been a week since Glory and Starflight left the cave, and since then an unsettled feeling rested over Tsunami, even as she found herself doing what she always did when distressed, jumping in the cave's river. There hasn't been that much talking lately, from either her or Clay, Sunny was still her old self but that was likely helped by the fact that she was going to have some new friends to play with. As for the Guardians? Tsunami didn't notice anything different from them, even Kestrel, who should be happy now that Glory was gone, was still just as annoying as ever.

As Tsunami rested at the river floor she found herself thinking about what's been going on lately, and she wasn't sure of what to think about what happened last week. Tsunami felt as though, between Glory, herself, Clay, Starflight and Sunny, Glory was the least trustworthy out of all of them, sure she tried a few times to play with the rest of them, and practically always being rejected, but she was always sulking in some dark corner by herself. Tsunami assumed that Sunny might've wanted to play along with her, but she wasn't really able to, not when her and the others were much more readily available.

Despite Starflight telling them that they could, non of the three tried asking the Guardians why he and Glory were sent away, Tsunami was able to guess why for Glory, she wasn't even a SkyWing, but as for Starflight? That was a lot less clear, and she didn't want to go through the trouble of asking the Guardians why. Tsunami then felt movement in the water above her and looked up to see one of Clay's talons splashing at the water, clearly trying to get her attention. Annoyed at having her thinking session get interrupted, Tsunami swam up through the surface of the water and said to Clay "What, is Kestrel focusing you down now?"

Clay shook his head and replied "No, Dune said that the two who were sent here in place of Glory and Starflight are here, and we're supposed to meet them in the central cave." With a long sigh Tsunami climbed out of the water before responding "Alright, let's see what they're like." As Clay walked beside he she thought to herself "And hopefully the NightWing won't be as smug as Starflight." As much as Tsunami found Starflight to be annoying at times, she didn't hate him and wished the best for him now that he's living with the rest of his tribe.

As Clay and Tsunami walked into the central cave they saw that Sunny was already there, almost jumping on the spot in excitement, and as the three sat beside each other Tsunami thought "Maybe once the war is over, and i'm recognized as a Princess of the SeaWings, i'll be able to see Starflight again? As for Glory... I'll have to wait and see, but maybe spending time away from all of this might cheer her up?" The three Dragonets turned to the cave mouth to see Webs sliding it open before he and Kestrel came walking inside.

While Kestrel walked around them, clearly heading for the Guardians cave, Webs sat down in front of them and said "Now that Glory and Starflight are gone, we've had to bring in new Dragonets to fulfill the prophecy. So, here are the replacements." Webs moved aside to reveal two Dragonets walking into the cave behind him. One of them was a small female NightWing, one with black scales like the rest of her tribe, but with deep blue-purple underscales, and as she got closer Tsunami could see that she had one silver scale on the outer corner of each eye.

Tsunami could see from the friendly face that she put on that she probably wouldn't cause much trouble, but Tsunami could tell just by looking at the SkyWing that he on the other talon wouldn't be the same at all. This one has ruby-red scales, red wings and orange eyes, but the thing which set Tsunami off that this SkyWing would be nothing but trouble was the angry expression. The two groups stopped just out of talons reach from each other before Webs spoke "These three are Clay, Tsunami and Sunny." Webs said this as he pointed to each of them before he then pointed to the two newcomers "And these two are Fatespeaker and Flame, your new friends."

Seeming to take this as confirmation that they could get up close to each other, Sunny immediately walked up to the two and said "Hello, it's nice to meet you two, I can't wait to get to know both of you." While Flame's head shot backwards the moment Sunny approached him, simply muttering "Stay away from me." Fatespeaker seemed much more respective to her, responding "I'd love to get to know you two. Hey Flame, why don't you introduce yourself?" Flame simply let out a groan before replying "Ugh, fine." He looked to Tsunami "Hey there, fish. Don't bother me with anything stupid and I won't claw your face."

Tsunami stared at him for three seconds before whispering "...The fuck did you just say to me?" Fatespeaker, clearly wanting to diffuse the situation before anything bad happened stepped into the conversation "Hehe, don't mind Flame, he's always been a bit of a grump. I'm sure he'll warm up to you eventually... And hopefully not in the 'fiery' sort of way." Tsunami grumbled in a tone laced with sarcasm "I'm looking forward to it." Flame, Fatespeaker and Sunny all walked towards the Dragonet Cave, although Flame did maintain a distance from the other two, constant to let the scratch the itch that was their need for interaction.

Tsunami however went towards the Guardians Cave, having spotted Webs going in there just as Sunny started talking, and Tsunami was curious to see what he was up to, and normally she'd use the cave river to spy on them, but in this case she wanted to hear as much as possible. She carefully tipclawed into the cave, not wanting to be heard and alert anyone that she was here. Tsunami listened closely as she approached the mouth to the Guardians Cave, barely managed to hear Webs speak "Things might go a bit more smoothly now that the Prophecy has the proper Dragonets."

It was immediately after that Tsunami heard Kestrel's voice "Yeah, and it only took six years to finally fix your mistake." Tsunami slid herself along the edge of the cave wall, trying to get as much of a view on the two Dragons as she could without being spotted. This whole thing made her uncomfortable, she was used to spying from the water, not slinking along the side of rock, that's something that Glory was always better than her at, as much as the SeaWing wouldn't admit it. Tsunami poked her head out from the cave mouth just enough to see Webs rubbing the back of his head with his right talon, laughing awkwardly as he said "Well, better late than never, right?"

Kestrel breathed a jet of fire at the ground before replying "I still think you should have let me kill that useless RainWing, you made us take a risk by not finishing the job." Webs looked to the side, thankfully in the direction opposite to Tsunami as he grumbled "By not letting you enact your fantasies, you mean." Silence filled the cave for a few seconds, the kind that Tsunami had come to recognize, before Kestrel responded "Webs... What did you just say to me?" Webs looked back to Kestrel in surprise, seeming to recognize what he'd just done as he held his front talons up defensively and replied "N-no, that's not what I meant."

Kestrel took a step towards him, smoke billowing from her mouth as she said "No, I think I want to hear what you have to say." Tsunami could practically hear Webs gulp before he replied "I don't think the extent to which you've gone to help raise the Dragonets was necessary." Kestrel growled out "And we've been over this before, that we can't be soft on them." Webs moved his head backwards as though trying to put distance between them before responding "You've said that before, countless times, but not once have you ever explained why that is whenever one of the Dragonets asked, instead just resorting to insulting or hitting them."

Kestrel for her part looked to be on the edge of yelling as she replied "The world needs proper Dragons, not weaklings who can fend for themselves." Webs backed up into a stalagmite that was taller than he was, he had nowhere else to go, clearly looking to be scared but still delivered a response in a shaking tone "I don't think you ever cared about that, Glory tried as hard as she could but nothing ever seemed to be enough for you, you said yourself that you never even believed in the prophecy." Kestrel went right up into his face, not quite snout to snout, but there was no escaping her glare as she yelled "I'M TRYING TO END THE WAR AS MUCH AS YOU!"

Webs looked downward, trying to avoid meeting her eyes as he gave his response "You didn't have to come here." A silence very similar to before filled the room as Kestrel tilted her head in seeming confusion, saying in a tone that was just above a whisper "What?" Although Webs still had his head pointed to the floor, he just barely managed to look towards her as he responded "You could have joined up with Blaze or Blister, the latter of whom has curried a lot of favor with the NightWings. You were part of the SkyWing army, you could have proven yourself to either side by giving them battle plans, telling them whatever Scarlet was planning oARCKH-"

Tsunami's eyes widened as she saw Kestrel grab Webs by the throat with both talons, lifting him off the ground as Kestrel said in a low growling tone "You... dare? You COWARDLY, fish." Webs barely managed to produce a choking sound trying his hardest to breath as Kestrel forced him to look at her, it took a few seconds but Webs did manage to say something "The Dragonets... you... enjoyed hurting them... didn't you?... You came to... love it." Flames started to come out from the corners of Kestrels mouth, looking as though she was actually about to shoot it into Webs's face for a few seconds before she then threw him to the side.

The SkyWing growled out "Get. Out." Tsunami, sensing that this 'converstion' was over decided to make herself scarce and began quietly running towards the Dragonets Cave. For the most part it seemed pretty pointless to Tsunami, whether or not Kestrel liked hurting them is irrelevant, Tsunami hated her either way, but if there was one good detail she found out, it was about Blister. Tsunami thought about telling the other Dragonets about this until she considered that Sunny couldn't keep a secret to save her life and would probably rat her out to the Guardians, Clay might be able to keep it a secret, and she wasn't sure about Fatespeaker or Flame.

As much as she distrusted Glory and found Starflight annoying, they were good at keeping secrets, and as Tsunami entered the Dragonets Cave, with Webs nowhere behind her, Tsunami sighed in resignation at the thought that she'd have to keep what she's learned to herself. The moment Tsunami walked into the cave Sunny immediately ran up to her, not even slowing down as she spoke "Tsunami, Tsunami, you have got to talk with Fatespeaker, she's so cool." Tsunami could barely suppress a groan, she's already heard a lot about how great the NightWings supposedly are from Starflight, despite him seeming to display non of their mythical powers.

Tsunami saw Fatespeaker and Clay both waiting for her by the river, whilst Flame was off in a dark corner by himself, and the moment she saw this Tsunami couldn't resist thinking "Looks like our brand new 'Wings of Sky' is just like the old one. The more things change the more they stay the same, I guess." Tsunami stepped into the river and looked back at Fatespeaker, Clay and Sunny before saying "Alright, Starflight didn't seem to have much special to him aside from his power to bore us all to sleep, so what can you do?" Fatespeaker shifted around before replying "Well, I can see into the future."

Sunny's face then seemed to brighten up as she said "Hey, I have an idea. We used to have a friend around her, a RainWing called Glory. Could you see what will happen to her?" Fatespeaker looked to the side, seeming uncomfortable as she said "Well, it's not that simple, my visions. Sure, i have them all the time, but it's kind of difficult to force them. Can you describe this RainWing?" Tsunami rolled her eyes, she didn't even believe in prophecies and found them ridiculous, but just this once she decided to play along and was the first to answer "Green eyes, emerald scales, orange wings and frills, and a blue, grumpy looking face that might have some claw marks on it."

Fatespeaker replied "Okay, i'll see what I can do. Just keep in mind that this might take awhile, maybe you should find a place to get comfortable." The NightWing closed her eyes and sat there, Clay and Tsunami lied down next to each other a short distance away and Tsunami flipped herself upside down, allowing the water to carry her. A full twenty minutes of waiting went by with nothing happening, Tsunami's boredom eventually got so bad that she gulped up some of the water into her mouth before spitting it at Fatespeaker, hitting her in the side.

The NightWing broke out of her seeming trance at this, glancing at Tsunami whilst letting out an annoyed "HEY!" Tsunami groaned before saying "Are you sure you can see the future? You seem to be as good at it as Starflight." Fatespeaker mouthed wordlessly at this before replying "Look, I can do it, I just need a little bit more ti-" It was then that Fatespeaker grasped the sides of her head with both talons, groaning all the while, almost as if she was having a headache. Sunny reacted to this first "Fate? What's wrong?" The NightWing rested her talons on the ground before she said "I... think I see something."

A smile grew across Sunny's face as she said "Clay, Flame, Fate's doing the thing." Of the Dragonets, Flame was the only one who didn't seem to care, whilst the others had their eyes glued to Fatespeaker, but their interest turned to worry as her breathing grew heavy and her talons covered her eyes, as though she didn't want to see what she was witnessing. The only sound Tsunami could make out from her was a whispered "Three moons... So much blood." Tsunami, although not one to care for visions of the future, was immediately worried by this and thought "What is she seeing?"

After thirty seconds Fatespeaker opened her eyes and looked to be deeply disturbed by whatever it is that she saw. Sunny was the first to say anything "Well, what did you see? Did it involve Glory?" Fatespeaker blinked a few times before responding "I... don't really know what I saw. I think I saw your RainWing, but... It was hard to make things out. It just looked like she was covered in blood, everything else was so dark. I don't know what to think." The four of them heard Flame's voice as he walked up to them "Oh, blah, blah, blah. It's just some visions that don't mean anything. Whether or not your RainWing is in trouble, it's not our problem."

Tsunami decided that she's had enough of this, not wanting to hear anything more from Flame she swam below the surface of the water and towards the bottom. While she hated to agree with the SkyWing, it did just seem like a bunch of doom and gloom mumbo jumbo that lacked any real meaning. And so Tsunami rested once more on the bottom of the river, thinking about what she's heard today from Webs.

Glory followed the same routine for the next three months. Wake up, wander across the Sky Kingdom, search for something interesting until she got hungry, killed and ate a random Deer or Bear, find a safe place and then sleep. Rinse and repeat. Things weren't becoming any easier for her, she did occasionally come across a travelling group of merchants or battlefield looters who she tried to join up with, but non ever took her in, and the excuse was always the same, because she was a RainWing. "They never cared about a lazy, stupid RainWing like you."

Glory closed her eyes and shook her head as those words once more intruded upon her mind, the worst times for it come back to her was when she was in the middle of flying, it made focusing difficult for her. It was in the middle of the night in the Sky Kingdom that she found herself now, sitting atop one of the many mountains that made up the Sky Kingdom, this one overlooking a valley. She had no luck finding food, so it looked like she'd have to go another night hungry, and it was at times like this that Glory found herself retracting any comment she previously made whilst in the cave about Clay's appetite.

Glory opened her eyes, looking to the horizon one last time for anything that might prove interesting, and as one of the moons came out from behind the clouds it shone its light down on something that she didn't spot before, a trail of smoke rising up from the ground in the distance, and Glory knew that it could only be from a battle. Normally at this time Glory would rather be sleeping somewhere, it was getting late and the bears might come out again, but she also knew that looters were usually very good about getting to the aftermath of battles and picking over anything of value.

Glory weighed her choices in her mind before she thought "You know what? I'll give this one a quick look over, and then I'm getting some shut eye." It took half an hour to get there, and as she what she saw was the usual, piles of dead bodies, scorched earth, blood stains covering the ground. During her time in the Sky Kingdom she's seen the aftermath of plenty of battles, and while it had at first disturbed her, as she saw the results of the war time and time again, she found herself seeming to not care about it as much as before.

As Glory overlooked the smoking remains of the Dragons around her she thought to herself "Strange how this doesn't bother me as much as it once did, maybe i'm starting to get like how the stories described Burn?" Glory saw that the battlefield didn't look like it'd been found by looters, much to her fortune and thought "Maybe this all happened earlier this night? It'd explain why this place doesn't look like it's been picked over." After a few minutes of looking it all over she then spotted something which caught her attention.

What it was happened to be an unarmored SkyWing Dragoness, a bit strange to not have any protection in battle, but things only got stranger when Glory looked closer she saw that she had a piece of parchment rolled up in one of her talons. Feeling curious, she walked up to the body, pried the scroll from its grip and read its contents. What Glory expected to find was battle plans or some sort of message, what she found inside wasn't anything like that.

To whichever lucky Dragon is reading this, do you find yourself down on your luck? Need a place to stay with a job that pays? Then head on over to the SkyWing Palace and apply to become an Assassin for non other than Queen Scarlet, monarch of the SkyWings and ruler of the Sky Kingdom. If you think you've got what it takes than we guarantee a place for you at the side of the greatest Queen in all of Pyrrhia.

Don't miss out, the rewards will be great.

Glory stared at the message, looking it over several times over to make sure she wasn't misreading it. She then looked back at the dead SkyWing before her and began to put the pieces together in her mind "This SkyWing must have came across this, looking for a job and accidentally got caught up in the middle of this fight and got herself killed, like what happened with Asha." While Glory did feel somewhat bad for this Dragoness, dying in a flight she probably didn't want to get mixed up in, she couldn't deny that this SkyWing's death was her own opportunity.

Glory thought about everything she's been told about Scarlet, about how she was supposed to be one of the most frightening Queens in all of Pyrrhia, having faced no less than fourteen different challengers over her time as Queen of the SkyWings and not once having been defeated. She's already heard stuff about Scarlet that painted her as being an an awful, bloodthirsty Queen, but those same stories were told by the same Dragons that abused and tried to kill her. She didn't know what to believe anymore. But regardless of what the stories say, it's not like she has anywhere else to go, and she can't stay out in the wilds forever, it's getting harder to find food.

But at the same time, having to work for them after what the only SkyWing she knew did to her would probably feel... Strange to say the least. But despite all the negatives, Glory couldn't deny that there was a certain appeal to signing up with a Dragon who is supposedly an enemy to the Guardians and Talons of Peace. Unless the Sky Kingdom suddenly started shifting around Glory could form a rough guess as to where the SkyWing Palace is from here, although she knew she'd probably have to fly around for a bit and ask for directions to find out where specifically it is.

As Glory looked at the abandoned equipment around her, glad to know that at the very least she wouldn't be going there unarmed, she thought "If the Guardians and Talons of Peace want me gone so badly, than i'll just sign up with one of their worst enemies, then we'll see who's laughing."

Chapter Text

It took a few days for Glory to find her way to the SkyWing Palace, it was a part of the Sky Kingdom which she had avoided up until now. She knew it was where Queen Scarlet lived, and based upon all that she had learned before decided that it was place that's best to steer clear of, even if the information she received while in the cave was unreliable something was better than nothing at all. Now though she has to go there and meet with the Queen, and hope that she doesn't make a fool of herself. Glory simply hoped that she wouldn't have the same dismissive reaction to her that other SkyWings did.

The thought of trying to gain favor with Scarlet by selling out the location of the cave, the other Dragonets and the Guardians passed through Glory's mind, but she dismissed the idea. Whiloe she'd happily throw the Guardians to Scarlet, Clay, Tsunami, Starflight and Sunny she's less sure on, that she'd have to think about first. Besides, she might ask exactly how it is that Glory knows where they are and might start assuming things, she could even think that it'd be a trap of some sort. She doesn't even know if they're all still there. And so, Glory decided that it might be best to keep her past to herself.

Unfortunately for her non of the armor she found could fit on her properly, adult SkyWings having much different body proportions to her, and a big spear wouldn't be easy to carry around everywhere, so she had to settle for eight knives that she was able to strap on to her chest in a bandolier she was able to recover. As for the SkyWing Palace, only took Glory the better part of a day to find the place. Despite how Dune and Kestrel would constantly tell her how stupid she is, she could take some pride in the fact that she was the best of the Dragonets when it came to reading and remembering maps, although she did have to ask a few rather annoying SkyWings for directions as to its precise location.

When Glory first laid eyes on the SkyWing Palace from a distance it was quite unlike anything she'd ever seen before, a whole castle that's been built into the side of a mountain, with five tall towers jutting out through the surrounding fog and reaching towards the sky like claws. As Glory flew closer she was able to make out details that she didn't immediately notice, such as the various caves that that dotted the mountainside, and although Glory was certainly no architect it didn't take one to figure out that the structure was probably just one part of the palace with the rest of it tunneling into the mountain.

Fortunately for Glory the palace proper did have a large platform sticking out from it, that one she flew towards as she guessed that it was supposed to be the main entrance. As she got closer Glory quickly noticed how many SkyWings there were, there looked to be a dozen guards on the platform alone, and while they looked to be relaxing, whether it be sunbathing, looking out over the horizon or simply engaging in conversation, Glory figured that something important must be happening for this many to be here.

Glory found all of the guards eyes turning towards her when she landed, but as she moved towards the entrance a male, red scaled guard stepped in front of her, although judging by his expressions he didn't seem to see her as a threat, he spoke first "What are you doing this far north? Did you eat the wrong fruit, hallucinate and got lost or something?" While a part of Glory wanted to make a witty comeback, she also didn't want to cause an incident, not when she was about to finally get somewhere productive after months of looking for some place to stay, and especially not with all of these guards around.

Glory replied "I'm here to apply to become an Assassin for the Queen." A few seconds of silence passed by with the guard just staring at her, having seemed to have stopped breathing and the only signs of movement being his ever so slightly twitching eyes and mouth. Before long though he couldn't hold it in any longer and just doubled over laughing, with the other guards seeming to take this as some sort of permission with their reactions ranging from the exact same to just looking at her with amused expressions. Glory simply stared at them with a blank face, trying her hardest to keep her scales under control and refusing to give them the satisfaction of the sight of an angry RainWing.

Another one of the guards, this one a female, stopped laughing long enough to say "What, do you think you can fall asleep onto your victim hard enough to break something?" Glory briefly breathed in and out heavily, all she could hear was Kestrel mocking her, she could even see her in their faces. Glory was quickly losing her patience and wanted to get this over with, and so she said in a cold tone "Where do I need to go?" The guard pointed one of her claws behind her as she replied "The throne room is right behind us, along with the other applicants, the selection is today. Be careful not to somehow get lost on the dozen or so steps there."

One of the other guards playfully punched her on the back of the shoulder as they all started laughing at Glory again, all the while she tried her best to ignore them all as she walked past them, the guards not even bothering to try and relieve her of any weapons. Glory in those brief few moments hoped that when she does become the Queen's Assassin that she's allowed to punish all those who mock her like this, particularly the ones who just did. As Glory walked foreward she gazed in awe at the the work of architecture around her, from the stone pillars to the golden walls to the grooved rock floors and with how intricately it was all designed, she was speechless at the grandeur of it all and that all of this was what was hidden from her, just beyond the cave.

Glory looked ahead of her to see a group of a dozen or so Dragons, most of them SkyWings, although there was a few MudWings and even a SandWing among them, all looking to be socializing, although there were a few guards standing off to the sides of the room. Glory thought "These must be the other contestants, but where's the Queen? There isn't a single jewelry covered Dragoness in sight." She noticed how the throne, although the most well crafted thing she's seen, was empty. Was the Queen doing work somehwere else? Glory supposed that it made sense, she had an entire tribe to look after, so she must be a busy Dragoness.

Curious, Glory walked up to a pair of SkyWings who were talking with each other, seemingly about where they came from, and as soon as there was a pause in the conversation tried to slip into it to get some answers "Hey, do you know where the Queen is?" One of the SkyWings briefly looked at her and rolled his eyes both replying "I don't know, probably picking the wings off of fly's or something, what does it matter to a RainWing anyway?" With a sigh Glory looked around her and tried to find a Dragon who wasn't busy and so might not tell her off, it was then however that a SkyWing then entered in from the side of the room, cleared his throat and said "Everyone, Queen Scarlet."

Every Dragon in the room immediately went quiet at that, what guards were present stodd straighter and every other Dragon bowed their heads low, and Glory, taking the hint, did the same. She couldn't see it, but she could hear the sound of Dragons entering the throne room, even once the talonsteps stopped no one looked up or made any sound, it was so quiet that Glory could hear the sound of her own breathing and feel her heart pumping in her chest. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting the voice of a Dragoness could be heard "Well, this has to be the sorriest excuse for a group of Assassins i've ever seen, they aren't even brave enough to look at me... How obedient."

Glory could tell just by the tone of her voice that she's a narccisist. The talonsteps then started again, becoming louder as they got closer, Glory didn't need to be told so to know that they were all being examined, all the while the sound of humming could be heard. It was only once the sounds were right in front of her that they stopped, Glory stood as still as she possibly could, so much so that if she weren't shifting her scales to match the colors around her one might assume that she'd be trying to go unnoticed "Well, what do we have here? A RainWing, this far north?"

Glory didn't now how to respond and so stayed quiet, she didn't want to make the wrong move or say the wrong thing, not now. Glory could feel every part of herself being looked over "You know, you look like quite the item. RainWings are naturally lazy, so I don't think being an Assassin is a job for you. Maybe you could find a place here as an art piece?" Glory turned all of her efforts from staying still to keeping her scales under control, but despite that faint flickers of red could briefly be seen on her scales if a Dragon were to look hard enough. Glory hoped for the sake of her sanity that this Dragoness wouldn't talk to her like this in the future.

She then heard her sigh out "Are my talons really so well kept that you'd want to stare at them all day? Look up, my dear." And so Glory did and met the gaze of Queen Scarlet. Glory expected her to look more monstrous, a creature of a dozen glowing red eyes, a lipless mouth with thorns for teeth and saliva dripping from it, blood staining her face. Instead Glory found that the only unusual traits of hers were the rubies and diamonds that were embedded between the scales over her eyes, a thing which she read that royal SkyWings are fond of.

Rather than a look of sadistic glee, Glory found one of disappointment plastered on the Scarlet's face as she said "You know what? Forget the whole art piece thing, your face would just ruin the picture." Glory realized immediately that Scarlet was referring to the scars that ran over her left eye, as it turned out Kestrel's handiwork ended up being useful to her in the end. Scarlet then looked around her as she said "And don't think I forgot about the rest of you in case anyone here was starting to get jealous." She then turned around and walked through the crowd before sitting atop her throne, and as she did Glory stared at her.

Before her was one of the most powerful Dragons in Pyrrhia, everyone feared her, admired her, looked up to her, she'll be remembered by history, it was quite jarring to Glory just how far the gap between the two of them was, and she couldn't help but feel envious about what this SkyWing had. As Scarlet looked over them and the other Dragons in the room began to raise their heads the Queen spoke "I find it quite flattering that so many of you would come here to serve at my side, despite the... foreign origins of some here. But... We do have a problem in that there's just so many of you, I don't care much for the idea of housing every one of you. So, we're going to be playing a game."

Glory was immediately alarmed by this, as was everyone else judging by the sudden murmuring. She was well aware of the arena that Scarlet would throw Dragons into to fight to the death for her and her subjects own amusement, whether they be prisoners of war, traitors, dissidents or someone whom she just didn't like in general. Glory wondered how she could even suvive that, she supposed that she could just turn invisible amidst the chaos before sneaking up on and killing the last Dragon standing, but even then she didn't fancy her chances.

Fortunately for both Glory and everyone around her Scarlet decided to clarify "Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to be throwing any of you into the arena, not yet anyway, I have a different idea in mind. I'm going to select a Dragon who's been rather annoying lately, and you all will go after and try to kill him, the one who not only does so but also manages brings back his head wins. Doesn't that sound like fun?" That was hardly Glory's idea of what fun is but she was more likely to survive this than the arena, at least until what Scarlet said next "Your target is General Jackal, one of Blaze's lackies whose stirring up trouble in the Northern parts of the Kingdom of Sand. Some of you may die... But it's a sacrifice I am willing to make."

Scarlet stood up and just as she was about to step down from her throne she paused and looked back at the crowd "Oh, and when more thing before I go. If any one of you ends up getting in anothers others way, feel free to kill each other." It was only then that Scarlet stepped down and walked out of the room. All of the contestants looked around at each other, clearly perplexed by the present conditions, as was Glory herself. While she knew she'd have to kill other Dragons she thought she'd be sent after a relatively simple target, she didn't expect such a difficult task to be given immediately.

Glory walked through the crowd and thought about what to do "I know how to fight and defend myself, but to be sent against a General of all things? I'm not suicidal, and maybe this is more than I can handle." It was then that Glory sat down at the edge of the platform leading to the throne room. "Even now I can still pull myself out of this, it's not too late to just leave and live somewhere else, they'd probably assume that i died along away or left out of being a lazy coward...But I shouldn't turn back, I won't prove every insult ever said to me right or just lay down and die, that's the whole reason why i'm here."

It was then that a voice belonging to a Dragoness knocked Glory out of her thoughts "See something interesting?" Glory glanced to her right to see the SandWing she saw earlier sitting next to and looking at her, perhaps expecting an answer. The only other SandWings that Glory's seen were Sunny and Dune, although from what she knew Sunny wasn't a typical SandWing. This one was slightly larger than herself, has a dark yellow coloration, and in contrast to Dune's black eyes this ones is more of a dark brown. Glory was silent, not expecting another contestant, one who she was apparently competing against, to go against all logic and be social with her.

The SandWing talked first and with a growing smirk "I'll just take a guess and say no then. Anyway, i'm Hyena." The RainWing simply replied "Glory." As she gazed at the SandWing Glory was able to pick out more details. There were scars covering the her along her sides, limbs and neck, but the thing that drew her attention the most was how her tail lacked a stinger, but it didn't seem like an abnormality like with Sunny, Hyena's tail tip is instead covered with bandages which tied on a knife. She didn't need to be told so to know that this SandWing has been in fights before.

Hyena spoke "Can't say I've ever seen a RainWing in the Sky Kingdom, or anywhere outside of the Rainforest, really. Wanna explain why you're here and not at home?" Glory didn't want to tell this SandWing about how she got here, she didn't know how Hyena would react to her being a stand-in for a Dragonet of Destiny and eventual reject, neither was it something she wanted to talk about. Not wanting to tell the truth Glory said the first thing that came to her mind "I didn't feel like I belonged in the Rainforest, so i went to find a home somewhere else, thought it might be fun to get stabbed in the side."

Glory managed to get it out quickly enough to avoid making it look like she was thinking up a lie, but she knew it doesn't explain the scars around her body and face, and judging by the raised eyebrow Hyena was giving her she may not have entirely bought it either, simply letting out an "Uh huh." Glory decided that the best thing to do now was to keep Hyena's thoughts off of it by talking about something else "Why are you so interested in me? Didn't the Queen say that it's fine if we kill each other?"

Hyena sighed out "Look, I'm going to be straight with you, neither of us really stand much of a chance on our own with this. Maybe Scarlet is smarter than she's letting on and is hoping to get Jackal killed by drowning him in enough bodies, in either case none of us stand a chance on our own. As for why you specifically? You just seem interesting to me." Glory didn't completely buy this, her logic seemed sound enough, but to go around trusting other Dragons mere months after what happened to her?

Hyena seemed to pick up on this "Look, I know all of this comes across as a leap of faith for you, but we don't need each other's trust, we just need each other's help. Besides, would you really find your way around the Kindom of Sand nearly as well as a Dragon who was hatched there?" Glory spent a few moments thinking about this "I don't like the idea of this, but it's not like I really have much of a chance on my own and in a place I know nothing about... Argh, i really am an idiot aren't I?" And so with no small amount of annoyance Glory sighed out "Fine, but keep your distance."

Looking out over the landscape, Hyena spread her wings and replied with no sign of being offended in her tone "Fair enough." before launching herself off from the platform and flying west before Glory did the same, allowing the SandWing to lead the way.

Several hours had gone by since Glory and Hyena left the SkyWing Palace, the two of them now flying over a forest in the western Sky Kingdom as the sun began setting in the west. Even after the months she's spent out here Glory still found it almost hard to believe just how big Pyrrhia really was, she could fly for days from the eastern border of the Sky Kingdom towards the western and still not see any sand in sight, by this point she could form a reasonably accurate map in her head of the centeral Sky Kingdom, both from what she's read and her own explorations out here, but it still amazes her how big Pyrrhia really is.

Glory was pulled out of her thoughts by the sight of Hyena slowing down her flying and getting closer to her, not enough to get within reach but just enough so that she was was now looking back at Glory more easily, now only being slightly ahead of her "So, Glory was it? Since you're so averse to me getting close to you, why can't we just talk for a bit rom a distance?" Glory didn't entirely trust this SandWing yet, her eyes narrowing as she said "What brought this on?" Hyena immediately replied in a deadpan tone "Boredom. We've been flying for hours and we've not said one word to each other, why not spice things up a bit?"

Glory said "Well excuse me if any SandWings i've met before weren't exactly exciting, maybe it's just a natural trait of your tribe?" Hyena replied "Well, I don't know about that. We do have our own way of making things more interesting, what with dragging the rest of the Pyrrhia into our stupid wars, but what do I know?" The SandWing had only been turning her head to Glory to talk, otherwise she kept her eyes straight ahead. Glory snorted at Hyena's words and replied "Probably not a lot, do you even know where this General we're supposed to go after even is?"

Hyena only seemed to have amusement in her tone as she replied "I have a fairly good idea, besides it's not like you know wh-SHIT!" Glory's eyes widened with her confusion as Hyena suddenly dove into her and held on as the two came diving towards the ground below, and all she saw above was something winged hovering in the sky where she just was. The two rapidly trying to flap their wings as that were about to hit the trees of the forest beneath them, the air that they managed to pick up somewhat slowed their descent before they came colliding into the branches.

Glory folded her wings against her body and covered her face with her arms as she went down before she landed on the grass with a thud, knocking the air out of her of lungs. As she laid there on the ground Glory attempted to breath as hard as she could, trying her best to force the air into her mouth, managing to breath again after ten seconds. Glory took the time to look herself over to see if there were any injuries, and much to her relief she managed to avoid anything stabbing into her or any tears in her wings, although there were still sharp aches all over her.

As she stood back up on shaking talons a single thought went through Glory's mind "Hyena had better come up with a good explanation for this." Glory looked to her left to see that Hyena didn't look much better, the SandWing letting out pained groans as she stood back up. Red and black splotches began to appear across Glory's scales as she briefly bared her teeth before saying "What the FUCK IS WRONG WI-" With a vigor one Glory wouldn't have expected from Hyena she quickly lunged foreward and placed her right talon over Glory's mouth before whispering "Quiet, someone just tried to attack us."

A few seconds passed by before Hyena finally removed her talon, Glory didn't say anything but was still visibly annoyed, as the SandWing looked around at the surrounding trees she said in a quiet tone "Look, it was a heat of the moment thing, okay? He just came down from above and I didn't have time to warn you. Just keep your eyes on our surroundings." Whilst still annoyed Glory quietly nodded before the two faced away from each other and gazed around, trying to see if there was any other Dragons. All Glory could hear was the sound of leaves and bushes rustling in the winds and the distant chirping of birds, and the fact that everything was so dark and there were so many bushes around that the ground was hard to see certainly didn't help her spot anything.

A part of Glory wondered if this was just a ploy by Hyena to get her killed, to get her to turn her back so that she could put a knife through her throat, but then again that didn't make sense to her either, if Hyena wanted her dead than she would have stabbed her on the way down. Glory then heard her say "Can't you make your scales a color other than red? You're standing out like a SeaWing in the middle of a desert." Just as Glory was about to fire back that yellow didn't blend in very well in a forest either she briefly caught sight of something red moving through a brush to her right. Funny how what Hyena just said works both ways.

Glory barely had enough time to move out of the way before a SkyWing came lunging out and clawing at the ground where she just was. Glory looked to see Hyena being rammed into a bush by another SkyWing, and as Glory looked to see the Dragon in front of barring his teeth she knew that she couldn't rely on Hyena for this as she was too busy dealing with her own problem, Glory had to do this by herself, for second time in her life she wasn't in some practice fight, she was in a genuine life or death situation, but unlike Kestrel this was a fight she could win.

While the SkyWing looked to be around her age, if a bit older due to be somewhat larger, she didn't fancy her chances in a head on fight and so she started backing off, trying to put as much foliage between her and this SkyWing as possible while she willed her scales to turn green to blend in. Glory jumped into thick foliage to the right of her as the SkyWing lunged forewards, and as he looked to where she was headed Glory had already disappeared into the brush, her scales now blending in to the environment. As Glory stalked close to the ground, keeping her body low to not be noticed she thought about what to do next "Alright, i'm out of his sight, now just to sneak up behind him and hit him from behind."

Unfortunately for her the SkyWing didn't seem to have the patience to go looking for her manually, as Glory noticed smoke begin to come out of his nostrils she realized what he was going to do. Glory moved as fast as she could through the brush as fire shot out of the SkyWing's mouth and lit up the greenery in front of him in flames and just barely avoiding her, and it wasn't lost on Glory just how familiar this scene was. As the SkyWing shot flames to the side of him that was opposite to her Glory decided that now was the time to strike, sliding out a knife from her bandolier she lunged foreward and quickly closed the distance.

The SkyWing turned to face her just as she landed on top of him and forced him to the ground, her left talon around his neck and her right prepared to stab the knife straight into his eye. However, just as she saw his face her heart nearly stopped as panic gripped it, she saw Kestrel in his face, like she has in so many other SkyWings."They never cared about a lazy, stupid RainWing like you." Glory held still just long enough for the SkyWing to strike her across the head with his right talon and throw her off of him and sending her sprawling to the ground.

By the time she recovered she looked to see the SkyWing about to roast her with his fire, the smoke already billowing out from his mouth and nostrils, and just as it was about to be set loose the SkyWing was sent tumbling to the ground as another Dragon collided into him. Hyena had gotten around to helping her and by the time the SkyWing had looked up she had driven her tail knife into one of his eyes. Glory lied there shaking, still trying to recover from what she saw, as Hyena took a few moments to catch her breath before she glanced at Glory and yelled "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!? YOU HAD HIM RIGHT UNDER YOU! WHY DIDN'T YOU DRIVE YOUR KNIFE THROUGH HIS BRAIN!?"

Glory was shaking in silence, still trying to process what just happened and wondering herself why she didn't. Glory only stammered out "I-I-I..." Hyena pressed her right talon into her face as she said "Fuck's sake with you, how are we supposed to get this job done if you just go and freeze up every time you're about to kill someone?" Glory stood back up on shaking talons, not sure how to respond to that. "They never cared about a lazy, stupid RainWing like you." She really didn't want to be having this conversation or to come across as useless, but she was finding it hard to come up with a good excuse for what just happened.

Letting out a sigh Hyena said "You know what? Forget it, we'll continue this later. The other one is dead if you must know, I actually did drive my knife through his brain." Hyena shook her tail tip, moving the knife at the end of it for emphasis before walking away from her "For now just follow along while i find a place where we won't burn to death in a forest fire." Glory slowly stood back up on shaking talons, and by the time she finally got her breathing under control she muttered a single word under her breath "Fuck."

Thirty minutes had gone by with the two walking in silence, neither of them had even tried engaging in conversation the whole time, and it had only been when the found a stream running through the forest that they stopped. They had enough of a clearing above them to take flight, but Glory knew that they weren't going to be doing that just yet, Hyena spoke first, sighing out as she turned to face Glory "Alright, explain, why didn't you kill him?" Glory looked down, not entirely sure what to say. Hyena continued "I'm not mad, at least not anymore, I just want to know."

Glory wasn't entirely sure if Hyena was lying or not, but she knew she had to say something and replied "He... reminded me of someone." Hyena blinked rapidly at her before saying "Someone you knew I take it?" Glory looked up at Hyena and simply said "Yeah." Hyena slowly breathed in and out, seeming to collect her thoughts before saying "I'm going to assume that this is going to happen with just SkyWings then? Because if so than we may have a slight problem for this job." Glory thought back on those SkyWings that ambushed them, how they tried to kill them without saying anything.

Glory then remembered what Scarlet had spoken back at the Palace and said "Those must have been other contestants, Scarlet did say that we all had permission to kill each other." Hyena hummed, seeming to think about this before replying "Probably got the same idea as us, safety in numbers. Although..." Hyena looked off to the side as she finished. Curious, Glory asked "What, is there something else?" Hyena looked back at Glory and responded "Never mind that. Look, are you at least going to give me some details? Was this SkyWing some friend of yours? A rival? A handsome young Drake you'd taken a special liking to?"

Hyena's tone dropped towards the end as she gave a slight grin, and it didn't take Glory long before she figured out what she meant and stammered out "W-wha- No, just someone who used to hit me a lot, okay?" It was only once she finished that sentence that Glory's eyes widened as she realized what she said "They never cared about a-SHUT UP!" Hyena tilted her head in seeming interest and replied "Really, i'm going to assume that it's the reason for all those scars on you." Glory's scales began flickering orange at this, it wasn't often that she was placed on the back talon in a conversation.

With a growl Glory said "Look, are you satisfied now or are you going to continue sticking your snout where it has no business being?" Hyena's grin widened as she responded "More than enough. And if it makes you feel better, don't feel so bad about it, when I was a young Dragonet I could barely handle the thought of killing someone in the first place before I eventually got over it, maybe you'll do the same? Have you ever even killed someone before?" Glory knew that this conversation is reflecting badly on her and muttered "No, but i'm going to get better doing this."

Glory expected Hyena to be annoyed, disappointed, questioning why she's even here in the first place, instead she only chuckled before saying "Don't worry, i'll help you along so you don't have to think about being dead weight." Glory simply stared at the SandWing and said "Look can we get out of here before any other SkyWings feel murderous and decide to take it out on me?" Hyena only replied "By all means." before jumping off the ground and flying away, and the last thing Glory thought before she did the same was "Now I remember why I've never wanted to have another me around."