Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

 Cover art by TypicalRamDriver!

Prologue

Gill sat on his pillar, looking down at the arena. It was dark and empty now, the sand scuffed and blood puddles from the last fight of the day, left there to dry and rot. The night sky at least still looked beautiful. If he only looked up and ignored the bindings, he could almost imagine he was back home. Watching the sky from under the waves.

A tug of movement from his bindings drew his attention. One of his ropes was now dangling free, no longer tied to another dragon. And now the pillar five to the right was empty. He could have sworn there was a dragonet brought there this morning. In fact, said dragonet was flapping around like an injured seagull.

Each wingbeat was loud and unwieldy, as if it had never flown before. Its lights were glowing in and out as if it had no control. If it was working on an escape, it was doing a really poor job!

“Pssst!” Gilled hissed at the dragonet, it almost toppled out of the air out of shock, before slowly flapping its way to the pillar. The dragonet landed roughly in front of the older dragon.

The dragonet was a dark blue, with vibrant gold phosphorescent scales and striking green eyes. He, definitely a male now that he had a good look at him, couldn’t have been any older than four years old. A seawing of this age should never have been this far into the sky kingdom.

“Hey, you look like me.” The dragonet said.

Gill had to stop and think about that. “Yes? Most seawings look like each other.”

“So y-we’re called seawings. Hmm…”

“Who are you?” Gill asked quietly. “And what are you doing so far from the ocean palace?”

“I’m Hawk! And uh… ocean palace? I’ve never been to the ocean.”

Hawk? That wasn’t a seawing name. If anything, that was a skywing name. What was going on with this confusing dragonet?

“How did you get out of your bindings?” Gill asked, motioning to his own. Hawk twisted a dusty silver bracelet on his arm.

“Um… Magic?”

An animus? That would explain a few things. Did Coral send him? Probably not. She would probably order a magical assault rather than a stealth attack.

“Can you get me out?”

The dragonet pondered that for a moment before nodding. “On two conditions,” he said.

Gill rolled his eyes. “What would those be?” he said patiently.

“First. I want you to teach me all about dragons.” That threw Gill for a loop.

“Al...right?”

“And second. Don’t eat me,” Hawk said, pulling off his bracelet.

If the first condition merely confused Gill, the second one left him completely and utterly befuddled.

Chapter Text

“Mmmm. And this is the Prey Center.” The large orange and brown scaled dragon said as he led River into the large cavern. The whole place was several dragons high, with enough room to fly, and had a large opening on one end that led outside, blocked only by a small wall of rocks. Probably to keep the prey in. And there was a small river cutting the cavern in half, providing fresh water to the dragonets. Wild animals of various types ran around the cave, from chickens to a singular bear in the corner, trapped between two other brown scaled dragons.

Mudwings. That’s what they’re called. Gotta remember. Heals with mud…fire breath when warm…and really big and strong.

“You’ll find the fruit pile from the rain forest over there, and there’s some fish in the stream. And if you can catch anything running around…” The dragon continued.

Clay. His name is Clay. Dragonet of Destiny. In charge of the prey center, and one of the teachers here at Jade Mountain Academy.

“And Sunny said there’d be a no scavenger eating policy? Right?” River asked, looking up at the larger dragon with a hopeful expression.

“Mhmmm. We have it on the announcement boards. Don’t worry.” Clay said with a small grin. He rested his wing over the smaller dragonet in what seemed like a comforting gesture. “Here, I see some of my sibs over there. Let’s make you a couple of friends. I promise they are nice.” He said, hopping over the small stream and heading towards the fruit pile. A pair of Mudwings were sitting by it, as well as a black dragon, and a dragon who couldn’t seem to decide on a colour. Staring at them was starting to make River dizzy.

River looked down, shaking his head a bit to clear it, before catching his reflection in the stream. The clear water perfectly reflected his deep, dark blue scales and bright green eyes. His golden phospherecent marks flashing at his whim. A seawing, that's what he was called.

Just like Tsunami. Also a Dragonet of Destiny and Head of School, as she puts it. She’s also the seawing princess. One of them at least. Anemone is supposed to start here, too, right? Tsunami said she would explain me to her, but…

And then another thought invaded his mind.

Can I really breathe underwater? I didn’t get to try in Possibility….

River was debating sticking his head under the stream before Clay’s voice called him back into focus.

“River! Over here! Come meet Sora and Marsh.”

Oh yeah. I can always try later.

River hopped over the river...Hah, funny thought… having to flap his wings to completely clear it with his smaller body. He was only about four years old… or was it five? It was really hard to tell sometimes. He’d have to ask Father sometime. But what he did know was that he’d grow bigger as he got older. And supposedly, you never stop growing. River glanced down at his silver bracelet as he trotted over. Inlaid with blue sapphires matching his scales, it was snug against his foreleg. He really hoped he didn’t grow out of it…

The seawing dragonet finally looked up to meet the confused face of the black dragonet. She seemed to be scrunching her muzzle, like she was having a headache, but also tilting her head like she was hearing voices. But the confusion was very clear.

Did she ask me something? Um, what was it… my name? Probably best to start with that.

“My name is River!” He blurted out, which only seemed to startle her more.

Was that not what she asked? Um, okay. How do we salvage this River…..

Luckily, he was broken from his thoughts by a bright yellow and pink swirl of colors.

“Hiiiiiiiii! My name is Kinkajou! I’m sooooooo excited to meet you, River! Did you live in the ocean? What's it like? Do you only eat fish? Wanna try a mango? We have some here for ‘civilized’ dragons!” The dragonet said, glaring past River at some of the dragonets running around chasing prey. “Maybe you should take them outside and let us fruit eaters enjoy our meal in peace!” She said, this time at Clay.

The larger dragon tilted his head thoughtfully. “Mmmm….Good idea. I thought catching a lot of prey and letting em loose would be fun. It's how we were taught to hunt. But it’s a bit more chaotic than expected. Thirty-six students running around is a bit more than five.”

Clay turned back to River, now positively beaming as he ushered the two smaller mudwings closer with his wings. “This is Marsh, and this is Sora! And Umber should be around here somewhere….”

“Oh oh oh! And this is my beeeeest friend Moonwatcher!” Kinkajou said, turning a bright pink with yellow sunbursts of colour as she pointed to the black dragon.

“Mmmm. While you all get along, I’m going to find Tsunami. See if she can tame some of this chaos…..or add to it.” Clay said, backing away to let the dragonets continue their conversation.

Moon shook her head as Clay left, as if trying to remove an errant thought, before smiling at him. The confusion on her face seemed to melt away. “Hello, River. Sorry, I was a bit distracted. You can just call me Moon.”

River nodded shyly. Looking at all the dragons around him. It was…more than he was used to. But it's okay. He was a big….small dragon now. He just needs to act like it.

“Ummm….I do like mangoes by the way.” He said in a voice much squeakier than he intended, trying to remember any of the questions Kinkajou had asked.

I do like mangoes?! What was that! How does one socialize with Mangoes?!

Marsh thankfully broke the awkwardness this time, grabbing a mango and tossing it to River, who stumbled to catch it, juggling it between his claws before pinning it to his chest, feeling it mush slightly. Marsh then grabbed one for himself, taking a large bite out of it.

He couldn’t help but see the glint of amusement in Moon’s eyes.

“I also enjoy mangoes as a ‘Civilized’ dragon, as you put it, Kinkajou,” Marsh said matter-of-factly.

“You enjoy anything that's edible!” Sora said with soft, but definitely loving mirth in her tone.

“I take after Clay when it comes to food!” Marsh said, a note of pride in his voice.

River was listening to the mudwings bicker, with Kinkajou cutting in, making them laugh. Moon stayed mostly quiet, as intent on listening to them as River was. He took a bite of his own mango as Moon sat up straight. As if she heard something. River gulped down his bit of mango, tilting his head at her, before a loud shout came from one of the cavern openings.

Wow, she has good hearing. Is that something her species can do? Black dragons are nightwings, right? Like Starflight and Fatespeaker… She even has the same teardrop scales. It's kinda pretty, the silver on black. Didn’t they have like mind-reading or something? No wait, Starflight said that was fake….I wonder how I’d look in black…..

The shouting got louder and the seawing looked over to see……. Is that…. A human?

The little human… Scavenger. They call them scavengers here… was running from a pack of dragonets. Weaving between claws and dodging panicking prey as it tried to escape the young dragons.

“Catch it, catch it!”

“Quick! I want a bite before Clay sees!”

“Get back here, you stupid little thing!”

It seemed as if every dragonet in the cave had abandoned chasing chickens and cows in favor of going after the little scavenger.

River’s body was moving before he even had a thought, running up to intercept the scavenger. The male…yes, River could see it was a male now…tried to dodge around him, but River immediately swept his thick tail around, before covering the scavenger with his wings, trapping him in a makeshift tent made of River’s body. In the same motion, he turned his muzzle and growled at the dragonets.

He could feel the scavenger panicking, letting out loud squeaks as he tried to climb out between his front paws. River quickly pulled him back, holding his paws in the way.

“Stop moving, I’m trying to h-”

“GIVE HIM BACK!” A loud voice shouted. A bright white and blue dragon pushed his way between the dragonets, stopping to glare at River. “Did you not hear me? That scavenger is mine! You WILL give him back to me, or I will claw your face off!”

River let out a growl, crouching a bit lower, keeping the scavenger under his wings. “Scavengers don’t belong to anyone!” he said with as much venom as he could muster. Which wasn’t much considering how squeaky his voice sounded.

The white dragon leaned closer, and River could feel the cold air on his breath. “I did NOT bring it all the way here from the Icekingdom just to have some fisheater try to take my Scavenger! My idiot clawmate just HAD to let him out.”

He must be an icewing! Father said they were dangerous! Very cold. Ice breath. Serrated claws. Not good, not good! Three moons, somebody heeeelp!

A shimmer of black scales appeared next to him, causing the icy dragon to turn to face the newcomer. Moon!

“Nightwing…..What do you want?!” he growled, somehow becoming even more hostile.

“H-he doesn’t wa-” Moon started, speaking softly.

“Speak up, Nightwing! Who even are you!”

“M-moon” She said after a short pause. She was holding her head with one of her talons at this point. Headache maybe? Not really a good time for my hero to get one of those.

“Moon what! I know all your names are lies, nightwing! So Moon what! Mooncrusher? Moondestroyer? Mooneater?” The icewing kept firing off. Moon was looking distressed, unable to get a word out.

“She’s Moonwatcher!” River blurted out. The icewing froze for a bit, his hostility seeming to falter, before his head snapped back to face River.

“If you don’t give me my scavenger back, I will break you apart. Piece by frozen piece. First, I’ll freeze your talons, then break them off. Then your tail, and break that off. Then your ears and snout, until you are just a pile of frozen dragon chunks.” The icewing stepped closer with every threat, until he was mere inches away once again, the frost on his breath freezing the growing tears in River’s eyes. The seawing could only duck lower and lower, trying to escape the angry dragonet, but couldn’t move without letting the scavenger go. All he could do was crouch and whimper.

“Have you tried asking nicely yet?” a third voice spoke up. A sandy yellow-gold dragon saddled up beside the Icewing, putting his wing in between the icy dragon and River, forcing the icewing to back up a pace. He had a noticeable zigzag scar on his nose as well as darker brown freckles. A lone earring on his left ear of an amber teardrop…. and....is that a tail barb?

That must be a sandwing! They started the war that was going on. That’s why father was…. But that's over now, thanks to Clay and the others. What was it they had? Poison tails, don’t eat much. Oh, and fire breath! Which won’t help me here….

“Hi! I’m the idiot clawmate, but most dragons call me Qibli,” He continued. “And this is Winter. Prince Winter, Queen Glacier’s nephew. If he hasn’t told you already, he would have in the next 5 minutes.” Qibli said with a mischievous grin.

Winter immediately turned to give Qibli a hard glare. “I only told you so you would understand that we won't be clawmates for long! When they realize I'm the Prince, they’ll give me my own cave! So don’t get used to it!”

Qibli merely returned the glare with his own smile before turning back to River and Moon.

“Anyways. It’s true. I, sadly, as the inferior sandwing I am, let the scavenger free. It really is his scavenger. Could we….Catch you something else to eat? Or maybe get you something else for him?” Qibli asked, pointedly looking at my muzzle.

Oh crap! Is there still mango on my muzzle? Wait. Do they think I want to EAT the scavenger?!

River couldn’t hide his look of horror at the prospect.

“EAT? Why would I EAT a scavenger?! You’re not supposed to! Sunny promised!” the seawing whined out. It could really only be described as a pitiful, betrayed whine, as much as River would like to object otherwise.

River crouched a bit lower, almost flat on the ground now, pinning the scavenger beneath his wings. Though the look of anger on the ice wing…Winter… changed to one of confusion. While Qibli’s expression became one of understanding.

“Th-..I don’t think…they want to eat him, River…” Moon said softly. She was looking a bit less dazed.

“Well, I don’t want to eat him either! I was just trying to…to…”

“To keep him safe! Of course!” Qibli exclaimed, understanding washing over his face, before being replaced with confusion again. “Wait. Why are you trying to keep him safe?”

“I…I….just don’t want anyone to get in trouble! Sunny said there would be a no-eating scavenger rule here!” River tried to make it believable. But it didn’t look like Qibli believed him. Or Winter, for that matter.

“Then you won’t mind if I take Bandit back!” Winter said, holding out a claw.

River looked down, under his wing, at the trapped scavenger. He was shaking with fear, but now had a curiosity, as if understanding, finally, that River had no intention of eating him. He looked a little… malnourished. Like he hadn’t eaten in a while. And he was holding his stomach with both arms while looking up at River with pleading eyes.

“Have you been…feeding him?” River cautioned… “Bandit, I mean? He looks…hungry.”

“H-he is hungry,” Moon said, before clamping her muzzle shut when Winter turned his glare on her.

“How would you know!” he snapped at the nightwing. “I’ll have you know, I’ve found that scavengers eat very little. I’ve tried to feed him some walrus yesterday, and a piece of desert rat the day before. In fact. He hasn’t eaten since I got him!” Winter said in a very snooty tone, as if he knew what he was talking about.

“Did you try to…cook the food?” River asked. Which was probably the wrong thing to ask based on the looks the three dragonets gave him.

“Why and how would I cook it? If he’s hungry enough, he should just eat what he’s given!” Winter growled, still keeping his claws outstretched, waiting for River to hand over Bandit.

“Are you a squidbrained moron of a dragonet?!” River asked incredulously, sitting up sharply and using his new favorite (and currently only) seawing insult he learned from Tsunami. Qibli couldn’t help but gasp out a laugh at that, and a few ooooo’s from the audience of dragonets gave River a bit of pride. But it was probably still not the right thing to say to the frozen Prince.

“What…..did….you….just….call….me?” Winter said in a very icy tone, dropping his claws to lean forward on all fours, only inches from River’s muzzle once again.

“I-I-I…what I mean is….”

“Alright, break it up!” A bright, happy voice said. And River collapsed in relief, almost pinning Bandit beneath him. The little scavenger ran over to hide by his tail.

“Let's not fight over this…whatever it's about.” The small golden dragonet came into view, shooing some of the other dragonets away. Disappointed whines and cries at there not being a fight faded out as they walked off. “Now…what is all of this about?”

Sunny. Sandwing, and another Dragonet of Destiny, and the one who thought of the school! She’s the really nice one. And the only reason I’m allowed here. But also…..very bad at secrets….

“That seawing stole my Scavenger pet! And thinks he knows better than ME on how to care for one! I’m the one with an actual Scavenger, not him! Cook the meat. Phuaw!” Winter said, huffing at the end.

“Is that…proper terminology for a royal?” Qibli asked cheekily. Sunny shot him a small glare, but that didn’t stop his smile.

“If I were you, Prince Winter, I would listen to him. River happens to know quite a bit about scavengers.” Sunny said, smiling at the seawing dragonet. Winter’s muzzle turned from fury, to confusion, to curiosity as he looked him over.

“Sunny….We’re not supposed t-” River started.

“You see, River here was raised by scavengers! For a while at least!” She offered. “So he might actually know a thing or two.” River visibly drooped under the stares of the dragonets. All possibility of friendship is gone.

Welp. It was a good try. I can just go home, tell Father I failed. Maybe go to a school in Possibility. Do they have schools there? Maybe I’ll just have Father homeschool me.

“REALLY?!” Winter’s face looked like what River would have assumed was excitement, if he didn’t already believe Winter didn’t know that emotion. “Tell me EVERYTHING. No, wait.” He sat upright, muzzle raised, as if he was looking down his snout at the seawing. “I command you to help me with Bandit, as prince of the Icewings! I can’t cook the food, so you’ll have to do it!”

“Um…..I don’t think….I can breathe fire….” River said, sitting up a bit more now that the danger seemed to pass. Bandit peeked out from over his front paws, a bit more curious now.

Winter pondered that for a moment before Qibli made a noise like clearing his throat. He puffed out a small flame with a smirk. Winter looked at him once, then turned away stiffly.

“Never mind, I’ll figure it out. Can they eat anything frozen?”

“I'm sure your Clawmate could help you if you asked,” Sunny said, motioning to Qibli, whacking his shoulder lightly with her tail as he gave another smug look.

“Only if he says please with dried scorpions on top.” Qibli chided, receiving another thwap from Sunny. Winter looked like he was going to claw Qibli, before he let out a deep sigh, hunched his shoulders, and lowered his head to look at the ground between his talons, turning away from Qibli again.

“Plswifdirdscoptop,” Winter muttered softly.

“I didn’t hear you….but I’ll take it. Alright, what are we cooking?” Qibli said with a small grin and another puff of fire, probably just to show off. River finally fully sat up, moving his paws to the side so Bandit could crawl free.

“Well, fish would be easiest. They can be consumed raw in a pinch, but safer cooked. Less dangerous than other meats if we don't end up cooking it fully.” River said, his hopes rising again. Maybe he didn’t lose his only possible friends already. As long as word didn’t spread too much… about his….weirdness. “Would you like to help, too, Moon?”

The nightwing looked visibly more comfortable. Now that the icewing seemed less angry. She looked at him with a small smile. “It couldn’t hurt, I suppose….and he is really hungry. Look at the poor thing.” She leaned down, her snout in front of Bandit. He backed away at first, hiding behind River’s front talons, before edging forward and patting her nose softly, making some small squeaks.

Winter gave her a soft growl, acting as if she was going to take a bite of Bandit. Moon winced softly, as if something pricked her, then backed away from the scavenger. “On second thought, maybe I should head to the library. I can try to find something about scavengers there to help….”

“No, don’t leave yet! Five more minutes!” Kinkajou said, appearing out of thin air behind Moon. now sporting some green scales. “Don’t leave me all alone with the scary, shiny, cold, handsome, pretty icewing!”

Rainwing camouflage! They really do turn invisible! And apparently every other colour under the rainbow as well. Is the ‘magical death spit’ real too?..... Did she say handsome?

“Well…. I guess I can stay….” Moon said softly. Looking back at Kinkajou, as if she wasn’t shocked at all the dragonet had just appeared there.

Winter let out a snooty huff, looking back at River, causing the seawing to stand at attention, trying to straighten his back and look more….proper like Winter had earlier. That's what you do in front of a prince, right? Qibli’s little snort had River second-guessing himself, though. “Anything else we should know?” The icewing asked, using his wing to probe Bandit closer to himself, but noticeably not picking the scared scavenger up with his claws.

So he can be gentle…

“We can also give him some fruit for now while the fish cooks! A balanced meal is a good idea for Scavengers! W-they eat just about anything a dragon will eat, only they have to cook some things where dragons don’t. I can give you a full list of what I know is edible if you like?” River started leading them back to the fruit pile before Sunny touched him on the shoulder with her wingtip.

“One second. Let me steal River for a bit, and then you can continue your ‘Scavenger lesson’.”

“You better tell me everything you know when you get back here, fishbreath,” Winter said, shooting another glare at Moon, then Qibli, before leading Bandit with his wing, gently pushing the scavenger to the fruit pile. Kinkajou noticeably stuck her tongue out at him as he turned his back.

“.....is my breath really fishy?” River asked, turning to Sunny. She couldn’t help but let out a small giggle before shaking her head.

“No, no, no. You’re fine. Listen. I know we were going to try to hide it a bit longer. But in my experience, honesty makes the best friends.”

“It’s still only half honest really…”

“It’s close enough for now. Besides, I think we have found you some claw mates already.” Sunny said, nodding to the icewing across the cave.

“You….want to put me…in the room with the scavenger crazed icewing prince? Won’t that cause any issues?” River asked with a small gulp.

“Exactly! You two will get along great!” Sunny said with another bright, contagious smile, ignoring the ‘issues’ half of what River said as she looked over at the three dragonets. Moon was watching Kinkajou trying to offer a couple dragon dragon-sized blueberries to the minuscule mammal, while Qibli had started a small fire. Winter was coming back from the river with a fish in his claws. “We might have to change a winglet or two around as well…I’ll go over it tonight. But this means you won’t have your own cave tonight!”

“True….. I guess I’ll try it. Only to get out of that spooky cave I’m currently in!” River said, trying to sound as brave as he could.

Why did he agree to this? Maybe being alone in the scary cave would be better than sharing a room with a scary prince. Though there was Bandit to worry about. River wasn’t sure how well Winter could take care of Bandit alone. And worse, what if his name wasn’t Bandit? He’d have to teach that scavenger how to write in dragon or draw or something soon. Communication was key in a situation like this…..

And there was Qibli. He seemed nice…he hoped he was nice. Well, he really just hoped Qibli could stop Winter from slicing his face off…..

River dragged his bedroll down the cave hallway. Chattering was going on in many of the side caves as dragonets settled down for the night. Which cave was it again? The third one?.... No, that one had a seawing and a mudwing already….ah! The next one over!

“Um….hello?” River said softly. Poking his head in. Winter was up on a ledge, tail draped down the wall as he lay down. A beautiful wire cage, complete with cushions, blankets….a wheel, and a swing, was taking up a large portion of the cage below him. Bandit was already asleep inside. On the other side of the cave with another familiar face. The warm, friendly Qibli was looking up at him.

“Sunny said I was getting moved to this cave? So…we’re supposed to be clawmates now?” River said, or rather asked.

Please don't be mad, please let me in!

“Hey, your royal iceness! Your second favorite dragon gets to be here!” Qibli said with a grin, waving River over with a talon. There wasn’t really much room to place his bed…luckily, he didn’t really have much to put in the room in general.

“Who would you say is my favorite, Sandsnorter?” Winter asked, looking down at the sandwing.

“Why me, of course. Your lovable Qibli. Im irresistible.” Qibli winked at River.

Winter let out an incredulous snort, almost knocking himself off his perch. “As if! You’re insufferable!” He said with a growl in his voice. “At least River isn’t nearly as bad as you! As long as he stays out of my side of the cave, that is!” he said, pointing River to Qibli’s side with his tail.

“Just giving away my side, are ya? Well fine! I don’t happen to mind sharing with the most unique dragon ever!” River couldn’t help but blush brightly at that comment, his golden lights giving off a soft glow.

“I-I’m not that unique. Um…where should I….put my bed?”

“Riiiiight next to mine. We can share the warmth! It's much colder here than in the desert, thanks to the living icicle up there.” Qibli patted the ground next to his bed. River couldn’t help but glow a little brighter at that, causing Winter to groan and turn over to face the wall.

“Turn that obnoxiously bright light off and let me sleep!”

“Sorry, sorry!” River made a concerted effort to stop himself from glowing before curling up close to Qibli and tucking his pouch of stuff under his mat, like a pillow.

Oh wow. He really is warm. I can feel the heat from his scales. Is that a sandwing thing? I really like it.

River felt himself relaxing in the heat, a soft, happy rumble in his throat.

“Are you purring? Never been near a sandwing before?” Qibli asked, a small tease in his voice.

“Never been near any dragon before, other than Father……I just like the warmth is all!” River tried to object, scooting a bit further from the sandwing, before Qibli put a wing over him like a blanket. The warmth encompassing the smaller seawing immediately halts his movements.

“O-oh wow…..its really….warm…..really….nice….” River slurred a bit, letting the warmth cover his whole body. He curled up a bit closer to the smiling sandwing.

“There ya go. No need to hide here,” the sandwing said, pulling River closer with only a tiny muffled complaint from the smaller dragonet.

“See! Even he thinks I’m hotter than you! Get it. Cause I’m a sandwing?” Qibli snarked up at the icewing.

“Qibli, I swear if you don’t shut up-”

“I know, I know, you’ll claw my face off. Chill out, Winter….get it. Cause you’re an icewing?”

Winter said something back, but it was lost in the growing darkness and muffled sleep that was surrounding River. Not a bad first day. And a friend or four. And now a warm bed next to a nice dragon. A very warm dragon. River couldn’t wait for tomorrow….

Chapter Text

The nightmare was the same. The angry orange and red dragon. The fires. The burnt corpses of scavengers. And River, hiding in the shadows. Watching. Waiting to be found. Waiting to feel the burning, the ripping teeth, and the tearing claws. The anger of the dragon. All because of him. All because of his greed. Because of his fear. Because of h-

But then…the stomping ceased….the heat from the flames vanished. And….it started to snow? That was weird? The dream didn’t usually have snow. And it felt cold… really cold on his snout.

“Stupid dragonet!” a voice shouted, and the snow got more intense, a blizzard covering the bodies, hiding the destroyed homes almost instantly in a blanket of cold white flakes.

“Wake up already!” The voice said again, right in his ear.

River bolted straight up, knocking Winter over as his head smacked into the icewing’s snout. Winter seemed to have been standing over him, chilling his body after the sandwing’s warmth. The seawing glanced around, trying to remember where he was. “Oooooow,” River groaned out, rubbing his head with a talon. Qibli was right next to him, resting a wing over his back. That soothing warmth was helping calm his heartbeat and slow his breathing.

“Some nightmare, eh?” the familiar, friendly voice said. Much softer, though. No hint of his normal teasing.

Winter was picking himself off the ground with a growl, rubbing his muzzle. He flapped his wings to right himself before lashing his tail. “Never again! Next time, you can wake him up yourself!” the icewing snapped at Qibli, before turning his back to them both, trying to shake the dust off his scales.

“S-sorry…” River tried once he could speak. “I get them a lot…”

Qibli only nodded, keeping his wing over River’s back. “I get them too. Don’t worry. I think a lot of dragonets here will have nightmares for a long while. You’re not alone,” he said simply, before shaking his head, which turned into a full-body shake, like a fox trying to rid itself of water. Then his normal goofy smile returned.

“Anyways! We don’t wanna be late for our first class! I'm sure Winter’s ‘icewing pride’ would never recover if he failed to even show up!” Qibli teased out in the icewing’s direction. Did Winter just flinch, or was River just imagining it?

“Well, maybe if a pair of idiotic dragonets would wake up at a decent time…” Winter muttered.

“Relax snowsnorter….nah that doesn’t really work… We’ll be there on time.” Qibli grinned. “As long as we don't bicker all day long here. Gosh, Winter, you really do bicker a lot.”

“I refuse to even dignify that with a response!”

“Wasn’t…that a response?” River asked quietly, looking between the two bigger dragons. Winter’s head snapped back to glare at the seawing. “Sorry, sorry! I get it. I’m on thin ice already.”

Winter’s eyes narrowed dangerously as Qibli snickered a bit. “I think we’ll get along great, you and I, River!” He once again rested his wing on River’s back, giving the seawing a spark of pride in himself. “Well, Queen Glacier’s nephew. Would you like to lead the way?” Qibli’s other wing motioned to the door as the sandwing did a mock bow.

“Suppose I do!” Winter said with a sniff, turning and strutting out the door without once looking back at the two other dragonets.

River and Qibli exchanged glances with each other before breaking down into a fit of snickers that ended when a single gong was heard echoing through the caves. “Alright, alright, now maybe we should actually follow him!” Qibli said as he led River out the door and down the hall.

Dragonets were rushing out of their sleeping caves now. Apparently, they weren’t the only ones to wait until the last minute. River tried standing on his hind legs to see over the crowd of dragonets, but he was a bit too small.

“Come on, sea slug! This way!” Qibli tapped River’s side with his wing before heading down the hallway leading upwards in the mountain. River darted after, using his smaller size to squirm between dragonets as he rushed to catch up. Two gongs sounded as they settled into a steady trot outside the crowd. River bumped shoulders with Qibli, who returned the bump, almost knocking the seadwing over.

The halls seemed to get more humid as they went. The globes of light change from the passive orange to a repeated blue and yellow pattern along the walls. By the time the two caught up with Winter, he was already stepping into one of the caves. Qibli and River both darted forward to enter right after him.

“And here’s the rest of your winglet! We made some changes since you all met and seemed to like scavengers. So now you can all research them together!” a dark blue seawing said. She was larger than the other dragonets in the room, with a lighter blue phosphorescent scale colour.

“Tsunami! We got you for our first day!” River exclaimed happily as he walked in behind Qibli, right as three gongs were heard. Oh! And Moon and Kinkajou were here too! As well as a seawing and a mudwing he hadn’t seen yet and…..

River stepped back a bit at the annoyed snarling from the red dragon in the back of the cave.

Skywing. Fire breath. Large wings. Fast flight. Sharp claws. Strongest warriors on average. Trained from hatching to fight. Fierce. Merciless. Angry. They want to kill you. They want to kill me. They want to kill everyone. It's not him. It's not him! Itsnothimitsnothimitsnothim!

The familiar warmth of Qibli’s wing around his back startled him out of his spiraling thoughts. The sandwing had positioned himself between the skywing and River, before giving the seawing a gentle smile.

Did…he notice? The skywing sure didn’t.

Moon also seemed to be looking at him with concern, though she didn’t move any closer. River really hoped he didn’t make a fool of himself already. He knew there would be a skywing in his winglett when he finally got one. He just didn’t think it would scare him this much. She didn’t even have the right scale colour, her’s had more red and less orange…She just had the same angry look in her eyes….

River shuddered involuntarily, and Qibli pulled him a bit closer with his wing.

“Let's go around and introduce ourselves,” Tsuanami started.”I mean, maybe it's unnecessary, but that's what Sunny told me to do. But then she said I probably wouldn’t listen to her anyway, so now I’m going to prove her wrong! I’m Tsunami, if you didn’t know. I was going to give myself a title like Leader of Recruitment, then, for some reason, everyone voted that I would be terrible at recruiting, whatever that is all about. So they instead named me as Head of School! Anyways, our first class is going to be a group discussion so everyone can get to know each other, which was Glory’s idea. So…any questions?”

“Yeah. Are we stuck with this group? And why do we get an extra seawing?” the skywing asked. At least she didn’t sound like him. Still very angry though. Why couldn’t they have gotten a nice skywing for the Jade winglett?

“That’s not how I would put it,” said Tsunami. “But yes, you are stuck with this group. River here is a special case. We happened to get one extra student due to...circumstances, so you get to be the lucky Winglet to get him.”

“What if we would prefer to be in a group with other icewings?” Winter asked. “Such as…my sister?”

“Well, that would defeat the whole purpose of the winglets then!” Tsunami interjected. “But you’ll have some bigger classes with the other winglets, as well as time to make other friends outside of classes.”

“I love our winglett!” chimed in Kinkajou. That's good. There’s at least one happy dragon here.

“When do we eat?” the mudwing spoke up. He was about as small as River was, but with a much stockier build. He had slightly darker brown scales than Clay. “Just kidding, pretending to be Clay.” He grinned, looking at Qibli.

That must be Umber then, if he knows Clay. All his ‘sibs’ really seem to look up to him. Is that a mudwing thing? Maybe I’ll learn!

“Hah! Actually, I brought food!” Tsunami said, lifting a bowl to the table in the center of the room. The bowl was filled with a variety of fish, making River’s stomach growl.

“Awesome!” the other seawing grinned, snagging one of the fish. He was dark green with brighter green underscales. He also wore a golden armbad filled with dark stones that glinted earliy in the light.

Just like Stream.

“Eeeeeyuck!” Kinkajou exclaimed, sticking her tongue out in disgust. “I’ll just wait until lunchtime, thank you very much.”

River reached out from the safety of Qibli’s side to grab a fish, trying not to look at the skywing, then began nibbling on its tail. “Thanks, Tsunami!”

Moon and Winter both reached out for a fish at the same time, but Moon flinched back. Winter looked at her curiously as he speared a fish on one of his talons, but she just looked away. Qibli, ever to the rescue, grabbed a fish himself and handed it to her.

“Here!”

“Thanks,” she said as she gingerly took it from his talons. River couldn’t help but notice Qibli smiling at her.

Day one, and he already likes her? Or is he just that nice to everyone?

“Right! Introductions!” said Tsunami. “Carnelian, want to go first?”

The skywing, Carnelian, sighed deeply. “I’m Carnelian.”

Nobody spoke for a few moments.

“Anything else? What should we know about you? Family? Favorite color? Anything?”

Carnelian growled, making River flinch again. “I’m a loyal subject of Queen Ruby,” she started. “I’m part of the group that believes Queen Scarlet is dead. And if she isn’t, I’ll make her wish she was. I’m here because my queen told me to be. Although I should be training with my platoon to defend the palace. NOT eating a bunch of slimy fish with a bunch of spineless dragonets!” The skywing paused for a moment. “And my favorite color is red.”

There was another moment of silence before Tsunami spoke. “Alright…Kinkajou, would you like to go next?”

The rainwing looked positively….rainbow at the prospect. Yellows and purples of…what River assumed was joy, spread across her scales.

“Sure! I’m Kinkajou! I’ma rainwing. And I’ve never met any Sandwings, or seawings, or icewings before. Other than you two!” she said, pointing at both Winter and River. River waved back at her with a talon, making her beam brighter. “Oh, and the Dragonets of Destiny, of course! Cause I'm really good friends with them! I’m excited to learn how to read! And I want to learn everything about all of your tribes! And I think this school is the best thing to happen, ever! Aaaaand my favorite colour is yellow!” she finished, her scales shifting to a bright sunny yellow all over, for a moment to punctuate her statement, before going back to her purple, pink, yellow swirl.

“Of course it is,” Carnelian snorted.

“Your turn!” Kinkajou said, bumping Moon’s side.

The black dragonet let out a deep breath before starting. “I’m Moonwatcher, but please call me Moon,” She started softly. “Um…. I grew up in the rainforest.” There was a pause as if she was thinking of what else to say. “And…I like scrolls.”

She looked down, focusing on her claws instead of the dragonets around her. She must be shy. Maybe River could find scrolls they both enjoy together.

“Me too,” said the seawing. “At least scrolls that weren’t written by my mother. I’ve read way too many of those.” He gave a small eyeroll at that. “I’m Turtle, by the way. Oh, and my favorite colour is green.”

“I’m Qibli!” the sandwing beside River spoke up. “I'm one of Queen Thorn’s advisors! I’m hoping to learn as much as I can as fast as possible so I can get back and help her run the kingdom of sand.”

Woah! He’s so important. Wait. There is also a prince and a princess in the room. So it's just chock full of important dragons. Maybe River could show off a bit. Try to impress them. Tsunami did say it would be a good way to keep some of the rougher dragonets off his back. And that Anemone would back him up as well.

“I'm sure she’s lost without you,” Winter said scathingly, interrupting River’s thoughts.

“And I'm sure you’re perfectly essential to the operation of your kingdom!” Qibli shot back. Winter frowned at that.

“And I’m Umber!” said the little mudwing. River guessed right! “I think…I think maybe we met in battle once?” He said to Carnelian. That seemed to take the wind out of her wings as the skywing lost her angry defensive stance for a bit. “I mean. You look familiar.”

“I didn’t realize you fought in the war, too.” Her frown softened a bit further. Maybe she wasn’t that mean and evil?

“Yeah, with my brothers and sisters. My brother, Reed, is our leader,” he said. “But Reed said Sora, Marsh, and I could come to school, now that the war is over. Since there’s so much we want to learn! I miss him and Pheasant, though.” He ended a bit quieter. Umber seemed a bit homesick to River.

“They can visit anytime!” Tsunami promised. “They can even camp around and live here if they want.”

“I know, but they’re working for Queen Morhen right now. Maybe one day.” His wings drooped a bit, but then he shot them back up.

“Well, I am Winter,” Winter started.

“Queen Glacier’s nephew!” Qibli said at the same time as Winter, giving him a cheeky smile. Winter narrowed his eyes at Qibli, glaring icicles at him.

“Do not mock me, sandwing!”

“I wouldn’t dream of it!”

“If you’re the head of school, does that mean you’re the dragon to talk to about getting a private cave? Or at least a less annoying clawmate?” Winter asked, turning to Tsunami.

“Why yes! I am. The answer is no.”

“See! I’m your destiny.” Qibli said to Winter with a cheerful shrug. River couldn’t help but giggle before straightening up.

“I guess that leaves me! I’m River! I’m a seawing, of course. Cause im all glowy and wet and stuff,” River started. Tsunami was making a face from behind Turtle. Extending her wings and flashing her royal symbols. Then she shook her head and pointed to Turtle. Was she saying that Turtle didn’t know about the symbols? Or to show them off to Turtle? If only she practiced her Aquatic. “Um…some of you know about how I was raised by scavengers for a bit. But then a seawing found me and I was living in Possibility for the past year with him. I don’t really know much about the tribes, so I’m hoping to learn a lot from you all.” River continued. Tsunami was flashing her scales again, faintly but clearly, and shaking her head vigorously. Qibli was noticing it too, looking down curiously at River.

“Oh! And I happen to be a Prince too! See! We’re not too different!” River said proudly at Winter, spreading his wings and flashing his own royal symbols just like Tsunami did. Tsunami buried her snout in her claws as Umber and Kinkajou oooooed at the display. Even Qibli feigned ignorance for River’s sake, but he gave the by now familiar, ‘I knew it’ grin, as he looked down.

All of the dragonets were staring at his wings… except Turtle. The seawing beside Tsunami narrowed his eyes directly at River in a manner that made the smaller seawing gulp.

Maybe….that was the wrong thing to do.

Chapter Text

“Huh. I guess I was wrong, Tsunami. We have thirty-two brothers. Not thirty-one.” Turtle said, not removing his gaze from River.

River gulped again, smiling sheepishly.

Tsunami didn’t tell me her brother was coming too! Did Tsunami not warn him about me yet? This isn’t good!

“It's like that one story. The Lost Princess? Only, there's no fanfare really for me, I guess, since I don’t think, uh, ‘Mom’ knows I exist?” River let out a small, scared laugh. No one was buying it.

“Wasn’t that story for Tsunami?” Qibli chimed in, taking some of the heat off River. “At least that's what I heard.”

“Oh yeah! That's what Glory told me!” Kinkajou added in.

“Honestly, with how little she apparently cares for my brothers, it wouldn’t surprise me she lost a second egg, and since it wasn’t an ‘heir to the throne’ she never noticed. Or cared.” Tsunami was not able to hide the mirth in her voice, but took the rest of the attention back to herself. Except for Turtle, once again. He flashed his scales at River.

“I don’t know who you are. But Tsunami is covering for you. So meet me at the lake after classes and explain. Or I tell everyone.” Turtle flashed in aquatic. Qibli looked from Turtle to River again. He seemed to realize that there was a conversation going on cause he tightened his wing around River.

“I’ll be there,” River flashed back, using the scales for anxiety.

“You know, that sounds like mother, honestly,” said Turtle, going back to his cheerful smile. “Glad to know I have another brother at this school. We’re starting to seem like a royal mudwing group at this rate.” Turtle shook his head.

River gave Qibli a soft smile, letting him know it was okay, and the sandwing relented, letting his wing fold back.

“ANYWAAAAYS. Topics! What would you all like to talk about?” Tsunami said loudly, once again pulling all eyes to her.

“What about nightwings?” Winter said, looking back at Moon. “Did they really ever have powers? Are they truly gone? Or is that just more nightwing lies?”

“Oooh, I’m also interested in that topic,” Carnelian said, leaning forward a bit from where she was seated.

Honestly, River was also a bit curious. He heard the gist of it from Starflight. How the powers faded when they left the volcano for the rainforest. Mind-reading was never a true power. But to hear it from another nightwing? One that didn’t live separately? Or… wait, she said she grew up in the rainforest, not the volcano! So she probably doesn’t know either.

“I…don’t really know any more than you do,” muttered Moon, not meeting anyone’s eyes, but affirming what River thought.

“Yeah, didn’t you hear her?” Kinkajou cut in. “She grew up in the raaaaainforest. Not with the mean nightwings on the island!” Moon winced a bit, causing Kinkajou to quickly add, “Not that they’re all bad! Not saying they all are! But, Moon wouldn’t know anything!”

“Maybe you should try to find out then,” Winter said, seeming a little softer about it now. “You can ask all of your nightwing friends about it. Then come back and tell us what you find.”

“Can’t… you just ask them?” asked Umber. “I mean, that's what this school is for, right? Learning about the other tribes?” Umber quickly ducked his head as Winter glared at him.

“That may be, but do you really think a nightwing would tell an icewing anything?”

“Maybe if you try asking reaaaaaally nicely?” Qibli put in. “Try using those royal manners of yours.”

“How about instead, if you do, I’ll try to be…less threatening to you, Moonwatcher.” Winter huffed out, as if that was a major deal. Which perhaps it was.

“I-I can try? Though the other nightwings don’t…really like me all that much.” Moon tilted her head at Winter, as if noticing something for the first time. It was the same look she gave him when he started asking River about scavengers yesterday.

“Okaaaaaaaaaay, that was intense. I doubt Clay had to deal with a group discussion like this…” Tsunami muttered, probably to herself, but from what River had learned, she was never good at keeping her thoughts to herself.

“We are dragonets that just came out of a war that's lasted our entire lives, and half of us had to fight in it. Trauma should be expected.” Qibli said flatly.

“OKAY, CLASS! WE’RE GOING HUNTING NOW!” Tsunami shouted, jumping up and flapping her wings, before zooming out the window.

“Did she just...chicken out?” asked River as the eight dragonets glanced at each other. Qibli broke the silence first by chuckling, followed by Moon, then Umber. Until the whole group of dragonets was laughing so hard, Kinkajou fell over and rolled on the floor. Even Winter was giving a hearty chuckle.

“She can fight in a war, face an animus-touched statue, survive Scarlet’s arena, but the second emotions get brought up, she books it!” Carnelian weezed out, whipping tears from her eyes. “Qibli, you have to teach me that. If you can scare off the warrior princess, you can scare off anyone!”

The tension had finally melted from the air as the last of the laughter died down. Kinkajou had to lean on Moon as giggles kept taking her over. Winter had a faint smile that he tried to hide, and even Carnelian had a nicer, less threatening look. Maybe she wasn’t so scary after all.

“I WASN’T KIDDING! HUNTING TRIP NOW!” Tsunami yelled from outside the window.

“We should probably go before she decides ‘dragonet trauma’ isn’t enough to keep her at bay,” Turtle said with a small snicker. Taking off from where he sat, he flew out to follow his sister.

“Alright, shrimp. Let's go!” said Qibli, while wielding a big grin.

“Hey!” Both River and Umber exclaimed, before looking at each other and breaking into another fit of giggles between the two of them.

“One day we’ll have to see which one of us is shrimpiest,” said River in between giggles.

“Why, that would be you. Shrimp is a seafood.” Winter said, before casually flying off, not noticing the silence he left behind.

“Did…. did he just….” the smaller seawing dragonet couldn’t stop his muzzle from flailing open.

“No. That's not possible….” Kinkajou had shifted to a collage of orange and purple.

“Hah! I knew I was rubbing off on him!” Qibli said with his usual confidant smirk. “Alright ‘shrimpiest’ seawing! Let's go hunt!” the sandwing took off, followed closely by River and the rest of the Jade winglett. Friends. Yeah. Maybe they could all be good friends.

As long as he got through the day and didn’t mess anything up with Turtle. Looking up ahead, River saw the younger seawing flying next to his sister. Their sister? Turtle had just bumped sides with Tsunami, sending her spiraling before she corrected and dove at him, making him let out a loud yelp that could be heard over the wind as he tried to fly away. Turtle didn’t seem too bad. River was sure he wouldn’t mind having an extra brother along with his thirty-one others.

Thirty-one brothers……

That's a bit more family than River planned on… And it will take a lot of explaining. River cupped his head in his talons as he flew.

“Something wrong, River?” Qibli asked, flying just above him.

“No, not wrong. Just…. Realizing how big my family is now. Thirty-one brothers and three sisters. I hope they like me. And aren’t all as angry as Tsunami. And don’t want to throw me out. Or pick on me. Well, maybe a bit of teasing, cause I think siblings do that, but not like, really mean picking on me. You know? But also. WHO EVEN HAS THAT MANY SIBLINGS! THREE MOONS!” shouted River by the end of his short rant.

“Whoa, whoa! Slow down there, shrimp!” chuckled Qibli, “Does this have anything to do with what you and Turtle were flashing each other earlier?”

“A little. He wants to talk to me after classes are over. Probably to get to know me.” River glanced over at Qibli, who’d leveled out to fly next to him, wing tips almost touching. “I wanna meet Anemone too sometime, but that’ll probably happen in another class. Tsunami talks her up all the time.”

“Do you want me to come with just in case? If you’re that worried about ‘getting bullied’.” Qibli asked with his trademark mischievous grin. But there was a note of concern in his voice.

“Oh no no! It’s fine! I'm sure it’ll be fine!” River said quickly, not wanting Qibli to overhear anything he probably shouldn’t from the talk he was going to have with the bigger seawing. Then another thought crossed his mind. “Hey Qibli?”

“Hmmm?”

“Why do you protect me so much? I just met you, and you’ve already defended me….. Probably more times than I know, but at least four.”

“Ah! Well, back before Thorn was queen, she was the leader of the Outclaws. They kinda raised me after my mom sold me. Best thing that ever happened to me, don’t start feeling sorry for me. But the Outclaws, they are in simplest terms, protectors. We protect others. If you have the power to protect someone, you should use it. You are the type of dragonet an Outclaw would protect. Kind, hopeful, not yet scarred or tainted by the Scorpion Den. You seem like you’re still learning how to use your own claws. So right now, I have the power to protect you from the chilly reception of a certain snowy prince.” Qibli winked at River, causing another fit of giggles as they both looked ahead at Winter.

“Speaking of, I understand Winter and Turtle. But why did Carnelian freak you out? If you don’t mind me asking.”

River frowned, trying not to go down that spiraling thought path again. “Not right now. Maybe someday. But right now, I can’t say,” the seawing said softly. Qibli just nodded, then faced ahead again.

“Alright. Well, I won’t push it. If you want to tell me, I’ll be here to listen.” Qibli angled down into a dive, getting closer to the ground, skimming for prey. “You might want to find a river or lake if you want to fish. I’ll catch up with you in the prey center, alright?” the sandwing said with a smile, before flapping his wings to fall back towards Moon and Kinkajou.

Qibli was right. If River wanted to eat, he should probably try to catch a fish. That was what Father kept bringing home. Now he just had to find a nice lake….with no one around….

River found a small stream with a couple of fish swimming down it, covered by trees. It wasn’t far off from Jade Mountain, so if the fish were willing, he’d be able to catch a meal! River sat down at the river's edge before grabbing a stick from the ground. It was sturdy, with a few leaves on the end, but it would do. He dug through his pouch of belongings, ignoring the library card, and pulled out an eagle feather and a jar of black ink. The eagle feather was a dark brown with a long quill tip; near the quill was a golden ring where a dragon could hold it comfortably. He gently uncorked the ink and dipped the quill in it before writing on the stick.

Enchant this stick to become a simple wooden fishing spear, as if carved by claws.

Words blazed golden like his glowing scales, before fading into the wood as it shifted and changed. The stick lengthened and straightened out perfectly, before little claw scratches started peeling the wood from the tip, until it left three points in a triangle shape. A shabby spear, but good enough for fishing. River quickly looked around before capping and packing the ink away. He rubbed the leftover ink on the quill on the grass before packing that too.

“Alright! Let's do this!” the seawing said, before he began fishing in a very non-dragon-like manner. Spear fishing.

Chapter Text

River flew back to the prey center with a fish speared on the tips of his spear and two in his claws. It did take an extra enchantment to actually hit anything, but he finally got the food. He would need to practice regular hunting methods later. Maybe Tsunami could help. But he was still pleased enough with his food, and enough to share if anyone wanted some!

The Jade winglet was sitting together at a stone table in the corner. Or at least some of them. Winter was up on a ledge next to another icewing, and Carnelian wasn’t back yet…or had already left. But Qibli, Moon, Umber, and Turtle were all together chatting. A blur of pink passed River before solidifying into the shape of Kinkajou holding a banana.

“Eeeew. You sure you don’t want a pineapple or something?” She asked, as River trotted forward to catch up on the way to the winglet. “Eating something alive is……eyuck,” the rainwing shuddered.

“Well, I happen to like fish! Even better when cooked! I’m not going to make you eat any, though, don't worry. As long as you don't force me to eat any weird fruits!” The seawing said. He set his two fish and spear on the table and pulled the last fish off his spear.

“What….is that?” Qibli asked. “No, I know it's a spear, but…why?” He gave River a ‘what are you doing’ smile, and the seawing just beamed up at him proudly.

“This is a fishing spear! I…uh… haven't learned any regular hunting yet. I kinda stayed in our home in Possibility. Father brought home all the food. He was more focused on teaching me how to read, write, and speak aquatic.” River started slicing the scales off of one of his fish to get to the delicate meat underneath.

“Alright….but the spear?” Qibli asked again. Turtle leaned forward to poke it, giving it a curious look, then giving that same look to River. “How does a spear help you fish?”

“Oh! It's a scavenger thing! See, in the village I was raised in, they made these wooden spears, like this one, and stabbed them into the fish to catch them. Cause scavengers don’t have claws to grab slippery fish!” River pulled the spear closer, showing off the pointed tips. “It's long so they can fish from the riverbank without scaring the fish, and the points like this help them catch and hold the fish! They used to come back with baskets full of fish every day!” River couldn’t stop the words of excitement, getting to tell his friends something they didn’t know. It made him feel pleased to be the knowledgeable one for once. “Would any of you like a fish?”

River pushed the two other fish to the center of the table. Umber grabbed one happily. “I would love a scavenger caught fish! Actually, any fish is good! But cool method!” Across the table, Moon shook here head as she had a goat she was taking pieces off of, and Kinkajou was trying to ignore it. Qibli himself had a leg from that goat.

“No thanks from me! Fish and I do nooooot agree!” Qibli said with a small shudder. “But if you make any scavenger lizard spears, let me know!”

“I……can’t say those don’t exist…” pondered River, before shrugging it off. “How about you, Turtle? Would you like a fish?” He pushed it closer to the other seawing. Maybe he could build some goodwill before the ‘talk’ with his possible brother.

“Actually… how about I show you how to catch some seawing style?” Turtle said with a small smile. “We have plenty of time, and there's a good place I know of where no one will see you flounder about,” He said. “I mean. I am your older brother. It’s only right I show you the ropes!”

That was a little too eager. River wondered if he had messed up already. Or maybe Turtle was actually trying to be a brother? The seawing wasn’t sure at all. He looked up at Qibli for some assurance and saw the sandwing looking back with a little worry.

Oh…maybe the talk was happening a bit earlier now.

“Leave the spear. You won't need it for this!” Turtle said cheerfully, getting up.

River gulped a bit, took a deep breath, and got up as well. “Qibli, can you bring the spear to our cave? I wanna show Winter later! I think he’d enjoy it…. Maybe I should’ve offered him a fish too….”

“How about you offer him one you catch yourself?” Turtle chimed, wrapping his wing around River to lead him out of the cave. River said a quick goodbye to everyone from around the wing before letting Turtle drive him down a long, winding path in the caves. The smell of fresh water started to fill the air, along with the sound of drips and drops of water. An underground lake?

“Turtle?” River asked, wanting to get this over with.

“Wait until we get there.” The friendliness was a thin mask over the tension in Turtle’s voice. He didn’t look at River once as they walked side by side, Turtle’s wing spread to prevent the smaller seawing from backing out.

The there that Turtle was talking about really was a large underground lake. An opening in the ceiling let the sun shine down into the clear water. There were few fish in it, and there were variations of water plants along the bottom, as well as a few poking through the surface. This place would be a beautiful area to swim.

Turtle led him into the cave, next to the water, before turning around and facing River. There was a stern, worried look on his face.

“Alright. Who are you? No, no, more importantly, are you here to hurt Anemone?” The larger seawing said. He crouched a bit, wings spread, as if he was ready to pounce, but his face looked like he wanted to do anything but.

“What? Hurt.. Anemone? Why would I ever do that?” River asked, honestly, not expecting this.

“For one, there has been no missing prince egg since I’ve been alive. And definitely not one your age.” Turtle said, sitting up a bit, but his wings visibly relaxed, once again tucked behind him. “And for another, you’re an animus.”

“Oooooh… How… what? What makes you think I’m an animus?”

“Alright, that question first. I’m a true seawing prince. Animus magic has been in our family for generations, so I have access to a lot of our artifacts. There’s a … wrongness with every enchanted item. You can feel it if you know what to look for. That spear was enchanted. I don’t know with what, but it was. And...so are you.”

River gulped audibly, crouching a bit lower. “I swear I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just want to learn more about other dragons!”

“That I can believe,” sighed Turtle. His head drooped a bit. “Which is good, cause I reaaaaally don’t want to try to play a hero and stop a big bad assassin. But mother said I had to protect Anemone if I came here, so… here we are. If you’re not an animus, how did you enchant that spear? That was a new enchantment, not an old one.” Turtle tucked his legs underneath him, lying down, clearly assuming the danger had passed.

“Oh, um… I’m… not supposed to tell anyone.” Turtle raised an eye ridge, as if saying, ‘can you afford not to right now?’. “Okay… Don’t… don’t tell anyone. Please. About anything you hear down here. Tsunami knows, I promise, I just… want to make friends, okay?”

River tugged his pouch off, pulling out his quill and ink. Then he wrote on a stone, sounding out every word. “Enchant this stone to fly to Turtle, and land in front of him.” The words were a little messy and squished on the stone, but they blazed golden, and then a moment later, the stone flew the short distance between the two dragons, landing directly in front of the larger seawing.

“This quill lets me enchant objects. It only works on objects, not dragons or animals. And only what I write on directly. Father gave it to me before coming here, just in case of... emergencies.” River put the quill and ink back into his bag as Turtle studied the stone.

“Such as… a fishing spear?” Turtle inquired in a tone that was very clearly not impressed.

“I wanted to show Qibli I could fish right, and Winter a cool scavenger thing! And…maybe get you to like me too…” River ducked his head. “I think that last one backfired.”

“At least that means your soul isn’t in trouble…” the dragonet mumbled to himself. More of Turtle’s anxiety seemed to melt off his muzzle. “If it doesn’t work on dragons, how do you have those?” Turtle motioned to River’s wings. Specifically, the royal swirls on them.

The smaller seawing held out his talon with the silver bracelet. “Im… not… really royalty…” Turtle rolled his eyes in an ‘obviously’ motion. “Father added an enchantment to my bracelet when he met me. He said that these would help me if I ever end up in trouble. And it also disguises me from the bad dragons. Though… I wasn’t supposed to show them to anyone in the royal family. That kinda went out the window, though. I don’t think Father knew about Tsunami or Anemone joining the school. And Tsunami didn’t know about you, so that's why…you didn’t know about me.”

“Until now…” Turtle said, relief in his eyes. “I’m trying to figure out what character you are in this, and right now you seem like the unlucky dragonet… But you don’t seem dangerous at least. So I can go back to not being a hero.” He paused for a moment. “One more question, though. You said he added an enchantment. So your bracelet was enchanted before?”

“Umm….yes, a bit?”

“Well?” Turtle continues, moving his talon in a circle. “Go on?”

“Fireproof scales. Can’t be stolen,” River started.

“Anything else?”

“...”

“I won’t tell anyone if it's not dangerous.”

“I’m…not a seawing…” River said quietly.

“So the enchantment changes your tribe? That’s….but why? Didn’t want to be a nightwing?”

“Not…exaaaactly.”

“Sandwing? Icewing? Skywing?” River couldn’t help but shudder at that last one.

“Um…. Don’t…tell anyone. Not Tsunami, not Sunny, not Winter. Especially Winter. Never tell Winter. Or Qibli, I don’t want them to hate me. I don’t…. I don’t like who I was. As far as I’m concerned...this is me. If you want, I’ll take off the royal symbols; we can just say it was painted on or something. Just please….don’t take away…myself…” River was almost tearing up.”

Turtle sat up and walked closer, putting a wing around River. “I won’t tell anyone. I don’t want the attention. Trust me. Anemone can have all of that.” He rolled his eyes again, in a more friendly way. “Just tell me. You don’t have to show if you hate it. Promise.”

“Human.”

“A what?” Turtle blanked. His wing pulled back in confusion.

“Um… you call us…. scavengers.”

Turtle paused for a moment. Then opened his muzzle to speak, only to let it fall shut again. He paced around, three steps to the left, three steps to the right, and back again. Muttering under his breath, as if making calculations.

“Three moons! How…. did a scavenger. How did you get that?” Turtle finally sputtered out, all pretense of a tough guy gone, now just genuine curiosity.

“Really really good luck. Followed by really bad luck.” The small dragonet shrugged, his wings drooping a bit.

“That's how you don’t know how to fish. And why your father kept you home... Wait, does he know?”

“Well, of course! He enchanted it for me. He wanted me to be a seawing like him.” River nodded, twiddling his claws with anxiety. This was baaad, no one was supposed to find out, and now a prince of the seawings he was supposed to pose as knows it's fake. “Please don’t tell anyone! I’ll remove the markings! I swear!”

Turtle stopped pacing, then tilted his head at River. “You don’t have to do that.” He walked back over to River. “I just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t hurt anyone, or your soul. I don’t mind if you’re a dragon, scavenger, or fish, for that matter. You’re you right now. And probably the most interesting brother I have now.”

“Um… thanks? Wait. Brother?”

“Welcome to the family, I guess? I’ll help cover you, don’t worry. But in exchange…” Turtle grinned at River in a much more friendly way than ever before. “I want to know all of your scavenger secrets.”

“Get in line! I already have Winter making me list all of the foods we eat!” River said, flopping on his back, wings splayed. Now that the hard part of the conversation was over, he was just exhausted.

“You’re going to just lie down? Don’t you want to learn how to fish like a seawing?” Turtle teased, poking River’s stomach with a claw, causing the smaller seawing to curl up and giggle a bit.

“You weren’t joking about that?”

“Not anymore! It’s a big brother’s duty to make sure his younger brother can eat!” He said with a wink. “But you’ll have to catch me fish every day. Not with your fancy spear either! With your own webbed talons!” Turtle walked over to the water’s edge, flicking his tail to beckon the smaller dragon. River rolled to his belly and darted over, ready for his first lesson.

“Alright! But no mean nicknames! I have Winter and Qibli for that.” River said, nudging the larger dragonet.

“You drive a hard bargain. But I think we got a deal.” Turtle dove into the water, popping his head up a second later. “Better get in before I change my mind!”

River dove into the water. Swimming for the first time in this form. It felt right. Like he was meant for the water, which made sense given he was a seawing. His webbed talons propelled him forward. His smooth scales slid through the water easily. His gills opened for the first time, and he breathed fresh water for the first time. It felt wonderful! Nobody hated him right now. Turtle didn’t judge him. Winter was listening to his advice. Qibli wanted to protect him.

If you have the power to protect someone, you should use it. Qibli’s words echoed in River’s mind.

Turtle was protecting his sister. Winter was protecting Bandit. Qibli was protecting him. But who was River protecting…

The flashing below him alerted him to Turtle trying to tell him something. Fishing yes! Learning to fish first!

Neither of the new brothers noticed the obsidian eyes watching from the shadows, or the sound of talonsteps along stone, as the smiling sandy yellow-gold figure disappeared into the tunnels.

Chapter Text

River lay on the ground of Turtle and Umber’s cave. A quill in one talon, and a half-filled scroll in front of him. This quill was a hawk's feather, instead of his special eagle one. Not decorated at all, and just used for writing. He hadn’t quite gotten used to writing with his claws yet and kept tearing his scrolls when he tried. He idly tapped the quil to his muzzle as he thought.

Across from him, lying on his back with wings splayed and horns almost poking River’s scroll, was Umber. He was idly sketching on a slate while humming ‘the dragonets are coming’ to himself. The sketch was starting to look a lot like a certain clawmate of River’s. Off to the side, lying in a shaft of sunshine, was Turtle. Eyes closed and relaxing near the window.

River had asked if he could work on his project in Umber and Turtle’s cave as soon as Qibli and Winter started bickering. He didn’t mind their daily taunts and teases at each other, but it did sometimes make it difficult to focus on homework, so spending afternoons here was becoming more common in the past few weeks.

“Hey, Umber? If you could have a superpower, what would it be?” River asked. Turtle opened one eye, giving his younger brother a withering look. The smaller seawing gave him a reassuring smile, combined with an eyeroll. “I'm working on Starflight’s creative writing assignment. I was writing about a bunch of dragonets getting superpowers, but I couldn’t think of what to give the mudwing.”

Umber stopped humming, laying his slate on his chest to think. “Hm… Maybe super strength. Being able to lift a mountain would be kinda cool. No one expects the little guy to be that strong, right?” He rolled over onto his belly, peering down at the scroll. River immediately covered it with his talons, trying to hide his work.

“Hey! It's not ready yet!” the smaller seawing complained as Umber tried to pry his arm out of the way. Turtle let out a small sigh before getting up with a long stretch and trotting over. He easily rolled River over and snatched the scroll up.

“Let's see what you’ve got here. Hmm, not bad. Maybe a bit on the nose with some of your themes… Did you really write me as the hapless sidekick?” Turtle asked as he looked over the scroll, giving River a look that said ‘Really?’. “I would suggest waiting to have Umber get his ‘super strength’ until right when your ‘Jade Force’ needs it most. Maybe when they’re all captured.”

“I’m the mudwing? Cool!” Umber grinned, pouncing on River, pinning him down. “Guess that means I'm too strong for you to escape now!”

“Aaaaah! You weren’t supposed to know! It was just for the project!” River wailed, trying to wriggle out from under the small mudwing.

“You know we’re supposed to read these out in front of the class, right?” Turtle said with a grin, setting the scroll back down. “I think it’s really sweet that you wanted to write about your friends! Might I suggest giving your ‘hapless sidekick’ a cool power, though? Maybe something like… invincible scales?”

“WE HAVE TO READ IT OUT LOUD?! Umber! Burn it! Burn it to ashes! I need to start over!”

“Nope! I have super strength, not fire breath. Sorry. You’re stuck with it!” The smaller mudwing said, poking River on the snout, before rolling off of him, and grabbing his slate back up.

“I'm going to be so embarrassed…” River buried his muzzle into his front talons. “Starflight was supposed to be the shy one. Why is he making us do this!” The seawing rolled back over to his scroll with a grumble, making Turtle laugh.

“It's good for you. You’ll develop more confidence.” Turtle nudged his little brother lightly. “And if you screw up. Well, you’ll learn not to screw up next time.”

“What’s your story about?” Umber asked, adding a scar on the muzzle of his sketched dragon.

“A little scavenger that can talk to dragons. Offers them fish in exchange for not being eaten.” Turtle said with a grin at River. River rolled his eyes and whacked Turtle on the side with his wing.

“Okay, enough teasing me. Umber’s turn! So… you and Qibli?” said River, leaning forward to look at the sketch. Umber immediately pulled the slate to his chest to hide the drawing.

“What! What are you talking about! N-no! This could be anyone!” He said much too defensively. Oh. River could use this.

“Oh, really? That's too bad. He was just telling me the other night how he wished he had a cute lil mudwing to wrap in his wings.” River teased, poking at Umber now with a talon. Umber started blushing a bright orange.

“Really? I mean uh. That's nice!”

Turtle raised an eyerigde at River, shaking his head with a smile. “Don’t you also sleep under his wing every night? You were telling me how warm it was all the time.”

“EVERY NIGHT?!” Umber lost all pretense of hiding his crush. “That's not fair! Can we trade Clawmates? You can have Turtle! I want to sleep under Qibli’s wing!” The little mudwing had jumped up so eagerly, River couldn’t help but laugh.

“You really want to sleep in a cave with Winter?” the smaller seawing asked cheekily.

“Qibli can come to this cave! Turtle can go to yours!”

“I am not sleeping in the cave with ‘Queen Glacier's Nephew.’” Turtle interjected, using the same haughty tone Winter used when defending his title. All three dragonets broke down laughing, falling onto their backs next to each other.

“He’s really not that bad, though. You should see how he takes care of Bandit.” River started, looking over at Umber. “And when he gets excited about something, he’s like a whole new dragon. Our scavenger talks can go for hours, and he takes meticulous notes! And he’s surprisingly gentle. When I have nightmares, he wakes me up when Qibli can’t. Even though he said he never would.”

“Sounds like you have a crush on the prince then,” Umber said cheekily.

“What?! No. No, I don’t have feelings for him!” River said matter-of-factly. “I just see how different he can be, compared to what he shows!”

Do I have feelings for Winter? Surely not. At least… I think not?

“You liiiiiike him!” Umber giggled, getting whapped by River.

“Three moons! We were supposed to be teasing you, not me!”

“Then stop making it so easy!” Turtle broke in, leaning up to grin at them both.

“ANYWAYS!” River sat up, trying to hide the deep blue blush in his scales. “Actually, having a sleepover could be fun. A great way for us all to bond! And Umber can sleep under Qibli’s wing!”

“And you can sleep under Winter’s!”

“Shush, you!” River pounced on the mudwing, returning the favor for the earlier pin. “It would probably have to be in your cave, or Moon, Kinkajou, and Carnelian’s cave. Bandit’s cage takes up too much room in ours.”

Turtle thought for a moment. “Or…. we can camp out at the underground lake.” River’s eyes widened. That would be the perfect place for all of them! Enough room to fit the whole winglet.

“We can all bring food and games! We can get to know each other more! We can have soooo much fun!”

Umber knocked River off of him and rolled back to his belly. “I'm not sure we can convince Carnelian to join, but Moon and Kinkajou would probably love it.” He placed a talon on River’s stomach, once again pinning the seawing.

“Ooof! Qibli would be up for it. And he can convince Winter. Maybe we can even bring Bandit! He’s become more comfortable with me and Qibli. He’s still a little shy of Winter, but I think that's just cause he’s cold.” River pawed at Umber weakly before lying splayed out in defeat.

“I’ll make sure Tsunami knows what we’re planning, just so she doesn’t think an entire winglet has gone missing. As funny as that would be to see, I’d rather not be a part of the aftermath.” Turtle said with a snicker, sitting up and walking to the doorway. “When you two are done, make sure you clean up and let the others know our plans. Tonight at the underground lake!”

“Yes, Turtle!” Both dragonets chimed before breaking out into another fit of giggles. While Umber was technically older, the larger seawing had become the de facto older brother of both smaller dragonets. He was the second oldest in the winglet, as well as the biggest of the jade winglet, so it wasn’t too far out of place. Which meant listening to him when he told them to clean, sadly.

Umber poked River’s snout once more, before letting the seawing up. “Looks like you’re the shrimp tonight!” He said, sticking his tongue out at him. River returned it in kind.

“Oh, hush you! I’ma finish up my story first, then I can let Qibli and Winter know. Unless you’d rath-”

“Yes!” interrupted Umber, almost dashing out of the cave. River couldn’t help but snicker again. He didn’t know who Qibli had eyes for, but he was sure Umber had a chance. And if he could help it along, he was happy to. Maybe he would let Umber sleep next to Qibli tonight. Maybe.

And River could try sleeping near Winter. The thought brought a blush to his face, so he shook his muzzle to clear his head.

River turned back to his super-powered dragonet story, with a new sinister idea in mind for his super strength mudwing and his dashing protector of a sandwing.

Chapter Text

As was predicted, Carnelian wanted no part of the underground lake camping trip. Winter was able to be convinced, and Kinkajou all but dragged Moon into accepting as well. Luckily for River, Umber, and Turtle’s plans, Sunny heard about the idea and loved the plan.

“This is exactly the kind of bonding we want between the tribes! I approve! As long as you can get to your classes in the morning and don’t cause any trouble!” She had said. This meant Tsunami had enforced Carnelian to go with the rest of the Jade Winglet.

Right now, River and Turtle were trying to set up the cave for everyone. Moving rocks out of the way, cleaning up any debris, and setting up beds. River had tried to pull his special quill out several times, but Turtle wouldn’t let him use it.

“Not even for just one thing?” the smaller seawing asked. He was pushing some of the smaller stones into the lake to keep them out of the way.

“Is there a point to using magic when you can do it yourself? We still don’t know if that quill has any repercussions.” Turtle shook his head before River could speak. “I know you have been using it for the past year, but I don’t know its origin, so it's better if we do what your father said and only use it for emergencies.”

River crossed his talons in a very scavenger-like way. “I wasn’t going to use it to clean up! Just… add some nice things for our winglet.”

“Why don’t you try to find a way to do that yourself? In a way that won’t make everyone suspicious of magic being involved.” The bigger seawing had tied some vines over the cave entrance, making a makeshift doorway that would hopefully muffle some of the sounds of fun. Or angry shouting from a certain skywing and icewing.

“Hmm…. I could try. But where would I find snow around here?” River pondered for a bit.

“Snow. You wanted to make snow with magic? That is the most in-the-face use of magic I’ve heard of!” Turtle placed his talons on his muzzle, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Why would you need snow?”

River twiddled his talons a bit, not looking Turtle in the eye. “I thought maybe Winter would enjoy it?”

Turtle sighed, walking over to poke River on the head, making the smaller seawing cry out indignantly. “You really do like him.” He said in an almost exhausted manner. “But that's no reason to make it snow in a cave. How about this? If you can’t find any snow on the peaks of Jade Mountain, I’ll help you come up with something…less conspicuous. Okay?”

“I don’t like him like that!” River tried to interject.

“River? No magic until you look for the snow.”

“Okaaaaaaay. Well, while I’m trying to get that. Could you get a stone bowl and some firewood? I wanted to try to make some scavenger meals for everyone.” River stopped for a moment. “Maybe two bowls. Kinkajou wouldn’t want anything with meat in it.”

“You’re really going all out for this, huh? It’s just one night, you know?” Turtle bumped River on the shoulder lightly with his wing. River bumped him back.

“Of course, I want to go all out. You guys are my friends!” Turtle made a face of mock hurt.

“I thought we were family! Reduced to just a friend?” Turtle broke off into a laugh when River pounced on the bigger dragonet, hugging him in his wings as best he could.

“Don’t try to make Qibli jokes; it doesn’t work for you,” River said with a smile. “Besiiiiides. My brother can still be my friend.” Turtle wrapped his wings around River, hugging him back. “You are the best brother I’ve ever had.”

“Oh? How many brothers did you have before?”

“None! But that makes you the best!” River said with a smile, before breaking away, looking up at the hole in the roof. The sky was starting to turn a darker blue above. Which meant they only had maybe an hour before sunset, and the others would come. “I’d better go look for that snow. Or else we won't have time to enchant something when I get back!” River took off, flying towards the hole.

“That’s only if you DON’T find any! River!” Turtle sighed with a smile as the smaller dragon flew out of the ceiling towards the peaks.

Sadly, or rather luckily, for River, it was the warm season. Snow was a rarity, even on the tallest peaks in Pyrriah. It didn’t take him long to fly back, just in time for Turtle to return with a pair of large stone bowls, a few smaller bowls, and a pile of wood tucked underneath one wing.

“No snow? For real? You actually looked?” Turtle asked, setting everything down carefully. “Not just trying to use your magic quil?”

“I reaaaaally looked, but there was no snow! You can check for yourself!” River said, running over to a flat slab of rock a bit further from the lake. He pulled out his quill and ink and looked up at Turtle pleadingly. The older seawing rolled his eyes, but walked over.

“Alright, what are you trying to do?”

“Winter is always complaining about how warm the stone is where he sleeps, so I was gonna try to cool it off. It's kind of a test run to see if I can cool off his sleeping stone slowly while he’s not paying attention.” Turtle thought about that for a moment, trying and failing to hide his smile.

“You got it baaaaad little bro.”

“Do not!”

“Well. How about this? Enchant this stone to be cold enough to be comfortable for an icewing until the sun rises. That way, your boyfriend doesn’t think it's weird when the sun comes up, and he’ll have a comfortable sleep.” Turtle traced a circle around the stone with his claw, about the size of a dragonet.

“Not my boyfriend!”

“Yet.”

“I swear I will enchant a pebble to always end up in your bed when you try to sleep,” River said, glaring up at Turtle.

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop,” he said in a tone that clearly meant he wasn’t going to stop for long. River gave him one more withering look before starting to write the enchantment down. The words blazed golden, before fading away.

Turtle placed a talon on the stone and pulled away quickly. “Yep, that worked. It's as chilly as Winter.”

“Perfect! And now to prepare the meals!” River trailed off a bit, looking at the firewood. Then his quill. Then up at Turtle, who was already shaking his head. River grumbled and put his quill away. “Alright, I’ll wait till the others get here to start the fire.”

“Then while we wait…” Turtle said with a small grin, pushing River towards the lake. “How about you catch a fish for your frosty prince?”

River did manage to catch a single fish by the time the others started arriving. Though instead of saving it for Winter as Turtle had teased, he set it in a pile with other foods. River had grabbed a few veggies and meats for the scavenger-style stew he wanted to make, and piled them by the unlit fire.

Not long after, though, Umber made his way into the cave with his sleeping mat and a box that supposedly had a game of marbles. Umber was glad to light the fire so River could start cooking his stew.

Kinkajou had dragged Moon in soon after, with Carnelian following behind.

“I'm so excited! I’ve never had a sleepover before! Well, unless you count when we would swap hammocks in the rainforest, but I don’t count that. So yep! Never before! Ooooh, what are you making! It smells like meat! Is it for everyone but me, cause that's not fair!” Kinkajou chattered on while Moon grimaced behind her. Carnelian went off to the edge of the cave and lay down with a snort.

“Shut up already! It’s impossible to think with you rambling like that.” She growled out. Kinkajou just stuck her tongue out at the skywing.

“Seriously, though, is there any edible food? You did think of me, right?” She asked, swapping between green for anxiety and orange for excitement.

“Yes! I made sure to have a no-meat stew just for you!” River said, stirring the food in one of the bowls with a shaved stick. Both sat in the fire, one with chunks of potatoes and carrots inside, and the other, which also included meat.

Moon smiled shyly at River. “Thank you, River. And you, Turtle and Umber. This whole thing is very…thoughtful.” She turned to look at Carnelian. “Don’t worry. I’m sure she’ll come around.”

“I hope so. Now we just need Winter and Qibli…” River started to say, before the familiar bright sandy yellow of his clawmate pushed through the vines.

“Did somebody say my name?” Qibli asked. He was holding a drum from the music room as he walked in. Winter was not far behind, holding Bandit’s cage. Qibli set down the drum with a smile, coming over to the fire.

“For your information. He did make us wait until someone said his name.” Winter huffed, setting Bandit’s cage down near the fire and cooking food. The scavenger was awake and looking around. Not anywhere near as scared as the first time they all met.

“I thought our Prince needed a dramatic entrance!” joked Qibli, getting a whap from Winter’s tail. “Okay, I get it! Well, I brought us some music so we can sing campfire songs or whatever it is we do here. What is that?” The sandwing pointed at the cooking bowls.

“This is a scavenger-style stew! They would mix vegetables with their meats in a broth made by soaking bones in the water. I figured Bandit might enjoy something less seared. And I used cow meat to make sure no one has a problem with it! Don’t worry, scaredy scales, no fish were cooked in this meal.” River said pointedly at Qibli. Winter couldn’t help but snort out a laugh at that as the sandwing looked offended for a moment, before his muzzle turned into a grin again.

“I see some of my wit is rubbing off on you.”

Winter stepped closer, staying back from the fire, but trying to peer into the stew. “So scavengers are smart enough to come up with a complex dish like this?” He seemed to ponder a bit before pulling a slate out of his pouch, scratching some notes onto it.

“I keep telling you, scavengers can be as smart as dragons!”

“I just find it hard to believe. Bandit never shows any of this creativity or intelligence.” Winter looked over at his pet, who was reaching through the cage bars to rub Kinkajou’s snout.

“Neither does Coconut,” River said bluntly. He took one of the smaller bowls and dipped it in the stew before handing it to Qibli and then another to Winter. “Here! Go ahead and try some! It should be good enough to eat now!”

River started pouring out some more bowls for everyone else, grinning happily as Winter took a sip, then downed the hole thing. The icewing then immediately started taking notes on his slate again. “Hey, Umber? Can you give this bowl to Carnelian? Then we can try that marble game you got,” he passed a bowl to the mudwing, before filling a much smaller bowl, and walking over to Bandit’s cage. “I know you’ve been smelling this. Hope you enjoy Bandit!” The seawing passed it through the bars with a smile that was probably more toothy than it should have been.

Luckily, the scavenger was used to this by now and eagerly took the bowl, patting River’s talon lightly and giving a few squeaks of presumed thanks.

“So how do we play your marbles thing?” Kinkajou asked Umber as he started setting up a circle on the stone floor.

“Well, you’re supposed to use the big marbles to push the smaller marbles out of the circle. The one who gets the most wins! You just flick 'em around!” Umber said as he poured out his pile of marbles, one bouncing over to Qibli. The sandwing picked it up with a smirk and flicked it at the pile, sending one marble flying into Winter’s side.

Winter let out a small yelp, eyeing the marble, before throwing it back at Qibli, the yellow dragon laughing as it bounced off his muzzle. “Keep that to yourself, sandsnorter! You’re not supposed to HIT your opponents!”

Moon looked over at Carnelian, who was lying away from the group, watching the dragonets with a wary gaze. The nightwing tilted her head as if listening to something, then smiled, before whispering in Qibli’s ear. The sandwing tilted his head in return, then returned the grin, picking up another marble. “I think a change in the rules would be a bit more….entertaining, don’t you, Umber?” he winked at the little mudwing, who nodded vigorously.

“Wait. What change?” Umber asked when he finally realized what was said.

“This.” Qibli flicked the marble, shooting another marble out of the ring, right onto Carnelian’s snout. The skywing shot up, glaring at Qibli, and snatching the marble out of the air as it bounced off her nose.

“Oh, you got it coming now dunesniffer!” She growled, flicking the marble back. It bounced off another marble in the circle, shooting right into Qibli’s forehead. Qibli fell back dramatically, landing with his wings splayed and tongue hanging out. “I am a member of Queen Ruby’s army. Something like marble shooting is child’s play. Literally.”

“I’ve been bested by General Carnelian! Oh, what an honor!” Qibli joked, before sitting up. And immediately getting beaned in the back of the head by another marble, this one coming from a giggling Kinkajou.

“Everyone against Qibli then?” Kinkajou asked, with a snicker, shifting into a competitive purple colour, with smatterings of orange and yellow.

“Now this I can get behind,” Winter said, picking up a marble with a toothy grin of his own. He tosses it into the air before smacking it with his tail, sending it flying towards Qibli. The sandwing ducked as the marble soared right into Kinkajou. She let out a slight yelp before vanishing instantly.

“Oh no! Kinkajou wai-” Moon started to say, before three marbles dropped on Winter’s head from above, seemingly out of nowhere. Then Kinkajou reappeared, laughing loudly as Winter rubbed his head.

“I don’t think this is how we play marbles…” Turtle cut in, only to have a marble lobbed at him by Umber. Turtle blocked it with a wing. “Guess I’m outvoted then. I tried peace.” The seawing then grinned, throwing a handful of marbles at the group. Yelps and shouts were heard as wings were pulled up to block the rain of marbles.

“Marble Fight!!!!” River shouted loudly, grinning wildly as he grabbed marbles from the floor and threw them at Umber.

Marbles were sent flying in every direction. Yelps of pain and triumph as dragonets threw the glass balls at each other. Bandit hid under his pillows as marbles pinged off his cage bars, only peeking out to toss a marble or two out of his cage at close by dragons. Even Moon ended up joining in, laughing and smiling brighter than River had ever seen, dunking a handful of marbles over Kinkajou’s head. Qibli and Carnelian were having a standoff, deadly accurate marbles flying between them, with Winter chucking what he could at the sandwing. River ended up hiding from Umber, using Turtle as a shield, much to the older seawing’s chagrin. This plan did end up backfiring when Turtle held River still so Umber could get a few good shots in and run away laughing as the two seawings scrambled to pick up more marbles.

It took until the fire had dwindled to a small flame before the dragonets had collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. Small bruises from marbles ached, but the fun was more than worth it.

“Alright, I’ll admit. You’re a good shot, dunesniffer.”

“You too, General.”

“Ow ow. That was AWESOME. Ow. ow. Let's do it AGAIN! Ow.”

“Maybe another night, if we can camp again, Kinkajou. Maybe with something softer though…”

“Bandit! You’ve been hoarding the marbles! You could’ve helped me beat that sandwing! Ow! Hey! The game is over!”

“Ooof. Picking up all my marbles is gonna be work….for tomorrow.”

“River and I can help search the lake, don’t worry.”

River looked over his friends, splayed in various positions on the cave ground. Winter had his wing up, blocking marbles from the smiling scavenger who didn’t quite understand the game was over, or maybe he did and was taking advantage of it. Umber was lying as close as he could get to Qibli. The sandwing himself was sitting up, grinning at Carnelian, who was surprisingly grinning back. Moon and Kinkajou were back to back, smiling. With Kinkajou now switching between small bits of white and large amounts of pink and yellow.

“Time to relax a bit, sit down, all of you!” Qibli said as he stood up, pulling his drum close.

“We’re already sitting!” Winter said with a snort. He went to walk over before finally stepping on the enchanted slab. “Oh? Ooooh.” He settled on the chilled rock, tucking his limbs in. “Cold pocket over here if anyone wants to know,” the icewing called out. Turtle and River gave each other a knowing look before Turtle pushed him forward with his tail.

“Go sit by him!” the older seawing hissed.

River gulped before slowly walking forward, sitting close to the icewing. Winter gave him a look before he shrugged his wings and lay his head on the ground. Umber sat as close to Qibli as he could, while Turtle settled nearby. The rainwing and nightwing finally crawled their way over.

“Do you have any good songs?” Winter asked.

“Hmm… Not really for just the drum. Could do the Desert Chant. But that one's short and simple,” the sandwing set his drum in his lap.

Tap, tap, boom. Tap, boomboom. Tap, tap, boom. Tap boomboom.

The sandwing set up the steady, practiced rhythm easily, before he started to sing.

“Desert Winds. Schorching sand.” His voice echoed through the cavern with the drum beats.

“Burning sun across our land.”

“Life is tough. But still we stand.”

“In our Kingdom of the Sand.” He finished, continuing the beat for a bit. “That's about it. Normally, we’d chant it a bit more and get louder, but I figured you’d all get bored listening to my voice.” He smiled.

“I wouldn’t get bored!” Umber spoke up, then he shivered happily as Qibli wrapped a wing around him. River had to hold his talons over his muzzle to stop the giggles, getting a weird look from Winter.

“Anyone else got a song for drums?”

No one spoke up for a bit before Umber offered up a song. “I know one we all probably know. Except maybe Kinkajou and Moon.”

“Hey! I know….songs!”

“Not a slight on you. You weren’t part of the war, right? Its a song everyone who was would know.” Umber said, smiling apologetically to Kinkajou.

“The dragonet song?” River asked thoughtfully. “Even I know that one.”

“I know that song!” Kinkajou shouted out. “Deathbringer would sing it to annoy Queen Glory when he was being especially...flirty.”

“Oh, that song!” exclaimed Moon, finally understanding. “I’ve heard that song so much in the village of the nightwings. Anytime they are feeling sad, really. It's a song of hope.”

“Then that's a good song for us! The war may be over, but the path to peace is hard. It's a song for hope of new peace for all the tribes!” added River, nodding to himself before getting thapped by Winter’s wing. “Hey!”

“That was incredibly sappy.”

“But also true!” Qibli said, starting up the familiar beat.

“Oh, the dragonets are coming.” Qibli started out. Umber added his own voice to the next line.

“They’re coming to save the day!”

Moon and Kinkajou joined in on the next verse.

“They’re coming to fight.”

Carnelian shouted out the next verse, surprising River.

“For they know what's right!”

Turtle shrugged and finally added his voice to the song.

“The dragonets, Hurray!”

This was the song to end the war. The song for every tribe. A song of hope and faith in the dragonets of Destiny. The owners of the school that brought them all together. River couldn’t help but smile, looking over at Winter. Watching over his friends. He felt a cool wing cover his shoulders, making him shiver, not from the cold, but from the fact that it was Winter. The icewing wasn’t looking at him, only forward, but he still tucked River closer. And as the song began again, Winter joined in, followed closely by River.

“Oh, the dragonets are coming,
They’re coming to save the day!”
They’re coming to fight,
For they know what's right!”
The dragonets, Hurray!”

The song echoed across the cave. The smiles of his friends burned into his memories. The cold wing around him. Not an uncomfortable cold, but like a nice breeze on a too-warm day. A cool bed after a long workout. River leaned into the icewing as the song started again. Winter gasped softly, but made no move to stop the smaller seawing.

Bandit squeaked in tune with the song. Qibli’s drumbeats; perfect and concise. Umber nestled into the sandwing's wing. Turtle tried his best to add his voice, but was overpowered by Carnelian’s next to him. Kinkajou shouted the lyrics more than sang them, and Moon’s voice was more like a soft echo of the song after each verse. All with Winter’s deep hum of a singing voice, resonating with River’s higher voice.

This night was the best night River ever had. And also, the last night the Jade winglet was all together, ever again.

Chapter Text

The morning after the get-together at the underground lake, Winter and River were sitting in their cave. After the cleanup, Winter decided to see if Bandit was smart enough to learn how to read. If so, it would make huge leaps and bounds in the understanding of scavengers. If only he knew.

Bandit was sitting in front of River with an old dragonet’s alphabet scroll for new learners. Winter was sounding out each letter for Bandit. It took a bit for him to understand, but then he started sounding them out as well. It was a bit off-key. And he was missing some of the tones of the growls, but he was getting there. River couldn’t have been more proud of the shock on Winter’s face.

Winter now had his own name spelled out and was trying to get Bandit to say it when screams of fear started coming from the hallways.

“She’s going to kill us all!”

“It’s Queen Scarlet’s monster!”

Queen Scarlet? She was supposed to be gone now! Who was her monster? It couldn’t be him if they said she. River grabbed his pouch with the quil, glancing over at Winter, the icewing gently shooing Bandit into his cage.

“I say we see what's going on. I’m not letting HER into my school.” Winter growled out.

“Her? You know them?”

“Queen Scarlet’s monster. That could only be the firescales. She killed hundreds of dragons in that god forsaken arena!” spat Winter. He started rushing out the door, pushing through the crowd of students, with River close behind.

In the arena? Was that the third dragon father said to hide from? The champion? Well, this would be a good chance to see if the spell actually disguises him enough. And with his fireproof scales, maybe he’ll be able to help. Firescales, what was that? Everyone else seemed very scared.

If you have the power to protect someone, you should use it.

Winter broke through the last of the crowd, rushing to the prey center cave, River tailing behind. In the cave, Moon, Qibli, and Sora were already there, sitting by the entrance, while Clay and Tsunami were welcoming a bright orange dragon with smoking scales. As if her entire body was on fire.

A skywing, of course. She is Queen Scarlet’s Monster after all.

The skywing turned to look at the dragonets, as Winter bristled, his neck spines flaring up, and he stiffly walked forward. But River hardly noticed that. The face. Those eyes. The burning blue eyes.

It’s not him. It’s not him. She looks so alike. But it’s not him. It’s not h-

The familiar warmth of Qibli’s wing wrapped around River again, followed closely by Moon’s wing. “Are you okay? Do you know her?” Moon asked kindly. Her head was scrunched, as if she had another headache. She seemed to get those a lot. “You were starting to panic.”

“I’m fine.” River let out a deep breath as the smoking dragon turned to look at Winter. “It’s not him. It’s…not him.” Qibli gave him a confused look, tilting his head. Moon simply nodded, but wrapped her wing tighter around the seawing as she looked back at the other four dragons.

Wait, no, it was five now. A second icewing had joined Winter.

“Peril!” Clay’s voice shouted out. “You came! I was starting to worry you wouldn’t!”

“I was trying to find Scarlet.” The smoking dragon, Peril, said.

“I don’t like that she’s still out there,” Tsunami growled.

“I don’t like that she is right here!” Winter’s voice rang out. “She killed hundreds of dragons, and you just want to let her in here with dragonets?!”

Peril seemed to shrink back.

“It was a war, Winter. Many dragons were killed.” Clay said softly.

“For us, it was a war. For her, it was sport.” Winter spat with more venom than a rainwing. This was a new hostility River had never seen. It scared the seawing just a little bit, an Moon removed her wing quickly, holding her head once again.

“I can just go…” Peril started backing away towards the ledge.

“No! Please… Peril, please stay.” Clay pleaded, laying a talon on her shoulder, wincing slightly, but not removing it.

“I will be letting Queen Glacier know of this.” The other icewing growled out. A female, by the sound of it. Was that Winter’s sister? It was hard to tell if that was Icicle from here. River knew she was also at Jade Mountain, but Winter never introduced her.

Oh no. The skywing was coming. Clay was leading Peril towards the entrance. River tried to move, but his limbs felt frozen. It’s not him. Those bright orange scales. If they were just a bit darker, they would be… It’s not him. Those blue eyes. Just a bit paler… It’s not him! But those horns. That muzzle. They look just the same. It’s him!

Clay and Peril were standing awkwardly in front of River now. Moon and Qibli had moved off to the side, trying to let them through. But River, River was completely frozen, staring at Peril.

“You might want to move if you don’t want to end up a burnt corpse,” Peril said flatly. Not in a mean way, just like it was a fact. Clay gave her a withering look.

“What she means is. Can you please let us through? Uh. River? You okay there, bud?”

It’s not him. It’s him! It’s not him! It’s him!

Clay waved a claw in front of River’s muzzle, and River flinched back slightly, but his eyes never left Peril.

“River? You okay? Can you move for them?” Qibli asked softly from the side, worry evident in his voice. Moon moved to touch the seawing, but pulled her claws back as if she was burned.

“He’s panicking. He’s so afraid right now,” she said softly. Qibli looked at her in confusion, then shook his head.

“River. There’s nothing to be scared of. Peril isn’t going to hurt you,” the sandwing said, giving Peril a pointed look. She returned it with an exasperated look of her own.

“Yes, I, the monstrous Peril, will not hurt you if you move!” She said, raising a claw.

It’s him! It’s him! It’s him!
“Peril, I don’t think that was helping much,” Clay started, “But thank you for trying!” he added after her face shifted a bit downcast.

IT’S HIM! IT’S HIM! IT’S HIM! RUN! RUN! RUUUUUN!

River bolted. Faster than he ever moved before. His tail slapped against Peril’s raised talon, and it felt warm! Warmer even than Qibli. He ignored the look of surprise on Peril’s face as she looked at her talon. And the look of dismay on Clay’s face. But he couldn’t ignore the look on Winter’s face. That look of fear, shock, and worry.

Qibli tried to grab River’s leg, to pull him into a hug with his wings, but River dodged out of the sandwing’s grasp, running down the stone hallway.

“I’m sorry about him, Peril. He had a bad run-in with a skywing. It's not just you, I swear.” Clay’s voice was trailing off as he ran.

“He…touched me…” Peril’s faint whisper was the last River heard of them before he was too far away.

Someplace safe! Water! The lake! He can’t burn the lake!

River’s mind was splitting in the panic. He knew that wasn’t him. But he also knew it was him. All he could agree on was heading to the lake. The lake was his safe place. No one could hurt him there.

He dashed through the hall, bowling over a stunned seawing, tripping and falling, muzzle first into the floor.

“R-River?” The seawing tried, but River didn’t stop. Even as he smacked the ground, his legs were already moving, picking him up and running again. Scrabbling on the stone as he tried to find purchase, ignoring the sickly wet feeling of blood dripping down his snout where he impacted the floor.

Finally, he tore through the vine curtain Turtle had so carefully set up the night before, and stumbled-slid into the water. River dove as far down as he could before curling up. Salty tears melted into the lake water, along with a small trail of blood from his nose.

It’s not him. It’s not him. It’s…not…him. So why am I so scared?

River covered his eyes with his talons, trying to stop the tears. How do you even cry underwater? It’s so stupid! This is so stupid! She was just a skywing but… but… She looked so much like him.

Something wrapped around River, causing the seawing to flare his wings out, immediately trying to swim away.

It’s hi-

The grip tightened, not letting him go. Instead, wings came around, covering him softly. Dark green wings, vibrantly flashing a simple message. It’s okay. I’m here.

River whirled around, seeing the worried face of Turtle. And he immediately buried his muzzle into the seawing’s chest, and started bawling his eyes out underwater. Turtle wrapped his arms around the smaller seawing, floating at the bottom of the lake, holding his new younger brother.

It was a long while before River finally looked up, flashing a small ‘Thank you’ to Turtle. Turtle’s eyes showed concern, which was mirrored when he flashed his message.

“What happened?” He asked, using his glowing scales that signified worry.

“I panicked. I'm sorry. She…looked so much like a skywing I knew. A very bad one.” River flashed back. Slowly, as if every word had to be thought out.

“You can’t hide from every skywing just because of one.” Turtle chided.

“I know… I didn’t mean to. I just… panicked. And worse… My tail touched her. In front of Winter, Qibli, Moon, and another icewing.” River flashed with anxiety, just realizing what had happened now that he could think straight.

“And that is bad, why?” Turtle asked, genuinely confused.

“I think she was the dragon from the arena. The one that burns people when they touch her… And I didn’t burn.”

“Ah.” Turtle pulled him into a tighter hug. “Then one secret is out. That’s fine. You’re fireproof. So what. You’re a seawing ‘prince’. You’re allowed an animus-touched bracelet to make you fireproof. Just tell them that if anyone asks. And if that doesn’t satisfy them…. I’ll give them a better reason to believe you.”

“Are you sure?” River flashed sceptically.

“Not at all. But I’ve got your back, okay? You’re my little brother. I can’t let anyone bully answers out of you.”

“Not even Winter?”

Turtle rubbed the back of his neck at that one. “Okay, that one is a maybe. I’ll get Qibli’s help for him. Or Tsunami. Tsunami would be good.”
River couldn’t help but laugh at that. It sounded so weird underwater, but also… perfect. Turtle grinned back.

“There we go. That's a smile. Are you ready to go up again? We do still have class today. Or we can just wait out the entire day here. I don’t mind an excuse to skip history.” Turtle stuck his tongue out at River and gave him a wink.

“You need an excuse?” River teased, before shaking his head. “I want to go to history. It’s my favorite class-”

“Fathom knows why.” Interrupted Turtle, getting a light jab from River.

“And I need to apologize to Peril. If I can make myself…”

“I’ll help if I can. Maybe start with a letter if you need t-”

“Literal flaming dragon,” River said, this time interrupting Turtle.

“I realized it after I said it. We’ll think of something. Come on, I need to copy your notes from yesterday anyway.”

Turtle swam to the surface, followed closely by River. The elder seawing draped a wing over River’s back.

“I swear, I’m the only one in the winglet that actually takes history notes,” River muttered.

“You’re the only one immune to the sleep spell Webs casts every time he talks.” Turtle joked. River smiled up at him, leaning into the seawing.

“Thank you again, Turtle. For being an awesome brother.”

“I don’t know if awesome is the right word. I just feel like I have to make up for my mistakes.” Turtle said softly, looking forward, as if into a memory.

“So… I’m the pity brother?”

“Yes, but you are my favorite pity brother,” Turtle said with a grin.

“How many pity brothers do you have?” River asked, turning an old joke back on the seawing.

“Thirty-two, including you,” he answered cheekily.

A cry of pain from up ahead alerted both seawings. They glanced at each other, with Turtle rolling his eyes, but nodding at River’s worried look. Both rushed towards the sound, stopping in front of the history class. Where they found Moon on the ground, holding her head, Qibli and Winter trying to hold her up, and Kinkajou behind them, turning a green anxious colour. Carnelian was standing off to the side, trying to hide a look of worry.

“Fire! Don’t go in!” Moon shouted as they got closer.

“Fire? Where?” River looked into the room, seeing Bigtail, a nightwing, sitting in the front and looking back at the doorway, and Tamarind, a rainwing, sitting next to a bookshelf in the back. Both dragons looked confused, and very much not on fire.

“Don’t go in! Fire! There’s going to be fire!” Moon cried again before clutching her head in pain.

Wait. Wasn’t there a thing about nightwings having visions? Does that mean…

“I’m fireproof!” River shouted, without thinking. “How long do we have?”

“I don’t- aack! I don’t know! Soon!”

Qibli gave River a look he couldn’t decipher before nodding his head. ‘Go protect them,’ he seemed to say.

“River wai-” Winter started.

But River had already run into the room.

“You guys have to get out. Now!” River said, running over to Bigtail, and trying to shoo the nightwing to his feet.

“What? Why?” the nightwing tried to push back, resisting.

“Just do it, you stupid lizard!” Carnelian shouted from the entrance. She started running over to Tamarin.

“Carnelian! Get out of there!” Qibli’s voice cried as he poked his head around the doorway.

“I’m not letting our stupid princeling go in here al-”

A bright flash of light filled the cave. River had just enough time to wrap his wings around the stunned nightwing before a loud, earsplitting BOOM rattled the cave. His ears stopped working, only hearing a loud ringing. Sharp spikes of pain rippled over his back and wings, and then the orange glow and steady heat of fire. The entire cave was alit with flame and smoke. Bigtail was struggling to his feet, being knocked over by the seawing’s tackle and the explosion. Carnelian and Tamarin were lost in the black clouds filling the room. River just had to focus on the one he could see.

Protect those you have the power to protect.

“Move….it,” River grunted out between gasps of pain. His words sounded muffled, but it seemed to work. Bigtail moved forward slowly. Burning sensations filled every puncture on his scales, as if he were filled with needles.

Shrapnel from the shelves. He thought. That’s okay, he can still move. Bigtail hissed with every step towards the door, walking on fire. His talons were a raw red, and his tail was scorched, but the rest of him was mostly okay. He was alive. River gave him one final push out the door before collapsing in the doorway. He tried to scramble his way back to his feet when a cold pair of talons pulled him out of the room completely.

“Wait… I need to go back. Carnelian. Tamarin.” River gasped out. He was wet now. Did someone pour water over him? But he doesn’t burn. He tried to struggle up again, but the cold talons held him down.

“River, stop! You’re bleeding all over!” Winter’s voice faded in past the ringing.

“But. Carn-”

“Clay and Peril are looking for them. You saved Bigtail. You…you…you stupid fireproof squidbrain!” Winter shouted. “What were you thinking!”

“That’s….my….insult...” River’s words slurred. “Protect….those…you can…..protect…” Qibli, standing next to Winter, made a face that could’ve been regret. Or pride. River couldn’t tell from the ground. A sharp pin stung in his neck, and the world started to spin.

“Wait. No. don’t….no sleep. Carn-”

His vision swam as he tried to struggle up. All he succeeded in doing was moving his head. He saw the still breathing form of Tamarin on the ground, only small burns covering her white scales. Bigtail was up against the wall, burnt, but very much alive if his tears said anything. And then Carnelian. Black burns almost completely covered her red scales. She lay almost motionless on the ground. Clay was pounding on her chest, shaking her body with every hit. And then everything went black.

Chapter Text

Smoke filled River’s nose. The crackling of fire surrounded him from all sides. A loud Thump sounded repeatedly. One after the other. And then a roar.

“WHERE IS MY TREASURE! THEIF! GIVE ME MY TREASURE!”

Thump. Crash!

A large draconic figure broke through the wall, staring down at River. Orange scales and sharp horns. Pale blue eyes glaring with a menace, an anger Rvier had never known. A pointed black choker around his neck, and assorted jewelry along his talons.

“This is your fault! THIEF!” the dragon roared.

River didn’t think he would miss one thing. One little bracelet. But he did. He missed it. He knew it was taken. He knew it was magical.

A single snowflake fell, hissing in the fire. And immediately, River relaxed. He knew how this dream went. The snow would take everything away. It always did now. The large orange dragon hissed as snow started falling harder, letting off little bits of steam as they touched his scales. He lunged at River, before desolving into powder before he ever made it to the seawing.

The flames disappeared, fading out. The broken home River was hiding in. Nothing was left but a blanket of snow and a white whirlwind of calm.

River opened his eyes, knowing what to expect at this point. “Hey, Winter.” He said, smiling up at the icewing. Winter immediately yanked his wing away and glared at the seawing. Then his gaze softened.

“You’re an idiot,” Winter said flatly, making River laugh.

“I get that from Qibli. Sorry.”

“Do you remember what happened?” the icewing asked quietly.

River thought for a bit. Peril. The fire in the cave. Moon looked so scared in front of the history cave. Pushing Bigtail out of the cave. The explosion. It was all rushing back in bits and pieces, out of order. And then…

“Carnelian!” River sat up, only to be pushed down by Winter again. Finally able to look around, he saw he was in one of the medical rooms. Winter was sitting next to him on the floor, while he lay in a raised stone bed covered in leaves.

“She’s… alive. For now. But those burns. We don’t know if she’ll make it.” Winter trailed off. “We don’t know how you made it. What were you thinking!” His eyes gained the same anger from before.

“I’m fireproof,” River said simply, then bowed his head, as Winter glared dangerously at him.

“Fireproof doesn’t mean you’re immune to damage! Do you know what you looked like crawling out of that cave? We thought we were going to lose you, too! Your back was torn up. Fireproof doesn’t save you from a bomb!” Winter growled, raising his voice. A knock on the cave wall pulled both their gazes to the doorway where Qibli was standing.

“Seashrimp is awake, I see? Then we should probably talk about what happened. With everyone.”

Winter sighed, looking at River, then nodding. “We need to know exactly what's going on.”

River sat up, pushing Winter’s talons aside, then gasped in pain. His body was covered in wrappings. His wings had holes poked through them in several places. It felt like he’d been sliced to ribbons.

“Wh-what?” River started.

“Dragon flame cactus. You saved Bigtail from the fire, but you took the brunt of the cactus pods.” Turtle entered the room, followed by Moon, Umber, and Kinkajou. The whole winglet was here now. Moon was looking downcast and scared.

“But Bigtail is alright?” Turtle let out a sigh, then nodded.

“I’m more worried about you, though. That was incredibly stupid! Running into a cave when someone is warning you of danger!”

“Speaking of.” Winter turned to look at Moon, a glare in his eyes that made the nightwing wince. “What was that about. Did you set the bomb?” Moon visibly flinched at that.

“That’s no-”

“What about her vision?” River asked sceptically, interrupting Moon. “I thought she just had a vision about the fire, and was trying to warn us. Wasn’t it pretty obvious?”

Umber stepped in, looking at River with a wary look. “But nightwings don't have powers anymore. Remember?”

River thought about that. Oh yeah, Starflight did mention that. “Maybe they were wrong? I didn’t think of it at the time. I just trusted Moon.” River said matter-of-factly.

Moon finally looked up, eyes glistening with tears. It was a mixture of anxiety, relief, and utter fear. “Th-thank you, River. I-I didn’t set the bomb. I…did have a vision.”

Winter growled out a bit, but River placed a talon on his side, then used Winter to stand up, much to the icewing’s protest.

“See. Moon is a good person. I trust her. I trust all of you. Turtle, can you hand me my bag?” River pointed to his pouch sitting by the door. Turtle hesitated before nodding and handing it over.

Maybe this will make it easier on Moon.

“Are you sure about this?”

“I want to prove we can trust each other,” River said, getting wary glances from everyone. Umber looked like he was expecting a second bomb to come out of the bag. But no one expected the quill. Gently pulling out the ink and setting it on the floor, River started writing on his own bandages, grunting with pain any time he stretched his back.

I enchant these bandages to heal all of my wounds.

The words blazed gold in front of everyone. And then the holes in his wings sealed up, and the pain in his back disappeared with a sigh of relief. Able to move more freely, River started tugging the bandages off.

“Animus?” Winter asked in wonder.

“Animus artifact,” Turtle corrected.

“It lets me enchant objects. I’m only supposed to use it for emergencies. But I think this counts as an emergency.” River said, stretching a bit, before putting the quill away. “It’s the same reason I’m fireproof. My seawing father wrote the enchantment for me after my first…. panic at a skywing.” River held up his bracelet, letting the others see the silver and sapphire accessory. “That’s…my secret,” River said quickly.

“I can see the future sometimes. I… I can’t control it. If I could, I would have warned everyone sooner. But I only got the vision right before class! I’m so sorry.” Moon cried, holding her head, tears in her eyes. Kinkajou wrapped her wings around the nightwing from behind.

“But Moon. You helped save everyone. There's no reason to be sorry!” The rainwing was a deep, sad blue now.

“My mother told me not to let anyone find out. But I couldn’t let you all die!”

“Is that your only power?” Winter asked, a bit too coldly for River’s liking.

Moon stifled her sniffles. Then shook her head. “I…I can also read minds.” The look of rage and horror on Winter’s face made her continue quickly. “I can’t control it! It just happens! I don’t want to listen all the time!”

Looks of shock covered every face in the room, except River’s. He assumed as much from what he read about nightwings. Mind reading and visions. Is it really so hard to believe? He can glow in the dark!

“So you’ve heard all of…. Oh no. I-I gotta go.” Qibli said, starting to head to the door.

“Wait!” River called. “She hasn’t told anyone anything she’s heard, has she?”

“But she knows our secrets!” answered Qibli, fear in his voice.

“Qibli, I don’t think that! Winter! I’m telling the truth!” Moon cried out.

“She’s been listening to us this entire time! I should have known a lying nightwing would do something like that!” Winter growled out, stomping to the door with Qibli. Both dragonets headed out the door, ignoring the sobs of Moon.

“I would have rather you told me to start with…” Kinkajou said mournfully. “I don’t like having secrets kept from me. Either of you.” She shifted between red and blue, so fast it looked like a firefly blinking between two colours, while looking between River and Moon both. “I need some time to think my own thoughts. No one else in there.” She said before vanishing, the sound of talonsteps signified she left the room.

“Can you…really hear all of our secrets?” Turtle said with a small gulp. He looked over at River, who finally understood. Moon knew. Moon knew everything. River’s talons dug into the rock.

“Not everyone’s. I can’t hear yours, Turtle. And I can’t hear River’s either, only emotions from him. I thought it was a seawing thing, or a royalty thing. But I can’t hear Onyx either…” Moon said softly. Umber had stayed nearby, lying a talon on her side in comfort.

River let out a small sigh of relief. “The others will come around. They just need time. Winter will brood. Qibli will overthink himself. Kinkajou…well, I don’t know what she does, honestly.” River said sympathetically. “But they are our friends. They’ll come back.” River leaned over to hug Moon tightly with his wings. Turtle joined in a moment later.

“I don’t think I have anything to hide either,” chimed in Umber. “But if I do, can you just keep it hidden?”

Moon choked out a laugh between tears. “Of course I will. I promise.”

“Now we should really go find Carnelian. If she's as dire as you say…” River gripped his pouch a bit.

“Oh yeah, we kinda glossed over the fact you can basically do MAGIC, didn’t we?” Umber poked River in the side. “Did you cheat all those times you won when we wrestled?”

“What! No, I didn’t cheat! You lost fair and square!”

Talonsteps sounded outside the room, and River’s hopes rose. Was it Winter, or Qibli coming back? Clay poked his head in with a somber expression on his face.

“Oh, you’re all here. Is the rest of your winglett nearby?” The four dragonets shook their heads, making Clay sigh sadly. “I have some bad news. Carnelian….didn’t make it. I need to find the others to break the news.”

River clutched his bag. Maybe he could fix that. Could he bring her back? Maybe she wasn’t really gone. He had to try, he had to try! Turtle fixed River with a look, then shook his head. Tears started to flow from the smaller seawings’ eyes, and he was once again wrapped in Turtle’s wings.

“She was helping save them! It’s not fair. It's not fair! I could’ve helped her!” River cried into his chest. Turtle shushed him softly, hugging him tighter, but he couldn’t hide the guilty look he had. Moon and Umber stayed silent, heads bowed. Clay backed out of the room, presumably to find the others with the news.

Carnelian had just started opening up. Becoming a real part of the winglet. Becoming a friend. And now. She was gone.

“I want to see her…” River said suddenly.

“Magic can’t save her.” Turtle reminded him. “It can’t bring back the dead.”

“I know. But. I want to see her.”

“We can all go see her,” Moon said from her spot. “Umber. Can you go find the others? We’ll meet you there.”

“Um. Right, I can do that.” Umber dashed out of the room.

“And River. I have a favor to ask. If you’re not too opposed to it. I think… it’s the only way they’ll trust me completely.” added Moon softly.

Turtle gave River a small look, but River nodded his head. “Of course, Moon. whatever you need.”

“Just a small enchantment.”

The three found their way to the room where Carnelian rested. Turtle almost gagged through tears. Moon had to cover her eyes. River stared. It was something he’d seen before.

She was more black than red now, almost like a nightwing. Blackened scales melted away to raw muscle. Tendons were visible through thin flesh. A bone poking its way through every few feet. The smell of burned flesh and charred bone. The empty eye sockets from boiled-out eyeballs.

River had seen it all before, but not on a dragon.

River stepped closer, pulling out his quil.

“River-” Turtle started, until Moon grabbed his leg gently, shaking her head.

“He knows what he’s doing. He’s not panicking. He’s just….sad.”

River grabbed a scroll from the side of the table. It detailed all of Carnelian’s injuries. Her chances of surviving were next to zero. Too much damage. Too much seared flash that would never recover. Too much pain to wake up.

I enchant this scroll to heal all injuries from the next dragon it touches.

River placed the scroll on Carnelian’s talon, and fresh red scales flowed over her body. Her eyes grew back in place, eyelids closed as if she was sleeping. Seared flesh healed impossibly, scales as vibrant as they were that morning. Carnelian could have been sleeping, if it wasn’t for the fact that she wasn’t breathing.

River couldn’t bring her back, but he could at least prevent that burned corpse from being her last memory.

Qibli rushed into the room soon after, seeing the last of Carnelian fade back to her former self.

“Did you save her!?” he asked, rushing over.

“I can’t-” River started.

“You just need to write the enchantment better! Give me the quill, I’ll show you.” Qibli tried to snatch the quill from River, only to be blocked by the smaller seawings’ wing. “Let me do it! I can bring her back!” He shouted.

“No…no, you can’t or I would have,” River said quietly. He stuffed the quill in his pouch before Qibli got any more ideas.

“You’re just not thinking of the right spell! I’ve thought of this for much longer than you.” Qibli snapped.

“Qibli, stop!” Winter’s voice said from the doorway. “If he says it can’t be done, it can’t be done,” the icewing walked over to River, resting a wing on his back, twining his tail with the seawings. “You can’t outsmart everything.”

“I-I…I know.” Qibli bowed his head. Umber with Kinkajou entered the room last, her scales a pale white, like a ghost.

“Oh, Carnelian…”

“I don’t know if you considered us friends; you had that buried too deep, but you were a friend to me. I saw how much you wanted to be like us. How much you feared not being good enough if you had fun with us. I saw how you pushed yourself to be the best in everything you did.” Moon spoke softly. Qibli and Winter both winced at the words, as if realizing their thoughts were in the open as well.

“Turtle, can you pass them out?”

Turtle dug into his bag, pulling out four dark stones, flat and round. Small enough to fit inside anyone's pouch. He passed one to Winter, Qibli, Umber, and Kinkajou.

“I know this doesn’t make up for it, but. I trust you all, and I want you to trust me. I asked River to make these. They block my mind reading. I want you to be able to have your own private thoughts.” Moon said sheepishly. Winter placed the stone in his pouch, then squinted at Moon, as if thinking something directly. Then nodded a bit.

“Thank you. It’s.. going to take a bit. But it’s a start.” Winter said softly. “Not all nightwings are bad. I’ve learned that while I’ve been here.”

Qibli jerked his head at the icewing in mock surprise. “Winter! You really CAN learn empathy!”

“Shut it, sandsnorter!” Winter scowled.

Despite where they were, they couldn’t help but laugh. They were a winglet. A family. And it felt like Carnelian was right there with them, one last time.

Now only one job remained. Catching whoever killed their friend.

Chapter Text

The seven dragonets sat in a circle in Turtle’s room. A list of names of all the students and teachers, and a seed pod from the cactus bomb, was in the middle of the group.

“First, we should narrow down the suspects. We can assume it's no one in our winglet, so we can cross off those names.” Qibli started, crossing off every name from the Jade Winglet.

“We know they used a dragonfire cactus,” Turtle added. “So it would have to be someone who knows about those. Skywings or their allies. Or another seawing who survived the summer palace incident.”

“One problem with that,” Moon grimaced. “Last night, I heard someone’s dream. Someone was talking to them in it with a dream visitor. And after talking with Starflight, I’m pretty sure that it was Scarlet, and she wanted someone dead. She would know about the bombs, right?”

“And you didn’t think anyone would want to know about that earlier?” Winter hissed, getting a jab from River.

“Would you have believed me if I said that at the time?” Moon asked with a frown. Winter growled, then looked away. Moon looked over at Qibli as if that were an answer enough.

“Hmm. Then we need a motivation.” Qibli tapped a claw to his muzzle. “Who all was supposed to be in the class?”

“The Jade and Gold winglets,” added Umber. “I was excited cause it was going to be a class with Sora.”

“And I was going to goof off with Tamarind!” Kinkajou growled. “Which, by the way, we can cross her off the list. I don’t think her or Bigtail would set a bomb off on themselves. Unless it's a super epic and dumb plan to make themselves look innocent. But Tamarind would never do that.”

“I can’t see a harmless rainwing having any enemies, so maybe someone was after Bigtail.” Winter pondered, getting a glare from Kinkajou. He ignored the glare and crossed off both their names.

“Or someone else from our winglets. Though that would have been a lot of collateral. It is possible that Scarlet just wanted to cause as much mayhem as possible and didn’t care who she killed,” added Qibli. Everyone in the winglet shuddered at that thought.

“Can’t you just enchant a scroll or something to tell us?” Winter asked, poking River. Turtle stepped in, shaking his head.

“We don’t really know about the repercussions of using the quill, and he’s used a lot of spells today. If it's anything like using animus magic, it’s safer if we save that as a last resort.” Winter let out a huff but nodded knowingly.

“Can’t Moon just listen in and find out who it is?” Kinkajou asked. “Just listen for someone to be like ‘yeah! That was a good explosion. Sadly only killed one dragon though’ and theres the culprit!” Six faces turned to the nightwing.

“It… doesn’t really work like that. It’s more like… walking into a room where people are discussing. I can pick off surface thoughts, but I can’t just go and dig in for memories.” Winter and Qiblie both let out small sighs of relief, while Moon looked apologetic.

“So they’d have to be thinking about it directly. Uh. If you’re not against it, of course, Moon. Using your mind-reading to find who did this.” Turtle added.

“I'm not against it, don’t worry. I want to find who did this to Carnelian as much as the rest of you. And if I can use my…gift… to help. Then I want to.”

“Then we should really narrow the suspects down a bit more. Right now we have….almost the entire school.” Umber grimaced at the paper.

“We can cross off the dragonets of destiny, and Webs. Webs doesn’t like dragonets as much, but he’s grateful to Sunny for giving him a place to be. And he was just as shocked as everyone else,” added Moon, using her claw to cross off their names.

“We can cross off Sora. I was on my way to history together when she bumped into me. We were just talking for a while till we heard the explosion.” Umber went to cross off her name before Qibli stopped him.

“Actually, that makes me a little suspicious. It was definitely set to go off on its own. So wouldn’t it make sense for her to stop her sib from going into the room?” He asked. Umber sucked in a breath before nodding solemnly. “We’ll put her as bottom priority for now. She doesn’t seem the hostile type.”

“No, if we want to talk hostile, Pike is a big one. He’s been going off on anyone who ‘offends’ him or Princess Anemone.” Winter said, circling his name with a claw. “He did get into a fight with Bigtail, too, didn’t he?”

“That’s true. He’s a good suspect.” Qibli said.

“What about Flame? He’s been violent and angry since he got here.” River poked at his name on the paper. “I don’t know how far he’d be willing to go, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he at least knew something.” Winter nodded in confirmation, circling Flame’s name as well.

“What about your scary sister?” Kinkajou asked Winter, getting a very angry glare in return. “I’m just saying! She’s been very scary. And she showed up late like Sora, only to disappear again before help even arrived.”

“I just thought of something! I don’t think it could be Pike or Icicle. They would have to have been seen by Scarlet for the dream visitor to work, right?” River cut in. He pulled a scroll out of his bag. “I checked this out to get ideas on enchanted objects. It says that for the dream visitor to work, the user has to have seen the person they’re trying to contact. We should take that into consideration.”

River rolled out the scroll, pointing to the Darkstalker section with the dream visitors. Moon seemed to look away from the scroll, but nodded in confirmation.

Winter let out a sigh, burying his muzzle in his talons. “I don’t think it’s her. I really don’t. But if we’re going to be fair…” He looked over at Umber’s sad face. “She was part of a delegation to negotiate with Scarlet in the past.”

Qibli nodded, for once not making a joke at Winter’s expense, and circled Icicle’s name, then crossed out Pike’s.

“We can also ask Bigtail if he saw anyone enter before the bomb went off. He was there pretty early.” Turtle said, looking at River. “You saved a possible witness there.”

“I didn’t think of that!” River exclaimed.

Winter made a star next to Bigtail’s name. “We can mark him as someone to question then.”

“What about Tamarind?” Kinkajou asked. Winter made another star by her name.

“She wasn’t in critical condition last I saw, but she was tranq’d cause of her burns. If she wakes up, we can check.” Umber rested a wing on Kinkajou’s back.

“Anything else we should look for?” Qibli asked.

“There are a couple of dragons here that I have trouble reading. So if it's one of them, I won’t be able to tell.” Moon put in.

“We’ll put them in boxes,” Winter said, holding his claw ready.

“First is Onyx. She’s a complete blank slate. I can’t read anything from her.” Moon said. Winter drew a square around her name. “And also Peril, it’s like there’s a fire in her mind. I get a thought or two sometimes, but it's mostly inferno.”

“She’s also Scarlet’s pet. So she fits the dream visitor half too.” Winter snarled out, boxing her name as well. “Anyone else?”

“You may not like it,” Moon said, tilting her head. Not in an anxious way, but more amused.

“Not me, I hope. I think I would know if I blew something up.” Qibli joked. “Wait. What's with that look?”

“Well, trying to read you, Qibli, was like trying to read ten scrolls at once while they floated down a waterfall,” Moon said with a small smile. “So just a bit difficult.” Winter let out a snort before Moon turned to him. “And trying to read you, Winter, was like looking into a mirror reflecting the sun. It’s so bright, I can’t see a thing!” This time it was Qibli’s turn to laugh.

“But I think you’re both clear here. As well as Turtle and River,” said Moon, with a bit of humor in her voice.

“That does narrow it down to a couple of culprits, and some people to check on the old-fashioned way,” Qibli said, holding up the sheet.

“Now we just need to get the easy ones to think about the explosion,” Umber said with thought. “Would the assembly work?”

As if someone lit a torch in the room, everyone’s face brightened with a grin.

“We can check Flame, Icicle, and even Pike all at once!” Qibli grinned.

“I'm technically supposed to be wrapped up for a bit, so I can check in with Bigtail in the medical center. Um, Turtle, can you help me get my wraps back on?” River asked, twiddling his claws. “The teachers know about the quill, but it would look weird to the other students, especially Bigtail, if I came to him completely fine.”

“Sora is also in the infirmary. She had a freak-out from the explosion, so Clay had her tranquilized to help her sleep.” Umber said sadly. “So I can skip the assembly to talk with you and Bigtail, while checking up on her. Clay and Marsh would understand. How far can your mind-reading reach, Moon? Can you reach from the entrance hall to the medical center?”

“I think so. I can reach most of the mountain from the entrance hall, except Stonemover’s cave.”

“I’ll leave this here then. If we find something, I can let you know. Just keep an ear out….or mind out? What are you using to listen to us?” Umber asked, setting his enchanted mindreader-blocking rock under his sleeping mat.

“I… never thought of that.” Moon tilted her head.

“A mind’s ear?” Qibli asked, getting a whap from Turtle as well as a small chuckle.

“That’s another thing. You’re a lot more… talkative now, Moon.” Winter added, questioningly.

Moon just smiled at him brightly. “It’s actually a lot easier to talk to you when I’m not being barraged by all your thoughts.”

“Back to the task at hand. We have a plan, right?” Turtle asked. “River and Umber find out what they can from Bigtail and possibly Tamarind. We go to the assembly. And then try to find out what we can from Onyx and Peril without the mind-reading. If all else fails, we’ll let River enchant something to figure it out.”

“Right!” River stuck his talon into the middle of the circle, getting confused looks from the rest of the winglet. The smaller seawing pulled his claw back suddenly. “Sorry. Scavenger thing.”

“What scavenger thing?” Winter asked, suddenly attentive to his actions.

“Oh uh. When scavengers team up, they’ll put their hands, or rather, talons, together in a circle and lift them all up. It's a team thing….I think.” River looked more bashful, blushing a bright blue at the attention Winter was giving him. He wrapped his wings around himself slightly.

“Alright, you two, enough scavenger talk. Let’s get River wrapped up again and get started. We’re going to find who did this, and we’ll stop them before it happens again!” Qibli declared.

It took a little bit, but River was once again wrapped up in his old bandages. The sticky, blood-soaked cloth really made River feel gross, but Qibli had reminded him that clean bandages would look a bit weird given how injured he was. River offered to cut himself up a bit to make it more believable instead, but that was immediately shot down by everyone.

Now it was just a matter of practicing his limp and pain while Umber walked him back to the medical center. They had to make it before the gongs sounded and the hallways filled for the assembly. Honestly, the entire winglet was lucky they weren’t considered to be skipping class to check on River in the first place.

River looked over to his best friend, the mudwing looking downcast. The seawing nudged him softly with his wing, then smiled reassuringly. “It’ll be okay. I’m sure Sora will be fine.” He said, guessing what was on his mind.

Umber shook his head, looking back at River. “It’s more you I’m worried about right now. Clay will take care of Sora.” He glanced again at River’s wings. The holes were gone, so thoroughly they’d never leave scars. It was the one thing River couldn’t easily hide. He’d just have to keep them tucked in.

“I’m fully healed, don’t worry! I can wrestle with you again anytime!” River grinned, then faltered a bit as Umber shook his head again.

“I know that's what you say, but it’s hard to wrap my head around. And not only that… I’m worried about how you think.” He said softly.

“How I think?”

“You jumped into the danger thinking nothing about yourself, because you think you can just magic yourself better. Yes, you’re fireproof, but you didn’t think about what else might happen. You just jumped in to play the hero, and look what happened. In the war, heroes didn’t survive long.” Umber muttered. His tail and wings drooped. “I don’t want to lose anyone else. Please. Please just be more careful. No more running into danger. Promise me.”

“But the dragonets of destiny were heroes?” River said, trying to ignore the discomfort in his chest.

“They had a prophecy to protect them. You only have us and dumb luck.” Umber stopped, then turned to face River, with a pleading look in his eyes. “Promise me you won’t do anything like that again.”

“Umber… I-”

“Promise me!” His voice rose in pitch, and his wings flared out almost aggressively. But his eyes showed only sadness and fear.

“O-okay. I promise. I’m sorry for worrying you.” River conceded, head lowered and wings drooping.

But what if it's one of you in danger. Could I keep the promise then?

Umber turned around to continue leading the way.

“You worried everyone. Moon thought she failed you. Qibli was blaming himself. Turtle was so afraid for you. Winter, we had to stop from either strangling your unconscious body or hugging you so tight that he squeezed you to death. Kinkajou was a blinding rainbow of emotions, and that was painful on the eyes to watch.” Umber didn’t turn back and just kept walking as he spoke. “Your decision hurt everyone.”

River drooped a bit more. “I just wanted to help.”

“You did help. You saved Bigtail.” Umber let out a small sigh. “I don’t think you did wrong in this instance. But…. just be more careful next time. We lost Carnelian in that fire because she tried to be a hero. We…I can’t bear to lose you, too.” The little mudwing slowed until he was next to River, draping his wing over the seawing’s back.

“So we are going to do this safely. With a plan. No running into more explosions,” he said with a small smile.

“When did you get so wise?” River asked skeptically.

“I’ve always been wise,” he said with a smile. “I just prefer to have fun when I can. We didn’t get much chance before Jade Mountain.”

The two dragonets walked silently for a few moments, talonsteps on hard stone. Before River broke the silence.

“So how’re you and Qibli going?”

“WE ARE NOT GETTING INTO THAT!” Umber shouted, causing River to laugh brightly. Umber couldn’t help but join in the laughter after a moment.

“I’ll tell you if you tell me about Winter.” He said with a small bit of cheekiness after their laughter died down.

“Oh, look! We’re here! Can’t do that now! Gotta do our job!” River cut in quickly, getting a playful jab from Umber.

“I’ll go check on Sora first. Once the gongs ring, we can see what Bigtail knows. Then we’ll meet up with the others in my cave.” Umber said with a nod. “Practice your tortured heroic prince face. I'm sure Winter can give you tips for that.”

“He does have that tortured heroic prince look down,” River said almost dreamily. “But he’s not here to help, so I’ll have to figure it out on my own.” He couldn’t help but grin, hugging Umber with his wings before the smaller mudwing left. “Thank you, Umber.”

“For yelling at you?”

“Yes, that and being my friend,” smiled River.

Chapter Text

Umber left to check on Sora while the two dragonets waited for the gong. This left River with way too much time on his talons to sit around in his medical room, alone. He tried pacing, humming, even tapping out Qibli’s drum rhythm from the night before. Nothing. He was tempted to try to find Clay to ask for homework when the first gong finally rang. River darted back to his raised stone bed to act like he was lying down and resting as students started to pass, heading for the assembly.

But long after the chatter of passing students had passed (it was actually more like a minute), River was bored waiting for Umber again. River pulled out his scroll of animi and their enchantments to try reading that, only it slipped from his claws. He fumbled with it before slipping off his bed, falling snout-first on the ground, with the scroll unrolling over the floor. Stopping only when it hit a pair of heavily wrapped talons.

“That….looked painful,” the deep, raspy voice said. River tried to look up from his place on the ground, but only ended up sliding the rest of the way off the bed.

“Oooooooow,” River mumbled, rubbing his snout with a claw, before slowly getting to his talons. He finally got a good look at the newcomer. A large black dragonet with silver scales down his side, and starry patterns on his wings. His talons were wrapped in bandages, as well as the majority of his tail.

“Bigtail!” River exclaimed. “I uh. Wasn’t expecting a visit. I didn’t think you could walk yet!” River sat up, tucking his wings in behind him as best he could. He really hoped his bandages and slight hunch were believable.

“I'm not supposed to. But it looks like we were both too bored to sit around and heal.” Bigtail used a talon to roll the scroll back to the blue dragonet, letting it loosely roll itself up.

“Thanks for that. Uh…. why…are you here?” River hesitated, picking up the scroll and tightening the roll idly as he watched the bigger dragonet. Bigtail sat carefully, but still winced as his tail his the floor.

“I wanted…to ask why.” He started slowly, as if unsure how to word his question.

“Why….what?” River tilted his head.

“Why did you cover me? Why did you save me?” He said, stamping his tail on the ground almost aggressively, then wincing in pain again.

“Why….wouldn’t I?” River couldn’t understand. “I was able to help. So I helped. Is that….strange?”

“I…guess you wouldn’t really understand.” Bigtail started to say. “Nightwings don’t get along with the other tribes well. We’re the smartest, most mysterious tribe. Yet now that we have a rainwing queen…” He trailed off with a snort.

“You think I shouldn’t have helped you cause you have a different queen? I… really don’t understand. I’m sorry if I offended you, but…I would do it again. In a heartbeat,” the seawing affirmed, then grimaced. “Well. I would have to think about it first. I just made a promise NOT to jump into danger without thinking. So I would think, then I would help again.”

“You…are…a strange dragonet,” Bigtail said with a small bit of wonder in his voice.

“Thank…you?” the seawing more asked his thanks than said them. Then, looking at the wraps, he continued. “Are you going to recover?”

Bigtail shook his head with a snort. “Yes ,I’ll be fine. My tail might be a bit more tender for the rest of my life, though. It caught the brunt of the blast. Clay said it looked like a cow dropped off a mountain. Whatever that looks like.”

River tried to imagine, then shuddered a bit at the image. “Are you gonna change your name to Scorchtail? I read that nightwings sometimes change their names.” Bigtail glared at River through squinted eyes.

Note to self. Do not try to joke like Qibli unless Qibli makes the joke first.

Bigtail then surprised River by laughing. He actually laughed at the joke. River relaxed a bit. “I’ll take that over Cowmash-tail,” he said with a grin, looking over his wrapped tail.

Okay, maybe the Qibli approach will work. Small jokes to disarm the dragon I’m talking to. Qibli will be so proud if this works!

“Hey, while you’re here. Did you see anyone enter the room before the explosion? You were there before anyone else, right? I figured maybe you could’ve seen whoever scorched us both.” River said with a grimace, remembering the pain and feeling the sticky, bloody bandages on his back all the more now.

Bigtail thought for a bit. “Are you trying to play detective here? Or trying to jump in front of another bomb?”

“Noooo thank you. One bomb is enough for me. I just wanted to know if theres someone I should stay away from if I want to remain an uncooked seawing.” The seawing shuddered a bit, while the nightwing couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I didn’t see anyone specific really. I did see a mudwing leaving the cave when I was coming down the hall. Well, a mudwing or a brown rainwing. It was hard to tell. All I know is that they were brown.” Bigtail thought a bit more. “That's all I know, though. Did you see what blew up?”

“A cactus. So deserts are a no-go for me for the foreseeable future.” River joked.

“Actually, we researched those on the island. They grow in the mountains in skywing territory. So you’ll want to stay away from thoooose instead,” the black dragon grinned at River, who couldn’t help but grin back.

“Oh, don’t worry. I don’t really like exploding mountains either. I’ve had a bad experience recently.” River said, motioning to his bandages with a claw.

“Well, you’re holding up better than I’d expect.” A curious gaze fell over Bigtail’s face.

“Whoever set the bomb wouldn’t dare mess with my princely charm,” laughed River, beaming his biggest Qibli smile.

“Fair enough. Even the cactuses give you royal treatment.”

“If only we could say the same for Web’s.” Both dragonets couldn’t help laughing at that. “You should probably head back before Clay finds you walking around and pins you to your bed.”

Bigtail winced at that. “He’s already tried once. Let’s not make it a second time.” He turned to walk out of the cave before looking over his shoulder. “Thanks, River. For not leaving me when most other dragons would.” The nightwing walked out of the cave. Hearing the talonsteps fade, River sagged with relief.

So a mudwing, or a rainwing. If only Moon could hear him right now. Speaking of which. Where was Umber? He should have been back by now. River sighed and crawled back onto the bed, slowly unrolling the scroll to start reading. He’d have to wait for someone to get him before he could send the info out. Hopefully, Umber came back soon.

River had just gotten to the section about Fathom, a seawing animus, when talonsteps came running up the hallway. River looked up to find Kinkajou in the doorway.

“Kinkajou, what are you doing here?” River asked, rolling up his scroll.

“Moon sent me cause I’m the stealth expert of our super secret operation! She said Umber went further into the mountain. Sora is missing!” Kinkajou was panting, green and orange splotches of colour over her scales.

“Do you have your stone on you? Can you send Moon a message?” River jumped off the bed and started tugging the bandages off himself. Kinkajou quickly tugged the stone out of her pouch and set it on the floor.

“Tell her it’s a mudwing or rainwing. Bigtail said it was a brown dragon.” River said quickly. Kinkajou nodded, then closed her eyes to focus. River couldn’t help but wonder if she was yelling in her head, and what that would sound like to Moon.

“Okay, I told her, but I don’t know if she actually heard, cause this is kind of a one way thing! Do you think she’ll be able to talk to us in our minds later, cause that would be so cool,” She said, picking up the stone again.

“I don’t think that's how it works, Kinkajou. Do you know where Umber went?” River kicked the rest of his bandages off, pushing them behind the bed to hide them from sight.

“Down one of the deeper caves before she lost him. Moon and Qibli were going to keep looking for more information with the other dragons on the lis,t while Winter and Turtle went to look for Umber. After the assembly of course. They can’t turn invisibly to escape like I can!” Kinkajou had brief splashes of purple on her swirl of scales.

“Alright, then we’re going to look for him.” River pulled out his quill, then picked up a heat stone from one of the shelves. Small and flat. Perfect.

“Didn’t Turtle say not to use your magic quill too much?” asked Kinkajou, leaning in to watch.
“Turtle isn’t here right now. He doesn’t know the circumstances.” River started writing on the back of the stone.

I enchant this stone to glow when pointed in the direction of the dragon I want to find.

The words blazed brightly before fading. River held the stone to his muzzle and whispered. “Find me Umber.” Then he held the stone out, slowly spinning until… It started to glow a bright blue when held in the direction of the left hallway.

“Alright, ready to play magic hide and seek?” River grinned at Kinkajou. She grinned back toothily, shimmering a bright orange and yellow now.

“Remind me not to play with you, cheater.” She said, but followed River out of the room as they both dashed down the hall.

In retrospect, he should have enchanted the stone to lead him down the shortest path to his target. Because the number of dead ends they ran into was incredibly annoying. It only pointed in the direction of Umber, but not the path he took. It took several minutes before they ran into the Young mudwing, panting alone in a hallway.

“Umber!” River shouted, getting him to look up and see them. He gave a small wave.

“River, Kinkajou. Did you talk to Bigtail?”

“Yes. But first, what happened?” River urged him to speak.

“I went to check on Sora, but she was gone. She wasn’t in the assembly, or in the art room, or music room, or prey center. I’ve been looking all over!” Umber was looking very worried at this point and ready to dart off any moment.

“Wait. I can help!” River said, grabbing Umber’s tail, before holding up the rock. “Find me Sora.” He whispered, and the light went out. Then he turned a bit until it went on again. higher up. She was higher in the mountain, near the classrooms, if River had to guess.

“I thought you we-” Umber started before River slapped his tail over the mudwings muzzle.

“Don’t need to hear it. I was worried. Turtle can yell at me later.” River said quickly. “Let’s go get Sora.”

All three dragons dashed back up the path, Umber with renewed energy, Kinkajou shifting all kinds of colours.

“So what...pant pant…did you find out?” Umber started as they ran.

“Mudwing, or rainwing.” Kinkajou answered. “At least that’s what River said Bigtail said!”

“Mudwing…do you think…” Umber almost choked on his words, sobbing softly.

“We don’t know yet. Let's find her first.” River tried to place a wing on Umber, but only succeeded in almost stumbling them both over. Umber gave a small smile at the effort, though.

They followed the glowing stone up towards the classrooms. Until they saw Qibli and Moon standing outside the history cave. Right where the stone was pointing. The three dragonets skidded to a stop by their friends, panting heavily.

“How did you know sh-” Moon started, before tilting her head, then grimacing at River.

“Yell at me later. What’s going on?”

“We checked all the mudwings and rainwings. Nothing during the assembly. But Sora. She has a block Moon didn’t mention.” Qibli started

“I didn’t think it was a block. It was more a calming effect. Her mind is like a mud puddle, she sinks things into it to help with her anxiety. But that included…”

The five dragonets peered into the cave, seeing Sora sobbing on the ground. A black stain outlined a dragon on the wall. Large wings, slightly curved horns. The body looked like it was trying to protect something behind it.

Carnelian…

“Im so sorry! I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to hurt anyone else!” Sora was sobbing.

Umber stepped forward slowly. Talons crackled on black papers, the air still heavy with the smell of smoke. Ashes fell from the walls like snow. Puddles from what could have been ice used to stop the flames littered the floor. “Sora… what did you do?”

Sora turned her tear-streaked muzzle to Umber. “I’m sorry Umber! But I had to! She killed Crane! She killed our sister!”

Umber took a step closer. “It was icewings that killed Crane. Not anyone here. It was a war. And the war is over.”

“You don’t understand! It WAS her! I looked it up. She was on the front lines! She was killing mudwings in our battle! I saw the documents! She killed her, Umber!”

“Icicle…” Qibli said with understanding. “She was the target.”

“Sora, the battle is over! You…you didn’t have to do this! If you weren’t ready you could have told us, but now. Now you killed a dragon! The queens will be angry!” Umber started crying, running over to hug his sister with his wings.

“If Icicle finds out… she’ll kill Sora. If we turn her in. Ruby will want Sora dead. The chances of her getting out alive are…very low.” Moon said softly. Qibli looked at her with worry in his eyes.

“Was that a prophecy?”

“Sort of…Its hard to explain.”

River turned to Sora and Umber. “Then. We have to let her escape. And run away. I don’t want Umber’s sib to die for…for this.” He said softly. River quickly pulled an empty scroll from his bag and started writing on it with his normal quill.

“River, don’t use any more magic!” Kinkajou said sternly, though her face was more questioning and curious.

“I'm not. It’s a letter of introduction.” River said simply. He rolled it up and handed it to Sora. “Go to Possibility. Find Stream. He’ll….he’ll help you hide. If that’s what you want.”

Umber turned to River and wrapped his wings around him. “I’m…I’m going to. Someone needs to watch out for her.”

“Wait. But. But you can stay here! You’re not in trouble!” River exclaimed, stepping back out of the hug. This, this wasn’t what he expected. Help Umber’s sister, and Umber can stay! They would stay friends and hang out every day!

“I have to go. It’s my sister. I would give my life for my sibs. You know this.” He said simply, looking back at Sora.

River felt his world crumble apart inside him. First Carnelian, now Umber. Who else was going to leave him? Who would be next? Turtle? Winter? Qibli? But he could do nothing to stop it.

Umber ran up and hugged Moon tightly. Then turned and hugged Qibli. River winced at the heartbreak in the mudwing's eyes. He was really leaving. He was going to go…

“Please…” River tried one last time.

“I can’t,” Umber said simply, reaching out to hug River once more. River tried to be strong, tried to hold back, but couldn’t. He ran forward and nearly tackled Umber, squeezing the dragon tightly.

“I’ll miss you.” The seawing said quietly. “Try to find Stream. If you can, we’ll see each other again. I promise,” he sniffled, squeezing tightly.

The two dragonets finally broke apart before turning to one of the destroyed windows. “Make sure you tell Clay everything. He can’t be a part of this, or the queens will try to shut down the school. But he should know what happened.” Umber took one last look behind his shoulder, before nudging Sora forward out the window then following after.

River ran to the window, eyes streaming, and watched his best friend in all of Pyrriah fly away.

Chapter Text

Winter was the one tasked with trying to cheer up River. Namely, he was stuck doing whatever he could to distract his clawmate. Moon wasn’t able to because of the ‘reading strong emotions making her feel the same thing’ issue. Kinkajou had mysteriously vanished. Turtle had a big essay he was working on. And Qibli won the ‘scroll, scale, claw’ game they played for the honor of dealing with River.

At least that’s what Winter told River.

Currently, they were sitting in the art room. River wasn’t so much painting as making a mess of the canvas. Winter, on the other hand, was creating a masterpiece. He had one wing around River’s back. That wing hadn’t left his side since Winter caught up with them, finding the seawing staring out the broken window.

On his canvas were beautiful strokes of paint. Blues and whites swirled to create a frosted paradise. A castle of ice in the center, with a tree growing in a courtyard. The tree held globes that seemed to glow in the brighter paints as the light reflected off of them. River had long ago stopped working on his mess of a lake painting to watch Winter work his magic.

“Is that your home?” asked River, breaking the silence for the first time in hours.

Winter hummed a bit, adding another shade of purple that seemed to add a third dimension to a tower of the castle. “It is.”

“It’s...beautiful.”

“It is,” Winter said simply. He dabbed his claw into more blue paint, adding a swath of blue to the snow, creating an effect that made the painting feel even colder.

“Do you think I could ever go there?” River asked.

Winter’s claw froze before he looked down at the seawing. “That’s…not really possible. It’s too cold for you.” He turned back to his painting.

River hummed to himself. Then fiddled with the bracelet on his forearm a bit. “I could fi-”

“No.” Winter interrupted.

“What? You don’t even know wh”

“I said no,” reiterated the icewing. He dropped his claw from the canvas, and turned his whole attention to the blue dragonet. “No more magic right now. You use it too…frivolously. It’s dangerous.”

“I’ve helped people with it!” River said, looking hurt.

“Have you heard of Albatross yet?” Winter turned back to his painting, but didn’t raise a claw to add anything more to it.

“I read about him, yeah. He went crazy.”

“He used his magic too much and went crazy, yes. He massacred his entire family.” Winter breathed a small amount of frost breath over his painting, drying the paint.

“But my quill doesn’t-”

“We don’t know how it works yet. It could use your soul for every spell. It could not. But until we are sure, I don’t want you using it.” Winter pulled the canvas off the easel, tucking it under one wing. “Are you done with yours?”

“I think I’m giving up on mine,” River said with a small sigh, pushing his painting to the floor. The smudges of blue and green made an aerie mess on the canvas that looked more like a ball of moss than a lake. The mountains were too triangular, and the purples only made things look more like a rainwing than a landscape. “What about for emergencies?”

Winter sighed and picked up River’s painting, setting it back on the easel. “Now you’re sounding like Qibli.”

River tilted his head. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“It is about this. Ever since he found out about your quill, he keeps bringing up ideas on how to use it.” Winter said. “All of his ideas revolve around magic. It’s…not safe for either of you. I worry what he would do if he had that quill instead of you.” Winter remarked, tugging River away from the easel with his wing. “Come on, let’s head to the library.”

“You really want to put me in the most flammable place in the mountain? I have a history of blowing up, you know.” River still allowed Winter to lead him out of the room.

“And now you sound like the old annoying Qibli.”

“So…better?”

“I never said that.” Winter stopped in the hallway. The path to the art cave was filled with art pieces from various students. It made a dreary hall suddenly colourful and more cheerful. Winter hooked his painting on one of the nails in the stone, perfectly balancing it with a claw, until it was straight as could be.

“Why are you here with me?” River asked bluntly as they started walking again.

“I told you, I lost the scroll, cla-”

“I didn’t believe that the first time, I’m not going to believe it the second time.”

Winter sighed in his ‘I’m annoyed at this peasant’ way he has. “Because I want as much scavenger information as I can get from you.”

“More believable, but try again.”

Winter narrowed his eyes at River. “To get you away from Qibli. He’s becoming a very bad influence on you.”

“Okay, that one I believe,” River said with a nod. “Why are we going to the library?”

“You wanted to know about the Ice Kingdom. They have scrolls about it there. If you want to visit, you’ll have to know everything about it. Our customs, how to stand at attention, how to bow properly. How to not die in the cold.” Winter said, wrapping River tighter in the wing, letting his cold seep through the seawing’s scales. River leaned into it, surprising Winter more.

“The cold doesn’t bother me anymore. It helps. The snow hides the fires,” the last part said in a smaller voice.

“The Ice Kingdom is colder than the snow you’re used to,” Winter said flatly, leading River into the library.

“Hello? Winter, right?” Starflight asked from behind the desk. The blind librarian was tapping his talons nervously on the stone. “I heard you coming from the hall.”

“Prince Winter,” Winter said sharply. Before letting out a breath. “Force of habit.” He muttered softly. “Prince River is here as well.”

Oh yeah. I keep forgetting that. I should probably use Prince more often.

“Ah! Let me know if you need anything found.” Starflight said, a bit more confidently. “I know where just about everything is now.”

“Do you have any archives on the Ice Kingdom?” Winter asked, a bit less sharply this time.

“Not too much yet, but we do have a scroll or two from Queen Glacier.” Starflight walked to one wall of scrolls and started feeling his way along it, talons tapping on each scroll holder. He finally stopped about three shelves down and reached up to grab a scroll from a higher shelf. “Here you go. Basic Knowledge of the Ice Kingdom for Non-Icewings. I don’t know how much help it will be for you, Prince Winter.”

Winter grabbed the scroll gently. “This will be adequate for now.” Winter led the way to a corner with a small pair of cowskin chairs.

“Lets see… This has…utterly nothing of value to you.” Winter said with a sigh, setting the scroll down. River peeked at the first few lines.

The Ice Kingdom is an incredible cold and unforgiving tundra for any without the scales to persevere in such terrain. The enormous bounty given in this frozen kingdom is given only to those strong of heart and cold of claw. As such, the Ice Kingdom holds many secrets that will not be shared here.

“Wow. You guys are…secretive.”

“Until recently, we never had a reason to interact with other tribes.” Winter huffed. “We were perfectly happy being left alone.”

“I guess if you were happy…” River said, looking back to the doorway. “But I can’t imagine having only one type of dragon near me. I like having so many friends of all different types. Even the cold ones.” River said with a small smile. Then the smile faded slightly. “Even the missing ones…”

“I find you all…acceptable company at the very best.” Winter said non-challantly. River leaned into the icewing, making Winter freeze like an icesculpture.

“I’ll take acceptable.”

Winter let out a furious snort, looking away from River. But his wing never left the seawing. “Alright. First lesson. Sit up straight.” Winter finally pulled his wing away to stand in front of River. He jutted his chin out, as if he was looking down it, chest held tight, back straight.

River tried to copy Winter as best he could.

“Tuck your left wing in. Move your right talon half an inch forward. Turn your head to the left by two degrees. Lift your head higher. Legs tight to your side. Better. Now hold it. No, not your breath, hold the pose.”

Winter walked around River, pushing his tail in slightly, then adjusting his wing. “Alright, now hold this for two hours and you’ll have mastered the at rest pose for a standard line up.”

River grit his teeth, trying to wheeze out words. “How does this count as at ease! I can barely breathe!”

“You get used to it. It is by far the most ‘at ease’ of all icewing positions. You sure you still want to visit?” There was a gleam in Winter’s eyes that made River defiant.

“This is nothing!” He said, before dropping his voice and pose in the same movement.

“That looks li-” River slapped his tail over Winter’s muzzle, getting an indignant glare from the icy prince. River pointed at what he saw, and Winter immediately went quiet.

Icicle was stalking into the room. Quietly, calmly. As if she were tracking prey. And that prey happened to be…Starflight?!

“Icicle! What are you doing?” Winter asked. Starflight immediately raised his head.

“Oh, hello, Princess Icicle! I didn’t hear you come in!” He said cheerily.

River pulled out his quill while standing behind Winter.

Talonstepps sounded from the hall before Qibli and Moon rushed into the library. “Icicle stop!” Moon shouted. Icicle growled lowly before immediately pouncing on Starflight, the nightwing letting out a surprised gasp as she pinned him to a shelf and held a claw over his throat.

“One more step and he dies!” Icicle shouted as Qibli tried to get closer.

“Icicle! What are you doing?” Winter repeated, louder this time, more panic in his voice.

“What needs to be done!” She spat back, tracing her claw on his throat. “If i do this, Scarlet will give Hailstorm back!”

“She’s the one whose been dream visited by Scarlet!” Moon cut int.

Winter sat stunned. Speechless for a few moments. “But Hailstorm is gone. He’s dead.”

“She came to me! Hailstorm isn’t dead. He was kept separate from the icewings in the arena. For bargaining! And right now, she wants the dragonets who wronged her, dead! Starting with this one!” Icicle gripped Starflight tighter as Qibli tried to step closer. “Ah ah ah! Stay back, you lowborn sandwing!”

“Scarlet has…Hailstorm? Then we can go save him! We don’t need to kill Starflight!”

“I knew you were weak. If you really want to help, go kill Sunny while I take care of Starflight! Otherwise, stay out of my way while I fix your mistake!” Icicle yelled.

“Winter isn’t weak! He’s a good dragon!” Moon shouted out. River looked for the closest thing he could find to try to stop Icicle. What could he do? What…the claws. Thats the dangerous part. Get those off Starflight.

“Pfft! Would you rather be strong or good?”

“I’d rather be honest than a killer!” Winter spat back. “And I’d never work for Scarlet! She’s the reason Hailstorm got captured!”

“No, little brother. You are the reason!” Icicle snarled out. “You got him caught, and you came home when he didn’t! It’s your fault!”

I enchant this object to break Icicle’s claws.

A small paperweight shaped like an egg shot across the room, and Icicle cried out in pain. Her talon was bleeding, as Starflight fell back to the ground with a groan.

Then there was another thwap. Then another. And another.

No, no, no! I just wanted to stop her!

Thwap. Thwap. Thwap!

Each smack was accompanied by a cry of pain from Icicle as the paperweight smashed another claw into bits of icy white shards and blue liquid. Her talons were a broken mess, but her face was a mix of pure rage. The paperweight finally stopped and dropped to the floor with a dull, wet thump. The black stone egg was covered in blue blood. Icicle let out one last screech before flying through the window, smashing through the glass like leaves as she disappeared into the night.

Then three faces turned to look at River. The looks of horror, of betrayal, of fear…

“What happened?” Starflight’s quiet voice asked.

River dropped his quill and ran.

Chapter Text

River sadly didn’t make it far before Qibli tackled him to the ground, holding him still. The blue dragonet tried to squirm his way free, but couldn’t overpower the bigger dragon.

“You’re not running this time!” Qibli grunted as River thwacked him with his tail.

“Let me go! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t want that to happen!” River cried out, over and over. Claws dug into the stone as he tried to pull himself free once more, but couldn’t move an inch. He finally collapsed in a sobbing heap on the ground. Trapped under the sandwing.

Winter picked up the quill, silently. Then walked past Qibli, River, and Moon without saying a word.

“What was that spell you made?!” Qibli growled into River’s ear.

“I just wanted to break her claws so she couldn’t hurt Starflight!” River tried to defend himself. He squirmed again, but Qibli only squeezed tighter. And tighter.

Ow?...Ow!...OW!

“OW!” River cried out. Qibli only then loosened his grip, a grimace on his face.

“That was camel-dung! Don’t you ever think things through?! You run into a bomb, thinking fireproof is enough, then walk around fully healed as if nothing happened! You make a stone that shows a general direction, but not how to get anywhere! You break every claw on Icicle’s talons!” Starflight let out a soft gasp as Qibli shouted that one. “A scavenger should never have been given magic like that!” River’s heart broke at that sentence. He knew. And he hated him for it.

“Qibli!” Moon snapped.

Qibli looked up at her, then let out another growl and shoved River to the floor once more, before getting up to chase after Winter.

River didn’t move. He lay on the ground sobbing for a long while. “I’m sorry….I’m so sorry….” He kept repeating. Moon looked down at the dragonet and didn’t leave, but couldn’t bring herself to touch him. He knew why. But it didn’t hurt any less.

“They’re…they’re just upset and confused. I’m sure they’ll understand…” She started.

“They’re right…I shouldn’t have had it. I should have stopped… They have every right to hate me…”

“They do NOT hate you. They are angry, yes. But they don’t hate you.” Moon said sternly. “But if you don’t try to fix it, they might start to.” Her head shot up with a worried look as she looked down the hallway.

“Fix it how?! I just…just….”

“You’ll think of something. But right now, we need to help Winter.” Moon said, picking River up with a wince, steadying him on his talons before pulling away.

“Help…Winter?”

“He left his stone behind.” She sighed, starting to hurry down the hall. “But he’s leaving to find Hailstorm. And I’m not going to let him go alone. Are you?” Moon growled. River shivered a bit, then shook his head softly, following after her.

They raced down the hall, running into a startled Turtle and Kinkajou as they went.

“What happened? Winter just shoved this into my claws and left.” Turtle held the quill up, making River recoil away. Turtle looked up with worry in his eyes. “What happened, River?”

“We can go over that later. Right now, Winter is running off to find his brother, and we need to help!” Moon said, interrupting Turtle. Turtle made an anxious look around before nodding.

“A new adventure already! Awesome!” Kinkajou shouted, royal purple and orange swirls covering his body.

They ran out of the hallway, finding Winter’s room empty. Bandit's cage was gone. Qibli wasn’t in there either. River quickly grabbed Winter’s mind-blocking stone before catching up with the others in the entrance hall.

“Is he already outside?” Kinkajou asked.

“I think so. I can’t hear him anymore.”

“If he took Bandit’s cage, he couldn’t have gone far,” River said, running to the cave opening and looking out over the dark skyline. “Where was he going?”

“North to the Ice Kingdom. So we’ll go north.” Moon said, flapping her wings.

The three other dragonets took off, following Moon into the growing darkness. River started letting his phosphorescent scales glow as the night deepened, giving some view of what lay under them. Tree tops, boulders. But no Winter or Qibli.

Moon tilted her head, then swerved to the west, heading down for a landing, followed by the other River, lighting up the forest around them with his scales. Turtle added his glow soon after as Kinkajou landed last. And that was when they heard Winter and Qibli arguing with each other, and saw Bandit in his cage, shivering. The door was open, but he hadn’t left yet.

“If we go to the rainforest, you can find Icicle and get more clues about Scarlet,” Qibli growled.

“And if I go to the Ice Kingdom, I can get help! What makes you think she would go to the rainforest anyway?!”

“Obviously, she’s going after Glory. She will think taking out Glory will be good enough since that's who Scarlet hates the most.”

Winter let out a growl, but didn’t argue back. He instead turned to Bandit. “Go already! I’m letting you go!” he shouted. Bandit curled into a ball, but didn’t move.

“He…won’t survive out here,” River said softly. Both dragons turned cold eyes on River. “Th-theres no scavenger dens around here, and he’s too young to know how to take care of himself in an area with dragons…”

Winter’s glare softened as he turned to bandit, but Qibli’s glare only strengthened. “You would know that, wouldn’t you?” He spat out.

“Qibli! Stop. I know you’re mad, but that’s no reason to act like this!” Moon said, defending River. Turtle stepped in front of the smaller seawing. Qibli looked over at River, seeing his drooping wings and low tail, and his glare faded slowly into the more compassionate look River was used to.

“Did somebody say Queen Glory is in danger?” Kinkajou shouted, interrupting the two dragons. “We need to go save her!”

Qibli let out a small sigh. “Kinkajou is right. We can find your sister, get clues on Scarlet, save Glory, and find your brother. And worst case, you can use the tunnel to get to the Ice Kingdom. It's much closer than just flying.”

Winter let out another sigh. “And what do we do about Bandit?”

“Take him with us,” River said softly. “There’s a scavenger den just north of the rainforest, in skywing territory.”

“The fortress one?” Winter asked sceptically.

“They call it the Indestructible City.” River twidled his claws a bit. “We can take him there where he’ll be safe.”

“You said we,” Winter growled a bit. “Who is we? Because I’m not taking you and your magic along to mess something else up,”

Turtle turned to look back at River with another look of worry.

“I won't bring any magic. I won’t bring the quill.” River said flatly. “But I can bring this.” River dug through his pouch and pulled out the guiding stone. “Qibli was right…It is stupid. But, it might help us.” River walked past Turtle and handed the stone to Winter. “Just say who you want to find, and it’ll glow when you’re pointing it in the right direction.”

River stepped back, head bowed. “I really am sorry for what happened. You were right. I didn’t think.”

Winter looked at the stone for a bit, then back at River. “This might help a little bit.”

Kinkajou looked between the two dragonets, green scales of confusion and bewilderment appearing and disappearing across her body. “I feel like I missed something major. I just came for an adventure and now to save Queen Glory!”

Moon let out a soft grunt, sitting flatly. “Not now…” She groaned. “This is a really bad time…” She held her claws to her head.

“Another prophecy?!” Kinkajou asked excitedly.

“Th-the same one.” She started to say, before her voice changed to a lower pitch.

“Beware the darkness of dragons,
Beware the stalker of dreams,
Beware the talons of Power and Fire,
Beware the quill that brings life to reams.
Something is coming to shake the earth,
Something is coming to rewrite the crowned.
Jade mountain will fall beneath Thunder and Ice,
Unless the lost City of night can be found.”

Moon gasped out the last words, as if coughing them up.

“That’s what you’ve been saying in your sleep!” Kinkajou clapped her talons excitedly.

“Did we just get a prophecy added to our dragonhunt?” Turtle let out an exasperated sigh. “Can I just stay in bed?”

Qibli put a talon to his muzzle, thinking. “The volcano is a lost city of night, right? The lost nightwing village. It’s just one more reason to go to the rainforest.”

Winter gave River a sour look. “And I bet that quill is the one you were using.” River’s wings drooped.

“Probably yeah.”

“Then you’re not bringing it. I can’t trust you not to use it if you do.” Winter crossed his claws. River only nodded. “I can try to leave it with Sunny, or…”

“I can take it back. And let them know where you all are going.” Turtle spoke up suddenly, and he smiled apologetically at River. “Im not one for big adventures. And it would be a good idea to have someone stay at the school to look for the Thunder and Ice in the prophecy right?”

River shivered slightly at the thought Turtle wouldn’t be coming too.

Qibli let out a small huff, as if he wanted to argue, but then nodded. “You’re right, that’s probably a good idea.”

Kinkajou bounced up and down excitedly. “We’re going to save the world, Winter’s brother, AND the awesomest bestest queen, Queen Glory! Oh my Grapefruit! We are the second coming of the Dragonets of Destiny!”

Moon rubbed her temples slightly, “I don’t think thats whats happening Kinkajou,” then she nodded to Winter. “If we do this right, We’ll save many, many more lives.”

Winter looked over the gang of dragons, then at Bandit, who had uncurled and was looking curious now. He let out a long, exasperated sigh before speaking up. “Who’s carrying Bandit?”

Chapter Text

Darkstalker felt Moonwatcher’s mind disconnect from his. That last vestige of communication gone, and he was left alone with his own thoughts, and the thoughts of everyone else in the mountain above him. A quill that enchants anything it writes on. That sounded eerily like his own scroll.

Where did it come from? Did a new animus enchant it? Or was it something more? If only he could read that scavenger dragon.

To think, a scavenger would find a way to not only communicate, but become a dragon on their own. Do scavengers have their own magic? No, if that were the case, dragons would be hard-pressed to stay in power. Does that mean he stole it from an animus? And got away with it?

Darkstalker would make sure to keep an eye on this River dragonet. The futures where he was left unchecked were not to his liking. But the futures where he could keep him close, and bargain with him. Those were good futures.

Now he just had to wait. Wait for the talons of fire to do her job and set him free.