A Reason to be Courageous

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By the fantastic Fantii!

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This is a sequel to Tern's Migration. Check it out to avoid spoilers!

Prologue

The Ice Palace, A Day Later…

         Avalanche sat in front of the queen, bowing her head. “You sent for me, your Majesty?” she asked carefully, wary of the queen’s new spontaneous rage.

         “Avalanche, Tern was closest to you. Tell me: what would have him on his knees, begging for my mercy?” Avalanche felt her hope shrinking. Helping Alpine hurt Tern wasn’t something she ever thought she’d do.

         “W-well, your Majesty- Tern- he never told me that he loved anything- like… that much?” Except he did. The one thing he loved about the Ice Kingdom that you have in your talons.

         “Don’t lie to me, Avalanche.” The queen growled, tipping her snout up.

         “He has a sister- well, a non-biological one, apparently, that he loves more than himself.”

         “Who is it?” she asked, leaning forward.

         “Floe, a First Circle dragonet.” She admitted, feeling nauseous.

         “Excellent. Any First Circle dragon is a dragon loyal to the IceWings above all else. Send her an invite to the throne room!” She snapped at a nearby guard. He nodded, trembling, and ran to do as she wished. Alpine snickered. “Finally, I have the key to capturing this runaway hatchling and end my quest for revenge!”

         Avalanche shuddered. She was about to turn and leave but Alpine held up a talon. Avalanche glanced back warily.

         “As I mentioned before, Tern was closest to you. And you’re what… Third Circle? Tsk.” She flicked her tail and guards approached her; spears drawn. “You’re valuable yet unpredictable. So, I’m keeping you nice and safe in the dungeons.”

         “What?! No, Stop! I promise I won’t run! What about the dragonets? Who’ll take care of them?” She wailed, clawing at the icy floor as the guards dragged her from the throne room. Alpine gave her an icy grin, lifting her talons in a mock elegant way.

         “Don’t worry, dear! You’ll have some dragonet company in there soon!” Then, lowering her voice, she said, “Well Tern, I believe your little ‘migration’ is finally ending.” She flicked her tail, loving the satisfaction of winning.

         Her quest for vengeance was nearly completed.

Chapter One

One Day Later…

         When Indri set off on her adventure, she never expected that she would be a wanted criminal running from the IceWing Royal Army. But then again, she never thought she would befriend a prickly IceWing-NightWing dragonet. Or a daft SeaWing. Or a particularly large SkyWing with lava scales.

         Honestly, Indri wasn’t sure how she felt about Tern. He was okay, she guessed, but she wasn’t totally comfortable with his temper and his general outlook on life. He needs more watermelons. She thought, snorting softly.

         Currently she, Tern, Nova, Sunfish, and Flicker were flying to meet Tern's supposed other side of the family, the NightWings.

         Indri felt a bad for Tern. He’d had a rough dragonethood with the IceWings, looking different with his odd black edged scales and blunted claws. And after traveling all over the continent with him and waiting for him to rescue his mother, Nova, from some super horrible IceWing prison, he had only softened a little. And since finding out that he was a hybrid, he’d seemed a little shell shocked and had withdrawn to somewhere within himself a bit more.

         Indri had never had parents. Well, obviously she did, but RainWings didn’t do the whole ‘family’ thing, (which Indri had never questioned before but now despised, seeing the SandWing SkyWing couple Dyssodia and Squirrel doting on their unhatched eggs.) However, Tern seemed to hold Nova at a distance, as if he didn’t believe he should have any relation to her. Nova was trying her best, and Indri felt horrible for her.

         But now Tern looked like he was slipping back into disbelief over his predicament, so she decided it was time to comfort him.

         She tilted her wings to glide over to him. “Hey, how are you?” she asked.

         He shook his head. “Um. Fine?” He set his violet gaze ahead, wiping his wet eyes. Indri sighed. Sometimes trying to connect with him was like trying to have a conversation with a rock. Or suntime with a frog. Suntime. If there was one thing she missed most about the rainforest, it was suntime. She hadn’t had suntime in ages, and she did feel significantly more tired. Or maybe that’s an aftereffect of flying across the continent, looking for an island somewhere off the coast of Pyrrhia except we don’t know which coast so maybe try the southeast one, since it’s closest. That was the helpful advice Arson’s scroll, (paraphrased, of course) had given them on the location of the NightWing island.

         “I can see the southeast coast!” Flicker called from far ahead of them.

         “I can’t see it.” Indri said, straining her eyes.

         “IceWings and SkyWings have better eyesight than the us. Lucky bros.” Sunfish said, flapping over to her. Tern groaned and flew forward, away from Sunfish.

               Sunfish wasn’t all bad. He was kind and funny, and although he sometimes spoke strangely and wasn’t the smartest sloth in the jungle, he made a real effort to understand Indri.

         “That’s unfortunate. I love being a RainWing, but sometimes I wish I could try being a different tribe.” Indri confided.

         “Yeah, SeaWings are epic and obviously the best, but I’ve always wanted to breathe some fire.” He opened his jaws and breathed out like fire-breathers did. Nothing except some very stinky fish breath came out.

         “I’ve never breathed fire either. Just venom.” Indri bared her venom-filled fangs.

         “Sweet! Can you do it now?”

         “No, it might hit someone below us. But I promise, when there’s a chance, I’ll show you.”

         “Well, I can show you my glow-up scales.” Sunfish smiled, then lit up all his scales.    

         “Wow! You’re like the sun when you light up all of them like that.”

         “Hey, we’re trying to make to the NightWings without detection, so maybe you could stop glowing like a fourth moon?” Tern asked from up ahead, his voice almost carried away by the roar of the salty wind as they reached the sea. Indri chuckled.

         “Oh. Oops, sorry about that, bro.” Sunfish called back, dimming his scales to their regular yellow.

         “What’s a ‘bro’?” Indri questioned, fighting the strong sea wind.

         “It’s a cool term for ‘brother’.” He answered, his voice swelling with pride.

         “Huh? Tern’s not your brother.” Indri pointed out.

         “Well, it’s cooler than just saying ‘Tern’.” Sunfish said indignantly.

         “But… that’s his name. Why would you call him anything different?” Indri asked.

         “B…b-because it sounds cool!” he stuttered. Indri laughed. It still didn’t make any sense to her.

         “I guess it’s alright. As long as it doesn’t bother Tern.”

         “Everything bothers Tern.” Sunfish grumbled. It was true. Tern did seem to have it out for Sunfish. But, Indri remembered, they’d met battling. And they two male dragons were polar opposites. Sunfish was sweet and not the smartest, whereas Tern was cold and could be cunning. And violent. Indri remembered watching from a tree as Tern snapped a SandWing’s neck as if it were no harder than snapping a twig with a shudder.

         “I suppose he can be… touchy.” She said, rooting around in her head for the right word. “But most of the time I think he means well.”

         Sunfish grunted. “Well, he could be nicer about it.” Indri secretly agreed, but she didn’t want to keep talking about him behind his back.

         “Have you ever met a NightWing?” She asked him. He scratched his chin, thinking.

         “Erm, one visited my parents’ hut when I was still living there, but I didn’t get to personally meet her. She was hot, though. With sick little white scales next to her eyes.”

         “Hm. I’ve never seen one. I’ve seen IceWings, SkyWings, SandWings, SeaWings, RainWings, obviously, and I saw a MudWing once. The only dragons I haven’t seen are NightWings.” Indri told him.

         “I heard there was another continent with dragons with four wings who could make fabrics shoot out of their wrists!” Sunfish imitated shooting something out of his wrist.

         Indri laughed. “The Lost Continent is a dragonets’ tale. But it’s still fun to daydream about what type of crazy dragons live there. Like a dragons who can shoot papayas out of their eyes, or summon mangos that fall from the sky!” She mimicked summoning something.

         “Or maybe there’s three tribes, one rainbow tribe that does shoot a sturdy building material and grows four beautiful wings when their six years old and only eats honey and fruit and is enslaved by another tribe which is a yellow-red-orange bug-like dragons with black scales distantly related to NightWings who have a ton of varying powers like paralyzing stingers and deadly stink bombs who attempted to wipe out a third, green, tribe who has unusual control over plants and is now living a poisonous jungle with a vengeful plant out to kill and enslave all of dragonkind?” Sunfish asked in one breath.

         Both Sunfish and Indri were silent for a moment, then both of them erupted into laughter, nearly driving them both out of the sky.

         When they finally recovered, Indri spluttered, “Four wings? How ridiculous! But that was awfully complicated for a made-up continent!” Both of them started giggling.

         “If you too aren’t too busy giving away our position, could you please pay attention?” Tern growled from below them. He was hovering just above the tree line, Nippy on his shoulder. “We’re setting up camp down here.”

         Indri and Sunfish spiraled down to where Tern had gestured.

         They’d set up camp in a clearing. Indri flew up to the green foliage covering the clearing and plucked some leaves, sniffing them. “Ha! Moringa leaves!” She grabbed talonfuls of them and fluttered back down to land beside Tern.

         “What are those?” He asked, clutching a bird Flicker had caught.

         “Moringa leaves. Very tasty.” She set her pile down and chewed on a leaf. They weren’t very filling, but this many would do for a good snack.

         “I do not understand vegetarian dragons.” He said, shaking his head.

         “We’re not all vegetarians! Some of my tribe prefers killing and eating cute, small, furry things.” She said with a shudder. “Though I am not one of them.”

         “You ate that fish I caught when we first met.” Tern said, stripping the bird of its feathers.

         “I was delirious at the time! And fish aren’t cute and furry!” Indri protested.

         “Delirious? I was always confused as to how you three got together, but now you have to tell me the whole story.” Flicker mumbled through a mouthful of bird from where she was laying. She hadn’t bothered to defeather the bird, rather just burning them all off.

         “Well, I was flying, towards the edge of IceWing territory…” Indri’s mind wandered as Tern told the story.

         She had heard that the Ice Kingdom was cold, but she thought it was nothing she couldn’t handle. That changed when she was wandering through the tundra and hadn’t eaten in three days for lack of edibles. And when her friends had started to appear in the frozen wasteland, she knew she was in trouble. Then she had hidden behind a rock as one of her friends started shooting sharp bananas at her; or maybe they weren’t bananas, actually, they probable weren’t, as she had watched one of them obliterate a rock. She was saved by Tern, who she, at the time, thought was Jaguar.

         But then she had joined Tern on his journey and the rest was history.

         “So, wait, Queen Alpine knew Nova personally before the whole battle happened that caused the loss of her husband and your father?” Flicker asked Tern. He was about to answer when Nova spoke up.

         “Yes, Alpine and I had been good friends since we were dragonets. The biggest difference between us was that she was destined to queen, and I wasn’t. So obviously she took the IceWings’ future very seriously, whereas I was more interested in my personal life. Which led to meeting Duskseer and the catastrophe that happened next.” Nova said, her voice breaking at the mention of Duskseer.  Poor Nova, losing someone she loved that much, and on the day she laid Tern’s egg, too.

         They sat in silence until the fire had long since burnt out. Indri laid her head down and closed her eyes, desperate to make up for lost sleep. Besides all the colors and fruits and dragons in the rainforest, I really miss suntime the most. The desert had made her scales feel supercharged, but she knew Tern and Nova hated it and Flicker and Sunfish didn’t exactly enjoy the heat.

Chapter 2

The Next Morning…

         It felt like Indri had just closed her eyes when she felt Tern’s cold talons tapping her head. She opened one eye.        

         “Time to go meet the NightWings!” He said, but his cracked voice didn’t sound at cheery as he clearly wanted it to sound.

         She decided to act like he’d succeeded. “Sounds exciting!” She grabbed a couple more leaves as Tern wrestled Nippy, trying to get her energetic self into his bag. She roared (read: squeaked aggressively) and swiped at his talons as he grabbed her around the midsection.

         Indri opened her own bag she had weaved and pulled Carnation’s sleeping form out. He squawked softly and curled up in her talons. Indri smiled and gently set him back in her back.

         “My, how the tables have turned.” Tern grunted as he got his snout swiped at. Carnation was usually the annoying, defiant one and Nippy was usually the sweet, compliant one.

         Indri laughed. “Seems your luck has run out.” Tern laughed.

         “What luck? I don’t remember ever having luck!”

         “You found me,” Indri pointed out. Tern looked away.

         “That wasn’t luck.” A nice conversation, spoiled in a hurry. Indri thought with a frown.

         Indri curled her tail and continued munching on the leaves. Flicker was gathering up Nova onto her back, and Tern was stretching his wings. Indri finished off the leaves and spread her wings.

         “Mornin.” Sunfish came over and stretched next to her.

         “Good morning. How are you?” She asked politely.

         “Fine, thanks. You?”

         “Good. Are you excited to see the NightWings?” She asked. He nodded.

         “And finding more fish. I don’t like the whole fur and feathers. Scales are the only thing any dignified thing prey should wear.” He said with a lash of his thick tail.

         “Honestly, I don’t think eating other animals is humane. Besides, fruit tastes better anyways.” Indri replied, grimacing.

         “Eh. To each their own I guess. Oh! But have you tasted scavenger? You haven’t lived until you’ve tasted scavenger.” Sunfish asked ecstatically.

         “No… what’s scavenger?” She asked, hoping it was a plant instead of some cute furry thing.

         “They’re these weird little animals that walk on two legs and have hair on the top of their heads, like canaries.” He said, licking his lips. Indri grimaced.

         “No cute furry things for me.” She said, wrinkling her snout.  

         “Suit yourself. They’re kinda rare though, so even if you did like meat, it would be mine.”

         “Whatever.” She rolled her eyes.

         “Alright, moving out.” Tern said, beating his wings. Indri followed him, followed by Sunfish, and Flicker took the rear with Nova on her back.

         They flew for ten minutes before a group of three black dragons armed to the tooth intercepted them. Indri quickly camouflaged in case they needed her.

         “Halt! What business do you have here?” one asked.

         “An IceWing!” Another screeched. “Kill it!”

         “Silence.” The front one asked with strong authority in her voice. The tiny silver scales by her eyes shimmered in the midmorning light. “What business do you have with the NightWings?” She asked, her tone brimming with hostility.

         “We come seeking shelter.” Tern said hurriedly.

         “Why should we help two IceWings, a SkyWing, and a SeaWing?” she asked. Tern looked around and saw Indri ‘missing’.

         “Well, I’m related to a NightWing. I’m a hybrid.” He spread his wings and showed them the triangular pattern.

         “Very well. Follow me.” The lead NightWing said after a brief minute of silence, then whirled around and flew down. All the dragons beat the wind with their wings as they glided down to follow her.

         She let them to a well concealed platform in the hidden in the trees with a wooden throne perched atop it. It reminded Indri of the rainforest, bringing a small tear to her eye. She quickly brushed it away and landed beside Tern, making herself visible again.

         The NightWings, as well as Tern, jumped. “Oh! That’s where you were.” He said, relief flooding his voice. She curled her tail around his, a gesture that caused Tern to jump again and then glance down at their intwined tails and then back at Indri. She smiled and he blushed.

         “If you’re finished with your… whatever that is, the queen is here.” The main NightWing said, flying into the clearing with two more guards who positioned themselves next to the throne. “Presenting: Queen Silentwings of the NightWings.” She bowed and a massive, majestic dragon swooped onto the throne with a passing glance at the dragons gathered there. She gathered herself on the throne and stared at the dragons on the platform with wise purple eyes.

         She was wearing a silver crown with small black gems embedded at irregular intervals, like reverse stars in the night sky. She had a necklace of a similar fashion and silver earrings which complimented her silver teardrop scales.

         Tern dropped into a bow, so Indri followed.

         “You may rise.” The queen said. Indri raised her neck and looked up at her, backing away from Tern. “So. I hear you are seeking shelter. What are you seeking shelter from?”

         “We have Queen Alpine and the entire IceWing Royal Army on our tails.” He said tentatively.

         Queen Silentwings’ eyes widened. “And you brought them here?” she asked, rage and fear creeping up into her voice.

         “No, your Highness, we lost them in the desert.” He said, crouching beneath her furious gaze. She softened.

         “Well, you have permission to stay with the NightWings until you have another place to go. But I do have one question: Do you know who your parents were? The Nightwing side, I mean.”

         “Er, my mother is Nova, she’s with us.” Nova staggered over beside Tern. Silentwings blinked in surprise.

         “Moons, however did you get so bedraggled? You look half-starved!” she exclaimed.

         “The Prison Caves, your Majesty.” She said, attempting to bow.

         “You brought a fugitive from the Prison Caves here?!” the queen roared.

         “Wrongly imprisoned. Her crime was cross-contamination of IceWing blood.” Tern cut in quickly, shielding his mother from the queen’s rage. She calmed down.

         “And the NightWing side?”

         “Prince Duskseer was my father.” The queen’s face twisted in shock.

         “D-Duskseer? He had another dragonet?”

         “He has another?” Nova asked hopefully.

         “Yes. Snowstorm- we found her egg floating in the ocean after the peace delegation.” The queen said, a bit dazedly.

         “Wait- what does that mean?” Tern asked, looking to the queen for answers.

         She twisted her neck to look at him. “It means you’re my grandson, Tern.”

Chapter Three

Moments Later…

         Wow, that’s a twist!

         Tern’s jaw dropped and he froze. “You’re my… my grandmother? he asked after a long pause.

         Silentwings nodded. “Duskseer was my son. My first dragonet.” Her gaze was filled with sorrow. Then she shook herself. “I look forward to personally meeting you.” She turned to Nova; her eyes narrowed slightly. “You must be the dragon my son fell for.”

         Nova nodded, her weak muscles tense. “Yes, your Majesty.”

         Silentwings sighed. “Some part of me wants to punish you, but I can see that your queen has already done so. I won’t further your suffering, and you are welcome in the Night Palace. I’d rather not bring further misery to my grandchildren by loathing you. And Snowstorm will be so excited to meet you.” Her eyes sparkled. “I’d always hoped to someday find her real mother.”

         “I’d always though Alpine killed her.” Nova said, tears running down her silvery snout.

         “Before we go, a proper introduction, please.” Queen Silentwings said.

         “I’m Indri of the RainWings, this is Sunfish of the SeaWings, and Flicker of the SkyWings. And of course, Nova of the IceWings and Tern of the NightWings and IceWings.” She said, bowing her head.  

         “Well met, Indri. Welcome to the Night Kingdom.” Silentwings said.

         “It’s, uh, very nice. I expected there to be more dragons, though.” The queen laughed, pressing a talon to her temple.

         “Dragonets! The Night Kingdom isn’t here, it’s over here.” She soared over to a dark hole in the ground, big enough to fit maybe two of her size in at a time. Indri spread her wings and flapped off after Tern. Flicker and Nova followed, with Sunfish as the tail.

         The NightWings live underground?

         While the hole was big, Indri couldn’t help but feel a bit claustrophobic as she followed Tern into the darkness. It was pitch black until they came to a bend in the tunnel, and then there was a hissing sound and one of the NightWing guards lit a line of torches on each side of the wall.

         It lights up a massive set of oak doors, guarded by two burly NightWings. Silentwings pushed it open to reveal a massive palace made of stone surrounded by hundreds of NightWings milling about. Several tunnels led away from the palace, where Indri supposed homes and other businesses resided.

         Made of every different color of stone and adorned with flowering vines growing up the sides, the palace was clearly the crown jewel of the NightWings’ home. Massive pieces of colored glass were embedded in the sides, with torches below them, illuminating the palace with rainbow light.

         A massive ball of fire inside a glass orb was hung on the ceiling, bathing the entire cavern with a daylike glow.

         “Impressed?” Silentwings asked, spreading a wing. “The palace and artificial sun were magicked by an animus. The last known NightWing animus, grandson of Whiteout and grandnephew of Darkstalker, the NightWing nightmare!” she spread her wings for emphasis.

         “Yikes.” Sunfish said, coming up behind her. “Did he go crazy and kill everyone?”

         The queen looked flustered. “W-well, no. He passed away peacefully two years ago. Darkstalker did, however, but he didn’t kill any of his own.” That ‘peacefully’ seemed a little forced.

         “Hm.” Sunfish looked unconvinced.

         “Anyways, let’s go. Valiant, fetch Snowstorm, please.” A NightWing flying by bowed and changed direction.

         Indri followed Silentwings to the entrance of the palace. She opened a set of large wooden doors and strode into the large room. They followed her to a large throne room with a magnificent wooden throne with silver and gold star accents.

         She swept onto the throne and stared down at the dragons gathered below. A patter from the entrance sounded. Indri turned and saw a small dragon walking towards them.

         Her scales were black, but small white scales were splattered all over her body, giving her scales the impression of being a snowstorm at night. Her wing membranes were white with a splattering of black scales, like a reverse NightWing’s. Her eyes were a vibrant blue.

         “You called for me?” She asked Silentwings in a squeaky voice.

         “He’s here!” She responded, waving her tail at Tern.

         Snowstorm’s face brightened as she flew across the room to land in front of Tern. “Brother! Hi!” She said, grasping his talons in hers. “I’m so excited to meet you!”

         Tern froze, his eyes scanning Snowstorm. “Hello.” He eventually said. “You knew I was coming?”

         Snowstorm giggled. “Of course! I had a vision.” She said, dropping her voice. “But enough of that; come with me!” she tried vainly to drag Tern out of the room with her. She can? Tern can’t do anything like that!

         “Wait, wait, don’t you want to meet your- I mean our mother?” He asked, scrabbling on the stone floor to stay with the rest of the group. Indri held back a laugh. Pineapples, Tern! Calm down, she’s just a dragonet, she doesn’t bite!  

         “My m-mother? I thought… I thought she was dead!” She stopped dead in her tracks, a tear threatening to run down her snout. “Where is she?”

         “Right here.” Nova said, pushing past Tern and Indri. She spread her wings and arms out to Snowstorm, who gasped and threw herself at Nova’s weak form.

         Indri’s heart swelled as she watched tears run down both dragons’ snouts. Even Tern was wiping at his face as Snowstorm pulled him into their group hug.

         Indri felt something pull in her chest. Longing. The RainWings were a friendly, beautiful tribe, but they didn’t do individual families. The entire tribe was a massive family. She was usually fine with it but seeing what she had been missing out on… well, now she wished she could have it.

         She glanced at the queen. Her face was mixed, like one part of her loved that her adoptive daughter was finally reunited with her mother and the other resented it.

         Indri sat down and curled her tail around her feet. She could feel the red and blue- anger and sadness- swirling through her usually serene scales.

She stamped them down, determined not to ruin Tern’s moment. They eventually settled on purple- a undercover mix of the two.

         Sunfish came over and sat next to her, his thick tail laid straight out behind him. “Man, I wish I had parents like that.” He said, watching Nova pull back and admire her daughter.

         “At least you had parents.” Indri said, sounding a bit too rueful for even her liking.

         Sunfish sighed, dropping weird talk. “I don’t know what’s worse; having parents that hate you or having no parents at all.”

         “Poor Tern has experienced both. And now he gets to be happier than both of us.” She pointed out.

         “Seems like a tradeoff. Have a lot of suffering, get a lot of reward.” Sunfish sighed. “Can’t help wondering when- if- I’ll get mine.”

         “Alright, alright, that’s enough.” Queen Silentwings stood up, interrupting her thoughts. “Valiant, please take them to their rooms.”

Chapter Four

That Night…

Indri sat on the soft bed in her room, just feeling the blanket. It was the softest thing she had ever felt. Dyssodia and Squirrels’ hut had blankets but they weren’t for keeping warm, they were for hiding under in case of a sandstorm. These ones were made of soft wool and meant for snuggling into.

She heard a knock on her door. “Come in!” she called.

Tern’s head poked through the wooden door. “Um, do you mind if I sleep in here? My room’s just- well, kind of lonely. I’m used to sleeping with three other dragons.”

“Sure! Make yourself comfortable.” She handed him a blanket and he took with a quiet ‘thank you.’

Indri laid down and rolled onto her back and spread her wings.

“What do you think Queen Alpine will do to me when she finds us?” Tern asked, breaking the silence.

Indri say up and propped herself up on one elbow. “Queen Alpine won’t find us.”

Tern raised one eyebrow. “She’ll know that I went to seek refuge among the NightWings.” He looked out the window, watching the NightWings fluttering about the artificial night with a pained expression. “I just don’t want anyone to get killed on my account.”

“You killed Khamsin. And helped kill Simoom” She blurted, and immediately felt bad as Tern’s face seemed to flood with guilt.

He looked down at his talons. “I didn’t mean to kill him. I didn’t feel guilty at the time, it happened so fast and it was self-defense, but now…” he spread his talons and curled them so his claws looked like fishhooks. “I killed a dragon, Indri. I don’t want it to happen to anyone else, especially not on my behalf.”

She hesitantly rested her tail tip on his shoulder. She could feel his muscles tense, then relax.

“It’ll be alright. I’m sure Queen Alpine wouldn’t lead her dragons in a pointless war over one half-bred dragonet.” Tern winced. “Sorry, sorry, not that there is anything wrong with being a half breed, but it just doesn’t seem likely.” Indri apologized, realizing her error.

“Except I was raised in the Ice Kingdom and probably know a lot of things that Queen Alpine doesn’t want the NightWings to know. Like the location of the Prison Caves. Or every animus-touched object the IceWings possess. Also, Alpine is a bit… not okay in the head. She’s bent on revenge on the NightWings, even though she did that years ago.”

He flopped down onto the blanket below him. Something silvery poked out from under his wing. “What’s that?” she asked, reaching for it. Tern looked down and quickly hid it.

“Er, nothing.” Indri raised an eyebrow.

“Fine.” She sat back on her haunches like she was giving up… then when he relaxed his wings and his gaze drifted back to the window, she pounced. His wings flew up in surprise and she grabbed the silver thing. A stuffed animal?

“Stop-uh, whatever. Laugh if you have to.” Tern said, looking away.

“Why would I laugh?” she asked, handing the stuffed arctic fox back to him.

He looked at her, eyes wide. “Well, I don’t know, but most dragons do. Dragonets sleep with stuffed animals.”

“Technically we’re still dragonets until we’re ten. I’m only six.” She said matter-of-factly. He looked up at her.

“I’m five.” Younger than me? That’s ridiculous.

She laid back down and sighed. She heard Tern shuffled on the ground beside her. “His name’s Taiga.” He mumbled.

“What’s a taiga?” she asked him.

“A taiga is like, a snowy forest, sort of.”

There was a scratching at the door. “I’ll get it.” Indri flapped over to the door and opened it. A grey streak shot into the room and flung itself under Tern.

“Nippy! Walruses, you look like you’re running from something!” he chuckled, tucking his tail around her.

Gosh, Tern’s smitten with her. I wish the rest of the group could see that Tern’s more than just another grumpy IceWing. Indri flew back to her stone bed and curled up, pulling a blanket up over her wings.

Indri laid there long after Tern had fallen asleep, and his soft snores filled the room. She looked down at him. Tern without his signature scowl looked like a regular dragonet: peaceful and carefree. His mouth was even curved a tiny bit at the edges in a rare smile. Seeing him relaxed made her happy, which then made her confused. Why do I care so much about Tern’s happiness? She thought for a moment. Pineapples, that sounded heartless. I guess I just… like his personality. Yeah. That’s it.

She groaned and flopped over. Feelings were so complicated. And exhausting, before I left I knew I wanted to have dragonets with Jaguar, but now I’m not so sure.

Sleep came, eventually, but it was hard-won.

Her dreams were filled with dragons fighting; Tern slashing at Flicker’s face, Sunfish mauling Nova as she clung to Snowstorm, who was gnawing on Indri’s tail. But Indri couldn’t feel it, so she pulled her tail away and spread her wings, changing her colors rapidly from red to yellow like a flashing light. They all looked up at her and stopped fighting.

Indri awoke with a start, her heart pounding in her chest. She hadn’t coherently done anything in the dream, it was controlling her. But it had felt real. She saw the longing look in Tern’s eye, the disbelief in Flicker’s, the admiration in Sunfish’s, and the look of deep gratitude (that Indri had yet discovered why) that always flashed in Nova’s eyes when she looked at her.

The dawn light shone through the window. Well, it would be dawn. The animus touched sun thing was brightening up for the day. Indri stood up and stretched.

Tern was gone, and he had left the blanket he used folded up neatly on the end of the bed. Carnation was perched on the mantle of the fireplace, preening.

“Good morning, Carnation.” Indri yawned.

“FANTASTIC morning! Indri! Pineapples?” He trilled, hopping up and down. Indri laughed.

“I don’t know what they have for meals here! We’ll see about getting you some pineapple.” Carnation nodded and happily bounced onto her horn.

Indri pushed through the doors and ran into a NightWing. She staggered back, going to fall, so the NightWing grabbed her arm and helped steady her.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to!” he cried, picking up her fallen flower crown and handing it to her.

“No worries! Could you direct me to where the food is?” she asked him.

“Yep! Walk two hallways down and turn left. You can’t miss it; it’s huge with a pair of metal doors.”

“Thank you!” She left to find it.

Chapter Five

Midday

         Indri sat at a large wooden table with Tern, Flicker, Nova, Sunfish, the queen, and a few other NightWings, including Snowstorm, who had glued herself to her mother. Indri noticed Queen Silentwings occasionally shooting reproachful and jealous looks at Nova.

         “So, I’ve sent out more patrols around the island and on the mainland. Their reports have been… unsettling. Apparently Alpine has gathered an army of MudWings to help her find you. They’re combing the continent for us. A patrol of MudWings flat-out attacked a patrol of NightWings.” Silentwings said, her black brow furrowed. “Tern, what the moons did you do to make her hate you so much?”

         “I existed, to start, Then I undermined her by running away, and stole Nova from right under her talons. I never thought she’d try to start something like this, though!” He exclaimed.

         “No one’s blaming you.” The queen said gently.

         “She’s trying to finish what Diamond started.” Nova said quietly.

         “Diamond? What’s she got to do with it?” Silentwings asked.

         “Queen Diamond tried to wipe out the NightWings a hundred years ago. Alpine wants you wiped out. She thinks you are all a parasite, and that you’d all be better dead.”

         “How do you know all of this?” Silentwings asked, a hint of suspicion edging her voice.

         “I used to be her best friend. Before the last battle of the war.” She let her gaze fall to the table, and Indri saw a few droplets splash onto the table. “Duskseer killed King Bear so she killed him.”

         Silentwings reeled. “Duskseer killed Bear? That was a detail left out!” she hissed angrily. “I heard he was dead, but no one told me that Duskseer killed him.” Her eyes glowed with pride. Indri grimaced internally. She’s proud that her son killed the king of the IceWings?! That’s horrifying!

         Nova looked up from the table, her eyes blazing. “Bear was my friend, too, and even though I don’t agree with Alpine’s revenge methods, I will not rejoice over any dead IceWing!” then, in a smaller voice, she added, “It was probably Bear’s death that drove Alpine into the crazy, revenge-driven dragon she is today.”

         The queen frowned. “Fine. But we do need a plan to stop her.”

         Flicker made her voice known. “What we need is a plan to stop the continent from spiraling into a war.”

         “Dear, I’ve run a kingdom for sixty years now. The only way this is being resolved is if we kill Alpine and hopefully the rest of the- I mean, make a dent in their numbers, or we gain alliances and hope we win.”

         “You really want to drag the NightWings back into a war, even after Alpine has so significantly dented your numbers? She’s changed the laws, your Majesty. Every dragonet is trained to kill from the moment they hatch. Seven-year-olds are joining the army, and there was even a ten-year-old general a while ago. This isn’t a battle you’d be able to win.” Tern growled, lashing his tail.

         Silentwings bared her teeth. “I’ll say it again: this is my kingdom. I make the decisions. If you want someone to undermine, then go find Alpine.”

         Tern pressed his head back, looking concerned. “I don’t want anyone to get killed on my acc-”

               “Yes, I know. But this isn’t about you. It’s about setting up the hierarchy of Pyrrhia now.”

         “The hierarchy of Pyrrhia- with all due respect, what do you think this is, the Scorching? We’re not animals, your Majesty, we don’t set up ‘hierarchies’ by fighting like savage beasts!” Tern growled.

         Suddenly, Silentwings stood up and slammed her talons down on the table. “Enough!” she roared, startling Indri. “I run this kingdom and I will continue to run the kingdom and I say WE ARE GOING TO WAR!”

         Everyone’s eyes were wide, even Snowstorm’s. “Now go. I need time to think.” She growled. Everyone shuffled out of the room.

         Indri let out a breath. “Is she always like that?” She asked the little black and white dragonet beside her.

         Snowstorm shook her head, looking nervous. “She’s normally cool and collected. Something about Tern really ruffles her feathers.”

         “Not Tern. Nova. I think she’s jealous that you’re spending time with her instead of her. Not to make you feel bad, it’s just a suggestion.” She added quickly, seeing the crestfallen and torn look on her face.  

         “No, no, you’re right. I guess I really haven’t. I mean, I haven’t even seen Dawnflight since she came, and I haven’t really had time to talk with the queen.” Snowstorm sighed. “What should I do?”

         Indri shrugged. “I don’t have parents. The RainWings are all one big family.” She looked forward, watching wistfully as Nova put a comforting wing around Tern’s slumped form. “Although sometimes I wish we did.”

         Snowstorm cocked her head. “Huh. Who takes care of the dragonets?”

         “The whole tribe. Well, the ones who are best with dragonets, and anyone who wants to is welcome to help.”

         “Sometimes I think it might be better that way. I mean, you really have nothing to lose. No one is there to fret if you come home five minutes late, and likewise, neither do you.” She said thoughtfully. “It just seems free, not having to care about any other dragon.”

         Indri was shocked. “But if you have no love in your life, what is there to live for? Yourself?”

         Snowstorm paused. “Well, yeah. I mean, you can whatever you want! That’s what freedom means You can’t truly live your life connected to someone else!”

         “Well maybe, but nothing would come out of your life.”

         “Really? Think about Intelligent. He was a marvelous NightWing inventor who made a ton of things the tribe can’t live without. And he never married!”

         Indri shrugged. “I didn’t necessarily mean for other dragons. Trust me, when you find the dragon of your dreams, you’ll know I was right all along.”

         Snowstorm scowled, looking scarily like Tern for a second. Then her whole face lit up. “Wait a minute, you say that like you’ve met the ‘dragon of your dreams’. Who is it? Oh! Wait, you’re in love with my brother!”

         Indri recoiled. “What?! No way…”

         “Aw man, don’t try to deny it! It’s all there! Why else would he leave his room to sleep with you? And why else would you let him?”

         Indri opened her mouth to answer when she realized she didn’t have one. Am I in love with Tern? Surely not, I mean, what about Jaguar? I love him, right?

         “And now you’re tearing yourself apart inside, wondering if you do love him. Oh, this is so exciting!!” Snowstorm squealed.

         “Stop it, stop it! No, no, no, I am not in love with Tern!” She cried indignantly.

         “Stage One: denial. Moons, you’re moving fast!”

         Indri pulled at her ears. “Urg.”

         Carnation fluttered down to perch on Indri’s horn. “Pineapple?” He squawked.

         “You just had pineapple, you big baboon.” She laughed.

         “What is THAT?!” Snowstorm asked, her voice full of uncontained enthusiastic curiosity.  

         Indri laughed. “This is Carnation, my parrot.”

         “Carnation is mee!” He screeched, flapping over to land on Snowstorm’s wrist. “What’s you?”

         “Snowstorm!” she replied, delight in her voice.

         “Nice Ice Monster!” He commented to Indri in a conversational whisper.

         “Who’s ‘Ice Monster?” Snowstorm asked.

         “Carnation calls Tern ‘Ice Monster’. He knows it drives him up a tree with annoyance.” She smiled.

         “Stage Two: fond remembrance. Are you really going to deny it?” She asked, an eyebrow raised. Indri stared at her; defiance scrawled over her face. Snowstorm rolled her eyes. “Fine. Have it your way. You’ll see soon enough.” She turned into a large set of doors. “See you later.”

         Indri waved, her mind reeling. She paced over to where her room was and ran into Tern- literally.

         She ran headfirst into his cold scales. “Oh, pineapples, I’m sorry.” She said at the same time he said “Walruses! Are you okay?”

         She nodded. “Want to go fly with me? I need to clear my head.”

         He nodded. “Sure. Just us?” Indri nodded.

         Together they flew to the large set of doors leading to the over world, as Indri had begun referring to it as. She pushed open the doors and let Tern walk through and followed closely behind.

         “I hate the darkness.” She pressed herself closer to Tern.

         “I can see fine it. I guess it’s my NightWing blood.” He sounded tired.

         They emerged into the bright light of day.

         Tern spread his wings, stretching. “What do you think of Silentwings?” she asked.

         “She’s… interesting. At first she seemed like a good queen, but now she seems eccentric and a little chaotic.”

         “Ha! Chaotic is one word I’d use to describe her.”

         “But she also seems kind of lonely. She doesn’t seem to have a king. Maybe he died? And she has one other daughter that Snowstorm mentioned, Dawnflight. Duskseer’s brood sister.”

         “Duskseer and Dawnflight? Moons, they must’ve been close.” Tern chuckled, banking a turn, and flapping up through a cloud.

         Indri watched his tail disappear into the cloud, Snowstorm’s words eating away at her mind. Do I love Tern?

         “You alright?” Tern’s head popped through the cloud.

         “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” She said, trying to sound nonchalant.

         They flew in blissful quiet for a few moments.

         “So, are the NightWings and IceWing going to war?” Indri asked quietly.

         Tern shuddered. “I hope not. From what I’ve heard, both tribes’ total numbers went down at least by a third, and they haven’t quite recovered. A war right now, when we’ve both only had a hundred years to recover… well, I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended in total genocide of both tribes.”

         Total genocide?

         “Well, then they can’t fight!” Indri cried.

         Tern’s wingbeats faltered and he looked at Indri, surprise in his purple gaze. She frowned.

         “I may be soft-spoken, but I can speak up when I need to.” She said indignantly, lashing her tail.

         “O-of course.” He said, regaining his balance. “I just didn’t expect it. But I whole-heartedly agree with you. As much as I didn’t feel welcome in the Ice Kingdom, there were a few dragons who I loved, and I wouldn’t want the rest of the tribe dead either. If one tribe kills another, what’s to stop them from killing another tribe?”

         “Clearly we can’t change her mind, though. We’ll have to do something.”

         “Wait! Tern, please stop!” A NightWing was hurtling through the air towards them.

         “What’s wrong?” Tern asked, his concern apparent.

         “The queen has requested your audience on the meeting platform. Please follow me.” He wheeled around and flew back towards the platform where they had first met the queen. Tern looked and Indri and shrugged, following the NightWing. Indri followed him; her curiosity piqued.

         They landed on the platform together and the NightWing guide quickly flitted off. The queen was perched on her throne, and a chained IceWing lay before her.

         “Brumal?! What are you doing here?” Tern asked, his voice thick with disbelief. The IceWing muttered something through the chains wrapping his snout.

         “Unchain him.” the queen commanded. Two NightWings unwrapped the chains.

         “Tern! Queen Alpine has a message for you!” Brumal cried in a singsong voice.

         “Just spit it out.” Tern snarled. Brumal held up his talons.

         “She wants you to know that she has Floe and Avalanche held safely in her dungeons, awaiting your return. If you don’t make a move within the next full moon, she’ll kill them and deposit their frozen corpses to your doorstep.” His voice dropped to a grisly whisper.

         Tern staggered back, into Indri. His eyes were wild with fear. “How… how did you find me?” he asked in a hoarse voice after a moment.

         Brumal shrugged, the chains on his shoulders rattling softly. “I didn’t. I was wondering the continent then somewhere in the Mud Kingdom these walrus-brains hit me over the head and dragged me here.” Tern relaxed the tiniest bit, but his shoulders were still hard as rocks. Indri trailed her thin tail-tip along his spine.

         Silentwings twitched her tail and one of the guards scrabbled over to rechain Brumal’s snout. However, he was ready for them and shot out a stream of frostbreath, hitting a guard in the chest and freezing him solid in a heartbeat. Several more NightWings came flooding out of the trees and Brumal froze three more of them before being pinned down. Silentwings floated down to land beside Brumal’s ear.

         “I should kill you for that, IceWing. But I think you’ll be much better as a hostage. Throw him in the dungeons.” She ordered, standing up straight. “You are dismissed.” She said to Tern, flicking her tail.

         Indri gathered up Tern, who still looked a bit shell-shocked, and as the two of them swooped away, she heard Silentwings order a NightWing to travel to the Ice Kingdom.

         “He’s going to get killed.” Tern muttered.

         “Well, maybe, but I’m sure Queen Alpine won’t kill a messenger, right?” Tern looked up at her, his normally expressionless eyes filled with anguish.

         “She won’t have to. The Great Ice Cliff will stick a spear through his chest before he gets anywhere near the palace.”

         “What about going around it? Like we did?” Indri asked.

         “Alpine will be expecting that. She’ll post extra guards. But there’s a tunnel.” He stopped flying and hovered. “The cave is the only way to get into the Ice Kingdom, and Floe and I are the only ones who know about it. We have to tell…” his voice trailed off. if Tern tells the queen about it, she’ll use it to launch an attack, but if he doesn’t, that messenger will certainly be killed.

         “War is hard.” Indri said, rubbing her temples. Tern nodded.

         Wordlessly, they flew back to the entrance of the Night Kingdom. As they touched down in front of the gaping maw that was the entrance, Tern stopped Indri.

         “Indri, whatever happens, I just want you to know that I can’t fight my tribe. Either of them. If war does break out, we should… maybe take the others and fly.”

         “Where?”

         “I don’t know, the Sky Kingdom or something.”

         “We could go to the rainforest.” Tern tipped his head thoughtfully.

         “Sure. If war breaks out, then we’ll go to the Rain Kingdom.” Indri nodded and let Tern walk through the tunnel first.

Chapter Six

A Few Days Later…

         The proclamation was out. Queen Alpine had sent messengers to the MudWings and SeaWings, and Queen Silentwings had sent messengers to the SkyWings and SandWings. Both queens had offered treasure in exchange for troops, and all four tribes agreed.

         The queen had immediately been up Tern’s and Nova’s tails, trying to pry IceWing secrets and fighting methods out of them. Eventually Tern had come into Indri’s room and slammed the door.

         “Moons-blasted NightWings! The scrolls never said they were nosy and persistent!” he growled.

         “Are we still thinking about leaving?” She asked, feeding Carnation one last blueberry, and standing up.

         “I haven’t told the other yet, but if they’re alright with it, we’ll leave as soon as possible.”

         “I’ll find Sunfish, you find Flicker and Nova.” Tern nodded and darted out of the room. “And meet back here!” she watched his tail flick around the corner.

         Indri followed him, branching off at a turn. She floundered into a hallway with doors marked with little pictures. A bird here, a snowflake there, a sand dune here. Indri spotted a fish. Seems like a good place to start. She knocked on the door.

         Sunfish opened the door, bleary-eyed. “Were you really just sleeping?” she chuckled.

         “Um. Yes?” he answered, yawning and blinking.

         She shook her head. “I don’t think even RainWings sleep this close to dinner. Any ways, I came to tell you that Tern wants everyone to meet in my room.”

         “Alright. Flicker’s in the room with the bird, and Nova’s in the one with the snowflake.”

         “Why wasn’t I assigned a guest room?”

         “Tern asked specifically for you to have the best room available. Personally, each of the tribe specific rooms are the best. I mean, look at these pools!” He moved aside so Indri could see inside his room. She stuck her tail into one of them. She recoiled, not expecting the warmth that emanated from the pool. Another was cold, and all the pools in the room were slightly a different temperature. Wow. I wonder what the RainWing room is like!

         “Well, I’ll meet at your room soon. You’d better tell Flicker and Nova.”

         Indri left and found Flicker in the bird room. She was laying on a steep cliff face, her tail and one of her wings dangling over the side. She had her tail bands off and her wings were that molten gold color.

         “Flicker?” Indri called. Flicker turned to look at her, her face serene.

         “Yes?”

         “Um, Tern wants us all to meet in my room.”

         “Alright.” She yawned. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

         Indri left her room and headed towards a room with a pineapple engraved in it. She pushed it open and gasped. The room was designed like a beautiful rainforest, with large fruit-bearing trees everywhere, hammocks and platforms built into the trees, a few sloths even hung from some of the trees, moss staining their silver pelts green.

         “Wow …” she whispered, taking it all in. A scrabbling behind her caught her attention.

         “Nova! Oh, I was just going to look for you. Tern wants everyone to meet in my room.” Nova nodded.

         “Alright, where is it?” Indri gave her directions and watched Nova retreat; her scales crusted with ice. Lucky.  

         Indri gazed back longingly at the RainWing room as she followed Nova.

       

         She arrived at her room and pushed open the door. The whole group was there, sitting in a semicircle.

         “Oh, hey Indri. I went ahead and told them, since you already know. Everyone’s on board and we can leave as soon as we’re all ready.” Tern said, motioning for her to sit. She sat down on a pile of blankets.

         “Then let’s go!” She cried, excited at the prospect of finally going home.

         “Tern, I’m just not sure that running away from out problems is going to help. Even with us gone and Silentwings no longer prying IceWing secrets out us, she’s still going to launch a war. Both of the queens are older and eccentric. They will kill-”

         “Mother, we’re leaving and that’s final.” Tern cut her off with a sweep of his tail. “If everyone’s ready we’ll sneak out tonight.”

         “SNEAKING!” Carnation squawked from his perch on Flicker’s horn, startling Indri.

         “Maybe keep him in the room. He’ll give us away.” Tern said, wincing. Indri nodded.

         “Where’s Nippy?”

         “’Playing’ with Snowstorm.” Indri chuckled.

         They talked a little while longer, catching up. Then everyone left and Indri was left alone with her thoughts.

         And Carnation.

         The bird seemed to have gone nuts, saying random things and flying around the room bumping into things. He landed on Indri’s outstretched arm when she called and looked her in the eye. His normally sweet brown eyes seemed beady as he glared at her. Finally, he spoke.

         “You can’t leave!”

         “What?” she asked him, hoping for an actual answer. He hopped up and down and said:

         “They’ll all DIE!” he shrieked incoherently. She picked him up and set him in the little cage that had been provided for him. he just sat on the floor listlessly. He’ll feel better once we get to the rainforest.

         Indri decided to skip dinner. She laid on the bed in the room and rolled around, vainly trying to get comfortable. Eventually she gave up and just watched the fake stars while waiting for Tern to come get her.

Chapter Seven

Midnight…

         Indri heard a knock on the door. It wasn’t the five taps that Tern had said would announce his arrival. It was a soft two taps. She opened the door to Snowstorm’s wet face.

         “What wrong?” Indri gasped, inviting her into the room.

         Snowstorm snuffled. “I heard you were leaving.” Indri frowned.

         “Well, yes, we’re leaving tonight. But we have to; Tern doesn’t want to be a part of the war.”

         “Me neither! Take me with you!” she cried, grabbing Indri’s arm. Then, lowering her voice, she said, “I’m a gifted seer. The queen will use me to hurt other dragons. I don’t want to do that; please let me come.”

         Indri sighed. “Tern is coming soon; you can ask him.” Perfect timing: a pattern of five knocks sounded at the door.

         Tern walked in, followed by Sunfish, Nova, and Flicker.

         “Tern, let me come with you! I don’t want to help the queen hurt my mother’s tribe!” Snowstorm yelped, stumbling over to him. Tern looked uncomfortable.

         “Um, I guess if it’s alright with Indri. Wait, where’s Nippy?” Snowstorm spread her wings to show the small snow leopard curled up on her spine, in between two of her sharp IceWing spikes. Tern picked her up and she let out a few sleepy mumbled before clambering up his head and nestling between his horns.

         “Alright, ready to go?” Tern asked. Indri nodded, turning invisible. She grabbed Carnation’s sleeping form and gently shoved him in her bag. Tern motioned for everyone to follow him and slowly they made their way to the wooden doors and the exit of the Night Kingdom.

         Tern pushed through the doors and ushered everyone through them. Luckily there was no guard and they snuck through the passageway silently. Well, except for when Sunfish tripped over a rock and smashed into Flicker, who stumbled into Indri, who fell into Tern who accidentally flung Nippy twenty feet ahead of them, who let out a loud caterwaul. They’d all frozen, hoping they hadn’t been caught, but when no squadron of angry NightWings burst out of the darkness and burnt them all to crisps, they untangled themselves and continued on.

         When they’d finally reach the outside of the cave and stepped into the real moonlight shining down from the real two moons, Indri had been relieved, changing her scales to their regular taupe.

         “Come on let’s go.” Tern whispered, taking off. Indri followed him, and she heard the soft wingbeats of the others all around her.

         They flew until they reached the mainland, resting for a bit, then flew on to the Rain Kingdom.

         They reached the wall of trees that marked the border of the Rain Kingdom. Indri reached out and touched a tree with a wing, then turned to face the group.

         “This is it. Just be careful; don’t eat anything unless I tell you that you can. Alright?” Everyone nodded. Indri could feel excitement building up inside her as she shouldered past the large trees into the dense rainforest. She took flight, weaving through the trees with skill.

         “Hey, wait up! Some of us has massive wings and haven’t been weaving through trees out entire lives!” Flicker called good-naturedly. Indri stopped flying and turned to look back at the group of dragons tangled in the jungle behind her. She waited for them to reach her then continued of, flying closer to the heart of the jungle where the RainWing village was.

Chapter Eight

         Indri could feel the beat before she could hear it. Her heart sped up and her wings beat faster. Soon she could hear the rhythm and hear the voices raised in song. Her scales were changing colors like they always did when she heard it. She burst into the clearing, ignoring the protests behind her and joined her voice to those of the dragons around her.

         The colors were flowing through her scales, instinctual to the song. The RainWings were fly-dancing, their colors coordinating as they flew, pressing their backs and wings together in a large dance that every RainWing learned to be a part of since they were able to fly.

         Indri flew over to the closest opening and immediately started spinning and flashing her wings, matching the movements of the dragons near her.

         She was vaguely aware of the rest of the group landing on a platform nearby, watching her. Her eyes met Tern’s as he gazed up at her in wonder, his eyes large. She smiled at him and continued dancing and singing the lyrics to the familiar song.

The lyrics were from an old language, so old that no living RainWing even remembered what they meant. But such was RainWing culture, and it was a beautiful song.

         She was surprised to find herself in the middle of the circle of dragons with the one other dragon. They danced together in the center, a duet of flashing colors as the undulated up and down with the rest of the tribe dancing around her.

         The plucking beat stopped and the rhythm around it faded away too. She finished with a flourish, clasping talons with the other dragon in the middle. His eyes met hers and…

         “Indri?!” he cried, blinking. She nodded, her scales settling back to her normal colors. His scales swirled back to the marbled gold and green she knew and loved.

         “Jaguar.” She smiled.

         “What are you doing back here? I thought you were exploring the world!” He said, but he was swirled away by the rest of the tribe, who welcomed back their prodigal dragonet with open arms.

         “Starflower!” Indri cried, throwing herself at her best friend. Her face lit up and they clasped arms smiling.

         She took a good look at her friend. Her golden eyes glittered with beauty. Her periwinkle and aqua scales were edged with gold that complimented her eyes. Starflower had often been called the crown jewel of the rainforest. Where Indri preferred soft, warm tones, Starflower like bold and bright colors.

         “Why are you back?” She asked when the dragons around them finally dissipated.

         “Ha. Um, long story. I assume I can still stay with you?” She asked, hopeful.

         “Of course!”

         “Does it matter that I have four dragons with me?” Starflower squinted at her.

         “What…?” Indri flicked her tail and the group flew up to her.

         “Starflower, meet Tern and Snowstorm the IceWing NightWing hybrids, Flicker the lavascale SkyWing, Sunfish the SeaWing, and Nova the IceWing.”

         “It’s firescale.” Flicker grunted. Indri frowned at them.

         “Guys, this is Starflower, my best friend. She’s being kind enough to let us sleep in her hut tonight.” Indri smiled, showing all her teeth. Starflower seemed to force a coy smile.

         Starflower’s mother was queen of the RainWings. Unlike the rest of the tribe, there was a royal family. Starflower’s older sister, Lily, was next in line for the throne after her mother, Elegance, was ready to abdicate or she was challenged. For now, Starflower had privileges as a princess, her secluded hut one of them.

         They landed on the bamboo platform outside of her hut. It was stunning, covered in growing starflowers and lilies and other beautiful flowers. Starflower motioned for them to come in. Indri pushed through the vines draped over the entrance, déjà vu flowing through her. She opened the flap of her bag and Carnation flew out and turned into the doorway that led to her former room.

         Sunfish was the first to tromp through the hanging vines. “Wow, nice digs.” He said, looking around. Starflower snorted.

         Tern pushed through, then Nova, Snowstorm, and finally, Flicker. “Woah, woah; sorry, but lavascales can’t be in my hut. I don’t want it to burn down.”

         Flicker rolled her eyes. “For one, my scales aren’t fired up right now. These bands protect my surroundings. And second, they’re FIRESCALES!”

         “Your wings do look like molten gold when you take the bands off. ‘Lavascales’ isn’t that far-fetched.” Tern pointed out, releasing Nippy.

         “OH MY GOSH. OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH! WHAT IS THAT?!” Starflower shrieked, crouching down to examine the snow leopard, her eyes as big as watermelons.

         Tern flinched. “That’s Nippy, Tern’s snow leopard.” Indri said.

         “She’s SO CUTE!” Starflower gave a little hop as Nippy licked her nose. Suddenly her head shot up, startling the little cat. “Do you think she’ll want to play with Rosette?” Indri nodded. The little snow leopard was always looking for someone new to play with. “I’ll go get her.” The periwinkle dragon disappeared into another room. She returned with a tiny, sleepy-looking leopard. She set him down on the floor and shoved him forward towards Nippy gently. He yawned and curled up again.

         Nippy wasn’t satisfied with is display. She leaped onto his back and began biting at his scruff. He jumped up and rolled over, his instincts taking over.

         Rosette was older and larger than her, but not by much. Indri watched with amusement as the two of them rolled around on the floor, growling, and occasionally letting out tiny roars.

         “Aww,” Starflower cooed, watching them play.

         A knock sounded at the door. “Come in,” Starflower called cautiously.

         Jaguar’s green and gold head popped in. “Indri! I thought I’d find you here. But not with a quartet of other dragons.” He said, stiffening. “Indri, who are they?” He demanded.  

         She put her tail on his shoulder. “It’s alright. Guys, this is Jaguar. Jaguar, this is Tern and Snowstorm the NightWing IceWing hybrids, Sunfish the SeaWing, Nova the IceWing, and Flicker the…” she dissolved into giggles. “Flicker the contained Lavascale.”

         “Firescale.” Flicker said, but her growl was edged with a laugh.

         Jaguar raised his eyebrows. “Um. Okay.” He backed up and curled his tail around Indri’s protectively. She smiled at him.

         Tern caught Indri’s eye. He was glaring icicles at Jaguar. Luckily he didn’t see it.

         “So, Indri, why did you come back?” Jaguar asked. Indri froze. Last time she’d ‘leaked’ information Tern had gone crazy and, well, it ended with two SandWings dying. She looked at Tern, trying to decide what to tell him.

         “We’re fugitives.” She blurted, internally punching herself.

         Jaguar raised his eyebrows. “Fugitives?”

         “We’re not fugitives. We’re trying to escape an inevitable war between the IceWings and NightWings.” Tern stepped in, saving Indri.

         Jaguar scrunched his face up. “How is you running away going to stop a war?”

         “He’s a NightWing IceWing hybrid. Queen Alpine of the IceWings wants to keep him trapped in the Ice Kingdom as punishment for what Nova did.” Indri explained. Nearby, Sunfish helped himself to a bowl of berries, earning himself a well-deserved smack from Flicker.

         “Nova did what?” he asked, glancing at the shiny dragoness.

         “She’s Tern’s mother.” Indri said, feeling tension rising as Tern hesitantly put a supportive wing around Nova. Snowstorm stood next to her, chin raised defiantly.  

         “Oh.” Jaguar shifted uneasily. “Indri, could we talk…? Alone?” He asked, shooting Tern a look. Indri blinked.

         “Sure. Let’s go to my room.” She carefully hopped over the whirling mass of gold and silver on the floor and glided into her old room. The soft tones and fragrant flowers comforted her as she plopped down onto a light pink bean bag chair in the corner. Carnation squawked a greeting from his perch, his strangeness past.

         “What’s wrong?” Indri asked Jaguar. He sat down next to her and put a wing around her.

         “I don’t like that Tern dragon. He seems… stuck up.” Jaguar growled, his tail twitching. Indri frowned at him.

         “He’s an IceWing; they have… high standards. He was raised with the IceWings not knowing he was a hybrid… and well, he was bullied. That’s how he got his prickly personality. He’s kind of like a pineapple; hard and pointy on the outside but sweet on the inside.” Jaguar squinted.

         “You like him, don’t you?” he asked, hurt tinging his growl and blue swirling through his scales..

         “Of course, I like him! We’re friends. He’s saved my scales more than once.”

         “No. You like him like him.”

         “What? No!” She exclaimed, alarmed.

         “Don’t lie! It’s as clear as the snout on your face!” Jaguar yelled, standing up.

         “What, no! Stop! I don’t love Tern! Not like that!” she cried, standing up. Jaguar’s scales were rolling sunset colors now, all traces of the blue gone. He flared his scarlet ruff. “We’re just friends!”

         “Yeah? ‘Just friends’ don’t look at each other the way he looks at you and the way you look at him. ‘Just friends’ don’t rush into the middle of possible enemy territory so that a homesick RainWing can see her home again!”

         “Then you’re lying to yourself as much as you are to me.” He snarled softly, then he whipped around and left in a furious ball of scarlet.

         Indri crumpled down onto the bean bag chair and sobbed, wrapping her storm-cloud grey wings around herself. Carnation flew down and snuggled into her, cooing noises. Indri sniffed and tried to regain her composure. Maybe what Jaguar says is true. Maybe I do like Tern. But I’ve known Jaguar almost as long as I’ve been alive; I’ve only known Tern for a week or so. It feels kind of rushed, if were going to become a couple.

         Starflower pushed her head in through the doorway. “Is everything alright? Jaguar just stormed out of the house, really angry-” she cut herself off as she turned around and saw Indri’s tear-blotched face. “Oh, my grapefruits! Are you alright?” Indri nodded, sniffling and turning her face away.

         “Oh, Indri, did he break up with you?” Starflower asked, sitting down next to her and curling a wing around her. She nodded.

         “He thinks I’m in love with Tern.” Starflower snorted.

         “That’s clear enough. He could have let you down more gently.”

         “Even you?” she groaned. “Why does everyone think I’m in love with Tern?”

         “It’s obvious. Every time his eyes meet yours your frill turns pink. Well, pinker than it already is.” Starflower reasoned. What?

         “Really?” Everything makes a little bit more sense now.

         Starflower gave her a disbelieving glance. “You… don’t do that on purpose? Well, then, it must be true love.” Indri rolled her eyes. She loved Starflower to death, (as a friend) but she had a real obsession with fairy tales. She was always bringing up ‘true love’ and ‘love at first sight’. Indri was a realistic dragon, at least for a RainWing. And love at first sight definitely didn’t happen. Happily ever afters or true love, maybe, but not love at first sight.

         And now everyone though she was in love with a dragon she wasn’t in love with. Maybe. Arrrg.

         A crash sounded in the main living room, where her friends were gathered. Starflower darted out of the room, Indri on her tail.

         She ran into pandemonium. An IceWing, not Tern, was battling on he ground with Sunfish. Ice was sprayed all over the room. Flicker had been hit on the shoulder, and Indri watched in horror as it spread up her neck and down her leg… then Flicker threw herself out of the house and ripped off her gold bands. Indri watched, relieved, as the fire in her scales melted all the ice.

         Back in the hut, the IceWing had Tern and Sunfish pinned. Starflower was cowering in the corner, Nova was lying on the floor, her chest rising and falling weakly. Snowstorm was standing in front of Nova, her teeth bared.

         “Caribou! What are you doing here?” Tern growled, his voice muffled by Caribou’s talons.

         The IceWing lowered his snout to be right next to Tern’s. “The queen says this war will never be over unless you’re safe and sound back in the Ice palace’s dungeon. With Floe and Avalanche. Turn yourself in and no one gets hurt.”

         Tern seemed to go crazy, flailing his limbs around. “Floe is your sister! You should be there for her! You should be ashamed of yourself!” He roared.

         Indri couldn’t take it anymore. She lunged forward, quick as a snake, and released a few droplets of venom. Time seemed to slow down as they found their mark on his wings.

         Silence fell around the hut for a second, save for Tern’s flailing, until Caribou started screaming. He released Tern and Sunfish. Tern lunged for Caribou, and Sunfish lunged for Tern.

         Indri felt sick. She’s never used her venom on any living thing, only RainWings in the army had done that purposefully. She knew her scales were rolling green. Starflower crept around the room and put a wing around Indri.

         Flicker flew back in. “Three moons, what happened here?” She asked, surveying the room.

         Meanwhile, the venom had worked its course on Caribou. He was lying on the floor, with three holes in his wing. Not big enough to destroy his flight, but enough to slow it detrimentally. He staggered to his feet. Tern crouched, held back feebly by Sunfish, but ready to attack the IceWing if it was deemed necessary.

         “Tern.” Caribou rasped. “I don’t want to hurt Floe, but my loyalty is to my tribe and queen, not my own wants. If the queen wants me to kill Floe, she’ll die by my talons. That’s where you went wrong.” He snarled, his strength slowly returning. “Weak, lowborn NightWing.”

         “What is the meaning of this?” A new voice asked. Indri turned to look at her.

         “Queen Pulchritudinous! What are you doing here?” Indri exclaimed, pulled out of her horror for a second.

         The queen of the RainWings spread her wings. Indri bowed her head, hoping that everyone else would as well.

         Queen Pulchritudinous was a very large RainWing who had ruled the tribe for years. She was mainly a vibrant lime green, with yellow highlights and blue eyes. She wore several chains of flowers, woven around her in large swaths.

         “Who are these dragons that you’ve brought into my kingdom, Indri?” She asked.

         “U-um, just Tern and Snowstorm the Icewing NightWing hybrids, Sunfish the SeaWing, Flicker the SkyWing, and Nova the IceWing. This other Icewing followed us, er, because we fled to the jungle to escape a war that brewing that we might have started.”

         Pulchritudinous looked amused. “You six started a war. Right.”

         “No, really, mother, between the IceWings and NightWings. Well, actually it was mostly Tern, apparently.” Starflower found her tongue.

         Now she looked graver. “You six have awoke a sleeping giant. Two, actually. I knew their tentative peace wasn’t going to last forever.” She began pacing. “They’ll be vying for my alliance.”

         "Actually, Queen Pulchi-something-something, they’ve already formed alliances. The IceWings have allied with MudWings and SeaWings, and the NightWings are with the SkyWings and SandWings.” Snowstorm interjected.

         “Right. ‘Lowborn lazy pacifists’. I forgot about that whole rumor was going around. But I have a whole invisible, venom spitting army at my disposal.” She growled.

         “Mom, you should give Flicker, Indri, and Tern a wing of soldiers. If we’re planning on ending the war,” Starflower said, resting her wing on her mother’s.

         “Give two strange dragons a command? Not happening.” She answered with a distrustful glance at the gathered dragons.

         “Trust me mother, you can trust them. They want to end this war as much as you do. Indri has traveled with them; she trusts them.”

         “Starflower dear… let’s talk in the other room.” They walked into another room.

         Indri sat down next to Sunfish, who was still restraining Tern. Sunfish burst out laughing.

         “What?” Indri asked, defensive.

         “Her name! Pulchrin-something-something!” Sunfish continued laughing. Indri gently whacked him with her tail as the queen walked back in and he managed to pull himself together. Tern sat, squashed, underneath Sunfish's bulk, tears running down his face. Indri wished she could run over and hug him.

         “Starflower has convinced me, against my better judgement, to allow Tern, Indri and Flicker a squadron of eight RainWings each. Your superior will be Cheerful.” She flicked her tail at the blue and yellow guard next to her.

         “He doesn’t look too cheerful.” Sunfish whispered, looking at Cheerful’s face.

         Indri giggled. “He didn’t choose his name!”

         “You will consult him before making any big decisions.” The queen continued.

         “Thank you, your Majesty.” Flicker said, bowing. Indri bowed and even Tern reluctantly dipped his head, even though he still looked like he wanted to murder Caribou.

         “Report to the main pavilion at sundown. There I’ll assign you your squads.” She turned and flew out of the hut, the tied-up Caribou in tow.

         Indri let out a breath. “An entire squadron?! I don’t know how to battle myself, but now I have to lead an entire squadron? Starflower, what were you thinking?”

         “You can do it, Indri.” Starflower said, raising an eyebrow. She rolled her eyes.

         “I’m just a dragonet! I don’t know the first thing about training an army!”

         “In IceWing society, once a dragon turns seven, they’re considered an adult. You’re just a year away.” Nova pointed out. Indri growled.

         “I’m not an Icewing!” she flung out her wings.

         “You could look like one.” Starflower pointed out. Indri gave an exasperated face, shifting her scales to a pale blue and pinching her frill uncomfortably tight.

         “Now will you leave me alone?” she asked. Nova nodded, chuckling.

         “You could shift the blues around your frill to a darker shade. And look at Nova; her scales don’t just stay the same blue. Like this:” Starflower shifted her scales to a white with dark blue highlights.

         “Wow. I wouldn’t have looked twice if I saw you in the Ice Kingdom.” Nova said, inspecting her frill.

         It was true. You wouldn’t have known Starflower to be a different tribe unless you looked very closely.

         “Well, You just make yourself at home. I’m going out to search for fruit.” Starflower said, gathering her wings.

         “This way, there’s a guest room over here, and my room is over there…” Starflower walked around with Flicker, Sunfish, Snowstorm, and Nova.

         Indri sat down next to Tern. He was laying on the ground, his back rising and falling as he cried softly.

         Indri put a wing around him.

Chapter Nine

Sunset…

         Indri shifted her weight nervously. She was standing on the pavilion, Flicker and Tern on either side of her. Twenty-four RainWing soldiers stood in front of her, some looking sorely unimpressed by the three dragonets and some looking sorry for them. Queen Pulchritudinous stood in between them.

         “Tern, I am assigning you Mango, Baobab, Macaw, Beauty, Sleek, Gorgeous, Ant, and Attractive. Flicker, you get Caiman, Durian, Gooseberry, Hopeful, Kaffir, Monkey, Camilia, and Rio. Indri, you get Kudzu, Sicklebill, Cocoa, Anaar, Aura, Charm, Exotic, and Alyssum.” Indri watched as the eight RainWings that had been assigned to her sorted themselves into a group.

         “Hi.” She said shyly, waving. She heard one of them grunt. Another hissed, “Quiet, Anaar. She’s just a dragonet.” Indri put her face in her talons. What was the queen thinking? She glanced at her companions. Tern already had his in a line and Flicker was joking around with hers.

         Pulchritudinous walked up to Indri. “Dear, how about you get Starflower to help you. She knows a bit more about this, being a princess.” Indri bowed. “Everyone follow Indri.” The queen said Indri’s squad.

         Indri took off, hearing the wingbeats of her new companions behind her.

         She landed on the platform of the hut a few minutes later. The dragons behind her had nearly overtaken her multiple times and she could tell that some of them were annoyed at having to control their speed.

         “Indri! And, um, a bunch of other dragons. What’s going on?” Starflower asked, poking her head out through the door.

         “Your mother wants us both to take control of this squad since I clearly have no idea what I’m doing.” Indri said, blushing.

         “Oh.” Starflower said, rubbing her eyes. “We’re so screwed.”

       

         The group ‘trained’ for a while, which basically meant doing flying exercises and venom targeting. Finally the Queen came and put Indri out of her misery.

         “Training is done for today. Meet back at the main pavilion tomorrow.”

         The dragons dispersed, leaving just Indri, the queen, and Starflower.

         “That was exhausting.” Indri said, letting her wings droop.

         “Sorry, I suppose I should have debriefed you on what to do.” The queen said. “I’ll just tell you now.”

         She told Indri and Starflower about a collection of basic drills and commands. By the time she was finished, Indri's brain hurt.

         “Moons, Starflower. I can’t believe you’ll have to remember all that some day!” Indri gasped once the queen left.

         “Me neither.” She said begrudgingly.

         “Do you know where Sunfish is?” Indri asked. Starflower nodded, rolling her eyes.

         “Sleeping inside. All day. When he’s not eating all the fruit in the rainforest.” She growled. Indri snorted.

         “Sounds like Sunfish. He’ll eat and sleep all day if you’d let him.” She flicked her tail at the hut. “Case in point.”

         Tern and Flicker came crashing down into the platform.

         “I WON!” Tern shouted, standing up. Flicker growled.

         “I’m a SkyWing; that’s impossible. Indri, who won?”

         Indri froze. “Er, you both won? Anyways, how did your day go?” She asked, tentatively trying to change the subject while also loving this new, playful side of Tern’s personality. At least having a squad is helping Tern cope with his friend and sister in the IceWing dungeon.

         “Good. It’s nice having older dragons bow to my every whim.” Tern said jokingly, though his amusement was unable to overshadow the fear and sadness in his eyes.

         “Reminds me of my time in the Sky Kingdom. After I disguised myself, of course. I was a sergeant for a little while, in the army.” Flicker said. “How was yours?”

         “Not great. I had literally no idea what to do.” Indri said. “They all hate me.”

         “I’m sure that’ll get better.” Flicker said, putting an almost uncomfortably warm wing around Indri.

         “We’re supposed to go to the pavilion again tomorrow.” Starflower said, walking into the hut and gesturing for them to follow.

         Indri groaned. “I forgot about that. Oh, Another day to suffer through…” she groaned, throwing herself onto a hammock. She laid on her back, thinking, as the rest of the dragons ate and chatted around her.

         Eventually she fell asleep, despite the chattering dragons around her. Tern noticed, looking around. He slinked up to Indri and hoisted her onto his back. She woke up from the jostling and the sudden changed of bedding temperature, but honestly it would be to awkward for either of them if she wake up and tried to talk to him. He walked her back into her room and slid her gently off his back into her own hammock. Aww, how sweet. She caught herself thinking. Pineapples, maybe I really do like him. She watched through cracked lids as her walked away, shooting one last glance over his shoulder at Indri’s ‘sleeping’ form.

         Tern has really changed since I first met him. Sure, he’s still snippy at times, and he’s still awkward in an adorable kind of way, but he’s not as grumpy and mean. And he’d never play the way he did earlier or carry me to my room.

         She rolled over and fell asleep, dreaming of Tern.

Chapter Ten

The Next Morning…

         Indri woke with a start. Tern was shaking her shoulders, trying to wake her.

         “Tern! What is it?” She asked, seeing the distressed look on his face. She peeked around the room. It was still dark outside.

         “Queen Pulchru- Queen Pulchri- the queen wants to see us.” He said, stumbling over his words.

         “What does she want?” Indri asked, rubbing her eyes, and stumbling out of her hammock.

         “Queen Alpine did something. She wants us to meet at the main pavilion.” Indri shook herself.

         “Oh no. With our squads?” she asked, dreading the answer. He nodded. She growled.

“Come on, it’s not that bad. Let’s go.” He bounded out of the room. Indri dragged herself over to the perch where Carnation was sleeping.

         “Come on, bird. If I have to go, you have to go.” She grabbed him and perched him on her horn. He muttered some curse sleepily.

         She quickly trotted out to the pavilion outside Starflower’s hut and grabbed a clawmentine that was growing and snacked on it while she waited for Flicker and Tern. Sunfish came out of the hut, yawning.

         “I’ll come with you guys. And Snowstorm is coming too, give her a minute.” Indri nodded.

         They came out a few minutes later. “Ready to go?” Flicker asked. Indri nodded reluctantly. She crouched and spread her wings. The five of them flew through the rainforest at an agonizingly slow pace.

         They finally made it and found the RainWings had already gathered in their groups. The queen was standing there, a worried look on her face.

         “The IceWings have attacked. They’re at the edge of the rainforest, freezing crops and animals. They’ve frozen two squadrons of RainWings already; I want you three to take your squads and engage them.”

         “Isn’t that a death with? I mean, they’ve frozen two squadrons already; why would we be any different?” Flicker asked.

         “I’m evacuating the rain forest for now; we have a system of caves nearby. I need your squads to hold them off.”

         “With all due respect, three squadrons of RainWings wouldn’t be able to hold off a squadron on IceWings. We’re trained to kill from the moment we hatch.” Tern said, nervously.

         “We don’t fight like regular dragons. We camouflage and then shoot venom.” She explained. “None of you, except Indri, can shoot venom, so you’ll hide in the trees. The other squadrons were ambushed training.”

         “B-but we’ve barely done anything! We have no idea what to do!” Indri protested.

         “Indri, you can do it. I wouldn’t trust this mission to just any dragon. Just remember, you’re protecting your home and family.” Indri nodded, still wary.

         A crash sounded nearby. “Indri! Go!” the queen cried, gathering up a few stray dragonets.

         Indri scrambled into the air, her friends and their squads following close behind.

         Tern took control. “Indri, Flicker, take your squads and branch off. We need to surround them. RainWings, camouflage, and Flicker, Sunfish, Snowstorm and I will travel in the trees. Keep an eye out and make sure your opponent is an IceWing and not a fleeing RainWing.”

         The RainWing soldiers nodded, making their scales invisible. Indri did the same.

         She led her soldiers away from Tern’s and flanked the IceWing soldiers. Adrenaline pumped through her veins. She was terrified. She only used her venom on Caribou, and that hadn’t killed him, but now the queen wanted her to kill a bunch of dragons? Who each had families and lives of their own?

         She nearly ran into an IceWing. He was freezing a banana tree and snapping all the fruits in half. Don’t hurt my rainforest! She lunged forward and bit him, still invisible. He yelped and looked around.

         “Who did that?” he yelled; his fear apparent. “Powder! That’s not funny!”

One of Indri’s soldiers lunged forward and splatted venom into the IceWing’s eyes. He screamed, and then it was done. The first IceWing casualty of the IceWing-NightWing follow up war.

         “Come on.” Kudzu, one of her soldiers, pulled Indri away gently from the silver corpse. She followed alongside her numbly, still thinking about the IceWing. Where was he from? Did he have a family who loved him? Was Powder his girlfriend?

         They found the main cluster of IceWings traipsing through the forest (quite loudly) heading towards the village. She could see Tern, Flicker, Sunfish, Snowstorm, and the vague outlines of their squads on the other side. She saw Tern nod, and then she flicked her tail and her soldiers leaped forward, engaging the confused IceWings with their teeth and venom.

         Indri kind of stood in the middle of it, not sure what to do. IceWings clashed with invisible dragons while Tern, Flicker, Sunfish, and Snowstorm sat in the trees, watching.

         An IceWing lunged at her from overhead, so she ducked under him, lightly drawing her claws along his underside. She couldn’t bring herself to do anything more.

         “The shadows! Watch the shadows!” the IceWing called. Indri looked down. She did still have a shadow, even though she was camouflaged.

         Something bit her tail, hard. She yelped and clawed at the IceWing’s snout. He clamped harder.

         Indri’s tail felt like to was about to fall off. She roared, clawing feebly still at the offender’s snout.

         A scream pierced the air, but it was cut off with a thud.

         An IceWing had collided with Tern, and he had fallen out of the tree. The IceWing that had accidentally collided with him had grabbed nearby tree branch and hit him over the head with it. The IceWing biting Indri’s tail shot away, leaving Indri to gasp in relief.

         He grabbed Tern’s unconscious body and revealed a hidden knife, pressing it to Tern’s throat. “Tern!” Indri cried.

         “Make one more move and the hybrid’s throat is slit.” He growled. A RainWing near Indri released the IceWing he was biting. “Good. Now, make yourselves visible.” He commanded.

         The RainWings looked to Indri. She un-camouflaged herself and nodded. The RainWings around her followed her lead. The lead IceWing flicked his head at the IceWings around him. “Tie them all together. No one will find them, not when all the cowardly RainWings are fleeing. RainWings, you’re lucky we don’t just kill you right now.” An IceWing near Indri lunged at her and pinned her to the ground in a heartbeat.

In a matter of minutes, all the RainWings were tied up with vines in the center of the clearing. Indri was directly in the middle of the mass of dragons. Where are Flicker and the others?

The IceWings tied Tern up as well and airlifted him out of the rainforest and towards the Ice Kingdom.

         A few uncomfortable minutes passed. Indri’s gag seemed to suffocate her. But for all her worries, she couldn’t stop fretting about Tern. Was he alright? Were the IceWings instructed to kill him, or just bring him to Alpine? Would Alpine kill him?

         A crash sounded in the trees. Flicker came stumbling out. “Flicker! They took Tern!” Indri cried, her voice muffled and intelligible.

         “I know. Shh, here, hold still.” Flicker sliced through the vines with her claws. Indri ripped the gag from her snout and stumbled over to where Flicker was. Sunfish and Snowstorm joined her.

         “They took Tern!” Indri cried tearfully. “We have to get him back!”

         “No, first we need to report back to the queen. She’ll tell us what to do.” Flicker argued gently.

         “No! Tern might be dead by the time we reach him. We need to go now and catch up to them before they pass the Great Ice Cliff. I’m leaving now, and my squad is coming with me. Flicker, Sunfish, Snowstorm? Are you coming?”

         Each of them hesitated, driving Indri crazy. “Come on, Snowstorm, Tern’s your brother. You just met him, and now you want to lose him to Alpine again? You owe it to Nova to help get him back.” Snowstorm shuffled nervously.

         “That’s true… alright, I’ll help get Tern back.” She said, a note of finality in her voice.

         “I’d follow you to the ends of the earth, Indri.” Sunfish said, leaping forward. Indri smiled a bit at him.

         “Well, I still think it would be better to check in with your queen first.” Flicker snorted.

         “Come on, Flicker! We need you and your firescales!” Indri begged. Flicker rolled her eyes and huffed.

         “Aright, fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

         “We’re coming too.” One of Tern’s squad members stepped up. “He’s technically our leader.” Indri nodded.

         Flicker turned to her squad. “All of you, go help the queen and tell her where we’re going. I’ll take over leading Tern’s.” Indri nodded, a bit tearfully.

         Sunfish sprang into the air. “Let’s go save Tern!”

Chapter Eleven

A Few Minutes Later…

         Indri flapped in front of everyone. Even Flicker hung back and let her lead. But she wasn’t concerned with all that. Only one thing mattered: getting Tern back.

         “So, what’s your plan?” Flicker asked, sidling up to glide next to Indri.

         “I don’t really have one.” Indri admitted tensely.

         “Oh, ok. So, we’re flying into hostile territory with no plan other than one heartbroken RainWing’s impulse.” Flicker said casually.

         “Stop it. We’ll figure something out. Tern would do the same for any of us.”

         “Save the ‘he would do the same’ speech. I know he , but that really doesn’t change the fact that we need a plan.” Flicker flicked her tail irritably.

         “Right now, the plan is fly as fast as we can to catch up to the moons-cursed IceWings.” Indri growled.

         Flicker rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You’re the leader. But you will regret jumping into dangerous territory with thinking.” She fell back to glide beside her squad.

         They flew for what felt like hours before the looming Cliff appeared on the horizon.

         “We need to go around it, over the ocean.” Flicker yelled over the crashing waves. Indri nodded and veered off her flight path to follow her.

         They flew for another few ‘hours’ until they finally touched down on the cold, snowy shore of the Ice Kingdom.

         “Camouflage,” Indri ordered, “and spread out. Flicker, take your squad, Sunfish, take Tern’s and Snowstorm, go with Flicker. Meet back here in two hours.” They each nodded and went their separate ways.

         Indri flew with her squad (uncomfortably) on her tail, through the harsh cold of the IceWings’ territory.

         “Look!” Sicklebill called, pointing to shiny series of buildings in the distance.

         “Woah. Is that…?”

         “Yeah. The IceWing Palace.” Indri said, her voice full of awe.

         “Should we go get everyone else?” Charming asked.

         Indri hesitated. Her head knew it was the responsible thing to do, but her heart wanted to tear up the entire kingdom searching for him.

         “No.” She decided. “We can camouflage and infiltrate the kingdom by ourselves.”

         “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Anaar asked. “We’re eight dragons and a dragonet. How far can we get in a guarded palace?”

         Indri sighed. “I know we can do it; we just need to play our cards right.”

         “I don’t feel like dying today, so I’m going to sit this one out.” Anaar said, sniffing haughtily.

         The other RainWings were silent for a heartbeat, then Kudzu spoke up.

         “The queen wanted us to follow her. I’ll follow my queen anywhere, even if it ends in my death.”

         The other RainWings raised their voices in agreement. “We’ll follow you anywhere!”

         Indri was touched that they believed in her but a little miffed that they thought it would end in their deaths. She pushed her thoughts aside and strengthened her resolve to find Tern.

         Anaar grumbled. “I still think we should go back and consult the queen. She’ll know what a horrible decision this is.”

         “By the time we made it to rainforest and back, Tern might be dead. We really don’t have any choice other than to infiltrate it now.” Sicklebill pointed out.

         Anaar’s scales were rolling reds and oranges now. “Your point is?! I don’t want to risk my life for some pesky dragonet who got on the wrong side of his queen! If anything, he should’ve been loyal from the very beginning!” She snarled.

         Without warning, Indri leaped across the distance separating her and the older dragon. She pinned her down, using the same technique Tern had used on Sunfish.

         Honestly, she surprised herself as she bared her venom-filled fangs over Anaar’s eyes.

         “We are going to go save Tern and that’s final.” She growled, seeing the fear in Anaar’s eyes and the newfound respect in the others. Anaar nodded, growling, but she couldn’t do anything, not with Indri’s fangs over her.

         She stepped off of her, a little stunned. “Good. We’ll leave now.”  She took off, not giving any of them time to complain.

         She forced herself not to think about it as she flew into the bitter cold heart of the Ice Kingdom.

Chapter Eleven

A Few Moments Later…

         Indri camouflaged herself, thinking cold thoughts. She shivered. The cold winds felt like they were slowly freezing her wings, making them feel brittle.

         She turned and watched as the rest of her squad disappeared into the snow, Anaar’s grumbling snout the last to disappear. Good. Now we just have to find Tern.

         She made her wing light blue and gestured for them to follow her. They followed her as she slunk over the cold wall around the palace.

         There were IceWings all over the palace courtyards, surrounding a large tree. The details were astonishingly accurate, carved into the translucent ice trunk and in every frost-kissed leaf. Little globes that emitted a faint glowing grew from each branch, and Indri realized that every IceWing had a globe floating above their shoulders, lighting the path ahead of them.

         Oh, cool!

         She turned and saw the nearly invisible shadows of the camouflaged RainWings. Just a thin, very light shadow that fell on the snow, but the contrast made it seem way to dark to Indri. She frantically motioned for the RainWings to follow her.

         She made her way, slowly, dodging IceWings and keeping to the shadows. When she reached the big icicle-thing that stuck out of the ground, she slipped past the guards and through the doors. She assumed the biggest ice-spire thing was the palace, but she’d have to be ready for anything.

         Inside it was even colder than outside, even though they were sheltered from the wind. Everything was made of ice. The walls, the windows, the throne. There were even what looked like tiny snowflakes fluttering in the walls, mimicking the weather outside. I wonder how they do that.

         One of the RainWings smacked her over the head, motioning to a hallway. Indri nodded and darted across the large throne room, eyeing the guards posted at the base of the throne. Luckily they didn’t catch on as Indri and the other RainWings disappeared into the hallway.

         Indri breathed a sigh of relief as a RainWing shut the door quietly behind her.

         “Split up. You three, go this way. You three, go this way, and you two and I will go this way.” They nodded and split up accordingly.

         Indri dove through a door. It lead to a staircase, which Indri flew down. Her two companions, Kudzu and Sicklebill, followed her a little more cautiously.

         “Look!” Indri flung a wing back to prevent Sicklebill from flying straight into the three IceWing guards’ snouts. “Those doors look like dungeon doors. Tern might be behind them!”

         “Okay. Here, take this. It’s experimental, but we took some plants from the rainforest and turned them into a juice that these darts are soaked in. Hypothetically, when it’s shot through this blowgun and into the target’s neck, it’ll put the dragon to sleep.” Kudzu handed her a straw looking-thing and three small triangular darts.

         “Here goes nothing.” She put the tube to her mouth and blew hard. The dart shot out with a small whistle and penetrated the first IceWing’s neck. He felt his neck, looking confused, then his knees buckled and he collapsed. When the other two IceWings ran over to his aid, Indri shot at them, too. Soon enough all three IceWings were laying a pile, tongues lolling.

         She slid past the unconscious IceWings and pushed at the door. It was locked.

         Indri noticed a silver keyring with a bunch of keys on the necklace around one of the IceWing’s necks. “Grab that, please.” Indri instructed. Sicklebill reached over, shivering, to grab the keyring. She slid it off the IceWing’s neck and tossed it to Indri. She slid one of the many keys into the lock on the door and with a click, opened the door. Sicklebill camouflaged herself.

         Darting inside, Indri shivered as she ran her wingtip over every set of bars, looking at each dragon locked inside. Most were IceWings, but there was one really miserable looking NightWing whom Indri recognized as the messenger. She unlocked his door and he looked at her, confused, until she realized she was still invisible. She quickly made herself visible, much to the NightWing’s shock.

         “Fly back to the Night Kingdom. I’m only rescuing you once.” Indri warned, letting him fly past her in a frenzy. He nodded, thanking her.

         She continued looking through the cells for Tern. She found him in the last one. He was asleep in a pile on the floor next to a much larger IceWing, a frown on his twitching face.

         Indri pulled a key out of the ring and tried it in the door, and then another when that one didn’t work. Her talons were shaking from the cold, making the keys clank against one another.

         She gazed back at Tern as she sifted through the keys. His eyelids started fluttering as she made some more noise accidentally with the keys. “Tern.” She hissed, trying to not to wake the other prisoner in the cell. He awoke with a start.

         “Indri? What-how-what are you doing here?” He scrambled over to the bars where she was still trying to find the right key.

         “Saving you.”

         He scoffed. “I know that. How did you get in?” His eyes twinkled anxiously.

         “Camouflage. And the RainWing’s new sleeping darts. Come on, we have to hurry.” Indri twitched her tail impatiently.

         Tern looked up with a pained expression. “I can’t. She’s sick.” He lifted up his wing to reveal a pinkish IceWing, a little smaller than Tern. She was thin and raggedy, her cerulean eyes seeping.

         “Tern? What’s going on?” The other IceWing asked, lifting her head, her ryes bleary.

         “This is my friend, Indri, who I was telling you about.” Tern said, his face going a little bluer than normal.

         “Ah, yes. The magical little RainWing who saved you multiple times.” Tern snorted with a nervous chuckled.

         Indri thought it was funny, but she brushed it off. “It doesn’t matter. Sicklebill, the rest of the RainWings, and I won’t be able to stay much longer. Plus, we’re supposed to meet Flicker and Sunfish with their squads in an hour.”

         “Flicker and Sunfish came?” Tern asked, a tiny glimmer of surprised joy in his eyes. Indri raised her eyebrows.

         “Dragons care about you more than you think, Tern. Now come on, Sicklebill and your sarcastic friend can help her.” Tern nodded, helping the pinkish IceWing up. She groaned as Sicklebill and the other IceWing rushed to support her. Indri helped Tern up and he immediately rushed to help the sick IceWing.

         Indri was little hurt. Who was this little IceWing anyways? She rushed ahead and checked the door. The Icewing guards were still knocked out and tied up, but one of their tails were starting to twitch. Indri whipped her head around.

         “Tern, they’re waking up.” She hissed. He looked up and nodded.

         “Thank you.” He nodded.

         As Indri slipped past the guards, a thought occurred to her. How were they going to get out? The RainWings could camouflage and escape easily enough, but the three IceWings would stick out like a sore talon.

         She stuck her head out of a window. Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She whirled around and came face to face with…

Jaguar?  

His golden and green scales reflected against the ice. He winced and tones them down to a pale green.

“Jaguar? What are you doing here?” Indri hissed, pulling him behind a big statue if a bear.

“I needed to help you, Indri, to make up for what I said. I do truly care about you, but after thinking long and hard, I realized that maybe we wouldn’t have been the best match. I’m sorry for snapping at you.” He ducked his head, pale pink creeping along his muted scales.

Indri smiled. “It’s alright. Tensions were high, I get it. But right now, we need to figure out how to get these three IceWings out of the Ice Kingdom.” She waved a wing at the three IceWings behind her.

“What if we camouflaged as IceWings and pretended to be moving them somewhere?”

“That might work. But we’d need more RainWings for that to work.”

         “Good thing we’re here.” Kudzu materialized, and the rest of Indri’s squad soon followed.

“Guys! Oh, you have no idea how happy I am to see you. Alright, everyone, copy this.” She changed her scales to match an IceWing’s, mimicking the female IceWing with Tern and shifting the color around.

“I saw that.” She called. “Ah, whatever. Copycat my scales if you need to.”

“Alright,” Indri said, shooting a backward glance at her. “everyone needs to match me, then change the colors so we look different.” She watched as every RainWing morphed into a bedraggled IceWing.

“Tern, come here.” Tern looked up from the dragonet and stalked over to Indri.

“Clever. So, I’m guessing we’re still ‘prisoners’?” Indri nodded. “Alright. Let’s get going.”

He pushed the pink IceWing onto the other female’s back. The RainWings took up positions around them, and they snuck out the window.

         Indri took the lead, glancing below her at the silver dragons gathered below. They glanced upward but didn’t make any move towards them.

I think this’ll work!

They flew past the palace walls and towards the ocean. At first Indri thought they’d be rid of t he horrible kingdom and all it’s dragons, but then a roar split the air.

“Find them!”

Chapter Twelve

“Fly faster!” Indri hissed.

“We’re trying!” one of the RainWings replied, clenching his teeth. “We aren’t built for long, fast flights!”

          A cacophony of roars sounded behind them. Indri turned to see a wing of about a hundred soldiers flying after them. And worse, a large, bejeweled, battle-scarred dragon flew at the head of them.

         “Queen Alpine!” Tern shrieked. “Fly!”

         All the RainWings picked up a bit of speed, but the IceWings were still gaining of them rapidly. Before Indri knew it, they were at the rendezvous point, where Flicker and Sunfish and all the rest of the RainWings were supposed to be. They streaked over it, heading towards the ocean. Suddenly a pained roar erupted from behind them. Indri turned to see Flicker burn the tail spikes off an IceWing. Suddenly Sunfish was there, gnawing on an IceWing’s wing. All the RainWings materialized as darts of bright colors shooting up at the IceWings.

Indri stayed away from the battling dragons as they spread out and landed. They continued to spread out until you could look in any direction and see the faint outlines of fighting dragons.

         An IceWing noticed Indri, who was guarding the sick dragonet, and stalked over, his serrated claws deadly and his fangs gleaming like melting icicles. Indri got into an awkward fighting position and was painfully self-aware of how wrong she was getting it.

         The IceWing stopped and laughed, his necklace of two circles gleaming. “Not as good as your colorful friends over there, huh?” He asked, flicking his tail at the RainWings with a rattle of spikes. Indri bared her teeth.

         “Don’t come a step closer.” Indri threatened feebly. He laughed again, but harsher this time.

         “Or what? You’ll squirt me?” He stalked closer. Indri backed up a bit, spreading her wings to protect the dragonet.

         “I won’t let you hurt her.” Indri growled.

         Now the IceWing looked a bit uncomfortable. His eyes flicked to the ground before answering.

         “She’s my daughter. I won’t hurt her. But the queen wants her locked up, so she must have good reason.” He grumbled, a renewed vigor in his dark eyes. He stalked closer, and Indri could see cold mist swirling around his snout. Indri braced herself, preparing to be frozen, when suddenly, he was gone.

         He was now pinned underneath Tern. “Leave her alone, Father,” he growled. “Or should I call you Sleet?”

         Sleet dragged himself out from Tern’s claws. “You’ve gotten better, Tern. You would’ve made me proud. Too bad I have to kill you.” He lunged at Tern, mist swirling around his snout as he shot a blast of ice directly at Tern. For a moment, it looked like Tern would be frozen, but then something unexpected happened. A curl of smoke rose out Tern’s snout before a huge blast of fire shot through his jaws.

         Sleet’s eyes widened as Tern’s fire shot through his frostbreath and enveloped around his head. Tern snapped his jaw shut and the only trace of it was a small curl of smoke rising from his nostril.

         He rushed to Sleet’s side. The IceWing was a bit darker than before, unconscious, but alive.

         Indri rushed to his side. “Tern, I didn’t know you could do that!” He coughed, the smoke fizzling out.

         “Me neither. I don’t know if I ever want to do it again. Now, go protect Floe.”

         Indri nodded and darted over to the pink dragonet-Floe-’s side.

         Indri stood there for a while longer, nothing happening to her. The battle raged around her, but she remained safe.

         A roar split the air. Indri whipped around to see Alpine holding a wickedly sharp dagger up to Tern’s throat. She was nearly twice as tall at Tern, and she held him up by his horns, his throat exposed. She couldn’t see his face, but his talons were twitching, something he did when he was nervous.

         Alpine grinned wickedly. “Tern fought well, for a NightWing. But now I’m finished playing.” Her grin disappeared. “I want you to fly home and get Nova and her daughter and bring them here so Nova can see the family she worked so hard to create die beneath my talons.”

         No!

         Indri wasn’t about to let Tern die. She marched up to the queen, the adrenaline pumping through her veins making her forget her fears.

         “Put him down!” She roared, the blood rushing in her ears and making her fearless.

         Alpine bared her teeth. “Don’t even try me, young dragon. I’ve been queen for years, been in countless battles. You could never defeat me.”

         Wingbeats sounded in the distance. Several black dragons were winging towards them quickly. Indri saw fear flash behind Alpine’s guarded expression.

         “Never mind all that, Alpine. The NightWings will end your rein of terror.” Indri growled.

         “Maybe. But they won’t get here in time to stop this!” In a graceful arc, Alpine drew the dagger from Tern’s throat and thrust it into his chest.

         Time slowed as Indri watched the dagger arc through the air.

         “No!” She lunged forward into her arm. The dagger missed its mark, slicing through Tern’s shoulder and sinking into Indri’s chest instead.

         Pain seared through her, up her arm, down her back, until she couldn’t see anything except for Alpine’s sneer as she pulled out another dagger.

         Indri stumbled back, into the supporting arms of some RainWing. She gasped in pain as she watched Alpine stalk over to Tern. Through her blurred vision, she saw him stagger to his feet, shock scrawled over his face.

         It came to her like a fire being lit. She did love Tern. And she couldn’t stand by and watch as Alpine tried to kill him.

         She surged upward with a roar and landed on top of Alpine. Alpine whipped around with a surprised snarl.

         “You’re harder to kill than I gave you credit for. Huh. No matter, I’ll finish you off now.” She quickly pinned Indri down.

         Indri squirmed beneath the IceWing queen’s talons. She bared her teeth and leaned in ready to bite Indri. As she felt her consciousness slipping away, she bared her fangs and shot an arc of venom directly into Alpine’s face. All she could hear as her vision went black was Alpine’s guttural screaming.

Chapter Thirteen

         Chaos erupted. IceWings screamed and flapped into the sky, away from the RainWings, but staying close to their queen. The RainWings quickly formed a circle around Indri.

         Tern tore up the grass in a desperate attempt to get to her. He slid to her side.

         The dagger stuck up out of her chest like a branch out of place. Her scales were as white as the snow underfoot, stained with scarlet. She was unconscious.

         He cradled her head, vaguely aware of Flicker and Sunfish joining him. Tears were steaming from Tern’s face as the NightWings landed.

         Suddenly his mother was there, wrapping her cold wings around him. He buried his face into her shoulder.

         “It should have been me! Nova, she died because of me!” he sobbed. She shushed him, running her talons down his back.

         “It’s alright, Tern. Come on, we need to get your shoulder looked at.” Nova tried to pull him away from Indri’s unconscious form. He dug his talons into the silty snow beneath him.

         Nova sighed. “I understand. I’ll allow you to stay with her, but Tern, letting yourself bleed out isn’t a way to help her.” Tern looked away. He could hear Nova’s retreating footsteps.

         He sat with her until his own vision began to go blurry. He tried to reach up wipe at them but his arm protested by sending a sharp pang into his shoulder. He looked over and saw his arm, covered in purple blood. He gingerly touched his shoulder. It was split open in a large gash.

         Darkness pressed at the sides of his vision as he gazed down at the pool of his own blood. He lied down, pressing his body against Indri. He set his head fall next to Indri’s and closed his eyes, giving into the darkness surrounding him.

Chapter Fourteen

         Flicker watched as Tern laid down his head next to Indri. She let her wings flow around her as she watched Snowstorm lead a group of medics to tend to the pair’s wounds.

         Flicker glanced around the makeshift camp. IceWings and NightWings milled about, the IceWings caring for their queen, alive but unconscious. The NightWings were caring for Indri. Neither one could be moved far, so the two warring tribes had been forced to call a tentative peace.

Tern, the poor dragonet, had been sitting at Indri’s side since she’d fallen. The RainWing was alive, but the healers had barely managed to keep her that way. Her wound had gotten significantly worse after the NightWing healers had taken the dagger out. Flicker didn’t know much about healing, but she could guess with fair certainty that the RainWing wouldn’t make it out of this one.

         She gathered herself up, a plan brewing. She couldn’t do anything here to help, but she could do something… someone who might love her the way Tern loved Indri.

          She slipped away from the makeshift camp, beating her large wings to get away from the camp.

         She powered across the continent, praying that the foolish RainWing hadn’t died yet.

         Truth be told, Flicker had gotten attached to the foolish triplet of dragonets. She was by far the oldest, at ten years, but she could definitely appreciate the others.

         Finally, she landed in the dip of ground that was her target’s place of residence.

         She stuck her head into the cave and grinned. This was by far the best plan she’d had yet.

Chapter Fifteen

Four Days Later…

         Tern lifted his head and looked around blearily. His head felt like it was smashed open and his shoulder felt like it was on fire.

         His blurry vision cleared and he found himself laying on a cot underneath a tent made of huge leaves. His shoulder was bound with leaves and vine wrapped around his neck, slinging up his arm and not letting him move it.

         A RainWing healer materialized in front of him. He surged backwards, almost toppling off the cot and immediately regretting it as pain shot down his arm and up his wing.

         The RainWing steadied Tern with her wings, which were a dappled pattern of purple and yellow.

         “Don’t do that.” He rasped.

         “Sorry. You can never be too careful with all these IceWings. How are you feeling?”

         “Like someone dropped a mountain on my head.” Tern replied ruefully.

         “Yeah, that’ll happen when you take on a vengeful IceWing queen by yourself.” She replied, frowning.

         Tern sat up, using his shaky wings to prop him up. “Is Alpine dead?” He asked, hope and dread hanging on his question.

         “From what I hear, no. Her face is scarred and ugly, but one of the RainWings here was Indri’s uncle or aunt or something and was able to counteract the venom. Her life is hanging by a thread.”

         Tern laid back down, his head swimming. “How’s Indri?”

         The RainWing looked away. “Still unconscious. Her wound is infected.” She looked back at Tern; her eyes filled with anguish. “It would take a miracle to save her.”

         Tern dragged himself to his feet. “Where is she?”

         She tried to push him back down onto the cot, but he shoved past her. “Where is she?!”

         She sighed. “I’m not going to be able to convince you to lay back down, am I?”

         “I’ll lay back down when I’ve seen her.” He replied stubbornly. She nodded and slid out of the tent flap. Tern followed, ducking under the tent flap and limping after her. It was drizzling outside, but the rain was so cold it felt like shards of ice slamming into his face.

         She turned into another tent with a painted-on image of a snake climbing a stick. Tern followed, warily eyeing a few sleeping IceWings.

         How quickly the IceWings had gone from his tribe to his enemy.

         He poked his head through the tent flap. Three white dragons were laying inside. Floe, his sick sister, Avalanche, who had one less leg than usual, and Indri.

Tern rushed to Indri’s side while the purple and yellow RainWing went to speak with the healers in that tent.

         The dagger had been removed from Indri’s chest but a large, inflamed, ugly hole, a dark red spot on her snow-white scales, was left behind. The stench blew Tern away. Her chest was still rising a falling, but her breaths were few and far between.

         A tear welled up in Tern’s eye. This was all his fault. He was off his guard when the IceWing soldier surprised him out of falling out of the tree, and now Indri was dancing with death.

         Solemnly he stood up from Indri side and limped over to Floe, the dragonet Indri had guarded.

The RainWing healers thought that his sister’s illness was caused by the damp, cold IceWing dungeon. Tern definitely believed it. The IceWing dungeon was terrible.

But now she was out of the dungeon and wasn’t looking much better.

And Avalanche, his best adult friend, had lost a portion of her back right leg to a nasty frostbreath wound. The RainWings had to cut it off. She had been awake since, but most of the time was in a lot of pain. Thanks to the new RainWing sleeping darts, she’d been able to be unconscious for most of the time.

         Tern felt horrible for dragging his friends into his own mess. All he wanted was to be treated fairly but instead he’d gotten himself a war and his friends thrown in jail. He limped back over to Indri’s side and laid his head on her wing, which was flopped out beside her.

Chapter Fifteen

Tern was asleep when Flicker swooped into the tent. Tern blinked the sleep out of his eyes as the RainWing healers tried to usher her out.

         “There you are! I couldn’t find you at your tent, but I’d figured you be here. Anyways, I was gone for a couple days on a secret quest, but I got what I went for.” She spread a wing to the tent flap as an orange SkyWing ducked in.

         Arson, the animus SkyWing.

         Tern heaved himself up to a standing position. “Arson. To what do we owe the pleasure?” Flicker rolled her eyes.

         “He’s here to heal Indri, not sit down for a diplomatic meeting.”

         “Why would he help Indri?” Tern asked, a tiny glimmer of hope in his chest.

         “I’m right here, you know. And I’ll help Indri because she’s sweet. Innocent, call it. I haven’t seen real innocence in a while.” He walked over to Indri and pushed past Tern, causing him to topple over like a dead tree.

         He held a talon over Indri. “I enchant any injuries inflicted to this dragonet to heal naturally but instantaneously.”

         Tern watched in amazement as Indri’s pale scales scabbed over and then fell off, leaving a large, discolored spot on her chest. Gradually her scales faded back into taupe and pink and grey, but the scar stayed white. Her chest fluttered and she opened her eyes.

       

Tern, Flicker, all three RainWing healers, and surprisingly, Arson were huddled over her, baffled. Even Indri was a little baffled, as memories of the battle, of the dagger going through her chest. How in all the moons was she here now?

         Tern broke the silence. “I-Indri!” He fell forward, into her. She propped herself up on her elbow.

         “You’re hurt!” She exclaimed, seeing an ugly gash on his shoulder. He smiled feebly.

         “We’ll let you two have some time.” Flicker said, smiling.

         “Just come get us if anything happens to the others.” Tern nodded.

         “Are you going to tell me what happened to your shoulder?” Indri asked, standing up and stretching.

         Tern looked away. “The dagger caught my shoulder before… hitting you.” Tern sighed. “Indri, it’s been eating away at me; Why did you take the dagger for me?”

         Indri looked at him, love in her eyes. “Because I love you. I didn’t realize it until it was you or me, but I realized that if I didn’t sacrifice myself for you, I would never have been able to live with myself. True love is sacrifice.”

         Tern smiled, a tear in his eye. “It was the fire-breathing, wasn’t it?” Indri laughed and leaned forward, hugged him and wrapping her wings around his cold body.

         “I’d love you whether you breathed fire or not.” She chuckled, then added, “It is an added bonus. How can you do that?” Tern shrugged.

         “I guess I’ll have to get lessons from Flicker.” Indri let go of her embrace and Tern gazed at the pink dragonet.

         “I hope Floe gets better.” He sighed.

         “Wait, that’s Floe? Your sister? I’ve been jealous this whole time over you sister?” Indri let out a breathless laugh. Tern looked surprised.

         “You’d be jealous over me?”

         Indri mock-glared at him. “Nope. I despise you so much that I’d take a dagger to the chest just get away from you.” Tern chuckled.

         “I guess you’re right.”  He sighed, looking away. “I guess I’m just used to being tolerated rather than loved.”

         Indri gently grabbed his jaw and pulled at it so he was looking at her. “Never again.”

Epilogue

         Indri hung from a tree by her tail, watching Tern show a group of dragonets how to fish.

         Two of them were Squirrel and Dyssodia’s, the other two were Tern and Indri’s.

         Snowdrop and Beaver were her pride and joy. Snowdrop was mainly IceWing, a little white dragonet with spots of color-changing scales and a color changing frill. She had little black teardrop scales by her eyes, but she showed no sign of being a mind reader. Beaver was small for his age, but he had a massive tail. He was mainly RainWing, a dappled pattern of brown and gold. He had IceWing spikes on his head and tail and no frill, but other than that he had the body type of RainWing.

         Dyssodia and Squirrel’s dragonets were fairly similar. One, Roadrunner, had large wings but looked like a SandWing with no barb, and Dust had dusty orange scales and a small barb.

         “Now, look. Dust, your shadow is over the water. It’s scaring the fish. Here, pull your head back but keep your talons above the water, like this. Beaver, stop chewing on your sister’s tail! Ack! Snowdrop! Don’t use your frostbreath when there are dragons you don’t want to hurt!” Indri chuckled. Tern tried his best to be patient, but it was never his best strength.

         Indri slithered down from the tree. “You know, maybe Roadrunner and Dust should go home.”

         Tern looked up with a grateful expression. The older dragonets moaned but both knew better than to argue with her. They flapped the short distance to where Squirrel and Dyssodia were staying while they visited Tern and Indri.

         Their family lived on the SkyWing side of the Great Five-Tail River, not far from where Sunfish.

         The daft SeaWing had settled down in an underwater dugout cave thing not to far from the bank where Tern was teaching her dragonets to fish. Flicker had gone back to her hermit life in the desert, blowing her glass sculptures. She visited occasionally, bringing over a few gold coins or a piece of jewelry as a gift.

         Indri watched as Tern dove in and began splashing the year-old dragonets. They giggled and took cover behind one another, eventually leading to a mock fight which ended up with them swimming with their father.

         Indri smiled. Tern had been free of Alpine’s grasp for two years now, and his life had done nothing but improve. Floe had woken up and gotten better the minute the RainWings moved to the rainforest. She had moved back to the Ice Kingdom and now worked in the palace as a council member.

         Avalanche was coping with the loss of her leg well and had gone back to working in the hatchery. In fact, she’d come to help Indri when her eggs were hatching. Indri hadn’t seen her since then, but she assumed she was happy.

         Alpine survived, but it was decided that she was unfit to be queen. Her daughter, a sweet, twelve-year-old IceWing named Fox took over as queen. Unlike her vengeful mother, she didn’t harbor many feelings against the NightWings (other than Duskseer, who took her father’s life), and paid reparations to the NightWings. She was good friends with Floe and now Tern even through she was four years older than either of them.

         Queen Silentwings had been challenged by her daughter, Dawnflight. Silentwings had the grace to step down rather than fighting, and now lived in the palace as an advisor to the queen.

         Nova and Snowstorm had moved back to the Ice Kingdom. Nova had gotten her status back and worked as Queen Fox’s head advisor. Snowstorm had decided, after living in the palace with Nova, that she didn’t like the pressures of a regular high ranking IceWing’s life. She did love the cold, though, and moved to the outskirts of the Ice Kingdom.

         Indri smiled as she watched Tern and her dragonets splashed away at the waters. Nippy, now full grown and loving life, let out a roar and jumped in after them. The dragonets squealed. They loved on the poor cat, often pulling her ears and gnawing on her tail, but the sweet cat never lifted a claw against either one.

         Carnation flew out of the hut behind her and landed on her horn. “Stupid MOONS cursed CAT!” He cawed, hopping up and down indignantly. Indri chuckled. Carnation hadn’t a bit, other than picking up some language she’d rather not have the dragonets repeat.

         But everything was peaceful, and that was what mattered. One day, she and Tern would tell her dragonets about the NightWing Icewing war, and why they looked different than Avalanche and Nova and all the IceWings who came to visit. For now, they were alright to exist as they did.

         She called Tern and the dragonets in for dinner. As she set out the plates of desert fruits and fish, a happiness flooded through her. It was happiness she’d grown familiar with, a happiness she’d only experienced after living with Tern and her dragonets.

         And as long as the happiness stayed, Indri was content with everything staying exactly as it was.

Thank you so much for sticking with Tern and Indri for the long process this has been! I really appreciate the support everyone has shown me!  

If you enjoyed it, please, please, please, leave a comment! It's really encouraging to know that people are out there who like my work! Even just a simple 'Cool' or 'I like it" would really make my day!!