WOF (A Fan-fiction): The Elementals Book-1: A New Nature

[NOTE: There is a correction. This series is actually called The Primordials now.
Prologue
Jerboa looked around as she flew across the canopy of the rainforest. The tunnel is nearby, she thought as she landed.
Jerboa hadn’t been to the rainforest since Glory became queen but she hoped with Darkstalker gone forever, everything was under control. She stopped by the ‘Sand Tunnel’ as everyone called it nowadays. After all, things aren’t the same anymore since the whole of Pyrrhia found out they were not alone. Jerboa, however, was more concerned about the present. What if this…project goes wrong? This surely isn’t the time to take risks; first the war amongst the SandWing sisters, then Darkstalker and now this crazy idea?! I knew I shouldn’t have listened to that looney RainWing Kinkajou.
She sighed and had to except that this was the only way to make peace with Pantala. She held her breath and stepped in.
-*-
Jerboa was almost there, at the meeting point, on the coast of the Kingdom of the Sand.
She still thought this was silly and why did she have to be there for it? Three animus dragons are enough, aren’t they?
After another hour of flying and breaking wing bones, she had made it. However, she found out that she was late indeed. Waiting for her were Turtle, Anemone, Kinkajou, Queen Glory, Hope, Cricket and Bumblebee.
“About time” said the queen?
“I had a few setbacks. Those healers and librarians went wild about my leg cut and about the fact that I was an animus! You would think that they haven’t set a talon outside that lump of plants!” Jerboa said.
“If you think that’s bad, you should see them try to learn the history of Pyrrhia! They can’t even remember how long ago the Scorching was; 5,000 years ago, duh”, Kinkajou exclaimed.
“Shall we start already? It’s getting late and I’m getting bored” Anemone asked.
“Yes, otherwise your mom is going to have my scales” Glory replied.
“Are you sure this will work? I mean it’s been only been a week since our magic returned” Turtle questioned.
“It will. I promise. I triple-checked the plans and even changed some of the initial details” Hope answered.
“Ready? You all know what to do, don’t you? I can’t wait to see what happens, after all there are no animus dragons on our continent and…” Cricket blabbered.
“Hold it right there, bookworm. Let’s not waste time. Queen Thorn isn’t giving us all day” Jerboa interrupted before Cricket started talking about her daydreams on scavengers with coral tails and dragon claw ears.
“Party pooper” Cricket grumbled.
Then, Turtle, Anemone, Kinkajou (Turtle made her an animus), and Jerboa focused all their power on one spot of the desert.
“I’m starting to have second thoughts on this” Bumblebee said.
‘It will be worth it!” Jerboa shouted.
Suddenly, an explosion burst out sending everyone flying all around. Before she fainted, all Jerboa could see was a transparent purple dragon staring at her.
Jerboa woke with a start. Her head was throbbing and her talons aching as she tried to stand up. Then, she saw multiple swirling shapes of magic, spinning in the air. They had done it!
“Yes!” Jerboa exclaimed. “Now true peace and prosperity with Pantala has been achieved.”
-*-
PART 1
SECRETS OF THE PAST
CHAPTER-1
Around thirty years later
Libra was truly enjoying herself. She couldn’t be happier than when she is with her scrolls. You are acting like Starflight again. Why do you keep doing that? her mom would always say. Unfortunately for her, Libra had always loved studying. Whether she was reading about the Scorching or about the old NightWing Kingdom, she loved it. Usually, she was never disturbed when she was reading but today, of all days, was obviously an exception as her silence was broken by the yells and bellows of her mother, Queen Glory.
“LIBRA! Where are you!? We have to go NOW!” she screamed.
“Yeah, where are you? Stop playing hide-and-seek… wait hide-and-seek!? Oh, please can I play?” said a second voice which was unmistakably Kinkajou’s.
“Not helping” Glory muttered.
“Oh fine” Kinkajou said.
“There you are!” Glory said as she popped her head into the tree where Libra was sitting. She rolled her eyes.
“Seriously? Where is the dignity to ask if I was here or not? It could have been any other RainWing you know” Libra inquired.
“I know this is your favourite tree…so not too hard to guess its resident” Glory replied.
“Hi!” Kinkajou exclaimed as she forged her way inside and banged against Libra.
“AHH! You scared me Aunty Kinky” Libra said.
“I know. That’s why I did it” answered Kinkajou.
“So, if you’re done reading” Glory said while her gaze shifted to Kinkajou and continued “And if you are done being the ecstatic one, are we going or not? Otherwise, I’ll tell Tsunami you’re not coming”.
“No. I’m ready” Libra said.
“Finally” Glory whispered.
“Yay!” Kinkajou said.
The three dragons took off into the partially cloudy sky, heading for the one destination Libra had been waiting for her whole life, Jade Mountain Academy.
-*-
It was unbelievable at first to Glory that her daughter would take such an interest in the academy.
From the first day she had learned about it, Libra loved it and was drawn to it. She would work hard every to improve her handwriting, while Starflight showed and told her all about it from the moment she learned how to read. Even now, at 6 years old, Libra still remembers a special day in her life, from 4 years ago.
“What is thwis?” Libra had asked to Starflight.
“It’s a prophecy. Usually they describe something that will happen in the future”
“Is it written about you?”
“Why yes it is! How did you figure that out, squirt?” Tsunami questioned.
“Just a feelink” Libra replied.
“If you can figure that out, then you must be on your way to becoming a great writer, aren’t you?” Sunny exclaimed.
“On my way? I have alweady written a stowy. Look” Libra had said, pointing a scroll with an odd-looking pink stamp.
After that though, Libra couldn’t remember what had happened. Still that day’s memory was close to her heart.
Now, she was thinking about what the other dragons might be like. What if they hate me because I read so much? Maybe they will like it. Or what if they think I am a blabbermouth? Or they will hate me if I know all the answers. Calm down Libra. I will figure it out…eventually, Libra thought. What if they notice that I have four wings instead of two and bully me like the other dragonets?
What if they hate me because I’m…different?
CHAPTER-2
Half an hour later, Libra, Glory and Kinkajou started to see the appropriate landscape. High peaks off in the distance, chilly winds and birds almost dropping poop on them.
“Can we take a teeny-weeny break? My wings are sore” Kinkajou pleaded.
“Sure. We’ll land down there and I will look for food” Glory replied.
They landed on a rather short mountain compared to the others around them. It was a brown-grey colour and was mostly covered in grass and occasional trees.
“Oh. Thank goodness” Kinkajou said with relief.
“How can you be this tired so easily?” Glory inquired.
“Well, not every RainWing, or every dragon for that matter, has had to fly back forth across the continent just to fulfil a prophecy, which wasn’t even real, you know” Kinkajou explained.
“Ha. Ha. Nice try, but hate to disappoint, you weren’t even close” Glory said.
“Uh… are you okay Libra?” Kinkajou asked.
Since they had landed, Libra had just been looking around in awe, flabbergasted by the beauty around her. She had never seen anything like this in the rainforest and for the first time, she was so high above the ground without even flying! It was a unique moment.
“Huh? What did you say Aunty Kinky? Or did you say something?” Libra asked. I really need to improve my social voice, she thought at the same time.
“Yes. I did say something and it was… oh never mind” Kinkajou replied.
“Isn’t it amazing?” Libra said, ignoring Kinkajou’s comment. “I am finally so close! You never told me that the mountain air would feel this spectacular.”
“I did for a good reason” said Glory.
“What is it?”
“So you can find out for yourself, of course.”
“Guys. I found a little something that should satisfy us for a few hours” Kinkajou called out.
She was holding a mix of two bunches of berries, four papayas, a dozen grapes and two tiny lizards. “Ugh. Meat as well” Kinkajou grumbled. They sat down and ate heartily. About half an hour later, Glory reminded them that they needed to get moving and to off into the clouds once more.
-*-
It was around sunset when the towering peak of Jade Mountain Academy came into view and what a majestic sight it was for Libra.
It’s…it’s even more beautiful than I had ever imagined.
The three of them also started seeing various other dragon families going to the academy such as a group of five IceWings chit-chatting, two LeafWings enjoying a carcass below etc.
Starflight told me that we will be sorted into different winglet groups with dragons from different tribes, Libra thought. I wonder who I will be sorted with.
Jade Mountain Academy was certainly closer after a few minutes. After all, this was it. This was the day she would enter Jade Mountain Academy’s halls for the first time. But then…why am I so nervous? I have never felt this way about anything before, so why now? Libra thought.
Suddenly, someone or something bashed into her from behind. She tumbled downward to a rocky hill below. She felt talons grab her neck and claws slash into her side.
I haven’t even reached yet. Surely I couldn’t have made an enemy already, have I? Well either way, he or she is trying to kill me.
Then, he or she banged Libra’s head against the hill and after that, Libra saw nothing but darkness.
CHAPTER-3
“LIBRA!! WAKE UP!” Glory shouted into Libra’s ear.
“Ugh. Owww. What happened?” she asked.
“You might want to look up for your answer” Kinkajou replied.
Above them was a green dragon with yellow and silver quills on her back and blue-green eyes. She also had some sort of leaf-shaped stinger on her tail. It was pointy, like a spear. Her body was covered in occasional yellow and red stripes, with some white scales. Her wings were shaped like leaves and she also had a brown and blue stripe running long her neck and ears.                                                          
“HIVEWING!” the dragon shouted.
“A HiveWing? Where?” Kinkajou asked.
“There” the dragon hissed pointing at Libra. She looked like she was ready to try and kill her again.
“Me? You must have made a mistake. I’m a RainWing” Libra said.
“Hm. But you have four wings, not two” the dragon pointed out.
“Oh that. That is just a genetic issue, that’s all” she explained.
“Fine. I accept your story but don’t think my eyes aren’t on you.”
“So, I think we got off on the wrong talon here. Hi. My name is Princess Libra. What’s yours?” Libra said.
“I’m Quicksilver. A warrior in service of Queen Hazel. Daughter of Sundew of the LeafWings and Winter of the IceWings.”
“Nice to meet you Quicksilver but shouldn’t we get going Libra? Otherwise you’ll miss sorting announcements” Glory asked.
“Yeah. See you later” Libra said, waving to the scowling Quicksilver. Then as she turned her head, she felt her excitement bubbling inside her more than ever before. They were landing on the entrance platform to Jade Mountain Academy.
“Oh. My. GOSH!” Libra managed to sputter out.
“I am so happy for you! I felt the same way when I first came here too” Kinkajou said.
“Sure indeed. I couldn’t get her to stop screaming before we even took off. I’m surprised that you remained silent most of the time” Glory sighed.
“Anyways, I think we should go now. I’m sure you’ll be fine on your own from here” Kinkajou interrupted.
“Bye Mom. Bye Aunty Kinky” Libra said.
“Wish you good luck and a good year” was her mother’s answer.
The three of them hugged each other for a while (maybe a little too tight since Libra could feel herself choking a bit) and then left. Libra was alone with the academy and couldn’t wait to get started.
-*-
Libra walked through the corridors with pride. She was finally part of something big and significant. All around, there were hustling and bustling dragonets. She saw a pair of RainWings enjoying some mangoes, five SilkWings playing together and a MudWing who seemed to be lost. Well, at least that is what Libra thought he was, although he also looked like a half SkyWing. He had black spots almost everywhere and red, orange and brown patches too. Mostly though, he had yellow scales and red wings.
“Hello. I’m Libra. Who are you?” Libra asked.
“I-I’m… J-Johad” he stumbled.
“Who are your parents? My mom is Queen Glory” she questioned.
“My f-father is Clay and my mom is Peril. I-I think your mom k-knows them, doesn’t she?” Johad replied.
“Yes she does. Hey, you seem to be lost. Do you need some help?” Libra inquired
“Yes I do. Do you know w-where the a-assembly room is?” he answered.
“Two lefts, one right and once you get there, it will be the third cave on your right.”
“Thank you so much Libra” Johad said.
“Happy to help. See you soon” Libra smiled and left.
Libra started thinking about what she would learn here. She had memorized some of the classes like Herbs and Healing, History, Music etc. But what she was most looking forward too was the friends she was going to make. At first, she was never really a social dragon but with help from her mom and her friends, her social skills improved. Libra’s deep thinking was interrupted by the loud gong of the academy bell. It must be announcements time. I can’t wait! Libra thought as she walked to the assembly hall.
There was a new assembly hall which had been installed this year. It was quite tall and was decorated with red and green satin ribbons on the ceiling. At the end of the room, there was a large platform with an inscription written on the front saying ‘Welcome to Jade Mountain Academy’, like the previous assembly room. On the platform, there were seven dragons- Clay, Tsunami, Starflight, Sunny, Fatespeaker, Peril and Cricket.
“Welcome everyone to another year at Jade Mountain Academy. We’re very excited to have you all here. As every year, each of you will be placed into five winglets or groups of dragons. Starflight and Cricket will inform you further” Tsunami said.
“The five winglets here at Jade Mountain Academy are the Jade Winglet, Gold Winglet, Silver Winglet, Copper Winglet and Quartz Winglet” Cricket announced.
“In each winglet, there will be one dragonet from each tribe. In the case of hybrids to avoid confusion, you will be placed based on which tribe your mother belongs to” Starflight declared.
“Do we have to? I want a private cave!” someone shouted. It was an IceWing.
“What is your name?” asked Tsunami.
“Frostbite. Son of Queen Snowfall” he replied.
“Well, Frostbite, if you want all of your talons to remain attached to your body, I suggest you follow the rules” Tsunami growled. Frostbite didn’t respond and Cricket continued the announcements.
“Okay. Now I will be announcing the members of each winglet one by one, starting with the Jade Winglet. The IceWing is Seal” Cricket said looking at a very dark blue IceWing. Libra followed her gaze. Seal almost looked like a NightWing. “The MudWing is Salamander, the NightWing is Ares, the RainWing is Libra and …oww! My throat! Starflight, can you take over? I need water!”
“Sure Cricket. The water fountain is right next to the music cave” Starflight said. The blind dragon scratched his head for a bit and then said “So where were we? Oh yes! The SandWing is Dingo, the SilkWing is Heliodor, the LeafWing is Quicksilver, the HiveWing is Bumblebee, the SeaWing is Auklet and the SkyWing is Johad.”
Yes. I’m finally sorted, Libra thought as she looked around at the crowd. four 
Jade Winglet, here I come!
CHAPTER-4
“Alright everyone” Starflight declared. “Whosever names have been called, go to Clay standing at the left exit of the assembly hall.”
“Jade Winglet” Clay called. “Please come over here”. As Libra walked towards him, she got to see the faces of her fellow clawmates. “Follow me so I can show you around the academy and where your sleeping caves are” Clay requested. Then all of them walked out of the assembly hall. “Before attention goes away” Clay said. “let me tell you that Tsunami, your principal, will not always be here since she is a queen now. So during those periods, if you have any problems you can always come to anyone else like me or Starflight or Fatespeaker.”
Then, he started talking about the rules and regulations of the academy. Libra didn’t listen, since she already knew all the rules. Instead she started figuring out what to think of her new clawmates. She already liked Johad and Quicksilver, although she wasn’t sure if Quicksilver was okay with her or Bumblebee since she was a real HiveWing. She was the adopted daughter of Blue and Cricket and was soft-spoken. After that, there was Ares. He was the son of Moonwatcher and Qibli. He had a SandWing frill on his back and dark blue scales, like Seal. He also had light blue scales around his talons and tail. His body was covered in black lines like vines or branches. He had black wings with a light-yellow stripe going through them. In addition, he had ram-shaped horns with regular NightWing horns, hence the name, a barb on his tail and a weird teardrop scale near his eye, which Libra couldn’t figure out. Finally there was Salamander, Auklet, Heliodor and Dingo. Auklet was Tsunami’s sister and was quite optimistic. Her green scales and eyes resembled that of a LeafWing. She also had a big scar on her right back leg. Libra didn’t know where she might have got it from but she thought it looked cool. Heliodor was cheerful but mostly looked at the negative side of situations. Still, at least her purple-pink scales made her look pretty. Salamander had dull yellow scales across his underbelly and red-brown scales on top. He also wore a chain with a scroll tied on the end. Libra admired his calm and thoughtful personality. Dingo, like most SandWings, had dull yellow-mustard scales. But strangely had bright golden scales across his head, tail, his front-right leg and his underbelly. He also had a ruby put into his scales right underneath the eyes and had a tattoo of a sword on his left side. He was usually quiet and easy-going, but when something or anything goes wrong in his world or the situation he is in, his temper boils up. Other than that small character place of improvement, Libra kind of enjoyed Dingo’s company.
“These are your sleeping caves” Clay finally said. “You can settle in here and later everyone will go hunting.”
“Finally! A chance to save my ears.” Quicksilver muttered a little too loud.
“I think it’s nice. Good speech Clay” Auklet complimented.
“Thanks. Get inside everyone. I have to go and show the Silver Winglet around” Clay said and then ran back to the assembly hall.
Libra sat down on a smooth rock ledge. She observed how little stuff Bumblebee and Johad brought since their parents were to provide for them. However, Auklet got so many pearl necklaces that she practically hung them all over the place.
“Get these out of my personal space, SeaWing!” Quicksilver bellowed.
“Why?” Auklet asked innocently while giggling.
“WHY? Since I’m trying to not rip your throat and I need to keep my spears here!” she replied.
Libra laughed. This fight reminded her of the fights between Glory and Kinkajou, which were always entertaining. Once, Kinkajou had hidden Silver’s (Glory’s pet sloth) fruit and Glory got so mad that she chased Kinkajou from one end of the rainforest to the other.
“Calm down guys. We have to learn how to get along. That is the whole point of this school” Salamander reminded them.
“Whatever” Quicksilver grumbled.
After a while, Sunny’s head popped at the cave entrance and said “It’s time to go hunting! Everyone get up and Tsunami will take you to the hunting grounds.”
Libra went to wake Ares up and then joined everyone else outside with the other winglets. The other dragons didn’t look happy to be disturbed. Libra thought that either they wanted to spend more time with their winglet or they didn’t catch enough sleep.
“Hi. I’m Libra. Who are you?” Libra asked to a fellow SkyWing.
“I’m Condor. Go away” he growled back.
“Okay” Libra said, walking back towards her winglet.
“So, you’re Libra. Daughter of the famous Queen Glory” Seal said.
“Yup” Libra exclaimed as everyone took off into the night sky.
CHAPTER-5
Libra looked around at the amazing greenery below. It felt a lot like the rainforest, except with more swamps and more open spaces. Her wings caught the cool night air and she felt happy. After all, she wasn’t flying alone. Her entire winglet flew with her side by side and she was pleased. She looked over at Quicksilver, who wasn’t as happy as she was with the crowd.
“Hey. I know you’re still not okay with me but I want to be your friend. So let’s put our incident behind us and start over? Please?” Libra pleaded.
“Look RainWing” Quicksilver said. “I’m not the kind of dragon who is sociable and all I do is dream of fluffy clouds and rainbows. I’m the kind of dragon who works alone. If you want to be my friend, you are going to have to impress me.”
“By doing what? I mean, what kind of things should I do?” Libra inquired.
“I don’t know! So just leave me alone!” Quicksilver snapped.
Libra flew away in pity. She felt sorry for Quicksilver because she didn’t have any friends. It was probably because of her ‘I am a rogue bossy warrior kind of dragon’ temper.
“Stop here!” Tsunami exclaimed suddenly. Many dragonets bumped into each other, including Libra against Bumblebee.
After apologizing to Bumblebee, Tsunami told everyone what they were going to do.
“Everyone” she said. “We are going to play a little game…”
“I HATE GAMES!” someone shouted. Everyone turned around and saw it was Frostbite.
“I thought I told you to get along” Tsunami said with a hint of frustration and annoyance.
“That still doesn’t change my opinion. I still don’t want to play” Frostbite replied.
“QUIET!” Tsunami finally screamed. “Now as I was saying, we are going to play a game. Your winglets will be your teams. All of you have to find the special delicacy of your tribe. Whichever winglet does it in the quickest time wins. You will also have to keep your food items here.” She was pointing to five rock ledges, each one marked with the initials of the winglets.
“Okay, your time starts…NOW!” Tsunami practically bellowed.
All the dragonets went helter-skelter at first, but then got organised and flew off in different directions with their winglets. Libra did too. Ares then suggested that to cover more ground, the winglet will be subdivided into two teams. Ares, Auklet, Johad, Heliodor and Dingo took the left while Libra, Quicksilver, Salamander, Bumblebee and Seal took the right. Libra dove down into the relatively thick canopy below her to start her search. I have to find some pineapples or bananas, she thought. How in the name of Pyrrhia am I going to find them here?
Then, something bright and yellow caught her eye. She turned her head to see what it was, but it wasn’t very clear. So she flew there instead. It was almost a dozen trees with mangoes.
I suppose a mango would do too, right? Ugh! Focus Libra. Don’t hesitate. Okay, I’ll just go for it.
She plucked two mangoes and took off as fast as her wings could carry her. Only by wasting a minute coming back, she found Seal waiting for her with a large fish.
“Whoa! You hunt fast Seal” Libra complimented.
“Thanks” Seal replied in almost a whisper.
Why is she so nervous? What is wrong with her? Aren’t IceWings supposed to be all haughty and stubborn like her brother Frostbite? Maybe she’s a little tense about living in the academy and whom she will make friends with. Although I have heard about her other shy brother Greyling.
“So, how are you feeling about your first day?” Libra asked.
“I kind of like it. It’s a nice change from the dull white palace where your only purpose is to listen to the rules and prepare speeches for dragons you don’t even know. I don’t understand how Frostbite can handle it. It is impossible to live like that! Even Greyling agrees with me on this and he usually never agrees to anything I say!” Seal concluded.
The two of them had a good laugh, enjoying the struggles of IceWing life. However this was interrupted by the sound of wingbeats. They looked up and saw the rest of the Jade Winglet. Ares landed first, followed by Bumblebee, Salamander, Quicksilver, Auklet, Heliodor and Dingo.
“Really? I was hoping to get here sooner.” Ares sighed.
“It’s okay Ares. It’s definitely not your fault that we got lost when we had only gone practically THREE WINGBEATS from the start point!” Dingo grumbled.
“That wasn’t my fault. It’s not like I’ve already learned this entire place before we got here” Ares pointed out.
That was kind of awkward, Libra thought. Wait a minute, where is Johad?
“Guys!” Libra said aloud. “Did Johad come back with you? Or was he left behind?”
“No. I don’t think so. I remember him changing direction since where we were heading, there were no cows there. Maybe he hasn’t found one yet” Auklet answered.
Then, they turned around and saw all of the winglets were coming back and each one had all their members. First the Gold Winglet returned, then the Quartz Winglet, the Silver Winglet and the Copper Winglet.
“What’s the matter? Your mumbling SkyWing is missing? Hah! In my opinion, he should stay that way!” Frostbite teased.
“Definitely! All he ever does is watch us, the winners of this academy. And soon, you will be too” said a LeafWing. Libra only knew her name, Nightshade, who always sticks with Frostbite.
“Hey! Don’t speak about him like that!” Libra said firmly.
“Oh yeah? And who is going to stop me? Let me guess, you, the weirdo” he snickered while Nightshade cackled.
“Um...” Libra stumbled. She had heard these words before. So many of the RainWing dragonets would always tease her about her deformities. She couldn’t focus on the conversation and so Ares talked back for her.
“Yes she can. She can beat you anytime and you have no right to call her a weirdo. She is perfect the way she is” he said.
Libra was surprised by this. No dragon had ever called her perfect before. Not even her own mother. So why would a dragonet who doesn’t know everything about her yet call her perfect?
Maybe he or maybe all my clawmates see something in me that I don’t see in myself, Libra thought. Maybe they’re all willing to give me a chance.
“Hrm. Well I’d like to see the day when that happens, until then my eyes are on you, Jade Winglet” Frostbite grumbled leaving them be.
“Wait for me Frosty!” Nightshade cried.
“May I have your attention everyone?” Tsunami said. “Now it is time to see who has won this competition. From my observations, the Gold Winglet has won followed by the Quartz Winglet and then the Silver Winglet.”
“Hey! That isn’t fair Tsunami!” Auklet shouted. “We came here first, not them.”
“I know, but it appears that not everyone in your winglet has come back. I don’t see the SkyWing delicacy on your ledge”
They had to accept it. Johad was late, but still it was mysterious why he hadn’t come back.
Everybody flew back, except the Jade Winglet who had stayed behind to try and find Johad. Suddenly, they heard a loud scream coming from the forest.
“Who was that?” Heliodor quivered.
“It was Johad!” Ares replied.
CHAPTER-6
“Where is he?!” Libra cried.
“Should I try to signal him? Maybe with some frostbreath?” Seal suggested.
“How will that help us find him?” Salamander asked.
“I’ll fly up and try to find him” Quicksilver said, taking off without saying another word. The rest of them waited impatiently. Finally, after about ten minutes, Quicksilver returned with a serious look on her face, then again she always looked serious.
“Did you find him?” Bumblebee inquired.
“Yes. But I couldn’t carry him” she replied.
“What do you mean?” Ares and Salamander asked together.
“I’ll show you” Quicksilver said, while gesturing everyone to follow her.
Libra was really worried about Johad and so was everyone else she guessed. They all flew as fast as they could.
Oh! This wind! Can’t you slow down?! Libra thought in frustration.
“There he is” Dingo cried out suddenly.
“What happened to him? He looks to be in bad shape” Heliodor said.
“Only one way to find out” Ares said with uncertainty.
They landed with a loud thud. They all turned around and found Johad lying down, unconscious.
“JOHAD!” Libra shouted. “Wake up!”
He really was in bad shape. He had huge scratches on both sides, head to tail. Blood was flowing out of some of the scratches.
“We have to get back, otherwise it might be too late” Auklet said.
“I hear you. Okay, Salamander, Bumblebee and uh…Dingo. Help me carry him” said Ares.
The three of them nodded in a hurry to get moving. Ares let Johad’s neck and head rest on him. Salamander lifted his left side while Dingo took the right and Bumblebee held him from behind and said “The rest of you, guide us back.”
For the rest of the way, the only time anybody spoke was to help Ares, Salamander, Dingo and Bumblebee fly with Johad. Everyone must be as worried as I am then, Libra realised.
Finally, they landed on the entrance platform and rushed inside. By now, most of the torches were lit and dragons were starting to settle down. Then the Jade Winglet found the staff cave and accidently stumbled upon a conversation.
“Stay behind me” Quicksilver whispered. “Otherwise whoever’s inside will see us.”
Inside, there was more of an argument than some idle chit-chat.
“What are we going to do? How will we tell her?” said the first voice.
“Well, we have to think of something. We can’t keep it a secret for much longer” said a second.
“Didn’t she warn us this would happen? After all we know that the star is here, right?” said the third one.
That must be Clay, Libra thought. Wait a second, keep what a secret? Who is the star? Libra then remembered that she had a star mark on her forehead. Are they talking about me then? But, why? 
“Ugh! Why do these things have to be so hard?!” shouted the first voice.
“Calm down Sunny. We’ll figure it out” Clay said. “Right Starflight?”
“Yes. You’re absolutely right. We have to for her safety” he replied.
“I can’t take this anymore” Quicksilver muttered. “Let’s go in now!”
So, everyone stepped inside the cave and Sunny nearly screamed in surprise.
“What are you all doing here? I thought you should have been in your sleeping cave” she said. Then she saw Johad and asked “What happened? What’s going on?”
“We’re not sure. Quicksilver just found him this way. He was late to return during our food contest” Ares explained.
“We have to take him to the infirmary. Hurry!” Starflight cried.
They headed out of the staff cave and ran frantically through the corridors. Suddenly Clay stopped in front of the infirmary and gestured the others inside. The room was filled with eight rock ledges to rest on. There were also many shelves on the walls with various herbs in jars or bottles. Each shelf seemed to have a specific kind of herb.
“Put him here” Clay said, pointing to a blue ledge.
“What should we look for?” Libra asked since it appeared that Clay was searching for something.
“Look for an aqua coloured rock. It should be here somewhere”
Everyone started looking all around. Libra searched in the seaweed baskets and as she was about to examine some of the lower shelves, Ares called them all and cried “I found it!”
“Good. Bring it here” Sunny said.
Ares quickly handed the rock over to Clay. He then rubbed it against Johad’s scratches. Slowly, they started disappearing and in moments, they were all gone.
“Whoa! How did you do that?” Auklet asked, taking the words out of everyone’s mouth.
“A little gift that your brother, Turtle left for us” Starflight answered proudly.
That’s amazing. But how? Oh right. I forgot. Turtle was an animus, Libra thought.
“Oww. Where a-am I?” Johad asked weakly.
“Johad! You’re okay!” Heliodor exclaimed. “And to answer you, you’re in the infirmary.”
“Can you tell us what happened? Whatever you remember that is” Sunny asked.
“W-Well, I was looking f-for a cow for the competition. Then, I-I heard something rustling in the b-bushes. I th-thought it was a scavenger or s-something, so I ignored i-it. After that, s-suddenly a HiveWing came and j-jumped on me and s-started scratching m-me.”
“Did he say anything to you?” Quicksilver interrogated, who had been quiet for a long time.
“Yes. W-While he was scratching and s-slashing, he told m-me ‘All h-hope is lost f-for you. Your life, y-your friends will be gone. Sh-Show us to G-Glory’s daughter” Johad replied.
Everyone turned to Libra, looking surprised and stunned, probably thinking the same thing, why had the HiveWing wanted her of all dragons? To be honest with herself, Libra was wondering that too.
“Continue Johad. What did you say?” Dingo said, still in a shocked daze from the news.
“I said ‘I-I don’t know where s-she is. B-Besides, what d-do you want with her?’ After that, I-I guess he k-knocked me out since I-I don’t r-remember anything else” Johad answered.
“Alright. Let’s put this shenanigan behind us and get to your sleeping caves” Starflight said.
Everyone ran out, except Libra. She was still thinking about the HiveWing attack. Glory had told her that once upon a time, HiveWings were a merciless tribe. Although it was mostly Queen Wasp’s fault for that. Now that she was dead, the HiveWings had become more social. More friendly, like Bumblebee. This was the first time in years Libra had heard about HiveWing violence and this one had wanted her.
It still is a mystery. We still don’t know why he wanted me, Libra assured herself. But if I wasn’t here, the HiveWing wouldn’t have attacked Johad to begin with.
“It wasn’t your fault” Sunny said reassuringly, and also seemed to be reading her mind.
“I know” Libra said, but thought the opposite.
She walked the rest of the way. The academy looked quite calm and pretty in the night. No masses of students’ chit-chatting and fighting and no shouting from the teachers to get them in order. When Libra finally got to the sleeping caves, everyone was asleep. She closed her eyes and slept too. However, there would something or someone else waiting for her.
CHAPTER-7
“Wake up! You are under arrest!” shouted someone in Libra’s ear.
“Ahh!” she screamed. “Who are you? And what are you doing HERE?!”
“Mmm” someone said from behind.
Libra turned around and saw the rest of the winglet tied up and gagged and bellowed “LET THEM GO!”
“Not until we have you and four other prisoners, preferably hybrids, to take to Queen Jewel” the HiveWing soldier said. He had dull yellow scales, blending into midnight black around the legs, face, wings and tail. Dark red and black stripes were running along his back and his eyes were mixes of brown and mild green.
Wait, why hybrids? And why do they want four other prisoners? If they have come for me, then they should be satisfied with me, right? Libra thought.
“How come Clay, Tsunami and the others didn’t stop you?” she questioned.
“We drugged them with sleeping plants” said a second soldier from the entrance. “And if you don’t cooperate, you will be too.”
“Grmmrm” Auklet growled.
“Alright. I will come with you. But first untie my friends so we can decide who will come with me” Libra answered sternly.
The second shook her head, but the first soldier agreed and untied them.
“Phew. That’s a relief. I was beginning to sweat a lot” Ares said.
“Okay who is coming with me?” Libra asked.
“I will” Ares cried.
“Me too” Quicksilver replied.
“Me three!” Auklet exclaimed while glaring at the soldiers.
“I will t-too. I o-owe you for s-saving my life” Johad answered.
“Disappointing that you ran out of hybrids. We won’t tie you on the way there, but you have to promise not to escape or we’ll kill the rest of your friends” the first soldier said, to which everyone nodded.
“What are you doing Pieris? Queen Jewel ordered to bring them in captivity!” the second soldier flared up.
“We can still put the bands Amber, in case you forgot” Pieris pointed out.
“Fine. But if we are punished, you are taking the blame. It’s no wonder now to me why Queen Jewel says that you are the worst soldier ever. You are too sentimental!” Amber huffed.
Sentimental and him? No way. Or maybe he just sentimental compared to Amber. At least we can all agree that she isn’t caring at all, but why? Libra wondered.
Then, the soldiers put silver bands on everyone’s talons and necks.
“What are these for?” Quicksilver hissed.
“If you try to escape, these bands will inject venom into you, tranquilizing you for a day” Pieris explained.
“I still think we should tie them up” Amber said. “And still think you’re a wimp”
Pieris didn’t answer and looked like he didn’t want to. Libra was still trying to figure what was going on between them. She looked at the others, indicating the question ‘Have you figured it out yet?’ Auklet whispered back “I was thinking that maybe they just genuinely hate each other and it has nothing to do with Queen Jewel at all.”
Everyone nodded. It did seem most likely, although the way and the context in which Amber mentioned Queen Jewel supposedly hated Pieris did seem to be a promising possibility.
“Now get moving! What are you waiting for? An invitation served on a golden platter?!” Amber bellowed.
The seven of them stepped out of the cave and headed towards the entrance platform.
What does Queen Jewel want with us? What does she want with me? I thought that Mom and Jewel made a truce. I may not have been there but a truce is a truce. You can’t break it, can you? Libra though with uncertainty.
When they reached the exit, they heard someone running behind them. It was Cricket.
“Don’t do this. I won’t let you” she said wearily.
“What have you done?!” Ares shouted.
“She will be asleep any minute now” Amber said sinisterly.
“Let them go…” Cricket whispered. Then, she flopped onto the ground, sound asleep.
“CRICKET!” Libra cried while Pieris pulled her by the tail outside.
“Fly!” he ordered.
Libra took off with them reluctantly. She wanted to back for Cricket, but as she had read in many adventure scrolls, that’s not how the story goes. If someone were to enter her mind at that moment, it would be as complex as unravelling the mystery of the universe. She was angry, curious, frustrated, and sad and worried at the same time.
“So where are we going on this amazing adventure?” Quicksilver teased.
“Keep quiet” Pieris growled.
They all turned a sharp right in the direction of the Kingdom of the Sand. Why are we going there? Libra asked herself. Well, I guess we’ll find out.
-*-
Libra, Auklet, Ares, Quicksilver, Johad, Pieris and Amber had been flying for over a day. Libra didn’t know about the others but knew that her wings were sore. All the way, she had been thinking the same thing, why did Queen Jewel want them and what had they done wrong? She had tried talking to the others but most of the time, they were lost in their own thoughts. She had decided after a while it was best to leave them be. She was especially concerned about Johad. He had already had an attack and a bad experience with HiveWings, and now this? There were obviously a few exceptions to the ‘I hate HiveWings’ rule, like Bumblebee. But still, it may not have made him feel better. Then, Libra turned her attention to Auklet. From what she had heard, Auklet had begged and pleaded to her sister, Anemone, to make her young again. Her persistence had clearly paid off. Even though Auklet is technically 31 years old, Anemone made her six years old again. Tsunami had told Libra it was done so that she could attend the academy, which made Libra wonder, why hadn’t Auklet gone to Jade Mountain Academy when she was actually six?
Libra was then suddenly reminded of her mother. What would Glory say once she had found out that her daughter was missing? As a matter of fact, what would all her friends’ parents say once they found out that their dragonets were gone? Off on an adventure almost exactly like the one they had had? Libra then entered her world of dreams, to calm herself down a little bit. She started speculating about her father. She had never met her father, but had heard stories about him from her mother when she was younger. One day Libra had asked how the both of them had met. Glory didn’t answer then, but got the courage to only a year ago.
“Your father was one of the sweetest dragons I have ever met” Glory had said. “Even though he was a little goofy, he was really good company. He and I met about five years before we had you. It was during the final stages of what was called ‘The War of the Hives’.”
“What was the War of the Hives? I haven’t read about it in any of my history scrolls” Libra asked.
“The War of the Hives was the battle between Queen Wasp and her allies and everyone else. Most of Pyrrhia, after hearing about the evil and treacherous actions of Wasp, sided with the LeafWings and SilkWings who came from Pantala. However, some of the HiveWings could not disobey their queen and stood by Wasp. Father was one of the soldiers on Wasp’s side but changed loyalties for me. He stood by my side as we fought together and never left. Once Queen Wasp was dead, both of us settled in the rainforest to enjoy a good life. But, one day, a year after we had lived together, he disappeared and I haven’t seen him since.”
Libra sighed at the thought and wondered if she would ever see her father.
Up ahead, Amber came to an abrupt halt and shouted “Stop!”
“Whoa!” Auklet exclaimed.
Everyone followed her gaze and saw huge purple spirals in the sky in front of them.
“Amazing. S-Spectacular! But what i-is it?” Johad questioned.
“These are the Continental Portals. They allow dragons to travel from one continent to the other. There is another set like these on Pantala’s coasts and on the Kingdom of the Sea’s borders. You can choose your destination on Pyrrhia or Pantala as well” Pieris elaborated.
“Not MAGIC! I’m getting out of here!” Quicksilver flared and started to fly off.
Pieris nodded his head at Amber. She did as well.
What are they doing? Libra thought. What will happen to Quicksilver? Oh. Now I’m sure they are going to use the bands.
What Libra predicted came true. Amber touched one of her scales on her neck and then the bands on Quicksilver activated. She started shaking violently. After a minute or so more, her eyes closed, she became limp and fell down onto the sand.
“Quicksilver!” everyone shouted.
“We will carry her. You stay out of it” Amber said sternly.
Pieris grabbed and carried Quicksilver’s left side and Amber took the right. She gave the others the look to go into the portal.
“How do we choose our destination and where are we headed?” Ares asked.
“To choose a destination, you have to place your right talon on the portal and think of where you want to go. Our destination is in front of Jewel Hive” Pieris clarified.
Ares reached out and put his right talon on the portal closest to him. A few moments later, the glow of the portal became much brighter.
“Get inside. NOW!” Amber ordered.
Ares went in first. Then Auklet, Johad and Pieris and Amber with Quicksilver.
Libra looked at the portal nervously. This is what the secret project was. The one that Glory used to mention quite often.
What will happen in there? I hope the others are alright, Libra quivered, but she fought back her fears and stepped into the unknown and undreamt of.
CHAPTER-8
Libra opened her eyes. Her whole body was screeching in pain and she felt dizzy. It felt like it took a mountain of effort to get up. Then, she looked up and found Jewel Hive in front of her.
“I-Isn’t it c-cool?” Johad asked, who was also gazing in wonder.
“It is” Libra replied, brushing her wings against his.
“Queen Jewel shall be expecting all of you in her throne room” Amber interrupted.
“Aaand where is it?” Auklet exclaimed.
“For now, we are taking you to the dungeon” Pieris said. “So you better not put up a fight like she did.” He was looking at Quicksilver, who was still asleep. Ares was about to slash at him, Libra calmed him down and said “We will go, as long as you don’t bind us.”
Pieris and Amber pushed them forwards into Jewel Hive. Its GlitterBazaar was filled with beauty. Libra had heard a lot about it from Cricket and she guessed Quicksilver had too from Sundew. But they weren’t going to stop for shopping. They took a left at the entrance and went down a dark stairway to an underground dungeon. There were windows, but they were not made of glass. Just openings on the walls to let some sunlight in. They stopped in front of a large wooden door. Pieris took out a bunch of keys from inside his armour and opened the door. Inside, there were around a hundred cells down the hallway. Pieris and Amber dragged them into the second one on their left and locked it.
“Get settled because you are going to be here a long time” Amber growled. Auklet snarled back. Libra hadn’t seen her this angry. After that, the soldiers left.
“Well, this is just great! Now we are prisoners for a crime we don’t know we committed” Ares said in frustration.
“You mean a crime that I must have committed. The guards had originally come for me, remember?” Libra pointed out.
“We are all in jail together and nothing can change that. So the blame is on all of us” Auklet answered.
“D-Don’t look at me. I-I am n-not going to be a tie-break-ker for a-anyone” Johad said when everyone stared at him. The conversation was then interrupted by a loud snore, coming from Quicksilver.
“Eesh! Who knew she could snore like that?” Auklet exclaimed, trying to bring in good humour. It didn’t work. Libra still couldn’t stop thinking about why they were there. She also noticed something peculiar. In all the occupied cells that she could see, all the prisoners were hybrid dragons like her friends. Has Queen Jewel only been imprisoning hybrids? If so, then why? Libra thought.
-*-
It was late in the afternoon when Pieris and Amber came back to the cell and they did not look particularly happy.
“Queen Jewel will be seeing you now” Pieris told them. He unlocked the door and forced them outside. Ares and Auklet tried to fight back but when the soldiers gave them the look that said ‘Continue and you will end up like Quicksilver’, they stopped.
“W-What about Q-Quicksilver? S-Shouldn’t she c-come with us?” Johad questioned.
“She will not be joining us” Amber hissed back.
The six of them went outside, back into the hive and the Bazaar again and flew up. They landed on the highest floor and stopped in front of an aqua-golden coloured door, marked with the letters ‘T.R’. Pieris knocked on the door three times, another soldier opened it and Amber pushed them in from behind. The throne room was a dull blue with bright specks of golden here and there. At the end of the long corridor, Queen Jewel was sitting on the throne, with her long black cape on the floor and a silver crown on her head, glaring at them.
“Come forth” Jewel ordered. Libra, Ares, Johad and Auklet scuttled forward and bowed down.
“So you must be Libra, right? I would have thought you would look more…ugly” she sneered.
“Leave her alone!” Auklet snapped.
Queen Jewel hissed back and continued “In any case, I will expect all of you to stay here. Dragonets like you have no place in this world.” She stared at Pieris and then said “As for you, I had better not see any of them escape, or else your execution is confirmed. Understand, insect?” Pieris nodded reluctantly and Amber grinned at Jewel. Jewel then gestured the soldiers to take them back to their cell. Before leaving the room, Libra could hear Jewel shout “You will find out who you are Libra! I can guarantee it!”
Once back in the cell, Libra asked everyone “Guys, have not noticed this already?”
“Noticed what?” Ares asked.
“That Queen Jewel has only been imprisoning hybrids? Take a look and see for yourself” Libra said. Everyone looked out through the bars and nodded.
“It is quite mysterious. After all, why would Jewel imprison so many hybrids? Maybe they prove useful to her, just like how Wasp imprisoned flamesilks to help her tribe?” Auklet answered.
“Possible, yes. But what could these dragons, including us, give her that she doesn’t have already?” Ares pointed out.
I’m not and neither is Auklet, but both of us are the only royalty…maybe she wants to use us as tokens or bargaining chips to show her power, Libra thought.
“M-Maybe she just h-has a grudge a-against them” Johad enquired.
“What is the motive behind it, if that was the case?” Auklet questioned.
“I think there are four options. One: Jewel may only just genuinely hate hybrids, two: Jewel may want to show the world that hybrids don’t belong here, although that seems unlikely since HiveWings are hybrids themselves, three: Jewel could be using these hybrids as resources, like Auklet said and four: Jewel imprisoned these hybrids to try and find me, by using the hybrids to track me down” Libra explained.
“If Jewel really wanted to find you, why didn’t she just go to your mom’s palace and take you from there?” Ares asked.
“T-That is a good point. W-What could have p-possibly stopped her? I-If she already knew a-about you, i-it should h-have occurred to her t-that all it w-would take w-was a trip to t-the rainforest” Johad agreed.
“Yes…but maybe she didn’t know where my mom was hiding me. Perhaps she assumed that Glory was trying to hide me and was looking in the wrong place” Libra pondered.
“There is one piece of this puzzle I am not able to place in and it’s this, why did she want you to begin with? Does she want to end the RainWing throne bloodline? Start another war or force Glory to submit to her rule in exchange for you?”
I almost forgot about that. I…I honestly don’t know what is so important about me to Jewel. I’m not even worth all this, Libra thought.
“I just…It’s so unfair that all of you have to be in here for something probably minute that Jewel wants from me! All of you should be at Jade Mountain Academy, studying, reading, making new friends and enjoying yourselves! I’m so sorry that I dragged all of you into this. If anything, I should say this to Jewel herself!” Libra cried.
“Libra, this isn’t your fault. Like you said, we don’t even know what Jewel desires” Ares said.
“Plus, you should be at Jade Mountain Academy too! I overheard you talking to yourself in the night about your dreams of studying there and I don’t blame you. That place is awesome!” Auklet exclaimed. Libra couldn’t help but smile. She knew already that she was lucky to have friends like hers. Slowly, as the minutes piled on, everyone drifted off into a peaceful nap.
-*-
In the night, Libra heard a loud bang of a cell door in the distance. It made her and everyone else wake with a start. Three soldiers were dragging a SilkWing-HiveWing hybrid. He had lots of black and orange spots across his body. He also had red and blue wings like a SilkWing and a dark black face with bright yellow eyes. The soldiers placed him the cell opposite to theirs and was very grumpy and tired.
“What are you? You look like a messed-up painting! No offense, of course” Auklet exclaimed, dazzled.
“Hrm” the dragon snorted back.
“What she means to say is, who are you?” Libra asked.
“I’m Spot”
“How long have you been here?” Ares interrogated.
“I’ve been here for ten years, continuously moved from one cell to another every year. It’s starting to get on my nerves. Before all this, I was a soldier in Wasp’s army during the war” Spot answered.
Hold on. Ten years was the number of years for which my father had gone missing. And before that he was a soldier too. Could this be him? Have I finally found him? No. That’s not possible. He wouldn’t have survived for this long on his own. This is just a big coincidence. An awfully huge and personal coincidence. Libra speculated.
“Nice to meet you. This is Auklet, Ares and Johad. The one sleeping in the back is Quicksilver and I am Libra” she introduced.
“LIBRA?!” Spot gasped.
“You know me?” Libra asked.
“Of course! You know me, right?” he replied. When Libra shook her head, he said “How? Okay, I’m Spot, son of Blue and Cricket and husband to Glory.”
“WHAT?!” Libra screamed. She could feel all her beliefs and reality crumbling on top of her, like a giant avalanche of shock.
“You are Libra, a HiveWing, SilkWing and RainWing hybrid.”
PART 2
THE CLAW STRONGHOLD
CHAPTER-9
I’m a hybrid? Libra thought with doubt. It did explain everything about her. How she had a frill of antennae, how she could spin flamesilk and how she could inject healing toxins from her claws, which she had only figured out a few hours ago. Most of all, it explained how she was born with four wings and not two. So many different voices were screaming in her head, shouting insults on why she was so altered compared to everyone else.
“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Auklet hissed.
Spot showed his left arm. On it, there were three letters, S, G and L, showed like a tree. The S and G were on top with L on the bottom. Libra nearly quivered at the sight. It was true. She really was a hybrid.
After a while, everyone else fell asleep. Only Libra was awake. She was feeling curious. Did Queen Jewel imprison her because she was a hybrid? Or maybe she hated her in general, however that did seem unlikely. She closed her eyes to try and get some sleep. But it was a long way away.
-*-
“Where in Pyrrhia’s name ARE we?!” Libra woke up startled and stood up to defend herself. “What are you doing?” the voice said from behind. Libra turned around and saw it was Quicksilver.
“So you’re finally up, sleepy head” Ares said woozily.
“Look who’s talking!” Quicksilver snapped, while Libra chortled. It was great to have their nice, but violent friend up and running again.
“Someone please explain why in the name of the three moons ARE WE HERE?!” Quicksilver bellowed again. Ares filled in for her. It took quite a while as Ares kept drifting off in between and everyone had to shaking him awake every ten seconds. Once he had finally finished, Quicksilver said “That really didn’t explain anything. But why would Jewel want you, RainWing, of all dragons?”
“The name is Libra and I don’t know why” Libra replied. “Yet.”
“Morning e-everyone” Johad said as he stretched on the floor.
“Same to you” Spot wished from the other cell
“Is that…?” Quicksilver asked.
“Yup. Quicksilver, Spot. Spot, Quicksilver. Now that we are introduced, can figure out how to escape?” Libra replied.
“Esc-cape?” Johad questioned.
“Yes, Johad. We can’t be cooped up in here forever. We have to find out why Queen Jewel is keeping these hybrids here” Ares agreed.
“And find out why she wants Libra” Auklet pointed out.
“Well, how are we going to do that, smarty claws?” Quicksilver hissed.
“I…don’t know” Ares finally sputtered out.
“That’s a good start” Quicksilver said, rolling her eyes.
“Maybe we can find out when the guard shifts are” Libra suggested.
“So that w-we can figure o-out when no one w-will be there! Good idea L-Libra!” Johad said.
“Okay. We’ll observe when each set of guards leaves and arrives and plan accordingly” Auklet summed up. “Ooo. This is going to be fun!”
“Finally! I can get some action. Knocking out guards and locking them up and who knows what else! I cannot wait!” Quicksilver said sinisterly.
“By the moons, y-you are m-making me f-feel very u-uncomfortable r-right now” Johad chuckled.
“That is my job” Quicksilver pointed out and giggled.
“I would not call that an occupation” Auklet chuckled.
-*-
Libra was up again and still couldn’t sleep. She had been trying to ask her father for three days about what happened in the past, but all that came from him was a groan and then he would be asleep again. It was like he wasn’t interested in her anymore. She sighed and thought about Jade Mountain Academy. She imagined all that she could have learned there and what she would do without it.
Tap, Tap, Tap
Libra was definitely wide awake, looking for the source of the sound. Where is it coming from? Is it from Spot’s cell? Libra thought. She looked over at the cell, but the sound was mildly heard. Not there, I guess. It could either be from our neighbouring cells, or this one itself. But which is it?
Tap, Tap, TAP
It was close. Really close. Libra went straight to the back wall and leaned against it.
TAP, TAP, TAP
So it’s from our cell. Who could be doing this? A guard? Maybe Amber or Pieris? Libra wondered.
“W-What’s going on?” Johad said, yawning from the pile that he and the others had made against the bars.
“I’m not sure. But I think that someone is drilling through the walls” Libra replied.
“W-Who would d-do that? A-And who has claws sharp e-enough to do the j-job?” he pointed out.
That’s true. No dragon has claws sharp enough for that. Is it not a dragon then? Or dragon with some sort of drilling object? I’m thinking animus-touched for sure, Libra understood.
Suddenly, a crack appeared in the back wall, with a mild bang. Everyone was awake now. Ares was panting, Auklet staring in awe and Quicksilver scowling as usual.
“What was that?” Ares cried.
“Wait for a minute. I think someone is trying to make their way in” Libra assured.
“YOU THINK?!” Quicksilver snapped.
The crack was getting bigger, but then whoever was inside started making a circle in the wall. Slowly, it was complete and a familiar head popped out of the hole.
“Bumblebee! What are you doing here? How did you get in? How did you find us?” Libra and Auklet asked together.
“I’m here to rescue you, of course. Fearless adventurer Bumblebee to the rescue!” she exclaimed. “As for how I found you, it’s a long story. I used this animus-touched spear to cut my way in. It’s indestructible! Many months ago, I started building a hideout for myself underground, right in the middle of almost all the Hives. I then decided to start cutting out a network of tunnels, so that I can travel to other parts of Pantala from my hideout. After you guys got captured, I’ve been building this tunnel to get to your cell. Don’t know how I could have honestly guessed that you were in this one. And I must say, this isn’t a bad place to be a prisoner. How is the food here? Horrible? Disgusting? As bad as a face full of dead sea slugs?”
“You have no idea. It’s like trying to eat rocks!” Auklet giggled. Then, they were interrupted by distant voices, heading towards the dungeon. They stopped talking, listening to who was coming.
“You are sure that they won’t escape?” said a commanding voice, which, unfortunately, came from Queen Jewel.
“Yes, your majesty. They have been contained for four days now. I’m sure it would not take this long to come up with an escape plan, and even if they did, there is no way they can get out of here” Amber said.
“Good. Did you make sure Pieris does not get a chance to guard them? Remember the last time we trusted him? With containing that family of hybrids?” Jewel sneered.
“Of course, your majesty. He just went ahead and released them. Without any authorisation from you. At least he is now where he belongs. I think he will find the gates of heaven more acceptable than Pantala or Pyrrhia” Amber guffawed.
Why would they do that? Why would they kill him for doing the right thing? It’s them who’s wrong! Once we are free, I will make sure that we avenge him. Try to change Queen Jewel’s ways and views about hybrids. If you are listening, Pieris, then you know that this is a promise, Libra thought.
“Let’s get out of here while we still can” Quicksilver interrupted.
“Get in. Quick!” Bumblebee whispered, gesturing the others inside the tunnel. Once everyone hopped in, she grabbed the circle of wall that she had cut through, using it as a door, sealed the hole.
She managed it just in time as everyone heard the entrance door open with a loud thud. It was followed by a loud scream and growl.
“HOW in the name of the MOONS did they ESCAPE?! YOU SAID THAT YOU HAD EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL! I don’t call this a lot of CONTROL!” Jewel shouted.
“I-I don’t know…I did everything” said a third voice that Libra did not recognize. Bumblebee told her that the voice belonged to a new HiveWing guard named Honeycomb.
“Clearly not. I’m disappointed” Amber growled.
“Well, BOTH of you are going to FIND THEM! NOW!” Jewel bellowed.
Libra and the others sighed in relief. Then Bumblebee started crawling forward down the tunnel, while the others followed, doing so for some time. All of a sudden, Bumblebee vanished from sight and Johad screamed up front.
CHAPTER-10
“What happened Johad?” Ares asked.
“B-Bumblebee just slid d-down. I tried t-to grab her b-but I was t-too slow” he answered.
“Let’s go after her! Johad, slide down and the rest of us will follow. Hopefully we find Bumblebee at the end of this tunnel” Auklet proposed. Libra agreed while Quicksilver looked hesitant. The tunnel was long, dark and steep. She knew it would not be a comfortable ride down.  
It was much longer than Libra had expected. It seemed to go on forever and ever. Eventually, they landed on a large rock platform with Bumblebee staring at them, giggling.
“Obviously, you aren’t used to this, are you?” she sighed.
“Do we look like we grew up under a mountain?” Auklet joked. Bumblebee smiled back and went back to the end of that hall, where there seemed to be some sort of rock-cut study table. Libra looked up and saw several shelves of books and scrolls, many that she recognized, like the ‘Structure of the Hives’ scroll, the book ‘Revolution of the SilkWings’ and the ‘A Poison Tale: Told Inside Out’ journal by Sequoia.
“So, this is your hideout, right?” Libra inquired.
“Yup. It’s not much, but it’s home for now” Bumblebee answered. 
“S-Speaking of home, w-where did you used to l-live before this? I mean, w-with your p-parents” Johad questioned.
“I first lived in a big house in Silk Hive. After the war, Queen Jewel and Queen Io decided to change the Hives a bit. Wasp Hive was renamed Silk Hive in honour of the SilkWings. A new Jewel Hive was built here, in place of Bloodworm Hive and the old Jewel Hive was named Sequoia Hive” Bumblebee clarified.
“I didn’t know the Hives were renamed! How come Tsunami or any of you guys tell me?” Auklet moaned.
“You didn’t ask” Quicksilver said.
“May I ask another question?” Ares inquired.
“Knock yourself out” Bumblebee replied.
“Are you really adopted? By the famous Cricket and Blue?”
“Well, yes. Apparently, I was rescued to be free of Wasp’s mind control. I’ve asked Mother many times about who my real parents were, but she had no answer. I am still guessing she doesn’t know. I wish I knew who they were” Bumblebee answered.
“Do you have any place where I could wash my claws? They’re dirtier than the termites in this place!” Quicksilver grumbled.
“Just go down this corridor and it will be the thirteenth door on your right” Bumblebee responded, pointing to the corridor on her left, while going through some of the scrolls that were laid out on her table.
“Do you need any help?” Libra asked. “I’ll be happy to, if you want.”
“No thank you. I found it anyway” she replied holding a scroll with a bronze-coloured stamp on it.
“What is it? A story? Some facts? Or a tall tale?” Auklet inquired.
“It’s a legendary story. This is one of the last surviving copies in the world. To get it came at a costly price. I want to tell you guys about it.”
After Quicksilver came back (while growling “Hold on minute, would you? I’m not as fast as lightning!”), Bumblebee opened the scroll and read the story aloud.
“Over three thousand years ago, all the tribes lived on Pyrrhia, including BeetleWings and LeafWings” she said. “One day, Queen Gannett of the SkyWings called for meeting with the other queens. She announced that the continent was running out of resources for the tribes to survive. For their safety, she suggested that there was another continent on the other side of the world and that at least two tribes should leave Pyrrhia and go there. The LeafWings and BeetleWings agreed to go, bringing a conclusion to the meeting. Dating to one thousand years after this incident, a scroll has been found that tells about one of Clearsight’s most secretive predictions, which she did not mention in her book. Clearsight saw this vision when she was around twenty years old. The vision showed her that a dragon from the future, specifically a dragon from our time would set free the queens of the tribes of her time. Clearsight did not understand how this would work and ignored it. The only other detail mentioned is that the dragon who would set the queens free, bringing doom to all of Pyrrhia and Pantala would be related to the current queen of the RainWings”
-*-
Being worried, anxious and downright afraid was all that Libra felt, staring at the peaceful night sky above. It was amazing how Bumblebee could carve out a tunnel which resembles a window. That detail did not distract her for long.
Bringing doom to all of Pyrrhia and Pantala, Bumblebee’s voice echoed in her head and she sighed. Will I really do that? Is that why Queen Jewel wanted me captured? Because I will set free the queens? In any case, how is that possible? Now I am just as puzzled as Clearsight. How can I do that? I’m not an animus! Even if I was, no animus can bring dragons back from the dead! So, what will I do, how will I do it… and what should I do now? Libra thought, holding back tears.
“Y-You decided to c-come o-out here too?” said someone from behind. Libra immediately knew it was Johad.
“Why not? You can’t deny the beauty outside. Too bad we can’t actually go up there to see it” Libra said.
“I-I know you’re l-lying. A-Are you thinking a-about the p-prediction?” he replied.
“Yes. It’s just, I don’t know how to stop it! Already we have Jewel to deal with and now, I feel like I have to protect all of you… from me” Libra answered, half-crying.
“I-I only k-know one thing. Y-You shouldn’t be w-worrying about i-it. I-Instead, you should b-be worrying a-about how you will d-deal with it. I-It’s like the lullaby ‘Silent Bite’” Johad said.
“You know that one too?” Libra asked.
“O-Of course. M-Mother used to sing it to me a-all the time, every night. Especially, i-if I was feeling like I-I could never control my f-firescales” he said.
“You have FIRESCALES? And you never told me?! Another thing, how become you haven’t burnt me to death already?” Libra exclaimed.
“H-Hold on a minute. I-I’ll explain everything. I-I was born with firescales, and it c-came with a u-unique ability. I c-can basically c-control when I w-want my scales t-to burn dragons and when n-not to. I-It’s like I can make them sleep f-for a w-while and when I am i-in danger, they w-wake up again” Johad clarified.
“That’s so cool! Hey, do you want to sing ‘Silent Bite’ with me? Just for old memories?” Libra said.
“Let’s do i-it! R-Ready?” Johad said, and Libra nodded. After a small warm up, they started singing.
[Author's Note: The tune of the song is like that of 'Silent Night'. Thank you-JadetheElemental]
“Silent Bite, Vicious Bite
Tears through the clouds in the sky
Will you hear the night’s song?
And get up to watch the stars’ gong?
Through your eternal sleep
Through your eternal sleep
Silent Bite, Vicious Bite
Breaks the bonds between you and I
Will you fix it by light of day?
Or sit and wait for the prices to pay?
After all you have gone through
After all you have gone through
Silent Bite, Vicious Bite
Is your tool to live the right way
Will you use it to spread good and truth?
Or poison the world with the anger in you?
Make your choice and say!”
“Make your choice and say” someone finished from behind. Libra and Johad looked behind and saw it was Bumblebee.
“That was so cute! Both of you singing together! In a harmony I have never heard before! It’s now official. You are definitely made for each other! Lovebirds come together at last!” she exclaimed.
“What?” Libra said blushing. “I don’t…I mean…I don’t think…we’re not…huh? Where did you get that from?!”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Bumblebee replied. “Anyway, I came up here to tell you to get to bed. I have some friends I have to meet early in the morning and I don’t want to show up there with five groggy lizards who can’t see straight out of drowsiness.”
“Alright. We’ll come on over” Libra answered. The three of them went down to the sleeping rooms. Bumblebee went into the room with Ares and Auklet, and Johad and Libra went to the room with snoring Quicksilver. Johad fell asleep right away and later on Libra did do. This was the first time, since the HiveWings took them from the academy, that Libra slept well and had peaceful dreams about the rainforest.
-*-
Libra was shaken awake by Quicksilver, while she was groaning “Wake up already! Are you just ignoring me now? COME ON!” Eventually, Libra woke up, yawning for a while. Then, the six of them went down the tunnel network
In between, Bumblebee had stopped and said “I recognize this tunnel. This is the same tunnel that Blue, Cricket, Sundew, Luna and Swordtail used to escape the flamesilk cavern! We must be close!”
“You said that the last EIGHTEEN TIMES we have stopped! And for NO REASON!” Quicksilver had protested.  Bumblebee ignored the comment and moved on, as did everyone else.
Finally, Libra and her friends slid down another tunnel and reached a beach. If Libra had remembered her geography right, Libra had a feeling they were on the ‘leg’ of Pantala.
“This would be a nice place for a rendezvous, if it wasn’t so misty” Auklet pointed out.
“What are you talking about? Okay, it is a little misty, but not so much” Ares said. They were both right. There was a light mist that hung over the beach, but everything was still visible, including the ocean and small islands in the distance.
“Listen up. When the dragons get here, I want you all to try to be quiet and let me handle it. Technically, you’re not supposed to be here. Understand?” Bumblebee said seriously.
“Okay. B-But at least t-tell us why?” Johad asked.
Before Bumblebee could answer, she was focused on something in the mist. Libra looked to, but could only see three dragon silhouettes. As they got closer, she could start to see what the dragons looked like. The first one, on the left, was a SilkWing. He had a yellow body and an orange tail. He had pink spots on his back and on his forehead. His wings were all sorts of colours, including blue, green, indigo, purple and violet. He also had dark purple antennae and horns, and aqua colour eyes. The second one, in the middle, was a LeafWing-SeaWing hybrid. He had gills on his neck, fins and webs, like a SeaWing, but had a LeafWing’s body, with dark green leaf-shaped wings. His body was a mix of green and blue in many places, with indigo scales speckled over his body. Strangely, he had no leaf-tipped tail and had bright brown eyes. The last one was a SkyWing. She had dark red scales with bright orange wings. She had multiple scars all over her body, including one over her right eye. Her eyes were black with some bits of yellow and green amongst them. All three of them had a tattoo of a sword and shield, with a gemstone in between, on their left side. Libra looked over at Bumblebee, who had the same mark on the same side as the others. It was strange for her to believe. Once the dragons had arrived, the SkyWing growled and said “What is this, Bumblebee? You know that bringing other dragons is against the rules!”
“I am well aware of that. I am, after all, one of the dragons who made them in the first place. I feel that these dragonets are ready to know about our organisation” Bumblebee answered.
“Organisation? Is that why all four of you have the same markings?” Ares asked.
“Yes. All of us are the leaders of our organisation” the SilkWing replied.
“Let’s start off with introductions. The SilkWing is Dandelion, the hybrid is Chokecherry and Miss Grumpy Wings over here, is Princess Hurricane, daughter of Queen Ruby” Bumblebee said.
“I do have a very good reason to be grumpy!” Hurricane bellowed.
“W-What is the n-name of your organisation?” Johad questioned.
“We belong to the group called ‘The Dragon Claws’” Dandelion responded.
CHAPTER-11
“The what?” Quicksilver said.
“The Dragon Claws. That’s who we are.” Chokecherry replied.
“So, what exactly do you ‘Dragon Claws’ do?” Auklet interrogated.
“The Dragon Claws are an organisation fighting against Queen Jewel, for the last twenty years. Our job is to rescue hybrid dragons, which the queen has captured” Hurricane answered.
“But why is Queen Jewel capturing hybrids to begin with?” Libra asked.
“We… are still not sure why she is doing so. We do have a feeling that she is trying to track the prediction dragon. The one who will release the queens” Dandelion said.
“Good thing you found before Jewel did… again. This is Quicksilver, Ares, Auklet, Johad and Libra, our ‘prophecy’ dragonet” Bumblebee chuckled.
“Oh. So, Libra is the prophecy dragon? How will she release the queens? You know that Princess Libra was not born with animus powers!” Hurricane snapped.
“How she might destroy the world doesn’t matter. What we care about is whether she does it or not; it’s pretty simple” Bumblebee growled.
“Guys…” Dandelion tried to interrupt.
“Don’t we still need to figure it out? So that we stop it from happening in the first place?” Auklet said.
“Guys?”
“That is important, Auklet. But we have no clues, no leads and no ideas on how to do that. If you have some, then you’re welcome to share them” Libra replied.
“GUYS!” Dandelion finally screamed. Everyone turned to look at him as his face was twisted with worry. “Where is Chokecherry?”
“WHAT? HE’S MISSING? Why didn’t you SAY anything?” Hurricane bellowed.
“I tried to! But ALL OF YOU decided to IGNORE IT!” he answered.
“I found him. He is over here” Quicksilver said, looking over behind a ledge in the distance. Everyone rushed on over. Chokecherry looked to be quite sick. His eyes had come a bloodshot red and it looked like he had difficulty breathing, as he was gasping for air.
“What happened? Are you okay?” Bumblebee interrogated.
“I don’t think so. All of a sudden I felt my body collapse on me. I slowed down a lot and I felt dizzy. So I came here to rest for a bit” he said.
“Did you touch any poisonous plant on the way here?” Dandelion asked.
“No. I avoided everything. The only plant I brushed against was a touch-me-not. We all know they’re not poisonous” Chokecherry answered.
“That is what they want you to think” Quicksilver whispered.
“W-What do you m-mean by that?” Johad said.
“There is only one plant I know that fits the description and clues. It’s called the Devil’s Dewdrop. This plant is not only unique in its shape, but also the way it spreads the poison. The Devil’s Dewdrop has a special ability to transform itself and make it look like any other plant. Its favourite ones to mimic are touch-me-nots. It tricks its prey and makes them think it is harmless. The poison of a Devil’s Dewdrop takes about ten days to kill anything; from the tiniest ant to the strongest dragon” Quicksilver explained.
“Yikes!” Ares chuckled.
“There must be a cure for it, right? I mean, it took twenty years, but now we have cures for every single poisonous plant in the world” Libra said.
“Nope. Not this one. Since the plant is so rare, dragon researching idiots haven’t studied it or whatever it is they do” Quicksilver growled, whipping her tail back and forth.
“We will just have to make one. If we head back to base, I can probably whip something up. All my plants, herbs and research is there. Oh! I hope Cometcatcher remembered to feed my geckos” Dandelion replied.
“Base? What base?” Auklet gasped.
“Our headquarters. We call it ‘The Claw Stronghold’. It’s near the borders of the Poison Jungle and close to Silk Hive, since Queen Io supports us. If we leave now, we can make it by tomorrow morning” Bumblebee answered.
“Come on then! Let’s go!” Ares exclaimed.
All of them took off into the mist. Once they were high enough, Libra felt like she could see everything. She spotted Sequoia Hive right next the beach, the islands near the peninsula and the Poison Jungle off in the distance. Over the horizon, the sun was peeking at them, as they headed off, far from any of the Hives.
-*-
Libra, Ares, Quicksilver, Auklet, Johad, Bumblebee, Hurricane, Dandelion and Chokecherry had stopped to rest on the savannah. Libra was scouting for cover. Suddenly, she spotted a nearby rock settlement. There was a cave amongst the brambly cover of trees and shrubs. They went inside and settled down. Auklet almost immediately fell asleep. Quicksilver laid down in one of the corners and started fidgeting with something in her claws, while Ares and Johad started playing Truth or Die. Dandelion wrapped some herbs around Chokecherry’s wing and Bumblebee, along with Hurricane, started carving out some windows in the walls.
Libra took the first watch and stared at the setting sun. She also adjusted some the bushes around them to make it invisible (although her bright light turquoise scales weren’t exactly helping). The sun was almost invisible when Libra heard rustling in the bushes. Her head shot up in attention and darted around to see who it was. Suddenly, a young wildebeest calf sprung out with its quivering legs and cute little eyes. Libra beamed with delight and picked up the tiny creature. She snuggled with it for some time and then someone said from behind “What do you have there. Is it small and cute and does it so say ‘HUG ME TIL YOU WEEP OF JOY?!”’
Libra recognized who it was and said “Come see Ares. Isn’t he SO adorable?!” She hugged him gently and even rocked him slightly.
“Yes. He definitely is” Ares chuckled.
Unexpectedly, a cackle-like laugh could be heard in the air. Libra and Ares looked out of the cave and saw a pack of hyenas running towards them. The wildebeest calf squealed with surprise, jumped out of Libra’s talons and ran towards the setting sun. The hyenas’ yowls and cries were louder than ever, chasing the calf down and catching up to him with ease. Libra saw a tiny hyena pup amongst the pack, looking just as fierce as the adults.
“One of the daily hunts I see. Not surprised” said a growling voice. Libra turned around and saw it was Hurricane. Her face was looking quite tired and upset.
“I hope that calf survives” Libra said.
“Why do you care? Even if it dies or not, it doesn’t matter” Hurricane snapped. “Anyway, I’m going on patrol. Stay on guard.”
What else do you think I have been doing for the last hour?! Libra thought.
Without another word, Hurricane zipped off behind the cave. Libra sat down at the entrance once more. She tried to make head or tail out of the prediction, but once again failed to do so.
Libra was still up deep into the night. She had offered to watch until midnight, when she would wake up Quicksilver for her turn. Throughout that time, something felt wrong to her, but she couldn’t quite put her talon on it. Eventually, it struck her when she realized that Hurricane had not returned from her patrol.
Libra got up and headed towards where she thought Hurricane had gone. She spotted tracks on the ground and followed the trail. They led Libra to a steep cliff, with a beach down below. She peered down and thought she was hallucinating. Libra had just seen a shiny white tail with spikes on the end.
It must be an IceWing. But what is he doing here? Libra wondered. Suddenly Libra felt a whack on her head and as she drifted into unconsciousness, she looked behind and saw a dark red talon.
-*-
Libra woke up with an aching skull. She saw the sunlight hitting her scales and felt rejuvenated. She looked down at her talons and saw ropes on them. Her snout too was tied.
Who was it I saw last night and why did he or she tie me up? I must have been on to something then! That should also explain the ‘late’ Hurricane, Libra thought. She lifted her tail and slipped it between the ropes on her back legs. With a great effort, she pulled the ropes apart and did the same for her front talons and untied her snout. Libra saw that she was still at the cliff and the cave couldn’t have been far. She hurried back to the outcrop and hoped that no one had found her friends. By the time she got there, she found everyone asleep but Hurricane was not to be seen. Below one of the carved windows, she discovered a large sack made of leaves. Libra picked it up and searched through. She found two bottles of herbs, a few bits of meat (probably leftovers) and a book. She looked through the pages and learnt about a big secret in a letter. It read-
Dear Sculptor
I have found out about the prophecy as ordered. It appears that this dragonet, however she might do it, should release them by the middle of next week (I have done the calculations before you doubt me). I met her yesterday. She is suspicious and could disrupt our plans. I spotted her last night, sneaking around our rendezvous place. I have given the medicine to our ‘depressed plant’. Her hallucinations shall soon return.
As for the Dragon Claws, there is nothing new to report. Our newest operations were to rescue an old hybrid couple and we brought in two new recruits; Cypress the MudWing and Ironwood the SandWing. I believe that your mother is not supportive of our ideas. Be careful. She is a dangerous enemy. 
That is all from me. I hope that this letter does not reach anyone else but you, the Sculptor. So if anyone else is reading, burn this letter in ten seconds or else you would make the worst enemy you could possibly have. 
F T E I B O S R T''
Rising Storm
Libra couldn’t understand the last few lines. What could those letters stand for? A secret language? A code? She could not figure it out. However, the rest was clear. Someone was plotting a plan against the Dragon Claws and it was obviously someone she knew; otherwise, they wouldn’t mention meeting her. Could it be Hurricane who wrote the letter? It made some sense since Libra remembered that this sack was not here last night.
Flap, Flap, THUD!
Someone had landed nearby. Libra quickly put everything inside, along with the letter and scuttled towards an empty spot in the cave to make it look like she was asleep. An angry red head peeked inside the cave. It was Hurricane. Close call, Libra thought and shut her eyes in a split second before Hurricane looked at her.
“Wake up drowsy snouts! Do you want to go to the stronghold or not?” Hurricane roared.
“We’re coming, we’re coming” Auklet muttered.
“She’s right. We had better get a move on. We have only eight days to make the cure if reach there today” Bumblebee said.
Slowly, everyone rose to their talons. Chokecherry was still very much sick and was leaning on Dandelion. Johad was stretching more quickly and Ares was observing Quicksilver fiddling with her ‘toy’ again. They took off from the cave and headed in the same course as before, flying for a couple of hours. Finally, Bumblebee’s face lit up with delight as she exclaimed “Look fellow claws! We are home!”
They dived down a little lower to stop the clouds getting in their way and admired the big and sturdy building. It was a dark brown-red colour and was full of hustle and bustle. From above, they could see a glass roof on the sides, which didn’t seem like very good protection. Once they landed, they saw at the entrance was a tall arch and a large wooden door. Hurricane handed her a bunch of keys from her sack (Libra hadn’t noticed them before) and gave it Bumblebee. She unlocked the door and with that screams of anger and delight of the hundreds of dragons here could be heard. They entered into a long hallway extending on either side. Each one was filled with many doors and carefully carved frames opposite to them.
Walking forward through a narrow passage, Libra saw two open grounds, filled with trees and flowers, on the left and right side, both of the same size. Looking above, she saw that there were four floors. When they had reached the end of this mini hall, it gave way to a massive open ground. Libra could see at least a hundred dragons spread across it. There were a channel of small streams, flowing across the edges of the courtyard. Bumblebee insisted that they have to go on even further and entered another small passage on the other side. This too had grounds on either side and led to another long hallway. Bumblebee gestured them to a staircase in the left corner and they climbed to the third floor. They strolled straight ahead and entered the fifth door on the side.
Where they had entered appeared to be a healing room. Libra observed that there were several shelves above on the walls, crowded with bottles of herbs and scrolls on medicine. There was a large platform, made of wood, silk and bamboo on the other side. Dandelion asked Chokecherry to lie down on it. There was another door right next to them. Dandelion went in and came out in a minute or two, pushing forward a cauldron with a few bowls in his talon. Libra could see into the door opposite to the previous one. There were three platforms in it, similar to Chokecherry’s. One was empty and on the other two were a SkyWing with a scorched face and a SeaWing with a bunch of seaweed wrapped around her tail.
“I shall start work on the cure” Dandelion said. “So, can everyone please leave? I need a bit of silence and peace while I work.”
“Of course!” Bumblebee responded. “Hurricane, can you please escort our guests to their quarters? Also, those who want, they can come with me for the daily inspection.”
“I’ll be glad to come” Libra exclaimed.
“S-Same here. I-It might help to g-get to k-know Li…, the building w-while we’re here” Johad answered.
“Alright. The rest of you can go with Hurricane. Libra, Johad, we shall head downstairs” Bumblebee said.
Hurricane, Ares, Auklet and Quicksilver went towards the stairs on the right side of the hallway, while Bumblebee, Libra and Johad went towards the stairs from which they came. They headed towards to ground level and once again, and were walking to the main open ground. When they got there, a crowd of at least thirty dragons was gathered near the center. Bumblebee hurried on to have a look. Libra and Johad too were curious.
After pushing her way through, Libra finally was able to see in the middle of the gathering. There were two dragons there. One was a MudWing. He had pale brown scales mixed with some dark ones on the back. His wings were painted with a dull mustard color, which shown brightly against the sun. His pastel yellow eyes were filled with worry and annoyance. The second was a NightWing. She had dark blue scales and a glowing aura to her wings, whose silver scales were assembled in such a way to resemble the constellations in the sky. Her tail ended in with a metal cover and feathers attached to it. She wore a similar looking bracelet on her right talon. Her eyes were a mix of light blue, purple and green like a nebula and right now, they were radiating anger and outrage.
“How dare you try to steal from my sister?! You know what happens to those who cross with me, don’t you? On top of that, you, a conniving little worm, accuse her of trying to murder you in your sleep?” the NightWing bellowed.
“I told you a billion times already! I saw her with a dagger above my bed! I have EVERY REASON to accuse her!” the MudWing retorted.
“Really? What was the story your messenger Xate told me? Oh! That a purple IceWing came and attacked you, eh? I DON’T BELIEVE A WORD! And, are you blind or have you not noticed that my sister is a NIGHTWING?! NOT AN ICEWING?!” the NightWing hissed in response.
“That’s enough!” Bumblebee intervened. The NightWing and MudWing froze still and everyone else shuddered with surprise. Libra felt Johad come little closer and was shaking.
“Now, what in the name of CLAWS’ BONES IS GOING ON?” she thundered again.
“Coypu has suddenly decided to accuse my sister of trying to murder him! I’m sure you know that she would never do such a horrendous thing!” the NightWing answered.
“Starseeker is the one who’s lying! I saw Cometcatcher right above me! With a DAGGER!” Coypu shouted.
“Did you see anything else?” Bumblebee said without a hint of expression.
“Well, now that I think about it, I think I saw the purple IceWing next to my bed and a turquoise SeaWing with the dagger. The SeaWing had antennae, so maybe she was a SilkWing hybrid, but, I’m sure that the IceWing was there”
“Well, if you know it was an IceWing, then why are you accusing Starseeker’s sister? As she pointed out, you must have known that she was a NightWing” Libra interrogated.
“That IceWing was a dark purple and had light violet scales which looked like they were swirling and glowing. That’s exactly how Cometcatcher looks! I thought it was an IceWing because of that!” Coypu replied.
“Shall we make sure of that? Can someone bring Cometcatcher over if she’s around?!” Bumblebee said.
“I’m here!” a high-pitched voice said amongst the crowd and a purple NightWing stepped out. She looked almost exactly how Coypu had described the IceWing. Libra noticed that her scales on her back and tail shifted into a dark indigo and her wings were pieces of the night sky re-coloured as shades of purple, magenta and violet, blended with trapped beams of sunlight gold, allowing them to glow. The ends of her talons also had that same radiant effect. Her eyes were a dark purple.
“See? She looks exactly like I said! She’s guilty is what she is!” Coypu guffawed.
“Wait! Before we get into any more accusing, is there anything else you can tell us about the dragon?” Libra asked.
“That dragon kind of had some strange frill-like thing near her head and she had some spots too” Coypu answered.
“Then, it wasn’t an IceWing or a NightWing! It was a RainWing using her camouflage!” Libra exclaimed. But in order to do that, she should have seen Cometcatcher. Maybe it was someone amongst the Dragon Claws or someone associated with that mysterious IceWing I saw yesterday. Either way, I’m going to have to find out from the sisters, she realized at once.
“T-That is w-why you shouldn’t j-jump to c-conclusions! I suppose y-you’re going to h-have to apologize n-now” Johad chuckled.
“Fine! I’m sorry Starseeker and Cometcatcher” Coypu grumbled
“You’d better be!” Cometcatcher and Starseeker cried together.
“Since we’re done here, everyone must get back to your respective stations. I’ve had enough drama for today as it is” Bumblebee ordered.
Bumblebee, Libra and Johad continued walking away from the mob and exited the stronghold. Along the outside, there were several tents made of leaves, bark and tied with silk. Numerous dragons were heading in and out of them. There were also a few stands with food, water and goods lined up against the exterior walls.  Bumblebee, Libra and Johad walked through the settling and met with the ‘messenger’ sent by Coypu, Xate.
“Coypu told us that you told Starseeker about his accusing against her sister, Cometcatcher. Was he making it up?” Bumblebee had inquired.
“Nah, he would never lie; I’ve known him since I was a youngling. He speaks the truth. He only told me to tell Starseeker what he wanted” the pine-green colour RainWing. Xate’s scales were also a mix of violet purple and her wings a dashing red, with hints of lime-yellow. Her eyes were dark-green.
“Hmm…I believe you, but I shall dig deeper into this matter” Bumblebee grumbled and let her go.
They continued walking outside for a while and stopped by some stalls along the way. Libra got some ink, extra parchment and a stone board to put it on. Johad grabbed a couple of talon-crafted articles and Bumblebee took three honey drops.
After finishing their shopping for Auklet, Ares and Quicksilver, they returned back inside. Bumblebee lead Libra and Johad to an open lounge on the fourth floor, where Quicksilver, Ares and Auklet were resting.
“What do you have there, RainWing?” Quicksilver asked.
“Goodies from the market down below” Libra answered.
“L-Let’s see, there is a miniature pearl conch-shell for A-Auklet, a map of the c-constellations w-with a guide f-for Ares and ruby-studded d-daggers and s-swords for Q-Quicksilver” Johad explained.
“Thanks! It looks like the carving of a whale that Turtle once gave me, just with pearls” Auklet said.
“Hey guys, do mind if Johad and I tell you something we saw downstairs? Along with a mini-adventure of mine at the outcrop?” Libra asked. “I think we may have stumbled into a possible plot against the Dragon Claws.”
The others nodded in agreement, so Libra explained everything from sneaking up to follow Hurricane, to the mysterious letter and the attempted murder of Coypu. Libra had a feeling that if she was going to try and crack this case, it was better to do it together than solo.
CHAPTER-12
Libra was happy to get some ideas that were floating around, out in open. She had expected her friends to be angry at her for not telling earlier and for sneaking out on her own. Halfway through, she had a feeling that maybe the others would cheer her for figuring out a lot of things. Turns out, everyone agreed that it was good of her to be spying.
Except Quicksilver and Johad.
“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING OF? That IceWing or whoever it was COULD HAVE FOUND YOU OUT! Then what would you do, huh? Call us for help? Oh, wait! That’s right! You went by yourself!! Dragons these days have no brains, I tell you. NO BRAINS!” Quicksilver hollered.
“M-More importantly, y-you could h-have been killed!” Johad added.
“What are you guys talking about? If she hadn’t gone off, then we wouldn’t even know someone was plotting such a thing, and maybe this plan could hurt so many dragons! And it would have been RIGHT UNDER OUR SNOUTS!” Ares argued.
“EXACTLY!” Auklet exclaimed.
“Guys, calm down! We can’t go back in time to the point when I decided to sneak off and change it! So, let’s just deal with the information we have and figure this out. Is everyone okay with that or not?” Libra interrupted.
“And, how do you plan to figure out who that turquoise SeaWing and that RainWing was?” Quicksilver hissed.
“I was hoping that we could go ask Starseeker and Cometcatcher in some time, maybe before sunset. I’ll ask them to bring Coypu too. Meanwhile, some of you could search their rooms. Who wants to come with me?” Libra replied.
“I’ll come with you” Auklet said.
“Johad and I will search Starseeker and Cometcatcher’s room. That is, if they have the same room” Ares offered.
“I suppose that leaves me with the MudWing’s place of heaven. How did things come to this?” Quicksilver muttered.
Libra held her giggles inside and prepared to interrogate. She got the extra batch of scrolls, the stone slab from the market and an inked feather. Auklet tied her conch shell to her neck and rubbed some liquid on her injury on her leg. Libra quickly wrote down a note to be put in Starseeker and Cometcatcher’s room and they headed towards the conference room on the same floor, where according to the map of the place, is where the heads of the Dragon Claws usually were.
“Do you think we should go in now? What if they scream and throw stinky tomatoes at us?” Auklet said.
“Don’t worry. If we’re going to solve this, we need to ask around. They will understand” Libra reassured. Auklet hesitantly knocked the door. Dandelion peeked through and looked surprised to see them.
“What are you doing here? We have to quickly finish our meeting so that I can go back to making a cure for the Devil’s Dewdrop” Dandelion inquired.
“We were hoping that when you are finished, we could ask a couple of questions” Libra replied.
“I think that will be fine. Just wait for a little bit. Hurricane is really causing a ruckus here!”
“How come? We couldn’t hear anything from outside” Auklet exclaimed.
“That makes sense. We reinforced the walls with extra treestuff and stones. That makes it more inaudible. Kind of like a sound-proof room, if you will” Dandelion explained.
“Okay. But please don’t leave until we are finished” Libra said.
“Consider it done” Dandelion answered and headed back inside the screaming nightmare.
Libra sat down and Auklet followed. The two of them remained silent for a bit. During that time, Libra looked around. She had noticed that the roofs were decorated with vines and couple of them had berries growing on them. They extended down towards the base of the floor and usually ended in a tree sapling. Some of them were almost fully grown while others seemed to have been just planted.
“Libra, can I ask you something? Do you think we can go back to our homes after all this? Finding out that hybrids are being illegally imprisoned and that you are meant to unleash these queens? It seems quite unnatural” Auklet asked.
“Well, I’m not sure. I would like to find out more about this, now that we are deeply involved. We can help these dragons and maybe even stop Queen Jewel entirely. I don’t think I can go back to a regular life, knowing that dragons like me are suffering” Libra answered.
“And, another thing, if it was illegal for Glory and Spot to come together, then how can you possibly have any hope for you and Johad?” Auklet said.
“What? Me and Johad? Have you been spying on me?” Libra retorted.
“Bumblebee told us during that night in the hideout. Where do you plan to go? Jewel can just find you anywhere now and I have a feeling she won’t stop until she does dig you out” Auklet replied.
“I haven’t made any plans. I just…want to be with all of you as long as I can. Even Johad. But, if I try to tell him about how I feel, Jewel might find out and all of you will be in constant danger. I don’t want that for all of you; you don’t deserve to be running refugees for the rest of your life. Also, I still have to find out how this whole queen releasing process is going to work and I can’t stop thinking about what will happen if I do” Libra responded.
Auklet placed her talon on Libra’s shoulder and patted her. Libra beamed. This is exactly how she wanted things to be. Just five friends, well, four and half if Quicksilver didn’t really participate, enjoying each other’s company and having all the fun and adventures they could have.
So, in a way, this is kind of normal. We are helping to solve a mystery and doing something right. Something good. Maybe, we don’t have to hide. We can just stay with the Dragon Claws and wake up to the beautiful sky, crispy sea breeze and spectacular forest every day. I wouldn’t mind that. I wouldn’t mind it at all¸ Libra thought
Suddenly, the door heaved open and Dandelion showed them in. There was a small waiting room first and a second door directly ahead. This waiting room had three slings hanging from the walls and a small carved window. Plants were perfectly positioned to match forest trees sneaking in. Shelves on wall had scrolls and books organized on them. A wooden canvas was hanging on the walls, showing a painting of several beauty areas on Pyrrhia and Pantala. Dandelion knocked three times on the second door and Hurricane opened it. Inside was a long table which seemed to be growing out of the floor. It was the same story with the seats.
At the very end of the table was Bumblebee. Next to her was Coypu on the left and Starseeker and Cometcatcher on the right. Xate too was seated. Then, there were two dragons, a RainWing and a SeaWing, that she didn’t recognize. The RainWing looked quite skinny. She had dark magenta head and graceful pink wings. Her tail was covered in scars, streaking across purple and red. Her eyes were a shining gold and she wore a necklace decorated with rubies. The SeaWing was a dull brown, a very unusual color. His wings faded into a mustard and had green underneath. He also had the stripes on his wings which proved he was royalty. He had grey eyes and a yellow armband.
“Hello Libra and Auklet! I heard you are conducting an investigation of your own. I hope we can answer all your questions” Bumblebee said.
“So, should we begin? Starting with you?” Libra asked.
“Of course!
“Have you noticed anything unusual? Like, any dragons sneaking out here and there or maybe any threats from anyone?”
“Not that I remember. Sometimes I would see dragonets just quickly leaving the stronghold, but they usually only left to hang out and get a break from the training regimes set up by Hurricane. She makes them work their wings off!” Bumblebee replied.
“What about goods? Anything new that wasn’t supposed to be there, because I’m pretty sure you can’t survive this long without getting necessities from somewhere” Auklet interrogated.
“Just the usual stuff; food, water, plenty of tools and weapons and medicinal plants. One thing I noticed though is these strange bottles, filled with a potion or green mush of some sort. I don’t know what it is for, but someone certainly asked for a lot of it” Bumblebee answered.
“Did you ask around to find who wanted it?” Libra asked.
“No. Not yet”
“One last question, do you know if there are any enemies of yours are plotting something?” Libra questioned.
“Do you think that the attacker gives a little note saying ‘Are you free next week? Then maybe after a snack, we could try to DESTROY EACH OTHER!!?” Bumblebee said.
“I’ll take that as a no” Auklet chuckled.
-*-
“Did you find anything?” Libra asked Ares and Johad.
“Nope. No dagger at all. I guess that proves Cometcatcher is innocent, but if it wasn’t here and if it was a RainWing, then who?” Ares said. “After all, it has to be someone in the Dragon Claws, right?”
“What about Quicksilver?” Auklet questioned.
“I don’t think she is done checking. I have a hunch that she won’t be in a good mood when she comes back. I wonder why!” Ares replied.
“W-What did B-Bumblebee, D-Dandelion and Hurricane s-say?” Johad interrupted.
“She told us that a shipment of a green potion started coming here recently. I think it might be related to that ‘purple IceWing’ and the SeaWing Coypu saw, and maybe even the IceWing I found near the cave” Libra answered.
Suddenly, the door to the lounge burst open and Quicksilver came running in. She quickly tried to force it shut, but someone must have pushing from the other side, and this someone was shouting “GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I HAVE TO SNAP YOUR NECK IN HALF!!” After a bit, the dragon left and Quicksilver sighed of relief and switched to her usual serious look.
“What. Was. THAT?” Auklet exclaimed. “And who was that as well?”
“Coypu. He kind of came to his tent in a hurry and was not particularly happy to find me in there. But I did manage to sneak out these” Quicksilver answered, while holding up a dirty-looking scroll and a bottle with the green potion Bumblebee had mentioned.
“Well, read it out then!” Ares said.
“All right, all right, I’m not that fast. Just give a second” Quicksilver muttered and read aloud,
“To the Sculptor,
I would like to join your little experiment. I have heard about it from Rising Storm and my codename is at the bottom. I have gotten the Manipulator as you requested before and given it to the ‘depressed plant’. It looks like a green potion and I hope it shall help.
Rising Storm, as capable as she is, is not very secretive. I suggest that you directly send your letters to me and I shall pass it on, whenever she is not training her dragons. She has also not told me why you intend to do this. After all, you can directly just get something for your buyer, right? Why do you need us?
As you know, my attempt to kill the MudWing failed and you probably wondering why. It turns out that, suddenly, this SeaWing SilkWing hybrid came rushing into the tent. Her eyes were just blue, completely blank! She looked around and quickly grabbed the dagger from my talons and was ready to strike. However, the MudWing woke up and fought back. During that fight, I had gotten an idea. I had decided to frame someone in the Dragon Claws for the murder, so that we could continue with our operation as planned. So, I changed my scales to look like Cometcatcher and caught the MudWing’s attention, before I injected the sleeping mix.
I shall send the Manipulator’s ingredient list in the following letter and hope this only reaches you, the Sculptor. (I’m not as vicious as Rising Storm to issue a death warning to another reader)
F T E I B O S R T
Deadly Flower”
Deadly Flower? The same code? The two letters must be connected!, Libra thought. So, ‘Deadly Flower’ is the one who tried to kill Coypu, but why? This letter also proves Cometcatcher is innocent and that the SeaWing SilkWing hybrid and the RainWing were not working together. So, who sent the SeaWing and why? This Sculptor and Rising Storm must be the same as before and now we know that this green potion is not supposed to be here after all. But, who is this ‘depressed plant’? Maybe a sick dragon? A patient with Dandelion?
Wait… DANDELION! He must have some idea about this potion or the Manipulator or who might be given it. Considering how organised this place is, there must be some list of sick dragons. If we could get our talons on it, we could figure out who is given the Manipulator!
But why would these dragons do that? This potion must have some bad effects, so is it being given on purpose? Perhaps the buyer ‘Deadly Flower’ mentioned wants the Manipulator to be given for his own self-interest. But, other than that, IT JUST DOESN’T ADD UP!
Calm down Libra. Don’t let your impulses get the best of you, again. You will find some answers. All we have to do is just ask about this to Dandelion. Not too hard, right? After all, what could possibly go wrong?
Everything!!
“Hello? Pantala to Libra, are you still here?”
“Yes, I was just thinking. I’m fine Ares” Libra answered.
“W-What were y-you thinking a-about?” Johad enquired.
“If this Manipulator has some effects on other dragons, then it could be give to a sick dragon. We can just find out who could be given it from Dandelion, seeing that he deals with such dragons”
“That is a good idea…except for one thing” Quicksilver said.
Everyone stared at her, awaiting a reply.
“Dandelion left the stronghold an hour ago and I heard he won’t be here till tomorrow. So, let us just wait and hopefully crack that last code” she replied.
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Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
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