Under the Stars

Sequel: Through the Ice and Hives
== So.. ==
This exists this is the fanfic I teased about in a lot of my pages 
== Prolouge ==
5 or 6 years ago....
One year ago, a pair of dragons had laid four eggs in the nest they'd built together. The father, a proud NightWing, and the mother, a dazzling Rain-Ice hybrid. It had been one year ago when they'd decided that their eggs would stay in the moonlight for the entire year it would take to hatch, so that at least one of their dragonets could be gifted with the power the moons could bestow upon NightWings. 
Now, they glanced up at those moons, and each one was as wide and as full as a dragon's eye. A Brightest Night. The perfect time for their dragonets to hatch. It was so rare that such a thing would happen to the couple, but they were pleased about it deeply. 
"Iris my dear," Secretteller started, looking up. "Before they hatch, perhaps we should leave the eggs here at the moonlight. Alone. It will have spectacular rewards, I promise." The warm pink dragon hesitated a bit, the motherly instinct fighting her mate's advice. Then, silently, she backed away along with Secretteller, watching their eggs from a distance. They waited...and waited...and nothing happened.
But then, something finally happened-something exciting. They both heard cracking. Eagerly, Iris rushed back towards her eggs with Secretteller in tow, and they saw a tiny black dragon head with neon green frills poking out of one of their now-silver eggs. "Awww, it hatched! What will we name him?" Iris chirped, full of joy. She turned towards her mate expectantly, who looked at the dragonet carefully and scooped him up. Secretteller examined the dragonet so closely and carefully, looking him over so thoroughly. Despite the mother NightWing typically naming the dragonet, who was he to tell his mate that? She wasn't a NightWing, and he was proud of that. 
"We shall name him Freedomstar!" Secretteller hissed triumphantly, proud of the first hatched under the moons. It almost seemed like power surged through the tiny dragonet, all the way from his eyes to his perfect white claws. Strangely, he didn't seem to have the teardrop scale indicative of mind-reading...a fact that made Secretteller wonder if the hybrid blood had ruined such a chance for power. Iris gave a small squeal and gestured with her wing to the rest of the eggs. Secretteller gently set their hatched dragonet - Freedomstar - down and watched. 
One of the other eggs, still black but with hints of green, was rocking and making tapping sounds. Inside, the dragonet was desperate to escape, hearing the call of the moons but not being able to push their way free of the barrier that separated them. Iris reached out, concerned at first, before Secretteller stopped her. "Let them be. These powers are meant to be given to the strong," he said, shooting a glance at their already hatched child. The two other eggs seemed to have no interest in hatching anytime soon. Secretteller wondered if they ever would. But as the night soon turned to dawn, the eggs now began to shake with a fierce urge to be free.
It didn't take long before all three were fully hatched. The first of which was the one that had been trying to hatch in the night, who came out just before the last moon was swallowed by the sun. She was brown, a tan sort of color, splashed with lime green, and crawled out of her egg with cheeky grin and small teardrop scales. Iris decided to name her Quailcatcher. 
The next hatched just after Quailcatcher, a reddish-orange one with a ruff that looked made of leaves. This one didn't have the teardrop scales, which just made Secretteller sigh. He named this one Silver Maple. 
The last one flat-out looked like a certain species of spider, and the couple both just nodded and silently agreed on a name-Spiderhunter.
== Chapter 1 ==
Five Years Later...
Freedomstar woke up. He shot upright, looking around like he expected something to have changed. As his senses went off alert, he took in the familiar sight-He and his siblings were behind a large waterfall. It rushed down endlessly over the mouth of the cave, providing calming background noise all the time. He thought that might help his siblings sleep, but to him, it was annoying: The constant flowing only being broken by the random gust of wind in the cave. Mosses grew up the walls and floors, and hung down from the ceiling in places. Stalagmites dripped water every now and then, but the waterfall drowned it out. The tribrid looked over saw his siblings sleeping peacefully, each one having some kind of bed made. 
"Guys. Wake up," he said, almost a snarl. Two of them snuggled closer together and squeezed their eyes tighter, reminding Freedomstar that they could hear his thoughts and were already awake. I can hear them trying to ignore me. "WAKE UP! You can't fake it with me!" The three still didn't move. Freedomstar inhaled deeply and roared, "WAKE UP OR I WILL DEVOUR YOUR HEART!" Horrified, Spiderhunter and Quailcatcher woke up, shooting up as suddenly as he had. Silver Maple did not wake up.
"What was that for?!" Quailcatcher hissed, her gray-blue eyes wide but her ruff pinned flat. 
"To wake you up, of course!" he said, smiling innocently. "You three never get up otherwise." 
"Just because you're special doesn't mean you should do that," Spiderhunter growled. "Quit be so annoying and violent for five minutes, Freedom." He curled his tail around Quailcatcher's, who reciprocated the favor. Freedomstar knew that those two felt closer to each other than they ever could to him. It was laid out in their thoughts clearly. Problem was, he still did want his siblings (or at least, these two) to be part of his glorious family, and they knew it. Rolling his eyes, Freedomstar turned towards the last dragonet and growled at him, baring his teeth.
"WAKE UP YOU WILL DIE IN FIVE SECONDS!" The aggressive dragonet roared in Silver Maple's ear. He jumped up, eyes wide, and pressed himself against the back of the cave until he realized what was going on.
"Ah, Brother, you scared me!" Silver yelped. 
"Do you think that was funny?!" Quail said, bristling at Freedomstar, who only smugly gave her an answer in his mind. 
Absolutely. 
She rolled her eyes and stood up, stretching out. Freedom always felt like Quailcatcher was trying to prove something. Out of the four of them, she was their only sister. She can never amount to the power I feel inside of me. He heard Quail and Spider snort before the four of them collectively padded to the waterfall and spread their wings to soar out of it. Freedom liked to lead the way, but Quailcatcher beat him to it. She leapt off and glided down from the cave mouth the other side of the waterfall and presumably, headed downwards. Spiderhunter followed. Freedomstar would have been next, but he made it a point to shove Silver Maple off before he was ready and say, "After you, Brother." Silver yelled, but was able to spread his wings and maintain flight. 
Once Freedom had joined the three of them at the end of the waterfall, Spider and Quail already had some fish. "Oh, Sister," he said with mock sweetness, "You have my favorite fish. That one right there with the pale scales and the freckles." 
"This one?" Quail asked, holding it up. Freedomstar nodded, and Quail grinned. "Alright then. Silver, here you go," she said, and handed the fish to their orange-pink brother. He gasped and clutched the fish before quickly stuffing it in his mouth and muttering 'thank you'. Freedomstar frowned. Alright, she-yep, she did that on purpose. Of course. He sat down to catch his own breakfast, though he did deliberately catch a fish that Silver Maple would have otherwise caught. For a while, as they ate in peace, it was all okay. Then Quailcatcher came up with a idea. 
"What if we escape this place and go to the Night Kingdom?" She said slyly, winking. Freedomstar didn't see anything in her thoughts that indicated it was a trap, but he rolled his eyes anyway. 
"We can't leave. We'll die," Freedomstar said plainly. 
"W-Will we?" Silver Maple said quietly, ducking closer to Freedom. He grinned and shoved him away a bit.
"Oh, especially you, Silver. You won't last a day. Probably get eaten by something that really like stupid little-"
"Oh, shut your snout," Spiderhunter interjected, "Or I can shut it for you." Small wisps of pale air gathered around his nostrils, and Freedomstar backed off. Quailcatcher resumed her idea.
"Everything is better than this torture full of hybrids and tribrids! The four of us can take our chances out there and we'll make it! We'll look out for each other!" 
"It won't work, Quail," Freedom hissed. "We're just dragonets and while maybe I can take care of myself, you all will be dead weight." 
"Is that a challenge?" Quail hissed back, leaning closer. 
"Calm down guys!" Silver yelped, jumping between them before smiling at Freedom. He just grumbled and looked away, but started actually listening. He did want to leave pretty badly. Maybe Silver Maple really would find a rock to hit his head on or something. He started daydreaming of the glorious ways he could make his brother suffer in the world. He was so caught up that at one point, he realized Silver was shaking him.
"Freedom? Freedomstar?" When he looked down at the tiny dragonet, Silver warmly smiled again. "You're the best, Freedom."
"Scram off of me, pest," he hissed.
"Quit being so rude to Silver!" Spider yelled. "Come here, brother," he extended his wing, and Silver Maple's scales went a dark blue-gray dotted with yellow as he slumped over by Spiderhunter with a sad smile.
"Now, where was I before...you," Quail said, tapping her chin. "Oh, right, the plan. Now, I have an idea, and you all are going to think I'm crazy, but Spider thinks it will work."
"Oh? What is your glorious plan, Sister?" Freedom challenged, puffing up his chest.
"Let's gaslight Chaoticmind."
== Chapter 2 ==
Freedomstar figured that this plan was ridiculously stupid. Chaoticmind is smarter than that. We'll never be able to leave. We're safe here because there's enough to eat and no monsters, and I can make Silver Maple's life miserable all by myself. It's not fun if something else is doing it. 
As they took some quick drinks of water, Quailcatcher shot Freedom a dirty look and Spider looked up at him with confusion. No doubt they were reading his mind, but he could read theirs back. "Freedom, you're completely awful. Leave Maple alone for once."
Not happening.
Quail rolled her eyes and jerked her head up. "Alright, enough dawdling. It's going to take some time to get this to work, so let's go ahead and start." Maple and Spider nodded in agreement, though Freedom thumped his tail to express his lack of support for the plan. "You don't count, but you're welcome to stay here." She put her wing over Silver Maple, who leaned into her, and the three of them started towards where everyone else lived. Freedomstar paused for a second, contemplating staying or sabotaging the plan, but then hastily ran to catch up with them. 
By the time he'd gotten with them, they were all already deep in the small collection of huts occupied by other mixes of tribes. Freedom didn't keep up very well with who came and went, only noticing those who got in his way. The last dragon to do that was an Ice-Sea hybrid who deliberately messed with the four siblings' waterfall, claiming they 'couldn't claim an entire natural structure'. Freedom would have liked to personally give that dragon hell, but Quail stepped in first and peacefully diffused the situation. Among these dragons, though, was the 'Great Hut'. It was a larger hut where their uncle, Chaoticmind, lived. He'd been there since the four of them hatched, and they guessed that he wanted to watch over the eggs that his sister (their mother) had left behind.
The Great Hut was usually occupied by the leader of the small mixed tribe group, but ever since their Leader of the group vanished, Chaoticmind had lived there. He had taken the role of leader around here, but that didn't stop the four of them from ignoring that and calling him their uncle. Quailcatcher stepped forwards, into the hut, and chirped softly to let him know they were there. "Morning, Uncle," she said cheerily, a smile plastered onto her face. Freedom gave a small laugh at how good she was at deception. 
"Good morning to the four of you," he said, rubbing his eyes. A dim candle burned at his desk, surrounded by papers and papers with a single inkwell. As if taking notice of Freedomstar's observation, he followed with, "Sorry, I had to do some late-night paperwork. Ir involves far too much writing to convince Queen Dorada not to chase after our newest member." He spread his wing, and there was a dark reddish brown dragon in the shadows that Freedom hadn't noticed before. He could, however, clearly see that they had long and curved horns, like a SkyWing, but a broader snout, like a MudWing. "No wonder they're here," he heard in Maple's head, "Queen Dorada hates hybrids. And tribrids. If we met her..." his thoughts trailed off into a worried, muddled mess. For once, Freedom didn't take the chance to harass his brother. 
"Um, Uncle?" Silver Maple said quietly, purple edging into his ruff, along with green. "We-We'd like to leave here and-and explore the world some. We want-" 
Quailcatcher flared her wing, blocking Silver Maple and Chaoticmind from seeing each other. Spiderhunter quickly jumped in, interrupting Maple. "No, we just wanted to see if we could go out and convince the queens to stop hunting hybrids! Right, guys?" He turned back towards his siblings. Quailcatcher nodded, though Freedomstar rolled his eyes. 
"Thanks for making it that obvious," he said, hissing at Maple. 
Chaoticmind shook his head and patted Quailcatcher gently. "Unfortunately, no. As both the leader of this group, and as your uncle, I just can't, in good conscience, let you go out there. You're just dragonets, after all." He smiled softly. "I want to keep you safe, too." 
"Then let us go in bad conscience," Spiderhunter said, lifting his head in a challenge. "There's four of us. We're powerful enough. We can hunt and fend for ourselves." 
The edge of Chaoticmind's mouth twitched into a frown and he stepped back. "We don't let dragonets out unless they have a home to go to or they have their parents with them. Or another guardian. Please, it's for your own safety. The queens would love nothing more than to get their talons on you four, I'm sure of it." Freedomstar's eyes narrowed, annoyed, as he noticed Quail whispering to Silver behind her wing. Silver seemed to turn even more purple and begin fumbling with something in his talons. 
"We're related," Quailcatcher said, puffing out her chest. "Each of us can act as the others' guardian. We're plenty strong enough to care of ourselves! The sibling bond is-" 
"No is No," The hybrid hissed at them. "You're too young and inexperienced. Now, leave me alone for a bit, I need to finalize some things with Shale here." He spread his wings slowly, trying to get the dragonets to leave. 
"We aren't leaving this hut until you say we can leave here," Freedomstar hissed, finally joining the conversation. He heard a small 'tink' sound and Silver Maple scrabbled to grab something off the floor while Quail sighed. Maple's scales seemed to be getting paler and greener by the second, which made Freedom uneasy with what Quail could be doing. 
Chaoticmind sighed and flicked his tail. "Shale, please leave for now. My nephews and nieces aren't usually like this, I promise. Come back in a little bit once everything has been sorted out." The Sky-Mud hybrid nodded awkwardly, wisps of smoke curling out of their nostrils, and they squeezed beside the four dragonets to leave the hut. Freedom didn't bother turning to watch them go. Now that it was just the five of them in the hut, Chaoticmind's ruff flattened a bit. "I'm only going to tell you one more time. Stay. Put."
"No," Quail and Freedom said at once. They briefly looked at each other in surprise, but that's when Chaoticmind's ruff eaten up by a pure, feisty red color, streaked with orange. It was actually similar to his normal scales, so they didn't even notice at first. He sighed and drew up to his full height, towering over the dragonets before him, growling softly. When he spoke, his voice sounded like a gruff bark, now that he was losing his patience.
"I usually don't do this, but if you four are going to remain insistent on leaving, then we're going to have a problem."
"Then let there be a problem!" Freedomstar yelled.
"We already have a problem," Quail said, backing up her brother. "That we're stuck here and can't go anywhere."
Chaoticmind's nostrils flared and his growling got louder. Then, he bared his teeth, the firelight of the candle reflecting off his glistening fangs and shiny white claws. "You are staying here!" he yelled, a growly hiss. "That's FINA-" His last words, loud as a roar, were cut off suddenly as a small object that glinted like metal embedded firmly in the scales of his underbelly. Almost cautiously, Chaotic reached towards it, plucking it out and staring at the object. It was too far for Freedom to see, but he did notice that Silver Maple was now a pale white streaked with green. 
"What's...this?" Chaoticmind asked, his anger slipping away from him and his words slow and slurred. His eyes seemed to be going in and out of focus, and white was slowly creeping up on his ruff and wings. "Why do I...feel so..."
Suddenly, all of him came crashing down to the floor of the hut with a loud THUD. His wings and ruff were now all white, and his face was peacefully asleep. Freedomstar blinked, and for a long moment, all the dragonets were silent until Quail lowered her wing. Silver Maple dropped what he was holding-a blowgun in one talon, a dart in the other. Sleeping darts. We heard about those. I wonder how he got one.
"Sorry," Silver Maple hastily mumbled, his eyes wet like he was about to cry.
"No, no, that's fine!" Spiderhunter said quickly. Quailcatcher pulled Silver into a hug and quietly comforted him for a few minutes before turning to the others. 
"That dart won't last forever. What are we waiting for?"
They filed out of the hut and took to the skies. Freedomstar looked back at Chaoticmind-their Uncle-splayed on the floor like he'd been knocked out. A small part of him felt guilt, but mostly he felt free. Even if this plan hadn't been in his favor, it was like chains he'd grown to live with had been cut off and he'd been allowed to move. 
"Cya, mutton-muncher," he hissed smugly at his unconscious uncle before joining his siblings outside, taking to the skies gleefully with them. Here, in the air with two dragons he loved and one he despised, it was easy to forget how big of a mistake they were making.
== Chapter 3 ==
Freedomstar couldn't tell how long they'd been flying for, but judging by the sun starting to dim, he assumed it had been several hours. Clouds drifted lazily in the sky, sometimes providing cover from the beating sun, other times not. In the distance, he could see a large and dark cloud forming, though the four of them were heading away from it. Of course, if we went towards it, it'd give Silver Maple a good deal of fright...
"Not happening, Freedom," he heard from Quail's mind. "That way would be the rainforest. We're heading towards the Ice Kingdom."
Freedom shivered, and next to Quail, Spiderhunter grinned. He was the only one who'd liked the cold, though Silver had seemed fine with the particularly snowy days they'd had before. Quailcatcher sighed, and Freedom realized she'd never lead them all the way there. After all, she didn't like the cold either. 
Aside from that bit of mental communication, their flight was completely silent. Eventually, Freedomstar's wings began to ache, though he'd never admit to the others that he was experiencing physical discomfort. Around this time was when Quail and Spider's snouts scrunched up. Freedom originally didn't understand why, though then he was hit with a wave of guilt and piercing fear from Silver Maple's mind. He stopped cold and hovered, causing Silver to crash into him and needing to be caught by Quailcatcher. 
"What is wrong with you?!" he demanded, eyes glaring accusingly at Silver Maple. "Nobody can think when you're moping like a depressed scavenger!"
"What's wrong with you?" Spiderhunter retorted, irritated. "We're fine, you're the only one raising a fuss over it." 
Silver Maple was trembling a little, and his scales were pale white with gray and blue swirls all over. Quailcatcher gently patted his head, hugging him close. "It's okay, Silver. Tell us what's going on and we can get back on our travel."
"Did I-Did-" he started to cry just a little bit, purple edging in on his scales. "Did I accidentally...kill Chaoticmind?" He whispered, shaking and sniffling, burying his head closer to Quailcatcher. She lovingly comforted him, though Freedom felt ready to burst with anger. We stopped here, all of us hearing his thoughts, and it's just about that toad-sucking dragon we call our uncle?!
Spiderhunter sighed, though glared at Freedom. "No, it's fine, Silver. I once dissected a few that were left out by a RainWing hybrid. It's some kind of liquid toxin that, for one, smells funny, but more importantly, it can knock a dragon out. It also makes them see some pretty crazy stuff, according to that hybrid I talked to."
"Spider, don't go off and talk to dragons," Quailcatcher said, sighing. "We need to stick together. The four of us. It's like I told Uncle-We're each others' guardians. We look out for each other. That means you too, Freedom," she said, narrowing her eyes. Freedom balked and flared his ruff.
"Look at Silver, not me! He can hardly keep himself safe!"
"He's important to me and Spider, at least."
"He's a parasite," Freedom spat, turning his back on them.
Silver Maple lifted his head, oblivious to the conversation going on. "So...So I didn't kill anyone, right?"
Quail smiled and gently began to untangle herself from him, letting him regain his flight pattern on his own. "No. He'll be fine, just mad, that's all. Now, I want to stay ahead of that storm," she said, pointing towards the cloud Freedom had noticed before. Now, it seemed to be growing larger-and getting closer. The idea of flying in a storm didn't exactly have Freedomstar doing cartwheels...but if Silver Maple hated it, he could get used it it. 
"So let's stop blithering and get to it," he chimed, taking the lead before Quailcatcher took it back. Curse my stupid bulkier body. Why couldn't I have gotten that sleek RainWing physique?
"That's the price for having your 'oh-so-special' powers," Spiderhunter thought at him. Freedomstar rolled his eyes.
After that unexpected pause to comfort Silver Maple, as well as a few stops to give their aching wings relief, Spiderhunter's stomach began to growl. Loudly. Freedomstar hissed at him wordlessly, though didn't make any hasty remarks or snide comments. A light sprinkle had started, and pale gray clouds had taken the sun away. It had already begun to feel quite cold, the lack of light and warmth from the sun coupled with the small amount of water seeping between his scales. Quailcatcher took note of her siblings, though, and directed the four of them to a flatter, though raised, bit of terrain. Large trees were strewn about, a small patch of forest here.
"Where are we right now?" Silver Maple asked, concerned about the rain and shaking his wings. 
Quailcatcher pointed between some trees with a friendly smile. "Do you see those small rocky mountains over that way? We're getting near the Sky Kingdom. My plan is to-"
"Your plan is going to be boring," Freedomstar said, rolling his eyes. "Let's just hightail it to the other continent and be done with everything. Hitch a ride on a trade caravan or something."
"And how do you think that will go?" Spider asked. "Where our parents are? Why we're going? Where we came from? If we stay here, we'll at least know where we are."
"Exactly, Spider," Quail said, puffing up her chest a bit. "Okay, so, I have a plan, but Freedom doesn't want to hear it. That's fine. Just hunt something really quickly so we can eat and then keep flying. We can find a cave to stay safe from the storm."
Freedomstar sighed, but he was outnumbered. Instead, in the damp conditions, he stood on top of the hill and looked up for any large birds struggling for shelter. Quailcatcher had gone into the trees, probably looking for deer or something. Silver Maple stood nervously by a small creek, searching for fish swimming by, and Spiderhunter began clawing at holes in the ground for something hiding inside. While no birds came into his sight, Freedom did stay there and look up into the storm, feeling the droplets and shaking them off. It felt like forever had passed by the time his siblings came back, each with something to eat while he had nothing. The storm seemed to have gotten worse as well, water coming down harder and the clouds darkening further.
"Oh wow, did the high and mighty Freedomstar not find anything?" Spiderhunter teased, showing off the two groundhogs he'd dragged out and killed. Quailcatcher was hauling a large boar on her back, and even Silver Maple had a few fish in his talons (and one disappearing into his mouth).
"Shut up and give me one of your furry potatoes," he said, bristling. Spiderhunter hissed and pulled his prey closer. Quail sighed. 
"You can share my boar. But you have to stop being so mean."
"I'd rather starve."
"Suit yourself."
Silver Maple then hastily shoved the fish in his talons at Freedomstar. They were small, sad things, but food was food. He looked at Silver and a cocky grin erupted on his face. "So you learned how worthless you are, then?" he asked Silver.
"N-No, I just-I wanted my big brother to have something to eat..."
"Silver, you don't-" Quail started, then sighed. "Alright, come here. You can share my boar with me."
The four of them ate in a bit of awkward silence, and by the time the last bit of meat had been consumed, rolls of thunder began to echo in their ears. Thin flashes of lighting cracked in the distance, and Silver Maple seemed on edge. In fact, all of them were on edge, even Quailcatcher. "We can make it to a cave," she said, quietly. "Follow me and hurry."
They took back to the skies, though the wind and rain now made it much harder to fly. Freedomstar would have liked to go back to the ground and wait out the storm, but seeing the way Silver Maple faltered and squirmed and clung to Quail for support gave him a sickening pleasure. Until, at least, a bolt of lightning struck far too close to Silver's wing, causing him to spin and yelp and almost fall. That made Freedomstar burst out laughing.
"HAH! Learn to fly right, you little-OUGH!"
Freedomstar was cut off by Spiderhunter barreling into him. "For the last time, leave him ALONE!" he shouted, angry. "We're all trying to fly in the storm and it's not easy for anyone! I can see that you want to stop, too!"
"This was a bad idea and a mistake!" Quail howled over the wind, frightened. "We need to stop and land!"
"It'll be fine~" Freedomstar answered, taking the lead as Quail fell back to be close to Silver Maple.
"Freedom, we need to stop!" 
"WE ARE GOING TO BE FINE!" He hissed back. "That's final!" 
A bolt of lightning struck the ground near them, illuminating everything before it all went dark again, the sentence dying away just as the light around them had.
== Chapter 4 ==
Freedomstar was regretting his choice to force everyone to keep going, even though it was fun to watch Silver Maple cry and squeal and yelp. The rain was only getting harder, the wind only getting fiercer, and they kept having too many close calls with bolts of lighting striking too close for comfort. Thunder rocked their ears, and Freedomstar kept struggling to shake water off his wings only for them to get soaked again. 
Normally, in a situation like this, Quailcatcher and Spiderhunter would be yelled and making annoying comments at Freedom, but the wind was too loud to hear anything over it's fierce shrieking. Still, their thoughts were loud and clear, like little nasty insects flying around him, whispering in his ears. "Bet you regret your choice now-YIKES!" Behind him, he heard a rolling boom of thunder and Spider's thoughts shift to staying alive. Quail seemed more focused on keeping Silver Maple safe and looking for a place to land, though her thoughts did circle back to complaining at Freedom every now and again. 
"WE NEED TO FIND A PLACE TO LAND, FREEDOM!" Spider frantically shouted in his thoughts. Freedom reached up to his ear, almost as if he'd been shouted at in the real world. "We can't fly forever and we are DEFINITELY NOT EQUIPPED TO FLY IN A THUNDERSTORM!"
Calm down, you blubbering dragonet.
"Are you SERIOUS?! Look around, Freedom! We are going to DIE!"
That's what I said would happen if we left the camp. We can't even go back now, because Chaoticmind is still mad at us.
Normally, Freedomstar would hear when Spiderhunter lunged at him. But this time, the wind denied him the right to hear and prepare, so when Spider dove at Freedom's back and threw him off, he was totally unprepared. Fighting wasn't ideal to begin with. Neither was fighting in the air. Throw in a thunderstorm, and you had the perfect mix of awfulness for both dragonets. Now they were close enough to speak if they shouted, and they both were ready to do plenty of that.
"What are you doing, trying to get us killed, you psychopath?!" Spider howled, digging his claws into Freedom's back. Cold air was gathering behind Freedom, and he twisted his neck out of the way of a powerful blast of frostbreath. "Let Quail lead us to somewhere we can land!"
"No! If we keep going, we'll find something!" Freedom shot back, letting the wind flip him over and shoving Spider off of him. He kicked out while spreading his wings to fly again, and felt his claws connect with the soft underbelly of his brother. Warm blood trickled down his back talons before the rain washed it clean off of him. Spider yelped in pain and clutched his stomach, wings folding in as he free fell for a second before regaining himself. 
Silver Maple screamed, diving towards Quailcatcher, crying. "Stop fighting, STOP FIGHTING! PLEASE!" His panic wasn't helping the situation any as another crack of lightning grazed just past Freedomstar, enough to singe his ear with white-hot burning pain. Even their usually calm and level-heading sibling, Quail, was starting to panic. 
"Both of you! Stop it! Not in this storm!" she said, but it didn't matter. Spider roared and dove at Freedom, who rolled out of the way and kicked Spiderhunter in the side as he passed, causing him to cough for a bit before flying back up and grabbing Freedom's chest, digging in with his pinprick serrated claws. 
"Why are you even fighting me?!" Freedom hissed.
"Because you hate us all! You want us all to die in this storm!"
"I DO NOT!" Freedom shouted, a new furious rage filling him as he threw Spider off and into Quailcatcher with a bloodcurdling shout of power. He roared again, just for good measure, and shot off.
Or, he tried to. The wind blew back twice as hard, sending him back to the rest of his siblings in a flurry of raindrops and shouting. All four of them were shouting, panicked, at each others' throats. Freedomstar was really regretting leaving if this was the cost-losing the bond with the two siblings he'd loved. Fine then! I don't need them! I can show them I don't need ANY of them!
"Freedom, you can't mean that!" Quail's thoughts cut through his mind like a calmer ripple in a hurricane, and for a moment, the world outside seemed to freeze. It was just him and his thoughts, or at least him and Quailcatcher with their thoughts.
Of course I can. You three won't let me do what I want to do. You drag us out here and blame me for it all when it was your grand idea, Quail.
"I had a plan to keep us all safe. I can keep us all safe."
Then do it.
"I can't if you keep getting in the way. Freedom, I love you. Nothing you do can change that."
Show me you do.
"Will you just let me? We need to work as one. Not all this infighting."
Spider started it! Yell at him, not at me!
"I don't care who started it. I'm ending it."
Freedomstar came back to his senses, and things outside felt a little calmer too, even. A storm that fierce couldn't hold forever, and it was already starting to die away. Just because the wind and rain were slowing, though, didn't mean the lightning was done. The four siblings were taking a moment to untangle themselves, find their flight patterns in the fierce wind again, and also try and reconcile. It wasn't going to be easy to do that, though, and the weather had other plans. 
Quailcatcher was pulling Silver closer when a bolt of lightning struck behind Freedom. Thunder split open his head, but the loud sound didn't stop. Alarmed, he turned back behind him to see Quail plummeting from the sky, a smoking black patch on her tail, and Silver Maple screaming from where she'd originally been flying. The rain and wind had let up a little more, their sound no longer deafening, but even if they were, Freedom was sure their voices would have cut through it easily, anyway. 
"QUAIL!" they all shouted, afraid. Spiderhunter acted first, diving down towards Quail as fast as he could, heading towards the ground faster than he could possibly hope to stop and pull up. Freedomstar gasped. If he wanted to show Spider and Quail that he loved them, now was his chance. He dove after Spiderhunter in a frantic spiral, reaching out before managing to clutch his wet tail and spread his wings to act as a parachute.
"What are you doing?!" Spider yelled, panic lacing his voice.
"Saving you!" Freedom hissed through gritted teeth. Spider weighed a lot more than he looked. 
"Well, don't! I don't need you!" He tried to wriggle free from Freedom, but he held firm. He wasn't going to let Spider needlessly fall to the ground, though they were still falling fast. Things only got worse when Silver Maple grabbed Freedom's tail, trying to act as a second parachute but instead just dragging them down further.
"If you three are going to die-" he shouted, crying and hiccuping, "-then I'm coming with you! I can't be alone!"
"Shut up, you mothball! Nobody is dying except for you! I'm saving them!" He whipped his tail around to get Silver Maple off of it, but it was far too late to slow their descent any further. As the four of them hurtled towards the ground, Freedomstar closed his eyes and braced for the lethal impact. What can I even make my last moments? There's nothing I can cherish...no one to hold dear who will do it back. Wait! If my life has been in vain, at least I had my magic for the time I did.
"Even your last thoughts are self-centered and vain, fish breath."
Somehow, Spiderhunter's insult was not the most comforting thing to hear right before he hit the ground and the world went black.
== Chapter 5 ==
"Freedom..."
Where was he? Everything hurt. It was all black.
"Freedomstar..."
He couldn't blink. Move. Even breathing was hard. It felt like all his senses were muffled or discarded.
"Freedomstar, wake up."
The dark dragonet shot up awake with a jolt, just like he'd done only the previous morning. Only a day's flight away so far. We could still be easily tracked. He took a deep breath to calm himself, though his thoughts were scattered anyway by the aching, sharp pains all over. What had happened? His mind felt...fuzzy, almost. Like it was wrapped in a layer of sheep's wool and all memories wiped away.
Flying in a storm. The storm.
A memory struck his mind, a flashing image across his eyes as the events of the past day came back to him.
Said something rude. Being tackled by Spider. The fighting.
Quail de-escalating the situation
The bolt of lightning that struck her.
Falling...
Freedomstar felt panic seize his heart for a bit. His siblings! Or, at least, Quailcatcher and Spiderhunter. He didn't know where they were. Were they around him? Frantically, he looked around the beach, sand tossing everywhere, until he finally noticed the shapes of his three siblings around him-two out cold on the sand, one sitting up and looking at the waves. A small, dark part of his mind began whispering to him. I don't need them. I could fly out from here to the other continent. I could leave them all behind. Make everyone who ever wronged me pay. His claws curled and a low growl formed before he realized something.
How in Pyrrhia had they ended up on a beach?! They had been flying across grass and hills near the base of the mountains just...well, he didn't know how long ago it was, but there certainly wasn't a beach even in sight. Had the wind really blown the four of them that far?
"I know, I'm confused too," Quail whispered from her perch atop a rock. She'd been staring out across the sea, and now that Freedom looked closer, she had her tail resting in the water. From here, he couldn't see any kind of wound or blemish, but the now-calm waves would hide anything anyway. Almost cautiously, Freedomstar walked closer to Quail, and her mind prickled like sharp thorns. "Don't get any closer. I'm still hurting and I'm still mad at you."
His tongue slipped in and out between sharp white teeth. "Well, then why don't I just run off? I can see glimpses of the future. Not you." He stuck his tongue out, even though Quail wasn't watching.
"That's it. Just glimpses." She sighed and turned her head slowly towards him. "Why can't you just be like the rest of us? Be funny, like Spiderhunter, or calm and comforting, like Me, or be a sweet lovable brother like Silver Maple. Anything but this..." she paused, fumbling for words. "This narcissistic fool who thinks himself better than all of us."
"Thinks?" Freedom barked a sharp laugh, the pain fading away to power. "More like knows I'm better than you. But I still want you and Spider to be in my life, when I'm on top of the world and ruling over it all. 
The brown and green dragonet in front of him curled her tail towards her body. Now, in the moonlight (When had it become night? He didn't know.), he could see that near the base of her tail was an ugly black singe. Around it, there was stuck bits of dried blood, a nasty and deep wound like a spear had been driven into her. The area seemed burned and maybe even a bit...gory. Freedom's stomach churned, even though he'd thought himself stronger than that. "I thought you might react like that. I want to try and get it bandaged before the others wake up."
"You're on your own," Freedom said hastily. "I don't want to stick around you anymore." As he turned, he thought he could see tears prick at Quailcatcher's eyes, before she spread her wings and dove into the ocean with a loud SPLASH!
He sighed and began digging at the sand. He didn't really know why, but then he saw Silver Maple nearby, unconscious, and got an idea. Carefully, he began to pile sand on top of the orange-pink dragonet, grinning madly. It would be fun to watch his panic once he awoke. First, covering his tail, then working his way up to his talons, even throw a crab on his snout for good measure. 
Of course, Spiderhunter had to wake up first and ruin this plan. Coughing wildly, Freedom whirled around to find the source. It turned out to be a tired and sore Spiderhunter, who instantly glared at Freedom like he wanted to kill him. "What are you doing? Where are we? Where's Quail?" His mind whirled faster than Freedom had expected, but it was still possibly to manage.
"Covering Silver Maple in sand, On a beach, and I don't care," he answered.
Spider coughed again before speaking. "Stay out of my head."
He clucked his tongue innocently. "Would if I could, Stupidhunter."
Leaving Spiderhunter to sputter and try to respond, Freedomstar walked off to gather his surroundings. "I take it we're deeper into SkyWing territory," he said. Larger mountains loomed in the distance, closer than before, and beyond the beach was a soft green treeline. Maybe we were closer here than I first thought. He shook some sand off his talons before moving closer. 
"Brother? Big Brother, no!" 
A small weight threw itself onto Freedom's back. He yelled and stumbled, falling over before turning to look at the cause. Unsurprisingly, it was Silver Maple, sand caught in his scales and crying while burying his snout in Freedomstar's neck. "Don't go there! We'll lose you! And this is SkyWing ruled land!"
"Oh, and the sky is blue. Thanks, genius."
"Actually, it's black now," Spiderhunter pointed out. Freedomstar glared back and Spider stuck his tongue out. He shook Silver Maple off again as if he weighed nothing, before turning back to the sea to watch Quailcatcher surge out of the water with the biggest fish he'd seen clenched in her jaws. "It's called a shark," Spider said, plucking the thought from Freedom's head. He growled, and Spider laughed. "Not so fun when we do it, huh?"
Quail shouted at them distantly, annoyed. "The three of you, stop arguing and get over here! I have a plan to discuss over fish!" 
== Chapter 6 ==
Once the four of them had sat down, with Spider and Quail sitting next to each other and Silver Maple still clinging to Freedomstar, Quailcatcher finally got down to business while slicing up the shark. Freedom had noticed that it had significantly less meat than he'd been expecting for such a creature, though his surprise was well-hidden beneath a layer of annoyance. "That's all it is?" he asked once Quail handed him a piece.
She sighed. "We aren't starting this again, I only was able to catch one and they're not very meaty creatures."
"Freedom, stop whining and just take it. Or I will," Spiderhunter said, a deep and guttural growl building in his throat. Freedomstar rolled his eyes and dragged his chunk of meat closer, tearing it to it viciously. He was actually imagining that he could be tearing into something he hated-like Silver Maple, for instance.
"If that's out of the way, then, I'll get on with it," Quail said. "So, I was looking around a bit while you guys were out of it. We're near the northwestern edge of the SkyWing Kingdom. If we travel around these mountains a bit, we can make it down towards the Kingdom of Sand, I believe. From there, it's an easy shot to the Old Night Kingdom."
"How do you know all of that?" Silver Maple asked sweetly.
"Because I read scrolls."
"So do I..."
Quailcatcher sighed and gently gave Silver Maple a pat on the head. "Yes, and that's good. Once we find a place to stay, we'll get you all the scrolls you want. I promise." Silver Maple giggled and smiled, though Freedom rolled his eyes. 
Spiderhunter nodded. "Yeah. I like that plan, Quail. But let's all see if our dear higher up likes it," he said, leaning towards Freedom. "Oh, what does Freedom have to say about this?"
He hissed, bristling. "Spider, you better shut up about it. I'm trying to keep us safe. I said we shouldn't have left and it led to this happening," Freedom said. "But if you keep insisting on being so annoying, maybe I should shove you off a cliff."
"Can you two stop being horrible to each other for five minutes?" Quail interjected, sounding annoyed. "Please? We're about to go into some dangerous territory because of Queen Dorada. You three know how she feels about tribrids."
"Of course we do," Freedom said, a little bit bored by this. "Chaoticmind even said something about her when we left. He was helping some dragon, I think."
"Slate was their name, I think," Silver Maple said, smiling up at Freedom. Quail smiled and laughed a bit, even. It was the first time in a long time that the four of them had even been smiling at each other instead of growling or snapping.
"That's sweet, Silver." She licked her talons and stretched her wings and body, prompting Freedom and his siblings to do the same. It felt...nice to get a good stretch in. A nice meal, not arguing with Spider or Quail, and a good stretch. Though, Silver Maple wasn't suffering at all, so things could have been better. Weak wyrm-face.
"Freedom..." Quail said in her thoughts, a little dangerously. "Alright, so, once we start flying, we need to be careful. Silver, Spider-can you two manage some kind of appearance of one tribe? I know you two have color-shifting scales." Maple giggled and quickly proved to Quail that he indeed could, his scales turning a sort of muted orange-red color with brown stripes scattered about. Freedomstar found it somewhat impressive, though he'd never tell anyone and he kept that thought buried deep. 
Spiderhunter, on the other talon, shrugged and tried. Only his ruff and wings shifted from bright orange and white to a dingy gold color. Quail sighed and tapped her talons together. "Okay, here's the plan-I'll pass for a RainWing, easy. Silver Maple, you can pass as a SkyWing at a glance. Freedom, make sure to keep your ruff close to you and you can pass as a NightWing. Spider...try and act like a NightWing, I guess. It shouldn't..." she tapped her claws together and worried some more.
"Come on, the longer we sit the longer it'll take to move anywhere," Freedom offered, extending a wing. "I'm heading up. The rest of you can come if you want." Without waiting for an answer, Freedom shot up into the sky, taking in the impressive sights. Nowhere near as impressive as I am, though, he thought. Nothing can be as regal or majestic as I, Freedomstar. It didn't take too long before his siblings joined him in the sky, following Quail's course like they mentioned-heading south towards the Kingdom of Sand and praying nothing happened on the way.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The sun was starting to rise on the four of them as they flew. They hadn't made anywhere close to the progress they had yesterday, influenced by the adrenaline rush of running wearing off and instead being replaced by gnawing hunger and constant aching. Silver hadn't stopped whining pitifully since they'd started, like he was about to keel over and die. Honestly, I wouldn't mind that, Freedom thought, rolling his eyes at his brother.
Their plan had been messed with only a little, so far. Instead of a straight shot south, they'd nearly walked right into a small SkyWing outpost that was there. Meaning that now, they were crossing over the mountains to keep going down the other side. All in all, Freedom just wanted to risk the outpost, but he was once again outvoted on it. Now they were soaring through tall, craggy mountains, the warm sunlight touching only the tops of them and casting dazzling shadows and reflections all over. According to Quailcatcher (And Silver Maple, he supposed), they were nearer to the palace than ever before and had to be extra careful. 
"Can we stop? Please? My wings feel like they're going to fall off," Silver said quietly, almost like a desperate plea. Freedom tried to reach down and shove Maple, but Quailcatcher was in the way. She nodded and gently steered the four of them towards a slightly flatter area with a small cave they could even rest in for a bit. Once they'd touched down on the rocks, Maple floundered into the cave and spread out. Spider and Quail sat near the edge of it, talking. Freedom just clung to the rocks like he wanted to tear them off. 
After a moment of silence, Quail turned towards her siblings and folded her wings neatly. "Do you guys want to sleep for the day and keep going at night? I mean, they shouldn't check a weird little cave for runaway tribrids...I doubt anyone knows we're even here."
"I'm hungry, though," Spiderhunter said, frowning. "We haven't found a thing since that shark."
"And that was hardly a meal," Freedom said, backing up Spider for maybe the first time ever. Spider stared at him like he was another dragon before slowly nodding in acceptance. Quailcatcher sighed and picked at a small crack in the rock.
"If we hunt, I'm worried we'll get found. We best just stick here and wait until night to do anything."
Spider and Freedom sighed, and from the cave, Silver started to sniffle. Freedom's eye twitched. He'd had it up to here with Silver Maple crying at every rest and was ready to teach him a lesson now that Quail wasn't in the way. She was busy being worried over their safety. Spider caught Freedom's eye and slowly shook his head. "Don't even think about it."
I am thinking about it, Freedom shot back, stomping towards the cave and grabbing Silver's shoulder. "What is your problem, you crybaby? You've done nothing but whine and complain and mope since we left! And it's your fault we're even gone in the first place, because you shot Chaoticmind with that sleeping dart!" He began to shake Silver and dig his claws him, prompting a wince. 
"I wasn't-"
"Freedom! Leave him alone!" Quail gasped, suddenly leaping to tackle Freedom away from Silver. "I gave him that blowgun! It was my idea, but he was hidden so our Uncle wouldn't notice!"
Silver tucked his tail in, trying to speak. "Brother, Sister, I-"
"Get OFF of me, Quail! Stop protecting him! He needs to learn to fight and survive on his own!"
Spiderhunter suddenly yelled, "BOTH OF YOU! STOP!"
Quail and Freedom turned towards Spider, shocked. In the silence that followed, Silver Maple jumped to fill it. "You two! I smelled something! I smelled something like food, almost!" Spider nodded as Maple said it, before taking another deep sniff. Freedom decided to try it, and the smell of meat was almost enough to make him fly away then and there. The scent also carried something warm, sweet, light and fluffy, but was savory and rich with flavor. 
No one said anything. They all got up and began flying towards the source, caution being overruled by their hunger. As they got closer, avoiding some early-rising SkyWings, Spider was able to point it out first. "There!" he said, angling sharply to the left and pointing. Freedom rounded a bend and saw what it was-a small building with a quaint feeling. It had a sign hung that said 'Vulcano's Dining', and a small slogan underneath that read, 'Because the best food in the mountains comes from a volcano!'.
Meh. Could use some work, Freedom thought as the four of them neared it. The sign on the door said 'Closed', but they could see inside through some windows. Maple used his claws to scratch away at a poster that was hung up, letting everyone get a little viewing window to see it. Inside, there was a red and orange SkyWing who reminded Freedom of lava, almost. They had two earrings and several rings on their horns that he wasn't sure were jewelry or a unique color pattern. They were wiping crumbs off some tables, and Freedom's stomach growled.
"We can't just stand here," Quail said as the sun began to rise and shine on their heads. "We need to get their attention somehow...or just leave."
"We are not leaving until we get food," Spider said defiantly.
"Then do something!" Freedom pressured, getting quite hangry. Silver gently knocked on the door, and the SkyWing's ears perked. Their eyes narrowed a bit, though, and they walked over to the door, tapping at the glass where the 'Closed' sign was. As they started to turn, Freedom took the chance to knock on the door, only harder. Let us in, you mouse! 
They rolled their eyes and opened the door a crack to speak. "Who are you four and why are you here? More importantly," they said with a gruff voice, not giving others a chance to speak, "Why is there a SkyWing, a RainWing, and two NightWings outside my diner?"
Silver opened his mouth, but Freedom silenced him. Better to be as quiet as we can be. "We're just traveling here. This is our friend and guide, um..." he thought for a moment, struggling for a name before saying, "Slate." It was the only SkyWing-ish name he knew, being what Silver had thought that old hybrid's name was. This diner-owning dragon, though, looked unamused.
"Slate? Really? I don't know anyone named that, but it is awfully similar to a customer I had run through here. Running from some guards. Said the name was Shale, Mud-Sky hybrid. Queen Dorada hates those with a passion," he said, softly clicking his tongue. "Anyway, you three can have a pass," he flicked his wing at Freedom, Spider, and Quail. "But you-" he jabbed Silver in the chest, "-You should know I don't open for another few hours. Noon is when I start running things, and it's hardly morning."
Silver coughed, struggling for words. Quail interrupted to save him. "Please, we need a place to stay. We're also trying to hide from guards."
The strange SkyWing laughed. "Ah, ticked off Her Majesty? Luckily for you, I don't have guards check this kind of thing often, so it'll be fine. Come on it, you four." He held open the door for them and they rushed inside, glad to be safe at last. "So, if I tell you who I am, will you tell me who you four really are? I can tell this one isn't a SkyWing," he looked at Silver, who stayed silent.
"Fine," Quail said. "I'm Quailcatcher. These are my brothers, Freedomstar, Spiderhunter, and Silver Maple." She pointed to each one as she spoke, and Freedom hissed at her. Don't say much more.
"How can I not? He's protecting us."
Freedom couldn't argue that, but he wished he could. Quail continued on, though. "We're all Night-Rain-Ice tribrids. We escaped from...somewhere, and now we're here."
The SkyWing nodded. "Nice to meet you four. I'm Vulcano, owner of this fine dining establishment and famous for hiding fugitives. At least, famous among the fugitives," he added quickly. "I've got a back room you four can hide in until night. The guards won't be as active then." He turned and began walking, and they followed. Freedom felt he could finally breathe again, not being so worried about getting caught. 
Though, in his mind, getting caught and giving up Silver wouldn't be such a bad thing.
== Chapter 7 ==
For the entire day, the four of them had been stuck in the tiny room, only able to get out once to stretch the whole time. Freedom felt like he was going slowly insane, being draped over his siblings like this. There had been a lot of glares, and hissing, and angry thoughts, and an almost scuffle that happened, but the four of them knew they had to stay hidden. There wasn't a way to tell how close to night it was, so Freedom just had to keeping glaring and holding on until the knock that would set them free.
Knock knock.
His ears perked, and he shot his head up, tail flicking. "Freedom, quit moving so much, you're smacking me in the wing!" Spider complained, hissing.
"Well your wings are draped over Quail," he retorted angrily. 
"I don't mind it," Quailcatcher offered, though Freedom sighed. 
Knock knock.
"Are you four ready to come out?" It was Vulcano's voice, soft but still a little gruff. "I'm closing up for the night, so there's nobody here now."
The door opened and Freedom charged out, nearly tackling Vulcano. "Woah! Calm down there, Freedomstar," he said, backing up. "I can get you four something to eat before you leave, if you like. Consider it on the house." He flashed a smile before retreating into the kitchen. 
Freedom yawned and stretched out his wings and legs, and the rest of them weren't far behind. "Whew, I though I might be stuck in there with you idiots forever," he said, a little distracted. 
"Wow, can't you be a little happier that we're hiding right under the nose of the queen who probably hates hybrids the most?" Spider said, flicking his tail irritably. "Even if the room is small, it keeps us alive."
Freedom rolled his eyes again. They'd started to hurt from how much he'd been rolling them in the past days. Quail gave a small snort. "He's right, Freedom. We're lucky to have made it this far."
"If we never left at all..." Freedom mumbled, trailing off. They slid into one of the booths and relaxed, sighing with relief and letting themselves not be so stiff for once. In fact, Freedom could tell that in their thoughts, they were glad that he wasn't trying to start a fight. At this point, he didn't really want to argue with them right now. Not when they were in this kind of situation. 
BANG! 
The dragonets looked at each other, suddenly surprised. They quickly glanced around, concerned at the sound. Silver Maple's scales went white and he cautiously shouted, "Um...Vulcano? We're...we're just out here! You can call for us if you need to..." 
The red and orange SkyWing poked his head out from the kitchen, confused. "What do you mean? Oh, by the way, here's just a little something for you all. It's smoked mountain goat. I hope it gives you all the strength you need to carry on your way." 
"But-We heard a-" Silver Maple fumbled for words and Quail hid him with her wing. Quail, don't you dare dart this dragon too. 
"Relax, Freedom." "Vulcano, we heard a rather loud-" 
BANG! 
Vulcano jumped. "Yeah...that," Quailcatcher said anxiously. "Did something...fall, maybe?" The SkyWing snorted, twin licks of fire coming out of his nostrils, before a mix of fury and fear crossed his face. It was...not a reassuring expression to be making, to say the least. 
"Dammit," he muttered, hastily throwing the smoked meat at them. "Eat quickly and quietly. Don't say a word. I can explain in a bit, but right now I need to attend to this matter." 
"Vulcano? What's going on?" Freedom asked, sounding more demanding than curious or confused. He growled a bit and stalked off to the door, and the siblings started to eat their small meal while watching and listening. 
BANG! 
Vulcano opened the door and his expression soured. "Sorry, I don't care if you all just had a long shift or if you're celebrating something. I'm closed for the night. You know when I open." 
"That's not why we're here." The voice belonged to a dragon out of their sight, though Freedom thought his mind was spicy and dangerous. Almost like sharp rocks popping his bubbles of thought as they came. Yeesh. We may be in a bit of trouble. 
"You think?" was Spider's response. "I'm pretty sure we're screwed." Freedom held his breath, preparing for the worst case scenario where he'd have to get his talons dirty. From the door, Vulcano spread his wings. "You have no right to be bursting in my diner after-hours, and you know it." 
"Oh, but we do have a right. One of our spies has sent word to Queen Dorada of four tribrids in this area. We believe you are harboring them. After all," the hidden dragon gave a cold chuckle. "You have been caught twice before on the same crime. If it's a third, I believe you'll be facing a public execution." 
Vulcano's face visibly paled. "I changed my ways, I told you. I just serve customers who are willing to pay. I am not harboring any more fugitives." 
There was a sigh, and Vulcano started to seem to be restraining something...or someone. "Funny story, about that, actually. We can see through your windows. There's rather deliberate peeping holes scratched in some of your posters. And oddly enough, we see quite a few dragons in there." Vulcano was silent and frozen. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Vulcano." Silver Maple paled and looked guilty. 
"Then I choose the hard way. If I'll be executed anyway, what's the point in rolling over like a dead goat?" 
"If you hand them over willingly, Her Majesty may be merciful upon you." Since Vulcano still didn't seem to be backing down, the voice said, "To help you make up your mind, we even have Prince Eagle with us. Now, are we doing this the easy way or the hard way?" 
Vulcano cast one last sorry glance at the dragons before stepping aside with a bow. Spiderhunter instantly jumped up as guards began swarming in. "You MOONS-BLASTED TOAD SUCKING TRAITOR!" he shouted, his wings and ruff turning a bold, bright red color. He hissed and bared his fangs, hoping to scare the guards. Freedomstar stood up angrily, mostly at Vulcano, but was standing behind Spider and growling. Behind the siblings, Quail had wrapped her wings around a trembling, white-and-green Silver Maple. 
"Alright, you four, stand down. You're being placed under arrest by Queen Dorada." The guard in front held a wicked-looking pronged spear, and seemed like they knew how to use it. Freedom hissed back, but let Spider do the talking. 
"You'll never take us out of here alive!" he howled, snapping at the air. "I'll kill you all! And then," he said, glaring at Vulcano, "I'll kill you." 
Vulcano looked queasy. "I'm...going back into the kitchen." Before anyone could stop him, he had bolted and hidden himself away. Spider was still spitting mad and shouting, and Freedom felt empowered. Like he could rip these guards apart. But the feeling faded as a wall of fire stepped into his mind, the words muddled and engulfed in flames as he tried to make sense of it. It almost hurt to keep staying there, so he focused on one of the other guards. She just seemed excited for action-like a new recruit. 
But the wall of fire in his mind soon showed as an actual dragon. A smoking, glowing bright orange mess with the brightest blue eyes he'd ever seen. This dragon stood out so much from the other SkyWings around him. Yet, he seemed to smile at the dragonets. "Um...hi. Grandmother wants you four for the arena." He sounded...pathetically kind. Freedomstar bared his teeth and tried to leap up at this dragon, enraged. 
Quailcatcher grabbed his tail and dragged him back at the last second, leaping away from Silver. The dragon, Eagle, looked surprised and backed up, peering curiously at Silver Maple with a spark in his eyes. Or it was just some glowing trick of the light from this angle. "Freedom!" Quail hissed, "That's a firescales. Just one touch and it'll burn you worse than normal fire." 
Spiderhunter snorted and inhaled, blasting the firescales with frostbreath. Eagle snickered a bit, and the area seemed unaffected once the frost cleared. From behind him, the other guards started closing in. "Give up," the leader hissed. "You're outnumbered." 
Before anyone else could move, Freedom saw Quail practically unhinge her jaw. It was something he rarely saw from her, using her venom. A black jet streaked across the room before firmly landing on the lead guard, who blinked, glared at Quail, and then started screaming. It was a unholy sound that made Silver cover his ears, the other SkyWings back away in fear, and even made the sadistic Freedomstar feel bad. Holy moons. She's more dangerous than anyone thought. 
"Thanks for having so much faith in me, Freedom," Quail thought, rolling her eyes. Unfortunately, her little trick had only taken out one of fifteen guards. Two of the others stood back to watch over their leader, but the other twelve closed in quickly. Each one of them was no match for three adult SkyWings each, especially with that firescales looming over it all, looking menacing. Quail flopped over and gave up right away. Silver Maple didn't try and fight back at all, quivering like a leaf. Spider tried, but was too young. And Freedom, despite all his glorious thinking, wasn't able to put up much of a fight either. 
Muzzles were slipped on all of them to prevent any more venom-spitting shenanigans. They were each chained to a guard and forced outside, where they began to fly. Freedom noticed that Quail kept getting tugged at and glared at and even clawed a bit. He read in their thoughts-they were angry at her for killing their General. As the grand palace of the SkyWings loomed nearer, Freedom felt less and less confident. Less bold. More...more like an ordinary dragon. 
Me? Ordinary? No, I-I can't be. 
== Chapter 8 ==
They'd flown throughout half the entire day, and Freedom was ready to claw someone's snout off by the time the four of them were roughly thrown into dark, damp cells. Each of the siblings had their own stone prison, but each one was just as thoroughly stuck. One by one, they were led away, and Freedom expected some kind of terrible torture to be awaiting them...but each of his siblings was silent. Even Silver Maple was as he was led down a corridor. 
Finally, it was Freedom's turn. First, he'd been led to his cell. It smelled of despair, fire, and blood to him. Then, he'd been shackled to the floor by his talons and snout, and his wings were bound. He'd have loved to snap at the guards and put up a struggle, but the muzzle stopped him from doing such. He couldn't even talk and yell at them. Once he'd been left alone in his cell, locked in, he finally started to explore the minds around him. Across from him, there was a beaten-looking SkyWing with drab red scales, like a stone that had had the color washed away for the most part. "Stuck in here with some mixed blood wyrms...just my luck..." Freedom didn't like where their thoughts were going, so he just tried reaching out to all of them nearby and tell if he could hear any of his siblings. 
"When are they going to feed us again..." 
"...Dorada is such a birdbrain sometimes..." 
"...I'm going to die in that arena..." (Knowledge of an arena did not help to ease Freedom's nerves) 
"...Can't believe she did that for us..." 
That last thought he'd picked out was Silver Maple's mind, clearly. His thoughts kept swirling around like mist, persistent but easy to manage, lingering on the same few ideas. All he could think about was the guilt over Chaoticmind, the fear of what was going to happen to them, an intense fear of Queen Dorada, and a terrified amazement of what Quail did back in the diner. Freedom himself still couldn't really believe that she'd done that. Quailcatcher seemed more like the dragon who would expect a peaceful surrender to keep them safer. 
"I'm not a pacifist, Freedom. But I shouldn't have done what I did," Quail lamented in her mind to him. "It's just going to make everything worse for me." 
Freedomstar didn't have any point to argue. Quail was right-it was going to make things worse for her. The only chance it could have saved them was a show of power, but Freedom knew that he could overpower anyone easily. With just a flick of his talons, he could use his magic and make all his problems go away. The only thing stopping him was that he wanted to retain some kind of sanity. As the hum of thoughts began to die away, Freedom settled down and shut his eyes for a brief sleep. After all, he was going to need his energy to deal with whatever the upcoming days had to offer. 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
In the morning, Freedomstar woke up late-something he never did before. My internal clock must be getting thrown off by all this adventure, he thought with a smirk. That smirk quickly faded as he heard guards stomping their way through the hall, stopping at various points and messing with clanging keys. At first, he thought they were just bringing prisoners for something, until one stopped in front of him and started opening his cell. 
Oh. They want us, he thought, suddenly nervous. As he was unchained from the floor (though still muzzled with his wings clamped), two guards started to lead him out and guide him through the sky since he couldn't fly in this state. Ahead of him, he saw Spiderhunter and Silver Maple, though not Quailcatcher just yet. Freedom found himself being strangely worried until he heard his sister's mind behind him. 
They were all guided towards the palace, and once they landed, being poked along with sharp spears so that they'd move through the hall a little quicker. Freedom lashed his tail and started to strain against the bindings, but the guards only pushed him more and more and eventually, he saw no point to continue making things difficult. It would just land him in more trouble. The guards didn't say a word to him, but their minds were full of hostile and angry thoughts, mainly directed at him of course. 
At the end of the hallway, Freedom found himself in a dazzling room with gold inlaid on the floor in a talonprint pattern-almost like you were meant to follow it all the way up towards the back of the room. His gaze traveled up until he was locked on the main focus-a large golden-orange dragoness sat upon a throne. She dripped with jewelry, from earrings to bracelets and even a dangly necklace that caught the light in strange ways. It was clear she wanted everyone to know one thing: She was Queen Dorada. 
His siblings were thrown beside him, but none of them bowed. It was a fact Freedom felt a weird connection to his siblings in knowing it. The guards who'd brought them here quickly moved beside the throne, taking place as threatening figures of protection, standing like statues at the sides of her majesty. There was one other thing that caught Freedomstar's eye-that firescales from the diner was also near the corner of the room, watching everything with an almost sad look. 
The Queen slid off her throne and moved towards the dragonets in an almost snake-like fashion. Her expression was one of disgust and irritation, and her mind seemed prickly and full of bloody ideas. "Vulcano made the right choice, so I suppose I should spare him," her thoughts sang, "After all, he did bring me four ugly little tribrids. Except for that orangey-pink one...he's rather pretty." 
Freedom snorted. Silver Maple wasn't anything near "pretty". Dorada heard him and tilted her head at Freedom, and he glared back. She lifted her head up and cleared her throat. "So, you four thought you could skulk around my land, did you?" Spiderhunter strained against his muzzle, prompting the Queen to laugh. "Don't bother to try and answer. I already know." 
"I reckon you're all quite mad at Vulcano, aren't you? The one who gave you up?" She smiled, but it was cruel and made Freedom feel sick. "Well, I for one believe he made the proper choice. You see, I don't quite like hybrids, and adding in a third is almost just insulting. But doing away with you all in secrecy just isn't my thing, no no no." Dorada spread her pale gold wings wide and clapped her talons together. "I run this lovely little arena that queens before me tried to remove! Your kind is truly quite an amazement to watch die, your filthy, tainted blood spilling out into the sands and your bodies left for the vultures." 
Freedomstar started to growl, and Dorada shook her head. "I won't be fighting you, I'm afraid. Oh, but you are so terribly eager...you all can have the special prison. Conure, Altitude, you know which one I mean." Two of the guards beside her nodded and readied their spears to do more poking and prodding. "Your crimes against me will make a perfect spectacle of why you shouldn't cross me. Enjoy yourselves, you four." She turned her back, and guards closed in on the four dragonets. 
The "special prison" turned out to be a hanging metal cage beneath the balcony where the queen watched the area. It shook violently at the slightest movement, and had a sickeningly good view of the arena. The four of them were lumped in together, their wings still bound but their snouts finally free of the muzzles. Of course, they'd taken this newfound freedom to yell at each other. 
"Splendid, I'm stuck in here with two dragons who have rocks for brains, and the only pleasant one is Spiderhunter," Quailcatcher muttered, finally displaying her repressed anger that Freedom had picked up on. Silver looked wounded and stared down at the sharp rocks and sand beneath them, his scales a queasy white and green mix. 
"It's your fault, Quail," Spiderhunter spat. "You said it would be fine if we left." He growled before shouting, "DO WE LOOK FINE RIGHT NOW?!" 
"Shut up, the lot of you," Freedom hissed. "I don't want to hear another sound out of you inferior tribrids." 
"Oh, that's rich from you," Quail countered. 
Their arguing was put on pause when the chain shook slightly and a few small rocks few on their heads. Looking up, Freedom saw that firescales from before clinging to the rock balcony and watching them. "Oh, sorry...don't mind me. C-Carry on with your conversation or, argument, I guess." 
"You chained us up!" Freedom shouted. "You'll burn us for NOTHING!" He roared, shaking the bars and causing the four dragonets' panic to flare for a moment. Silver clung to the floor of the cage even tighter. 
"C-Calm down! You could fall, maybe!" Eagle said, pushing himself off the balcony to hover nearby and talk better. Freedom kept noticing that he was looking at Silver and his face kept twisting in sorrowful ways. "I didn't want you guys chained. You seem nice. Maybe we could even be friends?" A spark of hope jumped in his eyes, but Spider spat and Freedom rolled his eyes. 
"Hard pass," Freedom said, at the same time that Spider said, "Not a chance." 
"You're on the queen's side. You said something about your grandmother wanted us," Silver mumbled. 
Eagle sighed and gave a little nod. "Yes...I have to follow her orders. I...I'll do things for you four. You're the only ones who I think I have even a chance of befriending." He flew away, and with that, left the four siblings to keep arguing and hissing and fighting between each other. 
== Chapter 9 ==
Freedomstar felt like scowling all day long. It was the middle of the afternoon now, and the sky was perfectly clear to let the sun gloriously shine through. To him, the sun was the most annoying thing ever, glaring in his sight and obscuring part of his vision. Tack on the fact that he was still stuck in a cramped, constantly rocking cage with his flea-brained siblings, and it was just a horrid day that deserved scowling.
"Yeah, sure, we're the idiots here," Quail thought, rather aggressively. "Not the one who did absolutely nothing despite being so 'glorious' with your 'infinite power'."
"I already told you I'm saving it!" Freedom shouted, stomping fiercely on the floor and causing the entire thing to rattle around in a way that made him regret his. His spines were raised, and his ruff flared aggressively. Quail had much a similar look, ruff flared and hateful-eyed.
"What did I do to deserve getting treated like a scapegoat..." Silver Maple thought sadly. To match his depressing thoughts, his scales were a dark and dreary blue-gray color. Freedom snorted and jabbed Silver roughly with a claw.
"Oh, yeah, play it up as the victim," he hissed. "Just act like you're not the entire reason we were even able to leave in the first place. Sure, sure, blame it on EVERYONE ELSE!" Freedom roared, before spitting a dab of venom next to Silver. He yelped and frantically shoved himself away from it, but 'away' turned out to be nestled into Freedom's chest as much as he could be. Freedom growled and watched as the venom harmlessly sat in a puddle on the floor, slowly dripping out of the cage in a steady flow. 
"You better get away from me, you overgrown parasite," Freedom said, a warning tone as he stabbed his claw into Silver's shoulder. His brother yelped and scrunched up, and Quail finally leapt across the cage to separate them. 
"Freedom! How could you?! Silver's done nothing to you!" She wailed, flaring her wings and causing the cage to violently shake even more. "Why do you have to be so completely awful!"
He flicked the blood of his claws and set his face to a scowly sneer. "He's nothing but a leech. A pathetic excuse for a dragon," he said, glaring at Silver and making sure he could hear every word of it. "He's a no-good, rotten, whiny little bi-"
Quail gave Freedom a harsh slap across the snout. "YOU'RE THE PROBLEM!" She shouted, turning and whipping him across the snout with her tail as she did. Freedom blinked, feeling insulted more than in pain, but his emotions were a mess. He wanted Quailcatcher and Spiderhunter to like him. He wanted them to be part of his glorious future. "But you don't want Silver in it," Spider answered. 
"If Silver isn't in it, neither are we," Quail thought at him, starting to cry in the corner. 
Freedom felt wounded and hurt. That dark part of his mind crept back in, beckoning him towards it's power, the urge to make everyone who wronged him pay. To make everything good again. To make his perfect family and make sure Silver suffered forever. His claws curled in, ready to think about it...
But he stopped. He didn't want to do anything that drastic. From Spider and Quail, he saw glimmers of hope for him in their minds. They had some faith in him still. He had to keep it and grow it with them if we wanted that perfect future. 
Hours passed. The sun moved in the sky, and eventually, Silver Maple broke the silence. "So...can we all agree that being together is a good thing?" Freedom wanted to scream. Spiderhunter growled in response, and Quail nodded. But Freedom...he had other ideas.
"No, of course not! There's only one dragon I'd ever actually be happy to be stuck with, and that's my crush!" He roared, and suddenly the fight was back on. Silver was petrified of what happened because of his question, Spider was trying to bite Freedom, and Quail was alarmed and curious at who Freedom could possibly have a crush on. Moons, I said too much. Quail, SHUT UP ABOUT IT ALREADY!
"Freedom, you hate the world so much, there is no way you, of all dragons, has a crush. I'd believe that Spider finds one before you do."
"Rude," Spider thought, "But true."
Ugh, you two need to butt out of my business. It doesn't matter who I like!
Freedom braced himself as Spider once again tried to leap, only being restrained by Quail. "Spider, calm down! Freedom didn't mean anything by that!"
Silver Maple suddenly shouted, something out of character for him. "Three moons, can the three of you just shut up and be horrible somewhere else?! You're shaking the cage like crazy!" His scales were mostly red and black, but still dotted with white-the color of fear.
"So the quiet one finally snaps," Spiderhunter muttered.
"Yeah, I'm snapping! You three are always so awful to each other! I just want to be with Freedomstar! He's the best brother!"
Freedom couldn't hold back his sudden snort that turned into full-blown laughter. While he was cackling, Silver said, "I'm serious! Freedom, you're the best!"
"Did you lick a hallucinogenic frog or something?" Quail said, clutching her chest like she'd been wounded. "He can't be!"
"I can be!" Freedom spat. 
"Wow. You're going to say sorry for that, right? Both of you?" Quail asked, looking at them. Freedom shook his head and saw that Silver Maple remained motionless after his outburst, the red and black already disappearing.
"I'm sorry," he muttered. "It's almost night. Can we just...sleep? Stop rocking the cage," he whispered, curling up and burying his face in his wing. The four of them glared at each other, but that was one thing they finally agreed on as they settled down for a horrible night's sleep.
== Chapter 10 ==
The moons hung in the sky, casting a gentle pale light over everything. Above the sleeping dragonets, stars twinkled and danced in their own merry way. Even in his dreams, Freedomstar felt trapped. It was nothing but rising walls all around, wherever he stepped, trying to avoid them always just brought up another. First, the village they'd been living in. Then, his uncle's determination to save them. His own siblings, the SkyWing Queen, and that dark, evil voice that kept whispering to him, begging him to use his power and unleash the raging beast inside.
So, needless to say, that when the cage suddenly got hit with something heavy and fiery, he was already awake to hear it, feel it, and prepared to defend against it. Freedom's eyes shot open as the cage swayed perilously back and forth, and he looked up where the sound had come from. There was nothing-no sight, no sound, and the only smell was of burning, heated metal. He searched back and forth across the night sky, wishing he could be closer to the moons that gave him so much power in the first place. They're almost like a second set of parents to me. Maybe even my first set, since our own parents left us. 
Freedom glanced at his siblings, and pity washed over him like a tidal wave. All of them were scared, tired, and alone. They were spending so much time fighting that they didn't have any energy left to unite and fight the real source of their problems. But, on the other talon, it was much easier to get mad at the dragons in front of you who'd forgive and forget within a week, rather than risk angering an entire royal bloodline. He sighed, settling down, before he picked up on a faint sound of scratching. Specifically, scratching on rocks coming from above. 
Slowly, Freedom looked up, both scared and determined. At first, he still saw nothing but the night sky. Then, his vision was filled with the bright, gleaming orange-y scales of Eagle, the firescales who had visited them before. 
Freedom screamed and stumbled back, his other siblings getting alerted, seeing Eagle, and also shouting or yelping in surprise. The firescales frantically waved his talons, his eyes darting around the sky. "No, shh, I'm sorry! Shh, shh, it's just me! It's Eagle!"
"No kidding it's you!" Freedom hissed. "You were this close to getting your snout kicked in and your lungs torn out!" 
"Don't hurt yourself trying to hurt me-Please," Eagle said, carefully hovering next to the cage and wafting warm air at the four of them. It felt much nicer than the cold night breeze, but still. Freedom wondered if Eagle ever felt hot, or maybe wished he wasn't always burning, or stuff like that. Firescales were so rare that the four dragonets hadn't even known about them (well, Quail had). 
Freedom barked a laugh, narrowing his eyes. "I could kill you so easily if I wanted to, Eagle." He spat out the name like it was a rotten piece of meat in his mouth. On the other side of the cage, the SkyWing's expression soured into a harsh, piercing glare directed at Freedom. 
"Freedom, shut up!"
"Freedom, what are you doing?!"
Quail and Spider both frantically thought things at him, and in response, Freedom tuned them out, instead choosing to focus on trying to ignore the fiery wall behind him. Eagle began to reach towards the cage, but Silver looked up at Eagle and offered a shy, friendly smile. Freedom felt the heat fade away as Eagle pulled his talon back, fighting a smile of his own. 
"I was observing the guards and such recently," he began, "And I think I have an idea. There's very few there right now, and if I brought a prisoner, sometimes Grandmother-Queen Dorada-will let me stand for them in a fight. It's some kind of old tradition, but she altered it some."
"Where is this going...?" Spiderhunter asked, stepping forwards and tilting his head.
Eagle paused and sighed. "I mean-I can get the four of you out. That metal is really easy to melt. I just don't know how to get you to the throne room for an audience with her..."
"Start by burning a hole. We'll figure something out," Freedom said, confident. Eagle blinked in surprise before nodding and moving a little closer. The four dragonets shied away from him, closer to one side, and Freedom noticed Eagle looking at Silver and trying to avoid him especially. As the firescales reached and grabbed two of the bars, they watched the metal begin to glow and bubble, heating up before slowly melting away in soft, flowy puddles. Two more bars were burned before the hole made could let any of them through-even Freedomstar, who happened to be the largest.
"Alright. Now what?" Quailcatcher asked, looking down at the gaping hole. Falling meant certain death, Freedom knew. But he had an idea.
"Well, we can all climb fairly well. This cage is connected to the Queen's balcony, which connects to the palace," Freedom stated, curling his tail over his talons. "So the answer is simple: We climb."
"When falling means...you know...?" Silver Maple asked quietly, looking pale and terrified. Freedom laughed and gently nudged Silver forwards.
"You're the smallest, you've got this!"
"W-W-Wait, F-Freedom!" He pleaded, but Freedom had already half shoved him out of the cage, leaving him dangling by the bars. Freedom was confident that Silver could pull himself up in life or death, and if he couldn't...it wasn't such a loss on the world. True to his suspicions, Freedom and the others watched as Silver pulled himself up, bit by bit, until he was on top of the cage. From there, he shimmied up the rope quickly and clung to the rock, scrabbling his way up until he was on the balcony. 
Freedom couldn't help but grin. "I told you it'd be fine. Now, who's next?"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The sun was just beginning to rise as they all stood on the balcony, tired from the climb and lack of sleep but otherwise alright. Freedom puffed out his chest and nodded at Eagle. "Lead the way, dear Prince."
"Just call me Eagle," the firescales mumbled hastily before moving to the front and walking at a brisk pace. Freedom found it weirdly difficult to keep up with him, even though he shouldn't have been that hard to walk behind. The palace halls and doors seemed to be near-endless to him, but Eagle assured the dragonets that the balcony was only a hall away from the throne room. After all, the queen wanted to sit there and view it. Obviously.
Eagle must have been right, because what felt like forever had only turned out to be a few minutes. Soon, the four dragonets found themselves once again at the feet of the large throne and the regal, stuck-up golden dragon named Dorada. Only this time, they had Eagle on their side. That thought made Freedom stand a little taller, feel a little more confident in taunting the royalty. When she finally noticed them, which took Eagle clearing his throat, Dorada's face soured. "Eagle, my dear sweet child, what have you brought in here?"
"Your Highness, as your grandson and as your champion, I ask that you let me fight on behalf of the condemned."
A smile curled at the edge of the SkyWing Queen's lips. "Amusing, Prince. But this is still my kingdom in the end, regardless of whatever silly little rule you want to try and pull on me. These four committed quite serious crimes, you know. They killed General Cordovan, you know. These things cannot just be waved away by even my dear champion." She raised her wing majestically, though Freedom just wanted to leap forwards and tear it to shreds. 
Eagle's talons clenched as he took note of the few guards in the room. "Dorada-"
"Queen Dorada," she corrected.
"Queen Dorada," Eagle said, a little flustered, "I may stand for any prisoner. Follow the tribe traditions. Please," he added, looking down. Freedom recognized that look. It was one of restraint. Of wanting to tear someone apart but knowing better. Perhaps I may get along with him better than I imagined...
"Oh, Eagle," Dorada clicked her tongue. "Alright, you may stand for one of them. It says only one prisoner, not all four." Eagle jerked his head up, stunned. The four dragonets glanced at each other, suddenly sensing another fight brewing. Each one wanted that protection from Eagle, the unstoppable firescaled monster. It would be a guarantee for life. The SkyWing Prince looked back at the dragons, his face a troubled mix of emotions. 
"If I may only stand for one, then I choose Silver Maple."
Freedom couldn't believe his ears. Silver! Silver Maple, of all dragons! The one who would die if left alone for a day! HE was the one getting this protection?! He was too mad to even listen anymore. All he could think about was seething with rage as guards dragged him and his siblings off, taking them towards the taller prison pillars they'd seen up higher, all around the arena when they'd first arrived. Even Silver was getting dragged, but Freedom was seeing red. There was only one choice now, he knew, as he was being chained to a whole new kind of prison. The dark thoughts enveloped his mind, clouding his thoughts and every move. One thing remained true, however.
Silver Maple had to die.
== Chapter 11 ==
The sun rose on what marked another new day. Another day of Freedomstar and his siblings hissing and growling at each other. Another day of hating everything in the world, even himself. Another day of awfulness and terror and pain.
"I wish we were back home," Quailcatcher said, quietly. Pitifully. Like she had been a caged tiger that had just had it's spirit broken for good. Up here, chained on the pillars, it was harder to hear her, but he managed. The only one he really couldn't hear was Spiderhunter, but his thoughts were louder than his voice.
"Me too," Silver agreed. As the sunlight hit his scales, Freedom saw as they turned all sorts of colors-yellow and blue and green and pink-but all of them muted and grayer. Like he was sinking into an endless hole of self-pity and sorrow that he'd never get out of. That's all his thoughts were, anyway. After Eagle had said he would stand for Silver Maple, the orange-pink dragonet had been awfully quiet, and it made Freedom that much angrier.
"I wish one of us inherited animus magic," Spider thought. Even when emotions were muddled by thoughts, Freedom could still hear the sarcastic, icy tone of his voice. Shut up, you arachnid-named moon licker.
"Well you can get us out of here," Quail hissed in her mind. "Why haven't you at least gotten yourself out?"
Yes, I have it, Freedom began, But I'm not going to waste it on you all. You don't deserve it. 
"Clearly," Spider mumbled in his head, turning on the pillar as best he could to glare.
Freedom shook his head and settled on his pillar. Thick metal bands clamped around his neck, his wings, and his legs. Each one of those has a much thinner wire connecting it to the same band of the prisoner next to him. To his left, Quailcatcher. To his right, Silver Maple. To Freedom, it was torture. He didn't like the sun, one of the many things he hadn't gotten from his half RainWing mother, unlike all his other siblings. None of them were in a good mood at all, but everything was constantly making it worse for them. 
Time seemed to pass slowly...creeping forwards like a sleepy RainWing as the sun hung in the sky, glaring it's harsh heat down on all of them. Eventually, Freedom felt the familiar fiery wall of Eagle's mind poke into his mindreading,and Freedom's ears simultaneously perked and flattened. As the firescaled dragon finally came into view, he seemed to look like gleaming embers, or shiny copper, or all the bright things in the world as the sun danced on his flaming scales. Freedom couldn't help but watch him as he flew up towards Silver Maple, whose scales seemed to become a slightly brighter color when he drew near.
The two were having a conversation, Freedom suddenly realized. They were whispering, and he couldn't hear their words, but Silver's thoughts were on full display. "So she's really, really upset about it...I'm fine. I'll be fine...Really? That's what she's going to do to me?" Freedom rolled his eyes. It wasn't useful to listen in on this pathetic chitchat, though Quailcatcher seemed interested, based on her thoughts. Bah. Her thoughts don't matter. 
"Oh, quit being a narcissist, you blood-sucking leech!" The golden-brown dragonet hissed aloud, startling everyone. Eagle blinked and looked over, then whispered to Silver Maple again. In his brother's thoughts, Freedom could hear more. "No. They don't get to know." 
"Get to know what? ANSWER ME, LEAF-LOOKING WYRM!" Freedom roared, straining at his chains. In the air beside Silver, Eagle hovered back, further from Freedom. "You too, smoke-snorter! ANSWER ME!" He screamed, thrashing about, desperate to lunge forwards and tear Silver Maple limb from limb. Violently prove to him just how weak he was, display for all that he was not to be taken lightly. The dark voice consumed his mind, his thoughts, every breath he took was no longer his own. "I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!" 
Freedomstar felt like he would break the chains and topple off at any second. The other dragonets seemed terrified of him, shriveling away and whimpering, their thoughts all terror and confusion and panic. Yes, fear me! his mind sang to him. The emotion tasted oh-so-sweet to him, the knowledge that he was so much better than them. He wanted to savor it and bask in the moment, soak up every last bit of their fear into himself, make everyone and everything cower before him. The white-hot rage swept through him like a crashing wave, until he felt a few small droplets land on his foot. 
It wasn't much, but suddenly, the dark thoughts retreated. They were replaced by sheer, agonizing pain. It felt like his foot was being stabbed and scraped and torn off all at once, like the very scales and muscle that held it together were being eaten away. Even though it was a single drop of venom, it was enough to make Freedom begin to feel faint. The world was dancing, blurring, spinning around and making him dizzy. All the while, the pain just wouldn't stop. He was practically begging to make it end by now, and eventually, even he could no longer silently take the pain. 
Freedom let out an ear-splitting shriek of agonized existence, the venom still biting at his foot and melting everything together. His talon almost felt like it was fusing together, through the haze of endless torment and pain. He couldn't concentrate on anything-not his mindreading, not his future sight, nor even his animus magic to make it all go away. "MAKE IT STOP!" he shouted, still grabbing his talon. Now he was starting to cry, too. 
"I SAID MAKE IT STOP!" Freedom practically screamed into the air, doubled over and only held on the pillar by the chains that bound him to his siblings. Without warning, the pain abruptly stopped, though the world was still spinning. He still wanted to throw up. He still felt light-headed and dizzy. But at the very least, his wails of pain had stopped. His eyes were wet as he clutched his talon, staring at it while the rest of the world remained blurry. 
His talon was a mess. The venom had hit the two leftmost toes, and had practically melted the scales of them into one mess. He couldn't separate them, even when he tried, and his black scales were marred with a dark, sticky, red-black liquid. Freedom realized it was likely his own blood mixed with the venom. Thankfully, it had clotted before the venom entered and mingled with the dangerous toxin enough so that it didn't kill him once it got in his blood (If it got in his blood, he reminded himself). 
The dragonets around Freedom were each different. Spiderhunter looked smug, but also a little guilty. "No dragon should suffer that...even if it was Freedomstar." 
Quail looked sick to her stomach, queasy, and wouldn't look directly at Freedom. "Moons-Why did I-I could have-I shouldn't have-" her thoughts were a jumbled, guilty mess of how she had been the one who'd spit venom at Freedom. 
"He was threatening me..." Silver's mind was more sad, more dim compared to how it usually was. "N-No. He's still the best. He has to be the best." 
Eagle's mind was unreadable, but his expression was a mix of terrified and pitiful. 
Freedom slowly sat upright, and whispered, "Moons above, bless me. Heal." He gently touched his talon, and watched as the scales began to knit themselves back into place. It stung a little, but it was nothing compared to what he'd just felt. His magic was to be used for dire emergencies-like stopping venom from hurting him and fixing the damage it had caused. He closed his eyes, ignoring the shouting from his siblings, and let himself fall unconscious. 
After all, not being awake for just a little longer would be nicer than the living hell he was in. 
== Chapter 12 ==
It was late afternoon when Freedom woke up, his vision blurry as he rubbed his eyes to clear it. He glanced around him, still seeing his siblings chained next to him, and he sighed. "I hate this," he muttered, licking his claws. "I hate this stupid prison, and I hate the Sky Kingdom, and I hate my brainless siblings."
"HAH! That's rich!" Spiderhunter hollered from two pillars over. "I'm the smartest of us four. Far smarter than you, it seems," his thoughts sang smugly. "Quailcatcher keeps our morale high and stops fights, like a good older sibling. Silver Maple is perfectly sweet and caring. You're nothing but a narcissistic piece of-"
Freedom shut out Spider's mind before he could finish that thought, growling and tucking his head under his wing. The sun was beginning to set, the color of the sky reminding him of Vulcano's scales (Don't think about that filthy traitor, his brain reminded him), and he wanted to shut out the world. If he ignored it, maybe it would ignore him too. Beside Freedom, Quail shuffled in her chains, trying to scratch underneath them. "Gosh, I hate these. They're painful and itchy and awful..."
"Why can't the four of us just get along?" Quail shouted, loud enough for all of them to hear. "We're on the same side! We can work with the other prisoners and-"
"And we can all end up twice as dead!" A prisoner from beside Quail chirped with mock eagerness. She was a RainWing, her scales a dreary blue-gray with a dash of green. "Great idea! Can I get your name so we can meet each other in the afterlife?" She carried on, shouting sarcastically, and Quailcatcher sighed. Freedom knew she wasn't interested in arguing with strangers, especially not ones that were so utterly rude. 
"Kind of like you, Freedom," she thought at him with a meaningful look. Freedom glared at her and looked down at his claw. Now, it was good as new-but the memory lingered. If he focused, he could still feel the burning pain, the agony, the blood, everything. How his talon had been so disfigured before. How was he supposed to just forgive Quailcatcher for that when she'd not forgiven him for small things he'd done to Silver Maple?!
"Oh, there you go again, playing the victim!" Spiderhunter shouted angrily from his prison spire. "You always do this, Freedom! It's always about how much someone has wronged you! Get your head out of your own tail and admit that you're a complete frog-licking MOONS-BLASTED BULLY!"
"Bully? Was that really the best you could come up with, Spider," Quail said, looking deflated. "I can't even support you if you can't find good insults."
"Then you try!" Spider spat back, huffing. Quailcatcher shook her head, but finally, Freedom interjected to give his own ideas on the matter.
"You two think that Silver's just some innocent wee critter who needs saving and protecting! How do you think he'll fare without us after all the pampering you've done to him?" He shouted. "Silver couldn't beat a fight against a concussed sheep, he's so reliant on you two!"
Quailcatcher balked. "Oh, so that justifies you constantly making him suffer?"
"Yes!!" Freedom roared, furious. "He'd be rolling over and shaking in his own scales at a fly if I wasn't around to instill a proper sense of FEAR into him!" 
"Instilling a sense of fear my foot, you just want to fuel your own sadistic desires!" Spider hissed. From here, Freedom could see the bright, glaring bloodred color of his scales. Before Freedom could answer, a large golden presence blotted out the sunlight in front of him. He turned, expecting a guard to drag him out, or maybe it was Eagle coming to yell at him for being so awful. Instead, the dragon he saw made even his blood run cold.
Queen Dorada.
"Oh, am I interrupting something?" she asked, her voice laced with ill intent. Then, she laughed-the cruelest, most vicious laugh he'd ever heard. "Don't bother. It's quite impressive how loud the four of you can be."
Freedom growled, before suddenly straining against the chains as much as he could and jerking forwards. "I hate this! I hate you almost as much as I hate my siblings!" He snapped his teeth at the Queen, but she smugly smiled just out of reach. Freedomstar wanted nothing more than to reach out and rip that smug expression off of her face, and then preferably keep tearing her face apart until there was nothing but shreds left.
"How amusing. Your eagerness is something I'll keep in mind," Dorada said, grinning and showing off a few golden teeth. 
"What do you want from us?!" Quailcatcher said, standing up and straining at her chains. "We've done nothing wrong!"
The SkyWing Queen sighed. "Do I really need to spell it out to you four? It's quite simple, really. You're tribrids. Nothing but impure, mixed blood abominations. What kind of self-respecting dragon would ever allow herself to be mates with someone from another tribe, let alone someone from two other tribes?"
"Someone with far more compassion than you have," Spider said, joining the conversation, his ruff angrily flared. "Someone who cares more. Who actually finds a true love, rather than whatever sad sack of scales you probably call a husband." Freedom had to cover his snout so that the Queen wouldn't see him laughing. In his heart, he found the small place where he held Quailcatcher and Spiderhunter making itself bigger. He was caring for them more. 
Now, whether or not it was just because Spider had creative comebacks and insults was up for debate, but seeing the SkyWing Queen with smoke pouring out of her nostrils and mouth was hilarious to him. 
Freedom pulled his neck in and stumbled back as Queen Dorada shoved her face closer to him, bringing a cloud of hot, thick smoke with her. "You three wish to mock me? Not a wise choice." She sighed, pulling back out of Freedom's reach again as she turned to look at Silver Maple. "That one is...an exception. My grandson-Eagle-has offered to stand for him. It's quite problematic, really, since nobody can actually defeat him. He's quite the unbeatable champion."
Silver's the lucky one, Freedom thought bitterly. He gets the protection of the firescales. Even the Queen admits she can't defeat her own champion. Why can't I get that sort of protection? Quail, Spider, did you see anything in that pompous Prince's mind?
"Sorry, Freedom," Quail thought, drooping a bit as the Queen glared at the four of them. "It's all fire and smoke to me."
"Same here. Nothing but flames, no thoughts," Spider agreed.
Queen Dorada clapped her talons together and a swarm of flame-colored guards flew from behind her. "So!" she chirped, grinning, "I've come up with a bit of a solution to my little dilema! Eagle, come here!" she shouted. The air was thick and hot with smoke as they waited, and before long, the familiar scarlet firescales was back. 
"Yes, Grandmother?" Eagle asked, blinking and looking at the guards, confusion in his eyes. Dorada snapped her talons, and the guards suddenly swarmed around Silver Maple, causing him to turn white with fear and shriek. Quailcatcher and Spiderhunter weren't far behind, but loudest of all was Eagle himself. "Don't you TOUCH HIM!" he howled, rushing forwards in a blaze of fire. The guards frantically moved away as Eagle grabbed one of them, tightly grabbing them despite their ear-piercing shrieks. Freedom watched in disbelief as it all happened. 
Dorada sighed. "Eagle, enough. This lovely little pale dragonet is going to be my new artwork until I get bored of him. That way, he'll never be in the arena. Your little stunt earlier was quite annoying, after all." Freedom watched as Eagle's face fell, staring at Dorada with utter betrayal in his eyes. Wow, Freedom thought. Silver's the lucky one. No fighting for him. No gruesome bloody death, bah.
"You can't do this!" Eagle shouted, hissing. "He's a dragon, not a piece of art!"
Queen Dorada laughed. "I am the queen, dear. I just wanted you to watch while I stick your pretty little pet in my art gallery," she said, spitting out 'pet' like it was rotten. Freedomstar normally would have been so irritated that someone was acting better than him, but since their fury was directed at Silver Maple, he was torn. The guards moved again to grab Silver Maple, whose scales were white and green, and he just stopped.
"Eagle, please," he said quietly. "Don't kill them. They're not doing anything wrong. They're just following orders."
Eagle's face fell as he sat there and watched. Dorada looked on smugly as the guards began dragging Silver Maple away. He flew next to them in utter defeat, and Freedomstar watched with a mix of pleasure and hatred. He was glad that Silver was still suffering so greatly...but the fact that he wouldn't have to fight and would get to watch as everyone died while he was safe. It was infuriating. Quailcatcher was watching Silver fly off, tears welling her eyes, and Spiderhunter was thrashing against his chains and hissing. 
To Freedom, it would finally be nice to not have to deal with that annoyance anymore.
== Chapter 13 ==
That night, Freedom slept more soundly than he ever had. 
Well, he would have if not for the fact that Quail and Spider's worried voice kept stinging his mind. Those, along with whatever random thoughts the prisoners around him were having, were doing a wonderful job keeping him awake when he really wanted to sleep. The pillar that had previously housed Silver Maple now had a new prisoner on it-a huge MudWing who liked to hum a lot. It sounded a lot like a bullfrog, but much louder and obviously coming from a dragon. 
Their scales, in the darkness of the night, looked a lot like some types of fish he'd seen before; A dingy brown color with speckles and accents of varying darker shades of brown. Freedom couldn't help but notice that they kept looking at him and thinking the same thoughts over and over again. "I'm trapped here with a NightWing...frog tongues, Sedge would be so mad at me if she knew where I was. It's like she's right there, like I could reach out and touch Clarity. She might as well be one of the moons now." The MudWing sighed and turned over.
Freedom felt a little...bad for this dragon. In her mind, he'd learned well enough that 'Clarity' was a NightWing she loved. Freedomstar knew how he felt when he couldn't see his crush for the longest time, and this MudWing had it worse since her love was reciprocated by the other dragon. Pity washed over him as he turned towards the prisoner and spoke rather softly. "Hello?"
"Oh, he's trying to talk to me," she thought, shuffling and turning her head, pretending to be asleep. "Sedge, Fawn, Mire, I'm sorry. I'm going to die here without you all ever knowing where I went. I feel so stupid for sneaking off at all. It's my fault. It's my fault..."
"Please, I know you're not asleep," Freedom whispered. "I'm sorry if I remind you of Clarity, but if it helps, I'm actually only half NightWing." 
Her head whipped around her eyes widened, staring at Freedom like beads of copper. He could see and hear layers of sadness and pain laced with panic in her face. "I-I don't know who you're talking about. No NightWing ever converses with me."
"First of all," Freedom began, "I count. Second of all, you can't hide anything from a mindreader."
"Yes you can!" Spiderhunter shouted from the other side of the MudWing. Freedom growled and narrowed his eyes. Shut up, Spider. This isn't your conversation.
"It's not your life to be messing with!" Spider shot back grumpily, then continued sulking about Silver.
The MudWing sighed and rested her head again. "Of course. I should have known." "Guess I can't hide anything." "I'm Everglade, and I'm here because I was stupid enough to try and meet with Clarity when we knew the SkyWing Queen was around." Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, and Freedom felt even worse for her. "And she found us, and Clarity got away because I saved her. But it doesn't matter, because I'm going to die in the arena."
"No, you wont," Freedom said, looking down at the sands. "You're stronger than you look if you dared stand against that smoke snorting queen. I'm probably the one who's screwed because of my featherbrained brother and stealing the firescales' protection." He didn't want to elaborate, despite Everglade pestering him about it in her mind. "Your brother? He has that horrific firescales to protect him? Please, please, tell me, weird little NightWing!"
"Half NightWing," he said, feeling a snap in his voice. The MudWing shrank back, and Freedomstar felt that awful guilty feeling clawing it's way in his heart again. With a sigh, he shook his head. "I'm-I'm sorry, Everglade."
"Oh, no, I'm sorry. I'm so forgetful sometimes." She smiled a bit, and after a moment, trailed back off into that sweet deep humming. Freedomstar paused to listen as the sun rose, the frog-like symphony just from one dragon, and he even lifted his head and joined in. Now, a deep croaking sound was joined by his smoother, lighter hum, taking little flips and dives everywhere. All around, dragons began to join in, a wonderful sound being orchestrated without a word being uttered. The music was . . . beautiful. There was no other way to describe it. It made him feel calm and at peace.
As the sun climbed a bit higher, the golden scales that Freedomstar hated appeared near the arena with a smooth, plucky hum joining the mix, before transitioning into the SkyWing Queen's voice. "Well, you all seem to be more musically talented than I expected. As wonderful as that sounded, I have some even better things planned for today!" she clapped her talons together from far below, and one by one, the humming began to stop. Freedom was among one of the last, and Everglade was the last one to stop. Dorada's emerald eyes scanned the prisoners, and she smiled a sharp-toothed grin. "Today!" Dorada shouted, flaring her wings up beside her for dramatic effect. SkyWings began filing into the arena seating, bursts of fire and smoke of honor and loyalty to their queen. Freedom felt his blood run cold.
"Today, we have a truly unique setup for my arena!" Queen Dorada adjusted her crown and looked at the prisoners again, waiting for the crowd to quiet down a bit. "Yes, we have a whole host of wonderful tribrids, hybrids, and any other mixed-blood traitors that can show us just how their blood will mix with the sands and bones below!" The crowd grew louder, cheering, stamping their talons, shouting, anything to make noise. Freedomstar wanted to run and get out of here. That dangerous beast inside of him snarled, yearning to be free, and he wanted to let it be free. It would save his life.
A rusty red dragon, like washed-out wool flapped up to a small pedestal above the arena, holding a scroll close to their chest. Guards flew down to small doors on opposite sides of the arena, and Freedomstar got the feeling he was really not going to like to see this. The rising sun cast shadows on everything, the lanterns from the night still shedding some orange glow on the spectators and giving everything this eerie, ethereal theme to it. The rusty dragon cleared their throat and flared their wings. "SkyWings of Queen Dorada's glory! Today, we will execute the last NightWing we had captured from the most recent battle! Prepare yourselves, since this may be the last pureblood of any kind we see spilled for a while!"
The crowd hollered, but Freedomstar felt . . . sick. He didn't want to watch someone die for no reason, unless it was Silver Maple. But, since it wasn't, it felt wrong to him. He didn't like watching dragons die, particularly, aside from the feeling of power it gave, but here it was like he was helpless. And for all purposes, he was helpless. The rusty red dragon continued. "Everyone, stamp your talons for Shadowstalker of the NightWings!" 
In the arena below, one of the doors had opened to reveal a dark NightWing, wings bound and being held by chains for the moment. They thrashed against them, but it wouldn't be until the fight started that he'd be free. The crowd cheered, though Freedom saw the cheering pick up a lot more once the other door opened to reveal the smoking coppery scales of Prince Eagle. I wonder if all this noise will drive me deaf, he wondered, listening to the red dragon. "Yes, but on our side, please welcome the Queen's champion, Prince Eagle of the SkyWings!"
Eagle looked at the sand. He didn't seem into the fight, and it gave Freedomstar a glimmer of hope. The firescaled weapon didn't like being a weapon. Maybe he would get out of here alive, no magic required . . . but as the guards stepped back, the chains dropping, the dragon announcer grinned and took to the air. "Claws up, fire ready, FIGHT!"
He didn't want to watch. Freedom tore his eyes from the sound of the fight to Queen Dorada, who was watching with a sickening kind of pleasure on her face. She was enjoying this suffering, watching others fight for nothing more than her entertainment, and it made him sick. "You do the same thing, Freedom," Spiderhunter said, breaking into Freedom's mind. Get out, Spider. I'm-
His thoughts ended as he saw what was beside the SkyWing Queen. It was an ornate silver tree, carved delicately and inlaid with gold and all sorts of dangling gems from thin wires. Connecting to the tree were many silver and iron bindings, all sleek and beautiful, that bound to a single thing on the tree. The pale orange scales of Silver Maple, turning whiter than usual from all the fear and panic. He wasn't fighting. He was art now. Freedomstar's claws twitched, seeing Silver in such a nice place, and he opened his mouth to utter whatever curses flowed from his mind to make Silver Maple hurt-and he stopped. He saw it in his brother's face, felt it radiating from his mind.
He hated it. He wasn't enjoying it, and Freedom's mouth curled into a smile. He looked at Queen Dorada, then at the fight, and a thought crossed his mind. Perhaps I will enjoy my time here more than I thought previously.
== Chapter 14 ==
Prying his eyes off of Silver Maple, Freedom watched as the NightWing in the arena was unbound and shoved into the arena. He was clinging to the guards, digging his claws in, flaring his wings, desperately trying not be put in, but everyone knew it was hopeless. As the gate shut behind him, a heavy, grating sound even from the distance Freedom was at, Eagle smiled at the prisoner. Sadistic pleasure, or apologetic? Freedomstar wondered.
Shadowstalker suddenly rammed himself at the heavy door, headfirst, with no restraint. The clang of the metal colliding with him rang throughout the arena, and the NightWing cried in pain, rubbing his head as he glanced over his shoulder. What is he doing? Trying to escape? Isn't that impossible? Quail, he thought. Tell me that's impossible.
"It is," she responded, soft and sad. "I . . . I think I know what he's trying to do. I don't want to watch anymore. Keep me updated, okay?"
I will, Quail. Or Spider will. You'll figure it out, I'm sure. Freedom settled on his prison post and looked at the fight that hadn't truly begun yet. Eagle arched his neck, peering at Shadowstalker, before walking to the edge of the arena and gently touching it. Within moments, a sudden wall of fire rose around the edge, igniting in an instant and creating a fiery glow to the sandy arena. The NightWing gasped, stepping back from the gate for a second, before he suddenly rammed himself into it again, this time even harder than before. 
Freedomstar was confused. Why were they doing that? It wasn't going to help them win the fight, and it certainly wasn't going to get them free. He wanted to know what Quail was thinking, but her passing thoughts didn't contain anything about the fight-Just about how she was going to survive the firescales in the arena. At least we're on the same train of thought, Freedom thought, feeling a moment of connection to his sister. He looked back down at the arena, and clearly Eagle was also confused about the NightWing's actions.
"Do something!" Queen Dorada shouted from her balcony, watching with a bored look. "Make it a fight, not a staring contest!" As the sun climbed a little higher in the sky, it made Dorada shimmer like actual gold. Freedom found it beautiful, a spectacle he wanted to hold in his talons and never let go of. No wonder our instinct is to like treasure. It's amazing.
At her voice, Eagle snapped to attention. It was like he was a robot, trained to answer to that call. Within moments, he began running at Shadowstalker, full speed, wings ever so slightly spread like he was about to take flight. Shadowstalker saw what was happening, and rammed into the gate one more time. Blood dripped onto the arena sands as Shadowstalker was shakily standing. It wasn't clear where he was bleeding from, but Freedom watched as he rubbed his nose with his talon and made his scales glint in the faint light. What was his plan? Bash his head into the wall and then die?
He would never figure it out now, though. Eagle was upon Shadowstalker, leaping into the air, blotting out all the light and nearly covering up what was happening with his wings. "EAGLE!" Dorada hissed, "WINGS!" He jerked his head up, snapping his wings tightly shut, and allowed Shadowstalker to roll out of the way, just barely. "Well," Dorada said, glaring harshly, "GET HIM!"
Shadowstalker led Eagle on a chase throughout the arena, feigning him and dodging his every claw, tail, and wing attack. Eagle even tried blasting the NightWing with fire, but that was the biggest miss of them all, and let Shadowstalker get nearly to the other side of the arena. But it wouldn't last forever. Shadowstalker was beginning to tire, moving slower, getting almost hit at times, and couldn't seem to get as far away from Eagle anymore. Eventually, the NightWing simply collapsed onto the sand below, and Eagle almost stepped on him, backpedaling at the last second. 
The firescales stopped and looked at Queen Dorada, almost for approval, it seemed. She gave a brisk nod, but displeasure radiated from her mind in prickly waves. It was like she wanted Eagle to read her mind, the same way Freedom and (most) of his siblings could. SkyWings could never do that, though. Probably for the better, he realized, thinking of a mindreading Dorada.
"Freedom, you're going to give me nightmares!" Spider wailed in his thoughts, shuddering. "I hate this so much. I don't-" distantly, Freedom thought he heard crying. "I don't want to die Freedom. I don't want to die without you, and Silver Maple, and Quailcatcher beside me. I love you so much, even if I don't show it."
Spider, that's . . . Freedom didn't know how to respond. I . . . he wanted to say how much he cared about Spider, but he couldn't. Maybe it was the fight happening below. Maybe it was that part of him that thought himself so much better. Or maybe he truly never cared, and was just convincing himself he did. No matter the reason, his thoughts spiraled into darkness. What a load of dung, Spider. It's hilarious, the way you think that I, the great Freedomstar, would care about you at all.
It stung in Spider's mind, but Freedom felt so awful about it. Wait, he thought suddenly, and Spider's attention was caught. This isn't me, Spider. I care about you. I love you, he thought, frantically. What made him say those awful things? He wasn't lying: This wasn't him. It was the horrible beast inside him, whispering in his ear, telling him to hurt others and not care. 
A shriek made him look back at the battle far below. Eagle was ever-so-gently grabbing Shadowstalker's tail, but the damage was irreversible. The screams of pain from the NightWing mixed with the smoky, burnt smell of flesh and scale to terrify even Freedomstar. He wanted to listen to Silver Maple's thoughts, know the fear he was in, but his brother was too far to get any clear words. It was just messy emotions of terror and worry, which wasn't anything new coming from the baby of the family. 
Sounds of a scuffle came from beneath Freedom, but the arena wasn't moving. Eagle was still grabbing the tail of the dragon, watching it burn to a blackened and charred mess, his expression unreadable. But suddenly, the heavy gate from Eagle's side was shoved open by a silvery-white dragon, an IceWing obviously, who slammed the gate shut again and stared up at Dorada with hateful eyes. Wordlessly, they grabbed a thick gray fur hat off the ground from beside them and put it on, not breaking eye contact with the Queen as they did.
"Give me one of your condemned," they hissed, their voice deep with a bit of a thick, cold accent to it. Wisps of frost were gathered around this brave dragon's mouth, and Dorada's wings twitched. It was like she was about to snap, a pot of water getting hotter and hotter until it boiled over. I know how that feels, Freedomstar thought, though he didn't want to sympathize with the SkyWing queen.
"Oh? Why should I?" Dorada said, hiding a snarl. "What's stopping me from just killing you and this NightWing I was executing? Do tell me, because I'm awfully interested in hearing any ideas you have, snowy little mouse."
The IceWing snorted, and a single ruby earring trimmed with gold caught the light as their head shook. "Hah. You make me laugh, Queen." Determination glinted off their wintery blue eyes and sang in their thoughts. "You know which one I want. Give me your IceWing tribrid."
Freedom lifted his head, looking at the IceWing. Tribrid? IceWing? I'm one of those! Hope rang out like bells tolling in his brain, the hope to be safe and then, in turn, save his siblings. Let it be me he's here for! I'd do anything to be the one he's looking for! Spiderhunter and Quailcatcher looked at Freedom, each other, and at Silver Maple. It could be any of them. But just one. 
"Singular?" Dorada said, then laughed. "Oh, dear little IceWing, do be more specific. Maybe I'll send all the five tribrids I have into battle right now. You can watch all of them die, and then you'll be next. Doesn't that sound fun? A punishment for interrupting my own execution of a NightWing?"
The IceWing looked at the NightWing in Eagle's talons, still crying and moaning, though much quieter. Slowly, they stepped towards them, and Freedomstar wondered if he was going to fight Eagle. Oh, don't. He seemed to like me and my siblings, but there's no way you'd win, IceWing. Just take me and leave. Quail and Spider were shouting at Freedom for being selfish again, but he ignored them. The IceWing leapt at Eagle, who backed up, startled. Instead of chasing after the SkyWing, however, the IceWing grabbed Shadowstalker by his head, a painful grasp with those serrated claws.
"How about you give me them?" He flicked his tail towards a black and white dragon with golden accents to their body, chained on the opposite side of the prison towers from Freedom. "Or I'll fix your little execution problem here and now."
Dorada narrowed her eyes, smoke billowing from her nostrils like a fire. She turned towards her guards, and nodded. "Fine. Take them and get out of here. I don't want to see their ugly mixed-blood snout here ever again." The tribrid was unchained and taken to the arena, and Freedom watched with jealously as the tribrid hugged the IceWing, breathing hard. "Now leave."
"Of course," the IceWing said, but paused. The tribrid was already flying out, but the silver dragon looked at the NightWing in his talons, quietly pleading for mercy, and in a quick motion, dragged his claw across the black dragon's throat. Blood poured out as the IceWing lifted off after the tribrid, and Dorada was left sputtering and growling. 
"Well played, Prince," she muttered, then looked at the arena. "Eagle. Go to your room and think about how you've failed your queen. Maybe you've really lost your one job this time, bird-brained fool." The firescales slowly walked through the sand, to the gate, and disappeared from sight. Guards swooped to the sand to take the bleeding corpse away, a trail of sticky, bloodstained sand being left behind. "I guess that's all the entertainment we'll get for now. But once the sun is high in the sky," she said, sweeping her wing towards the open air, "Another fight will take place. And this time, I'll get my fun."
The golden scales turned and disappeared into the palace, and the audience began to file out, muttering about a waste of time and money. Freedomstar felt glued to the spot, paralyzed. That could be me, he thought. That can end up being my fate, or Spiderhunter's, or Quailcatcher's. We can all either get out of here, somehow . . . or we'll end up as bones in the sand before we're even grown up.
== Chapter 15 ==
Sunrise and sunhigh seemed to pass quickly for Freedom. Too quickly, in fact. It felt like one moment, he'd watched the tribrid and IceWing fly away and the next moment, guards surrounded him and his siblings. 
"Oh, you're not taking me anywhere!" he hissed, snapping at the nearest guard and closing his jaws on empty air. One of the guards, the largest and seemingly leader-like one, growled and pointed a spear at him. It made him feel uneasy, seeing such a sharp object pointed at him.
"You will come with us," she said, flatly. "Her Majesty wishes for you, but has given us the permission to kill your siblings if any of you are uncooperative."
Just my siblings? "Why not me?" Freedomstar asked, straining against his chains and trying to attack the guard. He could use his venom, but he wanted an answer. He didn't want this guard dead yet.
"It is not my place to question orders," the guard answered. It was infuriating, like a pre-recorded response that he'd have to sit through over and over before he could get anywhere. "Now come with us." 
"Like hell I will!" He hissed, tail lashing and a growl building in his throat. "Why does she want me alone?" Of course I'm amazing, but it cannot be a good sign if a menacing and murderous queen wants to talk to me. It wasn't the kind of attention he'd been hoping for all his life. 
One of the smaller SkyWings sighed, smoke fogging up Freedom's sight. "Again, it's not our place to question orders," she muttered. Freedom peered through the thick gray to look at her, and the murderous glance he caught . . . it was impossible that someone wanted him dead just on sight. No, he could see into her mind as well. For Freedom and his siblings . . . it was personal. 
"They killed Cordovan! I remember that smug NightWing face like the back of my talon! And the RainWings, and that horribly pale NightWing too. Once I get my claws on them, they're so dead. You don't kill my general and get away with it. I'd risk Her Majesty's ire to make sure the four brats die. I'd start with making it slow and painful, something like drawing and-" 
Freedom tuned out her thoughts as they turned increasingly into fantasising about killing he and his siblings. Rather detailed and gruesome fantasies, he might add. In his defense, nobody had told Quail to attack the guard. And how were they supposed to know he was a general? They'd been kept under a waterfall their whole life! Nobody came running to them about rulers or generals, it was Chaoticmind's job to handle the politics of the tribe. 
Guilt punched him in the gut at the thought of his uncle. Was he alive? Was he searching endlessly for his lost nieces and nephews, crying out for them until his voice went horse? Had he sat on his haunches and was waiting for them to come home? Maybe he was even glad they left, running business as usual and ignoring the fact his own family left. They had attacked him, after all. 
"Well, I'm not going unless you start questioning your orders," Freedom spat. He curled his tail as best he could and snarled, glaring at the SkyWing soldiers like his gaze alone could kill. "So start talking. Fast." 
"We don't take orders from you," the leader said firmly. "If you don't come willingly, we can always force you to come." 
He stared deep into the leader's eyes, peeling back each layer of scales and skin until he'd gotten all the way into his mind. "Nobody can intimidate me. I've been doing this for far too long and I'm just about to retire. If this scrappy brat is going to stand between me and my happy family, then I guess there's just going to have to be some scrapping done. I don't get it. Why do other tribes let animi live? And why would Dorada want to hang on to one?" 
Aha. Freedom had gotten what he was after, and with a satisfied smirk he licked his lips. "Alright, fine. Lead the way, SkyWing." The guards nodded, and soared ahead with a few bringing up the rear to make sure he couldn't double back and escape. He had been worried about an execution, but now he knew more. His siblings, however, were still in danger of such a fate. Better keep listening, he thought. Just to see what I can glean. 
The lead SkyWing seemed to have the most information out of all of them, so he kept tuning into their mind. "Finally. Was that really so hard for it to do? I deserve a raise for this, pushing around dragons and listening to them whine and beg and snap at me. Maybe I should kick up another war just so I can be out on the front again, not playing mom to a bunch of whiny dragonets." 
"I'd love to help you kick up a war," Freedom blurted, without even thinking. The SkyWing faltered, then blinked and stared numbly at him, smoke gathering around their horns like a wreath. 
"What did you just say to me?" 
He paused, knowing he was treading water here. One wrong move, and he'd drown in his mistake. "Uh . . . " Dang it, why did I say that. Wasn't thinking, I just want to get out of here and- His thoughts cut off as the feeling of guilt twisted painfully in his stomach again. He didn't like the feeling, thorny and fiery and unrelenting. Okay. Think. Slowly. What's she want from me? 
The guard narrowed her eyes underneath a polished helmet. "Give me more than that, lizard. I heard what you said." Freedom held his head high and put on a smirk. "Did it just read my mind? Bah, impossible! An animus and a mindreader? This is why the NightWings should have been left to rot on that volcano so long ago, not be allowed to continue having these dangerous eggs with stupid, strange powers! Moons, if I had those powers I could have easily stopped that northern force from wiping out the watchtower." 
Freedom knew he could work with this. Deep down, he had the leader's fear under his claw, and fear was a powerful weapon he could use. "Oh yes, I can hear every last one," he said, letting the confidence slip back into his voice smoothly. "Every last bit of revenge and jealously running through that oh-so-bland mind of yours." 
She hissed, clutching a spear tighter. "Then shut your trap. Stay outta my head, of all places!" If he couldn't see her mind, Freedom wouldn't have known how scared the guard was. How terrified of being exposed, even though she had done nothing wrong. Having your thoughts read is . . . not fun, he thought. Silver had once described it as if his scales were casually being plucked off and shown to dragons he didn't want seeing them. "Her Majesty never said you had to be in one piece, after all." 
"Keep talking, I'm buying it," Freedom said with a smirk. He saw a flicker of uncertainty and fear in her bloodred eyes. "How about a deal? You don't threaten me and lead me peacefully to Dorada, and I won't tell every guard here about that embarassing thing you did." 
Murmurs started among the other guards, and the leader seemed flustered. "I-I never-You-" she growled. "Arrrgh, FINE!" Whipping around, she looked at the others and snapped, "QUIT TALKING! I have done nothing wrong!" 
"Or so they think," Freedom grinned, and she gave him a death glare. "Alright, you win, you little lamb. Now shut up and follow." 
The rest of the trip down was pleasantly quiet, with the guards shooting looks and whispers about their leader, who would mostly likely never recover emotionally from the embarassement of the moment she just experienced. As they touched down on the smooth, polished palace flooring, the leader reached over and grabbed Freedom roughly by the ear with a hiss. 
"You are so dead to me if Her Majesty allows it." 
He flicked his tail, wiggled away from her, and winked. "Good luck with that one," he said, strutting forwards and leaving the sputtering guard behind. 
Entering the throne room, Quailcatcher and Spiderhunter were already there, chained and gagged in the corner, unable to take more than a step or two and hardly able to speak. Silver Maple was in the corner, on his tree, politely sitting and watching everything going down with a miserable look on his face. Quail strained against her chains upon seeing Freedom, roaring unintelligably and trying to break free. 
"FREEDOM!" She cried, "Freedom, please! Please, save us!" her thoughts were a torrent of fear, anxiety, pain, and desperation. Whatever she had heard or seen was clearly taking a toll on her and making her act in ways he never expected the calm, peacemaking younger sister to act. Nearby, Spider wasn't much better, staring at the ground, petrified. He hadn't even noticed Freedom walk in the room. His thoughts were an endless loop going around, getting tangled on itself and utterly confusing him. 
"I'm going to die, We're all going to die, Freedom's the only one who can save us and he's going to die too, She'll kill us all, I'm going to die . . . " 
Creepy and not-at-all terrifying. Definiately. 
"Oh, so nice of you to finally join us, Freedomstar, I believe it is?" Upon her throne, Dorada suddenly stepped down and spread her wings wide, shining golden light down on Freedom like a spotlight of icy kindness. "Truly, what an honor it is to be in your presence. Really, I should be the one bowing down to you, all the thrones on the continents should be yours and yours alone!" 
He was taken aback as she stepped closer, leaning her head down and almost touching the ground. Normally, he'd have been extremely skeptical and see through something as false as this . . . but her thoughts were genuine. Everything sang praises to him, how glorious he was, the untapped and unseen potential inside of him. No greater dragon existed than he. He far surpassed the queens of this world, reaching into a godhood-like state to rule over everything. Freedomstar would become a legacy, a name passed through centuries and generations, just like the legendary Darkstalker! 
It felt oddly nice to feel such high praise from a someone as noble as a queen. "Ah, thanks?" He laughed, nervously. Maybe adoration wasn't what he wanted after all? This feeling of eyes peering into his soul and worshipping the ground he tread on wasn't one he liked. "I mean, it's just the way I am." 
"Why of course it is," she said, smiling warmly and tenting a wing over him. He couldn't see his siblings anymore, though he could still hear their screaming thoughts. "And a dragon hatched as magnificent as you should be revered and celebrated throughout the land! Every day should be a testament to your splendor and grandness, should it not?" 
"Well, maybe," Freedom felt a smile tugging at his mouth no matter how hard he squashed it. "It . . . It would be nice." 
Dorada clapped her talons together with a cheer. "Oh, yes, I agree! In fact, I've come up with the most perfect plan to share you with the world! It goes a little something like this. Ahem." She cleared her throat, and the torches in the room suddenly went dim except for a small candle he wasn't sure where the queen had gotten it from. 
"It starts with us, with you on this very throne, issuing commands and sending orders. Of course, since this is all so very new for you, I'll be right behind you, guiding your actions and helping you make the best choices possible." With a burst of flame, she lit up the braizers beside the throne, making it sparkle and gleam in the darkness. "Soon, every dragon in Pyrrhia will worship you, falling to their knees and bowing at the mention of your name - And the power carried with it. You will reach far beyond the Sky Kingdom, spreading your influence into the Ice Kingdom, the Sand Kingdom, until not even the deepest reaches of the Sea Kingdom and the furthest Hives know your name!" 
She laughed, throwing her head back as a fire lit up right in front of Freedom and the queen. To him, it was almost like he could see a tiny fiery dragon in the flames, leaping about and dancing. "I know you see it in there," the queen hissed. "That could be you. In a world of your perfection and design. Everything just the way you want it. Freedomstar, you have been gifted unfathomable cosmic powers. You can read minds. You can foresee what will happen to everything. And, to top it off, you have the most powerful magic: Animus magic." 
"Woah . . . I never thought about . . . " Ruling the . . . entire world, his brain felt a little numb after hearing that entire monologue. It felt right, in a way. To have power he always deserved finally handed to him. Be able to do anything he wanted. His siblings would love him. He could make everyone accept tribrids. I could finally know my parents and why they left us. It wasn't something he exactly wanted, but he did at least want answers. 
"Exactly. This is why I bring this to light for you, young master." Dorada cupped her wings around Freedom and reached her talon out. "I'll be with you every step. I'll be your faithful advisor. Think about it: King Freedomstar. It could be you. Take my talon, and your magic can shape the world the way you want it to be." 
His mind was ablaze as he looked down at her golden talon, shimmering in the flickering torchlight. He stared, hesitating. A gut feeling told him not to take it. But this power . . . it was something he'd wanted all his life, was it not? The power to make things the way he wanted to? 
"A little hesitant, are we?" Dorada asked. She shook her head. "No, no, it's perfectly normal. I'd be a little shocked too, if this was all just suddenly thrust upon me. But think about one more thing, Freedomstar. Your siblings. They'd finally love you the way you want them to. No annoying, clingy parasites. Just the kind of family you always dreamed about, have you not?" 
"It's . . . " 
"Freedom," Quail's thoughts broke his mental mush with a stinging, crying word. "Please." Her thoughts sounded like a hoarse whisper, a beg, desperate for him to make the choice that benefitted her. Freedomstar looked down at himself - No, he looked inside of himself. 
Who am I behind these claws? Am I a glorious hero, or a cruel villain? A caring and affectionate brother, or a ruthless, sadistic one? The victim of unfortunate circumstances? The bully, attacking those who are helpless? 
Without my powers, who would I be? If I hatched completely normally, like our parents had, without those moons, would I be myself? 
Animus magic makes you insane. But can it make you evil? 
Am I . . . evil? 
He sighed. He wanted his name in the history scrolls, yes. But he didn't want to be labeled as a menace. A cruel, manipulative, moonborn animus who tried to rule over everything and crush oppression. 
He didn't want to become the next bad guy in a story. 
"I can't, Dorada," Freedom said, his heart sinking as the thrill and wonder left him. "It's an amazing offer, but . . . " 
"But what?" The queen asked oh-so-sweetly. He tried to turn away, but she used her tail to make him focus on nothing but her warm embrace. "Everything will be okay. Your perfect world is within your grasp. Why would you throw this away?" 
He clenched his jaw, then growled. "Because of you," he said, even though he didn't know where he was going with this. "I can't work with someone like you. You've killed dragons, torn families apart, and . . . and . . . " he ran out of talking points, so he used the next best thing: An insult. "And you're uglier than mold!" 
Dorada quickly folded her wings back and snorted, closing her eyes angrily as the facade dropped. Every thought dripped with malice, her plan unfurling in her head to manipulate Freedom into her perfect puppet, replacing Eagle to take over the continents. "Fine then," she spat. "Guards, take them away." 
As red and orange scales swarmed over him, clamping around his mouth, legs, and wings, Freedom sighed and let all the fight leave his body. He felt exhausted after that talk with the queen, like he could curl up and sleep for a thousand years. But still, her voice lingered in his mind, and when the guards started to lead him out, Dorada turned her head one last time. 
"And Freedom? I truly am sorry for your fate, then. Such power is a shame to be wasted." 
On that word, and a shake of her head, the throne room doors closed, and Freedom was back to being chained on his prison tower. 
== Chapter 16 ==
That night seemed darker than usual, as cold wind blew on the prison towers. Freedom had been trying to sleep, but it was impossible to do it. His thoughts were too tangled in everyone else's, like he wasn't himself: Just another dragon whose mind he was reading. The thoughts he was thinking weren't his own, it seemed.
"Wow, y-you really care about us," Quailcatcher growled. Her blue gray eyes glared at her brother, but shone with gratefulness.
"Yeah, yeah I know, shut up," he growled back. The four were peacefully interacting with each other, which was actually really rare since they never got along. While the four of them talked, they glared down and watched Queen Dorada ordering the SkyWing nobles and soldier trainees to sit in the arena.
It's the end. No epic destiny, no making families, no more sleeping under the waterfall. It's the end. And an unpleasent ending at that. Spiderhunter's talons shook in fear. The other black, red and blue dragonet saw 2 visions. In one, he and his siblings were fine. Well, only of them since Silver was now like those live SilkWings perching on doors who were only ment to look pretty. In the other one, the 3 remaining siblings killed Eagle and went back to their plan to escape to the Night Kingdom, leaving Silver Maple behind.
After a whole afternoon of overthinking, they decided to take a small nap to calm themselves down about their brutally ""entertaining "" execution and, hey, it actually did calm them down. And they actually slept most of the day until...
"Nobody is here to save you now," A raspy, deep voice whispered, slightly opening their cell and snatching the sleeping maroonish-orange dragonet. They all saw the silhouette of the SkyWing soldier and the tribrid. "WHERE IS HE?!" Spiderhunter roared in anger. Quailcatcher let out a menacing hiss as a warning. 
"I killed him and dumped his body outside AND hid the evidence," Freedomstar growled jokingly as the 2 stared at him angrily as if they could kill him that way. 
"IT WAS A JOKE!" He blurted out. 
"A unfunny one at that," they responded.
After that, they couldn’t sleep well anymore.
== Chapter 17 ==
Queen Dorada grinned a evil grin and stared at the nobles. The guards grabbed the 3 remaining dragonets and shoved them into the arena. 
Oh god, today is the end. And even worse than that, the """""Dead weight""""" of our group is staying here, Spiderhunter thought to himself.
Quailcatcher expanded her wings and Freedomstar braced himself. 
"WELCOME TO THE ARENA!" The queen hissed while most of the audiance cheered. The four dragonets suddenly felt very unprepared. 
"By the way do you guys like my art :3" she growled with fake kindness, showing everyone the multicolored tribrid. He was currently scarlet with hints of flamingo pink and yellow amber.
"Now, our battle between Prince Eagle and the four fugitive tresspassers! Claws up, venom prepared, fire ready, FIGHT!"
Eagle stared one last time at the dragonets. Visions filled Spiderhunter's eyes and he whispered them to his siblings.
The SkyWing exhaled a ring of fire, stared at them menacingly, and launched more fire at Freedom as revenge for causing him the most pain.
Spiderhunter went to ambush him but his tail was attacked. While her brother was bleeding out, Quailcatcher tried to distract Eagle but failed. The SkyWing approched the shocked dragonet. "Any last words, fugitive?" He hissed.
Freedom's eyes, wide with shock and fear, started to tear up as memories flashed through his mind.
"Come on, just kill them already!" The queen insisted. She did not notice her ""Art"" become invisible.
Quailcatcher and Spiderhunter were going to try to ambush and kill Eagle when....
A undragon-like hiss came from the arena, thrilling the guests. Eagle stopped attacking the dragonet as Silver Maple made his presence known.
Silver Maple was angry. His scales turned from a multicolored paradise to a wild firey scarlet. His ruff and wings turned black with white stars and lining. Snarling, he threw a white varient of rainwing venom and launched it at the queen. Dorada's eye came in contact with the venom and turned into an ice crystal causing pain to her, " AAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH" she screeched in pain and made the guests fly away in fear and the execution stopped
the dragonet's scale came back to normal and they all stared at him in shock and awe
== Chapter 18 ==
"You should have devoured her heart you useless mousedung" Freedom hissed at him,Quail aggressivly nudged him in anger "Why?!" she hissed, Silver felt a wave of guilt and came down into the sandy arena, their talons were fidgety,"You know, Should I escape to the rain kingdom?" Eagle asked, "Yeah,just make sure the SkyWings dont find you" Spiderhunter said, Eagle let out A grin and rised to the sky, "Cya present fugitives!" He growled in thankfulness, "Cya weapon of mass destruction " Freedomstar hissed back 
The four decided to leave the arena by flying and came back to the village where A sunset qas happening, near the village was a forest where the mountain stood, Quailcatcher took the firescales phrase as A joke and planned to go back to Vulcano, but there was skywings soldiers roaming the village and putting wanted posters of them,it was going smoothly until
"THE FUGITIVES THEY ESCAPED" A short golden skywing soldier hissed, but got lated ran over by the others in the batch was A even tinier tribrid with scales the color of hybiscuese and white as snow,eyes as green as A river in A desert,there was A deep red dragon with A burnt scar on their face and started to chase the dragonets, "GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW" The red skywing hissed, they chased them in the village,a couple of other skywings saw them including Vulcano,they kept on chasing and started to flap their wings in anger
It started to become late now, it was between sunset and night and they were getting chased in the sky, 3 MOONS THIS COULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED IF WE DID'T ESCAPE! the violent tribird thought, all 4 of them got near each other, hoping for the best until
It was night now,the sky showed A galaxy and stats and the skywings have lost them they started to fly in the night now,and began there landing
== Chapter 19 ==
Freedom was heading to the stone, where all his siblings were going to be landing near, he started to glide down from the sky and made A perfect landing, as he perched on the rock he saw his siblings near landing and most visibly Spiderhunter was about to land and he did smoothly soon after Quailcatcher and Silver Maple landed onto the forest floor
They were mostly out of breath, "Guys i need to tell you something" he said nervously trying not to get judged, "What do you need to say, brother" Spiderhunter growled in pure boredome as of he was expecting another bad take on why they were bad dragons , "I apologize for being the biggest narcissist in the whole continent, it is actually geniune, I swear i wish i never did those things " he blurted out as A small tear came out of his reddish amber eyes
I really mean it,its not sarcasm 
"At first i thought it was prank but after hearing your thoughts i forgive you" Quailcatcher said, Spiderhunter quietly agreeded and Silver obviously really did not understand what needed to be forgave since he is kinda oblivious, so they decided to settle in for the night
"So now that were all regular siblings and not in A conflict should we just set up things" Quail asked, "yeah pretty much" silver responded
hearing my other siblings not fighting feels weird maple thought, Spiderhunter flew in the sky in all dirrections just in case the SkyWings were truely not gone and went back to the ground,"Nope,they are gone" he growled
For the first time in days they truely felt safe and for the first time ever they did not roast eachother 
== Chapter 20 ==
The four smelled Food,and they were waiting for it since the food in their cells was horrible,near their resting spot was A creek with tons of fishes, "I think i smell fish" Quailcatcher chirped with suspiciousness, "Actually yeah we found a food source" The dark colored dragonet responded so they all quietly flew to the creek,their siloueghette's were visible on that same night and they finally arrived, the creek was a shiny blue with white sand surrounded by bushes and towering on top of them were the Hives
the first time in forever we touched water and grass he thought as he grabbed A fish and decapitated it , "3 Moons calm down,and please don't tell me that your acting like that fish is your brother" Spiderhunter growled, as he stared at him he also stared at silver who looked at him dead in the eye 
They catched a couple of fishes and ate them and stared at the hives, "I heard the Hivewings was imagrent paradise " Spiderhunter responded with Quailcatcher knodding in agreement,they stared at eachother with not eyes of hatred but eyes of bitter-sweet acceptance
Soon they came back, they also came back with many stocks of twigs to light up a fire,it was a peaceful sign after alot of hatred,violence and Xenophobia 
== Chapter 21 ==
"None of us can breath fire soooo RUB STICKS" Spiderhunter hissed, the four of them put the pile in the center and arranged them in a specific way,then spider started rubbing the sticks until it finally lit up, 
This reminds me so much of the Skywings Freedom thought as he stared at all of them,they all accepted that they were now fugitives, Quail akwardly stared at freedom, spider was having a slight vision and Silver maple stared at the fire with wide eyes that were full of interest, "We are going to escape to the hive kingdom right ?" Spider asked to be exactly sure at where they were going, "Yeah i mean what can possibly go wrong plus they accept everyone" Quailcatcher responded, Freedomstar side eyed his sister with a feeling of why
"Lets hope they don't find out" Freedom responded, it was a huge moment of akward silence until Freedom's head started to ache,he felt pain as he felt that he was going to blurt out a phrophecy
suddenly his eyes closed but opened as white orbs that looked like they have seen things, "Whats going on" Silver asked,all his siblings were worried
== Chapter 22 ==
"Beware the gold that stalks, Fear some dragons who are not what they seem,look out for A cactus that implodes in the sea, and have caution to A ally with more sinister intencions, Our suffering shall not end until these dangers get destroyed by unity and secrets" 
The dragonet blurted out and then snapped back to reality as he fell down only to be held by Silver maple
"I don't feel very good" he said as he stood up, "I think we should stay together, this seems like A prophecy we should look out" Quailcatcher growled,they all agreed they should look out alot, it felt way more ominous than it should have been
Each of them stared at eachother ominously, while it happened A vision happened BUT one if they have compleated the Prophecy, the vision contained A firescales oddly similar to Eagle and 2 dragonets who were tribrids
"Are you alright ?" Quailcatcher asked to her distracted brother,he snapped back to reality staring At all of them
"I don't know what that means at rhe end of the day its night and its time to sleep" Spiderhunter growled as he put out the fire
They all layed down to sleep, trying to get rid of their worries 
== Epilogue ==
Meanwhile somewhere near the silkwing's borders, it ranged from tribirds to pure bloods,these dragons had a small winglet called "Project Europa" all of them where holding Flame silk lanterns
"Just great, you failed to protect my dragonets and now we are here trying to find them' Iris snarled at her half brother, "Not my fault that you stay absent through out most of the day" he hissed back, "Iris calm down we can find them soon" Secrettteller replied, "Actually yeah Chaotic has a point" Swallow replied,her glasses shining in the moonlight, "Plus i do not have a idea on what 'Project Asiana' and the other dragons are doing" she replied, all of them started arguing,"Swiss!, who's side are you on?!" Iris hissed to the red and white silkwing
"sorry i don't take sides" the silkwing responded as they stared at the other dragons, Hawk-moth and Garden Tiger talked about what happened to the dragonets while White Tail tried to not stare at anybody, "Where on earth is Siberia " A young icewing replied as she asked everyone calmed down
Where ever you guys are,i hope we find you Iris thought
== Trivia ==
* This fanfic is actually quite mousedung (its canon,i said so)
* The icewing in chapter 14 is actually Siberia
* Chapter 19 is actually the cover (the new one and the old one)
* Calagi and Crested Crain make apperances in the fanfic (In chapter 19 and in the epilouge)
* The fanfic is named after the song "Under the stars"
* The fanfic's thene song is Outisider by Eve
== Gallery ==
File:654 sin título 20230626114156.png|old cover
File:Under the stars new cover.png|new cover
== Thank you to all of these people ==
* User: Angel Of Madness (Edits/Extends Chapters)
* User: TheVaumora (Grammer edits)
* Eirwon (First non editor fan)
* AstrulSpace/Wingsoffirefanorsomething (wawa)
* Daffodil the Springwing (Fan)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Genre (Prophecy)
Category:Genre (Adventure)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Content (Mayuri234876)
Category:Fanfictions (Completed)