Hvitur Lives AU

TW: Some violence/death, nothing worse than the books.
== The Dragonet Prophecy ==
=== Prologue ===
A dragon was trying to hide in the storm.
Lightning flickered across the dark clouds. Hvitur clutched his fragile cargo closer. If he could make it over the mountain, he’d be safe. He’d escaped the sky dragon’s palace unseen. And the secret cave was so close…
But his theft had not been as stealthy as he thought, and eyes as black as obsidian were already tracking him from below.
The enormous dragon on the mountain ledge had pale gold scales that radiated heat like a desert horizon. Her black eyes narrowed, watching the gleam of silver wings far up in the clouds.
She flicked her tail, and behind her two more dragons rose to the sky and dove into the heart of the storm. A piercing shriek echoed off the mountain as their talons seized the moon-pale ice dragon.
“Bind his mouth,” the waiting dragon ordered as her soldiers dropped Hvitur on the slick, wet ledge in front of her. He was already inhaling, ready to attack. “Quickly!”
One of the soldiers grabbed a chain from the pile of smoldering coals, but he wasn’t quick enough. Hvitur blasted the guard with a burst of his freezing breath, sending him toppling off the cliff. 
Hvitur turned to fly off, but was immediately attacked by the second soldier. Hvitur kicked out his back legs at the attacking dragon, while trying to protect his charge. The soldier managed to flip Hvitur onto his back, and pulled a red and gold egg from his talons.
“He has an egg, Queen Burn,” the soldier saud, showing it to Burn.
“That is not an IceWing egg,” she hissed, grabbing the egg. “You stole this from the SkyWing palace. Why would my sister send you to steal a SkyWing dragonet?”
Hvitur was silent, unsure of how to respond.
“You’re not in Blaze’s army, are you?” Burn asked. “You’re one of those insipid underground peacemongers. Tell me, ice dragon, do you really believe in that pompous old NightWing’s prophecy?”
“Haven’t enough dragons died for your war?” snarled Hvitur, thrashing under the soldier’s grip. “All of Pyrrhia has suffered for the last twelve years. The prophecy says-”
“I don’t care,” Burn interrupted. “No prophecy decides what happens to me. I’m not letting a bunch of words or baby dragons choose when I die or what I bow to. We can have peace when my sisters are dead and I am the queen of the SandWings.”
Her venomous tail dipped towards the silver dragon. That was her mistake. Hvitur immediately spotted the weak spot at the tip, and stretched his neck to bite down in one swift move. Burn stumbled back as Hvitur shoved the startled soldier off of himself. He immediately took to the sky, swooping down and grabbing the egg.
I need to lose them, he thought. I can’t let them know where the mountain cave is.
The ice dragon swerved around the mountains, deliberately twisting and turning in an attempt to lose his pursuers. When Hvitur felt like he had put enough distance between him and the sand dragons, he slipped into a small cave at the base of the mountain.
Hvitur waited until he heard the wingbeats stop, before finally curling up around the red and gold egg to wait out the storm.
Some time later, the silver dragon emerged from the cave, still clutching the egg. He took off into the sky, searching for the entrance to the labyrinth of tunnels under the mountain.
Hvitur dove down through the small cave entrance, hard to spot if you didn’t know what you were looking for.
“I stand with the Talons of Peace,” hissed a voice in the shadows. “Hvitur? Is that you?”
“We await the wings of fire,” Hvitur called back. A blue-green SeaWing emerged from a side cave.
“Found our wings of sky,” Hvitur carefully placed the egg on the stone floor.
“Took you long enough,” a dragon the color of rust appeared next to the SeaWing. “Dune already left to find our wings of sand and Webs came back with our wings of sea.” She nodded towards the SeaWing.
“Burn saw me sneaking out,” Hvitur explained. “I had to be extra careful that I wasn't followed.”
“I knew I should have stolen the SkyWing egg myself,” the red dragon said. “I know the Sky Kingdom. They wouldn’t have caught me a second time.”
“Someone would recognize you as soon as you step foot in the Sky Kingdom, Kestrel,” Hvitur pointed out. “Especially after what happened.”
“Well, the egg is safe.” Webs stepped in. “That’s all that matters.”
Just then, the sound of a dragon landing could be heard from just outside the tunnel entrance.
“I stand with the Talons of Peace,” Kestrel called out without question.
“We… await the… wings of fire,” the dragon heaved, with hacking coughs in between every other word.
She limped into the cave as Webs rushed to her side. A huge gash stretched across her back, and part of her left wing had been torn. Blood trickled out of her mouth, and every cough left a dark red splatter on the stone floor. After a few steps into the cave, she collapsed onto the rock, being careful to not crush the egg she was holding.
“Asha!” Webs exclaimed. “What happened?”
“There was a battle…” Asha heaved. “Between.. Burn and.. Blister’s forces. I was… caught in… the crossfire. I had to… protect the egg.”
The blood-red egg rolled out of her talons as her chest rose and fell for the last time.
=== Part One: Under The Mountain ===
Six Years Later...
==== Chapter 1 ====
Clay didn’t think he was the right dragon for a Big Heroic Destiny.
Oh, he wanted to be. He wanted to be the great MudWing savior of the dragon world, glorious and brave. He wanted to do all the wonderful things expected of him. He wanted to look at the world, figure out what was broken, and fix it.
But he wasn’t a natural-hatched hero. He had no legendary qualities at all. He liked sleeping more than studying, and he kept losing chickens in the caves during hunting practice because he was paying attention to his friends instead of watching for feathers.
He was all right at fighting. But “all right” wasn’t going to stop the war and save the dragon tribes. He needed to be extraordinary. He was the biggest dragonet, so he was supposed to be the scary, tough one. The minders wanted him to be terrifyingly dangerous.
Clay felt about as dangerous as a cauliflower.
“Fight!” his attacker howled, flinging him across the cavern. Clay crashed into the rock wall and scrambled up again, trying to spread his mud-coloured wings for balance.
Red talons raked at his face and he ducked away. “Come on,” the red dragon snarled. “Stop holding back. Find the killer inside you and let it out.”
“I'm trying!” Clay said. "Maybe if we could stop and talk about it-
She lunged for him again. "Feint to the left! Roll right! Use your fire!" Clay tried to duck under her wing to attack her from below, but of course he rolled the wrong way. One of her talons smashed him to the ground, and he yelped with pain.
“WHICH LEFT WAS THAT, USELESS?” Kestrel bellowed in his ear. "Are all MudWings this stupid? OR ARE YOU JUST DEAF?”
Well if you keep that up, I will be soon, Clay thought. The SkyWing lifted her claws and he wiggled free.
“I don't know about other MudWings,” he protested. licking his sore talons. “Obviously. But perhaps we could try fighting without all the shouting and see- “ He stopped, hearing the familiar hiss that came before one of Kestrel’s fire attacks.
He threw his wings over his head, tucked his long neck in, and rolled into the maze of stalagmites that studded one corner of the cave. Flames blasted the rocks around him, singing the tip of his tail.
“Coward!” the older dragon bellowed. She smashed one of the rock columns into a shower of sharp black pebbles. Clay covered his eyes and almost immediately felt her stomp down hard on his tail.
“OW!” he yelled. “You said stomping tails was cheating!” He seized the closest stalagmite between his claws and scrambled on top of it. From his perch near the roof he glared down at his guardian.
“I’m your teacher,” Kestrel snarled. “Nothing I do is cheating. Now get down here and fight like a SkyWing.”
But I’m NOT a SkyWing, Clay thought rebelliously. I’m a MudWing! I don’t like setting things on fire or flapping around in circles biting at dragon necks. His teeth still ached from Kestrel’s jewel-hard scales.
“Can’t I fight one of the others?” he asked. “I’m much better at that.” The other dragonets were his size (nearly), and they didn’t cheat (well, most of the time). He actually liked fighting them.
“Oh yes? Which opponent do you prefer, the stunted SandWing or the useless NightWing?” Kestrel said. “Because I’m sure you’ll get to choose out on the battlefield.” Her tail glowed like embers as she lashed it back and forth.
“Starflight’s not useless,” Clay said loyally. “He’s probably not old enough. He says that maybe his powers will develop when he’s fully grown, which is why he can’t read minds or-”
“STOP YAMMERING AND GET DOWN HERE!” Kestrel roared. She reared up her back legs and spread out her wings so suddenly she looked three times bigger.
“Kestrel!” A voice echoed through the cavern, and Clay turned to see Hvitur standing in the entryway. “I told you I’d do battle training after hunting duty. Clay should be studying.”
“You were late,” Kestrel snarled. “I figured I’d do it myself.”
“You’re going to set him on fire,” Hvitur argued back. “This is why I always do battle training. So you don’t kill them before they’re even full-grown.”
“If I don’t toughen them up they’ll be killed as soon as they step a talon in the real world,” Kestrel growled, smoke curling around her horns.
“I wouldn’t call it toughening them up,” Hvitur grumbled. He nodded towards Clay. “Go eat. Dinner just arrived.” Clay could still hear the two guardians arguing as he headed for the hall.
“Clay!” Sunny, the SandWing dragonet, exclaimed as Clay entered the hall. “I found another weird crab in the river.” Sunny shoved an odd-looking white crab towards Clay with her snout.
“Whoa,” Clay peered at the crab. “That is a weird crab.”
“We’ve seen about a million of those crabs before,” Tsunami, the SeaWing dragonet, rolled her eyes. “It’s not that exciting. But Sunny thinks almost everything is exciting.”
“I don’t think everything is exciting!” Sunny protested. “You guys don’t think enough things are exciting.”
“It is weird,” Clay comforted her.
“Thank you,” Sunny said. “You can eat half of it.” Sunny split the crab with her claws, handing half to Clay and quickly devouring the other half, then bounding off to grab a lizard.
Clay spotted a cow in the middle of the hall and ran over to eat it. Just as he was finishing the cow, Dune entered the hall.
The maimed dragon who taught them survival skills was a SandWing, like Sunny, more or less. Sunny was the wrong color, gold instead of pale yellow, and her eyes were gray-green instead of the pure black of other SandWings. She was also much smaller than the other dragonets, and her tail had no poisonous barb. Kestrel hated her for it, but Dune insisted Sunny was perfectly fine.
“Get right to studying when you’re done,” Dune instructed. “Properly this time. No more games.”
“Acting out a murder that caused a world war is not a game,” Tsunami protested. “And besides, all we do is study and train and study more. We know everything there is to know, especially about the war.”
But not especially how to stop it, Clay thought. Nobody seems to know how to do that, and if they do, they certainly aren’t telling us.
“You don’t know anything,” Dune snarled. “You all still have things to learn, and whatever method of studying you’ve come up with clearly isn’t working.”
“Fine then,” Tsunami grumbled. “We’ll study the boring way. Starflight can just read to us.”
The NightWing dragonet perked his head up at the mention of reading, and Tsunami stormed off into the study cave. The four other dragonets followed suit, only with less storming.
Once the dragonets reached the cave, Tsunami immediately dived into spouting out orders for the dragonets.
“Okay,” she started. “We all know the story, so we need to divide up the parts. Sunny’s an actual SandWing, so she’ll be Queen Oasis. Clay, do you want to be the scavenger?”
“Sure,” Clay agreed. They were disobeying orders again, a Tsunami specialty.
“Great,” Tsunami returned to ordering the others around. “Now the sisters. I’ll be Blister, since she’s allied with the SeaWings. Storm, you’ll be Burn.” She nodded at the SkyWing dragonet. “That just leaves Starflight for Blaze.”
“Do I have to be Blaze?” Starflight asked. “I was her last time. Can’t I be the scavenger?”
“No,” Tsunami replied. “Clay’s the scavenger since he’s the best at fighting Sunny. And being Blaze isn’t that bad.”
“Blaze is as smart as a concussed sheep,” Starflight argued. “It is that bad.”
“Stop arguing and get on with it,” Storm interrupted. Starflight huffed, but didn’t speak up again.
“Ahem,” Sunny started. “I’m Oasis, the SandWing queen. I’m important and stuff and nobody dares challenge me. And I have lots of treasure!” She sweeped a pile of rocks towards her with her tail. “So I’m really important! And stuff!”
“Rargh!” Clay grabbed a broken piece of stalagmite for his scavenger claw. “And other scavenger noises!”
“Ack!” Sunny looked startled for a moment, before remembering that she was supposed to be a queen. “I mean no! Roar! How dare you annoy me, scavenger!”
Now came the best part: the fight. Clay lunged at Sunny, knowing her small size would allow her to dodge easily. They circled each other, Clay lunging and Sunny dodging. But, of course, Clay had to win, because that’s how it happened twenty years ago. Clay stuck the stalagmite at the wall just above Sunny’s shoulder, acting as if it had gone through her heart.
“Oh no!” Sunny cried dramatically. “I am dead! I’ve been killed! And none of my daughters did it! Oh who will look after my lovely treasure?” Sunny collapsed on the stone floor, still full of drama, and lay there for a moment before springing up and climbing up onto a rocky shelf.
“Mwa ha ha!” Clay laughed, sweeping the rocks to the side. “My treasure now!” He clambered onto the ledge next to Sunny.
“Oh no! Our mother is dead!” Tsunami announced loudly. “And neither of us did it! Who shall take the throne?”
“I am the oldest and biggest,” Storm said. “I should be queen.”
“I was about to challenge her,” Tsunami quarreled. “I should be queen.”
“I am the youngest and would have the longest reign,” Starfligh argued back. “I should be queen.”
“And?” A grin spread across Tsunami’s face.
“And,” Starflight sighed. “I am by far the prettiest.”
Clay could feel Sunny’s small body shake with laughter as Tsunami and Storm held back giggles.
“Well I’m going to get an army to defeat you both!” Storm announced. “I’ll get the SkyWings and MudWings on my side!”
“Well then I’ll get an army too,” Tsunami countered. “The SeaWings will be my allies.”
“Well,” Starflight said. “I’ll get the IceWings to fight for me. And, most of the SandWings like me.”
“If the SandWings like Blaze then why isn’t she queen?” Sunny asked.
“Because the other two would defeat her,” Starflight said.
“Well then who do we choose?” Sunny asked.
“I don’t know,” Starflight replied. “They’re all terrible.”
“WHAT is going on here?” Kestrel's voice echoed through the cave.
==== Chapter 2 ====
“This doesn’t look like studying,” Kestrel’s voice bellowed. “I thought Dune told you to study.”
“We are studying,” Tsunami told her. “We’re studying our way.”
“From what I’ve seen, your way is terrible,” Kestrel growled. “I’m assuming you were the ringleader?”
“So what if we want to study a different way?” Tsunami argued. “It won’t matter since you won’t let us do anything.” Smoke curled out of Kestrels nostrils and around her horns, indicating her rising anger.
“No sleeping in the river tonight.” Kestrel growled. The underground river that flowed through the cavern was Tsunami’s answer to everything. Tired? Jump in the river! Bored? Jump in the river! Kestrel tried to set you on fire? You guessed it; jump in the river! Clay didn’t mind water, unlike most tribes, but he hated being cold, and the river was always freezing.
“That’s not fair,” Clay protested. “We were all a part of it. Punish us all.”
“But she was the leader,” Kestrel growled. “Cut off the head, and the problem goes away,”
“You’re going to cut off Tsunami’s head?” Sunny asked, wide-eyed with fear.
“It’s a metaphor, featherbrain,” Storm snapped.
“Now go to bed,” Kestrel growled. “And let that be a lesson for all of you.”
“Kestrel’s going to be so mean to us tomorrow,” Storm complained once they were sure the flame-coloured dragon was out of earshot.
“You’re one to talk,” Tsunami snarled. “Kestrel isn’t nearly as mean to you as she is to the rest of us. I don’t even remember the last time she tried to set you on fire.”
“It was last week,” Storm countered. “Kestrel’s mean to everyone.”
“But she’s the least mean to you.” Tsunami argued back. “She never cheats during battle training with you, and she never-”
“Stop fighting,” Clay interrupted. “You two are acting like mini-Kestrels.”
Smoke curled around Storm's horns, as if she really was a mini-Kestrel, and if Tsunami had fire, Clay had no doubt she’d be doing the same.
“Hey, Sunny,” Tsunami changed the subject. “Can you go put these scrolls in my sleeping cave for me?” Tsunami grabbed a few random scrolls off the shelf, handing them to Sunny.
“Okay!” Sunny bounded off for the sleeping caves. 
“We need to get out of here,” Tsunami said as soon as Sunny was out of earshot.
“This again?” Storm complained. “Why do you want to escape so badly? The prophecy won’t be fulfilled for another two years. What do you think we’re gonna do for two whole years?”
“Actually,” Starflight said. “It’s widely debated whether or not the war started with the first battle happening eighteen years ago, or Queen Oasis’ death, which happened about twenty years ago.”
“It’s not about the prophecy,” Tsunami said, exasperated. “I want to find my parents. Don't you? I’m sure they miss us just as much as we miss them.”
“I do want to find my parents,” Clay agreed. “But after we end the war.”
“Well they probably don’t miss us that much,” Storm said. “Since they haven’t come looking for us all these years.”
“They can’t find us featherbrain,” Tsunami argued. “Nobody knows where our cave is, except for the Talons of Peace. That’s why we need to find them.”
“Well we should at least fulfill the prophecy first, like Clay said,” Storm argued back. “Isn’t saving the world more important than anything?”
Suddenly, a loud scraping sound could be heard as the boulder blocking the entrance to the cave slid open. The slap of wet talons on stone indicated that the dragonets’ SeaWing guardian, Webs, was the one to enter.
“Something’s going on,” Tsunami whispered. “Come on.” She quietly slipped into the river that flowed through the underground cave, following it to the guardians cave. Clay followed her, while Starflight slipped into the shadows and silently listened from near the entryway. Storm simply curled up in the middle of the study cave.
Without pitch-black scales to blend in with the shadows like Starflight, gills to breathe underwater like Tsunami, or the ability to hold her breath for an hour like Clay, Storm was unable to participate in the other dragonets’ spying games.
Sunny didn’t even know about it. None of the dragonets really trusted her with secrets, ever since they’d been little and Sunny had accidentally revealed a plan of theirs to Dune. It was before the dragonets could fly, and the plan was to collect rocks and build a tower to peek out of the small sky hole in the roof of the study cave. But, one day Sunny wasn’t careful enough, and that was the end of the rock plan and Sunny being trusted with secrets.
Poor Sunny, Clay thought as he swam through the river, following the glowing stripe that Tsunami had illuminated on her tail, which disappeared once the SeaWing squeezed through the gap in the wall that led to the guardians’ cave. This was Clay’s least favorite part, since he could barely fit through, even when he hadn’t just eaten. For a horrible moment, Clay was stuck in the gap, but managed to wiggle through and continue swimming after Tsunami.
Once they reached the guardians’ cave, Tsunami floated to the end of the river, while Clay stayed posted near the entrance. That way, they could hear everything, no matter where the guardians were in the cave. Although, tonight it wasn’t really necessary, since all of Pyrrhia could probably hear the guardians’ conversation.
“Coming here?” Kestrel bellowed. “After six years he’s suddenly interested and shows up here without warning?”
“He probably wanted to check the dragonets’ progress,” Hvitur suggested.
“Well he’ll be disappointed,” Kestrel said, at a slightly lower volume. “These dragonets are terrible. The NightWing’s useless, the SandWing’s stunted, the SeaWing can’t follow an order to save her life, and the MudWing’s nothing like the monster we saw when he hatched.”
“What about your perfect SkyWing?” Dune asked, climbing onto a large rock that rested near the fire. He lay his scarred wing and foreleg stub on the side closest to the fire. Dune never talked much about his injuries, but from the way he spoke of the war, it wasn’t too hard to guess. His inability to fly was probably the reason he was picked for dragonet minding duty. He clearly wasn’t picked for his warm and nurturing personality.
“The SkyWing isn’t perfect,” Kestrel snapped. “But she’s better than the rest. Somewhat competent.”
That’s the nicest thing Kestrel’s ever said, Clay thought. She never talks about me or the others that way.
“The prophecy chose these dragonets,” Webs said. “Not us.”
“Does he even know about the stunted SandWing?” Kestrel demanded.
“I’m not sure,” Webs said. “The message just said that Morrowseer is coming. I need to meet him and bring him here tomorrow. I don’t know why he cares or what he knows.”
Morrowseer. Something about that name sounded familiar. Clay racked his brain trying to figure it out. A dragon from history class?”
“Well it’s his prophecy,” Webs said. “I guess he wants to make sure it’ll actually come true.”
Morrowseer. Clay felt a jolt run through him, like the stinging shock he got when he didn’t pay attention in class and Dune whacked him with his barbed tail.
Morrowseer was the NightWing who had spoken the prophecy ten years ago. It was one of the many facts that Clay struggled to remember. Who had delivered the prophecy didn’t seem as important as who was in the prophecy.
Clay had never really believed the legends about NightWings. Secretive dragons who could read minds? A hidden kingdom that no one could find? A mystery queen, the power to see the future, the way they appeared from darkness to deliver prophecies that shaped the world… it all sounded like fairy tales, about as likely as a world ruled by scavengers instead of dragons.
Besides, Clay knew Starflight, and Starflight was many things- annoying, long-winded, smart, too serious- but he had no magical powers and he was never, ever scary.
But maybe Morrowseer was more important than Clay had thought. Perhaps he would take them out into the world.  Perhaps they didn’t need to escape at all.
Perhaps everything was about to change.
The next evening, when a dragon as black as a bottomless pit loomed out of the shadows of the entrance tunnel, Clay felt all of the rumors about NightWings come crashing down around his head like a rock wall.
Morrowseer was even bigger than Kestrel, and five times more terrifying. He spread his jagged, batlike wings and peered down at the dragonets lined up in front of him. He had silver scales like stars on the underside of his wings, like Starflight did, but on him they seemed to glitter from a great distance and cast a cold glow.
He looked like he could easily rip off each of their heads in one bite. He also looked like he already hated the five dragonets. Which wasn’t what Clay had expected at all. Were they such a disappointment already?
Maybe Morrowseer was reading their minds and knew how confused they were about the prophecy. Or maybe he was seeing the future and his visions were all of failure, failure, failure.
Starflight was more still than Clay had ever seen him. Starflight always froze when he was frightened. It was as if he hoped that by not moving, he’d disappear from view and the danger would pass right by.
Clay could feel Sunny trembling at his side. He felt the same way, petrified in place, as if his scales were being slowly peeled off, one by one, while the giant NightWing inspected them.
The huge black dragon stared down at the SandWing dragonet for a small eternity. His snout twitched with ripples of disgust. A forked black tongue slipped over his teeth.
Clay wished his own wings were as vast as the cavern itself so he could hide his friends from Morrowseer. He wished his talons were as huge as the stalagmites and as sharp as the rock shards. He wished to be big enough to be brave and brave enough to be big. He’d never wanted anything so much as he wanted to protect his friends from this tall, hissing, scornful, immensely dangerous dragon.
He really, really hoped that Morrowseer wasn’t reading his mind right then. Think about cows, think about cows, think about delicious fat cows…
Morrowseer pivoted his head slowly to stare down at Kestrel. He lifted one long claw and pointed at Sunny.
“What. Is. THAT?”
==== Chapter 3 ====
Morrowseer’s voice was filled with enough venom to kill twenty dragons midflight. Starflight took a step back, and Sunny began to tremble so fast that Clay was shaking as well.
“She hatched that way,” Kestrel explained, snarling. “Don’t know what's wrong with her. But we followed the prophecy.”
“At least we have all five dragonets,” Webs jumped in. “That’s all that really matters.”
“More like four and a half,” Morrowseer grumbled. “Does she even eat?”
Sunny sat there for a moment, trying to squeak out an answer.
“She eats plenty,” Tsunami finally blurted out. “As much as the rest of us.” That wasn’t quite true; Sunny was by far the lightest eater out of the group, but nobody was about to tell Morrowseer that. Besides, Dune said it was normal for SandWings to eat very little food.
“It’s not her fault she’s small,” Starflight chimed in, to Clay’s surprise.
“She’s a good fighter,” Clay added.
“Stop talking now,” Morrowseer said, and silence dropped over them. His sharp, menacing gaze landed on Clay.
THINK ABOUT COWS THINK ABOUT COWS THINK ABOUT COWS…
The tall NightWing turned to the four guardians. “Something has gone very wrong here.”
“Yes!” Tsunami burst in again. “It has, and I can tell you what. We’re treated like prisoners! We’ve never been outside these caves, not once. All we know about this world we’re supposed to save is what we learned in scrolls. We’re supposed to be the most important dragonets in the world, but these four treat us like blind salamanders!”
Clay couldn’t believe it. Wasn’t she scared of Morrowseer too?
“Tsunami, hold your tongue.” Dune snapped. 
Without warning, Morrowseer lunged at Tsunami. His teeth flashed like bright white lightning, darting towards her neck. It really is like the night sky is falling on you, Clay thought, and then discovered he was moving, too. He flung himself at the NightWing’s huge, ridged back before he could stop to think about what he was doing.
His claws sank into the small gaps between the shifting black scales, scrabbling for a hold. His tail thrashed as he tried to balance. Below him he saw Tsunami rolling away and spinning to fight back. Her blue talons slashed at Morrowseer's nose and underbelly. Storm was beside her, red and gold scales clashing with black.
Clay tried frantically to remember his battle training. He flattened himself along the big dragon's back, snaked his neck forward, and bit down as hard as he could.
OW. His jaw exploded with pain, and he reared back. In the black-on-black scales, it was impossible to find a weak spot.
Morrowseer jumped away from Tsunami and Storm and shook his whole body violently. Clay lost his grip and went flying through the air. He landed with a jarring thud, sliding half-way into the river.
As he staggered to his feet, he saw Tsunami and Storm facing  Morrowseer in battle positions. Morrowseer made a grinding noise deep in his throat. He stepped back and swung his tail around into view.
Clinging to Morrowseer's tail, her teeth firmly planted in the vulnerable spot near the end, was Sunny. Clay wished he'd remembered about that spot, which every dragon had, no matter which tribe they were from.
“Ha,” Morrowseer rumbled. “That's a surprise.” He pried Sunny loose with his front talons, as if she were just a tiny bloodsucking insect.
“That one will do,” Morrowseer said, pointing at Tsunami. “And that one.” He pointed to Storm.
Starflight hadn’t moved at all as he attacked his friends.
Neither had the guardians, save for Hvitur, who had seemed at least prepared to defend his charges.
Clay staggered up beside his NightWing friend, who was doing an excellent imitation of a stalagmite. Starflight lowered his head and avoided Clay's eyes.
“And that one will do.” Morrowseer nodded at Clay. Kestrel snorted.
The NightWing approved of him? Clay was confused. It wasn't as if Clay's attack had done any good. Even when Clay was defending his friend, apparently he couldn't get angry enough to drag out his inner monster. Couldn't Morrowseer hear everyone thinking about how Clay was going to let them all down?
“This one…” Morrowseer studied Sunny, from her harmless tail to her weirdly golden scales and moss-green eyes. “Might be acceptable after all. We’ll have to see.”
“As for you,” Morrowseer said to Starflight. “I assume you used your NightWing powers to figure out I wasn’t going to hurt the SeaWing. Perhaps you even had a vision of my visit today. No doubt you already know that I’m going to take you into the next cavern for a private conversation.”
Clay shuddered. A “private conversation” with Morrowseer sounded about as much fun as having his ears roasted. He did not envy Starflight as the two NightWings slithered into the study room.
“Stupid SeaWing,” Kestrel shot across the cave and struck Tsunami’s snout. “Complaining to the first strange dragon you see. Trying to make us look bad! Whining about your life, after all we’ve given up for you!”
“Kestrel!” Hvitur stepped between her and Tsunami. “What are you doing?”
“Teaching this ungrateful lizard a lesson,” Kestrel tried to push past Hvitur, but he just blocked her again.
“Kestrel you’ve done enough,” Hvitur snarled. “You’ve made these poor dragonets’ lives miserable for long enough. We’re leaving.”
“You can’t leave,” Webs was trying to be a peacekeeper like always. “We need to keep them alive for another two years.”
“I can take care of them for a few more years by myself,” Hvitur disputed. “They’re a year from being full grown. They’re not completely helpless.”
“Well then GO ALREADY.” Kestrel shouted.
“Maybe we can just talk about it,” Webs suggested.
“Fine then,” Hvitur yelled back, ignoring Webs. “I will go!” He turned towards the dragonets. “Go grab your things.”
As Clay headed through the tunnel to the sleeping caves, he could hear Hvitur and Kestrel arguing still, with Dune occasionally jumping in and Webs still trying to calm things down.
The tunnel split into two early on, one leading to the guardians’ cave, and one to the dragonets’.
The dragonets’ cave was large, with only a few rough blankets that were worn nearly to bits. Scrolls were scattered across Starflight’s section, but that was about all of the belongings the dragonets owned. The dragonets never had any treasure, only scrolls and the occasional interesting trinket that Hvitur or Webs would bring back, which would always “mysteriously” go missing the next day.
Clay didn’t have anything he wanted to bring with him, so he worked on looking through Starflight’s scrolls to see which he would want to bring. Probably all of them.
Just as Clay was reaching for a bag to put the scrolls in, he heard the boulder blocking the cave entrance scrape open. He rushed to the main cave to see what was going on.
“I’ll be back in exactly two years to collect the dragonets,” Morrowseer told the guardians. Kestrel and Dune rolled the boulder that blocked the cave entrance aside, and Morrowseer squeezed through the gap and disappeared into the blackness without a backward glance. 
Hvitur turned to Starflight, who had just come out of the study cave.
“Gather your favourite scrolls,” Hvitur instructed him. “We leave tonight.”
“Are you sure this is a good plan?” Webs asked. “What’ll Morrowseer think when he returns? Where are you going to live?”
“In two years we’ll bring the dragonets back here,” Hvitur answered. “Until then… we’ll live in Possibility.”
“What’s Possibility?” Sunny asked.
“It’s a city by the Great Five-Tail River,” Starflight explained. “The SandWings and SkyWings fought over the territory for years, but now all the little towns and villages are one big city.”
“Starflight, scrolls,” Hvitur reminded him. Starflight disappeared into the tunnel that led to the sleeping caves.
“Well what are the rest of us supposed to do?” Webs asked. “We have nowhere to go.”
“You can come with me or stay here,” Hvitur replied. “Your choice. Starflight, you can’t possibly need all those scrolls.”
The NightWing returned from his sleeping cave with a bag overflowing with scrolls.
“I don’t want to forget anything,” Starflight said. “This is just the stuff we’ll really need.”
“There'll be plenty of scrolls in Possibility,” Hvitur told him. “Pick one favourite, and leave the rest here.”
Starflight reluctantly emptied the bag and searched through the pile for his favourite scroll, Tales of the NightWings, and put it in his bag.nHe gave a longing look at the pile of scrolls on the floor, and walked over to where Hvitur and the rest of the dragonets were standing.
“I’ll go with you,” Webs decided, joining them.
“Dune and I will stay,” Kestrel growled. “In case you realise what a terrible plan this is and come flying back.”
“I won’t,” Hvitur seemed so sure of his decision. “Let’s go.”
Hvitur helped Dune roll the boulder out of the way, and then took off into the night sky.
Clay looked around at the cavern. It was all he had known for six years, his whole life, and now they were leaving. It all seemed so sudden. Just like that, his entire life was changed completely.
“Get on with it, lizards,” Kestrel growled. Clay looked around and realised the other dragonets were looking around the cave too, with a weird hopeful-sombre expression that Clay realised he must have, too.
“Goodbye,” Clay heard Sunny whisper.
The dragonets left the cave, following Hvitur out the tunnel and to the outside world.
…
The sky was a lot bigger than Clay had imagined.
He’d only ever seen glimpses of the moon and stars from the sky hole in the study cave, but now that he was flying, really flying, he realised that the sky was HUGE. It seemed to stretch for miles and miles and miles, a million times bigger than the main cavern under the mountain.
“So this is what the sky is really like!” Storm exclaimed, ruby-red and golden scales illuminated by the moons as she glided through the air. “I can't believe the guardians kept us away from this!”
Clay and the other dragonets joined in, spinning and whirling freely without bumping into a cave wall.
They were so distracted by their newfound freedom that they hadn’t noticed the patrol of heavily armed SkyWings flying towards them until it was too late.
==== Chapter 4 ====
The SkyWings came out of nowhere.
Orange and red clashed with sapphire blue and midnight black and sunshine yellow and moon pale and red gold and blue-green and mud brown.
But the patrol greatly outnumbered the seven dragons. Each dragon was fighting at least two SkyWings.
A regal orange dragoness with rubies and diamonds embedded on the edges of her wings began to fly towards them, along with a flock of guards.
“You’ll never get them!” Hvitur cried. “I will die before I let you take them prisoner for Scarlet!”
“That’s Queen Scarlet to you,” The orange dragon, who Clay now realised was Queen Scarlet, had reached the group. Clay now saw that rubies were also embedded over her yellow eyes. “Now, I have a question for all of you; what are a MudWing dragonet, SeaWing dragonet, SkyWing dragonet that I’ve never seen, although I don’t pay attention to dragonets, NightWing dragonet, and weird SandWing dragonet doing with an IceWing in my territory? Would they happen to be the famous Dragonets of Destiny? And you must be the IceWing who stole the SkyWing egg all those years ago. Burn will be thrilled to get her claws on you.”
“YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!” Tsunami screamed. She lashed her strong tail, almost knocking a SkyWing out of the sky, and attacked another furiously. 
“Oh, I certainly will,” Queen Scarlet grinned evilly. “It’ll be so thrilling to have you fight for me. And the NightWing too! Oh, this is like an early hatching day present from the universe!”
Just then, Webs was somehow able to break away from the guards who were trying to restrain him, and began to fly away as fast as his wings could take him. But no dragon could outfly a SkyWing.
In just a few wingbeats, Scarlet had Webs’ horns gripped tightly in her talons. A serpentine grin spread across her face as she snapped his neck. Clay watched as his body fell down, down, down, into a blue-green heap on the ground far below them.
…
The queen’s prisoners were kept in the sky.
For the whole first night and day, Clay kept his eyes shut. His talons gripped the rock below him so tightly he started to lose feeling in his legs. One glance over the edge - one glimpse of the dizzying drop below him - and he feared he would lose consciousness and fall.
With his wings folded over and clamped in SkyWing metal clips, falling meant death. Horrible, painful, bone-shattering death.
But then, he wasn't entirely sure if that would be worse than Queen Scarlet's plans for them, whatever they were.
His prison cell was at the top of a towering spire of rock. A narrow stone platform gave him just enough room to walk in a circle and lie down. There were no walls. There was no roof. There was only an open blue sky and the fierce wind whistling around his ears day and night.
That morning, a hunk of meat hit him in the face.
Hunger forced his eyes open. An unusual SkyWing dragon was flying in loops around his perch. He guessed she was only a year or two older than him; her horns were full size, but her teeth were still sharp and white, not yet blunted or stained. Veins of gold ran through her glimmering copper wings, and smoke seemed to be coming from her scales as well as her mouth. She stopped and hovered in front of him.
Her eyes were startling, like two small blue flames blazing through the smoke. Clay was pretty sure SkyWings normally had orange or yellow eyes. He wondered if there was something wrong with this one, like Sunny.
Something dead and bloody and charred lay on the stone in front of him. Clay took one look at the blood, remembered the shape of Webs’ broken body, and threw up over the side of the platform.
To his surprise, the other dragon started laughing.
“Oh, gross,” she said. “Too bad the barracks aren't down there. The guards seriously deserve that.”
Unwillingly, Clay looked over the edge.
His rock-tower prison was one of about a hundred spires, spread out in a huge circle. Nearly every one had a dragon trapped at the top, like him. Like him, they each had thin metal clamps on the outer edge of their wings. In the centre of the circle was a bowl of rock, like an empty lake, with sand at the bottom and sheer walls. Above the walls were rows of benches, balconies, and caves for spectators to look down into the arena.
At the bottom of his tower, there was only bare rock. But from up here he could see the heart of the SkyWing kingdom stretched across the mountaintop. Queen Scarlet’s vast palace was carved into the grey-and-black rocks of the peak.
Half of it was inside tunnels and caves while the other half was open to the sky and bristling with defences. Fire-colored dragons crawled across the mountain face, digging and blasting out new palace extensions until they were covered in stone dust and dirt and looked no brighter than MudWings.
The war had slashed this kingdom with sharp talons. Clay spotted collapsed towers, scorch marks along several walls, and a ravine half full of dragon bones. Even as he watched, he saw two SkyWings carry in the corpse of a crimson dragon and dump it in the ravine. They set fire to the body and hovered for a moment over the smoke, their wings brushing against each other. Then they wheeled and flew away, leaving the body to blaze down to ashes and singed bones.
Far off to the east, Clay could see the blue, glittering line of the sea.
He also noticed the thin wires that twisted around his legs and neck. He'd been too terrified and confused to pay attention to what the SkyWings did with him when they first arrived.
The wires stretched from him out to the necks and legs of other prisoners, who all had them as well. One went to his left, to one leg of a moon-silver IceWing on the next column, who was asleep with her tail over her nose. One wire was attached to the dragon on his right, a fuming SandWing whose pacing made the wire shake. The last three wires snaked out across the circle. He couldn't tell where those wires went, they disappeared into a tangled web above the bowl, connecting all the trapped dragons.
So even if Queen Scarlet's captives could fly away, they'd have to all lift off at once. and then all one hundred prisoners would be stuck with each other. They wouldn't get very far that way. He wondered what would happen if one dragon fell off his spire. Would the wires drag down all the others as well?
“Aren't you going to eat?” asked the SkyWing who was flapping around him.
“I'm not hungry,” Clay said, tucking his head under his wing. He could hear her wingbeats as she circled him a few more times.
“Is it the wrong thing?” she asked. “I don't know what MudWings eat. We've never had one before. You know, because we're on the same side in the war. So that would be rude. Taking them prisoner, I mean. But you're in the Talons of Peace, so the MudWings won't care what we do to you. Come on, you have to eat something.”
“Why?” Clay asked, keeping his head buried.
“Because I don't want you to die before I kill you,” she said, her tone so matter of fact that it took Clay a few moments to register what she'd said. He poked out his snout and stared at her.
“I've never fought a MudWing,” she said, deftly avoiding the wires as she looped around him again. “Since we're allies and all. So I'm really curious. I bet it's totally different from fighting SeaWings and IceWings. But Her Majesty will make you fight some of the regular prisoners first, and if you die then I don't get to fight you.”
“And that would be sad.” Clay said
“Right. Not blazing at all. The most blazing will be fighting the NightWing, though. Nobody's ever seen anything like that. What if he can read my mind and knows what I’m going to do before I do it?” She tilted her wings and swooped underneath Clay. “At least he's eating. Hey, I wonder if she'll make you fight each other. But then I'd only get to fight one of you. Do you think you could beat a NightWing? Probably not, huh?”
“Starlight?” Clay said. “Is he all right? Where is he?” He stood up and peered out at the circle of prisoners. It wasn't so bad as long as he didn't look down.
He could see several blue and green dragons who must be SeaWings, but none of the ones close enough to identify were Tsunami. All of the IceWings looked too similar for Clay to pick out Hvitur. Most of the trapped dragons were SeaWings, IceWings, or SandWings - they must be prisoners of war. A few were red or orange SkyWings, none of which were identifiable as Storm. He guessed those were subjects who had somehow displeased the queen.
Only one prisoner was midnight black, and he was nearly on the opposite side of the circle from Clay. So far away. Clay couldn’t see his face, but he could tell that Starflight was sitting still, in his helpful “terrified stalagmite” pose, his head drooping.
If only he could read minds! Clay wished desperately that he could get a message across the arena. Although he didn’t know what he would say… maybe just that he was sorry for all the times he’d teased Starflight or hidden his favourite scroll or whined about studying.
“See him?” asked the SkyWing. “He doesn’t talk much.”
Clay snorted. “Ask him something - like how the dragons took Pyrrhia from the scavengers during the Scorching. Then you won’t be able to shut him up.”
“I’ll do that,” she said, apparently missing that Clay was joking. He squinted at her. The light up here was too bright, and it was even brighter when it reflected off her smoking copper-coloured scales.
“Who are you?” he asked. “Are you a guard?”
“Ick, no. I’m Peril,” she said proudly. “The Queen’s Champion.”
==== Chapter 5 ====
“What’s your name?” Peril asked.
“Clay,” he said. “What did you mean about fighting me? Why do we have to fight?”
“Wow,” she said. “Are you serious? Have you been living under a rock or something?”
“Pretty much,” Clay said with a grimace.
“Really?” She tilted her head curiously and thought for a moment. “All right. That’s the queen’s arena down there.” She flicked her long, pointed tail at the bowl below them. “There’s a battle almost every day for Her Majesty’s amusement. If you win enough battles, you go free.”
“How many is that?” Clay asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Nobody’s ever done it. Her Majesty always sends me in after any dragon has a few wins, and I always kill them.” She shifted her wings in a shrug. “I’m really dangerous.”
And possibly crazy, Clay thought. How many lives has she taken? Does she keep count? Does she care?
“What are you looking for?” Peril asked. Clay had been scanning the prisoners around the circle since spotting Starflight, but he couldn’t see any tiny gold dragons. Where was Sunny?
“The other dragons who were brought in with me…” he said. “Do you know where they are?”
“The SeaWing is over there,” Peril said, spiralling up above him and pointing to a deep blue dragon halfway between him and Starflight. Clay immediately recognized Tsunami’s angry tail lashing.
“Boring,” Peril added. “I’ve fought plenty of SeaWings. Easy, once you know their tricks.”
I bet Tsunami has some tricks you’ve never seen before, Clay thought. “What about the SkyWing? And the IceWing?”
“I didn’t see a SkyWing when the guards brought you,” Peril said. “But then again, I’m not very observant. And I don’t remember where the IceWing went.”
“There’s a SandWing, too,” Clay said desperately. “She’s really small and golden, and kind of odd-looking-”
“Haven’t seen any dragons like that,” Peril said. “But I’ll keep an eye out, if you want.” She did a slow backward somersault in the air and tipped her wings at him. “I’d better go warm up. Cheer for me!” Peril dove toward the arena.
He watched her glowing copper shape spiral down onto the sand below. A few other dragons were in the arena, sweeping or checking the walls or guarding the seats. Clay noticed that they all hurried to move away from Peril. Wherever she went, dragons fled, as if she had an invisible cloud of poison around her. None of them would even look at her.
Peril didn't seem to care. She strode around the arena as if she knew everyone would clear out of her way. Her head kept turning toward the largest rock balcony, which jutted out of a cave overlooking the arena. Finally she flicked her tail and vanished into a dark opening in the side of the arena wall.
Clay crouched to peer over the edge. He hung on tightly with his talons and fought back the dizzying nausea caused by the view. The smell of the dead rabbit wasn't helping. He wondered if he could hit one of the SkyWing soldiers if he threw the carcass from up here. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten. Was it before Morrowseer appeared under the mountain? Wasn't that a lifetime ago? But his normally huge appetite seemed to have deserted him.
As he watched, he saw a group of SkyWing guards bringing in a SandWing prisoner. Clay noticed that the SandWing wasn’t flying at all - it seemed as if the guards were carrying him. Clay wondered why. The guards locked him up on a pillar on the opposite end of the circle from Tsunami, but he was too far away for Clay to see clearly.
Dragons started filling into the seats below. Nearly all of them were SkyWings, but he spotted the pale yellow and white of SandWings here and there as well. There were even one or two MudWings. His own kind! Did they know he was up there? Would they demand his release if they found out, even though he was supposedly in the Talons of Peace?
So MudWings and SkyWings were allies on one side of  the war. Clay had never been able to remember that before. He was pretty sure he would now. If only Starflight had thought of chaining me to a tower above gladiator fights. I might have been an excellent history student then.
He didn't know how long it took for the stands to fill, the sun was blazing directly overhead when two of the guards let out a trumpeting roar. All the other dragons snapped to attention. Across the stadium, heads bent, wings tipped, talons were crossed, and silence fell as everyone waited.
Queen Scarlet stepped out onto the large balcony and spread her wings, catching the sunlight in the reflection of her orange scales. The fire-breathing hiss of all the gathered dragons greeted her. Clay knew this sound only as a warning that Kestrel was about to spout flames at him. It took him a moment to realise that the SkyWing dragons were hissing with respect.
Dragons in the lower seats began to applaud, and soon the whole stadium thundered with the beating of wings and talons. Queen Scarlet settled herself on a large flat boulder, looking pleased, and flicked her tail for silence.
“Bring in the combatants,” she called.
Three of the SkyWing guards flew up to the prisoner on Clay's right. One of them seized the SandWing's venomous tail and held it out of the way. The SandWing fought, howling angry curses, as the other two unclipped his wires and hooked them to a ring in the centre of the ledge.
Clay thought for a moment that the prisoner was going to hurl himself off the edge, despite the bands that were still on his wings. But the guards gripped him tightly and swooped him down to the sands below. They dropped him in a heap in the middle of the arena.
Meanwhile, three other guards did the same thing to an IceWing prisoner on the other side of the circle, who was fighting back just as ferociously as the SandWing. Clay realised with a sickening lurch in his stomach who the IceWing prisoner was.
Clay glanced up at the distant figures of Tsunami and Starflight. It looked like they were watching intently, too, along with most of the prisoners above the arena.
One of the Sky Wing guards stood in the centre of the arena and clapped his wings thunderously until the audience was quiet. He bowed to the queen and announced, “After four wins, Horizon the SandWing formerly, and unwisely, a soldier in Blaze's army has been challenged to a match with the soldier turned Talons of Peace member, a newcomer to the arena, Hvitur of the IceWings. Claws up, fire ready! Fight!” He sprang out of the arena, leaving Horizon and Hvitur facing each other.
Clay didn’t want to watch. It wasn’t until he could hear the audience’s cheering and the fighting stop that Clay opened his eyes.
Hvitur had pinned his opponent to the sand. There was a gash along Hvitur’s tail, and a tear in one of his wing membranes. Horizon had nasty slashes all across his underbelly, and his tail barb was frozen solid. IceWing blood mixed with SandWing blood into morbid blue, red, and violet puddles across the sand.
Hvitur had Horizon right where he needed him. He could snap his neck quickly, and the fight would be over.
But instead, Hvitur turned to the balcony where Scarlet stood, and began to talk.
“You want me to kill this dragon, don’t you?” he said.
“Yes,” Scarlet growled. “And if you don’t start fighting again, I’m going to kill you both,”
“But why?” Hvitur asked. “Do you enjoy seeing dragons hurting and dying?”
“YES,” Scarlet answered angrily. “Now fight.”
Hvitur opened his mouth to say something more, but at that moment, Horizon threw him off. Hvitur scrambled to his feet and moved backwards as Horizon lunged at him. Hvitur pivoted and slammed into Horizon’s side, throwing his opponent into the wall and killing him.
A look of horror spread across Hvitur’s face.
The queen turned to the crowd, shaking out her wings. “We have a special treat tomorrow. Something we’ve never seen before! Dismissed.” Scarlet waved one talon, turned and swept away. The guards collected Horizon’s body and chained Hvitur back to his pillar across the circle.
Clay didn’t know who to worry about more -  Sunny and Storm, who were still missing, or Starflight, who might be thrown into battle tomorrow. Was that what the queen meant by “something we’ve never seen before”?
Tsunami could fight well enough. Clay wasn’t too worried about them. But Starflight? He was good at maps and dates and facts and tests, but his claw-to-claw combat skills were tragic.
Clay wasn’t at all sure that Starflight could survive the arena.
And there was still Sunny and Storm; Clay hadn’t seen either of them since the day before. Where were they? What had Scarlet done to them?
The sun began to sink below the mountains as Clay fell asleep, still worrying about his friends.
He woke up to the smell of burnt prey and the growling of his stomach. Two of the moons were high overhead, while the third was a dim ivory blur glowing behind a distant peak. His eyes were finally starting to adjust to the bigness of everything. This view was just about the opposite of what he’d grown up with under the mountain.
Clay twisted his head towards the smell of prey behind him and nearly toppled off the ledge in surprise.
Peril was perched on the far side of his stone platform with her tail tucked around her legs and her wings folded in, as if she were trying to make herself as small as possible. Even so, there was only about the length of a dragon tail between them, and Clay could clearly feel the burning heat coming off her scales. It wasn't a warm, basking heat like Sunny and Dune had. It felt like standing too close to an erupting volcano.
“Oh, good, finally,” she said. She nodded at a lump of meat on the rock between them. “I brought you something different. Well, I made the guard let me bring it. I hope you don’t mind that it’s a little crispy.” She spread her front talons in an oddly hopeless gesture.
Clay peered at the prey, which smelled like smoky duck. He scraped the duck toward him, then devoured it in two bites. It tasted like ash and crunched strangely between his teeth.
“Oh dear,” Peril said. “That was fast. Do you want another one?”
“I'm all right,” Clay said.
She scraped one claw across the rocks. “Do you want me
to go away?”
“No,” he said, and she looked up, surprised. “Stay and
talk to me,” he offered.
“Aren't you afraid of me?” Peril asked.
“No,” he said. “Why would I be scared?”
Peril grabbed one of the duck bones laying on the ledge in front of her. It immediately erupted in flames, before burning down to ashes in her talons.
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