Sunstone’s Journey

Chapter 1
"What's taking you two so long?" Staffer groaned from behind Sunstone.  "Wasp could be back at any moment."
Clearwing turned around. "Excuse me, but you shall refer to as Queen Wasp from now in," she replied sarcastically.  Sunstone giggled.
"Yeah, you buffoon."
Staffer rolled his eyes.  "You're lucky that the queen is visiting Mantis Hive today, or two SilkWings like you would make a great meal for her."
Sunstone, Clearwing, and Staffer had been sent by the rest of the chrysalis into the queen's home to look for things that would be useful.  If she does come back, she won't be able to fight all of us, Sunstone thought, trying to convince himself that was true, when, in reality, Wasp could mind-control every HiveWing in the hive to capture them.
Except Staffer.
Before Staffer has even hatched, the chrysalis had stolen his egg from the Wasp Hive hatchery.  In Sunstone's opinion, it was a stupid risk since Wasp could take over his mind and see out of his eyes whenever she wanted.  But, for some reason, Staffer wasn't able to be mind-controlled.  Nobody knew why.
Sunstone headed for a weird-looking box and noticed it had a lock.  He made a small thread of fiery silk come out of one of his talons.  He was a flamesilk, a SilkWing whose silk can burn, instead of being used to build webs.  He carefully burned the lock and opened the box when the lock melted.
Inside was a small, folded-up piece of paper.  "Hey, what's this?" Sunstone asked the other two dragons while unfolding it.
Clearwing had a puzzled look on her face, and Staffer shook his head.  Sunstone unfolded it all the way.  It was a map, labeled "Clearsight's Map" on the top.  It showed the eastern coast of Pantala, a weird continent-looking thing, and small islands dotting the ocean in between.
"It says 'Clearsight's Map' on here on the top.  Look," said Sunstone.  He turned the paper to face Staffer and Clearwing.
"That's... weird," said Clearwing.  "The only thing that Clearsight left behind was the Book of Clearsight."
"It looks fishy to me," grunted Staffer.  "What does that say?" he asked as he pointed to some smudged writing next to the weird continent.  "Pyrah? Perriah?"
"Pyrrhia," whispered Clearwing.  "I've heard of it."
Before anyone could say anything else, they heard a sound outside.
Chapter 2
It sounded like wings flapping and a dragon talking.
Is it Wasp? One of her servants?  Does she even have those?
Questions buzzed in Sunstone's head.  After a few moments of the three being silent, "Run," whispered Staffer.  He turned towards the door and carefully ran outside of the room.
Sunstone and Clearwing hesitated for a moment, and then followed Staffer.  Sunstone put Clearsight's Map in the pouch tied around his neck.
After what felt like hours of Staffer leading the way through what seemed like, and probably was, hundreds of hallways, they finally arrived at the hole the chrysalis had dug in one of the rooms.  It was big enough for dragons to fit through, but it was small and well-hidden enough that neither Wasp, or a dragon who she was controlling, never found it.
"You first, I'm the least likely out of all of us to get killed," Staffer whispered, as he held his spear aggressively.  That was true, since he was a HiveWing.  Clearwing was the second least likeliest, because her scales were a warm red color and her wings were clear.  Her antennae were to small enough to not notice at first glance.  She had also painted some of her scales to be black.
And Sunstone was the most likely to get killed or captured.  He was on a few wanted posters, and his talons glowed from his flamesilk.
Sunstone squeezed through the hole as quickly as he could and ran down the tunnel.  He could still faintly hear the noises of what he guessed was a dragon.  Clearwing followed him, and after her, Staffer.
After they ran for a while, Sunstone, Clearwing, and Staffer were greeted by Pepper the SilkWing.  She was a part of the chrysalis, and had been told to keep guard where the tunnel came close to the chyrsalis's hideout.  She had purple scales; mostly dark purple with scales that looked like someone had splattered light purple pant all over her.  Pepper shifted her large wings.
"Where were you three?" Pepper demanded when they reached her.
Staffer sighed.  "Where we always are. Wasp's home."
"We found something that you'll want to see," Clearwing told Pepper.
"Well, come on, then.  Let's go get Atlas and show him what you got."
Pepper lead the way to the chrysalis's hideout, which was really just a cave where the chrysalis members lived.  Atlas was sitting in a corner with his nose buried in a book, like usual.
"Atlas, we found something cool," Staffer announced.
Atlas immediately looked at Staffer.  "Isn't everything you find 'cool?'"
"No, this thing actually is cool," Staffer told him.  Sunstone took Clearsight's Map out of his pouch.
"Have you ever heard of Pyrrhia?"
Chapter 3
Atlas paced around the cave. "Pyrrhia... Pyrrhia... I've heard of it. In a book."
Staffer snorted. "You must be the greatest dragon in Pantala to hear books." A huge grin spread across his face, and Atlas rolled his eyes.
Atlas closed his book and stood up. He went over to the bookshelf across the cave, and started looking through his books. Finally, he picked one up and held it in his orange talons. "Pyrrhia," he muttered while looking through the pages. He closed the book and grabbed another one from the shelf.
While Atlas looked through his books, Sunstone sat down in his bed and look at Clearsight's Map. His bed, and every other chrysalis member's bed, was more like a nest. They were on stone ledges throughout the cave, and each dragon had their own. He set Cleatsight's Map on his bed.
Did Clearsight really write this 2000 years ago? he thought. The paper certainly looked old enough. Sunstone had never seen Clearsight's writing, but this looked like how she would have written, except the part where it said "Clearsight's Map."
As he looked at Pyrrhia even more, Sunstone noticed something. Clearsight had labeled a few things on the map. An area up north of the continent was labeled "Ice Kingdom." A place below the Ice Kingdom was labeled as the "Kingdom of Sand," and below that, there was the "Night Kingdom." The rest of the map was cut off, but Sunstone was sure that there was more land, but he wasn't sure how much.
He heard the sound of dragons panting and looked up. Four dragons stood in the entrance of the cave. Crescent, Darner, Sparrow, and Sun. They were other members of the chrysalis. 
"What happened?" demanded Staffer. Atlas, Clearwing, and Pepper turned to look at them.
"A HiveWing " grunted Darner. "He heard us in Wasp's home and came to investigate."
Sparrow covered her face with one of her talons. "For crying out loud, Darner. We were never found."
"Yes, but the queen could come back to her home at any minute now, and he will alert her immediately."
Staffer shook his head. "No, she won't be here for a few hours. The HiveWing will probably give up by the time she comes back."
Sunstone sighed and rolled his eyes.  Staffer and Darner were twins, and they always would disagree with each other just to annoy the other.  They nearly looked like the same dragon, but Darner's scales were more reddish, he had more black scales, and his horns were longer.
"Well, Sunstone found something useful," Clearwing said, obviously trying to change the subject.
"What is it?" asked Crescent.
"It's a map," answered Staffer.  Sunstone picked up the map and showed it to everybody.
"Clearsight made it," he told them.  "We found it in a box."
Darner squinted his gold eyes.  "That's... interesting."
"So, what else did you find?" asked Sparrow.  Clearwing took something out of her pouch.  
"I found this knife.  It has a place where you can put poison in it and it'll inject it into the dragon you stab."
Atlas's eyes lit up.  "Could we use it with Sunstone's flamesilk?" he asked.
"I don't think you understand the word 'poison,'" answered Sparrow.
"Shut up," growled Sunstone.  He kept hearing a noise, and everyone was talking too loudly for him to hear it properly.
"Stay out of-"
Then, every dragon in the cave heard the sound.  A voice.
"Find the thieves, and kill them."
Chapter 4
A HiveWing ran into the cave, and his eyes were white.  Staffer jumped on top of him and pinned him down.  Sunstone hurried over and shot flamesilk into the HiveWing's eyes.  On his first day out of his cocoon, in the flamesilk  factory, he had accidentally blinded one of the flamesilks by doing this.
Staffer drove his spear into the HiveWing's skull.  "Alright, now we need to go," he growled.  He took his spear out of the HiveWing's head, Clearwing held her knife, and Atlas, Pepper, Crescent, and Sun each grabbed a spear from beside the bookshelf.  Sunstone put Clearsight's Map in his pouch and closed it as tightly as he could.
There was the distant sound of HiveWings flying around, and occasionally, a faint "Find the thieves and kill them."
The chrysalis members hurried through one of the tunnels, which lead to the coast.  Staffer lead the way, followed by Sunstone, Atlas, Darner, Crescent, Clearwing, Pepper, Sun, and Sparrow.  The nine dragons silently hurried through the tunnel.  They could use Clearsight's Map to get to the other continent, and they would be safe.
After hours of running, each dragon was at the other side of the tunnel.  Sunstone's legs burned.  He hadn't ran for that long since he escaped the flamesilk factory.  He sat down  in the water, which was up to his stomach.  The sun was setting  and left a shadow over the cliff beside the ocean.  It must have been midday when Sunstone  and the other dragons had started running.
"I told you it was a problem," said Darner.  Staffer frowned and splashed water on his brother's face.
"I said it was too!"
Atlas rolled his eyes.  "Stop arguing."
"You still have the map, right?" asked Clearwing as she walked up to Sunstone.  
"Of course."  He reached into his bag, but Clearwing grabbed his wrist.
"I was just asking if you had it, not telling you to get it out," she laughed.  She sat down and looked at the moon rising in the east.  The black paint on her scales was starting to wash off.  0So, we're going to go to the continent Clearsight is from," Clearwing whispered.  "Isn't that exciting?"
"I wonder what the dragons will look like," Atlas said.  He sat down next to Clearwing.  "Obviously, they'll be able to see the future like Clearsight, and have two wings like her.  And bl-"
"Alright, we get it," Darner grunted.
...
Atlas woke to the sound of wings flapping.
His heart raced, until he realized that it was just Sparrow, Sun, and Staffer carrying some food in their claws.  Sparrow had some seaweed, Sun had some weird plant things, and Staffer was holding a large fish.
The night before, they had set up a small camp in a cave  for the night,.  The cave was on the cliff  beside the sea, and everyone made sure that it was well-hidden.  Staffer landed and dropped his fish on the floor, followed by Sparrow and Sun.
...
After they ate, everyone gathered around Sunstone to look at Clearsight's Map.  He pointed to one of the islands.  "I think this would be the closest one to where we are," he said.
Atlas pointed to another island.  "This would be the easiest to get to.  It's closer to .the shore and there's a smaller chance of us getting tired and drowning."
"But the HiveWings will be looking for us on the continent," Staffer argued.  "We stole the map and they have no way of knowing where to go."
"Alright.  Let's go to this new continent, then," said Sunstone.
Chapter 5
Pepper walked to the edge of the cave and stretched out her purple wings. "Come on, let's go now."
"That's not a good-" Sunstone started to say, but Pepper had already started to fly away.
Sun sighed and followed her.  "Come back!  Sunstone said it's not a good idea!"
"Those two are idiots."
Sunstone took a step towards the sea.  "Come on, we have to follow them," he said.  Staffer grabbed his spear and followed Sunstone to Pepper and Sun.  They caught up to them, onto an island, but Sunstone heard Atlas yelling something and turned around.
A few HiveWings had spotted him and the three others.  The didn't seem to be mind-controlled, but they were still dangerous.  "HiveWings!" Staffer said.  
Before Sunstone could tell what was happening, he was pinned down by one of the HiveWings.  She dug her claws into his arms, making them bleed.  Sunstone saw a flash of gold and blue, and suddenly the HiveWing was off of him.  Sun was on top of the HiveWing.  She grabbed the HiveWing's arm and twisted it.
The HiveWing roared in pain and grabbed Sun's neck with his free talon.  She pushed her away and stabbed Sun's tail with hers.  Sun went still.
Sunstone flew over and shot flamesilk at the HiveWing.  He looked at Sun.  Her tail must have a paralyzing toxin, he realized.  He looked around.  Sparrow and Darner had joined the fight, and were both fighting the same HiveWing.  Pepper laid on the ground behind Staffer, who was protecting her from the largest HiveWing, who was twice as big as Staffer.  He looked closer at Pepper and realized her wings were shredded.
Sunstone launched himself at the HiveWing that Staffer was fighting, and covered one of his talons in the kind of flamesilk that burned the most.  He screamed and turned around to Sunstone.  He wasn't holding any weapons, but Sunstone suspected that he had some kind of poison.  Sunstone dodged his claws and grabbed on to one of his horns.
Staffer saw what he was doing and grabbed the HiveWing's other horn.
Together, they slammed his head onto the sand and snapped his neck.  Staffer hurried back to Pepper, and Sunstone looked up.
The same HiveWing who had pinned him down was now holding Sun's head in the water.
"Let go of her!" Sunstone yelled as he rushed to help Sun.  He raked the HiveWing's side with his talons.  She grabbed his arm, and Sunstone shot flamesilk at her face.  He didn't stop until he could barely tell where anything on her face was because it was covered in silk.
When the HiveWing lost her grip on his arm, Sunstone hurried to Sun to see if she was okay.  He picked up her head from the water and looked into her eyes.
She was dead.
Chapter 6
"Sun, please don't be dead," Sunstone cried.  He knew it was useless to say that.  Sunstone looked back over to the HiveWing who killed her.  She was almost done getting the silk off of her, but her face was so burn that there was no doubt that it would leave a scar.  Sunstone gently set down Sun's body onto the sand and flew to the HiveWing.
He tried to tie up her arms in flamesilk, but she dodged him and scratched his nose.  She pinned him onto the ground.  "Wasp must be lying whenever she says your kind is dangerous, because you're just weak and pathetic," she told him.  He kicked her stomach as hard as he could and knocked her off of him.  Pepper hurried over to him.
Sunstone grabbed the HiveWing's wrists and tied them up with his flamesilk.  Pepper tied up her snout and helped Sunstone tie the HiveWing as much as they could.
When that was done and she could barely move,  Sunstone looked around at the other dragons.  Darner and Sparrow were fighting a HiveWing that seemed red and black at first, but Sunstone noticed the amount of scratches all over him.  Clearwing and Atlas we're flying over to them, probably checking if they needed help, and Staffer stood awkwardly in the middle of the island.
Sunstone flew over to the last HiveWing, the one Darner and Sparrow were fighting, and grabbed his neck.  The HiveWing turned his head around and bit Sunstone's arm, so he snapped his neck.  Sunstone let go and the HiveWing fell to the ground.  He looked at Pepper, who was trying to pick up the tied up HiveWing.  Sunstone helped her, and together they carried her to the ocean and dumped her in there.
"Sun's dead?"
Sunstone turned around to see Atlas crying and holding Sun's body in his talons.  "How could you let her die like this?"
"I- I'm sorry."
"You know that she has been my girlfriend for three YEARS!  And you just stood around and let her die!"
Sunstone took a step towards Atlas.  "I told you, I'm sorry!  You're not the only one here who's lost someone," yelled Sunstone.  "I haven't seen my family for six years, and they've been across the entire continent!"
"Enough," said Staffer.  "We're all sad that Sun died.  We were all close friends with her.  That does not give you two a reason to yell at each other."
"Alright, fine," said Atlas.  "I'll be the one to bury her."
...
It had been three days since the battle.  Three days since Pepper's wings were shredded by a HiveWing.  Three days since Sun's death.
Three days since Atlas started hating Sunstone.
He made it subtle enough that a dragon as smart as a piece of grass not to notice.  Atlas sat as far away as he could from Sunstone when everybody ate.  He never hunted with Sunstone.  When the two talked, Atlas spoke as little as possible.
Sunstone put his pile of twigs on the sand.  The island that he and the others were on was the biggest island they had been on.  There were trees, and other plants Sunstone had never seen before.  He made a small string of flamesilk and set it onto the twigs.  They burst into flames and Sunstone sat down.
"So, what are you up to, Almighty Map Holder?" Pepper said behind him.  Sunstone turned around.
"I told you to quit calling me that."
She laughed and said, "I know that, silly.  Why do you think I keep calling you that?"  Pepper looked Sunstone in the eyes.  "Also, you didn't answer my question."
"Trying to get us a light source and some decent food," he answered.  It was a cloudy night, and Sunstone was sick of eating seaweed.  He stood up and started to walk into the forest, and then looked at Pepper.  "I want you to come."
Pepper followed Sunstone into the small forest.  She stopped walking when they were about ten feet away from Sunstone's fire."I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Sorry about what?  You didn't do anything wrong," he said, confused.  The worst she had done was mention once how Sparrow seemed to be not as fast as the others.
"I'm sorry for letting this happen to me," she cried.  Pepper collapsed on the ground and buried her face into her arms.  "I'm sorry I let that HiveWing do this to me.  I've barely even been able to get myself some food."  She looked at Sunstone.  "I've tried to not say anything about it.  I've tried to be strong.  But I can't."
Sunstone put his talon in her shoulder.  "As The Almighty Map Holder, I order you to please stop worrying."  She looked away from him.  "Please."
Pepper stood up and wiped the tears off of her face.  "Fine.  Let's find some food.  Like you wanted to do."  
The two looked in the forest for about an hour, grabbing anything they thought they could eat.  Sunstone never told Pepper, but he tried to use his wings as little as he could to make her feel better about herself.  When they were done, the two came back to the camp.
When they got there, Atlas and Clearwing were looking at Clearsight's Map by the fire, Staffer was looking at the sea and eating a fish, and everyone else was sleeping.  Clearwing looked up.  "Where were you two?  We missed you."  Staffer turned around and smiled.  Atlas rolled his eyes.
"Why were you two out in the forest in the middle of the night, without telling any of us?"  Atlas said aggressively.  
"Finding food, so we don't have to eat the same thing every day," Sunstone answered.  "Come on, Pepper.  Let's go to sleep."  He took off the pouch on his neck that he was holding the food in and put it on the ground.  Then, he laid in the sand and went to sleep.
Chapter 7
For the next few days, the chrysalis flew from island to island.  After six days, they landed on Pyrrhia. Sunstone stood in the warm sand of the Pyrrhia beach. He looked up at the rest of the land and saw nothing but sand and some weird plants he had never seen. One was green, tall, and had spikes all over it. Most of the other plants looked like they were dead. There were no clouds in the sky.
This is where Clearsight came from. We're finally here, he thought as he took a few steps forward. Staffer flew up to the spiky plant and poked it a few times with his spear. "What's this thing?" he asked as water came out of the hole he poked. "I've never heard of it before."
"That's because we're on another continent, you idiot."
A dragon stepped out from behind a sand dune. She had two wings that were shaped like bat wings, sand-colored, gray, and black scales, a black frill, and a weird-looking thing on her tail. "What kind of dragons are you, and where did you come from?" she asked.  Her voice was fast.
"Uh, we're SilkWings," answered Atlas.  "But  those two," he pointed at Darner and Staffer, "are HiveWings."
"And we came from a continent called Pantala," Sunstone added.  "We found a map that shows all of the islands between here and this continent and we came here."
The two-winged dragon gave a weak smile.  "I'm a SandWing, and a NightWing.  My father is a NightWing and my mother is a SandWing.  My name is Cinder," she told them.
"Wow," said Pepper. "Did anyone find out that your parents had you?"
Cinder's eyes widened. "Yeah, why?"
"Dragons from two different tribes aren't allowed to have dragonets," Atlas explained. "That's probably different here."
"Yeah, it is," said Cinder.  "That must be awful."
"That's why we all joined a group called the chrysalis," said Staffer.  "We're trying to fight for our- well, the SilkWings' freedom, and get rid of the terrible queen."
"Oh, well I th-"
"Stop trying to make yourself sound so cool to impress her," argued Darner.  "All you so is carry around that stupid spear."
Sunstone took a step in between the two.  "Guys, stop.  Cinder was trying to say something."
Everyone became quiet, and Cinder said, "I think my father was saying something about strange dragons from another continent. I think you should all come with me to see him." She opened her gray wings and started flying, and Sunstone and the others followed her.
Sunstone flew beside her, and she helped him carry Pepper. "What tribes are here? You said you're a mix between a NightWing and a SandWing, right?"
"Right. There are seven tribes. The SandWings live in the Kingdom of Sand, where we are now. They have poisonous barbs on their tails like scorpions. Their queen is Queen Scorch, and she's super nice.  I've met her."  Cinder pointed to a building in the distance.  "That's where she lives."
"What about the NightWings?" asked Sunstone.
"Oh, most of them live in the rainforest, but some of them are living in the old Night Kingdom down south.  They have black scales and silver scales under their wings.  Some of them are mind-readers, future seers, or both.  The queen in the rainforest is named Queen Moonwanderer.  I don't know much about the NightWings in the Night Kingdom, but I think they have a queen named Queen Nightseer."
"I think that's the tribe that Clearsight was from," said Pepper.
Cinder looked at her and her eyes widened. "Clearsight? How do you know about her?" she asked.
"Every HiveWing is one of her descendants, and she's done some important stuff for the SilkWings and HiveWings."
"That makes sense. So, on to the SeaWings. They live in the Kingdom of the Sea. Their scales are all kinds of shades of green and blue, and they have glowing scales that are super pretty. Their queen is Queen Pufferfish.
"The IceWings live up north in the Ice Kingdom. They're really light blues and purples and have lots of spikes. Their scales are kind of cold when you touch them. Their queen just died a few days ago and none of her daughters killed her, so they're having a vote thingy to see who becomes queen.
"The SkyWings live in the Sky Kingdom in the mountains. They're orange and red and have super hot fire. They sometimes have SkyWings with too much fire, and they burn everything they touch. I know one, and his name is Phoenix. One time he accidentally gave me a big burn on the back of one of my talons and it's still there. Their queen is named Queen Autumn.
"The RainWings live in the rainforest and can change colors like these lizard things I saw one time. They're super pretty and I met their queen. Her name is Graceful and doesn't like to be called Queen Graceful.
"The Last tribe is the MudWings. They have brown scales and are really big and strong. Their queen is Queen Lilypad. Oh, they also live in the Mud Kingdom. That's really far east." She looked down at the ground. They were at a home made of some kind of rock that looked like sand. "We're here," Cinder announced. Everybody landed on the ground in front of Cinder's home.
Cinder stepped inside.  "I'm home!" she said.
A tall, dark NightWing stepped outside.  At least, Sunstone was pretty sure he was a NightWing, based off of Cinder's descriptions of them.  He had a reddish tint to his dark scales, and his eyes were a bright gold.  The NightWing hugged Cinder with his large talons.  After the hug, he looked at the Pantala dragons.  "Who are these dragons?" he asked.
"These are dragons from another continent," Cinder explained. Each SilkWing and HiveWing introduced themselves. "This is my father, Sunbringer." She turned to Lightbringer. "I heard you talking about dragons from another continent, so I figured these dragons must have been in one of your visions."
Sunbringer laughed. "Oh, that wasn't one of my visions. Your mother was telling me about how she visited Possibility and there were some dragons talking about green dragons who said they were from another continent visiting Scorch's Stronghold."
"Green dragons from another continent?" said Pepper. "Those must be LeafWings!"
"I guess you should see them, then," Sunbringer said.  "Come on, I'll bring you to Scorch's Stronghold."
Chapter 8
"What are these cowards doing here?"
Yeah, those are LeafWings. There were four of them, and all of them were different shades of green. One if them was mostly dark brown, and was the one who called the SilkWings that Sunbringer brought cowards. Staffer, Sun, and Pepper stayed at Cinder's home.
A light green, almost gold, LeafWing was knocked over by Atlas. "What are you doing?" demanded Darner. Atlas ignored him and continued to fight the LeafWing. The smallest LeafWing hid behind the mostly brown one.
"Please, make Venus and the SilkWing stop," she whispered. The brown LeafWing leaped at Atlas. The two LeafWings pinned him down and started attacking them.
That's not fair, and they call us cowards?
Sunstone and Darner helped Atlas with the LeafWings. Darner held the brown one as he tried to claw his way out of the large HiveWing's arms. The other LeafWing scratched Sunstone's nose badly, and Sunstone accidentally let go. The LeafWing jumped on top of Atlas, who already had cuts and bruises all over him and a large wound of his neck. Sunstone came after him and grabbed the LeafWing's tail.
He spun around and dug his sharp talons into Sunstone's throat. The LeafWing's claws dug deeper and deeper into his throat. The place where the LeafWing's claws were felt as if the sharpest thing in Pantala was tearing his flesh. His vision started to blur, and he held up one of his talons.
Flamesilk shot out of his talon and onto the LeafWing's wings. The green dragon screamed and got off of Sunstone.
Sunstone weakly stood up and looked at the LeafWing. He grabbed his jaw and made the LeafWing look him in the eyes.
"You will now... help me and my friends or... I'll burn you again," he announced in a shaky voice. Let's hope this works. 
"And what do we get?" demanded the brown LeafWing.
"Nothing if you don't keep your mouth shut," said Darner, who was still holding one of the LeafWings.  "Uh, your neck is bleeding."
Sunstone looked down at where the LeafWing attacked him.  Blood was dripping down his arms and onto his talons, making them look dark red.  He made flamesilk, the kind that didn't burn, come out of his talons and wrapped it around the wound.
"Come on, let's go," said Sunbringer, who had done nothing to help.  He opened up his huge black wings and started to fly back.  The others followed him, even the LeafWings.  He's seemed nice so far, but why didn't he help us?
Atlas said nothing the entire trip, but Darner did.  "How's your neck?" he asked.
Sunstone touched the warm silk tied around him.  "It hurts a lot, but I'll live."
Chapter 9
-Cinder-
What's taking so long? Cinder thought. I thought they would just look at those cool leaf dragons and why couldn't I be invited?
She didn't mind talking to the dragons from The Lost Continent, though. They were nice to her and her mom, Sandstorm, and answered all of their questions. Apparently, a super evil dragon named Queen Wasp was being evil and mind-controlling dragons. Pepper told her that for some reason, Staffer and Darner couldn't be mind-controlled. Oh! That reminded her that she wanted to ask Pepper a question.
"I wanna ask you something, if its not too mean and makes you sad."
"What is it?" the wingless SilkWing asked.
"What happened to your wings? Did you fall and a dumb tree broke them?"
Pepper looked down. "Well, when we were getting here, some HiveWings saw us and attracted us and one tore up my wings."
"Oh. Well, that dragon is rude," Cinder answered. She didn't understand why dragons were so horrible to other dragons. Her parents had always treated her well, and they were good dragons. Terrible dragons had no reason to do those things.
"That's awful," said Cinder's mother, Camel, said. "Your journey here must have been hard."
"It was," said Sparrow. "We lost someone on the way there."
Cinder had already heard that story, so she stopped paying attention and walked outside. This part of the desert was just sand dunes and clear skies. She stretched her wings and looked at the distant shape of Queen Scorch's Stronghold. After a moment, Cinder saw seven shapes in the air, flying towards her home.
Sunbringer and the others were coming home!
There were three green dragons she didn't recognize, though. They weren't RainWings, even though they had green scales. They weren't SeaWings either. One of them was mostly covered in brown scales, and the smallest one one had a few brown scales too.
Oh, those must be LeafWings! Cinder realized.
She spread her gray wings and flapped them as hard as she could. Sand moved away from where she was, as if it was trying to escape the "wind" her wings made. Cinder started flying towards her father.
-Sunstone-
Sunbringer was leading the Pantalan dragons back to his home. Sunstone looked over to Atlas, who was covered in scratches. 
"Do you need any help?" he asked.  Atlas looked at him with his gray-blue eyes.
"No," he growled.  "Shut up."
How is he still mad when I've done absolutely nothing wrong? Sunstone sighed. If he's going to do that to me, I should do it to him.
"Oh, sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to insult you by trying to be nice." Atlas stayed quiet and looked away.  "I guess I should just leave you to be hurt."
"Both of you, shut up," said Darner.  Atlas narrowed his eyes and Sunstone sighed.  He looked forward and saw a sand-colored, gray, and black dragon flying towards them.  It was Cinder.
Chapter 10
-Sunstone-
"Hi!" said Cinder.  She looked at Sunstone, Atlas, and the LeafWing's wounds.  "What happened?" she asked.
"Nothing," growled Atlas.  He started wrapping his white silk around the scratches he had gotten.  "Just leave us alone."
Sunbringer looked at Cinder.  "I told you not to leave the house."  He muttered something under his breath.  Cinder looked at him.
"Alright, father."
She smiled, lifted her wings higher and started flying back to her home.  Sunstone thought that was weird, but he didn't question it.  He just kept on flying.
Sunstone kept an eye on Sunbringer the entire flight. It was weird that he didn't help him when the LeafWing attacked him, and now Cinder was acting weird.  He had only been on Pyrrhia for less than a day, but even he knew that something was wrong.
When they landed at Cinder's home, the sun had started to set.  Everyone was already sleeping when they got there.
"Why is everyone asleep already?" Atlas asked.
"It's been a long day.  You all should get some rest too," answered Sunbringer.
Sunstone was tired.  He laid down next to Clearwing and quickly drifted off to sleep.
-
Sunstone was running.
He didn't know what or who he was running from.  That didn't matter.
He looked behind him and saw a dark shape.  He looked closer and saw yellow and black scales.  The dragon had black eyes.
It was Wasp.
He started running even more, his heart pounding.  Sunstone's talons started to hurt.
Then, he tripped.
Sunstone tried to get up as fast as he could.  He looked back at Queen Wasp.  Something was going towards him.
And before he knew it, his neck was impaled by a large spear thrown by the queen of the HiveWings.
-
Sunstone woke up and was sweating.  His talons were shaking as he touched his throat, right where the spear hit him.  It wasn't real.  He didn't have to worry.
Outside, the moon was just a sliver of white in the dark sky.  He walked out into the desert.  He felt the sand in between his claws.
He knew the dream wasn't real, but something felt wrong.  Sunstone looked into the sky and saw a dragon.  They were black and about as large as Queen Wasp.  Queen Wasp with her piercing dark eyes and the long spear in her talons.
No.
He had to stop thinking about the dream.  It meant nothing.
Nothing.  She won't kill me.  I won't let her.  
Sunstone looked more closely at the dragon.  They were large, as large as... either Darner or Staffer, but about five times bigger.  The dragon was flying towards Scorch's Stronghold.
And the dragon flew as fast as Wasp.
No.
It wasn't Wasp.  The dragon had two bat-like wings.  Sunstone needed to go back to sleep.
What if she comes back? A voice whispered in the back of his head.  He forced his talons to walk back into Cinder's home.
And next to Clearwing.
Where he slept the last time.
And had the dream.
He forced himself to sleep there.
-
~
Author's note: hEy this dream has spoilers for The Poison Jungle and since it's the newest book I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so just skip to the part after the dream!
~
Sunstone was in the middle of a forest.  No, a jungle.  He recognized it as the Poison Jungle, with plants he saw in Atlas's books.
He saw a plant, with a green stem with red veins, and bright red leaves with green veins.  Its leaves were sharp like talons and it had small white flowers on it.
This must be a good dream, he thought.  The plants were almost pretty, and he especially stared at the green and red one as if it was calling to him.
Sunstone realized his mistake.
The plant shot at him and wrapped around his neck.  A large dull green dragon emerged from the bushes.  He looked at Sunstone.
A snake was wrapped around the dragon's neck.  It held a hawthorn leaf in its mouth.  The plants continued to wrap around Sunstone.
Sunstone shot flamesilk at the strange plants and they caught fire.  Smoke came from the fire.
It choked Sunstone as he breathed it in, and he felt as if he couldn't move.
He raised his arm.  Except, he didn't want to raise his arm.  It just moved on its own.
Like something was controlling it.
He tried to turn his body to the green dragon, but he couldn't.  Something wasn't letting him.
He realized.
Memories of the last dream flooded into his mind.  Wasp was doing it.
It was Wasp.
It was always her.
Sunstone started breathing more heavily, but only smoke filled his lungs.  Two large leaves fanned the smoke away.
And the green dragon stood there.
"You'll be useful.  I'll keep you forever like this body, until your bones rot and I can no longer move you.  I'll spread across this continent and you will lead me there."
The dragon with the snake laughed coldly.  "Now, why don't we do some fun things together, little SilkWing?"
Sunstone and the dragon walked through the jungle.  He saw the dragon's wwings. He was a LeafWing.  He wasn't one of the ones in Pyrrhia, though.  
Then, they stopped and Sunstone saw the "fun" things he was going to be forced to do, by Wasp.
But, it didn't feel like Wasp was controlling him.  It felt different.
Clearwing, Staffer, Atlas, Darner, Sparrow, and Cinder were all there, with the plant wrapping its leaves around them and keeping them in place.  The thing controlling Sunstone made him lift a talon.
"This will be fun to watch, little fiery SilkWing," said the familiar voice of the LeafWing.  Sunstone walked to Staffer first.
"Sunstone, help us," said the HiveWing.  "Burn these plants.  Kill that dragon.  Anyrhing to get us away from-"
And the thing made Sunstone close his talons on Staffer's mouth.  He lifted his other talon and scratch Staffer across the stomach.  Sunstone let go of his snout and the plants wrapped around it.
"Please Sunstone, destroy the plants," Clearwing cried.
A long piece of flamesilk came out of Sunstone's talons.  No. No. No.
This is a dream.
This is a dream.
THIS IS A DREAM.
-
Sunstone woke up.  He looked out one of the windows, and it was dawn.  The sun was starting to come over the horizon, and some dragons were already awake.
He realized Clearwing was staring at him, with her beautiful eyes.  "What's wrong?" she asked him.  Sunstone realized he was panting.
"Nothing," he said, trying to convince himself as well as Clearwing.  "Just a dream."
Chapter 11
"Guys, look at this."
Each dragon surrounded Atlas as he laid down some scrolls. "I went into a town and got these."
It was two days after Sunstone started having the dreams. They were never good. Dragons killing him, his friends dying, and more stuff like that. About half of them had the weird plant from the second dream on the first night. Sunstone was mostly just waiting for the dreams to end.
He looked at the scrolls Atlas had.  They were all labeled with different titles, like books from Pantala were.  He reached for one, but Atlas grabbed his talon.
"Only I will touch them for now."
Sunstone pulled his arm back.  He wanted to read the scrolls, not have Atlas read them to him.  Atlas picked up one of the scrolls.  "A Guide to the Dragons of Pyrrhia," he read.  "This might help us."
He showed them a picture of one of the dragons.  It was muscular and had a box-shaped head.  "MudWings," Atlas read.  "Description: thick, armored brown scales, sometimes with amber and gold underscales; large, flat heads with nostrils on top of the snout.  Abilities: can breathe fire (if warm enough), hold their breath for up to an hour, blend into large mud puddles; usually very strong.  Queen: Queen Lilypad."
Atlas read the rest of the stuff about the other tribes.  After he was done, Sunstone had an idea.  He headed over to Clearwing, who was eating some fruit.
"Can I talk to you outside?" Sunstone asked the golden SilkWing.  Clearwing looked at him and smiled.
"Of course," she answered.
Sunstone lead Clearwing outside, onto the sandy desert ground.  “What is it?” Clearwing asked.
“I want you to follow me,” he answered.  Sunstone flew up high and looked east.  He could see the distant shapes of mountains.  He had seen a map of Pyrrhia when Atlas showed them his new scrolls, so he sort of knew where he was going.
At least, he was kind of sure, and kind of is enough, right?
That was was Suntone tried to convince himself as he lead Clearwing through the dry desert.  After a few hours, his wings felt like they were going to fall off any second.  He dived down and landed onto the sand.  Clearwing followed.
“Come on, let’s rest for now,” Sunstone said.  He started breathing more heavily, and he could feel his heart thumping in his chest when he laid down on the hot sand.  Clearwing sat down and looked at Sunstone.  Sunstone looked back at her with his teal eyes.
The black paint she always wore was starting to smudge and it had come off completely in some places.  Her elegant wings were shaped like a SilkWings but were mostly transparent, which wasn’t normal for a SilkWing.  Sunstone didn’t mind, though.  He liked her unusual wings.
“What are you doing?” she asked him.
“Um.  Breathing?”
Clearwing laughed sweetly.  “No, I meant that you were just kind of looking at me.  Weirdly.  Sort of.”
Sunstone’s face felt hot, and he knew it wasn’t because of the sun or the sand.  “Uh, who else do I look at?  The sand?  Last time I checked, sand is boring.”
She laughed again, harder that time.  “You’re right,” she admitted.  Clearwing folded her wings and looked at the place in the sky where the sun was.  It was starting to set, and Sunstone realized the air was starting to feel cooler.
“That’s, um, a pretty sky,” Sunstone said awkwardly.
“Yeah, it is.”
“Um, the sunset colors always remind me of, this uh, this one SilkWing I saw at the flamesilk cave.”  It was a little hard for him to talk about that time, and he worried that his words came out weird, but it was awkward without anyone talking.
“That dragon sounds like they had really pretty scales.”
“Uh, yeah.  He was kind of boring.  He kind of just sat there and looked pretty.”
“Oh, well, uh…”
Sunstone put one of his talons on his face.  “Um, I’m um, tired so we should probably uh, go to sleep…”
Clearwing laid down.  “Yeah, we should.”  Sunstone rested his head on his arms and closed his eyes.  Quickly, he fell asleep.
- 
Sunstone opened his eyes, and  slowly got up.  He couldn’t see the sun.  No, he couldn’t see the sky at all.  Sunstone was imprisoned in a cage.
It was completely made of treestuff, so he figured that somehow he’d been brought back to Pantala.  A warm yellow HiveWing with only a few black scales was standing in front of it.  Wait a minute, Sunstone recognized the HiveWing.
It was Staffer.
Darner walked slowly toward Sunstone’s cage with his head down, step after step.  He held a sharp knife in one of his talons.  Sunstone hurried to the edge of the cage.  “Guys, help me.  Please.  I don’t want to burn this and set everything here on fire.”
Staffer turned around and Darner looked up.  Their eyes were white.
No.
-
Sunstone woke up.  It was just a dream.  He could feel the sand in between his claws and the sun warmed his pink, brown, and orange scales.  His wings were a little sore, but that was nothing to worry about.
He realized there were two dragons heading towards him and Clearwing.  Sunstone looked at Clearwing, who was looking at him.  She looked worried.  Since they were both SilkWings, they could use their antennae to sense things like that.
“Who are they?” asked Clearwing nervously.  Sunstone flapped his orange wings into the sky and looked in the direction the dragons were coming from.  He saw a green shape and a sand-colored shape coming towards them.  Sunstone looked closer and realized who they were.
Cinder and a green dragon.  Actually, it was one of the LeafWings.  Sunstone flew down back to Clearwing.  “Cinder and one of those LeafWings,” he said.  “I think it was the smallest one.”
“Oh, you mean Thistle?”
“Yeah.  I don’t know their names.”
Clearwing spread her wings and started flying to Cinder and Thistle.  Sunstone followed her.  As they got closer, Sunstone saw that Thistle was wearing green pouches, which he guessed were made of leaves.  Sunstone had never seen leaves, except when he had looked towards the Poison Jungle.
But there were lots of leaves where he was going.
“Hi!” said Cinder when she saw Sunstone and Clearwing.  “We wanted to see what you were doing.”
“Well, I don’t know,” answered Clearwing.  “Somebody,” she said as she poked Sunstone, “kind of just dragged me along.”  Sunstone looked down.
“Where are we going?” asked Thistle.  Sunstone guessed she was about four or five years old, judging by her voice and size.  “What kind of dragons live here?”
“We’re going to the Rainforest Kingdom.”
Chapter 12
It took two days of flying until they finally reached the Rainforest Kingdom.
Cinder was the one who read the map, since she was the most familiar with Pyrrhia.  She was also the one who was the least bothered about the heat.  Thistle seemed miserable, and got excited whenever she saw even the smallest living plant.
The four dragons walked slowly into the rainforest.  It was filled with colorful flowers, birds, and almost every animal Sunstone could imagine.  Tall trees, or at least he was pretty sure they were taller than normal trees, were everywhere.  A bright yellow butterfly fluttered past Sunstone's face.
"Woah, this is really different from the Poison Jungle," said Thistle, breaking the awkward silence.  Well, the dragons were silent.  Every thing else was loud, and would probably never stop being loud, AND WHY DID THESE BIRDS THINK THEY NEEDED TO SING AT THE TOP OF THEIR TINY LUNGS.  It was probably the loudest place he had been to in a while, since the other loudest place he had been to was the flamesilk cavern.
"Ooh, what's that?" asked Thistle.  Sunstone looked over to her and saw her small green talons pointing to an animal.  It had silver fur and long claws, and was sleeping on a branch.
"Oh, that's a sloth," said Cinder excitedly.
"Are there any carnivorous plants here?" asked Thistle. Cinder's eyes widened.
"Oh gosh, no. That would be terrible." Cinder spread her gray wings and lead them through the rainforest. She showed them different kinds of animals and flowers. Sunstone was mostly fascinated by the trees, since there were almost none on Pantala. No wonder the LeafWings didn't like Wasp cutting down their trees. These are cool.
Finally, they got to the RainWing village. Hundreds of colorful dragons flew around. The sound of so many dragons reminded Sunstone of the Hives, but he had to remind himself that this wasn't Pantala.
"Woah, it's really... full of dragons," Sunstone said. As he looked closer, he noticed that is was very different from the Hives. Each dragon seemed free, and there were no mean-looking HiveWing guards everywhere.
"Yeah.  They're all super nice.  I think Graceful would want to see you three, since you all are super cool dragons from another continent," Cinder answered.  "Come on, I'll show you to her."  Clearwing, Sunstone, and Thistle followed Cinder as she flew to a large treehouse.  It was decorated with different flowers and leaves.  Cinder walked in first.
This isn't what I wanted this isn't what I wanted, thought Sunstone.  The reason he had come to the rainforest was to talk to the NightWings.  "Uh, this isn't exactly-" he tried to say, but everyone else was already in the treehouse.  He sighed and followed them.
The royal treehouse was decorated with different flowers, mostly yellow, blue, and purple ones. The windows were made of slightly transparent leaves, and they made the sunlight that shone through them look more of a greenish color than yellow. A large dragon sat on the throne. Sunstone guessed that was the RainWing queen.
She smiled widely when she saw Cinder, and her scales started turning shades of yellow. "Cinder! I haven't seen you in a while. How are you?" she said warmly.  She looked old, at least fourty or fifty years old.  She wore flower crowns made of the same flowers in her treehouse on her arms, tail, head, and wings.
"Look at these dragons!" Cinder told Graceful.  "I found them in the desert and they're from another continent called Pantala and there are some more but they're not here right now AND they're super nice."
Well, most of us, Sunstone added silently.  
Graceful got down from her throne and studied the Pantalan dragons.  Some of her scales turned into swirls of indigo.  Her scales were brighter than any SilkWing Sunstone had seen.  He wondered what a hybrid between a SilkWing and a RainWing would look like.
"Well, you two," said Graceful as she pointed at Sunstone and Clearwing, "are very colorful.  You'll fit in here perfectly."
"What about me?" asked Thistle.  "Will I fit in well too?"
"Oh, of course, little leaf dragon," Graceful replied.  "Actually, what are your names?"
“I’m Sunstone.”
“Thistle.”
“Clearwing.”
“Oh!  I just remembered!  Sunstone and Clearwing can shoot silk from their talons and it’s super cool!”  Cinder said.
Some of Graceful’s scales turned blue.  “Oh, that’s wonderful,” she answered.  She turned her head to the two SilkWings.  “Can you show me?”
Clearwing nodded her head and lifted up one of her talons.  White silk came out of her gold talons.  Graceful looked at the silk in delight.
“Oh, that’s wonderful!  What about you, um, Sunstone?”
Sunstone lowered his head.  “I don’t want to burn down the entire rainforest.  My silk is special, and is sort of like, uh, if you somehow put fire into silk.”  He showed her his glowing talons.  “If you look closely, you might be able to see my talons glow more than other SilkWings.  It’s probably too bright so, uh, you might not be able to see it.”
“Oh!  I never knew that your talons glowed,” said Cinder.  She gently grabbed one of Sunstone’s talons and observed it.  She let go and bounced back to where she was, beside Thistle, the farthest away from Sunstone.
Graceful yawned.  “It’s almost sun time,” she said.  “Wait, you three dragons don’t know about sun time.  It’s where RainWings sleep in the sun, and it makes us less hungry and our scales prettier.”  She stood up from her throne and lead the four dragons to a platform, up high in the trees.  The sun, which was directly above them, made everything feel warm.  It was a different heat than in the desert.  In the desert, it made him want to sit on a block of ice for the rest of his life.  This heat made him want to lay in the sun.
Thistle was the first to lay down.  She stretched her wings out and closed her eyes happily.  Cinder laid down, with her head on her talons, and she closed her eyes too.  Clearwing looked at Sunstone, and he realized that she was waiting for him to lay down before her.
“Uh, I kind of wanted to see the NightWings,” he explained.  Cinder opened her eyes, and so did Thistle.
“Oh, of course,” Graceful said.  Her yellow, blue, aqua, and dark blue scales were replaced with light pink with a little acid green and blue.  “I can take you to their village.”  She looked at her scales and noticed the colors they were.  She changed them to teal and gold.  She spread her gold wings and started flying.  The others followed her, and Sunstone realized that there were dragons staring at them.  It made him uncomfortable, and the others didn’t seem to notice.
The NightWing village was huge.  Black dragons were everywhere.  One, a small dragonet, almost ran onto his foot.  Another dragonet, who was a little bigger, chased him.  They both laughed and smiled.
A few NightWings noticed the Pantalan dragons.  They stopped what they were doing and stared.  Some of them had looks of confusion on their faces, while others seemed curious or scared.  One of them had an excited look on his face and bolted over to them.
He looked about seven or eight years old.  He was skinny, and had a long tail and legs.  “Cinder!” he yelled.  Sunstone looked at Cinder and saw that she was smiling.
“Fearhunter!” said Cinder.  As Fearhunter came closer, Sunstone noticed he had two silver scales on his face, like teardrops.  He also had silver scales on his wings, which resembled stars.
Fearhunter and Cinder hugged each other.  “I haven’t seen you in years!  Why are you here?” said Fearhunter.
“I found super cool dragons in the desert and they want to see Queen Moonwanderer,” she answered.  She pointed the the Pantalan dragons with her tail.  Fearhunter looked at them.
“Oh, I see,” said Fearhunter.  “So, you guys are named Thistle, Sunstone, and Clearwing, right?”
Chapter 13
Sunstone narrowed his eyes.  “How, uh, do you know that?”  He tried to not sound like he was a little scared.
Fearhunter looked embarrassed.  “By the moons, I forgot.  I’m an idiot.  I’m a mind-reader.  I forgot to tell you all.”  He pointed to the tear-shaped scales on his face.  “That’s why I have these.  It means I can read minds.  Sorry I forgot to tell you.  I’m stupid.”
“Prince Fearhunter,” Graceful said, “I think you should be the one to take these dragons to your mother.”  Fearhunter bowed to the RainWing queen.
“Of course,” he said, sounding more serious than before.  He turned around and started leading them to Queen Moonwanderer’s palace.  As they walked through the NightWing village, NightWings stared at them.  Sunstone tried to ignore them.
“I think my brother will like you,” said Fearhunter.  “He’s a scientist, and he’d be really happy to see dragons from another continent.  I didn’t even know that there was any place other than Pyrrhia.”
Sunstone wondered what Fearhunter did for fun.  He didn’t seem like the kind of dragon to be a scientist, like his brother.
“I’m a therapist,” answered Fearhunter, as if he were reading Sunstone’s thoughts.  Wait, no.  He was reading his thoughts.  “I like to leave the science stuff to my Knowledgeseeker.  Oh, that’s my brother, by the way.”
The five dragons eventually made their way to the NightWing palace.  The entrance didn’t have a door, and two NightWing guards stood on each side.  The spears they held had sharp ends that reminded Sunstone of the stingers some HiveWings had on their tails.  The two guards had serious expressions, with a hint of boredom.  They bowed to Fearhunter as he walked past.
The inside of the palace was beautiful.  The walls were made out of a dark stone, which had diamonds that resembled stars in some places.  There were barely any windows; most of the light from torches burning on the walls.  NightWings hurried around the palace, who Sunstone guessed were servants.  
As Fearhunter lead them through the palace, the NightWings bowed to him as he walked past.  Fearhunter smiled at them.  It wasn’t an “I’m better than you in every way” type of smile.  It was warm and seemed like he was silently telling them “You all are too nice.  Thanks.”
Fearhunter stopped when he spotted a NightWing.  She wore a silver cape and had silver bracelets on her arms; a bit too many in Sunstone’s opinion, but he kept that to himself.  She was a little shorter than Sunstone, and looked to be about ten or eleven.  She seemed to be one of Fearhunter’s siblings, since her face seemed similar to his, but it was rounder, along with the rest of her body.
“Where were you?” asked the NightWing.  “Knowledgeseeker was looking for you.”  She shifted her warm brown gaze to the Pantalan dragons.  “And who are these?  They look like hybrids.  A SandWing mixed with a NightWing, a SeaWing mixed with a RainWing, a SandWing mixed with a RainWing, and a SkyWing mixed with a MudWing.”  She turned her head sideways a little.  “Am I right?” she asked them.
“Well you’re right with me,” answered Cinder.  “The other ones aren’t hybrids but they’re super cool dragons from another continent.”  She flicked her tail.  “The gold and orange one and the pink, brown, and orange one are SilkWings and they make silk come out of their talons and it’s super cool AND their names are Clearwing and Sunstone.  The green and brown one is a LeafWing and her name is Thistle and she comes from a super cool jungle with cool plants.”
Sunstone didn’t know if Cinder had even breathed when she explained those things to the NightWing, because of how fast she had talked.
“I mean, you’re not completely wrong about me.  I’ve been told my grandmother was a HiveWing,” Clearwing explained.  She had never told that to Sunstone.
“You never told us your name,” said Clearwing to the NightWing.
“My name is Starwings.”
Fearhunter put a talon forward.  “Uhm, I need to take these three to Mother,” he said to Starwings.  “Come on,” he said to the others as he started walking.
“Alright then.  I’ll start working on my newest scroll,” said Starwings.  She started walking the other direction.
Finally, they got to Queen Moonwanderer’s throne room.  Her throne was made of silver, with carvings in it that were filled in with a glassy black rock.  The light in the room was dim, with there only being light from the outside rooms pouring in.  A diamond chandelier was in the center of the ceiling, and the diamonds seemed to glow a little from the dim light.
Queen Moonwanderer sat boredly on her throne.  She wore a few rings on her talons.  A silver piece of jewelry wrapped around her long tail, like a snake, and ended in a point similar to the barbs Cinder and Camel had on the ends of their tails.  Her face was angular, and it was similar to Fearhunter’s.  She had a long scar that started on her snout and ended on one of her eyebrows.
She looked at her son, then Cinder, then the Pantalan dragons, and back to Fearhunter.  “Did Knowledgeseeker send you here?  Did he want you to show me these dragons?” she said to him.
“I haven’t even seen him today,” answered Fearhunter.  “I was out in the village and I found them with Graceful.  They want to see you.”  Moonwanderer looked bored.
“Let me guess.  There’s a mango shortage in the RainWings’ side of the kingdom and they’re saying the NightWing have something to do with it.  Or, Graceful has decided she doesn’t like me and has sent some random dragons here instead of telling my face,” replied the queen.
“No,” Clearwing said with a little ferocity, as if the dragon she was talking to wasn’t a powerful queen with dragons who could read minds and see the future.  Sunstone admired her for that.  “We’re from another continent.  One of us wants to talk to you.”
Finally, Queen Moonwanderer looked interested.
Chapter 14
Moonwanderer looked at the three Pantalan dragons with her piercing pale blue eyes.  “Another continent, you said?” said the queen.  She snorted.  “Sounds like something out of Starwing’s scrolls.”
“No, it’s true,” replied Sunstone.  “Could a dragon from this continent do this?” he asked as he raised a talon.  He made fiery silk come out of it.  It was the kind that didn’t burn things, though.  It was warm, and a non-flamesilk dragon could wear it if they wanted to.
Moonwanderer looked bored.  “Clearly animus magic.  Stop wasting my time,” she said.  Animus magic? Sunstone thought.
“Some dragons are born as animus dragons, who can use magic to enchant things.  Only IceWings, SeaWings, and NightWings have them.  The more an animus uses their magic, the more they lose their soul,” Fearhunter explained.  His eyes widened in joy.  “I know how we can prove they’re from another continent!  We can get the truth-finder.”
“What’s that?” Thistle asked.
“It’s an animus-touched ruby.  It glows when the dragon holding it lies.”
Moonwanderer sighed.  “Fine.  You can see if they’re lying.”
Fearhunter went out of the throne room quickly.  The only dragons that were left were Sunstone, Clearwing, Thistle, Cinder, and Queen Moonwanderer.  Sunstone sat down and looked at his talons as he waited.
“Ooh, if you’re a NightWing,” said Cinder to Moonwanderer, “Do you know my father? Sunbringer?”
“I knew him, but not very well.  He ran off about ten years ago with some SandWing,” replied the queen.  “I haven’t seen him since.”
Fearhunter hurried back into the room with a large ruby.  The truth-finder.  “Watch,” he said as he held up the truth-finder.  “I am a five hundred year-old SkyWing.”  The truth-finder glowed brightly, filling the throne room with red light.
After it stopped glowing, he handed it to Sunstone.  “Just say something,” he said.
“Um,” said Sunstone as he looked at the truth-finder.  “My name is Sunstone.”  The ruby stayed the same.  “I think everybody is annoying.”  The truth-finder glowed just as brightly as it had done before.  Sunstone handed it to Clearwing.
“I am from another continent,” she announced.  The truth-finder didn’t glow.  She looked up at the queen.  Moonwanderer sighed.
“I guess you really are from another continent,” she said.  “But that doesn’t mean I trust you.  Fearhunter, bring them to the prison.”
Sunstone looked at Fearhunter, and he looked a little hurt.  The NightWing prince gave a weak smile.  “Come on,” he said.  The other dragons followed.  When they were out of the throne room, Fearhunter slowed down.
“What was that for?” asked Thistle.  “She finds out that there’s another continent with different dragons and she just locks us up?”
Fearhunter sighed.  “She’s a bit hard to get along with.  It started about ten years ago; I was only two and I don’t remember much of the time before.”  He turned and started walking into a different hallway.  He lead them to some stairs that went down.
The prison itself was huge.  It seemed like an endless maze of cells.  They walked past different dragons.  There was a miserable-looking SandWing in one cell.  There was a gray-blue and red RainWing in another.
The light was dim, and some torches had even stopped burning.  Fearhunter stopped at one large cell.  “This is where you four will stay,” he said.  He opened the door and everyone except him walked in.  “Sorry,” she sighed as he locked them in.
Instead of leaving them, however, Fearhunter stayed and talked.
“So, what have you guys been doing?” asked Fearhunter.  He was most likely just trying to start a conversation, since he probably already knew why.
“Well, I wanted to come here since NightWings can see the future,” Sunstone explained.  He was mostly saying to Cinder, Thistle, and Clearwing.  “I thought they could see the future and tell us what to do.”
“Oh!  My father can see the future,” Cinder said.  Sunstone didn’t trust Sunbringer.  Fearhunter looked at Sunstone and nodded a little, but the others didn’t seem to notice.  What did he know that Sunstone didn’t?
“Um, I didn’t think of that,” said Sunstone.  He hoped the others wouldn’t figure out he was lying.
“I can do it for ya,” yelled a NightWing in one of the cells near them.  His scales were more of a gray color than black, and his green eyes seemed to glow a little.
“Ignore him.  He was arrested for lying about having powers and scamming innocent dragons,” said Fearhunter.
“I have them!  You all just didn’t like your futures, that’s all,” the NightWing objected.  “I was arrested for no reason!”
“ANYWAYS,” yelled Thistle, trying to drown out the NightWing’s complaints, “How will we get out? Or when?”
“I’ll think of something,” said Fearhunter.  “I could get one of my siblings to convince her.”
Why would a queen let her prisoners go? Sunstone asked himself.  Finding out they’re not guilty? But we didn’t even do anything.
“I think my mother will be mad at me if I’m here too long,” Fearhunter said.  “I wish I could know what time it is.”  Sunstone used his antennae to see what time it was.
“It’s sunset,” he said.
“Alright.  I can stay a little longer,” answered Fearhunter.  “What do you guys want to know?”
“Ooh, can you tell us more about magic?” asked Thistle.
“Okay.  An animus can enchant whatever they want, even dragons.  A dragon named Darkstalker enchanted his father to kill himself about two thousand years ago.”
“That’s horrible,” said Clearwing.
“Then, his best friend Fathom enchanted a bracelet to make him fall asleep, and Darkstalker’s girlfriend put it on him and buried him under a mountain.  She disappeared.  Nobody knows where she went.”
Sunstone looked at Clearwing, and she was looking at him.  Apparently Clearsight never said anything to anyone before she flew off to Pantala.
“Wait, she what?” said Fearhunter.  “That’s what happened to her?”
“Yeah,” answered Clearwing.   Cinder looked confused.
“What did she do?” the hybrid asked.
“Flew to Pantala,” said Thistle.  “I’ve heard the HiveWings and SilkWings worship her.”
“True.”
“Oh, I have to tell Starwings about this.  She’ll be thrilled to be the first one to write a scroll about what happened to Clearsight.  It’s been a mystery for over two thousand years,” said Fearhunter.
“Tell us more about animus dragons,” said Sunstone.
“About fifty years ago, Darkstalker woke up and came out of the mountain.  He enchanted every dragon on Pyrrhia to trust him, but a few dragons were immune to his spells and one of them killed him.  Some NightWings are scared he’ll come back.”
“I think my father said something about him one time,” said Cinder.  “I can’t remember what it was about, though.”
“Okay.  Well, I should probably go now,” said Fearhunter.  He smiled sadly, and left.
Clearwing yawned.  “I’m going to get some sleep,” she said.  She laid down and closed her eyes.
“I want to sleep too!” Cinder said.  She laid down next to Clearwing.
A few minutes passed, and Sunstone and Thistle sat there awkwardly.  Sunstone reached into his pouch and took out Clearsight’s Map and started looking at it.
“You like her, don’t you?” asked Thistle.
“What?”
“Her,” she said as she pointed to Clearwing.
Sunstone looked away.  “Uh, I-”
“It’s okay.  I like her too.  She’s very pretty.”
Sunstone didn’t know what to say next.  He was embarrassed that a dragonet was able to figure out he had a crush on Clearwing.  Maybe she was able to figure it out because she noticed that she acted the same way he did around her.
Thistle yawned.  “Alright.  I’m going to sleep now.”
-
Sunstone couldn’t sleep.  He didn’t want to have any more terrible dreams.  It happened every night.
There has to be something I can do, he thought.  He tried to think of everything he’d learned that day to see if it helped.  He learned about RainWings, sun time, and animus dragons.
Then, Sunstone realized.
He hadn’t had any nightmares before he’d gotten to Pyrrhia.  There weren’t any animus dragons on Pyrrhia, and only NightWings, IceWings, and SeaWings could be them.  They could enchant anything, even dragons.  He had only met one NightWing before having the dreams.
Sunbringer, Cinder’s father, was an animus.
Chapter 15
Sunbringer needed to be stopped.
Sunstone looked at the bars of the prison cell.  They were made of metal.  He could easily use his flameslilk to melt them.  He put Clearsight’s Map back into his pouch and walked quietly to the side of the cell.
He checked to see if nobody was awake, and he let flamesilk pour onto the metal.  It slowly melted and Sunstone made a hole big enough for him to go through without touching the burning metal.  He slipped through and quickly, but quietly, made his way out of the prison.
Sunstone came to the hallway with the stairs that lead to the prison.  He saw a NightWing servant who was cleaning the floor.  Sunstone crept past her, trying to keep as quiet as he could.  Eventually, he made it out of the palace.
But, he still had to get out of the NightWing village.
Sunstone hoped his colorful scales wouldn’t be very noticeable in the dark-colored NightWing village.  The only visible moon was only a sliver of white in the sky; he hoped that would be enough.  He checked to see if anybody was in the streets, and he ran through the village.
He was almost out of the NightWing village.
“What are you doing?” Sunstone heard a voice shout.  He turned around and saw a NightWing staring at him.  Sunstone jumped towards him and knocked him over.
“WHAT ARE YOU-”
Sunstone closed the NightWing’s mouth with his talons.  “Shh,” he said as he wrapped flamesilk, the kind that didn’t hurt, around his snout.  He jumped off and hurried away from the village.  He spread his orange wings and flew up.  He tried to avoid the trees, but he cut his arm on a branch.  
When he was over the trees, he flapped his wings even harder.  He needed to make it to Cinder’s home as fast as he could.  He knew Cinder, Thistle, and Clearwing would wake up and see that he was gone, but it was better they weren’t coming.  Especially Cinder.
Sunstone sighed as he thought about how upset she would be.  He guessed that Sunbringer had used magic on her.  That would explain she  acted weird sometimes.  But, he had to focus on the most important thing right now: taking care of Sunbringer.
When the moons became high up in the sky, Sunstone decided to rest.  He was in the mountains.  He could see the desert, but it was too far away to fly to that night.  
Sunstone looked around until he found some strawberries growing in the mountains.  He flew over to them and picked them.  He realized how hungry he was.  When was the last time he had eaten?
He ate them quickly and laid down on a rock ledge.  It was uncomfortable, so he made some flamesilk and laid it down like a blanket on the ledge.  Sunstone laid down and closed his eyes.
-
Sunstone looked behind him and saw a familiar sight: the dark eyes of Queen Wasp.
He saw her in almost every dream.  Some of the dreams were about that weird plant and the dragon with the snakes.  He couldn’t figure out what the ones about the plant meant.
Wasp was circling around Sunstone.  He realized that he couldn’t move, but he wasn’t tied up.  Queen Wasp’s tail, which had a stinger, was dangerously close to stabbing him.
“You’re mine now,” she hissed.  Her voice reminded Sunstone more of a snake than a dragon.  “I will get them too.  Just you wait.”  She smiled coldly and stared into his eyes.
“I’ve been waiting for so long… now I can finally have you,” she whispered.  What was that supposed to mean?  Did it mean that she had finally captured the runaway flamesilk dragon?
Sunstone felt like it meant more than that.
Wasp grabbed Sunstone’s neck and dug her claws into him.  He couldn’t do anything about it.  He felt her stab his leg with her stinger.  She let go of Sunstone and he fell onto the ground.
“You’re mine now.”
Wasp turned around and Sunstone stood up.  He didn’t try to stand up; he just did it.
Sunstone realized what the queen meant.
He was under her control.
-
Sunstone woke up.  He felt cold, even with the flamesilk under him.  It wasn’t real.  It wasn’t real.  There’s no way she can control SilkWings.
Something still felt wrong.
He stood up and looked around, and then sighed and laid down again.  A part of Sunbringer’s enchantment was to probably make him keep being scared of the dreams, even though they weren’t real.  The dreams were specifically about things on Pantala.  There was never anything about Pyrrhia.  That probably had something to do with the enchantment.
The moons were still high in the sky, so not much time had passed.  Sunstone decided to keep flying, since he’d need to stop Sunbringer as soon as he could.  He took the flamesilk and wore it on his back.  The mountains were colder than he was used to.
Sunstone spread his wings and started flying again.  He tried to ignore the fact that he was so tired that his head started to hurt and that his wings seemed like they were going to fall off.  He needed to get to Sunbringer and stop him.  How he was going to do it wasn’t decided yet, so he tried to think of a plan on the way.
“I could sneak up on him,” he said to himself quietly.  “Then I could, uh, jump on him and hold my talons on his snout so he can’t say enchantments.  Wait, wouldn’t it be weird to the others if I just attacked him?  I could be like, ‘Oh hey, Sunbringer’s an evil dragon and he’s enchanted me to have bad dreams and I think he also enchanted Cinder.”  But then they would just say I’m crazy so that wouldn’t work.”
Sunstone sighed and tried to keep his eyes open.  He couldn’t sleep, since he would just have the dreams again.  He didn’t want to see Queen Wasp or the weird LeafWing with snakes again.
He failed at keeping himself awake, and fell both asleep and into the mountains below.
Chapter 16
When Sunstone woke up, he had a headache and his tail, neck, and wings felt like they were on fire.
He looked around at where he was at.  He was in a ravine in the mountains.  It seemed like it was the place where he fell.  He looked behind him at his body and saw that his wings and tail were covered in dried blood.  Sunstone reached up to his neck with one of his talons and felt it.  It was covered in dried blood, too.
It was midday, and the sun shone brightly on Sunstone.
“You’re awake.”
Startled, Sunstone turned in the direction the voice came from.  A bright red dragon was sitting on a rock.  He had large wings that had lighter red veins running through them.  His scales seemed to have smoke rise from them.  He looked to be about Sunstone’s age.
The most unusual thing about him was his eyes.  They were blue, and looked like someone had lit the sky on fire.  They were intimidating, but they were also beautiful at the same time.
“I found you here, and I couldn’t really do anything about it,” the strange dragon said.  “I’d burn you to a crisp.”
Sunstone turned his head sideways.  “How?” he asked.
“I was born with too much fire.  Some SkyWings are born like that.  Normally, my tribe would have killed me right after I hatched, but my mother laid my egg after hiding from the rest of the tribe,” he explained.  “What’s that stuff on your back?  It looks cool.  Not like the temperature.  It sort of looks like it’s on fire.”
It took a moment for Sunstone to realize he was talking about his flamesilk.  “It’s flamesilk,” he answered.  “My tribe, which you probably don’t know of since it’s from another continent, is able to make silk and I can make a special fiery silk.”
The dragon smiled.  “That’s cool.  And I guess it’s something we have in common.  I mean, with having weird fire powers.”  He flicked his tail.  “I’m Phoenix.  And you’re..?
“Sunstone.”  He took the flamesilk off of his back.  “Why don’t you see if you can burn this?”
He handed it to Phoenix, who was being very careful to not touch Sunstone.  The flamesilk stayed the same; no burning to a crisp, like Phoenix said Sunstone would if they touched.
“So, what’s a dragon from another continent doing here on Pyrrhia?” Phoenix asked.  “I didn’t even know there were any other continents.”
Sunstone explained the entire story of finding Clearsight’s Map with Clearwing and Staffer, then being attacked by HiveWings, Sun dying, Pepper’s wings being destroyed, and finally flying to Pyrrhia.  He also told Phoenix about the Wasp Hive Chrysalis, and all of his opinions about the others.  Even his crush on Clearwing.  Phoenix seemed just a little sad when Sunstone mentioned it, but he couldn’t figure out why.
Phoenix listened closely to every word Sunstone said.  He even asked questions, like “Why is Atlas mad at you if you did nothing wrong?” and “How long did it take to fly to Pyrrhia?”
It was great having Phoenix listen to him tell his story.
Sunstone knew he probably shouldn’t have told so much personal information to a strange dragon who could kill him by touching him, but there was something about Phoenix that made Sunstone trust him.
“Can I tell you about myself?” Phoenix asked.
“Of course,” Sunstone answered.
Phoenix told Sunstone about his life.  He hatched in a cave, and his mother was the only dragon he’d know for three years of his life, until he flew away one day and came into the desert.  He met some dragons, and became their friends until he accidentally scarred the talons of one of them and the others forced him to leave.  He came back to his mother’s cave, but she was gone.  He looked for her and only found lots of SkyWings who hated him for being an “evil fire monster.”  He mostly lived alone for the rest of his life, until he found Sunstone unconscious in the ravine.
Sunstone then remembered the burn scars on her talons, and that she had mentioned a dragon named Phoenix.
“I think I know who the dragons you found when you were three,” he said.
Phoenix widened his fiery eyes.  “Really? Describe them.”
“Three of them.  A big NightWing with weird orange eyes.  Kind of suspicious.  A SandWing, his wife.  And their daughter.  Her wings are grey and her SandWing frill and horns are black.  She has gray and black splotches and the rest of her is normal SandWing colors.  Excited about lots of things and seems to know literally everyone on this continent.”
“That’s… exactly how I’d describe them,” Phoenix answered.  “The dad is really suspicious.  He looks like he wants to everyone except his wife and daughter.  But he also doesn’t look murderous.  It’s weird.”
It was nice to have a dragon who finally understood Sunstone.  His other friends understood him, but not as much as Phoenix.  They both had “weird fire powers.”  They both had accidentally hurt someone, except Sunstone blinding one of the dragons in the flamesilk cavern didn’t affect his life in the way it did to Phoenix.  They both were supposed to be extremely dangerous, but never tried to hurt anyone just because they were evil dragons with weird powers and they didn’t like anyone.
Sunstone felt like he could talk to Phoenix all day.  And, they did.
They spent the rest of the day asking each other questions about their continents.  Sunstone told Phoenix about the HiveWings and the Tree Wars.  Phoenix told Sunstone about the seven tribes and the stories about them he’d heard from his mother,
They talked until they noticed that the sky had turned shades of orange and pink.  Sunstone then remembered that he needed to stop Sunbringer.
Phoenix yawned.  “I guess it’s time to sleep.”
“Uh, I forgot to say something,” Sunstone said.  He lightly tapped his talons on the stone, and his wings twitched.
“What?”
“I think the NightWing of those three dragons, Sunbringer is an animus, and has been enchanting me and my friends.”
Phoenix’s eyes widened.  “What do you think he did?”
“He’s enchanted me so that I keep having bad dreams, and Cinder- his daughter- sometimes acts weird.”  He lowered his head a little.  “It’s hard to explain.”
Phoenix lashed his tail back and forth, accidentally burning the pieces of grass poking out of the cracks in the rocks.  Even more smoke than before came from his scales.  “How could anyone do something like that to other dragons?”  His voice was louder and angrier.  “I mean, how hard is it to be a decent dragon?  We both have powers and we don’t do terrible things to other dragons!”
“That’s why I’m trying to stop him,” Sunstone said.  “I don’t know how.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Is that a good idea?”  Sunstone wanted Phoenix to come, but he was scared of what Sunbringer might do to his new friend.
“You need all the help you can get,” said Phoenix.  “So why not?”
“You’re right,” said Sunstone.  “I know where he lives.  I can lead you.”
Phoenix spread his red wings.  “Then let’s go get him.”
When Sunstone woke up, he had a headache and his tail, neck, and wings felt like they were on fire.
He looked around at where he was at.  He was in a ravine in the mountains.  It seemed like it was the place where he fell.  He looked behind him at his body and saw that his wings and tail were covered in dried blood.  Sunstone reached up to his neck with one of his talons and felt it.  It was covered in dried blood, too.
It was midday, and the sun shone brightly on Sunstone.
“You’re awake.”
Startled, Sunstone turned in the direction the voice came from.  A bright red dragon was sitting on a rock.  He had large wings that had lighter red veins running through them.  His scales seemed to have smoke rise from them.  He looked to be about Sunstone’s age.
The most unusual thing about him was his eyes.  They were blue, and looked like someone had lit the sky on fire.  They were intimidating, but they were also beautiful at the same time.
“I found you here, and I couldn’t really do anything about it,” the strange dragon said.  “I’d burn you to a crisp.”
Sunstone turned his head sideways.  “How?” he asked.
“I was born with too much fire.  Some SkyWings are born like that.  Normally, my tribe would have killed me right after I hatched, but my mother laid my egg after hiding from the rest of the tribe,” he explained.  “What’s that stuff on your back?  It looks cool.  Not like the temperature.  It sort of looks like it’s on fire.”
It took a moment for Sunstone to realize he was talking about his flamesilk.  “It’s flamesilk,” he answered.  “My tribe, which you probably don’t know of since it’s from another continent, is able to make silk and I can make a special fiery silk.”
The dragon smiled.  “That’s cool.  And I guess it’s something we have in common.  I mean, with having weird fire powers.”  He flicked his tail.  “I’m Phoenix.  And you’re..?
“Sunstone.”  He took the flamesilk off of his back.  “Why don’t you see if you can burn this?”
He handed it to Phoenix, who was being very careful to not touch Sunstone.  The flamesilk stayed the same; no burning to a crisp, like Phoenix said Sunstone would if they touched.
“So, what’s a dragon from another continent doing here on Pyrrhia?” Phoenix asked.  “I didn’t even know there were any other continents.”
Sunstone explained the entire story of finding Clearsight’s Map with Clearwing and Staffer, then being attacked by HiveWings, Sun dying, Pepper’s wings being destroyed, and finally flying to Pyrrhia.  He also told Phoenix about the Wasp Hive Chrysalis, and all of his opinions about the others.  Even his crush on Clearwing.  Phoenix seemed just a little sad when Sunstone mentioned it, but he couldn’t figure out why.
Phoenix listened closely to every word Sunstone said.  He even asked questions, like “Why is Atlas mad at you if you did nothing wrong?” and “How long did it take to fly to Pyrrhia?”
It was great having Phoenix listen to him tell his story.
Sunstone knew he probably shouldn’t have told so much personal information to a strange dragon who could kill him by touching him, but there was something about Phoenix that made Sunstone trust him.
“Can I tell you about myself?” Phoenix asked.
“Of course,” Sunstone answered.
Phoenix told Sunstone about his life.  He hatched in a cave, and his mother was the only dragon he’d know for three years of his life, until he flew away one day and came into the desert.  He met some dragons, and became their friends until he accidentally scarred the talons of one of them and the others forced him to leave.  He came back to his mother’s cave, but she was gone.  He looked for her and only found lots of SkyWings who hated him for being an “evil fire monster.”  He mostly lived alone for the rest of his life, until he found Sunstone unconscious in the ravine.
Sunstone then remembered the burn scars on her talons, and that she had mentioned a dragon named Phoenix.
“I think I know who the dragons you found when you were three,” he said.
Phoenix widened his fiery eyes.  “Really? Describe them.”
“Three of them.  A big NightWing with weird orange eyes.  Kind of suspicious.  A SandWing, his wife.  And their daughter.  Her wings are grey and her SandWing frill and horns are black.  She has gray and black splotches and the rest of her is normal SandWing colors.  Excited about lots of things and seems to know literally everyone on this continent.”
“That’s… exactly how I’d describe them,” Phoenix answered.  “The dad is really suspicious.  He looks like he wants to everyone except his wife and daughter.  But he also doesn’t look murderous.  It’s weird.”
It was nice to have a dragon who finally understood Sunstone.  His other friends understood him, but not as much as Phoenix.  They both had “weird fire powers.”  They both had accidentally hurt someone, except Sunstone blinding one of the dragons in the flamesilk cavern didn’t affect his life in the way it did to Phoenix.  They both were supposed to be extremely dangerous, but never tried to hurt anyone just because they were evil dragons with weird powers and they didn’t like anyone.
Sunstone felt like he could talk to Phoenix all day.  And, they did.
They spent the rest of the day asking each other questions about their continents.  Sunstone told Phoenix about the HiveWings and the Tree Wars.  Phoenix told Sunstone about the seven tribes and the stories about them he’d heard from his mother,
They talked until they noticed that the sky had turned shades of orange and pink.  Sunstone then remembered that he needed to stop Sunbringer.
Phoenix yawned.  “I guess it’s time to sleep.”
“Uh, I forgot to say something,” Sunstone said.  He lightly tapped his talons on the stone, and his wings twitched.
“What?”
“I think the NightWing of those three dragons, Sunbringer is an animus, and has been enchanting me and my friends.”
Phoenix’s eyes widened.  “What do you think he did?”
“He’s enchanted me so that I keep having bad dreams, and Cinder- his daughter- sometimes acts weird.”  He lowered his head a little.  “It’s hard to explain.”
Phoenix lashed his tail back and forth, accidentally burning the pieces of grass poking out of the cracks in the rocks.  Even more smoke than before came from his scales.  “How could anyone do something like that to other dragons?”  His voice was louder and angrier.  “I mean, how hard is it to be a decent dragon?  We both have powers and we don’t do terrible things to other dragons!”
“That’s why I’m trying to stop him,” Sunstone said.  “I don’t know how.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Is that a good idea?”  Sunstone wanted Phoenix to come, but he was scared of what Sunbringer might do to his new friend.
“You need all the help you can get,” said Phoenix.  “So why not?”
“You’re right,” said Sunstone.  “I know where he lives.  I can lead you.”
Phoenix spread his red wings.  “Then let’s go get him.”
Chapter 17
As Phoenix and Sunstone flew through the mountains, they tried not to touch each other.  Phoenix didn’t want Sunstone to get burnt, and neither did Sunstone.
Sunstone lead the way, and Phoenix followed him.  The entire time, they talked about their plans to defeat Sunbringer.  Each of their suggestions had some kind of flaw about them.  “Maybe I could burn him,” said Phoenix.  “I don’t usually like hurting dragons, but this is kind of important.”
“What would we do after that?  Just hold his mouth closed while I explain to my friends that he’s an evil dragon?”
Phoenix sighed.  “What else can we do?  Find another animus?  I think the SeaWings have animus dragons.”
“How will you get to them in time? What if they don’t have any right now?”
“I’ll fly really fast.  I’m pretty sure I’ve had more practice flying than other SkyWings, since that’s all I’ve really done since I was three.”  He flew down and under Sunstone.  He flew even faster and came up into the sky, over the mountains, and did a loop.  Phoenix flew differently than the other dragons he’d met; he was more swift and seemed to know what he was doing even more than everyone else.
“So, does this mean we have to split up?” Sunstone asked.  He tried to hide his sadness, but it didn’t work.
“I guess it does,” Phoenix answered.  “Maybe I can wear some of your flamesilk around my wrist, so I can remind myself we’ll see each other again.”
Sunstone lifted a talon and let flamesilk pour out of it.  He made enough so that it could be long and thick enough to tie around Phoenix’s wrist.  He carefully handed it to the red SkyWing.  He made some for himself as well, as Phoenix tied it around his right wrist.  Sunstone did the same thing with his flamesilk.
They smiled at each other sadly and flew separate ways, to the Kingdom of the Sea and to Cinder’s home.
-
Sunstone was exhausted when he finally reached the desert.  Cinder’s home was still far away, and it seemed like he would never make it there in time.  It had taken two days to fly to the desert, and Cinder’s home was on the other side of the desert.
He sighed quietly and flew some more.  The sun was starting to set, turning the sky orange, red, pink, and purple.  Sunstone landed on the sand and dug a hole big enough for him to sleep in for the night.  He stepped out of the hole and looked around for something to eat.
There were barely any plants, and Sunstone didn’t know which ones were edible.  He saw a tall cactus similar to a tree, which would probably be enough for Sunstone to eat.  He realized that he didn’t know how to cut it without hurting himself, but he tried anyway.
It was painful, but eventually Sunstone cut through the cactus.  The cactus was hard to cut through, and the thorns kept stabbing his talons.  When he was done, he scooped out the inside with his claws and tasted it.  It tasted horrible, but it was the only thing Sunstone could find.
When he was done eating the cactus, the sun was almost down.  He came back to the hole he dug and curled up in it.  The desert was cold at night, so he needed to stay warm.
Sunstone closed his eyes and fell asleep.
-
Claws dug into his chest.  He couldn’t see them, but they felt sharper than normal claws.  Sunstone tried to turn around and see the dragon, but they just held him even tighter.
Sunstone recognized the surroundings as Wasp Hive, with HiveWings flying around and SilkWing servants following them.  Suddenly, the HiveWings stopped.  Their heads turned quickly to look at Sunstone.  The claws dug further into him, and he felt blood slowly come out and drip onto the floor.
The white eyes of the mind-controlled HiveWings stared at Sunstone, and it felt like every living thing on the continent was looking at him.  Even the SilkWings stopped what they were doing and looked at Sunstone.
“Capture the thief, and kill him,” the HiveWings all said at the same time.
Sunstone grabbed the talons that were holding him and threw them off.  He started running, and didn’t even look to see the dragon who was holding him.  He heard the noise of all HiveWings flying all at once.  It was eerie, with all of the talking gone except for the SilkWings whispering to each other.
Sunstone looked behind him, and was alarmed to see a HiveWing a bit too close to him.  He was large with red and orange scales, and black spots dappled his scales like the sunlight in the gaps between the leaves in the rainforest.  He held a long spear, similar to the one Wasp held in Sunstone’s first dream.
The HiveWing raised his arm that held the spear, and angled it towards Sunstone.  Sunstone ran even faster, and used his wings to push himself forwards.  He felt a sharp pain in his neck, and looked down to see the spear had been thrown right into it.
-
Sunstone woke up.  He reminded himself that it wasn’t real and was just a dream, although his throat seemed to hurt a little.  He let out a few shaky breaths and looked to the sky.  One of the moons had already disappeared under the horizon, and the other two were close by.  The sun was a large orange-red circle that was just coming up, and making the sky closest to the horizon into fiery colors.
He realized how much he missed his friends, and even Phoenix, who he’d only talked to for a day and a half.  Sunstone reminded himself that he needed to hurry and find Sunbringer.  He stood up and looked around for more cacti to eat.  The cacti themselves didn’t taste good, but they probably fed Sunstone.  That was all that mattered at the time.
That and stopping Sunbringer.
Sunstone looked around for some more things he could eat.  A few dead-looking plants came up from the sandy ground in a tangle of thin wood branches, but that was mostly it.  Sometimes, Sunstone could spot a few birds in the sky, but they would soon disappear into the sky.
After flying for a few minutes, Sunstone found a cluster of cacti.  They were flat and had less spikes than the first cactus Sunstone had eaten.  Fruits that were a color between purple and dark pink grew on them.  They seemed like the most edible plants in the entire desert, so he landed near them.
As he looked closer, Sunstone thought he recognized the fruits from Cinder’s home.  He took the fruits off of the cacti and made a pile of them.  He took one and sliced it open.  On the inside, it was juicy.  Sunstone took a bite out of the fruit.  It tasted sweet, and was a huge improvement on the last cactus.  He wondered if the last cactus was even supposed to be eaten.
After Sunstone was done eating the fruits, he put the leftover fruits in his pouch.  He was careful to keep them away from Clearsight’s Map.  Sunstone spread his wings and started flying again.
-
The desert seemed even hotter and barren than the last time Sunstone had flown through it.  Maybe it was another enchantment of Sunbringer’s: to either enchant the desert to be even worse, or to enchant Sunstone to be more miserable there.  It’s probably both, he thought.
Sunstone could see Cinder’s home on the horizon.  That was good, since he was almost out of the fruits and he hadn’t spotted any more when he was out flying.  A spark of hope emerged in Sunstone’s mind, and his wings carried him through the desert even faster than before.
Maybe Phoenix had found a SeaWing animus in time, and they were flying there right now.  Even better, they might have even been there already!
Chapter 18
Sunstone flew as fast as he could to Cinder’s home.  He landed clumsily on the sand, and he fell over.  He got up quickly and hid.  He didn’t want Sunbringer to know he was there, since it would ruin the element of surprise.
“Are they back yet?” Staffer’s  voice said.
“Not that I’ve seen.”  That was Pepper.
“Should we look for them?”
“No, Poison Ivy and Atlas should be back soon.  They’ve probably found them already.”
So Atlas and whoever Poison Ivy was, probably one of the LeafWings,  were out looking for Cinder, Sunstone, Clearwing, and Thistle.  Sunstone wondered what the others were doing; he hadn’t seen them since he escaped from the NightWing prison.
“Everyone will be back soon,” promised Sunbringer.  Did that mean that he enchanted them to come back?  Or was that just him knowing they’d come back?  It was hard to tell, especially with Sunbringer.
“I think I heard someone outside,” said Pepper.  “I’m going to check it out.”
That couldn’t be good.  She’d tell everyone he was there and his plans would be ruined.  Sunstone heard the familiar talonsteps of Pepper coming outside.  Her face lit up when she saw Sunstone.
He put one of his claws in front of his mouth, and thought, Stay quiet, as if he could communicate to her with his thoughts.  She followed Sunstone to another side of the house, away from Staffer and Sunbringer.
“You can talk now, but quietly,” he whispered.
Pepper hugged him.  “You’re back!  Where did you go?  We were all worried.”
“I don’t have much time to explain, but I learned about a kind of dragon called an animus dragon, and they can use magic to do whatever they want,” Sunstone explained.  He sighed.  Pepper might not believe him, but he decided to try anyway.  “I think- I think Sunbringer is one of those dragons.  He’s been hiding it and using it to manipulate us.”
Pepper stared at Sunstone in disbelief.  He stared back, hoping she trusted him as much as he thought the spotted dragon did.
“Is there any proof?” she asked.  “I want to believe you, but, it’s just… hard to believe.”
“After we found the LeafWings, he said something under his breath and then Cinder started acting weird.  Also, I’ve had terrible dreams every time I sleep and no matter how much I know they’re not real and can’t affect me physically, they’re still terrifying.  I think he did that.”
Pepper looked down.  “How does the magic work?” she asked.
“An animus has to enchant something.  I think he’s enchanting dragons themselves, like an animus named Darkstalker did to make his own father die,” Sunstone explained.  “Please trust me.  I think the NightWings know about him, since they seem uncomfortable every time they talk about it.”
“Alright,” Pepper whispered.  “I trust you.  I don’t think anyone else will, especially the LeafWings and Atlas.”
“I know.  You can distract Sunbringer while I sneak in and close his snout and explain the bad stuff he’s done.”
“I’ll give you some kind of signal.”
Sunstone nodded and Pepper came back into Cinder’s home.  Sunstone looked for places where he could easily jump in and attack Sunbringer.  He finally found a window big enough for him to jump through, and he waited.
“Nobody was there,” said Pepper.  “I looked.”
“Alright.  So when are the others coming back?” asked Staffer.  Sunstone couldn’t see him, but he seemed a little off.  Probably from Sunbringer.
“I’m sure at least one of them will be back soon,” Pepper said a little loudly.  Sunstone climbed through the window and leaped onto Sunbringer’s back.  He climbed up the NightWing’s neck and onto his head, and he took his talons and closed Sunbringer’s mouth shut.
“You’re back!” said Staffer.  “But… what are you doing?”
Sunstone struggled to hold on to Sunbringer.  “Saving us,” he said.  “Sunbringer’s an animus.”
“A what?” asked Staffer.  Sunstone realized that he forgot to tell him what an animus was.
“A dragon who can enchant anything, including dragons, and they can do some pretty terrible stuff,” Sunstone answered.  “He’s been enchanting us to make our lives miserable or for us to trust him.”
“Why would he do that?  That’s ridiculous.  He’s been being nice to us.”
Sunbringer put his head on the ground and pushed Sunstone off with his talons.  “If you’d let me explain, you would understand I’m not ‘evil’ or even trying to be,” he growled.  Sunstone got up and turned around to face Sunbringer.  “I just want everyone to be happy.”
“Yeah right.  Wow, terrifying dreams every time I sleep!  Those just make me so happy!” Sunstone replied sarcastically.  “What next, you’re going to enchant lots of spears to stab me and say it was because I have too much blood?”
Sunbringer lifted his enormous head up.  “I’ve been trying to show you how dangerous it is back on your continent.  You can’t go back; it’s too dangerous.  Why would you go back there if you have a nice, safe continent here?”
Sunstone hesitated.  “I… have to save all of the dragons there.  I need to help stop Queen Wasp.”
“And what dragons could you save by defeating Queen Wasp?  The HiveWings will just use their powers to keep abusing and enslaving SilkWings.  There’s no use trying to stop them; there’s only one of you and the world is better off with you here.”
“I have a family,” Sunstone answered.  “I could save them.”
“And for how many years have you not seen them?  You’ve been perfectly fine without them.”
Sunstone knew he wasn’t.  He tried not to think about the day he emerged from his cocoon and found out his family had been ripped away from him.
“Where am I?” five year-old Sunstone had asked when he came out of his cocoon.  A HiveWing guard came up to him.
“This is the flamesilk cavern.  You’re going to be here for the rest of your life,” he answered.  “Why don’t you get… comfortable.”  He barked out a laugh that sounded almost amused.
Sunstone sighed quietly and looked around.  There were SilkWings pouring fiery-looking silk into cauldrons, and others sleeping.  Above, the ceiling was glass and HiveWings looked into the cavern.  HiveWing guards were in the cavern, watching the SilkWings.  Sunstone approached one of the SilkWings pouring weird-looking silk into the cauldrons.  
“Um, hi?” he said to the SilkWing.  He was thin, and had teal scales.  He had streaks of gold in his wings, and his underbelly was a pale mint green color.
The SilkWing looked at Sunstone.  “Oh!  You must be the new flamesilk.  Go talk to someone over there,” he pointed to a group of SilkWings, “and they’ll try to find your parent here.  They’re probably the nicest SilkWings here.”
Sunstone sighed and went to where he pointed to.  Three SilkWings sat on a ledge.  One of them, who was probably the oldest, was mostly blue with a bright purple back.  His wings were also blue.  He was probably over fifty years old.  Another was a lot younger, with orange and white-gray scales.  The other one was green, with a yellow underbelly and wings that were a mix between the two colors.  He was also sleeping.
“Hello! You must be the new one here,” said the orange SilkWing.  “I’m Copper, and these are Blue and Emeraldwing.”
Blue nodded and Emeraldwing still slept.  “I know what it feels like,” said Blue, “to find yourself here and realize you’re away from your family.  My only family here was my sister, who came here a few days before I did, and my father.  We’ll help you feel like you belong here.  Don’t worry.”
That was when Sunstone realized that there was no way out.  No escaping.  He would never see his family again, except his father, who was in the flamesilk cavern.  He tried his hardest not to cry.  He’s never see the sun, and feel its warm light.  He’d never look up to the stars and try to count them, and he would never see the moons go from a small sliver in the sky to a complete circle.
Blue must have noticed that Sunstone was about to cry, because he got up and put a blue wing around Sunstone.
Of course, it wouldn’t have been long before Sunstone escaped and found the chrysalis.  He’d then go through six years of sneaking around in Wasp Hive, stealing things from Queen Wasp to use against her.  Then, he found the map and flew to Pyrrhia.
“No.  I’ll stop Queen Wasp and I’ll find my family.  I know they’ll be happy to see me.”
Sunbringer’s facial expression didn’t change.  “Alright then.  But I’ve been keeping everyone perfectly happy.  I’ve kept Cinder as a naive, happy dragonet for nine years of her life and It’ll stay that way,” he said.
Sunstone looked into his orange eyes.  “How will she feel about you manipulating her?”
“She’ll be perfectly fine.  Just like it should be.  Our family will be happy, and it will go on until we all die.”  Sunbringer looked at Sunstone, then Pepper, then Staffer.  “Don’t you three all want everyone to be happy?  Isn’t that why you tried to stop Queen Wasp in the first place?”
Sunstone hesitated.  He did want dragons to be happy.  He wanted them to be out of control of Queen Wasp.
“If you want to be happy, and have no worries, why not right now?” asked Sunbringer.  “All it takes is one spell, a few short words.  All of your worries will be gone and you’ll all live a good life.”
“If we agree to this, what else will happen?” asked Pepper.  “Any secrets you’re hiding from us?”
“No.  I’ll let you leave and you can all go find a nice home.  I can even make one for you.  You’ll be completely happy.”  He closed his eyes.  “I once had a vision, many years ago, of dragons from Pyrrhia and a continent I didn’t know of at the time, living together in peace.  You and your friends could lead us to that future.”
Sunstone, Pepper, and Staffer looked at each other.  That was what they wanted.  They wanted dragons of different tribes, all living together in peace.  Sunstone remembered when he first joined the chrysalis, and it was explained to him that their goal was taking down Queen Wasp and having SilkWings and HiveWings be free.  They could live in peace.
Sunstone sighed.  It was tempting to be free from his problems, and the problems of the world.  He closed his eyes and imagined the future Sunbringer had described.
“No,” said Sunstone, Pepper, and Staffer, almost in unison.
“What do you mean ‘no’?” roared Sunbringer.  “You’ll get everything you want here.”
He was lying.  If they really got everything they wanted, Queen Wasp would be dead.  All of Sunbringer’s enchantments would be gone.  “We won’t,” Sunstone answered.  “You’ll just trick us and you’ll be the one to get what you want.”
Sunbringer narrowed his bright orange eyes.  “Why would I do that?  I’ve been keeping you all safe and-”
“If you really kept us safe, then three of my friends wouldn’t be on the other side of the continent in the NightWing prison!” Sunstone yelled.  He shot flamesilk at Sunbringer’s face and bolted out of the door.  He could still find Phoenix, and they could find a SeaWing animus to help stop Sunbringer.  Before he enchants us to not do that, or something.
Sunstone flapped his orange wings as hard as he could and flew east.  He was pretty sure the Kingdom of the Sea was in that direction.  He remembered islands in the shape of a dragon’s tail that were east of the desert.  If he flew there, maybe he could be safe.  Maybe he could find Phoenix.
He flew for hours.  Nothing happened.  Sunstone flew through the desert without any interruptions.  The moons were high in the sky, and he felt a cool breeze lift him into the sky.
It was finally peaceful.
But then, Sunstone remembered his dreams.  He remembered Queen Moonwanderer throwing them into her prison.  It seemed like on the “peaceful” continent Sunbringer described, there would still be dragons constantly fighting each other.  Sunstone closed his eyes and thought about when he found Clearsight’s Map.
He remembered picking up the map, not knowing what it was.  He remembered the look on Staffer and Clearwing’s faces as Sunstone showed them what he’d found.  He remembered running back to the Chrysalis, and showing everyone else the map.  Before Atlas hated him.  Before Pepper couldn’t fly anymore and Sun was dead.
It seemed like forever ago, even though it was just a few weeks.
Sunstone opened his eyes and flew even faster.  He decided he was going to find Phoenix.  Together they were going to find a SeaWing animus and stop Sunbringer.
He knew he had to do it.
Chapter 19
-Phoenix-
“What do you mean I can’t see your animus?” Phoenix asked.  Of course, he already knew why.  The SeaWings were scared he would set her on fire.  And why would he?  Phoenix had never killed any dragons before, and he didn’t plan on doing that any time soon.
“We are not allowing any SkyWing visitors into the Summer Palace.  Not after the attack on it,” answered one of the two SeaWing guards he found.  He was teal, with dark blue stripes on his tail.  One of his back talons was extremely burnt and had a few claws missing.
“That was fifty years ago!” said Phoenix.  Apparently SeaWings weren’t good at coming up with reasons why a completely not murderous dragon shouldn’t be allowed in their precious palace.
“And it took twenty-two years to rebuild the Summer Palace,” said the other SeaWing.  He was a light gray-green color.
Phoenix sighed.  What would his mother have done?  “Can I have ONE animus-touched object from them?  Preferably one that makes it so that I’m not affected by spells by another animus named Sunbringer.  Oh, and it has to be made of stone if I have to touch it.”  Did he seem suspicious?  Did the SeaWings think he was just avoiding having an animus keep him from hurting others?
“We’ll see,” the teal SeaWing said with a shrug.  He and his friend, or at least he seemed like a friend, swam into the water.  Phoenix wished he had Sunstone with him.  Sunstone was the first dragon other than his mother who’d ever actually wanted to talk to him.
Phoenix touched the flamesilk he wore.  Soon, he thought.  Soon we’ll defeat Sunbringer and we’ll all be happy and NOT having an animus cast spells on us all the time.
He waited patiently, like how he used to do in his cave when he was waiting for his mother to come back from her hunting trips.  Phoenix looked around at the ocean waves hitting against the shore, and the distant islands.  This was the first time he’d been anywhere near the ocean.
About an hour later, the two SeaWings returned.  The gray-green one held a rock armband.  Or, at least Phoenix thought it was an armband.  It looked mostly like a large ring.
The SeaWing put the armband down onto the sand.  He quickly backed away as Phoenix came closer.  Phoenix smiled at the SeaWing, but it must have looked more like an “I’m going to kill you, ha ha!” smile than a “thank you” smile, because the SeaWing just looked even more scared.
“Thanks,” he said.  If this works, he added silently.  Phoenix’s mother told him the rumors of animus dragons losing a bit of their soul with each spell, but Phoenix never believed them.  The SeaWings probably believed them, so their animus might have not even used their powers at all.
Before saying a word, the two SeaWings darted back into the water, leaving Phoenix alone again.  He slipped the armband onto his arm, the one without the flamesilk on it, and spread his wings.  Phoenix flew away with quick, powerful strokes of his red wings.
Soon, the Bay of a Thousand Scales was far behind him and he was flying in the Mud Kingdom.  The sun started to set, so he found a large mud puddle with barely any plants and laid there.  The mud stuck to his scales, and it started to harden.  Phoenix closed his eyes and fell asleep.
-
Phoenix woke up to a MudWing screeching at him and an alligator being thrown at his face.  He opened his blue eyes and looked at the MudWing.
“What’d I do?” he asked.  The MudWing just ran away.  Phoenix stood up and started breaking off the dried mud on his scales.  Some of the mud still stuck to him, but he decided that finding Sunstone would be the best thing to do.  It’s what his mother would have done.
He flew as fast as he could to get out of the Mud Kingdom.  The sooner he was away from dragons who threw random things at his face, the better.
Phoenix wondered when he would see Sunstone again while he flew over the mud-covered land.  He’d occasionally touch the flamesilk around his wrist, and the armband too, but more rarely.  He would also occasionally claw at the dried mud on his scales and try to get it off.
He flew for hours, and decided to stop when his wings were so tired that they felt like they would fall off.  He was almost in the Claws of the Clouds Mountains, and the ground was mostly dry.  Trees were scattered around, where birds sat, asleep.  The moons were high in the sky; one was almost full, and the other two were half full.  He creeped around to find prey, and he caught and burned two goats and a bird.
Phoenix laid on the rockiest place he could find, closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep, knowing he and Sunstone would be re-united.
-
“I found you!”
Phoenix woke up, startled, and he got up as quickly as he could.  He then realized the dragon who spoke was Sunstone.  The SilkWing grinned, and so did Phoenix.
“Did you find the SeaWing animus?” Sunstone asked in a more serious tone.  He stood on a rock slightly higher than Phoenix.
“Kind of.”
“Kind of?”
“I wasn’t allowed to actually see them, but I got something,” Phoenix explained.  He held up his arm and showed Sunstone the armband.
“What does it do?” Sunstone asked.  “Does it take away the magic of an animus?  Or make any dragon you want not able to talk and enchant things?”
“It just- it just makes me immune to his spells,” Phoenix answered.  “Those other things would be useful.  I didn’t think of that, since I’ve never made an ‘Enchantments that would be useful’ list.”
Sunstone laughed.  “What about ‘Ways to stop an animus’ or ‘Reasons Sunbringer is terrible.”
Phoenix grinned.  He was glad to have Sunstone back.  He wished Sunstone would have been able to meet his mother; she was the most caring dragon he’d ever met (other than Sunstone), and it seemed like she’d always known what to do in situations.
He remembered the stories his mother told him when he was little.  She told him about being a soldier in the SkyWing kingdom under Queen Autumn, then living in Possibility and being a guard there.  Then she joined the Talons of Peace, and had Phoenix.  Phoenix had tried to find the Talons of Peace, but that usually ended in having rocks and other things thrown at him.  That wasn’t fun.
“Well, I have a list of ways we can get animus-touched objects,” Sunstone said.
“What?”
“The NightWings.”
Chapter 20
-Phoenix-
“The NightWings?” asked Phoenix.  “Why them?  It would be easier to get animus-touched objects from the SeaWings.”
“I have a friend there,” explained Sunstone.  “And his siblings.”
Phoenix’s tail twitched.  He looked in the direction of the rainforest.  He knew he would never go there.  Not without setting the entire place on fire.
As if he was reading his mind, Sunstone said, “I think I know how to get you safely there.  Safely for the rainforest.”
Sunstone spread his beautiful orange wings and ascended from the rock ledge.  Phoenix followed questioningly.  He probably wouldn’t get there without setting at least some of the rainforest on fire.  He looked up and saw dark clouds stretch for miles overhead.
A raindrop landed on his snout, and made sizzling noises as it evaporated.  Several more landed on his wings, and Phoenix realized it had been raining.  He wondered how long it had been, since he wasn’t paying attention to the sky.  Sunstone’s wings were already wet, making his wings look like the morning sun reflected in the water and his back look like shiny-looking mud puddles.  Before going to the Kingdom of the Sea, then the Mud Kingdom, Phoenix would have thought they just looked brown and orange.
The jagged peaks of the mountains slowly just became dark silhouettes as the clouds thickened and the rain pelted everything in its way as if it was an avalanche of water.  Phoenix saw Jade Mountain in the distance and knew the rainforest was close.  He saw the tall, green trees.
Phoenix’s heart sank as he realized the rain didn’t reach the rainforest.
It was weird; it looked like a dragon had dug a hole in the clouds above the rainforest.  In fact, it looked too unnatural.  Probably Sunbringer’s magic, he guessed.  Was it possible to enchant the sky itself?  Or maybe it was an object that made the sky clear wherever the large NightWing wanted.
Phoenix looked at Jade Mountain again and tried to see any dragons near it.  He knew Jade Mountain Academy was there, but he had never gone near it in fear of the dragonets there attacking him somehow.  Phoenix remembered his mother telling him about the dragons who founded the school.  They were each in a prophecy, and they’d had to pick the next SandWing queen.
Clay was the MudWing, and apparently he had been the biggest of the dragonets.  Phoenix's mother told him that Clay had fireproof scales, and was friends with a dragon with firescales like him.  He wished Clay was still alive so he could finally have a dragon he could touch.
Tsunami was the head of the school, and the SeaWing princess.  According to his mother, her father had met Tsunami and said she was fierce, brave, and a perfect fit for her job.  Instead of challenging her mother Coral, she’d let her sister Anemone become queen, and Queen Anemone was the mother of the current SeaWing queen.
Glory, or Queen Glory, didn’t really go to the school very often.  Phoenix’s mother said that she’d only gone there twice.  She’d been challenged for the throne by a RainWing named Sparkling in some kind of contest, and then Sparkling was challenged by Graceful.
Starflight the NightWing was the librarian in the school.  He was blind, and another blind dragon named Tamarin had made scrolls that were made of stone, with the words carved into them so blind dragons could read.  His daughter Duskwatcher took his place as librarian after he died, and was still at Jade Mountain as far as Phoenix knew.
And finally, Sunny the SandWing.  Well, SandWing NightWing hybrid.  Her father was a NightWing, and an animus.  Sunny and Sunbringer must have been related, since animus magic was passed down genetically.  Sunny had dragonets, and one of them had challenged Sunny’s mother, Queen Thorn, and became the SandWing queen.
Phoenix had eagerly listened to the stories about them that his mother told him before she disappeared.  He wondered what the world would be life if they were still alive.
“We’re here,” said Sunstone.  Phoenix realized he’d  brought them to a place above the NightWing palace, where there was a tower coming through the canopy of the rainforest.  The tower was made of a dark rock, and the windows had no glass in them.  “See?  You could definitely get in through here.”
“It’s worth a try,” answered Phoenix.  He glided into the window, and he folded his wings once he was inside.  He headed to the stairs, which came down in a spiral, but then realized the flaw in Sunstone’s plan.
“Great,” Phoenix said.  “Wooden stairs.  How amazing.”
“You could… step on them really fast?  Fly over them?  I could put my flamesilk on the stairs and you can step on it.”
Phoenix sighed.  He stepped closer to the stairs and put a talon on them.  They started to burn, and Phoenix lifted his talon instantly.  They hadn’t caught on fire, but there were scorch marks on them.
Sunstone landed in the tower and stood next to Phoenix.  Well, close enough to be considered “next to him” and far enough away that he wouldn’t turn into a pile of ash.
“There has to be a way down them,” Sunstone said.
“Maybe I can tell my scales, ‘Hey scales, please stop burning everything, please, thank you,’ and go down the stairs.”
Sunstone laughed.  “Well, going down is the only thing we can do.”  He took a step down, and another, and another.  He walked until Phoenix could no longer even see his tail.
Phoenix followed, stepping as lightly as he could.  Sunstone almost ran down the stairs, and was already far below him.  Phoenix was slower, and left the stairs dark and burnt.  He hesitated for a second.
He accidentally burned right through the stairs, and Sunstone was right under him.
The SilkWing looked up at the noise, and almost got out of the way in time.  Phoenix landed on his tail, and it immediately set on fire.  Sunstone screeched, pulled his tail back, and started stomping on it with one of his back talons.  Phoenix burned through the stairs again, and again, until he fell to the bottom.  His talons hit the hard stone ground, and made a large thump.
“What idiot makes stairs out of stone but makes the rest of the palace out of rock?” Sunstone demanded.  He had made his way down the spiral staircase and was at the bottom with Phoenix.  The end of his tail had been charred and blackened.  The talon he used to put out the fire had soot on the claws.
“Obviously NOT someone who thought, ‘Hey, if there was a fire, then when the palace is on fire, the dragonets who can’t fly won’t be able to escape because SOMEBODY decided to make the stairs able to be burnt.’”
“Shh,” said Sunstone as he put one of his claws up to his mouth.  “Listen.”
Phoenix noticed talonsteps, heading in their direction.  A few NightWings heard them, and were coming their way.
The first NightWing was scrawny.  He held a spear, although he didn’t seem like he knew how to use it.  The second NightWing looked more like a NightWing RainWing hybrid.  His dark scales had shifted from blue, to acid green, to red.  Phoenix noticed he lacked the silver scales under his wings, and his spikes were shorter like a RainWing’s.  The third NightWing wore a silver cape, and she held a scroll in her talons.  It was hard to notice at first, but ink was smudged on her face and talons.
“Wh- who are you?” asked the NightWing with the spear.  His talons shook as he pointed it at Phoenix and Sunstone.  Sunstone hissed, and he jumped back and almost dropped the spear.
“Oh, it’s you!” said the NightWing with the cape.  She smiled at Sunstone.
“Um, hi,” said Sunstone.  “Where’s Fearhunter?  We kind of need to talk to him.”
“I can bring you to him,” she said.  “He’s trying to practice being a therapist with Knowledgeseeker.”
She lead the way to Fearhunter.  Down an endless amount of hallways.  Phoenix lost count at about thirty-eight.  She went so fast, as if she knew the palace as well as the back of her talons.
Eventually, they stopped at a room on the second floor.  Phoenix could hear talking, and when they came in, he saw two NightWings.  One was on a weird-looking stone bed, and the other one sat beside him.
“I just can’t figure it out,” said the NightWing on the bed.  “Are they like portals?  How do they make the walk so short?”  He had several scars on his talons, and dark scales like a cloudy night sky.  The NightWing wore a pouch around his neck, which was made out of some kind of material Phoenix had never seen before.
“Have you tried, uh, bringing a torch with you?” asked the other NightWing.  Beside his eyes, there were two scales that looked like silver teardrops.
“You already kn- hey! Look.”
The two NightWings were now looking at Phoenix, Sunstone, and the NightWing.
“Hi, Starwings,” said the NightWing with silver scales by his eyes.  “And Sunstone.  And mystery SkyWing.”
“Hi,” answered Sunstone.  “This is Phoenix.”
“Wait, are you what I think you are?” asked the NightWing on the bed excitedly.  “Are you a SkyWing with firescales?”  Phoenix nodded.  “Oh, that’s great!  I’ve always wondered about dragons like you.”
“Sunstone, this is Knowledgeseeker,” said the other NightWing.  “Hi, SkyWing.  My name is Fearhunter.  And, as I’ve learned to tell dragons right after meeting them, I can read minds.”
Chapter 21
-Phoenix-
“What have you seen in my mind?” Phoenix asked Fearhunter.  His red talons twitched nervously.
“I… don’t know actually.  It’s just fire, and I can’t really hear or see very much,” Fearhunter answered.  He turned to Sunstone.  “Aren’t you supposed to be in prison?”
“I escaped,” Sunstone explained.  Starwings and Knowledgeseeker stared at him in curiosity.  “I mean, I had no choice.”
“Should we hide you?” asked Starwings.  “I have lots of places to hide in my room.”
“But I could study him!” argued Knowledgeseeker.  He grabbed one of Sunstone’s talons.  “How does silk come out of them?” he asked.
“Well, I don’t know…”
“Are we going to ignore the fact that there’s a SkyWing with firescales who is standing right there?” Starwings asked.  She pointed to Phoenix, who didn’t know what to do.
“He’s safe,” Fearhunter told her.  “At least from what I’ve seen in his mind.  No intention of hurting or destroying anyone or anything.”
Thank you, Phoenix thought to Fearhunter.  He kept his talons and wings as close to his body as he could, making sure not to touch anything.  Knowledgeseeker kept asking Sunstone questions as Starwings wrote down the questions and answers in a scroll.  Fearhunter looked bored.
“Can we get what we came here for?” asked Phoenix loudly.  “We need animus-touched objects.  Especially for getting rid of an evil animus.  And Sunstone’s friends would be nice to have.”  He really wanted to make Sunstone happy, and getting his friends would also be useful.  Phoenix was anxious to see Cinder again.  What if she was enchanted to hate him?
“I’ll get the animus-touched objects,” Fearhunter announced.  “I guess Knowledgeseeker and Starwings can get the dragons from jail.  With Sunstone.”  He laughed a little.  “We don’t want to set free the wrong dragons.
“You know, I think we wouldn’t mistake a SandWing NightWing hybrid, a dragon with butterfly wings, and a leaf dragon with anyone else,” argued Knowledgeseeker.  Fearhunter whacked his side with his dark tail.
“What will I do?” asked Phoenix.  “Maybe I can get Sunstone’s friends out of prison by melting the bars.”
“That’s actually a good idea,” Knowledgeseeker said.
“Better than Sunstone going because we’re apparently blind,” added Starwings jokingly.  Her tail waved back and forth.  Fearhunter had an expression on his face that looked like he didn’t know whether or not to smile or frown.  He tilted his head a little.
“Let’s go right now,” said Starwings.  “There are usually more servants in the palace at day than night.”
“Maybe I could burn them.  Ha ha, fiery death dragon ha ha.”  Nobody laughed and Phoenix thought that maybe they thought he was serious.
Starwings turned around and Knowledgeseeker followed her out of the room.  Phoenix hesitated for a moment, and followed them.  He was extra careful to not set anything on fire.  That would get them in even more trouble than if they had only set free three of the NightWings’ prisoners.
Starwings and Knowledgeseeker abruptly stopped, and Phoenix almost stepped on Knowledgeseeker’s tail.  We don’t want two dragons whose tails I’ve burnt, he thought.
“We’re here,” Knowledgeseeker said.  It was first a stairway down.  Then, they walked into the prison itself.  Phoenix felt as if he would accidentally set free every dragon there.  They wandered the stone floor, looking for pale gold, black, gray, brown, green, and gold.
Finally, they saw them.
Cinder looked exactly as Phoenix remembered, but almost an adult dragon; pale gold scales, gray and black splotches all over her scales, her SandWing frill and tail barb, and gray wings.  She had burn scars on the back of her talons, and Phoenix winced a little.
The SilkWing (wasn’t her name Clearwing?) had golden scales.  Her wings were shaped like Sunstone’s, although hers were more transparent.  She looked up at the approaching dragons with curiosity.
The LeafWing (Thistle?) had her green tail wrapped around Clearwing’s.  She had a few brown scales, and her wings were the same color.  She had dark brown eyes and a kind face.  She looked to be about four or five.
“Are we going to be tortured or something since one of us escaped?” Clearwing asked.  “What does Queen Moonwanderer want?”
“Actually,” Phoenix told her, “we’re going to rescue you.  Especially me.  I met Sunstone and he told me about all of you guys and stuff.”
“Let’s do it before Mother finds out,” Starwings said.  “Although I’m going to miss you all.  I wish I could ask you more questions and put them into a scroll.
“Then hurry up,” said Thistle.
“Yeah, I want to see Sunstone!” Cinder said.  “And get back to my parents.  It was super mean how Queen Moonwanderer locked us in here.  I mean, Graceful has said she doesn’t like her very much but I thought it was just her opinion.”
Phoenix hadn’t thought about what he and Sunstone would say to Cinder.  She’d most definitely be really upset about it.
He lifted a red talon and laid it on the bars.  Sizzle.  He melted enough of them for a full-grown dragon to squeeze through.  Cinder went first, followed by Clearwing, then Thistle.
“Thanks!  You’re super nice,” Cinder said.  Her eyes widened in joy and a large smile spread across her face.  “Oh my gosh!  Phoenix, it’s you!”
Phoenix smiled and nodded.
“Alright, I think this is the time to leave,” Starwings said.  “Sunstone and Fearhunter probably have animus-touched objects by now.”
The six dragons raced through the prison, with Phoenix being in last.  They made their way to the stairs, and then the room that they had all first met in.  Well, excluding the three they had just rescued.
When they got there, as Starwings suspected, Sunstone and Fearhunter were there.  Sunstone held two gold armbands, and Fearhunter had a sapphire in one talon and a stone statue of a dragon in the other.  Phoenix stood in an empty part of the room, and the seven others stood close together.
“These once belonged to a SeaWing animus,” said Fearhunter, taking the armbands.  “They can control the weather.”
“And this is the truth-finder,” added Sunstone.  “It glows every time the dragon holding it lies.”
“And this statue answers one question for each dragon a day,” Fearhunter said.  “We thought these would be the most useful things that wouldn’t be noticed too much.”
“Thanks,” Cinder said.  “Why do we need them?”
Phoenix, Sunstone, and Fearhunter hesitated.  Apparently Phoenix wasn’t the only one who hadn’t thought of what to say to her.
“Uh, there’s an animus we need to stop,” Sunstone mumbled.
“Who?”
“Sunbringer.”
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions