It was a cloudy, windy, rainy, and all-around miserable day in the Sky Kingdom. No dragon could fly in this weather, which made everyone particularly sad and angry. Queen Scarlet, for example, was calling every dragon to the arena so then she could be entertained by bloodshed and violence.
Caldera hated it whenever her queen commanded everyone to watch bloody fights that usually ended in Peril burning dragons until their screams faded into nothing. She flinched every time someone was clawed or burned.
It wasn't just the blood and terrified screams that Caldera hated, though. She hated the queen's menacing glare towards the dragons who didn't applaud, and the way most were threatened afterwards. Most of all, though, she hated the way that everyone looked at her. A wingless SkyWing dragonet? Worthless. She should've been killed in her egg three years ago. Even her family didn't want her, as desperate as they were for a dragonet. The only reason why Caldera wasn't dead was because Scarlet thought it was entertaining to see her try to fly. It was funny that she couldn't do what SkyWings were born to do. She wished she wasn't the only one.
Peril walked out of the arena as the final battle ended. Caldera didn't wait for Queen Scarlet to dismiss them; she began walking out of the arena and into the palace, where a secret path was that only a dragon who couldn't fly would go through. It was a long trip, but no one wanted her any closer to them. She walked down to the ditch she had dug recently; it was filled with water and muddy, but she couldn't sleep anywhere else. She sighed miserably, but before she could lay down a flash of lightning made her jump. On instinct, her brain told her to fly, but she didn't move. She looked back to where her wings should be, and remembered sadly that there were no wings, just stubs. She sighed again, and began walking farther away from the castle. The sky was getting clearer as she walked closer to the border and into the Mud Kingdom, showing a beautiful night sky with thousands of stars. She stopped walking and sat down, looking up at the stars. She tried counting them. Too much. She tried measuring the distance from here to the sea, in any direction. Too far. She sighed, heavy and long.
"What is a dragonet doing out here?"
Caldera jumped and stood up, turning to the dragon. It was another SkyWing, washed-out red in color and limply dragging his tail along the grass. "Who are you?" Caldera asked, a bit too defensively.
"Osprey." The old dragon said. "And you, young one? What's your name?"
Caldera walked a little closer, and realized that she'd seen him before at trials. She never paid attention to names, especially when she knew that they wouldn't care to remember hers. Osprey felt around a little bit before he stepped forward, and Caldera also remembered that he was nearly blind. She hoped he thought that her wings were just folded. Maybe she could get to know him.
"I asked your name, I expect an answer." Osprey hissed.
"Oh, sorry." Caldera stammered. "I'm Caldera."
"Don't you have parents? Don't you think they might be worried?"
"They disowned me when I hatched."
Osprey seemed to pause, as if he wanted to make a comment, but didn't say anything. He walked closer towards Caldera and sat down. "Did you come out here to stargaze?"
Caldera was a little shocked at the question, she almost took too long to say, "Sort of."
"Now, in my day," Osprey began, looking at Caldera. "A dragonet would say 'yes' or 'no', not 'sort of'."
"Yes, then." Caldera said. She sat down beside him, and looked back up at the night sky.