Sarah felt the wind rushing past her and slipping under her wings as her body coursed with adrenaline, even though she was barely two feet off the ground. She felt her parents' harsh gaze upon her. At that moment, she decided to go for broke. She looped and flipped in between the nearby trees, and then while mid-loop her head was smashed into a particularly thick tree trunk. She fell to the ground, bouncing off of a tree branch, unconscious. Her parents and the other testers shook their heads and flew off, leaving Sarah in a heap on the ground, young, alone, and unconscious.

Sarah was a very young Tundra hatchling at the time, and since her home clan was becoming full and low on food supplies, if she didn't learn how to fly well on her first try, she would be deemed not useful for food gathering , exiled and thrown into the brambles of the Shadow clan.
She failed the test.

Sarah awoke to her head pounding fiercely, all alone in the middle of the dark forest. Except she wasn't alone. A baby Guardian, her age, was still unconscious next to her in the middle, with quite the large red bump on his head. Even after all that had just happened to her, she found the light. She had a sudden image flow into her mind suddenly of starting her own clan, having a nest with this Guardian, raising baby dragons, and she knew she would never be as cruel as her old clan. She smiled to herself as she curled up to the Guardian and fell asleep next to him.

"Hey, wake up Furface!"

Sarah woke up to the Guardian standing above her. She remained silent and replayed the events of the last day in her head. Her throat became dry, and not just because of her depression and shock. She was thirsty! And hungry. Boy was she hungry, she hadn't eaten since the day she was born! She sighed and matched the Guardian's fierce purple gaze with her own.

"Don't call me Furface, that's rude! Now why don't you go and get us some food like any proper man would. There is a lady in front of you, starving and thirsty, and you don't get her food? Harrumph!" she snapped at him.

"Well excuuuuuuseeee me! If you haven't noticed, both of us can barely fly, so how am I going to get food?!"he bitterly replied.

"You don't need to fly to find food. Just watch," Sarah responded angrily.

Sarah stood up and walked over to the nearby bushes. She peeked through them and all around them. She began to pick them slowly, searching for the best plant strands. She ate as she picked, humming to herself. The Guardian began to slowly let his anger ebb, and shortly joined her. He dared to take a sideways glance at her around the same time she did. Their eyes locked, and they soon looked away, back to picking and eating the bush.

"So what's your name? I'm Sarah. I never saw you around in the nest," Sarah stated happily as she munched on her plant.

"The name's Sam. I was taken by my parents to their home as soon as I was born. They couldn't even come to the flight ceremony out of fear what would happen to me. They were crying as I walked out the door," Sam shakily stated as he slowly munched on the same leaf and began to tear up.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to-"she began in slow response.

"It's fine. I can't imagine you had it better than me. I was the only hatchling that had good parents around the clan. I deserved what I got for living the pampered life of a home."Sam stated fiercely as he began to eat faster."That's why I am going to start my own clan, and no dragons will be denied of it. Any dragon in need or freshly born will NOT be defied the love that so many hatchlings died without. Did you hear only three hatchlings made it through the process? Besides us, of course, we failed. But we were lucky enough to survive." Sam started to eat at such a rapid rate, he began to choke. He pounded his throat and continued. "We can start a clan together, Sarah," he added quietly.

Sarah smiled a little and flung her arms around Sam's scaly neck.

"Of course we can," Sarah replied, tearing up.

~TIME WARP~

Sarah smiled to herself as she sat with her one egg, her long wings wrapped around it, warming it, as she lay next to it. Sam and the others were out foraging for every type of food imaginable and his adopted brother Oscar the Wildclaw was pacing among Sarah and her egg, keeping a look out. He had practically worn a trial into the dirt. They had met several other hatchlings like them throughout their adventures through the Light, Plague, and Earth flights. They planned to head out to recruit more members throughout the other flights as soon as her baby was grown up. Scythe the Mirror, abandoned in the ruins of the Light flight, Kaze and Tigress the Faes, flew away from their abusive clan and got lost in the crags of the Earth flight, and Oscar the Wildclaw and Nate the Ridgeback were found together in the wastelands of the Plague flight. But those are all stories for another time…