*Facepalm* This does not flow well, most likely because it's my first ever. I'm definitely going to edit it later.

NOTE: The "Wings of Fate" universe is very different from the "Wings of Fire" universe. There are ten tribes instead of seven, every dragon has a breath weapon, tail weapon, and specialty in their claws. I have a physical copy of the new map. Hopefully I can figure out how to upload it.

Kestrel's orders were to find an egg for the Talons of Peace.

Specifically, the Skywing egg. One of the ten eggs that would change the world of Drako for the better. At least, that's what the Talons hoped. Honestly, Kestrel thought the whole thing would be one, huge, miserable failure.

The dragon tribes of Drako had been ravaged by war for nearly ten years now. In about a week, the tenth year would be marked by the Brightest Night – when all three of the moons were full. Thankfully The Great War wasn't between all ten dragon tribes, only seven.

Ten years ago, Queen Iguana and King Geyser of the the fire dragons were killed. Somehow by scavengers – the two-legged fleshy mammals that only have fur on their heads. The prince didn't want the throne, but the four princesses did – and they had soon begun arguing for the throne among each other. Blister, knowing that she couldn't physically defeat her older sister, Burn, turned their rivalry into a world war. And now, all of the tribes were fighting on behalf of one of the sisters: Blister the clever, Blaze the quick, Burn the strong, or Tephra the furtive.

The ten Dragonets of Fate, whom Kestrel and the other Guardians were supposed to raise, were prophesied to stop the War. Nobody knew how, but everyone assumed that the Dragonets would somehow know. Kestrel was charged with the duty to raise the Skywing Dragonet of Fate.

The Voidwing dragon who had originally spoken The Dragonet Prophecy had written a scroll about it. One section mentioned how The Dragonets of Fate were supposed to have these special powers to ensure that they stop The War.

Personally, Kestrel didn't think these prophesied Dragonets would be anything special.

She had been sent by the Talons to find the Skywing Dragonet's egg, as she was a Skywing herself. The other Guardians were assigned to find the egg of their respective tribes. Most of the others would prefer talking over combat – utterly infuriating. They would never fight, especially Paradise and Webs. Paradise was absolutely annoying; she was a Lifewing, and all Lifewings were lazy and dumb. Kestrel didn't know how all except Dune, Shroud, and herself failed to recognize how useless the poison dragons were. Pitiful worms.

Asha the Rockwing was too kind; she was even worse than Webs – at least he could be convinced to do what Kestrel wanted. She prioritized herself the lowest and would give her life for a scavenger. Asha was flying toward the Kingdom of Rock at the moment.

Webs's webbing on his claws reached up to the beginning of the claw on his digits, instead of two thirds of the way up – like usual Seawings – hence his name. He was too gentle, and Kestrel thought that he needed to think the right way for once. They had the most dangerous job in the Talons of Peace, yet he insisted on being "the gentle one". He was currently swimming to the Sea by river.

Quicktail, the Nullwing, got his name because of how fast he was with his tail. It was important to note there that Nullwings had sword-like metallic bone at the end of theirs. Quicktail was like the perfect old man, always telling stories and making sure everyone heard his "wisdom". He was irritated at everything when he was overtired and could complain about anything from the horrible war to his crooked tooth. To be honest, Kestrel liked him more when he was tired.

The Lightwing guardian was Glint. She was very optimistic and hopeful and tried to make everyone else like that. She believed every word of The Prophecy and made sure every dragon she saw knew about it, always gibbering about magic and destiny. She was a strong believer in fate and thought everything that happened had a reason and role in the grand scheme of things. What an idiot.

Shroud was their Darkwing. He was the most grumpy dragon that anyone will ever meet. He never lashed out physically, but his words were like razor-knives in themselves. Kestrel and Shroud usually talked about how much of a failure that the Dragonets were going to be.

Paradise, the stupid Lifewing, got her name from the bird of paradise flower, because she rarely ever changes her scales to cold colors: always red, orange, bright green, and that irritating neon yellow. Lifewings had default colors – varying shades of green. Lifewings could also activate on command a sort of auto-mode; their scales would start to change color according to their emotions. But Paradise never allowed her scales to shift away from the warm colors. She was extremely happy all the time, somehow. Which meant that she got annoying, fast. Paradise was on her way to the Emerald Jungle.

Nebula, the secretive one, was named for her purple and pink, cloudy-looking scales on the underside of her wings, accompanying the 'stars' that all other Voidwings have. She talked more than Fjord, but she was too serious and she was always keeping secrets; Nebula was the most likely of the seven Guardians to betray the Talons. She didn't prefer to fight. Many Voidwings just trusted in their "ultimate superiority" to save them from everything. Nebula didn't mention it, though.

Fjord, the silent, solemn Coldwing was on the way to the Arctic. Kestrel didn't know what to think of him; he was the relationally farthest of the Guardians, even more than Nebula. They always just figured he joined the Talons of Peace because the Great War took a family member or something. That was the usual reason for joining.

Dune – named for the black-red ash dunes in the east of the fire kingdom – was an old, battle-scarred Heatwing with a military mind. He was missing a foot, his lower-right, and had a huge scar on his left wing, so he couldn't fly. Kestrel didn't know how he was traveling to the Kingdom of Fire in that condition.

She was the only Skywing – and, therefore, the only dragon who could think straight – to raise the Dragonets of Fate, off to find the Skywing dragonet for the Prophecy. One that had only provided her with "The tallest peak in Mountain High will give you the Wings of Sky." Those were some pretty broad instructions, if you asked her.

Her thoughts brought her back to her surroundings, she was hiding in the yellow-leaved vegetation near the gate to the Royal Hatchery, waiting for the two guards to pass out.

It'd be difficult to raise a dragonet if they were royal and knew it. And shouted it in your face every minute of the day and after each tiny punishment. Even though the dragonet would have the royal eye color, it would be best to try to keep its royalty a secret.

Raising a dragonet was hard. At least, that's what she had heard from other Skywings before she became a fugitive. She'd never had the opportunity to raise a dragonet. She glanced at the palms of her talons. There were faded, electric burn marks laid across them, tainting her golden scales to a faded rust. No. No time to think about that while on this important mission. She scolded herself. Focus, Kestrel.

She'd been waiting a while. She looked toward the guards' post, praising her luck as she was finally able to sneak past the drunken dragons. The strong scent of dragon-nip filled her nostrils, and she held her breath; she couldn't afford to be any less careful.

The Royal Hatchery held all of the dragonets that dragons in the royal family have. Royal dragons are always faster, smarter, stronger, and larger than common ones. This hatchery was on the tallest peak of the Skywing mountains, so the Talons knew the egg would be here. The king and queen's children were in a central, huge nest made of the most beautiful and soft lightning-colored leaves in the Sky Kingdom. Lining the walls were eggs split into different sections based on who the parents were.

Kestrel slithered across the ground, searching for the egg. Soon, her eyes rested on an odd one with iridescent veins of gold running through the citrine color of the egg. Realization hit, and Kestrel froze.

This egg belonged to Queen Vulture.

The Skywing egg of the Prophecy just happened to be the queen's youngest son. That made everything better.

She knew that Queen Vulture would resume her search for Kestrel if she stole her egg, but it needed to be done. It's for the Prophecy. She reminded herself. For peace.

She approached the nest in the center circle and took it into her scarred talons. At least she would be able to raise a dragonet of her own tribe... another chance.

She ducked under the nesting insulation for cover. She would most likely drop the egg if she were fighting off a score of angry Skywings. So, naturally, she decided sneaking out would be the best thing.

With the new moon as her cover, she crawled out of the foliage, and still ducked low, she snaked across the Hatchery and silently dove off the cliff.

Kestrel didn't bother to spread her golden wings to catch her fall until she was out of earshot.

. . .

Kestrel looked at the dragons around her. These were to be her tribe for the next nine years… She would have to get used to them.

"The eggs are beautiful." Glint commented, her face full of hope.

"They look just like the ten gems that represent each tribe." Shroud added.

Quicktail chuckled. "I think that's the point."

"Look," Paradise said, nodding her chartreuse head toward the eggs. "They're about to hatch."The Guardians turned their attention toward the eggs. The Rockwing egg was orange and glittered like zircon. The egg began to crack on the side facing Asha, then the dragonet inside punched a hole in the side of the shell with its wing, and rolled out of it. He was big, and Kestrel wondered how he fit into his egg in the first place. His scales were amber, his underbelly and wing membranes were pale brown, and his accent scales were a rich orange. His armor scales, eye ridges, spines, and horns were mahogany. His eyes were amber, and he had a forked, orange-black tongue. He quickly ran over to the other eggs and began pounding on them, Asha continued smiling at him, but Webs quickly put his claws in the way of the dragonet.

"What is wrong with this dragonet?" He growled, then the dragonet climbed over the Seawing's arm and almost put a dent in the Heatwing egg.

Kestrel sighed and walked over and grabbed the little thing by the tail. The Rockwing looked up at her with wide orange eyes. She tilted her head at the Rockwing, and said to Webs, "I honestly appreciate his aggression, maybe we do have some heroes in our talons after all." She not-too-gently shoved him underwater in the small river that flowed through the cave. She allowed him back up, but the little one was too cold to continue smashing the eggs.

Asha chuckled, and then broke out laughing. "You guys are funny." She said when her laughter faded.

"Why would you be laughing at this?" Quicktail demanded, his tail lashing, the sword-stinger scraping against the stone. "The thing's a monster!" He scowled at the Rockwing in the river.

"Because you're getting it all wrong." She smiled. "He's a bigwings, the oldest Rockwing in a clutch tries to help the others out of the shell." She looked affectionately at the dragonet. "He's supposed to be their leader because he's a bigwings."

Nebula lifted a talon. "Now wai—"

"Another one." Dune grumbled, tapping the nest of dragon eggs.

To Kestrel's joy, the Skywing egg began to hatch. The citrine yellow glinted in the torchlight as the egg wiggled. The little dragonet burst out, sending half of the eggshell flying with his legs. He turned, destroyed the eggshells for fun, and wandered over to the Rockwing in the river. The orange dragonet looked up apologetically at his younger brother. The Skywing's scales were a citrine color, he had a tan-yellow underbelly and haze-yellow wing membranes, and his accent scales were gold. His armor scales, eye ridges, spines, and horns were goldenrod. His eyes were bright yellow, and his tongue was yellow-black and forked. Kestrel was a mother again. She smiled, enjoying the feeling. "Fierce." She said proudly.

Then, the Coldwing egg started cracking, the dragonet inside carefully lifted a portion of the shell up, crawled out, and placed the shell piece by the snowy egg, and stared at her clutchmates by the river. She had frost-blue scales, cyan accent scales, and silver-blue armor scales, eye ridges, spines, and horns. Her underbelly and wing membranes were snow-blue. The dragonet stared suspiciously at the Guardians, and her teeth bared and her spiked tail raised. Her eyes seemed to be scanning them one by one. Eventually, the Coldwing calmed and slowly walked over to the other Dragonets of Fate, sat next to the Skywing, and stared at the nest.

The Voidwing began to hatch, and Nebula smiled, stretching her starry wings proudly. The little dragonet carefully exited the amethyst egg. His scales were purple, his accent scales were magenta, and his armor scales, eye ridges, spines, and horns were a dark violet. His underbelly and wing membranes were a soft lavender. The underside of the membranes were decorated with silver, star-like scales that got more numerous the closer to the main limb they got. His tongue was forked and purple-black, and his eyes were violet. The Voidwing seemed to prepare to walk, checking his paws first. He gave a frightful expression at the huge Guardians watching him, then hid behind the other dragonets.

Next, the Lightwing egg shifted. Glint looked the happiest and the most hopeful and the most idiotic Kestrel has ever seen her. The quartz-white egg opened inwards, like the dragonet had dug at it instead of pushed. The dragonet's scales were the lightest silver one could imagine, his accent scales were pure white, and his armor scales, eye ridges, spines, and horns were gainsboro. His underbelly and wing membranes were white smoke. He snorted at the Guardians and walked proudly and confidently toward the green dragonet.

The Seawing egg hatched next, very suddenly, it wiggled, then broke into many shards. The Seawing looked around, baring her teeth, seemingly angry at the azure eggshell for keeping her in. She had sapphire-blue scales, cobalt accent scales, and navy blue armor scales, eye ridges, spines, and horns. Her underbelly and wing membranes were sky blue. She had pure blue eyes and a blue-black, forked tongue. The dragonet walked over to the others and pushed the Coldwing out of the way so she could sit next to the Skywing, muttering indecipherable "words" at the eggshells. The Coldwing dragonet glided over to the Voidwing and laid down next to him.

Next, the Lifewing egg. The dragonet made a small puncture in the iridescent emerald shell, and crawled out slowly. She had emerald scales, bright green accent scales, and pine green armor scales, eye ridges, spines, and horns. Her underbelly and wing membranes were spring green. Her eyes were pine green, and she had a green-black, forked tongue. She looked at the others, and walked gracefully toward them. She chuckled a bit at the grumbling Seawing, and sat down next to the Rockwing, who was now lying next to said Seawing.

The Darkwing egg shifted slightly, and ever so slowly, a timid dragonet crawled out. Her scales were charcoal, her accent scales were a rich, pure black, and her armor scales, eye ridges, spines, and horns were a dull nero. Her underbelly and wing membranes were dim gray. She shyly inched over to the other dragonets, setting herself apart from the rest a ways.

The agate egg made a cracking sound almost immediately, and a Nullwing dragonet popped out of the top of it, "jumping" out of the egg and onto the ground. His scales were a darker shade of silver, his accent scales pure gray, and his armor scales, eye ridges, spines, and horns were mortar-gray. His underbelly and wing membranes were light gray. He looked around for a bit, saw the black dragonet, and rushed over to her, stumbling along the way. He pulled the Darkwing toward the rest of the group.

Lastly, the Heatwing egg. It was the smallest, though still big like the other Dragonets' eggs. Kestrel saw Dune fidget his talons, trying to hide his excitement. The little one had trouble getting out of its egg, but the dragonet prevailed. She had ruby scales, bright red accent scales, and maroon armor scales, eye ridges, spines, and horns. Her underbelly and wing membranes were the color "bittersweet". She wobbled over to the other Dragonets, and the Rockwing put himself between them and the guardians. The Heatwing kept poking the Seawing's gills curiously with her pointer claw. The Seawing Dragonet's ears were flattened out, and she had an annoyed look on her face.

"I believe it's time to name them." Dune said.

"I'll go first," Asha suggested, "since the Rockwing hatched first." She paused. "Clay."

Kestrel tilted her head. Her dragonet was fierce, like a tornado. "Cyclone." She announced.

Fjord stared at his dragonet. "Winter."

Nebula smiled. "Anion."

Glint beamed, her glowscales shining. "Ray. Our ray of hope."

Webs gave the Seawing an affectionate look. "Tsunami."

Paradise examined the Lifewing dragonet's scales. "Flora."

Quicktail thought for a moment. "Candor."

Shroud looked down at the other frowning Darkwing. "Umbra."

Dune studied the smiling Heatwing. "Flare."

"So these are the Dragonets of Fate, the ones who are supposed to save the world… And we have to raise them." Fjord said.

"We have to spend time with them." Glint said. "Make them feel like we're their family."

The guardians all got used to having their dragonets around that night, and when it was time to sleep, they were all hopeful of the future. The war was going to end. And they all had a part in it.

Oookay. That was bad, I admit it, but it'll get better - I promise! I'm doing this chapter-by-chapter, although I already have a lot of them pre-written. By the way, Flora, Anion, and Flare are just renamed Glory, Starflight, and Sunny. (Flare isn't a hybrid, because the "Wings of Heat" can't be half-Voidwing.)

Formatting this was a pain in the tail - especially font sizes an trying to keep those stupid tabs. Are there any tricks that help?

Thanks for reading!