Prologue

Kinkajou was sitting with her friend Tamarin when she felt a jolt. "My egg!" She screamed. Suddenly she knew; her egg was hatching! She couldn't miss it! Kinkajou flapped off without telling Tamarin goodbye. She swooped down upon her hatchery, a tall, elegant building that had a gradient from pink to white to blue. Mightyclaws had designed it just for her and Turtle, since Queen Glory had decreed that RainWings and NightWings would keep track of their eggs now.

Kinkajou supported this decision 100 percent. She knew that Glory had been stolen from her hatchery as an egg. It reminded her of when she'd been abducted by bad guys for weeks and no one noticed or cared that she was gone. Like Coconut, she thought, a stab of pain going through her heart. He didn't even miss me. She shoved aside that thought. Glory had cared about Kinkajou even though she didn't know her at the time. That was why she liked Glory so much- Glory cared when a dragonet went missing even though no one cared when she went missing.

Well, I would have cared. Kinkajou thought fiercely. If I had known. Kinkajou brushed aside her thoughts about missing dragonets. Right now this was about her dragonet, who was most certainly not missing. She burst through the door and looked at the egg.

It was still whole, un-cracked and unblemished.

She shrugged and trotted over to the egg anyway, just to look at it. The egg was smooth and round and looked notably like a jellyfish, half-pink with a squiggly line of white and then a bit of blue. She had been coming every some days to check on it.

Kinkajou reached out to the egg and laid her talons on the egg. It was glossy and cool. She looked down at her scales and noticed that they were bright yellow, her favorite color and the one that represented happiness. She saw raspberry-colored purple-red splotches as well, which represented excitement. She remembered the color combination of yellow and raspberry from her first day at Jade Mountain, where she had tried to turn her scales less vivid colors, like olive green and powder blue. She had hoped to make a good impression, but her plan was squashed when she realized she was too excited to force her scales into a different color.

Jade Mountain was where she had met her best friends. Moon, who used to be so sweet and shy, but came out of her shell eventually, and who seemed so happy to have Kinkajou as her friends. Qibli, who had that piercing gaze, as if he was analyzing her, but was so funny and sweet. He and Moon were on an exploring expedition at the moment, and Kinkajou missed them more than anything. Then there was Winter, who had those dazzling scales and moody personality, but had that soft spot for scavengers.

And Turtle. She had met him at Jade Mountain, too. He was so laid-back and relaxed, but so funny and sweetly embarrassedand ADORABLE. And he liked her for her, whereas the others thought of her as sweet and innocent and carelessly optimistic. Plus when she got knocked out by that creepy NightWing Turtle used his magic to save her!

The egg cracked underneath her talons.

Kinkajou shrieked as she came back to reality, feeling the cold, glossy scales under her now pale green talons and immediately lifted them. Her scales turned bright violet in delight as she looked down at the tiny dragonet.

The dragonet had shiny pale pink scales and icy blue eyes. Her talons were the same pale blue. She held out her talons and the dragonet climbed into them. "Hello, baby," she whispered. The dragonet looked up at her with wide eyes. I'm a mother! Kinkajou squealed inwardly. She had to go show Turtle his daughter. She placed her dragonet on her shoulders. "Hold on tight," she said sternly, hoping the dragonet could understand her.

Her wings expertly maneuvered though the trees as she flew, slowly this time to keep her dragonet safe. Her daughter rested her tiny head on Kinkajou's back, and Kinkajou felt a thrill run through her. This was what having a dragonet was like.

She flew over to the pavilion, where Turtle had been chatting with Queen Glory and King Deathbringer. "Turtle!" She cried. "Look, our daughter hatched!"

Turtle made a choked noise and flapped over to the tiny dragonet. He started hopping from foot to foot, the scales of his wings flashing excitedly. The dragonet gave him a curious glance, then spread her own wings. Kinkajou noticed that the dragonet had glowing scales like Turtle's. The pink dragonet flashed her wing and snout scales, and Turtle laughed. "She just said, 'Will how see silence orca.'"

Kinkajou laughed, too. "Isn't she the cutest thing?"

Glory and Deathbringer, who had been silent for some time now, both came closer to look at the little dragonet. "Wow," said Glory. "So this is what a SeaWing-RainWing hybrid looks like. I think she looks more RainWing. I know Sunny looks more SandWing than NightWing." Kinkajou smiled, but Turtle scowled. He couldn't keep a straight face, though, and started to smile.

"Yes," said Deathbringer, scratching his chin. "I think Drizzleclaws looks more like me, but Firefly definitely has Glory's eyes." He twined his tail around hers.

"You big sap," she said, wrinkling her snout at him. But she didn't pull her tail out of his grasp. Kinkajou smiled down at her daughter, who was watching the RainWing and NightWing couple with a curious expression. Kinkajou pulled the pink dragonet closer to her chest.

"We're definitely sending her to Jade Mountain," Kinkajou said.

"If they can stay there," Glory snorted, smiling sarcastically. "I seem to remember the both of you going off on a dangerous expedition without permission while you were at school."

Turtle made a reproachful noise, then stopped and considered for a moment. "Let's name her Axolotl," he said.

"That's perfect," Kinkajou said.