The sun filtered through the small window on the far side of her quarters,

"Five more minutes….." Pyronite groaned. The dawn always seemed to come far too early, but, her duties to the queen always came before her own comfort.

"Another day in the service of a great queen!" Pyronite yawned as she got out of bed and stretched her wings. "I wonder if Queen Scarlet will have anything special for me to do today….." She wondered as she stumbled out of her quarters and down the hall towards the throne room.

"Ugh, me and my clumsy claws….." She grumbled as she staggered on.

Life was normal here in the skywing palace, but, something always felt weird, like she was in the wrong place. But Pyronite pushed those thoughts completely from her mind, all she could hear in her head was the same as usual. "I'm loyal to scarlet, I'm clumsy and useless, I'm must never take off necklace….." Those thoughts had worn a groove in her head, again and again.

As she walked into the throne room, she couldn't help but be annoyed by the noose tight necklace she always wore.

"Never take it off, if you do, it's a life or death matter…." Pyronite remembered the queen's words about her jewelry, and never forgot them, taking extra care never to take it off. It wasn't really jewelry though, just a small pouch tied tightly around her neck. But she didn't care. If the queen said to never take it off, she would never take it off….

The throne room was quite empty today, but the queen seemed extremely excited.

"Ohhh! This will be so thrilling!" She said to one of the two guards that stood on either side of her throne. "I can't believe I really have The Dragonets Of Desti… Oh, there you are Pyronite. Looking for something to do I suppose?" Scarlet said, turning her attention to the newcomer.

"Yes, whatever you want me to!" Pyronite replied enthusiastically.

"Well, it just happens that I have another patrol going out that could use a extra dragon….." Scarlet said, looking down at her claws.

"Whatever you say!" Pyronite said, before bowing and rushing out of the room, tripping over her own tail. "Patrol duty! How exciting!" She whispered to herself as she ran past other dragons just starting to get up.

The patrol was waiting on one of the many platforms built on the edges of the palace.

"Hello! I'm here to accompany you on the patrol!" Pyronite said as she bounded up to them.

"Hmm, well it will be nice to have someone new to talk to….." One of the guards said, turning to her. "I'm the leader of this detachment, the name's Eagle."

"Nice to meet you, I hope I won't slow you down, I might hit some of you by accident, I'm too clumsy…." Pyronite said, looking down at her claws.

"Don't worry, We'll watch out." Eagle said, cracking a grin as some of his soldiers barked a laugh.

As they took off, Pyronite walked up beside Eagle, "Oh yeah, almost forgot! My name's Pyronite!"

" Well, I'm glad this patrol won't be completely boring, nothing ever happens this early in the morning, we just fly, fly, and fly….."

"Well, that sounds more interesting than walking around the palace all day, or doing whatever the queen tells me to…" Pyronite said, thinking about what Scarlet might be doing right now, while she wasn't there.

"Well, you seem quite… Loyal…. Scarlet must be lucky having subjects like you….." Eagle said, taking off.

"Well that's queen Scarlet to you…." Pytonite said in a joking tone, as she raced after him.

The flight seemed exciting at first. Getting to see all the mountains, talking to the soldiers. But after a while, everything just seemed to quiet down for what seemed like eternity.

"This is it, that ridge is as far as we're going today…." Eagle said. pointing to a land formation up ahead.

"Yay! I can't wait till we get bac…" She was cut off as one of the guard called from up ahead.

What?" Eagle yelled, ignoring what Pyronite was saying. As he flew closer, he could finally hear what the other Skywing was saying

"AMBUSH!"