Prologue

Cinnabar leapt from the mountain and spread his wings, catching the air. Although flight usually calmed him, it took little thought to realize his source of distress. It had a name, and it was Peril. The queen's favorite new toy was an abomination. It's not all bad, he thought. The arena's gonna get a lot more interesting. A small part of him protested that he didn't even like the arena, but he threw that thought out quick. Thoughts like that could get him killed. He had work to do. He needed to find the Skywing dragonet.

"We'll find it, your majesty," He had said. "I promise, she won't get far. It was a runty one anyhow."

And yet, as he brushed the foliage with his garnet wingtips, he doubted. And as he glanced red scales with his sharp SkyWing eyes, he doubted.

Not that he wouldn't find it, of course. Between his sharp eyes and the three full moons, he knew he'd find it.

He doubted he could kill it.

The little thing with a twisted wing at the bottom of a gorge looked so… defeated, as Cinnabar's talons thumped to the ground beside it. The dragonet whimpered, and went limp. Was it accepting its fate?

It wasn't that he hadn't killed before. As one of the most capable guards, his claws had snapped countless SeaWing and IceWing necks.

But he couldn't bring himself to kill this.

Before this very moment, he had considered himself undyingly loyal to his queen. But this dragon had done nothing wrong by existing, had it? And he didn't want this war to go on, he honestly didn't care who won, he just wanted it to be over. And he didn't quite believe in the prophecy. But he wanted to. He realized wanted that hope.

Have I really gone soft? He thought, Reaching out with his talons.

If he killed it, he'd earn survival for another day. If she brought the dragonet to the queen, Peril would kill it, so killing it himself would do the dragonet a mercy. He roughly scooped up the dragonet, a quiet growl rising, and relocated it's wing with a click. He would say he covered this area, which he did. He would make sure no one saw it until it was well out of SkyWing territory.

"Live, little dragon." He gingerly placed it on the forest floor and gave it a push. Dragonets were never Cinnabar's thing. "This war has already taken enough lives."