Tsunami was having a bad day.
It was no surprise, really, seeing as her current companions' were not the ones she was used to talking to.
She turned to look at all the dragons that were in the cave with her.
Animus Sunny. Mind-reading, future-seeing Starflight. Fireless Peril. Webs, Dune, and Kestrel. A SkyWing, MudWing, and IceWing whose names she didn't know. And, of course, Clay.
Clay was the only one here Tsunami could really trust. She'd known that since she'd woken up this morning.
Gentle talons prodded Tsunami, and she rolled over to snap at the dragon that had disturbed her rest, only to find four anxious faces staring down at her.
"She's feeling confused," Starflight said. "Now she's wondering how I know that. She's wondering why I can see. Oh, and now she's thinking about incredible creative ways to shut me up."
Sunny rolled her eyes. "You'd think that you'd be able to take the hint. I think she's lost it." She glanced at Peril. "Ember, what do you think?"
Tsunami's mind felt like it was exploding with all of the strange things going on. Why is Sunny calling Peril "Ember"? And what's going on with her rude attitude? Most of the time she's really polite.
Starflight snorted. "Well, yeah. But when you insult her ability, that tends to flip her switch."
Sunny snarled. "Well, why don't we see how well your abilities are working out for you."
Peril moved between them. "That has nothing to do with this." She glanced down at Tsunami. "Are you sure you're alright? Clay said that you might be feeling confused."
Tsunami sat up and turned to Clay, blinking the last bits of sleep out of her eyes. "You did?"
"Well, yeah," Clay responded. "I mean, what's going on? Where's Glory?"
Sunny watched the two of them a little like a bird watches its prey. "Who's Glory? You mentioned that name earlier, but…"
"She's the fifth Dragonet of Destiny." Tsunami said. "She's a RainWing."
Sunny blinked in surprise, then turned to talk to Peril. Tsunami took her chance to draw Clay to one side.
"Clay, what is going on?" She hissed as soon as she felt Sunny and Peril couldn't hear them. Starflight might still be able to, if what she thought was correct, but he was trying to butt into Sunny and Peril's conversation, so she didn't think he would be paying attention. "Why is Starflight acting like he can read minds? Why is Sunny so unfriendly? Why are they calling Peril Ember? Clay, where is Glory!"
Clay blinked at her unhappily. "I don't know." He paused, like he was debating telling her something important. "But… I think we might be in some sort of alternate reality."
Tsunami stared at him blankly for two seconds, and then spoke. "Well, that would explain a lot. If we are in an alternate reality, then maybe Starflight was born under the three moons, and that's how he was able to tell what I was thinking. Maybe the reason Glory is missing is because the SkyWing egg that was supposed to hatch on the brightest night did."
Clay nodded when Tsunami sighed and said, "You're not following me at all, are you."
"Well, I mean I think I get it," he amended, "But if we're in an alternate reality, then what do we do about it?"
"Convince Sunny and Starflight to leave the cave with us. Then we leave the cave to find Glory."
"The cave?" Clay looked around, as if noticing for the first time that they were in the net of tunnels and caverns that had been their home for six years. "So… we're back at the beginning, before we ended the war and started Jade Mountain Academy?"
"Yes!" Tsunami snapped. "Which raises another question. If we haven't escaped the mountain yet, then why is Peril here?"
"Maybe Kestrel found a way to hide her from Queen Scarlet," Cay suggested, "And then brought her here when we were hatched."
Tsunami growled, "Do you not realize how dangerous that is? In such close quarters, Peril could easily burn us all to a crisp!"
Clay pointed to the dragons across the cave. "I think that may be another thing that may have changed in this reality."
Tsunami looked over to where he was pointing. Sunny was arguing with Starflight, but Peril was quietly watching from in between them, her blue eyes looking like a watered down version of the Peril's they knew, and her scales were also a much paler, sickly copper color. Her tail was thumping on the ground.
"Well, she seems to have gotten a major personality change, and her eye color is a little off," Tsunami noted, "But other than that, I think there's no big difference."
"Just look at her tail."
Tsunami took a closer look at her tail. Now that she was paying attention, she saw that it was brushing against Starflight's. And yet his scales didn't look like they were burned or charred. In fact, his scales looked perfectly fine. She spun back around to Clay. "Peril was hatched in the same egg as a brother who had too little fire. Do you think that now she has too little fire?"
Clay blinked slowly. "That… would make sense."
Tsunami rolled her eyes. "Okay. So before we try to get our friends to leave the mountain, we should decide if we should tell them the truth or not."
"Truth," Clay said immediately. "But… if we leave the mountain, can we bring Peril, too?" He asked shyly.
Tsunami let out an irritated huff. It wasn't like Peril would even be useful without her firescales. But Clay really seemed to like Peril, and even though she definitely wasn't Tsunami's favorite dragon, that had to count for something. "Fine. Now let's tell everyone what's going on, and see if any of them will come with us."
And so, instead of quietly escaping with Sunny, Starflight, and Peril (or Ember, as everyone else called her), Tsunami and Clay found themselves explaining everything to their guardians and the SkyWing dragonet as well, because Sunny insisted that they know.
"So," The SkyWing dragonet summed up, "You're from another universe where I've been replaced by a RainWing, and everyone else is pathetically weak except for Ember, who's a monster." Tsunami had to admit he had a point with the monster bit, but the "pathetically weak" part was just plain rude.
"What's your name?" She asked suddenly.
He shot her glare. "I already told you, my name's Spinel, like the gem." The name suited him. He had red-orange scales that glinted with the light from the hole in the cavern ceiling, which made him extra sparkly compared to the others, and made Tsunami wonder what he would look like in full sunlight.
Kestrel, Webs, Dune, and the IceWing and MudWing, who had introduced themselves as Hvitur and Asha, exchanged glances, before Hvitur spoke.
"So, if you come from an alternate reality," He said with a tone of voice that made it clear that he was still doubting the truth behind her words, "Then you must know how the war ends."
"We do, actually." Tsunami snapped. "Sunny's mother is made queen by the Eye of Onyx, and Blister and Burn are killed."
"Blister and Burn are killed?" Sunny asked. "I certainly hope that doesn't mean Blaze is my mother."
"Don't worry," Clay assured her. "Your mother is super awesome, and she is most definitely not Blaze. Her name is Thorn."
Asha tilted her head at Clay. "Did you ever find out who killed Queen Oasis? I've often thought that scavengers couldn't kill the mighty queen of the SandWings."
"Queen Oasis was killed by scavengers," Tsunami replied. "But the one who orchestrated her death was Blister."
She didn't understand why Asha looked so surprised. "That… changes things," she murmured. "I'll have to look into this with Webs."
Peril— no, her name was Ember, Tsunami reminded herself— stepped forward from her mother's side. "You said that you would be going to the Rain Kingdom to find your friend and end the war." She stopped suddenly, as if hesitant to continue.
"Yes," Clay said gently, prompting her on.
"So I would like to ask, could you take me with you?"
Clay beamed at her, and Tsunami had to suppress an eye-roll.
"Absolutely not." Kestrel said before either of them had a chance to respond. "I don't care what the SeaWing and the MudWing do, but Ember, you're too fragile. The only reason I've stayed under this mountain for as long as I have is because the Talons of Peace guaranteed it as a safe spot to keep you without exposing you to the elements or to Queen Scarlet, who would kill us the second she saw us."
Ember turned to face Kestrel with just as much ferocity as Tsunami would have. "I know that! But Clay's going to be leaving the mountain! If he leaves, I'll have nobody to talk to! Nobody who understands me! I think I can face the world if I have him by my side! I may not have fire, but I can fight."
Tsunami wanted to puke at all the sappy things Ember was saying, but when she turned to Clay to complain under her breath, Tsunami found him standing up to face Kestrel as well. "I think Ember should come," he said, "She's clearly not going to change her mind. And we'll keep her safe."
Tsunami groaned. Despite what she had promised Clay, she had secretly been hoping that Ember would decide she didn't want to come on their journey. She turned to Sunny and Starflight. "Well?" She said, "What about you?"
Starflight stepped forward. "They're not lying to us about this other world. I can see memories of their lives in the other universe that are too vivid to make up."
"Well, in that case, I'm coming with you," Sunny declared. "I'm not going to turn down my friends. I go where you go, and that's that. Besides, I think it's high time we stopped the war."
"I'll go too." Starflight said immediately.
Webs sighed. "We may as well make Spinel go with them. He is a good fighter, and if they want to stop the war, they will need the SkyWing Dragonet."
Tsunami refrained from telling him that they already had a perfectly good RainWing to stop the war, thank you very much, and they were already full up on unhelpful SkyWings with no likeable qualities whatsoever.
Spinel nodded and sighed. "It's not like I have anything better to do, anyway."
Clay turned to their guardians. "What will you be doing?"
Dune turned away. "I'm going back to the Sand Kingdom. There's someone there I need to apologize to."
Kestrel snorted. "I'm going strike off on my own. Since you are so sure you can handle yourselves, I've got nothing to do."
"I'll probably stay here with Asha," Webs said. "And do a little research on what Blister is up to."
"I'll stay go with the dragonets," Hvitur said. "I doubt Queen Glacier would take me back, anyway."
Tsunami had to admit that freezing death-breath would come in handy if they were in trouble.
"Okay," She said. "Then let's go!"
