Hey everyone, nightfall here. I hope you are all enjoying the story, and that I continue to surprise and engage you! here's the next chapter. I know that I promised to post more often and then I looked back and it had been almost the same time! time sure flies. So warning, all of the characters and, *cough cough* myself as well, kind of let off a little steam in this chapter, ha ha... Just be aware of that. Well, I promise to post the next chapter sooner! Now enjoy and please follow favorite and/or review! Also, please feel free to put in any suggestions for the future of this story! See you next time!

Chapter 9

Palm

Palm was regretting his enthusiasm. Really regretting it, in fact, he wished that he had just stayed on the 'floating compost heap'. His wings ached and his fatigue from the day before was not helped by his nearly sleepless night. He wished that he could just sleep. Raspberry seemed to be in a similar state, and Nightfall looked no better off. All of them seemed to be drooping, and the water seemed ever closer.

The day wore on, and the sun sank lower and lower in the sky. Dark clouds were just beginning to gather around the horizon to the east, they seemed sinister and Palm was beginning to think that they wouldn't find anywhere to land and sleep, and he felt the dread rising in his stomach as the sun painted the water on the horizon a deep fiery gold.

"Palm?" He heard Raspberry's quavering voice from behind him. He wearily turned his head to look between his beating wings at her.

"How do we even know which way to go?" She asked quietly. He slowed his pace a little so that they were flying side by side. "I mean, the sun's almost set. And what are we looking for anyway? One tiny island in the entire ocean? We are going to all die out here!" She cried.

Palm was usually very patient with Raspberry and her dramatics, but he was just as tired as she was and his sleep-deprived brain could take no more of it. "Well. I'm sorry for getting us into this, but you could at least just stay quiet! Look at Nightfall, she's even younger than us and she hasn't complained a bit.

It was true, Nightfall had been flying with trembling wings and her face set into a grimace, but she hadn't spoken a word or complaint all day. Nevertheless, it was the wrong thing to say. Raspberry snarled, her face twisting in anger. "Well, why don't you just go fly with little miss perfect instead!"

"I will." He snapped back, "And when I do you'll be sorry for being so rude." He sped up until he was flying next to Nightfall instead. His childhood friend snorted behind him, then they lapsed into silence once again.

By the time they saw the dark splotch on the horizon, the clouds behind them had turned to a full-blown storm. Thunder rumbled behind them and lightning arched across the sky. The island was only visible because it was directly backlit by the thin halo of flame that was all that remained of the sun. Palm felt the sense of dread lift slightly from his shoulders, and he beat his wings harder in a final push of energy. He could hear the dragons around him also picking up speed, but he was so stiff he couldn't turn his neck to look at them.

As the island grew from a smudge to a talon print on the horizon, the storm behind them was closing in. The air felt heavy around him and electricity crackled around them. His scales itched, his muscles ached and his eyes were tired from straining against the sun.

He heard a gasp behind him and managed to turn his head in time to see Nightfall lose the wind current under her wings and start to spiral down towards the water below them. As he shot down after her, he wondered belatedly if he would even have the strength to help at all. He shot under the falling dragon and her weight dropped heavily against his back, he gasped but managed not to fall himself. The added weight did nothing to help his aches and pains, but he refused to let her fall into the ocean which would be all too happy to swallow her up forever.

"Palm!" She gasped, and he gritted his teeth to keep flying, "what are you doing?"

"Saving your tail! What happened?"

"I'm sorry. I haven't really been sleeping since I left the island. And I don't see the point in only saving my tail, though I'm sure it would be a good moment for you to remember me by." She shifted, then Palm felt her weight lift off of his back. He breathed a sigh of relief, and he they rose up to fly at the same altitude as the other dragons.

Snowstorm looked on with obvious worry in his face, while Delta seemed concerned but weighed down by her own burden, the dragonet that they had named Jasper in honor of his deep red scales. Raspberry stared off into the distance, the look on her face only mirroring the storm behind them.

Not behind us, Palm realized, it's all around us now.

And it was true. Rain was starting to beat down around them, running in rivulets between the dragons' scales, settling into the creases of the ever beating wings that felt about ready to fall off.

"We have to make it to that island!" Snowstorm shouted over the din of the storm.

Everyone was too tired to answer him, but they stoically flew until at last they reached the island that they had glimpsed from afar. This one was merely a steep spire of rock rising from the ocean with a few scraggly trees clinging to the slopes, but the multitude of caves provided ample coverage for the dragons. They huddled together in a cave, wet wings overlapping in the enclosed space while the storm raged outside.

Raspberry was staring forlornly out of the entrance, but Palm was too tired to pay her too much mind. His wings were aching and the muscles all along his back felt taut and sore. Even his claws ached. He wished for a warm fire, or even the desert for moons sake. Anything was better than here. But this was the world he lived in now, and he doubted that that would ever change.

"What are you looking at?" Raspberry snapped and he realized that, though he had been staring off into space, she had thought that he had been looking at her.

"Ah, no I'm sorry. I wasn't looking…" He trailed off as this only seemed to infuriate her all the more. "Raspberry! What have I done wrong? I wasn't staring at you!"

"That's not it! You don't understand! You never understand!" She snapped back.

"Hey, hey!" Snowstorm said soothingly. "I think that the long day of flying has gotten everyone in a tizzy. Let's just rest. Everything will look better in the morning."

Both dragonets ignored him, "of course I don't understand! You haven't explained it to me! I don't know why, but all day your tail's been in a knot like never before."

Snowstorm looked between the two dragonets helplessly while Delta looked on with apparent disinterest.

"Raspberry, please! Palm…" Nightfall tried to interrupt

"Of course you would support him!" Raspberry cried, spinning to face her, "and you always will support him, because you're both in love with each other, and now Palm is never going to pay any attention to me! But I suppose that's just how it is. You work for something and then the World tears it away. Home, friends, family, all the things we strive for are taken by the World's cruel sense of humor. Well, the World can disappear for all I care. Everything is rotten and I wish that…" I could disappear along with it into the peace and quiet of oblivion. Palm finished mentally.

And with that, Raspberry leapt out of the cave entrance and into the raging storm.