Mist took one look at Gelid with her long neck and immediately scrambled to her feet, falling off the bed in the process. She knocked into a table covered in a white cloth and it rocked side to side until Mist placed a talon on the cloth to settle it. The princess breathed deeply, collecting herself.

Mist stared at Gelid with frigid eyes. "What in the blazes are you doing - oh, right," she realised quickly. "Have you been watching me the entire night?" Mist walked up to Gelid and waved her talon in front of her eyes, blurring the light from the single window.

Yes, Gelid had watched her all night. It wasn't the most pleasant thing either - hearing the princess mumble and toss around loudly in the pitch-black night. The morning sun didn't help either when Gelid saw the princess tossing and turning. It was a wonder any dragon got any sleep at all.

Mist stared into her eyes. "Hellooooo? Deranged dragonet?"

Gelid had her instructions not to talk to Mist. Not a single word. Of course she was going to comply. It was the Prince North that commanded her!

The princess leaned back, sitting on her tail. "He ordered you not to speak, of course he did," Mist said, then sighing. "The only dragon I can trust here is a statue. Perfect. Just perfect. Can you at least say something? One word?" She asked Gelid but she didn't twitch.

"Come on! Where's your annoying snout? Where's your frozen little brain when I need it?" Mist tapped the top of Gelid's snout, right between the eyes. "SAY SOMETHING!"

Sorry, Mist, Gelid thought. I have my orders.

"Of course the one dragon who isn't related to me and actually has the guts to speak to me CANNOT speak right now," She fumed, her scales pulsating with red and orange and lavender. "Why is EVERYONE always so annoying? Even my own father of all dragons."

Mist stepped away and started to pace up and down the side of the bed, mumbling to herself as she did. "Maybe if I join...Father wants me to be queen...But Blizzard...That would be a catastrophe...Hate me...I could do...Yes that sounds better...No...Terrible idea..."

There was a moment when Mist thought of something and lifted her snout up with a genuine smile but that faded quickly and Mist shook her head, going back to mumbling. Eventually she stopped pacing and sat in front of the cloth draped table, slamming the tip of her snout on it.

"Stupid. Stupid. This is so STUPID!" Mist said.

It looked as if the ice cold princess was about to start crying but then the princess looked at Gelid with dry eyes. She then stared at the white cloth, thought of something and then approached Gelid.

"Give me your talon wearing the bracelet," Mist ordered.

There wasn't anything against North's orders that meant Gelid didn't have to do what Mist said. But also, he didn't say she had to. Should she do what Mist said? Would she get in trouble? It was only a tiny thing yet Gelid didn't feel compelled to do it.

"OH GOOD MOONS!" Mist wrapped her claws around Gelid's wrist and lifted her talon. Mist first tried pulling the silver bracelet from her scales but to no avail. Gelid figured there was another enchantment on the bracelet that meant it fit perfectly around her wrist.

Another clever idea from North.

Should Gelid have done something? She seemed to think of something important about the bracelet but the thought quickly scattered.

"Hmm," Mist pondered. "I can try...but I've never tried it like this. Keep yourself still. This shouldn't hurt," Mist instructed Gelid, not that Gelid planned on moving anyway. Instead, she watched Mist, unsure of what to do.

Mist brought her talon close to her mouth and for a moment Gelid thought Mist was going to bite her talon off. But instead, Mist's pair of long teeth unlatched from the top of her jaw, like fangs did from a viper. A dark blue liquid shot from her fangs and sizzled on the bracelet. Her scales quickly went cold where the droplets landed on her.

A section of the bracelet crushed itself, ruining the smooth exterior into an uneven jagged mess and Mist snapped it apart.

Suddenly Gelid felt hatred, guilt and sadness all at once.

She knocked the broken bracelet from Mist, letting it fall to the ground and she repeatedly stamped on it, while at the same time wanting to be as far away from it as possible. She scrabbled backwards, quickly realising that there was a cabinet directly behind her that she really wanted to smash. Anything to get away from that.

Swan! Her mind first went to him. The memory of being curled up in his wing. His tender smile. His soothing voice. How could she think of not loving him?

And Queen Blizzard! How on all of Pyrrhia could Gelid ever forget what her queen had done for her? How could she ever dispose of her loyalty? Queen Blizzard meant everything!

"Try not to break anything," Mist said to her.

"Not BREAKING anything?" Gelid almost roared. "You try being under that magic for an entire day and not lose your mind!"

Mist glanced at the bracelet, which was nothing more than a twisted mess of silver metal. "You seem alright so far."

"I'm not. I'm really not." Gelid bent over, leaning forward, feeling every one of her scales urge to stay still, frozen like she was before. No! She couldn't be. She was free from the enchantment...so why did it seem like she still had it over her?

"Quick! Order me to do something!" Gelid pleaded. "Anything!"

Mist quickly looked around, thinking. "Uh, tell me exactly what you think of me," she said to Gelid.

"I think you're stupidly brilliant! And conflicting! And confusing! And annoying! And obnoxious! I didn't like you at the start and I wanted to get rid of you but it's now dawning on me that you're not such a bad dragon! And if you were a little nicer then other dragons might respect you!" Gelid said in one complete breath. She collapsed on the ground, wondering where all her strength went to.

Perhaps it was because she hadn't slept since that morning in Swan's hut. Perhaps it was because after everything, she wasn't sure what kind of dragon she wanted to be. Perhaps it was because she was literally on the other side of the continent from her home.

"Hmph. Now that's a first. I don't know why I asked you that," Mist said.

Gelid looked at the claw markings on the floor where her talons carved scratches. She missed the ice already. Then it hit her that Mist said something. "Asked me what?"

"What you thought of me. I wasn't sure what I was expecting."

"Oh, that..." Gelid wasn't sure either. She just spat everything out in a rush to make sure that spell was gone. Or at least most of it. Her tail still felt like stone. "I wasn't sure either," she said truthfully.

"Did you really want me gone?" Mist asked. Some part of her tone didn't sound angry but surprised.

"I did," Gelid said, collecting herself. "I couldn't think of anything worse than having you in the kingdom, even though you were a princess with a higher ranking than me. And the fact that Queen Blizzard wanted you around. You weren't very friendly."

"Well neither were you," Mist said. "You always made fun of me. I'm sorry I'm not perfect."

"Fun of you? I never made fun of you." Despised her, most likely, but not mock. Gelid was sure of that.

Mist scowled at her. "Well it looked like it. Especially when you were around that angry icewing."

"You mean Puffin? You did permanently disfigure her husband-to-be," Gelid recalled. And they're supposed to be getting married soon.

"OK so that was my fault. I'll take that but you could've tried to be a bit more open to having me around. It didn't help when you started calling me names," Mist said, glancing away.

It never got to her just how deeply Gelid did insult Mist. "To be fair, you didn't give a lot of space to trust you. You did almost kill Queen Blizzard and you sound like you didn't wanted to be there anyway."

"I didn't! And that was mostly because of icewings like you!"

Gelid never thought of herself as a bully. She always thought she stood up to bullying. Stood up to Mist because she was a bully. But she wasn't.

"I apologise. I didn't think - I didn't think about you. Just what I wanted," Gelid admitted. She sat up and curled her tail around her feet. She felt something horrible in her stomach that felt like she swallowed an entire penguin in one bite.

Mist breathed carefully. "OK. OK. Let's just - just figure out a way to get out of here."

Gelid suddenly sprung forward, grabbing Mist's shoulders. "No! You can't leave! North wants you to stay here and I'll do whatever he wants! I need to be silent! I can't move!"

Mist pushed her away and Gelid landed on her back. The princess swiftly pressed a talon on her tail and her stomach, and used her front talons to push down on her wing and her snout.

"What!" Mist said, astonished.

"Enchantment! Enchantment!" Gelid cried, hearing North's words rattle around in her head. Her heart exploded at the thought of him and she really wanted to yell.

Mist released her.

Gelid sprung to her feet but stumbled, leaning on the nearby wall instead. "I HATE animus magic!" Gelid breathed, hoping every exhale would make that cursed spell go away. She wished it was an animal she could claw and bite and kill to make herself feel better. A walrus would've been nice.

"You and me both," Mist said.

It was so STUPID! How come the magic could affect dragons? That wasn't fair! All of her dreams of being an animus withered and died. Now she hated it. Animus dragons were dangerous. Too dangerous. The only good animus was Anemone so far as the longest living one with a rational head.

North wasn't born an animus yet it still felt that he already lost his mind.

The despicable voice of the icewing prince echoed through her mind and she started hitting her head against the wall. Anything to stop hearing that voice. That annoying and stupid and entrancing voice.

"Stop that. I need your head intact!" Mist pulled Gelid away. "Give me your talon." Gelid lifted her talon but Mist meant the other one that was once wrapped in the silver bracelet.

"What are you doing?" Gelid asked. Mist tied a strip of white cloth around her wrist and tucked the loose ends in between.

"Making sure you look like you're still under the spell." She stepped back as soon as she finished, observing her talonwork at a short distance. "At a distance, it looks like the bracelet but not up close...it'll have to do."

"What are we doing?" Gelid asked.

"We're going to figure out how to fix everything," Mist answered.

Gelid remembered North's offer to Mist. "So you're not joining the Talons?"

Mist looked at the wall, thinking. "No," sighed Mist. "My father...there's something not right about him. He always spoke like he cared for Blizzard. She is the oldest. But now, he thinks of her as an obsolete obstacle in a grand plan. His plan. His plan to make me queen of the icewings."

"And you say you don't want to be," Gelid added.

"Exactly. It's like he suddenly stopped listening to whatever I have to say. I'm his daughter! He has to listen to me!" Mist said with a strike of sudden venom. "I don't know what happened to him but whoever that dragon is - he's not my father."

I wish my father could've ever seen me as a queen, Gelid thought. She wasn't sure where that thought came from so she ignored it.

They still had to figure out a few things. She hoped Mist had some ideas. "Do you have a plan?"

Mist walked to the window, peering outside, looking for something. "Maybe. We need to gather information first. I think there's a Conveyance Mirror in the hall. We can use that."

"What about the prisoners? I would guess they have quite a few." King Sanguine, Gelid thought. Queen Fuchsia is angry about his disappearance. What happened? She wanted to attack the rainforest but no one has said anything about it. Maybe it was a bluff?

"And the dragonets," Gelid added. "They took the dragonets from the Academy, Mist. We need to rescue them first."

"First we need to figure out a way to rescue them," Mist pointed out. "I don't know where they are and even if we did find them and rescued them, we'd still need to get them out of here safely."

"Oh, right. I didn't think of that."

"There's a lot of things you don't think about," Mist said. "I petition that we investigate the prisons first. Saving them will give us numbers. Hopefully. Then we break into the hall and use the Conveyance mirror to call Queen Firefly."

"Why not Queen Blizzard? Or Queen Thorn?"

"Because Queen Firefly is the closest out of both of them. There is Queen Ibis but she's solitary and quiet. Queen Fuchsia is the second closest but mostly likely rolling on her throne because she's a pain in the tail. Queen Thorn would help, I imagine, but she's still far away. And I think Firefly be more likely to help me."

"That's...thoughtful. I didn't think you'd be so considerate," Gelid sniggered.

Mist snorted. "Try to get used to it. I've been trying it out and so far, not the worst idea I've had."

"Oh yeah? What was your worst idea?" She asked, curious.

"Trying to kill my aunt," Mist said simply.

"Oh." Gelid thought it would've been something else or a funny story. "What time is it?"

Mist looked up at the window, calculating. "Noon, I think."

"We should do this now."

Mist whirled around, walking past Gelid to the door. "Just stay beside me but not too close. Talk very quietly. If North sees us then he needs to think you're still under his magic."

The princess strolled out and across the bridge connected the hut to the sand. Gelid followed carefully, as to not accidentally step on Mist's tail. Her feet immediately felt itchy walking over the sand and she had to fight the impulse to shake her feet.

There was a sandwing holding a spear at the top of the beach standing next to a fat palm tree. He flicked his black tongue at them. A darker blue seawing poked her head from beside the sandwing.

"What are you staring at?" Hissed the sandwing to Gelid.

"You talking to me? Keep your snout to yourself!" Mist hissed back with a louder tone.

"Hmph," said the sandwing.

"Don't bother that one, Mesquite," said the seawing, nodded to Gelid. She took his free talon, squeezing gently. "That's the one the prince enchanted. She's as dumbfounded as a sea urchin."

Mesquite hesitated and grumbled, resuming to sit like a guard.

Something tapped her leg lightly and when Gelid turned to look, Mist jerked her head towards the tip of the peninsula. A large building sat flat on the closest island with a single wooden bridge to connect it. It had a pair of giant doors made of metal that looked as if it only opened one way.

Mist mouthed "prison" to Gelid and then walked towards the island building. Gelid followed closely.

Gelid caught up to walk beside Mist, trying her best to not look suspicious in any way. The sandwing reminded her of something. "Where's Amber and Torrid? They were at the Academy when Auklet attacked," she asked Mist.

"Hush, keep your voice down and don't look at me when you're speaking," Mist said in a whisper, not moving her neck.

Gelid faced forward, not looking at Mist but focusing her sight on the flat sand they walked on and the bridge that they've yet to cross.

"I'm not sure what happened to them. I didn't see them on the way here," Mist said.

"They could've been locked up."

"Guess we'll find out but if we're lucky, they could've escaped somehow and gone to tell someone."

A seawing guard at the entrance stamped his spear on the flat ground. "Halt!" He instructed. A chain of keys rattled around his neck with his movements. "You have no jurisdiction to enter!"

"No jurisdiction? Do YOU know who I am?" Mist pressed. She approached the guard and glowered at him with black eyes. "I am the daughter of Prince North, you flounder-head! I am Queen Blizzard's niece and heir to the throne. I have every jurisdiction to go wherever I want to go!"

The guard whimpered, easily realising that he shouted at the wrong dragon. "So-sorry, your majesty but-but I have my orders to not let any dragons in apart from Queen Auklet and Prince North."

"Well then I'm just going to have to go back to my FATHER, who might I add, is PRINCE NORTH and tell him of this disrespect. Did you know what he's an animus?" Mist grabbed Gelid's shoulder and yanked her forward. "He turned this miserable and disobedient dragon into my personal servant with his magic. Think of what he might do to you once he hears of this!"

"Um, well. I g-guess I can let you in," stammered the guard.

"Just a look, that's all I wanted in the first place," Mist said, releasing Gelid.

The guard leaned the spear on the wall. He stepped towards the door, fumbling between the keys on the chain, picking one out that had an unfurled wing handle and then placed it in the keyhole. He turned it until it clicked, took it out and then pushed the door open.

"Finally. Thank you." Mist said to the guard and then stepped inside.

"The door is unlocked. Come out when you're ready and I'll lock it back up again," Said the guard. He stared warily at Gelid as she past him and into the prison. The guard closed the door behind her.

The prison was entirely lit up by torches and a thin haze clouded the ceiling. There was a single walking corridor down the building with cells on either side and even another layer of cells on top. From what Gelid saw, there seemed to be mostly sandwings wrapped in chains in the cells. Most of the cells had three or four dragons in each of them and not much moving space at all.

"Count the dragons. I'll see if there's another way out of here," Mist said, then continuing down the corridor to the very end.

Gelid walked past each cell, counting every dragon. So far all the dragons were adults, which meant the dragonets - especially the students from the academy had to be somewhere else.

They weren't particularly healthy adults either. They didn't look like they were starving or thirsty but skinny enough not to be useful or pose a threat.

Approaching the end, there was a very red and vibrant skywing that Gelid immediately recognised. King Sanguine. He had the cell to himself and lay on the opposite end, closest to the wall and the small holes that let fresh air and beams of sunlight through. He looked...sad, especially with the way his neck curved into a depressed arch. A chain around his snout kept him from speaking.

"Don't worry, your majesty. We're going to get you out of here. All of you," she said, looking down the corridor of cells. Somehow, they were going to be freed. They just had to figure out how.

King Sanguine stared at her with his face becoming brighter and then nodded.

Mist scurried from the end room.

"How many?" Mist asked her.

"Sixty-three," Gelid said, hoping she counted right.

"Including the ones on the cells above?"

Gelid nodded.

"Seal guts. There's no other way. The back room has chains and key moulds. No weapons and no secret way out," Mist said. "The only way out is to storm the entrance."

"And into an army of Talons. There's still the hidden base under the water filled with an entire legion of seawings. They won't make it out. Look at them."

Mist sighed, looking defeated. "We need to get help. We need to break into the hall and get the mirror, summon aid from the other kingdoms."

"This isn't counting the dragonets either. They're not here. Auklet put them somewhere else," Gelid said.

"Probably on the other side of the base. Keeping the adults and dragonets from each other means more effort to save either of them. ARGGH! I hate it when there are dragons smarter than me," Mist added, scowling.

"You'll get used to it," Gelid said.

"Alright then, plan B it is. Come on."

Gelid led the way to the entrance, making sure Mist exited first to keep the illusion of the spell. The guard outside locked the doors up. No doubt Mist took the key into account too. That meant they had to take the keys when they had the chance.

They started walking down the beach, closer to the other huts when Gelid remembered something.

"Mist, I didn't see Amber or Torrid," Gelid whispered, making sure not to look at Mist

"Then they must've snuck out somewhere when the seawings were too occupied with the Dragons of Destiny. I hope they're alright..." Mist uttered.

There were dragons all over the beach front but not near the Debate hall, which meant Mist and Gelid could check the surroundings. There was a small shroud of green bushes and palm trees behind the hall.

"Maybe we should wait until dark before even thinking of breaking in," Gelid suggested.

Mist considered it. "That's too long. We need to do it now."

"We'll get caught, Mist. Look at all those dragons. One of them is bound to spot us or at least you."

Mist walked up to the base of the building where it touched the grass near the shroud, looking up at the grey stone wall. There wasn't any windows or open pockets where a dragon could enter. Gelid guessed there was only one way in, like the prison was designed.

She extended her smooth wing, watching it turn the same grey colour that matched the building.

"Remember the prophecy?" Gelid asked her.

"Don't remind me of that. Prophecies are incoherent messes made by the fabric of reality. A stupid way to tell our impending future," Mist described, lowering her wing.

"But you can't ignore it. Remember what Sunseer said? 'As slow and weary and wise is best'."

"I am being wise," Mist said, remembering to keep her voice down. "I'm thinking this through. The longer we wait for help to come, the more likely something bad will happen. Always."

"How do you know that?" Gelid asked.

"Because it always does."

"This isn't thinking it through. This is rushing in desperation," Gelid said.

"I know!" Mist growled, with a flash of red going down her tail. "Sometimes the best way isn't the easiest way."

"Even if it's the riskiest way?"

"Yes, even if it's the riskiest way."

Now you're sounding like a queen, Gelid thought.

Mist growled. "The building is made of solid stone! Let's go around. There could be a back way."

Gelid followed Mist as they turned and continued to look behind the hall. The shroud of greenery proved thicker than Gelid thought first. The instant she stepped into the foliage, her talons almost tripped over a grass string on the ground. A branch overhead almost poked her eyes but she managed to duck in time.

"Psst, Mist," Said a voice.

"Gelid." Said another.

Mist swatted her tail over Gelid's front talon. "You don't have to say my name that loudly. I'm right here."

"I didn't say your name. I thought you said mine," Gelid responded.

"But..." Mist stopped as soon as she started talking but Gelid read her mind.

If you didn't say my name, then who?

"Over here," called the voice that Gelid heard first.

Mist followed the voice into the thicker part of the shroud, ducking under a branch into a small clearing that smelt of something rotting and salt. Two tall palm trees grew in the clearing. One had an odd green pattern around the trunk that...grew? What? That didn't make sense.

The other tree had two golden orbs floating around it that dazzled in the sunlight.

A dragon materialised out off thin air with her tail wrapped around the tree. She had leafy green scales, orange coloured wings and blue scales down her back from her nose.

"Glory," Mist said, approaching the older rainwing with a smile.

On the tree next to the one Glory perched herself on, was a white dragon that looked like -

"Swan," Gelid called to him and greeted him with a gentle nuzzle. The golden orbs that hovered around the tree were his helmet and armband.

Swan smiled, welcoming Gelid warmly. He slithered down the tree, taking her talon and holding it while he rested his head on top of hers.

She missed him. Ever since being freed from the spell, all Gelid wanted was to see Swan again.

"I missed you," Gelid said.

"Little Opal," He replied affectionately. "It's only been a day, yet the feeling is mutual."

Somewhere around them, Mist and Glory were speaking to each other but Gelid didn't care. She just wanted this moment with him.

She pulled away from his warmth, taking her talon back. "What are you doing here?"

"Well," Swan begun to say with a smile, as if remembering something funny. "When you see an entire kingdom of seawings emerge from the ocean, you tend to get a little curious and tell some very important dragons about it. Next thing I knew, I followed them to Jade Mountain and then here."

Did Swan see everything? How much? Did he watch Gelid brutally murder that seawing? She didn't mean to and she just felt horrible about it now.

"And I just happened to be a sloth," Glory said to him.

"And of course her majesty followed too," Swan added. "I am grateful for that. I thought I was losing my mind."

"Purely. You've gone insane," Glory said.

Swan laughed.

"What are you doing here, Mist?" Glory asked her.

"My penguin head of a father. That's why," Mist said. She explained everything that happened. Including North's return and his transformation into an animus dragon. He enchanted Gelid until Mist broke the spell. She explained the prison located at the top of the Bay, before the whirl of islands. She explained her plan.

"Don't forget the dragonets," Gelid said. "We still have no idea where they are or how to rescue them."

"That's horrible," Swan said.

"We're going to have to find them quickly. Our forces are marshalling along the border of the mud kingdom. That's as much leniency Queen Ibis is giving us," Glory said.

"Forces?" Mist asked.

"Two sandwings, friends of yours I assume-"Glory flicked her tail at Mist"-came to Thorn explaining what happened. She was able to gather her army faster than us, once we realised what was going on too. Half of the armies have arrived already, awaiting the others. I heard we're receiving some icewing support too."

"What about Queen Ibis and Queen Fuchsia? Why aren't they joining us?" Gelid asked.

Glory looked at Swan. "Ibis doesn't want anything to do with this."

"Remember Willow?" Gelid asked Mist. She nodded. "Willow joined the Talons. She wants Queen Ibis assassinated so she can take the throne."

"That's...surprising. I've heard nothing less than admiration for the mudwing princess, " Swan said. "I thought she was respectable."

"I think a lot of dragons thought she was respectable," Gelid said. Including Queen Ibis, who has no idea what her eldest daughter has been up to.

"As for Fuchsia, my daughter hasn't had any luck getting through to her," Glory said.

Mist mumbled.

"Your quiet words are enlightening us," Glory said to Mist.

"Fuchsia is the wrong colour of scale to be ruling," Mist said. She went on.

Gelid heard something not far away. At first she thought there was a dragon in the shroud with them, watching them but there wasn't a single scale out of place. The sound wasn't the rustling of leaves or branches either, more like the vigorous flapping wings and air in turmoil. Whatever it was, it was progressively getting louder and louder.

"Do you hear that?" Gelid asked, hoping some other ears heard what she was hearing. "It's like they're having a race out there."

Swan looked up to the sky. "I hear it," He said.

"We should check it out," Gelid said to Mist. The princess nodded.

"Keep yourselves safe at a distance. We don't need more dragons chained up in prison," Mist said to Glory and Swan.

"I don't know about that, Swan has a tendency to spring into situations sometimes. Might have to save his tail," Glory smirked at Swan.

"If only, your majesty," Swan replied passively.

Mist walked out of the clearing. "Come on, Gelid." She called from beyond the trees.

"Be safe, my little Opal," Swan said.

"I will," Gelid promised, leaving his warmth and following Mist down towards the beach.

A single deep green seawing lay on the sand, looking as if he flew around the continent a few dozen times. North watched the seawing closely while other dragons looked on.

"What's going on?" Mist asked North.

Gelid carefully positioned herself behind Mist's wings and straightened her face.

North shrugged his wings at her. "Recover your breath, soldier. What happened?" He asked the seawing.

The soldier huffed and puffed, his gills pulsating, lurching for another breath. "AN ARMY!" Shouted the soldier.

"WHAT! WHERE!" North demanded.

"The border!" Cried the soldier. "Sandwings! Rainwings! Nightwings! All of them!"

"All of them? That's not - that shouldn't be possible. You there! Find me Auklet right now!" North shouted to a seawing half-submerged in the water. The seawing twirled around and dove into the ocean.

Hah. There was something amusing about seeing the icewing prince scrabble and panic. Get a taste of your own medicine.

"Do you know about this?" North asked Mist.

Mist shook her head but North wasn't convinced.

"You," Gelid's blood ran colder. She forgot North still thought she was under his spell.

Mist stepped aside and out of North's way when he confronted Gelid. "Tell me exactly what you know about this."

Gelid stayed still, trying not to look at Mist or North.

"Tell me right now! Ack, glaciers! Why isn't this working?" North grabbed her talon. The talon with the fake bracelet around her wrist. "What? This isn't-"

Gelid swiped her talon across his face and he shrieked, letting go of Gelid's talon. She tugged on Mist's wing. "Let's go! Let's go!"

Gelid lifted into the air, beating her wings as fast as she could closer to the mainland. Mist followed behind her.

"You promised me, Mist! You promised me!" North roared.

Gelid looked back at him. He had four bleeding blue lines next to his eyes that cut his upper lip. She did that. Revenge: successful.

"YOU PROMISED ME!" His voice trembled the skies, even as he grew into a smaller dragon from the distance. "No! Get back here! We have a battle to prepare for!" His voice trailed off.

The sky fell quiet as soon as she lost sight of the beach. For once, Mist looked as silent as she was. That probably had something to do with Gelid attacking her father. She slowed down, flying beside Mist instead of leading the way.

"Sorry," Gelid said to Mist.

Mist observed the horizon. "Don't. Don't be. He - he deserved it."

This was the battle Sunseer warned us about. The Battle of the Turning Tides.

I hope we win.

But what happens after? Who will die? Who will live?

Guess I'm going to find out.