Wow! I can't believe I'm on the thirteenth chapter already! Lucky thirteen, right? :D

I'm glad to be picking up on the next chapter. Let's see what happens to Pelican, shall we?

Chapter 13

The Hybrids

"Guilty."

Pelican's eyes blurred, and she felt as if she were choking. "G-g-guilty?" she stuttered. She felt like crying, but she couldn't. The realization crashed down over her head. I'm about to die.

The judge's eyes softened. "I'm sorry, Miss Pelican. Against my personal judgement, several HES members have voted heavily for your disposal."

Disposal, Pelican thought bitterly. As if it's neat and tidy. Not like they're killing a dragon.

"You are permitted to see your friends for an hour before your disposal," said the judge, repeating the horrible word, "as a result of the reccomendations by Swordfish, a SeaWing working for us."

Swordfish is working for them! Pelican thought, shocked. "My friends- they're alive?"

"Yes."

Pelican felt as if a weight had been lifted off of her. Her friends were alive! She was going to die, but her friends were alive! Better for me to die than them.

"So I can see them?"

"Indeed," said the judge curtly. She stood up to her full height, which was towering, and unlatched Pelican's chains. Quickly she bound Pelican's wings. "They, too, have been convicted, but they are still alive at this moment. You may follow me, Miss Pelican."

The judge walked to the door on the right, and Pelican, ducking her head, followed behind. She abruptly turned around to face the audience, who looked somber. Pelican blinked and found herself saying, "Remember me." She paused and said softly, "Don't forget the five-year-old dragonet who died because of something she couldn't control. Don't forget the bloodred dragon who loved to count but died before she could turn seven.

"Don't forget Iceberg, the innocent dragon who remained optomistic despite growing up in prison, and died for being who she was. Don't forget Treejumper, who lived with her mother and played with her friend, an ordinary SeaWing, because it didn't matter to him that Treejumper was a hybrid."

Pelican paused and took a deep breath. "Remember Salamander, who was separated from his sisters because he was different. Remember Falcon." She didn't say anything past this. How could she describe him? She looked down and whispered:

"Don't forget the hybrids."

.

"Pelican!"

Pelican yelped when she saw her friends in the confinement. Their wings were all bound, and they looked extremely thin. They all had dark circles under their eyes, as if they hadn't gotten any sleep. Yet they all looked very, very happy to see her.

"I missed you," Pelican said, wiping her eyes. "I missed you all." She turned to Treejumper, who looked as if she might fall asleep right there, "Catfish said he's so sorry. He says it's all his fault."

"Oh, no," Treejumper shook her head through furious tears. "No, no, no. It was never his fault."

"Ocelot and Mange miss you," Pelican said to Salamander.

Salamander blinked.

"Bloodspiller..." Lilac eyes met deep crimson ones. "Startail promised to keep up your tally."

She turned to Falcon and had nothing to say. "Falcon..." her throat suddenly felt parched. She hadn't had water in... how long? "I- I- I-"

Falcon narrowed his eyes. The familiar gesture made Pelican laugh. I'm becoming hysterical, she thought. So much had changed since the day a small purple dragonet came into their prison!

"What happened to the dragon who used to intimidate the guard in our prison?"

"I don't know, Pelican," said Falcon. His voice was suddenly... sly? He reached back to his wings and unclipped the wing restraints. "I think he's still right here."

Falcon whirled around before the judge had time to register what was going on. He unclamped the wing restraints and clamped them onto the judge's own wings, pinning her down with surprising strength. In a fraction of a second, Salamander was there too, his tail inches from the judge's heart.

"Don't move, or we will do it," Salamander hissed. "You will let my friends escape."

Pelican blinked in astonishment and turned to her friends, who were unclipping their wing restraints.

"We didn't think you could do that-" the judge whispered hoarsely, her eyes on Pelican's chains.

"What?" Falcon lashed his tail on the ground. "Did you think we were too stupid? Well, we're not. Surprise." He released the judge, who trembled, her eyes not leaving Salamander's venomous tail.

"Treejumper! Bloodspiller! Falcon! Pelican! Fly away!" Salamander yelled.

Pelican, startled, followed Bloodspiller and Treejumper to the door, which Bloodspiller kicked down easily. "So flimsy," the crimson dragon mused. "They're really underestimating us."

Pelican hesitated at the exit. "Will you be okay?"

"I'll be fine," Salamander shouted over his shoulder. "Just go. Fly away!"

"You have to promise you'll be there," Pelican yelled.

"I'll be there, okay? Fly away!" Salamander bellowed. Pelican blinked and followed Treejumper, who was lifting off into the air. She flapped up, grateful, for once, that her wings were so large.

"There's a cave just over there!" Bloodspiller yelled from the front. Her SkyWing side had granted her with excellent peripheral vision, Pelican assumed.

"Let's go!"

Pelican swooped downwards. "Do you hear wingbeats?" she heard Treejumper call. Pelican listened closely. She could mostly only hear the wind whistling in her ears. The only wingbeats she heard were Bloodspiller's frantic flaps, Treejumper's tiny swooping, Falcon's long wingbeats, and her own, of course.

"No," she called back.

"Salamander's not coming," Treejumper said softly as they landed with several thumps in one of the mountain caves. "Look, I can't see him anywhere in the sky."

"Do you think the judge killed him?" Falcon asked quietly.

"I don't think she would," Pelican said. "She seemed like a good dragon."

Falcon cocked his head at her. "You know, sometimes I forget you're only five," he said. "You've been through so much for a dragonet, and you don't handle yourself like one."

"Six," Pelican corrected, looking down.

"What?"

"Six," said Pelican softly. "Yesterday was my birthday. I'm six now."

"What?" Falcon's jaw dropped. "Yesterday was your birthday?" He was silent for a second, counting on his talons, figuring things out. "That's right," he said finally. "You are six now. You're six, and Iceberg would be eight if she were still alive, her birthday's just weeks before yours, remember?"

"Yeah," said Pelican softly.

"Look!" Bloodspiller yelped, pulling Pelican out of her thoughts about birthdays and dragonethood and death. "It's Salamander, it's Salamander, here he comes!"

"That's him!" Treejumper whooped.

Sure enough, Pelican could see a small amber figure in the distance. It gradually drew larger until there was Salamander, his amber scales glinting in the sunlight.

"I let her live," he said, landing on the ledge outside the mountain cave. "Sorry it took me so long. I wanted to make sure nobody saw me leave."

"Smart," Pelican said, slightly recovering from the shock. "We should have thought to do that."

"Let's go see what's inside this cave, shall we?" Salamander said, smiling slightly. He ducked inside and they followed after him. Pelican walked forwards eagerly, but the others were silent.

"What's wrong?" Pelican asked, trying to see in front of her. The other hybrids were in her way.

She finally managed to shove forwards, but stopped in her tracks at what she saw. The cave appeared as if it had been occupied long ago. Everything was covered in a layer of dust, but there were ledges heaped with blankets for beds and many baskets strewn everywhere.

Treejumper was leaping around, inspecting everything, and muttering to herself as she did so. Finally she looked up. "This is the cave where I lived with my mother," she said.

Pelican opened her mouth, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything.

Treejumper picked up an old scroll off of the ground, unscrolling it quickly. It was mostly blank, except for a dragonetlike drawing likely painted with paints from fruit juice. It depicted a small sapphire dragonet and a dark purple one playing together.

"What do you think happened to Catfish?" she said softly.

"And my sisters?" Salamander interjected.

"I don't know," said Pelican, "but we'll find a way to save them."

"Are you nuts?" Falcon asked incredulously. "We're not going back there! It's a death sentence! We have to get as far away from here as we can! The lost continent wouldn't be far enough!"

"We aren't leaving our friends," Pelican said frostily. "It's wrong that we should be able to escape and they shouldn't. They're only in there because of us, you know."

"You're right," said Falcon, sighing heavily. "Let's get some rest for now. It's been an... eventful few days."

"That's right," Salamander agreed.

"We can go get them tomorrow," Falcon said. "But after that, we're getting as far away as possible."

"They might not have until tomorrow," Pelican argued.

"They're all riled up from our visit today," Falcon pointed out. "It is in no way safe for us to go out now. You're not getting yourself killed for nothing. We've had too many near-death experiences."

"We've had..." Hmm, let's think. The time when they found us in the desert... the time when we were caught again... just now... "Three," said Pelican.

Falcon formed his mouth into a part-smile, part-grimace. "That's three times too many."