Author's note: This will be about all I say this time. The part with Tamarin climbing a tree was mostly written by mikey1393drago, who, as usual, also proofread this chapter.

Chapter 25:
The Blind and The Bold

"Just be careful, Tamarin," Glory instructed the blind RainWing. "These fake Queens have already shown they're not above cheating to keep their throne."

"I'll hear Exquisite coming if she tries anything," Tamarin said. "My hearing is my best sense."

"Still. I don't trust them. I'll keep an eye on them when you're climbing. Especially Exquisite."

"Tell that white-eyed dragonet to get over here or she forfeits," Exquisite called. "I'm waiting."

Glory's ruff flared up immediately. "You'll regret saying that when she beats you!"

"Let me go after her!" Kinkajou snarled. Glory had to hold her back. "I'll teach her not to mess with my friends!"

"You can't, I'm afraid," Heliconia sighed. "You already competed. We all only get one shot."

"She'll learn when I win," Tamarin said calmly. "Don't worry."

The blind RainWing fearlessly stepped forward to where Exquisite stood at the edge of the tree.

"Glory is a fool for trusting any blind dragon to be on her team," Exquisite muttered.

Tamarin blinked, then her ruff flared. She'd had about enough now. "At least I learned to fly on my own. Dragons that can see don't even do that. And who did Grandeur choose to tend the Royal Garden?" She pointed at herself, but she wasn't feeling any pride as she reminded Exquisite of this. Her scales had changed from their usual purple hue to dark red.

Deciding to ignore any further taunting, Tamarin reached for the tree she knew was there, and waited for the call of the judge before she began her climb.

"Start!" shouted the judge dragon and she watched them both speed climb up the tree.

Tamarin shot up the tree rapidly unaware if Fruit Bat was neck and neck with her. She could hear her climbing at a rapid pace, so maybe she has indeed matched her speed momentarily. The cheers from her teammates and Glory's friends she heard as clear as wind through the trees, egging her on to keep at this velocity. She'd never had anyone care so much about her until this very day, and there was no way she would want to let them down either. Suddenly there was a snap of a branch, and before she could move, it collided with her head, dazing her. Despite how blind she was, she could still figure out exactly where sound comes from, and this particular noise had come from the tree Exquisite was climbing. Now she understood her opponent would go as far as cheating in the contest. She heard Glory's bellow far below.

"Cheater! She broke that on purpose! Watch yourself, Tamarin!"

Recovering from her daze, she hurriedly clambered higher once more listening as sharp as an eagle sees for her adversary's next move. Again there was another snap of a branch, but Tamarin continued on in a spiral to dodge it momentarily.

"Hey! Quit trying to knock me off!"

"I wouldn't dare do that to a blind dragon like you!" She stressed Tamarin's condition as though she didn't care, but Tamarin just let it go.

No point arguing with her. Like I care if she is an old bat. I know now how she likes to win, so I'll stay on this edge of the tree so she cannot pull another fast one on me. Tamarin again could clearly hear her friends cheering her on, giving her more reason to speed up even further. She could just imagine how far down Exquisite could be. She was much slower than she believed, and by the sound of the crowd, Tamarin knew she was the closest to the goal. By the feel of the air around her, she had already passed the two hundred meter mark, and understood only one hundred more meters were needed for her to win. With all her vigour, she sprint climbed to the final marker, felt for the coconut and then let it drop to the ground far below. The moment it smashed, the entire Arboretum completely filled with cheers. I won! I actually won!

She let go and nose dived towards the ground after Exquisite's Coconut crashed below, opening up her wings only meters from the earth before landing and being greeted by the embrace of Kinkajou. She heard Exquisite landing behind her, and out of sportsmanship, her shoulder was patted for the achievement.

"Well done Tamarin. I take back all that I said and done. You are far more skilled than I ever will be."

"Thank you, for your kind words."

Regardless of her sincerity, Glory still glared at Exquisite.

"You'd better take back what you said and did," she growled. "You had no right picking on a blind dragonet. You're no Queen. Get out of our sight. Now."

"But, I—" Exquisite began.

"That is no way to treat a loser, Glory," said Tamarin. "She did the best she could, despite trying to knock me off. I don't have a grudge so, what's the point in acting mean?"

"Our guardians and Morrowseer made me feel worthless when my friends and I lived under Claws of the Clouds Mountains," Glory admitted. "You honestly expect me to tolerate her acting no different towards you? Exquisite is no better than Kestrel, Webs, Dune, and Morrowseer were, as far as I'm concerned."

"Just be careful about saying that around Peril," Jambu interrupted. Somehow, the firecaled SkyWing hadn't heard what Glory said about her late mother. That or she just chose to ignore Glory, probably realizing her late mother gave her good reason to dislike her. It would be hard to like someone that wanted to kill you when you slept.

"I understand what you've been through Glory, but try not to treat others the same way. I'm sure you are thinking the same thing deep down, that despite everything that has happened to you, you really do want to change."

"Some things can't be forgiven, Tamarin. Morrowseer told Kestrel to kill me in my sleep just because I wasn't the 'wings of the sky' his prophecy wanted. Webs can be blamed for that. After Hvitur and the SkyWing egg were lost—according to Kestrel anyway—it was his idea to steal an egg from the RainWing hatchery to replace it." She paused. "I wish I was the one who killed Morrowseer, for what he wanted done to me. I'll prove to him I'm not some useless RainWing when I become the next queen of this tribe and make it the best one on all of Pyrrhia. I-I'll put any other Queen before me to shame."

Sunny nearly gasped loudly, but held it in. Did Glory's voice just crack? she thought. I've never known her to get so emotional. Of course, Sunny couldn't blame her; out of all five of them, Glory had it the worst when they were being raised under Claws of the Clouds Mountains. Their guardians hadn't been ordered to murder her, Clay, Tsunami, or Starflight in their sleep like they had been ordered to do to Glory, for starters. They hadn't been despised for not being right either; otherwise, Sunny would have been hated just as much as Glory was for being a hybrid and a SandWing without a tail barb.

"So, look," Glory went on a moment later. "I have every reason to hate dragons like them and Exquisite. They've probably only ever wanted me dead, even before Morrowseer ordered it. There's always a part of me that wishes I'd been the one to kil…"

Clay suddenly approached Glory. "Don't," he whispered. "Peril is still grieving Kestrel. Don't let her hear you talking about her mother in this way, anymore than you have already."

"I'm sorry about all you've been through, Glory," Queen Grandeur unexpectedly said, "but can we just get on with this challenge, if you're so bent on being the next RainWing Queen?"

"Humph!" Glory snorted. "I guess there's just no point in rambling on about my past. Sorry guys." She shot a spiteful glare at Grandeur, however.

"If you're so intent on proving yourself worthy of taking our throne," Fruit Bat said, "then why don't you and Queen Grandeur go at it in the next challenge now instead? It won't hurt to have you compete early."

"But I was next!" Heliconia gasped. "You and I were going to gather as many sloths as possible in the allowed time."

"It can wait, if your team leader is so anxious to prove herself," said Dazzling.

"Fine," Glory sighed. "Name your challenge, Grandeur. Whatever it is, I accept right now."

"Distance Throwing it is, then," Grandeur declared. "We will meet at the designated course in a few moments."

Grandeur and the other Queens flew off without waiting for another response from Glory's team.

Glory gently patted Tamarin on the shoulder. "Great going, Tamarin," she said. "We never doubted you." Unlike some RainWings, she bitterly thought. When I'm Queen, I'll make sure Exquisite is punished for what she did to you up there. I won't tolerate discrimination when I'm in charge of her.

"Are you okay?" Kinkajou asked when Glory's ruff flared and her scales started becoming red.

"Yeah, I guess," she sighed. "It just really irks me that Exquisite did that to Tamarin. Nobody should treat someone with a disability like that. When I'm Queen, I'll have anyone that mistreats a disabled dragon arrested. I don't care who they are."

"We should get to the next challenge course," Liana said. "They've already shown they're not very patient."

"Are you ready to lose now, Glory?" Magnificent called as Glory's team and friends landed near the course.

"We're 2-0 so far," Glory spat. "You should be asking yourself that!"

"BOO!" a RainWing shouted from the audience again.

Glory looked around for Riptide again, but he wasn't eating any fruit when she spotted him this time. Damn. I can't shut them up with fruit bombs this time.

She then looked over to the Distance Throwing course, and noticed there were long lines and distance checkers down it. Beside this, Glory noticed three different targets of different sizes. There was also two scoreboards just behind where the judge sat. She assumed it was one scoreboard for each team.

Glory blinked. "What on Pyrrhia do we even do here?"

"Just what it sounds like," Grandeur sighed. "Distance Throwing. There's not much explanation needed."

"There is for someone that's never done it before," she snarled. "Namely me."

"Then our judge can explain the rules to you." If she's paying attention right now, that is. "I know! I'll throw a fruit at her!"

"Did somebody say fruit?!" the judge immediately gasped excitedly. "Where is it?" Then she noticed Glory's team and friends giving her funny looks, and she cleared her throat. "Er, right. Ahem!"

"The rules?" Glory said impatiently.

"Oh! Right. Well, the rules are simple. You just need to get the best distance for the throwing part of the challenge, then get the most points during the target practice part of the challenge. You must throw a coconut as far as you can."

"That's all there is to it? This will be easier than I thought."

That's what you think, Dazzling thought. Even Grandeur doesn't know what we have in mind. You won't be as lucky as Kinkajou and Tamarin were. You'll fail them. That's a promise, Glory.

Glory noted the devious expression on Dazzling's face. Come on, Starflight. Put those mind-reading abilities of your's to good use for me, she thought. I'd really like to know what she's plotting now.

She noticed the course was already set up for herself and Dazzling. There were several different objects they would be throwing just in front of an "X" carved in the soil, where she and Dazzling would have to throw these objects from. They sat down on these spots, and awaited the judge's call.

"Begin!"

Glory picked up the nearest object, a coconut, immediately threw it up in the air, and then whipped around quickly to hit it with her tail. The coconut soared through the air, and when it finally came back down, it would have landed three-quarters of the way had it not been for something only Glory seemed to notice. She'd been doing something and at the last minute, Glory's tail seemed to not hit the coconut as hard as she'd wanted. There was a shocked gasp from Glory's team when it only landed a third of the way up the course.

The judge immediately flew over to where Glory's coconut was and stabbed a flag into the ground where it had landed before removing it from the course.

Wait, Glory thought. That's not right. There was a puddle of white where the coconut had been. I knew I hit it hard enough, and I knew I thought it had felt light. I should have said something to the judge when she was there. Not paying enough attention will cost us. And I know who to blame. She shot a glare at Grandeur, who returned Glory's look with one of confusion.

What just happened? Grandeur wondered. She'd never seen a coconut fail to soar a good distance before. She didn't understand why Glory was glaring at her as if it was her fault either; she was not desperate enough to win to resort to cheating or sabotage. However, she did know who was, but wouldn't throw out any accusations yet. One mishap wasn't enough proof of sabotage, but she would keep her eyes peeled for any more strange occurrences. She didn't want to have an unfair advantage over Glory; Grandeur would rather lose fairly than win unfairly.

"5 points for Glory!" the judge declared.

"That is not fair!" Kinkajou cried. "Someone punched a hole in the coconut Glory had so it would not go through the air right!"

"Don't fret yet, Kinkajou," Glory called over to her. "I'm not out yet."

"The key word being 'yet'!" Queen Magnificent shouted. "You'll never get to be our new Queen! The way everything is now is perfectly fine. The others are happy with us taking turns every month."

"I'm not!" Glory's team disagreed in unison.

"Nobody asked for a peanut gallery!" Tsunami barked. "So shut up, Magnificent!"

The RainWings in the audience all gasped at once, then began muttering amongst themselves about how Glory would not be a great queen if she had 'disrespectful friends like Tsunami'. Glory chose to ignore them. She wasn't going to prove the RainWings right. They'd learn she'd be the best Queen they'd had in decades when her team wins this competition.

"It is Queen Grandeur's turn!" the judge announced.

"They don't address her as 'Her Majesty' here?" Riptide muttered to Tsunami.

"They're probably too dumb to know how to address a queen properly," Tsunami said. "Glory won't let that fly when she's their Queen."

Grandeur picked up the coconut before her and in a motion similar to Glory, she tossed it in the air, then sent it flying with a whack of her tail. It landed near the end of the course.

"25 points for Queen Grandeur!" the judge declared. "Queen Grandeur wins the Distance Throwing Challenge!"

"Not fair!" Kinkajou said again. She threw herself down on her rear and bitterly crossed her arms before Glory even returned to where they were.

"I tried, everyone," Glory sighed. "I'll never be able to prove it, but I think one of those fake queens did something to my coconut so I would lose when it really mattered. I was supposed to prove to everyone that I'd be a good queen, and it seems they wanted to make sure I would make a fool of myself. Well, two can play at that game," she added in a low voice, glaring at Magnificent. I wouldn't put it past you to cheat after what has been done to Kinkajou and Tamarin so far.