(I'm counting the adult age of dragons to be eight and not seven.)
Calcite continued to explain where she grew up without any permission. She never mentioned where it was, but she said that it wasn't particularly close to Pyrrhia. The island's inhabitants valued peace above all else, wanting only the best for all the tribe; it made Mallow think of Frute, who was always the one to resolve an argument inside or outside their troop. It seemed like he would've liked it there, if Calcite was telling the truth.
Once or twice Mallow spotted a MudWing patrol and they hid for a little bit, but they were still close to the mountains, so there wasn't much other dragons. She was glad she hasn't spotted Vervain or Flora yet—if she remembered their routine correctly (that she only knew because she watched them sometimes), they were either sleeping or Vervain was drilling Flora on some battle tactic. She hoped for the former, but Vervain was the one that got more sensitive and personal when he was seen doing things that were stereotypical for RainWings. As far as Mallow knew, Flora didn't have a problem with it (she used to use it as an excuse to nap during noon, when Mallow was still bigwings), Frute basically lived by it (Mallow recalled him once saying that he had wanted to live in the rainforest when he was older…poor Frute), and Mallow herself accepted it openly around dragons she knew. Now that she thought of it, Vervain hated a lot of things concerning their heritage; the topic of their parents, the rainforest, RainWings—anything that suggested they weren't completely MudWings.
Mallow was brought out of her thoughts when she felt Caldera flicking her tail towards her wing to try to get her attention. She looked down at the small dragonet.
"Is everything okay?" Mallow asked, sounding big-sisterly as always.
"Yeah. But…what happens if we come across your sibs?" Caldera said quietly. Mallow only half recognized that she said 'sibs' instead of the normal 'sibling'; Jackal did that too, not just in reference to her own sibs but any other groups of siblings.
Jackal came a bit closer, too, but didn't say anything. Mallow reminded herself to worry about that later—this was a bit important.
"If we come across Vervain and Flora, Calcite will obviously need to hide," Mallow said. She made sure she was loud enough for the IceWing to hear, which wasn't that hard considering that she stopped talking and was now walking silently. "I want you two to do the same. He shouldn't go so low, but he might try to attack. If he does, don't do anything dumb." That last part was mainly for Jackal—besides Calcite, he was probably the most likely one to fight back. The SandWing understood and nodded.
They fell back into silence before Calcite decided it was time to rest. Her and Caldera fell asleep instantly; Jackal hesitated but eventually fell asleep too. Mallow stayed up a little bit, not entirely tired and wanting to determine where they were.
They had covered a lot of ground despite Mallow feeling like they were slow. They were near the edge of the mountains, close to the rainforest and Mud Kingdom border. With the rainforest in sight, she thought of her little home—nothing more than a typical mud mound, except for the extra leaves and twigs so everyone knew who it belonged to. It was in a nice little clearing that used to be for battle training, but now she used it to nap out in the open when it was raining or sunny. It was probably big enough to fit Mallow until she was an adult—and by then, the war would be over and she might be able to move closer to Jackal so she could watch him more (assuming he'd still need her to dragonet-sit him; if not she could just visit as a friend).
Mallow looked over at the rainforest, a part of her wanting to spend a few minutes underneath the lush canopy of leaves and trees. But she couldn't leave her friends with Calcite. She briefly considered waking up Caldera and Jackal and running away, but who's to say that Calcite won't just follow them? And if they ran into Vervain and Flora—although Mallow hated the idea—they could use Calcite as a way to get past them.
Her scales rippled into the closest they could get to the colors of fear when they had to stay brown and mud-like. She really hoped it wouldn't come to that. She didn't like the idea of relying on an IceWing to protect her friends. But she'd have to deal with it for now.
Eventually, Mallow fell asleep to the distant sound of rainforest creatures.