Well, this took longer than I expected. Super sorry with the delay.

I planned to have this be longer, but I experienced some very severe writer's block. I'll explain more at the end.

I still hope you can enjoy this chapter, regardless!

POV: Harvey

What a speech.

Cyclone had just spoken from his heart, inadvertently partially why he didn't tell his real name to Calcite. Harvey wouldn't have thought of that, but it certainly left an impact on himself. It made him even more proud of Cyclone than before.

The question was, would Calcite be impacted by the speech at all?

Harvey was still inside the pouch, so he couldn't quite see Calcite's expression to notice if it impacted her. All he could do was listen for her words.

"...Okay".

Really? That's all she has to say?

"W-What?", Cyclone stammered out.

"Sad backstory. What does this have to do with the Rainwings?", Calcite asked, with a tone of slight contempt. "If anything, it sounds like you DID attack those two".

Gah! She's not convinced!

"N-No! I never did that-".

"You keep saying that, and yet, the evidence is leading to the contrary". From the tone of voice used, she sounded more confident than before. That was bad for them, because it meant that they had little chances to convince her otherwise.

"Did you use me and my family?! Just to keep you safe for the night?!".

"HEY! DON'T ACCUSE CYCLONE OF THAT SHIT!", Harvey yelled out, bursting his head out of the pouch. It hurt seeing his friend accused of manipulating others like that.

"I'm not seeing any reason to believe you", Calcite sneered. Why does she seem to be acting so differently than before? She seemed scared earlier, now she's being bold and confident. "Telling your backstory, that's what a criminal does".

Harvey opened his mouth, but nothing came out. How was he supposed to convince Calcite otherwise? It was a losing battle, even if they were telling the truth.

"And now you won't even deny it. I think that's all of the proof I need".

It was hard to tell the truth, especially since they technically did fight the Rainwings. They weren't innocent at all and we only fought in self defense, but we still did it.

Behind Harvey, Cyclone was frozen in place. There was nothing left to do for either of them to do. The second Calcite got out of the guard station, she was bound to get all of the dragons after the dragon and human.

"N-No…". Cyclone sank to the floor, nearly crushing Harvey in the process. He had to jump out of the pouch in order to avoid getting squished to death. "W-Why Calcite…. Why….".

Cyclone, no! "You need to stay strong, Cy!", Harvey exclaimed. "We may have messed that up badly, but we can't let it get to our heads! Just-".

Suddenly, Harvey was knocked off to the side, his body scraping along the floor. Cuts appeared along his arms and legs as they made contact with the stone ground. Once he finally stopped moving, he pushed his head up to see who had pushed him off. Did Cyclone accidentally knock me off or something? Or...

Beside Cyclone, Calcite was helping him stand up. "Get up, Seawing. I think it's pretty clear what's going on here". Her head was looking at Harvey with a furious glare, as if he had just called her mother something unspeakable. "That scavenger…".

"Is brainwashing you".

That statement nearly made Harvey laugh out loud. Did she really think that? That a scavenger could manage to brainwash a dragon, of all things? It was absurd.

And yet, as the words slowly settled in, he began to realize something. Cyclone was struggling at school before, with few friends to help him along. Harvey was probably the first one to really be a true friend to him, but that brought some consequences.

Cyclone's actions were motivated by a desire to help Harvey defeat Darkstalker and return home. Did that mean that he was being selfish and not caring about what Cyclone wanted? No, he was pretty sure this was what he wanted. Did that make Harvey a manipulator of... emotions?

"C-Calcite, what are y-you doing?", Cyclone stammered out. His head was back up, looking at Calcite with confusion. "I don't-".

"Saving you from that scavenger. That little guy has probably been manipulating you this whole time", Calcite replied, sounding like she was some sort of hero. "You didn't seem like a criminal to me, and it makes sense now! The scavenger has been using you this whole time".

The seawing's eyes widened, shock registered on his face as Calcite's words sank in. "U-Using me? You serious?".

"Of course! He had you do some awful things, I bet. Those rainwings you attacked were probably done at that scavenger's urging".

Cyclone furiously shook his head. "That isn't right. Those rainwings attacked us out of the blue. No one told me to fight". Harvey was internally glad that Cyclone didn't listen to Calcite's words.

Calcite rolled her eyes in response. "That scavenger's brainwashing is more powerful than I thought. I'll get you out of here and report them. Don't worry about-".

Before Harvey knew it, Cyclone had pushed Calcite away from him, giving her a look of genuine confusion. "You really think that about Harvey? That's n-not true at all!".

"What are you doing, Cyclone? You just blew up your chance!".

"C-Chance?".

Calcite stamped one of her talons on the floor in frustration. "I wouldn't have told anyone a thing about you! You could have stayed here peacefully while that scavenger gets taken away!".

Harvey was, frankly, pretty shocked at what he was hearing. That Skywing was going to throw me under the bus while letting Cyclone off the hook? What a bastard! Thankfully, Cyclone stood up for him.

"I would never leave my friend like that".

"A friend wouldn't brainwash you!".

"And how exactly am I being brainwashed?".

Calcite opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. She looked livid, for whatever reason. Does she really hate me THAT much? Or is it that she l-loves Cyclone too much? Gah, that last thought!

"Please, just accept that you are!".

"Now you're just speaking crazy", Harvey piped up, finally thrown out of his own thoughts. "Weren't you just spouting a few minutes ago about how we had no proof that we didn't attack the rainwings?".

"I-I…", Calcite trailed off, looking defeated. "S-Smart scavenger…".

"That wasn't even that smart! Jesus, are dragons just dumb by comparison or what-".

"B-Be careful of what y-you say, Harvey", Cyclone stammered out, halting his sentence. "I don't want t-this to get out of hand".

Harvey really wanted to say more, but Cyclone DID just rebuke Calcite, so he supposed he could let it go. "Alright, friendo! What do we do now, then?".

Calcite probably won't let us just waltz out of here. Therefore, I'm a bit clueless on what to do.

"I-I don't know. Calcite probably won't let us out of here".

Heh, same brainwave, Cy.

Cyclone took a deep breath, before asking a bold question. "Will you let us leave, Calcite?".

Really? You went that route?

Calcite looked as confused as Harvey was. "W-What kind of question is that?! You don't just ask people to leave!".

"Sorry Cy, but I gotta agree with Calcite on this one", Harvey said, trying to keep himself from laughing. "What if she was a robber?".

"Then… I would ask her to not rob us?".

There was no stopping the roar of laughter that erupted from Harvey's mouth. He knew that it was probably insensitive or whatever, but the innocence of that answer…

Was way too funny!

"Hey! W-What's the laughing for?!", Cyclone demanded.

"Whew. I'm sorry for that, Cy. Just needed to get that out".

A frown appeared on Cyclone's face, before he turned his head back to Calcite. "Well? Will you let us leave? I-I didn't get an answer".

"...I don't know", Calcite replied, not sounding as confident as she did a few minutes ago. "I don't know what to think now..".

Well, Harvey wasn't expecting that answer. After how she reacted to Cyclone's question initially, he expected her to flat out just flee and report them. Not… this.

"Uh…. so can we just go?", asked Harvey.

With some hesitation, Calcite sidestepped to the side of the door. That was unusual, considering how she was just spewing nonsense about being brainwashed a few minutes ago. One doesn't change their mind THAT quickly.

There's gotta be some ulterior motive here.

"Huh. Well then, let's go, Cyclone!". Secretly, he was testing Calcite's responses. Maybe she was trying to get Harvey to leave alone, before exposing him and taking Cyclone away. He still didn't get why she seemed to blame him for everything.

For some reason, no one was moving. Cyclone and Calcite were frozen, as if time had just stopped.

"Helllooooo? Are you there, Cy?".

"J-Just like that? We can leave?", Cyclone questioned. "What happened?".

"Don't ask about it", Calcite harshly replied.

"O-Ok".

Jesus, what's her deal?

"Let's just get out of here, Cy", Harvey said, before climbing back into Cyclone's pouch. Hopefully we can finally get out of this goddamn place.

Once settled in, he felt the pouch slowly wave back and forth from the walking. It felt agonizingly slow, but Harvey didn't want to rush progress. They were here for too long now, and with the threat of their secret getting out, he really didn't want to anger Calcite.

Assuming she's not already angry. There's got to be some underlying plan or something. After all, in a good story, you don't get released that quickly.

"We're out", Cyclone whispered to Harvey. "Calcite just let us leave. I-I can't believe she was serious about that!".

"Must be in a bad story then", Harvey muttered to himself.

They were finally out of that goddamn guard station.

It took me 2 weeks to type this. As mentioned, I experienced some severe writer's block.

Basically, I already have a good idea for the action that will happen after Pinewood, but the whole idea of this town is relatively new in my story. Therefore, I somehow had to make this section flow well with the story. I'm still not entirely sure myself.

In addition, I've been distracted a ton lately, with school starting again soon and me getting into some new shows. This story will probably be updated a lot less than before, I'm afraid. Really sorry about this, but I will make sure that the story does reach an end.

See you next time, whenever that is.