(Tsunami)

The four of them had been brought to the Sky Kingdom by the guards, and instantly split up. The SeaWing thrashed against her guards, one of them threatening to drop her. Each of the dragonets had had metal clips put onto their wings, holding them closed. Tsunami had thin metal wires attached to each of her legs, and a fifth wire around her neck. The two on her forelegs branched out to pillars on either side of her, while the other three spread out across the sandy arena below.

The three guards who had brought her up to the pillar flew off once she was secured, spiraling back down to the kingdom spread out below. She started to pace on the pillar, considering her options. On the one talon, Tsunami could throw herself from the ledge when- no, if the guards came to get her again, but... it was a long way down. Tsunami growled and returned to her pacing, her eyes scanning the other pillars.

From her guess, there were roughly a hundred of them, spread out in a large circle. Almost all of them had a dragon on top, either sleeping or pacing, like she was. Most of them seemed to be SeaWings or MudWings, with the occasional IceWing or SandWing, and only one or two SkyWings. As she paced, Tsunami saw a trio of guards bring a new dragon up, tying them down two pillars to her right. The dragon wasn't struggling, acting more like a statue than anything.

When they flew away, Starflight was left huddled on the center of the pillar. His glasses were crooked and looked like they had been broken, and his gaze was fixed pointedly on his talons. Tsunami lashed her tail again and resumed her pacing. Of course, the first thing that happened with these new dragons led to her getting captured by the same tribe that killed her father! She huffed and sat down, though her tail didn't stop moving.

As she watched, a copper-colored SkyWing flew up and landed on the pillar of one of the MudWings.

(Blackbird)

Blackbird had no idea where the other three had been taken. Dovekie had been dragged off by himself, while Tsunami and Starflight had been pulled away in a different direction. Blackbird herself had been shoved into a room that was almost entirely inlaid with gold and jewels. It was bright and made her squint, so she decided that staying crouched on the floor was the best option.

"How thrilling... finding such an odd group of dragonets traveling together."

Blackbird forced herself to look up.

A large- well, she assumed it was a throne- was in front of her. It was made of stone, and carved to look like clouds. Perched on top of the throne was an orange SkyWing. She had rubies inlaid between the ridges of scales between her eyes, and was wearing a golden chainmail.

"W... who are you?" The dragon on the throne frowned at er.

"Now, that's rather rude, don't you think? A SkyWing who doesn't even know who her queen is." She spread her wings and easily jumped down from her throne, landing heavily in front of Blackbird. She was barely taller than the hybrid, though Blackbird instinctively shrunk back. "Even looking as strange as you to..."

"Q-Queen Scarlet..." Blackbird shrunk further as the queen began to circle her, tugging at her wings or arms to make her move.

"Took you long enough to figure it out." She moved to stand in front of Blackbird, gripping her chin firmly, turning her head from side to side. Blackbird's ears were pinned back as Scarlet inspected her, feeling as if the queen's eyes were seeing straight under her scales. Still gripping her chin, she turned to her guards. "Bring her to the servant's quarters and get her ready, then have her brought back here before the fight tomorrow. Keep those clips on her wings. I can't have her escaping, now can I?"

Blackbird flinched as the queen finally released her, two guards coming forward to take her out of the throne room.

The two guards led Blackbird through the palace. SkyWings were flying from level to level of a large central tower, roaring orders to one another or exchanging quick words. Her eyes flitted from dragon to dragon, bright oranges and reds and yellows going every which way. One of her guards shoved her forward and they continued down the large staircase that lined the tower. She was pushed into a room at the bottom of the stairs that felt more like a dungeon than living quarters, and the guards posted outside were given strict orders to leave the clips on her wings intact, and not to let her leave the staff quarters. She took one last look at the guards before slipping in.

There was a near constant stream of SkyWings entering and leaving the main room within. Blackbird inched her way against one of the walls. The staff quarters themselves had a large central room, with more doorways and tunnels leading off of it than Blackbird could count. She lashed her tail around herself and leaned heavily against the wall. It was all so chaotic here, and she wasn't sure what to do.

It felt like hours before someone finally came up to her.

A dragon tapped Blackbird's shoulder softly, making her jolt.

"Whoah, hey!" He held up his talons. "Didn't mean to scare you!" He seemed to be a year or so older than she was, but was slightly shorter than her. Scars littered his body. His scales were a pale orange and had a small ruff behind his ears, but his eyes were what made Blackbird pause for a moment. They were a bright, icy blue. He tipped his head at her, his ruff and the edges of his wings tinging with pastel purple and yellow whorls.

"W-who are you...?" Blackbird normally would've kicked herself for sounding so scared, but this time she was. She was terrified of where she was, and wanted nothing more than to find her friends and leave this place. The orange dragon watched her, bolts of green chasing throyugh his ruff.

"I'm Ember." He went to hold out a talon but stopped himself. "You're Blackbird, right? One of the guards told me you'd be in here." She nodded and he smiled at her.

"Why did Scarlet send me down here?" Blackbird found herself blurting out the question, and clamped her mouth shut. She turned her gaze to the floor. "Why didn't she just... throw me into the dungeon or something...?" Ember made a face somewhere between fear and uncertainty.

"Queen Scarlet seemed to like you, from what the guards said. She sees you as a... weird treasure or something." He scraped his talons along the stone beneath him. "Well. I'm supposed to get you set up in a room. Follow me." He turned, flicking his tailtip onto one of her talons.

Blackbird hesitated before following him. The place where his tail had touched felt like all of the heat had been pulled out of it. Ember called after her and she hurried to catch up. Ember wove easily between the dragons, but it wasn't as easy for her. She kept bumping into dragons or getting hit with wings and tails and talons. Blackbird felt like she was on the verge of tears by the time she made it to where Ember was waiting. He offered her a sympathetic smile.

"You'll get used to it soon enough." He opened the door to the room and her face fell. It was small and dark, and had two stacked cots crammed into it, similar to the bunk beds some of the dorm rooms had back in the Night Kingdom. Ember fished two stones out of his pouch and struck them against one another. Sparks flew from them and ignited the torch next to the door. "It's just me and you in here for now. She 'fired' Pergerine last week." He swept past her and moved over to the bunk on the left side of the room, pulling himself up on top of it with a flap of his wings.

Blackbird nodded stiffly, turning and closing the door behind her. She screwed her eyes shut before taking a breath. She slowly walked over to the opposite bunk and slipped onto the lower one, curling up and tucking her nose under her tail.

She didn't want Ember to see her crying.