The water parted around Hurricane as she plunged into the water. The coral beneath her was full of vibrant colors, and fish swarmed around them in the hundreds. Hurricane was only after one, however. The fat grouper was hovering near a spindly red coral, but as it felt the splash Hurricane had made, it turned and fled, darting over a ridge. Hurricane chased after it, her claws poking into the gaps in the coral to boost her speed. She crested the ridge, and saw the fish floating behind a patch of anemones that were much too small to hide it. Hurricane took a deep breath and slowly moved closer. She was aware that her light blue scales wouldn't be much good for camouflage, but she was pretty sure it didn't matter.
Too late, the fish noticed her. It tried to dart into a small cave, but Hurricane sank her hooked claws into it and swam for the surface.
She burst into the air, water streaming off her, and beat her wings fast, pulling herself out of the water. She turned towards the shore of the small island where she had made her home. The fish in her claws had stopped wriggling, so she spared one to offer a quick wave at a small group of MudWings who were circling over the waves near shore. Only one of them noticed her, the others being too intent on the waves, but he returned her wave before looking back at the water.
The island where Hurricane lived was tiny, so small it wasn't on very many maps, but it was big enough to offer her a comfortable home. High on the cliffs on the west side was the place where she lived. It was a cave with a small stream of ice-cold water flowing from a spring in the back and through the cave before pouring over the edge into the sea far below.
Hurricane landed at the mouth of the cave, the water from the spring refreshingly cold on her talons. It wasn't burning hot here on the edges of the MudWing Kingdom, like it was in the desert, but it was still nice to have good, cold water to rest in occasionally.
Hurricane breathed a small amount of frostbreath into the air ahead of her as she walked deeper into her cave, smiling slightly as the cooler air met her still-wet scales. she settled down to eat her catch, looking out the mouth of the cave as the sun began to set. The bright light didn't bother her very much, one of the advantages passed on from her IceWing father.
Hurricane shifted. She hadn't thought of Cirrus in a while. It was one of the reasons Queen Coral had been reluctant to trust her. The Queen of the SeaWings had allowed Hurricane to stay with her tribe, but hadn't exactly tried to make her feel welcome. Hurricane had had to endure stares, taunts from the younger dragons, and sometimes outright hostility from the former soldiers. When Hurricane had seen Coral punishing a dragon for failing her, ripping out the dragon's teeth and tearing open his belly before slamming his head against the hard rock floor, Hurricane had decided to flee and make her own way in Pyrrhia. It was too easy to imagine Coral's claws digging into her scales if she made a big mistake. Hurricane knew she couldn't go to the IceWings, as her father Cirrus had been largely disliked by most of the tribe even before he had joined the Talons of Peace. So Hurricane had flown south, hoping she would be able to find a place where she could live on her own. Here, it wasn't exactly isolation, but as the MudWing village nearby was rather small, Hurricane felt happy enough.
As the sun started its slow slip below the horizon, Hurricane finished off the fish, nudging the larger bones into the stream to be washed back into the ocean. The sun painted great sheets of oranges and pinks across the sky as she watched, and the first stars were appearing high in the sky. The few clouds there were had turned a bright orange-pink color that slowly faded as the last strip of sun dipped below the waves. Hurricane curled up on the floor of the cave and fell asleep.
When Hurricane woke in the morning, she found that a dense sea fog had rolled in. It was so thick and soupy that she could only see the mouth of her cave as a slightly brighter smudge in the dark gray of her cave. Keeping the trickling of the stream on her right, she moved slowly towards the opening. She could sense rather than see the drop-off, and she took off cautiously, listening hard for wingbeats. Everything, the sky, the sea, the island, all of it was a dense gray blur. There was no distinguishing one from the other. Realizing this, Hurricane slowly began to descend towards the water she knew was there.
Underwater it was dim, but no longer blurry. When Hurricane looked up, the fog looked like a gray roof over the sea. She turned back in the direction of her island and swam towards it. She decided she would explore an underwater cave she had found on the base of her island. It was on the eastern side, so she swam around the north shore to find a favorable current.
She found the cave again, a black hole among the thick tree roots reaching into the water. Hurricane peered into the cave, seeing nothing but a few small, pale crabs. She pulled herself over the roots and into the cave, lighting up the glowing scales along her neck and tail to help her see. She could see in the dark, but doing so made things blurry and grayish. Hurricane preferred to use her scales for light. She followed the cave back and found that it forked into three tunnels. Hurricane turned to her left and scratched three gouges into the wall. She resolved to do that every once in a while, figuring that if she got lost, keeping the marks on her right would help her find the exit again.
Hurricane figured that she would take the rightmost tunnel, remembering that Commander Shark and his soldiers would use the rightmost tunnel to hide valuables when they made decoy tunnels. She wasn't expecting to find much, but as she made her way down, the tunnel seemed less and less natural. Finally, she emerged into a small room, barely wider than her wingspan. The room looked old, very old, and seemed to have been completely forgotten. At the far side of the room, there was a small wooden container. Hurricane swam over and tried to open it, but it was stuck. She dug her claws into the crack of the lid and pried it open. A cloud of algae spilled out, and Hurricane waved it away from her face. she reached into the container and pulled out an old scroll. It was similar to the underwater scrolls that Trench had shown her when she had lived in the Kingdom of the Sea. Hurricane held it close to her face and lit up the stripes along her snout to try to see what it said, but the writing was tiny, too small to see. She looked into the container to see what else was in there. She found a jade and sapphire bracelet and a chunk of uncut stone that shone in the light from her scales.
Hurricane took the stone, the bracelet, and the scroll back to her cave for a closer look. The fog had mostly burned away, and in the improved light, Hurricane was able to read the scroll. The writing was still crystal clear, for which she was grateful. It was so tiny it would've been impossible to read otherwise. Hurricane looked for any explanation for the bracelet and the stone, which she had realized was an opal.
The scroll seemed like a day-by-day account of a SeaWing soldier who had been part of a group meaning to overthrow the current SeaWing queen and establish their leader, Mako, in her place. As she read, Hurricane learned that Mako was actually a part of the royal family, but had been largely ignored by the queen, until he fled the SeaWing palaces and formed his group in a bid to seize control. It was the last few entries, however, that caught Hurricane's attention.
Our attack is planned soon, the author had written. Mako plans to lead us against the queen in three days, when all three moons will be dark. He plans to enchant a bracelet to put the queen under his control, then make her give power slowly over to him. He plans to kill her remaining dragonets so there will be no one other than him who will be able to rule, and then he plans to kill off the queen after she has surrendered control to him as her only living heir.
Hurricane frowned. "If that was all he needed to take control, then why did he need to get a bunch of soldiers assembled behind him to take the throne?"
She turned to the last entry. It had suspicious dark stains splattered over it.
Mako has gone insane. He has killed all of us except Trout and me, and both of us are gravely wounded. We will both die, but first I plan to make sure the SeaWings never have him on the throne. Trout doesn't know why Mako suddenly snapped, but I think I do. It was his animus magic. He was perfectly sane before he enchanted that bracelet, but afterward his eyes were broken. His magic drove him mad. I only hope that his nephew, Albatross, does not suffer the same fate.
He is at the door to this chamber, the war council room that has become our tomb. I will place the scroll in a container in this room, along with the bracelet he enchanted and the opal he planned to enchant. I hope someone will find it and know what happened here, as well as the terrible price of animus magic, which we thought was a gift.
Trout is now dead. It is up to me to ensure that Mako can never harm another dragon. I plan to kill the dragon who was once our leader, and his bones will rest here with mine.
Hurricane shivered, looking at the bracelet. She was suddenly grateful she hadn't put it on. She grabbed a rock from the floor of her cave and slammed it down on the bracelet. She did this again and again until it was nothing more than twisted shards of metal and stone. She swept the pieces off the cliff with her tail, watching them fall into the water.
She sat down in the middle of her cave, shivering. Years before Albatross succumbed to his animus curse, his uncle had, killing dragons who had thought he was doing something great. If it hadn't been for Mako running away, the SeaWings might have learned of the curse of animus magic sooner, and Albatross might not have lost his mind.
The sun was setting again, but there was no beauty in it for Hurricane that night. Every red sheet across the sky made her think of blood.
Suddenly, she heard voices. Instinctively she ducked back into the depths of her cave, her imagination drawing pictures of bloodstained talons and dragons gone mad. She listened to the voices, but it was a while before she could make out the words.
"We're almost at the end of MudWing territory, and the only blood-egg MudWing we've found is an old female named Mangrove," one said.
"Somehow I doubt she's the one we're looking for."
"Especially since it said 'his egg'," the other grumbled. "But all we can do is keep trying tomorrow. Let's set down here for the night."
With horror, Hurricane realized they meant her island. She moved cautiously to the opening and peered out. She could just see two dragons landing on the top of the cliffs on the south side of her island. She may have just been scared because of what she'd just read, but she decided to sleep underwater while the other dragons were here.
She stuffed the opal and the scroll into a crack in the wall, then leaped from her cave. She glided down into the water, sacrificing speed for stealth. She curled up under an outcropping of coral that projected away from her island, which should stop her from being seen if they left early in the morning. Hurricane closed her eyes, trying to fall asleep.
She must have succeeded, because when she opened her eyes, it was morning. She had calmed down since the night before, because she was no longer obsessed about crazed animuses. Now, she was more curious about the newcomers than scared.
She swam to the surface and peered out. Seeing nothing, she took off from the water and flew to the top of the cliffs. She landed in the same place as the dragon had the last night, and searched for clues. There weren't many. Only the occasional half-footprint showed up on the ground ahead of her. She walked in the direction the footprints indicated, and soon came to a small clearing. Two dragons were sleeping just under the trees at the far edge, but Hurricane couldn't tell much about them from her current location. She crept around the clearing, keeping just outside the inner ring of trees until she could get a better look. Once she could see them clearly she stopped, but still was confused by what she saw. One of them was a pale blue-green, and was clearly an IceWing, but Hurricane's gaze was drawn to the other one. Her scales were orange on her head, forelegs, and shoulders, before giving way to a mottled pattern of red and black, then finally to pure black on her tail.
The dragon shifted and yawned, causing Hurricane to flinch instinctively behind a tree. A few faint flickers of smoke and flame accompanied the yawn, and the dragon opened her eyes and looked straight at Hurricane as if she'd known all along that a dragon had been watching her sleep, and had decided to see who it was.
As the dragon's gaze traveled over Hurricane's IceWing horns, her webbed talons, and the spikes on the end of her tail, her expression shifted from curiosity to surprise to confusion, and then a thoughtful look crossed her face.
"Who are you?" she asked, keeping her voice low.
"Who are you?" Hurricane replied defensively, wondering what this dragon was doing here and, recognizing her voice from the night before, why she and her companion were looking for blood-egg MudWings.
"I see," the other dragon replied. "You don't know if you can trust us. I can't say I blame you. My name is Firestorm. Yours?"
"Hurricane," she answered, figuring that there wouldn't be any point in lying.
The IceWing next to Firestorm stirred, and Hurricane jumped, trying to decide whether to run.
"Relax," Firestorm said, looking slightly surprised at Hurricane's reaction. "We're not going to hurt you. I just want to ask you something."
Hurricane was stunned that Firestorm had guessed what she was thinking. Her gaze flashed back to her wings, and she saw silver dots among the orange and black. It seemed impossible, but...
NightWing? she thought, wondering if Firestorm would be able to hear.
She seemed to understand, and spread her wings. One was black on the underside, with the finger bones a red-gold color in the sunlight. The other wing had black finger bones, with the red color on the membrane. Both wings were speckled with silver scales.
"My father was Vengeance, a NightWing, and my mother was Crag, a SkyWing," she explained.
By this time, the IceWing had fully woken, and as he watched Hurricane, his expression also changed, moving from confusion to surprise.
He turned to Firestorm. "Is she..." he began, then trailed off, looking self-conscious.
"I don't know yet," Firestorm answered. "That topic is not usually the first thing I bring up when I meet a dragon."
"Does she even know about the prophecy?" he asked.
Hurricane cleared her throat before Firestorm could say anything. "Sorry, but what in the world are you talking about?"
The IceWing looked at Firestorm, as if for direction. She nodded.
"Go ahead, Frost. She hasn't been sent by Coral or Queen Glacier." she said.
Frost turned and took a scroll from under a root. He started to hand it to her, then paused.
"Read this, just don't freak out until we've explained." he said.
Hurricane unrolled the scroll, looking at the small amount of words written there. As she read, she got more and more worried. When she got to the last line, she realized what the words were. A prophecy. She looked up at Frost and Firestorm, feeling like a cornered animal, hemmed in by the words she'd just read.
"We think it's fake," Frost said. "You don't need to panic."
"Who says I'm panicking?" Hurricane said, feeling proud of how steady her voice was.
"Anyone would. I did, when I first found out about it. Of course, I didn't have the same information you did, so maybe you really can take this kind of news without panicking," Frost said, shrugging.
"If it's not real, then what is it?" Hurricane challenged.
Firestorm and Frost took a long time explaining. The sun was high in the sky by the time they were finished. Of course, it probably had something to do with the fact that Hurricane kept interrupting them with questions. However, they were surprisingly patient for two dragons who had practically been handed a death sentence by a single NightWing, and turned into fugitives from every tribe on Pyrrhia.
"So we're almost certain that one of the ones in the prophecy is a blood-egg MudWing, but we haven't been able to find him. Frost is the one who's been asking, since he's less recognizable as a dragon of the prophecy than I am, but we can't be sure if we've been told the truth by the ones he's asked, and we're not willing to risk staying in one place for more than a few days. We can't even tell if we've already passed by the place where he lives," Firestorm explained, her wings sagging.
Hurricane thought back to the words of the prophecy. "It said that his egg and his scales were both red. Does that change anything? There can't be very many MudWings with red scales."
Firestorm nodded. "We've asked about that at every village we've seen so far. No luck."
"MudWing territory goes on for a while longer to the east," Hurricane said. "It's not exactly swarming with dragons, but it would be a good reason why news of a blood-egg dragon with red scales wouldn't have spread. We may have better luck there."
Hurricane had already agreed to help them look for the remaining two dragons in the prophecy.
"Maybe," Frost said. "Of course, it's also possible that Queen Moorhen found out, and had him killed or imprisoned."
We'll worry about that if we have to," Firestorm said.
Hurricane looked at the sea through the gaps in the trees, thinking about the MudWings she knew. Most of them were reasonable and fair, when they weren't thinking about food. If Queen Moorhen was like them, she doubted that the MudWing queen would kill one of her subjects like that.
Suddenly, Hurricane realized how hungry she was. The last thing she could remember eating was the grouper from the day before.
"Do you need something to eat?" she asked, in an attempt to fill the silence. "There are a lot of fish around this island."
Firestorm considered the offer. Finally, she agreed. "Sure. We may be flying a long way soon, so we might as well keep up our energy."
The three of them flew over to the waters on the north of the island, out of sight of the mainland. Hurricane and Frost both caught a few small fish, but as she was chasing a herring, Hurricane saw a SeaWing patrol to the north, but closing fast. She swam to the surface and told Frost and Firestorm what she had seen. By now, the patrol was close enough for their armor to be visible, and Hurricane knew they were in for trouble.
"Get back to the island," she ordered, but she knew they had been seen, and that they couldn't avoid a confrontation. As they landed on the cliffs, the SeaWings burst out of the water and flew swiftly towards the three dragons, landing in a semicircle around them and cutting off any escape routes by land. The leader of the patrol stepped forward, and Hurricane's heart sank.
"It would be better for you if you didn't try to fight," said Commander Shark. "You may as well give up," he continued. "We already have the MudWing, and soon you will join him in the dungeons. Hurricane, you will be brought before Queen Coral for a trial, as you are officially a citizen of the Kingdom of the Sea, but your cohorts will not be granted such a privilege. Whether they will be killed or kept in prison will depend on their cooperation at this time."
Hurricane flashed something at him in Aquatic that she never would have said to anyone she had any respect for. Firestorm looked surprised and a little impressed at that, but tensed as one of the larger guards took a menacing step toward Hurricane.
"Very well," Shark said, and in Aquatic, he gave his soldiers an order: Kill the others.
The soldiers lunged forward, but Firestorm was already moving. She grabbed one soldiers' head and slammed it into a tree, She grabbed another and swung her into one of her comrades. Frost shot a blast of frostbreath at one guard, aiming at his tail to avoid doing any permanent damage, and clawed at another who was reaching for his neck. Hurricane swung her tail at Shark, but the larger SeaWing reared back and she missed by inches. Another soldier grabbed her wing, but let go to dodge a blast of frostbreath. Armor was meant for defense from claws and teeth, not ice or fire. Hurricane tackled a dragon on top of Firestorm, slamming her tail into his side, wincing slightly as she thought she heard his ribs crack. She turned, looking for Frost, but she couldn't see him.
She heard a splash from below, and looked over the edge of the cliffs. Under the surface, she saw Frost struggling against Shark, but his blows were already growing weaker, and the larger, heavier SeaWing was stopping him from reaching the surface.
Hurricane dove off the edge, plunging through the water towards them, but they were deeper than she'd thought. Frost was almost out of air, she could see it in his face, and she was certain she wouldn't reach them in time. In desperation, she tried something she'd never tried before; using her frostbreath underwater. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, but as Hurricane continued swimming towards Shark, the water around her suddenly became much colder. Shark jerked back in the water, his weight lifting off of Frost for a short second, but it was all the IceWing needed. With what was obviously the last of his energy, he pushed off of the coral towards the surface. Hurricane grabbed him and pulled him towards the surface with all her strength.
They burst out of the water, Frost coughing violently, and Hurricane saw Firestorm facing off with a SeaWing soldier at the tops of the cliffs.
Firestorm! she cried out in her mind. We have to get out of here!
Firestorm suddenly turned away from the SeaWing and leaped off the cliffs, turning quickly towards the mainland. Hurricane followed, still half supporting Frost. They raced over the MudWing village, the SeaWings close behind.
Hurricane heard Firestorm's voice in her head. Just after this stand of trees, there are some mud pools. We should bury ourselves in there until the SeaWings move on.
Frost, who was now flying on his own, nodded, and Hurricane did as well. She didn't relish the idea, but she preferred it to being caught and killed.
As the last of the trees passed under them, Hurricane pulled Frost to a mud pool under overhanging tree limbs, hoping the foliage would give more cover, hiding their lighter scales. She slipped into the mud, submerging entirely, then poked the top of her head back over the surface.
"Just put your nose above the surface. I'll grab your leg if they see us," she hissed to Frost.
He nodded unenthusiastically, but obeyed. Hurricane placed a fallen leaf over a small patch of light blue that could still be seen, then submerged as much as she could while still being able to see.
The SeaWing patrol flew overhead, slowing as they saw that their prey had mysteriously disappeared. Shark growled with frustration, then flashed his scales at his soldiers, giving them an order.
Search under the trees, and see if they're hiding in the village.
His soldiers nodded, splitting off in different directions. One landed at the edge of Hurricane's mud pool, wincing as he landed. Hurricane recognized him as the one who had been on top of Firestorm, the one whose ribs she had cracked. Hurricane held her breath, hoping her scales were completely covered in mud.
The soldier looked around, and apparently didn't see anything, because he moved towards the trees. Hurricane only released her breath when the SeaWing had vanished into the trees.
About an hour later, she shifted in the mud, preparing to crawl out, but Firestorm's mental voice stopped her.
No! Shark took half of the patrol away to look for us elsewhere, but the other half is still here, waiting for us. They plan on waiting until midnight, and leave if there's no sign of us. We have to just wait them out.
Until midnight? That's hours from now! Hurricane cried, though being careful not to say anything.
I know. I don't like being buried in mud either. I don't know how MudWings can stand it, but this is the only thing we can do.
It's going to be a long night, Hurricane sighed.
Firestorm's MudWing reference reminded Hurricane about something Shark had said.
Do you think they really do have the MudWing from the prophecy? she thought, hoping Firestorm was listening.
There was a pause, then Firestorm replied. Shark was telling the truth. In his mind, I saw a MudWing with reddish-brown scales being captured by a group of SeaWings. I know he's alive though.
They'll be keeping him in the prisons in the Summer Palace, where Queen Coral kept her prisoners from the Great War. There'll be lots of guards around the opening at the top, but if I could get in there through the tunnel and free him he should be able to hold his breath long enough to get back out even if we have to move slowly. Of course, we'd have to avoid being seen.
I thought Coral had the entrance tunnel modified during the Great War to include breathing holes, Firestorm said. Why would he need to hold his breath the whole time?
After the Great War, she had the breathing holes blocked off. If we want to rescue him, I have to go in alone. Neither of you would be able to hold your breath long enough.
There was a long silence. Then, Firestorm finally responded.
Frost says that if he had his scroll, and something to enchant, he could make something to make the two of you invisible as long as you were touching it, but that it wouldn't be easy to get back to his scroll.
Tell him that even if they left guards at the island, and there's no reason that they would, I could get his scroll back, Hurricane retorted. And ask him if there's something specific he would need to enchant it with invisibility. I don't know much about animus magic.
There was a longer silence. Hurricane could feel the mud shifting slightly as Frost adjusted himself, clearly miserable about having been under mud for so long. It was weird, being right next to him but needing Firestorm to tell her what he wanted to say. Finally, Firestorm answered her.
Something dragon-made would work best, like a bracelet or something, but some kind of stone would work if need be.
Hurricane thought about the piece of opal stuffed into a crack in her cave, and remembered that Mako had intended to enchant it. She thought for a while about how to tell Firestorm about it in the simplest way, but soon realized she didn't have to.
How big was the opal? Firestorm asked.
Hurricane thought of how big it had been in her claws, and Firestorm seemed to understand. She soon had an answer from Frost. Frost thinks that would work, if we can get it.
After a few minutes of silence, Hurricane realized that the sun had sank below the trees and two of the moons had risen over the mud pools.
Are the soldiers really going to stick around until midnight? she asked anxiously.
Well...' Firestorm said slowly, They're not very close, and it's gotten darker, but I don't really know how good SeaWing night vision is.
Hurricane thought about the way her cave looked in full daylight, then about how it looked deep at night with her night vision.
I think a normal SeaWing can see in the dark a bit better than I can, she warned.
After a few minutes of thinking, Firestorm answered her.
I think we'll be all right as long as we stay quiet, still, and close to the ground.
Hurricane pushed the rest of her head out of the mud. Next to her, Frost let out a soft moan of relief as he pulled his head out of the mud.
"I can't believe the MudWings actually sleep in this stuff," he muttered.
Hurricane nodded in agreement, and pulled herself partly out of the mud, keeping her rear legs in the mud in case Firestorm felt the SeaWing soldiers returning. Now that she was no longer up to her snout in the mud, she had to admit that it didn't feel that bad.
"Firestorm told me about your plan," Frost whispered. "Do you really think you can pull it off?"
Hurricane nodded. "It'll take a bit of luck, but I can do it."
Frost nodded, and they lay by the shore, watching the moons slowly rise in the east and the last of the sun's light fall over the western horizon. Finally, when the fullest moon was directly overhead, Firestorm spoke in their minds.
They've gone. We can get started rescuing the MudWing.
Hurricane and Frost stood up stiffly, shaking off the rest of the mud. They walked over to Firestorm, who was standing by the edge of the trees. They had decided to go after the MudWing that night, assuming that the longer they waited, the more likely it was that Queen Coral would have him killed. The darkness wouldn't impair the SeaWing's vision, but fewer dragons would be awake, so their chances of being noticed would still be low. They took to the air, stopping only briefly to collect the chunk of opal and Frost's animus scroll. Frost was immensely relieved to know that the SeaWing patrol hadn't found and taken it.
As they flew quickly to the SeaWing palace, Hurricane dove under the water for a few seconds to shake the rest of the mud off her scales. When she flew back up to the others, they reviewed the plan one last time.
"So I enchant the opal to make you and our MudWing invisible, and then Firestorm and I wait at this 'dragon-skull' island you mentioned," Frost said.
Seeing the apprehensive look on his face, Hurricane smiled.
"I only call it a dragon-skull island because it looks like one," she said. "I assure you, I've never found a single dragon skull on it, but yes. Firestorm, if you sense anything weird, let me know. I'll just swim through the tunnel, let our MudWing out of the prisons, tell him to keep a claw on the opal, and swim back out. Then, we meet up again, and get as far away as we can before the sun comes up."
Firestorm nodded, looking confident. Frost nodded as well, though looking less confident.
"You know how to free him, though? What if they moved the keys to a different place or something?" he asked.
"The prisons in the Summer Palace don't use keys," Hurricane informed him. "The prisoners are placed on little islands in a cave, and the guard pulls a chain that creates a waterfall ring around the island, and at the same time releases electric eels into the water at the base of the island. If the prisoner tries to jump through the waterfall, the eels shock them. It's supposed to feel like getting hit by lightning. Anyway, all I have to do to free him is pull the chain in the opposite direction to shut off the waterfall."
She turned towards Frost and briefly saw a scared look on his face. He took a deep breath.
"Well, that's certainly an... unusual way of holding your prisoners. Remind me never to get captured by Queen Coral."
"It's not completely infallible. There was an escape once. The queen was not happy about that."
"How do you know all this?" Firestorm asked curiously.
"I used to live with the SeaWings. I saw the prisons in the Summer Palace once, before I ran away."
"Why did you leave?"
Hurricane thought back to her days in the Kingdom of the Sea. "Queen Coral didn't trust me because my father was an IceWing. She thought I would be a liability if there was ever a fight with them. My mother was a SeaWing, but she was in the Talons of Peace, and the queen pretty much hates them on principle. One day I saw her punishing a dragon who had failed her, and I couldn't stop from believing that she would do that to me if I made a mistake."
There was a short silence. Then, Firestorm asked quietly, "Coral really rules her kingdom like that? She rules through fear?"
"There are definitely dragons who fear her, but I don't think most of the SeaWings do." Hurricane's voice was quiet.
Frost must've sensed her discomfort, because he changed the subject. "Firestorm, I've heard you talk about a lot of the dragon queens. You call Queen Glacier and Queen Moorhen by their titles, but not Queen Coral or Queen Ruby, your own queen. Why is that?"
"I respect Queen Glacer and Queen Moorhen, from what I've heard about them and what I've seen of them," Firestorm answered. "At the moment, I don't like Coral or Ruby very much."
"Well, Coral is okay, most of the time. She's usually fair, and she's not cruel." Hurricane felt like she needed to speak up in Coral's defense.
"What about during the Great War? I heard that when she caught the dragon who stole her egg for the prophecy, she was only angry because he stole her egg, not because he took a dragonet from her kingdom."
Hurricane didn't have any response to that, so she didn't say anything.
"I'm sorry," Firestorm said after a minute of flying in silence.
"No, it's all right," Hurricane said. "Look, here we are."
Rising before them was an island that resembled a dragon skeleton. They flew towards the skull and landed in the eye socket. Frost took out his scroll, and Hurricane handed him the opal. He held the stone in one talon and placed the other on the scroll.
"Enchant this opal to make any dragon who touches it invisible to dragon eyes."
He tossed the stone to Hurricane, casting a worried glance toward the horizon. Dawn wasn't too far off. Hurricane caught the opal, saw her talons disappear, and flew towards the island that housed the Summer Palace. She dove into the water and burst into the tunnel, swimming as fast as she could for the palace. The tunnel opened into a pool, and she climbed out and flew towards the prisons.
There was only one guard, so she slowed down to fly quietly. As she landed, she saw that only one cell was occupied, making things a bit easier for her. She snuck towards the cell, knowing she would have to move fast once the water was turned off. She snuck to the side of the island opposite from the guard. She saw a rust colored blur behind the water.
"Can you hear me?" she called, hoping he could.
The blur moved, assuming a more upright position. She heard a muffled voice, barely audible over the echoes of the waterfall.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"My name is Hurricane. I can get you out of here, but once I turn off the water, the guard will come, so you have to do exactly what I say. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I do," he answered.
"We're exiting out of the tunnel. You'll have to hold your breath for fifteen minutes, maybe more. Can you do that?"
"I'm a MudWing. Fifteen minutes is easy."
"All right, get ready to run."
Hurricane found the chain for the cell, and tugged. Nothing happened, so she pulled the other way. This time the water slowed to a halt, and the MudWing was revealed.
"No time to explain. Hold on to this!" Hurricane called, gesturing to the opal, which she had placed on the walkway. He reached for the opal, and Hurricane grabbed the other end, and they both disappeared. They moved up the walkway, the guard looking inside, frantically looking for the intruders. He opened his mouth to call out, but Hurricane let go of the opal and swung her tail against the guard's head. He crumpled, and Hurricane whispered a quick 'sorry' before looking back for the MudWing.
"Where are you?" she hissed.
"Here," she heard him say, and felt his claws brush her wing.
She grabbed for his claws, feeling the opal between them. She turned invisible again, and they dove for the entrance tunnel.
"Hold your breath," she hissed.
He obeyed, and they plunged into the water. She swam as fast as she could, hoping they wouldn't meet up with another SeaWing coming through the tunnel in the opposite direction. They didn't, but when they left the tunnel, they saw a group of SeaWings returning. Hurricane pulled the MudWing to the left, and they just missed the patrol. One dragon must've felt the water move, because she turned curiously, but looked back towards the tunnel, seeing nothing.
Hurricane pulled the MudWing up out of the water and towards the dragon-skeleton island. She called out to Frost and Firestorm as they passed, and they burst out of the 'eye socket' flying west. Hurricane slipped the opal out of the MudWing's hand, and he blinked back into visibility.
"Come with us," she said, brushing his wing with her tail.
He nodded, flapping hard to keep up with Frost and Firestorm.
I think Hurricane's my favorite hybrid I've come up with (don't tell the others). I do not remember what prompted me to do the whole thing about Mako.
Thanks for the input, Shirzadym- I see your point.
And Silver the Shadow Cat yep! Half SkyWing, half NightWing. Her mother was Crag, Kestrel's sister.