So I decided to try the whole breaking-a-long-chapter-in-half thing I mentioned before. This is part 1 of the chapter. Part 2 will be uploaded this weekend.

Frost sat in a prison under Queen Thorn's stronghold. He could still feel the heat of the desert, even underground. He had been tempted to put out the torch on the wall of his cell, but realized that he'd be as good as blind without it. He remembered the long flight here, with the scorching heat even in the early morning.

Even with his mouth chained, a guard had flown close enough to him to stab him with his tail. Frost assumed that the guard was scared that he would use his animus power against them. It was unlikely for them to know that it was possible to transfer animus power to a scroll, especially as they hadn't found his. Frost knew it was still buried at their last campsite, where they'd been captured. He was grateful for that, especially since that meant that the SandWings couldn't use it.

Frost looked at the blank gray walls of the cell and sighed. He trusted Firestorm's judgement, but he didn't see how they could get out of this.

Hurricane stared at the wall between her cell and Frost's. She had seen the SandWing guards unhook the chains from around his mouth and shove him in, closing the door quickly behind him. Then they had thrown her into this cell. Cobra, Caiman, and Firestorm had been taken down the hall.

She leaned against the warm stone wall, thinking about the sea. Her life was simple there, and quiet. She remembered the night before she had found Firestorm and Frost, when she had read the scroll about the rampage of Mako, and had slept underwater out of paranoia about insane dragons. She wished that things could be like that again, when the scariest things in her life were memories from years ago and written on old scrolls.

Hurricane laid her head on her claws. However much she wanted to go back to those days, she couldn't. She was here, in the dungeons of the queen of the largest kingdom in Pyrrhia. That was what was real, and if there was a way out, she would find it.

Firestorm lay on the floor in her cell, inspecting her burn scar. It had cracked during the long flight, and small drops of blood were seeping out. She held the opal bracelet Frost had enchanted to help her heal, surprised that the guards hadn't taken it. It worked slowly, so slowly that it was impossible to actually see it helping, but she had seen the burn shrink day by day, so she knew it was working.

She listened to the thoughts of her friends, seeing how they were responding to her plan. Frost was worrying about his animus scroll, wondering if he would be able to find it again. Hurricane was reminiscing about her life at the edge of the Kingdom of the Sea on one level, and was thinking of ways to escape on another. On her other side, Caiman was restless, pacing back and forth and thinking about what his siblings would have done. And at the end of the hallway, Cobra was trying to stay calm on the surface, but underneath she was alternating between fear and anger. Firestorm hung her head. She had told them not to fight, and it would be her fault if any of them got hurt.

Caiman paced his cell. He was certain he had made a mistake, but he didn't know what to do. Cougar would have fought the SandWings, keeping the attack focused on her while the others got away. Swamp would've distracted the guards while looking for the best ways out.

Heron would've waited until a guard got close, then grabbed him and used his life to bargain with the others. Frog would've run, then come back later to get the others. Egret would've tried to convince the guards to leave them alone. And what had he done? Nothing. Gone along with an insane plan, and to achieve what exactly? To get caught? To get an audience with a queen who would likely just kill them?

Whatever Thorn's like, she can't be as bad as Burn would be, his mind reminded him. She would've just ordered her soldiers to kill you on sight.

Caiman groaned. The fact that they were still alive meant that the SandWing queen wanted something from them.

Probably she wants to use us against her enemies, since we're so dangerous, he thought sarcastically. What do you think, Firestorm?

I don't know, she replied. The guards who took us didn't know, so neither do I. But I don't think Queen Thorn has made very many enemies. The tribes are at peace.

What about the remaining members of the original royal family? Caiman challenged.

I don't think so. Smolder was just glad to have survived living with Burn. And Blaze, well, she pretty much sat in her stronghold in the Ice Kingdom through the entire war. When Blister challenged her on the false brightest night after Burn died, she wanted Queen Glacier to fight instead of her. She's not exactly smart, or motivated about anything.

Caiman growled and started pacing again.

Cobra pounded at the walls of her cell.

"You can't do this to us!" she roared. "We haven't done anything! The prophecy is fake!"

She spat a jet of venom at the door, but since it was just metal bars, it didn't even sizzle. She pulled the torch down from above the door and threw it across the room. It nearly went out when it hit the wall, but it flickered back to life after a few seconds. Hissing, Cobra put it back above the door.

She sat in the center of the room, fuming. Eventually, however, her anger gave way to fear. What would Queen Thorn do to them? Would she keep them imprisoned forever? Would she have them executed? Would she make them fight in an arena the way Queen Scarlet used to do?

She moved away from the door and huddled in the far corner. The guards had left a metal band on her foreleg in case she tried to camouflage herself, so that option was out. She stared at the door, waiting for it to open.

About two hours and one tantrum later, it did. A burly SandWing guard stood in the opening.

"Come with me," he grunted. "Queen Thorn wants to speak with you."

The guard led her past the cells. As she passed Firestorm's, Cobra thought hard about what was happening, hoping the mind reader would hear. It was all she could do. She followed the guard up the stairs and across a wide courtyard. The hot sun beat down on her as she flew with him to a door painted with cacti. The guard held the door open for her, and she walked in. The door closed behind her, and she turned around. The guard hadn't followed her in. She looked back ahead of her and saw that another guard had appeared ahead of her. This guard was smaller than the first, but her scales were covered in scars. Cobra knew instinctively that she had been in a lot of fights, and had probably won most of them.

The guard hooked a short chain to the band on Cobra's leg and picked up the other end.

"Move," she said tersely.

Cobra followed her down the hall to a set of double doors. The guard took a key from her neck and pushed it into a lock on the door on the right. She pushed open the door and led Cobra through.

The room was long and wide, with pillars carved like palm trees on either side. In between the pillars, tapestries hung on the walls. but Cobra didn't really notice them. At the end of the room, there was a throne carved like a cactus. The thorns were carved as lines into the arms of the cactus, and perched on the throne was a small, wiry dragon whose pale yellow wings were speckled with brown. Queen Thorn.

The SandWing queen was speaking to another dragon, who Cobra recognized as the dragon who had accidentally stung Scorpion with his tail in the Scorpion Den so long ago.

The queen looked up as cobra's guard clipped the free end of Cobra's chain to a ring in the floor a short distance from the throne.

"You shoot your venom at her and it'll be the last thing you do," The guard hissed, resting her barbed tail on Cobra's back.

"Thank you, Addax," Thorn said to the dragon beside her. "You may go."

Addax nodded and scurried out of the throne room. The queen then turned to Cobra, who instinctively bowed her head.

"I know what the prophecy says about you and the others," Thorn began. "However, you have SandWing blood, so by my own laws I cannot decide your fate until I have heard your version of events. Six-Claws told me about how you brought food as your payment for entering the Scorpion Den, and Addax told me about how you helped him save a dragonet's life. That doesn't seem like the kind of thing a dragon would do if she were destined to be a killer. So tell me what you think of the prophecy."

"It's not real," Cobra blurted quickly.

Thorn looked surprised, and Cobra wondered if she'd said it the wrong way.

"I- I mean, we think it's fake, Your Majesty," she stammered.

"Why?" Thorn asked.

"Firestorm, one of the others, told me the rest of them had met the dragon who delivered the prophecy, and that she read his mind and saw that it wasn't real."

Thorn nodded. "Do you know who delivered the prophecy?"

"They said he was a NightWing named Fatespinner. That's all I know about him."

Thorn hissed. "I remember him. He came in here about a month ago, claiming he had the most important prophecy in Pyrrhian history. Annoying, arrogant blob of camel spit. I nearly had him thrown out before he even told me the prophecy."

Cobra blinked in surprise at Thorn's words, but the queen was speaking again.

"When did they meet him? And where?"

"I'm afraid I don't know, Your Majesty." Cobra said honestly.

When Thorn spoke again, she seemed to be almost finished.

"What's your name?"

"Cobra, Your Majesty."

"What were you doing in the Scorpion Den, Cobra?"

"I was looking for information about my mother."

"Do you know her name?" Thorn asked, almost gently.

"No, Your Majesty."

The SandWing queen nodded in sympathy, then turned to the guard next to Cobra. "Take her back to her cell, Bobcat, then bring me the SkyWing. I want to ask her a few questions."

Bobcat unclipped Cobra's chain from the floor and led her out of the throne room and back to the dungeons. She was handed to the large SandWing who was still in the hallway, and he led her back to her cell. As Cobra walked in, she saw Bobcat bringing Firestorm out of her cell. She sent an encouraging look at her before she was pushed into her cell. Cobra hoped that she hadn't made a mistake in getting Thorn interested in talking to Firestorm.

"I know that you can read minds, Firestorm, but can you see the future as well?"

Firestorm was in the throne room of the SandWing queen, being questioned by Thorn.

"No, Your Majesty, I can't," Firestorm answered.

Thorn nodded, not looking surprised. "Cobra told me you saw into the mind of-"

That arrogant, frog-faced jerboa-head, her mind hissed.

"Of the NightWing who delivered the prophecy," she said instead. "Is this true?"

Firestorm nodded. "It is, Queen Thorn."

"What did you see?" she pressed.

Firestorm thought back. "I saw him writing the prophecy, and then delivering it in front of Queen Glory," she began. "He did have a prophetic vision, but the prophecy did not accompany it. He wrote it afterwards because he saw the five of us defeating him and stopping his plans. I don't know what his plans are, but I do know that they are not good for the tribes of Pyrrhia. I think that he wanted to get us killed so we couldn't stop him."

Thorn nodded, looking impressed.

"He came here, you know, to tell me the prophecy. It was rather convincing. Tell me why I should believe him instead of you."

"Your Majesty, you know what a lot of NightWings are like. You've met Morrowseer, the one who made up the Dragonet Prophecy. You know what he was like. A lot of NightWings are like that. Not all of them are, but a lot of the ones I've met are."

Thorn nodded. "Your friend, Cobra, told me you and some of the others met Fatespinner. Was she telling the truth?"

"She was, Your Majesty. We met him in the mountains, just south of the Sky Kingdom."

"And he's still alive, I assume? You didn't kill him?"

"No, Your Majesty. If we had, we would have just been giving the tribes more reason to hate us and we would've had no way to prove it was fake," Firestorm answered.

"But that's not the only reason."

"No. Ruby had given him her... her personal attacker to hunt us down. She had a SkyWing with too much fire, and she drove him insane through abuse until he went crazy. He can only be controlled by an animus touched bracelet," She pointed to the burn on her shoulder. "This is only a small taste of what he can do."

Thorn's eyes widened in surprise. "I knew Ruby was similar to her mother, but I never thought..." she trailed off, shocked.

"If Ruby did this, then I believe that she is worse than Scarlet, Your Majesty. I don't think Scarlet would have the imagination, patience, or motivation for something like this. I also doubt she'd be smart enough."

Thorn cracked a smile. "I can't say I've ever met her, but from what I've heard, I'd be inclined to agree."

The questioning ended a few minutes later, and Firestorm was taken back to her cell.

I told Queen Thorn the truth, she thought, sending it to the others. She seemed to believe me about the prophecy, but I don't know what she'll do.

Several days passed, with each of them taken to speak to Queen Thorn at least twice. When Frost was taken, he told her the truth, only leaving out his animus scroll. All he told her was that he'd found a way that might stop the magic from taking his soul, but that it made it harder for him to use it. He didn't know if she believed him, but she didn't push questions at him if she thought he wouldn't answer.

After about a week in the SandWing prisons, Queen Thorn came down to the dungeons to speak to them. She dismissed the guard, and spoke to them in Frost's cell.

"I believe you about the prophecy," she began, "But I'm more willing than most in my kingdom to mistrust NightWings. If I told them that it was fake, they wouldn't believe me on your word alone. I would need to show them evidence, and unless we capture Fatespinner and force him to reveal the truth, that will be almost impossible. For the same reasons, I cannot release you. At least not publicly."

The SandWing queen paused as Frost and the others tried to comprehend what she meant.

"What- what are you saying?" Hurricane stammered.

"In two nights, several of my best soldiers and I will be going to the Sky Kingdom to speak to Ruby. If she gave Fatespinner her- her firescales dragon, then she will have met him. She may know where he is. I'm also sending Six-Claws and several others to Queen Moorhen to find out her views on the prophecy. The palace will be nearly empty. You may have noticed the keys to these doors hanging near the stairs."

Thorn held up a key. "I had a copy made. This will open the doors to your cells, and it will also work on the band around your leg, Cobra. If you can get out of here, there is a tunnel to the rainforest not far north of here." She handed the key to Firestorm.

Frost was confused. How could there be a tunnel from here to the rainforest?

"I think I've been through it before," Cobra said. "It makes the trip from here to the rainforest take only a few minutes, doesn't it?"

Thorn nodded. "Very few dragons know about it, so I don't know if Queen Glory will have it guarded. If you don't want to risk it, then you may be able to get far enough from here that you might not be found, but I couldn't guarantee anything. The most I will be able to do is to order my guards to bring you in alive if they find you."

Firestorm looked at the others. "I think we should try the tunnel," she said.

Frost nodded in agreement as Thorn stood up to leave.

"Remember. Two nights," she said, then left.

Frost looked at the others.

"We should go back to our own cells. We don't want the guards to catch us."

The others nodded and began to leave, but Cobra spoke up.

"What will we do if Queen Glory has some of her best dragons guarding the rainforest end of the tunnel?"

Firestorm looked at Frost, who shrugged.

"We don't know yet," Frost admitted. "But we'll work on it."

I'm sorry for slandering you, Ruby... I didn't know you were a good guy.

The Sassy Scorbunny: Thank you for all the support! I'm glad you've been enjoying this.