AN: Hi there, everyone! It's been a while since I last updated this story, and it's about time I finally added the next chapter. I'm not totally satisfied with how it turned out, but I didn't want to keep you waiting any longer (I know how it feels to be left in the dark!). Feedback of any kind would be highly appreciated (as long as you aren't mean to me), and I'd love to see if any of you have any theories about where the story is going from here, but like always, anyone who even just reads it means the world to me. :)

Ozone didn't know if he'd gotten through to Cornice at all. For a moment, as he'd rested his wing against the chilly scales of the IceWing's shoulder, he'd thought he saw a truly vulnerable look on the other dragon's face. But then Cornice had pulled away and the moment had gone. When he spoke, it was only to essentially tell Ozone to go away.

As he flew back to the SkyWings' base, Ozone told himself that it didn't matter if Cornice had really listened to him or not. He was helping the IceWing recover, and once he was better, he would fly away and they'd probably never see each other again. They were bound by one particularly lengthy good deed and that was all.

But he couldn't shake the strangely hurt feeling from his chest.

Buzzard was standing guard at the base's entrance cave, and gave Ozone a nod of greeting as he landed. The smaller dragonet waved back absentmindedly, still deep in thought, and headed along the tunnel to his cave.

I should finish my letter to Jackal, he decided, trying to distract himself. He had started writing back when he'd returned from visiting Cornice the day before, but hadn't had time to finish it before Ridge and Buzzard agreed it was time to blow out the torches in their room so they could get some sleep.

Now, he scanned what he'd already written:

Dear Jackal,

I think having a tribal identity can be a good thing, but I've always fallen outside what the SkyWings consider a typical dragon. I guess I can understand wanting to stick with dragons who are more like you in personality than skills or appearances, but I think it's also important to remember where you come from. Sorry if that's not the clearest answer! I tend to weigh both sides of any given situation rather than pick one, something that drives my mother crazy.

But I guess that proves your point. The ideal SkyWing is supposed to be strong and confident all the time. If I'm being perfectly honest, I don't think I'm either of those things most of the time. If anything, I'm more of a RainWing at heart.

He hoped Jackal would find that last bit funny. Ozone had been going for humor when he'd written it, but it also had a ring of truth to it. He liked taking things easy and admiring beauty, which was something he'd grown up hearing about RainWings. Now, as he held his half-written letter in his claws, he wondered if there were any RainWings that hated the slow pace of rainforest life and loved the thrill of fighting.

He glanced at the most recent letter he'd received from Jackal. He'd answered the last paragraph first, since it seemed the most important at the moment, and now his eyes skipped back to the first one. He re-digested the information comparing him to Kulta and zeroed in on the last sentence and the small second paragraph.

She might seem a little scary sometimes, but she's really loyal and surprisingly dedicated to the utopian future of Pyrrhia everyone dreams of.

What do you see when you think of the future, Ozone? You seem like an idealist, and I'm curious to see if your vision is anything like ours.

Jackal had said "ours", not "hers". That seemed to indicate that he and Kulta had the same dream, which was a little surprising to Ozone. The two SandWings seemed like they couldn't be more different, especially if Kulta was somehow like him.

Now that he thought about it, he didn't know much about Jackal at all, even after exchanging nearly daily letters. His SandWing friend had a tendency to talk in a way that didn't reveal much even when he was speaking about himself. Ozone knew that he was funny and open-minded about the different tribes, but he knew nothing about what Jackal liked to do or where he came from. Between their first meeting and the letters they'd written since, Jackal had done a lot of talking... and almost none of it had been about himself. Even Ozone, who was naturally reserved, had shared a lot more.

I'm too reserved to have any huge vision for the entire continent, he admitted to the paper in front of him. But I guess if I did, I would like to see more events for all the tribes to interact in. It's unfortunate that we don't mingle more. Instead of thinking of dragonkind as a whole, we divide ourselves into different tribes, and while I can see the importance of our heritage, it isn't the only thing that matters in the long run.

I guess I just came up with a dream on the spot. What's yours?

Part of him wanted to write more, but Ozone ultimately decided to cut it off there. He wanted to leave it open-ended and try to get more of a response from Jackal. Thus far, the SandWing had come up with the topics they talked about and bounced them off Ozone, who gave detailed answers. He wanted to see Jackal do the talking now.

Still, ending it there didn't seem quite right. Ozone decided to leave what he had for now and come back to it later if he thought of a good way to finish it off. Feeling a little restless, he wandered out into the hall, aiming for the entrance cave. Perhaps he would go catch a quick bite to eat.

"I'm going out to hunt," Ozone told Buzzard as he passed by the orange dragonet in the entrance cave, in case anyone (read: Claret) came looking him for some reason. Buzzard only gave a disinterested grunt in response.

The pale orange dragonet seemed considerably more awake when he returned.

"Watch out for Gale," he warned. "She just came stomping by in a rage while you were gone. Roaring something about 'stupid SandWings'."

Ozone's talons, having just been working on a letter to a dragon from the tribe in question, seemed to tingle guiltily. "Why is she angry?"

Buzzard only shrugged unhelpfully. "How should I know? Gale and her lighting-strike temper never make much sense, do they?"

Sard would have been simply ecstatic if she'd overheard this maligning of Gale's character, but Ozone only frowned. The pinkish dragonet's moods never turned out well for him. He'd have to sneak back to his room as soon as he could, wait out the storm of Gale's fury, and hope he didn't encounter her in the meantime.

It seemed even that was too much to hope for.

The tunnels of the SkyWing's base were hazy with smoke, and Ozone struggled to see even with the torches lit along the walls. He felt talons accidentally stomp on his as he collided with Ridge in the hallway.

"Sorry, Ozone!" the red-orange dragonet said, hurriedly shifting his weight off of Ozone's foot. "I didn't see you there until it was too late."

"It's okay," Ozone started to say, but was cut off by an angry hiss.

"Ozone!" Gale snapped, catching sight of him from further down the hallway and slithering over. She glowered at him over Ridge's shoulder. "This is all your fault!"

Ozone took a step backwards in bewildered silence. What did I do now?

"This was not Ozone's fault," said a voice, and Claret materialized from the gloom behind the dragonet in question. "He wasn't the one who clawed you the other day—and even if he had been, it was a complete accident."

Gale looked startled for a moment before her expression shifted into one that was more sullen than ashamed. Apparently, she hadn't intended for their commander to overhear her accusations.

"Well, it was his friend…" she said petulantly.

"Even so," Claret rebuked her sternly, "it was an accident, which had nothing to do with Ozone himself. I don't approve of this kind of infighting between my recruits."

"Sorry," Gale muttered, lowering her gaze.

It was only then that Ozone noticed that the claw wound running along Gale's shoulder was swollen, the scales around sticking out at odd angles. Even in the hazy lighting, it looked incredibly painful. Ozone winced.

"Ozone is the one you should be apologizing to," Claret said, narrowing her eyes. She hadn't been there to witness most of Gale's bullying, but clearly she was aware of the ongoing tension between the female dragonet and Ozone.

Gale clenched her jaw, but even she knew better than to argue with Claret. She turned her yellow eyes, burning with suppressed hostility, on Ozone. He forced himself to meet her gaze as she forced out, "Sorry, Ozone."

"It's okay," he said, ducking his head and feeling almost embarrassed. He didn't get any satisfaction out of seeing Claret punish Gale this way, no matter how harshly the other soldier-in-training treated him.

Gale looked surprised by the lack of any triumph in his expression. Uncertainty sparked her gaze, and she backed away, tail twitching. Without looking directly at either Ridge or Claret, she turned and slunk back the way she'd come.

"What was that about?" Ridge asked, once she had disappeared from sight.

"The injury Gale sustained when we visited the SandWings has gotten infected," Claret explained. "I restricted her training to non-strenuous activity until she recovers, meaning she must remain behind whenever we leave the base. Apparently, she's feeling quite resentful and directed the blame onto Ozone."

Ridge frowned and nodded, but he didn't look too surprised.

"I suggest you keep a safe distance from her for a while," Claret warned Ozone, a little ruefully. "Go out and do something. Let some of the tension unravel."

The red-and-gold dragonet perked up at that. "Actually, I've been meaning to ask you about something like that. The SandWings I befriended invited me to meet up with them at Possibility, and I wanted to set a date. Can I go sometime soon?"

Ridge gave him a somewhat skeptical look. "With Gale blaming you for the injury the SandWings gave her, are you sure that's the best idea?"

"Oh," was the only way Ozone could think to respond.

Claret, however, looked more thoughtful. "Actually, I don't think it would hurt. You don't have to tell Gale where you're going. But I don't want you going alone. Bring one of your fellow soldiers with you."

"I will," he told her, pleased to have gotten her agreement so easily.

This would be a good opportunity to hang out with Sard again. They hadn't done anything together in quite a while, he realized now that he stopped and thought about it. "I'll ask Sard if she wants to come with me."

"Good," Claret said, nodding. "Assuming she agrees and your friends aren't busy then, you can go the day after tomorrow."

"Great," Ozone responded. "Thank you, Claret!"

He then went in search of Sard, hoping he would find her somewhere besides her room so that he didn't encounter Gale again in the process. Thankfully, Sard was highly unlikely to stay any place Gale was for too long, especially if the other dragonet was particularly moody the way she was today. If they'd encountered each other, Ozone figured he would have heard a lot more noise in the bases' corridors.

He located Sard at the kitchen area, picking unenthusiastically at a piece of prey, probably more out of boredom than hunger.

"Hey, Sard," he asked, sitting down in a seat across the table from her. His friend looked up, and he asked without preamble, "Will you come with me to Possibility?"

"Sure," she said, her yellow eyes brightening. "It sounds like an interesting place. And it's been forever since I went shopping."

Ozone laughed. "Great! I'll let Claret know."

"You already asked her?" Sard asked, pushing away the remains of her food.

Ozone nodded. "I'd been meaning to for a while, actually. My SandWing friends told me they wanted to meet up there, which is why I'm going. Claret said I could as long as I brought someone with me."

"Oh," Sard responded, narrowing her eyes slightly. "I see."

"Thanks for agreeing to come," he said, not sure if he'd imagined the way her tone had become just the tiniest bit cold. Sard only shrugged in response.

That's odd, Ozone thought, feeling a bit mystified by her reaction. Other dragons never seemed to make much sense, so he tried not to let it bother him.

He went back to his cave, where he grabbed his letter to Jackal.

By the way, he wrote hastily beneath the last paragraph. Claret says we can go to Possibility the day after tomorrow if that date is okay with you and the others. Let me know as soon as possible, okay?

Your friend, Ozone, he scribbled at the bottom corner of the scroll.

He rolled it up and tied it with a ribbon so it wouldn't fall open, heading for the entrance hall so he could go out to wait for Puddle, the delivery dragon from Possibility, to arrive. The exact location of the SkyWings' military base was kept strictly secret, and so Ozone needed to distance himself before he could send or receive letters.

There was a postal stop only a few minutes of flying down the riverbed, so Ozone didn't need to obtain permission from Claret in order to go there. Every once in a while, one of the soldiers-in-training would volunteer to check for letters for anyone at their base. Usually, anything in the mail was formal nonsense for Claret, but occasionally the dragonets might receive something from home.

As he flew, Ozone pushed away the last traces of worry from his mind. He had much more to be excited than worried about at this point, really. If everything went well, he would be in Possibility in two days' time.

AN: I'll admit, I didn't know where else to put this, so here it is:

I've been working on a short Wings of Fire story about Albatross, so you can expect to see that relatively soon (which admittedly might be around a month, depending on when I have the time to wrap it up). However, you'll have to be on a lookout for it on my profile if you're interested, because it's very dark and will probably be rated M. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to give it that rating because not only is it violent (it's about the SeaWing Massacre), but I also found myself feeling a little mentally disturbed while writing it. Thinking like an insane character for any period of time is never really a good thing to do, but was necessary to write this story the right way.

I'm conscious that a lot of Wings of Fire readers are a considerably younger than I am, and I don't feel comfortable posting my Albatross fanfiction under a T rating, where anyone can see it. This new story is not going to be for the faint of heart! It deals with a lot of dark subject matter, to the point where I felt a little uncomfortable writing it and almost didn't want to finish/post it. However, reading it over, I am happy with how it's turned out so far, and I hope that if you do read it, it will make you look at Albatross in a different light.

Hope to see some of you there!