AN: Hello, everyone! Today, we're finishing up Ozone's trip to Possibility in what I'm pretty sure is the longest chapter yet! If you haven't voted in my poll yet, please do. It's anonymous, and I'd really like to hear some feedback from you! As always, thanks for reading and enjoy. :)
When they got back, Jackal and Barracuda glanced over at them and immediately stopped speaking. That only made Ozone more curious about what they'd been talking about. Tumbleweed, however, took no notice of their secrecy, immediately bursting into her explanation about the police officer who'd wanted to inspect the SeaWing's shop.
To Ozone's surprise, Barracuda didn't immediately jump up and start swapping things out from her shelves. She only yawned, seeming relatively unconcerned. "They wouldn't fine me or put me in jail for a first offense. They'd probably let me go with just a warning, and that's only assuming they actually realize that my jewelry is… ahem, innovatively designed. It sounds like they think I'm selling weapons separately."
You shouldn't be selling weapons at all, Ozone thought, but didn't say so aloud.
One glance at Sard's expression told him she was thinking the same thing. It also told him that she probably didn't want anything more to do with Possibility or any of the SandWing dragonets.
So much for her getting along with them, Ozone sighed inwardly.
"I'm glad you're looking out for me," Barracuda finished, flicking Tumbleweed with her tail in what seemed to be an affectionate gesture. "But I ain't gonna get all worried about the cops just yet. Trust me, I've been smuggling stuff practically since the day I hatched. I know what I'm doing."
Needless to say, Ozone didn't find that reassuring at all.
No one else commented on the SeaWing's words.
Ozone glanced worriedly at Jackal, who gave him a half-smile and shrugged. The dust-colored SandWing was searching Ozone and Sard's faces with his black gaze, as if trying to figure out whether they were going to tell anyone about the illegal merchandise. Ozone was still trying to decide whether he should.
Thankfully, before the silence between them could become too awkward, it was broken by Kulta, who had reappeared from the crowd with a canvas bag slung over her shoulder. It didn't look very heavy, and presumably contained scrolls.
"What happened to not buying anything until we're ready to leave?" Jackal asked.
"These won't slow me down," she said dismissively, instead of answering. "And I technically didn't buy these. I'm borrowing them. So, loophole."
Jackal rolled his eyes but smiled despite himself.
Barracuda had been leaning against the counter of her shop but straightened up to greet the gold dragon. Kulta leaned away from the SeaWing's friendly punch before it could make contact, so Barracuda grinned and tugged on her bag instead, making the SandWing stumble. Kulta narrowed her eyes as she regained her footing and flicked her black tongue ominously, like a snake.
"Alright," said Jackal. "That's enough! We don't want another full-on brawl."
"That was Tumbleweed's doing," Kulta sniffed, but obligingly backed off, curling her barb away. "In case you've forgotten, I'm above such lowly squabbling."
"Ouch," said Tumbleweed, grinning.
"It's true, though," said Barracuda, with a smug smile. "I pummeled you."
"I let you pummel me," responded the tawny SandWing.
The blue dragon scoffed. "Keep telling yourself that."
"Oh, I definitely will."
Ozone glanced at Tumbleweed apprehensively. She seemed to have returned to her normal cheery self. Perhaps he'd been overthinking her reaction to the police officer they'd encountered, especially if she'd been confident that the shopkeeper she'd framed would be proven innocent quickly enough. Still, he couldn't deny that the dark streak he'd seen just a few moments ago unsettled him.
Judging by the wary look on Sard's face, she felt the same way. But his SkyWing friend had always been a little prejudiced. Ozone wasn't totally confident he could rely on her reactions to accurately decide whether or not he should be worried.
Tumbleweed only did it to protect Barracuda, he reminded himself, trying to shake his unease. I don't think she seriously meant to harm the other SeaWing jeweler. But was there a point where loyalty to one's friends stopped being a good thing?
What if Barracuda did something else illegal, something worse, because she'd gotten away with selling weapons? What if the police officers did think they'd gotten the SeaWings mixed up, and Blenny's sales were negatively affected by the investigation?
Ozone didn't have all the answers.
Just because Barracuda broke the law doesn't necessarily make her a horrible dragon, he thought, trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. Selling weapons doesn't mean that someday she'll steal or commit murder. Maybe they're for self-defense.
He had to admit, though, that the spiked ring Tumbleweed had showed him looked a little too vicious to be for something as well-intentioned as self-defense.
"Now that Kulta's here, I can take my lunch break," Barracuda said, clapping her webbed talons together decisively. "There's a great place to eat one block over from my shop. Even if we aren't planning to have an official meeting today, we can still hang out with everyone who was gonna gather."
"That's fine by me," said Jackal, who no longer seemed impatient with Barracuda. Ozone glanced back and forth between the two dragons, wondering if they'd sorted out something while he, Sard, and Tumbleweed had been gone.
Kulta raised one eyebrow, as if surprised by the apparent rescheduling of their meeting, but didn't voice her thoughts aloud. She only flashed a questioning glance at Barracuda, who in turn glanced at Jackal, who gave a miniscule shrug and an apologetic smile. It seemed that the SandWings knew Barracuda well enough for the three to have a silent conversation made up only of facial expressions and small gestures.
Ozone had never been great at interpreting body language. Part of it was that he was a social failure, but he also realized now that he'd never had a friend he understood that deeply. There was always some level of disconnect between him and other dragons, even the dragons he cared about most.
He glanced at Sard, whose brow was furrowed. She'd been able to warn him not to challenge Tumbleweed earlier, but even then, her reasons hadn't been totally clear to him. Now he couldn't tell what she was thinking at all.
It was as if there was a wall between a dragon's actions and her thoughts. When other dragons got to know each other well, that barrier started to become transparent, but to Ozone's eyes, it unfailingly remained opaque. He only saw the emotions other dragons were clearly putting on display for him to see.
As Ozone had stared absently into space, Barracuda was locking up her shop. Now she whisked past him, making the SkyWing blink out of his reverie. She led the group down the street, chatting with Tumbleweed as she walked.
"Ozone," Sard hissed into his ear. "I don't know if you know these other dragons we're meeting with, but I swear to the three moons, they'd better not be criminals."
"I don't know them," he said, trying not to feel hurt by her stinging tone. "And I didn't realize before today that either Barracuda or Tumbleweed had ever done anything illegal. I'm just as shocked as you are."
"I wasn't shocked," his friend growled. "I knew not to trust them from the start."
"But did you even have a reason to be suspicious of them?" he retorted, under his breath. "Or was it just because they're from a different tribe than us? Tell me, Sard, are suspicious and SandWing synonymous to you?" Ozone didn't realize how angry he was about her constant prejudice towards other tribes until the words left his tongue, their tone sharpened almost unrecognizably by bitterness.
Sard looked stunned. He'd never spoken to her like that before.
"I don't know what's gotten into you, Ozone," she hissed.
"I'm tired of you acting so cold towards my friends," he said, trying to sound firm, when in reality part of him wanted to take back what he'd said.
"So you're siding with them," she growled quietly, her tail beginning to lash from side to side. "They're your friends now. I thought I was your friend."
"I can be friends with more than one dragon," he pointed out calmly.
He didn't mean for it to sound sarcastic, but judging by the sudden flare of anger in Sard's yellow eyes, that was probably how she'd taken it. "Fine," she seethed, smoke beginning to pour from her nostrils. "I don't care if you're friends with them. But if you try to defend their smuggling and lying, then you're as bad as they are!"
With that, she stomped away from him, walking alongside Kulta instead.
Ozone watched her go somewhat regretfully. He hoped she'd get over her anger quickly instead of turning it into a grudge. He didn't want their relationship to fester the way Sard and Gale's had, making every conversation they had dissolve into a fight.
I'll apologize later, he thought, even though he'd meant everything he'd said, just not as harshly as it had come out sounding. He hoped that his words would at least have some positive impact on his friend once her anger petered out and she really stopped to think about what he'd said. If she ever stopped to think about it.
He was brought back to the present by someone calling his name. He looked up, expecting it to be one of his friends, but was surprised to realize that it was a MudWing running over to him. It took Ozone a moment to recognize Puddle, the dragon who delivered his and Jackal's letters to each other.
He stopped to talk to her for a minute, giving what he hoped was a friendly smile instead of something more akin to a grimace.
"Ozone," she said, with a jovial grin. "What are you doing here in Possibility?"
"I came with Jackal and his friends," he answered, glancing at the other soldiers as they continued walking through the busy crowd. They didn't seem to notice that he'd lagged behind, but he wasn't too worried about it; they weren't going far, and he could probably catch up to them quickly enough after this conversation. "We're just looking around and visiting all the shops. It's been a lot of fun so far."
"I'm glad to hear that." Her expression became serious. "You've picked a good time to visit. There's been some trouble stirring around here recently, and it seems to be escalating pretty quickly. If you'd come any later, you might have gotten caught up in something serious. I'm hoping it'll pass over, but… it never hurts to be careful."
"What kind of trouble?" Ozone asked uneasily.
"There have been murmurs of insurrection," the MudWing answered. "Dragons who are dissatisfied with living in tribes and answering to a queen. They call themselves the Tribeless." She paused, looking around to make sure no one else was listening too closely to her words. "How much do you know about the SandWing called Famine?"
"The one who started the Great Pyrrhian War all those years ago," Ozone said.
"Right," Puddle confirmed, nodding. "Only for some dragons, it wasn't 'all those years ago'. You hatched after the fighting ceased, but there are many dragons still alive who knew him… and some who still think he should've ruled the world."
"But he's gone now, isn't he?" He tried to remember what he'd learned about the sinister SandWing from Spark's lecture a few weeks ago. The old SkyWing hadn't ever actually told them what had happened to Famine, had he? If he remembered correctly, Gale and Buzzard had been very angry about that.
"I certainly hope so," Puddle responded. "The ruling queens announced that he'd been killed in the final struggle, but some retained their doubts for years after the war had ended. Rumors circled that he'd escaped, or that his ghost lingered on. Most of those beliefs have been disproven, but one remains popular: that he and Rain Shadow, the SandWing queen at the time, had a secret dragonet."
Ozone digested this information. "But would that really make a difference?"
"For some dragons, it makes all the difference," the MudWing said, her dark eyes serious. "Especially to the rebels. Rumor has it that they're looking for a descendant of Famine's to lead them… and even darker rumors say they've found one."
Ozone shivered as a chill ran down his spine. He knew that most rumors should be taken with a grain of salt, but there was always a chance, however small, that this one was true. Rain Shadow hadn't stopped Famine from conquering the other tribes using her army, even though she'd had the authority to do so. She must have approved of his philosophy and might have even helped him take over half the continent. From there, it wasn't too far of a logical jump to guess that the two might have been romantically involved. And if that were the case, they may very well have had dragonets together.
The information Puddle had given him was concerning, to say the least.
"Hey, I'm not trying to scare you," the mail-dragon said, touching his wing lightly with hers. "I'm just telling you to be careful, okay?"
"Of course," said Ozone, blinking reassuringly at her. "I'm always careful."
"Good," Puddle responded, with a relieved-looking smile. "I won't keep you from your friends any longer. But you tell Jackal to look after himself too, you hear? That dragonet doesn't have enough sense in his head sometimes."
"I'll let him know," he promised.
"And if you encounter the Tribeless," she warned, "stay far away from them."
"I will," Ozone responded, nodding in thanks and farewell.
If Famine and Rain Shadow had any dragonets, he mused as he walked off in the direction his friends had gone, they would have to be at least thirteen years old. The war had ended fourteen years ago, and the egg could technically have been laid as late as just before Famine died. As for a possible beginning of that time frame… the war had started twenty-seven years ago. Ozone had no idea how old Famine and the queen had been at the time, but their dragonet could be even older than twenty-seven if the two SandWings had been together before the war. Depending on when their egg had hatched, they could even have grandchildren by now. And who could even argue that they'd only had one secret dragonet? There could be a whole clan of them hiding somewhere.
Ozone suppressed a sigh. Trying to figure out the truth behind the rumor seemed hopeless. He'd never even met any SandWings in the right age range to suspect.
Once he reached his destination, Ozone stopped short in surprise. The place was positively packed, as if half the city's residents were currently taking their lunch break. The sheer number of SandWings and SkyWings living in Possibility made it impossible to locate Jackal, Kulta, Tumblweed, and Sard by color.
Eventually, he caught sight of Barracuda's dusky blue scales as she gestured with her wings, deep in conversation with a SandWing Ozone didn't recognize. Mumbling apologies, he shoved through the crowd until he'd made his way to her side.
"Oh, hey," Barracuda said, once he'd finally reached the table she was sitting at. She squinted at him thoughtfully. "You're Ozone, right?"
He nodded.
"Found him," she called loudly, making him jump. A few moments later, Jackal, Kulta and Tumbleweed appeared from the crowd, Sard trailing cautiously behind them.
"Hey, Ozone," said Tumbleweed, grinning. "Why do you keep disappearing?"
"Sorry about that," he said, dipping his head apologetically. "I just saw someone I knew on the way here and stopped to talk to her."
"Oh, really?" said Jackal, cocking his head to one side. "Who?"
"It was Puddle," he said, "the delivery dragon who always carried our letters. She told me to warn you to stay out of trouble."
The mottled SandWing laughed. "She knows me too well."
Ozone forced a smile, though he felt as if his insides were twisting into knots. He decided not to bring up Puddle's specific warning about the Tribeless. He didn't want to ruin his friend's lighthearted mood with such a dire subject, especially when he didn't have any substantial information about the rebel group.
Still, that's something I should definitely tell Claret when I get home, he thought, trying to stick the idea firmly in his mind so he wouldn't forget.
The SandWing Barracuda had been talking to was eyeing them curiously. He had odd grayish scales that made him look almost like he was made of stone, and there were faint frown lines etched into his snout. He towered over the group of dragonets. It was hard to guess his age; he wasn't elderly, but he was clearly considerably older than any of the other dragons Ozone had met today. Ozone guessed he was around thirty.
"Oh, right," said Barracuda, gesturing between them with her talons. "This is why I don't like doing introductions; I always forget. Gravel, this is Ozone, the SkyWing Jack's been telling us about. SkyWing, this is Gravel."
"Nice to meet you," Ozone said, as politely as he could.
Gravel only grunted in response, though there was a glimmer of something in his dark eyes that might have been approval. Ozone wasn't sure what to make of him.
He was more focused on wondering what exactly Jackal had told them about him. What was this group about, anyway, and why had Jackal thought he might be interested in joining? More importantly, why had he changed his mind?
Barracuda lifted her wing to wave over a few more dragons, who gathered around them. There was another SeaWing, this one with aquamarine scales, along with a trio of MudWings and a heavily scarred SkyWing who was missing half a horn. "Everyone, you've heard of Ozone before, yada yada. Ozone, this lot here is Thermocline, Muskeg, Amphibian, Till, Bayou—sorry, Bayou isn't with us anymore—and Rockslide."
"What happened to Bayou, anyway?" Tumbleweed interjected. Ozone glanced at her and saw that her expression was uncharacteristically serious again.
The MudWings—Muskeg, Amphibian, and Till—exchanged subtle glances before the largest of the three spoke up, lifting his chin. "It's not what you're thinking. Bayou disagreed with our training practices, so he ran out on us."
"That sounds likely," the SkyWing—Rockslide—scoffed. "Are you sure you didn't have another of your so-called training 'accidents', Amphibian?"
Till growled, but Amphibian cut her off. "Quite sure."
"What accidents?" Ozone asked Tumbleweed.
"They lost two of their sibs," she said, not quite meeting his gaze. "I wasn't there, but… apparently they were injured and couldn't be saved."
Two dragonets died… during peacetime? These MudWings looked only a few years older than Ozone, not nearly old enough to have fought in the war. How strict was their training? And did it really need to be so harsh?
Rockslide, on the other talon, looked very much as if he'd fought in the war. Not only had one of his horns been partially broken off, but his carmine scales were chipped and blunted, and his wings were ragged at the edges. His murky yellow eyes had the dark look of a dragon who had seen more violence than he should.
Noticing Ozone's gaze lingering on him with faint horror at his appearance, the older SkyWing glowered. Ozone hastily glanced away.
Thermocline looked around the same age as Rockslide, though she bore far fewer scars. There was one nasty one across the aquamarine scales of her snout, but she still didn't look as intimidating as the SkyWing. When she glanced over and noticed Ozone studying her curiously, she smiled and waved in a friendly-looking way.
"Regardless of what actually happened to Bayou," Gravel said, "his disappearance means that we are now a member short. We should not shrink our numbers farther by pushing each other away with hostility." His voice was soft, but it held an almost regal-sounding authority, and the other dragons fell silent to consider his words.
"He's right," said Amphibian, who seemed to speak for all three MudWings; that, along with his size, marked him as their bigwings. Till, the female, was almost the same height, while Muskeg was a little smaller. Ozone wasn't standing next to them, but he guessed he'd stand at the height of Muskeg's shoulder if he had been.
Ozone felt hopelessly torn. He was inclined to like any dragon who was friendly to him, but at the same time, some of these dragons were clearly dangerous, even if they felt no ill will towards him. He just hoped he'd be safe with Jackal.
Nervously, he edged a little closer to his SandWing friend.
"This isn't everyone," Barracuda said, rolling her eyes. "Not everyone could make it, and some of them got distracted over at the bar. I'm not going to drag them over now, especially if Jackal is convinced that you wouldn't be interested in joining."
Ozone opened his mouth to ask what the group was about and why exactly Jackal had made his decision for him, but the SeaWing was already gesturing to the far wall of the restaurant, where a huge crowd of dragons had gathered around the bar.
Their scales were mostly shades of red, orange, brown, and yellow, but Ozone also spotted Loess's tan scales in the crowd. The potter was laughing with a SeaWing bartender in a way that reminded Ozone that despite calling him 'young one', the hybrid probably wasn't more than eleven or twelve years older than him. Like Gravel, it was difficult to tell how old he was, in part due to the weary look in his eyes. All the dragons who had fought in the Great Pyrrhian War seemed to have aged beyond their years.
Is Loess part of Jackal's group too? Ozone wondered. He couldn't remember if the two had acknowledged each other when they'd visited the potter's shop. Or does he just happen to be here at the same time?
"W-what is this group about, anyway?" he asked, turning back to the others. He tried to keep his voice light and interested, but he still stuttered a little, betraying his nerves. Ozone hoped that wasn't as noticeable to his friends as it was to him.
He looked to Jackal, who exchanged a glance with Barracuda.
For a moment, no one answered, and then Jackal gave a sheepish grin. "It's a history thing. We've been trying to come up with a good way to memorialize the war. Collecting accounts from dragons who fought in the war"—he nodded at Rockslide and Gravel—"and reenacting battles and such. Since you sounded interested in other tribes' cultures in our letters, I figured you might want to join. I promise, the way I described it makes it sound much nerdier than it actually is."
Kulta snorted, as if she found Jackal's explanation amusing. Or perhaps as if she thought it was exactly as nerdy as it sounded.
"That does sound interesting," Ozone said, ignoring her. That wasn't what he had been expecting, but it did genuinely sound interesting, at least in his opinion. Judging by Sard's incredulous expression, she didn't agree.
"I'm glad you think so," Jackal said, his grin widening. "But even so, I don't think you'd be able to join. Our base is a lot closer to Possibility than yours, and it seems like your soldiers are a lot busier. We meet almost once a week."
"Oh," said Ozone, his excitement deflating. "I don't think Claret would let me go anywhere that often. Like you said, it's pretty far from our base."
Jackal gave him a sympathetic look. "Yeah," he said. "Well, you can still stop by every once in a while to see how things are going."
"I'll do that," he said, nodding.
Glancing around, he saw that most of the others looked immensely amused by the exchange. Were they laughing at him? Did they, like Tumbleweed, think that he got overly excited about other tribes' cultures?
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing," said Tumbleweed, smirking.
Well, they were the ones who'd decided to collect information about the war in the first place, so they weren't ones to judge.
Sard's disbelieving stare had now turned into glaring daggers, which didn't clear up anything at all.
Ozone remained distracted throughout the rest of lunch, his thoughts jumping all over the place. It felt like only a few moments had passed before they were getting ready to leave, and Tumbleweed nudged him to snap him out of his reverie.
The rest of the day passed by almost as quickly, and Ozone couldn't help but feel relieved at the thought of returning to the familiarity of the SkyWing military base. As exciting as this trip had been, it was also loud and chaotic and filled with worry.
They traveled back with the SandWings, who thankfully joked and laughed all the way and didn't prompt either Ozone or Sard to say much.
When reached the border between the Sand and Sky Kingdoms, and it was time for them to part ways, Ozone felt simultaneously disappointed and relieved.
"It was so nice to see you again," Jackal said, clasping Ozone's talons in his.
"Agreed," said Kulta, nodding to him with what he was starting to recognize as a friendly glimmer in her pitch-dark eyes. "And I was glad to meet you, Sardonyx."
Sard gave a nod in response but said nothing. Ozone glanced at her, wondering if she was still angry. Judging by her silence, she probably was.
"Thanks for showing me around Possibility," he said to the SandWings. "It really is an amazing place."
"It was our pleasure," Tumbleweed said, grinning.
Once they'd finished their farewells, the desert dragons flew away, still chatting and laughing. Sard waited until they were out of sight to elbow Ozone in the ribs.
He yelped. "What was that for?"
"Memorializing the war?" she snapped. "You actually believed that?"
It took him a second to process what she was saying. "You think they were lying about the purpose of their group? Why would they do that?"
"My question exactly," Sard growled, lashing her tail so violently that she almost knocked herself out of the air. "We have to tell Claret that there's something suspicious going on there. At the very least, she can deal with that SeaWing."
"Barracuda?" Ozone said, puzzled. "What do you mean, deal with her?"
"She's selling weapons!" Sard hissed, smacking him over the head with her wing. "Have you misplaced your brain? That's illegal!"
"Oh, right." He'd honestly been so preoccupied with Puddle's warning about the Tribeless and wondering how long Sard would stay angry at him that he'd forgotten all about Barracuda and Tumbleweed's sketchy behavior. "We should definitely tell Claret about that." That made two groups she had to worry about, then—whatever Jackal and his friends were up to in addition to the Tribeless dragons.
Sard snorted derisively and said nothing.
Ozone gave her a nervous glance, rubbing his forehead wearily. In only one day, it felt like his life had gotten ten times more complicated.
He and Sard were so preoccupied with their thoughts that they didn't notice the dragon flying stealthily along behind them. The dragon watched with narrowed eyes as the SkyWing dragonets entered their secret base, disappearing into a concealed opening on the side of the cliff. He circled slowly around the base, memorizing the details of the area, and then turned and flew back the way he had come.