AN: As always, thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

By the end of the day, Ozone was still snoring blissfully, with no indication that he would wake up soon. Starfruit and Dawnbringer had come in and out of the house a few times as the day ticked by, along with another NightWing who introduced himself as Mellowthought. Cornice guessed that he was Dawnbringer's father. The black dragon had a kind, sleepy-looking smile that Cornice had never seen on an IceWing.

It put him strangely at ease. His muscles, still tense with worry, finally relaxed.

In the Ice Kingdom, he'd heard more about NightWings than he had about any of the other tribes. Thousands of years ago, the NightWings and the IceWings had started a terrible war over stolen animus magic. For countless generations, both sides had held deep grudges over it. But the rift had finally begun to heal once the NightWings had moved to the rainforest, thanks to the efforts of Queen Glory.

Some IceWings still harbored prejudice against the NightWings, but Cornice had never had any reason to resent them. He'd never even met one before.

And now he supposed he had reason to feel the opposite. These NightWings had saved Ozone's life. They had helped him even though he was a total stranger, the same way Ozone had helped Cornice when he'd been a total stranger. Cornice hadn't seen any kind of suspicion or dislike on any of their faces. They hadn't looked at him and seen an IceWing, an outsider. They'd only seen a dragon in need.

All the more reason we should put any tribal conflict behind us, he thought.

Cornice had to consider his own prejudices. He might never have had anything against NightWings, but he couldn't honestly say the same for all the tribes.

The image of a SeaWing popped into his mind, bringing with it a stab of anger. It probably was prejudiced of him to hate SeaWings. In his mind, the ones who lived in waters of the Ice Kingdom were all manipulative and troublesome trespassers.

But I have a good reason to think that way, he thought, with a growl. I only hate them because they've wronged me! But if he thought about it… that had technically been only one SeaWing. For a long time, she had been the only SeaWing he'd ever met. He'd seen a few around Possibility since, and he'd had to fight the instinct to growl and glare just because looking at them had been like looking at her.

Cornice felt guilty. It was an awful feeling, so he shook it off immediately. That's not important now. Hopefully you'll never see another SeaWing again and you won't have to worry about whether or not your hatred towards them is valid.

He should let go of it. But he couldn't. He couldn't.

I've given up everything else, he thought, trying to rationalize it. I've let go of my ranking, my life, my kingdom—everything except this grudge. If I let go of that too, would I really even be the same dragon I started out as?

He ignored the softer voice in his head that whispered, Do I really want to be the same dragon I started out as? Can't I be someone better? Instead, he tried to focus on his vigil by Ozone's side, even though that was incredibly boring. His mind kept trying to wander, and he found himself needing to drag it back from time to time.

Around sunset, Starfruit suggested that they move Ozone to her guest room, so they wouldn't have to spend the night in the entranceway and risk ending up underfoot. Cornice gratefully agreed, glad for momentary distraction from his thoughts.

Starfruit and Mellowthought worked together to carry Ozone, Cornice following behind them. The NightWings' combined efforts made the task go a lot more smoothly than it had when Cornice had been helping Starfruit instead.

Cornice tried not to let that make him feel inferior.

Three moons, my pride has taken a beating today, he realized, trying to shake off the self-pity that was creeping up behind him like a shark in the ocean. He honestly hadn't realized that he'd had any pride left until it started hurting. He'd thought he had been doing a good job adjusting to accepting help like a normal dragon.

He sighed. I guess fixing my personality is a continuous work in progress.

Once they'd settled down in the guest room, he drifted into restless sleep. At last, around dawn, he felt movement next to him and turned to see that Ozone was awake. The SkyWing's orange eyes were puzzled, but lucid.

"Where are we?" he whispered.

"A house in the rainforest," answered Cornice, studying his friend closely. Ozone didn't seem to be in any pain. "Do you remember anything from yesterday?"

Ozone considered, then winced. "Bug bite. Ouch. Nothing after that."

"I didn't know what to do," confessed Cornice. "So I called for help. A rainforest dragon appeared—her name's Starfruit—and we brought you to her house. She treated the bite, with some help from her daughter. Apparently you had an allergic reaction and that's why it swelled up so badly. It was really scary."

"Wow," said Ozone. "I guess you do have very good luck with strangers."

Cornice started to say something, stopped, and then wrinkled his snout. "That's your takeaway from this? Not that you almost died?"

Ozone shrugged. "Well I didn't, thanks to you and your good luck."

Cornice growled. "No, not thanks to me! I didn't do anything. I was absolutely useless. Starfruit just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

Ozone stared at him. "You're not useless."

"Just now I was," he insisted. "I don't know anything about this stupid rainforest. I'm so out of my element. What were we even thinking, coming here?"

He had been asking rhetorically, but Ozone seemed to consider it seriously before he answered, "I guess we were thinking that we had to do something. Even though we're in a unfamiliar place, and it's dangerous, we couldn't just stand and watch other dragons get hurt. We wanted to help, and coming here was the best way to do that. Right?"

Cornice sighed. "I don't know. It seemed right, at the time. But we still know so little. Will we even be able to find the Tribeless? The Rainforest Kingdom is huge, and you almost died after less than a full day of traveling through it. Even if we do manage to find and infiltrate the Tribeless, will that really give us any power to stop them?"

"I don't know," said Ozone. "But I do know we can't give up that easily."

Cornice snorted. "How reassuring."

He'd meant the words to sting, but Ozone only looked at him evenly. "I know we can't give up. If we do, we'll spend the rest of our lives regretting it."

That struck a nerve. Cornice had been followed by regret ever since he'd left the Ice Kingdom. He wasn't even sure exactly what he regretted about his past life. Should he have cared more about his ranking? Should he have cared less? Should he have been more respectful to his father? Should he have been more defiant?

He didn't know. He just knew that the harder he tried to forget about the life he'd left behind, the more the memories bothered him. If he ran away from this, too, then it would haunt him the same way. He looked down at his talons. "You're right."

"You're thinking about this too much," said Ozone.

"You're one to talk," Cornice scoffed.

"Worrying is my job," said Ozone. "Trust me, I worry enough for both of us. You should do something else… like come up with smart ideas. I'll think of all the problems, and you can solve them. Maybe we should try to look for clues. Explore."

"I guess I can explore," said Cornice. "While you rest."

"I just woke up," protested Ozone, but contradicted himself by yawning.

"Yeah, from a sedative-induced sleep." Cornice nudged him with one wing. "You seem to be doing better, but I'm sure you still need more time to recover. You have to worry about yourself before you can worry about anyone else."

"Not necessarily," the SkyWing said ruefully. "I'm fully capable of worrying about everything and everyone at the same time. It's a lot busier in here than you'd think." He tapped the side of his head lightly with one talon.

"Well, get even busier coming up with more creative pep talks," replied Cornice, "because we both might need them. I can't do the reassuring thing, remember?"

"You try," Ozone said kindly.

There was a brisk knock at the door, which slid open a crack to reveal a pair of friendly brown eyes. The door then flew completely open and Dawnbringer bounded in, beaming. "You're awake! I'm so happy to meet you, Ozone!"

Cornice tried to keep a straight face. "You know that the point of knocking is to see if dragons are okay with you coming in before you come in, right?"

Her smile became even brighter, like sunlight reflecting on ice. "You could say that! Or you could say the point is to loudly announce your presence and tell everyone not to bother trying to keep you out because you're absolutely coming in!"

Cornice thought it would probably be impossible to stay annoyed at this dragon for long. She was very loud, and as far as he could tell had the same amount of tact as an avalanche, but something about her smile was contagious. Maybe it was because he'd never seen any IceWing—or any other dragon, for that matter—smile like that before.

"Ozone, this is Dawnbringer," he said. "Starfruit's daughter."

"Nice to meet you," said the SkyWing, looking a little shy. "… and thank you for saving my life. Cornice told me you and your mother healed me."

Dawnbringer's smile dimmed a little, her dark eyes becoming serious. "No need to thank us for that. Anyone would've done the same."

"Not where I come from," pointed out Cornice. "Not for free, anyway."

"Not in the Sky Kingdom, either," agreed Ozone.

"Well…" She seemed momentarily at a loss for words, before spreading her wings to brush against theirs. There were silvery pink scales dotting the undersides, like stars. "I guess it's no wonder you ended up coming here, then."

"Speaking of here," said Cornice, "would you be willing to show me around?"

"Of course!" Dawnbringer's wings fluttered; she seemed to have forgotten that they were still touching Cornice and Ozone's. "I've never gotten to show anyone around before. A RainWing who's my age—our age?—moved here from one of the other villages a few months ago, but she acted got so snooty when I tried to give her a tour. She insisted she didn't need my help and turned invisible. I still told her where everything was just in case she did need help and just didn't want to admit it, but I have no way of knowing whether she was actually following me. So it was kind of lonely. And I got a lot of weird looks from other dragons. And even from some sloths."

"Are you sure you weren't imagining that part?" Cornice asked.

Dawnbringer nodded. "Sloths can definitely judge you."

Ozone made a strange sound in his throat and immediately ducked his head so Dawnbringer wouldn't see his smile. Cornice didn't bother trying to hide his.

"I'm glad you found that funny, even though I wasn't joking," said Dawnbringer, with another of her easy smiles. She withdrew her wings to her sides with a flourish and pranced off toward the door. "Do you want to start now?"

Cornice glanced at Ozone, who nodded. "Sure."

Dawnbringer's gaze flitted to his, and then to the SkyWing's. "Oh, you still need to rest… I'm sorry you can't come with us. But don't worry, I'll bring you back some of your favorite fruit so you won't be left out! What is your favorite fruit?"

Ozone gave her a tentative smile. "I actually haven't tried very many kinds. Why don't you bring back your own favorite so I can try it?"

Her tail curled up. "That's a great idea. I'm sure you'll love it!"

Ozone's smile became a little more confident.

"See you later," Cornice said to Ozone, flicking him lightly with his tail.

"See you," echoed his friend. He rested his chin on his talons, looking tired.

Dawnbringer led the way downstairs and out the front door, chatting to Cornice all the while. She didn't seem to notice that he was barely paying attention. His eyes were instead wandering through the twisting maze of green plants around them. Above their heads, there were strange-looking houses built around the branches of the trees.

"Uh, are those actually sturdy?" he asked, cutting off Dawnbringer's monologue.

She followed his gaze. "Huh? Oh, yeah, they're fine. RainWings like to live up in the treetops, where they can soak in the sunlight. NightWings usually prefer living near the ground, where there's some shade and it's not quite as hot, so that's the only reason we're not up there. The treehouses are perfectly safe."

"So… both RainWings and NightWings live in this village?"

Dawnbringer nodded. "There are also separate RainWing and NightWing towns in other parts of the rainforest, but we mostly live together now. We're basically one big tribe. I mean, my dad is a NightWing, but my maternal grandfather is a RainWing. And we're far from the only family like that. Our queen is a hybrid too."

"Is her palace nearby?" Cornice asked.

She gave him a strange look. "Palace?"

Had he misspoken somehow? Maybe he should change his approach. "Yeah. I'm curious about where she lives. If the royal family is mixed, she should be near the mixed village, right? She wouldn't want to favor one tribe over the other."

"She's not near the village," Dawnbringer said. "She lives in the village, with us."

Cornice blinked. "In… a regular house? Just like these?"

"It's in the very center," she explained. "Come on, I'll show you."

She flew up to the nearest branch and began leading the way through the forest. Cornice followed, trying to copy her motions. She didn't even pause as she hopped from tree to tree, landing for only a moment before kicking off again.

They passed by a few other dragons on their way. Cornice's icicle mane and unmistakable white scales earned them a few curious or puzzled looks, but Dawnbringer never seemed to notice. She only smiled and waved at anyone who made eye contact with her, oblivious to their questioning glances.

At Dawnbringer's pace, it wasn't long before they came to a stop in front of a huge tree. It was unlike anything Cornice had ever seen.

The tree appeared to have a hundred different trunks, of varying width. The areas between the trunks were like strange, wooden caves. Dragons walked in and out of them every once in a while, looking busy but not nearly as tense as the IceWings living in Queen Nunatak's palace.

Cornice didn't know much about plants, but… "Aren't trees only supposed to have one trunk? Is this one broken? Or magical, maybe?"

Dawnbringer laughed. "It's a banyan tree. They drop roots from their branches, and those roots look like extra trunks. It's perfectly normal. The only thing that makes this one special is how big it is. The entire royal family lives here."

"Fascinating," said Cornice. He managed to break his gaze away from the strange root formations and looked up to see that there was also what appeared to be a pavilion among the leaves at the top of the tree. "What's that?"

"That's Queen Harmony's throne room," Dawnbringer explained. "Every day, she meets with dragons who have problems that need solving. The reason there's no ceiling is because being exposed to sunlight helps relieve stress. It makes the whole waiting-on-line-to-talk-about-your-worries thing a little more bearable."

"So anyone could approach her?" Cornice asked, trying to wrap his brain around the idea. In the Ice Kingdom, only the highest ranked dragons were allowed to approach the queen, and only when their presence was expressly requested. Queen Nunatak would never invite anyone to come to her to complain about their problems.

But… maybe if she had, Cornice would have been better off. He might have been able to persuade her not to punish him for his father's shortcomings for all those years.

Dawnbringer nodded. "Even visitors to the tribe can, if they need help."

He wondered if she meant that as an offer to him. Cornice studied her, trying to read her expression. She looked sincere. How much of his conversation with Ozone had she overheard? Did she know that they were looking for the Tribeless?

"I'll keep that in mind," he said slowly. "Thanks."

And then she was beaming at him again, all seriousness forgotten. "Anyway, let's go! I want to show you the school. Are you still in school, Cornice?"

"Ah… not really," he answered. "My mother is… was… still training me, though."

"Hmm. I'm six years old," she said. "What about you?"

"I'm also six," he answered. "Turning seven soon. Ozone's already seven."

"Great!" she said happily. "So we're all around the same age!"

The two dragonets traveled through the rainforest together, making small talk as they went. Cornice was bombarded by questions about his interest. He found out that he was expected to have a favorite color (he decided to go with gold), a favorite animal (fireflies), and a favorite school subject (battle training).

Cornice kept finding himself turning back to say something to Ozone, who he half-expected to be following close behind them. After spending so much time with the SkyWing recently, it felt strange to not have him there.

As the day went on and the sun climbed steadily higher, the rainforest started to get hotter. The humid air began weighing on Cornice's back like a physical burden. His scales were becoming uncomfortably sticky with sweat that couldn't evaporate into the already saturated air. He tried his best not to slow them down, but eventually had to ask Dawnbringer to stop so he could catch his breath.

She gave him a concerned look, and then plucked a nearby fruit and held it out to him. "Here, eat this. It might make you feel better."

"I'm not hungry," he said, waving it away.

"The juice from this fruit will lower your body temperature a little," she told him, suddenly dropping it so he had to catch it to prevent it from crushing his toes. "We give it to dragons who get overheated. Remember, the NightWings have lived here for over a hundred years, but this isn't our natural habitat. We had to learn how to adapt."

Cornice tentatively nibbled on the fruit. It was unexpectedly sour.

Dawnbringer didn't notice the way his snout wrinkled in displeasure at the taste. She was too busy looking around at the different kinds of fruit with a knowledgeable eye. At last, she plucked a talonful of small purple berries.

She showed them to Cornice. "These will cause a slight change to the hormones your body produces. It won't affect you at all, but it'll prevent giant forest ants—like the one you encountered yesterday—from biting you. I'll bring these back for Ozone."

"You know a lot," Cornice commented, impressed.

She shrugged. "My mom's a healer. I pick up on these things."

Cornice ate as much of the sour fruit as he could manage and then gave the rest to Dawnbringer, who was happy to finish it for him. He had to admit that it did make him feel a little better, but the sunlight streaming through the canopy was still unpleasantly warm against his scales. He felt like a melting iceberg.

After that, it wasn't much longer before they reached the school.

The classrooms appeared to simply be platforms woven from vines and branches. There was no one on them now. Judging by that, and the fact that Dawnbringer was not in class, Cornice figured that the students probably had the day off.

There was also a library, where a few dragonets appeared to be studying, and an area behind the school where a collection of targets had been set up.

"This is where the RainWings practice shooting their venom," Dawnbringer said. "No one actually uses their venom anymore, but they have to know how to control it just in case. The same goes for NightWings and fire, but we have to go near lakes to practice so we don't end up burning down any trees by accident."

"I can imagine that would be bad," Cornice said. Everything here was flammable.

"Hey, it's almost suntime," said Dawnbringer abruptly. "Everyone is bound to be getting ready to sleep near the treetops. I don't need to nap in the middle of the day like the RainWings do, but I still like doing it. It's really nice to just soak up all that sunlight. You don't have to try it, but I want to show you."

She spread her wings and flew up. Cornice followed her, leaves brushing against his scales as they went through the canopy. After seeing the rainforest through the filter of green leaves, it was startling to see everything in normal color again.

When they arrived, dragons were already snoozing blissfully among the highest branches. Some slept on woven platforms, while others curled up in hammocks, and still others rested directly on the tree branches. Some dragons were brightly-colored, while others had dark or black scales, but all of them seemed completely relaxed.

"Um, did you want to join them?" Cornice asked Dawnbringer, who failed to fight back a yawn at the sight of all the sleepy dragons. Her wings were drooping, too.

She shook her head. "I can't just abandon you in the middle of the rainforest."

"Well, you could bring me back to your house first," he suggested. He didn't want to interrupt her normal schedule, and besides, the quick pace of Dawnbringer's tour was starting to make him tired. He could use some time out of the sun.

She considered this, and then nodded. "Sure."

However, just as they ducked beneath the canopy again, another dragon suddenly appeared in front of them. Her scales shimmered out of invisibility and settled into an unusual mixture of red and green swirls.

Cornice knew that the colors on a RainWing could indicate different emotions, but it was hard to guess what this combination meant. The red was probably anger, but what was the green? It certainly wasn't fear, judging by the dragon's aggressive posture. Maybe it was something closer to suspicion. She glanced at Cornice with narrowed eyes before turning to Dawnbringer with a soft growl.

"What's an IceWing doing here?" she asked, looking down her nose at the black dragonet. "Don't we already have enough outsiders in the rainforest?"

Cornice's curiosity was instantly replaced with defensive rage. How dare she talk about him in that tone, without even speaking to him directly? He opened his mouth to snap a retort, but Dawnbringer beat him to it.

"The NightWings are not outsiders!" The spikes along her back flared. "We were born in this rainforest, same as you! You have no right to act superior!"

"Oh, calm down," the RainWing said haughtily. "I didn't mean the NightWings. I meant him." She pointed downwards with her tail. Cornice followed it with his eyes and spotted a small brown dragon near the base of the tree they were sitting in. The dragon looked too muscular to be a RainWing, and had a distinctly flat head.

Seeming to sense someone watching him, the MudWing looked up.

What was a MudWing doing in the rainforest?

The brown dragon looked anxious; he could probably hear the argument going on above his head. He broke his gaze away from Cornice's and ran off through the trees.

Dawnbringer growled. "Bayou is here because he has nowhere else to go."

The RainWing bared her fangs. "That's not our problem, is it?"

"If it's not your problem, then you should just stay out of it!" Dawnbringer spat.

The other dragon's scales flashed an even brighter red. "Well, this isn't his home, so he should just stay out of it!" With that, turned away in a huff, vanishing as suddenly as she'd appeared. Cornice listened, but he couldn't hear her storm off. He wondered if that meant she was stealthy, or that she was lingering to eavesdrop.

"Don't listen to her," Dawnbringer told him, her tail lashing furiously. "We're perfectly fine with visitors from other tribes, regardless of how long they need to stay in our territory. That's the way we are, and that's the way we've always been. If you don't believe me, just ask our queen. Bayou went to her specifically for asylum. Elegance is just a RainWing elitist who has a stick up her butt because her sister decided to marry a NightWing and made their whole family move here."

"Thanks," said Cornice. "I appreciate it."

He still felt a little stung by Elegance's hostility, but that feeling was outweighed by his curiosity about Bayou. Based on the way Dawnbringer and Elegance had talked about him, it sounded like Bayou was the only MudWing here. It was unusual for any dragon to live among another tribe, but it was especially unusual for a MudWing to be living somewhere without any of his siblings.

And just now, Dawnbringer had mentioned asylum. A dragon would only need to seek asylum if he was running away from something.

There had to be a story behind that. But what was it?

That was something he should definitely talk to Ozone about.