Happy Friday, and I hope y'all enjoy another chapter! This time starring the White Fang hatchlings, lots of fire, and a fed-up Nymph.

56. Draconic Intervention

Slowly... cautiously... Sun poked his head out of their hiding place. He immediately started hacking and coughing on the smoke. The world was still on fire—there just wasn't much left to burn where they stood. Instead, a wall of flame crossed the horizon, spreading west with the wind.

Yang whistled. "You'd think they'd be more worried about the smoke. Someone's gotta notice that."

"Mm." Port put his hands on his hips and squinted at the burning forest. "It would seem that getting rid of us is more valuable to Cinder than the lab itself."

"Okay... but what's she doing?" Sun pointed at the inferno. "Is she trying to burn us all to death?"

Blake stiffened. "No. That's not for us."

Sun and Yang exchanged confused looks, but Professor Port nodded gravely. "Mount up, students. It seems the enemy is trying to surround our dear companions."

They scrambled to obey. Port had to stop them before they took off—Glory was still in the sky above them, circling. There wasn't much foliage left to cover them, but there was a low ridge nearby that shielded them from her sight for a while. After that, they flew fast and hard. She spotted them and moved to follow... but this time she was alone, and Pit managed force her down into the trees. Soon, she dropped out of sight completely.

The fire didn't. Sun bent low against Huo's neck, breathing into his own elbow to escape some of the smoke. Once they passed directly over it—which took a long time, at the rate it was spreading—the air cleared. Crucible was barely visible as a dark point in the sky... but the jet of fire that spread beneath him was blatantly obvious.

Below them, someone whistled. They all dived. Crucible ignored them, if he'd noticed them at all. Others were patrolling the skies overhead—Sun recognized Dusk and Diver, Tumbleweed, and Pearl, and saw a lot of others too far away to identify. A few of those pit dragons tried to harass them on the way down, but didn't bother to chase them very far.

Sun had a feeling it would be a lot harder to fly out of the trap.

Huo landed at a run, stumbling a bit to keep up with Nymph as she galloped through the forest. Neptune clung to her neck, his hair streaked with soot and sticking up in all directions. "Hey!" Sun said, grinning and waving.

"Where were you people?!" Weiss snapped. Ruby looked like she was seriously considering jumping from Storm to Fang so that she could glomp Yang.

Sun mostly tuned out the argument that followed. Everyone was out of breath from running—but the smoke loomed closer and closer behind them. He glanced at Neptune again, only to find that his best friend was staring at him.

"What?"

"Nothing!" Neptune turned back around. Then, over his shoulder, "Just glad you're okay, dude."

The return of their missing members was good... but Sage wasn't sure how helpful it was, in the moment. At least before he'd been fairly sure that they were better off, since they weren't inside the ring of fire.

Well. It wasn't a ring yet. But they wouldn't catch Crucible before he closed it.

Flames were licking at their heels, now. A shrieking bird exploded out of the treeline, trailing fire like a phoenix. Zircon balked and might have thrown him off if he hadn't been strapped into the saddle. Sage ran a comforting hand along his back.

"It's alright!" He'd never felt more like a liar in his life.

Goodwitch twisted in the saddle. She was seated behind Scarlet on Nimbus—they were running much faster than a human could keep up with on foot. Her piercing glare lingered on the sky for a long moment, then flicked towards an oncoming tangle of trees. Sage had come to dread those places, knowing that they would slow the dragons down.

They waded through the undergrowth... and Goodwitch held up a hand, the signal for them to halt. Baffled, Sage tugged on Zircon's reins. He balked again. His whole body trembled as he cast frantic glances towards the approaching flames.

"Shh," Sage murmured. "Don't worry. She knows what she's doing."

Goodwitch signaled for them to turn. They wriggled further into the thicket, moving perpendicular to the approaching fire and keeping under cover beneath the leaves. Hiding... but that wouldn't last very long.

"We can't go around," Goodwitch said finally. "Not on foot."

Yang sat bolt upright. "If you think I'm going to leave—"

Their professor's eyes flashed. "That is out of the question."

Professor Port chuckled. "I do believe Pepper was similarly incapacitated, once upon a time. To borrow an idea from you all..."

Pit's head picked up, and he barked eagerly. Storm whined. Fang, Pit, and Specter all bristled and hissed some disagreement. Her drooping ears picked up a little.

"Now." Goodwitch glanced back at the fire. "We'll need to wait until it's quite close, so that the smoke will cover our escape. Be ready."

Sage had his hands full keeping Zircon calm as they waited. Mercifully—or not, depending on whether or not this worked—it didn't take long. At Goodwitch's signal, twelve dragons charged up a small slope and launched themselves into the air. Storm's good wing flared instinctively. Before she could start to fall, Fang and Pit caught her with claws and powers, and lifted her into the air.

They entered the smoke. Sage's eyes stung until there were tears on his cheeks and nothing but murky grey all around him. He fought the urge to breathe as long as he could. When he finally gave in, hot smoke seared his lungs and he doubled over against Zircon's back.

Seconds later, they cleared the worst of it. The forest had been reduced to a ruin of itself, all charred trunks and crisped leaves. Almost nothing green remained to hide them, but clouds of ash hung in the air. Sage pulled his collar up over his mouth and nose, blinking his still-watering eyes. Zircon had calmed now that they were out of the fire. He stroked his neck anyway.

"Well." Port glanced up, squinting through the pale grey haze. "That seems to have done the trick."

"Dad!"

Ilia's eyes snapped open. She'd dozed off where she sat outside her tent. Rubbing at a crick in her neck—and trying to ignore her own racing heart—she stood stiffly and glanced towards the dragonets' tent. Justice hadn't come to get her, which meant he was probably still playing with the younger dragons.

Hazel was in the camp, now, which meant that they were confined in crates most of the day, outside of Justice's visits. Flux didn't seem to mind... but Gigas hated the things with a passion, and Ilia was already dreading the day he figured out how to destroy them. She didn't want to cut their free time short if she could help it. Instead, she walked a slow circuit of the camp's perimeter.

As she rounded the northernmost edge of the clearing, she spotted Brand. He lay sprawled on a small shelf of rock, sunning himself. Hazel sat next to his head. The big fire dragon had started to fill out again—she used to be able to see his ribs, but now he seemed well-fed and content, his eyes half closed.

He'd come a long way from snarling at anyone who got close.

Ilia changed course before she realized what she was doing. Hazel looked up as she approached and said, "All went well?"

"Yes," she said, because the raid had been as smooth as they could have hoped. Then, "No," because Justice had almost spat fire at a hiker.

Hazel blinked. "Maybe you should sit down."

She sat. Brand glanced at her, then shifted so that she could scratch him behind the ears. He purred softly as she worked, until he fell asleep and the sound petered off. "He seems better."

"Getting there. Still haven't found out how he'll react to strangers, but it probably won't be pretty."

"He didn't seem to mind Weiss Schnee," Ilia muttered.

Hazel's eyebrows raised. "Ah. That's good, then."

Ilia glared at him. "You heard me say Weiss Schnee, didn't you?"

He shrugged. "She seemed alright to me. Your old friend was with her, and they got along." She opened her mouth to snap at him, but he went on before she could. "That's not the point, anyway. If he decided he doesn't mind her, he's waiting to see if people are a threat before he starts treating them like one. That's good."

Privately, she thought that Brand's judgment could still use some work, but that wasn't what she'd wanted to discuss. "How did you get him to calm down like that?"

Hazel gave her an odd look. "Why?"

"Just curious."

"Uh-huh. Well, it's not magic. It's patience. He snaps at me, I don't hit him. Eventually he starts to trust that I'm not going to."

Ilia frowned. That was... just about useless. She would never hurt Justice, and he knew that. So, reluctantly, she told Hazel about the incident with the hikers. He thought about it for a while, absently rubbing Brand's shoulder as he did so. "When was the last time he met someone outside our little group here who wasn't a threat?"

"When we visited Brand—" But the two riders hadn't been friends of theirs by any stretch. The Schnee was proof of that. "At Haven—" Though she'd warned him not to say too much around the others. Justice hadn't known what might happen if Cinder decided she wasn't pleased with them, but she'd been all too aware of what Mercury's role in the organization was. "I mean..."

Hazel sighed. "He's trying to protect you. Best you can do is make sure he'll listen to you and back down when you tell him to."

That, Ilia decided as she walked away, was a deeply dissatisfying answer. Was she supposed to ignore the fact that her dragon was reacting to every stranger—and every human—like they were a deadly threat? And he didn't listen to her in those moments. What if the next random person they ran into was a hunter, with a gun?

Comparing him to Brand was stupid, though. Wasn't it? He was mistrustful because his rider hurt him, not because other people kept attacking them both. It was completely different. And yet... what if things kept getting worse? What if she ruined him?

Ilia glanced at the sky and grimaced when she noticed it was almost sunset. She really should collect Justice and settle the hatchlings into their crates for the night.

She didn't.

Sienna's tent glowed from within. Ilia counted shadows, and her steps faltered. It looked like the Lieutenant and the Albains were in there with her. Maybe she should come back later...

No. Justice had already almost killed a random hiker, she couldn't afford to wait. Ilia strode into the tent with her head held high, only to immediately turn a nervous shade of yellow as the conversation inside stopped dead.

"Sister Ilia," Corsac said, into the tense silence. "We were just discussing our newest recruits." He smiled amiably. "I'm afraid you gave us quite the scare—though it's a good lesson. Such sensitive conversations should be conducted carefully, even inside a tent where we shouldn't be interrupted."

She tensed further at the oily tone in his voice, and the flood of words, but she tried her best to hide it. Her skin and hair reluctantly returned to their usual colors. "I apologize. For barging in." On a conversation that, normally, she would have been a part of. Hairs stood up on the back of her neck.

"What is it?" Sienna asked—shooting Corsac a frustrated glare.

"I mentioned the hikers Justice and I ran into on our last raid. I'm worried. About Justice. He's getting—" Angry. "—hard to control."

Corsac made an irritated clucking noise. Even Sienna—who Ilia had expected to sympathize—raised her eyebrows.

"I thought the raid went off without a hitch," she said.

Ilia looked down. "The raid did, but he almost hurt one of the hikers. Even after I told him to stop."

The Lieutenant shifted his bulk. "I don't see why you're coming to us. He's your dragon. You trained in Haven."

"I know! And I am trying to get him to listen, but I think... it might help if he could meet strangers outside of raids." All around the tent, postures went stiff and mouths opened to protest. Before anyone could say anything, Ilia blurted out in a panic, "Like on bounties! With all the Riders tangled up in the mess with Beacon, the Grimm are getting out of hand. I could take him to a faunus village that has a bounty out, they always get shunted to the end of the listings. We'd make some extra money for the camp, and—"

"That is a... noble goal," Sienna interrupted. She gave Ilia a strange, wary look. "But we need you here."

Corsac sneered at her. "I fail to see the problem. You were the one who left witnesses, after the... confrontation, in the forest."

Beside him, Fennac's eyes narrowed. "Indeed. You have been... reluctant, in the past, to allow Justice to deal with humans. Even those who mean you harm."

"They didn't!" Ilia glanced at Sienna for help, but her expression had turned unreadable. "It was just a couple of hikers, they weren't armed—"

"We're not about to start murdering hikers who pose no threat to us," Sienna agreed. "But that's not really the point, Ilia. I agree about this last raid, but..."

The Lieutenant stirred again. "I've seen you pull him back on missions. You can't seriously think the Schnee's thugs don't mean any harm."

"No. I just—"

If Sienna's wariness was alarming, the outright suspicion Corsac fixed her with was far worse. "You were close with Sister Blake, were you not?"

Ilia tried to fight it, but her skin started to turn yellow again. "I—yes, but—"

He glanced at Sienna with a raised brow, as if to say, 'See?'

"Enough," Sienna snapped. "Ilia, this is war. It's not going to be bloodless. Keep him from killing hikers if you can, but don't forget that we didn't start any of this."

Ilia might have argued, but... she glanced around at each of their faces—and the Lieutenant's expressionless mask—and fled.

"This isn't giving ourselves an edge anymore, Adam! We're losing every egg, what's even the point of—"

She clapped both hands over her ears. Her skin blended instinctively with her environment, to protect her. Useless. She couldn't stop remembering the way they'd gone quiet when she walked in, the suspicion in their eyes... mentioning Blake.

They think it's me.

Ilia stuffed her shaking hands under her arms as she strode towards the hatchlings' tent. Her mind whirled through half-formed plans, ways she could show them her innocence and loyalty. Then she slid to a stop, staring at the darkened tent. Justice was inside, playing with the dragonets. He wasn't a bad dragon. He wasn't cruel or angry, or any of it. He was just...

"I'm worried." Blake's voice had been hushed. She'd stood with her arms folded, glancing over her shoulder every few seconds. "It's like it's poisoning him..."

Her skin turned a sickly green, nausea welling up... but she knew what she had to do.

Neptune had never felt as exposed as he did that night, walking in a ragged column through the burnt-out forest. They couldn't stop until they had some kind of cover. Dragons flew through the distant sky constantly, in an ever-widening spiral that soon threatened to catch them in another hunt. By the time they reached the edge of the forest fire, the closest speck was near enough he could make out its color, a deep reddish-brown, and guess that it was Paprika or Brick.

But they did get to the end. Eventually. Neptune might have stopped to kiss the ground, or maybe the healthy trees that hid them from view... but they were still too close to the flaming circle Crucible had made. The dragons were all exhausted, which meant that it was time for their riders to get out of the saddle and walk, now that they could move a little slower.

He stumbled along beside Sun, tripping over roots almost constantly even though there was plenty of scattered moonlight to see by. When he looked over at his friend, he noticed there was ash and soot stuck in his hair, dusting his shoulders, and streaked across his torso. Helplessly, he waved a hand at him and said, "You've got a little something, um..."

"Everywhere?" Sun grinned. "So do you, man."

The urge to fix his hair rose up. He quashed it, and chided himself for being stupid. Then Sun made a face and tried to dust off his chest, and Neptune suddenly found a nearby bush absolutely fascinating. He ignored Nymph's amused chuff.

Sun bumped their shoulders together, making him jump. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Neptune cleared his throat. "Um... yeah."

"Super convincing, dude. Ten out of ten."

"No, seriously! I'm great. Just spent hours running for my life from a giant wall of fire and wondering if my best friend got eaten by a giant dragon, who doesn't love that?"

"N'aww." Sun slung an arm over his shoulder and chuckled. "Crucible wouldn't eat me. People give him indigestion."

"He'd know that," Neptune grumbled. Sun's weight at his side was very warm, and he hoped like hell that it was too dark for faunus to see the color pink.

The weight suddenly increased, as Sun leaned into him even further. It was enough to make Neptune stumble. "Ha! You were worried about me."

Flustered and off-balance and rapidly approaching total shutdown, Neptune couldn't think of anything to say except a soft and sincere, "Yeah."

Nymph tilted her head to regard the two of them with increasing interest.

Sun quit trying to push Neptune into his dragon, though he left his arm where it was. "Oh. Uh... thanks." He sounded a bit flustered himself.

Neptune leaned into the warmth at his side, just a little. "Try not to disappear like that again, okay? It... kinda freaked me out."

"Don't get into super dangerous situations without you. Got it."

"That is not what I said!"

"Too bad!" Sun gave him a playful shove. "We're the ultimate partners in crime! Daring rogues, facing off against incredible odds! Laughing in the face of danger!"

"I don't think you should laugh in Crucible's face," Neptune said, mock-serious. "He might take it personally."

For the next several seconds Sun hung from his shoulder, doubled over in laughter. He tried to stifle it with a fist—they really shouldn't be making too much noise—and then, when that didn't work, muffled it into Neptune's jacket.

He supposed this was a nicer way to die than pissing off a pit dragon...

"Hey... Sun?"

Nymph's ears perked up. The laughter finally died down, and Sun went back to walking like a normal person.

"Yep?"

Neptune put a hand on his burning face to cool it down, and to stop whatever had been about to slip out. "You... fly good?"

Sun stared at him. Even Huo gave him an incredulous, almost pitying look. And Nymph reared up in indignation, turning a glare on her rider the likes of which he'd never seen. Neptune froze—like a squirrel that had just spotted a hawk.

The hawk narrowed her eyes at him and said, "Nnneh-toon dum."

Nymph loved Neptune, she really did. But this was a bridge too far.

He squawked indignantly and tried to defend himself. Not very well—even he had to know he was being dumb, at this point. Nymph put a paw on her rider's head to silence him. Huo started to laugh.

"Nneh-toon."

"Yeah?"

"Nno." Nymph nudged him in the chest, moving him out of the way, and turned her head to fix her eyes on Sun. He stared at her, looking honestly confused. "Nneh-toon. Lurr... lurrv."

Huo was still laughing. Other people were looking at them now, which wouldn't do. Nymph whacked the back of her brother's head with her tail. He finally quieted down, and the others went back to their own conversations.

"Larvae?" Sun guessed. Huo rolled his eyes and snorted a puff of smoke into his rider's face. He coughed and tried to fan it away.

"Nneh-toon. Lurrv. Zuh."

Neptune's eyes widened as he realized what she was saying. He wrapped both arms around her muzzle in a panic, cutting off the last word.

"Sun," Huo finished, with a lazy smirk.

Dead silence. Neptune dropped away from her muzzle and stood stiff with panic. Sun stared at her. Then at Huo. Then...

"Uh... Nep? Did she just say you love me?"

"What?" Neptune let out a high-pitched, terrified laugh. "No! No, she was just saying that I luh... lava?" He hung his head. "...Yes."

"Oh." Sun ran a hand through his hair. "Wow. Um."

Nymph suddenly had a horrible feeling about this. "Sun likes Neptune too, right?" she blurted.

Huo snorted. "I don't know. I still think this stuff is dumb."

"What? Then why did you help me?"

Neptune's shoulders curved inward, like he was trying to fold himself into a ball. That finally shocked Sun out of his daze. "Hey!" he said, pulling him into a hug. "It's okay, man. I'm not, like... mad, or anything."

Nymph's ears folded back. Neptune let his forehead fall onto Sun's shoulder and groaned.

Sun winced. "And that came out way more let-you-down-easy than I wanted." He brushed a lock of hair off Neptune's forehead. "Nep, just listen for a second."

"...Okay?"

"You're my best friend. Like... I want us to be sitting on a park bench feeding the birds or whatever when we're eighty. That kind of best friend. And if there's, like, kissing and stuff involved, that would be... really awesome, actually. But like... I don't want to screw up the park bench thing by jumping in without thinking, you know?"

"Park benches are good," Neptune mumbled. Nymph had to snap at Huo so that he wouldn't start laughing again.

"So... is it okay if I think about it for a bit first? I, uh... somebody told me to do that once, and last time it turned out to be a good call."

"Yeah!" Neptune's grin looked more like a wince. "Just... don't take too long?"

Sun hugged him again. "Promise."

Once the conversation was over, Nymph finally looked away from the two riders... and noticed that Nora was turned most of the way around in the saddle, bouncing up and down with excitement. Jaune, who was close enough to have heard the whole conversation, caught her eye and made a frantic cutting motion across his throat.

Nymph's tail drooped guiltily. She was starting to think Huo had been right about all this—maybe she shouldn't have said anything...

A hand patted her shoulder. She looked over, and pressed her nose against Neptune's chest. "Sssorry."

"It's okay." He managed a weak grin. "I feel a bit better now that it's out in the open. Really!" His shoulders slumped. "And he didn't run away screaming, so there's that."

Huo scoffed and tossed his head. "Idiot."

Nymph bared her teeth at him.

Her brother rolled his eyes. "What? Your rider's acting like that was a no or something. He heard the stupid bench thing, didn't he?" Then, more to himself, "They better not sit around feeding birds when they're old. Unless they're feeding them to me."