The radio was on in one of the rooms below as the sniper took his position from one of the windows of the Westham building. He was given his orders. The Skywing, take the shot, and then leave. Why? He had no idea. The man loaded the bullets into his rifle designed to kill a dragon. He just had to wait for the Skywing to sit down where the boss wanted him. Across the street, where the cars drove by and the dragons flew above, there was the governor's house, capital of the Eppingham district.

The sniper waited. He just had to wait for the dragon to come into view. He was told where he would be positioned. The meeting was a set up. The sniper was told the Skywing needed to be silenced before it got out of hand.

All the sniper knew about this Skywing was that he was associated with both Namsura University and the Anibian Intelligence Association. He was set to have a meeting in 15 minutes at the Westham building.

Just a job.

. . .

Swordfish was surrounded by dead bodies. He didn't know who was who. He heard a voice whispering in his mind. He didn't know what it wanted. Who it belonged to. One of the bodies stood up like the dead soldiers Stygal could conjure. It was Rattlesnake. "This is just one way it could go. It all depends on what path you go down next." She said in a voice that was not hers. "What do you mean?" Swordfish asked. "This is your last chance." Rattlesnake said. "Don't let this become your reality." She fell back over to reveal an old Rainwing standing behind her. She looked up at Swordfish with bitter sadness.

Swordfish felt someone tap his shoulder, and he turned around, human this time. He was underwater as a Seawing swam by him. "What do you feel?" She asked him. Swordfish could breathe despite being a human, sinking down into the ocean. "Who are you? Are you him? Are you him? Are you him?" Asked a deep voice from nowhere in particular. "You have to decide."

When Swordfish woke up in the morning, he hardly remembered the dream. He went over to Cedar's bed, where he had something laying there from the previous night. He had taken it out ever since he read Rainfall's scroll. The earring his dad had given him. A Traveler's earring. He remembered what Urchin had told him about the map that had matched Rainfall's map of the Possibility hideout. From the night Swordfish's mother had disappeared. Someone had tried to recruit his father.

. . .

Truthteller walked silently past the Rainwings. He knew where the relocation was. He had heard Glory telling Moonlight that the truth had finally been revealed. He knew that they must have left the old city, for the armies of the continent would be invading soon. The dark rainforest was humid and noisily screamed at Truthteller, but he had gotten used to screaming.

Robes. Dark. Princess. 3007.

Truthteller clenched his talons. He was going to kill that bastard leader. Sneak right through the tunnel. Find where he was. Most likely where Battlewinner used to watch everyone. Eyes through the island, no safety, no privacy. One with the Nightwings.

Security.

As Truthteller kept walking into the forest, he recalled some of the things they had done to him. They normally tortured physically, but they experimented with mental torment. Something he had always been against. How do you send a message with psychotic prisoners? The water dripping. The isolation. The chanting. He had refused to give in, so they broke him. All gone. Truthteller thought. His life, his mind, his body, all taken. They had left him out in the desert to die. And that's when it really set in. The hallucinations. The thirst and hunger. The heat. Then he was found. Then he was here.

Justice.

Moonlight was here, but he couldn't talk. Not when they were listening. They had eyes and ears everywhere, even in the Rainwings. It could have been any one of those healers. The queen. His wife. Those dragonets. The animals scurried out of the crazed, murderous dragon's way. He was headed straight for the cave. He had been left alone for once, and now he could leave the healing hut.

Peace.

The words had dulled to a scream only within Truthteller's head. Those goals he once had. The prophecy left by Moon that he had studied. The cause he had once lived for, only to realize that they had violence and terror in mind. Their once noble goal of uniting the tribes had taken a turn for the once. Truthteller resisted, stopped researching the old Nightwing legends he had dedicated his life to studying. Ones of prophecy, mind reading, eons of control and lies. And when they found out what he was doing, devising a way to oust everyone responsible for a plan to kill nearly all the aristocrats in the continent, they took him and twisted him away.

All hail King Darkstalker. Savior of Pyrrhia.

The cave was in sight now. Now they must pay. It was all he had left. Truthteller ran towards the cavern that led to the island and was instantly shot.

The Darkist guards rose out of their camouflaged spots guarding the entrance to the tunnel that led to the abandoned Nightwing island. When Jade Mountain had sent out the message alerting everyone of the truth, it had told the location of the Darkists and what they were planning. They had since relocated at command of the Grandmaster.

"It's Truthteller." Said a Seawing, examining the body of the dragon he had shot with a rifle. The Darkists had stolen rifles the Skywings had made using schematics from Old Monarchy. "I guess someone found him out there." "What was he planning? To kill us? Alone?" Asked a newly recruited Rainwing. "Who knows what the mind of an insane dragon thinks." Replied the Seawing, remembering the way he had been tormented and made into a blithering madman with no credibility. "Let's take him to the Grandmaster."

. . .

Rattlesnake turned the Earring of Sola over so Clay could see the runes. "I'm glad your legs are healed." She said. Clay had used the Earring to heal the wounds Adnachiel had given him. The Earring had to be on someone for a while without it being taken off for it to work. "Thanks…" Clay said, quickly looking at her and then looking away. Rattlesnake knew he still felt horrible about what had happened. He didn't say anything else to her. He just shrugged and turned and looked at the wall.

Clay waited for Rattlesnake to leave before opening a scroll that had been left in his cave. It was blank except for one passage. The original prophecy. The fake one Morrowseer had written all that time ago. Living under the mountain wasn't that long ago. Only two years had passed since the day Clay and Tsunami had broken out of the cave and tasted freedom for the first time. So why did it feel like everything was different? Why did nothing feel right anymore?

Three days ago, Glory had come to support her friends after hearing what had happened and receiving the scrolls about the truth. There was a moment, when everyone else who was there, Deathbringer, Peril, Fatespeaker, had all left momentarily, and all that remained were Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, and Sunny.

"A lot has changed." Glory said. Starflight nodded in agreement. They were sitting on an outcropping of the mountain, overlooking the forest. "It doesn't feel like the same place anymore." He said. "Hey…" Clay said. "Remember when Sunny found that crab in the river, and went to go find us all to show us and I thought it was food and ate it?" It was hilarious when it happened, but it got no reaction this time. "Or when I ate that fruit in the rainforest and my mouth got glued shut?" Still nothing.

"What do we do?" Sunny asked. "Where do we go from here? We don't have a prophecy, we don't have a queen to listen to, we don't have guardians, we just have ourselves…" "And the world." Tsunami finished. Clay felt a slight breeze pick up. "Do we just continue with our lives?"

"Maybe they won't touch Pyrrhia." Clay said. "Maybe they're still too afraid of our animus dragons." "I doubt it." Starflight said woefully. "And even if that's the case, that just saves us for a couple of decades from one problem. We still have the Darkists, the Travelers, the Talons of Power and the Talons of Peace and all the other groups who want to change Pyrrhia, and the Demons. If we sit back and do nothing, everything will be taken away. But if we try to do anything, we will most likely die."

"Do you think… if this ends well, we would be able to return to our normal lives?" Sunny asked. "Will anything ever be the same?" "We've been through tough times before." Clay said. "In fact, we grew up in a pretty horrible situation. No matter what, we'll always be together." Glory nodded. "Even when I'm over there with my tribe, I know we're together. No matter what. And as long as we're together, it's fine."

Clay closed his eyes and thought back to the look of fear on Swordfish's face as he grabbed him and brought him to Frost to die. The way Darkseer and Delta had fought back. That was their Tsunami, their Sunny, their Starflight. They all cared about each other just as Clay cared for his friends.

Clay got up and walked out of his room. He needed some food. The scroll was still open to the first line. When the war has lasted 20 years the dragonets will come…

. . .

Rainfall walked along the road, brushing wings with the other dragons watching the parade of dragons going down the street. It had been about a year since the Travelers had been attacked at Pyrrhia. He had been found by Constellation and Coyote and brought across the ocean to Thessalstia, where they had been living in poverty since then, sneaking around the continent and hiding so that police, or any Demonic forces that might be tracking them, could not find them. Especially… one certain demon.

Right now, they were in Atesi. The very country Rainfall suspected the Travelers once attacked. Rainfall had been miserable. Frost was gone. Swiftwind was gone. Mahogany was gone. The faces of Fjord and Papyrus and Chameleon haunted him every night, asking him why he did it. Why wasn't he there? Why wasn't he right?

The parade was for the President of Atesi, a Sandwing named Kaktüs. She was visiting the city of Hacigbasi for a ceremony of some kind, but Rainfall suspected it was for another reason. He had been in Hacigbasi for a while now, and he had been watching a building and what was going on outside of it. It looked like any old apartment building, but about a week ago, an armored vehicle had driven up to it, and soldiers had lifted something out of it, and brought it into the building. Since then, the whole block had been heavily patrolled by police.

There was something important in there. And Rainfall suspected he knew what it was. Constellation had told him about how about Anibia once had all three Relics of Hamza, but the Pyrrhians stole the Earring of Sola, and about 100 years ago, Anibia also lost the Necklace of Eclis. It was suspected Balksland had taken it, but some speculated Atesi had it.

Rainfall sat from a distance as the parade ended and the President began to walk into the building. She waved at nearby people and was escorted into the building, much to the confusion of the crowd. Rainfall moved closer through the small crowd, and then turned invisible. In the past years, he had become much better at knowing when to camouflage. He still wasn't as invisible as other Rainwings would be, still refusing to sleep during the day. So Rainfall would creep into alleyways and stick to the dark to maintain complete invisibility.

Rainfall stepped through the crowd, and then followed the small group of guards for the president through the doorways. The guards at the door normally stood too close, as to prevent someone from doing exactly what Rainfall was doing, but they opened the gap for the entourage of dragons following Kaktüs.

Rainfall hadn't seen Coyote and Constellation in a while. They had left him here while they looked for any Traveler outposts in the deserts to the south of the city. He had been on his own, taking small trips to other worlds using his ability, but always coming back. In his boredom he had taken interest in the strange activity a few blocks away. Doing exactly what Constellation had told him not to do, sticking his snout in places it shouldn't be.

The building wasn't impressive, but they probably did that on purpose. Rainfall had to keep up with the president's guards, but not get too close to them. He tried to breathe as lightly as possible so that the Nightwing in front of him wouldn't feel his breath on her back. "Ve onu bu kadar uzun süre açık tutmanın güvenli olduğundan emin misin?" the president asked. "Eminim. Sadece her zaman korunmaya ihtiyacı var." A Grasswing responded. Rainfall spoke very little Atesin, but they seemed to be discussing something being open, and needing protection.

Two guards opened a set of double doors. Rainfall quickly moved in, beginning to have second thoughts about what was going on. No worries. Just stay invisible, move quickly, and don't get caught. Rainfall told himself. He had been doing that for over a year. But he had to stop himself from making a noise when he entered the room.

The room looked like what was an old meeting room, a ring on the floor in the middle, but it seemed to be transformed into a makeshift religious room. Another set of double doors were on the other side of the room. In the center, two guards stood on either side of a table with a large briefcase-like object on it. One of the soldiers turned and opened the briefcase. Rainfall stood at the side of the room near a large potted plant, watching with awe as the soldier turned around and gave the president something silver and gold, which made a sound like jewelry. "Kullanıldığından beri uzun zaman oldu." Said the Grasswing who had been speaking to the president earlier. Long time. Rainfall thought. "Eclis'in Kolyesi." Kaktüs responded. Rainfall watched intently. He had been right. "Bununla, ileride ne olacağını öğrenebileceğiz. Her zaman." Kaktüs said with a smile. Some of the soldiers looked uncomfortable.

But as the silence fell across the room, they could hear a noise outside the building. The sound of yelling. And then a massive boom. The building shook. "Ne?" Someone asked. The doors on the other side of the room were busted down and three humans with grey and brown outfits armed with mobile shotguns and rifles began to fire into the crowd of soldiers. Each of them was clutching something in their left hands. "IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY!" They screamed as they fired. On their shoulders, a crest. A laurel wreath around a five-pointed black star. The Black Star terrorist group, New Star.

The soldiers began to fire back at the humans, but another boom shook the foundation of the building beneath them and the floor began to sink. Rainfall kept himself invisible and began to run out the other doors, but he turned around and saw the Necklace of Eclis on the ground. Shining among the chaos. Kaktüs was laying on the ground next to it, bleeding.

Rainfall had two options. Go and get the Necklace of Eclis, one of the three most powerful things in the entire world, or run away and let it either get found by the New Star or someone else after the building collapses, which it surely was going to.

Let it go. It's not worth dying over. Rainfall thought, standing in the hallway. But if someone else gets ahold of it, who knows what could happen.

Rainfall turned around, staying camouflaged, and began to creep back into the battle. He stuck to the floor, staying beneath the bullets. He heard screaming in Atesin but he couldn't break focus. He came up to the necklace and lifted it off the floor as a soldier next to him fell over, dead. Kaktüs watched the necklace lift into the air and begin to move away from her, helpless to do anything. Just as Rainfall began to leave the room, he watched one of the humans get shot in the chest. He unclenched his left hand and exploded in a ball of fire.

Rainfall went stumbling backward into the doors as the explosion went off. The windows nearby shattered and he took his chance to fly out and escape. As he left the building, he could see two of the armored cars had been driven into the building, which was collapsing. New Star was trying to destroy the entire building, and they were dying for it.

. . .

One week after the terrorist attack, Rainfall had moved far away from it since then and into a poverty-stricken area on the outskirts of the city. He had been living on the rooftop of an abandoned textile mill, just barely living on the food he was able to scrounge up. Coyote and Constellation had still not returned. Rainfall lay behind an old box, turning the Necklace of Eclis over and over in his hands. He hadn't opened it yet.

Back at the Travelers, he had been taught about the Necklace of Eclis and how it worked. You had to tell it to start using it's power using Old Valkskyan. Dea, ut benedicat mihi tempus. And from there, you could do a variety of things. Imagine a time in the past, and a gate will open. Change the time of an object or even a dragon forward or backward. Age something or rejuvenate it. Heal wounds, restore youth, repair something. Hamza used it among his other two relics to perform miracles on those who needed them.

Rainfall had bought two scrolls since he had left the Travelers. Books were preferred over here, but some places still sold scrolls and Rainfall had been feeling nostalgic. One had a bit of writing on it. Rainfall had begun writing down everything that had happened but hadn't gotten past explaining life in the Rainforest villages. In the other scroll, Rainfall had been drawing some things. He had discovered a slight artistic ability with Frost once when they were shown the art of the world. He had drawn a sketchy version of him with Chameleon and Marvelous. It didn't look very good, but it was close enough. Underneath that was a sketched version of an old map of Possibility marking the entrances to the Traveler's Hideout with red x's. The street entrance and the bridge entrance.

But above all of them was a picture of Frost. The best picture he had drawn. Her face, her smile, was all imprinted in his mind. Every night, he revisited that moment. The last time he had ever seen her. "I'll come back for you."

Rainfall had not told Coyote and Constellation about the souls. He didn't want them to turn him in to the Travelers. He had been with them, but if they ever tried to go back to the Travelers, he planned to ditch them and disappear. He wondered how Mahogany was doing. If the Travelers or the Demons had found him, or if he had found a home. Rainfall had no way of knowing.

Rainfall continued to think as the afternoon turned to dusk. Rain began to sprinkle down on him, and he moved his stuff beneath a metal sheet to prevent it from becoming wet. He continued to write about his life in the rainforest until the exhaustion and the hunger began to lure him into a light sleep.

. . .

I was a broken dragon, wandering with no destination in mind. Just survival. But soon I would come face to face with my past. I know I'm hunted. I know I'm not safe, wherever I am in this time. So, using that logic, I was able to determine where I would be safe…

. . .

Rainfall woke out of his sleep. It was still raining, but something had happened. He had heard something. He poked his head out from underneath his makeshift shelter. There was someone nearby. Rainfall turned invisible and crept out from underneath the roof, looking around at the buildings around him. Rain upon lights and the abandoned mill. He couldn't see anything, but he still felt watched. He wasn't alone and he knew it. Rainfall grabbed the Necklace of Eclis out from under the sheets of metal and paper he had hidden his stuff under and flung it around his neck.

And then it made its appearance. He saw something black move on a roof across one of the streets. On top of an apartment building. Something had been hiding behind a large chimney. Rainfall beat back a flow of white scales and began flying away, but it began chasing him too. He couldn't tell what tribe it was, if it was male or female, or if it was even angry at him. It just looked… dark. And Rainfall didn't like the look of it.

Definitely a Demon.

Rainfall swooped down towards the street in attempt to lose it, but the thing followed him. There were a few dragons awake, but they didn't do anything. They couldn't even seem to see the thing chasing Rainfall. He made a sharp turn, and then flung himself down to the ground and ran into an alley, maintaining invisibility. He looked down at himself to see the Necklace of Eclis still hanging there. Crap. That's probably what's giving me away.

He turned visible for a short moment trying to figure out what to do when he was suddenly approached by a Nightwing with a sword. "Sen! Bana sahip olduğun her şeyi ver!" He threatened. Rainfall was getting mugged. Now. Rainfall sighed.

"Bana kolyeyi ver!" Said the Nightwing, brandishing the weapon. Rainfall began to take off the necklace, which is what the Nightwing probably wanted, but then quickly spat venom at the mugger's claws in front of him. He screamed and stumbled backward. Rainfall punched him in the face with his wings and slashed across his front, disarming him at the same time. The sword clattered to the ground as the Nightwing screamed. Training to beat a Demon made a Traveler prepared for anything. Rainfall no longer had moral quandaries about using venom, as he had had to use it on multiple occasions to flee danger.

But as Rainfall grabbed the sword to protect himself, he watched the dark dragon land in the alley entrance, called by the scream. It sat there and watched the Nightwing scream for a second, and then leapt towards Rainfall. The Rainwing blocked the Demon's talons with the sword and pushed backward. The Nightwing continued to scream as he watched the dark dragon in front of him attack. Rainfall bared his fangs as if he was going to shoot venom, and the Demon dodged back, but Rainfall struck with the sword instead. The sword sank into the Demon, and it let out a strange, warped yell. The familiar healing effect wasn't taking place. Fjord's soul was allowing Rainfall to hurt the Demon.

As the Demon roared and pulled the sword out of its shoulder, Rainfall called upon the power that he had been trained to use. He had no specific target, just escaping this place right now. He extended his arm and the rift opened, further terrifying the wounded mugger. "Sorry!" Rainfall said as he stepped through the rift. He made sure to close it behind him as he appeared behind a strange wooden house.

Rainfall gazed around him at the massive structure he was in. A giant, amber-like room with a village within it. Sunlight shone through the material from the outside. Rainfall quickly turned invisible again and took off the necklace, clutching it in his talons. There were nearby dragons. He turned the corner and saw something that he had only seen a few times with some other Travelers.

Dragons with four wings, some black and yellow, others a variety of colors. Some had antenna. Rainfall stared at the place around him. The Hives. These only existed in some universes. Many didn't have them at all.

Rainfall's wonder was suddenly taken by a noise that echoed throughout the whole hive. As if it was said by a million voices at once. "Find the flamesilk dragonet. Capture him and bring him to me." He watched as two of the dragons in front of him, the yellow and black ones, began to face in the same direction. Their eyes were pure white. Rainfall had heard of this, and it was a very good time to be invisible. Luckily, he wasn't the one being searched for. They were looking for something called a flamesilk.

The Hivewings took off in an opposite direction and left the Silkwings behind. Rainfall had been taught a little bit about the different tribes that were out there, Hivewings, Silkwings, Leafwings, Swiftwings, etc. "Where is the flamesilk?" The Hivewings said again. "Who can see him?"

Rainfall looked around him. If he could hide here for a while, he doubted the Demon could find him. And now was the perfect time to get out unnoticed. Everyone was distracted. Nearby he heard the noises of yelling and fighting. Rainfall crept along the streets, abandoned except for scared Silkwings. If Rainfall could just find a safe place…

As the Hivewing control continued, Rainfall found a small shed and ran inside, quickly opening and closing the door so the Hivewing zombies wouldn't see it. He found himself inside with gardening tools and a wheelbarrow. It was dark, but at least it was safe.

"Give up wingless. You cannot escape me." Boomed the Hivewings outside. Rainfall waited for them to pass before leaving the shed once more. There was an exit of the hive nearby, but Rainfall would have to move quickly and move with the flow to move out of the hive. Rainfall gripped the Necklace of Eclis tighter and began to silently move behind a group of Hivewings. Up near the exit, there was some kind of commotion going on. He saw the Hivewings converging around what looked like two Silkwings.

And then Rainfall heard it. A high-pitched tone echoed through the floor of the hive. He was being hunted. And it had transformed. It could be hiding as any one of these dragons. Rainfall watched as the smaller of the two Silkwings, a wingless one, was suddenly launched towards the roof and over some buildings by some silk. "aaaaaAAaAhhhhh." Said the Silkwing as he was launched.

Rainfall turned and watched the Hivewings disperse as some went to chase the smaller dragonet. But two of them were staying there. They looked like the others, white eyed, but one of them was pointing right at Rainfall and talking to the other. Two Demons. They had been able to follow him here.

They began to fly towards him, and Rainfall took flight as well. He made a beeline for the mob of dragons looking for the Silkwing. Maybe he could confuse them and lose them in the chaos. Rainfall dove into the controlled Hivewings and began to dodge them, not touching any of them. It was like flying in the rainforest. Two Hivewings were still chasing him, but they were further away, held up by the hunting Hivewings. Rainfall seemed to make eye contact with one of them for a prolonged amount of time.

Rainfall dove down and landed in a school playground within a courtyard. He saw the Silkwing headed for a supply shed where a pair of yellow talons were calling him over. Rainfall heard wings approaching. The Demons were still coming for him. Rainfall knew what had to be done. He couldn't be safe even in other worlds. Rainfall held out his talon and imagined the world he had come here from. The rift opened. He ran inside and made sure to close it.

Blue hadn't seen what had happened behind him, but Cricket had, and stared at the place where she had swore she had seen some kind of portal open.

. . .

Rainfall was brought back to Hacigbasi. It was still that rainy night. He quickly took to the sky, flying back towards the abandoned textile mill. He gathered his stuff as quickly as he could, putting it into a satchel. He had been keeping things inside a locked box, but he decided to take it all with him now, leaving the metal and wooden box behind. He had to move fast. The first Demon had called in support, and they might bring in more.

A thought crossed his mind. One of Constellation and Coyote coming back and finding him gone. But he knew that keeping the soul safe was more important. He knew what Frost had meant now. Putting duty above anything else. And it was Rainfall's duty to keep the soul safe. Fjord had died for it. And if it fell into the wrong hands, the whole multiverse would be decimated.

No matter what. Keep running.

Rainfall brought the Necklace up to his mouth and whispered the words to activate it. The portal began to open. It was left at whatever year the Atesins had it at. But Rainfall didn't care right now. He just had to go somewhere he couldn't be followed and always keep pushing forward. No matter what.

He stepped through the portal to the past. Into the unknown.

. . .

Was that thing that chased me Frost? I don't know. But if it was, then it is proof that the will of the Demon is strong. But it can't just be that. She must also seek freedom.

One day, it will catch up with me. But I couldn't let the soul be taken from me yet. I still need to know what the goal is. What has my whole life been for so far? I don't know.

Perhaps you don't either. I hope this is not the case. I hope for this to be read by someone better than I was. Someone with greater direction.

. . .