Chapter 1

It's been a while since I've had two stories in production at the same time, and I don't know how I feel about that. Doesn't mean I won't give up on this crossover. Besides, it's not going to be even half as long as the other one I'm working on.

6 years later...

Windracer yelled out as he as thrown against the wall by an infuriated Kestrel. It was time for his dragon-fighting class, and it was going just as he expected.

"Fight back!" the SkyWing yelled out, her talons swiping dangerously close to her student's chest.

Windracer gulped nervously. "Well, maybe if you tried to be a little less violent, I could...OW!" He cried out in pain as Kestrel's back left paw stomped down on his tail. "You said stomping tails was cheating!"

"I'm your teacher," Kestrel snarled. "Nothing I do is cheating!" She swung her tail at him, yelling out instructions. "Roll right! Use your fire!"

Windracer tried to follow her orders, but he ended up tripping over his own wings and rolling the wrong way. The next thing he knew, Kestrel had him pinned against the cave wall.

"Are all NightWings this useless, or just you?!"

If you keep yelling like that, my hearing will be, Windracer wanted to say. But he knew saying that out loud would be like asking Kestrel to burn his oversized wings to a crisp. He winced as the SkyWing's talons dug into his scales.

"Where's the NightWing with the mind-reading and prophetic powers? That's the dragon we need for the prophecy!"

She suddenly yowled in pain as a set of teeth sank into the vulnerable spot near the end of her tail. She turned her head to find a young, female SandWing holding her tail in her talons and glaring at her.

"Stop bullying Windracer!"

Kestrel sneered. "Trying to save the dragon you wanted to kill when you were just hatched, Arid? Just as well. Mutant dragons like you two ought to stick together."

Windracer gained enough of his voice to protest. "We're not mutants!"

The SkyWing scoffed and let him go. "Class dismissed. I'll mark another failure in your scroll, NightWing."

Windracer sighed. Another typical day of fighting class. He was more skilled in studying scrolls and strategizing than actual claw-to-claw combat, but Kestrel didn't care. He got up and left the room with Arid beside him.

"You know," the SandWing said, "You really need to start sticking up for yourself one of these days."

The NightWing held his head. "Yeah, I know. But how can I do that with Kestrel stomping around and spitting fire at me for every day of my life? If I wasn't supposed to be a part of some Big Heroic Destiny, she'd have killed me a long time ago."

Arid sighed. "Well, at least you can stick up for others. But it seems like you mostly do it for me than for Bog and the RainWing twins. Even when they really need it."

Windracer shook his head frantically. "I don't know what you're talking about." Truth of the matter was, he'd had a rather large crush on the SandWing since he was old enough to start noticing females. He never told Arid, of course, out of fear of what she'd think of him.

He caught Arid giving him the look she always wore when she caught him in a lie. Windracer was never great at lying. He sighed. "I just...think that...maybe, since you're, um...not like most SandWings, like how I'm not like the NightWings I've read about in the scrolls, that...you could use more support."

He wasn't wrong. Arid wasn't like most SandWings. Her scales were much too pale to be the color of sand, they looked more like white snow, and her underbelly and the skin of her wings were a pale blue, which was not a normal SandWing color. Another clue was how her eyes were a bright blue instead of the usual black, which Windracer found very attractive on her. Then there were the spikes. A small number of unusual spikes were set on the back of her head and on her tail, near the place where her scorpion stinger was.

As Kestrel always said, Arid appeared to be some kind of mutant. But her egg fit the instructions in the prophecy, so she was their "wings of sand," whether the Talons of Peace liked it or not.

Of course, there were no "wings of rain" in the prophecy at all. Everyone under the mountain had heard how the RainWing twins - Marmoset and his sister Mango - were supposed to be a last-minute replacement for the SkyWing egg that had been lost years ago. Kestrel and Dune called them mistakes and growled at them a lot. Nobody knew if the prophecy could still work with RainWings instead of a SkyWing. But from what Windracer knew about SkyWings, he was glad they had the mischievous and prank-loving RainWing twins instead of another grumpy, fire-breathing Kestrel under the mountain.

Lagoon was a typical SeaWing. She loved spending most, if not all, of her time in the river, where she would catch fish and light the caverns with her luminescent stripes. But she always spoke in a tone of voice that made it seem like she was trying to keep a secret from her friends.

Then there was Bog. The MudWing that had hatched from a blood-red egg. Big-hearted and soft-spoken, he loved food more than almost anything else. While his friends were having the usual breakfast, lunch and dinner, Bog's idea of a well-balanced diet was exactly eight square meals a day.

But if anyone was likely to mess up the prophecy, it would be Windracer, not any of the other dragonets.

Arid chuckled. "I'm not any more odd than you. Your wings are huge and the wrong shade of color, and you don't seem to have any mind-reading or prophetic powers, which NightWings are supposed to have."

Windracer scowled a little. "Thank you for summing that up."

He wouldn't tell anyone, but Windracer had been having some odd things happening to him most recently. He'd get splitting headaches during the day, and at night he always had dreams of things that looked as though they would happen sometime in the future.

He also seemed to have some form of magic, too. He discovered it by accident a few years ago when he was examining a lone fish swimming in the river. Feeling hungry, he had jokingly commanded the fish to jump into his claws. And the fish had done just that. He hadn't known how he'd done it, but it worked again when he ordered a fish-sized rock sitting at the bottom of the river to do the exact same thing.

Now that he was older, he'd read scrolls about that kind of power. It was called animus magic; it was rare, but very powerful, and dangerous if used for the wrong reasons. Windracer didn't use his magic very often. He had a small wooden bowl that doubled the amount of whatever was in it (as long as it was asked politely), a beaded bracelet he made himself that protected whoever was wearing it from any harm, and an ordinary stick that made whoever was holding it invisible.

Windracer mostly used that last one to hide in his cave and read his scrolls undisturbed, as his friends would think he was absent and go to look for him somewhere else.

"Hey, guys!"

Windracer snapped back to reality at Lagoon's friendly greeting. He and Arid had reached the study hall, where they normally studied scrolls before turning in for the night. He smiled. It felt good to be among his friends. "We should probably do a quick study session before we go to bed."

"But studying is boring!" Mango complained. She and her brother were trying to come up with new, cool ideas for pranking the other dragonets.

Lagoon shrugged her wings. "Then we'll make it more active. We'll act out how the War of SandWing Succession began."

Bog groaned in disappointment as he finished what was left of the cow he'd been having for dinner. "Why can't we just turn in early? I'm beat!"

Marmoset laughed. "Yeah, I'm with Bog. What's the point?"

Lagoon shushed them. "Quiet! I'm assigning parts. Now, Arid will be Queen Oasis, since she's a real SandWing...more or less." She avoided Arid's glare by turning to face Bog. "You can be the scavenger, and this will be your claw." She picked up a broken stalagmite piece from the cave floor and handed it to the MudWing. "I'll narrate the play. So, the rest of you will be the princesses. Windracer, you'll be Blister, the smart one. Mango will be Burn, the eldest, and Marmoset, you'll be Blaze, the youngest."

"But I had to be Blaze last time, too!" the male RainWing whined.

He was once again shushed by the SeaWing. "Stop complaining and play along! Ahem. Years ago, there was a great and mighty SandWing queen, named Oasis."

Arid puffed out her chest and strutted into the middle of the room, gathering a pile of rocks with her tail. "I am Queen Oasis of the SandWings. No one dares to challenge me for my throne, I am the strongest SandWing queen who has ever lived!"

Windracer wouldn't admit it, but he absolutely loved the way Arid sounded so strong and brave and royal. It was like she was meant to be a queen.

"Don't forget the treasure," Lagoon whispered, pointing at the loose rocks Arid had gathered earlier.

"Right," Arid said. "I'm such an important queen, I have so much treasure."

Bog took this as his cue to leap in, wielding the stalagmite piece in his claws. "Did someone say treasure?" he bellowed with all his might.

Arid didn't even flinch. "Grrr! What's this pathetic little scavenger doing in my kingdom? I'll eat him in one bite!"

Bog shrunk down in fear. "Eep!"

"No!" Lagoon called. "You're not supposed to be scared! Okay, yes, you are, but not that scared!"

Bog nodded and swung his stalagmite in a circle. "Squeak, squeak, squeak! And other annoying scavenger noises! I'm here to steal treasure away from a magnificent dragon!"

Mango started giggling so hard she had to lie down and cover her face with her wings. Marmoset was also making faces like he was trying not to laugh.

Arid and Bog kept up the fake fight for a while before the MudWing drove the SandWing back against the wall and thrust the stalagmite between her neck and her wing, pretending it went right through her heart.

"Argh!" Arid howled, making Windracer jump. "Impossible! A queen defeated by a lowly scavenger! My kingdom will fall apart! And my daughters...what will they do...?" She collapsed to the ground and let her wings flop lifelessly on either side of her.

Her least favorite part of her role as Queen Oasis.

Bog laughed and gathered the rocks in his talons. "Squeak, squeak! The treasure is all mine!"

Lagoon cleared her throat. "When the three SandWing sisters entered the treasure room, they found the treasure gone and their mother dead as a doornail."

At her signal, Windracer, Mango and Marmoset stepped over to where Arid was lying motionless. The female RainWing clasped her talons together and let out a fake cry of anguish. "Oh, no! Our mother is dead, and the treasure is gone! But worst of all, none of us killed her! Who should be queen now?"

Windracer stood up tall to save whatever dignity he had left after six years of nearly being roasted alive by Kestrel. "I, Blister, was about to challenge her. I should be queen!"

"I, Burn, am the oldest and strongest," Mango said loudly. "I should be queen!"

Marmoset hesitated before speaking his line. "I, Blaze, am the youngest and would have the longest reign. I should be queen!"

Lagoon looked at him expectantly. "And...?"

The male RainWing sighed before adding, "And I am also, by far, the prettiest."

Even the usually serious and hard-to-humor Arid couldn't help laughing out loud at that.

Lagoon quickly pulled herself together. "And then they pick their armies and all that boring stuff."

Windracer was the next to compose himself. "It's not that boring. Not when you've gotten the handle on how it all works."

Mango groaned. "Here we go again."

Windracer ignored her. "Burn is allied with the SkyWings and MudWings. She's big and scary, and could squash her youngest sister like a bug. If she becomes queen, she'll probably just keep the war going just for fun. Blister is allied with the SeaWings, and is smarter than both of her sisters put together. But she's most likely plotting to become queen of all the tribes somehow. Blaze is the SandWing favorite, and she also has an alliance with the IceWings. Problem is, she's about as smart as a concussed sheep."

Marmoset glared at Lagoon. "You know I hate playing as her."

Bog called out from his position across the room with the rocks that were supposed to be the treasure in their little play. "So, who do we choose to be the queen?"

Arid stood up and shook her head. "None of them."

"Well, we have to choose someone," Mango said. "Who do you think's gonna be queen, Arid? You, yourself, and you?"

The SandWing snorted and glared at her friend.

The female RainWing gulped. "Just an observation."

A loud noise from one of the larger cave rooms caught their attention. Bog jumped back in fear. "What's going on?"

Windracer shook his head. "I don't know. Let's go see."

Kestrel, Dune and Webs didn't notice the six dragonets entering the room. They were too focused on another matter.

"Morrowseer is coming here?" Kestrel shouted. "Now?! What for?!"

Windracer knew that name. Morrowseer was the NightWing who wrote the prophecy. The one that told of five dragonets that would end the War of SandWing Succession.

Dune shrugged his wings. "Most likely to check on the dragonets."

"Isn't it too soon?" Webs asked. "It's not time for them to end the war yet."

Kestrel snarled at him. "Not just that, we don't have a SkyWing! What's Morrowseer going to think when he sees those stupid RainWings?! And the mutant SandWing, and that useless, good-for-nothing NightWing?!"

There was another loud noise near the entrance to the cave.

"We're about to find out," Dune grumbled.

As if on cue, a large, black dragon emerged from the shadows of the outside world, squeezing his way through the entrance, which closed behind him. His head held high, the NightWing made his way towards the other dragons, his mighty footfalls echoing throughout the cavern.

Windracer gulped nervously. The dragon's scales were as black as a bottomless pit, and he was enormous, even larger than Kestrel, with a ridged back, heavy talons, and strong claws. The starlike scales on his wings curled inward like a snail shell, and cast a cold glow. His teeth flashed like white lightning, and his black eyes held a sharp, threatening gaze.

Morrowseer had arrived.

If you look closely, you'll find some hints and foreshadowing in this chapter. If you don't, well, that's okay.

Any of you who want a list of the dragon-turned characters who have appeared so far, here it is:

Auburn - Valka
Windracer - Hiccup
Arid - Astrid
Lagoon - Heather
Bog - Fishlegs
Marmoset and Mango - Tuffnut and Ruffnut

I can just as easily stop doing that, if you wish.

I didn't originally plan to have Windracer be an animus, or for Arid to not be a normal SandWing (you can probably guess how). The ideas just came to me as I was writing.

Reviews are appreciated.