Chapter 29

Out of the ocean and into the rainforest we go!

It was raining when they got there.

Windracer wasn't really surprised. It was called a rainforest for a reason, after all.

In the caves under the mountain, the dragonets had never, ever been rained on. The downpour felt almost unnatural, and especially wet.

I hope we can find the RainWings soon, he thought as droplets rolled off his snout, seeped through his scales and soaked his wings until they dragged heavily behind him. I hope they're okay, and that we're not too late to save them.

Everyone said RainWings were useless and lazy. But the tribe lived off by themselves in the rainforest where no one ever saw them, so everyone might be wrong. From what Windracer had seen from the RainWings he'd met so far, he had a fair reason to believe they were wrong.

The dragonets' escort composed of Windracer and Arid's parents, Bog's siblings, Inferno, Carnelian and Ember of the SkyWings, the NightWings Moonwatcher, Cleverclaws and Forger, Diamondback and Qibli of the SandWings, Winter and Subzero of the IceWings, and the SeaWings Torrent, Turtle and Webs.

Webs wasn't originally a volunteer, but since Queen Coral hated him so much, and he wasn't allowed back into the Kingdom of the Sea, he didn't really have anywhere else to go. It was Lagoon's idea for Webs to come with them; she was much more sympathetic to him than most dragons he'd met.

"I'm sick of all this rain," Mango grumbled. She shook her whole body and glared at the fog-shrouded sky. They were walking today instead of flying because of all the trees, the heavy rain, and the fog, which would have made navigating in the air very difficult if not impossible.

"We can see that," Subzero snapped in response to Mango's complaint. Angry red patches were rippling across her orange-yellow scales.

Marmoset wasn't happy either. "How are we supposed to dump a leaf full of water on someone's head when everyone's already soaking wet? Stupid rain's stealing our fun!" His green scales shifted to a frustrated orange.

Subzero uttered something like "idiots" under his breath as raindrops froze onto his frostscales. As he walked through the mud, he left patches of ice where he'd stepped, only for them to quickly melt in the muggy heat.

The IceWing's mind was almost impossible for Windracer to read. It was all ice and snow, like trying to navigate through a blizzard, with barely a sign of any tangible thought.

It felt like hours before Cleverclaws finally suggested, "Maybe we should take a break. At least until the rain lets up a little."

They took shelter under a thick canopy of leaves where the rain could barely seep through.

Bog swept his tail through the mud, looking worried. "I hope the RainWings are okay," he said. "I'd be devastated if we came all the way here and something really terrible already happened to them."

"I'm sure they're fine," Alligator said reassuringly. "Your two friends have made it this far and they're still just as energetic as a pair of one-year-old dragonets."

"How did they end up with you, anyway?" asked Sepia.

Webs lowered his head in shame. "It's my fault they're here," he confessed. "When we lost the SkyWing egg for Morrowseer's prophecy, I went to get another one, and the only place I could get in and out of safely was the RainWings' kingdom. I never meant to cause any trouble, not with Lagoon, and not with the twins. I only did what I did for the prophecy, and learning that it was fake...what if everything I've done was for nothing?"

"We know how you feel," Storm said, lashing her tail. "I, personally, would like to slash that NightWing's throat." She flexed her talons for emphasis.

Windracer scooted away from the IceWing and brushed up against Arid, instinctively twining his tail around hers. Across from him, poor Moon was shivering.

The little NightWing had been remarkably quiet for the last few days. Windracer had learned from his thought-to-thought interactions with Moon that she wasn't used to being around so many dragons, which he found reasonable based on how she'd basically grown up alone and in hiding.

"At least there's still hope," Auburn said, "And not just because of Windracer. The Dragonets of Destiny have come a long way, trying so hard to end this war, and we're all grateful for it."

"You were always the hopeful one," Killer muttered softly.

Diamondback shifted away from the canopy's edge to avoid the rain. "But we still have enemies," he said. "It would be pretty helpful if we could keep track of where they are, wouldn't it?"

"Maybe we can," Windracer said, an idea already forming in his head. "Cleverclaws, do you have any spare scrolls I can borrow?"

"I always have spare scrolls," said the NightWing scientist. He reached into the sack that hung around his neck and pulled out a black roll of paper, which he passed to Windracer.

The SkyWing-NightWing hybrid opened the scroll as best he could without getting it wet. Barely had he started to speak when Arid grabbed his talons.

"Aren't you worried about your soul?" she asked.

"Not anymore," he said, smiling warmly at her. "It's yours now...if you still want it." His smile quickly faded as he realized what he'd just said, right in front of everyone. "Was that corny, or...?"

Arid's lighthearted laughter provided the answer.

Windracer turned back to the scroll to hide whatever sort of blush was probably spreading across his cheeks. "I enchant this scroll to show a detailed map of Pyrrhia with the current locations of the SandWing princesses."

A map blossomed in ink across the page: the entire continent of Pyrrhia, with the positions of the dragons marked in different colors: brown for MudWings, yellow for SandWings, orange for SkyWings, blue for SeaWings, green for RainWings, white for IceWings, and black for NightWings. And scattered here and there, a few small red dots, one in SandWing territory, one near the Kingdom of the Sea, and one near the border of the Ice Kingdom.

"Looks like the RainWings are all okay," Qibli observed. There was a large cluster of green dots in the rainforest, not too far away from a small band of multicolored dots that marked the dragonets and their entourage. Aside from Killer, Cleverclaws, Forger, and Moon, there wasn't a single black dot in the rainforest.

Windracer and Arid's dots were dark orange and light yellow, respectively. They guessed that the dots that marked hybrids were supposed to be a combination of the colors that marked each of the two or more tribes they were made from. Windracer spotted a gray dot nestled in Agate Mountain, but, other than mild confusion, he didn't think much of it.

"Great," Winter grumbled, "The sooner we go warn them, the sooner I can get out of this horrid rain and back into the snow."

"You mean, back with your horrid parents," Qibli said.

"He's got a point," said Torrent, "Your father seemed pretty eager to get rid of you, like he never wanted to see you again. My pops is pretty strict, but he'd never send me away like that. Things between us haven't been the same since my mom died of a brain aneurysm."

"We don't have time for your sob stories," Winter snapped. "We're on a mission here!"

The sky rumbled with thunder.

"We're not going anywhere 'til the rain lets up," Forger said.

Five hours.

It took five hours for the rain to stop.

"Remind me why we're walking toward the place with the garish colors and muggy rain?" Winter asked.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," Windracer said. "You can head back to the Ice Kingdom at any time you wish."

He could hear the white prince mulling it over in his head. I'm an IceWing. That means I belong in the Ice Kingdom with my own tribe. But my brother wouldn't be there right now if not for that red NightWing dragon and his magic. Why wasn't I born an animus?

"Just suck it up, you whiney prince," Subzero said. "There are worse places to be than a rainforest. Like in the SkyWing prison. Or a mile underwater. And what about under Morrowseer's claws?" He glanced up at the trees, which seemed to be getting taller and taller as they walked.

It was also warmer the farther they went, and up in the vines overhead they could see flashes of color. The bright summer yellows and purples and blues might have been birds or flowers, but they were definitely not typical of the brown, brown, brown Mud Kingdom. Windracer wasn't sure, but he guessed they were in the rainforest for real now. Warm bursts of sunlight nudged through the leafy canopy, making all their scales glow.

"Hey, guys," Mango called excitedly. "Guess who I am." Her scales shifted from yellow-orange like her namesake to an icy blue. "Grr, everything is awful! I'm a big grump!"

"I am NOT!" said Winter.

"Hey, maybe it's Storm or Subzero," Qibli said. "You do look alike."

The frostscales IceWing snorted. "Except for these spots, you mean." He pointed his snout at a few of the dark blue patches that decorated his scales.

"And I'm not grumpy," Storm said. "I'm protective. There's a difference."

"Look at me!" Marmoset crowed, his scales rapidly turning a muddy brown. "I'm Bog! Hungry, hungry, hungry!"

"Hey!" Bog whined, offended.

Mango laughed. "Hey, who's this?" Her scales turned a familiar shade of dark red and black, and she said in a nasally voice, "I'm a really smart dragon who's always stressing out about this silly little prophecy. My leg's all busted up. I got magic powers from the moons."

"I don't sound like that!" Windracer protested, although his words fell on deaf ears. "And P.S. my leg isn't 'busted up'!"

Something crackled off to their left, but when Windracer whipped around, all he saw was a shaggy gray sloth, hanging from a tree and blinking sleepily at them.

"Have I mentioned this place makes me nervous?" Ember asked.

"Only about a thousand times," Inferno said.

The runty SkyWing lowered her head and tucked in her wings, as if she were trying to make herself look smaller than she already was. "I wish my mother was here," she said. "How can I stay safe in this world when there's so many dangerous things out there?"

"Where is your mother?" Lagoon asked.

Ember looked up at the SeaWing princess with the saddest eyes they had ever seen. "Dead," she choked. "Scarlet got her. She was looking for me, but Mother wouldn't tell her. She never made it out of the Sky Kingdom."

Windracer and Arid sped up a little to walk next to the SkyWing dragonet. "What was your mother's name?" the female hybrid asked.

"Topaz," Ember said.

Auburn gasped. "I knew Topaz," she said. "We grew up together. I know how much she wanted to keep you safe, because that's exactly how I feel about my son, Windracer." She draped her wing around Ember's shoulders. "If you ever need a mother to protect you, you can always come to me. I know I can't replace Topaz, but I promise to take care of you like you were my own daughter."

"Thanks," Ember said in a small voice. She smiled gratefully at Auburn, but it quickly faded. "I'll never forget my mother. She was always there when I needed her, ever since I hatched. I remember, once I was out, she was right there, under three full moons, waiting for me."

"Three full moons?" Windracer pivoted slowly to stare at the smaller-than-average SkyWing. "You mean, you hatched on the brightest night?"

Arid quickly understood where he was going with that. "You don't think she could be our missing SkyWing, do you?" she asked in a skeptical tone.

"I'm not sure," Bog said, shifting his talons nervously. "Fake or not, the prophecy called for the largest egg in the Sky Kingdom."

"But if all of the other SkyWing eggs were destroyed," said Windracer, "Then that would mean that Ember's egg, the only one left due on the brightest night, would have been the largest by default. Right?"

Ember's eyes lit up. "That's true," she said. "You really think I could be part of your destiny?"

Windracer extended his talons to her with a warm smile. "If you want, you're welcome to find out with us."

"Oh, come on!" Inferno exploded. "If any pure-blooded SkyWing's gonna be part of a Big Heroic Destiny around here, it's me!"

Carnelian whacked him on the head with her wing. "What part of 'full moons bright' do you not get? Did you hatch on the brightest night?" She answered her own question. "No, you did not."

"That's one interpretation," Cleverclaws said, "On the other talon, it could be referring to Windracer and Moon, who both hatched under full moons and therefore gained actual NightWing powers." When he noticed everyone glaring at him, he quickly amended, "But it's definitely about the dragonets hatching on the brightest night."

While they were on their way to the rainforest, Windracer had taken the liberty of filling Cleverclaws in on his theory of NightWings getting mind-reading and precognition by hatching under full moons. He'd informed the NightWing scientist about how he'd hatched under the three full moons of the brightest night, and made sure to ask for Moon's permission before confessing that she'd hatched and grown up in the rainforest thanks to Secretkeeper's protective mother instincts. Needless to say, Cleverclaws found the theory to be quite reasonable based on all of the useful data he'd been given.

Something chattered loudly in the branches overhead and they all jumped.

Turtle yelped and ducked under Lagoon's wing. "What was that?!" he squeaked fearfully.

"It was just a monkey," Arid said fiercely. "Or a toucan or something."

"Can we eat toucans?" Newt asked hopefully. Then he laughed. "Sorry, I'm trying to be more like Bog."

"CAW! CAW!"

Storm leaped into battle pose, her teeth bared, with Killer a step behind her. The others stopped as they glared around, looking for the source of the noise.

"I'm telling you," Arid said. "It's only toucans. There's nothing to be scared of. You're just jumpy."

"Now why would we be jumpy?" Carnelian said. "Oh, right. The NightWings."

"Ha!" Inferno crowed. "I'm not afraid of some phony prophet! I'll chop the legs off of every NightWing I fight! With my FACE."

"Guys -" Windracer started, only to get cut off by Forger.

"It's the wings and the tails you really want," the two-legged NightWing explained. "If they can't fly, they can't get away. A downed dragon...is a dead dragon."

"GUYS!" Windracer yelled. They stopped and looked back at him. He was turning in frantic circles, staring out at the trees. It took them a moment, but they realized what he was looking for right before he said, "Where's Moon?"

They all fell silent.

Moonwatcher had vanished into thin air.

Well, it's better than disappearing into fat air!

*crickets chirping*

Oh, come on, fat air! That's gold!

Anywho, the RainWings will defend their home just like any other dragon. Even from small, interesting-looking intruders who really don't mean any harm.

And, yes, the gray dot in Agate Mountain is Darkstalker. NightWing black and IceWing white make his hybrid color gray.

Any and all reviews are greatly appreciated.

Auburn - Valka
Windracer - Hiccup
Arid - Astrid
Lagoon - Heather
Bog - Fishlegs
Marmoset and Mango - Tuffnut and Ruffnut
Killer - Stoick
Inferno - Snotlout
Scorch - Spitelout
Frost - Dagur
Malicious - Hroar
Forger - Gobber