Wow!

Who knew the world was such a big place!

The jungle is SO BORING! Here, outside of the kingdom, it is so awesome!

I sniffed a patch of dandelions in the meadow.

It smells weird, new too, but also different. Mom always kept me at the palace pavilion.

"Can't do this," or "Can't do that," she would say. Always stuck up in my room. Mom NEVER lets me leave.

I have to battle her just to go outside with the other RainWings! And even THEN, everyone thinks everything is just handed down to me and I can't do anything myself!

Firefly is always saying I complain too much. Well guess WHAT? I don't care!

I'm just as happy out here without mom pestering me and no older sister to annoy me!

Although I miss mom and dad...

My wings drooped slightly, and I lowered my head.

NO! I made the right decision, sneaking out of the kingdom! I would have just grown old forever and ever there in my room! It's better here.

Yeah, I made the right choice; I'm free to do whatever I want! I won't have anyone saying how I don't earn anything and that I'm super lazy, like those NightWings that I hear behind my back!

"Hey, Serenity!" A familiar voice called out from behind me.

Is it that the human I met before?

I turned to face them, and of course, it was the human I had met earlier near the human city.

He was nice, and he surprisingly spoke dragon.

"Yeah?" I asked him.

He asked, craning his neck to look up at me, "Do you think you could help me get to the Old NightWing Kingdom?"

How did a human know about that? Eh, it's not my place to question what a human wants anyways.

"Sure; I know where it is," I told him nonchalantly before asking, "You want to go now?"

"Uh, yeah-" he began before I quickly grabbed him in my talons and lifted into the air.

I gained altitude before falling into a gliding position, heading to the Old NightWing Kingdom.

"Hey, wait!" he called out to me before the wind whipped his voice away.

I stopped and hovered in place.

What is he asking for now? I thought he said he wanted to go to the Old NightWing Kingdom?

He squirmed until he could get his arms out of my talons grip.

"When I asked if you could help me get there, I thought maybe I could ride on your back or something!" he called out.

"And how would that work? Because there's nothing to hold onto and so you would have fallen off!" I told him.

"Well-," he stammered before adding, "Maybe I could hold onto your horns or frills?"

"As if! Look, you asked to be taken to the Old NightWing Kingdom, you never said how, so this is what you get!" I told him, annoyed, before flying on.

With that, he was silent, or at least I think he was.

I think I saw his mouth move, saying something, but the wind whipped his words away.

The sun began to set across the ocean as we flew along the coast, heading towards the Old NightWing Kingdom. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky as a vastness of colors from yellow to purple spread out from the sun as the waves glistened in its light.

Palm trees dotted the beach with the occasional crab scuttling along, heading into the water.

My wings were feeling exhausted and tired though, and my eyelids began to droop.

I've never flown this much before, surely it isn't that much work, right? Well, I'll just take a quick nap on the beach and then get back right up and head to the Old NightWing Kingdom!

Yeah, that's what I'll do.

I began to descend towards the beach, and I landed gracefully, feeling the sand part between my talons and its texture feel grainy and wet.

I put down the human from my talons onto the sand.

He had a grumpy face.

"What?" I asked.

"Do you know how uncomfortable it is to be between your talons for HOURS?!" he complained.

"Not my fault that your body is so squishy and weak," I retorted.

He fumed and stomped away.

It's not my fault that his body is like that. I was just holding him and not hurting him at all, right?

Argh, why am I all of a sudden feeling sorry for a stupid human!

I whacked my snout a good two times, and it wouldn't go away.

Ugh, fine...

The human was sitting a few meters away from me, doing something with their arms and legs.

I carefully walked to him, not entirely sure what to say yet.

"Hey, um, are you okay?" I asked tentatively.

He paused for a moment and gave me a sideways glance, before saying, "Yeah... just a few scratches and bruises."

"Oh..." I said, looking down.
How did my talons do that? I could've sworn I didn't squeeze too hard.

"Well, do you want to keep going?" I asked, which he replied, "Nah, a good sleep could do some good, just don't squeeze me next time please."

I won't.

I attempted to stifle a yawn, with little success before agreeing, "Yeah, I could use some sleep too, just a little nap."

I settled down on the beach, checking to make sure there was nothing underneath me before resting my head in the direction of the sunset so I could watch it as it went down.

Just a small nap, then right back to flying...

[Insert line]

Where am I?

I looked around. I was in a room with cushy pillows, a balcony, windows, leafy floors and roof. There were numerous scrolls lying throughout it.

"Is... is this my room?" I questioned into the air to no one in particular.

This must be a dream; I had just fallen asleep and now I'm here. But why am I lucid?

"Yes, it is," a male voice said behind me.

What-, how?

I whipped around to see that same NightWing that I recall so clearly.

"Dad?!" I exclaimed in curiosity and confusion, unsure what to do or think.

Why is he here? Did he take me back while I fell asleep? I'm in so much trouble!

"How did you find me?" I asked defensively, backing away slowly.

"Hold on, Serenity, I came to talk," he told me.

I looked at him cautiously before asking, "Talk about what?"

He began to approach me slowly, and my entire body froze up at that.

Come on, move!

He stopped just two meters in front of me, not approaching any further.

"I want you to come back, it's dangerous out there," he began slowly before I snapped, "Why should I come back?! I'm finally free and it's so peaceful and curious out in the world! Not to mention, no one's talking behind my back about how useless I am!"

Wait, why did he ask me to come back if I'm already back?

This is a dream, isn't it? He must be using one of those animus touched objects that let you visit dreams or something.

"No, it's not; and no one is saying you're useless!" he told me sternly.

AS IF!

"Uh huh, yet here I am, finding nothing wrong with it," I told him mockingly.

He sighed and a depressed look fell upon his face before he said quietly, "You know, your mother was planning on letting you go explore the world and have more freedom after she came back from the-."

"Yeah, sureee, mom would NEVER let me leave or do anything. EVER!" I sarcastically told him.

He then retorted angrily, "You know just as well as I do that, she just worries for you is all! She doesn't want you to experience some of the things she's had to!"

"Like what? Saving the continent, ya ya. I'm not doing that! I'm just exploring the world and being me, no harm in that!" I told him, becoming annoyed.

He was silent for a few moments after that, looking down.

"You don't know, do you?" he asked slowly once more.

"Know what?!" I asked furiously.

He looked up at me again, but this time, his face had tears forming at the corner of his eyes.

"When she went on the mission to the island to investigate our outpost, she didn't-" he began when he vanished.

"Didn't what?!" I screamed as I jumped awake, bashing sand all over the place.

"Huh?" I mumbled to myself.

I gazed around my environment to see I was still on the beach.

My sudden jolt to wake caused the human to wake as well.

"Huh, what's wrong?!" he asked groggily, trying to get up before falling face first into the sand.

"Erm, nothing," I told him sheepishly.

Why am I being like this near this human? It's not like I care about him at all!

My tail lashed back and forth as I gathered my thoughts on what had happened.

Dad contacted me in my dream, tried telling me something then I awoke. I also need to take this human to the Old NightWing Kingdom. Let's do that first before I can worry about dad.

What time is it anyways?

I peered into the sky, and to my horror, it was sunrise.

"What?! How did I sleep a WHOLE NIGHT?!" I yelled at myself.

This was supposed to be a quick hour or two nap, but it lasted a whopping nine.

I buried my face in my talons.

Why did this happen? Either way, it's fine, I can just head to the Old NightWing Kingdom.

The human was getting up now, brushing the sand off themselves.

"What's with this roaring?" he asked tiredly again.

"Nothing," I told him.

He gave a look of, "Uh huh, totally nothing."

"We're heading to the kingdom now," I told him, awaiting to go.

"Uh, could you stop stomping my stuff first please?" he asked and to my surprise, I found a little brown bag underneath my talons.

I quickly removed myself from atop the belongings and he gingerly picked them up, inspecting them to make sure all its contents were fine.

Did I fall asleep on his stuff? No, when I went to sleep, I checked to make sure there was nothing but sand underneath me. Then how-

"You were sleeping next to me, weren't you?" I interrogated the human before me.

"Uh, what? I, uh, would never invade a dragon's private space. I'm just a-," he stuttered, attempting to make an excuse as to why he did.

"Your entire face proves it!" I snapped at him, now annoyed at his act of encroachment.

He then said in his defense very carefully, "Well, it was very cold during the night and so I decided maybe I could get some warmth from you."

Human bodies aren't that strong, maybe he is telling the truth and it was really cold for him last night.

Either way, he should've just found some leaves and slept on his own!

"Fine, you get away this time, but I won't be so lenient if you do it again," I told him seriously before asking, "You ready to go?"

"Oh, um, yes!" he replied hastily.

"You can hold onto my horns this time," I told him, waiting for him to clamber up on my back and placing himself in between my horns.

"Um, thanks for not carrying me in your talons again," he said shyly.

"Just don't mess anything up," I told him.

I lifted off into the air once we were ready and gained a comfortable altitude and fell into a gliding position, going to the Old NightWing Kingdom.

The speed wasn't like that of when I was diving, just a leisurely pace so for one, the human doesn't get blown off, and two, to enjoy the landscape.

"Hey, do you have a name?" I asked the human at the top of my head.

"Um yeah, why do you ask?" he asked in return.

"Well, I asked for your name, not to know if you had one since I doubt you didn't," I told him, displeased at his response.

Why did I give him my name if he didn't even give me his? Maybe I was just perplexed at seeing a human speak dragon for the first time ever.

"Uh, I'm Leaf," he said without confidence.

"Pleased to meet you Leaf, and in case you forgot, I'm Serenity," I told him.

He then faintly murmured, "I didn't forget, hah."

He is pretty insecure; maybe it's because he's not used to talking to dragons? But how would you learn dragon without being comfortable with talking to other dragons first?

What a strange person.

I studied the ground, to see that there were little villages dotting the land and forestry. Mom had told me that humans used to be called scavengers and would hide underground because dragons would kill them.

Why did they kill such innocent creatures? It's not like humans did anything to them, I think. Plus, they can talk just like we do, why would they eat talking food?

Dragons back then were weird.

I returned my focus on the ground once more as I glided through the air.

If I squinted my eyes and concentrated really hard, I could make out the faintest dots, of what I assumed were people, moving around in those villages with their odd-looking structures.

Eventually, we came to the mountain range, splitting the continent and the peninsula of which the old NightWing city had once existed.

I arced, but not enough to let Leaf fall off, around the peaks and mountains, enjoying the wonderous view. From their snowcapped peaks to the occasional animal that had four legs and antlers.

The sky had a few clouds roaming about it in long wisps of grey and white.

"Hey, descend now before we're seen!" Leaf told me suddenly, jolting me out of my trance-like state of taking in the views.

"Huh, what, why?" I asked curiously.

"I'll explain once we land; I think there is something dangerous ahead of us!" he exclaimed in earnest.

"Hmm, fine," I said, unsure whether to trust him yet.

He could be lying, but if there is something dangerous ahead, I should be careful.

"Hold on tight!" I told him which he responded with, "Hey, wait-," before he was briefly cut off by me taking a steep dive towards the ground.

I felt the wind rush past my wing tips and face, the ground rushing up to greet me at an extraordinary speed!

I unfurled my wings and caught the air, slowing us down enough before we splattered into the ground like bugs.

I flapped my wings, stabilizing myself until I safely landed on the ground.

I felt my talons sink into the grass, feeling their tips brush against my claws.

"That wasn't so bad, now, was it?" I asked Leaf who promptly fell off of my head and crumpled into the ground slowly.

"You okay?" I asked him, giving him a poke on his side.

He groaned and vomited this greenish brown substance.

"Ew, you're not okay, are you?" I asked once again, my senses curling at the smell.

"No, I'm not," he managed to get out before adding, "That was too much speed for me."

"Oh," I said.

Note to self, humans have weak bodies and are not accustomed to fast speeds.

"Well, could you show me why you wanted me to descend so quickly?" I asked him, helping him get up.

He looked around himself a bit, regaining his bearings before saying, "Yeah, follow me this way as stealthily as you can."

Does that mean I have to change my scales? No, that takes too much energy. Plus, I don't want him to know that my scales can change.

I'll just try to walk super quietly while following him.

We continued walking through the forest. The trees were dense, but not to the point where a dragonet couldn't traverse through.

It was a dim setting, since the trees tops blocked much of the sunlight from penetrating through, and the thick undergrowth was a lush green.

"Crouch," he whispered to me, and I crouched to the best of my ability, flattening my wings so I didn't have such a high profile.

We came onto a ridge, hiding in the thick undergrowth of plants that were as tall as I was at my full height. I peered into what was a grassy field with a few trees and the crumbling stone structures of the old city.

"This is the city, right?" I asked him.

"I think so; I've never seen it before," he whispered to me.

I studied the city ruins, but I didn't see anything that looked like it was dangerous. Sure, there were the piles of stones that hung loosely that MAYBE could fall on top of some unfortunate passerby, by why would I have to get to the ground as soon as possible?

That doesn't explain Leaf at all.

"I don't see anything that's dangerous," I told him bluntly.

"Just wait, it's there somewhere," he told me while keeping his eyes glued to the ruins.

I peered out into the ruins once more, but I continued to see nothing.

"There's nothing there," I told him with a bit of annoyance.

"Hold on, you have to be patient!" he urgently whispered to me.

There's nothing there! That's it; he wanted to go to the kingdom and now he won't even go, what the heck?

I got up and began to leave the protection of the undergrowth when Leaf yanked on my left arm.

"Hey, what was that for?" I asked him angrily.

"Look!" he pointed out in haste before quickly adding, "Get down!"

I turned to the city again to see a mass of scales that were of a whitish-blue color.

After that, I backed into the undergrowth as quickly as possible, maybe too quickly because I saw the dragon's head turn towards my location.

Oh no... Is that an IceWing?

"What's that, why is it looking this way?" I asked Leaf in a flurry.

"I don't know, but I haven't seen that kind of dragon before so I thought they might have been dangerous," he explained to me in a hushed voice.

He's right, I've never seen a dragon like that before.

At first, I thought it was an IceWing, but now that I can see it with more focused and clarity, I could see the dragon was peculiar and strange.

It had two wings the size of SkyWings, maybe even bigger and it looked like an IceWing. But it had spines of a SeaWing along its back and tail, and on its underside.

It had jointed back legs like that of SeaWing. Lastly, the strangest of it all was the twin tails of the dragon. They didn't have one tail, but two. This dragon had twin tails that had barbs on the end like a SandWing.

"What kind of dragon is that? I've never seen such a dragon before!" I questioned Leaf with curiosity; my eyes still glued to the sight.

"I'm not sure myself, in my books, I have seen no such dragon either," he admitted, also looking at the dragon.

The dragon was still looking at our position, when it began to approach us slowly.

"Uh, should we run?" I asked Leaf in a whisper, to which he responded with," We should, but I think that'll make too much noise and we'll be caught!"

"Then what do we do?" I asked him fervently.

Well, if we can't run away without making noise, then we'll fight! I always wanted to fight someone! I'm sure it wouldn't be that difficult. Plus, I can show off those really cool moves I've practiced in my dreams!

I prepared to launch myself from out under the brush and tackle the strange dragon.

But then an unfamiliar language roared and the dragon that was approaching us stopped and turned around. Another dragon flew down to meet the dragon that was coming to us.

This one was the same as the first but with slightly bluer tinted scales and its twin tails had a sharp singular spike.

It then breathed a cyan colored breath like that of an IceWing; but instead of spreading ice on the surface of the stone blocks and ground that was being aimed at, a crystal structure of ice grew in size and complexity the longer the dragon breathed it.

IceWing's frost breath doesn't do that, it doesn't cause crystals to grow, but just freezes the object it is hitting.

Then the strange dragon from before that was approaching us smashed the crystal structure into flying debris before both dragons began to emit a sound that resembled laughing?

One of them cast a glance back towards us before following the other back into the ruins.

"What do you think that was about?" I asked Leaf again.

"Maybe they're friendly dragons we just never heard about. Perhaps we can go to them and talk?" Leaf asked in response to my question.

"Yeah... I don't think we should talk to some strange, unknown dragons," I told him.

Why am I even contemplating this? All I have to do is bring Leaf here and the end. Then I can get back to my great exploration of Pyrrhia!

"I'm going to go now," I told him bluntly, making up my mind.

"What, why? Don't you want to see what these strange dragons are doing too?" he asked, confused.

"Well, yeah. But I brought you to the Old NightWing Kingdom like you had asked, so now I'm going to go do what I want to do," I explained to him.

"And that's investigating these strange dragons, isn't it?" he asked smugly.

"Argh, fine! Yeah, I want to know too what these strange dragons are doing too," I said, giving in and deciding to stay.

I gazed back out into the ruins again, and there was still no sign of the dragons.

"So, if they are dangerous, how do we sneak in?" I asked him plainly.

"You want to sneak in?!" he yelled, which I retorted with, "Hey, lower it; they might still hear you."

"If they're dangerous, we shouldn't 'just sneak in' like we own the place!" he told me angrily in a hushed voice.

"You got a better idea on how we can learn more about them while also not just walking into their talons?" I asked him bitterly.

With that, he was stumped and didn't say anything else other than mutter the words, "Sneaking in is a stupid idea still."

"Yeah, whatever," I told him haughtily.

A few seconds of awkward silence fell upon us when Leaf decided to speak, "We can sneak in, but we need something that can really help us in hiding since I'm pretty sure that neither you nor I are good at stealth."

"I mean, my scales are black, so maybe I could blend in with the night?" I asked him, wondering if he thought it would work.

"Maybe, but we don't know how smart these other dragons are," he told me.

Then I felt something pointy pressed against my neck.

I looked to my side, to see one of those odd dragons, pressing a spear against my throat.

"Uh, Leaf?" I asked him quickly, panic growing within me.

"Can't do much here either," he said which caused me to cast a glance at him.

He was pinned down by two humans.

"Can't you tell them to stop pinning you down?" I asked him urgently.

"I can't. They're speaking a different language," he told me. Then the humans grabbed his arms and hauled him up, taking him away.

Then the dragon that had the spear pointed at me motioned with his spear for me to do something.

Is he asking me to follow him?

I began to slowly move away, but I received a growl in response from him, so I decided to head towards the ruins. He seemed to accept my direction but kept the spear pointed at me.

Would I be able to run away?

I cast a glance at the strange dragon's wings.

No way I'm outrunning a dragon with huge wings like that in the open sky. If only I was in the rainforest where I could tree glide!

Not to mention, this dragon is wearing armor and has a weapon. I have little to no combat experience so this wouldn't end well.

I saw the other two humans in their strange clothing bring Leaf with us to the ruins.

We continued through the maze of ruins until we came to a clearing where tents were set up, crates and barrels under cloths were spread out, and a few campfires were blackened and charred.

There were more of those dragons, twenty from what I could count.

How are there so many of these weird dragons? If they were hybrids, wouldn't there only be a few? But there are so many here!

Another one of those strange dragons adorned in armor approached the dragon escorting me and said something in a language I couldn't understand.

Where are these dragons from? Why are there humans with them and how come they speak a different language?

I was then brought to a stake in the ground, which then three of those same dragons but with varying tails came to me and chained my wings, arms, legs, and neck to the metal pole in the ground.

They did the same with Leaf, but only with cuffs around his ankles and wrists.

"Who are these dragons and humans?" I asked Leaf.

"I don't know. They don't speak our language and those dragons I've never seen before," he admitted.

"We should've gone with my plan with sneaking in," I told him sourly, looking away from him.

"This again? Are you serious right now?" he asked angrily.

"WELL, we wouldn't have gotten CAUGHT, that's for sure," I told him haughtily.

"If it weren't for your bickering, we wouldn't have been caught by them beforehand!" he accused.

"If it wasn't for MY bickering?!" I roared furiously, appalled by what he had said before countering, "If you didn't protest against my idea, we wouldn't have argued!"

"We would've gotten caught if we went with your idea!" he exclaimed bitterly.

Then one of the dragons guarding us tapped my snout with the butt of his spear forcefully and one of the humans gave Leaf a slap across his cheek.

"I think that means they want us to be quiet," I whispered to him.

He gave a nod of agreement, unwilling to speak now with the glaring red mark on his face.

I GUESS he is RIGHT... a bit. We probably would've gotten caught if we snuck in. I know I'm not a stealth master, that's for sure.

"Sorry," I muttered an apology to him shyly.

"Yeah, I'm sorry for yelling too," he apologized when suddenly another of those odd dragons began to approach us. But this one was adorned in black armor that was shiny and reflective.

She wore a helmet that protected most of her head from her sides to the back of her head, only allowing space for the horns, spines, mouth, and eyes to be open.

I've never seen armor like that before.

She stopped a few talons away from me before speaking in growls and roars that I couldn't understand.

They were just like, "Ew y lit as red," or something like that.

Then one of the other dragons but in grey, non-reflective armor presented something to her. It was an object that was two circular rings, one bigger than the other, in a silvery color with cerulean blue as a complementing color. The rings met at a single rod that they could rotate on. Lastly, it had a string attached to two ends of the outer ring, creating a necklace.

She donned the necklace around her neck, outside of the armor.

Then the dragon that had presented her with the object backed away.

"Can you understand me?" A new voice asked.

Was it that dragon in the glistening black armor that spoke just now?

"You should be able to understand me now," she said, looking at us.

Leaf and I didn't say anything.

"Well, I have a few questions for you," she told us slyly, brandishing a pair of daggers that had a snow color to its blades and dark brown wood for its handle.

"Why are you here and where do you hail from?" she asked, pointing the daggers towards us.

Leaf and I still didn't speak; with fear creeping up my spine.

After a few agonizing seconds, she stated with disapproval, "Hmmm, so you are not willing to speak? So be it; let's see how long you can withstand the pain of my daggers."

She approached us slowly, holding her daggers in the air, causing the light to glint off of them.

"Let's start with the dragonet here," she began menacingly.

She got right up into my face, peering into my eyes with those glaring, cerulean eyes.

My heart began to race, and a chilling coldness enveloped my body.

If I tell them who I am and where I come from, what will happen next?

Then I felt the cold, serrated blades of the dagger slide against the scales of my snout.

I heard that cold, merciless voice, "Are you going to talk, or shall we proceed?"

The fact that she is interested in finding out those bits of information must mean I hold some value. I have no idea what she'll do next if I tell her so I think if I keep quiet, I can prolong my current situation.

Which isn't ideal, but at least I'm not seriously hurt, or worse, dead.

"Hey! Who do you think you are, threatening us?" Leaf called out suddenly.

She turned to face him, telling him coldly, "I do not understand why you have chosen to side with this inferior dragon, human, but do not make me harm you."

Then one of the other dragons adorned in grey armor rushed up to her, saying something I couldn't understand.

She whipped around and yelled, "What do you mean she's here?"

The armored dragon that had informed her cowed under her wrath.

She turned back to face us, "I will be seeing you soon."

She took off the necklace and barked something to the soldiers near us and they checked our shackles to make sure they were still binding us.

Then the dragon that had threatened us continued shouting at the other soldiers and left us to the humans and dragons guarding us.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked Leaf quietly.

"Well, you know... It just seemed like the right thing to since you were nice to me and best of yet, haven't eaten me or squashed me yet," he explained to me jokingly.

"Thank you," I whispered to him.

Well, despite my situation, I'm not doing horribly. But all I wanted was to go explore the world! Not be stuck somewhere else, chained and bound! Argh.

Maybe mom and dad were right it was dangerous to come out here.

NO! Absolutely not! Mom and dad were WRONG! I made the right decision by sneaking out! This is only a temporary thing. All I have to do is escape and BOOM! Freedom of exploring all of Pyrrhia and I won't have to deal with this!

That is... until I figure out a way to escape.