Hello everyone,

This is the third book that I am writing in Arc 4 which continues after the events of my other book, Wings Of Fire: Depths Of Despair. If you want to understand the story from the beginning I suggest you read my other two books before reading this book. If you have already done that then I wish you all a great read while you read this book.

Being insignificant comes at a cost.

Throughout her life, Tulsi has wanted to be no more than a shadow in the background. She doesn't know how to talk to other dragons, and socializing, in general, makes her frightened. She never hung out with the other Drillwing dragonets and even trying to talk to her dad make her nervous. Digger thinks he is doing what is best for her but she knows more. She has all these great ideas of how to socialize with other dragons but is just too shy to try them on anyone until a certain dragon came along.

Tulsi is only comfortable talking with Prancer because of how friendly and unique he is. She wished that it was just the two of them together and no one else but that isn't how the cards were dealt. Instead, she is surrounded by three other loud dragons that make her anxiety spike up all the time each time they talk to her. But as the group learns of a new situation brewing on the horizon that may jeopardize their goal of ending the war, Tulsi realizes that she may have to make a choice. Stay hidden in the shadows and hope everything turns out alright or open up her voice to save everyone she knows.

The

Lost Artifact

Prophecy

Turn your bodies away from the sky

To the caves that run underground

To a war that has lasted centuries

Where peace can never be found

Within their tribes lies a secret

Within their war lies a secret

Within their caves lies a secret

That may save everyone in time

Watch out for a great power buried below

To dangerous to leave

Help the tribes to unite together

Before everything will die

Prologue

OWWWWW, that vision was more painful than the last one.

Moon was sitting on the beach, at Pantala, trying to figure out what her latest vision meant.

"Hey I know that look, someone got another vision?" Qibli said, bouncing up to her.

"Ha, you seem to know it so well at this point," Moon said as Qibli stopped beside her and she felt their wings touch.

"Well, I have been with you on stopping an evil legend dragon and a mind-controlling plant, both of which your prophecies and visions helped us defeat, so yeah, I can tell when you have another one," Qibli boasted. "So what's this one about?"

Moon took a deep breath. "It's a weird one," she said. "I saw dragons fighting, the ones that Ocho calls Cavewings, they were fighting Webwings."

"Well that's not unusual, from what we heard, there is a war going on over there," Qibli said.

"Yeah but there's more," Moon said. "The vision then cuts to two other dragons tribes fighting, one seemed to look like the Drillwings Ocho talked about but the other ones she has never talked about. They have spikes all over their body."

"Spikewings?" Ocho said, appearing behind Moon.

"Wait, you know those dragons?" Qibli asked.

"I've heard stories about them, the Webwings, Cavewings, and Drillwings paint them to be bloodthirsty killers that snatch up dragonets and eat them alive."

"That's terrible!" Moon said. "Is that true that they do that?"

"Well I don't think so, we are talking about my tribe and the other two tribes here," Ocho said. "We all lie to get what we want, it is a very terrible thing."

"Yeah, I can tell," Qibli said."

"Anyway from other sources I heard that the Spikewings were initially the only dragon tribe on Petonix about two thousand years ago."

"Wait, but then how are your tribes there?" Moon asked.

"Apparently dragons from your Mudwing, Seawing, and Nightwing tribes fled Pyrrhia after what some crazy dragon called Darkstalker did."

"Darkstalker?" Moon said, stumbling backward.

"Wait, do you know him?" Ocho asked.

"He was an evil dragon that me, Moon, and the rest of our friends defeated when he tried to take over the whole continent," Qibli said.

"Wait, how was he alive, he was said to live two thousand years ago?" Ocho asked.

"Animus magic," Moon said. "Like what Queen Snowfall explained, it was magic on our continent that allowed dragons who had the power to have anything happen if they wished for it to happen. We had five animus dragons on our continent until Jerboas spell got rid of all animus magic."

"About that," Ocho said. "Your Snowfall friend then said that my father Dredge was an animus. If that's the case then how did he keep his animus powers?"

"We don't know," Qibli said. "It doesn't make sense, but there has to be something that will tell us what happened. There's always a reasonable explanation for everything."

"Maybe," Moon said. "But right now we have to deal with figuring out how to get to your continent, Ocho."

"Yeah, how are we supposed to do that?" Qibli asked. "We have no idea which way her continent is. This continent we found with a map but there is no map to lead us to this other continent."

"Well, what about those dragons who escaped from Darkstalker all that time ago?" Ocho asked. "If they were able to get there then they must have had something that showed them, right? Maybe they left something somewhere for us to find."

"That's a nice thought," Qibli said, "but I don't think they left anything. I think they found that continent with luck."

"Well, there has to be another way, right?" Ocho said. "I can't just wait here while my little brother is over there with a monster!"
"Hey. hey we are trying to figure it out," Qibli said. "Just calm down."

How are we going to figure this out? Moon thought. She had been hearing in on everything the Webwing Ocho was thinking about and none of it sounded like it would be of any help. Moon wished again there were more skyfires so that she could give one to Ocho so that her thoughts could be blocked out from her mind reading. She really doesn't like that she can poke around in other dragons' minds without their permission.

"How about we go back to the meeting?" Qibli suggested. "Maybe the dragons there have figured out something on how to help you."

"That sounds nice," Ocho said and the three of them started walking up to the location where the other dragons from the representation board were holding a meeting.

Oh yeah, now it's called Talons United, courtesy of Luna's suggestion.

"So have we figured anything out?" Qibli asked the group as they approached."

"Nope, nothing yet," Lynx said.

"Maybe Tsunami could swim to the location as she did with this continent," Clay suggested, while his mouth was stuffed full of food.

"If we knew which way to head then I could do that," Tsunami said. "But we don't even know the direction to this continent and I'm not looking forward to swimming in all directions until I find it."

"Could you really swim for that long?" Cricket asked.

"No, I need to rest as well!" Tsunami said.

"Hey, no yelling at the meeting!" Sundew yelled.

"You stop yelling as well then!" Tsunami yelled.

"Hey, hey calm down you two," Pineapple said. "Let's just all relax in the sun. It is sun time right now."

"I don't think that going to help, dude," Qibli whispered to him.

"So what are we to do then?" Sky asked. "Oh I know, maybe some of the humans here know about the continent. Wren, do you think they know anything about it?"

"I don't think so Sky," Wren said. "Remember what we learned, these humans came from Pyrrhia during the Scorching, I don't think any other ones went any other directions."

Poor innocent dragons who are dying over there, Moon heard from Snowfall's mind who was sitting beside Lynx. Moon still didn't know if Snowfall was still angry at her for what she is but from what she could tell, Snowfall has gotten more empathetic and does seem to be changing for the better.

Even the rudest dragons can change to be good, Moon thought. I wonder what Darkstalker would have been like if he wasn't corrupted by his own magic and if he hadn't lost his soul.

"So we are back to square one," Tsunami said. "I'm sorry, I know we want to help these dragons over there on that continent but how are we supposed to do that when we don't even know how to get there?"

"We'll figure something out, I'm sure of it," Lynx said.

"Uh, maybe I could offer some help with that?" came a new voice from behind the group. Moon turned around and saw Winter landing on the beach behind them.

"Winter!" Moon said. "Why… How are you here?"

"Yeah, did you follow us?" Qibli asked.

"Um… not really," Winter said. "It's hard to explain, I just have to show you."

"Wait, how long have you been listening to us?" Snowfall asked.

"Just long enough to know what's going on with the new dragon with you," Winter said, pointing to Ocho. "Now come along, I'll show you how I somehow got here."

Moon, Qibli, and the rest of the group took off to the skies, following Winter across the savanna of Pantala. As they were following him, Moon flew closer to him to talk.

"So Winter, how have you been at Sanctuary?" she asked.

"Oh, I've been great," Winter said. "You know some Silkwings and Leafwings decided to stay even after we saved their continent so we have been busy with making improvements to the buildings. The Silkwings silk really does help keep them sturdy you know."

"Yeah," Moon said.

"So I've only heard a little bit of what's going on," Winter said. "Mind explaining to me the rest?"

"Sure," Moon said and as they flew across the savanna, Moon explained everything that had gone on, with Ocho getting teleported here, them learning of her continent, and how to figure out how to get there.

"Wow, what's happening over there sounds worse than what has happened on both of these continents combined," Winter said.

"Yeah, and from a vision I just had, it seems like it is about to get worse," Moon said.

"Where are you taking us?" Tsunami shouted from behind them.

"We're here," Winter said and dove down to the ground. Moon followed him and landed beside him at the lake that was in front of them. Qibli landed beside them and walked to the other side of Moon.

"Isn't this Beetle lake?" Qibli said, looking out at the surroundings.

"Yeah, why did you bring us here?" Cricket asked. "There isn't anything interesting over here."

"Just trust me and follow my lead," Winter said and dived into the water.

"What has gotten into him?" Snowfall said. "Winter get on up here right now!"

But Winter didn't answer and as the group waited for a while, he didn't come to the surface either. Panic started to go through Moon. What happened to him? Is he alright? Does he need our help? At that moment, Moon saw Winter come up to the surface.

"Winter!" Moon cried. "What happened?"

"I told you all to follow me," Winter said. "Now come on, it will make sense if you follow me."

"You just expect us to dive deep into a lake and not come back up for air?" Snowfall said. "Are you crazy?"

"Queen Snowfall, it will make sense if you just follow me," Winter said and dived back down into the water.

"Whelp, I guess we're following him," Qibli said and dived down after Winter.

"Fine, let's go," Snowfall said and dived down with the rest of the group into the water.

Moon was the final dragon to dive into the water and hoped in her mind that Winter knew what he was doing. When Moon dived into the water, the coldness of the water spread throughout her body and made her shiver. She looked around and could just barely see the white sparkling scales from Snowfall going down deeper into the water. Moon followed behind them and then out of nowhere, they disappeared from in front of Moon and she was thrown into complete darkness. She then felt herself hit the cold floor and she didn't feel the water around her anymore. She tried to look around but it was completely dark wherever they were.

"Hello?" Moon called out. "Anyone there?"

"Yeah, I'm here," called another voice that Moon couldn't distinguish. "Where are you and where are we?"

"Hold on a second," came another voice and Moon felt something be put in front of her face. "Light it up," the voice said and Moon breathed fire and lit up the torch that was in front of her. The light from the torch lit up the cave and Moon was able to see all the dragons in the cavern.

"Woah, where are we?" Qibli asked, looking around at the walls and ceiling.

"We are in the caves where the Diamond Trials took place in the Icewing territory," Winter said.

"You can't be here!" Snowfall said.

"Hey I wanted to revisit where I saved Foeslayer," Winter said. "When I was wandering the tunnels I just so happened to see a weird crack in the wall that looked like it had tried to be hidden."

"Where did it lead?" Lynx asked.

"It led us here," Winter said, motioning to the cavern that they were in.

"What is this place?" Moon asked.

"It seems like Queen Diamond had made this place," Qibli said. "Look at what the words carved in this wall say. Hello anyone who finds this place. I am Queen Diamond who is currently the Queen of the Icewings. I have learned of some new interesting things out in our world and I'm going to make these tunnels that will lead you to them. I personally won't use these tunnels because I don't know if they will work the way I enchant them to work but feel free to give them a try if you're up for the risk."

"So the tunnel we just went through took us to Pantala?" Cricket asked. "Oh, that is so cool! Just absolutely amazing!"

"Calm down jumping jack," Sundew said. "So the tunnel brought us to Pantala, how is that going to help us figure out how to get to Petonix?"

"Just wait one second," Winter said. "I never said there was only one tunnel," and he took off down a side tunnel and everyone else followed behind him.

"There's another tunnel?" Luna asked.

"Yep and here it is," Winter said, stepping into a cavern that had a tunnel in front of them. Looking into the tunnel, Moon could only see darkness but that's how animus tunnels looked, she remembered going through the one in the rainforest that went to the secret Nightwing home after it was destroyed by the volcano.

"So does this tunnel lead to my continent?" Ocho asked, stepping in front of Winter.

"Um… well… I'm not… sure… but we can go through it together to find out!" Winter said.

"How about the dragon who had an interesting prophecy about my continent goes first?" Ocho asked, looking at Moon.

"Me?" Moon said.

"Yeah, I mean that prophecy you had was super interesting so if there is anyone I would trust going into the unknown, it would be you."

"I'll go with her," Qibli said, stepping right beside Moon.

"Ok then," Moon said, breathing normally, "Let's go," and both of them stepped into the darkness of the tunnel. Qibli and Moon both breathed fire ahead of them to light up the pathway. They continued to walk forward until they saw light appear from the other end of the tunnel.

"Go get the others," Moon said and Qibli turned around and went back to inform the others. Moon continued to press forward and she felt her talons step onto the sand and she appeared on a beach. It was thundering in the sky and rain was pouring down all around her.

"Wow, this sure is one giant storm," Qibli shouted from behind her, loud enough so that his voice wasn't drowned out by the wind.

"Yeah, this is one wicked storm," Winter said.

"I've never seen a storm this massive here," Ocho said, appearing from the animus tunnel behind them.

"So is this your continent?" Winter yelled over the wind.

Moon saw Ocho take up into the windy skies, struggling at first to stay afloat but eventually straightening herself out and looking around. She then came back down to the group.

"Let's go find some shelter first, but yes," Ocho said. "This is Petonix."