The sun beamed down on Rusty as he flew through the sky. Even though the sun provided a nice warmth, it was a bit of a nuisance as the sunlight started to obscure his vision.

"A little sunlight never hurts though."

Flying as high as he was seems a bit impractical especially with the items he was carrying, but this could be the last time he could ever see the vast desert at this height so he wanted to take it all in.

Though the view was fantastic, the comfortability of the flight could be better. The two pouches were tightly fastened to him, as he did not want to drop any items as his quest had just started. They didn't cause too much discomfort nor did his sword as it was in a sheath also tightly fastened to him. No, the real discomfort came from the long handled axe, as he had to hold it in his claws. Before he flew to the coast today he wondered how he should carry the axe. He tried to attach it to his left side but the axe was more awkward to place than he would've liked as the weight of the axe also made flying harder as he had trouble balancing in the air. So the best choice he came up with was to just hold it.

He kept flying inland towards the heart of the desert for a while until he found an oasis.

"I could use a quick break", Rusty thought to himself.

Carrying the axe while flying was a bit exhausting so a little break didn't hurt. He flew down to the oasis, landing close to the edge of the water. Placing down his axe, Rusty got out his bottle of water, drinking more than he thought he would. By the time he was done drinking, the bottle was surprisingly empty.

"Wow, I drank it all?" "Was I really that thirsty?"

"Perhaps it was nervousness?"

"No matter, I can simply refill it here".

As Rusty finished filling up his bottle he decided to check on his sword again. The blade glistened in the sun as Rusty could see his reflection. Despite being made and adorned by the other tribes, it was not all out of kindness of their hearts.

When the SandWing queen, Acacia, asked for metal for the sword from the SkyWings they agreed to as long as they were paid in gold. She then went to the MudWings as they claimed to have blacksmiths that can craft blades that can never shatter, So Queen Acacia requested for a sword to be crafted, saying that the metal would be provided. The MudWings agreed, but like the SkyWings asked for gold. When the sword was finished, Queen Acacia described the sword as being a strong blade but said it could have a bit more on it. So she went to SeaWings to ask for jewels for decorating the sword as they claimed to have the largest jewelry collection. Expecting them to ask for gold, she brought some in preparation but was surprised when they offered them for free, saying they had many jewels and did not need all of them, so they gave her crates full of jewels. Though happy with the abundance of valuables, she did not need all of them to decorate the sword so she brought the crates and the sword back to the Kingdom of Sand. As she was nearing the kingdom, the NightWings also offered to supply them with jewels to be adorned onto the sword. Though Queen Acacia denied them as they had enough already, the NightWings insisted as sightings of the SandWing beast were getting closer to the Night Kingdom and they would be grateful if the queen was able to get rid of the beast. Queen Acacia accepted the jewels and had the sword adorned by half of the jewels from the SeaWings and half of the jewels from the NightWings.

As she was preparing to reveal what she had been planning to the kingdom, she got a message from the IceWings. Their princess, the kind Princess Harp, offered to help Queen Acacia out of the kindness of her heart. But it was a bit more complicated than that, but after a payment of jewels, gold and an alliance with the IceWings, the enchantment was done on the sword. Many SandWings were angry and confused about how they lost a lot of valuables when they had just acquired an abundance of them. It took a while for the queen to calm down her subjects and once she did she looked for a- .

Suddenly a tingle went over Rusty's scales.

"What was that!?"

He got up, stored his sword, equipped his axe and flew up, hovering in place. In the distance, Rusty could see a sandstorm passing by. It seemed to be passing north, which was good as he was going south-east.

"Just a sandstorm, I'm getting paranoid, how did I get spooked by a sandstorm?".

"Maybe it was something else".

That thought did not leave him while he stayed at that oasis, as he felt something, a presence? Or was it him going crazy? No matter what it was, he had to get back on track and continue his quest. He took one last sip of the oasis and flew into the sky.

A/N: Hey guys, CrystalDynamite here. I finished this chapter faster than I thought it would which is great as the next chapter will be coming much sooner than I thought it would. Apologies for the longer chapter. Almost 1k words for just this chapter! That's crazy! Thanks for reading!