Moon had gotten quite used to the feeling of being awoken by a nightmare, this fear however was an entirely different beast.

The scorching, ravenous feeling of being burnt alive still danced across her smooth, cool scales, even long after she was well aware her nightmare was over. She tried to purge that from her mind, insisting over and over to herself that it wasn't real.

Part of it had been though.

She could still clearly remember the Sandwing's panicked expression, her desperate attempt at a warning, the large, angular sapphire she clutched in her talon.

Sunny had most definitely been there.

For how long? Had she heard Moon talking to him? Well, not the actual him, or hopefully not, but her imagined, haunting version of him? She did her best to remember the dream, as unpleasant as it had been. She knew she'd addressed Darkstalker by name more than a few times, and she prayed to the stars Sunny hadn't heard those parts.

That seemed like overly wishful thinking, she'd said his name right before the ground had cracked, so unless Sunny had shown up at that exact moment she almost definitely knew who she'd been talking to.

Moon sighed opening her eyes just a crack. Warm sunlight streamed down on her face, almost mocking in its inappropriate cheeriness. As much as she would have preferred to be sleeping right now, she found it almost impossible to get back to sleep after being awoken, and she wasn't sure if she could take another nightmare, or daymare?

She dragged herself up, brushing leaves and dirt from her scales. She'd yet to find anywhere permanent to stay, instead moving from spot to spot and finding somewhere reasonably well shaded to sleep. The pine forest certainly made her feel a lot more exposed than the rainforest, but it would have to do.

She patted her side, making sure the scroll case was still bound under her wing. Part of her guessed wearing it so close was causing her these nightmares, but she didn't feel comfortable sleeping without knowing exactly where it was, at least now if someone tried to steal it she'd wake up before they could.

Moon spread her wings, taking to the air and spiralling south. She'd been flying down the length of Pyrrhia's western border for the last few days, never straying particularly far though. She was now deep into Sandwing territory, even if this landscape was much colder and full of life than the rest of the kingdom. She didn't want to fly too far south though, no matter how tempting the warmer weather was. The South meant much more heat, and with it, Sandwings. She wasn't particularly keen on increasing the number of dragons she had to hide from.

Just as Moon had that thought she noticed a line of off white edging the horizon. She was about to double back when she spotted something much more alarming. A hut, which despite the distance she could tell was quite small, with a thin trail of smoke spiralling from next to it. As much as she wanted to turn tail immediately, she couldn't help but be intrigued by it.

Dragons in the desert usually lived in communities, it is much easier to survive and protect yourself from bandits in a group after all. Yet this hut stood completely alone, only shadowed by a handful of palm trees. Perhaps they'd chosen to live in such a remote area to alleviate some of those difficulties, though living so close to a different tribe's border seemed rather bold.

She realised she'd been flying closer and stopped, hovering in the air as she tried to make up her mind on what to do.

As much as Moon liked being alone, five days of nothing but her own worried thoughts to listen to had been completely draining, and maybe having someone, anyone to talk to would help with that.

What am I thinking? How many dragons have the others told about me? Ruby was the one who sent us after the scroll in the first place, what if she's looking for me? And what of the other queens, surely they'd want to find the scroll if they knew what it could do in the wrong talons. This dragon might recognise me, and tell someone where I am.

But,

Weaselled another part of her brain,

This dragon lives far from any kind of civilisation, they probably avoid any settlements if they've chosen to be this far out. How would they know anyone was looking for me?

She shook her head, as though trying to dislodge the dangerous thought.

It's not worth the risk, if I'm speaking to anyone it means going back and talking to my friends or my Queen, not some Sandwing.

Moon angled her wings, dropping to the forest floor with a thud. She raised her head, tasting the air. She'd have to find something to distract herself with, or she'd be thinking in circles about this for days

Fantastic. Another one for the pile.

Under normal circumstances every dragon in the Ice kingdom has an exact role they need to fulfil. Apparently, these were not normal circumstances.

Despite the fact Winter had been back within the Palace for well over a week, the question of whether he would return to schooling at Jade Mountain Academy, or transition back to Icewing schooling was still unanswered, so Winter was left wandering the halls, entirely unsure of what to do with himself. Not wanting to fall even further from the good graces of his parents however, Winter had taken to spending most of his time in the library, looking for any information he could find on one particular subject.

If his time within the Diamond Trial had netted him any positive, it had pushed him to look deeper into the ancient Icewing enchanted objects. Intuitively he knew there were many, after all the Icewings had had animus magic for nearly three thousand years before it was stolen, yet estimates for how many there seemed to be varied greatly from source to source.

Winter tapped his chin, smudging blue ink across his scales. He'd been keeping track of every time an object was named, and marking down any kind of physical description, or explanations of what they could do. So far he had marked down twenty-six, ten of which he had heard of before. It was several of the few he'd didn't know that interested him most however.

Three days ago, while going through the shelves right at the far corner of the library, he'd discovered an old, withered scroll that felt as though it might turn to dust if Winter so much as looked at it wrong. Within it, he'd found mentions of all twenty-three objects he'd know of at the time, plus three others.

The Gift of Vision, the Gift of Longevity, and the Gift of Control.

From what Winter could gleam from the damaged parchment, the author knew little more than the names of these particular enchantments, and merely speculated on what they could be. What was especially frustrating about this was that Winter could find nothing more about any of them, not even a brief mention.

He glared down at their spots on his list, the aggravatingly empty descriptions driving him insane.

Just before he could coat the paper in frost-breath and forget about it, there was a knock at the door. Without waiting for an answer the dragoness barged in, grinning at Winter in that "I know something you don't" way she often did.

"Lynx," he nodded to her, rolling up his list and shoving it a bit too forcefully into his satchel. "You're late." Every day for the last week Lynx had been coming to him after classes ended to fill him in on any rumours going around the Palace. Normally she'd share this kind of thing with Snowfall, but the two had gotten into a fight and the Princess was too boar-headed to apologise, so they hadn't been speaking.

"I know," her smile seemed to grow even more knowing, "I've been out on a patrol, the Queen's been looking for a fugitive."

That certainly caught Winter's attention. He stared at her, and she giggled at his expression before continuing.

"There's this Nightwing who stole some Skywing enchanted object. Apparently it's really dangerous but I can't find anyone who knows exactly what it does."

"So, if it's a Skywing object why does Glacier care?"

"That's the thing, the Queen hasn't said anything other than that, "she has enough evidence to reasonably conclude the Nightwing intends to use the objects magic to cause great harm to the Icewings," but the story going around is that the reason she thinks that is because the Nightwing said Darkstalker is still alive, and that she's working for him. Oh and that the object was created by him, and she wants to give it back to him."

Winter just blinked at her, at a total loss for words.

"That's quite the story." He eventually croaked out. The Winter of two weeks ago would have dismissed that story as obvious nonsense, but after meeting a certain other two-thousand-year-old Nightwing, he couldn't be so sure. One part of it still bugged him though, if Lynx had been out on a patrol to look for this Nightwing, why hadn't he been? It wasn't an issue of rank, to everyone's disbelief Winter had still maintained his spot at the top of the rankings, so what other reason could Glacier have to exclude him?

"Do you know the Nightwing's name?" He asked, his stomach already beginning to sink before he formed the words. Lynx made a face, before dipping her head.

"Yep, when Narwhal was sending us out he said her name was Moonwatcher."

Winter's brain entirely shut off. It so completely refused to entertain the idea Moon might do something like that it decided a hard reset was the better option.

"Um, Winter?" Lynx waved a talon in his face, getting no reaction. "Everything alright there?" She laughed nervously, mild panic beginning to stain her eyes.

She tapped him abruptly on the snout and he blinked, his brain deciding now it could process that information.

It wasn't happy.

He wanted to scream at her, to call her a liar, to question every bit of information she'd been coming to him with. That wasn't behaviour befitting an Icewing however, and Winter had recently become particularly soured to the idea of yelling at his friends.

"Moonwatcher, are you sure?" Lynx squinted at him, her concern replaced with suspicion.

"Yes? I think Narwhal said something about her being a student at Jade Mountain, did you know her?"

Winter averted his gaze, though he wasn't sure why he felt such an aversion to answering the question.

"Yeah, she was in my Winglet. I didn't really know her though." He added hurriedly to the end, hoping Lynx wouldn't catch the strain in his voice. Being Lynx she obviously did.

"Right. Didn't Hail- er, you, didn't you say that a Nightwing had helped you track down Scarlet? Assuming that's her I'm not too sure how you wouldn't have known her."

Winter's face was turning a deep shade of royal blue that he tried desperately to cover with his wing. He wasn't sure how much of that was from the topic of discussion, or the fact he'd never tried to lie so blatantly before. "Well, yeah, but we didn't talk at all. The rest of our Winglet begged to help me so I guess she felt obliged to do the same."

Lynx arched an eye-ridge at him but didn't push the subject. "So, find anything interesting in the library today?"

He shook his head, momentarily distracted as he mentally ran over the scrolls he'd gone through. "Nothing new, just notes about the ones I already know almost everything about."

She wrapped a wing around his shoulder comfortingly, "Don't look so dejected, I'm sure you'll find something eventually. And hey, I'm sure Glacier would be looking for some information on Darkstalker right now. Maybe you'll find an object that can help her."

Lynx grinned warmly at him and he couldn't help but smile back. They sat like that for a while, just enjoying each others company. They'd been doing that a lot more recently, though Winter guessed part of it was because Lynx was having trouble coming up with words to cheer him up. A flunked test was a whole lot easier to comfort someone over than a death. He appreciated that she was trying though, it meant a whole lot more than when everyone else was pretending he didn't exist she still stayed by his side.

Eventually she unfolded her wing, slinking back over to the doorway. "I've got to go, but I can come see you later tonight if you'd like."

He waved a talon, "No no, I'll be fine. Besides, you'll need proper sleep if the Queen makes a habit sending out patrol's regularly."

"Well, if you say so." She cast him one more worried glance before slipping away down the corridor. Winter was about to take his list out again when he remembered something Lynx had said.

"And hey, I'm sure Glacier would be looking for some information on Darkstalker right now. Maybe you'll find an object that can help her."

It was obviously a joke, and because of that it hadn't quite clicked for him when she'd said it, but Winter did know of an enchantment like that. Well, less so the enchantment, more the dragon cursed by it.

Should I tell Queen Glacier about Foeslayer? How much could that Nightwing know anyway?

He shook his head.

I'm being ridiculous. I don't think Moon is even capable of considering doing anything like what Lynx said, so something here is definitely off. I should at least wait until I know for certain what's happened.

Orange light caught in the corner of his eye, and he glanced to the window, watching the Sun begin its lazy descent down the horizon.

I should be getting to bed.

Yet something told him sleep would be a long time coming tonight.

Moon groaned, near-collapsing to the ground from the effort of walking.

How long had she been awake? Two, three days?

She wanted to sleep, she truly did, but the idea of having to face anyone using a dream visitor was too much to bear, even if it meant depriving herself of rest. It was catching up to her fast however.

She slumped down next to the river, staring forlornly at her reflection in its shifting surface. She could barely recognise it through her sleepless haze.

Then a coherent thought managed to push through.

If only I didn't look this way, then I wouldn't have to hide.

An idea struck her, and before she knew what she was doing she grabbed hold of a particularly sharp rock, jamming it against the silver scales by her eyes.

All I have to do is get rid of these, then dragons won't know exactly who I am as soon as someone says "silver scales".

Her eyelids drooped slowly closed, and she opened them abruptly, dropping the rock with a clatter. What was she thinking? Maybe she should just sleep, give in to it and try to explain everything to whoever arrived to talk with her. The shiver down her spine at even thinking those words immediately put that idea to rest.

There was a sharp snap behind her.

Perhaps that shiver came from somewhere else.

Moon leapt up, staring out into the trees wildly. "Hello?" She mumbled, taking a few wary steps backwards.

Silence, then "Hello."

A long, serpentine figure slithered out from the trees. She had pale, sandy scales, and a pattern of brown spotted triangles dappled the underside of her wings. She wore nothing but a pink seashell necklace, strung together with dusty brown twine.

On any other day, Moon would have fled at the mere sight of another dragon, but apparently her fight or flight instincts were taking a bit of a break.

The Sandwing regarded her with fathomless black eyes, her expression slowly edging with concern. "Is everything alright?"

Moon swallowed hard, trying to lessen the trembling in her wings. There was something decidedly off about this dragoness, though Moon still couldn't explain the feeling in words. Instead of answering the question Moon just slowly shook her head, taking another cautious step back.

The Sandwing stopped her approach, tucking in her wings as if to appear smaller, "It's quite alright, I won't hurt you."

Moon was unconvinced, and tried to search the Sandwing's brain for any hint of insincerity. That was when she realised what was bothering her, she couldn't hear anything from the Sandwing's mind at all. It wasn't like skyfire, she'd still be able to hear the distinctive buzz given off by any dragon using it. It wasn't a mental shield either, whenever those went up she could still sense the dragon's mind, even if she couldn't hear what was going on. This was just an empty wall of nothing. It reminded her of how Darkstalker would sometimes slink away when he promised to leave her alone for a while, except it was much more terrifying actually being able to see the dragon who was so completely foreign to her, instead of just imagining them.

The Sandwing must have noticed the shift in her expression, and tried to edge closer. "What are you doing so far from your kingdom?"

What was she doing as far? She desperately missed her mother, why didn't she just go home?

I can't. Not yet anyway.

Why not?

She was sure there was a reason, surely she wouldn't disappear into the mountains without a cause, right? She clasped her head in a talon, frustrated tears stinging her eyes as her sleepless brain tried to hold itself together.

A warm wing wrapped around her. She didn't remember seeing the Sandwing get so close, but she didn't pull away.

"Hey, hey, you're alright." The Sandwing squinted at her, a spark of curiosity lighting deep in her eyes. "By the snakes, when was the last time you slept?"

Moon couldn't think, she could barely stand, and the Sandwing was left supporting her as her legs began to give way. "Can't," was all she could manage, leaning into the dragoness' side. "He, they'll all find me."

"Well, you've got to sleep." The statement was so obvious Moon almost laughed, "I can take you somewhere safer, I'm sure whoever they are won't be able to find you there."

Moon wasn't in much a state to say no, and besides, why wasn't she sleeping? She nodded feebly, taking a few unstable steps and unfurling her wings. The Sandwing did the same, watching her warily from the corner of her eye. She dug her talons into the ground, trying to maintain some semblance of balance. The dragoness beside her took off, and she did the same, but the moment her wings crested the canopy her vision went dark, and everything cut out.