Torrent's original plan was to take a shortcut and fly over the Sea Kingdom in order to get to the animus in the eastern Sky Kingdom, but Schist changed that. Being trapped in Adobe's city for most of his life, Schist had been given no experience in long-distance flying, and he wouldn't make it that far soaring over water, with little place to set down. Instead, Torrent was forced to adjust their course: to follow the MudWing coast, make a detour inwards to avoid the dense MudWing population in the Diamond Spray Delta, and continue flying up the SkyWing coast until they reached their destination. Torrent was not particularly pleased, but Griffin and Schist didn't seem to care at all.
The view from above was pretty, but seeing swamps and marshes in every direction got dull quickly. The three flew high, in hopes of not being spotted, which just made the landscape seem more eternal. They crossed the Diamond Spray River towards the end of their first day: it would've been even earlier had they not had to avoid the delta. The river was wide, and there were plenty of dragons around it: SeaWing and MudWing merchants dragging barges up and down the river, filled with tradable goods and weapons too heavy to fly. Fortunately, no one paid Torrent, Schist, or Griffin any mind. MudWings and SeaWings were allied, and Griffin didn't look like much other than a large bird so far up.
Yet after that, they passed into SkyWing territory. This was much more dangerous, because of the war, and the consequences for being caught would be brutal. Torrent might be lucky enough to be held as an important prisoner due to his status as a prince, but Schist would be sent to Queen Scarlet's infamous arena, and Griffin might be stuffed and sent to Princess Burn as a present. They kept a much more wary eye out, and attempted to stay far clear of where Torrent thought the major settlements were. Torrent was nervous, but Schist and Griffin less so. Aren't they at all worried? Torrent wondered.
The terrain quickly changed inside of the Sky Kingdom. The trees grew tall, and hills grew into mountains when Torrent looked to the west. It was his first time seeing mountains, even though it was from a distance. They were magnificent. He wanted to fly closer, but knew that they were much further than they appeared, and that the majority of the SkyWings settlements were in that area. They would stay between the coast and the mountains, where the population was sparsest.
Finally, they reached the end of their first day of flying, barely inside the Sky Kingdom. Torrent grumbled, frustrated that they had to make so many stops for Schist. He had hoped to go further, but the young MudWing's lack of experience had prevented that. It would take forever at this rate.
The three started to set up camp, finding a nice area underneath a dense stretch of trees, where they couldn't be seen from above. As Torrent and Griffin were setting up tarps, they suddenly smelt smoke and the burning of wood. "FIRE!" Torrent yelled in alarm, turning around to see Schist breathing a small amount of flame onto a wood-pile he had set up.
"Yes?" Schist asked as he stopped his flame, confused.
Torrent growled in frustration. "We need to put that out!" he yelled as he scooped up clumps of dirt with his claws, throwing them onto the budding flames and dousing them. He turned to Schist with a glare. "No fires," he hissed. "We can't risk having a passing SkyWing see the smoke in the middle of the night."
"Oh," Schist said dismayed. "I'll be cold though."
"Well, maybe you should've stayed back with Glen in the Mud Kingdom," Torrent spat.
Schist's looks fell, and he walked over to a small patch of dirt and buried his snout deep within it. Griffin gave Torrent a look of frustration.
"What?" Torrent asked Griffin. "I'm right, you know."
"It was still rude," Griffin chided. "And you're forgetting he's not a SeaWing used to living at the bottom of the ocean. You don't getcold, at least not in the way most other dragons do."
"What do you know about dragons," Torrent muttered under his breath.
"I heard that," Griffin replied, keeping his calm. "You're in one of your moods again."
Torrent gave Griffin a glare. "I'm in a mood?"
Griffin nodded. "Yep. You totally are. And you need to stop acting like that to us just because of it."
Torrent wanted to protest, but Griffin was right. "Fine," he admitted. "I'm in a mood. Do you want me to apologize, or what?"
"Do you think you need to apologize?" Griffin questioned.
Torrent clenched his teeth. "Probably," he grumbled.
Torrent walked over to Schist, taking a deep breath in. Schist looked up with a soppy stare. "Look," Torrent said, "I'm sorry about saying that. We can't have a fire, but if there's any way I can make you feel warmer, I'll do it." Griffin nodded in satisfaction.
Schist smiled. "Thanks, but I'll be fine."
Griffin walked up to Torrent, looking quite small against the SeaWing's wings. "So," Griffin turned asked Schist, "is it just me, or can Glen be sort of be . . . you know . . ."
"Bossy?" Schist finished, chuckling. "Don't worry, I see it too. She can get completely insufferable at times. She wasn't always this way though." An expression of grief started to form on Schist's face, his scales drooping. "I guess she kind of took it upon herself to become our bigwings after Quake died."
Griffin joyful smile became solemn. "Yeah, I understand," he replied uncomfortably. "Torrent and I's sister died too. Well, sisters."
Schist gave Griffin a bit of a questioning stare.
"Ah," Griffin quickly responded, realizing what Schist was confused about, "can't see the family resemblance?" Schist nodded.
"Orca sort of adopted me," Griffin explained, "I mean, maybe she'd be more of a mother to me, since she created me, but I thought of her as more of a sister and all."
"Was Orca an animus?" Schist asked. "That's how you were created, right? Through the same magic Adobe had?"
"Err, yeah," Griffin awkwardly confirmed. "Good magic, though. I think. I'm not actually sure animus magic is good or evil."
"It's evil in nature," Torrent muttered, "but it can do good things occasionally. Rarely."
"Okay," Schist said. "So, was Orca like a bigwings to you?" he asked.
"Sort of," Griffin responded, "I mean, she the older sister, so she did older sister stuff, but she wasn't even the oldest one of Torrent's siblings, and SeaWings don't really have the whole bigwings thing. Our parents are more of our bigwings, so Coral and Gill I guess."
"Oh." Schist looked deep in thought for a moment, then his face lit up in surprise. "Wait, Queen Coral?" he asked in shock.
"Yeah, that one," Griffin said. "Wait, so if I'm Orca's adopted brother, does that make me Prince Griffin? I like the sound of that!"
Torrent frowned a little. "Griffin, maybe we shouldn't be telling every MudWing we meet my family history?"
Griffin rolled his eyes in a pronounced fashion. "Schist is literally the first MudWing I've told, and he's going to be travelling with us anyways. He deserves to know our secrets, although they're hardly secrets. Any dragon can see the starbursts under your wings."
"Starbursts?" Schist asked, confused.
Griffin nodded, then lifted one of Torrent's wings up with a talon, revealing the starburst patterns beneath. "See? These mean he's a royal SeaWing. They can light up too, show him Torrent."
Torrent pulled his wings back in. "No. I'm not something to show off."
Griffin grinned slightly, as much as he could with a beak. "Fine, but I'm still going to tell him about Orca."
"Tell him what?" Torrent snapped. "You already told him she's the animus daughter of Queen Coral. Well, she used her magic too much, killed our other sister and forced the rest of the SeaWings to forget her, then challenged Coral to the throne and lost. That's it."
"Debatable," Griffin muttered slightly, "and you forgot a lot. Like, we found this crazy old NightWing named Sunscorcher, and read a lot of scrolls, and helped her on her sculpting, though that didn't go very well, and complained a lot about River too and such."
"Not important," Torrent hissed. "He doesn't need to know everything about our personal lives."
"Well, isn't that the interesting stuff?" Griffin argued. "It would be no fun if we just listed Orca's birth and death dates for him, would it?"
"This isn't supposed to be fun," Torrent snarled, "it's supposed to be sad, and we're should be grieving and crying or something over her death right now. It's an insult to her memory."
"What's an insult to her memory is you being grumpy all the time," Griffin retorted. "She would've wanted you to think back fondly on our time together and to keep on being happy!"
Torrent stood silent for a moment. Hints of tears started to form in his eyes. He missed Orca. He couldn't take this anymore. He turned around and walked off into the SkyWing woods.
"He'll be back," Torrent heard Griffin say, "I don't know what's been with him today, he's not usually like this."
Torrent continued walking, until he couldn't hear Griffin anymore. He sat down, and buried his snout in his claws, holding back tears. He didn't need to cry, not now.
Suddenly, Torrent heard a rustle in the bushes. Something was there — something large, like a dragon. He pushed away his grief, this was urgent. If the three were caught by a band of SkyWings. . .
Torrent froze. Maybe whatever was there hadn't heard him? He heard footsteps walking towards him. Torrent crouched in the bushes, peering through the cracks. He hoped the dragon hadn't noticed him. He held his wings tight against his scales, and waited.
Suddenly, Torrent heard a snap of a stick, almost right in front of him. He jumped outwards in a pounce. A yell of alarm sounded as the dragon beneath his claws rolled away from him. Torrent turned, and tackled the dragon to the ground again. The dragon was smaller than him, and it didn't take much for him to pin his struggling opponent down to the ground.
The dragon attempted to get free again, but Torrent held on. Finally, his opponent came to a rest. "Get off me!" she hissed.
Torrent looked down to get a better view. It was dark, and it took a moment to realize she had light scales, not the orange-ish colors of the SkyWings he'd expected, but the light-blue scales of an IceWing. Her serrated claws and long horns confirmed this fact. She was around Torrent's age, maybe slightly older, but smaller. A silver chain was wrapped around her neck, with a dark purple stone at the bottom. She turned her head up towards Torrent, and opened her mouth wide, a hissing noise sounding within her throat. Cold air wafted up towards Torrent's snout as Crystal prepared her frostbreath.