"Hello, Crystal," an voice yawned, with a hint of boredom pulsing through it. It sent a shiver down her spine, as if someone had dragged a screeching piece of ice along her scales.

Crystal tried to remember what was happening, squinting her eyes. Everything was blurry. She'd gone to the Sky Kingdom, there was a fight with a SkyWing, Schist had gotten injured. She'd used the Darkstone to enchant a diamond that would save him. Had it worked? She wasn't sure, using the Darkstone was the last thing she could remember.

As her vision started to clear up, Crystal looked around at her surroundings. She was still in a cave, but it was nothing the SkyWing animus's cave. A shimmering, ice-like quartz covered the walls of the chamber, and small purple specks like stars covered the ceiling of the chamber, placed seemingly randomly. It reminded her of some of the caverns in the northern Sand Kingdom she'd visited with her father, except with a blinding intensity.

Where am I? she thought in worry. Did using the Darkstone kill her? Was she with the Great Ice Dragon now? If this was the northern Sand Kingdom, how else could she have gotten to the Sand Kingdom anyways? Where were Torrent, Griffin, and Schist? Her head hurt, as if there was something stuck in her skull beneath her horns.

"Your allies aren't here," the voice spoke again. Crystal whipped around, lashing her sharp tail out. Behind her stood — no, floated — a shimmering figure of a MudWing, maybe five or so years older than Crystal herself. It was difficult to tell, his transparent appearance didn't seem fully static. He had a tired look on his face, as if he had forgotten to sleep the night before, and his wings were folded inwards. At first, his eyes appeared to be differently colored, one a light-blue, and the other a golden-brown, but the mismatched pupil size and an unusual wobble revealed to Crystal that the latter was glass. "You're not dead, if that's what you're wondering. You're dreaming."

"What?" Crystal asked in confusion. She waved a claw back and forth within the air. It sure felt real. Cold air brushed up against her scales. She peered behind the floating MudWing. Across a long platform of the same quartz-like material that the walls were made from, the preserved corpse of a young NightWing stood solidified, fully encased by the frostbreath of an IceWing, a frozen layer completely covering his faded body. He stood on his hind legs, his wings and forearms trapped within a contorted position, as if he was trying to tear himself apart.

"His name was Starweaver," the MudWing explained, pointing a talon at the NightWing. He had floated, bobbing up and down, to the other side of Crystal. "He was killed by an IceWing princess, in a heroic, but futile act of self-sacrifice."

"Why?" Crystal asked, looking around again, still confused. If this was a dream, could she get up? Crystal closed her eyes, and tried to envision waking up.

"Please don't," the MudWing replied, evidently able to tell that she was trying to get out of the dream, "I'm not able to talk to you very well from here. The IceWing princess was trying to do the right thing when she killed Starweaver. It didn't work. Everyone she wanted to save died regardless."

Crystal frowned, and stared at the MudWing. "Is this some kind of dream lesson?" she asked. "Because I'm not giving Queen Glacier back the Darkstone, if that's what you're asking. I know that war will continue if I don't, and MudWings will die anyways, but I'm not letting her destroy an entire subspecies of dragons."

The floating MudWing frowned for a moment, flicking a tongue out of his mouth. He twirled a talon in the air, thinking. "Oh," he finally responded, "sorry, it's been a while since we've talked, and I'm still really tired. No, that's not what I meant. You're right, but all the MudWings will die anyways, not that it matters, you're still on the right course. But whether or not a few MudWings will die just twenty to a thousand years earlier is besides the point. This is just an introduction meeting. Do you know where you are?"

Crystal glanced around quickly. "Somewhere in the darkstone mines south of the Ice Kingdom?" she asked. She frowned. "I shouldn't have told you that. Why did I tell you that?"

The MudWing smiled. "You used the Darkstone, remember? Unfortunately, you're not compatible with it, so it's taking a toll on your body. But that's alright, that's how I can talk to you. You won't be able to use it again though." The ghostly MudWing shook his wings, the light bending through them. His eyes opened slightly, more alert. "My name is Calamity. You don't need to introduce yourself."

"What?" Crystal asked, confused. Suddenly, she felt rumbling in the ground beneath her. She cried out as the pressure in the back of her skull grew.

Calamity frowned. "I need to go now. I can't talk to you very long, sorry. This will just be a bad dream, alright?"

A large crack appeared between Crystal's legs, and quickly opened wide. Crystal latched her front and hind claws on to each side, but as the chasm grew and stretched out her limbs, she was forced to let go, trying to dig her talons into the walls. As Crystal started to slide down, she glanced up. Calamity, still floating just above the ground, waved his claws goodbye towards Crystal with a smile. "See you!"

Crystal spread out her wings as the crack continued to open wide beneath her, and tried to fly upwards, but it was no use. She felt no resistance from the air, and continued to fall into the chasm. "Help!" Crystal yelled out in alarm. The line of light above her continued to shrink, Calamity's waving paw becoming smaller and smaller.

Torrent grumbled in boredom, rolling the scroll back and forth across the cave floor, the scroll scuttling around pebbles as it rolled. Torrent bounced it back and forth between his claws. Whatever Schist and Griffin were doing right now, it had to be more interesting than this.

Schist and Griffin had returned to the cave about a week ago, bringing along some SkyWing. After being gone an entire day, Torrent was worried they had been captured at first, but Griffin had explained the situation — the SkyWing, Kite, had taken them back to her village and had given them food and water in exchange for them helping out. Torrent had shown her the statue of Magma they had hidden, but she had left without a word. Griffin and Schist had followed, telling Torrent that they'd come back to visit him and Crystal in a fortnight or so, and would return with more supplies. He didn't blame them: Schist was still unable to fly, so it took the whole of a day to get to and back from the village. Still, it wouldn't have taken Griffin alone that long to visit at least once.

He poked into the stores of food Kite had brought them. Salted goat, again. That was all that was in there. It had been interesting the first few times, but what he wouldn't do for a nice fresh salmon or tuna right now. He missed the cuisine of the Sea Kingdom dearly, and the next chance he got, he would make sure to share it with Schist and Crystal. He didn't know about MudWings, but apparently IceWings were also fish-eaters.

Torrent turned to Crystal. Still asleep; holding the diamond she had enchanted. He grimaced a little in worry. She hadn't eaten or drunk anything. Torrent knew IceWings could go much longer than most of the other tribes without food and water (barring SandWings, of course), but it had been almost a month since she had been given anything. The healing diamond was probably the only thing keeping her alive, but after what had happened to Schist, Torrent didn't have much faith in it. He nervously turned back to the scroll, which had slipped from his talons and rolled open across the cave. He glanced at it, reading a segment:

Erosion decided to instruct me in animus powers today! Oh, I am so excited, this was the best day of my entire life! The first thing she did was give me some warnings, and forced me to write them down in this scroll. One, do not use animus magic for trivial necessities: too much use of animus magic can be dangerous for the mind and soul. Two, make your enchantments simple and precise: the magic can occasionally interpret what you intend if you say something vague, but clarity in your enchantments is less risky. While you are using, always speak your enchantments.

Magic figuring out what the user intended? Torrent thought about this for a moment. He hadn't heard of this before in any of his scrolls, although he supposed it made sense. Although Orca had always said her enchantments out-loud, albeit underwater, Torrent knew that some of the historical animus dragons had used their minds to enchant, and he recalled at least one ancient SeaWing who even enchanted in Aquatic. And in the Talons of Power ceremony, prospective animus dragonets were ordered to just tell their coconuts to move, not explicitly enchant them.

Three, the magic I have given you is a gift. Do not use it against my wishes, ever, or I shall take it away permanently. Four, do not make conflicting enchantments: in this case, only one of them will usually win out, and it will cause erratic behaviour. Five, do not overexert your magic: using magic is like flying, fly too far and you'll be too tired to fly the next day. Use too much magic or create a larger enchantment than what you're used to, and the effects will take a physical and mental strain. Six, do not try to bring back the dead using your magic. This is impossible, and wi —

Suddenly, Torrent heard a quiet groan a short distance away. He quickly whipped his horns around to face Crystal. She was moving, just barely, and one of her eyelids slid open. She shook a little.

"Crystal!" Torrent shouted in surprise. "You're awake."

Crystal didn't respond. She tried half-heartedly to lift herself up, but had nowhere near enough strength. She grumbled something out quietly to Torrent.

"What?" Torrent asked in concern, walking closer.

"S-schist?" Crystal mumbled, her one open eye fluttering closed.

"He's fine," Torrent explained quickly, "you saved him, you did it!"

Crystal's head might have shaken a little as a response, but Torrent couldn't tell. She opened her mouth. "Wa-ater," she gasped. Torrent noticed she had dropped the enchanted diamond when she awoke.

"Yes, yes!" Torrent shouted, scrambling to get her water. He grabbed one of the leather bags Kite had brought to him, filled with clean water, and dragged it over to Crystal. He opened it up and placed it in front of her snout. She extended a long blue tongue, and tried to lap up the water, every motion an effort for her.

While Crystal was drinking, Torrent grabbed one of the bags of salted goat meat and pulled a few strips out. Tearing them into little pieces so that she wouldn't choke, the SeaWing placed them right beside the water. "You need to eat something," he said.

As soon as she was done drinking, Crystal complied, moving her snout towards the goat meat and voraciously swallowing it down. Torrent waited for her to finish. He glanced over at the Darkstone beside her. He had thought about just throwing it off a mountainside, hopefully never to be found again, but had decided not to. He had no idea how it worked, and was worried that doing something to it could have some negative effect on Crystal while she was in her coma.

The moment the IceWing was done eating, Torrent started to question her. "Crystal, the Darkstone. How does it work? Can we destroy it? Where di — "

Torrent stopped asking questions and grimaced. Crystal wasn't hearing any of them. She had fallen asleep again, her scaled chest gently rising and falling.

"She woke up?" Griffin asked, both surprise and excitement in his voice.

Torrent nodded. "Not for very long, and only once. It was about a week ago, and she hasn't gotten up since."

Schist peered in closer to Crystal. She was still asleep, the same as when he had last seen her. The healing jewel had been placed back within her claws by Torrent.

"Has she stirred since then?"

"A little," Torrent replied to Griffin. "There were a few times when she seemed a bit more awake than before. Just rustling a bit more."

"Ah," Griffin replied with an air of disappointment. Maybe this was a sign of her getting better, but maybe not. It could just be a random occurrence.

Kite looked around the cave with an emotionless stare. "There's a lot of gold in here," she commented. Much of it Torrent had returned to pebbles (it wasn't as if he had much else to do), but there were still specks of gold coins dotting the cave.

"Yes, there is," Torrent retorted, glaring at Kite suspiciously. "It's not real, if that's what you're asking. Magma enchanted it all from the pebbles, and I've trying to get rid of as much as possible."

"Take all you want!" Griffin offered. "We don't need any of it, and there's plenty!"

Torrent glared at Griffin. "If you want to take that risk, then you can," he snarled at Kite, "but I should warn you that animus dragons occasionally put curses on their treasure."

Kite gave Torrent a glance, and took a step back from the gold, weighing the options.

"It's fine," Griffin growled, talking to Kite, but locking his eyes with Torrent. "We've been around it for weeks, and no adverse side effects so far."

Torrent snorted. "Each of these coins was enchanted individually, and the enchantments can't affect me anyways. Any one of these coins could be enchanted with some dreadful curse, just cause Magma was a little angry that day, maybe 'cause death and ruin to your family.' I'm immune to the enchantments, but I'd avoid touching too many if I were you."

Kite backed a little more away from the coins. "I'm good," she decided. Torrent cocked his head at Griffin with a triumphant smirk.

Griffin ruffled his feathers in annoyance. "Fine. We've delivered supplies, we can go now. Schist?"

The scarred MudWing turned to look at Griffin, before turning back to Crystal. He sighed. "Yeah, alright," he conceded, walking back towards Griffin, each step a limp.

Griffin flicked his furred tail in defiance, then walked towards the exit of the cave, Kite and Schist following him. Schist looked back at Torrent with a sorrowful gaze, as if he was trying to apologize for Griffin's rude exit.

After the three left, the cave was quiet again. Just Torrent and the sleeping Crystal remained. He sighed, and turned back to the piles of pebbles and rubble, enchanted gold scattered throughout them. He might as well try to get rid of some more, though it looked like it would still take an eternity.