Griffin shivered, lost in sleep. He nudged his wings, touching the water below. Small droplets climbed up his shaft of his feathers, spreading out and dampening his wings. The cold water broke his sleep, and Griffin raised an eye.

"Water?" he yawned, pulling his wing out of the pool. "Did it rain?"

He suddenly realized that they were in a cave, sheltered from the elements above: this couldn't be from a passing thunderstorm. Griffin stood up with a start — saltwater had entered the cave while they were sleeping, filling up the entirety of it beneath the four. The tides must have risen while they were asleep.

"The water's rising!" Griffin called out in alarm, turning to the three sleeping dragons. The fire Kite had made for them was just cinders at this point, and it shed a faint light onto the others, a glowing reflection in their scales.

Torrent slowly opened an eye, with a yawn. "Yes," he murmured, not thinking, and rested his head back down.

Griffin walked over to the SeaWing with a frown, and shook Torrent's head with his talons. "Wake up," he hissed. "Crystal and Schist could drown."

"Drown?" Crystal asked, standing up in surprise. She shook her tail, the long spikes on the end rattling back and forth, then stretched out her wings. "I'm, sorry, what?"

Griffin pointed a talon at the water. It had filled up the entrance to the cave, and had only left the small platform untouched. "Water! It's filling up the cave, and you can't swim underwater, like Torrent and I. Schist, get up!"

Schist had risen to his paws, the aching pain in the right side of his body dull. "I see," he muttered.

"We need to get out of here before it gets too high up," Griffin hyperventilated, formulating a plan. "Torrent and I can breath underwater, so we can help you two through the caves, and if you fall unconscious, we'll be able to carry you to shore."
"Wait, you can breath underwater?" Crystal asked in surprise.

"Yes," Griffin hurried, "how did you think I lived in the Deep Palace with Torrent? It's a magical thing." Griffin shuddered a little, thinking about what had happened after Crystal had first created him. He did not want anyone to drown today.

Torrent grinded his teeth a little. "He can, but I might not be able to."
"What?" asked Griffin in confusion.

Torrent sighed, and raised a claw, dragging it along his left gills, scarred from the marks Magma's burning talons had created. "The diamond didn't heal my gills properly," he replied. "I don't know if I can still breath underwater, or how well. I haven't really had a chance to try since it happened. I might not be able to carry Schist or Crystal if they lose consciousness."

Griffin took a peek back at the water and tapped his talons. He could have sworn it had risen up another inch in the time they had been talking. "And if either Crystal or Schist start to drown, I too small to help them either. We need to hurry, and think of a new plan," he growled. "Anything else we need to know?"

Schist raised a claw. Griffin swiveled his head to look at him, ruffling his feathers. If this went up, they'd all be in a watery grave.

"I'll be fine," Schist explained. "I think can hold my breath for an hour or something if I try hard. I've never done it before, but apparently it's a MudWing thing."

"I've never heard of that," Griffin frowned, skeptical of Schist's claim.

"No, I think that Schist's right," Torrent spoke up, "I remember hearing about some battle where the MudWings were able to defeat a small SeaWing battalion underwater because of it."

"Are you sure you're not thinking of Queen Fen?" Griffin asked. "She used her animus magic to help the MudWings take the Deep Palace and conquer the Sea Kingdom."

"No MudWing history, please!" Crystal interrupted. "This plan is also terrible. So everyone else is accounted for, but what if I drown before you bring me out?"
"We have the healing diamond still," Torrent pointed out, looking around for it. "If you do drown, we can use it to heal you."

Crystal snorted. "It can't heal me if I'm dead, and I'm not certain that thing works anyways. Sure, it kept Schist alive, but look how he turned out."

Schist tucked his tail in shame, and turned the scarred side of his body away from the others. He looked up towards the cave walls.

Griffin glanced over at Schist, and grimaced. Crystal could be just as insensitive as Torrent. "Well, it's either that or you die," Griffin decided. "Do you have a better plan?"
"We could just wait," Schist suggested, turning back to Griffin.

"What?" Griffin hysterically asked. "Do you want her to drown?"

Schist shook his head, then raised a talon to the cave wall. "Look, the stone here is a lighter color than the one down below." He dragged his talon down the wall, to where the stone changed colors. "And there are barnacles down here, but not above." The MudWing glanced over at the stone platform. "I think the line is where high tide meets. The platform is above the line, so I don't the water reaches up to there."

Torrent and Griffin breathed a sigh of relief. Crystal thought for a moment longer. "And we've still got four or so more years until the Brightest Night," she realized, "so there's probably no freak moon alignment." She closed her eyes, calming herself. "Which means we were never in danger to begin with."

Griffin fidgeted uncomfortably. "Er, sorry about waking you up, I guess," he chuckled.

"It's fine," Crystal comforted. "I would've done the same." She glanced at the water, almost reaching up to the high tide mark Schist had pointed out. "We're going to have some time before it recedes enough for us to leave, I imagine." She turned to the other three. "I doubt we're going to get much flying in today."

Torrent nodded, then turned to Griffin, swishing his tail back and forth. "Sorry about that," he muttered.

"What for?" Griffin asked in confusion.

"Not telling you about my gills," Torrent explained. "With only one working, I don't know if I'll be able to live in the Deep Palace again."

Griffin turned his feathered head back and forth, parsing Torrent's statement. "Wait, you think I want to go back to the Deep Palace again?" he asked, almost laughing. "No offense, but I don't ever want to swim again in my life. Maybe it was fun for you, since you didn't have to constantly hide, and were able to actually breath, but the Deep Palace is no place for a gryphon, magical breathing or not. Believe me, I much prefer real air."

"Oh," Torrent gulped in embarrassment and shame. He hadn't realized Griffin had hated it so much in the Sea Kingdom. "I'm sorry, I didn't know — "

"No problem," Griffin replied with a smile. "The situation wasn't ideal, and I know Orca did the best she could."

Torrent nodded, and looked at the embers of the fire. They were fading, and if they were going to be here for another quarter of a day, Schist would need the warmth. After placing some more of the firewood he and Crystal had collected, the SeaWing put his snout close to the fire, and gave the fire a short puff of breath. Crystal hid a laugh as the cinders quickly glew an orange, then faded again in the pulse of a heartbeat.

"That's not how you do it, you silly water-breather," she directed Torrent. "You have to keep your breath steady and long."

The end of the SeaWing's tail twitched back and forth. "And what would a dragon with 'freezing death breath' know about maintaining fires?"

"Princess Blaze refuses to make her own fires, and I was unfortunately assigned to taking care of her for a time while she met with Queen Glacier and my father," Crystal commented, "and it's not like everything we breath on freezes. It's like fire-breath, it's different than normal breathing."

Torrent frowned, and put his snout a bit closer to the fire, wincing at the heat and smoke. He took in a deep breath, then slowly let out air, barely opening his jaws. The embers started to glow brightly, then suddenly erupted into flame, surrounding the pieces of tinderwood on top. After Torrent was done, the fire had restarted.

"Freezing death breath?" Schist asked Crystal. "That sounds awesome, can I see?"

"Sure?" she replied. "Just stand back. There's a reason it's called freezing death breath."

Crystal turned to a wall of the cave, and opened her mouth wide, breathing in. The other three took a wide step back, not wanting to get too close. She exhaled, and a unnatural hissing noise came from her mouth. A white mist emanated from her mouth in a stream, and as it hit the wall and spread across the cave's surface, white clouds billowed towards the other three.

Torrent scrambled back in alarm the clouds of gas flooded towards him. "It's fine!" Crystal called out, noticing his fear. "The clouds are harmless, as long as you don't get hit by the frostbreath straight-on."

Torrent meekly looked down as a cloud brushed past his paws. It was cold, and dryer than the ocean air around them, tingling strangely on his scales. As the mist cleared away, Schist walked a little closer towards Crystal. On the wall, where she had breathed her frostbreath, ice crystals had formed, covering the stone surface, and nestling within the cracks.

Crystal smiled in accomplishment as Schist looked on, amazed. "You should have seen what I did to attack Magma," Crystal said. "I didn't even know I had that much frostbreath in me."

Schist nodded, slightly self-conscious of his injuries again. He had heard what Crystal had done before, but hadn't known what the frostbreath looked like until now.

Torrent and Griffin walked closer to the two, both examining the ice crystals the frostbreath had made.

"You mentioned you had a sister, right?" Schist asked Crystal.

"Yeah, Clarity," Crystal replied with a hint of surprise. "Why do you ask?"

Schist fidgeted from side to side. "I was just thinking about my own sister, Glen. I wonder if she misses me, or if she's worried about me."

"Probably," Griffin commented. "She was pretty worried about you when she found us."

Crystal thought for a moment. "Yeah, siblings can be like that. Clarity wouldn't admit it, but I'm sure she's worried sick about me. I hope Fracture somehow got the news to her that I made it out of the Ice Kingdom."

"Do IceWings do families?" Schist asked. "Like, not just siblings, but also parents?"

"Usually," Crystal explained, "but it varies. Boreal was always too busy to care for me, so Clarity was really the one who raised me. She's my bigclaws, or whatever you call them."

"Bigwings," Schist corrected with a laugh. "Because their wings are big enough to protect the rest of their siblings from harm." He frowned a little. Maybe Quake was able to protect him and Glen while he was alive, but he wasn't able protect them dead. That had been Glen's job. "Usually. What about your mother?"

Crystal rattled her tail a little. "She died before I hatched, so I never actually knew her, but she was a popular general in the war against Queen Oasis, back before Glacier was queen. Clarity says I'm a bit like her."

Griffin glanced over to the water, and relaxed his wings. "It's going down!" he stated with relief to the others. "Schist was right!"

Crystal breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that's good to know," she smiled. "I guess I'm not going to die!"

The water level had gone down quite a bit since Griffin had woken the others up, and over the next few hours, it continued to fall. Eventually, it reached the point where the four could walk out of the cave, almost dry. Torrent looked over the edge of the cliff, to the north. A cold salty breeze blew against him, and the sun was high in the sky, over the great ocean to the north. There was no land, at least not as far as Torrent could see. Maybe if you flew far enough in that direction, you'd reach the Lost Continent or some other unexplored area.

Torrent looked to the left, peeking his head over the edge of the cave, and around the corner of the cliff-face. The jagged cliffs continued as far as he could see. That was where they were going: to the south-west, out of the Sky Kingdom. A strong gust of wind pushed his head against the cliff, his left horn almost hitting the rock, and salty water sprayed against his scales. It almost felt like home. He turned, and glanced back at Crystal, Schist, and Griffin, patiently waiting for him.

Crystal spread out her wings, almost hitting Torrent in the neck. "Well, c'mon!" she snorted. "The day's almost half over thanks to those stupid tides, are we going to go flying, or not?"

She leapt off the side of the cliff face, her tail snaking behind her, gliding a short distance down before flapping her wings, generating lift. Torrent quickly followed, with Schist and Griffin jumping off after him. The four turned to the west, the crashing waves of the sea beneath their wings.