Crystal yawned, and tried to turn her head to the side. The sun was almost directly in her eyes as the four continued along the coastline, glinting off the blue waters. The reflection of the sun slowly moved towards its causer, as the great yellow orb started to dip below the horizon.
How long had they been flying, again? She wasn't sure, but her wings were exhausted from continuously beating for who knows how long, and she was ready to get a good night's rest. The IceWing turned to Schist. He looked even worse, actively struggling to fly. Instead of gliding to conserve his wingbeats, like most dragons had been taught since birth, the MudWing was faltering, his breath heavy as he flapped his wings up and down, almost flailing.
The last week or so had been very tiring on both her and Schist, and they were barely more than halfway to their destination. While most dragons would have found this an excruciatingly slow pace, there wasn't much to be done. The four were flying in enemy territory, which meant that they had to quickly find cover at even the smallest glimpse of another SkyWing in the distance, and at every little hamlet along the northern coast Bobcat had marked, they had to spend hours going out to of their way, flying without break across the ocean. Additionally, Crystal and Schist needed far more breaks than the usual dragon — even after so many months, Crystal was still recovering to her full strength before the coma, while Schist had both never learned proper long-distance flying and was having plenty of difficulties using his scarred wing. This had made flying over the ocean to avoid SkyWings even more difficult, as they occasionally had to stop over the ocean for Schist or Crystal. A few times, Torrent had even let Schist or Crystal rest on his back as he acted as a floatation device for them. Even if he didn't say it, Crystal could tell that he had missed the open ocean.
"It's getting late!" Crystal called to Torrent and Griffin, who were a few wingbeats ahead of her and Schist. "We should find a place to sleep."
Griffin looked back, and gave her a nod. He pointed to the ground and muttered something to Torrent that Crystal couldn't hear in the wind, then dived. Torrent quickly followed, Crystal and Schist gliding behind him. They landed in a small clearing, a fair ways away from the coast.
Fortunately for Schist, the more south-west they got, and closer to the Sand Kingdom, the warmer it became. The first few nights, he had slept cold (it was too cold for him to create a fire, not that he wanted to anyways. Torrent and Crystal agreed — it was far too much of a risk to create a fire in SkyWing territory), but had acclimated somewhat during their stay in the Sky Kingdom. Crystal could feel the temperature rising every day, somewhat to her dismay.
So, they slept without a fire nearby, taking watches. Crystal was around halfway through her watch, when she heard something not too far away. Voices talking. Crystal stayed silent as she tensed up. They weren't alone in the forest.
"Did you hear about that new princess?" one of the dragons said. He was close to Crystal, and walking closer. She slowly inched towards Torrent, and shook him gently. The large SeaWing opened one eye, and opened his mouth to speak, before Crystal put a talon over it, signaling him to keep quiet.
"Of course, this 'Princess Ruby?'" a second dragon sneered. "You don't believe whatever the queen said, right?"
Torrent slowly got up, staying as silent as possible. There was a large bush between them and the two dragons, but the distance was quickly closing. He drew his dagger out of its sheathe, ready to fight if it came to that. Crystal moved onto Schist and Griffin, slowly waking them up with a tap. They glanced up quietly as she gave them the same signal.
"What do you think I am, a dragonet?" the first snorted. "Tourmaline's mysterious 'disappearance' was clearly just Scarlet killing her off. It's not like she hasn't done it before. This poor 'Ruby' dragon is probably some unlucky bastard."
Crystal took a step towards the bush Torrent was hiding behind, her hind paw stepping on a dry leaf and making a faint crackling sound.
"Poor?" the second asked. "I wouldn't consider myself poor if I got to live in the pal — did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" the first questioned. Crystal's heart beat rapidly, her claws shaking anxiously. If they were caught . . . "It was probably a deer or something. We're too far from the border to see any trouble, it's why I asked to get assigned here."
"No, I'm sure I heard something larger," the second protested. He stepped closer to the bushes, and spent a tense moment scanning them. In the dark, he couldn't see the dragons behind it, though Torrent could see the crimson scales of his enemy completely fine with his night-vision. There were only two. "Hmm, maybe you're right," the SkyWing muttered, as he started to turn back to his partner. "I don't think I se —"
Torrent leapt through the bushes with a roar with his dagger out, jumping on the shocked crimson SkyWing. As the other one, a large orange SkyWing with a short tail, screamed in fright, Torrent slit his prey's jugular in one quick motion, blood spraying from the SkyWing's neck onto Torrent's neck and chest.
After the quick lapse into fear, the orange SkyWing caught a hold of himself, and quickly pounced at Torrent. He roared in anger, seeing his partner, and pushed the larger SeaWing off the red SkyWing's corpse, almost knocking Torrent to the ground. Torrent whipped his body around to hit the SkyWing with his bludgeoning tail, but he was too slow, and the SkyWing clawed at Torrent's neck, drawing red blood from it.
"Get back!" Crystal suddenly yelled. In a short moment of confusion, Torrent leapt away from the SkyWing into the bush behind him, his step immediately followed by a blast of freezing air inches from the tip of his snout. It hit the SkyWing full-on in the face, causing him to scream in agony as Crystal's freezing death breath sprayed up and down his neck and head, his scales icing together and cracking.
When she stopped her breath, the SkyWing fell forward, landing with a reverberating crack at Torrent's front paws. He stepped away as dry clouds billowed past him, and turned to Crystal.
"Thanks," Torrent gruffly mumbled. Crystal smiled and gave him a nod, then turned back to the campsite.
By this point, Schist and Griffin were fully awake, blinking at the scene of carnage that had taken place before them. Blood dripped off Torrent's face and neck, and a chunk of the second SkyWing's frozen skull had cracked from the rest of his corpse, blood frozen within it.
"Why . . .?" Schist asked with an expression of shock, speechless. "They weren't going to find us! He said he didn't see us!"
"And what if he was lying?" Torrent snapped. "Or maybe he decided to look again due to his sneaking suspicion, or they had kept going our way and ran into us!"
"You killed them," Schist growled. "You didn't have to do that!"
"I had to make a decision!" Torrent defensively protested. "It was either them, or us. At least this way, no one got hurt."
"No one got hurt?" Schist screeched. He pointed a claw to the body of the crimson SkyWing, blood still pouring from his neck. "How is that 'no one got hurt?'"
Hearing Schist's screech, Crystal nervously glanced around the empty forest. Hopefully there no one else nearby to hear all of this, or they might have trouble.
"Yeah, but they're our enemies, they deserve it," Griffin chimed in. "They're SkyWings, and guards at it. They're the bad guys here."
"What?" Schist growled. "Do you realize who's been feeding and taking care of you for the last six months? SkyWings! And we literally have an IceWing right here! Out of all of us, I'd think that the non-dragon wouldn't hate them just because they're SkyWings." Crystal took a step back. She wasn't sure she wanted to get involved in this.
"Yeah, well that's different," Griffin answered, ruffling his feathers in anger. "Crystal is on our side; she supports Queen Blister like the rest of us."
"What?" Crystal scoffed. "Seriously? You think I support that scheming monster?"
"Yes! You're a traitor to the IceWings, aren't you?" Griffin claimed.
A small snarl formed on Crystal's snout. "Just because I betrayed Queen Glacier doesn't make me any less of an IceWing. If Queen Glacier decided to take me back, I would do it, and happily serve in Queen Blaze's army. I love my kingdom, and would support Queen Glacier and the Ice Kingdom with any decision they made, short of causing a MudWing genocide. You know, you're not even a SeaWing," Crystal hissed. "Why should you be supporting Princess Evil like the rest of them?"
"You're one to blame Griffin!" Schist muttered. "You're just as guilty as Torrent, you murdered one of them too!"
Crystal opened her mouth to argue, but Torrent quickly stepped between the three. "Alright, I'm sorry for saving your tails!" he conceded. "Don't blame Crystal for this, I'm the one who attacked the SkyWings, she was just trying to help me out. Can't we just go back to sleep now?"
Schist frowned, and gave Torrent a glare. "Fine," he muttered finally, his scarred snout and scales reflecting the moonlight. He turned back towards the pile of leaves he was sleeping on, and started to lie down.
"Wait," brought up Crystal in exasperation, "we can't stay here. If these guards don't get back to wherever they were dispatched from on time, someone will go looking for them. We need to get far away from here, fast, so they can't track us.
Schist sighed, looking back at her. "Fine," he muttered. He opened his wings, and grabbed his bag. The other three did the same, and quickly lifted off into the moonlit night, Torrent leading them with his night-vision. The cold air from the sea brushed against their scales, as their wings, heavy with exhaustion, slowly beat back and forth. It would be a long night, and the four weren't going to get more sleep anytime soon.