"Gila isn't the only crime lord here," Avalanche explained. "He has a rival, a mongrel named Evergreen."
"Mongrel?" Schist asked in confusion.
"She's a hybrid," Crystal explained, "it means she's got a parent from two different tribes." She turned to Avalanche. "By her name, part IceWing and —"
"— and part SkyWing," Avalanche grunted, annoyed she had been interrupted. "Unimportant. But what is important is that she hates Gila, and I'm sure she would be delighted to have some help in getting rid of him."
"If he's actually an animus, I can do that," Torrent notified her, "I'll just need to get nearby without anyone else interfering."
"Do we really have to kill him?" Schist quickly asked.
"Yes!" Torrent and Crystal answered, responding in unison. They exchanged glances for a moment, then Torrent explained. "He's a crime lord, so he's definitely an evil dragon. I'm sure he's already hurt or killed others with his powers. If we can stop him, think of how much we'll be helping the city!"
"That's not even considering what he could do in the future," Crystal put forth. "He could kill or enslave all the dragons here with just a few words, if he chose to. If he's already made a ton of enchantments, he'll have lost a lot of his soul already, and is an extreme danger to everyone."
"Fine," Schist muttered in concesion.
Torrent turned back to Avalanche. "So, do you know we can find this Evergreen?"
The SkyWing bobbed her head back and forth a little, then looked over to Trustbreaker, tapping a claw on one of his horns.
"One of my cats lives by a small mansion where an Ice-Sky hybrid lives. The mansion is on this side of the river, about a mile north of where we are now," the gunmetal-scaled NightWing muttered. "One of the hybrid's bodyguards feeds him pieces of fresh fish occasionally, when no one else is looking, but the other guard chases him off ever time he goes near. He wants to claw the second one's eyes out, especially after she almost singed his tail. Once, the SkyWi —"
"That's enough," Avalanche hissed, slightly amused. "I know the place, I've seen it a few times when flying. There's a large garden around it."
"Thank you for the help," Griffin quickly told the two.
"The quicker you find him, the sooner we can leave," she snorted. "You're not going to go find Evergreen now, are you?"
Crystal glanced out the door. It was dark, and the drizzle earlier had started to turn into a downpour. "We'll wait until tomorrow morning," she suggested. "I doubt Evergreen would be happy if we came by so late."
Avalanche nodded, picking strands of pork out of her teeth. "Well then, stay quiet at least. I'm shutting my eyes, and you don't want to see me when I haven't had enough sleep."
The next morning, the rain had stopped, and the bright morning sun shone down upon the cities, evaporating the puddles in the road. Torrent woke to a cat gently kneading at some of the scales beneath his arm. He shook the critter off, and glanced around. It was late; he had overslept again.
"Finally awake, are you?" Crystal smiled, looking down. She was alright up, slowly stroking an orange-furred feline. Avalanche and Trustbreaker were in a corner of the cluttered room, and based on the intensity of their conversation, they were arguing about something. Sapphire was at his NightWing's claws, walking around and between his legs. Griffin stood in the opposite corner of the room, looking anxiously at the NightWing across the room, Schist standing next to him and trying to comfort the small feathered creature.
"Ugh," Torrent grumbled, frustrated that he had slept in. He felt his side, checking that his dagger was still there, and slowly stood up, stretching out his wings. Without another glance, he started towards the door, not wanting any more delays. As he reached towards the handle, he noticed Crystal standing behind him, ready to go.
"You don't have to go; I can do this alone," Torrent muttered. This would be easier if no one else was with him, and he didn't want to put anyone else in danger again.
Crystal snorted. "Sure you can. Just like you took out Magma alone, right?"
"This is different, he doesn't have firescales," the SeaWing protested. "I'm just going to meet with Evergreen anyways."
"All the more reason for Schist and I to come with you," Crystal responded, Torrent gritted his teeth a little, slightly insulted. "You can be a little direct sometimes," Crystal teased. "Not that it's always a bad thing, of course."
"Wait, me?" asked Schist as he turned away from Griffin, hearing his name said.
"Yep! I decided that you were going to come with us," Crystal notified.
"I mean . . . is it really a good idea?" the MudWing asked uncomfortably. "What if I scare off Evergreen or something?"
"All the better," Crystal replied, giving Avalanche a cold glare. The SkyWing was too enthralled in her conversation with Trustbreaker to return it. "If she's a crime lord, then having your scars and Torrent's size for intimidation will be a positive. I don't want her to think of us as incapable for the job."
"But what if we are?" Schist quickly asked.
"We're not," Crystal assured him. She held up a paw and moved the diamond she'd enchanted to heal between her talons. "And if it turns out one of us gets hurt, I've always got this piece of seal-dung to technically heal us."
Schist nervously walked over towards Crystal, then turned back to Griffin. "What about him?" he asked.
Crystal looked a little bit grim. "He'll have to stay back here, I think," she glanced over towards Griffin with a little bit of regret, "sorry, I don't really see a way to hide you safely."
Griffin nodded in understanding before glancing over at Trustbreaker again. "Yeah," he murmured, "I'll be fine, don't worry. Ground support."
"Let's just get going, alright?" Torrent snapped impatiently. He pushed open the door and trotted out it, ducking his head so that his horns wouldn't knock against the doorframe. Crystal followed closely behind, with Schist on her tail, his scales stiff in anxiety.
Fortunately, Crystal remembered the location of Evergreen's mansion, and it wasn't long before they had found it. The house stood out like a backwards scale, much larger and expansive than the others around it. A fence was positioned around the columned building, with a green garden positioned between the border and the actual building. Two SkyWings lazily stood at the entrance of the fence like RainWings, watching for any intrusions half-asleep. When the three dragons arrived, they lifted their heads up, alert to the strange-looking group of dragons.
"Yes?" one asked cautiously as soon as he was sure that the three weren't just passing by.
"What do you want?" the other hissed angrily. "We don't allow visitors or proselytizers."
"We're here to speak to Evergreen," Crystal opened with, stepping in front of Schist and Torrent.
"Lady Evergreen," the second guard corrected with a growl.
"Lady Evergreen," Crystal said with a smile. "We have an offer we think she might be interested in."
"As I said, no proselytisers." Schist noticed a small cat peeking a furry snout out of the hedges behind the fence, staring intently at the scene. Maybe it was Trustbreaker, keeping an eye on them. Poor Griffin.
Crystal continued to smile. "Don't worry. We're looking to settle something with a SandWing named Gila, and I believe it might be in her interests to hear us out."
"She's not interested," the SkyWing hissed, getting more infuriated by the second, "now get out of my sight, or I'l — "
The other SkyWing suddenly whispered something in his fellow guard's ear. She turned back to him with a glare, and sighed. "Fine," the SkyWing said in annoyance. "I'll let you in, but don't even think about trying anything, or I'll rip all your throats out myself."
She trotted down the path to the mansion and unlocked the doorway with a small key around her neck, then walked into the house. Crystal, Torrent, and Schist followed closely behind, with the other guard guarding them from the back. The cat quickly lept onto a windowsill that seemed far too high for it to jump, and continued around the corner of the building.
The mansion was nice, but slightly cramped for Torrent, who had to duck his head to avoid tangling his horns in a chandelier. A sole stairwell stood in the middle of the entryway, which the SkyWing headed up, the three following. The group was ushered into a hallway with a formidable working wooden door at the end. The SkyWing knocked on the door. "Lady Evergreen, you have company."
After a moment, she received a reply that the others couldn't hear. She nodded, even though the dragon behind the room couldn't hear her, and opened the doorway, gesturing the three in.
Beyond the door was a large room, with portraits of a few SkyWings on the side walls and two maps hanging a large desk in the middle: one of Pyrrhia, and the other of the two cities. The desk of fine wood in the center had two figures of gold flanking the end, elephants with diamonds for eyes. Gold highlights laced the desk, and the large chair the dragon sat in was decorated in a similar fashion, apparently intended to resemble a throne. Diamonds and rubies dotted wood, sparkling in the faint light coming from scented candles.
The dragon curled up in the falsetto throne was clearly not your normal SkyWing nor IceWing. Spines like icicles dressed her back, with a ring of silver painted around each one. These, and the rest of her scales, were all a pale rose-gold. Thin curved horns which looked far too long jutted out from the back of her skull. Her tail wrapped around behind her and curved up onto the desk, short blood-red spikes coming out of its base and gently resting on a section of the desk with scratches that had been repainted many times over, causing that area to take on a color distinctly lighter than the rest of the wood.
Evergreen looked towards the three visitors with a hint of scorn, tapping a talon with a ring that looked like it could have belong to Queen Coral. "Well?" she asked expectantly, as if irritated by the interruption.
Crystal stepped forward again as the representative. "Lady Evergreen, I am Crystal," she introduced herself, "and these are Torrent and Schist. We've heard that you've had troubles with a SandWing named Gila, and would like to put an end to this."
"You wish to kill him for me?" the hybrid asked in amusement, swirling her talon in a circle. "And how exactly do you plan to do that?"
"He's an animus," Torrent pointed out.
Evergreen looked unsurprised. "Yes, I know. Is that what you wanted? To inform me of something I've known for what, years?"
Torrent shook his head. "No. I can kill him for you easier that way." He waved a paw at Crystal and Schist. "We're, err, animus hunters. We track down and kill animus dragons."
If Evergreen was intrigued, she didn't show it. She glanced over at the three in skepticism.
"See," Torrent explained, "I have this dagger." He reached towards the sheath hanging around his body and had barely touched the hilt when the SkyWing guard had pummeled into Torrent, pushing the larger SeaWing to the ground. She quickly grabbed Torrent's paw and twisted it upwards while pinning his head to the ground with her long wing. With a quick tug, Torrent yelled and dropped the dagger to the floor.
Torrent gave the SkyWing a growl as Evergreen motioned for her to let him go. "I'm sorry," the SkyWing said, "I thought he was going for his weapon."
Evergreen nodded, and turned back to Torrent, who very slowly picked up the dagger with his other paw and set it back down into its sheath. "As I was saying," he grumbled, "I'm able to use it to prevent animus magic from working if I can get close enough to him. And if I do that, he's dead."
Evergreen flicked her tongue out a little, and thought for a moment. She looked over towards the sole window into her room, where the cat from earlier was now looking in, then quickly returned her attention to Torrent. "I'll give you a chance, but if anyone asks, you're not with me. Deal?"
Torrent nodded anxiously.
"Later tonight, Gila is planning to make a large deal with some MudWings selling weapons of some sort on the northwest docks," Evergreen explained with a smile. "He'll be there himself, presumably to make sure everything goes according to plan. I'll arrange for you to be escorted there, and give you back-up if he has bodyguards. You'll have your chance then."
"Thank you," Crystal replied cautiously, glancing back at Torrent and Schist. "We'll serve you well."
The hybrid nodded, tracing out a figure out with her ringed talon in the desk. "You will be meeting with Boulder, who will be taking you to Gila, outside my house at sunset."