Torrent tossed and turned in the netting of the woven hammock. It kept getting caught around his wings throughout the night, and he was constantly worried that he'd flip over and plummet below, unable to open his wings in time to save himself. All in all, it didn't look like he'd have a comfortable sleep.
The largest of Pyrrhia's moons was almost full, at its zenith, when Torrent felt a cold claw tap a wingblade. He shot up with a start, causing the hammock to rock back and forth. "What's goin —"
"Shhh!" Crystal hissed, putting a claw in front of Torrent's mouth. She was reaching over to him from a nearby tree, her sharp talons gripping into the tree's bark and holding her up. The IceWing, afraid of losing her balance, quickly took her claw away from Torrent's snout and clutched around the tree.
Torrent breathed a sigh of relief, glad it was Crystal there. "What's going on?" he asked again, this time in a low whisper."
"Penguin-brained SeaWing," Crystal muttered under her breath, drawing a frown from Torrent. "We're going to kill that animus while it's still dark," she explained.
"Oh," Torrent replied, still a bit drowsy. So that's what Crystal's plan was.
"This way," Crystal ordered. She grasped a vine with her talons and used her tail to swing herself onto one of the woven pavilions nearby. Torrent followed, his webbed paws struggling to grasp onto the vine, and his tail too hefty to maneuver around. Fortunately, he was able to make it to the pavilion with a bit of help from Crystal, who grabbed his tail with her serrated claws. He cringed as they poked between his scales.
As soon as Torrent was stably on the platform, Crystal was off. "I think I found where they keep their dragonets," she whispered, carefully stepping onto a woven bridge. Torrent followed behind, trying to make his pawsteps as silent as hers. The SeaWing glanced around the rainforest, the faint light from the moons being completely sufficient for his nightvision to pick up. There didn't seem to be any RainWings awake, fortunately for them. In two hammocks not far away, Schist and Griffin should be sleeping.
Torrent felt a pang of guilt. "Maybe we shouldn't be doing them behind their tails."
"Who?" Crystal asked quietly.
"Schist and Griffin," Torrent answered, "they thought we weren't going to do this."
"And with any luck, they'll never know," Crystal hissed. "They don't understand what we're dealing with here. Nothing we say will convince them to change their minds."
Torrent sighed. Crystal was right, he doubted either of them would be willing to go through with this. He wasn't sure why — Griffin had known Orca and had seen Sunscorcher, and Schist had grown up trapped by Adobe — how come neither of them recognized the menace this dragonet could become, how many RainWings would be hurt and killed by it?
Crystal led onwards, flying cautiously through a tunnel in the rainforest foliage. She seemed to have gotten a much better handle on the strange combination of gliding and flying that the RainWings performed than Torrent, grabbing ahold of vines to assist her in her slow glide. Torrent tried to do the same, but had trouble just staying on track, and ended up getting branches whacked into his snout. Crystal continuously gave him looks of fright, worrying that his clumsy glide would wake up nearby RainWings, though none seemed to notice. He supposed it was good for him and Crystal that they were all fast asleep, but without any guards or watch of a sort, things could prove disastrous — someone could kidnap the queen, steal treasure or eggs, or in this case, kill an animus dragonet. It was fortunate they didn't have any enemies.
The two reached the area which Crystal thought was the wingery for the dragonets — a giant trampoline of woven vines and leaves, hung between the tall trees of the rainforest. Tall walls surrounded the trampoline made from branches, woven together. At the bottom of the walls, the branches were woven so tightly together it was impossible to see through the thicket, but further up, where it was less likely for a dragonet to stumble out of, they loosened up quite a bit. The two dragons landed on a platform not too far from the wingery. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any RainWings sleeping too nearby the structure.
As Torrent used his nightvision to search for a good flight route over the walls that wouldn't end up with him stuck in a tree, he asked Crystal, "What will happen when the RainWings find out the dragonet is dead? We're outsiders, they'll suspect us first."
"Maybe, but these are RainWings we're talking about. Don't overestimate their abilities of deduction," Crystal answered. "Anyways, we'll be out by then. I'll be getting Schist and Griffin at first light, remember? At the break of twilight, far before any of the RainWings are awake. I doubt they're early risers." She glanced up at the sky, as if she was impatient for dawn to approach already.
Suddenly, Torrent whipped around. He heard wingbeats approaching. "Hide!" he hissed at Crystal. She looked around. There was no place to hide.
Two figures touched down at the platform, one much smaller than the other. Torrent gulped as they came into focus. It appeared that Schist and Griffin had been less asleep than Crystal had thought.
"What are you doing?" Schist quietly asked with a growl as the two stepped forward. He glanced behind the two, at the woven mats surrounding the wingery.
"Just going on a short flight," Crystal replied with a smile, "I couldn't sleep, and accidentally woke Tor —"
"Stop lying," Schist interrupted, baring his teeth, "that's the wingery, isn't it? Where they keep the dragonets?"
Crystal kept her face grim. "You know this is what we have to do," she hissed.
"Killing a dragonet?" Griffin hissed, his sharp talons scraping against the platform. "He doesn't have to die." He swiveled his feathered head to Torrent. "How could you lie to me?" he spat. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"Torrent, do it," Crystal ordered, "I'll wait here."
Torrent glanced over at Griffin, lowering his head. He shouldn't have lied to him, he knew that, but he had no other choice. For the good of all Pyrrhia. "I'm sorry," the SeaWing grumbled at his friend. He opened his wings, and flapped them, generating the lift required to propel him forwards and up, towards the wingery.
"Torrent, stop!" Griffin squawked after him. "You don't have to do this!" The SeaWing shook his head, and continued on upwards, as Griffin debated whether or not to go after Torrent. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't stop the SeaWing. Sure, he could wake up the RainWings, but that might condemn Torrent, all of them even, to death. Yet, if it was him or an innocent dragonet . . .
Schist had already made his choice. The MudWing barreled forward, spreading his scarred wings, and tried to make his way after Torrent. But as he flew into the air, he felt sharp talons scraping against his tail as Crystal grasped ahold of it with her foreclaws. Forced to land, Schist fell onto the platform, crashing upright.
The MudWing growled at Crystal. "Let me past," he warily ordered her. He stepped to his right, and she followed suit, eyes locked together.
"No," she answered with a hiss. "I'm not going to let you interfere and get us all killed."
Schist roared, and lunged forward at Crystal. She tried to side-step the attack, not expecting Schist to turn on her so quickly, but he latched ahold of the side of her neck with his teeth, and tried to use it as leverage to throw the IceWing to the ground.
Unfortunately for Schist, the strange surface of the vines threw him off balance, and as he tried to throw her to the side, Crystal lashed her tail out, cutting him across the back of his neck. He let go of her in surprise, and she took that to her advantage, clawing beneath his wings. Schist stumbled back, but remained undaunted by the few minor scratches he'd received. He slammed his left, unscarred side into Crystal, pushing her over.
As Schist stood over her, Crystal took that to her advantage, and dug just the tips of her claws into the MudWing's soft underbelly scales as she dived beneath him. He gritted his teeth in pain, and Crystal cringed slightly, pulling her claws outwards a little. Drops of blood dripped onto the woven floor, but it was nothing like the horror she could have caused by digging her claws in deeper to tear through muscles and organs. Schist was still her friend, and while she needed to stop him, she wanted to do it without hurting him severely or irreparably, even if she still had the healing diamond in case of an emergency.
Schist breathed heavily, and Crystal thought he was going to give up for a moment, but the MudWing twisted hard to his right, his fused scales crunching up against each other and cracking, causing blood and pus to seep between them. He tried to bite at Crystal's neck again, but ended hitting the back of her neck instead of the side this time, along the sharp spines that lined it, causing them to rake along the side of his snout. He suddenly reared backwards, quickly realizing that he'd be unable to attack her there. Griffin stood by, unsure of whether or not to interfere.
"Stop this," Crystal hissed, turning back around. "We don't have to fight."
Schist growled, and once again tried to attack Crystal by slamming into her. This time, she sidestepped the maneuver and hit him with a closed claw, knocking him off balance. Schist staggered a few steps away, then looked back at Crystal. "Yes, we do. When I met you, I thought you were my friend!"
He took another step towards Crystal, lowering his body down. The IceWing took advantage of that, moving just slightly to the side, then jumping up and onto Schist, pushing the MudWing over, onto his right-side, his wing pinned and twisted beneath him. He tried to lift himself back up, but the smaller IceWing pushed him to the ground again. "We can still be friends."
Schist suddenly turned his head upwards, and opened his jaws. "Schist, stop!" Griffin suddenly yelled out, realizing what Schist was planning to do. As much as he hated her right now, Griffin didn't want Crystal to be blasted with firebreath, and at such a short range, the rebound of the burst would set Schist aflame too, in addition to the mat of vines holding all of them up. Schist might even end up starting a forest-fire.
Schist closed his jaws, and turned to Griffin, backing down and turning his head to the side. By this time, Crystal had noticed what Schist was trying to do, and had started to prepare her own frostbreath. A thick white mist started to emanate from the sides of her mouth. Griffin looked on in shock, seeing the IceWing open her jaws.
At what felt like the last moment possible, Crystal turned her head to the side, away from Griffin and Schist, shooting out the prepared freezing death breath harmlessly onto the floor. A large number of woven vines were covered throughout by the frostbreath turning white and snapping. Fortunately, the RainWing talonwork was well-made, and past a frozen hole in the floor, the pavilion stood unharmed.
Crystal's breath slowed as Schist lay down in defeat, not getting back up to fight. Griffin's heart still raced, his talons shaking. Crystal looked down at the bleeding MudWing beneath her, his blood still on her talons. She closed her eyes in realization at what she'd almost done. If she hadn't turned her head to the side just moments later, Schist would be dead at her claws.
Crystal gathered her claws against her snout. This wasn't the time for emotions. She turned around, towards the blurry shadow of the wingery. She couldn't see Torrent anymore; he would be inside the wingery by now, and the dragonet could already be dead.