Daytime in the Sand Kingdom was inhospitable to most dragons other than the finned residents of the desert, but out of every tribe, it treated the SeaWings the worst. Torrent was no exception to this rule, and as such, planned the two's journey out in accordance. With the assistance of a SandWing in a small village he and Griffin stopped by in the neutral lands of the Great Five-Tail River, and some proper coinage to ensure no questions were asked, Torrent planned out a route through the Sand Kingdom. The two would fly almost directly from the river to the coast, passing north of Burn's Stronghold. The entire flight would take less than a week of travel, and the SandWing helpfully gave Torrent tips on where to find watering holes that he could sleep in during the day, as the two would be flying only during the night to avoid the worst of the heat. Torrent was pretty sure Griffin would be fine with the temperatures, as he'd been able to handle the cold of both the ocean depths and the northernmost reaches of the Sky Kingdom with no trouble. He wasn't quite sure if it was due to him being a gryphon or being enchanted to life, but it was useful regardless.
The nights of the Sand Kingdom were much less formidable than the day, and Torrent's night vision would be a bonus to remaining undetected by any SandWings. As such, the two spent their nights flying — a cool but comfortable temperature for Torrent. It was a few nights into their journey, close to the stronghold, when they realized that they were not alone.
It was at towards the end of the night that Torrent first noticed the shadow of wings far to the right. This posed no problem for them, he had seen plenty of SandWings on nighttime flights, but they were easily evaded due to their lack of night vision. He turned to Griffin, and offered him a warning.
"There's a dragon out there," he explained. "On our right." He could barely see the dragon in the distance, but a distinct grey shape was visible against the background of stars dotting the heavens.
Griffin glanced to his left, where the stronghold would be. "Maybe they're just going to the stronghold?" he asked.
Torrent nodded in agreement. It seemed most likely. Yet as the two continued on, Torrent was able to see that the dragon was flying almost alongside their path, not crossing it. They started to slowly drift closer. The SeaWing frowned. Unless it was another SeaWing, it seemed unlikely that the dragon could detect them from that far. Maybe it was just a coincidence? It didn't seem like they were intentionally flying at him and Griffin, else they would have gotten a lot closer by now.
Torrent winced as their paths began to merge. It had started to become clear the three were all heading in the same direction, and whether he liked it or not, there would be a confrontation. He placed a claw on his dagger and unsheathed it, drawing Griffin's attention. Pointing the blade at the dragon in the distance, Torrent moved his talon to the amethyst. It was hold. So the dragon wasn't the animus.
"What is it?" Griffin asked, somewhat concerned.
"They're flying in the same direction as us," Torrent stated. "They're not the animus we're after, but whoever they are, I think that we're looking for the same animus."
"Can they see us yet?" Griffin responded, trying to keep his voice quiet, but at the same time, be louder than the roaring wind pushing past the two.
Torrent shook his head and flapped his wings, gaining a little more height. "Not unless they're a SeaWing. But I don't know how long that will last."
The two didn't have to wait much longer. Just a few minutes later, the dragon veered out towards the left, the black shadow growing as they approached Torrent and Griffin. Torrent frowned. He had hoped that the dragon would leave them alone, but it looked like they were on course for a confrontation. "They're coming closer," he alerted Griffin.
"It's just one dragon?" Griffin queried. Torrent nodded. "Then we can fight them off if it comes to that, right?" Griffin continued. "Two against one?"
"I think so," Torrent responded. "Let's land." Torrent certainly wasn't a bad flyer, and because of his numerous travels, would even be considered to be one of the better ones in the Sea Kingdom. But as a SeaWing, flying and fighting while it was not what he was built for, and he and Griffin would have a better chance on the sand beneath. The two soared down, lowering their height. The second dragon in the distance followed them, the dark shadow gliding downwards.
As the two continued their descent, Torrent started to get a closer look at the dragon pursuing them. He snorted in surprise. "A NightWing?"
As the NightWing continued to get closer, Griffin was finally able to see her, squinting. Her scales were a similar color to Trustbreaker's, a smooth dark grey, but of a somewhat darker shade and without the hints of orange that appeared when light reflected off his in the same way. Instead, the moonlight on her scales gave off a more natural hue, a silvery color. Additionally, she was worn and thin, unlike Trustbreaker, and the edges of her ribcage could be seen pushing against the mesh of her scales. In one of her claws, she held a thin scroll.
Torrent stood up, his webbed talons resting on the sand, preventing him from sinking down into it. She was a large dragon, but not as large as he was, and most certainly not the largest dragon he'd ever faced; Sunscorcher beat any dragon by a gigantic margin. Her eyes narrowed as she landed in front of him, carefully positioning herself so that she was between him and the path they had been flying on. She evidently did not care to let them get to where they were going.
The NightWing took the scroll in her claws and shoved it down into the sand beside her, leaving both her foreclaws open for a fight. She glanced at Griffin, and gave him a small frown, oddly unsurprised. "What business do you have here?" she growled, baring her teeth at the two.
"It's none of your concern," Torrent replied stiffly, running a webbed paw through the sand.
She snarled, flickering her forked tongue in and out. "Unless you want problems with the NightWings," she ordered, "you need to leave, now."
Torrent frowned. The NightWings? So she was with the whole Night Kingdom, not just a lone dragon. He hadn't seen very many NightWings before — Sunscorcher, Trustbreaker, and the hybrid in Possibility who had told him and Crystal's fates? He winced just thinking about it, trying to push that memory from his thoughts. It wasn't something he needed or wanted to recollect on now.
"We don't want problems with the Night Kingdom," Torrent answered carefully, "but we have a dragon we need to attend to, and we're not going to turn around just because some NightWing said so."
The NightWing hissed, and crouched down slightly, as if she was preparing to leap forward in attack. Torrent glanced over to Griffin. He had taken his pack of supplies off, and would be ready for a fight.
"Let us through," Torrent commanded with a growl, "or we'll go through by force."
"I'm not going to let you kill him," the NightWing hissed, a anger rippling through her body.
"Kill who?" Griffin suddenly spoke up. The NightWing didn't answer his question, though he had a pretty good idea of who she was speaking of. The animus in the desert.
"How do you know we're planning to kill him?" Torrent asked. "Who told you?" The SandWing animus back in Possibility had also known that they were going around, killing animus dragons. Who had told her? Was it the NightWings? Were they the ones who made the green diamonds?
"I can read your minds," the NightWing huffed, flashing yellow teeth. "I know exactly who you are, and all your next movements. Now leave."
Griffin thought for a moment, and squinted as he the side of the NightWing's snout. "I know you can't read my mind," he stated. "Trustbreaker told us that only dragons with the special teardrops by their eyes can do that."
"What?" the NightWing asked, slightly confused. "Whoever this Trustbreaker is, they're lying. Seriously? Who believes a dragon named Trustbreaker?"
"Really?" Griffin asked in a tone of mockery. "Well then, what am I thinking?"
Torrent let out a snort of amusement as the NightWing remained silent. "Now," he asked again, "will you let us pass? Or do we have to fight?"
She let out another snarl. "I'm not going to let you kill him."
Torrent glanced over at Griffin, who returned it, ready for a fight. "I'll give you one last chance," Torrent replied, stepping forward, closer to the NightWing. "Now, will you let us thr —"
Before Torrent could finish his sentence, the NightWing leapt at him, claws outstretched and aiming for his neck. Even ready, Torrent was taken aback, and turning to the left to avoid his throat being torn out, her claws dug into his side, beneath his wings. The SeaWing tried to hold his ground, but the sand gave way beneath him, and the NightWing flipped Torrent onto his side.
Griffin was immediately there, and clawed at the much larger NightWing, raking his needle-like talons along her scales. She roared in pain and turned around to whack Griffin away with a paw. He lept off her backside, but her maneuver gave Torrent enough room to stand up, and slam into her. She was pushed back by it, but managed to hold her ground even in the slick sand due to the lack of room that Torrent had to push her. She returned her gaze to Torrent, and ducked beneath his wing, drawing a line of blood with her talons in the scales connecting the SeaWing's wing membrane to his body, just barely avoiding tearing the membrane itself.
Torrent shouted out as her claws sunk in, and twisted around to get away from her, trying to slam his heavy tail into the NightWing. Unfortunately, she was too close to its base for an effective hit, and caught it with her foreclaws as it swung. Her claws dug beneath his scales, and the NightWing pulled, grappling Torrent to the ground. He bounced against the sand, and as the NightWing reared up to strike at him, Griffin attacked her again from behind, raking his talons against her side. She twisted around and hit him with a closed paw, too quickly for Griffin to dodge. He was knocked away, and the NightWing opened her jaws. A sulfurous odor emanating from her mouth, as she prepared to let loose a blast of flame at the prone Griffin.
As she prepared to spark her fire reserves, Torrent jumped to his paws, running into the NightWing before she had a chance to respond. Torrent barrelled her over into the soft sand, and the NightWing's hiss softened, realizing that a blast now would hit both her and Torrent. With a twist of her neck, she turned to the SeaWing to try and bite the side of his neck. Yet, stopping her fire-breath had taken too much time, giving Torrent a chance to slam a webbed paw against her neck. The NightWing snapped up at Torrent, but he kept his weight down, fixing her neck to the sand beneath her, choking her. As the NightWing desperately tried to claw at Torrent with a forepaw, he tilted to the side and fell on top of her, pinning her forearm to her underbelly, and keeping her from getting back up.
Within long, the NightWing started coughing, trying to get air. Torrent let up the paw on his neck, and she wheezed for a moment, catching her breath while glaring furiously at him. Griffin carefully got up. It hurt where the NightWing had hit him, but it didn't seem like anything was broken. That was fortunate — he doubted his bones were as strong as a dragon's. He stepped over towards Torrent, who still had the NightWing held down, glaring as she tried to wriggle out from beneath him.
Torrent stared down. She wasn't an animus, but she was still dangerous. She was right — if she went back to the Night Kingdom with news of them, there might be trouble. Torrent didn't know how powerful the NightWings were, but the local lore was pretty clear that you didn't want to fight against them. If the two let her go, they might have the Night Kingdom after them. Yet if they didn't, and decided to kill her instead, the NightWings would probably realize they did it all the same. If she couldn't read minds like Trustbreaker, she had to have found out about them from somewhere.
The NightWing continued to glower impatiently as Torrent tried to decide what to do, looking for an opening to escape. If she wasn't an animus, Torrent didn't particularly care to kill her either. Animus dragons posed a threat to all of Pyrrhia, but regardless of what she was doing here, she didn't have that power. It wasn't his duty to kill other dragons. He glanced over to Griffin. The feathered creature clacked his beak in a frown. "Any ideas?" Torrent asked, unsure what to do.
Griffin swiveled his head down to the NightWing, and rubbed a feathered wing against his side, still aching. He sighed. If she knew who they were, then maybe she'd tell them how she knew. "What's your name," he squawked, "and what are you doing here?"