Six-Claws' wings beat fast, every muscle in them aching. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep flying, but he knew he had to make it Jade Mountain as soon as possible. The future of the Sand Kingdom depended on it. A cold wind whipped the SandWing from side to side, forcing him to exert extra energy in order to get back into his flight pattern. He wheezed as his lungs burned, and fell into a fit of coughing. He wasn't prepared for long flights such as this. Normally, they'd send a courier to deliver a message, but the news was far too important, and Armadillo had begged Six-Claws to bring it himself to Sunny. The small scroll itself hung by Six-Claws' side, although it didn't matter much — Six-Claws already knew its tragic contents by heart.

The twin peaks of Jade Mountain started to become visible in the distance, the sun to their left signalling the rise of dawn and a moon barely visible on the right side. Six-Claws tried to sigh in relief, but his lungs were working too far overcapacity for him to succeed, and he started to cough again. It had been a long flight from the SandWing Palace to Jade Mountain, but it wasn't much further. He'd being going at full-speed, with not a single stop along the way. Most SandWings wouldn't be able to have made such a flight, but Six-Claws' determination kept him going. After the news was delivered, he'd leave the choice in Sunny's claws.

As Six-Claws neared the ledge that marked the entrance to Jade Mountain Academy, he saw a small white speck down on it, looking out towards him. An IceWing dragonet. Probably a student. Six-Claws started to spread his wings, gliding down towards the edge. The IceWing got up and scrambled back, as Six-Claws suddenly realized he was coming in too fast. He tilted his wings up to slow down, but there wasn't enough time for the SandWing to correct his landing, and he crashed and slid along the ground, the rocky floor scraping up his legs and underbelly. Fortunately, he didn't have enough momentum to hit into the rocky walls marking the entrance to the academy.

Six-Claws, injured and completely out of breath, laid on the floor, unable to move. The young IceWing crawled over towards him, and poked the SandWing with a claw, checking to see if he was still alive. Six-Claws turned his head, causing the IceWing to jump in the air like a startled cat before scrambling back.

"Please," Six-Claws coughed, "get Sunny. It's urgent."

The IceWing tilted his head, deciding whether to follow the strange SandWing's plea or not. Eventually, he made his choice, and ran into the academy. Leaving the panting Six-Claws alone. It was a few minutes before the IceWing returned, now with two more dragons behind him — Sunny and Clay. Six-Claws gave a sigh of relief as Sunny approached, whereas Sunny looked at him with a horrified stare.

"Six-Claws?" she asked in worry, seeing the red stains on his underbelly. Was he injured? Did he come for Ostrich? "What happened to you?"

"Poor landing," Six-Claws muttered, too tired to explain more. "I'm so glad you're alright."

"Alright?" Sunny questioned. Why wouldn't she be?

Six-Claws struggled as he reached his claws towards a scroll in his satchel, the IceWing dragonet making a 'eww' sound as he saw that Six-Claws indeed had six claws on each of his front paws. Clay gave him a gentle warning, "Ermine, don't be rude."

Seeing that Six-Claws was having trouble, still exhausted and breathing heavily, Sunny reached towards his side, bringing the scroll out to help him. "Read it," he whispered, tears welling up in his tired eyes, "I'm sorry."

Sunny's heart pulsed as she gently slipped off the ribbon around the scroll, her talons shaking. Her mind was blank as she rolled the scroll open, somehow already expecting that the worst was in there. She let the scroll roll open. The handwriting written upon it was messy and rushed, and it was difficult for Sunny to pick out the individual characters inked upon it.

Being the only literate guardian, Webs had been the one who had taught her and the rest of the dragonets to read, and had done a fine job at it. Still, it was somewhat confusing to look at the calligraphy of a SandWing, especially one with such messy penning. All the tribes shared the same language and alphabet, but each was written just slightly differently. Sunny had grown up on NightWing scrolls, but her teacher was a SeaWing.

She remembered how Starflight had once asked Webs why he was forming the letters wrong after looking at a bunch of NightWing scrolls. Webs had said that it was the other way around, and the NightWings formed theirs wrong, putting marks where there weren't supposed to be any, and connecting letters that shouldn't be connected. Starflight didn't try to argue, but Sunny noticed that he had always made an effort to write in the NightWing fashion afterwards, which occasionally irritated Webs.

Sunny put a claw at the top of the scroll, using it to point to her place in the reading. She whimpered as she read the first few lines, Clay looking over her wings.

Dear Princess Sunny,

I regret to inform you that Queen Thorn, your late mother, was found dead this morning, at the time of this message being written.

Sunny's muscles went still, and she stood motionless, paralyzed. "No," she whispered, "she can't be dead." For a second, she wondered, hoped that this was some kind of prank by the students, but a quick look at Six-Claws told her it wasn't. Clay sat down by her side, and wrapped one of his large wings around, holding himself close to try and comfort her. Her talons shaking the scroll back and forth, Sunny continued to read the letter.

Dear Princess Sunny,

I regret to inform you that Queen Thorn, your late mother, was found dead this morning, at the time of this message being written. I am willing to provide you with more information on the circumstances, but wish to do so in a more private fashion. Any questions until we meet can be answered by Six-Claws to the best of his ability. Because Ex-Princess Blaze was found alongside your mother, killed in a similar fashion, we are worried that you might be in similar danger, being her one and only heir. I ask that you urgently return with Six-Claws to the palace to be crowned Queen of the Sand Kingdom, as I believe it will be much more secure than your current residence.

My Condolences,

Royal Advisor and Acting Queen,

Armadillo

Beneath Armadillo's signature, a royal seal was stamped in wax, as if to prove that the letter was royal in origin.

"She was killed?" Sunny whispered. "Murdered?" Tears escaped from her eyes as rage boiled up in her chest.

Clay wasn't sure how to respond, so he just held Sunny tighter as she started to sob.

"DO YOU REALIZE WHAT THIS MEANS?"

Tsunami paced back and forth around the small room, her voice echoing off the walls. Glory frowned. If the SeaWing princess paced any harder, there would be little webbed claw-prints in the stone floor.

"A little quieter please?" Glory asked the SeaWing. "We're trying to have this conversation without Sunny and the rest of your school hearing, remember?"

When Glory had come with Deathbringer from the rainforest to check on her friends and the academy, she had not been expecting a regicide, and certainly not that of Queen Thorn. She had been hoping for a nice update on some of her subjects, and maybe a laugh or two at their antics. Meet some of the new students, and catch up with her friends. But no, they just couldn't have nice things.

Clay stood a bit uncomfortable standing in the doorway, looking like he had swallowed some rotten fruit. One would think he'd be used to Tsunami's yelling by now.

"I WILL NOT BE QUIET!" Tsunami growled. "THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! SUNNY IS IN CHARGE OF A WHOLE FREAKING KINGDOM!"

Clay attempted to speak up, with his quiet voice. "Shouldn't we be worrying about helping Sun—"

"Hey, I'm in charge of a kingdom right now, fish-brains," Glory butted in angrily, "two kingdoms actually."

Tsunami shrugged. "Yeah—but you've got the RainWings, which are totally the easiest tribe ever. No offense, but c'mon, look at them."

She poked a talon out the open doorway into one of the many corridors of the academy. Glory peered out to see Coconut, who seemed to have a mango stuck on one of his fangs. He was attempting to pull it off, but his lower jaw seemed to be continuously getting in the way, much to his frustration.

"I make it easier for her also, being my generally helpful self," Deathbringer unhelpfully pointed out.

"You forgot the NightWings," Glory replied to Tsunami, ignoring her mate. "Half of them hate me, which doesn't make it easy."

Deathbringer nuzzled up against Glory's head and licked her cheek gently, forcing a blush of yellow amongst her scales. "Yep," he said quietly, "us NightWings hate you sooo much."

She pushed Deathbringer's head away gently: as cute as he was being, it was a bit distracting, considering the situation on hand.

"True," Tsunami conceded, Deathbringer's commentary being ignored again, "but there are like, fifty of them, a hundred max. HOW BIG IS THE SAND KINGDOM? LIKE A HUNDRED HUNDRED HUNDRED DRAGONS OR SOMETHING, RIGHT?"

Clay winced at the sudden change in volume, and moved away from Tsunami slowly. Yeah, you might want to get away before your ears burst, Glory thought to herself.

"Shush," Glory hissed at Tsunami, "you're scaring my subject." Coconut, hearing the yelling SeaWing, had turned a pale green and was quickly fleeing from the corridor.

"Fine," grumbled Tsunami, her voice lowering a few decibels. "Sunny can't handle all the SandWings. She's much too nice, and plus, I don't trust this Armadillo character at all. I'll bet a pearl necklace that he's the one who did Thorn in."

Ugh, again with the jewelry. Tsunami had pestered Glory the last time they talked about how un-queenly she looked without jewelry, and how she needed some to be a real queen, like Queen Coral. Glory had mentioned that a queen's resources could be put to better use, and that jewelry was just vain, but Tsunami wouldn't hear of it. Obviously, it was just to make her feel better, because she was only a princess, and not a queen.

Well then, Tsunami, now two of us are queens, and neither of which are you. By the time you challenge your mother, Starflight and Clay could be queens too. Males weren't usually allowed to be queens (or would king regent be the proper term?), but if this 'Armadillo' character could be acting queen, there was no reason that Clay and Starflight couldn't do the same.

"I agree," replied Glory, invoking a look of surprise from Tsunami, who was clearly expecting some sort of retort. "Armadillo seems pretty suspect to me. Both royals killed in the palace, and he thinks Sunny will be more secure there than here? If the assassin managed to get both of them, how can he keep Sunny safe? And calling himself 'acting queen?' It sounds like he wants a kingdom of his own, and wants to use Sunny to get it. We can't let her go."

"You don't get to 'let me go!'"

Sunny stood in the doorway, a scowl on her usually uplifted snout, tears staining the scales beneath her wet eyes. The fin on her back bristled with rage. Glory glanced over at Tsunami with derision, as if to tell her, See? I told you to be quiet.

"Well," snorted Tsunami, "it's just that your mother was assassinated, and it was probably this Armadillo character who wants you to go to the Sand Kingdom, so I'm going to say that you shouldn't go. Does that decide it?"

Sunny hissed in fury. "You don't get to choose whether or not I go. I do. I've already talked to Six-Claws about this. If Armadillo was trustworthy enough for my mother to tell him about Stonemover, then he's good enough for me."

"You talked to Six-Claws about this, instead of us?" Tsunami growled, causing Clay to take another step away. "We're your friends."

Glory sighed. She didn't particularly want to get involved in this. Maybe she could ask Deathbringer to assign some of his "Ninja Guard" to Sunny if she decided to go. Oh yeah, Deathbringer had something to ask me.

As Sunny and Tsunami continued arguing, Clay stuck in between the two, Glory turned to Deathbringer. "So, what were you wanting to tell me earlier?"

"Oh," he replied, snapping out of his concentration on Tsunami and Sunny's argument and glancing over towards his mate. "Jambu mentioned something about how all the rivers' water levels dropped a ton last night. He even couldn't find one of them, apparently. Also, why were you in the Sky Kingdom?"

Glory rolled her eyes. "Jambu couldn't find a river if it bit him on the tail. And I wasn't in the Sky Kingdom, why does everyone keep asking me why I was there? Why didn't Jambu go directly to me?"

"He still angry at you for banning the color pink."
Glory chuckled. "He didn't realize that was a joke yet?"

Deathbringer nodded. "He's trying to get a group of RainWings to make signs and hold a protest against it. If I were you, I might be worried about the 'pinkies' staging a coup."

Glory laughed, loud enough for both Sunny and Tsunami to hear. Their argument stopped, and the two turned to Glory and Deathbringer. Clay continued to look like he wanted to be anywhere but here right now.

"Er — sorry," said Glory awkwardly, a hint of dark purple crossing her scales. She really didn't want to look like she didn't care about Thorn's death in front of Sunny. "Just RainWing antics."

Sunny gave Glory an uncharacteristic glare of rage, surprising the RainWing queen for a moment, then turned back to Tsunami. "I'm not a dragonet anymore, and you don't have to teach me as such. I can make my own decisions without your help."

"I'm not letting you rush into this without thinking. This isn't a game we're playing here, and I'm not letting you be killed by some random advisor."
"That's not your choice! Just because I'm smaller than you, and not as loud, and rude, doesn't mean I'm stupid!" Sunny's voice started to shake a little with her raising it.

After a short pause, Tsunami replied, "I can't let you do this while you're so emotional after Thorn's death," matter-of-factly.

Sunny's eyes went wide, and glared in anger at Tsunami, while a low growl escaped from her mouth. For a moment Glory thought that Sunny was going to leap out and attack Tsunami, but the SandWing only turned away and left the room silently, Clay getting out of her way as quickly as possible.

After she left, there was a long, awkward silence between the remaining dragons.

"Tsunami—" Clay said quietly.

"—that was completely uncalled for! What were you thinking, that your snide remarks, would make her listen to you?" Glory finished. "Well then, good job, now she's angry with all of us. Someone should go warn Starflight now, before she goes and yells at him."

That wasn't really true, of course, Glory couldn't really imagining Sunny taking out her anger at Starflight. And Fatespeaker would surely just yell at her back.

"Hey, at least I was trying to not get her killed," Tsunami snorted, swishing the end of her tail back and forth. "What were you doing, chatting up with your boyfriend about how ridiculous your little brother is? You could've helped me, you know."

Tsunami did have a point. Maybe she could've tried a little bit harder. But yelling at Sunny certainly didn't make things any better.

"Maybe someone should go and check on her?" Clay asked.

Tsunami roared in anger and whacked her tail against the stone wall in anger, creating a loud rumbling noise that echoed through the cavern. "You know what, I'm done with your ingratitude! You can deal with this yourselves!"

Tsunami stormed out of the room, almost pushing poor Clay aside in a fit of fury.

"Tsunami, wai—" Clay said, but his attempt was too late. She was gone, and another awkward silence ensued between the three dragons remaining.

"Is this normal?" Deathbringer asked.

Glory rolled her eyes. "Yeah," she replied, "she'll be calm by morning. She'll probably just go yell at Webs for 'ruining her life' and all that."

Deathbringer nodded in reply, and it was another half-minute before any of them spoke.

"Well then," Glory said, breaking the silence, "I'm going to head back to the rainforest now."

"Wait," asked Clay. "Can you stay a little longer? With all this, it might be helpful to have you around."

Glory shrugged, trying to seem unattached. "Sorry, I've got some missing rivers to find for my little bro. Useless, easy, RainWing queen stuff. C'mon cutie, let's go."

Deathbringer followed her, and they left without any protest from Clay. In truth, Glory didn't really leave because of the whole 'missing river' thing, that could wait a day or two. She just didn't want to do any more damage than she already had done.

As the two walked through the stone corridors, lost in her thought, Glory suddenly walked into a fellow RainWing, a dragonet of maybe four at the oldest, followed by a MudWing of about five. Tiger, she knew instantly from the clearly recognizable orange and black stripes on the RainWing's scales, and Sepia. Glory had met Sepia a few times before, but didn't know much about her.

Tiger dropped the stack of scrolls she was carrying beneath a wing, and started to pick them up before she realized who she had ran into. "Your majesty!" she stuttered, bowing her head to the ground, her scales flushing a light-pink in embarrassment. "Please accept my apology. In no way did I intend this confrontation."

Glory smiled, slightly uncomfortable. She'd known Tiger back in the rainforest and had occasionally tried to strike up a conversation, but Tiger always seemed to get stiff and over-polite around her, so Glory had just given up. Deathbringer was the one who suggested her to be part of the next batch of Jade Mountain's students, so he might have known her a bit better. "Don't worry Tiger, it's no problem. What's the rush?" Glory asked.

"Your majesty," Tiger started her reply, "I was returning this collection of scrolls to the library, but passed Sunny on her way out. I wanted to report to Clay that Sunny left Jade Mountain just now, in some sort of hurry."

Glory gulped. Six-Claws was still recovering; wasn't Sunny supposed to leave with him? "Which direction was she heading towards?"

This time Sepia answered the question, slightly urgently.

"Northwest," the MudWing replied. "Towards the Kingdom of Sand."