After a brisk walk through Crosswinds, keeping their scales out of sight, Midnight, Torrent, and Slate finally arrived at Gazelle's small house. Warily watching over her wings, Midnight let the two in, quickly shutting the door behind her. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Gazelle was still asleep on the floor.

"Are we safe here?" Slate asked, peering out the windows of the house. "What if Aloe tries to search for us?"

Torrent swished his tail back and forth. "Crosswinds has only gotten bigger since the end of the war. I doubt she has enough troops to search the city." He glanced down to his daughter. "Do you think they recognized you in the dark?"

"It doesn't matter," Midnight snapped. "Aloe or one of her soldiers was bound to have seen us together at the welcoming, and there aren't many other dragons that look like me in this city. It won't take much investigating to figure out where I live, just asking a few questions to the right dragons. She wouldn't forcibly search the city anyways, her whole schtick is giving Crosswinds its independence. It would ruin her image. So it would probably be best for you and Slate to move on your way."

Torrent shifted uncomfortably. He could tell that Midnight was angry at him for this. Probably rightfully so.

"We need to go to the Sand Kingdom," Slate suggested, "to the palace, where Queen Sunny is. If Aloe has an animus-touched necklace, she needs to be warned, right? And we can help her figure out how to beat Aloe! If Queen Sunny is Midnight's cousin, and also a hybrid, I'm sure she'd be welcoming!" Slate's eyes lit up excitedly.

Midnight shrugged her wings back and forth. "You can go there if you want, but I can't come with you." Slate's excitement started to wane, and Midnight pointed her tail to the sleeping Gazelle. "I have to take care of her."

"Maybe you could bring her to the palace?" Slate asked. "Queen Sunny probably has some way to take of her."

Midnight shook her head. "Gazelle's not in a condition to fly to the palace; I'm not taking her out of Crosswinds." she explained. She gave Torrent a glare. "It's bad enough that I'm going to have to move her somewhere else until Aloe leaves town."

"But you're one of the prophecy dragons!" Torrent protested. "You have to come with us and stop the magical drought. Can't you just leave Gazelle with one of your friends?"

Midnight growled, baring her teeth at her father. "You still need to find the other prophecy dragons, right? Do that, then bring them back here."

"Come on, you can help us, right?" Torrent pleaded. "I'm sure we can carry Gazelle with us. We could put her in a net and carry that."

Midnight almost laughed. "That sounds horrible. I'm not putting her under that kind of stress. Look, I'd love to go help you with whatever, but I'm staying here unless Gazelle is magically healed somehow. But you don't want that, do you?"

Torrent's expression fell from pleading to serious, and he realized what Midnight was implying. If he wanted her to come with him, he'd have to let her use her powers on Gazelle. He curled his snout. "Fine. We can go without you."

Midnight snorted, but didn't say anything else. She looked over to the sleeping Gazelle.

Torrent turned to Slate. "We're not going to Queen Sunny, unfortunately. As much as I would like to warn her, the drought is more important than family business. We need to find the other prophecy dragons, and stop it before it's too late."

Slate nodded grimly. Torrent was right. He'd seen the effects of only a few days of drought in the Mud Kingdom. Telling Queen Sunny about the pendant would have to wait, unfortunately. He still wasn't quite sure if he was onboard with this whole 'prophecy' thing, but it did seem like the best option. "Then let's do this quickly. You said you'd found one of the other prophecy dragons already, right?"

Torrent nodded. "Flame. He's a student at Jade Mountain. I haven't actually talked to him, but he might be able to give us a lead on the other two. And it's been long enough that I owe Stonemover a visit, especially if Thorn's dead. I don't know if he'll be any help, but it's something."

Midnight's ears perked up, and she turned away from Gazelle. "Wait," she said, "did you just say that you're going to Jade Mountain?"

"Yes," Torrent replied. "You're not thinking about joining us, are you?"

"No," Midnight hissed, a hint of disgust on her snout. "It's just . . . if you're going to Jade Mountain, there's something I need to show you. Dad, you gave up the animus hunting thing, right?"

Torrent frowned. "Mostly. But Pyrrhia is in danger right now from magic, so I suppose I've resumed it a little. But I don't kill indiscriminately anymore, if that's what you're asking. You know that."

Midnight scratched her claws on the floor, hesitant. Torrent looked at his daughter, confused. She finally sighed, and gave into it. "Alright, dad. Just . . . be responsible. Don't kill anyone else. And don't get yourself killed. Please."

Midnight slowly stepped over Gazelle, and to the scrollshelf at the back of room. After looking through it for a second, she took out a scroll. Slate and Torrent's eyes were locked on her as she rolled it open. Hidden inside the scroll was an old piece of parchment paper, covered in a waxy gleam. Two large gashes had been ripped through the paper, but had been carefully repaired with thread. The surface of the parchment revealed a map of Pyrrhia, with a number of blotches of colored ink over it.

Torrent took a step back. "How did you get that?" he asked, shocked.

"A neighbor found it the day after you dropped me off with Gazelle," Midnight explained. "He could tell that it was magic since the blotches moved, but didn't know what it did. You told me about the map on one of your visits. He had it framed, and eventually, I saw it. I told him it was my father's, and he was kind enough to let me buy it from him with one of the pearls you gave Gazelle. I've had it here ever since."

"Wait, it's magic?" Slate asked. "What does it do?" He peered over it, and touched his talon to a grey blemish of ink, somewhere in the southern Claws of the Clouds. Agate Mountain, maybe?

"My sister enchanted it," Torrent answered. "Each blotch on the map is an animus dragon. The one you're touching is the Darkstalker."

Slate jumped back in alarm, taking his claw from the map. He looked at his claw again, just to make sure nothing happened to it. "The what?"

Torrent snorted. "Don't worry. You can't do anything to the animuses just by touching the blotches, unfortunately. It just lets you see where they are."

Slate looked back to the map. Northwest of the Darkstalker's blotch was a dark blue, almost black spot. That was where Crosswinds was, so it had to be Midnight. "What's going on at Jade Mountain?"

Torrent turned his eyes to the map, looking to the southern coast of Pyrrhia, where the twin peaks of Jade Mountain stood. He stiffened up. "Three moons," he whispered.

"Yeah, I know," Midnight said, "this is why I needed to show you this if you're going there. Three of them have been there for a while, but the two faded ones are new."

Torrent brought his snout closer to the map, and moved a webbed talon to Jade Mountain. The blotches seemed to run into each other, creating a mess of colors difficult to sort out. Stonemover's familiar pewter color stood out, but four new ones surrounded it. One green, one pink. And two similarly colored blotches that seemed to be fading into the parchment paper, one a white ice-blue, and the other a sky-blue. The only time Torrent had seen so many animuses together was when Erosion had brought her slaves to Crosswinds.

"Well," Torrent muttered, "this is going to be a fun visit."