Tide stared in horror as Snow plunged into the ocean. Cherry and Cinder flew after her. Tide whirled around to face Beech. "You traitor!" she roared. Beech looked away, ashamed.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I owed the queen." Beech stared at his feet, unable to look at Tide. Sunlight growled.
"Just throw him into the ocean." Glacier snarled, flicking her claws towards him. "Or I could…" she motioned at the slicing of his head. A moment of silence passed before someone spoke.
"Is Abysswing gonna come back?" Spike squeaked. Dust nodded his head in agreement.
"Probably," Sunlight said softly. "But we'll be ready for him." Quail glanced around.
"We should probably move to a different island though," He said shyly.
"No." Pine shook her head. "Pantala will accept us. I'm sure of it."
Cherry and Cinder flew up, dragging Snow's body. "We'll need to stop soon," Cinder panted.
"Is...is she alive?" Tide asked hopefully. Snow moaned quietly. Sunlight gasped with relief. Tide cradled Snow's body. Suddenly Snow became as good as normal, spreading her wings. "S-snow?" Tide's eyes widened.
"How'd you do that?" Cinder gasped. Snow stared at them, embarrassed.
"Uh…" Snow faltered, obviously hesitant to say anything.
"Tell us!" Tide urged. Everyone was staring at her, pressuring her to say something.
"I'm an animus?" Snow laughed.
Tide gasped. Glacier narrowed her eyes. "Are you so sure that's the only thing?"
"Y-yeah?" Snow stammered.
"Oh yeah, I sure believe you!" Glacier said sarcastically. Sunlight stared at her clutching Spike and Dust.
"Uh…fine, I was cursed to be immortal." Snow sighed. Everyone gaped at her. Spike was sucking his claws.
"Can you make me an octopus?" he asked, staring up at Snow with big, innocent eyes. Snow repressed a sigh. Dust nudged him.
"I heard if an animus casts too many spells they'll become insane." Snow whispered, fidgeting.
"That's not true, you know." Sunlight said.
"I know…but I don't want to become like Darkstalker or anything." Snow whispered. Dust and Spike were looking at Snow, worshiping. Snow looked at them. "I wish I wasn't an animus, nor immortal. The dragon who enchanted me to be immortal was an insane IceWing. I thought he was my friend…"
"Why is everyone here traumatized?!" Danger demanded.
Hail let out a bitter laugh. "It's either Abysswing traumatized us, or just…" Hail trailed off. Tide looked at Hail. Although he didn't have a past that she knew, Hail always seemed bitter and unhappy. His sister, Danger, was the opposite. She was a much energetic dragon, who had a taste for adventure.
They were flying as they talked, and Tide squinted. She saw an island. "Look, a rest stop." Cherry noted.
"Finally," Quail sighed. "Could we make our stand there?"
"NO," everyone shouted exasperatedly.
Tide raised her voice, deciding to say something. "Does anyone else have secrets to share? Maybe you're also an animus?" The group stayed silent. "Alright, let's go to the island."
They landed on the island. "It's night," Quail said. "We better get some sleep." Tide stared at Quail.
"Alright." Tide said.
"I can find moss for bedding." Snow offered.
"You can get some sleep too," Tide said.
Snow shook her head, smiling lightly. "I'm immortal; it's the least I can do with my long lifetime."
"Alright." Tide said. Snow flew away.
"While we're waiting for Snow, we can tell each other stories to pass time." Tide said. The dragonets had already fallen asleep.
Glacier spoke. "A dragonet was born on a secret island. She had two siblings. Her dad was an animus, and once created an object, a globe, that could make anyone invincible. However, this was created by accident, when her father was young and foolish. So, to avoid bad dragons stealing this item, he hid it on the very island the dragonet lived in. Her dad would also grant each child a power, but he wouldn't make them too strong, just in case others would want to possess them for their powers or something." Tide listened, intrigued.
"The dragonet got the power of speed; incredible speed. Anyway, this happy family of IceWings lived on this island in peace. Well, until another IceWing found out about their island by accidently traveling there. He wanted the globe of power. Then, he went back to the Ice Kingdom to alert the Queen. However, on the way, he accidently spread the news. Soon, a bunch of dragons, at least one from each tribe, came and attacked this island. The dragonet was only two years old when this happened. Her family died." That's so sad, Tide thought, feeling a pang of pity for the dragonet in the story.
"Only her and her youngest sister survived, but she didn't know her younger sister survived. The dragon lived in the rainforest, and met her sister when she was older. However, her sister had become a cruel, brutal assassin. The dragon, still missing her sister, reluctantly stayed with her sister. Her sister taught her quite a few ways to kill a dragon, which made The dragon uncomfortable. Long time with her sister made the dragonet fierce, instead of the kind dragon she used to be. The dragon soon decided her sister was dangerous, and with a sad goodbye, she left her sister and lived life by herself again." Everyone was staring at Glacier.
"I would like to point out that we can all assume that's Glacier's history." Kraken said, fiddling with a piece of wood.
"Hmph, I guess I'd better tell you all my story since Snow was brave enough, how could I not?" Glacier huffed. So that began the night.
"An animus enchanted me to turn into a sea monster whenever I feel strong emotions." Kraken sniffed, tears welling down his eyes. He stood still for a moment. Then dark brown tentacles bulged out of his body. "And I look like a monster!" Kraken wept. Chery Sympathetically padded Kraken on the back. He looked gratefully at her.
Snow soon came with lots of moss. "Come on, get some sleep."
The next day, Tide was flying over the gentle, calm waves, thinking about everyone's stories. Danger and Glacier were flying together, chatting. Hail was behind Danger, glaring at Glacier. Sunlight and Hummingbird were herding Spike and Dust behind Hail, everything was so peaceful. Quail snuck up behind her.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked. Tide jumped in surprise.
"Everything's so peaceful, it's kind of…strange." Tide replied. Quail sighed in content, nodding. He gave her a warm smile.
"Once we get to Pantala, we'll have enough dragons to fight off Abysswing."
"Yeah…imagine that." Tide replied wistfully. "Wait…look! Isn't that Pantala!?" Tide exclaimed, pointing to the land mass shaped like a dragon's head appearing on the horizon. Every dragon heard her cry, and turned their heads towards Tide.
"YES!" Glacier cried. Dust and Spike were crying happy tears, sobbing dramatically on each other. Danger became a hundred times more energetic, doing loop-de-loops in the sky.
"When did someone teach you drama?" Sunlight asked the dragonets playfully. They stared at her for a moment.
"Abysswing." they replied simultaneously. Sunlight stared at them, shocked, eyes narrowed.
"What have you two been doing?" She scolded. Tide leaned in to hear. Quail looked back curiously.
"It's true!" Spike cried. Dust was nodding vigorously.
"Yeah, Abysswing runs a school for drama." Dust added. "Welcome to Abysswing's School of Drama, which I teach in my free time and also to invoke fear into puny dragonets.." Dust said, clearly trying to impersonate Abysswing. Sunlight glanced at Tide worriedly.
"Uh, cool!" Quail exclaimed, laughing, and leading the dragonets to Danger and Glacier.
"Hey!" Glacier protested. Danger was staring down Dust and Spike, who were looking at them with big, wide eyes.
"Yeah…" Danger added. "Why do we get babysitting duty?" Everyone ignored them.
Soon, they landed onto Pantala. "It seems we've landed into a jungle," Tide noted. Tide accidentally brushed against a leaf, which launched her into a waterfall. Tide heard many more splashes. She saw Glacier, Danger, and Beech fall in. She felt her body grow small. "TIDE!" Quail screeched, reaching out for her. Tide suddenly started to panic. She was in water, but she couldn't breathe.
On the other side of the waterfall, Tide saw a shape; four figures passing her. And growing larger. She felt her body shrinking, shrinking. Her wings folded in by itself. And then she fainted.