It was a beautiful day. Moonstar saw the sun shining through the window, and through the poorly placed roof planks above. She stood up from her nest and headed over to Euclase's nest, ignoring the itchy cheap straw under her tail. She'd lived like this her whole life so it didn't bother her anymore.

"C'mon Euclase! Wake up!" Moonstar said cheerfully, shaking the SeaWing awake.

Euclase moaned. "Five more minutes…" she mumbled, digging her head back into the hay. She often didn't sleep well, probably because being forced to sleep on the cold hard ground with only a slight bit of hay to help keep warm wasn't comfortable for a SeaWing in the slightest.

But Moonstar, being a three year old dragonet, wanted to play. NOW. "Come on! We can sneak out and play in the water. Charcoal is probably sleeping right now. He'll never find out!" she whispered. Charcoal was a large red SkyWing, named so probably because of the thick black smoke he spewed everywhere whenever he was angry.

Euclase paused. I would really like to go for a swim... her thoughts said, which Moonstar read without much trouble. Moonstar liked reading Euclases's thoughts. Unlike the others in this orphanage, she never thought Moonstar was ugly. "OK, let's go!" she finally decided.

She stood up, revealing her beautiful scales which were purple along her back and faded into blue and then to a beach colour on her underbelly. She was a beautiful SeaWing who would surely get adopted sometime soon. Meanwhile, Moonstar was just an ugly dragonet, so ugly she didn't even resemble any one tribe. She was so jealous of Euclase's beauty.

But she didn't say anything, not wanting to make Euclase feel bad. Instead she just took the lead, carefully stepping towards the entrance. Neither of them made a sound but Moonstar could hear Euclase thinking about what games they might play.

They stepped outside. The sun was bright and warm and Moonstar spread her wings a little. The little white flecks on the undersides of her rainbow wings, usually hidden, now glowed majestically. She sighed with relief. Being locked in the orphanage with other dragonets all day meant she could never spread her wings.

"Ugh.. I hate having to walk through here!" Euclase complained, swiping a bug away from her scales. She was always miserable in the rainforest, unlike Moonstar. In fact, every other dragon in the orphanage hated it here. When Moonstar asked why they couldn't go somewhere else, they refused to answer but Moonstar could hear something about a war in their thoughts.

Thankfully, they reached the lake in no time. It wasn't all that big, but for dragonets of their age it was perfect. Euclase dove in immediately, making a huge splash that Moonstar shielded herself from with a wing. Moonstar sat on the shore instead of going into the water, because she didn't like to get wet as much as Euclase did, and if she did go in she never went too deep.

"I bet I can catch a big fish!" Euclase bragged. She turned and dove into the water, but Moonstar could still see her easily. She chased after the fish, careful not to glow her SeaWing scales, and eventually caught one. She came up on the shore, revealing a big trout which flopped around.

"Wow, good job!" Moonstar praised. Euclase seemed to glow at this. Of course she did, they were such close friends that any praise from her would make her extremely happy!

"I'll catch that one next!" Euclase said, and then pointed into the water. The fish she pointed to was huge, and gray… it was a shark!

"No, wait Euclase!" Moonstar cried, but it was too late. She swam up to the shark, and Moonstar watched in horror as the shark bit on to her foreleg and refused to let go. It shook, and Euclase tried to scream but couldn't. HELP ME MOONSTAR! her thoughts screamed.

Moonstar didn't even think. She just acted. She dove into the water, and instead of finding herself drowning she found her instincts doing all the work. She was SWIMMING, and at an amazing speed no less. More than that, she wasn't struggling to breathe at all! She came up to the shark and kicked it really hard with her leg, and it growled in pain. Blood from Euclase's wound was filling the water but Moonstar continued to attack, until the shark finally withdrew and swam away. After that, Moonstar threw Euclase on to her back and swam back up to shore, pulling them both above.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Euclase gasped and coughed up water that had gotten into her lungs from her screaming. She turned to Moonstar. "Yeah but… you were BREATHING! Underwater!" she said with surprise.

Moonstar thought back and realized… she really had been breathing underwater! "Well… All I could think about was saving you, my instincts just.. kicked in!" she said honestly. "I guess that means I could be part SeaWing?"

"Yeah!" Euclase said. "Maybe you're a SeaWing and NightWing hybrid?" she suggested, but Moonstar shook her head.

"But that doesn't explain why I have these shiny, white scales…" she said, displeased. She'd been trying for her entire 3 years of life to figure out what tribe she was! If the answer was this simple, she would have figured it out by now!

"Oh, you're right." Euclase said, frowning. She tried to stand but when she stepped on her injured leg she screamed and fell down. "I can't walk, Moonstar." she said sadly.

"It's okay! I'll carry you!" Moonstar said, but she was a little worried. With a wound like that, their caregivers would know they had snuck out. But if they didn't go back, they'd get in even more trouble, so Moonstar accepted her fate.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU TWO BEEN?" was the first growl out of Charcoal's mouth when they walked in. Thick black smoke filled the room but neither of them flinched at the horrible smell, they'd grown used to it after all.

"W-We just went to play outside, that's all!" Moonstar tried to defend, her wing spread to hide Euclase's injury. But it was no use.

"What did you do to her?!" Descent screamed, using his powerful tail to throw Moonstar down. Euclase tumbled off of her back and onto the floor, and Descent ran to her, looking at her still-bleeding injury. "You ruined the only beautiful thing in this place, you disgusting hybrid scum!" he screeched.

"It-it was an accident, it was a shark!" Moonstar cried, but neither of them cared.

"This time it was a shark, next time it will be an enemy tribe who uses the opportunity to kill you both without mercy! Use your GODDAMN BRAINS!" Charcoal growled. "We're in the middle of a WAR and what you care about MOST is going outside to PLAY?"

"Well no- I- I…"

"Well I hope you learn your lesson after you go 3 days without food! Descent, take the SeaWing into the infirmary." Charcoal snarled. They stepped out and that was it.

Moonstar continued to lay crying on the floor. Her body hurt where Descent's powerful tail had struck her. If only she were pretty enough to be adopted, then maybe she might have a family who loved her and not have to deal with being treated like this.

You deserve it, Moonstar. You're the ugliest dragon in Pyrrhia! You don't even know what tribe you're supposed to be! It's no wonder you were abandoned and left to die, no one will ever love you! An evil voice said inside her. "That's not true…" she cried out, but she knew it was.

She pulled herself up to her talons and dragged herself back towards the nests, making her way into the secret loft she and Euclase found once. She knew the other dragonets wouldn't want her around and without Euclase to defend her they would make her sleep outside.. Moonstar bet Euclase hated having to deal with Moonstar all the time.

She looked into the mirror, noticing a big purple bruise beginning to bloom on her side. It hurt to breathe but at least she was alive. She also couldn't help looking at the rest of her body. Her scales were white and sparkled in the sun like an IceWing, but they didn't radiate cold. She also didn't have the sharp claws, nor the crest of spikes the IceWings in the picture books had. Instead she had a rainbow pattern under the base of her wings, with one eye bright blue and the other green. Between them was a large white star marking. Her head was round and horns gently curved.

No wonder nobody loved her… she really was ugly. She couldn't even tell what tribe she was supposed to be! I wish I could wake up a normal dragon.. she thought with despair, tears beginning to spill over her cheeks. I wish I was a beautiful SeaWing like Euclase. Maybe then everyone would like me…

Euclase walked in while Moonstar was crying. Her leg was now all bandaged up, though shoddily since Moonstar could still see the wound sticking out. "Oh Euclase, I'm so sorry!" she cried. "It's all my fault you got hurt, I should have stopped you!"

"No Moonstar, it's not your fault!" Euclase growled.

"I just wish someone would adopt us…" Moonstar said sadly. "Then we won't have to live in this horrible place anymore… and… I wish I knew what kind of dragon I really am."

"Me too Moonstar." Euclase said sadly. But at least Moonstar had Euclase. Maybe then she would be able to survive…