Iris remembered how she met Grouper quite well. It had been years since that day, but that first conversation was still completely clear.
She ran away from her brother's care one afternoon and headed down to the beach, hoping to find some interesting shells or rocks. But when she got there, instead of rocks and shells, she saw a light blue lump lying on the sand.
As she had neared the shape, she realized it was a dragon. He didn't look much older than her, and he definitely didn't look like any Rainwings she'd seen. Three neat slits were on his neck, and he had a massive frill on his back.
"Hello?" She had whispered, poking him in the back. The dragon slowly lifted his head and opened his eyes.
"Oh," He said, blinking slowly. His eyes were clouded with emotion, and his face was wet.
Iris remembered staring him down, she reached out to touch one of the slits in his neck.
"Woah, woah, woah!" The blue dragon cried, jerking his head back. He backed away from her.
Iris didn't move but continued staring him down with a curious gaze. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to touch them; those things on your neck."
"Uh-huh," He began to back even farther away from the small dragonet, closer to the water.
In a flash, the Rainwing leaped forward and landed inches away from the other dragon's nose. "Please, don't go!" Iris met the blue dragon's eyes, "I think you're just about the most interesting thing I've ever seen."
The blue dragon did a quick double take, "What? I'm the most interesting… What?"
"Oh yes!" Iris exclaimed, her scales turning bright pink. "I have no idea what you are! You're blue, and your scales don't seem to be changing. There are three long cuts in your neck, but you aren't acting like you're hurt."
Iris suddenly gasped.
"And your talons are webbed!" She grabbed one of the blue dragon's claws in her own, holding it close to her eye.
After a few moments, Iris dropped the other dragon's claw. She looked back up at the blue dragon, and realized with a start that- though he looked her age, he was much, much larger. "What are you?"
He tensed and glanced back at the ocean, "I'm a Seawing."
"What's a Seawing?"
"What's a- don't Rainwings go to school?"
Iris grinned, "School? What a funny sounding word. Nope, no schools here. Sounds like a cool plant though! Do you have them where you come from? Where do you come from? Nevermind, that's obvious, the sea! But how do you breath under there? Like fish? Are you just a big fish?" The Rainwing took a big whiff of the air around her, "You don't smell like a fish." Then she burst out laughing at her own comment, falling into a heap on the sand.
When she had finally stopped, the Seawing was sitting at the edge of the water, fixing her with a strange look. "You don't know much, do you?"
Iris' attitude changed in an instant. She stomped her feet angrily, "Of course I know much! I know every much! It's not my fault you're a weird FISH-DRAGON that knows what SCHOOLS ARE!" She thought about running back to the Rainforest and telling her brother to get the sleeping darts, but then a thought suddenly occurred to her.
"You know things, right, about the fish-dragons, and schools?"
The Seawing tilted his head, "Yes."
"Could you maybe, tell me?"
The Seawing nodded, "Sure," but then his expression grew more serious, "But no Seawing secrets."
Iris giggled, "Why would I want to know fish-dragon secrets?"
The Seawing threw his head back, "And stop calling me a fish-dragon!"
"Then what do I call you?"
The blue dragon hesitated, "Grouper, like the fish."
Iris beamed, "Well Grouperlikethefish, let's get started."
This new dragon though, the one being led into the arena, was not the same Grouper. This one had scars on his shoulders, and two new nicks in his left ear. His claws too were different, they were stained with something dark.
"Grouper!" She said again, louder this time. The Seawing glanced in her direction with dull eyes that lit up immediately when he saw Iris. Then a scowl formed on his face, and his eyes narrowed.
"Grouper, it's me! Iris!" She flapped her wings excitedly and bright yellow bubbles formed on the edges.
Grouper didn't meet her eye, instead, he turned to face the pavilion Queen Scarlet watched from. There was a look of surprise on her face, which made Iris jump. She didn't think Scarlet had more emotions than smirking triumphantly and grimacing.
There was a long silence as the two guards in charge of Grouper unchained his forearms.
That's strange, thought Iris, They took off my chains up in the sky prison. Then again, he came from a tunnel, maybe they keep him somewhere else? Like a dungeon? But why would they put him in the dungeon, and me in a sky prison? Preference? Or did Grouper do something worse than I did...' That last thought in particular worried Iris, but she brushed it off. Grouper doesn't have a bad bone in his body, it must be something else.
The guards finished taking off Grouper's shackles and marched back into the tunnel.
The announcer, who had most likely picked up on the tension, said awkwardly, "After seven wins, Grouper the Seawing- formerly a trespasser, and smuggler of goods in the Skywing palace- has been challenged to match up with a new prisoner, Iris the Rainwing- charged with aiding and abetting criminals. Claws up, fire, ready! Fight!"
Iris was smug for a moment, That'll show Horizon for doubting me, I DID aid and abet criminals thank you very much! She suddenly remembered Horizon's fate and winced.
Across the arena, Grouper had turned to face her, but still wasn't meeting her eye. He paced towards her, head hung low. As he got closer, Iris noticed just how much bigger he'd gotten since they'd last seen each other. Grouper was at least two and a half heads taller than her.
The Seawing stopped in front of her, lifted his head as if he was going to look at her, then dropping it again.
"Hey, Grouper, you okay?" She whispered, rapping on his head with a claw.
In a sudden swift motion, he lifted his head up to its full height and reared back before crashing into her. He wrapped his wings around her and held her so tight she thought she might run out of air.
For a brief moment, she thought he was crushing her before realizing it was a hug.
"Grouper, hey, running out of air," she barely squeaked out. He let her go and she fell back onto the sand. He jumped around her happily, bouncing like a year old dragonet.
Iris flared her ruff slightly and more yellow seeped onto her scales, followed closely by shiny silver. "You've gotten… bigger."
Grouper bounded over to her, beaming, "Or you've just shrunk.''
"Nuh-uh, it's because of you and your stupid giant fish-dragon genes!"
"Iris, you do know not all Seawings are this big right?"
"Really? Wow, I thought Tsunami was just short."
Grouper shifted his wings, "Tsunami?"
Even more yellow flooded her scales and Iris wouldn't be surprised if she looked like a banana by now. "That's right, I haven't told you how I got here yet!"
Grouper frowned, "Wait, all of that 'aiding and abetting criminals' stuff is true? I thought for sure the Queen just made it all up 'cause she wanted a color-changing challenger."
"Nope." Iris made her ruff even bigger. "I'm a criminal now! Isn't that cool!"
Grouper's face changed and became serious. He stopped bouncing on his heels.
"No, it's not cool. Listen to me Iris, once Scarlet realizes we're not going to fight, she will pull me back into the dungeons. Wanna know where you'll go? Right back up to the Sky prisons. After that, more fights."
"Well, yeah, but if I just don't fight-" Iris started to speak but Grouper cut her off.
"That doesn't work, other dragons have tried, one actually succeeded a few times, and no one has seen him for months. You'll need to fight back."
Iris took a step back, "I don't do that, Rainwings, we don't harm or kill anyone."
"It's not like that here, you have to. They make you."
"Have you killed anyone?"
A pained look appeared on Grouper's face, he staggered forward like he had forgotten how to walk. "Please, I didn't want to."
Her gaze was cold as she took in Groupers scratched shoulders and stained claws, "You don't look like a dragon who didn't want to."
Iris heard heavy wingbeats above her but didn't look up. Two red dragons landed beside the Rainwing and prepared to carry her off. Four more guards rushed past them and began to hurriedly re-shackle the Seawing.
"Get off!" He roared. His tail smashed into one of guards heads as the blue dragon struggled.
Iris remained silent as the remaining, or conscious, guards subdued the angry dragon. She felt the other two guards lifting her into the sky. She squeezed her eyes shut to save herself from the queeziness she would feel from seeing the long drop below her.
The two guards set her down on the pavilion and wrapped the wires around her arms once again. Then they left.
In her absence, Horizon had been replaced by a scrawny orange Skywing. He glanced nervously back and forth from the arena to Iris.
Iris ignored his eyes on her. Instead, she curled up into a neat ball on her stone prison and went to sleep.