Qibli clipped his pouch back on.

"Ok," Qibli said to Komodo and Chinchilla, "Let's clean this up."

He took his knife and put it in front of Swamp. Then the guards pushed the Mudwing to the center of the room next to Thorn. Qibli handed them a vial of green liquid.

"Ok you two, this will wake him up. It just needs a minute to work, and it takes only one sniff, so it gives you plenty of time to pretend like you were knocked out," reminded Qibli.They nodded and Qibli slipped on his cloak. Then he went out of the room. He took off his cloak, then said "Complete." He looked around to see if any dragons were walking by. He started to knock on the door. Some dragons walked by and looked at him.

Qibli kept knocking on the door saying, "Thorn, ready for lunch?" and nobody answered. Eventually, Dingo came around with Horus.

"Hey Qibli, what are you doing?" Horus asked.

"I'm just seeing if Thorn's ready for lunch," Qibli answered, "I thought her meeting would be over by now."

"It should be over," Horus said, "I'm sure it would be ok if you went in."

They opened the door and Horus gasped. What he saw was Thorn dead on the ground. Swamp had woken up and was examining the knife, the two guards were laying on the ground sprawled out.

"Hey, you!" Dingo yelled at Swamp. He pinned the Mudwing to the ground and held his arm behind his back.

"What's this for!" Swamp roared.

Horus came over and helped Dingo, "For the murder of Queen Thorn!" he growled.

Swamp swung his head to face the two guards and shouted "I didn't do it!"

"Yeah, tell it to the judge!" Horus growled.

Komodo and Chinchilla slowly got up and rubbed the backs of their heads.

More guards came in from all the noise.

"Are you guys okay?" one said to Komodo and Chinchilla.

"Yeah what happened?" Qibli asked them in a pretended concerned tone.

They gave Qibli a wink and started to talk.

"We were standing here then the Mudwing knocked us out," Chinchilla said.

Another guard came over and said, "I think you might need to go to the hospital wing."

"No, I think we'll be fine," Komodo responded.

More and more dragons came in to see the body and ran out to tell everyone. "Thorn is dead!" Eventually, the body was moved and everyone met in the courtyard. Soon a dragon came running in.

"Help at the gates," the dragon said.

The dragons all rushed to the entrance where a beat-up-looking dragon was there with scratches along his side. A body was slung across his back."We were attacked by the Mudwings. They're coming!" Yelled the scratched one. He then fell still.

Great actor. Qibli thought.

"What's next?" some said.

"What does this mean?" others replied.

One dragon's voice rose above the rest, "THIS MEANS WAR!" they roared. All heads turned to the voice. Vulture stood tall in the middle. "They've assassinated our queen and hurt our citizens. This is a war against the Mudwings!" The dragons had a look of determination.

"He's right!" they yelled.

"This is war!"

"Attack the Mudwings!"

Vulture looked at the crowd, "Let's send a scouting party. To scout out the land!" He scanned the group of dragons, "Qibli! You go pick two dragons to go with you to scout."

Qibli nodded and looked for some dragons to take. He then saw two dragonets, Mamba and Nile.

"I pick Mamba and Nile!" he declared.

The two dragonets turned and walked over to Qibli.

"We will set out immediately!" he exclaimed.

Mamba and Nile went over to hug Horus and Dingo goodbye, "Good luck," they said to their son and nephew.

Qibli and the dragonets flew off in the direction of the Mud Kingdom.