The Seawing didn't seem to hear her as he was too wrapped up in whatever scroll he was reading. His brow was furrowed and his tail lashed wildly. Apparently, something was not going his way. The orange candle light wasn't enough to be seen from outside of the cave and he could easily have blown it out if he thought someone was coming. "He doesn't seem to be able to notice anything right now."

Glory took a few steps forward and looked around the Talon's room. There was a giant desk near the back of the room filled with books and scrolls and ink where the Talon sat with the candle. To his left were two shelves of even more scrolls and a silver box with a lock on it. To his right was a map of Pyrrhia that was eerily similar to the one she remembered growing up with. Instead of marks for where they dragonets thought they were living, he had dots places all around the continent. "Possible Talons locations? Maybe areas of conflict?"

She shook her head and walked towards the Seawing raising her voice to make herself sound older then she really was. "Hey! If I had been a Skywing, you would be captured or killed right now." She said, hiding the part of her that wanted to kill him. "He's a Talon. He was one of the dragons that kidnapped me."

He looked up in alarm and his claw almost knocked over the bottle of ink. He looked above Glory, expecting her to be taller than his eyes fell to meet hers. He blinked twice in confusion before rolling his tongue over his tooth. "Ah, yes…that would have been bad. But Skywings don't fly in this weather unless ordered to by the Queen." He raised an eyebrow at Glory and rolled up the scroll. "A Rainwing?" He muttered, not even acting like she was a real dragon. "You…why are you here?" He looked Glory over, a small hint of suspicion? Or was Glory just seeing things…

He was peering at her like she was a confused dragonet. It was the condescension she faced against her guardians. The feeling that she couldn't do anything because of what tribe she was born to. "So use it." Maybe she could get more information if he didnt think she was too smart. "I uh, heard about some movement. You know, fun and stuff. Making dragons all get along…" She hated herself right now. "Sounds fun and…stuff. Though 'Oh, G-Mango, why don't I go and sign up?' so here I am."

The Seawing bit his lip in mild irritation, but there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes. There might not be many Talons active or maybe he hoped the Rainwings would be willing to join them. A whole tribe working with the Talons would probably be helpful. "I see. Well that is…interesting." He looked over the scroll once more and some ink over it with a feather. "How did you find out about us? I assumed your tribe wasn't…well you…" He searched for the right words to not offend her, not knowing that he offended Glory by his very existence. "I just thought that your tribe didn't care for anything outside of your Rainforest."

It wasn't fun, seeing the Talon pretend that he didn't look down on her tribe. Despite never knowing one, she felt a bit of prideful hatred. "We hear stuff. So I wanted to join. Figured I could just show up and do that." She tilted her head and tried to make her eyes look as uninterested as possible. "Can I?"

"Of course. We accept all dragons after all. That is…we would, but well…the Nightwings and your tribe haven't really shown an interest. Until today that is for you." He wrote down some more words on the scroll before setting it aside. Glory couldn't read it upside down. "Now, as for your recruitment…well I'll have to station you somewhere."

He stood up and walked over to the map Glory decided to trail him. The dots on the map had circles drawn around them, like territories. "Or an area to search?" He traced his claw along the map around the Rainforest. Specifically a small swamp in the Mudwing kingdom. "I suppose I could station you here…we don't have nearly as many Mudwings in our movement as I hoped so you could be a nice dragon to have there for spying."

The fact that her age, or supposed age, didn't seem to deter him from putting her in a spot like that made her feel a little more giddy about killing this Talon. "Wait, I uh, have questions. Since I left the wonderful Rainforest and all. I need a…reason to join…and yeah?" At this point she was starting to doubt if Rainwings even talked like this. "Like these dragonets of destiny that I heard about. Um, who are they and how did you find them?"

He shifted his jaw to the side as his mind searched for a way to answer the question. "Well, most of it is in the prophecy. You have heard of it, right? I figured even the Rainwings would know about it. Even if they couldn't read it." He stretched his wings out before bringing them back in as if he was stretching. "Mudwing egg the color of dragon blood, Seawing egg of deepest blue, Skywing egg, Nightwing egg given by the Nightwings and of course the Sandwing egg, hidden away."

"My tribe can read! Ugh, you are just ASKING to get venomed in the face!" She felt her lower scales shift to red before she stopped them. "Oh, yeah…I know about it." She mumbled unhappily. "Just how did you get them specifically?"

"And how much do you know about the Skywing egg?" If this Talon didn't know, then should she still kill him? Was he even worth any information if she couldn't have the satisfaction of silencing one of her kidnappers? "A Talon is a Talon. It doesn't matter how much he knows."

"Well…some of this information is prohibited from Talons that aren't as, ha, important as me." He said with pride. "But I'll tell you what I can."

He paced between the two sides of the cave in front of Glory, not taking care to see if she had any deeper intentions. "Poor Asha got the Mudwing. Had she not tried to help another dragon she could have been there raising them. Though Hvitur fell down similarly…they were good Talons who did their best." He sighed before looking sadly at Glory. It was hard to tell if he was being honest or not. "But at least we had the Mudwing and Skywing."

"So there were supposed to be five guardians. One for each of us…" She tried to think about why each Talon would have been picked. "Because they wanted each one to be raised by their own tribe. But A Nightwing wouldn't do it so they replaced it with an Icewing." That didn't make sense given, from what Starflight said, the icy history of the Nightwings and Icewings. "That's why Kestrel hated me. She thought the egg would be a Skywing like her, not a Rainwing." But it didn't explain Dune or Webs. Why was Dune so hostile and Webs so useless?

"Webs returned shortly after with the Seawing egg and then Dune with the Sandwing. Suddenly, all four eggs were there." He said, spreading out his wings. "Webs grabbed the Seawing from the royal hatchery itself! Some doubted how truthful the prophecy was but when we knew where the blue egg was, well it couldn't be a coincidence."

"Tsunami was right, she IS-WAS the lost princess. And Webs took her away from that life." She thought bitterly. He took two dragonets away from a home they should have lived in. Her hatred for the Talons only grew.

"And I don't know how Dune found the Sandwing egg. We thought that would be the most difficult for how specific it needed to be but he assured us he could find it." She wouldn't put it past Dune to have betrayed someone to get Sunny. How else would he know where to find an egg in that spot? "So that is how we came to find the five eggs. I hope that is enough for a new Talon to hear."

He smiled as if he wasn't lying straight to her face. For one, Skywing WAS dead…but did he know that? There was a flicker in his eyes as if he was studying Glory for a sign of weakness the way she was studying him. "He's probably smarter than I'm giving him credit for. How can I catch him in a lie?" There had to be something there for her to use. "You said you were high ranking? Mind elaborating on that? We don't really do rankings much in the Rainforest."

Whether or not that was true didn't matter because the Rainwing ate it up. "Oh! Of course, well when someone is high ranking, they tend to have more say in certain matters." Good grief, he really didn't think much of her tribe. "So I have a bigger presence than most of the other Talons."

That was obvious to Glory. "But what does that mean exactly? Like what is it you usually do? And what's your name again? Or did we not go over that?"

He looked just over Glory's head and as another bolt of lightning hit the ground. "Well, I get to deal with letters from the Talons and give out orders." He said simply. "Oh, and my name is Nautilus."

She kept her scales dark blue with sky colored spots around her claws. She figured it looked rather odd given their different body structure but she was impressed by her work. "Do you handle letters from those guardians you were talking about? If you are important I figure you must."

Nautilus looked at her with more skepticism. The sound of thunder echoed through the cave and shook some of the scrolls on the shelves. "Sometimes, yes." He stopped for a second then continued. "We swap out who gets the letters. Safety issue. Why would you care?"

Glory made her tail sway in a manner much like Sunny's when she was trying not to get on anyones nerves. It made her seem more engaged in the topic and less likely to be upset. Not that Sunny ever got upset that much. "I'm just curious. This is all new to me so I want to learn as much as I can before I join. Gotta make sure I can trust you is all."

"In my experience, Rainwings are pretty trusting. Now I haven't interacted with them much, but they don't ask so many questions." He said, furrowing his brow. "I will admit, you sound rather familiar."

The Rainwing struggled to not bite her tongue. "How so, Nautilus?" She asked, giving a small smile that she hoped looked comforting.

The Seawing didn't fall for it and he took a dangerous step towards her. "Hm, I apologize for my foggy memory, but didn't you say your name was…Mango?" Glory nodded but he decided to match her smile, looking as if he had just finished a tough puzzle. "Oh? Because I remember differently. Didn't you say your name was Glory? That was how I remember you." She glared back at him as Nautilus laughed. "Yes! You're the replacement. I can't believe I had almost forgotten. Wow, you let me go on that prepared speech about you and the others for way longer than you should have."

Well, there was no point in faking it anymore. "Alright, you caught me." Her scales went back to her usual color. "You don't seem very upset that one of your precious dragonets of destiny has escaped. And what do you mean I 'sound familiar'? We've never talked before." She dug her claws in and shifted her jaw uncomfortably.

"Why would I be upset? Well, I am very furious at the guardians for not keeping you inside for the whole time but things happen. I guessed you five would search for the leader of the movement to learn how to solve the prophecy. Though I expected to have more time. The second? Well I've had to read Webs' letters and he noted you as being particularly 'curious'. From what he said, I was starting to guess that you were just trying to get information from me."

He looked past Glory again, probably hoping to see four other dragonets walk through the entrance. "Now where are the others? It's been days since my last informant came with news and I'm curious how you have all grown."

Her eyes narrowed as her heart pounded in anger. "Growing up under a cave was nice. So fun in fact that we decided to leave after Morrowseer told the guardians to kill me. Super fun time, I assure you." She said with venom in her teeth. More than usual at least.

Nautilus gave her a small frown, his tail thumping against the floor. "But why would Morrowseer…" He stopped, looking more like Starflight before shaking his head and giving her a fake smile. "Well I am sorry, Gory. We didn't know he would do this. I promise you are safe with the Talons. But where are the others? Surely you didn't come here by yourself?"

For supposedly caring about where they were, he didn't seem overly concerned. Her scales turned a crimson red that rivaled the harshest Skywing. "I didn't come by myself, but the other dragonets aren't with me. Once we got out, Queen Scarlet took us and she executed Tsunami then had her champion kill Clay."

Finally, she felt the satisfaction she desired. Seeing Nautilus fall back in alarm made her heart leap in joy. "Thanks to the Talons, they're gone. The Sandwing, Sunny, and the Nightwing, Starflight, are searching for Tsunami. They believe she somehow survived." She glared at the map with a heinous gaze. "But I know better. But I didn't know that you were the leader of the Talons."

Her smile curved in a cruel way that made Nautilus uneasy. If she didn't know that, then why would she go to him? "You know, I was absolutely just going to have you tell me where the Talons were and than kill you but now I actually have a use for you. Congratulations on not being useless."

Nautilus laughed. His voice sounded like dried kelp being smoked over a fire. "A Rainwing? Do you really think you can? Kestrel's reports always said how useless you were at fighting her. I see no reason to be afraid of a dragonet."

Glory grinned wickedly, spying the small fish on his desk. "Then let me give you a reason to." Her mouth opened as she steadied her aim. Her body stood up as Nautilus let out an amused laugh before falling silent as she spit out the liquid from her teeth. The fish started dissolving before their eyes and the Rainwing sat back down. "Satisfied?"

The Seawing stared in horror as his voice weakened. "H-how., you can't-Rainiwngs…" His whole world view was breaking as he saw what a Rainwing was capable of. How could the most peaceful tribe in all of Pyrriha have such a deadly weapon at their disposal? And how did no one else know about it?

Using the venom sort of hurt which Glory assumed was because a dragon her age wasn't supposed to use that much but she didn't care. It was another tool at her disposal. "It looks like I have your attention. Now as I said, I don't plan on killing you, yet. BUT I will need your assistance if you want to keep it that way."

Was he trying to think of what to say or did he have something else going on in his head? Glory wasn't sure but she hoped he was smart enough to listen. Despite how much she wanted him dead, she knew he was useful. "And what would that be? A way to stop the war as you are supposed to?"

Glory shrugged, licking her two front fangs where the venom was just shot. "Well first I want to know more about this prepared speech. How many Talons actually know that the Skywing egg didn't make it? Is it just a you and the guardians thing or am I well known among this stupid movement?"

The Talons leader let out a low grumble before looking back at the map. "How was I supposed to tell the others that the prophecy may not come true? I figured if I just told everyone that we got the egg and had Kestrel train you to keep your scales red they would just figure you are an odd looking Skywing." A small smile formed on his lips. "It would help, wouldn't it? Why wouldn't the heroes of the war look a little different?"

She hated that he did make some sense. It helped that Sunny was weird looking as well. If she had to make the decision, she might have come up with that too. "So basically no one knows I'm the replacement? Everyone still thinks there's a Skywing dragonet that survived Scarlet's massacre? Interesting." She started pacing in a small circle. "Hm…I can use that. Now, just how involved are the Nightwings? Obviously they gave you Starflight's egg but are they in the Talons as well?"

Nautilus was a lot faster to answer this one. Judging by how he wiggled his snout, he probably wasn't a fan of the Nightwings either. "They told us the prophecy then gave us the eggs, yes. But that is as far as their helpfulness extends. I doubt that they have any real interest in this war." His chest puffed out a bit as his breathing increased slightly. His eyes were actually a little too locked in at staring towards Glory. "He's lying. I know it."

The Seawing was hiding something from her. He had to have met with Morrowseer who came to inspect them. They definitely wanted the prophecy to be completed. "Funny, because they seemed way more invested when they saved Starflight from the arena." Nautilus swallowed back some uncertainty as he heard the dragonet tell of Morrowseer's actions. "I'm guessing he didn't visit us in the cave just because he wanted to. As the leader of the Talons, shouldn't you know why?"

"The Nightwings are not easy to discuss things with. Morrowseer simply came by and told us he wanted to see how you five were coming along. Since he gave the prophecy, we couldn't protest." It was a rather weak response in Glory's opinion.

She paced in a small circle before groaning in annoyance. "Fine. Then how did you intend to solve the prophecy? Is there a Queen you have picked out or were you just hoping we would figure it out? No help, just 'good luck you five! Try not to die!'?"

He shifted his claws uneasily as another crack of lightning struck the ground. "Of course we have a plan! We intended for you five to pick…Blister." He said it without much joy. Shouldn't the Talon be happy that he actually had a Queen to back? "She's smart and knows how to work a kingdom. She uh…also-"

"Offered amnesty to all Talons if you side with her? Surely even you can hear just how stupid that idea is, right? Blister is probably the least trustworthy dragon of all time. At least Burn doesn't bother lying about how much she wants to rip your head off." The two stared at each other with mild contempt. "The Talons are going to be killed off if you pick Blister or Burn and we both know Blaze is too stupid to run a kingdom." There was something else, some reason that he trusted the Sandwing. "But he'll never tell me. It's too important, even his own life isn't worth as much."

The Seawing continued to give Glory a rather frustrated look. "Your age is clouding your judgment. I've lived longer than you and I know how to keep my Talons alive. Now unless you have a better idea to make the prophecy come true after those terrible losses, it's best you go to Jade mountain. I'll send someone to watch you until we can finish up our plans."

"Oh, about that. I actually have a different idea. Considering that all you've done as a leader is get the Talons stuck in caves, I think it would work better if I try to stop this war myself." She walked over to the map and traced her finger along the mountain range by the Sky kingdom. "As much as I would like to see the Talons dead, you are my only chance at actually fulfilling the prophecy and avenging Clay. That being said, I'll need to make sure you don't go running off behind my back. So you'll have to write some letters to them about a change in leadership."

Nautilus' breathing heavied as the two locked eyes. "A change in leadership?" He asked darkly, his eyes staring like icicles. "Your strange venom may be unique, but even if I agree to it, another Talon would simply take over. A Talon that probably has a way with dealing with you."

She shrugged, not even bothering to look at Nautilus. "Maybe, but that's why I brought a friend. Remember? I didn't come here myself. PERIL!"

There was silence for a little bit before the sound of steaming water approached the cave. Nautilus looked a little confused until he saw the orange scaled Skywing walk in, steam floating off of her. To Peril's credit, she tried to look intimidating but it seemed the Seawing already knew who she was and didn't even have to see her glaring, albeit slightly confused, face.

Nautilus stared in horror and Glory felt elated at the Talons fear. "I see you already know her. Well that saves time. Anyway, I'll need those letters done soon. And don't be worried about the other Talon's not respecting the change. I'm sure once you take Peril to see them, they'll understand.

Peril and Nautilus both looked alarmed at Glory's suggestion. The Skywing wanted to ask a question but she held back, not wanting to disrupt Glory's plan. Nautilus however, didn't seem too concerned about that. "I-I can't bring her to the Talons! S-she's a-" He stared back at Peril, worrying that she would turn into a crisp simply for saying the wrong thing.

"Don't worry. Peril won't hurt anyone unless I tell her too." Why did Peril look like she just got stung? "Just write those letters so we have them as physical proof of the transfer. You know, just in case?"

Nautilus swallowed back his fear and nodded. "I'll…get to work." He muttered, walking back to his desk. Glory smiled happily, though she was furious at the fact she didn't get to kill a Talon but hopefully, this would be way better. "Especially after I swap out those letters."

"Peril, watch him. I'm going to go get some sleep." It was obvious the Skywing wanted to talk more but Glory had too many things running through her head. "Once they're both gone, I can see what he's hiding. Then I can take these stupid Talons down forever."