Nautilus flew ahead of the group, straining his eyes for any splotches of land in the distance. "No land yet!" he called back to his group. They had been flying through the endless expanse of water without so much as a hint of land in sight for half a day already. It was a long flight and Nautilus wasn't be sure if they would ever arrive at their destination.

'If there is a destination,' he thought with a scoff. 'Makes me wonder why Queen Coral sends out these search parties. There can't be any more continents, or even islands! I swear, one day we're gonna fly right over the edge of the world…' he gazed down at the ocean longingly. 'I wish I was home… It's not my fault I'm one of the best flyers!'

Just then, a triumphant cry of, "Land! I see land!" pulled him out of his thoughts. "Are you su- HOLY CARP!" Nautilus cried, his eyes bugging out as he stared at the huge landmass that had seemingly popped into existence right before his very eyes.

He nearly fell out of the air from his sudden stop, but regained control quickly enough as he landed gently on its surface, the others landing beside him. As soon as he was close enough to touch the bottom of the ocean, he ran straight towards the beach and looked around.

The island was huge, with tall mountains in a ring around the middle that were surrounded completely by water. As he walked further inland, Nautilus gasped. There was a dragon standing there, swaying slightly. 'Another tribe?! And here I was, thinking this whole trip was pointless.' Nautilus chuckled softly, then realized that it was probabky creepy to just be standing there, staring at the dragon. 'Oh! I should probably tell the others.'

As Nautilus flew back to the others, who were waiting by the tree line, he tucked in his wings and let himself fall. He smiled when he saw the other seven members of the group staring up at him in a rather expectant way. He couldn't help but think about how odd it was for them to get excited over seeing another tribe, as the Pantala thing had happened only two years ago.

"You'll never guess what I saw!" Nautilus crowed, quite pleased with himself. The others all walked up to him and started guessing.
"A cool new type of tree? I wonder if it has fruit."

"No way! I don't trust plants from other continents any more. Is it a… uh… hermph."

"I bet it's some sort of land whale! That would be SO delicious!"

"Was it a Skywing? Lemme at 'em!"

"Come on, you guys gotta think bigger! I bet my best jewels that it's a whole city of scavengers! With a palace and a queen and everything…"

"Why are you so obsessed with scavengers…?"

"Is it a new tribe?"
Nautilus pricked up his ears at the last one. "Exactly! Good one, Seasnake! I saw one standing there, just over that rise. Didn't look like any tribe I had ever seen before! Coloring was pretty close to a Sandwing, though."

Seasnake wasted no time in flying over the rise, then stopped and stared as soon as she saw the new dragon. "Wow," she whispered to Nautilus. "They look a bit… beat-up. Almost like a corpse!"

Nautilus looked at the new dragon a little more closely. Seasnake was right! The dragon's wings were torn and ripped and full of holes, their scales were green and sickly-looking in some places, their tail was constantly twitching, and the way they swayed back and forth, again and again, was just… unnatural looking.

Nautilus hesitated, then remembered that not all tribes look the same. If he didn't know what Icewings were, he'd have assumed that the first Icewing he saw was an Ice Sculpture. He told this to Seasnake, and she chuckled. "All right," she said, "You're probably right. I mean, what harm could it possibly do to say hello?"

Nautilus smiled hesitantly and started to walk up to the dragon. "Hello?" he said, raising a talon to tap them on the shoulder. They didn't respond. He looked back to Seasnake, and she shrugged. The others were on the too of the rise now, also looking confused.

"Hello?" Nautilus said a little louder. 'Maybe they're hard of hearing, or deaf!' "I'm Nautilus, and-" he was cut off by a loud gurgling moan from the new dragon. Nautilus turned back to Seasnake again, and she made a 'go on, you're doing great' gesture with her talons.

Nautilus gulped, and raised his arm higher to tap them on the shoulder. When his talon was about an inch away from the dragon's shoulder, it hissed, turning around suddenly and biting him on the arm. "Yeowch!" Nautilus cried, scarmbling away from the dragon.

His fellow explorers were now watching the exchange with varying degrees of horror on their faces. Nautilus knew he had to do something, so he lifted his leg and kicked the dragon on the nose with his hindleg. It did NOT help. The dragon merely opened its mouth wider, making the most horrible snarling noise Nautilus had ever heard in his life.

It bit down hard on Nautilus's leg, managing to tear a good chunk of flesh out of him, and… chewing it?! Seasnake could only look on in horror as her friend was attacked. Finally, she snapped herself out of her shock and dove at the monster, trying to grab onto it with her talons to drag it away from Nautilus. She succeeded, but was bitten as well. She put her arm under Nautilus's shoulder and yelled back to the others, "Let's get out of here!"

Nautilus limped along with her, his face frighteningly pale. 'That dragon just ate a chunk of my flesh…' he thought, shocked to the point where his injuries were numb. They hurriedly made a stretcher for him out of palm fronds and branches.

As they flew frantically across the sea, Nautilus started slipping in and out of conciousness. Soon after the fight, he had started feeling simultaneously nauseous and hungry. He looked over at Seasnake, taking up the rear to make sure the horrible new dragon wasn't following. He locked eyes with her, and knew that she was feeling the same way.

He looked at the dragon carrying one side of his stretcher. Nautilus was so hungry… he could eat anything! Maybe even… he leaned over to the side that dragon was on and took a big bite out of their arm. Even though they dropped the stretcher, the wave of nausea and hunger suddenly passed. He started flying.

Seasnake took the opportunity to take a bite out of that same dragon, who was now screaming to the rest that they were eating him. Nautilus doubled over as the hinger came back. Just one more bite…

Nautilus and Seasnake together managed to devour that first dragon, and bite another of the seven-now-six, but by the time they were done, the rest had gotten away. Nautilus looked at Seasnake, who was staring off in the direction that the group had fled. She was about to say something when Nautilus took a bite out of her, too.

His mind had gone cloudy, but he didn't care. All he cared about now was making his hunger go away. And he knew that meat cured hunger, and that the thing he was eating was meat. But he needed more meat. More meat… his mouth watered at the thought.

Soon enough, Nautilus and Seasnake's thoughts were consumed by a craving for meat, which led them both to attack each other with teeth instead of claws. Nautilus continued to eat until he had eaten Seasnake completely. Then he looked in the direction that the other meats had flown. Maybe there were more meats there…