Glory wasn't sure how long it would take Nautilus and Peril to reach their destination so she had to work fast. She never saw herself as an amazing reader, especially not compared to Starflight, but being second wasn't too bad. Her talons ran across the many scrolls that Talons leader kept. Most were records about how the war was going, which side had the advantage or was struggling the most. Something about another general on Burn's side being assassinated but no one knowing by who.
The Rainwing was alone in the cave, looking through one of the shelves. It was still raining even after a day so the only sounds were drops of water echoing through the cave and lightning striking, threatening to break open the top of the cave. The torches seemed ready to be blown out by the wind which seeped through much to Glory's annoyance.
It wasn't easy to swap out the letter Nautilus had written since she couldn't even tell Peril about it. Her one chance came when she made an excuse to leave the cave. Glory returned with her scales shifted to keep her hidden by the brown and gray rocks that lined the cave. If the Seawing had bothered to look closer, he would have seen a floating piece of paper but to Glory's luck, the thought of Glory doing something like that hadn't even crossed his mind. She slipped in the fake letter then grabbed the one he had written. She then left and reentered with an authoritative growl demanding that he and Peril head out.
Her letter wasn't super well made, but it would at least not be super suspicious. Peril was ordered to make sure Nautilus only gave the letter to a Talon and not say anything more. This way he wouldn't be allowed to see Glory had changed it out.
"To the Talons of peace, I Nautilus, am ordering all that see this to halt any on going projects and meet up at Jade mountain. This is a very important meeting that all of age Talons must meeting will detail how the war shall end. The five dragonets of destiny are ready to pick a successor and they will meet us there in five days time."
She didn't really have any plans that involved all of the Talons in one place but she did enjoy the thought of them waiting for a meeting that was never going to happen. It was the small stuff like that which made her current situation more manageable. Of course Starflight could have written a more informed letter but she didn't need that Nightwing for anything.
Glory opened the letter and scowled, wanting to hit herself on the head. The letter Nautilus had written was made in strange symbols outlined with different colors of ink. Now she knew why he was taking so long for a short letter. "Of course they have coded letters." She remembered Webs informing Dune that Burn had been intercepting letters which meant the Talons needed to change how they wrote unless the princess got a hold of one. "But he has to have a translation somewhere."
She wondered where a snail eating Seawing would stash probably the most important scroll in the stupid cave and her mind went to a million places. Behind the map, hidden in a book, spread out along multiple scrolls? "Stop thinking like you are Starflight. He's a Seawing, right? Where would Tsunami hide it?" She wasn't entirely sure if that was a good comparison but she figured an obvious hiding spot would be inside the desk, just hidden below some letters.
Annnd of course that was where it was. At least something like it. The parchment held the same symbols with sentences to match. Apparently the crow symbol meant "Letter of importance, only for higher ups."
It took Glory a few minutes to translate it, the stupid scroll was super large and she had to wrote it out separately. In the end, she got a decently translated letter.
"New leadership needed" "Pretend all is the same" "Plan B" "Prophecy must be fulfilled" "Morrow" "Meeting" "At Jade mountain through Nightwing" "Leader Nautilus"
Well that sure didn't sound like what she told him to write. Not that she understood it perfectly but he didn't seem to mention her at ALL. Unless "new leadership" meant her, but something told her "Pretend all is the same" was referring to acting like Nautilus was still in charge. "Take a step back. Consider all of the possibilities."
Glory dred a line in the floor of the cave, marking the number one. "First, 'Someone has taken over, pretend that nothing has changed to the others. We will fulfill the prophecy in the future. Meeting at Jade mountain through the Nightwing. Signed Nautilus.' That sounds more like what I said…but what is plan B?" She muttered to herself. The more frustrating thing was that he almost definitely didn't mean that. "Why not just say tomorrow or future?"
"Morrow…Nightwing…Morrowseer the Nightiwng at Jade mountain!" That sounded about right. It was a little weird that he didn't combine them but he probably didn't have a way to do that in the coded letter. "New leader, pretend I'm the leader, must fulfill prophecy. Meeting with Morrowseer at Jade mountain. Signed Nautilus." That sounded better. Why Nautilus was consulting with the Nightwing confused her but if he issued the prophecy, then maybe he should be informed? But he also wanted Glory dead so she was glad to not see him again unless it was to spit venom in his eyes.
Yet that still didn't seem right…he coded the message despite him giving it to the Talons himself? Why not just write it normally? "Unless…he didn't want Peril to know what it said. He might be smarter than I'm giving him credit for." That actually did make sense. He could lie to her and say that the letter held the information she said without needing to explain it. "Alright Nautilus, let's see what you meant. 'New leadership needed' you need someone to replace you among the Talons. 'Pretend all is the same' must generally mean lie to the other Talons but here, you must mean pretend you're still in charge and keep your operations secret. Prophecy must be fulfilled so talk to Morrowseer at Jade mountain. Signed by Nautilus." That was almost definitely what he meant. There was just one problem.
What was plan B?
"Three moons, now I have to search through even more scrolls." Glory set the scrolls down and walked back to the shelves. She groaned at the thought of reading through them again but then a torch went off in her head. She didn't have to look through these scrolls, just his reports! Surely some dragon sent him something about this other plan. She moved back to his desk and opened up the lower section where five scrolls were carefully placed in order of dates.
The first three were pretty useless in terms of content. All they did was tell Nautilus about war changes. The two dragons also seemed pretty low on the Talons ladder.
The other two though were promising. One from an Icewing named Cirrus who told Nautilus that Queen Scarlet was going out on a patrol to find some scavengers for the arena and to spread her wings. Glory laughed a little as the time the letter was sent was a day before they escaped the cave.
"Dear Nautilus, Queen Scarlet will be gone for the day so I plan on finding more information about Burn's strategy. Speaking of strategies, I would still like to know more about these alternates. You've told me that it shouldn't concern me but if I am to trust you, then why can't I know about something as important as this?"
At least it mentioned something relating to this separate plan. "But it doesn't say what it is. Just that this Cirrus dragon doesn't know anything aside from that it exists." The next letter was her last hope. She remembered it being red and gold instead of the normal beige white. It was sent by some dragon named Seaweed which made her guess it was a Seawing. She pulled it out and set the scroll on the desk, rolling it out. The handwriting was pretty poor but at least it wasn't too detailed.
"For a leader of the Talons, you really suck at picking alternate. If the original five are as awful and prone to chaos as these five, than we have NO hopes of getting the prophecy complete. Your son is a massive pain who can't stop himself from getting beat up by those unruly dragons Viper and Flame. Ochre just cares about food but at least he doesn't talk nonsense like Fatespeaker. I'd rather have taken Webs' place watching the originals."
Obviously this Seawing wasn't too happy with Nautilus. But now Glory's mind was turning like gears. "Plan B is a separate set of dragonets of destiny." Well that changed everything. Nautilus wasn't just going behind her back, he was trying to replace them entirely. "But if they already have a Skywing, then why did they stick with me?" Unless they weren't perfect replacements…
That had to be it. They were back ups because they weren't perfect. The Mudwing may not have hatched from a red egg, the Sandwing might have just been given to them like Starflight and this Fatespeaker dragon. "But if she's muttering nonsense, then she must have powers."
"Ok Nautilus…" Glory wrote out the final version of what the Talons leaders plan probably was. "Let's see. 'New leader needed, pretend I'm still in charge. Meet Morrowseer in Jade mountain to talk about the alternates.' Not a bad plan for a Seawing." She chuckled. He was more slippery than the talons he had after taking a swim. "But now they won't find out."
The Rainwing moved the scrolls and letters back into their proper place. She had been counting on Nautilus to not expect much from her given her Rainwing nature. Not that she needed to clean up the cave. But she wanted to let Nautilus' final resting place to be his worn out hideout in a cave on a mountain. It at least needed to look good.
When she was done making his desk look like nothing had happened to it, she headed over to the map. Glory looked over the different dots that lined the map. They were spread out like the shining scales on Seawings. She bit her lip in frustration before running her claw along a set of caves near the Seawing territory. It looked rather promising for a place to hide dragonets. "Well, now I know where to go."
In truth, Glory needed sleep. That much reading was starting to hurt her eyes and Nautilus had a rather soft looking bed of seaweed. She curled up in a small circle before letting out a huff and closing her eyes. She hadn't ever had such a good resting place in her life aside from sleeping against Clay's side with Sunny's warmth aiding her.
Glory was in a vacuum of darkness falling down into nothingness. It felt like she had been falling for miles as her wings wouldn't bother to work no matter how hard she tired. Glory struggled against invisible ropes that were keeping her bound to this stupid position of helplessness. She roared in frustration before the darkness around her began to shimmer. The black void below her began to shift into a wondrous area of flora with trees sprouting up. She landed with a harsh thud against a bed of flowers with dozens of colors among the petals.
The Rainwing shook her head while trying to force her way out of the binds. She looked at the growing plants and stared in awe as hundreds of her fantasy-like version of wildlife came true. She had dreamed about this place a lot in the caves and she realized how close she was to finally seeing it. This was her true home, the Rainforest. At least the one in her mind.
"Glory? Why are you stuck on the floor?" It was a familiar, rough but kind voice. She turned to look at the Mudwing who had his head tilted down at her. Glory realized his eyes were a little faded, not letting her truly see them.
She shook her head but Clay's eyes just wouldn't be known to her. She wanted to bite her tail to remember what they looked like but she just couldn't think of them. "Clay? I'm not sure but let me out of these ropes!" She was home, she needed to see it!
He did so and gently pulled off the ropes, untying her. "Tsunami's up ahead. We figured you would be here." he looked out at the vast wilderness that was slightly hidden by the massive mountain tall trees. "I figured there would be more animals to eat here. So far I've only found fish in lakes."
She had to stifle a laugh as she flexed her wings. She didn't realize how much she missed his thoughts of food. "Tsunami's here? Why isn't she with her real family?" Glory didn't like how much her heart ached for that annoying Seawings stubbornness.
"We are her real family!" Clay helped Glory up before leading her forward along the yellow and green path that led deeper into the Rainforest. "We had to get past some Skywings to get here but we met some Rainwings. They are a lot like you! Snarky and reliable." He said, smiling warmly back to Glory.
For once, Glory actually wouldn't mind a hug but she didn't want to let that be known. "Keep the sappy stuff out this already honey filled forest. Let's find Tsunami and go to the Rainwings. They can help us end this stupid war."
The Mudwing looked confused, his mouth curving downward. "What war?"
Glory looked back with worry running through her blood. "Um, the Sandwing war of succession? You know, the one we are supposed to end?" There was no way that Clay had just forgotten about it, could he?
Clay gave her a happy smile, his tail swinging back and forth. "Oh, didn't you know? Sunny and Starflight already stopped it! They found these other dragons that were supposed to end it so we could do what we wanted. Speaking of…where ARE Sunny and Starflight?" Clay asked, looking past Glory. "I thought you found them?"
She growled lightly, remembering that very unfun conversation. "They didn't care about you…they just FORGOT that the Talons got you kill-" But he was here…he wasn't dead. He-
"You're a dream." Glory said sadly, trying to jab Clay's chest only for her talon to phase through him. He smiled back sadly.
"Yeah, kind of. Sorry for the confusion." Clay tried to wrap his wings around her but nothing happened. He looked very unhappy with himself for not being able to comfort Glory.
Glory shook her head and turned away from him. "Forget it. I know you and Tsunami aren't here. The war is still going on and those two useless slugs aren't going to stop it. But I can and I will." She felt the Rainforest around her begin to collapse as Clay let out a yelp of alarm. "There are five alternate dragonets of destiny. The Talons are going to use them to replace us, but maybe I can use them to end the war." She looked back and smiled at Clay. "Bye Clay, thank you for talking to me."
He seemed like he wanted to stop her but he too began to fade as she tried to wake herself up. Being in control of a dream was never easy. Especially not with a Skywing dangerously walking towards her. He looked familiar…but half of his face was missing. Before she knew it, he jumped towards her and roared, waking her up.
Glory knew she had slept for way too long as the rain had stopped falling. She heard approaching steps and the Rainwing stood up, glaring at the entrance before seeing Peril. She looked extremely unsettled and ready to rest. "I didn't know if you wanted him to come inside so he's waiting in the cave below us. He handed off the letter and we came back without Nautilus saying anything. It was pretty boring."
She nodded without really listening. Glory didn't really care how the letter giving went as long as he came back so she could confront him. "Good good…Peril, I need you to bring him up here. We have some things to discuss. When he's back, stand at the entrance and try to look threatening." The Skywing didn't actually need to do anything to inspire fear in those around her but the more she tried, the more fear Nautilus would probably show.
Peril shifted uneasily in her claws, looking behind her then back to Glory. "Will he-I kind of want to sleep real quick…just to rest my wings." She said uncertainty.
"I don't need this right now." Glory groaned in her head. "After we're done with him, you can rest. We just have a small flight and yay, the war will be over!" Ok, it wasn't really that simple but Peril would just be happy they were done.
The Skywing nodded sadly then turned to go get Nautilus. "Are you going to…kill him?"
Of all dragons, Peril shouldn't look so uneasy over the prospect. He was a stupid Talon in the end and nothing more. "You'll see. Just bring him up here and look threatening. I can't have him ruining my plan to end the war with his own stupid strategy."