Thank you so much for the reviews, and I'm glad most of them are positive! They remind me that I have a reason or ten to keep posting new chapters.

Is it weird to say that I love my characters like they were my best-est friends of all time?

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Wings of Fire; Tui T. Sutherland does.

NOTE: In a few places the wording will be similar if not the same as the Sutherland books. This is done because a re-word would sound silly and the setting, plot, universe, and characters are distinctly different enough to not constitute an infraction of the "no posting the original work with thoughts thrown into the flow of the work" rule.

Also, team Cynami or team Cypest?

Cyclone: : (

Tsunami: O_O, then : (

Tempest, hurriedly stashing Cypest flag under a wing: Pffft, I don't care.

The seats were filled with hundreds of dragons – all the dragons in the Sky Kingdom, it seemed to Cyclone. They roared and stamped their feet, demanding bloody entertainment.

Skywing guards came to unchain Tsunami, trying to avoid her snapping jaws. They flew her down to the sand, and put clamps on her wings. Condor turned to Tsunami just as she broke away from her guards and charged at him. With a yelp of terror, Condor shot into the sky, barely escaping her talons.

The dragons in the audience roared with laughter. It took Cyclone a moment to realize they were laughing at Condor's childish scream. Tsunami hissed at Condor as he looped in circles around her.

"Down on the sands, we have one of the Dragonets of Fate." Condor bellowed, staying up in the air. "Are they really so great and powerful? This is how we find out. I give you . . . Tsunami, the Wings of Sea!"

The sound of beating wings and hissing lightning-breath filled the arena. It was louder than Cyclone had expected, as if the watching dragons were really rooting for her. He could pick out some more voices.

"Did you hear the mountain singing last night?"

". . . Must have been an omen."

". . . Ghosts in the peaks . . . the Dragonets are here . . ."

". . . Hope she wins . . ."

Cyclone glanced at Queen Vulture, who had clouds billowing in rings around her horns. She flicked her tail at Condor as if to say, get on with it.

"AHEM." Said Condor. "Some of you may remember a dragon a few months back who refused to fight."

"BOOOOOOOO!" The crowd chanted obediently.

"Indeed." Said Condor. "Tried to start a regular prisoner revolution, didn't he? Tried to get all the dragons to stop fighting. Well, clearly he had to be taught a lesson, or we'd all be lying in our caves right now, bored out of our skulls. Am I right?"

"WOO HOOOO!" The crowd agreed.

"So what's the best way to punish a Seawing?" Condor swooped over the crowd, trying to look as if he was perfectly comfortable in the air instead of on the sands where he usually did his announcing.

"Chop off his head!"

"Stuff grass in his gills!"

"Drown him!" Drown him? These dragons must be really bored . . . or stupid.

Condor sighed. "All good suggestions," he said. "But no. The best way to punish a Seawing – is to take away their water. All their water. For months."

Tsunami looked up from the sand and met Cyclone's eyes. Her scales were pale with horror.

The writhing, navy blue Seawing landed hard on the sands, dropped by the guards. He was bigger than Tsunami, with talons as sharp and curved as fishhooks. Dried blood flecked his mouth as if he'd been trying to drink from his own veins. His scales were dull and crusted, and his deep blue eyes were bloodshot and rolling wildly in his emaciated skull.

He looked completely insane.

"Dehydrated, mentally unstable, and ready to fight at last. I give you – you're going to love this – King Whirlpool of the Seawings! Claws up, water ready. Fight!"

Whirlpool didn't wait for Condor's order. He tore across the sand toward Tsunami as soon as he'd recovered his balance. His mouth was open as if he thought he was roaring, but no sound came out. His tongue, blue-black and swollen, lolled to the side.

Tsunami leaped over his head and ducked into a roll as she landed, carrying her halfway across the arena. She spun to face him as Whirlpool turned and charged her again. He took in a deep breath, and breathed out with his mouth wide, but no jet of stinging water came out. No misty spray of pain to splash over his opponent. The same thing as a freezing Heatwing trying to breathe fire.

Cyclone saw Tsunami close her eyes with a concentrated expression. A gentle mist rose from her scales. She put her right talon on the sand in front of her.

And the sand started turning into water.

Just before Whirlpool slammed into her, he noticed the growing puddle and drank, and drank, and drank some more.

His cracked scales smoothed, his swollen tongue shrank, the blood was washed off his scales, and the insanity left his eyes. This wouldn't happen normally, so there was probably an animus dragon in the audience. Cyclone scanned the arena but found no purple scales to indicate a Voidwing. But it had to be a Voidwing; only they can be animus dragons. Cyclone wondered who and where they were – and why they were helping the Dragonets.

Whirlpool stopped gulping the water when the animus was done working, and looked around. As soon as he saw Tsunami, he motioned to hug her. It looked like Tsunami would have lashed out, but when she saw his friendly face, hers broke into a smile. They hugged, and flashed their glowscales in different patterns. It was tough to tell what they were saying to many of the prisoners up here, but Cyclone zoomed his vision on them – as he was sure so many other Skywings and the Lightwing prisoners were doing. They were exchanging statuses and planning a visit to the Seawing Kingdom after the Rock Kingdom, saving the touching reunion part for later.

"Are they fighting?" Burn asked the queen while squinting at the glowing blue patterns, unable to zoom because she was a Heatwing.

"I guess not." The Skywing queen muttered.

Tsunami spoke again. "There is no more fight." She shouted. "You can all see that. We can end this now, without killing anyone. I ask you all to let me let him live!"

There was a stunned silence across the stadium. Cyclone glanced at Queen Vulture, wondering if she would stand up to argue with Tsunami. But her expression was smug, as if she knew exactly what would happen next.

"KILL HIM!" Several Skywings shouted at one. "Snap his neck! Pull out his teeth! Oooo, gouge his eyes! Something gory! Death! Death! Death! Death!" Suddenly all the dragons were shouting at her in unison.

"ENOUGH!" Tsunami shouted. "I won't let him die. He is my father!" She roared again, silencing all of the dragons. She turned toward Queen Vulture, her expression smug. "Besides, I've already won."

"No you haven't, he's-" Something glowing caught her eye, it was a strange stone – probably given to Whirlpool by that same animus – sending the Seawing king back to the sea. The queen glared at Tsunami, clouds curling around her horns.

She must have thought Tsunami did that.

The plot diverges here a bit, and don't worry about the lack of the king's death and its future repercussions. The "hidden animus" scenario impacts the story much more than Tsunami killing her father.

And also I thought it'd be fun to write him sane later in the series, so, there's that.

As always, thanks for reading!