"What's Possibility?"
Clovis paused, drawn away from his packing efforts to address Kauwari's question. "Possibility is a town up north, kind of stuck in between the Sand and Sky Kingdoms." He replied. "After the war ended, Possibility was basically the only place in Pyrrhia where you could still find dragons from different tribes living together without clawing at each others' throats."
As he finished explaining, the Sandwing started gazing out the window, where a veil of nighttime darkness was just beginning to peak over the horizon. "Most say it's the best bet for lasting peace we have right now. Kinda cool, right?"
Kauwari didn't know. To be honest, he wasn't sure that having your enemies living right next door to you was such a good idea. "I guess. But how do they take it so well, even though the last battle was only a few months ago? Don't they still get dragons fighting each other?"
"Sometimes," Clovis replied. "But those are mostly isolated incidents. Dragons can get disturbed from time to time, and maybe they'll go crazy and attack their neighbor or something. But most of them just want to be able to live their own lives, have their own houses and their own families."
"Besides," Clovis said as he stuffed a scroll into his bag. "We don't tolerate violence there." He gave Kauwari a dubious grin, and the latter just raised an eye-ridge.
"I get a strange feeling like something hypocritical is going on," he said. Clovis merely shrugged. "We do what we have to do," He replied.
They went back to packing, and only the muted shuffling of scrolls and supplies filled the room. For a while, nobody said anything. The crickets chirped quietly outside the dorm window, and an owl or two could be heard hooting in the distance.
"LOOK OUT!" Shattering the silence, Blackfang suddenly came crashing through the doorway, tumbling head over tail until he smacked into the wall at the far end of the room.
"Talons and tails," Clovis breathed. The Sandwing looked pale, as if all the blood had suddenly drained out of him. "Blackfang, you nearly gave me a heart attack." He clutched his chest, trying to calm his breathing.
"That's great, Clovis. Damn the moons that it didn't happen." He replied sarcastically, brushing himself off. Frankly, Blackfang looked pretty frazzled himself, all wide-eyed and scuffed up. "Is there anywhere I could hide? Like, right now?"
"Why, what happened?" Kauwari asked, peeking between his wings, which he had thrown over himself. A second later, his question was answered, as another voice echoed down the hallway.
"BLACKFANG, you are DEAD!" It cried, accompanied by the scraping of talons.
"Eep!" Blackfang jumped, and dove under Kauwari's bed ledge, attepting to squeeze himself into the small space.
"That was Peregrine's voice," Clovis observed. His face immediately turned to one of concern. "Blackfang, what did you DO?"
"None of your business," the Nightwing squeaked.
A moment later, a red whirlwind barreled into the room, tackling Kauwari and pinning him to the floor. "Aha!" It said triumphantly. "You rotten little- oh. Whoops." Kauwari felt Peregrine lift her talons off his back, and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry about that," the Skywing said apologetically. "I thought you were Blackfang."
As he looked at Peregrine, Kauwari realized she was dripping wet. "Uh..." Clovis coughed. "Mind if I ask why you're looking for him?"
Peregrine narrowed her eyes, whipping her head back and forth. "Let's just say that he did something that he shouldn't have," she replied. "And I know he came in here, so where is he?"
Clovis and Kauwari glanced at each other, silently debating about what to do.
"He's under there," they said simultaneously, pointing to the Nightwing's hiding spot. "Thanks boys," Peregrine said, giving the two a smile. Then she advanced on Blackfang. The latter, having sensed the hopelessness of his situation, decided to make a run for it. In a flash, Blackfang bolted for the window, beating his wings as hard as he could.
Unfortunately, Peregrine was a little bit quicker.
"Oh no you don't," she growled. "You haven't taken your punishment yet!" She started dragging Blackfang out the doorway. The Nightwing dug his claws into the rock and held on for dear life, but Peregrine was surprisingly strong for her size. Slowly but surely, Blackfang was losing ground. Nothing could save him now.
"No! You traitors!" He cried. His face was gripped with terror, and he scrabbled desperately for something to hold on to. "How could you do this to me?! Guys are supposed to help each other out!"
"Sorry," Kauwari said. "But I really don't want to end up in the same boat as you."
Both Kauwari and Clovis then turned back to their own business, listening to Blackfang's cries of despair slowly die out. Before long, they were mostly done packing, and the moons had begun to peak in the sky. It was time to set their plan in motion.
"You ready?" Clovis questioned. Kauwari nodded in response. "Map of Ontegal, compass, my diamond..." Kauwari counted stuff off on his talons. "There's nothing else I can think of."
"Alright," Clovis replied, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Say goodbye to Jade Mountain," he said.
"It may the last time you ever see it."
By the time they were supposed to leave, all the teachers and the rest of the students were asleep.
In Clovis' own words, that was an important part of the plan: sneak out in the dead of night, so they would have time to escape before anyone could catch them.
They would spend all the night flying to Possibility, and then sleep in the morning. At least, everyone besides Clovis would. He was responsible for getting them in contact with his father (although how he would do that was unclear). Hopefully, their plan would go smoothly.
Hopefully.
"Ok, let's see. Tooth brush, toothpaste, blanket, mirror, smoke bombs, throwing knives, daggers..." Kauwari watched as Jasmine checked her bag for the third time. She had packed way more than anyone else, including several things that he thought they would definitely not be needing. 'Is that a crossbow? Where did she get a sword?'
"Hey, Jasmine... Are you sure your going to need all that?" Peregrine questioned.
Immediately, Jasmine jumped up, her eyes wide and jittery. "Of course!" She chirped. "You never know what might happen! Maybe thieves, or assassins, or crazy dragons! You always wanna be prepared!"
She grunted as she heaved the bag up onto her shoulders, earning a few incredulous stares. Wobbling forward, she stretched her wings out, and flapped them up and down. "Alright, I'm ready. Let's go!"
Shale twisted into a loop as he jumped into the air. "I like going on adventures," he said cheerfully. "You get to see more of the world that way."
It seemed that Kauwari would be doing a lot of seeing as well. Although unsure if he would like what he would find, it was, admittedly, very interesting. 'I guess that is part of doing new things,' he thought. 'Taking the unknown path and seeing where it leads you.'
Pyrrhia looked so different from Ontegal. He remembered the sheer cliffs of his home, where the Chromawings lived. Their entire city was built into the side of mountain, carved out over hundreds of year until it sprawled across the entire summit. But there were also countless other features, like volcanoes, swamps, even massive underground caverns that spread for miles in the continent's interior.
For once, Kauwari found a glimpse of happiness in those thoughts. He remembered when his mother asked him on his seventh birthday, 'What do you want to do? You must be useful for something.'
Now he knew. Kauwari wanted to explore the world.
But never before had the thought of saving ever crossed his mind.
"Alright! Wake up, wake up, it's time to wake up!"
Kauwari groaned as a shrill voice yelled at him. Rolling over onto his stomach, he flinched as the sun immediately glared in his face, stabbing his eyeballs. He squinted awkwardly, trying to clear his brain of fog.
"Ugh, come on! Five more minutes!" A black dragon next to him yelled back, curling into a tight ball. Apparently Blackfang was as bad a morning dragon as he was.
"We don't have time for this, Blackfang," Peregrine said. She shook the Nightwing softly, and he through his claws over his ears in response. "Besides, I'm hungry."
Kauwari heard a sigh, and then the black ball unfurled itself, revealing Blackfang's annoyed face. "Fine," he groaned. "But this better be important."
The leaves of the tree they had slept under ruffled as Clovis paced over to them. "It is," he said. "I contacted the messenger for the Nightcrawlers, and he said my father is busy right now. So we're going to have to use desperate measures in order to get his attention."
"Desperate measures?" Jasmine yawned. "What's desperate measures?"
Clovis opened and closed his mouth, thinking hard. "Well, I suppose this is definitely more of a question for you guys," he said, pointing at Blackfang, Shale, and Kauwari.
"Tell me, do you guys know how to get in a lot of trouble?"
"Do I!" Shale said, suddenly animated. Kauwari and Blackfang looked at each other, and smirked.
"What exactly do you need done?"