Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait. This time, I have no good explanation for why I'm updating late. I'll just say, I was not motivated at all to write, so I left you guys hanging. But don't worry, I'm rewarding you with a long chapter, hope you enjoy it!

Without further notice, here's chapter 13!

Clay's (POV)

I feel like a leaf in a strong gale. I'm being swept along in the tornado's strong wind currents, so strong that I can't do anything about it.

I should automatically be unconscious due to the high-speed wind, but I'm not, and I give credit to my tough body for that.

Although I wish I was, because at least when you're unconscious, you can't see what goes on around you. Unfortunately, I can see every little object and all of my unconscious friends spinning around and around, which makes me dizzy.

My wish comes true when a piece of tree wood comes flying at me at full force, knocking me out and letting me spin around and around in the tornado's belly for who knows how long in peace.

It feels like days when I finally wake up, and maybe it was, but when I look around, I highly doubt that.

I'm lying on the ground in a muddy ditch, much to my surprise but contentment. My friends are nowhere to be seen which worries me, but I figure they're around here somewhere.

I assume it's only been an hour or two, considering the tornado is still in my line of sight and going strong.

We must have whirled all the way to the bottom of the twister and had just been dumped onto the bare ground.

I sit up and take a moment to assess the damage my body has taken. I feel an achy pain on the side of my head, one that would probably turn into a big, ugly bruise later.

Other than that and a stinging pain all over my body from all the harsh wind currents, I'm alive and completely well, much to my relief.

I dedicate the next few minutes searching for my friends, who I find in various places within a mile radius.

I find Sunny first, who's lying in a bed of shrubs, still unconscious but from the outside, practically uninjured except for a thin trail of blood running across her side.

"Sunny, sunny," I whisper hurriedly, shaking her small, warm body. She stirs, then opens her beautiful beetle black eyes.

"Clay," she croaks, then winces. Her body, like mine, is probably sore and stinging from the natural force of the tornado.\

"Sunny," I reply with a warm smile. "How are you doing?"

She sits up, rubbing her head and blinking rapidly for a few seconds, as if to focus her eyes on the world. "Okay, I guess. I'm a little sore."

"Aren't we all?" I chuckle.

"Where are the others?"

"I haven't found them yet, but they're bound to be around here somewhere." Sunny nods and stands upright.

We search for the others and come across a limp Starflight, his black scales not quite as shiny as before.

He's lying in the mud, like I was, but it's very wet mud right next to a pond, so he's smeared with the stuff.

The mud covers his injuries, if any, so I wipe the mud off and inspect him. He seems to have been a bit more vulnerable to the tornado. A deep gash cuts into one of his back legs and there's a swollen lump on his head.

Starflight wakes up on his own, and as he does, I'm wrapping a makeshift plant bandage around his injured leg.

"Clay?" he croaks, sitting up.

"Hey, Starflight. There's a big gash in your leg. Can you walk?" I ask. Starflights up, at first not putting weight on the wound, but finally trying a few steps. It seems like he can walk pretty much normally, except for a slight limp.

I smile at him, relieved that it's nothing too serious.

Starflight looks around for a second. "Where's Tsunami?"

"We haven't found her yet." Starflight looks worried for a second, but I reassure him. "Don't worry, she'll be around here somewhere."

We search for a few minutes before finally worrying if we'll ever find her. Mostly, we were all in the same area, but Tsunami seems to be far from where we were dumped.

Ten minutes pass, and there's no sign, whatsoever, of Tsunami.

Finally, after a few more minutes of frantically searching, I see a blue wing in the distance. Knowing that it must be Tsunami, I rush forward, with Sunny and Starflight hot on my heels.

As it turns out, it is, but she seems stuck in a tree. She's awake and struggling to free herself from the entangling branches.

I help her get down, all while worrying that she has an injury. It seems likely because she was dumped into a tree.

"Are you hurt?" I immediately ask her, hearing the thud of her talons as they hit the ground.

She shakes her head slightly, and I'm relieved for a moment until I catch her wince when she adjusts the position of her arm.

"What's wrong?"

"It just hurts," she insists, but I'm not buying it. She then sighs, as if admitting defeat. "I think it's dislocated."

My eyes widen, but I waste no time and immediately study the injury, before swiftly locking the bone back into its socket.

Tsunami howls, but seems to be fine after a few minutes.

We rest for a few seconds before remembering that Parrot and Jambu were with us.

Luckily, they seem to have found us, as they are currently coming our way.

They look disheveled but not wounded in any way.

Jambu makes a loud, relieved sound. "Well, that was the most terrifying experience of my life."

"Yeah, no kidding," Tsunami agrees, waving her previously dislocated wing. "I dislocated my shoulder."

Both Parrot's and Jambu's eyes widen, but they don't ask about it.

"So, what are we doing now?" Parrot inquires, shaking off a few leaves stuck to his muddy sides.

It makes me uncomfortable that everyone looks at me, although I know why. They all assume me as their leader, being the oldest and all.

"Well," I began, frantically trying to form a reasonable plan in my head. Starflight was always better at those.

"We should probably keep looking for Glory. I mean, that's what we came here to do," I say. Everyone nods, but they seem uneasy.

"So, to Scarlet's palace?" Sunny squeaks. I nod glumly, knowing that horrible, deadly territory very well.

"All the way up in the SkyWing Kingdom?" Parrot asks rhetorically. He seems like one of the smarter RainWings.

"Yep."

"Wait, so where are we now?" Tsunami asks, glancing around at the surroundings for clues. Starflight does the same and works up an answer within the first five seconds of observation.

"It seems we are in a muddy area, like the marshes of the Mud Kingdom, although it's slightly drier than the Mud Kingdom's swamps, so I'm assuming we stand on the outskirts."

So we aren't even close to Scarlet's palace, let alone Glory.

"Well, we better get going," Tsunami says, spreading her wings in preparation for the long flight ahead.

"Already?" Jambu complains, and we all look at him. "I mean, we just got sucked into a tornado and miraculously came out alive. Don't we deserve a break?"

"Glory's life is on the line. No, we don't deserve a break," Tsunami reasons, annoyance creeping its way into her voice.

"Seriously?" Jambu persists. Then he says something that even to me sounds dumb. "I mean, how far can the Mud Kingdom be from the Sky Kingdom?" We all avert our gazes to him, jaws wide open and hanging like dumbfounded frogs.

But Starflight especially looks taken aback and rather angry. "How far away is the Mud Kingdom from the Sky Kingdom? How far away?" He takes a breath, then explodes into what is presumably an angry lecture. "Basically half way across Pyrrhia, that's how far! It'll take us four days to travel the distance, and that's if we don't stop to sleep, eat, or stop for any kind of rest! It's nearly impossible. Have you never had a geography lesson?"

Jambu shakes his head. "Sorry, we don't really have school back home." Starflight seems more heated up at the mention of no education, but he calms down and just bows his head, shaking it disappointedly.

"Okay, then," I say awkwardly, breaking a silence I never intended to be there. "So, as Starflight said, it'll take us at least four days to reach the Sky Kingdom, but since we'll stop to eat and sleep, it'll be about a week. But we have to hurry, Glory might not have much time."

This seems to get everyone motivated to continue the journey. We spread our wings and fly north, making a direct beeline for the Sky Kingdom.

Days go by, and as I get more and more tired, I begin to think that more time is passing than we are making progress.

The weather stays gray and gloomy, causing an unsettling nervousness to grow inside me that perhaps another tornado will hit.

In the afternoon of our third day, we're only just passing the end of the Diamond Spray Delta, mainly because of all the frequent breaks we've been taking, which frustrates me.

My exhaustion gets to my head, and I begin to think we won't make it in time to save Glory from whatever horrible fate awaits her.

It's on the sixth day that we enter the outskirts of the Sky Kingdom. The breeze gets heavier and colder, and a thick layer of clouds covers the sky.

Once we pass those clouds, we're able to see the real Sky Kingdom, with all of the bustling SkyWings and little mountain homes and buildings. But what stands out the most is Queen Scarlet's glorious palace that towers over everything else.

I know we can't just barge in–we'll no doubt get caught. We have to sneak in, which will not be easy, especially with at least one SkyWing guard around every corner.

We land on the mountain behind a slab of rock, hiding us from view, and start to form a plan.

"So, what's the plan?" I ask, mainly looking at Starflight for the answer.

He takes a moment to think, before emerging from his mind with an answer. "Well, we obviously can't just walk in–we'll get caught. We have to be more cautious." We all listen intently as he continues.

"From my time there almost being thrown into the arena, I'm pretty sure there's a back way in. It's the way we escaped. That area was barely guarded. We can go around the Diamond Spray River and enter the palace through there." Then Starflight stops, eyebrows creasing. We look at him, dumbfounded.

"Wait," he says cautiously. "Where is Glory being held? We don't know her exact location and what Scarlet might have planned for her."

"How about up on one of the towers around the arena like we were?" I suggest.

Starflight shakes his head. "No, that's unlikely. She wasn't kept there before, and according to Scarlet, Glory is a 'special prisoner', so I'm pretty sure she's somewhere more secluded."

"Scarlet has dungeons, right? I mean, for 'special prisoners'?" Tsunami asks.

Starflight nods. "Yes, I think so."

"Do you know where the dungeons are?" Sunny asks.

"Not exactly, but they're bound to be on her lowest floor. We'll just go in through the backway and do our best to avoid any guards. If we're successful, we should be able to get to Glory."

"But, don't you need a key to free your friend?" Parrot asks.

"Yes, probably."

"Let's hope there is a guard down there that we can knock out and take the key from," Tsunami offers, flexing her claws. Sunny winces at the idea.

"It's a plan," I say. We peek around the corner of the rock before flying back down the mountain and through the layer of clouds. The clouds block us from view as we swerve around the Diamond Spray River and pop back up over the clouds once we've made it to our approximate destination.

We move closer to the palace, making sure we're hidden behind some object before finally stopping behind another slab of rock to catch our breath and reinforce our plan.

Then we make a quick dash for the backway in sight, and, like we predicted, it's unguarded.

The tunnel is gloomy and rather creepy. No wonder Scarlet doesn't put guards down here–no one would ever think to enter this tunnel.

We run into many forks in the tunnel and rely on Starflight to use his knowledge to the best of his ability to get us on the assumed right track.

All goes smoothly, and we even see burning torches in the distance, until we take a wrong turn and run straight into an especially scary looking SkyWing guard.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here?" he sneers. We refrain from cowering and just stare right back into his bright yellow eyes.

"The Dragonets of Destiny, I presume?" His voice is very deep and rather unsettling. Then he glances at Parrot and Jambu, who do not care to hide their fear. "Looks like you brought some friends, eh?"

I stare boldly at him, still not answering him.

The SkyWing guard stares at us a while longer, shifting his spear from talon to talon, before making a decision.

"I'm sure Queen Scarlet would love to see you," he says smugly, putting emphasis on the word love.

He somehow manages to grab us all with only his arms and his wings. We're dragged helplessly through winding tunnels, feeling sad and defeated.

We seem to ascend through the tower, although I can't really tell since we've walked through nothing but dark stone tunnels.

Finally, everything seems to get brighter, and I can see the activity going on outside. Many more SkyWings are bustling around on this floor, cleaning it and chattering with fellow peers.

We cross the floor and ascend a flight of stairs engraved with gold and rubies.

I don't try to wriggle free from the SkyWing guard's impossible grasp, but I can tell Tsunami is by the constant shaking and grunting.

After crossing down another tunnel and turning a corner, we enter the royal chamber of Queen Scarlet, who's looking as pleased as ever.

She gets up from her throne as soon as she sees us and puts on a happy yet very evil smile.

Then she laughs as gently as possible for her, but it sounds like a cackle. "Ah, the RainWing's friends have come to save her."

"That's exactly right," Tsunami confirms through gritted teeth. This makes Scarlet laugh more, making me scared.

"Where is she?" I ask as bravely as possible, but even I can hear the fear in my voice.

Scarlet doesn't answer, just looks down at her claws, smiling.

"What have you done with her?" Tsunami asks, fury evidently rising in her voice.

"What have I done with her? Oh, I haven't done much. But, if you want answers, talk to Peril."

My insides squirm with hope and fear at the mention of her name. Peril. We were friends when I was a prisoner. She helped us escape, but she was really working for Scarlet. We haven't really had time to make amends, but inside, I forgive her, I know she's a good dragon.

But also, Peril is a very dangerous dragon with killer scales that are always on fire.

"P-Peril?" I stammer, my voice more shaky than I'd like it to be. "What has Peril done to her?" I sort of already know the only thing Peril can do to dragons, but I listen to Scarlet's answer anyway.

"Don't you know? Peril has burned her, that's what."

"Burned her? How badly?" Sunny asks. I know she's trying to stay strong, but any moment now, she'll break down.

"Oh, badly enough." Scarlet lets an evil giggle escape her mouth.

"Can we see her?" Starflight asks. I look at Scarlet hopefully but know very well she has no mercy. I almost forget that Parrot and Jambu are with us, probably because they're so quiet.

"Oh, I'd love for you to see her," Scarlet starts again, and for a moment, I'm hopeful. Then I realize that Scarlet would never in a million years do us a favor of any sort, and I kick myself inside for how gullible I am.

"But," she continues, and when she does, it looks as if this is the news she's been waiting to deliver to us. "But, your friend is dead. Peril burned her to the ground."

So, guys, that was chapter 13, I hope you enjoyed it. I am so sorry for the long wait you had to endure. This chapter is hopefully longer than the others, so I hope that makes up for the wait. Again, I'm so sorry. This story is getting good, and I love writing it, so I hope I don't leave y'all hanging like that again. Please review, favorite, follow, all of that stuff. Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

See ya in the next one.

Ducky :)