Ugh. I am so sorry about the late upload. Now that things are off the rails, I'm coming up to my first issues of writer's block in this story, and it's killing how much I'm able to write consistently. Sorry all for the delay, and I will hopefully be able to make uploads more frequent again. I just want to confirm again, It will take hell freezing over for me to drop this story, so even if there isn't an upload, expect it in the next week or two. I've had a lot to juggle, including studying Japanese, which is not exactly easy. So, Sorry again for the delay, but I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire.

"Normal speech"

"Thoughts."

Glory and Sunny sat down together in Glory's... throne room? It was difficult to think of it that way since it was mostly a glorified hut. Tsunami landed on the platform, walking in with a annoyed huff. "No offense Glory, but your tribe are horrendous fighters."

Glory huffed indignantly. "Are you sure you're not just an intense teacher?"

Tsunami growled loudly. "No, you tribe just actually sucks! I am sick and tired of dealing with dragons who fall asleep mid explanation! And I swear, if I hear one more request to take a snack break or to go find a mango, I'm gonna start smashing their heads against each other!"

Sunny giggled from Tsunami's ranting, putting a talon on the Seawing princess's. "You're doing the best you can. We knew it would be tough. The rainwings haven't had a reason to fight for a long time."

Tsunami sighed, before nodding. "I know. I know. Just... The fact that an attack could come at any time... It makes me anxious, you know? And with Moon and Kinkajou in enemy territory..."

Glory nodded. "... I know it sounds... invasive, but... I was thinking... just to get the stress off, should we look a bit deeper into Wither's book. Might be interesting to learn about how our tribes came to be."

Tsunami groaned. "I'm still getting over the fact that Wither is old enough to know this... How long has he been alive..."

Glory frowned, remembering the words Wither had said. "Waiting to die." It gave her chills. How long had he been alone and isolated?

Glory took a breath. "Well... I'd like to at least take a look at the next part."

Sunny gave a smile to her. "Sure. Maybe... we need to learn more about our origins to stop this war."

Glory looked to Sunny, smiling at the younger dragon's faith. "... Sure. Let's give it a look." She pulled over the book, which had been placed carefully onto a small shelf along with the pendant of Celeste, flipping it open to the page after the entry on Starwings, starting to read.

'Tidewings.

This tribe was by far the most peculiar of the Dragon tribes, mostly due to the fact that this tribe did not have wings, instead housing a large, sturdy shell upon their backs. Commonly referred to as "Dragonturtles", These dragons were revered as masters of the sea. The oldest of their tribe could float on the surface of the sea and be mistaken for a small island, some even growing vegetation upon their shell to add to the illusion, legends saying that the islands of the sea were formed on top of the bodies of ancient dragons of this tribe. They were also revered as the first animus dragons, for their ability to manipulate the flow and shape of water, along with other spells like other Animus, but the control over water would be like a natural talent to them. This power has only persisted through the royal bloodline, but in current day rarely appears, the ability to manipulate water with the flick of a talon all but forgotten.

This tribe did have a breath weapon, but unlike fire or ice, Tidewings could spray a blast of scalding hot water upon their enemies, the water so searing in heat that it would boil and blister the skin beneath Dragon scales. Their breath was feared as while it was not lethal, it would put dragons who were caught in it incapable of flight or battle for weeks until the burns heal, sometimes even months. The pain of the burns and blisters would be too much for the dragon to handle.

This tribe eventually evolved wings, shedding their shells in favor of being capable of tribe would be known as "Seawings". Shedding their shells in favor for wings, with phosphorescent scales that could glow similar to that of a cuttlefish. But in doing so, the Breath of the Tidewings was lost, as the 'boiling sac' was located under the shell, on the outside of a Tidewing's body. This unfortunately also meant that the Tidewing service of creating on demand hot springs was lost as well. A shame.

Back on track, there were several hybrid tribes that spawned from this tribe, but most were exterminated in a world that was governed by strength and killer instinct. I have made records of these and other hybrid tribes that have gone extinct, even though it pains me to do so. But, to you who are reading, I hope against all odds that these records can lead to these events never happening again."

Glory looked over to Tsunami, giggling with a slight smirk. "Huh. So, your tribe were originally overgrown turtles. How cute."

Tsunami blushed heavily in embarrassment. "S-Shut up! They were still strong! And elegant! I'm sure they looked beautiful with shells." Glory flipped over the page, revealing a sketch that was made on it of a large dragon, laying on all four legs with a large shell encasing it's body. Moss and barnacles clung to it ridged exterior while on the top was a young growing palm tree, moss hanging down the front of the dragon's snout. It looked like a very old dragon, but held a majesty in itself, a crown of coral adorning it's head, while the picture had a label under it that read 'Queen Aqua of the Tidewings'.

Glory Chuckled lightly. "The queen looks like an old man."

Tsunami huffed, grumbling to herself in annoyance. Glory smiled, looking over the image. "... They are mysterious. a sort of... imposing presence that other dragons don't have. I'm sure they were a great tribe... though... What's a hot spring?"

Tsunami shrugged. "No idea..."

Sunny tilted her head, before shrugging. "We'll have to ask Wither when we get him and the others back."

Glory looked up out of her window at the sun, slowly making its way across the sky. "... I hope so, Sunny... I hope so."

Wither looked between the shocked guard and the dragonet, before crawling to a corner of the room, rolling to his side to rest. "Too tired. Don't care."

Oracle let go of the Rainwing they were bringing in, slowly moving towards the dragonet who was coughing, looking up to her weakly. "Mommy... I'm so hungry..."

Oracle gently took the dragonet's face in her talons, looking into her eyes, before nodding, tears falling down her face. "... I know, baby girl... I'll get you something to eat right away."

Wither looked over to her, raising his head a bit. "... If you're planning on getting her carrion *pant* I will come back with a fresh tuna in *pant* half an hour, and I will slap you with it... Honestly, which idiot gave your tribe the idea of leaving prey to rot?" He slowly pushed himself back up, not sweating as profusely as he had a minute ago, before trudging tiredly. "Let me rest... And I'll get something for your dragonet that won't make them sick." He walked past dumbly staring Oracle, the other guard just as dumbfounded as he walked out of the room. He groaned as he fell onto his stomach back in the main lab, closing his eyes. "... Clay. Starflight. I'm going to sleep for a few minutes. Make sure Mastermind doesn't try to probe me with anything."

Starflight nodded to him from his spot, looking over some of the notes that Mastermind had left on a table, Farsight not too far off, Mastermind giving her what had apparently become hourly checkups.

Clay looked up groggily, having taken a nap from his spot next to what Mastermind has referred to as the boiler of his 'Water distiller' looking over to them as he blinked a few times. "What? What's going on?"

Wither sighed. "Nothing to worry about, Clay. Just... Wake me up in twenty minutes or so." He set his head down, closing his eyes as he drifted to sleep.

Clay nodded. "Sure thing, Wither."

Moonwatcher and Fatespeaker slowly moved through the tunnels of the Palace so as to not get caught by Morrowseer again, snooping a bit more than Moonwatcher was comfortable with. "Are you sure we should be this far in? What if we're caught?" They were currently going down a staircase that Fatespeaker had wandered off into, frustrating Moon with how seemingly random the older yet smaller Nightwing's path seemed to be.

Fatespeaker rolled her eyes. "Come one, we need to find Wither, but we don't know where he'd be. Besides, We're mapping out the palace. If he's in the palace, then why shouldn't he be down this way?"

Moon groaned. "Why would be he this way anyway? If he was being kept somewhere, it would be in a pri-" They came to the bottom of the stairs, the cave opening into a large open space with chains on the walls and metal cages strewn across the ground, some still having rotting dragon bones inside of them. "...son..."

Fatespeaker shivered. "Ew. Dungeon. This is super gross."

Moon frowned, realizing that not all of the cages had corpses inside of them, one of them was holding a living dragon. A Rainwing with Lime green scales looked up to them weakly, before whimpering as she curled against the cage as far away from them as she could. "P-please... No more... No more experiments. I'm already starving and exhausted. Please... Just let me go..."

Moon looked at the Rainwing with an expression of pity, before remembering Glory's talks about the Rainwings that had gone missing, how Mangrove had mentioned a particular rainwing that should have called for concern, but... "... Pardon me, but... Are you Queen Splendor of the Rainwings?"

Splendor's eyes perked up, staring at Moon in bewilderment. "H-how do you know that!? Who are you!?"

Moonwatcher looked to Fatespeaker, before smiling as her gaze returned to Splendor. "A friend."

"Yes, I'd say she is." Moonwatcher and Fatespeaker whipped around to see Nightwing standing behind them, Moon recognizing the ever present calm smile on the familiar face of Deathbringer. He smiled, before tilting his head. "... Can I help you both? Did you wander down here by accident?"

Moon was panicking, specifically from what she could hear from his thoughts. "Moonwatcher. Clever, covering those scales on the eyes, but what she doing here alone? Perhaps she's braver than I had thought."

Moon swallowed, before nodding. "Y-yes. M-my friend and I were looking for Wither?"

Fatespeaker nodded, smiling. "I haven't seen you around. I'm Fatespeaker, and this is Celeste! If you know where Wither is, could you take us to him?"

Deathbringer tilted his head, before nodding. "Yes, I believe he's in Mastermind's laboratory... on the other side of the palace."

Fatespeaker looked a bit abashed. "ah... Right... I should have had a vision about that."

Deathbringer gave a curious look to Fatespeaker. "... Would you happen to be one of the dragonets I heard Morrowseer was bringing back?"

Fatespeaker grinned. "Yep! I'm one of the dragonets of destiny!"

Moonwatcher blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. "... What? But... Glory and the others... They're the dragonets of destiny. What does she mean? What... What is going on? If she is... then her friends..." She gave an involuntary shiver as she gained the feeling that things were a lot darker than they seemed.

Wither was resting his eyes, before he heard something. "Psst! Pssst!" He blinked, rubbing his eyes with his talons as he looked for the source of the strange sound, before seeing a small distortion in the air, near the outer entrance to the laboratory. A Rainwing dragonet, even younger than clay or Starflight. He sighed, before slowly trudging over, still a bit tired from bringing back the dead, but enough to function.

He walked out of the laboratory, into the tunnel, before turning to the young Rainwing. "... What in the moons are you doing here?"

A small giggle came from the rainwing as she let her colors fade back in. "Glory was right, you are good at spotting us, even when camouflaged." She looked up to him, smiling. "I'm Kinkajou. Glory was worried that you all might be in danger... Oh, right. Glory is queen of the Rainwings now. It wasn't her Idea though. I came here with Moonwatcher to find you, Clay, and Starfl-"

Wither jolted forward, now fully awake, a mix of surprise, worry, and anger in his voice "Moonwatcher is here!? On the Island!?"

Kinkajou pulled back a bit, before rolling her eyes. "Calm down. Don't be such a worry wort. She has the scales on her eyes covered, so she's blending in with everyone else. Some Nightwing found her and said she was taking her to her friends as I was headed out to check on the other Rainwings. I think I caught her name. Fate-something?"

Wither gave a groan that sounded more like a growl, pinching between his eyes with his talons. "That dumb little..." He gave a big sigh, setting his talon down. "We are fine. You can go back to Glory and tell her I'll figure a way out of this. And take Moonwatcher away too. This place is too dangerous for the both of you."

Kinkajou frowned. "... Fine, oversized mountain toad." she started trotting away, before stopping suddenly. "... Oh toads..."

Wither stared at her with a blank stare as she turned around sheepishly. "Um... I sort of... didn't take note of where the tunnel to get back was... and... I have no idea where Moonwatcher might be."

Wither stared at her for a full minute, not even blinking before taking a deep breath, and walking towards the exit. Kinkajou followed, curious at what he was doing as he stepped out into the borderline volcanic wasteland. He walked over to a large rock that was jutting out of the ground, pushing on it a little with his talons to test the sturdiness. Once the rock didn't move, he nodded, backed up... and started ramming his head against it repeatedly, each slam of his head causing the rock to crack further. "Stupid, Stupid, Stupid-" He repeated the mantra as he kept hitting his head against the rock until the whole thing shattered.

He inhaled through his snout, before exhaling slowly. "... Find Moonwatcher, and figure out a way out of this place. I will not have you both put in any more danger."

Kinkajou frowned. "Hey, I can take care of myself, thank you very much. And anyway, this was Moon's idea... She was worried about you."

Wither gave what felt like his dozenth sigh, before getting up. "... Then find her and tell her that I am perfectly fine... I'm looking for a half hour, and if I see you when I get back, I will have much harsher words." He leapt into the sky before Kinkajou could reply, flying out towards the sea.

Kinkajou grumbles as she started shifting back into her camouflage. "Toad brained, monkey butted... gah. I better go find Moonwatcher... Or..." She smirked mischievously as she faded into transparency, the clatter of her claws disappearing as soft wings beat towards the largest opening to the Nightwing palace.

Flame grumbled as Viper started chasing Squid for the dozenth time that day. It was fun to pick on the over confident Seawing, but today he just wasn't feeling it. He growled as he tried to think of why he felt so... tired today. Maybe it was the dragons Fatespeaker seemed to keep bringing back. First, that Wither guy who looked all judgmental. Bah. What did he know? He takes one look at us and thinks he can say who they all were. He growled louder as he thought about Wither, his anger boiling when Squid finally got away from Viper, the sandwing huffing as she returned to her ledge, looking to him "... Think the Nightwings will teach us how to fight properly?"

Flame scoffed in response. "Why would you want to learn from a bunch of starving weaklings?"

Viper frowned. "I know you're throwing a hissy fit about what that Wither guy said." Flame growled, causing Viper to hiss back. "But he did have a point... We've never fought anyone that truly fought back... If we are to fight... I think we should learn some tricks." She smirked. "Maybe even pull a fast one on Morrowseer."

Flame rolled his eyes, grumbling to himself as Viper sharpened her claws on the rock, Squid loudly complaining to Ochre, who was not paying attention. Viper looked to the entrance to make sure there were no Nightwings around, before getting up. "Come on... I want to see how the Nightwings train."

Flame looked to her quizzically, but had to admit to himself, he was curious. He nodded. "Alright... But this means nothing."

Viper smirked, before slithering out of the cave, silent like she always was. Flame followed, trudging angrily but quietly down the tunnel to follow after Viper.

Wither came back out of the sea, holding a bundle of smaller fish that he had bound in seaweed, tying it around his wing as he flew back towards the laboratory, landing softly as he heard singing coming from inside, recognizing the voice of the Nightwing guard, Oracle. He slowly walked in, not wanting to interrupt as he recognized the song as a lullaby. He walked in to see Oracle cradling her dragonet tight to her chest, tears streaming down her eyes as he walked in quietly. "... Here." He set the fish down, some still wriggling. "Took me longer than I thought, but they're fresh."

Oracle swallowed hard at the sight of live, fresh prey, before Wither rolled his eyes. "You eat too. You look like you've been starving for weeks, and there's more than enough."

She needed no further prompting, taking a talon-full of the fish and tearing into it ravenously, Wither pulling 4 of the fish out and pushing them to the other guard who was standing nearby. "You eat too. No dragon should be that thin."

The other guard blinked in surprise, before tearing into the flesh of the fish in front of him. Wither nodded, before settling back where he had fallen asleep, mulling over things. "Moon, what in the moons were you thinking? If you get caught... I might not be able to save you. Not to mention the fury your mother would unleash on me."

He sighed, figuring it would be a while before he needed to start forming a plan to get Starflight and Clay out of here, so he gave a nod to Mastermind, and laid his head down to sleep.

Viper and Flame slinked through the halls of the Nightwing palace, carefully moving to not get caught by any roaming guards, Viper's ears straining to hear any noises that resembled combat. Her head swiveled left and right with each corridor, before turning a corner. Flame watched as viper let out a yelp as she suddenly fell over onto her side. "What now? A rat?"

Viper's eyes narrowed as she glared at the tunnel. Something had just ran into her, but she couldn't see it. "Who's there!? You have five seconds to reveal yourself before I start stabbing!" Her barbed tail hung menacingly over her head, poised to strike with her deadly poison.

A muffled meep came from the tunnel in front of Viper, her tail lashing out towards the sound. She roared as her tail struck against stone, wincing at the pain of her tail striking as she heard claws skittering away. "After them!" Viper started rushing down the Tunnel, throwing caution to the wind as she chased down her prey. Flame groaned loudly but followed after his enraged acquaintance.

They ran through the halls, Viper chasing the claw clattering as fast as she could, but she still couldn't see who it was that she was chasing. She rushed forward through twisting corridors, until they neared an area less carved and more melted, some hot cracks showing through the walls of the tunnel. The passage started to get more narrow, smaller and smaller, until it was just too small for Viper to fit, the sound of claws escaping through the small hole left in the melted stone, Viper roaring in anger that whoever it was had gotten away.

Flame groaned. "Viper, shut up and come one. We came out to see the training, not chase make believe prey."

Viper whipped around, fury blazing in her eyes. "That was not something make believe! Something ran into me!"

Flame sighed. "And we're too big to go after it... Geeze, I knew I shouldn't have let you drag me out of the cave." He turned around, trotting away.

Viper growled, glaring at the hole. "... I will find out what you are, and when I do, I will kill you!" She huffed as she turned, going back where she had come from.

Kinkajou panted from the running she had just gone through, running away from the Dragon with pale gold scales. "Who that cockatoo was that!? Nobody ever mentioned dragons other than Nightwings! That barb on her tail looked really sharp."

She swallowed, trying to get her bearings, before taking a step forward and freezing at the sound of something cracking under her talons, looking down to see an ivory white dragon skull that had broken under her. She yelped, jumping back as she surveyed the room, noticing a second corpse in the room. Both looked to have been dead for quite some time, kinkajou no longer so confident in her sneaking around plan. She swallowed, slowly moving away from the corpse she was basically on top of.

The room had several walls that had been melted with lava stone replacing them, some still having red hot cracks in them. The door that she had rushed through, she now realized, had a very intricate design, with tarnished gemstones along the sides and inlaid with gold. She tilted her head, knowing from some of the other Rainwings what gold and gemstone was, as the ore for gold was sometimes found in the Rainforest, and very rarely, a Rainwing would come across some gemstones, but not specifically which one was which.

She looked at the two corpses, one in the position of scraping at the door if the claw marks on the inside were any indication. The second was half imbedded into the lava rock, Kinkajou wincing as she guessed the lava had fallen on him and hardened.

She was about to head out when a small reflection of light from the grasping skeletal talon of the imbedded body shone in her eye, blinking as she slowly made her way towards it carefully, seeing something in the grasp of the talon. She swallowed. "... This is going to suck..." She steeled her courage, before placing her talons on the body, prying the talon open. Several cracks rang through the room... before the entire talon broke off, causing Kinkajou to instinctively shriek as she threw it away from herself. "Ewewewewew!"

The talon clattered against the ground, the bones separating from the joints as it fell apart, the only unexpected sound being the clinking of metal on stone. She wiped her talons on the wall, completely focused on cleaning herself off first from touching a dusty old body, before noticing what had dropped to the ground. A Star shaped gemstone that was more blue than she had ever seen before. She slowly made her way to it, picking it up gently as she ran her claws over it. "So pretty... If... that dragon held onto it, even as it was dying... maybe this was important?... I better hold onto it." she flipped the neck pouch she had hidden behind her wings so she could put the gem inside, next to the blowgun and sleep darts that Glory insisted on her taking with her just in case, before tucking it away again.

She looked to the hole she had crawled into the room from, peeking out to make sure Viper wasn't there anymore, before nodding to herself. "Okay, no rushing this time. Time to try Kinkajou's epic stealth plan a second time... Hope Moon's doing alright."

Moon walked alongside Deathbringer and Fatespeaker as they entered Mastermind's Laboratory, Moonwatcher looking around in awe of the different mechanical contraptions that she had never seen before. Copper pipes bending up and around the cave walls, and an odd looking set of armor that seemed to be... hollow for some reason, with opening for something to be poured into. Deathbringer smiled. "A marvel, isn't it? First time I've been back in five years, and it baffled me too. But, not as impressive as myself."

Moon rolled her eyes at that, but Fatespeaker was eating it up like a pen of squirrels. "This is so cool! Just look at all of this cool stuff!"

A sigh could be heard from behind a large brass container as Mastermind came around. "Really, This is not a daycare! Would this tribe stop interrupting my research every hour!?"

Deathbringer chuckled. "Calm down. These dragonets just wanted a look around."

Mastermind grumbled. "Well, don't touch anything. Some of these prototypes are unstable, and ca-"

A crash was heard through the room as they all looked to the source, the strange armor now clattered on the ground around Fatespeaker, who's head was stuck in the helmet. "Guys? Who blew out the lights?"

Mastermind groaned loudly. "Don't touch anything! That will take an hour to reassemble and ensure no damage was sustained! I have too much work to focus on before..."

He went silent, a long moment passing. Moon was about to ask, when a deep familiar voice rang out. "... Before the volcano erupts?"

Moon smiled as she recognized the voice, Spotting Wither on the other side of the container, the Deathwing lifting his head groggily.

Mastermind sighed. "Yes... Our estimations say we have four months... if we're lucky."

Wither shook himself awake, contemplating, before his eyes landed on Fatespeaker. "Ah. The trouble maker returns. What are you doing here?"

Fatespeaker finally managed to pull the helmet off her head, before smiling. "My new friend wanted to see you!" She bounded over to moon, who suddenly was feeling very nervous as Fatespeaker continued. "She said you were a friend of hers, didn't you Celeste?"

Wither stiffened at the name, his gaze locking onto Moon, who also went still. Wither stared at her for a long moment, silence nearly deafening in the room besides the running of the machines. He tilted his head, before giving a very obviously strained smile. "Yes... Fatespeaker... Might Celeste and I have a word in private?"

Fatespeaker tilted her head but shrugged. "Okay. Whatever you say."

Moon was not comforted by the forced smile on Wither as she and him moved to a more private room, which looked to be where Mastermind would eat, before Wither shut the door.

When he turned around, he did not look happy. In fact, he looked about ready to strangle her. "... Celeste... Of all the moon forsaken names you could have chosen..." He closed his eyes, taking several deep breaths to calm down, before opening them again. Moon felt like the dragon in front of her had aged by a dozen years in a few seconds from the expression on his face, his voice no longer angry, just... tired. "... Moonwatcher... Why did you have to come here?"

So yeah, already having some major changes happen, and unlike the book, I want to explore the personalities of the False Dragonets of Destiny, so Expect more of that in the future. I already have my ideas for all of the "Ancient tribes" and the little extra lore I want to add to do a bit more world building on how Wither is who he is and what he's seen. Wither is by no way invincible, but he has a lot of experience in being alive, so he's picked up a thing or two. In other news, I have started the process of getting a commission for Wither, but it might be awhile before it gets completed, as I have to figure out exactly how I want him to look, and what sort of picture of him I want for this story, so stay tuned for that. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see you guys next time.