Hello all. Sorry for the long wait. I really just did not have enough time to focus on writing more of this story for the last month, but I should be able to get back on schedule now. This will be a shorter chapter, but I hope that I'll be able to get back to longer chapters starting this week. It's been interesting, since this story has been on the back burner of my mind while I dealt with other stuff. But any who, This also marks the date of Wither's commissioned art being the story image for this, so I hope you all like what came out of it. I like it a lot and I thank WhiteIce07 for drawing it out. With that out of the way, here's the next chapter. Hope you all enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire.

"Normal speech"

"Thoughts"

While Wither had been Speaking with Glory, Starflight had just found his way back to the cave with the other Dragonets, Freezing in place as he noticed both the distinct smell of blood and the gash on Ochre's eye. "... What happened? I hope that wasn't caused when he tripped earlier."

Viper scowled at him. "Who's this punk?"

Fatespeaker gave a pointed look to Viper. "Viper, don't be mean. This is Starflight. Morrowseer brought him while you were away."

Viper huffed, turning away to brood in her corner, Starflight noticing the metal spear in her talons. He swallowed lightly out of nervousness. "Then... What happened to Ochre?"

Squid huffed in anger. "Morrowseer. He attacked Ochre right after he woke up..." He stopped, his look of anger slowly fading into a sad expression. "... And... He said he'd kill one of us next time we fail..."

Starflight frowned heavily at that statement. "... I see... well... What have you all decided to do?"

Fatespeaker got up from her spot next to Ochre, shaking herself lightly while Viper looked away, grumbling something incoherent. "... We want to get out of here. Wither... He has a plan to get out of here, right?"

Starflight looked a little sheepish at Fatespeaker and Squid's expecting looks. "Um... I-It's a work in progress. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I'm sure he'd be more than willing to help you."

Viper scoffs. "More like berate us again."

Starflight tilted his head in confusion. "You've... met him already?"

Fatespeaker nodded. "Yeah, he wandered in here a few days ago. I thought he was really cool."

Viper growled. "Cool in making Flame and I look like fools?"

Fatespeaker rolled her eyes. "No... helping you work on yourself." Viper blinked, looking skeptical until Fatespeaker gave an exasperated sigh. "You just spent an hour training with that spear with Tyrant or whatever his name is. You've never trained a day in your life, but after Wither showed up... you wanted to."

A tinge of red showed through the Sandwing's golden scales as she huffed, wrapping her talons over the metal spear next to her. "So what? I wanted to be able to beat him next time. Nothing more."

Fatespeaker gave her a teasing look, sarcasm nearly dripping from her voice, but not in a mean way. "Sure you do."

Starflight came over towards Ochre, taking a look at the destroyed eye. "... You should bandage that. With how much soot is in the air, it could easily get infected."

Ochre huffed, looking away. "What do you care?"

Starflight took a deep breath, regretting it as a piece of soot caught in his throat, almost making him cough. "ha... Well... I'd rather not see you die."

Ochre glared at him with his good eye, before whimpering softly as his ruined eye throbbed. Starflight frowned, looking around the cave for a moment, realizing just how barren it was. "... I'll be right back." He headed back out the way he came in, grabbing and tearing off a piece of a hanging banner from a torch.

He was just outside as ash started to fall from the sky like snow had on the boarder of the Ice kingdom. He held his talon up to the ash, gathering a small mound and being careful that none touched the ground, before rubbing it into the cloth. He then scanned the terrain for the last thing he needed. It was in a scroll he read, but there was a specific flower that sometimes grew near volcanos that had numbing properties... Aha! His eyes frightened as he saw a small patch of green hiding under a crest of lava rock with a purple flower blooming weakly, picking it and heading back in.

He walked over to Moonwatcher. "Do you have any drinking water?"

Moonwatcher nodded. "Yeah, over there. We weren't thirsty." She pointed a talon to a couple of small bowls, each filled with somewhat clear water.

Starflight sighed. "It'll have to do." He looked around the cave, picking up the smoothest rock he could find, before dropping the volcanic flower into one of the bowls with water, pouring some of it out first into another so he had the bare minimum, before starting to grind the flower down in bowl, the plant slowly becoming a green and purple paste.

Fatespeaker tilted her head in confusion. "Um... What are you doing?"

Starflight gave her a kind smile. "Making a poultice. I read about them. They're remedies made by grinding down plants that have medicinal properties. This one isn't a healing plant, but it should numb the pain in Ochre's eye." He then took the cloth, smearing the paste onto as much of it as he could to soak it into cloth, before moving over to Ochre.

Ochre growled. "Don't touch me!"

Starflight stopped, before sighing. "Look, you won't be able to tie this on yourself, and you look to be in considerable pain. I just want to help."

Ochre grumbled, before wincing as his eye throbbed, Starflight gently pressing the poultice over the wound, before quickly tying it so that it covered the ruined eye, Ochre gritting his teeth at the stinging. "That hurts!"

Starflight held the poultice against the wound against Ochre's thrashing. "Yeah, it hurts now, but it'll start to numb in a few minutes. Just bear with it."

Ocher still thrashed a bit against the stinging of his eye, but it was nowhere near as bad as how getting the wound felt. After a minute or so, he did feel better. At least, his eye didn't throb every few seconds. "... Thank you... It does feel better."

Starflight nodded. "Try not to pick at it. It's the best we can do for now... I'm sure the Rainwings would have a better remedy, if we could get to them."

All the dragonets looked at him in confusion, Viper huffing. "A bunch of useless Rainwings? How would they help even if we could get to them? Pretty sure we're nowhere near the Rainforest, idiot."

Starflight looked a little offended, but didn't retort, going into lecture mode again. "The Rainforest is full of poisonous creatures and dangerous flight paths, so I'm sure they have remedies for cuts. And, if you don't know, The Nightwings have a tunnel. Pretty sure it's animus touched, and it leads to the Rainforest. We could get there in no time if we could sneak through, but It would probably be heavily guarded."

The others looked at each other, Fatespeaker nodding. "Then we need to find a way through this tunnel. We... We aren't safe here. None of us are."

Starflight nodded, before smiling. "Then I promise that I'll help you all out of here."

Viper and Squid wanted to throw up at the cushy line, but refrained, laying down to try and rest as Starflight smiled to Fatespeaker, who returned the look.

Flame growled lightly as he kept moving through the twisted halls, every single wall looking the same as the last. It angered him more as each turn caused him to realize... he was hopelessly lost. He was about to roar in frustration when he heard noise from one of the tunnels in the fork he had stopped at. Curiously, he slowly moved forward, trying to eavesdrop.

"Moon... I hope you are happy." He turned the corner to see an adult nightwing, laying near a cut in the rock that looked out to the barren land outside, her talons gently gliding over half of a broken eggshell.

Secretkeeper had always known keeping the eggshell that Moonwatcher hatched from was a risk, but her heart ached every time she was away from her dragonet. Though not completely closing it, holding the egg that her daughter had hatched from helped to make that void feel smaller.

She placed the Egg back in the small hole she had carved out herself, the rock she used to cover it making it look like there was no hollow hole behind it. Then she finally noticed her Skywing onlooker.

"O-oh. I didn't see you there." Flame huffed, glaring at the Nightwing more out of habit than hatred.

Secret keeper looked to the sides, before focusing back on Flame "... Did you get lost? I can take you back to where your friends ar-"

"They aren't my friends!" He snapped at her, making her blink in surprise.

She relaxed her stance, tilting her head. ".. Then... are you looking for something?"

Flame looked at his talons, thinking back to Viper, training hard with a fire he had never seen in her before. "... Do you know how I can become stronger?"

Secretkeeper gained a pondering expression. "Stronger... Tyrant teaches all the guards. If you mean smarter, then Mastermind might be able to give you a lesson."

Flame growled at the mention of Tyrant, his thoughts going to being humiliated by the Nightwing instructor. Secretkeeper winced. "Oh, You've already met him, haven't you? Well..." she looked around before sighing. "... I'm afraid for training, Tyrant is all we have. You could ask one of the off-duty guards. I think Nemesis is free right now."

Flame glowered at her, turning with his tail flicking out. "Fine. Useless dragons. Go back to romanticizing over a stupid egg."

Secretkeeper felt a twinge of fear going through her heart but was immediately replaced by anger. "... You will never know the pain a mother feels when worrying about their dragonet, young one. Sometimes... We do what we must for what we believe is best for them. Even if it brings pain to both of us... even if I had one."

It was a lie, yes, but she had gotten very good at making the sorrow in her voice sound real. Flame froze at the last statement, remembering how his mother had told him that she had nearly lost him when he hatched, due to him cutting himself while breaking out of his egg.

He paused for a long moment, staring at the ground, before growling. "Well, mine doesn't care... sending me to this wretched place."

Secretkeeper gave a small, sad laugh. "Trust me, young one. Every single dragon on this island shares that opinion that this is a horrid place. But... our tribe had nowhere else to go. No other tribe would be willing to harbor us or give us part of their kingdom to live in. This place... is the only place we can call home."

Flame rolled his eyes, turning his back to her. "Then your tribe was stupid to choose a place like this."

He stomped off, growling to himself as Secretkeeper sighed, muttering softly to herself. "... So angry... I pray Moon never feels that way."

Morrowseer growled to himself as he flew through the sky, ash falling down from above as his mind wandered to the utter disappointments of the last few days. Pathetic dragonets who couldn't do their job, both the originals and the replacements. And Wither... He growled louder at the thought of the infuriating dragon that seemed to be the catalyst for where everything started going wrong.

He landed on the beach of the Island, finding the second albatross that he had marked this month. He eyed the pathetic creature that tried vainly to get away from him, swiftly biting off the head of the bird before starting to consume the body, the familiar bitter taste of decayed flesh filling his mouth. He mulled over what to do. Wither had shown he was too stubborn to be emotionally put down and too strong to be stopped should he decide to fight. The dragonets were the only thing that could be used against him.

Morrowseer's growl grew louder as his mind went back to the crux of the issue. The original dragonets used for the plan. A stunted Sandwing, an arrogant Seawing, a food minded Mudwing and Starflight, the most useless of all Nightwings. And of course, the replacement Rainwing. All of them worthless for what they were supposed to do. Instead of choosing Blister like he had instructed Starflight to do, they aided in making Blister lose her main forces in the war.

Even the replacements were borderline worthless to him. A self-centered yet cowardly Seawing, the biggest mudwing stereotype of big and stupid, and a Nightwing who actually cared for others. Only the Sandwing was worth his time, and the Skywing was needed to fulfill the prophesy after getting rid of the useless Rainwing. How had it all come to this? Such a carefully laid out plan, ruined by a bunch of wet eared worms and...

He huffed, his mind thinking back to the biggest issue at hand. Wither. "He inspires them to do things their own way. He's the only thing standing in the way of the dragonets being molded to our plan... He needs to be put in his place."

He was eating the last of his carrion when a Guard landed nearby. "Morrowseer. This is an alert from the Queen. Our kingdom has been infiltrated by a Rainwing dragonet, who dared to insult her and our tribe as a whole. Keep an eye out for if you see them."

The guard took back to the sky, but Morrowseer's expression got even more angry. "Another problem... Problem after problem, ever since that Worm got here!" He stamped his talon against the sand, kicking up a puff of ash that caused him to be even more infuriated.

"I will get those dragonets. They will fulfill their purpose... and then I'll make him watch as I butcher each one of them!"

Moon shivered in her position near clay, The big Mudwing looking to get with an expression of concern. "You alright?"

She nodded to him. "Y-yeah, just... had a chill go down my back."

Clay nodded, before smiling. "... You were really brave to come this far."

Moon blinked in confusion. "What?"

Clay chuckled a little, his tail falling onto hers. "Exactly what I said... I would be scared senseless about coming to a place like this, even if it was to save my friends... and... well, no offense, but you were a bundle of nerves when we first met you. You must have been more scared than I would ever be... but you pushed through that, coming all this way, just for us."

Moon paused, her gaze falling to her talons as realization had started to settle. She was one of the most frightful dragonets she had ever met, yet she had made the choice to come here to save her friends. She shivered. "... Not really... there's... still something that terrifies me here."

Clay tilted his head. "The Nightwings? no... Your mom? I'm sure she'd be scary for all of us if she found you here."

Moon winced lightly at the thought of her mom finding her. "No. No... Morrowseer. If he finds out who I am..."

Clay paused, his snout scrunched as he thought. "... Morrowseer is something more than just a scary dragon to you?"

Moon took a shaky breath. "... I'm scared that he would hurt my mom, for hiding me from him."

Clay waited patiently as Moon tried to call down, swallowing nervously. "..."

"Morrowseer... is my father." She tensed, waiting for insults or some form of surprised anger.

Clay paused, staring at her for a long moment. "... I can see why you're worried now."

She blinked in surprise. "You... You aren't mad? That... I..."

Clay shrugged, smiling. "Well, I know I'm not exactly the hard thinker of the group, but the way I see it, You aren't Morrowseer. You've done nothing wrong, so why would him being your dad change anything for us? You're one of us now, Moon. Tsunami and Glory would agree that you're still the same dragonet who became our friend a few days ago."

Moon trembled lightly, tears threatening to fall down her snout. She had been so afraid that Morrowseer would ruin her life that she wasn't expecting such kind words. Clay took notice of her tears, smiling as he let one of his wings fall over her back to comfort her. "I know we haven't known each other long, but... Well, the others and I are basically family. I don't see any problem in having another sister."

Moon leaned into the feeling of someone caring for her, only ever having known the feeling from her mother. "... Thank you, Clay. I... I thought a life where I had friends was impossible just a few days ago... It makes me happy to know that you all... care so much. I... I just don't know how to get you all out of here."

Clay winked at her reassuringly. "Hey, We got out of Queen Scarlet's prison. And that was before we met Wither. I'm sure we can figure something out."

Moon smiled lightly, before sighing. "You seem so confident."

Clay laughed lightly. "Well, I may have bumbled my way into freeing all of us at Scarlet's palace, but we did have a little help, just like you're giving us. A Skywing named Peril."

Moon tilted her head in curiosity. "Peril? What did she do?"

Clay's grin widened. "She was awesome. Scales that could burn through anything! She used her talons on some sort of clasp that the Skywings put on our wings to keep us from flying, and her talons melted them in seconds! It was really cool to watch."

Moon giggled lightly at Clay's positive attitude. "Well, I'm glad she helped you... I don't have anything amazing like that... just my curse."

Clay shook his head. "I don't believe in curses. They're just... Parts of yourself that you haven't gotten the hang of yet. When we were in our cave growing up, at the start of our journey, Morrowseer looked us over and wanted our guardians to kill Glory, since she wasn't a skywing like the prophecy said. So, in order to escape, I had to swim down a tunnel to find the way to get into the cave from the outside. Mudwings are supposed to be able to hold their breath for an hour, but it scared me so much when I was actually down there. But I made it through. I know it's not the best example, but... I think, when you really need them most, your powers will help you make the right choice."

"Powers?" They both jumped a little, looking at Kinkajou who tilted her head curiously from her spot. "What powers?"

Moonwatcher sighed. They had both forgotten that Kinkajou was still here, camouflaged against the boiler of the laboratory. "... I was born with Powers that legends say the Nightwings have. It... was only recently, because of Wither, that I started trying to use them to help. I... I can read minds, but it wasn't fun. Do you know what it's like... hearing every unspoken thought without being able to shut it out?"

Kinkajou gained a pondering look on her face as she hummed, tapping the stone floor idly. "... I can't say I know how that feels... I know I get frustrated when the other Rainwing dragonets are really loud or complaining about not getting another papaya."

Moon giggled softly. "Well, think that but you can't cover your ears or make them any softer."

Kinkajou cringed. "Yikes. I'm pretty sure I'd go insane in a week if that's how I heard everything."

Moon gave a sad laugh. "Worse when you worry about it getting you killed."

The Rainwing paused for a moment, before giving Moon a mischievous smile. "Alright. What am I thinking right now?"

Moon tilted her head, before letting Kinkajou's thoughts into her mind... "What...?" before she started blushing and gaging. "EW! Kinkajou! Gross! I do NOT have a crush on Wither! He's much too old for me!"

Kinkajou tried and failed to stifle her giggles, having fun at Moon's expense. Clay chuckled at the joke, before looking towards the entrance of the Lab, frowning. "... I hope Starflight is alright..."

Said dragonet was getting worried when Morrowseer returned to the cave, his scowl deeper than Starflight had ever seen it before. He chose to stay silent as the larger Nightwing looked them all over, before Morrowseer's head snapped to the sound of talons on stone, Flame having found himself wandering back to the cave. Morrowseer growled. "Good. You're here. Now we can proceed."

Morrowseer glared at them all, before locking eyes on Fatespeaker. "All of you prepare to leave. But you, little Nightwing, will stay."

Fatespeaker frowned. "Why do I have to be left behind? I can do important stuff!"

Morrowseer glared at her. "Do not talk back. The rest of you, Move!"

They all moved to get up, Viper holding her spear when Morrowseer pointed at it. "Leave that. It will not be needed." Viper returned Morrowseer's scowl but conceded.

She placed the spear down, before looking at Fatespeaker. "... Make sure this doesn't get lost."

Fatespeaker's jaw nearly dropped. Viper had never, EVER asked a favor of her. She nodded, giving a soft smile. "Sure thing Viper... You be safe out there."

Viper had to bite back a look of embarrassment, before shoving the spear into Fatespeaker's talons, the small Nightwing yelping as she immediately went to the floor along with it. "Great talons, this thing is heavy!"

Squid gave a small laugh but lost all humor when Morrowseer glared at him. Ochre got up slowly, making sure the bandage over his eye was set in place. Morrowseer scoffed at the Mudwing, before starting to go outside without a word. The others followed suit, traveling through the tunnels until they reached the soot and ash covered sky. Morrowseer extended his wings, looking back at the five dragonets in his possession. "We fly to the mainland. It will take several hours. Fall behind and we'll leave you for the sea to take."

Starflight and Squid simultaneously swallowed, before Morrowseer leapt into the air, several other Nightwings waiting for them in the sky. The dragonets each started to fly up, before Starflight noticed Squid shivering. "... Hey. You alright?"

Squid blinked at Starflight, before huffing. "I-I'm just fine. Mind your own business!" Starflight paused for a moment, before nudging Squid with his shoulder, the Seawing yelping in surprise. "W-what was that for!?"

Starflight smiled towards him. "It's something a Seawing friend of mine does whenever I get nervous. It's her way of saying... You're not alone." He leapt up into the sky without another word.

Squid stared at Starflight's form for a long moment, those words ringing through his head. "... Maybe... He isn't so bad after all..." He shook himself lightly, steeling his gaze, before flying up to join the others.

Morrowseer scowled at them all, before turning to an endless grey sky over an equally gray sea, taking off in that direction without another word. The dragonets followed him alongside the adult Nightwings, Starflight gazing to try and take an analytical look at the situation. "Five of us... going to the mainland. Wait... is that why he wanted Fatespeaker left behind? She would try to make friends with anyone we met... but... A Seawing, Skywing, Sandwing, Mudwing and me... Is he... trying to make us look like the dragonets of destiny? But... Why? Clay, Tsunami, Sunny and Glory. We're the dragonets of destiny... So... Why?" He swallowed, a growing pit forming in his stomach, not from hunger as his mind worked. Something more sinister than he had imagined was happening. He only hoped no dragons would die.

I really wanted to give attention to how things are changing in this chapter. The alternate dragonets, I felt like they weren't really explored or given any kind of character development in the original, so I wanted to explore making a reasonable impression on them. Make them more than just arrogant or naïve dragonets. They were thrown into what is a harsh reality and they can't simply complain their way out of it. I definitely want to explore them more in preparation for what I have in mind later down the line. But anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it, leave a review if you'd like, and I'll see you all next week.