Glorious Politics

AN: I want to start off by saying that I had an absolute blast writing this chapter. It is undoubtedly my favorite one so far, which is why it's about 2k words longer than normal. I just had so much fun that I couldn't stop! I'll talk about it more down below, so enjoy the chapter for now!

Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire. Sobek, Mistral, and Veneno are my OCs. Shortsail and Mystic belong to Flerovium.

Chapter Thirty-Four:

There weren't many suggestions, as it turned out. Winter suggested they were hiding in plain sight. There were enough Sandwings that visited the Sky Kingdom to let one easily hide, though Sobek's half-melted face might make him stick out. Magnificent could change her scale patterns or even turn invisible, so it would be more feasible for her to stay hidden in the city.

Anemone suggested that they were outside the city but still in the Sky Kingdom. There were a lot of mountains and hills nearby, so it wouldn't be too difficult for two dragons to hide out in the wilderness. Thorn dismissed that possibility outright, though. They had potential targets within the city, but if they left, there was no reason for them to risk getting caught by sticking around. In her mind, and it did make sense, if they were in the Sky Kingdom, they were in the capital. If they weren't in the city, then they were somewhere else entirely.

Thorn's initial proposal was that they were back in the Scorpion Den or wherever else Vulture had his base in the Sand Kingdom. Mistral, however, offered another alternative. "They could be hiding somewhere in the rainforest itself. Both Sobek and Magnificent have personal vendettas against Queen Glory, and the rainforest would offer innumerable hiding spots for a dragon like Sobek. And Magnificent knows that forest well since it's her home."

She hadn't bothered trying to hide her fear and anxiety upon hearing that. It did make sense, but she had to wonder if they'd been watching her before she left. Would she be killed as soon as she returned to her home?

"...I would suggest keeping a large guard on yourself at all times," Anemone commented. "Better yet, maybe just stay with Thorn until they're caught."

"The problem with that is that I have traitors walking the very halls of my palace," Thorn reminded her. "She'd be no safer within my fortified walls than in the open expanse of her forest."

And as much as Sobek scared her, she wasn't going to hide. "What kind of Queen would I be if I ran away at the first sign of trouble? Sure, I'm afraid, but I'm not going to let that get the better of me." Thorn nodded her understanding, and all three Icewings seemed to approve of her decision.

"In that case..." She stood and pushed Glory backwards a bit before motioning for the others to do the same. Snowfall, Winter, and Thorn were clearly confused, but the memory of a certain dragoness' night was coming back to her. "Bring me my chest!" Sure enough, the massive wooden chest appeared just like last time. Those who were there that night knew what was going on, but the others were lost, especially when the Seawing opened it to show that there was nothing inside. "I'm thinking I have something that might help...which piece was it again?" She hummed in thought, wracking her brain for...something. She shut the lid and began uncertainly, "Show enchanted bracelets." When she opened it, the chest was nearly overflowing with bracelets of differing material and design. "Oh..."

While all of them were taken aback by the sheer number of bracelets that were apparently enchanted, though what each of them did was impossible to know, Snowfall appeared downright horrified. "All of these are enchanted!? Anemone!"

"Hey! I already did my spiel to the others! It's fine!" Then, she glanced at the chest again. "Though...there are more here than I thought there'd be."

"Well...animus-touched objects will be a lot more common if that chest ever enters the wrong claws," Thorn pointed out, looking at the Seawing Queen with a disapproving frown."

"Ha...already thought of that! Only I can spawn in my jewelry, and every single enchanted object that enters this chest will automatically destroy itself when I die." Most dragons here didn't look too convinced. For Glory, she had to wonder how the magic would know when she died. There wasn't exactly a way to test that particular enchantment out.

"You mentioned you had something that would help," Winter said. "What did you mean?"

Anemone picked up a few bracelets, trying them on one at a time before setting them aside and grabbing new ones. All this time, she was paying none of them any attention. "I figured I could give Glory something that would help her if someone did go after her."

"Like Darkstalker's invulnerable scales?" Winter asked, clearly not happy about the idea. Glory wasn't, either. She really didn't want to take any inspiration from that monster.

Thankfully, Anemone shook her head vigorously. "No! I have never, and will never, enchant something to do that. That is a slippery slope that I have no intention of going down." A few sighs of relief were released in response. "Besides, Turtle has them, too. I'd make him get rid of them if I thought he was remotely dangerous, but, well..."

"Turtle's Turtle?" Glory finished for her. Anemone snorted in amusement and nodded.

"I was thinking of something that would emulate a certain Nightwing's ability to read minds. That way, Glory could detect any hostile thoughts and have fair warning of someone coming after her." Well, that would certainly work. And hadn't she just wished she had that ability, so she could know what Mistral was thinking?

Wait a minute...

Glory studied Anemone's expression intently. Was she smirking? Maybe...it was too slight to know for sure if she was, but she wouldn't doubt it. That Seawing was crafty.

"And Moon could teach her how to use them," Winter added. "I think that's a good idea."

"Me, too," Glory agreed, absolutely not looking in Mistral's general direction. All the while, she was hoping he wasn't about to call her out. She couldn't be sure since she wasn't looking at him, but it felt like he was glaring into her soul.

"May I request something that would prevent my thoughts from being intruded upon?" he asked pointedly.

Inside, Glory was screaming that her brilliant plan was unravelling before her eyes, and the screaming only intensified when Anemone shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose that's fair if you're going to be working around her a lot." The Seawing looked to Snowfall. "Will he, actually?"

Snowfall looked at a Mistral with a soft sigh. "Yes, he will be. The investigation isn't over. It sounds like Thorn and Glory are taking the lead now, but I'd still like for him to be there to make sure the Icewings have a presence." Winter huffed and looked away. His cousin looked at him with sympathy. "He can give me regular updates while he's there."

It took her a while, but Anemone finally found the two appropriate bracelets. Glory took hers gratefully, not really bothering to take in what it looked like, though it appeared like it was made of bronze. She put it on and was suddenly barraged with so many voices at once that she instantly grimaced and took it off, a headache already forming. "Wow...I suddenly have a lot more respect for Moon."

Mistral, however, was more skeptical about the bracelet he was given. It was silver with some simple runic patterns around it. "How do I know this actually works?"

Anemone blinked. "By taking my word for it? You saw me pull it out of a chest full of enchanted bracelets."

He studied the Seawing for a moment longer before putting it on with a small huff. "Where's the Nightwing at? I need to test this," he said as he got up and began walking out. Since they were done with their meeting, anyway, Thorn dismissed the lot of them.

Anemone lingered behind, grinning at Glory. The Rainwing knew in that moment that the Seawing had suggested it on purpose. She pointed to one of her earrings. "I use one of my own, so I heard your thought on the flight over here. Figured this was a good excuse to give you one. Oh...and the enchantment on that bracelet should ignore the one on his. If it doesn't, let me know."

Glory studied Anemone for a short moment before nodding. "Thank you," she said sincerely.

"What are sisters for?" Anemone smirked. "You deserve someone, too. And I'm sure you'll figure it out in time, but...I think there's hope for him yet." Glory smiled, a massive surge of hope and gratitude igniting in her heart. She pulled Anemone in for a hug, which the Seawing gladly returned. "Now, come on. Let's see if we can get you a room with an actual door."

They ended up doing a bit more than just that. Sure, the servants prepared a new room as a pair of guards began fixing the other one. From the sound of it, though, they needed to replace the entire doorframe.

Anemone and Glory ended up walking along many of the various corridors. Some of the outer corridors were open to the elements and provided an excellent view of the setting sun and the sprawling city below. They were heading nowhere in particular, though they tended to keep to the less populated areas. They merely enjoyed the walk while Anemone taught Glory a few things about how mind-reading works.

"I'm sure Moon will be able to tell you more," the Seawing admitted after she finished with her crash course. "But I've picked up these few tricks over the years."

"Your Majesties?" Both of them turned to see a pair of Skywing guards. The younger one stayed behind while her older partner approached them and bowed. "Pardon my asking, but are you lost?"

"No," Glory assured him. "We're just exploring."

"Are you? Well, I would suggest the gardens if you haven't visited them yet. I'm sure you, especially, will appreciate them, Queen Glory." They liked that idea, so he kindly provided them with directions.

They had to go to the ground floor, obviously, as there was a large section of the palace grounds behind the palace itself that were reserved for the gardens. Glory actually hadn't visited them before, so she was a bit excited to see what was there.

As it turned out, that guard was right. Even after dark, the gardens were gorgeous. There were flowers of every color and from every Kingdom, and the smells! Oh, there were so many different fragrances mixing together into one that she couldn't tell which was which. A massive oak tree was the centerpiece, and there was a place near the tree to rest or relax. They probably spent thirty minutes exploring the whole place. Anemone would occasionally ask about individual flowers, and Glory would tell her about them. The Rainwing Queen loved flowers, more than most thought, at the very least. The whole place was contained within a walled parcel of land. At a guess, she'd say it was about fifty acres.

"This place is amazing. I wish the Sea Kingdom could support a garden like this," Anemone muttered, gazing up at the massive tree.

"My entire Kingdom is a garden," Glory teased. Anemone snorted at the response. "But this place is nice, too. I like how it's sectioned. And the greenhouse was beautiful." Each Kingdom seemed to have its own section of unique flowers like special displays, but the greenhouse was her favorite part. It was like a mini rainforest in there with flowers, trees, and even fruits from her own Kingdom.

Anemone just smirked at how predictable that was. "The Rainforest Queen likes the Rainforest section. What a surprise."

Glory rolled her eyes before frowning at a faint sound. "You hear that?"

Anemone paused and listened. "It sounds like...fighting?" Normally, that would be a cause for concern, but it wasn't going away. If an extended fight was happening on palace grounds that wasn't supposed to happen, surely the guards would have heard it and responded by now. The fact there were no warning bells going off meant it was probably okay. "The palace does have its own separate barracks. We must be close."

"You mean the guards are sparring after dark?" Anemone shrugged, suggesting they go check it out. "How much you want to bet that Mistral and Winter will be there?"

It had been meant as a rhetorical question, so she honestly didn't expect Anemone's response. "How about dinner? We can go to Nimbus' restaurant again. I've been dying to have some more of his food."

Glory chuckled. "It was quite good, wasn't it?" Too bad Snowfall had crashed the party last time. Remembering that occasion reminded her that Diamondback was no longer with them, and she and Horus probably weren't on good terms right now. She really could predict what Mistral would say if she asked him to join them. It was about fifty-fifty in her mind. But that was all last time. "We should invite Thorn, too. And maybe Veneno. Winter and Qibli, too."

"Well, let's just invite the whole palace and call it a day," Anemone snickered.

"Hey, we had..." she took a moment to count, "Six last time. Those four and us make six." Anemone just chuckled.

At last, they came to the wall and went under an archway to the next partition of land. The sounds of fighting had been getting louder the further they went, and it was easy to see why once they were in the new section. Glory had decided to practice her ability by filtering out as many of the voices she could. Only Anemone's thoughts remained in her mind. It was surprisingly easy to accomplish, actually. As long as a dragon had enough mental discipline, that is.

It turned out all of the voices were coming from the soldiers in the training yard, and there were enough to make her glad she was so quick to catch on with this mind-reading. The way Anemone had explained it made it really easy to grasp. The Skywings were training, with dummies or with each other, with weapons or without. A few were even off to the side practicing their spear-throwing.

Off in the distance and barely visible just on the edges of the firelight given off from the many torches, there seemed to be a flying course with all kinds of obstacles. Some were natural formations. Others weren't. Surprisingly, there were a few Skywings practicing on that despite the late hour. "That seems dangerous," she couldn't help but mutter as a fully-armored Skywing swooped overhead, performing a sharp left turn and tucking in their wings with a full barrel roll as they went through a ring attached to the side of the palace. "And potentially fatal."

"Only for bad fliers," a familiar voice remarked.

Both Queens turned to see a familiar Skywing approaching them. Horus stopped next to them, and surprisingly, Glory detected nothing in his expression or voice that indicated that he held anything against them. As if reading her mind, which she probably was—or his, now that she thought about it—Anemone looked at the Skywing with mild skepticism. "You aren't mad?"

He looked at her in genuine confusion. "Why would I be? I'm just grateful that everything turned out alright."

"Me, too," Anemone nodded. "So why is everyone training so late?" she asked, changing the subject.

"We train twice a day, at dawn and after sunset. Fights don't always happen in the daytime, so we make sure to train at night, as well. Fliers need to be able to operate at night, too. In fact, it's probably more important to do flight training during the dark." He looked around at the grounds before motioning for them to follow, which they did.

As they walked through the training grounds, Glory noticed that the braziers were strategically placed to give some areas more light than others. One half of the spear throwing area was lit by the fires while the other half wasn't. Same thing with the sparring areas and the training dummies. The only exception was the flying course. The entire thing was in darkness since it was built further away.

On the other side of the grounds from where they entered were the barracks themselves. They were long, narrow buildings made out of stone with wooden roofs. "How many dragons can fit in each building?"

"Fifty to sixty in each building," he answered. There were five buildings in total, so that was anywhere between two hundred fifty and three hundred troops. "And those are only for the guards and soldiers assigned to the palace. The main barracks are about five times that size."

"Wow..." Glory marveled. Beside the barracks was another building that was even larger than any one of the others. "Armory?"

Horus nodded. "Arms, armor, and even the castle blacksmiths are in there. And that supplies the entire city garrison. Every soldier has their own personal armor and weapons that they keep at their bunk or with them at all times, so everything spare is kept in there. That's also where the city militias are outfitted. They get the same quality arms and armor as the trained soldiers because they are trained soldiers. Maybe not as well trained as the ones around us, but they all receive basic training. Queen Ruby started changing a few things with our training regime after being inspired by how the Icewings do things."

"So what about all the weapons out here?" Weapons racks were placed regularly, and most were filled to the brim with swords, spears, daggers, and the like."

"Old. Blunted. Rusty. All of the training weapons are ones we don't use and either don't bother or can't repair. If a sword gets too knicked and can't be sharpened without risking the blade cracking, it goes out here for as long as it survives. Once it breaks, the smiths smelt the metal back down and make new weapons," the Skywing explained, taking clear pride in how this operation worked.

"No sense messing up brand new weapons in training, I guess," Anemone commented. Horus nodded. Then, she snickered and pointed to something in front of them. "I guess I owe you dinner."

Mistral and Winter were standing around one of the sparring rings watching the match between two Skywings. The first was a young male she didn't recognize, but the other... "Is that Peril?"

Horus nodded, and the three went over to watch the fight. Or the end of the fight. Peril feinted an attack to the left, and when the male was unbalanced from the unnecessary counter, she tackled and pinned him. "What have I said about falling for feints, Sparrow?"

The downed male groaned but answered. "To not to."

Several of the gathered dragons laughed at their downed comrade as he climbed out of the arena, but it was all in good jest. "Peril is undeniably the best warrior in the entire Sky Kingdom," Horus explained. "She's the recruits' final test. They need to last thirty seconds against her before becoming full-fledged soldiers. A lot of dragons challenge her after that, testing their skills against her. A few have come close to beating her—"

"No they haven't!" Peril interrupted as she got into a ready position. Another soldier was across from her as another spar was about to commence.

Horus smiled in amusement. "They have," he whispered with a wink. "None have so far. A lot of dragons have put money in a pot. The first one to beat her gets the entire thing."

"Do I even want to know how much?" Glory asked.

"Wait! Don't say," Anemone interrupted. Then, she looked pointedly at Glory while gesturing at Horus.

The Skywing appeared confused, and rightly so. Glory understood, though, so she focused on Horus' thoughts. Her control slipped for a moment, and a massive blast of voices hit her all at once before she shut the door on them again. After a few more seconds, she was able to pick him out and caught the answer. "Fifty-five thousand!?"

A solid thump signaled that Peril had sent the other Skywing into the dirt. "A lot of dragons have come through basic these last ten years. Pretty much every one leaves at least one gold coin. Some leave more. One dragon left a hundred. I think he expected to win it back, but he never did."

"I remember that one," Horus nodded. "He came close."

Peril just glared at the Captain. "No, he didn't." Then, she turned to the gathered dragons. "Who's next?"

Glory looked around to see who would take Peril's challenge, but someone shoved her forward into the ring. She stumbled in there and looked behind her to see who was responsible, and openly gawked at seeing Mistral standing in her spot. He gestured to the ring expectantly. "You wanted to train. So train."

"Challenge accepted!" Glory went pale at hearing Peril's giddy voice behind her.

"I'm going to get you back for this!" she swore, glaring at the Icewing. Before she could turn around, a massive weight was atop her, pinning her to the ground.

"Lesson one: Never take your eyes off your opponent," he spoke. "Again."

"Oh...this is going to be fun!" Peril chuckled sinisterly as she backed away.

Glory chuckled humorlessly, watching Peril warily. "I remember saying that I wanted to train with you, not...her." Peril was a very large dragoness by any tribe's standards. Side by side, she was probably only a half-head shorter than Mistral, who himself was nearly six heads taller than Glory. Her literal lifetime of fighting and training had given her an impressive, lean musculature that no other dragoness Glory knew possessed. Peril was not only extremely fit but also extremely skilled...and she knew it, too.

"You also said you wanted to train with the best, and she already beat me," he replied easily, taking her by surprise. Only one other dragon had bested Mistral before, at least for the time she'd known him. Now, Peril made two. That was just another reason to be terrified of facing this particular Skywing. "So by your own reasoning, she should be the one training you."

"And that was the closest match yet," Horus commented.

"IT WAS NOT!" Peril roared, causing Glory's heart to skip a bit in panic. Peril was utterly terrifying when she was angry even without her firescales. "Nobody has ever come close to beating me! Now, shut up, Horus, or you can get in here with me!"

"She's very proud of her 'undefeated' status," some random Skywing commented from in the crowd.

"I've been undefeated since I hatched! I'm not about to let that change!" She got down into a ready position. "Now are we doing this or what?"

"For the record, Peril, this is to teach Glory," Mistral reminded her. "Don't go easy on her, but do make sure she remains in one piece, will you?"

Peril rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to hurt her, Mistral. I know my own strength. Besides, Clay would be mad at me if I did." Hesitantly, Glory got into her own ready position, but Peril didn't immediately attack. Instead, she seemed to study Glory's form. "Widen your stance and keep lower to the ground. You'll be less likely to fall over at a sudden, strong breeze." A lot of the Skywings laughed as the Rainwing did so. "Better..." Peril admitted. "But how's your footwork? If I step here..." Peril started circling to Glory's left, so the Rainwing went right, keeping her eyes on the much larger Skywing. "Keep your wings half extended, ready to furl or unfurl at a moment's notice. When attacking, you want to protect them. Any enemy will be looking to cripple them. Because why?" That last question was aimed at the crowd, though Peril's fierce blue eyes never left Glory.

"Because a downed dragon is a dead dragon!" the crowd recited.

Without missing a beat, Peril continued. "Your wings can also be used to get out of tight spots. You see an attack coming that you can't block? Avoid it. No shame in that. Not every dragon is built the same way, so not every dragon can fight the same way. I'm bigger and stronger, so I can deal as much damage as I can take. You're smaller, which means you're faster. Maneuverability will be your best friend. Keep moving, attack from angles your opponent won't expect or can't defend." A short pause. "Ready?"

Peril suddenly lunged to the right, so Glory went to dodge to the left, realizing too late that it was a feint. All of the air suddenly whooshed out of the Rainwing's lungs when Peril's head met her chest. The impact sent Glory straight to the ground on her back, and Peril placed her left claw upon the Rainwing's chest. Peril leaned down with a smirk, her muzzle inches from Glory's. "What did I say about falling for feints, Glory?"

The Rainwing was having trouble catching her breath after the strong impact. "To not to..." she wheezed.

Peril's smirk widened, and she snorted in amusement, a wisp of smoke blowing over Glory's face. "That's the one." Her tone was cocky, even arrogant as she backed off. Now free, Glory got back to her feet and took several deep breaths. "Combat is as much an art as it is a skill. It's easy to learn how to fight, but like any art form, it takes years if not decades to master. There's absolutely no hope for you beating me tonight, but in a few years... Actually, scratch that. No one has any hope for beating me. But who knows? Maybe you could end up beating Mistral."

The Icewing snorted. "Doubtful."

Peril grinned as Glory glared at her. "You have a big ego."

The Skywing just laughed. "Yes. Yes, I do. And rightfully so. Mistral says he's one of the best fighters in the Ice Kingdom, and I just beat him a few minutes before you arrived. What does that say about me?" The Icewings were widely considered to be the best single combatants on Pyrrhia. If Peril beat one of their best... "To answer my own question, it means I'm the best warrior in the world. I live and breathe this stuff because I was raised like this. It's who I am, and I'm not ashamed of it anymore."

"Good for you, Peril," Anemone spoke sincerely. "It's good to accept who you are."

The Skywing nodded at the Seawing in thanks as she readied up again. Glory groaned but did the same. "You take the lead this time. Because of your size, you'll want to be the one attacking in every match." Glory growled at the size jab but proceeded to start circling to her left.

After a few seconds, she charged straight at the Skywing. The move appeared to take Peril by surprise, not having expected her much smaller opponent to pull such a reckless move. Her lessons with Kestrel were starting to come back to her, though, so when Peril made to brace, Glory lunged to the right, and springboarded off of the low wall. Peril turned just as Glory latched onto her neck from atop her back. However, Glory hadn't expected Peril to, literally, roll with it, so she ended up being flattened beneath the Skywing's weight.

Peril stood above her in clear concern. "I didn't break anything, did I?" Glory groaned in pain but shook her head. She could still move everything, and nothing felt broken. "That was good, though. Where'd you learn that move?"

The Skywing held out a claw for Glory to take, which she did, and the Rainwing answered as she stood. "Kestrel." Peril watched Glory in silence before looking away, the mention of her mother—one she never got to know—taking her off-guard. She didn't look upset. Peril never really knew her mother, so her loss didn't really affect her all that much. It was by her own choice that they parted ways when they finally did meet, but perhaps that was the source of this silence. Maybe Peril regretted not giving her mother a chance, and she never would be able to now that Kestrel was dead.

Whatever the case, Peril shook it off. "Well, it was pretty good. That's what I was talking about, though. Attacking from angles your opponent doesn't expect."

Glory shrugged. "I listened."

Peril grinned. "Apparently so. But you realize if I had countered rather than braced, that wouldn't work on me, right? And now I'll be expecting stuff like that, so that was really your one chance."

"Might I interject something?" Both dragonesses turned to Mistral when he spoke, and Peril nodded. "You have one distinct advantage over her, Glory, that you have yet to use."

She instantly knew what he was talking about. "You mean my scales? We're just sparring."

He didn't appear at all happy by her response. "You fight how you train. If you don't use your natural abilities in training, you won't be able to use them effectively during actual combat."

"We don't do that here," Peril shot back. "And I would have to disagree with you. Fighting and sparring are two separate things. For one, if this was a fight, she would be dead right now. As would you."

Winter and Mistral glanced at each other, but it was the latter who responded. "You have every right to disagree with me. But that sort of thinking is a limitation. If all these dragons expect real combat to be the same sort of fair engagement they get in this pit, they will die when faced with reality. Real combat isn't fair."

"And you of all dragons should know that," Winter finished.

A hushed silence fell over the entire crowd. Peril growled at the clear reference to her time as Scarlet's Champion, and she ripped off her necklace in anger. Glory backed away as a wave of heat hit her, not wanting to be hit by the firescales. "You want to taste my scales again, Icewing!? Yeah, I know what real combat is! That's why I don't train like that! It's why I don't train them like that! Because if I did, THEY'D ALL BE DEAD!" After glaring at the Icewings for several long, tense moments, both of whom were rather tense as they stared down the furious firescales, Peril glanced down at her necklace and growled in clear anger. "And now I have to get my damn necklace repaired..." She began walking to the side of the pit, snarling a, "Get out of my way!" to the two Icewings and any other dragons that were standing next to them.

Pretty much every Skywing was glaring at the pair of Icewings, and Anemone rolled her eyes. "Way to go, morons."

Neither of them appeared very apologetic, and it was Winter who spoke first. "Well, it was getting late, anyway. Maybe we should head back inside?"

Mistral nodded and turned to walk away. Winter moved to follow him, but Glory stopped him. "Winter! Walk with me." He seemed surprised by the request but did as she ordered him. Mistral paused to glance at them for a second but quickly went on his way.

Did you even test it on him? Anemone's thought came through.

No, I didn't. I want to practice a bit more before I try on him, she sent back. She heard Anemone's confirmation and turned to Winter as they walked. "I would suggest you leave on your new assignment in the morning. We've been one step behind the cultists this entire time, and I'd rather not have Crystal killed. We need to make sure she survives."

"And her mate?" he asked for clarification.

"Expendable," Anemone immediately responded. "Save him if you can, but if it means putting Crystal in danger, leave him." As harsh as it was, Glory had to agree. The Mudwing wasn't part of the Icewing royal family.

As they were walking into the hallway where they would be staying, Anemone stopped them. Glory and Winter watched her in confusion and concern at her as she narrowed her gaze in concentration. When she finally did speak, the words sent a chill down the Rainwing Queen's spine. "Someone's here..."

AN: I got down to the part where Anemone and Glory walk into the training area and was about to cut it there since it was at 3.3k words, but I decided against since not much had actually happened. Then, I got to the part where Peril storms out and was going to end it there, but decided I'd do a little bit more. And that's why it ends where it does, and a good thing, too. It's a proper cliffhanger now, and I'm super stoked to write the next one.

Until Next Time

AdmiralCole22