"I'm back!" calls Cinis as he enters the mess hall tent and tosses the stolen satchel on the table, "Copies of the most recent orders straight from Glacier's own mail room. Every week you must send either me, Uraninte or yourself to the ruins of Lord Falcon's Isle in the delta of the Great-Five-Tail River."
"That was quick," comments Flare.
The air shimmers before revealing Lyre, "It helps when you have familial ties to the largest information network in the world."
"Why is there a RainWing here?" asks Eagle approaching from a nearby table.
"Hey I haven't seen you in a while! Where's Pyrite and Xeric?"
"Still on the morning patrol. Not like you care," hisses Eagle, "As soon as you got a promotion you abandoned us to kiss Uraninites tail. Probably more, who knows what happened out there."
"I will not stand for such an insinuation!" roars Flare, "She already has someone."
"Who would want to be with a cross breed?"
"Flare ignore him," whispers Uraninite.
"You're looking at him," replies Flare glaring down at Eagle, "In fact it's been going on for nearly seven years."
"As much of a dragonflame explosion as that is can we get back to the original question?" asks Cinis. Once the drakes back down from each other he continues, "You know how you said, if RainWings aren't so lazy how come they never got into the war? Well my mother here happens to employ about half of the RainWings total population to gather information from everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if she knows where the NightWings have disappeared off to. Not to mention I watched as she single handedly fought and killed three of them."
"I have an idea but I haven't proven it," comments Lyre.
"Delivery for Prince Cinis," speaks a deep, strong voice. Turning to the voice Cinis sees a large and strong looking SkyWing with warm golden-orange scales, orange wings and amber eyes. The wealthy looking SkyWing is wearing a black collar with gold spikes around it, three golden rings and an armband weaving like a snake all the way up one of his forelegs.
Taking the parcel Cinis notices the snake armband, "That looks awesome. Where'd you get it?"
"Ask Scarlet. It was a custom piece that she gave me as payment one time," without another word he disappears out of the tent.
Placing the parcel on the table, Cinis opens it to reveal a large folded up piece of parchment with Blaze's official seal on it. Unfolding the parchment it shows itself as a large and heavily detailed map showing labeled camp placements, supply routes and topographic data for the entire front line, from the desert all the way north to a line labeled 'Great Ice Cliff/Gift of Defence.'
"Wow, Cirrus works fast," comments Uraninite.
"Who is Cirrus and what is this?" asks Flare, "I want a full debrief here and now."
After the debrief, Flare agrees to allow Lyre to join as Cinis' fourth team member and Cinis convinces Flare to allow him mount an expedition to loot and burn the smallest camps so as not to tip their hand enough for the IceWings to realize their map was stolen.
After a month of occasionally destroying camps, once again as to not tip their hand, he returns back to the base camp only to see a large, ornate tent and a swarm of smaller and less impressive tents has been added to the camp.
Entering the command tent he sees no other than Scarlet swathed in thick layers of furs and blankets waving him over, "Finally, You've returned! After suffering in this moonbegotten wasteland for two weeks. Any later and I may have frozen my gems off. My sources told me that you have a map that could win this war. However you thought it would be a brilliant idea to take the map with you," she holds out a claw, "Give it to me and I may think about throwing you an extra ration."
Handing her the map she rolls it out on the table revealing a lot of crossed off camps.
Looking at the map Flare speaks, "Twelve camps spread out across a month? Any casualties?"
"No. Not even a scratch," answers Cinis, "And having a RainWing really helped."
"Impressive," mumbles Flare, "Great idea spreading the attacks out like that."
"Blaze's fortress is labeled right here!" hisses Scarlet, "Why hasn't it been eliminated!"
"Because it is heavily defended and quite close to the Ice Kingdom's border," answers Flare, "We stand no hope of holding it."
Scarlet asks, "Where is this border?"
Flare points to the line labeled 'Great Ice Cliff/Gift of defense', "According to Aurora this cliff marks the proper border. We get past here and we are in the core of IceWing territory. However there is a rather major problem-"
"There isn't any problem that can't be solved by throwing soldiers at it."
"But the wall its-"
"Shut it," interrupts Scarlet, "I've made my decision to attack the cliff."
"You have no power to do that. I'm the general here and you gave up your powers because you felt too important for them."
"Actually due to Cinis' stunt a while back I've decided to reinstate my powers. I'll be taking full control over this front with you as my second in command."
Flare glares at Cinis, "What did you do?"
"We were investigating footprints and we found a homeless NightWing. Scarlet wanted to kill her and I, being the highest ranking military officer present, overruled her and offered to pay for rent in Ravens Point until she found a job. I guess Scarlet didn't take kindly to being ordered about by a mere Sergeant."
"Of course I didn't take too kindly to it," roars Scarlet, "Do you realize how humiliating it is to be ordered about in front of the two most loyal guards I have! By my own grand nephew nonetheless."
"Fine," grumbles Flare, "I'll gather our forces. Cinis, with me."
After a brief flight they arrive at a nearby mountain side where he frustratedly burns down a lone tree, "What does she think she's doing! That cliff is enchanted to kill all non IceWings who attempt to breach it. That's what Aurora told me and what Scarlet would know if she would take her head out of her cloaca and listen." He takes on a mocking tone, "But oh no I'm the queen and what I say goes. Bull!"
"There's not much we can do without betraying our tribe." Reasons Cinis.
"That's why you're out here with me. You have a strange knack for thinking outside the box."
After a moment Cinis speaks, "The words 'stage a coup' come to mind. I mean it's happened before. Remember the story of Queen Sapphire?"
"See! No other SkyWing would've considered such a thing. It is a bit disconcerting that the first thing you thought about was that but it is outside the box. However if it was any other queen then I would consider it, but I remember back before Shrike killed her family. I remember Scarlet flying in loops through the sky without a care in the world. I remember convincing her to sneak into Queen Oasis' palace with me and Shrike for a try in the royal brothel,'' he puts on an amused smile, "I never thought there were so many ways to please a dragon and I would've learned more if that rat, Smolder, didn't report us. She even saved me when her court wanted to execute me just because I was married to Shrike. A coup is off the table."
"Then I don't have anything else. All I can say is obey and hope another way opens up."
"Very well. I have captains to inform, " As Cinis is going a separate way he is blocked by a wing, "I said I have captains to inform." Seeing his unsure face he continues, "Come with me Captain."
The next day they are ready to depart when a large NightWing wearing two compact iron boxes on chains, three black bracelets, a few black rings and two black necklaces, exits Scarlet's tent, as if not bothered at all Scarlet introduces him, "I know how scary he may be but this is ShapeShifter he'll be my personal guard for the duration of this mission."
After the announcement they fly off at a speed that is easily doable for a SkyWing but impossible for other tribes to keep up with. Falling back next to Scarlet, Cinis speaks, "Are you sure ShapeShifter can keep up?"
Before she can respond, ShapeShifter does, "Of course! Look at me, I'm not even breaking a sweat. Not that NightWings do sweat."
'Curious,' thinks Cinis, 'I am sure this is impossible for other tribes to maintain. Which is why it was chosen as standard marching speed. NightWing names usually have to do with their personality or profession. Maybe.'
"Say ShapeShifter. Your name is an odd one. Where'd you get it?"
"As a dragonet I regularly pretended to be a rock or a bush to scare friends. Eventually I got so good at it it was as if I was shapeshifting into them."
Looking closer at his face he sees that he looks just like Cirrus, "You know. You look just like an IceWing I've met by the name of Cirrus," a nearly invisible look of panic briefly washes over his face before disappearing, "If you use your powers you can see what he looks like. I'll visualize him for you."
He intensely looks at Cinis who intentionally leaves his mind blank until he answers, "I look nothing like him. For one he's white and for two he has spikes everywhere."
'Curious,' thinks Cinis, 'Animus power can do anything and animus touched objects seem to be everywhere, as evidenced by my armor. Whatever he is using to pretend to be a NightWing must be in one of those boxes,' subtly altering his course he looks at the back of ShapeShifters neck where he sees the latching mechanisms are quite simple. With a flare of his wings he falls behind the pair before rocketing past him where he undoes both latches. Diving down he grabs the falling boxes before flying back up and hovering in front of Scarlet. Looking at the new dragon he is surprised to see a pale green RainWing instead of the SkyWing he expected.
"Give those back!" screeches the RainWing.
However a burst of flame dissuades him, "Be glad I'm not revealing you to the entire division. Now let's see what is here."
Opening the first box he sees a small leather bound booklet the first page of which appears to describe ShapeShifter. Flipping through the pages he sees forms for every dragon tribe known to Pyrrhia including curiously a RainWing one.
"You're already a RainWing, why do you need a form for them?"
"Because my snout is deformed so I can't sleep for more than an hour as such I can't change my scales but Banana can. Not to mention I only had an idea as to how the talisman worked so that was my test. Now can you give it back!"
"I guess the talisman is in this box?" Opening the other box, Cinis finds a dusty scroll. Unrolling the scroll he reads a variety of faint written enchantments until roughly half way through where the scroll has been torn off into a few smaller segments, "With this much power you could end the war with just a quill stroke."
"I could," replies Scarlet, "But there is nothing thrilling about cheating."
"You don't seem very surprised," comments Cinis.
"Because I've seen it all before. As of right now I am classifying all information relating to Chameleon's talisman in the interest of national security. If you dispense this information to anyone without my consent you will be charged with treason and summarily executed. Understood?"
"Understood," snap the two dragons in unison.
"Very good." replies Scarlet, "Now, return his boxes and let's catch up to the rest."
"You should probably work on your stories," suggests Cinis.