And we are off to the races! For the search of the mysterious ancient building. I am currently listening to Metallica's 1989 Irvine, California live concert while writing this. In my opinion, one of their best. Funny thing for this chapter before you begin, I literally used a random name spinner to see what would happen this chapter, XD.
The Dragonets, Glacier, and Tundra were in the middle of setting up camp, in the middle of an evergreen forest. Clay had already set up some Stone structures to make some makeshift huts. A fire built in the middle to light up the darkening night.
"How much farther is this location where you think the monument is?" Tsunami asked Glacier.
"We should be in the area by tomorrow, I have no idea how long it will take to find it," Glacier answered her.
Tsunami sighed and nodded her head, walking away.
Winter was sitting next to Icicle, both a little farther from the fire than everybody else.
"So what are they like?" Winter asked Icicle.
Icicle gave Winter a look, "The dragonets?" she asked him.
Winter gave her a nod.
"There... different," Icicle stated, uncomfortable.
"What do you mean?" Winter asked.
"They all act completely different than what their tribes usually act like," Icicle started.
"Sunny doesn't act like a conniving snake that is always thinking how she can get something out of you, Starflight isn't full of himself and thinks he is the most special thing on earth, Clay doesn't act like the most uncaring dragon ever, Glory doesn't act lazy, Tsunami is open to talking with dragons, and Peril isn't the most hateful dragon ever." Icicle finished explaining her partners.
"I would hardly believe you about the NightWing, but I have already been around him..." Winter said quietly, glancing over at the NightWing in the group that was giving him a slight smile back.
Winter jerked his head back when he saw the NightWing had caught him looking at him.
"Can he really read minds?" Winter asked Icicle, nervously trying to hide his thoughts.
Icicle nodded her head, "I know for a fact he can, I witnessed him using it multiple times to find dragons that were in distress during our time in the Sky Kingdom." Icicle explained.
Winter looked down, thinking about all the bad things that the NightWing could hear.
"I know what you are thinking," Icicle said, "I would never say this about any other NightWing, but I promise you he won't rat out your thoughts," Icicle took a deep breath before continuing, "I know for a fact that he has heard some of my worst thoughts on them, yet he has never said a thing about it."
Winter gave her a look, "How can you be sure?"
"For the way he still looks at me, I have seen enough dragons in the IceWing palace that have gave me judgmental looks, he never gave me one." Icicle explained, remembering all the adult dragons that always were judging her worth to the IceWings.
"Huh..." Is all that Winter could say, looking back to the fire.
Glory and Sora were practicing with each other, hanging out near the edge of the camp by the woods.
"Glory, it's near pitch black over here?" Sora asked Glory while trying to make out her surroundings.
"And this was not a mistake," Glory answered her.
"But why are we practicing in the dark?" Sora asked for an explanation.
"I have already taught you how to grow plants, and control them, now I need to teach you how to sense them with ought being able to see them." Glory explained.
"All right... how do I do that?" Sora said, uncertain of herself.
"Well, it's really not that hard, It's kind of like you're wandering around the dark, and you're waving your talons everywhere to try to find something, except this time you're just trying to find a plant that's there somewhere." Glory explained with no tact whatsoever. "You eventually get so good at it, it seems like it took you no time at all."
"...Well, that's very specific, but ok," Sora said like she kind of understood her.
Sora closed her eyes, starting to send her powers out till she felt something, "All right, I got a hold of something," Sora said when she felt some kind of plant.
"Do you know what it is?" Glory asked her, "Every plant feels different from each other," Glory explained.
"Well, it's definitely above ground, and it doesn't feel stiff like a tree," Sora said, trying to feel out the plant. "It also doesn't feel like it's that tall, but it's definitely not a piece of grass..."
Glory looked the way Sora was facing, there was a bush that was moving unnaturally.
"I think I'm some type of sapling..." Sora said unsure.
"Close, but no, you can open your eyes." Glory told her.
Sora opened her eyes and saw the bush that she had grabbed.
"So why does it matter for me being able to tell what kind of plant it is?" Sora asked Glory.
"It's quite important, it tells you what that plant is capable of," Glory started explaining, " If you're trying to capture somebody, you're going to want something that is flexible but tough, like a branch from a tree, or a strong vine. Not something like a sapling or bush."
Sora nodded her head at this and started trying again.
Anemone was bored, she started to walk over to one of the MudWing sibs, seeing that it was Reed. She sat down next to him, making his head jolt over to her.
"Umm... hi?" Reed said nervously.
"What up," Anemone said simply.
"Nothing much... just getting ready to go to sleep," Reed said nervously. Why did the SeaWing princess just start talking with her?
"Did you need something, Princess Anemone?" Reed asked her.
"Please don't call me that, not here anyways," Anemone requested.
"What, don't call you what?" Reed asked her confused.
"Princess, I came here to get away from all that for a while," Anemone said.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Reed apologized to her, "Why don't you like being called princess,"
Anemone sighed, "I just hate having to hear that all the time, everybody always expects greatness from you, or for you to be the next leader, and nobody ever acts themselves around you,"
Reed gave her a smile, "I can understand that kind of, for the longest time I had always been the Big wings to my sibs, it had always been my job to make sure that they were fed, and kept safe, even from a young age it was expected from me to make sure my sibs got through everything safely."
Anemone snorted, "Try that, but having a mother that always made sure that you could never have fun with some friends,"
Reed gave her a nod, "Now that I can't understand, I have always had brothers and sisters to be with when times got hard." Reed gave her a look, "I know about Tsunami and Turtle, do you have any more brothers and sisters?"
Anemone gave him a nod, "yep, all together, I have 34 siblings," Anemone said simply.
Reed started choking on his own spit, "34 siblings! Could your dad not even pull out of a driveway?"
Anemone gave him a look, "What?"
Reed shook his head, he couldn't imagine trying to take care of that many brothers and sisters. "Nothing, nothing... so why don't you hang out with them?"
"Mom said and I quote "They rough house too much for you to play with them"," Anemone said drily.
"Oh... well at least you have us now," Reed said giving her a smile.
"Ya..." Anemone said quietly.
Crane and Sunny were both chilling out with each other by the fire, trying to stay warm.
"Can't wait till we get out of the Ice Kingdom..." Crane said quietly.
"Why, you don't like it here?" Sunny asked her.
"No, actually I think it is very pretty here, a nice switch up from all the brown in the Mud Kingdom," Crane said truthfully.
"It's because of this cold," Crane said, the moment right after she said that, another gust of wind came through making them shiver.
"You can say that again," Sunny said, shivering slightly.
Sunny looked over at Clay and Peril who were snuggled up to each other, "Hey Clay, do you want to share the heated dragon?"
"NO, go find your own heated blanket," Clay said from his ramshackle hut.
Sunny looked back down at the fire, "Figures..."
Sora and Glory came back to the camp after a few minutes, making their way close to the fire.
Everybody else had already conked out for the night, already snoozing away.
"What do you think this monument is going to be like?" Anemone asked everybody.
"Not sure, I figure from how old it is, it won't look like anything we have seen before," Sora answered.
Glory wasn't paying attention to the conversation going on around her, she was too distracted by a tree off in the woods, it wasn't moving naturally. Every tree moves a certain way, even In the windiest of days they move in certain ways.
Glory closed her eyes, taking ahold of the tree. Feeling what the tree feels.
She opened her eyes again, "I'll be right back everybody, I have to go use the bathroom,"
Glory walked into the woods, making her way over to where she felt the tree at.
She looked up into the tree, "All right come down Deathbringer,"
A black shadow jumped down from the tree, "How did you know it was me?" Deathbringer asked her.
"I know for a fact that you were a NightWing with how you felt on the tree, and if it wasn't you, then whoever else it was right now would be wrapped up in the tree," Glory explained.
"Awww, you liked me so much, you remembered how I felt wrapped up in your vines," Deathbringer said with a smirk.
"What!" Glory said angrily. Was this dragon seriously flirting with her? "Deathbringer, what do you want?"
Deathbringer shook his head, getting a little more serious, "Just some rumors I have heard from the Night Kingdom, there was talk about them raiding someplace, I'm not sure yet but I'll let you know when I find out,"
Glory nodded her head, "All right, have you heard anything else?"
Deathbringer nodded his head, "I almost didn't believe the rumors, but I almost have to because Morrowseer started calling off the dragons that he had following you guys."
Glory gave him a nod, "Calling everybody back to get ready for a fight, you tell me the moment when you find something out, all right?"
"Yep, I'll tell you the as fast as I can so I can see you again," Deathbringer said smirking at her.
And we will stop with that for today, hope you guys liked the character development chapter, I know I like to write about characters interacting with each other.