Unscoured - Trials Of The Great Khan

by GamprHabanero

Five dragonets find themselves thrust into the world with only an enigmatic 'scavenger' for aid and protection. A man awakens to find that everything he's worked for is completely and utterly destroyed, with only a group of dragonets for company. Can these dragonets keep him sane and help him gain back what he lost? Who will be the heroes' hero, and who will be the hero's heroes?

10. P2A1C05

Alright...let's see how long this chapter will be. So far, none of the chapters of this story have been shorter than 9k words.

Here it is, folks...the chapter that the last four have been building up to in some way, shape, or form. All I have to say beforehand?

Poor Aldy.

---

CHAPTER 5: A DEMENTED COMEDY

Darkness.

Death.

Destruction.

Detritus.

Fire.

Ruin.

These things wafted in the very air itself. The air was filled with smoke and blood.

He was in...well, he was fairly sure it was supposed to be Saraybaliq. It was hard to tell, though...every single building was either a burning ruin or a smoldering pile of rubble. Even his own palace was in such a state. And the streets...they ran with blood. And corpses. And charred skeletons. Some were still smoldering. All human, with not a single dragon to be found around.

Everywhere he looked, around every corner and crossing...the streets and structures were in such ways. He wandered aimlessly, trying to see some end to the death and destruction, but there was no end to it. The smoke above turned the skies an orange-gray as each and every corner and crossing that he came across presented more corpses, more skeletons, more burning ruins. Yet again, all were human, none were dragon, and he had not seen a hint of even one of the latter...

...until he came across them.

Seven dragons, all very familiar...laid lifeless when he turned down another burning corner. Eyes torn out, entrails strewn about...there was no doubt that they were very, very dead. Seven majestic, beautiful, beloved dragons, dead in such an undignified manner...who or what could...

*CRASH!*

Something huge smashed into the ground behind him, and he whirled about to see a hellish sight. It was a dragon...a NightWing by shape, but utterly massive, larger than any dragon he'd ever seen before, and with silver scales highlighting glowing red eyes, and teeth glowing orange like magma sprouting from jaws caked in blood. In those eyes, hatred and bloodlust abounded in equal measure.

"So...you managed to slip by me, monkey!" The dragon's voice was female, albeit deep, distorted and unhinged-sounding. "It would be impressive if you had just died already, just like those monkey-lovers there!" She was hissing with a sheer rage that only those utterly maddened could have. "You will escape me no longer...NOW BEGONE YOU FILTHY APE!"

And then she lunged at Altamir with blinding speed and jaws agape and emitting a deafening shriek of bloodthirsty rage, moving so fast that even he couldn't evade her in-

---

Morning, January 22nd

"Gngh!"

Altamir found himself waking up while emitting a strangled noise. Gasping, he panted hard, gulping in air and feeling sweat running down his face at having had to wake up from yet another night of tormenting images. Finding himself now sitting up, he laid his face in his hands, cursing his haunted mind.

"Ugh...it always happens." Altamir sighed inwardly. "So often am I afflicted with these things...no peace for me at night."

When he finally looked up from his hands after a minute or so, he saw that the sun had just risen above the horizon and was rising further in the sky. The warm air around despite it being winter time confirmed that that particular spell was still in effect.

He was still panting at having been roused from his sleep in such a manner, and he frankly should have expected that, along with his sudden movement, was bound to wake up at least one of the others.

"Mm..." And sure enough... "...huh? Oh...Aldy!" ...he heard Sunny's mercifully sweet, lovely voice...albeit one that was soon tinged with concern, having apparently noticed the...state that Altamir was in. "Uh...are you okay?"

Altamir didn't say anything at first...just slumping his head back into his hands. This got Sunny rather upset.

"...oh no...Aldy, did you have a nightmare? Do you get those too like we do?"

"...it's..." Altamir finally croaked out something after more silence, being unable to say no to such a sweet dragonet, "...it's easier to count when I don't. I get no peace at night."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Aldy. Can I give you a hug?"

"..."

Ah, Sunny...she truly was like Gunesha...but would even she look past how he had...

...?

---

When Clay found himself waking up after feeling a few nudges against him here and there...he saw the other dragonets huddled around Sunny, who was on her back, and looking at her, all looking worried, and Sunny herself looking worried too. At first, he was afraid that something bad had happened to her...but then he saw what she was holding. Or rather...who.

Altamir.

While he'd been quite friendly with them, and he wasn't rude or mean about it, Altamir had still made it clear - if not with his words, then with his actions and how he moved - that he at least probably didn't want Clay or his friends trying to pick him up with their talons, and that he very much wanted that wish to be respected. Which they did, and why would they not? He'd saved their lives and was this nice and kind and friendly to them even though he had nothing to gain from it, and he could climb up and down them and all just fine on his own, so this was an easy thing for him to ask of them.

Which was why it was so surprising to see him being held by Sunny like this, and with there also being Starflight having a wing over him up to his shoulders, at that. It was then that he realized Altamir was who the other dragonets were actually looking at, not really Sunny herself.

And Clay saw why.

Altamir didn't look anything like the mysterious, but nonetheless confident and brave human that he'd been yesterday. Instead, he looked...troubled. Really troubled. He was breathing raggedly, and his little eyes were wide with...what was it? Fear? Nervousness? Maybe both?

Maybe the 'brave confidence' of yesterday was him putting on a front? Like Clay and his friends all did?

Either way... "...uh, guys? What's going on?"

"Aldy had a nightmare." Sunny replied, her usual cheeriness that was so fitting of that name being absent. "A really bad one, too."

"Had to have been bad if he's like this." Starflight agreed. "Haven't seen him like this before, either."

"What was it then, Aldy?" Clay asked again, this time to Altamir himself. "I mean, you don't have to tell us if you want to, but..."

Just as Clay was giving him the option of being able to say 'no', though, he got his answer. "Death and destruction...everywhere."

Clay felt his eyes widen at hearing this. "Uh, that's bad..."

And it only got worse. "Ruined and burning homes everywhere. Blood running everywhere. Human corpses and skeletons everywhere. Piles of ash everywhere. An enormous NightWing with glowing red eyes and magma spikes for teeth, jaws red with blood, and deranged by hatred and madness and bloodthirst."

"Okay, yeah, that's REALLY bad." Speaking of blood, Clay felt the stuff drain from his face upon hearing all the rest of that...and it was probably draining from his friends' faces too, given their faces and how Glory's scales were going pale again. Obviously, there was that this nightmare really did sound like the worst sort of nightmare possible, bad enough to horrify even those who heard of it, and it sounded like it was a LOT nastier than the (already bad) ones that Clay and his friends had.

But, and this chilled Clay to the bone (and what probably did the same for the others, given Glory's scale colors)...

...well, it was the 'dragon' that was in that nightmare. And not just because that dragon was terrifying as was; it was also because it, along with the burnt human corpses and skeletons, brought to mind a name and an event: 'Bloodfang' and the 'Scorching'.

Clay and the others were taught that the Scorching happened because humans treated dragons terribly and stole their eggs, and that Bloodfang, a NightWing Animus, led dragons to a heroic victory against the 'scavengers'. But Clay was starting to question if it was true.

Maybe this was more of Starflight's thing, but Clay was beginning to get the feeling that this version of what went on during the Scorching wasn't true. For one thing, it claimed that the humans had 'incurred the dragons' righteous fury' by treating them badly and stealing their eggs, but while Clay knew that, if humans were as much like dragons as Altamir was, then they probably had both good and bad humans too; it was a human who had treated them by and far the best that any adult had ever treated them, far better than any dragon had, after all. That, and for another thing, Bloodfang was treated like a righteous hero for 'defeating the scavengers who had ruled the continent'...when she and those under her had wiped out most of the humans who lived on Pyrrhia and forced them to live in fear of being eaten, caged, or otherwise killed by dragons whenever the latter were 'in the mood'.

"Driving humankind to near extinction just because some of them stole your eggs, and then making the survivors hide in nooks and crannies for fear of you eating them or caging them? That...doesn't sound very 'righteous' or 'heroic' at all." Clay then began to question if Bloodfang was really a hero...or, as Altamir's nightmare implied given the NightWing with bloody jaws, a mass murderer who, along with those who followed her, ended countless innocent lives just because of the actions of a few...that was, if those particular humans even ever stole any eggs in the first place - was that just an excuse made up to justify that aforementioned mass murder?

Previously, Clay wouldn't have doubted the story of the Scorching aside from how Webs said that Pre-Scorching tales were to be taken with a grain of salt, as he claimed that 'scavengers [were] not intelligent'. But ever since meeting Altamir, and ever since Altamir made a very good case that the Dragonet Prophecy that they'd been 'raised' under the mountain for was probably fake...he was starting to think that this particular story of the Scorching was at least probably fake too (if for a different reason than Webs did)...

...and that dragons had been committing terrible acts to a group of living beings just as smart as they were, and that had hopes and dreams like they did, for over five thousand years.

"Uh...yeah, that's bad." Back in the present, Tsunami still had wide eyes and an expression twisted in horror. "That's...really bad."

A still-pale scaled Glory wasn't disagreeing. "I...don't think I'd ever sleep easily again for quite a while if I had something like that." That was saying something...Glory did tend to nap a lot. If she was saying that...

"Poor Aldy..." Sunny just held on to Altamir as they all, at that, brought themselves closer around him.

So they were like that for a little bit until Altamir's breathing was steadier, and his little eyes weren't so widened with...whatever they were widened with. When that came about, Clay, Tsunami, and Glory pulled back a bit, though Starflight and Sunny stayed where they were with him.

"...better, Aldy?" Starflight asked carefully.

"...a little bit." Altamir replied after being silent for a moment.

"A little bit? Okay...better than not at all." Starflight shrugged.

...

Soon, the six of them were all properly up, with Glory's scales having turned back to normal, and Altamir leaning against Clay's front limb. The little human looked better than before, and had changed into what he clearly usually wore over himself rather than what he was sleeping in, but Clay could feel that Altamir was still kind of tense. Well, he himself probably would be if he had to wake up from something like that.

"I know that I've had nightmares and whatnot with regularity all my life..." Altamir shook his head, "...but I have to say that I don't think I've ever had something like THAT before."

"I'm sorry about that, Aldy." Clay brought his other talon around to Altamir, who took to holding it with his little arms. "You don't deserve to have something like that. You should be able to sleep well at night."

Altamir sighed. "I wish I could. Alas, many nights, I get no peace in sleep." Then, he shook his head. "Though...there's something about this one. I can't put my finger on it, but...I'm getting the odd feeling that it's no mere nightmare. Of course, I hope that it is indeed just a bad dream and all, but...well..."

Clay raised his brow as he then started piecing something together. Then, he inwardly grimaced at how that something disturbed him.

Enough for him to want to talk to the others without Altamir there to hear them. "Um...Aldy?"

"Hm?"

"Uh, so...I know that we like being around you and all, but..."

"'But'?"

"...given that you've kinda been with us all day and night since we met you, the five of us haven't really been able to talk with just each other."

The human's eyes widened a little bit again (thought not as much as before). "...oh, I suppose you haven't. Should I go and..."

"I-I mean, you're not doing anything wrong, Aldy...uh, maybe you can just go watch the entrance or something while we're talking?"

Altamir shrugged. "...I guess I could. And see how cold it is out while I'm at it."

"Y-Yeah, it'll only be for a little bit."

"Alright then...I'll leave the five of you to it...call me when you're done."

So, Altamir then got up from where he was leaning against Clay, and, with perhaps a raised eyebrow or so, went towards the cave entrance. When (at least they hoped) he was out of earshot, Clay looked back towards the others.

"What is it, Clay?" Tsunami looked at Clay in turn with a raised brow.

"Shh...we might wanna keep this quiet." Clay knew that, being dragons much larger than humans, their voices probably carried much further, so he hoped that they'd get with him when it came to keeping things to a whisper, volume-wise. "This is something that Aldy really shouldn't be hearing yet...that, and those other humans are still sleeping."

"Well, okay then, Clay..." Glory seemed willing to go along with Clay's request to keep things quiet, "...but then what is it? We won't know until you tell us."

"It's...uh..." Clay hesitated at first before he worked up the courage to spell it out, "...it's about Aldy. And the Scorching."

This got raised eyebrows from some of the other dragonets, while Sunny perked up, as if having her attention in particular grabbed by what Clay said.

"Aldy and...the Scorching?" Starflight asked somewhat slowly, as if trying to piece together why Clay would be asking him that. "Which one? Or is it both? Or...?"

"Um, it depends?" Clay scratched the back of his head. "I...well, I guess we could start with the Scorching. So, uh, you know how the stories said that Bloodfang was a hero who 'rescued us from the evil scavengers', or something like that?"

"Yeah, they did..." Tsunami nodded, then catching on to how Clay was saying it. "...oh, wait, you think that those stories are a load of cow dung, Clay? Just like Aldy showed us that the prophecy was?"

"Eheheh...I'm not sure if that's how I'd put it..." Clay chuckled a bit nervously, "...but, yeah, I...I do. I mean, they didn't exactly say about how humans are just like us with how they can talk and have things they love and hopes and dreams, just like we are. Wiping them to near extinction and then treating them like nothing but pets, pests, and prey for over five thousand years afterwards...that's not something that sounds very heroic, isn't it?"

"...you're not wrong, Clay." Starflight agreed, clearly realizing it as well. "I hate to say it and all, but when you put it like that...yep, Bloodfang sounds like she was about as far from being a 'hero' as someone could get. Though, to be fair, given that Aldy revealed that the prophecy was at least likely a fake - thanks for reminding us, Tsunami - as well as how he also showed us that humans could talk and were just as smart as us, I think it's fair to say that we're all questioning quite a few things we previously believed."

"Yep." Glory sighed. "I gotta say, if those dragons who made the prophecy up could make it up to use us as pawns, then I wouldn't put it past either Bloodfang herself or someone supporting her to make up those stories her of being a 'hero' to hide that she was, say, an evil monster. I mean, she WAS an animus, after all, and you know what happens when those overuse their powers - they go crazy. Though, to be fair, I think that 'crazy' would be putting it pretty lightly there. Honestly, I think we have on our talons someone who managed to outdo Scarlet when it came to 'crazy'. Really saying something, obviously. Though..." Glory then tilted her head at Clay in curiosity. "...what's Aldy got to do with this, Clay?"

"Huh? Er, uh, yeah, it does have something to do with Aldy. At least, I think it does." Clay always was a little nervous when it came to explaining things (he was not Starflight), but he had to do his best here. "Um...so, you know how Aldy doesn't seem to really be afraid of us? Like...at all?"

"It's kiiiinda hard not to notice, Clay." Tsunami shrugged in a 'well, duh' way. "I mean, to be fair, the guy's a human animus and all and apparently able to take out Scarlet and all of her guards by himself despite being as small as he is, so it's not like he'd really have a reason to be afraid of us or anything, but, yep, we'd have to be blind to not notice that. Something weird about it, Clay? Aside from, well, THAT he's not afraid of us? Or that he's an animus? Or that he can talk to us, as humans apparently can?"

"...y-you're getting a little loud, Tsunami," Clay hoped they wouldn't wake up the other humans in the cave, "but...yeah, there's something weird about it. Other than those things, of course, but, well, there's how he...regards us. Obviously, he's good and nice to us and all, but...it's like he's talking to another human rather than, you know, a bunch of dragons that could try to...eat him?" Clay quietly spat the last two words out, and the others winced at the mention of this.

"I will admit that the thought of that happening to him from us doesn't seem to have ever crossed his mind." Starflight acknowledged. "Obviously, we wouldn't think of doing so now, but, unless he can read minds, he wouldn't know that. Especially given how long he's apparently been around for; someone that old should more than know of a possibility like that. If anything, logically-speaking, he should be keeping his guard up around us. And yet, the only thing he seems worried about with regard to us is our safety and well-being. That's definitely nice and welcome, given how he's the first adult to actually care about us like that, and he doesn't play favorites, but...yeah, it is pretty odd, Clay."

"Well, we are dealing with a bit of a weirdo here, you know." Glory had that look on her face. That face when she was not impressed by someone or something. "At least he's a good one and not a bad one, but he's also the same human who saw no problem having a conversation with us while being on fire. And he shows little regard for his own safety. I was hoping that we would have enough of those around," Glory eyed Tsunami as she said this, "but I guess not. Either he's banking on us not eating him upon hearing him talk, which, fair enough, isn't that bad of an idea, or-"

"Or maybe he doesn't know that dragons treat humans like pets, pests, or prey?"

When Sunny said that, cutting off Glory in the process, Clay and the other dragonets looked at her with immediate confusion...

...and Tsunami voiced that confusion. "...eh? Uh...what are you talking about, Sunny?"

"You know how, when Aldy was wanting us to be careful with the humans, he attributed it to them having had to deal with Scarlet, rather than you-know-what? I mean, yeah, as you said, Glory, dealing with Scarlet would have made anyone 'skittish'...but most of us would have been able to tell that it's also because we've been..."

"Hunting and killing and caging them for five thousand years?" Glory finished Sunny's sentence dryly in a questioning manner.

"Yeah, that. But Aldy...Aldy didn't seem like he noticed that."

"So you're saying that it flew over his head?" Tsunami, who probably would have dismissed Sunny earlier, wasn't doing so this time. "Huh...I gotta say that that makes sense, given how he's acted around us."

"I do agree." Starflight agreed. "It would explain why he never seemed to have any fear of us whatsoever, aside from him obviously being a human animus who's apparently more than powerful enough to deal with Scarlet and all of her guards, let alone five random dragonets who he plucked from her arena."

"Yep, definitely." Clay, having been just listening along for a bit, agreed with Starflight in turn, having not been a big thinker. However... "Though...if he really doesn't know about how dragons regard humans, does that mean that he might also not know about the Scorching either?"

This got the others' attention...though Sunny seemed a slight bit annoyed. "I was going to get to that, Clay. It was also kinda why I brought up the idea of him not knowing about things between humans and dragons being like they are. What I'm saying is that if he knew about it, he'd probably bring it up, especially when he was having us and those other humans try and get to know each other."

"But he never brought up the Scorching at all yesterday." Clay replied.

That seemed to sway everyone on the matter. "Eeeeyup, he didn't." Glory nodded. "Yep, he probably doesn't know about that either."

"Indeed, he likely doesn't." Starflight concurred. "But...uh...that kinda begs the question as to how and why he wouldn't know this stuff. He's been around for a long time, going by some of the things that he said yesterday."

"You seem to forget that we didn't know who Scarlet was even though we 'lived' under her very mountain, Starflight." Glory replied dryly.

"Oh...right. Uh, fair point, Glory. But then..." Starflight then paused before continuing. "...that then begs a different, rather worrying question. Namely, how he's going to take it if he indeed doesn't know about it and then suddenly finds out about that stuff."

Clay then felt a chill going down his spine. There was something about that question that had...fear seeping in him.

It was then that Tsunami suddenly started looking nervous. Tsunami? Looking nervous? That...

...uh...uh oh...that was bad.

Sunny noticed it too. "Um...Tsunami? What's wrong? That look on your face..."

"U-Uh...guuuys? I...just remembered something from last night about Aldy."

"Is it related to how he might take the Scorching?" Glory asked.

"Uh-huh." Tsunami nodded. "So...last night, I was the last of the five of us to go to sleep, and before I did, I...saw something from Aldy."

"You...saw something?" Clay then asked himself.

"Y-Yeah, I did. When I saw him, he was looking away at first, but he was holding his head with his hands and shaking it, as if really, really, REALLY worried about something. When I called out to him in a way so that I wouldn't wake the rest of you up, I startled him, and he spun around and looked at me and...well, you know that face someone makes when they're...super scared of something? I saw that face on him, wide eyes and everything. He tried to bury it when he saw that I was looking at him, but the way he speed-walked away to the rest of you to sleep, or to try to, if I'm being honest...I don't know what it was that got him like that, but he was SPOOKED by something."

"Oh...so does that mean that he's not nearly as 'put-together' as he wants us to think?"

"I...yeah, probably." Tsunami replied to Glory's question. "Either that, or whatever spooked him spooked him bad, because whatever it was, it was making him worry worse than Starflight."

"Tsunami..."

"What? You worry a lot, Starflight."

"Well, I...I mean, I do...but..."

Then, Clay cut in. "Maybe he's trying to hide it from us because he doesn't want us to worry about him."

"Yeah, Clay." Sunny agreed. "Maybe he thinks that we have enough to worry about already because of how the 'guardians' and Scarlet treated us, and how the...prophecy is probably fake. He might not want us to have to worry about more than we already do."

"...he's kinda mysterious as is." Glory nodded. "Yep, that's probably it. Though, as nice of him as it is, I guess, for him to want us not to worry about him...we kind of have no choice but to worry about him."

"Especially since we have no idea how he'll react to the Scorching." Starflight continued for Glory, clearly agreeing with her in turn. "He could react in any number of ways to it. He could 'merely' be very sad or very angry...or he could crack in the worst way possible. Given how powerful he is, him being a human animus and all, things could get ugly REALLY fast if the latter happens."

"Just because he can't go crazy or whatever from the Animus Magic itself doesn't mean he can't lose it period." Tsunami shrugged, continuing the chain of agreement, before asking herself. "So then, any ideas on what to do to, you know, keep that from happening? Clay?"

Tsunami turning to him for ideas? That was something serious. Usually, she came up with her own ideas, much to Starflight's chagrin.

But...oh well. If she wanted him for ideas, he'd give it his best shot.

"I don't think we're gonna be able to keep him from taking it badly." Clay was honest. "But what we can probably do is maybe...at least keep him from taking it too badly?"

"And how are we gonna do that?" Glory raised her eyebrow.

Clay, for once, felt the need to be brave and decisive finally overcome his nervousness. "We do that by just doing our best to be there for him. We need to make it clear that we don't support what those dragons have done, and are doing, to his kind, that we want no part in that and never will want any part in that, and that we're on his side when it comes to this, and just as much as we trust him, he can trust us in turn."

"So, basically, you want us to be his...his rock, basically? Just as you are for us, Clay?"

"Heh..." Clay blushed a bit before he nodded. "...uh, yeah, Glory, something like that. If we can be that for him and show him that there ARE dragons that he can still trust, and that not all of them are bad like the ones doing those...things to his kind, we might be able to at least kinda blunt how badly he takes it, and we might be able to keep him 'together' enough for him to still protect us from any bad or enemy dragons that might try and kill or capture or kidnap or imprison us or whatever."

"...alright, I guess that's an idea." Starflight shrugged himself. "Though...I'm not sure if the five of us, a bunch of random dragonets not even six years old, are gonna be able to keep him sane, or at least all the way, anyways."

"We gotta try." Tsunami replied bluntly. "We don't have a choice here. Either we at least try and keep him sane, or, knowing how crazy-powerful animus magic is, it won't be just us that things get ugly for."

That last sentence of what Tsunami said only made it clear what the stakes were.

"Please stay with us, Aldy. Please don't lose it. Please stay with us..."

They couldn't let Altamir lose it, no matter the cost. Now they had another reason to stick by him, and not just him protecting them.

---

Ah, good...it was warmer out now than it was at any point yesterday (though still rather cold). Altamir was glad for the warm(er) wave. He was also glad to have not spotted any other SkyWings around, be them enemy soldiers or otherwise. This, put together, would mean that he had less to worry about in that regard. He still had to keep his guard up, but...still...this really helped him clear his mind after last night's...terrors.

Regardless, the dragonets called him back once they were finished talking about whatever it was that they had been talking about, and so he returned to the back of the cave. When he did, the dragonets did look a bit...pensive, to say the least.

That being said, he didn't dare intrude upon it, given that they looked like they wanted it to be something that was solely in-between them, whatever it was. "Alright...so you're done?"

"Uh...yeah. Yeah, we're done." Tsunami nodded.

"Won't ask what it was, then...though I do hope it was productive."

"It was, Aldy." Starflight replied. "Though, uh...Aldy?"

"Yes, Starflight?"

"Um...are you doing better now? We're kinda worried about how you were when...you know..."

"...the nightmare?"

"Mhm. That, Aldy." Sunny nodded. "Are you better now? At least...sorta?"

"...yes, I'm better." Altamir sighed a bit. "Nasty as it was, it was just another nightmare...being able to go outside and feel the air helped clear me out, I suppose."

"Well, good." Glory rolled her head around on her neck a bit and fluttered her wings. "Now then...what's it like outside? Any SkyWings or SkyWing soldiers out? Oh, and is it warmer? Because I've discovered that I very much don't like the cold."

"Oh, it's warmer out." Altamir replied, which Glory seemed relieved by. "Warmer now than it ever was yesterday, actually. Also, no SkyWings or soldiers around."

"Good, good, good good good." The RainWing was also relieved by the other things. "Now then...let's put the finishing touches on that plan as to what we're gonna do here..."

"We should wake the other humans up first." Clay pointed out. "We can't leave them here."

"Yeah, it wouldn't be fair to them to leave them stranded." Sunny agreed with Clay.

"Indeed. Hold on..." So, Altamir went to wake the other four humans in the cave up. Once he did, then they would begin this second phase of planning.

...

Admittedly, much of it was going over what had already been gone before, but now that Altamir was heavily insisting on it, he had the humans involved in it as well. Leaf, Rowan, Thyme, and Cranberry didn't seem too enthused at first, and they were still weary of the dragonets, but when Altamir pointed out that the alternative was being stranded in a mountain range with no one around, they reluctantly got 'with the program'.

Once the things that had already been gone over between Altamir and the Dragonets of Destiny were hammered out, there was then the part with the humans themselves, and where they were to go.

Though, as they were discussing that bit...

"Uh...we're from a village called 'Talisman'." Rowan answered Altamir's question of where they came from.

"'Talisman'? Interesting name for a village," Altamir shrugged, "but ah well, I've seen and heard of stranger ones. Well, then, approximately where is it? Is it along the edge of this mountain range?"

"...yeah, it's along the edge." Thyme nodded. "Not too far from that big dragon queen's palace."

"So that had something to do with her having apparently come across you." Then, Altamir asked about the reason for why they ended up at that blasted arena. "Well, proximity aside...how exactly did you four end up in a position where I had to save you from Scarlet? Was it because she thought it would be 'thrilling' for humans to die in her arena, or...?"

"Uh, actually, it was because we tried to steal treasure from her."

...

...

...

What.

Did they...did they...they...?

Wha...they...wha...what?

They didn't just say that...they...

...they WHAT?!

...

...

...

Altamir was rendered beyond speechless by this answer that Leaf gave him. He had been expecting what he'd suggested (partially to himself) with regards to Scarlet's antics, but...

...THIS?! What in...alright, so Gill doing what he did to that one of them while in that maddened state wasn't made less horrific by finding this out, but...by the gods, did they leave their good sense behind when they set off on this insane task?! Stealing not only from a dragon, but a mad tyrant of a queen, at that?!

DID HE SERIOUSLY HAVE TO RESCUE THEM BECAUSE OF SOMETHING LIKE THAT?! ALL BECAUSE THEY HAD SOME ADDICTION TO THINGS THAT SHONE AND GLITTERED AND SPARKLED?!

Gods, such fools' errands often made him wonder how the hell his kind survived their years of existence. Granted, dragons could have their own moments as well, but...

...speaking of dragons, there were the dragonets themselves. And...they took this about as well as they could have. Altamir saw their eyes widening so hard that they looked like they were about to fall out of their heads, and their mouths gradually falling open, and Glory's scales turning an acid green...they looked like their souls were about to leave their bodies, such were they floored by what the hell they were hearing. And they were just as speechless as Altamir was.

Until they weren't.

"Wha...you...you really...you...actually...?" Tsunami in particular was the first to cease being so, initially stammering in clear disbelief as she then grit her teeth, and Altamir then swore that he just about saw veins bulging on her head...before... "You...you...why...you...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! THAT'S WHY ALDY HAD TO SAVE YOU?! WHAT IN THREE MOONS WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR HEADS?! DID YOU FOUR HAVE A DEATH WISH OR SOMETHING?!" Gods, Tsunami was loud...Altamir was impressed in a somewhat twisted way that these four humans had managed to do something stupid enough to get THIS out of her. Mhm, she was a fair bit like Sorkhagtani. Loudness in particular.

"What exactly made you four think that THAT was a good idea?!" Glory wasn't quite as loud as Princess Earsplitter, but her turning shades of black, bright orange, and bright red made it clear that she wasn't very far behind in the department of sheer frustration, either. "Did you all eat something you shouldn't have?! Or were you born without those instincts that tell you 'no, don't do that!' whenever you're thinking about doing something stupid?! Honestly, it's a MIRACLE that Aldy managed to save you at all with decisions like that! And you're all OLDER than the five of us, and three of you are apparently adults, for moons' sake!"

Starflight joined in on the scolding too. "Stealing or trying to steal from something bigger, stronger, and faster than you in every way is one thing already, but stealing from a sadistic queen known for throwing dragons and humans in an arena to die horribly for her own amusement?! Hate to say it, Aldy, but I can't help but concur here!"

"Fair enough, because I can't help but concur also!" Altamir ground out, being all too reminded of a certain someone. "I've seen 'stupid', and I've seen 'gods-damned stupid' aplenty as is, but this might take the prize of 'stupidest idea in history'! Or at the very least be in the running for it..." This was Farrokh all over again.

Being scolded by three dragons larger than them clearly obliterated whatever excuses any of the four humans were apparently thinking of making, and they looked very sheepish.

"Y-Yeah...it...it was stupid." Thyme admitted. "Really stupid. We know that...too well now, given that there used to be six of us, and now there's just four of us. Mushroom and Toadstool were my brothers...they used to be part of this 'team' of ours, and...both died because we made this...decision. And they...didn't die well."

...

This flash-froze a fair bit of the anger and frustration towards the four humans in the cave. "...so that was why he looked a fair bit more downcast than before I healed up the dragonets...oh no, so there was someone else I...failed to...save?" As Altamir was taking this in, Glory's colors went back to normal, while the expressions of sheer irritation that had been on hers, Tsunami's, and Starflight's faces vanished, and were replaced with winces.

"Oh..." Sunny was wincing too, and so was Clay. "...hey wait, those were your...your brothers?"

"Yeah, they were his brothers." Cranberry replied. "Him and them were triplets, actually...and now there's just him."

"I...ugh, that's rough." Clay shook his head. "I mean, the decision was really stupid, but that's something that no one deserves."

"Indeed." Altamir agreed, glad that the dragonets had the mettle to still feel some sympathy for the group of humans despite their fools' errand. "I suppose that's life. Full of hard lessons when it comes to what decisions to make and what decisions not to make. Best thing we can do is take this as a lesson to not make a decision like that again..." And then he turned to the dragonets in hopes that they'd understand this as well. "...and I do hope that the five of you know this as well; I didn't save all of you just to lose you again."

"U-Understood, Aldy." Starflight nodded. "We all understand, I think. No stupid decisions from us."

"Good. Now then..." Altamir then put the inner side of his right hand to his chin, "...all that aside, I hate to say it, but I'm not sure if trying to go due north towards where your village is would be a good idea. Given the...manner in which I had to rescue all of you, the SkyWings are likely currently looking for whoever the hell killed their 'precious queen', and that would mean that the area around the palace is likely swarming with guards and soldiers. And given that your village isn't that far from that palace, if what you're saying is right..."

"So you're not sure if you can get us back to our village right now?" Rowan asked with a tilted head.

"...I'm afraid so." Altamir sighed. "I think the safer thing right now would be to just go through MudWing territory instead. They're allied with the SkyWings, and Tsunami being here with us in particular may still bring some...issues and whatnot, given that the SeaWings and MudWings are enemies...but there are ways to work around that without leaving her behind. That, and the MudWings may be less familiar with, or aware of, 'the death of Queen Scarlet'."

"Well, alright then." Glory nodded. "Best keep our guard up, though."

"When there's an effectively-continent-wide war going on, one always must." Altamir nodded.

...

Eventually, once the planning was finished, and things were more or less all set with regards to that plan, and Altamir had made sure that everyone was fed, they were at the cave entrance, the magical 'fire' having been 'extinguished', and the humans on the backs of the dragonets; Leaf on Clay's back, Thyme on Glory's back, Rowan on Starflight's back, and Cranberry on Sunny's back, with Altamir himself being on Tsunami's back. He was still quite...apprehensive, given what he'd found out about Tsunami's father (namely, that he'd accidentally rendered her half-an-orphan), but Tsunami insisted on him being the one to ride on her back, so he buried it and climbed aboard that sweet-spot between her back and neck. He'd have to lead her into it as to what the hell had happened.

Regardless, now, they were waiting. Waiting for him to start.

"Eh...still a little chilly." Glory remarked at the air temperature before shrugging. "But it is still winter-"

Her shrugging jostled Thyme on her back. "Uwah! C-Careful!"

"Huh? Oh, right." The RainWing grumbled. "We have to do this with little 'passengers' on our backs. No in-flight stunts, Tsunami."

Tsunami's response was very dry-witted. "Oh dear, oh me, oh my, oh no, how would I not know that? Especially with how our 'passengers' have those little arms with no claws? I have a brain, you know. Literally wouldn't be able to fly at all without it."

Glory rolled her eyes. "Well, there are times where you'd make anyone forget that you have one."

Altamir sighed. "Alright, alright, girls, girls." Then, he looked around at all of the dragonets. "Well then...is everyone ready?"

"Uuuhhhhh...s-sorta?" Leaf was clearly of questionable readiness. "Do we...do we really have to do this?"

"It's the best way we can take you with us." Starflight answered the human teenager. "That, and we can't leave you behind."

"I...o-okay then...but...how are you gonna make sure we don't fall?" Leaf was clearly nervous about flying...he'd probably never flown properly on a dragon's back before. Actually, it seemed as though NONE of the humans present had.

"All of you need to hold on tight if you don't want to fall too easily." Altamir replied to Leaf's concern, before sighing again. "If you DO fall, then either one of them will catch you, or I will catch you. Alright?"

Leaf didn't say anything more, but hesitantly nodded.

"Alright...well then..." Altamir then turned back forward. "Everyone, remember the 'flight plan'. Follow the sun and go east, where we'll stop at the Red River, and then, after that, we'll go north to the Diamond Spray River. Our main goal right now is the Diamond Spray Delta. If we encounter any SkyWings, or any MudWings who turn hostile because of Tsunami's presence, I will deal with it. Just keep going."

"Got it." Starflight nodded.

"You do? Good." Then, he looked over everyone present one last time. "Leaf, Rowan, Thyme, Cranberry...I want you all to hang on to your respective dragonet as much as you can, but as much as this may seem absurd, make sure to look at the ground while you do." When they did this, he then looked back forward once more. "Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, Sunny...I'm going to count from ten, and when I say 'fly', we're going to take flight in the direction I want us going in."

"Yes, Aldy." Clay nodded himself, all five of them spreading their wings. "Well...start the count, then?"

"Indeed." So, Altamir leaned forward and held on to Tsunami the way he usually did any dragon or dragonet he was riding. "Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One..."

And then, he gave the order.

"...FLY!"

So, once that final word was spoken, Altamir felt himself become much, much, MUCH heavier for a brief moment as all five dragonets leapt into the air and took flight.

For a bit, Altamir was worried that one or more of the other humans would fall off...but once he looked around him once flight was steadier and more level, the other four humans, to his relief, were still on the backs of the dragons...albeit rather terrified.

Oh well...at least they hadn't fallen off. Then again, he'd been riding dragonets in flight since before he reached his teen years, and they, by comparison, clearly hadn't.

They flew in silence for a minute after the initial take-off, with the dragonets' flapping wings and the wind and air rushing and roaring around them being the only sound for a while.

Then, Clay broke it. "You know, Aldy...okay, nevermind, you might know this already and all, but...this is our second time being able to be somewhere that...isn't in a cave."

"Second...ah, right, the first time, 'Scarlet' happened."

"Yyyyeaaahhhh..." Tsunami grumbled. "Oh well, I guess we could consider this a 'do-over'. Yeah, let's consider this the REAL first time. Ignore that stupid false start."

"Well whatever fills your gills, Tsunami. Granted, I'd probably do the same if..."

Altamir's voice trailed off as he then saw, to their north, and to his displeasure, something that he really wasn't in the mood for seeing.

A group of SkyWings. And they seemed to be wearing armor. And heading their way.

Clay grew concerned at hearing him go quiet. "Um...Aldy?"

"Hold on." Altamir then summoned his 'bow' to his hand. "Tsunami, fly up just a little bit. Need a clear shot here."

"Uh, okay..." Tsunami listened to him and flew at a slightly higher height compared to the other dragonets than before. "...wait, do you see...?"

"I do. I got it, I got it." Then, Altamir 'nocked' an 'arrow', and raised himself up a bit as he then aimed in the direction of the group of SkyWing Soldiers. "Just keep flying." He then drew the 'arrow' back...

...and released it.

---

Clay was first confused when Altamir made the weird-looking thing appear in his little hands and the strange glowing 'thing' at the center of it...and then he was startled when Altamir shot the glowing thing to Clay's left, and then shot even more glowing things after it. A fair few of them, actually.

And then Clay saw, in the distance, the SkyWings adorned in armor that Altamir was apparently shooting at, and he shuddered upon seeing them from the memories of the day before yesterday. "Oh no...I know that I hate fighting and killing, but I also REALLY don't want to go through that again either. Please deal with them quickly, Aldy..."

Initially, Clay thought (and worried) that the 'things' were going to miss the SkyWings...but then they seemed to change direction and curve midair until they were going right for the SkyWings...who tried to dodge...

*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*

...but couldn't escape the glowing 'things', which exploded when they hit their targets.

*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*

There were twelve of them...well, there had been. Until Altamir shot them down with...whatever it was he was using.

He...he took them out. He took them all out. He took them all out, and he did it by himself.

The other dragonets were just as astounded as Clay was at Altamir usage of whatever was shooting the glowing things, and also at how he was able to so quickly take those SkyWing soldiers out and make it look easy.

"I..." Glory seemed and sounded like she wanted to ask Altamir how he did that...but she then gave up. "...actually, you know what, Aldy? I'm not even going to bother trying to ask you how you did that. Clearly, you must 'have your ways'."

"I do." Altamir shrugged as the thing in his hands disappeared, him probably having made it so. "Though...if ever you wonder how I dealt with Scarlet...that's how I did it."

"...okay then, Aldy...just make sure you don't shoot one of us by accident."

"Gloryyyy!" Sunny didn't find that quite as funny as the group's resident RainWing did.

"I'll...make sure of it." Altamir sounded rather exasperated. "It's long-ranged anyways."

And then, Altamir made appear in his hand...that sword. It was...yes, it was a sword.

"And if they get too close for that to be viable, then this will do just fine."

Altamir had first shown them it yesterday in two 'forms'; short (which was still most of the way to being as long as Altamir himself was tall) and long. It was in its 'long' form right now, and Clay still couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was so weird to look at; it had a dark-colored (almost black) blade and was very thin and narrow (apparently as much so as most human-sized swords were)...but it was also magically unbreakable and far sharper than any teeth or claws - enough to cut through armor and dragons' scales and bones, by Altamir's own words - and Clay still remembered realizing that, when her tail wasn't counted, it was basically as long as Sunny was. If it weren't for...well...magic, Clay would be at a loss for how such a tiny human had managed to make or get a sword that was nearly five times as long as his own height, but given that he COULD wield magic like that, it definitely made Clay believe how Altamir was able to kill enemy dragons by himself with it; honestly, he could believe that the human could take one out in just one swing.

Either way, though...Clay was glad that Altamir was on his and his friends' side.

He just hoped that they'd be able to keep him on their side...and keep him sane.

...

Another bit of (relative) quiet followed. Only things aside from the wind and their own flapping wings were a few remarks and comments here and there to each other among Clay and the dragonets during it. During that time, Clay got to take a look at the scenery below and around him. Like when he and Tsunami first got out of that cave, it was beautiful...too bad it was also enemy territory. At least Altamir was here to protect them.

Speaking of Altamir, though...the humans were all flat-out silent. Altamir was so because he was focused on keeping everyone safe and making sure they were going the right direction...

...but the other humans? As Clay could feel from poor Leaf clinging to his back for dear life, they were scared. Very scared.

It was easy to tell why. Obviously, there was how they couldn't fly because they didn't have wings, so if any of them fell off of them and hit the ground far below, it would kill them for sure.

But there was also that they were currently riding on the backs of dragons - the very kind that, for five thousand years, had been killing, eating, and caging humans, and often had actively been trying to wipe them out. "Like Bloodfang probably tried to, if the 'stories' told to us about the Scorching are wrong...and they probably are wrong."

Clay really, really, really hoped that there was something, anything, that he and his friends could do to put a stop to all of that. That he and them could get dragons to quit eating, caging, and killing humans, quit regarding them as nothing but prey or pests that needed to be eliminated.

But...that would probably be just as hard as it would be to put a stop to this insane continent-wide war. Things like that were the sorts of things that could (and sometimes did) make him hate being a dragon.

...

Eventually, the silence from the humans was broken again when Altamir looked back at...Tsunami's wings, apparently, before looking back towards Tsunami herself.

"So...Tsunami?"

"Yeah, Aldy?"

"You said that you were pretty sure that you were the 'Missing Princess' from the scroll of the same name that you mentioned, right?"

"'Pretty sure'? Well, I gotta be. I was stolen as an egg by Webs, and that scroll said that an egg that was stolen from the palace had the same color as the one mine was, and Queen Coral's been looking for that egg ever since."

"Basically, Aldy, she's having princess dreams." Glory remarked dryly.

Before an irate Tsunami could retort, Altamir chuckled. "Perhaps so. Though..." The human then looked back at Tsunami's wings again. "...it might also be that the 'truth of the matter' could come from those markings on the undersides of your wings, Tsunami."

This made Tsunami's irritation disappear and get replaced by confusion. "The...markings? Under my wings?" Then, she lit up. "Wait, is there something special about them? Please tell me, Aldy! Please? Please please please?"

"I was going to get to that!" Altamir laughed. "So, er...those markings. First, can someone tell me if, say, Webs also had them or not?"

"Uh, no. No he didn't." Starflight responded. "Are they...uncommon or unique?"

"Indeed they are unique, Starflight." Altamir answered. "At least as far as I can tell, it was mainly just one line of SeaWings that had those markings. As for how I know this...well, you know Sorkhagtani?"

"Yeah, she was the SeaWing that you said Tsunami looked a lot like." Clay was the one to answer this time. "Wait, so she had those markings too?"

"She did." Altamir nodded. "She got them from her mother. And her mother was none other than Delphine, the at-the-time Queen of the SeaWings, and one of the best that the tribe ever had."

Clay's jaw fell open yet again (as did everyone else's). Wait, so Tsunami really was a...

"She's...she's a princess." Starflight sounded like he couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. "She's actually a...a princess." Glory, meanwhile, looked genuinely shocked, clearly not expecting to be (at least possibly) proven wrong.

But Tsunami's reaction? "I...I'm really a..."

She was quiet for a bit, wide-eyed...and then Clay saw Altamir hold on tighter to her than he had before...and then...

"YES! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES! YES!"

...came the loudness as Tsunami got so excited that the SeaWing dragonet literally did a loop midair...while Altamir was still on her back. He didn't fall off, thankfully.

"I told you! I told you guys that I was a princess! I told you!"

"Yes, yes, you did, you did." Altamir muttered. "Save the stunt-flights for later, please...can't believe I'm still on your back after that."

"Eh?" Tsunami's excitement quickly turned to embarrassment. "Oh! Uh, sorry, Aldy!"

Altamir shook his head and apparently sighed. "...it's fine, I've ridden on wilder flights than that."

"Ugh...so much for humility." Glory grumbled. "Or caution."

Sunny, though, looked and sounded worried. "Tsunami? Does this...does this mean that we have to start calling you 'your majesty' now?"

Tsunami laughed. "Oh, come on, Sunny! You're my friends - yes, even you Glory - I'm not gonna become some stupid stiff hoity-toity stuck-up. No, I'm gonna be a princess my way, and you guys are all coming along for the ride!"

"Alright, whatever you say, Tsunami..." Starflight shrugged. "...just be warned that being a princess, and royal life in general, at least might not be as great as you think it is. That, and we don't know what Queen Coral is like; she could be a good queen, and given that she's been losing a lot of heirs, she might be pretty happy to see you...or she could be like Scarlet. Hopefully she's anything but the latter."

"You should listen to Starflight on the 'royal life' bit, Tsunami." Altamir sounded rather firm. "I know quite well what he's talking about."

Did...did Altamir just imply that he was royalty himself? Or had he been around others who were?

...

Well, either way, a few minutes later, the conversation had gone other places.

"I do have to say..." Altamir was now saying with regards to a certain ability that Glory's tribe had, "...RainWing venom is such a strange substance. It's a corrosive venom that melts and eats through anything 'organic', so in other words plants and animals, the latter of which includes ours truly...but then it doesn't at all affect things like rocks or metal, unlike other 'corrosive' substances. And then, when it dries out, it dries into these glossy droplets akin to obsidian. More than a few have called it 'magical'.

"Wow, so Glory has magical death spit?" Sunny was back to her more usual 'cheerful' self, at least. "That's so cool, Glory!"

"Please do not call it 'magical death spit'..." Glory's exasperated reply got a few laughs out of the other dragonets.

"Careful Glory, I think someone in particular here might." Altamir replied dryly. "So, erm, with regards to special abilities...I'm not sure if any of you know about some of the ones that NightWings have. Do you know...?"

"Well, yeah, we do." Tsunami remarked. "Not sure if you noticed, but Starflight won't let us hear the end of it. Someone really likes being a part of his tribe."

"But you have to admit that those abilities are impressive." Starflight didn't help his case in the face of Tsunami's remarking. "No other tribe has anything like that...save for maybe animus magic. But we also have that too."

"Hmm...I mean, to be fair, they are quite impressive." Altamir seemed to acknowledge. "Though, there is a specific reason as to why members of your tribe get those things in the first place. You know which one?"

This made Starflight genuinely confused. "Huh? Um, well, we...inherit them?"

"Mmm...actually...it depends on whether or not your eggs hatch under one or more of the moons where the light from them reaches those eggs." Altamir explained. "If a NightWing egg hatches under one of the moons, then that NightWing will get either mind-reading or foresight. If the hatching occurs under two moons, then that NightWing will get both. And if that hatching occurs under all three at once, then that NightWing will have full control over both, and with both being much more powerful. The way that you can tell that a NightWing has, or will have, one or more of these powers is if the egg turns a polished-silvery color, and the NightWing himself or herself has a silver tear-drop-shaped scale behind each eye."

Starflight looked both surprised and impressed. "Oh! Uh...I see! I...I never knew that before."

"Wow, Starflight doesn't know something?" Glory remarked. "Let me guess, are cows starting to sprout wings and fly too?"

"Well, the five of you ARE all dragonets." Altamir shrugged. "That, and you were all...kept in a...cave for all your lives until not too long ago. Of course there's things that even he wouldn't know about."

Yep, Altamir was a better teacher than Webs was.

Though, it was Clay that Altamir turned to next. "Clay. A little question for you."

"Uh...okay, Aldy, throw it at me."

"Alright...so, you wouldn't happen to have hatched from an egg that was colored red rather than the typical brown, did you? Dark red? Blood red? Something like that?"

"Huh? Um...uh, yeah, I think my egg was. Webs said so, anyways."

"Ah, so you did." Altamir nodded. "Finally, Webs does something useful. Er, now then...I'm not sure if you've had the opportunity to dive into a pool of mud before, but-"

"Actually, Aldy," Tsunami then interrupted, "I threw him in one during our...brief attempt to escape from the...'guardians'. Before we ran into Scarlet."

"So you did?" Altamir then turned off to the side and muttered in frustration... "Damn it, Scarlet, you just had to be right there..." ...before turning his attention back to Clay. "...well then, Clay, I suppose that, in that case, you might be in business with regards to a certain ability that your tribe has. Basically, if a MudWing hatches from a blood-red-colored egg, and then becomes immersed in mud for the first time, then that MudWing will become immune to fire and to being burned."

...wait, what? He was...

...he was immune to fire now?! His tribe had an ability like that, and he himself had that ability?!

"Whoa, Clay's immune to fire?!"

"Okay, three moons, that is so cool!"

"Alright, now I'm jealous. I wish I could have something like that..."

Clay couldn't believe that he was receiving those respective comments from Sunny, Tsunami, and Glory. He still couldn't stop thinking about all the things Kestrel said and all the ways that she'd treated him...

...until Altamir seemed to be reading his mind and said to him, "See, Clay? I told you that all of the nonsense that Kestrel spouted at you hadn't a hint of truth to it. You have something that most other dragons wish they could have."

So he did? He...he had that?

Well then, if he was going to have it...

...then he was going to use it for his friends. And for Altamir.

Heh...'and for Altamir'...three moons, what was it about Altamir? The human had this weird pull to him, and Clay couldn't help but be drawn in by it. Neither could his friends, clearly, for that matter.

He just hoped that he and them could keep their now-beloved 'Aldy' sane.

---

As much as he did enjoy a nice flight on dragonback, Altamir knew that they'd eventually have to land somewhere for a variety of reasons. Perhaps out of need for food or water, perhaps due to exhaustion, perhaps because of hiding from an enemy (especially given where they were right now)...

...or, as it turned out to be the case in this instance, airsickness.

Like anything with legs (dragons included), humans had a rather annoying condition with the ways that their bodies work that could result in something known as 'motion sickness'. Basically, if the motion that they were seeing wasn't matching what they were feeling (be it either not seeing the motion they were feeling, or not feeling the motion that they were seeing), then they could get rather violently ill, and the result was often a lost meal. This condition was most commonly known in the form of 'seasickness', but, as Altamir had himself witnessed far more than once over the years, there was a variant called 'airsickness' that also existed when it came to riding on dragonback.

More than once, Altamir had been the one to introduce someone to the idea of going flying with a dragon. While he usually gained success when it came to acclimating someone to the whole concept and notion, there were often some...bumps in the road, so to speak, along the way. A common early one, especially among those of his kind who were particularly afraid of heights, was the rider-in-learning not only clinging to the dragon's back as hard as possible, but also squeezing his or her eyes shut so as to not have to look at the ground. While Altamir definitely understood why, as a fear of falling to one's death was a very real and valid one (particularly in this sort of situation), this often led to the rider in question getting quite sick, and more than once he'd seen first-time riders losing their breakfasts, lunches, and dinners over the side...and, due to the speeds that they were flying at, as well as the air rushing around them, such contents would often splash back on the poor dragons and dragonets that they were riding, much to their chagrin.

Right now, Altamir was neither interested in, nor enthused by the idea of, having to clean 'lost contents' off of the wings, wing-joints, sides, limbs, and bodies of Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, or Sunny, as he'd often had to do before. So, once he started seeing the signs of the sickness on the other humans after a time because they kept ignoring what he'd told them about the need to keep at least one eye on the ground below to avert such a thing, Altamir, after apologizing to the dragonets and briefly explaining the situation, had them land so as to try and calm the infernal gag reflexes of their other human passengers. The dragonets weren't pleased, obviously, but when it was told to them what the 'alternative' would be...they reluctantly agreed, albeit still not pleased for rather obvious reasons, given that they were still in enemy territory.

Altamir had hoped that they'd only have to land early once, but no, the other humans kept on not listening to him about looking to the ground below, so this turned into having to land a few times...until, finally, they got the point and were listening to him.

That, and another issue was making sure that those other humans didn't freeze to death. While it was warmer than yesterday, it was still not very warm, so he had to resort to certain 'means' to make sure that Leaf, Rowan, Thyme, and Cranberry stayed warm.

Eventually, at roughly noon, they finally reached the Halys River (or, as the dragons knew it, the Red River), somewhere that he'd been planning to land to stop for water for everyone else anyways. Of course, this was, again, deep in enemy territory, so Altamir had to make sure that they were all well hidden while they were doing what they needed. To his relief, this was more than doable because the dragonets, at the very least, had the good mind to listen to him on what he had them do (showing that they had good heads on their necks despite how young they were), so they were all able to get water (and Altamir able to concretely drill in the need to keep an eye on the ground from above when on dragonback to the other humans) and then leave without being spotted or discovered.

Once they left the Red River, the group resumed the leg of the journey that involved getting to the Diamond Spray Delta, this time going north. Along the way, they encountered a few more parties of enemy soldiers, but each time, Altamir eliminated them.

Gods, he'd probably racked up a 'body count' of at least, and probably over, a hundred enemy dragons just over the past few days at this point. It was definitely not pleasant, having to regard dragons of the two tribes that he'd grown up effectively living with as enemies like this. But, regardless, and much as he hated it, war was war, and he had some dragonets to protect - and their human passengers, on top of it - so their safety and survival was paramount.

At last, they reached the Diamond Spray river. However, irritatingly, there was another complication that arose.

Time.

Given the time of year and how long they'd been flying, it was getting dark by the time they were about to reach the river. Given that, and how the main river was likely at least decently populated with MudWings, not all of which were going to be friendly given Tsunami's presence, Altamir made the decision to fly past the main river and keep going until they could find somewhere more...sparsely populated to spend the night. The dragonets weren't pleased, but relented when asked if they wanted to try navigating the delta at night.

So, onwards they flew.

---

Eventually, they found their 'hideout' for the night. It was on a small tributary river, at a place roughly 50-60 miles to the north of the main river. There, Altamir found a cave nearby that, while smaller than the one that he'd been 'given' by Maroon, was still large enough to house the dragonets and everyone else for the night. After making sure that it wasn't occupied by someone (thankfully, it wasn't), and that no one else was around, Altamir had them 'camp' there.

"Yep, it's a good thing that you have this 'magic fire' thingy ready, Aldy." Glory remarked as they were getting settled in for the night once Altamir had everyone fed and watered one more time for the day. "I'm fairly certain by this point that I very much hate the cold."

"Yeah, me too." Clay agreed, displeased by the snow on the ground outside. "But...you don't look like you get cold at all, Aldy. How do you do that?"

"How do I do that?" Altamir then shrugged. "I mean...the place where I grew up is rather on the 'wild' side when it comes to weather. Extreme heat, extreme cold, and some pretty nasty storms in-between. One has to get used to such things just to live there. Granted, it is a beautiful land, if a rather harsh sort of 'beauty', but still..."

"Well, I guess you'd have to 'get used to it' if you lived somewhere like that." Starflight shrugged himself. Then, the topic changed. "Umm...Aldy?"

"Yes, Starflight?"

"So, uh, I'm not sure if you noticed, but...we're in a bit of a...dilemma as to which of the SandWing Sisters we should support. Obviously, because she and Scarlet tried to have us killed by a Firescales dragon in the latter's arena, Burn's out of the question, so that leaves Blister and Blaze."

"Hm...well then, between those two, let's hear it." Altamir then crossed his arms.

"Probably Blaze for me." Tsunami went first, supporting one sister. "I mean, apparently, she's kinda dumb, but at least the SandWings seem to like her, and she sounds like she's pretty nice."

"I like the sound of Blister." Glory then went next, supporting the other. "You can't exactly go wrong with a smart queen, right?"

"If she at least cares about more than just getting the throne, maybe not." Tsunami laid her head on her front talons. "But if what we're hearing can be trusted, Blister doesn't. If anything, it sounds like she's really manipulative and selfish and only cares about getting the throne, and she doesn't care if she ends up destroying all of the tribes or all of Pyrrhia if it means she can get it."

"Oh, so she's one of those sorts." This made Altamir's decision...somewhat simpler. "I've encountered types like Blister before, if what you're saying is right, Tsunami. Such types...they let their ambitions and power lust rule them. They'll pull every single damn dirty trick that they can think of just to get the position and all the power that comes with it, but they only care about having that power and having that position and authority. Once they have it, they think they're above being held to responsibility with such power, and that they can just go on a power-trip as much as they want. They don't want to care about using it properly. They also tend to not truly be as clever as they think themselves, as they lack the wisdom to be able to use those 'smarts' to understand that holding of power demands responsibility...and their failure to understand such inevitably leads to them getting either toppled in a revolt, assassinated, or both toppled AND assassinated."

"...so, you're supporting Blaze?"

"Yes, Glory, I am...more or less. True, she's apparently not particularly bright, but she sounds like she's lacking in wanton cruelty, and a dim torch can be relit. Just put someone smart and wise enough as her right-talon dragon or head-advisor, and she'll still be an at least relatively good one. Though, if I'm being honest, I'm only really 'choosing' to support her because she's the best of an unfit lot. If it were me, then if I could find someone else other than any of these three sisters to become the next queen that's a better fit for the throne than all three of them put together, I might just go for that dragon instead."

"...I mean, yeah, I probably would too." Starflight nodded. "I see what you're getting at, Aldy. Though...if that dragon wasn't of royal blood, wouldn't that create...problems?"

"It likely would..." Altamir acknowledged, "...but most of those could be dealt with relatively easily if that dragon were to take as a mate a male member of that royal family and...make a bunch of little dragonets with him. Then, those little dragonets would all be of royal blood, there would be continuity with the previous queens who WERE of royal blood, and there would be less who would doubt her legitimacy as Queen."

Altamir got a few chuckles from the way that he worded that, and Glory in particular was amused. "Uh oh, Starflight, I think someone's going for your position of 'the smart one' among us."

"Come on, Glory..." Starflight rolled his eyes. "You're comparing me with someone who's older than me. That's not really far, isn't it?"

"Besides," Altamir himself shrugged, "what's the need for a competition. I'd rather everyone have a functioning brain. The more of us that do, the better."

"You mean 'let's not be stupid and all get ourselves killed'?" Tsunami shrugged back. "Okay, Aldy, that's an easy enough thing to ask."

"Let's just hope that everyone holds to that." Glory eyed Tsunami. Tsunami, for her part, snorted and rolled her eyes back at the RainWing.

The conversation shifted other places for a little while, before then finally centering on the two other dragonets that Altamir had rescued from Scarlet's palace - in a rare moment of the other humans talking to the dragonets, they mentioned that Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, and Sunny weren't the only ones that he'd done such for yesterday.

Altamir knew that the dragonets' curiosity was something that he couldn't ever hope to stymy, though he had been weary of telling them about Peril, given that she was the same Firescales that Scarlet intended to have kill them. So, he started with Hailstorm, explaining who the IceWing Prince was and his 'situation' under Scarlet. The dragonets were surprised that he'd rescued the prince of a tribe, and were horrified by what he'd been put through, but were glad that Altamir managed to rescue him, break the spell over him, and get him somewhere safe.

Then he had to get to Peril. This would be tricky.

"So..." Altamir awkwardly began, "...you know that firescales that was in Scarlet's Arena?"

"The firescales that...?" Clay looked like he was thinking for a second before he then remembered. "Oh, you mean the one that was supposed to...to kill us for Scarlet's entertainment? Her 'champion'?"

"Yeah, that psycho who was supposed to burn us alive? Did you take her out?"

Altamir sighed. "I will admit, Tsunami, that you've basically described what my first impression of her was like when I was watching what was happening from above on my first approach to the arena..." Then, Altamir took a deep breath as he went ahead and went for it. "...but then I actually got the opportunity to both see what she was like when she wasn't 'fighting' other dragons, and also to get close to her. And..."

Altamir then looked around the dragonets, some of them looking at him with raised eyebrows (particularly Tsunami and Glory). Then he sighed again.

"... I don't know how to put this...but I guess I should start with who she is. So, her name is 'Peril', and...well, she's actually still just a dragonet; she's only a year and a half older than the five of you are, and she's either roughly the same size as Tsunami or a little larger."

"She's just a dragonet?" Starflight asked, as if still processing it, before quickly looking disturbed. "Uh...so she's a dragonet and she was..."

"Doing all of that? Yes, she was." Altamir nodded. "As for how she got there...well, it turns out that Scarlet kidnapped her when she was just a hatchling and kept her in a cage for the first year and a half or so...only letting her out when she killed a bunch of SkyWing eggs in a 'display'."

The disturbed looks spread to the other dragonets, too. Even Tsunami looked rattled. Clearly, this hit close to home.

Nonetheless, he kept going. "Ever since then, Scarlet effectively kept Peril as...a pet, and that was at best. More often, she was just a puppet, a pawn, a living, breathing, winged killing tool. A killing tool that operated very bloodily for Scarlet's entertainment. And Scarlet controlled her not with animus magic...but by only teaching her how to kill for her. And also by lying to her. And lying to her. And lying to her. And lying to her."

"Wh-What kind of lying?" Clay asked nervously.

"Well, I could talk about the one where Peril supposedly needed to eat coal every day in order to survive, and that Scarlet poisoned her food when she dared not eat coal one day because she was upset that the SkyWing Queen wouldn't tell her about her mother...but while there were an awful lot that that damn mad queen lied about, the most damaging lie was the one about how the rest of the world would supposedly only ever see her as a 'monster', and that only Scarlet herself could ever truly love her for who she was, so she should show her 'appreciation' by continuing to kill for her. And Scarlet repeated lies like this as often as she breathed for as long as Peril was in her care...or rather, captivity."

Sunny shook her head. "But...those...those things aren't true!"

"I know, Sunny. But if you were told such things ever since you literally could remember, and then consistently for all your life, with no one to really correct them, would you even realize that they were lies?"

"...no, you'd think that they were the truth." Glory seemed to have her scales start turning shades of white and pale green.

"Exactly, Glory. And that was how Scarlet maintained such control and such lies; she exploited how SkyWings are afraid of Firescales, apparently to the point of usually trying to kill them upon them hatching, ensuring that there indeed would be very, very few who would try to be honest to Peril. As far as I know, there was only one SkyWing who tried to be honest to Peril. His name was Osprey, and Scarlet killed him for it. Seems that, aside from being bloodthirsty, Scarlet had a thing for...getting into and messing with dragons' heads, to put it this way."

The dragonets now looked mortified yet again. Probably just as much, this time, as when he told them about his older brother.

"That's...okay, three moons, that's seriously messed up." Tsunami grimaced. This was quite the turnabout from when she regarded the Firescales as a 'psycho'. "Uh...what was she like when she...wasn't killing dragons? Did you get a chance to...?"

"I did." Altamir nodded. "Erm...well...for a start, when she's like two very different individuals when she's 'fighting' and when she's not. When she's 'fighting', she obviously seemingly delights in the slaughter and bloodshed she inflicted on Scarlet's behalf...but when she isn't doing that, she's very...well, she's very shy and withdrawn. Can't stand up for herself, reels away from other dragons, and to put it bluntly, she doesn't seem to even know how to interact with other dragons. Her sense of what's normal and what's not, and what's right and what's wrong...it's very warped and twisted, best displayed because the way that I knew all of the stuff about what she did everyday, how she got to the Arena, and how Scarlet treated her and what Scarlet told her...she herself said all of that to me seemingly without even realizing just how...wrong it all was. She knows very little of the world outside of the Arena; she never got any truly proper education, for she was only taught how to kill. Maturity-wise with the way she acts and talks, she seems to be more at the level of a younger, four-or-so-year-old dragonet, rather than seven and a half as she actually is."

Altamir was glad that the dragonets seemed to be cooling towards Peril...though he hated to do it like this, seeing them turn very saddened, with Glory's scales now turning shades of light-blue and blue-gray, and Sunny holding her talon to her mouth.

Nonetheless, he had to continue. "When I met her and got a chance to talk to her and get to know her, I had to be the one to finally take apart the lies that Scarlet told her. All of them. The way that she reacted when I did that...oh gods, that's probably one of the hardest things I've had to witness. When I took apart those lies and showed her the true nature of what she'd been doing for Scarlet...she looked so shattered. Like her whole world was coming undone. And then she asked me in this...this tiny little voice that one would expect from a mere hatchling...asking me if she was some 'evil monster', and, I...I...d-damn it, I couldn't bring myself to even consider killing someone like her. Let alone leave her behind at the arena. Not in a thousand years...not ever."

Altamir could see some stray tears running down a few of the dragonets' faces now. Particularly Sunny's.

"D-Did you rescue her too? Please tell me you did, Aldy..."

Altamir was internally relieved that the dragonets seemed like they were willing to give Peril a chance, and he nodded. "I did. I made absolutely sure of that." Then, Altamir let them in on something. "Actually...I did it by having her help me rescue the five of you. When I was getting ready to take out Scarlet, Peril stood in front of the cage that was holding all of you to both keep you warm in the severe cold, and also to keep those soldiers and guards and whatnot away from you so that they couldn't drag you to the sands to die. Once I took out Scarlet and her guards, we bolted away with all of you in the resulting chaos, and once I had all of you in that previous cave that I had you in, I had her flee to the RainWing Forest with Hailstorm after I gave her the means to control her firescales."

This surprised the dragonets. "She...wait, she helped you save us?" Tsunami asked with widened eyes.

"Even after she was supposed to kill us?" Glory added to that question, eyes also widened as the dragonets started wiping the tears off at hearing this.

Altamir sighed yet again, this time in just a small tinge of relief. "Mercifully, I do think that I might have gotten through to her, and she very much seems like she wants to do the right thing and be a better dragon...though, even right when I first got up close to her, the first thing I saw her do was help a little bird that had gotten frozen to the stone wall by using the heat from her scales at a certain distance to melt the ice until the bird could fly away, so it seems that there always was some goodness in her. Now that she's not killing on behalf of a maniacal queen anymore, and she'll be somewhere that's neutral territory...I want very badly to believe that there's hope for her...which is why I wish to ask something of all five of you."

Then, Altamir paused, looking around the dragonets, whose.

Using that opportunity, he then went for it. "Given that our...journey for who your parents and families and all will probably take us through the RainWing Forest because Glory is here and all...there's a chance we might run into Peril again, and I did promise to meet up with her again. In case we do, and if we do...can I ask you all to...at least try and give her a chance? I know she was supposed to kill the five of you for Scarlet's entertainment and all, but...she needs help, more than anything. And..."

"...you want us to help her, Aldy?"

"Yes, Clay, I do. I know that you all might not trust her given what she's done under Scarlet, and what she was supposed to do, but...trying to 'punish' her for such would basically be pointless, as her actions under Scarlet are going to haunt her for the rest of her life, and she's not even eight. No, she needs someone who can treat her like a fellow dragon, and not like...well...a 'monster' or a 'freak'. And...I'm hoping that you five might be able to do that. So...perhaps I can ask if you can all do that for me?"

Tsunami looked to be deep in thought for a bit, before sighing and nodding. "Well, okay, Aldy...we'll give her a chance. She sounds like she's trying to be a better dragon, so we'll give it a shot and try and trust her."

"I will admit that we'd probably have to see it to believe it," Glory agreed, "but, yeah, I guess I won't be against us helping her like that. Just...please make sure that she's indeed changed, Aldy. I don't want for you to make this big case for her only for her to try and kill us again for real. I can give second chances...but I am NOT giving third chances."

"That's fair. I'll make sure that doesn't happen."

...

Eventually, and once Altamir made sure that no 'unwelcome visitors' could attack them while they weren't awake, it was time for everyone to get to sleep. The other humans, yet again, insisted on sleeping against the cave wall away from the dragonets. He supposed that they were still rattled after Scarlet...disappointing, but it made sense.

As for those dragonets?

Well, they had plans for their sleeping arrangements, and those plans involved him.

"I guess you want me up here for a reason?" Altamir asked as the dragonets were strongly insisting on him being in the center of their 'pile'.

"We need our little human protector to get some sleep, Aldy." Tsunami was rather firm. "We don't want you being up looking like you saw some stupid ghost, you know."

"Or getting bad nightmares." Sunny added. "You like being with us, right, Aldy?"

"I...I suppose I do..."

"Well then, come here!" Sunny then raised her forelimbs out a bit in a beckoning motion.

Oh...she intended to hold him like some stuffed animal. Somewhat like she was holding him this morning when that nightmare catapulted him out of his sleep?

"Alright, Sunny..." At least he was already in what he was going to sleep in, so he obliged Sunny by carefully crawling over to her and then on her until he was just below her forelimbs, and then he felt her gently wrap them around him.

"Is that better, Aldy?" Sunny asked above him.

"I...I suppose it is."

"Ah, good, it seems that our mighty protector may finally rest at last." Glory remarked. "Though, I think we need something a little more..." Glory then brought her wing over Altamir and Sunny until it covered him save for his head and shoulders. "...yeah, that'll do."

"That'll keep the nightmares away." Clay agreed.

"Hope you'll sleep well tonight, Aldy." Starflight then finally said after the others.

Altamir nodded. "I hope I will..."

So, a few minutes later, all the dragonets had drifted off to sleep, their chests rising and falling. Altamir was the last to sleep, still worrying about things.

"What are we going to do with Leaf, Rowan, Thyme, and Cranberry?" Altamir wondered. "We need to get them back to their village, but Talisman, if that's what it's called, is much too close to Scarlet's palace for comfort. We wouldn't be able to fly back there without hassle, for sure." Then, he thought about having someone else do it. "If we find Clay's family, perhaps his parents or his siblings...we may have to have some of them do it. Yes...that would probably be it."

Altamir then nodded to himself at landing on that conclusion and was about to finally start trying to get himself to sleep...and then it hit him.

Speaking of villages and humans... "...oh gods, no."

It had completely slipped his mind because he'd been so focused on keeping everyone else safe on their 'journey', and because he'd been worried about how Tsunami would take him having unknowingly killed her father...but Altamir hadn't seen a single human settlement, village, town, or city below during today's journey.

Seeing so few settlements, if at all, was already alarming when he was flying along the mountain range, but that part of Pyrrhia never had an exactly huge population because of geography. This, though, was far worse; the Almaz River had (or at least was supposed to have) a decent number of people living along its banks, and the Halys river in particular was (or at least, again, was supposed to be) one of the most heavily populated rivers on Pyrrhia thanks to it being the seat of the Baktrians.

And yet, no. Not a single human settlement or the like on either river.

This merely confirmed it. Something was wrong. Something was seriously wrong. He didn't know completely for sure if it had something to do with why the humans were still afraid of the dragonets even after Scarlet had been dealt with, or why there was some spell on humans that prevented them and dragons from talking to each other, or why most of the dragons that he had encountered had no idea that humans could talk, and he also didn't completely know for sure if those nightmares were either a sign of what exactly had happened while he was 'gone' or just, well, yet another nightmare out of many...

...but he knew that, given the population loss where there was supposed to be many of his kind living, something had happened. Was it a disaster, a great calamity, a severe catastrophe? Or had the humans there just...suddenly decide to pack up and move elsewhere?

He badly hoped it was the latter.

He worried for a while before the need for sleep finally kicked in.

And thus, in Sunny's embrace and under Glory's wing, sleep at last took him.

---

Morning, January 23rd

Clay felt himself jolt awake the next morning, panting rather heavily.

That nightmare that Altamir had vaguely described to them...Clay was very sure that he himself had just had it now...only with many dead dragons as well as dead humans.

Hadn't he?

It took him a few seconds to realize that all four of the other dragonets were not only also awake, but had also apparently been jolted into such in the same way and were also panting heavily much like he was. At least no one and nothing had attacked them in the night, but...

...did the others also have that nightmare to the point where they had been jolted awake at the same time as he had been? That was...yeah, something was not normal about that.

"Ugh...wha...?" Tsunami grunted in confusion upon realizing that the rest of the dragonets were awake too. "Oh...I...I guess you guys had that nightmare too?"

"Yeah..."

"I think..."

"I guess so..."

"I'm pretty sure we did." Starflight agreed after Clay's, Sunny's, and Glory's respective responses. "Death and destruction everywhere...that huge NightWing with magma teeth and red eyes and a bloodied jaw...I'm pretty sure that's the one that Aldy had. At least...it probably had to be."

"Weird for us to have it all at once, though..." Tsunami remarked. Then, she looked down at who was still sleeping in Sunny's forelimbs and under Glory's wing. "...huh. He's still asleep. Surprised he's not up yet. Usually he's up before we are..."

"...mmh..." Then, Altamir stirred in a way that suggested that he wouldn't be sleeping for much longer.

"...oh, nevermind, there it is. He's waking up."

And sure enough, a few seconds later, he was awake, seemingly trying to blink the sleep out of his little eyes.

"Uh...good morning, Aldy?" Clay tried to put a brave face on for the human.

"...huh...? Did...did something...did something happen...?" Aldy, for his part, seemed to have that 'morning confusion'.

"Umm...I mean..."

Glory, perhaps realizing that Clay wasn't in the mood for being the 'explaining things' dragonet of the group, took over, to Clay's gratitude. "Nothing tried to attack us or anything, Aldy. Though...that nightmare that you had last night?"

"...what of it?"

"I...think that we might have had that specific nightmare this time."

"...you did?"

"Yeah, we did. All five of us. At once."

This caused the little human's eyes to widen.

...

A minute or so later, Altamir was fully up, having quickly ducked underneath one of the other dragonets' wings and changed into what he apparently normally wore during the day. The dragonets themselves were all standing up now, and Altamir had their attention.

"So, what you're telling me is that you all had that nightmare?" Altamir asked, his little brow raised.

"Mhm." Clay nodded.

"And it made you all wake up at the same time?"

"Uh-huh." Tsunami also nodded.

"Hm..." Altamir then scratched the back of his head. "I mean, obviously, I'd rather that the five of you in particular not be afflicted with such a thing...but I do have to say that something like THIS happening...well, it certainly isn't normal. Something is different about that nightmare, for sure."

"Definitely." Glory agreed. Then, after a few moments of silence, she shifted the topic. "Now, uh...okay, Aldy. So, you've led us all the way to the northernmost or so part of the Mud Kingdom, and we're almost at the point where we might as well already be going to the Sea Kingdom. I suppose that there's a reason why we're going up here? Is this where we'll find Clay's family?"

"Something like it." Altamir nodded. "Let's just say that there's...another ability of mine. Granted, it's part of the various abilities that I've developed from being an animus and all, but...well, to put it one way, I can track and find individuals both human and dragon in a...variety of different methods. Be it by blood relation, by someone else having seen them, or by someone else's memories of them, to name a few."

"Oh, so that's how and why you've led us up here?" Starflight asked with a tilted head.

"It is." Altamir nodded.

Wow, okay, that was pretty helpful...

...wait...memories? Did that...did that mean that he could...

...oh no...he could...he could read minds, could he?

Oh no...oh no, no, no, no, no, think about cows! Think about cows! Think about cows! Think about cows! THINK ABOUT COWS THINK ABOUT COWS THINK ABOUT COWS THINK ABOUT COWS-

"Well, then, that's a big help..." Tsunami remarked before noticing Clay. "Uh...Clay? What's with the face? Something wrong?"

"-wuh?!" Clay gasped before stammering it all out. "E-Er, s-so, A-Aldy can...h-he can read minds?!"

"...I mean, I do possess that ability..." Altamir answered, "...though, I haven't at all used it on any of the five of you. Are you afraid of those who have such an ability, Clay?"

"W-Well I-I-"

"I think Clay's still a little on edge from Morrowseer." Glory answered in turn for Clay, and Clay nodded. "I mean, we don't know if Morrowseer actually DOES have an ability, but...well, he's of that tribe, and he did look at us in a way that at least suggested that he might have had something like that."

"Did he have those silver scales behind his eyes?" Altamir then asked.

"Hm? Uh...no?"

"He didn't?" Altamir crossed his little arms. "Well then, he's not one. Still doesn't change the fact that he's dangerous. I'll have to make sure he dies before he can pull anything nefarious with any of you."

"Then go get rid of him out as soon as it's convenient." Tsunami approved of Altamir's thinking, while Clay was relieved that Morrowseer wasn't actually a mind-reader.

Meanwhile, Glory got back on-topic. "Okay, Aldy, so...where's Clay's family? Who's alive and kicking?"

Altamir scratched his head. "Well, when it comes to immediate family, he's got a mother and six younger siblings, whom I believe he was supposed to be the 'bigwings' for. His father isn't alive anymore...knowing what's going on, he probably died in the war."

Clay died a little inside himself when he heard that. He'd been hoping to find both of his parents...but now only one was living.

Altamir saw his face and then sighed. "I know, Clay, it's hard to hear. But, much as I hate to say it, unless you can raise the dead, he's gone. You still have a mother and six siblings, though. Best take what we can get."

The other dragonets looked with sympathy at Clay while Glory nodded before asking, "Alright then...well, where are they, if you say you can find them?"

"About twenty minutes to the south for the mother, and another ten minutes for his siblings." Altamir replied. "Finding them isn't going to be the hard part, I don't think. Rather, the issue will be whether or not we're going to be able to find them without having some of us stay behind here for a time while we do that."

"Without having..." Tsunami then remembered why. "Oh, right, I'm a SeaWing."

"Mhm. That, and they might be iffy about a SandWing or a NightWing also...Glory might be the exception if she can change scale colors into those of a MudWing's..."

Then, just as Altamir said that, Glory indeed began changing her scale colors...until, a few seconds later, they were just like that of Clay's.

"...well, I suppose Glory can go with us when we go looking for them." Altamir shrugged. "But...that's about it. I know this may be upsetting and all to have to split you all for a bit..."

Starflight shook his head. "No, no, no, we get it, Aldy. It's not safe to take us. Just...make sure to come back with those two, alright?"

"I will." Altamir replied. "Well then...let's get those four up and get everyone fed and watered, and we'll get to business."

...

A little bit later, after they got the other four humans up, and they'd all gotten food and water for the morning, those four humans had stayed behind while Clay and all four of the other dragonets were going with Altamir. They weren't straight-up going to go find Clay's mother and siblings yet, but rather, Altamir wanted to go with all of them to check the surrounding land first and make sure that the cave was a safe place for the others to stay when he inevitably did go with just Clay and Glory. Currently, they were going west, in what they were planning as a great big circle around the cave's location.

"Hey, Aldy, don't you think that, if we can find them and convince them to do it, we could have Clay's mom or siblings take them back to their village?"

"Mm?" At Tsunami's suggestion, Altamir thought about this idea for a bit before nodding. "Hm...well, there's an idea. That would allow us to get them back home without having to risk going near the SkyWing palace again, and if they go ahead and do it for us, we can focus on getting on our way to the SeaWings next."

"I guess so..." Glory shrugged, "...but if Clay's mom and siblings look similar to him, which they might just, wouldn't that maybe pose a problem?"

"It could." Altamir acknowledged. "But remember that Clay's a 'bigwings', big enough that he's nearly the size of an adult dragon despite being a dragonet, so his siblings are pretty much guaranteed to be smaller, perhaps by a significant amount, than him, and even that aside, the SkyWings are also likely 'looking' for a bunch of other dragonets of other tribes - in other words, the four of you - as well as that 'bigwings dragonet'. A lone female MudWing or a group of smaller MudWings, they'd probably ignore and pass up."

"If you say so, Aldy." Glory didn't seem convinced yet, though. "But then what about the humans? Given that you rescued them from Scarlet's arena, wouldn't they maybe be looking for them too?"

"Perhaps." Altamir admitted. "But even then, the one that they'd really be looking for is the one that killed their queen - me. I was wearing armor and had a very long sword, so that sort of individual with such armor and such a sword would be what they'd be focusing on finding when it came to 'humans'. Four random humans who don't have such things? Those would likely be the least of their worries, so they'd also probably be ignored. And even if I wasn't wearing armor, I have red hair and a paler skin color, while those four have brown hair and a darker skin color."

"...whatever you say, Aldy." Glory shrugged again, deciding that she'd have to live with that answer. "I just hope it works, if that's what you're gonna go with. And that's counting on whether Clay's mom and siblings receive him well."

"Well..."

Altamir sounded like he was about to say something else to Glory when Sunny interrupted. "U-Uh...g-guys?!"

"Huh? What is it, Sunny?" Clay was concerned...Sunny sounded like she was spooked by something. "Are we in trouble? Are we in danger?"

"I...I...l-look below us!"

So, Clay did, and so did the others. And...

...

...

...

...oh.

Oh no. Oh, three moons.

What in...

...just what in the world was he looking at?!

Below them...honestly, Clay didn't know how he could describe what he was seeing.

It was...it was a battlefield. Or, at least, it had been. It had to be. He knew already that war was a cruel, terrible thing. That if so many dragons could die pointlessly and horribly for so long over three sisters not being able to agree on something, then there was nothing good about it. But actually seeing it for himself?

The river was running, despite the cold, but here, it was dark and muddy, and wasn't clearing up at all for miles, from what Clay could see, with even strands of blood flowing into it. Not the sort of river he'd be wanting to go swimming in to say the least, even without the cold. The ground around the river wasn't covered in snow, but rather had been churned up into mud. Not the welcoming sort of mud he wanted to go diving in...no, this sort of mud had blood and corpses in it, with broken wings sticking out like the branches of trees that had been knocked down by a storm. Speaking of corpses, there were dead dragons all over the place as far as he could see. Given the landscape, they were often so covered in mud that Clay thought that they were all MudWings, but closer looks revealed that there were IceWings, SandWings, and SkyWings among them as well. And there were still fires burning, too, as indicated by the skyward trails of smoke that leaked upward from the muddied ground.

Clay thought for a bit that he was in a nightmare - he wanted this to be some nightmare, and badly, at that - but the cold air reminded him that no, this wasn't. This was for real. He was starting to feel sick, and from brief glances at the other dragonets, they were looking like they were getting sick too, especially given that Glory had involuntarily shifted into a paler scale color.

Altamir seemed to notice this. "This...is it too much?" His voice had a wince that could be heard within it.

"Wuh? Uh..."

"Are you all going to be sick from this sight?"

"I...I don't know?"

"If you don't know, let's find somewhere more solid and land...there!"

And so, very quickly, Clay and the others were guided down to land on a patch of ground that somehow managed to not get churned up into mud, and Altamir then hopped off of Tsunami, looking concerned (and maybe at least a bit horrified by what they were seeing, too).

"Ugh..." Clay groaned as he felt his gag reflex trying to take over.

"Look at the ground." Altamir said sharply. "Look at the ground, and not at what's around us. Look at the ground. Look at the ground, and keep looking until you can keep it down."

And Clay and the others did look at the ground. Slowly but surely, Clay felt the urge to lose the contents of his stomach dissipate. After a little while, it was gone, and given the lack of heaving or retching, it was gone from the others too.

"So..." Tsunami asked after that little while, still breathing rather heavily, "...who do you think won here?"

"Who 'won'? That's...making a lot of assumptions, Tsunami." Glory replied, sounding disgusted. "As far as I can tell, the only thing these dragons 'won' was dying horribly."

"Exactly." Sunny agreed, also sounding disgusted. "I don't think that any dragon or human could look at any of this and go 'yeah, we won'. There's no way that anyone could."

"It seems that this was a battle between Blaze's and Blister's alliances." Starflight noted, managing to not quite sound nearly as disgusted...but only barely. "There weren't any SeaWings, so Blister's alliance didn't get involved. I think it might be that Blaze's attacked Burn's here."

"Yeah...that's probably it." Tsunami nodded. "Okay, Aldy, I think we can keep it down. Can we get back in the...?"

But Altamir wasn't near Tsunami.

"...uh...Aldy?" Tsunami asked in confusion, and then started looking alarmed. "Hey, wait, where did he go...?!"

At this, the dragonets started looking around for him, the rest of them alarmed just like Tsunami was.

Then, after a few seconds, they found him. He was standing in some muddy ground, looking at something.

"Hey, Aldy," Tsunami said to the human as they walked over to him, braving stepping through the mire. "what are you doing?" But she got no response. "Aldy?"

And then Clay looked closer at Altamir, and noticed that the little human was stiff as an iron bar. Moving around to look at the front of him, it could then be seen that Altamir wasn't merely looking, but staring. And staring blankly. His face was frozen, and his eyes looked empty, almost like all light had left them.

"Aldy? Hey, Aldy?" Clay tried to get Altamir to talk to him, worried that something had happened to him. "What's going on? What are you looking at?"

Altamir finally responded, but not with his words. Rather, he pointed at something in front of him. When he did, Clay and the others looked where he was pointing.

And then they saw it.

It was the corpse of an IceWing. A close look at the corpse revealed that the dragon in question had been wearing armor...not that it had prevented an untimely end. Particularly given that the dragon's throat had been brutally clawed out. That was bad enough.

But then Clay (and the others, clearly) realized that the manner of death wasn't the only sickening thing here. It was then that he saw and realized that the dragon wasn't particularly large. In fact, the dragon was, from the looks of it, pretty small. As in, 'Sunny' small. Yes, this dragon was...roughly Sunny's size. And that was at most.

But Sunny was a dragonet. And Clay and the others were all dragonets - not even six years old at that. And even then, Sunny was really small for her age.

There was no adult, as he knew, that was this small.

And yet, this dragon...this...dragonet...had been wearing armor. This dragon wasn't some innocent civilian caught up in something horrible...no, this dragonet was a soldier.

Altamir then asked a horrifying question in a tone that made it clear that he was rattled by what he was seeing. "...is it...is it normal these days for the tribes to be recruiting dragonets this young into the army...or rather, dragging them into it by force?"

"I-I...I-I-I d-don't know...!" Starflight sounded like he could only barely get the words out.

Altamir put his little hand to his forehead, drops of sweat gathering on his face. "Well, I...I'm asking that...because this...because this girl was only...four years old, I think. And there's red blood on her claws. And she still has armor on. And...and...and..."

She was a soldier. She was...she was a soldier. She had been...she had been a...a...a soldier.

And she had been basically two years younger than they were. And she was a soldier. And...

Clay's stomach flipped end over end inside him until he could hold it back no more...this sight and knowledge of this...this DRAGONET...fighting in a war as a soldier despite being so young...it was too much. He couldn't stop the retching and the heaving, and neither could the other dragonets.

---

When the dragonets lost the contents of their stomach upon them running across this young IceWing girl dead on the battlefield, Altamir more than knew that they couldn't stay in such a horrific scene, so he beat a hasty retreat with them back east to their 'current' cave. There, he took the time to clean out the dragonets' mouths, and once their stomachs were settled enough, he re-fed and re-watered them, noting how much they had to basically fight themselves just to be able to eat and drink again.

Poor kids...they deserved better than to have to see something like that. War was a hell and a half.

Regardless, once they had been fed and watered once more, and once he was sure that they could keep it down, he sighed and buried his face in his hands.

"Yeah, I think I've seen enough war for one lifetime already." Tsunami shook her head. "I...guess you're the same, Aldy?"

"I am, and yet like some recurring illness, war is a scourge that just won't leave us be." Altamir grumbled. "But somehow, this one manages to be nastier than the ones I was in when I was younger. Given what those were like, that's saying something."

"Sorry about that, Aldy." Clay responded. "So, uh...I guess now, it's just me and Glory going with you, and everyone else stays here until we go find my mom and my brothers and sisters?"

"I suppose that it's that time." Altamir shrugged at the MudWing dragonet. "As for the rest of you, I'm sorry for leaving you three here. We'll come back."

"We understand, Aldy." Starflight replied. "Don't worry. Just...put that 'shield' thing up before you go, okay?"

"I will."

And so he did that, and soon, with Tsunami, Starflight, and Sunny staying behind with Leaf, Rowan, Thyme, and Cranberry, it was so that Altamir, Clay, and Glory set off in the direction of where Clay's mother and siblings were, though they would be going for his mother first.

Altamir very badly wanted for things to go well, much as it would be painful to have to let go if Clay one day decided to go with her in the event that things did go well. That being said, he was...well, he was worried. He didn't know why, but for some reason, he got this nagging feeling that things...wouldn't go well. Perhaps it was because of that one clutch of MudWing dragonets whom he had to adopt that one time long ago because their mother abandoned them...was the memory of that the driving force behind this feeling? It had to be.

He just hoped that it wouldn't be true and that things WOULD go well, and that Clay could be happy to know that he had a mother who loved him.

...

No. Things did not go well. They did not go well at all.

Though, things were never going to go well in the first place if it turned out that the mother had sold her egg for a few cows.

No, he was not making that part up, that was exactly what Clay's mother, a MudWing named Cattail, did. She actually did that. She literally fucking did that. And then she had the fucking audacity to tell him to his face that "there were six other eggs in the hatching, and they didn't need [him]".

By the gods, some dragons...

...not even in all of his previous existence did any dragon make him loathe them on the very first meeting this quickly. He very much and seriously wondered just how he managed to not take Cattail's head right then and there (because he didn't want to draw any sort of unnecessary attention to him, Clay, or Glory). He was going to do so for real if they ever met her again, but still...

...poor Clay. Gods, poor Clay.

Now, not even half an hour after they'd set off to properly find Clay's family, and now the three of them had been forced to land because Clay was right about to fall into a sobbing wreck...which he did once they found a place and landed. And now, Altamir was trying to comfort the poor boy the best he could.

"She...she s-sold me...she sold me f-for...she...!"

"I know, Clay..." Altamir sighed as he held Clay close the best he could, given his size, mentally hurling every single vulgarity he knew at Cattail's name all the while. "...I was worried that there was the chance she might not be a good mother...but something like this?"

"You weren't kidding when you told us to temper our expectations, Aldy..." Glory shook her head in disbelief, having her talon on Clay's back while the latter was slumped on his belly sobbing. "Gonna be honest...I'm really starting to worry about the chances for the rest of us...I'm worried we might have some issues there..."

"I hope not, but the possibility is still there." Altamir rested his forehead in his palm. "Regardless, poor Clay...we can only hope his siblings are different..."

"They better be," Glory grumbled, "because Clay's basically an orphan now. His dad's dead, and his 'mom' is...well, we saw and heard for ourselves. Maybe they're missing their bigwings?"

"B-But...but she told me th-that...they...that they...didn't...n-need me..."

Hearing Clay's whimpering made something snap in Altamir, and he sucked in a harsh breath to try and not misdirect any of his anger at Clay...

...before firmly looking Clay in the eye. "Clay..."

"...huh?"

"Clay. Listen to me. That worthless damn piece of pond scum with wings who happened to have laid your egg? She is not your mother. She. Is. Not. Your. Mother. She was merely the one who laid your egg, and that's it. If she cannot act like one, and she refuses to take up the responsibility that comes with being one, then you are to not regard her as such, and you are to never regard her as such again. If she regards you as worthless and not worth her time or effort, then she herself is to be regarded as such in turn." Altamir finally let the breath leave his throat again with another sigh. "MudWing sibling groups who don't have their bigwings there with them tend to not do well as those who do have their bigwings, especially because the second oldest then has to step up, which is usually a miserable thing for them. They are far less likely to receive you like your egg-layer did. Don't listen to a single word she said about them. She's most likely dead wrong."

"..." Clay just looked at the ground.

"Come on, Clay..." Glory patted the MudWing dragonet's back. "...when you're ready, let's go find your siblings."

"...mhm..." Altamir could still see the fear and uncertainty in Clay's eyes...damn that Cattail.

Burn, Morrowseer and now Cattail. Those were the ones currently on the list of dragons he was to kill once it was convenient (Dune wasn't on that list because he apparently already dead thanks to Scarlet having already killed him, and Kestrel was unclear due to her having been captured along with the dragonets by Scarlet, and Altamir having not seen her during his mission to save those dragonets; if she wasn't dead, then she was on it too). Webs was just barely off that list for now because he apparently genuinely believed that he was doing the right thing; the dragonets were sure that a good scare and talking down to from Altamir himself would probably get the SeaWing to realize the ills of his acts and to stop justifying or defending them or the actions of the other two. But...if he proved to be too cowardly to take responsibility for his actions, he'd be on that list too (something that the dragonets did reluctantly accept the previous night). Blister would also be on the list if Tsunami was right about her being a slimy, power-hungry thing.

...

Either way, after a few minutes, Altamir and Glory were able to get Clay flying again, and soon, they were on their way once more to where Clay's siblings were. And sure enough, six MudWing dragonets smaller than Clay came into view, standing near the river. The ground around the river was covered in snow, though the river itself was flowing, and the snow did seem like it was thinning out and melting (today was warmer yet than yesterday, given that it was above freezing, even though it was somewhat still in the morning).

The dragonets certainly didn't seem to like it, as Altamir, Clay and Glory started listening in shortly after they landed.

"Ugh...I've always hated this snow. And the cold."

"At least it's melting. And it's warmer this morning than yesterday morning..."

"I'll give it that...still rather wouldn't fight in something like this again if I could help it."

"Me neither. And let's not get started on that battle a few days ago while it was snowing. We almost lost you there."

"I know...I'm still here, thankfully. Should have known better than to underestimate that little IceWing...she nearly got me."

"I hope there's no more close calls..."

Altamir felt his stomach contorting as disgust spread throughout his body. "Gods...what has Pyrrhia come to? Not even six years old, and despite the lack of armor, they're apparently all soldiers...levies rather. And they fought in that battle. And at least one of them narrowly avoided death there...wait, was THAT how that IceWing dragonet died?"

He crammed his disgust down and tapped Clay on the shoulder.

"Huh?"

"It's time." Then, he turned to Glory, "Glory, go and turn invisible. If I tell you to come to us again, make sure you're in your 'MudWing' colors."

"Okay, Aldy, gotcha."

"Good. Now then, Clay, let's go for it."

So, Glory hid herself in her tribe's way, while Altamir sat astride Clay's back as the MudWing Dragonet walked forward.

"I mean, I hate to say it and all, but I'm not sure if we have a choice but to..." One of them, the oldest of that group of six (and clearly their leader) was saying something to the others when Clay apparently drew his attention. "...oh! Hey there. You look like you're pretty new around here."

"Eh...I...yeah, I kinda am." Altamir could feel Clay's nervousness beneath him. "N-Name's 'Clay', and I'm...I'm looking for...someone around here?"

"You are? You need some help with finding 'em?"

"Well..."

At that moment, Altamir then got up and hopped off of Clay, landing at the young MudWing's side.

"Wha-?! Uh...hey, what are you..." Clay sounded a little alarmed at Altamir doing this...

...and then the six MudWing dragonets noticed him.

"Oh, hey, nice scavenger you got there, Clay! Don't see that too often around here."

"...he's not a-"

"So it's uncommon for someone to have a smaller companion with them? That's a shame, they're missing out."

It was then that the six MudWings went very silent, wide-eyed, and jaw-dropped, one even pointing at him. Altamir saw this, and realized with an internal grumble.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, these dragons too." Altamir smacked himself mentally, before sighing. "Alright, alright, for one thing, my kind are properly called 'humans'. For another thing, you six can pick your jaws up off the ground. Yes, I can talk. Always have been able to."

The silence persisted for a bit, before the apparent oldest of the group of six finally found his voice. "...ah, uh...okay then...er...you have a...a name, right?"

"I do. My name's 'Altamir'. And what of the six of you?"

"Huh? Oh...right...my...my name's Reed."

"I'm Pheasant."

"I...I'm Sora."

"I-I'm Marsh."

"I'm Crane."

"And I'm Umber. It's, uh, nice to meet you, Altamir."

"It is, it is, I'm sure." Altamir nodded, noting the even split between the brothers (Reed, Marsh, Umber) and sisters (Pheasant, Sora, Crane), before getting to business. "Now then...perhaps this might or might not be touching a nerve, but...well, I've noticed that the six of you seem short of a bigwings. None of you seem particularly larger than the rest."

This did clearly touch a nerve, though not because of what Altamir said. "Yeah, we kinda noticed too." Pheasant remarked. "Because our 'dear mother' decided, in all of her wisdom, to sell our Bigwings' egg for a few cows."

"So I've heard." It didn't escape Altamir's notice that these six didn't hold Cattail in high regard. "Maybe it's a guess, but I suppose the 'dear mother' in question might have been that apathetic, petty one named 'Cattail'?"

"Apathetic? Petty? Yep, that's her." Crane shrugged. "We're not exactly fond of her, as you can tell."

"I wish she didn't do that..." Marsh shook his head. "...would have been so helpful to have our Bigwings with us in that big battle two days ago..."

"We almost lost Crane there." Sora shuddered. Altamir had to remember that this was a different 'Sora' than Sorkhagtani.

"A battle..." Altamir sighed mentally as he was reminded, yet again, that these dragonets weren't even six years old, and they already had to worry about something that they shouldn't have been having to worry about at all. "...was it the same one as that great big bloody battlefield Clay and I stumbled upon to the north or so?"

"Yeah, that's probably the one." Umber answered, him and the others displaying no fondness for what they went through.

"I see..." Altamir then shifted to get on point again. "...now then, about that egg that was intended to be your Bigwings. Did you know anything about that egg other than that?"

"Hmm..." Reed put his talon to his chin in seeming thought. "...well, that egg was colored blood-red. That's it, though. Never seen or heard anything ever since..." It was then that Reed seemed to be piecing things together. "...hey, wait, why are you asking us specifically about our Bigwings like this?"

Altamir then looked at Clay, who, while nervous, nodded at him, and then turned back to the six MudWing dragonets. "I ask because Clay here hatched from a blood-red egg, and his mother was an apathetic, petty thing named Cattail who sold him for a few cows. I do believe that I've found your missing Bigwings."

This made the MudWing dragonets go silent again, until they then looked at Clay. And then back at Altamir. And then back at Clay again. Altamir could see tears welling up in their eyes, as if they'd been badly hoping for this moment, but thought that there was no hope of it happening. Only for it to finally suddenly happen as they clearly recognized the similarities in appearance that Clay had to them.

Speaking of suddenly...Altamir stepped back as he watched Clay find himself being enveloped in quite the group hug from the now weeping dragonets, who were blubbering about how they never thought they'd see him again, and that they missed him so much, and so on.

Altamir sighed. He really wanted to be happy for Clay, obviously, and he badly wanted for Clay to enjoy this moment. However...given the current 'climate' of Pyrrhia, Altamir knew full well, and was reminded by what had happened with them in that battle, that these six were at risk of dying right after Clay had found them again if he didn't do something about it.

He knew, however, that what he'd be asking them to do would be risky as well. "I'm basically asking them to desert their Queen and their tribe." That would likely be a daunting thing...though he did note their already-apparent lack of fondness for war that had been accentuated by them having almost lost one of their own in battle. That, and given how MudWing sibling groups had the Bigwings be very far and away the leaders of the group...if they started seeing Clay as their Bigwings on the spot, as they apparently were right now...

...maybe it could be done.

"Thank you, Altamir." A teary-eyed Reed then got his attention with the sort of sincere gratitude that only a dragonet could give. "Thank you for finding our Bigwings. We never thought we'd ever be able to find him, and yet...he's here. He's here with us."

"I never thought I'd be playing 'lost and found' with dragonets, but it's hardly a problem." Altamir responded with a bit of a bow. "Though, if you're going to call him your Bigwings..."

And then Altamir, once the tears dried up, got to it, calling Glory over to help explain things (while making sure she was still colored like a MudWing, of course). It was now or never for Clay's siblings...

...here went nothing.

---

Leaf didn't know what to think of the three dragonets, Tsunami, Starflight, and Sunny, who were awkwardly sitting in the same cave as the one that he, Rowan, Thyme, and Cranberry were in right now.

Sure, he was glad that they weren't eyeing him hungrily or planning to eat him or anything (actually, now that they knew that humans could talk, they seem horrified by the idea), and that they didn't act in any sort of threatening way towards them. Not like Altamir was going to let them, probably.

But...well, for one thing, they were instead eyeing him like he was something extremely fragile that would shatter at the slightest jostling, and that they were afraid of accidentally breaking, something that he wasn't sure if he liked them looking at him in such a manner. For another thing...not (intentionally) dangerous to him and the other humans anymore as they may have been, they were still dragons, still of the same kind that now preyed on his kind after having once been like family to them, the same kind that snuffed out her sister's light. While he knew it was wrong to blame these three or the other two, Clay and Glory, for that, and while he was glad that the five of them, together, understood very well now that humans were not to be eaten...two or three days of just five of them understanding this wasn't going to erase what their kind as a whole had been doing to his for over five thousand years.

He guessed that was why there was that awkwardness there. He just didn't really feel like trying to talk to the dragonets (nor did Rowan, Thyme, or Cranberry, for that matter), and the dragonets looked like they couldn't bring themselves to say anything to them either. Instead, the dragonets only talked among themselves, and only briefly at a time at that. Maybe asking each other if they saw anything outside, maybe discussing what they wanted to do, and that was it.

The awkward wait finally ended when the dragonets had their attention drawn to the cave's entrance. They stood up and walked towards it, being greeted by the other two and Altamir, as well as apparently more dragons, too. Altamir was apparently trying to make sure that the three wouldn't see these new dragons as enemies, and that these new dragons wouldn't see the three of them as enemies either.

And then things felt crowded as the number of dragons in the cave went from three to eleven. Leaf noticed that the six dragons (or perhaps dragonets...maybe), all looked somewhat similar to Clay...though they were also all smaller than him. He guessed that these were his siblings.

"Hey, you three are back." Tsunami remarked. "I guess things were a success? Hopefully?"

"At least on the 'sibling' front." Altamir replied. "Three brothers named 'Reed', 'Marsh', and 'Umber', and three sisters named 'Pheasant', 'Sora', and 'Crane'. On the 'mother' front, though...not so much."

"Oh...did something happen?" Starflight asked, sounding worried. "Did things not go well?"

"Things were never going to go well," Glory answered with disgust that could be felt even from here, "given that it turned out that Clay's 'mother', 'glorified egg-layer' if we're being honest, never actually had him stolen from her, but rather sold him for a few cows."

"Wait, she WHAT?" Leaf could feel Tsunami, Starflight, and Sunny recoil at hearing that, and he could feel his own stomach just about turning upside down at hearing that too.

"She...sold his...?" Sunny sounded horrified...Leaf couldn't blame her.

"Yes, she did." Altamir responded. "Her doing that nearly resulted in Clay losing one of these younger siblings of his in that battlefield we happened upon. She'd do well to pray to whatever she prays that I never see her again, for the day I do indeed see her again will be her very last day." While he didn't raise his voice above how he'd been previously talking up to that point, there was still a level of sheer rage in his voice intense enough to make Leaf's bones rattle.

"Uh...if you say so, Altamir." Leaf didn't know if that particular one of Clay's brothers who said that was either rattled also, or was underestimating Altamir's ability to slaughter an entire army by himself. "Um...anyways...you three are 'Tsunami', 'Starflight', and 'Sunny', right?"

"Yep, that's us." Tsunami made a shrugging motion.

"Well, okay." One of Clay's sisters shrugged herself in turn. "So, the three of you and Glory were who Clay here was raised with?"

"We were." Glory nodded. "For better or worse. Especially given that we were 'raised' by 'guardians' who...didn't exactly treat the five of us like royalty."

"Indeed they didn't." Altamir agreed. "That plays a part in how I came across them. They'd tried to escape from those guardians, but then they were found and...set upon by Scarlet. Yes, that Scarlet. I then had to rescue them from her because she intended them to die in her arena for her amusement. And I had to send her to the afterlife in the process...oh well, it'll be hard for her to find things 'thrilling' now that she's dead."

"You rescued them from...wait, YOU killed her?!" Another one of the brothers among the MudWings looked and sounded shocked at Altamir being able to do that. "I-I mean, I won't judge, because she was a tyrant and all, but...h-how did you even DO that?!"

It was then that Leaf finally worked up the nerve to say something. "U-Uh...he...has his ways? It...kinda has to be seen to be believed. He's a human animus."

This got the attention of the six 'new' dragonets, who looked in his direction and noticed him, Rowan, Thyme, and Cranberry against the cave wall.

"Oh...uh..." That MudWing who'd been asking how Altamir did that tilted his head before looking back at Altamir. "...really? I...wow, so you guys can have animi too?"

"We can." Rowan nodded, albeit hesitantly. "It's extremely rare among us even compared to how it is among you, though."

"Might be why we've never heard of it." Another of Clay's sisters nodded herself.

"It likely is." Altamir agreed. "Though...regardless...I think that you six might be seeing here your four reasons as to why Clay and Glory and I brought you all over here, in case you can't tell."

"Huh? Wait, really?" The third of the sisters tilted her head at Leaf and the other humans. "Are those four why you brought us...?"

"Yes, they are. These four are named Leaf, Rowan, Thyme, and Cranberry, and much like with Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, and Sunny here, I ALSO rescued them from Scarlet. And...well, we have a bit of a problem. We need to get them back to their village, as it isn't safe for them to go with us on our...journeying here, but because of what happened and whatnot at Scarlet's palace, of which the village is too close to for comfort if I'm being honest, the six of us won't be able to do so without likely drawing unwanted attention."

"...so you want us to do it?"

"Yeah, buddy, we do." Tsunami nodded. "They gotta get back home, but like Aldy here said, it's too dangerous for us to do it."

"Um...okay." That particular MudWing brother shrugged. "So, I guess it's just a matter of quickly getting them over there and then coming back?"

"...I suppose that I couldn't blame the six of you for thinking that that's what I'm asking, Reed." Altamir then shrugged in a way that made it clear that such wasn't actually what he was asking. "But...I think you're a bit mistaken."

"We're...mistaken? How?" This got the attention of everyone else in the cave...save for Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, and Sunny, who remained focused on Reed.

"Well, Reed...you do realize that you and your siblings have yet to turn six, right?"

"...I mean, yeah, we're still not six yet. Just over a week away from now."

"Indeed. So...I'm going to be very honest with the six of you; the lot of you have no business fighting in this war. Not just for Clay's sake, but also because the six of you are just simply far too young for this. I personally think that the youngest that a soldier among dragons can be should be eight or nine years old...strongly leaning more towards 'nine', as eight is very much pushing it."

The MudWings looked at each other, as if waiting for what Altamir was going to say next.

And what he said next? "Put it simply...once the six of you get these four to their village, I want you all to flee south to the RainWing Kingdom, and flee there like your tails are on fire. I know that this may sound like I'm telling you to commit 'treason' or 'desertion' or whatnot...but right now, the six of you need to live."

"What Aldy here said." Clay agreed. "As your...Bigwings...I just want you guys to live, and to not die in this war. The six of us are going to get to the RainWing Kingdom too anyways, so we're not gonna let you six fend for yourselves...like you have for so long."

Leaf was already starting to realize that MudWings (or at least some of them)...probably weren't very good parents. He was also noticing, though, that Altamir was acting like a...a 'dad' of sorts to these dragonets, even though he was a human and they were...not.

Wait...that reminded him. All-Tamer, the figure that his village worshipped pretty much like a god for having apparently once ruled all of Pyrrhia, over both dragonkind and humankind. He was said to be short and have red hair and purple eyes, but he was also said to have been incredibly powerful to the point that he could defeat entire armies human and dragon alike, all by his lonesome, despite his small size. On top of that, he was said to have raised a group of dragonets, one from each tribe, like his own little brothers and sisters ever since he got them as eggs when he was young, and he was said to have adopted dragonets and dragon hatchlings as his own children rather often.

Was this...was this him? Was Altamir the same as All-Tamer? It had to be...he matched the description, and his name was really similar, too!

But...if so, how was he alive again? Did he really 'come back to save humanity from dragonkind', like all those legends said? Or did someone...do something that brought him back to life? Did Acorn and Maroon have something to do with that?

Either way, a few minutes later, Leaf found himself and the other humans being put on the backs of Clay's younger siblings by Clay and the other dragonets, with Altamir supervising. Once all four of them were on one of four of the MudWings, Altamir was explaining what he wanted the ten of them to do. For Leaf and the other humans, he was wanting them to hold on tightly, but also to make sure to look down at the ground at least occasionally. And for the six MudWing dragonets, he wanted them to fly fast, but not be rough flyers for the humans, and also to not fly too high up, and also some other things to make sure that Leaf and the other humans didn't freeze. And then, to make sure that they were going the right way, he even did this...something for them, where they could literally see which direction the village was in, ensuring that they wouldn't get lost.

But then, just as everything was about ready, and everyone was about ready...

...Reed, whom Leaf was on the back of, just had to make one particular comment.

"Gotta say that I'm glad that we got to know you guys could talk before we ever actually tried eating any of you..."

...

Okay, that was crass. That was really crass. Granted, there didn't seem to be any malice behind that comment, but still...it was pretty painful, given what happened to Wren, Leaf's own little sister...

...though, pretty soon, Leaf's attention wasn't on his own reaction to what Reed said, or on Reed himself.

It was on the other dragonets. Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, and Sunny. And how they were reacting to it.

---

Reed had done it. He'd just gone and done it.

Clay knew it. "REED, NO!"

---

Tsunami knew it. "Oh, carpbaskets..."

---

Glory knew it. "Reed, what have you done?!"

---

Starflight knew it. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, NO-!"

---

And Sunny knew it. "REED, WHY?!"

---

All five of them were arching up like scared cats, their scales just about standing on end, as if Reed had just done something that had doomed them all. They didn't say anything, but the fear coming off of them was impossible to ignore. Widened eyes and tiny pupils, gritted teeth, and Glory even turning pale again.

And then there was Altamir, who looked beyond baffled by such a statement. "Wha...wait, what?!"

Looking at Altamir, it then clicked. Altamir, if he was All-Tamer, lived and died before the Great Perdition happened just over five thousand years ago (specifically, he died five hundred years before the Great Perdition happened). Back before the Great Perdition, humans and dragons lived in peace with each other, and dragons certainly didn't see humans as pets or pests or prey. If Altamir died and then suddenly was brought back to life just now...

...then he likely had no idea about the Great Perdition having ever happened.

Leaf had no idea how Altamir was going to take learning about that or about how he'd been dead for over five thousand years...and he didn't want to find out.

But there wasn't an option otherwise, as Altamir was confused and wanting to figure out what was going on. "Er...where exactly did that comment come from, Reed?"

"I..."

Leaf realized that he needed to do this, so...he did something that he hadn't been expecting himself to do previously...

...and stepped in for Reed. "Altamir?"

"...y-yes, Leaf?"

"There's...uh, there's something that we need to talk about with you before we go."

"And what is that?"

Well, here went nothing. This was going to be painful...but it had to be done.

So, Leaf began by asking Altamir questions about who he was, and about some of his deeds. If he was the fourth human animus, if he led two wars before he was twenty, if he defeated two tyrants, one each, in those two wars, if he managed to unite the continent under one banner, and if he managed to rule for just over a thousand years. To each one, the results came back 'positive'. And then Leaf asked Altamir if he had gotten the feeling that he had died and been brought back to life. Altamir replied that he had indeed, he did very much get the feeling, and that he suspected that Maroon and Acorn had something to do with it.

So this was him. Altamir was indeed All-Tamer, and All-Tamer was Altamir.

This got the other humans' interest, so the four of them then told him about how his reign was a golden age for Pyrrhia, that he was perhaps the single most beloved ruler that the continent ever had, and that a great, great many both human and dragon had seen him as someone to live up to. And that his death under mysterious circumstances that were never solved had left a hole in Pyrrhia's very fabric and was widely mourned. Altamir, on hearing this, sighed in frustration that he had done what he did with himself at twenty five to try and make sure that dying wasn't something that was going to happen. Yet, he seemed...surprised that he was mourned this widely, saying that he was just doing his job of being the best leader he could be for Pyrrhia.

All eleven dragonets, meanwhile... "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, back it up, back it up, back it up!" ...Tsunami's confusion spoke for all of them, as now it was their turn to be beyond-baffled. It was as if they NEVER knew that this guy even existed before they...met him, let alone that he had ruled the continent. So the dragons don't even know their own history?

Altamir, for his part, then asked the inevitable question about what had happened while he was gone, about why Pyrrhia was now at war, about why there were so few humans when there should have been so many, and why dragons seemed, every time he first met them, to be so shocked that he could talk. And he asked what specifically was the issue that humans and dragons alike had been dancing about with him that had affected how they saw and interacted with each other.

Now to get to the hardest part, telling him about what specifically had happened, and how long he'd been gone.

So, of course it was Leaf who had to break it to him about it. About what had happened five hundred years after he died. He told about the Great Perdition, about what Bloodfang did, about how, with an infernal spell, she turned all of dragonkind against all of humankind on Pyrrhia in the most horrific manner possible, about how she destroyed everything that he'd spent a thousand years working at for the sake of a better, peaceful Pyrrhia, and how Pyrrhia had been in a dark age ever since for over five thousand years. No details were spared; the dragonets themselves, once they realized what was going on, even threw in some details of their own, like how they had no idea that Altamir had ever even existed, and about how they'd been falsely led to believe that Bloodfang was a hero of the event, which they knew as the 'Scorching' (a name that was admittedly also fitting). They also all had to break it to him that dragons had been seeing humans as either pests to be exterminated, pets to be caged, or, worst, prey to be eaten. And also about how, in the last two decades, the dragons had seemingly been trying to initiate a 'mini-Scorching', to the point where humankind was in danger of being driven extinct.

Altamir didn't take any of this well, Leaf could tell.

The poor guy was as still as a statue, his own eyes widened, his own pupils tiny, and not a single word coming from him, as if the whole world was unraveling at the seams in front of him. No one was going to EVER take very well the news that their life's work was destroyed, or that they had been dead for over five and a half millennia, but Altamir in particular was taking it very, very, very, very, very hard.

Feeling awkward about staring at him through all of this, Leaf decided that it was time that he and the other humans went back to their village, so he and the others decided to leave with Clay's younger siblings. And with a brief farewell to the five dragonets...they left.

Leaf wondered how his village was going to take Altamir being alive again. Would it be adoration and celebration? Or fear?

---

After the other humans left with Reed, Pheasant, Sora, Marsh, Crane, and Umber, Altamir was left standing there staring at the empty space in front of him, eyes widened, pupils tiny, him stiff as an iron bar, and there not being a sound from him except for shallow breathing.

Now, it was just Clay and the other four dragonets he'd been 'raised' with that were with Altamir. And they could all tell that him being like...this...was not a good sign. At all.

For a few long minutes, Altamir stared forward like that, just as he had when he found that IceWing Dragonet. Only this time, it was like he was seeing the very world in front of him falling apart before his very eyes.

Clay could feel the rising fear building up in him. He knew very well that Altamir blankly staring at nothing like this meant that they were all in huge trouble, and that Altamir was probably about to lose it hard.

The only thing that he was uncertain of was how, and how hard.

Until... "...wha...? What in...what...why...wha..."

...oh no. That was not a voice that Clay had been wanting to ever hear from Altamir.

"All I...everything? My people...gone...? My kind...betrayed and m-mere rabbits? All my work...destroyed? E-Everything? A thousand years of..."

It was happening. Oh, three moons, it was happening.

"This...this c-can't be...it...this...this h-has to be some s-sort of...demented comedy...! I...!"

And then Clay saw a thing that he hoped he never would again.

"A-Aldy!"

Altamir was standing there...and then his little eyes rolled up just about into his head, and he was then falling backwards. Sunny caught him before he could hit the ground behind him, but...

...three moons, Altamir had fainted!

"Aldy?! Hey, Aldy!"

"Aldy, you there?!"

"Oh no no no no no no no no-!"

"Aldy! Stay with us! Look at me!"

The other dragonets were panicking at Altamir being unresponsive, while Clay was there realizing that they were indeed all in for it now. Not just them, but all of Pyrrhia, too.

He only hoped that Altamir would still trust them enough that they could keep him sane...that was no guarantee, given that they were of the same kind that had betrayed and slaughtered his kind.

How were they supposed to keep him sane, anyways?! They were just dragonets! Even if they could get through to him that they wanted no part in what had happened and condemned the actions of Bloodfang and the slaughter of his kind, he wasn't sure if that was going to be nearly enough for him.

This was going to be the hardest, toughest, most difficult battle of their lives. Harder than those 'guardians', harder than those soldiers, harder than Scarlet, harder than ANY of those put together.

The battle for Altamir's sanity.

A battle that Clay had no idea how they could win...but that he knew that they had to figure out how, or else Altamir WOULD well and truly lose it.

---

Ugh, this chapter seriously got away from me. I was expecting it to be shorter than this...I was NOT expecting it to take the fifth chapter's place as 'longest in the whole story thus far'. Oh well, at least I got it written in under a third of the time that it took to write that one.

Now, a few things...

I know that I said something like this last chapter, but I do obviously hope that I'm getting the DoD's personalities right...or at the very least right enough that they're still recognizable. If any differences are there, I do hope that they're not of the absurd sort...

...and I do hope that it would make some rather obvious sense as to why they reacted the way they did to Leaf and the other humans saying why they ended up in a position where Altamir had to rescue them. I always wondered how they would react to that, given how...let's just say 'lacking in good sense' such a decision was. Perhaps this is one answer?

Also, as you might tell, things between Peril and the other Dragonets save for Clay are going to be very different when they finally properly meet. In canon, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, and Sunny wouldn't touch Peril with a hundred-foot pole, given her 'profession' under Scarlet, and how she initially betrayed them in their first attempt to escape Scarlet before finally getting together and PROPERLY helping them escape her for real. Here, given that Peril defects pretty much right away this time, that 'initial betrayal' doesn't happen, and her having actively helped Altamir rescue them from Scarlet, as well as Altamir making a case for her that has given them sympathy for her...well, they'll probably still be a little cautious, but they're likely to be much less frosty towards here, and they're more likely to see her the same way as Clay does; namely, as someone who needs both help and a friend (though, like in canon, Clay is still probably going to be the most proactive about it).

The dragonets get to learn about some special things about themselves...and, of course, we have iconic lines like 'magical death spit' and 'think about cows'. Good thing that there's some levity around here...

...because they're gonna need all the levity they can get, given the situation with Altamir finding out about the Scorching. Things aren't going to be pretty for a while, to say the least.

On another side note, I'm going to be going back and editing the previous chapters to hammer out some things that have...bugged me about them, to say the least. I do hope that these changes are going to be for the better. Don't know how long the next chapter is going to take as a result, but hopefully not too long.

Either way...see you next chapter.