Night quietly flapped his wings through the moon lit sky, the stars shining above in a brilliant light. There were no house lights or city lights here to ruin the night sky, so the view was beautiful. He would usually be enjoying the view, but right now he was too busy in conversation with Hope as he flew towards the Sea of Okhotsk. He went out on his own for this mission, knowing he would be faster.

Night shook his head trying to wrap his mind around something, "So, you are trying to tell me that this isn't the first time a huge species almost went extinct?" he asked Hope who was residing in his mind.

"Nope," Hope started, "Through the millennia, I have watched the rise and fall of whole nations and species."

This struck a cord in Night's history filled brain. As a kid, he would love getting books about history and reading them all night long. This was an opportunity he didn't want to pass up.

"So I have to ask, did China and Rus actually have dragons like the ancient murals would say?" he asked curiously, remembering the drawings in the books of the old paintings and pictures.

Hope hummed in his mind for a couple second, "Yes, and no..." she paused, trying to think about her answer, "Yes, there were species of an offshoot dragons, but they were de-volved in certain ways... they didn't have the same characteristics as most dragons had, such as the ability to fly for long periods of time."

Night nodded, accepting the answer for now. He would have to ask her for more later, because he has other questions. He has been asking her questions non stop now ever since they started this mission... he just hoped she never got annoyed.

"No, I am finding this quite entertaining so far..." Hope kindly said.

Night nodded his head and continued, "You said there were other gods, right?"

He heard her sigh in his mind and he lightly winced, "Yes..."

He felt like he should stop but continued anyways, "So, what about them?"

Hope remained quiet for a couple seconds, making Night nervous that he upset her. "I guess, I might as well tell you," she started, "Every main dragon species has a god directly tied to them in some way."

Night nodded and then his eyes grew in realization, "Wait, so does that mean Shade, Jasper, and Viper have a god linked to them?" he started thinking about what that could mean, "Will they try and talk with them like you do me?"

"I highly doubt it..." Hope muttered.

This shocked him a bit, "Why?"

Hope continued, "The others usually try and stay out of the way of mortals, only interfering if an emergency happens..."

Night cocked his head, looking on ahead as he flew, "Emergency?"

"The balance of the universe would have to be in danger," Hope said far to simply for him to like.

Night did NOT want to think about what it would be like if the whole universe was in danger.

Hope continued, "We actually set rules that we follow with mortals, we can only interact with them physically on very specific occasions."

Night nodded his head, wanting her to continue.

"Well, so far I am the only one out of my siblings to use the first rule..." she paused before continuing, "If there is one that we truly love that's a mortal, then we can take a physical form of a mortal dragon for one lifetime and live with them upon earth." Hope said, sounding sad as she spoke about it.

Night's eyes grew, "You had a lover?"

"Yes, he was a very good mate..." she said with a love filled tone, likely reminiscing about her life with him.

Night had to ask, "Who was he?" it had to be some special dragon to make a goddess fall for him.

She remained quiet for a minute, "This... is a story for later."

He faintly nodded his head, not wanting to pry any further. He flapped his wings to gain altitude in the night sky. "So, what about the other rules, you said that was the first one?"

Hope didn't sound sad anymore... she sounded grim as she spoke again, "Well, like I said earlier... the universe has to be in danger, but even we try to interfere as little as we can if it happens."

"Wait, but how would you stop an emergency then?" Night asked her.

"So far, it's only happened once," Hope started, her words almost making Night shiver in realization that they did have to interfere once, " we interfered by giving a mortal dragon some of our powers to stop it."

Night almost felt as if he didn't want to ask, but he continued anyways, "What happened?"

"A couple of the... I wouldn't call them gods anymore, gave some of their mortals a chunk of their power. They started conquering the world at an alarming pace," Hope explained, a hitch of fear in her voice, "This series of events is actually what killed all the dragons out!" she said in anger. She took a deep breath before continuing, trying to calm herself, "We all banned together to stop them, we killed the rogue gods and then sent powered mortals of our own."

What was a battle amongst gods like? This all sounded like stuff from a children's book.

Hope started whispering as she continued, "It was not a good time... many of my friends, brothers, and sisters that I loved died in that war..."

He shook his head, he needed to get off this topic with how upset it was making Hope.

"What are NightWings?" he remembered what she had called him at one point, "Like, obviously it's the species of dragon that I am. But, from the images I saw in the burial ground, we were much more than just animals. We had some type of society?"

He could hear her smile at the question, almost squealing at the question, "Oh, I wish you were there to see us at the peak of our tribe!" she said in what he could only imagine with a huge grin, "In our peak, our empire was glorious. Living in our mountain kingdom was so beautiful. My favorite time to be a god was when the full moon came out, they celebrated it so much. The colorful banners that would line the streets, the food and smells, the games... they never realized how much I loved showing them the full moon every month."

Night caught a certain word in her sentence, "Wait, you said empire?"

"Oh yes, it's when the IceWings found out about us. We got along so fondly with them after we formed the first dragon empire."

The more Hope spoke, the more confused he got, "IceWings?

"You haven't met one yet, but I know that your scientist team has the DNA of... one of them..." she said the last part quietly, sounding upset again.

He decided to hold his mouth this time and not ask about it.

"So, what was it like to be a dragon back then?"

And as if a switch was flipped, she sounded giddy again, "Carefree... just being able to fly around all day and live life to the full with your mate..." she sighed before continuing, "But, all great things must come to an end. After me and my mate died, the world seemed to become dangerous to live in. The first dragon war started among the MudWings," he was about to ask about it but she beat him to it, "Which is the same dragon species as your friend Jasper, and the SkyWings- no, you haven't seen one of those yet."

Night nodded, thankful she answered his questions before he could ask. "So, what kind of dragons are Shade and Viper?"

"Viper is a RainWing, their kind usually live in the rainforest," she explained, "Shade's species are the SandWings, they usually lived in their namesake."

"How many species are there?" He finally just asked.

"Seven..." she hesitated before continuing, "Not counting the outcast dragons from the rogue god crisis," she said that part with a hiss, "The NightWings, IceWings, MudWings, RainWings, SeaWings, SkyWings, and the SandWings," she finished.

Night was about to ask another question but a large yawn hit him... he had been flying for hours on end. "I think I am going to take a break for the Night, we should be hitting the Okhotsk Sea tomorrow night at this rate."

Hope sighed, giving him a tsk tsk, "You and your mortal's need to rest..."

"Hey!" he said in mock offense, making her laugh.