They kept circling in the air for a while, Ashley's hand strongly wrapped around Sunny's neck. The ground below them was anything but welcoming. The mud was filled with blood and recovering all of the floor, and leafless trees were smashed here and there, torn in half.
The mud was everywhere, so much that most of the dragons all looked brown, yet there was no small amount of silvery white scales either.
It's only after a while that Ashley noticed what resembled houses and huts made of mud further down the river, closer to the coast of the sea. Of which the vastness was already clearly visible from their point of view.
"This battle must have just happened." Sunny said. "In the last few days, I mean. Look, some of the fires are still burning." She leaned over Clay's shoulder and pointed toward the ground, where a patch of flames was still releasing black and smelling smoke into the sky.
Ashley's nose wrinkled. "That's burning flesh." he said with disgust, Sunny turned her neck around and looked at him with a surprised and horrified gaze, Clay didn't wait to take back some height after smelling the horrid scent.
Everyone looked at each other with horror, all silently agreeing on how awful the situation below them was.
"Who do you think won ?" Tsunami asked.
"Who won ?" Sunny cried. "Nobody ! No one could look at this place and think 'Hooray, we won.' They just couldn't." Her voice showed sadness and furiousness at the same time.
"Blaze's army must have attacked the Mudwings." Glory said. "See, there are Icewings and Sandwings- That's Blaze alliance."
"I bet the Mudwings sent a message to Queen Scarlet asking for help." Tsunami growled. 'And I bet she decided to let them fight alone rather than interrupt her hatching-day festivities."
Ashley looked down again, that must have been true, he couldn't see a single Skywing in there, however, a good amount of smelting ice, probably from Icewing's breath, was splattered all around the battlefield, covering corpses and parts of the ground. He could notice a few limbs that had cracked sharp due to an impact after being frozen. I could guess a lot of the deceased dragons here died more likely because of the fall after getting their wings immobilized and not the actual breath itself. He shivered at this thought, it was just like if you were piloting a jet, and survived a hit, only to find out you didn't have control over your tail anymore, and that you never had a parachute in the first place.
"We're not going to find help here." Clay eventually broke out.
Sunny pushed herself off his back and started hovering around him, Ashley firmly gripped her. "Why not ?" She asked.
"The Mudwings won't trust the four of us, all together like this." He said, the others joined them, beating their wings to stay grouped.
"That's true." Glory said calmly. "Especially you, Tsunami. The Seawings are on Blister's side." She shifted, and her gaze went over Ashley. "And probably not you too, since your species is the reason behind this war."
A feeling of unfairness took him. He wasn't even from here. He couldn't even be present by any means at the time the incident happened. And a 'murder' is never the reason behind a whole war. History proved it has been nothing but an excuse not too long ago. "Hey ! Don't blame me. It's not our fault your incompetent childish queens can't deal with a disagreement in a civilized manner." He spat aggressively, making the Rainwing back her head with surprised eyes.
"I should go in alone." Clay said, cutting the interaction short. "If my parents are still alive-" He stopped, his glance meeting the ground below and taking yet another disgusted face.
"...you'll have a better chance of finding them without a couple of Mudwing enemies tagging along." Tsunami finished. "But we don't know what's waiting for you in there. They might take you prisoner, too, like Queen Scarlet did."
"This isn't where the Mudwing queen lives." Glory said. 'She's farther south, in the swamps. We're on the outskirts of the Mud Kingdom here. Not that it makes it safer, I guess."
Ashley remembered what he knew about Clay's family. They lived probably in one of the huts they could see from up there, in this area for 'lower born' Mudwings. Probably what would be the equivalent of a lower class. Ah yes, it's true. I'm in a monarchial environment now. Not something I could say I'm familiar with, but our people for sure were.
"Clay." He saw the Mudwing turn his attention to him. "Mudwings aren't particularly renowned for being caring of their hatchlings." He saw Clay grow a worried face as he said this. "But you will find family. There is never only one egg." He wanted his tone to be warm. Hopefully, it will help him to get on the few next encounters he will make here.
Glory looked at him with wondering eyes, studying the human, Clay looked dawn and promptly raised his head back when he saw the ground again. "Al- alright." He looked at his friends. "If I don't come back by sunrise tomorrow, come looking for me."
"What if you need us before then ?" Sunny worried.
"I can go with you." Glory said suddenly. "If they figure out I'm a Rainwing, nobody will care- we're not in the war anyway. But I can also do this." She hovered for a moment, softly flapping her wings, then her scales started to shift again. Or it was what it looked like. Brown splattered across her scales, Amber and gold glinted in the cracks, and along her underbelly, the shining Sun melted her scales into the warmest colours of Earth.
"I think we found Clay's sister." Ashley joked, resulting in both Sunny and Tsunami chuckling.
"What are you laughing about, you two ?" Glory said, faking an imperious tone. "You know very well my brother needs to be monitored, or else he just loses himself into a food pile." Tsunami blurted into a laugh, and Clay blushed with embarrassment.
"I- I don't think- I mean-" Clay stuttered, and Glory slapped his snout with her tail.
"Come on now big brother, we have someone to find, don't we ?"
Ashley saw Clay hesitate for a moment, but he could see him getting warmer on the inside. He is indeed their big brother after all, and they are all conscious of it. Sunny's smile looked so strong it infected Ashley into drawing one too. He looked at the Rainwing. She was probably doing all that to ease off what happened this morning and wanted to redeem herself to Clay.
"Well, I think you're still too pretty to be a Mudwing," Clay said more doubtfully.
Ashley had to agree that Clay didn't quite have Glory's elegancy, nor did he have the same gracious posture. But he wasn't to be put aside either. Everyone surrounding him right now looked glorious. They were dragons after all. Majestic beasts, if not scary ones, creatures of legends and fantastical stories, and yet, he found himself riding one right at the moment. Sure, Glory would never be as bonky as Clay, but her camouflage was near perfect. You would need to inspect her more precisely to notice the difference.
"Nonsense." Tsunami said. "You're just as pretty as Glory, Clay." Sunny nodded vigorously.
Clay wrinkled his snout at them. "I'm not sure how to take that."
"Yeah, me neither." Glory said, and it was Ashley's turn to let a laugh out. "Let's just go before the Mudwings spot us all hovering suspiciously over this battlefield."
"We'll wait by the waterfall. Be safe." Tsunami said, then she rolled over and flew away, Sunny waved at them and did the same.
"Thanks for coming with me." Ashley heard Clay say to Glory as they flew to the top of the cascade.
Tsunami and Sunny rose higher, and as they did so, Ashley felt the comforting Sun warm his back. They eventually reached the top and searched for a comfortable place to wait without being in sight of any dragon that could see them from the battlefield.
They found a little spot on the bank of the river and settled on grass. Tsunami reached it first and dipped her talons in the water with a clear look of relief on her face. Sunny landed next to her and lowered her head for Ashley to climb down. They all lay down and took some time to relax as they had nothing better to do but to wait.
Ashley eventually stood up and walked to the edge. He noticed a small movement behind him, probably Sunny turning around to see what he was doing.
He stayed on the ledge and stared blankly at the muddy field below him, contemplating the disaster. While he was sure there weren't actually so many corpses down there, it still felt like too much. After digging up some memories, he remembered that this was a very large amount of losses for the dragons. The battle must have involved even more individuals, with probably many more wounded of them. Ashley tried to imagine the mess that must have been the sky but couldn't wrap his head to get a clear idea. Then he remembered what Tsunami asked.
"The Mudwings won." He said.
"What ?" The Seawing asked him from behind, unsure of what he was talking about.
"This battle-" He showed the area with his hand. "It was an attack of the Icewing with the objective to incapacitate the Mudwings and probably get rid of their home." He took a long breath, weighing the words. "But the Mudwings are still standing and still strong. The Icewings gained nothing from this attack, if not losses. The Mudwings successfully protected their home despite the cost. So, on a strategical level, they won."
He turned around and saw Tsunami nod. "Alright. I see." She said with an uncertain tone. Sunny looked at him with sad eyes, probably wondering why the dragons would even consider needing to do this.
Ashley sighed. He could see small movements between the Mudwing's sleephouses but couldn't distinguish Clay and Glory from the rest due to the distance. He could see brown dots flying around from one point to another. Some were grouped and doing things he couldn't see, probably training, and the mud itself looked like it was alive. Probably because of the Mudwings.
He walked to the river near Tsunami and sat next to it. There, he took off his backpack and laid it beside him. He unzipped it and looked inside. He grabbed his bottle and took a long drink, dipping a bit of water everywhere.
"What's this ?" He heard Tsunami ask once he was done.
"That ? It's my water bottle." He answered, filling it in the stream of the river. "This bag and what's inside is all I have."
"Oooh." He heard Sunny walk a bit closer, probably interested. "Kind of like treasure !"
"You could word it like that, except everything there has a practical use." He shifted, closing his bottle. "I wish I had my first aid kit. That would have been really helpful with... this." He showed his enwrapped arm.
"First aid kid, you scavengers have this ?" Tsunami asked in a doubtful tone.
"Well, yes, why wouldn't we ?"
"I get it that you might be smarter, but except not making sense, nothing from your species seems very developed."
"That's because you dragons suck at logical thinking." Ashley in a semi-joking tone.
"Excuse me what-" He heard Sunny laugh at Tsunami's response.
"You see, if you at least tried to compare our behaviours to yours instead of damn animals, you would have already gotten closer to the reality."
"Which is ?" Tsunami continued with a building irritation.
"We're a fully sentient species and are at least as smart as you dragons, if not more. And we operate as a civilization." Ashley stared deeply at Tsunami's eyes. So far, the dragonets had accepted surprisingly quickly that he was able to talk dragon. He knew they acted much more open-minded on this topic, but that was most likely due to how little they must have had aborded the subject in their cave. Still, he was surprised they hadn't asked so many questions so far, but again, they had been busy fleeing the Sky Kingdom, and Starflight wasn't even there yet. Speaking of Starflight, shouldn't he be there by now too ? I don't remember.
"Sorry ?" He saw Tsunami blink a few times at his answer. Sunny didn't say a word and suddenly looked deep in thought with a frowning face.
"You heard me right. Do you think the reason why I can process and understand everything that has been happening lately was solely due to my ability to speak dragon ?"
"Well, honestly, yes." Tsunami said, looking straight at Ashley. "Because that would mean that you would have been with other dragons, so they could have plucked some knowledge in your brain ?" She didn't seem as confident in her words by the end of her sentence as in the beginning, but she continued. "Plus, you said you said that was because of magic, so the animus dragon might have enchanted you to be able to know all of this." She looked a lot more pleased with that idea
"It's a valid assumption to have, I guess, but you are wrong." Ashley took another sip in his bottle. "We are not foreign to the concept of royalty and governments. We had that before."
"B- but..." Tsunami stopped for a few seconds, putting her thoughts in place. "So that means everything we learn about you is wrong ?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Ashley looked at Sunny, a concerned look on her face. When she noticed him staring, she shot back up.
"What about- I mean- Dragons have been treating you like prey since always !" She cried.
"That's why humans rarely leave their towns. The few that do it either have a very good reason to do so, are crazy, or stupid."
"Humans ? What's that." Tsunami tilted her head. "Also, towns ?"
"Yeah, humans are what we call ourselves." Ashley said.
"I think I'm going to throw up." Sunny said, facing away with a disgusted look.
"I don't think I would even enjoy eating scavenger anyway." Tsunami stated, frowning. "Too much weird fur on them, plus, fish meat is better."
"I'm glad you're not considering consuming me." Ashley said jokingly.
"I might make an exception just for you though." She said.
"Oh alright then, I'll make sure to taste as terrible as possible in that case."
Tsunami snorted. "I believe I've read somewhere that it was already the case." She glanced at Ashley from his feet to his face, then took a more serious tone. "It also said that because of how defenceless you were, that was actually the only thing stopping anyone from eating you if you didn't take the claw into account." She sighed. "I guess it was wrong ?"
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"It would be yes. We use many different contraptions when it comes to killing. That 'claw' is just the most used one and also the easiest to use." Ashley confirmed.
"That sounds... concerning." Sunny said, peaking from behind. "Speaking of concerning, you're bleeding." She said in a soft tone, pointing a claw at his arm.
Ashley looked down and saw that some blood was dripping from his hand, sipping through the fabric. He got up and started to unwrap it, both dragons looking at him. The first layers came off easily, but he started to feel his skin stick to the makeshift bandage the more he was taking it off. The fabric seemed completely soaked with blood, Ashley hoped it was mainly due to the other day.
As he took off the last part, he felt a stinging pain take his arm and dropped the fabric on the ground. He saw Sunny almost jump forward when she saw him stumble but restrained herself.
"That doesn't look well." Tsunami observed with sceptical eyes.
Ashley rotated his arm to look at the wound, holding it with his other hand. In fact, his wound looked like it had been scratched and reopened. His torn clothes had detached and ripped off some of the wounded skin, reopening the injury slightly, allowing a few veins of blood to drip on his arm.
He wrinkled his nose, the rotting smell of flesh and pus coming from it wasn't nice either, and bits of his skin stuck to the fabric that had enveloped his arm until now. His guts wrenched and he felt his throat tighten, nearly throwing up. He probably got harmed when he nearly fell from Sunny, and a feeling of guilt took him, faulting himself for not being careful enough, endangering his life.
"Ew." he heard Sunny voice. "We need to take care of that. Urgently." She said with a worried tone.
"I don't think we have anything to heal that properly." Ashley said. "So all I can do so far is to wrap this thing in a bandage of some sort and hope it stops the bleeding I believe."
"Well, that wasn't working really well right now." Tsunami said.
"I could- use the whole fabric piece just for that part instead of making use of it also for the broken bone." Ashley almost muttered, not too sure of his idea. "That wound is less likely to kill me at the moment-"
"That sounds stupid, you can't just leave a severe wound like that, there got to be something. We could still just find a way to add to the bandage." Tsunami cut.
"I might have an idea." Sunny said, looking thoughtful, Ashley and Tsunami both looked at her. "Not to sound like Clay but, maybe covering it with mud could help ? as gross as it sounds ? I could help dry the wound out, right ?"
"As long as it helps him not die, I'm happy with it." Tsunami said. "He still has plenty of answers to give."
"Hmmm." Ashley went into his thought, mud was known to have some good properties, the idea could work, or at least help for a bit. The mud could act like a sort of balm you would apply to a cut, they were probably not surrounded by clean mud though.
"That- could work." He said. Thinking about it, the next plan should be to head to the Sea Kingdom, there, he could attend to his injuries more properly. He knew he could find a way to heal himself even if it got to a much worse state. He mostly hoped to hold until then, once here, he could find some help. And his plan consisted of finding a certain dragon named Turtle.
He felt a little bad thinking about it, Turtle was nice, and probably would immediately fall into panic as soon as Ashley found him, but after considering many options, that was the only viable one he managed to come up with. He wouldn't be able to do anything with Anemone, she would constantly be with her mother, and he wouldn't bet on any healing tool they might have to be able to help him recover. The dragon society and technologies were still too medieval to be reliable enough for this task.
It didn't feel right even just to think about it, but what choice did he have ? His two other options were to either keep a handicapped arm until the end of his life and possibly die because of it, or wait for the apparition of a certain magical scroll which wouldn't happen in months to come.
"Alright let's do that." He said eventually, and he walked closer to the river, searching for the least repelling mud part he could find.
"I'll help you." Sunny said, and she came closer, Tsunami left the river to let them and watch from the ledge of the cliff.
After finding an acceptable sludge, Sunny proceeded to dig it out while Ashley washed his wound, wincing at the cutting sensation the contact with the cold water gave. He tried to scratch the dirtiness out of the fabric without watering it, not wanting it to be wet.
This is precarious, I hate it. He thought as he started to cover his arm with a thick layer of fresh mud. Somehow, it felt warm and comforting, and not cold and painful as he had been expecting it. This is a very Mudwing thought to have. Could it be that their presence here proves something about the mud quality ? I hope it does.
He started to wrap his arm again, but he couldn't hold the fabric right, and it got loose anytime he tried to tie it around.
Sunny approached. "here, let me do that." She grabbed it and started to carefully wrap it around Ashley's arm, tightening it much more strongly than he could have ever done it. When she reached his forearm, he jumped back, letting a yelp of pain out.
"Are you ok ?" Sunny asked with concern. "Is that too tight ?"
"N- no. Keep doing that, it's good." Ashley answered, setting himself back. Once they were done, the bandage seemed a lot sturdier than before and held his arm much better than what he had done with it earlier. It was rigid enough to keep his arm unmoving, but it wasn't completely stuck either. The work was surprisingly well done for something done by a dragon at least twice his size that could only use their claws.
"Thank you, again." He said to Sunny, and she smiled back.
Tsunami was lying near the side of the cliff, on the lookout for Glory and Clay, with her head lying on the grass. By the time, they were probably done talking with Clay's mother, and finding his siblings, he hoped, at least.
Ashley tried to see if there wasn't any food around and explored the relatively small greenery around them. He pulled a small empty plastic box out of his backpack, something he had noticed a little while ago, but that would never be enough to contain anything that could really sustain him, so he hadn't paid it much more attention.
After a few minutes of wandering around, he found a few berry bushes, all of which were at least his size. But what took him off guard was the size of their fruits, they were all at the very least four times the size of an average berry back home, and he couldn't fit more than two in his hand.
Back home...
He thought about the forest he usually walked in, the very one he was sleeping in before ending up in this place. Sometimes, he would find a few raspberries or blackberries, and take his time to enjoy it while alone. It was rare that he would meet anyone in there, people were pretty superstitious about the place, he didn't know why, but he had a small idea of why now. The last time he saw someone, it was a group of kids playing, he had shared a few fruits with them and told them how to properly choose which ones to pick, especially not the ones that were too close to the ground. Eventually, he helped them set up their playground before leaving, it had been quite fun, and a nice change of pace for the time. After that, he had gone to visit his father.
Ashley's hand tightened, and he inadvertently crushed the berries in his hand, splattering him with purple juice. The old man ! How come didn't he think about him earlier ! It had been weeks since he hadn't seen him if not months, and now he was on a completely different plane of existence, unable to reach him !
A tripping sensation of guilt took him, the old man was sick, and he hadn't talked to him in a while. He couldn't help but feel bad about it, what happened to the real world ? Did he actually disappear and now he was missing ? That would probably be the worst thing that could be told for his father. The fact that he hadn't thought about him in the last few days sickened him, he had a good reason, sure, but he couldn't just forget the people he knew simply because he was in a different dimension, or realm, or whatever.
He clenched his hand, feeling the fruit's juice dripping from his hand, and let it fall on the ground on a splotch. Before he could go deeper in his pondering, his brain clicked and stopped to elaborate on the subject, cutting the line of thoughts short.
He sighed and filled the box with a few berries, then headed back to the grove they had settled at.
When he came back, he found Tsunami still waiting at the same place, Sunny was sitting at her right, looking down at the land of mud that spread from the bottom of the cliff. He joined them and sat in the grass next to Tsunami.
They stayed there for a while, without moving or saying anything, just staring blankly at the horizon.
"Want some ?" Ashley asked, handing a berry to Tsunami. She grabbed the fruit and bit it, munching the juicy flesh without saying a word, looking troubled. He saw Sunny eye her friend with concern and rub her wings on Tsunami's.
They stayed there for long minutes, with the only sounds being the wind and the noise of their mastication. Before Sunny eventually jumped on her feet and shouted. "They're coming ! I see them !"
Ashley stood up, Tsunami raised her head, and indeed, two brown dragons were flying toward the cliff at a fast pace and had noticed the group thanks to Sunny waving at them.
Soon enough, the two dragons landed beside them, and Glory took back her colours, shining her scales on the sun.
"How was it ?" Tsunami asked, and she met Clay's agitated glance.
"Fine, I guess. I met my mother, but she didn't care." He said, looking down, for a second. "But I've met siblings !" He cried, nearly jumping. He then looked at Ashley. "Was that... What you meant earlier ?"
"Yes, it was." He nodded.
"We should head back to the trees." Glory broke. "At least so that we can talk about all this in a safer place."
Everyone agreed, and so they did. They got back to the grove. On their way there, they found a few ducks swimming in the river, and Tsunami did a quick job of catching them and sharing them with her three friends. Once they reached the trees, Clay told them about what happened in the town. He had met his mother, and she wasn't missing him, in fact, she had sold his egg to the talons of peace against cows. But he also met his siblings, who were much more eager to know him, sadly, one of them died in the battle that had unfolded at the cliff.
But the most important, and what had gotten Clay the most excited, was what he had learned about the Mudwings and their hatching, which was what Ashley had told him the precedent evening. That the biggest of the siblings was supposed to help its brothers and sisters to hatch by breaking the shell of their egg, and that after that they always stuck together. So it meant Clay never intended to harm them in the first place.
"Of course." Tsunami said, unsurprised. "I never thought you were trying to kill us."
"As if I would ever !" Sunny agreed.
"Well, I didn't know that." Clay said. "Well, I guess I did a little, since Ashley told me, but still."
"Oh, did he ?" Tsunami asked, tilting her head to the human.
"Yes, yesterday, after you left." Glory said to her.
"Oh." The Seawing acknowledged.
"So what now, bigwing ?" Glory asked, clawing up one of the birds for herself. "I'm never going to get tired of calling you that."
"Well be like the Mudwings." Clay said proudly. "We stick together. No matter what happens. We're a team, and we look after one another. Which means the first thing we have to do is find Starflight. The Nightwings can't just take him away. He's one of us, and we'll search the whole world until we find him. It's time for us to get our friend ba-" He stopped as a black shape landed behind him with a loud thump and wings flapped away. Everyone was looking over his shoulder now.
"That better not be who I think it is." He said.
"Found him !" Glory said with amusement.
Clay turned around, behind him, Starflight was standing in the waving grass, blinking. Behind him, up in the sky, was a giant shape of a Nightwing flying away.
"Oh, bye !" Tsunami shouted at it furiously. "Thanks for everything ! You've been SO HELPFUL !"
Sunny jumped to Starflight with a cry of joy. "You found us !" She battered her wings with his. "I hoped you would." They hugged, Starflight shyly smiling at her.
"Hello." Clay said to Starflight. "You couldn't have waited until after my noble speech ? Maybe a day or two, so we could at least pretend to look for you ?"
"Morrowseer saw you flying up from the marshes." Starflight replied. "He said to tell you some other dragon could have spotted you, too, and we should be more careful."
"Well, great." Tsunami said. "That's such a useful advice. Glad he's so concerned, now that we've managed to save our own selves about a hundred times and everything. Any other survival tips ? Or prophecy-fulfilling suggestions ?"
Ashley walked forward. "And I also think there's only the Nightwings to stalk us with such intensity, so the point barely holds, obviously they knew our every movement."
He saw Starflight's eyes widen as his glance fell on Ashley. "Wh- what ?"
"Ho hi, Starflight." Glory said. "I present to you Ashley, he's the scavenger we met when we got out of the cave. And not only can he talk, he also knows the future."
Starflight blinked a few times, then took a shocked face. "WHAT ???"
"Ah yes, I remember he predicted you would come back when we would be near Clay's family, which we are. So I guess this proves it too." She said, visibly annoyed.
"I- what ? But how !" the Nightwing cried.
"Well, it all relies on a Sandwing being an animus, but I don't think we should stay there much longer thanks to you giant friend. We don't want to be spotted again." Glory said, huffing.
"O- okay." He said, looking around, there was an awkward pause for a moment before he continued. "I'm sorry he took me. I wanted him to bring me back right away, but he wouldn't. He said they couldn't afford to lose any Nightwings, even-" He swallowed. "Even peculiar little ones."
"What the heck does that mean ?" Clay asked, tilting his head.
"You're not peculiar !" Sunny said. "I'm the one that's peculiar and little !"
"Well, he is a bit." Glory said, raising a claw. "But we don't mind." She smiled at Starflight, to which he responded with another.
"Couldn't afford to lose any Nightwings ?" Tsunami echoed, looking thoughtful. "Is there something wrong with them ? Did you notice ?"
"No." Starflight glanced up a the sky, where Morrowseer had fled a moment ago. "He didn't take me to the secret Nightwing Kingdom if that's what you're wondering. I didn't even get to meet any of the dragons he'd brought with him. We just stayed up in the mountain peaks, waiting. I guess he wanted to see what would happen to you guys."
"Not that he was going to do anything about it." Glory muttered.
"So he doesn't care what we do next ?" Clay asked. "He's not making us go back to the Talons of Peace ?"
"I'm not sure he's really happy with the Talons of Peace right now." Starflight replied.
"Then we can do whatever we want." Clay said. "I say we visit Tsunami's mother, who, by the way." He looked at Starflight. "Is the queen of the Seawings, according to Kestrel."
"Seriously ? How much did I miss ?" Starflight moaned, flattening himself on the ground, then lifted his head to look at Tsunami. "Well, like in the scroll ? Coral's supposed to be a great queen. Not crazy like Scarlet."
Tsunami looked nervous. "Do you think she'll be happy to meet me ? What if she's like Clay's mother- no offence, Clay."
"I know she'll be happy to see you." Starflight said in an 'I know it all' nerdy tone. "Don't you remember what it said in The Royal Lineage of the Seawings, from the Scorching to the Present ?"
All four dragonets groaned, prompting Ashley to laugh.
"Remind me why we wanted him back ?" Glory asked Clay.
"This is important and fascinating !" Starflight cried, stomping his feet. "Listen ! Queen Coral doesn't have an heir. Not a single one of her female dragonets has lived to adulthood. Rumour has it there's a curse on her hatchings. That's why she'll be glad to meet Tsunami- you're the lost heir to the Kingdom of the Sea."
Tsunami puffed out her chest. "Me ? Really ?"
"Oh my gosh ! Tsunami ! You could be queen of the Seawings one day !" Sunny cried.
Tsunami grinned, but Ashley could feel a certain uneasiness coming from her. "Wouldn't that be great ? I've always thought I'd be a good queen."
"Boy, I don't know." Glory said, sarcastically. "I mean, if you want to be queen one day, you'll have to be bossy, controlling, full of yourself ... oh, wait."
Tsunami whacked her lightly with the tip of her tail. "Behave, or I'll have you beheaded." she said, lifting her chin.
Ashley laughed. "Yeah, when it talks about beheading you know it's about royalty."
The five dragons looked at him with questioning eyes. "Sorry, what ?" Starflight asked.
"Erm- nevermind, don't pay attention to it." Starflight tilted his head, not really convinced. "Just some old joke."
"Oh, okay." The Nightwing let out, looking disappointed.
Clay turned around. "So let's go find the Seawings." He said. "They're not on Burn's side, are they ?"
Starflight heaved a long-suffering sigh. "No, Clay. They're allied with Blister, the middle sister, of whom the scrolls say-" He didn't get the chance to continue further as Tsunami, Glory and Clay all jumped and tackled him at once. Ashley had to quickly back away to not be caught by a wing or a tail, and Sunny jumped in at him to come to his rescue. The five of them ended up scuffling in the grass, laughing.
There, the dragonets lay for a moment, looking at the sky, now empty of dragons. Ashley looked at them from his up-high position.
So far, this journey had been nothing but a disaster, he nearly died probably more than once, and there were dragons searching for them, angry dragons. And he had no idea of why he was here. But now that it was the case, he might as well just try to enjoy having dragon friends, if he could ever get them to trust him.
He would help them fulfil the prophecy, and if he can, try to save more souls along the way, like he tried with Gill.
He saddened, looking at Tsunami, her actions showed that she was heavily impacted by what she had learned, but hopefully, maybe, the Seawing King was still alive.
He sighed and looked up at the horizon. Now, there really was no going back, not that he ever could have anyway. But maybe, maybe there was more than this, maybe he could do more than just help the dragonets. He was supposed to fight for the innocent after all, that was all his job had been about, and if he could, he would continue that in this world.
There is a war to stop, and multiple tribes to save. He thought to himself. But can I also help the humans of this place ?