It took them three more days to reach an island that was officially part of the Bay of a Thousand Scales, also meaning that they were now without a question into the territory of the Seawings. For the whole trip, they met a surprisingly high amount of islands, although most of those were rather cramped, but they never had to wait for more than one or two hours before finding a place to rest, which was an honest low time to wait considering they were supposedly at sea.

Considering food, it had been another story. They had been eating fish and birds for the past few days, but the real concern quickly raised to be drinkable water. The five dragonets seemed to be able to deal with seawater just fine, especially Tsunami, but there was no way Ashley touched that. Or at least not without treating it.

Lucky for him, he had a way to heat water and 'sterilize' it in his metallic bottle, much to Starflight's amazement once more.

They didn't mention that discussion again. Clearly, some of them didn't want to delve deeper into the horrific numbers of Scavenger wars. But it was obvious that some of them still had it in their thoughts, the most obvious being Sunny, always taken by a shiver when her eyes laid on Ashley's gun. And while she never experienced seeing it in action, she seemed very wary of it already.

On the other hand, they still had to pass the time, so a few discussions came eventually every time they flew for a long time. One that became awfully recurrent was Tsunami wondering how the Sea Kingdom was and how 'her people' would react to her. Obviously, she didn't wait to question Ashley about it.

"I actually don't know a lot about the Seawing Kingdom itself, I will discover it with you. However, I do know one mistake that you will make, and I can help you with, albeit it's just a very simple piece of knowledge." He had finished to say, wanting to end his suffering of trying to dodge a possibly awkward answer to the princess every thirty minutes. "It's about currents. You will want to discard them and fight them to swim the way you wish, but you're not strong enough for that."

"But I'm a dragon, aren't dragons supposed to be strong ?" She had countered naively.

Ashley was quick to prove his point. "There is nothing in the world that is stronger than the elements. No creature is big enough to be even remotely able to dream of it realistically. A current is an undominated part of the world, and just like a tempest or an earthquake, it can be incredulously wide. It's an unstoppable force and only completely unaware people are brave enough to fight it."

"How am I supposed to use the underwater then ?"

"The answer is surprisingly simple : you use them. A current is strong enough to drive you deep into the depths and drown you. Well, maybe not you, but you understand. However, we're not in a river. It's the ocean we're talking about. There are thousands, millions, if not billions of different currents. So, find the ones that lead to your destination and use them without care. It'll even make it so easy that you won't need to move your hands to swim through the water."

Following that, Tsunami had decided to carry Ashley one or two times while flying, curious to know if he had any other knowledge about anything sea-related. He decided to take the safe route, and while he shared what he knew in a reasonable measure, he always kept in mind that things may work differently in this world, so he never projected himself too much.

At some point, they came to discuss her name, and Ashley found out that she actually didn't really know what a tsunami was, except for the fact that it was a 'big wave'.

To say that she found her name cool after that discussion would have been an understatement. She nearly dropped Ashley while doing a loop in the air. Thing that ended up with him having a very 'scared shitless' face and holding his wounded arm.

Speaking of which, the dragonets really didn't make it easier for his wounds, the lot of them really contained a whole town of excitement, and the more the day passed, the more he thought his arm would become impossible to recover even to a magical level. He even came to consider asking Glory if he could ride on her to be a bit less shaken in the travel, but eventually chose that his life was a good thing to keep too.

The only other discussion he had that stood up to him was with Starflight. He was wondering how the Nightwing was so certain of their direction without glancing every now and then at the sky, it just looked like he didn't need it. Eventually, they came to talk about means of navigation and, most importantly, about which ways they had to find directions.

This time, Ashley made sure not to mention completely absurd concepts like the GPS. It would have been just way too mind-blowing to explain even for the smartest dragon. So he kept it to the old school tools that were used to figure out one's position using the stars and other things such as the spyglass.

But after all that, they had finally reached a more decently sized island, with a wide enough cavern for them to rest while letting Ashley not worry about being accidentally crushed in his sleep for once. It was a bit smelling, but it worked.

There was just one slight little tiny problem, and it wasn't the untasteful smell coming from who-knows-where in the cave, nor Tsunami's grumpiness about Starflight's carefulness.

It was the fact that she had found another Seawing and was fighting him.

When Ashley woke up and saw the flash of blue light being emitted under the surface, he quickly woke up everyone and grabbed his belongings. When he reached the entrance of the cave, Tsunami shot out of the water, two seconds later, another Seawing followed.

"Clay, go help her !" Ashley shouted, jumping on the Mudwing's back. Clay didn't wait. He jumped in the air and spread his wings.

He reached above the two Seawings and started flying in circles, peering at the unknown individual. They had both stopped to fight now and were exchanging words.

"You are a delusional squid-brain !" Ashley heard Tsunami cry out.

He didn't hear the answer muffled by the wind, but those words made something tilt in his brain.

Wait, that scene looks awfully familiar.

Ashley whispered to Clay. "He didn't see you. Can you get a little closer ? I want to hear them."

Clay did so. He dived closer while keeping himself out of sight, waiting for the moment he would be needed. He tried to keep himself behind the confused Seawing.

"... I said, 'What are you doing all the way out here ?' and you said-" He said, rubbing his talons against his head. "You said, 'Hey, sparkling teeth, I totally love three of your claws but not the others, and I wish your nose was a herring so I could eat it, and also your wings sound like sharks snoring.' "

Ashley let out a muffled laugh. "Ok, I know who that is." Clay looked at him. "He's going to help us."

Tsunami laughed like that was the stupidest thing she ever heard, and although it might be, it certainly wouldn't be for the reason she believed.

"All right, I get it. You're making this up."

The Seawing stared at her incredulously. "Are you seriously going to pretend you didn't say any of that ?"

"Of course I didn't." Tsunami said. "I didn't say anything at all- we were underwater, remember ?"

Ashley slapped his face, and the other Seawing seemed to have a similar reaction in his head, spiced with suspicion. "Who are you ?" He demanded.

"I'm a Seawing." Tsunami answered. "Just like you, so no need to get hostile."

Oh my god, that's worse than I remember. Ashley was cringing a tad there, that embarrassment was a form of torture he never considered. At least he wasn't the victim here, but having already found himself in similar situations, he could empathise with her.

"A Seawing who doesn't speak Aquatic ?" The other answered. "Not likely. What are you really ? How did you make yourself look like a Seawing ?"

And that's when something seemed to tilt in Tsunami's head. Her first reaction, most similar to shock, was to widen her eyes with incredulity. It was followed by a lot of thinking and wondering, then... Sadness ?

"You don't look guilty." The Seawing observed. "You look sad. And I imagine it would be hard to fake those." He indicated her webbed talons with his head. "So where did you come from, and what's wrong with you ?"

Tsunami's gaze fell on Clay and Ashley before lowering down again.

Ashley stood up on Clay's back, peering above his head. "There's nothing wrong with her Riptide. It just happened that she had to deal with deeply incompetent educators."

Riptide twisted around in a sudden hurry, eyes filled with surprise. And when he saw Clay, panic came on his face. "Mudwing ! Look out !" He cried, slamming his tail into Tsunami to force her behind him. Then, before Ashley could react, the male Seawing dived onto Clay and rammed him.

Ashley frenetically waved his arm, trying to keep balance. He looked down and noticed his left arm still wrapped in the dirty piece of fabric. I'm really not learning, aren't I ?

The two dragons tried to push each other, and that threw him off balance. He quickly leaned forward and fell forward.

Clay suddenly lifted his head to dodge a slice from his opponent, which threw Ashley in the air. His sight became blurry for a small moment. He blinked. He found himself to be spinning hundreds of meters above the water. Somehow, he did not panic, or more so, he didn't let it take over his actions.

He was spinning, seeing sky, sun, water, Clay ; sky, sun, water, Clay again ; sky, sun, water, Seawing.

SEAWING

He suddenly straightened and threw his arm forward, aiming for where he thought his hand would meet Riptide, and he managed to catch something. He tensed his muscles and pulled hard, bending his legs.

He saw the Seawing's body fill his sight again and then slammed hard into his back, pulling Riptide's head back by the horn.

"OW !" The Seawing cried, pulled backwards by the movement. "What in the moons !"

Ashley straightened his grip on Riptide's horn and started to get back to his senses. The impact had disoriented him completely, but the flesh and scales of the dragon had absorbed most of the shock.

Riptide started to wave his head strongly to throw Ashley back in the air, but the human locked his legs onto his slimy wet scales. He slowly made his way up the Seawing's neck, crushing his webbed spine under him.

"What the fuck is that !? Get it off me !" He heard him cry.

Riptide twisted and twirled even more, but he strengthened his grip, catching back his breath. Meanwhile, Clay took a few flaps of distance with a wary expression, and Tsunami flew back to height, showing so many confused faces at once.

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"HOY ! Calm the FUCK down !" Ashley shouted. "Stay still you flying fish-lizard !"

"AAAAAAH IT TALKS !"

The Seawing moved even more frantically now, but his grip was strong and he was not letting go now, how unpleasant it may be. After long seconds of Clay and Tsunami staring at the situation, it became pretty obvious that Riptide wouldn't calm down on his own, much to Ashley's annoyance.

"CALM DOWN PRIVATE" He shouted with a much deeper voice. "GET YOURSELF RIGHT RIPTIDE."

"AAAH YES SIR !" And with that, the Seawing slowed down in an instant. Getting back to hovering above the vastness of the sea. "Wait- what- who- ?" He said with the most confused voice Ashley ever heard, looking around to find a higher ranked that was, obviously, not there.

Ah ! Works every time !

Before anything else happened, Ashley found his knife and pressed it on top of the dragon's head to prevent further development of the situation. Grabbing the blade and Riptide's horn both with the same hand. He felt his scales twitch under the pressure of the claw-like weapon.

"Let's head out to the beach." He said plainly.

Tsunami reached them and slapped a slowly raising talon with her tail. "Don't touch him. He's a friend." She gave Riptide a fierce look. "Just like this Mudwing."

"But-"

"No 'but'." She said sharply. "Do what he said."

Riptide opened his mouth to argue but didn't say a word.

"To the beach." Ashley said again. "And no surprises."

"Al- all right."

Riptide lowered in altitude, heading toward the island where Sunny was flying right above the cave entrance. She looked on edge, ready to jump in if things went south, behind her, Ashley saw a hidden Glory peering outside.

They reached the sand and landed in three consecutive stomps, and Sunny quickly followed and landed beside Clay, making sure he was ok.

Riptide looked at Tsunami, Clay and Sunny dubiously. "A Seawing with a Mudwing and a Sandwing, what kind of troop is that ?"

"Did you seriously already forget I was on your head ?"

Riptide went stiff at this remark. "N- no ? Not at all." He said awkwardly, definitely having forgotten.

Ashley sighed. "Can I get down now ?"

"S- sure. Can't you jump ?"

"Lower your damn head."

The Seawing awkwardly lowered his head to the ground, allowing Ashley to jump on the sand. When the human backed up toward the dragonets, Riptide opened wide his eyes.

"Aaah what in the Moons is that !" He cried, jumping away from him, and throwing sand everywhere.

Ashley, looked at him, blinking. "That's not very nice."

"Is that a scavenger ? What's wrong with it ? Why does it talks ?" Riptide asked, visibly thrown off by his sight.

"You know I'm here, right ?"

Riptide looked at Tsunami. "Is that your pet ? What are you doing here ?"

"He's not a 'pet'." Glory said, her scales constantly shifting between orange and green. "He's a friend."

Riptide looked from Tsunami to Glory back and forth. "A Rainwing too ??? What's next ? A Nightwing is gonna pop up ?"

Tsunami and Clay looked at each other. "Huh... yeah ?" Starflight's voice said behind Glory.

Riptide blinked at the Nightwing multiple times, completely dumbfounded.

"Yeah, you'd better learn some respect, squid-brain." Tsunami said, taking a step forward. "We're the dragonets of destiny."

"And a friend." Ashley added.

Riptide stared at them for a long minute, blinking from one dragonet to another. Eventually, he sat down with a sigh.

Then his gaze fell on Ashley. "Wait, you !" The human jumped back at the sudden Seawing's outburst. "You knew my name, who are you ? What are you even ?"

"That's true." Tsunami said, looking at Ashley. "How did you know ?"

"Come on you already know how I know. But why don't we do the presentations first ?"

"Right." She said.

So they all sat up, except Ashley, who kept himself up. After some time, Riptide seemed to finally ease a little bit, less on edge. The dragonets gave him their names and eventually shared how they got here. He started to walk in cycles, pacing the beach.

Riptide was only a bit bigger than Clay, but he seemed in much better shape than the dragonets. It was also obvious that he had been in multiple fights, seeing the scars on his body. The most apparent ones being a bite mark on his tail and claw marks on his underbelly. Slowly, his nose stopped to blind from Tsunami's scratches.

"All right." He said. "So the Talons of Peace are real."

"Unfortunately." Glory muttered, laying on a rock to catch the Sunlight.

"I thought everyone knew about the Talons." Sunny said.

"Mostly rumours and whispers." Riptide responded. "None of the tribe queens would be pleased to find a member of the peace movement in their midst. Conspiring with other tribes ? Stealing eggs ?" He shook his head. "Queen Coral would kill any dragon she found working with the Talons."

He looked at Tsunami with a searching look, probably trying to see her wings. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"And you're the dragonets of destiny. For real. The ones in the prophecy. That's real." Riptide inhaled, catching his breath, like still in shock from the revelation. "And- there's you, the weird-looking scavenger that can talk ?" He looked at Ashley, then at Tsunami again. "You're sure he's not Mimicking you ?"

Ashley took a step forward, frowning. "yes she's sure. Should I mention how rude you sound, kid ?"

"Hey, I am no kid !"

"You are to me."

Riptide opened his mouth, but no sound left it. "How can you talk anyway ?" He eventually said.

"Animus magic." Ashley answered without further development.

"Animus... magic ?" Riptide tilted his head sideway. "You're saying there are animus dragons in the world right now ???"

"That would seem logical yes."

"But- why would someone do that ? I mean, you're a scavenger, why would a dragon care ?"

Ashley sighed. "That part is none of your concern. And I figure you that we can do everything you dragons are able to."

Riptide stiffed for a moment, processing the information, which didn't seem to stick in his head very long. "Why are you all here." He asked, looking back at the dragonets.

"We're looking for somewhere safe to go. The Talons of Peace treated us terribly, and I figured the Seawings would welcome and protect us."

"I suppose." Riptide said not very reassuringly. "Although I can't promise anything for him." He said pointing to Ashley with one of his claws.

"Don't worry for me. I'll be fine." He said, smiling.

"So you were all raised in a cave ?" He stopped in front of Tsunami. "With no ocean ? Never ? You never went into the ocean ?" Somehow, it seemed like the most bizarre concept to him despite everything he heard until now.

"Not until we escaped." Tsunami said.

"But that's awful."

"Thank you." Tsunami said. "I know it was. I've always said our life was miserable, but these dragons keep arguing with me."

"Not me." Glory said.

"I can't believe the Talons did that to you." Riptide said, clawing the sand.

"Tell me about it." Tsunami said. "They really are the worst."

"Even Webs- Webs didn't take you to the ocean ?" Riptide asked.

"You know about Webs ?" Sunny asked.

"He's pretty infamous in the tribe. We all know he deserted during a battle, and later he came back and stole one of the queen's eggs. At least, Queen Coral was sure it was him. But nobody knew if he stole it for the Talons of Peace or for his own reasons. We're not really supposed to talk about the Talons of Peace rumours."

Ashley looked at Riptide with an insisting glance. "So because the queen doesn't like them, you don't get the right to talk about them. That also means you can't even consider being prepared for whatever the Talons would do. Seems all at their advantage to me, doesn't it ?"

Riptide shuddered, looking more uncomfortable than before. "I- huh... I guess it would."

If dragons could sweat, Riptide would probably be standing on a pool right now. Knowing who is was working with.

"Didn't anyone think he might have stolen the egg to be part of the prophecy?" Starflight asked, much to Riptide's relief.

He nodded. "Some of us did. But again, nobody talked about it. Queen Blister doesn't like hearing about the prophecy, so that's also been a forbidden topic."

Tsunami wrinkled her snout. "Blister gets to decide what Seawings can talk about ?"

"You'll want to call her Queen Blister when you meet her." Riptide said.

"She really is that bitter isn't she ?" Ashley said, prompting faces from everyone. "I mean, she probably is the worst of the three after all. She makes everyone else do the work for her and doesn't hesitate to lie to achieve her goals. And to say that she is manipulating would be an understatement, especially with a queen as little careful as Coral."

Riptide made an offended face, but Tsunami spoke before he could.

"And we get to decide who should be queen." She said. "It's up to us, remember ?"

"Well." Starflight stammered. "she is a pretty good- I mean, she's the smart one- I think we'll probably-"

He stopped immediately when Tsunami turned her head at him with a "Tf are you saying ?" look.

"Did you know Webs?" Clay asked Riptide.

"Not really. He ran away during a battle when I was only two years old. But I've been hearing about his treachery my whole life." He sighed. "I really can't believe he never took you to the ocean in all that time."

"It's true." Tsunami said. "And he never taught me Aquatic. I wish I had all the Talons of Peace here so I could bite them."

"To be fair, the Talons were just keeping us safe." Sunny interjected. "They needed us to survive to fulfil the prophecy."

Tsunami snorted, to which Sunny responded with an injured look.

"But the prophecy." Riptide said. He pointed a claw at Glory. "It calls for a Skywing. She's not a Skywing."

"It's a little complicated." Tsunami said in an awkward tone.

"Glory will do fine." Ashley cut sharply. "She is no less 'wings of sky' than a Skywing, if not more."

The deep green on the Rainwing's scales quickly disappeared as a curious and interested look grew on her face.

"But- The prophecy asks for a Skywing." Riptide said, frowning his eyebrows.

"Where ? I don't remember seeing that exact mention in the text." Ashley saw Starflight walk closer ears dressed to listen. "And it's going to be hard to do more wings of sky than her."

The male Seawing stood there in front of him without moving, completely dumbfounded. Eventually, Tsunami broke the silence. "Anyway, I'm not sure we really care about the prophecy. But we do care about finding the families we were stolen from."

"I care about the prophecy !" Sunny cried, poking Clay's side, prompting him to nod in agreement.

"Only a few days ago, I found out I was stolen from the Royal Hatchery." Tsunami continued. "So... so I thought maybe my parents were looking for me. Like in The Missing Princess ? Do you know that scroll ?"

"I do." He said. "It's required reading in school."

"Required reading?" Tsunami echoed.

"But I can't take you to the palace." Riptide said plainly. "Not with him along." He indicated Clay with his talon.

"Weren't you listening ?" Tsunami said. "He's not a regular Mudwing. He's certainly not allied with Burn or the Skywings. You can trust him."

"Perhaps you should stay here." Riptide suggested. "And I'll bring Queen Coral back to you." He looked away in the distance. Across the water, Ashley noticed multiple small shapes peering out of the water, probably all islands of the Bay of a Thousand Scales. He guessed the palace was in the direction Riptide was looking.

"Nope." Tsunami said. "We're all coming with you."

"I'm in enough trouble with Queen Coral." Riptide responded with a protesting voice. "That's why I'm stuck patrolling all the way out here. If I bring a Mudwing back to the palace, I might as well pull out my own teeth."

"Ew !" Sunny cried. "That's not a real punishment, is it ?"

Poor innocent Sunny. Ashley thought. You don't know Coral yet.

"Bring us to the Summer Palace." He said, getting Riptide's attention. "It was designed for guests after all, wasn't it ? And an heir and her friends are not just any guests. Plus imagine what happens if your queen finds out that you didn't bring back her own daughter."

Riptide uncomfortably squirmed.

"that wouldn't be very good for you wouldn't it ?"

The Seawing looked from side to side, thinking.

"Can't I just bring you and leave the others ?" He asked Tsunami. "At least until Queen Coral gives her permission ?"

"No." She said firmly. "We all go together. She'll understand once she realizes we're the dragonets of destiny."

Riptide sighed.

"All right, but he has to be blindfolded." He said, pointing at Clay again. He looked at the others, rubbing his chin. "actually it'd be better if they could all be blindfolded."

"What am I going to do ?" Glory asked. "Round up some scary Rainwings to come sleep on your roof ? I thought no one was afraid of my tribe."

"We're not." Riptide objected. "Afraid of Rainwings. Pffft. What a thing to say."

Ashley laughed internally, as he saw streaks of pale green run along Glory's colourful scales. "Wonderful." She said in a not-so-amazed tone. "So no blindfold for me, then." She turned away, showing him her back.

Riptide turned his doubtful sight to Starflight and Sunny.

"The Nightwings know everything." The nerd said. "It's no use trying to keep secrets from them. I mean, us. I could just use my powers to figure out where your palace is."

Ashley saw Tsunami roll her eyes to the sky. "Please don't argue with him." She said to Riptide. "Once he starts yammering on about how amazing Nightwings are, we'll never get him to shut up."

Riptide muttered something under his breath and started walking into the water to search between the rocks.

"You can blindfold me," Sunny offered. "I don't mind."

"If you do that, she can ride on my back," Tsunami said.

"Or my back." Starflight jumped in quickly. Ashley looked at the dragon trying to hide his hope.

Now there's the simp.

"You think you're strong enough ?" Tsunami said, probably feeling challenged by the act.

"Sure he is." Sunny said. "I'll ride with him, and you can lead Clay."

Ashley saw Tsunami facepalm with a sigh. Soon enough, Riptide came back with several bands of black seaweed. Much to Sunny's regret. He approached her and wrapped the algae tightly around her head, covering her eyes.

"Ew." She said, taken by a shiver. "It's all wet and slimy."

"I like wet and slimy." Clay said, lowering his head to make it easier for Riptide.

"That's weird, Clay." Glory said with a disgusted look on her face.

"Yeah man, that's a kinda weird thing to say." Ashley added.

Riptide turned to him after making a mess of a blindfold on Clay, the result looking more like an octopus than an actual blindfold. He seemed hesitant about what to do, looking at the human.

"I don't think you need to blindfold me, would you even consider my kind to be remotely threatening to your palace ?"

"Scavengers ? Threatening ? No way. You couldn't even hurt a dragonet." Riptide said. "You don't even stand right."

Ashley looked down, suddenly very aware of his condition. Having kept his arm wrapped for a few days now, he wasn't standing particularly straight, to compensate for the unmoving arm, and his hand was still very loose and unfeeling, looking scaringly pale, if not a little blueish.

He grumbled and walked away, muttering under his breath. "Yeah well, we'll see who can hurt who."

"Tsunami ?" He asked.

"Yeah, come." She lowered to the ground, allowing him to climb and sit on her shoulders, much to Riptide's dismay.

"What ?" Ashley said to him. "You jealous ?"

Riptide blinked a few times before shaking his head.

"Let's just go." He said.