Camel was walking down the palace's long luminous hallways, nervously looking around as if scared that he might be found.

She won't be happy about it. He thought, imagining the queen's reaction once she learned that her plan had abruptly come to a halt earlier than intended.

He and his Sandwing colleagues had drawn straws to choose which one of them should devote to delivering the news. Burn wasn't known for her calm temperament, and she had been very prone to bursts of rage since her last meeting with the Skywing queen from what he had heard, she'd been quite vocal about finding the Dragonets and their "pesky pet". Unfortunately, the assignment fell on Camel, and now he was en route to the throne room.

To say that he was frightened by the possible outcomes would be an understatement.

There were surprisingly few people in the fortress that day, the campaign was raging strong for a few weeks now, and the reveal of the Dragonets of Destiny had only sped up everything even more. All sides were sending search parties and spies all around Pyrrhia, and, to gain ground, the sisters were throwing everything against each other. Surprise attacks, raids, ranged battles, everything was on the chart now.

The conflict simply reached yet another unprecedented level of violence. And casualty rates climbed up like never before, every side was trying to win the fastest possible, and there were clearly not enough dragons to deal with the wounded, clogging the hospitals and infirmaries.

Camel looked down at one of his forearms which had been hurt in a recent fight. The scar had dried out, but it still looked horrible, the Icewing that had slashed him was dead, but the pain from his slash had been one of the worst he had experienced in a long. Those things could tear and rip your scales apart, and turn your flesh into a mush of minced meat.

"If the war continues to go on like this, there won't be anyone left to fight in a month, even less if it escalates even more." The medic had told him. "I thought we reached the worst of it seven years ago, but we're losing whole squadrons almost daily now."

His recovery should have been three weeks, but Camel was sure he would be sent back earlier. There were rumours of dragons kept on the front despite the injuries, even when their wounds hadn't been treated yet. The Sandwing generals were reckless with anyone, enemy or friendly.

In the meantime, he was stuck on logistics.

He had the chance to be a commander with his own wing of Sandwings, so this gave him a bit more control over that. But in reality, that changed barely anything. He didn't have a word in strategic decisions and wasn't safer from Burn's wrath either. Speaking of it, he was probably going to be the next victim of said wrath.

Eventually, he reached the end of the hallways, in front of him, a large door carved at once in oak and decorated with intricated gold patterns. He stopped in front of it and sighed, grabbing his last pieces of courage to face off the venture of the day.

He knocked on the door three times, then waited.

Nothing came.

He reiterated the action.

After a shorter moment, he heard footsteps behind the door, claws scrapping the floor. Then, he heard the door being unlocked from inside, and it opened halfway through.

"Yes ?" He heard a male voice say. He sighed in relief, it was Smolder.

Camel stood straight. "We received news about the infiltrated Mudwing in the Talons of Peace sir."

He noticed small movements from the corner of his eye behind Smolder, he immediately felt more anxious.

"Ah. Good news, right ?" Smolder asked.

"N- not really." Camel stammered.

"Hmmm." Smolder's face went darker. He looked back at the throne room. Before turning back his attention to the Sandwing. "Let's stay outside." He said, stepping out and closing the heavy door behind him.

Camel looked at him almost stunned. Smolder walked up to a window and stood in the light to let the Sun warm his back.

"So, what happened ?" He asked

"After joining a Seawing, our spy straight toward the Bay of a Thousand Scales." Camel started. "But before reaching deep into Seawing territory, they diverted their trajectory and landed on a lone island. There, they were met by Blister and a big Nightwing."

Smolder tilted his head at that, a visible interest on his face. "I see." He said coldly, visibly thinking of all the meanings this could have.

Smolder raised his head to face the soldier. "What happened then ?"

"Both attacked. The Nightwing and Blister took our spy and the Seawing by surprise and killed them on the spot. They left right after." Smolder went into his thoughts. "We don't know why."

"Very interesting, thank you." Smolder paused. Camel shivered, he knew the general was smart, he survived Burn after all. But at this moment, he found himself scared. Smolder didn't simply look like Blister, he was at least as cunning as her, if not more. Maybe he was already figuring out his sister's plan with just a few pieces of information Camel gave him.

Camel could only imagine all the terrible things that were already going through Smolder's mind.

"Anything else ?" Smolder asked.

"Yes." Camel shot. "We mapped the general area and their direction, but we still managed to gather information about where the Seawing palace is. Mostly, we were able to eliminate islands from the possible targets. A Skywing commander told us that the area was now small enough to start more active research."

"Ah ! I knew this would work." Smolder said with a jubilatory smug. "That's great. It'll be enough."

Camel saw Smolder turn back in intent to walk back to the throne room. "There's something else." He said, his superior stopped and looked at him. "The presence of the five Dragonets of Destiny in the Seawings' kingdom was confirmed."

"Were they accompanied by the Scavenger seen at the Skywing palace ?" Smolder immediately asked without a hindrance or hesitation. Camel stood there a few seconds, not ready for the quick response.

"Yes sir."

"Good." Smolder said. "Very well. I won't need more." He narrowed his eyes at the wing leader. "Get yourself some rest. You're going to need it."

He whirled around and returned to the throne room through the over-decorated door. For the short time that it stayed open, Camel noticed Queen Burn lying on the throne.

She was playing with one of her front talons, twirling and clenching it as if she was imagining herself twisting someone's inside. Camel's face went pale at this picture, he quickly stepped back and turned around to join the others.

The last thing he heard from Smolder was, "Well, sister. I have great news you're going to want to hear."

Then, the door closed with a loud slam.

--------------------------------------------------

Ashley felt lost. He could feel his consciousness slowly come back to him, his mind slipping back into reality, but he couldn't see.

He couldn't move, not because he was detained, but because he had no control over his own body. He could feel his heartbeat pump slowly and air faintly travels into his lungs, but that was all his senses were picking up.

His mind started racing. Am I dead ? Is it what it feels like ? But, I'm still breathing. Am I ?

There was nothing but Blackness, wherever he tried to move his eyes, if they even were, there was nothing. And yet, he could feel, he was lying on something strong and wet, something like stone mixed with moss.

Whoever had put him here at least had the decency to raise his head a little bit, or maybe he was just lucky, because there was no way they knew how to deal with a human's injuries.

Then, he felt a striking pain take him to the chest, and his eyes shot open. For a very brief second, he felt like a hundred needles were piercing through his heart, and thought he had been struck by lighting. His vision became all fuzzy, he was surrounded by weird patches of grey and green.

He heard muffled sounds, a yellow and a black dot moving in the panorama of blurriness. He thought he heard something of a roar, but it was drowned in the tinnitus of his waking up.

"ASHLEY !" He heard a female voice cry out.

His vision became clear, he found himself standing up, wavering on the mossy ground, his heart pounding against his chest. He saw a yellow and a black dragon run toward him, expressing a mix of too many emotions on their faces. Ashley took a few staggering steps back, scare on his face, then finally realized where he was.

He breathed out and fell on his knees, hurting them on the floor, and it felt great. Finally getting back to his senses, he looked up and saw Starflight and Sunny worriedly examine him from a short distance.

"Are you okay ?" The latter asked, she shook her head. "No of course you're not. How do you feel ?"

"I feel like- like..."

...like I almost died. He paused.

"...I'm hungry as fuck." Ashley straightened up. There was a scent of meat in the air, albeit it mostly seemed like fish. He glanced in Clay's obvious direction and found the origin of the smell. A pile of different meals was piled near his feet, there were without surprise a bunch of various fish, but also a nice load of fruits, and surprisingly, two 'bricks' of cooked meat that Ashley could not recognize.

He walked towards Clay who pushed one of the packs at him.

"Take it, you need strength." He said, with some pieces of food visibly still stuck between his teeth.

Ashley joined him and sat beside the pile as well and started biting the flesh almost angrily. When he finished, he grabbed the other piece without a second thought.

He downed the two oversized pieces of ham in just a few minutes under the impressed eyes of the dragonets. When he finished, he huffed and leaned against the wall, already feeling his body settle back at more usual levels. His breath steadied, and he felt his heartbeat stabilize. The tinnitus was gone now, all that was left was a strong headache taking him to the skull. He could feel with his hand that his head was hot, but he couldn't care less.

Eventually, he looked around to see everyone staring at him.

"Are you sure you're not part Mudwing ?" Sunny asked.

"Ah ! But Mudwings are only amateurs." Ashley answered with a challenging grin.

"What ?" Starflight said. "Do you mean-" He sighed. "The more I hear about you the more confused I get."

"You know, everything doesn't have to make sense."

"I like it when it makes sense." Starflight mumbled.

A silence settled for a moment, then Ashley eventually stood up.

"So, what did I miss ?" He asked.

"Not much." Glory said from one corner of the room. "Just Tsunami's family reunion and us being dragged here. Oh, and they chained Clay." Her tone sounded casual, but Ashley caught a clear hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Wait." He looked at Clay. "They did ?" He looked for a moment until Clay pulled one of his talons up, revealing a metallic wristband that was attached to the ground by a chain.

Fuck how did I forget this ?

He walked to the Mudwing and examined his wrist, it was made of two movable curved pieces locked by a wide padlock. The chain itself was as thick as an arm.

"There's no way I can break this." Ashley said with a studying eye. "It's way too thick."

"You thought you could break it ?" Clay asked, Tilting his head.

"No, I can't break this, way too strong for me to do anything to it with my stuff on its own. Have you tried melting it ?"

"Yeah, we tried that already." Starflight said, approaching from behind. "Combined fires only managed to turn it red." He pointed to an area of the chain.

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Ashley walked to it and examined the part he showed. The metallic loops looked darker and only faintly bent, but that could come from their conception.

"Could you do that again ?" He asked Starflight.

"Why ? Do you not trust us ?" the Nightwing answered with a startled look.

"It's not that. I have an idea. But I need my gun for it." Ashley looked around. "Where's my backpack ?"

The dragonets glanced at Glory, prompting Ashley to do the same.

"She took it to hide it in case the guards became curious about it." Sunny said.

I don't believe a word of that. Ashley thought, narrowing his eyes. Glory was giving him an intense glare, and she looked dreadfully serious.

He walked to her, and she slowly took a step aside to let him pass to let him reach for his belongings. When he passed her, she muttered something just loud enough for him to hear.

"We'll need to talk, later."

It didn't feel like a question, it was a demand.

Ashley walked past without looking and crouched at his bag, having a bad presentiment about it. When he lifted it, and found that his backpack was undoubtedly lighter than before, he immediately knew what was up, and his face became pale. It suddenly felt freezing.

He heard a small patting noise, and looked down, under one of Glory's talons, between her claws, he noticed a book. It didn't take him a second to figure it out, he had only one book with him when he found himself here.

He felt a drop of sweat drip from his forehead.

"Y- yeah. We'll talk." He muttered back.

When he caught his pistol and his knife, he turned back silently to the chain, getting his composure back. Sunny, Starflight and Clay were setting up, ready to blast the chain again.

"Are you sure you can do something ?" Starflight asked doubtfully. "Not to sound mean but- you don't look like you can break it better than us."

"No offence taken." Ashley said, grinning at him. "You'll understand. If it works."

"Alright." Starflight looked fearfully back toward the entrance, then looked back to the chain. He huffed a few times, pumping out bigger smokes every time, until he bent his neck and blasted fire on the metal. Sunny and Clay quickly followed. It was a slow fire, the flames were produced at a steady rate, the dragonets only pausing to catch up with their breath.

Slowly, Ashley noticed the chain fading to red, but it was the faintest red possible. He walked closer, trying to get a better view. The scene was hot, incredibly hot, even. He could see the ripples of distorted air on top of the trio.

When they found that they couldn't heat the chain more, the three dragonets stopped blasting their fire and took a step aside.

"Alright, I need you to pull the chain to tense up the heated part." Ashley said. "I'm gonna try something first." He readied his arm, putting himself in front to strike the chain with the knife.

Clay pulled, the metal still glowing a small red, and raised his arm, then, with a large arcing motion, he struck the chain. A loud and acute clang resounded in the cave, sparkles flew from the impact point, and the dragonets almost all jumped away with surprise.

But the chain was unscathed. He tried again.

Then again.

And again.

Each time, sparkles were sent flying. But the chain wasn't weakening, or so it appeared to.

Ashley huffed, annoyed. He didn't expect his hits to free Clay from the chain, but he hoped it would at least gash it. He looked at the chain, feeling almost provoked by the red glowing that was starting to fade away.

"Ah ! You think you're funny ?" He said, pointing the tip of his knife to it. "I'm going to show you the real triumph of sapiency then."

"Now you sound like you're part Tsunami." Glory said. "Which would be more than worrying."

"I ain't scared of any tsunamis." Ashley answered, dropping his blade on the floor. It bounced five times before stopping at Starflight's talons. Who lowered to grab it and gave Ashley a concerned glance.

"Did you inhale something ?" He asked. "You're acting... different"

Ashley blanked the moment he heard it. He raised a finger, feeling a bit shaky. He blinked a few times.

Erm. What was I doing already ? Ah yes, teach a lesson to that motherfuckin' chain.

He faced the chain and clutched his pistol, drawing it toward the chain. He wiped his forehead on his arm.

Ok. Maybe he was a bit hotter than he thought. Perhaps he was actually way above the safety threshold.

He had a moment of clarity for an instant, and he spread his legs a bit to strengthen his grip on the floor.

Alright, yeah. Something is definitely wrong.

Then he pressed the trigger and fired once on the chain. Then he heard the loudest bang coming from a handgun.

He staggered backwards, the recoil felt surprisingly strong. His ears were rigging as the cave's stone walls had reverberated the noise above reasonable levels. The muzzle flash completely blinded him like a flash of light striking your eyes at night.

Eventually, his vision faded back to normal, and the rigging went away. But the sight he found himself in front of was not the one he expected.

"Ow, ow ow ow. My ears." Clay was holding his head with his talons, swaying away.

He turned back and saw Sunny and Starflight both ducked on the ground and covering their heads. After a while, Starflight uncovered his eyes, carefully looking toward Ashley.

"W- what was that ?" He asked, shivering. "Should we be dead ?"

Ashley looked down at his hand.

Something isn't right. He repeated to himself.

Shakingly, he dislodged the magazine and unloaded the chamber. He immediately put the ammo in one of his pockets and closed it. That was the first time he discharged his weapon, but that wasn't because he finally felt safe. It was because he was more scared of what could happen with it.

He heard footsteps coming from outside, and, soon enough, two tall Seawing guards entered the cave.

"What in the moons is happening here ?" One aggressively asked.

The other clenched a spear made of a mix of metal and shell-like material, pointing it toward the group, showing his teeth.

"What do you think you are doing ?" He said fiercely.

Sunny jumped on her feet, backing away, she raised her front talons in a sign of peace. "N- nothing. We're not trying to hurt anyone."

"I can feel your lies." The first guard responded. He took a step toward Starflight, who was the closest to him, eying Ashley. "What was that ?" He faced him, almost pressing his head against the Nightwing's, piercing him with a severe glance.

Starflight's eyes opened wide. To say that he looked terrified would have been an understatement.

"It was me." Ashley said.

"I'm sorry, who ?" The guard said, looking around without stopping on Ashley.

"Down here." The human crossed his arms, waiting for the guard to acknowledge him.

Eventually, the guard did stopped and locked eyes with him.

"What ?" He added.

"Yes, you're hearing right." Ashley said. "I'm the one talking."

The second guard walked closer to him.

"The pet talks-"

"Oh shut the fuck up. I am no mere stupid animal like you."

"Hey !" The guard cried, offended. "Take that back scavenger !"

"Why ? Or else you're gonna cry that I insulted your poor overgrown ego ?"

The guard growled and took a step forward, but was stopped by the other guard's talon.

"Leave it." He said with an authoritative tone. "Stay outside."

The other one frowned, then huffed and turned around to leave. When he left, the first guard leaned closer to Ashley.

"So, mind explaining ?" He said.

"It's nothing to worry about. Just some random contraption of mine that exploded." Ashley sighed. "It's useless now..."

Quick, think of something.

The guard narrowed his eyes, doubtful. "What kind of contraption are we talking about ?"

"Well, it's a sort of convoluted lighter using oil, but it malfunctioned and lighted up the whole container of the thing." Ashley let out a small embarrassed laugh. "It's a miracle no one got hurt."

The guard stood in front of him without saying a word for a moment, studying him with a disdainful eye.

"Scavenger nonsense it is then." The guard said, sounding like trying to find a logic to the scene. "How can you talk ?"

"Animus magic." Ashley said. The Seawing raised an eyebrow. "A Sandwing."

The guard's breath stopped, cut mid-inspiration. Ashley saw a glint of worry in the guard's eyes.

"Alright." He said, frowning. The guard turned back and walked away to exit the cave, leaving Ashley on the spot.

Huh... what ? He stood there a moment, stunned. Did it really work that well ?

He looked around, there were only the four dragonets left, who were looking at him dubiously. He raised his shoulders, unsure of what exactly happened, but relaxed them as soon as he felt his left arm hurt him.

Starflight eventually got back onto his feet, followed by Sunny. Clay was sitting still in his spot, holding his ears.

"Is that it ?" Starflight asked. "Was it the reason why it was so loud ?"

Ashley blinked three times before understanding the target of the question. "Oh. Yeah. No that was a complete lie. The result went almost as expected, I wasn't ready for it to be that loud."

"Alright now I don't understand anymore, I give up." Starflight groaned. He flattened himself on the floor, looking all flappy.

"I'm not going to tell them what that thing really is." Ashley said, raising his handgun at eye level. "It would be truly inconsiderate, I can't allow dragons to learn about such things, and even less get their hands on one."

"And you still refuse to explain to us how it works too." Glory said, narrowing her eyes.

"That's right. But you'll know eventually."

"So... What happened ?" Clay asked. Ruffling his ears with one talon. "Did something explode ?"

"All I'm going to say is yes." Ashley answered. He saw Clay pause with a slightly concerned look on his face. "But it's a controlled explosion."

"That doesn't sound very secure." Sunny said.

"It's safer than it sounds." Ashley said. "Well, for the one using it at least."

"Hey, look !" Clay jumped in. "it's broken !"

They all looked at Clay, who was holding the previous part of the chain. When Ashley got closer and Clay showed him the chain, he saw that the ring he had shot had indeed been bent and cracked in one place.

Starflight's head popped on the side. "We could shatter that. Hit it with a rock strong enough and we should be able to free the ring from the others."

"Right. Let's do that." Clay looked around, peering at every corner he could reach, before lifting a rock the size of Ashley's head and coming back to the spot.

The group took a few steps back and verified if any guard could see them. Then Clay struck the chain multiple times, every time making it bounce on the floor with a striking metallic noise.

Then, there was a crunch, and Clay victoriously raised his claws holding the now freed chain.

"You did it !" Sunny cried.

"That's one thing done now. But what do we do next ?" Starflight asked, eventually locking his glance on Ashley.

"What ?" This one said. "I can't be the brain behind every idea."

"Next, I think we need to find an infirmary for you." Glory said, pointing a claw at Ashley.

"For me ? But I'm fine." He retorqued.

"You certainly are not." She said fiercely. "We need to get your case sorted before we do anything else."

Ashley saw Starflight blink multiple times at him. "How can you even think that you're ok ?"

Ashley looked down, he wanted to say something but forgot what quickly. He glanced at his left arm and noticed it was shivering. He dropped his pistol and wrapped his hand on his arm.

"Alright, maybe I feel kinda hot." He mumbled.

"That's it." Glory said. "I'm taking you there."

"Wait-" Ashley didn't have time to argue, Glory passed him in the direction of the exit. He followed her to the entrance. "Hey, Glory !"

She didn't look back, neither did she slow down. Before Ashley realized it, they were both at the outside of the cave, and light was hitting his eyes. He protected his eyes with his hand, the colours were dancing in his eyes, and it looked like the light was flickering continuously. Once his sight adapted, he looked at the floor and noticed it was... Moving ???

Oh- It's a lake. He observed, rubbing his eyes.

"Hey !" He heard a male voice shout. "What do you think you're doing ?"

It was the Seawing guard with the spear, who were pointing it at Glory menacingly. But he was alone, the other guard wasn't present. A part of Ashley had a bad feeling about it.

"We need to go to the infirmary or whatever you have that serves this function." Glory said, matching the guard's look.

"Why ?"

"For him." Glory raised her tail and pointed at Ashley.

"The scavenger ?" The guard raised an eyebrow. "Why should we take care of him ?"

"Because he's badly hurt, and I would rather keep him alive."

The guard looked at Ashley from top to bottom, then snorted. "Why ? How is he important ?"

"Listen here." Glory said, clenching her talons on the mossy floor. "He's our friend, and the queen's daughter friend. If you don't want to find yourself in serious trouble, help us."

The guard snorted again, analysing her for a moment, then he turned back and waved at another guard passing nearby. "Fin !" The guard looked at him. "Get those two to the healing cave."

Fin walked closer but stopped when he saw Ashley. "Ew, I'm not touching that."

"I'll carry him." Glory huffed.

"Fine with me." The guard answered. He didn't wait longer and pushed on his legs to take off, then hovered in the air to wait for Glory.

She grabbed Ashley who let a yelp of surprise under the shoulders and lifted into the air. The two dragons then headed up, flying around the pavilion. They passed caves and cascades as they took height, when Ashley looked down, they were about a dozen of stories high.

Some Seawing heads peered outside of caves, looking at the strange sight of a Rainwing carrying a Scavenger. Most of them were looking amazingly at Glory's shifting colours, but some were giving Ashley curious glances.

Eventually, they reached a cave with a larger entrance, which was located around the middle height of the walls. The tunnel was heading deeper and light was blocked by a curtain of hung kelp.

The guard made a movement with his claws, signalling Glory to walk forward while he was guarding the cave. She let go of Ashley on the floor, who walked forward. He went to the curtain and pushed it to the side, revealing a well-lighted room.

It was wider and longer, and the ceiling was twice the height of your regular room. There were a lot of shelves on the right side, filled with plants, tools and supplies, with a raw desk at the end. On the left, what looked like a row of ten or so 'beds', except it looked more like stone slabs covered with thick moss than actual beds. Each slab was separated by a wooden fence to isolate the wounded dragons.

Speaking of which, there was none of them. Not a single hurt dragon was present, only one Seawing too busy in the shelves to have noticed the two friends.

"ahem" Glory cleared her throat, making the Seawing jump of surprise.

"Oh, hello." The Seawing staggered on its feet, it was a female dragon, looking younger. "I didn't see you there."

"I noticed." Glory said.

"A Rainwing, and... Scavenger ?" The Seawing tilted her head, curious, then she realized. "Oh ! You're the newcomers !" She almost jumped on her feet, looking particularly excited. "I heard you were the Dragonets of Destiny, you're going to end the war right ? But why are you here ? You're not hurt, right ?"

Ashley and Glory both blinked a few times under the flood of questions.

"I'm here for him." Glory pointed at Ashley. "He needs help."

"Oh, I see." The Seawing walked closer, examining Ashley. "Erm, I'm not sure if- I mean. I don't know how to deal with Scavengers, despite how fascinating they are."

The Seawing stopped with her face only a few inches away from Ashley's, her wide green eyes looking at him with a genuine curious interest.

"You can still help." Glory continued. "Anything you do can only improve his health."

The Seawing turned her head to Glory. "It's that bad ?" The Rainwing answered with a nod.

"Hey." Ashley spoke up, immediately gaining the attention of the Seawing. "I'm made of flesh, blood and bones just like any of you. It can't be that hard, right ?" He asked, almost plaintively this time.

The Seawing's eyes widened. "Oh. My. Moons. You talk !"

"You're- the nurse ?" Ashley asked.

"Yes." She nodded. "I'm Azure. But what's your name ?"

"Ashley."

"Well, Ashley, what about you get on a bed and we take a look at you ?"

"Alright." Ashley walked to one of the mossy slabs and sat there, Glory following him with her eyes. Azure joined him.

"I thought Scavengers were less pale." She turned her head to Glory. "Is it, huh... normal ?"

"Yes, he said he's naturally white or something like that." Glory answered. "Although he does look paler than before."

"Oh." Azure looked back at Ashley and noticed his left arm. "I guess that's where the problem is ?" She started to unwrap the fabric covering it.

"Well, we're good then." Glory said, Azure confirmed with a nod. "Alright, since I'm free now, I'll go explore a bit." She took a few steps back, and her scales faded to match the environment. In just a second, she became invisible to the naked eye.

Azure looked at the place Glory was standing at just a moment ago, completely dumbfounded. Eventually, she resolved to deal with Ashley.

When she reached the end of the piece, where the fabric was mixing with the flesh, Ashley groaned in pain. Carefully, and slowly, she pulled away the mediocre bandage, ripping parts of the wound with it. Ashley felt a few tears of pain come up to his eyes.

"Wow." Azure said in a low tone. "Ew."

Ashley looked down and found probably one of the most repulsive sights he had seen in years. The wound had expanded. It was as large as half his arm. A lot more crust had formed, but it was mixed with pus, and the injury was still not fully closed, letting drips of blood come from the bits of exposed flesh. The whole sight was a mix of red, brown, black and ill-yellow.

"That's... Not looking good." Azure said with a very concerned look on her face.

"You think ?" Ashley said. "I still have some doubts."

He was, in fact, not having any doubts. Beyond his wound, he could see that his arm had become of an ill-white colour, with a faint taint of blueish green. His arm still felt as numb as before, if not more, and he was still unable to move his hand and fingers. On the bright side, nothing really hurt anymore, and his forearm, which he remembered to be broken, looked rather fine despite the colour and the bruise.

Well, maybe it wasn't so much of a good thing after all.

"Do you feel that ?" Azure pocked his arm under the wound, but he did not feel a thing. He shook his head.

"What about this ?" She scratched his arm with one of her claws. It didn't hurt. In fact, if he wasn't looking at it, he wouldn't have even known what happened. Looking at it, barely any blood came out too. He shook his head again.

"Hum..." The Seawing thought for a moment, then she raised her eyes to lock up glances with Ashley.

"Erm- Ashley ?"

"Yes."

"I think your arm is dead."