Bubbles opened his eyes. He was standing before Queen Coral.

"Bubbles, did you hear me?" Her Majesty asked. Somehow Bubbles knew.

"Of course, Your Majesty." Bubbles responded, taking a deep bow before the Queen.

"Now go. Before it's too late." Her Majesty ordered.

Bubbles was suddenly aware of his surroundings. He was standing before Queen Coral of the SeaWings, up atop the Summer Palace. Three guards were poised on the outskirts of the top spire, surrounding Her Majesty. Princess Anemone was sitting on her throne, looking rather bored as she cradled a spear in her talons. Bubbles bowed again and flew off the top level.

Bubbles' conscience made him exit the Summer Palace. He flew to a nearby island, where a SilkWing awaited him. Bubbles landed next to her and she gazed into his eyes.

"Hello, Bubbles. I'll give my report now so you can be on your way," She announced. "The Deep Palace is swarming with seed pods. I don't recognize them, the herb experts don't recognize them, nobody recognizes them. You might want to check it out. The northern islands are fine, and so are the Eastern and Western ones. I've heard rumors that there's an invasion on the Southern ones, near the MudWing Kingdom. That's it, that's all, so be on your way. I don't want to waste your time."

Bubbles' vision blurred and sharpened. He was in the Deep Palace talking to the herb experts.

"Here, check this one out. It's spiky and looks like it's sprouting." the herb apprentice said in Aquatic.

"Are there any more?" Bubbles asked.

"A few more are like this one, a couple are smooth seeds like a mango, and the rest of the hundred we could find are small and black."

"Thank you for your time. I'll send a messenger with reports on possible DNA matches."

Bubbles took one of each of the seed pods and placed them inside a small bag he was wearing in his neck. His vision blurred and strengthened again.

He saw the SilkWing from before. Bubbles sensed a radiation of sunshine and something he couldn't place but it was sweet.

"Alright, I've been talking too long. Bye now." She waved.

Bubbles began to wake up.

"Wait, no! Tell me your name!" Bubbles exclaimed. He liked this new dragon. He didn't want to wake up, this was bad timing.

Bubbles woke up. He was lying in the moss bed. He got up to sink his talons in the cold ocean. Ah, sweet relief. He looked at the sky. Sunrise was starting. Bubbles sleepily waddled back to his empty nest. He was about to lay down when he realized that there were two empty nests. Bubbles did a quick check:

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Sandfur was snoring; Cloud was curled in a ball; Spring was flopped on her side; Sunflower had rolled over in her sleep and was covering Cloud with her wing; Frog was murmuring random soup recipes; Alabaster was ironically shivering; Silverstream was also snoring; Msitu was missing; Bubbles was going into panic mode.

"Everybody, wake up! Wakey wakey, there's an urgent problem here!" Bubbles sang as he shook everyone awake.

"Nooo.." Sunflower groaned.

"What's going on? Let us sleep." Cloud murmured.

"Guys, you're not gonna like this. Msitu is gone! There aren't any tracks or trace he was here at all and I'm worried he just abandoned us a-and I'm not sure if he was taken by someone-"

"O-kay, Burbles," Sandfur tried, "calm down. Take a deep breath. We'll search the island for clues."

Over the next few minutes, everyone tore apart the island looking for a giveaway, but there was nothing. Msitu had left. No trace of a talon print, tail trails, or even a spot of disturbed sand. Sunflower used her leafspeak to ask the plants if they knew what happened or where Msitu went.

"Plants are hard to understand, but I was able to make out, 'gone dragon gone. Left, don't know where'. Then they started grumbling about dragons ruining their soil-sand. I mean, if I could make them tell me more, I would, it's just my leafspeak isn't very good at the moment."

After a couple hours everyone had to leave to continue the journey. Bubbles tried to keep his mind off of the disturbing morning, but nothing helped.

"There's another island up ahead!" Frog called from ahead of the group as he looked at the map he was given. Good, Bubbles could see the island up ahead. His wings were getting tired. And sore. So, so sore. The sun was beating down on his scales so he dove into the cold water. That was nice.

There were schools of fish. There were jellyfish bobbling on the surface. And turtles swimming near a coral reef. And whales peacefully gliding in the water. And sharks swimming away in fear. In fact, all the sea creatures were scattering out of sight. Weird. Bubbles could very faintly make out the darkened shape of a crocodile. But this wasn't a regular crocodile. It was huge and racing towards the cluster of dragons flying overhead. What? Bubbles felt a wave of panic surge through him. He raced to the surface to try to warn the others. He was too late.

Queen Ruby sat in her throne room. She had a new addition to her daily routine: public council. Every day, for an hour, anyone who had suggestions or urgent situations could come before their queen. Ruby had added this a couple weeks prior, and so far it works like magic! Many dragons come in every day with amazing suggestions that Ruby would've never thought of. One time an elderly SkyWing came in asking for a better nursing home, a few dragonets wanted to report a bug infestation in the western schools, and even a soldier asked for new weapons for the military.

Ruby even considered a council, but that one could wait. There were so many dragons coming in she had to keep a scroll to keep track of the promises. Every day was like a new adventure. Ruby never knew what would come around the corner! Or, rather, into the conference room. There was always some kind of excitement during those public council hours, but today wasn't.. so great.

Everything started when one of Ruby's guards came in pulling a middle-aged crimson red SkyWing.

"Your majesty," The soldier addressed, "I overheard this.. thing talking you up to a few of the new recruits in the boot camp to the south. The words he used were very.. Colorful."

"I was only speaking the truth!" The SkyWing barked. The guard tossed him towards the Queen.

"Shall I throw him in the dungeons?" The guard inquired. Ruby thought of this. How bad were the words? Does the SkyWing deserve this?

"Put him in the Sand Dunes. I'll interrogate him later." Ruby decided. The Sand Dunes was code for the Royal Dungeons. As the guard shoved the SkyWing down the hall to the Sand Dunes, Ruby swore she could see the faintest of a sly smile on the SkyWing that made her scales prick up and her talons shiver.

Creepy, she shuddered.