Fia sighed and leaned into the wind, flying with her mother up the mountain of Carlinoa Island. Although the contents of her report made the dragonette's heart rife with anxiety, she was not scared to deliver the news to Elder Nura. Among the five leaders of the Carlinoa Clan, Elder Nura was Fia's favorite. The wisest dragoness in the village prioritized her time interacting with all of the dragonets, chatting or playing with them at the level appropriate for their age. It came as little surprise that Elder Nura requested Viliant's presence right away. She'll like him, Fia thought to herself. I just know it.

Close behind her mother's wingbeats, the downstrokes of Evander's wings followed their ascent. Viliant swayed in the loose grip of the dragon warrior's claws.

The structures for the dragons' houses became larger as they flew higher up the slope of the volcano. Midway to the peak, the dragons crested over a plateau. Five thrones of whale bones created a semi-circle where all the dragons in the clan sometimes gathered around the Elder Council. At present, only a white dragoness waited for others to join her.

Fia's mother and Evander landed in front of Elder Nura. Once she hopped off her mother's head, Fia approached the oldest dragoness in their clan. "Hello, Elder Nura. Thanks for seeing me right away."

The nostrils of Elder Nura flared with a deep breath. The dragoness lowered her head down to Fia's eye level, tilting her cheek to invite the dragonette to join her over telepathy. "Fia, it's a happy day that you've come home! Are you hurt, anywhere?" Elder Nura paced around Fia to inspect her before the dragonette completed her spins.

"I'm fine," Fia said, flinging her wings outward to assange their leader's worry. "I made friends with a healer in Malakow. She patched up the one, tiny hole I got in my wing."

"That's a relief." Unlike all the other fire dragons of the Carlinoa Clan, Elder Nura had a rare variation for her element: light. She served as the only healer of their clan who made miracles happen. Despite Fia's insistence that she was alright, Elder Nura scrutinized her with narrowed eyes. "Your fire magic has fully awakened."

When she revealed this to the other dragons who had not bothered to assess the dragonette's magical core, both Fia's mother and Evander gasped.

"No dragonet has ever fully awakened their fire magic so young," Evander stated, impressed that Fia had managed a feat which he had only achieved through the Blazing Ritual.

"Does that mean Fia...?" her mother asked, trailing off with an unspeakable question at the forefront of her mind. Did she almost die?

Yes, Viliant answered silently for them all. The black dragonet accepted the open invitation for telepathy with the other dragons, and he stepped out from behind Evander.

"This is my friend, Viliant," Fia chimed. "He saved my life."

A smile twisted into Elder Nura's tail. "On behalf of the Carlinoa Clan, I thank you, brave dragonet." The white dragoness tipped her nose down to regard Viliant who looked up to her.

Viliant withdrew from telepathy to keep his hope held close to his chest. It's not like their elders will appreciate me any more than Fia's mother, he figured, tempering his expectations. However, they might be able to do more for him than she could.

Elder Nura draped her wings around Viliant's whole body. Close your eyes, she told him. A flash of light warmed his eyelids, chasing away the darkness behind them.

When Viliant reopened his eyes, he looked all around to see what changed. No longer could he view his surroundings through the rips in his wings. A fresh, healthy membrane had grown in its place. "My wings...!" he shouted, his voice breaking from shock. "You healed my wings!" Just like that, the dragon elder had given him what he had given up on.

"It's the least I could do," Elder Nura replied.

"The least...." Viliant murmured to himself. The least she could do had just made his dreams come true. His intact wings lifted in a broad smile, and Viliant's tail looped around itself. He sprung from his claws and tested how well his wings now pushed against the air. Viliant ran around, jumping and flapping his wings. Not a care in the world flitted through his mind. If the dragonet looked silly, he did not care. All that mattered to him was that his wings were restored.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Fia chased after Viliant, prancing and pronking around with him. "Your wings...!" she gasped through her giggles. "Your new wings are amazing, Viliant!"

A slight laughter caught in Viliant's throat, choked by emotion. Already, the dragonet felt like he had soared into the clouds before he even left the ground. His new wings let Viliant experience the greatest happiness yet in his life. While he had celebrated his escape from the coliseum at the time, he was now finally unshackled from that memory.

"You'll still need to strengthen your flight muscles," Elder Nura cautioned him before Viliant leaped off the plateau's ledge "They look underdeveloped from lack of use."

"I've been working with Arenis to teach him how to fly." Evander offered, "You could join us, Viliant." '

Without his spirits dampened by the mention of the other dragonet, Viliant turned and blurted out, "I want to fly!"

Evander chuckled at his enthusiasm. "Great. We'll start tomorrow."

Before Viliant could resume his celebratory laps around the elders' thrones, Elder Nura blocked his path. "Are there any other wounds or scars that I've missed?"

Viliant flipped in a tight circle, following the tip of his tail. His sheeny, black scales lacked the streaks of old scratch lines. He looked like a perfectly healthy, happy dragonet. "No. You fixed everything!"

"I'm glad you feel that way," Elder Nura cooed. "I'll want to see you another day to work on your ley lines."

"What's wrong with them?" Viliant barked. After Diwa had spent so much time untwisting his ley lines and neglecting his wings, he expected them to be fine.

"It seems like you've had a bout of manzy," Elder Mura explained. "The healer you saw in Malakow kept your ley lines from collapsing altogether, but your unawakened element is almost entirely sealed off."

"Huh?" Viliant echoed. He did not know what she meant by an 'unawakened element' since he had already awakened his shadow magic.

"The ley lines of dual element mages are much more complicated than single elements," Elder Nura elaborated, "but don't worry. I'll make it so you can use both elements again."

"I have two elements?" Viliant asked. Maybe I was a metal dragon, all along, he considered. His eager eyes flashed up to Elder Nura for more answers. "What's my other element? Can you tell?"

Elder Nura tipped her horns back. "Your strongest magical core is like mine, except you're from the north. Are you a shadow dragon?"

"Yes! And...?" Holding his breath, Viliant waited for Elder Nura to reveal his second element.

"I'm not sure," she said, much to his disappointment.

Viliant huffed a sigh. It seemed that he needed to discover his second element for himself. Nevertheless, the dragonet considered it immensely helpful to know of its existence with confidence. I guess that's why Diwa had a hard time healing me, he figured, but that did not lessen his frustration with the jungle healer's incompetence. By comparison, he decided, I like Elder Nura. Viliant looked up to the old dragoness who had her white scales thinned to gray around her eyes.

"Once I fix your ley lines," Elder Nura said, "we will ensure you make it safely home. Where are you from, Viliant?"

With a snort, Viliant hoped that he had not made his opinion of her too soon.

Fia swept her wing in front of Viliant. "I promised Viliant that Carlinoa would be his new home!"

An amused chuff made Elder Nura shrug her wings. "Very well. I trust your family will make the proper arrangements for him."

Fia's mother glanced at Evander who had offered to help. "Yes," she said. "We'll figure something out."

"Now then," Elder Nura said, squinting her eyes at Fia. "I believe you have important news to share from abroad?"

The dragonette directed her gaze down to her claws which bore into the dirt. While their conversation had progressed up to this point, more dragons flocked around the clan's gathering spot. The early arrivals had flown off to alert their family and friends about what they saw. Their thoughts always reacted in some form of amazement.

Fia's home!

That adorable dragonette is back from the humans.

Vicente must've saved his daughter.

Other fire dragons took issue with Viliant's presence, distrusting the stranger who scampered around the heart of their homeland.

A pitch, black dragonet has appeared on the island.

That's bad luck....

It doesn't belong here!

For reasons either good or bad, many dragons encircled the whalebone thrones for an impromptu meeting of the elders. The other four members of the Elder Council deemed their attendance necessary. While they perched on their thrones, all the dragons waited with bated breath for the announcement.

Fia drew in a deep breath, her lungs burning with the fire that she held back. The pink dragonette looked up to all the elders with her bright blue eyes ablaze. This was her moment—her reason to fight so hard to make it home.