“Gadalik?!” The light blue water dragoness’s exclamation echoed off the walls of their spacious den. “Where did you get that bruise?!”

“Huh–what?” the young green seer-earth dragon hybrid managed to vocalize in his half-awakened state. He had been out for most of the night, staring at the stars for a sign that his surreal meeting with the wind dragon wasn't a dream. Mere hours had passed since his return to the den and morning.

“Bruise?” Guinevere lifted her head out of a sound sleep, concerned.

Glacia rounded on her. “You were supposed to supervise him,” she snarled. “You promised me you wouldn't let him crash-land!”

The fairy dragoness’s insect-like wings flashed yellow, then alternated between purple, green, and red, as she narrowed her eyes and bared her own small fangs in response to such sudden hostility.

Gadalik rushed between them, then winced from the ache of his muscles which he realized were indeed visibly bruised. “She had nothing to do with it,” he cried. “I snuck out last night without her…!”

Glacia gaped at him in shock. “You what?!”

He flinched from her volume. “There was a wind dragon outside. Apparently she saw me training, and when I met her she tried to help me fly, but it didn't work–so I fell–and–”

“You let a wind dragon watch him train?!” the finned dragoness once again turned on the other adult.

“I sensed nobody in range of the forest,” Guinevere stated as a matter of fact, her voice calm but her wings a mix between red and purple.

“So you're calling my son a liar?!” she snapped.

“Well, none of them are lying,” sounded a new voice from outside the den, startling everyone. A white juvenile wyvern trotted inside on silent purple-striped paws.

“Gretel!” Gadalik was both surprised by her sudden reappearance, and relieved to know she hadn't been a figment of his imagination after all.

“Heya!” the young wind dragoness greeted him with a grin. “Wanna go play?”

“...Okay,” Glacia grumbled, “somebody better tell me what's going on before I do something we'll all regret.”

Gretel tilted her triangular-shaped head, not at all fazed by the bigger dragon’s temper. “Gadalik already told you. What more do you want to know?”

By this point Guinevere finally calmed enough to think straight, her glow a green color. “Wind dragons can see someone from well over a mile away,” she remembered.

“Two miles, to be exact,” she beamed.

“And?” Glacia pressed, clearly too upset to catch on to the implication.

“And I was watching him a half-mile from the forest. There's no way that fairy type would've sensed me.”

Glacia looked between them all, her red eyes settling on Guinevere. She sighed heavily. “I’m sorry…”

Her wings gradually returned to their neutral pink color. The tension in the air faded.

“Well?” Gretel repeated herself, addressing her new friend. “Let's go!”

“Go…where, exactly?” Glacia butted in, eyeing the newcomer with suspicion.

She shrugged. “I don't care. Anywhere but the mountains, I guess.”

“What's wrong with the mountains?” Gadalik asked, remembering that earth dragons lived at the base of them.

Gretel stared at him, the least bit offended. “You wanna see me killed?”

“What?! No! What does death have to do with the mountains?”

“You're part earth dragon; you should know the answer to that!”

Gadalik tried to piece together what she meant. Do earth dragons kill wind types? How would that even be possible when the latter can just fly away?

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That caught Guinevere’s attention.

“Geez. I thought you were nice,” Gretel pouted. “If you decide you don't want me dead, I'll be waiting at our rock for you.” She left.

Gadalik was once again rendered dumbstruck. What did I do wrong? He shook his head and moved to follow her, but his adoptive mother stopped him.

“You’ve got some explaining to do, mister,” she chided. “What on earth drove you to sneak out like that? If Gretel were any older, you would have been killed, for sure!”

He shrank. “Why…?” Do wind and earth dragons hate each other that much…?

“There’s a reason your parents and I decided to raise you here. This forest is the fairy dragons’ territory, shared only in the winter with the occasional water type like me. Fairy dragons are the only type that don't hunt or fight others.”

He blinked. “What about water dragons?”

“Don't trust them, either,” she answered sternly.

“But I trust you…?”

“Yes, but I'm different.”

“How?”

She opened her mouth, then shut it and looked away. “You'll understand when you're older…”

Gadalik frowned. He suddenly realized just how sheltered his life was. He knew nothing about other dragons’ traditions like Emergence Day, or the conflicts that different types may have with each other. Gretel didn't seem to believe that someone could be as ignorant as him, perhaps convinced he was playing dumb just to hurt her. “No,” he said out loud.

Glacia froze. “...What?”

“I know you want to protect me… But if you want me to be able to protect myself, you have to tell me what I need to look out for,” he said, standing taller with his striped blue eyes looking into hers.

“I already told you: you need to look out for everyone.”

“Why? Every dragon I've met here has been nice to me!”

“Oh, really?” she scoffed. “What about the seer from your visions?”

Gadalik tensed.

Glacia gasped and covered her mouth. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up,” she murmured. “Look… All I'm saying is that there are dragons who think hybrids, like you, shouldn't exist. Juveniles like Gretel might be too young to care… But if you had encountered anyone else on your own last night, I guarantee you wouldn't be standing here to back-sass me right now.”

“But… Gretel’s harmless. Can I at least go and apologize to her…?”

“‘Harmless’? Look at that bruise covering half of your body!”

“That wasn't her fault…! She tried to keep me from falling with her wind, but I was too heavy, and I…” His voice trailed off as he was suddenly reminded that flight had been confirmed impossible for him.

Glacia grew hesitant by that reaction. “Gadalik…?”

He didn't answer her.

“Come on, big guy… Maybe you should tell us what actually happened last night. Then we'll see about you and Gretel, alright…?”

“...It doesn't matter,” he muttered, refusing to admit his disability out loud. She sat back, glancing helplessly toward Guinevere.

The fairy dragoness approached them. “I've never sensed such sadness from you before,” she murmured.

He looked up at his former mentor, remembering how she had tried to let him down gently about his wings when he'd first set the goal to fly. Even Glacia had warned him it could never happen, despite her attempts to be encouraging.

Gadalik turned his back to them both. Is this really how I'm meant to live: alone, and in hiding, just because I'm a hybrid…? Am I meant to sit by and watch the rest of the winged dragons live their lives from below…? Seeing Guinevere and Gretel both flying away without me…?

“Hey,” Glacia called to him softly, placing her webbed hand on his shoulder. “It's okay… If you want to see Gretel that much, well…I’ll believe you about the bruise not being her fault. You can go play with her, alright…? Just…promise me you won't sneak out again.”

Gadalik sniffled, then leaned his body back against hers, feeling her pull him into a hug. He briefly wondered what she had meant by being different. Perhaps she had her own struggles nobody else knew about. When she finally let go, he stepped back, feeling better. “Thank you…”

“I'm here if you ever want to talk, okay?” she assured him. He nodded. “Now go! Get outta here and have some fun with your new friend!”

The hybrid smiled and gave both of his parental figures an affectionate headbutt before he raced out to the northern edge of the forest, where a few large rocks jutted from the ground just before the cliff. As promised, Gretel was laying halfway off the ledge of the boulder they had first met at, her left winged arm dangling over the side so she could impatiently tap her paw on the rock to the rhythm of a song she was humming to herself.

He took a second to admire her voice: it was strong, and her pitch was perfect. When her song came to an end, he purposefully cleared his throat.

Gretel leapt to a stand immediately. “Oh, man! Took you long enough! I thought you'd never show up!”

“Hey... I'm sorry if I was rude earlier. I wasn't playing dumb to hurt you; I truly don't know what earth dragons and wind dragons have against each other.”

“Uhh…what? There's nothing bad between them. What gave you that idea?”

“You said you'd die if you went to the mountains…and that since I'm an earth dragon, I should know why.”

“Yeah. And?”

“If you're not saying earth dragons will kill you, then who will?”

“The same ones that targeted earth dragons forever ago. Do you really not know your own history?”

He shook his head, a bit embarrassed.

“I'm talking about light dragons, on the mountaintops.”