Searching for something that can get you killed can be two things: Stupid or heroic. Usually stupid. After about an hour of frantic running, Wish realized that he was stupid. He could just use his scroll to tell him where to go. “Scroll, print a labeled map of the Island and keep it there for the rest of this day, or until I say for it to go away.” Ink started creeping it’s way up from the bottom, in geometric order, until it reached the top, then words began to appear around a few areas, labeling them.

Alright, that’s a start. Now, where is the gem that Onyx is looking for? The thought of it turned a spot on the map into a glowing red dot. Well, that’s convenient. Wish ran to the area that was called the “treasury”, which was hidden inside of the “sleeping quarters”.

The room was more of a large cavern, and time had taken its toll on the abandoned fortress. Wish was not yet near the gemstone, it was a bit farther away. He walked in the direction of the dot, and found a little crack in the solidified lava wall. He tapped the wall with his claw. Granite. Very brittle, and I might be able to punch my way through.

Just as he had brought his arm back, an attacker lunged from behind him and lodged a blade into his shoulder.

Panicked, Wish tried to throw the dragon off his back. He ended up flailing about the room, and eventually swung the assassin into the granite wall, creating a large hole. Catching his breath, Wish pulled the knife out of his back. Thankfully, it hadn’t dug too far in. A few bandages would heal the wound in a few days. The dagger itself was rather what intrigued him.

It was a vibrant gold grip, with a short, serrated silver edge. Decorations included flowers, vines, and an inscription on the blade.

A very albino-looking Sandwing with a dark brown hood had stood up on the other side of the wall. “You,” She yelled. “Need to Di- eeehhh.” She looked at her wings. One was torn, and the other was rolled out of its socket.

“Oh! Oh no, no, nonono.” Wish fumbled for his magic vine, hidden alongside his scroll. The vine was enchanted to heal wounds and scars, and he tried to run towards the assassin, but ended up liming over there.

Why am I letting him help me… her brain protested as Wish wrapped the vine around her dislocated wing. Why is HE helping ME? Wish applied pressure to the vines, and the wing snapped back into place. Rather loudly, he might add. “How would you fix this?” She said, holding out her torn wing fabric.

“I know someone who's really good at sewing.” He said to her. “I know why you’re here, Onyx.”

The Sandwing looked at him with white-blue eyes. Hold on. He thought Don’t Sandwings have pure black eyes? He looked at her tail. It was a white, like Sandwings, but it had little quills coming out. It looked like someone had snapped them off, though. Oh. He remembered that the scroll had called her a hybrid. A Sandwing-Icewing?

“I don’t want your help. I want you dead.” She barked at him. “AND STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!”

“Are you sure you want me to die?” Wish asked her. “Or is that just what your great grandmother wanted?” Onyx snarled at him, her teeth looking like they were frostbitten. “Four generations of angry dragons. Three of them had spent their lives full of rage. Break the cycle, Onyx. You aren’t your mother. You aren’t your grandmother or your great grandmother.”

“I SHOULD HAVE THE THRONE!! THAT’S WHAT THORN TOOK FROM MY FAMILY!!” She yelled at him. She was full of bitterness. Her mother had pretty much brainwashed her into a blind rage.

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“Hey,” Wish nudged her, wincing in the pain in his shoulder. He wrapped the vine around it. “The more you get to know me, the less you’ll want to kill me.”

She scrunched up her snout in his direction. “Sure, whatever.” She started heading towards the exit. “Just get my wing fixed so I can get out of here.”

“Fair enough.” Wish shrugged. “So, pineapple or mango?”

* * *

“Okay, okay,” Onyx says, laughing. “nunchucks or shurikens?”

“Depends, who am I fighting?” Wish responds. They had been talking for a long time now, and her wing was almost fixed

“You're fighting me, duh.” She rolls her eyes.

“Shurikens. Definitely” Wish tells her truthfully. “Ranged attacking stuff.” He was really hoping that she would stay.

“Well, I’m done now.” Willpower said. “It’s been fun watching you two get along, good day.” He walked down the long, winding corridors that were his hallways.

“Hey, wanna meet Queen Pansy?” Wish asked her. “I’m practically her best friend, so you could.” At this point, he was just trying to convince her not to leave.

“I’d rather see the nursery.” She said. “I heard that you just plop all your eggs in one spot, forgetting which ones are yours.”

“Actually, we organized it very recently. We have pools of eggs designated to each family.” Wish says to her.

Just then, Pansy and Marmoset fly in through the balcony.

“WISH!!” They cry simultaneously.

“You could have died!!” Marmoset screams. “Why?! Why would you try to find a dragon that wants to kill you?!!”

“And why is she RIGHT THERE?!!!” exclaimes Pansy. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO WISH?!!!” She points at the scarred Sandwing.

Onyx raises her talons in the air. “I didn’t do anything to him.” She admits. “If anything, he’s changed me. I don’t feel like assassinating him anymore, he’s a really cool dude.” She shoves him with her newly-sewn wing.

“Oh.” Pansy says, surprised. “I guess he really is good at making friends. Have I ever mentioned that he has excellent taste in friends?”

Wish laughed. “Something like that.” He looks around, trying to find another conversation to start.

When he looked, he didn’t see Onyx. He frantically turned around. She was halfway out the window with his vine in her mouth, and her dagger safely returned. She snarled at him, before dropping. Down, down, down, into the forest. She’s gone now.

“She-” Wish stuttered. “SHE TOOK MY MOONS-BLASTED VINE!!! I’M SUCH AN IDIOT!!!” Wish jumped out the window and chased after her.

It looked like she knew exactly where she was going. Precise left turn here, above the canopy there, so on and so forth. Eventually they burst out of the forest, and into open dunes. He had lost her.

But he knew where she was heading. He could still stop her.

His friends caught up after about five minutes, panting heavily.

“Wish!” Marmoset cries. “Why did you trust her!! You knew what she wants to do to you!!” She pulls down and lands on the sand. Wish does the same.

“Straight up honest, that was stupid, Wish.” Willpower tells him. “Don’t do something like that again.”

He turned to look at his friends. He put his kindest intent into his eyes. “I’m going to go do it again,” He admitted. “She’s going for the Scorpion Den, I can still intercept her!”

Pansy comes down to his side. “You mean we. WE are going to stop her. I’m not gonna let you die.” She hugged him with her wing. “Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”

Then Marmoset comes to his other side, and hugs him, too. “Not on our watch, Wish. We’ve got your back!” She punched his shoulder in a playful gesture.

Then Willpower comes in at an angle and hugs him. “As my best friend, you will NEVER die, not to an assassin nor to a clan full of them.” Willpower said encouragingly to Wish. “And as your best friends, we won’t die either, because that would also be sad.”

Pansy and Marmoset roll their eyes at each other, but Willpower doesn’t notice. He just keeps on grinning his ridiculous smile.

“Well then,” Wish said, holding his wing out to the center of the little circle that they made, and the others followed. “On three! ONE TWO THREE, SLEEP!”

“Wait, sleep?” Pansy said, looking up at the sky. “Oh, rodents. It is late.” She grins at Wish, “It’s hammer time.”

He grins back. “Hammer time.”