Sweat was dripping down his head, his arms, and along his back and tail. He had been working hard recently, keeping the trees growing, and the animals fed. Yes, animals had visited Steininsel, and most likely from the tunnel. Nobody would notice that some of the rainforest animals had disappeared, but rather would call it a bad hunting day and give up.

Wish giggled as a fox rubbed its side against his hind leg, like a human’s house cat. It yipped at him, asking for something. Probably food, most animals are just desperately hungry.

He handed the little rodent killer some fresh strawberries. The fox took them happily, licking his talons clean.

Wish preceded his work of planting fresh fertilizer around an unhealthy banana tree. “There you go, little one. Grow big and strong, reach for the skies!” He told it, walking through the complex forest that he had grown after a few weeks’ worth of work. His little wood cottage had begun to mold and decay, but he rather liked the overgrown look.

Wish admired every aspect of the new jungle on Steininsel. The different greens of leaves, complimenting the blues and whites of the fungi and moss. At the moment, an echidna had taken residence in his home. He tossed it a blueberry and let it take shelter for as long as it needed. He walked over and fed some carrion to a hawk that had also decided to take shelter, about a week ago. It had a rather large rash on it’s leg, and it looked like it couldn’t fly without irritation.

Wish decided it was about time to contact Pansy again. He took the obsidian out of his right pouch and thought about Pansy.

“Wish!” She greeted him as soon as the smoke had appeared. “Good to see you, what’s new?”

“Well,” Wish started. “There’s an echidna in my home, so that happened. The hawk is still too shy to eat from my talons, and her leg is almost better. The trees are looking wonderful, almost ready to bear fruit.” Wish looked around. “Honestly though, it’s so demanding. All the individual animals and plants and fungi all want things from me. It’s hard to keep track!”

“It feels the same here, actually.” Pansy tells him. “The dragons of the forest all want things for me to do, some want more paper for the schools, therefore less trees, some want to preserve the trees, because they feel pain. Some want an alliance with the Icewings in case of war, others deny that war will ever surface.” She sighed and looked at her talons. “I need your help.”

“You mean my complicated over-thinking brain? You need my brain, because it works harder than yours.” He teases.

“Yeah, basically.” Pansy admits. “But a hug would also be nice.” She smiles shyly.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Wish told her, flaring his wings. “Anyway, next subject, how are things between you and Marmoset?”

“Oh terrible.” She replied, her pupils narrowing. “She’s such a pain in the tail! Judging everything that I do, like she’s my queen! I don’t know how you can consider her a friend.” Pansy sighs, her wings drooping. “Stressful life, am I right?”

“You are entirely right, as always.” Wish supports her, sharing her feelings. He’s so glad that they can relate to each other.

Pansy looks off to the side for a moment. “Well, I’ve got a council meeting in five minutes, so I’ll catch you up after that. Bye!” She tells him cheerfully.

The smoke closes on her image, and Wish feels alone again. Like the birds and squirrels aren’t chattering in the trees, like the ocean waves aren’t beating against the shore. He always feels this way after a talk with Pansy. She makes him so happy, he barely knows what to do when she’s gone.

Wish decides that he should draw his feelings out. He had become rather masterful with the pen, making true masterpieces from parchment and ink.

He chose a cool, blue tone, and that he would draw a dark, cold cavern of ice. Jagged, pointing pillars stretching from the cave’s roof. The walls, slowly sloping up, up, and around into the top of the cave. And in the center, he drew a shadowed silhouette. It was unrecognizable as any living thing, but all you know is that it’s cold. He draws little gray puffs of breath coming from the figure.

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Once finished, he took a pine needle and stabbed it into his wall, alongside several other pieces of art. Almost that whole side of his wall was covered in parchment. The majority of which were negative, with fear, loneliness, sorrow, anger, and very few drawings depicted pride or joy, but some did. Some.

After drawing, Wish felt a bit better. He walked out of his home and off to the other side of the island. He was just checking on the trees over there, seeing if they needed anything. Then he noticed something.

The vines that covered the entrance hole had been shuffled around. It couldn’t have just been a large animal, like a bear. Because it looked like they had been shoved back into place half-halfheartedly.

Oh no. NO! Wish’s brain screamed. Someone has his secret! Just as he was thinking that, there was a sharp pain in the back of his skull and Wish dropped to the ground, unconscious.

Sitting up, coming from an unconscious spell, Wish had some very notable differences from when he dropped. Firstly, his mouth and wrists were tied together with metal bands. Secondly, it was twilight. He saw several different stars in the sky, all looking beautiful. Thirdly, he was on a yellow sand beach, not on Steininsel.

And then, there was the dragon poking a campfire with a stick.

“I was hoping you’d wake up sooner.” She told him, continuing to turn the logs in the fire. “You made me wait quite a while.” All Wish could do was scowl in her direction, and it hurt to do that even, because the metal band was pricked on the underside. “Well, I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment. But you already know that.” She walked around the fire, showing that this dragon was, in fact, Onyx.

“I’m not going to kill you.” She said. “You changed my mind about that. Like the pesky little peacemaker that you desperately long to be.” She walked over and knocked his head onto the sand, then stepped on it with her front talon, gently. “I’m going to do something much worse than that.” She bent over and hissed into his ear. “You are going to spend the rest of your life in a never ending fall. Your little charm on your ear will prevent you from dying of starvation or dehydration, causing you to spend literal centuries in a hole. Waiting to reach the bottom. It will be torture for your brain, your sanity will slowly decline, and the only thing you’ll be able to hear is my voice, reminding you that everyone you love is dead.”

Hm. That was an odd threat. Wish closed his eyes and relaxed. It’s like I’ve heard about it before. And either way, I won’t just be listening to your voice. I’d remember Pansy. Just at that convenient moment, the obsidian shard began to create a smokey window.

“Wish?” Pansy called from the other side. “Hello, do you need something?”

That wasn’t intended. Onyx’s brain thought. But it’ll work for now. She let go of Wish’s head and walked over to the smoke. “Wish can’t see you right now. He’s currently playing a game called captive.” She ominously hissed into the communication device.

Pansy’s scales shifted to a red-orange, like fire. “You.” She hissed back. “If you so much as laid a claw on him, I will rip out your guts and beat you with them until your skull is exposed.” She snarled, and Wish could tell she was every bit serious. Wish sat up again, just enough so that Onyx could step aside and reveal him. “Okay, that’s it. Onyx, you’re dead meat.” Pansy had spread her wings, ready to take off when Wish began shaking his head.

“Oh, my my. Looks like he has something to say about this.” Onyx teased. She took a key and unlocked the bands around his snout. Wish instantaneously gasped and panted, trying to guess how much blood that the metal bands had drawn.

“I’m going to be okay.” Wish said. “I’ve got some awesome friends, and they can know for sure that I’ll be fine with whatever situation I get into.” Wish steps up to the smoke. “My friends are the world to me, and I know that everyone needs a friend sometimes.” Wish laughed and looked at his feet.

Pansy looked like she was about to cry or throw something or murder someone or all three. “Don’t you dare die.” She sobbed. “Or I will have to have you beheaded.” She joked.

Wish let out another laugh. “Add it to my treason list.” He said. “I have another reason for being okay, though.” He admitted.

“Yeah?” Pansy asks. “It better not be bananas, Wish don’t you dare say bananas.”

“No,” Wish told her. “THIS!” He spun in a circle until his tail whipped into Onyx’s stomach and pushed her into the campfire. It wouldn’t do too much, being a small flame, so Wish made it bigger.

Summoning up the heat from inside his chest, he breathed some fire onto Onyx as well. Not enough to kill her, but enough to escape. “Pansy, I’ll see you soon, but for now I’ve got to run.” Wish thought of the window closing and flapped as hard as he could towards the nearest forest, and West.

His days of hiding were over, he had done what he could to Steininsel. It was time for him to take action, to force his own future.

He was going to do everything in his power to stop Onyx.