"But why?" Dawn asked no one in particular. 

'Why what?" Flutterwing asked, and Dawn realized she'd been speaking out loud.

"Huh?" Dawn jerked her head up.

"You said 'why'," Flutterwing reminded her.

"Oh, it's just, I think I saw someone else wearing this symbol before. I think I found out who it was," Dawn said.

Flutterwing flicked her tail, smacking it into a bush. There were squawks as several alarmed birds flapped into the air and settled on a higher branch. Dawn waited for them to settle before continuing. 

"Do you remember that one Aunt? Snapea? I think that was her name?" Dawn said, frowning.

Flutterwing's face darkened. "Yes, I remember her." 

"Oh," Dawn said. Her sister's face made her scared. It made her feel like Flutterwing knew something she didn't.

They walked in silence for a while. Dawn thought through it more. Why would Snapea be standing there? Did she have anything to do with mothers-mothers... No, don't think about that. Pomegranate and Flutterwing will look good together. Does that mean we'll be hatching the egg?

Dawn sure hoped so. She thought having a little sibling would be nice, and it would be much easier to look after a dragonet than keeping an egg from hatching. It was an egg, that was what eggs do. Even keeping it just warm enough to stay alive, cold enough not to hatch, the eggshell had started to get thinner, meaning it would hatch soon regardless.

"HEY! WHO PUT THIS TREE HERE? TREES AREN'T SUPPOSED TO HURT ME! WHY DID THE TREE HURT ME?!" Someone shouted.

Dawn let out a yelp and turned to her sister. "Why did you say that? That's so random."

"Me?" Flutterwing asked. "I didn't say anything."

"Well then, who did?" Dawn asked, glancing around in surprise.

The two dragons rounded the corner, peering at the culprit. A tiny dragonet sat in front of them.  Her scales were a strangely bland shade of green, with pale green underbelly scales. The dragonet's tale was curled, marking it as a prehensile tail. However, she wasn't any RainWing.

A set of narrow spines ran down her back, connected by a cloudy green membrane. Her eyes were the same shade of pale green, but when Dawn looked into them, she shivered. There was the strangest emotion in them. It was like she was drowning in a deep pool.

The weirdest part was that the dragonet was wearing a thin golden choker, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Well, this is quite a surprise. Do you have a name? Where's your mother, little dragonet?" Flutterwing looked just as surprised as Dawn felt.

"Name? NAME IS DEW!" the dragonet said indignantly. 

Dawn winced. There was something immensely wrong about this dragonet.

"And your mother?" Flutterwing inquired.

"MOTHER NONE!" The dragonet shrieked.

"Okay? Do you want to come with us?" Flutterwing said, giving Dawn a puzzled look.

"COME YES-ISH HE GONE," the dragonet announced, practically to the whole forest.

Dawn tried her best to smile warmly, but she felt there was something off about the situation.

"Do you want to take that off? It looks uncomfortable," she asked, pointing toward the chocker.

Dew's eyes flickered. For a minute they almost seemed... Amber? Then she recoiled.

"NO!" She cried, the loudest of all her shouting.

Dawn blinked in confusion. "We should find your parents, little one."

'PARENTS NONE! MOM IS NO!" Dew shouted.

Dawn glanced nervously around, worried that all the noise would draw the big dragons. Flutterwing shot her a panicked look. Dawn just rolled her eyes.

"How about," Flutterwing compromised, "We'll let you stay the night, then see if someone knows who your parents are."

"PARENTS NO! NOT NONE! HE BAD!" The dragonet howled.

She seemed close to a full-blown tantrum, so they decided to back off. Dawn didn't even try to encode the cryptic meaning of the last few words. "Dawn, you should go fishing when we get back." 

Dawn nodded. "And you'll..."

"I'll get this dragonet settled down," Flutterwing said firmly.

And stop her from bringing every big dragon to our door! Dawn thought. The cave appeared in front of them, and Flutterwing started to trot.

"I'll head to the fishing pool, I guess." Dawn sighed.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Flutterwing murmured.

Dawn sighed again. She knew not to take her sister's ignorance personally, but it still hurt her a little bit. 

The fishing pool was close enough to the cave that they went there often. Dawn sighed as she entered the clearing. A tiny waterfall trickled down, forming a deep pool. The ground was covered with smooth stones, with the occasional tuft of grass or clump of moss. The entire clearing was surrounded by bromeliads.

"It's always just so peaceful here," she sighed.

There were a lot of fish that darted around in the pool. The two sisters weren't quite sure how deep it went, but it was deep enough that it was never short of fish. Dawn quietly slipped her camouflaged talons into the water. 

She loved the fishing pool. It was a great place to just think. Especially about all the weird things that had happened that day. Why had all the things decided to go wrong today? She'd seen more blood than she had in her entire life on this one day. And then there was the whole thing with the strange metal disk.

 It was golden. Maybe it had something to do with the wrist cuff on that dragonet. And why was Bamboo doing that? Oh, and did Snappea have anything to do with that? She pushed her thoughts aside and glanced down at the pool.

The fish had instinctively moved away from the ripples, but then they began to come back, with their shaky, unpredictable movement. Dawn flicked her talon, causing a fish to be thrown onto the bank. She slid her talon into the water again and waited.

Five more fish joined the first on the bank. Dawn was good at fishing. It was one of the few things she could do without feeling guilty. Back then RainWings were vegetarians, but Dawn couldn't see why.

Back then, things were different. The big dragons weren't here back then. Dragons could live in peace.  Dawn hesitated, glancing back at the pool before flicking two more fish out to the shore. She hurried towards the cave and heard tell-tale screaming.

"FOOOOD!!" The dragonet wailed.

"No! No food! Food is coming! Just please be quiet!" Flutterwing shot Dawn a panicked look.

"Oh, right, yes, of course! I'll give you these and, um? Hey! Do you want to see my room?"

"No food." The dragonet grumbled.

Dawn nodded as Flutterwing gave her a grateful look. "Actual no, stay and wait food."

Dawn sighed, it felt like she had sighed nonstop all day. She glanced mournfully at the jagged crack in the wall that formed her room. Flutterwing started a fire, and Dawn had a sudden idea.

"Hey! Do you want that off of you? It looks like it'll strangle you at any minute," she said, deciding to try and answer one of her questions first and foremost.

"NO!" the dragonet cried.

Dawn reached her talon out, and the dragonet balked away. She thrashed angrily and lashed out. Dawn winced and slid her talons under the choker, pulling it up.

"Dawn! What are you doing?!" Flutterwing asked, alarmed.

Dawn looked grimly at the dragonet. "Trust me, you'll feel much better with this off."

"NO!"

And with that, Dawn pulled it off. Right in front of her, the dragonet's scales began to change.