On the morning the dragon queen was to arrive, Enya had awoken early to help her father and some other people to set up the tents and decorations to make the field where the event was to be held look nice, leaving a wide space perfect for the dragons to land.

"Wow, you guys did an amazing job here!" Ezran exclaims when everything was done being set up. "I'm sure Zubeia will love it!"

"She better, we've been up since the crack of dawn setting this up!" Ella yells from the top of a ladder where she had been tying a banner to a pole. "Actually I've been up much earlier to help my uncle do the thing he wanted to do!"

"I'm sure she'd appreciate all of our efforts to make this day special." Enya chuckles as her friend gets down. "Oh this is so exciting, and this is gonna be Tart's first time meeting her and Zym in person!"

Tart, who was at her mother's side, gave a happy chirp and flared her wings in response before excitedly stamping her little feet.

"I'm sure Zym is gonna be happy to have a friend around his age, too bad she's been too shy in the past to see him." Ezran chuckles. "I should go, gather at the tent so we can all be together to greet Zubeia as a council!"

"Will do your majesty!" Ella yells before the young king runs off and she yawns. "Oh boy, after this tonight I'm gonna go straight to bed. I barely got enough sleep because the party ended so late and I had to get up to help my uncle."

"Same here. But I only awoke to discard the jelly tarts I consumed at the party and couldn't fall asleep afterwards." Enya says and yawned as well. "Oh well, at least we got all that work done and everything looks great. Where is Cici anyways, they said earlier they'd meet us here to see the dragon queen and hopes Ibis would be here."

"Eh, probably tending to the crows and mail as usual, this event won't start for another...I don't know when, but it starts when the queen gets here."

Just then, the sound of a dragon's roar pierced the air, startling everyone around them. Tart gave an excited chirp and danced around Enya excitedly before curling her tail around her wrist and looks up at the sky eagerly as two large shapes were making their way towards them.

"That's them! To the main tent!" Ella yells as she grabbed her friend by the hand to drag her to where Ezran was standing to stand next to Corvus and Soren. "Oh this is so exciting! I've never seen a real dragon before!"

"Tart's like, right here." Corvus says as the young dragon huffed at the human.

"Yeah I know, but I mean like...that one!" Ella says as she points to the big red, black and gold dragon that landed in the field, sending some dust flying.

"Hey it's Pyrrah!" Soren yells as he waved at the big dragon. "The one who broke my spine and got her horn cut off by me!"

"Soren!" Enya scolds before Zubeia lands, sending dirt, dust and static everywhere as they cover their faces. When it settles, she turns to look at her husband and immediately clamps her hands over her mouth to hide her gasp and laugh.

"Oh ancients, your hair!" Ella laughs as Soren tries to smooth it down.

"Sorenpleasefixitbefore-" Enya lets out a burst of laughter as she leans on Corvus for support and pounds his chest. "I'm sorry! It's just too - I can't!"

"Don't worry, I'll fix it, just give me some time." Soren says once his hair settled. "There! Handsome again."

Once Zubeia had risen and turned her attention to them, the council then bows in respect before she bowed in return. "King Ezran."

"Zubeia, queen of the dragons, your heavenly majesty!" Ezran greets. "Ruler of the skies, lands and seas of Xadia, I hereby formally welcome you to our-"

Ezran was then cut off as an all too familair blue dragonet flew right at him and knocked him several feet back, barking happily while licking his face.

"Aww there's the little guy!" Soren laughs. "Hey Tart that's- TART!"

Tart had immediately thrown herself at Zym with a loud growl, rolling several feet until she had him pinned under her, baring her fangs at the prince.

"Get her off him!" Enya yells as she dashed over and quickly clamped the young dragon's mouth with one hand while using her free arm to grab her neck. "Tart! It's okay, Zym is a friend and he wasn't hurting Ezran! Enough!"

"Bad! Bad! We don't do that!" Soren scolds as he grabbed Tart from under her arms and with Enya, they dragged her right off of Zym before he scampered back to his mother to hide behind one of her legs. "Queen Zubeia I am so sorry for her behavior! Please don't zap her!"

"Soren don't say that!" Enya yells as Tart struggles in their grasp. "I mean, yes don't let her zap Tart, but seriously!"

"I mean I was the one who taught her to attack anyone or anything who hurts the king, so this is on me!"

"Hmm, a dragon as part of a human guard, that's new." Zubeia says as she dropped her head to look at them better. "How strange, I don't think I've seen this little one before."

"Oh that's...Jelly Tart, someone gave her egg to me to care for and...well I'm basically her dad - or mom since she imprinted on me first." Soren says as Tart gave an annoyed growl and wiggled her tail angrily. "H-hey! Behave, we don't misbehave in front of the queen of dragons. And you are gonna calm down and apologize to the prince - now."

Tart gave an annoyed grunt in response and rolled her eyes.

"Young lady don't sass me! Now I am gonna let you go and you are going to say sorry to Zym, and don't fake it because Ezran can hear you."

Tart gave an annoyed growl but allowed herself to be released before sulking forward to where Zym was hiding. Zubeia nudged him away from her leg as the smaller red dragon approached before she huffed and gave a loud growl before licking his snout and ran back to her parents.

"There, see? That wasn't so bad!" Soren sighs as Tart rests her head on his knees with a huff. "Alright, now we can move forward."

"Uh, where's Callum?" Ella asks. "Wasn't he supposed to be here for the thing? He was the opening act."

"Opening act?" Zubeia asks.

"Well the official plan was to welcome you with a display of majestic light and color from the high mage." Ezran explains looking around. "But he seems to not be here so..."

"Oh!" Soren exclaims and hurries over to whisper something into Ezran's ear before the king nods and he runs off.

"So instead we're going to welcome you with the comedy stylings of crownguard Soren!" Ezran finishes as everyone around them starts talking.

"Wait what's he gonna do?" Ella asks as Soren ran back over to them with a wooden crate and drops it bottom up on the ground.

"Oh no." Enya groans, knowing all too well what this was. "Please don't eat him over a bad dragon pun..."

"Wait dragon puns?"

"Umm...you'll see. I suppose anything better than one of his made on the spot off beat poems."

"Hi welcome, welcome!" Soren yells as he climsb on the crate to face Zubeia. "Now we've met before, you might recall my name is Soren, but from the looks of you flying overhead, you are the one who is soarin'!"

"Oof, tough crowd." Ella mutters when this only earned the knight silence and a cough from someone in the crowd.

"That's not gonna stop him, he's had worst reactions from me and Tart when he'd practice these sorts of puns and jokes from us." Enya whispers to her.

"Huh, well now I'm very curious to see where this is going."

"Okay, how can you tell a dragon's weight, huh?" Soren continues, not deterred by the poor reaction from earlier. "You use dragon scales!"

"Dragons do not concern ourselves with our weight." Zubeia responds.

"Okay but-but if you did, though, right? If you did, scales measure weight!"

"I have jelly in my hair!"

"Yes they do, it's very funny."

"I knew it!"

This earned some laughs from the crowd, much to Enya's surprise and relief, even some cheers from Corvus and Ella.

"Okay I got another, this one my wife over there actually laughed at the other day because this happened to our little dragon." Soren says pointing at his wife. "And she usually just groans at my jokes."

"Then lets hear it." Zubeia says and Soren clears his throat.

"What's something dragons find the most annoying on their birthdays? Blowing out their birthday candles!"

This earned him some more laughs from the crowd, and even Enya ended up chuckling as well. She remembered all too well how Tart couldn't blow out the candle on the cake they got her for her hatching day and ended up setting the whole cake on fire our of sheer frustration.

"There see! She laughs!" Soren yells and Tart covers her face in embarrassment, knowing full well where the joke came from. "And that's why Tart lets us blow her candles out too! Alright I got a few more that will really get a chuckle out of you!"

"If he keeps this up, Callum will have a worked up crowd if he wakes up." Ella says as they clap. "Should we go get him?"

"I'm sure by now he's awake and rushing to get here, I wouldn't be surprise if he stayed up last night reading through that tome Amaya sent him." Enya says as Soren tells another joke that earns him more laughs. "Yesterday when I bumped into him, he would not stop raving about it and ran off screaming "I LOVE BOOKS" before nearly crashing into someone."

"He would." Ella laughs.

"Now I do have lot more funny jokes, but I'll wrap it up here as I would not want my comedy routine to....dragon." Soren says with a grin. This actually got Zubeia to chuckle before it turned into a laugh and she started stamping her paw hard enough to shake some nearby humans. "Alright thanks! I'm Soren and that's my time!"

"That was amazing!" Ella says when Soren hops off his stand and walks back to his wife and friends. "I knew you were funny, but I didn't think you'd actually be this entertaining!"

"A mhuirnín, that was amazing!" Enya laughs as her husband pulled her into a hug. "Who would have thought the queen of the dragons and all of Xadia would actually laugh at your jokes?"

"Not me, that's for sure." Soren chuckles. "Now this is something to brag about to the future generations, huh? Youngest crownguard of Katolis made the dragon queen laugh! Put that in the history books historians!"

"They'll probably write you off as the court jester for that alone."

"Then I'll make sure they don't!"

"Wait wait wait!" They hear someone yell. "So sorry so sorry!"

"Oh there's your brother." Corvus says as Callum came swooping in and lands, accidentally dropping several colorful glass balls and Bait from his backpack. "And Bait."

"Oh the light show he was talking about at the meeting!" Ella gasps as Callum says a spell and sends all five balls flying around before they suddenly flew right into the giant jelly tart Barius has unveiled earlier. "Oh."

"Yikes." Soren mutters. "Uh maybe we should-"

The tart then explodes, sending bits of bread and jelly everywhere, some even landing on Zubeia. Everyone watched nervously before she licked it off her snout and smiled. "In the name of the dragons and the first elves, I declare this the most delicious jelly in all of Xadia!"

"Oh that's going down in history too." Corvus laughs as they clap. "Oh poor Tart."

The little red dragon was covered in a lot of jelly on one side, which she promptly began to try and lick off.

"And there went our attempts to keep her clean for the day." Soren sighs before flicking off a piece of tart stuck on his armor. "Well at least she's enjoying the treat."

"And at least none of us got jellied that badly." Enya adds as she brushes off some bread that landed on her arms. "Well now we know what to give to the other archdragons to appease them if we met them: jelly tarts."

After the crowds got their fill of refreshments and pastries, they all soon moved to the Valley of Graves where they gathered at the large stone altar where funerals for the royal families were normally held. Enya and Ella stayed behind witht he crowd as their friends made their way to the altar where a large object covered with an embroidered cloth sat.

"The jelly tart was a gift of joy, this painting is a gift of hope and friendship, I hope you like it!" Ezran says happily as he went to unveil the object, earning horrified gasps from the crowd.

"Oh my gods, who did that?!" Ella whispers to Enya in horror. "Anna worked so hard on it!"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Enya says as she glances back at the crowd.

"Who did this? Speak for yourself!" They hear Soren yell at the crowd. "If you want to say something to the dragon queen, you should say it to her face - her real face that can bite you in two! Come on coward!"

Enya flinches when she sees he tries to take out his sword before Ezran stops him, shaking his head before Soren steps back, looking upset.

"I had a speech planned for today, it was about peace and love and hope. But I think I left something out - I ignored something that was true, I denied something that was undeniable." Ezran says as he walked down a few steps to address the crowd. "We are angry! I am angry. I have been hurt, my dad was killed when I was nine years old, my mom was taken from me before I could even remember her. It hurts! I feel pain about this and I am angry!"

Tart chirps and looks to Enya before running up to the altar where Zym was and climbed up to stand by the young king as he continued his speech.

"How can we stop this cycle? Violence, loss, pain, violence, loss, pain, more violence, stop! I just want to yell stop." Ezran continues. "But that's not enough, it won't work. I think about a positive vision, a fate we can all share. That we might build a future and hope, a future where we can be safe with each other, but it's not that easy or simple, because people are still hurting and they are still angry."

"He has a point." Enya says quietly and her friend nods. She was witness to this sort of anger and hate two years ago - an angry drunk attempting to kill her elf friend when they went out to the village for supplies. It turned out the man had a dislike for elves for what one did to a close relative of his, and seeing Reyna had triggered all the anger and hate he had for elves. "And it's hard to let go of that hate."

She looks around as Ezran continues to talk, watching the nervous looks the crowd had been making earlier change to smiles and nodding in agreement. She looks back to the altar to see Tart and Zym press against Ezran in a hug as he hugged them back.

"Oh Corvus is gonna play now!" Ella gasps as Corvus took a seat and positioned the large string instrument to play it.

"This is called "A Song of Love and Loss." Covus announced before he began to play a woeful sounding tune.

"Hey I thought you were gonna sing with him today?" Enya says as they listen to the music.

"I was, but I am just...I don't know, I thought maybe I shouldn't." Ella admits with a nervous chuckle. "Plus I think this piece sounds nice without my singing."

"It does sound beautiful, and sad."

"Well that is the point, isn't it?"

Corvus continued to play, everyone was being given candles to light and hold or put near the graves, the sky now turning dark as Opeli lit the torches near the altar. Once that was done, he finished his playing, stood up and bowed.

"Hey, who's that?" Ella asks, pointing to a figure at the front of the crowd who was walking to the altar. Enya looked to where a hooded figure was standing before they pulled the hood back and she gasps. She quickly hands her candle off to her father and pushed her way to the front of the crowd to see it really was Rayla.

"Rayla!" She manages to say and the elf turns to her with a surprised face before Ezran rushes forward to hug her tightly. Enya couldn't help but smile at the sight, glancing back to see Callum coming over, not at all confused.

Before any of them could say anything, as trong wind ripped through the crowd, extinguishing all their candles and lights in a flash before it sent straight into the sky to reveal a figure in the clouds.

"Is that...?" Callum asks in surprise and looks to Enya as the figure of Ibis begins to speak about a staff being stolen, and a fallen star returning.

"That's Reyna's dad alright, but what's he talking about?" She says as the image of the mage fades away. "Fallen star returning?"

"That face, was that.."Rayla looked to them in confusion.

"That was Ibis, the great sky mage." Ezran responds.

"The one who showed Callum that wing spell!" Enya adds.

"You fought with him at the Storm Spire, how could you not remember?" Callum asks.

"I do remember, just wasn't sure of his name." Rayla responds.

"Well maybe you might have known that the past two years." Callum says looking away in annoyance.

"Callum!" Enya and Ezran exclaim.

"What?"

"King Ezran, thank you for this visit to your kingdom." Zubeia says as she approaches. "But I'm afraid it's time for me to return to mine."

"Wait, please don't go yet! If the fallen star is a danger the whole world will face, this is a chance to solve our problems together!" Ezran says quickly before the dragon queen could take off.

"Young king, I appreciate that sentiment, but Ibis' warning is too urgent to delay. I am taking Zym and we are departing immediately."

"Assuming one can find him." Enya says when she sees the young dragon is nowhere to be found.

"He's been so willful lately." Zubeia mutters before yelling loudly. "Zym, I know you can hear me! It's time to go home!"

"He hasn't gone far, I'll find him and bring him right back." Ezran says before rushing off. Tart, who was still at the altar hops off and rushes off after him.

"So...does this mean you have to leave?" Enya hears her father say as he and Ella approach the front of the crowd. "Again?"

"I...I don't know, we'll have to see." She says with a shrug and looks around. "Last time Ezran left it was for over a month and swore never to leave Opeli with so much work again."

"Not if she has a better council to help her." Ella points out.

"Girls! Come here for a sec! Quick council meeting!" They hear Soren yell and turn to see him motion for them to come. Ella and Enya look at each other in confusion before heading up to the altar where Soren, Corvus and Opeli were waiting.

"What's the matter?" Ella asks when they reach the top.

"We think Ezran should be allowed to go." Corvus says as they huddle. "Maybe have some other council members accompany him too in case."

"Are you sure?" Enya asks with a frown. "Last time didn't end too well, and we were gone for like a month. And Opeli's old council had disbanded so she was left with too much work."

"Whoever stays can help me out and run the kingdom, if something happens and this fallen star being that the sky mage mentioned in his message is freed, I don't think Zubeia can be the only one to stop it." Opeli points out. "Plus I think if something was to happen to her, Ezran may feel quite guilty for not stepping in to aid her sooner."

"So who is staying and who is going?" Enya asks. "Aside from Opeli, too many people in a group won't help."

"I'm definitely going, can't let the king go anywhere without a member of the crownguard accompanying him." Soren says lifting a hand and points at his wife. "And as a crownguard member in training, as your captain, I order you to come along."

"Pretty sure she was going to go anyways to keep you out of trouble." Corvus says with a shake of his head and put a hand on Ella's shoulder. "I'll stay to help Opeli out, what about you love?"

"Too many people wouldn't be so good, I'll stay and help you guys out with what I can." Ella suggests. "Plus who'd be in charge of the crownguard with Soren gone and you went too?"

"Fair point, then once Ezran returns with Zym we tell him."

"Ooh can we bring Tart with us? We can use a bit more dragonpower on our side!" Soren suggests excitedly. "Plus she's never seen Xadia, gotta let her take a look at the place she never got to hatch in and let her meet other dragons!"

"If she behaves herself, besides, Amaya can't come due to her pups." Enya says with a nod. "So we agree that Ezran should go and some of us go with him? Then I should go grab his bag, and mine in case."

"Be quick!" Soren yells as she descended the steps and hurries off. "And don't forget the small knife!"

By the time she returned to the castle, she was quite out of breath, but Enya knew she didn't have much time unless Zym decided to hide where Ezran couldn't find him. She then ran to the king's tower and snagged his bag, dropping a few items he would need into it before rushing off to her and Soren's own room to grab her own bag and threw in a few blankets, an extra knife, a few other essentials and threw on the traveling surcoat she made some time back before strapping a belt on over it and began looking around for her sword.

"Damn it, where did I put that thing?"

A loud bark caught her attention and she turns to the bed where Amaya was at with her pups, Enya's sword propped up next to the basket. With a sigh of relief, she immediately hurried over and grabbed it to tie the sheath to her belt.

"Thanks old girl, you and the pups doing okay?" Enya asks as she kneels to pet Amaya. The dog barks and sits up to nuzzle her human before sniffing the bag she carried. "Yes I'm going somewhere, but you can't come along right now. Behave for Corvus and Ella, for me please? And no following me like last time, your babies need you right now and they are too little to be orphaned so soon. Jelly Tart is coming instead, she's gonna make sure me and daddy are gonna be fine, okay?"

Amaya whines before climbing out of the basket to put her paws on Enya's shoulders and lowered her chin to touch the shoulder, as if giving her a hug. Enya smiles as she hugged her dog back and pulled her away to gently kiss her snout and gave it a gentle tap.

"We'll be back, I promise A leanbh." She says softly before rising to her feet and hurrying out the room.

As she was hurrying back, she caught sight of Ezran, Zym and Tart already at the altar and talking with Opeli.

"Here! And with the bare essentials!" She yells when she approached, handing Corvus the king's bag before he passed it to him.

"Did you remember to pack your sword?" Sorena asks and smiled when he saw it strapped to her belt. "Good, never leave Katolis without it. And your knife?"

"Of course I packed it, along with the smaller knife you gave me that I practically had to redesign a glove for to act as a holder." Enya says as she patted her bag. "And an extra one, juuuust in case."

"Hey, do...do any of you mind if I come?" They look over to see Cici and Crowmaster approaching, the Skywing gripping the strap of a satchel they had onver one shoulder. "I...I need to check on Ibis, something about his message feels wrong. And I need to alert my sister and our other dads, I already sent them a letter of warning."

"Of course! You can ride with me!" Ezran says cheerfully.

"Then we take the bigger version of Tart." Soren jokes as he points as Pyrrah. The red dragon just rolls her eyes and huffs in response. "Oh come on, that was funny!"

"No it wasn't." Callum says as the three walk over to the dragon as she kneels to let them climb on, Callum going first while Enya sat behind him and Soren sat at the back with Bait in his arms.

"Alright, ready?" Soren asks as Pyrrah is about to take off.

"Wait!" Callum yells, halting the dragon. "Uh one quick stop first. Ibis siad the fallen star, i have something that might be important, it's a mirror. "Soren, Enya, I need your help."

"If he's getting his mirror, I'm getting my toothbrush." The knight laughs.

Once they were brough to Callum's tower, he immediately made a beeline for a large mirror that stood in the corner of the room. Just something about it was giving Enya the creeps, and she wasn't even sure how.

"I know that mirror too well, my father was obsessed with it." Soren says as they approached it.

"In darkness gaze upon a fallen star, thats what is written on here. I think this mirror is connected somehow to the evil returning to the world, we need to bring it with us to the Storm Spire." Callum says and the couple frown.

"Callum I kow you love magic, but...I hope you're careful. 'Cause it can change people." Soren says as he puts a hand on the teen's shoulder. "Trust me on this."

"Lets just hope this isn't a bad idea to take it with us." Enya adds as Callum tries to lift the mirror. "Uh...need help?"

"We'll lift it on the count of three!" The teen grunts as Enya moves to stand on the other side to lift it. Was it that heavy or-

"Soren's got a primal source of his own. It's called muscles!" Soren laughs as he easily lifts the mirror with both Enya and Callum holding onto it. "Look hon! I can carry both of you and the mirror!

"Yes I can see that!" Enya yells before she drops to the floor. "A little warning next time!"

"Aw come on hon, you love it when I lift you with no warning!" Soren says as he turns to walk out of the tower with the mirror over his head. "Flexio! Right, like how Callum does it!"

"Enough!" Enya scolds as she smacked his arm as she followed. "Callum, lets go! Zubeia and the others may be half way to Xadia by now! No time to waste!"