"We don't know if we can trust you, Grendal could have taken over your body." Othniel spat. "You would move Phira if you were smart."

    "There are different kinds of smart, Othniel." She replied, shrinking slightly.

    "You're making Phira uncomfortable." I said, getting angry, stepping around her.

    Othniel hissed as I got closer. "Watch it."

    "Maybe we should think about this." Oswin intervened. "I mean if it really was a vision from Amanda..."

    "Shut up!" Torien growled. "He's our friend guys, you know Asriel would do nothing to hurt us."

    "Can someone please explain to us what's going on?" Zorro barked impatiently.

    "What do you know?" Othniel retorted. "You can't even see!"

    "That's a lie!" Torien shot back, his voice rising a bit higher.

    "Oh please." Othniel stepped toward him. "I've been watching you, I know you're not blind but there's no way your normal."

    "Shut up." Torien full on growled at him, his claws unsheathing, they started circling each other.

    Phira looked like she was about to. "Boys, please!"

    "What is it? Depth perception? Blurrynesss? Is it Hypoplasia?" Othniel had a wild look in his eyes, but it was more like the face of a cornered animal.

    "Shut up, shut up!" Torien screamed, baring his teeth.

    "Stop it!" I yelled at them. "Guys we're not going to fight each other!"

    "Can we trust you two though, if you've both been keeping secrets from us?" Oswin shot back.

    "That's what it is." Othniel realized, taking in a breath. "Optic nerve hypoplasia."

    Torien roared and shot forward, his claws scraping against the side of Othniel face, he was crying. Phira left out a strangled scream. Othniel flinched and whipped his head back, holding a paw to his forehead, paw came away bloody.

    Just like that the two of them were at each other's throats, rolling around the sand and hissing and spitting loudly, claws flashing in the firelight. I watched in horror my heart beating wildly and sparractially. What was I supposed to do. Oswin and Zorro were yelling and telling them to stop while trying to pry to two boys off of each other. Phira was sobbing in a small ball, her shoulders shaking as she covered her eyes. Sceva was watching with wide eyes, cowering in the dark as he struggled to comprehend what was going.

    "I can't watch this!" Phira agonized, and before I could stop she bolted off into the woods.

    "Wait!" I called off to her, but she was already in the air and lost in the darkness.

"Stop it, you guys!" I yelled at the fighting pain.

Torien was heavily bleeding, because most of his attacks were missing which left Othniel plenty of opportunities to get a hit in. They might actually kill each other if some didn't pry them apart. Zorro finally wrenched herself in between them and let out a burst of fiery orange flame. The shot apart and Oswin quickly wrapped her claws around Othniel to stop him from leaping back into the fray. Torien limped away from him, a crazy look in his eyes.

"Why would guys fight each other, think about our families, your siblings, your mom and dad." I said shakily standing between them.

"My father is DEAD!" Othniel seethed at me, he had started crying, fat, steaming, dragon tears rolling down his cheeks, his body limp in Oswin's arms. "He's dead and my mom has forgotten him!"

I felt my heart clench, the information caught me off guard and I wasn't quite sure what to say. "I'm sorry."

He was still crying when Zorro crept over and laid one of small paws on his arm. "Please don't fight, you're like my own children and I can't bear to watch you fight."

"I don't need your pity." Othniel grumbled sourly, emotionally and physically exhausted, blood still dripping off his face.

"I'm sorry too." Torien said, he stood shakily. "I mean this is all my fault."

"What?" I blinked, even Othniel paused his prickly disposition to look up at him.

Torien shifted uncomfortably on is feet, he was bleeding in a few areas. "It...it's true okay? I do have optic nerve hypoplasia, although I can't even fathom how Oth managed to narrow it down. I should have told you guys, it would have avoided this whole mess. I tried to pass it off as clumsiness but," his voice cracked, "I just thought I would be to much of a burden if you knew." He sniffed loudly.

Zorro clutched at her heart. "No no, please don't cry." She sniffed too. "Skylark's wings if one more of you starts crying I swear."

"Hey, we still would've brought you along on the adventure anyway." I comforted. "I mean look at me."

Torien huffed, but it was in a playful way. Othniel, who had been about to bury his head in the sand in his wallowing stared at the red striped dragon for a few moments, suddenly looking very somber. Othniel sigh and lifted his head up.

"I'm the one who should be sorry, I over reacted. It was true I had a vision and in said vision Grendal appeared to turn in Asriel, and I don't want to believe it but I guess everything just caught up to me. It could have been a hallucination from eating all this raw fish." He puffed. "I admit the way you were acting Torien bothered me slightly because I didn't want you getting hurt, although I accept you for who you are. I apologize for all the teasing, and for fighting you."

"Me too." Torien said. "And uh, I guess I'll just ask for help next time I need it."

"Preferably instead of tumbling down a hill, knocking over the mast, falling into the ocean, and running into other flying dragons." Oswin chipped lightheartedly, I think that the first joke I had ever heard her say.

"What did you mean about your mother?" Zorro asked, "are you alright?"

Othniel glanced down. Suddenly looking like that was the last thing he had wished he said. "It probably doesn't mean anything but I was coming home from school and saw her getting, uh, slightly intimate, with another guy."

"Wait..." Torien frowned.

"He kissed her." Othniel cut him off, giving him a dry look. "I mean I suppose when I say it like that, it does mean something. I just..."

    "She hasn't told you anything yet?" Oswin questioned in a softer tone of voice.

    "I'm sure she'll tell me when she thinks I'm ready. I mean obviously I'm not, tonight was only evidence of that. I'll be fine...probably. Talking about it has helped some." He admitted, drawing lines in the sand.

    Zorro however still looked confused. "What's kissing?"

    "Where's Phira?" My heart leapt into my stomach as I realized the pale white dragon with the sunset colored spots was still gone.

"Oh no!" Zorro gasped. "Did anyone see what direction she went off in?"

I tensed my hind legs and leapt into the air, spreading my wings. Again, I rose into the air, even though we probably all needed some good rest. Phira was out there alone however, I my mind flashing back to the one time she told me how murch she hated to be alone.

The night sky was chocked with stars, our own little campfire joining thier ranks as I rose higher and higher. Above the tree tops, seemingly above the night itself, the cold wind biting into my face as Zorro joined me.

"I did not say you could go rushing off after her." She shrieked into my ear. "I'm trying not to lose any of you but you're making awful difficult for me to do so."

Zorro seemed so...wound up tonight. I suppose she had declared she had felt motherly towards us all and then we go around nearly killing ourselves. Part of me felt bad but it was drowned out by the lost Phira part of me.

"We'll fly close to the tree tops, and slowly. She wouldn't have gone far." Zorro explained. "The night's clear, that means there's less danger. Skylark forbid it begins to storm."

With our wing tips brushing the tree tops, we flew slowly and carefully over the leaves, calling out her name every so often. After going out a bit, Zorro suggested we head back on foot.

"I know you're tired dear-"

"I can keep going." I was lying to myself, it was late and my eyes felt like bags of sand.

"If she landed it would be our best bet of finding her."

I made my way slowly across the forest floor, over small gritty rocks and wet slippery leaves, it was to dark to pick out anything anyway. We're almost back the beach, I could see the flickering light of the fire in the distance, when all of a sudden I nearly tripped over a warm lump.

    "Phira!" I cried, scooping her up into a hug.

    "Asriel?" She squeaked. "You found me."

    "Yeah. We were so worried." I explained.

    She stood up, looking around like a frightened cat. Zorro leapt forward and clutched onto one of her legs.

    "Don't you dare ever run off like that, okay! You gave me a heart attack, forget everyone else being worried, I was worried. It's dangerous out here at night you know that?" Zorro shrieked.

    "Well I wasn't alone." She sniffed. "I had Fluffy to look after me."

    The Usadi appeared from his snuggled position on his back and stared at us. His beady black seemed to be saying 'yes, if there had actually been any danger I would have handled it because I fierce' or maybe I was just overplaying it. Even then Zorro gave a short, but stoic nod to the creature.

    Phira stiffened. "Is everyone alright? Are they hurt? Do we still all like each other?"

    "Yeah, everyone's sorry. I guess there was just a lot of pent up energy, and general homesickness. I think we're going to be alright."

    She let out a gargantuan sigh. "Oh thank goodness. I don't know what I would have done if we split up because you're all my friends and friends should be happy. I don't think Amanda would have liked it if we fought. We were chosen because we're friends right?"

    I had never thought of it like that. "That makes a lot of sense actually."

    "I thought so too. Can we go back now? It's cold out here." She shivered for emphasis.

    "We probably should." I agreed.

    Phira looked down at the small red dragon clutching to her leg. "That means you need to let go Zorro."

    Zorro coughed. "Right." She let go and stepped aside. "I'll lead the way."

    "We're going only a few feet-"

    "I'm leading the way." Zorro sucked in a breath, holding up a talon. "No questions."

    Phira and I shared a look of amusement. Everyone was considerably glad to see Phira again, and she was embarrassingly cute about it. A few more thanks of honor were given to Fluffy, and it wasn't that long before all fell asleep under the stars. Tomorrow we would get to see Zorro's old home.

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Are you proud of me these chapters are actually being updated consistently

Only 4 chapters left hue hue and so many twists to pull