Limestone ruffled her wings and sat down beside her mate, Pumice. Her off-white wings complimented Pumice's dark, ash-gray body.

She settled herself on the cliff, staring at the two moons in the night sky.

"Do you think they'll be alright?" Pumice asked.

Limestone shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know. I'm sure Marble will do just fine at school, her and her winning attitude and superb skills. But... Obsidian worries me. I feel like she's up to something, I just don't know what." She said.

Pumice shuddered. Hopefully it had nothing to do with that Basalt dragon. He seemed too dangerous, especially to the heir to the throne. He wrapped his wing around Limestone.

"Well, I know she's smart enough not to challenge you yet. She's afraid of you. Do you see the way she acts?"

Limestone sighed.

"Sometimes I wish I could talk to her. She seems so upset about something." She told him.

It's a good thing she has Limestone as a mother. I could never talk about feelings with her, I mean, I can barely talk to her at all. And... she freaks me out, the way she skulks around the palace.

Pumice remembered the day he and Limestone had had the magic trials. Although it was a good thing to have a magic user in the family, the way Obsidian had come running back up the tunnel with a giant creature almost made of gemstones followed her had freaked Pumice out way too much. Her expression as the jewels cascaded around her, as she examined each and every one of them. The way she held out the biggest, most beautiful gem to her mother.

It wasn't that part that made Obsidian bad. It was that afterward, when Obsidian had gone to play with her many, many brothers, Granite, one of her brothers, tried to sneak into Obsidian's room to steal a jewelery piece to impress a girl with. When she caught him, though, she threw a diamond at him. Little did poor Granite know that she had enchanted it in her rage. When they had found him, he was so burned up that it was almost impossible to recognize him. Obsidian was only one, and was obviously very sorry.

She had cried for days on end, and ever since that day, all her siblings shunned her. Marble tried to be nice sometimes, but it always ended in a passive-aggressive fight or Obsidian slamming her tail into a cave wall and blocking the entrance to her room. And Pumice knew he shouldn't be mad at something a small dragonet would have never realized hurt anyone, but he still couldn't get over the fact that she had killed one of her own brothers. But, she was one of two heirs to the throne and would obviously become queen... unless Marble or Limestone killed her first. But Limestone was too gentle for that, and she would never try to do that.

"My dearest, why are you so quiet?" asked Limestone. Pumice looked at her.

"I... nothing." He said. Limestone looked skeptical.

All of a sudden she jolted up.

"We have to go." She started running towards the castle. Pumice struggled to keep up with her.

"Hey-what-? What's wrong?" He panted.

"The egg," she said, "It's in danger."

"What? In the Hatchery? Impossible. It's as safe as can be!" Pumice breathed.

Limestone skidded to a stop.

"It's not in the Hatchery." She let out a snarl of rage. "It's been taken!" She took off once more, leaving Pumice to wing his way through the air and contemplate her thoughts.

They soon arrived at Obsidian's sleeping cave, which was large and roomy. Several branches of stone hung out of the wall, draped with necklaces and other things. Pumice noticed that they were almost bare compared to Marble's dripping waterfall of gemstones and shiny objects. He picked a lovely opal bracelet and tried to pull it on. It barely fit around two of his claws. Obsidian was only four, but even this jewelry was much too small for her. Pumice felt a pang of sympathy as he realized that her jewelry was either being stolen by Marble or not given to her at all as her family shunned her. Both of them were probably true, and her gem racks were bare because she was so scared of what happened last time from defending her jewels that she gave up and let dragons take what they wanted.

With this thought, Pumice took off both the opal bracelet and a diamond necklace he was wearing and draped it on the racks. He noticed a blank scroll and ripped off a piece of it. He dipped his talon in her inkwell and scratched a message on it.

Hope you like it. From Daddy.

------

When the couple arrived at the Hatchery, both the guards were looking around in confusion. They had searched for the egg already-but it was long gone. They had, however, found a trail of little scratches in the stone, occasionally marked with a bit of eggshell. The egg had been dragged along, out the Hatchery, and through the palace. Limestone had furiously followed the trail, her talons stained with the grayish-red blood of the guards who had failed. Pumice had never seen Limestone like this before.

They followed the path out of the palace to the very cliff they had been sitting at earlier. The grass had been flattened and was now sticky with egg-yolk.

Limestone howled in rage.

"They got right by us! HOW?" She yelled. Pumice flew down to the rocky ledges beyond the cliff. Sure enough, one was spattered with yellow egg yolk and the other had crumbled remains of a stony-gray eggshell.

He also found a mangled, bloodied dragon body that lay farther down, the claws stained yellow. He recognized this as one of the guards, Cliff.

The poor dragon. How ironic, to meet his end at his very namesake. Pumice studied his glassy, dead eyes. Most StoneWings had eyes ranging from light gray to black. But Cliff's eyes were a pussy yellow. In fact, the yellow of a StoneWing being possessed. Only one dragon could've done this.

-----

They found Obsidian sleeping in a random hallway of the castle. Her claws were over her ears like she was listening to an angry conversation. She had the look of extreme innocence.

Limestone stalked over to her, pulsing with anger. If rage was a visible gas, she would be clouded in it so much that she'd be impossible to see. Pumice winced, preparing for the angry yell.

Instead, what he heard was a low hiss. In fact, a familiar hiss. The hiss of a dragon before blasting fire out of their mouth.

Pumice ran in front of Obsidian, but much too late. Her mother blasted her with flames. Obsidian curled up into a ball as the fire licked her, but had no effect. Limestone narrowed her eyes.

"I see you've been practicing the assignments Basalt gave you." Limestone hissed. Her black tongue flicked around the corners of her snout. Obsidian uncurled and stretched sleepily. Pumice winced at the sound of the creepy teacher.

"Yes, Mother." Obsidian said dazedly. She opened her big eyes to stare up at her parents. This often worked on her father when he was slightly angry. But would it work on her mother?

Limestone's eyes softened.

"I'm sorry darling. Mother's just mad because someone hurt the egg." Limestone looked down at her daughter with the slightest suspicion. Obsidian's eyes flickered with an emotion.

"He made me." Obsidian said. A scared look flashed on everyone's faces.

"Who? Tell Mommy who made you do such a vile thing." Limestone swept open her wings. Obsidian flinched away as her mother made an open motion to her.

"I-I can't tell you." She said, backing away. Limestone furrowed her brows.

"Of course you can, dearest. You can tell us anything." Pumice jumped in. Obsidian lowered her gaze to the stone floor.

"It...It was-"She started gagging, and doubled over.

"Obsidian!" Her mother yelled. She ran over to her.

Obsidian stood up again and started sobbing. Her mother's face contorted with rage. Limestone swept away through the hallways, but not before saying;

"I WILL SEARCH THIS ENTIRE KINGDOM TO FIND THE DRAGON WHO DID THIS!!!"

Obsidian watched her go, and buried her face in her father's chest. Pumice wrapped his wings around her.

"Dearest, it's okay. It wasn't your fault." Pumice said to comfort her.

"But... But it is my fault. Everything is my fault. Everyone dies around me. First Granite, now the egg, and then who knows what. Mommy will, then you will, and even Marble will. Everyone will die because of me." Obsidian whispered to her father.

Pumice shuddered to hear her words and see how much of a grasp on reality she actually had. He knew it, Limestone knew it, the entire tribe would soon know if they didn't already, and maybe even Obsidian herself knew it.

This tiny dragonet would change the course of the world.