Every NightWing froze. 

And then the forest fell on top of them in a mass of wings and darts. The RainWings had escaped, and they each had a dart gun. Morrowseer went down next. 

Liana landed next to Scarab, her scales alight with adrenaline. "Do you know what 'subtle' means?" Scarab hissed.

"Not all of them wanted to use their venom." Liana shrugged. "What are you gonna do?"

"Not all of them?" Scarab asked. She heard a NightWing scream. "Never mind."

Scarab darted towards Arid and Qibli, still sitting on the platform. Arid was crouching low and trying to claw her muzzle off. They both looked up when the saw Scarab. 

"Sit still," Scarab picked up an abandoned spear and unlocked the chains around her friends. Qibli shuddered and stretched his good wing. Arid shrugged off the chains and turned towards the fighting. "No no no," Scarab held Arid's shoulders. "The RainWings are using their venom, and we need to get Qibli somewhere safe." 

Arid looked conflicted for a moment, then agreed silently. "Can you walk?" She asked Qibli. Qibli stood up carefully. 

"Slowly," He replied, wincing. Arid and Scarab helped him get off of the main platform without getting noticed by any NightWings.

The walking was slow and painful. Qibli had full use of his legs, but the stinging in his wing made him wince with every step. You don't realize how much your wings subtly move when you walk until you can't move one of them at all.

They found a hut far from the fighting that had healing herbs in it. Scarab stared at them dubiously. 

"I've got it," Arid gathered a few of the herbs and started crushing them with her talons. 

"You know medicine?" Scarab asked in surprise. 

"Barely," Arid corrected. She started spreading the herbs across Qibli's wing, who winced but sat still.

After Arid had finished, all three of them were quiet for a minute. Finally, Arid stepped forward and grabbed Scarab's shoulders.

"Where on Phyrria were you?" Arid's voice was just desperate enough to make Scarab wonder how much she had worried her friends when she was gone. "I thought you were dead."

"Me too, I mean, I thought you guys were dead." Scarab replied. She breathed out a small laugh of relief and gave Arid a hug. She felt wings wrap around her as Arid hugged back. 

"I woke up after the fight. There were dead dragons everywhere, it was horrible." Scarab went on to explain how she got off the island, met Deathbringer, and discovered Vulture. "I'm fine, honestly. I wasn't hurt."

Both Arid and Qibli looked at her doubtlfully.

"Really? Because you look like you fell out of a tree." Arid said.

"Several trees." Qibli corrected. "You were falling out of trees without me? I thought we were friends."

Scarab rolled her eyes. "It was only one. Anyway, what on Phyrria were you doing?"

Arid quickly summarized being taken hostage with the RainWings and being used as bait for Scarab. She winced slightly at that part.

Scarab was about to say something when the sound of rapid talon steps came their way. She spun towards the door and flashed her fake tail barb. It was still dented from escaping the NightWing islande but still decidedly sharp.

"Hey guys, are you in-WHOA." The RainWing froze as the barb pressed against his neck.

"Jambu?" Scarab relaxed her tail and the darkly coloured dragon lightened in expression and appearance. "Why are you here? What happened?"

"It's not looking good out there. Liana said to find you and the Dragonets of Destiny. She's thinking of evacuating the village." Jambu's face was uncharacteristically serious.

Scarab tried not to think about what "it's not looking good" could mean.

"Of course, but Qibli can't fly and we don't know where the Dragonets are." Arid cut to the point. "And if the RainWings are losing, we should help instead of running away."

Jambu shook his head. "We need to go." He repeated. "Can you carry him?" He pointed with his tail at Qibli.

Scarab and Arid glanced at each other, then at Qibli. Qibli looked between them.

"That would be tricky. Considering how different you two are in size, you couldn't really balance my weight evenly." Qibli furrowed his eyebrows.

"I'll help," Jambu said quickly. "But we need to go now." They helped Qibli to his feet and they hurried out of the hut.

When they reached the edge of the platform, Jambu pointed at a dark part of the forest. "We'll fly Qibli down there and leave one of us to guard him. Then the other two can find the Dragonets."

Scarab hadn't expected such effective plan making to come from a RainWing. Especially this RainWing.

The three of them precariously balanced Qibli on top of them and glided down into the forest. Scarab stubbed her talons as she landed harshly on the dirt.

Qibli half-rolled off of them and curled under a bush. Jambu arranged some leaves to cover his light scales.

"I can guard him," Jambu volunteered. "I've got the best camoflauge and I think you two can handle yourselves." Jambu nodded at Scarab and Arid.

Scarab was about to say that it would be more helpful to have a RainWing on the search team but realized that he was right. This was probably the best option.

Jambu's body faded into the night as his scales formed to the forest around him. Scarab and Arid flew back up to the platform.

They were silent as they crept on the boards. Scarab flinched every time the platform creaked under their talon steps, but she didn't pause.

"The Dragonets weren't in the nursery with us, I think they're being kept closer to the center of the village." Arid whispered.

The sounds of chaos still eminated from the largest platform where the NightWings were. Scarab wondered how long the RainWings would last.

Arid froze and thrust her wing in front of Scarab. Scarab followed her stare around a corner and towards a larger hut far ahead of them. There were two NightWings standing in front of the hut fidgeting there talons. They each had a spear with them.

Scarab saw them look conflicted for about another minute before running off to help the fight.

Arid and Scarab waited a beat longer before running towards the hut. But something stopped them before they could reach it.

"HEAVE!" The front door of the hut splintered open and Tsunami barreled out of the hut, almost running into the SandWings.

Glory poked her head out of the demolished door. Her face a swirl of dark blue. "You're going to alert the whole village." She hissed.

"Calm down, Queenie. Everyone is distracted right now." Tsunami said.

Starflight came out of the hut, looking around cautiously. He was the first to actually acknowledge the SandWings' presence. "Scarab? Arid? What are you doing here? We thought you were dead." The last part was directed at Scarab.

"We came to save you." Scarab replied.

"Well, you're too late." Tsunami grinned. "The cavalry have arrived and are ready to kick some NightWing tail."

Glory rolled her eyes and Starflight smiled weakly.

"Where's Clay?" Arid asked.

"I'm back here." Clay's voice came from the back of the hut.

"Because he was the biggest, the NightWings chained his leg." Glory explained. "I don't know why they wouldn't chain all of us, maybe they didn't have any to spare." The RainWing rolled her eyes.

"We were hoping to find a spear or rock to get him out, because neither Clay's nor Starflight's fire was hot enough to break them." Tsunami added.

"And you know, we didn't want to set fire to an entire village made out of wood." Glory emphasized.

"SandWing fire is some of the hottest in Phyrria, however. We ran into you at the perfect time." Starflight looked between Arid and Scarab. "Could you help us?"

Arid nodded and crept into the hut. It only took a minute to break the chains, with the help of Arid and Viper, but every second Scarab was paranoid that they would be discovered.

"We have to go, Qibli and Jambu are waiting for us." Scarab said anxiously.

Arid exited the hut with Clay right behind her. He glanced around. "Where are all the NightWings?"

"The RainWings are keeping them busy. But that shouldn't last too long." Scarab said. She hoped that Liana had called a retreat. The RainWings wouldn't last long against so many NightWings.

Glory's face was serious and a dark shade of ominous green. "We can't just leave."

"Liana should know what she's doing. And they had dart guns, the fighting shouldn't last long." Scarab knew that she sounded optimistic.

"Qibli is injured and unable to fly, he needs our help." Arid said firmly. "And the RainWings had the upper hand even though they were outnumbered. We need to go now."

The Dragonets all looked at Glory.

"And we should probably find Deathbringer while we're at it." Scarab said awkwardly.

Glory's head snapped to look at her. "Deathbringer? He survived? What did you do?"

"He's fine. Will be fine. We just need to find him."

Glory groaned. "Fine. Let's go."

The Dragonets followed the SandWings towards the edge of the platform where Jambu and Qibli were hiding down below. They glided down and landed softly in front of the bush.

The air shimmered and revealed Jambu's friendly face veiling Qibli's injured form. "Hello dear sister! Are you guys okay?"

"We've seen worse."

Qibli crawled out from under the bush, wincing when his wing bumped a branch. "You made it?"

"Of course, why wouldn't we?" Tsunami grinned.

A twig snapped behind them, and Scarab whirled around, flashing her tail barb. Arid hissed behind her, and all of the Dragonets tensed in preparation for conflict.

Scarab glimpsed a dark snout and white specks on midnight wings. The dragon dragged himself out from the cover of the trees and stared at the company groggily.

"That......was not.....part of the plan..." Deathbringer mumbled before dropping to the ground, unconscious.

A/N: OH MY GOODNESS I FINALLY WROTE IT!!

The demand for this chapter has been absolutely overwhelming and a massive thank you to everyone who commented on this book. This was for you :)

And thank you to everyone who has been reading this since the very first chapter and sticking with me. This is definitely for you.

And even the ghostreaders! Everyone reading this who have never voted or commented or interacted with this story in anyway, shout out to you! I have no idea who you are and it will probably stay that way. This is for you as well :)

Sorry for the wait, I just finished the school year and my schedule has opened up. I will likely be able to write a lot more now. Also, writer's block is fading and I have motivation again! Woo!

Anyway. Thanks for reading, see you in the next part.