Woah. I didn't notice it's been this long since this book was updated. Holy crap. I'm so sorry. Hopefully you enjoy this update.

I knew things were going wrong as soon as I started seeing the skull over and over again.

We'd been flying for what seemed like hours, and had made zero progress. Around and around we flew, over viewing the exact same landscape.

"Hey, guys," I called. "I remember that." I pointed a talon at the familiar skull of some scavenger.

"Pfft," Chill muttered. "That can't be the same one."

"Yeah, it is. I have like perfect memory when I see something a million times," I retorted.

"Whatever. We can land and rest for a few minutes and get our bearings," Inferno growled.

Inferno had been in a bad mood all day, but then again, when isn't she?

"Can we land?" Stormchaser heaved, her wings flapping hardly.

I decided not to point out that Inferno had just said that.

"Why not," Chill answered, and we hovered to the sandy turf.

As soon as we landed, Inferno got a nasty snarl on her face and stared directly at me.

I shifted uncomfortably. "Uh.... Do you need something?"

Inferno kept silent.

"Is something wrong? Bothering you?" I asked.

Inferno still didn't answer.

"Will you please tell me? Maybe it'll....uh.....unite us!" I cringed at my own words, how stupid was I?

She still didn't reply.

"Please?"

Silence followed, and Inferno turned from me and began to walk off.

I quickly followed.

"PLEASE!" I edged closer to her and was dangerously close to touching her with a sharp talon.

Inferno face turned to fear. "Stop! I'll tell! Please don't hurt me!" She took a step back.

"I'm just afraid," Inferno confessed.

"How could a threatening SkyWing like you be afraid?" I wondered aloud.

"I'm afraid no one will ever like me. I've never had a real friend. No one wants to be friends with a monster like me. I just wanna have friends."

I suddenly felt sorry for Inferno. The nasty, threatening, enemy of mine had a completely different side. A vulnerable, sad side.

"I know how you feel," I chirped in. "No one wants to be friends with a dragon who could murder them in a split second. Maybe we would be better friends than I thought."

Inferno glanced at me, tears on the brims of her eyes.

I honestly didn't know what to say. For once in my life, I was left speechless.

"Uh...." I looked desperately at Chill who was talking to Stormchaser.

Inferno still looked at me, longing for a reply.

"That's.....cool," I managed.

Inferno's face blew up in anger. "Cool?!? How is that COOL?!? I AM A LONELY-"

"Woah. Chill off hot peppers," Stormchaser came forward.

"Let's go!" I said.

I shot into the blue sky, shifting my colors to match it, and took off to save my best friend.

                         •<>•<>•<>•

"Move it!" The male voice boomed. A slick, black whip clashed into Sobek's tan scales.

Sobek was utterly terrified, and mad as all get out. His best friend, Jinx, had ditched him and flew to some other dragon as he got attacked and kidnapped.

"MOVE!" This time a spear got drilled in between two scales which made pain explode.

Sobek tumbled forward, scraping his talons on the cold stone of the dungeon floor in Queen Oasis' palace.

Sobek was herded into a cell and shackled to the wall.

"What did I do? I'm a SandWing, this is a mistake!" he tried to call, but his voice cracked and broke.

Sobek tried to kick the cell bars but he couldn't reach them.

He growled in frustration when a guard walked in with a young princess behind him.

"Just can it," she responded.

"Which one are you? Burn, Blister or Blaze?" Sobek asked.

"I am highly offended you don't know me." she said. "The name's Blister."

"Will you kill me?" Sobek questioned.

"No. We'll make your execution public. Hopefully you'll live to see you friend killed too."

Sobek growled. Despite the fact that Jinx had run off, no one would hurt her on his watch.

Blister grinned. "Oh, don't worry. It'll be quite a show, with the IceWing and NightWing trying to defend her. We'll be able to kill four dragons in one execution. It will be amazing."

"IceWing? NightWing?" Sobek asked.

"Yes," Blister answered. "Your precious friend teamed up with an IceWing, a NightWing and Inferno to come and 'save' you."

With a twitch of her tail, Blister was out the door as Sobek struggled against his restraints.

After a few minute of continuous struggling, Sobek finally gave up and plopped down on the stone floor. He curled his barb tail around himself, completely confused.

                           •<>•<>•<>•

Two hours later I wasn't any closer to getting into the castle then I was when I started.

The other dragons had given up an hour ago, but I was just too determined to stop.

Inferno had left twenty minutes after we had started, claiming that she needed to sleep.

Eventually they all gave in and joined me once again.

I felt like I was getting nowhere. Everything looked the same; pale, sandy ground, and a cloudless sky.

Up ahead, I saw what looked like a building sitting on the horizon.

"Yo!" I called back to the others, who followed behind sluggishly. "See that building? I think we've found our destination."

Stormchaser huffed in a big breath. "Finally."

As we soared closer to the "palace," I was struck by how scary it looked. Dead dragon heads surrounded the outer walls. Spikes jutted out of the sandstone surface. This place was downright creepy.

I swung my wings in a wide arc, and I scrambled onto the ground.

Soon, all the other dragon landed as well. Chill kept glancing at Stormchaser, Inferno kept billowing smoke out her nostrils and complaining loudly, and Stormchaser pumped her wings, as if trying to bring more oxygen up to her nose.

We looked just plain old horrid.

That wasn't even the worst part. The most horrific part was they were all staring at me. They must of thought I was like their leader or something. And I was in no spot to be a leader of a band of homeless, loss dragons.

"Okay...." I clambered to find words. "Uh...I guess we find an entrance. After that, we find Sobek and get the heck out of here."

Stormchaser let out a weak cheer. "Let's do this."

"I'll go scout out in the sky," I said. My scales slowly rippled to match the cloudless sky.

I shot towards the palace, off to find my way in.

I really hoped you enjoyed the update! I apologize once again for the long wait.

-Jinx