Clearwing had never had sugar drops before.

Probably because Bloodworm Hive had a strict policy against SilkWing dragonets on a sugarhigh. Actually, Bloodworm Hive had a strict policy against just about everything.

But it was quite funny when Blue, Clearwing, and Swordtail strolled into The Sugar Dream and the HiveWing working at the counter's eyes widened as wide as the moons.

"Look, he recognizes me from last time Luna and I were here," Blue said, dropping a talonful of scales on the counter. He smiled politely. "A dozen sugar drops please."

The HiveWing nodded silently and dropped a few sugar drops into a box. Max at the door was eyeing one of the sugar insects hungrily, so they bought one of those too.

"I've never had one of these before," Polistes was saying, breaking a leg off of Max's sugar beetle. She glared at him, but her eyes were sparkling. "And I thought Jewel Hive had good candy."

"Oh, I'm sure it does," Io replied, popping a second sugar drop into her mouth. "But three moons, I've always wanted to buy something from The Sugar Dream."

"Who knew making jewelry was such a well-paying job," Clearwing agreed, admiring the bracelet Polistes had made for her. "I mean, you two are loaded."

"Well, it's not like we go out on frivolous shopping sprees very often," Polistes said, glancing over at his step-sister, "and with just the two of us living together, we don't normally spend a whole lot on food and such. So we've had time to save up. And yes, selling jewelry in Jewel Hive is a great way to make money." Max laughed, accidentally whacking Swordtail with her wing. The blue-orange SilkWing snorted.

I wish Coal was here. Clearwing sighed. She'd known these dragons for, what, less than a week now? With Swordtail and Io, they'd just met today. She and Coal had been friends since they were little. And now he was gone and she was running around Cicada Hive buying everything in sight. Even surrounded by these shining, smiling dragons, Clearwing had never felt more alone. Well, other than when she had just escaped Wasp Hive and was sneaking around — alone — through the Jewel Hive Glitterbazaar.

"Doesn't that cloud kind of look like a book?" The SilkWing dragonet said instead, pointing at a fluffy white shape drifting lazily through the sky.

"Oh, yeah," Cricket agreed. "And look at that one! It kind of looks like a spider, don't you think?"

Clearwing squinted at the cloud the HiveWing was pointing at.

"Oh," she said. "Oh, it does." She could see the eight legs, connected to two circles, and even two little lines in the front that looked a bit like fangs.

Io glanced around, then pointed at another one and whispered, "That one looks like a tree, don't you think?" The others nodded.

They spent the next few hours skygazing, and slowly Clearwing's worries began to melt away like sugar drops melting on her tongue.

Finally the sky started to darken, clouds nearly obscuring the sunset. Raindrops began to fall, softly pattering the Mosaic Garden and the six dragons laying in the grass. It seemed everyone else had left, sensing that a storm was coming. Then the raindrops came down faster, and harder, and suddenly it was a full-on thunderstorm, and the septet of SilkWings and HiveWings had to run to get out of the pouring rain.

By the time they got inside and under the cover of a roof, all of the dragonets were soaked to the bone and laughing.

"That was crazy," Cricket said. "I've never had the sky open up on me like that before."

"Shame we didn't get to watch the sunset, though," Blue sighed, brushing their wings again.

"I'm soaked," Max yelped, shaking out her wings. "I'm not built for being wet! This is horrible!!" Polistes laughed and she flicked her wings again, sending a surprising amount of water into his face.

"Let's get back to my place. There's no way we're getting a letter from the Chrysalis in that weather," Swordtail said. He glanced over at the HiveWings. "We still don't have enough room for all of you, but I guess a few dragons could stay at Blue and Luna's old place. Their moms were sent off to work in Wasp Hive a while back, I don't know why." He tented a wing over Blue as the purple-green-blue SilkWing looked at his talons.

As the dragonets were walking through the Hive, they noticed there was something happening. Something strange. Where there would normally be loads of SilkWings and HiveWings, there was no dragon in sight. Clearwing felt a shiver ripple down her spine.

Wasp had found them. And whatever she was doing, it wasn't natural. Before they could even try to run, however, a dragon turned the corner.

It was Queen Wasp, using the body of Coal.