The bag was lifted from Clearwing's head.

A bright light blinded her as she opened her eyes. It was clear that she was underground; stalactites dripped from the ceiling, and massive columns rose up from the ground, disappearing into the darkness overhead. A few unnecessarily bright torches glowed from their places on the wall near her.

Clearwing spotted Sundew, Coal, and Cricket sitting by the wall on first glance. None of them (except Coal) were tied up, but the dragons that had captured them were in the room, so Clearwing assumed they weren't meant to leave just yet.

"Who are you," one of the dragons said, "and why are you travelling with a GreyWing?" He was a sea-blue color, positively covered in spikes. Poisonous-looking stingers were on his wickedly sharp claws, his horns, his back spines, his wings, even the tip of his tail had what looked like a needle to inject whatever sort of venom this dragon had.

"We're, umm..." Clearwing said. "Travelling with him because... he's my friend... we're looking for the antidote to the breath of evil." She looked up at this dragon, called a "WebWing". They had been living underground for centuries, driven into hiding by the tyranny of Queen Wasp. And they lived with another tribe — FormWings.

Spiders and ants.

"Bah," the WebWing spat, his reddish eyes narrowing. He has eight eyes, Clearwing realized. Oh, Cricket is going to be so excited about this when she wakes up.

Two of this new dragon's eyes were normal-sized, and seemed to look around like normal eyes would. The rest were smaller, and seemed to be looking in directions contrary to what the main eyes were doing. However the smaller eyes didn't move separately from each other; instead, while the WebWing was focusing on her, his smaller eyes were watching the others: Cricket, Sundew, Willow, Mandrake, Nettle, and Coal. Especially Coal. "GreyWings don't associate with other tribes. It contaminates their loyalty, or some other ridiculous reason."

"He doesn't associate with us!" Clearwing yelped. "I told you already, he's our friend."

"Hmmph," the dragon beside the WebWing said, her expression doubtful. "Well, either way, we'll see when he wakes up."

"Ugh, I feel like I was hit over the head with something really hard," Coal moaned, blinking his eyes open. His gag had been removed, but his talons and wings were still bound together.

"You were," the second dragon offered helpfully.

"Oh, wow," Cricket said, opening her eyes. "More new tribes! And cave systems... under Pantala? How long did it take you to dig these? Do they have a name? What are your tribes called? If I'm seemingly surprisingly calm despite the fact that I've just been captured by a bunch of dragons I don't know the names of, that's because it's happened a few times before. Do you want to hear about that? Are Max and Io and Swordtail and Blue okay? Oh, and Luna. Do you know what flamesilk is? What are your names? Oh, I probably should've started with that — my name's Cricket."

"Is the HiveWing always this... noisy?" the FormWing crinkled up her nose.

"Oh, wow, you don't have wings!" Cricket exclaimed, sitting up. "Not even wingbuds — does your tribe just, like, not have wings, no big deal, or were you born without them? Oh, or were they cut off? If they were, sorry, that must've been horrible. But look at those claws! So big and scary. Both of you, actually. But his are more sharp-scary and yours are more big-scary. I bet you could dig all day with those claws and barely even get tired. Ooh, eight eyes! Like a spider! Can I call you SpiderWings and AntWings until we learn your actual tribe names?"

"FormWings and WebWings, Cricket," Clearwing said.

"Oh, cool!" the HiveWing accidentally whacked Nettle in the face with her tail, and the LeafWing hissed indignantly. Mandrake had been awake almost the whole time, but he was watching quietly. Sundew and Willow were still unconscious, but it looked like Sundew was starting to stir. "By the way, his name's Coal, his name is Mandrake, the grumpy one is his sister, Nettle, the sleeping ones are Sundew and Willow, and the SilkWing is Clearwing. How do you already know about our tribes? Do you have spies?"

"Yes, actually," Clearwing said. "There was a GreyWing in Queen Sequoia's village."

"Oh, no," the WebWing said, looking startled. "I didn't realize they were stupid as well as arrogant. If that spy gets caught, Wasp will find out about us again!" She pressed her talons to her forehead, looking worried.

There was an awkward pause.

"Actually, um," Coal said, earning a simultaneous hiss from both of the guards, "she kind of already knows?"

"What?" the FormWing shrieked. "I'm going to alert the queen!" She disappeared around a corner, her obsidian black tail trailing out behind her.

"How?" the WebWing growled, glaring at Coal.

"..."

Coal stared up into the WebWings eyes, his own wide.

"Mind-control, you ninny," Nettle sneered from her part of the cave.

The WebWing let out a low hiss. "What GreyWing in their right mind would let himself be captured by Queen Wasp?"

"Me, apparently," Coal replied. "In my defence, I didn't know she could mind-control me, or even wanted to. And I was trying to defend Clearwing."

The WebWing barked a startled laugh.

"Maybe you aren't a true GreyWing after all," he chuckled. "Anyways, I'm Argiope. The FormWing over there was Rove Beetle. Welcome to Perania."