Artemis was absolutely awed by what she saw in front of her. Two small stone ledges stuck up not far from the ground, both piled with blankets in deep ruby and purple colors, patterned with fantastical little lizards and frogs and suns. She guessed they were Sandwing-made.

Furs carpeted the floor and almost empty shelves sat against walls, glowing glass spheres hanging from the ceiling by what seemed to be metal or twine. One of these two ledges was occupied. The other ledge, though, was not.

On that occupied ledge was a dragonet of the likes Artemis had never seen before. She had the body of an average Skywing, with big wings and a long neck. But she had an oddly shaped tail and the scales on her back were not like a Skywings at all.

It wasn't the dragonet's horns and body shape that confused her, though, it was the color of her scales. They were a very dark grey, with yellow scales reaching down her spine that were shaped like grasping bolts of lightning.

Artemis tilted her head and caught the strange dragons eyes. She stumbled back, for her eyes were a shocking violet. Small golden scales were near her eyes, like dewdrops.

"Uh...what?" Said the violet eyed dragonet, looking down at herself. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing...just.." Artemis struggled for words.

The dragonet suddenly laughed. "It's the lighting bolts and the eyes, isn't it?" She guessed. "Always gets dragons. They're just special defects of mine." She explained, stretching her talons.

"Although I personally wouldn't call it a defect. It depends on the dragon I guess. I'm what you get when you combine a Skywing, Mudwing and Nightwing."

She shrugged her shoulders, looking at the bewildered Artemis. "I'm Tempest, by the way." The dragonet said, her tail swinging from the tall ledge.

"You're a hybrid?" Artemis said. Dumb question, Artemis. She thought after the obvious statement.

"I call myself a tribrid, actually. It's just a fancy way of saying I'm a mixture of three different types of dragons. It doesn't matter though!" Her thoughts suddenly switched to something else. "Your ledge is over there by the way." Tempest said, pointing to the other ledge that also contained lovingly made blankets, and even a stark black fur across the rough stone. These had patterns of suns as well as lizards, though hers had scorpions too.

"I'm pretty sure she can see which one isn't occupied, Tempest." A tired voice mumbled from behind, and Artemis turned her head to see.

"Oh come on, Mudpuddle. I was just being polite." Tempest whined, narrowing her eyes at the Mudwing. Mudpuddle snorted, climbing out of a big hole carved out of the ground. A small vat of warm mud sat near it, while many animal furs lay inside the sleeping area. The Nightwing immediately smiled at Mudpuddle.

"Hi. I'm Artemis." She held out a paw as Mudpuddle lumbered slowly over, dragging her talons sleepily. Definitely didn't seem to be one that was all sunshine and roses once she woke up.

"Mudpuddle." She said, shaking Artemis's talons and yawning. "So I'm guessing you're our Clawmate?" She blinked the daze from her eyes, smiling gently.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure." She answered hesitantly.

"Oh. Okay, it's nice to meet you."

They fell silent after that.

"So!" Tempest suddenly broke in, startling Artemis and breaking the silence. "Opal Winglet. Pretty exciting."

Artemis nodded in agreement, sitting down and looking to the tribrid.

"I hope my friend is in it with us." Says Tempest, suddenly worrying and flicking her tail again.

"Who's your friend?" Artemis asked, genuinely intrigued.

"A Icewing named Penguin. Have you seen her at all? Pale blue scales? Spines behind her head in a big bunch?"

"Tempest." Mudpuddle broke in. "Most Icewings look like that."

"Well. That was kinda rude. I was about to say she had black speckles down her wings."

Mudpuddle sighed, and turned back around to her pool of mud like she wanted to shove her head in it to wake herself up. "Hmm. I guess she is a little different."

Tempest flicked her tail and shrugged, looking around. "Oh well. I'll find her sometime."

"Hey." She glanced at Artemis again with her violet eyes. "Aren't we getting one more Clawmate?"

"I think so." Mudpuddle answered for her. "When I was being told about our Winglets, Fatespeaker said all the girl dragonets share a room. Unless there are more boys in our winglet than girls, meaning Fatespeaker lied, we should be having another Clawmate."

Suddenly, a dragonet flew into the room. Right on cue. Artemis knew it was a Rainwing right away, because her scales were swirling with browns and whites.

It was if she previously blended into the mountain walls. Suddenly, her scales froze, the faint black of her horns spreading outwards and making her completely obsidian apart from the faint blues and purples she let show through, and the flecks of white like she was mimicking Fatespeaker.

"Yay!" Tempest exclaimed, looking a little disappointed it wasn't Penguin. "New Clawmate! I'm Tempest!"

The Rainwing turned her head, and immediately tackled Artemis. "Hey!" She shouted, knocking Artemis off her feet before she could open her mouth to speak.

"Mamba?" Artemis tilted her head. Yep. This was Mamba alright. No one could miss those golden eyes.

"I lost you for a while back there!" Mamba laughed, pulling Artemis to her feet.

"I was afraid you ditched me."

"I'd never ditch you. I had to help Dart and Gecko find their rooms. They dragged me off before I could tell you! Slimy sloths they are."

Artemis laughed. "So you're in the Opal Winglet too?"

"Well, why would I be here if I wasn't?"

Artemis beamed. At least I have a good friend in my winglet, this is going better than expected.

"I'm really excited to meet the rest of our Winglet. Tsunami said they'd call everyone down in a little while to meet everybody."

"You talked to Tsunami? " Tempest gasped, as Artemis was equally surprised.

"Yep. I talked to a dragonet of destiny." Mamba gloated. She flicked her tail and giggled at the end of the sentence. Tempest stood awed for a bit, then turned her attention to Mudpuddle. Artemis shifted on her talons at this, having second thoughts on wanting to meet her Winglet for what felt like the hundredth time.

"It'll be fine." Mamba assured, reading her perfectly. "They can't be too bad."

Soon enough, they were called into the halls. They were going somewhere called the prey center, Artemis noted that it was obviously where they ate. Artemis walked side by side with Mamba and Tempest, since the halls were wide enough for at least three dragons. Mudpuddle was close behind near Tempest. Luckily, Tempest was smaller than most dragons she'd seen. So they fit just fine. As they walked to the prey center, a couple other dragons kept casting looks, and laughing amongst themselves.

She was really confused at first, until one of the teasers, a Skywing, folded his big wings down to his side and began walking like Tempest. Who held her head high and was taking careless, enjoying the light that filtered in the bright halls. Artemis gazed at Tempest, who wasn't the least bit fazed by the mockery.

Arriving in the prey center, the three winglets quickly spread out, Icewings by Icewings, Skywings by Skywings, so on. Until Artemis, Mamba, and Tempest were the only ones in the middle of the big space. The tribes held closely together, complaining about their clawmates they were forced to be with. Dart and Gecko were pleading for Mamba to come over, so Mamba apologized and went by her fellow Rainwings. Traitor.

Artemis found herself searching for the Nightwings, and she quickly spotted pitch black scales amongst the rainbow of colors around them. But she didn't just see black scales. Her dark eyes suddenly met with grey-blue ones.

Artemis breathed in sharply, running her eyes over the dark indigo, almost black and grey scales, the dim stars under the Nightwing's wings. This wasn't any other Nightwing. Artemis was face to face with her sister. Prophecyteller.

Her sister looked scarily damaged. Her arm bore a deep scratch that seemed to still be oozing dark blood. The worst part was the scar, that ran from the top of her neck to her chest. It didn't seem to be from any weapon or any dragon she'd heard of. It was only recently beginning to heal, it seemed, so it couldn't have been too deep a wound.

Prophecyteller wore an agitated, pained expression, and she was huddled in her wings, staring at her talons. She was tracing something on the ground with her talons while Shadowbender talked to her. She nodded every now and then, speaking softly yet with growing courage.

Shadowbender suddenly glanced up, meeting Artemis' eyes. He briefly mouthed something. "Over here."

"Uh.."

"Go ahead." Tempest piped up, making Artemis jump. "I can tell he needs you." Artemis tilted her head, hesitant, and Tempest half smiled. "I'll hang with Mudpuddle. Go." Tempest shoved Artemis, flapping her wings. She set her eyes on Shadowbender, for once her mind on only one thing.

Artemis made her way over to the Nightwings.