The corpse was bellyside-up on the ground and its scales were grey like a dreary, cloud-filled sky. It also had long wings like a seagull that were flaccid on the ground.

Snakes slithered all over the dead StormWing, eating whatever flesh was still on its bones and hiding in its exposed organs, which they also ate. There was a dent in one side of the corpse's head, suggesting that someone bludgeoned this dragon to death with some sort of weapon. Whatever blood that had pooled around the head was already dried on the ground.

There was a forensic term that described this dragon's demise: "blunt force trauma".

A snake that slithered out of one of the corpse's kidneys noticed me and began making its way out to me as if I were its next meal.

I skirted around the corpse to avoid being bitten by any of these creatures and continued making my way through the jungle.

There were more bloodstains on the surrounding trees, as well as claw marks and scorched earth.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Something red was dropping onto my snout like rain.

I stopped walking and wiped my snout with my talons and noticed that it was blood that fell onto me.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

I moved two steps back to avoid more blood dripping onto me, wiped my snout again with my claws, and looked up at the trees.

The corpses of StormWings were dangling from the trees, their bodies twisted into horrifying forms.

One of them had their mouth open, as if they were roaring for help or calling their god to help them.

Another one had their eyes scorched out as birds pecked at their dark grey scales, eating away its body.

A black dragon who was skewered on a branch had their wings shredded, nearly ripped off their body.

The blood that was dripping onto my snout came from a dragon that had more wounds than scales and was spread across several tree branches, making it look like a dragon Mother executed because they failed her and left it out to hang on a coral outcropping as a warning sign.

This happened recently.

Who were these dragons, and what warranted their deaths?

_____________

When night came, dragons died.

The sight caught me off guard, so I had to jump into nearby foliage away from the riverbank to avoid detection.

The VolcanoWings had found a small settlement where dragons from around the world had gathered here in the jungle.

Dragons fled from the camp into the dark trees as the black dragons set their tents on fire and killed anyone they could find. It didn't matter to them who you were; if you were not them, you were a traitor.

Some of the VolcanoWings were dragging dragons they caught into the air. I looked up, following their flight path with my eyes and saw them chaining their captives onto the lower half of a large, hollow, square-shaped metal contraption where other captured dragons dangled from. It was manned by VolcanoWings who had some sort of harness on their chests; thick chains connected the harness to the structure as they hovered in the air.

The captured dragons dangling from the metallic skeleton were bound by leather around their wings, bodies, legs, and snout, preventing them from flying, speaking, or attacking. These straps of leather had thick chains looped around them, connecting them to the makeshift prison.

I could spot that this contraption contained various dragons such as MountainWings who had their antennae removed, StormWings whose wounds were covered in cakey, dried blood, and FeatherWings whose wings had patches of feathers missing, leaving gaping holes in them.

There were also OceanWings in it. They looked parched, their scales nearly a lifeless grey. One of them, who was a dull blue-grey, had their eyes gouged out, leaving gaping red holes behind.

I couldn't tell if any of them were royal or not. The only sign that you were an heir or relative was if you had a pattern on the fringes of your wings that resembled waves crashing on the shore.

I kept still within the foliage, watching the dragons' every move until I felt a thump near my talons.

I took my eyes off the metallic skeleton and looked down.

A soft brown bag had been tossed into my hiding place.

I picked it up from the bottom and felt a smooth, oval-shaped object in it.

A dragon egg.

If I peered inside and saw that the egg was black, then it was a VolcanoWing egg, and I would leave it to nature to die. I didn't want another hellbent, powerhungry dragon to be brought into the world. In fact, the world would be a better place without the VolcanoWings.

If it was a different color, like yellow or green or brown, I would keep it.

I clutched the bag close to my chest as I heard the VolcanoWings' contraption clank and groan as it flew away from the smoking encampment, far into the night.

When the VolcanoWings were out of earshot, I walked out of the foliage and into the ruins, the bag still in my claws.

I would have to stay here temporarily before moving on. I couldn't fly, as it was suicide and would lead to my capture or death; I couldn't swim in the river because of the snakes. I would have to walk for now.

______________

Before moving on, I had peered into the bag and saw that it contained an egg the color of desert sand in it. I took it out and placed it into the bag around my neck, where it would join the planetary map and my pearls as one of my possessions, before continuing my trek into the jungle.

I had noticed last night that the moons in the sky weren't the same the night before I was captured. The moons out now were Moon I, Moon II, and Moon IV instead of just Moon I and Moon III.

Only three, and it looked like a brightest night wasn't far from now.

But alas, this was a farce. According to celestial records, the most recent one occurred approximately eight Turns ago. Normal brightest nights occurred once every sixty-four Turns.

I didn't dream that night and woke slightly after dawn. Taking advantage of what little darkness there was, I decided to take a risk and flew into the jungle's canopy, hoping that it would speed up my journey.

When sunrise formally came, I dove back into the understory and continued to fly, since I couldn't see or hear anything that sounded like the VolcanoWings for many wingbeats. It would also give me camouflage in case I did come across anything dangerous.

Green light filtered down from the leaves onto my scales and the forest floor. I was careful as I flew to follow the river and to not crash into any trees, fat or thin, large or small.

As sunset dawned, I heard roaring dragons in the distance.

Thinking it was VolcanoWings coming my way, I bolted into a large, tall, brown-barked tree with vines drooping on it. A brown bird that was on a branch flew away into the trees of the forest as soon as I landed. I breathed softly, hoping that no one would hear me.

I was near the end of the river, where there was an encampment straight ahead, which was composed of multiple small huts set up in a clearing with many dragons in. Neither I nor the encampment's residents could afford to be spotted right now.

Keeping my eyes on the trees beyond, I saw them rustle before an exhausted green dragon with leaf-shaped wings collapsed into the encampment.

One of their wings was nearly shredded and one side of their neck was bleeding profusely. It was a miracle that this dragon had survived for this long.

One of the encampment's dragons, a skinny gold dragon with a white mane, approached the worn-out dragon.

They sniffed the green dragon, as if they were infected with a contagious disease, before turning around.

"Get this dragon to Alder", they ordered a nearby white dragon. "Quickly."

The white dragon stepped forward and helped the green dragon pass some leaf-woven huts and into the trees, albeit not in a way that would be considered "helpful".

Who were these dragons? A small resistance? A band of refugees?

A brown dragon with markings on their "antenna" lobes approached the gold DesertWing and spoke to them.

"Bright, a word?"

The dragon nodded and gestured with one of their wings to the shores of the riverbank. Both walked on it, keeping their way from any potential snakes that might slither out of the water, until they thought they were out of earshot of the others. Little did they know, they were right near the tree I was hiding in, and I could hear them as something began crawling onto my tail. Something small with many legs.

"You should've taken us to North Archaea when you had the chance", the brown dragon snarled at Bright. "Then perhaps we wouldn't be seeing this all the time and taking them in. Who knows who's going to betray us?"

"Peak, calm down. No need to get all jumpy."

That name sent shudders down my spine.

Peak.

The last time I saw him was when he was chasing the OceanWings that kidnapped me and let that VolcanoWing assassin go.

"Then why are we still here?" Peak snarled. "Why are we still in this hellhole?"

"I told you. We must wait for them to find us."

"And whose 'them'?"

"You and the others will know soon."

"No, stop playing the pronoun game. Just tell me facts. I know that Moraine and her cabinet let Alpine's City, my city, burn to the ground when a chemical spill caught fire there because we were unimportant. We didn't advance their agenda."

Bright's black eyes fell to the ground and their wings drooped also.

"Alright", they said, not even meeting Peak's eyes.

"The dragons that are coming to find us are part of a growing resistance – one where sky-creatures and dragons work together to fight off the VolcanoWings. They're supposed to come get us instead of us finding them because of..."

Bright trailed off, as if they couldn't finish their thought cohesively.

"Because of what?" Peak demanded.

"Because they don't want anybody leading potential infiltrators to their base and outing them to the world."

"And when were they supposed to come?"

"Three sunrises ago."

The thing crawling on my tail was making my tail itch, badly.

Without thinking, I whacked my tail into one of the tree's thick limbs nearby. The pain in my burn scar was reopened as the limb's leaves rattled, despite it not oozing blood.

Peak and Bright snapped their heads up.

"There's something here", Peak whispered, "something big and in the trees."

I pressed myself against the tree, making sure not to crack the DesertWing egg inside my bag.

"Let me look", Bright whispered back and took off into the greenery.

I could hear Bright flying around the trees at the riverbank.

I stayed still, slowed my breath, and closed my eyes, praying to Caelum that they wouldn't find me.

Bright's wingbeats were in my direction, then they weren't, and then they were, and then they weren't.

And then they stopped.

Had they landed on the ground, giving up their search?

But if they had, why hadn't I heard a thump on the ground right now?

Or were they searching in another area?

One heartbeat.

Another.

Nothing.

Maybe they were searching in another area.

But the feeling of a body swooping down and suddenly slamming right into me proved it all wrong.

I opened my eyes as I was knocked off the tree and fell to the ground, frantically flapping my wings to right myself up. It was useless, until something grabbed me and carried me over the riverbank into the trees. The dragon hovered over the dark soil, their grip hard like Coral's, and I was able to crane my head and saw that the dragon that had caught me was Peak.

It looked like it was the same Peak I knew back in the StormWing palace, the same brown-and-grey markings on his lobes and wing undersides, the same sharp grey eyes that knew everything.

But he looked more... volatile than the last time I saw him.

His grey eyes narrowed at me as I stared back at him.

"Bright", he called, "is this one of the dragons you mentioned earlier?"

Overhead, I could hear Bright descend, and a moment later, they were hovering beside Peak.

Now that I could see the DesertWing up close, I could tell that this dragon was a female, rather than male, based on facial features. There was a general rule of claws for DesertWings – a shiny dragon was always male; a sandy dragon was always female.

But sometimes, that didn't play out that way, like now.

Bright sniffed me. "No", she replied, "this is not one of the dragons I mentioned earlier."

"Then what is this dragon doing here?" he demanded.

"I don't know", shereplied, "but we are going to find out."

Originally published: 05/05/2023 (typed up final manuscript of chapter 13, book 1 to page); edited: 05/07/2023 (fixed chapter ending of final manuscript)