The dragons that were recovering or adjusting to their new broken bodies stayed at the Community of Coasts. It was the southernmost TreeWing Community in the Great Forest, and it was close to the southern end of the Ocean of Storms. It was also where I woke after being operated on and found out that I now had one eye instead of two.

Silver stayed with me during my day sessions, as I learned how to live with my scarred self. At night, he stayed with Eel before the cycle repeated the next sunrise. Whoever this "Leaf" dragon was, had trained the sky-creature well.

I did not see Peak throughout my recovery. At first, I thought that he was on a different flight to recovery. But as the sunrises went on, bleeding and blurring into each other, I came to believe that he was dead.

Ashes had led us here, but, like most things in life, the price of it was death.

Death.

It came for everyone, no matter who you were.

Sometimes it came at the right moment, like an Elder who had a life well-lived; other times it ripped life away before it could start, like my siblings who were crushed in their eggs. No doubt their assassin was still out there, killing my brother's eggs (if he had any).

On the days where I didn't have any training, I decided to head to the Community's old library, which still functioned despite its battered state. There I reread the first five books of Skies of Fire before finishing The Depths of the Ocean.

Ocean's ending was like a massive wave that had suddenly crashed over me. I thought that Root's mate was the killer, but I was wrong – Kestrel was.

I was also wrong about those black boxes that began zipping around the sky unexpectedly a while back. They weren't like the ones I had seen at the Island of Talons – these were bent on destroying the planet.

Because of this, droves of dragons had abandoned their respective territories for higher ground. Or what was left of the world.

The dragons that came here, to the swamps and the Great Forest, were placed into what was left of the Community of Marshes before they were allowed refugee status. If a dragon was not allowed refugee status, they were either arrested and brought to the Community of Trees, the capital of the Great Forest, or were killed on the spot.

Good to know that dragons did have a sense of sanity at the end of the world.

The refugees who were injured were brought here to the Community of Coasts to recover. Some of them were VolcanoWings who had defected from Vulcan's army, although many dragons were suspicious of them when they arrived.

I decided to meet my enemy up close, and introduced myself to them. The dragons introduced themselves as Fumarole and Obsidian.

Only two of them.

Two members of our adversary had defected to the other side.

There were only two reasons for this: they had either awoken from their Vulcan-induced stupor and knew what was really going on, or they were quickening the world's demise by coming here.

Nobody trusted them, and their huts were guarded heavily as they recovered.

Whenever I spoke to either Obsidian or Fumarole in their huts, the guards outside verified who I was by asking questions before letting me in and the guards inside watched our every move as we spoke.

One misstep, and it would be all over.

Thankfully, nothing really happened during those meetings, although I heard whispers amongst the other dragons that taking in the VolcanoWings would be the gravest mistake the Undercurrents made in their umpteenth Turn history.

I could not secretly agree with them more. Taking them in was either suicide or genius, and I didn't know which quality trumped the other.

____________

On the last sunrise of my recovery, a visitor came to visit me.

It was Ashes, of all the dragons.

Like the last time I saw her, Firehead was still clutching one of her horns to stay on her head. She was completely unscathed, likely because she hid in the shadows while me and Peak were attacked by that OceanWing's sky-creatures.

What was different this time, was that she was wearing a harness around her chest, and attached to that harness, with a cord, was Sunny, who also had a harness around her chest.

I wanted to claw her for leaving me and Peak to the sky-creatures and for taking Sunny with her without my permission.

And I did.

I lunged at her when she landed onto the Community bridge me, Eel, Crystal, and Silver were on, pinning her down with my front claws.

Firehead fell off her head onto the branch-woven bridge, clearly confused.

"You creature!" I snarled at her, baring my teeth. "First you take Sunny and leave me and Peak to die in the marsh! And then you saunter in with the hatchling like you own the place!"

She gave me a look.

"I didn't steal her. Peak gave her to me."

I dug my claws into the place where her wings met her shoulders so that she was starting to bleed. She was lying, she clearly was.

Before I could do anything, cold, serrated, webbed talons gripped my shoulders and yanked me backwards off Ashes.

I tried to fight back and wriggle my way out, when a thick tail swept through my legs, knocking me to the ground.

"ORK!" I heard a voice to my right.

I looked, and saw that Eel was the one who knocked me down, and that Silver was on his head, pointing his metallic stick at Ashes.

No doubt that the cold serrated talons also gripping my shoulders belonged to Crystal.

Sunny gave a confused look at me. "Trrrgh?" she inquired. "Trrrgh?"

I could only guess what she was saying.

She wanted me, the dragon that found and protected her out there, not Ashes.

Both dragons helped me up and dragged me away from them towards another place in the Community.

It was close by the bridge and resembled the hut I had stayed in for one-third-of-a-season, except it was tidier and more patched up. Dark oblong green leaves arranged in a spherical pattern made up the roof, letting light in through small cracks between them. The building itself was small, and was made with wood from the forest's trees woven together. The floor was made with branches woven tightly together.

As soon as we were inside and sure we were out of sight, Eel whirled around to face me, anger on his snout. Silver wasn't looking at me with the same expression. The expression on his flat face was sympathy. It was almost... dragonlike in a way.

'Vile Seastar', he flashed in Marine. 'I thought you were one of the only good ones. It seems I was wrong, you're just like the others, clawing those that stand in your way.'

'That's not what that was about', I flashed back. 'That dragon you pulled me off was the one that brought me and Peak here. But she had also abandoned us and took Sunny with her the night when that OceanWing's sky-creatures attacked us.'

'Which OceanWing?' Eel raised an eye ridge at me.

'It was a male with scales like mine, except darker and nearly black.'

'Jambeau?'

'Thanks for reminding me of his name. I nearly forgot.'

'Jambeau was a dragon that loyally served his reef until two seasons ago. How dare you desecrate his memory by forgetting it!'

"If I can intervene", Crystal said suddenly, disrupting our conversation, but Eel quickly slapped her with one of his wings as a way to shut her up. I heard Silver squeak in horror.

'That's no way to treat a dragon!' I roared.

'Correct', he sniffed. 'But this is how you and the Depths treated all of us commoners who live above you – with no dignity.'

His words reminded me of Coral's when she interrogated me in the old reef.

'Hold up. You brought me here to bash me for being your ruler?'

The OceanWing glared at me with hostile dark green eyes, and said nothing.

His silence was my answer. He did bring me here to bash me for who I was.

On his head, Silver was frantically tapping his head, as if he wanted something. The metallic stick was on his back, probably because he wasn't using it.

Eel ignored him, and slowly walked out of the hut.

"Meet me at sunset", were his only words as he strode out onto the bridges connecting the Community together.

"Meet me at sunset". But where? Where does he want me to meet him?

I turned my head to ask Crystal, but she was holding her snout in talons, blue blood seeping through them.

"It's alright", she said in a hoarse voice that reminded me of Eel's. "I'll see a Healer to get this fixed up. Can you stay here in the meantime?"

I nodded, and she nodded back before leaving the hut.

Now that I was alone, I looked around the hut, trying to distract myself for the time being.

The hut was the size of a large egg, and was able to pack in four dragons with their wings spread out. I presumed that this this was the Community's hatchery, but I didn't see anything or any materials on the floor that would denote it one. Nests were different across dragon species.

"Meet Eel at sunset", I muttered to myself as I circled the hut. "Meet Eel at sunset, meet Eel at sunset. But where?"

And why are so vague sometimes?

As I circled the hut for the umpteenth time, a figure was now standing in front of the hut's oblong entrance.

I stopped, and froze.

It was Coral, Eel and Crystal following her.

The prey had come straight into its predator's claws.

I lunged towards her, pinning her to the bridge with my claws, digging right into her shoulders like I did with Ashes when I saw her earlier.

"You lizard", I hissed into her unchanging, yet subtly terrified face. "You creature. Everyone was right about you and the Undercurrents. You're the ones killing us off because you hate us. You hate, no, despise law and order. After all we do for you as citizens of deep, this is how you repay us? By murdering us even as eggs?"

"You dare use my words against me, Seastar?" Coral hissed venomously.

"I could go on if you want", I threatened.

"AKH!" a sharp voice rose behind Coral.

I looked up and there was a sky-creature brandishing a metallic stick like Silver's, but this one seemed less hardened than him.

It pointed its stick at me, as if it wanted me to get off of Coral.

I looked back down at Coral, who looked annoyed.

"Get off", she spat.

"Or what?" I growled.

"Or Commander will shoot you and you'll be of no value to me."

Not wanting my other eye to be shot at, I slowly got off of Coral while warily eying her. Red blood dripped from where my claws sank into her shoulders down onto the woven bridge.

The dark blue dragon got up and extended a wing towards the sky-creature, whom she called "Commander". It climbed onto her wing, and she folded it in, allowing it to get on her without climbing.

"I'm not here to indulge your violent fantasies that I'm somehow sending my dragons to assassinate the royal family. I'm here to send you into battle."

I took a step back. Battle?

"But Coral", Crystal explained, "she..."

Coral cut her off. "I know, but we have no choice. Our forces are getting pummeled by the VolcanoWings searching for every last dragon of Eukarya, and I'm running out of options for soldiers."

I wrinkled my snout at her. "What are you saying?"

She gave a look at me. "I'm sending everyone into war. That means the wounded, the disabled, refugees, Healers, everyone. We're barely holding on, and many of my dragons have either been killed or captured. Freedom is never free, OceanWing. You always have to fight for it."

Originally published: 06/25/2023 (typed up final manuscript of chapter 17, book 1 to page); edited: 06/27/2023 (fixed some lines at the end of the chapter)