When I leapt out of the water into the night sky (for the first time since hatching), I flapped my wings hard so I could stabilize myself in the air and become one with it. It was like how OceanWing used the sea to their advantage when swimming in its waters.

I could see that two of the four moons were out – Moons I and III. They were both at different stages in their respective cycles, looking like one was fading and one was coming. Moon I was in its darkening phase, as it was orbiting the side of the planet closest to the sun. Moon III was getting brighter and brighter, as it was orbiting away from the sun around the planet.

Eukarya had four moons orbiting it – Moon I, Moon II, Moon III, and Moon IV. Moon I was the largest of them, while Moon IV was the smallest of them.

Small silver dots freckled the black sky. These were the stars I've heard about, and how the wing scales on an OceanWing resembled them in this sky.

It was quite ethereal, seeing the sky like this.

Ahead of me, a harnessed Swell had gotten used to flying behind Mother. Current was next to me, and Whirlpool and Seaquake were on either of Mother's sides.

"Quite amazing, isn't it?" Current mused about the stars and the moons. His voice was light, like the currents that flowed through the sea. "The moons and the stars. It gives you a feeling of... otherworldliness."

"Remember why Uncle chose you", I reprimanded him. I noticed that my voice sounded like the deepest blue, rumbly and bass.

He snorted. "Of course, I know. He chose me if something were to happen to any one of us, specifically your mother."

I remember that Whitecap had told Mother about choosing Current to report back in case something like war breaking out or another wave of sky-creatures descending on Eukarya. But I had a feeling that it was much worse than that, based on the message that dragon gave us a few sunrises ago.

"A meeting discussing the future of the planet", as they had said.

_______________

Dawn had come soon, when we passed through the "claws" of the Clawed Isle. These were really just mountains that jutted out of the sea, and that the chain of them was in the shape of claws.

The first rays of sunlight gave the night sky a dark blue color. Slowly, but surely, more sunlight penetrated the black night and colors such as purple, orange, and red seeped through.

As the sun crawled its way up towards the horizons, pink was added to the sky and orange, purple, and red were intensified.

"Mother, look!" Swell chirped. His voice was high-pitched like a calling bird. "Dawn!"

Mother didn't pay attention to him. I bet was worried about getting us safely to Mistral's palace.

Dawn soon turned into sunrise, and the sky was set ablaze by the sun's light.

And so were our scales.

I looked down and saw that the green egg that was harnessed to me was pale green in the white-gold light.

"Hey, Current", I said, turning my head, hoping to show him the egg, but I couldn't finish my thought.

His blue scales were a pale blue-gold in the sunlight. He looked quite beautiful here, even though he was ordinary in the deep.

"What?" he said.

"Uh", I stammered. "The egg. It was glowing in the sunlight."

He looked at the egg, and noticed is green-gold coloration in the sunrise.

"Amazing", he muttered to himself, "absolutely amazing what light can do."

________________

Sunrise gave way to the day when the sun was halfway to its highest point in the sky. The sky was a bright blue, like Current's scales, and puffy clouds had already formed, sparsely decorating it.

Nobody had eaten since we'd left, and my stomach was beginning to hurt.

Current let out a soft guttural, yet pain croon from his throat. He was clearly starving like me.

"Can you ask Wave for us to stop and eat?"

I looked at Mother, who was still flying nonchalantly as if nothing affected her.

I looked back at Current. "I hope so."

I pumped my wings so I could position myself above Mother, while not disturbing her.

She noticed me in the corner of her eye when I flew up to her. "Yes?"

"Can we stop?" I asked her. "We haven't eaten anything since we left."

"I second that", Seaquake agreed with me. "Look, I know you want us to get to Mistral's quickly, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't take care of your dragons."

Dragons could survive a long time without food, even longer than a sky-creature. But sometimes, our consume-digestion cycle was the same as theirs, and we needed to eat food to give us energy and to keep us alive.

Mother sighed. "You're right. I should've fed you before we left. It's my fault, I'm sorry. We'll land on the shores of the Forest of Groves, and we'll eat there."

The books I read stated that the Forest of Groves on the Island of Talons was the old territory of the TreeWings before they moved to the mainland. Why they abandoned the place in the first place was a mystery.

The Forest of Groves was ahead of us, although we couldn't see it yet. Stretches of water surrounded us for Turns where we were.

But soon, a large shape loomed ahead of us. As we got closer, we saw trees in either direction.

The forests of the Island of Talons.

We all dived at its shores, and relief flooding my wings.

Finally!

I drooped my wings and my body collapsed on the sand, which wasn't wet.

Like the loosening of the harness around me when I was fitted for it, this was a temporary breather.

"Tide", Mother said, and I turned my head towards her. Her voice was like mine, except more elegant. "You said you wanted to eat, right?"

I nodded.

"Then eat. We won't stay here long, and you can crash in our guest quarters when we reach Mistral's palace."

I sighed. "Alright."

I got up and shook the sand off my underbelly before heading into the surf.

Wave crashed around my talons, and seabirds wheeled in the sky, calling to each other.

What was I supposed to do?

I remember being taught how to hunt in the sea, but I couldn't recall how to.

Crap.

I wacked myself with one of my wings, before a giant silver fish flung itself out of the water and whacked my snout before landing wet brown sand.

Swell let out a hard, wheezing laugh that sounded like chattering birds.

Mother chided him, and he regressed to snickering, as he were mocking my lack of hunting skills. Or he saw it as free entertainment.

I picked it up with my teeth before another wave came in and swept it away.

This would be fine until we arrived at our destination.

As I ate, I could hear something in the distance, something like insects buzzing. But it didn't "feel" like it was an insect flying around.

Usually, insects stayed in their respective habitats like forests and jungles. But that wasn't the case here.

As the buzzing got closer, I could see it came from a small, smooth black metal rectangle that resembled the stone chest in my room where I kept my jewelry.

It was hovering in the air, and it was getting closer and closer towards us.

What is that?

I stopped eating and watched it move. It headed towards me, and I could see that it was somehow floating by itself.

Was it programed into it, or was someone controlling it?

It studied me before it moved on to Seaquake, who destroyed it by biting at it.

She turned her head to Mother, who took the rectangle out of her mouth and studied it.

"This is definitely sky-creature technology", she said. "No dragon would know how to make this."

"Except the VolcanoWings", Whirlpool quipped with contempt in his voice.

________________

After eating, the five of us heading towards the Mountain Claws, following the island's shore as a guide.

Once we left the shores of the forest, I could see nothing but water as far as my eyes could see.

When the sun reached its highest point in the sky, I could see something like a giant, rocky mountain jutted out of the water.

We had officially entered the Mountain Claws, the territory of the StormWings.

And it was going to be a long flight for sure.

Many of these mountains jutted from the water, and dragons the color of storm clouds swarmed all over them.

How would we know which mountain was Mistral's palace?

Thankfully, Mother allowed Current to ask a native where her palace was. We all hovered in the air as Current asked a grey dragon with long, sharp wings where we were supposed to go.

He came back to us shortly after he got his answer.

"We keep flying in the direction we're going in. Once we see the last of the mountains, we head east and follow them until we find the mountain with two peaks."

"'Two peaks'?" Mother asked. "But how...?"

"The dragon told me that the second peak is used for the species' burial ritual, like what you can see up there."

He flicked his tail to the mountain, and I saw that a group of StormWings were perched on a ledge near the middle of the it.

Something wrapped in a blue-white-gold cloth was in two of the dragon's talons, who then dropped it into the ocean.

The cloth and its content entered the water in a splash! as the ocean's wave crashed into the mountain's sides.

"Welp", Whirlpool said, "I guess I know what we're looking for now. I bunch of dragons swarming a mountain, and a bunch of corpses being dropped into the waters surrounding said mountain."

Current nodded at him. "You are correct."

_____________

When the sun was halfway towards the other horizon, we had found the two-peaked mountain that was Mistral's palace.

In the distance, StormWings swarmed one of the peaks, while the other was sparsely populated. On the sparsely populated peak of the mountain, a small group of dragons dropped a cloth-wrapped corpse into the ocean.

That was either the cleverest or the dumbest way to dispose of a corpse I've ever seen.

There was also a third, smaller mountain near the "island", which had an opening in it. Dragons were near the opening, and they flew towards us when they determined we were close enough to the palace.

That's the advance guard, I realized.

Most palaces (or capitals), to my knowledge, had advance guards, which prevent any unauthorized dragons from entering it.

The grey dragons surrounded us as we hovered in the air, their wingbeats sounding like rushing wind.

"Who are you?" one the dragons demanded. This one was a male, based on his features.

Seaquake was going to speak on the behalf of Mother, but she shot her a look that said "don't".

Mother then looked back at the guard and said, "My name is Wave, the monarch of the OceanWings. Your monarch, Mistral, had invited me to attend her meeting discussing the future of the world?"

"Do you have any proof?" another dragon asked her.

Some of the dragon's claws were twitching, as if they were waiting the entire day to make an arrest. Some of them closed on us, and I bared my teeth against a pale grey dragon that had gotten to close to me.

"It's fine, Gust", a pale grey dragon to my left said. "I can take them to Mistral."

Gust gave a look at the dragon. "You're really sure that their the OceanWing representatives?"

The pale grey dragon nodded. "They have the wing markings to prove it", and pointed to Mother, mine, and Swell's wings.

Gust studied them for a moment, getting a good look at them, before backing away. "Alright Vent", he said. "They're all yours."

The other guards had backed away except for Vent, whose made his way in front of us.

"Follow me", he said before diving to the peak with many dragons. He landed on a ledge jutting out and we followed suit.

He flicked his tail at us, and we all followed.

Dragons could be seen scuttling around, bringing stuff to this dragon or that dragon. There was other taking the blue-white-gold cloths I had seen earlier to the entrace that we had come through from.

What were they, and why did everyone wrap the corpses of dead StormWings in them before dropping them into the ocean?

I had to ask. "Hey, Vent?" I inquired. "We saw dragons drop corpses who were wrapped in those cloths. Do you know what those cloths are and why the dead are only wrapped in them?"

"Those are burial cloths", Vent explained as the group kept walking and following into tunnels that branched into other tunnels and cavern systems. "They act as a way for the souls of the dead to be released from their mortal bodies and either fly into the Sky or the Depths before we dump their corpse into the ocean. The cloth can be kept by the family, if they wish, or it can be reused for future burials, in which case it must be cleaned before using."

"'The'...'Depths'?" I echoed.

"It's the place where sinners will live in eternity after they die."

"Oh." I though he was referring to our Depths, Mother's council. "Is 'the Sky' the place where believers live after death?"

"Correct", he answered plainly.

"How do you get into 'the Sky'?" Swell asked, with curiosity in his voice. "Swell..." Mother growled at him.

"That's something you'll have to ask Welkin about", the StormWing replied. "For now, I'm just going to say that if you obey Caelum's law, you'll be alright."

"Caelum?" Seaquake said. "He sounds he's a leader that's above Mistral."

"No, no", Vent quickly explained. "Caelum is our god, the one who created everything and everyone. He also dictates our lives."

"So you believe in a higher power?" Mother snorted. "Mmm-hmm", Vent replied.

I could hear Whirlpool let out an audible sigh that sounded like "hoo boy", as if he didn't want to deal with this.

Lizard, Uncle chose you to represent your species. Don't like it? Deal with it.

Eventually, Vent led us through more tunnels that went deep into the mountain and led us to a cave that was blocked by two stone doors. It had four dragons guarding it – one on each side. They bristled when they saw us and him.

"My name is Vent of the StormWings", he said. "I am the one Mistral assigned me to look after the OceanWing representatives as they stay here."

One of the guards, a black dragon with dark blue eyes clad in metallic armor all over, peered at us, studying us.

After a moment, the dragon flicked their tail at the other dragons, and they opened the stone doors with some sort of contraption built into the walls.

The doors slowly opened, revealing a grand cave ahead.

In there, there were other dragons that were not StormWings, but instead from all around Eukarya. At the back of this cave was a carved stone throne with lightning motifs made of metal incorporated into it.

And on that throne (I assume), was Mistral, the monarch of the StormWings. She had grey scales like rain clouds transitioning into storm clouds, and wore a metallic band encircling her head, signifying her as the species' monarch.

Flanking on either side of her throne were two dragons – one was black with bright blue eyes, and the other was storm-grey with piercing blue eyes and was covered with scars like Tsunami.

"The OceanWing representatives", Vent announced as we all passed him into the cave.

All the dragons there swiveled their heads to look at us as the stone doors shut behind us, and Vent padded over to one of the walls and sat there.

I recognized none of them, as I had never met them, except for one of the MountainWings there...

"Rise!" Swell squeaked and scampered up to her.

Rise was the author of the once-beloved Skies of Fire series. She had brown scales, like mud, and wore wire-rimmed glasses in front of her eyes that hooked around her ears. As she was a female MountainWing, she lacked the brown-and-grey markings on the undersides of her wings and the lobes of the "antennae" that dangled from her snout.

She looked down at my brother with admiration. "Hello, young dragon", she said, as Swell came to the end of his harness. He pulled on his, dragging Mother with it.

"Swell", Mother snipped at him, "come back here."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because she will kidnap you if you wander from me."

Immediately, Swell ran back to Mother.

"Woah there", Rise said. "I pose no danger to this dragonet."

"Physically", another female MountainWing next to Rise snipped at her. "You're a danger to him mentally with your ideas of a male becoming female through mutilation."

"I never promoted that in my books."

"Yes, you did, with that character."

The Skies of Fire character mentioned here was Cam, a human who appeared in Power of Fire, the final book of the series.

This character was one of the other reasons why nobody wanted to support Rise anymore. In Power of Fire, Cam was presented as a character who was neither male nor female, but yet "non-binary".

Yet many dragons, like me, theorized that Cam was actually a male human who said that he was "non-binary" so that he may prey on potential female rape victims.

But nobody knew for sure who the character really was. Only the author knew.

"But Cam was-", Rise started, but she was cut off by Mistral.

"Dragons!" she boomed. "This is not the time to discuss your politics with each other. We must discuss the threat at hand if we are going to survive."

"What threat?" one of the DesertWings spat at her. "What exactly are we threated by?"

"A threat that no one had taken notice of until now?"

"Vulcan?" an ArcticWing griped.

"Yes and no", Mistral replied. "Vulcan is an imminent threat here, but not from above."

"Is it the sky-creatures?" a FeatherWing asked.

"No, it is something like them but is not them."

"Like what?"

Mistral flicked her tail at the scarred dragon to her right, who I could make out was male underneath all those scars. He pulled a small, smooth black rectangle from a rawhide bag around his neck. It was the exact same one that we had saw earlier, except it was larger.

He handed it to Mistral, bowing as he did so.

"This", the monarch said, "is not made by the sky-creatures. It does not resemble anything we know of them."

"It could also be made by Vulcan, right?" a male MountainWing next to rise perked, his grey eyes narrowing at the box.

"Possibly", Mistral said, "but it is not made by him. If he were to make this, his dragons would've had to make substantial advancement in the technology we already possess."

A dead silence filled the room.

"So you're saying that extraterrestrials made that?" the same male MountainWing said. His grey eyes narrowed and honed on the black box.

Mistral stared at him. "I didn't say that."

"But you implied it."

"Implied what?" a dragon behind me rumbled.

I turned around and saw a giant black dragon towering over me. Accompanying him was a smaller dragon, around my age or older with a sky-creature on its back.

Instinctively, I shrank back in fear instinctively to protect myself and my unhatched sibling.

"Vulcan", Mistral says smoothly, "it's about time you showed up."

Originally published: 03/18/2023 (typed up manuscript of chapter 4, book 1 to page); edited: (WIP)