Glow sat there patiently waiting for Vermilion to return. Her chest still felt heavy, and she felt even sicker when she remembered Peril and their meeting later. She pondered not even showing up at all and just leaving Peril to sort it out herself. But...she deserves better than that. I know I want to find someone to blame, but it isn't Peril. Given how Scarlet behaved and having raised Peril, Glow deemed it unfair to blame Peril for what happened. Her brows furrowed inward at the thought of the cruel queen. She probably doesn't even know any better. She felt even sadder when she remembered that night in the tavern with her. That's why someone needs to tell her better. That night, the lonely champion enjoyed a drink and an outing with a new friend and was actually happy, probably for the first time in years.

       It was difficult to imagine any kind of happy life under Scarlet's heinous yellow eyes.

       Before she could sink any deeper into her misery, Vermilion interrupted her thoughts. Glow raised her head at his return, but was surprised to see Corona accompanying him. Vermilion looked a little bit uncomfortable when he directly addressed Glow. "I told her I'd make sure nothing happened to you, but your SandWing friend insisted she come along." He said flatly.

       Corona raised her head accented with black in annoyance. "Well of course I had to, you dumb camel!" She exclaimed. As much as she found Corona a little bit intrusive, she had to admit; she did feel a lot better to be in her company.

       The fact that it was snarky, sassy, and sly Corona made her feel a lot more comfortable. Vermilion rolled his eyes and took the lead. "I'm going to bring you to someone who can teach you far more than I can. She'll be glad to see you."  He explained.

       Glow raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Why is that?" She said, aware of Corona's suspicious gaze.

       Vermilion merely smiled back, his eyes swimming with pride. "She has a talent for intuition and she'd be happy to see someone else interested in our true history." He responded. Glow smiled weakly in anticipation. The prospect of new knowledge, and a special privilege of sorts being given to her, made her feel giddy. She was aware of Corona padding protectively beside her and folded a wing around her small body. She wasn't nearly as small as Evenstar or Kite, but she was still pretty small.

       Corona leaned into Glow's shoulder instinctively and Glow leaned over to whisper to her. "I'm actually really happy you're coming along. I feel a lot better now that you're here." Glow smiled a big genuine smile for Corona. "And besides, the history is already pretty interesting as is– that I've learned, anyway!" She splurged.

       Corona's eyes widened with interest. "Really? Like what?" She asked.

       Glow jittered excitedly and began to explain what she'd been taught. She was then interrupted by Vermilion before she could explain. "Don't spoil the story for her, Glow." He said, his typical joking tone returning to him. Glow frowned in response and groaned in disappointment.

       "Awwwwwww, but I was so excited to tell her!" Glow whined. She glanced at Corona snickering with a talon over her snout trying not to laugh. Glow tried her best not to laugh, but couldn't help it and snickered along with her.

       Vermilion sighed and then responded. "Fine, you can tell her about the general ancient history, but leave the SkyWing history to our host." He said calmly.

       Glow bounced up and down joyously and turned to Corona, beaming. Her black eyes were inquisitively focused on Glow's snout, expectations forming in her mind of what the red SkyWing was going to tell her. Glow tilted her snout up and began her "lesson." "Well, thousands upon thousands of years ago, there were three tribes: The ancient SeaWings, SandWings, and SkyWings. The SeaWings would eventually become the SeaWings and MudWings. The SkyWings would eventually become the SkyWings and RainWings. And the SandWings would become the SandWings, IceWings, and NightWings."

       Corona's eyes widened curiously. "Wow! So if the NightWings, SandWings, and IceWings are distantly related, how did the NightWings get their powers? If they have any at all?" She asked, a valid question it sounded like to Glow.

       Glow laughed nervously. "Um, not exactly sure. But it probably happened when the species actually split from each other. I don't think anyone really knows anything about NightWing history, really." She speculated.

       Corona nodded, seeming to accept that as an answer. "Sounds about right, I just wish we knew more about NightWing history. I bet it's really interesting." Corona responded.

       Glow scoffed. "You just want to see if the NightWings are full of bear dung." She called out Corona's bluff.

       The small SandWing didn't skip a beat before answering with a firm, "Yep!"

       Glow shrugged. "Me too, but we're learning about SkyWing history today." Glow retorted. The SkyWing's amber eyes twinkled with curiosity. "I guess snooping around for the NightWings' secret history is going to have to wait." She joked. Vermilion looked back towards them as he led them down the streets towards the Merchant's Plaza.

       It was particularly busy that day, but it wasn't hard to see Umbalite's magenta scales and violet markings in the centre running everything. Vermilion strode up to her confidently.

       Umbalite greeted him with a smile and bowed her head towards Glow. "Hi guys. How can I help you today?" She asked gleefully. Vermilion leaned in really close to her to whisper to her.

       "We want to see Zinc, your grandmother." He said. Umbalite covered her mouth with a gasp. She looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to them before she leaned in again.

       "Are you sure? It would look kind of suspicious if you went in to see her." Umbalite murmured.

       Vermilion shook his head. "I want to teach Glow more about SkyWing history and Zinc is the best dragon to teach her." He replied.

       Umbalite nodded defeatedly, like she couldn't counter that with anything. She sighed and looked around nervously. Glow instinctively looked around too, particularly for Cinnabar. She was certain that Scarlet suspected her of something after Cinnabar told her what she was doing at the tavern, and Cinnabar would want to make sure that Glow wasn't poking her nose around where she deemed it didn't need to be.

       Umbalite led them to an opening behind a tent that led underground, behind a secluded wall of crates. "She's in there along with the rest of my family." She said flatly. She looked back at Vermilion with warm eyes. "I have to take care of things in the plaza as the manager. My family would be happy to see you again, so take care." She said, nuzzling him affectionately. She then turned and snuck out of the tent and left the band of dragons by themselves.

       Vermilion took the lead down into the underground, alit with torches. When he came to a passage, Glow saw two SkyWings she presumed to be Umbalite's twin sisters. They really were twins; the only discernable difference seemed to be the type of jewellery each of them wore. The sister on the left wore emerald-studded silver rings around her horns, wrists, and neck. The sister on the right wore dangling gold earrings of sapphires and an ornament on her tail. Aside from that, they were both a light muted orange colour with yellow undertones, deep orange eyes, and they both sported the spiraling violet markings that Umbalite did. It was clearly a family trademark.

       As soon as Vermilion strode up to them, the sister adorned in gold bounded up to him and hugged him forcefully. A barely audible wheeze was heard from his slowly crushing body. "I'm so happy you're here! We haven't seen you in ages!" She pulled back and stared at him smiling. She shook him excitedly. "How are you? How's everything? Is Ruby alright?" She asked hurriedly.

       "Honestly, Thermal." The other sister walked over and shook her head in mock disapproval. "You need to tone it down a bit, give Vermilion a break." She then turned to Vermilion with a warm smile. "I'm sure he's very tired after today."

       Vermilion visibly winced in response. "So, you know about what happened today." He said, a hint of regret in his voice.

       The sister adorned in silver nodded. "We heard from Umbalite. That must have been tough for you to go through." She said sympathetically.

       Vermilion nodded, hanging his head low. "It was different. Normally the match is over and the body is disposed of, but this time there was someone mourning and grieving for a change." He lifted his head up to face her. "It wasn't the highest on my list of favourite life moments, I'll say that." He finished dully.

       The sister nodded respectfully before turning to Glow and Corona and eyeing them suspiciously. Thermal turned to them and scanned them cautiously. "Who are they? Friends of yours?" the sister asked Vermilion doubtfully.

       Glow shrunk back, feeling intimidated by her direct question. Corona didn't look fazed, and simply stood tall with pride. She was even more shocked when Corona answered her completely calmly. "We're members of the White Capes, merchant dragons who sell items to whoever wants or needs them. I'm Corona, and this is my best friend, Glow," she said, waving a talon towards the meek red SkyWing. "And we're here to learn about ancient SkyWing history." She finished.

       The sisters looked at her in astonishment, though Glow wasn't certain whether it was simply how directly she responded or her audacity when introducing themselves. Either way, the sisters simply nodded towards each other and addressed the band of dragons before them. "We are the twin sisters of the Mountain Clan, Thermal and Gust." They introduced in unison, posing elegantly to mirror each other, as though they had practiced it. However, the mismatched jewellery sort of ruined the symmetry.

      Glow could see Corona snickering and she was panicking. "What are you doing? Stop laughing, these are distinguished dragons. You should respect them!" Corona was still snickering as if she couldn't hear Glow's warning. Although Glow was tense with fear and anticipation, she quickly realized that the sisters begun to laugh, too– uproariously. Glow was confused. Aren't they offended that a total stranger is kind of laughing at them?

       They calmed down and addressed Glow. Thermal piped up with a bright smile. "Don't worry about it. No one else does anyways, so why worry?" Glow found that humourous remark incredibly saddening. "Besides, that was pretty silly of us to do no matter how hard we try." She said carefree. Gust rolled her eyes and sighed.

       "You could've at least acted like it was supposed to be professional." She retorted.

       Thermal merely stuck her forked tongue out at her twin and laughed. Glow was dumbfounded, though she saw no reason to dwell on it. "You've made some good friends, Vermilion. We'll take them to see grandmother." Gust agreed.

       They walked through the entrance which was draped with violet silk curtains with golden spirals sewn at the bottom. The entire room was draped in violet curtains and there were various bright decorations inside. It felt almost other-worldly and Glow was mesmerized by it. "Wow! This reminds me of the Scorpion Den, but in a really good way!" Corona gawked.

      Glow felt relieved but still a bit annoyed by Corona's lack of forethought. "Corona, you need to be careful!" She began. Corona was still snickering, seeming to ignore her. "I'm serious! This is the second time you've given random dragons lip!" She exclaimed.

       Corona simply shrugged her off. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I'll be more careful next time." She said disinterested.

       Glow wasn't having any of that. "Don't whatever me! There shouldn't even be a next time, Corona."  She responded.

       Corona scoffed. "What are you? My wife?" She said with a smirk.

       Glow felt her face grow warm and she began to feel embarrassed. "N-no!" She denied. "Just be more careful next time, okay?" She snapped.

       "Okay. Easy, lovers!  Behave yourselves before our parents meet you." Gust called from the front of the cave. Corona and Glow immediately flailed and stammered to respond.

       "W-w-we're not like that! W-we're just f-f-friends! I swear we're just friends!" Corona stuttered. Glow simply laughed nervously and turned away, flustered. She thought of Sunny's glowing golden scales and her soft moss-green eyes and blushed. Though a part of her didn't necessarily want to disagree with Corona, she wasn't sure why. She just kept quiet while they waited.

       Vermilion sat them down by the entrance. Gust and Thermal came back with a younger dark orange SkyWing with yellow eyes. They strangely enough didn't wear any jewellery or any violet markings the rest of the family had. They simply smiled and waved his talon to the side in a single wave. Glow wasn't certain what they meant by that, but she mimicked the motion back to them with an innocent smile.

       They then patted their chest with their palm, then folded both of their talons so that two were visible. They placed their talons on top of each other so that they lined up perfectly and then tapped the bottom talon with the top twice. They took a talon to their face and pinched the air twice, raised their index finger, folded their talons with their pinky and thumb sticking out, then shaped an "o" with their talon, and a series of other motions that involved waving their fingers that Glow didn't understand.

       Glow looked at Corona in confusion, but the SandWing simply looked impressed. Thermal then explained. "He's deaf. He can only communicate in sign language, so we learned it for him and then taught him." Glow felt sorry for the young SkyWing. He probably doesn't make any friends. Being both deaf AND a "Gypsy." Life must be hard for him.

       "He just said 'Hello, my name is Falcon.' And you responded 'Hello' back without realizing it." Corona responded.

       Glow widened her eyes at Corona, bewildered that she understood. "Wait, how can you understand sign language?" She asked reasonably.

       Corona looked down sadly. "Well, when I was a small dragonet, I had to learn it to help our deaf friend, Djinn. We all did. Dust, Tarantula and I looked after her until she was killed by a Dragonbite Viper when she was only a year old." She turned away shamefully. "She never heard it coming..." She said quietly.

       Glow wrapped a wing around her sympathetically. "I'm sorry...that must have been hard." She said solemnly.

       Corona nodded. "Yeah, times were tough. We had to survive, so we didn't have time to grieve for her. We buried her in the Scorpion Den underneath a palm tree by the oasis when no one was looking." She paused thoughtfully. "I wonder what she would've been like if she had grown up with us." She said, grief lacing her dry voice.

       Glow shook herself and nudged Corona gently. "Hey, why don't you introduce us to Falcon? I'm sure he'd appreciate that." Corona nodded and smiled.

       "Yeah, that's a good idea." She said. She turned to a stunned Thermal and a bewildered Falcon waiting expectantly. Corona made a quick series of talon motions. Glow gave up following and simply waited for Falcon's response. He made a series of motions with a confused quizzical look to him. "I just said 'Hello, my name is Corona, and this is Glow. We're friends of your sister's.' and he said 'Nice to meet you. I'm happy you know sign language, too.'"

       Glow was astonished. Wow...there are a lot of things I don't know about Corona. Falcon had a hopeful look on his face and made another shorter series of hand motions at them. Corona smiled and made a motion as if she were knocking on an invisible door. Falcon then put his talons to his lip and then moved them slightly forwards towards Corona. Corona leaned to Glow. "He just asked me if we were his friends too. I said 'yes' and he said 'thank you.'" Glow smiled. Falcon seemed so happy. All he had was a smile, but it was so genuine and kind that it was infectious.

       Gust sat down beside them. "Well, we should wait here for mother and father to get home before we all see grandmother." Vermilion nodded and Thermal sat down beside her twin with Falcon right beside her. Glow felt better about Corona being here despite the error in her conduct on the way in.  Glow was feeling anxious about meeting Zinc, however. But also excited to learn a whole new aspect of dragon history. I'm really making connections here. This is going to be so amazing! I can't wait to tell Frigga about it! Then her excitement faltered. Right... Frigga... She unconsciously leaned on Corona for warmth and support while waiting for the parents of the home to return so that she can talk to the grandmother.

       The keeper of the SkyWings' history.