Peril touched down at the entrance of Jade Mountain Academy. Her wings trembled, although she wasn't quite sure why. She had spent the past six days flying, in search of Scarlet, but she was a SkyWing. She should love flying! But she didn't dwell on her disagreeing treacherous wings. She didn't need them, except for flying, terrifying annoying dragons, and hugging Clay. Her heart still leaped when she saw him. She thought her heart shouldn't do that anymore, but who was holding it back? She peered into the music room, which made Qibli, and a couple other SandWings she didn't know jump and stop playing. Then she checked the library. Moon was there (of course) with the overly excited RainWing, she remembered her name was Kinkajou. She peeked at what they were doing, and they quickly moved aside to show her that they were coping some sort of detective story. Something about a dragon found dead in a cave, and another dragon trying to solve who did it. Not that I know how to do that.

This was getting off topic.

"Hi Peril." Starflight said quickly, then shuffled off the place some scrolls farther away from her tail. "I'm not staying long." Peril said, twitching her tail closer to her, making the blind NightWing leap back with a barely audible hiss.

She scurried out of the flammable room in a hurry, completely forgetting to ask him whether he knew where Clay was, or not.

But there was no need to turn around and poke her head in again. One, because she was already pretty far away from the library, two, she didn't want to cause more chaos and make Starflight more stressed than he had to, and three, Sunny was in front of her.

"Hi!" Sunny said in a friendly tone.

"Hi." Peril mumbled in a rush.

The SandWing tilted her head at the burning dragon. "Are you looking for Clay?" she asked.

"Yes?" Peril replied, hating the way her voice made it sound like a question. Why was she nervous?

"He is in the prey center, trying to catch two chickens so he can teach his upcoming class about stalking fast prey. It is quite a mess there, just to warn you."

Of course. Why didn't I think of that? "Thanks." she said, and then bounded off to the prey center.

Sunny wasn't wrong about the mess Clay and the chickens have made. The two chickens were squawking like crazy, and Clay was also shouting things like, "COME HERE YOU CHICKENS" and "IF YOU DON'T STOP, I'LL EAT YOU MYSELF" and "GIVE UP ALREADY *huff* YOU CAN'T OUT RUN ME! *puff*" he came to a stop near the cave entrance and noticed Peril standing there.

"Peril!" he cried joyfully. He speed limped over to her and threw his wonderful brown wings around Peril's. There is the only reason I need my wings. Peril caught herself thinking.

"How are you?" Clay asked, taking her talons and slightly bouncing on his claws.

"Never better." Peril said, smiling at him. He returned her smile, warm and radiant like the sun.

"Well. These chickens are quite a talon full." he said, waving his claws at the red and white tired out chickens. "But I suppose it's worth it."

"Prey is never easy to catch." Peril said.

"You sound like Starflight." Clay said, bumping her shoulder with his. "But much much better."

Peril could almost hear Starflight's protest.

Peril grinned. "Well, I suppose it was never really easy for me. Queen Scarlet always had guards give me pre-caught prey."

"Did you find Queen Scarlet?" Clay asked worriedly.

The smile Peril never knew had appeared on her face, slid off, against her will, but she had noticed she never smiled or laughed while talking about the former queen of the SkyWings.

"No." was the only answer she could conjure.

"Well doesn't matter." Clay said, gently pushing her farther into the cave, so passing dragons wouldn't set themselves on fire. "We have Tsunami, a couple daggers, some extremely fierce students, a big stick, and of course, Peril."

The way he said her name, felt like her heart was bursting. "I'll always be here." she said. She leaned into his warm brown scales. "I'll always be."