-Hi, everyone. I would like to thank Kinderartifact4 for housing a character adoption.

Meet Ash the Mudwing/Hivewing hybrid:

And Mangrove the Rainwing/Seawing hybrid:

Glory's POV

Glory sat in front of the table, Deathbringer by her side. Sitting in front of her were the queen of Leafwings; Queen Sequoia, a bundle of 4 Silkwing who called themselves The Chrysalis, Mastermind and Singsong.

Sequoia was similar in size to Grandeur, who sat next to Glory with a bored expression in her eye. Sequoia however, looked more battle-hardened, scars laced her form and she had a more determined look in her eyes.

The four Chrysalis members were Grayling, Morpho, Io and Glimmer, all of whom had dazzling wings and vivid colours. All of whom were muttering to themselves.

Mastermind's bodyguard; Ash, a hybrid of a mudwing and hivewing; a mix of silver and grey scales, black scales repeatedly disrupted the flow of grey from her neck to tail in an orderly pattern, silver lined her underbelly and back, amber-brown eyes observed the event taking place with no sign of interest, stood beside the scavenger sized dragon, easily towering over him. Her wasp-like wings glinted amber brown, folded like the wings of a damselfly. 

Singsong's bodyguard was a Cavern Guard by the name of Asphalt; a blackened grey dragon with speckles of dull silver and bronze coating his body and frills, large moose like horns topped his head, smaller and more delicate in comparison to Granite's horns. A pair of small rock grey eyes scanned the room absent-mindedly. He stood menacing behind his target. His frill flickered open and close in small bursts, he seemed to be tense. His wing claws gripped tightly against the wood of the table, Glory noticed with a bit of concern and disdain as they created nicks and crevices in the perfectly crafted oak table.

Ash coughed to obtain everyone's attention before speaking in a low, mildly sweet voice, "Why don't we each start with a short story while we wait for the last three of our friends to arrive."

"Good idea, Ash. I will start first," Mastermind noted before clearing his throat, "So, two weeks ago, Victory Strike booked seats for all the leaders for a theatre performance that we wanted to watch. I was walking to the theatre, enjoying the night's walk through the caverns with its bustling streets, well-lit stores of multiple varieties of products and the sweet scent of well-crafted dinners emanating from restaurants. I reached the theatre door where there was a ticket box. I went up to it and asked the dragon there to stamp out my ticket. I gave my name and waited. The Camo-Assassin then told me that I hadn't booked a ticket. I then clarified that Victory Strike booked a ticket for me and I kid you not, he was quaking in his boots at the mention of Victory Strike. He then checked again and let me in. Me and Victory Strike were the only ones there at the time, so as we waited for everyone else to arrive and for the show to start, we talked. I mentioned what happened at the check in booth and Victory Strike said that he would see the Camo assassin. After the show, Victory Strike meet up with the dragon and had a good chuckle at his expense, the camo-assassin proceeded to have a heart attack."

"Ah haha! Oh yeah, we had to send the poor sod to the hospital," Singsong gasped out between chuckles before Ash nudged him with him with her staff. Singsong collected himself before continuing, "What was the performance called again?"

"Beowolf if I remember correctly," Mastermind replied, Glory felt left out of the joke, she eyed Ash with some confusion.

"Of course, Beowolf! What a comedy," Ash exclaimed exasperated, clearly making a quick, uncalculated attempt to keep the atmosphere of the room, "Excellent piece of scavenger theatre. A true masterpiece of drama, humour and craziness."

Mastermind's eyes widened with the realisation that he didn't at all explain anything about Beowulf to literally anyone and Glory chuckled internally watching him realise this mistake.

Singsong however seemed to be completely obvious to that fact, "Are you okay, Ash. You don't - oh."

Asphalt groaned in disbelief and face-talon himself. Io gave him a concerned look.

"Well, this is going well," Deathbringer joked, "I will be next. So this happened a year or so ago, I had received a message from my superiors to assassinate some dragons in the Ice kingdom, called the Dragonets of Destiny."

Glory already knew what Deathbringer was talking about and smiled smugly at him. He returned his signature smug smile back in return. Mastermind, Ash and Asphalt meet them in the eyes as Mastermind grinned slightly, "Please tell us more, Deathbringer."

"Okay okay, so I was cold rocky tundra between the desert of the Sand Kingdom and the icy waste of the Ice Kingdom. I was cooking myself dinner at an abandoned hut, when I was spotted by a very pretty Icewing. But, she was so not an Icewing, that much could have been gathered from our little conversation. So, I decided to follow her, which led me to another hut. I waited outside, unknown to her and followed her back to the cave where she and her friend were hiding. She then revealed herself to be a rainwing," Deathbringer smirked looking at Glory, "I proceeded to reveal myself and said that the nightwings wanted them dead, so they should be careful. I was then pinned by the rainwing and she held me down with one of my chakras, however, we had to disperse as the Queen of the Ice Kingdom at the time was coming to imprison the Dragonets of Destiny. Then, I saved her later on from a volcanic prison."

"And that is how we met," Glory finished with a smirk of her own at Deathbringer's expense, "How was that?"

"And that is my granddaughter's lovelife, everyone," Grandeur almost boomed with pride. It made Glory feel a tad bit embarrassed. Deathbringer was staring in confusion at Grandeur.

"Nice," Asphalt complimented, while Ash and Mastermind both winked and gave a small smile of encouragement each. Sequoia had a look of slight surprise but smiled, amused with the story.

"That is almost as extreme as how I met my mate," Singsong pointed out, breaking the atmosphere of calm. Asphalt sharply nudged the Amber-Caster King with his wing, discontempt on his grim, stoick face.

"Please for the sake of Lord Akradous, don't mention that," Asphalt grimaced painfully, "It is a silly story and Deception will be here soon, so-"

"Do it," Ash cheered, annociating the 'do' part, encouraging the king to reveal the tale. Glory's interest peaked, along with Sequoia's and the curiosity of Io, Grayling and Morph.

"Singsong, why don't you tell everyone how you meet Amber Tai, I bet that it will be a fun story," Grandeur suggested with a slight grin, Glory had only seen Grandeur like this with her friends. It always surprises

Glory when her grandmother was around her friend. She became more playful and teasing, as well as a lot less grouchy.

Singsong chuckled lightly, however before he could get a word out. The taping of talons and clanging jewellery echoed from the entrance. Glory turned towards the entrance of the hut to see a triple-slasher walk in, her head held high.

The dragoness had a pair of deep violet eyes that seemed to bore right through every dragon in the room. Her scales were a kaleidoscope of magenta, dark purple and indigo with speckles of turquoise and navy blue, lavender coated her underbelly and wing membranes. Her wing talons were equipped with metal claws of dazzling silver. Several gold necklaces adorned with blue, purple and green gemstones, laced her neck, similar to how Queen Coral adorned herself. A couple of golden bands clumped against her horns and arms. Her bard tails were curled inwards.

"Grandeur, good to see that you appear to be okay from that little hostage situation," the very purple dragoness asked in a concerned, yet relieved voice as she went around to Mastermind and Singsong, who handed her a sachet each.

"It was more dull than anything, Deception my dear," Grandeur talked smoothly, "They were too scared to do anything. Makes me wonder why they even bother? Say, how was your little vacation with the folks?"

"Quite good as always, Thoughtful and Bloodlust enjoyed every last bit," Deception said with a flourish of the tongue and a hint of informal excitement.

The dragoness quickly gave a small chuckle and bowed briefly to Glory and Sequoia, "Good day to you, Queen Glory and Queen Sequoia. I hoped it was kind to you. I am Queen Deception, the Royal Concert of Victory Strike and the Head of the Royal Treasuries."

 The purple saturated dragoness sat down between Mastermind and the 5 other vacant seats, jiggling the sachets before placing it into her bag.

"So, what did I just interrupt," the lilac dragoness asked with a flourish of her wing talons.

"Not much, just Singsong's attempt to tell our friends here about how he met little miss Craze Amber," Ash butted in much to Mastermind's distaste.

"Oh, you mean Song Fell," the as far as Glory knew, non-deceptive dragoness corrected with a chilling calmness, "I find her actual name much better than that silly nickname. Just for your knowledge, Ash. She is coming around and I would hate for her to be called that in her face."

Ash nodded submissively, her eyes trained on the table. Her face held immediate regret and a tinge of fear.

Glory noticed and internally growled at Singsong for not striking the hybrid with a verbal storm for the 'insult'. The amber-caster looked relieved with a tinge of shame.

"Queen Deception, don't get the wrong idea, but why are you here, seeing as you are head of the Grim Treasury," Grayling asked, trying to appear stoick, though the mild shivering ruined the image as the elder dragoness shadowed the silkwing.

"Good question, young Silkwing. As the loyal consort, I get to provide advice to her majesty. Plus, I know a good deal about geography, especially in Pyrrhia. And that would be important when we are discussing which areas of the rainforest would be secure, safe enough to properly establish your new homes. Especially when we are talking flooding, heat waves, the distribution of trees big enough for the Leafwings to nest in, and several other factors," Deception elaborated in a slightly excited manner. Glory felt a tad bit bored out already.

In the blink of an eye, the bored mood of the room changed with the opening of four portals. From the blue portal, the one right next to Deception, slipped down a Triple-Slasher one of crimson and amber; Victory Strike. With a flip, he/she stuck the landing.

She grinned, smiling warmly at Deception as their tails intertwined. Both of them looked quite adorable as they gave each a small hug and peck. Their eyes locked together in silence as they took each other in with a heartfelt and caring smile.

"Darling, how was the week with the folks," Victory asked sweetly.

"Simply, wonderful as always," Deception said with a nod, "Thoughtful and Bloodlust are with Honey Heart."

"Does she ha-," Victory Strike started before Deception smacked her with one of her tails.

"Nope," Deceptions finished with a chuckle and a cheeky flicker of the tongue.

From the next portal, a glory purple one, a pair of dragoness; a rainwing as old if a bit younger than Grandeur with several small scars decorating her neck, the second dragoness appeared to be 20 years old, a hybrid of rainwing and seawing.

The wisen rainwing's scales were that of a deep royal blue and a similar mixture of Grandeur's pale orange and lavender with tinges of violent red on her ruff and talons. Her vibrant light pink eyes pinned onto Grandeur with a fixation of rage, quiet fury and betrayal. Her bag hung tightly against the rainwing's side. Her talons twitched as the dragoness sat on the seat right next to the gender confused Grim Queen.

Grandeur on the other talon, avoided the dragoness's stare with guilt in her eyes. Her talons were stained fear green and guilty orange.she began to quiver under the younger dragoness's glare and scowl.

"The rainwing is Mamba, she is the leader of the Rainwings in the Grim," Grandeur explained to Glory before she averted her eyes to look at the table.

The hybrid dragoness had the bioluminescent scales of a seawing that appeared to be tinged pale green. Her fangs were visible from her petite mouth. Her scales shone cyan, lilac and pale indigo. Her spines were a dark green and their membrane was pale greepink eyes shone with courage and shy determination. She strolled in with confidence in every step till she tripped on the floor board and landed on her now bright red face. Embarrassed.

"The hybrid is Mangrove, she is Mamba's daughter and is treated like family to a lot of the leaders, especially to the Triple-Slashers," Grandeur explained between nods and a warm smile, concern and embrassement on behalf of Mangrove.

Mamba looked annoyed, changing her cruel glare to an unamused scowl, shrugging with mild shame. The triple slasher couple shared a concerned look between a vain attempt to hide their amusement and an offer of help.

With a flicker as a talon from a nearly laughing Victory, the hybrid was pulled up and onto the seat next to the elder rainwing. Her embarrassment quickly changed to a mask of confidence and stoicism, Glory nearly laughed at the scene in front of her.

"Good afternoon, sister," Mamba spat the words like venom, her eyes dead set on Grandeur. Grandeur on the other hand was awkwardly smiling with a nervous squint.

Glory looked between the two elderly rainwings with shock and confusion in her mind. Mangrove gave her a helpful shrug, while Deathbringer gave her a reassured smile.

"Guess we are technically cousins once removed," Mangrove said, trying to distract the two dangerous dragoness, though a vain attempt.

Glory signed before asking Mamba a question, "Mamba, why-"

"Simple, I was banished when my sad excuse of a sister allowed Magnificent to get rid of me like a banana peel," Mamba hissed, cutting off Glory with venom dripping from her voice, ruby red exploded over her face and neck before subsiding.

"Any other outbursts that may need to be mentioned," Victory Strike hissed back softly, making both Mastermind, Singsing, Ash and Asphalt flinch from the soft threat, "cause, I think that this is a meeting over the territory spread of the rainforest and not a therapy session!"

Sequoia seemed to start counting internally as Deception leaned against her agitated mate, the two went into a short session of purrs and other cute noises that seemed to take the edge off of the offset dragoness.

Mamba relented and changed focus to a coin in her talon, Glory couldn't see it well, but it was clearly made of gold with an emerald placed on the center.

The next portal, an amber yellow one, lead out a leafwing who appeared to be 40. Her avocado green scales were contrasted with maple red speckles that seemed to have been dripped onto her. Her leafwing shaped wings glimmered evergreen and were rimmed with grey iron. Her eyes sprinted between Sequoia and Victory Strike with a hast Glory had only seen in the dragons that Scarlet pitted in her arena.

With a fancy bow, the leafwing took her place next to the hybrid Rainwing/Seawing. A silver band shimmered on her horn, the topaz in the middle shone like a mini fire. She took out a pair of diamond encrusted spectacles and placed them lopsided on her snout.

She and Sequoia looked at each other for a few moments, clearly interested to find out more about the other.

"Good afternoon, Eucalyptus," Victory Strike greeted the leafwing, after calming down from the little spike, "How are the preparations going?"

"According to plan," Eucalyptus replied, watching the subsiding tide of an awkward, rage-filled scene of the two long lost sisters, "The Xerophics has been forced to the mountains faster than we expected."

The final portal, a dark purple one, an elderly silkwing with dule amber-brown eyes trotted in with a bored look on his face. Hallows hung below his eyes, a pair of emeralds sat on the outside of each of his eyes, contrasting with the dull moss-green scales. Spots of silver and brick red dotted his body. A monocle hung over his right eye, glinting in the light green lights. Shimmering like a dragonfly's pair of wings, the copper-blue wings rustled, creating a humming sound similar to that of a bee.

The sleep-deprived dragon dragged himself onto the seat next to the leafwing and the Chrysalis. And with a yawn, took out a cup and began to make himself a drink that smelled aromatic with an odd empowering scent, probably what Cavern Carver called coffee.

"Triple check the premises near the mountains and the spiral of despair , for any sign of the Xerophic. We need to ensure that every last of the vile creatures is observed. Manticore will require the absolute certainty of its extinction," Mangrove instructed, her calm demeanour vanished for the briefest of moments, "Double check that hives, as far as we know, Wasp kept several greenhouses filled with the vile thing."

Eucalyptus nodded briefly.

"Good afternoon, Argus," Mastermind greeted the tired Silkwing with concern on his face, "Had trouble sleeping, didn't yah?"

The silkwing nodded gloomily.

"Since everyone who needs to be here is here, why don't we go over what we came for over a lovely cup of tea," The Grim Queen changed the atmosphere of the room in an instant as a bundle of sea green and aquamarine cup clicked onto the table in front of Glory and her 'guests', with an annoyed look at Mamba.

"Would you care for some Carmoine tea, Jasmine tea , Earl Grey tea or coffee?"

Deception proceeded to place a kettle onto the table as clear water slithered in from what Glory could see was Victory's pouch. A faint sea green colour glowed ominously from her back.

Deception's forehead glowed fire-red as a symbol that resembled a fire appeared as she clutched the kettle. In a matter of seconds, a hiss, signifying that the water had finished boiling.

Said scalding water slithered out of the kettle's nose and into each cup. Glory noted that Deathbringer was staring intently at the two small streams that poured into Glory's cup as though it would jump out of the cup to burn her, which Glory shrugged off as mild paranoia.

After several minutes, everyone had a nice cup of tea or coffee. Glory took a sip of her sweetened jasmine tea, enjoying the taste of tea.

Victory Strike placed a small metallic, triangular pyramid on the table, which opened up with a Click. A series of runes glowed white as the pyramid popped open and a map of Pyrrhia appeared. Though unlike any map Glory had ever seen, it also included a series of intricate cavern systems that ran throughout the continent and highlighted many of the small islands and the Abyssal Trenches that faced the Rainforest. Each separate section of the landmass was coloured in different colours, from icy blue at the Ice Kingdom to the royal purple of the mudwing kingdom and the sea-green of the oceans that surrounded them.

There were several tiny pockets that seemed to be missing said highlights, mostly in the mountain range between Jade mountain and The Claws of Cloud Mountain and the tundra between the Ice Kingdom and the Sand Kingdom.

"Let me guess, the highlights refer to locations of value," Deathbringer stated the obvious.

"More like the territory of each lord of Pyrrhia" Mangrove explained while pointing at different parts of the map, creating little statistics bubbles as Deception added several extra points, including the territories of the tribe.

"As we can see here, there are four tribes who primarily 'live' here" Victory Strike explained, pointing to the cavern system under The Claws of Cloud Mountain, which were royal purple, "this particular mountain range is home to the triple-slashers, cavern guard, bone-napper and thunder horns."

"And by located, it means that the tribes's main palaces are located in The Claws of Cloud Mountain," Mangrove summarised while sipping her jasmine tea.

"From what we know, which is quite a lot," Deception continued with a persuasive and charismatic tone, "There are several locations on Pyrrhia that would make excellent new homes. Unless, you want a more tempered home."

Deception placed another pyramid, of identical look to the Pyrrhia map, onto the table which displayed an image of a continent that looked like a dragon roaring at the top of its lungs at Pyrrhia. The continent looked suspiciously like a Grim dragon. At the continent 'wings' were large estuaries that made the tips of wings have a talon-like look to them. And several other features like a dense and enormous forest that ran across mountains and valleys, from the dragon's 'back' to its 'belly', leaving the several places in the area devoid of greenery more odd in return.

"As you can see here, there is a large area of the Vernisan Forest that is ripe for the pickings," Deception mused while pointing to a large area of the forest in between two mountains ranges, from the dragon's wing and waist, "As you know already Sequoia, while some of critters here are very mischievous, this area of the forest has some of largest trees you can find on the entire continent and Pyrrhia, plus both the mountains ranges of Sif and Skadi have snow caps and provide two river systems to the Valley of Freyja. And since your tribe was the worst hit by The Tree Wars, you get the first pick."

Eucalyptus nodded at Deception and glared at the Silkwing as if saying, "I hope you understand why Sequoia gets the first pick."

"Are there any other tribes living there," Sequoia asked, "Because I had given a lot of information about the forest itself and I do understand that the Arouzue are willing to let us live there, but I still don't have confirmation that no other dragon dragons live in the Valley and the surrounding mountains. And I bet you can understand that I wouldn't want to move my tribe there only to find out that there is already a tribe living in the valley."

Victory Strike smiled and fiddled with the pyramid, when several areas lit up similar to the map of Pyrrhia. The locations of interest were two estuaries, especially the ones at the dragon's jaws till its chest, both were sapphire blue, a small portion of the northern part of the forest, primarily the mountainous region with a lime green. The rest of said mountain range was brilliant orange. There were several speckles of red, mainly on some islands near the dragon's 'tail' and the tail and back legs of the dragon as well as the surrounding seas similar to how the Seawing territories were plotted out. And then there was a vivid green marker for a tribe that lived in the majority of the forests except for the entire region around the mountain ranges of Sif and Skadi and several particular locations . However, that matched with the massive spike of Grim areas that surrounded said tribe, including the valley in question.

Glory had to admit that it looked as though the Grim were suffocating the other tribes's ability to expand or grow.

"Of course, a few parts of the valley are used for agricultural purposes, but I think you would like our methods," Mamba added.

Sequoia gestured at the vivid green marker and said, "And what about this tribe, here."

Mangrove visually groaned at the mention of the tribe as she got out another small pyramid which displayed a small wingless dragon.

It had two sets of fins that ran down its back and tail. The dragon was very nimble looking with the back legs of a parrot or a Quick Strike and small front arms and talons. It was also extremely fuzzy, however, unlike the other furry dragons that Glory had seen, its pine green fur was more quill-like and an Icewing like tail covered in long, wicked quills. It had small horns similar again to a Quick Claw.

"Meet your average Forestwing, A.K.A one of the most aggravating, stubborn, short sighted, cowardly and greedy dragon tribes you will ever have the displeasure to talk," Mangrove hissed, an annoyed expression, as she added more water into her cup.

  The Leafwing Queen raised her eyebrow as she observed the image with great strutiny.

"What Mangrove is trying to say," Mamba interjected before Mangrove could gain ground with her rant, "is that the Forestwing is a tribe of as you can see flightless dragons, known for being quite territorial and aggressive to most dragons. Their quills are venomous, containing a neurotoxin that first causes excruciating pain, then numbness, proceed by paralysis and finally death. The only antidote to the venom is a type of mountain rose called the Pine Blood Rose, which can be turned into a antidote through boiling. However, a few dragon tribes are immune to it; the usually Triple-slasher & Thunderhorn, the unusually Cavern Guard and the surprising Rainwing."

"Rainwing," Deathbringer asked surprise on his face.

"Something about our skin," Mamba shrugged, changing the colour of her talons to match the rest of her scales, revealing several deep red marks that ran along them, "Doesn't stop the pain though."

"And by aggressive, you mean," Sequoia changed the topic with a questioning look.

"They were an issue a few decades backs, had a queen who was like Wasp, except without the mind-controlling plant, cunning and lying," Deception explained, "tried to expand their territory through brute force and annexing. We put a stop to that."

Victory Strike's forehead glowed icy blue as a snowflake appeared and disappeared and a bust of a Pinewing appeared in her talon.

"And I had a word with her," the Grim Queen said as she crushed the bust to tiny shards.

Glory flinched as she got hit by a light spray of ice. She guessed that Victory did something bloody.

"Now, they have a more reasonable queen leading them. Though, they still are a bit troublesome. For us anyway."

"And if they tried to make trouble for my tribe?"

"Then, I will have to deal with it," Mangrove boasted with a glum expression.

"And if they do try to do something distasteful, then we will know about it before they even get their plan underway," Singsong pointed out.

"And if you want to talk with the tribes there then sure, it will be done," Deception said smiling sweetly, "anything to make our allies happy, after all."

Victory Strike passed Sequoia a scroll with a royal seal on it.

"I suggest that you read that before you made your decision," Victory Strike added helpfully, "moving a tribe can be a huge endeavour, so we will help as always with your relocation."

Sequoia nodded as she continued to read on.

"So, while we wait for Sequoia to make her decision," Ash suggested, "does anyone have anything else they want to bring?"

Glory mentally rolled her eyes, she had a few things on her mind to say.

——————————————————————

*sighs* finally after 3 weeks! I have updated the 'book'. 

Again, I would like to apologise for the lateness of this update, I had loss some interest in the chapter, have a decent amount of school work to finish, writer's block and my fickle mind wandering off to short stories that peak my interest more.

I am honestly thinking about doing that, so that I can focus on this book later now, though I am still going strong. Wish me luck.

-Singetail🧐