Opal brought Seasnake go the healers immediately, after a short argument about whether to go to the GemWing's healers or the SlitherWing's healers. Seasnake lost that argument. They flew toward Unakite and reached the den by nightfall. They raced down the tunnel and almost ran (or slithered) right into Rutile who was still looking after Larimar. Larimar looked a lot better. She lifted her head and spotted Opal.
"Thank you, Opal." Larimar said dipping her head. Rutile turned suddenly and saw Opal beside an unknown SlitherWing.
"Who is this?" Rutile asked gently. She then suddenly spotted Sea's frosted tail. Sea winced as Rutile lightly tapped it with a claw.
"What happened?" Rutile asked as she scraped sone of the frost onto her talon to examine. Sea growled in pain.
"I was attacked by a purple dragon that's all." She said. Rutile suddenly looked up from the frost.
"Another purple dragon injury? Are they attacking SlitherWings too?" She asked.
"Yes, and we heard from the BrightWings too. They are having the same problem." Sea told her. "It might be happening all over the continent."
"We have to tell Queen Amethyst." Rutile said as she stepped toward the exit, then stopped.
"Let's tend to you wound first."
She brushed off the rest of the frost gently, but Sea still tried to flinch away from her. Rutile then rubbed on some soothing berry juice and then wrapped the wound in oak leaves. Sea nodded thanks and then told Rutile what had happened to her.
"This is serious." Said Rutile. "Queen Amethyst will want to hear this."
She paused and looked back at the SlitherWing.
"Does Queen Anaconda know?"
"Yes." Sea replied. "We had three SlitherWings who were attacked."
"Well Amethyst needs to hear of it too."
The three dragons set off, flying to the top of Unakite, where the queen's throne room is. As they flew Opal's wings started to droop. She shook her head and kept going, she needed to be there for Sea.
"Sorry," she said. "It's late for me here."
Rutile nodded and they continued flying. The three moons glistened in the black sky, like three eyes on a black dragon. They reached the top by the end of twilight and landed on the ledge at the entrance. It was lined with crystals of every colour and gold rimmed the entrance adorned with gems like rubies and emerald but mostly diamonds. The tunnel inside was lit with luminous crystals to light the way, each crystal giving off their own colour of light. Rutile lead the way along the illuminated tunnel toward Queen Amethyst's throne room. They emerged from the eerie lights of the tunnel to bright lights in the large throne room. The cave was as wide as three dragons with their wings spread and equally as high. Lanterns hung from stalactites on the ceiling above, each lantern holding a little burst of flame. This cast an orange glow around the cave but a lot brighter than the tunnel. Opal turned her gaze to Queen Amethyst. She was sitting majestically on a carved acaciawood throne lined with crystals and ivy draped over them. Amethyst herself was very pretty indeed. Every gem-scale was polished until the light shined on them and her gem tail was the deepest purple of an amethyst. Her wings and tail tip were diamond shaped since she wore the traditional diamond necklace, which changed her wings and gem diamond shaped. She gazed down at the three of them, especially Seasnake, who was looking quite intimidated.
"So," Amethyst began with a soft voice, "What brings you here?"
"There has been an incident," Rutile said, "a few incidents to be honest, but the same culprit keeps coming up."
"Who?" Amethyst asked, "is there a traitor in the tribe?"
"No no, nothing like that. The victims keep saying they were attacked by a purple dragon."
Amethyst jumped back a little and let in the smallest of gasps. She clearly knew something about this.
"I'll send out patrols to find these dragons," Amethyst said, "we must send a message saying we cannot be harmed so easily."
"But my Queen," Opal began. "All the victims have been attacked alone. And it has been said that they can teleport."
"Then no one is to venture out alone then. These purple dragons must be stopped in any way we can."
Opal nodded and turn to exit.
"That's it!?" Came a voice behind them, "We just sit and WAIT TO BE PICKED OFF!?"
Opal turned to see Sea on the brink of exploding. Amethyst ignored her glare and looked at her.
"I think we should send out patrols of about say six dragons and find them!"
"Sea I don't think we should do that." Opal said warily glancing at her Queen. Amethyst was leaning forward to stare Sea directly in the eyes. The glare looked strong enough to knock over three GemWings, but Sea glared back just the same.
"Are you saying I have to risk the lives of my dragons to find some dragons that we don't even know?" She flicked her tail angrily. "I suggest it's better to wait for them to come to us."
Sea hissed and slithered out of the cave, the heat from her anger rising up from her scales like steam. Opal and Rutile dipped their heads and then raced after the SlitherWing. The reached her just as she was about to take off.
"Sea, why did you do that?" She called chasing after her. Rutile took off, flying back to the healing cave.
"Opal, your Queen doesn't know why it is important to look for the enemy!" Sea hissed. "You can look for the enemy and find them so then it'll be easier to fix the problem."
"There are a few problems with that," Opal pointed out, "one, it'll take months to look over the entire continent and even then we might not find them. They might move while we look. Two, they might know we are looking for them and might set a trap for us to walk into. Three we are exposed out there in the plains so they can see us and kill us if they wanted to and no one would know! It would be bad for everyone and an advantage to the enemy because there will be less of us to defend our territory if the purple dragons attack again. So there are three reasons why wait for them to come to us is better."
Sea just hovered there giving it a long thought. She looked Opal straight in the eyes.
"You're smarter than I thought you were." She said. Opal looked up at the moon which was almost directly above them.
"My stars! I'm late! Gotta go! She flew down, toward the main entrance and hurried inside. She raced past other GemWings to get to her sleeping cave. She reached her nest without any hassle. Opal looked over at the crystals lining the corners of her room. Her eyes started to feel heavy of tiredness and started to droop. In a few minutes Opal drifted off to sleep.
                                                                    . . .
Opal woke as a blue tail whacked her in the face. Opal whipped her head around to see Seasnake sleeping in the spare nest she had near the scroll rack, near her nest. Opal blinked at Sea just as she was waking up. Sea looked over and saw Opal looking confused.
"Oh," she said, "good morning."
"Sea, I thought you'd be back with the other SlitherWings by now." Said Opal.
"I was tired, and I thought I could sleep with you," Sea explained, "and I thought if I tried to fly for three days straight, I wouldn't make it."
Opal nodded in understanding. Sea looked around at the room, clearly admiring Opal's things.
"Who made these?" Sea asked gesturing to the crystals.
"There crystals to represent my Mother and Father." Opal told her.
"Who are you're parents?" Sea said. Then added quickly, "not to ask personal things."
"Rainbow Quartz and Emerald. The rainbow crystals for my mother and the green gems for my father." Opal explained. Sea slithered up to the crystals and felt them with her tail and them tapped them with the claw on her wing.
"Very pretty." She muttered.
"Let's go down for breakfast! I'm starving!" Opal declared.
"Yes me too." Sea said hissing, her tongue flicking in and out of her mouth, like a snake. Opal led the way down the tunnel into the main cave, where GemWings of all types were huddled together in groups, chewing on some Aythem.
"Come on!" Opal called to Sea, bounding over to a pile of Aythem and taking three large crystals. Sea looked around, confused.
"What is everyone eating?" She whispered to Opal as she came bounding back.
"Aythem stone," Opal said, "It's what GemWings eat. Wait. SlitherWings don't eat Aythem, do they?"
"No." Sea said, "we eat animals."
Opal nodded, and flicked her tail toward the main entrance.
"There are plenty of animals out there." Opal said. "And I'm sure Amethyst won't mind. She's had SlitherWing visitors before."
"Thanks." Sea said as she smiled. She spread her wings and shot out the cave entrance. Opal grinned and then began to eat.
Sea came back shortly after Opal had finished her Aythem carrying a large deer. A particularly large dragonet the colour of the sky at dusk trailed behind her.
"Holly!" Opal called. Holly-Blue looked over at Opal and hissed, then took two crystals of Aythem and sat on the far corner of the cave, away from Opal, and glared at her.
"She doesn't like you." Sea observed as she settled beside her.
"She hasn't liked me ever since we met." Opal said glaring back at Holly. "Where did you find her?"
"I had just poisoned my prey and I saw movement between the trees that looked particularly blue." Sea told Opal taking a bite of her deer. "So I went over and saw her huddling between a large tree's roots, with a half eaten rabbit beside her. I thought I'd take her back to the mountain and she is grateful for that. She said she was lost with no way to know which way is home."
"Oh now I feel bad for her." Opal said with surprisingly no sarcasm. "Quartz and I followed her into the forest. And without her we wouldn't have found Larimar. But we forgot about her when we were taking Larimar back to the healers."
Sea looked back at Holly.
"She hates me and bullies me every time we have a lesson together." Opal explained.
"You should try talking to her." Sea advised, "in a friendly way."
Opal turned to look back at Holly. She looked thinner and the two crystals she had were not going to be enough, Opal could tell. Opal walked over and took two more Aythem crystals and then strode over to Holly avoiding walking into other GemWings as she went by. She placed the crystals beside her and the sat a few tail lengths away. Holly looked back, surprised at the Aythem and Opal.
"Thanks I guess." Holly hissed, then brought the crystals in front of her. "You can tell your friend I said thanks."
Opal bit back saying "do it yourself!" to her and wove her way back to Sea.
"She said to tell you thanks." Opal said. Sea nodded a mouthful of deer. Opal left the main cave and almost ran into Quartz on the way.
"Opal!" She said, "how was your night?"
"It was good." Opal replied, "want to meet my friend, Seasnake."
"A SlitherWing!" Quartz said running over to Sea. Sea looked up and smiled.
"Hello Opal's friend." Sea said with a cheeky grin.
"It's Quartz." Quartz told Sea.
"Hello Quartz." Sea said.
Opal burst into giggles. She left Sea and Quartz to talk. Opal hurried back to her cave swerving around GemWings as she passed. She entered her room and raced up to the scroll rack and took out the Ancient Tribes scroll again. She instantly went to the VoidWings section of the scroll. The picture of the dragon was coloured, so you could see what their colours were. The VoidWing in the picture was a deep purple with a violet underbelly. It's eyes were pink and glowing and the horns on the head were twisted, but mostly covered by the large bat-like ears. The tail was long and thin, the tip the same colour as the underbelly. The claws looked sharp and there were five of them. They looked sharp enough to deal some painful damage. Purple dragons, Opal thought, they could be VoidWings. I'll have to get more information first. She strode back out to the main cave to see Sea, Quartz and Holly talking to each other. Sea turned to see Opal coming toward them.
"Hey Opal!" Sea called, "You have to come and hear what Holly just told us!"