"Hey, hey, Shade, get up!"
Shade cracked his eyes open to see Passion, disguised as Dreamwatcher. He raised his head, seeing that the sun was already high in the sky. Huh, so he did fall back asleep after all. He looked back over at Passion and saw her prancing in her spot.
"What are you doing?"
"I want to take you somewhere! Have you ever been to the ocean?" she asked, flashing a grin.
"Uh, yeah...? I grew up on an island, Pas... Dreamwatcher."
"Well, have you have been to a nice beach?"
"Well, I guess no..."
"Great! We can go! Jewel and her friends are going to be there, too!"
"Are you sure? What if the Seawings get mad?"
"Jewel has a couple of Seawing friends. Besides, it's not like we're invading! That's impossible." she paused, then a bright look crossed her face. "Ooo! Not really for me! I could..."
"NO!" Shade yelled, tumbling out of his hammock. He shot up and felt his spines rising on his neck. "You promised!"
"I was only thinking out loud, Shade. But now you're up! Let's go!"
Shade sighed but followed. He guessed he was sort of getting used to her antics. Together they took off, heading toward the ocean. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe it would even be fun. And since he had been having to follow Passion around so much, flying was starting to feel... a lot nicer than before.
He glanced down at the ground below him, the thick green rainforest stretching out like moss. And beyond that, the glittering horizon. The ocean. He wondered briefly about what was out there. Heh, that was silly. There wasn't going to be anything important out there. Pyrrhia was it. There hadn't ever been any accounts of anything else. So, why would he assume there was?
Ahead of him, Passion did an odd spiraling move that let her land easily on the sand in front of... seven dragonets? He thought it was only those two Seawings they saw yesterday. Oh wait, one of them was Destiny, that made sense. And Jewel, obviously. But there was a third Seawing, a Skywing, and... and an Icewing!
Shade's wings seized up as he went in for a landing, and he was sent tumbling snout over tail into the sand at the talons of the Icewing. As he scrambled up from the sand to get away, his tail brushed up against the Icewing's ice cold scales.
The vision slammed into him, images of the bright white north. She, this Icewing, had her head bowed reverently toward a thick-bodied Icewing. And, for the first time, he heard something, too.
Find my brother. And bring him to me.
Then it was gone, and Shade found himself sprawled out near Passion. Embarrassed, he picked himself up and hid himself behind Passion. Passion had her head cocked slightly, looking at the new dragons.
"I thought you said your friends, Juju."
"I did! Silver at least is my friend! The others are friends of friends." Jewel said. She pointed to the gangly Skywing. "That's Stormcloud, Moonlight's partner, then Lazuli, and Silver."
Lazuli was a royal blue Seawing, her scales somewhere between Moonlight's midnight blue scales and Hurricane's algae green ones. Silver was, surprise, the Icewing. They went over a few more introductions, but Shade tuned them out. He was starting to get very concerned about the things he saw.
He was so confused! He had seemed to see Passion's family. Then the weird bloody scene. He still didn't know what that was about. Frankly, he didn't want to know. He had to know. Was he seeing real things? Did he have sight? Like in the old Nightwing tales? Maybe...?
But what did that big Icewing have to do with anything? He just wanted his brother? Who was his brother?
But it didn't work like the old stories. Those told the future. His... he didn't even know.
"Shade, come on! There's loads of things to look at! Maybe we'll find a cool crab or some shells!" Passion yelled, running across the sand.
Sighing, he shook off his thoughts and followed after Passion.
And it wasn't even that bad.
It was pretty chaotic, but fun. Passion had caught about a dozen crabs, bringing them up from the sand. They nearly clamped their claws around Passion's snout, and that's when she found out that crabs were delicious. So she said. Shade wasn't quite ready to eat any of them yet. He was much more interested in finding the discarded shells. Destiny actually joined him, and she often found the prettiest ones.
The Seawings were in the water, unsurprisingly. Every so often they brought up a few fish for anyone who wanted them. Stormcloud always looked out of place until he was with Moonlight, which was just a bit too sappy for Shade. And Jewel kept freezing the waves as they washed upon the shore. Even dipping her claw in the water created a tiny little icicle hanging from it.
Wait, where was the Icewing?
He started looking around a little frantically, before something slammed into his side. He saw Passion crying over the corpse of a small Icewing, its throat slashed and black eyes blank. Then it was gone, and it was just Passion rolling end over end in the sand after she had tackled him.
"See, Shade? Isn't this fun!" she crowed, her scales shining in bright shades of green and blue.
He couldn't help but laugh. It was fun. He really hadn't expected it to be. "Yeah, I've been having fun." he admitted. "Thanks,"
Passion was practically glowing. Then she looked over his shoulder and waved a wing.
"Hi, Silver!"
Shade jumped; wings flared in shock. Silver was right beside him! How did he not even notice??
"Sorry to scare you," she said quietly. "I've just never been so close to a Nightwing before." she squinted at him. "You're not nearly as scary as everyone says you are."
"Uh, thanks...?" Shade said as he side stepped away.
Silver looked between Passion and Shade.
"How did a dragonet who is a Rainwing Icewing hybrid become friends with a Nightwing? If I heard correctly, Rainwings don't like Nightwings either."
"I don't care what he is!" Passion said, "He's my friend, and besides, he didn't do anything. Have you seen him?"
Okay, that was uncalled for. But also, that was the kindest thing anyone had ever said about him. Ever. Silver shrugged, just slightly, before walking up to Passion as she started digging around in the sand. She must have seen another crab.
"What's it like? Being a hybrid?" Silver asked curiously.
"Mmm, I don't know. Normal?" Passion replied, voice muffled from the sand over her head. "Why?"
"Well, Jewel said your father was the Icewing. That he had been exiled."
"He did, but that's got nothing to do with my sisters and I," Passion came out of the sand, a crab in her jaws. She tossed it high into the air and caught it in her mouth again with a crunch. "Something about he made his mother mad. She's kind of a sunbaked lizard if you ask me."
"Do you... do you know who your grandmother is?" Silver asked.
Shade furrowed his brow. This Silver was being awfully nosy. And she seemed to be hiding how eager she was. But Passion didn't even seem too bothered.
"Eh, something like Keen? Khione? I don't know, it was something really Icewing-ish. I don't really care though. She missed out on a lot by exiling my father. But if she hadn't, I don't suppose my mother would have met him. Hey, Shade! I think I see a few seagulls over there. Let's go catch one!"
She darted off, leaving Silver to stare after her with a gaping jaw. Shade watched Silver's face before following after Passion. He felt like he should keep an eye on Silver. And... and maybe try to 'see' more.