Rescue
Stoneshine woke from his sleep early in the morning. The light blue of the sky had a tinge of orange as the sun broke free of the horizon. To his surprise, Azalea was already up. Her antennae were flicking wildly, trying to find something, as the SilkWing was lying elegantly on the grass next to Stoneshine. “Why are you up so early?” He asked her, confused.
“Shhh,” she hissed in response. A branch snapped and she swung her head in it’s direction.
“What is it?!” Stoneshine said, now distressed. He squinted at the bushes— where the sound had come from— trying to see within them… to no luck. Quick as a cheetah, Azalea leaped at the bushes, using her wings to glide through the air. Squeaking filled the air as Azalea grabbed something in her talons. To get a better look, Stoneshine ran to see. Two squirming scavengers were fighting against the SilkWing’s grip.
She didn’t hold them for long. She set them down on the ground and patted their heads. The scavengers ran away together, holding hands.
“They look like some of the scavengers in Sanctuary. I wonder if they are like dragons, like they say, ” Stoneshine commented.
“I wonder where they’re headed; If it's towards family, maybe in Sanctuary.” Azalea looked down at her claws, going silent.
“You okay?” Stoneshine asked, bumping her wing with his own.
“I’m just a little sad. I miss my family.”
She was, of course, talking about her mother, Datana, and her younger brother, Karner. She had told Stoneshine about them one of the nights in the clearing. They had died during a construction accident; Her brother had just been assigned to the same hive construction crew as their mother, when part of the structure they were building collapsed. She had been alone ever since. When the tribe escaped Pantala, she flew by herself while the other’s had their family to surround them.
Although Stoneshine couldn’t relate, he had heaps of sympathy for his friend. He wrapped his tail around hers, the only response Azalea needed.
“We should get going,” she said, changing the topic. “We can get there before high sun if we leave now.”
Azalea had a point, and although Stoneshine was still tired, he lifted his heavy body into the air with strong wing-beats.
Similar to Sanctuary, Possibility was teeming with dragons from every corner of Pyrrhia. There were, however, fewer Pantalan dragons. Eyes constantly followed Azalea as she and Stoneshine walked through the paths of Possibility. The dragon’s there had not seen many SilkWings, who stayed on the East side of the continent when they visited.
The dry, dirt paths had small pieces of rocks that hurt Stoneshine’s talons and made him wish he was back in the Mud Queendom. If not for the dragons there, for the familiar comfort of it. The warmth on his scales from the still rising sun, however, he did like.
As they walked through the streets, adjusting to the new atmosphere, Stoneshine made many observations. Like Sanctuary, there were booths of goods dragons were trading. Unlike Sanctuary, the town seemed older and more worn in. There were also no Scavengers, which he had finally gotten used to in Sanctuary.
His stomach rumbled. “Azalea, are you hungry?” he asked.
“Yeah, I could eat. I’ll keep an eye out for a food booth,” she said.
They continued on their way. Azalea did not eat meat, ruling out many of the vendors. Finally, Stoneshine saw a RainWing trading fruit.
“Welcome, welcome, looking for fruit?” the teal RainWing asked.
“Yes, we are,” Azalea said.
Baskets behind the RainWing were filled with fruits. One basket was teeming with orange mangoes, another contained yellow and brown bananas. The fruit looked a few days past peak ripeness, Stoneshine noted, but fresher than any other food products he had seen of late. In the back, there was a bushel of strange small, red, dragon-egg-looking fruits.
“What are those?” Stoneshine asked, pointing to the strange fruits.
“Those are aguajes. They kinda taste like carrots. They taste very good raw! What do you have to trade?”
Stoneshine’s hope vanished. He had nothing to trade. Next to him, Azalea piped up. “I have silk,” she suggested.
“Silk?” The RainWing, who was changing to a deep blue, peered over the booth’s table. Azalea held out her wrist and spun a short thread of silk. She gave it to the RainWing to inspect.
“Woah, that is so cool! I wish I could do something useful like that instead of spit venom,” she gushed.
“This is super rare here in Pyrrhia and you can make baskets and string with it. I’ll give you a skein for three fruits each,” Azalea said.
The RainWing squinted her eyes and thought for a moment. “Sounds good to me!” she finally said joyfully.
Azalea informed them that it would take a moment to produce all the silk, so Stoneshine chose to take the opportunity and ask the RainWing questions about Possibility.
“What is the most important thing we should know while we’re here?” He asked the RainWing.
“Hmm… I would say… Follow the rules the Enclave has. If you don’t, you might be kicked out.”
Stoneshine felt confused, he didn’t know of any ‘Enclave’, but he didn’t know much of anything about the rest of Pyrrhia, he realized.
Almost like she heard his thoughts, the RainWing leaned her head out of her booth once again and looked around the street. “There should be posters placed everywhere with the rules. They aren’t hard, just don’t get into fights and keep to yourself. Don’t steal other people's papayas, you know?”
Stoneshine nodded. Next to him, Azalea finished spinning the silk and now held a ball of white, slightly see-through thread. It glistened in the strong sun, almost looking beautiful. She handed the skein to the RainWing, who brought it close to her face. Her eyes were held wide open as she peered at the new material. Shaking herself free from her enchantment, she asked Stoneshine and Azalea what fruits they would like.
Stoneshine asked for two melons and a cup of fruits that looked like blueberries but weren't blueberries. Azalea received three bananas, which made Stoneshine gag. He hated bananas, the texture completely freaked him out. Azalea, however, loved them. She told him that they were on Pantala as well and were always her favorite sweet treat when she brought home an excellent report card.
Talking about her life in Pantala always made her sad, Stoneshine had noticed. In an attempt to shift her mind off of her family, Stoneshine tried to shove a whole melon in his mouth at once! Azalea burst out in a fit of laughter when he realized that he could neither chew nor spit it out because of how big the mouthful was. Her laugh was infectious and made him choke on laughter as well. Eventually, he worked his way through the melon and was free.
They were enjoying their time, eating fruit, and exploring the new city clamoring with excitement. They walked through cobblestone plazas and crossed the white stone bridge over the river. Every sight was beautiful, like the wide range of scales and abilities each dragon possessed. Although many of the tribes mingled in Possibility, there were much less hybrids compared to Sanctuary. Stoneshine felt safer than he did in the MudQueendom, but he still received strange stares now and then.
Trying to retrace their steps back to the biggest plaza with the beautiful fountain capturing a stone SeaWing blasting water from its mouth, Azalea and Stoneshine stumbled into an alley separated from the noise of the town.
Stoneshine jolted to a stop and Azalea gasped at the scene in front of them. Three MudWings and a light blue dragon clogged the walkway. The largest MudWing punched the pinned-down blue dragon.
“Hey!” Someone shouted. Stoneshine was surprised to find that it was his own voice. Years of having a stutter when scared, why did he feel the need to speak up now?
The MudWings looked their way, pausing their torment.
Azalea stepped closer to Stoneshine, he could feel her smooth scales brush against his own. He needed her support very much at that moment.
The largest MudWing, who Stoneshine thought was in charge, called out to them.
“What do you half-baked MudWing and your Outsider want? Go away,” he snarled. He turned back to his victim.
“We— We aren’t going to let you hurt them!” Stoneshine called back, with less confidence than before.
The light blue dragon laughed, “You’re gonna let a hybrid tell you what to do, MudWing? I thought you were tough—” They were interrupted with another punch, this time to the face. The dragon’s head snapped to the side, and when they regained awareness, they twisted their head back at the MudWing in front of them and spat blood on his claws.
“You little—” The MudWing seemed to be in an angry craze, now. His eyes were like daggers, staring at the blue dragon. With a slight nod of his head, one of the MudWings holding the light aquamarine dragon in place let go and raced toward Stoneshine.
The captive took advantage of his new freedom and turned against the other MudWing holding down his right side.
Stoneshine held out his arms against the charging dragon. They were met with claws, resulting in some of his scales being ripped from his body. A growl of pain escaped him. The MudWing attacked again, this time Stoneshine was ready. He wasn’t a great fighter, but he knew enough from the war to survive. He mostly dodged the MudWings strikes, ducking and swerving.
The MudWing in charge just watched as his minions fought, which Stoneshine thought was strange.
With a specifically vicious tear of Stoneshine’s flesh, Azalea jumped in to help him, dodging his wings that tried to hold her back. Azalea was even worse at fighting than Stoneshine, since she came from the SilkWing tribe that used to not be able to fight back. Still, her messy offenses against the MudWing helped keep him distracted.
The fight seemed to be in a stalemate; no one seemed to be winning or losing.
Stoneshine really didn’t know why the MudWing’s leader wasn’t helping the other MudWings. They could beat him and Azalea, plus their original victim, to pulp with the extra muscle, yet the dragon stayed out of the mess. Stoneshine was very much glad he did, for that very reason.
Stoneshine hated fighting, the searing pain in his limbs where blood had been drawn made him uncomfortable at best, and wanted to curl up in a ball under a pile of mud for ten years at worst. And to make it worse, Azalea was getting hurt too, even though Stoneshine tried to take all the blows sent her way.
A shout from the alley entrance broke through the snarls. The MudWing ringleader leapt up into the sky, not looking back to see if the others followed him. The startled fighting MudWings noticed their leader flying away and raced to join him.
Stoneshine panted and twisted around to see who had shouted. A tough-looking SandWing with some sort of bronze badge hanging from his neck stood glowering at them.
“Scurry back to where you came from!” the SandWing shouted. “Be glad I’m busy, or I’d have you all written up,” he added. He then whooshed away, back to heading to wherever he was going.
Stoneshine looked at Azalea. “Are you alright?” he asked. “Is your wing…?”
“It’s fine,” Azalea snapped. “Sorry, I’m fine. Just a few scratches.” She sighed. ”That was scary, I hate fighting.”
“Me too,” Stoneshine agreed.
“Well, see you never,” the light-hued dragon said, walking away from the other two dragons.
Now, without the distractions, Stoneshine could now identify them as a hybrid of IceWing and SeaWing descent. They had gills and webbing between their toes, but no glowing stripes. Their head and spine were adored with many deep aqua spikes that looked sharp enough to puncture scales.
“You aren’t going to say thanks?” Azalea asked, her voice sharper than usual. “We risked our scales for you!”
The Ice-SeaWing glared back at them, clearly annoyed, before rolling their eyes. “I didn’t need help. I had it under control.”
“It didn’t look ‘under control’,” Azalea shot back.
“Whatever,” the stranger muttered. “I have a date with the Healing Center. Bye,” they said with attitude.
“Wa—Wait!” Stoneshine called after them, “C-Can we come too?” He was mad at himself for stuttering. He had just been in a fight to protect this dragon, and now he couldn’t even pronounce words right.
“It’s a free town, go where you’d like,” the Ice-Sea dragon told them.
The light blue dragon wove their way through the boisterous crowds and buildings like an expert. Stoneshine and Azalea followed like clumsy children. A few times Stoneshine thought he had lost the dragon, but the almost-white shine of their scales would poke through the thick cloud of dragons, and Stoneshine would grab Azalea and rush after them.
Finally, the Ice-Sea dragon slipped into a large building made of white clay and decorated in colorful flowers. A small garden was attached to the left side, and the greenery sparkled in the sun.
Azalea entered first, and Stoneshine followed her, half a tails-length behind. The inside was just as chaotic as the busy streets. A few dragons were wailing as they were being tended to, while others were silently waiting to be seen.
The dragon they were following was off to the side, away from the cluster of dragons by the front desk. Behind the front desk, rows of curtains hung from the ceiling, making little rooms.
Azalea leaned close to Stoneshine, making his heart flutter, and whispered, “Should we go and annoy them?” She nodded at the dragon they had attempted to save.
Stoneshine shook his head a bit wildly. Azalea ignored him, or hadn’t seen his reaction, and waltzed over to the waiting dragon.
“Are you following me?” The off-white dragon accused.
Azalea shrugged. “We needed to get to the Healing center somehow.”
The dragon rolled their eyes again.
Stoneshine attempted to make things less awkward. “What’s your name?” he asked.
“Why do you even care?” The dragon asked sharply. “We aren’t friends.”
“I don’t know… we fought together, it feels like we’re connected now.”
“Well, we’re not.” The dragon turned away pointedly.
Stoneshine felt embarrassed. Why did he even for a moment think that this new dragon would want to be friends? He felt his mother’s words chanting in his mind. Was he really a mistake who always said the wrong thing?
Azalea sent him a quick look of sympathy before continuing the conversation. “That’s not very nice. Without Stoneshine, the MudWings would have had you under their claws for much longer,” she explained.
The dragon scoffed. “If it’s not them, it’s their friends.” They paused before quietly adding, “My name’s Beluga.”
Stoneshine felt his heart lift. Maybe this dragon, Beluga, could be a potential friend!
“See, that wasn’t so hard,” Azalea lightly teased.
Beluga rolled their eyes again.
“Beluga! What happened?!” a voice shouted through the existing noise.
“What do you think happened? They went after me again,” Beluga muttered, looking away. Stoneshine thought they looked a little less mean in this new white dragon’s presence. The dragon that called out to Beluga was sparkling white, with hints of light yellow shimmering when the light from the windows hit his scales.
The IceWing shot a confused look at Stoneshine and Azalea.
“Were these dragons involved too?” he asked.
“They might have helped a little bit. But only by distracting one of the MudWings so I could get free.”
The IceWing looked very concerned and grabbed Beluga's bleeding arm, inspecting the gaping wound. Beluga shook him off, saying, “Boreas, really, it’s fine. I just need some patching up.”
Boreas sighed. “All three of you, follow me.”
The IceWing led the bleeding and bruised dragons into a curtain room.
“What are your names?” He asked. Azalea responded first, and Stoneshine right after.
Boreas reached underneath the nightstand next to the small bed and pulled out a bowl of water along with three rags. He placed the bowl onto the bed and handed each of them a rag; Stoneshine’s was blue and scratched his palm.
“Clean up the blood, so I can properly see and bandage the scrapes,” the dragons were instructed.
Stoneshine watched as Azalea dipped her cloth into the water and rubbed it against her pink scales. When the water cleared the grime and blood from the slates, she revealed her teal accents like hidden gems. The way she curled her neck was graceful and serene, and gave Stoneshine the thought that he definitely wouldn’t look like that, cleaning himself.
Beluga soaked their cloth as well, methodically, like they had done the action many times before. It was Stoneshine’s turn, and the water that clung to the towel felt cold and refreshing against his scales. He scrubbed at the dried and gel-like blood. Occasionally, the water would dribble into a cut and stung like a nasty spider bite. When Stoneshine looked down at his rag, it was spotted with dark reds. The water bowl mirrored the rag, looking murky with rehydrated blood.
“So, how’d you guys get involved with this kid?” Boreas asked Stoneshine and Azalea.
“I am not a kid!” Beluga argued. “I’m eight years old, a full-grown dragon!”
“You’ll always be that angry five-year-old to me,” the IceWing said with a playful, sappy smile. Beluga shoved him, trying to not seem embarrassed.
Stoneshine answered him. “Well… we didn’t mean to. We were trying to find somewhere we’d been before, but we stumbled upon Beluga being beaten up by these MudWings–”
“Hey!” Beluga interrupted. “I was not being beaten up, it was a proper fight.
“If you insist,” Azalea said, disbelieving. “Aaaand,” she added, “Stoneshine bravely yelled at the assailants.” She smiled sweetly at Stoneshine, who blushed and turned his head away to try to hide the rising smile that was forcing its way to the surface.
“Well, thanks for saving them,” Boreas said.
“It wasn’t me, really, it was a SandWing who scared the MudWings away,” Stoneshine mumbled.
“Such cowards; scared of the Enclave,” Beluga said, rolling his eyes.
“Hey,” Boreas scolded, “maybe you should be too so I can stop having to bail you out of jail.”
Beluga huffed and threw down his towel.
Leaning down once again, Boreas pulled out a roll of fresh, white bandages. He unrolled a long strip and wrapped it around Beluga’s arm.
“I can help and wrap Azalea’s wounds, I helped out at Sanctuary’s Healing Center,” Stoneshine told the IceWing.
The IceWing looked surprised, which quickly turned into delight. “Really? That is so cool. I love Healing, don’t you?” He handed Stoneshine the roll of bandages.
“It is quite fascinating. My favorite part is making the mixtures and solutions.”
“Hm. Mine is the hands-on experience with dragons. Major respect for you, though. I could never memorize the healing properties of plants.” He chuckled, shaking his head.
As Stoneshine put ointment on and wove the fabric around Azalea’s neck, where there was a gash, he thought about what it would be like to treat hurt dragons every day. He didn’t think he’d like it: he had much preferred peeling lemons and grinding herbs to help, instead. He was done with violence, he just wanted to live a life with Azalea and make friends with new dragons, even if talking to new dragons was still scary. This IceWing, Boreas, though, was very kind and easy to talk to. And he even liked Healing, too, which made the conversation flow easier.
As Boreas and Stoneshine worked, they talked about different ills they had treated. When Stoneshine heard the story about sewing back on a cut-off finger, his eyes widened.
“Now, young Healer, let me treat you,” Boreas said when they were both done with Beluga and Azalea.
Stoneshine received a few more bandages than Azalea did, due to how he tried to take most of the blows. It was worth it, he thought, because he had saved Azalea from some pain.
When everyone was wrapped to look like mummies, Beluga most so, Boreas popped the cork back into the ointment bottle and put away the materials.
“I’m getting low on this stuff,” he muttered to himself. Stoneshine had recognized the ointment almost immediately, it was a staple in dragon medicine. He had made large quantities of it with Saguaro quite a few times.
A sudden opportunity opened itself to Stoneshine. “I can make more for you!” He said excitedly. Boreas thought for a moment before nodding. “That should be fine, but I think I heard we are out of Neem Leaf, and we haven’t started growing it in our garden. You’ll have to go across the river to Possibility’s official garden,” he told them.
Stoneshine had no idea how to get to the garden, and Boreas must have sensed that because next, he said, “Beluga, you’ll show them how to get there, okay?”
“Oh moons, really? Come on,” Beluga said, annoyed.
Boreas shot him a look that quieted the hybrid.
“Follow me,” Beluga relented, irked.
When they left the Healing Center, Beluga turned to the sky. “It would be too long of a walk, so we’re going to fly,” they informed Stoneshine and Azalea.
Another thing Stoneshine noticed about the town, was the buildings were spaced much farther apart, so lifting into the sky was much, much easier than in Sanctuary.
Flying over Possibility, Stoneshine could see the many dragons shuffling through the streets, like tiny rainbow dots in the distance. The sight of the Great Five-Tail River took his breath away. The sun just reached its high and its light reflected off of the water, making the strings of blue sparkle.
The garden was split into three separate sections. One was an open plot of land covered in thriving plants, another was a tall glass building, and the last was a small stone structure.
Dragons were working in the open garden: one RainWings, one MudWing, and two SandWings. The Rainwing was a soft yellow, like a blooming marigold, and was watering a patch of growing tomatoes. The MudWing, who was tinted a deep clay red, seemed to be prepping a plot of dirt for future plants. The SandWings were harvesting herbs and vegetables in wicker baskets.
Beluga led them to the garden gate and silently turned away.
“Are you leaving?” Stoneshine asked.
“Um, well, I was going to,” Beluga responded. Stoneshine must have looked sad enough to pity, because the Ice-SeaWing sighed and said that they would wait at the gate for them to finish.
Azalea pulled open the wooden gate and strolled onto the soft dirt path that separated the two sides of the garden. One of the SandWings, a pale sand color with a tinge of pink, called out to them. “Hello! What can I help you with?” he asked, brushing dirt off of his talons.
“We came from the Healing Center and need…” Azalea trailed off, and looked at Stoneshine.
He took a deep breath of air and said, “Neem leaf. We need neem leaves for ointment.”
“Ah yes, of course.” The SandWing looked behind them at Beluga and a small warm smile spread across his lips. “Boreas sent you, didn’t he?”
“Yeah,” Stoneshine said. “How’d you know?”
“Boreas has sent Beluga a few times to get supplies before. When you get back, tell Boreas that Gecko asks that he pick up the supplies himself.” There it was again, that smile. “Hold on one second while I get the neem leaf we just picked from the store house,” Gecko said.
“This place is so pretty,” Stoneshine said, not to anyone in particular. Lowering the front half of his body, Stoneshine leaned over to gaze at a sprouting purple flower.
“Azalea, do you see this flower? It’s gorgeous, and my favorite shade.” He looked around at the bright greens of the garden. “This whole place is perfect. I bet I could learn so much here about plants I never knew existed.”
“Maybe you should inquire about a job,” Azalea suggested. A slight frown tugged at her lips, which Stoneshine noticed.
“Why are you sad?” he asked.
“I miss the dragonets at the orphanage,” she sighed. “But I’m glad you might have these incredible options here,” she said, giving him a genuine smile.
Just then, the RainWing with the watering can approached Azalea. “Hello? I’m Pacay, and I just wanted to tell you that I love your scales! It’s like you’re every shade of pink!” She then tried to copy the Azalea’s color, but couldn’t quite figure it out. “Hmm, what am I missing?” She wondered out loud.
“You need to make the colors iridescent and change when you move, that is what really makes them unique” Stoneshine spoke up. The two female dragons turned and looked at him. Pacay tried one more time, and got closer to Azalea’s likeness. She even included the teal accent scales and membranes.
The RainWing yawned and shook her head. “Bye, nice talking to you, but it’s time for a long awaited sun-time.” She walked to the middle of the garden, which was a big dirt circle, and spread her wings. She lifted herself into the air and flew over to the stone building, gracefully landing on the roof and laid down. Her spread wings shifted colors until they looked like they were moving like a lazy rainbow river.
Gecko approached them again, back from the stone building Paca just landed on. “You met Pacay, I see.”
“She’s really nice,” Stoneshine said. “And, I just wanted to say that this garden is awesome. How long did it take to acquire and grow all these plants?” he asked Gecko.
The SandWing thought, tilting his head. “It was a slow process, and we still are searching for more plants to add to our collection. Feel free to come back and talk to us any time. We can always use another worker to fill an empty shift,” Gecko told him, handing over a sack of neem leaves.
Stoneshine grinned all the way back to the gate, where Beluga was waiting.
“What took so long?” The light aqua dragon asked.
“We weren’t even gone that long,” Azalea argued.
“Whatever, let's go, but I have to make a stop at the library first. Feel free to leave without me, though.”
“No, it’s okay. We’ll just wait for you,” Stoneshine said, missing the hint.
Since it was just past mid-day, the streets were bustling even more than they were in the morning. The loud clamor almost masked the voice of someone behind the group of three dragons.
“Want a rematch, hybrids?” A snarling voice proclaimed.