"Princess Phoenix?? Fireeeeess Pheonixxx. I'm talking to you."

Phoenix continued to stare out the window of her room.

"Princess?" Her tutor asked again.

She glared at a bird flying over the palace.

"Fires-"

"What?" She asked, shifting her glare over to Skipping Stone, a navy blue male. Skipping Stone had been caught in a landslide and a good chunk of his tail was missing. He had a lighter blue leopard print pattern on his scales and the same color wings. He was obsessed with scrolls and reading. He was one of Queen Night's most trusted dragons.

He rolled his blue eyes. "Back to our history lesson. What do we know about when our tribe started?"

Phoenix wanted to roll her eyes too, but she didn't.

"The Deathwings came to this continent after our floating island crashed into their continent and got stuck. There were already seven tribes here, and we became the eighth, keeping our territory on the island next to the rainforest. But even that was thousands and thousands of years ago."

Stone smiled. "Good. Now tell me a little bit about Deathwing anatomy."

"Well, around half of the Deathwings are razor tails. That means they have a tail with an extended sharp bit, like me." She paused, glancing at Stone's missing tail chunk, which made him laugh.

"Queen Darkest Night, like many, have attached spear-like metal things to their tails to have something that looks like a razor tail, but isn't."

"Correct again. You seem to know your stuff!" He chuckled.

"Yup." She muttered under her breath.

They stayed there, silent for a moment, Stone thinking.

What would it be like to leave my room? To meet a dragon from another tribe? To meet a new dragon from my own tribe?

"Stone?"

"Yes?"

"What do my marks mean?"

Stone grimaced in a sort of way, as if he had been avoiding that question and avoiding that fact about her.

"Oh uh-"

"Why can't I leave my room? I've never even stood in the sunshine."

Stone had an expression she couldn't read. Almost pitying, but terrified at the same time.

A lot like: I'm sorry you're a monster I'm scared of.

But he didn't say anything. At least not for a moment.

"Dragons don't ... understand ... that you're harmless. They think that you're only locked away because the Queen hates you." He paused before adding, "They took out that anger on Feathers Bird."

Fires Phoenix had heard this before. That it was Feather's fault that Phoenix had been locked away. Feathers bird was killed for that. Assassinated.

Because Phoenix simply existed.

Phoenix wondered how many more dragons would have to suffer because of her.

She never would have guessed it to be that many.