Phoenix had been dreading the day she killed her mother. As a Deathwing, their challenges for the throne were very different from the other tribes. The other tribes would fight to the death. A Deathwing princess, however, would have to kill the queen without the queen knowing. Darkest Night killed her mother with poison in her food.

Phoenix had grown over the years. She was now 10 years old and Eagle, Fox, and Stone were all 20 years old. Skipping Stone and Eagle had adopted a dragonet named Starry Skies, who was still a few months old.

Phoenix had also kept connections with some of the other tribes. The Seawing sisters, especially the older one. Prince Venom too. He visited a lot and they had become very good friends. They snuck out a lot at night to go look at the stars and chat, without any of the servants and maids asking where she was.

No war had happened yet. But arguments had been more frequent at meetings.

Venom had explained all this to her one night. Queen Dust, the Sandwing Queen, wasn't feeling great at being queen. She often got worried and locked herself up in her room. Then, Venom would have to issue commands. "That must be stressful. I mean, your not even an heir!" She had said. "Imagine if I was!" Venom had responded with a laugh. He told her all that the same night that he had told her that he loved her.

It was now or never. Queen Darkest night would have to die for her to be queen. If she was queen, she could stop the rumors about her being evil.

Phoenix snuck out of her room that night. Every guard or servant she passed, looked at her with curiosity, before they saw the gleam of the bottle in her hand and quickly fled. Phoenix had gotten dragon bite viper poison from Venom. They had a dragon bite viper in the castle because they were studying it. Queen Dust was very into science.

The Venom had to get into Darkest Nights bloodstream to take an effect. So, Phoenix had brought a needle with her.

When she got to the hallway outside Darkest Nights room, she pressed her ear to the doors. She could only hear the soft breaths of sleep. Queen Night was asleep.

"Here we go." She whispered.

She creaked open the door and stepped inside. The queen's room was giant. A big white room with a dark blue theme. The same color as Darkest Nights scales. A little bit to the side sat the crown. In a glass case on the side of the room.

It's probably got some sort of invisible protection around it. It is very valuable.

But looking at the crown wasn't what she was here to do. She crept towards the bed. Queen Night slept softly in her bed.

I have to go fast. One chance ... if I fail I could be locked up.

She opened the small bottle and held it in her left hand hand in her right, she held the needle. Queen Night would wake up from the needle. So Phoenix did it fast. She cut Darkest Night's arm with the needle, waking her up. Phoenix then shoved the poison towards Darkest Night, carefully poured it into the wound. But Darkest Night, immediately understanding what was happening, lunged at her. The open bottle splashed and Phoenix jumped back, the bottle shattering on the floor. Some of the venom splashed upwards but didn't hit Phoenix.

Darkest Night wasn't so lucky.

The venom splashed into her eyes. The sight was disgusting. Darkest Night's veins turned black, and she was screeching. Phoenix didn't want to watch her mother die so she left. Her work here was done. Now she just needed to tell everyone.

"Queen Fires Phoenix!" The crowd of dragons erupted into cheers. The princess that they had saved from their evil queen was now their leader. She smiled. Her tribe misunderstood everything.

Phoenix sighed after her work day. She retreated to a small hallway and to a small room at the end of it. It had been a year since she had become queen. She slowly opened the door to the small room. Pink paint and toys decorated the room. Queen Phoenix looked around. No dragonets. She smiled and left the room.

"Hello?" She asked as she opened the door to the treasury.

Giant piles of gold were scattered around the room. Rubies and emeralds sparkled the room. Suddenly a small dragonet bounced up from one of the piles of gold and dove right into another. Then she noticed Queen Phoenix and ran right over.

"Hi mama!" Her small dragonet had the dark purple color, a common Deathwing color, but had a Sandwings sail, barbed tail, and black eyes. Her daughter was a hybrid.

Phoenix had given her the heirs crown, the half crisscross with a ruby on the side. This is why I had to kill Darkest Night. I knew Golden Ashes was coming.