Redtail's mind was calm and quiet. Nothing at all like it's usual state. Normally, it was filled with anxiety, fear, and judgment. She wasn't a mean dragon. She didn't think about death or ever wish she could tear a dragon to shreds with her talons- most of the time. She was just different.

'Different' meaning dangerous and unpredictable, able to destroy at any moment. At least, that's what she thought. According to her, everyone was secretly terrified of her, the mutant SkyWing who killed others of her kind and trailed death and destruction. She could never stop thinking about what she had done. After the SandWing, who's name she had forgotten, had poked her with the needle, she fell into a deep sleep. She didn't know how long her mind was quiet and dark, but before she woke up, her dreams were back, and they were worse than ever.

She found herself hovering in the air, high above the Claws of the Clouds mountains, surrounded by dragons. Fear pierced her heart as she saw their faces- all of them were blackened and dry with frostbreath. She saw some IceWings- but soon their horns began to crack and snap off, making them unrecognizable. There were SeaWings, but a blackness was creeping up their necks and into their gills as they weighed in pain. And worst of all, there were SkyWings. Dozens of SkyWings, screaming in pain as ice crept up their arms and into their neck. One by one, their front limbs snapped off, tumbling towards the ground. Those that still had eyes and arms pointed at her and shrieked. Slowly, they all went silent, each dragon's wings shattering in slow motion along with the rest of their bodies. Redtail looked up to see one last dragon- a huge red male with frostbreath all along one side of his upper body. General Dominance.

"MURDERER!" He shouted, before shattering into a thousand pieces.

Redtail began to hyperventilate, her wing beats becoming uneven and hash. She could feel the cold, terrifying sensation of ice rising towards her about. She began coughing, attempting to force the ice back down.

'No... NO!'

She snapped awake, jumping so high she fell off whatever surface she had been lying on and onto the dusty floor. She was breathing hard, and her throat was scratchy. Redtail lifted her class to find that they were trembling. She slumped against a sandstone wall behind her and sighed.

"What in three moons was that?"

She opened her sky-blue eyes to see a NightWing and a purple RainWing leaning over her. The NightWing looked genuinely concerned, but the RainWing seemed on edge. She stood a few steps away, frowning.

'Oh... Right. Starcaller and Harpy. Talons and tails, what happened?' Redtail wondered.

"What were you doing? You looked like you were being chased by monster or something," said Harpy. The scales behind her ruff began to pale.

Redtail winced when she heard 'monster'. Too many times had she been given that title. She rubbed her head and stood up. Although the other two dragons looked to be about the same age as her, Redtail was almost a head taller than both of them.

"I'm... Fine," she said. "Just a dream."

"OK... Maybe you should sit for a few minutes- you fell pretty hard," Starcaller said, brushing his wing against hers.

"No. I'm alright," she replied. Suddenly, she remembered the huge SandWings and the prison. "Where are we? What happened?"

"No idea," said Harpy. "As far as we've figured, we were trapped once again and sent to yet another dusty old room full of dusty old SandWings."

Redtail looked around. The room was bigger than their other cell, and windows let in large patches of sunlight. Redtail flew up to one to discover that it was far too small for a dragon of her size to fit through. She peered out, taking in her surroundings. She could see hills and grassy plains, dotted with patches of sand and boulders. Far to the west, she could see the ocean. Although her eyesight wasn't as good as other SkyWing's, she thought she could glimpse snow-topped mountains far away to the north.

She fluttered back down, scattering dust around her talons. The room was filled with cots, much like an infirmiry. Rapid, the blue SeaWing, was sprawled on one of them, fast asleep. There was a set of double doors at the opposite end of the hall, but Redtail was hesitant to push them open and see what was on the other side.

"It's morning now. A couple hours until noon, I think," said Harpy. "It was afternoon when we were knocked out- we've been asleep all night. As for where we are, I think it's somewhere between the Sand and Ice kingdoms."

"The doors are locked from the outside," Starcaller said, leaning against a wall. "I thought I heard voices behind them before, but they went away a while ago."

"So... We're just going to have to wait until someone comes in to get us?" Redtail asked.

"Yes," said Harpy. "In the meantime, I would like you both to please shut up. Especially you, NightWing. He wouldn't stop talking earlier."

Starcaller shrugged and winked mischievously at Redtail.

"What can I say? We're all sort of tangled up in this message together- I think we should at least get to know one another. I'll go first," he said, clearing his throat.

"My name is Starcaller. I'm a NightWing, if you couldn't tell, and I grew up an orphan. My egg was apparently sold at the Scorpion Den, but obviously the buyer didn't take very good care of me, and I escaped. I was captured by SandWings working for Blister and they were attacked by Burn's soldiers and I managed to escape. I lived in the rainforest for a while but eventually decided to camp out in Possibility. That's when I was captured by Callous, that big grumpy SandWing, and shoved into a cell with Springbok," said the NightWing.

Redtail and Harpy were silent. It was obvious that neither of them wanted to share anything. Starcaller frowned.

"Well? If I'm going to be stuck with a bunch of random dragons, I want to at least know who they are," he said. "Don't you agree?"

"Fine," Harpy sighed. "I'm Harpy. I hatched by myself, outside of the rainforest somewhere near Jade Mountain. I taught myself to hunt and survive, and after a few years I moved to the rainforest. But it turns out I'm not in any way similar to the other RainWings, so I moved to Possibility and started selling fruits there to earn money. Until I got caught up in your crazy adventure."

Starcaller nodded, satisfied. He looked to Redtail expectantly. She shuffled and shrugged her wings, hesitating before speaking.

"I'm Redtail," she said. "I grew up in the Sky Kingdom, and I was a servant in Queen Scarlet's palace. My parents died when I was younger. I... Ran away after a while and lived outside of Possibility."

Starcaller looked at her skeptically, as if he knew she wasn't telling the whole story. Everyone was silent for a few minutes, until they heard a voice behind Redtail.

"Ugh... What happened?"

Rapid was sitting up, rubbing his head. His scales shone brightly in the shade.

"Ah! You're awake," said Starcaller joyfully. "Well, we were knocked unconscious by a bunch of big SandWings, dragged to this place, and now we have no idea where we are or what's going to happen to us."

"Oh," said the SeaWing. "That's... A lot to take in. How long was I asleep?"

"All night," said Harpy. "And most of this morning. Don't worry- you haven't missed much."

"We were just introducing ourselves properly," said Starcaller. "It's your turn, by the way."

"OK. Well, my name's Rapid," said the SeaWing, rubbing his gills nervously. "My family was pretty poor, so I didn't go to a fancy SeaWing school or anything. After my dad died in the War and my mom was grieving too much to take care of me properly, I ran away and went to Possibility."

"Sounds like we're more similar than we are different," Starcaller said.

"No," snarled Harpy. "I'm not like any of you weirdos."

Starcaller walked over to Rapid and engaged in conversation, filling him in on the situation. Redtail walked over to the door and pressed her ear against it. She thought she could hear voices behind the wood and listened carefully.

"They should be awake now, sir," said one.

"Good. I'll go in and see which ones I'll want to keep," said a second voice.

"They're coming in!" Redtail hissed, backing away rapidly.

Rapid shrunk into a ball on the floor, wings spread wide. To Harpy and Redtail's surprise, Starcaller, who had been standing in a shaded portion of the room, instantly disappeared into nothing but a shadow.

The doors banged open, sending another wave of bright sunlight into the room. Starcaller's shadowy form flickered, and Redtail put her wing above her to shade her eyes from the light. Standing in the door were three SandWings, the ones on either side significantly bigger. The one in the middle was smaller, but radiated authority.

He stepped forward, and the other two dragons blocked the light from behind him. Redtail had to squint, because the smaller dragon seemed to be glowing. After a few seconds she realized that he wasn't actually glowing, just wearing a lot of shiny jewelery. He had a sly smile on his face and wore gloves on his claws and a leather cast over his tail barb.

"Hello, dragonets," he said. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. I'll be sure to answer them soon. My name is Demolish."