I whipped around and saw a completely chocolate claw. He had a few black spots here and there, and his eye sparkled green. His primary's were also dyed red. I hissed and and fluffed myself up, for greater emphasis I flapped my gills at him. The effect was electric, he backed away a couple of steps, then copied my aggressive stance. His gills were red, mine were blue, another varying difference between us.

We started circling, I watched my opponent for any signs of attack, Sierra had taught me this. He twitched, and lunged, I rolled to the side and darted forward. He tumbled and crashed to the ground. I rushed under him and jumped, he went flying and landed with a thump. I dashed and pressed my paws against his throat.

"Who are you?!"

"Gack! My name is Arroyo, can you please get off me?" He choked out.

I released him but kept staring him down. Arroyo rubbed his throat.

"Can you tell me about the Blood Moon?" I asked

"Sure, wait, are you Zach? The guys who defeated Gorbachav?" He gasped "Great Glamora! I'm an heir too! Regulus is my father" Arroyo gasped

I winced when he mentioned the Ghost King, seeing how he was actually still alive.

"Yes my reputation proceeds me, now tell me about the Blood Moon!" In the back of my mind I think that was a bit harsh, but it doesn't matter.

"It's a celebration, every year when the moon turns red we fight each other, to honor blood, it's pretty gruesome if you ask me, then we sacrifice a whole bunch of animals, last year I remember someone brought down a whole turkey, it was pretty epic and all"

"What does this have to do with us?" I asked myself

"I don't know, maybe my dad feels as though the celebration will be better with you present, I personally feel like you'll either be sick or pass out" said Arroyo

"Is there any way out of here?" I asked, losing my patience.

"I'm afraid not, unless your super strong"

"Wait, then why are you here? I mean, why would your father lock you up in here with me?" I wondered

"Oh um, I prefer not to diverge into that conversation" Arroyo licked his chest in embarrassment.

"Are you sure that door is the only way out?"

He scratched his ear "um, well, it's not the only way out."

I whirled around "what?!"

He pointed up, I looked and saw a tunnel that led straight up. It was big enough for my wingspan, my only question was, how did I miss that?!?! Seriously? it was a giant gaping hole in the earth, you know what, never mind. I'll question my spacial awareness later.

I jumped into the air and spread my wings, revealing in the feeling of my feathers scooping the air and pushing me up. My wing seemed to have healed enough, it ached a bit, but I could fly. I paused and hovered when Arroyo didn't follow.

"Are you coming?" I hollered down at him

He paced the floor and looked up at me, biting his lip. "you know what? I'll stay down here and cover for you, Yeah! That's what all do."

I gave him a quizzical look, but if he wasn't coming, I wasn't waiting around to convince him too. I flapped harder and launched myself upward, it was harder going up, it took a whole lot more energy. I sighed in relief when the tunnel turned so I could stand, but had to dig my claws into the steep incline.

Eventually it leveled out, then dipped downward, and I was back to flying. This time carefully lowering myself till I dropped onto the floor of another cave. My sister was in this one though.

"There you are! I've been trying to reach you, but I couldn't force it this time" she said

"He lied! This isn't a way out" I said as I stared at yet another rock blocked door.

"Um, who?" Asked Zara, questioning my sanity as I pounded on the rock.

"Arroyo, the heir to the Blood-claws, he was with me on the other side" I explained, finally giving up and pacing the ground.

"This thing has another side to it?"

I nodded.

"Then it is what I thought it is! Listen, Ice-claws used to use these to teach kits to fly, locking them in one chamber till they figured out how to get to the other, which had treats of some sort, then they knew how to fly" she explained

"So now they simply push them off a tree." I said sarcastically, remembering my first lesson.

"Hey it worked, right? Only... what do we do now?" Said Zara

Silence filled the cavern, and for the first time, I didn't know.