Two Years Later....

Lux stared down the edge of the cliff, tears seeping through her eyes. No, no, no, this isn't right. This can't be happening, her thoughts cried. Below the cliff lay a mix of buttercream and daffodil yellow scales. "Amarillo..." she whispered.

Verde stood next to her, her gaze shallow and blank. They flew down to the body, and their worst fears were confirmed. With her neck broken and limbs astray, Amarillo lay dead.

"She was my only sister left..." Verde muttered, but then she said something else, Lux didn't catch it.

There was a thin line of blood dripping from Amarillo's mouth, which Lux wiped away gently with her claw. 

"We can't just leave her here," Lux spoke, swallowing back a sob.

The cousins gently picked up the body and chose a nice spot to bury it, all without saying another word. They both seemed to have decided that there was no way they were going to leave the body where a certain someone could swipe a claw.

When they were done, they rinsed their talons in a nearby stream to rid themselves of the dirt. "Go to bed Lux. I will tell my mother," Verde spoke solemnly. She watched as silver fish darted gracefully through the water. For a second Lux thought she caught sight of a golden glint in Verde's talons.

"How do I know the same fate won't befall me," Lux said back. She narrowed her eyes towards the window of the Queen's chambers, that lay inside the stone castle.

"What do you mean? Surely you don't think this was a murder?" Verde tilted her head in confusion. She looked down at the disturbed soil, where her sister was buried. She carefully picked some wildflowers and placed them on top.

"You know what I mean," Lux stared hard into the green dragon. "First of all, Amarillo didn't just trip and fall off a cliff. And second, she has wings, she would have caught herself." Lux fumed. She started pacing in a tight circle. She wanted to scream and cry, but she couldn't let her mix of emotions cripple her, so instead she simply suppressed them.

"She was probably too surprised by it all. We both have heard about the dragons who have fallen to their death, and still had perfectly good wings they could have used," Verde countered, shaking her head.

"This is different! Only a few days ago the Queen found out about her powers, and now she's dead. Tell me that isn't a coincidence," Lux yelled. She whipped her tail back and forth, barely managing not to snag the double sided blade on the tree, that shadowed the newly dug grave.

"Hey, I know your grieving for Amarillo, but don't ruin her memory with rash accusations of the unthinkable. My mother has honor. She wouldn't just toss her daughter off a cliff," Verde reasoned.

Lux saw that Verde was trying to help, and that she was bringing up excellent points, but she was too stubborn to just give up. Lux knew something was off.

"Don't be such a moon-blasted idiot. What your saying doesn't have the slightest bit of truth. That dragon, your mother, keeps the talons of her dead challengers in jars, so she can admire them." Lux was about to fly off, but she couldn't help herself from adding one more thing. "Queen Tempest was scared of her. You could see it in her eyes when her weak daughter, who could only create a small burst of flames, turned out to be an animus. The only known one in the last hundred and sixty years."

With that Lux flew off to her chambers, where she collapsed on her bed and turned herself away to the nightmares.