Dragonlings should feel no remorse for an honorable kill. It is our way of life to fight and kill, and we all understand this. 

This is Our Law. 

~ From the Dragonling Grimoire 

There was a party that night. I didn't particularly feel like going, but Dmitri forced me to attend so I could meet and learn the names of my squadron. The dead dragonling had been swiftly replaced, though no one seemed to have noticed. That was just how it was for Ryns.

The replacement was a lean fyn with blond hair and black eyes named Saul. He had no problem getting to know everyone: in under an hour, he was already fast friends with Ruth, a purple-eyed wyk with the curliest blonde hair you've ever seen, and Sylvester, a muscular fyn with brown hair and lovely blue eyes.

Dmitri knew some of the squadron and introduced me to them - Leon and Morgan - but made me go familiarize myself with the remaining three. The first was Ariana, a remarkably muscled wyk with chocolate curly hair and eyes to match. She regarded me with curiosity and had no reservations in asking me questions.

"You're awfully young." Ariana began. "You're the Queen's servant, right? A nasty move she pulled, isn't it? I heard about it from my brother."

I was stunned (did news really move that fast?) but answered the wyk anyways. "Yeah. My name is Anita... and yes, it was rather rude, I guess."

Ariana just laughed. "Dominique is quite the arrogant bitch, isn't she?" I was taken aback to hear someone talk that way about our queen, but the wyk just laughed. "Oh, I trained with her. Never did her schoolwork, nearly flunked the academy."

"You're awfully brazen." A new voice interrupted us and I turned to see an albino fyn. Well. Tonight was just full of surprises. He was tall and skinny, with such a pallor that he nearly seemed transparent. His eyes were a watery blue that accented the veins visible under his skin.

"Cody." Ariana said ruefully. "Always a pleasure to see you."

The fyn - Cody, I supposed - seemed to share Ariana's sentiment. "I won't lie to you like that."

I awkwardly glanced between the two glaring dragonlings and slipped away to meet the last dragonling. He was tall and ginger haired, with startling green eyes. When he saw me, he just gave me a crooked smile. "Ah, tired of those two already? Don't worry. They get worse."

I couldn't help but smile back. "Really? That's such a relief." The fyn snorted and held a hand out to me.

"The name's Derek, though most wyks just call me 'handsome.'"

I shook his hand and rolled my eyes, but couldn't help grinning. "I'm sure. And how many call you annoying?"

Derek snickered. "Less than you'd think. Anita, right?" At my nod, he glanced around the room. "Dmitri's girl. He's my mate's clutchmate, you know."

I paused, blinking slowly. "He has a sister?" Obviously. Dragonlings tend to have a lot of siblings, usually in the dozens, but it never crossed my mind that there could be someone like Dmitri. Well, no one could ever be like Dmitri, but you get the point.

Derek raised an eyebrow but ignored my comment. "Let's get some food." He nodded towards the tables lined with food in the corner of the room. I hadn't even thought about eating - I had been too nauseous - but now I caught a whiff of meat and my mouth started watering.

"That sounds like a good idea." I said with a weak smile. Derek just grinned knowingly and led me to the table.

All sorts of food filled the table - rabbit glazed with honey, venison stew, beef and pork roasts. I was self-conscious about eating for only a few seconds. Cody and Morgan were both loading plates up, and most of the others had already gotten food. I decided to take a little bit of everything before joining the others at a table.

Derek sat beside me, much to Dmitri's disdain. He was on my right side, with May and Harvey in front of us. "You seem friendly with him." He murmured to me, sliding a glass of wine to me.

I scoffed and sipped from the glass. "Don't be so jealous. He already has a mate." Glancing up at him, I tipped my head to the side curiously. "He said it was one of your clutchmates."

Dmitri didn't seem impressed. "Yes. There were about four wyks in my clutch. None of them shared my father."

"Sounds like you don't like them very much." I snorted and started to eat. Dmitri muttered something obscene under his breath and glanced to Harvey.

"I heard you know Lazarus."

Blinking, I glanced up at Harvey. I had completely forgotten about Alek and his little talk.

"Yes," Harvey nodded, setting down his fork, "we share a matriarch."

I nodded slowly. That made sense. A matriarch was a dragonling's oldest female predecessor. She was the most respected wyk in a family unit. Given that none of my female ancestors were alive anymore, I was technically considered the matriarch of my non-existent family.

Dmitri muttered something to his own glass of wine. I only caught part of it, but I believe it was along the lines of "bad genes."

"Keep your attitude down," I murmured as I leaned closer to Dmitri, "or I'll make you sleep on the floor." He scowled but remained quiet, responding levely when addressed. I almost felt bad.

Almost.

Derek leaned over and nodded at Ruth, whispering in my ear. "I heard she had an affair with a shapeshifter. A dreadful story." I gave the wyk a sidelong glance. A shapeshifter? Really? With a confident smile, Derek tapped the table to get my attention back. "She likes the bites."

I choked on my wine and drew stares from the table. Waving my hand to assure everyone I was okay, I glared at Derek playfully and got ahold of my breathing. "Not funny." I hissed through my laughter. The fyn just winked and returned to eating.

The silence didn't last too long. I found Derek couldn't keep his mouth shut for long. "So..." he began, poking my side to get my attention, "how did you get into... you know. Your situation?" I blinked, trying to figure out what he was talking about. With a sheepish smile, he clarified. "Uh, your bondage."

"Oh." I glanced down at my food. "Um, my mother was involved in a border dispute some years back, before I was born."

Derek tipped his head up, looking at the ceiling like he was searching for something. "Huh... I guess I wasn't around for that... how odd. I-"

Before he could continue, May turned to me then and lifted her glass. Her cheeks were tinted red and it was obvious she was well into her cups. "Anita." She said cheerfully. "How does it feel to survive your first real fight?"

The squadron once again turned to stare at me, but this time it was out of curiosity. I felt my face heat up and I shrugged as nonchalantly as possible. "It was... fine I guess." There were a few quiet laughs. "It was over faster than I thought it would be."

"The fight lasted well over twenty minutes." Morgan supplied from Dmitri's other side. I turned to her in surprise. She was an aging wyk with dull red eyes and brown hair shot through with gray. Her face was long and stern, giving her the aura of someone who was long past the point of dealing with you.

Morgan's reply earned some chuckles, but most of the others seemed to understand. The fyn sitting next to Harvey, Leon, just shook his head. "Morgana, be nice to the poor girl." I gave him a grateful nod. Leon was slenderly built, though his arms were corded with muscles, with jade-colored eyes and dark red hair. He had a friendly look to him, and was quick to flash a smile. I wondered how Dmitri met him.

Dmitri practically seemed to read my mind. "Ani, Leon and I trained together. He was a couple years below me at school." He slipped an arm around my waist and not-so-subtly pulled me against him and away from Derek, who just caught my eye with an amused wink.

"Oh." I murmured, deciding to let it slide. If Derek wasn't offended, I didn't need to punish Dmitri for it.

Dmitri obviously took this as a victory and kissed the top of my head. I rolled my eyes but remained against him, pulling my plate closer so I could eat. This wasn't so bad. He was solid, warm and a ready shield against the stares of the others. Suddenly I didn't mind being forced to come. The food was good, the company wasn't too bad, and, of course, I got to spend more time with Dmitri.

Maybe war wouldn't be so bad.

"Fly higher!" Dmitri called, winging his way through the sky. We were in a fan formation with Dmitri at the tip to lead. I was immediately to his right, known as the "whelping" position because it allowed all the dragonlings behind to keep an eye on me. It irked me to no end, but I understood why. Not only did Dmitri want to make sure I was safe, I was also the youngest dragonling and was a liability anywhere else on the chain.

At least Derek was on Dmitri's other side. He would whisper jokes and gossip to me when Dmitri went to scout ahead, though Cody - who was right behind him - would often bite at his foot to rein him back into line. Ruth had ended up behind me, though I didn't mind her company as much. She was quiet and thoughtful, never bringing attention to herself.

I think Dmitri was hoping she would rub off on me.

As the squadron followed Dmitri's command, I noticed a shimmer of color beneath us. It was a dragonling glaring up at the sky. Even with the advanced eyesight of my dragon form, I couldn't quite figure out why she seemed so upset - until I noticed the large jumble of mosses and leaves. Ah. A nesting mother. I shuddered and glanced at Dmitri for more orders.

Ryns were the most dangerous type of dragonling, yes, but nothing was quite as dangerous as a wyk nesting. Especially one who decided to go out to nest in the forest. It meant she was prepared to attack anything that grew too close for her tastes - even an entire squadron of Ryns. Even in times of war, there was an unspoken truce when it came to nesting wyk; unless you wanted to end up dead, leave them alone.

Maybe I would find an outside nesting site for my next clutch.

Dmitri banked hard to our left and we raced after him. The flight had been quiet for the past hour, but it seemed that something had piqued Dmitri's interest. After a few minutes of silent flying, we landed in a dense part of the forest. Summer had awoken plants and animals of all sorts. The smells were making my mouth water, but Dmitri didn't even pause. He crouched low to the ground and slipped through the forest as silently and fluidly as a snake.

We followed, though not quite as smoothly. It was easy for me, but bulkier dragonlings like Harvey and Sylvester were struggling. Suddenly, Dmitri had us stop at the edge of the trees where we were still hidden by the foliage.

Past the trees was a small encampment of dragonlings at the base of a mountain. There were about thirteen or so and they were lazily lounging around. The smattering of scars and missing scales marked them as Ryns, but they didn't seem as active as they should be. The warm sun must have gotten to them and now they were acting like lazy lizards.

Dmitri flicked his muzzle towards the dragonlings to signal us forward. Creeping as slowly as possible, I noticed the tall grass that made up the edge of the forest. Flowers were sprinkled throughout the field, though I could only name one.

"Wolfsbane!" I hissed, jerking backwards. The rest of the squadron collapsed back as well, Dmitri practically whirling away from the deadly flower.

Though beautiful, wolfsbane was especially toxic to dragonlings - in fact, Black Scale was caused by a wolfsbane-based virus. If breathed in, it could collapse our lungs and destroy the second stomach that produces the flammable gas used to breathe fire.

At least we knew why the Ryns weren't getting up.

"Let's head back." Dmitri said, turning his back on the field of wolfsbane. The others nodded along and followed. I hesitated, but trailed after them anyways. There was nothing we could do for those Ryns now.

Days passed in a similar fashion. We would fly at the crack of dawn through the mountains that Queen Dominique wanted until we found an enemy squadron to fight, then find a campsite to rest and recover. Usually it was Kestreldive Ryns, but on the occasion we would encounter their allies from the Meadowflower colony. Sometimes we would win, and other times we had to flee. Thankfully no one had died - I had grown rather fond of my squadron over the past week.

Unlike my previous squadron at Lord edgar's estate, all of my squadmates pulled their weight and could work well together. Cody and Ariana's antagonism didn't overflow into work and Morgana's barbed comments served to improve us rather than insult us. And to top it off, May and Dmitri were there the entire way to help (though Dmitri also had taken it upon himself to make sure I was never alone with any of the fyns).

When the squadron camped, we would bring back whatever game we could find to share. We took anything we could find - once or twice we even had to nab a cougar and grizzly when the mule deer and sheep were too well hidden. The mountainous land wasn't friendly to a lot of plants, but we found golden currants, chicory and pine nuts to eat along with pine needles to make tea. I quickly found that May was a resourceful and clever cook no matter where we were.

Life was good. Well, as good as it could be in times of war. The images of slain dragonlings still haunted my dreams, now blending with the old nightmares of smashed eggs. Often Dmitri would shake me awake because I was kicking in my sleep and had woken him up.

"Ani." Dmitri whispered to me one night as he rubbed my back to calm me down. "Ani, this is our life. We're Ryns. Just forget about all those dragonlings. It's just part of our world." His words never seemed to soothe me for long. I would continue to wake up at night and Dmitri would ever-patiently help me to fall back asleep.

It was the day after one of those sleepless nights that we were ambushed. The day was already dreary, full of clouds and the threat of rain hovering on the horizon. It happened in a flash - one second we were flying, the next I had a pale gray dragonling shredding my wings from above.

There were only five in total, but they had taken us by surprise. Every one of them had nearly white scales and blended seamlessly into the opaque surroundings. I saw Dmitri and Morgana fighting one off side-by-side, but then a sharp pain on my skull alerted me to the fact that the dragoning had managed to remove my scales.

I went into a death spiral - a fast paced maneuver that consisted of folding your wings tight against your body and diving into a downward spin - to throw the dragonling off. As soon as they realized, they bailed with a frightened squeal. Stretching my wings out, I flapped furiously to gain some cushioning before I slammed into the rocky ground. Sharp, burning agony shot up my leg as I hit the ground. It was the last thing I registered before my chin hit a rock and I blacked out.