There are kings and queens who believe their word is absolute, and that the might of the colony relies solely on them. This is not so. Our power comes from every dragonling, from the unhatched egg to the ancient elders, and all of us are given strength through our ancestors. This is what every leader must know. 

This is Our Law. 

~ From the Dragonling Grimoire

In less than a day, I was already deeply regretting my decisions.

Queen Dominika and the remnants of her colony left less than a sunleap after the Davnishniy announced the end of the solstice and King Andrei insisted I leave almost as soon.

I say remnants since more than half of the Ryns who had accompanied Queen Dominika had stayed behind. They milled aimlessly around, their eyes invariably finding their way to me as I had a mild mental breakdown.

"I don't even know what I'm supposed to do," I hissed to Dmitri as he guided me out of the cavern and away from prying eyes. We had shifted, as had many others, to be less conspicuous, but it wasn't working very well.

Lords and ladies of various colonies approached me to either introduce themselves and offer advice or scold me for my supposed impudence. I fixed a smile to my face and escaped every conversation as soon as I could.

"I don't think I can do this," I added as yet another lord from some distant colony tried to reprimand me.

"You chose this." Dmitri reminded me under his breath.

"That was before. You know, before I suddenly had to create a colony?"

"There's no going back now," Dmitri replied. "So start thinking about the future now."

"My future probably includes-" my snarky reply was cut off as a tall fyn stepped in front of us.

"Anita Rhyan," the fyn said as if he was trying out my name. "You looked caught off-guard up there. Was becoming queen not what you wanted?" His words were pointed, intended to get under my skin.

I may not have been good with diplomacy or politics, but I could recognize someone wanting a fight. "The Davnishniy gave me my wish. Who am I to deny her design for me?" Giving the fyn the sharpest smile I could, I took Dmitri's hand. "Now, we have to go... who are you?"

The fyn's face flickered with indignation. "You don't know? Surely you must have more brains than that."

"Pasha Luzgin." Dmitri suddenly said, his voice calm. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as I heard the underlying rage. I frantically tried to recall just who Pasha was, but nothing came to mind.

"It would be King Pasha to you." The fyn shot back.

"You're a murderer and a con," Dmitri replied. "I will never call you a king."

All at once, I remembered. Pasha Luzgin was the king of Burningsky - the dragonling that had destroyed Dmitri's birth colony. I felt a passing sense of anger, like the leftovers of Dmitri's rage was spilling over to me, but I shook my head.

"You don't have to argue with him," I said as I took Dmitri's hand. King Pasha's face curled into a smug grin and I felt the embers of the anger fan into irritation. "He's not worth your time, Dmitri. Just a pompous peacock with nothing better than spread his feathers and pretend to be powerful."

I watched in satisfaction as King Pasha's face slowly reddened, but then Dmitri was pulling me away. We got about four paces away before both of us starting snickering.

"That wasn't very diplomatic of you," Dmitri teased as he slipped an arm around my waist. "Aren't you supposed to act like a queen now?"

"I don't have a colony yet," I couldn't suppress the grin tugging at my lips, "so why not have some fun beforehand? It's not like Ki- Pasha was exactly falling over himself to ally up."

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I groaned. "Look, I don't want to hear-" I cut myself off when I saw Alek was the one who grabbed me. He gave me a wry smile.

"What did I do this time? I thought you loved to listen to me."

"Depends on what you say." I took Alek's hand and started pulling him behind me. "Come on, I don't want to hear another dragonling scold me tonight."

"A problem you-"

"Dmitri, I swear to every star above, if you say it's my fault one more time, I'm going to scream," I muttered. He closed his mouth and scowled, falling silent.

"King Andrei is collecting the dragonlings that want to go with you," Alek spoke up as he kindly allowed me to yank him along. "There's quite a few. You should feel honored."

I bit my tongue, trying to think of something positive to say. Honestly, I didn't know if more dragonlings following my lead was a remarkable or terrifying idea. More people to support me... and a lot more people to let down.

Shaking my head to dislodge the thought, I stayed silent until we finally reached our room. A couple of Umni were already busy packing away our personal belongings. They gave me respectful bows before handing the leather bags over to Dmitri and Alek and leaving.

Mishal chirped from her nest in the fireplace, seeming annoyed that her room was being moved around. I could relate. She jumped into the air and glided over to settle on my shoulder, her weight comforting and solid.

I sighed and stroked Mishal's back, feeling overwhelmed. "I guess King Andrei really wants us to leave."

"We only have a few days." Alek reminded me as he struggled over the weight of one of the bags. I silently took one and he weakly smiled. "Thank you. Anyways, we need to leave sooner rather than later."

"I know, but I'm not going to be happy about it."

"Are you ever happy?" Dmitri asked. I gave him a sour glare, but he just shrugged and walked out of the room.

I continued to glare at Dmitri's retreating back, then let my shoulders sag as the resentment left my body. "And he's mad at me. Great."

"You did snap at him earlier." Alek reminded me gently as he directed me out of the room. "He's just worried about you."

"Yeah, well, he doesn't have to be so obnoxious about it," I grumbled, but there wasn't any passion behind my words. Even I could tell they were hollow.

Alek gave me a small smile and kissed my temple. "Don't be so grumpy. Once we're back home, you'll feel better."

I stared at the ground. "... it would be nice to go hunting again."

"And have something other than fish?" Alek teased.

"There are plenty of things to eat besides fish!" Mako's voice interrupted us as he seemingly appeared out of nowhere to defend his colony.

"Yeah, like whale and seal." I poked Mako's side. "Which basically taste the same."

Mishal warbled in agreement and pecked Mako's head. I couldn't help but laugh. "See? Mishal agrees with me."

Mako rubbed his head and childishly stuck his tongue out at me. "Both you and your bird are stupid. They don't taste anything alike."

"Bird?! She's a phoenix!"

We started squabbling, Alek interjecting every so often to get us moving again, until we reached the entrance of the cavern. I paused and glanced up at it, my heart twisting painfully as I realized this would likely be one of the last times I could visit the Iciclecrash colony.

"Come on, Anita." Mako prompted as he nudged my shoulder. "We gotta go."

"I know, I know, I just- wait. We?"

Mako grinned at my confusion. "What? Did you think you were going to go off and make your own colony without me? Not a chance." His smile was infectious and I couldn't stop my own from appearing.

"Alright, but you actually have to work, you know."

"I've never been a slacker."

"Liar."

We both started laughing and out of the corner of my eye, I saw King Andrei approach. "I'm glad to see you are both in high spirits."

I nodded. "It's always better to have a friend at your side."

"Wise words." King Andrei laughed. "You have a lot of dragonlings eager to depart with you. Come along."

Anxiety slowly crept into my mind again, but Mako's grinning face helped soothe my fears. I nodded once and followed King Andrei as he opened the entrance. A blast of icy air hit me directly in the face, awakening every nerve in my body at once. The shock of the cold made me stop.

Dmitri was suddenly beside me. "You're going to freeze." He murmured in my ear. "Hurry up and shift so you can put on one of those stupid jackets."

I bit back a snarky reply and did as Dmitri suggested, feeling the bitter winds cut under my scales. Almost immediately, a pair of Umni was beside me, their deft claws securing a woolen parka around me. It helped, but only a little. Snow flew by and started to cover my body, driving Mishal off my shoulder and underneath my parka.

Shaking my head to dislodge the snowflakes, I pressed against Dmitri's side, using him to help block some of the wind. "I always forget how awful it is out here."

"Well, the rest of us are suffering for you too." A familiar voice called out from behind us.

I twisted my neck around to see two dragonlings huddling together. One was the color of a pumpkin and the other a pale blonde. It took a moment for me to place the voice.

"... Valka?" I asked hesitantly. "And Ilya? What are you doing?"

"Well, we're not out here to enjoy the weather," Valka replied with a snort. "Or do you like having your tail frozen off?"

Ilya was more gentle. "We wanted to come with you, of course." He explained. "As Moras, we don't get much opportunity to do anything artistic when everything is, well, white."

"Is everyone just going to insult my colony today?" Mako complained.

"It won't be your colony soon enough." King Andrei joined our group, Senya and his entourage in tow.

Senya looked the most annoyed out of everyone. "Why did we have to leave so soon?" He asked me. "You could have waited until the morning."

I felt a twitch of irritation. "Senya, if you knew me better you would know that I wouldn't have chosen to do this."

Senya's tail lashed, but, before he could reply, an Umny at the head of the group made a signal with his wing - which was coated in a thick, insulated wool wrap to protect from the biting cold - and the procession began moving.

Alek walked to my other side, taller than both Dmitri and me, and effectively sheltered me from most of the wind. "The Umni say it should only take us half a day to reach the borders."

"Half a day too long," Dmitri grumbled. "I can't stand this weather."

"That makes two of us." I shivered, savoring the warmth from Mishal's feathers.

Alek snorted. "It would probably go faster if you'd stop complaining."

As if on cue, both Dmitri and I began complaining in the most exaggerated way we could. Alek sighed dramatically and thumped our backs with his tail. As we laughed, I closed my eyes. Pressed and warm against both of my mates, I felt safe and happy.

We reached the Frost Barrier mountains faster than I had expected. The snowstorm had become milder throughout the trip, luring Mishal out to play in the drifts while we walked. Once we entered the tunnel outpost, I gladly wriggled out of the parka.

"So we finally get to fly?" Dmitri asked as he slowly stretched out.

"You could have flown this entire time," Mako commented, "you just would have lost your wings to frostbite."

"Don't be a smartass."

"Don't be a-"

"Stop arguing." I interrupted. "We still need to go through Ivoryclaw and Flowermeadow territory, then we can settle down and-"

"You won't be passing through my territory." A cold voice interrupted.

I turned my head to the voice and saw a tall fyn glaring at me, a dozen or so dragonlings standing behind him. He snorted flames and started to walk away, but Queen Galinda landed in front of him. "Viktor," she admonished, "why-"

"Don't try to change my mind." The fyn - King Viktor of Flowermeadow, I surmised - shot back. "Dominika is no friend of mine, but another colony is just going to take territory from us all, one way or another. I'm sorry, but the less we help this new colony, the faster they'll disappear. There's only a handful of them anyway."

Anger surged up in my chest and I pushed past Queen Galinda. "Awfully bold of you to assume you have any control over that." I spat. "Do you really think my dragonlings will just roll over and die because some snobby king doesn't want us to succeed?"

King Viktor's muzzle curled into a snarl. "That's not what I-"

"I don't care if that's what you meant or not." I cut in and lifted my head, baring my teeth. "Don't make those kinds of foolish statements or you'll regret it." Behind me, I could sense dragonlings shifting around uneasily, but I couldn't tear my focus away.

"Regret it?" King Viktor sneered. "As I said before, your colony is too small. Besides, you know nothing about leading a colony. You're just a Ryn."

"My colony is small, but I could defeat you in a Brawl," I hissed. "I might not be some highly educated Lira like you, but I know that if you died in a Brawl, your colony would belong to me."

King Viktor's eyes narrowed. "Are you threatening me?"

"I am telling you what would happen if you continue to make comments about my colony."

Rearing his head up, King Viktor glared down at me for a long moment before snorting fire. "You have determination, I'll give you that." He growled. "But it takes more than that to lead a colony."

"It doesn't matter. I will learn whatever I have to." I replied, trying to curb my temper.

King Viktor just snorted again before turning away, gathering his dragonlings with a sweep of his wing. They all gave me various scowls and glares over their shoulders before they took off.

There was silence around me for a long moment as I watched the Meadowflower dragonlings leave. With a sigh, I turned around. As I'd thought, everyone was staring at me.

"What?" I asked irritably.

"We didn't say anything." Mako piped up.

King Andrei pushed his way over. "Don't worry about Viktor." He said, brushing his wing against mine. "He's always been... unkind to strangers. That's why he wanted to leave the glacier first thing."

"He didn't have to make all those comments," I muttered, watching the dragonlings around us begin to split up into groups. "... I didn't even know he was with us."

Queen Galinda approached, clearly miffed that she had been brushed off earlier. "We can go through my territory and follow the border into Watercress."

"Good idea." Senya seemed to appear out of nowhere, making me jump as he brushed up against me. "However, that would mean flanking Thunderstorm territory. It would leave us wide open for attack."

"Dominika already lost more than a few followers," King Andrei argued. "She likely wouldn't risk sending Ryns to fight since some would join Anita."

"We both know dragonlings are more likely to be loyal to their birth colony," Senya shot back. "The Thunderstorm colony is big, and they likely have a few thousand dragonlings who will still be prepared to die for Dominika."

I felt a bit lost listening to the debate about if or how or when or who would attack, and I quickly lost patience with them arguing like I wasn't even there.

"That's enough," I said loudly, interrupting both of the kings. They stared at me in surprise and I flicked my tail. "Dmitri will know which lord or lady guards the border, and there's more than likely at least one Ryn who stayed behind with us. If there is, they can tell us the patrol routes."

"Leadership suits you." King Andrei said in amusement.

"I do happen to know more about patrolling than you two," I said dryly before turning towards a small cluster of dragonlings. "Dmitri! Can you help us? I need-"

"I heard," Dmitri replied, his eyes glittering with satisfaction. "I'll find someone for you."

Senya snorted smoke as Dmitri nodded and entered the crowd again. "Still, don't start bossing us around. I'm the one giving you land to start your colony. You'll owe me in the future."

"And here I thought you loved me," I grumbled. Senya's eyes widened slightly, but then Dmitri approached with another dragonling.

"This is Albina. She's a Lira, but she knows the patrols." As we began discussing, I noticed Senya sulk away, but had to push it out of my mind and focus on the task at hand.

After we got a plan laid out, I took count of the dragonlings who had chosen to follow me. About forty, of varying castes, had come from my colony- no, my former colony. The number was pitifully small compared to a fully-fledged colony, but it still seemed monumental to me. I felt dizzy when Alek reported it.

I decided to break down the group into four regiments, with Mako, Alek, Dmitri, and myself leading each one, and sent the groups at different times. My group was last, mostly containing Ryns and a few odd Liras.

"It's time for us to go," I said, watching the sun slowly creep down the horizon.

King Andrei stood. "Then let's go."

I stared in surprise. "Don't you... you know, have to go back? To your own colony?"

"I do," King Andrei nodded, "but someone needs to initiate your Blood Moon ceremony."

"Oh. Right." I had forgotten about the ritual, more focused on trying to get home alive.

"You know, I could've done it." Queen Galinda sniffed. She was sitting nearby, Liza shifting uneasily next to her. "My colony is far closer."

"Anita is, by Law, still part of my colony." King Andrei argued back. "So I'm the one who should lead her ceremony."

"And we should be on our way," I said, becoming impatient with the bickering. Dmitri and Alek are bad enough. I don't need the leaders of two colonies arguing about what I should do.

"You're right." Queen Galinda said after a moment. "Liza, say goodbye to your friend."

Liza stared silently at her claws. She hadn't spoken to me once during the entire journey.

"Liza?" I said, stepping forward. "I'll see you again sometime. Maybe-"

"I'm coming with you." Liza interrupted. She gave her mother an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, but this is what I want."

Queen Galinda's tail lashed from side to side. "It's too dangerous."

Liza puffed up indignantly, her scales whirling from a pale green to dark orange. "I've been blooded in my Trial. I can handle myself."

"But what about your mates? Are you just going to leave them?"

"I've had an Umny give them a letter." Liza countered. "If they wish to follow me, they can. If not, it doesn't matter."

Queen Galinda turned her gaze on me. "Are you really going to let her come along?"

I hesitated, looking between mother and daughter. Liza would never be welcomed back into Kestreldive if she came with me. She would be giving up her family, her rank. But still...

"Liza is an adult," I said, straightening up. "She can make her own decisions."

Queen Galinda growled, smoke curling from her nostrils. "I see." She hissed. "Very well. Goodbye, Elizabeth." With that, she reared up and flapped her wings, sending gusts of wind over us as she rose into the air. Her dragonlings followed, leaving King Andrei, Liza, and my group behind.

Liza sagged against my side with a sad little noise and I put a wing over her. "It's alright." I soothed. "She's just upset. She won't stay mad at you forever."

"Hopefully," Liza replied, her voice raspy.

"Come on, then." King Andrei prompted. "It's only a short journey."

I nodded and nudged Liza. "That's right. We're almost there. Almost home."

Almost home. The words struck a chord in my heart and I looked over the savannah grass, watching as it slowly dropped away, turning into lush meadows and then, on the horizon, sprawling forests.

That's right. I'm coming home.