After the whole incident, the dragonets were ushered out of Goldcrest by two surly-looking MudWings.

"What happened?" Raptor asked when Conch, Sahara and Heron appeared, clutching a bag of fruit and being shuffled out of the town.

"Conch busted a jewel thief." Sahara said, doling out fruit.

"What?" Polar hissed. 7

"Yeah, some idiot SandWing bragged about stealing SeaWing treasure." Conch boasted, pretending like it was nothing.

"SandWings, what idiots." Raptor chuckled. Sahara narrowed her eyes at him.

"Am I supposed to pretend that didn't sting?" she said bitterly.

"Oh-Wait, I-"

"Nevermind, it's fine." Sahara shook her head.

The SkyWing awkwardly glanced down. Conch coughed awkwardly.

"Maybe we ought to get a move on," Hibiscus hissed, "Sahara, where does the path go?"

Sahara squinted into the sunlight.

"I...it seems to disappear into the ocean."

"The ocean?" cried the dragonets. Conch and Polar seemed excited, on the other hand, Hibiscus, Raptor and Heron were shaking their heads frantically.

"Yeah, that's where it seems to go. I suppose we should set off now and cross that river-er, ocean, later."

Heron cracked a grin.

"I suppose we should." Sighed Raptor.

"Hey, aren't you the one who's absolutely fantastic at flying?" Sahara snapped. Raptor muttered something, clearly stung.

They all took off with a loud flapping of wings. The noise rang like thunder in the air.

The day turned into night and night turned into day and day turned into night as they approached the beach.

The sunset reddened the sky.

A screech pierced the still air. Sahara turned to see Conch gust over to the deeper, sparkling ocean. She tipped her wings and zoomed right into the water.

Water splashed everywhere. Even though the waves had to be at least ten tail-lengths deep, Conch floundered around like it was shallow.

The other five dragonets landed on the beach. Sand flew up and several crabs scuttled panicked across Sahara's cream talons.

"Hey, maybe we should rest here for the night!" Conch shouted from the water.

Hibiscus spat.

"No way am I sleeping near that cold, salty water." he hissed.

"Then sleep in the dunes!" Sahara snapped. Hibiscus rolled his eyes and stamped back into the grassy drifts, kicking up sand. Raptor joined him.

Polar stomped around.

"You could sleep in the shallows." Sahara suggested.

Polar furrowed his brows and cocked his head. He plodded over to the shallow saltwater and curled up, water lapping over his icy blue scales.

Heron burrowed into the mud by the water.

Finally, Conch lit up her scales far out in the water and disappeared under the waves. Sighing, Sahara curled up and plopped into the soft beach sand.

--------------------

It was dawn when Sahara was shaken awake-well, no.

The cold emanating off of Polar's blue scales made Sahara awake uncomfortably.

"Don't you think we should start heading off soon?" he asked. Polar's voice was ironically quite warm and soft when talking to her alone, not hard and brittle like an icicle.

Sahara stretched and nodded, sand falling off her body.

"Can you go rouse Conch? I'll get everyone else." She told him. He nodded and waded out into the waves.

Sahara swept over the dunes to where Raptor and Hibiscus were curled up. Hibiscus' scales were a pale yellow in his best attempt to match the sand.

She lashed her tail, spraying sand over the two. Hibiscus sprang up with a yelp and shook off the sand, whereas Raptor drew himself up. Sahara gave him the evil eye and whipped down to the water.

Heron was already standing by Conch and Polar.

"So..how are we going to get over the entire ocean? We could fly, but what about sleep? We'd probably drop like flies into the water in a matter of hours." Polar said icily.

"We could build a raft." Hibiscus suggested.

"But who'd pull it?" Sahara asked. Conch coughed.

"It seems like I'm the only one who could." The princess said.

"Well, I could as well, as long as I can come up to breathe every now and then, I can as well." Heron spoke up.

"Hmmm..." Sahara considered this, "Raptor, Polar, Heron and Hibiscus, go get some strong wood and vines. Tie it together, it doesn't have to be big. Conch, stay here."

The dragons nodded confusedly and rushed off to the palms nearby.

Conch stood awkwardly.

"Hey, can I see your anklet for a moment?" Sahara asked. Conch furrowed her brows. She then nodded and slipped it off.

It was the same as the first day of school, silver studded with emeralds and sapphires. Sahara clenched it in her talons and thought super hard.

I enchant this anklet so that the wearer is granted to ability of incredibly fast speed and is not affected by any opposing force. I enchant it so that the wearer's muscles do not wear out, either, and the wearer does not get exhausted from the swift activity.

The anklet grew warm in her talons. Sahara waited a moment and then gave it back to Conch. The SeaWing slipped it back onto her leg.

The other dragons returned with a raft large enough for half a dragon. Vines loosely held it together.

Sahara concentrated.

I enchant this raft to grow to a size for five dragonets to curl up on it and fit without anything drooping off. I enchant this to have the strongest build and have two reigns of string vine.

The raft started to bloat and then grow, expanding into something four times its size.

The vines slithered along the sand and grew into two harnesses fit for a dragon Raptor's size.

"Okay guys, let's haul this thing into the ocean." Sahara called out. No one spoke as they pulled the raft into the waves. Immediately it got tossed around, rocking with the tide.

Conch slipped into one of the harnesses.

"I suppose that other one's for me." Heron said warmly. She splashed around in the waves until she was able to fit in the vine reigns.

The remaining dragonets piled onto the raft. Water lapped at the edges as four lizards with wings curled up on the lightweight wood.

Sahara stared down at the water. Conch stuck her head up and asked,

"So...where do we go?"

Sahara squinted at the golden path.

"Er, that way." Sahara said, pointing in a direction. Conch nodded, and she and Heron ducked under the water and began to swim.

Sahara took a final peek at the land of Pyrrhia growing small behind her.

She was leaving her entire life behind, risking it all for a friend that, honestly, she barely knew.

She wasn't even sure she'd return.