I FORGOT PEREGRINE'S SPIKES-

Eh, whatever... He still looks good and that's really all that matters...

Dawn was breaking when Shadowscale woke from another nightmare/vision. He sighed, shifting the leaves of his bed, trying to remember what day it was. The... first day of the Month of Beginnings... oh, it's my hatching day. He wasn't particularly excited, after all, he knew no one would remember. Well, no one but Deathbringer, Glory, and Firefly at least. He didn't quite mind though, his little sister's hatching day was enough partying to last him a lifetime. Too many dragons, too many minds to try and block. Moon's lessons help but still, it's overwhelming. 

He rose from his bed and glanced around his room. Well, it was a storage room but he wanted it to be his room.

"Why?" His mother asked when he insisted on it being his room. "There is a perfectly good room over here. A, you know, ACTUAL room?"

"I don't like big areas, they scare me." He replied with a shrug. So, they turned the closet into a room and uses the room as a guest bedroom. It was a large place, enough to hold a chest of his belongings and a bed. Which was a woven cot of leaves and moss.

He yawned as he made his way towards the door. Just as his talons scrapped the handle, it swung open.

"HAPPY HATCHING DAY BIG BROTHER!!!!" Firefly exclaimed as she launched at him and tackled him in a tight hug.

"Oh, good morning to you too. Why are you up so early?"

"Because..." She started, letting go and frowning at him. "I wanted to spend time with you before you leave. Like you do every hatching day. Why do you leave? Why don't you ever want to celebrate it? Where do you go?"

He looked away from her large green eyes. "I... just would rather be alone. It's not a very special day-"

"NOT A SPECIAL DAY!?" She cried. "IF THIS DAY NEVER HAPPENED, THEN... THEN I'D HAVE NEVER HAD A BIG BROTHER!"

"Your's is more important. If YOU where never born, then we'd have no future queen." Shadowscale retorted. "AND I'd not have a little sister."

"Queen, shween! Who wants to be queen? Work, work, work, no play time! Only work and... and Suntime! I mean, Suntime IS good, but playtime is BETTER!"

Shadowscale chuckled as he pat his little sister on the head. "You are just too adorable!"

"I'm nooooooooooooooooot!" She wined as she pushed his talon away. 

He chuckled again as he smiled at her. She is... the vision of her older appeared in his head again, how she roared in rage and attacked the large dark figure, him gaping and doing nothing about it. For now, she is adorable for now... 

"What's wrong? You are doing the smile mommy makes when she tells us everything is fine but they actually aren't fine and she's just saying it is so she doesn't scare us..." 

"Oh, um... just thought of something. I really gotta get going."

"NO! Why do you be alone? I don't like seeing you alone!"Firefly shouted.

"Shhhh!" He hushed, wrapping a wing gently around his sister. "I am not sad. I like being alone, it makes me happy."

Firefly paused, slightly stupefied by his answer. "Happy? Alone? Why?"

Minds... he thought but didn't say. So noisy. Sure, I can block them, but sometimes, it's just too hard.

"It helps me think, and I like thinking." He decided, for it was partially true. With so many intrusive thoughts on the daily, he found it hard to get a thought of his own through and finds himself discombobulated. Again, Moonwatcher's lessons help, but no more than finding out the mind-blocking method he found when he was much younger when he learned that focusing on the minds of random animals helped sometimes. 

Firefly pondered his words for a while. Obviously, he had just described a new concept for her. Who likes being alone? She thought as she fiddled with her talons. 

"So... you ARE happy?"

"Happiest time of the year, besides YOUR birthday of course." It was a lie intermixed with truth. 

She pondered his statement, then smiled up at him and nodded. "Alright, the I give you permission to leave."

"Oh?" He stated as he walked past her and out his door. "I didn't know I needed your permission."

"Well. I am going to be future queen, so yes, you do."

"I thought you didn't want to be queen?" He joked, causing her to give him a deadpan face.

"Go before I call mom and MAKE HER throw you a party."

"OKAYBYE!" 

And with that said, he ran out the door and into the crisp, morning air.

~☆~

It was midday when Shadowscale heard the thoughts of another dragon. He did what he did for the last hatching day. Explore the Rainforest, pick his favorite fruits and eat them till he nearly felt sick, and practicing his venom spitting and tree gliding away from judging RainWings' eyes. He was in the middle of doing this final activity when he heard the confused thoughts.

At first, he didn't think much of it. Until it started getting louder and louder.

Was it... this way? No, no, UGH! WHY DID I- 

Curious, Shadowscale crept forward. His movements as silent as a jungle cat, stalking his prey. He crouched low and saw just as a rusty reddish-brown dragon plopped down the center of a small clearing.

He was a funny looking dragon, or at least just different then who he was used to seeing. Again, he was this darker, reddish-brown color, with darker coloring on his spikes, back, eye-ridges and talons, and yellowish-cream wing membrane and under-scales.

He was definitely a SkyWing, though Shadowscale never seen one in person, he has read on them. However, he was slightly different looking then most SkyWings he's read about.

Firstly, he wasn't as slender as the descriptions say, secondly, he had a thicker set of neck-spines that are typical to IceWings.

Could he be... like me? Shadowscale thought. A hybrid?

I knew I would get lost! But what did I do? I still went off into the Rainforest! Wait... THIS WOULD MAKE A GREAT STORY! I have to- SCAVENGER BUTTS!

Okay, I need to help him, be casual, pretend you have no idea and that you happened across him... alright!

He wrapped his prehensile tail around the branch he was standing on and swung down.

"HEY!" Shadowscale exclaimed, causing the SkyWing dragonet to scream and fall backwards.

OH MY MOONS- Oh... It's just a dragon. He thought as he scrambled back into a sitting position and glared at Shadowscale. 

"You lost?" The Prince of the RainWings and NightWings finished with a friendly smile on his face.

Oh Great! It's a NightWing! The SkyWing though sourly as he noticed the darker colored scales.

"No, I am perfectly fine thank you very much!" He replied hotly, turning around and plopping down again. Shadowscale frowned, well he's being awfully rude! 

Stupid NightWings! Always staring at me like I'm some sort of abomination! 

Then flashes of NightWings making fun of his looks, glaring, yelling insults and even getting physical entered his mind and caused Shadowscale's heart to sink.

"Hey, I just want to help." He said, the feelings of offence dying as he gently landed on the floor and sat down behind the SkyWing.

Help? NightWing? HA! They only like to bully me! Call me a freak... I never had one NightWing EVER be kind to me... HOW DO THE RAINWINGS DEAL WITH THEM!

There was so much Shadowscale wanted to say, but everything he wanted to say would result in his secret being revealed, so instead, he just sighs.

"Alright, I guess you are perfectly fine on your own. I'll just be-"

"Wait!" The SkyWing called, causing Shadowscale to turn back around and raise an eyebrow.

Oh, Moons, I can't believe I am doing this... but it's either being lost FOREVER, or just a very long time, or get help...

He sighed and bowed his head, "I... guess I lost my way just a little bit..."

Shadowscale smiled kindly. "So, to where? Mud kingdom? Jade Mountain? NightWing village? RainWing Village?"

"RainWing Village. My parents are meeting with... someone of importance."

Don't reveal TOO much... you just met this dragon...

"You're a long ways then, closer to the Mud Kingdom that way." Shadow motioned behind the SkyWing with his tail.

Yeah, yeah, don't rub it in-

"I'm not rubbing it in!" Shadowscale exclaimed, then quickly added. "If that's what you're thinking. You glared at me so I assume so... anyways, I am actually TRYING to HELP so... yeah."

They walked in silence for a while, The SkyWing's mind rambled on. 

He looks to be around my age, three perhaps? Their's something weird about him... his tail..

"Your tail is long for a NightWing's." The SkyWing subconsciously pointed out. 

"Well, that's probably because I am not completely NightWing. Only half." Shadowscale said, immediately jumping at the opportunity to point it out without developing suspicion.

"Huh?" The SkyWing said, stopping. Shadowscale turned around and grinned. "Yeah, see?"

He spread his wings and forced his scales that are typically silver for NightWings to change colors.

"Whoa!" He gasped as he watched them shift from red, to pink, to purple, and many other colors that he either knew or never seen before. When he folded his wings to his side again, they shifted into an amused yellow and a prideful indigo. 

"Well, I'm a third IceWing!" He stated proudly. "Though I can't shift my scales like you can, I have these cool extra spikes on my neck." He said, motioning to them with a talon. 

"I thought so... I mean..." Shadowscale clawed awkwardly at the ground. "I never seen a SkyWing nor a IceWing before, but I have read on them... you looked a lot like a SkyWing but had the extra spikes like an IceWing so I assumed you where mixed, like me..."

The SkyWing glanced away, his face flashing with guilt. Wow, while I was categorizing him with half of his bloodline, I didn't even realize that he too probably endured the pain of being different as I have. Three Moons I feel terrible... At least he can't read minds... can he? Nah, Impossible! Only one can do that... right? I heard stories about the one named Moonwatcher, I wonder how she is? Is it true she is seeing a SandWing? I wonder if she's nice...

"So... don't take this the wrong way but-"

"How does a pompous, proud NightWing fall for a lazy, good for nothing RainWing? I'm pretty sure I'd get that a lot. Not all NightWings are mean and prejudiced and not all RainWings are dumb and lazy. Sure, majority? Maybe. Just a few bad apples? More probable. My father is the NightWing and he... protects a very important RainWing."

"Oh, cool!" The SkyWing said.

"I'm Pr- errh... Shadowscale, by the way." Shadowscale said after a while of sitting in silence.

"I'm Peregrine." The SkyWing replied proudly. "I am three and hatched the twenty sixth day of the Month of Harvest! what about you?"

"I am three too... as of today-"

"TODAY IS YOUR HATCHING DAY!?" He exclaimed, shock plastered upon his face. "AND YOU'RE OUT HERE ALL ALONE!?"

"I don't mind! Really! I like it!" Shadowscale said. 

"NOPE! Na, ah! This is NOT ACCEPTABLE! EVEN IF I AM YOUR ONLY GUEST WE ARE HAVING A PARTY! RIGHT NOW!"

"I really am-"

"OH! I saw some AMAZING LOOKING monkey things over there-"

"Those are sloths, and they are illegal to eat in the Rainforest."

"WHAT!? First, dolphins in the Kingdom of the Sea, NOW MONKEY THINGS-"

"Sloths-"

"WHATEVER! So... then what DO you eat?"

Shadowscale smiled. "Ever tried a strawberry?"

~☆~

To say that this was one of Shadowscale's best Hatching Days was an understatement. He actually liked the SkyWing/IceWing, despite hitting off on the wrong talon. They hunted around the forest for fruits, Shadowscale making him try different fruits. He liked strawberries, pomegranates, and other berries and hated watermelon, coconut, grapefruit, and most citrus fruits.  

Eventually, the sun started to get lower and they realized that they should probably return. When they made it to the RainWing village, they reluctantly said their goodbyes. They thought they'd never see one-another again. 

Little did they know, that the small details they neglected to share, would come back to bite them in the a- butt.

Lol, gotta keep this PG! Hope you liked it! :)