Silver stood back, looking at the finished product. A large metal dragon stood in front of her, nearly twice as large as her with wings spread and a snarling expression on its face. Beside the fact that it was made out of mettle, it looked like an ice dragon, with a row of long spikes coming from the back of its neck. Its wings were open, as if in a fight, and its hind legs crouched, ready to pounce at the enemy. It was the first ice dragon she had sculptured, and she was rather proud of it.

Looking around her cave she took notice of the other few sculptures. It wasn't exactly her largest collection, as far as she knew that was still in dragon valley, the place where she had lived the first six and a half years of her life. She often wondered if she could go back and retrieve the collection, but with the infamous dragon hunters known as A.O.D.H slowly moving across the globe, going anywhere that wasn't Sky Mountain was extremely dangerous.

The dragoness slowly turned around from the statues and walked to the exit of her cave, looking out at the forest beyond. When she was a hatchling she used to hate sleeping alone, and was always with her brothers, but now, she was glad to have this space. It cleared her mind, and helped against the stress and heartbreak. Not many dragons really knew of the tranquillity that a place like this could afford. It was amazing.

Silver opened her wings and flapped them once, lifting herself into the air with a single beat. Once she was high enough she quickly sped up, flying toward the huge mountain that was the centre of a massive crater that pocketed the mountain range. Sky Mountain. It was arguably the biggest mountain in the world. Sure, Mt Everest was taller, but that was only because Sky Mountain's base was lower in the earth then its counterpart. If not for the illusion that surrounded it, the dragon haven would be easily visible for miles around.

There weren't many dragons around this early in the morning, but there were a few early rises that took advantage of the rather empty skies. A few of them nodded to her in greeting, and she nodded back. That morning she felt a little lighter then she had in a while, and focused on enjoying the moment. The sky was clear of clouds, for once, letting sunlight bask the crater. It was sad that she couldn't be up here longer.

She dipped in the air and glided through the large entrance of Sky Mountain. It was probably the most welcoming part, with green trees planted in specifically designed gardens, that when looked at from above created a large model of a dragon with its wings outstretched. A stream wound its way through the entrance, coming from a waterfall within The Centre. It never ceased to amaze, and Silver was still wondering how dragons, not the most careful of creatures, had managed to create a thing of such beauty.

The dragoness knew her way around the mountain quite well now, and was easily able to find her way exactly to where she wanted to be. She made her way into what was known as The Nest. It was another large cavern, with jagged rocky cliffs pockmarked with thousands of caves. It was where most dragons nested, and where Silver herself had spent the first few months here. The sight of it made her a little sceptical. Dragons weren't meant to stay inside.

Without missing a beat she flew upwards to the very top, where the higher-ranking dragons of Sky Mountain lived. She had been offered a cave up there, but had declined, preferring to live on the outside of the mountain. Typically it was where the more dangerous of dragons lived, the ones that were close to being thrown from Sky Mountain, but Silver far preferred it to the crowded inside of the mountain.

She landed on the edge of a cave right at the top. It had a large opening, which was well needed for the dragons it housed. She walked inside to a place where the cave split into three, and turned to the one on the far right. She had never been to the other two, and frankly didn't want to.

The tunnel exited into another, far smaller, cavern. This one was maybe large enough to house around fifty full-grown dragons, and there was nearly that amount inside. All sorts of species from mind to gravity were moving around, doing different activities or just chatting. They were all rarer species. The 'more important' ones, at least that was what Iraliene had said. She made it a priority to increase their numbers, which had caused a bit of a rift between Silver and the Queen. It was one of the reasons she was wary about coming here. Sure, the elder dragoness had been kind to her for the past month, but that didn't mean that once Silver was back to her normal self she would be pushing her to find a mate again.

Sighing she walked inside and looked around. There was really only one reason she was here. When she spotted the dragon she was looking for she smiled slightly, and padded up to her.

"Hey Celestia!" she said to a light dragon, lying down in a corner with three hatchlings dragons roaming around her.

The mother of three looked up to her friend and a smile lit her face, "Silver! I'm surprised to see you here."

She walked over to her, looking down at the three hatchlings. There were two light and one dark. The two light dragons were males, and seemed very awkward on their feet, and not at all afraid of the strange looking dragoness. One of them stumbled over to her feet and practically collapsed onto her paw, before jumping up with a small yowl. The darkness hatchling was female, and was far shyer then her brothers, hiding, and not very well, behind Celestia's laid out tail.

"Well I thought it was about time we met with each other again, and I wanted to see how your hatchlings were going, I haven't met them yet," she couldn't help but chuckle as the youngling fell on her foot.

"Of course! Meet Shala, the shadow one, and her twin brothers, Thyler and Beon. Beon's the one on your foot. They came from the same egg." she grinned.

"They're beautiful," said Silver, nudging Beon with her snout, "Where's the father?"

Celestia snorted, "Durin? That worm? Caught him with some other female 'bout two weeks back. Burnt him so bad he won't be able to fly for another couple of months, if the life dragons don't heal him that is, but I got them on my side."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know," Silver said, slightly shocked.

"Don't worry," she shrugged, "I've gotten over him. Besides, I shouldn't be surprised. We did get together a little quickly."

"You said it was love at first sight," said Silver with a small grin.

"I was a fool. So was he," she growled, before shaking herself, "But enough about me. What about you? Your shell's shining again!"

The silver dragon smiled slightly, "Yeah... I'm getting better."

"Good. About time you got back on your feet again," Celestia smiled kindly at her friend, knowing how much she was hurting.

"I wouldn't say that, more like slowly getting up," Silver sighed, lying down beside the light dragoness.

The two light hatchlings walked over to her, studying this new dragon with obvious interest. One, Silver couldn't tell which of them, looked over at their mother and peeped. Celestia gestured with her head to go on and he walked over to Silver's maw, peeping again.

"Hello," Silver said with a small grin.

"Hey! I've got an idea. How 'bout you help me look after my hatchlings. As cute as they look these three are a bit off a clawful," Celestia said, "And it will be good for you."

Silver hesitated, before shrugging. She could see why not. It would definitely help her take her mind off her troubles at the moment, and it would help her in the future, when she had her own hatchlings to look after. She nodded at her friend, and Celestia grinned.

"Good! You won't regret it, well maybe a little, but it will do more good then harm," she said.

Silver laughed, her first laugh in over a month, "I'm looking forward to it."

Celestia grinned and was about to make another comment when a rustle of movement came from the entrance to the cave, causing them to look over at what was making the disturbance. It only took a moment to recognise the large bulk of Iraliene as the queen of Sky Mountain sauntered in, looking very upset over something. Her usually beautiful maw was drawn into a scowl as she walked over to where her perch was in the cave.

Silver looked at Celestia, wondering if her friend knew anything about what was happening, but was only answered with a shake of her head. They turned toward the queen, wondering what was going on. The other dragons in the cave were also confused and a silent hush ran through the room.

It didn't take long for Iraliene to begin speaking, "As many of you know A.O.D.H has been on the move for the past month. They haven't made another attack on the mountain yet, but it is only a matter of time until they find this place. There are even rumours of them attacking D.E.D and the few other dragon hunting associations, and another far more worrying rumour that they have managed to capture a new species of dragon. They now are in control of nearly half the dragon population, and they are gaining more day by day. Soon, there will be no more wild dragons in the world, the only ones surviving will be the ones that are in dragon havens, and even they will not be safe."

The dragoness sighed, looking down at the ground as if she were struggling with herself over something, "The only way we can survive this coming threat is to band together with the other havens out there. I have already sent a few messages out to the ones who are working with humans, but they do not have many other dragons with. A maximum of a thousand throughout the five that we know off. However, and I am at pains to say this, there is another dragon haven out there that you probably know off. I know they have rather... strained views on the world but if we are to defeat this threat we need to band with them."

A few rumbled growls ran through the older members of the room. It seemed these other dragons weren't looked to kindly upon. Silver liked them already.

"But, because they don't have any telecommunication whatsoever, we will need to send a few dragons to organise the alliance. And because I myself cannot go, for obvious reasons, I will need two or three volunteers to fly in my place," Iraliene looked over the crowd, her eyes looking for anyone that would help.

Silver looked around as well, a little surprised that not many of the dragons were extremely eager. Sure, it was dangerous, but life was boring if you didn't do something reckless every once and a while.

"I'll do it," she spoke up, causing a number of dragons to look at her in surprise, and Iraliene to frown.

"Silver, I didn't realise you were up here," said the queen, seemingly a little annoyed at her appearance, "Why would you want to go?"

"To stretch my wings," replied Silver, "As much as I love Sky Mountain, it can get a bit boring around here. And before you say no, I know I'm some rare dragon that you can't afford to let do this dangerous mission and all that, but is there anyone else really as qualified? I've lived in the world by myself before, no my way around and, believe it or not, I have a few allies as well."

The life dragoness snorted, seeming to consider what she was saying, "Fine."

Silver blinked in surprise. That had been... easy. She was expecting the life dragon to put up more of a fight then that. She had so many other arguments that she had come up with, and she let it fall away.

"But you have to do whatever I say when you get back," growled Iraliene.

And then there was a catch. Silver had an inkling of what Iraliene wanted, and hopefully this trip would give her time to think about it as well.

"Agreed."

"And you have to take a few dragons with you. I'm not letting you go by yourself," said Iraliene.

"Raize and Zepos," was Silver's instant answer, wanting to take the two most important dragons in her life at the moment with her. Maybe it would help Raize as well. He was struggling more then Silver was.

"You can take Zepos, but I don't think your brother will come," replied Iraliene with a snort, "No, you take someone I choose as well."

"But..."

"No Silver, I want to keep an eye on your brother," she said, causing Silver to frown, "And I want someone more... diplomatic to go as well. So, Merene can go with you."

"Merene?"

A young mind dragons stepped from the crowd, opening her mouth to protest, but a stern look from Iraliene made her snap her maw shut. She was maybe around ten years old, with a slim build and fragile looking body. Silver didn't know how well she would do in a fight, but she guessed, half the time, mind dragons didn't even need to fight.

"So it's settled. You leave at the end of the week," said the large life dragoness, bringing any other arguments to a close. 

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Hey guys! New chapter! Hope you enjoyed. Chapters will probably be coming out a bit slower now cause I start my last year of school on Monday. Vote if you did enjoy and comment what you thought. Next chapter will be out as soon as I'm able. See Ya!

Pennator^^