Until I can possibly make one of my own, check above for the theme song for the book! It's called Dirty Paws by Of Monsters and Men.
~~~

"Ow ow ow ow ow!"

"Stop figetin!" Replied a muffled voice.

"You're hurting my tail!"

Artemis stared at the scene before her and sighed. "Is this really necessary?"

"Yes!" Yelled a second voice from below. "It isn't a party without-"

"Gluwin flowers, w' know." Seaglass pulled back on the rope that was in his mouth, fixing his talons that were holding it in place as well. He was currently halfway at the edge of a nearby cliff, his back talons digging into the dirt and his powerful tail wrapped around a nearby tree for support in holding the rope.

She rolled her blue eyes, feeling irritation prick her scales. "Like I've told you already, why not just fly down there and get them? Imagine how much easier it'd be."

Apollo, who was at the end of Seaglass's rope, hollered again. "The winds are too dangerous! Trust me though, I've hung like this tons of times, it's tooooooootally safe."

"Ha!" Says Seaglass. "Yur definiton of safe is far from ours." He pulls back on the rope as he says this, making Apollo squeak and gather flowers faster. The Seawing was most likely referring to Apollo's most recent thieving adventure, which nearly cost him two talons and his head.

That is not to be spoken of.

The warm water crashed against the jutting cliff, making clear ocean around them fall in droplets like diamonds. They were sent to the very edge of the east section of the Rogue territory, this part was bordered by the ocean. Geode told them about rare flowers that grow on the cliffside, ones that glow in moonlight. They usually use these to aid in lighting their parties. Although according to Seaglass and Apollo's description of their safe haven at night, she highly doubted they were needed.

Since Artemis has never been to one of these, or any party in general, so she just went with it. But she had to admit, if they were going through this much trouble to get a few dozen flowers and they weren't as great as expected, she'd be unhappy.

"You done yet?" She looked over the edge of the cliff at Apollo, chuckling at the sight before her. He had his head stuck in a hollow pocket in the stone they were standing on, with a bulging bag over his neck, he was slowly but surely reaching deep inside the pocket to pull out bunches of small, multicolored flowers. Then shoving them in any open space provided in his bag.

Suddenly, Seaglass stumbled and the wind whipped past them in a fiercer frenzy. Apollo was dropped for a couple of heartbeats before being caught again. The swaying Nightwing's face was tinted green as he looked up at Artemis, giving her a thumbs up. "Ye-p." He hiccuped.

~~~~~~~~

The sun was setting.

Artemis knew most sunsets were pretty back at home. But she's never experienced one here. Imagine a blank canvas. Okay? It's like someone took buckets of indigo paint and tossed them up at that, leaving it speckled. Filling in blank places with lighter paint that somehow melted into each color. Leaving a mixed, yet beautiful effect. The sky was a haze of gold, orange, yellow, violet, magenta, red and indigo. It shouldn't have worked, but it did anyway. The faint outline of stars could be seen on the horizon, the indigo leading to a black sky.

The trees and mountains made it even more incredible. So amazing it nearly took her breath away. Faint talon steps reached her ears, and she turned around to face Flare. He smiled at her, and she returned it.

"It takes a while to get used to the view, yeah. " he said, coming up to sit beside her.

"I don't even see how anyone could." She admitted, looking down and absentmindedly twirling a few strands of grass in her talons.

"That's true." He chuckled, his rust colored eyes flashing against the lights.

Things had been a little awkward between the two. I mean, come on. Why wouldn't they be? Flare just found out who his small crush really was, and Artemis still had to explain everything to him.

Artemis continued to stare at the ground, trying to work up the courage to ask him something, but, he beat her to it.

"It's fine, if you're wondering and all."

She looked at him.

"Of why I kept looking for you." He sighed, folding his wings closer to himself.

"Oh," she said softly. "Yeah."

Flare looked calm, but Artemis could tell he was just as freaked out on the inside as she was.

"The reason is, the wasn't a reason not to."

Artemis blinked, her blue eyes meeting his orange ones.

"I know it's kinda stupid, " he began. "to say I like you when we had known each other for such a short time. But honestly, I wanted to know more. There's just something about you...Whether it be the mystery behind it all or the fact that you're just such a different dragon."

She didn't know whether to be flattered, confused, or happy. She decided to be all three.

"So what I'm trying to say is.." He looked like this was hard for him to say. His face had gotten a darker shade of red and Artemis's became full out bright violet.

"That we should be friends first, and then see if we can officially declare we like each other?" She finished for him.

Flare breathed a sigh of relief so loud she would think it could be heard all the way to Geode's grotto.

"Yeah," he smiled. "I promise, we'll be friends first."

"I like that plan." Artemis brought her talons up to her necklace, feeling it's cold surface run underneath her sharp claws.

"So I'll see you later?" Flare asked, and Artemis smiled at him, once again.

"See you later-"she began.

Quickly, Flare leant forward and kissed her on the cheek. Muttering a hurried goodbye before taking off into the air. He left the stunned Nightwing frozen in her tracks, blushing and frazzled.

"You sly little Skywing. You already broke your promise..." She thought, feeling her face still burning up. "But maybe that's not such a bad thing."

After sitting for a minute or two more, Artemis finally was able to unfold her wings and take into the air, flying to the center of the rogues.

~~~~

Music flowed into Artemis's ears, clogging up her senses and fading out her surroundings. Deep, resounding, and melodious, the drum beats, singing, and other instruments sent the effect of life throughout the whole territory.

It was finally night, the sky was like usual, with stars stretched as far as the eye could see and the moons like silver coins from Diamond's treasury. But that was just in the air. The ground itself was lit up like a second sun.

In every nook and cranny was shoved flowers, strange stones, and foliage. The only odd thing was, everything glowed. As if they were injected with glow worms, or the fluorescent light in a Seawings spots, all kinds of colors sparkled like a brilliant light show. The thing was, flowers were wrapped around crystals to give just that effect.

Everywhere she stepped, it was blue, yellow, red, purple, and green. Dragons whirled in a blur past her as she made her way to the center of the ruckus. Which, obviously, was the lake. Once again, the Rogues blew her mind by making it glow.

Dragons swam up at the surface, where purple and green lilypads rested on it. The bottom was littered in blue flowers and pale stones, which others were careful not to stir up.

Alright, alright. Enough of admiring the scenery. Where was Mamba? She's found the others already. Seaglass was swimming in the lake, flirting with the few dragons called  Deepwings and a couple of Crystalwings, showing off his glowing scales and scars and making them ooh and ahh in admiration. Typical.

Mudpuddle was hanging out with Potent and Tempest, trying to calm them while the two pestered Geode. Once again, typical.

Snowfall, Flare, and Apollo were sitting in a triangle under a bunch of trees, talking about who knows what. Probably some stupid masculine stuff.

No color changing scales yet, surprise surprise. Either the Rainwing was looking for a chance to scare Artemis or Artemis really was just lost. It's surprising how many dragons there are here.

"Arty!"

She turned her head. There stood Mamba, waving a paw and grinning. Artemis sighed in relief, walking over to meet her friend.

"There you are. I've been looking around forever!" Artemis exclaimed at her friend, who just giggled in return. The Rainwing tilted her head, and that's when she noticed the white glowing petals wrapped around one of her horns.

"Oh, wow, those are gorgeous" Where did you get that?" She asked suddenly, just as Mamba grabbed her talons.

"I'll show you, cmon!" The Rainwing took off into the air, making Artemis yelp in surprise and accidentally smack a dragon upside the head as she unfurled her wings jut a bit too slowly. But the Cavewing just shrugged as she squeaked an apology, muttering something about it happens a lot before walking off with his friends.

Mamba finally let go of her talons once she was in flight, then taking the lead and flying to one of the bigger trees in the territory. Artemis just huffed and took of after her friend. She was getting tired of this.The Rainwing landed near the base of the large oak tree, excitement popping up in her scales in small starbursts. Along with another color. Was that pink?

"Where are we going now?" Artemis complained like a whiny dragonet, letting her wings drop for emphasis as soon as she touched the ground.

"We aren't going anywhere, they're coming to us." She explained, making the Nightwing tilt her head in confusion. "Taipan! Jellyfish? Where are you guys?" Mamba turned, slight frustration shading her ears a dark color before a pair of dark green eyes popped up beside her.

"Right here." Replied a new voice. Mamba leapt to the side like she'd stepped on hot coals. The glare on her face melted as quick as frost when she noticed the eyes of the stranger, though.

"Taipan, it's about time." She laughed. Taipan dropped to the ground, his tail uncoiling from a branch above him.

"It's about time I scared you, that's what! Finally."

"A Rainwing?" Artemis blurted. Taipan looked at her and gave her a sideways smile, letting her notice the sharp fangs that stuck out from the top of his mouth.

She knew some original island dragons were here, I mean, take Apollo for example. No matter how much he insisted to be a Daywing, it was clear he is not. She'd seen a Seawing, a Skywing, and a couple of Mudwings here and there. But she'd never expected to see this tribe here.

"I'm an explorer." The shifting green Rainwing says, like he read her mind. "I know I'm not like the typical Rainwing. I mean, I've got no venom, so why try to be?"

"Exactly." Mamba says approvingly, faint pink spots appearing near her eyes and ears.

Ooh, someone has a new crush.

"That's cool." Artemis says honestly, looking around. "So, uh, not to be rude or anything but Mamba, didn't you call for someone named Jellyfish?"

"Yeah, she did." Taipan answered for her. He looked back into the trees, where laces of white and purple flowers were being lowered seemingly out of nowhere. "Thanks buddy." He shouted up. "Could you drop down some red ones though?"

Strands of red flowers fell and hit him in the face, along with the purple and white ones. This making Mamba hide a giggle and Artemis to smile just faintly.

"Thanks again." Taipan responded in a less grateful tone. Squeaking can be heard from the trees as a small, purple, dragonlike creature drops down onto the bed of flowers on Taipan's head. Ah, another Reefwing. Well today was sure going to be marked off as eventful.

Taipan gently lifted the wriggling dragon off his head and setting him on his shoulder, then pulling off the flowers. Jellyfish sneezes soon after, giving Taipan a glare. Taipan just smiles and pats him on the head.

"You're very helpful, y'know."

Jellyfish squeaks something most likely along the lines of 'I do know'.

"Hey, would you mind helping my friend out with the glowing flowers?" Mamba asks the other Rainwing as she flicks at the strand on her horn. "She was asking me about it, so I figured you might be able to?"

"Her?" He points at Artemis. "Sure. I don't mind." He glances at her. "With the color of your scales, I'd suggest blue, white or purple."

"Um, purple is fine." She paused. "Thanks."

Taipan busily pulls a rope of flowers from the pile on the ground. "No problem. I like doing this stuff, so really, I should be thanking you and Mamba. And, well, all my other customers."

Artemis nods along quietly while he figures out the right size for her horns. After debating for a minute,  he has Jellyfish cut the strand in half with his teeth and begins weaving it around them. In about five minutes, Artemis now has a sturdy crown of flowers along her head.

"That's really impressive." She admits, turning her head to get a good look of her newest accessory in the lake displayed in front of her.

Taipan shrugs, but you can see pride tug at the corners of his mouth. Jellyfish squeaks something and sits down on the Rainwings horns.

"Hey, Artemis." Mamba tapped her shoulder. "Me and Taipan were about to to go check up on Snowfall and Seaglass, wanna come-"

Suddenly, Potent flies into view. He's frustrated, but relief shines in his eyes once he spots them.

"Potent? Oh, hi?" Mamba says, her response more of a question. The Sandwing lands near them, surprisingly, visibly shaking.

"What's wrong?" Artemis states, not missing a beat as she unfurls her wings.

"Geode, he said-" Potent paused. "He said Tempest just had a vision. Artemis, it's about Solar. And it's not good."