Once again, to everybody's dismay, it was raining.

"This is getting extremely annoying." Potent groans, beating his waterlogged wings with a huff of smoke as they rose above the Crystalwing peaks. "I'm going to burn the next raindrop that lands on my nose."

Snowfall just rolls his eyes, secretly agreeing with the Sandwing. He'd had enough of the rain. "The storm probably passed over our island and came here. We have been gone for a few days anyway."

"It still doesn't give the clouds an excuse to rain." Potent glares at the rolling grey figures above them,

Snowfall chuckles, gliding over to give him a playful swat. "Quit complaining. At least its a light rain and there's no lightning. It'll let up soon."

Potent arches a brow at the unlikely gesture from the Icewing. Well paint him blue and call him a Seawing. Snowfall was actually smiling. Like, REAL 'this day is great!' smiling.

Indeed he was. Snowfall couldn't make his happy thoughts go away. The earlier occurance replaying in his mind until that was all he thought about. The surprise of seeing honest worry on the Seawing's face. Seaglass's green eyes were like emeralds, and he was struck on how beautiful those eyes really were.

They had talked, like they had back in the Rainforest. True, heart to heart conversations. They talked about their life, themselves. It wasn't until now did Snowfall realize he was rapidly falling.

No. Not from the sky, but for a certain Seawing.

He was falling for Seaglass.

It seemed so impossible, yet he couldn't deny it. For nearly a month, he's had that Seawing right by his side. He's teased, been teased by, argued, been snapped back at. Somehow they've been still best friends. Sure, the others though they just had a bickering session here and there, but they didn't know how Snowfall truly felt. What snapped him from his thoughts is the tidal wave of regret and disgust he had for himself.

"If I told him- if he found out-." He closed his dark eyes to wince. No, he couldn't think of that. It'd break him if he did. Shaking his head, he soared up alongside Artemis. "Hey, Nightwing." He called, making Artemis jerk her head up in surprise to look at him.

"Remember what Amethyst said?" He asked, watching as Artemis gave a solemn nod. "So, how exactly will we avoid the Lightningwings, then? She said it herself, we'll pass right over."

Artemis sighed and absentmindedly twirled her necklace with her talons. "I was thinking we could fly over the ocean instead."

She caught the anguished look Tempest gave her and laughed softly. "It will take longer, yes, but it's the safer route. We'll just stick close enough to the island to still see it, and head back to the land before setting off again."

Snowfall let a hint of admiration grace his features before his smile slacked back into a neutral expression. "Not a bad idea." He nods.

"Yeah!" Seaglass agrees, winging back to glide beside Artemis as he grinned over at Snowfall. "I've been wanting to check out the waters here anyway."

His green eyes glimmered in the stormy grey light, making then seem metallic.

"Focus, Snowfall."

"Alright." Mamba grudgingly agreed, although bubbles of displeasure drifted through her scarlet wings.

"Sounds good to me. As long as we stick together." Mudpuddle smiles.

"Eh." Potent snorts.

"To the ocean!" Artemis shouts, flipping in the air and diving down to the thinning mountains.

Sharing the same expressions, more or less, the rest followed suit. The shadows of the green speckled mountains made Snowfall's stomach do backflips. He never liked the dark much. The ground sped up underneath them as they made their way east, and he realized just how fast there were traveling.

"Impressive." He stared down at the odd trees. Not only were they green, some were amber and orange here and there. Snowfall had only just seen green trees since Jade Mountain, but he didn't know they turned orange. There was one other special tree he had seen, which provided glowing orbs of light and was carved out of ice by an animus named Frostbite.

"Enjoying the scenery?" Mamba joked, grinning at Snowfall to made her own scales the amber color as the trees below them.

"Just observing.." He muttered, missing how the Rainwing rolled her gold eyes and stuck her tongue out.

"Alrighty." She says simply, twirling down to join Mudpuddle and Artemis.

Snowfall then sighs, savoring the cold, sharp wind that cut over his scales. And he thought. He wondered, what would happen if Seaglass knew? And..How come he was part of this big destiny? He would be perfectly fine back at home as a humble Third Circle. Not the best, but not the worst. It was good enough for him. Although, if he never decided to go.. He probably wouldn't have made the friends he has(and fallen for a male Seawing). He'd be stuck with the boring routine, battling, practicing his perfect stance, hunting, battling again for a spot in Glacier's warriors.

He missed his other 'friends', yes. But even though he'd never admit it, he'll always have a close bond with these six odd dragonets.

"Hey, earth to icy." A voice jarrs him back to reality, yet again. He directs his stern glare down to the Rainwing flying underneath him. She laughs, ripples of pink and gold rushing over her scales. "Time to go!"

Snowfall notices with alarm that he's flying the highest, and the rest of the dragonets are already specks near the shore of the beginning azure waters. Tucking his wings and diving, he eventually catches up and falls back beside Mudpuddle.

The rain has now stopped, leaving clear droplets scattered on on Snowfall's scales. But he doesn't mind. The clouds are still rumbling, but the storm has ceased for now. And that's a good thing, too. Great moons, if someone got struck by lighting out here, it'd be over.

The dragonets began to skim over the waves, and Snowfall looked up in alarm as a happy whoop sounded from his right. Seaglass was diving in time with the waves. Crashing in when they slowed down, and bursting back out as they peaked to their highest. Snowfall couldn't help but smile.

~~~~~

They flew for quite some time, only stopping to rest at the nearest seastack that happened to be big enough for all seven of them. The sky had now started to shade from blue, to red, to purple and now dark indigo. Night would be upon them soon, no doubt. After flying all day, Snowfall's soaked wings beat heavily as they threatened to drag him down.

With tired eyes, he watched as Artemis unfurled the map and sighed in relief. They had to be close to the Magic Kingdom. The pine trees became much bigger and a lot more evident as the mountains vanished, leaving a vast forest in its wake. At least a couple of hours away was a looming black shape that swayed even from afar.

Snowfall stopped his train of thought to wonder what it was before giving a weak snort and turning away. He'll figure it out later. All he wanted was some sleep. The rest of the group showed sighs of exhaustion as well. Snowfall knew Artemis wouldn't keep pushing them like this, though. As long as he'd get a break soon, that was all that mattered right now.

Potent was grumpier than ever, so he was no help. Tempest turned delirious and was giggling to herself. But a small motion in the corner of his eye slammed adrenaline into his system. Three shapes were winging in from the northwest.

And to his utter horror; they were coming right at them. Snowfall opened his mouth to warn his friends when the clouds rumbled with thunder overhead, and to his surprise, two more sleek shapes dove down.

Suddenly, he found his voice. "Artemis!" He shouted, wheeling back in surprise at the sight of the unmistakeable shapes of dragons.

The Nightwing looked up and gasped, just to have her arm pulled by Mamba and her eyes turned frigid blue with fear as she spotted the other three. They had flown right into the middle of a patrol, no doubt. And whoever these dragons were, they knew better than to let seven strange looking dragonets to pass by without further inspection.

"Halt!" A voice boomed, and the first dragon made his appearance known. He was definitely an adult, and definitely the leader. The dragon bore dark metallic scales that rippled with scars. His horns were rigid and yellow, as frightful as his eyes. He radiated pure, wrathful energy. The edges and outside of his wings were strange, too. They seemed to be laced with yellow feathers instead of scales. The yellow eyed general glared at the seven dragonets, his tongue flicking as he assessed them.

"Are they the ones Solar-?" A second light grey male began, only to be cut off by a hissing maw full of teeth being shown to him.

"Absolutely." Muttered a third male, this one an electric purple.

"Keep your mouths shut." Snarled the first, his snarl morphing into a horrible smirk. "They are."

"So what do we do?" Asks a white female, only to be hushed by her companion.

"Her majesty never said they have to arrive alive." Rumbled the one in charge, smiling crookedly. The others shared similar smiles, even the female began to grin.

The smell of ozone suddenly split the air.

And the fight began.

Snowfall whammed his tail across a dragons chest before breathing frostbreath over his eyes. The grey male screamed in surprise and shock as he was shoved into the tail of Potent. Snowfall hissed another stream of frostbreath, ready to attack again. He hated to admit it, but fighting was satisfyingly thrilling. The larger male obviously was expecting a fight, but not one like this. One of his dragons had already fallen to these foreigners.

Snowfall sped past Artemis just as the white female lunged for her neck. In an instant, the white dragoness was gasping and blundering in the sky as frostbreath traveled down her tail and onto her back legs. A small splatter of venom from Mamba then landed on her shoulder, and she dropped like a stone.

Despite the peril, he grinned. He kept his wing rigid, surveying the fight before him and assessing what had to be done next, just like he was taught to do during the war. Snowfall was about to dive to help a bleeding Mudpuddle when a sharp smell filled his senses. Suddenly, a blast that sent a shiver up his spine rocketed narrowly past his wing, and he stared up in horror at the fuming lead dragon. Smoke rose from his nostrils and lighting crackled along his horns and wings.

"Lightingwings!" Artemis cried. "Of course! They're allied with Solar-" she cut off with a wheezing gasp as talons suddenly raked her back, and she yelled up at the evasive purple male. They took off after each other, and Artemis gave a proud roar as she singed the tip of his tail.

Tempest was as slippery as a oil covered eel. One second, the Lightingwings would have her cornered. But they'd be too transfixed by her lighting bolts to realize the blast of fire that was sent over their heads as she twirled away.

More bolts of lighting crackled in the sky, and the clouds thundered like a hundred dragons roaring at once. Snowfall needed to get rid of these dragons, and fast. But how? He hardly noticed the lead male and tail singed Lightingwing as they snuck up at him from behind. Both mouths poised and lighting sparkling along their bodies.

But then, there was a shout. And Snowfall turned.

Time seemed to slow as Seaglass suddenly reared up in front of him and smashed him away. Only when the identical, eye blinding lighting bolts erupted from the Lightningwing's mouth did Snowfall realize his life was crashing down.

The lighting met dead center in the middle of Seaglass's chest. A piercing scream tore though the air. Snowfall wasn't sure if it was the Seawing's or his own, even though his body was frozen in place. Then time sped back to normal, and Seaglass convulsed and slowly reached out before his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

The Seawing fell with a sickening crack into the waves below.