His feet tamped swiftly on the ground as Startide dashed after the glimmer of scales. The forest around him was thicker than he thought, and no moonlight could be seen through the low-hanging canopies. The only light were of his own glowing scales, and the ones of the dragon he chased.

Whoever it was, they were fast. Either they were trying to get away from the hybrid, or they were leading him somewhere. From so far behind, Startide could only see what looked like one dragon. Although it was a very large and lumpy dragon, almost grotesquely deformed. The glowing scales suggested a SeaWing, but the sheer size suggested MudWing. Then again, were those IceWing spikes?

Startide pressed on further, he spread his dark wings and flapped as quickly as he could after the dragon. Soon he found himself weaving in and out of many tall, winding trees. He had to be in the Rainforest Kingdom by now. He smacked dead-on into a thick tree, shaking many of its leaves. Startide was falling behind. No, he wouldn't lose this dragon, he knew they were leading him to something... or away from something. He wriggled through a crook in the tree and kept flying.

Ahead, Startide saw a particularly dead tree. It looked about ready to fall over. His mind sparked, and grew into a flame. He had an idea. He concentrated on the weakest point on the tree's trunk. His eyes glowed fiercely, engulfing his head in an aqua fire. Tiger-stripes along his underbelly glowed as bright as his flashing luminescent scales. Starry specks of glowing blue flared with light on the underside of his wings.

The trunk of the tree was lit with with the animus flames. With a CRACK that reverberated up to the canopies of the forest, the massive tree began to fall, taking with it several others that were tied to it with many vines. CRASSSSSH!!!!! The sound of splintering wood and tousled leaves crashed through the woods like a thunder storm.

Startide growled. His mind was still ablaze, and his body couldn't keep up. The hybrid's wings beat more erratically, as he tried with all of his might to extinguish the fire that started to burn him from the inside out. His mind couldn't keep track of what needed to be switched on or shut down. With a roar of anguish, Startide felt the fires burst into a blaze. His mouth belched out a billowing cloud of the cursed animus parasite; then, Startide's wings shut down, and the hybrid plummeted down into the brush on the forest floor.

Groggily, Startide shook his head. The firey consequence of his magic had smoldered down to embers now. Once again, he had scraped by Death's doorstep by the skin of his teeth. He stood to his feet, and shook himself. There, good as new. He thought.

Startide looked ahead of him. The tree had crashed alright, and by the looks of it, only a moment ago. Debris still fluttered about in the air. His cool-down took only moments this time. Good. Normally, Startide could be out for days before recovering his senses. This time, he got lucky. The hybrid smiled.

Startide stretched his wings and glided over to the fallen tree. Had it worked? Where was this dragon? He began to search the fallen tree. Minutes ticked on like years. Maybe he killed whom he was chasing? Three moons that would suck. He needed a dragon to be alive in order to find out why they had led him here.

There, the faint glow of blue scales. Startide jumped down to the spongy forest floor. Trapped under a rather large branch, was a rather cool-looking SeaWing. He was large, yes, large as a MudWing; but, back there, he looked larger, like now he's suddenly lost so much body mass while still being a big dragon. He was rather muscular too. This dragon's colors were also, muddy. His underscales were an algae-green, and his outer scales were just the color of greenish-brown sludge.

The dragon groaned. "Heh, you're a pretty good shot with that, kid." He grunted, and braced his talons on the ground. With one heave, the dragon had stood fully up, the huge branch that trapped him thudded to the ground. No way was that normal. He wasn't normal. He was.

He was another hybrid.

"But I ain't so hard to knock down, y'hear?" The dragon smiled, flashing a set of broken teeth. "Oi! Radiance! I got 'im!" He hollered up into the trees, clasping a talon firmly on Startide's shoulder. This dragon didn't seem like he would hurt him, but did look definitely able to crush a few dragons easily blinded and with one talon tied behind his back. His smile was almost, reassuring.

"Great job, Riverbed." A smooth, cool voice crept across the clearing. In front of them, a skinny IceWing slithered and shimmered into view. She looked the opposite of the hybrid Riverbed. Her form was wiry, slender. Her eyes were a piercing black, though, with a flick of her eyelids, were suddenly a deep amber color. Her scales glinted mother-of-pearl in the scattered patches of moonlight. They seemed to shift, lapping on top of one another, then settling into a pattern without any gaps in between. She crept almost silently, though rather confidently, towards the two.

"Hmm. Hello Startide. Rather glad to meet you for the first time. You're quite a peculiar little dragon, aren't you?" She said. The dragon named Radiance stretched out a talon that rippled with many pastels under her otherwise white scales. "A pleasure to meet you after many weeks. I am Radiance."

For the first time. Startide was called peculiar, to his face, and he didn't feel the glares of rejection crawl down his back. He knew these two dragons, Riverbed and Radiance, were much different than others.

Startide reached out, and shook Radiance's talon.