Warm rays of sunlight washed over the Kingdom of Sand from the horizon, leaping over the endless sea of dunes that stretched out far off into the horizon in each direction, a landscape of sandy hills as far as the eye could see, casted in large pools of shadows from the rising sun. A varying array of scarlets, oranges, and pinks exploded from the sky, clouds streaking across the sky in thin lines as if from a paint brush stroked across a canvas. Tiny pinholes of stars began to fade, the night's chill chased away as the dunes turned a rich pink, the whole world looked like a painting from the Strongholds rooftop.

   Scorpion sucked in a deep breath, feeling the warming air fill her lungs before she let it out, watching the last early morning chill turn it into a light wispy puff of air that swirled around her nose ring. Mornings like this are what she looked forwards to, the calmness in the wind that rustled her striped sail, watching the sunrise before she eventually had to leave her quiet perch behind to sneak back into her room before a guard was sent to make sure she's awake.

   It was her place to rest each morning, allowing her mind to wake up on its own time as her body moved to carry her up to the palace rooftops on silent wings with practiced ease. Scorpion would let her mind wander without being snapped back into reality by nosy siblings or annoying advisors who tried- and failed- to map out her every step since she and her brothers hatching in 4,991 AS.

   Thorn was easier to corral like a herd of Camels, but Ray and Scorpion on the other talon, were not from some of the things they'd heard advisors hiss under their breath when they were dragons, more focused on what games they could come up with rather than what tribe belonged in what kingdom when they were dragged out of the wingery for their tutoring.

   Kept within the sturdy walls of the stronghold, they had nothing to worry about other than what their next lesson would be, or who'd be attending the next outing with either of their parents- or what scolding rant they'll hear from Camel next. The Queen was protective of her dragonets, all ten of them, ever since she took the crown from Queen Beetle. Scorpion only knew her grandmother through tales and scrolls, unlike Cactus and Vulture who'd been old enough to remember the SandWing who once ruled the kingdom with an iron grip.

   "I thought I'd find you up here."

   Scorpion jolted, whipping around only to find another SandWing standing a few paces away, his peachy yellow and brown scales glowing in the rising sunlight. He grinned at her scowl, moving to sit beside her along the edge.

   "Why the long face? Giving yourself a headache thinking about Sundance again?" he teased.

   Scorpion rolled her eyes, turning back towards the sunrise. "Very funny, but I thought Ray was supposed to be the funny one in the family."

   "Can I not be funny every once in a while?"

   The other SandWing was a little shorter than her, just below her chin, but Scorpion was a large dragon like Vulture and Camel. There was always bound to be a towering member of the family, a sign of their royal lineage as some of the advisors would say. He had warm, pale golden scales with a darker peach colour running along his spine similar to her own. His frill was a warm, rich down, stripes with thin streaks of a dark beige like their fathers.

   Warm freckles danced across his snout, wrapping under his sparkling emerald green eyes that popped against his black scleras- and behind his ears, running down along his spine. Hanging from his ears were golden strings that reminded her of windchimes, each strand speckled in tiny green jewels that matched his eyes. Polished golden horn caps with curled spikes made his horns look sharp and crown-like.

   "No," she rolled her speckled maroon eyes, " 'cause Ray's humour is bad enough in this place."

   "Oh come on, it's not that bad."

   "Cactus."

   "Okay, maybe his joke about eating Quicksand's scavengers was a bit...far-"

   "Don't forget the time he managed to convince-"

   "-but we love his jokes all the same." Cactus continued, wrapping a wing around Scorpion as she huffed. "But back to what I was saying, what's my little baby sister thinking about?"

   "I'm not a hatchling, Cactus."

   "Right, right, right. You'll be nine soon, my mistake," he grinned, pulling his wing back and turning back towards the sunrise. The stars were nearly completely gone now, the moons fading in the colourful sky as the rising sun's warmth spread across the sand, climbing up the side of the stronghold and warming the two royals' faces. Cactus shot a glance down towards the necklace that hung heavily from a golden chain around Scorpion's neck, the large ruby pendant resting against her chest and collarbone. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen you without that," he motioned towards it with a claw.

   "It's pretty," she shrugged.

   "It's what got you into the colour red," he corrected with a smirk. "I still remember when you refused to wear anything but your earrings."

   Scorpion couldn't help the grin that tugged on her lips.

   Out of all their sisters, she wore the least amount of jewelry just like Vulture. The older princess only wore a singular hooked earring made of polished silver, curled like the talon of a bird, a tiny pendant hanging down like a teardrop- a small piece of shimmering moon opal. She remembered how as a dragonet, she wanted to be just like the older SandWing princess, refusing to wear anything else the advisors tried to give her. Scorpion only settled for a small set of earrings gifted to her by their father- King Ringtail. Even now she wore the tiny gold studs, two in each ear.

   "You know, you still haven't told me what you were thinking about."

   She snorted, shifting to her tail rested over her claws. "Nothing."

  "Like I believe that. You might be able to fool someone else with that, but not me." Cactus leaned closer, bumping their shoulders, "so, what're you really thinking about? What's going on in that head of yours?"

   "You're starting to sound like Ray."

  "Is that a bad thing?"

   "Yes."

   "Well if you would just tell me, then I wouldn't need to."

   Scorpion paused, pressing her lips together in thought. "I was thinking about some of the stories mom used to tell us," she said, "the ones about Beetle."

   Cactus went quiet, his silence making unease coil in her gut as she stared out into the sunset, feeling his gaze burn into her side until he looked back off towards the horizon.

   Beetle was always an...iffy topic, in the family. Just mentioning the past Queen's name could make a whole room go silent, as if they were afraid she'd suddenly appear or hear them speaking ill of her from beyond the grave. Even under Camel's reign, her grandmother's grip on the kingdom remained strong with ghost stories and lasting scars, but the tribe was on the right path to healing those wounds from what Ringtail and Camel would say.

   "Why were you thinking about them, about her?" Cactus asked suddenly.

   "I don't know, just...just thinking about it, is all."

   He was quiet for a moment. "Would you have wanted more family around the palace?"

   The question felt so sudden, Scorpion could only blink and stare at her older brother who continued to look off into the sunset, the warm rays reflecting in his eyes.

   Scorpion shook her head, blinking. "What?"

   "With the family we have now," he went on, "would you have wanted cousins, aunts, uncles...grandparents? I know it's not how royal families work, it never has, but if you could, would you?"

   She didn't know how to answer that. Scorpion tried to imagine what it was like, to have more family that weren't just brothers and sisters, to have aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents, but she couldn't. Cactus was right: it wasn't how it worked in royal families, but their family already broke tradition from it's size alone. Ten dragonets, seven heirs old enough to challenge for the throne- Scorpion being the youngest, and yet there hadn't been a royal challenge in decades.

   After a few moments of silence, Scorpion let out a sigh she hadn't realized she'd been holding, giving a shrug, "I don't know."

   "Well, for me, the palace feels both empty and full at the same time," Cactus gave a light hearted laugh.

   She snorted, giving him a shove, "that's 'cause you're all buddy-buddy with the crown guards, and the army."

   "Well, yeah! I have to be if I want their support out on the battlefield when I become General someday." With a playful nudge back, he grinned, "you can be my right arm."

   Prince Cactus' dream was to someday command the SandWing army as Commander-in-Chief, the highest rank any SandWing in the military could achieve and one that took orders from the Queen herself directly. As a Prince he could've just asked and been given a high position just below the current Commander-in-Chief like princes in the past, but Cactus wanted to work for it. He was a Colonel in the army after his years of hard work, and swiftly making his way to Brigadier general.

   Whenever he wasn't training with his fellow soldiers, patrolling, or doing odd but grueling tasks around the palace and playing the role of the eldest prince, he was in the arena to practice his skills. Scorpion would join him from time to time, the two sparing well into the high noon when they'd be forced to take a break because of the burning sun that sent the whole kingdom into hiding for an hour.

   "You're getting better!" Cactus would say, "someday you could be one of the best in the army!"

   Scorpion scoffed, "In your dreams."

   "What, I'm not allowed to dream either? Man, the rules in this place," his smile never once left his face, stretching from ear to ear. Cactus turned to her, "come on, you'd be great at it and you know it. I think you'll actually quite like it."

   She raised a brow, grinning back at him. "Oh, so you think?"

   "You'd fit right in!" He gave her a nudge, "there have been several princesses in the past who joined the army."

   "Yeah, when the Queen let them," Scorpion shot back with a roll of her eyes. "Do you really think Camel would let me into the army? She hardly let you until you had both Ringtail and Vulture vouching for you. Not to mention you had to pick away at Ringtail first." Cactus opened his mouth to challenge her, but she cut him off. "And you know if I did, Thorn and Ray would try following me into it. Ray, maybe, but Thorn?-" She shook her head- "I can't see him doing that."

   Scorpion and her hatching brothers, Ray and Thorn, were some of the closest dragonets in the family growing up. Wherever one went, the others were sure to follow. While Ray and Scorpion would race down the halls, dissolving into playful roughhousing, Thorn was always close by to chirp words of warning or snapping at them- but even he would join in after a few rounds. When Ray would end up on their sisters' bad sides for a horrible joke or prank, Scorpion and Thorn were quick to stand by his side- albeit Thorn more so scolded him from his side.

   They were the royal triplets, the youngest of ruling Queen Camel and King Ringtail.

   Cactus snorted, "but I know you'd love it."

  "What, being bossed around?"

   "It's not all about that and you know it." He leaned back, sucking in a deep breath of the fresh air, letting it out in a sigh that misted from the last of the night's creeping chill. After a moment of calming silence, Cactus huffed, "we should go back inside before we're caught."

   "You say that like we're not allowed outside."

   "Not without guards."

   "Oh, you don't qualify as one?"

   Cactus shoved her with his shoulder and she barked out a laugh.

   Leaning forwards, Scorpion let herself plunge from the ledge. The wind roared in her ears, pushing underneath the span of her wings that shot out to catch her as she swooped down along the side of the palace. Cactus dove after her, the pair flying along one of the towers pressed flush against the stronghold's side, tucking in close to the warming sandstone. A window ledge jutted from the side of the towering wall. Scorpion's talons shot out, gripping the ledge and heaving herself with a final flap of her wings in one swift motion. Familiar scarlet red curtains greeted her with a wave, blown gently from her entrance.

   "I won't be making it to breakfast this morning," Cactus called from behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, Scorpion watched him hover in place with steady wingbeats. "Major-general Hyrax will have my tail if I'm late."

   "Better hurry before I beat him to it," Scorpion reached back to swipe at her brother.

   He leaned out of the way, ducking his head with a chuckle, "I'm the one who's supposed to be keeping you on track, noth the other way 'round."

   "Then stop goofing around like Ray when he doesn't want to do something," she shot back, "I'm starting to think you're where he gets it from."

   Cactus gave a snort with a roll of his eyes before taking off out of sight, the sound of wingbeats fading the farther he got. Scorpion stayed to listen, her ears pricked, until he was gone entirely from earshot, replaced with the sounds of the city surrounding the stronghold starting to wake and spring back to life. Huts and abodes in varying shapes and sizes surrounded the SandWing palace, separated by streets and alleys- some covered in tarps and long stretches of cloth to help block the sun that would soon rise up past the endless expanse of dunes off in the horizon.

   The Stronghold was in the heart of the desert, and the heart of the kingdom. The largest collection of SandWings in the entire desert who didn't roam with movable homes or live in small towns. The only exception being the Scorpion Den.

   Ruled by gangs and outclaws, it was outside of Queen Camel's control, but led by a level headed gang known as the Barbed Cobra's who kept the Scorpion Den as peaceful as could be for a place full of fugitives, wanted criminals, and assassins. Camel now only dealt with anything involving them when it bleed into the rest of the kingdom, when it became her problem and went past the agreement she and the leader of the Barbed Cobra's- a cunning SandWing named Aardvark- agreed upon.

   The only thing separating the two worlds was the valley of rolling dunes that stretched out like an ocean, sandy hills that shifted, circling the stronghold and the surrounding city. To any dragon who didn't know where to go, or what stars to follow, it was a death trap of endlessly shifting sand.

   Scorpion could see the very edge of said dunes off in the horizon like towering mounds, a different view each morning. Subtle, but eye catching in a sense of eerie unease that something was different, but you didn't know what. Shifting her stance, she rolled her shoulders and turned to head deeper into the room, her scarlet red curtains slipping back into place behind her.

-~-~-~-{𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊}-~-~-~-

   Towering archways crowned the palace halls, soaring high above Scorpion's head as she walled, passing door after door and hundreds of airy windows lined in open wooden shutters that let the sun shine freely. The walls were lined in carvings of small animals, giving a wild and full look to the smooth bricks of sandstone. Corridors twisted and turned, sconces holding unlit torches proudly between tapestries and windows. Soft peachy orange carpet lined the floor, every inch of it details in intricate stitches and complex designs.

   High pitched squeals of laughter shot through the air like screeching vultures as she turned down the next hall, making Scorpion's ears ring as she tried to muffle the noise by flattening them along the back of her head, lips curled back in a sneer.

   Down the hall stood Fennec and Sundance, two of Scorpion's sisters and two of the most annoying dragons in all of Pyrrhia. They were some of the blandest and generic SandWings that acted just like how some of the advisors wanted; princesses who only talked about jewels, how pretty they were, and possible consorts shown off from the nobility. Sundance already had a consort, and he was all she could talk about when given the chance and time. Having to listen to them each morning made her want to chuck her leftovers from her plate at them, but she knew all it would give her were sour looks and snide remarks.

   And a stern talking to by either of her parents.

   Princess Fennec was one of Queen Camel and King Ringtail's older dragonets, from their third clutch and 19 years old. Fennec took more after their father with her pale golden yellow scales and light freckles that dusted across her snout and under her eyes, and dimples on either cheek that showed with each beaming smile. Polished horns and talons gleamed in the sunlight, matching the colour of Scorpion's own. Wrapped around her shoulders was a blue sash adorned in golden details and broaches, shimmering golden necklaces of chains and bands wrapping around her neck in layers that rested heavily under her sash against her collar, jutting from beneath the thin fabric.

   Princess Sundance was from their fourth, 17 years old and the only heir without a hatchmate. She stood out from the rest of the family like an eye-catching jewel; glowing golden scales, a pale frill, striking blue eyes and a round, soft face. Dragons fell head over tails for her as long as Scorpion could remember, and Sundance adored the attention but nothing could beat the adoring stare of her consort, Tarantula. The two were deeply in love; walking in matching strides, intertwined tails, talon holding, snout nuzzling, and moon eyes.

   Scorpion had to give Sundance that; she was loyal. Even with all of the outside attention.

   "You're making the 'I really don't like you' face."

   She snapped around, the SandWing beside her leaping back with a face splitting grin stretched across his freckled face. "What's got you all jumpy this morning?" He laughed, poking her shoulder with a talon.

   His scales were almost a perfect copy of her own; warm peachy scales running along his spine, but no secondary stripe along his sides from Camel. His frill was striped just like hers, with warm brown eyes surrounded in a shimmering golden ring wrapped around his iris.

   "If I was the one to sneak up on you, you would've squealed."

   "Would not!"

   "Would too-!"

   "It is way too early for you both to be starting this," a second SandWing yawned, pushing his way past the two of them. His scales were duller, pale brown with a dull gold, and his sail striped but without any lighter hues in his frill. Tired, pale green eyes glared at the two of them.

   Ray smiled wryly, "good morning to you too, Thorn. Lovely to see you." Thorn grumbled with a flick of his tail, the two triplets having to duck as he passed. Scorpion scowled at Ray. "What? Hey, I didn't do anything! So it wasn't me!"

   "He's usually like this when you wake him up in some stupid way."

   "I do not."

   A distant 'You do!' came from the other end of the hall.

   Scorpion gave Ray a light shove, ignoring his complaints and followed after Thorn, Ray hot on her tail. Sundance and Fennec had moved on, but their voices continued to echo further down the hall towards the great hall.

   "So," Ray trotted up to her side, "what were you thinking about?"

  "What did you bother Thorn with this time?"

   "Oh come on," he groaned, tilting his head back to glare up at the ceiling, "it wasn't even me! And-" his frown curled into a cheeky grin- "you're dodging the question."

   She glared at him.

   "Do I have to guess?"

   "Guess it wrong three times and I'll be disappointed."

   "Ouch, okay." Ray chuckled, pretending to pause and think. "Taking over the Sand Kingdom?"

   "Nope."

   "Taking over all of Pyrrhia?"

   Scorpion rolled her eyes, "no."

   "Three moons this is the hardest thing to figure out, worse than Sandhopper's questions," Ray tipped his head even farther back dramatically as he walked. "If only I somehow knew two of our- more so yours- least favourite sisters were just ahead of us. I guess I'll never know, better start feeling the disappointment, Scorpion."

   "Okay cleverclaws, what's got you and Cactus in such a good mood this morning?"

   "He caught you on the roof again?"

   "It's not getting caught if you're not punished for it."

   "But he's a member of the army, he might turn you into Camel and Ringtail."

   "You make it sound like she's doing something that'll get here tossed in the dungeon," Thorn called back, raising a brow as he stopped to allow them to catch up, "and if it's not hurting her, he's not going to say anything."

   "You never know, maybe Scorpion could be shot with a random arrow from someone's horrible archery practice," Ray's smirk only widened at Thorn's exasperated look. "Some of them are awful. I'd watch out if I were you, Scorpion. Might get shot and some poor soul will be thrown in the dungeon," he paused, "or executed."

   Thorn huffed in defeat with a sigh, "you're unbearable."

   Ray only grinned, "you love me." He walked faster, matching Thorn's stride and lazily leaning against his brother, making them stumble. Thorn shoved the other prince, picking up his pace to slip out and make Ray stagger after him with a laugh. "Come on, Thorn! Smile a little, you know you wanna!"

   "You're a prince, act like it!"

  "YoUr A pRiNcE, aCt LiKe It- ow." Ray huffed, rubbing his lead lightly where Scorpion gently whacked him with a talon.

   With Thorn in the lead, the trio soon came to a large archway. A small wing of guards were posted on either side of the hall, a pair stationed by the entryway to the right of the hall, their backs straight and tall golden and silver spears gripped rightly in their armoured claws. They stood as stiff as status as the triplets passed into the great hall, greeted by chatter, the clinking of plates and dishes, and the wafting smell of cooked food.

   The room was large and dome shaped, towering windows stretching up into the sky. Most of them were filled with glowing stained glass held together with melted gold, each piece delicately cut to fit together into an intricate art piece- others left as open archways to let in the fresh air that swept across the room. Vibrant colours danced across the dining room floor, stretching across the large, 'U' shaped table and up along the walls before clashing with the windows across from them. Each window told a different story, their frames filled with different kinds of art with their own tales to tell like some of the tapestries hung around the palace with hundreds more safely tucked away to protect their history.

   Scorpion eyed the windows, glancing at the few she remembered off the top of her head; The Animus Prince, The Forbidden Lovers, The Desert Watcher, The Moon Dancer. They were four of the stained glass pieces, placed with open windows on either side like airy frames.

   A warm red tablecloth stretched across the dining table, its ends lined in shimmering gold thread. Decorated in stitched patterns and designs that made the dishes pop. The smell of different foods, all seasoned in varying spices and herbs, wafted in the air like lapping waves, making Scorpion's stomach itch greedily in hunger. Polished wooden and painted porcelain plates and bowls lined the table, a wide array of foods ranging from seasoned lizard tails and roasted camel legs to warm bowls of broth and freshly carved fruits.

   Bustling with life, the great hall was filled with servants carrying dishes out of the kitchens and servants pacing around the edges, sweeping in when called and carrying empty dishes back out. Between the outer layers of pillars holding the large dome up above their heads were more tables, vacant- but normally filled with nobility and the advisors for the afternoon supper. There normally would be more dragons served, but Camel made it clear she wanted the mornings to be between her and the rest of the royal family alone.

   "It's the only time I know for certain I get to see any of you," her mother would say.

   Sitting directly across from the entryway was Camel- a large, broad shoulders SandWing with dark peachy grey scales and a darkly striped frill. Her eyes a sharp, and piercing brown lined in gold. The underside of her eyes were lined in dark patches, shadowed by tiny wrinkles from restless nights- and Ringtail- a smaller SandWing with wide, large speckled green eyes and freckles dusted across his face and down along back. His frill was lighter, a pale blonde compared to the rich browns in the Queen's, with smoother edges that were well kept.

   The pair wore matching golden necklace bands and wrist cuffs, with Camel's made more of silver with gold accents etched into the smooth jewelry. Tiny gold studs line her fathers ears, much like the four in Scorpion's own. Camel wore long golden hoops, thin and delicate compared to the rest of her frame. Wrapped around her horns, stretching up and curving back with the motion of her sail, stood the SandWing crown.

   Made of shimmering copper, it spread out like branches or antlers with thin wire-like strings hanging and looping from each branch or tine. In the center above Camel's frill, directly above her forehead sat the centerpiece of the crown; the SandWing eye. Carved from obsidian and sparkling like the night itself, gleaming like a thousand SandWing eyes when touched by moonlight.

   Either side of their parents sat vacant, the plush cushions empty where Cactus and Vulture would normally sit. The rest of the seats however, were already full. Scorpion followed behind Thorn and Ray as they made their way around the right side of the table, servers and servants dipping their heads as they passed. Across from them on the left side of the table sat Sundance and Fennec, the two still loudly chattering away, with Sandstorm on Fennec's left.

   Sandstorm was duller compared to her hatchmate; her scales a dusty yellow with a muted brown to match running along her back and speckling her spine and down her legs, a well kept blonde frill pierced with tiny rings. The older princess was more focused on the bowl of steaming broth held up to her snout, sipping at the hot liquid as steam wafted up in wispy trails. Wrapping around her wrists were tiny pieces of black onyx, wedged into her scales, matching the ones that ran up along her neck and wrapping around her narrowed eyes.

   Behind them walked Jackal, a tall, dusty brown SandWing with a frill to match Sandstorm. Her neck was laced with intertwining golden chain necklaces and bands- matching the thin nose ring piercing her snout- and a rich purple sash bunched around her shoulders, held in place by a shimmering gold broach. She was from Camel and Ringtail's second clutch, with her hatchmate Quicksand.

   "-And THEN-!"

   "Are they still talking about them?"Jackal sneered.

   Sandstorm raised a brow.

   Sundance huffed with a flick of her tail, shooting Jackal a glare. "We're not gawking at them-"

   Sandstorm turned to Jackal as she sat down, "they've been since this morning."

   Fennec whirled around to pout at her sister, lightly hitting her shoulder with a wing. "SANDSTORM!" she whined, barely phasing her hatchmate who continued to sip from her bowl.

   Scorpion sat in her own seat, reaching out to snag one of the plates piled with heavily seasoned lizard tails, the different spices and herbs tingling her nose as she pulled it closer. She always preferred the heavily seasoned and spiced foods, the flavour and burn a welcoming feeling on her tongue, mixing with the cooked meaty flavour.

   "I can't believe you actually eat that," Thorn snorted, sitting to her right as he pulled in a plate of his own with sliced up cactus fruit, "there's practically no lizard left." He leaned over the table, casting a look at Ray, "you too."

   "You just have no taste," Ray scoffed, practically stuffing a seasoned tail into his mouth, not as heavily coated as Scorpion's but still enough for the spices to gently nip at his nose.

   "At least I actually have taste."

   She snorted, biting into a tail of her own, the spices dancing on her tongue. Chatter continued to fill the room alongside the clanking of plates and the shuffling of dragons bustling around the table, taking away empty dishes and goblets, refiling drinks, and bringing out more food. A servant filling their goblets dipping their head in a bow, making Scorpion lift her gaze to see Quicksand slipping through the archway and moving behind their seats to her own on Thorn's right. The older princess offered a warm smile.

   "Ray didn't set anything on fire this morning, did he?" She asked, noticing Thorn's tired look.

   Ray gave an offended snort from his seat.

   Thorn shrugged, "surprisingly, no."

   "Not yet anyway," Scorpion chuckled, picking up another lizard tail.

   Quicksand let out a laugh as she went to her seat. The 21 year old SandWing had pale gold scales, a light dusting of brown along her spine with light freckles dotting under the corners of her eyes and a dilute blonde frill with thin ashy yellow streaks. A wide array of golden earrings hung from her sisters ears like tiny wind chimes, gently bouncing off one another with light clicking taps.

   Following behind her and walking around the other side of the table to sit beside Camel stood Vulture, the oldest dragonet of Camel and Ringtail, and the heir apparent for the throne. Like Scorpion, Vulture was large with broad shoulders and a towering form that tended to loomed over others. Her scales were a dark grey like ash with faded stripes rippling along her spine, some twisting to flow to the corners of her sharp obsidian black eyes. The silver tear-drop earring hanging from her left ear, wrapping around a tiny moon opal pendant, glittered against her scales. Vulture's right ear, however, was nothing more than thin and tattered- the skin dark purple with ice burns.

   Scorpion still remembered being three years old, and racing around a corner to see what all the loud commotion was about, only to find Vulture being rushed down the hall to the medical wing as she clutched the side of her face. Blood gushed from the side of her head, deep gashes pulsing angrily as blood oozed in thick ribbons, a stark contrast to the shimmering ice that clung to her ear and the sizzling that filled the air as if it'd been fire that clung to her sisters face instead of whistling ice.

   That was the last time Camel let any of them outside the palace alone. It had been a simple dispute that got out of talon, and ended with the heir apparent scarred and a brutally injured IceWing that later died in the dungeons below the palace.

   Camel too bore scars from IceWing attacks, scars that have been on their mothers scales for longer than any of them could remember. Frost burns on her left forearm up to her shoulder and two nicks across her snout. And it was no secret that Camel despised the tribe to the north.

   "-our mother had an early trial this morning," Ringtail's voice pulled Scorpion away from her thoughts and the meal in front of her.

   Scorpion looked up from her plate, swallowing her food to clear her throat. "A trial?"

   Camel picked at her food, "someone tried breaking into the treasury last night." She reached for the golden goblet studded in jewels in front of her, bringing it up to her snout, "I had to deal with their trial this morning."

   Sundance scoffed, rolling her eyes and lazily waved a talon, "couldn't you just throw them into the dungeon? They were obviously caught and guilty- they even broke into the palace! What could they possibly get out of a trial? It's just a waste of time if you ask me."

   "All subjects are able to request a trial if they please, Sundance." Camel chided lightly, shooting a look up at her daughter at the end of the table, before glancing back down at her drink. "I won't toss dragons into the dungeons as I please."

   Like Beetle, was left unsaid.

   The previous SandWing Queen would just toss any dragon she pleased into the suffocating dungeons below the palace, locking them away until they withered beyond recognition. Once Camel had taken the throne, she worked through setting up trials for each prisoner to see if they truly deserved their punishment, alongside fixing Scorpion's grandmother's damages to the kingdom. Ringtail and advisors would always tell Scorpion and her brothers about how her mother in her first years as queen would work tirelessly to undo the damage done to the kingdom by her grandmother, working hard to get it where it was today: strong and free, no longer chained to a vengeful iron grip of a tyrannical queen.

   Thorn snorted, "they must've been rather foolish or self-centered to request a trial with the queen they tried to steal from as their judge. Who were they?"

   Camel put her gobblet down, "a NightWing."

Scorpion perked up, raising a brow. Thorn paused, his own drink a mere claw-length from his snout.

   "Do they even exist anymore?" Sundance asked with a scoff.

"Of course they do," Thorn put down his drink, "just because you don't see them, doesn't mean they don't exist."

Scorpion had to admit, Sundance had a point- to some degree. The NightWings were becoming more myth than anything. Their queen vanished without a trace, with no heirs to claim the throne, nearly half a century ago. It had been sudden and even after all these years she had her to be found. Soon enough, the whole tribe itself vanished. The occasional night dragon could be seen wandering the desert, but those were line wanderers who left their tribe long ago. No kingdom knew where they went. It was like whatever took their queen, took the whole tribe.

   "Honestly, these NightWings look to only cause trouble!" Sundance exclaimed, "I'm glad there's not more of them."

Thorn shook his head, "they didn't just 'cause trouble,' they were interesting and kept most- if not all of Pyrrhia's history!" The prince began to ramble on about some of the things he read in what few scrolls they had about the mysterious tribe, and Scorpion could hardly keep the smile off her face as she watched Sundance's interest sizzle away with a groan.

   Scorpion finished the last of her lizard tails before waving down a servant who stood vigilant nearby, requesting some more and watching her scamper off back to the kitchens. When she reached out to take a sip from her goblet, she saw Ray smirking at her. She raised a brow with a flick of her ear.

  "What?"

   "Finished our tails already?"

   She narrowed her eyes, "yeah, and I'm getting more."

   He snorted, "and here Thorn thought my taste was bad."

   "You haven't even tried this kind," Scorpion rolled her eyes with a smug grin. "They're hotter than last time."

   "It smells like if I ate it, I would burn from the inside out."

   Scorpion chuckled, "Sounds lovely to me."

   Ray swatted at her with his wing, making her shoulder him back and nearly causing him to topple over with a bark of surprise as he grabbed the table to keep him steady before swatting her with the side of his tail.

   "No fighting at the table you two!" Ringtail scolded, though he couldn't stop the grin from curling his lips with an amused glint in his eyes.

   "We aren't arguing," Ray called back, "we're just having a disagreement."

   "Yeah," Scorpion snorted, giving him another shove, "arguing."

—————————————————————

- MindlessTyper