At the bottom of a cliff, a white dragon lay unmoving next to the pristine pieces of a shattered dragon egg littering the grass.

The huge cliff faces protected this place from the worst of the storm, yet the harsh winds still reached their whispering tendrils through the stone, whipping the blades of green. Despite the weather, the white dragon did not stir. The storm breeze whistled through the membrane of his shredded wings, soothing the steam that wound up from his charred snout coloured black with the burns of heated chain. Despite the obvious signs of struggle, his eyes remained closed, almost making him look peaceful in sleep.

A large dragon the colour of rust crawled over the stray rocks, making her way towards the ice dragon. She was no fool, and did not waste time checking for signs of life. A small ridge of regret and grief lodged like a hard scale in her chest despite herself: Hvitur knew the risks. He died a martyr for their cause.
She nudged his tail aside and lifted a shard of eggshell from underneath it, then slipped back into the labyrinth of caves under the cliffs. As darkness enveloped her once more, her grief hardened ever-still to become anger.

Stone walls brushed against her wings as she breathed out a plume of flame to light her away along the dark passage deep into the mountain.

"I stand with the Talons of Peace," hissed a voice in the shadows, coming from in front of her. "Kestrel? Is that you?"

"We await the wings of fire," answered the red dragon. A blue-green SeaWing emerged from a side cave, and she tossed the eggshell at the newcomer's claws.
"Not that it'll do us much good now," Kestrel snarled. "Hvitur is dead."

The SeaWing stared at the eggshell in disbelief, shock warping his features. "But  – the SkyWing egg –"

"Broken," the SkyWing said plainly. "Gone. It's over, Webs."

"It can't be," he protested. "Tomorrow is the brightest night. The three moons will all be full for the first time in a century. The dragonets of the prophecy have to hatch tomorrow."

"Well, one of them is already dead," Kestrel pointed out. Rage flickered in her eyes. "I knew we shouldn't have sent Hvitur out again. He must've been too tired after retrieving the IceWing egg... his guard was down. He was sloppy." She lashed her tail. "It should have been me. I should've stolen the SkyWing's egg myself. I know the Sky Kingdom. They wouldn't have caught me a second time."

Webs grimaced, knowing Kestrel's fury and determination is why the other Talons didn't assign her to the SkyWing egg hunt in the first place. Anger was a common distraction for the dragon... she may have gotten caught up in old bonds.
He scratched one claw over the gills along his neck. "Asha is dead, too."

"Asha?" A spurt of flame shot from Kestrel's nose. "How?"

"Caught in a battle between Blister's and Blaze's forces on the way here. She still made it with the red MudWing egg, but she died of her wounds soon after." Webs spread his wings in an uncomfortable shrug. Clearly he didn't take pleasure in delivering the news.

"So it's just you, Dune, and I to raise the little worms," Kestrel growled. "For a prophecy that can never be fulfilled. Let's break the accursed eggs now and be done with it; we'll be long gone before the rest of the Talons return for the dragonets."

"No!" Webs cried. "We can't! We've sacrificed everything to get to this point." His eyes drifted to the side, as if falling into a memory. After a second's hesitance, he redirected his glare to the SkyWing. "If we run now, everything we've given up is lost. It'll have all been for nothing. Kestrel, keeping the dragons alive for the next eight years is more important than anything! If you don't want to be a part of that –"

"All right, enough!" Kestrel snapped. "I'm the strongest dragon in the Talons of Peace. You need me. It doesn't matter how I feel about the nasty dragonets."

She eyed the eggshell on the ground, rubbing her scarred palms together. "Although, I thought at least one of them would be a SkyWing."

"I'll find us a sixth dragonet," Webs pushed past her, scales scraping against rock.

"There's no way back into the Sky Kingdom, brainless," Kestrel pointed out. "They'll be guarding the hatchery closely now."

"Then I'll get an egg somewhere else," Webs answered grimly. "The RainWings don't even count theirs – I could take one from the rainforest without anyone noticing."

"Of all the horrible ideas!" Kestrel exclaimed with a shudder. "RainWings are wretched creatures. Nothing like SkyWings."

"Well, we have to do something!" Webs argued. He hissed as his tail sent the eggshell skittering across the floor. "In eight years, the Talons of Peace will come looking for six dragonets – the prophecy says six, and we're going to make it come true."

Webs paused, looking at Kestrel pointedly. "Whatever it takes."

———

Under the mountain, the colourful clutch of five eggs were resting in a nest, makeshift from different kinds of furs and grasses. The biggest was red with small brown splotches, the second biggest next to it a deep blue with lighter blue spirals. Two more eggs, one white with pale blue and silver flecks on the shell, and one black with white speckles like stars, lay contrasting next to each other. In the middle of the clutch was a golden egg with vertical beige stripes.
The red egg began shifting, making tiny cracking sounds.

"The MudWing egg is hatching," Kestrel observed in surprise, moving closer to the clutch.

"What?" The big, muted-yellow dragon next to her exclaimed. His scarred face was alarmed. "But it can't hatch yet! We have only five!"

"Feel free to explain that to the egg," Kestrel responded, shrugging at her companion.

The two dragons turned their heads when the third of them burst into the main cave, clutching a pale multi-coloured egg in his front arm and scattering an upbringing of dust upon his arrival.
"I have it!" He announced, out of breath.

"Webs, that's a RainWing egg, you sun-baked salamander," Dune snorted.

"It was all I could get!" The SeaWing explained.

The scarred SandWing exhaled a short and gruff sigh, dismissing the matter. "Put it with the others, quickly!" He urged, pointing a claw to the clutch.

Kestrel glowered at the newest egg as Webs placed with the others. "I still don't think this was the best idea," she huffed. "After all, the prophecy calls for a SkyWing. How is a lazy, stupid RainWing going to make up for it?"

"We went over this, Kestrel!" Webs defended. "Queen Scarlet destroyed all the SkyWing eggs that would've hatched tonight, and we need six dragonets for the prophecy!"

"Look!" Dune interrupted the two and called their attention to the eggs. "He's hatched."

The three minders stared at the small brown dragon as he broke free of the shell barrier, all tiny and clueless and adorable.

"So that's a baby MudWing," Dune murmured to himself.

"He's kind of... cute. A little... blobbier than I expected," Webs added.

"He looks dim. Exactly as I expected," Kestrel contributed, a hint of smugness in her voice.

"We need a MudWing name for him," Webs pointed out, as the MudWing newborn observed the SeaWing next to him smash a paw through its shell.

"Yes. Something... muddy," Dune agreed.

"Very insightful, Dune," Kestrel smiled sarcastically. 

The MudWing had crawled out of his egg now, and was walking curiously over to the SeaWing, who had burst her head past her barrier, breathing air for the first time in her life. 

"How about Clay?" Webs suggested.

The MudWing, now given the name Clay, leapt at the deep blue egg. He roared as he smashed it out of the furs and onto the ground.

"What is he doing?!" Kestrel shrieked.

"He's attacking them! Stop that!" Webs gasped.

Kestrel grabbed Clay from the egg and launched him into the river that ran through the cave when he tried for the SeaWing again.

The small MudWing crawled out of the rushing water, sputtering. The light from the torches gave his brown scales a molten quality, the liquid dripping off him assisting in making the MudWing look like melted dirt.

"Kestrel, what's wrong with him?" Dune asked the SkyWing.

"Nothing," Kestrel replied, staring at the now wet MudWing. She walked forward and picked him up in her talons, observing him closely.

"He's just what we need. A little monster."