Lavender couldn't believe what she was hearing. Animosity was Shadowsplitter's mother, her brothers mother was the dragon that Lavender got horrible feelings from, similar to Rattlesnake.

There's no way that Animosity and Shadowsplitter were related, they're nothing alike! Her mind raced, but, the more she thought about it, the more her mind started to make connections between the two NightWing's.

Animosity and Shadowsplitter both shared the same golden yellow eyes and their scale colours were close in coloration. Animosity's scales were more of a red-ish brown while Shadowsplitter's was more of a brown-ish grey. They both had the same body shapes as well, though Shadowsplitter had the same strong looking wing shoulders like Strongwings.

"No," she shook her head with a twitch of her frills. "She can't be."

"She is my mother, Lavender." Her older brother confirmed with a flick of his tail. "No matter how much I wish she weren't, she is my mother by blood."

"Wait, so, technically, she'd be your step-mother then, right Lavy?" Salamander asked with a told of her head.

"No, do not put that in my head!" She hissed. "I never want to see her as a step-mother. She gives off a bad feeling."

"That's because you're feelings are right, Lavender." Shadowsplitter huffed as he looked at his father, giving him a nod to which Strongwings sighed, nodding back, before he started to make his way into the kitchen.

"So she is a bad dragon."

"Yes, she's awful. She's greedy and cares for no one other than herself, and I learned that early on in life." Her brother huffed as he sat down.

"What happened?" Salamander asked as she and Lavender both sat down to listen.

Lavender was rather curious, she couldn't hide the fact that she was. All that Lavender had been told about Shadowsplitter's real mother was that she was a NightWing and she split off from the family, that was all. Not that she was Animosity who was trying to make herself Queen of the NightWing's.

"So, spit it out, tell us this magical story on how Animosity is your wonderful mother." Salamander smiled as her tails curled around her talons, one of them reaching out and intertwining itself with Lavender's. The smaller hybrid flinched slightly but didn't pull her tail away.

"It's not a magical story."

"Could've fooled me."

"Shut up and let him tell us!" Lavender hissed as she stomped one talon onto one of Salamander's, making the other hybrid quickly lift it up and out of her way with a smirk.

Shadowsplitter just watched the two, his expression turning from one of annoyance and seriousness, to one with a smug smirk as he watched the two hybrids bicker before him.

"I could wait to tell the two of you later if you want a room to yourselves."

That caused Lavender to stop and whip her head to look at her brother, her frills fanned out in embarrassment and irritation, which only caused her brother's smirk to broaden.

"Oh hush you love struck bat!"

"That I am." He grinned.

"What? You've got someone to admire?" Salamander's ears twitched.

"He's got a girlfriend named Funnel, she's the SkyWing that's in the hut." Lavender explained.

"Mhm." Shadowsplitter nodded.

Lavender looked back towards her brother to tell him to continue, but then his reaction fully settled into her mind. Wait....he agreed, she told herself. She met her brother's gaze and before she could stop herself, she started to spew out questions.

"Are you both together now? How long? When did you start?" She kept asking more questions and watched as her brother bursted out laughing, as though the questions were some form of relief from him about to tell the two of them the story of Animosity.

"We've actually been together for a while," her brother admitted once Salamander wrapped her talons around Lavender's snout to shut her up to give her brother the chance to answer any of her questions. "We didn't want to tell anyone, but, Sapphire soon found out when she found us in the Sand Kingdom walking together. We both actually got together around the same time as Meerkat and Scorpion."

Lavender and Salamander silently listened as Shadowsplitter continue to tell them about how he and Funnel got together.

After a few minutes, Lavender managed to pry Salamander's talons off of her snout and held them within her own much smaller ones.

"So you've been together this whole time!?"

"Yup, no point in hiding it anymore since it looks like you've got someone of your own." He smirked.

"No I don't!"

"Oh yes she does." Salamander grinned, wrapping a wing around Lavender, who lightly shoved at her with her shoulder. "Anyways, let's celebrate you getting with....was it Funnel? Was that her name? after you tell us about your mother."

"Right." The NightWing huffed. "So it all started when-"

"Is this gonna be some cheesy love story that turns sour?" Salamander whispered to Lavender, earning a snicker from the smaller hybrid.

"-Strongwings and Animosity first met. Apparently, she'd been searching for a certain NightWing and he helped point her in the right detection. That started their daily interactions, and soon, they fell in love and they got married. Then, they had me." Strongwing's wings twitched at the thought. "Animosity was the one to name me, since NightWing mother's name their dragonets. Once I was able to walk and could start learning to fly, she started to teach me how to fight. I thought it was a fun game, but in reality, she was training me to be an Assassin since she was one."

"She was training you to be an assassin?" Lavender couldn't help but ask, getting a nod from her old brother.

"She's he reason I was once an assassin before dad found out. He looked heart broken, but, didn't challenge by decision. It was as though he was afraid I'd turn into my mother, so that's why I quit. But, back to the main story. When I was three, apparently I wasn't learning fast enough for her liking and she kept telling me I was to soft or to kind hearted, so, when I told her I didn't want to kill anybody, she got angrier." He sighed.

"Sounds like another dragon I know." Lavender heard Salamander mutter under her breath. She must've not realized that she spoke, or that she didn't want Lavender to hear, but she did, and she didn't react just in case Salamander didn't mean to mutter to herself.

"I'm guessing she had enough and took me into town. She showed me to a NightWing and they were talking about me, but I don't remember what. Apparently, Strongwings followed us and when we got home, that night he took me and fled to the Rainforest where he soon met Orchid."

"Did dad ever tell you what Animosity was talking to the other NightWing about?" Lavender's tail twitched as it was intertwined with Salamander's two tails, that cooled slightly tighter around hers.

"Yes, he did. When I turned seven, you were four at the time." His tail twitched. "Apparently, it sounded like she was planning on selling me to the other NightWing who was looking for a son. He told Animosity that he wanted a dragonet who wouldn't be a coward and would actually try to fight, because apparently the one he had wasn't what he wanted."

Lavender felt horrified. She looked up to see if she'd meet Salamander's gaze. She saw that the other hybrid looked curious, and slightly confused, as though she were thinking. She couldn't help but let herself wander to listen to Salamander's thoughts. She wanted to know what she was thinking about that would give her an adorable face that seemed to make the smaller hybrids heart melt.

Could that've been him? The other hybrids thought seemed to echo within Lavender's mind as she listened. That sounds like something he would do, maybe he was referring to me? I would've been a year old by then.

Lavender stopped listening in at that moment. Was Salamander thinking that the NightWing who Animosity was planning on selling Shadowsplitter to was her father? Images of the angered NightWing flashed through her mind at the thought, making her shiver slightly as though she'd just stepped into the Ice Kingdom.

Salamander's father is a scary dragon, she thought with a twitch of her wings as her talons tightened their grip on her friends talons that were clutching together with her own.

"So now you know. Animosity is an awful dragon and she is not to ever be trusted. By the sounds of things, she's making herself Queen of the NightWing's, which is horrible. With so many dragons following her, it'll feed her greed and she'll start to do the moons knows what." Her brother started to pace as he stood up, pacing back and forth with his tail dragging on the floor.

"So what should we do then prince charming?" Salamander huffed from beside Lavender.

"I'm not a prince."

"Well you are now since your mother's a queen."

The two continued to bicker lightly back and forth as Lavender just sat their, zoned out and lost within her own mind as she listened to her own thoughts.

If Animosity's going to be Queen, she'll need to gather up all of the NightWing's in the Rainforest. She'd be taking subjects from Queen Dandelion. And idea clicked on her mind and her frills twitched.

"I've got an idea."

Salamander and Strongwings stopped their harmless bickering to look at Lavender with confused and interested looks glittering in their eyes like dragonets who've just found the most interesting bug in all of Pyrrha.

"Well?" Strongwings huffed.

"What is it?" Salamander's earrings jingled slightly as she cocked her head to the side.

Lavender stood up as her frills fanned out with a twitch of her tail that untwined from Salamander's, along with her talons.

"We go to Queen Dandelion."

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This chapter must be the shortest one in all of Torn Sides.

But anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I don't know when chapter 19 will be out since I'm starting to feel the anger effect of creating chapters to get out to you all every other day. So I'm fairly sure I've burnt myself out, but hopefully I'll bounce back soon!

- MindlessTyper