"Salamander?"

"Yes, that's my name but don't wear it out." The odd looking hybrid said with a smirk as she kept walking, Lavender quickly following after her.

"So, why'd you help me?" The purple hybrid asked as she looked up to meet Salamander's eyes, who, didn't meet hers as the party hybrid continued to look forwards as they walked through the village.

"No reason," Salamander shrugged.

"There's got to be a reason why."

"No, not really."

"Yes, yes really."

"Not every dragon needs a reason for what they do, dragonet." Lavender stopped at that, making Salamander pause as well and look back at her. "What?"

"I'm not a dragonet." Lavender stated, her frills and wings twitching.

"You sure?"

"Yes I'm sure!"

"How old are you then?" Salamander cocked her head to the side slightly, her earring clinking against each other and her frill bouncing slightly.

"Seven." Lavender huffed with a glare towards the taller dragon before her.

It was silent between the two for a few moments before Salamander shrugged and turned to keep walking. "Could've fooled me." Was all the other hybrid said.

"W-What do you mean could've fooled me?!?" Lavender shouted as she ran after her.

"Exactly what I said, you could've fooled me. You look like your, what? Five? Maybe six?" Lavender could see Salamander wasn't even trying to hide the smirk from her face.

"I am definitely NOT five or six!"

"Once again-"

"You could've fooled me, I get it!" Lavender cut her off with a huff.

"Aw, don't get your tail in a twist, you could get away with a lot by looking like a dragonet."

"Oh? Like what? Lying? Sorry, but I don't do that." Lavender huffed as she continued to follow the other hybrid through town. The pair did get some glances from some SandWing's and a few MudWing's here and there, but they weren't confronted by any more gang members, thank the moons.

"Don't know, you could get by a lot of things and get away with more." Salamander shrugged.

Lavender stayed silent as she kept following closely behind Salamander, lost in thought. Soon though, the hybrid started to grow curious so she let her mind wander to Salamander's, listening to the other hybrids thoughts.

To bad she doesn't have anything valuable on her by the looks of it, Salamander thought, making Lavender pause once more, catching the taller Hybrids attention once again.

"What's up with all the stopping? And why are you still following me?"

"Did you only help me in hopes of stealing from me?!" She spat, her frills fanning out angrily as her scales shifted darker in colouration.

"Woah woah, take it easy kid." The splotchy dragon put up her talons with a smile.

"Once again, not a kid."

"Yeah, whatever, but really, no need to over react. Plus, how'd you get that silly idea?"

"I read your mind you stupid lizard." Lavender huffed angrily.

"A mind reader then? Looks like you got the good end of the gene pool. What other little tricks ya got? Can ya shoot venom? Breath fire? Oh! Maybe even tell the future? Or do you have no other special abilities that make others like you?"

"What do you mean by that? And no, I don't have anything else!" Lavender gave Salamander a glare but it didn't look to effect her once so ever.

"Nothing important." The other hybrid shrugged before she continued walking. "If you don't want anyone to try stealing from ya kid, I'd suggest going back home and away from the gang areas here."

Lavender just watched as Salamander walked away and soon looked to disappear entirely from view as other dragons walked around her. Once she was out of sight, Lavender shook her head.

She's weird, and she wanted to steal from me! That's the only reason she helped me! She thought with a huff as she turned to start heading back towards the palace where she'd be able to meet back up with her friends. As she walked past other dragons, she could feel the slight stomp on her step, similar to that of a dragonet who had been scolded by their parent and felt as though they've done no wrong.

Which she hasn't! She was just very angry that another dragon would just help her get away from two gang members, just to see if she had anything she could steal from her! The thought alone made Lavender's blood boil.

She let out an annoyed huff as she kept walking in the direction towards the palace. It didn't take her long to walk back and soon she was walking down the long open hallways that let he warm rays of sunlight shine in. One thing she always would notice when ever she came to the desert was the heat. It was hot. Lavender was used to the humidity and coolness of the Rainforest, not the dry, scorching heat of the desert. But, with each time she visits, she starts to get used to it, as though it's the new normal for her to be swapping between the Rainforest Kingdom and the Sand Kingdom. Both felt like home to her.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts as she saw the tall wooden doors that lead into the throne room. Standing outside of it were two posted soldiers holding tall spears at their sides. Lavender also spotted Sapphire who was patiently waiting, talking softly to one of the posted soldiers with a smile on her soft face. The SeaWing must've noticed Lavender as she gave the hybrid a warm smile.

"Hey Lavender! Did you get bored of the town?" She asked.

"Eh, kind of." Lavender shrugged her shoulders. She didn't really want to talk about what had happened to her and her encounter with another hybrid in the village. "Plus I wanted to come see if anyone else had come back to the palace."

"Funnel and Shadow still aren't back yet."

"Of course they aren't, Shadow's probably trying to take his sweet sweet time with Funnel." Lavender made her voice go higher in pitch and clasp her talons together. "Since he's in love~" she smirked as she saw Sapphire snicker slightly with a smile on her round face.

"When do you think they'll get together?" Sapphire asked with a curious glint in her blue eyes.

"Hopefully soon!" She said with a flick of her tail. "They should've gotten together ages ago!" Lavender huffed as she crossed her firearms across her chest as she sat back on her hind legs.

The hybrid and the SeaWing continued to chat, sometimes talking to the two guards posted at the throne room door, for what seemed like hours. It was soon last mid day and Funnel and Shadowsplitter still hadn't made an appearance back at the palace like they said they would at this time, which was slightly worrying, to Sapphire mostly.

"They should be here by now." Sapphire fretted a as she fiddled with her webbed talons nervously.

"Yeah, they should." Lavender hummed with a small twitch from her frills and her wings.

"Should one of us go look for them?" Before Lavender could reply, the SeaWing spoke again. "I'm going to go look for them."

"By yourself?"

"Sure? Why not? I can do it by myself."

"If you're sure. Don get ganged up on by random dragons!" Lavender called to her friend as she left down the hall, shouting back "I won't!" Lavender watched as her friend soon was gone from view, off to search for Funnel and Shadowsplitter.

"She's probably going to run into trouble." Lavender sighed, but then again, it was Sapphire, no one could have the heart to hurt her. She was to kind and looked like a dragonet even at the age of ten. The hybrid looked back to the two soldiers guarding the throne room doors. "Do you know what King Meerkat and Queen Scorpion are doing?"

The two soldiers gave each other a look before their black gazed looked back onto Lavender. "We don't know for sure, but two of the royal advisors went inside and neither would stop complaining." The first shrugged while the second nodded her head, agreeing with him.

"Annnd that's why Scorpion and Meerkat are the royal family, they can deal with grumpy dragons all they please." Lavender smiled as the doors opened, revealing Queen Scorpion and two of her royal advisors.

"What?" Grumbled the large SandWing, all her jewelry and cloth sparkling in the sunlight as her black eyes locked onto Lavender's pink ones.

"Oh nothing!"

Scorpion just watched her for a few moments before she rolled her eyes. "Lavender, you can go wait in the throne room with Meerkat, I've got some things to wrap up first but I'll meet you there with the others later." She sighed as she walked out of the throne room with the two advisors following right behind her, neither daring to even pass the tip of her tail. It was a show of respect for royalty, to always walk behind them and never beside or in front of them unless stated by them.

"Alrighty your majesty!" Her smile widened when she heard her friend grumble. The hybrid didn't waste any time walking into the throne room to see King Meerkat looking over a scroll in his talons. When he looked up, his emerald green eyes lit up at the sight of Lavender.

"Hello Lavender, I'm surprised to see you here by yourself."

"I'm not by myself, I'm with a grumpy ice dragon." Lavender and the others were the few dragons who knew about Meerkat's true identity as a former IceWing assassin. But with his enchanted earring, he took on the appearance of a SandWing who Scorpion had married a year ago after to death of Rattlesnake, the Animus who enchanted his earring and several other items locked away within the SandWing Palace.

"Ha ha, very funny." The pale SandWing rolled his eyes with a warm smile on his face as he rolled the scroll back up in his talons. "So, anything interesting happen lately while me and Scorpion have been stuck in the palace these last few months?" He asked.

"Depends on what your definition of interesting is." She shrugged with a smile.

"Oh wow, big words, I didn't know you could even learn to speak such a word."

"Hey!"

Meerkat let out a warm hearted laugh, his smile never leaving his face. Meerkat always seemed to be happier when he was Meerkat. When ever he was his old form, Shudder the IceWing, he always seemed more grumpy, to Lavender anyway. He also seemed to be happy with Scorpion, they both seemed happy. "How's your schooling?" He asked.

"My fathers teaching me everything he knows and is making me read every school in our hut that's going to turn into a library at this point." She huffed with a twitch of her tail.

"Strongwings is a wise dragon, he'd make a great teacher. He's patient too, so I can see how he'd be able to teach you."

"Oh? And what does that mean? You over grown ice cube."

"Ouch, you wound me Lavender."

"Yeah yeah yeah." She rolled her eyes, a smile on her face. She liked to believe her and Meerkat had a good relationship, one like siblings just like all her friends. She considered them to be family, no matter how different they were.

-~-~-~-~-~-

That night, Lavender lay in her bed within the palace in her own room. She was tired, yet sleep didn't come easily to her. She let out a groan as she pushed her face deeper into the pillows that were atop her bed. The blankets were long forgotten and were rolled up near the end of the bed. She wasn't used to sleeping with any blankets so she didn't use them.

Her pink eyes looked towards one of the windows within the room that let in the moonlight from outside filter in and make the room look to glow in silver moonlight.

Through the window, she could see the moons, or, well, just one of them really but she knew the other two were there beside it, just hidden from view since they weren't full so they blended in with the black night sky. The moon that she could actually see was hardly a sliver in the sky and was shaped like a dragons claw.

She watched it for a few minutes before her eyelids started to grow heavy, feeling as though someone was trying to pull them shut.

Finally, she thought with a sigh as she closed her eyes. It didn't take long for her tiredness to take over and let sleep claim her for the night, but it wasn't a dreamless sleep.

Her eyes opened once more to find herself in a dream, the same dream she had before. The dark room and the twisted looking throne and the dragon seated atop it, but the room didn't set itself a blaze like last time. This time, she could get a clear view of who exactly was on the throne, and the sight worried her.

It might've just been because of her encounter with this dragon and how it made her feel, but her sight before her made her feel troubled. She wasn't a future seer, she didn't have that power, but what if this meant something? She remembered when she got this feeling around Rattlesnake ever since she heard the evil SandWing's thoughts.

In her heart, she knew something was wrong, something bad.

Because the dragon sitting atop the throne was the female NightWing she met in the village outside of the Rainforest. Her name came back to Lavender in that moment, making the hybrid's frills droop with a shudder.

Animosity.

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This chapter took a while to write and I struggled a little with it, but I usually struggle with the beginnings of a story, which I will be working more on in the future with each book I work on here on Wattpad.

Anyways!

The next chapter might take a little while before it comes out since I'll be working on some art and preparing an art contest.

- MindlessTyper