"Hey, it's best to listen to Garnet on this one." Herring said. He was washing blankets in the little pond inside the cave, while Squelch laid on the floor nearby. Holler slept in the crook of his wing

"You think it'll be okay?" Saguaro asked him.

Herring picked up the sopping blanket and shook it out. Cold water came raining on Saguaro and she shook in her scales. Herring tossed the wet blanket to Squelch. It landed with a thwap next to his face, and the MudWing opened his mouth to heat it with a slow stream of fire.

"Oh definitely. I've already got a game plan." He said. Saguaro noticed the strength in Herring's arms as he hefted another basket of blankets around. "You've got fire, we burn the plans. In and out, ten minutes. We'll get lunch on the way back."

"No, no that won't work." Saguaro mused. She began to pace, back and forth, behind Herring as he folded. The fire would tell them it's not a SeaWing. They'd see it as an attack from another tribe. The SeaWings will be angry and on the offense.

"We can't use fire." She said.

"You're right. It'd look like an aggravation." Herring agreed.

"From the MudWings, or the SkyWings. Blister's army would suspect them immediately."

"Inviting a counterattack. I hear you."

"So what if we just steal the plans?"

"Look like an inside job." Herring said, scrubbing another blanket. "Blister gets restless. There's a mole amidst their ranks."

"It's a solid plan. What of the guards? General Prawn?"

"If worse comes to worse, we get Holler to take them out. He's got this venom. It melts flesh like heat melts butter."

"Really??" Saguaro stopped, and wheeled around to face him. She cast a look over her shoulder at the RainWing sleeping with his neck nestled in the crook of Squelch's neck. "Him??"

Herring nodded, but didn't turn away from his work. "No blood, no fire. No struggle. If the guards need to disappear, they will."

"Wow. Murder. For peace."

"It won't come to that."

Suddenly, Orphaner was right beside her, and Saguaro yelped in surprise.

"Sounds exciting over here." He said.

"Well, you sure just appeared out of nowhere." Saguaro's ears flicked. "We were just talking about the mission."

Herring looked over his shoulder. "Nice horn, Orphaner, was it? Where's the other one? Forget to put it on this morning?"

"IceWing." Orphaner answered.

Solstice looked up from the scroll he was reading. "What?"

"Not you."

Herring snorted. "I'm just razzing you." He finished washing the last of the blankets and picked up the dry one from in front of Squelch's face. It smelled slightly charred, kind of like Herring's breath.

"Hey Herring." Saguaro asked. She moved past Orphaner, who stood between them. His arms were solid where Saguaro brushed past him, and the heat from her scales seemed to absorb right into him, like a black hole consuming her heat. "What will Orphaner do while we're gone?"

"Probably help Garnet. She could always use some muscle. Maybe they go meet the higher ups. But most likely he'll be guarding her dragonets."

Saguaro snorted. Orphaner, surrounded by little dragonets. They'd eat him alive. Still, the thought was almost cute. He was just so big, maybe he would be a gentle giant. "Does every newbie get stuck babysitting?"

"Sometimes she brings them here." Holler smiled. He wriggled out of Squelch's sleeping arms and wings. "They're real fun. Demise is my favorite. Oh! Or Topaz!" His scales shifted to match the patterns of the dragonets as he spoke.

Suddenly Solstice bolted up from where he was laying, and tossed the scroll in his talons to the ground. "This is more boring than watching snow melt. Let's do something fun."

"No time for games, Sol." Herring chided.

"I'm serious! Let's go hunting! It's been forever since any of you got off your sorry asses and worked for your dinner. Pull your weight! Let's make it fun!"

"He's got a point." Garnet said. She dropped from the ceiling- where she had been hanging like a giant red bat- and floated to the cave floor. The scroll that Solstice threw rolled into her open talon. "It's late enough. We'll be out of earshot of the patrols. Let's break the ice with our new members."

"I think that sounds like a great idea." Saguaro smiled.

Maybe this isn't the greatest idea.

She sat under a large sycamore tree, just outside of a little makeshift fence Solstice had tacked together. Inside were eight boars. All hairy and snorting and with a red tag on each of their tails.

"You look way too pleased with yourself." Herring rolled his eyes at Solstice, whose grin was so wide, Saguaro thought it'd freeze like that forever.

"The game is simple." He said. "I let the boars go, everyone chases them. First one to bring one back to the pen, wins."

"What do we win?" Saguaro asked.

Solstice looked thoughtful for a moment.

"What about the extra boar?" Orphaner suggested. "there's eight of them, and only seven of us."

"What about Holler?" Saguaro asked.

"I don't eat meat." The RainWing said. He materialized seemingly out of nowhere. "I'm the referee!"

"Yeah yeah. Extra boar. Sounds fine." Solstice waved a talon and raised his tail. It came down hard, and smashed the boards off his twig fence. Eight boars squealed and scampered away into the brush.

"I've never hunted in such a thick forest before."  Saguaro said. Her wing stalks tapped the ground. "I don't know how good I'll be."

She felt Orphaner's body behind her. He's awfully close lately. Does he not have any notion of personal space?

"Don't worry." He smiled, and sidled away. "It's just a game."

Squelch came soaring overhead and lowered himself to the ground in a cloud of dirt and dust. "No patrols anywhere close. We're good."

"Perfect. Their head-start is up, go!" Solstice shouted. He took off like white lightning into the trees and disappeared before Saguaro could blink.

Then went Herring, and Garnet, and Starscryer. All of them lifting off over the trees to zip away in different directions. Squelch took off on foot.

"Come on, slowpoke!" Orphaner's voice shouted from just inside the treeline. When did he get ahead? "You're in last place!"

Saguaro sprang to her feet and and bounded after Orphaner, who turned and dipped into the woods. His reddish-black scales melted perfectly into the shadows of the woods. And soon Saguaro only knew him by the gleam of his eyes.

Those weird red eyes.

Wet leaves and pine needles sagged under her talons as she ran, and the light of the sunset shone trough the trees to catch her scales. It was strangely pretty. Much prettier than the desert, she thought.

Saguaro didn't hate her home, but it wasn't particularly interesting. Sure, you had all your standard desert things. Sand, cactus, oases, sand, dragons, sand. Mostly sand. Mostly nothing.

But here, every step she took thrummed with life around her. Cicadas in the trees shrieked at her. Birds overhead honked to one another.  Wind rustled the pine needles, mammals skittered away into the branches.

And the sound of hogs squealing caught her attention.

Orphaner was in shock as Saguaro raced by him like a streak of lightning. Her tailwind sent him stumbling over his talons and taking a dive into the dirt.

But Saguaro was on the move. She could hear the hogs. Smell them, practically. And her heart skipped a beat when she saw the little red tie hanging off the tail of a boar as it rooted around the trunk of a tree.

"Gotcha!" She chirped. The hog barely had a moment to register her before Saguaro snapped it up into her talons.

This was more fun than she thought!