"I swear by my claws, if you come in here for anything other than to tell me you caught that rat in the kitchen, I'll gut you."

Queen Scarlet's scales glinted in the firelight of the torches around her table, laid out with a map of Pyyrhia.  Saguaro would be impressed with the war room, under different circumstances.

The guard who had caught her clamped down on the binds around her throat, and she choked, unable to breathe fire, or hardly breathe at all. He pitched her body forward to thump against the floor. Saguaro writhed. And Scarlet's war council looked down on her with scrutiny.

"No rat in the ki'chen. But aye found a mole in tha entrance hall." Her captor muttered.

Scarlet rubbed her shin thoughtfully. "A mole, huh? No others with her, are there?"

"No, Ya Grace."

"Hm. Now that's what I like to hear. Shes a peculiar one, isn't she?"

Saguaro thrashed against her chains and swung her tail around, itching to even just scrape the smile off that smug SkyWing's face. The dragons chuckled, watching her struggle.

"Feisty one." An old orange man muttered.

"Looks a little funny too.."

Scarlet shushed them with one raised talon, and turned to the one with the chapped lips. "I'll deal with her tomorrow. Put her neatly with the others outside, alive, if you will. Her head means your head."

"Yes yet Majesty."

"And work on that moon cursed hick accent, will you?" Scarlet scoffed. "You speak like a regular commoner. Go on, out of my war council."

Without another word. Chapped Lips dragged Saguaro out of the council room, her chains and scales both scraping the floor.

She was unceremoniously dragged like dead weight out it the arena. Her chin hit the ground hard with every step her SkyWings pulled her down. Is this any way to treat a prisoner? What lackluster decorum, honestly.

There were three of them now, guards. And Saguaro waited and watched them all move as they carted her along. One was dead and blind on one side of his face. Another had shackled her too loosely. Saguaro had been slowly wriggling herself loose in her chains. All she needed was one gooood opening.

The blind SkyWing sneezed, and she took that half-second to whip around and spear him through the skull with her tail. She used his body's momentum to slam him into the other two soldiers. They dropped her chains, and Saguaro took off like a bolt of lightning.

Unluckily for her this time, the one that raised the alarm wasn't incompetent. Or innocent... SkyWings jumped from their posts and dogpiled her. Firm jaws clamped around her tail, and Saguaro yelped. They gagged her mouth and held her down, waiting for her to stop struggling.

"Fuckin SNAKE!" Chapped lips seethed, rubbing his temples. "That HURT!"

"Killed Citrine..." Someone mumbled. "oughta return the favor..."

"And do what, kill her? You heard the bloody bighead. Keep the snake alive."

"Doesn't mean we can't take something else!"

Chapped Lips barked again, this time a bit too close to Saguaro's face. "Shut your coal chute and do what you're told. Up to the spires. Lock her in tight. No more incidents."

The SkyWings muttered.

"Now!"

Feeling her strength to fight fade, Saguaro was lifted off the sands and high into the air. There went her last chance of escape. Good-bye life, it was nice knowing ya.

Too high too high. Can't fly. Can't fly... She muttered over and over, screwing her eyes shut until she felt solid ground underneath her chest.

The SkyWings locked her bindings to the thin webbing wires connecting her to their many other prisoners, but Saguaro didn't even take a moment to count out how many of her limbs were locked, or what the soldiers missed. She grabbed ahold of the edges of her rock spire prison, and held on tightly as the cold wind whipped around her.

Too high, too high, can't fly, can't fly...

"You've got nerve."

Saguaro dared open her eyes to identify the voice. And sitting on a spire not ten feet from her was a NightWing, bigger and darker than any she'd read about or seen before. He was, huge. MudWing huge, with a blood-red belly and matching eyes. Missing a horn.. He opened his mouth to speak again.

"Trying to run like that, I mean."

She lifted her head "Did it never occur to you to try it?"

"They got me while I was sleeping. That's the last time I never nap this far north."

He didn't seem threatening, despite his size, but Saguaro was still wary. His eyes were too red, his face was ashy, like his scales were painted on with chalk. She kept her barb in sight, waving it slowly.

"You don't have to look tough for me, little sneak." The NightWing said. "I know you're scared."

"I don't like having my thoughts read, or whatever NightWings do."

"Even if I could, I wouldn't need to. It's all over your face."

"I take it, fear is an emotion you're acquainted with?"

The NightWing nodded. "It's wartime. If you don't know fear, you've been living in a sand dune."

She braved a chuckle. "I've never heard a NightWing use SandWing idioms. It just, doesn't fit."

"Here. Try this one on for size." The NightWing held back a laugh. "If you think SandWing idioms don't fit me, imagine what a letdown a name like Orphaner is."

"Ooooh. Scary. I didn't know you were big on marketing your freelance assassination business."

Orphaner threw his head back and snorted. "HAHAH! Freelance assassin. I thought that's what you were!"

"No. Just a mole in a cellar of rats."

"Only distinguishable by someone who loves one or the other."

"So tell me" Saguaro said, as her claws relaxed their grip on the spire. "Do you love moles or rats?"

Orphaner smiled. "I think I more distaste rats than anything."

"You sound like a Talons of Peace or whatever.. the way you talk."

"See? I'm not the only one who can make an educated guess. I'm the most peacable dragon over four-hundred pounds you'll meet." He relaxed his shoulders, flexing his wings to cover his back like a shawl.

"What are you doing in a SkyWing prison?" Saguaro asked.

"Oh you know Burn. She hates some goddamn peace and quiet almost as much as she hates her sisters. It's a lose-lose for the rest of us." Orphaner said. "But this isn't my first ball-and-chain rodeo. Want to get out of this place?"

Saguaro looked taken aback. "You're awfully confident for the most un-sneaky dragon I've ever looked at."

"Trust me, ive got a plan. It's been cooking ever since I saw you take out that little guard earlier.."

Saguaro's heart tied up in knots. So he saw me kill the kid.. I wonder who else has seen? Not just the kid, but everything else I've done.

What if he wont help me. What if he kills me. A life for a life means peace, doesn't it?

"Hello? Earth to mole." Orphaner whistled, and shook Saguaro from her thoughts. "Are you in? I could use someone like you."

Saguaro rubbed her eyes, and braced herself against the sudden chill that washed over her. She nodded.

"I was made for this."

Orphaner grinned toothily. "I was hoping you'd say that."