The Desert Sky At Dawn

Thorn emerged from the Queen Glory's pavilion and stretched her wings with an indulgent yawn. It had been a long morning of negotiations and there was still more to do before any documents could be written and signed. This was their first break of the day and Thorn was eager to move. It was unnatural to sit for so long, but that was apparently what you did when you were a queen: sat and talked.

Thorn let her wings rest outstretched for a while, allowing the curtain of sun that slipped between the leaves to soak into them. The light seemed thicker in the rainforest, like warm honey coating her scales. It was pleasant enough, but nothing compared to the clean, bright heat of the desert.

A moment later Six-Claws shuffled out and Thorn moved aside to give him room. He stumbled into the sun, desperately trying to flick off the centipede that was winding up his foot. By the time it fell off there were two shimmering red beetles scuttling onto his tail. He whirled around to swipe at them and his wing caught in a vine.

Thorn laughed, her head thrown back unabashed. He gave her a dour expression.

"I haven't seen you fight this hard since we invaded Burn's stronghold," she teased.

Six-Claws huffed and pulled the vine from his wing. "It's too crowded here. In the desert you can spread your wings as wide as possible and not have to worry about running into anything or anything running onto you." He eyed her jealously. "How come you aren't covered in bugs?"

Oh she was, but she had learned that it was more effective to just let the animals crawl over her as they pleased. They just saw her as another part of the jungle and would move on. Thrashing around trying to catch every little bug or critter that touched her scales would only end in misery.

"Not sure," she said. "Maybe the Eye of Onyx has a bonus feature of repelling bugs. That would be useful; protections against evil wanna-be queens and centipedes." She inclined her neck to reveal the enchanted pendant that hung around her neck. While she was very aware of the deadly powers that the Eye possessed, it was also nearly impossible to take it seriously. The Eye of Onyx was the symbol of her throne and the power behind it while also being the gaudiest piece of jewelry she had ever owned. She felt like a pompous camel-face when she had to wear it.

She had hoped her comment might make Six-Claws laugh. He was always reminding her, in his typical gruff affectionate way, to stop acting like a 'street rat' and sit regally for once in her life. She peered at him, finally noticing his silence.

He did not look amused. In fact, he was staring rather oddly at the Eye of Onyx. Thorn glanced down too, wondering if a giant moth had landed on her necklace and ruined her joke. Instead she saw Stonemover's moonstone pendant. Somehow it had wriggled out from beneath the enchanted necklace to dangle smugly over the onyx stone.

Slowly, so as not to seem embarrassed, Thorn readjusted her jewelry. She ignored the look on Six-Claws' face, the one the mirrored her own thoughts: Why haven't you gotten rid of that yet?

"Remind me to speak with Smolder when we get back to the Stronghold," Thorn said. She didn't need reminding - she needed to change the subject. "Hopefully he'll know how to reach the blacksmiths of the Kingdom. I know a few but we'll need a lot more than that to fill Queen Glory's requests."

The ploy worked. Six-Claws' brow furrowed as he considered her words.

"So you think this will work in the long term? These trade agreement, or whatever they are," Six-Claws grumbled as he shied away from a butterfly trying to land on his face.

"I wouldn't have agreed to them if I didn't think they'd work," she retorted. In fact, Thorn would do whatever it took to make this trade work. She'd be a fool not to. The rainforest was flush with materials and it was only a matter of time before the other Tribes got the same idea.