Shadow Falling

Reflection

"Hey, hey, Shade, get up!"

Shade cracked his eyes open to see Passion, disguised as Dreamwatcher. He raised his head, seeing that the sun was already high in the sky. Huh, so he did fall back asleep after all. He looked back over at Passion and saw her prancing in her spot.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to take you somewhere! Have you ever been to the ocean?" she asked, flashing a grin.

"Uh, yeah...? I grew up on an island, Pas... Dreamwatcher."

"Well, have you have been to a nice beach?"

"Well, I guess no..."

"Great! We can go! Jewel and her friends are going to be there, too!"

"Are you sure? What if the Seawings get mad?"

"Jewel has a couple of Seawing friends. Besides, it's not like we're invading! That's impossible." she paused, then a bright look crossed her face. "Ooo! Not really for me! I could..."

"NO!" Shade yelled, tumbling out of his hammock. He shot up and felt his spines rising on his neck. "You promised!"

"I was only thinking out loud, Shade. But now you're up! Let's go!"

Shade sighed but followed. He guessed he was sort of getting used to her antics. Together they took off, heading toward the ocean. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe it would even be fun. And since he had been having to follow Passion around so much, flying was starting to feel... a lot nicer than before.

He glanced down at the ground below him, the thick green rainforest stretching out like moss. And beyond that, the glittering horizon. The ocean. He wondered briefly about what was out there. Heh, that was silly. There wasn't going to be anything important out there. Pyrrhia was it. There hadn't ever been any accounts of anything else. So, why would he assume there was?

Ahead of him, Passion did an odd spiraling move that let her land easily on the sand in front of... seven dragonets? He thought it was only those two Seawings they saw yesterday. Oh wait, one of them was Destiny, that made sense. And Jewel, obviously. But there was a third Seawing, a Skywing, and... and an Icewing!

Shade's wings seized up as he went in for a landing, and he was sent tumbling snout over tail into the sand at the talons of the Icewing. As he scrambled up from the sand to get away, his tail brushed up against the Icewing's ice cold scales.

The vision slammed into him, images of the bright white north. She, this Icewing, had her head bowed reverently toward a thick-bodied Icewing. And, for the first time, he heard something, too.

Find my brother. And bring him to me.

Then it was gone, and Shade found himself sprawled out near Passion. Embarrassed, he picked himself up and hid himself behind Passion. Passion had her head cocked slightly, looking at the new dragons.

"I thought you said your friends, Juju."

"I did! Silver at least is my friend! The others are friends of friends." Jewel said. She pointed to the gangly Skywing. "That's Stormcloud, Moonlight's partner, then Lazuli, and Silver."

Lazuli was a royal blue Seawing, her scales somewhere between Moonlight's midnight blue scales and Hurricane's algae green ones. Silver was, surprise, the Icewing. They went over a few more introductions, but Shade tuned them out. He was starting to get very concerned about the things he saw.