Clouds of Shadows Volume 1

On the Way

"First we need to go somewhere outside of the Sand Kingdom," Amethyst told Fossa, flying West.

"Okay! Maybe I will get lots of suntime there," Fossa assumed, following Amethyst.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll LOVE the Sand Kingdom. But we're going to the old — old Night Kingdom first," Amethyst kept going.

"Er—what?" Fossa asked.

"We're going to the old — old Night Kingdom. After that, we'll go to the Sand Kingdom," she repeated.

"But it's all dull and creepy and dark!" He whined.

"Well, we need to go there first. Unless you want to go to the Sand Kingdom on your own?" She asked.

"Well—fine! I'll come!"

"Great. Yeah, there are broken buildings, and yeah, there are RainWings crowding the Kingdom on expeditions for historical stuff, but there's a gigantic library that no one has been in it since Darkstalker re—awoke. They think it's cursed. But, it has the information we need, and — and yeah. That's why we need to go there first," Amethyst explained.

"Okay, how long 'till we reach the old—old—old—old Night Kingdom?" He asked

"In a few hours, if we keep flying for the rest of the day. It borders the Sand Kingdom," she told him.

"Ooooh, great... " Fossa mumbled.

"If we stop every once and awhile, we'll probably make it in a day or two. Do you need to rest?" She asked him.

"I'll keep flying if you keep flying, but my wings feel like FIRE!" Fossa complained.

"Ok, let's rest," Amethyst suggested for his sake, flying back to the shore. She did not need a complaining, grumpy RainWing dragging her back. They had just passed the border of the Rainforest.

Fossa rushed to land, and once he did, he immediately lied down, panting, "finally," he gasped.

"Is it suntime again?" Amethyst asked, landing on the ground.

"I don't know. I just go get sun whenever I want! I haven't seen sun in SUCH A LONG TIME so I forgot the schedule!" Fossa groaned.

"Well, if you're going to have suntime, try to make it quick. I don't want to get caught when there's finally another plan in place. I'm going hunting," Amethyst told him, turning to the waves, thinking about catching some fish.

"Well, you said for me to be not as brightly colored, so I'm gonna stick to that! Maybe I will be an assassin! Or maybe I can sell assassin stuff from the jungle, like those berries!" Fossa wondered

"You don't want to do this job. It's like hunting, and you said you're a vegetarian, right? Also, are you going to do suntime or no?" Amethyst sighed.

"Part-vegetarian. I like to eat plants but I got used to eating other stuff. I can't catch anything, though, because it's too hairy, quick, or too cute!" Fossa contradicted her.

"Well, catching a dragon is very different, not like catching a sloth. Like, say, if you tried catching me or some other dragon that you know. Most times, you have to fight as well," Amethyst recalled her tough training.

"Oh. Okay, so then I'll sell stuff! Maybe in the Scorpion Den, or Possibility, or any other towns... " Fossa mused.

"Sure. Whatever. Just remember that both jobs are dangerous. How much longer do you need to rest?" Amethyst replied, changing the subject.

"One more day... eek, I'm so tired!" Fossa rolled. "I wish my wings were a SkyWing's wings! Then I could fly one hundred times around the planet... well, I'm hungry. I'll just look around for some nice fruits!" He got up, and started looking around.

"Well, you keep wishing. Maybe an animus will grant that wish one day. I'm going to get some fish." Amethyst swam into the waves. Fossa looked around, and found a palm tree with coconuts. He cracked open the coconuts, drank the milk, then ended up eating the entire thing.

"Would anyone like a lift?" Two huge shadows covered the sky, but Amethyst didn't notice them because she just dove underwater.

"What? Look — there are two dragons in the sky!" Fossa hissed.

The shadows just kept themselves secret with their shadows and told them, "well, isn't it Fossa and Amethyst."

"How do you know MY NAME?? ARE YOU A SKYWING?"

"No, one of us is to big to be Bonfire," the smaller shadow pointed towards the larger one.

"But Bonfire IS very big..." Fossa complained.

"Do you want to see my true size?" The larger shadow asked.

"Wait, are you the Darkstalker?" Fossa asked, remembering what Amethyst told him.

"No, now I'll expand, and you should know who I am," the larger shadow grew to be the size of Godzilla.

"Stupid animus magic... I don't even know who you are, why are you just such an overconfident little lizard?" Fossa whined.

"I'm not bragging, and I'll take off my cover to prove it!" The larger shadow was Sun.

"Who are you!?! Get away; you ARE bragging!" Fossa ran off into the forest.

Sun sighed, "well, Fossa... watch out!" Soul was sitting at the edge of the rainforest, but Fossa was still running, not even noticing Soul... and Amethyst finally came out of the water. She did notice Soul, Sun, and his friend.

"Soul, what are YOU doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with Bonfire!" Amethyst shouted at him. Soul, who saw Fossa, got away from his hiding spot and shot a blast of fire at Fossa, who dodged it.

"Well, I don't have orders, I do what I want, whenever I want!" Soul called back to her "and we heard a commotion, now I think that was a crash in the rainforest, went here, then found YOU here!" Sun started glaring at Amethyst.

"What are YOU doing here? I was here because I was bored the whole time, as well as Spree," Sun asked her.

"I was waiting for Fossa to finish resting! Then we would've left!" Amethyst complained. Everything on this mission was going wrong.

"Okay, let's just leave them here, and we can go continue on our mission! Got it?" Fossa asked Amethyst, running back towards her.

"Got it!" Amethyst went back into the ocean, swimming away. Fossa followed her, though he was not the best swimmer. Underwater, Amethyst pointed to the right, hoping he'd understand. He did, and swam in that direction. She swam with him, and soon enough they both found themselves back at the surface, with Fossa gasping for air.

"Have you ever swam before?" Amethyst asked him, floating on the water.

"Pah!" Fossa spit out water, "not much."

"Well, would you rather fly or swim?"

"FLY! Definitely fly!"

"Then get in the air!" Amethyst answered, ducking back into the water, swimming a little closer to the shore so she could have ground to leap off from. Fossa climbed up on a nearby rock, and spread his wings, flying.

"WHERE DO I GO!?"

"West! Fly alongside the shore!" She shouted back. Fossa followed her directions.