Prick was gasping for words, he had ran all the way to the oasis from the Scorpion Den. “She-” He gasped between each word. “Almost- Fell- For- It” He let out a little giggle before passing out. Now that they had a better look at him, they noticed that he had obtained a very stylish scab on his snout.

Wish looked at everyone, and he was thinking, hard. How will we stop her now? We have no idea where she’s going now! Onyx, WHY? WHAT CAUSED YOU TO THIRST FOR SO MUCH BLOOD?! Wish had felt hazy since Prick arrived, but it was stronger now. Wish recognized this as a vision. Not just flashes of the future, but a full-on prophecy.

Soon, words were spilling out of his mouth that were not his.

Find the one who has no heart,

Find the one who lusts of blood,

Stop her, before the world shatters apart.

If her mothers’ oath, fulfilled,

Then Ice will drop onto the mud.

And Sea will soon lose her soul.

And Night will fall, forevermore.

One last secret, hidden within,

Her mind is set, on one false goal,

Enforced with magic, never to change.

Wish stood up, feeling queasy. The vision itself was just him, falling, falling, falling, with no end. Somehow, he knew that the hole went down forever, it never reached the bottom. Because it didn’t exist.

“I hate prophecies.” Pansy said, helping Wish walk over to the tree. “But that one was the worst that I’ve ever heard. Because it said that you would die, and it came from you.”

“Worse than my prophecy about the Rainwing-Mudwing war?” Wish asked.

“Most definitely, because that one didn’t tell me that you would die!” Pansy exclaimed. Wish took a deep breath, trying to clear his head. He decided that he just needed sleep. Wish flew up and carefully severed a few palm fronds from each tree. He still wanted them to grow, so he didn’t cut all the leaves off.

When he had gathered enough for about two beds, he flew back down to the ground and laid the long, thin leaves out in lumps. One was for Willpower, the other was for Prick. Wish took some moss from the side of the underneath of the oasis, and laid those out in thick piles. That one was for Marmoset. Finally, he took some muddy clay from the oasis’s shore and packed it into a squishy, lumpy bed for himself. Before he slept, he tied up a hammock for Pansy.

“I saved the best for last.” Wish whispered to her. He hugged her and went to sleep in his little pile of mud.

Wish woke up early the next morning. His dreams were severely unpleasant, because he had been the people that Onyx assassinates.

Sandy had been picking flowers, of all things. And suddenly, a blade had cut through her leg, then her other one, then her wings, then individually all of her spikes, then her front limbs, and she was already dead before her head was severed.

Then, Aethia was practicing her magic, and Onyx showed up and asked her why it wasn’t working. Aethia responded with the idea that it could be her magic earring, which protected her soul. Onyx then poured friendship through her voice as she convinced her to take it off. A few weeks later, Aethia, still a very small dragonet, challenged her mother to the throne. Of course, she lost. And now was dead.

Finally, Wish saw his own death through Onyx’s eyes. She was sneaking up on him, but Wish had known she was there. Onyx led him to a supposedly cool place, claiming to have changed. She hated acting like she liked him. Then, it gets fuzzy. Onyx could push him or lead him into the hole in several different ways, and Wish could only be prepared for one before another one was pulled, and then, because Wish had seen that, he was able to doge it, causing another attempt, and eventually it ended.

Wish didn’t like that dream. AT ALL. It was very vivid and real and even though none of those people are dead, that’s how they could die. He shuddered. Then he took a bath in the oasis to wash off the dried bricks that covered his claws and tail and snout.

Once he was clean, he considered healing Prick’s scarred snout. Then he remembered that he had lost his magic vine. Sighing, he decided to stay fit and walked a few laps around the oasis. After which he stretched himself out and started plotting how to stop Onyx. As he was consulting his magic scroll, Pansy walked over and asked some questions.

“Wathca thinkin’ about?” She asked, sitting next to him as he was furiously staring down the scroll.

“How in the world are we going to stop Onyx now.” Wish says, not meeting her eyes. The scroll had taken that as a non-serious question, and recently had discovered humor, combining these into the answer, Figure it out yourself, you're a smart dragon.

That earned it a disapproving stare from Wish.

“Do you have any ideas yet?” Pansy questioned further. Wish shook his head.

“Every time I think I have an idea, I realize that either it’s a straight up dumb idea, or that Onyx was already prepared for it.” Wish snarls at the scroll as it reads, Correct. Wish hadn’t known that it could pick up on things, that it could learn. Yet, here it is, having a very unlikable humor and a knack for sarcasm.

“Do you think I could help?” Pansy said, scooting closer. She twined her tail around his. Wish felt a little bit calmer.

“Of course,” Wish said. “What do you have in mind?”

“Well, let’s ask the scroll where she’s going right now.” Pansy said. Wish asked it, and it wrote, Onyx IV is currently sleeping. When she wakes up, she will find a friend in the Sky Kingdom. He doesn’t know that she’s an assassin. She will get him to spill where the animi are, and then reluctantly kill him.

As usual, asking the scroll about Onyx was unsettling and gruesome.

“Now we know that she’s going to the Sky Kingdom soon, so we should meet her friend there and warn him about Onyx.”

Wish looks at her and smiles. “Why is it that you make everything so easy and simple?” he asks her. He leans into her. “I wish life could be that way.”

Pansy pulls him closer. “That’s the dream. Maybe it could be that way once we’re done with this whole dealio.” They continued to discuss what to do. How Onyx was always one step ahead. They talked about exactly what they were going to do when they ran into Onyx again.

It was only until they had put the scroll away when they noticed that Willpower and Marmoset had fallen asleep with their tails twined.

“It’s so sweeeeeet,” Whispered a voice from behind them. Both Wish and Pansy jumped at the sound. “Will is growing up so fast.” It was Prick. Obviously. Literally no dragon on this entire planet would ever talk about Willpower like that except for Prick.

“Seriously, what is the deal with you?” Pansy snapped at him. “You’re so weird! And I can never tell when you’re telling a joke or being sincere!”

“Well,” He said. “You can just assume that literally all of the garbage that comes out of my mouth is a joke.” Prick does a little curtsy and steps back.

Wish had nearly forgotten that Pansy was his queen over the past few hours. He had entirely forgotten that she was a Rainwing. Who cares if she’s a Rainwing? Boomed his brain. I can still be her best friend! Wish agreed with his brain, it was so right in so many ways that- I can still love her! And, boom goes the dragonflame cacti.

Wish looked at the rainforest queen. Did he really mean it? What would that mean for his future? Any respectable dragon would have a thought like that and immediately smash it to smithereens. And Wish hadn’t. He remembered the future where everyone was safe, and where he had his own dragonets. Our dragonets? Wish couldn’t imagine having that strong of a relationship with Pansy.

Wish decided that he would push that thought into the storage bin to think over later.

He walked over and took a talonful of water from the oasis. Then he walked over to his sleeping friends and dropped it on their snouts. They woke up immediately, looking around for the offender. They saw Wish and scowled.

“What was that, you toad?!” Marmoset yells.

“My method for waking up sleepy friends.” Wish does a fancy bow. “Your welcome, Marmoset, I am also glad that I’m an awesome friend.”

“I am not humbled by your act of kindness, Wish. In fact, I am quite annoyed by it.” Marmoset tells him.

“Hey, what time is it?” Willpower asks.

“Well,” Wish looks to the skies, trying to figure out if the sun is rising or lowering. “It looks like the time when most dragons would be waking up, so you’re fine.” Wish shrugged. “Also, we know that Onyx is going to the Sky Kingdom right about now, so we’ve got to beat her there.”

Wish pulled out the scroll and consulted it on who is Onyx’s Skywing friend and where they could find him. His name is Copper. His cottage is located just NorthEast of the Skywing Palace, on a small, shallow peak. That was all the information they needed. Wish and his friends were soon in the air, flapping their wings towards the Kingdom of Sky.

“Hooray!” Prick calls, even though no one knew he was coming along. “To the Sky Kingdom! Where some of my least favorite dragons live!”

Wish decided not to question him, and just kept flapping.

Up and in,

Down and out,

Up and in,

Down and out,

Off and away to another unfamiliar landscape.