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"Hey, Sunny?"
Peril peeped into Sunny's cave, desperately hoping she looked like a completely normal student. The SandWing turned around to face her; Peril didn't miss how her expression shifted from "oh, I wonder who that could be?" to "oh, it's that annoying firescales."
Of course, sunshiney nothing-is-wrong-with-the-world Sunny never made that clear - that was Tsunami's job - and she responded with a seemingly-innocent "what's up?"
Peril was vaguely aware that she was steaming more than usual, so she took a breath and explained her VERY IMPORTANT problem.
"So, you know about the tribal study project thing you assigned my winglet last class?"
Sunny nodded. "Yeah?"
"Well, we did this weird way of picking, because you said we should assign the tribes randomly - and yeah, you know that already - we picked up stones that had the kingdom listed on them, and I..."
She stopped. Sunny waited for her to continue, although Peril half-wished she would tell her to stop talking. She didn't, so the SkyWing had to go on.
"I got the rainforest."
She expected a frown to appear on Sunny's face, and perhaps an "oh, I'm so sorry," to go along with it. Instead, she got a smile and stupidly sparkly eyes.
"Oh, that's amazing! The rainforest is so pretty, and amazing too, their culture is very rich and you'll have so much fun learning about it!"
Sunny kept talking about how wonderful the pile of trees that was the rainforest supposedly was, apparently not seeing the VERY OBVIOUS PROBLEM. Wisps of smoke rose from her nostrils again.
"Yeah, but I CAN'T GO THERE!" Peril snapped, a little louder than she would've liked. "Hello, scales of impending doom?" Sparks of flame breezed off her talons as she waved them around. "Walking fire hazard? Constant recipe for disaster?"
"Well yeah, I know that," Sunny continued, MUCH too calmly for Peril's taste, "but you can still read about it! Starflight made those gloves for you to hold scrolls, right?"
Peril remembered the black gloves she'd so carefully tucked away in her cave, and how she wanted to hug Starflight to death (not really! Metaphorically speaking!) when he gave them to her. She also remembered Clay getting the measurements for her talons so Starflight could make them... and now the MudWing was all over her brain. Focus, Peril!
"It's not just that," she said, trying her very best to focus.
"Well, then what is it?"
Breath in. Breath out.
"Queen Glory hates me."
Silence. Then, of all things, a chuckle.
"Hates you? That's ridiculous!"
Three moons, how long would it take this annoying dragon to figure this out? Peril saw the fiery death stare Glory gave her in the Sky Kingdom, right before the prophecy dragonets left. It was as if she wanted to shoot her magical death spit at her right there, and watch in glee as she screamed in agony. And in the SandWing stronghold, Glory still looked like she wanted to do it, right after Peril SAVED CLAY'S LIFE, no less!
"Look, maybe we can go to the rainforest tommorow. You can get a lot of information for your project there. And she doesn't hate you, I'm sure of it!"
Peril wanted to give Sunny the same death stare that Glory gave her, but she decided against it.
All she replied with was a simple "okay."
Sunny went on about dreamvisiting Glory and letting her know about the trip, while Peril did her best not to explode like a cursed dragonflame cactus.
----
"DEATHBRINGER!"
The NightWing appeared almost immediately. "Yes, my queen?"
"Stop calling me that. I told you, you can just call me Glory."
"But you're my queen! You rule my tribe, and you're the queen of my heart..."
"Sure." She tried to stop her tail from turning pink, and she had to, or she'd never hear the end of it.
"I need you to collect our best fruits, and plants, and whatnot. We're going to the north border of the kingdom."
"What? Why?"
"Just gather the fruits."
"We could send your guards to do that! You don't need to leave the pavilion!"
"I said gather the fruits."
Deathbringer raced in front of Glory to block her path, then took his talon in hers. "Glory. As your bodyguard, I need to know. Please answer the question."
Glory was quiet for a moment. He was serious this time. A sharp laugh escaped her throat anyway. "Okay. But you're still being an overgrown sloth about it.
"Yes, I'm an overgrown sloth," he (wisely) agreed. "So. Why are we going to the border?"
"Sunny dreamvisited me last night. She's visiting the rainforest with Peril, because of a research project her winglet was assigned."
"Peril? The fire dragon?"
"Yeah, her," Glory confirmed. "So now you know why we're going to the edge of the forest. Let's go."
"Hang on," Deathbringer said. He left the pavilion for a few moments, spoke to some invisible RainWings, and then returned. "They'll bring all the things we need. I also asked for a few extra guards-"
"Deathbringer!"
"Hey, you never know!"
----
As the two dragons (or possibly five, or ten) made their way to the border, Glory couldn't help but think of the dragons she'd be meeting there. Of course she was happy to see Sunny anytime, but Peril was... a different case.
It dawned on her that she hadn't talked to the SkyWing very often. Most of what she heard was from Clay, whenever he visited.