‘She must have the literal brain of a squirrel to think it was a good idea to attack a firescales,’ Peak added with her thoughts.

‘She probably does have the brains of a squirrel. Maybe like a squirrel that was enchanted to kill everyone,’ Peaceflyt thought, half joking, then looked over to his left. ‘DENEB’ was the first thing he thought of when he saw the NightWing approaching. But this one didn't have dark red underscales. This NightWing only had light gray underscales. 

Phew. Peaceflyt breathed a sigh of relief. It's not Deneb.

“Hello,” Milkyway said, looking at her unconscious daughter on the ground. Oh, good, she thought immediately. Finally I can keep her contained, at least for a little bit. It's really the only way for her to stop hurting innocent dragons, to keep her either contained or by my side. I wonder why Deneb has to be such a difficult daughter. Peaceflyt could honestly NOT see the family resemblance between Milkyway’s kind passiveness and Deneb’s murderous personality.

“Who got her to quit avoiding me for this long?” Milkyway asked Peaceflyt and Peak, tilting her head. Peaceflyt glanced quickly at Peak, and she slowly raised her talons.

“Wow, really? How'd you do that?” Milkyway asked. “Anyway, thank you so much!” She bent down and grabbed Deneb by the tail. “Who are you anyway?”

“Peak,” Peak answered. “One of Peaceflyt’s friends.”

“Nice,” Milkyway responded. “I know I already said this, but thanks.”

“No problem,” said Peak. Milkyway smiled, and walked away happily with Deneb’s tail slung over her shoulder.

’Umm… good job? Apparently?’ thought Peaceflyt, looking at Peak behind him.

‘Thanks?’ Peak thought with exaggeration and sarcasm, smiling slightly.

Peaceflyt could see Deathmaster staring at them from a cluster of trees to his north. He beckoned for Peaceflyt to come over, and he nodded. Now I can spend some time at a family reunion actually NOT almost getting killed, he thought drily.

•••

Peaceflyt, Peak, and Autumn were talking to Deathmaster, Deneb’s younger brother, and Nightlight, Deneb’s clutchmate. Peaceflyt guessed that Milkyway had hidden Deneb off somewhere, because he'd seen her a few minutes ago, and Deneb wasn't on her shoulder. He honestly wouldn't blame Milkyway; carrying a NightWing almost as big as her for the whole day would be pretty tiring.

“Peaceflyt,” Deathmaster said. “Why did you bring your friend again?”

“She just came along,” Peaceflyt said.

“Um,” Peak interjected. “More like I was saving you from Deneb.”

“Yyyyyeah,” Peaceflyt said awkwardly. ‘Right. Thanks for doing that,’ he thought afterwards.

‘Well, what can I say except you’re welcome,’ Peak sung inside his head.

‘And thank you,' Peaceflyt replied. “So, anyway, Deathmaster-” 

A loud screech came from the East, startling everyone. Nightlight glanced around worriedly. “D-don’t worry, it could be a large group of scavengers,” Deathmaster said, peering out of the trees to the noise’s location. “Sometimes where I live, they have these gatherings and they're really loud.”

“I don't think it’s scavengers,” Peak observed as an angry yell broke the silence again. “I’d better go check.” She stepped out of the clump of trees and met Peaceflyt’s eyes. “Are you coming?”

“Umm…” I don’t really want to… Peaceflyt thought. “Sure.”

They flew over to where the strange noise was coming from, with Peak’s SkyWing-like wings keeping her in front of Peaceflyt. 

They landed right where the noise was coming from. Peaceflyt’s eyes couldn’t see anything as he glanced around, but he heard a cough behind him that made Peak swivel her head around alertly. “Who’s there?”

“Who is that?” a muffled voice said quietly, coming from a small cave three-quarters covered with boulders. 

“Who are you?” asked Peak as she lifted two boulders and threw them aside. Peaceflyt stretched his neck to see what was inside.

“You,” Deneb said roughly and angrily as she slowly lifted her head up. “Have you come to knock me unconscious again? You know, as soon as I get free, I’m getting my revenge on both of you.”

Me? Peaceflyt thought angrily. What did I ever do to her? He turned around and Peak was looking behind her, like she’d seen something. However, she quickly turned around and decided to annoy Deneb instead. “When you escape?” Peak taunted. “Don’t you mean if you escape?” 

‘What if she has help?’ Peak thought worriedly.

‘I’d like to know who would help Deneb,’ replied Peaceflyt. ‘Milkyway might, because she’s Deneb’s mom, but she’d keep an eye on her afterwards.’

‘The Queen of the SkyWings would befriend a sociopath killing machine that doesn’t have the brains to up-rule her.’

‘Hmm. Probably. Peaceful definitely isn’t the word I’d use to describe Ember.’

‘Really?’ Peak thought with exaggerated inquiry. ‘That’s the same dragon that exiled me from MY kingdom! And as a PRINCESS, I can say that MY AUNT is a horrid, non peaceful camel-eating squid-face.’

“PEACEFLYT!” Autumn yelled, running into their conversation. “The reunion’s over, hurry up!”

“Okay! Coming!” he yelled as his sister’s dark purple figure took to the sky. He turned around and saw Peak squinting at something behind her again. 

“What were you looking at?” he inquired.

Peak turned her head back at Peaceflyt. “I thought I saw a grey SeaWing or something behind me,” she said, visibly confused.

“That’s really… weird. The only other SeaWings here are my uncles Seaweed and Oceanclaws and my grandma, Koi. Oceanclaws is part NightWing, like my father, so his wings are kind of blue-gray.”

“The SeaWing I saw wasn’t blue-gray,” Peak informed him. “It was fully gray. Whoever it was dove into the trees when they saw me.”

I hope they aren’t stalking us, thought Peaceflyt. I don’t really want Peak to go over there to investigate either. It could just be a bluish-gray SeaWing, I’m pretty sure there are some of those-

“Peaceflyt, I’m not going to go over there and investigate,” Peak said. Peaceflyt flinched. He thought he had hidden his thoughts well enough for no one to hear. He was normally okay at that, since there were more mind readers in the rainforest and at Jade Mountain, but also normally he wore skyfire, so it wasn’t like he practiced it every day. How much times have other dragons heard my thoughts?

He glanced over at Peak, who was staring at the ground while walking. So this time she hadn’t heard his thoughts. “I can hear Deneb’s thoughts,” she said to him. 

Peaceflyt opened his mind, and immediately hatred and anger flooded through it. ‘I will GET that SkyWing sooner or later… and she and all like her will PAY!’

‘You heard that too, right?’ Peak asked Peaceflyt.

‘Yyyyep,’ he replied.

Peak sighed. ‘Yay! I’m gonna have to incinerate even MORE dragons,’ she thought with heavy sarcasm. 

‘Oh. Great. Have fun doing that,’ he thought wryly.

‘Thanks,’ Peak thought drily.

“Peaceflyt!! We HAVE to go! Literally everyone else is leaving!!” Autumn yelled.

“Okay!” he yelled back, launching himself into the air.

“See you at school,” Peak said to Peaceflyt before glowing and rising into the evening sky, putting up firewalls to all her thoughts.

“Yep. See you at school tomorrow. I’m already pretty tired, actually,” Peaceflyt responded. “Have a good night, and don’t let the Deneb’s bite!”

Peak laughed and flew away.