“Class dismissed,” Tsunami said, after what seemed like an eternity sitting there for Peaceflyt.

He was still thinking about what Pelican had said. Someone is trying to capture all the firescales on Pyrrhia. But why? What’s the point? Are they holding them hostage? Are they- he hesitated. Are they trying to overthrow a kingdom or a queen or something?

Actually, I really just want to know who’s taking them.

“Peaceflyt?” Atacama asked once they left the classroom, catching up to him and Pelican. “I’m thinking we should leave around lunch.”

LUNCH? That’s really soon. Peaceflyt thought, then starting scolding himself. Stop trying to get out of doing things that are out of your comfort zone, Peaceflyt. You’re going to go save her. She’s your best friend, so you should be excited to go and try to find her. You shouldn’t be so scared!

“Oh…” Peaceflyt said, responding to Atacama after an awkward second or two. “Okay. Is it fine if Pelican and Walnut com-”

“Yeah. Sparrow told me about Walnut, she can come with us. And so can Pelican, I guess, if he wants to. Although Queen Coral might be pretty mad if she finds out,” Atacama pointed out.

“She’s been mad at me before,” Pelican said. “And hopefully if it doesn’t take too long, she won’t even notice.”

“Well, okay,” Atacama said. “I guess we just have to go to history before we leave.” She sighed. “I kind of hate school sometimes.”

“We all do at one point,” Peaceflyt said reassuringly. To be honest, though, he thought he was really lucky being able to attend the highest-rated school on the continent. After Jade Mountain was founded, a few other inter-tribal schools popped up around Pyrrhia, but this one was the original. And it was the one that the famed Dragonets of Destiny had founded right after the Great War. So that was pretty cool.

But school could be pretty boring. About 99% of the students collectively agreed that history was the most dull subject. For Peaceflyt, it depended on what they were talking about during class. History of the RainWing queens? Boring. Geography? Not boring.

They entered the history cave, where Webs was standing in his normal spot. He looked a bit more tired today- well, he’d recently looked tired a lot, but today he seemed more exhausted than usual.

He said something along the lines of “Today we’re going to be learning about Queen Vigilance, a NightWing queen who lived a few thousand years ago,” and then pointed at the chalkboard, but Peaceflyt barely paid any attention to the lesson, which was what he didn't do often. Thoughts of Peak and kidnapping cluttered his head, not to mention the thought of going out into a vast continent that was having a war regarding hybrids, his own kind.

Oh well, Peaceflyt thought. I guess I’ll just go with my RainWing look. Luckily, he took after his mother’s RainWing side, so all he really had to do was change his scales to make the wave patterns on his back look like spikes and change his fluorescent scales to match with the rest of his body. He obviously couldn't do anything about his tail, which was obviously a SeaWing’s, or his four gills, but hopefully no one would look too close at him to see that he was a hybrid.

After a while, the bell rang and the Silver Winglet headed off for lunch. Peaceflyt and Pelican found Atacama, Sparrow, Pyramid, and Walnut waiting for them towards the entrance.

“Hey, Peaceflyt. Hey, Pelican,” Atacama said, running up to them. “So, I think we should go pretty quickly.” She glanced around, making sure no one could overhear her. “We can probably catch some stuff for lunch out there, and then we’ll head out across the continent afterwards to see if we can find her.”

“Wait,” said Peaceflyt. “Do we even know where she is?”

Atacama thought for a second, then laughed. “Honestly, no. But we could look for clues across the continent.”

“Wouldn’t that take a while, though?” Peaceflyt asked. “W-what if we took too long, and it would be too late for the firescales?”

“The firescales?” Atacama asked. “Wait, all the FIRESCALES are captured?”

“Um…” Peaceflyt said uncomfortably, looking backwards. “I’m not completely sure, but since Peril apparently went missing yesterday, and Peak was captured two days ago, that’s the conclusion that I came to. I’m not completely sure, though.”

Atacama growled. “I am seriously going to MURDER whoever is doing this. Ok, I want to go right now.”

“Right now?” Peaceflyt asked hurriedly. “Are you sur-”

“Yes, right now,” Atacama said angrily, running over to Walnut, Pyramid, and Sparrow. “We’re going to leave right now.”

“Really?” Walnut said, alarmed. “Can I at least check on some stuff?”

“Sure,” replied Atacama, not unkindly. “Just don’t take too long.”

“I’ve been waiting for this for a while,” Pyramid remarked.

Peaceflyt decided this would be a good time to go outside and get some answers to where Peak might be.

Pelican started to follow him, but Peaceflyt put up his talons and mouthed ‘I’ll explain later’. The SeaWing gave Peaceflyt a confused look, but he didn’t protest or try to follow him, to Peaceflyt’s relief. He glanced around to see if anyone was looking at him, and when he saw that no one was, he quickly ran outside and found a medium-sized rock ledge around the entrance, half hidden behind a tree.

He leapt from the entrance to the ledge and checked to see if anyone was outside. No one was in sight. He quickly camouflaged his scales, looking around again, and grabbed a small quartz rock off the ground near the tree. This way, he’d be able to distinguish this rock from other dull gray ones.

Is this important enough to enchant? Peaceflyt thought. Is it a big spell? He asked himself, going through his mental checklist he made a few years ago to make sure he didn't use too much of his magic. No. Is it selfish? He thought for a moment. I think not. I mean, it could save a lot of dragons, so I'd say it's pretty selfless. Is it important? Yeah, I think this would count as important.

He eventually arrived at his last mental question. Is it an emergency? Like a live-or-die situation? He thought of Peak and the other SkyWing, presumably in a cave of some sort, presumably being tortured. I mean, he hoped they weren't being tortured, but he wasn't exactly sure about that. Hmm. Maybe. Okay, I think I can enchant this.

“Enchant this rock to write down the location of any dragon I choose,” Peaceflyt said slowly and clearly. He glanced back worriedly at the school entrance multiple times, afraid that someone might come outside and see a rock floating suspiciously in his invisible talons.

“Where is Peak the SkyWing?” he hastily whispered to the rock.

A moment or two passed. Please work, please work, Peaceflyt silently pleaded. He hadn’t touched his animus magic since he was two, when he enchanted something that could heal him whenever he wanted it to. So he wasn’t completely sure how it would work, or how fast it would go, or if he even did his spell correct.

A message slowly engraved itself onto the rock. WORK, please! Peaceflyt thought, panicking. He was pretty sure Pelican, and maybe Atacama or Walnut, might be wondering where he was now. If they caught him intently staring at a random rock, they'd probably wonder if he was in his right mind or not.

The rock’s message immediately appeared. Startled, Peaceflyt nearly dropped it.

What the… Peaceflyt thought, surprised. Why in the name of the moons did that write so fast- Oh. Worry cleaved through Peaceflyt. I asked it to hurry up. Oh no. I just used my animus magic twice in a day. I guess it was just a small spell. I don’t feel any different. He abruptly shut his eyes, trying to reassure himself that his soul was still intact.

He heard SeaWing talonsteps in the distance, coming out of the school. Is Pelican looking for me? I really hope he isn’t, not right now. Well, I don’t think he’ll find me right now anyway.

The talonsteps slowly faded back into the school, and Peaceflyt looked down at the rock in his talons and studied the message scrawled on it.

“Peak the SkyWing-NightWing hybrid is located approximately halfway between the Sea and Sky Kingdoms,” Peaceflyt muttered to himself, reading the message off the rock. “But where? Maybe I should’ve told this to show me a map. Not like I want to use my power any more today, anyway.”

He looked up and decided that he should probably tell the others what he'd found out. I bet at least one of them will ask for proof, he thought, glancing at the stone beneath him. Maybe I can find a dirt patch and scrape claw marks that face the Kingdom of the Sea. I hope they'll believe me if I did that.

He put the rock in his pouch and leapt off the ledge, his scales still invisible. The RainWing circled the entrance area a couple times, and then found a good-sized dirt patch that had ground nearly as soft as sand, soft enough to easily make talonprints in.

Peaceflyt hovered in the air for a moment on one side of the patch, making sure no one was in eyesight. Then, in one quick swoop with his front arms limp, like he was an unconscious dragon being carried away, his talons swiped against the dirt.

He stopped in midair on the other side and slowly flapped to the ground to inspect if his mark looked authentic. I think it does, Peaceflyt thought. I still hope that Atacama or Pelican or anyone else doesn’t suspect anything. I guess I should probably get back inside.

He quickly visiblized his scales and casually walked back into the Great Hall.

“Hi, Peaceflyt,” Pelican greeted him, then added in a lower voice, “What were you doing out there?”

“Ummm… hunting,” Peaceflyt lied.

“Really?” Pelican arched a brow. “Why did you seem so suspicious about it earlier?”

“I did?” Peaceflyt blurted. Oh, great. Please don't ask about anything.

“Yyeah,” Pelican said. “You didn’t want me to come outside with you and you told me you’d explain later.”

“Oh. Yeah. I- um… was just looking at the weather. Seeing if the flight conditions were okay,” Peaceflyt lied. “But when I was out there, I found a clue to where Peak might be.”

“Really?” Pelican's ears perked up a little. “Can I see it?”

“Let me tell Atacama first, and then I can show all of you,” Peaceflyt said, heading in her direction. “She’ll probably be pretty mad if I tell her there's a clue to finding Peak and I didn't immediately tell her.”

“Yeah," Pelican replied. "True."

“Atacama?” Peaceflyt asked, coming up from behind her. She turned around to face him.

“Yeah?” she asked.

“So… I think I might have found a clue to where Peak is,” he informed her. “And I think she's near the Kingdom of the Sea.”

Atacama paused. ”WHAT!?” She finally yelled. “What would some random SeaWings want to do Peak? Or firescales, for that matter?”

“I have no clue,” Peaceflyt replied, perplexed.

“Okay,” Atacama said angrily. “We’re going to leave RIGHT NOW. I’m going to go check on Walnut.” She stomped down the hall he’d seen Walnut go down earlier.

Pyramid watched her go with a blank expression and turned back to Sparrow. “You know what, I feel like murdering some SeaWings.”

“We don’t really know it was the SeaWings who captured Peak,” Sparrow pointed out. “It could be anyone.”

“I guess so,” Pyramid said. “Oh wait, it could be SkyWings. I didn’t think of that. Queen Ember did banish Peak. And I’m pretty sure SkyWing tradition says something along the lines of ‘whenever we figure out a firescales is about to hatch, we smash their egg.’ I just can’t understand why they’d want to do it now. I don’t think any firescales went into the Sky Kingdom since Peak left.”

“I wonder how they captured them,” Sparrow wondered.

“Wasn’t there that special rock or something that firescales can't burn through?” Peaceflyt asked. “I forgot what it was called.”

“Oh!” Pelican exclaimed. “It was like… tungsten. Or something like that.”

“Oh, yeah,” Peaceflyt agreed. “They could've worn that for armor or something.” He looked towards the hall that Atacama had disappeared down and saw that she was coming back with Walnut.

“Hi, guys!” Walnut said. Pyramid, Sparrow, and Pelican turned their heads to the sound of her voice. “Apparently we’re leaving now, so yeah! I hope we don't get killed,” she added.

“We’ll try our best to not let anyone get killed,” Pyramid reassured her. “Except the dragons who kidnapped Peak, obviously.”

“We’re going to kill the kidnappers?” Walnut asked, with a hint of anxiety in her voice.

“Yeah,” Atacama replied, as if it was perfectly obvious that she and Pyramid were going to do that. “Actually, we should really get going. We can talk while we're flying, but now that I think about it, Peak is probably suffering on an island right now.” And without any hesitation, she ran outside.

Peaceflyt looked at Pelican and shrugged. They both followed Atacama, with Walnut, Pyramid, and Sparrow behind them.

“Are you guys ready?” Atacama asked, stretching her wings and looking up at the sky when they caught up to her.

“I guess so,” Peaceflyt mumbled.

“Definitely,” said Pyramid.

“Then let's go save some dragons.” Atacama launched herself into the air and the rest of them followed, their wingbeats becoming silent as they flew away from Jade Mountain.