Peaceflyt couldn’t think anymore. In the second before Deneb was going to snap his neck, every single thought he’d ever had seemed to flash through his brain. He wanted to scream, but his mouth wouldn’t open.

Deneb’s talons landed on his head and shoved it to the ground. They quickly slipped around his neck, and Peaceflyt shut his eyes as hard as he could. He knew if he struggled, it wasn’t going to do anything. He would die anyway.

He felt Deneb’s muscles tense, and tried to shut his eyes even harder. This is it. His heart was beating so fast, he was afraid that he’d die from a blood overdose before Deneb killed him. He was so panicked, his brain couldn’t seem to process anything anymore.

The only thing he remembered was a sudden voice yelling “OH NO, YOU DON’T!” He dared himself to open his eyes and saw a blur sailing across the air from behind Deneb. The blur splattered right on Deneb’s ear- one of the only parts of her body that had no armor. Deneb tightened her grip on Peaceflyt’s neck as her head whipped around in surprise.

She paused for a second, but that second seemed like an hour to Peaceflyt. He now saw what the blur was- venom.

Deneb’s talons shot off of Peaceflyt and onto her ear. She started screaming in agony as the venom got under her armor and started to drip down to her neck.

“OWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! YOU MOONS-BLASTED IDIOTS! I AM GOING TO MURDER ALL OF YOU!” She scraped at her armor and screamed even louder as she just pushed the venom further into herself. Peaceflyt immediately got up and ran towards his skyfire. His brain was so flooded with Deneb’s miserable thoughts, it was almost like he could feel her pain.

As he grabbed the skyfire, he took a shaky breath. Deneb was still howling in pain, but at least her agony wouldn’t be invading his head as well as his ears.

Deneb ran outside to the glacier and shot up into the sky, still screaming. Peaceflyt wondered if the dragons from Jade Mountain could hear her.

“Is she gone?” a voice whispered by Sparrow.

Pyramid looked up from Atacama. “I'm pretty sure she is. And hopefully she'll be gone a long time.”

Walnut’s yellow scales slowly appeared, though they looked more white than before. “I've never done anything like that. Should I have done that?” She violently shook her head. “Yes, she deserved that.” Color started slowly returning to her scales.

“Are you okay?” Pelican interjected.

“Uhh… I think so,” Peaceflyt replied. “Is Atacama okay?”

“I don’t know. Hopefully, she’ll wake up soo-” Pyramid was cut off by the sound of yelling from the cave wall.

“GET AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS, YOU FILTHY NIGHTWING!” Peaceflyt’s head darted over to the voice and he saw Atacama slowly getting off the ground. “Oh. The NightWing’s gone. Are you all okay?”

“I guess,” Peaceflyt responded, followed by everyone else in the cave saying pretty much the same thing.

I should probably make sure no one's still outside, Peaceflyt thought. He didn't hear anyone else but Deneb before, but he just wanted to make sure. Also, he was paranoid. He slipped off his skyfire. He couldn't hear anyone's brains outside, except for a faint chatter of some passing dragons, probably SkyWings, going on a hunt for food late at night. Atacama seemed to have the same idea.

“Peaceflyt, do you hear anyone outside?” she asked. Or maybe she'd just noticed he had taken off his skyfire.

“No, just some SkyWings... like a mile away... probably.” He peeked his head out of the cave opening and saw nothing except the vast wilderness of the mountains.

He looked back in the cave, where Walnut was looking at him with concern. Without his skyfire, he knew she was worried about him and his safety. She was also trying hard not to cringe at Peaceflyt’s injuries.

“I’m… fine,” Peaceflyt managed.

“Your leg and your neck are bleeding pretty bad,” Pyramid pointed out. “It doesn’t look life-threatening, though.”

“Good.” Peaceflyt gritted his teeth. The adrenaline from the attack was starting to fade, so he was starting to feel the pain.

Walnut apparently couldn't bear looking at Peaceflyt’s injuries anymore because she quickly turned away and ran back into the cave. Peaceflyt felt sorry for her. He wanted to immediately heal his cuts, but he knew that that would probably make the others suspicious of him.

“Did I ever mention Deneb is my cousin?” Peaceflyt said, to get his mind off of his current thoughts.

“Wait, WHAT!?!?” Atacama suddenly roared. She walked over to Peaceflyt and shook his shoulders. “YOU NEVER TOLD ME YOU WERE PART PSYCHO!!!”

Ha, I'm not the one yelling, Peaceflyt thought, amused. “Yeah, I hate being related to her.” He paused. “Do you think I’m part psycho?”

“Yes,” Atacama said, joking. Peaceflyt knew she wasn't being serious, but he still felt kind of hurt.

“Peaceflyt, you aren't,” Walnut said, gathering up her courage and coming up to them. “I know you aren’t. You don't act like it.”

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure I'm not a psycho.” Peaceflyt said, laying down. “I guess I’ll- ow- go back to sleep. Someone should keep watch... though.”

“I could,” Pyramid volunteered.

“I'll go to sleep, too,” Walnut said. “THANKS FOR WAKING US UP, DENEB!” She yelled. “AND ALSO FOR TRYING TO KILL MY FRIEND!” She growled and laid down on the cold ground.

“Peaceflyt. Why was Deneb after you anyway?” Pyramid asked.

“Uh… I think it was because I had a family reunion not long ago- ow- and… Peak and I… well, we ended up in a… fight with her, and Peak ended up throwing Deneb to the ground. And we got Deneb put in a cage for murderers for a little while. I think she might’ve got Peak…” Peaceflyt trailed off as his eyes started to droop.

I hope Peak is okay. I hope they didn't do anything after they captured her. I hope- I hope she's not dead. Moons, please let her be okay.