Peaceflyt woke up the next day feeling surprisingly awake. He got up off his mat and saw that everyone else was still asleep. Except for Pantanal and his siblings, who must've left to go somewhere.

Peaceflyt decided to go on an early morning walk. The air was crisp, though it smelled a little dirty. He noticed that barely anyone was out even though the sun was up. He walked around Melospiza’s block and returned to the house to find Pantanal and his siblings there.

“Good morning,” Pantanal greeted him quietly when he came in.

“‘Morning,” Peaceflyt whispered. He walked up to him and awkwardly stood there for a while. Eventually he asked, “Would Melospiza get mad if I borrowed a scroll from her bookshelf to read?”

Pantanal thought about that. “As long as it's on the middle shelf, I think you'll be fine,” he finally answered. He pointed to Melospiza, who was snoring loudly in her corner. “If you’re quiet, she won't even notice. She normally wakes up around mid-day.”

Peaceflyt nodded. He walked over to the bookshelf and grabbed a random scroll from the middle shelf, like Pantanal suggested. He turned it over in his talons and saw that it was about the history of the Jade Plains, which were apparently the plains Aspire was in. Peaceflyt actually kind of liked random history, and the scroll wasn't too long, so he decided to sit on his mat and read it until his friends woke up.

Pelican woke up first just as Peaceflyt finished the book. They sat there and talked until the others awoke. Soon, Walnut, Atacama, Pyramid, and Sparrow were all up. Pyramid pointed out that it would be good to leave early so they could have a head start, and everyone else agreed. So right after a short breakfast, Peaceflyt bid goodbye to Pantanal and his siblings, and they all left before Melospiza woke up.

Their current plan was to try and reach the shore of the Bay of a Thousand Scales within the day. They were planning on staying the night there, unless they were fast and able to reach an island.

The flight out was uneventful. Peaceflyt had a vague idea of where they were going, and when he saw mud, he knew they were in the right place. Not the light brown mud near the Rainforest, but the reddish orange mud that only existed by the coast. They continued flying until Sparrow spotted a huge lake in the distance.

“We’re already at Queen Moorhen’s lake?” Peaceflyt exclaimed. “It’s not even noon!”

“Well, kind of,” Pelican said. “It nearly is.” He pointed up at the sun, which was high in the sky.

“Oh. Ok. But still, that was fast!”

“Yeah, it was,” Atacama agreed. She looked back at the lake and got blinded for a second. “AH!” She screamed, covering her eyes.

“What?” Pyramid said, glancing warily around. “Did you see someone?”

“No, I saw something,” Atacama said. “The sun is really bright shining on the lake.”

“Oh.” Pyramid laughed. “True.”

They flew closer to the lake and decided to land on a grassy area across from Moorhen’s palace, where they decided they would eat and take a break.

“I’m going to dive for fish,” Pelican announced. Peaceflyt nodded, and Pelican dove into the lake. He came back up very quickly with six fish in his blue talons, which were shining in the sunlight.

“That was fast,” Peaceflyt observed.

“Yeah, I'm just that good,” Pelican joked, and tossed a fish to Peaceflyt. He caught it in his talons and promptly ate it.

Just as Peaceflyt was about to thank Pelican, Pelican handed two more fish to him. Peaceflyt, surprised, said, “Oh! Thank you.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Pelican replied, eating his remaining three fish. “If you want more, you'll have to get them yourself.”

“It’s fine. I'll have some other food,” Peaceflyt said indifferently. He walked over to a nearby apple tree and whacked it with his tail. About a dozen apples came cascading down, along with a large branch that hit him on the head. He yelped in pain, and immediately thought how dumb that must've looked. He glanced around, but luckily no one was looking at him. He rubbed his head and grabbed the apples off the ground.

“Hi, Walnut.” Peaceflyt walked over to her and handed her about three quarters of the apples he had. “You can have these if you want.”

“Oh, thanks!” Walnut said happily. “That’s a lot! Are you sure you don't want more?”

“No, I'm fine. I already had some fish.”

“Oh, okay,” Walnut said. “But this is still a lot. I don't know if I can eat all this.”

“We could always save some for later,” Peaceflyt suggested, and Walnut seemed fine with that. She started eating, and Peaceflyt wandered over to Pelican, who had just finished his fish. He was standing right next to Atacama, Pyramid, and Sparrow, who were all sharing a cow they'd found somewhere.

“Oh, hey,” Atacama said, noticing him.

“Hi,” Peaceflyt replied.

“Do you think we should maybe get more out of view of the palace?” Atacama asked. “In case someone sees us?”

“Sure,” Peaceflyt said. “But where could we go?” He looked back at the land around him. It was mostly open grass with a small tangle of bushes and trees off to one side.

“I don't know! It was just a suggestion,” Atacama answered. She turned back to Pyramid and Sparrow, who were discussing what might've happened to Peak.

“I don’t think she’s dead. Peak’s definitely not the type of dragon to accept death,” Sparrow was saying.

Pyramid and Atacama laughed like Sparrow had said a joke. “Well, she won’t accept death from anyone except herself,” said Pyramid.

“Definitely,” Atacama agreed. “I wouldn't be surprised if she was burning her prison down. Or wherever she is right now.”

They continued talking for a while until Atacama suddenly froze.

“Atacama?” Peaceflyt asked unsurely.

“There are MudWings coming this way RIGHT NOW,” she whispered loudly.

“From where?” Pyramid breathed.

Atacama slowly lifted her right talon and pointed behind them. “I can hear them,” she muttered. Pyramid cursed under her breath.

“We need to hide,” Walnut said, just as the MudWings came into view. There were two of them walking their way, chatting about something. They were both holding spears, so Peaceflyt guessed they were guards for Queen Moorhen patrolling the lake. And he figured they probably wouldn't be very peaceable if they saw a bunch of dragons from different tribes, including a hybrid, right across from their queen's palace.

Peaceflyt’s mind was racing. He ran to the tangle of trees and flung out his wings. Walnut ran towards him and ended up next to him. “Walnut, open your wings and go invisible,” he whispered. She did.

Peaceflyt beckoned the others over. “Atacama, Pelican, get behind me. Pyramid and Sparrow, get behind Walnut.”

Pyramid and Sparrow hurried to where they’d last seen the RainWing and crouched there. Atacama and Pelican did the same behind Peaceflyt, and he promptly went invisible. He was desperately hoping that he was fully invisible and that no one's wings or tail would stick out from behind him. Luckily, as the MudWings approached them, they took no notice.

“This is boring,” the one on the left said. “This is the seventh time we've been around the lake. We haven't even seen anything.”

“Yet,” the other replied. There was an awkward silence, until he continued, “Yeah, it is boring.” They continued trudging towards where Peaceflyt and the others stood. Though his heart rate was skyrocketing, Peaceflyt held his breath and tried not to move a muscle.

“By the way, did you hear about that MudWing at the school at Jade Mountain?” The first one said, fiddling with his spear. “The one that got killed?”

“Yeah, I think so,” the other replied. “Do you know what happened to him?”

“From what I heard, there was this dragon, I forgot what tribe, whose daughter was killed by a MudWing near the school. Who apparently looked like the one that died. So the dragon went out to avenge their daughter, but… they got the wrong MudWing.”

“Wow.” The second one paused. “My condolences to them. Do you remember the MudWing’s name?”

“I forgot,” the first one said, stopping right next to Peaceflyt. “Something like Marsh or... Bog?” The MudWing shrugged and continued walking with his partner.

As soon as they were out of view, Peaceflyt slowly and carefully slipped his skyfire out of his arm pouch, trying to not make any noise. He was now very interested in this story. Someone died at school?

He could hear the faint chatter from the MudWing guards rising up again from far away, and he decided to concentrate his mind on their minds. Who is it? He saw a fuzz of brown in one of their minds, and concentrated harder.

They seemed to be talking about something else now and were far in the distance; Peaceflyt could barely hear them. He almost stopped paying attention to their minds when he saw a familiar face in one of them. It seemed like one of the guards had remembered the dead MudWing’s name, just as Peaceflyt recognized the face.

“Swamp,” the guard said suddenly to the other. “That was his name.”