It had been about three days since she’d been kidnapped. She had at first used her mind reading, and then her eyes, to determine that these dragons weren’t SkyWings. These mystery-dragons called themselves StoneWings. The mind reading was useful to figure out that she was on an island, a small one. Her mind reading had a small radius, and the populated area of the island seemed to barely go out of that. 

Peak had disguised herself with magic as soon as she regained consciousness. Thankfully, she had still been inside of a bag, so no one knew she was the banished hybrid princess. She didn’t have to waste her soul as her scales were already enchanted to disguise herself as a regular SkyWing whenever she willed them to.  She could thank her brother for that.

She was still the same bright orangey red, but instead of her royal purple scales there were the same bright orange scales that adorned her face. The NightWing body parts she had had been swapped for SkyWing ones. Her eyes were still the exact same, harsh, bright violet. Peak thought her disguise worked well. 

There was a commotion from above and Peak’s guard yawned. Peak thought to check her thoughts, to see what was going on. Sounds like that NightWing the Queen likes is back again. 

Traitor! Peak thought, judging the NightWing. What kind of an idiot would betray an entire continent for untrustworthy dragons who kidnapped dragonets? 

Peak’s question was answered when she heard a familiar NightWing’s thoughts, I’ll kill those dragonets. And for those Peaceflyt, the other RainWing, and that SandWing, I’ll make their deaths slow. And no one will even try to stop me when I’m awarded with my power. She saw an image of Deneb being thrown to a wall and then getting venom splattered on her. 

Peak smiled a little. So Deneb met my friends. That seemed to go well. If she meets them again though, that squirrel-brained camel turd will lose her breathing privileges. 

Sadly though, Deneb’s arrival meant that her posture could be recognized, if that was a strong way she recognized Peak. Especially combined with the fact that her disguise didn’t change much about her frame, basic bone structure or even really her face, she needed to be even less easy to recognize. 

Peak made her posture more casual, more the way that the other firescales held themselves, like they weren’t trying to be noticed. Peak looked similar to the way SilkWings used to, back when they were under the control of HiveWings. Peak was not liking this already. 

Peak wished in the moment that her powers were just a little bit stronger, then she could peer directly into Deneb's mind and know what was going on. For example, Peak would like to know why Deneb decided to work for Queen Marble. It was probably because of murder reasons or something, but Peak wanted to be sure. Peak’s powers were strong enough to get her the information that the StoneWings have a magic tracking artifact. Good thing that the StongWings’ thoughts about magic artifacts were too prideful to be successfully subconsciously hidden. Sadly, this meant that she couldn’t strengthen her powers or enchant a scroll to answer questions. 

Thinking about Deneb made Peak think about the vision she had had about her friends. She didn’t think that she’d seen that cave at Jade Mountain, or that Deneb would be able to get to wherever here was from Jade Mountain this quickly. But that means…

Did my friends come looking for me? Peak thought about it for another moment. Yep, they’re dumb enough to. They’ll get themselves killed for me, won’t they. I swear to the moons above that I will kill them if they die. No one is dying for me ever again. 

. . .

The island Peak was on was almost entirely made of tungsten if you dug deep enough. It was extremely difficult to melt in its raw form, even for a firescales, and it was much harder when it was refined and treated. Which of course, is exactly what the StoneWings use for their armor and weapons. Great. 

Peak, despite having mindreading, had no idea why the StoneWings needed the firescales badly enough to kidnap two widely known firscales, herself and Peril respectively. They usually stole firescales soon after they were hatched. Unfortunately, Peak only had as much information as the general public had. The higher ranking a StoneWing was, the harder their thoughts were to read. Almost like having to keep so many secrets from lower ranked dragons had even made their thoughts more secretive. Peak hadn’t ever even heard a thought from Queen Marble. She honestly wasn’t sure if she was just that secretive or didn’t think at all. 

Peak’s guard, Travertine, was complaining in her thoughts. Again. This was really one of her least favorite things, not being able to remind everyone that she still heard the snarky comments, even if you only thought them. 

Peak was brought to the end of a tunnel. She slipped a little at the sharp downward angle that she wasn’t allowed to fly down. Peak briefly wondered if the firescales who grew up here could even fly properly or at all. 

Peak tried her best to stay calm enough to keep her temperature low, so that she could melt the stone. She didn’t know what the StoneWings’ plans were and she didn’t care. She wanted to delay them to buy time, but mostly out of spite. She would not help them do whatever they were doing as much as she could. 

Beside her, Peak noticed Cinder shuffle closer toward her, as inconspicuously as possible, while melting the stone. He and Peril were the only ones so far with a will to escape. He was a pretty candlelight orange with bright turquoise eyes. His eyes were a much more typical color than her violet eyes. 

Cinder had been raised by the StoneWings for his entire life. I wonder how he survived in this awful place for three years. Peak knew that there were firescales who had lived here much longer, but they were fine with how their lives were, and they didn’t want to risk their situation. Peak found it both amusing and infuriating that some of the most feared dragons were spineless pacifists that couldn’t stand up for themselves. Some of those dragons were just awful company as well. Peak knew that, even without her magic, the firescales could break out, they just needed to have a motivation to come out of their shells, and fight for their freedom. It’s more likely that I’ll just use my magic.

After three more hours of her life that she had spent melting a path for no known reason that she couldn’t get back, Peak and the other firescales finally had their measly ten minute break while the StoneWings had their meeting. 

“So,” Peril said, “When do we burn these dragons to the ground?”

“Peril!” Peak said, smothering her laughter, “Please do be quiet about our escape plan. If they know what our plan is, they can stop it.”

“Which we still need,” Cinder reminded them. “We need to work on that.”

“Please take me with you,” Blare, one of the firescales, interjected nervously as she dashed up to them. Peak made eye contact with her for a second. She had eyes that looked like liquid sapphires. Blare’s bright crimson scales clashed terribly with Peak’s burning ruby scales, but looked well with her tyrian underscales that were usually on her wings, back, neck and tail. “I… I want to leave.”

“We’ll take you and whoever else wants to come,” Cinder answered.

“We need all the help we can get,” Peak added. “Besides, we all need to get off this horrible island.”

“I still vote for incinerating all of these dragons.” Peril said, quieter this time.

“Peril,” Cinder reexplained patiently, “Even if we got through the armor, the StoneWings are pretty fire resistant on their own, and I certainly don’t want to kill anyone.”

“Agreed,” Peak continued, ”The only dragons that I kill attack me.” Or banish me… Her mind continued. Peak noticed the flecks of royal purple that were usually scattered by her tail and on the back of her legs were replaced oranges and looked strange, she was used to her normal colors and had forgotten that she still looked like a SkyWing. But Peak couldn’t see her normal colors until she escaped, Something to look forward to, I guess.

Peril sighed and nodded, finally agreeing. Peak was glad that they were all in agreement. Peak heard the thoughts of her least favorite dragon. Peak knew that Kindle was being lied to and manipulated, but she’d turn them over to the StoneWings immediately if she thought that there was an escape plan, or just some firescales that wanted to escape. 

Oh, I hope that those stupid flamescales that didn’t aggravate their poor guards. They're just going to make our lives harder. Especially those stuck up idiots Peak and Peril. Poor Cinder, those two are such bad influences on him. Peak goes around walking like she’s royalty, I just cannot believe her. The StoneWings saved us. They didn’t take us away from loving families! They saved us from being killed after hatching! 

Kindle’s thoughts were hard to listen to. Peak couldn’t understand why some dragons had to have their opinions set in stone. If only  more of the firescales were open to the idea that that had been kidnapped and taken from loving families. Queen Ruby didn’t have the firescales hunted and killed, like Scarlet and Ember. Most SkyWings thought that firescales were disappearing because of certain SkyWings killing them off, but Ruby never found them, so it was never confirmed. Turns out, they were being kidnapped by psychotic dragons to melt a path. Be fair, it’s a very important path, Peak thought sarcastically. 

Peak didn’t understand why everyone here referred to firescales as “flamescales”. It didn’t make any sense, why not just do some research?

The StoneWing’s meeting was almost finished, and still no escape plan. Peak knew that Peril, Cinder and Torch, Peak’s roommate, knew that she could read minds, and they had all sworn to keep her secret.

Meeting’s over, Cinder thought. He was much better at reading the StoneWings than the other firescales. 

“GET BACK TO WORK!” One of the highest ranked StoneWings yelled. The StoneWing guards got to their assigned firescales and sent most off to the tunnel and a few to melt other ores for the StoneWings.

By the time that the firescales got to go to their sleeping caves, Peak really wanted to just storm the castle and kill the StoneWing Queen, but it was sadly much harder that Peril made it sound. 

Peak curled up to sleep in the cave she shared with Torch, wishing that she had a dreamvisitor, or some way of communicating with Peaceflyt, who she knew was at least out of Jade Mountain. Peak suddenly had a splitting headache, and she saw Peaceflyt, Atacama, Pelican, Walnut, Sparrow and Pyramid flying to the island.

That was a vision, Peak thought, bewildered. So I guess they are coming. They'd better come soon.