The group made good progress, and luckily Atacama’s wing didn’t impact her flight too much. The most she ever did was complain once in a while. Then again, it was a long flight, and Peaceflyt felt like complaining as well. He thought about her statement about falling into the ocean, and Peaceflyt was feeling like that was pretty accurate to him. His wings were dead, and he could breathe underwater, so why not? He felt like diving under the water to swim with Pelican, who was ahead of them and keeping a lookout for any possible dragons coming their way.

Actually, he did dive under the water and swim next to Pelican for a bit. But once his wings started feeling more awake, he decided to fly back up and check on Walnut and the others.

They made good progress, going from the beach to the first island they saw in the Bay of a Thousand Scales in only a few hours. Peaceflyt was glad the journey was uneventful; he didn’t really like being in the middle of action, and they’d had a good amount of it so far.

When they finally landed on the island, which had a large rock formation in the middle of it, it was later in the afternoon and everyone was exhausted from flying so much. So as the group settled in, they mostly chatted and rested.

About an hour later, Atacama pointed out that she was hungry. “I want some wagyu! Or lizards. Lizards would be nice, but wagyu is the best.”

“Wagyu is the best,” Peaceflyt added. But we can't have it right now. Because we're in the middle of the ocean, and pretty much all the food here is fish. I mean, there might be some small animals here, but not as much as the mainland. Atacama and Pyramid and Sparrow and Walnut are gonna have a hard time. Why didn't I think of this? This is why I don't think I should be saving the world. But then a picture of Peak came into his mind, and he remembered. Right. I’m not saving the world, I’m saving my friend.

As Peaceflyt finished his train of thought, he saw Pyramid pounce on a rock near him, which made him start. As she lifted her claws, he could see a dead lizard impaled on one of them.

“I found a lizard,” Pyramid announced. “I didn’t think there would be any lizards in the Kingdom of the Sea, but apparently I was wrong.” She slid the lizard off her claw and tossed it to Atacama.

“Apparently so,” Atacama said, catching it. She tore the tail off and handed it to Pyramid, then promptly ate the rest.

“I wonder if we’ll get to Peak today,” said Sparrow. “Maybe we will tomorrow.”

“That would be amazing,” Pyramid said. “I bet she's killed at least one of her captors by now. Or at least tried to, since these dragons seem to be immune to fire. If they weren't, Peak and Peril would've definitely escaped.”

“That's pretty scary,” Walnut added. “Her kidnappers are immune to fire and maybe even animus magic!”

Holy moons, they are. That’s really scary. And we'll have to meet them soon. I get to meet Peak soon. Unless she's dead… DON'T THINK ABOUT THAT. Don't think about that. Part of Peaceflyt’s brain was thinking about how he was going to die in the hands of kidnappers tomorrow, and part of him was just telling his brain to shut up.

“Well, we also have fire and animus magic,” Atacama said confidently. “Maybe we can out-spell them. I wouldn't count on it, though.”

“Wow. A group of dragonets is even with skilled kidnappers,” Sparrow whispered. “Those are good odds.”

. . .

After a bit more talking about their chances of getting out of Peak’s prison unharmed, the group was up in the air again, continuing along the chain of islands that were part of the Bay of the Thousand Scales. They passed over at least five small islands, and while they were doing so, Peaceflyt had lots of time to think.

I haven't had time to think with all this stuff going on. I feel like I've been in an action scroll for the past few days. Peaceflyt tried to distract himself from the fact that he was heading into certain death by looking at the scenery below him. Wow, I haven't been here in a while. It looks amazing, but not like anything changed.

Peaceflyt had only been to the Sea Kingdom once, when his father, Seawatcher, had taken the family there on a vacation. So he vaguely knew his way around a few islands. However, Pelican grew up in the Sea Kingdom and lived there most of his life, as the youngest son of Queen Coral. So he definitely knew his way around.

Peaceflyt often asked him why he was born nearly 30 after most of his brothers, and his response was that his mom wanted one more heir. Luckily, she only had to have dragonets once for that to happen, as her last heir came in the form of Princess Azurite, Pelican’s twin. Like most of Queen Coral’s daughters, Azurite was given extra special treatment because she, one day, might inherit the throne. So far, none of Coral’s daughters had challenged her. Tsunami didn't want to and was too busy running a school, Anemone was an animus and didn't feel like being queen, and Auklet still felt too young, even though she was an adult. So that mainly left older Auklet and Azurite.

But even though Azurite got special attention from the Queen, Pelican still got more than most of his brothers. His dad, Tide, who Queen Coral enlisted to have Pelican and Azurite with, often took him out to explore the kingdom. So Pelican was probably the group's main guide into not getting lost.

“Except I haven't explored with him in a long time,” Pelican had explained. “Because I’ve been at the school.”

Peaceflyt didn't think that would be much of a problem because he’d never dreamed of exploring the Sea Kingdom by himself as a dragonet. But now he had to, to save his best friend.

Thinking about Peak took him into his thoughts about possible death. It'll all be over soon. We're getting close. He realized that could have two meanings: this mission would be over soon and Peak could come home safe, or Peaceflyt and his friends would die at the hands of her captors. He didn't like the thought of that, so he tried to distract himself by looking down at Pelican.

However, he found himself looking into Pelican’s eyes. He was looking up at him and motioning that there was a dragon coming their way. Great.

Peaceflyt called out to the others, who were flying around him. “Pelican says there's a dragon coming.”