Get book, learn gem exists, look for author, meet Ivy, Try to find Vanta’s journal at library, Meet Azuria, Look for journal in castle, Discover old map of the kingdom, Find journal in ruins, Find a translator, Meet Jade, Translate journal, Follow map to Spectrum’s Glade, Learn Breeze’s secret, race to Crystal Caverns

Chapter 1

Skyanna Windblossom wished that her life was like a book. Exciting adventures, epic battles, and long journeys full of magic and wonder. Unfortunately, her life was more like a student about to go into university. Filling out 500 applications and reading the most boring book in the entire kingdom. Seriously though, this book was BORING. Why did she care about this dragon's quest to kill a Spirit Guide? Spirit Guides are good creatures! The chances that one killed your father are, like, pretty much 0. It's not even like they could step on him! Their feet are made of mist!

"Why? Why would you do that?!" She put her head in her talons as the main character made yet another stupid decision.

"I know, he's an idiot. I've read that book way too many times." Her father grumbled as he passed by Sky's room. Altum used to be an English teacher, the same profession Sky wanted to go into. Now, he was the principal of the biggest school in Astras: Celestial Academy. Sky scowled and flipped the page. The words started to scramble around in her brain, and soon enough, her mind was wandering. What was Nova doing right now? Trying to escape a boring meeting? Probably. And Crystal! Had she decided what profession she wanted to go into? Had Seastar decided to join the FrostGatherers, or had they decided to stick with water? Glancing down at the page in disgust, she decided that she couldn't take it anymore. The book could wait, her questions could not. She glided down from her hammock in a tight spiral, attempting not to knock over anything on her bookshelf. (She'd done that way too many times.) She threw the book onto her desk, adding to the clutter already there. She grabbed her satchel from where it was leaning against the wall and snatched a few silver coins from where they were on her bookshelf. She exited her room, making her way down into the main area.

"Where are you going?" She whipped around to see her mother, Breeze Windblossom, peeking out of the dining room, where she was changing out the summer plates with the autumn ones.

"Oh, just out. Get a new book, say hi to Nova, that sort of thing."

"Have fun! Oh, and do you mind picking up some butter while you're out there?"

"Not at all!" Sky touched her nose to her mother's cheek. Breeze grinned.

"Thank you! Be safe!" She called as Sky exited the house. Once she was outside, Sky breathed in the crisp autumn air and looked over Celestium, her home. She had grown up here, and it was perfect. A bustling town of white buildings with shingled rooves, Celestium was the capital of Astras, and home to many different species. Dragons, Elves, and goblins alike roamed the streets. Sky ducked in behind a couple of fire elves, heading up farther into the city. Windbreaker Manor was on the outskirts, where most houses were. It was quite big, and the round walls stood out from the rest of the city. But Sky wouldn't change it for the world.

"Good morning Hestia!" She yelled as she passed Flamecaller Bakery. Hestia waved and kept setting up the window displays with the help of her son, Smoke. She kept walking, passing businesses and houses alike, saying hi to everyone she knew. Most people here knew who Sky was. It was a little bit hard not to, with who her father was and all. Also, Sky wasn't exactly the quietest of dragons.

"Oi! Sky!" She turned to see a gray-green dragon standing outside of an art shop. She grinned and walked over to talk to them.

"Hey Slate! What's up?" Slate grinned.

"Eh, not much. Waiting for Eiraseye to finish up shopping." They rolled their eyes. "Seriously, that dragon can take forever to pick out what she wants." Sky laughed.

"That's true, but when you exactly what you want, it can be hard to settle for something different."

"I know that, but crimson and red are the same exact thing! Just pick one!"

"Crimson and Red and very different colors, thank you very much!" The 2 of them turned to see Eiraseye coming out of the art shop. Slate rolled their eyes but touched their snout to Eiraseye's cheek.

"Well, I'm glad you found what you were looking for. Finally." They then turned to Sky. "Well, it was nice to see you."

"Have fun!" Eiraseye waved as the two dragons turned to walk back home. Sky waved goodbye and then continued her journey. She made her way into the Market District, grabbing a jar of butter before moving on to her favorite store: Cloudchaser Bookshop. As she stepped inside and breathed in the familiar scent of pine and old parchment, she felt right at home.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite customer!" Sky turned to see the shop's owner, Piper Cloudchaser, stepping in from the back room.

"Good morning Piper! How are you doing today?"

"Oh same old, same old." Piper shrugged. "I'll have to close up early today though. My nephew just got engaged, we're holding a celebratory banquet."

"That's great! Good for him!" Piper laughed.

"I know. It's very exciting. Anyways, what can I get you?"

"Do you have anything new?" Sky asked, peering over Piper's shoulder into the back room, trying to see if there was anything interesting.

"As a matter of fact, yes. Just got it in this morning. It's old." Piper stepped through the beaded curtain into the back room to go and retrieve the book. Sky took that moment to look around the shop.

There wasn't anyone else in there, but there sure were a lot of books. Every inch of the small shop was crowded with bookshelves, and piles of books littered the floor. It smelled like parchment and pine, courtesy of the candles in the windows. For Sky, this was heaven. Surrounded by books. Even though she’d already read most of them, it was still perfect.

"Alright, 'ere you go!" Sky turned as Piper walked in from the backroom, placing a book on the ink-stained table in front of her.

"Wow. You weren't kidding about the old part." Sky said in disbelief, glancing down at the yellowed pages and missing lettering.

"Yeah. Don't know who dropped it off, and it's nothing I've ever seen before." Piper sighed, adjusting her wings.

"Hmm. Well, I'll still take it!" Sky said cheerfully, reaching into her satchel to pull out her coin bag. "How much?"

"Eh.....2 silver, 'cause you're my favorite customer." Piper held out her talons, and Sky surrendered the money to her.

"Thanks! Have a great day!" She called as she moved to head out the door.

"You too!" Piper responded. Sky stepped back out onto the bustling street, tucking her coin pouch back into her satchel. She put the book in there too, although it was quite heavy.

"Hey Sky." Sky jumped as she heard someone behind her. Whipping around, she saw Crystal, one of her best friends.

"Crys! There you are!" Sky said, drapping a wing over her friend's back. "What's up."

"Oh, not much." Crystal said with a small smile. "Was just out doing some errands."

"Nice, so was I! Just got a new book too!" Sky grinned, gesturing to her satchel.

"Of course you did." Crystal let out a small sigh, shaking her head. "Tell me, have you read this one 5 times or 15 times?"

"Actually, I'm not sure!" Sky replied, her eyes lighting up. "It's this really old thing that Lilac found! As far as I know, it's nothing I've ever read before!" They both ducked as a low-flying Earth dragon swooped down to land behind them.

"Really?" Crystal asked, surprised. "I thought you had read everything the kingdom had to offer." She frowned, thinking.

"Clearly not!" Sky was talking a mile a minute now. "I mean, think about all of the new stuff inside here! What would we learn? I mean, the thing is clearly old, so does it have some sort of old thing we've forgotten about inside of it? Oh! What if there's a map that leads to the First Temple? How cool would that be?!" There were so many new discoveries she could make with that information! Imagine being the first person to visit the original temple of Elena in over 4 centuries! That would be awesome!

"Very cool." Crystal agreed, glancing over her shoulder. Crystal was definitely a pretty dragon, if not a little odd. She was short, like a water dragon, and had aqua fins going down her back, like a water dragon. Her scales were dark blue, with aqua underscales, like, you guessed it, a water dragon. That was about where her water dragon similarities ended. Her fins were encrusted with pink crystals, with the occasional bits of gold here and there. She also had a few gold scales mixed in with the dark blue. Her talons and horns were also gold. Pink crystals grew on her arms and legs, which didn't hurt but mostly just got in the way. (Sky had asked.) Her eyes were blue, with flecks of gold in them. In case you're wondering about all of the crystals, it's because Crystal can grow and control crystals. Wow, what a surprise! To be fair, no one is entirely sure how that happened, and Crystal definitely had water dragon parents, hence the fins and the blue coloring, but no one was also sure who her parents were. An elf named Avon had found her in the Crystal Caverns when she was only a dragonet and had raised her at Farynia's temple. Farynia was the elves' goddess. Yeah, they only had one, while the dragons had, like, 15 hundred. Sky could never keep any of them straight, besides the basic ones. Elena for life, Dabria for death, Aither for wind, Calida for fire, Terra for earth, and Avisa for water. There were other gods for the subelements, of course, and a bunch of other minor ones that Sky could never remember, as previously mentioned.

"Sky? Sky! Great Farynia, are you listening?" Sky blinked back to reality to see Crystal staring at her.

"Sorry! Zoned out for a second! What were you saying?"

"Should we go and rescue Nova? I think she has a meeting." Crystal curled her tail in, adjusting her wings.

"Yeah, she probably does need rescuing. Never fear, for her friends are here!" Sky jumped up to her hindlegs, spreading her wings wide. Crystal ducked under her wingspan.

"You, uh, you might hit someone. Maybe don't do that here?" She suggested.

"Oh. Yeah, probably a good idea." Sky landed back on her feet, getting a glare from a passing lightning dragon. "To the castle!"

Yes, Starfall Palace was big. And yes, the library was huge! Much bigger than Sky's family's library, and that was saying something, considering the fact that the entire house was centered around the library. Actually, Sky was pretty sure the entire throne room itself was bigger than her house. It was a pretty room, with a domed glass ceiling, and a mosaic of the constellations on the floor. Portraits of the previous queens adorned the wall across from the throne. Nova had confined in Sky that it was kind of creepy, having your ancestors watching your every move. To the right and left were doorways into a garden. One was supposed to be for the queen and one for the king, but considering the fact that Nova was unmarried, one was hers and the other one belonged to her sister, Stella. There was currently no one in the throne room, but they both waved to the guard on duty, Swordfish, as they walked into Nova's garden.

"Conference room?" Sky asked Crystal, her tail sweeping over the ground.

"Yeah, that's probably where they are," Crystal responded. They walked towards the entrance to the rest of the castle, which put them into a very long hallway. As soon as they stepped inside, yelling could be heard from the conference room, which was directly behind where the throne was in the throne room. The entire palace smelled of starflowers, a plant that was kind of sacred to the royal family. They had five petals, and glowed when they opened, although it was only at night. Nova and Stella loved them, which is why they were kind of everywhere in the castle. To be fair, most of the queens loved them. Guess it was part of the whole sacred thing going on.

Sky and Crystal paused outside the door. Sky glanced at her friend.

"You sure about this?" She asked.

"Do we really have a choice though?" Crystal said with a sigh. Sky shrugged.

"Well, someone's gotta rescue Nova." And with that, she pushed the door open to utter chaos. The councilors were all yelling at each other, which was normal. Nova looked exasperated, her crown almost falling off her head. She fixed it before catching Sky's eyes. Sky gave a little wave. Crystal shifted towards her nervously.

"EVERYONE BE QUIET!" Nova yelled. That silenced the councilors. "Now, if you'll excuse me, my friends are here. Meeting adjourned!" She stood from her pillow, shaking herself out. Her back spikes rattled against each other as she did so.

"But Kante, we still haven't decided-"

"I really don't care right now." Nova snapped at Malachite, the Earth councilor. "You've been arguing with each other for almost 3 hours, greatly exceeding our allotted meeting time. If this was so important to you, then you should have actually given a reason for misplacing multiple households in order to build another temple that we don't need. Lacus, you have the go-ahead to expand the seaweed farms." Nova nodded at the Water councilor before exiting the room and slamming the door behind her.

"Hey!" Sky bounded over to her, tossing a wing over her friend's shoulder, having to stretch a bit to reach her friend's height. "Wow, that was certainly crazy." Unfortunately, this wasn't the first time Nova had been in a meeting like that, and Sky doubted it would be the last. While being Kante had its perks, there were also a lot of downsides. However, Sky thought that Nova handled them all well, if not a little harshly at times. Even though she was ruling an entire kingdom, Nova was only 19, 3 years older than Sky was. She had violet scales that had a great contrast to her mint underscales. The swirling mint lines of her eye markings had dark purple stars sprinkled among them, and she had similar stars running down her sides. Nova was quite a bit taller than Sky, and she always seemed to hold herself rather regally. She had a small cluster of blue gems on her forehead and on the end of her tail. Her back spikes were mint as well, but faded into blue at the very tips. The undersides of her wings were dark purple, and had scattered silver scales like stars on them. She had similar silver scales across her nose. Her horns and talons were both white and were both polished to perfection. Nova had confessed that she really hated having them polished, because it was a pain to both sit there and do it, and she hated making the servants do it, but for some odd reason Lady Seafoam insisted on having her do it. Lady Seafoam was Nova's....actually, Sky was unsure what she was. When Nova was younger, she had been her governess/nanny, but now she kind of made sure that Nova kept up her regal impression and also kept a bunch of useless traditions going. She was also the one that insisted that Nova wear that ridiculously heavy crown every day. Sky had never liked her that much, but Nova kept her around, for reasons that she wouldn't tell even Sky.

"Ugh. I hate Malachite SO. MUCH." Nova groaned, throwing her head back.

"We know you do." Crystal said with a smile.

"Look on the bright side: Not stabbing him now means that he can get an even more gruesome death later!" Sky said cheerfully, leading Nova down the hallway.

"Hmm. Good point. Maybe I can have Titan lock him up in the dungeons."

"I refuse to do that." Titan, the Captain of the Guard, said as he brushed past them.

"Boo! You're no fun!" Sky called after him as he continued to walk away from them. That earned her a "warning glare." If the Captian of the Guard thing didn't work out, Titan would probably be good at corralling young dragonets.

"Eesh, what's up with your bag? You got bricks in here or something?" Nova took the satchel away from Sky, looping it over her own neck.

"Even better: A book!" Sky said, excited. As Sky filled Nova in on her adventure this morning, she passed a large mirror, catching a glimpse of her reflection. She wasn't a very tall dragon, and had more of a water dragon build than an air dragon build. SHe also didn't have the effortless grace that both air and water dragons seemed to have, but she suspected that she would if she wasn't tripping over her won tail half the time. Her tail was, unfortunately, slightly too long for her, the same as her wings. These were 2 of the things tat made her not quite a wind dragon. Yes, they had long tails and big wings, but they certainly weren't meant to go with the shorter build of a water dragon. ANd yes, while wind dragons could have blue scales, Sky's were much more virant than a wind dragon's should have been, more closely matching the color of her father's scales. However, she did have white feathers finning down her back, as well as plumes of feathers on her forehead and tail tip. Swirling white lines on her face, purple underscales, and dark purple dots among the lines and running down her sides completed the wind dragon look. Oh, and the second pair of white, feathered wings helped as well. IN the end, there was no mistaking that Sky was a wind dragon, although she did get weird looks from strangers. Dragons with parents from 2 different elements was not a very common thing in Astras. And no, Sky couldn't control more than one element. It was just wind, and Sky was perfectly fine with that. Learning to control both water and wind would be way too much work for her.

"Where are we even going?" Nova asked as they continued to walk, adjusting her crown.

"Uh....I don't know. Crystal?" Sky raised her eye ridges expectantly.

"We could-"

"Say hi to your amazing little sister because she's been waiting for you to get out of that meeting for FOREVER!" The three of them turned to see Stella racing up behind them. She was very similar looking Nova, besides having a more sturdy build, and her scales being much lighter than Nova's. There were white patches all over her body, and the stars running down her sides were more like blobs. She was a very cheerful 15 year old, and was also very knowledgeable about weather patterns.

"Oh hey! Yeah, Sky and Crystal managed to interrupt the meeting and get me out early." Nova intertwined her tail with her sister's, touching her nose to Stella's cheek.

"Oh wow, thanks. Seriously, there was so much yelling coming from that room. You wouldn't believe it." Stella said, looking slightly distressed. Sky immediately thought back to the state of the meeting when she and Crystal walked in.

"Yeah. Anyway, we were going...uh...somewhere." She said lamely, glancing at Crystal.

"How about the North Tower?" Nova suggested. "I could have Lympha bring some snacks up or something."

"And then we can take a look at my book!" Sky gasped, giving a little hop of joy. Nova and Crystal glanced at each other.

"Sure, if that's what you want to do." Crystal said with a kind smile, adjusting her wings.

"I guess I'll come to. I mean, it's either that or etiquette practice, and Elena knows I can't deal with Seafoam anymore today." Stella rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on, She's not that bad!" Nova protested as they started to make their way to the tower.

"Somehow you say that even after wearing that crown for an entire day and I have no idea how you manage to keep that kind of stamina." Stella said, sounding quite blunt. Nova chuckled, shaking her head.

"How about after she made you go through an entire beauty routine for a ball and it took you, like, 3 hours?" Sky added, her steps matching Nova. She shifted her wings around, repostioning the feathered ones so that they tucked in better. Their little group made their way through the castle, Sky often getting ahead of everyone else. They eventually reached the stairs that led up to the North Tower. It wasn't the worst climb in the world, but it certainly wasn't as easy one. For some reason, this tower was Nova's favorite spot in the castle. Sky would never know why. It was annoying to climb up to, and it certainly wasn't the tallest tower in the castle, but Nova loved it anyways. Sky and Crystal suspected it was because it was missing a couple of pieces of the windowsill, and there were more than a few cracks in the stone walls. Nova tended to have an affinity for broken things. Seriously, you should see her collection of chipped tea cups.

"Alright! We're here!" Nova bounded in front of Sky so that she could be the first to enter her sanctuary. Sky did like ti up here, especially after Nova redecroated. There was big, plush rug on the floor, and multiple cushions for them to sit on. Many of Nova's journals and other books were stacked in a corner, and a couple of shelves held some of her statuettes. (All broken in some place, obviously.) Small, glowing crystals in lanterns hung from the ceiling, which was painted to match the night sky. The space was a little cozy, but still big enough o fit the four of them. Stella immediately collapsed onto a cushion, spreading her wings out as much as she could.

"Hey, save some space for the rest of us, won't you?" Nova said, nudging her sister's wing to the side. Stella let out a huff and curled her wing back in, allowing Nova to sit down next to her. "Thanks."

"Yeah, yeah." Stella rolled her eyes. Sky sat down next to the pile of journals, careful not to sit on any loose pages, multiple of which were sticking out of pretty much all of the books. The cushion was soft, made from a mint velvet, and had a silver four-point star embroidered on it. Crystal laid down in between Stella and Sky, curling her tail into her side, the crystals on the end clinking as she did so.

"Book time?" Sky asked, reaching across to grab her satchel back from Nova.

"Book time." Nova and Crystal replied in unison. Sky grinned, her tail rustling some of the papers.

"Woah, careful!" Nova jumped up to shift the papers into a somewhat neat pile. "I worked hard on those!"

"Only you would somehow manage to find time to draw up architectural designs along with running a country," Stella said, looking over her sister's shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah. Keep it up Miss I-Can't-Stop-Having-A-New-Crush-Everyday." Nova teased. Stella ducked her head in shame.

"Stoooooop." She groaned, covering her head with her wings. "I told you Lazuli was cute one time!" Sky chuckled as she pulled the book out. She frowned as she noticed that some of the silvering lettering had fallen off. It didn't matter too much, as it had been impossible to tell what the cover had said beforehand, but it was still disappointing. Very carefully, she opened the book. The pages were yellowed and the ink was faded, but you could still make out the letting.

"A Guide To The Magical....uh....." Sky frowned as she struggled to pronounce the next word. It appeared to be Old Astrian, which was slightly worrying in the fact that somehow this book was over 100 years old and still hadn't fallen apart yet, and also the fact that it was over 100 years old and could fall apart any minute. Note to Self: After this put the book in a glass case and never touch it again. Sky thought.

"I think that means Artifacts?" Nova glanced at Stella, who nodded.

"Yeah, I think. Didn't it appear in Solarion's journal that one time?"

"Oh yeah, it did!" Nova said, her eyes lighting up.

"I always forget that you two know Old Astrian." Crystal remarked, placing her head on Sky's shoulder.

"Ugh, more like we were forced to learn it and can only tell you how to kill people 50 different ways but have no idea how to have a regular conversation in it." Nova and Stella said in unison, rolling their eyes at the same time. Realization dawned on their faces. Nova laughed, bumping Stella with her wing, while Stella just glared at her. Sky chuckled and turned back to the book.

"Written by Wren Cloudchaser. Never heard of them." Sky's eye ridges furrowed. Wren Cloudchaser. Sky had read a lot of books, but she had never heard of an author by that name. Clearly they were into writing because this was one seriously big book, but it was odd that Sky hadn't read anything else by them.

Chapter 2

Wow, traveling was definitely not something Sky had done in a while. Flying over the trees of Western Astras, her bag was already starting to weigh her down. And finding this author was harder than Sky had thought. Apparently finding Wren Cloudchaser was pretty much impossible, considering the fact that they seemed to have disappeared off the face of the planet about 30 years ago. Everyone Sky had questioned knew nothing about them except for the fact that they had constantly been researching magical artifacts, they had been writing some sort of book, and that they disappeared. Which led nowhere, because SKy had already known that information. She was also having a hard time finding their family, the Cloudchasers. So now they were flying over the kingdom, trying to see if there was anything that looked like it could belong to a runaway wind dragon. No luck.

"Sky? Should we rest for a bit?" Crystal asked, stopping to hover in the air. "We've been flying for a while, and it's starting to get dark."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." She repressed a sigh as she started to glide toward the ground. To tell the truth, she wanted to keep looking. The sooner they found Wren, the sooner she could help her friend. Hopefully Wren was still actually alive, or their could-be-impossible-quest would become the Actually-impossible-quest. But hey, you can't exactly search for stuff in the dark, so they might as well rest for the night and keep going in the morning. She weaved through the trees as she glided down, eventually landing in a small clearing. She shook herself out, the feathers along her back feeling flat.

"Is this a good spot?" She asked Crystal. Her friend gave her a small smile in response.

"Yeah, this'll work. Sorry, I know you wanted to keep searching." She curled up into a ball, her wings covering her.

"Don't worry about it. You were right, it's getting dark." Sky said, laying down on her side.

"If it makes you feel better, I wanted to keep searching too. Finding my family is just, you know..."

"Your dream?" Sky suggested, lifting her head up.

"Yeah." Crystal said quietly, curling her tail around herself. Sky laid back down and closed her eyes, expecting to be too excited and worried to sleep. They were going to find a magical gem and find Crystal's family. An artifact like the Night Jewel could change so much, and not just for Crystal. This could alter the entire kingdom. However, an entire day flying takes a lot out of you, and Sky was out like a fire colliding with a gust of wind.

Sky blinked herself awake to sunlight filtering in through the leaves, as well as a very angry green dragon standing over her. With a screech, Sky launched herself backward, crouching in a defensive position.

"Who in Aither's name are you?!" She screeched at the dragon, eyes wide and wings out.

"How did you find us?" The green dragon demanded. She was terrifying, with pale green scales, magenta underscales, and a whole lot of black on her. Black talons and horns, as well as diamond-shaped markings running down her sides. Her tail ended in 2 black horns. She was tall and had a deadly sort of elegance to her. Her feet and tail tip faded to black as well, and her eyes? Her eyes looked like they could strike you down, and Sky felt like that would probably happen if she didn't try to explain herself.

"Found you?? We just stopped to rest, the only person we're looking for is Wren Cloudchaser, not a.....wait, what type of dragon are you?"

"They were right, they would come for them!" The dragon swore, advancing towards Sky.

"Wait! I promise we don't mean any harm, we just want to-" She was cut off as a wall of crystals grew between her and the green dragon.

"Are you okay?" Crystal bounded over to her, a worried expression on her face. Sky breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, I'm fine, although I thought I was dead for a couple of seconds there."

"You are." They both whipped around to see the green dragon behind them, looking considerably angrier. "You should have known better than to look for the Herbalists-"

"Wait, you're an Herbalist?" Sky cocked her head to the side. "There are still Herbalists in Astras?" She glanced at Crystal, baffled.

"Wha-of course there are still Herbalists in Astras!" The green dragon snapped. "We disappeared, not died!"

"You are very good at disappearing then." Crystal chimed in. The green dragon scowled at her, and Crystal shrank back. Then she suddenly looked very confused.

"Wait a second...if you guys aren't looking for the Herbalists, then what are you doing out here?" She asked, her eye ridges furrowing.

"I told you, we're looking for Wren Cloudchaser. They wrote this book, and we just want to ask them a few questions about it." Sky rolled her eyes. Seriously, she just told this dragon.

"Oh yeah. They don't want to be found, so you're better off leaving." The dragon grumbled before turning and walking off into the forest.

"Hey-hey, wait! You can't just leave!" Sky protested, chasing after the green dragon. "If they don't want to be found then you clearly know where they are! Please, we just want to talk with them! Come on, we promise it won't take too long!" The green dragon continued to ignore her. Crystal fell into step with Sky, her expression still one of worry.

"Would you stop following me?" The green dragon snapped, looking down at Sky with disapproval.

"Not until you let us see Wren!" Sky demanded, glaring at the green dragon.

"I already told you, they don't want to see anyone."

"But it's important!"

"If it's about the book it's not important!" The dragon growled.

"yeah, well I say it is!" Sky stepped forward, prepared to make this dragon let her see Wren.

"No!" The dragon screeched, baring her teeth.

"Ivy! Poison Ivy! Where are you?" The two of them froze as a voice started call through the trees. 'Seriously sis, where are you? Mom wants you, and how can patrolling take you 30-" Another green dragon, similar to Ivy except that he was shorter and with slightly dark scales, walked through he undergrowth.

"You! Can you take me to see Wren Cloudchaser?" Sky jumped forward, blocking his path.

"Nope! Wren Cloudchaser? There are no Wren Cloudchasers here! It's just me, a completely....normal dragon! Totally not an herbalist and there's definitely not a village of us! Nope!" The other green dragon let out a nervous laugh and tried to back up in the direction that he had come. The first green dragon-Ivy?-sighed.

"Bramble, they already know. Stop trying to lie."

"Excuse you, I'm a great liar!" Bramble looked offended at Ivy's remark.

"You really aren't," Sky added.

"You. Stay out of this." Ivy said with a scowl, glaring at her. Sky rolled her eyes. The two siblings started to talk in hushed tones, throwing occasional glances at Sky and Crystal. Sky's tail swished back and forth impatiently. This was taking too long! They needed to find Wren!

"Can we please just-"

"Fine, I'll take you to go see Wren!" Ivy whipped back around, looking very annoyed. "I can't guarantee that they'll actually see you, but I can take you to them, okay?"

"Sounds good!" Sky said, falling into step beside Ivy as she started to lead them back to....well, somewhere. Sky wasn't entirely sure where they were going, but Bramble was making idle chat with Crystal, so it seemed to be going somewhat well. Ivy still looked very angry, but there wasn't a whole lot Sky could do about that, so she just kept walking in silence, staring at the woods around her.

Sky didn't get to come out to the woods much, and it was very different than the city Tall trees towered above her, sunlight filtering in through green leaves. Viridis Forest was the only place in the kingdom where green trees grew. All of the others were magenta or dark purple. It was kind of an odd thing, to see green on a tree. It just wasn't really something Sky got to see every day.

They didn't see anyone else in the forest, just some birds flitting about and what might have been a fox dashing across their path, but it was too fast and Sky had been distracted by a set of deer tracks. However, as Ivy continued to lead them through the forest, they eventually ended up on a path winding through the trees.

"We're almost there!" Bramble said cheerfully. Sky had decided that she liked Bramble very much. He was cheerful, and also very clumsy(He had tried 9 times while walking.) but he was very curious and was happy to explain Sky's questions about Herbalists and their abilities. Crystal had remained rather shy during their journey, but did demonstrate her powers when Bramble asked about them. He had been fascinated by the different types of gems Crystal had made, finding Terrasheart the most interesting. Sky's personal favorite was Aithersvision, but she had to admit that the black and green "ripples" in Terrasheart were pretty cool.

They weren't on the path for very long before it opened up into a clearing.

"We're here!" Bramble announced, running ahead of them. Sky glanced at Crystal, confused. There was no village here! Where had Ivy taken them?

"Look up you idiots," Ivy said with a roll of her eyes, spreading her wings and taking off. Sky ducked under her wingspan as she did do, turning her gaze up to the top of the trees. And sure enough, Ivy was right. I mean, she should be considering the fact that this was her home, but yeah.

Houses sat on tree branches, bridges connecting them all together. Sky could see dragons moving about between the buildings. Everything was covered in flowers and different types of plants, with a large platform having pretty much only fruit trees on it. Most of the dragons moving about were some shade of green, with bright, colorful underscales.

"Are you coming or not?" Ivy yelled from where she was standing on one of the platforms, her tail lashing back and forth. Sky jumped off the ground, spreading out her wings. Careful not to hit any tree branches or to accidentally take out one of the platforms, Sky flew upwards until she could safely land next to Ivy, who still look annoyed, but also impatient to top it all off. Crystal landed beside her not long after.

"Wow. How did you guys build this? What do the foundations look like? Is it made only out of wood or are there other substances involved? how do you drow stuff when it isn't actually in the ground? How-"

"Can you not ask so many questions?" Ivy snapped, glaring at her. "Now come on, Wren is this way. I still highly doubt they'll see you, and I still suggest leaving and never coming back." She stalked away, starting to lead them over one of the bridges. Sky and Crystal glanced at each other, unsure.

"Don't worry about her. She just...cares about people, in a weird, overly protective way." Bramble nudged Sky with his wing. "Don't worry, I'll come with you too! I can even give you a tour!" Bramble bounded after his sister, beckoning them to follow him. Sky shrugged, following after him. Crystal bright up the rear. They definitely got odd looks as they walked, and many of the Herbalists looked suspicious of them.

"Okay, let's start! Over there is the orchard, where we grow most our own food. It isn't very hard, obviously." Bramble nodded at a dark green dragon who was growing a strawberry bush. It easily flourished under his touch. "And then over there is the library! It, uh, it isn't very big, because we can't print stuff and it takes awhile to write it out by hand, but Wren's been helping us with it a bunch! And then that's the school, and over there is.." Bramble continued to point stuff our to them as they went along. He didn't answer any of Sky's earlier questions, but she was extremely intrigued by the nature of Herbalist magic. It was very different than most other elemental magic, as if took much more training and focus, or at least that's what Sky had read about it. Bramble never bothered to explain that either. Actually, he never bothered to explain much of anything in the village, mostly just pointing out random buildings, and also something called a Tether. Sky had no idea what the Tether did because Bramble didn't tell her, but it was a pale blue stone-looking thing that definitely glowed, but also looked like it was sucking light into it. Which was mostly just confusing.

"Finally," Ivy grumbled as they caught up to her where she was waiting for them. They were standing in front of a small hut, which had all of its windows covered up. It was surprisingly far away from the rest of the platforms, and had a couple of wind chimes hanging by the door.

"Uh, I guess I'm gonna go help Mom with...uh..yeah." Bramble turns and walks back the other way. Sky glances at Ivy.

"Wren scares him," Ivy says, which isn't what she wanted to know. "Come on." The Herbalist led the way to the hut. Sky followed closely behind her. Ivy knocked on the door once they got there. It takes a bit, but Sky can hear someone moving around inside. The door cracks slightly. Ivy's still standing in the way, so Sky can't see what Wren looks like.

"Ivy! Good to see you, come in, come in." The voice was raspy, and clearly belonged to an older dragon. The door slightly started to slide open more, but Ivy stops it.

"Actually, Wren, there are, uh...there are dragons here to see you."

"Who is it?" Wren asks sharply.

"It's..." Ivy looked at them expectantly.

"Skyanna Windblossom and Crystal Nameless." Sky said confidently, taking a small step forward.

"Bah. Windblossom. Of course. Who sent you to get me back this time? Kestrel? Cirrus?" Wren laughs, sounding half-delirious.

"I sent myself. I, uh, I found a copy of your book." Now that she was slightly confused. She was pretty sure her great-grandfather's name had been Cirrus, but there were always more than one.

"Oh yay, the book. I suggest you throw it into the nearest river and never look back." Wren said bitterly, about to slam the door behind them.

"Wait! Please, I-My name is Crystal. Crystal Nameless. I, uh, I don't know who my family is. I never have. I need to find the Night Jewel. In order to find them. I want to know who I am." Crystal finished quietly. Wren paused. They waited for many moments before the old wind dragon finally spoke again.

"Fine. Ask me your questions. No one can ever get any peace around here anyways." And with that, they opened the door.

It was a small hut, but still cozy, in a weird, eclectic way. It was very dark inside, the only coming from a dim crystal hanging from the ceiling. And Oh my Aither, there were so many books. Bookshelves, books on tables, books on floors. They were all old, and-Holy Elena, were those scrolls?!?! Some of them looked like stuff Sky hadn't even heard of! A book collection like this would keep her content for months! She was so focused on the books that she didn't even realize Wren was staring at her with a sour expression.

Wren themself was short in stature, and had dark purple scales. Their feathers were gray, and they had quite a few missing in places. Their underscales were white, as well as their horns and talons, the latter stained black with ink. They also had many, many scars, covering pretty much their entire body. Even one of their eyes had been struck through, leaving only one of them with their bright blue color.

"What do you want to know?" They snapped, glaring at Sky.

"Do you know where we can find the Night Jewel?" Sky asked cautiously. Wren barked out a laugh.

"It's been years since I wrote that book. Even if I had known where it was then, there was no way I would know now." Wren turned away from her, placing one of the books back on the shelf.

"Oh." Sky's tail drooped, disappointed.

"I didn't say I knew nothing about it though." With a scowl, Wren turned back around, their eyes narrowed. "I do know that I found out about the gem through the writings of Vanta Darkcaller."

"A shadow dragon?" Sky gasped.

"What's wrong with shadow dragons?" Ivy snapped, glaring at her.

"Nothing, it's just..."

"Hush. They don't know, don't get mad." Wren said, hitting Ivy with her wing. Ivy scowled, looking down at her talons. Sky glanced at Crystal, bewildered.

"Unfortunately, I burned all of my sources, but I'm sure there's another copy of her writings somewhere. They might have come from her journal. Try the palace library."

"Read all of them. It's not there." Sky said, eye ridges furrowed. Where would you find the old journal of a shadow dragon who had been dead for over a century?

"You've read every book in the royal library? The biggest library in the kingdom?" Wren looked impressed.

"Multiple times. I mean, my mom was pretty good friends with Kante Selene, before she, uh..." Sky fell quiet, hoping that Wren got the gist.

"Bah. Don't be afraid to mention death. It comes for everyone at some point. It hasn't come nearly quick enough for me." Wren scowled at them once more. "Now get out."

"Thank you for your time!" Crystal said quickly, darting out of the hut. Ivy was quick to follow, sharing some sort of look with Wren.

"Oi, Windblossom." Sky turned once Wren addressed her. "Come back once you're done with your journey. We have a lot of literature to talk about." They had a hint of a smile on their face. Sky grinned and raced out the door to rejoin Ivy and Crystal. Wren had been different than Sky had thought they would be, but that wasn't nesaccerily a bad thing. Sure, they didn't have the information they needed, but now they had something else to go on. Vanta Darkcaller. Who was she? Sky had never heard of her, but clearly she was important in some way. To tell the truth, Astras didn't speak of shadow creatures all that much. After Eclipse Fall, they aren't here anymore. Every 5 years, one of the moons eclipses the sun. However, over a thousand years ago, the eclipse didn't happen. For reasons unknown, the shadow dragons attacked the light dragons, killing them all. As a result, Queen Celeste confined the shadow creatures to the Shadow Realm, so that they wouldn't cause anymore destruction. It was a horrible event, and every creature is always on edge when shadow elementals are brought up.

"Are you coming or not?" Ivy called, annoyed. Sky shook herself out of her thoughts. The herbalist lashed her tail as Sky trotted up to them. "Finally." She grumbled, turning and walking off to a group of huts. Sky and Crystal quickly moved to follow her.

"Okay, this is great! We have another lead. Vanta Darkcaller. Hmm." Sky's eye ridges furrowed. Where could you find a journal that was over a thousand years old?

"I wonder what Vanta has to do with the Night Jewel. Wren didn't say very much about her." Crystal pondered, her tail curling in on itself.

"Mmm, yeah. Also, shadows. Unsure about how I feel about them." Sky glanced at the ground nervously.

"Is there something wrong with shadow dragons?" Ivy growled, turning to look at them.

"Well, it's just that..." Crystal's voice trailed off, unsure of what to say.

"Of course you would hate shadow dragons. I should have expected that. You're all always so close-minded." Ivy snarled, holding her head high.

"Seriously? Sorry that a group of elementals attacked another group of elementals! Sure, not all of them were evil, and not all of them deserved to be put into the Shadow Realm! But you can't blame me about being wary about shadow magic! Besides, it's not like there are any shadow elementals left anyways, so I don't see what your problem is!" Sky was almost yelling, glaring at Ivy.

"My problem? Really? It's my problem that you hate an entire group of elementals!"

"I DIDN'T SAY I HATED ALL SHADOW ELEMENTALS!!!" She screeched, spreading her wings wide.

"Well, that's very good, because this would become very awkward." Someone let out a small chuckle from behind Sky. She whipped around to see a black dragon standing behind her carrying a basket of apples. Holy Aither.

Chapter 3

That was a shadow dragon. Holy Aither, Elena, and the rest of the pantheon. There was an actual shadow dragon standing in front of her. The dragon herself was middle-aged, with black scales, red underscales, and dark purple diamonds running down her sides. Gold lines on her face and gold back spikes made for a striking combination. She had short, lean build, similar to that of Bramble. Wait one second. Ivy and Bramble. Black diamonds. Red underscales. Bramble's build. This wasn't just any shadow dragon. This shadow dragon was related to Ivy and Bramble! Mother? Aunt? Cousin? No, she was too old to be their cousin.

"I see you've already met my daughter." The shadow dragon said with a nod in Ivy's direction. Ah. Mother it was.

"Er..yes! She was very helpful! You see, we wanted to talk to Wren, and she found us in the woods and agreed to lead us here, and-"

"No, I agreed to lead you here after you heckled me for a good 10 minutes about it." Ivy grumbled, turning to walk back towards the huts.

"Poison Ivy Shadowvine! Is that any way to treat guests?" The shadow dragon scolded, hitting Ivy lightly with other wing. Ivy let out a huff.

"Sorry Mom." She gurmbled, looking at the ground. The shadow dragon rolled her eyes, turning to Sky and Crystal.

"Sorry about my daughter. It's not often that we have guests in the village. My name is Midnight." She said with a kind smile, setting the baskets to the side. "Why don't you come inside, I can make you some tea?" SHe offered. The hopeful expression on her face made it impossible for Sky to say no.

"We'd love to! I'm Sky, and this is my friend, Crystal. It's a pleasure to meet you Midnight." Sky followed Midnight towards the huts, Crystal falling into step beside her. Ivy trailed behind them, looking very displeased. Midnight led them to the largest of the huts, which had chains of colorful wooden beads hanging over the windows and doors. There were many pots and planters outside the door and hanging from the overhang of the roof. (Eesh, that's confusing.) All in all, it looked cozy on the outside, but it was even more homey on the inside. Everything seemed to have a homemade look to them. They probably were all handmade, considering that this was a group of the dragons that lived on their own in the woods and never made contact with the rest of civilization, so it made sense.

There was a small group of countertops with a water crystal and basin set in one of them. Drying herbs hung in the windows, and there was a set of ceramic dishes sitting on the counter. Paper lanterns with drawings of different flowers hung from the ceiling, emitting light through a small crystal on the inside. Half of the hut was walled off, curtained doorways leading into other rooms. On the other side of the main area was a round table with multiple cushions around it. A vase of flowers sat on the table, most of them pink or red. Ivy immediately sotmred off into one of the curtained rooms. Midnight sighed, shaking her head.

"That girl. I never know what to do with her." Sky chuckled.

"I'm sure my mother would say the same about me."

"I think every parent says that about their child at some point," Crystal added softly. Midnight smiled at her.

"Oh yes, I'm sure they do. Why don't you girls sit down, I'll get the tea ready!" Midnight gestured to the table with one of her wings, grabbing a tea pot off of a shelf above the sink. Sky watched as she tapped the crystal edge of the faucet a couple of times, waiting for it to draw water from...well, she wasn't sure. The tree, maybe? Sky hadn't seen an pipes or tubes connected to the ground, so that was the only other solution she could think of. Water started to pour out of the faucet nonetheless, and Midnight quickly filled the teapot. She grabbed a small plate to sit under the pot, this time with a heat crystal set in the middle of it. Midnight tapped the faucet to turn the water off. Sky tapped the crystal in the plate a couple of times, waiting until she could feel the quick spark of magic underneath her talons. It was odd, how the crystals worked. Astrians had been using them for as long as anyone could remember. There were an abundance of crystals underneath Astras' mountains, and many dragons were employed in the mining business to help get to them. Once carved out, most crystals lasted for a very long time.

"Ah, thank you." Midnight said with a smile, moving the teapot so that it sat on the plate. "Now, what are two lovely girls like you doing all the way out here? I must admit, most dragons tend to stay away from this part of the forest. They claim it's haunted." She winked at them, taking a seat next to Sky.

"Well, it's a little complicated." Sky glanced at Crystal, unsure of how much she should say. "You see, I found this book. A really old book, filled with descriptions of magical artifacts."

"We were looking through the book when I saw something called the Night Jewel, and-" Crystal was cut off as Midnight let out a gasp of horror.

"Is there something wrong?" Sky asked, panic rising up in her chest.

"I-No, it's nothing, I just-Well, your school studies sound very interesting!" Sky gave Crystal a bewildered glance as MIdnight suddenly switched off-topic. "I've never heard of stuff like that before! Tell me, what book are you reading for Literature?" Midnight had a wide smile on her face, but her eyes were pleading Sky to play along.

"Oh, uh...Rise of a Fallen Star?" Sky answered, thinking back to the boring torture she had endured yesterday. Wow, that felt like it had happened forever ago. (Time god) sure worked in weird ways.

"Oh yes, very exciting!" Clearly, Midnight hadn't read the book, because that was the exact opposite of what it was. Descriptions that dragged on forever, random side plots that just kind of...stopped? Seriously, there was this one part where the main character's love interest was starting to be driven insane by this crystal the main character had found, and then the author just kind of...stopped writing about it?!?!?! Like, come on! Just let us know what happened to him! Was he fine in the end? Did he die? Did he just run off and never come back? Sky wanted to know!!

"Sky! Hello?" She glanced at Crystal, surprised.

"Sorry, did I zone out again?" She asked, adjusting her wings.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." Crystal said with a small smile, lightly nudging Sky's wing with her own.

"Anyways, sorry about the sudden topic shift." Midnight smiled apologetically. "It's just..." She hesitated, before shaking her head. "There was someone watching us. Sorry if that's weird, but...I can sense when the shadows shift. It can be annoying, but occasionally helpful, especially in instances like these." Sky's eyes widened in understanding.

"Ooooh. Okay. So you get, like, a spark or something whenever there's a shift?" That sounded annoying.

"No. Just a kind of tingle feeling, most of which I just brush off. This felt..stronger somehow. I'm not sure what it was, but it's gone now." Midnight frowned, pouring tea into a handle-less cup. Sky had no idea what that was supposed to mean. If someone was following them, why? Okay, yeah, maybe they were searching for the Night Jewel as well, but she highly doubted it. Why would someone else want to find the Night Jewel? If they wanted to answer a question, as Crystal did, then they could just ask. Sky wouldn't care.

"So you really don't know anything about the Night Jewel?" Crystal was starting to sound desperate. Sky knew how much her friend wanted to know about her past, and she really wanted to help her. Sky felt kind of bad about that. Just that she grew up in a good home, with 2 loving parents. Sky had had pretty much everything she could ever need growing up, and it kind of hurt that she was able to have that but Crystal wasn't.

"No, I don't. Just....be careful. It might seem easy, but not everything is as it seems." Well, that was certainly ominous.

"Okay then. We've got Vanta Darkcaller's journal as our only lead. Hmm," Sky pondered where you could possibly find a thousand-year-old journal.

"Vanta Darkcaller?" Midnight let out a small gasp. Sky and Crystal exchanged a glance.

"Is there something wrong with Vanta?" Sky prompted, unsure if she should even ask.

"No! No, it's nothing. I just...Vanta's a bit of a big deal among shadow dragons. I hate to ask but...may I have the journal after you are done with it? It's just that, well, it would mean a lot to me, and-"

"Of course you can have it! After all, it's part of your element's history, and I don't see what use we would have for it after we find the Night Jewel." Crystal gave Midnight a wide smile.

"Oh, thank you so much! I-you don't know how much that means to me!"

"Don't worry about it. We just want to find the Night Jewel." Sky said, glancing at the window. "Thank you for your hospitality, but we really must be going. I would like to check the Nebulai Library before the day is done." Hopefully, the biggest library in the kingdom would have the journal in it somewhere. It might take a while to look, but hopefully it would be worth it. To think that she might be able to discover artifacts that no one had seen in hundreds of years. There was so much she could learn from them. So much she could write about!

"Ah. I understand." Midnight looked a little disappointed. "Can I at least offer you some food and herbs to take with you?"

"They would be greatly appreciated." Crystal replied with yet another small smile. Those were Crystal's specialty: Those little smiles that were warm enough and just insecure enough to let you know that you were welcome.

"Alright then dears, have a safe trip. Don't get into too much trouble." MIdnight stood to let them out, and that was when Ivy came back in to the main room, a saddle-bag secured on her back, around the bases of her wings.

"I'm coming with you." She said, staring Sky straight in the eye.

"What." Sky said, her eyes wide. ]

"I'm coming with you. Your looking for the Night Jewel, something that is an artifact of shadow magic. Who better to help you than a half-shadow dragon?" She said it like it was obvious, and it took everything in Sky's power not to roll her eyes.

"That sounds awesome. Thanks for your help." Sky looked at Crystal Incredulously. She wanted to bring Ivy with them? The one who was completely prepared to murder them when she first found them? Oh yeah, because that would go sooooooooo well. Totally.

Crystal gave her pointed stare and walked out of the door as Midnight held it open for her. Ivy followed her. Sky let out a huff, but accepted the parcel of food Midnight suddenly had, tucking it into her satchel.

"Thanks again for everything. I'll have to come back sometime, it was nice talking to you!" Sky said as she walked out the door. Midnight gave her a bright smile.

"Oh, that would be wonderful dear! Keep Ivy out of trouble for me, will you? I know she can be irratible, she will be a good help for when you find the gem." And with that, Midnight closed the door to the hut, leaving Sky, Crystal, and Ivy standing on the platform.

"So where are we going?" Ivy asked, her tail lashing back and forth.

"Nebulai Library! Hopefully you're okay with cities. Don't worry, I'll lead the way." And with that, Sky took to the skies, hoping that nothing too horrible would happen once they got there.

Nebulai City was gorgeous. Not as gorgeous as Celestium, that was for sure, but it was beautiful in its own right. It was a major trading city in Astras, where many dragons, elves, and other creatures went to sell their goods. Fishing boats lined the docks along the coast, and the main streets had stalls lining the sides. Sly had been before, mostly to go shopping with her friends. (Nova disguised so that they wouldn't be bothered.) She had also been on a school trip so that they could learn about the different types of jobs one could pursue. Most dragons had jobs based around their element, but you didn't have to. It was just easier to do a job if you already had a skill to aid you in that. Wind dragons help to fill sails and move ships, and water dragons make good fisherdragons. (For obvious reasons.) Sky had already known that she wanted to teach Literature WAY before this field trip, but it was still interesting to see the other options. Kind of.

Their trio landed in the forest only a little ways away from the bridge into the city. Nebulai City was surrounded by a wide moat, which Sky wasn't sure what that was supposed to accomplish. Actually, the walls around Celestium didn't make much sense either. It was easy enough to just fly over them. (Sky herself had done that a number of times. No, you weren't supposed to, but she hadn't been caught yet.) There were all sorts of dragons and elves and goblins and others filtering in and out of the city, which was kind of good for them. Hopefully, they would just blend in with the crowd, even if that might be difficult with a crystal-growing water dragon and a half-herbalist half-shadow dragon, but whatever. Sometimes you saw weird stuff in cities. Hey, Sky herself had once seen a raccoon with wings, and that might have been a hallucination from sleep deprivation, but she was, like, 95% sure she actually saw it.

Anyways, their little trio was standing in the woods, watching everyone go in and out. Crystal scanned the crowd as if she was looking for someone, while Ivy was looking at them as if everyone was either a suspect or that they might commit murder at any given moment. Sky kind of got the feeling that Ivy was just like that.

"Shall we go?" Sky prompted, taking a step towards the bridge.

"Wait." Ivy held out a wing to stop her. "I'm trying to figure out the best way to exit the city." She added with an eye roll after Sky gave her a questioning glance.

"Can't we just fly out?" Sky asked, giving her wings a flap. Ivy glared at her.

"Guys, come on. Let's just go in." Crystal said, starting to walk towards the bridge. Sky followed her eagerly. Seriously though, Sky loved seeing new places. There was so much history you could learn about a place! She hadn't even explored all of the Royal Palace, and she doubted she ever would. Seriously, that place was huge. Not even Nova, who had grown up there, knew where everything was.

They merged with the rest of the creatures, slowly making their way to the checkpoint. You were supposed to provide some sort of identification when entering cities, which most creatures did in the form of an ID card. It was pretty much just a slip of paper with your name, element, and hometown. There was also a small drawing of your eye markings so that the guards can make sure it was actually you. Sky pulled her and Crystal's cards out of her satchel, handing Crystal's card to her.

"Quick question: Should I have one of those?" Ivy whispered, bending down so that only Sky and Crystal could hear. Sky looked at her with her eyes wide.

"You don't have an ID card?!" She hissed. "How do you not have an ID card? I thought every creature had one!"

"Well then, sorry that we don't need that when most Herbalists don't even leave the village!" Ivy huffed, straightening once again.

"Then how do you expect to get in?" Sky snapped.

"I don't know. I'll fly in, I guess."

"Good luck with that. You see those towers? They sense when someone flies in. You'd probably be intercepted and asked for ID then too." They all whipped around to see a slightly smug-looking fire dragon standing behind them. He had dark red scales, golden underscales, and black horns and talons. He was only slightly shorter than Ivy, but was built more sturdy than she was. The tip of his left horn had been broken off. "So yeah, you're probably going to need a card to get in. Hate to break it to you." He scrunched up his nose in mock sympathy. Sky scowled at him.

"I don't see why any of that is your business." She said, turning away.

"Yeah, so you can go shove your stupid heat-mongering ass into a volcano. Who knows, maybe it'll melt that stupid look off of your hideous face." Ivy snarled, stalking closer to him. The fire dragon just smirked.

"I don't know. Maybe you'll like it better that way." Ivy growled at him, and Sky only had time to think Uh-oh before she leaped onto the fire dragon.

It defeintly wasn't a scuffle, but it wasn't exactly a fight? Well, yeah, they were fighting, but it didn't really feel like a fight. More of a disagreement where people beat each other up? Is there a name for that? Hmm. She'd have to look that up. Anyway, Ivy and the fire dragon werescratching at each other, growls and snarls mixed in with the gasps and cheers from the crowds.

"Ivy, no!" Crystal shouted, her crystals starting to emit a pink glow. Suddenly, crystals started to grow out of the ground, separating Ivy and the fire dragon. Ivy leapt back, a snarl still on her face.

"Great job, now how are we going to get into the city?" Sky yelled, exasperated. Ivy turned on her, the Herbalist's back spikes standing straight up.

"Good news for you: Your friend here is being arrested." Crap. Sky turned to find herself face to face with none other than her aunt, Peridot Wavebringer, Captain of the Nebulai City Guard.

"Heeeeeeey Aunt Peridot! Long time no see! Anyway, because you're the most amazing aunt ever, and I'm a great niece, maybe you could just let....Ivy....go?" This just made Peridot look even more annoyed.

"Absolutely not. That trick may work on Cerulean, but not on me. Come on." She turned and walked back towards the city, 4 more guards escorting Ivy and the fire dragon falling into step behind her. With a sigh, Sky turned to look at Crystal, who simply shrugged.

Slightly dejected, Sky turned and followed Ivy, who was not looking happy at all. Oh well! It was her fault that she was being arrested, and apparently Periodt was not as easily susceptible to Sky's pleading as the rest of her family was. So here they were.

As they walked through the city, towards the Guardhouse, they got more than a few odd looks. Sky kind of expected that, because those were normally what you got when you traveled with a crystal-growing dragon. Of course, it was also probsbky because Ivy was an herbslit, and while most dragons didn't know what those looked like (Sky hadn't either.) it was still strange to see an odd looking dragon being arrested. Well, at least Sky wasn't in trouble. Yet, anyways. Peridot would probably find something to yell at her about. As much as she loved her aunt, Peridot could be...well, a bit of a perfectionist. She preferred for everyone to be doing what they were supposed to, and for everything to be in order. Which is probably why she made such a great Captain! Sky knew that she often fought with Titan over how things should be run in the city.

Peridot was SKy's father's sister. Well, that was probably obvious because her father was the water dragon, not her mother. Yeah. Anyway, Altum had 2 siblings: Peridot was the oldest, then Altum, and then Cerulean. He used to have a brother between him and Cerulean, but unfortunately, Ocean had died. Sky had never met him, but he and his wife, Pearl, had been murdered a few months before Sky was supposed to hatch. They also had an egg, but no one was sure of what had happened to it. It was probably smashed. Sky just couldn't understand why anyone would do something like that. As far as anyone knew, Ocean and Pearl were innocent. Altum had told Sky not to talk about Ocean and his family. Apparently it was a sensitive topic for Peridot and the rest of the Wavebreaker family.

They reached the Guardhouse. Finally. Peridot led the way inside. Ivy still looked angry, but the fire dragon looked far more annoyed than anything else. The room they walked into was medium sized and open-air, large arches used as windows and doorways. There were benches lining the sides of the room. A couple of dragons were sitting there already, along with an elf. Just in front of the massive arch that led out into the training courtyard was a desk, with another guard sitting behind it. The Nebulai City crest was engraved on the front of the desk. Sky and Crystal hung back as Peridot walked up to the desk, exchanging a few words with the guard working there. Then she led Ivy and the fire dragon across the courtyard, giving Sky a glare that clearly meant stay here. WIth a huff, Sky took a seat on the bench next to the elf. Crystal joined her. The elf gave them a strange look.

"Friend got into a fight." Sky explained. That didn't seem to answer the elf's question. Sky simply looked away.

"Sky? Are you the reason Mom looks like she's going to flood the kitchen?" She looked up to see a blue dragon with green fins standing in front of her.

"Marine! What are you doing here?" Sky leaped up to greet her cousin. He was quite a bit older than her, but they still managed to get along fairly well. His scales were only a few shades darker than Sky's were. He looked a lot like his other mom, Sapphire. Well, the light green fins came from Peridot. But his scales, dark blue underscales, white horns, and white dots came from Sapphire.

"Mom forgot her folder at home. Mum wanted me to bring it to her." Her shrugged. "Oh, hey Crystal!" Crystal gave a small smile and wave. "Anyways, are you the reason Mom just stormed in here like she was planning on murdering someone?"

"No, that would be Ivy." Sky replied, rolling her eyes. "I pretty sure I just make Aunt Peridot want to throw me in the harbor." Marine chuckled.

"Yeah, you do. Anyway, who's Ivy?"

"Uh....just a friend we met journeying here! She's nice. And angry. And easily annoyed. But also nice!" She grinned nervously, unsure if she should tell her cousin about Ivy's abilities.

"What did she do?" Marine prompted. Sky let out a nervous laugh.

"Oh...you know...just got into a fight with a fire dragon on our way into the city?" She glanced at Marine, unsure as to how he would react to that. He was just....extremely annoyed.

"Was the fire dragon red?" He asked.

"Well duh. It's either shade of red or a shade of orange." Sky rolled her eyes.

"Did he have black unscales and an arrogant air to him?" Marine asked, now glaring at her.

"Yup. Wait. Do you know him?!" Sky's eyes went wide. There's no way Marine knew that dragon! He didn't seem like the kind of dragon Marine would be friends with. But hey, opposites attract, right?

"Yes, I do know him, and I'm also going to kill him! I told him not to get into any more fights but of course, he had-" Marine's voice faded as he stormed off in the direction Peridot had went. Sky and Crystal glanced at each other, both of them very confused.

They sat in the waiting room for quite a while before Peridot finally came back out with Ivy behind her, still looking very angry.

"Is there a reason why your friend here doesn't have an ID? She refuses to talk to me and apparently no amount of intimidation will break her spirit."

"Maybe, uh, don't break her spirits? I mean, that's kind of mean, and, uh--okay, I'll stop." Sky glanced down at her feet after a severe glare from Peridot.

"Look, girls, just tell me. Or I'll contact your father, and your...caretaker." It was silent for a few moments longer.

"She's an Herbalist!" Crystal suddenly blurted out. Ivy turned to her in shock. As did everyone else in the waiting room. Oh dear.

"Why would you--" Ivy took a step towards Crystal, but Peridot blocked her path.

"Herbalists are known to be pacifists. As much as I would love to believe you, there's no--" Ivy suddenly took off, sprinting out the door. What was she doing? She was going to get caught! Noooooo this was all a disaster! "HEY!" Peridot moved to chase after Ivy, but vines wrapped around her ankles stopped her from moving. The Guardhouse had gne up in panic. The guard behind the desk was the first to chase after the Herbalist, with 2 more elves in the training yard following him. The creatures in the waiting room were yelling, kicking at the vines that continued to spread over the ground. They were starting to block the entryways!

"Come on!" Sky shouted to Crystal, leaping through one of the windows. She skidded on the stone street, knocking over a vegetable stand as she struggled to keep herself upright.

"Sorry!" She yelled over her shoulder as Crystal jumped too, the two of them taking off in the direction Ivy had gone. Making sure not to hit anyone, Sky spread her wings, lifting herself off the ground. Crystal quickly got the idea, following suit. They quickly gained altitude, dodging strings of crystals and laundry and flower boxes and other dragons as they tried to go above the buildings. When they did, it was easy enough to see where Ivy was. She was sprinting down a side street, the guards still a little bit behind her. You could also trace where she had come from, with the trail of knocked over stalls or boxes or broken things littering the streets. Note to self: Never bring Ivy into a city again. Sky thought as she swooped down closer to the street. Wow, Ivy was surpsringly fast. She was also very good at evading theguards,w which made Sky wonder if she had done anything like this before. She clearly had a temper, maybe attacking random dragons outside cities was just a hobby of hers. Probably not, since she probably would have actually been arrested at some point, but you never know!

"Sky, look!" Sky snapped back to reality just in time to see Ivy dart inside of a building, the guards running past her location. Wow. That was probably the oldest trick in the book. (Sky would know, she'd read many books where the main character had done exactly what Ivy had just done. There was also one where the main character just straight up killed everyone in order to get away, so it was better than that. Seriously, that book was the worst.)

Sky and Crystal slowly sprialed down towards the street, giving themselves enough time to make sure that the guards weren't coming back. The street itself was pretty narrow, but the shop Ivy had run into was pretty cute, all thighs considered. Pale blue and orange flowers were clustered in window boxes, and drying harbs hung in the windows. The sign above the door read Echo Lake Apothecary, which was a little odd because Echo Lake wasn't exactlyclose to Nebulai City. Well, it was kind of in the area, but it was still a bit of a fly out there. Maybe the owner was from a town near there. Who knows.

THey enter the shop, bells on the door jingling as they open it. It's fairly small inside, a little smaller than Windcaller Bookshop. There are shelves clinging the walls, with all sort of bottles and herbs and crystals for sale. There's also a counter near the back, but there's no one standing behind it. The only other 2 people in the shop are a grumpy goblin with purple hair and a water elf who's looking through the crystals near the front of the store. She gives Sky and Crystal a small smile when they walk in. The goblin just ignores them. Sky shifts awkwardly as she and Crystal stand there, unsure of what to do. Ivy wasn't here, even though she had run in here. She may have been in the back room, but Sky defeinetly didn't feel like barging in there and embarrassing herself. Glancing at Crystal, Sky could see that her friend looked as uncomfortable as she was.

"Um..hi?" Witha little jump, Sky looked down to see the water elf standing in front of her. "Sorry to bother you, but do you need help finding something? If so, I might be able to help. Chamomile had some sort of family emergency, so I'm not entirely sure where she's gone, but I have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing." She tucked a strand of wavy, black hair behind her ear, a slight flush coming to her cheeks.

"Oh! Uh, thanks, but we kind of came in here looking for someone? Uh, pale green dragon, a full head taller than me, looks very angry most of the time?" The elf's blue eyes light up in realization.

"Oooh. Yeah, uh, I think that was the family emergency Chamomile had to deal with." The elf chuckled. "They're in the back room. Great Farynia, I forgot to introduce myself! Terribly sorry. I'm Azuria Oceancaller. Pleasure to meet your acquaintance." Azuria held her hand against her heart, palm facing outwards. A typical elven greeting. Sky smiled at her.

"Don't worry about it, I do it all the time. I'm Sky Windblossom, and this is Crystal Nameless." Both of the dragons dipped their heads in greeting. "It's nice to meet you as well."

"Come on, I can take you to the back room. I'm sure Chamomile won't mind. Well, Mira might, but Chamomile won't, and is her shop after all." Azuria led them to the back of the shop, going behind the counter and towards the door that Sky had not noticed when she had come in. It was kind of tucked away behind the wall, with a gauzy pale blue curtain in front of it. Azuria pulled back the curtain, gesturing for Sky to pull open the door. Unfortunately, because dragons and elves had such a big size difference, it was hard to accommodate for both. Often times, public space would simply have doorways without the actual doors on them, or sometimes there would be a smaller door inside of a bigger door so that both could be able to get in and out. Unfortunately, this door did not have that feature, so Sky was the one whoa attempted to open it, failed because it was locked, and then decided on knocking.

"Uh....hello? Ivy? You in there? It's-" She was cut off as the door swung open, revealing a light green dragon with pale green stripes on her scales. She had bright orange-yellow underscales, and scale-ridge things running down her back that looked like leaves. Those were dark green, and matched her eyes.

"Poison Ivy Shadowvine is not here right now, and this shop is about to close. Thank you and good day." The dragon moved to close the door, but then Ivy's voice was heard from inside the room.

"Chamomile, they're friends of mine."

"Oh, and is it these friend's fault that the guard is now after you?" Chamomile snapped as she looked over her shoulder.

"No, I'm pretty sure it's all Ivy's fault." Sky offered. Chamomile looked down at her, a single eye-ridge raised.

"Hmm. I like you. Fine, come on in. But if you get my sister-in-law arrested again, I'll peel of your scales and sell them as oddly colored mint leaves." She stepped back from the doorway, shaking herself out. Sky quickly followed her inside, the odd threat hanging over her head.

"Sister-in-law? You two are related?" Crystal asked, glancing between Ivy and Chamomile.

"Yup." Ivy replied.

"I'm married to her older brother, Hawthorne." Chamomile explained. "And yes, I am also an Herbalist, and yes, I did mve away from the village, and yes my customers are very good about keeping my secret. Either that or nobody in this city seems to care all that much." She walked over to a set of stairs on the right side of the room. "Take as long as you need. I need to go check on Maple, but I'll be back in the shop in a bit. Oh, and Mira may come in. Please make sure she doesn't kill you, and Ivy, please don't kill her." With that, Chamomile walked up the stairs. Sky let out a huff, taking a seat next to Ivy at a small table in the corner.

"Okay. Now what do we do?"