Safe Harbor was only a little less developed than The Invincible City.

  Even with that in mind, it was an amazing place that could make one forget the difficulty they faced.

  I really wanted not to think about that, but it wasn’t easy to avoid it.

  Even the books here were mostly dragon slaying fantasies. You would die before you ever found any book here where dragons aren’t the villain.

  The morning sun gleamed over the horizon, giving a clean marker of time for me to go back.

  It was comfortable here, but I couldn’t stay somewhere everyone I knew would be called a monster.

  Flash also wanted to see Misty again, so he was going to be coming along.

  “How’d Snow’s idea work out?” I asked with an unexpectant tone. I could already guess.

  “We might be the best and most trustworthy merchants, but no one here is stupid– uh, brave enough to go say hi to a dragon. The best she got was either thinking it a joke or saying they’d consider it if there was no other option.” Flash answers.

  That was better than I expected. Are they open to the idea, or does the pair just have a great reputation?

  “I don’t know why I haven’t asked until now, but are you related to Misty?”

  “Yes, I co-founded the company with my sister.” Flash answers directly. “Going out with family members is a debated subject here. Some say it’s better than leaving family behind to grieve, and others say it only adds guilt to the mix if some make it out.”

  It didn’t sound like the most constructive debate. “There would never be a clear answer for that kind of thing. Both are just as correct.”

  “Maybe. I just want to hurry up and bring Misty back. I can’t imagine how scary being on an island surrounded by dragons is. Just a few of them makes me feel surrounded by fangs waiting everywhere.” Flash says with a faltering voice.

  “Well that’s a problem with where you’re letting your attention linger. You can get over it. Who do you think helps when they get cavities?”

  “What? They get cavities?” Flash gapes.

  “Some of the dumber dragons get addicted to desserts. That or they have irresponsible parents.” I add.

  As we moved to leave the city, there was the expected chatter about an island suddenly showing up out of nowhere across the shore.

  Their explanations ranged from God to magic. Some were even talking about trying to sail over. They were certain to freak out if they stumbled into a settlement.

  A few of the guards waved at us leaving the front gates behind.

  I could feel unnerved by the trek, given the knowledge that seeing a dragon out here could by no means be called a normal or safe occurrence.

  There was thankfully no incident as we arrived at the beach, but Gale was annoyingly not present.

  Flash attracted a lot of attention as well, from all of the dragons that wanted to hear from a native human of this continent.

  I was more focused on finding one that wasn’t going to be overbearing about it while flying us over.

  A loud thump sends sand flying everywhere and forces us to look away for a second to avoid the particle spray.

  “Field!” I heard a faintly recognizable voice call from above, overshadowing a faint hiss of irritation behind it.

  The voice was a little too high-pitched to be a dragon.

  The sand calmed just fast enough for me to raise my eyes to a slim-figured woman bouncing on the heads of the three closest dragons before elegantly front-flipping to the ground.

  It was Grace, the latest apprentice Vela took in after I decided I knew enough. Well, I was never interested in going the full mile in regards to learning that kind of flexibility. Just enough to dodge.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “That nag kept telling me I wasn’t ready. I know I’m ready and I came here to prove it!” Grace declares with too much pride for her own good.

  “Wow, I haven’t seen anyone move like that before.” Flash says.

  “It’s mostly for performances, it just happens to make it annoying for a bad dragon to catch her.” I add.

  As if to contradict that statement, Grace is immediately pinned into the sand.

  “I finally caught you!” Flameshot shouts.

  “No! You dirty cheater!” Grace fumes and struggles angrily under the talon holding her into the sand.

  Flameshot pouts and denies cheating, but one of the dragons on the side smacks her head with a paw to admonish the cheat.

  Flash is trying not to laugh, but I’m not really moved by it. It felt like something I’ve seen before way too many times.

  “We need a ride home and back.”

  Flameshot stiffened and shifted in place for a few moments. “I want to fly with a hero. Pick me!”

  “Anyone else?” I shivered at the exuding energy.

  “ME!” Flameshot continued.

  “I’m not a hero.” I groaned and gave in as we climbed on the overzealous dragon’s back.

  “Umm, how are we not going to fall off? This doesn’t look like such an easy trip.” Flash asks a little too late.

  “Just hold on to me or around her neck, it’s easy after the first few times.” I answer casually with a lifetime of experience.

  Wait. How long is a lifetime? I’m not that fucking old.

  Flash seems to stare in awe at the stretching wings, and like, really doesn’t hesitate to make it obvious it’s an experience to him.

  I can already imagine how much fun the dragons are going to have with the humans here. With them experiencing everything for the first time and all.

  The strong force of jumping into the air and taking off took any ideas out of his head besides holding onto me.

  The strength I’d use to draw my bow makes it easy for me to hold on tightly.

  Flash stays dreadfully silent during the flight and as soon as Flameshot lands, he melts onto the ground like jelly.

  He probably wouldn’t even make it if we didn’t land close to the city.

  “Misty is... here?!” Flash gasps at the sight of so many dragons flying around or just generally present along the streets. “There’s so many! Is it even safe here without evil ones?!”

  “Well, it is a city with a majority population of dragons.” I shrug. “Just don’t get stepped on.”

  “And how do I do that?” Flash grumbles.

  “It would help if you gave yourself more of a presence instead of timidly sneaking around.”

  “It’s okay. I’ll make sure he doesn’t turn into a pancake!” Flameshot says.

  Just like that, we continued to the school we dropped Misty off at. I can’t imagine her going anywhere else.

  When we arrived, it wasn’t a book reading session this time.

  I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

  All the human kids were painting patterns on the dragons’ scales.

  The dragonets were either happy or angry at ones that sucked at painting. I would be angry too if I was scribbled on with a trashy doodle while another dragonet had blooming flowers or flowing rivers.

  Misty was running around with the smallest dragonet in her arms, barely small enough to be lifted, and that was soaking up the attention from being paraded around.

  Clearly it went well.

  “Misty!” Flash calls in an instant of seeing her without regard for the crowd of small dragons.

  “Brother! You’re here too?!” Misty looks back with wide eyes. “Did you come to visit paradise as well?”

  “This is paradise to you?” Flash looks like he wants to hug Misty, but he stops short when the dragonet starts glaring and trying to fan him away from their attention seeking.

  “Not only do the people here not live like they’re going to get eaten every day, but they even make families with dragons of all things!” Misty says gleefully.

  “Please don’t say something like ‘I want to stay’.” Flash winces from his imagination running wild over her wanting to stay here.

  “Of course not. I can’t burden Libereste forever, and I don’t think I could handle living here on my own.” Misty laughs. “Even most the people born here go to less dragon populated areas to make villages, and at that point there’s nothing much different from home.”

  Flash was relieved that she’d be coming back with him.

  “Wait a minute, how did you get saved? I didn’t even wonder until now how you could survive that swamp dragon long enough to even get saved.”

  “Apparently, I was supposed to be a gift of food. I’m glad they took offense to that idea.” She answers. “Also apparently, all of the dragons we know are big dumb idiots that can’t recognize intelligence when they see it.”

  “This is really a school... I never imagined children that wouldn’t be screaming in front of such a huge dragon.” Flash continued, giving the teacher a look.

  “I’m not that big, there are still some dragons that are bigger.” Libereste replied. “I’m going to miss babysitting your sister.”

  “Don’t call it babysitting!” Misty yelled out and placed down the now upset dragonet.

  ...

  Upon returning to Pyrrhia, Flash and Misty left for Safe Harbor, while I continued on to find Gale waiting to grab me.

  “Field! I get so lonely without you! You came back just in time!”

  I fuss and push on the muzzle getting too close to me.

  “Well you aren’t lonely enough when I’m here!”

  “I don’t get bad dreams when I have you. Just stay with me.”

  He rolls over to lay on his back and holds me up to the dimming sky, still struggling irritably until I get bored and he’s snoozing too hard to care about my freedom of movement.

  ...

  When I awoke, the surroundings were loud and busy, and I was on the sand.

  “Now what’s going on?” I complain groggily.

  “The MudWings are being attacked by some other dragons. I guess we’re supposed to help?” Gale shuffles on the sand, as if the idea of lifting a claw to help them is a drag.

  “We should go.” I sighed. It wouldn’t be a good idea to let some other problem dragons take over.

  Gradually, we collected our forces on a high ridge of what the MudWings called the ‘Diamond Spray Delta’.

  This will be the first time we’re fighting with the MudWings. Whether it will be the last—is to be decided.

  Instead, we’re going to be facing ‘IceWings’ and ‘SandWings’.

  And, just as I thought it, the opposing force finally came into view from the ground.

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  The names were quite descriptive of their appearance: ice and sand colored dragons.

  Now that I’m noticing it for the second time, Commander Ashwind seems to have a habit of mumbling his thoughts out loud while thinking intently.

  “Spread out with enough room to fly in an instant! All but the back lines stay on the ground!” He yells demandingly.

  “And avoid the tails of the yellow ones!” He adds after spotting the barbed tails of the SandWings.

  If his mumbling before giving out the orders were any indication of why, then there was no reason to ever fly in battle except to dodge breath attacks.

  The only reason the back line even had to stay in the air was to prevent them from trying to pass the defenses.

  If they do start fighting any dragons in the air, dragons from the ground can come up from below with a weapon to get free strikes at their vital areas. They probably don’t think it’s a problem because it’d just be running into their claws without use of weapons.

  What else would they be able to do other than dive straight into projectiles or face us on the ground?

  Many of the MudWings flew off to go fight them anyway, but a surprising amount chose to stay and copy what IllusionWings are doing.

  The MudWings that went to fight early eventually had to fall back to the ridge, where our dragons could finally fly up below the attacking army.

  They carelessly disregarded the dragons coming from below, leading to their chests being embedded with lethal bolts.

  A few tried to spray them with their powerful fi– no, the blue/white dragons were shooting out beams of glistening frost!

  I could only watch for now. Most of it was unmemorable, and I don’t want Gale to soon get into trouble he can’t handle.

  Flameshot, for a dragon that was so bubbly, was doing unsettlingly well, even if it wasn’t really from skill alone.

  Eventually the attackers gave up on trying to do aerial combat once they realized it wasn’t working, and that everyone on the ground was ready to dodge if they tried to strafe the ground with fire or ice.

  Flameshot was one of the first to start with the dragons attacking on the ground. She sent her first shot of white plasma directly into one of their chests, watching it go through the IceWing surprisingly easily. It was as if they also melted like ice.

  Another IceWing tackled and held her jaws open to shoot their characteristic ice beam down her throat, but Flameshot panicked and returned a solid stream of plasma at the same time.

  It almost looked like sparks were erupting between the two. This was a spectacle that made every second of being here worth it.

  They were being clouded with fresh steam which almost created an impenetrable fog, before the IceWing fell with its own throat melted from the inside, and Flameshot was wailing about the discomfort.

  I wanted to call her the hero here, but I’d never hear the end of that. I’d better focus on what I can do.

  I might have slain a dragon almost by myself just recently, but I can only take shots at those close enough for the arrows to penetrate, or maybe dragons that stay still or predictable enough to hit a vital weak spot.

  The battlefield was deafened by screams of dying dragons, and covered in a mix of blue and red blood.

  Some of our dragons didn’t dodge in time, and had parts of their wings turned from a fleshy membrane into a thin sheet of ice.

  The SandWings on the other hand had barbs on the end of their tails, which despite the orders to avoid it, some were caught by them and emitted sharp cries of constant pain.

  I didn’t want Gale to end up like that. He definitely wasted all his training time learning a presumed dead language.

  Thankfully Ashwind was ahead of us and wasn’t fazed by their venom.

  They were strong, but Grace was a relative monster.

  She didn’t even have a dragon to assist as she weaved between dragons on both sides.

  The SandWing she was rushing towards just finished off a MudWing and got struck in the leg by a crossbow bolt.

  As soon as the dragon leans closer to the ground in pain, Grace grabs their leg and vaults onto their back the instant they look away.

  The SandWing was too much in pain to notice.

  She quickly inches closer to their neck and proudly unsheathes a thin blade—the kind of blade that looked utterly useless on a dragon.

  But it wasn’t useless, because she slid the blade between the scales and pulled it across the dragon’s neck, holding the spine of the blade with the other hand to add more force and jumping off quickly when it started choking.

  Everyone else was doing well, but I had no clear targets to shoot at.

  While I was busy scanning for a way to apply myself without jumping into too much danger, I was suddenly thrown off of Gale and hurled to the ground.

  I shook off the world-shaking sound of roaring and tumble to break my fall as I deftly recovered proper stance.

  An IceWing was grabbing Gale and trying to gash or freeze him into an ice sculpture.

  “No!” I impulsively scream and reach for an arrow even with Gale in the way, blocking any possible shot.

  I can’t feel helpless. Not while there’s still something I can do.

  I have to do something I only ever used for performances of my own.

  In the next second, I have my arrow nocked—not on the center of the bowstring, but about an inch or so below it.

  I couldn’t be confident about aiming like this. What if it didn’t come reflexively to me like it normally did?

  I had to be confident. So I released before the doubt could fester.

  And I watched as the arrow left the string, appearing destined to miss abhorrently.

  But this arrow was different!

  As it approached the pair of tussling dragons, the arrow destabilized in the air, turning sideways into a curve!

  It curved around Gale, miraculously finding the throat of the IceWing.

  The IceWing paused its impending claw strike to grasp its impaled throat—it wasn’t a huge projectile for a dragon, but it still caused bleeding enough to choke on.

  That was a lucky shot. If I didn’t hit the throat directly it could have continued fighting! It still could have taken Gale if it focused on fighting to the end instead of desperately trying to save itself.

  “Nice shot!” Grace compliments, while the other bystanding witnesses were left in shock.

  I did show her this was possible in the past, after all.

  However—that wasn’t the only attacker.

  “Watch out!” I shout at her to dodge the second IceWing landing like a shockwave. This one had gleaming, pristine white scales that could be said to glitter like true ice.

  She jumped out of the way, but it wasn’t clean. She forgot the most important part of dodging, and didn’t keep her limbs close to her body while doing it.

  I heard a piercing scream which attracted the attention of almost every IllusionWing in the vicinity.

  The IceWing chomped mercilessly down on where Grace was, and a fountain of crimson blood erupted from the place her left arm used to be, or at least where most of it used to be.

  After ruining its pristine white scales with her blood, it continued charging at us like nothing happened! And it looks like I’m supposed to be next.

  I can feel it. That sensation of terror and locking up.

  I can’t freeze this time, nor can I kill this dragon with just arrows in time to avoid danger. Gale isn’t going to save me either, he’s too shocked by the horrific scene of war in front of him.

  The reflex of reaching for an arrow almost took over my body.

  But at the last second I realized what I was doing and stopped myself.

  There’s only one thing I can actually do. I’m so relieved I brought this.

  As the dragon gets just into range to chomp me, I reach down to my waist and quickly throw the pouch of spice I’d bought from The Invincible City.

  A suffocating cloud of burning pepper envelops the IceWing, eliciting an immediate scream of pain and tears.

  They turn and run in a different direction, encountering Subcommander Eno.

  Somehow the damn dragon managed to get lucky enough to surprise him as well, only getting a single shot off trying to block it from one of the dragons before he stumbled over the longbow he wasn’t accustomed to.

  Luckily he only got swiped with the blunt of the dragon’s talon, due to it being almost blind.

  All four of his group watch him tumble flat onto the ground and roar in anger, all four focusing on a single dragon.

  The IceWing quickly became a pincushion of dragon-sized arrows, reduced to nothing but a statue stapled to the ground, leaking blue blood everywhere.

  I breathed in the moment I had to relax, but even without any more immediate threats, some problems don’t just go away.

  Grace cried on the ground in agony from her amputation.

  “No.... no...” She sobbed while holding it.

  “Uh, uh, hold on! We’re going to save you!” I shout. My voice was finally wavering once the urgency left the scene to fully set in.

  “I don’t care about that—my arm!” She wails.

  I couldn’t help wincing. She really needed her arm and now it’s gone, and with it, what she was good at.

  “We need to stop the bleeding... I don’t think a tourniquet can hold that for long enough and we only really have our clothes.” I say with a trembling voice. “We have to cauterize it right here.”

  Flameshot bounds closer with pity. “I can do it!”

  “No... your flames are way too hot. It would do way more than cauterize.”

  Ashwind had the coldest flames an IllusionWing could be born with, but he was busy.

  “Gale, you have to do it.”

  Gale whines and cries that he can’t as if he had any choice in the matter.

  “I can’t do it!”

  “Yes you can, because you can’t let her keep bleeding. I’m not letting this become a situation you regret later.” I command. “Just lean down and give us a steady flame. We’ll handle it.”

  Gale closes his eyes and does as told, blowing out a beautiful blue plasma for us to make use of.

  It was definitely uncomfortable to maintain, so as soon as I had the opportunity, I grabbed Grace and pulled the stump of her former arm into the edge of the fire for just a few moments.

  She screams for a few seconds before pulling back with a freshly cauterized—and no longer bleeding wound.

  I too, had to look away as the inevitable faulty thoughts flashed through my head as the side effects of being human.

  Just like anyone else, it was hard to look at Grace and not think at least once about being lucky it wasn’t me. Perhaps it was even comforting to think this, if just for a moment.

  The IceWings and SandWings were retreating now, their forces nearly obliterated.

  Even though the MudWings took most of the losses, we weren’t without losses of our own.

  ...

  The MudWings weren't as reclusive after the battle concluded. Though just because they thought better of us didn’t mean IllusionWings returned the feelings.

  But at least some of them that paid attention to what the humans were doing during the battle prostrate themselves in front of them and repeat apologies.

  That at least bought them enough consideration to avoid being automatically hated.

  Tonight sure was going to be difficult. Gale had to see something terrible.

  I’m not sure even I can hold back nightmares after that.

  So much blood—everywhere—it’s something that doesn’t fully hit you until later.

  I made sure to hug Gale’s neck tighter this time, and pray that he doesn’t get hung up on the debilitated sobs he witnessed today. I could only wonder if all of this was worth it.

  After enduring a night of constant squirming and trying to crush me regardless of what clever place I managed to find, I finally got annoyed with it and napped somewhere else.

  At least when I woke up this time, it wasn’t on another battlefield. Instead, I was sprinkled with morning dew.

  Visiting the delta, but making sure not to go far enough as to revisit the battlefield—there were MudWings around doing combat training. Granted, their idea of fighting doesn’t look as elegant as what our soldiers would be learning.

  We didn’t draw much attention anymore.

  For once I thought the only thing we had left to do was to work things out with human cities we encountered, but something unexpected just has to come up every single time I relax!

  Two MudWings flew in from the direction of the battlefield and landed at the edge of the delta.

  A well-built MudWing turns to them with suspicion at two unrecognizable, uninjured MudWings arriving from a battlefield that should have no one left.

  “Who are you?” She demands of them.

  ...Why do I feel like the one on the right doesn’t look ugly enough to be a MudWing?

  They looked speechless at the bluntness channeled through the question.

  “I’m Clay, and this is Glory.” The stout and buff MudWing answers.

  “And what were you doing out on the battlefield alone? We aren’t looking for unsibs.” The interrogating MudWing gives a slight scorn in her tone.

  “Unsibs?” Clay muttered silently before the other took over.

  “We’re just looking for someone,” Glory says. “A MudWing couple who lost an egg six years ago.”

  “A MudWing couple?”

  “There was a red egg; it was stolen from around here somewhere.”

  “[...]”

  Eventually they were given directions at the end of the dry path to find a dragon named Cattail.

  Though that’s when they finally noticed us.

  “Is that one of the MudWings’ new allies?” Clay voiced. “I don’t think any scrolls mentioned a tribe like that.”

  ‘Ally’ is a strong word to call it.

  Queen Scarlet was preparing for her hatching day festivities. An entire day all about her!

  ‘Every day should be like that, but this day is special! Any that dare to disrupt it will beg for my claws to rend them to pieces!’

  As if an ominous omen, the door to her abode was disturbed.

  Scarlet hoped for an impudent dragon she could throw into the arena as an appetizer to celebrate longer. She even waited to answer it, hoping they would wallow in their anxiety and get impatient.

  It didn’t happen, so she opened it with an already forming sneer by the time she saw who it was.

  ‘It’s that little SandWing runt. Why did I even let him go? This runt should have been happy suffering instead of coming back for more.’

  The SandWing presents a strange object with a string running between two protruded limbs and then eagerly starts explaining all kinds of things she wouldn’t have given the time of day if she didn’t know he wouldn’t dare give her such an insulting lie.

  He even went as far as figuring it out himself and demonstrating its use.

  Scarlet could barely stifle booming laughter.

  ‘This runt actually got something useful from that whelp, Blaze! Look at him thinking he’ll get his family back!’ She cackles internally. ‘They’re already dead. I’ll just have the guards kill him before the festivities. It’s his fault for not using it to kill me—that fool.’

  ...

  Pain! Overwhelmingly concentrated pain is all that could describe the current moment.

  And that was if she could maintain any concept of a single moment being different from the last.

  The event was completely turned on its head, and her perfect face was being destroyed by this ravenous, twisted venom!

  She could only get back to her room before the pain demanded her consciousness to yield to its hellish insistence.

  But she could hear, and partially see four SandWings coming in after her. What’s a little bit more pain?!

  ‘I still have that thing! Die, you desert weasels!’

  “Burn!” She roars and points the object she acquired earlier at one of the approaching SandWings.

  After pulling the metal trigger on the bottom, a metal-tipped shaft of wood launches into the skull of the dragon. One immediately rushes out of the room at the sight, and the rest start backing away.

  “That’s right! Run and hide before I give you a death like your precious Queen Oasis!” Scarlet glowed and hissed maliciously, before finally dropping from the pain as soon as they finally fled.

  None of the SandWings were aware of the reloading requirement.

  Honestly I don't get what this battle is about but it happens in the canon. The only possible motivation I can think of is trying to make the MudWings leave the alliance with Burn, but that was obviously not going to happen. I don't even know where it takes place exactly. The dragonets apparently see the battlefield while following the river from the SkyWing palace entering the mud kingdom from the north. And the ice kingdom and Blaze are far in the northwest. I just have no idea why they chose to invade the place peasants are born instead of going after the MudWing palace. Not only does it not make much sense, but if the SkyWings did actually send reinforcements, they would arrive behind them.

  Also, the dragon that got turned into a pincushion was Icicle, who is now dead.