Nereid looked around frantically. There was nothing she could do as she watched her clan massacred by Burn and her SkyWings at the Summer Palace. Nereid wasn't a fighter; she was a child and nothing more. At six years of age, the dragonet wasn't allowed.
Suddenly a scream echoed above her. Nereid looked up and cried out as her twin was attacked by a red-gold, vicious looking SkyWing. The young SeaWing knew what to do, but didn't want to. She flew at the SkyWing and tore into his back. He roared in pain and whipped around to sink his teeth into Nereid's head. She gasped and wriggled out of reach, lashing her tail involuntarily. Suddenly it collided with something, and Nereid winced at the sickening crack that followed.
The next thing she knew, Nereid was falling along with the disgustingly limp body of her sister's SkyWing attacker. She let go of the fresh corpse and flew back up to her shaken sister, Kymopoleia, who was bleeding profusely from a gash in her side. Nereid hugged her sister. "Thank the moons you're all right," Nereid whispered.
Kymopoleia shook her head. "But, Nereid, what about Khrysaor?" Nereid's breath caught in her throat.

No, no, no, I have to find Khrysaor, Nereid panicked. "Just hang tight, Kym! I'll go find him!" Nereid flew downwards into the battle, calling for the one she liked to think of as more than a friend. "Khrys!" she called desperately. "Khrys, where are you?!" And then she saw him, his beautiful dark scales stained with blood. One of his wings was twisted and he was lying on the rocks like a broken doll forgotten by its young dragon owner. His sides were rising and falling like a shuddering mass of pain was lodged in his lungs.
"Khrysaor!" Nereid cried. She flew over to him and held his head in her talons. His enchanting electric blue eyes opened a crack, and once he saw Nereid, he managed a weak grin.
"Hi," he coughed. "Lovely day for a flight around the island, don't you think?"
"Hardly. Come on, you big sack of kipper. We have to find a medic." Nereid hauled him onto her back and took off into the sky as the lost heir--Tsunami--and her friends escaped the fray. It wasn't fair. They would be safe once they escaped to the Talons of Peace. But there was a war going on that everyone else had to fight.
Suddenly Kymopoleia flew at Nereid and Khrysaor, tears in her eyes. "Kym, what's wrong?" Nereid asked urgently.
"It's--it's mum and dad!" she sobbed. "They've been murdered!"

Nereid sat straight up, smacking her head against the ceiling. She cursed and rubbed her head, her spots flaring obscenely in the underwater code. Kym was still sleeping, but Khrys was immediately at Nereid's side. "Hey, you okay?" he asked her, concerned. Nereid couldn't take it anymore and snapped. She flung her arms around Khrysaor and bawled into his chest.

"I just wish that the war had never even started!" she cried. "Kym and I would still have mum and dad!" Khrysaor put his wings around Nereid.

"Hey, it's alright, the war is over, we'll be okay," he soothed. "You still have your sister. You still have me. We're going to figure this out, okay?"

"We don't even have a place to live!" Nereid bawled. "All we have is this tiny cave on an island in the middle of nowhere!"

"We could always go back to the Summer Palace."

"No! You know I'll never go back there!"

"What about anywhere in the Sea Kingdom?"

Nereid sniffled. "But there's still...there's still dragons who resent me for what I did!" she coughed sadly. "No; we are never going back to the Sea Kingdom."

"That was just a misunderstanding," Khrysaor pointed out, "I know you didn't kill Octopus. You just happened to be there at the wrong time."

"I know. But I'm not going back, and I'm not leaving you guys."

"Well...what about...Jade Mountain Academy? I hear that place is pretty safe, and the legendary Five Dragonets of Destiny run the place."

Nereid considered it before wiping her tears with a talon. "Okay," she said quietly. "Let me go get Kym and grab whatever belongings I have left."

Nereid woke her sister, then traipsed to the back of the cave. On her way, she tripped on a rock. I want that rock to disintegrate, she thought to herself angrily. Suddenly, in the dim light of her spots, the rocks silently shattered into dust and disappeared. Nereid jumped backwards, more frightened now than angry. What did I do? she thought worriedly.
Oh, three moons of Pyrrhia, what just happened?!