The quiet dripping of water echoed through the cave, along with the rustling of dragons shuffling throughout the cave. Claws clicked on the cold stone, young dragons running about the dark stone caverns.

Fae's eyes fluttered open, her ears flicked, and she curled her tail inward, hoping to savor a bit more warmth. After finally accepting that she was awake, she lifted her head and stretched her arms, the frills on her arms twitching. She took a moment to straighten up her fur and spines that ran along her back down onto her tail.

Once she was finished, she then pressed her nose into her father's messy fur, waking him up.

"Wha? Who- oh Fae," He said groggily, turning his head in her direction, "night's only just begun, why are you up so early?" Fae blinked at him, gazing into his soft green eyes.

"I thought you might want to watch the sunset with me." Fae mused, looking toward the exit of the cave. Her fur fluffed up as a cold breeze swept through the cave. Her father yawned and stretched his wings out.

"All right, but we better be fast, or we might miss it." He warned, rising to his feet. "Do you want me to lift you up there, or do you want to climb?" Her father questioned.

"I can climb." She replied simply, rising herself.

"Alright then, meet you there." He yawned, slowly spreading his wings and drifting toward the outlook.

The outlook was a stone ledge near the top of the cave, and from there you could see the entire valley, and you either had to fly or climb there. The climb from Fae's nest could hardly be considered a climb, it was just hopping on some broken stalactites and walking on some thin rock ledges. Her type of dragon had excellent grip, meant to hang from the ceiling of caves, so she wasn't worried.

After the last few rock ledges had been conquered, Fae made her way to the stone opening, finding her father sitting there, tail wrapped around his claws. The sunset was fading, the sun slipping behind the hills, darkening the valley, but from the outlook, the sun was still bright.

She padded over to where her father was sitting, and found a large smooth rock to sit on. One side of the rock was warm from the sun, so she shifted herself so that most of her body was on that side. The sunset was a mix of oranges and pinks, with small specks of blue. The clouds were long and thin, tainted with the colors of the sky.

It's like you dropped flowers into a pool of water and the colors bled out.

"You should see the sunset on the beach." Her father murmured, breaking the silence "It's right on the other side of those hills." He pointed to the hills below the horizon.

Fae nodded silently, only imagining the colors of the sky reflecting on the endless water. She had been on the beach before, only at night though, even then, it was beautiful.

Whenever she was on the beach, her father would tell her stories of other dragons that lived far across the sea, and dragons that lived in the sea, how they had rough scales instead of soft fur, how some could shoot venom, while others could breathe fire. Then he would snort and say,

'But all that power, and they can't even see two tail lengths in front of them at night!' Father was the only dragon Fae knew of that talked about what was across the sea, but whenever she would ask him if he'd been there, he'd laugh and say the trip was far too long for a single dragon to fly across, and that water dragons were the only ones known to have crossed the ocean.

Fae wondered if she'd ever get to meet a water dragon, the only other breed of dragon known to have night vision. Over all the dragons she'd heard of, water dragons were the best, with gills to breathe underwater, webbed claws and spines, and a powerful tail fin, if Fae had to be any other dragon, she would be a water dragon.

Fae glanced behind her, the moon was barely peeking over the edge of the cliffside, and in front of her, the sun had only just left behind the hills. Fae and her father sat there in silence, as the sky continued to darken, but it never got too dark, as the semi circle moon lit the sky.

Fireflies danced in the distance, which confused Fae, it was Leaf-Fall, fireflies didn't come until Greenleaf. Strange.

Wait, they seemed to be getting bigger, and they had a more orange-ish glow, not the yellow-green glow that fireflies usually had. Fae's father must have seen them, because he rose to his feet, letting out a deep growl.

"Fireflies don't usually look like that," Fae questioned "Do they?" She looked at her father with a worried look in her eyes.

"No." He replied flatly, his green eyes narrowing, scanning the valley. His claws curled, scraping the stone. He hissed, "Those are humans." his ears flattening to his head.

"Humans..." Fae repeated, worried. Her father had mentioned humans before, the small, dangerous mammals, whose small paws could make dangerous weapons.

One of the elder dragons had told her about a human who had shot his wing with a stick that had a very sharp rock tip, enough to pierce flesh. But one thing still confused her, what was the glow?

"Father?" Fae asked.

"Hmm?" He replied, his gaze not shifting to look away from the humans.

"What is that glow?"

"Fire."