Smokey POV

"Can Smokey come this year too, dad? Please, please, pretty please with a squirrel on top?" A grey-blue dragonet with several sharp horns along his neck and webbed talons was holding a rich green and brown dragon's gaze in a begging fashion, swinging his finch around in excitement.

"No, Current, it's fine, I really don't have to—" I began, glancing at the older dragon, my father Oak, and back at my younger brother in worry. My mother, Queen Lake, a slim, proper SlushWing (Ice-Sea hybrid) with heavy pearls strung from her neck, watched on.

"If that's what you really want, son," interrupted Oak, although he didn't look too happy about it. That makes sense. Dad hated me, for some reason. I hadn't done anything very impactful or damaging in his life, other than, you know, being born. But no matter what I did, he seemed to loathe me on a personal level. I just wanted him to like me.

The silence that followed was cold. Current was embarrassed, I was nervous, dad was groveling, and mom was indifferent as always. She never partook in conversation at dinnertime, or at least in the rare occasion when I was invited.

I usually didn't eat in the palace. I wasn't really welcome; the SlushWing residents were unfriendly toward me, and I preferred solitude. I lived in a small wooden hut on the grounds. My mother had scrounged around looking for mediocre builders when I was old enough to live on my own: Two and a half. Now I'm four, and I missed an entire year of school. All because of my annoying father.

"I actually think that's a great idea," piped up my mother, breaking the ice powerfully. All of us boys immediately turned to look at her incredulously. She never talked. Never. She must've actually wanted me to go to school. "I really think it's time for him to branch out, instead of being cramped in that poor excuse for a house."

Oh, now I understand. She didn't want to have to deal with me for another year. I see. Well, not like I wanted to stay here anyways. I'd dreamed about getting away from my ignorant parents and all the dirty looks I received from strangers and having my brother lighthearted and clueless about it all. This could be my next break! "Thanks, mom," I murmured, pretending to look grateful and confused to hide my excitement. School, real, actual school!

Oak shot me a warning look with scathing blue eyes. "Talk only when you're addressed, Smokey," He growled. Of course, I was used to that. I'd never been given the right to free speech by my parents. The only time I could speak on my free will was in my cabin, and that was hardly fair, since I didn't have anyone to talk to. Because of that, I'd developed the habit of talking to myself.

I mumbled an apology, forced down the rest of my scrawny rabbit, and left. I trundled down the entrance lobby and out the SlushWing castle doors. Once the doors had swung shut, I half ran, half flew to my cabin which was a couple hundred yards away. I never actually properly learned how to fly, since my parents neglected that in hopes that I'd have to stay grounded, but I still tried.

Then I got an idea. My cabin was nearing, a brown-black lump in a world of icy white and glossed over green. Past it, nothing, and then a hazy green line that could only be the edge of a forest. That field was perfect for it. Time for some flying lessons.

I tried to start flying, and managed to get some air by jumping. ForestWings were good at jumping, and this benefited me a lot. I proceeded to flap my small wings (ForestWings also have smaller wings since they live in the forest and don't usually need to fly), and I got a few feet. It was exhausting, but I propelled my self forward and started a nice rhythm.

Then I made out an odd figure, like a dragon sitting, but it was white. No one could make a snow dragon with this snow, it was too wet to mold. So that had to be a dragon, but it didn't look like a SlushWing. Or any dragon I'd ever seen before, actually. As I neared, my concentration faltered, and I tumbled to the ground, wincing at the cold slush that splattered me.

"Interesting," said a light voice, "I've never seen a dragonet your size that can't fly." Then a couple of giggles. Cringing, I peeked through my shut eye. A blindingly white dragonet was standing above me. Her royal purple eyes were surrounded by a wide circle full of neon pink and yellow, and as I looked at her top to bottom, I found that her spikes, wings, belly and patterns (spots along her neck) were also brightly coloured. She was.... well, blinding.

"H-hi there," I stuttered, overwhelmed by the amount of colour radiating from her. I think it was a she. "Hello!!! Hi there, hi, wow, gee, I've never met a ForestWing (fan tribe), wow, hi, who're you?" She giggled, bouncing around as I stood up carefully. Such an odd dragon. I liked her already.

"Uh, I'm Smokey, you?" I asked, tilting my head to the side. "Oh, me? I'm Gleam! I'm a DazzleWing (Ice-Rain). You're a ForestWing, right?" She asked, prodding me in the chest lightly. I shrugged. "Yeah, but my mom tells me I'm part SlushWing, since she's one. Although I don't look like one at all. It's kinda weird," I added when she started scanning me for blue bits. I was green through and through, not counting my multi coloured spots that looked like flowers running along my back, my cream horns, and my sky blue eyes. Other than that, all green.

Her coloured spots turned a curious sunset orange and sea blue. "Huh. So you live in that palace, right?" Gleam nodded to the castle. I glanced back, having forgotten it was there. "Well, I should, seeing as my mother's the queen, but no, I live in that shack behind you." I pointed over her shoulder, where my shack sat, withering and helpless. Her eyes widened. "Well, that's better than me," She muttered, her scales turning a smokey orange and scarlet. This dragon had major mood swings.

"Why, where do you live?" I asked, sitting up straight. She frowned, and her scales turned a violent fiery ruby. "Well, nowhere at the time." When I looked at her carefully, she continued, "The queen banished me. My dad accidentally didn't follow some of the queen's orders, so they found an excuse to hurt him; I'm apparently too nice." Now I frowned.

"Too nice? Is that really a bad thing?" I said, almost laughing. Stupid royal dragons, with their stupid laws and stupid guards and stupid faces.

"Yeah, in the Dazzle Kingdom it is. Everyone's bossy and lazy and cares about politics and status more than having fun," Gleam replied. She pawed the ground, looking at her talons, a blank expression on her face. Then she looked up. "Well, I better be going. Talk to ya later, Smokey," she smiled grimly and made to stand and leave. Before she could fly off, though, I shouted, "Wait!" And grabbed her tail, pinning the white dragon to the snow.

"You can stay with me, until we find you a proper home," I explained. I didn't really know what I was getting into. Her face brightened and colours became violent neon, but then it fell. "That's too much trouble to put you through, though. It's fine, I'll figure something out," She lied, obviously trying to be responsible. It was not working; her scales were now a dark blue and smokey purple, like nervousness.

I shook my head vigorously. "Nope, come along, let's get you a home," I practically ordered, beginning to walk home. She bounced along behind me, pestering me with questions.

"How long have you lived here?" She asked.

"Since I was two."

"What's your parents names?"

"Queen Lake and the ForestWing Oak, and my little brother Current." Gleam stopped in her tracks. "Your mom's the Queen?" She asked, staring me in the eye.

I frowned. "Yeah, I mentioned that earlier. Were you not listening?"

"I, uh, thought you were kidding." She let out a little breathless laugh. "So then you're a prince, right?"

We continued on the trail. My house was a couple meters away. "Well, I guess you could say that. Although I'm more like her captive. Our situation reminds me of Tsunami, Coral and Anemone, except our dad's not dead."

She looked dumbfounded. "Who?" She asked carefully, stooping at my door. I pushed it open and headed inside with her. "You know, from that book series the CloudWings (fantribe) wrote. Wings of Fire. Haven't you read it?" I asked. That was my favourite series.

"No, I haven't. What's it about?" She asked, sitting down on the cold floor. I took a deep breath. "You've heard of Pyrrhia, right?" She shook her head, and I sighed.

"So, a long time ago, there was another continent called Pyrrhia that dragons lived on. There were seven types of dragons that lived there: NightWing, IceWing, SeaWing, RainWing, MudWing, SandWing, and SkyWing. Above them, observing them all, were the CloudWings, who documented and wrote books about the dragon inhabitants. And they all lived there in peace, until someone discovered another continent, called Pantala. Heard of that one?" I asked. Gleam shook her head slowly. She looked curious.

"It's another continent, far away. The CloudWing books say the Pyrrhia dragons called it "the lost continent." But anyways, I won't go into much detail, but back on Pyrrhia a volcanic era had begun, and the continent was deemed unsuitable for dragon life because there were so many volcanoes. So everyone from Pyrrhia came to Pantala.

"There was a giant war over the land, resulting in many deaths and injuries and chaos. It's still going on, actually, to an extent. But some dragons flew away, put to sea, following the fleeing CloudWings. They sure knew what they were doing. Finally the refugees found a new continent, this continent, and- hey, don't touch that!" I suddenly said. Gleam was holding an aged wooden chest in her talons. Snapped awake, she set it on the table where she found it. "Sorry," she murmured, embarrassed. I immediately felt bad.

"It's fine. On with the story. Anyways, and they named it Agati. Since there were so few dragons other than CloudWings that made it here, we had the hybrid boom a hundred years ago. The only other species that didn't mingle with others were LeafWings. Everyone else was making hybrids.

"Now, it turns out that Agati is a ways northwest from Pantala, and so the LeafWings had to adapt. Eventually they became ForestWings like me." I ruffles my wings a little self conciously. Gleam looked concerned, and thought about this for a while.

"I lived THREE YEARS in that stinky old kingdom and NO ONE decided to mention ANYTHING about our history?! NOT. A. WORD!!! What an I, chopped liver?" She finally burst out. I smiled.

"I think you learn about it in school. You're three, so you haven't gone yet," I explained, wrapping my wings around her. "Time to sleep, now. I think it's been a long day for you," I insisted, leading her to my bed. I'd sleep on the floor tonight, and make a new bed tomorrow.

"Thanks so much for.. all of this," she said gratefully, looking at me meaningfully. Her scales were a soft blue and purple. I smiled. "It's nothing. I needed a friend anyways, and you showed up." I shrugged and curled up on the floor.

Gleam was asleep the moment her head literally hit the hay. I stared at the wall for a little bit, thinking. I actually had a friend. For once in my life, I had some one to talk to.

A nice, energetic friend without a care in the world.

And only then did I slip into dreams of nothing in particular but yet everything at once.