She walks through the forest, determination in her eyes.

The sounds of the swamp and marsh fill her ears – the croaking of bullfrogs, the chirping of insects, the rustling of the grass.

It almost makes her feel as if she's part of something again – unlike her peers who despise her.

Ever since she hatched, Spinney was hated by the other dragons because of her... er... oddness, so to speak.

She was clumsy at flying; she was fascinated by obscure subjects no one else knew about; her body repeated movement to calm herself.

For being accepted was her true goal in life. If she could make one connection to another dragon, her life would be complete.

Of course, that said dragon could leave her because of her oddness.

Which was more of the reason she was out here tonight.

She was out here so she could prove to the other TreeWings the next day that she was a dragon like them.

The light of the moons shone above in the sky, bathing the swampy forest in a silver light.

This was a celestial event that occurred every once in a while, – an event known as "the brightest night" since no one knew what else to call it.

Spinney thought that the dragons in Leafcove would be staying up to witness this.

Nope.

The Council had dictated that all dragons must stay in the village after the sun set, and that anyone would be punished if they were found after dark.

Spinney didn't want to be punished, but she was here with a purpose.

She climbed the nearest tree – a behemoth with brown bark, giant spiraling branches going every which way, and green plants covering it – and positioned herself on a branch that was closest to another nearby tree.

Okay Spinney, she told herself, you just have to fly over to that tree without screwing it up.

She took several breaths to calm herself before flapping her wings, lifting her into the air, keeping her eyes on the next branch.

Come on, Spinney. Come on.

She flapped her wings, forcing herself forward with every beat.

And eventually she landed on the branch without screwing it up.

Yes! One tree down, many more to go.

Spinney kept flying towards the other trees, each time making the distance longer than the previous flight. If she kept this up, she could be like the other dragons in Leafcove and not be seen as the dragonet who couldn't fly without making mistakes.

As she landed on a giant brown tree with stringy brown moss dangling from its sprawling branches, Spinney heard a snap within the forest.

She pricked up her leaf-shaped ears.

Crap! Has Mother found me?

She hid within the shadows of the tree, practically making herself one with the swamp.

She kept her gaze on the ground, where the grass stood still like tiny, firmly planted trees.

There was another snap, this time it was closer.

And there was also... squeaking?

What other animal made squeaking sounds, other than hatchlings or mice?

Dying birds?

No, it couldn't be that.

The squeaking was getting closer and closer to her, until a creature Spinney had never seen before emerged from the grass.

The creature was small, about the size of a dragon hatchling. It had a small patch of dark brown fur on its head and pale skin. It was entirely covered in some sort of hide that was in two unusual colors and looked to have a texture that was smooth like river stones. It was divided into two parts – one for the upper body, one for the lower body. It had two floppy, clawless forearms that dangled from its upper body, and two stable, yet clawless feet that were covered in some hard, black thing.

What are you?

Spinney carefully climbed down the tree, hoping to get a better look at the creature.

As she descended, one of her hind legs misstepped on the truck and she lost her balance.

As she fell to the ground, the creature shrieked in horror.

Spinney had landed on her side, and she got up as soon as the throbbing in her head began to subside.

The creature was still there, yet it was quivering, as if it didn't know what to do.

She lowered her head to it and saw that it had two small slits in its flat snout for a nose, and two eyes that were like the smaller version of a dragon's eyes.

The creature began to move backward, as if it were beginning to regret its decision to be out here.

The creature shrieked something to the open woods, and soon other creatures like the one in front of Spinney came.

These creatures were like the first one she saw, except that their skin was in different colors, like brown, tan, and white. Like the other one, they were also covered in a smooth hide that has different colors on them.

As soon as the other creatures saw Spinney, their eyes widened with fear. Or was it marvel?

Where did you come from? The sea? No, that'd be impossible. Nothing but the OceanWings can survive down there.

The swamp? It'd be a possibility, but very unlikely.

She managed to get her snout a bit closer to the cluster, and some of them moved back in response.

The jungle? Maybe not.

The mountains? No...?

These creatures had the same expressive features as dragons, just smaller and lacked ears that could move.

But if you're not from any terrain on the planet, you have to be...

Spinney looked up at the night sky, and something hit her like dragon claws smashing her head into the dirt pathways of the village.

There was only one conclusion to draw from this as she looked back down at the cluster of odd creatures.

You came from the sky.

You're creatures from the sky.

You're sky-creatures.

______

It turned out that those creatures Spinney discovered did come from the sky, descending from it in smooth, metallic huts of varying sizes and shapes that were too small for a dragon to fit in, but would fit some hatchlings.

When the other dragons of Leafcove first saw the metal huts descend from the sky, they were afraid, thinking that the end of the world was nigh. To supplement these fears, they forbade anyone from going out there at any time.

But Spinney had no choice. If she wanted to be accepted by the others, she had to sneak out at night and go into the swamps to practice being a normal dragon, even if it affected how she was during the day.

And so she was the only one who was able to see the sky-creatures, mainly at night.

At night, the sky-creatures were asleep with some of them being awake to guard their settlement.

That was no fun, but she could make it work.

Spinney had decided to practice her flying in the vicinity of the sky-creatures' swamp settlement so she could watch them, but also to give herself familiarity with the area. But she had to time how long she did it, so she could return home and go to sleep as to not raise suspicion.

Over the next season, Spinney saw how rapidly the settlement was created, its resources being derived from the same metal huts that carried them across the sky.

They're just like us, Spinney realized one night when she saw that a small metallic hut that could easily house a dragon within its cramped spaces with a cross on its top was nearly built. They know how to build their own settlements and take advantage of their surroundings.

There was something else that Spinney gained from being at the settlement during night – one of the sky-creatures had given her leftover prey from the day and had scratched the back of her ears while she ate the leftovers.

So someone does look out for me. But it's not another dragon. I'll allow it.

Eventually the sky-creature found its way onto Spinney's back one night while she was resting from overexerting her wings.

Moons III and IV were out – one of them was nearly full, the other a crescent. The chorus of swamp life was more intense now that when she first saw the sky-creatures, and the temperature was hotter than that night.

As Spinney drooped her wings and panted, the sky-creature had climbed up the nearest tree and jumped from it onto the TreeWing's back.

When she first felt it, she thought that it was an insect that had found a place to land. She scratched her neck with one of her back feet, hoping to get it off. When the feeling was still on her, Spinney swung her head around and, sure enough, her sky-creature friend was on her back.

Panic set into the dragon, and she began flailing backwards, hitting the trees so the sky-creature could get off her. It hadn't even communicated that it wanted to be there!

The sky-creature screamed as Spinney kept knocking herself into the trees, but the noise soon garnered the attention of the other sky-creatures, who swarmed out of the settlement. Unlike the ones that she saw earlier, Spinney noticed that these sky-creatures were covered in metal plating all over their bodies, and that they brandished long metal sticks as compensation for their clawless forearms.

The sky-creatures pointed their sticks at them, which had a hole at one end, and they squeaked at her.

"EEE! EEEE! EEEEEEEE!" one of the sky-creatures screeched at Spinney, and she stopped, hoping she wasn't into trouble with them.

"Squrk, rrrrrr..." the same sky-creature ordered her.

Spinney didn't know what to say. Was it ordering her to do something?

"SQUAK!" the sky-creature on Spinney's back chirped before it crawled onto the top of her head, between her horns. "Squrk rp!"

The other sky-creatures on the ground still pointed their sticks at Spinney, as one of them gestured to lower her head.

She obeyed, and the sky-creature slid off Spinney by sliding off her snout.

The sky-creature that ordered her to lower her head began squawking with the one that had boarded Spinney before a full-on squabble broke out. It wasn't a physical one, it seemed... like a verbal one.

It went on for what seemed like Turn after Turn after Turn, until the sky-creature with the stick ordered the other armored sky-creatures to head back into the settlement, leaving the other two out in a dark swamp.

Both sky-creatures walked towards Spinney, and she began backing into the dark trees, thinking she was in trouble with them. But she stopped when she saw that one of them had its forearm raised to her snout, and its clawless talon was open, spreading its five clawless claws out.

Spinney approached it carefully, and she sniffed it. It smelled like the swamp, but also of the ocean, which she has never been to. She gently touched the sky-creature's open, clawless paw, taking the scent in. How were these creatures able to replicate scents through means that dragons didn't possess?

________

As the hot season fading into the cold-transitioning season, Spinney got used to the fact that a sky-creature rode on her back during her nighttime training session. She could also see that her rider was a male sky-creature, due to its features reminding her of male MountainWings.

Spinney noticed that the sky-creature's swamp settlement was complete when the leaves on the trees of the forest were changing from grass-green to red, orange, yellow, and brown.

The swamp was an exception to this, as some plants that bloomed in the cold season were beginning to produce their leaves and flowers.

To commemorate their achievement, the sky-creatures held a celebration of sorts within the confines of their settlement. It wasn't like any celebrations that the TreeWings observed.

No, it was a celebration full of noise. Lots and lots of noise.

Spinney felt like it sounded like a bunch of birds got together and chirped as one, but in a messy, horrible way. Even though she hated it, she decided to stay outside the settlement, not even touching its metallic outer walls, out of politeness.

Sometime after she arrived at the settlement, she left, since no one seemed interested to guard it.

As she turned around and walked back into the dark trees, she heard one of the walls move and turned around.

The wall hadn't moved; in fact, an opening within the wall was closing itself.

Clever.

Spinney's sky-creature was obviously done, and she peered down at him. His expression was pure tiredness.

As her snout got close to him, he put a clawless paw on her snout, and it smelled like literal garbage.

She reeled back. What were they ingesting?

SNAP.

Her ears perked up and she turned her head back to the dark trees.

"Hello?" she called.

Nothing.

Then there was another snap, this time it was closer, accompanied by footsteps.

Someone had followed Spinney into the swamp.

Eventually the footsteps emerged into the grove where the sky-creature's settlement was, and Spinney recognized the dragon as Beech, another TreeWing part of Leafcove.

"Beech", Spinney exclaimed, "what are you doing here?"

"What do you think?" he sniffed. "Clearly, I knew something was up when those metal huts descended, and it looks like you're clearly breaking the rule Councildragon Hornbeam installed."

"It's... it's not what it looks like", Spinney stammered, but she couldn't speak. What was she supposed to do? Admit she'd been out here to practice being normal? Or flee the scene and never be seen again?

If she admitted to being out here, she'd be severely punished or worse, be exiled from the forest permanently, even though it was a rare occurrence. If she fled, there'd be a dragonhunt out for her ordained by the Council to the Guards, and she wouldn't survive it.

"I know exactly what this looks like", Beech growled. "But now your indulgence is over and coming back to Leafcove."

He lunged at her, and she dodged him, moving herself backwards into the swamp's dark trees.

Beech swiped at her, and Spinney dodged, but she wasn't fast enough.

A small trickle of blood ran from her snout. It would result in a healable wound, not a permanent scar.

He lunged again, and she backed herself to the trunk of a nearby tree. Using this to his advantage, Beech lunged again at Spinney and grabbed her by one of her forearms and wings. She internally yelped in pain, and she harshly struck his snout with her talons.

"OW!" he exclaimed, clutching his head where she hit him. "Owwwwww."

Now that he was temporarily immobilized, Spinney ran from the trees surrounding the settlement and into the trees beyond.

The swamp was the only place where she could feel safe and not be judged by others. But alas, that too was not prone to the realities of life.

If there was another place Spinney couldn't be judged, it would have to be the Rachis Jungle, the northern jungles of Eukarya, albeit it was home to the most venomous reptiles on the planet – snakes. Specifically, the ones that lived in the River of Beaks.

But that would mean she would have to fly through the northern half of the Great Forest to get there.

Another option would be heading towards one of the continent's two western islands. Her first choice would be the Island of Talons, the home of the DesertWings and the StormWings. The island also contained the old, abandoned territory of the TreeWings, where she would stay.

No one would judge her there, and they certainly wouldn't mind her being the only mainland dragon on the island.

Her second, and least favorite, choice was the Clawed Isle, the home of the FeatherWing capital. Surely their leader, Owl, would allow her to stay.

But she didn't know. She didn't know what would happen to her.

All she knew what that the rules of the TreeWing society were unbearable for her, and that she needed to escape from them, badly.

________

The next evening after fleeing the sky-creature's swamp settlement and Beech, Spinney had reached the ocean.

Specifically, the southwestern shores of the Ocean of Storms, the southern and western ocean of the continent.

She didn't know if the Ocean extended to the planet's south poles or the continent on its other side.

The sun was slightly off from its highest point in the sky now and was now beginning its march to the other horizon.

She was tired now, because of all that harried flying.

But she was so close to being free, free from all the rules that dictated how she was to act around others.

Spinney's wings drooped to sand, as if large boulders were weighing them down, and her eyelids were heavy.

She tried to fight the tiredness, but it overcame her, and she collapsed onto the sand and slept.

________

Something tugged on Spinney's tail, waking her up.

She yawned, waking from a dreamless sleep, and saw that it was now night. Moons IV and II were out, looking like two mismatched white eyes in the sky. The stars were out, and the lapping of water on the shore was the only sound she heard.

She turned her head around to look and saw that it was her sky-creature waking her up, not a member of the Community. He patted her tail, and she lowered her head to him.

What do you want?

As Spinney got close to the sky-creature, he began to climb onto her snout. It felt as if dirt had become sentient and was now crawling onto her like an insect.

The sky-creature had managed to climb from her snout and onto her head when she sneezed.

"Ork!" the sky-creature responded. "Thanks, clawless", she griped in reply as he slid down her neck and settled on her back. Shen then got up and snook herself, getting the sand off her underbelly.

"ACK!" the sky-creature complained. "ARGH!"

Spinney winced internally. Sorry, but I have too.

"Erk, erk", the sky-creature rumbled. "Erk."

"What?" Spinney inquired and turned her head around to the sky-creature.

"Erk", the sky-creature said again and pointed out towards the ocean with one of its clawless talons. She followed the direction where he pointed before looking back at him.

"You want to go out there?"

"Yerp!"

But why do you want to go out there? Do you want to come with me?

Wait a minute.

She eyed the sky-creature.

"You want to come with me, don't you? You want to make sure I'm not alone out there."

"Wrrrrr", the sky-creature replied.

Alright, Spinney thought as she extended her wings, prepared to take off. You want this, to come with me. She looked back at the sky-creature before taking a breath and taking off into the night sky.

After all, what's the worst that could happen?

Originally published: 01/12/2024 (added text from manuscript version of book 1's prologue to page); edited: 02/29/2024 (fixed abbreviation from "C.L." to "CL")