Darkness. That's all Emerald could see. Just, overwhelming darkness. It was deathly silent, as if all noise had been sucked out. "H-hello!" She called into the swirling, black abyss. "Hello!" She called louder, fear causing her heart to do jumps in her chest. Clinking was heard behind her, making the Queen whip around.

    Nothing. Nothing, but that ever swirling black. She blinked, starting to breath heavily as her chest began to feel like it was being crushed. What was that? Her eyes narrowed as she tried to peer closer. It looked like stars, flickering in and out of the abyss. She leapt towards them, only for her to start falling.

    She screamed, flapping her wings in a desperate attempt to fly. Instead, she saw her body get closer, and closer to a stone platform. "Help!" Emerald shrieked as she continued to plummet. "Someone help me!" Her eyes widened as her body got closer to colliding with the platform. However, she jumped as she found herself laying in a large cave.

    Torches flickered with bright red flames, lighting up the room. There were several tunnels in the cave, many of them leading downwards. The only tunnels that led up, were to the left of her. They were smoothed flat, as if dragons had scrapped them to be as perfect as possible. Emerald could feel air rushing from every tunnel, the smell of salt and sea filling her nostrils. She was somewhere near the ocean, but she wasn't sure where.

    Was she in the Bay of a Thousand Scales? Shakily, the young dragoness stood up and began to roam around, her talons clicking on the stone beneath her. The clicking echoed eerily off of the cave walls. She rounded a bend and came to a stop. Cobra stood there, huddled in a group with a MudWing, SkyWing, IceWing, SeaWing, RainWing, and NightWing. Was this The Kings that Dion was talking about?

    Heart pounding wildly in her chest, Emerald raced towards them. However, they grew farther and farther away, her legs seeming to slow down. She was whisked back into the black abyss, swirling around slowly. She gazed around before spotting a golden-white light. Eyes narrowing, she moved towards it. It grew closer and closer until Emerald could make out a tiny, white dragonet with gold splatters all over his body.

    Her jaw opened as she stared at him. He looked sunken in, his ribs sticking out like bony wings. He looked up at her with tear-filled, fearful, golden eyes.

    "H-help me," he whimpered, reaching out to her with his tiny, shaking talons. Unable to help herself, the Queen scooped him into her arms.

    "Three moons, you poor thing!" She cried, able to feel every bone in his body. He trembled for a few moments, when she felt him suddenly disappear. She looked at her arms, shocked, before finding herself in another cave. It was smaller, but led to another cavern, torches lit all along the walls. Pressed against the wall of the cave, was the gold and white dragonet.

    He was trembling, staring at the only entrance to the cave. Loud growling echoed against the walls and a large shadow blotted out the light of the other cavern.

    "Topaz, you still have two days!" An angry, male voice bellowed. "Do you want me to add two more?" Topaz, the tiny dragonet, shook his head.

    "N-no, Father. I'm s-sorry, Father. I-I will do better," he whimpered, his voice high in pitch. The shadowy dragon growled again.

    "You better, or else your punishments will only get worse." The shadow disappeared, leaving Topaz all alone. He began to weep, curling into himself.

    "I want M-Mommy," he whimpered. "I want Mommy..." Emerald stared in complete horror as she walked towards the dragonet.

~*~

    Groaning, the black and emerald green dragon slid open her eyes. Ash was shaking her shoulder, whispering, "Get up, Emerald. We still need to talk with Ignite and the others before we can leave." She sat up, and as she did, her head began to spin. Reaching up to hold her face, the dragoness' talons scrapped the partially scabbed scratches. She flinched, having forgotten about them the night before.

    Ash rubbed her back, his eyes full of sympathy. "We'll get those cleaned up, don't worry," he promised. Emerald nodded slowly, gazing around the room. Tornado, Willow, and Stagmite were gone, leaving the black dragoness and blue dragon alone.

    "W-where... where are they?" she whispered as she looked up at Ash. He reached out to her with his talons, gently rubbing her head.

    "They're in the meeting room," he spoke softly. "I told them I'd wake you up." Nodding, the Queen slowly stood, Ash reaching out to her in case she fell. Once he was sure she was ready, he led the way out of the room and down the corridor. Emerald stuck close to him, letting their wings brush against each other as they walked. For the dragoness, it felt as if she had gotten no sleep.

    Her dreams had been nothing, but a swirling black abyss. Suddenly, her mind jolted with a realization.

    "T-the bag, where's the bag?" She hissed to Ash, slamming to a stop. The Sea-IceWing turned to her, his eyes full of confusion.

    "Umm... the bag..?" He echoed, watching her carefully. Emerald nodded her head rapidly, eyes wide.

    "Yes, the bag that Cobra had. The one with the letters. Where is it?" Her eyes were wild, full of mixed emotions. The guard gave her a wry smile as he walked up to her.

    "Emerald, I bet you left it in Ignite's room. And if you did, I can almost guarantee that he'll have it with him." he soothed her, grabbing her talons with his own. She stared at him, wondering how much she should believe him. He reached up, now holding her face. "Have I ever lied to you before?"

    He whispered. She looked down and shook her head. "Exactly. Now, come on. The sooner we get this meeting dealt with, the better." Ash gently guided her down the corridor until they reached the meeting room doors. They stood wide open, one guard on either side, with several dragons sitting at the table. Emerald slipped inside and examined the dragons sitting in the room.

    Willow, Violet, Ignite, Tornado, Whiplash, Shimmer, Crashnova, Stagmite, Lielo, and Aster lined the oak table. Food was stacked ontop of it, as well as random scrolls, bags, and weapons. The group was in heavy conversation, with Ignite leading the charge.

    "This will be dangerous. Are you sure you want to proceed with it?" He was asking Tornado, staring hard at the hybrid. The gray-brown dragon lifted his chin confidently.

    "Yes, I'm sure. There is no way I would let Emerald and Ash go by themselves," he growled, flicking his tail. Ignite grunted in approval, about to say something else, when Emerald coughed, gathering their attention. For a moment, all was silent as they studied her.

    "Your Highness, you're awake! How are you feeling?" Crashnova asked as he rushed towards her. She dipped her head to him as she walked towards the table.

    "Exhausted, but I want to get this done as fast as possible," she told him briskly. The adviser hurried after her, helping her get comfortable in her seat, while Ash took a seat in between Tornado and Whiplash. When they were all settled, Ignite pushed a bag towards the Queen. Snatching it up, Emerald looked into the opened pouch to find that it was Cobra's bag. Letting out the breath she was holding, Emerald looked up and began speaking. "Last night, after returning from the festival, I was attacked in my room."

    All of them, aside from Ignite, Crashnova, Tornado, and Ash, looked at her in shock. "It was the same SandWing whose scales were found in my Mother's sleeping grove," she continued, her tail flicking. "As he tried to escape, using the balcony, I managed to grab a hold of this bag and pull it off of him." She lifted up the bag in question, her eyes flicking over them all. "In this bag, we found acceptance letters from a dragon by the name of Dion. These acceptance letters appear to be for a top level group.

    "They call themselves The Kings." Setting the bag down, she ruffled through the papers until she pulled out both letters that were addressed to Cobra. She held them up and explained, "It turns out that this SandWing is named Cobra." Immediately, the dragons' eyes widened as they shot looks at each other. "He was given the task of not just killing my Mother, but me as well. He is the leader of a group of dragons who plan on killing the other Queens, along with their children."

    Emerald paused, watching as the dragons shook their heads and whispered to each other. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "Their target is still me. However, their next one is Queen Droplet. I wish to leave for the Rain Kingdom today, in the hopes of warning her before it's too late." Emerald twisted her head to look out the windows. The sky was still black and dark blue, but was beginning to lighten up to a pale gray.

    She turned back to them, tail flicking. "Tornado and Ash will be going with me. Aside from telling the Queens, we do not know what our game plan is. In the meantime, you five will be in charge of the Kingdom," she rumbled. "Now that's out of the way, let's get this meeting rolling." Ignite dipped his head, taking it from there.

    "Lielo, you had told Crashnova that you would be leaving for the Rain Kingdom today. My thought is that Queen Emerald and her guards can accompany you. That way, they have back up in case something happens." The head builder nodded in agreement.

    "I'd happily help escort Her Highness to Queen Droplet," he told him solemnly. The other two RainWings dipped their heads in accordance with their co-worker. Ignite turned to Aster, who was watching Emerald carefully.

    "Aster, you brought the lists, correct?" He asked, drawing her attention to him.

    "O-oh, yes. Yes, I did," she spluttered as she pulled out a few scrolls from a bag on her side. She looked up at the Queen as she spoke, "These are lists of what plants are edible, which ones to stay away from, and what you can use in the case of wounds." She pushed the scrolls towards the dark-scaled dragon, who dipped her head and pulled them towards her. Afterwards, Ignite pulled out two of his own scrolls and pushed them towards Emerald.

    "These are maps of Pyrrhia," he explained, pointing towards one. "This shows you all of the best trails, air and water currents. And this one is blank, so you can map out the routes you want to take." Letting the Queen open and examine the maps, Ignite directed his attention to the several bags, weapons, and food. "These are your supplies. Each bag has two large compartments on either side, then a third one on the top."

    He pulled one of the bags towards him and lifted it up, letting them see what it looked like. "Then, you have four smaller pouches where you can put smaller food stuff, like berries, inside," he explained. He sat the bag down, finally letting the group take in all of the information. After fifteen, long minutes, Emerald pointed at the map she was looking at.

    "We'll go up to the Rain Kingdom and after visiting Queen Droplet, we'll loop away from the Mud Kingdom and up to the Kingdom of the Sea. After we see Queen Star, we'll go down the far side of Bay of a Thousand Scales, then leap from this island to this spot of the Mud Kingdom." She dragged her talon along the paper as she explained, the others nodding as they watched her. "From the Mud Kingdom, we can jump to the Sky Kingdom, loop down into Kingdom of Sand, then back up to the Ice Kingdom." Sitting back, she flicked her tail side to side as she watched the dragons. Several minutes went by when Stagmite spoke.

    "What about the NightWings?" He asked, glancing up at the Queen. "No one knows where they went. Even other NightWings." He waved his talons at himself, his head shaking. Emerald let a wry smile spread across her face and she pointed at the map.

    Her talon rested between the Jade Mountain and Claws of the Clouds Mountain ranges.

    "Mother told me that several hundred years ago, a group of NightWing animi created a tunnel in one of the caves of these mountains. The tunnel is said to lead to a large, forested plateau between the mountains. Both plateau and trees were built by the animi. Supposedly, the tunnel entrance can only be seen by dragons that have NightWing blood in them. It was made to protect the NightWings after they split from the RainWings. We'll look for the tunnel before we head into the Sand Kingdom."

    Stagmite nodded, eyeing her curiously. Crashnova was frowning as he looked at the map. Hesitating, he turned towards Emerald.

    "You're going to base it off of some.. rumour?" He asked, wrinkling his nose. The Queen shrugged as she rolled the map up.

    "It's better than nothing," was her only response. He grunted, silence settling over the group once again. Emerald shuffled her wings as the daunting task dawned on her. 'Is this really a good idea?' There was no certain answer for her as she stared at the table. Remaining silent, Emerald grabbed one of the bags and began to fill it with the letters.

    Tornado and Ash each took their own bag and began to fill them with weapons and food. The others began to murmur while the RainWings left, presumably to ready themselves for the flight. After filling her bag, Emerald picked it up and stood. "I'm going to my Mother's room," she said as she faced her guards. "She has some maps of each individual Kingdom. I want you to say goodbye to your parents and I'll meet you outside."

    She didn't wait for a response as she walked out of the room. The Queen stalked down the corridor and stopped in front of a black painted door. Taking in a deep breath, she pushed the door open and stepped inside. Emerald half expected her Mother to be sitting at her desk, but instead, it was empty. Letting out a heavy sigh, she stepped farther inside the room, carefully looking around. She spotted a stack of rolled up papers in the far left corner.

    Shaking out her wings, she crossed the room over to the stack and began to pick through them. Once she had all six maps, she stuffed them into her bag and began to walk out of the room. Stopping, Emerald twisted her head to look at the desk. A book lay open, an ink jar and quill sitting beside it. Curiosity flared in her belly and she let herself walk over to the desk. She peered at the writing, her eyes widening as she read it.

    It was a diary.

    Specifically, her Mother's diary.

    Turning the page over in her talons, she found that the writing had stopped on the second half of the open page. Blinking, she got an urge to open the drawers. Pulling them open, she stared in surprise. More leather bound books lay inside. Emerald grabbed the very top one, flicking it open to a random page. It was another diary.

    Checking each and every one, the new Queen found that all of them were her Mother's diaries. Quartz had been writing in them since she was fifty years old. The dead Queen had turned seventy-three that year. She had started the diaries five years before she'd laid Emerald's egg. Each diary recorded events for each year of Quartz's life. Up until a few days before her death.

    Emerald began to stuff them into the third, and largest, pouch of her bag. Once she had every single diary, she snapped it closed and slid it onto her shoulders. She left the room, silently closing the door, then headed down the corridor. Once at the steps, she jumped over the edge and unfurled her wings. She drifted towards the doors of the palace, which were wide open, and flew past them. Outside, at the bottom of the steps, Tornado and Ash were talking with their parents.

    The RainWings stood off to the side of them, while the head guard, adviser, and healer waited patiently. Drifting towards the group, Emerald landed next to Ignite. He turned to her, grunting.

    "Took you long enough. Did you get lost in there?" He grumbled, flicking her with his tail. Chuckling, she shook her head.

    "No, sorry. I had to dig around for the maps, is all," she lied, the words flowing smoothly. She didn't like lying, especially to Ignite, but she wasn't sure if now was the right time to tell him about the diaries. He grunted again as he walked towards the royal guards.

    "Either way, it's time you all left. Get the jump you need." He spoke loudly, drawing the attention of the other dragons. Side by side, Emerald and Ignite walked over to Ash, Tornado, and their parents. Willow was crying while Stagmite held her. Whiplash was watching Ash with worry, but showed no outward sign of fear.

    Willow turned to the young Queen and threw her wings around her.

    "Be safe, please," the pale green dragon whispered. Tears fell onto Emerald's shoulders and she tightly hugged the older dragoness.

    "I will, I promise." Pulling away from Willow, she squeezed her talons before nodding to Stagmite and Whiplash, who nodded back at her. She turned as Crashnova and Aster walked up to stand beside Ignite.

    "Good luck," the adviser murmured, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. Aster dipped her head to the Queen, and Emerald dipped her head back to them. Ignite gave her a curt nod, fear flashing in his eyes for a split moment, then it disappeared. Facing the royal guards and builders, she nodded to them.

    "Let's go," the Queen ordered before leaping into the air, her wings flaring open. Shimmer, Tornado, Violet, Ash, and Lielo followed her into the lightening sky. Behind the group, the dragons roared after them.

    "Good luck!"

    "Be safe!"

    "Don't be stupid, Ash!"

    The last one made Emerald laugh, twisting her head to look at the Sea-IceWing. He shot a glare at her as he beat his wings quickly. Facing forward once again, she focused on finding a wind current. Rushing past the tips of her wings, she veered into it, leading the group to the wind current. Below them, was a sea of green forests. Emerald took a deep breath, feeling anxiety flutter in her chest.

    It was time. Her search had begun.

~●《☆》●~

Author's Note

And we are off for the other Kingdoms :P

Who do you think the dragonet, Topaz, is?

What do you think the dream meant?

For a word count, I got 3,162 words.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, please feel free to leave a vote ^-^
~Dragon