Arrow narrowly ducked a swing of Hearth's tail. He didn't know why his father was mad this time, but he sure was mad.

Hearth leapt forward with a snarl and knocked Arrow back against the wall. The cut on his side burst open, seeping dark blood as he struggled back to his feet. "I should tell someone about you," Arrow snarled, and then regretted it.

Hearth swelled up to the size of a mountain. "You remember what I told you, right? You know what happens to that scrap of a SeaWing you love so much if you utter a word?"

He bowed his head. "Y-yes, Father."

"Speak up!" Hearth roared, blasting fire at Arrow and singing one of his wings.

"I said yes! I understand!"

"You get dumber every day," Hearth snarled, swatting Arrow with his tail.  "No wonder Gleam couldn't go on."

Shut up, shut up, shut up, Arrow thought fiercely, but the old cycle of thoughts still crashed over him: it's all my fault, she killed herself because of me, if I wasn't so useless she'd still be alive...

Hearth left Arrow alone.  He might have cried, but he'd gotten good at refraining over the years.  Now, it seemed, no a,pint of pain could make him cry.  Unless I lost Sei, Arrow thought, his mind wandering back to the only good thing in his life.  If I lost Sei I'd cry for sure.  I'd cry and then kill whoever took her from me and then I'd probably go insane.  He tried to imagine what his life would be like without his SeaWing friend.

He probably would have taken the same exit Gleam took years ago. 

Slowly, Arrow got to his feet.  His slashed side had stopped bleeding now.  He limped outside to the river to wash the blood off his scales, and then took off, spiralling up into the clouds.  The SkyWing part of his soul loved it up here, where he could twist and dive without anyone to stop him.  Up here, no one could hurt him.  Up here, he was safe.

When his wings finally got tired it was almost night.  Arrow pivoted and dove, breaking through the clouds and landed heavily on the grass in front of his house. 

Sei's pale blue scales startled him.

"Sei!" He said, glancing back at his house.  "What have I told you?"

"I know, I'm not supposed to come to your house," she replied quizzically.  "But they just opened a new restaurant in town, and I thought we should go try it out."

"Where'd you get the money for that?" Arrow asked suspiciously.

"Tarsier," Sei explained.  She wrinkled her snout.  "He says I should 'get used to being rich'.  Somehow he's got it into his head that I'm going to marry Currasow."

"Aren't you?" Arrow remarked. 

"No!" Sei burst out defensively.  "Er—I mean, we're only seven.  Why think about that now?  Things don't always—we might not—I don't know if—look, do you want to go eat or not?"

"Fine," he said, realizing how hungry he was.  "What's that?"  There was a deep cut on one of her forelegs.  Now that he was looking, he noticed many small bruises and cuts all over Sei's body.

"If you can have your mysterious injuries, I'll have mine, thanks," Sei told him, brushing the question off with a spark of humour.  "Let's go already!"

Something wasn't right. 

In fact, something was very, very wrong.