Raven yelped in surprise and pain, the wound her father had given her on the top of her muzzle beginning to bleed. The entire pack fell silent and tense, all of them fearing what their Alpha would do to them if he'd hurt even his own daughter.

"You useless, weak, stupid little she-wolf," he growled. "I would kill you right now, if I had a son. The only reason you're still alive is because I need you to be Alpha Female of this pack, to keep the reign in the family. Where was she, and what was she doing?" He turned to the guard at the entrance and asked.

"Uh- she... um-" the guard spluttered, backing away slightly, obviously torn between loyalty to his Alpha and to his Beta.

"Tell me, now!" The Alpha commanded, slamming his huge paw down and sending a tremor through the cave, causing pebbles to fall from the ceiling.

"She took the prisoner into the forest to interrogate him!" The guard blurted out.

The Alpha didn't reply for a moment, but he got very tense.

"Where... is the prisoner now...?" He asked slowly, in a very menacing voice.

"H-he escaped! I was hurting him little by little until he told me about t-the dragon army!" Raven lied.

The Alpha shot her a glare. "Are you lying to me?"

"No! No, I would never!" Raven exclaimed. "When have I ever deceived you, father?"

He paused, seeming to think it over. Then he let her up, and sat on his bed of moss and leaves.

    "You'd better be telling the truth, Raven. You know what the punishment for lying is..."

Raven gulped. "Y-yes, father. I promise, I'm not lying. Like I said, I would never do that."

Time fast forwarded again, and showed how Spark came to the border to meet her around five weeks after she set him free. They were delighted to see each other, and they shared stories. Then they met every second night after that, and they slowly started to fall for each other.

It turned out Moonstone did like Spark, but she didn't know about Spark and Raven. Spark told Moonstone he just wanted to be friends. Eventually, after a lot of meeting each other at the border, Raven found out she was expecting Galaxy.

She told Spark at their next meeting, and Spark told her that there was going to be an attack on the caves in two days. They agreed to run away during the attack. And then Raven met Eclipse, and everything that Eclipse had seen happened. The vision faded, and she found herself back in the queen's room next to Raven and Spark just as Raven was saying "and that's our story".

The queen nodded slowly.

"So... wait- you're expecting a dragon wolf hybrid?" Lady Swallowtail asked, giving Raven a pitiful look. The SilkWing wasn't much older than Raven, so she could probably relate at least a little.

"You two have no idea what trouble this offspring will bring." Lady Crystal growled, her voice grave.

Actually, Galaxy will bring peace, not trouble, Eclipse thought, although she didn't dare say it out loud.

Queen Sunset dipped her head, and sat down on a stray pillow.
"As the queen of a very diverse city, I respect hybrids. But I worry for this hybrid... it will be right in the middle of this war. What side will it choose?"

Spark shook his head. "That's why we were going to run away. We were going to go to a place where no one knows about the war."
"The war would still find you," Lady Crane reasoned, her honey-coloured eyes filled with sympathy. "Every day, at least one more creature finds out about the war. Now almost the entire continent knows about it."

"Cute wolf-thing, I have a question for you," Queen Sunset announced. "What are you? You don't have to answer, if it's upsetting to you. But I'm curious- are you a wolf dragon hybrid? Who were your parents? I don't think there's ever been a dragon from my city sneaking out to see a wolf besides Spark. But there must've been, because you're- oh! Your parents weren't from the city, were they?"

Eclipse smiled at the queen's curiosity, and shook her head. "No, no. I'm... I'm from the future. Well- the future for you, present for me. And before you ask how I know what I'm about to say, just remember that I'm from the future. So, Raven and Spark will name their Drolgonet Galaxy, and she will be the first Drolgon – dragon wolf hybrid – ever to live. She will be very important to my time. She creates the spirit realm when she dies, and every Drolgon that dies after her goes there to become spirits. In my time, I died, and I'm slowly becoming a spirit." She gestured toward her legs, noticing that the fading was reaching up toward her spine. "I was sent here to the past to prove myself worthy of a second chance. If I stay here too long and fade away completely, I won't get to go back to..." her voice caught in her throat as she thought of when she'd last seen Sapphire, crying into Eclipse's body's fur and grieving. Then she cleared her throat and began again. "I would really like to go back to my – friend, girlfriend, crush... I don't really know – her name is Sapphire. I love her with all my heart, and last time I saw her she was crying over my dead body. The spirits stopped time in the present, though. I just..." her voice trailed off, and she just held back the tears that were threatening to make an appearance. She was more stressed than she'd been in her life, other than the day after Storm's death.

Everyone except for Raven and Spark were silent, all wearing the same pitiful yet perplexed expression. Raven rested her tail on Eclipse's comfortingly, and Spark put his wing around the two of them.

"I'm sorry that happened." Queen Sunset dipped her head respectfully.

Eclipse shook her head for the second time in a few moments. "It's okay."

"Well, I think you should be allowed to sleep in the palace for tonight. It's getting late," Lady Crane offered gently.

"I agree." Queen Sunset nodded.

Then Eclipse, Raven, and Spark were led back down the tower to one of the rooms on the sides of it. There was a ledge sticking out of the wall, that they all landed on. The ledge opened up to a decent-sized room, with a window on the far side, a big pile of pillows and carpets against one wall, and a vanity and small potted tree on the other.

Eclipse gratefully flopped into the pillows and carpets, Raven and Spark following suit. Eclipse wasn't surprised when a guard was placed on either side of the ledge. The royals bid the three good night, and went to their chambers. Eclipse quickly fell into an exhausted sleep.