Chapter Three

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Eclipse

The rainforest was just as warm and beautiful as she remembered. The leaves that littered the ground crunched beneath their talons and the flowers that sat atop branches of trees and bushes bloomed around the group. She was home.

The sights and sounds she missed so much finally reached her ears again. Birds flew over head with red, yellow, blue and green feathers. A jaguar howled in the distance. 

And it was warm. So warm that it heated her scales and made her sleepy.

Although one of them was not having a good time at all. Winter's wings kept catching on spiderwebs and vines alike, scratching at his scales and constantly muttering curses. It sounded like he was doing most of the complaining that he'd been so worried the other's would be doing. 

"You must be comfortable," Eclipse said, appearing beside him. They'd stopped to rest near a river, and Winter was crouched on a large boulder, trying to dip his talons in the water without stepping in the oozing black mud that lined the banks. 

He narrowed his eyes at her, reaching for the small wolfskin pouch he kept tied to one of his ankles, where he'd put the skyfire no doubt. 

As she promised, all she could sense from the IceWing prince was a quiet, almost soothing hum. 

"Relax, IceWing." Eclipse huffed, jumping up beside him on the boulder. "The skyfire blocks you out. Even if I wanted to dive into your mind all I would hear would be a quiet hum. I figured since you're an IceWing you would hate it here. And all that muttering and cursing you did back there kinda gave the impression that you do." She carefully maneuvered herself into a sitting position without touching him. 

"I do." he finally said after a moment of taking her in. 

"This is where Moon and I grew up," Eclipse said, smiling over at her sister who was splashing at Kinkajou in the river. "It's not so bad once you get used to it."

"Hrrmph," Winter snorted. 

"Not so bad?" Kinkajou said indignantly from the other bank where she was splashing back at Moon playfully. "This is the most beautiful part of Pyrrhia! Other dragons would be lucky to live here!" 

The RainWing bounded into the water with a splash that drenched Winter's nose and tail and soaked Eclipse's talons. A fat orange toad burst out of the river and made a clumsy dash for the reeds, trying to get away from the dragons. Moon titled her head at it, then flared her wings at Qibli when he sat up from the middle of the river. 

"Don't eat it," she warned him. "Seriously, one of those gave me hiccups for days. Also some really weird dreams. I thought for a while I was having visions of a possible future where newts and anteaters took over the world."

Kinkajou giggled. 

"Here, try these instead," Moon offered. She reached into one of the over hanging trees and pulled a few dragon fruits from the branches. How ironic. 

She handed one to Qibli, then glanced sideways at Eclipse and Winter. 

"Absolutely not," he said. "Do not get that vile sickness anywhere near me. Fruit. Yuck." His stomach growled and he tried to hide it by scrapping his talons across the rock below them. 

"I'll take one," Eclipse said, reaching out a palm for Moon to drop one of the fruits into. 

"You are so, so weird," Kinkajou said to him. "How can you not love it here? Don't you come from a place with no colors and no life?"

"White is a color," he snapped at the RainWing. "Blue is a color. That is an eyesore." He pointed to a bright red flower as big as one of his talons. 

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