The early morning sun was shining through the leaves of the trees above.
Daniel was gathering his belongings as well as cramming as much food into his bag as physically possible.
The rest of the team were also just finishing organising themselves as Daniel placed his now much heavier bag around his neck.
"Alright! Are we ready to go?" Daniel asked the others.
Peril was one of the first to respond.
"Well yeah, though in still sceptical about this whole idea... How exactly do you plan on getting us to a whole other continent?"
Daniel only smiled. "You'll all see, but for now we should get a move on."
He said as he looked past Peril to where Kinkajou was.
She was currently talking with Moon about a topic that he couldn't overhear.
"Hey, Ghost! Can you come here for a moment? Need you for something." Daniel called out.
Kinkajou turned around, responding to his call with a quick, slightly puzzled nod.
A few moments later she excitedly ran over towards Daniel.
"You needed something?"
He nodded. "I know this might strike a nerve but I need you to take us to the Nightwing island."
Kinkajou's eyes went wide, her mind was probably being filled with the horrible memories of what happened.
Slowly she started to shake her head from side to side, her expression gradually becoming more and more worried in the process.
" No... No... Please Hurricane... Don't make me go back there..."
It was clear Kinkajou was experiencing some sort of PTSD from what the Nightwings did to her since the scales on her body started shifting to a light green, which as far as he remembered, resembled fear.
Although Daniel didn't know fully what each colour meant, he knew she wasn't alright and as such quickly started to try and calm her down.
"Hey hey, it's fine... Don't worry, they can't hurt you any more" Daniel said as she placed a talon on her shoulder.
The small Rainwing looked up at him, a layer of fear visible on her face.
"Hurricane... Please I can't go back there..." she pleaded.
Daniel felt bad for Kinkajou, but in order for his plan to work they needed to go there... And as far as he knew Kinkajou was the only one out of them who knew the way.
Peril eyed Kinkajou worriedly when she spotted Daniel doing his best to calm the small Rainwing down.
"Woah!? What's wrong with her?!" Peril called out.
"She's having PTSD, if you know what that is" Daniel explained briefly and quickly.
"Kinkajou listen to me... Just take deep breaths..." He said.
Though Kinkajou despite her trying to listen didn't seem to do much to help.
She instead stood there, looking back at the ground, her talons, and didn't say anything.
Nothing happened for a while... Well, actually nothing happened at all.
"Hey, Kinkajou... Talk to me" Daniel tried but Kinkajou just seemed to freeze in place and was unresponsive to whatever he said.
Daniel sighed, he didn't know what to do so he turned to Peril for help but it was clear she didn't have any ideas either since the only thing she gave was a shrug.
"Don't look at me! I don't know how to help." She said as she looked around the area.
Finally, a soft smile began to form on her face.
"I may not have any ideas... But I think I know someone who might"
Then without warning, Peril called out.
"Hey, Turtle! Get your slimy butt over here we need you for a second!"
Luckily Turtle did hear her, however, what Daniel found surprising was the fact that nobody seemed to care or even notice Kinkajou breaking down... It worried him.
'Why don't they care..? Did something happen to them..?' he thought.
'Did the Gatekeeper do something to them...?"
Soon Turtle arrived, to Daniel's relief he did have some feelings for her so not all was lost, but there was no denying something bad was going on.
"Hey guys, what's the issu- Oh Kinkajou!?" He yelled quickly as soon as he laid eyes on her still yet trembling body.
"What's wrong?!"
He quickly knelt down to her level as he tried to communicate with her but had no luck so instead he looked at Daniel and Peril for help.
Peril shook her head. "I don't know what happened to her, she just started shaking before she became... well... like that" She explained.
Turtle looked at Daniel next.
"Hurricane... what happened to her... What happened to my girlfriend!?"
Turtle cried out, his eyes full of worry.
Daniel sighed, "She had a breakdown..." He admitted, "We need you to help her"
Turtles eyes widened. "A BREAKDOWN!? FROM WHAT!?"
Daniel flinched, "That's not important right now, what is important is that you help her, you're the only one she might respond to!"
Turtle shook his head quickly as he looked down at the standing yet unmoving Kinkajou who was still looking down at the ground.
Turtle sighed as he gently grabbed the bottom of Kinkajous's head and lifted it up so he could meet her eyes.
"Kinkajou... Are you there...?" Turtle asked softly, there was no response...
He looked up at Daniel and Peril who both gave him a sympathetic look which very visibly said 'I don't know what to do'
Turtle didn't know what to do as Daniel could very clearly tell.
However just as Daniel was about to suggest an idea, Turtle made a move and abruptly kissed Kinkajou on the lips.
Daniel's eyes widened slightly at the bold move, however, he didn't question it since in some way somehow, it paid off and it seemed to snap her back into reality.
Kinkajou's eyes widened as she quickly backed off and fell backwards onto the ground.
"Wha-? Turtle..? What's going on? What happened?"
Daniel gave a sigh of relief, "Oh thank the MOONS she's back!" he laughed happily for a moment.
Kinkajou gave him a confused look. "What do you mean 'back'...? Did I go somewhere..?"
Daniel shot her a look, "Do you not remember what just happened?"
Kinkajou shook her head, "No..?"
Daniel, Peril and Turtle exchanged worried glances meanwhile Kinkajou looked confused.
"What happened...?"
Daniel gave Kinkajou a sceptical look, "You... You had a breakdown... Turtle was luckily able to bring you back to reality..." He paused.
"Do you really not remember anything?"
Kinkajou thought for a moment, "The last thing I remember was you asking me to bring everyone to the..." She took in a quick breath before continuing.
"To bring you guys to the Nightwing island... Then everything went blank... Or at least I think it did."
She shook her head from side to side, struggling to come up with an explanation until she eventually gave up.
"Forget it... I can't explain it, I don't even understand it myself..." She paused.
"Alright... I'll take you there..." Kinkajou said finally.
Daniel wanted to say something else, but seeing as how Kinkajou was in a somewhat confused and vulnerable spot, decided against it.
He nodded, "Lead the way"
Kinkajou didn't say anything as she silently started walking deeper into the rainforest, pushing past Daniel, Peril, and Turtle in the process.
Daniel Got the idea that she wasn't going to wait for them so he turned to Turtle and Peril.
"Round up the others, we're leaving right now."
Peril was quick to take orders, most likely from her past with Scarlet so she hurried off to let the other know.
Turtle quickly followed after her, meanwhile, Daniel caught up to Kinkajou, trusting that the others would be behind them both shortly.
From what Kinkajou said, Daniel had a feeling that she saw something when she was in her state of stillness...
Although it was just a hunch, he had a feeling a certain individual was responsible for it.
However, with zero proof he couldn't explain it and it was clear that Kinkajou didn't want to talk about it.
In reality, Kinkajou didn't seem to be in the mood to talk about anything at all...
So instead Daniel fell back from the silent Rainwing, leaving her to her own thoughts.
There's no doubt Daniel was worried. He'd never seen Kinkajou so silent, usually, she was the chatterbox of the group at times like these so it was somewhat unsettling.
In reality, the whole thing was unsettling.
Everyone was acting completely different to their original personalities.
Daniel knew that he was one of the primary reasons for the change seeing as he messed up a lot of the timeline... But at this point the only thing that could possibly fix it is defeating the Gatekeeper, and who knows if that would even work.
Though in all reality, the scariest change that he'd seen out of all of them wasn't Kinkajou or Turtle... It was actually Willow.
Ever since she made a deal with the Gatekeeper, things weren't the same... Daniel didn't know if it was just him and his mind... But something was off about her.
At first, there wasn't much of a difference except for her becoming a little more cold and less empathetic.
However, over time, her newfound power seemed to get to her head a little.
After realising she was now probably one of the most powerful and feared dragons in the whole world, she started slowly but surely taking her duels with the rest of the group more seriously.
It was almost as if she was trying to prove herself, even though there was no need.
'It could be because she might still believe that she needs to since a part of her always saw Sundew besting her... Either way... She's gotten a lot more violent... Bloodthirsty almost...'
Daniel thought.
Willow's personality as a dragon hadn't changed much in terms of how she acted around others, despite the slightly cold attitude from when she first made the deal. Apart from that she was still her laughing, somewhat cheerful, regular self.
But when it came to fighting... It was almost like she was a different dragon altogether... Her attacks were vicious during duels and would normally end with her drawing blood from both herself and whoever she was sparring.
Of course, neither of them cared since Turtle could just patch it up, but whenever Willow ended up drawing blood instead of being scared like she once was... She looked down at it with a crazed smirk... She enjoyed every splatter.
Even though Willow never killed anyone despite Hawthorn that one time... Daniel feared that it wouldn't be long until she did... And he had a feeling... A very, VERY, bad feeling about it all...
Daniel looked back towards where Willow was.
She was her usual cheerful self as she talked happily with Star and Moon about some topic he couldn't overhear fully though it included some chatter about meat.
Feeling shivers crawl along his scales, Daniel decided to go talk to someone to get his mind on a different topic.
He stopped following closely behind Kinkajou -who was still silent- and instead walked towards Qibli and Winter who he realised he hadn't talked to in a while.
Casually Daniel made his way towards the yellow and blue dragons until he was walking beside them both.
"Hey guys," He greeted.
Qibli smiled, "Hey Hurricane, what's up?"
Daniel shrugged, "Nothing much, just wanted to see how you guys were doing." He explained as he looked over at both of them.
Though soon after Daniel noticed some odd markings on Winters claws which closely resembled cuts.
However, upon closer inspection, he realised they actually were cuts, very small ones along the top of his claws. They appeared to be made quite recently too as some of the areas around them were still slightly inflamed.
"Hey, Winter... What happened to your claws..?" Daniel asked somewhat concerned though to his surprise Qibli only laughed meanwhile Winter had a faint blush of embarrassment.
"Shut it sand snorter!" Winter growled though this one encouraged Qibli to keep talking.
"Three moons! Hurricane it was hilarious!" Qibli cried but Winter simply rolled his eyes.
"Oh don't exaggerate it, it wasn't that bad!" Winter rebutted before he turned to Hurricane.
"Put simply, I was trying to learn a few tricks with this thing," He said as he pulled out the balisong from one of the pockets in the cloak he was wearing.
"It... Didn't go great..."
"I can see that...' Daniel said, himself almost laughing a little but he held it in.
"So when was this exactly..?"
"Last night" Winter answered. "Couldn't sleep so I decided to pass the time... THOUGH, I didn't expect this idiot to creep up behind me and cause me to cut myself on the blade!" Winter spat.
Qibli chuckled, "Well don't blame me! You were the one who woke me up with all the noise you were making from flipping the thing"
"Well MAYBE if you weren't sleeping on MY LAP then you WOULDN'T of woken up!" Winter quickly pointed out that this statement made Daniel's eyes widen.
"W-w-wait just a second here" Daniel said, interrupting Winter and Qiblis bickering.
"He was on your lap!? HUH?"
Winter and Qibli fell silent for a moment.
Looking around, Daniel could see that somehow nobody was paying attention to them. Kinkajou was still leading the way through the thick greenery and everyone else was in their own world or conversations.
Daniel looked back at the two dragons next to him.
"So... What happened last night..?" He laughed as he asked the question.
Qibli rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Well..." he opened his mouth to say something but the rest of the words didn't come out.
Daniel then turned to Winter instead but he also didn't have any input.
"My guys... what did you do last night? Make out or something?" He joked though when the only response he got from them was an awkward look his face fell from laughter to shock.
"Wait... did you guys actuall-" Daniel was about to say but was cut off when Kinkajou called out from in front of them.
"We're here!" Kinkajou said as she came to a stop.
In front of all of them was a big thick tree, much like the ones surrounding them.
The only distinct difference was the very dark and oddly placed hole at the bottom of the tree.
Daniel gave Qibli and Winter a significant look, indicating that this talk wasn't over.
He walked up past the rest of the group towards Kinkajou who was looking deep into the dark abyssal-like view of the tunnel.
"So... This is it..?" Daniel asked, walking up beside Kinkajou who was visibly unsettled but kept her composure as she took in a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself.
"Yeah... This is it.. But why do you want to go there...?" Kinkajou asked though Daniel ignored her.
"Come on... Let's go" Daniel said as he entered the tunnel.
Soon the smell of sulphur and smoke filled Daniel's nostrils, making him cough slightly.
He could also notice the rise in temperature as he continued through the tunnel.
Eventually, Daniel heard steps behind him, meaning that the rest of his friends had started to follow. When they did so he soon heard their voices start complaining.
"Ugh... Is it just me or is it suddenly really, REALLY hot?" Willow groaned.
"No, the temperature just rose by like a thousand degrees..." Winter agreed though to his surprise as well as the surprise of everyone else, Qibli - the one dragon used to hot temperatures- also complained.
"This is... getting quite hot actually..." Qibli said with a small pant as he continued forward.
However, it was only a few moments later when Willow piped up again.
"Hurricane... Where exactly are we going? It's scorching in here!" Willow cried out though Daniel gave her a dry reply.
"You'll see..." Daniel said as he kept walking.
Eventually, they reached the exit of the tunnel, and they stood on hot blackened charred ground.
Daniel's eyes widened as he stared at the scene. Ripples of heat emerged from the ground and into the air, giving everything a sort of wavy look.
Lava, tons of it, pooled and flowed through almost everything, creating massive rivers of thick orange and red glowing liquid.
Daniel paused as he heard his friends do the same.
Willow gasped at the hellish environment. "What... What is this place..? What happened here!?"
Kinkajou was the one to answer her. "This... This wretched place was the place where I was experimented on." Kinkajou explained softly.
"This... Is the Nightwing island."
Daniel didn't need to look back, he could already picture Willow's horrified face in his mind, as well as probably everyone else's...
He looked down, shocked and somewhat horrified to realise that he was standing on a skull, a rather large one.
'Morrowseer...' Daniel thought grimly.
However, he soon ignored it as he didn't want to put them any more on edge than they already were. So he continued forward without a word.
It took the rest of the group a solid moment before they realised he had already gone ahead without them into the fiery inferno.
"H-hey!" Turtle Shouted as he was the first to notice. "Where are you going?!"
Daniel looked back towards them all. He was currently standing on a lower ledge compared to them. It was somewhat jagged and was surrounded by two thin and small lava streams which gave it a small island-like appearance.
Daniel shot them a confused look as he tilted his head.
"What do you mean? I'm going to Pantala..?"
Quickly Moon returned her own confused expression.
"I'm sorry Hurricane but please explain to us HOW we're going to get across the entire ocean?! We had this conversation last night!"
Qibli added to this. "Agreed, because right now we're in the middle of probably the WORST place in the whole world!... Why are we even here?!"
Daniel shrugged, "Needed a place where nobody would dare to look," he said. "Now come on, follow me"
Daniel leapt up into the red, smoke-filled sky, spreading his wings as he began to soar through the heated air.
A bit of ash and smoke clogged his vision slightly but it wasn't too bad.
Without any other viable option, the rest of the group followed Daniel, though it was harder then expected due to his scales allowing for some decent camouflage in the red smokey sky.
The ground was nothing but a deadly mix of blackened scorched ground and glowing boiling lava which didn't look pretty.
Red-colored smoke due to the atmosphere rose up from various places in the ground.
This wasn't ideal for flying, however, as long as one stayed clear they would be fine.
Every now and then there would be the soft but loud rumbling of the volcano as it spewed out lava from its tip.
All of these things combined made it extremely difficult and dangerous to fly.
It was no surprise that the Nightwings wanted to move out as fast as possible.
Daniel swerved through the sky before he eventually touched down on the top of a semi-tall mountain.
The rest of the team landed behind him, still confused about what they were doing there.
Daniel looked around, next to him was a medium-sized cave that was just so conveniently placed there it struck him as odd.
Especially since he didn't see it when flying over.
Though Daniel brushed off his suspicions as with an environment like this, it was very likely he just didn't see it.
Staring at the cave, Daniel smiled.
"This looks like a good spot," He said as he turned to his team.
Turtle gave him a Confused look.
"A good place for what exactly..?"
"For a portal of course!" Daniel exclaimed.
Turtle's eyes widened.
"A portal!? And just how do you plan to make that!?"
However, he soon connected the dots and realised what Daniel's plan was.
"Oh... I see..."
However, to Turtle's surprise, Daniel shook his head.
"No... Don't worry Turtle we're not going to use your magic"
He instead reached into his bag and pulled out the scroll of chaos which they'd used in the Sea Kingdom.
"We got this instead"
Turtles eyes widened.
"NO!" He screamed.
Daniel was startled for a moment but didn't get to say anything as Turtle continued.
"Hurricane no! We already saw what that thing is capable of! And if you use it on an island which is already collapsing then we'll all most certainly DIE!"
Turtle explained as he placed a talking to his face.
"Honestly... You need to think some things through sometimes..."
Daniel quickly gave his rebuttal.
"Okay, but I can't just let you use your powers all the time! What about your soul!"
Turtle laughed, "What soul...?" He paused for a moment.
"Hurricane, open your eyes. Look at us, look at me, we're already criminals, and even though we aren't sadistic what's that to stop everyone else from thinking we are?"
Daniel frowned slightly, "What's your point?"
Turtle sighed. "My point is that you need to stop trying to protect us like we can't fend for ourselves or make our own decisions because as much as we are a team, anyone can tell you worry about us too much,"
He explained.
Daniel looked down slightly and avoided eye contact.
It was true he was worried about them... But not because he didn't think they could fend for themselves.
'It's because they've been changing... Something's pulling the strings here... And I got a pretty good feeling of who it is...'
Daniel thought.
Daniel sighed, "Fine... I'll admit I've been a little worried ever since the incident at the school... I just don't want you guys getting hurt alright!"
Turtle gave a shy smile as he walked up to Daniel.
He placed a webbed talon on his shoulder.
"Hey... We know what we got into, don't worry about us... We're a team for a reason, you trusted us with these"
He pulled out his Sword breaker.
The rest of the team followed what Turtle was doing and as such took out their own weapons, showing that they were with Daniel to the end.
"So... With that being said..." Turtle spoke as he snapped his claws.
Instantly the cave entrance next to them rippled out and was morphed into an opening.
Behind the opening was none other than the deadly poison jungle...
"What's the plan... Reaper..?" Turtle asked with a devilish yet determined tone.
Daniel responded with a smile.
"Let's get this over with."
HELLO! sorry this took so long.
Unfortunately I'm back in school so updates will be slower.
Though I won't abandon this book as I've come too far so keep that in mind.
Apart from that I'll see you all again next time.
Peace!