Chapter 3

A day passed. It was a single day, but it was one day too long. Maybe it was the worry getting to Alligator even though his siblings didn't think twice when he told them. He took up the mantle of reader that night and waited for them to all go to sleep. When they did, he cleaned up the scrolls and made sure he didn't look at any of Jetstream's notes. It wasn't quite forbidden, but rather respect to Jetstream's privacy. Afterward, Alligator watched the night sky until the moon passed over his head. Jetstream didn't come home.

The new day came; no Jetstream. Alligator passed on hunting making his sibs actual worried, but they went on without him. They came back to find that he had not moved from his spot. He was like a rock only showing that he was alive when he blinked. His muscles were tense and his stare at the sky was fierce. They were sure this time; something was wrong.

"You ok, Gator?" Mud asked the oldest sib. He was trying to avoid any problem if there was one.

"Jetstream isn't back," Alligator responded.

"Yeah, but he always does this," Said Leafall, dropping the badger in her mouth.

"But that's not the problem, is it Gator?" for the first time, Alligator moved to look at Treefire. "We all heard the conversation you had with him. Sorry, we were playing dumb. We just-"

Alligator interjected. "I didn't want to worry you either. I was hoping the same thing. 'He'll be back soon', I told myself. But he isn't." The air became heavy around them making it hard to breathe. The world was dangerous Jetstream would always say. After a while, the warnings became just words to the sibs. He would often come back with healing cut wounds and broken body parts, but he was Jetstream; their guardian that would always return.

Alligator could see his family slumping to the ground, so he relaxed his body and said, "Those are some good catches. Who took down the badger?"

Leafall and Mud both perked up their heads and they began to retell the story of how they grabbed the pesky thing with each telling trying to one-up the other. Alligator smiled at their banter, but over Mud and Leafall's shoulders, he saw Treefire still behind them. She was not smiling and could tell that Alligator's smile was a front. But his eyes told her to move on. In their heads, they simultaneously agreed to wait one more day. There was nothing they could do and they will continue to do nothing until Jestream returned as he always did.

Night came once again. For the better part of the day, everyone had forgotten the worry about where Jetstream was to the point Alligator and Treefire didn't think about it. Sleep came easily to them all.

At some point, Alligator was being stirred by Leafall. The haze of sleep kept him from getting up regardless of how hard he tried. Leafall continued to shake more and more intensively.

"Gator. Gator!" she said in a hushed tone digging her claws into him.

"Ahh! I'm up, I'm up!" Alligator quickly stood up from the feeling of claws on his side. "What's wrong Leafall? Also, don't do that. It really-"

"Something is wrong." There was fear in her eyes unlike any Alligator had seen from her before.

"What are you talking about?"

"I couldn't sleep. I thought it was because I had too much on my mind only to realize the forest is quiet."

Focusing in on the outside, Alligator found that it wasn't quiet, but instead of crickets and owls, he heard grunts and roars. As soon as he heard them, they got louder and multiple shadows raced across the moonlight ground. Wingbeats rustle the trees as firelight outshined the three moons' ray. A scream echoed through the forest and Alligator's heart sank.

"Wake the others up; NOW!" He ordered his still scared sister. He did not wait to see if she would do as he asked nor did he give her the opportunity to ask a meaningful question. He rushed out of the mud hut staying low to the ground. The color of his scales turned black to best hide in the shadows.

Up ahead, three shadowy forms fell to the ground breaking tree branches and crushing shrubs upon landing. If Leafall didn't wake anyone, the sound of the collision would. Alligator stopped just far enough for him to see two large and imposing yellow-ish scaled dragons standing over a worse for wear Jetstream. His face was covered in blood while the rest of his body was cut up and still bleeding. His side had a burnt mark surrounded by blisters. On top of him was one of the Sandwings using his body weight to keep Jetstream down and the other had her tail to his neck.

"In the name of Queen Sunburn, you are under arrest for the act of stealing from her royal highness and her people." said the female dragon with heavy breath. It seemed as both she and the male had a tough time trying to nab Jetstream.

He responded with a muffled voice, but with a tone that would almost make one believe that he wasn't face first in the mud. "I can assure you I have stolen nothing that belongs to the Sand Kingdom."

All of a sudden, his face was raised by the male Sandwing only to be slammed back down. Alligator stayed where he was regardless of how much his talons and teeth wanted to sink into their scales. He had to wait for his sibs so that they could stand a better chance against the intruders, but where were they.

"Enough talk!" yelled the male Sandwing. "We know your the one who has been stealing not just from us, but every clan you could reach. You've been slipping from our fingers for many years, but I guess time has caught up with you old drake."

"Be careful!" scolded the female. "I'm pretty sure the queens will want him alive."

"Look at him. After what we had to do to restrain him, we'd have to protect him from the wind lest he falls apart."

Alligator's wings were brushed by Mud looking timid. The others shouldn't be too far behind. Trusting that everyone was in position, he leaped out of his hiding place and rammed into the male Sandwing knocking him off of Jetstream.

Before the female could react, a loud sizzle came from her tail as its tip began to melt away. She screamed unleashing a torrent of flames in the direction of where the acid came from. However, instead of a forest fire and as soon as she stopped spitting fire, a molten scaled dragon no bigger than herself flew towards her scratching at her muzzle. The claws were like hot iron to the female Sandwing increasing her agony.

The male Sandwing couldn't understand it. This dragonet was pushing him around like he was the queen or something. At first, he thought it was just a lucky hit, but every blow he took from this hatchling was like being hit with rocks-no, boulders. He tried using his tail thinking that the stinger-if this dragonet was smart-would deter him a bit. The dragonet did back off, but then the male Sandwing's tail began to feel numb. Looking at it, he realized he was bitten with the holes leaking out what looked like black and green slug. He turned back to the dragonet but now there were two figures in front of him; one was black and the other one kept changing colors from black, green and white.

The female Sandwing was surrounded by the same acid that was destroying her tail and she didn't know where it was coming from. Meanwhile, a hellspawn was flying above her taking fire breath after fire breath only to unleash her own breath attack that turned the female Sandwing's left wing into charcoal.

Treefire watched as the Sandwing struggled to do anything to her. She would've ended her misery sooner, but even though not many things would want to touch her in this form doesn't mean that a well-placed shot wouldn't hurt. As for Leafall, she may have hit the tail on purpose, but she did not like how her stomach twisted at the results. Was it because she was harming another dragon, or was it that the same tail was so close to killing her mentor? Either way, she and her sister needed to end this and so, she shot her venom at the Sandwings leg in hidden behind he camouflage scales. The Sandwing began to fall forward as Treefire reached under her enemies neck and let all of the excess fire pour out of her hands.

Mud was a decoy for the most part. His venom was not going to harm his target as Leafall's could, but it would keep the Sandwing from using his most dangerous weapon on him or his brother. He couldn't do anything after that, but Alligator would finish this fight.

Alligator was doing his best to not get burned by the Sandwing's fire. Some part of him was wondering why couldn't Mud take out the fire breath as well as the tail. In comparison, the fire was nothing to Treefire's and he waited for the moment where there was a gap between breath attacks. With seemingly perfect timing from Mud distracting the Sandwing, Alligator rushed headfirst into the Sandwing's chest knocking into his back. Without a second thought and fire in his mouth, Alligator took a bit into the intruder's neck.

Everything went silent as each of the siblings looked down at their fallen foes. From the silence, Leafall called out Jetstream's name snapping everyone out of their trances and to his still moving body. His hollow breathes were painful to watch as his visible and burned side moved quickly.

Without exchanging words, three of the siblings went to get tools and medicine to help the fallen dragon find comfort, but Alligator did not move. His heart weighed heavy in his chest as he remembered a time when he had to fight creatures much bigger to him only to realize those same best could harm his family. Ever since Jetstream came, he had forgotten what fear felt like. He had forgotten the dangers of surviving because the dragon that laid damaged in front of him would keep them safe. But now, the dragon that always found a way to come back to them will keep them safe no longer.