Candy floated in sleep for a while as her memories from who-knows-how-long settled back into her mind like dust.

Her eyes flew open - something she immediately regretted doing as blinding light hit her. She blinked rapidly, trying to force her eyes to get used to the brightness already.

When her sight finally returned - and her hearing too (something she didn't realize had fuzzed out) - a dark head popped into view, shading her partly from the bright light above them.

Someone - she assumed the unidentifiable head - gently grabbed her shoulders and pulled her upright. A chilled wind whipped around her sending her hair in every direction. Her hair. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.

"Candy?"

The voice was definitely familiar but on the edge of being strange. Night. She opened her eyes again, soaking in the sight of him as a human again. He looked just like she'd remembered him; dark hair swooped to the side, his jacket and grey scarf, which he clung to for dear life as it flailed around him in the wind.

She quickly realized they were sitting on the back of a dragon. Soon after, she recognized the bright red and lime green and realized it was Griffin.

"What happened?" she croaked.

"When the second explosion hit, you blacked out."

"I - well, I remember that. I meant what - how - what's happening?"

"We're currently flying on the back of Griffin," he saw her searching expression and realized she was asking for more detail so he hurried on. "When the second explosion came, I was helping Silver stamp out the fire on his scales - very tough things, by the way - Griffin just jabbed me in the side and scooped me up. Apparently, we - dragon shifters - have a little spot right here" - he pointed at his ribs right under his left elbow - "which can turn us back, if it's jabbed hard enough," he shot Griffin's head a rueful look while rubbing his side.

"My mother's there still, isn't she?"

His solemn nod was answer enough. She nodded, sorting her thoughts together with a soft, "okay,". Then, in one smooth movement, she jumped off Griffin's back, twisting in the air until she faced the direction of the mountains far behind them. Night let out a strangled yelp, struggling to jump to his feet.

Candy let the familiar whoosh flood her every cell, and then she was a dragon again. Her burns felt slightly better as she spread her wings and let the wind carry her up. Yeah, flying against the wind made it hard to get there faster, but she fought against it regardless.

Suddenly Night was in front of her, flapping his wings quickly and holding out his arms.

"Wait wait wait, slow down. What do you think you're doing?!"

"Going back to save my mother," she said, tilting her chin up. The others were all gathering around them, each flapping hard to fight against to wind, but somehow Silver's heavy scales cut through it like a knife.

"Please, Candy. Be reasonable," he said it loud enough for her to hear, but still in a soft voice. She snorted smoke - which was whisked away by the wind the moment it left her nostrils - and dipped to maneuver under him.

Scorpian was suddenly in front of her, except her arms hung at her side with curled talons.

"You know I'll fight you if you try this."

"Why? Because I'm going back to save my mother?" she wrestled the wind to curve sideways, but Scorpian followed.

"Candy, your mother wanted this. She wanted you to go and be safe. If you go back, you're doing the exact opposite of what she wanted," Griffin flapped up beside Scorpian, his wing beats more spaced apart thanks to his size. A knot twisted itself into Candy's chest.

Why, why, do they have to be right!?

She softly growled, studied her friends' faces. "At least tell me where we're going," then added, "please."

Griffin's tense face relaxed into a relieved expression. "I think it might be easier, and quicker, if you ride me." He smiled, swinging his head back to gesture to his back.

Candy really, really hated the feeling of leaving her mother all alone (the soldiers trained and fierce, mostly for protecting the queen didn't count) in the mountains. She'd situated herself on Griffin's back so that she was closer to his neck, curled up with her arms wrapped around her legs.

But her anger melted away into questions. Who fired the attack? Who would be brave enough to venture into the cursed mountains without knowing what was inside? Wait a second . . . they had to of known what was inside. It was a traitor to the queen; someone from right inside the village . . . or castle . . .

She stared thoughtfully at Griffin's wing across from her. The wind blew right over her, pulling her hair up with it. She'd forgotten about changing or anything, so her silk dress and velvet red heels didn't give her much warmth. She wished she could wear something like Scorpian or Silver, who she had caught a glimpse of as they slipped themselves into Griffin's talons.

Scorpian had shiny, long black hair and almond-shaped brown eyes. She wore all kinds of furs and thick fabric; she'd actually thought to change in the mountains. Inside the towering peaks of rocky mountains, it wasn't very warm - although as a dragon, Candy didn't notice - so the twins had asked for warm clothes. Candy had been too busy, and Night - she was fairly certain - was just too lazy.

Her head snapped up when she heard his voice. Despite the chilly wind around them, he looked unfairly warm. Oh, why did he have to look all cool and never worry about being prepared? He was waving his hand towards himself, gesturing her over. She crawled across Griffin's back and pulled her legs up when she was facing him.

"Here," he pulled off his scarf, wrapping it around her. It was warm after being wrapped around his neck for so long, and she felt herself relax slightly feeling it. Without thinking much about it, she leaned forward, against him, with her teeth almost chattering and her hair flying all over the place.

He instinctively wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer. Wherever they touched, he felt all warm and comforting. She leaned into him, letting the cold slip by them.

She found herself dozing off a couple of times until Night spoke.

"You know, this scarf is actually from my parents."

She sat up slightly, careful not to smack him in the jaw with her head. When he nodded, she pressed herself back into him before the cold could grab her again.

"I know you must be wondering how I know that," he didn't wait for her to respond, and she thought she was probably the first person he'd ever told. "When Stormbreaker found my egg, this scarf was wrapped around it. I always assume it was to keep me warm, but if that was true, it must mean my parents really cared about me, and that doesn't make any sense."

Candy thought about it, carefully wording what she said next.

"Maybe they didn't have a choice. I think you're right - I believe they do really care about you, and they couldn't keep your egg because . . ." she couldn't come up with a reason, but assumed she'd gotten the point across. He didn't say anything, so she hoped she'd helped somehow.

They sat in silence a little while longer, and then she asked, "Night . . . do you ever still wonder about my parents' deaths? I - I mean, the queen and kings'?"

He sat considering his answer until - to her surprise - he nodded.

"First of all, I think, who in Nigintia would be brave enough to kill them? Then I wonder if it was just some random townsperson, then I go through a list of suspects in my head."

Okay, his answer was a little more morbid than she thought, but after getting past the emotionlessness in his words, she really thought about them.

"They had to be someone stealthy enough to see it coming, and there was no broken glass or anything, so maybe they had to have a key, and if they had that, it had to be castle staff . . . or something," she couldn't see Night, but some mystical force told her he was smiling.

He chuckled, "It's crazy that just about a week ago, the biggest worry on my mind was if I was if the prison food was going to be good."

He sighed, all cheer in his voice gone. "Actually, my biggest worry was if I was going to be tortured that day. Once I heard the guards talking about the last shifter who was there. He didn't just disappear, they made sure anyone listening knew that."

He shuddered. She felt his heart pick up at the memory.

"Why didn't you just melt the lock or break the door or something?"

"I decided to visit the village one day, so to blend in I was a human. Then as I explored the town. two guards cornered me and threw me in the dungeon. I know what you're thinking, 'why didn't I escape?'. I knew transforming in public was a bad idea, and would probably only make things worse, so I was planning on waiting until the right moment. But by the time I was in that cell, I was afraid I'd only prove them right if I became a dragon. Yeah, looking back on it now, I wasn't really thinking it through, and I would've had more time if it hadn't been for someone breaking me out first."

She leaned away so she could see him smile.

Then Griffin ruined the moment by announcing, "We're here!"

The city was huge.

City buildings and roads stretched for miles and miles. Given Candy'd never seen a city in her life - much less even heard of them - it blew her mind.

The sun reflected off every glass surface it could in spirals and zigzags and lines. Her eyes were immediately glued to the shiny city. Noise hummed through the city - vehicles, trains, construction sites, just about everything besides the buildings moved and made noise. It was as if all the sounds somehow fit together and everything was chaos at the same time.

Griffin stopped in the air, turning Candy's attention to the nearly invisible forcefield surrounding the place. Out of literally nowhere a little black, electronic-looking box emerged and hovered in front of them all. A few beeps and silent moments later, it lowered back into nothing again, and the forcefield parted.

"What was that?" Candy regretted asking it after seeing the looks on her friends' faces and remembering Griffin couldn't understand. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who'd never seen a city before.

Griffin lowered them through an opening in the roof of an enormous, golden building with a peaked top that led into a long, slender rod.

The inside of the place was just as - if not more - breath-taking as the outside. It seemed much bigger on the inside, somehow even bigger than it looked on the outside. The graceful ceiling soared over their heads, with dragons flying everywhere, all doing different things - some of them chatting, some having lunch (a sandwich? For a dragon? Really?) and others headed to wherever they were going.

Candy noticed that there were more than just dragons clumped at the bottom of the place or on different floors. Railings stretched around the walls with archways that led to hallways and a bunch of golden-brown doors sitting near them. All through and around these, creatures of all shapes and sizes bustled.

Besides the dragons - which seemed to take up about one-fourth of the mass - she spotted nymphs of all sorts, regular people, regular animals, and even animals walking around on two legs. Candy was both curious and creeped out by those.

Griffin landed in front of a desk with a cherry red and orange dragon sitting behind it. She looked young, maybe just a little older than Candy, and was wearing some sort of cape with a bright gold clasp that looked like two birds.

Griffin talked with her for a moment. She laughed a few times and wore a cheerful smile when she wasn't laughing. Candy liked the twinkles that sparkled in her eyes and the way they folded up when she smiled and the way her bristles non-threateningly spread out when she laughed. Candy thought dragons only bristled when they were angry, but this dragon made it look the other way around.

The funny-looking machine in front of her, sitting on the counter, beeped and made a grinding sound, followed by an airy hiss as a long, thin paper emerged from it

The dragon - Candy realized she was a fire-drake - handed the slip to Griffin, who said something that made her laugh, before turning and leading the group to a set of benches. Here, he gestured for Candy, Night, Silver, and Scorpian to become dragons.

They eagerly followed - something told Candy the three of her friends didn't like being human. She grew in size and the bench shrank under scales.

"That was Heatstroke. She was quite nice. Anyway, this" - he held up the paper - "will tell folks that we are welcome to the city, basically. We can't get out of this building without it."

Suddenly it hit Candy like a lightning bolt.

"Where's Kade?" she jumped off her seat, frantically searching the building for him as if he would be there. When her eyes fell on her friends, the familiar pang sparked in her gut. They all knew something she didn't.

"Candy . . . he got wounded in the explosion and . . ." Griffin looked at the others for help.

Candy growled. "So you left him."

Griffin slowly nodded - he looked the most guilty out of all her friends. The others just looked sorry.

"But he - he trusted us! Griffin! How could you!?"

She grabbed the paper right out of Griffin's talons, spun around on her feet, and marched angrily toward the exit. It was easy to spot, with a pair of dragon guards, and giant doors.

She heard the others try to follow her and hurried so they couldn't catch up. She pushed the paper into the guards' talons and pushed through the doors. The busy street and looming buildings that hummed with life all around her almost stopped her in her tracks.

Where am I going? I don't know the city, she thought bitterly. She picked out a bench and sat there to mope. A few minutes later her friends were there looking a little more flustered than they had been. They spotted her quickly.

"Candy, you can't just run off like that. We thought we were going to lose you," Griffin used his condensing-know-it-all voice. Candy just snorted out smoke in reply.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left him," he held his talons out in a peaceful gesture. Candy glared at him.

"Griffin, you mentioned someone you knew here - someone who could help us?" Candy knew Silver was just changing the subject, but she let him.

"Yeah, I gave him the word to pick us up. He should be here any minute," he raised his long neck, searching the streets and sidewalks. Creatures bustled around them, all too submerged in their own problems and lives to look up. There were creatures coming from all walks of life; rich, poor, mildly wealthy, and comfortable.

Candy noticed a fair amount of dragons with earrings and jewels and fancy bracelets. Griffin walked off to find a near communicating booth to check with his friend.

Night suddenly jumped off the bench, his ears pointed forward in interest. Candy followed his gaze to a jewelry shop. What are you thinking? She watched him give them all a smile and a wink before flying across the streets and creatures until he landed, disappearing from view in front of the shop.

"Ach, I'm starving," Scorpian rested her talons on her stomach as if that would satisfy it.

"I'll be right back," Silver lept off the ground, headed undoubtedly to a nearby restaurant buzzing with creatures. He too disappeared when he landed. Scorpian sighed, drawing Candy's attention. But when she studied her face, the Sandskink looked strangely happy, despite her complaints.

"What?"

"I just can't believe two weeks ago, I didn't know who any of you were. And now, I feel like I've known you two for ages," she flashed a warming smile.

Scorpian sat a little taller than Candy, both because of her long neck and the fact that she was older - barely. Candy noticed the small battle scars scattered across her scales, especially under her wings.

"Do you ever wish you knew your mother?"

Scorpian didn't look at her as she answered.

"Yeah. I guess I do sometimes. I never like to admit it to Silver because I know it'll make him sad, but . . ." her expression changed to something like remembrance. "I do actually remember one thing about her. A voice - that's all. A voice that sang to our eggs."

She looked down at her talons with another sigh. Candy put her wing over her friends' with the best understanding smile she could muster. Scorpian smiled back (Candy didn't know she was capable if she was honest).

"Hey, I'm sorry about your friend," she looked at Candy with her big blue eyes.

"Thanks . . . I . . ." she sighed, trying not to think about what he must be going through now. Scorpian yanked her out of her thoughts.

"Well, he is a Ghostfang. I know you don't know a lot about that sept, but trust me when I say, they've always been known to be uncatchable. Like, it's a miracle that he even got caught in the first place. Besides, I'm sure he's much more ready for escaping now," she smiled.

Candy did her best to believe her friend and returned the smile.

Eventually, Griffin returned, then Silver, and then Night last of all. Despite how much she begged him to tell her what he was doing at the jewelry shop, he always smiled and shook his head without a word.

After a few more hours - and a nice meal, all thanks to Silver, of something called pizza - Griffin's buddy finally arrived. And he wasn't alone.