I was feeling quite angered at their claims of ignorance, though I could tell my dragon friends were more infuriated.

  Even Gale was way more serious than I’ve ever seen him normally be.

  Holding my bowstring so long was starting to make my muscles numb, so I relaxed and let the arrow rest idly on the center of the bow.

  If they weren’t smart enough to recognize intelligence when they see it, how could we expect them to be smart enough to uphold their surrender?

  “What should we call your kind..?” The queen asked and I suddenly realized we don’t even have a good answer.

  Well, we never thought there would be a need to have any distinction other than dragon and human.

  After translating and then having everyone trying to come up with something, no one had anything that sounded great.

  “If you don’t have anything to call yourselves, then might we call you IllusionWings?” The queen adds, talking about how our island was basically just one big illusion.

  As much as I hate to admit it, it’s a much better name than any of us have come up with.

  Maybe it would be best if we didn't try to name ourselves anyway.

  I consider making a fuss over calling us ‘scavengers’, but it would just be a pain right now.

  It’s becoming more and more clear that ‘scavenger’ in this language wasn’t just a word for a human. Which simply meant it was an irritating name—as if the humans they see can do nothing but scavenge to survive.

  Snapping back to attention, I start trying to slide myself down Ashwind’s leg.

  I’m almost halfway down before he shakes me and makes me fall the rest of the way, landing on my back.

  “Ow! What was that for?!”

  “Did you think I forgot you petting me when I couldn’t move?” He snickers.

  Damn, what a spiteful dragon.

  Now that I had more room to move around, I urged Gale to spend less energy being mad at the MudWings.

  It was enraging to hear such an awful excuse, but I don’t want Gale to change because of these MudWings and their lies, or at best chronic ignorance.

  I like to think it’s just ignorance. They seem to have at least some kind of emotion.

  Ignorance can be fixed. But anything else might not be resolved so cleanly.

  It’s strange most of the IllusionWings aren’t even considering a clean solution. They seem more angry than the humans that were disregarded.

  Not that I can’t understand it. The IllusionWings probably didn’t like considering the dragons here as equals, on account of how they treat humans. The humans had more hesitation for killing things that looked similar to friends—alright, vaguely similar.

  After Gale translated to them that they’d get their answer by someone more qualified soon, I pestered him to hurry up and take us back to the camp.

  As I strolled over to Gale, I even laughed at the MudWings that looked away and stumbled back. Clearly they understood it was what they considered ‘insignificant’ that now held weights over their head.

  His neck is easy to climb onto, and I can easily use this position to stroke his scales.

  I begrudgingly wait until we get out of the palace before trying. He was useless at trying to hide reactions to it like others do.

  Something about how only hatchlings were supposed to like it.

  “Stop that!” He hisses and tries to toss me further back.

  “Fine, you big hatchling.” I relent poutfully.

  It was silent for a few minutes before Gale spoke up with a different topic.

  “Why did you stop me? Who cares if they are really just stupid or not? They still did something that no one is going to forget about.”

  “Since when could any sin be forgotten? A sin is just a hard lesson that will last forever. It was easy to get angry and take action without considering anything like intent, but trying to blindly punish all of them is a sin in itself.” I responded uncomfortably.

  I was still angry myself—enough to make defending them in any way feel criminal.

  But I can see the similarities between the different dragons, even if most of the IllusionWings want to rashly distance themselves to avoid comparison.

  So I point as a few MudWings wisely tried to hide as we passed by, though they suck at it compared to the earlier ambush.

  “We can just reeducate them, and make sure they never forget it.”

  I can’t be sure if other humans think the same.

  Gale didn’t seem to be able to think of a good response to it, so I must have really hit the target with that one. We arrived before he could come up with anything.

  The beach camp was as close to a home atmosphere as this place could get.

  “I can’t believe they’re already cooking so much.” Gale exclaims with a clear desire to have some of it.

  I don’t even recognize some of the animals they found. There was definitely more variety outside our island.

  But they tasted great. And an hour to forget about the frustration of ‘diplomacy’ was exactly what I needed.

  Some of the dragons that saw what I did during the battle were even coming over to ask questions.

  Many of them were tasked with scouting, and weren’t present.

  “Is there anything interesting around here other than a swamp?” I ask.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “You call a swamp interesting?” A shorter dragon with large wings questions.

  “Okay, bad choice of words.”

  “There’s a rainforest to the south, and then there’s a city east of that.” The dragon answers eagerly.

  “A city?” I wonder out loud, pondering what it might be like.

  “Yeah, it’s a human city!” The dragon continues into a sadder tone, “But a few of the dragons scouting the rainforest have gone missing, and the human city probably doesn’t like dragons, so we avoid both.”

  “I would assume so, considering those damn MudWings think they’re edible.” I sigh.

  After almost another hour, a pair of dragons return from the south with three humans shuddering along.

  They had clothes dyed in shades of green, and one was trudging slowly behind the others.

  I took a look around and noticed I was the only other human currently present.

  Their expressions made it obvious I should go help.

  I would pay to be able to replay the shock they displayed when they saw me coming from the gathering of dragons.

  Jeez, it’s going to be so much fun seeing every human on this continent reacting to their soon-to-be saviors.

  “You can relax. I’m sure you’ve already been told they don’t eat people.” I assured them of what they should already know by now.

  The more confident one steps forward.

  “I’m Flash, this is Snow, and Wart.” He points out all three of their names, “Did they bring you here too?”

  That was funny enough to make me chuckle.

  “No. Well—yes. But we’re from that island over there.” I point over the shore.

  “We?”

  “Obviously that includes the dragons.” I answer before abruptly pausing and turning to the two that brought them here.

  “Did either of you even explain anything?”

  They shuffle and turn their heads away, so clearly not.

  Gale suddenly catches up and chimes in to do it for them.

  “Soon enough you won’t have a thing to worry about!”

  “It is strange to see so many dragons talking like this… But the swamp dragons-” The slim woman, Snow, adds before Gale interrupts.

  “They aren’t going to do anything to you anymore. It’s not going to be pleasant for them if they do.” Gale beams and tries to goad them into touching him.

  The person in the back is much more reserved and doesn’t get too close or say a word. I don’t get good vibes from that guy.

  I wonder why he even came along without just insisting on leaving.

  “What I really-” Flash starts, being suspended by his throat tightening, “What I really want to ask is: Do you know a girl by the name of Misty?”

  “Don’t worry, Misty is safe on the island.” I answer quickly.

  He looks relieved and even cries and punches the air in celebration, so she must be someone important.

  Then he turns to Snow, “Scorch you! It was far more than crazy hope!”

  “You also said you weren’t crying until you died.” She retorts.

  “It’s okay to cry now! This is something I want to be real.” He states with confidence.

  Wait. ‘Scorch’?

  “What does-” I wanted to ask why such a word would be used like that, but I was interrupted by the arrival of Emperor Stormlight and another dragon.

  The other dragon was mostly black, with a single stripe of white cutting him straight in half.

  The group of humans flinch and crouch for a moment.

  Most likely some kind of reflex. A dragon landing nearby is probably never a good thing to them.

  I wasn’t expecting him to come himself.

  Especially not with the danger… Actually, what danger? With how easily we won it didn’t even seem very dangerous here.

  Queen Moorhen was trapped in a storm of brooding.

  Her siblings, who were also kept in place, were chattering about ways to escape as they got bored and anxious.

  She couldn’t help but consider her own siblings fools.

  To be chatting about such a thing right in front of them is foolish enough, but they didn’t even consider they already got through an entire army in less than half a night.

  The only way out of this for them was to appease these dragons, and by extension, scavengers. If they didn’t already have overwhelming control over them, she would have thought they were pulling some kind of Animus trick!

  She would have to punish her subjects doing anything that would draw their ire, but what about other tribes?

  ‘How in the moons am I supposed to keep other tribes from touching the scavengers?’

  Just as she was finally curbing the fit of overthinking, two more new dragons entered.

  One had a single long stripe from head to tail, while the other was just straight up tiny.

  “Greetings, MudWing queen. Do not think.. have gotten your name yet.” A horrifically pronounced and grammatically broken voice sounds from the smaller dragon. Even the scavenger did better!

  Suddenly she remembers that she never even introduced herself by name, because none of the others bothered to ask and she had so much more to worry about than etiquette.

  But before she can even answer, they’re looking away again and bickering.

  “You say wrong, is like this: …” The IllusionWing beside the smaller dragon begins in a similarly basic structure before giving an almost perfect example.

  “So it should be like this,” The small dragon utters in a better, realized tone, “Wait. Why you know old language?”

  “Long story.”

  Queen Moorhen was getting tired of being ignored here, and might have dared to draw their attention back just to get it over with if it lasted any longer.

  “I am King Stormlight.” Said the small dragon.

  “You do not have the word for his actual title. But referring to him as a King is good enough.” The side dragon clarified.

  These wacky dragons only got more and more strange!

  A tribe ruled by a king? Not even a king!

  ‘What kind of position could it be if we don’t even have a word for it?!’

  And he was barely bigger than the scavenger!

  She tried to keep her thoughts in line and respond before she lost the chance.

  “I am Queen Moorhen of the MudWings.”

  They chitter to each other in their own language before the striped dragon speaks up again.

  “King Stormlight has asked me to more clearly translate his answer regarding your fate and your request.” He continued as she tensed for an unfavorable answer, “We will leave the MudWings unharmed as long as they don’t attack any more scavengers. But you will also be obligated to assist in our goals on this continent. As for the prisoners, what happens to them isn’t up to you.”

  Queen Moorhen was twitching irritably at the inevitable idea of becoming a puppet kingdom twice over.

  As cold as it was, she did what she could for those MudWings that started this disaster, but she had to let them go for the good of everyone else.

  He keeps going with an even more grating tone.

  “He also wants to make sure it’s clear that your continued existence and comfort is directly related to how the scavengers of this continent consider you in the future.”

  “U-Understood.” She whimpered in a crushingly defeated tone.

  Her siblings were also shrunk closer to the ground much earlier than she had. The menacing aura of disdain emanating from the IllusionWings has not once wavered.

  “I think that’s everything you need to know.” The dragon finishes, sparking a hint of relief for the MudWings that just wanted a dash of peace and relaxation back.

  “But he added one more thing to remember.” He grins almost maliciously and fans his wing over to the wound-ridden dragon that’s been glaring hard the entire time, “If we ever catch so much as a scent of scavenger blood from any of you, then you will spend what feels like an eternity wishing you were dead.”