Nightfall

IV

"Perhaps you three should take a rest," Eagle recommended, turning to the three messengers. "Birch, would you handle getting them some food and water?"

Birch nodded, and stepped over to Glaciar. "I know a good spot to hunt for some food," she told him. "Come with me."

Stormhawk was the only dragon who hesitated, looking back at them. "Thank you for letting us stay for a while," she said quietly, dipping her head towards Midnight.

"Of course," he replied. The purple dragon met his eyes for a moment with her sharp orange ones, then took off after Glaciar, Seal, and Birch.

Grove pointedly looked at Midnight, then the scroll resting in his talons. "Are you going to share with the rest of us, Midnight?"

The dragon in question looked at Grove, trying to figure out what had changed recently. Once, he was open and respectful, but something had changed, and he became much more bitter. It didn't take more than a minute for Midnight to realize the most recent issue; Crest was Grove's father.

It was very stupid of him to forget such an important thing about Grove. Family was a huge thing to dragons, whether those you are born related to, or ones you became related through mates. Abandoning Crest must have been similar to when Midnight's father died.

Grove stared back, and Midnight snapped out of his thoughts, and stated, "Let's discuss this in private, council." He swung his head to look out at the crowd. "We'll alert you of the information when we have processed it."

"Er, Midnight?" Raze asked.

"Another annoying comment?" Midnight rolled his eyes. "What is it, Raze?"

"It's less of a comment and more of an observation," the red dragon replied. "You're standing in the common area we made. You can't have a private discussion here. You may want to go into the forest and figure it out there."

Jade blinked. "How did we not realize that?" She wondered. "Are we idiots?"

"Quite possibly," Raze muttered, earning a light growl from a few dragons around him. "I'm just saying!" He added hurriedly, lifting his front talons innocently.

Lagoon glared at him, and took off, flapping her wings so she ascended upward quickly. Grove followed, and the other three exchanged glances before winging after them. If the two of them didn't want to be nice, then they can be that way.

It only took a few minutes of flying before Lagoon titled back into a dive, aiming for a clearing she spotted. A murder of crows flocked around them, cawing furiously at the disrution. Midnight, annoyed by their noise, snorted some fire towards them, and they all flew away, settling elsewhere in the forest.

The clearing was large enough to fit all of them, but Jade sat at the very edge, by a gigantic redwood tree. Deciding against appearing completely serious, the jade-green dragon leapt up to the lowest, biggest branch. It groaned under her, swaying slightly, but Jade wound her tail around it, and dug her talons in. The sight was so odd, a dragon perched in a tree, Midnight chuckled slightly.

"Get down, Jade!" Grove snapped. "We have important things to talk about."

"Nope," she snapped back. "We are going to talk about important things, sure, but I like it up here. You may be older, but I don't have to listen to every silly order you make, especially due to the fact that we all are equals here, even though you sometimes ignore this fact."

Grove was speechless, and he blinked rapidly several times before his grey eyes narrowed. Before the green dragon could furiously retort, Eagle cut in, saying, "Let's talk about the message, not argue over pointless things."