Shadow Falling

Hybrids

"I... I can't do it!" Shadowwing cried, clinging tightly to his branch.

Passion groaned, scales still in the Dreamwatcher pattern. "You're not trying hard enough! I get that you're scared, but that's what's weighing you down! How much flying did you even do on the island?"

"Not... not that much," he admitted.

"That's your problem! Alright, we're going on a field trip!" Passion declared, leaping from her perch to spiral between the closely growing branches. "Above the canopy we go!"

They had been trying all morning to get Shadowwing to work up the courage to fly in the rainforest. Thus far, it had ended in a rather nasty crash into a tree and several broken branches. The young Nightwing was exhausted.

But he pushed through. He couldn't fly in the trees, but after the scare with the crocodile, he needed to be able to. Training couldn't hurt, right? He wriggled and pushed through the vegetation, before he eventually reached a very high branch. He could no longer see the ground. He allowed his head to stick up through the foliage and into the bright sunlight of midday.

Passion, her scales aglow with color, was diving through the air. She had let the Dreamwatcher disguise fall away, letting it go back to the cool colors he most often saw her wear. In the direct sunlight, her scales seemed to... to glitter. No other Rainwing he had seen glittered like that.

"Come on, Shade! Let's strengthen those wings of yours! Up you go!" she called, folding her wings and plummeting before flinging them out and catching herself on a wind current.

Crawling out of the undergrowth, Shade perched on the very tip of a tree. He outstretched his wings, feeling them almost immediately catch a gust of wind. It tried to fling him into the air, and he let it. He rose on the air current, then braced himself as he looked down. As far as the eye could see, was the endless rolling green expanse of rainforest. It looked so big.

"Yay!!! Go, Shade!" Passion crowed from above him. "I told you it would be fun!"

She then darted off, and Shadowwing hurriedly beat his wings to keep up.

In truth, he did catch up easily, but he was winded by the time he did. He noticed that Passion seemed to be leading him somewhere.

"Where... Where are we going?" he panted.

Passion shot him a grin. "We're going to see my sisters, of course!"

She continued to lead him over the rainforest, until she started to drop down to a clearing in the trees. Shadowwing followed, slightly apprehensive. What were Passion's siblings like?

"JuJuuuuuu! Tinyyyy!" Passion cried as she landed in the clearing. "I've got someone I want you to meet!"

Shadowwing dropped beside Passion, somewhat awkwardly, and in the process managed to brush his wing tip with Passion's tail. Immediately, images flashed through his head, a group of six dragons. There was an Icewing, and a Rainwing, but there were also three odd-looking Rainwings, and a small Icewing-ish dragonet. It was gone as quickly as it had come, but it left Shadowwing feeling drained.

He looked to Passion, about to question her about Icewings, when two dragons materialize out of nowhere. One was a small green and yellow Rainwing, her eyes alight with happiness. The other was purple and had a wicked looking ruff of spines about her head and neck, and Shadowwing immediately drew back in fear.

Passion leapt forward, taking down the green and yellow dragonet in a tackle. The smaller dragon yelped, then started laughing as she tried to push her older sister off. Passion only laughed, and she turned to the other dragon, waving her wings, but not quite touching her.

"Shade! Meet my sisters! This is Destiny," she twined her tail with the green and yellow dragon. "And that's Jewel!"

"Hi," Shadowwing said very quietly, watching them.

Destiny looked like the other Rainwings he had seen. Maybe her scales shone a bit brighter like Passion's, but she looked ordinary. Jewel, on the other talon... Her spikes. She had too many. And there was a... a frosted quality about her, like she had a thin film of ice over her entire body. His eyes dropped to her claws, and his muscles seized up.

The very ground Jewel was standing on was blackened with frost.

"What's wrong with her?" he yelped, stumbling back.

"What do mean? Nothing's wrong with me!" Jewel bristled, her frill turning an angry scarlet.

"JuJu, I think he sees the scales." Passion said. "My little sister here has something called frost scales. She was born with too much ice, so she can freeze just about anything with one touch."

Shadowwing's eyes bulged. "But she's a Rainwing! Rainwings don't have ice!"

Passion laughed. "Don't you understand, Shade? We're hybrids!"