Silver and Gradient walked around Judgment at night, everything was silent and dark, they found themselves at the entrance and quickly the painting appeared, "Are you sure they said they saw it before they left?" Gradient asked with a bit on nervousness in his voice." Silver nodded and said, "Yes, they did, we should move it before anyone else finds the painting!"
Gradient quickly approached the painting, grabbing the side of the frame before pulling, revealing a small entrance to a island. Gradient stepped through first, quickly followed by Silver, now they were on the familiar island that Gradient was raised on.
They both walked gently, as to not disturb anything, Silver saw a bit of a smile on Gradient's snout as he looked around the island. Silver had always wondered what Gradient's life was like as a dragonet as he never really talked about when he was a dragonet.
Suddenly, Gradient stopped at gravestones, he looked down slightly saddened, Silver then said, "So... You never told me what happened to your parents, do you wanna talk about it?" Gradient nodded slightly and said, "Yeah... Honestly it still makes me quite sad... I mean I didn't really know my mother..."
The silence was deafening as Gradient seemingly was thinking about his words, Silver didn't want to seem rude so he simply didn't interrupt his thinking, Gradient then said, "My Father... He was great... They both actually died of a sickness, my mother died shortly after my egg was laid but my father... He was there for 4 years of my life..." Tears flowed down Gradient's snout slightly, Silver was about to try to conform him when he suddenly stood up wiped away his tears.
"Welp, as my father always said, no use crying over something that happened years ago." Gradient said with a slight smile, Silver was quite surprised and said, "Are you sure you're fine?" Gradient nodded slightly and said, "Yeah, I mean it was 7 years ago, I've known you for longer than 4 years, I'd be more upset if you died! Plus time heals all wounds after all and I've had time."
Before Silver could say anything Gradient quickly walked off, Silver could tell he wasn't fully telling the truth and was just trying to act like he was fine. Silver looked at the two gravestones before slowly going to follow Gradient.
Soon, they both entered the cave on the island, it had dust and spiderwebs all around. Both of them gently walked through, Gradient used a bit of fire to get rid of the spiderwebs, he was very careful not to burn anything other than the spiderwebs.
As they reached the end of the tunnel they found the small carving of a dragon that was holding up a scroll wrapped in a black cover. Silver was grabbed and dusted off the scroll slightly before saying, "Ok, now where should we take this?" Gradient shrugged and said, "I don't know, I thought this was the best place but I guess not."
Silver thought for a few moments before an idea snapped to him, "What if we hid it behind the one of the paintings you made at Judgement?" Silver said, Gradient nodded and said, "That could work, I can work it into one of the frames."
They both then quickly headed back towards the painting entrance with the scroll. As they both were back at Judgement, Gradient took the scroll to his art studio, "Silver, make sure nobody comes in my art studio, I don't want anyone to see us hiding the scroll." Silver nodded and quickly took to guarding the entrance.
Minutes passed as Silver guarded the door, it was tiresome as he hadn't slept for hours. Gradient was clearly taking his time to design the frame and most likely a mechanism to keep the scroll completely hidden but still able to be removed.
Suddenly, as Silver was guarding the entrance he was beginning to doze off when suddenly a familiar voice caught his attention, "Silver, what are you doing up so late?" Said Red, Silver then said, "Oh... Um.... I.... Gradient wanted me to make sure nobody sees his new painting, it's one he wants to keep a secret until its d-done!"
Red looked surprised before saying, "Well, if he woke you up just for that then I'll take your place, I was just about to do my training exercise, but I can just take your place so you can go to bed." Silver blushed bright red at the though of Red exercising before quickly stuttering out, "Oh... Um... N-no, I can do it s-so you c-can do your exercises."
Red then said, "Well, perhaps you or Gradient would like to join me, you both do look quite... Weak and vulnerable, some training could help you both." Silver blushed even brighter red before saying, "Oh.... Um.... Th-that sounds great, I'll b-be sure to tell Gradient a-about your o-offer." Red gave a small smile before saying, "Good, although you should get some sleep before you decide to exercise, maybe next time you could join?"
Silver watched as Red quickly left to go do his exercise, Silver's face was bright red. Moments later, Gradient exited the art studio with a large painting of a icewing that Silver didn't recognize, the frame was very well detailed, Silver then said, "Wow, that looks great, but who is that?"
Gradient then said, "Well, it's my mother or at least how my father described her." Silver looked at the painting, the icewing stood like royalty with deep dark blue eyes, Gradient then said, "I don't know much about my mother, besides what my father told me."
"Oh, I also know what she did before she met my father, apparently she was a icewing general." Gradient said, Silver was slightly surprised and said, "Oh, that's interesting anyways you go put up that painting, I'm going to sleep. Oh also Red invited us to join his exercise if you want to join him." Gradient quickly left as did Silver, he quickly headed to his room to go to sleep.
