Scales of Destiny -- Book 1

Prologue

This was going to be the day. I was finally going to leave the flower.

I took a few last sips of nectar from the bottom of my flower. This time there seemed to be incredible amounts of nectar, so I drank all that I could. I stretched my very small wings and then latched onto the edges of the closed flower so I could climb it. I crawled upward until I was close to the very small hole at the top of the flower. I pushed myself through the hole until my head could peek through. And that was when I saw it.

The outside world was so big and bright it almost blinded me. I lifted my wing over my eyes to shade the light. No wonder my sisters wanted to get out so early, I thought. This place is practically a palace. I crawled out more and more; my wings almost got stuck. I pushed as hard as I could and popped out of the flower onto a leaf.

I was busy stretching my wings so I didn't notice that the leaf was slowly drooping downwards. By the time I realized, it was too late. I slipped off the leaf and fell onto the next, and then the next, and so on until I reached the bottom leaf of the vine. I tried to hang on with all my strength, but it was no use. I slipped off the leaf and fell a couple meters or so -- which is a long way for a two centimeter dragonet like me -- onto the grassy rainforest floor. I stood there, dazed, when I saw a dark grey dragonet stand before me.

"Hi," she said. "I'm Cloudy. Are you okay?"

" Yeah," I replied, still a little dizzy from the fall.

She reached her talon out to help me up.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Sunset," I said, feeling a little bit better.

"Come on," Cloudy told me, " I'm going to show you a little secret."

I followed her to an old tree. It had a drapery of long vines surrounding the bottom. I hopped on one of the vine leaves.

"What's so special about a tree?" I asked.

"Follow me," she said, and slipped behind the vines.

As I also went behind the vines, I saw that the tree had been hollowed out. There was a large room inside of the tree, with mushroom stair steps spiraling upwards to higher rooms. I saw that the higher parts of the tree had been cut off and replaced with a bundle of thin leaves to create a skylight with a greenish tint to it.

"Wow," I said, " You built all this yourself?

"No, I just found it this way," Cloudy replied, and hopped onto a large cluster of orange mushrooms. "Let me show you something else cool," she said.

She opened a trap door leading to a basement filled with what looked like water. She crawled down a ladder going down into the basement.

"Come down here," Cloudy said. "It isn't going to hurt.

I climbed down the ladder into the water-filled space. She held her breath and went under the water, so I did the same. When I opened my eyes, I saw numerous glow-in-the-dark seaweed strands and coral, and many glowing fish and crabs. Even the sand emitted light. A green eel about twice my size came swimming up to me.

"Don't worry," Cloudy said. "He won't bite."

Of course, we were underwater, so it sounded more like, "Blon'p turry, blee zhonp bluite."

"Well, I may have shown you my secret room, and my secret secret room, but I bet you don't know about my secret secret secret room!" Cloudy said, making big splashes in the water.

She swam down to another trap door hidden under the sand. When she opened it, we swam in really fast, then closed the doors so water wouldn't get in. That was when I saw the most amazing thing ever. The whole room was covered in crystals, even the ceiling! Dragonflies buzzed all around the room.

"Cool, huh?" Cloudy said.

"Yep." I replied. "It is indeed."