Sailfin

Prologue

	Tyre peered out the stone window, Feng shuffling behind her. With a sigh she let her claws glide across one of his many figures and said, "You really messed it up this time." She heard a soft whine and snapped, "Your powers did this. Find a way to fix it."

	"I've tried," he whimpered. "But the damage is too deep. Not even your sister can help. The Emperor is furious. What do I do, Tyre?"
	With a swish of her tail, the dragonchild sent a stack of papers flying and replied, "Do what you do best. Use your power, gyrra."
	Tyre heard another whine as he said dejectedly, "I've tried. They're blocked." As if to demonstrate, the singing flowers gave a mournful tone as they hung their heads. "Not even the communing with them," he added more quietly, waving a hand to indicate the rows of figurines sitting on shelves.

	Her gaze darkened. With a quiet whoosh of her wings, she said, "Show me."

	With a sigh, he spread his fingers and started humming. The younger dragonchild closed his eyes and spines emerged from his back, but still none of them even raised a scale. Feng scrunched his face up and the shadow of wings and a tail appeared, two columns of dark smoke rising from his head to make the horns. He paused to say, "The only thing I can do is this." With a sharp, clear note, suddenly he was standing before Tyre in his winged form, dark scales glittering like obsidian. His yellow panther-like eyes shifted into the darker shades that meant distress in a dragon and with another quick note, he was back in his wingless form. "See? And I can't even hold my winged form without straining myself..." He growled softly, a quick guttural noise that was one of the first things a dragonchild learned, and sank to his knees.

	Tyre leaned out the doorway and said, with the sort of gruff kindness that was common to her, "My sister could help."

	A glint of hopelessness entered his eyes and he whispered, "No. Not her. She's... she's..." But he couldn't bring himself to say it, instead finishing, "Please, don't make me go to her."

	She immediately pulled back in and said, "Winged form. Now. The Emperor is coming. The window." He obeyed, and just moments after his dark form disappeared into the jungle, the Emperor strode in. She quickly shifted to her wingless form, though she kept her mind at the ready in case she needed to shift.

	"Why, it's been... what, a year since I've seen you?" he asked jovially. His golden jewelry twinkled as he sat down comfortably, smiling up at the dragonchild, who was considerably taller than almost all dragons, even in her wingless form. His wings folded all the way in and the Emperor tipped his head, waiting for a response.

	A shadow crossed Tyre's face and she said tautly, "I know what you've been doing, Yeo. He's just a kid. He doesn't deserve this."

	He chuckled, but now there was some uneasiness in his voice as he replied, "Straight to the point as always, Tyre! Do we really need to talk about something so gloomy?"

	"You know I don't like to beat around the bush," she said, equally taut.

	His face creased as he frowned and said, "Well, if we must. Yes, that may have been a little unkind, but we can't have an untrained gyrra just waltzing around. You need to be harder on him."

	The dragonchild gave him one of her signature exasperated looks and said, "No. I think you need to remember what we learned with Jarei. We can't control or use this power, Yeo. It just is, and I will NOT have you manipulate my apprentice into joining one of your schemes."

	His dark maroon scales paled. "W-What? Apprentice? SCHEME?" Outrage entered his gaze as he roared, "All I've ever wanted is the best for our family, Tyre! Why can't you see that?"

	She scoffed and said, "The best, you say? What about all the times when Saira has needed you and nobody's been there to help, hm? What about-"

	"Alright, I get it," he nearly shouted. "I get I haven't been the best, but I've tried-"

	"No," she cut in. "I don't want to hear it. Get out."

	Knowing not to argue, he bowed his head and said, "You'll regret this, sister of mine."



Chapter One

	Hera was dreaming.

	She didn't know it, of course, but her conscious mind was in there somewhere, recording the dream. Her dream-self looked down and saw the burn scars on her thin-fingered hands. They flickered; scaled, skin, scaled, skin... Her hands flickered until she got dizzy watching them and looked up. Before her was a revolving orb. A small dragonet stared with fathomless eyes at her from withing it. She tried to reach out to it, but her body was suddenly jerked back, a hook piercing her skin. The rest of her body started shifting like her hands, and she heard a cruel laughter that seemed to be coming from all around her; the dragonet had disappeared, or at least changed unrecognizably, into something horrible.

	All Hera's scales fell flat and she raised her horns, pawing the ground as the gargoyle slammed itself into the orb. The hook fell from her back as the goyle finally sprang forward, all its horrible spines fully raised. She reared to meet it, slashing it out of the air and coming down hard on its beetle-like armor. The scent of disease washed over her and she immediately balked, but by then it was too late. It let out an awful screech as tainted yellow blood leaked from beneath her paws and she stepped back, battle spines still raised.

	The creature hissed and spat something sickly yellow before her; it smelled like death, and it took her a moment to see the small crystal, twinkling with a familiar unearthly light. Its tongue flicked out and it rasped something sadly, the smallest bit of humanity returning to its gaze. Its head hung limply as she tentatively reached for the jewel, but the moment she touched it pain shot up her arm and the dream ended.

	Hera woke up in her winged form, horns still raised. She was in a cold sweat; she looked over to see her familiar looking at her, a pained expression in his eyes. Relief washed her and she said, "Jarei, you won't believe the nightmare I just had."

	"Another goyle? I thought you'd gotten over those," he sniffed. Hera knew him well enough to realize this was the best she was going to get.

	"I had, but this one was different," she said earnestly. "It started as a normal dragonet. Then it changed and attacked me, and when I killed it, it spat up a heartjewel, Jarei. Really," the dragonchild added at his skeptical look.

	He tossed his silver head and said, "I thought we'd established that the goyles have no souls, and therefore don't have heartjewels."

	Hera gave him an annoyed look and said, "I thought we'd established that I know a mountains-damned heartjewel when I see it!"

	Jarei looked taken aback by her sudden aggression, but simply asked, "Were there any other details?" By now she had calmed down enough to switch forms, so when she looked down at her hands before answering, she could see almost the same sight.

	She shivered and said, "I was changing forms. So fast I could barely see it. It started with my hands, but when I reached out to the dragonet, a hook went in my back and it started over my whole body. Then it stopped and when I recovered, the goyle was there. It, and the dragonet before it, were both in a revolving sphere with slats in it."