Bird

Bird grinned at his friends, and grabbed the last ingredient the experiment called for, a vial of goop from an Oozing Tusk. He tried to hand it to Nightspirit, his best friend, but she pushed it back.

"It's your experiment, you get to dump the last thing in," she urged, elbowing Bird. "Besides, haven't I already dumped in most of it?"

"No, I've dumped in most of it," Core countered, his crown glittering green in the glow of the cauldron. "You've only dumped in seven things, I've dumped twelve."

Nightspirit giggled. "Alright then, if you say so. You can still plop that stuff in, Bird." Bird nodded, and held his breath as the Oozing Tusk goop splashed into the mixture. Nightspirit raised her head to look in the pot, and her eyes widened farther than a Spiral's. She yelped in alarm and leaped backwards.

BAM! The experiment exploded, smashing bottles and tipping over containers. Before the splatters could hit Bird and Nightspirit, Core spread his wings, shielding them from the toxic sludge. Bird watched as Core fell over into steaming the puddle of brews and shards of glass that the experiment had spilled. Core gasped, and Nightspirit came to her senses. She dragged Core out of the puddle with a grunt, encouraging Bird to help. With his talons numb with fear for his friend, he helped Nightspirit lift Core to Ranunculus' den.

Bird's brother turned, and sucked in a breath. "Yikes," he commented, inspecting the burns on Core's flanks. "You should get Fox to look at that." He took another look at Core. "And fast," he added. Ranunclus helped Bird and Nightspirit haul Core to Fox's cave. They moved as quickly as they could, but it was no use. Fox took one look at him and sighed.

"I'm sorry," Fox sighed. Her voice was much quieter than usual. "It's too late. Even if there was a way to keep him alive, things would’ve been bad. The goop that splashed on him was acidic enough to burn through his wings and melt most of his jaw." Fox wrinkled her snout and shook out her wings like she was trying to hide tears and that she knew how to be nice. “We would have to feed him liquids and he wouldn’t really be able to talk.”

"There's really nothing you can do for him? Not a single thing? Oh, Arcanist, why?" Bird moaned. "It should've been me!" He caught Nightspirit murmuring about how it was possible that they could mix up something strong enough kill a dragon. Apparently, it's perfectly possible, Bird thought glumly, and apparently, I just ruined my life forever, and killed one of my friends.

"Bird, it wasn't your fault," Nightspirit soothed.

"But it was!" Bird cried. "I was the one who dumped that last bottle in! I was the one who had the terrible idea of experimenting!" Nightspirit winced, perhaps realizing there was no way to counter that.

"Bird, Nightspirit, I really am sorry. I... I know what it's like to lose a close friend." Fox blinked quickly a few times and pushed a Haunted Flame Candle out of her face. Fox's second apology and tone of voice had surprised Bird, that wasn't like her. Fox looked back at him, and scowled. "Oh, come on! Arcanist take you, you've made me upset!" She hissed, her usual mood back. That comforted Bird somewhat, despite how bad of an insult 'Arcanist take you' was.

A hot tear trailed down Bird's snout, splatting on his talons. He hadn't cried in so long, and he had hoped he never would again. How could he have believed nothing bad would ever happen to him? Bird only dared to look at his talons until he had took to the sky, too scared to look at even Nightspirit. Bird flew back to his room, more tears running down his whiskers. He didn't even risk a look at the hallway with Core's cave as he drifted by, it was too painful.

His talons hit the ledge with a dull thump, and Bird meandered into his cave. He didn't know quite what to do with himself. He picked up an alchemy scroll, and shoved his face into it, not really reading the words, but it was a suitable distraction. Bird nodded off faster than he expected, and was met with a startlingly vivid dream.

[different font]Bird looked up from his scroll to see Core grinning down at him. Was what Bird thought happened earlier not real? It mustn't have, because Core was standing right in front of him. But something was off about the dragon in front of Bird. He poked Core, but his talon went right through his friend.

Before Bird could scream, the scene shifted. He was in Shadow and Icefall's living room, he guessed. Icefall's wolf skin was hanging from a hook on the wall, and Shadow's quiver next to it. Bird heard the click, click click of talonsteps, and dove behind a desk layered in so many papers, books, and scrolls it was hard to identify it as anything other than a heap of paper.

Just as he had expected, Shadow and Icefall walked into the room. They looked a little shook, to say the least. Another dragon followed the couple, and just looking at the figure sent chills from Bird's horns to tail-tip. There definitely was something wrong with that dragon. And that dragon was an Imperial with a very bulky cloak that covered their head and shoulders. A cloak big enough to hide an extra head or two.

Bird sat stock-still, wanting to wake up but fascinated at the same time. The dragon in the cloak pushed their hood down, and introduced herself in bone-chilling voice unlike anything Bird had ever heard before. He was glad he didn't live in the same clan as a dragon who sounded like that.

"Salutations, acquaintances. I'm Toni. I hope you do not mind me visiting, but we have some important..." The Imperial waved her talon in the air as if searching for a word. "...business to discuss."

To be continued in
Icefall's perspective.

---