Darkness. Darkness was surrounding her. Everything was pitch black, and the only noise was the ringing of her ears. A piercing shriek broke the scilence, and the pattering of talons came her way. The scraping of claws coming to a halt came from nearby. "She..." A voice creaked, like a coffin lid, open for the first time in a millennial. "She hatched." A light apeared from the darkness. A pale green SeaWing with scales lit up. Everything was visible. The voice belonged to an elderly looking SandWing. "Three moons, she's beautiful. She looks just like her father." The SeaWing chirped, walking over to Cactusflower. His face was full of emotion. Gr|ef, pa|n, joy, excitement, it was a mixture of everything. "Swordfish, we need to hurry. The dragons are coming. But what if they got to Starfruit?" The SandWing cried softly. Her talons were flexing, as if she was waiting for something. Cactusflower wouldn't know. "Viper, calm down. Starfruit is an accomplished war|or because of you. He'll be able to surv|ve. No time for arguing. Let's go." With comic timing, another cry of pain came from outside wherever this was. "Starfruit!" A tear ran down her face. "Don't attract attention!" Swordfish scolded in a hushed tone, yet looking just as concerned as her. "Get them to Hope!" "No. I'm staying with Starfruit. You take her." She said, determination running through her. "I would rather d|e right now, then live the rest of my life knowing I was the reason Starfruit would have..." Her gaze landed on the dragonet. "Swordfish, take care of my daughter. Take care of Cactusflower." She said one last time, before running away, into the darkness of the room. All the words Swordfish wanted to say were cut short, when a screech of grief and pain came echoing from the tunnels, in the SandWing's voice. At that moment, Cactusflower realized that she was in the remains of an egg shell. "Hurry, little one. We're going to an accepting place." The SeaWing scooped them up, and began digging in a patch of dirt. Soon, it revealed a tight tunnel, and the dove in, covered up the hole again, and ran through the tunnels. This was a place where you would get claustrophobia. The area seemed to squeeze in on the pair. After what felt like a millennia, a room came into view. Dragons bustled and hustled from every corner. There was something about all of them... They were all hybrids. "Welcome, Cactusflower, to Hope." A few years has passed since then, and Cactusflower was now 5 years old. Every night, Cactusflower was tucked into bed by Swordfish, her dad, and her mom, Snowdrift. Being a Sea-Ice hybrid wasn't that bad. The tiny IceWing spike at the end of her tail was the only resemblance of her mom, and the colors from her dad were the only other thing. Otherwise, she looked nothing like them. She never thought much about it though. Her Mom was her Mom and her Dad was her Dad. Not much to it. Life in hope was perfect, and calm. Hybrids like her were everywhere, and so were her friends. Abyss, the Night-SkyWing, Feather, the Ice-SandWing, and Terra, the normal SkyWing. People just thought they were a hybrid almost all the time, because of their name and looks. There was also... Wisdom. He was an experiment, a dragon of every tribe. He was the only survivor of the many eggs that had to be laid. Combining so many powers must have been a burden on a normal dragon, and it was really unnatural. They were his only friends. Everyone through he was a freak, but not them. They were hanging out together, in the playground. A painted sky was above them, and a light bulb sun was too. They were chatting about the outside world, and what it would be like with a Sun. I giant ball of fire in the sky seemed concerning, and unnatural. "Have you heard about the moons?" Terra said, looking up at the fake sky. "Yeah, I have only a bit. I wonder what they look like." Abyss said, and started sketching ideas of the moon. One of the sketches was of a ball, just like the Sun. Then a crescent. 10 more undescribable shapes were sketches around it. And one other sketch was of him holding the sun in his talons. It looked so tiny in the sketch. "I hope we get to see the moon." Cactusflower said, trying to make shapes of what the teachers called 'clouds'. Maybe one of the clouds were supposed to be the moon? After a bit of scilence, a shriek sounded from the main station. Followed by yells, and war cries. A sinking feeling was in the pit of her stomach. Everyone sat up at once, and rushed to the clearing. The tunnels of Hope were cramped, and confusing. The only reason why the group was able to navigate, was because of the seldom maps that were spread across the walls. Abyss was panicking the whole way, taking about every possible situation that could be happening. "Did the cactus bombs catch fire? Was out herb supply out, and many injured dragons are dying?" His panicked words went on and on. "ABYSS! BE QUIET FOR 5 SECONDS!" Terra put a tallon on her forehead. "S-sorry"
Abyss sighed, looking at his claws. After many agonizing moments of terror and suspense, they came into the clearing. Fire, fire was everywhere. Everything was burning. And standing, armour, spear, and menacing, were SkyWings. Terra froze, but everyone else ran as fast as they could. "Mom! Dad!" Abyss cried, and Cactusflower's attention was driven towards two figures, wounded and slowly dying. Hybrids were EVERYWHERE. Cactusflower flower noticed something. The SkyWings were only hurting non hybrids. The ones with pure blood, as others call it from outside hope. Then, put of the corner of her eye, she saw it. Swordfish, pretexting his mate, Snowdrift. His wounds were deep, and deadly, but he kept fighting back. "NO!" Cactusflower wailed, running as fast as her young legs would take her. "STOP!" She ran up to the assaulting SkyWing. Her mind went blank. What was she supposed to do? How was she supposed to do it? When would this nightmare end? Then, without thinking, she swung her tail, and hit the SkyWing with the IceWing spike. But that's not what happened. It latched on, like a SandWing barb. As if she has SandWing deep in her blood. That's not possible though. Swordfish and Snowdrift were her parents, and that was all there was to it. And now they were dying, and she had to save them. The SkyWing shrieked with pain, and despair. Then, right before her eyes, the SkyWing seemed to burn, almost like with /venom/. The SkyWing was stuck in suffering, and she couldn't stop it. She looked over to Swordfish, and Snowdrift. Swordfish was frozen, with almost all the things he wanted to say, or do. Snowdrift was weeping softly. "W-what's wrong?" That sinking feeling in her stomach came again, as if the word was falling apart, and she was the only one who could piece it back together. "Cactusflower..." Swordfish went on weakly. "I want to tell you so much." He sighed. Then, his eyes widened. "CACTUSFLOWER LOOK OUT!" She couldn't react in time. A sharp pain, and she felt the word tip into darkness. "Come... Up!" Someone was roughly shaking her, and poking her. "Hurry up!" Her eyes blinked open. "What..?" She looked around. Everywhere, wounded dragons. She was in a hospital. But... This didn't look like Hope's hospital. "Oh thank the moons you're awake!" The soothing voice from before called. She stood up, and looked to the source of the voice. /Snowdrift/. It was mom. "W-what happened? Where's Swordfish? And Abyss? And-" Snowdrift put a tallon to her mouth, shushing her. "We need to be quiet. There are other dragons." She pointed to a few of them. Swordfish... Abyss... Wisdom... Terra, Feather! Everyone was wounded! "Where are the SkyWings?" She asked, trying to stand up, but when she put weight on her right leg, the pain stabbed through her. A huge venom scar was there, and with noticing it, the pain seemed to get greater. "No, sit down. I'll tell you everything. Starting with the very beginning..." She sighed, and began to tell a story. "Your Father, Swordfish, he's not you dad." And with those small words, the entire word split in half, turned upside down, and imploded all at once. "W-wait. Dad... What do you mean? I look just like him! His pale green scales are all over me!" She put her talons to her head. This wasn't true. This wasn't true. "Your real dad, is a RainWing named Starfruit. He was an amazing dad. And even while you were still in your egg, he was always with you. Always. But... The SkyWing's found your hidden den on their territory. And... He had to stay behind and fight. Your mom joined him, and Swordfish brought you to Hope. We were mates already, and we decided to adopt you." "But wait," Cactusflower interrupted. "Who's my mom?" "She was a SandWing. That's not an IceWing spike. That's a barb. And these frills? Those are SandWing." She sighed. "I'm sorry Cactusflower. It's my fault that you were lied to. I didn't want you to be hurt." Cactusflower looked over all the dragons. "SkyWings... They caused all of this. They ki||ed my parents, ruined Hope, and, where are we now?" She realized again that this wasn't the Hope hospital. "We were saved by a RainWing. Cactusflower, welcome, to Future."
