#glorynami

Tsunami was having a particularly bad day.

It wasn't really that much different from any other day - any day was bad in the caves they were all stuck in - but today the SeaWing found that the usual annoyances were particularly aggravating to her. She wasn't sure if things were really starting to wear her down or if she had just woken up in a foul mood, but she found her life particularly intolerable. Her scales had felt particularly dry and scratchy all day and Webs' daily lecture was exceptionally insufferable to her. Even outside of her miserable excuses for mentors, her friends were getting on her nerves too. Starflight's lectures grated against her ears, and Sunny's hopeless naivete made her want to scream. Even Clay's normally adorable one track mind was annoying. Everything was infuriating, and Tsunami wanted nothing more than to slip into the underground river that swept through the murk at the bottom and never come back up again.

But in her heart, she knew she couldn't do that. Grumpy though she was, she couldn't just abandon her friends to Kestrel’s fury like that. One bad mood didn't mean she loved them any less.

Unfortunately, she didn't have that time right now. Instead, she was stuck in perhaps the most aggravating situation of all; Kestrel's class.

Today was probably the worst combat class she had had with Kestrel in some time. The vicious SkyWing had pushed her particularly far today, goading her into aggression and rebuking her attempts to fight back tenfold. She was left with one particularly painful gash on her forearm. It wouldn't leave any lasting marks, but that didn't make it sting any less.

Now, she was looking up at the bigger dragon, clutching her lightly bleeding arm as the crimson stained her ocean-blue scales. Kestrel stared back down at her, nostrils flared in scorn.

"You're weak!" Kestrel snarled. "Stronger than the others, perhaps, but weak nonetheless. You continue to be a disappointment."

"Well, maybe if I had a better teacher!" Tsunami shot back, flaring her wings.

Before she knew it, something smashed into the side of her head and knocked her off of her feet. She hit the ground and wheezed slightly as the wind was forced from her body. For a brief second, the edges of her visions clouded, punctuated by bright white stars.

She looked back up at Kestrel in shock, the SkyWing's tail having whipped into the side of her head.

"You... If my mother heard about this..." she tried to protest, invoking Queen Coral; whom she knew would rail against her daughter's mistreatment – that is, if she was indeed Tsunami’s mother. She pictured the myriad of ways her mother would brutally punish Kestrel for daring to raise her talons against he lost SeaWing princess!

Her visions disintegrated into a red haze at Kestrel's next words.

"You're mother doesn't even know who you are!" Kestrel snarled. "And if she did, she'd be utterly disgusted that such a pathetic excuse for a dragonet could possibly come from one of her own eggs! Why would your mother ever care about such an insolent, weak little snake like you? You're no better than that disgusting lazy RainWing!"

That really set Tsunami off. Her thoughts and emotions as red as Kestrel's scales, she seemed to lose control. She jumped to her feet and leapt at Kestrel, claws outstretched, fangs bared, her gaze aimed directly at the older dragon's throat. She almost had her... But just as her claws were about to sink into the older dragon's scales, she instead clenched her talons around empty air.

She tumbled through and crashed into the wall on the other side. Her wings flailed uselessly, and her tail seemed to turn against her, slapping into her face.

Looking up, she saw Kestrel, who had expertly avoided her attack, gazing down at her smugly.

"That RainWing" is twice the dragon you'll ever be!" Tsunami seethed defiantly through gritted fangs.

Kestrel's eyes narrowed dangerously, her tongue lashing out in anger. She took a step forward, and looking into her eyes - those burning hot, furious eyes - Tsunami was, for a moment, genuinely scared for her life.

Then, a voice came from the entrance to the training cave.

"Ahem. Dune wants to see Tsunami," Glory announced.

Kestrel snapped her head around to glare down her snout at the RainWing. "Tell him I have her," she spat.

"He was pretty insistent," the RainWing replied. "Said it was really important."

For a moment, Kestrel didn't move. For a horrible moment, Tsunami thought she was going to attack Glory too.

Then, she whipped her head around and glared at Tsunami again. "Get out of my ssssight," she hissed. "And no dinner tonight!"

Light dismay filled her, but more than that she was just relieved to be out of there. She hurried to Glory's side and slipped out of the cave - still feeling Kestrel's white hot glare on her back.

When she was out of the room, Tsunami turned to her RainWing rescuer. "What does Dune want, anyway?"

"Nothing," Glory replied. "I just figured it would probably be for the best if you stop picking fights with our teacher."

Tsunami stared at her in mild disbelief, then looked back to make sure Kestrel was entirely out of earshot.

"She's going to freak when she finds out," Tsunami pointed out.

"Yeah, well... I'm used to it," Glory sighed. "We should probably get you somewhere out of the way until the worst of the fallout has passed."

"I'll just hide at the bottom of the river for a bit," Tsunami stated. "Wiat until Webbs drags me out."

"And leave me alone? At their mercy?" Glory retorted. She seemed to be joking, but still, her words made Tsunami feel a little guilty.

"Well, we could always camp out in the sleeping caves," Tsunami suggested.

Glory gave her a funny look that she couldn't quite interpret - but she seemed willing to go along with it. "Why not?" she agreed casually, her tail flicking. "It's not like there's much better for me to do right now."

The two of them headed straight for the sleeping caves, deciding to bundle together into Tsunami's cave just to be safe. They laid on their stomachs across from each other. Tsunami felt a rumble from inside her gut; she hadn't realized just how hungry she was. Come to think of it, she hadn't eaten anything since that morning, and even then only a talonful of fish she had caught in the river.

"Ugh... I'm so hungry, though," she pouted, resting her head on her talons. Her forearm had stopped bleeding, but it still stung. "Stupid Kestrel..."

Glory looked towards her for a moment, and though the light in the cave was dim, it caught a ripple of green flashing through her scales and Tsunami was strick by how beautiful the RainWing was. She could only imagine how Glory would look in the full view of the sun; like a living mass of treasure, all of the world's riches combined into one dragon. It seemed Dune, Kestrel and Webbs were committing a crime by keeping her here; locking such a beautiful and intelligent dragon in such a dark, depressing place, and beating her down again and again with their words.

Then, Glory opened her mouth and ruined the moment.

"Maybe don't go trying to kill her," Glory retorted. "I mean, don't get me wrong - I'd love to do it - but it just makes things harder for everyone else, you know?"

"I wasn't trying to kill her," Tsunami bristled, lifting her head and levelling her snout towards Glory.

The RainWing's brow twitched. "Really?" she asked. "Tsunami, you went right for her throat."

"So what, you saw the whole thing?" Tsunami asked. "You could have helped me out sooner you know." She didn't know why she was getting so worked up about this, but something about Glory got her more worked up than normal. It wasn't that they had a particularly antagonistic relationship, but both of them were among the more strong-willed and hot-headed of the dragonets, and something about Glory in particular elicited strong, raw emotions from the SeaWing - whenever she was involved.

"I'm just saying you should learn to control your temper, is all," Glory said.

Another wave of anger flared up in the SeaWing's chest. "And what? Just let her get away with everything?" she snapped. "You hear how she talks about you, right? Don't you want to stand up for yourself?"

A tendril of red coiled across the scales of Glory's cheeks, growing larger and brighter until her serpentine head was crimson with fury. "Of course I hear what she says," Glory replied. "She's made it very clear how she feels. I'm a lazy, disgusting disgrace of a dragon; it was my destiny from birth; you four get to go on and save the world. I'm just a hideous RainWing."

"You're not hideous," Tsunami snapped back. "And you're one of us too. Your destiny is the same as ours."

"How can it be?" Glory snorted. "I'm just a RainWing. What use could I ever be?"

“You’re Glory, you dolt! You’re one of the smartest, fiercest, most beautiful dragons I know...”

She trailed off. Suddenly, she realized how close they had gotten. During their argument, they had moved closer and closer to each other in the heat of the moment. Now, only a few feet remained between their snouts, and Glory was giving her a funny look.

"What...?" Tsunami asked uneasily.

Before the SeaWing even knew what was going on, Glory moved forward, their snouts bumping one another, lips touching before moving along to her jaw, the RainWing's tongue lightly brushing against her small facial scales. Emotions exploded within Tsunami's chest - shock, confusion, and... soemthing else. An almost electrifying type of alertness the kind she had never experienced before. It was foreign and weird and uncomfortable in a way... But she also liked it. A lot.

For a moment longer, she hesitated. Then, she pushed her snout into the small where Glory's long neck met the back of her head.

Then, as abruptly as she had started it, the RainWing ended it. "I... I'm sorry," she said, breaking off and moving across the room, keeping her head down.

"Wait..." Tsunami said. She started to cross the gap between them, when a new voice interrupted.

"Oh, there you guys are!"

Tsunami's heart nearly fell out through her mouth, but as she turned to the entrance, she was relieved to see the familiar, golden form of Sunny, who was bouncing excitedly for some reason or other.

She wouldn't have picked up on anything odd, for sure. Tsunami didn't have to worry.

Worry about what, exactly?

"Come on!" the little SandWing exclaimed. "I gotta show you something! It's so cool!"

With that, she was off. Tsunami looked over at Glory, and their eyes met. Some unspoken, wordless feeling passed between them... Then, Glory followed, and followed after Sunny.

Tsunami sighed, then followed.

----------

Glory and Tsunami never talked about what happened between them; there was an unspoken agreement that it was a one time thing - whatever it had been. But Tsunami couldn't help but feel that their bond had deepened somewhat. Some deeper level of companionship that the SeaWing could never quite put her talon on.

One thing was clear, though; Tsunami loved Glory. Mostly as a friend, but sometimes it felt... deeper than that. She would never admit as much out loud, but she would do anything for her RainWing friend.

And, even as the years went by, and Tsunami watched as Glory gave her heart to another dragon, and she felt hers go to another still, she was sure of one other thing.