Startled, he spreads his wings to look bigger. Not that he needs to, Wish being a sizable NightWing, even to adults. Only, his attacker isn’t actually meaning harm. This one is just a visitor. “Oh. Queen Pansy.” Wish did a little bow before standing up again. “Why have you humbled me by visiting my house before I’m even home?”

“Oh, please, just Pansy. I’m here because I need to inform you of a meeting among queens. I need to know if any of the other queens have seen any animus behavior.” Pansy tells him in a quick jumble.

Wish’s heart sinks. That is not what he had in mind. He really wanted to keep this a secret, because other queens were totally evil and wanted to do very evil things to him! Really? Whispered a fraction of his brain. Even the IceWing queen? She’s been super nice to you your whole life. Okay, so MAYBE Wish should calm down a TINY bit.

“I was hoping that it could be a secret? Because like sometimes I feel scared that other dragons would use my power for what they want.” Wish told her.

“Don’t worry. If any evil dragons try to steal you, I’ll be in their way.” Pansy says. “I’m trying really hard not to think of you as a weird experiment, just so you know. I mean, no one has had this magic in hundreds of years! Excitement!”

“Oh.” Wish said. “Um, thank you? I think?” Wish was a little confused. He recognized the excitement in the queen’s head as similar to the time he first saw ants working together to make a tiny little bridge. “First I think I should go see Willpower. I feel that I should explain to him what’s happening.”

“You do that, and I’ll be waiting here. Then we’re off to Sanctuary.” Pansy said.

The flight to Willpower’s house was rather peaceful. Swerving and dipping around branches, zipping past the small, colorful birds, and vibrantly poisonous frogs. He stopped to pick a few bananas as a gift. When he got there, he remembered how he is always surprised by the sheer enormity of Willpower’s house. The giant walls of polished volcanic rock, floor-to-ceiling windows, and several balconies. It was hard to believe that someone had made this.

He landed on a balcony near the top of the house, and walked inside. “Hello?” Wish called into the house. “Anyone home?” The echoes were a little ominous, and it made him shake.

He heard the faint sound of talons on stone, running in his direction. Eventually Willpower came sliding down the hallway. “Wish!” He yelled. “LooklooklooklookLOOK!!” He flared his wings out as far as they would go, which was a lot. You could paint him red and you would mistake him for a SkyWing. “I don’t know how, but THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!” By now Willpower was bouncing up and down with excitement, flapping his wings and stretching them in and out. His thoughts were very loud, and because they were directed at him they were hard to tone out.

“Okay, just calm down, Will. CALM DOWN.” Willpower landed and looked at Wish with intent, just in time to get smacked in the face with the bananas.

Not noticing the assault, he asked, “How did you do this?” Although Willpower read his mind before Wish could respond. “No. Way. That is not possible.” He squealed. “Animus magiiiiiic!!”

“I don’t know how. The queen doesn’t know how. But I guess… Yay?”

“The QUEEN?” Willpower screamed “YOU talked to THE QUEEN?!!” At this point he was just talking out of utter shock.

“I know right? She’s been pretty loose with me, not really acting like regal material. Then again, I guess I’m some sort of exciting lab experiment gone wrong.” Wish shudders at the idea of himself like a test subject.

“Don’t say that. Dude, you’re my best friend. Nobody can think of you that way, not even the queen! Not if I have anything to say about it!” Willpower pushes Wish with his wing. “Oh, I can do that thing now! With the- the nudging! That’s normal things that normal dragons do!”

“Will, I don’t think I want you to try flying for a while.” Wish says to him, with kind intent. “You’ve never done it before, and older dragons can feel more frustration than younger ones.”

“Oh, right.” Willpower reminds himself. “I could totally do it, though. I’m just CHOOSING not to, because I… don’t feel like flying today. Yes, that's it. Very tiring day.”

Wish rolls his eyes as he prepares to take off. “You have NO idea, buddy boy.” he then makes a small little hop off the edge of the balcony, and glides gracefully back to his house. Not too far when coming back, considering the sheer height of the jump.

“I’m ready!” Wish calls. “And I don’t know how the three moons to get to Sanctuary!”

The queen comes out of his house looking all kinds of royal. Apparently she’d been practicing how to act in front of other queens. “Great, let’s fly.” Without any more than that, she lifted into the air, leaving Wish in her dust.

Flying for a while, he notices that they are flying northwest, towards the Kingdom of Sand. Queen Scarab has been pretty average, as far as queens go. If he remembers his geography correctly, then Sanctuary should be on the border of the Sand Kingdom and Sky Kingdom. He hadn’t met the SkyWing queen before, although he heard that hse can be a tiny bit pushy, trying to not turn into her great-great-grandma, Scarlet. She’s never referred to as a queen these days.

He’s only ever met the three queens, Pansy, Scarab and Mink. He’s never heard anything about the SeaWing queen or MudWing queen, so he had no idea what to expect. When they got to Sanctuary, they stopped for a drink in the river.

“Hey,” Pansy shoved him with her wing. “Are you OK? You didn’t talk at all on the way here. You’re usually really talkative.”

He was a bit startled. “I didn’t know that it was proper etiquette to speak to my queen as if she’s an equal.” Wish responded.

Pansy made a face. “Stop, you know I’m not good at this queen stuff.” She shoved him again. “Also, if anything, you are above any royalty. The moment you take that earring off you could be the ruler of everyone. ‘King Wish of the Entire World!’ y’know?”

Was it bad that a splinter of him liked the sound of that? “I don’t want to be royal. I just want to be me. Just your average everyday non special kid, that’s me. Or I was, until this morning.” Wish wondered how much of a day he could get out of him before he had to sleep. He looked to the sky to see that the sun was already setting. “We should probably find a place to sleep.” Wish suggested.

“That would be great.” Said Pansy. “Do you know how to tie a hammock?”

Wish looks around for a bit. “Um. No? I mean, could you teach me?”

“Loosen up!” Pansy says as she flicks Wish with her tail “I’m not so much a queen as I am your friend! Now let’s build a hammock!”

 

* * *

 

Waking up was a weird experience that morning. Wish slept in, went into a panic about how he’s going to be late for school, then saw Pansy in her hammock and remembered that he has been excused from school today.

Then he saw twenty other dragons in a crowd around him, and jumped. “WOAH WHAT IS THIS?!” He says out loud.

One of the dragons in the crowd spoke up. “We were just coming to see the queen. And then we noticed this lowly schoolboy with her, and began to question her authority.”

“Not really though!” one of the other crowd members spoke up. “She’s a great queen!”

And then an argument started that did two things. One: woke up Pansy and Two: broke the crowd as she shooed them away.

“What was that about?” Pansy asked him.

He shrugged. “Just some citizens questioning your authority because you are super cool and nobody knows who I am. No big deal.” Wish says jokingly. It works, as Pansy laughed at it.

“Your face… there’s dirt all over your face…” She pulls another giggle. “Why did you sleep on the ground?”

After sticking his head in the river, Wish finds an actual reason. “How much would they question your authority if you were caught sleeping in matching hammocks with a random NightWing?” He asks. “You're welcome for saving your dignity.”

“Well then.” Pansy says, adjusting her tiara. “Off to the meeting room of queenly meetings!” She announces cheerfully, quickly followed in her head with, Great moons, I hate it there.

Upon this thought, Wish laughs with a very undignified snort. “I’m sorry.” He says, “Your thoughts are so interesting. Sometimes they’re super calm and regal and all that good stuff, and other times they do whatever they want.”

“Hey, I know that I just said to pretend that I am your friend and not your queen,” Pansy begins. “But now you have to act like I’m your queen, because we want to be presentable when we talk to other queens.”

“Of course, of course.” Wish says. “No problem!” He then proceeds to hop into the river and find a suitable river stone for scraping gunk off his scales.

Upon exiting the river, Wish looked like a shiny fragment of obsidian. Only knowing this by receiving the comment from Pansy. “Now come on!” She said. “For the last time, to the meeting room!” Pansy took off first (again) and darted towards the opposite edge of the town, where there was a big cavern dug out from the side of a cliff, similar to Wish’s Human Studies class, but larger.

Queens Mink, Scarab, and the SeaWing queen were there, which means with Pansy that would leave the SkyWing queen and MudWing queen. In the meantime, Wish was introduced to Quen Eel. Supposedly a pushy queen who knows that and tries to fix it, with the help of her only daughter, Aethia. They wanted to tell him about the other queens, yet he refused to get opinions without the dragons actually present. Just to avoid any biases.

Then the MudWing queen arrived, and introduced herself (along with all 8 of her siblings) to him. The only name that stuck was Mosquito, the queen. She was apparently very biased towards dragons she had first impressions with, so Wish did his best to be likable. She has a hard time accepting the fact that she is biased, yet she can occasionally see it. Her oldest brother usually helps with that.

When the SkyWing queen arrived, she was nearly bouncing up and down like she had just figured out that snails exist. So she was actually very excitable, and not as grumpy as Wish had heard.

That is, until he realized that she was the SkyWing princess, and that the queen was busy attending duties on Pantala.

“Well, now that we’re all acquainted…” Pansy began. “We can discuss an urgent matter on the fact that animus magic is back.” There was an immediate gasp from the SkyWing princess, and the other queens simply stiffened up.

“How, exactly, do you know for SURE that it’s returned?” asked Queen Scarab. “It’s been gone for nearly 650 years. Why would it suddenly pop back into existence?”

Pansy gestured her wing in Wish’s direction, and he looked around the room for a small pebble. Upon finding it, he brought it to the center of the table. Immediately he got strange looks from Queen Mosquito, but he proceeded.

“I enchant this pebble to float to the top of the room, and fall back down into my hand.” He said, tapping it. The small rock did as such, and the room was silent for a while. “Yay?” Wish tried. “Honestly, that was my third spell that I’ve cast in my life.”

Then, Quen Eel shoved her daughter. “What other spells did you cast?” Aethia asked nervously. Wish shook himself, and Pansy nodded to him.

“So, uh… My first spell was an entire accident, but I fixed my best friend’s broken wing! It was a shock to literally everyone.” Wish said. He waited for a reaction, and upon none, continued. “Then my all-knowing, all-powerful, all-amazing Queen Pansy showed me that I needed to protect my soul. So, I put some enchantments on this earring,” he pointed to the little garish piece of jewelry. “to prevent me from casting any selfish or greedy or murdery spells.” He gestured back to Pansy for the rest of the conversation.

“Any comments or questions?” She asks.

Princess Aethia spoke up next. “What if your first spell was accidentally a murdery spell? Would you lose your soul immediately?”

Pansy checked her scrolls. “No. It takes several purposefully bad spells in order to change you. It’s like a river chipping away at stone.” She says. “But don’t get any ideas, because the moment you start creating your own rules about what is really bad, you will feel more entitled to use your magic.”

“Um…” Aethia starts. “Yay? I. Also. Have. Magic?” The room all stares at her. She couldn’t be older than 3! “I- I accidentally enchanted a statue to attack my mommy. But It’s g- gone now.”

Queen Eel sighed. “Even when it’s been pulverized to dust it tries to kill me.” She says. “Thankfully it can’t leave the water without dehydrating.

Queen Mink spoke next. “This can’t be possible.” She says in her weak, old voice. “Jerboa destroyed it, my older sister even made sure that it was gone.”

“Well.” Said Pansy. “Welcome to my life, where everything is up-side-down and backwards.”