As soon as that part was over, they started arguing over what to do next. Banish them? Forbid powers? Let them live normal lives? That last one was recommended by Pansy, and got stern looks from the other queens. She backed down, just as Wish stood up.

“We aren’t evil! And we can’t be evil as long as we have special enchantments to protect our souls!” Wish says loudly. “I, for one, would like to just live a normal life! I never wanted this animus magic! Although that came out sounding like a spell, it was selfish, so I couldn’t do it.” 

“Hold on.” began Aethia. “We have feelings too, and I would actually like to use my magic in order to help my kingdom.” WOW. That was VERY wise for a three year old dragonet. Wish hadn’t even thought about how his magic could be helpful, he just remembered the burdens.

“Sweetie, it’d be super hard to maintain yourself whilst helping your kingdom.” Queen Eel said soothingly. “It’s difficult being an animus, remember the old Albatross?” Wish was lost. Who was Albatross? “He was using super helpful spells, but he massacred everyone he knew! It was too much for him!” Queen Eel pulled her daughter into a hug. She hugged back

“I won’t be evil, mommy. He’d tell me when I started having bad thoughts!” She looked at me.

“I prefer to stay out of other’s heads. It’s super noisy and sometimes way off track.” He admitted. “This one time, in the Scorpion Den, this one guy was giving me dirty looks, I saw him thinking about how a NightWing had given him his stump-for-a-leg, and he was thinking of some very violent ways to get revenge.” He shuddered. “I’d rather not talk about it anymore.”

“Then again,” Queen Scarab started. “The Scorpion Den is full of dragons like that, so I’m not too surprised.”

“Please,” said Aethia. “Just once, I want you in my head to know if I’m evil.” Then she made a face that made HIS face go all goopy, and he decided, FINE. If this dragonet wants to be intruded, then let’s just take a peek.

It was way more than a peek. It feels cold. Is this what it’s like getting your mind read? “Yes, it is. You’ll get used to it.” Wish says out loud. Oh WOW. It’s like I have ZERO privacy. “That’s why I usually don’t read minds, I try to block out thoughts.” I wonder if I could enchant myself to read minds? Is that a good or bad thing? “You probably shouldn’t. It’s not evil, but it’s not good for a little dragonet’s mental stability.” Oh, OK. Look at this weird memory!

She started thinking about a very misformed crab, it was pale yellow, instead of orange like all the other ones. It’s legs were short, and it’s claws looked way too big. Instead of running away from dragons, like all the other crabs, it fought them. This one pinched her nose, and she winced, but didn’t attack it back. It was rather cute in her opinion, and she decided to keep it as a pet.

A few weeks went by, and she was going to go feed the crab, when she saw that it had found a mate. She felt so happy for it, but then terrified as she had no Idea how to take care of baby crabs, let alone if she should let them have baby crabs. Suddenly, Wish was sucked from the memory.

“What.” He said. “The three moons. Was THAT.” He shook his head, clearing out feelings for crabs that he didn’t know existed.

“It was… cold.” Aethia said, looking pale. “At first it was like a chilly river, but then, it was like swimming underneath an iceberg. Freezing.”

It was like Wish had BECOME Aethia. He had no memories of Wish at all when he was in there.

He looked at Pansy. “We have to go.” He said in a panic. “Now!”

Worried, he and Pansy headed out for Sanctuary. After a swim in the river, Wish had pretty much figured out what was happening. “I was reading her mind, and when she wanted me to look at a memory, I sort of got sucked into it. I had no idea Wish had ever existed.”

“That sounds ominously familiar.” called a voice from behind him. In the river, paddling towards him was none other than Queen Mink herself. “My older sister had picked up a ring that gave her visions, because she wasn’t ready to be queen.The important thing, though, is that she had become the dragons she was envisioning.”

Pansy stepped towards her. “Do you know how to fix it?” She asks.

She shook her head. “My sister had to learn how to be a good queen before the ring came off. Your situation appears to have happened out of random. I don’t know how to help.” She put her wing around Wish. “I really hope that this can cheer you up, though.” She handed him a very detailed ice carving. It was of a pansy flower.

“Uh, that’s a little weird…” He said, turning it over. “I mean, It’s amazing! I’ve never seen such attention to detail! But, it’s a pansy. Like my queen. She should have it.”

“No.” said Mink very sternly. “I made this just for you. I’ve been working on it for months. I spent every painful second of detail thinking about you, and your personality, and it is made for you.”

He took another look at it. It really did look like it was made specifically for him. He couldn’t tell how, but it was very unique. “I’ll keep it somewhere special.” He said out loud. “Thank you, your majesty.”

“Hey, hold up!” Pansy said. “How is it not melting? It’s made of ICE for goodness sake!”

Then Mink got a smug look on her face. “I think I know how, but take a look at my beautiful niece.” She motioned towards a very normal-looking dragon. Other than the fact that she was a weird mix of an IceWing and a MudWing.

“Hello, I- I’m Sandy.” She said nervously. “I have magic! Yaaaaay?”

“Turns out, I am distantly part SeaWing.” Mink said. “At some point, a descendant of Fathom had married in with IceWings, obviously after they had lost their magic. Then their descendants got married into the royal lineage, looking like normal IceWings. Now we are here, and Crystal’s youngest daughter has finally picked up the genes.”

“I made the sculpture invincible until it’s owner passes on.” She said. “It’s a neat little trick. Although, I should probably protect my soul.”

“Wish, put your earring in this bowl.” Mink demanded. Wish considered questioning, but he decided not to. Taking off the earring lifted a weight he hadn’t noticed was there. “Now for the magic words.” She dipped in the river, cleared her throat, and said to the bowl in a demanding voice. “Twice as much please.” Wish must’ve blinked, because one second there was one earring, the next there was two.

“What.” Wish said. Then he said it again in human. “WHAT?”

Pansy looked in the bowl. “And they both have the same enchantments?” She asked. Mink laughed.

“There are more enchantments to this earring than you want to know.” She said, clearly having a good time. “The first enchantment was to make the user invulnerable to Darkstalker’s spells. Then dragons started using the earrings to protect themselves from other threats. And now, the earring protects animus dragons from losing their souls. When you wear that earring, you are practically invincible.” She laughed again.

“To me it just feels heavy.” Wish said with a shrug. He put the earring on and it felt… Heavier? He pushed the thought aside and decided that he was going to do what normal dragons do. Help other dragons in any way that they can.

They were about to head back to the jungle when they heard a noise from the nearby forest. Someone was approaching. Before Wish could react, He was body slammed by a small black dragon. It took one look at their thoughts to know exactly who they were.

“Marmoset!” Wish exclaimed. “Be careful! You could hurt someone! Like ME!!” He stood up and hugged her. “What are you doing here?” He asked.

“Well, when you didn’t show up to school again, I assumed you could be doing two things. You could either be moping at Willpower’s house or moping in your own house.” Marmoset told him. “You are a very mopey dragon, especially with-” She stopped herself before saying his secret. “With your new condition, y’know? THREE MOONS WHY ARE HANGING OUT WITH QUEENS.” She suddenly exploded.

“You still haven’t explained how you found me.” Wish reminded her, trying to stay on-topic.

“Oh, I just followed the thoughts of a super depressed dragon.” Marmoset said, like it was totally not an insult. “Now please explain… THIS.” She gestured to the royal audience.

“Well, now all of the queens in Pyrrhia know about animus magic being back, and we had a meeting to discuss it. This is Sandy, an-” Wish stopped and looked around. “Mink, where is your niece?” He questioned.

The old queen shrugged. “I don’t control where my relatives decide to wander. I mean, both my older sisters decided to wander off with dragons from other tribes, so-”

“Well anyway, so far as I know, I am not alone. There are two other animus dragons in this world, and one of them is a small dragonet with a weird obsession for disabled crabs.” Wish spilled out quickly.

“Oh. That makes no sense at all but where are we going now?” Marmoset says.

Wish looked at her. “We’re going back to the rainforest. A queen can’t spend too long away from her subjects, otherwise bad things would start to happen.” He told her.

“Wish was going to help me organize the nursery. Right?” Pansy looked at him sternly. “With all these new dragonets being born, we need more places to put them. But we can’t endanger them by undergoing construction while they’re in there, so come on Wish! Let’s go already!” She grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the air.

After a little bit of flying, Wish finally processed what the queen had said. “Wait, you need me to animus magic a bigger nursery?” Wish asked.

“IN A SAFE AND ORGANIZED MANNER.” She said. “Also, that friend of yours talks too much. You have weird taste in friends.”

That didn’t make any sense, at all. She had just wanted him to be more talkative, and she was one of his friends. Combining this with not-well-hidden-at-all-thoughts, there was one logical conclusion. “Jealousy.” Wish says out loud. “You're jealous that I’m hanging out with Marmoset more than you.”

She scrunched up her snout and protested, “What? No. I just need to make sure that you aren’t distracted by her from your duties as an animus.” Her thoughts protested against her protesting. This was entertaining.

He turned around and thought to Marmoset, She’s jealous of you! She wants to be better friends with me than you are! Immediately her eyes went wide. Wish turned back to Pansy. “You could try being friends with her. It’s not like she’s a descendant of Darkstalker!” Wish tried to reason. Upon receiving no reaction, “I can have more than one friend! It doesn’t kill to be friends with more dragons!” He sighed. It looked like she wasn’t going to be any help today. “Let’s just get the nurseries fixed.”