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Baptisia slammed her talon on the table again, her spine of Wolf Hunter frills flaring up as she snarled once more at Echo."You just aren't willing to see how much he's suffered at your talons!" Baptisia exclaimed aggressively, her eyes narrowing dangerously as Echo met her blue-green gaze with piercing yellow orbs. "Nighthawk has never gotten hurt, mentally or physically, under my watch, Baptisia. That's what I'm trying to tell you." The void-scaled dragoness answered her friend- and her worst enemy. Though these two never got along that well, they still were able to maintain a good relationship at the end of the day.But now they were arguing over the mental health of Nighthawk, their classmate. It wasn't going very well.Don't get it wrong. Baptisia was a nice dragon to be around when she was in a better mood. Echo has known her ever since they were hatchlings, and it's common knowledge to her that Baptisia's emotions were about as simple as her own life story, but sometimes it's more than just their scale colors that clashed violently."Your words are about as true as the Stormbringers still being alive!" The snow-like mess of anger yelled, her nose wrinkling up in distaste. The pair of troubled dragonets made no other moves for a while, staring into each other's eyes, until the vines at the doorway to the room were pushed aside to reveal princess Fern, who seemed concerned about their argument. "Hey, I overheard you two...again." She said, her markings lighting up the room a lot better than the lantern did.Echo brought her talon up to the bridge of her snout, where she lightly pinched it to try and regain some composure. "Yeah...we're sorry, princess." She apologized halfheartedly. Fern's eyebrows knit together as she tucked in her wings. "It's not like you two meant to be loud. At least, I hope." She took a quick glance at Baptisia and turned away from the pure white dragoness, as if she were worried somebody was going to walk in too. Echo looked over at Baptisia as well, reading clear regret in her expression as it sunk in to her mind that she had woken up Fern with her yelling."Rabbit dung...I, uh, I'll head over to the dorms. To get out of your scales." Baptisia cursed and made her way to the exit of the room, but not without accidentally brushing her colder scales against Fern's warmer ones. Fern tensed up and peeked her head outside to see that her classmate was already going down the hallway and turning the corner. The Cave Dweller royalty made a noise of disappointment and focused her attention on Echo. "Were you two fighting over something again?" She immediately asked. This time, Echo didn't want to answer her question.It was almost as if Fern could sense it, because she fell silent and sat there awkwardly, almost as if she were wondering how she could get information out of her classmate. Her gaze sent phantom bugs crawling all over Echo, and she involuntarily shivered to try and get them off her. She slowly reached for one of the disks on the table and shakily put it on the gramophone, and immediately her nerves were calmed by the soft jazz spreading inside the room. Fern seemed somewhat relaxed because of the music playing too."Echo?" Just by speaking her name the aforementioned dragoness felt enraptured by the royalty sitting in front of her. She had no control of her actions as she looked up and met the dark green eyes of her classmate. It wasn't like her staring contest with Baptisia; this one was gentle, there was less static crackling in the air, the piece wasn't vibrating as rapidly."What are the Stormbringers?" Fern asked in the tone Echo had only heard when her talents had prophesied that she'd meet the princess. She forced the lump in her throat down with a hard swallow and tried to dig up her memory. "Um...They were a kingdom of all Hexmaster dragons, who could summon storms or blizzards depending on where they lived. They looked a bit like the Wind Riders we know today, except their anatomy was just as different compared to other kingdoms as the Ground Scorchers'. They were the only dragons to name their children names from the ancient language." Echo paused, trying to remember how long it had been since they died away."About 10 years after Shadow's Era had begun, the Stormbringers were wiped out from the Winged Lands. It was...horrifying. The Unknown made an example or display out of any dragons they could find. They would do terrible things to them. If any dragon from the other kingdoms protested, they were executed as well." She closed her eyes and listened to the jazz in the background for a few minutes before she could continue. "Entire cities were destroyed because of the Unknown. Their leader, Shadow, changed the way our cultures would develop forever. He was ruthless." Echo paused again to focus on her music. "I don't even want to go into the smaller details...just know that the Stormbringers were better off dead than living like the other kingdoms." Her tail twitched abnormally and she prayed that Fern couldn't tell she was upset."It sounds like I should've been there to personally send Shadow into the afterlife myself." The princess attempted a joke, which might've taken the edge off of Echo's sadness a bit, but she wasn't sure. She hesitantly reached for her friend's talon, surprised to see the void for a dragon jump in surprise when she felt a warm hold against her scales. Fern held it in hers for a while, glancing down at the sharp and narrow claws that Echo had. She gave her friend a smile. "You should probably go to bed, Echo." She said calmly, noting the small changes in Echo's expression as she said it.Thankfully she nodded. "Alright...but you should be going to sleep as well, princess." She said. Fern rolled her eyes in a well-intentioned way. "You can just call me Fern." She replied, which made her darker counterpart look surprised again."Okay...Fern.""Now you're getting the hang of it!" The Cave Dweller laughed and lets go of Echo's talon to push away the vines covering the room's entrance. "C'mon. We have some Z's to catch." Fern told Echo and jerked her head down the hallway.Echo, still amazed by the fact that she was allowed to call the princess by her name, stopped the jazz music and didn't even bother to put the disk back where it belonged. She decided to follow for a change.