Eclipse jumped slightly as he felt Hummingbird's claws on his wing twisting his neck around to stare at the smaller dragon opening his jaw to say something before snapping it shut again and shuffling his feet uncomfortably in the dirt. He was pretty used to other dragons staring at his scales and wings because of his NightWing blood, but he didn't think he'd ever heard someone call his scales "boring" before.

He gave Skua a weak smile as his friend defended him to this odd dragon. If there was one thing he could count on it was Skua leaping to his defense at a moments notice.

"It's like staring into the sun but somehow more painful." Eclipse heard the quiet mumble from Aardwolf who stood behind him and had to stop himself from chuckling. If all of the RainWings had scales that were this bright he'd find himself staring at the ground for their entire meeting here.

He leaned closer to Skua, keeping his voice somewhat quiet. He didn't know if there was some sort of bad blood between Jaguar and the RainWings or if was just on her side, but he didn't want to chance losing their potential audience with the Queen. "We could always try to ask Jaguar if she knows where the ripest fruit is or what Queen Ardent likes best."

Aardwolf narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment before brightening, "Sure we could do that, or," he swung the leather pouch that hung around his neck to the front and began to fumble through it with his claws, "I'm sure I have something I've picked up from the desert or one of the Outclaws that might interest her."

"That's make things easy." Eclipse watched as Aardwolf began to pull out seemingly random trinkets out of the bag. A small glass orb that was filled with water and sent odd patterns onto the ground as the sun hit it, a gold chain that looked like it may have once had a hook to serve as a necklace, some kind of clasp made to look like a leaf that was made out of metal and jade, and several other strange or unusual items.

"Think any of this stuff would work?" Aardwolf asked the rest of the group as he continued to reach around inside the bag for anything else that might be of interest.

Eclipse couldn't help but sigh quietly in relief. He really had not wanted to leave and track down some random item for the Queen just to be able to speak to her. Seemed that bringing Aardwolf along turned out to be more of a boon to them than just keeping an eye on Jaguar. He couldn't believe they were effectively in debt to the leader of the Outclaws now for all of this. Hopefully she wouldn't want anything in return. That was a problem for later anyway.

Aardwolf picked up the items from the soil and put them back into the pouch, "Glad that's all squared away then."

Another sigh came from Eclipse as Hummingbird told them they'd have to wait once again. He could feel Skua's ire rising from where he stood next to him, but before he could speak to him and calm him down; Dreamseeker spoke up and agreed to what Hummingbord said. He turned his head slightly towards her and gave her a grateful smile. The last thing they needed was to get kicked out for rudeness before they even made it to Queen Ardent.

He actually squinted a bit at the shift in Hummingbird's scales. Did that mean she was happy? Excited? He had no idea. "I don't think I've ever slept in a hammock before. It sounds...interesting."

He looked between Skua and Dreamseeker, "I think that works best. I don't think any of us really want to wait in line, so if we get up nice and early we can get there first and learn what we need to know faster." They'd had a few setbacks but nothing that they couldn't handle. They'd made it all the way here, what was one more day. He turned his attention back to Hummingbird. "Lead the way."

Eclipse leapt into the air after the others; having to make sure to pay extra attention to where the trees were in regards to his wings. How did the RainWings fly through all of this? He'd be getting tangled in the vines and branches that swung down if he wasn't following Hummingbird and being exceedingly careful. Last thing they needed was an injury that would make it difficult to fly. Maybe he'd just make sure to walk while they were here.

Thankfully it wasn't a long flight to the platform above them that was covered in all manner of fruit. Nothing that they would normally eat at home. He frowned just a bit as Hummingbird mentioned they didn't eat meat, and that they had restrictions on the type of things they could hunt. What did a sloth even look like anyway? He wasn't sure if it'd be rude to ask so he kept his mouth shut.

"This'll do fine." He stepped towards the various different fruits rolling one of the melons in front of him and sliced it with a claw; given that the outside of it looked almost like leather. He was thankful to see that the inside was a brighter shade, and looked at least fleshy. "We can get something on the way out tomorrow. Once we have the information we need."

A quiet chuckle came from Eclipse as the rest of the group did a poor job of hiding their distaste. Perks of having to keep up decorum in the courts he supposed. He ate some of the melon that was in front of him, forcing his nose not to wrinkle at the odd texture. The flavor was good but it was just a bit different from what he was used to.

Aardwolf picked up a banana and used much more careful claws than one would expect of a large mercenary type dragon to peel it and pop the center of it into his mouth with no complaint. "Definitely tastes better than some of the fruits that have shown up a The Scorpion Den, but those are usually dried." He gave Hummingbird a bright smile, "Thanks for welcoming us so warmly, not something that happens a whole lot these days."

Eclipse shook his head a bit, not at anyone, just in general confusion about how he'd ever ended up halfway across the continent with a bunch of dragons he barely knew; eating fruit in the middle of the rainforest. Bizarre. "Do you think I'd be possible for us to speak with Lemur, if he's around?" He directed the question towards Hummingbird. If they couldn't speak to the Queen yet then they could at least try to get some information. If they were lucky they might be able to get what they needed from him and just leave.

The odd, fleshy interior of the fruit, and somewhat overly sweet taste, quickly got tiresome so Eclipse pushed the rest of the of it to the side. He turned his full attention to Hummingbird, who was responding to Aardwolf's thanks, and had to stop himself from snorting at her somewhat naïve view of the world. Sure that'd be nice, but it just wasn't possible. "If everyone thought that way we wouldn't have any wars, but unfortunately there are some parties who seem determined to cause just that."

"It seems to be working for them well enough," Aardwolf stated. "I haven't heard a single raised voice since we got here and that is something I am not accustomed to."

Eclipse was glad that she didn't ask about how he knew who Lemur was, though given how much her thoughts seemed to bounce around he doubted she'd really care if his response was simple. He didn't want to use Jaguars name, but he could've told her something general if the dragon he just asked for hadn't landed on the platform near them with a question of who.

He wasn't sure what he expected when Jaguar mentioned Lemur being the one who gave the other dragons they were looking for the venom, but it wasn't a large, pinkish dragon. He had never seen anyone with scales that color, and they apparently got to choose whatever color they wanted to be. The only conclusion he'd been able to come to during the short time they'd been here was that the RainWings were a strange bunch.

Though he supposed they looked strange to them, yet they didn't seem suspicious or angry, just curious. "We've never met before. We're on a mission for the SkyWing tribe and your name came up in our travels as someone we could talk to about what we're looking for." He figured it'd be better to keep things as general as possible until they got an idea of what this dragon was about. After all, he might be the reason his aunt was dead.

Eclipse had to fight not to snort at the inherent narcissism that all of these RainWings seemed to possess, well aside from Jaguar but she was an outlier in general. Aardwolf on the other hand, who was usually fairly unbothered by most things, was staring at Lemur with an incredulous expression. What was going on in that slippery mind of his, Eclipse had no idea.

He gave Hummingbird a somewhat forced smile, "I'm sure he will." He wasn't sure how much Lemur would really know or remember depending on how important he thought it was. If they were lucky he would actually have the information they needed, and maybe they could just leave without talking to the Queen.

Before he could continue on his line of conversation with Lemur Skua jumped in with a, more blunt than he'd hoped, statement towards the larger RainWing. He let out a small sigh. He loved his friend dearly, but sometimes his tendency to brute force everything didn't work in their favor. These RainWings seemed fairly disconnected from the goings on in the outside would and telling them they were complicit in killing a Queen may not be the best idea.

Eclipse leapt to his feet as Lemur disappeared over the edge into the below, "Hey wait! We just want to talk!" He watched as the pinkish dragon vanished. As much as he wanted to follow after him there was no way he could navigate better than someone who lived here. Seems like he spoke to soon about him being able to help. He turned to look back at Hummingbird who still looked pale. "I apologize for him, this is what we wanted to talk to the Queen about. You don't know anything about it do you? We just want to know who was involved so we can find them."

The immediate panic caused by their line of questioning did not bode well for the idea that the RainWings had no idea what they were doing, and Eclipse did not like it one bit. Jaguar had told them that the rest of her tribe were basically harmless and didn't ever think to use their venom on another dragon, but this definitely didn't seem line up with that. He felt his blood beginning to boil as Hummingbird told them that she knew nothing and that their Queen wouldn't either. They'd come this far and there was no way they were going to leave without getting something from these dragons. Just a name or tribe would be a starting point.

Even as Dreamseeker tried to use soothing words to get Hummingbird to say something the smaller dragon simply fled. He let out a low growl as she vanished into the trees just like Lemur. So much for that.

Skua seemed just as irritated as he was, while Aardwolf seemed almost indifferent to the entire thing. It would've made him more angry if the SandWing actually had any stakes in this, but he really didn't. "Normally I'd say violence isn't the answer but I'm tired of getting the run around and no answers here."

He flopped down next to Skua, one side pressed against his friend as a way of grounding himself before he let his anger get the best of him. He frowned at Dreamseeker's words. He had no idea how her abilities worked, but it seemed a bit strange that there was just nothing about who they gave the venom to. "Has that ever happened before? Where you try to read their thoughts and just get nothing about a specific topic?"

At least they had something of a lead. "How're we going to find him? We kind of lost our guide and I'm not sure if anyone who could hear what we were saying is going to be any more interested in helping us then they were." It'd be a waste of time to wander around asking the name of every dragon they saw.

Eclipse couldn't decide whether he was angry or tired, probably both at this point. The only thing really keeping him going was the need for answers, and unfortunately they had none of those. Just more questions. He smiled slightly as he felt Skua lean into him, it was grounding for the both of them and that was something they needed at this point. It was either that or do something he'd would definitely regret later.

He felt a little bad as he saw Dreamseeker's ears drop. He hadn't meant to accuse her of not being helpful because she certainly was. "I suppose that would be our best bet here. One of them had to have seen something, even if they weren't involved in it. At best we'll get information about who might be responsible, and at worst we figure out where someone who can help us is in the camp." He waved a paw through the air, "It's either that or we sit around here doing nothing productive until tomorrow when we meet with Queen Ardent, and I don't know about the rest of you but if I sit around any longer I'm gonna lose it."

He paused at Skua's question, glancing off deeper into the camp where he could see the platforms and trees all intermingled together. It really looked like a maze to someone who wasn't familiar with the space.

"Well there's plenty of dragons about and we don't really know the lay of the land here," Aardwolf finally piped up, "If we want to make sure it's someone who didn't hear us talking I say we just fly deeper in until we come across someone who looks reasonably friendly and willing to have a chat."

Eclipse snorted softly. He made it sound so simple, but he did have a point about them not knowing anything about this place. As long as they stuck to the platforms though they should be fine. "Alright," he hefted himself to his feet, "Let's get to it then." He stepped to the edge of the platform looking up and down before leaping off into the sky towards one of the platforms he could see higher up and deeper in the forest.

It had already been a very busy day for Viper. There were so many dragons that had come to see Queen Ardent and her claws hurt from scribbling on the scrolls that she kept in the room. They were still covered in ink as well and she knew that would take ages to wear off, but it was something she was proud of. It was a symbol that she could do something important for her tribe. Now Queen Ardent was taking a break and she wanted to find these strange dragons that were visiting. It was so exciting! She hadn't met any new dragons in so long. Her normally light blue scales swirled with yellow as she scanned the platforms for anyone she didn't recognize.

Ah, there! There was no mistaking the unusual stature and strange colors of foreign dragons. They seemed to be wandering from group to group of lounging RainWings, for what reason she had no idea, but she definitely wanted to find out. As she landed she heard the grumble from the spiky one, but she didn't quite catch the mumbled words from the small, black one. Did other dragon's scales show emotion? Did that mean she was upset about something? That wouldn't be good. She wanted their visitors to have a nice time here.

"I wonder why it's like this. Does their Queen just not care?" She heard the comment from the dark red dragon and frowned; her scales tinged an emerald green.

"Of course Queen Ardent cares about us," she flapped up and over their heads to land on the platform in front of them, "She spends all day every day listening to the problems we have and coming up with solutions."

The red dragon blinked in surprise before giving a sheepish grin, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude."

Well he was very polite. She gave them all a bright grin, scales now her usual pattern of light blue and pink. "I heard there were some new dragons hanging around and I just had to come see. You all look like you could maybe use some help with something? Queen Ardent always tells me that I am very helpful so maybe I can do that for you all as well!" She paused in her ramblings for a moment, "Oh! I'm Viper by the way. What's your names?"

Viper's head turned to each dragon as Dreamseeker pointed them out, her eyes wide and excited. "Wow, those are really cool names!" she chirped, "And your wings are so pretty!" She dipped her head down a bit to look at the silver star-like scales on the underside of Dreamseeker's wings as she gestured. She smiled warmly at the others, all of them looked so different than even some of the other dragons that she'd seen occasionally show up in the forest, and most of the time those dragons were all from the same tribe. These guys were super interesting.

Her scales brightened to a gold hue and she nodded, "Of course I know Handsome, I know most everyone in the tribe since I work with Queen Ardent almost every day. He's actually pretty quiet and likes to spend time by himself. I've tried to get him to open up and chat with me," she shrugged, "but he doesn't really seem interested." That was ok though, she still liked him even if he didn't want to talk.

She paused for a moment tapping her chin with one claw, "I think I saw him heading out into the forest. There's this one little waterfall and oasis out there that I know of that he likes to spend time at. Does that help?"