The warm smile stayed on Viper's face, "You're welcome!" Dreamseeker seemed like a shy one, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying to make friends with the small NightWing. She glanced around at the other dragons in the group, "Not to say that the rest of you don't have wonderful looking scales," she said quickly. It felt a bit rude to only say something nice about one of them. She saw Eclipse lean slightly into Dreamseeker as she pressed up next to him and slightly extend one of his own starry wings to rest gently on her back. Yep, definitely an interesting bunch.

She sighed a bit with relief. She wanted to make a good impression and help them out and it seems like that was what they wanted to hear. "It would be my pleasure! Getting lost in the forest is not fun and it's super easy to if you don't know where you're going." She turned and waved at a few other RainWings that were resting on the platform before leaping off into the trees and gliding a short ways before turning to wait for the rest of them.

"Looks like we finally got lucky." She heard the SandWing say to the rest of the group as he and Eclipse leapt off the platform after her.

Viper kept the pace slow enough that the larger dragons could keep up, but not so much that she would be wasting time. She wasn't sure when Queen Ardent would be getting back to work, and she would probably be needed for the end of day rush that usually came through. This was so much more fun though. She made sure to follow the simplest path with the most space so that none of her new friends got lost.

She had no idea she would wake up this morning, or after her afternoon nap, and get to meet so many new dragons. She really wanted to spend the entire flight to the waterfall asking questions and getting to know all about them and their homes, but she didn't want to distract one of them and have them knock into a tree or get tangled in vines. She might work with the healers on a fairly regular basis, but they wouldn't like her if she got them hurt.

Her feet hit the ground at the oasis and she could see Handsome sitting in his usual spot. His scales looked a little less gray today, maybe that was a sign that he'd want to have a conversation this time. "Hi Handsome!" she raised a paw and waved wildly in greeting, "There's some dragons from outside the tribe that wanted to talk with you about something."

She turned towards the others and lowered her voice, "He's not usually very talkative, most of the time I end up talking at him, and I don't even know if he's really listening," she smiled, "but if you can get his attention with something interesting maybe he'll talk to you!"

Viper watched, intrigued, as the SandWing reached around in the leather pouch that hung around his neck and pulled out a shiny stone. Ooh, pretty! That would get the attention of most anyone in the tribe, so maybe it would cause Handsome to brighten up a bit. She watched curiously as Dreamseeker approached him and tried to get his attention. It seemed to maybe work a bit, but instead he turned to face them and she heard a muffled inhale of shock from Eclipse who was standing next to her.

She sighed, her wings drooping a bit at his response, her own scales turning a bit gray. "He hasn't been the same since it happened," she spoke quietly to the dragons that were still nearby her, "I keep trying to talk to him so that he knows we don't think any differently of him, get him to open up, but it hasn't worked so far."

She saw Eclipse's jaw clench and she could almost see the gears turning in his head, like he was trying to piece something together. Aardwolf just looked almost accustomed to seeing injuries like that. Judging by his own nicks and scars he must not be unfamiliar with fighting. Scary.

She really, really wanted to help these guys out. They said they were looking for Handsome so she showed them, but now it seemed like he wasn't going to be any help to them either. She couldn't let that happen. Most of the time she would listen when he told her to leave, but if he'd just answer their questions it'd be fine right? "Can you at least just answer their questions? They've been trying to get help and I think you're the only one who can tell them what they need."

Wow, she actually got him to talk! Viper brightened, even if it wasn't an agreement it wasn't an outright no or him telling them to leave so she'd count it as a success. The excitement turned to fear and her scales turned a pale green when Dreamseeker talked about murder. That couldn't be right there was no way that anyone here would willingly help to kill someone, not knowingly. She looked wildly between the other dragons that were still standing nearby and to where Handsome was sitting, looking just as terrified as her, but doing a much better job of hiding it.

Her head, along with the others, snapped to the sky and she stared wide-eyed at the familiar RainWing that flew down from above them. "Jaguar! Where have you been? It's been so long since I've seen you!" Her eyes flicked back to Handsome. Right, she left after that happened, but it wasn't really her fault. She hadn't meant to hurt him; at least Viper hoped she hadn't meant it. She liked Jaguar, she could be a little mean sometimes, but it was a nice change of pace sometimes.

"Well maybe if someone else had actually been helpful we wouldn't have needed to come and find him, but no one here seems to know anything." Eclipse huffed out at Jaguar. "The only lead that we got was him. Everyone else just ran away in a panic or seemed not to care at all.

She took a few steps back to stand closer to Skua and Aardwolf as Handsome's scales began to flare with rage. It was the most color she'd seen out of him since That had happened and it wasn't the one she wanted to see. She hoped that Dreamseeker or one of the others would be able to talk them down before they both did something rash. She liked to think that maybe Jaguar was her friend and she didn't want either of them getting hurt.

Viper's head swiveled back and forth between Jaguar and Handsome, her own scales paling to a near white as fear began to set into her mind and lock up her legs. She hated it when anyone fought, it happened so rarely between members of the tribe that when it did, it felt all the worse. She appreciated Dreamseeker trying to tell them not to fight, Handsome's injury was really one of the worst things that had happened in her life, and she didn't want to see anything like it again. She'd been one of the healers responsible for trying to help him, and the time it took to find someone who could counteract Jaguar's venom was more painful than anything.

She snapped out of her thoughts at Skua's lunge towards Handsome, "No! Please don't hurt him!" She took a step forward, but what could she do. She didn't know anything about fighting.

Eclipse followed after Skua a moment later, placing himself partially in front of Dreamseeker so that he stood between her and Jaguar who was still bristling, "No need to do anything rash you two, and try not to hurt him too much Skua. We do want him to be able to talk."

"Good grief." Aardwolf sighed from where he stood next to her, "And I thought there was drama between the Outclaws." He followed after the other two to stand in front of Jaguar, black eyes unreadable as he stared the RainWing down.

She stayed where she was at the base of the pool, body trembling slightly and wings pressed close. "Jaguar, please don't." She stared pleadingly at each of them, "Please don't fight."

She got a reassuring nod from Eclipse that they had it under control, but Skua's harsh words made her nervous and Handsome's response more so. She saw a flash of anger, so brief she thought she imagined it, in Eclipse's eyes. "Then tell us why you can't."

Thank goodness, no one was going to fight. Skua still had his claws on Handsome and Dreamseeker moved closer to the other two as if she was still preparing for one. She was a healer, not a fighter, and all she wanted to do was rush over to Handsome and make sure he was alright. She could see his scales shifting stark white with fear. Her own were still a little pale, but not nearly as bad. Then again she wasn't pinned under the claws of a giant IceWing. She shuddered a bit, imagining the claws around her own throat.

She looked towards Jaguar as the other RainWing approached and gave a weak smile of relief. She didn't want to see her friend hurt any more than Handsome. She felt terrible for him, as panicked as he was there was no way they were going to get anything out of him.

The smile dropped at Dreamseeker's question. "Um." She glanced wildly between Handsome and Jaguar her scales prickling with nerves. She looked up into the trees and around the oasis. No one should be able to hear them over the sounds of the water splashing into the pool. "I think so," she muttered. "I don't know who or why though." She looked up at the NightWing, "Does that have something to do with why you're here?"

Some of the nerves subsided at Dreamseeker's smile, but she still kept one eye trained to the trees. Her eyes widened and she looked between Skua and Eclipse at this new information. "I...I had no idea, I'm so sorry." She ducked her head and shuffled her feet across the dirt, leaving shallow grooves behind. Someone, whoever had come and had spoken with them, used their venom to kill a queen. What did that mean for them? She hadn't been a part of the deal, she only heard about it after the fact, right when Jaguar had been exiled, but to think they were basically responsible made her feel sick. If the assassins didn't come for them; would the SkyWings kill them instead? Her scales had turned a pale, sickly green.

Eclipse looked uncomfortable, but he gave a quick nod of acceptance to her apology, "Thanks, we just want to find out who's responsible. We don't blame the RainWings. At least not as much as the one who actually killed her."

"I really don't know anything about it, I wasn't there when it happened. I was just told afterwards that we weren't supposed to talk about it." She looked towards Jaguar, "You were there, right Jaguar? You're better at fighting so maybe they wouldn't come after you. Or maybe if we left the rainforest to talk about it." She was grasping but she didn't really see an easy way out of this.

Remaining nerves melted away and Viper let her tense muscles finally relax a bit as Skua removed his claws from Handsome's neck and allowed the other dragon to stand back up. He looked more defeated than before and she felt a stab of sympathy for him. If only there was something she could do for him other than kind words and bandages. She never wanted any of the dragons in her tribe, or those she considered friends, to be hurting in any way. Not being able to do anything about it only made it that much worse.

Her head swiveled towards Jaguar as she spoke and her scales brightened just a bit. "I can do that! I work with Queen Ardent enough that I think she would at least listen to what they have to say if I'm there." She might not believe a bunch of outsiders, but her own tribe should grab her attention easily enough. She blinked in surprise at Dreamseeker's words. "You think you could do that? Protect us I mean."

"I think we'd have a pretty good chance. If not immediately, once we figure out who is responsible we can make sure that they leave the RainWings out of all this." Eclipse said with a fair amount of confidence to her ears as he stepped away from Dreamseeker and dropped back to the ground next to her and Jaguar. "I think it's a good idea. If we have someone who is familiar with the innerworkings of the tribe then we already stand a better chance than we did before. We don't know any of the customs beyond what Jaguar has told us so any help would be appreciated." He bowed his head a bit towards her and she perked up a bit more.

Aardwolf nodded in agreement. "I don't know what kind of protection we could promise, but it's a sound a plan as any. It might also do us some good to try and get Lemur to come with us to see Queen Ardent. He may not listen to our requests, but I imagine he'd be hard pressed to ignore a command from his queen."

Wow, these guys were a lot better at planning and getting their ideas out there. She didn't think she'd be confident enough to do something like that. "You guys are meeting with her tomorrow morning right?"

The early morning dew still hung in the air as Viper flew across the various wooden platforms to where their visitors had been set up for the night. After their confusing talk with Handsome she hoped that Queen Ardent would be willing to help out. She always helped them when they needed it so why wouldn't she do the same for these dragons, even if they are from a different tribe. Hopefully Handsome would decide to come, it would only help convince Ardent that this was a real problem that needed to be solved. She also hoped that Jaguar was being careful. Her talk about trying to find the ones responsible for the threats made her nervous. Jaguar was really strong though so it should be alright.

Her paws hit the platform and she could see the slumbering forms curled up, she almost felt bad for waking them, but it'd be worse if they missed their meeting. "Good morning!" she chirped and immediately the grumbles started up from several of them. She saw Aardwolf's massive stinger, that still made her shiver, move up and away from where his tail had been covering his eyes.

"How can she be so cheery this early." She heard the quiet grumble from the SandWing and flashed him another bright grin for good measure.

"You don't want to be late. The line will get really long if you wait too long." She didn't want to seem pushy but she'd been working for Ardent long enough to know how quickly everyone flew over once the sun came up.

She nodded in approval as Eclipse stretched out from where he'd been pressed up against Skua's side, probably stealing the IceWing's chillier body temperature to combat the jungle heat. "We're up, we're up," he yawned, "Just give us a second."

"Ok! Don't forget the gift you're going to bring her." She stretched out her wings and prepared to lead them to Ardent's hut.

"Got everything here," Aardwolf grinned faintly as he lifted the cord of the leather pouch that was still slung around his neck.

Viper nodded enthusiastically, "Great!" Her nerves and concerns from the previous day slipping away a little bit more as she finally had an idea of what she needed to be doing. This had been the most excitement she had every experienced in, well, her entire life really. Queen Ardent should definitely be awake by now so at Skua's call that they were ready she leapt off of the platform and soared in between the trees to the vine and ivy covered hut where her Queen lived.

Thankfully there was no one in line yet, everyone else was probably still asleep. As they landed outside the hut she turned to glance at the others, "I came to see her yesterday after we got back to let her know you were coming, she should be expecting us." She could see Eclipse take a deep breath and Aardwolf reached into his pouch to pull out the items that he had.

Stepping inside the hut, the outside highly contrasted with the inside. While the walls of the hut were covered in vines and flowering ivy the inside was glamourous and comfortable. There were thick woven mats that covered the floor and colorful silken fabrics of various different colors that hung like streamers across the ceiling. The back of the hut had a long, plush throne. Viper lowered her head a bit, "Good morning Queen Ardent."

An amiable smile crossed the face of Ardent. Her scales were colored a deep royal purple that was accented with gold. Her neck and even her wings were strung with jewelry and the whole hut likely sparkled in the sun with all the trinkets that were scattered around. "Good morning Viper," her voice was deeper and more regal than Viper's but held a faintly disinterested tone, "These are the ones you said would be coming to see me?"

"Yep!" Viper chirped. She gave Aardwolf a pointed look before stepping over to a small table next to the throne where there were a few scrolls and vials of inks. She settled down behind it ready to record the meeting like usual.

Aardwolf stepped forward and laid out the various different items he'd mentioned before and the disinterested posture of Ardent immediately changed and brightened. Her claws carefully reached forward and she picked up each item, examining them carefully, before light blue eyes landed solidly on the other four for the first time since they'd entered. "Well, you've gained my attention," she crossed her paws in front of her, "What can I do for you?"