As night fell upon the Cursed Caldera, everyone has gotten ready to leave the Moon Nexus. They soon went back to the cliff where they have first met Lujanne and Phoe-Phoe.
"Lujanne." Everyone looked at the Moon Mage as she joined them with Phoe-Phoe and another moon phoenix named Midnight by her sides.
"It has been pleasure to have you all here," Lujanne said. "I truly have enjoyed you all sneaking past my defenses and desecrating this sacred place these past few days. It will be lonely — quiet, but lonely — without you."
Diana felt a little bad for the lonely mage who appeared to love their company. It seemed that Ellis felt bad for her too because she jumped up into Lujanne's arms.
"I'll miss you so much, Lujanne," Ellis said as Lujanne kent to hug her.
"Ellis, you will always be welcome here," Lujanne said. Ava barked happily. "And you too, little one." Lujanne patted the huge wolf on its fluffy head. "And here's the Moonstone collar I gave you so long ago." Lujanne pulled out a thick blue collar decorated with half-moon jewels and slipped it around the wolf's neck. A sparkly blue stone hung from the center of the collar. "You don't need the illusion, but I hope it serves as a reminder that someone is always looking out for you." Lujanne soon brought forth the moon phoenixes and looked at the group. "You can ride on Phoe-Phoe and Midnight."
"Thanks Lujanne." Diana, Callum, Bait, Rayla, Ezran, and Zym mounted Phoe-Phoe. Runaan, Ethari, Skor, Andromeda, Callisto, Ram, and Orion mounted on Midnight.
As they flew off, they soon caught sight of Claudia looking up at him. Her eyes turned black, and dark energy enveloped her arm, taking form of a massive tentacle. It writhed and expanded until it was several times her size. Then Claus snarled and thrust the terrified moon phoenix that held the princes.
Slowly but surely, Claudia started dragging the bird and its passengers towards the ground.
"AHHHHH!" Claudia cried out her pain as a metal chain wrapped around her hand. She looked back and saw a tracker — maybe one of General Amaya's men — holding the chain. He gave a strong yank, wrenching Claudia's arm backward into a strange angle.
"Stop!" shouted the tracker. "Let them go!"
Claudia dropped the gnarled tentacle as Diana shank her blade into the tentacle, which crumbled to dust. Immediately the spell dissipated, releasing Phoe-Phoe. The magical bird regained flight and soared into the sky, taking Diana, Callum, Rayla, and Ezran. They were accompanied by the Moonshadow elves and the two other moon phoenixes.
"What are you doing?" Claudia asked.
"Protecting them from you," the tracker said evenly.
Ezran looked down from his seat on Phoe-Phoe. Ellis was sitting on Ava's back, waving and cheering.
"Goodbye! Good luck!" Ellis shouted as Ava barked enthusiastically. "Come back someday!"
Then Ezran's eyes met Claudia's gaze. Her expression flickered with guilt. Now, Ezran understood what Callum, Rayla, and Diana had been talking about. Claudia wasn't their friend after all. Ezran was sad, but he wasn't shocked. He'd always put a lot of trust in Rayla and Diana.
Ezran coaxed Zym out of Callum's backpack. "It's okay, Zym. It's safe to come out now."
Zym seemed nervous, but he crept out of the backpack into Ezran's arms. The baby dragon shuddered when he noticed he was thousands of feet up in the sky. Ezran knew his little nephew was scared, but he couldn't help and see an opportunity.
"Hey — We're up in the sky!" Zym yelped in fear, but Callum smiled at his adoptive son encouragingly. "Wanna see how flying feels?" He patted Zym to reassure him, and then lifted him carefully into the wind. "Come on. Spread your wings."
Slowly, Zym unfurled his wings. The strong wind beat against their upturned faces. Ezran could feel the dragon's fear falling away.
🌙🌙🌙🌙🌙
Diana could count more hues and shades than in the box of paints and watercolors that she had bought a few years ago. Shades of sapphire, violet, magenta, amber, and gold shimmered and shined, like a giant rainbow had blanketed the sky and stretched out over the land.
It was barely morning, but the night stars continued to sparkle like diamonds. Despite the lightness of the dawning sky, the stars were so bright and clear like distant diamonds sparkling in the morning sky. While the faint outline of the moon was in a pale circle of silver, glowing faintly in the dawning sky. As the sun started to rise, it had caught the colors of a blazing, aflame ember as it rise in the east.
Straight ahead of them fluttered a kaleidoscope of birds, thousands of them. Phoe-Phoe and Midnight both flew straight into them, Diana glanced down at her. With her giant wings enveloping her, the dawning sky shining above, and the everlasting blue sea shimmering below, she looked serene as a book illustration. She felt winded with joy and excitement. Diana caught her breath and watched the world pass underneath her feet, blurred and beautiful. They headed up, and then suddenly, Phoe-Phoe lifted her beak and shot to the tops of the clouds. Here, the wind filled Diana's ears and blew her hair down.
The sky became painted with pink, orange, gold, and blue the tops of the clouds skidded underneath them, momentarily darkened by the moon phoenixes' long shadows. After a few moments of gliding, Diana stopped gripping the handles and let one of her hands fly up into the air. The wind, chilly as it was, felt like a god's touch on her skin. She closed her eyes and reveled in the feeling of absolute freedom.
They rode like that for a few more minutes, both enjoying the gradually rising sunlight, dipping into and out of the cloudbanks like curious dolphins or playful otters.
Phoe-Phoe slowed down a bit, but Diana enjoyed the ride with the others and Midnight with the elves caught up with them. She smiled as she looked up to see the bright colors of the dawn appearing in the sky. The stars sparkled like faint diamonds in the sky, while the sky is like bright golden and blue silk that sparkled with the beautiful dawn colors can be seen overhead. As the clouds cleared, a golden circle of the sun had also appeared in the sky and had casted its fiery yellow beams of light over the clouds and the land.
It was the first time they've had ever slept on the backs of flying moon phoenixes. Callum closed his eyes and crossed his legs with Zym in his lap. Callum began watching his thoughts go by and very soon, his mind started to clear. He felt the breeze pass over him as Phoe-Phoe glided effortlessly through the sky. The wind was cool, and the air was fresh. He felt the others wake up around him.
"Hey." Rayla sounded nervous. "Is it just me, or are we losing altitude?"
Callum opened his eyes and held Zym in his hands, but he also gripped Phoe-Phoe's bright feathers as she careened downward toward the earth at breakneck speed. Diana's ears perked up at screaming and looked towards the side to see the other moon phoenix was heading towards the earth with breakneck speed too.
"Wuuuuhhh!" The sudden plummet woke up Ezran too. He hung on for dear life as Phoe-Phoe plunged through the clouds, rapidly approaching the ground below. If ever there was a time for Ezran to use his talking to animals powers...
"Ezran, what's going on?!" Callum yelled through the rushing air. "Is she crashing?"
"I don't know," said Ezran. "It looks like they're heading for the edge of that cliff."
Ezran was right — if the moon phoenixes didn't correct their angles...
"Thwummmp."
They landed hard on the cliff top, and the two moon phoenixes skidded to a stop, coming to a halt just inches from the edge. With the momentum of the sudden stop, Team Zym fell off of the two moon phoenixes.
Ezran, Callum, Rayla, Zym, Bait, Diana, Runaan, Ethari, Skor, Andromeda, Callisto, Ram, and Orion stood in a circle around the two moon phoenixes on the top of the cliff. Ezran crouched near Phoe-Phoe's lolling head and stroked her iridescent feathers.
"Tell me what's wrong," Ezran whispered. "Maybe we can help." Then he buried his head in her soft feathers and listened.
Phoe-Phoe responded with a combination of chatter and trill punctuated with clicks of her tongue and beak — Ezran loved the rhythm and musicality of the way she communicated. When anyone spoke, whether a person or animal, Ezran always listened with his ears, but also with his heart. He could feel the great birds' exhaustion in his own bones. As he stroked Phoe-Phoe's feathers, Ezran's own breathing synchronized with the great birds'.
"Phoe-Phoe is okay," he said to everyone. "She's just tired. But she feels strong."
"So does Midnight." They saw Diana checking the tired male moon phoenix.
"Maybe she's carrying one too many passengers?" Ezran caught Rayla giving a meaningful look at Bait, who hurried over to Ezran and hid behind his leg.
"I'm just teasing, froggo," Rayla said.
Ezran shook his head. Phoe-Phoe and Midnight weren't just tired. They were getting too far from their home.
"They get their power from the Moon Nexus," explained Ezran. "The farther away we go, the harder it is to carry everyone."
"Wow, Ez, I can't believe you could understand all that," Callum said, impressed by his little brother's gift.
"You did such a good job getting us so far, Phoe-Phoe and Midnight," Ezran said. Phoe-Phoe and Midnight both cooed pleasantly in response.
Ezran gave her a soft pat on the head, and Phoe-Phoe and Midnight both took off with majestic whooshs. They both cawed as Phoe-Phoe and Midnight reached their full wingspans and both soared into the sky. A tiny dark blue and teal feather floated down and gently landed on Bait's nose. It tickled, making him wriggle his nose. Then he sneezed.
"So. What do we do now?" Ezran asked.
"Well, Xadia's that way." Rayla pointed across the wide bay visible from the cliff. "Across miles and miles of that blue fluid I both need to survive and hate more than anything in the world."
Diana felt empathetic for Rayla and her fear of water, but she knew their elf friend could face the fear again. She was about to encourage her and give her some advice.
"We don't have to," offered Callum to Rayla.
"I'm afraid that will take too long," Runaan said.
"Thanks for the offer," said Rayla. "But walking around is going to take too long. We need to get the Dragon Prince home to Xadia as fast as we can. We've got to go straight across."
"You mean over the water?" Ezran wanted to make sure — sometimes the way Rayla spoke was confusing.
"Shh! Don't speak its name," Rayla replied with a glint in her eye.
Diana's expression became uncertain as she looked at the seaside village and the ships that stood by the docks as she looked at it from the cliff. But she could see humans trimming within the seaside village, which could cause some trouble for their elf companions.
"We have to be careful." Diana looked between the boats and the elves. "I'm not sure how they're going to react towards us once we arrived."
Everyone looked down at the seaside village from the cliff warily. But as the sun started to rise on their backs, Runaan agrees with Diana's words and convinces everyone, except the three humans, to keep themselves hidden underneath the hoods of their cloaks.
"Lets get going," said Runaan. "We still have a long way to go from here."
Runaan wasn't wrong, but their path is long and complicated. Despite that, they have each other's company to find the Guardians and return the lost Dragon Prince.