The chapter opens with a flashback to a time long ago, when the airbeasts were the strongest, most developed, and most fearless species on the face of the earth. Airbeasts spent their whole lives looking at the sky, but now they focus on looking for something else. The new world was only thinking about flying higher. The old world was just like the old world, but the new world focused on finding a new place to live. If you want to be a part of this new world, you have to be willing to give up your old life. This is the only thing you can do, says the narrator. He tells us that he once asked one of his riders on his team to be his "thorn keeper" , meaning that he needed the rider's strength to help him get what he wanted. The rider first realized that this was his only reason to be in the world, and then he quit his airbeast team. If he had continued to do this, someone else would have come after him, and he would have lost his life. The narrator says that this is why he's refusing to let his team do this anymore. He says that if they don't stop, he'll have to tell them to stop working together, and they'll be mad at work and him. He also says that he has really strong riders and agito on his side, and that they're psyched to be fighting for him. They're all stoked about this, he says. He's going to win this battle, he tells us.