Chapter 3
Star
Cinder was laying in the snow with thorny pods stuck all over her back.
Nile and Droplet had burns up and down their wings.
Ray, Nile, Droplet, and Striker's cave was in ruins.
Who could have done this? Star thought with horror. I have to find Sapphire. "Cinder, be brave okay? I'm going to find Sapphire and Ray." Her sister nodded, her face in a permanent grimace from the pain of the pods getting pulled from her back. "Mom, dad, I'll be back." They nodded. Star leaped into the air and took off with lightning speed. Thank you giant wings. She flew towards the beach where she had saw Tidepool, Ray and Nile's little sister, before she had went to the cave.
And luckily she was still there. "Tidepool!" She yelled. The little dragonet of only two looked up and smiled. "Star! What's up? Do you want to play hide-and-seek with me again?" Her bright indigo eyes sparked with excitement. "Sorry girly," Star said. "Right now I have to find your brother. Do you know where he went?" She nodded. "Yeah over there." Tidepool flicked her tail towards a small cave near the rocky side of the shore.
"Thanks!" Star told her sad she bounded off. "Oh, and I'll play with you later!" Tidepool nodded an okay and slid into the ocean. The cave that Tidepool told her too look in was small, almost too small for her giant wings to fit in, but when she finally blew a plume of flame to see inside, nobody was in there. "Dang it!" Wiggling her way out, she took off into the sky.
Maybe I can find him from high up. She thought. She pumped her wings up and up into the sky and finally stopped to glide around. All she saw were trees and some short cliffs near the mountains and the sea shore. Landing, Star's frustration was boiling over and if she was a RainWing, her scales would be bright orange.
She slammed her tail into the sand and picked up a skinny stick of driftwood. "Ugh! Sometimes I wish I could just make things go my way. Like saying, drift wood, I command you to find anything I need, and then me saying, I need to find Ray and Sapp-" She stopped. Did the driftwood move? She held the stick looser in her palm. It wiggled and jumped out of her talon and onto the sand where it struggled to go straight into the brush.
"What. Did. I. Do?" She said slowly. She looked at her own talons and looked back at the stick. This is crazy, but I'm going to follow it. Star thought. She picked it back up and held it out to where it pulled the hardest and took off in that direction. Maybe this will take me to Ray or Sapphire. The stick was wiggling in her claws as she flew closer to her destination. It ended up leading her to Rigid Rock, the rock where Sapphire and Ray always raced to, and below the sandbar that Cinder had slept in the day before.
The stick was being more fidgety as she neared the ocean. Maybe he went for a swim. She wondered. When she got closer to Rigid Rock, the stick suddenly lurched from her talons and started to fall into the aquamarine expanse of water. "No! I should have been holding on tighter!" She screamed over the fast current of wind she had been flying through.
Shooting into a dive, she tucked her wings in and fell faster and faster near the stick…..until it landed in the ocean with a splash. Star tried to stop, but it was too late and she too dove into the water seconds later. Bubbles swarmed around her like angry bees and her breath had been knocked out of her lungs. She tried to swim upward but her talons were useless and her wings heavy with water. No! I'm going to drown trying to save a stupid stick!
Star pumped her wings as hard a she could but she didn't stop descending. Her vision was spotting and her lungs screamed for air. I'm going to die, I just know it. Before she fully past out, Star felt something hit her hard in the ribs seemingly pulling her to the beach. Groggily opening her eyes, blurry images of wet sand plastered to her claws and a pale blue and white shape stood in front of her. "Wha-?" She asked clearing her eyes.
"Oh you're awake. Glad I got you before something really bad happened to you." A bubbly female voice said. It sounded familiar, but Star's head was too full of sea water to function properly. "Who are you exactly?" Star asked shaking her head. "You don't remember me?" She asked. Star got up and wobbled a little bit, coughing up a bit of salty "goodness." "Well I don't think you would recognize me if you had just had a near death experience." The pale dragon cocked her head to the side, confused.
"Well that wouldn't be a problem for me. I'm part SeaWing after all." Star stopped. "Wait, Polar?" She asked. "Yes! Yes! Yes! I knew you would remember me!" Polar squealed happily. The SeaWing IceWing hybrid trotted closer to Star and looked her over. "You do not look great you know." She muttered. "No really?" Star sarcastically answered. Looking around, Star saw that she was on the beach where she met Polar for the first time.
"Hey I remember this." She whispered to herself. Tropical plants covered the ground where the beach ended and a cliff not far off dropped steeply into the ocean. There were caves in that cliff; and they held dragons. "Why were you trying to swim anyway?" Polar asked, interrupting her thoughts. "Hmm? Oh, uh, I ran into a, um, seagull that wasn't looking where he was going." She stuttered. I can't let anyone know about what I can do. Star thought quickly. "Hey, it was nice seeing you again, and thanks for saving me, but I have to find Ray and Sapphire."
She told Polar. "Wait-" the pale dragon started but Star was already leaping off in the sky. Sorry Polar, she thought, but I need to find my friends. Pushing hard against her still damp wings, she flew towards the mountain where she lived. Soaring above the clouds, she could feel about every emotion coursing through her body like Rainwing venom. Fear leaking in her heart and excitement buzzing in her bones. The wind whipped through her wings and the scents of the coming rain swirled in her nose, calming her for a second. She flew down, in a slow wide spiral, getting close to the mini Sand Kingdom and the mini Rain Kingdom. The mountain where she lived was close by, and as she descended, little dots near the middle where moving around like ants.
That must be the others, She thought. Maybe I should go down there to tell them I couldn't find Ray or Sapphire. Turning, she flapped her wings a few times to gain more speed, and took off toward the dragons. Cinder was sitting up when she got back, her back and wings bandaged with rainforest herbs and leaves thanks to Opal. The NightWing hybrid Cinder kept calling Stellar was chatting with her mother and father, and Nile was just getting his wings bandaged. "Mom, you need Opal to patch you up! Cinder was amazing at blocking most of the blast, but you still have burns."
He argued with his mom. Droplet, who was sitting right next to him, shook her head. "Nile I have told you that I am fine. You and Cinder are the ones to need special attention." She told him, slightly annoyed. Looking over in Star's direction, she smiled. "Oh Star! I was about to go looking for you. Ray got here just a few minutes ago. You should talk to him, he seems very upset." She said looking worried. Star's eyes went wide.
"He just got here? Thanks for telling me or I would have been looking for him for another hour!" She halfheartedly laughed. Nodding to Nile, she trotted off in the direction of the destroyed cave and saw the dark blue dragonet sitting and staring at it with such guilt it made Star's heartbreak. "Ray?" She asked quietly. He looked up, his eyes red from crying. "Oh, hey Star." He sniffed and rubbed his eyes. "So...this happened."
He looked back down and Star saw a single glimmer of water come down from his eye.
"Oh Ray," she started towards him. "There wasn't anything you could do. It wasn't even your fault. Why are you so upset?" She asked, wrapping her giant wing (that basically swallowed him) around him comfortingly. He was like a brother to her, and they had been good friends since forever really. "Because!" He snapped, wrenching her wing off of him and stalking away with angry tears streaming down is guilt stricken face. "If I would have had that vision too, I would have been able to get them all out and no one would have gotten hurt."
His voice choked from crying and he sat down in the snow and buried his head in is talons. "I wish I had never gone to the beach. I wish I had stayed here and warned everyone. Then Cinder and Nile and Mom would be safe." He whispered quietly. Star's eyes softened and she sat right down beside him. "Shhh it's okay Ray. You couldn't have controlled anything. Now, I came to ask you where Sapph is." She said.
"Oh no." Ray said snapping his head up quickly. "Today I told Sapph that I was born under three moons at the beach and that I could read minds and when I did she freaked and flew off!" He was pacing now, worried. "What are we going to do Star? What if I never kiss her again?" Star froze in her place after he said that. "Ray…don't look now but…" She whispered. Ray's eyes widened as if he too knew what was going to happen.
"What did you say you did to my daughter?" Frost asked from behind Ray's back.