Chapter 2

Cinder

Cinder woke the next morning with Star laying awkwardly on one of her giant wings, yet still sleeping peacefully. Silently creeping out of her room, Cinder crept through her parent's room and into the main cave.

There was a pile of treasure in the room.

There were gemstones and pearls and necklaces and bracelets and every kind of jewelry you could imagine. "How did this get here?" Cinder whispered to herself. She walked over to the door ignoring in for the time being, and unlocked the latch. Groannn. She winced, hoping the old door wouldn't wake anyone, and quickly jumped outside and into a pile of snow. She quickly started to shiver yet went back and closed the door with a loud creak.

Wishing to leave the cold, she stretched her purplish black wings and took off. Of course, since she was more like her mother, she wasn't as fast or she didn't have as big of wings as Star did, yet she still loved to fly. She closed her eyes, hoping to catch the scent of a rabbit or deer, but instead, she almost fell out of the sky.

The pain hit her head like a rock had fallen from the sky and went through her skull. Images of a raging fire kept flashing in front of her eyes; dragons she loved caught in the flames, Frost and one of her friends, Polar, trying to put it out with their frostbreath, Star lying on the ground, not moving, while Sapphire and Nile couched over her scorched scales. The pain in her head was horrific and she finally lost control and fell into a snowbank.

Cinder opened her eyes to a bright snowy landscape and a completely different dragon crouching over her. He was a SandWing, yet had dark purple scales running down his neck on both sides and the typical ruff SandWings had running down their spine was dark grey with small silver scales running up and down the length. "Hey, hey take it easy." He told her when she tried getting up.

"I saw you fall and went to help. You've been out for a few minutes." Cinder looked him with an eerie blue eye and stood up again. "Thank you. Now who are you and how do know about this place? The only dragons that live her are my friends and their parents, except for Polar, she is an orphan." Cinder said to him. Giving her a smile, he responded: "My name is Constellation. I am an orphan as well as Polar and yes I have met your SeaWing IceWing friend. She is quite nice."

Cinder was shocked into silence. She could barely choke out words. "Y-you mean there are others on the island?!" He nodded and Cinder screamed in excitement. "OMG yes I have been waiting all this time and I have thought of a possibility that there could be other dragons but my sister said that it couldn't be possible but it is 'cause you're standing right in front of me!" He stepped back a little and laughed smooth and handsomely.

Looking back he asked, "Who are the people you know and what's your name?" He asked. "Cinder is my name, my sister is Star, her best friend is Sapphire, and our other three friends Ray, Nile, and of course, Polar." Nodding he asked again. "Hmm...okay Cinder, are you and your friends hybrids?" Cinder nodded. "Yes. My sister and I are SkyWing NightWing, Sapph is an IceWing RainWing, Ray is a SeaWing NightWing and his half brother Nile is a SeaWing Sandwing." He nodded thoughtfully.

"Do you think I could meet them?" He asked. Cinder blanked for a second. Could he meet them? What would her parents think? What would Star think if she took him with her back home? "Ummm I don't know yet. I mean, what if they take it the wrong way?" He looked at her with confusion. "What do you mean, 'the wrong way?'" She looked sideways at the snowbank that a messy imprint where her body landed.

Something sparked in her memory.

"Um, okay, well funny story," Cinder stuttered and started to pace around. "I have to go back to my sister and parents and everyone I know for a very important reason. Sorry." She jumped and lifted off into the sky right as Constellation did as well. "What are you doing?" Cinder asked. "Following you. What does it look like?" A sly smile appeared at the corner of his mouth and Cinder rolled her eyes. Not looking back to see if he was following, Cinder took off back to the cave. What am I going to do if my vision comes true? She thought with a terrified shudder.

Cinder reached the cave a few minutes later with Stellar (his new nickname that she will call home from now on) right behind her. "You, over there." She ordered and pointed to a patch of bushes. "You don't need to be seen yet." He scowled and stomped over to the bushes without a backward glance. "I bet it's really nothing and you are just…" Stellar trailed off, muttering to himself as he pushed through the undergrowth. Cinder ran off to the door and I hatched the lock quickly. "Star?!" She yelled. "Droplet?! Nile?! Anyone?!" Please please please be out on the beach or something, please. Her panic rose higher as Nile and Droplet walked out of their den.

"No! Guys you have to leave now!" She told them in a hurry. "What? Cinder are you okay?" Nile asked, worried. "No! You guys are in danger get ou-" The sound of something hard rolling on the ground stopped her. Something inside her sparked and she ran towards the two dragons in the doorway and shoved them, hoping to push them far enough away. Before the echoing boom left her unconscious, Cinder heard the flap of frantic wing beats, like a dragon trying to escape certain doom.

The smell of burnt rock aroused Cinder from her unconsciousness and a horrific burning pain blossomed all around her body. She was outside and she guessed Stellar had pulled her out of the flames when he heard the explosion. She opened her eyes slowly, loving the cold soaking into her pained scales. Her sister was crouching right in front of her when she opened her eyes fully. "Cinder!" She screamed happily. Tears of joy were welling in her mother's eyes when she ran over to her and her father was smiling from ear to ear.

"Cinder we were so worried. What happened?" Star asked as Cinder flexed her wings little by little. "I was flying to the beach this morning and I had a vision on my way." Sunset looked at Spark with a worried expression . "Cinder we should have come sooner." Her father said. The guilt in Spark's eyes were almost too much to bear. Cinder tried to get up, but a bone shattering pain ripped through her body, and she fell back down with a moan.

Stellar came running towards her when he saw that she was awake and crouched down beside her. "Cinder you should have let me come in. If I knew it was that bad I-" Cinder raised a talon and it silenced him. "I have something on my shoulder blade." She spoke with a rough voice. "It hurts." He looked over her head to see if there was something wrong and sure enough, there were several small pod things with spines all over.

They weren't just stuck in her shoulder blade though, they were stuck to her wings and all along her back. He whispered something inaudible and turned back to Cinder. "This might hurt a small bit." He said guiltily. He turned back around to her back and grabbed whatever was lodged in her back, and yanked. A sharp quick pain went through her back and she gasped slightly. "Hey I know it hurts but we have to get these pods out." Star said comfortingly. Cinder nodded. "Okay. Keep going."