Chapter 4

Ash

"Wake up Fia." Ash whispered. He shuffled his wings, but not too much, for he was afraid of touching her. Not too close, but not too far away. He shook his head. Even though that was what his mother always told him, he knew he could touch her. She had told him that a firescales dragon could touch only two other dragons in Pyrrhia: one with fireproof scales, or one without fire at all. His mother was his hero, and told him she would stay with him forever.

But all of that changed when his mother got captured by Queen Scarlet while finding food for Ash and his dying sister, Sundrop. She was put in the arena and lost a battle because of RainWing venom to the neck. Sundrop died a few days later from sickness and Ash found himself alone and scared out in the mountains.

He was near death himself when a dragon named Vivian found him. She was a kind SeaWing that nursed him back to health and told him to fly away to this island off the coast of the Rain Kingdom where he could live, but he must have found the wrong island, because the only other dragon here was Fia, the SkyWing without fire.

"Leave me alone." She groaned in her sleep. Ash rolled his eyes. "Come on, we have to warm you up. It got colder last night." He said looking out from the cave they lived in. It was cloudy outside, gray and chilly with the coming winter. The ocean churned and splashed its dark blue foaming liquid onto the rocks and drops landed on his talons, popping and snapping with the heat as they evaporated.

"It's getting colder, isn't it?" Fia asked quietly. Ash nodded. "Yeah. But it's not too cold yet so we can warm you up this morning." He said trying to lighten the mood. Fia smiled and got up, readjusting the several dangly jewelry pieces hanging off her horns, neck, and nose. "I honestly don't understand how you wear those things." Ash said giggling at her struggle of untwisting a chain that went from her horn to her necklace.

She shot him a glare and struggled to hide her own smiles from him. "Let me help, my dear." Ash said in a snooty British accent. Fia laughed. "Oh of course, kind sir, please do help untangle my expensive jewelry." She said back, laughing. He walked over, careful not to touch his tail on her talon, and started to unwind the chain.

"Thank goodness you found this enchanted stuff." Ash murmured. "Without it, these would have been having balls of melted silver and gold." She smiled, her pale red eyes glinting off the drowsy gray light of the sky. "There." He said. "Ahh much better, kind sir." She said with the accent again.

"Come on Mrs. Fancy Shmancy." Ash said rolling his eyes and smiling. "Let's get you some breakfast." He turned toward the entrance and unfurled his wings a bit, letting to cool salty air weave in between his wings. "Lets fly." Fia whispered behind him.

He took off into the air with great speed and pumped his wings once in awhile to gain altitude. The moisture in the air sizzled and popped on his scales, but it didn't bother him anymore. With Fia behind him, he went up above the cloud to where the sun shone brightly and glinted off his fiery red and gold scales that steamed constantly. "So what are you up for, Princess?" He asked. She soared in a loop and twirled around, playing in the cloud fluff.

"I don't want anymore fish if that's what you're asking." She said while doing and aileron roll through the blue sky. "The only thing on this island to eat in fish and come back over here you going to get to cold." He creased his brow and rubbed his forehead with worry. The memory was coming back to him: the only time he let her get too cold. He shuttered at the idea of letting that happen again.

"Oh come one Ash! I'm not cold at all and it isn't that bad to let me fly around for awhile. You're always on my tail and I nev-"

She was cut off when Ash yelled, "Fia, you almost died when I left you alone for one night. You will never understand because of how young we were and I told myself-" He stopped and tried to regain control but utterly failed. "I told myself that I wouldn't let that happen again." He looked down.

Fia had stopped flying around and was hovering a few feet from him. "What?" She whispered, her eyes wide. Ash looked up, tears threatening to fall and sizzle on his glittering scales. "I'm sorry Fia. I- I can't let myself do that again." He said. She nodded, and got closer to him, taking his talon in hers, making him flinch. And that doesn't help my cause either, flinching every time she touches me. "I understand. You've always have been a little overdramatic though…" Ash whipped his head up and raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?" He asked. Fia snickered. "Yes, really."

He chuckled a little, looking back down to the sea and the small green island they called home. "You still haven't told me what you wanted to eat." He said and Fia blasted him with a small plume of fire in childish annoyance. "You were waiting to do that!" He called as he escaped her following flame blasts. She laughed, and they spiraled down onto the beach to catch some fish. "You know my favorite right?" Fia asked as they landed on the beach where the wind whipped sand on their scales and cold water washed on their talons.

"Of course….it's tuna, right?" Ash asked jokingly. Making Fia smile was one of his first priorities. Five years she had spent on this island, keeping warm only by staying in the volcanic cave they lived in. She was lucky it find it, where it always was warm because of the molten river flowing underneath. "Correct!" she laughed as she trotted around Ash in circles. He smiled and started into the chilly water with steam hissing at him like a snake ready to strike.

"I'll be back. If you get too cold, immediately go back to the cave, okay?" It was what he always said before he went hunting, but she had always been there when he returned. "Okay, don't worry." He looked back at her one last time, winked, took a deep breath, and plunged into the dark icy depths of the ocean.

Ash had swam before. Really, he sorta liked it, but the way water got in his ears and he had to go up for air every few minutes was annoying. His night vision made it easy for him to swim as well. I wonder if Fia would like to learn how to swim when the water gets warmer, He thought. When finally getting far enough out that he could see the coral reef he usually hunted at, he flew up out of the water to stop the steam rising from his scales.

The water lapped up at his feet as he hovered over the navy blue expanse of water and weirdly, a chill of dread snaked up his spine. I never get chills. Something is wrong. He looked around wildly for something to spiral out of the air and attack him at any moment, but nothing came. What did come, though, was something he wasn't expecting. Seconds later, as soon as he had dubbed his suspicions false, a huge light green and navy Seawing came shooting out of the water and straight for him.

How stupid is this dragon?! He screamed in his head as the dragon's talons' gripped his throat and dragged him under water. Splashing in the water once more, Ash felt the strange dragon's talons' lift from his neck as his scales burned even though they were in frigid water. Disoriented, Ash swirled around in the water, trying to find which way the air was. Instead, his snout met the painful scrape of coral and the biting sting of anemones as he flailed toward the reef.

Before he could get any other part of his body scratched again, he swam out of the away of the coral and up toward the cloudy sky. His nose touched the surface and he breathed in a small gasp, but was pulled back down as a slick talon grabbed his back foot. This dragon is trying to kill me! He kicked and squirmed but he was dragged down to the sandy floor. The SeaWing let go quickly, for his scales were getting burnt to a crisp, and flashed the scales on his wings and snout brightly as if warning him.

Ash had to get away. His lungs screamed at him and his claws cut through the water uselessly. He was going to drown. What about Fia? How is she going to survive? With one last pump of his wings, he tried to get to the surface….and it worked. His mouth reached the surface and he drank in the air like he had never breathed before. With his wings wet he wouldn't be able to fly away, so he started to swim for the beach. He didn't know where the SeaWing was or if he was following him, Ash just needed to get to Fia.

Swimming was extremely hard without webbed talons, but he tried as hard as he could to get away. The strange dragon was now splashing loudly behind him, slowly catching up. "What do you want from me?!" He shouted as the hostile dragon leaped from the water. His wings pumped hard and he hovered where he was. His dark blue eyes narrowed as he opened his mouth to speak. "I want my daughter back." His voice was rough and low, like a piece of driftwood that has had stinging salt water wash over it for countless year until it is withered with holes. And he took off, just like that. He turned around and flew off without another word.

Ash returned to the beach an hour later, heaving for a breath and with is scales steaming. He looked around for Fia, hoping she listened to him when he said to go back to the cave when she got too cold. He walked slowly to the line of palm trees and bushes and crumpled down into the sandy grass. He didn't care that the sand stuck to him and got in between his scales, he just wanted to relax and find Fia.

He laid his head down and closed his eyes, letting the sounds of the waves calm him down and let him think. He had too much salt water in his ears and his neck ached from where the SeaWing had grabbed him with a strong grip. How was that SeaWing able to grab me for so long? He wondered. The sand felt cool and soft on his side and the chilly air felt good on his gleaming red-orange scales. As he started to doze off, thinking of how that dragon could have got ahold of his so easily, and he heard a thud.

His head snapped up and he looked around. "Fia?" He said cautiously and perked his ears. Getting up stiffly, he slowly trotted around the beach. "Fia!" He called. Panic was working it's way into his chest as he went on searching without luck. The cave, he thought quickly. He took off into the sky as fast as he could. Feeling the wind in his wings he kept on flying towards the cave, not knowing where she could be. He landed clumsily on the outcropping, but regained his balance with his claws and scrambled over to the entrance.

Poking his head inside he looked around for the light orange and red shape. She's not here?! He looked back out at the gray skies and rough, spine chilling waves. "How could this have happened?" He whispered to himself

"ASH!" He whipped his head around as her heard her scream. There, coming right to him, was the green and navy SeaWing that had attacked him in the water...and Fia was dangling helplessly as he dug his talons into her wings.