Wings of Fire

The Sands in the Darkness

Prologue:

"When do you think she's going to hatch?" Princess Bullsnake asked impatiently.

"I don't know dearest, probably when she's ready to come out." Bullsnake thrashed impatiently.

"Well that sure answered my question." She said sarcastically. Blacknight looked up at her.

"Don't be like that dearest; I want to know when our daughter will hatch just as much you do." He replied back steadily.

"Yes, but you can see into the future and see the exact time when she will hatch." She said impatiently.

"Yes, but I vowed to myself I would not look into the future to see when our daughter's hatching moment would be." He replied back calmly.

"How are you so calm? Our egg is about to hatch!" She yelled exasperatedly.

"Lots and lots of practice, I practiced all the time on the old NightWing volcano so for when it erupted, I would be able to remain calm and carry on." He replied back.

"LOOK! It's cracking!" They both jerked their heads towards the egg as a little dragonet popped out. It was magnificent. I can't believe I finally have my own little dragonet. Bullsnake thought. She was mostly black but had the silver teardrops under her eyes signifying that she was indeed a mind reader. She also had sharp white claws and a sanded underbelly.

"She's beautiful." Blacknight finally breathed. "You can name her dearest." He spoke again.

"Let's name her Sandstar." She said joyously. "Should we present her to your mother; Queen Thorn?" Blacknight asked. "Yes, considering you have animus blood running in your family we should give her the animus test in one month's time." Bullsnake instructed. "Well, we should probably head to the SandWing palace then and I can get us an audience with Queen Thorn and King Smolder since I am the Princess after all." Bullsnake told him. "I will teach Sandstar everything about animus magic when she is old enough to start listening. Then we could apply her to Jade Mountain Academy when this whole war blows over." Blacknight suggested. "What a wonderful idea! I would love to see little Princess Sandstar go off to Jade Mountain Academy. I'm sure when she is older she would appreciate going there to such a prestigious school." Bullsnake said. "Alright let's head to the Palace then.

"Queen Thorn." Bullsnake and Blacknight both knelt down.

"What is it Princess Bullsnake? This better be quick, Queen Snowfall and I are discussing aligning for the oncoming war against the MudWings, SeaWings, and the RainWings." Queen Thorn spoke justly.

"Well, Blacknight and I had our child. It's a female and we have decidedly called her Sandstar. She is a mind reader and we need to be able to know if she is an animus or not." She informed her.

"I understand, go get Six-Claws and tell him that his Queen wants him to fetch Sunseeker and to bring him to the throne room." Queen Thorn instructed.

"Yes Mother, right away. I'll be back in two shakes of a tail." Bullsnake replied breezily.

"Yes your majesty? What do you need from me? A new enchanted necklace? New defenses? How may I help?

"We need you to enchant a blank scroll to tell the names of all current living animus dragons." Queen Thorn instructed.

"Yes your majesty, it will be done." He grabbed a scroll from his satchel and spoke aloud.

"I enchant this scroll to write out all of the names of the current animus dragons and next to their name, what tribe they are from and their age." He enchanted. The scroll spelt out nine different names. Sunseeker of the SandWings (Six) , Jerboa of the SandWings (Two-Thousand-Five) , Princess River of the SeaWings (One) , Mooncatcher of the NightWings and SandWings (Three) , Prince Turtle of the SeaWings (Ten) , Princess Anemone of the SeaWings (Five) , Stonemover of the NightWings (Twenty-Nine) , Blacknight of the NightWings (15) , and Princess Sandstar of the NightWings and SandWings (One) . Queen Thorn breathed aloud.

"I understand that we now have a new animus for the tribe, but the SeaWings; our biggest enemies now have an animus Princess too."

"Yes, but that is our enemy's only animus considering Princess Anemone and Prince Turtle aren't going to use their magic again." Sunseeker reminded her.

"Still this is a big worry; this might level the playing field for our opposition." Queen Thorn reminded him.

"Unless you enchant Princess River to lose her animus power forever." Queen Thorn told him. He instantly paled and looked at her in horror.

"I would never strip another animus dragon of his or her power, they could have good or bad intentions but they should be allowed to have the choice!" He said in outrage.

"If you don't," Queen Thorn hissed, "You will be disobeying your Queen which is treason. Which means you would be sent to the dungeon or executed." She reminded him haughtily. He paled even further.

"Y-you wouldn't…" He stuttered.

"I would do anything for this kingdom including eliminating SeaWing threats." She informed him.

"You used to b-be a g-good Queen. I can't d-deal with this. He roared so loud it was deafening.

"I enchant myself to never be found unless I want to be found and to teleport out of this palace at once to my secret safe house." He said sadly. He faded away slowly.

"NO!" Queen Thorn roared. "He's escaped!" She shouted. She turned with a chilling look to Sandstar.

"I've found my new animus subject." Queen Thorn smiled menacingly. Oh dear maybe me and Blacknight should run for our lives. Princess Bullsnake thought. We brought this child into the world so we cannot at any costs let her suffer under the wrath of Queen Thorn. My daughter is not going to be Queen Thorn's new animus puppet. I will run away tonight with Sandstar and Blacknight and seek refuge with Blacknight's family in the rainforest. Hopefully they'll take us in and give us sanctuary. It's decided. I'll leave with Blacknight and Sandstar at midnight.