RIOT IN TWO CHAPTERS!
The Sky kingdom had its own beauty, one that rivaled the Ice kingdom, with serene meadows, and stunning rivers. The mountains stretched their hungry rock claws to the sky, and everywhere there was always something. The Ice kingdom was a pretty bleak landscape, and had only had two shades of color, blue and white, and there was so much ice and snow everywhere that it masked all of the vegetation that did exist. The ice palace was located near the shore of the icy oceans, where of course we could find plentiful seals to eat, but the main problem I saw with the Ice kingdom was that is was unapproachable. Nobody else but IceWings could appreciate that beauty. If the Great Wall didn't get them, the cold would.
It's good to sit back and speculate sometimes. Except when you're chained to the top of a stone pillar, overlooking the massive bowl that I assumed was the arena. I couldn't see Stream anywhere, but all the IceWings in my squadron were also chained atop these prisons. We weren't chained to the pillar, but our wings were bound, and the pillars were so tall that any attempt off of it would result if painful injuries. One of the rowdier IceWings had tried, and I promptly threw up when I heard his death scream and the sound of skull bone fracturing. Not a fantastic idea.
The day passed agonizingly slow, and I feared sleeping would lead to me falling off the platform. So, I laid there in the cool breeze, and stared at the sun, as it slowly went west to the Sand kingdom, and disappeared. Even though we had phones in the Ice kingdom, Glacier hadn't allowed us to bring them here, because they could be tracked, and they contained certain sensitive IceWing data. And it made it really boring.
IceWings are diurnal dragons, and night time has always been full of monsters for me. I didn't get how dragons got by without the glowing moon globes in the Ice kingdom. Apparently, night time meant meal time for the SkyWings, and they came by and dropped a piece of leftovers from whatever feast that had just ended. Nobody would honor my questions, and when I tried to budge them harder, they blasted fire near me.
A week went by without no news of anything, the wind had ceased blowing though, and the sun piled on searing heat during the day, and Scarlet couldn't had found a more effective way to torture IceWings. We hate the heat, it absolutely sucked my energy, and drained me of any will. But finally, the guards came up to collect me. They untied me, and even though I made no motion to resist, they clamped firm clasps around my front talons, and guided me down to the arena.
With my front talons tied together, I couldn't land on them, and had to settle for a crash landing, rolling over my head twice, and much to the amusement of the guards, end up on my back. They removed the chafing clasps, and they flew off.
Strange.
The arena had sand in it, and it was quite massive, with copious amounts of seating on all four sides. A small fort was built in the middle, with several more huts scattered around the outside, maybe this was some sort of elaborate play?
Before I could come up with more equally unlikely case scenarios, the guards dropped several more prisoners into the arena, including Burgundy, Gyr, Bering, Kestrel, some fellow IceWing soldiers, and the only dragon that mattered to me.
Stream immediately ran toward me, and knocked me down with his embrace. "I can't believe Scarlet imprisoned us. I am going to shoot that bitch in the head, and I-"
I stopped his words with a gentle kiss to his snout. "I've missed you too, even a week is too long to be separated."
Gyr stepped forward and held us apart with his wings. "Enough, enough, we don't need two grief-stricken lovers to reunite right now. It's time to get out of here, and he pulled a battle rifle out of his left wing and held it with his talons. "Let's see how these fuckers like bullets."
When the SkyWings had flew off though, I started to hear a buzzing coming from near the top of the arena, where the first row of dragons would hypothetically look down upon the show, but it was definitely louder now, and while the rest of the IceWings mulled about in the heat, Stream and I inspected the "roof" of the arena. Curious, Stream tore off a piece of his vest and threw it up, but it came back down just the same way.
"Maybe it only reacts to living things?" I didn't want to test it though.
And I didn't have to, as hundreds of dragons entered the stadium at that moment, filling up the outside seats, and there was a ledge high above all the other seats, from which a throne was brought forward. Two thrones. Scarlet filled up one of the them, but a large SandWing with a mean expression sat down in the second one.
Bering had sidled up to my side without my notice. "The SandWing is Burn, she's really cruel from what I've heard, they say she was the one who murdered Oasis, and she experiments with strange creatures all the time, dissecting them, filling them with stuffing, and proudly displaying them."
Cruel. Could she be crueler than Scarlet?
The same loud boisterous red SkyWing who had interrupted my wedding appeared in the sky, and he had some sort of microphone in his talons. He hovered in the center of the stadium, and when the ruckus of stamping wings and talons finally quieted, he blasted everyone with his voice.
"WELCOME FELLOW DRAGONS, TO THE FIRST EVER ARENA FIGHT! HERE, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED IN THE ACTION! WE ARE CELEBRATING OUR FABULOUS QUEEN SCARLET'S RISE TO POWER, AND WE HAVE AN AMAZING SHOW FOR Y'ALL TODAY. LET'S GIVE IT UP FOR QUEEN SCARLET! GIVE ME SOME OF THAT GOOD STUFF!"
Scarlet rose from her throne and stood up proud, and Burn sat still with her arms crossed, and from the angle of her face, she was obviously not paying attention to anything at all.
"Thank you, thank you, for that excellent introduction, Vermillion. My family of SkyWings, my tribe, may I present to you, a new form of entertainment, with gory deaths and split-second turn of tides, I have devised the perfect way to have our prisoners go through a barrage of contests that will ultimately provide them their freedom. Or-"
She waited until all the noise in the audience fell to an ominous silence to continue. "Or their glorious deaths. Today's challenge will be battle royale. Whoever emerges victorious amongst our contestants, will have a chance at our second challenge. Back to you, Vermillion."
"Here are the rules, any injuries to the audience, will result in permanent execution. That is all. CLAWS AT THE READY, LET'S GO!" He hightailed out of the center of the arena and vanished over the side of the stadium. The audience looked on expectantly, and the contestants stood there in equal confusion.
Stream walked up next to me and put his wing over me. "I think they want us to kill each other."
Gyr, Kestrel joined Stream on the other side, and we stood in a half circle, and we stared defiantly at the audience. With Bering's urging, the rest of the IceWing soldiers followed in suit, and we formed an entire circle, all ten of us. The audience groaned.
"Oh, come on, can't you silly lizards be at least a little aggressive?" Scarlet's face read disappointment, but her face suddenly lit up. "I have a BRILLIANT idea! We'll get right to the second challenge, and my dear Burn, you will finally get to see the thrilling technology that went into this arena." She looked down upon us, and in a menacing voice, said, "Prepare to be electrocuted."
Right on cue, as if summoned by magic, a rushing sound of water became audible, as the first jets of the blue liquid rushed into the arena. From twenty outlets in the side of the arena walls, water poured into the arena, and slowly, our feet were covered. At first it gurgled around our talons, but it climbed to our legs, then creeped up. The dragons in the audience had slowly fell silent, and chose to watch us be electrocuted.
Stream nudged me. "The water is going to rise to the top of the arena walls, and that buzzing, it's going to send shocks through the water, and kill us."
"So, we're doomed anyways?"
"Not exactly. I need to know if this will kill me." He spread open his wings, and stood up on his back legs. He spread one of his wings toward the top of arena wall, and I held my breath. The audience stopped their yapping and held their breaths, and Scarlet's eyes widened. Burn's eyes lifted up from her phone, and seemed at least mildly interested.
His wing went over the top of the arena wall. And he didn't die.
It didn't take five seconds before all the dragons were in the air. "Move, let's go!" Stream led us out of the arena, and we were flying away, south of the stadium, away from the palace, away from Scarlet. I could hear her screaming at her soldiers, and the audience panicked.
I looked to my left, but Stream wouldn't look back. He kept his eyes forward and only increased his speed. Within two minutes, the palace was out of view, but he still wouldn't stop. It wasn't until we began to see the shore in the distance that he finally slowed down and landed. The rest of us followed suit and all ten of us were soon gathered together in another clearing, and I could hear the sea crashing against the rocky shores.
"You all stay here, I need to go back and grab something." And before I could grab onto his arm, and plead him to stay, he was gone.
"Well, that's disappointing. Thought he'd have more wits about him than to do such an idiotic thing." Gyr put away his battle rifle and looked at each one of us. "Any more brilliant plans?"
Kestrel stepped forward. "We need to hide ourselves, and no offense, but your scales can't exactly camouflage." She glanced over at the IceWings. "You guys simply stand out anywhere you go."
"Then we should leave now. We'll fly back to the Ice kingdom right now." Bering replied. "We'll be out of your scales soon enough. We can-"
One of the IceWings piped up. "Wait! Not all our IceWing soldiers are here, there's at least another twenty still locked up in the prisons. We can't abandon them! What will Queen Glacier say if we leave our compadres stuck here?"
I spoke up. "We can tell her firmly that we need to mount an attack immediately."
"Yeah, with what air force?" Bering retorted. "Scarlet has all our planes, and that's half our air force right there. And our navy? We don't know if Scarlet has an alliance with Queen Coral right now, we need to get the SandWings to mount an offensive attack."
The feebleness of our army struck me. "We only have how many fighters?"
"Around seventy, the SkyWings have more than seven times that amount."
Gyr popped back in. "So, we're fucked, you're fucked, and we're all fucked anyways. That's frickin' fantastic. Let's go into the Mud kingdom, as far as we know, it's safe there." He spread his wings and lifted off, circling twice before shooting toward the sound of flowing water. The rest of us followed suit. Except me because I'm an idiot, and I couldn't bear to abandon Stream, that would be leaving like drinking bleach, just less fun. I did go hide in the trees, knowing that my silvery white scales would certainly give me away if any passing dragon happened to be flying over, and I sat in a heap, mulling over the choices.
I wanted to kill Scarlet, squeeze her life out of that silly vain neck with my bare talons. Maybe freeze her body with my frost breath, then slowly, with a hammer, dismember her piece by piece. I wanted to see the blood fly, her feeble cries for mercy, and the satisfying feeling of denying her any form of good, and to be the one who destroyed her as she had ruined my plans. Temporarily anyways, but I wanted her to feel permanent pain, pluck out her scales one by one, and hear her pained groans and moans before she bled to death. Revenge would be-
Stream landed in the meadow and peered around him. "Kestrel? Gyr? Australis?"
I was salty that he called my name last, but I raised myself off the ground and walked back into the meadow, whereupon seeing me, he leaped forward and embraced me again. He panted excitedly. "I did it Australis! I stole my gun back from her throne room. I actually got in and out of Scarlet's throne room without anyone noticing!" He brandished his red MP5K, but I was more interested in his body, where on one side there was a bloody line that bled lightly when I traced a claw along it. He winced but didn't move.
"Maybe one of the guards did notice me," he admitted sheepishly.
"We should go join up with the others, they're in the Mud kingdom," I ordered abruptly, and without waiting for his reaction, I leapt off in the same direction that the others had gone. Stream had gone back, risking his life, for a fucking gun. Why would he risk his life and make me scared like that just for a gun? I shook my head rigorously, trying to clear out the malicious thoughts of self-worth and continued flying. It wasn't long until the marshes of the Mud kingdom started to appear, and soon enough, I could see a few white wings sticking out under the cover of the trees.
The first thing about the Mud kingdom was that it was soggy. EVERYWHERE. Anywhere you stepped, oh, now your entire foot is stuck in mud. What appeared to be solid land, just another mud pile, and that one had an angry crocodile in it too. And the bugs would simply not fuck off. In your snout, up your nostrils, resting on your horns and in your ears, they made the whole situation unbearable.
"Ew, this is a disgusting place," Kestrel complained as she lifted one of her talons up, examining a frog that had attached itself to her, "Why would anyone want to live here?"
"Because it's our home, and you IceWings don't look like you belong here."
I swung my neck around and rising out of the marshes came at least twenty MudWing soldiers, each one bearing a m249, huge auto firing squad guns that had humongous two hundred round magazines. They dwarfed the MP5K strapped under my wing, and I knew that we had no way to fight back. I heard Kestrel gasp, and the IceWings muttered in disbelief.
One of the MudWings barked orders to the others. "Gather them up, we're going back to the Sky kingdom, Queen Scarlet will be pleased to hear that Queen Moorhen's troops have caught the runaway prisoners."
"Yes, indeed she will. In fact, she is currently overjoyed, and will take the operation over right now." A dozen SkyWings landed around them, with Scarlet at the forefront. The leading MudWing scowled but didn't respond.
We were up in the prisons, again. This time the sky towers didn't seem as frightening as the first time, but it still drove me nuts to have been close to escaping, but caught yet again. Stream was on the tower next to me, but he just kept making forlorn faces at the palace, and never did turn his face to me, like he was embarrassed to see me. That was entirely fine, as I wasn't going to forgive him for going back to get his gun just yet.
The entire IceWing squadron had also been locked up, and we occupied over half of the available prisons. I didn't doubt that Scarlet had a plan to get rid of us that involved that arena below, and this time, we wouldn't be able to escape like we did the first time.
Gyr was inspecting his battle rifle. He would periodically lift it up and peer down his sights, put his talon on the trigger, and stay still. He didn't fire, but wanted to badly.
Kestrel was moping around in the sun, she was impatient, and paced around the top of the platform every minute. She ate everything the guards brought us in one bite, and she was definitely not happy about the situation.
It was two days after we had been caught before something interesting happened. Gyr finally pulled the trigger, and we heard a muted shot, and a muffled yell in the distance. Five guards came up to inspect us, and they went to Gyr immediately, since he had his gun out. I couldn't quite hear what they were interrogating him about, but Kestrel pulled her dual pistols out, and shot two of the guards, Stream took out another, and following suit, I pulled out my MP5K and ended another. The final guard whipped his neck around, but before he could yell for help, I heard a gunshot from my left, and he fell down, dead.
I heard a sigh from the dragon on my left, and I saw Bering holding his pistol, still smoking from the shot. He lowered it, and put it back into his holster, and I looked back at Gyr in time to see him release his chains. He threw the key to Kestrel, then Stream, then me, then all the other IceWings, and we took off to the west.
When we finally landed in the mountains, I finally dared to speak. I whispered. "We made it, we actually got away from the Sky kingdom."
"Actually, no." Gyr held up his battle rifle and aimed it at my skull. "Bering, give me that jewel. The sapphire."
Stream whipped his head to face the IceWing. "You had the jewel? The one I gave to Australis."
Bering nodded. He took the jewel out and threw it over to Gyr, who hungrily examined the small blue gem. Stream made a move for the jewel. "That's mine though! I gave it to Australis. How did you get in still?"
"Stop moving. It's mine you fucking idiot." Stream opened his mouth and tried to respond, but Gyr waved his talons and Stream froze where he stood. "Shut the fuck up. I've had enough of your bullshit. Actually, you will now cease to appear." Stream turned his head toward my direction tried to scream, but he his wings and his scales were shrinking, his entire body was slowly shrinking, until he was the size of a small dragonet, but he continued to shrink, until he could fit in my palm, then he had shrunk down a tiny speck that sparkled red, and it left a little red trail of smoke as it flew into the sapphire that Gyr held out in his palm.
I couldn't help but stare at Gyr, and at the jewel. There was no way he did that. Stream wasn't just a spell. He wasn't. "What did you do to Stream?"
"Haha. Stream's just a figment of your imagination. He'll be fine." Gyr held up the sapphire. "He's in this sapphire for now." He directed a nasty smile toward me. "Therefore, you'll just have to live without him for now. I'm sure you'll all be fine. Back in Scarlet's prison that is." He turned his head up to the sky and blasted a stream of flame, then aimed his battle rifle aimed at my head, and he peered around at the other dragons. "You run, she dies. You will also die."
Scarlet landed in front of him. "I do thank you for keeping them here. Soldiers, we're going to execute them publicly. By axe. You, Gyr, will be paid handsomely. We thank you for your services."
No no no no no no shit shit shit shit shit. Why did I let this happen? How was Stream just a charm under Gyr's spell. I loved him. I was going to marry him, and have, no, that's not, SHIT WHAT THE FUCK. The rage boiled up inside of me, like hot steam rising from lava pools. With an angry roar, I lunged at the SkyWing Queen and clawed at her wings, at her snout, at her belly and tail. Savagely, I growled loudly and punched her face, not caring about whether the consequences. I was so fucking fed up with this bitch that I couldn't contain myself. It took three other SkyWing soldiers to drag me away from the SkyWing Queen, and when she recovered, she glared at me while I panted.
"Stupid IceWing, when will you learn your place?" I heard giggling coming from behind her, and Scarlet whipped her head around to scold the dragon behind her. "THIS IS NOT FUNNY TOURMALINE. I WILL KILL YOU TOO SOMEDAY."
"Whatever, mom." A few SkyWing soldiers snickered, and Scarlet glared at them all.
I grabbed the sapphire out of Gyr's claws, and was already in the sky before she turned back, and so were Bering, and a couple of other IceWings, I stoutly refused to look back, and I knew that Kestrel would be right behind us. Gyr, he could fucking mope around Scarlet is he really wanted to be a sell out. For another hour, I flew on, and the landscape below slowly turned more mountainous, and colder, with snow first appearing on the peaks, then spreading out to cover the ground. When my wings started to tire, I circled around and landed near a clump of pines, and I heard the rest follow suit. Stamping in the refreshing snow, I turned to face them. Bering, and three other IceWings were there. Kestrel was nowhere. Dread filled my mind.
"No, she would had been smart and took off as well. She wouldn't had been caught. She couldn't have been caught. She's just out there flying away from Scarlet just like we did," I said to no one in particular.
Bering made me look at his face, full of pained but frank truth. "I saw her. She didn't take off, she was swamped by the rest of the SkyWing soldiers. I'm sorry, but she didn't make it."
"Then let's go back and rescue her!"
"No, that would be suicide, we need to go to Glacier now, she's our only hope, we need to report everything that's happened. She doesn't know yet about Scarlet, about the prisoners. It's time to go back home." He nudged me with one of his talons. "Let's go."
I sighed solemnly. He couldn't be more right. With sodden heart, I jumped back into the air, and followed the rest of the all too eager IceWings back to the palace, where I couldn't be more disappointed by the dull ice, and the impressive palace didn't light up my feelings. It was all too monotone, unlike the colorful greens, vibrant deep colors of the Sky kingdom. There were too many straight lines, and no natural chaos. Chiseled pieces that fit too well together.
Whatever the case, I headed for my own dorm, and didn't bother to even close the door, just crashed down upon the slippery smooth ice bed, and while I held the sapphire close to my heart, the world collapsed on me.