"Ice lickers!" Mist suddenly dove down like a storm of hail at the encampment of yellow dragons.
Gelid spotted the camp first, though mainly spotting the sandwings glow by the fire torches they placed down. Rainwings and nightwings intermingled with them, forming an army of black, gold and speckled rainbow colours. And there were so many of them.
She never quite fathomed how many soldiers there were in every kingdom, and it was slightly overwhelming that there were so many. This was only half of each army too. She wondered how much forest they'd need to clear to have enough space for all the soldiers. The icewings haven't arrived yet, even as it seemed this army could conquer all of Pyrrhia.
With soldiers, there came their commanders and generals too. Already, she heard loud voices order the soldiers around.
Gelid followed Mist down to a section of the camp being cleared with fire, teeth and talons. Mist called out to two of the dragons and one immediately looked back.
"Hi-ya, Mist," Amber said with a smile. She nudged Torrid next to her with her wing. "Look who made it," she said to Torrid.
"You're safe. This is good news," Torrid said. He ran a claw over his neck, clearing wood splinters and leaves from his scales.
Gelid landed on the ground next to Mist, immediately appreciating the mushier ground that her sand-beached talons ached from.
"What are you two doing here?" Mist beseeched loudly.
"Well, incoming fascinating story," Amber spurred. "I'm going to start at the beginning. We, and by we, I mean Torrid and I, were exploring the lower caves because I totally heard somewhere that there was a creepy dragon ghost down there somewhere."
"Not a ghost. A very depressed and old animus dragon," Gelid clarified. She met the dark paralysed dragon once when Lava introduced him. "He's very nice."
Amber nodded eagerly. "Right! He's an animus!" She poked Torrid. "That's explains so much!"
"That's cool," Torrid commented. "I've never met an animus before."
Mist exhaled heavily. "Please continue."
"Right. Right," Amber said. "So we were exploring and we totally got lost because the underground caves are HUGE and very confusing. Torrid had to basically drag my tail to the entrance because I thought he was going the wrong way. Thank goodness I didn't sting him because I'd TOTALLY do that."
"You would?" Torrid asked. He glanced at her tail that curled safely behind Amber's hind feet.
"Probably," Amber grinned.
Mist grumbled.
"Anyway, we were really late. Like it was basically dark and rainy and I was yelling at Torrid when he basically slapped me because there was a seawing dragon right next to us with the weirdest face."
"He had a weird face, like this." Torrid contorted his face into an over exaggerated look of surprise and worry.
Gelid couldn't help but giggle. His face was ridiculous.
"Torrid knocked that seawing off the side of the mountain and then we saw everyone LEAVE. Like AWAY and I was so confused. Then there were these other seawings that started yelling at us. Torrid and I just flew the moons out of there because MOONS NO I am not getting slapped by a seawing tail. I heard those things really hurt," Amber said.
"Then you went to Queen Thorn's Stronghold," Gelid finalised, remembering Glory's words from earlier.
Amber nodded. "I wanted to fly away to literally ANYWHERE ELSE but Torrid was like 'Shouldn't we tell someone?' And I was like 'That's a good idea' So we went to tell Hyena because he's pretty smart and I was sure he'd know what to do. Then he told Thorn about it and the whole place went crazy! Now we're here!"
"That wasn't all I said but mostly what I said." Torrid slowly clapped. "Excellent story telling."
Amber huffed, looking proud of herself and brushed a talon down her neck, looking at her claws afterwards. "I know. I know."
"You going to tell your dragonet that when they can't sleep at night?" Torrid asked her.
"You know what? I just might."
Gelid couldn't imagine Amber settling down with another dragon. She couldn't imagine Amber settling down at all. That dragon was a bunch of rainwing dragonets stuffed into a dragon-shaped pile of yellow scales.
"Well, at least you were mostly safe. That doesn't explain what you're doing here," Mist said.
"Oh we got bored," Amber said simply. "Hyena said that we could help with making room for the soldiers and we figured it was better than being rolled up the sand somewhere. Which doesn't sound like the worst idea now that I think about it."
"No, this is better," Torrid countered.
"There you go."
Mist watched the crowd of dragon soldiers and even stretched her neck to see above them but to no avail. "Is Thorn here?" She asked Amber.
"Her princess-ling is here." She pointed into the barrage of dragons and then walked into it, leading them to a makeshift platform of branches and leaves.
"Mist!" Queen Firefly bounded towards them across the ground and exchanged hugs with Mist. "Venomous vipers! I'm glad you're safe! Also-"She smacked her tail against Mist's neck-"Stop getting yourself in trouble!"
"Ow. Thanks." Mist stepped back, rubbing her neck.
Behind Queen Firefly was Beetle and Hyena that faced each other in a conversation. Beetle leaned forward, staring over Queen Firefly's wings.
"If it was up to me I'd have you chained up under a mountain somewhere to make sure you stop finding the danger and flying towards it," Queen Firefly said, then smiling.
"Sometimes it just happens," Mist said.
Gelid felt there to be something between Mist and Queen Firefly that was more than a mutual friendship but it wasn't like she was going to ask about it. This was a battle they were preparing for!
"Well, long time no see," Beetle said to Mist with a nimble smile.
"Beetle."
Queen Firefly stepped back and Beetle stepped forward, forming a small circle of royalty.
Of course Mist knew Beetle. If Queen Blizzard's and Queen Thorn's mostly friendly relationship meant anything, it meant that royalty knew royalty.
"Still following Thorn's tail?" Mist asked.
Beetle snorted. "Not for long, how-ever that may sound. I've been getting stronger and better. Who knows? Maybe the desert might be mine soon."
Would Beetle challenge Queen Thorn soon? What sounded likely, judging on the princess's tone.
"I'm sure this discussion can wait, princess," said Hyena. He invited himself into the circle. "Right now we have a battle I intend on winning."
"Maybe we can still reason with them, I mean, it could work," Torrid said.
"These dragons have no capacity to be reasoned with. I've met them personally," Gelid said to him. Torrid shrugged in response, looking as though he wanted to prove her wrong. The idea was a nice thought but she'd rather claw North in the face again rather than talk to him.
"We can be stealthy!" Amber suggested. "If we can sneakily get around and get the queen or who-ever-dragon is the leader than we can totally like, force them to stop the battle."
That was an idea Gelid liked. "That could work." There had been enough bloodshed and loyal soldiers losing their lives in a battle.
"With what? Your dark assassin scales?" Mist asked.
"Totally. I'm the best. I can do it," Amber said.
"I don't really think so," Torrid said.
"To blazes with your ideas! Why are we waiting? We should attack now!" Hyena stamped a talon on the ground, and his tail scrapped along the branches, coiling.
"Queen Blizzard is still on the way," Queen Firefly said to him. "We need the numbers. My scouts estimated a large number of seawing forces."
"And there are prisoners," Gelid said.
"You could send some rainwings to take care of Auklet. That could solve this battle before it starts," Mist said to Queen Firefly.
"That's risky. I don't think any of mine would do that. I could but...storming the beach is the option," the rainforest queen said.
"Did you say prisoners?" Beetle asked Gelid. She nodded. "That changes things," she said to Hyena.
"Mostly sandwings, and we still don't know where the dragonets are either," Gelid added.
"Perhaps we need a more complicated plan than before..." Hyena said, glancing away.
"What plan?" Mist asked.
"Based on what my scouts told me, we planned on storming the beach front with both a ground and air offense," Queen Firefly said. "Nightwings and rainwings swarm around, sandwings on the ground and icewings in the air in case any enemies fly away. But we never planned a rescue operation."
"We need more numbers then," Beetle said. "Maybe we could persuade-"
"I know where you're going and it's a terrible idea," Mist interrupted.
"A terrible idea? What is?" Amber asked.
Amber didn't know but Gelid did. "We're going to talk to Queen Fuchsia, aren't we?" Gelid said solemnly.
"Good of you to volunteer." Queen Blizzard suddenly appeared next to her, looking more majestic and regal than ever.
"Me? I'm just as coherent as a walrus," Gelid said.
"Hm, never heard you say that before," Queen Blizzard said to her. She looked around. "Mist, Firefly, Beetle, Hyena." She nodded to them. "Perhaps I can send some of my icewings to talk to Queen Fuchsia."
"Send me instead," Mist offered to Queen Blizzard.
"Are you sure?" She asked.
Mist nodded. "I'm fast and I know the way. Maybe I might even beat some sense into Fuchsia."
"I hope not literally," Queen Firefly said to her. "We still need her soldiers."
"Of course not literally, even if I really want to," Mist said.
"Mist! That's Queen Fuchsia you're talking about. You might be fast and strong but not against an entire kingdom of skywings," Gelid said to her. We don't need more conflict between the tribes, she thought.
"I'm not fighting them! I don't know what hard-shelled brain you have to not get that through but I'm trying to be persuasive. I'm sure I can attempt to reason with her before someone says I can't," Mist said, then muttering. "Which is most likely."
"Well you're not going alone," Gelid said, unsure why she proposed to fly with Mist. Maybe Gelid felt bad about calling Mist names all that time back. Or attacking North. Or just being an unfriendly dragon to begin with.
"Really? You?" Her brow lifted. "Well, maybe you might do a better job as my bodyguard, not that I need it."
"We're coming too!" Amber intruded into the conversation after a full minute of being quiet.
"Absolutely not."
"You're staying here." Mist and Hyena said at the same time.
"Why not?" Amber asked them.
"Because two dragons are enough," Mist replied.
"But - um." Amber looked around, then poked Torrid. "Look! Torrid really wants to go! Tell them why you want to go."
Torrid took a step forward, looking uncomfortable with a low neck. "Um, well, I do want to go but you said not to," he said to Mist. "But you know, I'm OK with that. I just - I've always wanted to go to the sky kingdom. Half of me is from there...somewhere."
"Seeeeee?" Amber said.
"I don't see how you can say no to that," Queen Firefly said to Mist.
Mist sighed, flicking her wings back. "Fine. Don't get your tail in a knot. Let's go and get this over with." She whirled around and stepped away, then lifting off into the air.
Gelid was about to lift off and follow but then Queen Blizzard spread her wing in the way, stopping her.
"I know it doesn't seem like Mist needs company but having someone around her really puts her in a better mood," Queen Blizzard said.
"It wasn't my immediate attention but..." Gelid could never picture Mist openly conveying her appraise for having other dragons around. Sure she might've believed it, working on what she knew about the princess already. Still, it was a bleak chance.
"Trust me, she appreciates you. Just protect her for me. OK?"
"Yes, your majesty," Gelid promised. "Speaking of it, when this is over, I need to talk about something with you," she said to Queen Blizzard.
Her queen nodded. "Very well." She folded her wing back, allowing Gelid to lift off into the air behind Amber.
The two glowing moons and an emerging crescent trapped them under the night sky. Glowing, of course. Gelid saw the dragons much more clearly under the 'luminescent' moons, as soon as she found out what that word meant.
Above, the moonlight shone right through Amber's wings, showing bursts of white dots - especially along the end of her wing membranes that Gelid never saw before.
Torrid was the only dragon Gelid couldn't see properly. Only his shape was outlined.
They were flying over the Diamond Spray River. The winding river path was easier to follow and Gelid guessed that was how Mist knew her way to the sky kingdom. Though, following the coast would've been easier to follow in her opinion.
They even passed over Seamarch, which was a coastal addition to the town of Sanctuary. Though, from what Gelid already heard about Seamarch, it was basically its own town already.
"You know what this reminds me of?" Amber suddenly asked.
"No," Torrid said.
"Eh? Going to the sky kingdom full of dragons that we once had an encounter with. Eh? Ringing any gongs?" She teased.
Torrid sighed. "No! Not that story. That was the worse thing in Pyrrhia."
"What story?" Gelid finally asked.
"Oh good moons," Mist vexed. "Don't you dare." Now Gelid wanted to hear the story even more.
"It was a few months ago-" Amber started.
"Don't make me knock you out of the sky," Mist said.
"Hah! I'd like to see you try!"
Mist fell back and shot towards Amber. Amber pulled her wings close and twisted above Torrid, falling and finding a spot to fly next to Gelid.
Amber snickered. "So let me tell you this fine blazing story," she started to say as though nothing happened a few moments before. "So there was this one day and I remember it well, and believe me, I have a great memory."
Torrid snorted but he was far enough that Amber didn't hear him.
"I was at home, you know, just clearing a bit of sand out the front, right, and the next thing I hear thunder but it wasn't cloudy so I was like 'whoa, what's that sound?' The next thing I see Torrid flying like a tornado and this massive and I mean, massive skywing following him.
"And Torrid was screaming all the moons away and I was standing there, laughing my tail off because I have never seen anything like that before. And I think: 'whelp, Torrid's gonna die and I'm probably next so I might as well laugh' so that's what I did. The next thing and I see Mist literally come out of nowhere and go BAM! Into that skywing. I watched the whole thing. She full on knocked that skywing out of the sky, rip his wing off and snap his neck."
"Gross," Torrid commented.
"It was really, really gross but also the coolest thing I've ever seen."
Gelid took a glance at Mist and was sure that the princess was fighting the urge to smile. She probably hadn't have gotten many compliments or thought of highly by any dragon other than Queen Blizzard.
"And that was the day I decreed to myself that being around Mist meant I get to see the craziest and awesomest stuff happen," Amber said. "I mean we kinda locked up Hyena too and that wasn't the best thing in the world but I did throw a rattlesnake in his cell for fun."
Gelid felt like there was something other than "being around Mist meant crazy things happen" as a reason to follow her around. Maybe they felt safer around Mist? Or they admired her so much; they needlessly bothered and annoyed her.
"It was you that put that thing in there!" Torrid said. "You know how long it took me to get that out?"
"Yeah, like an entire day," Amber said.
"That wasn't funny, Amber! I almost got bit more than a hundred times."
"Next time you do that, I'm going to throw an orca at you," Mist warned.
"Please do," Torrid agreed, nodding his head at her.
"Now THAT is something I definitely want to see," Amber laughed. "Seriously, though, best fun ever. We got to blow up the rainforest. I got to be an awesome stealth dragon."
"Don't forget that time you stole some of Thorn's tea and she yelled at you," Torrid said.
"Oh yeah."
"You stole her tea?" Mist asked, enthralled with confusion.
"I just wanted to try it!" Amber defended. "She wasn't letting me have any so I just got some when I thought she was sleeping. Turns out, she wasn't sleeping."
"What a surprise," Gelid said.
"It was totally worth it, though. That tea was amazing."
Glowing against the moonlight were the tall mountain peaks now speeding past them as they flew over. There were white stone towers that littered the sides of some mountains that she was able to spot. It looked as if dragons inhabited those towers as she was able to make out flickering light from the towers.
"Hey! What are you doing up there!" Shouted a voice.
Gelid immediately stopped and beat her wings in one place, as did the others. Below, there was a small pack of large winged dragons flying towards them. Skywings.
If skywings were there then how much further was it until reaching Queen Fuchsia's palace? She hoped it wouldn't be long otherwise the battle would've started without them.
The skywing that shouted at them earlier flew up in front of them, but pointed his spear downwards. "What are you doing here?" He asked the closest dragon, which was Mist.
The other dragons darted up above them and circled.
The longer Gelid peered at the closest skywing, the more she was able to make out the skywing's golden and peachy scales with red wings.
"We need to speak to Queen Fuchsia this instant," Mist said to him.
"Her majesty isn't accepting communication from the other tribes presently. I have to refuse your entry into the sky kingdom. Turn back around," said the skywing.
"I'm not flying back. I am Princess Mist of the icewings. I demand an audience with Queen Fuchsia," she insisted, trying not to hiss.
"I have my orders and that is to make sure other dragons don't enter out kingdom. I'm sorry."
Then Gelid remembered something. "We know the whereabouts of King Sanguine. I think Queen Fuchsia would want to know this."
"You do? Splendid! Her majesty has been crawling to know about him. I'll bring you to her. Follow me!" The skywing turned around and flew.
Mist gave one approving and casual glance at Gelid and then dove at the skywing, following.
The palace was a short fly from there and Gelid welcomed the sight of clarity and light again. A clear cut mouth in the mountain invited them into the palace carved inside the mountain.
The skywing they first met led them inside with Gelid following Mist closely and the pair of sandwings behind. Even she was sure Mist never needed protection against other dragons. Mist's stare was enough to scare away anyone brave enough to raise their voice but Gelid had to be sure.
The skywing led them into a marble throne room with a single silver throne. Silver decorated the walls in lines and patterns, and the metal glowed in the fire light. To the wall behind the throne was a giant hole that opened a view to the mountains and the night sky. An odd feature to have when there was possible danger to important dragons. Gelid wondered if Queen Fuchsia made that.
An orange tail curled around the throne, alerting her that a dragon laid atop. Queen Fuchsia.
The queen of the skywings turned her head from what looked to be previously drooping, either out of boredom or depression. Gelid wasn't sure which one.
Queen Fuchsia stared at them, blinking and then spiked her head up. "Shrike, I thought I said for no foreign dragons to enter my kingdom. What part of that did you not understand?" She said to their skywing guide.
Shrike bowed lightly. "I'm sorry, your majesty." He extended a wing, pointing at them. "But these dragons-"
The orange and pink dragon waved her talon at him. "Leave please." She turned her head at them. "Now listen here, dragons-"
"No. You listen to me," Mist stipulated strongly.
Queen Fuchsia looked surprised at the sudden ferocity.
"Your neighbouring kingdom shelters the Talons of Power and you're going to convince every other kingdom that you had no idea?" Mist proposed.
"Well I - I never! That is preposterous! Who are you anyway - oh. No. I know who you are. You're Queen Blizzard's niece aren't you?" Queen Fuchsia asked.
"That's right."
"What's this 'my neighbouring kingdom houses the Talons of Power'? I'm neighbours with almost all the kingdoms. You're going to have to be more specific."
"She has a point," Torrid said.
Mist rolled her eyes. "The sea kingdom. They have an entire base of operations there."
"OK...Is there a point to why you're telling me this?" Queen Fuchsia asked.
"What? How - how - what kind of wind brain do you have? Have you not listened to me? Do you not gave a living tail to the fact that the continent's biggest enemy was right next to you and you had no idea?" Mist vented.
"No I did not."
Gelid watched Mist's scales turn red and black, and it was honestly the worst thing she'd ever seen.
Gelid poked her shoulder and Mist hissed at her. "You're not going anywhere talking to her like that," she whispered to Mist.
"I don't suppose you have any ideas," Mist said.
She nodded, then turning towards Queen Fuchsia. "Your majesty. What Mist was trying to get at was that the Talons are responsible for kidnapping your husband, King Sanguine."
That got Queen Fuchsia's attention. The skywing queen leapt from her throne, looking as though she was about to grab Gelid and shake more information out of her.
"What? Where? How do you know this? Is he all right?" Queen Fuchsia asked quickly.
"We saw him. He's alive."
The skywing queen exhaled heavily. "Thank the moons."
"I don't know about this, your queenliness," Amber prompted. "But there's totally going to be this ginormous battle. All the kingdoms are getting involved to fight."
"Yeah, and we need your help," Torrid added.
"My help? Er - yes! I can help!" Queen Fuchsia pointed to a nearby red and pink skywing guard. "Get me General Gale right now!"
The skywing squeezed past Gelid, their steps disappearing into the hallways behind her.
"Tell me what we're dealing with," Queen Fuchsia said.
"The Talons of Power mainly consist of seawings, otherwise any dragons attacking our own soldiers can be assumed to be apart of them as well," Mist said.
"They're being lead by Queen Auklet and an icewing named North," Gelid added. She noticed Mist prod her talons at the end of her sentence.
"Don't forgot the armies," Torrid said.
Mist nodded at him. "Firefly, Blizzard and Beetle are leading their armies," she said to Queen Fuchsia.
"My skywings could've dealt with this. Why the big army?" Queen Fuchsia asked.
"We need the distraction," Gelid said. "If we can get the Talons distracted with the fighting then we can rescue the prisoners, including King Sanguine."
"Ooo! I like this plan! I'll inform General Gale immediately," Queen Fuchsia said. "Thank you for coming to me. My general will meet you - um, where exactly is this?"
"Do you have a map?" Gelid asked.
"Yes!" She pointed up. Above, plastered across the ceiling was a complete map of Pyrrhia. She saw every single one of the kingdoms and the palaces, the towns and the borders. Except Queen Blizzard's palace was a little off and closer to the coast than where it was supposed to be. Neither of the three outer palaces were there either, not that it would've have been much use to tell other tribes.
Mist walked to a spot under the map where the camp was and pointed up. "Here. A little north from the scavenger den. That's where you'll find us."
Queen Fuchsia eyed the ceiling, nodding. "Excellent! Excellent! General Gale will meet you out there as soon as the soldiers have been rallied," She said.
"Boohoo! You're not coming along," Amber teased.
"Uh, no. I'd rather not," Queen Fuchsia said to her.
A large red skywing walked past Gelid an she didn't notice him until he greeted Queen Fuchsia.
"I've been told something of great importance is happening," said the skywing that Gelid assumed to be General Gale. He stood next to her throne, looking as though he'd rather be asleep.
"Indeed, these dragons have found my love..."
Mist walked back to Gelid. "Well, there's nothing else left to do other than fight."
"I wish we didn't have to, but we do," Gelid said.
"Can I sit this one out?" Torrid asked. "I'm not very keen...on fighting, that is. I just - it's just so..."
"Primitive?" Gelid offered.
"I'd say inefficient," he said. "Why can't we just talk this all out?"
"If it was that simple then I would've done that a long time ago," Mist said. "Face it. We've evolved to fight."
"I know, I know. Just...never mind," he said, defeated.
"Same. I'm not a seasoned warrior or whatever you two are." Amber pointed at them.
"So go back to the Stronghold and wait for whatever happens next," Gelid said.
"Yeah, that's probably the best option," Torrid agreed.
Amber suddenly swatted her wing over Torrid, whacking his tail. "Tag! Beat you to the Stronghold!" She bolted, turning and ran down the hallway.
"No you won't!" Torrid followed after her, and they both disappeared.
Gelid breathed, finally feeling tension in her claws and she started walking back to the way in to settle herself.
Mist came up beside her. "You ready?"
"For this battle? Crashing glaciers no. Nor anything else but it's something I - we have to do," Gelid replied.
"Whatever happens next, it will be an honour fighting with you," Mist said.
She had to appreciate those words - she would've said the same thing if her talons weren't shaking. She'd never been in a real, fleshed battle involving massive numbers of dragons. It never occurred to her before that she might die tonight. Or Mist could. Or Pale. Or Queen Blizzard.
Something unexpected could happen that could turn the battle towards the Talons of Power' favour. North could enchant something to make all disloyal dragons obey him. Though, North seemed too simple-minded to do that, even if he did it to her.
Gelid and Mist left the sky palace and flew back to the soldier camp as fast as they could. Soon they found that all the torches had been put out and all the soldiers were gone.
The night was late, yet also early as Gelid felt that the Sun would rise soon.
"Have they started the battle already?" Gelid asked to Mist that flew beside her.
"That's uncoordinated. Blizzard and Firefly wouldn't have allowed that but they could've been forced to, that's if they decided the best time to strike was when they did," Mist analysed.
They did a double take circling the camp in case there were any messengers waiting for them but there weren't any. Then Gelid saw blurry coloured shapes closer to the Talons base.
"There! They must've started! Come on!" She beckoned Mist, then racing towards the shapes. She recognised Pale and Queen Blizzard immediately and called out to them.
"Gelid! I thought something might've happened to you two!" Pale said. "Weren't there two other dragons with you?"
"They decided not to fight," Gelid said.
"I would've called them cowards it's probably for the best that they're not here," Mist added. "Besides, the skywings will be joining us soon."
"Ah, I see," Pale said.
"I'd say the same for you, not the best to be fighting, that is," Queen Blizzard said to Mist.
"What? No way! I haven't stretched my talons out in ages. This is a battle that needs me as much as I need it."
"As you wish," Queen Blizzard said.
"Well then, General, care to lead the way?" Pale offered.
Mist roared, surged with energy and ice. "I sure do!"
"Wait! What about the prisoners? We need to rescue them when the Talons are all distracted," Gelid said, then turning to Mist. "Mist?"
"You can do that," Mist said.
"Well I can't do it alone!"
"I think I can help with that," Queen Blizzard said.
"No, your majesty, I didn't mean-" Gelid thought she meant that she'd be joining Gelid in the rescue operation instead of leading the soldiers, but then she called out to someone.
"Princess Beetle!" Queen Blizzard shouted, then dove at the pale yellow shapes on the sandy coast below. Gelid followed.
"You're back. I take that you have news?" Beetle asked Gelid.
"Yes, Queen Fuchsia will be joining us, given some time," Gelid answered to her. Beetle nodded.
"We need some of your sandwings to join Gelid here in saving the prisoners while the battle ensures," Queen Blizzard said to Beetle.
"Well, let's see." Beetle looked at the sandwings beside her. "Hyena's already leading two squadrons, so...you five." She pointed at the five sandwings, then at Gelid. "Assist this icewing. My orders: follow her command."
They all nodded.
Queen Blizzard nudged her. "You're a commander now. Congratulations."
"Is that legitimate?" Gelid asked her. "Seriously?"
"If that's what you want to be."
"Thank you, your majesty. I won't let you down," she said. A commander! She was a commander! Just like she wanted to be...but also, not what she wanted to be. Being a commander meant spending more time with soldiers, in the ice kingdom, where she'd be far away from the rainforest and Swan. "Oh," she muttered at the realisation.
"You never disappoint. Go!" Queen Blizzard smiled at her, approving.
Gelid lifted into the air, glancing at the five sandwings lifting behind her, and she smiled to herself.
In the distance, seawings were fighting sandwings and black shapes darted across the sky that she assumed to be nightwings and rainwings. So she turned closer to the other side of the bay and closer to the edges of Pyrrhia to avoid the soldiers.
A sandwing flew below her and glanced at Gelid. She had incredibly pale sandy scales and looked compact and muscly, yet also skinny.
"What's the go, commander icewing?" Said the pale sandwing. Her tone was astoundingly casual, as if this was a battle like every other day.
"There's a prison filled with sandwings at the end of the peninsula. We need to save them," Gelid said to her.
"Coolio. Thanks for caring about our tribe. Pyrrhia needs more dragons like yourself," said the sandwing.
"Trust me, if that was true then Pyrrhia would be incredibly boring."
"I'd say the same about myself, truly. Name's Puncture but everyone calls me Turry," Turry said.
"I'm Gelid," she introduced. What she really wanted to ask was how in the blazes any dragon got 'Turry' from 'Puncture'.
"So how we gonna break this egg?" Turry asked.
"Um, we're not breaking any eggs," she replied, questioning whether Turry broke dragonet eggs out of fun. How cynical.
"I meant the prison you tumbleweed."
"Oh," Gelid said, flustered. Turry so reminded her of Mist but in a friendlier way. "There's a guard outside that has a key to the prison, we need to get that first, free all the prisoners and get them away as fast as possible."
"Couldn't have laid it out better than that," Turry said.
Closer inward to the bay, she spotted dragons fighting each other with talons and teeth, and she wondered how many of those dragons she would've recognised.
Against the dark blue sea and the sand, Gelid spotted the hut that she remembered staying the entire night in earlier. She wondered if she could order the sandwings to light it up in a bonfire but that would've been a waste. Clearly there were more important things, like saving dragons.
The seawing guard from earlier that day - or was it yesterday, judging by the course of the moon? Anyway, the same seawing guard that Mist intimidated was there, standing as a lonely obstacle in their way, and he immediately jolted his neck at them, squinting. Perhaps he was just wondering if they were his reinforcements or enemies - and Gelid was sure which one of those options she was.
"Give us the key!" Gelid yelled at him.
The seawing yelped, dropping the spear and immediately took the air, flying the in the opposite direction of the battle.
"We can't let that seawing get away! He has the key we need!" She commanded the sandwings. She sped up to him, then reminded herself of that grey seawing she murdered not long ago.
I need to do this. I need that key. I don't have to kill him, Gelid thought. I'm in control of myself this time.
With a strong beat of her wings, she lifted up and then dove down, closer to the sea, lifting up again and crashing into the seawing above her. She swiped at him, aiming for the necklace of keys around his neck. He kicked her snout in a rush to get away.
Gelid grabbed his hind talon and pulled him, digging her claws into his scales. The seawing shrieked in a way that hurt her ears.
"Give me those keys!" Gelid shouted.
"Get away from me!" Harrowed the seawing, attempting to kick her again while also flying away.
"Where are those blasted sandwings!"
"Right here!" Turry came out of nowhere and flew across her line of sight in a flash.
The seawing screamed and red bleeding streaks suddenly appeared across the his neck. Then he fell, forcing Gelid to let go of him before they both fell into the ocean.
"You didn't have to kill him!" Gelid watched as the seawing's body plummeted into the ocean and sunk in a cloud of red water.
Turry circled around to meet Gelid beating her wings over the ocean. "Too late," she said. "But I did get this." She showed the chain necklace dappled with keys.
"You golden penguin!" Gelid praised, finally catching her breath. "Let's go and free the prisoners."
"Rightio, swiftwings."
Gelid made her way back to the prison and waited at the door. Turry dumped the keys into her talons and Gelid searched through them, remembering that there was a certain key that opened the prison door. There, a key with the handle of a folded dragon wing. She picked it out meticulously with her talon and then pushed it into the keyhole, turning it and waiting for the click.
CLICK.
Gelid flattened her talons on the door and pushed the doors opened. She stormed down the cells to the end where she stood in front of King Sanguine's cell.
"My, there are a lot of sandwings in here," Turry said, then leaning closer to Gelid, watching as she tried each key to open the cell door.
A flat copper key opened the cell door. Gelid pushed it open and carefully stepped towards King Sanguine.
"I told you we'd get you out of here." And I promised Queen Fuchsia that you'd be saved.
King Sanuine nodded eagerly and then pulled his chained snout as far away from the wall and closer to her as it allowed. A lock snapped the chains together and Gelid had to search through the keys all over again to find the right one to open the lock. Eventually she found the right one, undid the lock and unwrapped the chains.
"Here." She snapped the copper key from the chain and gave it to Turry. "Free the others."
"Yes, yes. Will do," Turry said, then hurrying off.
"A thousand sunny days for you, icewing. I didn't you'd do it but you did! I will always be in debt to you for saving my life," King Sanguine said. He rose to his feet, looking big and impressionable, and he stretched out each of his talons.
"I've done what any other dragon would've, apart from the kind that put you in here, of course," Gelid said to him, then stepping out of the cell as King Sanguine stretched his wings out. Skywings had huge wings last she checked and his were no different.
A more golden sandwing ran up to her. "Commander, some of these dragons have their snouts tied up."
Gelid snapped the same key she used to free King Sanguine from the chain. "Use this." She handed it to him.
Since there was only one of every key, opening each cell door and freeing each dragon was time consuming. What Gelid really wanted to do was smash each one down - or do what Mist did and freeze the metal to smash it, but she then remembered that she could possibly hit a dragon, creating more problems than the solution she already thought of.
It was time consuming and the hazy smoke that gathered in the prison made Gelid cough her lungs out. So she stepped outside and sat lingered by the opened door of the prison, breathing in the clear air and standing guard in the orange fire light at the same time.
In the distance, she was able to make out shapes of dragons still fighting. How long had the battle gone for already? How many dragons were dead? Who was winning? Were Queen Blizzard and Pale and Mist alright?
So many questions that she wanted answered but couldn't. She had her job here and she wasn't going to abandon it!
Wanting to inspect the work done so far, Gelid stood up and turned towards the entrance of the prison, only to meet the blue eyes of another dragon.
Gelid yelped, jumping back. "Swan!" She collected herself, then wondering how long he'd been there.
"Hello," he smiled, almost laughing. She was able to pick up the gentle white hue of his scales against the orange light that came from within the prison.
"Don't do that. I could've killed you," she said.
"Well when you put it that way." Swan shrugged.
Turry came outside, opening her mouth to speak to Gelid but then took a stern look at Swan. "What in the blazes - who - what - where - never mind." She turned to Gelid. "I came to tell you that we're almost done."
"Good. We'll get them out of here as quickly as possible. Can they all fly?" Gelid asked her.
"They should be able to. They're surprisingly quite healthy for a bunch of imprisoned dragons. I've talked to a few and some say they'd been there for years. Years!" Turry explained.
"That's awful. Perhaps I should take a look at them before they take off," Swan said.
"Thank you Swan but we don't have the time. We're wasting precious moments just getting all the dragons out. There's a lot of them and we need to get them all out before the Talons find out," Gelid said to him.
"Did you rescue the dragonets already? That was quick," Swan said.
"The dragonets! I forgot about them!" Gelid exclaimed. How could she forget about them? "I don't even know where they are!"
"Dragonets?" Turry asked anxiously.
"I know where they are," Swan said. "I went scouting for them earlier and found them a little further away from here. That was a while ago though, so I thought you must've got to them already."
Suddenly her plan cracked in half. There wasn't enough dragons to rescue both the adults and dragonets, yet it wasn't like Gelid could've stopped the battle and asked for more dragons to help her.
Gelid breathed heavily, putting a talon on her forehead to stop the encroaching headache.
Swan shuffled closer to her, brushing his wing against hers and leaned over, and she felt the warmth from his body. "Everything OK?" He asked.
"No! This is the first time I've done this kind of thing and it's already falling like an avalanche!" Gelid said.
"'I wouldn't say that," Turry said. "The prisoners are fine and we'll get them out."
Gelid smiled at Turry, feeling feathers in her stomach. "OK. OK. We'll just have to split up then. Turry, you can come with me, and Swan." She looked at him. "Can you show us where the dragonets are?"
"Of course," he said.
"What should I tell these sandwings to do?" Turry asked.
"Tell them that once they free the prisoners, take them straight to Seamarch. It's just east of Sanctuary. Get them to the doctors, they'll understand," Gelid said to Turry.
Turry nodded and ducked back into the prison.
"Are you alright?" She asked Swan.
"Are you?"
"Better, now that you're here."
"Ah, mutual feelings. Aren't they adorable," Swan said.
Gelid felt unsure what he meant by that but kept silent, choosing to enjoy his close company while it lasted.
Turry returned to them. "Okee dokee, I told them to head to Seamarch. My friend knows the way. They should be fine."
Gelid nodded at her. "Alright, Swan, lead the way."
Swan lifted into the air and they followed. Turry flew in close to Gelid.
"Do you think that we can do this, as in just the three of us?" Turry asked her.
"Any guards stationed must've been called off just as the battle began."
"I saw one guard earlier but he flew off. At first I though he spotted me just as I was flying off, but the battle part makes sense," Swan added.
"Well I guess that's good enough for me," Turry said.
Gelid looked to the horizon, seeing stars starting to fade at the arrival of a new day - or at least, an incredibly faint golden line against the sea. Obstructing the clean ocean view was an abundantly larger island. They flew over it, and countlessly, Gelid expected Swan to suddenly fly down, saying that he found the dragonets there, but he didn't.
That was when another, much smaller island manifested with golden light spewing from a torch, sending rays to the sand. The torch indicated the entrance of a cave mouth restricted by iron bars from the ceiling to the sand.
Like Swan mentioned, there were no guards, only the somber silence of gentle waves running up the beach.
Her talons sunk into the sand behind Swan, then she heard a whimper and tiny chatter follow after. Turry landed shortly after.
"Shh," Gelid said to Turry, then listening for the chatter again and walked closer to the mouth.
Swan stepped silently, then squeezed half his snout through the bars.
A little rainwing dragonet with lime green scales shakingly came into view, holding a pink fire berry as the only source of light inside.
"Hey, little one," Swan said softly. "It's OK. We're here to get you out. How many are with you?"
A slightly older skywing dragonet sauntered up the green rainwing and curled a wing over him. "He can't count," said the skywing. "I can. There are a few of us."
Gelid grabbed the bars, pulling them and trying to yank them out of the sand. Then she tried shaking the bars loose out of whatever kept them in place but to no avail. The bars were fixed.
"Turry, can you melt the bars?" She asked her.
"I can try," Turry responded.
"Stay clear of the bars, little ones. We're going to melt them to get you all out," Swan said, then stepping back.
Gelid stepped back too, allowing Turry to take over.
The sandwing tapped the bars. "Yes, I think I can do this - not that I've ever really done this before but I mean, my mother is a blacksmith so this shouldn't any more difficult than melting metal ore," she examined.
Turry leaned her neck back, opening her mouth in the build up of orange fire that coaxed heat.
Gelid had never seen fire spurted up close like this before, not that she really planned to either but it was an interesting observation. She was content with having the ability to breathe deadly frost anyway.
Turry spat fire on the bars and the heat turned the metal gooey and glowing white-yellow.
Swan took a step closer to Gelid and she felt his shoulder tense as he accidentally nudged her. Of course he wouldn't be too avid to be around fire.
"Hah! I did it," Turry smiled back at Gelid, showing that the bars dissipated into a molten clump on the ground, surrounded by glass. Gelid didn't know that glass came from sand.
Now that there was a way into the cave big enough for them, Gelid breathed frost on the metal, cooling it so that they could step over it, and they did.
Inside, the all the dragonets of different tribes - except the seawings - were gathered the other end of the cave out of view from the bars. Though, it wasn't as bad as Gelid expected.
Half the cave floor was fitted with wood planks. There were two troughs with food, and water against the dry cave wall, and there was a batch of fire berries in a barrel that looked as if any dragon could pick up. Perhaps Queen Auklet didn't want to gradually see them in a bad shape like the adults were.
"Great, now we have to get all of them to Seamarch," Gelid said. She was sure they all could fly since she saw them while she was enchanted.
"Uh, does anyone else see that?" Turry asked. She was only halfway into the cave yet stared out into the sky.
"See what?" Gelid asked her.
"Uh, a falling star?"
Gelid went to see out the cave as Turry stepped inside. She searched the air, then spotting a distant white shape falling to the horizon and slowly getting bigger.
No, it wasn't a star. It was a dragon.
It wasn't just any dragon either, as Gelid distinctively recognised him.
It was North and he was coming straight for them.