Chapter 22
The dragons rotated positions, some would watch for trailing soldiers, some scouted ahead, ever flying. None spoke, not too happy with the makeshift decisions. They had nothing much else to do, until Hurricane yelled, "Sea ho!" Something she'd probably read in the undersea adventure books Webs sometimes got her.
Scorch wasn't too sure if it was used in the right context, but no one judged. They were all tired, defeated, and out of prison.
"I think we're out!" Asha said.
"Hey, look! I think I see a cave over there!" Hurricane said. Her voice was becoming hoarser by the minute. They all flew harder until they saw that cave, with overhanging stalactites. They all crash-landed from exhaustion, most groaning.
The cave looked like a dragon's mouth from the outside, the jaw of a large reptile fossilized in stone. The dragonets breathed irregularly, some more than others. Asha quietly said she would take guard and moved to the entrance. They were all rejoicing on the inside, but too tired to show any excitement. They fell asleep within minutes. Even Asha.
Flap, flap, whoosh. Hissssss….
Scorch partly-opened his eyes, to see a blurry image of a dark giant lumbering over the sleeping dragons. A snorting sound came, but Scorch was still half-asleep. More giant dragons landed in the small cave.
Then he saw an ice-blue blur rammed into the lead one, which woke him up really fast. With his eyes all the way open, he could see seven NightWings snarling with fury. The first one though…Who was that? The NightWing roared, waking the others up. Then he looked into the leader's eyes.
It was Morrowseer.
The rest of the dragonets and Asha came to the aid of Phantom, who was dueling Morrowseer. Scorch lit himself on fire and barreled into the an unsuspecting, dark-colored dragon. Komodo jumped and flung lava-venom on one of the NightWings, who howled in pain and clawed at Komodo, leaving a long scratch on her arm. She growled, but before she could reach him, Hurricane forced a stalactite to fall on him. Shimmer reluctantly set off a couple of bolts, stunning two of them.
A purple dragon Scorch set on fire flailed and jumped off the cliff's edge, and a female, probably his mate, cried out in pain and charged at Scorch, her bloodshot eyes filled with murder. He raised his tail, but not quickly enough. She tackled him and rammed his head against the wall.
The last thing he saw was Phantom's frostbreath shooting over Asha's head, covering another NightWing, and the whitish color of the shimmering crystals spread through Scorch's last thought:
We tried.
The End…