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Chapter 55: Princess Blaze

"But it better be good news," the SandWing stated, stomping around and heading into the ancient temple. "She doesn't like hearing bad news, and we don't like her hearing it either. Queen Glacier needs to figure that out and stop sending gloomy reports."

Glory and Jambu exchanged glances with Cyril before the trio of them hurried after him. The door thudded shut behind them and another SandWing guard followed close on their tails.

The ancient ruins that were used for the fortress were strewn with the remains of what seemed to be metal octopus monsters.

"What are those things?" Glory asked.

"Those are remnants of the ancient technology of the Sheikah that was used against the Demon King millennia ago," the guard replied. "This temple was once a place where people came to worship Hylia back then. Over the millenia, the Temple of Time replaced this place as the center of worship to the gods."

As they walked through the ruins, they could see parts where dragons were obviously trying to restore the old building. The new segments of walls were draped with thick woven tapestries. Each one was decorated with the sun blazing at the center, surrounded by patterns of images from the desert - the colosseum of Arbiter's Grounds, desert lizards, cacti, palm trees around an oasis, and camels. White, green, and blue covered the dull gray wall segments while on the segments that were of the original architecture were decorated with tapestries that depicted the Goddess Hylia battling the Demon King.

"Are the tapestries to ensure that Hylia won't blast you to smithereens?" Cyril asked.

"Not really," the SandWing replied. "When we came across this ruin, we felt welcomed as if the temple itself was wanting to have the living inside its walls once more."

"Cool," Jambu said. He pointed at a tapestry covered in rioting green lizards. "That one's really wild. I like it."

The SandWing soldiers stared at him. "Really?" the one in front asked. "Our IceWing visitors usually make it pretty clear that they think our hangings are garish and gaudy."

"We are used to the Dragon Temple in the Dragon Realms," Glory explained. "It did have magnificent tapestries of numerous colors and a magnificent Chandelier adorned with torches."

"Huh," the first SandWing stated. "Never heard that from one with ice breath before." He turned and kept walking. Glory shot Jambu a glare and he wrinkled his snout at her.

They reached the deepest chamber of the temple, where an enormous statue of the Goddess Hylia stood. In front of it sat some sort of building with similar design choices as the ancient machinery. Off to the side was the doorway to a small antechamber where a set of giant wooden doors sat. They stopped in front of the doors. One of the SandWings knocked twice and waited.

As the silence stretched out, Cyril noticed something huddled in a corner of the small room. They were undoubtedly a group consisting of a goron and several Hylians.

"What is that thing?" Jambu asked, pointing at the goron.

"I'm guessing that you aren't well versed in the races of Hyrule, then," one of the SandWings stated.

Glory nodded. "With the war against the Dark Master going on, we don't have time to read up on Hyrule's history," Glory explained.

The SandWing took a step back. "The Dark Master, you say?!" he asked terrified.

Cyril nodded solemnly. "But we are in a ceasefire at the moment for some reason," he stated. "The Dark Master must be plotting something. With the approach of the Night of Eternal Darkness, his return draws ever nearer." He pointed at the Hylians and Goron. "Why are they here?"

"Those are refugees from Castle Town," the second replied. "They sought refuge here from Ganondorf and the Gerudo. With the Hylian princess in hiding and her father dead, Ganondorf rules Hyrule with an iron fist. Blaze has been thinking of the alliance we had with the Hylian royal family for the past two years and has been providing refuge for those that do not wish to be ruled by the King of Evil and await the coming of the Hero." He knocked again, and this time the doors swung open.

The room on the other side was larger than the antichamber by a lot. It was smaller than the main chamber of the Dragon Temple, though. The smooth stone floor was covered in sand, and the tapestries on the walls were more intricate, with images of dragons, crowns, and jewels surrounding the yellow sun.

Giant ruby red pillows and camel-hair carpets were piled in a loose nest in the middle of the room, and sprawled across this was a strikingly beautiful SandWing.

She had her chin propped on one talon and was gazing listlessly into a mirror on the sand in front of her. Her tail coiled across the pillows, with the trademark poisonous barb touching the floor. Her wings were folded against her sides and her scales shimmered like white gold against the red backdrop.

Blaze lifted her eyes and saw Cyril, Glory, and Jambu in the doorway. She forced a smile and reached her front talons toward them in a welcoming gesture.

"Oh, wonderful," she said. "We haven't had visitors in so long. I was hoping Queen Glacier would send us news."

"Sorry, but we don't come from Glacier," Cyril stated. "We hail from the Dragon Realms."

Blaze's eyes widened in shock. "The Dragon Realms?" she asked. "What a pleasant surprise. Ocotillo, please bring us some tea. Oh, and some of those dried lizards from Dodongo's Cavern if we have any left."

"Of course, Your Majesty," the first guard stated with a bow. Both SandWing soldiers backed out of the room, leaving the RainWing siblings and ice Guardian alone with Blaze.

"Is it about Queen Scarlet?" Blaze asked. "Did we find out she's dead? Are the SkyWings still following Burn? You know, if Glacier would let me go to the SkyWing territory, I bet I could convince the SkyWings to switch alliances to us. I can be really convincing. Everyone likes me."

She sighed in disappointment. "I know what the IceWings always say," she said restlessly. "What Glacier always says. Stay put and let her handle things. I know all that military stuff is too confusing for me. But I think I could be useful with the diplomacy. Other dragons like hearing me talk."

"I'm sure that is true, Your Majesty," Glory stated politely.

"So?" Blaze stated. Her black eyes made Glory shudder slightly. "What's your important message?"

Glory took a deep breath. "The dragonets of the prophecy and the purple dragon want to meet you."

Blaze sat up fast. "The dragonets?" she cried in shock. "Glacier found them?"

"They're looking for you," Glory corrected.

At that moment, Blaze started ranting about a party. "We haven't had one of those in forever, because Queen Glacier disapproves of that kind of thing, but for something like this I'm sure we could! Oh, we'll definitely need more dried lizards. Maybe we should roast a camel - one of them's a MudWing, right? He'd probably like that. We don't have anything for SeaWings... maybe Queen Glacier can send us some fish, or a penguin, or do you think she'd like a walrus?"

"Wait," Cyril interrupted. "There's a catch, though. They're not willing to risk coming inside. They need you to go meet with them."

Blaze flung herself down upon the blankets again, looking petulant. "But what about my party?" she asked. "And I don't like going outside. It's nearing winter and it makes my scales all dry and ugly."

"You won't have to go far," Glory stated as Jambu was twitching in a wierd, distracting manner. She poked him with her tail. "And isn't it worth it if the dragonets end up choosing you to be the next SandWing queen?"

Blaze placed one of her claws between her teeth, thinking.

Jambu poked Cyril and cut his eyes toward the far corner of the room. He squinted, but all he could see was sand, stone, and tapestry.

Then the sand moved for the briefest moment, a pair of eyes blinked out of the wall, then vanished again. A RainWing was disguising himself as part of the wall.

"I should wait for Queen Glacier," Blaze stated. "She wouldn't like my going off alone. I'm sure she wants to meet the dragonets, too."

"Life is about risk," Cyril stated. "Life requires taking risks and learning from what you did wrong. In order for you to mature and not rely on others and be your own leader, you need to take your own risks. With the Night of Eternal Darkness approaching, now is the most opportune time to meet with the dragonets. For soon, they'll be needed to fend off the Dark Master's forces."

"There's nothing to fear from the dragonets, and besides, Penguin, Cyril, and I will be there to protect you," Glory stated.

"Oh," Blaze replied. "That is reassuring." She gave Jambu a concerned look, and he managed to stop twitching for a moment.

"Do you think they'll choose me?" Blaze asked hopefully, turning back to Cyril. "Oh, who am I kidding. I'm sure they will if they meet me! All right, I'll do it."

"Great!" Jambu burst out. "Let's go!"

"Right now?" Blaze asked. "Already?"

"Most likely," Cyril replied. "The purple dragon needs their help to defeat the Dark Master."

Blaze examined herself in the mirror one more time before she placed one of the camel-hair blankets onto her back, like a cape, before heading for the door.

Jambu darted for the corner, grabbed a patch of sand, which was Mangrove's elbow, and tugged him along after them.

"Have you heard of Spyro?" Cyril asked.

Blaze smiled. "I heard that his horns shimmer like gold," she stated. "Why is his kind referred to as purple dragons, Cyril? It seems idiotic to assume all dragons with purple scales possess that sort of power."

"It's because purple dragons were born among other elemental dragons," Cyril replied. "Each type of elemental has specific colors that associate with the element that they harness. Fire dragons are red, ice dragons are blue, electric dragons are yellow, earth dragons are brown or green, and wind dragons are white like an IceWing." The pair of them chattered on as they swept through the antechamber.

Glory glanced at the refugees that Blaze was harboring. They were sad, even after two years since Ganondorf seized the throne. She bowed down to their level.

"The Hero will rise to defeat Ganondorf," Glory promised. "Light will shine on Hyrule once more. The future foretells it."

They hurried after Blaze and Cyril, following them back out into the canyon. They went by a few SandWing guards; Blaze addressed them by name and they saluted, but she didn't tell them where she was going and none of them looked suspicious or even curious. None of them paid attention to Glory or Jambu. They were preoccupied with staring at Cyril.

Most of the SandWings that they past were injured in some way. Blaze was unscathed, but all of her soldiers had scars slicing across their scales, missing talons, or missing tails.

The cold air hit them hard as they stepped into the canyon. Blaze wrapped her blanket around herself more tightly, lifted her claws gingerly out of the snow, and whined. "Are you sure the dragonets won't come inside?"

Cyril noticed Glory glance at Jambu. The shimmer in the air beside him was most likely another RainWing.

"That way, Your Majesty," she said, nodding southwest.

Blaze heaved a sigh, spread her wings, and leaped into the air. Cyril, Glory, and Jambu followed, Jambu still clutching the invisible Mangrove. They steered her toward the Rito Village. As they flew, Cyril noticed that Glory was scanning the ground below for something. The sun was high in the sky, although it felt like it was far away, behind a ceiling of ice, being nearly winter. The frost glinted on the ground and they could see patches of grass and shrubbery. She noticed a wolf trotting across the rocks.

She spotted Link leaning against the pedestal in his human form, Midna leaning against his shoulder. Cyril noticed that the others were most likely hiding in the dried up lake around the pillar that was the Rito Village. They circled around to land, Blaze behind them.

Sunny was the first one to emerge. "You did it!" she exclaimed. "You found... him... wait." She squinted at Blaze. "Uh, Glory? That's an actual SandWing."

"I know," Glory replied. "Don't worry, Mangrove is here, too." She flicked her tail. "It's all right to show yourself now."

"Yikes!" Blaze yelped, leaping away from him. "How did that happen? Where did he come from?" She looked around wildly as if she expected more dragons to suddenly materialize out of thin air.

"What do you know about RainWings, Your Majesty?" Glory asked. She watched Blaze's face intently.

But Blaze looked as mystified as before. "I've heard they're pretty," she said, tossing her head. "But I've never seen one."

"You have now," Glory stated. She held out her wings and let them shift to resemble Link's wings, purple along the ribs and golden membranes. At the same time, Jambu's scales shivered back to pink, although a paler, chillier shade than before.

"Ooooooo," Blaze exclaimed enviously. She reached out and took one of Jambu's wings in her talons, inspecting the scales as if her were an inanimate painting instead of a living dragon. Jambu blinked at Glory but didn't pull away.

"Wow, I wish I could do that," Blaze stated. "I'd be a different color every minute!" She turned over the wing so Jambu had to contort himself into an odd position.

She seemed more intrigued by their scales than annoyed about being tricked by their disguises.

"Do you think the changing camouflage would still work if I had someone make, like, a coat of RainWing scales for me?" Blaze asked. "That would be pretty." She eyed Jambu's scales like she was trying to figure out how to remove them from his body. Mangrove finally looked up and met Glory's eyes with a worried expression.

By now Cynder, Clay, Tsunami, and Starflight had all emerged from the lake as well. Starflight pointed at Blaze, his eyes wide.

"Glory!" he cried. "This-this is - you found -"

"I know," Glory said. "Everyone, this is Blaze. Blaze, these are - These are the dragonets of destiny."