Sorry for not updating in a few weeks. With the current atmosphere with the pandemic, I've been very busy at home. The Sonic the Hedgehog film was great when I saw it in theaters before the pandemic broke out. Most of my down time is spent with helping my siblings with schoolwork. Now on with the chapter.

Chapter 56: Blaze meets the Dragonets

"Oh, wow, it is so, so exciting to meet you," Blaze exclaimed brightly. "Where is the SkyWing? I thought you said that the purple dragon was here, Cyril?"

Link chuckled as he got to his feet and transformed into his dragon form. He tapped Blaze on the shoulder. "I'm right here."

Blaze smiled at Link. "The tales about you are no exaggeration," she stated. "Your horns do gleam like gold."

Cynder looked obviously disgruntled. "Hands off of my mate," she stated rudely.

Blaze looked apprehensive at Cynder. "Your mate?" she asked, backing away. "I didn't know. I'm sorry."

Cynder smiled. "It's alright," she replied. "Now you know. As for the SkyWing dragonet, you're looking right at her."

Blaze's eyes widened in shock. "But you must be at least seventeen years old, miss," she replied. "How do you think you are the SkyWing dragonet of the prophecy?"

"It's a long story, Your Majesty," Link replied. "It deals with the egg that Burn threw off a cliff six years ago, an ape from the Dragon Realms, and the Dark Master himself."

"What prophecy?" Jambu asked. "What's a dragonet of destiny?"

"Are you serious?" Glory said to him. "Do you know anything about what's going on out here aside from Ganondorf?"

"It's far too complicated to explain," Starflight stated with a flick of his tail.

"There's a war going on," Clay said kindly, "and a prophecy that says five dragonets will stop it, and that's us."

"Oh," Jambu stated. "Neat."

"Yes, far too complicated," Tsunami said to starflight. The black dragonet frowned at her.

"It's a little more specific than that," Blaze pointed out. "It says two of the SandWing sisters will die - hopefully not me! And it says that the five dragonets are a MudWing, a SeaWing, a NightWing, a SandWing, and a SkyWing."

"Before we knew that Cynder was the SkyWing, we had a RainWing instead," Tsunami stated. "And we were fine with that."

"But I wasn't," Glory stated.

"That was until we learned from Ruby that she had a sister, Cynder," Clay stated.

Blaze's eyes widened in horror. "Cynder, you say?" she asked. "Not the dragon that boiled paralyzing fear into Burn, right?"

Cynder nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid so, Your Majesty," she admitted. "An ape found me at the bottom of the cliff that Burn hurled the SkyWing dragonet off of, at Death's doorstep. He took me to his master, Malefor. There, the Dark Master healed my wounds and gave me my name. I was raised by apes, believing lies that he told me about other dragons. I discovered that I was the daughter of Queen Scarlet moments before he turned on me.

"The Dark Master corrupted me with a fragment of the Mirror of Twilight and his magic, transformed me into a weapon of destruction, a sick puppet for him to manipulate and control. I killed hundreds of innocent souls while under his thrawl."

"There's also me," Sunny piped up, trying to change the subject. "I'm the SandWing even though I'm weird-looking."

Blaze peered at Sunny. "Oh my gosh. You are weird-looking! What's wrong with your tail? Why are your scales the wrong color?"

"I don't know," Sunny replied, spreading her wings. "Cynder thinks that only one of my parents was a SandWing. But I'm still the SandWing in the prophecy."

"Are you sure?" Blaze asked. She circled around Sunny, inspecting her. "Wow. You all are not what I expected. For one thing, you're smaller. And I thought you'd be, I don't know, prettier." She stopped at Glory. "Explain the RainWing again? Also the other two RainWings - why are they here?"

"You should head back through the tunnel," Link whispered to Jambu. He noticed that Mangrove was shivering and tugging his wings around himself. "Take Mangrove home."

"I'm sorry," Mangrove said to Glory. "I thought..."

"I know," Glory replied. "We'll find her, but not here." She pointed Southeast. "Both of you go. We'll catch up soon."

Jambu nodded in agreement. He was also shivering from wing tip to wing tip, and he looked especially glad to have an excuse to get away from Blaze.

"Where are they going?" Blaze asked. "Isn't Faron kind of far from here?"

"You know, we actually have some questions for you," Starflight stated firmly. "Like, can you tell us why you should be queen instead of your sisters?"

"Aside from being prettier and nicer and friendlier than they are?" Blaze asked. "That is pretty obvious." She smiled and whirled in a circle, holding the blanket out like a flag. "I mean, haven't you met them? Aren't they both awful? I've been having suspicions about Blister for a while. Ever since she became the ambassador to the Gerudo, she has been all 'Ganondorf wants this' and 'Ganondorf that'. Since the man had seized the Hylian throne two years ago, I've been coming to believe that this war was a distraction for the dragon tribes so that Ganondorf could seize the Golden Power for himself without our interference."

"Golden power?" Glory asked, bewildered. "What power?"

"The Triforce, my dears," Blaze replied. "It has been a secret among the royal families for centuries. The keys to its location hidden away."

"'With the Golden Power, World's End torn asunder'," Glory muttered.

Blaze sighed. "Ever since those refugees came, my want for the throne has been waning. I only want my sisters to not be queen. I don't want a tyrant ruling over the SandWings. From the news that Glacier's spies bring, Burn is threatening the MudWings with genecide if they don't continue fighting for her. That isn't a trait of one worthy of the throne."

"But could you survive a challenge?" Tsunami asked. "If you did become queen, how long will you last before someone tried to take the throne from you?"

"Ouch," Blaze said, obviously offended. "That's kind of rude, isn't it? I'm a much older dragoness than you. I've seen battle - more or less." She flicked her tail back and forth. "And I do have this deadly tail."

"So do all SandWings," Tsunami retorted, unimpressed.

"Hew, how do you cure someone who's been scratched by a SandWing tail?" Sunny asked. "I mean, say, by accident." She did a good job of sounding like she was just curious.

"There's this cactus juice that heals our poison," Blaze replied with a dismissive wave. "Grows all over the desert.

"Anyway, I don't really want the throne for myself anymore. If I do become queen, I'll most likely try to find the Eye of Onyx and use it to find one that is worthy of the throne. That's an excellent plan. So how does this prophecy thing work? Are you guys supposed to kill my sisters? That would make my life much easier."

Sunny looked taken aback. "We're not hired killers," she stated. "We only kill those that follow the Dark Master, the apes, and demons. Blister and Burn will face justice for their crimes. Ruby is currently slowly pulling out of her alliance with Burn. She knows that there are bigger fish to fry, namely Malefor."

"How do you know that?" Blaze asked.

"Because my mother keeps tabs on Ruby through the realm of dreams," Link explained. "She is the alicorn of the night, after all."

Luna, having been relaxing in the shade of a nearby tree in human form, perked up and transformed into her dragon form before approaching.

"You must be Blaze," Luna stated. "I am Luna."

The SandWing was taken by utter shock. "Lady Luna," she said, bowing. "It's an honor to meet you."

"The honor is all mine," Luna replied. "After being trapped in a statue for over nine millenia, it feels good to stretch my wings."

"Anyway," Blaze turned to the dragonets. "What's the 'power of wings of fire'? How do I get that? I doubt it's the power of a fire elemental. Would a phoenix be plausible?"

The dragonets exchanged looks. Phoenixes were rare beyond anything else. It was doubtful that the 'wings of fire' was a phoenix.

"We're figuring it out," Clay stated.

"It's not like we chose this," Glory added. "We were sort of shoved into this whole 'destiny' thing."

"You weren't," Blaze stated, her voice light and puzzled. "There's no RainWing in the prophecy at all. Why don't you just go home?"

"Because there is another prophecy, one that states that the purple dragon and Hylia's reincarnation would lead destiny's dragonets to victory," Starflight replied. "If it wasn't for Glory, we wouldn't have been as successful in freeing Cynder from Malefor's control."

Luna walked up to Cyril. "I think we better head back to the temple," she stated. "They can handle themselves."

The ice Guardian nodded. With a flash of light, the pair of them vanished into thin air just as a NightWing assassin landed on a nearby rock pile.

They all whipped around to stare at him. Blaze squinted in a puzzled way.

"Oh, hello. Is he in the prophecy?" she asked. "He's cute. Cuter than this one." She waved a talon at Starflight's wounded expression.

"Why, hello, everyone," Deathbringer stated. "Isn't this a coincidence? I was just talking about you all this morning." He turned to Glory and tilted his head at her purple scales. "Mystery dragon! Hmmm. There's something different about you. Did you get your claws trimmed?"

"Very funny," Glory replied, baring her teeth at him.

"You could have told me you were one of the dragonets," Deathbringer stated. "I'd have asked for your autograph. I see now that you're a RainWing, so... Glory, right?"

"Right. The one you were sent to kill," Glory stated. "Somehow I think that would have started us off on the wrong talon."

"I'm not necessarily here to kill you," Deathbringer objected. "And even if I were... this seems like a much better opportunity to kill her." He suddenly opened his front talons, revealing a pair of sharp silvery discs. They must have been the dragon equivalent to Sheikah throwing stars. Their edges gleamed as he flung them, one after the other, right at Blaze.

The SandWing shrieked and stumbled back, dropping the blanket. Sadly, she wasn't fast enough. One of the blades embedded itself in her neck, releasing a spurt of blood that sprayed all over Sunny.

The second disc ricocheted off of the gauntlet that housed the Master Sword as Link leapt in front of Blaze. It embedded itself into a nearby boulder.

Sunny screamed in terror as she looked down at her blood-spattered scales.

Clay jumped forward and clapped both his talons over the wound in Blaze's neck. "Throw me the blanket!" he yelled to Starflight. The NightWing looked back at him, frozen in terror.

Glory grabbed the blanket and flung it to Clay, who started to use it as a bandage.

But then Deathbringer appeared, landing on Blaze's back and tossing Clay aside as if the hefty MudWing weighed no more than a human. Two more throwing discs appeared in his talons.

Glory leaped at the assassin and knocked him backward off of Blaze. They rolled on the frozen ground, his black wings tangled with hers. He was really strong and astonishingly fast. He quickly pinned her down, his talons on her wings. Glory had her talons on a pouch on his neck.

"Killing Blaze was your assignment?" she asked.

"No, but I like to think outside the box," he answered. "And if I kill her, I figure it'll get me out of the trouble I'll be in for not killing you."

Cynder roared in fury as she assumed her SkyWing form and lunged at Deathbringer. Glory ripped open the pouch around Deathbringer's neck and caught a few more throwing discs. She pressed one of them to Deathbringer's neck as Cynder's tailblade met the same spot.

"Don't move, assassin," Cynder snarled. "If you do anything to hurt my friends, you'll have an extended vacation with Hades."

"You missed the biggest artery in Blaze's neck," Glory stated. "If I remember my dragon anatomy correctly, it's right here." She applied a little more pressure and Deathbringer flinched as the edge left a small wound on his scales. He lifted his talons from her shoulders and carefully backed off her.

Cynder advanced, keeping her tailblade at his neck as Glory stood to keep the disc she had against his neck as well. Cynder looked over his shoulder. Clay had the blanket tied firmly around Blaze's neck, but blood was already seeping through the thin fabric.

"Did I mention the part about how I don't actually want to kill you, right?" Deathbringer asked, eying Glory with an amused expression. "I'm pretty sure I snuck that in there."

"Oh, all right," Glory said, imitating Sparx. "I just trust you then, shall I?"

"If you let me kill her, I can let you go," he said. "That should give you a fair head start before they send someone else after you, especially since no one knows where you'll go next."

"All of us?" Glory asked. "You're here to kill all of us?"

"No," he replied. "Just some of you."

The conversation escalated to Starflight revealing that the others what Link told him back at the abandoned royal summer house. "Blister is a traitor to Hyrule, Deathbringer," he stated. "The war was a plot between Blister and Ganondorf the whole time. The tribes were too busy with the war that we weren't able to provide aid to Castle Town. Blister wanted to be queen, Ganondorf wanted the Triforce. The Hylian king is dead, their princess in hiding, the dead walking the once bustling streets of Castle Town." He pointed east, directing toward the direction of the Great Plateau.

"You must have noticed those dark clouds lurking over the Plateau," he stated. "It's there as bright as day. Blaze was able to come to that conclusion."

Deathbringer suddenly lunged forward and seized Glory's front talons in one talon and Cynder's tail in the other. He knocked Cynder away with a swat of a wing and focused solely on the blades in Glory's talons. Glory retaliated as best as she could.

"Ow! Stop!" Deathbringer cried. "It's like you want me to kill you!"

Just then a sound similar to what they heard back at the Dragon Temple before the enormous attack from dreadwings. It was the IceWings.

"Queen Glacier," Blaze breathed a sigh of relief. "I knew she would save me."