Hello, readers and writers alike,

Welcome to my 4th book in my Arc 4 of Wings Of Fire. We continue off after the events of Wings Of Fire: Dawn Of Awakening, following Vala as she goes back to her tribe to try to save the one dragon she loves. Is she going to be able to figure out a way to save Abrax or will a new problem present itself that will throw everyone for a loop? Keep reading to find out!

Some answers are hidden in the dark

Vala has only ever known one thing growing up, how much she hates her tribe. Everything about her tribe makes her disgust them, their lust for blood, their arena games, and worst of all, their queen. Queen Helen was the worst queen and Vala wanted nothing more than to get rid of her. When she found an opportunity to run away from her tribe she took it, but was that the right choice?

Now Vala is going back to her tribe, determined to save the only dragon she loves before Queen Helen kills him. Abrax was the perfect dragon and she wouldn't let anything happen to him. But running in blindly may be a terrible choice and may put her in grave danger. Is Vala going to be able to succeed in her goal or is a catastrophe inevitable?

The

Lost Artifact

Prophecy

Turn your bodies away from the sky

To the caves that run underground

To a war that has lasted centuries

Where peace can never be found

Within their tribes lies a secret

Within their war lies a secret

Within their caves lies a secret

That may save everyone in time

Watch out for a great power buried below

To dangerous to leave

Help the tribes to unite together

Before everything will die

PROLOGUE

Abrax was waiting for someone to come to meet him that day. He had been waiting for them for the last couple of days. Being stuck in a jail cell for years without many dragons to talk to makes you lonely.

Oh, I wonder where Vala is? Abrax wondered. I hope she is safe. Queen Helen is furious that she escaped and she took her frustration out on me. Ow, that last beating was the worst but I will hold through. I have to.

Abrax wondered what life would have been like if Vala and he weren't found out about their love for each other. Who knows, he would be out of this jail, they would be living peacefully together, and think of the dragonets they would have. It made him smile thinking of that life but that wasn't going to happen, as long as he was stuck in this cage. If only he could get out, then he would take Vala away from this terrible tribe and they would live out the rest of their lives in peace.

But would it be that simple? Abrax thought. First off would Queen Helen try to hunt us down and kill us or leave us alone? Maybe we would be fine but then would Vala want to leave with me? She came to me however long ago to ask how to save these dragons that were trapped and were going to die in the arena games. After that, I'd never heard back from her but from the conversations that I listened to, it sounded like she went with this group of dragons and escaped from here.

Maybe Vala didn't truly like Abrax. I mean if she did like him as much as she said so then why would she leave him down here, all alone, and left for Queen Helen to decide his fate.

At least when she was here, Queen Helen wouldn't kill me because she could use Vala to keep me alive but now nothing is holding her back from killing me any second she wants to.

Abrax heard footsteps coming down the tunnel and it was the dragon he was waiting to see.

"Happy to see me?" Nova asked.

"Always," Abrax said.

Nova was one of the guards that guarded him to make sure he wouldn't escape. Usually, adult dragons were the guards but she was only a dragonet. She said it was because she excelled in her classes so they allowed her to take on this job. Nova had probably been a guard for about one year now.

And she looks perfect, the way her scales align with her spikes, the beautiful color of her dark gray scales that mix in with her black scales. She looks perfect.

Abrax shook his head, realizing what he was thinking. He can't like her, he already likes Vala. He wouldn't want to break Vala's heart for how much she has sacrificed for him. But then again, she did kind of leave him down here and Nova was the one that stayed.

Maybe she doesn't like me? Who am I kidding? She likes me and probably is coming back to save me right now.

"So how was your day?" Nova asked.

"Oh you know, basically the same," Abrax said. "Pacing around the cage, falling asleep, and that's it."

Nova giggled. "Sounds like someone wants to get out of their cage."

"You bet I do," Abrax said.

Out of all the guards that he saw, Nova was the most unique one. She wouldn't punish him for saying his thoughts out loud, she actually had conversations with him unlike most of the other guards, and she was never mean to him. The guards are supposed to only give him two meals a day to keep him alive but make him weak, but Nova has recently been sneaking in a third meal for him. Abrax said to her not to do it since it was risky but no matter how many times he told her, there would always be another meal waiting for him when it was Nova's shift.

"That reminds me," Nova said. "I got something for you." Nova slipped on through a box with a note attached to it inside the cage. Abrax read the note and almost felt like he was going to explode in happiness.

"For the one dragon who makes life feel special," Abrax read aloud. "Thank you, Nova."

"Well you still have to open it up," Nova said. "That's only half the surprise."

Abrax opened up the box and he felt his heart almost jump out of his chest. Inside the box was a cake and on the top was written "Happy Birthday Abrax!"

"Wow, Nova you didn't need to get this for me," Abrax said.

"But I had to," Nova said. "A dragon shouldn't celebrate his birthday without a cake! And you're turning eight today! You would be old enough to start working around with the other Spikewings if you weren't locked up in here."

"Yeah I know, locked up in this stupid cage, my childhood dwindling away slowly in front of me."

"Well I think you're doing your best," Nova said. "You can't change what happened in the past but can focus on what lies ahead of you in the future."

"Always one with inspirational quotes are you?" Abrax asked Nova.

"I study them a lot," Nova said. "I love reading books, I mean you should see some of the books that we have gotten over the years, not only from our tribe but the other tribes as well."

"I'm not much of a book reader," Abrax said.

"But maybe you could be!" Nova said. "Hang on one second," and Nova reached into the pouch that was around her neck. Every Spikewing got one when they were in school but Abrax of course was in jail, not in school where he should be. Nova pulled out a book about some sort of thing called The Scorching.

"What's this?" Abrax asked.

"I don't know," Nova said. "It was found in the old territory that used to belong to the Drillwings. The book looks old like it's been around for thousands of years."

"Yeah, it almost looks like the pages are going to fall out of it," Abrax said, looking at the condition of the pages. "Why do you have this?"

"Well I found it and have kept it with me for over three years," Nova said. "I've tried to figure it out but it just seems so weird. Something called scavengers are said to be kidnapping dragon eggs and the dragons retaliated and burned the scavengers to the ground. What is a scavenger?"

"I don't know," Abrax said. "Maybe some other dragons?"

"Maybe," Nova said. "But then why were they stealing dragon eggs? What even is this book? Nothing like that ever happened here on Petonix."

"Well look it says here that it happened on some place called Pyrrhia," Abrax said.

"Pyrrhia?" Nova asked. "That doesn't sound like any place I know."

"Maybe it's someplace that we haven't been to," Abrax said and then under his breath whispered. "Maybe Vala was right about them."

"What was that?" Nova asked.

"Oh, nothing," Abrax said and smiled at her trying to act normal except that his mind couldn't stop thinking about Nova. How beautiful her spikes shinned with her body, her amazing pink eyes. Argh, stop it, bad Abrax, bad Abrax, stop thinking about her!

"Hey, are you okay?" Nova asked, lifting his head to meet her eyes. Abrax was too stunned to speak but nodded his head.

Nova smiled. "Good to know," she said and turned back to read the book. Now Abrax's mind was in a rush. She touched me! Her scales felt so soft! Argh, why does my brain have to do this to me?

"Huh this is weird," Nova said.

"What is it?" Abrax asked.

"Well look at this painting in the book," Nova said. "It has a description of all the seven dragon tribes on it, Icewings, Nightwings, Sandwings, Skywings, Rainwings, Seawings, and Mudwings."

"Doesn't sound like any tribes here," Abrax said. "But Vala always said that she heard that some of these tribes came here two thousand years ago and were the reason we are down here today."

"Who's Vala?" Nova asked.

"Oh," Abrax said, realizing he just said her name out loud. "Just a friend I know." He hasn't told Nova about Vala because he doesn't know how she would react if she knew he cared about another dragon. It seems like she wants him to care about her.

"Ok," Nova said. "But look at the dragon painted behind all the other dragons. It's so small, almost like the dragon who painted this only saw a glimpse of the dragon in the distance."

"And what is it about this dragon that is weird?" Abrax asked.

"Well look, it doesn't look like any of the other dragons here," Nova said, pointing at the weird scales that almost looked like different versions of igneous rocks, most of them being intrusive. Throughout the scales also looked to be pathways of bright red to orange glows, almost like lava.

"What is that dragon?" Abrax asked.

"I'm not sure," Nova said. "But here look at what this dragon wrote," and Nova pulled out another book from her pouch.

"How many books do you have on you?" Abrax asked.

"About six," she said. "Three in each pouch."

"Okay, wasn't expecting that answer," Abrax said and then looked at the page that Nova opened up. "Is this a written statement from a dragon?"

"Yes, the dragon is an Icewing named Arctic. Now it's a long statement, goes into something talking about his son named Darkstalker or whatever but here's the important part," Nova said as she pointed to almost the end of the statement. "Read it."

"And to whoever will find this, know this," Abrax read. "There is something else out in the world. Not just on Pyrrhia, there is some sort of thing out there. I don't know how to explain it, I only got a glimpse of it one day. I peered into my son's room and saw some sort of dragon talking to him. It wasn't a dragon I knew though. In fact, it didn't even look like a dragon from any of the tribes here. Its scales were made out of rocks that get created when lava cools down and have lines that look like lava going throughout its body."

"Sounds like the dragon in the picture," Nova said.

"Yeah," Abrax said and continued reading the statement. "The dragon was doing something weird with her hands. She seemed to somehow have what looked like lava coming out of them and making a little light show in front of my son. My son seemed happy but accidentally touched one and seemed to burn his hand. He cried out in pain and that's when I rushed in there to confront the dragon. She seemed surprised to see me but had a smirk on her face.

"Looks like I have to leave this party," she said before disappearing in front of me. She literally wasn't there anymore and I am not making this up, whoever is reading this. I know what I saw and it wasn't good. Whatever this dragon was doing with my son just didn't sit right with me.

I ordered dragons to go around and find this intruder but at that moment a massive storm rolled in and forced us to hunker down until it passed. To this day I still wonder how that storm appeared at the perfect time. It was a beautiful day outside with no clouds visible in the sky. So how did clouds all of a sudden appear right as that intruder was getting away? I thought I saw something in the clouds that day but it may have just been my mind playing tricks on me. Other dragons told me that and said to let it go, that it was probably nothing but I just couldn't. Ever since that day, more weird occurrences have been happening. Massive tidal waves off the coast, frequent earthquakes, hurricanes, and eruptions in the distance. To me, this all feels connected."

"Wow this dragon seems paranoid," Abrax said.

"But maybe he's not," Nova said. "I mean we have a picture of this dragon and now a written statement of it from another dragon. Sounds like something big if you ask me."

"Maybe," Abrax said. "Let's see what else he says."

"It's been many years since that incident. Darkstalker is growing up and unlocking his animus powers. I am going to try and make sure he doesn't turn evil with them. Maybe that is what that dragon was doing, trying to do something with my son. Who knows? Anyway, I leave whoever is reading this with this warning. Watch out for this dragon. I don't know who she is but she seems like trouble. Watch out for anything suspicious, increased earthquakes, storms out of nowhere, tsunamis, volcanoes erupting, anything. Something is connected in all of this and I hope that it is stopped before something bad may happen. Oh yeah, you probably want to know the name of this dragon that I saw. Well, I don't know the name, I just know what she looks like, but if I had to put a name to this dragon or more importantly whatever tribe they were from, I would say they are a Lavawing. I don't know, that's just what she looked like with her lava-like appearance. Anyway, good day and good luck," and that was the final line of the statement at the end of the book.

"Lavawing?" Abrax said. "Doesn't sound nice."

"Yeah, I know," Nova said. "I've probably read these books hundreds of times but still can't put my head around it. What is a Lavawing? Did this dragon truly see what he saw or was his mind playing tricks on him? And is this all even real or just a fairytale that you tell dragonets to make them fall asleep?"

"I don't know," Abrax said. "But it does sound weird, maybe you should go to the library and see if there are any more books that talk about this."

"That's a great idea," Nova said and then a gong rang out in the distance. "Oh, that means my shift is over. Don't worry though, I'll be back and maybe with more information on this occurrence." Nova put her books back in her pouches before turning back to Abrax. "Just don't get yourself into more trouble."

"Ha, no promises," Abrax said.

Nova giggled and before she walked away, she rubbed her tail across his chin. "Bye," she said.

"Bye," Abrax said, trying to hide his blushing from her. Once she walked away, he put his head on the floor and thought about everything that just happened. Not just her making a move like that on him but also about whatever this Lavawing was that this Icewing saw.

Something weird seemed to have happened back then. I wonder if something like that is going on now. Nah, no way something like that can be happening but might as well keep an eye out for things that look out of place.

At that moment, another guard came up to guard Abrax. Abrax didn't know the name of this guard but didn't care. Most of them were mean and he didn't want to know their names. Nova was the only guard he cared about.

Mark my words, one day I will get out of here, Abrax thought. I will find Vala and we will live a happy life. Abrax looked at the cake that he hid behind him from the guard's view. No matter what it takes.