Chapter 3

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Flint screamed.

The dragon flinched when it heard her scream, looked towards her, and then with an annoyed look on its face disappeared into the tunnels. After the dragon left, the others woke up from her scream.

"What's going on?" Hunter said.

"Flint, are you okay?" Tulsi asked.

"There was a dragon right next to you!" Flint screamed.

"There was?" Prancer asked, looking around the room. "Are you sure?"

"YES, why would I make this up?"

"I'm not saying you're making it up," Prancer said. "But I don't think any Webwing or Cavewing in their right mind would come deep down into these caves. Maybe you just thought you saw something."

"NO! I am sure there was a dragon in the shadows behind you!"

"It could have just been our shadows," Hunter said.

"IT WASN'T YOUR SHADOWS!" Flint screamed.

"Hey calm down," Prancer said. "Where did this dragon run off to?"

"That way," Flint said, pointing to the tunnel behind them.

"Then let's go find it," Prancer said and the group went off down the tunnel.

Why is it that they don't believe me? I said what I saw and yet they think I'm imagining things. And why wasn't Prancer more upset about it? Why did he join Tulsi and Hunter's side? Wasn't he the one who would want someone to take the first watch during the night to make sure we weren't snuck up on? We should have had someone on first watch, then that dragon would have never had the chance to sneak up on them.

She then thought back to what she was doing at the time. And yet I was the one up but decided to go away from them to clear up my head. But that is all because of the dumb and shy Drillwing! If she was to just leave Prancer alone then I wouldn't have left them and we would all be a lot better off. Oh how much I just want to get rid of her just.

They continued to walk down the tunnel until they reached a dead end with no dragon in sight.

"How's that possible?" Flint said. "I saw it run down this tunnel and this tunnel had no other split paths to go down on so how did it just disappear?"

"Flint, are you sure you didn't just imagine things?" Hunter asked.

"NO WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT?" Flint yelled.

"Because your eyes look sleepy; did you sleep at all last night?"

"Yes I got plenty of sleep," Flint lied.

"Ok," Hunter said, looking like he still didn't believe Flint. "So anyway buddy," Hunter said to Prancer. "Where are we to go now?"

STOP SAYING HE'S YOUR BUDDY! Flint screamed in her mind.

Prancer took a long time to answer, instead looking at the wall with what seemed to be a blank look on his face.

"Prancer?" Flint asked.

"Yeah?" Prancer said, shaking his head.

"Did you hear Hunter's question?"

"Oh yeah, I was thinking that maybe the four pathways have something to do with us. Maybe each of us has to do something to conquer each pathway."

"How do we know what to do though?" Flint asked.

"I don't know," Prancer said. "But we will figure it out. For now let's explore more into these cave systems. Maybe they will hold more clues for us to find."

"That's a great idea!" Tulsi said and started following Prancer down the tunnel.

ARGH, that dragon is REALLY starting to get on my nerves! She is so reliant on him that if she had to save anyone and he wasn't around, she would fail at it, I know it. It is very bad to be reliant on other dragons because they will just use you for their bidding. Flint thought back to the time when she was still with her tribe.

She was three and this was after the year that all the dragons pretended that she didn't exist. She really wanted to make friends with someone to feel special and when a Cavewing named Granite asked if she wanted to become her friend, Flint accepted. That however was the worst gift that Flint had ever accepted. Granite would use Flint to do her bidding, making her pick fights with other dragons Granite doesn't like, forcing her to do all of her hard labor, and if Flint ever complained about it then Granite would threaten Flint that she wouldn't be her friend anymore. So Flint obliged by this torture for four months until she became fed up with it and after hearing that her parents were going to send her off to the training camp, Flint took it upon herself to take off before anyone was able to use her again. Why do dragons have to use other dragons for their bidding, Flint had thought when she was running away from her tribe, with tears rolling down her eyes. It's not fair and I NEVER WANT TO SEE THEM AGAIN!

Reliving these thoughts in her mind had Flint so angry that she punched the next rock she saw and split it into two. Only Hunter noticed but shut up when he saw the look she was giving him. She would rather not punch anything else today.

"Spoiled Webwing!" Flint yelled at Hunter which made him flinch, obviously not expecting her to call him.

"Yes?" Hunter said, turning around.

"Are you sure that the riddle said what you said?"

"Yes," Hunter said. "What type of question is that?"

Flint looked at his posture from head to toe. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't lying and your posture makes it seem like you were telling the truth."

"Ok?" Hunter said and walked away from her.

I still don't trust him, Flint thought.

She knew that anyone in the royal family was bad news, no matter which tribe it was in, they are spoiled brats who never have to deal with anything that the dragons below them deal with.

Why do we need a queen to rule our tribe? Can't we just get along and work together, why do we need a queen to tell us what to do. All that does is give all the dragons in that bloodline unlimited power to control the dragons who were less fortunate. If I had my choice, I would have all the dragons work together with everything instead of needing one dragon to tell everyone to do it.

They were passing an intersection of tunnels and the group needed to decide on which pathway to take. Prancer wanted to go down the left path and, of course, Tusi immediately agreed with him.

You seriously wouldn't last a minute by yourself Drillwing, Flint thought.

Flint looked down the right path and she swore she saw the shadow of a dragon move behind the rock pillars in there. She wanted to scream it out but one, she didn't want to scare it away in case they were able to catch their stalker and two, she was sure that no one would believe her if she said that she saw it again. So instead she voted that they should go down the right tunnel and Hunter decided to agree with her as well, maybe because he caught the worried look in her eyes when she looked down the tunnel.

"So this is awkward," Prancer said.

"How do we break a tie?" Hunter asked.

"Maybe we could settle it with rock, web, and sharp wings," Tulsi suggested.

"What?" Flint said.

"It's a game I used to play with the other Drillwings," Tulsi said. "Web beats rock, rock beats sharp wings, and sharp wings beat web. We could use this to settle which way to go."

"THAT IS THE MOST DUMBEST IDEA I'VE EVER HEARD!" Flint yelled.

Tulsi flinched back from Flint's outburst, "Sorry… I just thought… it was a… good… idea."

"Argh you know what, fine," Flint said. "Take whatever path you wanna take, I'm taking the right one!" Before anyone could argue with her she ran away from all of them down the tunnel.

AAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH! I HATE IT SO MUCH! NO ONES LISTEN'S TO ME! THIS IS WHY I PREFER TO WORK BY MYSELF! THEN I DON'T HAVE TO DRAG DEAD WEIGHT AROUND! She slowed down when she was sure she was far enough away from all of them. Well Prancer I would want to have around but not the other two! They could go rot in a hole for all I care! Especially that DRILLWING! AARRGGHH!

She felt like she was running for hours when she decided to stop to take a break. She then screamed out all of the things she hated in life which echoed off the cave walls at a tremendous speed. Flint just wanted to stay there, by herself, where she felt the most comfortable but she heard footsteps running down the cavern. Flint really wanted to punch the dragons that she saw emerge.

"CAN YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" she screamed at Tulsi and Hunter who were walking towards her. "YOU TWO ARE THE REASON WHY MY ANGER IS UP AND BEING HERE ISN'T HELPING TO IT!"

"Flint, listen!" Hunter pleaded. "Please calm down."

"NO! IT'S YOUR FAULT, TULSI FAULT, MY TRIBE'S FAULT, EVERYBODY'S FAULT!"

"Listen, we need your help," Hunter said.

"Wait, what?" Flint said, lowering the anger in her voice. "What do you mean?"

"Well when you got very mad at us and ran down the tunnel, we followed you with Prancer right behind us. Then while we were running we heard a scream and wondered what it was."

"Wait, don't tell me," Flint said.

Hunter finished anyway. "We turned around and we saw a dragon in the shadows. It grabbed Prancer and took him into the darkness before we could react."

"WHAT?!" Flint screamed.

"But it was what I saw of the dragon that got me very concerned, Flint," Hunter said. "I think it was a Deathwing."