Chapter 10
"Ow… Ow… Ow! How do you see in a place like this!" Vala screamed.
Flint, Hunter, and Vala had left the depths of the caves and into the upper levels where sunlight was more visible and it wasn't pitch black. Flint thought it would be smooth sailing from there, except for the fact that Vala was running into everything.
"Vala, look in front of you and dodge out of the way of the pillars ahead of you," Flint said.
"Easy for you to say, everything is so bright here, I can barely see in front of me, Ow!" she said as she ran into another pillar.
"I guess since your tribe has been used to living in pure darkness or low light conditions, that's why you can't see well when there is a lot of light," Hunter said.
"I'll get through it," Vala said. "Ow! Ok, why are there so many rock pillars up here? Why aren't the caves more open?"
"That may be how your tribe lives," Flint said. "But our tribes love to keep the natural formations because they look beautiful."
"That is what they did, before the war," Hunter noted.
"Yeah, the stupid war," Flint said. She then looked at Hunter. "Why can't our tribes get along? I mean look at you and me. We mostly get along fine so what is wrong with all the other dragons in our tribes?"
"Well, I don't know," Hunter said. "Maybe because they have to follow what the queen says and they don't want to disobey them."
"But there have to be a lot of dragons that don't want this war," Flint said. "Why aren't there more dragons trying to protest it?"
"Didn't you say your war was over a lost artifact?" Vala asked.
"Yeah," Hunter said. "Over an artifact that is said to hold immense power. Prancer said he had an idea of where we could go to find a trail to look for it but all it brought us was this riddle that we don't understand."
"What did the riddle say?" Vala asked.
"It said, 'Ahead of your journey will lie four pathways. One is for the heart, another for the soul. The next is for the mind, and the final for the voice. Conquer these pathways and the end to your journey will open up. Be wary though. Lose your way and you will never return.'"
"Don't forget the creepy GOOD LUCCCCKKKKK at the end," Flint said.
"Oh yeah, that too," Hunter said.
"Hmm," Vala said. She then walked around in a circle before speaking to them again. "What if each pathway has something to do with each of you?" Vala suggested.
"That's what Prancer said. But we don't know how they relate to us," Hunter said.
"I have an idea for one of them," Vala said. "Um, Flint?"
"Yes?" Flint said.
"Didn't I hear you say you have a slight issue with your jealousy."
"That's an understatement," Hunter jokingly said.
"Well, yes," Flint said, trying to ignore the joke. "I may have had a problem with that, I don't know if I still do."
"Well what if the pathway for the heart was about you," Vala suggested. "Maybe it has something to do with how your jealousy is affecting your heart."
"IT ISN'T AFFECTING MY HEART!" Flint yelled but Hunter held her back before she could punch anything.
"She's not saying that it is," Hunter said, looking Flint in the eyes. "She is just suggesting a possibility of how we could solve the riddle. Who knows, maybe the heart thing is about me?"
Flint calmed down and breathed before she spoke again. "Okay," she said. "I can see that."
"Good," Hunter said. "Now come on, we should be almost there to the Tuff Resistance."
They continued to walk down the tunnels while Flint thought of what Vala said.
Is it true that my jealousy is affecting my heart? I don't feel it affecting anything there. Sure it had made me make some irrational decisions but I don't think those had anything to do with my heart or feelings, right? I would know if they did.
They continued to walk down the tunnels and that's when Flint heard noise bouncing off the rocks in front of them.
"Hide!" she said and brought Hunter and Vala behind a group of boulders where Flint could see who was out there from a crack in the rocks. She looked through the hole as she heard the noise come closer to them and that's when Flint saw the maker of the noise. It was a group of Cavewing dragonets but not just any dragonets. They were the dragonets that bullied Flint when she grew up and the one leading them was Granite.
"Ha, ha, ha, that's a good one," Granite said to a Cavewing that Flint recognized as Pumice.
"Yeah," Pumice said. "I wonder what even happened to her?"
"She's probably dead," another Cavewing, Andesite, chimed in. "Too bad anyway, I would have loved to continue picking on Flint, she is so useless."
Flint's anger boiled inside her and she would have jumped out there and started attacking them but Hunter must have seen her stance because he held her back.
If only those dragons knew that they were playing with fire, Flint thought.
"Have you heard what her parents have done about the situation?" Granite said.
"No, what did they do?" Andesite asked.
Flint was also wondering the same question. I never thought of it, but yeah, what did my parents do once they saw I was gone?
"From what I heard, they adopted a new daughter and denounced Flint as their daughter, trying to wipe away any mention of her name from their family line."
THEY DID WHAT! Flint yelled in her mind and tried to stand up but Hunter pushed her back down but not without making some rocks fall from their hiding spot.
"What was that?" Pumice asked.
"I think it came from over there," Granite said, pointing to the boulder that they were hiding behind.
Great, Flint thought as she saw them start approaching closer to their hiding spot. Flint readied herself, in case she needed to attack them. I won't let them take Hunter or Vala, they will have to get through me first.
They were about to find their hiding spot when a yell came from the end of the tunnel.
"Dragonets, get back here," a voice that Flint didn't recognize yelled. "We can't be this far out from our tribe."
"There she is, always demanding," Granite said, before turning away from Flint's hiding spot and joining the others.
"It makes you almost want Flint back, at least she wasn't annoying," Andesite said.
Flint waited until the Cavewings were out of earshot and away from them before she jumped out from behind the boulder.
"If only those dragons knew who they were messing with!" Flint said.
"Hey now Flint," Hunter said. "Getting mad at them won't do any good."
"But you heard what they said about me! How do you tell me to ignore that?"
"It's not easy," Hunter said. "Believe me it is hard for me to ignore my idiotic siblings from time to time and sometimes I feel like lashing out at them but I compose myself and keep my emotions in."
"How?" Flint asked. "How can you just stand by while other dragons are making fun of you?"
"It's hard to explain," Hunter said. "But I could try to teach you."
"Um, excuse me?" Vala said. "But who were those dragons? Someone you knew, Flint?"
"They used to bully her when she was young," Hunter said for Flint, seeing that she didn't want to talk about it. "They were one of the main reasons why she ran away from her tribe."
"Oh wow, I'm sorry about that," Vala said. "I couldn't even imagine what it would be like having to live by yourself."
"It wasn't pretty," Flint said. "But I got through it. It did have some ups and downs though."
Flint thought back to when she was one year in hiding from her tribe. For the past few days, she had been wandering the tunnels, trying to find food and water. When you don't have a designated space to go to for food and water, it becomes hard to find some. Almost all of the hunting spots are controlled by either Webwings or Cavewings and Flint wasn't going to risk her life trying to steal any food from them. The same thing went with water, as most of the lakes were either in Webwing or Cavewing territory. Most that is, except the one that Flint found that day.
She was wandering around the tunnels when she entered a cavern that had a massive lake in it. It also had nice rock pillars that would make for great sleeping spots there. She even saw that there were plenty of fish in the lake for her to eat.
"This is the perfect place to lay low," Flint said to herself. "Plenty of fish, fresh water, and nice areas to sleep."
Flint then ate, drank, and slept for the night. This was going to be the best time of her life.
I don't need my stupid tribe, she thought. I can do just fine by myself, no dragons bossing me around or making fun of me. Just me looking out for myself.
It was a few nights later when Flint was resting in her favorite sleeping spot when she heard vibrations coming down the tunnel.
I wonder what that is? she thought as she got down from her rock pillar and wandered around the cavern. Was it a rat, or a bat? Or what if it was a deer? Flint found a deer stuck down here last night but it was too quick and got away. Oh, if that deer has come back for a second round then it won't be so lucky this time. Flint then swooped past one of the tunnels to wash herself off in the lake. When she got out of the lake, she decided to look at her reflection in the water to make sure she was clean. Afterwards she wandered back towards the entrance trying to find what made the noise.
I wonder what's down here? Flint thought when something jumped from the entrance and started attacking her. She started to roll and kick whatever was on top of her when they both smashed into a wall. She got up off of her attacker and turned around to face them. She then saw who it was. It was a Webwing, around the same age as her, who attacked her.
What's a Webwing doing this far away from both territories? Flint thought in a panic. She turned around and tried to get away from him back through the tunnel but the dragon slashed at her and gave her a nasty slash across her underbelly.
"OWWWWWWW!" she screamed as the slash started bleeding. She turned around and saw that the Webwing had an amused look on his face.
Oh you think that's funny? she thought and noticed that there were loose rocks behind the Webwing on the wall. Ok then take this! Flint thought and then rammed the Webwing into the wall and an avalanche of rocks knocked the Webwing out and buried him, except for his head.
This is it, I have the perfect opportunity to kill him, Flint thought. She lifted up her claws, ready to strike the Webwing down but then an image flashed through her mind. It was her parents, congratulating her on killing a Webwing and then putting her into the army to kill more Webwings.
"You did a great job," Diamond said.
"That's our daughter," Marble said. "Now you're one of us."
One of us.
One of us.
One of us.
"NOOOOOOOO!" Flint screamed and lowered her claws down and left the Webwing there. She then got back into her sleeping spot back up on one of the pillars and watched as the Webwing woke up, looked to have a panicked look on his face, and then walked out of the cavern. Flint waited until she was sure he was gone before starting to treat her slash that the Webwing gave her. She decided that she would stay here for a few more days before moving on and finding another spot.
"Um, Flint? Flint?" a voice talked to her and shook her out of her vision. She opened her eyes and saw that Vala was in front of her.
"Yes?" Flint asked.
She then felt wings hug around her and saw Hunter crying. "Don't ever do that again! You scared me!"
"What did I do?" Flint asked.
"What do you mean, 'What did you do?'" Hunter said. "Did you not realize what just happened?"
"No," Flint said. "Why, what happened?"
"Well you were walking with a blank look on your face like you were thinking of something and didn't respond to us when we were talking to you," Vala said.
"Oh that," Flint said, remembering back to something about her. "I am told I do that when I am remembering things from my past."
"Well next time, tell us if you want to remember your past," Hunter said.
"I can't make any promises but yeah, I'll try."
"Ok good," Hunter said. "Now come along, we are close to the Tuff Resistance."
"Ohhh, I can't wait to meet them," Vala said. "I wonder what they're like? Do they have special tactics that they want us to use to end the war? How much use will I be to them?"
"Um Vala," Flint said. "I think it's best if we talk to them first about you before you come along. They weren't so fond of Hunter the first time."
"Oh… well ok," Vala said. "Where do you want me to go?"
"Over by those boulders that overlook all of the cavern," Hunter said, and Flint saw him pointing to the spot that they initially camped at waiting for the Tuff Resistance to show themselves a week ago. "And don't come down to us until we tell you it's okay."
"Got it," Vala said and wandered over to the area.
"Ok, now Flint," Hunter said, turning to her. "Let's go tell them about our new friend."
"Let's do it," Flint said and her and Hunter walked down to the enclosure where they saw Tarantula and Lapiz standing guard.
"Hello," Flint said, walking up to them. "How have you been?"
"Good?" Tarantula said. "Now I have a question for you two."
"Yes?" Hunter said.
"Weren't there four of you?" Lapiz said. "Where is the hybrid Webwing and Drillwing?"
"Complications happened and we lost where they were," Flint said. "We will tell you everything but first we have to tell you about something else."
"Which is?" Tarantula asked.
Flint was about to say it when a cry came over the cavern and it sounded like Prancer's dad, Hopper.
"Lapiz, Tarantula, we have a problem!" Hopper said, running down to them. "Oh, hi Flint and Hunter."
"Hello?" Hunter said.
"What's the problem?" Tarantula asked in a panicked voice.
"Well one of our traps that we set up for food went off so I went to check it out."
"And?" Lapiz said.
'Well get this, it caught something but it wasn't prey at all. It was a Deathwing."