It felt as if all the water had been sucked from beneath his scales. The heat was oppressive, like he was sitting on a firescales dragon. If Stonemover had thought the desert was bad, it was nothing compared to where he was now.
Yet, he wasn't quite sure where that was. The NightWing gently opened an eye, wincing as the hot air hit against his eyeball. He instantly let out a cough as sulfuric fumes worked their way down his throat. It took a moment for his vision to adjust to the view around him.
The Night Kingdom? he wondered. He looked around at his nearest surroundings, his vision still blurry. Stonemover was positioned on a large metal platform, quite warm to the touch, but not so much that it would sear his scales. To his right was Griffin, woozily attempting to stretch a wing, but being stopped by a thick metal band wrapping around both his wings and his underbelly. Stonemover suddenly became aware of a similar device on him, scratching and contorting his wing membrane and scales. He attempted to move a leathered wing, but it just scraped beneath the metal band, unable to get free. As he took a sulfurous breath, Stonemover noticed a second metal band, this one much smaller and around his neck, though not constricting him enough to choke. As he dragged a claw around it, it felt strangely perfect, with no scratches, blemishes, and seemingly no way for it to be removed. Stonemover wondered how it had been placed on him. Looking over towards Griffin, Stonemover noticed a similar band around his neck, hidden beneath his feathers.
As Stonemover's eyes further adjusted, he gulped slightly. Beyond the edge of the metal platform was a sea of molten lava, like the flows in the Night Kingdom. The rough black surface of the lake broke in pieces to reveal bright cracks of orange light. More metal squares, all empty, floated on top of the lake in the orange glow, drifting slowly from side to side. Stonemover took an instinctive step back, and surprisingly, the shifting of his weight didn't cause the platform to tilt. There was definitely some sort of magic going on here — had there not been, the two would have been burned alive by the metal heating up. Stonemover tried to strain his eyes, but the thick smoke prevented him from viewing the edges of the lake. He winced as his eyes watered from the toxic air.
"Where are we?" Griffin muttered groggily.
"Er-it looks a little like the Night Kingdom," Stonemover replied without thinking. No, that couldn't be it, could it? If some place like this existed there, he would have known about it by now. He'd flown over and around the island enough times to have seen every inch of it. Unless they were underground . . .
"The Night Kingdom?" Griffin asked, confused. "Trustbreaker told me it was in the southwest peninsula." Griffin looked around the metal platform. The pack he had been carrying, including the map Orca had enchanted, was nowhere to be found. That was worrying.
Stonemover shook his head nervously. He shouldn't have said that. The Night Kingdom's location was supposed to be a secret. A very, very, very important secret. Queen Battlewinner would have had him dipped in lava for that. Though it wasn't like it mattered anymore, now that he'd deserted her. Unless they actually were on the NightWing island, in which case they were probably dead. "No," he answered Griffin, "that's SandWing territory. Whoever your NightWing friend is, they were probably lying to you."
Griffin frowned a little. Contrary to his name, Trustbreaker was one of the most trustworthy dragons he'd met. Why would he lie?
Stonemover sighed and continued, knowing Griffin didn't believe him. "We live on a large island north of the Sky Kingdom," he replied. "I don't think this is it, though. I'd heard rumors that there were other islands not far from it, but that they were even more inhospitable than ours. This could be one of them." Stonemover looked around again, as if hoping to get an answer, but the sulfurous smog obscured it.
"Inhospitable?"
Stonemover nodded uncomfortably. "Volcanic. It's quite awful. Little sun, and it feels like you're constantly being choked from the air. Almost no food. This place is like that, but even more terrible." The NightWing shivered a little, even in the horrid heat. "Though there's far worse out there," he whispered. "We're lucky to have not ended up someplace like that."
"Like that?" Griffin wondered.
Stonemover averted his eyes and shrunk his wings inwards, as if he didn't want to talk about it. Griffin didn't press further. A bright bubble of lava popped up in the distance.
After an awkward moment of silence, barring the sloshing back and forth of the lava, Stonemover spoke up. "I miss her," he muttered. "Thorn."
Griffin wasn't sure what to say in response. He opened his beak, considering trying to be optimistic, when a crashing sound in the distance suddenly broke his concentration. He twisted his head around to see a figure in the distance, the smoke wreathing around them.
As Stonemover followed Griffin's gaze, the figure came closer. It wasn't long before the two could tell that it was a dragon, appearing to be walking on top of the lava. As they walked closer, Griffin tensed up a little. If this was the NightWing island, or something similar, that means that it might not have been on Orca's map. This dragon could be an animus.
When it came closer, the figure became clearer, and Griffin saw an ancient SandWing, her head bowed low as if she could no longer lift her neck, and her claws almost shaking as she slowly stepped forward. Instead of his initial guess, that she was walking across the lava, a bridge of stone appeared to rise up in front of her where she stepped, the lava parting. If she was the one who set this thing up, she certainly didn't look the part — she wore no jewelry or honors, and her posture was certainly deferential, as if she was uncomfortable being around the two.
As she approached the two, the SandWing unfolded a wing, revealing two buckets hung on her wing-spurs. She lifted them off, and placed them on the metal platform in front of the two. Griffin peered down. One was filled with an greyish colored liquid, and the other had a number of fish within it. Apparently, she had come to give them food and water.
The SandWing sat down expectantly on her hind-quarters, hunched over. From this perspective, Griffin saw a large burn scar stretching from her jaw down her neck, onto her underbelly, miscoloring the pale yellow scales it crossed. It looked nasty, but nowhere near as bad as the scars Schist had. Griffin wondered how he was doing; if he'd ever want to see Griffin again. Not that it mattered now, unless Griffin could get out of this . . . prison. That seemed to be the primary purpose of the lava lake. So was this dragon the jailer?
"Are you the one who enchanted the green diamonds?" Griffin growled.
The SandWing thought for a moment, then let out a cough, unable to breathe properly. Not that Griffin blamed her, the smog here was noxious. He wasn't sure how long he or Stonemover could last out here without succumbing to the sulfurous fumes themselves.
She shook her head, indicating what Griffin had thought. She wasn't the one in charge here. "Oh no," she hoarsely murmured. "I'm only Gazelle. I'm no animus. That would be Erosion, my master."
Griffin's ears perked a little. Erosion? He was certain he'd heard that name before, but he couldn't put a talon on it.
Gazelle coughed again, and glanced at Stonemover warily. "Please don't try anything," she asked. "The metal bands around your neck will prevent you from dying if you fall into the lava, but they won't stop it from burning you. They also stop your animus powers from working until my master gives you permission."
"Please," Stonemover pleaded suddenly, "this is all just a misunderstanding. You see, I can't use anim—"
Griffin grabbed Stonemover's muzzle with his talons, shutting his mouth close. Stonemover grimaced as his teeth scratched the very edge of his forked tongue. If Erosion wants animuses, and this SandWing found out that Stonemover couldn't use magic, that meant they could be expendable, Griffin thought. Gazelle must have heard Stonemover, but she remained unresponsive, as if she hadn't quite made out what Stonemover had said.
"Please eat and drink," Gazelle suggested. "You must be quite thirsty, and I'm sure it will make your meeting with my master much more favorable."
Stonemover winced a little as Griffin let go of his snout, and spat out a drop of blood. He peered over the ashen water. It didn't look very appetizing, and nor did the food. "I'm not hungry," he muttered quietly, more scared than defensive.
"We're not eating," Griffin stated.
"You don't need to worry about poison," the elderly SandWing attempted to reassure them, "if Erosion had wanted you dead, she would have done it already." After neither of them made any motion towards the buckets, she sighed. "In that case, would you please follow me?"
"And if I don't?" Griffin spat angrily.
Gazelle sighed, and let out another cough. She flicked her tail slightly, and Griffin felt a tugging on the metal collar, dragging him towards the bridge of land Gazelle had come from. He attempted to dig his talons into the metal to resist the pull, but only heard a shrill screech from the platform as his talons scraped across it.
"Please, if you don't want to drink or eat, follow me. My master would not be happy if we were too far delayed. She is quiet exuberant to meet you."
Griffin spat into the lava, causing a small fizzling noise. He glared up at Gazelle as she stepped to the side, motioning with a wing for Griffin and Stonemover to cross the land bridge. Griffin did so, keeping a defiant posture and his beak held high. Stonemover crawled after him, nervously looking back and forth to each side and checking the narrow bridge before he placed each paw.
As the two walked forward, Gazelle followed behind them, the ground sinking into the lake of lava behind her steps when Stonemover glanced back. Her breathing was heavy as she continued at the back, wheezing as her tail swished back and forth.
The walk across the bridge wasn't as long as Griffin had expected. He could have easily swam it, had it been water instead of lava. Maybe he still could. It wouldn't kill him, but apparently it would still cause pain. Would it damage his body? He shivered just thinking about it as an orange bubble burst up to the right. It certainly felt hot. He wasn't sure he'd be able to swim it, even as a last resort.
Eventually, the two reached the edge of the bridge, and Stonemover let out a great sigh of relief as he finally stepped on stable ground. The area around them appeared to be rocky, littered with sharp stones, but the smog around them made it somewhat difficult to see far. Gazelle walked past them, and turned around. "Follow me," she asked, "we'll be out of the smog soon enough."
The SandWing stepped down into a small crevasse between the rocks, just big enough for a large dragon to enter. She seemingly stepped through the stone wall, as if it wasn't there. The entrance is hidden by animus magic, Griffin presumed. Stonemover followed her in, while Griffin glanced back and forth. Maybe he could make a run for it? No, he doubted it. His wings were bound; there was no way he could fly, and if this was an island like Stonemover had suggested, he couldn't get off it. He grumbled unhappily as he entered the crevasse.
It was only a few steps down before Griffin suddenly gasped, fresh air hitting his lungs (or gills, or whatever he had — he wasn't quite sure himself). Stonemover was even more elated. The crevasse had led into a thin cavernous tunnel, an unnatural light permeating through it. Gazelle took in a large breath of air, and breathed a sigh of relief, before motioning the two on, the tunnel widening ahead of them. A sound of scratching claws echoed through it; apparently they weren't the other dragons down here.
As the three moved forward, the tunnel suddenly split in two, with a small offshoot to the left. Griffin glanced down it, but had little time before walking past it. He suddenly heard the sound of claws in front of him, and saw two young MudWings, maybe the age of 5 or 6, walking the opposite direction. They appeared similar enough in appearance that Griffin suspected they were siblings. Each had a metal collar around their necks, against reddish-brown scales, though their wings were unbound. Stonemover averted his eyes as they passed, turning his head to the ground, and they snickered slightly as they saw Griffin. After walking past them, Griffin heard them whispering something to each other, but was unable to make it out. If he remembered right, MudWing sibling groups usually had more than two dragons in them, almost always at least three. Were there more of them somewhere? It seemed weird to have MudWings here, especially considering that they had already met a SandWing.
The next dragon he saw surprised him even more. As the three passed another offshoot tunnel, a strangely colored dragon stepped out, a intrigued expression on his snout. Instead of the usual uniform or layered coloration of scales, the dragon's patterns consisted of mishapened blobs, either pitch black or dark brown. His conical horns seemed slightly too large for his head, his snout almost as tall as the rest of his skull. A similar metal band was around his neck, passing across various blotches of scale colors.
"Hey!" he called out in excitement, his voice cracking to a squeal. Pushing along the tunnel wall past Gazelle, who had attempted to block him by stepping in his path, he stepped up to Stonemover, who uncomfortably looked away. "Are you new here? What's the bird thing? Are they your familiar or an animus?"
Griffin snorted, a bit irritated that the dragon had asked Stonemover what he was rather them himself. He opened his beak to make a comment, but Gazelle pushed the dragon away first. "Not now," she grumbled. "Erosion is expecting them."
The dragon gulped a little at this, as if hearing the name itself worried him, and took a step back, allowing the three to pass. As the three moved forward, Griffin noticed another dragon in front of the, this one the bright blue color of a SeaWing.
"Eel brains," Griffin cursed, grimacing. He recognized this dragon, unfortunately — this SeaWing was an animus that he and Torrent had tried to kill a few years back, but had used a green diamond to escape. Griffin should have suspected that he'd have ended up here. He bowed his feathered head low to the ground, attempting to put Stonemover's grey body between himself and the SeaWing.
It wasn't enough. The SeaWing glanced over as he passed the three, and his already sour glare turned into an expression of rage. "He tried to kill me!" he roared furiously at Griffin. With a lash of his broad tail, he slammed Stonemover aside as he rushed towards Griffin, the NightWing giving off a squeal. As Griffin extended his claws, ready to defend himself against the charging SeaWing towering over him, an invisible force suddenly pulled the dragon back, throwing him into the wall. The SeaWing attempted to charge again, but his claws could only scramble against the rock ineffectively, straining against a similar metal band around his neck.
"Do you know him?" Gazelle creaked, flicking her tail as the enchanted collar held the SeaWing against the tunnel wall.
"Unfortunately," Griffin replied, catching his breath. For a moment, he had been worried the SeaWing was going to crush him beneath his paws. He cringed thinking about it. "He's not a friend."
Gazelle nodded, as if she fully understood. As the SeaWing yelled expletives at Griffin, Griffin glanced back at the long burn scar running beneath Gazelle's neck, jagged, as if a dragon with talons of fire had torn into Gazelle's scales. Just like the three scarred lines that ran along Torrent's gills. It finally dawned on Griffin where he heard the name Erosion before.
"Gazelle," Griffin spoke up. "Do you know of a dragon named Magma?"
The ancient SandWing immediately tensed up, her barbed tail curling up and twitching. "Don't mention that name in here," she hissed. "Erosion doesn't want to hear it."
Griffin's suspicious were confirmed. Four years ago, the firescaled SkyWing Magma had attacked Griffin, Torrent, Schist and Crystal because she'd thought someone named Erosion had sent them after her. Erosion was the SandWing who had taken Magma from the Sky Kingdom as a dragonet, and had granted Magma her animus powers.
"We're here," Gazelle grumbled, the slightest hint of anger within her voice, as if she still held a grudge against the deceased SkyWing.
Two large doors of iron stood at the end of the tunnel, three crowns engraved on each, the lines far too perfect to have been made by claw. Stonemover looked up to them quietly, and took a scoot back, intimidated. His claws started to shake anxiously. "I don't like this place," he whispered to Griffin.
Griffin shook his feathered wings, though they rubbed painfully against the band keeping them locked in place. He ignored Stonemover. Whoever this Erosion was, she was just another animus. Nothing to be frightened of.