Phantom's wings ached as wind passed by them, her eyes stinging from smoke. She shut them as tight as she could, trying to keep the noxious smoke from entering. When she opened them, her tears muddled the sight of her older sister, Crescent, flying not far ahead. To her sides, just visible in the orange glow, were shadows of wings. About a dozen NightWings, flying alongside the two, barely skimming the treetops.
As the smoke thinned, Phantom's eyes looked down. The lush canopy of the rainforest was quickly disappearing, being replaced with the smaller trees of the swamps. The young NightWing's eyes looked forward. Towards the horizon, the blues and purples of the dawn began to light up the great marsh, where the trees thinned to nothing. Phantom's breath grew quick and heavy.
Crescent tilted her head behind her, getting glimpses of her younger sister through each wingbeat. Phantom was starting to lag behind the rest of the group, unable to keep up with the fully-grown dragons.
"We need to slow down!" Crescent called out to the NightWings in front of her. "Phantom is falling behind!"
Her voice seemed to get lost on the roaring winds. The NightWings kept their pace.
"It's alright!" Phantom panted. She grit her teeth, her wings almost burning from the abuse. The group wasn't flying at the leisurely pace Phantom was used to. They were flying for their lives. "I'm fine!" she called out to the NightWings, even as her wings skipped a beat, causing her swooped down almost enough to touch the treetops.
Phantom regained her pace. It seemed like the rest of the NightWings were even further ahead, though Crescent had slowed down just a tad. Phantom might have still been a dragonet, but she wasn't so young that she didn't understand what was going on. They had to escape the rainforest, had to escape the IceWings. Or else they were dead. The smoke of the burning rainforest once again brushed her nostrils, an eerie reminder of her time on the volcanic island. Another home, lost to fire.
"We're almost there!" Crescent yelled back. "Just a little further!"
Phantom's head bobbed up and down, her wings barely able to move. Almost there. A hint of vibrant violet and red hues lit the sky ahead.
A scream suddenly pierced the air to Phantom's right, and she a flash of white. The NightWings started to change direction, almost flying into each other. Crescent suddenly tilted to the left. Through the star-speckled wings of the NightWings, whites and blues became visible, rising out of the trees.
"IceWings!" a voice screamed out. Whatever flight formation the NightWings had, it had dispersed into a mess of black and white. Phantom's eyes went wide as she tried to suddenly change her direction, barely escaping the clutch of serrated claws as vivid blue eyes stared down at her.
Red and blue blood quickly stained the scales of dragons as they engaged in battle. Leathery wings blocked Phantom's view, and Crescent's tail was gone, her dark scales mixed in with the rest of the crowd. Phantom tried to rush towards where she'd seen Crescent last, but the grey body of a NightWing suddenly knocked her to the side, almost sending her crashing into the treetops. She swooped up, narrowly avoiding an IceWing, the soldier's eyes darting towards her as she swung her tail out at a NightWing.
Phantom kept flying. Scales, fangs and claws were everywhere she looked, with no escape in sight. She tried to regain her orientation. Crescent. Where was Crescent? Claws suddenly raked across her scales, and the dragonet let out a scream, diving away from the pain. Red blood dripped from her ashen spines. She didn't have time to look for her attacker, unable to do anything but keep flying, trying to avoid crashing into someone, attempting to escape the maze of dragons.
The dragonet's eyes suddenly locked on an IceWing, his narrow blue eyes meeting hers. His horns and claws were painted black as a NightWing's, and as he opened his fanged jaws, she saw that his fangs had been painted similar, now mixed with red blood. His wings opened wide, blotting out the sky, and he swooped down at Phantom.
Phantom's claws shook in terror, and she raised up a wing, trying to change her flight direction to bring her away from the IceWing. "CRESCENT!" she screamed, her heart racing as the IceWing closed in on her. She felt his claws pierce her tail, digging into her scales.
Suddenly, his claws let go, and she heard a furious roar, like the sound of ten lions. She looked behind to see Crescent's talons crashing into the IceWing's side, blue blood in her jaws as she clamped down on the back of his neck. Phantom stared as her sister threw the IceWing to the side.
The IceWing let out a sharp hiss, and quickly snapped back at Crescent's, throwing her off him mid-flight. Crescent swooped around and attacked again, trying to tear her talons in the IceWing's wings. Phantom couldn't tear her eyes away as the IceWing suddenly swooped upwards, his spiked tail crashing into Crescent's neck, knocking her to the side. The IceWing quickly followed up on his attack, and slammed down into Crescent's back, grabbing ahold of her chest and neck with his foretalons. The two hit into another pair of fighting dragons, knocking them away.
Crescent tried to get free, but the IceWing held tight. His hindlegs wrapped around her, black claws tearing away scales and flesh from Crescent's thighs and belly. She yelled out, throwing out her wings and trying to roll midair. The IceWing didn't let go, his talons only digging further into her flesh.
"Crescent!" Phantom yelled out again, now afraid for her sister's life rather than her own. She flew towards the two, almost getting knocked aside by an IceWing chasing after a NightWing.
"Get out of here!" Crescent yelled at her sister. "Follow Deathbringer's orders! Get to the marshes!"
Phantom stared. She couldn't leave Crescent. She flew down, trying to follow the two. Crescent finally broke free of the IceWing, twisting midair and diving down. The IceWing followed, blood in his jaws. As they dove, he grabbed ahold of Crescent's forearm. Crescent tried to snap back at him, but he brought his jaws forward. His fangs clenched around Crescent's throat, tearing through it, his snout covered with her blood. With a sudden motion, he dropped Crescent.
Phantom's claws went still as her sister's body fell through the canopy, crashing into the forest floor below. The IceWing looked back towards her, Crescent's blood dripping from his fangs. Phantom had no time to grieve. Fly.
She took off, weaving in and out of NightWings and IceWings. Tears started to fill her eyes. Which way were the marshes? She caught a blurry glimpse at the oranges of the dawn, and headed that way.
Phantom pushed her way through, finally breaking out of the crowd of fighting dragons. Not far in the distance, towards where the sun was soon to rise, a few mudhuts pierced the horizon. No time to think of anything else, her wings beat, her fatigue suddenly gone. Wind rushed past her wings. Keep flying.
The NightWing dragonet suddenly heard a roar from above her. She tilted her head, and glimpsed up to see the painted IceWing, quickly catching up to her, his fangs stained with Crescent's blood. Phantom's wings beat faster, her heart barely able to give more. She had to get away.
But the dragonet's small wings were no match for her attacker. The IceWing swooped down, diving for Phantom. Phantom screamed, and his claws raked into her wings, grasping ahold of them. She used her other wing to twist around, trying to get away. Her eyes focused on his white forearm, and she desperately bit out, sinking her fangs into his scales.
The IceWing let go of her with a roar, and swung his sharp tail at the dragonet. It hit the side of her back, spikes sinking into her wingblade. She screamed again, and tried to fly away. Already on her back in mid-air, there was little chance of her regaining her balance. She futilely waved her wings, trying to propel herself away from the IceWing. Gravity brought her down, and Phantom started to spiral down towards the ground.
Realizing that she was about to crash, Phantom closed her eyes, bringing her wings around her in a curl. She slammed into the ground, the mud of the marsh helping to break her fall. It sprayed all over her wings, covering her snout in mud.
Wincing, Phantom used her foreclaws to brush the muck away from her eyes, letting her see. The IceWing was hovering in the air a small distance back, and landed barely a few tail-lengths away from Phantom. She stared into her sister's killer's eyes. There was no mercy there.
Phantom whimpered, and tried to back up, sinking further into the mudhole. She closed her eyes, talons jittering. This was the end.
After a few moments, Phantom opened an eye. The IceWing hadn't moved, still glaring at her. She blinked, confused. Wasn't he going to kill her? In the skies, behind him, the remaining NightWings were flying towards her, neck-to-neck with their IceWing attackers.
"Stay back!" the Black Prince ordered the rest of the IceWings as they approached. "Don't come closer!"
The IceWings suddenly parted into two groups, flying to the left and right as the NightWings continued their path forward. They circled around before landing by Crescent's killer, forming a line of dragons behind him. Phantom felt the warm breath of a NightWing over her, as more of her tribe landed in the mud beside her.
Suddenly, light flooded Phantom's eyes from the east, the first rays of the sun breaking dawn. She looked towards it. The small MudWing village she'd seen had grown closer, and she could see the small figures of MudWings in the distance, staring at the standoff of IceWings and NightWings.
"The treeline," Phantom whispered, turning back towards the IceWings. Behind them, smoke and fire rose from the burning rainforest. The Black Prince and the line of IceWings were parallel with a lone tree that had jutted its way out from the rainforest's border. The border of MudWing territory. She'd made it.
The Black Prince turned around, glaring at the bloody IceWing soldiers. "Kill any NightWing who crosses the treeline back into RainWing territory, but don't put a single claw across." His ruthless eyes turned back to Phantom. "We can't have war with the MudWings."
Phantom's gaze landed on clouds of black wings in the distance, escaping the canopy of the forest. More NightWings who'd escaped. More survivors. The dragonet suddenly felt a drop of water on her snout, dripping down her scales. Rain? It was quickly followed by another, dripping into her muddy wings. She looked up to the sky, and another drop hit her eye.
The drought was over.