Part Two: Sparks and Darkness

Chapter 10

Darkness, darkness, darkness. All that I can see is darkness.

Ugh, where on earth are we? Are we dead?

What happened? I can't seem to remember anything.

Finally Vala's night vision kicked in and she was able to see around them. She seemed to have washed up on the shore since they were all wet and there was a lake behind them. Other than that Vala could barely see anything else, it felt like there was a thick fog that only allowed her to see a few feet in front of her.

"Nova! Abrax!" Vala yelled, hoping that they were somewhere by her.

"Vala, is that you?" she heard Abrax yell.

"Yes!" Vala shouted. "Where are you?"

"I don't know, hang on, I think I see you."

Vala tried looking through the fog but didn't see Abrax. All of a sudden a yell pierced through the cave.

"Ow, that's me Abrax!" Nova yelled. "Why did you step on my tail?"

"Sorry I didn't see you there," Abrax said. "But where on earth is Vala?"

"Over here! Come to my voice!" Vala shouted and then saw some figures in the fog. She approached them and into view came Abrax and Nova.

"Abrax, Nova!" Vala shouted happily and ran to them. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"Yeah me too," Abrax said. "I thought after that fall, we were done for."

"What happened regardless?" Nova asked. "We were flying fine one second then falling into the abyss the next."

"Is that where we are, in that pit?" Vala asked.

"Yes but I like the word abyss more," Nova said. "Since it looked endless."

"Well, it's definitely not since we seem to be at the bottom of it," Abrax said, looking at the lake behind them. "This must be where the water from the waterfall goes."

"Yeah," Vala said. "That must be how we survived, otherwise we would be dead if we didn't land in the lake and it washed us up onto dry ground."

"At least that solves where we are," Nova said. "But how did we get down here in the first place? How did we just start falling?"

Vala tried to have her mind think back to the moment but was having trouble because her mind was all fuzzy from the fall. They were flying across the pit, Queen Helen appeared and Vala was listening to her mind.

Do it now.

Then… then… she appeared.

"Queen Ash!" Vala said. "She did this!" pointing to the rope that somehow was still on Vala but snapped from Nova. "She burnt our rope!"

"I'm sorry, who?" Abrax asked. "Queen Ash?"

"It's complicated to explain," Vala said. "In fact there is a lot I've been holding back from you about what happened when I freed those dragonets from Queen Helen's grasp."

"Well since we seem to be stuck down here, you mind telling us about your adventures with them?" Nova asked.

"Are you sure?" Vala asked.

"Yes," Nova said. "We have to wait for our wings to heal until we can try to fly out of here. So might as well pass the time with some stories."

"Okay," Vala said. "You see it all started when I was out on this hunt."

And for the next hour, Vala told Abrax and Nova about everything that she had been through, including Dredge and his companions.

"Wait so Queen Helen is working with Dredge?" Abrax asked.

"Yes," Vala said. "Also Granite who is the daughter of the fake Cavewing Queen Obsidian."

"You said that she died," Nova said.

"Yes," Vala said. "I have something about me that I need to tell you both."

"And what's that?" Abrax asked.

"I… I can read minds," Vala said.

Vala saw Abrax and Nova take a step back, obviously scared and confused about this.

She can read our minds? went through Abrax's mind. Oh no, I hope she hasn't seen things that will make her hate us.

Does she hate me for what I've thought about her? Nova had thought.

"Don't worry," Vala said. "I'm not going to judge you on your thoughts. In fact, with this, I've been able to see our tribe in a whole new light."

"Really?" Abrax said. "How's that?"

"They don't want Queen Helen as the ruler," Vala said. "They want someone else but they're too scared to stand up because they feel they will be alone in fighting against Queen Helen."

"Wow," Nova said. "I never thought that our tribe was like that."

"Yeah," Vala said. "Some dragons you shouldn't judge by their actions."

"Except Dredge," Abrax said.

"Yeah," Vala said. "And his companions Cyrus, Queen Helen, and Granite. Did you know that Cyrus is basically Tulsi's grandfather?"

"What a terrible one to have," Nova said.

"Yeah but not as bad as Prancer, Hunter, and Ocho all being related to Dredge in one way or another."

"Dredge sounds like a psychopath," Abrax said. "Why were you listening to him?"

"We initially thought he was going to help us," Vala said. "But then we found out his true colors."

"And what does all of this have to do with Queen Ash?" Nova asked.

"Well you see," Vala said. "We learned from Hunter's mom, Queen Aurora, that Queen Obsidian died from a dragon that we think is Queen Ash. And then Dredge's group tried putting the blame on me that I killed her and planted my spikes there as evidence."

"Which is why you were trying to find if your spikes were in Queen Helen's vault," Nova said.

"Yes," Vala said. "But they did this to try to turn my friends against me."

"But I know you," Abrax said. "You just thought that they would hate you?"

"Yes," Vala said. "So I decided to come down here to save you. Now I see the errors of my ways but I still would choose to save you if I had to do it again, just maybe with backup though."

"Thanks Vala," Abrax said, blushing and wrapping his tail around hers.

"So you're saying that Queen Ash is working with Dredge and his group," Nova said, piecing it together in her mind.

"Yes," Vala said. "I don't know why but she seems to be helping them out with something."

"Should you show her the book?" Abrax asked Nova.

"Yes I should," Nova said and Vala saw her pull out a book that looked very old.

"Great, another book," Vala said.

"Just sit down and we'll explain it to you," Abrax said.

So Vala sat and listened to what Nova and Abrax had figured out from this book. Apparently it seems like Queen Ash or maybe at least someone a part of her tribe has been alive even before The Scorching, which Vala learned from Sundew who learned it from the Pyrrhia dragons.

"So this seems to be way bigger than we thought it was," Vala said.

"Yeah," Abrax said. "And if this Queen Ash is the same dragon from the picture then she must be planning something terrible."

"But how could that be the same dragon?" Nova asked Abrax. "That was six thousands years ago."

"Well anything can be possible," Vala said. "From what I learned there are powers out there that could cause a dragon to potentially live forever."

"And you're saying that this dragon may have these powers?" Abrax asked.

"Yes," Vala said.

"Hmm, this is all very interesting," Nova said. "It feels like something bigger is going on."

"Yeah," Abrax said. "But what?"

None of them had the time to answer that question because at that moment, they heard a noise coming in front of them. Vala had no idea what the noise was and saw a rock in front of her that would elevate them off the ground. She, Abrax, and Nova climbed the rock to try to figure out where that noise came from. Vala looked out from the top but still saw nothing. Then out of the darkness came something that whizzed right past Vala's face and landed right at their claws. Vala looked down and almost felt her heart stop. It was a dragonbite viper.

"Look out!" Abrax said, quickly kicking the viper off of the rock before it could bite any of them. Vala then heard more hisses and she looked at the ground around them and saw hundreds of dragonbite vipers covering the ground.

"Uh guys," Vala said. "Something tells me we're in more trouble than we thought."

"You think?" Nova said, trying to back up higher up the rock. They all three went as far as they could but eventually got to the top of the rock and couldn't go anywhere else. The dragonbite vipers started slowly slithering up the rock one by one until they all surrounded them.

There's no escape, Vala realized. Abrax is the only one that can fly out of here but he isn't going to leave us here.

"Abrax you have to go!" Nova said.

"No, I'm not leaving you!" Abrax said.

"Abrax, we can't fly out of here, we're not going to make it," Vala said. "You can at least save yourself."

"No," Abrax said. "I can't, I would never forgive myself for abandoning you two to your deaths down here."

"You're not abandoning us!" Nova yelled.

"My final answer is no," Abrax said.

And Vala heard from Abrax's mind that he wasn't going to change it.

I love you two, Vala heard Abrax think in his mind.

This is it, Vala thought as the dragonbite vipers approached them. I won't ever see my friends again. If only I could have said goodbye to them.

Vala shut her eyes to wait for the inevitable but then she heard something weird. She heard the mind of a dragon but it wasn't from Nova or Abrax. It was a different dragon.

Get away from them killer vipers! the mind thought and then something skidded across the ground and stopped right beside the rock they were on. Vala could see it was some sort of circular metal object. Out of nowhere the object lifted up and started shining. It then exploded and sent out some sort of shockwave that shunned all of the dragonbite vipers. Vala was confused and had no idea what to do. She then saw a light across the room that seemed to be glowing off something there that looked like a dragon but Vala couldn't tell.

"Come on, go while they're stunned!" the dragon called out.

Vala saw Abrax and Nova confused as well so she had to get them back into focus.

"Come on!" Vala said. "Listen to the dragon!"

Vala jumped off the rock and carefully stepped in between the stunned dragonbite vipers with Nova and Abrax following behind her. When she got to the end of the dragonbite vipers she looked up to see the dragon start running down the tunnel.

"Hang on, wait up!" Vala said and ran after the dragon.

"Wait up Vala!" Abrax said. "Is it smart to be chasing whoever that is? What if that isn't a dragon?"

"They saved us," Vala said, still running down the tunnel. "They must be good!"

"I don't know about this," Abrax said. "But it looks like we have no choice." Vala saw the dragonbite vipers start to move again and Abrax and Nova followed Vala after the dragon. They ran away from the killer snakes and after the dragon for a while. They eventually lost the dragonbite vipers behind them but could barely see the light from the dragon in front of them. Vala was determined to catch up and pushed herself to run faster. The tunnel then opened up into a huge cavern and she saw the dragon already halfway across the cavern.

"Hang on one sec," Abrax said, stopping Vala from charging forward.

"Come on, I almost caught up to it!" Vala said.

"No you didn't," Nova said. "We need a plan to catch up to them."

"Why?" Vala asked.

"Vala, please just for once listen to the plan," Abrax said. "It may be our only way to escape from this place."

"Fine," Vala said and sat down and listened to the plan.

"So does everyone understand?" Abrax asked as he finished explaining the plan.

"Yes," Nova said. "What about you Vala?"

"Yes I understand," Vala said. "Now let's go catch up to this dragon."

Vala, Nova, and Abrax slowly crept their way across the side walls to the end of this massive cavern that Vala could see that the dragon was taking a breather at. As they crept closer, she heard a few things from his mind.

Looks like I lost them. Maybe I should have let them follow me and I should have introduced myself. No I can't, I have to stay true to my mission.

Vala saw Abrax start counting down with his talons and when he was done, they all jumped the dragon and pinned him to the ground.

"Hey!" the dragon said. "Get off of me!"

"Who are you?" Vala asked. "Why did you save us?"

"Because you were going to die, why else?"

"What are you doing down here?" Abrax asked. "Were you sent by Queen Helen?"

"Who?" the dragon asked.

"You don't know Queen Helen?" Vala asked. "I doubt that."

"I really don't know what you're talking about!" the dragon screamed.

"Hang on you two, he may be telling the truth," Nova said. "Look at him."

Vala let go of the dragon and stood back to look at him. Nova was right, he looked different. He wasn't a Spikewing, he didn't have all dark scales or spikes around his body. His scales were mostly dark yellow with black scales on his face and wings. His scales looked octagon shaped. He seemed to have electricity moving throughout his scales that made a light aura around him.

"Who on earth are you?" Vala asked.

"Let me first off know your names," the dragon said. "Since you decided to pounce on me for no reason."

"We had a reason!" Vala said.

"Your names," the dragon said.

"Fine, I'm Vala, the male is Abrax, and the other female is Nova. Now stop stalling, who are you?"

"And what are you doing here?" Abrax asked.

"I'm Thunder," he said. "And I've got a mission to do."