Chapter 1

"Cacti." Burn's tongue flicked out of her mouth. Her dark eyes glancing down at her.

"Yes, your majesty?" Cacti's nose twitched. What time-wasting job this time?

"I need you to clean out some dragons who are lurking next to the border." She shifted her body on her throne.

"Is that all?" Cacti sild to the right to try and stay in Burn's view.

"Mhm." Burn waved her talons dismissively as she moved onto Jackal.

"I could do more today."

Burn didn't answer.

Cacti huffed and sulked out of the room. The hallway was covered in sand, with chunks of stone scattered on the floor.

She marched into the courtyard, glancing around at the Skywings and Mudwings. Burn had only trusted the Sandwings to be her "guards". Cacti let out a spit of fire, turning everyone's attention to her.

"I need a group to flush out some dragons on the border, stand if you are going?" She hissed.

A couple of dragons stood, while others looked away in disgust. Charcoal, Terracotta, Soil, Polecat, and Spitfire. Charcoal and Spitfire were deep reds, with gold horn rings to tell you was who. Terracotta was a light brown, and slightly taller than Soil, who was a darker brown. Polecat was light amber with dark brown diamonds down his scales.

"Meet me outside at dawn." Cacti hissed. She felt dragon's stares burning into her scales as she left.

Jackal was leaving the throne room when Cacti was stomping down the hall.

"You always to stomp everywhere," Jackal smirked as he matched Cacti's pace.

"The easiest way to look menacing." She flicked a glance at him.

"Your scar is menacing enough." A flashback of her first battle blinked in her mind. The large skywing slashing her claws down her face. She would never forget it. Thanks for the great memory. Cacti hissed and shoved him sideways

"What did I do to you?" He cried dramatically, flopping over on her.

"You were born first." She grunted as she struggled under the weight of her big brother.

"Don't blame me for that, that was your fault."

"My fault?!" Cacti's sandy scales shone against her brother's as she started to wiggle out under him. She huffed in defeat, curled her tail and poked him with the back of her stinger.

"Alright Alright," Jackal slid off of her. "no need to pull out the barb." He threw back his head dramatically. "Have fun chasing out dragons!"

"What are you going to be doing?" Cacti rolled her eyes.

"Planning an attack on the seawings," Jackal smirked, "Don't worry, being the battle planner's right hand will get you somewhere." He winked, then slid into the battle room.

Cacti sighed, and started to sulked down the hallway again.

"Burn said no prisoners, unless they are Sandwings." Cacti paced in front of the line of somewhat soldiers.

She only had hope for Spitfire, Charcoal, and Polecat. The Mudwings always froze up when they were fighting, this usually meant something had reminded them of their dead siblings. Cacti would always wonder if she would feel that way if Jackal died. You're getting side-tracked!

"I have a question…."

"Yes, Polecat?"

"Do you know what dragons we're going to be fighting?"

Cacti lashed her tail, "No, why should I. A patrol spotted them far away, how would you see them?"

"I was just asking…"

"Let's go." Cacti flared her wings and lifted off. This is already going great.

The group flew closer to the Ice Kingdom boundaries, she spotted a dappled smoke signal.

"I wonder if they're over there." Charcoal commented, motioning to the ground.

"We should check it out, right Cacti?" Soil glanced at her.

Cacti nodded. "Let's."

The group suddenly dove down to the trees, a new strategy Burn was trying. They landed with a thud, shaking the trees. Split up, pair up. Cacti signed, to the others. They nodded, and paired with each other, each going with their other tribe member.

Polecat raced up behind her. "I don't like this…" He whispered.

"Why did you come then?" Cacti grumbled,

"I thought we knew who we were fighting." He gave her a weak smile.

Cacti rolled her eyes in response, and kept walking. The trees broke way to an open clearing with a pond of light blue water, and palm trees. A small cave was by the side of the pond, with a hodgepodge of leaves and grass for bedding. The clearing smelt fresh of cow.

Cacti put her wing up to stop Polecat. "Someone's still here." She whispered.

A dark orange Skywing lept out of the undergrowth, hissing loudly. Cacti roared and jumped forward, while Polecat ran back to find the others. The two circled each other, hissing, and throwing jabs at each other. The Skywing jumped forward first, grabbing Cacti's shoulder in his talons. Cacti fell forward, squashing him, and started pounding him with her wings.

Cacti brought her barb up to his neck, "Why are you here?" She hissed, out of breath.

"I could kill you right now." He shoved his face closer to her.

"You can but you'll die from Sandwing venom in a matter of minutes." She narrowed her eyes at him. The skywing stayed silent. "You didn't answer my question."

"I live here. With my friends, who are at this moment, capturing your patrol."

Cacti blinked. "Well played Skywing." She took away her barb, and sat in the middle of the clearing, waiting for her punishment.

A Rainwing, Nightwing and Seawing slipped out of the trees a few moments later.

"Step away from Rust." The Rainwing growled, very un-Rainwing like. She was different shades of purple, her right frill burned severely. Her silver earring shone in the morning sun.

"I wasn't anywhere near-" Cacti glanced the skywing, "Rust." She sneered.

"Shut it squid-brain." The Seawing hissed. She was an eerie blue and white, half of her glowing scales had disappeared. A hybrid. Disgusting.

"Don't talk to dragons like that North! She's obviously important, at least be nicer." The Nightwing shoved the Seawing.

The Nightwing had strange pearl white horns with deep blue scales.

"Wait up!" A big Mudwing burst through the bushes, making all of the newly arriving dragons fall into a heap.

The Mudwing was a warm reddish-brown, and a huge smile.

Cacti sneered, "It seems your friends are quite," She sighed "Civilized."

"Oh, yea? How about this for civilized!" The Rainwing hissed, blowing a blow dart into Cacti's arm.

"LAVENDER! YOU DON'T DO THAT TO DRAGONS!" The Nightwing screeched.

Cacti's world slowed down, and she fell into a dark abyss.

This is my first WoF fanfic, wish me luck! -Red