(Keyi)
I awoke in the serpents' nest. I didn't know how long I'd been asleep, only that it must have quite awhile because all the dancers seemed to be asleep, though none of them to close to me. The closest is that python man from before but for now I ignored him. There was something that I needed to do.
I had not been moved from the spot by the fire where I had been earlier and the flames still burned strong. I rolled my sleeve up to my shoulder and reached toward the fire. The flames did not burn my skin or even feel hot. To me the flames felt cold. They wrapped themselves around my arm as if embracing an old friend that had been away far too long. I answered, letting the fire within me travel down my arm and dance with the central fire's flames.
Then Wyvern's Nest was gone.
And I fall.
I fall though a blood red sky with clouds made of fire instead of water. I snap open my Demi hawk wings and let them catch the hot air like a parachute. I drift on the scalding wind through the fire filled sky over a sea of blood. The land that appears on the horizon is burning. The grass and trees are dead and dry and the inferno consumes all.
I land in the blaze. The fire surrounds me but does not harm me but embraces me like an old friend that has been away far too long. I lock my reason for coming and my brother's face in my mind as the flames whisper, "Master…" They hiss, "Don't leave again, master…"
I ignore the hissing flames and instead make a demand of my own, "Take me to me brother!" The flames hiss and grow as if to deny me but then they part before me making a path burnt land and ashes.
I run.
I run through corridor of fire. The air itself feels now as though it is on fire and the flames around me now scream but I don't listen. I run. The flames suddenly shoot up in front of me and I skid to a stop. I peer through the flames and scream when I see what is beyond them.
Chase, my big brother, lies face down in the ashes. The fires surround him threatening to engulf him. I scream. I tear at the fire with all my might and magic until the ground around me is nothing but ashes for nearly a hundred feet and I run. I run to my brother.
The teasing fire leaps up between me and Chase, "Ah, but master… Do you really need him?" The flames tease, inching closer to my brother.
"Chase!" I scream, praying that he'll hear me, "Big brother!"
He moves. Brother pushes himself off the ground with his good arm, "Keyi!" He staggers backward as the laughing flames inch toward him.
"Chase!" I scream reaching my hand through the flames. They burn me now but I don't care. Chase reaches for my hand and takes it without hesitation. The flames between us are gone, dispersed by our combining magics.
Chase pulls me into his arms and drapes his tortured wings around me, wrapping me in a feathery cocoon, protecting me from the fire around us. "Thank you, Keyi." He whispers.
And we rise up from the world of fire.
I opened my eyes and I was back in Wyvern's Nest with my hand still in the fire. I pulled my hand from the fire and examined the new burn around my arm. It was not as bad as I had feared it would be and it wouldn't look half as bad once I get Lilia to look at it. I pulled my sleeve back down to hide the burn and stood up. I walked to the door of the nest carefully picking my way through the piles of dancers sleeping on the floor.
It was dark outside. It hadn't been when I'd first gotten to the nest so that must have been quite awhile ago. I reached my arms up to the sky and changed shape. My cobra body was golden instead of the usual black and my wings were incredibly dark gray and marked like a hawk's in black.
I flew over Wyvern's Court following the path that Salem had taken me to the nest on and landed returning to human form in front of the building. I managed to slip into the building unnoticed and followed the hallways I remembered the cobra king taking. I knocked on the door of the room that I was positive my big brother was in.
That falcon from earlier, Nicias, or something like that. "What are you-"
"Is big brother up yet?" I interrupted him. I looked past falcon dude and there, pushing himself up on the bed, was big brother.
Hi everybody. Two things- One, I'd like to thank you all yet again and two, I'm trying to think of a better summery and any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thank you all.
-Ebony-