DISCLAIMER: I do not own Wings of Fire; Tui T. Sutherland does.
NOTE: In a few places the wording will be similar if not the same as the Sutherland books. This is done because a re-word would sound silly and the setting, plot, universe, and characters are distinctly different enough to not constitute an infraction of the "no posting the original work with thoughts thrown into the flow of the work" rule.
After the Dragonets of the Prophecy were free of the fire wall, Cyclone realized he had no idea where to go. "Which way to the waterfall?" He asked, referring to the waterfall leading out of the Sky Kingdom, down the Diamond Spray River.
Tempest nodded up the tunnel and slithered off, leading the way.
Shortly before they reached the central hall of balconies, the tunnel turned left and began to rise. Tempest signaled for them all to move quietly, and they crept toward the sound of dragons shouting, singing, and smashing things. He looked sympathetically at Winter, whose ears were flattened against her head. Umbra was cringing as well.
Tempest glanced over her shoulder at Cyclone, who was concentrating on moving his talons carefully over the rocky, gold-laced floor. "Hey," she whispered. "Once you're free . . . what are you going to do?"
"We go find our parents." Cyclone answered.
"Can I come?" Tempest asked.
"Sure." He answered. Tsunami glared at him.
"Congratulations, star-crossed lovers, now can we get going!" Flora said with flattened orange ears, a little louder than a whisper.
"Seriously." Ray rolled his eyes. "Not the time."
Cyclone snapped at the air in front of them. Ray feigned a frightened expression.
"You're all upsetting Tsunami." Umbra told him, earning yet another glare from the Seawing. Cyclone tried to meet her blue eyes, but she kept looking away.
"Aaand we're moving..." Candor motioned for them to continue walking.
They continued; both Cyclone and Tempest were blushing. He guessed they had climbed two levels, circling behind the balconies, when they reached an open doorway as tall as five dragonets and just as wide. They hid around a corner of the tunnel and peeked out.
The doorway led out onto a flat half-circle plateau between the cliffs, packed with Skywings and Heatwings and even a couple Rockwings. The party was lit by floating globes full of fire, some yellow, and some red. Most of the Skywings were wearing gold or copper or precious jewels that sparkled in the firelight. The fire dragons looked tough and common next to them, and many of them stood awkwardly as if they would rather be charging into battle than making polite conversation at a party.
Statues of Queen Scarlet and King Stratus in different regal poses were scattered about the floor, some carved from marble, some of gold, others of smooth black rock with citrine gems for eyes. There were even a few of Prince Vermillion and Princess Citrine. Tables around the outside were piled high with food. The tables held not only meat, but fruits and vegetables. Several kinds of prey were also running frantically between the dragons' claws. A low rock barrier kept the prey from escaping into the tunnel, and all around the mesa were steep cliffs going either up or down, so they were trapped.
Cyclone saw a Skywing pause mid-conversation, smash her talons down on a dainty-jaw, pop it in her mouth, and continue chatting with the Heatwing opposite her. He also spotted a couple of scavengers among the prey. Instead of running around like terrified chickens, one was trying to climb the cliff; the other was crawling under one of the tables to hide. It made him wonder if scavengers were smarter than they looked.
The first dinosaur appearance! "Dainty-jaw" is the English meaning of "compsognathus". I will be using the translation for names of dinosaurs to help with the flow, except in the cases where the original name would flow better than the translation; for example, raptor or troodon - this opens up new possibilities for dragon names.
Now that he could see the feast was out in the open air, he realized how the dragons out here had heard the prisoners singing. He'd been wondering how the sound had carried down the long tunnels to land in common ears, but from here the arena was only a short dragon hop across a couple of cliffs.
"You guys cross first." Tempest said. "Crouch low and run, and hopefully they won't spot us." She sent Tsunami darting across first, and the others followed one at a time, those who could camouflage did. "Sorry," she said when she caught up a few moments later. "I had to wait for the queen to look away."
From here the tunnel branched in several directions. Tempest took the one leading down under the cliff where the feast was. The torches were spaced farther apart as they went along, so the tunnel grew darker and darker. Soon Cyclone could hear roaring up ahead, he knew it was a waterfall.
They emerged on a narrow ridge halfway up a tall, craggy cliff. By the light of the moons, they could see straight down ahead of them, loud and fierce, and the wind carried bursts of cold spray into their faces.
Anion gestured toward his clamps. "Are you sure you don't want to unbind our clamps now?"
"You'll be fine." Tempest said, waving her talons at the dangerous rock face. "It's easy to climb from here. I've done it when my wings are tired. See? The cave's right there."
Cyclone peeked over the edge and saw a small gap in the cliff far below, like a tiny gash in the wall behind the waterfall. It was definitely a journey he'd prefer to do with functioning wings. But they had to keep Tempest happy . . .
"I see some claw holds." Cyclone said while Winter and Umbra froze. "And we can rest on the boulder halfway . . ." He stopped. Over the roaring of the waterfall, he could hear wingbeats. Someone was coming.
He spun around. "Hide." He said, frantically pushing Tempest toward the tunnel. "If they find you helping us, both queens will kill you, champion or not."
She stopped in the mouth of the tunnel, gawking at him. He realized that he was touching Tempest – and not dying.
He realized that his talons stung with the pain of the ginormous electric shock, and it did hurt quite a bit, but the pain faded almost as soon as it came, and he spotted no damage to his scales.
"You . . . you can—"
"Hey lovebirds, HIDE." Tsunami snapped. "Let's just charge our scales to get out of here!"
"I don't think so." Said Queen Vulture's chilly voice behind them. Cyclone turned slowly and saw the Skywing queen descending from the cliff above, her bejeweled wings spread wide.
"Thank you, Tempest." The queen said nastily. "You may be excused."
Tempest had betrayed them. He couldn't believe it. Cyclone felt static ripple in his scales, and he glared at his mother, pouring out all his hatred into one gaze. He felt the metal clamps warp and bend as he tried to flare his wings.
Queen Vulture smiled at the Dragonets as Skywing soldiers began to rain from the sky. "Going somewhere? Cyclone, my dear, you look awfully sinister." Cyclone bit back a snarl.
"Time to fly. NOW!" Tsunami yelled.
Cyclone focused all of his energy on his scales. Lightning, lightning, come on! He thought. The clamps on Cyclone's wings sizzled and popped, and soon, it was just a mess on the ground. The others charged as well, adrenaline fueling their strange power, and zoomed into the air.
Cyclone and his friends rushed upward toward the opening, Queen Vulture roaring behind them.
"Where do we go?!" Candor asked as they zoomed out of the opening into the yellow midday sky.
"We fly toward the arena, and then use the wires to dodge the Skywings." Anion said, picking up his speed. "We fly as fast as we can and head toward the Rock Kingdom."
"Skywings are the fastest fliers!" Umbra called. "We'll never make it!"
Ray whipped his head around and shot a beam of light at a soldier's wing. The Skywing yelped and began to half-fall toward the ground. "Aim for their wings!" Cyclone was glad that Lightwings were good marksmen for their vision and range.
One Skywing caught up with them and seized Flare. The Heatwing grunted and the yellow dragon reeled back with pain. Dark burns laced his scales where he had touched her and he pulled himself back, hovering and looking at the Dragonets confusedly. "Keep your scales charged if you can!" She told them.
The guards began pouring out of the hole, Queen Vulture leading them. "You can't run from me! It's my hatching day!" One of the guards came close to Clay, but he swiveled his head toward her and blasted her with a stream of rock. The poor Skywing fell out of the sky and hit two other guards, and they collided with more. As the Dragonets zoomed toward the arena, the queen scowled, flicking her tongue in and out of her mouth.
Nearing the arena, Cyclone saw that Burn was enjoying a fight between a Coldwing and two scavengers. Why would the queen use scavengers in her arena? He thought that dragons should be more careful after what happened to Queen Iguana and King Geyser.
The Coldwing snarled as one scavenger stabbed its sword into his tail. He responded by breathing frost on the scavenger, but it dodged and he hit his own tail. Furious, the Coldwing charged the scavenger and bit its head off, terrifying the other one into running in fear. The Coldwing sent a ball of frost in its direction, and the fight was over. Some guards chained him back up as Prince Vermillion announced his success.
Cyclone, their fastest flier, was leading the group. He ducked underneath the wires and dove, gaining speed. He twisted his tail and swooped upward and out of the arena. He chanced a glance back to see that his friends had copied him. But not far behind them was the queen and her soldiers.
Then he felt an impact on his back. He tried charging his scales, but he only felt tiny ripples of static as he glanced back to see Skywings swarming his friends.
Two guards clamped their talons on his shoulders. Cyclone thrashed and thrashed, giving each soldier a reason to let go. They didn't, no matter how much he hurt them. Maybe they were more afraid of what the queen would do to them if they dropped him than what he could do to them on the way back to the spires. He growled and glared at them; they leaned outward, wary of his teeth and claws.
The guards flew him to the royals' balcony, and set him and his friends down alongside Queen Vulture, who was smirking, Queen Burn, Prince Vermillion, Princess Citrine, and Tempest, who looked miserable. She wouldn't even glance at them.
Fat chains were wound around their necks, and all of them were bolted down to the floor by their tail, wings, arms, and legs. It would definitely be harder to escape.
"THERE'S the traitor." Tsunami growled, glaring at Tempest.
"She may have been forced, you know." Cyclone said.
"You can think that, but I don't trust her." Tsunami spat. "You love her anyway . . ." She looked so upset. Cyclone wished he could extend a wing to her or something.
Cyclone would have responded, but Prince Vermillion leapt off the platform, and landed on the sand, beating his wings to get the murmuring crowd's attention.
"Today, as you all know, is Her Majesty's three hundred and twenty-first hatching day, and she has a very special arrangement for you all." He announced. "Today, all of the fights will contain at least one Dragonet of Fate."
The crowd cheered, Cyclone could pick out what some of them were saying.
"This is gonna be good."
"Wait, all of them will have a Dragonet? Which one will fight Tempest?"
"Three moons, this is going to be bloody."
"Are they going to fight each other?"
"These guys are pretty powerful, remember what the Skywing did to Cavern?"
"Great, ten more Tempests."
"It's really them! The Dragonets of Fate!"
A particularly cowardly voice stood out. "I hope we aren't hit by misfire . . . Who knows what these Dragonets can do . . ."
The queen glared at the prince, and he thunderously beat his wings to silence the crowd. "My dearest mother, which dragons will be the combatants this round?"
"Hmm . . ." The queen thought a moment. "The Seawing up here, and . . ." She looked up toward the spires. "Whirlpool."
Cyclone heard Tsunami gasp. She would have to kill a Seawing, one of her own kind.
Now I know what you're thinking: Where's Gill? Why is Whirlpool in here instead. Well, I decided to switch their names because King Whirlpool sounds so much better than King Gill; similarly, "that mean old pedo Gill" sounds much more fitting than "that mean old pedo Whirlpool".
Also a side note: The primary Rockwing breath is this orange liquid that solidifies into rock shortly after being "breathed". Similar but not exact to the Death Song's breath in the How To Train Your Dragon franchise.
Thanks for reading!