Abandoned- Squid's Story[]
A Mini-Winglet by Wisdomseeker of the NightWings
(This story takes place in Part Two of Wings of Fire, The Dark Secret)
Squid was scared. He had been foolish to speak out to the big, scary, not nice NightWing. Why had I been such an idiot? he asked himself as he struggled to fly through the rain-soaked sky. I won’t last a day out here in SkyWing territory, he worried anxiously. The only upside, or maybe both up and down sides, was that it was too rainy to see any other dragons, even if they were right next to him.
Squid looked fearfully over his shoulder at the empty sky at that thought. Was that the whistle of wings beside him? No, just the wind. Was that the sound of a dragon growling? No, just the sound of rain hissing against his scales.
He continued on, wrestling with the wind and rain to stay aloft. He knew he would have to come down to SkyWing territory at some point. And he knew that point was coming soon, due to the injuries Morrowseer had given him.
He lowered closer down to land, scanning the ground beneath him. This isn’t fair! he thought, My dad is the leader of the Talons of Peace! Why is this happening to me?
Just then, Squid spotted a small opening in an open ravine, near a river. It looked like it had been lived in, but was now abandoned. He could see lots of talonprints swarming the area, but the dragons who had made them were clearly now gone. Squid happily swooped down toward it, anticipating the dryness of a cave.
Inside the opening, a narrow tunnel led to a gap, edged with a boulder that looked like it had been rolled away from the hole. When he stuck his green head inside, he could see, with the help of his night vision, a main cave and three small tunnels leading away from them. He ducked into the doorway.
The main cavern was very large, and had a small cave river flowing next to it. Squid thought the stream would be a nice place to sleep, so he dipped one of his webbed talons into the water. He immediately drew it out again. COLD COLD COLD! He thought, shivering. He would need somewhere else to rest.
Squid looked away from the river and at the rest of the cavern. It contained two horrible things that he hadn’t noticed before. First, slightly wrapped around a stone column near the river, was a length of chain, burnt at the end and melted into the rocky floor. That’s a little creepy, Squid thought to himself.
The next thing, however, was the thing that shocked and terrified him the most. A dead SandWing lay with his neck broken near the edge of the cavern. He looked more stone than flesh, and blended in with the background, which was why Squid hadn’t noticed it before. The SandWing was partly decayed, and his tan scales looked like they were melting and oozing off his skeleton. Squid quickly looked away, trying not to be sick. Then he remembered the three other caverns, and hopefully paced toward them.
First he tried the cave to the right of the entrance. It was scattered with broken stalagmites and rock shards, and smelled slightly of fire. However, it was no place to sleep.
The one across from the exit was a little more interesting. It contained some mahogany scroll racks, with some decaying scrolls on them, and the remains of an ashy campfire. Although Squid had all his SeaWing bioluminescent scales lit up, it would be nice to have a warm fire to sleep by. He sighed, and moved on to the last cave.
This one was the most interesting cave by far. It looked like a library, somehow stuck under this huge mountain. One wall held a large map of Pyrrhia, which had lots of small claw marks all over the Claws of the Clouds mountains. The other walls contained ledges and scroll racks, and the ceiling had a hole that looked out to the sky.
In the middle of the floor, he found a patch of flat rock floor, and there he slept until the sun’s rays touched his face through the sky hole.
When Squid awoke, he felt very hungry. At least the storm stopped, he thought somewhat gleefully. His gladness was heavily smashed back down by his remembering the events of yesterday.
The long flight to Pyrrhia from the secret NightWing island.
The test to convince the SkyWings to switch alliances.
The failure to do so.
The SkyWings burning to death, screaming their agony at the stormy sky.
His stupid mouthing off to Morrowseer.
The painful remarks, the slaps both physically and mentally.
His long, soaking flight to this small hidden cave complex.
His hunger.
He realized just how hungry he was. Squid stood up, opened his wings and stretched before heading out the door to the caverns. Outside, he searched until he found the scent of a rabbit. He followed it, until it led him to a small hole in the ground near a bush.
He feasted on rabbit that morning in the bright Sky Kingdom sunlight. Once he was finished, he flapped his sore wings, winced, and launched into the clear blue sky.
The mountain landscape around him was stunning. The huge peaks soared high into the blue space, and it seemed they nearly scraped the sky itself. In the distance, the round towers of the Sky Palace could be seen from where he flew. Little red and orange specks buzzed around the building.
Squid quickly ducked out of sight, lower to the ground. He knew the SkyWings couldn’t see him from this distance, but living with the Talons of Peace had made him a little paranoid. And of course, he was a lone SeaWing in SkyWing territory, doomed if he was caught.
Where should I go? He asked himself, Back to the Talons of Peace? If I can find them… It was unlikely that Squid could ever find the secret organization, because they moved their camp almost every week.
Suddenly, he saw a reddish blur to the right of his vision. He quickly turned his head to the right, but he saw nothing. Just my imagination, he thought. Just then he saw it again, but to his left. But again, when he turned around, nothing was there.
Then he was plummeting out of the sky, with someone holding his snout closed and pushing his wings toward his body. Squid tried to pummel his attacker with his tail, but it did no good. He was thrown to the ground in a small, rock-strewn valley, and the dragon sat on top of him, pulling Squid’s snout to face her.
“Hey, SeaWing!” she said menacingly, “What are you doing in our territory?”
He noticed that this SkyWing, who had bright red scales and a long tail, couldn't have been more than a few weeks older than himself. She snarled and flapped her wings open, probably trying to look bigger and scarier. She succeeded in terrifying Squid, whatever the purpose.
“Ahhh! I’m, uh, just, um, passing through, ya know, so if you could just get off my wings...” Squid trailed off shakily, looking at his captor with petrified eyes.
She must have seen the terror in his face, so she said, “Oh, okay, well, I’ll let you get up, but if you try to fly off, I’ll catch you super fastly and I’ll never let you up again, understand?”
“Um, yes, of course, no flying off,” stammered Squid.
The SkyWing picked herself off him and eyed him as Squid struggled to his talons.
“So, SeaWing, what’s your name, and where’re you from, and where’re you going?” asked the SkyWing dragonet.
“I’m Squid, and I’m in the prophecy, and I’m going home,” said Squid defiantly, and somewhat truthfully.
“Oh, well that’s interesting. I’m Crimson, daughter of Wildfire, captain of the guard at the SkyWing palace.” she said proudly, flicking her wings back and folding them neatly.
Oh, just perfect, thought Squid, crestfallen, Just the most perfect dragon to have found me.
Aloud he said, “So nice to meet you. Now if you excuse me, I have somewhere to be.” He ended firmly, hiding his terror, and glanced up at the blue sky. The sun was shining cheerily, as if mocking his desperate situation.
“Wait a minute, did you say prophecy? Like, the Dragonet Prophecy, prophecy?” Crimson interjected, her eyes shining, “Honestly, I don’t think so, because I heard Queen Scarlet say she had the dragonets from the prophecy. And of course, we all saw the SeaWing fight in the arena, and she was a blue, female dragonet. So, really, you just can’t be from the prophecy. So there.” She stuck out her tongue disbelievingly.
“Um, so, yeah, I’m, kind of a replacement for her, a little. And my dad is the leader of the Talons of Peace.” he said, trying to make himself sound more important.
Crimson stopped and studied him carefully, from the green of his scales to the phosphorescent patterns under his outstretched wings.
“Oh, is that true, you say,” said Crimson in a slow voice, “because Queen Ruby happens to be looking for those exact dragons. So maybe, you could lead us to them, and we would let you go.” The SkyWing stared into his eyes, all other emotions gone from her face but fierce, intense, questioning menace.
Squid realized he had made a terrible mistake to tell this captain’s daughter about them. He and the rest of the Talons were now in danger, and it was all his fault!
However, he put on a brave face and said, “I’ll never tell you, SkyWing!”
She hissed slightly, and her wings snapped back open again, revealing a dark orange interior.
“Are you sure about that, SeaWing?” she growled, inching toward him.
“Oh, well, why shouldn’t I be?” stammered Squid uncertainly, backing toward the edge of the little valley.
Without warning, she pounced, grabbing his talons and holding his wings closed. Of course she has proper battle training, thought Squid sarcastically, Why shouldn’t she?
Crimson was now sitting atop him once more, but this time was holding his wings down with her back talons and her tail was pinning his to the ground so he couldn’t attack.
She yelled at top SkyWing volume at the sky, “FATHER! WILDFIRE! COME HERE! I FOUND SOMEONE SUSPICIOUS!”
Instantly, a deep orange speck appeared in the sky, winging its way toward them. Squid noticed with dismay that several red and orange dragons were following him. He lay down, stopped struggling, and closed his eyes, waiting to feel chain around his snout and talons.
Shortly after he heard the thump of many dragons landing. He peeked his eyes open and saw a dark orange SkyWing wearing metal armor inlaid with gold standing next him and Crimson. He quickly shut his eyes again, tighter this time. That must be Captain Wildfire, Squid thought.
Suddenly he heard an agonized roar and the crackle of dragon-fire. Again he blinked his eyes open and saw, to his amazement, Avalanche of the Talons of Peace! Flame’s mother! He opened his eyes all the way now, and watched as she attacked the SkyWing guards from the air.
Avalanche was a spy for the Talons and lived in the Sky Kingdom, usually.
I hope no one recognizes her, he thought. She was their only spy into SkyWing territory, so they couldn’t afford to lose her.
Just then, Crimson jumped off him, looked at her father, gave a loud roar of fury, and joined in the battle. Most of the soldiers had run away in the direction of the palace. Only Crimson and Wildfire were left to fight Avalanche.
Although the SkyWing captain and his daughter were strong and infuriated, Avalanche was bigger than them and defeated them after several minutes of challenging battle. Wildfire struggled into the sky, pulling his daughter behind him.
“Avalanche!” Squid said gratefully, “Thank you! You probably saved my life!”
“Why in blazes were you in the Sky Kingdom, you idiot SeaWing?!” Avalanche replied hotly.
“Stupid horrible Morrowseer just abandoned me! While we were training here! He just sent me off into SkyWing territory! He’s so stupid!” complained Squid, anger and sadness in his voice.
“Let’s just go back to the Talons. We can find your dad and tell him what happened. And don’t worry, we’ll get back at Morrowseer for this,” she said gently, ending with a hint of anger.
“Ok, alright, sure, let’s get out of here before any more SkyWings find us.”
The huge SkyWing nodded, and she and the tiny SeaWing flapped their wings in unison, flying into the bright blue sky.