Remnants of the Cold War - Embers Rising

Embers Rising
Ember sees choppers in the night sky
Author	Eleven Fifty Two
Series	Remnants of the Cold War
Genre(s)	Adventure
Summary	A young dragon named Emberwings must find a way to live in a time where two great scavenger nations fight.
Other	Mature Content

Dragons of Pyrrhia. . .

The past six years, odd things have been occurring. Scavenger sightings have been much more plentiful, and so are the related fatalities. In the year 5019, the rain forest has gone dark, and Jade Mountain is in close proximity to the fighting between the two scavenger tribes. Scavenger machines roam the borderlands, and their flying wings dominate the sky. Unfortunately for the dragons of Pyrrhia, Armageddon has yet to come.

Crusaders of the West. . .

During the year of 2000, a soviet spy acquired data on the wormhole systems being created by the United States. Engineering their stolen technology, and duplicating the files, the Soviet Space Fleet was on its way in 2004. In response, the U.S. Space Force constructed six enormous space craft, almost two kilometers in length each, and ordered them to leave on the year 2005. Unknown to them, one small error had changed everything, and the sixth ship in the fleet, their flagship, had never arrived.

Read the Entire Series!

While I would say that this is this first novel in the Remnants of the Cold War Series, it is in fact not. It is the precurser to Storm Rising, which is the official Canon for Remnants of the Cold War.

Author's Note. . .

I appreciate your feedback! If you see any inconsistencies or have any great ideas, then go ahead and leave a comment. Otherwise, if you see any grammar errors, then feel free to fix them, as long as you maintain the intended meaning. Thanks for the support! Also, another note is that this was my practice run for writing, so this is not the canon for Remnants of the Cold War; however, it is still very similar to what is.

Remember, your opinion matters!

The NightWing Guide to New Scavenger Weaponry

Both tribes appear to have mostly white skin and are noticeably larger and better equipped than the scavengers native to Pyrrhia. The level of technology that these scavengers use is astonishing, and is almost indistinguishable to magic for most dragons. Due to unknown reasons, the languages of these scavengers are somewhat comprehensible, although not fully understood by us. Both tribes are easily identifiable, as their furs and machines are very easily differentiated. We have decided to label them as "Blues" and "Reds," based on commonly seen markings on their furs.

Firespears:

Almost every single invading scavenger will be seen with one of these, but virtually nothing is known about these, except for that the pointy end shoots. These are also seen on their machines, although they are much larger. Most firespears will not severely damage dragons, but the larger ones will damage dragons in ways we don't know how to heal yet. Projectiles fired by firespears appear to be many different types of metal, and generally appear damaged after use. Hopefully we will find more on the workings of these mysterious weapons.

Crawlers:

These odd contraptions are covered in armor and are invulnerable to most dragon fire. They also make constant rattling sounds when moving, although very loudly. It is unknown how fast they travel, as they have been only seen either stationary, or moving at a constant rate. The same can be said about how these machines move, although some first hand witnesses have explained that wheels move the heavy black bands that define these machines. Many variants of these have been spotted, although most have a rotating platform on the top.

Some other notable variants have smaller main firespears, but those still have the capability to injure, if not kill any dragon. Almost every single crawler is guaranteed to have scavenger sized firespears on it, as they seem to be designed to fight each other with. Some also appear to have odd looking spears mounted on them, although their purpose it not yet known. Another variant is rumored to be able to have a firespear that is able to fire torrents of metal, like many scavenger sized firespears, but is much larger than the before mentioned weapons.

Mechanized Carts:

These machines move on powered wheels, some of which can rotate. They seem to fill different roles than crawlers, but not as much is known about them due to how scarcely they are seen in battle. There is a select exception though, as one variant of the mechanized cart is very frequently seen transporting scavengers to and fro. The aforementioned mechanized cart has six wheels, and the front two seem to be used to steer its direction and the back wheels appear to provide forward acceleration.  Mechanized carts in general seem to have a very diverse range of purposes, but will still don't know them all.

Choppers

These are very loud flying machines that earn their name based on the sounds that they make. You will either hear them from far away, or when they are right on top of you. It is quite inconsistent, but it may be related to the type of chopper it is. Their appearance is very difficult to describe, as no one has really gotten a good look at these, although two very unique characteristics are the two spinning blades on them. One is located on the top of the machine, and the other is located somewhere on the back.

Flying Wings:

This type of flying machine is only ever seen high in the sky, or heard from its distant thundering sounds. Nobody knows what these things actually do, but they appeared at the same time that the invaders did, so they must be connected. For all we know, these may not even be machines. As of now, we think that these things are responsible for bombing dragons on multiple occasions, as they have always been present when such an even occurs.

Elite Scavengers:

Usually the invading scavengers are found on the battlefield, but some have been spotted effectively killing dragons with standard weaponry, and are very dangerous to encounter. It is confirmed that these scavengers usually are present in areas far from the battlefield, as they are very good at infiltrating. Otherwise, It is suspected that they use handheld devices to maintain contact with the main scavenger force. If this was true, then it is possible that the main body knows where our current positions and encampments may be located.

Blue Scavengers:

These scavengers speak dragon. They may use some different vocabulary, but it is still very shocking. We don't understand how they could simply show up here, and know our language with apparently zero contact for the entirety of our existence. We can take advantage of this, and they do too. It may be possible that these scavengers will reach out to us, possibly for an alliance against The Reds. But that may be unlikely, as they are extremely rare, and appear to avoid the Rain Forest most of the time.

This means that the Blues may be the more reasonable of the two warring scavenger tribes. They get their name from their emblem, which appears to be a flag with red and white stripes, and a blue corner covered with stars. Also, they are remarkably different than the reds. Rumors have spread around claiming that these scavengers call themselves "Americans," although that may not be true.

Red Scavengers:

Unlike The Blues, The Reds are represented by a large red flag with two golden tools in one corner. They mark their machines with red stars, and they speak an unknown language, although we can still speak their words without understanding their meaning. Based on current experiences, they are outright hostile to us, and want to conquer all of our land. Escaped prisoners have described conditions as "absolutely horrible" and claim that The Reds seem to be very reliant on their leaders, and have barley any free thoughts. This may be because of their possible government type, which seems similar to Ex-Queen Scarlet's regime during the War of the SandWing Succession.

Prologue

This night, three moons shined brightly in the night sky. Darkwings knew it was the time, as her deepest instincts urged her to bring her egg into the moonlight, where it would absorb the power of the three moons. The only problem was that the sky was obscured by tough soil veined with many roots.

So she gently carried the egg out of her stuffy den, and outside. As soon as her head emerged into the wilderness, she was immediately bombarded with the fresh odors of the alpine forest. It was always this fragrant here, and it threw her back to the time when she had first escaped the searing air of the NightWing island.

It was truly horrible there. As a dragonet she had slept on the hard volcanic floors, and had never once found a way towards comfort. Only little scraps of putrid meat found their way into her maw, and she was always so hungry. But that wasn't what really had scarred her, for that was the air. The air was terrible, and every breath had scratched her throat till it bled. Her dragonet would never have a childhood like that though.

So she walked to the clearing, to where the trees would not obscure the moonlight. Usually Pine trees dominated these highlands, but in clearings like this they were never present. Finally, she set the now silver egg on top the soft layer of grass that only grew here.

As she looked up once again, and spotted the dark silhouette of a dragon flying her way. It was too far to recognize, but any other dragon could end her dream. The dream where she raised her son into a bright and lively world, the complete opposite of the one she had. So she flared her wings, and hoped that would be enough to scare the figure away.

If it isn't him, I'll be ready to fight. I don't know why'd they be interested in me, but if they don't mind their own talons they'll certainly get mine. I'll kill whoever puts my son in danger, whether they like it or not.

The dragon didn't turn around or stop, but kept on beating his way closer. The way he carried himself in the air and the shade of red he was became apparent. She relaxed her wings once again, as it was Ferrous.

Ferrous was a large SkyWing, just as large as Morrowseer had once been. He was not like Morrowseer though, and was usually kind. Only those who really knew Ferrous would get to know how devoted he was to his ideals, which included loving her.

He wasn't supposed to be here tonight, as he had said that he would come back to see her tomorrow. It certainly was a pleasant surprise, as he might have the chance of seeing his dragonet hatch. With that, he landed besides her, his huge wings kicking up big clouds of dust and plant matter with a whoosh.

She was thinking about bringing up why he was here, but Ferrous spoke out before she could decide on what to say. "That's odd, I thought there were only supposed to be two moons out tonight" he said puzzledly.

She turned to face him, and replied "Maybe if you actually payed attention to what is going around you, then you would have seen the comet that crashed into the third one last night."

On one talon, I have only seen one other comet before, but on the other talon, this "comet" didn't look anything like the other one that I saw. This one crashed into one of the moons with no explanation, and burned with a fiery light.

She looked back, expecting Ferrous to respond, but his expression seemed to be expecting the same out of her. "Well," she confessed, "I guess it is slightly odd, because comets don't crash into moons normally."

A spark lit up in his yellow eyes, and he jested, "You don't know anything about what comets are normally supposed to do, because you're not a comet expert."

She then retorted jokingly, "if you are the comet expert, then how come you have never seen one before?" Surprised by something unseen, Darkwings exclaimed, "three moons, he's hatching," as she noticed a few tiny cracks on top of the egg.

Ferrous was shocked, and he let out a little gasp of surprise. "You d-didn't tell me," he stuttered as he looked around her and noticed the egg for the first time. He shifted himself closer until they were touching, and slowly wrapped his tail around her own.

The center of attention was just in front of them, and within moments the fissures had spread exponentially. Soon it began quivering, and small fragments of shell began pop out.

Black talons punched through and grasped the sides of the egg. For a moment he struggled, until the egg feel to its side and a tiny black head popped out. Out of all of his features, the most noticeable were the pale red scales in the corners of his eyes.

Finally, he dragged the rest of his body out of the shell and wallowed around its remains. The moonlight lit the rest of his body, and she could see a spectrum of dark reds.

She then murmured to Ferrous, "Isn't he beautiful?" Ferrous didn't answer, as he was staring into the eyes of their dragonet.

His eyes were an intense orange, the same color of the embers that still smoldered after a wood fire had died. Looking at his wings, she could see orange scattered over a dark red, like embers falling from a blaze. She then proclaimed, "His name is Emberwings, for he had wings of embers, that will always show light in a field of darkness."

"Yes, he still burns, for there is only one dragon that has eyes like that," he said threateningly.

Darkwings now realized that Ferrous's ideals had ran much farther than she had expected, possibly even to a maniacal level. Hopefully she could reason him out of doing anything crazy. She then put herself between Ferrous and Emberwings, and then turned her head to steal a glance at Emberwings, but his eyes were fearful.

With a sudden ferocity, Ferrous seized her head and pinned it to the ground. "I thought I was right when I fell for you, but I was wrong. SkyWings always kill dragonets that have too much fire, and I'm not going to betray my tribe any farther," he snarled.

"No!" she shouted, clawing Ferrous's belly furiously, "I will not let you kill him!" Ferrous was much larger than Darkwings, but if she managed to surprise him, then she might be able to win this fight. Hopefully all he expected was for her to roll to her belly, without a fight.

She was the first to move again, knocking Ferrous off his feet with her tail. He stumbled around, but didn't manage to right himself before he fell. Realizing this may be her only opportunity to subdue him, she jumped on top so she could pin him to the ground. Her lungs felt like they were on fire as she rushed to pin his shoulders to the ground.

Ferrous lashed out with his back talons, slashing very deeply into her belly. She leapt back in shock and pain, only to realize she had given Ferrous an opportunity to get back up. He rolled back onto his bloodied stomach, and was back on his feet in a moments notice. They circled each other, waiting for the other to attack, until Darkwings was seized by a coughing fit. She retched bloody phlegm out of her mouth, just as Ferrous sucked in air with a hiss.

Darkwings face was showered with hot burning fire, blinding her. Roaring in pain, she lunged with her claws outstretched to where Ferrous had last been. He rolled out of the way with a rustle of scales, and she crashed into a tree. One of her outstretched arms was violently twisted in the collision, and it flared with pain. She stood up yet again, roaring in pain until her voice faded away, as her lungs were still scared from years on the island.

Blind, she whirled around, her tail snagging on the nearby tree. Unfortunately for her, she didn't sense Ferrous until he violently shoved her back down. She crumpled down to the ground, and her arm felt like it was being shoved into lava. Yet again, she clumsily attempted to get up, but she lacked the stamina. Blood pooled underneath her, and she hacked up more phlegm.

He stood by her, mumbling incomprehensible words under his breath. He then began to make his way to where she had last saw Emberwings, but he stopped. "Don't struggle," hissed Ferrous, "maybe you will survive, but your monster will surely perish."

Darkwings had just made a grave mistake, and she was really feeling it now. She remembered her childhood, the feeling of emptiness she had once felt, the NightWing who she had loved before Ferrous, and finally the egg she had abandoned with him. She was almost upon the blackness, until she heard the distant storm of wing beats from another dragon.

Maybe I might survive after all, maybe an animus will come to save my life, or a brave hero who will treat me better than Ferrous ever would have. Why am I even thinking so delusionally? Oh right, my boyfriend just betrayed me--

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of Ferrous inhaling sharply, and the agonized scream which followed. Soon it had stopped, and after inhaling several times again he screeched, "WHY DO YOU BURN SO MUCH YOU NIGHTWING SCUM! AHGGH!" The air became very still, except for the now closer wing beats, then Ferrous roared, "I HATE THIS PLACE, ALL IT DOES IS PUNISH ME, THINKING IT CAN MAKE ME KILL TWO OF THEM?"

Ferrous's crazy muttering faded into the distance. He had reached the breaking point, and truly was beyond saving. A new set of talons touched down into the clearing, kicking up some newly burnt plant matter. She wanted to explain, to justify why she was here, but all she managed was to wheeze: "Help, help him please."

A new voice then blurted, "Do you reeeaaaly need help? Oh, that didn't sound very nice. Am I supposed to be nice to dying dragons?"

The only response was a whimpering noise from the burning dragonet.

Book One: Ashes Falling

Chapter 1

Six years later. . .

Being a hybrid was tough, but being a hybrid that burned everything he touched and could read other minds was absolutely horrible. Especially if you reside within the Sky Kingdom. In the Sky Kingdom, dragonets like him were killed normally, but he was an exception. He did not remember the exact details of his hatching, but two other dragons did.

Peril, a SkyWing with firescales, like him, had seen the commotion. She arrived at the right time to save his life, but not his mother's. Otherwise, he didn't know anything else about it.

Maybe I should ask Peril for the details when I next see her, because she didn't say anything else, and tried her best to hide her thoughts from me.

Peril was really odd, and it seemed that her thoughts were always on fire. Otherwise, he owed his life to Queen Ruby, for she was the one who decided that he could live here. Everyone else despised him, or at least thought of him that way. Thankfully, she let him live in the cave where Peril had stashed him after the incident.

Inside the cave, there were numerous markings that he had carved in the wall, but almost all the other surfaces were smooth from use. The cave was also large enough to accommodate a single adult dragon, but he was bigger than most adults. Here, he could be away from the dragons and their hateful thoughts, here he could burn what he liked into the cold stone walls with his talons. The best part was that nobody could complain about it, or even try to.

He hated how other dragons judged him, connected him with their conspiracies, and most often, called him "The Queen's Pet." He was not the monster they thought he was, or at least not as much of one. He didn't fantasize about killing every dragon he met, or put any thought at all about burning them to death for his own pleasure. Most definitely, he was not evil at the core, like Scarlet, or Darkstalker.

At least I'm not an animus, because out of all the special powers you can have, that one is the most corrupting. I am 100% better than all of those villains. Besides, my scales can kill anyone bad enough to try and hurt me. Oh wait, there's my father too, but I am not like him at all, NOT at all.

He turned his head lazily as he began to hear wing beats approaching closer. Who would ever disturb him at this hour? Peeking out of the cave, he could see that the sun was in the middle of the sky, and that a dull orange SkyWing was flying towards the cave.

On another thought, Ember probably had the worst sleep patterns out of all the dragons in the Sky Kingdom. Do all NightWings sleep this way, he wondered. I even went to sleep earlier last night, and I still somehow manage to sleep halfway through the day. Hmm, Condor probably has a good sleep schedule. I wonder what he is thinking about? Probably about how terrible I am.

Angry thoughts exploded inside of Condor's head, but they were mostly complaints. Why do I always have to fly all the way from the palace to this stupid cave and it's stupid ash-eating dragonet. Why doesn't he just go there himself when it is time? Oh, I know why, because all he does is lay around in his cave thinking about how bad it is to eat ashes all the time, like all monsters should.

As he was standing up, he was greeted in by Condor, who quickly turned around and spat, "Time for guard duty, NightWing."

Ember grabbed his tungsten-steel spear, which Queen Ruby had specially made for him, and launched himself out of the cave. Matching his pace to Condor's, they began the short flight to the palace.

Why does he hate me so much, its not as if I have been killing dragons every day in the arena, like Peril said she used to. Maybe I should burn him or something, but that wouldn't do any good, the last thing I want is Queen Ruby being angry at me. Remember, don't bite the talon that houses you.

He continued to think about the same thing over and over again, not saying anything to Condor, or burning him. Over the years, he had learned that focusing on something, besides other dragon's thoughts, helped drown out all the noise.

After about fifteen minutes of flying, they were just above the palace. Ember hovered in the air for a moment, looking for the familiar ledge that lead inside of the palace. Condor swooped by one final time, his negative thoughts radiating by.

Finally, I can be away from that tongueless mutant. Why does he have to be so silent? Out of all the people who should be silent, the Queen's Guard should not be at all. Wait, why even did the Queen agree to let this one live, one was acceptable, but two is over the line.

Condor's thoughts slowly faded away, and continuing his responsibilities, Ember entered the building. Making sure not to touch anything flammable, he walked through the lush hallways. Finally, he pushed open the entry door to the throne room.

He approached the other guard and mumbled, "Your turns up."

The other guard looked at him fearfully, and then raced out of the building, thinking about meeting someone later in the afternoon. As Ember took his spot next to the door, he stood erect and wielded his spear with one talon. The throne room was crowded with some of the higher ranking soldiers; obviously something important was going on, but he didn't care what it was.

Being a guard was simple. All it required was to look around for suspicious activities and to look really dangerous. If it really got bad, then he would do his best to eliminate the threat to his queen. After about an hour of patient waiting, the soldiers filed out of the door, one looking at Ember despicably.

Curiosity piled inside of Ember's brain, as he wanted to know what this dragon was thinking. Her thoughts like usual were mostly insulting. Look! Its the Queen's pet! I wonder what he's thinking about, maybe he wants to burn us all? He wouldn't be the Queen's pet anymore if he did that. Oh, hes looking at me weirdly, I need to get out NOW.

The door closed behind the group, and Ember observed the lavishly engraved walls of the throne room again. One time Ember had heard that it used to be gilded, but not anymore as Queen Ruby had decided to put their wealth to a more practical task.

After a few minutes, she finally decided to address him. "How are you doing today, Ember."

That was strange, she almost never addressed me, and I can't listen to her thoughts, like always. I should ask her about that. Maybe it is something she wears, like animus magic?

Shifting his wings and standing to attention, Ember responded "I am feeling fine today, Queen Ruby."

"You don't have to do that, stop being so stiff."

Ember followed her orders, and relaxed. He almost twisted his tail so the end would be in front of his talons, but he stopped midway.

Looking at him again, but in almost a proud way Queen Ruby stated, "I have decided to let you go to Jade Mountain Academy when there is room available."

His eyes widened in surprise, "you are seriously letting me go there? What if there are flammable things everywhere?"

"Don't make me think twice about this. Besides, out of all the dragons here, you need it the most."

They stopped their conversation as they heard talons rushing to the door. Ember raised his spear instinctively as one of the Queen's soldiers crashed through the door. The soldier was of average size, and his scales were a warm shade of orange.

"I have bad news," he explained, "one of your students at Jade Mountain was killed!"

"Again!" Queen Ruby roared, "Who was killed this time?"

"Cardinal! They said she was killed by a scavenger, and there were weird holes all over her."

Looking back at her, Ember could see her face twisted in anger. He then focused on the soldier, who also happened to have orange-gold eyes, and a pale-yellow underbelly.

That was so weird, scavengers can't put spears that deep into a dragon, and they found metal inside of her too? Why does it feel like so many things relating to scavengers have happened these past few years?

Interrupting their thoughts, again, Queen Ruby then hissed at them, "shouldn't you be there too? Why didn't one of the soldiers come?"

"They were busy looking for the scavengers that did it, and I thought it was really important so I told one of them I was going to tell you about what happened so they could protect the school."

Then we are going there now. Ember you are coming with me. Glide, get Vermilion and his soldiers, and meet me outside."

As if hit by the sudden realization that he was actually told to do something important, Glide raced out of the throne room. His talon steps faded away, along with his thoughts, which were strangely friendly towards Ember. Still unhappy about the news, Queen Ruby faced Ember again.

"Before we leave, I have to tell you something very important."

"Yes Queen Ruby," Ember nodded.

"There have been some very odd occurrences in the last six years. Scavenger sightings have become much more common, and fatal. These mysterious flying wings have showed up, and there have been these things dropping from the heavens."

"That is very odd," Ember confirmed.

"You were born six years ago Ember, and don't think your responsible for this, but you might be somehow associated with these events."

Is it really my fault that dragons are dying? Whatever this is, and however I am consociated to it needs to be solved. I don't know what details Peril left out, or what my father thinks, but the dots need to be connected. Otherwise, everyone will die, and it will all be my fault.

"Ember! You can think about this later, we need to go NOW," Queen Ruby commanded.

Ember quickly opened the door for the Queen, careful not to touch anything else besides the handles, as they were made of tungsten-steel. Once the Queen had passed through, he joined her in the hallways. Some time later, they burst through the outside door and onto the jetty.

Huh, the soldiers aren't here yet. Maybe I am a better guard than everyone else here.

The soldiers bursted into view not far from them, and were soon above them. One decided to land next to Queen Ruby, who Ember thought was Vermilion, exchanging quick words.

"Whats taking so long, lets go already!" Queen Ruby snapped, "Does this look like some sort of joke to you?"

All of them took off at once, and caught the air stream leading south. Careful not to get to close to Ember, the other dragons formed a triangle around Queen Ruby; leaving him enough room to do a barrel roll, although it would not be the best etiquette when flying around Queen Ruby.

Chapter 2

They had been flying for about a day, and it was the next morning when Ember began to notice the dragon following them. Whenever Ember would look back, he would see him quickly fly into some sort of cover. On one instance, he had seen the mysterious red dragon dive into a river, and in another he had ducked behind a large boulder to avoid being seen.

This dragon is definitely not supposed to be here. This skywing keeps on hiding whenever anyone looks back, and if it had business with the Queen, then he should simply fly up and state whatever boring agenda he might claim to have.

Out of all the occurrences, the most odd out of them all, was when only Ember was in sight. Instead of hiding, the dragon landed on a boulder, and stared back. He could almost feel the dragon's eyes scraping against his scales, and the most unsettling feeling dove upon him. Unfortunately for Ember, nobody else said a word, or even noticed the large red SkyWing following them.

So I'll set a trap. When we next fly through an area where he loses our sight, I will be there waiting for him. I can get answers too, and Queen Ruby will definitely appreciate that. There is no reason for me to loose in this situation; if he attacks, then I can use my firescales.

Two hours passed, and he could barely make out the sandwing fortress in the vast deserts. That was not important though, as they were about to pass through the one place where he could set his ambush. Ember then canted his wings towards the SkyWing column. Several of the soldiers hissed at him, but he stopped within a safe distance.

"There is someone following us, Queen Ruby, and I am going to hide behind this mountain and scare him into our custody," he called, loud enough for Queen Ruby and the soldiers to hear, but not enough for the perpetrator.

Before anyone could say a word, he flew out of earshot, and hid behind a large rock. Several small shrubs and small grasses burned under his feet, but he didn't care one single bit as they shriveled into ashes. He waited for the mysterious dragon to pass by, so he could intercept him.

This is the moment I prove my loyalty to the Queen, this is how I show that I am more loyal and more useful to her than any of those lazy soldiers.

He heard wing beats approaching fast and braced himself so he could be off in a moments notice, but he didn't need to take off, as the mysterious dragon landed right in front of him. Ember leveled his spear, and was about to make his presence known, until he was distracted by something.

Three moons, he is huge, but that's not going to help in this encounter. Why is he so suddenly sniffing the air?

The dragon that looked very much like Ember turned his head, and his eyes lit with horror as he attempted to make himself look smaller.

"STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM! NOBODY BREAKS THE LAW ON MY WATCH!" Ember ordered.

Somebody snickered somewhere in the bushes behind the mysterious dragon, but quickly fell silent. The dragon didn't answer, but just stared at him, as if he was attempting to recall something from the past.

"Then it's off to jail for you, or I can test out my fiery death breath if you think you can escape."

"Please don't, please, I won't try to escape," the dragon stammered, "by the way, my name is Ferrous."

"What does that have to do with anything! Why were you following the Queen?"

"I wasn't, I was following you," Ferrous responded.

Suddenly, a familiar orange dragon, now with a pouch around his neck, burst out of the bushes. Then, Queen Ruby and her soldiers landed in a semicircle around Ferrous, just slightly shaking the ground. For once, it seemed like Ember was not the one being hated on this time.

"So you're the dragon that disappeared six years ago," Queen Ruby asserted.

Ferrous flared his wings and snarled, "so your the one who raised that monster? You will regret it, you will, and you will know what it feels like to be burned, like me."

"I don't think so Ferrous, he has served me better than you ever had." Queen Ruby hissed.

"I have to admit that's true, TRAITOR," one of the soldiers confirmed.

Oh my, I have never been in a clutter of thoughts so confusing, I can't make out anything right now. Besides, what did Ferrous do that makes everyone hate him so much?

"So you think you know so much about me, but you're wrong," Ferrous snarled, "because if you knew anything about me, then you would have known that monster is my offspring."

Nobody spoke for a minute, until Ember decided to break the ice.

"He does look a lot like me."

"No wonder he has burn scars," one soldier quipped.

Another added, "probably because he tried to to kill Ember, but failed miserably! What a terrible SkyWing, who can't even dispose of firescales properly."

The soldiers continued to jab at Ferrous's ego, but Ember didn't want to listen to that anymore, he wanted answers, and only one dragon could provide those right now. More importantly, what was that dragon thinking?

Stupid soldiers, they can't even comprehend how hard it is to kill firescales, especially when their mother fights back. Wait, did they just call him Ember? What did Darkwings call him again? Emberscales? Emberteeth? Emberclaws? Emberbringer? Emberteeth? No, she called him Emberwings. No, he is just a monster, but he looks just like me. Why do they all hate me now, shouldn't they be hating Emberwings? NO, I mean that MONSTER. NO, I MEAN EMBERWINGS!

Emberwings could not stand it. His father's mind rotated in circles, like a centrifuge, slowly getting more refined, but not making any progress in the instant. Vermillion's voice brought Ember back into reality.

"What are we going to do with that traitor? We don't have any restraints, and the Palace is already a day and half's flight away."

Queen Ruby remarked, "I hope Queen Thorn doesn't mind keeping another prisoner for a few days."

No, they could not leave now, Emberwings still needed answers, and he knew how to get them. "We can't go now, I still need answers from this dragon," Emberwings asserted.

"OOOOOH, he wants to hear what daddy thinks," one of the soldiers jeered.

Glide retorted, "I can see why, if your father had disappeared under mysterious circumstances, would you want answers?"

"I guess I would."

Queen Ruby interjected, "By the crimson legion, stop bickering and let him speak already."

Firstly, Emberwings leaned his spear on the large rock, and then got down to business. As he began to approach the circle, the soldiers scattered out of his way, but still kept a loose circle around Ferrous. Looking him in the eye, Ember approached him again, and flared his wings.

Emberwings hissed, "tell me exactly what happened on the day I hatched, and don't even bother using fraudulence, because I will know if you do."

"FINE," Ferrous snarled. "It was a normal day, and like any good SkyWing would, I worked throughout the day. Back then, I used to manage dragons working in the mine. When my shift was over, I went home and slept until it was dark. This night would have been spectacular, if it wasn't for you."

Emberwings then growled, "I don't need you to say how awful I am, everyone already knows what kind of monster I am, so get back on topic."

Ferrous then continued with his story. "Three moons lit up the night, and I flew to a meeting location only me and a particular NightWing knew about. Her name was Darkwings, and I loved her, but not enough to make me disloyal to my tribe. According to her, the three moons were not supposed to be full tonight, but apparently something had crashed into one of the moons a day ago. She had also mentioned on another day that nightwings born under the moons had powers.

Everyone stared at Emberwings, and he was barraged with thoughts concerning mind-reading and prophecy. Distracted for a few moments, Ferrous then continued again.

"Anyway, her egg was hatching, and I thought there was going to be a normal dragonet, but I saw your eyes and knew you had to be killed. I failed though, because your mother had decided to fight back, after naming you Emberwings. So I fought her until she could no longer stand; I regret it, I really do, because that night I learned what it feels like to loose someone who you love, because of your own actions. Then I tried to kill you, but you burned, and I was about to try again."

Ferrous turned towards Queen Ruby, and looked her in the eyes. "However, your other monster showed up, and I was forced to flee, as it would be literally impossible not to die around her." A single tear fell out of his amber eye, but no more came.

Ferrous was a large dragon with red scales and amber eyes, but he would never be more than that to Emberwings. He was less than that, he was the dragon who had failed at being a father, and would never be one to look up to, like Peril or Queen Ruby.

A group of the SkyWing soldiers seized Ferrous. He struggled momentarily, but was quickly knocked out when one of the soldiers grabbed a large rock, and smashed it into his forehead. Only a moment later they were carrying him into the sky. Soon he would have to take off after him, after reflecting on what had just happened.

Glide approached Emberwings, addressing him for one of the first times. "That must have been rough, seeing your only live parent, only to have him hate you. You also left your spear over there." He pointed towards it, bringing it to Emberwing's attention.

"You don't need to tell me he was a jerk. Besides, I already have better dragons to look up to," Emberwings said jokingly to Glide.

"Lets go already, before I drag your long-neck over here."

"Good luck," Emberwings replied.

Emberwings picked up his spear, and took off with Glide and the remaining SkyWings. For once, he felt a plethora of nicer and even empathetic thoughts directed towards him. He was hopeful as they flew straight towards the sandwing fortress, thinking about what had just happened, and why it was important.

I'm not just a monster to them now, they will never think of me the same way after this. Besides, I think I have a real friend now, one that is willing to look past the firescales. Maybe that's what Queen Ruby meant when she said that I was going to need this the most.

Chapter 3

The SandWing fortress was surrounded by a massive wall, and he could see already see the palace grounds. In one corner was what looked like an arena, and within the grounds, next to the oasis was a large white tent. Much of the fortress, save the walls, looked like it had been recently repaired, or in some cases reconstructed.

Emberwings would never find himself in the palace though, as Queen Ruby had other plans.

"Ember, I cannot have you inside of the Fortress, or in their city. Bringing a firescales inside of the palace would be a declaration of war, and that's not what I want. Instead, your going to wait at the oasis east of the stronghold."

Separated from the rest of the group, Ember winged his way to the oasis. It was far enough from the palace not to bring attention to anyone, but close enough to where he could see anyone flying in or out of the stronghold.

As he touched down, the sand under his talons crystallized, making cracking sounds. Strangely, there was not a single dragon to be seen at the oasis, but maybe that was because of its proximity to the SandWing fortress. Surely there had to be someone nearby? Looking closer now, he could see the husk of what used to be some sort of shack, confirming that somebody used to live at the oasis.

Emberwings approached the water, where there was more vegetation than anywhere else in the desert. Suddenly realizing that he was somewhat thirsty, he began to drink, sending clouds of steam into the sky with hiss.

This water tastes way different than anything I have ever drunk at home, but it just as clear, with a blue tint. Maybe I should go in, it really is hot here, even for me.

Emberwings submerged himself in the water and even more clouds of steam rose into the sky, like some sort of smoke signal. Everything felt strange, and the sediment at the bottom of the oasis tickled his talons. Looking back, he could see the trail of reflecting crystals he had left in his wake, and a familiar SkyWing flying his way.

Glide landed next to Emberwings's reflective trail, one of his talons stepping on a small shrub, that was definitely not burning. He stared at Emberwings for a moment, and them spoke up.

"Why are you in the water?"

"Well, I was thirsty, this water looked pretty refreshing, and I've never actually been in water like this before," Emberwings exclaimed. "Wait, I really don't know why I felt tempted to go in here though," he confessed.

Glide nodded with acceptance, and then challenged, "I bet you can not burn me while your underwater."

Emberwings scratched his head with one of his talons, and then replied, "I bet it will still burn you, for the reason why you're here, and that you have to tell me what happens at the palace."

"Okay, if I win, then you have to tell me if you have any NightWing powers."

Why can't I read his mind? I could earlier, but that doesn't make any sense. Wait, he didn't have that armband before? The armband was made out of a strange black material, and had an intricate pattern carved into it.

Before Emberwings could get a good look the armband, Glide obstructed his view as he took off his leather pouch, which jingled as he tossed it to the ground next to Emberwings's spear. He then jumped into the water confidently, and waded out until he was next to Emberwings.

Glide reached out underwater, and grabbed one of his arms, it was the weirdest feeling, and Ember did not like it at all. Letting go a second later, he remarked, "three moons, I can not believe I just got away with that!"

"Let me look at your talon, for any burns," Emberwings said, so he could confirm who had won or lost the bet.

Glide raised his talon, and looked at it intensely. Emberwings did not see any blisters, or burn marks on it, as Glide was unscathed. Looking satisfied with himself, Glide looked back at Ember, waiting for an explanation.

"Before we talk about that, you have to take your armband off," Emberwings suggested.

"Alright, but lets get out of this pond first, its starting to get hot in here."

Emberwings waded out in a great cloud of steam, careful not to touch anything besides the sand, and especially not Glide's belongings. Unfortunately, with a great splash and a hiss, his tail swiped a bush and it caught fire and smoldered into nothingness.

Looking around him, he could see a black dragon, possibly a NightWing, gliding to the fortress. He could also see a few SandWings flying around too, but they were not headed his way, so he payed no mind to them.

"Ember! What are you doing? Aren't you going to go through with this?"

Emberwings yelped, "yes, yes I am. I can read minds, but for some reason your armband was blocking me."

"What am I thinking right now?" Glide asked Emberwings.

I have a friend that can read minds, tell the future and burn everything he touches? Maybe I should put that armband back on, I don't like the feeling that my thoughts are always being listened too.

"You were thinking about how I had all these powers, and how you wanted to put your armband back on because of how weird being listened to made you feel. You were wrong about the whole telling-the-future thing though," Emberwings clarified.

It was starting to get dark now, and Emberwings could hardly make out some odd shapes near the base of the Claws of the Clouds Mountains. There was a large dust cloud, and in the front of it he could see something faintly reflecting what remained of the sun's light. He then looked above the dust clouds, and saw something in the sky. It was a flying wing, and something arced to it from the ground in a bright light, and collided into the wing. He could see the remnants of it slowly fall to the ground behind a mountain. Moments later, he could faintly hear the explosion as he looked back to the dust clouds. They had dissipated, and whatever had left them was gone too.

He looked back at Glide in shock, and said nervously. "Did you see that? What in the three moons just happened?"

Glide answered, "I can't even begin to describe what just happened."

Changing the subject, Emberwings inquired, "where did you get that armband from?"

"I got it from a merchant who was selling jewelry, but I didn't have that much money, so I just bought this. He said that he had forged it himself from the rocks that fell from the sky, and he called it 'starmetal.'"

Both of their heads pivoted toward the pair of dragons approaching them. One was a wiry SandWing, and the other was a small NightWing. Ember grabbed his spear, and wielded it in front of the now landing dragons. To the south, he could also hear an extremely annoying sound, as if the air was being folded and chopped over and over again.

"Why are you here?" Ember hissed at the SandWing, eyes locked on his barbed tail.

"I'm here to help you," the SandWing said with a smirk, "because Queen Thorn thought it would be good idea to treat her guests well."

"Then why do you have a NightWing with you, because she obviously isn't one of Queen Thorn's subjects."

"Can you please stop antagonizing him," The NightWing said nervously.

Ember turned 180 degrees towards the NightWing, knocking a small tree over with a sweep of his tail, and setting it alight in the process. The SandWing in an instant leaded to the edge of the oasis, and attempted to extinguish the tree. Water wasn't enough though, and the tree continued to smolder. The NightWing's eyes had silver scales in the corners, almost like the scales next to his eyes, shaped like teardrops. She was obviously in deep thought, and her forehead was creased in the effort.

Is he a firescales? He looks like a hybrid, but that would explain the scales next to his eyes . . .

The chopping sound was overbearingly loud now, and the machines making them were cruising strait towards the group of dragons. There were seven of them, and each had a sleek metallic body, with many instruments protruding from their fuselages. At the top, there was a ring of spinning blades, which were hard to make out in the night sky. Two appeared to be of a different type, but still looked just as threatening. The other five had small wings protruding from their sides, with menacing looking short spears mounted, and some type of cylinder with holes in it.

They were flying very low, just over the dark trees of the oasis. Inside, he could hear a storm of minds, somewhat legible, but there was too much interference. They continued over to the palace, and proceeded to hover in the air above, the odd two losing altitude right over the palace grounds.

Everyone was thinking the same thing: "What in the three moons was that?"

On one talon, it could just be a machine, but on the other talon, I could feel lots of minds inside of those things, the only thing small enough to fit inside of those would be scavengers. . .

No one moved or spoke for a minute, everyone was too stunned to even react to the mysterious flying machines. That was, until Glide decided to share his observations.

"It sounded like those things were literally chopping the air around them, maybe we should call them 'choppers.'"

The sand dragon suggested, "we should go to the palace, NOW, because our queens might be in danger."

Nobody questioned him, and they all started to fly to the fortress. On their way, Emberwings caught a current that brought him closer to the sandwing.

"Whats your name," Emberwings said aggressively, "I can ask your queen if you don't want to tell me."

Instead of answering himself, the NightWing did. "His name is Qibli, and mine is Moon."

They landed on the wall, looking over the commotion. Two of the choppers were squatting on the empty ground, blades motionless, but what really stunned him were the figures outside of it. They walked on two legs, and were clad in sand colored furs and armor. Ember had thought they were exotic and rare creatures, but they looked much more complex than he had thought. Each wielded some type of weapon, the far end of it pointing to the ground.

Qibli whispered, "scavengers," to Moon, but Ember still overheard them.

Then their leader emerged, just as a crowd of SkyWing and SandWing Soldiers approached them. At that moment, one of the smaller choppers buzzed them, scaring the crowd a safe distance away from their leader. His furs were different than the other scavengers, and he did not wear a helmet, leaving the patch of fur on his head exposed.

The SandWing Queen pushed herself through the crowd, and inquired, "what are you doing here, scavengers?"

The scavenger leader yelled, "we want to negotiate, and we're not going inside of your tent."

Every dragon around them was taken aback, scavengers didn't speak dragon. Also, these scavengers were larger than any of the ones he had ever seen, and their technology looked to be far more advanced.

Queen Thorn, now with Queen Ruby somewhat near her, commanded, "then tell us what you want."

The scavenger leader said confidently, "we want to use some of your land to establish a forward operating base, and we also want a non-aggression pact between the United States and your people."

Queen Ruby challenged, "why should I want a non-aggression pact between you, and our kingdoms?"

The scavenger answered, facing Queen Ruby, "because I can help wipe out the communist scum that have been giving you trouble recently."

Ember wanted to listen to the rest of this, but he was already slumped over and half asleep. Better that he fall asleep here, than anywhere else with these scavengers about.

Somebody nudged him with a rock, and Glide darted away just as Emberwings bolted onto his feet.

"You'll want to see this, the scavengers are having Queen Ruby and Queen Thorn sign this 'non-aggression pact.'"

Emberwings mumbled sleepily, "okay."

The scavenger was now signing a large scroll, compared to him, and then he stated, "we'll be back in the sand kingdom in a week, you will see us coming."

The blades on the choppers started to rotate, and all the scavengers jumped into them just as they began to take off. A few minutes later, there was no sign that the scavengers had even been there, except for a metal strongbox they had left behind. Now that his watch was over, Emberwings found himself a comfortable position and drifted off to sleep on the wall again.

Chapter 4

Something prodded Emberwings AGAIN. A sickening smell filled the air as the blunt end of a spear was deformed by his scales. "Queen's orders, get up," a SkyWing soldier ordered.

Emberwings groaned, and then sat up and looked around him. The box had been moved, and was now open in the talons of one of Queen Ruby's soldiers. He took off, and flew around, looking for anything to eat, but there was nothing to be seen around the palace.

Maybe I should head to the oasis, as every animal around here would have to get their water from that hole. Emberwings glided to the oasis, but his breakfast wasn't waiting there, Glide was. He probably wants to talk to me about something important, like what happened last night. Is that a scroll?

He landed with a thump and a hiss as more glass crystallized under his talons. Glide turned around to face him, closing the odd scroll in his talons. "Look what I got this morning," he said haughtily, brandishing the scroll.

"What does it say, can you read it for me," Emberwings asked.

Glide opened the odd scroll again, and began to read the first page. "It says, the United States, and the Soviet Union have been in stagnant war for over sixty years, but not truly as the looming threat of nuclear weaponry has prevented any real conflict between the two countries. Instead, both participated in proxy wars, not directly fighting each other. However, on planet 70584-E, only the United States and the Soviet Union have sent star ships to occupy continent B of 70584-E."

Glide thrust the scroll out near Emberwings face, and he could make out a map of Pyrrhia, marked with a B, along with a few other land forms he didn't recognize. Below, there was a drawing of a hulking machine, with a mostly black background, and an unfamiliar planet in the background.

"What's the name of the scroll? What are nuclear weapons?"

"Its called Know Your Enemy: Planet 70584-E," Glide stated, "I think it is some sort of guide for the scavenger soldiers on what their supposed to face here, but it isn't completely accurate about some things. Otherwise, I don't know what in the three moons nuclear weapons are, but they sound really dangerous if they kept two major world powers from actually fighting each other for sixty years."

"That isn't right at all, they shouldn't be invading our home. Where did you get that scroll from anyway?"

"There were more of them than there are mountains in the Sky Kingdom of them in that metal box they gave to Queen Ruby, and it isn't right at all, but the scroll says that the 'soviets' were headed here first." Glide answered.

"That checks out, but it still feels a bit fishy, like they left out a detail. Anyways, what did I miss out on last night?" Emberwings queried.

"Oh, they talked about the terms and restrictions about that pact, and I heard Queen Thorn say something about the RainWing Queen having troubles in the rain forest, and how they haven't been able to contact them for the past week. Also, can you come over here? I want to try something interesting."

Emberwings followed Glide over to what appeared to be a makeshift box, with an even layer of sand in it.

"Ember, you know how all of the sand you touched turns all weird and crystalline? I want to see what happens when you heat up a bunch of it by breathing fire."

"Breathing fire? How am I supposed to do that," Emberwings thought out loud.

Surprisingly, Emberwings had never, ever breathed fire before. Nobody had ever told him it was a thing, and he had never been in a situation where he would ever had to of used such an ability.

Glide blurted, "you haven't breathed fire before? Well, you breath like this, and then it just works." He made a hissing sound, and a small spurt of flame came out of his maw, but Glide quickly extinguished it.

"So you do it like this?" Glide stepped back, and Emberwings breathed fire, literally melting everything in front of him. Okay, this is epic, I'm unquestionably going to that again, maybe sometime soon. Once everything had cooled down, Emberwings could see something reflecting inside of Glides box.

"Is that glass?" Glide gasped, awestruck.

Several shadows fell over the oasis, as the SkyWing armada was flying overhead in battle formation.

"Looks like we have to leave," Glide confirmed.

Glide grabbed his weird box, and they both took to the air. They rejoined the group, but not exactly in it. Behind them in the distance, Emberwings could see the strange NightWing, and her partner.

I have a feeling they have unfinished business with me, or they just think I am superbly awesome. Whatever they think, I know they can't hurt me anyways, unless they get their talons on my spear . . .

Glide approached Emberwings again.

He still wants to talk? I guess he is pretty persistent.

Then he looked down, and so did Emberwings. There was a large dust cloud being kicked up by a column of sand colored machines, but it was the reflective blue panel that grabbed their attention. Nobody made an attempt to fly down, or even intercept the machines. Scavenger faces peered up at them, and one gave a wave and a salute. Was there something he didn't know that everyone else did?

Glide must have seen the look on his face. "I think that those blue panels are supposed to say that their friendly or something like that."

"Why didn't you tell me that?"

"Well," Glide confessed, "you weren't the only dragon falling asleep. Maybe there was something in the water."

"Definitely not the case, that sand dragon doesn't have the grammar capabilities to even think of that."

"Maybe we should call him Quibli, instead of Qibli," Glide jested, "HA! The look on his face would be hilarious!"

They flew for most of the day, until the air around them became strangely quiet, and the sun was just over the horizon. The scavenger column had been nowhere to be seen in the past few hours, but he could feel something, no, someone looking at him.

Emberwings roared in pain, but his voice was drowned out by the distant BRRRAAAAT.

He was loosing altitude fast, and he had to do something, before he fell to his death. He tried to spread his wings, but his left one faltered with a burst of pain. He tried again, but he just couldn't do it. The ground was really close now, and he panicked. He somehow managed to fully spread his wings and flap two or three times, roaring in agonized pain.

Oh no, I'm going to die.

Emberwings plopped onto the ground, sending shocks through his legs. Everything hurt, and looking at his left wing, he could see many small holes in his membranes, but it was bloody hole that went strait through his wing bone that got him.

Three moons, why can't I move my wing, my back leg hurts. No, everything hurts, but at least I still have my spear. I am going to MURDER whoever did this to me, and they are going to MELT UNDERNEATH MY TALONS.

"Oh my, you look like death," Glide stammered.

"I AM DEATH, AND WHOEVER DID THIS TO ME IS GOING TO BURN FOREVER," Emberwings thundered.

He turned his entire body to face Glide, his wings fully spread.

"You know, I have never really gotten a good look at your wings, but now I can see more of the NightWing in you."

Fully extended, Emberwings felt absolutely massive and dangerous, like he could KILL anything. He began to march in the direction that he heard the "BRRRAAAAT" noise come from. His tail swept in wide arcs around him, knocking down small trees and burning pretty much everything else. Behind him was a trail of ashes and scorched ground, that Glide picked through, trying not to step in any hot spots.

"Are you sure you want to do this," Glide said uncertainly, "because whatever hit you is pretty dangerous."

Emberwings did not even bother answering, until he looked up and saw a flying wing, smoke trailing behind it. A few seconds later, he heard the BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT that came from it.

"It isn't that one," Ember snarled, pointing at the flying wing.

"That's an A-10 Warthog," Glide said confidently, looking through the odd scroll again. "I think what got you is called a ZSU-23-4, or it could be a SA-19. Out of all the things I saw in there, those look like the only things that could put that many holes in you."

Suddenly, he heard the BRRRAAAAT noise again, as he saw a line of red lights burst from nearly in front of him. Emberwings slowed down, stalking his prey. Everything had gone silent, even the smoldering shrubs that he had stepped on.

He pounced onto the first machine he saw, which had four pipes protruding from a rotating platform. The steel melted, and he could hear the suppressed screams from inside of the metal box as something inside of it exploded with many small popping sounds. He stood on it, and glared at the other metal box. He could feel the fear resonating from it, as the scavengers inside had been taken by surprise. It then rolled backwards, hitting a tree with a loud crashing noise. Emberwings roared as he felt something penetrate his wing AGAIN with a BEUNK, and a distant explosion.

I was already angry, but now in going to release my FIERY DEATH BREATH ON YOU SCAVENGER SCUM.

The machine was engulfed in flames, and now the smell of melting metal was absolutely overwhelming as the entire thing melted. He stopped, and all that was left was a smoldering pile of molten metal. Looking around, he could see the husks of a few other machines in the distance, one shredded with many holes. He then proceeded to march around the clearing, or at least tried too. One of his legs were stuck inside of the smoldering machine he had been standing on.

He forced his way through the machine, and roared triumphantly, "YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL ME NOW, BOX SCAVENGERS!?"

A scavenger paralyzed in a bush whimpered, "cyka blyat," and fainted as he heard many thumping sounds behind Emberwings.

"Three moons, what did you just do," Queen Ruby stuttered.

"I isn't what I did, its what they did," Emberwings growled, "if you haven't noticed already, they declared war on me, and the ENTIRE SkyWing kingdom, by shooting in your direction."

Supporting Emberwings claim, Glide stated, "they weren't your new allies, just so you know. They were the communists, and now we have one as a prisoner."

One of the soldiers picked up the limp scavenger with a swipe of his talons, and then took off.

"Well, it looks like you two are going to have to walk to Jade Mountain now," Queen Ruby snorted. She took off along with the other SkyWings, besides Glide.

"Well, this is going to take a while," Glide confirmed.

Chapter 5

Emberwings and Glide trudged through the forested hills. Every single one of his legs and arms hurt, especially one of his legs, which jolted with pain every step. They continued to stick it out for the rest of the day, stopping in a clearing while Glide went to go catch some food for him. They ate sparingly, as Emberwings wasn't so hungry, and continued up and down the mountains.

ARRGH, why does walking have to be so boring? This is probably why my father was so crazy, maybe he was forced to walk all the way out of the mess he made. Is this really what it feels like to be a scavenger?

Later in the day, the desert to the west was no longer visible, and everything was covered in either a layer of trees or barren lifeless ground, where even the hardiest plants struggled to grow. They didn't stop until it was completely dark, and then they looked for someplace to sleep. The only real shelter they could find was a gap between two boulders that left Emberwings partially exposed. By the time they were settled in, everyone was too sore to even bother speaking.

Still, Glide bothered to speak. "That was terrible, I have never walked that far, and I don't want to do it again."

Emberwings advised gruffly, "you better get used to it, because Jade Mountain is still pretty far away."

Finally, they fell to sleep after the ensuring silence that had just occurred. He dreamed of mysterious rolling machines all night, penetrating him with their unexplained weapons. Every time it got worse, as he could almost feel the metal inside of his body, until he was forced into a deep sleep.

Emberwings woke to the hissing sound of water evaporating, as it was pouring outside. Unfortunately, this was normal, and it always happened late in the year. Fortunately, it wasn't snow, that usually happened at the very end and beginning of the year.

Glide woke up with a groan; he looked as if he was soaked to the bones. "Oh no," he muttered, "its raining too much, and its so humid in here."

Emberwings sat up, and grimaced as a bolt of pain drove through his left wing. It had managed to get snagged on the edge of the boulder, and he slowly moved it into a more convenient position. Everything hurt, and he could feel steam rising through the ragged holes in his wing. He moaned with displeasure, and dragged himself out of the hollow between the rocks. As he had moved, he felt something move inside of his wing, giving him the chills.

What's inside of my wing? Why does it feel so weird and unnatural? Is it what messed up my wing in the first place? I need to get it out fast, I don't want whatever it is to be stuck inside of me.

He twisted the top of his wing downwards, and very slowly molten metal dripped out of it. He cringed in agony, but it had to be done, otherwise his wing would useless forever. Looking around himself, he could see the small pile of molten metal glowing on the ground under the shelter of his wing. The terrain around him had changed dramatically, as everything was wet. Otherwise, the forest that they had traveled through was decimated, leaving only rows of scorched snags. The mountain slope to his left had suffered a mudslide, leaving it barren. Nevertheless, they would have to continue on anyways, ignoring the bad weather.

At least water isn't a problem anymore, but it still is completely terrible, and everything ACHES. There's not even any real shelter, barely anyone lives in these borderlands, or at least claims to, Emberwings thought. Far in the distance, he could spy the peak of Jade Mountain, mostly obscured by it's range of mountains and the virga around it.

Glide beckoned him back inside of the hollow, holding a map. After readjusting his wing, he lumbered back towards the hollow. When Emberwings stuck his head inside, Glide said miserably, "we are outside of the Claws of the Clouds Mountains now, but we still have to cross the Jade Mountain Range."

"Lets go already, also, where's my spear?" Emberwings asked.

"It's somewhere over here?" Glide knocked something over with a clang, and then handed him his spear, letting go of it a second before he put his talons around it. "Your lucky I grabbed it after that fight you had with those machines."

"Yeah, thanks," Emberwings muttered, "wait, you left your glass box behind."

Glide was taken aback for a moment, but he quickly reassured himself, "we can make more anytime, especially if we make it to Jade Mountain."

What if we don't make it to Jade Mountain? NO, I won't let that happen, it can not and it will not happen on my watch.

They once again dragged themselves through the storm. Seconds turned into minutes, and the minutes into hours. Walking through the storm was without doubt, brutal. As the day passed by, the visibility became worse and worse, till the point where they could hardly see each other. It was horrible, and Emberwings mind drifted in circles over and over again.

Even later in the day, Emberwings almost lost his spear, but with some odd luck, managed to step on it, leaving a gash on one of his front talons. Behind him, he left a trail of blood that was quickly washed out, until it began to hail. He could take it, as it only made him a little sore, but Glide could not. He was grimacing with pain, so with no explanation he simply slid underneath Ember's good wing.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING," Emberwings yelled, "DON"T YOU KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO BE BURNED?"

"Its better than being pelted to death by little ice balls," Glide retorted.

They stumbled on again, Emberwings forced into a awkward position. Time almost seemed to slow down, and everything looked the same, as if they themselves were going in circles. His theory was proved wrong when they went down an incline, and soon went up. The hail didn't stop though, and everything was so monotonous.

The hail intensified, and all of the scales exposed to the hail burned with pain. He couldn't take it any longer, but as the fog began to clear, he spotted their salvation.

Maybe I can go a bit longer, once we get inside that cave. We'll be safe for the night, and we might be able to hide out in it for another day. It would just be easier to lie down and wait though. That would be nice and peaceful. Wait, there's Glide is under my wing, so I can't lay down, he definitely would not like to get burned.

Every step they took closer to the cave, the more they wanted to give up, but they couldn't. These two dragonets had more than that to live up too, and giving up would be a failure to themselves, and their Queen. Emberwings was cold and depressed when they stumbled into the cave, falling upon each other.

Glide screamed, and rushed forward, bashing his head into a wall.

No no no no, this can't be happening, its all going to be my fault that he is dead, and he's the only one who likes meeeeee. . .

Glide lurched back up and slurred, "I thought I was dead for a second, but it seems that I manged to cheat myself out of getting burned again." He plopped back down again, asleep.

Not knowing what to do with Glide, Emberwings looked around the cave, as he was able to make out most of its features. It was large enough to easily fit five dragons. Dust covered most of the surfaces, and ashes were left scattered in a small fire pit. In one corner, there was a pile of wood that looked older than himself. On a ledge nearby, a small case lay abandoned and open, as if whatever had belonged in it had been had been taken out long ago.

Using his spear, Emberwings nudged a few logs into the fire pit, leaving scorch marks on where they had been contacted. He then breathed enough fire to get it started, and then scooted more on top of what he had going. He then crept to one side, his wounded wing outstretched. Eventually he was able to fall asleep, the hail lulling him into a sense of monotony.

He woke up in the middle of the night, and he could see that the fire was still burning and it wasn't hailing anymore. He could feel an unfamiliar presence, who had been most likely tending the fire. Two severely bruised dragons slept by it, and Emberwings recognized them both.

Qibli and Moon, it looks like you two wont be flying anytime soon. Wait, that means the sand snorter is going to be stuck with me for the rest of this trip! Hah!

Out of all the insults Emberwings knew, that was his favorite, because Peril had accidentally taught him it when telling one of her "stories" to him. Blessed momentarily with good memories, he dropped off again.

He was dreaming about Glide being killed in front of him by a machine, when Queen Ruby stepped into his dream.

"What are you doing here? Are they going to kill you too?" He asked, thinking that his nightmare was simply going to continue.

The environment changed around him, to what appeared to be a large cave, with many more hallways branching off of it. "No, I'm using a dream visitor," she answered.

"Whats that?"

Queen Ruby ignored his question, and queried "How is Glide, did he survive the storm?"

"He looked fine, other than hitting his head into a wall, and almost being hailed on to death."

"You?"

"I stepped on my spear earlier today, but otherwise it's just those holes that those VILE COMMUNIST SCAVENGERS put into me."

Queen Ruby examined him for a moment, and said with certainty, "someone is going to be coming by your hole tomorrow to fix you and everyone else up." She then faded into nothingness, leaving Emberwings alone in his dreamscape.

Chapter 6

Strangely, Emberwings was the first one to wake up. As he got up, he was confronted with the usual aches and pains. Limping outside was pretty difficult though, as three other dragons lied sleeping in the way and one of his wings was still inflexible. It was only sprinkling now, and he could see that the clouds would be moving away soon. The sun was approaching the center of the sky, and there was a distant flying wing. He looked all around him, and saw no other dragons, but he did see Jade Mountain, as it was much closer now.

I didn't think we would travel that far on such a terrible day, but we somehow did. I know that I'm not doing that again if have a choice, but if I do, then I'll know what to expect.

He crept up to a puddle and slurped up the water with his forked tongue, until only the muddy dregs were left. It wasn't the most effective strategy, as most of the water escaped with a hiss, but he still managed to hydrate himself. With his sharp eyes, he managed to spot a herd of distant cows.

Looks like breakfast, and I'm the only dragon who can serve it. Everyone else is too beat up to even think about trying to hunt. Thankfully most of this land is open, and there isn't that much brush for me to burn now that everything is soaking wet and muddy.

Emberwings stumbled back to the cave so he could grab his spear, but someone else already had it in their talons. "Hand over my spear NOW, sand snorter," Emberwings hissed.

Qibli looked as if he was about to collapse, but he still kept his barbed tail poised, like he was attempting some sort of last stand. He stammered, "why?"

"I'm here to feed you and your girlfriend," Emberwings answered haughtily, "and it looks like your more likely to hurt yourself with that spear, than you are me."

The SandWing didn't question him, and dropped the spear in front of his talons. Emberwings grabbed it with a swipe of his claw, and made his way to the clearing where he had seen the cows. When he was close, he slowed down to a stalk, the only noise being the hardly audible hiss of burning grass. He lined up with the nearest couple of cows, concealing himself behind a large bush that he had managed not to touch.

Okay, here is the plan: I am going to kill that one cow by throwing my spear, maybe I'll get two. Then I can jump on the other one to the right.

He swung his entire body forward as he threw the spear, impaling two cows, and then lunged at the other one, but missed. So he opened his mouth, and scorched the cow until it was extra crispy, leaving the grass around it burnt. With a large amount of startled moos, the herd stampeded in the other direction, but that was fine. Grabbing his spear, he lifted the two still impaled cows with some difficulty, and added the extra crispy one to his tungsten-steel kebab. He couldn't lift it with one talon, so he used two, his tail stretched back for balance.

Walking like a scavenger was hard, especially with one rear leg wounded, but he still managed to endure gravities' efforts against him. It felt really weird, but he had food, and he was sure that he had to deliver. Otherwise, Glide would probably fly into a tree, or something likewise because of his head injury. He continued the scavenger-walk until he reached the cave entrance, where he temporarily abandoned the extra crispy cow.

This ones mine, and nobody is going to be able to question that. Otherwise, they're going to have to split these two, it should be more than enough for those smaller dragons.

He almost fell into the cave again, but managed to catch himself with the small price of some pain. Everyone else was up now, and he let the two fresh cows slide off of his spear. Surprisingly, it was still clean, and no blood stained it, unlike what he had expected.

Qibli eyed the food and his spear, Glide looked very distracted, and Moon nodded in thanks. Going back outside for a moment, he grabbed his meal, and silently ate in his corner of the cave. His meals were always like this, always over burnt and crunchy. Thinking of nothing else to do, he began to reach out with his mind. Glide was blocked, so Emberwings didn't bother him, but as he reached out towards Qibli, he could almost hear his thoughts, so he pushed deeper.

Qibli whipped his head around and scanned the room. "What was that," he stuttered. Nobody responded, as everyone was occupied by the current task of sustaining themselves.

I didn't know I could do that, he obviously had some type of shielding, but I was able to penetrate it for a moment. Maybe I should try Moon. Emberwings then opened his mind to the surroundings, and was quickly bombarded by all of her thoughts.

"How is he not insane already? Why is his mind-reading so powerful? Not even Qibli is safe, even with his skyfire Emberwings can still read his mind if he tries," Moon thought, with a shake of her head.

"Is Qibli always like this?" Emberwings thought questioningly, "because he looked like he was going to stab me with my spear earlier."

"He usually wants everyone to love him, but he might think you're a threat to that, and to himself," Moon thought back, looking at him in the eye.

"So what's this prophecy stuff all about, because I was born under three moons. Everyone who knows about these nightwing powers said that should happen, so shouldn't I have prophecy?"

"I don't know, you look like a hybrid, NightWing-SkyWing right? Anything can happen with hybrids. I might want to write a scroll about this, because there are so many different possibilities around this. Wait, I want to see how it made you turn out. Maybe I should ask Qibli about it too."

Emberwings stopped listening, he already had a headache, and he didn't want it even worse. Talking through their mind-reading abilities was like putting his brain in a downward spiral, that would endlessly fall unless someone stopped it.

Moon approached him, looking at his scales in close detail. "Hey Qibli, come look at this," she appealed.

Qibli sat next to Moon, eying Emberwings suspiciously. "Whats so special about him," he asked, "the only reason he looks like that is because of his firescales."

"No, he's part NightWing too, look at his tongue, his wings, and the scales next to his eyes."

"That doesn't mean he still isn't a firescales."

"Would you treat Peril the same way?"

"No," Qibli responded.

"Maybe you should give him a chance then, because I think he is good on the inside."

"Maybe you should give him a chance," Moon though to him.

"Fine," Emberwings thought out loud.

"You're a mind reader," Qibli said as he clicked the clues into place. Qibli then softly nudged Moon with a bruised wing, and whispered something in her ear. Moon whispered back, and he faced Emberwings again. "You know what, maybe I should have treated you better," Qibli apologized. "Whats your name."

"Emberwings, but maybe you should just call me Ember, like Glide does." He stated.

Outside of the cave, Emberwings could distinguish two different sets of talons landing outside. Everyone whipped their heads towards the entrance, except Glide, who had been fast asleep during their conversation. A large MudWing entered the cave, holding what appeared to be a spool of wire in one talon. Suddenly, the temperature in the cave intensified even more, and Emberwings recognized a dragon that he hadn't seen in a while.

"So you must be Clay," Ember stated, addressing the MudWing who was looking at the unfinished cow in the center of the cave.

"Is anyone going to finish that cow," Clay asked energetically.

"No, but you might have to feed him when he wakes up," Ember answered, pointing at Glide.

Ignoring Clay, who was quickly consuming the remains of the cow, he rushed outside, and confronted Peril.

"Where have you been?" Ember blurted, "I haven't seen you in so long."

"I would have come earlier, but all these weird things keep on happening, and Clay was like 'you shouldn't leave the mountain with so many bad things happening around here.' I don't see how it's difficult to kill a few tiny scavengers, because I can just touch them, and then BOOM their all burnt and dead."

Peril looked at his left wing, and asked, "what did that to you?"

"Those tiny scavengers, but this time they were in these machines that shoot metal into you."

Peril reached out and poked him, not noticing the unsealed hole in his wing arm.

"OW, that hurt," Ember gasped, looking down at Peril.

"Why are there so many holes in your wing? There's another one on your leg? That looks really bad, maybe I should go get Clay." Instead of getting Clay, she yelled, "CLAY, GET OVER HERE!"

Clay rushed over to them, spool of wire in talon. "Oh my, I have never seen anything like that before. no wonder Ruby gave me this, because those wounds are not closing at all."

"Can you get on with it already," Peril said, annoyed.

Curious about what they were talking about, Ember asked nervously, "what are you going do to me?"

It was at that moment that Ember realized what the wire was for. Clay whispered into Peril's ear, and then she pounced on top of him, with no effect.

"Why are you so big," she said, frustrated.

Addressing Ember, Clay ordered, "you're going to have to lay down, and stay very very still, otherwise you're not going to be feeling that good."

He obeyed, and lied down. Peril was now doing her best to keep him still, but he still flinched when Clay poked the needle through the hide on the back of his leg. He roared louder than he had ever roared before, almost as loud as the scavenger weapons he had fought two days before. Emberwings wasn't that used to pain, so it wasn't that long until he stopped struggling, as he was unconscious.

Chapter 7

Emberwings regained consciousness, and opened his eyes to three dragons sitting in front of him. They were not paying any attention to him at all, so he reckoned that he could steal a few glances at what they had did to him.

Okay, that was not epic at all. Falling unconscious is explainable, but the whole putting metal inside of me is just weird. Don't they call it stitches or something? Its been around for a while, at least from what I have heard.

He turned his neck until he was staring at his left wing. All of the holes were gone, except for the one on his wing arm. Silvery metal had sowed the wound closed, and a neat knot was tied at the end of every suture. It looked really weird, but it was very obvious that his scales would easily cover it in time.

Recognizing the dragons in front of him, from left to right they were Peril, Clay, and Glide. Glide didn't have the bump on his head anymore, which was surprising. He still looked a bit hazy eyed, but looked way better than he had this morning. More importantly, it looked like they were waiting for him, based on their expressions.

Noticing that he was now awake, Peril said restlessly, "Ember get up, so we can get out of here."

"You want me to . . . walk," Ember sputtered.

"You really think he's going to fly? I guess Crimson is going to come back again if that's the case," Glide said jokingly.

"No, you dolt, were going to carry you, so get up already."

Glide assured, "don't worry I'll grab your spear." He then rushed into the cave, nearly hitting his head again, and then came back out with Ember's spear in talon.

"Where are the others," Ember asked nervously.

"They already left," Clay confirmed.

"But that isn't normal scale behavior, bruises don't just heal that quickly."

Peril snorted, as if she was recalling something funny from the past. "Its animus magic; an ordinary rock enchanted to heal surface injuries. I'm pretty suprised that will still have managed not to loose it, because that was a really lame thing to enchant," she claimed.

"Okay, that makes sense," Ember mumbled, still somewhat dazed. "So how are you going to get that metal out of me?"

Clay answered glumly, "we're going to have to pull them out, but it won't hurt that much."

Peril interjected impatiently, "can we go already?"

Two talons dug in underneath his shoulders, and they were airborne. Ember had only been carried once in his life, other than now. This time, it would be much more difficult for Peril, even with help from Clay. Ember almost felt helpless, a feeling that he certainly did not like. Ember was supposed to support himself; complaining wouldn't help though.

Glide flew by their side, keeping a safe distance away from Ember and Peril. Unlike them, he was free to fly however he wanted. But on another talon, he was still holding Ember's spear, probably regretting his choice of carrying it for the entire trip. It was slow going, however, Clay and Peril somehow managed to keep a steady pace. It wasn't until a few hours later that they touched down on a small piece of land mostly devoid of life. Jade Mountain was very close now, and he figured that they would be able to make it there in under an hour.

It was starting to get dark now, and Ember stomped over to the nearest tree. Using his entire body for momentum, he whacked the tree with his tail. With a groan, it fell over into the barren land, smoldering. Embers rose into the night sky, unlike him.

Glide, who was behind Ember at the moment, queried, "why did you knock down that tree?"

"It was offending me," Ember growled. Walking casually to the next tree, Ember proceeded to knock that one down too. With another swipe of his tail, it crashed down ablaze, and even more embers rose into the night sky.

"Can you stop that? Your going to burn down the entire forest at this rate," Glide said worryingly.

"Fine, I'll stop, but remember, that was only two out of the millions of trees."

Astonishingly, neither Clay nor Peril were paying attention to the commotion, for they were busy checking each other out. Between them and where Ember was, there were two ruts in the barren dirt, that continued in both directions. They were just the right size to fit underneath a scavenger machine, and they looked fresh. A rumbling sound was getting closer, and he could see a small dust cloud in the distance that the machines were making.

Ember yelled, "EVERYBODY, WE NEED TO HIDE! NOW!"

Everyone's head rotated towards Ember, and they started to rush towards him. There was no cover, and at that moment it was what they most desperately needed. So Ember knocked down some more trees, and shoved them into place. It would work for now, and could cover them from sight of the scavenger road. He then rolled around in the ashes, but not on his left wing, and leapt into his makeshift cover. Soon, Peril and Clay were besides him, shoving a few more trees into a very inconspicuous stack.

"We need a plan, now," Ember ordered.

"How about we burn them all to death," Peril suggested.

Ember replied, "that's perfect, any other ideas?" Nobody said a word, and the scavenger machines were very close now. "Okay, stay low, stay hidden, and don't let them get a shot on you. Peril and I are going to melt the lead two when they're right in front of us, and you two try and get their pipe thingies disabled." The roar of the scavenger machines was very close now, and Ember could hear scavengers yelling in an unknown language.

So its the communists, they'll be here in seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero.

Ember lunged his head out of the cover, and bathed the lead machine in flames. Peril, who was next to him finished the second machine, which had crashed into the lead one. He leapt out of the cover, and dashed out of where he thought the next shot would come. The third machine wasn't armed, but scavengers jumped out of its back wielding their little weapons. Glide swatted it with his tail, knocking it over onto the scavengers. Clay bent the rod of fifth one backwards, and something inside of it exploded. Still on the move, Ember dived to the side of the fourth one , and shoved his talons under its exposed belly. He proceeded to flip it, and it crashed to a stop nearby.

All five machines had been neutralized, and they were now in control. All that remained of the first two machines were misshapen heaps of metal. The third one was on its side, and looking at its bottom, he could easily make out six wheels. The fourth machine lay on its top, and was tracked, like the two at the front. The fifth consisted of a tracked base that was severally damaged, probably because Clay had sat on top of it.

It doesn't look like any of them are alive, but we should burn the rest of them, just in case they think they can salvage the remains of their vile machines. This will show them what it means to mess with ME.

Ember marched over to the third one, and breathed fire on it until all that remained was an unusable lump of molten metal. Peril, catching onto what he was doing, did the same to the fifth one.

Horrified, Glide asked, "what are you doing?"

"I'm making sure they will never, ever, be able to use these machines again."

He finished off the fourth one, a look of confidence spreading over his face. His enemy had just been vanquished, as this was only a declaration of war. He would be back, and he knew for sure that he would enact his vengeance on these scummy communist scavengers. The burning debris reflected in Ember's eyes, for he was a dragon of fire, who had found his purpose.

Hopefully Queen Ruby would let him take this path, so he could rid their world of these invaders. He knew that she wanted him to be educated first, so he would take his time at the academy. Otherwise, he would have to go rogue, for he knew they would stop at nothing to seize what rightfully belonged to the dragons of Pyrrhia.

"I can't believe we just did this," Glide said worryingly.

"Get used to it Glide, we may be seeing them again," Ember advised.

"Wow, don't you love a good excuse to burn things," Peril asked Ember with a grin.

"I feel way better, but I think we should be on our way to Jade Mountain already."

Talons once again seized him underneath the shoulders, and he ascended over their victory. Once again they were in the air, accompanied by Glide, who still had Ember's spear. In no time at all, they were at the mountain, and he was deposited at the entrance hall.

Ember queried, "Glide, can you give me my spear back." Without a question, Glide handed him his spear, and walked off into one of the hallways.

Glide called back, "see you in the morning Ember."

A moment later, he was approached by Clay, who beckoned for his spear. "I have to put this somewhere safe," he stressed, "no weapons allowed here, unless they're put somewhere safe."

Ember handed the spear off for the second time, and asked Clay, "where are you going to put it?"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure nobody touches it. By the way, you can sleep here for the night, and we'll orientate you this morning."

Clay and Peril left the hall, leaving him alone. He found himself a comfortable position, and soon drifted off. Unlike any of the recent nights, his dreams were peaceful, especially in such desperate times.

Book Two: At the Mountain

Chapter 8

Emberwings was tired of being woken up by other dragons. It was the same soldier who had woken him on the wall at the SandWing Palace, using the same tactic. Like usual, the smell of molten metal filled the air.

"Get up," the soldier ordered, "Queen Ruby wants to speak with you."

Ember got up and yawned, stretching his wings where nobody was standing. The entrance hall was filled with SkyWing soldiers, and all of them were worried. Something was wrong, and it reeked of scavengers. Everyone's mind was a blazing storm of thoughts, and it was really giving him a headache. Maybe this was what Moon had been referencing when she had first overheard him use his powers. There were at least twenty soldiers, and all of them were really angry. He didn't know what had happened, but it surely was related to the communists.

Queen Ruby addressed everyone in the hall. "I am aware of what just happened, and I'm working on a way to solve it. Whatever you do though, don't tell him about it," she ordered, pointing at Ember. She approached him, her eyes examining every part of his body. "Ember, I'm letting you have this education for a reason, and I fear you're going to need every bit of it for whats coming our way. Remember, you represent me while you stay here for the next six months. "

Ember responded, "Yes Queen Ruby, I'll do my best."

Queen Ruby smiled, and said proudly, "I hope you like it here." She marched regally to the end off the hall, and took flight. With a hurricane of wing beats, most of the soldiers followed her into the morning light. Soon all that remained of them were a few red-orange dots in the sky.

The few soldiers that remained took to their duties, and began their patrols. Ember was left alone, long enough for him to catch another hour of sleep. But that was broken by the scraping of talons in the hallways to the left. Soon enough, an energetic NightWing, and a small SandWing, clearly both adults, emerged from the tunnel.

"I told you he'd be here! For once my powers are actually right," the erratic NightWing said happily.

Ember groaned, wings splayed out on the floor. He slowly sat up, and faced both of the two dragons. Already knowing the answer, Ember asked, "let me guess, your school?"

"Um, yeah it is. By the way my name is Fatespeaker. I'm one of the helpers around here, along with Sunny here," she gestured.

"So you're new around here, what's your name?" Sunny asked as if meeting him would be the most exciting thing in the world.

"Errr, It's Emberwings, but umm, you should call just call me Ember. It's shorter and doesn't take as long to say," Ember answered with a start.

"You're going to need this then, Fatespeaker advised. For a moment she twirled a scoll around in her talons, but made no attempt to put it's burden upon Ember.

Why are they so nice? Nobody is ever this nice to me, never, except for Glide, Peril and the Queen, Ember thought. No wonder Queen Ruby wanted me to come here, they're probably going to be more dragons like me, who I can meet and be friends with? But I know for sure I can't take that scroll. . .

"I. . . I can't take that," Ember stuttered. Meeting new dragons was hard, especially since Ember had never really met many, and he was all penned up in his head. But he felt that this revelation would make it waaaay more difficult.

"Ohhh," Fatespeaker gasped, "uummm, you are that kind of dragon. I didn't know there were any more of your type around." Her mind flashed through confusion, fear, anger, and then back to whatever nervous energy she had had earlier.

"This changes a lot, but that's what Jade Mountain's for right? Meeting new and interesting dragons," Sunny resounded.

"It sure is. Looks like we may need to give him a room of his own, and maybe make more fireproof scrolls? I'll get to that now, and I'll ask Starflight about the most important ones," Fatespeaker said in a rush, leaving Sunny behind.

Within moments, she was gone, her last thoughts being about this Starflight dragon. Oh, oh, I see why, he thought. No no no, I don't want to see that. . .

"Maybe I can give you a tour around your new home? Oh, you don't look like you want to do that. I'll just show you to where you're going to sleep first then." For some reason, excitement and kindness literally radiated out from Sunny, as if she were the sun, or a lantern in the dark.

So he followed her through the hallways. Every know and then Sunny would point out a hallway or two and would say what was down there. She even mentioned the other dragons in her Winglet, who were situated in caves on the same hallway that his would be, but farther up.

"There're some of your Wingmates," Sunny pointed out. Inside the entrance he could see a normal looking NightWing in one corner and a teal SeaWing in the corner farthest away from the other dragon. From Ember's perspective it almost looked as if they were both sleeping, but he wasn't sure.

After a few more paces, they came upon his new quarters. "Here's where you're going to sleep for your time here. I hope it fits your needs," Sunny said with a shrug of her wings.

The room was large enough to fit two dragons in it, and the worn stone suggested that it had been previously occupied. Not a trace was left though, as if whoever had once been there had packed up and left, or died. There was a ledge on one side, large enough to fit him, and an empty scroll rack that looked very flammable.

"Can you grab this rack," Ember asked, "I don't want to burn it or anything by accident."

Sunny kindly removed the rack from the wall. "I hope you like it here. By the way, I also teach art. You can ask your Wingmates when you meet them about your schedule."

"Who. . . are they," Ember queried.

"That's for you to find out, when Clay brings you over to your first class." With that, she left, and then peeked back in for a moment. "You should stay and get used to your room. Clay will be here in a bit, and he'll show you around."

"Okay," Ember nodded.

With that, she really left. A few minutes later, when Sunny was surely gone, Ember felt more gloomy, as if Sunny's radioactive excitement had trickled down to him. I have never met a dragon like that, Ember remarked within his head. Maybe some dragons may actually accept, or even like me some day.

Ember sighed and splayed himself on the floor. It wouldn't be too long till his world would be shattered again. Because he was going to have to meet other dragons. He tried to close his eyes, but it was to no avail. So instead he just stared into the space of hallway outside of his room.

It was thirty minutes later when Clay limped by. That was strange, his limp wasn't that noticeable earlier, when he had been around Peril. Maybe that was why. . .

"How's the wing," Clay asked earnestly.

"Ehhh. . . better than yesterday," Ember responded.

"Right, lets move on then."

Ember stumbled out of his room, following Clay. He awkwardly blurted, "so where are we umm. . . going?"

"Oh, I'm taking you to class discussion, where you'll get to meet the rest of you wingmates, as you're in the Gold Winglet," he replied in earnest.

With no further conversation, they proceeded down the hallways. They were all empty now, as if all the students had already made it to their classes. That was when the gong rang. However, this didn't distract Clay at all, who was staring into a large room.

Clay sighed, and continued on. There was a little bit sway in his tail now, probably because he had caught the waft of sustenance from what looked like a eating area? It wasn't until they walked for another few minutes that they finally came to their destination. It was an opening to the outside, which held a large clearing with several dragonets loitering upon it.

Clay gently pushed him forward, and said kindly, "go meet the rest of your winglets."

One group consisted of a good-looking IceWing, with pink, purple, and green streaked throughout her scales. Accompanying her was a NightWing was mainly black, but had many ranges of blue and greens splattered across her scales.

Ember decided to approach this group first, because the other one was looking quite argumentative (the kind that really gives you a headache). He stopped right between the two, but not close enough to do any harm.

"Uh, hey," Ember greeted.

"So you're the new SkyWing," the NightWing started, "my name is Swiftclaws, what's yours?"

"I'm Emberwings," he greeted, "but you should call me Ember, because that's shorter."

He turned to the IceWing, who at a closer look had ruffs behind her ears, like the RainWing in the other group. "Hi Ember, nice to meet you," she mumbled, "my name is Aurora."

"So you came from the Rain Forest," Ember hinted.

"I lived there with my father," Swiftwings replied, "he always said that it's way better than where he used to live, but we never talked about it because it reminded him of mom."

"Wait, you don't have a mom," Ember wondered.

"Wait, it's totally obvious that you're a mind reader," Swiftclaws echoed. "And I have the power of prophecy, and know that you're going to murder a hundred dragons."

"No. Uhh, you don't see the future, you see the past and you think it's all weird and that maybe we should stop talking about this because my idiot clawmate is about to come over here."

That's exactly what I was thinking, Swiftclaw's mind realized. That means he's a firescales and a mind-reader? Maybe I should think about moons. Moons moons moons moons why even bother? And maybe he has a missing mother too?

Swiftclaws grimaced as she was literally hit with a flashback. Ember tried to perceive it, but it was too fragmented for him to understand anything.

"Are you okay," Aurora stressed.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. That one was really messed up. I never want to see that again." A look of confusion crossed her face for a moment, but then she shrugged her wings and started nervously tapping her talons on the ground. Her thoughts were so scrambled now that Ember could make nothing of them, and of any of the dragons around him.

Changing the topic, Aurora asked, "so what's it like in the Sky Kingdom."

"Most of the dragons don't really like me there."

Her purple eyes looked back into his. "I would probably say something about the same as that, except I do not really know. That is because I never met anyone there," Aurora explained.

She gestured to his wing with her, but then stopped. The other group had just finished their argument, and was coming to join them.

Ember sat down in that small span of time, and winced as he inched his splayed wing to a more convenient position. Soon the other dragons had formed a semi-circle around him.

"Who are you," the SeaWing fumed.

"No need to be a melon-head, Tempest," the RainWing gibed. "My names Python by the way," she assured, "so you're the new SkyWing."

"Yes, and my name is Emberwings, if any of you were interested, although you should call be by Ember, so you don't have to go through the effort of saying a long name like Tempest."

He got the expected reaction, and Tempest almost lunged forward to hit him, until he noticed the tiny amounts of smoke rising from Ember's scales. "I will . . ," Tempest muttered under his breath, the rest indistinguishable.

The SandWing pushed himself in front of tempest. Along his scales, different shades of sand were scattered over his scales, somewhat comparable to the furs that Ember had seen on the scavengers that visited the SandWing Stronghold.

Those scavengers were wearing camouflage, so they blend into the desert, just like the sandwings. No wonder I didn't see any, until after they had made that deal, because they were hiding.

"You look like you just saw a ghost," the SandWing marveled, "anyways, I hope it isn't me, Mirage, that your thinking about right now, because I surely don't want to be on your bad side."

"I was, uh, thinking about scavengers," Ember clarified, "because I saw some wearing camouflage that looked like your scales." Everybody gathered closer, waiting for Ember to continue his observations.

"What else happened," Miraged quizzed. For some reason he had just gotten really interested in this.

"There were these different ones. And they were in these weird scary machine things. One. . . one attacked me. And now I have this," Ember recalled, moving his hurt wing a little. "They used these long pole things to put metal inside of me. I didn't even see the metal, I just felt it inside of me once I heard these loud bratting sounds."

"So scavengers with dragon killing machines are a thing? That's ghetto," Mirage remarked.

"It sounds more like squid ink to me, or horse dropping or something absolutely disgusting, Tempest jeered.

"Out of all the dragons around here," Python proclaimed, "you definitely are the most absolutely disgusting." With that Python flared her wings a little towards Tempest, but remained mostly the same color, unlike what RainWings were supposed to do.

"At least he isn't saying that all the SeaWing royalty are going to get murdered," Swiftclaws pitched in.

"Yes, scavengers are smarter than you think," Aurora confirmed with a roll of her eyes.

"But. . . I heard some dragons talking about it, and then something about 'seizing the means of production' and some other words I didn't understand."

"That's because you're illiterate. Funny that it's coming from me, right? Because I'm a RainWing and I still manage to be better at writing and speaking than you," Python taunted, a triumphant grin spreading throughout her bright yellow face.

Mirage's grey eyes looked back to Ember. "Tell me more about these strange scavengers then."

"There were some other different ones in the Sand Kingdom. They flew in on these metal contraptions that literally. . . chopped the air? Shredded the air? It was really loud, and they also spoke dragon for some reason."

Suddenly, the gong that Ember had seen in the entry hall was slammed with enormous force. Ember almost jumped into the dragons around him. It was that loud.

"We'll have to talk about this again another time," Mirage avowed.

"Wait, where are we supposed to go now?"

"To the next class. Just follow me," Mirage advised.

With that, it was time to leave.

Chapter 9

His winglet rushed out of the prey center, and out of the hallways. Ember followed them, until they intersected another group of students. Keeping his eye on Mirage's camouflage scales, he was able to step around almost every dragon, especially the ones that would have ran into him if he had not been paying attention.

After a short walk, they entered a strange looking room, with maps of Pyrrhia covering most of the walls. Scrolls were stacked neatly, to Embers surprise, in little stone cubbyholes that lined the walls. At the front of the room was a small podium, which a blue-green SeaWing was poking around behind.

Students filed into the desks, which also appeared to be made of sturdy stone. Ember chose one to the far left, so he wouldn't be surrounded by dragons he could easily burn. There was room for two winglets in the room, he realized as Glide slid over next to him. Their teacher stood at the podium, and addressed the now full class, except for one empty seat.

Glide whispered to him, "I think he might be going over the scorching again."

"That might be interesting," Ember whispered back.

"Ahhem. Due to the accident we had last week, we are going to be restarting our course, although we may only be covering a few again," he announced. "Hmmph, wheres the new MudWing?"

The MudWing from the other winglet guessed, "I dunno, he's probably dead or we don't have another."

Looking at Ember now, the SeaWing introduced himself, "my name is Webs, and I'll be teaching you history for the next six months."

Beginning his lesson now, he began to lecture them. "The scorching, which ended around 5019 years ago, was when dragons overthrew scavengers as the dominant species on the continent. Some of the things scavengers did before it, seem to unlikely to be real, but I am going to go over them due to the influx of scavenger related events happening these days."

"The first one, is a story that is said to happen thousands of years before the scorching. It is about dragons being enslaved by the scavengers in able to build their society. However, it is said that a small group of dragons rebelled. In return it is believed that the scavengers mass-murdered a large amount of dragons in return."

Webs took a deep breath, and continued. "Another one of the stories claim that a few hundred years before the time of the scorching, us dragons attempted to overthrow their dominance, but failed. Yet another story describes that scavengers taught us the language we know today, for unknown reasons. But, I don't see the sense in that based upon how much our language has changed."

"Finally to the scorching, it seemed to dragons that it would be the perfect time to overthrow them, as they had been in decline for the past thousand years. However, it didn't happen until the scavengers themselves attacked us. They succeeded in killing so many of us, that the remaining dragons agreed to unite under the leadership of a great general in order to destroy them, once, and for all. It became a long and difficult war of attrition. But we managed to burn down many of their dens."

"It can be said that the war ended when we burnt down the last of their cities, but they still resisted us for the next hundred years as we built our society upon their ashes. Every scavenger seen then was to be killed, no matter the situation."

Interrupting Webs, Ember spoke up, "uhh, if we won the scorching, then why are there still scavengers left today."

He responded, "A small amount of scavengers hid in caves we could not reach, or moved away to places were we could not find them. They eventually repopulated, although not enough to be considered a threat many years later."

No one else asked any questions, and Webs continued to lecture. Ember listened until the end of class, but he had a hard time concentrating. Thirteen other minds buzzed around him, and it was really annoying. He never even got to learn of the name of the "great general," but Webs did mention that he was a SkyWing.

When the gong sounded, some of his classmates were sound asleep. But they still leaped out of their seats in the second that followed with some grumbling. Especially from Tempest, who visibly cared little for history outside that of the Sea Kingdom.

When he was following his wingmates to the next class, Glide and him quickly shared words, and split ways. Soon, Ember and his winglet were in Clay's self defense class. Ember was forced to sit this session out. Not only because he was a danger to other dragons, but also because he couldn't do "evasive maneuvers" without damaging his wing further.

So he sat down and brewed under the bombarding thoughts of the rest of the dragons. He did notice that Python and Tempest were always the most aggressive when it came to combat though. However, he also noted that Aurora could hold her own, while Swiftclaws showed little fight and passively gave up. That was quite ironic, especially with a new like hers.

The class after that was art, which Sunny taught, although she had a difficult time finding an activity for Ember to do. He ended up doing nothing, as the walls were not fit to be engraved inside of the cave. He still managed to carve his name in one spot, but Sunny had decided that they would have to find something special for him the next time he was there.

What he did notice was that Swiftclaws really liked painting, but would frequently tear apart her work. He never got a good look at what she made, but it certainly seemed to shock Aurora. Aurora rarely seemed to interact with other dragons, besides her friend. Eventually it was time for them to go again.

Next, it was lunch time, and all of the students rushed off to the prey center, including him. Now it was stocked with all sorts of meat, and was crowded enough to make his head explode. The RainWings dominated the fruit pile, and the SeaWings swarmed around the fish. Avoiding the fruit, he grabbed a cow (and almost denigrated the leg that he pulled it by), and dragged it over to a uncrowded corner next to the stream. Glide strode over with some a deer of his own, and sat next to him, but not close enough to put himself in danger.

Curious about his day, Glide asked, "So how is it going so far?"

"Err, fine. But I didn't get to do much in the other classes. Clay refused to have do anything and Sunny didn't have anything for me to engrave," Ember remembered. He took another bite off the cow, and swallowed the charred meat.

"I have Tsunami's scavenger studies with you, the class after the next class," Glide stated.

"That might be interesting."

"Have you ever had fruit before?"

"Umm, I don't think so," Ember responded.

"They taste sooo juicy, and they'd probably be fine with a little bit of heat."

By now, the RainWings had left the fruit piles, leaving them unguarded. So what would be the harm in walking up and grabbing a few fruits?

So that's what he did, or at least what he thought he could. When he tried to pick up. . . an apple? It just spontaneously combusted in his palm. He tried again, grabbing another fruit from the pile with the same ashy result.

"Isn't there a more civilized way to store fruit," Glide queried.

"Baskets. . . maybe? Doesn't make a difference to me because they'd burn anyways."

"Hey," came a voice from his side. It was Aurora, and he hadn't noticed her coming just because of the sheer mind-storm the prey hall was. "I think I can, uhh, help you consume those fruit in a more civilized way," Aurora joked awkwardly.

"Are you sure your method is going to work," Glide cautioned.

"Yes, it is a very effective method that requires sharp precision," Aurora explained. Suddenly Ember realized what she was going to do as she rolled a fuzzy fruit around on her palm.

"What if his mouth is a thousand degrees too," Glide said doubtfully with a shift of his wings.

"We will have to see. Ember, open your mouth," Aurora ordered with a little too much excitement.

With that, Ember unhinged his jaw, and waited for the world to end. The first fruit fell right by his face and landed on the floor with a plop. But that didn't stop Aurora from throwing another one. This one ended up right in his face, and burnt right on his forehead, spreading ash all over his eyes. He staggered for a moment, and then tried to rub his eyes.

Somehow, the third fruit actually made it in during that time, and he finally snapped his mouth close. It was the juiciest thing Ember had ever tasted. The sweet taste of sugar exploded within his mouth, but soon disappeared after he swallowed the remnants.

"How did it taste," Aurora asked glumly.

"Ehh, good," Ember replied, "but don't uhh get me in the eyes again."

Aurora stormed away without another word in the moments that followed. She was disappointed with herself, and was probably going to vent on Swiftclaws. So Ember also retreated back to his corner, and Glide followed him back.

Glide tossed one of the fruits at him, to get his attention. "I think she likes you," he claimed with a grin.

"Good luck to her, because that's probably the most she can do," Ember assured.

"Well, she is one of the hottest dragons here."

"She really would be if I burned her by accident," Ember responded hotly. With a few more bites, Ember had finished off the cow. Then he dipped his head in the creek with a hiss, and washed down the rest of the charred meat and attempted to get the ash out of his eyes. The gong rang; it was time to head to the next class.

Ember followed Mirage again, as he surely knew the academy by the back of his talon. Curious about what was next, he asked Mirage, "hey uhh, what class do we have next."

"We have herbs and medicine with Clay," he clarified. "What do you think he's going to cover today?"

"Who knows, maybe something I could do."

After a short walk through the crowded hallways (dodging dragons was really becoming a hassle now) they were soon back in class. Spread around the room were multiple fake scale structures, each of which a very visible bloody gap in them.

Suddenly, he knew very well what they would be doing. Ember did not like it one bit, and it was almost as if Clay was attempting to make a point. Ember didn't know what it was, but maybe the mock with the familiar silver spool did. He took that spot, and the rest of his winglet took theirs as the class began.

Gathering the attention of the whole class, Clay announced, "today we are going to be going over stitches, and how to use them. I will teach you two strategies, one is a continuous thread, while the second has a knot on every pass."

Clay went by each station, and showed everyone how to use the curved needle to seal the gap in every imposter. Looking around him, Ember very easily grasped the concept, and slowly weaved the gap closed using the continuous method. There was one problem though. He didn't have anything to cut the ends off with.

At that time Clay came over. "Need some help," he asked with a nod of his head.

"Yes, how do I . . . cut this off, when I don't have anything to melt the rest of the spool off?"

"Take these," Clay said as he removed a pair of wire cutters from a pouch he had hanging under the fold of his wing and handed them to Ember.

"Errr-thanks," Ember said with a twist of his good wing.

After some more time of practicing stitching and being lectured it was time to move on to the next class. This one was going to be exciting, especially since it could have some of the newest things on scavengers.

They walked into a relatively new room with rusty scavenger technology piled on one side of the room. The others were mostly barren, without a claw mark to be found. The room didn't even have desks yet, and the stone was so rough that it almost caught the claws on his feet every time he took a step. Fatespeaker waited in one corner, her excited, yet nervous energy radiating throughout the cave. Two entire winglets filled the room, and class started once again.

Before Fatespeaker could even utter a word, Tempest demanded, "hey, where's Tsunami?"

"Oh, she isn't here today, she said something about troubles in the Sea Kingdom and mentioned the talons of peace," Fatespeaker clarified. The other SeaWing in the room nodded, but Tempest still looked unconvinced. "Anyways, here are a few scrolls I'm supposed to hand out. I don't have enough for everyone though, so the rest of you should go look at all that stuff over there."

Half of the class crowded around Fatespeaker to get their talons on a scroll, and the others went over to the disorganized mess of mostly metal objects loitering next to the wall. He could overhear her explaining the origin of the scrolls to Aurora, but there was such a muddle of thoughts and words that he couldn't get any clues.

Of course Ember didn't really do any of the two. He was somewhat close to the gear, but didn't examine or pick any of the loot up. Mirage did though. It was a weird looking small thing, but Mirage soon tossed it away and grabbed another thing from the mess.

This one was more interesting, and gathered the attention of Python, who had just came back over after acquiring a scroll.

Mirage asked Python, who was reading the scroll, "what's this called?"

Python responded quickly, "Do I look like I just finished reading this entire scroll?"

"No," Mirage replied, "but can you tell me when you're finished? And what's that scroll called?"

"Uhhhg. Okay, it's called The NightWing Guide to New Scavenger Weaponry."

Mirage fiddled with the thing a bit more, until a flat curved thing fell out of it with a clunk. It looked a bit like a banana, and had serveral little brass cylinders that were capped with a point of what looked like copper.

Before Mirage could pick it up, Python finally answered Mirage's question. "It's called a firespear? There isn't much about it, besides that there are supposed to be bigger ones."

The firespear was a sleek combination of metal and wood, eventually diminishing to a hollow cylinder that was tapered at the end. The banana-looking thing was now in Glide's talons, but it had been right below the middle of the device. Strangely, there was a crescent moon trigger in front of what appeared to be some type of handle.

Almost prodding the weapon, Ember suggested, "umm, maybe one of you should poke that trigger thing right there."

Python took the initiative, dropper her scroll unexpectedly into Glide's talons. He looked as if he was going to say something, but just stopped in some sort of embarrassed haze. She stuck the end of her claw inside of the ring, and moved it around till it snagged on the trigger. KHEW was the sound that the discharging firespear made.

"Ouch," Python muttered in pain, "that didn't feel so good." Blood flowed from the wound on her upper arm, but instead of being a puncture, it looked like something had formed a slight depression into her scales. It was just a scratch though, so Python didn't say a word after that.

However, it lead the rest of the class right to them. After that, the class ended after the rest of the time passed. For the rest of the remaining day, he explored the school, and talked with his new friends. It was a bit weird, but Glide and Mirage was better than what Ember had expected. By the time it was near dark, he was back in his cave. He climbed up onto the ledge, and attempted fall of to the world of dreams.

Unfortunately (or fortunately in this case), someone peeked into the room before he was out. It was Swiftclaws, who asked kindly, but also in a really serious way,"can I come in? I want to talk to you about something."

"Uhhh okay," Ember nodded.

She walked up to the ledge, and looked into his eyes.

She knows, about my powers, but why? Does she want to talk about something related to that, or something that I don't have?

"My father always said to watch out for NightWings with tear-shaped scales next to their eyes," Swiftclaws started. "I guess he was right, because you really can read-minds, even though you're a hybrid. You probably already know what I came here about."

Swiftclaws mind was a mess of visions and thoughts clustered around each other. He almost felt like his mind was entangled in hers for a moment. But then it ended. He couldn't really tell what her mind was on right now, because it was like trying to read words in the sand when the waves washed over them. But he did pick out one thing.

"Err, what was her name," he asked.

"Darkwings."

"I ... I can't handle this right now," Ember said, a bit overwhelmed by what had just been revealed.

"Maybe we can talk about this tomorrow some more. Especially about the flashbacks."

(the next few chapters may not be completely accurate to these newly re-vamped ones)

Chapter 10

It had been an entire month since Ember had arrived to Jade Mountain Academy. It had been a month of weird encounters with Aurora, interesting conversations with his new friends, and late-night conspiracies with his sister (the whole seeing the past thing is still a bit odd though). But something else important had also happened throughout that month.

His wing should be completely healed, according to Clay. It was the first thing he wanted to do after Scavenger Studies, and he was starting to get a bit impatient. Today they were learning what was already established about scavengers, and important discoveries that had been made recently about them. Apparently the ones native to Pyrrhia were more intelligent then had been thought before to most dragons, but most had been discovered to have a chronic fear of dragons. What else could you expect after something like the scorching?

Whoever slammed the gong today did it with extra vigor, and they were out for the day. Everyone else rushed through the hallways, but Ember waited. He had learned quickly that nobody paid him much mind, so he always had to be careful around other dragons. He finally took to the hallways, and found his way to one of the exits.

Outside, the sky was clear for once. A fresh breeze blew through the ledge just outside of the exit. Snow obscured the terrain, and covered the conifers that lived at this elevation. Every step behind him left a patch of bare ground exposed by Ember's heat as he strode to the edge.

He leaped forward set off, but not immediately. Ember had always loved the exhilarating adrenaline rush he would get from dive bombing towards the ground and pulling up at the last moment. It reminded him of the SkyWing racers who won fame for completing some of the most treacherous courses in the Sky Kingdom.

He caught the wind once again and drifted over the trees and the barren slopes. He did all sorts of manuevers he hadn't done in ages, such as the barrel roll and cobra. Out of all the things Ember could do, he felt the most free when he was in flight. This is why Ember loved being a SkyWing, or at least part SkyWing.

All was good until he spotted a column of smoke just over the ridge. His mind fought between leaving it be or exploring it, but curiosity soon won. Maybe Ember shouldn't have flew over the ridge to see it, because what was going on sure wasn't his business. Even Ember didn't think he could destroy that much land.

The smoke had been rising from a collection of large craters on the ground. The few charred snags that remained looked like they were about to fall, and there were fragments and sheets of warped metal scattered all over the ash. Not even snow had covered the area, for the ground still looked like it smoldered.

What even is that burning stuff? Fire jelly? Napalm? I heard Glide mention that once. Holy moons, this probably only happened a few hours ago.

He circled over the craters again, and spotted something that wasn't there before. It was a bit too unnatural for its position, even though it looked just like the snowy ground. But his suspicions where confirmed when it inched forward the tiniest bit. He swooped out of sight from the machine, just quick enough to avoid getting shot. He felt the metal whistle right past him and into the ground. That was when he heard the scream of the flying wing come by and the BRRRAAT sound.

That muddled with Ember's mind for the shortest second until he spotted a bright light heading straight for him. It was going really fast. Too fast for him to avoid even if he sprinted as hard as he could through the air. Instead he tried evasive maneuvers. He tried a barrel roll, but caught sight of another thing on his loop back up. There were several bright lights falling through the sky now, and the one after him was gone?

A flying wing came hurtling through the sky right on a collision course with the side of Jade Mountain. It rammed into one side and it slide on the sheer face of the mountain until it came to a stop. Then it exploded in a inferno of bright orange-yellow fire. That was it. Ember needed to get back, otherwise his life may be put at risk. Flying wings didn't just fall from the sky like that. There had to be something shooting from ground or one of those fast bright things from the ground?

It clicked upon that realization. If you can make shooty missile things go from the ground, then why not launch them from the air too? Scavenger warfare seemed to be on a whole new level after that moment. The scavengers had never been landlocked, and they certainly did have the capabilities to punish them from all three dimensions. However, that didn't really matter to Ember. The only reason he had left the scene was because he was supposed to be a good dragon at the academy.

After the short flight back to the entrance hall, he had another near miss, this time with gravity. Thankfully he hadn't lagged behind when it came to stopping himself for the landing. The few SkyWing soldiers at the entry grumbled and cussed about what was going on outside, but they still let him inside. However, they made it very clear that no one else was to leave the academy for the rest of the day.

Having little to do at the moment, Ember decided to grab a bite of food from the prey center. Previous experiences had told him that it usually had some food around this time, although not the greatest choices. No one else was present when he entered, so he went ahead and grabbed an entire deer.

Well, not really grab, because most of it was gone with the first few bites. Like usual, there was the taste of charred meat, but Ember had always dealt with that. He looked at some of the fruits longingly for a moment, and then set back off. He would never be able to get his talons on that by himself, especially since they now came with helpful baskets (for other dragons).

His room was empty at this time of entry, but that was the way it was supposed to be. Otherwise, his few precious belongings were still there. The wire Clay (actually Queen Ruby) had given to him sat in the corner of a tiny stone outcropping along with it's needle. He had also bored a small hole in the wall nearby, where he stashed one of the only heat-proof scrolls in the academy.

The scroll actually was a sheet of metal (he didn't know which type) bonded together with expert craftsmanship so it could behave like a scroll. Instead of using ink, it had the words stamped inside. But the "scrolls" took precious time to be constructed, so there were very few. Unlike the other students, he also didn't have a plate for the library system. Instead, he was on the honor system.

But he didn't really want to go to the library again. The first time had had went in there was by accident, when he was first exploring the academy. Immediately he stepped out due to the sheer amount of scrolls littered around on the floor from careless dragons. In the same instance the librarian, Starflight nearly ran into him when he was picking up said littered scrolls. By then, it was clear Ember had no"Umm okay right to be in the blind NightWing's domain.

He only had this scroll because he had asked Sunny about it, and she equally agreed to keep him out of the library. The staff were nice to him though. However, most other dragons just accepted him for what he was, and kept to themselves around him. No one else besides his friends and his winglet would talk to him voluntarily, except for when they were forced to.

Ember had always been used to that though. He wasn't used to friends though. He had though that being friends consisted of knowing a dragon somewhat well. What he didn't know was that he also had to do all these extra little things like "hang out" or eat suspicious plants (thankfully Ember had only heard of this). But the best part was the new and interesting things they'd find themselves doing.

Mirage marched into his room, breaking Ember's focus with the hum of his mind. Should I start with "hey" or just say "lets go," he thought. It most likely won't change anything, he's probably going to come out just "I because he probably doesn't have anything else to do. For whatever reason Mirage always tried to find every possible outcome for a conversation. Ember didn't think he could find the will to say anything if he did that though.

"Hey Ember, we should go to the other room and fiddle around with some of the stuff in there," Mirage urged.

"Uhh okay," Ember nodded.

The "other room" was where Ember, Glide, and Mirage really had some fun. Not in the way one would usually think, but the "what will happen if we combined these things and set them on fire" kind of fun. That's how they re-discovered how to make flashpowder. Glide had already know what is was, being in the military for most of his life, but wasn't sure how to make it.

They didn't talk about that stuff while walking through the hallways. That would attract attention, and that would be really bad, not because they were doing anything wrong, but because they didn't want anyone else poking around their stuff. So instead, they talked on occasion about class subjects while walking through the hallways. They were glad they did that too, because they encountered Python on their way there.

"Hey Ember and Mirage," she greeted.

"Hi," Mirage responded.

"Err, hey Python," Ember mumbled.

"What's going on in the Rain Forest," Mirage asked Python.

"Why would you want to know that," she replied a bit defensively.

"I heard you talking about it with Pineapple, and she looked very sad."

"I'll tell everyone about your little experiment room if you ask anymore," Python fumed with a flare of her wings and an angry twist of her tail. Surprisingly, Python's scales didn't change shades, like she was trying to hide her feelings.

"Hecking lizard dung, how'd you know about that," Mirage cursed.

Python hissed and stormed opposite the way Ember and Mirage had been going. Her head screamed the many curses she may have yelled at Mirage if she weren't purposely going away angrily. This just about summed it up: Mirage can take his toad skinned snout and shove it in a pile of monkey dung for all I care. Like I'm going to tell him anything about what's going on in my home. At this moment Python may have sighed or something like that. I can't go back too, and I hate THAT. Those STUPID scavengers. I HATE them.

Ember decided not to tell Mirage about that. But it still made Ember fell really uncomfortable. They had already knew that going to the Rain Forest most likely meant never coming back, but he didn't know that scavengers had been involved. The worst part about it was that once they had done their time at Jade Mountain, the RainWings could put their lives at risk just trying to get back home.

After a short trek, they entered their little room. It was actually pretty well hidden. Glide had found some time while exploring because he noticed the their was some type of seam going through the wall, and gave it a push. The door was actually a large rock that when shoved the right way would swing inside. It had just enough room for what they were doing, and had space enough for Ember to keep a safe distance.

Glide was in there, and he was drawing something as he looked up to see who was coming. "What took you all so long," he grumbled.

"I was studying some scrolls about dragonflame cactus," Mirage explained. "I'm surprised that they actually kept those here, because one of the students killed a bunch of dragons with one seven years ago."

That lifted Glide's mood a bit. "Did your wing finally heal," Glide asked, his wings tilted in Ember's direction.

"Uhh yeah, I went flying earlier. It fells so good to be back in the sky again, except for when you almost get shot by a flying wing."

"You're kidding me," Mirage said abruptly. "You really almost got shot again?"

"Uh huh, but last time they actually hit me."

"So what was after you?"

Glide flared his wings a bit. "Can you two talk about this later?"

Mirage sighed. "All right. What do you need help with."

A few hours later of annoying complaining from Mirage and Glide painstakingly describing several different processes, they had there first product. Ember was involved, but not as much as Mirage. It was his responsibility to melt stolen ingots of steel (abducted with words by Mirage) and pour the molten metal into casts that Glide had made days ago.

The final result was their first firespear, or a "pipe gun," which was Mirage's name for the device. Glide was exhausted, having mixed this material called "sulfur" and charcoal together to make flashpowder. He explained it was something that SkyWings had discovered to make, and used for explosives; however, he hadn't realized before that it could be used to make firespears.

The pipe gun was a strange looking device, which split near the end. It consisted of a rest at the back ending in the elongated pipe or barrel. Glide had also made many cartridges, small tubes of metal filled with gunpowder and metal balls and/or bits of rock. Altogether, it most likely was the most powerful dragon-made weapon to date. It also needed to be tested, to see if it could endure the stress caused by the explosion supposed to happen inside every time it was shot.

By the time they were about to get around to this, the entrance slab was shoved aside roughly, slightly damaging it. Swiftclaws and Aurora came stumbling in. Aurora's right arm was riddled with little holes, each with purple blood flowing out. Swiftclaws was supporting her, and looked very worried.

"Moon blasted scavengers are here," Swiftclaws muttered.

Mirage looked taken aback. Did Python really spill the fruit? He thought in the moments they were entering.

Glide asked the first question, his tail waving in a displeased way. "How did you find us?"

"I saw you in here. . . one time."

The explanation didn't matter to Ember though. There were scavengers in the mountain, and needed to be dealt with. "Which way are they coming from?"

Swiftclaws sighed in relief. "On the right, they came in from one of those clearings."

Ember marched into the hallway and to the right. After some arguments, Mirage followed him with the shoddy-looking pipe gun in two talons. He had the dangerous end pointed to the area beyond Ember. As they ascended upwards, he began to feel a foreign presence. Ember crouched down and melted into the shadows and closed his eyes right before an intersection. He hoped that Mirage had found a way to hide.

A group of scavengers slowly creeped into the crossing. Their minds felt like scrolls written in an unknown language. The same language that they spoke. One had a few curious thoughts though, and brought them up to his comrades. "Boris des dushno zharko."

Another one laughed and said, "Po Stalinu my v peshchere."

BOOM. Something exploded up ahead, and Ember blew a great stream of fire upon the scavenger group in front of him. They were all neutralized, as all that was left were a few piles of hot bone sludge and half-melted metal. It smelled terrible, but Ember had already tolerated the metal part earlier.

Nextly, they rushed upwards to where the sound of the explosion was. They slowed down to a crawl just as the hallway opened up. Tsunami lay crumpled in the middle of the floor, battered and bloody from fighting. Ember stepped forward into view, and he was nearly hit by something that whooshed by and exploded with another BOOM on the far wall. He backed up, as they were pinned.

Mirage was the first to move after that. Creeping up to the corner, his makeshift weapon was poised toward the scavengers, who were now seeking cover. It discharged with a CHSHK, not quite as loudly as Ember had expected. The shot bounced around the walls, and some of the scavengers screamed loudly.

Another screamed a few enigmatic words, "anu cheeki breeki iv dawmke."

A different one yelled a few heated phrases, which Ember guessed were curses.

Small metal balls rattled into their hallway. If they hadn't listened to their instincts, then they would have been exploded by these strange objects, which fragmented with yet another BOOM. Their ears rang, but they still made it back to their cover. Within seconds, Mirage popped out and fired the pipe gun again. CHSHK! More of the scavengers screamed, but they were still no where near finished.

That's when they heard the chopping sound. The communists were annihilated by a barrage of explosives, and Ember could yet again feel the proximity of the dragon-speaking scavengers. Peeking out, they observed that the hallway leading outside was scorched by blast marks from the explosive weapons the scavengers had been using.

Tsunami was still unconscious; blood pouring from hundreds of small penetration wounds. Smoke also clouded in the chamber, almost obscuring the most severe wound on her. It was gruesome, as small piece of green metal almost the size of a scavenger's arm was lodged in her neck. One elongated point from the same object could be seen protruding from the other side.

Some choppers still remained, and cables fell outside of the entrance. Their feet, which were covered in rough leathers clomped onto the ground. Soon there were at least twenty of them, each dressed in green camouflage fatigues. They marched inside, one spitting on the lacerated corpse of one of the communists.

One stood by Tsunami and looked at the wound on her neck. He was obviously impressed by the amount of damage she had sustained. "That's pretty damn lucky," he commented. "I haven't seen a RPG dud like that in a long time."

Another, who was obviously in command, spoke up. "This territory is now under US protection, by the good will of our countrymen. Who is in charge here? We need to speak to them as soon as possible."

Tsunami jerked up and cringed from the pain. One of the scavengers had removed the metal thing from her neck, and he almost was knocked over by her. Fortunately for him, he managed to right himself, holding the metal gingerly in the air in before him. Tsunami did not look that happy, especially that she was now confronted by a mass of heavily armed scavengers. She muttered angrily, "what are you scavengers doing at my school?"

The rest of the staff had arrived by now, and Sunny looked absolutely crushed. Everyone else was distracted by the platoon of scavengers, so Ember and Mirage took this opportunity to sneak off to their separate quarters, Mirage leaving the weapon in their secret room. It definitely had been a long day.

Chapter 11

(So I'm going to remake this chapter next. I'm going to do away with the flashbacks (especially the war one) and maybe re-rout the victory parade one with a scene including Swiftclaws. Like usual, I hoped you enjoyed my work so far!)

Morning, breakfast, class. That was the usual schedule; however, today was going to be different. When all the students were present in the prey center, a heavily bandaged Tsunami announced what their day was going to be like. When she entered the room, a collective fear and anxiety spread throughout the dragons within.

Her voice was gravely from her wounds, but her voice still managed to echo across the hall. "Attention all students. Some of you may be wondering what had happened last night. Some of you may be scared for your fellow classmates. Thankfully, no students were severely harmed in the attack upon the academy last night. Report to your first class as usual and stay calm."

Tsunami didn't look that happy, and Ember could almost imagine her complaining about reading out Fatespeaker's short speech. She didn't think it had enough flair and intensity. That might have actually been the case though, but Ember wasn't sure due to the amount chatter in the prey hall.

After eating the same burnt meat as usual, Ember readied to set off for his next class. There was no harm in being early, right? Especially since he could avoid other dragons in the hallways. Aurora didn't mind slowing him down though, insisting that he should have something more to eat than a few chunks of rabbit.

Aurora waved her tail around curiously. "You do not eat much for breakfast, do you?"

"Err no, I don't. It helps me get to class safer if I leave now."

"Fair enough. Are you sure you are not hungry," Aurora asked as she shook a small basket of pears in her talons.

"I best get going now, before I run into anyone in the hallways by accident." Before leaving though, Ember turned back. There was still one thing he had to ask. "Is your arm okay? I'm just wondering, uhh beacause you're my wingmate."

"Uh, yes," Aurora responded awkwardly.

He took off through the hallways, glad that he had escaped a much longer conversation with Aurora without feeling guilty about it. It wasn't long till he entered the small clearing where they held the class discussions. Their usual mentor Tsunami probably wouldn't be here today though, especially due to her injuries.

Fatespeaker was their mentor for this period. She strode into the clearing right before the gong was struck, and greeted Ember with a friendly wave. "Hey Ember, how are you doing today?"

After a moment of thought, Ember replied, "I'm feeling fine today Fatespeaker."

"That's good to hear." Fatespeaker went back to studying a scroll she had spread between her talons.

After about a minute, Tempest entered the area. He took a glance at Ember and flared his wings just enough for Ember to notice. "Oh, you're here," he either muttered or thought. Ember wasn't sure which one he did, so he didn't bother answering.

On another talon, they had changed positions a week ago when their old area suffered from a landslide. Now a few various high-altitude trees surrounded their space. They were very flammable, and Ember didn't want to find out how much they were, so he usually didn't stray to the edges.

Soon enough, Mirage and Python also strolled out into their little glade. They were dead silent in the hallways and dead silent when they emerged. But their minds were a chorus of slightly agitated thoughts. Right behind them, Aurora and Swiftclaws also came out into the sun. They were busy chattering about something, or as Ember could tell, the project they were going to do in history today if it weren't for yesteraday's events.

Fatespeaker called their attention right after the gong rang once again. "Hello everyone, how was your breakfast?

"Absolutely terrible," Tempest fumed, which was a difficult task for a SeaWing.

Ember and the rest of his winglet didn't say anything else. Aurora and Swiftclaws didn't look interested, and Mirage and Python were probably staring at each other weirdly. For once, she also didn't react to Tempest's negative view of things, which was very unfamiliar occurrence.

None of this discouraged Fatespeaker, who began the daily itinerary. "So, after this everyone's done for the day. but there's a catch. You have to stay completely within the mountain and stay away from the closed areas."

Everyone stopped talking as soon as the words "stay within the mountain" were spoken. Restrictions were something you never came across in Jade Mountain, and in comparison, it would be like finding a sober dragon inside of a tavern.

Tempest was about to complain, but then Fatespeaker cut him off. "Aurora, Ember, Mirage, and Swiftclaws. You four are to report to the headmaster immediately."

Mirage objected with an angry swing of his tail. "Why do we have to go see her? I only helped out one of my wingmates."

"We all know what you four were up too. We just want to know why," Fatespeaker said in an unusually stern tone.

Swiftclaws groaned, and after many twists and turns in the hallways, they found themselves under the scalding look of Tsunami. It was unmistakably obvious that Tsunami was not very happy at this moment. The hole in her neck was mostly sealed, but it gave her a menacing look along with the tiny marks the bullets had left behind. The group looked at each other, and knew very well that a scolding was coming their way.

Tsunami roared, "WHAT IN THE THREE MOONS WERE YOU POTATO-BRAINS DOING?!" She muttered a few curses under her breath, and then returned to scolding them. "YOU THREE ARE EVEN WORSE THAN THE ORIGINAL JADE WINGLET! AT LEAST THEY DIDN'T KILL SCAVENGERS IN THE HALLS OR LURE AN ENTIRE ARMY ONTO OUR DOORSTEP!"

Mirage jested, "I don't think having doorsteps is an option here, otherwise Starflight would always be tripping over them." However, Mirage's attempt at comic relief had failed, and Tsunami looked even more enraged.

"AND YOU TWO." Tsunami pointed to Aurora and Swiftclaws. "WHY DIDN'T YOU REPORT THIS TO THE STAFF OR THOSE SKYWINGS THAT ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE? AND TO MAKE EVERYTHING WORSE, YOU INSTEAD CALL ON YOUR FRIENDS OVER HERE?"

Swiftclaws cringed in pain. And it wasn't from Tsunami's angry voice. It was a vision, or more correctly, a flashback.

It was of Jade Mountain, but it looked much bigger and more ancient. A large crimson SkyWing sat at the peak, overlooking the land below. Thousands of almost every Pyrrhian dragon tribe were in stiff formation, dominating the ground. Entire cities were burning in the background, and the ground was black in almost every direction. Even the desert was scorched, as pockets of glass were reflecting in the setting sun. The armored SkyWing spoke, and his voice echoed through the mountains.

"We have won the battle, the war, but they can never be defeated. They will haunt us far longer than the hundred years we have fought, unless we can destroy every single one of them. Only then can we fulfill our destiny, yet I may never live to see the day we prevail over them. Do your best fellow dragons, for all of you have a perfect world within your talons, one for dragons, and never for humans."

All other sound was drowned out with a chorus of celebration and happiness. Their war was finally over, and they could roam freely for the first time in their history. The SkyWing, now obviously a great leader of sorts stepped away from the cliff side. He beckoned to another SkyWing, who was the color of rust. A NightWing clutching a scroll accompanied him, but made no move closer.

He addressed the other SkyWing after raising his wings triumphantly. "Blight, what did you think about my speech."

Blight shrugged. "I think it was good. It sure did get the legions cheering."

"Good. Bring me fifty of the best fighters then, preferably fire-breathers. Tell them that we need to fight one last time. If that isn't enough, then tell them that legends live forever."

"On it." Blight scampered off, and took off into a sky lined by brilliant red clouds.

However, the NightWing that had accompanied him remained behind. The crimson SkyWing, who was darkened by the setting sun asked, "do you know how to write?"

"Yes sir," the NightWing replied nervously.

"Good enough, you're coming along with us. Remember how I said that legends live forever? That usually isn't the case, unless someone like you comes along."

"What should I call it?"

"I don't know, but it better be pretty clear that it is a legend. Also, it should probably should also mention the HiveWing vermin we're going to deal with."

Swiftclaws slumped forward; her frozen tension now just released. Everyone in the room was staring at her, as she must have been making a face.

Aurora asked, "What in the three moons was that? Are you okay?"

Tsunami interjected angrily, "THAT BETTER NOT BE SOME CRAZY PROPHECY GIBBERISH, BECAUSE I HAVE ALREADY DEALT WITH ENOUGH OF THAT RUBBISH!"

Swiftclaws seemed to shrink under Tsunami's death stare. "I don't think it was a prophecy. It felt like a flashback, like a reminder of something we were supposed to do a long time ago."

"That sounds just like prophecy to me," Mirage remarked.

"LA LA LA I'M NOT LISTENING TO ANY OF YOUR CRAP!"

"What does crap mean," Aurora wondered.

Tsunami shrugged, but was soon back on the topic of discipline. "What were you two doing out so late," she said, gesturing to Ember and Mirage.

Mirage began to explain their predicament last night, "so uhhh... Aurora came to us because she got shot and uhh... I had this thing I was working on, and I grabbed Ember because of the fiery death breath and flaming scales thing." He continued to explain, until Tsunami dropped what she really wanted to know.

She tilted her neck, but then cringed in pain. The displeased expression didn't leave her face though, even when she spoke again. "Why did you have a firespear?"

Mirage had been preparing to answer this question the moment they had been walked out of class. Unfortunately, not all things turn out the way you think about them. "So I thought it was pretty unfair that only those scummy scavengers had these firespears, so I went up to Gl-- Ember and I was like umm... 'so you know those tiny firespears they had in the scavenger studies classroom' and he was like 'uhh yeah, those are pretty cool.'

Mirage continued his little story. "Then I suggested that we should make one, but dragon-sized. Anyways, that didn't work out because it turned out that each one had at least a thousand different parts, and they were really tiny and we had no idea how to actually make them. So instead of that, we made a pipe that sparks off some flashpowder and it works pretty well."

Everyone stared at Mirage. "Remember the whole 'keeping our mouths shut about the details' rant Gl-- I gave to you last night," Swiftclaws said irately.

"Hey! You weren't supposed to be involved with this in the first place," Mirage exclaimed.

A smug look spread across Tsunami's face, for she had already gotten what she had wanted. "You three can go back to class, I need to talk to someone," she said savagely.

(revision ends here for now, going to have to write some more after this)

The rest of the day passed by normally, Aurora stalking him like usual, Tempest being a melon-head, and a normal lunch where several other dragonets made sport of throwing food into his maw. He didn't see Glide until the beginning of scavenger studies, where he immediately began complaining about being interrogated by Tsunami. It wasn't until the he was sleeping when the strangest thing occurred. He slipped out of one of his nightmares only to be confronted with something even scarier: The horrors of war.

Chapter 12

Two months later. . .

Being a firescales, Ember had never really gotten a chance to learn much about the culture of his own tribe. It wasn't until he began rummaging for that "legend" that had been mentioned in one of the flashbacks when the opportunity came. Almost immediately he had been directed towards The Legend of the Hive once he mentioned that the HiveWings were related. The only problem was that they didn't have a fireproof copy, but he could always improvise.

Like usual, the most willing volunteer was Aurora, who seemed interested in even doing the most boring things with Ember. So she read the entire scroll to him, but that only lead to more questions. The story was very vague, yet very specific at some points, as if some details had been purposely left out. Mainly, it was about the SkyWing leader at that time going on a campaign to wipe out the HiveWings. Yet, it ended unexpectedly, with the death of General Crimson, by unknown means. No farther than that did it continue, and not one detail was left about what happened to the remaining HiveWings.

Yet, this historical figure was what had really stirred up the questions. In fact, Crimson had been one of the only male rulers, although he was never named "king" or some other related title. So how was SkyWing culture related? Rarely he had heard SkyWings use it in a few ways, such as "by the crimson legion" or "only Crimson would be capable of such a thing."

That wasn't enough though, so he asked his fellow SkyWings about this legend. At first all he got were a few details, such as "he may have been an animus," or "he won the scorching for us." Not one negative thing was said about Crimson, until he heard the most bizarre story from Avalanche.

She was a hybrid, like Ember, and had said her mother had told her the tale when they found out that her father had died. His name also happened to be Crimson, but it was The Curse of Crimson that had killed him. Thousands of years ago, one of Crimson's enemies had cursed his name, so that anyone who ever bore the name "Crimson" while he was alive would have the most unfortunate of luck, and would eventually die most gruesomely. It was a weird story, but there seemed to be some truth to it, as he had never met a SkyWing with that name.

So why did SkyWing culture also include a belief in reincarnation? The term "and Crimson is going to come back again" is usually said alongside something that is thought to be ridiculous, but it had stemmed from somewhere. Why did it even say "back again?" Was he one of those evil immortal dragons like Darkstalker? Or was he something different?

It was only two months ago when he had made those discoveries, but they slowly faded away as he was lulled into a more secure state of mind. So far, he was having a great time at Jade Mountain. The scavengers seemed to only be a background presence now, and everything had been peaceful so far. So it was quite a shocker when Tsunami was replaced by a new teacher in scavenger studies.

"What did you do to Tsunami?" Tempest growled uncertainly.

The new teacher was a large crimson SkyWing, and he looked like almost any dragon who had survived Scarlet's reign. His golden eyes darted around the class until they focused on Tempest. "I slit her throat and kicked the body off a cliff," he answered sarcastically.

The other SeaWing in the class, whose name he thought was Gale asked, "who even are you?"

"I'm your new teacher in scavenger studies, and my name is Crimson."

No, it can't be, he even looks just like him, Ember thought. He reached out, but all he felt was static in a pool of confusion. Now only way he would be able to find out more is if he asked a question, the right question. "Why are you not dead?"

"You really want to know about that? Well, I guess I did get bonked by a huge NightWing before. I'm still somehow alive, and I have yet to die gruesomely."

Glide asked, "what was it like to live under Scarlet?

"I only spent twelve years of my life being starved and overworked, it was just fine. What else do you impatient dragonets want to know about me then?"

The other SandWing asked, "why are you even teaching this class?"

Someone else asked, "how do you know so much about scavengers?"

"I was one of their prisoners for four years, and that's why I know so much about them. Anyways, lets get back on the topic of them," he asserted.

Crimson scrambled to a pile of scrolls, some of which were oddly bound. He flipped through one of the weird looking scrolls, which Ember realized was a book. He leaned over and whispered into Glides ear, "he has a book."

Glide suddenly jumped up, almost hitting Ember. "WHAT?!"

Slightly annoyed now, Crimson yelled, "can you all shut up for a moment so I can get my facts together?"

The entire room dropped to silence, until Crimson cleared his throat with a puff of smoke. "Alright, lets get onto the topic of how scavengers wage war. Okay, they call it 'total war' and its where they wage warfare not just on the soldiers, but the entire nation. There are three main dimensions to this style, being air, land, and sea."

"Air warfare isn't quite like what you have been originally taught about. Its much different, consisting mainly of the use of flying wings, also known as planes to bomb strategic locations and support ground troops. Some flying wings are designed to combat other flying wings, so they can secure air supremacy over an area. There are ground vehicles that are able to destroy flying wings too, but I'll cover them in a moment."

"The armies that clashed during The War of the SandWing Succession were nothing compared to the mighty armies of the two scavenger nations. There are over a million of them, and their technology is much, much, more superior than ours. Each and every one of them is a fanatic, and will fight until they are completely dead. No, fighting every one of them would be impossible, even if every tribe united to take them down. Maybe if we managed to get the technology, we would have a chance, but it would be even bloodier than The Scorching."

Crimson continued to rant about how powerful and advanced the scavenger armies were supposed to be. Unlike Tsunami, he actually seemed to have a good knowledge of scavengers, and his rant was somewhat interesting, although a bit unhinged. It continued, until he was forced to stop as the gong had been rung.

His new teacher looked a lot like the legendary dragon he had seen in one of the flashbacks, and he needed to solve this quick, otherwise they may have a problem on their hands. If all the stories were true, then Crimson would have no problems at all seizing the entire SkyWing Kingdom. Before he could do anything though, Ember had to make sure he was right.

What do you do when a mysterious dragon is around? You stalk them, especially if you're the type of dragon that can blend right into the darkness. Ember thought he could play this type of game well, and better that he practice it now than someplace where he wouldn't be able to get away with it.

After grabbing a bite to eat, he waited until the time was right. Usually the torches were extinguished during the late hours of night, and that would be the perfect time for him to snoop around. The usual talon tapping can be heard easily, so he had to be extra careful. Every step needed to be carefully coordinated, otherwise the telltale scuffling sound could be heard echoing through the tunnels.

His best bet at finding Crimson was to creep through where the school-keepers slept, but he was met with little success. Everyone was present, except for Crimson. Where else could he look?

Ember scoured his head for answers, based on what he had seen of the dragon. One one talon, he could be walking the hallways. He certainly does look like the type of dragon that would like pacing around. On a second talon, he may be inside of his class working on something. On another talon, he could be anywhere outside.

Ember thought his best bet would be inside of the Scavenger Studies classroom, but when he checked there not even the mice were present, although it was very obvious that Crimson had sorted through the scavenger technology and neatly placed them in rows.

Ember was definitely starting to think this was a bad idea, especially if he somehow managed to collide with him in the hallways. So he went outside, specifically through a scorched exit. He could see the snow-peaked mountains and trees reflecting the moonlight, until a silhouette of a dragon collided with Ember.

Crimson almost instantly shoved him away while somehow leaping back at the same time. "AAHHHGH," he yelled, "WHY ARE YOU SO HOT?" He was now shaking his talons around in the hot air, which didn't seem to be doing any good.

Ember mumbled, "Umm . . . Sorry," and started to turn away.

"You don't have to say that, I'm fine."

Ember was neck-to-neck with the other dragon within a moment. "What do you meeeaaan 'I'm fine?' When I touch anyone, its not like they're going to just going to be able to saunter happily away."

"Ohh, I get it now. You're one of those dragons with too much fire that everyone was scared about."

There was not a burn mark to be found on this Crimson, and he already looked just as confused as Ember. For a moment, they just stared at each other. Crimson's golden eyes stared back until he twitched his neck and shuffled his wings uncomfortably.

"Who even are you? Do I look like I want to be accosted by any more suspicious dragonets," he muttered. "That would be annoying, so you better tell your friends anything I say if you even have any."

"I probably have more friends than you do, because why else would you end up here?"

"Do I look like I need any friends? No thanks, I'm fine by myself. Besides, all I have to do if fly over to a tavern and talk about something stupid I did if I want to have a good time. Dragons on the tank will laugh about pretty much everything."

Ember insisted, "can we talk about something else, like how you ended up here?"

"Alright, if you are going to understand anything, then I'll have to start from the beginning." He hesitated for a moment, probably questioning himself about what he was about to do. "So I was hatched maybe twenty years ago? The mountains looked just as snowy when I first saw the outside world."

Crimson began once again after taking a deep breath, "I was luckier than most dragonets at that time, because my father somehow managed to snatch me out of the wingery. He actually taught me how to write and speak correctly, but died sometime during the war. My mother remained a mystery though. He never told me anything about her."

"That was when Scarlet got her talons on me, and all the unfortunate things started happening. She was obsessed with me, because apparently my father had an affair with someone else and ran away. Literally every time I was told to do something, it would go horribly wrong. Sometime throughout that I got captured by some MudWings, but then they switched over to Burn's side."

"So when I was about five or six years old Scarlet tossed me aside like a toy once she got Peril within her grasp. After that the bad things just stopped happening, so I pulled some strings and managed to get assigned as a guard. I did that till the end of the war, and then I got bonked by that stupid NightWing right after Queen Ruby killed Scarlet. That NightWing was no joke, I was knocked out for THREE WEEKS because of that blasted ash-eater."

Crimson took another deep breath, and continued on. "So after that I got into archeology, and managed to find one of the oldest parts of the palace. Once I finished that I explored Pyrrhia, and started getting an interest in scavengers. I was tracking one particular scavenger group when they led me to this metal structure. So I flew down to check it out, and that's when a bunch of different scavengers jumped out with their guns pointed at my face."

"So I was their prisoner for three years. At first it started with a big cage, but then I was moved to a remote island. Gradually I earned my way out of the cage with heavy lifting and other things. It wasn't until three months ago when they asked me if I wanted to leave, and I took that opportunity as quickly as I could. They dropped me somewhere near the old Night Kingdom, and then I wandered around aimlessly for a while."

"It was either the army, or this. I had the knowledge and the skills, so I came here. As of now, it's already better than being yelled at by an angry combat trainer," Crimson concluded with a sigh.

"Thanks I guess," Ember nodded.

He turned around and headed back into the hallways. "I'll be seeing you tomorrow," Crimson called after him.

It wasn't until he was back on the sleeping ledge that he could finally get his mind back on the subject of Crimson. I was looking for a dictator, but all I found was an oddball SkyWing who happened to know a lot about scavengers. I don't know why he is fireproof, but I do know for certain he was somehow fortunate for a dragon of his time. Maybe Scarlet knew something more about him, something even he doesn't know.

Chapter 13

Two Months later

Everything had gone well in the two months that had passed. It was the fourth month now, and the snow was slowly melting away. It had previously covered almost everything, but with time things always change. The truth can change too, like how the HiveWings had been manipulated into invading Pyrrhia before he had hatched. Truth can always be changed with the careful manipulation of facts, and with time anyone could believe "the truth."

Right after his investigation of Crimson all the MudWings had been whisked away. Apparently they were having trouble with this particularly nasty winter. The few times he did look over to the Mud Kingdom he had seen it covered by violent blizzard clouds. Something was off, and Ember had a feeling Pyrrhia was more split that it appeared to be.

What was even stranger? Only a few MudWings came to take the students away. Not only were the few guards covered in recently inflicted bullet wounds, but they were making it very clear that they didn't like the scavengers around this place. Ember didn't necessarily like them too, as most of the seemed even more arrogant than he was. On the other talon, they were protecting Jade Mountain, and he didn't want anymore communists on the loose.

Every dragon he walked by was ever so stressed now. At least they weren't stressed out about him though. Even the teachers were tense. The original dragonets of destiny (they're not dragonets anymore) looked very worried, and they kept on mentioning the Rain Kingdom. Nobody knew what was going on there, and worst yet, not even the scavengers dared to put their paws into the Rain Forest.

"I do not know about that," Aurora whispered to him, "but I surely would like to go there!"

"Are you reading my mind or something, because I know how to keep my thoughts to myself," Ember responded.

"You said something about scavengers in the Rain Forest. I also want to go there, especially if someone like you is interested keeping the scavengers away."

Ember sighed. Aurora always found a way to be near him at all times, no matter what the situation. Even now, when he made it very clear that he was being a grumpy SkyWing she was sitting across from him. Actually, she was dangerously close, as he could feel some of the air around him getting colder than usual.

"Why would you want to go to the Rain Forest? I thought your parents lived in sanctuary with you," Ember responded.

"My dad lives in the Rain Forest. Did I not tell you? I have not seen him in a while, and I want to ask him about a few things."

"Like what? You better have a good reason to drag me all the way over there."

"Well, I need to ask him about some . . . RainWing things," she answered.

"Maybe if you payed attention in class then you would already know these things," Ember joked.

"I DO PAY ATTENTION. Webs and his army of history books certainly are not going to help me control--ACK NOT AGAIN PLEASE."

Something gooey dropped onto Ember's snout, and slowly sludged down for a moment. That's when it started inching , and Ember frantically started scratching his snout. The goop was already gone, as he could taste the acid in the air.

"Sorry sorry sorry, I did not mean to do that at all please forgive me," she whispered to him.

"WHY IS IT SO ITCHY," Ember complained.

Splat splip slat sloop. More of the goop rained on Ember's tail, and he furiously swiped it around so he could itch even further. He grasped a talon full of the goop and chucked it back at Python, who was laughing deliriously. It combusted mid-air before it could stick onto anyone.

"I WILL NOT HAVE ANYONE SPITTING ACID HERE," Tsunami yelled, drowning out the laughter.

MAKE IT STOP OR I"M GOING TO BURN ALL YOU STUPID GOOPS OFF, Ember thought in a particular fit of scratching.

Python responded fiercely, "what are you going to do? Punish me?"

Everyone was laughing now, including Ember. It certainly was true that Jade Mountain had a bad record for punishment, but Tsunami already had a plan.

"You see that tree right there? You're going to hang on that only by your tail for the rest of class."

"That's crazy, you can't make me do anything like that," Python objected.

"DO WHAT I SAY," Tsunami growled.

Ember was way too distracted by these acid rashes to know what everyone was thinking. It took him almost a minute of constant badgering by Mirage just to get his attention off of those annoying acid rashes.

"Lets go," he badgered, "can you even hear me?" He dropped a rock on one of his talons, and Ember whipped around to face him.

"Oww, why did you do that? These stupid itchy things are already bad enough," Ember complained.

"Me and Aurora are going to take you to the water," Mirage responded.

"How would water help this?"

"It would cool down the burns," Aurora explained.

"That's the dumbest excuse to leave class I have ever heard, but you know what? I'll take it, because isn't that what friends are supposed to be about?"

"Yes, yes that's what they are about," Mirage answered with the straightest face Ember had ever seen on him.

So the group went through the hallways of their school until they reached an area Ember rarely visited. It was a small subterranean lake. Most of it happened to be visible, because a ray of light that exploded onto its surface brightened the pristine water.

Ember paced around the edge of the water, not really sure if he wanted to go in or not. He didn't want to stop moving, because then he would start itching. So why not go into the water? He took a few steps back, and ran forward into a flying leap. He glided through the air until he splashed down into the cold water.

It was really cold water, and the shock of it nearly made him drown. He barley managed to keep his head above the surface until he managed to recover. It wasn't long till the freezing water was warm around him, probably because of the intense heat radiating off of Ember's body. He was barely staying afloat, so he grasped the nearest rock under the water.

Only his head and a small portion of his neck were above the water now, and Ember could see Mirage sitting at the edge of the water looking his way. There might have been some truth to what they had said, as he did feel somewhat better and less uncomfortable now.

That didn't last, as Ember had just felt something cold grab his tail. He flared his wings, moving torrents of water out of their way so they could stick halfway out of the water. Right in front of him, a pale purple head popped out of the water in front of him.

Thoughts rushed through Ember's mind. Oh no. What have I gotten myself into. This is so weird and awkward. Why didn't I expect this before we even came here. Oh well, at least she's hot. Why am I even allowing this to happen. Why did I never ask Peril about relationships? By the three moons this is actually happening.

Aurora came closer and somehow got hold of the same rock he was on. Since it was only Aurora, Ember let his wings fold under the water again. She nudged him with one of her wings and moved a bit closer. Soon he felt something cold, probably her tail attempting to wind itself around Ember's.

"W...why are you doing this," Ember stuttered.

Aurora just looked back at him weird for a second. It felt like she had answered him, but she hadn't said anything. She looked back with a look of realization, and asked, "you can hear me, right?"

Ember nodded, understanding what she meant. So he listened closer, and her thoughts spoke out. Lets try this again. Are you even listening? Ember nodded. I love you you big handsome idiot.

They stayed in the water like that for a while, completely still. This was all new to Ember, and he had not been prepared for this at all. Yet he still managed to get through it somehow. He had only had physical contact with a select few dragons, but this was different from that. It was strangely exciting now, and now Ember truly knew what that odd feeling he always had around Aurora was.

It wouldn't last though, as they already would have to leave. The gong rang, and the rest of the day blurred by once they climbed out of the freezing lake. Almost everything he did now was routine, until he entered Scavenger Studies once again. It was always exciting in this class.

Crimson banged his stand two times to get every bodies attention. He held a stack of scrolls, and declared, "these bad boys hold all the answers we need."

He went around the class handing out the scrolls until he made his way to Ember. He gave a scroll to Glide, and then said to Ember, "this one is for me." He took the last scroll and tucked it into the fold between his wings.

"Wow, this one is very interesting. I have no idea what half of these foreign words mean," Glide declared ominously. Ember looked over, and the first entry was titled "The Beginning of Something New."

For once, everyone had a question. Every subject from mysterious shadows to where the SeaWing loyalties lied were brought up. It probably was one of the most revealing documents they had ever got their talons on. Maybe it was because a scavenger (should these ones really be called that anymore?) had originally wrote it, or how they were discovering this new exposure as much as they were.

Like other documents he had read, all this one did was bring up questions. There wasn't anything they could do though, as the nearby scavengers had become even more wound-up and tense as of late. Going outside wasn't that safe anymore, as they seemed to want to shoot anyone who didn't fit in. They almost did shoot someone, although he did not know who.

After the gong rang, Ember continued his usual routine, and eventually ended up in their secret little room. They hadn't used it in a while, and it was mostly covered in dust. They had left the project behind after multiple failures involving more advanced prototypes. Only the door seemed to be well used, as if someone were constantly checking this room for any activity.

One thing had really bothered Ember, and he really didn't know what. Today felt special, but he was unsure of how it was special. It wasn't until Aurora approached him again that he recalled what today really was. She was the one so oftenly checking this room, as she opened the entrance like she had done it a million other times.

"Oh hey Ember, I was not expecting you here," she said dreamily. She was thinking about how she and Ember could totally go back to the water again. One more dominant though showed up, and it was of her spitting on the walls. That explained the black stains behind him on the one unused side of the chamber.

"I wasn't expecting you here," Ember replied.

"We should- I mean can you move out of the way so I don't accidentally hit you," Aurora asked.

"Um okay."

Ember got back up and plopped down by Aurora's side. For a moment he checked his tail, but there was nothing out of the ordinary to be seen. He continued to watch Aurora spit at the wall, listening to the spat spat of the acid dripping down. It was then that he figured what had stumped him for so long today.

"Huh," he said unknowingly.

Looking back at Ember, Aurora inquired, "what is the matter?"

"Today was supposed to be my hatching day," he answered.

"Are you sure, it is only the twenty-third?"

"Yes, that's it. The twenty-third of April," Ember confirmed glumly.

"Are you okay? Mine was only a few weeks ago, and there is nothing wrong with skipping a hatching day."

"But my mother died seven years ago. I never got the chance to even know her," he mumbled.

"It is alright, I love you just as much as she did," Aurora said in an attempt to comfort Ember.

"You really do?"

"I really do," Aurora echoed.

Chapter 14

One final month later

Today was the final day he was supposed to be present at Jade Mountain. The worst part was that he would be one of the final dragonets to study in this mountain for a long time. It had leaped over many of the challenges one could have thought of, but this one was the final blow.

Jade Mountain Academy could never survive war. A war to change more than any before it, as this was going to be a war that would put the War of the Sandwing Succession to shame. Alliances had been formed, and it was plainly obvious how it was going to be waged. Explosions and many other more terrible things would be coming their way soon.

In fact, too soon for anyone to realize it. Ember was watching the horizon in Class Discussion when it happened for everyone to see. Suddenly great clouds of debris were kicked up in the wake of several objects being launched. These things, possibly missiles flew through the sky with a dreadfully scary screaming noise. In their wake many great clouds of yellow smoke arced through the sky.

Within a minute the launching had stopped, but the infernal booming did not. Everyone was scared to death, because they had never seen or heard such things. Even Tsunami was frozen in fear. Such firepower could destroy the world, and that was only the standard type of munitions.

"Three moons," Aurora whispered somewhere to Ember's left.

"How do those things even fly," Mirage thought out loud.

"AHHG, that's even worse than the screamer monkeys!"

"How are you not used to their screams? Even I got over it," Swiftclaws puzzled.

"I got over that before even you did, but you have to be insane to be able to get over this sound," Python seethed.

"You're insane, all you do is say things like 'they're in the trees' or 'I can't see them!' Even I don't say those types of things in my dreams," Swiftclaws said harshly.

"How would you know that? It's not like you've ever slept in our room," Python retorted.

"I swear I'll pull out both of your tongues if you don't STOP this," Tempest snapped.

"What do you want now? A mouthful of acid? Because I have plenty of that for melon-headed ninnies like you!"

"Go suck on the talons of the rest of your traitorous tribe. Maybe even they'll appreciate a worm like you," Swiftclaws retaliated.

"Even that's better than spending another day with you," Tempest hissed.

"HAH! Like you think you could ever get anyone else to like your type of low," Python scoffed.

Trying to ignore this prolonged argument was hard, but it was even harder when his ears were shattered again by the screeching missiles. Even with the distraction, the few still glowered at each other.

Python had finally had enough. "I CANNOT STAND THIS STUPID INFERNAL NOISE," she roared.

It wasn't Python's kind of infernal noise that angered Tsunami though. "EVERYONE SHUT UP. YOU'LL BE FEELING IT IF YOU DON'T," Tsunami threatened.

It didn't help that the sky was literally being torn apart by missiles, but they somehow managed to quit arguing among themselves for a moment. All of the dragonets kept the silence, but still had their death-stares locked on eachot her.

Tsunami didn't speak again until it had stopped again. "We are going inside," she asserted, "and if a single one of you makes a move. . . then I'll make sure there's an extra special punishment for all of you."

Python groaned. Even she couldn't take any of Tsunami's "discipline," and she was the one who got the most of it. That's why she followed them inside with her head down, her scales tainted an unusual dark red. They waited there for the remainder of the class, Ember occasionally getting a glance of the sky. It was streaked with the smoke trails from the missiles, and it looked as if there was increased flying wing activity.

After the duration of Class Discussion, it was time for his final history class. Webs sat in the front like he always did, but didn't actually lecture them. "Today we are going to do a group project. We are going to be reenacting important events of The SandWing Succession."

They were split into two random groups. The first group included Blizzard (The Jade IceWing), Gale (The Jade SeaWing), Glide, Playa (The Jade SandWing), Python, and Swiftclaws. Ember's group included Aurora, Draftmaker (The Jade NightWing), Mirage, Pineapple (The Jade RainWing), and Tempest. His group decided to enact the death of Queen Oasis. The other group decided to act out the end of the war.

"Hmmm," Draftmaker puzzled, "due to the fact that I am a NightWing, I shall play the role of Morrowseer."

"You can't do that! The prophecy was given eight years after the war started," Mirage complained. "Anyways, I'm going to be Oasis because I'm a real SandWing."

"Hmmm, that makes sense, but I'm still going to be Morrowseer anyway."

"Maybe I can be the scavenger! I would do that perfectly because of my shiny scales," Pineapple sang.

"I guess I will be Blaze then, and you two will have to choose over Blister and Burn," Aurora stated.

"Well umm, I'll be Blister because you would obviously be the better Burn because you're so big and scary," Tempest guessed, tilting his wings towards Ember.

So it goes. Both groups schemed and planned for their plays. It wasn't until some minutes later that they were ready to begin. Fortunately for Ember's group the others were to go first.

"You thought you could stop me Blister? This is only one viper," Swiftclaws yelled in her best mock-up of Burn.

"HAH, that's why I put two in the box," Python jeered in the most maniacal way.

"AHHHHG I HATE YOU BLISTER!" Swiftclaws plopped onto the floor, making the best death sound effects she could manage.

"Look at this treasure I totally didn't steal from some scavengers! It looks like the Eye of Onyx," Gale shouted in the nicest way one could yell.

"That's mine! It belongs to me, but I want to kill Blaze first!"

"No! I'm really bad at fighting and I'm stupider than a sheep," Glide whined. "I still want to be a Queen though, so Queen Glacier should fight for me."

"No, because I'm a good and just Queen unlike any of you," Blizzard responded arrogantly.

"Here! Catch this! It's the Eye of Onyx!" Gale threw a small rock. Python caught it just as she was right in front of Glide.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I'M NOT THE QUEEN!" Python sprawled onto the floor, and did her best attempt at playing dead.

"WAS THAT LIGHTNING! AHHH SHE'S ALL ASHY AND DEAD!" Glide ran a few short steps away from Python.

Playa approached Python and raised the rock above his head. "I'm the Queen! The Eye of Onyx chose me, so I should be Queen instead of being an outlaw," Playa proclaimed loudly.

"HEY! Queen Thorn isn't an outlaw, she was an Outclaw," Mirage objected.

The other group's improvisation ended, so it was now time for his group to go.

Firstly it began with Mirage strutting throughout the classroom until he was blocked by Pineapple. "SCAVENGERS?! IN MY PALACE? I'M GOING TO KILL YOU ALL," he roared.

"We have guns and everything but we are going to kill you with a sword! By the way, we also stole a bunch of your treasure," Pineapple squeaked.

"NOOO, NOT THE EYE OF ONYX! Now my half-brained children are going to fight over my throne!" Mirage made gurgling and choking sounds until he finally collapsed onto the floor.

"YES! All the treasure is ours," Pineapple chanted. After that she retreated to the darkest corner in the room.

Ember, Tempest, and Aurora stood in a row. There was an obviously large gap between Ember and Tempest as usual. "I'm Queen Burn," he said, "and I should be Queen because I'm big and scary and like weird things."

"I am Queen Blister, and I am the smartest and obviously would be the best Queen," Tempest declared.

"I am Queen Blaze, and I am really stupid. But I am the most pretty, so I would the best Queen," Aurora appealed.

This was the time Draftmaker decided to show up. He came to the side of Tempest and made some whispering sounds next to his ears.

"I am Morrowseer, a member of the NightWings, whom are the most supreme tribe out of them all. We are all better than all of you and we can read minds and tell the future." Well, at least that one can, he thought, probably about Ember.

Draftmaker continued, " we are the smartest dragons, so we are not going to be involved in this war. But wait, there's a prophecy." Draftmaker read out the entire dragonet prophecy from a piece of paper he was holding. "Anyways, we totally are not all starving and want to take over The Rainforest."

"I bribed the IceWings for help with promises for some land, and most of the SandWings like me," Aurora announced.

"I said that I would kill the MudWings if they didn't help me, and Scarlet is just as evil as me," Ember said menacingly in order to best represent Burn.

"I allied with the SeaWings because they live in the water, and nobody can fight us without drowning," Tempest bragged.

"It's not us, it's them. You're supposed to be a SandWing Queen, not a SeaWing wannabe," Mirage corrected.

That was it for history. In Self Defense, Ember learned practically nothing, due to his condition and the calamity going on outside. Fortunately for Ember, Clay hinted at returning Ember's spear after all the classes had ended.

The things Ember was going to do once those end. . . Even Ember didn't truly know what he was going to do. It will involve scavengers, it will involve fire, but who knows where, he thought in the hallways. Art, lunch and so on passed until he found himself inside of Scavenger Studies.

"We're going outside," Crimson declared.

They marched through the hallways to one of the exterior clearings. The sky was filled with bright lights falling upon Pyrrhia. Explosions of every type rocked the land, and the sun was dimmed by smokes of every kind. The noise felt like it was more than enough to make Python murder an entire tribe.

Nobody was doing that here. If you thought Tsunami was scary, then you were definitely in for a surprise. Crimson somehow managed to have enough authority over the class to even keep Python silent and compliant. He was probably the only reason tsunami had stepped up her punishment, and he still somehow managed to keep his class the most interesting out of them all.

Crimson looked very serious as he took something out from the pouch he always hid underneath his wing. As he raised the thing in front of his face, and grasped it with one of his talons. He lowered the object for a second and Ember caught a glimpse of light reflecting from one of it's tubes.

Mirage caught Crimson's attention and asked energetically, "what is that thing? How does it work?"

"They're called binoculars, they allow you to see things closer when you look through them." He handed the binoculars to Mirage. "Take a look through them."

Mirage put the opposite end to his face with another talon.

"Turn it around if you want to see anything," Crimson advised.

Mirage turned it around and rotated his head around until he focused on something. "Wow, that's really weird. How can you stand that? My eyes are already sore."

Mirage returned them to Crimson, who in turn tucked them into his pouch again. "If any of you were wondering, I can tell you where these come from," Crimson suggested.

"TELL US," the rest of the class chanted.

As requested, Crimson began once again. "We stole a smaller pair from the scavengers and replicated their design. It was made in the upper part of the Sky Kingdom, as they had made some big advances in manufacturing up there. So it was made by the talons of a SkyWing, including the glass."

If he was going to say anything else, then it was cut off by yet another barrage of missiles being sent into the sky. "It's rocket artillery," Crimson yelled over the storm. "It's something you might get used to."

Now that they were seeing it again, the sheer power of this was enough to demand everyone's respect. Even this chaos managed to be more stunning than the northern lights. It wasn't stunning enough though. Someone else though it could just be a little bit more stunning, almost the world-ending type of stunning.

Something the size of a mountain was falling from the sky. For a moment he could perceive the hammer and sickle on it's side, if that was truly the name of the vile symbol of communism. Then it was burning in the sky as it raced straight towards Pyrrhia. The flames streaming around it flared up to heats higher than anything Ember had ever seen. But then it got too hot, reaching the limits of it's structural integrity.

All eyes turned away from a light brighter than the sun. Every instinct in Ember's body screamed RUN! HIDE! GET BEHIND COVER! So that's what he did, along with the entirety of his class. Everyone was present except for Crimson and Python.

Crimson sprinted inside along with Python. Crimson laid her onto the ground, and she remained rigid but somehow upright. Her scales were a whitish green, as she was terrified to a degree nobody had ever seen.

That happened in under a quarter of a minute. By the moment time had ran out a grand shock knocked them all down and shook the whole continent of Pyrrhia. Outside he could see trees falling down and bending from the force. That's when the noise struck them.

Take every noise Ember had heard within his lifetime. Combine them all, and not even that would be enough to account for the sheer volume of it. Thankfully he was smart enough to cover his ears. Apparently everyone else was too, but they still moved their mouths around to no avail.

The deafness was only temporary, and soon mostly everyone could hear each other. Two unfortunate dragons didn't. Blood leaked out of one of Blizzards ears, and he called "I can't hear", over and over again hopelessly. Python looked taken aback, and a deathly shade of corrosive green slowly coated her scales.

She stumbled around, until she collided with Swiftclaws. "SORRY," she apologized loud enough to almost deafen them all again.

Swiftclaws was worried. "Are you okay," she pleaded.

That along with various other murmurs was what spread around the small entry room. Soon Glide and Mirage were by his side.

"Whatever that was, we know for sure it's gone now," Glide assured.

"Maybe we should check out the landing site to see if anything remains," Mirage suggested.

"No we don't, that thing went nuclear."

Nuclear. The looming threat of nuclear weaponry. Something worse than what's already been used here, Ember remembered.

"Tell me more, like how is it nuclear," Mirage needled.

"Crimson said something about them using it to power something, if that's what I think it is."

"Whatever it was, it exploded bigger than anything else I've ever seen," Ember cautioned.

"What even was it," Mirage queried.

Behind them came a voice. "Armageddon, that's what it is," Crimson asserted in the most foreboding voice possible.

Chapter 15

This unedited content is subject to change.

Imagine a Dragonflame cactus. If you didn't know it's this cactus that grows in the Sky Kingdom. Only one thing really differentiates it from other cacti, and that is it's usefulness for blowing dragons up. Imagine one of those cacti exploding, minus the pods being thrown everywhere. What just happened puts those cacti to shame.

Tonight was not going well. After that /thing/ had exploded in the sky, everything started going down the hole. Ember's sister was probably with Python, Mirage said he was going to try to get one of their "projects," and who in the three moons knows where everyone else is.

At least Ember knew where he was. Right in the room with the huge wooden box that Ember wasn't allowed to touch. But it had something inside that did belong to Ember. Fortunately for him, he wasn't going to do anything especially wrong.

Clay opened up the container, and lifted Ember's spear out. Ember craned his head to look inside and saw little inside. It was only occupied by a few odd spinney things, a few knifes and daggers, and finally a huge stick. Clay then lifted out Ember's spear, and passed it over with the blunt end facing him.

"Umm thanks I guess," Ember acknowledged gawkily.

"Wow," Clay exclaimed, "you're the first one not to say anything about how pitiful our weapons box is."

/I was just going to say that. . . but he is Peril's boyfriend, so maybe I won't?/

"Yeah, you should probably get some more things in there," Ember reflected.

"I'll try and get some more once this terrible bombing stops. I guess I may be seeing you again sometime, maybe you should go see Peril if you're going to leave now," Clay said in a slightly down tone.

"Okay, I'll likely see you again then."

With that final note, Ember turned his back to Clay and left. He didn't really like Armageddon, or whatever as going on, but hopefully he could still keep Peril happy. So he continued down the cold stone hallways. Suddenly he was thrown off balance as the earth gave a great heave.

The first thing to rush into Ember's head was: /EARTHQUAKE!/

Within a moment's notice it was done, possibly lightened by the massive layers of rock around him. So Ember regained his footing and set off again. Mirage was supposed to be waiting inside, but instead Ember found him straining against the entrance hopelessly.

He backed off for a moment, and asked Ember, "can you give this thing a try?"

"Fine, I'll give it a nice shove," he responded.

Ember set down his spear and began to bash the door, but that wasn't enough. So he backed up a few paces, and ran as fast as he could, slamming his shoulder into the cold stone. The door shattered off of its hinges and fell into the room along with Ember.

/That didn't feel so good/, Ember thought with a grunt. He had managed to jar his shoulder, and by the time he was on his feet again it really was a distraction.

"Now that's a lot of damage! Now lets go get some firespears," he beamed.

"I'll keep an eye on the hallway then," Ember replied. It was clear both ways when he had been out there, but he had to be sure. So he snatched up his spear with a talon, and positioned himself just outside of the doorway.

In the room, Mirages mind sang, /we have the guns! Nobody can stop us now! Wow! I didn't know we had so many of these! /Soon he was burdened with weapons and ammo, and nearly "Lets face it, youran over Ember as he rushed into the hallways. Too close, for Ember had barely a second to step out of the way.

"So where are we going? South entrance? West entrance? Which way do we want to go to the jungle?"

"The rain forest," Ember queried, "I thought you wanted to go to the Sand Kingdom?"

"Going back home and cooking up dinner doesn't sound exiting anymore. I want adventure and glory! And the jungle seems like the best place to start."

"Okay, go get the others then and meet me at the south entrance," Ember commanded.

He had other things he wanted to do, but firstly he had someone to speak too. For all Ember knew, he may not see her again for a very long time.

He found Peril peeking outside of the entry hall. Usually she would be the type of dragon who would display her presence to everyone around, but that had changed of late. Not even his or her firescales stop a bullet or pretty much anything a scavenger could get their paws on these days.

As he looked outside, a shiver fell across his wings. "By all the three moons," Ember gasped.

His head told him it was supposed to be mid morning, but no light penetrated the thick clouds of debris that obscured the light. It was as if a gargantuan talon had scooped up large portions of earth and tossed it into the air carelessly. The dirt may have came back down, but the dust hadn't settled yet.

"And I thought I was supposed to end the world," Peril snorted.

They both stood together right before the ledge, looking into the void. The visibility was terrible, and SkyWings were well known for their eagle-eyes.

"I have no doubt /they/ are behind this," Ember assured.

"Well, maybe you should ask me first before you go on a killing spree," Peril remarked.

"They're not dragons though, so it's fine if I kill a bunch of scavengers."

"Lets face it, who knows how many dragons they already have in their paws, and you're probably going to have to burn /somebody/ if you want to stop /them/."

"I'm not ready for it, I can't kill a dragon."

"We were made to kill, that's just the way it is. At least you'll be doing it for a right cause." Memories of Peril's violent childhood flashed through her head for a moment, and she sighed.

"But-"

"You do what you have to do, and take care of your friends. At least you managed to make some good ones, as that one SkyWing looks smart enough not to step on my talons."

"Yes, I'll do my best to keep them alive," Ember promised.

The dust clouds began to stir, and he could now here the distant beating of choppers. "You should get going now, if you really are going on some type of adventure," Peril suggested.

"Umm, see you next time," Ember responded. With that, he began to rush through the hallways again.

Peril called after him, "Don't let those scummy scavengers get a shot on you!"

Only five other dragons were present before the south entrance, but there was something wrong.

"I thought we were going to have more dragons than this," Ember queried.

"They said it was a suicide mission, and we couldn't get Python to yell at them," Mirage explained.

"It's only us," Glide said confidently, "we wont have to have anyone else weighing us down."

"Then lets go already," Python said impatiently.

"Wait, I though you were deaf," Swiftclaws interjected.

"What?"

"She's only deaf in the ear that's facing you," Aurora clarified.

Swiftclaws walked around to Pythons left side, and then explained their situation. "We can't go out that way, I can already see some weird scavenger things, and I swear we'll die if we go out that way."

"Finally, your powers are actually useful for something."

"No, It's really obvious because if you haven't noticed already. Besides, I even said there were scavengers out there to your face."

"Can we stop arguing and head to the other entrance to see if it's clear," Glide urged.

"Lets do that, like right now," Mirage stressed. "Lets go before it gets any more brighter out."

No one joined their group as they trekked through the barren tunnels. It seemed like they were the only dragons around with the guts to face what was coming. /They must be scared,/ Ember thought. /Even I'm scared now, especially for what I might become./

The grumbling and bickering stopped as soon as they found their exit. It was a small room carved from the stone, probably from years of work. It may have been part of the original cave system, but new technologies had helped carve it to a size large enough for six dragons to fit with space to spare. The floors were cold, but Ember's heat would change that within moments.

All looked clear, and Ember looked around to his group. They all looked back at him, determined. An excited nod from Mirage and a sigh from Glide was all he needed to start the process.

"Woah, woah, woah, before we get all excited and leave this place, I thought we should all have the privilege of carrying a firespear," Mirage broke in.

"Those things? I'm sure my own two fangs will suit me just fine," Python remarked.

Mirage slid all of his burden off his body onto the floor below, but he wasn't the one to respond.

"Not all of us can spit acid and blend in to the environment around us," Glide replied.

"I'll take one," Aurora infused.

With that, Aurora, Glide, and Swiftclaws carefully lifted the mechanisms off of the ground.

"Where am I supposed to put this, It isn't small enough to put in my pouch or hide under my wing," Swiftclaws puzzled.

"There's a strap on it you can stretch over your wing and connect to the other end," Mirage answered.

Swiftclaws then pulled the belt around her wing and snapped it in with a clink. "That's convenient," she said, satisfied.

Mirage then counted their cartridges and handed out an equal amount to the participants. "I'll show you two how to use these things later." He turned back to Python in order to confirm her exception. "Are you sure you don't want one."

"I'm fine, and wearing that thing would ruin my scales," Python groused.

"Well, it looks like your the one missing out this time!"

"Maybe we should leave before this place gets buzzed by a chopper," Glide said impatiently.

"Lets go then, what are we waiting for," Python added.

Suddenly, what Glide had described happened. A large green body flew out into their view, tearing up the dust in the air a spitting it everywhere around itself until it vanished once again. They could still hear its blades beating the air, but it was gone for now.

"We need to go. NOW, before that thing comes back," Glide stressed.

"Alright, here's the plan," Mirage stated. "Were going to keep on flying straight, and then we're going to start flying south until we hit the jungle. Then we'll go on foot so nothing can see us from the air."

"It's The Rain Forest, and I'll make sure you'll really snort sand if you call it 'the jungle' one more time," Python growled.

They were supposed to be leaving, but all they were doing was bickering and frolicking around. This wasn't how dragons were alleged to behave before they were about to do something /really/ dangerous. So Ember flared his wings, and snarled, "lets shut up and go before I pick up any of the psychopathic tendencies I'm supposed to have."

Surprisingly, instead of running away and screaming, they sidestepped his wings and let silence fall over the cave. Ember turned to the void outside, and beckoned forward as he leaped into nothingness. To Ember's avail, he fell back onto solid ground. It was the south entrance which opened into nothingness, not the east one.

But that only made things worse. He couldn't even see the ground in front of him, as the thick air blocked even his own talons from view. Suddenly a huge gust blew all the detritus away, and he could see the end of the clearing. It dropped to a cliff right at the edge, and he ran forward and jumped off, finally taking to the air with a few massive wingbeats.

He could hear the storm behind him as he forged to the south-east. Soon he lost track of time, and almost lost the rest of his group. But he managed to backtrack a little and re-join them. This time he would be flying at their speed. Even later, the sun came up once again, and their ghostly surrounding had been revealed. They stopped on a barren ridge with plenty of rocks for cover, but didn't stay there long.

Python moaned in misery upon their landing, and complained about her aching wings. Aurora attempted to get some sleep, and Glide and Mirage tried to find some food. They weren't successful, and came back talons empty. After that, no one said a word, except to announce who would be on watch as they snored under the cover of the rocks. When the sun began its decline, they lifted off again after discussing whether they should move forward or wait again.

Flying in the sun made them easy targets, and after a few hours, a chopper preyed on them over a forested slope. At first it flew over them a few times, but then it began its nefarious agenda. After seeming to fly up and disappear, it dived down straight towards them, firing its rockets with a several whooshes. Explosions rocked the earth beneath where they had just been as they scattered across the sky like the seeds of a dandelion.

Then it came out of the void again, heading straight for Ember. He dived, and the mechanism on the chopper's nose followed him until it reached its blind spot. It disappeared again, and he could hear it spin around to face him once again. However, this time he was ready.

It fired its rockets one again, but they fell wide and flew right by him on either side, knocking trees down with a fiery blare. Then Ember dived again, and doubled back, right where he wanted to be. he was in its blind spot now, and it was only moments before he would ascend up and into his enemy.

Every muscle in his body strained as he pushed himself to an extreme he had never felt before, and collided himself and his spear into the belly of the chopper. It hurt. It really did hurt. But he somehow managed not to break a single bone upon contact. The disgusting burnt meat and molten metal smell filled his nostrils and he pushed himself off.

It didn't budge until he shoved again, using his feet for leverage to pull out his spear. With a frightening jolt, he flew back. Next, the chopper span right past him, and one of the blades clipped one of the membranes of his wing. In a matter of seconds it was beneath him, and it exploded in the sky below. Pieces of metal flew down to the ground and a horrible chemical smell overpowered the previous one. He had survived, and he also had done something really stupid.

Everyone else did too, except for the part about doing something stupid. Most of them had flown to cover, while Aurora had flown around, keeping an eye on him. She had obviously been worried about him. Glide even gave him that "what in the three moons were you doing" face, but Mirage and Python were all for it. Once they had fully re-grouped they continued their flight until the sun had set, and then on through the rest of the night and then the morning.

It wasn't until midday that they finally found somewhere to rest. It was a cave on the opposite side of a mountain that bordered a small valley. They went inside cautiously, but found no other being inside. Tired from their long journey, made themselves room, and slept. And they continued to sleep, for a pretty long time. Seriously, they really did sleep for a long time. I mean, every now and then one went on watch, or wandered around, but it was at least for a straight day that they slept.

Book Three: Run Through the Jungle

Chapter 16

(more to come soon)

Gallery

Character Pages:

• Darkwings (Remnants of the Cold War)
• Ferrous (Remnants of the Cold War)
• Emberwings
• Glide
• Aurora
• Mirage

Remnants of the Cold War - Choppers in the Night

Smaller Chopper

Another Chopper

A-10 Thunderbolt

Confirmed Kill

Confirmed Kill x3

Confirmed Kill

Confirmed Kill

Confirmed Kill

espear with a different banana lookin thing

Map of Pyrrhia