"Ours who ?" Came Scarlet's voice from the balcony. "We found him with some talons of peace revolutionaries. Are you telling me the Nightwings have finally chosen a side ?"
"Are you allying yourselves with an underground peace movement instead of a real queen ?" Burn snarled at her side.
Morrowseer looked up towards the black cloud in the sky. "No." He said in his rumbling voice. "I come only to claim this dragonet as ours. We will take him and go."
Ashley was still standing in front of the heavy dragon, infuriated, there might be no dragon in this universe he disliked more than this one. But actually seeing Morrowseer for real, and hearing his egocentric voice, immediately made him despise the dragon from all his heart.
"Oh, will you ?" Scarlet responded. "On whose authority ? Would your mysterious queen like to appear and discuss the matter with me ?"
Morrowseer's eyes glinted with spite. "Do not anger the Nightwings, sky dragon. Give us our dragonet."
Ashley's grip tightened on his weapon's handgrip. He looked back, behind Gill, he saw two heads staring at him and the dragon with terrorized looks. He saw Rowan wave at him to hide with them but he decided not to move, for now, he hadn't been detected by the big black dragon, if he could not drive attention to himself by moving, that would be great.
He heard the stomp of a foot. "NO ! I want to see him fight Icewings ! It's my hatching day !"
For a moment, the queen and Morrowseer both stared at each other, then, he noticed a faint movement at the Nightwing's tail. Well, now that's not happening.
The black cloud in the sky completely dispersed, and a dozen Nightwings came plummeting towards the arena. Ashley was struck in awe as he saw the sky fall, and hit with precision the eight Icewings prisoners without a single miss, leaving no chance of fighting back. The Skywing guards near the Icewings had dodged out of the Nightwing's way with fear in their eyes.
As fast as they came, the Nightwings flew back into the sky, formed the cloud again, and left Morrowseer to be alone against the queen again. Now, all the Icewings were lying dead on top of their pillars, blue blood dripping from the sides of the spire-like rocks.
Ashley snarled, he had just witnessed the cold-blooded elimination of eight civilized beings that couldn't have a single chance at fighting back.
Ashley allowed himself a glance towards the balcony and saw smoke coming from Scarlet's nostrils, to say that the queen was fuming would have been an understatement. On her side, Burn's tail was lashing like the one of a snake, and she looked ready to jump at the Nightwing at any given opportunity.
"There." Morrowseer said, Ashley gritted his teeth. "We've taken care of your Icewing problem. Now we'll be going." Morrowseer looked down and was met by Ashley's furious gaze, he frowned his eyebrows and they stared for a few seconds. He looked away, then flapped his wings took off in the air, and swooped down on Starflight to catch him.
"Wait !" Starflight exclaimed as Morrowseer's talons closed around him. "What about my friends ?"
The huge Nightwing did not answer, neither did he look back. He took Starflight and flew away towards the black cloud. Just a few moments later, all the Nightwings had disappeared in the sky.
Ashley let out a loud sigh and eventually loosened his grip on the gun. His knuckles had turned white with the strength of his grip. He looked at Rowan and Cramberry with tired eyes, their eyes were darting all around with great concern.
"GUARDS" He heard Scarlet roar, the two women immediately locked their eyes on the balcony. "I will have one thing go right today." She fumed; "fetch my champion. And clean up that mess down there." She swept a wing toward the arena, and multiple Skywings got to work.
Chains were thrown over Tsunami, yet she didn't resist at all, submitting to the situation. Two Skywings walked into the centre of the arena, their feet splattered in the Sandwing's blood and they showed disgusted faces. But they caught the corpse by both sides and started dragging it toward Ashley and his pairs.
He panicked but quickly noticed that the tunnel was behind them and that this was where they were taking the corpse.
Five guards in armour landed beside them and pointed their spears at them.
Soon enough, everyone was shoved into the tunnel, and they found themselves in the same room where Ashley had to wait before going into the arena. The portcullis closed in a loud clang behind them, and the Skywings trapped them in the room by closing the access to the inside of the palace, leaving the 5 beings inside.
After making sure that there was no threat anymore, Ashley allowed himself to lean against a wall and exhaled the longest sigh of relief he ever had. Slowly, he slipped against the wall and ended up in a sitting position, seeing in front of him the two terrified women, the bloody corpse of Coyote, and the unmoving body of Gill.
He heard Rowan and Cramberry whisper to each other, but all he managed to catch was a "... you alright ?"
He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall, finally breathing normally again. His body was still hurting, but he was starting to accustomate to it. He winced, his arm was something else, however.
When he opened his eyes again, he noticed the two Women leaning toward him.
"I didn't notice it at the moment." Cramberry started with worried eyes. "But you are in horrible condition."
"You think ???" Ashley responded almost bewildered. "I feel like I'm dying !"
"I don't think you realize how much though." Rowan stated, this immediately prompted him into wariness.
"Stand up, we need to at least do something."
Ashley sighed and pushed on his feet and stood up in front of them. He saw Rowan's eyes widen even more at his sight. He looked down upon himself, and saw that his clothing had become completely recoloured in red by how soaked with blood it was.
He winced at his own sight, if that blood was his, then, there was no world where he would survive more than twenty-four hours. He figured that a good amount of it wasn't his however, as many splatters of blood from his Sandwing opponent had soaked into his clothes earlier, and that there was a high possibility that others had come in contact. For as grim as it was, this thought brought relief in his mind, as maybe, then, he could survive this long day.
But there was no denying the pain, he was bruised and had been battered by a beast the size of a truck. His left forearm was unquestionably broken, and the blood on his left sleeve was undoubtedly fresher than the one on his pants.
Cramberry and Rowan noticed it, and they soon found out what was a deep cut in his arm. The injury seemed to be bleeding less than its size should allow, and it was by all means not a good sign. His jagged cloth had glued to the wound and was giving it an ugly sight. A crust was also starting to form all around it, and looked like it had fused with the sleeve.
Ashley lost his balance but Rowan caught him before he could get hurt, and he threw up on the ground.
He was taken by dizziness, but the woman held him and kept him on his feet. Once he looked up, he saw Cramberry trying to attend to his arm. She tried to remove the clawed sleeve, but this only managed to get a scream of pain from Ashley, and she backed up, taken by surprise. Eventually, she decided that she needed to find something to wrap his wound in to protect it from reopening and bleeding more.
It was only when she walked to Teheron's corpse that he noticed the body of the man. She ripped his top clothing and made a makeshift bandage with it, and went on to wrap it around Ashley's arm. He gritted his teeth as the fabric pressed against the wound, it was probably not the cleanest bandage, but they had to do with it for now.
She also wrapped the piece around the other part of his arm, where he could feel his broken bone. He winced as she tightened it, but didn't scream. He would still be able to move his arm, but it would help to keep it somewhat in place. Looking at it, it was a very non-professional bandage, and he felt a bit awkward standing there.
Once done, Cramberry stepped away and looked at him from top to bottom. "We need to get out of here, and quickly." She looked at Rowan, still on Ashley's side, who nodded in response.
"Do you think you can run ?" Cramberry asked, locking her sight into the man's eyes.
Ashley shivered at this thought, looking at his state, if could still run, but probably not for long and neither very fast, the two would probably have more chances to leave without him. And if he managed to escape, there was little chance he could find someone able to help him with his wounds, and he also would have to give another painful explanation.
Only then, did he notice he still had the Glock in his other hand, he shoved gently Rowan to the side and immediately pulled his finger away from the trigger. It was as much a relief as a miracle that he hadn't triggered it by accident. He was surprised the two still didn't question what he had in his hands.
He turned around and walked toward the gate to the tunnel of the arena, much to the women's puzzlement.
"I don't think I can follow you, whatever you are planning to do." He sighed. "I wouldn't be able to run, neither to climb, or anything like it."
He looked back and saw the two staring at him, their look was a sad one, but they knew he was right. Rowan still looked uncertain about it. Cramberry, for her part, gave him a thankful look.
"You should save yourselves first, don't worry about me, I think- I may have an idea, I don't want to die here either."
Soon enough, they heard scratching behind the door, they all turned to face it, and their eyes stumbled upon a man pushing the heavy contraption. When he raised his eyes, they lit up with joy.
"Cramberry ! Rowan ! You're here !"
"Thyme !" Rowan shouted as she ran to him. The newcomer glanced at the room, and his face quickly became concerned.
"Wha- What happened ?" Thyme saw the two dragons laying on the ground, and Teheron's body. Then his glance met Ashley's. "And who is-"
"There is no time." Cramberry said. "We have to go."
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"But what about this guy ? Who is it ?" Thyme pointed a finger at Ashley, who walked the best way he could.
"I'm Ashley but that doesn't matter, take your two friends and leave, the day isn't over."
The man looked at him for a long moment, his eyes often stopping on Ashley's wounds, he frowned. he looked back at the group. "Did you fight against a dragon or what ?"
"Yes, we did." Thyme's eyes widened. "But we're alive, and that is all that matters right now, if you don't consider running." Rowan said.
"Right. Let's go then." Thyme turned around and took his leave, quickly followed by Cramberry in the corridors.
Rowan was the last to leave. "Not coming then ?" She asked Ashley.
"No, but I don't plan to die today either."
"Good." She frowned. "I hope we will meet again then dragonslayer."
Ashley laughed at this but was reminded by his wounds that he shouldn't move too much. "I'll make sure to do so then." He said with a smile, but his face grew back to seriousness. "Be careful when you get back, Talisman is not a safe place for you and your friends."
She blinked multiple times, registering the unexpected information. Her friends called her from behind, shouting for them to follow, she started to back up. "Alright- Thank you." And she joined her peers.
Before the group left Ashley's sight, Cramberry turned around and waved at him. "Goodbye friend." Ashley responded by giving them a salute. Thyme gave him a careful glance, then took the lead.
In a matter of seconds, the group had gone away in the palace's corridors.
Ashley waited in the doorframe for a bit, contemplating his surroundings, there was no dragon around, and he couldn't hear any more steps. No fire-breathing hiss, no claw scratching the floor, nothing. And for a moment, he stared blankly at the empty corridor facing him, feeling a bit of peace wedging on him.
Eventually, he shot himself back into action, and drew his gun out, firmly holding it from his valid hand.
Right, if my assumption is correct, Clay and Peril should be fighting by now. Glory is going to act soon.
Before leaving the room for good, he looked back a last time at Gill. "I promise you to give my best to protect your daughter." He said from afar. "And her friends too, for that matter."
He finally headed back into the labyrinthic palace, but right before he turned back, he thought he had seen Gill's body shift a little. He swore to himself, hopeful that it wasn't his imagination playing tricks.
Ashley walked at a fast pace, moving as lightly as he could. He figured he needed to track the tunnel but from the corridors to find his way back, and went toward the direction he believed was the right one.
As he found himself crossing an intersection he stopped to listen to the growing noise he was starting to hear. It was shouting, definitely dragons shouting. He took the direction where it was coming from, and soon started to hear it more clearly. After squeezing through a mid-opened door, a ray of light struck his eyes.
He raised his hand to protect his face from the sun, when he accustomed to the light, he figured he was exactly where he aimed to be.
There, in front of him, was the royal balcony, and he could see Scarlet, Burn, Glory, and guards standing on it, Tsunami was also present on the side, chained up again. To his relief, all of them were showing him their back. From his position, Ashley could see the audience, but not the arena itself, he quickly moved to the side to hide in the shadow cast by the walls that surrounded him from the side, and from there, he noticed Scarlet's tail twitching with annoyance, Burn seemed to act the same, but in a less eager way.
He heard voices coming from below the balcony, he recognized Clay's voice and guessed the other was Peril's, but couldn't make out what they said due to the echoing and obstacles of the place.
Scarlet's tail stomped the floor behind her, making Ashley jump in surprise, the queen was growing more and more impatient, he could tell it even from behind. He sneaked closer, leaning against the wall to be the least visible that he could be.
He stopped to watch, his eyes were carefully studying each of the queen's moves, and occasionally darting toward the guards to make sure no one had noticed him. He saw Scarlet suddenly leaning above the balcony.
"Come on Mudwing ! kill her !" Scarlet angrily shouted. "Do your thing !"
Ashley heard the confusion from under, guessing what was happening, and then waited.
But nothing came.
No one moved, no dragon died, no one shouted, and Glory didn't attack.
Ashley took a deep breath as Scarlet was still leaning above the arena, took a step forward, then pressed the safety of his Glock. The weapon made a clicking noise, and he noticed with horror the ears of all the dragons around him straighten as they heard the click. Only one dragon turned its head around, thankfully, it was Tsunami, and Ashley saw her sad eyes turn into puzzled when she noticed the human.
"GLORY ! NOW ! DO YOUR THING !" He shouted at the top of his lungs.
The two queens immediately turned their heads to him with piercing eyes. He pointed the barrel of his weapon at Scarlet, and then, he saw Glory's eyes burst open. She snapped the chain that was restraining her and reared up in a blaze of multicolor fury, and threw herself toward the two elder dragons, opening wide her mouth, and aimed right at Burn. A jet of black liquid shot from her two longest fangs.
The Sandwing didn't wait for the venom to hit her, she shoved Scarlet in front of her with panic and immediately shot in the air.
Ashley raised his arm as fast as he could, and pressed the trigger twice, deafening the whole stadium with the loud bangs of his gun. The muzzle flairs blinded him for a second but his senses were on full alert, and he turned as soon as he heard the piercing shriek coming from Scarlet.
The stadium erupted into pure chaos, all the dragons tried to take off at the same time, fighting to get away from Glory and the screaming queen. The guards on the balcony all scattered after burn and left the balcony, leaving Ashley, tsunami, Glory, and Scarlet, who was still screaming with pain as she held her melting face.
Ashley bolted toward the edge of the balcony and looked up, the arena had become a frenetic cloud of panicked dragons, all shouting and flying without order, crashing into one another. In the mess, he recognized Burn flying away, escorted by some of her dragons, and he noticed a red colour dripping from her claws.
He turned around when he heard a loud flap and the sound of something landing on the balcony, a brown and large dragon stomped on the balcony, a wary look on his face.
"Glory !" He shouted. "You're awake !"
"Of course I am !" The Rainwing flared in response, she moved next to Tsunami and started tugging her chains. "You couldn't tell I was faking ? I was waiting for the right moment to do something. Did you seriously think I was asleep the whole time ?"
"uh-" Clay hesitated.
"You looked pretty asleep." tsunami said.
"Well that's great." Glory sighed. " For the first time in my life, I pretend to be as lazy as anyone thinks Rainwings are, and you actually believe it. I'm glad my friends have so much faith in me."
"That was too much of a close call." Ashley walked to them. "You nearly missed that 'right moment'." He said to Glory with a frowning look.
The three dragons turned their head, and Glory hissed at him.
"Oh, you're the scavenger." She said with a disappointed and bitter voice.
Clay looked at Ashley, then gave a questioning look at Glory. "hey, you never told us you could do that." He said, pointing at her venom-spitting teeth. Beyond her, Scarlet crashed into her throne and screamed even louder, her golden chainmail was now melting into her scales.
"I never could before." She responded. "Are you going to help me with this ?"
The two dragons grabbed the leafless tree, and tried to lever it under tsunami's chains, Ashley watched them struggling to break them.
"So how did you do that ?"
"Oh." Glory said. "Well there's a logical scientific explanation and seriously, right now you want to have this conversation ?"
"that mess scared of burn, but she won't be gone for long." tsunami pointed out.
Clay gave the sky a worried look.
"She's going to have to recover first, but I wouldn't bet on that though." Ashley stated.
"What do you mean ?" Tsunami asked.
"I'll explain later, better to leave first. Oh, I know !" He rushed to the side of the balcony and leaned over the arena, looking down, he saw a glowing red Skywing looking completely lost.
"Peril !" he shouted to the dragon, who shot its head up, locking eyes on him, he waved at her. "Get over there !"
"No !" tsunami said. "Not her ! Keep her away from me !"
"He's right." Clay said. "We need her help." He insisted, a confused Peril landed beside him.
He pointed at his friend, looking at her. "Their chains and bindings." He saw her hesitating look. "Please, if we really are friends."
Peril glanced hesitantly toward Queen Scarlet, Ashley was able to feel the heat of her scales from where he was standing. "All right." She said, and she touched the chains around Tsunami, which melted and collapsed on the floor with a resonating clank sound.
She burned the wing bindings preventing Clay's friends from extending their wings while holding them away from their scale. Her talons sliced right through without resistance.
"Now we get Sunny." He said, leaping into the sky, and his friends went to follow him.
"Wait !" Ashley jumped, they stopped right before taking off and looked at him, which confused Peril greatly. "Take me with you, I can't stay here !"
"I'd rather not." Glory said to him, clearly, she didn't like the earlier moment.
"Hmmm." Tsunami thought, loudly, she eyed him with sceptical eyes. "Well, it's not like you didn't owe us an explanation anyway." She said, and then she quickly wrapped her talons around him and took off.
Ashley let out a yelp of surprise as they flew away from the balcony, leaving the still-screaming Scarlet behind. The sky was still a horrendous mess of red, orange, and yellow scales flying in all directions. Peril shot ahead of their group, followed by Clay, clearing a path as dragons panicked out of her way. Ashley saw her accidentally burn a Skywing's leg with her tail, the dragon howled and clutched the burn, then tumbled into the side of the mountain.
They flew over the dining hall he had seen the first time he had been dragged into the palace by the Skywing guard. They flew toward a golden cage, where a golden dragon with grey-green eyes was peering through the bars. When Sunny saw the group, her face lit up with joy.
"I knew you'd be alright !" She cried as the dragonets nosed each other through the bars. "I knew I shouldn't have worried. I just kept thinking about the prophecy and how we can't die because we have to stop the war."
Ashley winced, he wasn't so sure about that, and he wouldn't have relied on it anyway. Should he tell them ? They had the right to know, but would that really help them ?
Peril hovered in front of the cage and sliced it with her claws, the metal steamed for a moment, then dropped to the ground below. Sunny flung herself out of the cage into Clay's arms.
"Wait-" She said looking around. "Where's Starflight ?" She looked around again and saw Ashley inside of Tsunami's talons. "And who's that ?" She asked, not recognizing him.
"We lost him." Glory said in a dark and tragic tone.
"What ???"
"Stop that." Tsunami said, hitting Glory with her tail. "Glory means Morrowseer came and took him away. He's fine. Better than us, especially once the dragons stop panicking and start looking for us. And this is the same scavenger we met the other day I think, actually no, I'm sure. But let's head to the river." She banked toward a cliff, still holding Ashley in her talons, who was getting constantly slapped by the wind. He felt the gun still in his hand, and quickly released the safety with his finger, but kept his grip tight.
"but- he just left ?" Sunny said in a bewildered tone, following them. "Starflight left without us ?"
"He didn't have a choice, Sunny." Clay answered.
"Clay, wait." Peril nearly shouted from behind, prompting them to a stop. "My mother. If queen Scarlet isn't dead, the first thing she'll do is kill her."
"She's right." Clay said as Tsunami and Glory came back to the dragons. "Tsunami we have to get kestrel out."
"Why ?" Tsunami challenged. "Why do we care ? Kestrel was awful to us."
"We care anyway." Sunny said. "We can't help it, even you."
"I don't, she was about to kill me, remember ?" Glory said.
Ashley opened his mouth to say something, but figured it might not be the right moment, and kept it shut. He saw Clay look hesitant, weighing the dilemma.
"She didn't raise us to care about her." Tsunami argued. "Kestrel was just keeping us alive, and if that's what she wants, the best thing we can do is run away right now."
"I'd like to be something more than alive." Clay said fiercely. "I'd like to be the kind of she doesn't think I am- the kind they write prophecies about. That dragon would rescue her no matter how awful she is."
Tsunami leashed her tail, nearly striking Glory on her side. The sunlight struck her scales, and despite being covered with blood, they shone through in the light, similar to sapphires.
"Fine." She eventually growled.
"Not me." Glory said plainly. "Do what you like, but I'm not a big mushy ball of forgiveness like you are, Clay." She spoke with a calm tone and met his gaze, but her scales were rolling with shades of red and black like the cloud of a thunderstorm.
"Then take Sunny, go to the cave at the bottom of the waterfall, and wait for us." Tsunami said.
"Can I help ?" Sunny asked. "I think I could-"
"Yes, by not getting yourself killed." Glory responded.
"And take me too." Ashley said, he saw the Rainwing look at him. "Please ? I don't want to end up crushed into yet another fight."
"I'm not carrying you." Glory said.
"I- I know, sorry..." Ashley lowered his head, still in Tsunami's talons.
"umpf" She snarled, then tipped her wings at Sunny, and flashed away over the edge of the Cliff.
Sunny squeezed Clay's talons, then turned to Tsunami. "I'll take the scavenger, just put it on my back." She flew in a way that the Seawing just had to hover and drop Ashley. Tsunami gently let him slide down her talon onto Sunny's scales. He immediately felt much more comfortable when he landed on her warm draconic body.
She hovered for a moment, leaving him the time to adjust his position. He climbed a bit toward her neck and curled himself in a way where he wouldn't fall, holding himself with one arm. He saw her giving him a careful glance for the time he positioned himself, making sure he didn't misstep. He made sure not to hurt her while doing so, then, whispered a "Thank you." loud enough for her to hear.
Sunny drew a faint smile on her face, she looked at Tsunami and nodded at her, then turned around.
"this way is the fastest." He heard Peril say to Clay and Tsunami as they dived to join Glory.