I finally carried the last stack of books into the hatch of the nautilus, the machine was kind of like a giant squid, with metal tentacles connected by gears yet somehow was unable to rust like the rest of the shelter. It was probably in the books somewhere, but I needed to get out of here first, there could be time for reading later... I hope. It had only been a day since Palm and Pebble had disappeared... and Minos was gone. I had tried getting another Guardian to be active but the assembly room was too rusty, and the machines would forever be lost to time. Once I crawled back to the bed though, everything physical was fixed enough. With the help of a few books, I also managed to make myself a new clockwork crossbow for my arm.
"Alright, so how do I drive this thing?" I ask as I close the hatch and get into the bridge of the massive structure, looking out the window which was enclosed by a type of glass, although it was clear and unlike the ones I heard were in churches. It allowed me to see the lava trying to breach the glass. It should have melted, but yet it remained.
I glanced back at my stack of books before picking up the one called, 'Guide to Nautilus.' I placed it down on the console before pulling the lever, and heard as the metal beast started to wake.
***
It was truly a magnificent sight, even if it felt like I couldn't breath as I opened the hatch and revealed the hellish landscape outside. The mountains were exploding into flames, chunks of flaming rock fell from the sky causing more destruction as the sea of fire took the islands for itself. It was beautiful as it was terrifying. I then ducked as I heard a loud thud next to me, followed by more thuds as more of the black dragons started to fall from the sky and onto the deck. I turned around and aimed my crossbow at the new closest foe, only to see a familiar green-eyed Nightwing had landed on the top of the nautilus The center of his right wing was torn as if something had gone right through it.
"Starflight?" I asked as I put my arm down.
The green eyes looked up and locked with mine.
***
Earlier...
Starflight held his head low as he walked next to the Rainwing Queen and Fatespeaker to meet with his queen, it was a wonder though how his queen even had power since she had to live in lava all the time. Sure she was massive, but she really had no power, other then the fact she had control over all the Nightwings. "What's wrong?" He asked Fatespeaker as he noticed her distant look.
"I'm worried about River and his friends, we were late to pick them up and-"
"They were gone, with no trace and we had no control of the circumstances, we shouldn't blame ourselves." But those words were empty. There was no doubt that River and his friends were probably dead, eaten by those spiders. "We should have made sure it was safe before leaving." he muttered to himself sadly as Fatespeaker put a claw on his shoulder.
"I'll miss him." she said with a tear.
"Who's River?" Queen Glory asked.
"River's a-"
"River's a friend!" Starflight quickly interrupted before giving a worried look to Fatespeaker.
She looked back confused but she remembered about the forest settlement the scavengers had in the rainforest, even if Queen Glory had a kingdom of Rainwings, to the scavengers, they may have just been more monsters.
"He was a good Nightwing that helped us, but he's gone now... I couldn't save him." Fatespeaker said sadly as they continued to move forward.
"Oh... I'm sorry." Glory said but Starflight noticed the faintest amusement in her tone, as if it made her happy that a Nightwing was dead. He decided to keep his mouth shut. "Strange name for a Nightwing." He heard her mutter.
It was quiet except the flap of wings beating as the group of three headed up, although with the Rainwing camouflage it made it seem like just the pair. "I really could use an invisible army." Starflight thought aloud.
"I'm right here." Glory said.
"I don't think that's e-" He started but was cut off by Glory.
"Do you know how we can open the dungeons? We've seen a bunch of spears, will they work?"
Starflight took a moment to recover from the change of subject, how she just completely overruled him, he felt powerless. "No, you'll probably need the keys."
"Then let's see the queen, she can either have a melted face or give me the keys, seems like a pretty easy choice to me." Glory snarled.
***
After Glory had 'convinced' the princess to come along with her venom, they all started to head into the corridors where the finally found the gigantic queen in the lava. She was in the middle of snarling at Mastermind who was currently testing some lava on armor he had made, only for the lava to went straight through the armor and break it.
"Report." She snarled at the princess, unaware the Rainwing queen was right behind the smaller dragon, currently camouflaged.
"Everyone's together, but mother, can't we postpone this? I can't lead the dragons, I'm not ready yet! And Mastermind tells me the armor he's making you isn't either!" Princess Greatness pleaded.
"SHUT UP!" She roared at her daughter. "Tonight, we'll invade, no exceptions!" She rasped. The blue glow of the Icewing's breath that cursed her into this pool of lava glowed slightly through her teeth as she spoke.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"That isn't possible your majesty, I'm afraid your armor isn't ready just yet." Mastermind reported back to her. "Maybe with more time, I-"
"I said tonight Mastermind!" She hissed. "She can't be trusted to lead this invasion herself! She's pathetic!" She snarled back to her daughter.
"For good reason! I don't know how to lead an invasion! That's why I came for guidance but then-"
"But then she met me." Glory finished for her, as she materialized behind Greatness.
"What are you?" The queen said as she looked down at the smaller one, not as another dragon, but as if she was looking at a disgusting bug.
"I am Queen Glory, of the Rainwings, I've decided to give your kind one more chance to end this or if we should get on with it and destroy your tribe."
Starflight shifted uncomfortably as he thought about her words. "You mean you'll-"
"Not now Starflight!" Glory snapped, causing him to flinch back.
***
After their encounter with the queen, and watching as the Icewing curse she had taken had finally taken her away from this world, the group of dragons quickly started to leave as the ground shook more violently. Larger chunks of rock started to fall from the ceiling as they quickly started to release the rainwing prisoners in captivity when a thought came to mind.
He thought about River and flew up where he could see the empty cages of where there used to be pets and smaller creatures or test subjects, absent, but he did notice the Rainwing bodies hanging limply from a cell that was mostly untouched. They were scrawny and the color of their bodies indicated they had been pale long before then and probably died due to malnutrition and dehydration.
"Starflight what are you-" Glory started to ask before she saw the view, just after rescuing her own Nightwing friend. The black dragon looked shocked, while the Rainwing queen's face was filled with fury, her scales turning red again before her gaze turned calm again. Her scales remained red and black. "Deathbringer, we need to take them home."
The Nightwing nodded and obeyed while Starflight couldn't look, luckily he didn't have to as moments later they were rushing to fly out of there.
"Glory, the Nightwings are all going to die if we leave them here, we have to bring them through the-"
"My decision is no Starflight." Glory suddenly said.
"What?" Starflight asked as he turned to face her, the other dragons kept going for a bit before waiting as Glory and Starflight hovered in front of each other.
"But what if we made you their queen and-"
"No Starflight, I can't let them... only you, Deathbringer and Fatespeaker."
"You're going to kill hundreds!"
"Serves them right! They thought they could get away with abducting and torturing my dragons to death, and now Pyrrhia itself is telling them they can't get away with it. Let. Them. Burn."
"This is my tribe Glory! And my dad!"
"Starflight, are you seriously defending them?" She asked, her scales becoming more red and black while the building they were just in started to collapse into shambles, reduced to falling chunks of rock.
"Glory, what about the dragonets, what about-"
"Choose!"
Starflight flinched at her words. "What?"
"Choose between your friends or the Nightwings that have tried taking control of our every move for their own twisted purpose ever since we were born!"
"Their purpose was to survive!"
"Choose!"
Starflight went silent for a moment. "You aren't my friend, my friends wouldn't have assumed I betrayed them, my friends wouldn't make me choose them between killing a tribe and them, we are suppose to the heroes-"
"We will be, by getting rid of them-"
"Enough... I... I really thought we were friends."
She turned dark gray before going dark red. "They tortured us!"
"Not all of them!"
"So you choose them?"
"... I'm sorry-"
She let out a hiss and charged at him but he managed to quickly whack her with his tail in his attempt to fly off.
She let out a growl as she was sent back but quickly flapped her wings hard to get above Starflight before hissing as she shot two lines of acid at him.
Starflight let out an agonized scream in pain as he tried to fly, only to start falling as the acid ate away at his wing, going down and down into the ocean of fire.
Glory's scales then shifted to dark gray as her eyes grew wide. "Wait no!" She cried as her scales shifted blue as she tried to dive after him, only for chunks of rock to fall where he was and... she lost her sight of him. "I-I d-didn't m-mean t-to." A few tears started to fall from her eyes as she hovered there, before being pulled back by Deathbringer.
"We have to go, we don't have long."
"I... no... Starflight what have I..." She sobbed before recollecting herself as she started to fly with the others. "I have to get my Rainwing's out of here."
When he noticed the others flying away, he finally got himself out of the rock he hid under and started to fly, every beat of his wings made him wince and whimper and pain. He was fortunate that Morrowseer had gone hard on him just days before, or he may have never been able to fly in this pain. He finally made it to the herd of Nightwing's debating on whether to go through the tunnel and face the Rainwing threat. "EVERYONE! OUR QUEEN IS DEAD! THE RAINWINGS HAVE WON AND THEY WILL SHOW NO MERCY! FOLLOW ME, WE HAVE TO MAKE IT TO THE MAINLAND AND WE HAVE TO GO NOW!" He yelled to the back of the crowd before taking off. To his surprise the crowd followed and soon the ones that couldn't hear followed the crowd as they all took off They all got out just in time to watch their home fall apart and be submerged in the sea of lava. Their home was gone. His friends were gone. His tribe was all that remained.
***
The Nightwings were tired, and it wouldn't be long before they would start to fall, land or not. Luckily there was a giant piece of metal heading away from the volcanoes, as if moving on its own. "Land!" Starflight yelled to everyone as they started to dive towards the giant deck, and when he looked up, he was greeted with the sight of a familiar scavenger. "River?"
***
I held my breath as I slowly approached Starflight as more of the nightwings started to fall from the sky before cracking a piece of the gem off so he could carry it. "Starflight, is that you?" I asked.
"Yeah... it's me, you were right, River." He mumbled between pants as he gulped despite the lump in his throat.
"About?"
"My friends... well... they aren't my friends anymore I guess..." he said somberly.
I patted his snout. "I'm sorry."
"Where are your friends?"
"My friends?" I weakly laughed as I looked back at my arm. "They're gone, they either left me or got themselves killed." I shake my head with a faulty chuckle as a tear goes down my eye. "It's good to see someone again after they left me down there, how's Fatespeaker?"
"She's alright, she's somewhere around here but there are too many Nightwings to count right now and I... I don't know what to do."
I sigh. "I know the feeling, there's no food on the Nautilus so we're going to have to land back at the rainforest, I'd recommend since you guys just lost your kingdom, maybe collect some fruit then flee to the rest of Pyrrhia, I take it the Forestfangs won't take you in since..."
He nodded. "Think we can stay here?"
I shook my head. "There's not enough food for your tribe, I'm sorry. But at least you saved them." I said as I walked past the nightwing's who started to collapse to the ground as they panted from exhausting their wings for so long. They didn't even care about the fact that I was walking around, they were too tired to do anything but rest their head on the metal deck.
I looked down at the mask that I had taken from Telikos, the power of a dragon, in the palm of my hand. I opened my hand and let it drop to the sea of fire, watching as the lava enveloped it as it started to burn, before finally going out of sight.
"What was it?" Starflight asked.
"Nothing now." I responded quietly. I won't reject my humanity, not like Palm and Toucan.