Bigwings

Chapter One

AUBURN

He hated RainWings. Hated every last one of them. Many dragons said that you can't remember memories from your hatching, but Auburn did. He remembered a strong brown dragonet helping him out of his egg. He remembered leaning against brown scales, squealing with delight as his brother's warmth swept over him. The stupid RainWings took his true bigwings away, which was why he hated them. Soil was an extremely unsatisfactory bigwings. Auburn had a strong feeling that his lost brother would've been a much better one.

"Hey! Soil! Stop throwing sticks in here!" Sienna yelled. Sienna, who hated everyone except for her two brothers. Auburn was certain that she missed their unnamed bigwings, too. Auburn turned around. Soil was throwing sticks into Sienna's mud pool. "You're a horrible bigwings, Soil!" Auburn yelled. He knew that that was the phrase that hurt Soil the most.

As Auburn told him that, Soil stopped throwing sticks. He slowly faced his brother, his dark brown face furious. "Just because I play occasional pranks on you," he hissed, "You say that I am a horrible bigwings?" "YES, I say so!" Auburn shouted in his face. Soil stepped back, his orange eyes hurt. Sienna slithered out of the mud pool. "We just don't like your pranks, is all," she said, tracing a line in the mud. "Say you're sorry," Auburn said. "Sorry, Sienna," Soil said as if he wasn't the bigwings after all. With a smirk of satisfaction, Auburn stepped back. 

After a while, Sienna came over to Auburn and tapped him on the shoulder. "Auburn," she said, "I know that you're thinking about something." Auburn sighed and nodded. "I think we should go to the rainforest to rescue our bigwings," he said loudly so Soil could hear. "I'd bet the RainWings are keeping him somewhere in prison because they're all vicious and evil. We need our TRUE bigwings back!" Sienna thwacked Auburn with one of her wings. "Stop bullying Soil," she said sternly. "But he bullies us!" Auburn protested. "I think your idea is stupid, Auburn," Soil interjected. "We're technically going to run into the RainWing queen's outstretched talons." Auburn snorted. "That's kind of the whole point of stealth," he said. "We sneak into the rainforest! What's your idea? Do you want us to set the whole rainforest aflame? Actually, I'm on board with that plan. Yes. Let's set the rainforest on fire. There's a chance our brother has fireproof scales."

Sienna looked most disapproving. "That chance is low," she said. "We will most likely kill him! Even if we do kill all the other RainWings..." "STOP!" Soil said, stomping his foot and making mud fly all over the place. Everyone fell silent. "Fine, we'll sneak into the rainforest to get our long-lost brother back! But we have to kill the RainWing queen." Auburn barked a laugh. "And what, set her whole army on our trail? I know you hate queens, but we don't have to kill Queen Cockatiel." 

"Enough arguing," Sienna said. "Let's just go to the rainforest to save our brother. We sneak in, find him, and sneak out." And if any RainWing tries to get in our way, I will claw off their face, Auburn added mentally.

Their journey had not been too long. Soil had become less of a nuisance, to Auburn's great relief. The trio kept walking. They didn't want to fly because the air was filled with irritating swarms of bugs.

"There! I see the rainforest!" Sienna suddenly announced to her brothers, pointing. Auburn squinted and saw trees. Dark trees with vines hanging from the tops. The kingdom of the RainWings, he thought. "Stay close to the ground," Sienna whispered. "We'll blend right into all this mud." The siblings crawled forward, their underbellies touching the mud and dirt below them. Sienna and Soil crawled right into the rainforest. Auburn hung back for the briefest second, took a deep breath...and followed them.