Criminals ((A Wings of Fire fanfic))

CHAPTER 3

    At midnight, Swan's mansion was dark and quiet. 

Gyrfalcon, Windstalker, and Swan crept towards the locked front door. Sadly, nothing Swan had been wearing had been as expensive as the topaz necklace. But there were more riches hidden inside her mansion. 

Swan pulled a set of keys off a delicate bronze chain. She inserted one—a silver key with little emeralds embedded on its handle—into the keyhole. 

"You two hide in a bush. I'll open my bedroom window from the inside" Swan whispered to them.

Her rosy tail flicked at the nearest copse of trees. "Try there" 

Gyrfalcon nodded and dragged Windstalker to them. Windstalker heard the lock click and the door open, then close. Gyrfalcon and her crouched in the trees for what seemed like hours. Then Windstalker poked her snout out, and saw Swan beckoning from a far-away window.

"Let's go" She hissed to Gyrfalcon. 

Her orange friend soared up to Swan, Windstalker on her heels. They landed in the middle of Swan's large room.

It was very dark, so Gyrfalcon picked a torch off the wall and lit it with a plume of flame. Windstalker opened the door a tiny crack. She looked at the darkness and wished she could see in it, like a SeaWing. 

"It looks deserted" she whispered to the SkyWings. They cautiously stepped out of the room, Windstalker first. 

They advanced in the darkness for a few minutes, but Windstalker couldn't see her friends or make out anything in the pitch-blackness.

"We'll want to search the ballroom, or the treasury." Swan's voice said out of the shadows next to her, making Windstalker jump. 

"Argh!" They heard a cry from up ahead. 

"Gyrfalcon! That clumsy ostrich!" Swan whisper-shouted. They crept towards the sound. 

Gyrfalcon had tripped over a soft silk cushion, and the flame on her torch had gone out.

"Three moons, Gyrfalcon, watch where you step," Swan said snottily. "There are things strewn around here all the time." 

"Well, how was I supposed to know that?" Gyrfalcon grumbled.

"Guys, save it." Windstalker snapped. "We must be getting closer." 

Swan and Gyrfalcon rolled their eyes, but Swan re-lit the torch and they picked their way around the mess that Swan's younger siblings made, all the way to the great ballroom. 

"Watch out for the second-last step," Swan hissed. "It creaks." 

The great ballroom was absolutely deserted at midnight, only the tapestries and posters fluttered in the breeze from the open windows. Tables were propped sideways against the wall, and the ceiling was painted midnight blue with silver flecks, and outlined with real gold.

"I don't see what we're going to find in here" Windstalker whispered, then flinched. Her voice echoed around the hall.

"You'll see" Swan said, her voice resonating around them. 

They slithered across the ballroom, where an array of pedestals with jewelry on them were placed. 

Swan selected another key from her necklace and held it up. 

"Which one?" She hissed.

Windstalker hesitated for a second. Which one would Clearskies prefer the most? Then a glint of blue caught her eyes and she found herself looking at a beautiful necklace, with a huge sapphire the size of an eyeball caught in the centre. Other, smaller gems in shades of blue and white were woven into it with delicate strings of silver. It reminded her of Clearskies, and she knew he would take it. 

"That one." She told Swan. The rosy pink SkyWing nodded and unlocked the glass case around the necklace. Windstalker gingerly lifted it out. 

"Okay, you got your gem, let's go" Gyrfalcon said, glancing at the open door with a fearful expression. Talonsteps were coming from outside. 

"Quick, quick, quick!" Swan hissed frantically as Windstalker gripped the necklace, ready to fly out, but before she could do anything, a dragon stepped into the ballroom. Swan grabbed Gyrfalcon and Windstalker and threw them behind a group sideways tables, before she squeezed in the tiny gap to join them.

Windstalker peered through the tiny crack between the tables, and could just make out an orange-gold tail tip slither away.

It was no doubt, Raptor, Swan's older brother by two years. Raptor had orange scales, a shade slightly darker than Gyrfalcon's, dark yellow eyes, and a perpetually smug expression. He thought that Gyrfalcon was smitten to him, and was always acting seductive around her, which aggravated Gyrfalcon so much, she had sworn never to bring her older sisters near him, because he was so annoying. 

"Also, they'd fall head over heels for him" She had said once, rolling her eyes.

Nobody moved for a long moment as Raptor slunk around the ballroom. Windstalker gripped the necklace so hard, it left imprints in her palm. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Raptor shut the door of the room and Windstalker could hear the clomp clomp clomp clomp of his huge talons as he dragged himself to bed. 

"Three moons, that was close. Thanks, Swan" Gyrfalcon whispered. 

"Let's go, before we run into anyone else. Bye, Swan!" Windstalker said as Swan crept out of the ballroom after her brother.

"No problem" Swan whispered back. She yawned and staggered out of the room.

It began to dawn on Windstalker how tired she felt. She felt as if she might not be able to fly all the way home. 

Her and Gyrfalcon soared out of one of the humongous open windows, and Windstalker looked down at the beautiful necklace she had stolen. Not stolen, taken. Not taken, borrowed. 

Absolutely. Borrowed. Clearskies would give it back, soon. 

Windstalker flew Gyrfalcon home in silence. Her orange friend yawned a goodnight and shut the door of her tiny, cramped house. 

The three moons were high in the sky as Windstalker made her way home. They cast silver light over her red scales, and the cool air felt glorious against her scales.

Windstalker had inherited many things from her parents, but her weird temperature preferences were the oddest. Windstalker's favourite season was winter, and she loved the snow and the icy temperatures. When she lived in the Ice Kingdom, it had felt amazing to step in the cold snow and feel it slide and crumble on your scales. But she hated the cold waters and freezing oceans, and the glacier basins her mother loved to swim in. She preferred the warm water, nearly hot, and loved the feel of it cascading over her head and shoulders. Windstalker adored the warm rivers and oddly enough, the sticky bogs in the Mud Kingdom, when her father had been on a business trip and had decided to take her along, too.

Now, she could see her home in the distance. It was brightly illuminated by the light of the moons. One was full, and the other was a half. The third was dark. She glided silently into her room through an open window, and saw the gems on the stolen necklace glimmer in the moonlight. 

She suddenly felt the foolish danger of what her friends and her had pulled, and couldn't help thinking,

Is this just the first step? The first step of becoming a criminal? The first step closer to ending up like Snowstorm?

<AN>

Are you having thoughts of becoming a serial killer, Windstalker? 

Well can you DONT? 

-Rainy! :>