Criminals ((A Wings of Fire fanfic))

CHAPTER 5

Windstalker searched the bodies for keys while Snowstorm watched pointedly, her black eyes flashing, much like Windstalker's own midnight eyes. 

She plucked a set of keys out of a pouch on Gadwall, then examined them in the darkness. It was so black all around her that all the keys looked the same. 

"Wait here. I'm going to get light." She told Snowstorm.

The dull IceWing snorted. "You kidding? Where do you think I'm going to gallivant off to?" 

Windstalker ignored Snowstorm's pointed sarcasm and made her way towards an ordinary-looking dull pinkish SkyWing who was crouched in their cell. 

Their head snapped up as Windstalker approached. 

"What do you want?" They asked, suspicious. 

"I was just wondering if you could light this for me" Windstalker replied, holding out a branch she had found.

The SkyWing shook their head and looked down at their pink claws.

 "What's your name?" She asked, trying to break the awkwardness.

"I'm... I'm..." the SkyWing trailed off, looking pensive. They looked back at Windstalker. "I'll tell you this, strange IceWing. I don't know my name. I just woke up in this cell, chained, next to an odd MudWing. The MudWing managed to escape within days, but didn't take me along. He seemed kind of tough and hard, russet scales, but sad at the same time. Yellowy wings, too."

"That's sad. What did the MudWing call you?" She asked. She couldn't help herself. 

"He called me wingless mistake." The SkyWing sighed and moved closer to Windstalker. 

Windstalker bit back a gasp. This SkyWing didn't have wings! Or fire, for that matter.

"Three moons! How did that happen?" She blurted. 

"I think... I was born like that." They said wistfully, staring off into space. 

"Well, I'm really sorry. It was... nice talking to you." She said

"You too..." the SkyWing sighed.

She wandered off into the darkness, and halted at the door of a SandWing. The SandWing lit the branch when Windstalker asked her, and told her her name, Jackal. She was arrested for trying to cut the wings off of a HiveWing SkyWing hybrid. She had examined Windstalker from horns to tail, a manic glint in her black eyes. 

Windstalker hurried back to Snowstorm, a bit more vigorously then she thought necessary. 

She held the torch up to the keys, until she found one engraved with the same symbol that was also on Snowstorm's shackles. She passed the keys to the ice dragon, and she unlocked her chains. Only one remained—the keyhole had been fused over—and Windstalker and Snowstorm both clawed and pulled on it so hard that it finally snapped, after a long time. 

"That's infinitely better." Snowstorm thanked her, turning around in her cell. 

Come back tomorrow, same time, with Clearskies. I need to have a... chat with him." She ordered Windstalker.

"Fine." The hybrid said. She walked back into the direction of the staircase, and the light, still clutching the shackle keys. 

"Come back to visit soon! None of these prisoners are interesting, plus, the ones closest to me have their snouts shackled!" Snowstorm called after her. She ignored the IceWing criminal and plodded up the stairs.

She hung the keys on a rocky outcropping in the wall and paused to survey the stone floor, which was drenched in red SkyWing blood, and her own indigo blood.