The Only RainWing in the War

Twist in Fate: Part One

     WARNING: there is a suicide. If this triggers you, please just skip to the summary at the end of the chapter (in bold)

     Hvitur clutched the huge red egg, holding it carefully. One SkyWing dragonet coming up. He knew how important this was: failure hadn't been an option. The mountains were nearing, he would soon be safe in the Guardians' secret cave. Safe, with the egg for the prophecy. One out of two blood red eggs, one SkyWing and one MudWing. He hoped Asha had made it back to the cave with the egg, like he was about to. At least, if he wasn't being chased. He didn't think the SkyWings had spotted him....

     That thought proved to be wrong. As if he had jinxed himself, a huge SandWing was suddenly eyeing him. Hvitur stared at her from the corner of his eye, snarling as the danger became apparent: but it was too late. Guards from behind her came at Hvitur in a flash, and bound his mouth. Frustrated and (though he would not admit it to anyone) afraid, he stopped building up his deadly frostbreath and prepared for his fate.

     His mouth was burning from the coals they used to bind him. It was a bit hazy with pain as a guard took the egg from him. He tried to clutch it, but to no avail. It was still a bit hazy as he tried to focus enough to listen to what the SandWing was saying. Hvitur's vision was spinning, but he snagged a good look at the towering leader of the group. Burn, he thought. This was not good.

     Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings was there as well. Cursing his heat-softened mind for not noting her presence earlier, Hvitur eyed the blur of vivid red while trying to use his ears to keep tabs on Burn. Hvitur's eyes could see Scarlet's scales more easily, and his ears weren't the ones protesting from the hot coals spewing steam at them.

     The IceWing struggled to forget the pain and listened to the towering Princess Burn, for she had started giving what must have been a little speech. He heard something about how Scarlet wasn't stupid, and how the egg was about to hatch. The egg!  He tried to reach out and grab it but of course it didn't work. Burn wasn't as smart as Blister, but that didn't mean she was as dumb as Blaze. Hvitur winced as he thought this, remembering that he used to support Blaze before the Talons of Peace all too long ago....

     Hvitur's eyes traveled to Burn to give her the death glare until he tuned in enough to actually hear what she was saying. He would have done so sooner, but he was exhausted and slightly in pain and hot and-

     No, Hvitur! he thought. He needed to focus, not to pity himself. It wouldn't do to be sloppy: the world was depending on him!

     Shaking his head, Hvitur caught a cool breeze that came with a sprinkle of rainwater. Hvitur stopped seeing double, but still had a headache. More drops followed the drizzle from the wind, and that cleared his head enough to focus again. Hvitur began truly making sense of what Burn was saying.

     "... the Brightest Night is tomorrow..." Suddenly, Hvitur got an unwanted up-close view of Burn's poisonous tail. "You're not in Blaze's army, are you? You're one of those insipid underground peacemakers."

     One soldier dumbly blurted, "The Talons of Peace? You mean they're real?"

     Burn snorted at the dragon, but it wasn't Hvitur's concern: the reason being that the next second they were removing the coals from his snout. He wouldn't be able to use his frostbreath until he was cooled down enough... but there was something that these dragons didn't know. He had been training with Kestrel for this mission.

     He still needed to cool down to use his frostbreath, but slowly he was able to summon it in warmer temperatures. That meant that in a few minutes, he would have his deadliest weapon back. He just had to stall.