Wings of Fire 1: The Hidden Secret

~Chapter 25~

Moonflower was sitting in a cave with the Talons of Peace again.

Skyfire was with them; he still hadn't mentioned anything about joining the Talons, and neither had Leopard, but he didn't seem to mind. Lunar was wrapped around Moonflower's neck, sleeping away. Her friends were gathered around her. It had been a week since the fight with the SandWings; all their wounds had healed.

Octopus had wanted to go to the RiverWing island straight away, but Moonflower had pointed out that they should let their injuries heal first; then they wouldn't be bleeding everywhere and having to rest more often. She'd thanked Elkhorn on the beach, and her SeaWing friend had wished her luck and dove back into the ocean along with the SeaWing army. Moonflower hope she'd see Elkhorn, Seal and Dolphin again someday.

She knew where she had to go now; she'd made a promise to Octopus. Even if her fellow prophecy dragonets didn't agree with her, than she'd go anyway. Moonflower had decided to stop putting her own needs before her friend's; to stop promising things she knew she wouldn't do.

Fury, Hoatzin and Leopard had flown away a few minutes ago, to act as spies in various places. Moonflower wished she'd said goodbye, but she hoped she'd be back soon.

"So," Fierceclaws said, peering at the map in front of them. "What's our next move?"

"Now that we've killed Sahara," Skyfire added. "Maybe we should just...lie low for a while, right? We can't risk any more dragons wanting to kill us."

Moonflower nodded. That made sense; no more racing across Pyrrhia hunting dragons. She knew now that just put her friends in more danger, than getting them out of it. She twined her tail with Darkmagic's and looked out of the cave.

And then the vision struck her.

She doubled over, pain crawling up her spine and into her head. She felt wings catch her and stop her fall; but then darkness appeared in the edge of her eyes and the vision came. She was sitting in a forest — but not the rainforest, this was somewhere she'd never been before. There was a pretty SandWing in front of her, and at first Moonflower thought for a horrifying moment that it was Sahara.

But Sahara was dead (killed by Skyfire) and this SandWing didn't have black diamond patterns on her neck. The SandWing wore a gold tiara, at least three gold rings on each of her talons, all decorated with rubies, emeralds or diamonds, two necklaces, one an emerald pendant on a gold chain and the other a gold chain with a lot of diamonds dangling from it. She had two piercings in each ear; the earrings were gold and decorated with gemstones, except for the simple gold hoop in her left ear. She wore a gold armband decorated with rubies on one arm and three gold brackets on the other arm, one plain gold and other two decorated with rubies and emeralds.

On the SandWing's tail was a gold ring embedded with diamonds; her wings were embedded with more rubies and she had more rubies embedded in the scales above her eyes. She had so much jewels and gold adorning her that they all reflected the sunlight and shone straight in Moonflower's eyes. Moonflower blinked and looked down at the ground. Who is this dragon?

Strangest of all, Moonflower couldn't hear her thoughts. She searched the dragon, but there was no sign of the skyfire stone on her at all. Maybe because this is a vision? No...I heard Lapis's thoughts in a vision once.

"Hello, little dragonet," the SandWing cooed, inspecting each of her claws. She huffed and looked back up at Moonflower. Moonflower noticed that this dragon held her wings in a way that suggested she was royalty; but this wasn't Thorn, or Sunny. Did Queen Thorn have another daughter?

"Who are you?" Moonflower asked before the SandWing could say anything. "Why...why can't I hear your thoughts?"

The SandWing chuckled, and Moonflower couldn't help but think she reminded her of Blaze, from the SandWing scrolls in Coral's library.

"Who I am doesn't matter," the SandWing said, smiling. "And...I sent this vision too. The magic protects against mind readers like you, little dragonet."

Moonflower blinked. This SandWing had sent the vision to her? She didn't know that was even possible.

"Now, everyone knows that you're special," the SandWing went on in her pleasantly happy voice. "But are you really? Think about how valuable you are!"

Moonflower shook herself. No, no, no. Nobody is using me. She tried to throw herself out of the vision, but nothing happened.

"I'll let you think about it," the SandWing purred. "See you soon, little dragonet."

Suddenly Moonflower was tossed out of the vision and back into the Talons of Peace camp, with Darkmagic and Shadow holding her up. She shook herself and gazed around.

"What happened?" Shadow asked quietly. "What did you see?"

"A...a SandWing," Moonflower answered sitting down beside her friend. "Not Sahara. This was a SandWing we don't know."

"We'll figure it out," Squelch piped up. "But for the time being...where do we go now?"

Moonflower looked around at her friends. They were all looking at her, as if they were willing to fly after her to the edge of the world. She smiled. She had a pretty good idea of where they should go. A promise, actually.

"How about we hide in the rainforest?" Fierceclaws suggested. "It's safe, and Moonflower's parents can protect us. Right?"

They all nodded in agreement except for Moonflower and Octopus. The SeaWing shot Moonflower a knowing look, and she nodded before standing up and tapping her claws on the ground to get their attention.

"Actually," she said, giving Octopus a smile. "I have a different idea."

"Of course you do," Skyfire rolled his eyes, but not unkindly. "Let me guess — Jade Mountain Academy? The Kingdom of the Sea?"

"Shut up, runaway," Fierceclaws hissed, mock-slashing at his snout, but Skyfire ducked anyway. "I know what she's going to say. Spit it out, Moonflower."

"Alright," Moonflower twined her tail with Darkmagic's and grinned at Octopus. "Let's go find the RiverWings."