Wings of Fire: Blood Ties

PART ONE: CURSED - Chapter One: Talons of Power

(5009 AS: During the War of SandWing Succession)

A SandWing jumped forward, talons first, her claws gripping Caiman's neck and preparing to squeeze the life out of him. She growled in his face, spittle flying in his eyes and on his scales. Caiman kicked with all his strength at the SandWing's underbelly, his claws scratching the soft, vulnerable scales. She screamed in pain and her talons loosened, allowing Caiman to writhe out of her grip. He leaped on her and slashed at her eyes with his claws, then smacked her face with his tail.

The SandWing hissed and plunged her tail towards him, the barb glinting menacingly in the sunlight. Caiman dodged, but he was a fraction of a second too late and the barb was about to rip through his flesh.

In a flash of dark scales, Mosquito darted in front of the SandWing's barb, protecting Caiman. She blocked the tail with her forelegs, then tripped the SandWing with a slash of her talons, causing the SandWing to spin and fall. Caiman noticed that she had gained a dark gash on her foreleg from the barb.

Mosquito pounced on the SandWing. "Slit your own throat. Slowly." Mosquito commanded, then let go of the SandWing's yellow scales.

The SandWing's eyes widened, but she obeyed. Slowly, painstakingly, she drew her claw across her neck. Blood spurted out of the wound like a red waterfall, cascading over her sandy scales. It took a few moments for the SandWing to bleed out, and she collapsed onto the muddy earth, dead.

Caiman stared wide-eyed at Mosquito. "What did you just do?" He asked, staring at his sister.

Mosquito smiled at him like nothing happened. "What do you mean? I slit her throat."

"No." Caiman said. "You made her slit her own throat."

"I think you're mistaken." Mosquito said. "I slit her throat with my own claws," She said.

"I know what I saw..." Caiman said, but before Mosquito could reply a SeaWing pounced on Mosquito from behind.

Caiman flew and tackled the SeaWing, rolling her off of Mosquito's back. They rolled in the mud and Caiman slashed at her underbelly with his sharp claws. She bit him in the shoulder, her jaw clamped shut. Caiman smacked the SeaWing against a tree, and with a loud crack her neck broke. Her jaws slowly relaxed, releasing his shoulder, and she fell onto the ground completely limp.

Caiman gazed down at the SeaWing for a long moment, catching his breath. He reached forward, arranged her talons and wings so that it looked like she was lying comfortably. He laid her head on a mossy rock, and closed her eyelids over her bright green eyes. He stepped away. The SeaWing looked like she was resting, Caiman almost felt like she would open her wings and fly away. "I'm sorry we had to fight." He whispered. She looked barely older than he was.

Caiman turned away from the corpse and faced Mosquito. They had been fighting in a grassy clearing in the middle of the forest, and Mosquito was standing in the centre of it. The SandWing lay in a crumpled pile, in a pool of her own blood. Caiman approached and looked down at her. "I can't believe you did that." Caiman said.

"Did what?" She asked. "Kill an enemy? Do what we've trained for since we were a year old?" Mosquito shook her head and looked exasperated. "You have to stop feeling bad for them. You're going to lose your mind."

"They're just like us." Caiman said. "They were dragonets once, some of them still are. They're just doing what their Queen commands and so are we. We can't pretend we're better than them."

"That kind of thinking is going to get you killed." Mosquito hissed.

Caiman glanced at Mosquito's leg, where a dark and gnarled slash from the SandWing barb should have been. Instead, there was just a thin, pale pink scar. Dark brown scales grew and meshed over the scar right in front of his eyes, and soon there was no sign that she had ever been wounded.