Endlessly Burning

Chapter One

"Emberrrrrr... c'mon you lazy slug. Let's go hunting!" Cloud said, in her annoying bratty voice. Ember ignored her pleading to the best of her ability

She's only one. She'll grow out of it.

Instead, Ember looked towards the dungeons were her other sister, Tornado had cluelessly followed Queen Sun. Ember had wanted so badly to stop her, but Sun had glared right at her, and Ember had frozen.

Now, if you focused hard enough, you could hear a dragon screaming in pain.

What was terrifying, was that Ember didn't know who it was.

"You should really be paying more attention to your littlest sister, cousin." Sparrow said from across the room, "You want to be a good princess don't you?"

"Shut up, Sparrow. No one asked you."

Sparrow simply shrugged, and turned back to the guard she was talking to. This specific guard was surprisingly young. Maybe ten, barely older than Ember.

Ember glared at her sister one last time and said, "Why do you want to hunt so badly? The best you can do is tickle a rabbit."

"I wanna see a scavenger!"

"You're only interested in them because you say a mouse and thought it was a scavenger." Ember said, "You know Queen Sun's rules. We don't go outside of the palace unless she tells us to."

"But she's away right now! So we can totally go hunting!"

"Excuse me, princess. Please move." One of the servants said. Ember got up and politely moved out of the way so the servant to polish the marble floor underneath her. But at the exact moment that the servant said that, Queen Sun walked into the throne room; Tornado close behind her.

"What did you just say?" The Queen hissed.

"I'm sorry, my queen, I simply asked for her to move-"

"You are a servant! You do not order my daughter around! You do not speak to royalty unless spoken to! You are simply a thing that I allow in my presence."

"I apologize-"

Another servant turned towards Queen Sun and frowned. "He was only doing his job-"

During the commotion, Tornado stumbled over to Ember. Ember wrapped her wing around her sister and stared down at her. "Are you okay?"

"I- I-" Tornado broke down, crying, "She made me rip out his teeth. She made me rip them all out while he was screaming.." She choked on her own tears, "I-"

Ember wrapped her other wing around Tornado. "It's okay. It's over."

"And you!" Queen Sun turned towards Ember and Tornado after she was down yelling at the servants and ordering the guards to throw them in prison. "Tornado. You're weak! Crying over a criminal. You would make a pathetic queen!"

"I watched her, auntie!" Sparrow chirped, perking up, "She cried about a few missing teeth!"

"I did not cry about-"

"I though I had raised you to be strong. What a waste of a dragon! Maybe that's what happened when you decide to indulge yourself in a little fun. Maybe that's why mistakes never work out right!"

"Queen Sun!" Ember said, unwrapping herself from Tornado to stand between her sister and her mother, "Your majesty. She did as she was asked. Now leave her alone! It was her first time, you have to cut her some slack for this kind of shock!" Ember folded her wings, looking Sun right in the eyes, "Perhaps I could have the guards select a few prisoners to fight in the arena. Some entertainment."

Sun nodded, suddenly no longer angry. "Of course. What a wonderful idea, Ember. Guards! Prepare an arena fight!" Then, she flew off, Sparrow right behind her.

The servants started to clear out, cleaning up their tools and moving onto another room.

"She hates me because I'm part SandWing." Tornado whispered, watching Cloud drawing on a scroll in the corner.

"It's not your fault that the decided to have a little fling with the SandWing prince." Ember said, wrapping her wing around Tornado once more. "It's not our fault." After a pause, Ember followed Tornado's gaze to Cloud. "You know, Sun only loves Cloud because she's clueless. Cloud is the favorite because she would literally trade the kingdom for a shiny inkwell."

"I know, I just-" Tornado's tears started again. "I just want her love me."

"Queen Sun doesn't love anyone. So that's down the drain." Ember felt Tornado's wings droop, "But I love you. And, in some part of Cloud's dense head, she loves you too."

"I'm going to go flying. I need to clear my head."

For a moment, Ember wanted to protest, saying exactly was she had said to Cloud. But then she looked into Tornado's black eyes, full of tears, and she nodded. "Okay. Be home soon."

Tornado flew away.

A guard came up to Ember and said, "Princess, the queen is ordering that you join her to watch the fight."

"Of course." Ember said, and she followed the guard out.

He led her over to the arena, and landed in the royal box. Ember landed a few paces after him.

"How wonderful! With excellent timing, too. The fight is about to start, darling."

A SandWing and a SeaWing were standing on opposite sides of the area. Ember flinched slightly knowing that these two dragons were probably passing through the territory when Sun's guards caught them.

"Cactus of the SandWings and Jetstream of the SeaWings! Claws up!"Sparrow shouted from the box, her voice emanating through the arena, "Talons ready! Fight!"

Cactus burst forward, attacking theJetstream with ferocious speed. He reared up onto his hind legs and clawed at the Jetstream gills, tearing them apart.

She retreated instantly, whacking him in the face with her tail as she fled.

Cactus hissed, and suddenly, flames burst out of his throat, engulfing Jetstream's entire left half.

As she screamed in pain, another scream joined her. "No! Jet! JET!"

Sun tore her eyes away from the battle and looked at the guards. To Ember's horror, she ordered them to, "Find whoever is making so much noise and throw them into the battle."

The guard that Sparrow had been talking to earlier, Crow, and the guard who retrieved Ember, Falcon, both nodded and flew off.

As Cactus leaped on top of Jetstream, pinning her down, Crow and Falcon flew back out of the crowd with a SkyWing in tow. They dropped the SkyWing off and then Falcon announced, "Another dragon has entered the battle field! Prince Crimson of the SkyWings!"

Jetstream reached for Crimson, with her unburnt half, and Ember's brother quickly ran towards her. "Crimson! Fly away.. Leave!"

"No.. I won't leave you.. Not this time. We'll die together."

"Oh, please." Queen Sun hissed, rolling her eyes. "Prince Crimson. You we always pathetic and weak. And now we see why. Everyone, look!" Sun stood up, "my own offspring, the prince of the SkyWings has fallen for a lowly SeaWing!

"Yes, it's quite poetic! It's a love story that could never be! Cactus, kill them both and you will be freed."