Wings Of Fire: Closing Eyes (Prequel To The Last Day Series)

Crab - 31

    Crab was tired of waking up.

    Every day, something went wrong. Every day the group lost someone. There were more dragons that he had lost than that he had been friends with.

     Agate was asleep on his shoulder, her bruised-up face twitching in her sleep.

     He didn't know how to feel about the fight he and Agate had had with Exo. Crab knew he had definitely said some not-right things, but he didn't think either Agate or Exo were in the right. They both had some debatable opinions, both of them had gotten them to their breaking points a few days ago.

    He disagreed with Agate's decision to attack Exo. He saw the anger and reason behind it, but it didn't make it right. He felt bad.

    Epiphyte was awake, staring out at the landscape below the cave. He was sitting oddly still. Carefully, Crab untangled himself from Agate and walked over to him, and sat down.

    The two of them stayed silent for a long time, listening to the birds chirp and the wind blow. It tickled Crab's antennae.

    "I don't know what to do," Epiphyte said softly.

    "What?" Crab looked at him and realized his friend had been crying.

    "My entire life- I dreamed of just living out my days like a normal dragon, with Splinter, maybe adopting some dragonets with him." He said quietly. "I wanted to grow old and wise and develop a cure for Splinter's sick parents. I wanted to save Pantala, and then we'd have our land back and all of the Kingdoms back."

    "What about that? You still can," Crab said, turning back to the scenery.

    "No," Epiphyte shook his head with a sad smile. "Splinter's gone. Even if they did find a cure... he's just a rotting corpse possessed by some demon plant. He can't be saved. His parents are gone, and the Pantalan Research Project has been over for quite a while."

    "You can still find a cure to stop new infections." Crab pointed out. "You could find someone new, and adopt and grow old." He looked back to Epiphyte, but he was shaking his head again.

    "We're not making it out of this alive, Crab." Epiphyte whispered. "You know we aren't."

    Crab looked down. He did know. Not even Pyrrhia's smartest RainWing could come up with a safe solution.

    "I-" Crab sighed, pressing his talon over the back of his neck and looking back at sleeping Agate. "I'm not going to believe that. I want to believe that Agate and I will grow up a little more and have dragonets and that everyone is going to be okay. There's definitely no way we're making it out alive if you don't try to believe we can,"

    Epiphyte blinked a few times at the ground in silence. "I... guess you're right."

    "No," Crab said, patting his shoulder. "I am right. We'll be okay. I promise."

    "Okay," Epiphyte sighed, leaning into his arm. "Whatever you say, Crab."

    Crab looked back out at the landscape below. The smoke in the sky was fading which probably meant the fires were going out.

    "Hey," Agate said behind them. "The smoke is almost gone."

    "Yeah," Epiphyte said.

    "I know this is probably a little scary... but we should go see how badly damaged the City is. It'll be good to know for rebuilding." Crab said.

    Epiphyte and Agate nodded faintly, both in disbelief it would get better. It had to get better. He would not accept defeat from a parasitic plant.