Wings of Fire: Blood Ties

Chapter twenty two: Stealth

Shallow breaths. Cold stone.

Violet, camouflaged, went to her dorm. The morning gong had already gone off a few minutes ago, so now Violet was missing class. But she didn't care, it was just the second day of class, and she knew she had to get rid of Mosquito now, or there would be no more classes at Jade Mountain Academy ever again.

She shuffled through her bag of belongings, which was set next to the hammock of woven vines that had been prepared for her. She grabbed a blow gun and several sleeping darts that she had brought with her, as well as a thick and sturdy length of rope.

Quickly, quietly, she made her way back to where she had last seen 'Seafoam' and 'Gnat'. As she turned a hallway, she saw them walking in her direction. She jumped out of their way, and waited for them to pass. They walked for a while, until Seafoam split off from Gnat in order to go to his class, and Gnat turned and headed in another direction. As soon as no other dragons were in sight, she put a dart in the blow gun and shot it at Gnat's neck.

Gnat slapped a talon against her neck, likely thinking it was a bug, and looked at her hand in confusion when she saw only a few broken splinters of a dart. Before she could completely comprehend what had happened, her eyes rolled back and she collapsed onto the ground.

Violet rushed forward, tying up Gnat's snout, forelegs, and back legs. She wrapped her arm around Gnat's waist, hefting the huge dragon over her shoulders which caused her legs to wobble dangerously. She spotted the nearest window, and after slicing her claws through the leaf window coverings, managed to squeeze both herself and Gnat through the door. She flapped her wings desperately, but it was an inevitable downward spiral towards the forests below Jade Mountain.

Violet roughly landed in a spread of trees, her talons sinking into the soft earth below. Gnat tumbled out of her talons. She grabbed her wrist and dragged her under cover of the forest's canopies. Violet slumped Gnat's body under a tree, and using another long length of rope, tied her to the stump of the tree.

She let out a long sigh, letting herself catch her breath for a moment. Violet looked up at the academy, the mountain towering above her like a stern god, large grey shoulders and a white cap. I need someone to watch her, but I need to get the others so we can kill her. Violet thought, debating her options. She glanced at Gnat, blowing one more sleep dart into her neck for good measure, then flying back up to the academy. She tried to remember what class her and Palemoon were having right now, but before she could finish her thought the gong rang again. Perfect, she thought, climbing through the window.

She darted to the classroom just in time to see Palemoon leaving art class, a variety of paints dried and crusted over his white talons. She grabbed his shoulder and tugged him into a side hallway, turning her scales a dark greyish-brown, "Palemoon, go down to the forest below the mountain. We have a sister situation, if you catch my drift."

Palemoon looked confused for a moment, then a look of horrifying realisation dawned on him. "It's time?"

"Yes, take this." She said, shoving her blowgun into his talons. "I'm going to get the others so we can deal with this as quickly and efficiently as possible. Use a dart every thirty minutes, but I doubt we'll take that long."

He nodded, his pink eyes wide with fear. It was clear he was overwhelmed and very, very nervous.

Violet squeezed one of his talons and kissed his cheek, "I love you Palemoon, you can do this."

An uncertain smile flickered on his face, but he nodded and headed off with Violet's instructions. She turned, re-camouflaging, looking through the hallways and trying to spot the bright orange and pink colours of Rose's scales. It wasn't as easy to know where they were, because Violet's winglet, Iron Winglet, wasn't having class with their winglet, the Crystal winglet, that day.

She flew above the bustling students walking through the damp stone hallways. Her horns and frill brushed the ceiling, but soon she spotted Rose's scales. She narrowly avoided getting elbowed or hit by someone's wing, but eventually she made it to where Rose and Caiman were walking together and chatting. Violet grabbed both of them by the shoulders and whispered, "It's Violet, meet me in the side hallway."

Rose flinched, and almost screamed but she clapped a talon over her mouth, locking eyes with Caiman. An almost telepathic line of communication passed through them, her brown eyes to his black and hazel. It communicated fear, anticipation, and determination.

They turned to the side hallway, where Violet had been standing, just out of the way of the hall filled with students swarming like schools of fish, their chattering voices sounding like bees buzzing loudly.

Again, she changed her scales enough just to vaguely reveal her shape, but not to make her stand out and be noticed by others. "Mosquito. Forest. Follow me."

The other two nodded morosely, following her to the window that she had broken through earlier. They each propelled themselves out the window one at a time. Violet felt the sudden catch of air under her wings, allowing her to glide peacefully down to the forest, the mountain air whipping past her.

***

Palemoon sat, staring at Mosquito, or Gnat's, limb body. She was much larger than he anticipated, with thick scales like that of a crocodile, and muscular limbs and tail.

It had taken him a few rounds of the edge of the forest to find where Violet had hidden Gnat, and now that he had found her he didn't feel any better.

He nervously held the blow gun Violet had given him, his scales itching in anticipation for her to wake up and mutter a spell that would kill him immediately.

He thought of the nightmare he had last night, Mosquito grown ten times in size, Violet dead and discarded on the floor, her talons squeezing the life out of Rose and Caiman right in front of him. Palemoon shivered, Just a possible reality, he reminded himself, and we're preventing it, it's going to be fine, like Violet says. She always knows what to do. He let out a sigh in an attempt to relax himself and slow down his pounding heartbeat. The others will come, and then she will die, and everything will be ok. My visions never have to come true.

He looked up past the treeline, seeing Violet, Rose, and Caiman approaching the spot. A wave of relief passed through him. He had been having a horrible fear that he would have to deal with Mosquito all on his own, and all his vision-nightmares where that happened did not end well.

Palemoon felt a sudden, sharp pain against the back of his head. All he was aware of was his body slumping forward onto the roots and rocks of the forest floor, slicing his forehead open on a boulder.

His awareness faded into an all-encompassing, fuzzy blackness, but a tiny thread of panic persisted as he fell into a deep unconsciousness.