Wings of Thunder

Chapter Nine

Hurricane stopped at the foot of Goldenscale's palace. It wasn't as big as he thought it would be, but it was still equally exquisite. Carvings covered the walls and strands of all beautiful matching colors were strung across the building. Hurricane glanced over at the others, who stood impatiently. He took a deep breath and knocked on the large, elegant mahogany doors.
A few moments passed before the door swung open. Before him stood a tall, elegant golden dragon whose eyes were a brilliant shade of orange. She had a robe draped over her wings and was a lot older than Hurricane had expected.
"Ah, new comers," She exclaimed, a lot more lively than Hurricane expected, "We don't get those like we used to." She walked over to them to see them a bit more clearly.
"H-Hello your majesty" Hurricane stammered in awe.
"Hello young one, I see you've been through a whole lot already. Plus, I see you're already spreading secrets willy nilly, we're going to have to talk about that." The queen nudged Spirit, who was only at shoulder level.
Hurricane prayed Spirit wouldn't lash out and that Mesos didn't do something else that could cause a negative reaction.
"Come with me." The queen beckoned the dragonets into the palace.
They entered the palace and were astonished. The place had carvings of fighting and dragons flying on the walls with tapestries like the ones outside were hung from the upper levels of the area. They were dragons everywhere there were corridors all over the place, they still looked cleanly added but definitely not like they were ever supposed to be there. Some places looked like they did on the outside with various shops and living spaces all over the place.
"Y-your majesty, why are there so many rooms and dragons?" Hurricane questioned.
"They're for those who escaped the SpectreWings," The queen shot a look at Spirit and continued, "They seek refuge in the palace's inner areas before they can build their own place to stay. It's actually a lot nicer than it looks on the surface."
"That's...really nice." Spirit said slowly, with a surprised expression.
"It's the best we can do for now, follow me." The queen lifted off the ground and proceeded to go through the crowded area. They followed to end up at the end of the palace with a big open space overhead with carvings of dragons fighting, eating, and everything else in between. In the room itself there was an area where there was a throne, a table that was simply massive, there was another door leading into another room, and a pond with water that looked very hot near the door.
"That's for planning and running the city." The queen pointed out, seeing Hurricane stare at it.
"This place is not as fully functioning as you'd think, lots of refugees and survivors in one area don't tend to mix very well." She took a long pause for some reason and resumed by saying,
"Apologies, I wanted you to take in the scenery before all else. Looks good for being older than me, doesn't it? Anyways, what do you need? I suppose it would be rude not to ask."
Suddenly a loud crash from the other room erupted and five dragons came rushing out. One nearly crashed into the table while the other flew up enough to smash along the ceiling. The other two hit each other while the last one landed in front of them.
"Bronte, if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times! Don't run near the torches!" The one who landed in front of them shouted.
"So it's my fault Aashni stepped on my tail?!" The purple dragon near the table shrieked.
"Vapor shouldn't have yelled at me!" The other purple dragon shouted, rubbing their shoulder.
"Why did you even bring those things in there in the first place?" Begged the other dragon to the second purple dragon.
"WOULD YOU CALM DOWN?!!" The last dragon exclaimed.
"I'm embarrassed to be related to any of you." Goldenscale said with a tone of disgust.
She face palmed and then ran over to splash some water on the fire and the others joined.
The queen shouted at the other dragons for the majority of the time, it was loud, so loud that Hurricane gave up on trying to actually understand what happened. It was actually easier to put out the fire than Hurricane had thought, Spirit had stayed far away from the whole occasion for the entire time. When they were finally done, everyone took something close to ten minutes just sitting there in silence and resting. The five StormWings were giving Spirit dirty looks, but Hurricane only saw her looking at the area (she was looking at him one time but quickly looked away after). Hurricane took the time to look at the five mystery dragons, the largest one was way older than the rest of them, maybe even Goldenscales' age. He was purple with streaks of blue on him and had had a few scars on his body and tail. The one next to him was still older than Hurricane and entirely pale yellow, three smaller dragonets were closer to his age, the largest one looked like Mist with pale blue scale and bright yellow splashes here and there. The Other two were purple.
"So, about what happened-" Hurricane started only to be cut off.
"Let me stop you right there, kid," The old dragon growled, "Who are you, and what is your business here?"
"Ignore my brother," Goldenscale growled through her teeth. "All of you are welcome here, despite being from different tribes."
"Really?" Mesos asked, radiating disbelief.
"Th-Thank you, your majesty!" Hurricane stuttered quickly, whacking Mesos in the face with his wing. She growled.
"Oh, drop the formalities." The queen smiled. "Just call me Goldenscale."
"Alright." Hurricane blinked, surprised. He looked over his shoulder. Mist was admiring the carvings on the roof, while Cloud studied the Queen's relatives warily. Mesos was glaring at Queen Goldenscale, and Spirit had squeezed into the corner, her gaze darting around.
"This is my brother, Flood." Goldenscale signaled towards the old dragon.
"Lord Flood." He snarled, "At the simplest. My full title is Lord Flood, member of the StormWing counsel, brother to Queen Goldenscale, son of Queen Tornado and King Duststorm, killer of many SpectreWings-'' Spirit flinched, "-Protector of orphans, and conqueror of storms."
"Biggest of heads," Goldenscale growled under her breath. Hurricane couldn't help but giggle.
"Alright then." Mesos growled, "I hate all of you already."
"Wh-SHH!" Hurricane hissed. "You don't have to say it!"
Flood narrowed his eyes.
"Those are my grandchildren," Goldenscale flicked her tail towards the two purple dragonets, "Bronte and Aashni."
Hurricane waved. Bronte huffed and turned, and Aashni attempted to wave, but ended up falling over.
"Vapor is my nephew." Goldenscale flicked her tail towards the pale blue dragon. He waved. "Hey!"
Hurricane waved shyly.
"Anyways," Goldenscale said, "I have matters to attend to. Flood, Aashni, can you show these five to their rooms? And please, try not to kill each other."
"I'll try!" Aashni said confidently. Lord Flood rolled his eyes. "There goes that plan."
"He's joking, right?" Mist asked.
"He is definitely not joking, he's been trying to get rid of my heirs since they hatched." Goldenscale growled, then flew off.
"I-" Hurricane wasn't sure how to react. Lord Flood flicked her tail. "Alright, come on, you degenerates."
"Why are you so mean?" Cloud whined, with big, dark puppy eyes.
"Because I'm tired of having to deal with little deformed idiots who have no memories of the glorious days." Lord Flood growled. "You all are disappointments and insults to the idea of what StormWings stand for. And you two?" He swung his head around to glare at Mesos and Spirit, who glared back. "Don't even get me started."
Hurricane stared at him in shock. "...Wow."
"First, Goldenscale makes me deal with her moons-forsaken kin," Lord Flood continued, "And now, I have to deal with lesser tribes? Pitiful, all of you."
"He doesn't mean that!" Aashni broke the long silence that followed Flood's outburst. "He's just grumpy because he skipped lunch."
Lord Flood grunted in disapproval and carried on.
Hurricane sighed and followed. They flew up to one of the better looking rooms from the throne room, Hurricane, Mist, and Cloud were nearly hit by other dragons busily flying around. When they finally got to the room, Hurricane was surprised. There were at least seven cloths big enough for a dragon to lie on with a couple of makeshift hammocks too.
"I hope you are okay with-" Aashni was cut off by Cloud leaping onto the blankets and rolling in them.
Mist, surprisingly, did the same.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!" Spirit shouted, still not loud enough to make a dent in the busy area below.
Hurricane laughed and nudged her wing. "Come on, lighten up, we never got to do anything before this."
Spirit made a face before Hurricane leaped in to join Cloud and Mist. It was softer and nicer to be wrapped around in such a soft material instead of the ruff floor.
"You dragons are really lively, I see." Aashni said calmly.
Mesos growled while Bronte only sighed. After some time passed with the noise on the outside grew quieter and quieter, until the snores on dragons was close to replacing it. Hurricane was unable to fall asleep so easily, like his friends had. Mist had three blankets on her with her wings outstretched and Cloud had probably even more on him, at least he was in a regular position though. Mesos swiped a hammock and was too quick to fall asleep and snore. Spirit though, Spirit had slept with one blanket and was still, almost dead in a way. It didn't seem right for a dragon to be still when sleeping like that, even Noviseer and other specterwings Hurricane had seen in his life weren't that odd. He gave her a little shock on the tail.
"Hrrmph?" She mumbled as she started to get up. "What?" Spirit had a really good way of making her voice sound annoyed even though she seemed far from it.
"I just wanted to see if you were okay." Hurricane said politely.
"Okay," Spirit said in a matter of fact voice," One, if I wasn't okay, I wouldn't need a StormWing to help me, two I am fine, three-"
"You're not fine, I can see all over your face." Hurricane pointed out sharply, though most of the torches were put out, he could still make out a face of worry on Spirit.
"Well, maybe after having so many dragons outright say they hate you doesn't do too well for a dragonet." Spirit said slowly.
"I don't hate you, I actually prefer having you-" Hurricane was cut off for hopefully the last time that day.
"Sure you don't, everyone that isn't a SpectreWing or a CometWing hates SpectreWings." She said this confidently, yet the look on her face said otherwise.
"Believe what you want, but just know that you're one of my favorite dragons. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be here." The short-lived goofy smile on Spirit's face gave Hurricane a rush of emotions.
"Okay, I'm going back to bed, have a nice night." Spirit tried to sound like she hated him, but ended up sounding nicer than she seemingly intended.
She got back under the blanket and for the first time that night, Hurricane managed to sleep. Before he though,he couldn't help but wonder one thing; what if other SpectreWings were like Spirit?