New Flames

Chapter 22

Flame had heard stories of the dragon of Jade Mountain.

The Talons of Peace would talk of them as an ally, a messenger. Someone who had abilities like no other dragon on Pyrrhia.

Someone who could and would help.

And Flame was on his way to meet them now.

"Maybe they'll spare me some time. The Talons said they would have been able to stop the war if they had wanted to (which begs the question - why didn't they?). Maybe they'll lend some of that power to me too," he thought, as he walked. Another thought rippled through his mind-webs, "or maybe they just have a trick to get rid of these awful nightmares."

Flame knew that most dragons were socializing right now. They probably wouldn't notice him being gone. Not on the first night, anyways.

The first day at the Academy had been exhausting. He didn't like being treated like a confused hatchling by the Dragonets of Destiny, who were now his teachers... despite being younger than him. And he'd briskly avoided any conversation with Fatespeaker.

But by the end of the day, he had a lot of strong opinions about the SkyWings who stared at his scar, trying to recognize him, or the NightWings lurking around each corridor.

One of Flame's own clawmates was a NightWing - Bigtail. He was remarkably dumb, and the SkyWing had wondered how he'd managed to not die while on the volcano island. Pike, on the other talon, was already a more acceptable dragon, despite his loudness and reverence for a certain dragon he'd apparently promised to guard.

Their first interaction had been almost idiotic. Bigtail had introduced himself to the wrong dragons, in the cave across from him and the SeaWing, not realizing that "Pike" and "Flame" weren't exactly the names fit for a RainWing and IceWing.

When he'd finally managed to figure out who his clawmates really were, Flame had made it clear that he had no interest in shaking wings or becoming all snuggly and cutesy.

"Ash-breath... one of my better insults for better. That NightWing looked as taken aback as he should have been," Flame snickered to himself, ignoring how Pike's eyes had also widened at his remark. "I wonder if  Bigtail remembers the random SkyWing who his tribe nearly killed. I wonder if he even knows about the dragons that his tribe actually did kill."

But despite that, now his mind was as far away from either Pike or Bigtail as possible.

As he reached a crossroad in his path, he took the tunnel that headed deeper into the mountain. The torchlight guided him downwards, as his claws scraped the harsh stone floor. With no guidance, Flame imagined it would be pretty easy to get lost in these caves.

"And what a way to go!" Flame's mind echoed darkly, "mother would certainly be proud."

In the midst of his thoughts, he heard the echo of another set of steps... and they were coming towards him.

"I can't be caught here. They'll ask questions. And I don't want to answer to any of them right now," he thought with bitter words.

He propelled himself upwards, pushing himself off the ground as silently as he could. He grasped a stalactite with his front talons and grabbed the cavern's ceiling with his wing-talons and back claws. He held himself as still as possible, struggling against gravity, but angrily willing himself to not fall.

Flame heard a dragon walk briskly underneath him, and all he saw was a flash of golden scales before the other dragon was gone.

"Was that the dragon of Jade Mountain?" He asked himself as he twisted around and glided to the tunnel floor, touching down.