Wings of fire Book one: Befriending a monster.

Drowning in sunlight

Mistral stepped out onto the sands, blinking rapidly as the light hit his eye. He wasn't being dragged out to kill, at least not this time. Starstorm and Tsunami were on the side of the arena were the audience usually watched fights, the sand was irritating and managed to get in between his scales. How could he get up there? The last time he tried to fly was when he was a hatchling and now there were holes in part of his wing. When was the last time he could even stretch his wings? He nearly forgot they existed.

"Mistral! You decided to come with? That's great, come on up!" Starstorm called.

"Welcome to the party psycho." Tsunami added.

Did she insult him? He wasn't sure. He sprinted towards the wall, using his back legs to push himself upwards, he grabbed onto the top of the wall with his talons. He almost slipped, but managed to pull himself up. The other two flew into the air, waiting for him.

"He probably can't fly, look at his wing." Tsunami said to the sand dragon.

"Right."

They landed and walked over to him, Starstorm reaching for his injured wing. He didn't pull away this time, but he flinched when she touched him.

"Hm." Starstorm said, examining his wing. "It will be hard to fly, but if you take breaks I'm sure you'll be alright."

"I don't know how." It felt hard to talk, it must have been years since he last did.

"You don't know how to fly? How long have you been stuck in that prison?"

"We need to get going." Tsunami stated. "It won't be long until a guard catches us."

"Alright, we can glide down to the river with Mistral, then we'll have to walk the rest of the way,"

"I'll fly underneath you two in case he falls."

He walked to the edge of the arena, it was a long way down but there was a river in the distance, that must be Starstorm was talking about. He stretched his wings, Starstorm walked to him while Tsunami flew in the air, waiting. Why was everything near the river so green? Is that what grass looks like?

"Are you okay with this?" The sand-wing asked. "Gliding is easy, all you have to do is keep your wings open and the wind will catch you."

He gave her a confused look, how can air catch someone?

"Well, it is more complicated than that."

He backed up, away from the edge. What if it didn't work? He had to try, he had to live the life Petral wanted for him. It didn't matter if he fell, he would be reunited with her one day even if he did survive this. He sprinted forwards with his wings fully extended, jumping off the edge and into the open air. He plummeted for a second, suddenly feeling entirely weightless. He looked around, was he flying? Well, kind of. He was drifting forwards, the wind pulling him along as he slowly glided towards the river, Starstorm caught up and was flying alongside him, Tsunami following from below.

"There you go!" Starstorm yelled, trying to talk over the wind. "Flap your wings sometimes, it will help you stay in the air!"

He moved his wings up and down, rising a bit in the air. He was close to the river, it looked like he would land right onto the muddy shore. Well, now that he was closer it looked like he was going to crash into the river! He had never seen that much water before, could he swim out? He tried to flap his wings and turn away but it was too late. He hit the water and felt the coldness seep into his scales as he sunk below the surface.