Wings of fire Book one: Befriending a monster.

Mud, guilt, and death

He rolled in a puddle of mud along the river, finding it strangely relaxing as the thick brown mud covered his scales and scars.  He looked back towards the castle in the distance, barely noticing a ruby colored sky-wing with a ring of gold colored scales around her neck.   The dragon flew out of sight as soon as he noticed them.  For some reason he found something familiar about the mystery dragon's appearance.   Huh.

"Hey, are you okay?"  A pair of talons touched his arm.

He hissed, instinctively jumping back into a defensive position.

"Sorry!  I didn't mean to scare you!"  The golden sand-wing apologized quickly, giving him a seemingly sad look.  The rain and sea-wing were starting at him, flickers of light green and red barely showing through the rain-wing's tense scales.

"No, not your fault."  He responded, his voice starting to hurt once again. 

"Okay."  Sunny smiled.

He turned towards the river and dove beneath the surface, finding it shallower than he thought.  The water was almost up to his eye, so he had to crouch to keep his body hidden.  There was no use in holding his breath as water poured into his mouth anyway, flowing in through the tear in his lip.   The others joined him in the water, slowly gliding down the river using their tails and wings.  The purple eyed sand-wing used her talons to walk across the riverbed.   They looked very uncomfortable.  He followed suit, walking along the river as it pushed him along.  He made sure to take a breath of air sometimes.

Why do they trust you?  He thought to himself.  You don't deserve trust.  I know.  Then leave, they won't miss you.  But they're nice to me!  So?  He took a breath, ducking back below the surface.  His talons ached as he walked.  You know you want to use them.  That thought echoed in his mind.

The mud-wing got out of the water, yelling.  "We made it!"

"Be quiet!"  The sea-wing hissed at him, following him out of the water.  "A sky-wing could be nearby!"

"Or a mud-wing, or a sand-wing." Glory corrected her, shaking water off of her wings as she hurriedly walked out if the river.

Tsunami turned towards Glory with a growl.

"Woah! What's that over there?" Sunny pointed towards a cliff, trying to distract them from the argument.

Starstorm jumped out of the water and walked over to the cliff, suddenly stopping at the edge with a look of horror. Mistral quickly ran over, confused. He looked off the cliff to see a massive gorge with a river flowing in the middle down below.

There were dead dragons in the gorge. At least twenty. Ice-wings, mud-wings, and a few sand-wings scattered all over with spears in their throats. Or with broken wings, or shattered skulls, frozen limbs, scales on fire, massive wounds. All dead. Fires still burning.

He took a step back, closing his eye and slumping to the ground with his talons over his ears.  No, no, no.  He started shaking, his thoughts loud and demanding.  It's my fault, it's my fault.  They didn't have to die.  Why do I get to live when they don't?  I don't deserve life after all of the dragons I've killed.  It's not fair.  I should be dead!

He suddenly felt his back warm up, like the sun was comforting him.  He opened his eyes to see Starstorm looking at him with one of her wings over his back, but not touching him. 

"I'm sorry you saw that,"  She said slowly, a concerned expression on her face.  "I should have warned you."

"It's my fault."  He whispered, still shaking like a dragonet.

"What."  Glory growled nearby, red starting to show throughout her scales.  "Are you saying that you did this!?"

Mistral could feel everyone's eyes on him, Glory and Tsunami angry, Clay and Sunny horrified.

"Hold on."  Star stood up, folding her wing.  "I thought you were just fighting in the arena."

"I was."  He slowly replied.

"Then how did you do this?  It doesn't make sense."

"I... guess I didn't do this.  I've never seen a dragon that wasn't my fault."

"It must have been a battle, this war really is terrible."  Clay said sadly.

"What war?"

"What do you mean?" Glory studied him, twitching her tail.

"I am confused. Clay said 'this war', is there a war?"

He felt everyone's eyes on him as Sunny talked, puzzled.  "You don't know about the war?  The war that we were raised to end?"

"No, I don't know what you are talking about."

"We can fill you in later."  Tsunami stated.  "Clay, Glory.  If you want to go find Clay's family, go ahead, we'll wait here."

Glory's scales turned a muddy brown as she replied.  "Alright.  Let's go."  She nudged Clay towards a swamp, following him as he started walking. 

"When will they be coming back?"  Mistral asked, standing up.

"I don' know, but you can relax if you want."  Starstorm told him.  "Tsunami and I will be on guard duty."

"Okay."  He laid down by a tree, taking a deep breath as he slowly started to fall asleep.