Bluetang and Brook had been flying for hours, now. Every now and then, they'd had to land and hide from a scouting group that came looking for them, though they seemed to have stopped, by now. To the east, they could see the Mud Kingdom and a bit further, the Claws of the Clouds mountains. To the south, the lush rainforest and then the endless sea.
"Look," Brook said, bringing Bluetang out of his dreams of freedom. "The human village."
He was right. A little ahead of them, was a group of small huts, too small for dragons... except one.
Strange, Thought Bluetang. Why would humans have a dragon-sized hut?
Bluetang swooped down towards the settlement, Brook close behind. They landed as gently as possible, just in case there was a trap.
Guess no-one's home. Brook flashed to Bluetang.
"Psst." The noise came from the dragon-sized hut.
The two dragonets froze.
"Psst." came the whisper again. A head poked out of the doorway. The dragon looked like a HiveWing, but had gills and glow-in-the-dark scales. She was probably two years older than the dragonets. "You two are hybrids, right? Well, so am I, so if you don't want to get your heads torn off, come in here. Quickly!"
Brook walked over, without asking any questions. Bluetang hesitated, then followed.
"Are you with the Talons of Peace?" Bluetang whispered to the mystery hybrid.
"What's left of it." she shrugged. The hut was actually a disguise for a secret entrance and the hybrid was leading them down it. "I'm Mayfly, call me May."
"I'm Brook, and this is Bluetang." said Brook. "How many others are there?"
"A talonful, or two. You're lucky you made it this long." May said, glancing at them, briefly.
The tunnel had flattened out and lead to a boulder.
"Who goes there?" said a voice from behind the boulder.
"Mayfly," answered May. "We got new members."
The boulder was pushed aside as a large red dragon appeared behind it. His massive wings and the frills behind his ears kept on shifting through oranges and yellows like a fire.
"Wildfire, these are Brook and Bluetang." Mayfly said. "Can you show them around? I'll go tell Rift."
"Sure thing." said Wildfire. Turning to the two dragonets, he added. "Welcome! As May said, I'm Wildfire."
A few dragons had come over to see Bluetang and Brook. Wildfire gestured to one of them with his wing. She was similar to Wildfire, but smaller and instead of being red she was yellow and slightly smaller. Her wings and frills drifted through oranges and reds, with a few patches of smokey grey. Unlike Wildfire, her tail seemed to be prehensile.
"That's my sister, Bushfire." Wildfire said, brushing wings with her. "Our father was a RainWing and our mother was a SkyWing."
Bushfire looked at the two dragonets somewhat skeptically. "Call me Bush."
The dragon next to her spoke up. He seemed older than the other dragons Bluetang had seen here, 20 years old, at least. "Welcome. I am Planttalker."
Planttalker was a bluish black, with a few gold and green scales scattered over his body. His tail seemed to have a leaf stuck on the end and he had gold, green and silver dots scattered on the underside of his wings. His body donned several scars and he had two teardrop-shaped silver scales next to his eyes.
"Are you a mind reader?" Brook asked him.
"Yes," Planttalker answered. "Though I have a rock called 'skyfire', which stops me from using my mindreading abilities. I also have an ability known as 'leaf-speak', which comes from my LeafWing side and lets me 'control' plants."
The last of the three dragons to meet Brook and Bluetang waved gently. "Hey," he said. "I'm Aspen."
Aspen was a green color, with darker green freckles on his snout and down his back. His wings were a pale green and his fin flipped forward. Bluetang had to admit, Aspen looked rather handsome, though he could only see LeafWing traits on him.
"You're not a hybrid, are you?" he asked.
"No, I'm not." Aspen said, shaking his head lightly. "I just don't agree to this whole thing, so the tribes treat me like a hybrid."
Brook's ears perked up. "Wait. Tribes plural? I thought only Queen Seafoam got killed."
There was a moment of silence, as the dragons in the room looked at each other.
"No..." said Bushfire. "ALL the queens were assassinated."
"Except Queen Paradise, the RainWing queen." said Wildfire. "But that doesn't mean they trust hybrids anymore than the other tribes do. Ever since Queen Glory became their queen, they've become much more reasonable and less... dim-minded."
"Why didn't Queen Paradise get assassinated, too?" Bluetang asked.
"RainWing venom." May came back and appeared beside Aspen. "Another thing that came with Queen Glory, RainWings aren't afraid to use their venom in combat now."
"The SkyWings especially despise hybrids." Planttalker spoke up. "Queen Ember didn't have any heirs. The moons only know what will happen."
"Are these our new additions?"
May, Bush, Planttalker and Aspen all turned around and got out of the way of the dragon that spoke. He was massive, his horns nearly touched the roof of the cavern. The dragon was jet black with white wings scattered with black scales. His snout was square and the scales going down his back were white scattered with a reddish brown color. His horns were deformed and looked like antlers and his tail branched off just before the end like a SandWing's forked tongue. Some of his talons were missing half their claws and the spikes on his neck looked extremely long for a NightWing. Even though he looked like he could easily crush Brook and Bluetang, his one green and one amber eye were filled with kindness.
"Hello, dragonets." he said, with a deep but gentle voice. "I am Rift, the current leader of the Talons of Peace."
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Claws Up, Teeth Ready (Wings of Fire Fanfiction)
Fanfiction"Run Bluetang. Run whilst nobody else knows." Those were the last words Bluetang heard from his mother. He could hardly believe it. Every single queen had been assassinated, on Pyrrhia and Pantala. And they had each been killed by hybrids. So now ev...
