Mud squelched beneath Hare's talons as she trekked through the puddles that dotted the grass. She pushed her snout through the reeds and looked around. She gasped in awe as she saw the area laid out before her.
Tall mounds made of mud, several dragons high and several more wide, jutted out of the marshes like massive teeth. She could see MudWings moving around in the muddy terrain, almost all of them moving in groups. Hare could see a small group of dragonets playing, toppling over each other and knocking one another into the mud.
Asha emerged from the reeds and smiled. "Amazing, isn't it?"
Kestrel came out beside her. "I don't understand how dragons could live in such conditions," she grumbled.
Asha looked at her. "And we don't understand how you SkyWings can live in such conditions. All that wind and those birds flapping right above your head every moment?" She shuddered in a mocking way. "Ugh, no thank you. I'll stick with my mud and crocodiles."
The others pushed out of the reeds. Clay's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "This is where I came from?"
"Yes, it is." Asha pointed to a cluster of mounds near a body of water. "From right over there."
"I've read about this," Starflight gasped. Glory laughed and nudged him with her wing. "What haven't you read about?"
"We can get a closer look," Hare said, darting out of the reeds. She raced across the grass, barely feeling the ground beneath her talons.
"Hare, wait!"
Someone grabbed her forearm and yanked her to a halt. Hare gasped in surprise. Pebbles and bits of dirt tumbled into the ditch that sat right at her clawtips. The ditch that she'd almost just charged straight into.
Hare looked into the ditch and drew in a breath. She took a step backward, staring with wide eyes at the scene below her.
The ditch was littered with the bodies of dead dragons. The ground was churned up into unwelcoming mud. Blood and bones were ground into it, with broken wings sticking out from large sodden lumps, like tree branches smashed by a storm. The dragon bodies were so covered in mud that they all looked like MudWings, but here and there Hare saw the bright shimmer of icy blue and the near white of desert-sand scales. Fires dotted the mud, filling the air with foul-smelling black smoke. Brown-scaled limbs stuck up from the flames. MudWings had been involved in this battle, too.
"A fresh battlefield," Asha said quietly.
"Sickening," Kestrel spat.
"Can we go?" Sunny asked. "I don't want to stay and look at this. I don't think any of us do."
"We can't all go," Clay suddenly said.
Tsunami bristled and turned to glare at him. "What? Why?"
"They'll never trust all of us together." He pointed at Tsunami. "Especially you. The SeaWings are on Blister's side."
"That doesn't matter," Tsunami protested. "We'll just tell them that we're the dragonets of destiny. They'll have to trust us then."
Glory scoffed. "You may as well just waltz right into a prison cell, then."
Tsunami snapped her head around to shoot her a look with narrowed eyes. Starflight intervened quickly. "Clay and Glory are right. Burn's army is looking for us. Must I remind you who's side the MudWings are on?" He put his talon on Tsunami's shoulder. "It won't hurt for us to sit this one out."
Tsunami huffed. "Fine. So who's going and who's staying?"
"I'm going," Asha said immediately. "I know my way around the Mud Kingdom better than any of you."
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Wings of Fire: The Forbidden Dragonet | ✔️
Fanfiction"IT CANNOT STAY." _____________________ Hare was never supposed to be born. Her existence is forbidden. Her grandmother stated that many years ago. But yet she's alive, and in hiding with the dragons who will determine the future of Pyrrhia. But fa...
