Wings of Fire: Nighthawk

Chapter 35: Planning

A long quiet day had passed. However, throughout the day they could hear it got more and more noisy. Nighthawk sat in his cell yet again, thumping his tail on the wall and floor to entertain himself. He glanced over at Lobster, who looked completely miserable. The seawing had started to get tremors and he looked dehydrated. It was rather concerning, Lobster was likely to go mad at any moment. He sighed and looked at his friend.

"Lobster, mate. We'll be out of here soon.." He moved over to his cell.

"I gotta get out of here Nighthawk..this is torture. I- I haven't felt water in days- I haven't swam, bathed, or when touched it other than the- small.. dish they give me daily.. why can't she just kill me already..?" Lobster stuttered and his words were less energetic. He was looking more depressed and hopeless by the day.

"Don't say that, you can't give up. We're going to be home, and I'll get you there even if I have to drag you by the tail the entire way."

"You don't get it. How do you expect us to get out of here? Even if we manage to escape the stronghold, we're weakened and underfed. And we have to go through the sand, sky and mud kingdoms. We're fucked. It's your fault, you shouldn't have come after me."

"I wasn't going to let you die." Nighthawk growled. "I'm not that kind of dragon."

"You already let one family die. I'm no different."

"That's cold lad.." Nighthawk sighed and led down on the floor. "Unnecessary.." He looked at the cell bars and thought for a bit. "I wanna go home as much as you do."

"Right.. what time even is it?" Lobster asked as he looked around. There were no windows or lights, so it was hard to tell most of the time.

"Not a clue."

"Great.."

"Yeah.." It was getting colder, which meant night was falling upon them. "I think Mojave is coming." He said to Lobster. He recognized the sandwing's footsteps by now. Sure enough, it was him.

"Alright, guys you're gonna love this." Mojave said to them. "They're having a party for the arrival of Queen Scarlet. Everyone is distracted, and we're going to run out of supplies soon, so.. it's a good time to get us out of here."

"Uh, right. Yeah. This is a trick, isn't it." Lobster hissed a bit. "I don't trust you."

"Lobster, it's not a trick. We've been planning."

"Nighthawk, he's going to get us killed! Probably going to lead you and I straight to Burn!"

"Now why would I something like that? I'm risking my neck even talking about this. Do you want help leaving or not?"

"This is probably our only chance lad, we gotta take it. Do you want to see your wife again? And your sister?" Nighthawk sat up, looking at Lobster with a stern yet determined look on his face. The seawing crossed his arms, reluctantly nodding before standing.

"Fine. What are we doing?"

"I'm going to go upstairs, check supplies, which I know we need more of. I'll get a cart, some large blankets so you can hide in it. Once we get outside we take off. So you two sit tight, we need to do this perfectly. Listen to exactly what I say." Mojave insisted before he got up and began to head out. "I'll get your weapons to you, Nighthawk."

"Aye, ya got it." He said before laying on his side. Mojave left, and Nighthawk looked at Lobster. "Just think about seeing them again, you're going to.." He said confidently, wanting his friend to feel any sort of hope.

"I don't care Nighthawk.." Lobster growled. "I just want this to be over with.. if she's going to kill us, why make us wait?"

"She wants information from me."

"You didn't tell her anything did you?"

"Ah.." Nighthawk rubbed the back of his neck. "Not the important stuff. I told her enough to keep you alive, give us more time."

"You better not have told them where the summer palace is."

"Hard to do that if I don't know the route." Nighthawk said with a small wink. "Ya got me?"

"Yeah, I understand." Lobster led down and rubbed his head slowly. "I miss my wife, and my sister.."

"As do I lad." Nighthawk led by Lobster's cell, thinking a little. Two pairs of footsteps could be heard coming down to the dungeons.

"So you really captured him, Burn? How Thrilling!" A haughty female voice echoed through the room. Nighthawk knew who that was.

"Yes, or more so he came right to me. Idiot." Burn and Scarlet walked down to the cells. "I also caught this horribly mutated freak of a seawing! Hey, wake up!" She yelled to the seawing. Lobster jolted up before backing into the wall, suddenly looking filled with panic and fear.

"Oh wow, I've heard about you. But this is the one I'm more excited about." Scarlet said to Nighthawk in her slithery voice. "You've caused a lot of problems for me.."

The Nightwing rolled his eyes, not looking at her. "I have my reasons." He growled a bit. "You're a terrible queen."

"Oh that's so rude." Scarlet pouted. "I'm a great queen! So great in fact that nobody has challenged me for almost two decades. Burn why don't you unlock his cell? I want to get a better look at him."

"Is that necessary?" The sandwing sighed.

"You offered to show me the prisoners, so let me see them." Scarlet said with a small grin. Burn rolled her eyes and opened the cell, and Scarlet walked in. Nighthawk stood, staring at her. "You'd make a very exciting opponent for my arena."

"Too bad I won't live long enough to enter, what a shame."

"It would be better if we executed him." Burn said as she watched them. "We don't have time for these silly arena games. We just kill him and be done with it."

"She's right. I've never thought of putting on a show whenever I was shooting and slicing your soldiers down."

"It doesn't matter, dragons die in war. They're just soldiers, but dragons like you.." Scarlet picked his snout up. "We need to make an example of."

"Right. Are we done here?" Burn huffed.

"Yes yes, we have a party to attend to." Scarlet said soflty. She walked out of the cell before Burn locked it. Nighthawk glanced at her, laying down. The two royals left, and now all they had to do was wait.