Wings of Fire: Frost and Fire

The Captive

Taiga's point of view

We're finally leaving the Kingdom of Sand. Magmatic seems excited to get out of the heat, but I'll miss the intensity of the sun. Primrose seems unbothered. Anyways, we're on our way to our next objective: Eclipse, who is waiting for us in the Night Kingdom.
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I spread my wings out, letting them rest for a moment. The sun felt amazing on my body, its warm rays soothing me. The ground below us was starting to get less sandy and more grassy. We were likely approaching the Night Kingdom.

Primrose pointed out some structures from above. It was hard to tell what they were from the air, but they didn't look like they were abandoned for thousands of years. Maybe these were recently built.

Some time later, the ground below us was completely grass. We were no longer in the Kingdom of Sand, but in the abandoned Night Kingdom, or at least what was thought to be abandoned. According to Primrose's visions, the cultists have been settling down here.

Magmatic had to slow down every now and then so we could keep up with her. She was naturally a faster flier than the both of us, and she didn't have to land to rest as long as we did.

Magmatic started spiraling down. Her agility was amazing in the air. Maybe she saw something in the distance, or was finally getting tired.

"It looks like we've found them," Magmatic said once we had all landed. She pointed ahead to tents with green tops, likely that color to blend in with the scenery from above.

The camp didn't look too large. At most, fifty dragons would be here. With our powers, I had no doubt we could fight them off. It was certainly possible that we'd have to fight our way through, as these dragons likely wouldn't just willingly hand over a traitor.

Regardless, the information we needed from Eclipse was invaluable. "Let's go, then," I said. "We'll try sneaking in first, then if things get rough, we'll fight back."

As we approached the camp, we noticed several wooden walls. For me, these were great to hide behind. For Magmatic, not so much. As she tried to sneak her way through, staying hidden behind them, I had to go behind her, extinguishing fires.

Surprisingly, not many cultists were out. We did run into one, but I fired frost at his mouth and nose to suffocate and silence him. Primrose dragged him into the bushes.

Eventually, we reached a tower that was being guarded by several cultists. They had red shield symbols on their chests, and were holding spears. So, they would actually be a threat...

We hid behind a wall just before the tower. Magmatic went on one side, and I on the other. We devised a plan: Primrose would throw a tree limb out into their line of sight. The first guard would come down, and Primrose would take care of him. At the same time, I'd fire a blast of frostbreath onto the second guard's eyes and mouth, blinding her.

Magmatic would fire a glob of molten rock at the third guard, taking him out. Afterwards, she'd draw some minerals out of a nearby rock, using the liquid tantalum she gained from it into a spike, throwing it into the throat of the second guard, eliminating her.

The plan went into action. Primrose threw the limb, and it made a loud snap. The first guard said something and walked over to check it out. Primrose reached out and snatched him behind the wall. She was stronger than she looked...

Using the spear of the guard, she slit the guard's throat, and dragged his body into the bushes. She made sure to keep the spear's head in his neck so there wouldn't be a trail of blood to follow.

Next, I gave Magmatic the signal. Her throat glowed brightly, and about the time I fired a blast of frostbreath at the second guard, she fired her glob of rock at the third.

My blast of frost missed, whizzing past the guard's head. However, Magmatic's projectile hit, going straight through the side of the third guard's body, effectively cutting him in half. His body began to melt away.

I made a spear with my frost, using what little time I had before the guard noticed me to calculate how I needed to throw it. There wasn't enough time for Magmatic to take her down. I threw the spear, and it went straight through the second guard's neck. After the coast was clear, Magmatic burned the guards' bodies into ashes, making it much easier to hide them.

The tower was made almost entirely of stone, so Magmatic didn't have to worry about burning anything down. As I opened the door, a blade overhead swished just in front of me. This tower was littered with traps.

There had to be some way to deactivate them, but that would have to wait. I froze the mechanism that was making the blade swing back and forth with my frostbreath, stopping it in place. I signaled for the others to follow me.

There were flames around the ground, coming out in little holes. Magmatic simply walked through them. Primrose waited for them to go down enough to jump over. I froze the ground around and over them, walling the flames off.

A saw blade quickly went back and forth in front of the staircase to the next floor. Magmatic waited for it to come close to her, and grabbed it, holding it in place. It quickly began to melt into hot goop.

As we got to the next floor, Primrose stepped on a string, and a shower of sand poured down into the room, making it incredibly difficult to see. I almost stepped on a spike coming out of the ground.

I tried freezing over the hole, but the spike pushed its way out. Magmatic concentrated, drawing the minerals from the spikes out, and they fell apart. She then used the liquid tantalum to construct a wall that would block off a boulder which would have rolled on top of us.

This tower was truly testing our skills. It was taking careful usage of our abilities to get past the many obstacles. I wondered how long it took them to set all of this up, and how they went back and forth to feed the prisoner. Maybe it was a system at the top, activating everything.

After some more careful maneuvering, we made it past the second, and then the third floor. At last, we arrived at the top of the tower. It seemed to be empty, besides a mechanism that looked almost like a keyhole. I tried manipulating some frost into the shape of the hole, and popped it in.

Suddenly, the sound of chains clinking echoed through the air. We looked up to find a cage descending from above. It stopped, and then began to plummet towards the ground.

Thinking fast, I fired a blast of frost to stop the chains from going down any further. Magmatic melted a hole in the bottom for the prisoner inside to fall through, and Primrose caught her as she fell through the cage.

"Thank you, adventurers," the prisoner said. She was wearing a cloak, so it was hard to tell what she was.

"Hey, can you take that cloak off? It's kinda hard to hear you under there," Magmatic asked.

"If you insist." The prisoner threw her cloak aside, revealing herself to be a NightWing, small but bulky. Her horns were almost twisted. As she turned around to face us, my jaw dropped.

The prisoner had purple eyes that seemed to be peering deep into my soul. But that wasn't what caught my attention. A mark on the left side of her face. A silver crescent moon, stretching from her horns to the bottom of her snout.

This was it. We found Eclipse.