WINGS OF FIRE: Kingdoms Divided

Chapter 7: The Crystal Caves

"What's that?" Eucalyptus asked, pointing her tail to a cave glowing with bright colors. Cactus chirrped from her harness. Eucalyptus was currently wearing the harness, wanting to give me a break. We were flying over Mount Galore and the sun felt amazing on my scales. I wasn't sure if this was the Rainwing part of me, or the part of me that loved heat.

"That's the Crystal Caves. No one is allowed to go inside." Saturn said.

"Why?" I asked, glancing at the caves.

"Don't know. It was a rule made by Queen Mercury. The last dragon who went into the caves went insane," Jupiter answered.

"Let's not go there," Eucalyptus suggested.

"I like that idea," Saturn said.

"We have to. You said Queen Mercury made that rule. Whatever is in there is probably something Rose didn't want other dragons to see. Besides, it might be part of the prophecy."

"I don't know," Saturn said, uneasily. "We'll be breaking an ancient rule! Besides, what if we go insane?!"

"I can't promise anything, but you guys don't have to come. I can go in alone."

"No," Jupiter said, shaking her head. "All of us are going in or none of us."

Eucalyptus nodded. "I agree with Jupiter. Sorry." Saturn groaned. Even Cactus seemed to be against her, making high-pitched screeching noises and nodding.

"Fine!"

I shrugged before flying toward the cave. The others followed. We walked through the winding tunnels of the cave, admiring the beautiful crystals. All of a sudden, the cave walls started to shake.

"Everyone look out!" I shouted, rolling to one side while knocking the others opposite of me with my wings and tail. When I stood up, rocks and crystals had fallen and created a wall between me, my dragonet, and my friends.

I pushed my shoulder against the rocks with all my strength. I felt small rocks spray down on me. I heard a yelp on the other side as I pushed harder.

"Blaire! Stop!" Someone shouted. It sounded like Eucalyptus. "You'll bring the whole cave down!"

"What if I carefully remove rocks?!" I asked.

"It won't work." Jupiter's voice. "These works are holding up more rocks that'll fall if you remove them." I growled in frustration. Cactus looked up at me, curiosity evident in her eyes.

"Go on without us! We'll find another way around!" Saturn called.

"But-"

"Just go!"
"Fine." I turned and kept going alone. The further I got, the colder it was. Ice started to join the crystals and soon I saw huge chunks of it. As I walked on my necklace started to slip from my neck and my tail raised, hitting a massive chunk of ice. As I kept going I heard the sizzle of the ice melting. I felt my talon hit another chunk and felt it slowly melt against my burning scales. I lifted my necklace, settling it properly on my neck. I stopped abruptly when I saw a figure in another chunk of ice further from the others.

In the ice, there was a dragon. The dragon was a tart red and had a small tail barb. She had gills and icicles going down to her tail. She had a teardrop by each eye and three black scales and she had four fangs. Her eyes were surrounded by six dots and she had big, beautiful wings. She had a very square snout and now I could see that her scales truly were armored. She was much smaller than me but bigger than an average Skywing. She must've been around 40 ft tall. I recognized this dragon. This Allwing. It was Princess Allfire!