"INTRUDER!!" a SkyWing guard squawked as loudly as she could to the others stationed around the palace on small balconies decorating the exterior. Oh fan-flapping-tastic, just what I needed. More dragons slowing me down. Apparently, the patrol outside the mountains wasn't enough! Y'know what? BRING IT, SKYWINGS! I'M NOT AFRAID OF YOU!
Cactus sank her talons into the clumpy sand and braced herself as a horde of SkyWing soldiers flooded from an entrance tunnel into the arena. Oh lovely, there's the entrance, would've been nice to know that a minute ago. More soldiers flew from their posts on the palace and dove for her, talons outstretched and teeth bared. Cactus held strong as they flew for her, and she sliced the first few with the Scorpion-like barb at the end of her tail, which glittered in any light. The SandWing refrained from stabbing the soldiers, knowing it would leave her vulnerable to attacks for too long. More SkyWings poured over her in a frenzy of claws, teeth, and fire.
Cactus rolled onto her back and curled her arms and legs over her soft underbelly. With a flick of her tail from the sand, she was sent spinning, her head and barb fee to stab and scorch any SkyWing dumb enough to get too close, luckily for her, SkyWings happened to be very stupid today.
However, the little SandWing was heavily outnumbered, and her spinning attack only worked to a certain extent. Soon, Cactus found herself pinned to the sand, her talons tied behind her wingless back, and a SkyWing's jaws restricting her deadly barbed tail. Cactus gazed at her fine bit of handiwork. Tens of SkyWings littered the arena floor, with black, oozing gashes in their scales where she'd sliced them with her tail. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Cactus saw Queen Scarlett on a royal balcony overlooking the arena, accompanied by a SandWing covered in blood and scars from head to tail.
That's gotta be Burn...
Burn was the oldest, biggest, and strongest of the three SandWing princesses fighting for the throne, the other two being Blaze, a derpy little dragon allied with the IceWings and most SandWings, including her beloved Grit, and Blister, the queen Cactus fought for.
Burn glared angrily down her snout at the sight in the arena. She jumped from the balcony and glided to the sands, approaching Cactus and pressing her large talon on the spy's head.
"So, I see my cunning little sister sent you to steal from us?" She hissed softly, "Well, we can't have that now can we?" Burn pushed harder on Cactus's head. She leaned forward and growled into the dragon's ear. "I'd snap your neck right here and now myself , but, it's my dear ally's hatching day tomorrow, and killing you right now wouldn't be as thrilling. I guess we'll save you for then. Cactus felt Burn's hot breath on her face as the SandWing chuckled before standing up to address the guards, "Take this one up to the spires, and she is not to be fed until morning." Cactus watched burn stretch her wings and flap back up to the balcony with Scarlett as her captors carried the wingless dragon up to on of the stone pillars surrounding the arena. They were big enough to fit a single dragon, and most of them had dragons chained to them with wirey binds.
The SkyWings put Cactus on a spire and chained her talons and neck to the wires which were attached to a huge bundle of the binds in the center of the semicircle of dragons on the prisons.
Cactus thrashed against her chains, an angry desire to stab a SkyWing in the throat welled up in her chest. "Come back here and fight me!" she hissed with rage, throwing herself off of the spire, freefalling for a moment before the wires on her legs and neck caught her. She saw the other prisoner straining themselves to not fall from their prisons too, their wings were bound and couldn't fly if they fell. As quickly as Cactus threw herself from her spire, the guards swooped back to carry her up to it again. Cactus thrashed against their claws and stabbed one, coincidentally the one who had previously sounded the alarm, through the skull and flung her down the mountain. The other guards scorched Cactus's scales with their flames to shut her up.
Cactus roared at the SkyWings, twisting to blast her own fire, eventually falling submissive from exhaustion. They dragged her slumping form back up to her spire, tying more wires around her snout to permanently keep her quiet.
The SandWing lashed her tail in anger and clawed the wires off of her snout. She stood to her feet an roared as the wires floated away in the breeze. No SkyWing could keep her quiet!
"You're quite loud for such a level-headed spy." A voice observed from behind her. She whipped around and nearly fell off the spire again, because there was a NightWing on the one behind her.
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Wings of Fire: A Lone Grain in the Sand
फैनफिक्शनCactus was just a dragonet when she was dragged into the war of SandWing succession. Her family hates her for being crippled, for she had no wings. She was separated her friend, the only dragon she loved, as she was forced to side with Blister's for...
