Wings of Fire: A Lone Grain in the Sand

Chapter 6: The Arena

The SandWing took one passing look at his victim, and charged, thundering across the sands to the cheers of the spectating dragons, with bloodlust in his eyes. He leaped for her, and Cactus rolled out of the way, cutting long gashes into his right forearm as she passed. The SandWing turned, ignoring the pain in his leg, and began furiously snapping at Cactus. She dodged as best as she could, and ended up being bitten hard on the throat. The bigger SandWing felt dragon neck in his mouth, and bit down hard, although not wanting to kill this dragon, he wanted to make the fight last long, and make her suffer.

Cactus scratched frantically at the SandWing's snout, he let go, and Cactus ran across the sands to the other end of the arena. Dragons above her roared and screeched, chanting, "DEATH!! DEATH!! DEATH!! DEATH!! DEATH!!!"

Scarlett looked rather amused at the fight, although Burn looked as though she'd rather be down there, killing Cactus with her own claws and fire.

The SandWing came barreling across the arena, mouth open to bite at Cactus again. Cactus rolled out of the way and watched the crazed dragon smash into the wall with a loud CRACK. Cactus leaped up into the air with her springy hind legs and landed squarely on the SandWing's back, as he began bucking and throwing himself round. Blasting such flames to make the spectating dragons scramble over each other to escape the blaze. Cactus began digging into the existing wounds on her attacker's back with serrated claws, spraying a shower of dark blood everywhere.

The SandWing screeched and howled with enough force to shake the mountains, and tried to beat Cactus off of him with his bound wings. But she clung to his cracked scales and clawed her way to his face, where with one fell swipe, Cactus blinded the SandWing, spraying more blood onto the crowd of dragons in the stands. Cactus's attacker continued to roar in pain, almost deafening her before finally throwing the spy from his back.

That SandWing was fumed, blood dripping from his clawed eyes, mouth, and underbelly. Killing was all the insane dragon had left, and now some puny lizard came here to kill him??? No, he wouldn't have it, sight or not, he would feel the moment that dragon's heart stopped beating....or die trying.

The SandWing charged blindly at Cactus, his head coming into contact with her soft underbelly, and he continued pushing her, until Cactus slammed into the arena's wall, her own blood trickling from her ears and mouth. A sharp throb pounded her head to bits.

"Not today you beast!" She spat, kicking her attacker's underbelly...hard. Cactus kicked and kicked until the SandWing backed away from the bright arcs of pain flashing along his fractured ribs. Cactus heard a familiar hiss and looked to see him charging a fire attack. Just as the SandWing released a strong blast of fire, she did the same, and their two streams of flame collided, sending sparks and embers everywhere. Cactuss' legs shook, and she was disoriented and in pain and bleeding everywhere, but she wasn't stopping now.

The two dragons ran out of breath from their fire attack, but the SandWing head butted Cactus back into the wall. The crowd screamed with excitement. Her attacker picked up Cactus by her bleeding throat and slammed her into the sand...hard. Cactus's vision was fading, and she was slipping into Death's cold grip, but she could see the wicked grin on that SandWing's face as he heard the sounds of his adoring fans crying for bloodshed.

But she wasn't going down now.

Cactus spotted in all the roaring and her airflow being cut off due to the fact there was a dragon putting his full weight on her throat, that her attacker left his underbelly exposed.

In a flash, the little deformed SandWing had thrust her deadly venomous barbed tail cleanly through the crazed beast's stomach. The dragon jerked backwards, and Cactus could see, through the blood in his sockets, cool, blue irises shine through the blinded eyes' milky film, like the color of a precious desert oasis in the beating sun.

A shock of realization smacked Cactus like a wingbeat to the face.

N-no, it can't be....th-those can't be....those are Grit's eyes...

Grit's gaze softened as his blood spilled onto Cactus's tail, which no one noticed. The SandWing brushed his bound wings against Cactus's sides, like he used to.

"I...I'm sorry..." he chocked, "Be s-safe.......my little...desert...flower...."

Cactus felt hot tears well in her eyes as Grit's corpse fell into her chest.