Soon, the group arrived at their destination, an island jutting from the ocean like a curving claw. It was quite menacing, as though it could spring to life at any moment and swipe the Talons out of the sky.
Since the entire island was all cliffs, and the Talons had no place to rest, they hovered about a quarter of a mile away from it.
"Here it is!" Kraken smiled, "Archive Island. I'll have to swim through the sea tunnels to get inside. Then I can let everyone in from there."
"I'm coming too." Squelch grunted.
"I'll allow it."
Cactus stood upright of the NightWing's back. "May I come as well?" She asked Kraken.
"No way in Phyyria. You can't survive under water. At least Squelch, as a MudWing, can hold his breath for up to an hour at a time.
"Please?" Cactus begged, "I've never been in the ocean before! Plus, we'll be more convincing. I was once a spy for Blister's army, and am pretty widely known."
"Guys." Nameless interrupted, "My wings are starting to ache."
"Sorry Nameless." Cactus said. Without another word, she leaped off of his back and plunged into the ocean. Kraken and Squelch soon followed behind her.
The three made their way to the sea tunnel's entrance, hidden skillfully among coral and kelp. Kraken led the way, guiding the others with his luminescent stripes through the narrow passageway. Cactus followed, with the muscular MudWing bringing up the rear.
After what seemed like an eternity of swimming, Cactus began feeling dizzy, Kraken's glowy stripes in front of her swirling. Then, a fire flared in her chest. Cactus thrashed in pain, as the burning spread down her arms and along her stomach and tail. The pain was unbearable, and her vision was fading.
Squelch shot after the drowning SandWing, grabbing her in his talons. The MudWing released a large bubble of air into the water, which Cactus frantically swallowed, extinguishing the flame in her chest. Soon. The trio was making their way through the tunnels again, stopping occasionally to give Cactus more oxygen.
Finally, Cactus saw the SeaWing swim upward, through a hole in the tunnel. She swam faster towards the exit, Kraken helping her out when she got there, cold and dripping. She looked around at the huge floor-to-ceiling shelves lining the room, packed with scrolls of all shape, size, age, and material.
She could hear dragons chattering away nearby, and ducked behind the scroll-shelf, straining her ears to listen. Cactus could tell one of them was a SandWing, by the way he hissed dryly when he spoke. She peeked around the shelf's edge to see them.
Sitting around a low wooden table, were three dragons. One was a pale-green SeaWing with stained bandages wrapped around the eye area of the right side of his face, and another SeaWing, this one without a scratch on his regal gray-blue scales. Also, as Cactus predicted, there was a SandWing, who was bony and spoke rarely, hissing when he did. Upon closer inspection, the SandWing only hissed while speaking, because he barely had a tongue to speak with.
"Ssso?" The SandWing struggled to ask.
"We've prepared orders to deliver." The unscathed SeaWing gestured to a few open scrolls on the table, "They will be given to the soldiers at sunrise. As soon as the first moon rises tomorrow, the MudWing army won't have any standing defenses."
"Goud..." The SandWing nodded, tail twitching.
"And you'd better be sure to let Blister know to have the armies meet at the rendezvous point on time!" The bandaged SeaWing scowled.
"Underssstoud..." The SandWing nodded again.
"Halt!" Kraken said to the small congregation, the three dragons stared at him with icy gazes, "I apologize for being late..."
"Did Her Majesty send you here?" The sour blue dragon asked Kraken.
"Yes." Kraken lied, and flicked his tail towards where the others were hiding. Cactus emerged from behind the shelf as if on cue.
"Hoo isss disss!?" The SandWing stood quickly to his feet, tail poised to strike.
"My advisor." Kraken continued to fib.
"We don' trussst traitorsss!!" The SandWing barked. The one-eyed SeaWing leaped from the table at Cactus.
YOU ARE READING
Wings of Fire: A Lone Grain in the Sand
FanfictionCactus 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...
