Secrets of Mystery, A Wings of Fire story

Chapter One

Chapter one: Hatching Day

The dragon rushed through the halls. Or was it dragonet? Mystery honestly didn't know which, for she was turning seven today. Did that make her full grown? Sure she was strong, but she still felt small. She stopped for a second tracing the gold veins in the marble floor. The palace of the DreamWings was placed on a distant island north of Pyrrhia. Mystery loved the blue and gold trim against the white marble, and the columns and domes throughout the castle. But today her heart was somewhere else.

"Hatching day, hooray for me." she said half-heartedly. Every time someone else in the royal family reached their special day, they were ecstatic. But to Mystery it was just another reminder that she had no real family. She threw back her shoulders, so what? Her stepmother, Queen Cyly, didn't care. Her stepfather, King Evade, didn't care. Not even her stepbrother, Vault, cared if she was true royalty. Rounding a corner she bumped into a tiny gold-violet servant dragonet who dropped the large bowl of purple pear-shaped fruits.

"Oh! Your highness! Sorry, sorry," she squeaked, reaching down to pick up the fruit that had fallen.

"No worries. I wasn't looking where I was going" Mystery said, smiling and helping clean up. The dragonet grinned gratefully. She hurried on her way. The Dragonet (full grown dragon?) entered the main hall where her stepmother was waiting.

"Mystery! Our now Fully grown dragon!" The queen signaled to Mystery to sit down in the slightly smaller throne. Aha! Full-grown! She thought settling into the throne studded with star-shaped crystals. Her mother's singing scales and gaze made Mystery feel like sleeping. She snapped out of the hypnotizing trance and caught her mother sending her father a sideways glance. Mystery narrowed her eyes, what was she up too?

"Hello my loyal subjects!" Cyly exclaimed clapping her talons for attention, "As you must all know it is my beloved daughter's seventh hatching day! Can you believe it? She is full grown!"

The room was filled with a polite smattering applause.

"Now I know I had something terribly important to tell you. Hmm what was it?" she mused tapping her chin, "Oh well I suppose it can wait. First things first, I have a lovely gift for my dear daughter." Two dragons, one dark yellow with dark purple accents and another a near white with lavender horns, came in with a large box.

"Go on dear, open it!" said the queen, gesturing her forwards. Mystery stepped off her throne and bounded towards the box. She opened it and inside was a beautiful set of silver armor inlayed with a single crystal star in the chest plate; small blue stones circled the armbands. Her woebegone familiyless self was soon forgotten.

"Mother it's beautiful!" she exclaimed turning to face the queen. There it was again, that sideways glance towards King Evade. She decided to ignore that and focus on the beautiful silver armor in front of her. Slipping on the silver armbands and the chest plate she noticed that her mother was smiling sadly in her direction.

"Mother?" she questioned.

"Oh, yes dear? Do you like it? Oh I knew you would!" The queen said hurriedly.

"Yes I love it! It's perfect for when, you know, we may need to fight."

"Good." Then Mystery ran up and wrapped her wings around her stepmother, then around her stepfather. But when she reached for Vault he got her first tackling her in a big hug. Over the next few hours, Mystery received jewelry, exotic plants, new paints, and canvases from the rest of the kingdom. After a while, Mystery grew tired of all the attention and retired to her room. It consisted of a shelf of scrolls, a large satin pillow to sleep on, an art easel, and lots and lots of flowers, most of them common black tulips. Mystery slipped quietly across the floor to a certain section of ground. After that, she walked over to a claw mark in the wall and ran her claws through it. The section of floor opened up to a narrow staircase. As she descended a blue light filled the halls. When she reached the bottom, she looked up seeing a large glass ceiling with the lake flowing over it. Her mother had giving her this special room to store her most treasured objects. She searched for a bit then found a large oak chest to keep the armor in. After that, she put on a new gold anklet with a matching necklace inlaid with purple stones.

"My beautiful stepdaughter! So kind of you to join us. Though you are a bit late," her mother exclaimed. The chatter of the dragons drowned out her mother's hypnotizing gaze. Vault snickered. Mystery shot him a look.

"Now darling, let us eat then we have an extremely important announcement to make, don't we dear?" Cyly said once again glancing at the king.

"Yes. Yes we do." her father yawned. Mystery observed that male dragons had a harder time resisting the queen's music. She fought the urge to bow at her mother's claws. Come on Mystery... just curl up and fall asleep... give in... no need to fight it... Mystery could almost hear her stepmother's voice in her head cooing to her.

"Forgive my lateness your majesty. I was planting all my new flowers." she didn't exactly lie; she did plant a few flowers.

The queen waved her talon in dismissal, "Oh never mind that, I have much more exciting news! But shall we eat first?" Over the next half hour, Mystery enjoyed her favorite meal: Fruit salad, roasted pork pies, white bread, a whole buffalo, several flaming albatross, and to finish it off, a humungous bowl full of purple pear shaped fruits.

"Well! Wasn't that delightful? Give all the servants double pay! Good, now as for the announcement! Dear would you like to tell her?" Cyly inquired.

"Ah, well is it um I mean shouldn't you, as the queen uh, tell her?" King Evade mumbled.

"Oh alright if you insist!" the queen said, tracing no annoyance, "Dear, we have and assignment for you! Yes, you get to go do some terribly thrilling things with three of my very best soldiers. We will go over the details tonight in the council room." Mystery stood open mouthed, was this really happening? She had always dreamed of an assignment.

"Do you accept the challenge?"

"Yes." she yelped then realized she didn't even know what it was.