Infatuation's Deadly Game

Chapter Two

The next day, all twenty-four dragons participating in the Hunger Games arrived at a massive grey structure. It was dawn, and quite a few of them were yawning. All of them had their own worries about what they were going to do now and what would happen to them, but none of them said a word.

Their escorts, an entourage of seven SteelWings of different rankings, let them stare at the structure for a few moments, then barked at them to enter it. Knowing they had no choice but to comply, the twelve pairs of dragons slowly shuffled into the structure.

Winter and Moon were walking next to each other in the middle of the line of dragons. Winter stared resolutely ahead as they walked - or rather, marched - to their destination, which was, according to their escorts, the Throne Room. Moon, on the other talon, was looking down at the ground as the group plodded on, amazed by the things they were seeing but too scared and tense to stop and admire them.

Winter glanced at Moon, and he let out a soft sigh as he noticed her gloominess. He twined his tail with hers, causing her to look up. Tears pooled in her eyes as she murmured," Winter, I'm so scared. What are we going to do?"

Winter put his wing over her comfortingly. "We're not going to do anything. The moment I see those tyrants, I'm going to blast their faces off with frostbreath," he whispered fiercely in her ear.

She let out a small laugh at his words but didn't make any further move to continue the conversation. Winter kept his wing over Moon as they walked, glaring at a passing SteelWing guard. What a weird looking dragon, he thought disdainfully.

The structure had looked large from the outside, and now that they were inside it, it felt even larger. Perhaps it was an illusion created by the number of passageways they had to troop down,  though it seemed unlikely as some of the dragons were beginning to tire.

Coconut was one of them. The lazy RainWing was already wheezing from the long walk. He turned to Jambu, hoping for some encouragement, but found the bright pink RainWing studying the walls cheerfully and ignoring him. He sighed, then sighed again as his stomach grumbled. "I wish I had a papaya," he muttered.

It seemed like forever before the SteelWings leading the dragons halted, signalling that they had arrived. Fatespeaker and Sunny, the pair at the front of the line, halted and peered around suspiciously. They were in front of a massive stone archway, and beyond it was an elaborately furnished room. Eight large stone chairs formed a semicircle in the centre of it, each chair adorned with a different design. The ground was laid with gemstones that twinkled slightly in the dim light provided by tiny suns on the ceiling. They way they twinkled brought a sad smile to Sunny's face.

Fatespeaker glanced around a bit more, then leant over to Sunny and hissed, "I'm getting a vision. A really bad one about this place. I think the walruses are a good sign, though."

"Be quiet!" the SteelWing guard snapped. Fatespeaker shut her mouth with a snap, eyes darting around nervously.

Sunny watched curiously as one by one, the SteelWings lowered themselves to their ground, heads bowed and wings spread. Their armour clinked slightly as they shifted, and they stayed there, unmoving.

The silence was suffocating. Fatespeaker itched to say something to break it, but she didn't want to risk being hurt by the guards. She heard someone behind her let out a nervous cough, and she struggled not to do the same.

Out of the blue, a voice echoed from the far end of the room. "I see our visitors have arrived."

Fatespeaker did not recognise the voice, but clearly, someone behind her did. There was a low hiss as a blue blur shot out of a pool hidden by the stone thrones. Fatespeaker lurched back as Torosa landed in front of her, blue wings outstretched. She could feel her heart pounding as Torosa locked eyes with her, forcing her to stare deep into those unnerving blue eyes of hers.