Wings of Fire: The LightningWing

Chapter 17 - Scavengers

Typically, when flying, conversations never started, but this time, it might of had to. The dragonets lifted off the ground to fly behind the magic marble, but eventually they realized just how long the trip would be after a long, silent hour. Avalanche started moaning and complaining about how hot the desert was so his annoying murmuring stirred up conversations. "An IceWing is not fit for such down-sided weather!" Avalanche snarled, briskly flapping his wings as he followed behind the pack. Cobra laughed as she lead the dragonets. "It is for a SandWing!" She barked at Avalanche as he sneaked a glare. Shock laughed and brushed his wing over Mist's, who smiled but directed her attention to the marble. Something was wrong with her. She wasn't as . . . happy as the Mist he knew. Shock flew next to Paradise who smiled and whacked him with her tail. Well, no difference with her. Shock watched Maroon spread her wings wide and dip her claws at the sand, swooping up whirlwinds of dirt. Cobra barked at her to stay with the rest of the dragonets, but Maroon claimed it was too hot to huddle in a big group. As the marble flew ahead, it lead them into the Mud and then Sky Kingdom, where Shock wanted to rest. He wondered if the marble would stop. Shock flattened his wings to glide and called "Stop!" to the marble right after a hungry bellow from his stomach. The marble crashed into Shock's palm as the rest of the dragonets pivoted and pummeled to the ground. Shock once read the the queen of the SkyWings, Queen Scarlet, was the last queen a group of dragonets destined for prophecy would want to meet. Resting in the Sky Kingdom had benefits, though. Shock had always wanted to see a scavenger, and the creepy little creatures were best known in Scarlet's kingdom. Shock had read that scavengers were small and hopeless disgusting food, but somewhat cunning in the way of killing the SandWing Queen, Queen Oasis. Shock scraped his talons on the soft mushy dirt as Toad sifted his talons through it. He squinted and looked to Maroon, who growled and turned her back to plop down. Toad looked to Shock and said, "Shock, it's dry. We are close to the main parts of the Sky Kingdom . . ." Toad hesitated. "and Queen Scarlet." Shock winced and looked above him. The sky was a vibrant baby blue with hints of dotted purple. It wasn't filled with the orange and red fiery scales blasting plumes of fire at the dragonets. Shock looked back to Toad as Cobra, Paradise, Avalanche, Maroon, Sightseer, and Beluga all stared at Toad too. Maroon quickly whirled back around and snarled deeply. "Really, Toad? We're miles from the palace. There is no way we could ever be discovered." Avalanche gave Maroon a dirty glare before poising his ears. "Take that back, Maroon. I hear wings." Above them, orange blinded the light and fire extended from the cloud. It was the army of SkyWings. Shock worriedly glanced to the sky, dodging plumes of smoke and fire. The soldiers must have thought that these dragonets were the dragonets of prophecy, which is very mistaken considering their numbers. Shock signaled the dragonets to follow him as he bounded into the brush. The others followed him as he crept through the bushes. Mist was almost nipping Shock's tail trying to stay hidden and following. Eventually the smoke smell disappeared and the sound of wings and snorting vanished. Shock lead the dragonets into a small clearing, except it wasn't clear. A city of towering stone made for extremely small creatures that Shock had guessed was a civilization of scavengers. Maroon ducked her head and snarled deeply. "Scavengers." She barked, marching up to the cunningly built structures. When Shock followed, he saw tiny two-legged creatures dressed in regal fur coats with various colors like black, brown, and blue. Shock peered at a female's undercoat, or tan skin. Why would any animal have skin? Maroon swooped a male scavenger in her talon and positioned her head to bite before Paradise flapped her wings open and grabbed the scavenger from Maroon. "I was going to eat that!" Maroon bellowed, clawing at Paradise's talons. Paradise closed her talon around the scavenger safely and smiled. "Try going more vegetarian. Plus, these little guys are celebrities! They started the war, you know! Killed Oasis?" Maroon snarled and nodded her head. "That is half of why I was going to eat it." Avalanche carefully studied the creature in Paradise's claw and gave it a disgusted look. "That thing kill Queen Oasis? I mean, that thing? IceWings have those in our kingdom, but they usually run." Shock soothed his breath and recited a passage in one of the scrolls he read. "They are typical treasure hoards." Shock squinted to look better at the tiny creatures screaming in horror at the dragons. Most of the little creatures screamed and ran into their artwork, opening the doors to their buildings. Before one of the male scavengers could charge into a building, Maroon quickly swooped it up and popped it in her mouth. She snapped her jaw shut as Shock covered his snout with his wing and Mist growled in surprise. Mist laid low on her haunches and flapped her wings, laying her neck on the mushy ground. A young childish scavenger ran from the town, up to her snout and carefully laid a clawless talon on her nostril. Mist snorted, but smiled, and scooped the tiny creature into her palm. Paradise laid the scavenger she held down on the ground and it ran to the village. Mist poked her talon at the little scavenger's head and propped her ears. Wait, Shock could hear something. It was a voice, but too scratchy to be a dragon's. Mist smiled at the scavenger and nodded to whisper when Shock noticed what he was hearing, the scavenger! Mist nodded again and Shock looked to the other dragonets, who knew none of what the scavenger was saying. Wait, could LightningWings hear the voices of scavengers? Then, Shock heard the slightest of words. The scavenger said "Red dragon ate my father."