Wings of Fire: Saguaro Legends

Chapter 17

     7 years later...

    Maroon burst through the door, her maple brown eyes carrying a more jovial look than Saguaro had seen since Rouge had died, "You'll never believe it!"

      "What happened?" Crimson turned his alert expression to his mother, good news had not recently been a common occurance.

       Maroon was just buzzing with excitement, "The war ended!"

       The three dragons in the room leapt to their talons in a burst of surprise.

       "What?" Gorge cried as Crimson ran to hug his mother.

        After the brief explosion of joy Saguaro began to think, a big worry began to build up inside of her stomach like a snowball being rolled down the side of a mountain, "What happened to my mother?"

          The question extinguished the room's flame of happiness like a pail full of cold water, knowing the circumstances, Blaze was probably dead.

          "Honey," Maroon said, "your mother is alive."

           "She's QUEEN?" Saguaro cried in horror, as much as she didn't want her dead, the idea of someone with a brain like Blaze's ruling one if the biggest kingdoms in Pyrrhia was toi disastrous to even think about.

           "No," Maroon shook her head, "it's complicated. You see, the Eye of Onyx chose someone else... a commoner named... oh what was it Prickle? No, Thorn, a dragon named Thorn is the new queen of the SandWings."

            Saguaro sighed in relief, this was the best possible outcome for her, not dead, but still not queen.

         "Are you going to go back to her?"  Crimson asked nervously.

          "What?" She shook her head, "Crimson, I love you too much to leave. I love all of you too much to do that." Saguaro looked around the room at the faces of Maroon, Gorge, and Crimson, "You guys are my family now, and I couldn't bear to turn back."

            "Good thing you said that," Crimson cracked a sweet half-smile, "because I've been meaning to give this to you for awhile." he held out a bronze ring with a small stone of peridot twisted into the metal, "Saguaro, will you marry me?"

             She glanced towards Maroon who was beginning to tear up, and then to Gorge who was smiling softly and nodding, "If you don't accept I will." he chuckled, causing Crimson shoot him a glare.

              Ever since the first night they had met Gorge that had been a running joke. When Crimson had no idea how to create small talk to kill the unsettling silence he had just said, "So... you like males?" and Gorge had laughed, "Aw, don't be so charming, I might develop a crush on you." Crimson had somehow managed to turn even redder as he sputtered about how he didn't mean anything in that territory, and Rouge had leaned across the table to whisper, "Too late."

"Yes."