Black and Gold: The Sun

Chapter 3: Discussion

Amira waited in the desert, rather nervous and impatient. She lay in the cover of shade behind a large stone to avoid the desert heat.

She heard the flapping of wings a little ways behind her, and expecting the worst peeked over the edge of the rock only to see by Zerroxs familiar figure, along with a Navy blue dragon landing beside him.

Zerrox was facing away from her. Amira assumed he hadn't seen her from behind the rock. Amira climbed out from behind the large rock, feeling the sun already begin to beat down on her scales.

She walked out, trotting over to Zerrox. Nova glanced over Zerrox's shoulder, confusion flashed across her face. She lunged at Amira, tackling her to the sand. Amira felt the breath get pushed out of her on impact.

Nova pinned her to the sand, sitting on top of her and snarling. Amira struggled to regain her breath, mainly due to the large dragon pinning her down. Amira struggled and tried to push Nova off, but the shock and loss of breath made it too difficult. 

Zerrox stood in shock for a few seconds before running over and pulling Nova off of Amira. Amira turned onto her side and coughed, breathing in gulp after gulp of air. Nova glared at Zerrox.

"What are you doing!?" She asked angrily.

"That's um. Amira. The friend I told you about." Zerrox explained. 

Novas face dropped in realization. 

"I am so sorry! I didn't know!" Nova said apologetically.

She rushed over and offered Amira her claw. Amira smiled half heartedly and grabbed her claw, pulling herself up off the sand. Amira turned and brushed the grains of sand off of her scales.

"It's fine. it's fine. It's not like its the first time something like this has happened to one of us." Amira said nonchalantly, a small trace of annoyance in her voice.

"Are you sure?" Nova asked. "I did tackle you."

"psh, yeah." Amira said. She paused and blew a puff of smoke. "It's not that big of a deal. You just startled me."

Nova let out a sigh of relief, but Amira had a feeling Nova didn't trust her. 

"Yeah. Amira is a nice dragon. Now if you did that to Ruby then you'd be in trouble. She tends to fight first ask questions later if you get what I mean." Zerrox said, laughing.

Amira gave a little smile. "When we first found her she attacked both of us and tried to run away."

"Hm When do I get to meet her?" Nova asked.

"Hopefully sooner rather than later. She is supposed to be on her way here with the cockatrice." Zerrox explained, looking out into the horizon.

"Wait wait wait. The cockatrice? She went to go get Viczeron?" Nova asked, obviously in shock.

"Yeah? Why?" Amira asked.

"Well he hates dragons. Not just he doesn't like them, he wants to rip every dragon limb from limb." Nova said quickly. "Although if she does manage to convince him, he will be a very powerful asset."

"Well then lets hope she was able to convince him, otherwise we are short one dragon and one cockatrice." Amira said quickly.

Zerrox nodded in agreement. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the loud sound of large wings flapping a little ways ahead. All three of the dragons heads whirled to face the sound, only to see Viczeron flying towards them, Ruby by his side.

Zerrox smiled brightly, happy that she was unharmed. They both landed, Viczeron sending small dunes of sand away with his wings. Amira ran up to Ruby excitedly. Ruby smiled happily at Amira, her gaze shifting to Zerrox, and then narrowing suspiciously at Nova. 

Zerrox noticed this, and quickly jumped in to avoid conflict. 

"Ah, Ruby this is Nova!" Zerrox said, walking over to Nova. 

Ruby smiled. "That makes sense. I mean you left to go rescue a navy blue dragon. It's kind of obvious." She said cheerily. She walked up to Nova and held out her claw. 

"Nice to meet you Nova. I'm Ruby." She said with a large grin.

Nova grabbed her hand and shook it begrudgingly. Amira noticed the awkward connection between the two, but brushed it off as nothing. Ruby let go of Novas hand and took a step back, she swung both arms towards Viczeron, who stood by Amira, his wings folded to his sides. 

"And this is Viczeron." Ruby said, introducing the cockatrice.

"Nice to meet you all." He said gruffly.

"We've met before." Nova said, raising a brow at the cockatrice.

"We have. If I do recall, you called Vividean a spoiled child. Very brave, but stupid." Viczeron said, squawking joyously.

Nova rolled her eyes. "Someone had to tell the truth." She mumbled.

Zerrox jumped in. "Now that everyone is here, we can start the plan. Or well, explaining the plan." 

Amira nodded in agreement. "We need everyone to be as familiar with the plan as possible. We have no room for error."

Nova cocked her head. "So like a life or death scenario?" 

Zerrox nodded vigorously.

"Exactly. If we don't do this plan correctly, or if it doesn't go smoothly, we could all end up dead." Zerrox commented.

Viczeron sat on the sand, folding his feet beneath him. "So exactly what is the master plan." He sad semi-sarcastically.

Ruby stepped forward. "The plan is Nova goes to Sunval, Rockhodge, any place she can and try to convince dragons to join us. The more we get, the better. Then Amira goes to GriffinSkys to convince some griffons to join, if she can. Windwings said he was in debt to us, but it isn't a definite thing that they'll join. Then, we train all of the people we have, to do magic. Charge in, and defeat Vividean with as little casualties as possible."

"But, we have to make sure they have the spells completely right. Nova and I learned the hard way what happens to dragons that mess up." Zerrox added, glancing to Nova.

Ruby nodded. 

"So where do I come in?" Viczeron asked.

"Well. We'd need you to fight with us. Dragons and Griffins are good and all, but having a cockatrice would be a real big advantage." Amira said, glancing between the group members. 

Zerrox and Ruby nodded in agreement.

"So!" Amira said suddenly, clapping her claws together. "Who's ready to start?"

Nova backed up a little bit. "I'm sorry, but if you hadn't noticed, i'm not exactly very diplomatic. How am I supposed to convince that many dragons to join us?"

"Well, to be honest, you are our best option right now. They won't trust any of us because of our scales and the whole Merlack thing." Amira commented.

Novas ears dropped and she furrowed her brows. 

"Well thanks for the confidence boost." She said, annoyance clear in her voice. Zerrox put a claw on her shoulder.

"Trust me. I'm positive you can get them to our side. I'll even come with you if you want. I'll have to hide, but having me nearby may make you be more confident?" Zerrox asked, unsure of his own statement.

Nova seemed to perk up a bit.

"Yeah! That'd be great!" She said cheerily.

Ruby frowned slightly.

"I have a bad feeling about this dragon." She thought to herself, narrowing her eyes at the navy blue dragon as she and Zerrox continued to commerce.

"Maybe I should keep an eye on her. At least for now."