Wings of Fire: Hearts of Black and Gold

The Desert

Despite her anxiety, Storm was able to get a minute amount of sleep. Unfortunately they were rising early today in order to get to the Sand Kingdom by midday. Storm groaned as she was woken by the others as they gathered their things. These restless nights are really taking their toll on me. I've had a constant headache since that pirate bludgeoned me over the head. What I would give for a nice snow bank to lie down in!

The sun was rising and Storm put a wing over her head to block it out. She felt Oryx nudge her with his wings. "Come on, rise and shine!" He beamed, trying to annoy her but obviously in a better mood than he had been last night. She grumbled at him and slowly got to her feet. Her scales felt filthy and she still had dried blood on her face.

Once they were all awake Canyon went over the plan once more to the group and everyone agreed. The plan, in general, was to go to the Sand Kingdom and once there they would gather information as quickly as possible. Canyon even knew of a SandWing that was involved in the illegal trading of priceless animus objects. He would find and question this SandWing while the others did their own investigations.

With a more or less solid plan, they made preparations for departure and Oryx was even incredibly optimistic.

"Don't worry, Caracal. We'll save you!" He shouted to the sky and started flying around in anticipation. If I got half as much sleep as he did I'm sure I would feel just as energetic. She internally groaned.

As Storm rubbed the tiredness from her eyes, flakes of dry blood and dirt flaked off. She grimaced with disgust. "I'm going to clean off my face, I'll be right back," Storm announced, heading in the direction of the ocean.

"That's actually a good idea," Lotus responded. "Canyon, you should go as well. The salt water will clean your wounds. Oryx and I can finish the packing while you two go clean up."

Indeed the SkyWing's wounds from the previous night looked red and irritated under their coating of dried blood.

"Yes...it's probably not a good idea arriving in a new Kingdom looking like we've just been in a fight," He agreed.

The SkyWing and IceWing walked in silence towards beach. Storm waded into the water until it reached halfway up her legs and then ducked completely under.

She emerged from the water a second later; her head wound had begun to burn from the salt water to the point where it was unbearable. She sat in the water grasping the side of her head with the abrasion.

Storm lowered her talon and heard Canyon wince as her wound was revealed. "What did they hit you with, a hammer covered in teeth? We probably should have treated this last night."

Storm sat rigid as he approached her and began to wrap a bandage around her head. After he was finished her head felt substantially better, although her wound was still stinging. They continued to clean the dirt off their scales in silence.

"You know, you don't talk very much. I always feel like I'm the one conversing," He suddenly pointed out and Storm huffed in annoyance.

"That's ridiculous. When we were returning from the island I told you plenty of things about me!" She countered. Probably way more than I should have. "If anything you're the one that is secretive," She accused while trying to wash the sand from between her toes.

"I'm not secretive...I'm just cautious," Canyon defended. "Besides, if we're going to be allies in this adventure then don't you think we should know more about each other?"

Storm liked the idea of finding out more about this SkyWing, but she would have to be more careful about what information she let out. She still felt foolish for being so open with this random dragon she barely knew. Then again, she had never really learned how to 'talk' to anyone so to speak. In the Ice Kingdom dragons didn't talk to each other for the sake of a friendly conversation. Every meeting had a purpose and no one asked how you were doing or what was wrong. It's probably best if I keep quiet since every time I open my mouth I can't seem to shut up. How embarrassing. Still, the allure of finding out more about Canyon was too strong.