Wings of Fire: Holocaust of the Skies {FINISHED}

Chapter 16

"Why would Queen Moorhen think that I'm trying to kill her?" Queen Glory questioned as she lashed her tail. "There must be a misunderstanding."
Jenny, Gavin and Grapefruit stood in front of the queen. "I believe it was Queen Andesine, Your Majesty." Gavin says. Jenny looked at Gavin with the "what-in-the-three-moons-is-coming-out-of-your-mouth" look. Gavin still continued what he was saying. "She has been spreading lies across Pyrrhia, Your Majesty. That's how she makes the tribes battle each other."

Glory went silent for a few moments, opening and closing her mouth, as if she was going to say something but then decided not to. "My RainWing soldiers need more time to train," Glory finally says. "But I will hope my soldiers train and learn fast enough so we can put a stop to this war."

The queen then dismissed the dragonets, and they all walked out. "Why would the queen want the tribes to kill each other if she wants to rule them all? Wouldn't she want to gain their trust?" Grapefruit says as he walked across the walkway with Jenny and Gavin. "Maybe she knows that the tribes won't allow her to rule over them, at least without a fight," Jenny says. "And even though the SkyWings are very skilled, they cannot fight all six other tribes together."

"But," Gavin says suddenly. "What if she's trying to decrease the population of each tribe?"
"..What?" Grapefruit said.
"Look, there are at least thousands of dragons in each tribe, and think about it. Ruling over about... Six thousand dragons would be pretty hard," Said Gavin.

"If she lessens the population, the easier it is to control each tribe. Plus, if one tribe tries to rebel against her power, the queen may have more SkyWings than that tribe, and she could easily wipe them out."
"She's just making it easier for herself," Jenny gasped. "But she doesn't exactly know how many dragons are being killed."
"Each tribe is probably going to slowly go extinct at this rate!" Grapefruit exclaimed.
"That's why we need to stop it," Gavin says as he stood up tall. "To save Pyrrhia and it's dragons, and to being peace, of course."

☾

The dragonets flew through the Sand Kingdom, irritated and exhausted by the heat. Though it was a clear, cloudless day, with no SandWings in sight.
Queen Glory had sent them on another small task for preparation of the (possible) assassination of Queen Andesine. Glory needed thorns from a special type of cactus which the SandWings call "Azollae". The Azollae cactus tastes sweet when eaten, but it's covered in poisonous thorns, that if a dragon is pricked by one, it causes severe muscle pain, even cramps and in severe cases: death. The cactus is large and dark green, and covered in the dreaded thorns.

"The heat is the main reason why I dislike the Sand Kingdom," Jenny says. "No breeze, no shade. Only heat, heat, and more heat."
Grapefruit didn't complain about the heat at all. "I feel pretty okay," he says. "Though I do feel a bit warmer than usual."
"We really need to watch out for SandWings," Jenny says worryingly. "When I was escaping the NightWing island, I didn't see any SandWings at all. Its like they all disappeared."
"Maybe they were already extincted!" Grapefruit yelled. The dragonets then landed on the hot sand. Grapefruit winced, jumping and leaping away from the sand, as if scorpions were crawling up his claws. "Ow! The sand is really hot! Ooowww!" Grapefruit hovered above the sand, flapping his wings and sending sand everywhere. Gavin and Jenny squinted, not wanting sand to get into their eyes.

"We'll go look for the cactus then," Gavin says. "Tell us if you see any SandWings around." Grapefruit gladly nodded and changed his scales to light blue, flying into the sky and almost immediately disappearing.
Gavin and Jenny walked through the vast desert, looking for the cactus.
"Are we really going to stop the war?" Jenny says as she kicked some sand. "I mean, the SkyWing queen is really powerful, and I know you have your animus magic and all but... What if you get killed? What would we do then?"
"I can't really answer that," Gavin said. "But all I can say is that I'll try my best not to die, and protect you, Grapefruit, and the RainWings."
"Why would you protect me?" Jenny says.
"Why wouldn't I? Because I care, you know?"
Jenny grinned at the fact Gavin cares about her.

"We should really pay attention and look for this cactus," Jenny says, looking off into the distance. "Yeah," Gavin said.
The two NightWings looked for the plant for about an hour, stumbling across more scorpions and lizards than cacti itself. Gavin expected the desert to be filled with them. Jenny had found one cactus in the sand, but it was very short and had red flowers growing from it, and it was light green in color. Jenny had the urge to whack the plant with her tail, but Gavin told her it was a very bad idea.

After deciding to look for the cactus from above, Jenny suddenly plunged down to the ground. She hovered around a large and long cactus that was covered in some many thorns it was hard to tell what the color of the actual cactus was. Fortunately, it was the cactus they was looking for. "Yes!" Gavin cheered as he carefully plucked the thick thorns from the cactus and into his satchel. Jenny helped out too, and she was joyful as well. "I wonder what these thorns will be used for." Jenny says as she dropped a thorn into her own satchel. "Maybe for darts? The RainWings use sleeping darts, and maybe they use these thorns to prick enemies."
"Smart," Jenny says. "And very clever. I've never expected the RainWings to come up with something as cool as that."

After a few minutes of plucking clawfuls of thorn, Gavin and Jenny heard Grapefruit shouting in the distance. He sounded so far away. When they looked into the sky, they saw a golden figure flying in the sky. "What is Grapefruit doing? And why isn't he camouflaged anymore?" Gavin says. Jenny shrugged. "Go find out what he's hollering about. I'll collect more thorns." Jenny said. Gavin leapt into the sky, approaching Grapefruit. "Grapefruit! What are you doing?" Gavin yelled. Grapefruit didn't respond, and flew to Gavin at a faster pace. His wingbeats were thunderous and loud, as if he had grown big and enormous. When Gavin got close enough, he squinted his eyes at Grapefruit, wondering why he was so big.
Then his heart dropped.
That wasn't Grapefruit.

It was a SandWing.