Adventure Of A Lifetime

Chapter 24: Leaving The Den

When Scorch and Coal got back, the others looked restless.

Amber and Comet were lying on the dusty couch, but Typhoon, Blizzard, and Leaf were pacing.

"Can we go now?" Leaf asked as Blizzard lashed his tail for the fifth time in five seconds.

"Sure," Coal replied.

"Stay alert," Scorch hissed as they exited.

"Why do you keep saying that?" Amber asked.

"Because you don't know the Scorpion Den," Scorch replied simply. "It's a very dangerous place, probably the most dangerous in Pyrrhia."

They made it through the city with no trouble and were exiting when another fight broke out.

The same three dragons were standing in front of them, barring the exit. Blizzard lunged forward, but was cut off by a hiss from behind. Ten dragons were behind them. Scorch's heart stopped. She was sure her, Coal, and Blizzard could fight, maybe Typhoon, but Amber and Comet were small and narrow-shouldered and Leaf was even smaller than them. She was sure Leaf wouldn't be much help, but changed her mind when he blasted one of the ten with venom. He screamed and fell down.

For a moment, there was silence.

"Now we go!" Scorch screeched, pushing past two dragons and leaping into the sky, the others behind her. They were pursued for a second, but their pursuers headed back down after about thirty minutes. Ahead of them was the Diamond Spray Delta.

As they flew, Scorch's thoughts drifted away like cactus blossoms on the breeze. She thought of her childhood. She remembered it much more clearly then most dragonets. She, her brother Sandstorm, and her mother had lived on their own for three years. Her father had gone off to fight in the Great War when Scorch had been one year old and had never come back. Her mother had been stabbed by a dragonbite viper about 2 years ago and had died. Then they'd made it to a SandWing orphanage, lived there for a year and a half, and gone to Jade Mountain Academy. There, Sandstrom had died in the explosion, Scorch had been left heartbroken, and here she was, flying to the rivers, to find an animus who was probably crazy, definitely hated Coal, and definitely had a strange travel agenda.