The Twin Islands-Wings of Fire

Artemis

Solstice's face still unnerved her.

Though, as they walked through the dark and cramped walls of Solar's palace, more than just the gaze of the black dragoness taunted at Artemis' mind.

An immense feeling of wrongness was bearing down on her at all possible angles. Her head felt airy and wrong, and her eyes like they might pop. Then came a pressure that was so suddenly intense she had to grit her teeth.

"Artemis." Mamba said, and her blue eyes flickered for a moment as she halted in her corpse-like steps for the Rainwing. Tempest shuffled past with Mudpuddle, murmuring her concern and briefly twining her tail with Artemis'. She tried to smile. The Rainwing returned it, and it gave her a small burst of energy.

"Something feels wrong." She admitted as she walked along her friend. Her voice felt dusted and ancient as the walls themselves as she and her friends quietly shambled forward. "Ever since we walked into the palace- and especially since the painting..."

"Hey." Mamba said, nudging up her face with her tail so that she stared her in the eyes. They glowed like a rainforest cats, deadly and curious.

"Remember to  trust your instincts, Artemis. Don't fight the feeling- I'm getting a warning of sorts too. I have no doubts so are the others... I don't know what we're about to face out there, if I'm honest. Solar could trap us like mice if we aren't careful."

"Maybe careful isn't the way to go." She murmured. "Maybe... maybe we're going about it wrong. I just don't know."

"We're going about it in the best way we can." Mamba replied, though Artemis still felt shaken.

"Miss Artemis." Said Sunbell, and the Nightwing glanced up from her talons. She folded her wings and bowed her head at her, and Artemis blinked her blue eyes in confusion.

"I'm afraid I must leave you and your friends to yourselves now." The Daywing admitted, sheepishly. It was wide enough now in the hidden corridor that she could slip past the others to the back of the group with Artemis and Mamba. She flicked her bladeless tail.

"I wish to help, truly, but I'm no fighter, and would be a nuisance more than anything. I have to go and round up the other servants make sure they are safe. I wish you the best of luck, and hope you have endless courage. You are doing a noble thing." She reached for her talons and held them in her own, and Artemis thought back to the horrid carving on the beautiful painting as she stared at their scales side-by-side.

Whoever wrote that was wrong. Night and Day could be. That was the nature of dawn, dusk, and twilight, after all.

Hope fluttered to life in her chest, and she suddenly felt more peace with her decisions.

"Courage and luck to you, too, Sunbell." She smiled. "I'm glad to have met you. We will see you when this is all over, and you and your tribe are safe."

"Thank you." Said the Daywing, to not only
Artemis but her friends as well.

Then she was gone.

______

Artemis tumbled out onto a rug floor as they fell out of the large portrait. Said portrait was actually a door from inside the walls- and they had just stumbled into it.

"Watch the tail!" Seaglass yelped, and Snowfall more or less lifted him up and away from the hissing Sandwing curled up on the rug. Mamba gracefully stepped over Potent to ease the portrait-door shut. A snarling, old-looking Daywing glared at them with his silver eyes. Must've been a relative to Solar.

They were in some dragon's chambers, near the very top of the palace. Artemis guessed it belonged to one of Solar's sons, given the piles and piles of warn out maps, spilled inkwells, the chest in the corner full of glimmering armor and coins, weapons haphazardly about the floor, and downy blankets with far too many holes. That, and the dirty look Archangel was giving the items.