Wings of Fire: Clouded Visions

Chapter Eight

As Sunbeam touched down onto the ground, she folded in her wings and sprinted and zigzagged through the moss covered trees embedded in the ground. Tumbling past the rigid stones burrowed and blended in the ground and the vines braiding along the towering trees, Sunbeam spotted the RainWing village.

Something wasn't right.

The RainWing village seemed...peaceful...quiet...eerily quiet. 

But slowly, Sunbeam realized as she looked harder, hammocks were torn into shreds, black splotches singed the vibrant green floor and trees were snapped in half. On top of that...there were no RainWings or NightWings anywhere. Sunbeam would know if they were camouflaging. She would've spotted them in an instant because a a young dragonet, having that ability, she learned to stencil out the invisible figures of other fellow CloudWings. 

Plus, NightWings would've been like a plump blueberry in a group of bananas. They would've stood out. Tensely stepping deeper into the RainWing village, Sunbeam swiveled her head every which way in case there was danger that pounced at her. As Sunbeam was scouting the area, she spotted an injured RainWing and gasped in horror. It was Queen Glory....

Sprinting over to the queen, Sunbeam skidded to a stop and wrapped her wings around her. She rapidly shook her in panic and to Sunbeam's relief, the queen was alive. Groaning, Glory jerked her eyes open and wobbled onto her paws with Sunbeam's help.

"Are you alright? What happened here? I was only gone for an hour."

"I'm ok." Started Glory, gingerly pressing her talons in the dips of her eyes, trying to concentrate. She flopped on her haunches and Sunbeam anxiously sat down wanting to know everything.

"Just as you left, and after Tsunami and I had to stop all of your friends from following you-especially the NightWing-we all headed for the RainWing village. I already knew something was wrong. NightWings and RainWings were shoving each other trying to get out of the RainWing village. I didn't know why. My fellow bodyguard Deathbringer was trying to calm everyone down as was I and our group once we got there but they wouldn't stop. Seconds later they all just...disappeared leaving my kingdom in shreds."

"That's crazy. I'm sorry. Do you know where they went or how they disappeared?"

"No," Glory sighed agitated, "but my best guess would be with animus magic. But ever since Qibli had made the spell and Turtle cast it...no animus magic has worked."

"So it must've been a spell that was cast before?" Guessed Sunbeam. But that didn't make sense at all.

"What happened to everybody in the group?" Sunbeam asked nervously. As Glory started, Sunbeam sucked in a sharp breath and a gust of wind seeped through her razor sharp teeth and pricked on her tongue.

"I don't know. I was too busy trying to get my tribe to calm down."

Sunbeam now noticed the blood trickling down Queen Glory's scaly underbelly and she helped her up to her paws.

"We need to get you healed."

Reluctantly nodding, Glory got to her talons once more and Sunbeam threw her wing helpfully over Glory and the two made their way to the abandoned healer's hut. Sagging onto the bed, Queen Glory weakly closed her heavy eyes and her tail dangled off the side of the bed. As the chilly rivulet dripped down the back of her paw, Sunbeam slogged up a dripping moss cloth out of an icy cold bucket. She tightly squeezed it between her claws and the water droplets pattered against the surface of the water.

Glory tightened her whole body as Sunbeam dabbed the cloth over her wound to clean the area. Next, Sunbeam took a longer moss cloth that was dry and wrapped it tightly around the queen's body, securing the wound.

"Thanks," said Glory shallowly through her obvious pain. Silently nodding, Sunbeam cleaned up and helped Glory off the bed.

"I know you're injured but--"

"I know. I was just thinking the same thing. I'll live, thanks to you," she gave a sly smile. Sunbeam smiled kindly back, then there was an awkward pause. Reluctantly Sunbeam asked, "is it hard to be the queen of the RainWings?"

"Sometimes, yes, but mostly no.  It's the NightWings that were difficult. But they're better now. It's just a HUGE responsibility and sometimes it pressures me knowing that I have two whole tribes to take care of."

"Oh...." Sunbeam gulped down the lump rising in her throat. At her nervous expression, Glory widened her eyes. "You're not telling me...are you a young queen like I am? Or like Snowfall?"

"No, no," she assured her. It was true. But she didn't need to mention that she was going to be...maybe.

"Well...where do we start? Do you have any clue as to where they went?"

"No, I blacked out before they all disappeared. I don't know what happened to anybody. But I suggest we go to Queen Thorn or Queen Pearl. Just incase we need backup," Glory suggested.

Sunbeam nodded and the two came out of the hut just as her stomach emitted a complaining roar.

"Looks like we should fuel up first," said Glory kindly.

"No, we need to--"

"Nope!" Snapped Glory, "we're getting you and me food so we can have energy to fight. I may not be your queen but I'm commanding you to do it."

Playfully rolling her eyes, Sunbeam floated off the ledge and snatched up scattered fruits on the floor. She stacked them on her paws and gulped them down in a blink of an eye.

"There," Sunbeam gushed out from her mouth full of colorful, mucilaginous fruit. "I ate. Now can we go?"

Gurgling a laugh, Glory pressed her talons into the ground, forcing herself to stop because of her wound. But she couldn't.

"I didn't know a queen could laugh so much!" Sunbeam teased laughing hard holding her paw over her chest.

"I didn't know I could laugh so much," she giggled but it died down and she wrinkled her eyes half shut.

"My friends have never made me laugh so much."

"I'm sorry, I don't want to replace your friends. But my friends have never made me laugh that hard like you did," she made a small frown.

But I still think they're great friends....

After an uncomfortable moment in the suffocating silence, Sunbeam breathed, "should we go to the SandWing kingdom?"

Nodding, Glory knew they couldn't waste time anymore. The two flapped out of the covering of the trees and dipped into the gust of wind that made their ride easier-though Sunbeam along with all CloudWing's wings never got tired.

On the silent flight, both Sunbeam and Queen Glory shared the cloud of anxiety. Pyrriah was turning creepily evil and Sunbeam seemed to be a few wing beats behind the evil. How was it doing all of this so quickly and what was its next move going to be?

...

About an hour and a half passed and they were entering into the SandWing territory. Both Glory and Sunbeam faltered in their flap and they had to steady themselves.

Both of their sparkly scaly jaws dropped in awe.... Sunbeam couldn't believe what stood before her but she had to believe it. Because in front of her was the next sign of the evil being a step ahead.