Wings of Fire: Clouded Visions

Chapter Nine

Revealed in front of Sunbeam and Glory was definitely the SandWing kingdom.... To their shock and horror, however, it was all sunken in one ginormous void underneath them that took up almost all of the SandWing territory.

Awe-struck by what was in front of them, Queen Glory and Sunbeam didn't think to go down and see if there were any dragons...they just stared.

Minutes passed and Glory blew out a spearing breath, "we have to go down there to see if anybody survived the sink in."

Stiffly nodding, Sunbeam started flapping toward the hole next to Glory. Coming into a hover, the two dragons stared down the yawning, massive hole seeing nothing but a black pit of eeriness and spine-ticking darkness blanketing over the gap.

Forcing down a painful boulder in her from rolling up in her throat, Sunbeam glanced sideways to Glory for a split second then tightly folded in her wings, diving down and down. Glory followed.

As they dove down, it felt like the evil force was tugging them down into its trap...which they were probably doing just that. Descending further down, Sunbeams eyes flickered and changed to adjust to the night as apart of her powers, unlike Glory, who couldn't see in the dark.

As though she was reading her mind Glory asked, "can you see in the dark?"

"Yes. I can." She breathed nervously. "I still can't see anything."

Minutes flew by as they kept diving down and down until Sunbeam gasped, "I think I see about three dragons down there!"

"Where? Ugh stupid no night vision eyes!" Glory muttered irritably. But as they got closer to the underground surface, Glory and Sunbeam noticed that there were dimly lit torches protruding from the wall where tunnels had been drilled.

By now, Glory did see the three dragons pacing in confused circles, surrounded by the multitude of tunnels.

"Hey!" Glory called as Sunbeam and she landed roughly into the damp, cold sandy ground. The three dragons in the room along with them were Queen Thorn, Qibli and another dragon Sunbeam didn't know.

"Qibli!!" Sunbeam gasped at the same time Qibli shouted her name.

The two embraced in a tight hug.

"Are you alright?? Are you hurt?" Qibli asked nervously.

"I'm fine. Are you ok? What in the THREE MOONS happened? I only left for like an hour!" She paused and scrunched up her snout and her eyes glistened. "I'm sorry I left you...there was something important I needed to take care of."

"Don't worry about it. Tsunami explained it to the group. I was just worried about you."

"Thanks," she gave him a sheepish smile.

"Ahem," Queen Thorn butted in, "I'm so very glad that you are reunited together but we have a TON to figure out. My first question is...are you a hybrid or another new tribe we don't know about?"

"I am a new tribe. I'm a CloudWing. I come in peace and I'm actually here to help you with your continent because as you can tell, there is evil spreading and no one knew about it," Sunbeam introduced herself for like the hundred millionth time. 

"Welcome to Pyrriah. Thank you for helping us. Perhaps you can answer one of my questions of  WHERE THE MOONS IS MY KINGDOM AND ALL THE SANDWING DRAGONS?!"

"Yes, we will figure everything out," started Glory confidently but her mind rang, I have no idea how though.

"Both our kingdoms are destroyed...lets just hope that none of the other kingdoms are," Glory worried.

"I'm sure they're fine, and before you know it, we'll get your guys's restored too," assured Sunbeam kindly. In return, Queen Thorn gave a weak smile and stiffly nodded.

"Who is this with you?" Asked Sunbeam in a hushed tone to Qibli, nodding her head over to the staring dragonet.

"His name is Cactus. He's deaf."

"Oh, do you know him?"

Qibli shook his head. "All I know is that he's been staying in the palace with Queen Thorn because no one has offered to help him with communicating. He was abandoned as a young dragonet. I think he's four maybe."

"That's sad. But you have a good Queen to take care of him."

Sunbeam just recognized that her aunt hadn't taken her under Sunbeam's wing. But Sunbeam didn't like the feeling of living in a grand castle. Plus, she wasn't deaf.

She reached into Cactus's mind. 

What's going to happen? What kind of dragon is that? Maybe a hybrid but of like four dragons? I don't know. Don't worry about that. Your home has sunken and you need to protect your queen, Cactus. 

Poor Cactus. Thought Sunbeam.

Sunbeam had so many more questions for Qibli but the two queens, coming out of their quiet conversation, had decided that they needed to explore the surrounding tunnels to see if there was a way out.

"Why can't we just fly up from the hole?" Asked Sunbeam.

"We tried but there's like a force field that drags us down and we can't escape that way," explained Thorn with a frustrated huff.

"Alright, we can go in a pair of two and a group of three."

Qibli shifted his eyes to Sunbeam then Queen Thorn.

"You can go with your Queen. I understand," said Sunbeam assuringly, although a twinge of sadness zapped her.

After a moment, Qibli shook his head. "I'll go with you. I think it's wise to have a SandWing in each group. And I want to be with my friend," he smiled sheepishly.

"Thanks," said Sunbeam with a broad grin, "alright we'll see you three in a bit."

"Ok just be careful," Thorn ordered.

"And don't get into trouble," added Glory "and holler if you need us."

"We will," Sunbeam nodded. Thorn winged for Cactus to go with her and Glory down a tunnel as Qibli and Sunbeam made their way down the one next to it.

Eerily, the tunnel whistled and hummed a melodic whisper. Sunbeam scooted closer to Qibli and he wrapped his wing around her, positioning his barbed tail over his head, ready to attack.

I have never hunted in my life. I have never attacked any dragon in my life. I am unprepared. The CloudWings made a mistake being hidden and sloppy...we were like the RainWings. But I can't be a coward. Qibli can't do it all by himself. Thought Sunbeam.

Hesitantly, Sunbeam opened her mouth and a fireball spewed out, flying smoothly through the tunnel.

It revealed nothing but an empty chasm of nothingness.

After a while of trudging down the tunnel for what seemed like forever, Sunbeam shot out a fire ball again. This time it did reveal something. There was a shadowed figure that dissolved into blackness as the fireball drizzled down until it sparked away. It didn't hit the figure thankfully. Or should it have?

"Did you see that dragon?" Whispered Sunbeam, clutching tighter to Qibli. He nodded and poised his barbed higher like a scorpion.

Sunbeam shot a fire ball again only to reveal that the dragon had moved closer to them but she didn't hear the shadow figure's steps. Alarming both Qibli and Sunbeam, they pawed back slowly.

This time, Qibli blasted the fireball and Sunbeam's heart nearly leaped out of her throat and she barely held back a scream. The dragon revealed it's glazed red eyes as it towered over Qibli and Sunbeam only a few pawsteps in front of them.

Too shocked and frightened, Qibli and Sunbeam couldn't react in time. But the creature, however was prepared. Clutching Qibli by the throat, it mercilessly slammed Qibli to the wall and threw his limp body to the floor. Slowly turning its head, the creature locked it's gaze onto Sunbeam's frightened eyes.