Winglet: Tragedy

Training

Kestrel walked into the SkyWing palace to see if Princess Scarlet needed anything. Kestrel was getting paid by the queen to serve Scarlet and the queen pays Kestrel well.

But being Scarlet's servant has its own consequences.

Kestrel has no other friends (serving Scarlet was very time-consuming) and she has no family. Kestrel has always had to do what she can to survive, day by day. Most days, dealing with Scarlet wasn't hard and Kestrel got dinner out of it. Then other days, Kestrel couldn't be the perfect servant for Scarlet and had no dinner.

She always felt like her life was a waste. She had no family, no friends, and her only job was to make sure Scarlet wasn't upset.

Then Kestrel saw her crush, Maroon, walking the hallway, which upset her even more.

Kestrel had no chance with him. They had talked a few times but other than that, they hardly knew one another.

Kestrel had never gone to school, and neither had her crush. They both joined training to become guards (that was how they met) and it was Maroon's parents who trained them.

Maroon's parents, Burgundy and Crimson, were Kestrel's adoptive parents. Ever since Crimson found out that Kestrel lived in the streets, she invited Kestrel to spend the nights at their home. Their only rule was that Kestrel had to find her own way of getting food, since they could barely keep their house and eat one decent meal a night.

Since Crimson and Burgundy were military trainers, they didn't give Kestrel or Maroon a break. They were either training, working, studying (fighting techniques), eating, or sleeping. Everything else was useless in their minds.

But Kestrel didn't mind it. In fact, she partially liked it because it made her tougher and stronger. She did her best to keep to herself anyway, and Maroon's parents weren't nosy at all. As long as she obeyed orders, she was fine.

Besides, she didn't want to have more of a relationship with them anyway since Maroon was out of her league.

Maroon approached her and said, "Crimson wants you in the girl's training room in three minutes. Apparently, Burgundy and Crimson have something planned for all of us."

"Okay," Kestrel stated plainly, not sure what else to say.

Well, Scarlet was going to have tantrum and Kestrel would be dinnerless tonight. Hey, at least she had an excuse for not being at Scarlet's room this time.

Hopefully, Kestrel didn't get fired.

Kestrel watched as Maroon walked away. He was extremely handsome. He had deep red scales with an darker, orangey- yellow scales on his underside. His wing membranes started out a bright yellow and faded into a red so dark it was almost black toward the ends, like miniature suns of his wings. And of course, his eyes were a maroon color. That was the reason for his name, after all.

She watched him go around the corner before dashing off to the girl's meeting room. Hopefully, she won't be considered late.

Thankfully, when she arrived, everyone was beginning to take their seats and Kestrel quickly blended in with the crowd while everyone was getting in order. She sat down to the right of one of the more annoying dragons in Pyrrhia, Falcon. This dragonet was going to get kicked from the Services of the Queen, Kestrel was sure of it.

"Alright, young dragonets," Crimson snapped at the dragonets. "Today, the girls and boys will fight each other. I am sure I have trained you all well enough to handle the boys. Remember, surprise is the key element."

Falcon yawned as everyone replied, "Yes ma'am!"

Crimson walked over to them and whispered in Falcon's ear, "Stay focused or I'll cut you from the Services of the Queen."

At this, the dragonet instantly straightened out and her eyes were wide with fear.

"If any of you slack one inch on the job, you're as good as dead. After the fights today, Burgundy and I will choose who to cut, who to move to the army, and who will become guards. And don't come talk to us later about where you want to be or why you think you deserve to be in here." Crimson slammed her fist on the table in front of them and continued, "We don't care. End of story. When it comes to the queen, we need the best and only the best, for Her Majesty and the tribe. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am!" the dragonets say in unison.

"Now let's go kick some butt," Crimson roared. "March to the arena!"

Kestrel took a deep breath and began walking in line with the other dragonets to the doorway. Crimson stopped each of them for inspection. This is it, the day where her fate is decided. Hopefully, she gets put into the army so she can stop being around Scarlet.

Now that, my friend, is a blessing, Kestrel thought.

Crimson stopped Kestrel, inspected her posture, and gesture for her to continue. So far, she hadn't heared Crimson yell, which was odd. Maybe, Crimson was taking mental notes so no dragon tried to correct their mistakes the day of testing. That must have been painful for Crimson. Crimson did enjoy a good yell as much as the next dragon.

Especially at nasty, smelly dragonets. So pretty much every dragonet on the planet.

When they entered the doorway to the arena, Crimson began moving everyone around in a certain order. Maybe that way, it is a surprise to everyone who is fighting who because in the real battlefield, no one choses who fights who.

Logical.

Kestrel was first. Probably because she was the most impressive out of this lazy group.

Don't get full of yourself. That's how you'll get killed, Crimson's voice rang in her head. Too much confidence can be a bad thing but just enough is extremely powerful. Control your confidence and show only enough to look strong, not as strong as you are. Take them by surprise.

Surprise, Crimson's favorite tactic.

Kestrel kept her guard-pose as Crimson opened the door. Crimson lead her into the arena, walked away, and Kestrel heard the door close behind her. It took all of her willpower not to move and continue to stand like a guard.

Kestrel decide to use her time to check her surroundings.

That's when Kestrel saw the queen, the royal family, generals, and everyone in the current army and guard positions in the stadium. They were here to decide who was to be cut and who went where.

Of course the queen wouldn't trust anyone else to chose her guard. Stupid, Kestrel. You were trained to be smarter than that!

And judging from the way the queen looked at her, Kestrel may be stuck being Scarlet's servant just because the queen thought Scarlet needed a Kestrel as a servant. Kestrel had apparently, been the best behaved. Scarlet may ruin her whole career and Kestrel's anger began to spread throughout her whole body.