Winglet: Secrets and Lies Part 1

The Rebellion

An hour or so later, Morrowseer had left. She had hated watching him leave, she wanted to stay with him until the sadness had passed.

But no, her father insisted on talking with her. She was worried she was going to get lectured or asked on why she happened to get in the middle of this kind of stuff. The truth was, she had no idea. Trouble seemed to find her.

Secretkeeper, scooted back on her bed so her back was against the corner when her dad walked in. He looked tired and worn out like he needed to actually sleep.

He sat on Fearkeeper's bed, across from her. They sat in silence like that for quite sometime.

"Why do you think Dreamcatcher died?" her father asked.

Secretkeeper held back the river of tears that wanted to spill out of her at the mention of Dreamcatcher's name. She bit her bottom lip as hard as she could to keep the tears at bay.

"I don't know, I... don't know," Secretkeeper choked out, looking away from her father.

"I want you to come with me tonight somewhere. For safety reasons, I can't tell you where we are going or who we are meeting but I think its time you understand," her father stated.

She looked up at him and nodded. He left the room without another word.

They left the house as the sun had begun to set. Fearkeeper and Treasurekeeper by themselves. She felt a little bad for Fearkeeper but she had a feeling he'd at least live. That was more than she could say for her friends.

Her father was taking her toward the volcano. She still had no idea where they were going, who'd they meet, or what they would be doing but at least it would keep her mind off of Dreamcatcher for a little bit. 

She wanted to sob but ran out of tears an hour or two ago for her soulmate. Maybe if she dove in the lava now, she would find Dreamcatcher again in the next life or world or whatever was next. 

They landed at the entrance of a cave. It didn't look big, in fact, it looked cramped and tiny. Her father bad to crawl through it and Secretkeeper followed closely behind.

She hated how trapped she felt. The ceiling occasionally scraped the scales on her head and the floor scratched her stomach painfully. To avoid being scratched, she had to be positioned perfectly, like the room was a mold she had to fit in. It especially didn't help her father was in front of her.

She hated it. She wanted to run the other way and fly across the ocean until her wings fell off. 

However, she pushed on, letting her curiosity move her one step at a time. They had to be getting close to an end, they had to.

Secretkeeper saw a dim shine, almost torch-like, when she looked above her father's head. She moved toward it, kicking up her pace so she was right at her father's tail instead of trailing further behind.

The cave suddenly opened up into a huge room, with lava slowly dripping down into the crevasses on the floor. Because of that, the floor was especially warm. 

There were four other dragons here, none that Secretkeeper recognized.

One walked over to her father and said, "Welcome, Shadekeeper! Um...who's this?"

"This is my daughter, Secretkeeper. Secretkeeper, this is Soulfinder," her dad stated.

She thought her dad's full name was cool. Shadekeepr. Secretkeeper had never heard his name before. She wasn't sure why, her dad had just never mentioned it.

"Dreamcatcher and Wishful died," Soulfinder claimed, walking back to the other dragons. "We're going to be all gone soon."

"Not with my daughter here. She can keep this rebellion going. I have faith in her," her father declared proudly.

Secretkeeper interrupted Soulfinder, "Wait, Dreamcatcher and Wishful... were apart of this."

Her father nodded. Soulfinder explained, "You've never met me, I'm Wishful's father. She had been apart of this group for awhile and Dreamcatcher joined sometime last year, I believe. They were supposed to keep an eye out for possible candidates for our group. Between them and your father, they though you belonged here."

"Now listen to me," her father said, cupping her head in his talons. "You have to pretend to love Morrowseer. I see he's taken an interest in you. We need you to get inside information from the very queen herself. Marrying your mother got me as far up as I could go so I'm passing on this responsibility."

"Wait, what kind of information?" Secretkeeper asked, panicking.

"This is going to be a shock, okay?" Shadekeeper stated. Secretkeeper nodded and he continued, "the queen is fighting the RainWings with secret assassins and taking their forest as our own home. We are against kicking them out and have been helping the RainWings. That's why the queen hasn't won."

As if on cue, a RainWing appeared in the background.

"I'm Queen Elegant of the RainWings. It's a pleasure to meet you, Secretkeeper," the RainWing claimed, staring at her with a crazy look in her eyes.

This wasn't going to go over well.