Unshattered

Chapter Eighteen

"Well, my queen, surely you would use your magical death spit on him—" Deathbringer suggested dryly.

"What?" Glory demanded in her royal hut. "Why would I do that? And secondly, Mr Know-it-all, IT IS NOT MAGICAL DEATH SPIT!"

The NightWing gave her a skeptic look, a smug face, an amused wrinkled snout and a "mmm hmmm,". He then curled his tail around his claw.

Three colourful RainWings were flying around merrily near the hut, which Glory looked at to ignore him.

"I just don't know where they went," she sighed. "They may not be my subjects, but I'm still worried for them. Where do you think Soaren and Moondrift went to, Deathy?"

Deathbringer uncurled his tail around his claw and blinked at her, appalled. "Did you just call me Deathy?"

"Yes, you got a problem with that?" The RainWing mused. "To be honest, I think it suits you quite well,"

She grinned. "Deathy."

Deathbringer wrinkled his snout again and wore an unimpressed look on his face that said, "Oh great."

"I think 'Deathy' is a terrible nickname," the NightWing said, looking royal.

"Nah," Glory flicked a talon at him. "It's the perfect nickname."

Without warning, a blue light started glowing fadily. There was a slight hum to it. The light started expanding brighter, and soon the queen and her bodyguard could only make out a few scarlet red scales mixed in with the blue.

Deathbringer looked at it with both awe and confusion.

"What in the three moons..." he gasped.

Glory remained silent. She kept staring at the light until the glow faded completely, and there standing in front of them was Soaren.

"Oh," she sighed, "There you are!"

The SkyWing looked dazed for a moment, then saw Queen Glory and Deathbringer standing in front of him with quizzical looks on their faces.

The SkyWing looked around sleepily, dropping the shell, which thudded to the wooden floor.

"Huh? W-where am I? Is this the Rainforest? It better be!" He cried, shaking his head vigorously as if to say to himself, "WAKE UP!"

Glory looked down on the ground to see the enchanted shell the SkyWing had dropped. She picked up the magic object and looked at it suspiciously.

"What's this?" She held it for Deathbringer to have a good look at it.

The NightWing observed it closely. "Hmm, it looks like a shell."

"No duh!" The queen snapped.

Soaren's eyes were immediately fixed on it the moment Glory saw it. He looked desperately at the shell, really wanting to snatch it off of the queen, but he isn't that type of dragon to do something like that.

"C-can I have it back please?" He asked politely.

Glory looked at him. "Only if you tell me what this is."

"IT'S A SHELL!" Deathbringer threw his arms in the air.

"Yes, I know that!" Glory spat. "What I mean is— ugh, this is impossible."

"It's animus touched," Soaren blurted.

The RainWing and NightWing both looked at him as though he were completely insane, which Soaren was pretty sure he wasn't. Who knows.

Deathbringer stepped forward. "So you're saying you're an animus?"

The SkyWing shook his head rapidly. "Oh no, not me!"

He looked over at the distant horizon. "I probably shouldn't be saying this, but Aqua is."

"Wait, what?" Glory gasped, her tail twitching with what Soaren that was either anticipation or bewilderment.

"Aqua..." The smug bodyguard muttered. "Who's that again?"

Glory whack the side of his underbelly with her tail, making the NightWing playfully yelp.

"The SeaWing, Mr Moony Eyes," she said. "You know, with the weird glowing gem thing?"

"Ohhh," he realised. "That one,"

OH MY MOONS SOAREN TELL THEM ALREADY!

Soaren's eyes went as wide as the moons. "Wait!"

The other two dragons both looked at him.

"We found the killer! We know who killed IceWing! It was a SandWing animus! Like, an actual one! And she put a spell on Moondrift to make her weak!"

Deathbringer smothered a giggle at the last sentence. "Ha! Look who's insignificant now!"

Glory glared at her bodyguard.

"Where is the SandWing?" She asked Soaren after she turned to him.

"The Sea Kingdom, your Highness."

The queen sighed. "It's too far to fly, it'll take too long to get there by flight. We won't make it in time."

"This is what the shell is for," Soaren explained. "It can teleport us to the Sea Kingdom in a flash. And Aqua is holding the SandWing off, I suggest we shouldn't worry now and just get going!"

He kept flapping his wings as he panicked about Aqua.

Will she survive? Can she stop Sahara in time? What happens if the SandWing has killed her already?

He had a strange feeling about her. A feeling for her.

Do I really think of her like that? More than a friend? Or is this how friends feel about each other? Argh, I'll have to find out and see for myself.

"Quick," he said to them. "Gather around me."

Glory nodded and walked next to him. As for Deathbringer, he tilted his head.

"How do we know that we can trust you?"

"Do you believe there is a SandWing in the Sea Kingdom that is possibly the IceWing's killer?" Soaren said.

Deathbringer gave him an amused looked and walked to his other side. "Whenever you're ready, SkyWing."

It still bothered Soaren to still be called 'SkyWing' after all of what just happened. But he nodded as Glory handed him the shell again.

Soaren looked at the shell.

"Please teleport me, Queen Glory and Deathbringer to the Sea Kingdom right next to where the animus battle is taking place."

Glory blinked at him. "Wait, did you say—"

But she couldn't finish her sentence. The same bright glowing ray of blue shone vibrantly again, its glow was gradually intumescent as it started rising higher than the three dragons below.

Glory gasped as the ray threw itself over them like a net catching an intricate butterfly. With a louder hum, they were gone.

***

"W-WHOA!" Deathbringer yelped as they were suddenly standing on a beach.

Sand squelching in between their claws as they saw three dragons struggling. Waves colliding and sand storms whirling.

"I enchant you to—" Sahara yelled, but was interrupted by a wave that crashed down on her.

Soaren let out a loud gasp when he saw someone helping Aqua battle the SandWing.

Another animus.

A SeaWing with dark emerald scales.

Someone named Turtle.

-1078 Words