Wings of Fire: The Prequels

4.10

Flying was a lot different than swimming but it certainly was more enjoyable than limping all day. Landing on the ledge where a SeaWing was waiting, Gust had to hide a grimace as his limp was starting to take effect. To limp around the mountain when he barely had any practice walking was going to be a challenge. Add it to the list.

"Oh," said the SeaWing, staring at Gust. Her surprise and curiosity were enough to tell that she didn't know about everything. "Are you Gust?"

"Y-Yes," said Gust, nervously shifting as she continued to stare. "D-D-Did T-Turtle not t-t-tell you a-about...?" trailing off, Gust flicked his tail to let his spikes clatter and speak for themselves.

"He said Coral didn't like you, never said why," said the SeaWing who Gust assumed to be Tsunami. "Dumb reason to dislike you honestly. It's not like you asked to be part IceWing. It's kinda cool anyway."

"Th-Thanks," said Gust with a timid smile.

"Come on, my friends are waiting to meet you," said Tsunami, leading the way with Gust scrambling to follow. The first part of the underground school was a large cavern, he couldn't see much more as Tsunami moved with a purpose. "What do you like to do? Turtle also said that you live in the Deep Palace."

"I-I d-do. S-Sculpting is p-p-pretty f-fun," said Gust, almost pressing against Tsunami as a couple of students passed by. They stared but a sharp glance from Tsunami got them moving.

"How would you even get material in the ocean?" asked Tsunami, scrunching up her face in confusion.

"F-Frostb-breath," said Gust, biting his lip as he fought to keep up.

"You have frostbreath?!" Tsunami exclaimed, looking back at him with wide eyes. Noticing his struggle, she slowed down and frowned at his left leg. "Are you injured? I can slow down if you need."

"I-I d-do and n-n-no. I-It's a l-limp f-f-from a-an old i-injury," said Gust, continuing to walk to have Tsunami hurry to take back the lead.

"Is that why you live in the Deep Palace? Is it easier to swim with it rather than walk?" asked Tsunami, now carefully watching her brother from the corner of her eye.

"K-K-Kinda? I p-prefer i-i-it th-there a-anyway. A-And I-I-I don't n-notice it w-when s-s-swimming," said Gust with a small shrug.

"I guess you wouldn't. It's over here," said Tsunami, turning into a large cave that held several dragons. "Everyone, meet my brother, Gust."

The moment of surprised silence let Gust take in all the dragons in the room. A semi-familiar MudWing with a warm smile and a limp was talking with a golden SandWing before the siblings walked in. Two NightWings, one of them with a bandage over his eyes, were close by. In the corner of the room, an adult SeaWing with some type of scar on his tail raised Gust's hackles. By ducking his head away from the sudden attention, Gust refrained from lashing out at anyone.

"Hello!" the golden dragon came out of her stupor first, grinning at Gust as the two siblings walked farther into the room. "I'm Sunny, nice to meet you, Gust."

"I'm Clay," said the MudWing, also grinning at Gust. Timidly, he smiled at them while the two NightWings whispered to each other and the SeaWing watched from the sidelines. "You have a limp too, huh? How did you get yours?"

"A-A s-shark got m-m-me," said Gust, glancing towards Clay's leg that had two big gouged burn marks in it. "Y-You?"

"Dragonbite viper got me, a friend burned out the poison," said Clay, his grin still present despite the description of the scar.

Suddenly, the NightWing without a bandage came bounding over with the other close behind. "Hi, I'm Fatespeaker!" she said, loud enough to get Gust to flinch. Nonetheless, she kept her volume. "Your scales and spikes are so pretty!"