Wings of Fire: The Prequels

5.5

One year later and Rust had never been in a big battle. Sure, he fought dragons one on one in the arena, but a full-on battle? Not in all three years of his life.

Today though was the day that changed. Burn decided to take part in a few of the battles that raged near her borders, taking Rust with her. The first one that she went on was without Rust by her side.

"'You need to get used to some of the chaos,' she said. 'I'll be fine,' she said," Rust grumbled to himself, still annoyed that he got left behind. Left behind was a bit of a strong way to say it seeing as instead of being in the thick of it, he got to be an errand boy for the small encampment that served as a fallback point for heavily injured soldiers.

Several days ago, a battle between only SkyWings and those on Blaze's side had taken place. Now, new forces from the enemy were to be fought with the united forces of SkyWings and SandWings. Burn was leading the charge.

And Rust was left behind to help guide injured allies to healers and chase off any persistent enemies. Not much fun, in his opinion. Especially not when it was likely that the enemies were going to be spineless lizards.

Sighing with complete exasperation, Rust snarled at the ground like it was the reason for his situation. With a huff, he looked up, caught a glimpse of a worried SandWing healer staring at him, and took off. Hovering above the camp, he watched and waited.

For a while, it was rather rinse and repeat. Go to the dragon or dragons, help the injured one to the camp, call the healers, then go back to his original position to repeat. It took a while before something 'worth his time' happened.

It started out with the standard, a dragon returning to camp with help from a comrade. Rust was quick to go to them, supporting the injured SandWing with help from an allied SkyWing. Glancing over his shoulder, he was glad he did when he saw an unfriendly approaching IceWing with ready-to-go frost breath.

Without a word, Rust gave a strong enough shove to move all of them out of the way. "Give me a minute!" Rust shouted over a yelp of pain from the poor unfortunate soul that Rust had to use force on. Quick to disengage from the two, he could only send his best mental wishes to them while he went to go deal with the problem.

Darting forward with fire building in his throat, Rust made the other try to avoid him by going to the side. Halting abruptly, Rust blew a cloud of fire that made the IceWing yelp. Flying through the fire with a hiss that wasn't only from the brief pain, Rust cannonballed into the other's chest.

He managed to get a long scratch of his barb in through the tangle of wings and limbs. Backing away, Rust blew more fire at the other. Now fleeing, the IceWing let Rust return to the two that he had abandoned.

"Let's go," Rust mumbled, not meeting their looks of surprise. Especially not when the sting from the IceWing's claws finally registered.

That was the only enemy that was risky enough to get that close, much to Rust's disappointment. For the next little while, he was delegated back to helping dragons to the camp. Until a SandWing searched him out directly after he left another injured dragon with the medics.

"Burn wants you by her side. I was sent to guide you to her," she said in a rush. Rust gave her a curt nod, motioning for her to go with little care making its way to his face.

On the inside, he was beaming. Finally, he got to be in the thick of the battle with Burn by his side. He got to protect her and vice versa!

I'll be her sword and shield. She'll be my flames and scales. I always say that I'm hers forevermore but now it gets to be forged in blood!

The two weaved through the madness, Rust getting a few cheeky scratches in with his barb. Those that he hit were too preoccupied with their current fight or they couldn't see who did it before the other dragons got in the way. It was absolute mayhem and Rust's entire being was singing anthems for it.