Power-A Wings of Fire Fanfiction

Chapter Four

On a mountaintop...

Mahogany and Lemon had left the academy at night, leaving a note saying they would come back in a few days. Mahogany hoped the dragon they chose hadn't cheated them out of their money. "Where IS that lying SandWing?" Lemon fumed, furiously pacing back and forth on the mountaintop. "He said TWO HOURS BEFORE NOON! Now it's almost ONE HOUR BEFORE NOON!" Mahogany rolled her eyes. She really liked Lemon for how funny she was. "Three moons, stop being so impatient," she said. "There he is. He's flying here."

The SandWing animus was named Brightsting, named after the cactus. He was a descendant of Jerboa and Jerboa II. He asked for jewels in exchange for animus service to other dragons.

The pale dragon landed on the mountain with a little thud. He had orange, rhombus-shaped tourmalines embedded in his neck scales and on his face. The ridge running down his back was dyed dark red in spots. His tail barb was painted with lines of bright yellow and red, and his claws were dipped in gold leaf. He also had a golden chain necklace around his neck. 

"Sorry I'm late," he said smoothly, folding his wings. "My name is Brightsting, as you already know. You must be Mahogany and Lemon, correct?" The two dragonets nodded. "You are by far the smallest customers I've ever had," he said, his face quirking into a little smile. "The youngest ones I've had before you were six years old. You are only four!"

Lemon hissed and turned her scales dark red streaked with black. "We don't have time to chat," she snarled, lashing her tail. "Just give us what we want, or the staff members at the school will send dragons after us and our plan will be FOILED!" Brightsting looked amused, and Mahogany felt a nearly unbearable longing to slash that expression off his face. 

"Lemon, calm down," Mahogany said gently, keeping her scales a calm, blue-grey color that matched the sky. "He won't give us what we want if you keep hollering." Lemon sat back but added more black to her scales. 

"Very well," Brightsting said. "My mother kept telling me to hide and never help anyone, to never abuse my animus power, that soul defense spells will be useless, blah blah blah. I can't believe my two brothers listened to her. But I'm a wonderful dragon, am I right? Our power can be used for good! Anyway, that was just a memory, of sorts. Now I may give you what you want. What do you want?"

"Here is our target," Mahogany said, pulling out a small drawing from the pouch around her neck. Lemon was a brilliant artist and had drawn a perfect picture of Orca. "That's the second coming of Darkstalker!" Brightsting said. "Oh, by the moons! Didn't you tell me her friend was the IceWing princess? She'll talk to her mother, or negotiate with the NightWing or SeaWing queen, and armies will be sent after me if I imprison her or something! Think of someone else. Not her friend, though."

Lemon was nearly all black now, with only flecks of red on the tops of her wings. She looked like a HiveWing by color. "I know!" Mahogany said. "She has two brothers. Nobody really cares about them, and they're just duplicates of her, right? So what if two of the three are gone? There's still one left, and she can be as useful as the two of them put together. Yes, I know what we want. Teleport them to your palace where nobody but you can cast spells and imprison them! Torture them and imprison them, yes. Then she will use her power dangerously and ALL OF PYRRHIA will see that she is dangerous as heck! Then some other wonderful beautiful animus will put her down, and problem solved!"

Lemon laughed. Her scales turned pink and yellow. "What are their names?" Brightsting asked. His claws were twitching excitedly. "Starcrafter and Dolphin," Lemon said. "They are from the same hatching as Orca. Just so you know." The SandWing was nodding thoughtfully. "Okay," he said. "Thank you for choosing Brightsting Animus Services. Your request will be fulfilled." The RainWings and the SandWing flew away.

"You are brilliant, Mahogany," Lemon said. Mahogany smiled back at her. "Of course I am," she said. "Anything to make dragons see the truth.

Back at Jade Mountain academy...

The math teacher, Stingray, was a descendant of Tsunami. She was tall, angular, related to the royal family, and radiated an air of authority. Since there were many winglets and not that many classes, two or three winglets at a time shared the same class. 

Orca's winglet was sharing math class with her brothers' winglets. Her gaze kept flickering to them, making sure they weren't cheating on their work. Towards the end of math class, they began to shake, like reflections in the water. They shook and shook and shook. There was a loud whirring sound...and they were gone.

Panic. Screaming. Dragons floundered all over the place, tripping on each other's tails. "THEY'RE GONE!" they shrieked. "THEY VANISHED INTO THIN AIR! WHAT KIND OF ACCURSED MAGIC IS THIS?!" 

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Stingray roared. Everyone fell silent and shuffled to their seats. "Stay calm," Stingray said, her voice filled with suppressed rage. "Great kingdoms...this was what Tsunami wrote about, back in her day. That there was school-wide panic every few days. Urgh." 

Orca raised her talon. "Orca, you may speak," Stingray said. "Since Starcrafter and Dolphin are my brothers, I would like to go rescue them," Orca said. Stingray sighed. "You may go," she said, "Since there is technically no other option." "Stingray, ma'am," Blizzard spoke up, "I am coming with Orca, whether you like it or not. She is my friend, and I want to help her." Stingray sighed again and nodded.

Orca gave Blizzard a grateful smile. Together, she and her princess friend were going to save her brothers. She was sure of it.