Secrets & Promises

Taken

Hey y'all! I apologize for in the last chapter not doing the entire winglets, I can't be bothered really, lol, when the main plot isn't really in the school. Either way, hope you enjoy the chapter!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a few weeks since the first day of school. Sapphire had settled in, still quiet as ever. The main dragons she talked to were Oak, Firefly and, surprisingly, Winter. To the rest of the group, Winter was the cold prince who couldn't care less about those around him. To Sapphire, it was the opposite, it was as though he was never taught how to care.

Classes were slightly difficult for her though. Seeing as she was never taught anything before moving to the Rainforest, her only schooling had been done there. And, since the forest didn't have a proper school yet, her learning was mainly from her parents and Grandeur. So subjects like history and reading were difficult.

Luckily, Sapphire had Oak who had offered to tutor her, but she refused to ask as she didn't want to be dependent on him. So Winter, when he realized why she was struggling was from lack of knowledge, began teaching her the basics. Of course, no one else knew of their study sessions, seeing as Winter had a "reputation" to maintain. As well as teaching her history, he gave her more information on the infrastructure of the Ice Kingdom.

But, as well as school was going, something was bound to happen. Sapphire should've expected it, but she didn't. No one did.

It was during one of the days that the dragonets had the afternoon off of classes. Sapphire, Winter, Oak, Sahara, Moon and Qibli had decided to leave the school and go on a hunting trip. This was allowed as long as they stayed together and let Clay know where they were going. So they left school around midday, not to return until late evening.

The six of them soared above the treelike, scanning the ground for anything edible. Late afternoon came and they settled for a break, having already caught a couple of cows and pigs. As they talked about mindless matters, Sapphire noticed the eerie silence of the woods around them.

Suddenly, her head shot up, ears flicking around trying to pinpoint a disturbance. Oak was quick to be on guard, knowing his sister's senses had been trained to hone in on the slightest of noises. The group stood, Qibli lashing his tail slightly in warning while staying close to Moon, Sahara doing the same with Oak.

A whoosh sounded, and something imbedded itself into Qibli's neck, him dropping like a rock soon after. Another one hit Moon. At this point, Sapphire was snarling, the most noise she had made in a while. Oak bared his fangs and Sahara whipped her tail around, careful not to hit any of their friends.

Winter shifted and looked at what had hit Qibli and Moon, "Sleep dart." Sapphire's eyes narrowed, the blue depths growing darker with her anger, and fear.

From behind the trees, out walked ten IceWings, all surrounding them quickly and efficiently. Winter's eyes widened slightly in shock that it was his own tribe attacking. Sapphire shifted closer to Oak and Winter, fearing these IceWings who reminded her so much of her previous captors.

Almost as if he sensed it, Winter took a step closer to Sapphire's side. Sapphire heard Oak whisper under his breath to Sahara, "Go. Fly back and get help, quickly. Use your tail if you need to but you have the best chance of getting out of here." He gave her a hard look, wanting her to do as he said as well as needing her to be safe.

Without another second, Sahara spread her wings and lifted to the air, taking off quickly. None of the surrounding IceWings batted an eye at her, she wasn't the one they were after. Moments passed and no one moved. Then, with an invisible signal, the IceWings lunged, aiming for the two males first.

What they didn't know, was that the female, although smaller and seemingly weak, was trained by an assassin. Sapphire was quick to intercept the IceWing lunging for her, sending him flying with a simple hit.

The fight continued. Winter's white scales slowly turning blue as they became coated in his and the IceWing's blood. Oak was running ragged, not having trained as rigorously as the other two. He fell first, being taken down and held by an IceWing easily twice his size. Winter was next, taking a heavy hit to his skull before crumpling to the ground. Sapphire took three IceWings to hold her still to knock her unconscious.

Oak saw one last dragon before he faded into darkness, a wiry female IceWing, with light blue-gray scales and blue tipped horns. Then black clouded his vision.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry for the shorter chapter, next one should be longer. Hope you enjoyed that and have a great  week y'all! Stay safe!