Dragons Rising: My Mistake Changed My Kingdom {Book One}

Chapter Eight: Captured By a MudWing

    I kicked around in the MudWing's tight grasp, trying to bite her talon which held my wings together. I whirled my tail around, smacking the MudWing's tail and knocking her out of balance a few times before she finally took off a tail band that she had on and stuffing it on my tail. It was too big and way too heavy. It weighed my tail down, and I stopped struggling after a while. The MudWing flew on silently, and I could hear a distant roar that meant mother found her MudWing prisoner and her SeaWing dragonet gone.
     The MudWing stole a few glances back and at the water before continuing to fly in actionless silence.
    If this MudWing has me, and is holding me without fear of my animus magic, she's either underestimating me, or . . .
    Or she's already immune to it. A shiver ran down my spine as I had that thought.
    Soon, the I could feel the MudWing's wing beats slowing. She took aim at a small deserted island near the end of the Bay of a Thousand Scales. If I remember Pyrrhia correctly, we should be nearing the rainforest. Or, at least, the part of land that isn't rainforest OR MudWing territory. This MudWing flies fast, possibly faster or as fast as a SkyWing. Maybe we'd get to the Mud Kingdom by tomorrow, if that's where we're headed. I'll try to escape tomorrow, because right now . . . right now I'm just too tired.
    As we landed, I thought about running away. The MudWing obviously knew this, because she pounced on me and grabbed some ropes from the pouch she had. Stealer. I thought with a hiss. She took the tail band and the pouch with ropes from mother.
    The MudWing bound my wings, tails, snout, and talons together. At the end, only one string remained, because she used the same rope and not separate ones. She tied the rope to the tree, and walked away to a shaded spot where she plopped down to rest. I looked closer at how I was tied.
    The part of the rope that connected me to the tree was tied closest to my talons, which were currently in a shape of a square. I growled as best I could through the makeshift muzzle but had no energy to struggle. In another moment I was asleep.

    I woke up flying. For a moment, my heart stopped, sure I was about to fall because my wings weren't flapping. But then I remembered.
    I twisted my neck to look behind me, but there were no SeaWings chasing the MudWings, there was no angry mother ready to kill this MudWing. I was alone with a stranger.
    Remembering what I had promised myself the night before, I pried a loose scale off of the dragon. She didn't seem to care, though I thought I saw an actual emotion: pain. For a split second only. Thinking I imagined it, I whispered to the scale.
    "Enchant this scale to free me from this MudWing and make me be able to fly faster than her. Also make her hurt in the wing so she has to stop and can't follow me until I am at least halfway to the palace."
    The scale glowed, but nothing happened. As I struggled, the MudWing laughed.
    "Stupid dragonet." She said. Her voice was unsettling. It sounded like a thousand snakes hissing. But wasn't that how my mother's ally sounded? I shook that off and glared at the MudWing.
    "You just wasted some of your magic! I'm immune to that, in case you didn't realize. And that tail band you're wearing? Yeah, it won't let you cast spells." The dragon laughed a merciless laugh. "You really do have your head in the clouds, just like Vulture said you would."
    I growled as loud as I could, but I couldn't speak. The MudWing had left on the ropes.
    "Oh, you want to have a little fun, do you?" She asked.
    The MudWing took the part of the rope that wasn't being used, and she held it as low as she could. She swooped down to the ocean, and I felt the water spray my back.
    Then the MudWing dropped me.
    I felt myself plunge into the water, writhing around like a dying snake. I saw a brown shape swimming toward me, and I growled. If I was going to die, I would rather it be by sharks.
    Instead of killing me, the MudWing took me back out of the water and continued flying, ignoring her drenched wings. The rest of the journey was going to be uneventful . . . I could feel it.