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

Epilogue: Afterwords

    "I did this all wrong." Humpback heard Orca say. "You're going to rule forever now, aren't you mother? You should thank me. No one can stop you now."
    And then she went still.
    "NO!" Humpback yelled. His best friend had just died when everyone else thought he was weird. Now where was he going to get friends? The dragons next to him kind of shifted away from him.
    He knew what he had to do. He had to get out of the Kingdom of the Sea. Never see it again. Ha ha could have put a pun but didn't. Humpback turned and ran out of the crowd and toward the exit. He dove into the crystal clear waters, reminding him of when Orca saved him from the animus curse . . .
    He shook that thought off. Keep swimming. He reminded himself. He swam as fast as he could, shooting some glances over his shoulder. He did see a few SeaWings swimming after him, though reluctantly. Apparently Queen Coral actually liked her son.
    I can't stay, mother. I'm sorry. But it's just that I can't go through the pain of losing another one of you. So. There's my reasoning.
    Humpback made it to the edge of the kingdom and finally flew out of the water. He spotted a SkyWing patrol heading his way once, and dove down toward the rivers that flowed over the land.
    Soon, he was near the Diamond Spray Delta. MudWing territory. MudWings and SkyWings are allies. I can't be seen. I should go to the rainforest. The RainWings wouldn't mind a SeaWing, surely. They're not in the war, the rainforest is close, and there's pretty much no danger other than certain bugs and quicksand.
     Rainforest, here I come.

    He snuck, his belly low, toward the border. Finally, I'm here. He looked around, and then he walked into the rainforest.
    Something whizzed past his ear, and he remembered. The tranquilizer darts.
    "It's me!" He shouted. "Don't you all remember me? Uakari?"
    "Uakari!" Shouted one tree. "You're back!" The tree suddenly shifted and became pink. "Hey! How are you? Where have you been? What have you been doing?"
    "Oh. I was outside and I spotted a SeaWing flying out of the water. He looked like he was headed here."
    Jambu thought of this for a little. "Well, should we shoot him with a dart?"
    "I think that's best." Uakari replied. "Just until we know what he's doing here."
    "Uakari, calm down. There's no need to care! We have the best home ever! And think about it. Why would anyone attack us?"
    Uakari knew that he was the only RainWing that cared, the only one that wasn't lazy, and the only one (other than Mangrove) that realized that there were actually missing RainWings. But Uakari wanted to get the RainWings back. Although when he told Magnificent, she just said that they would be back tomorrow.
    So he asked Dazzling. She said they wouldn't need to worry.
    Then he asked Fruit Bat. But she didn't hear because she was too busy with her royal flowers. So then he asked Grandeur. She said that he was right to care, but that they weren't going to get anywhere since they didn't know where the RainWings were, and they needed a decent queen.
    So. That's why there were still fourteen missing RainWings.
    And Uakari was pretty sure at least four of those RainWings were dead.
    "Well, now we wait for this SeaWing." Jambu said, snapping Uakari back to reality.
    "Yes. Now we wait. And if he's nice, we welcome him to our home."

    Sunfire's armor gleamed in the sunlight. Beautiful aquamarine. And her horn ring. The one she could never take off . . . it would activate her firescales and there would be no way to turn them off.
    "Queen Scarlet is here!" Shouted a SkyWing. A different SkyWing, one named Flicker, snapped up in attention and ran over to his spot next to the queen's area.
    Sunfire tried to bow like she meant it. Ever since Sienna and Orca had escaped, Queen Scarlet had suspected it was her, but of course she had no evidence. All of the guards that were there just . . . forgot.
    As Queen Scarlet sat down on the rock that was her throne in the outpost, Flicker shot Sunfire a look that clearly said: 'Why did it have to be me?'.
    Sunfire stiffled a laugh. Flicker was a MudWing-SkyWing hybrid's half-brother. She had never met this dragons, but she knew that Queen Scarlet would have disapproved of him greatly, and offered him an execution, or a chance to join her army.
    Honestly, if it was her, Sunfire would have chosen execution.
    But Flicker had a good reason. He needed to stay alive because he was the only one that took care of the MudWing-SkyWing, and was willing to fight (not really, he was faking it as much as Sunfire was) for Scarlet, and Scarlet would probably kill everyone and everything if he died.
    So . . . execution was out of the question.
    Sunfire was the guard on patrol duty tonight. While all the other SkyWings slept - other than Flicker of course, he was guarding the queen - Sunfire swept around the outpost, watching the water.
    A few other SkyWings came with her to patrol, and they made sure there was going to be no attack.
    They flew for a long time, in a big circle when in the morning, Sunfire spotted a SeaWing flying. All by himself.
    Startled, she told three of the guards to to the other way. She told the other three to head toward the west, and Sunfire swept toward the SeaWing. But the SeaWing was gone.
    He must have gone toward the rivers. Sunfire gave herself a small smile. Well. If she didn't capture him, and the other SkyWings didn't know that he was there . . .
    What Scarlet didn't know wouldn't hurt her.