Wings of Fire: The Sands Of Betrayal

~*Chapter 1*~

13 years later...

Dust walked the trading post, coins jingling in her pouches. She held her head high, her tail uncurled. She was always told to keep her head down because her eyes were weird-looking. She hated it! Sunny never hid her scales, or tail just because they were weird-looking! She thought, her eyes narrowing. Why should I? She flexed her claws, swishing her poisonous tail In the streets. I'm a freak and I'm proud of it! Dust spotted a food shop in the distance and she bounded over.

"Hello!" She chirped to the sales dragon. "Do you have any fried lizards?" Dust laid out ten coins on the table. "Is this enough?" The sales dragon nodded his head greedily (It was a he, Dust could tell easily) The sales dragon backed away when he saw her tail. Not again! I wish nobody knew about my tail! "What's wrong?" she asked politely.

"What's wrong with you?" He sneered and left the bag of lizards on the table. "Take you lizards now, you freak!" Dust huffed and grabbed the bag of lizards and started to walk away. The dragon rested his talon on her wing. "Wait!" He cried out. She stopped, hoping it was an apology. "You want to give a tip?" The sales dragon said smoothly.

"What?!" She yelled before storming off. Dragons turned their heads to look at her. She didn't care. I should have known. She looked around for somewhere to sit. She saw a flat rock and ran to sit. She placed down the bag and sat down. Dust opened the bag and pulled out a lizard.

She heard sand crunching nearby. "Who's there?" She yelped, jumping to her feet with her very, very lethal tail raised. Dust felt hot breath on the back of her neck, she turned around cursing furiously. "Three Moons! I just wanted to get Fried Lizards! That frog-faced blog of camel spit!" She turned around to see three dragonets standing behind her. One was a dark, garnet red SkyWing, one was a pale SandWing and that youngest one had brownish-red scales (She wasn't sure what tribe it was) "You think we're camel spit?" The pale SandWing dragonet asked, cocking her head.

"I was talking about someone else, mind your own business!" She snapped at them. "I was already annoyed enough today! Leave me alone and go to your parents!" The dragonets looked at each other sadly. "We saw you had food... and we're really hungry. Do you have some to spare?" Dust swiftly moved the bag of fried lizards closer to her, self-conscious.

"Uh, these are actually not..." She racked her brain, trying to think of an excuse. "Edible. I was about to... throw them out." The dragonets looked at each other, she knew by the looks on their faces, they were really hungry. What am I doing? Dust internally yelled at herself. Lying to hungry dragonets? "Why were you about to eat them then?" The SandWing asked her. "Umm. You know what, I have enough. You can each have one." She pulled the three biggest lizards out of the bag and each gave them one. Their faces lit up excitedly, they lunged at the food and began to eat. Their ribs stuck out they were so skinny. They must be really hungry if they're eating so fast. One of the dragonets looked up at her. "Thank you..."

"Dust. You can call me Dust." She looked them over, surprised at how eager they were to eat every inch of the lizards. Even though they were starving, they still shared. "what are your names?" Dust asked. She might as well know their names.

The reddish-brown dragonet stood up. "I'm Mahogany. I'm a MudWing and SkyWing hybrid." He flicked his slender wing at the SkyWing. "She's Blare. She doesn't talk, she's mute. And the SandWing is Heliodor." Dust nodded pulling out more lizards for them.

"Nice names. Have more Lizards." Dust tossed the lizards to them and they began to eat. "So, were you stalking me?" Heliodor looked at her talons and Mahogany and Blare looked away quickly. "Yes. We smelled the food so we followed you..."

Dust was about to say a snarky comment but then remembered that the dragonets and how skinny they are. "It's fine." She was surprised to hear herself say that, everyone normally said she was salty and rude. She tried not to be rude but people just trigger her. Like that sales dragon. She looked into the bag. There were still tons of lizards.

"Anyway. Thanks for the food." Mahogany said quickly. "We should go now, you know, to find somewhere to sleep..." Dust looked in the distance. The sun was starting to go down. I have to go home soon, She thought, Dinner should be ready really soon. "Come on! I know where you can sleep!" She leaped off the rock and looked under it. The rock was on a tilt forming a small ditch underneath. Dust dug more in the sand, making it comfortable for the dragonets.

"Here. I'll meet you here tomorrow at noon. I'll bring food and water." The dragonets stared at her gratefully and crawled inside the nest. "See you tomorrow, Dust." Heliodor yawned.

Dust spread her wings and headed home.

* * * * * * * *

"Dust!" Her mother called from inside the palace. "Your father's here! Hurry!" Dust darted inside and looked for her father. She saw a SandWing with black, v-like outlines on his back scales, and a black tail barb wearing armour walking towards her. "Dad!" She cried with happiness. Her dad came bounding over to her mother and her.

"What's that I smell?" Her father asked, sniffing the air. Dust held up the bag and smiled happily. She placed the bag on the floor. "It's fried lizards. For dessert." Her parents smiled.

* * * * * * * *

Dust rushed outside, the night wind roaring in her ears. She was glad her parents let her go out later than most dragons her age. Now she could visit the dragonets. She just got her allowance from her parents and some coins from a bet with her friends (She won, of course), she was going to give the dragonets allowance so they can buy food. They each got 10 coins a day.

Finally, she spotted the flat rock and quickly landed. She saw them still sleeping. She set a pouch of ten coins by each of their heads. She smiled and quickly headed out. She stepped out and saw a pair of glittering, obsidian-black eyes staring at her.