Wings of Fire Legends • The Blue Comet

Chapter Four

Sorry for the late post! I hope you enjoy this chapter, as the fun is only beginning >:)

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Prion had never had to deal with healing burn injuries before. He did not know where to start, besides with putting snow on it. How long did these things take to heal? What did Chinstrap's shaking mean? And, worst of all: how could he expect his dragonets to perform their Third Task tomorrow? What had he been thinking?

     Of course, he knew that answer without much wondering. Puffin and Chinstrap simply could not fail. They could not be condemned to a life in Narrow-Straight-Beside-the-Sea for the rest of their life. It was cruel, and Prion did not want them to regret their choices like he did.

     He and Ptarmigan carried their dragonets home. Puffin soon grew tired, stating they struggled to fly home in their states and only by a miracle made it in time. Prion agreed, and he and his wife silently decided to put them in their sleeping hollow instead of the dragonets' smaller one. It scared him to see Chinstrap shivering when laid out on the ice, scales slightly flushed blue and completely unresponsive except to moan whenever he was moved by them. Puffin had gotten a little better, but she was exhausted.

     Ptarmigan was a mess. She would not leave their sides, staring at them with her talons shaking, so Prion was the one who went out to collect snow. None of the dragons in Narrow-Straight had any medical knowledge so it was all he could do to hope that cooling them would be enough. He created large piles of snow to cover Puffin and Chinstrap with. If this would not heal the burning, at least he could make them more comfortable.

     Finally, he had gathered enough snow to return with. Prion scooped the pile with his tail and wings, moving up the slight hill to his home and bringing it inside. Then came the problem of getting it up to the sleeping hollow. Realistically, he could only carry one talonful at a time. He would have to climb with the remaining three talons, both of his wings, and make multiple trips.

     Sinking his claws into the talonholds already present in the wall, Prion began to climb when the light shape of Ptarmigan above him stirred. She pressed to the wall and twisted to look down on him. "I want to cover them completely," she said. "How much snow do you have?"

     Without looking, he knew he needed to get more. "Can you bring this pile up? I'm going outside for more."

     Ptarmigan wasted no time. Prion moved out of the way, giving her the clump he was holding and returned out into the night. Back at the bottom of the hill, he began gathering again.

     As he worked, his thoughts began drifting. What will I do when they... when they... He could not bring himself to think the word fail. But the inevitable truth was looming over him already. Prion stilled his scooping motions, staring at the snow that glittered a soft blue in the light of the moons.

     My dragonets will fail this year again, he knew, but I will make sure they don't give up like I did. They can't... But the hopelessness crushed him all the same. They had failed their first two Tasks. A third was yet another black mark against them. Would they want to try again? Would they be just as excited, would they train just as hard? Would they fall behind the other dragonets?

     They already were. He knew Chinstrap hated to think about it and thus blocked it out, but Lemming was well on his way to the First Circle. He and his son were aiming for the Fourth, but even then Chinstrap would have to live with his friend ranking higher than him.

     And Puffin... All she did was hunt with him and help his mother. The most she interacted with the other dragonets her age was watching her brother's games and the occasional festival. Was she doomed to be an outcast like him, too?