Where Smoke Bleeds Gold

Chapter Two - Blinding Smoke

Throughout the night, strange noises buzzed in my ears. I was used to the flies that circled my head back home. They wouldn't do anything as long as I moved every once in a while. But here, these bugs crawled on my scales, forcing me awake as it felt like Flicker was nudging me awake.
Throughout the night, distant creatures screamed as if in pain. I was used to the coyotes howling far away, on the other side of the wall. They couldn't do anything to hurt me. But here, their cousins came so close I could hear their breath, feel their wet noses against my tail.
Throughout the night, my mother would come home late. Way after me and Flicker decided to fall asleep. I would hear the old wooden stairs creak as she stumbled up them. Bumping into walls and things as if she was blind as a bat. Back there, I knew what to do, I knew that I had to stay still, had to look asleep or she would knock my lights out.
But here, I could hear the creaking of wood, and everytime I would jump up, expecting to be back home. Just after Moon flew into a cloud and the forest was thrust into darkness, I would hear groaning and roaring. I didn't know what it was, and I think that was the scariest thing that night.
I stretched, standing up. This had felt like the longest night of my life, but in the end everything was fine. I spread my two wings. Shook the four horns on my head. My stomach grumbled, but I quickly ignored it like a normal day.
I wrapped the ripped bag around my shoulder. It seemed like an animal had gotten curious with the camel leather strap. I brushed it off. As long as it could hold the two things I would be fine.
    I walked through the forest. Today seemed much calmer. Well, maybe not today, Moon was just barely flying down on the horizon when I got up. My stomach grumbled again. Why was I so hungry today? I tried to think back to yesterday. I had done a lot of flying that day. I suddenly realized I never ate anything yesterday. I shook my head, trying to shake away the hunger.
    "Ah, I'm not that hungry," I said to myself, continuing to walk away from the pine tree that covered me in ooze throughout the night.
    "But you are," said Flare. I turned around.
    "Am not, I once managed to not eat anything for three days straight," I said.
    "Don't try and convince me you weren't walking on the third day," Flare said, poking me in the side.
    "What do you know?" I hissed.
    "We don't know nothing, and we are in a place without anyone," Flare said.
    "I guess I'm right," I said looking at the trees. Suddenly my talon snagged on a root, throwing me forward into a pit of mud. My teeth cracked together in an unpleasant way. A loud hiss seethed beside me. I jumped up, expecting a boa sitting beside me fangs bared. Instead, it was a snake barely as thick as one of my claws.
    "What kind of snake are you?" I asked them. They stared up unblinking as they smelled the air with a forked tongue. I slowly reached for my bag as it stayed unblinking.
    I sat up calmly, taking a bottle of ink and a notepad out of the torn bag. I set both down beside the snake.
    Am I in its territory? Was I making it scared or upset? Does it know it's in danger of me? These thoughts circled my head as I dipped a claw into the ink. On the paper, I wrote in atrocious handwriting.
    "Gray-Green scales. Small blackish eyes. Black tongue. Large blue pattern on back,"
    I looked back up to see the snake had gone. Oh well. I tightened the cap on the ink bottle and placed both items back in my bag, wrapping the tear in on itself to keep them from falling out.
    I stood up, trying to shake the mud from my scales, but eventually gave in and let my dark orange under belly stay muddy brown. Far away, I heard something cry out.
    Hello?
    Hel-Hold?
    Help?
    I looked around, unsure where the noise was coming from. It was beginning to sound more and more like help with each step closer to the voice. Once I realized they were in danger. I jumped into the sky and spread my wings. I was tangled in the branches of the trees before I could even break past the leaves.
    "Help!" They called again. I shook myself from the branches. What was I doing trying to fly? Was it just my ego getting ahead of me? Did I want to fly in from above like a hero? Doing that delayed me from this dragon and that might have just been a fatal mistake.
    I jumped down, making sure to hit my shoulder into the dense bark as if it was my mother hitting me after doing something wrong. I forced myself to run, though my stomach felt sick. I stopped under a thick giant oak tree. Above the leaves shook as the dragon cried out. I dug my talons into the bark as I pulled myself closer to see what was happening.
    "Help," The voice called, sounding tired. I couldn't see where they were, but high in the tree was a giant snake coiling round and round. I leapt up onto a branch behind them. The snake stopped coiling the dragon for a moment. It must have noticed me, but it didn't do anything about it. I jumped onto the branch with both of them. Suddenly I realized the dragon had stopped struggling. Had I been too late? Had I really been so selfish?
    I vaulted forward, wrapping my talons around the head of the snake. I kept my claws away from its long fangs and held onto its upper head. It thrashed in my arms, almost breaking away from my grasp. I pulled it back, its slimy scales sliding against my neck. It's long writhing body slowly released the blue dragon, letting her fall to the ground as her sky blue wings knocked into the branches on the way down. I watched her for a moment before I realized the serpent had begun wrapping itself around my leg. I hung onto its head, holding it tighter, yet I didn't want to hurt it. I shook its head like a grasshopper in the palm of my talon. Its tail stopped moving as I shook it harder and faster. Suddenly I tossed it over the end of another branch, watching it catch itself and hang off the tree dizzied.
    I slipped off the tree landing a few steps away from the stranger. My talon pulsed as I noticed a cut on it. I turned back to the stranger. She was the color of the late night sky. I took another step closer. And another. Was she a FrostScale? I heard stories about them being ruthless and even evil. She didn't seem all that bad. She laid on her side as something blue, almost black pooled on her cheek. I leaned closer to her, careful to not disturb her. She had a crack in her frill, leaking the same black ooze.
    As gently as I could, I took one claw and somewhat poked her jaw. Her scales were so cold. Was she dead? Had the calls been my imagination? Her scales were thick and large, making it look like nothing could hurt her. I wanted to be invincible too, but my scales were as soft as wood. I looked closer. She had small horns sticking out from under eyes, making a frame around them. I wondered if any other dragon thought she was beautiful too. Was it okay for me to think she was pretty?
    Not that I did.
    But Flicker said I shouldn't call anyone pretty if I didn't think they'd like me either. Would other FireScales call her pretty? She was strange. Very, very strange.
    "Wake up sleeping beauty," I smiled, poking her jaw again. Very strange. It took me a moment to understand what I had said. She was beautiful. She was asleep. But in the stories Flicker told me, true love's kiss was supposed to break the spell.
    "Nope!" I said falling backwards after a moment. My face felt sunburned. This was just me being stupid. She didn't even hear me. I was just being weird like always. I pulled my talons away from my eyes to look back at her. She was sitting up and staring at me.
    And oh dear Creation, those eyes. Raindrops weren't enough. Crystals envied them. Creation, did you make those eyes with your own hands? No words could describe them.
    "What were you doing?" She asked. I looked at her for a moment. What did she think I was doing? I was helping, wasn't I?
    Oh, oh no, I touched her face. She was asleep and i- was that bad? Wasn't I just trying to wake her up? There were other ways for me to do it, weren't there? I invaded her space! I hated when people did that to me. Did I just ruin my first impression? No, I just saved her to violate her space.
    "Sorry, I'm sorry, I-" Don't make excuses! I could hear my mom yell. I left my talons on my face, pretending to have a mask so she wouldn't recognise me. "I didn't mean to do anything- I was just trying to wake you up," Was that an excuse? I couldn't tell. She silently examined me. Had I done something wrong? It made me cringe thinking of what might be going through her mind.
    "I- I'm sorry, I-ll just go," I snorted, getting tongue tied. Her eyes locked onto mine. Why of all dragons did her eyes need to be so pretty.
    Not that I was thinking that.
    I pulled my talons away from my face to begin walking, but suddenly her eyes narrowed. I barely had time to register what she was doing before she spat on my face.
    "What-?" I asked, feeling the goo on my face. It was cold. Almost as cold as her scales. Or maybe colder. Or freezing. "Gah!" I yelled as the spit froze onto my scales. I looked cross eyed as I tried to look at the horn on my face. She had spat on the fire, not letting it burn.
    "Ah-uhmm," She stammered as I tried to scrape the frozen spit off my scales. "I wasn't-" She began. With my Firehorn compromised, the fire began to build in my throat.
    "Garm," I said as the fire licked at my tongue. I coughed sparks onto the grass as I tried to clear my throat.
    "I- sorry, I thought you were on fire- I didn't mean to-" She began.
    "I'm sorry," I cried, feeling shivers run down my back. My wings trembled as my brain couldn't pick which emotion to feel. "No- I'm sorry, I shouldn't have," I said, eyes watering. Before I could mess anything else up I jumped up and ran back the way I came. The ice was melting slowly, but not as fast as I needed it to. Smoke was plumbing out my nose, blinding the path I was taking to run forward. Then it hit me.
Just as the smoke began to clear away from my nose, I smelt something sweet. My stomach growled again, reminding me of my hunger. With Sun flying at midday already, my appetite was upset for making it a full twenty-four paces without eating anything.
I looked down to my talons, wondering if it was these bright pink flowers that smelt so heavenly. I looked back up to the tree that the smell simply emanated from. A little drool dripped from my teeth as I saw the fruit that the three bared. I couldn't even remember what had just happened, even if I tried. This fruit smelled so succulent. So savory. I took another waverly step closer. It was so sweet.
Stomach acid shot into my throat as I took another step. My eyes watered as my jaw hung open, drool dripping down my chin. My wings dragged against the flowers and grass. My stomach growled as I leaned in closer to bite the fruit. I stopped as I saw a bug circle it. I shut my jaw, dripping spit as my appetite grew.
I finally blinked and looked away for a moment. Just beside the tree roots, a bloody bone stood out of the ground. I leaned toward it, questioning if it was real or not. It was stained a nasty brownish red, spots in it with chunks ripped off the sides. Yet I couldn't smell the nasty stench that would come with it. I tapped the bone with my claw, yet the sound of nail against claw sounded muted, fluffy even. I stepped back, feeling sick that I had touched it when suddenly I noticed my other talon brush over the bright pink flowers. Pollen shook off of it, coating the wind in it. The moment it hit my nose, instead of a sneeze, the fruit was suddenly more potent. I coughed in response to the sudden development, but drool began coating my tongue again.
I looked up shakily to the plant, feeling sick as the produce looked even more delicate and delicious when the fly that was just walking on it fell heavily to the ground.
I took another step closer, unwillingly. Torn between appetite and safety. My eyes teared up as I took another step closer. I shook my head, trying to rid myself of these thoughts, yet all I did was shake off the fire on my Firehorn.
The fire that built up in my throat was all I needed to clear my mind. I snorted a wall of smoke, casting away the stench of the pollen. What was happening to me? I fell back, memories rushing back to my head.
Cringe, regret, everything came crashing down as I backed away from the poison flowers. I stumbled past and away from the smoke, away from everything.
Suddenly with the bag's strap around my throat, someone held fiercely onto the bag, choking me back.
"Not that way," The creature said.