Wings of Honor: Saving Grace

Chapter 18: Challenger

The clouds had already begun to drown out the sun, and the sky opened up. But I was no more than 100 yards off from Turtle, and gaining fast.
"TURTLE!"
"TURTLE!"
"TURTLE!" "TURTLE!"
The frightened Seawing looked behind him in a panic, as a roaring NightWing came barreling towards him with two flailing humans on her back.
"What in three moons-"
"Turtle!" I flared just before him, buffeting him with a blast of air so great he flailed trying to regain a flight rhythm.
"What are you doing here?" Marvin asked first.
"I-I came to find Peril. She disappeared!"
I groaned. "Kidnapped more like it."
Turtle's eyes widened. "I knew it! I knew she wouldn't just leave!"
"Yeah, we'll we got bigger problems than that right now, Captain!"
I turned to see where Travers was pointing. There, through the rainy mist, two great shapes. One a Scarlet orange, another a Ruby red. The two dragons were engaged in combat, slashing at one another with their claws in midair.
We're too late. Marvin subtlety said.
"No. We're not too late." I growled back at him.
"What do you mean? Too late? Too late for what?"
I swooped over to Turtle. "No time. I'll tell you on the road. There's a major threat! Come on!"
I beat my wings, diving down towards the crowd. Turtle tried his best to catch up to me, flapping as fast as he could. His waterlogged wings slowing him down
As soon as we hit the muddy ground, Marvin immediately started pointing out areas of interest. The flight training tower, a small overlooking cave, a thick and stubby tree, pretty much every embrazare in the walls. There were way too many spots, way too many positions for Goldman to hide. Our one saving grace was that at least we had Travers' compass now, and even it was spinning right-round like a record player.
"What's going on?" Turtle half crash landed next to me. I caught him as he slid to a stop.
"There's an evil animus on the loose." That made his eyes go wider than ever before. "You know how I told you that I was enchanted to be an animus? Well, this guy's him. Turns out, he's a really bad guy." Turtle looked back at my two humans trying to deligate areas of fire.
"Is... is that him?" He pointed.
"No. No. That's Marvin. He's the one who discovered I was an animus. The other one, Travers, he's another animus."
"Another!" Turtle yelled out.
"Yes!" I hushed him. "You know how I said there are things you wouldn't understand? Well this is one of those things. All you need to know is that there's an evil, human, animus running around. We think he's gonna try and mess up the royal challenge. He's already shown that he can transform into dragons from any tribe, and that he's open and willing to use magic. Now we need to find him, before he does something ba-"
"GOLDMAN!"
I looked back just in time to see a red SkyWing starting for Cliff, only to be broken up by a rifle shot. The crowd parted, unsure of what to expect, but they promptly turned back to watch the challenge.
Short-term-memory-idiots. I wasn't even sure who thought that.
Marvin and Travers formed a skirmish line, I took up the rear of their Vee. My scales shifting to dark reds and black, speckled with green splatter.
"We got you Goldman! Surrender now, and there won't be a fight!" Marvin faced him down at gun point. Two rifles of 30-06 aimed right at him.
The SkyWing just glanced at them, glanced at me, then chuckled. "You just won't give up the ghost. Eh Grace?"
I growled at him, bearing my teeth.
"We'll It's a shame that I won't have Scarlet on my side anyways. She would've been a fine Xo. But not anymore. Not with what you've done. Oh well," he shrugged, "you lose one, but you gain another."
And just like that, he vanished into a cloud of purple.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" Travers screamed, charging where he was with bayonet affixed. The mud caking onto his boots. "WE HAD HIM! HE WAS RIGHT THERE! MARVIN, WHY DID YOU LET HIM GO!"
I looked back at the shaking soldier, gently lowering his Springfield back into low ready. He blinked rapidly, trying to push back the tears.
"Marvin!" Travers asked again, breathing fast.
"We stopped him." Marvin gasped. "I don't know how, but it worked."
Marvin turned back to look at me, I met him. Despite the growing storm, we exchanged the briefest moment of contentment. The briefest moment of total peace.
But then another wild scream came from the areal combatants, dragging everyone's attention back to the ongoing fight. Scarlet was trying to sink her claws into Ruby's eyes. Only now, she didn't look like Ruby anymore. The crowd knew however. This dragon's name... was Tourmaline?
But Tourmaline was holding Scarlet off with brute strength, pummeling her underbelly with razor-sharp back talons. Scarlet's scales were more maroon red than orange now, covered in blood from her shredded wing, shoulders, and neck. Rivers ran down her body, catching the wind and sending droplets all around. The rain slammed down on their backs and the clouds seemed to be leaning in closer, as though they wanted to watch the fight as well.
Suddenly Scarlet slipped on the wet rocks and went crashing down onto her back; Tourmaline immediately leaped on top of her, digging in her talons.
"You shouldn't have come back, Mother," she hissed. Tourmaline glanced up at the waiting crowd and shouted, "For the SkyWings!"
And then, with a ferocious crack, before any of us could react, she snapped Queen Scarlet's neck.