Tempest Unleashed

Chapter 32: The Nightmare

Crystal hissed at me and slashed at my wings, but no harm befell me. Suddenly, Winter appeared beside her and they violently kissed each other. I tried to break them apart from each other, but I couldn't move. I tried to scream, but no sound came. I looked back at Crystal and Winter. They had stopped violently kissing each other, but they were holding each other's talons and whispering to each other. I shuddered as Winter ran his claws over Crystal. Suddenly, my voice came back, and I screamed, "No! Please, no!" His head snapped towards me, and I realized that their eyes were completely white, blank, devoid of emotion. He growled, and they started to sprint towards me. When they reached me, they shouted insults at me and threw stones that hurt me. "Hybrid!" "Idiot!" "Moron!" "You trip over your own claws!" "You're so idiotic!" "You will never be loved!" "Everyone and everything hates you!" A whimper escaped my lips, and I suddenly thought of something. I looked down at my back left ankle, and there it was. The skyfire pouch. I started to run away from Crystal and Winter, and they chased me and called me names and threw stones at me. When I was running my fastest, I ripped off the pouch, and yelled, "MOON! MOON, WAKE ME UP RIGHT NOW!" A moment later, I was shaken awake by Moon, who had stayed up all night because she couldn't sleep. "Tempest, what's wrong?" I explained my nightmare to her as I tied on my pouch again. When I finished, she said to me, "That sounds terrible!" I started to reply, but I saw Crystal behind her, glaring at me. My gaze dropped to my talons, and I replied quietly as I sat down, "It was." I noticed Winter standing in the shadows with a sympathetic look on his face, as if he were listening the whole time. I said nothing after that. After one moment of silence, Winter walked out of the shadows, sat down next to me, and put his wing around me. Moon went to the other side and also put her wing around me. I started to tear up as I put my wings around them, as well. Crystal scoffed once, but her mouth gaped when Winter kissed me on the cheek and told me, "I love you." Somewhere off in the distance, a horn sounded, and my head snapped up because I recognized that horn. The SkyWing war horn. They're coming. I thought as I woke everyone up to prepare for battle. Even Crystal was willing to fight under my command if it meant she might have a chance of not being imprisoned by SkyWings. "What do we do?" Crystal hissed. I got into battle position, and replied dramatically, "We fight." The SkyWing army, my parents, and Maroon came into sight, a menacing wall of various shades of red and orange with flashes of metal here and there. Gannet flew up to me, and yelled, "I tried to stop them, but Mother wouldn't stand for it! I did the best I could do, other than the fact that I'm an animus dragon!" I immediately replied in a roar, "If you're on our side, get down here now!" He immediately complied, swooping down to join us. The army suddenly stopped mid-flight, and Queen Falcon flew far ahead of them to seem dramatic. She faced me, and called, "If you surrender peacefully, I shall call off my soldiers, Tempest. I shall also, once you have repaid your crime, let you go free." I thought, If I say yes, no one will get hurt. If I say yes, there will be no war. If I say yes, Winter will still love me. I made a decision, lifted my head, and replied, "No."