Wings of fire: Smoking land (fan fiction) book 1

Chapter 2

The next morning, Velvet woke up to the sound of chittery-chattery monkeys in the trees around her. There were drops of morning dew on the huge leaves of the rainforest. Her first stop was here, Clay talked constantly about Glory and how he grew up with her. She remembered him also saying that she wasn't very fond of Peril. But, maybe Glory saw her mother fly by.
Velvet stretched slowly, and then walked over to one of the trees. She started shaking the tree vigorously. A little monkey with a black face, and buttery brown fur, finally fell out of the tree. When it saw her it tried to run away, but Velvet was fast and she was able to catch it by the tail. The monkey squirmed helplessly in her talons. She opened her jaws and ate the monkey in one soundless gulp.
When she was done eating the monkey, she started walking through the rainforest floor. The sound of toucans, frogs, sloths and the drip drop of morning dew ran through the air. What an amazing place to live! Velvet though in awe. She continued to walk until she felt like there was no ground under her talons, she looked down costionsly: It was a trap, and before Velvet knew it, she was falling down an endless hole.
The hole was long and narrow. It was pitch black as Velvet fell, she could feel sharp rocks scraping her wings. She closed her eyes, praying that she could go back to her home to embrace Clay in a huge hug. But when she opened her eyes Velvet was still falling to her death.
Velvet heard a thud as her own body slammed into the hard dirt ground; she laid flat on her back, seeing no purpose of moving her aching body. Then she heard the sound of voices arguing: "Hugh, this is the most boring job. Out of all the dragons in the rainforest, Queen her majesty just HAPPENED to give us the most boring job ever." "Oh―stop whining you ungrateful-lizard, it's your fault we're stuck with this job. You had to prove to her Majesty that you should be her new bodyguard, and dragged me into it. But of course you got into trouble, and all the guards had to come save you leaving the rainforest unguarded. So as punishment she gave you the job of bringing captured dragons to her, (and she blamed me too.)"
"Hey! I'm not the one you should be blaming; maybe if you would have backed me up I would have been the Queen's new bodyguard, and you could have been―I don't know, an adviser." "We can't argue about this right now, I think we just captured our first dragon!"
There was a blur of navy, red, and green scales as Velvet lifted her head to see what was happening. A small pointy thing zipped across the air, and shot into the side of her neck. She heard the footsteps of dragons running towards her, as she tried to stand; but her knees wobbled, and she saw the ground fade into darkness.
"Ahem, excuse me... hello... Dragon Fruit―is she still asleep? The sound of whispers seemed so close, that Velvet could open her eyes to see a dragon whispering in her ear. She began to see the outlines of exotic colored dragons, and a few black ones around her as her eyes fluttered open. The young dragonet was lying on the ground of what seemed to be a large circle shaped hut in the treetops. Sunlight poured out of two large glass windows on each side of the hut. Green leaves the size of dragon wings covered the top of it. "Oh good, you're awake dear." a large teal Rainwing with bright orange ruffles behind her ears, and a light green under belly stood before her. "Black Shade, please get this dragonet some water." a slim Nightwing with a scar across his left wing, stepped ahead of the crowd of dragons that circled around the teal Rainwing. "Yes, your Majesty," Black Shade bowed deeply, and then left the room.
Velvet felt like she haden't slept in days, as she stared at the wood floor (even though she just did.) "Are you hurt?" asked the Queen. "No, just a little sore" she replied softly, slowly rising. "Now I know you probably want to rest, but I can't have a strange Mudwing prancing around my kingdom without further information." she said firmly. "Let me introduce myself: I am Queen Glory of the Night-Rain tribe." she said, majestically spreading her bright orange wings. "Who are you, dear?" "Velvet," she answered, gathering her courage again.
Glory! She's the one that Father always talked about. She's a Queen―I don't recall father ever mentioning that.
Glory frowned, "that's a rather strange name for a Mudwing; I would think that's more of a Skywing name." She said critically, squinting suspiciously at her. Should she tell her who her parents are? Maybe not about Peril, but about Clay.
"My father is Clay" she said, puffing out her chest to look big and strong like him. "Really?!" she exclaimed, clapping her talons together excitedly. The sound of murmurs started to buzz throughout the crowd of dragons, as Velvet looked around to see every pair of eyes on her.
The Queen's expression changed quickly, and she started to look at Velvet as if she had done something terribly wrong. "Did you tell Clay that you were coming here?" she asked. "Er... weeelllllllll―" she started to fiddle with her tail nervously, as she spoke. Glory put one talon on Velvet's shoulder, and leaned towards her. The Rainwing frowned, "why didn't you tell him?" she whispered.
I can't say why I'm here. But that was the whole reason I came... she won't trust me if I say I'm looking for Peril.
"I'm looking for my mother," she announced. "I was wondering if you might have seen her fly by, about six years ago?" she continued. "Well, what does she look like? Because I don't recall seeing any Mudwings soar over." she put one claw up to her chin, and looked like she was thinking very hard. "I'm not quite sure what she looks like," Velvet admitted. "She left before I hatched." she explained.
"Hmmmmmm... in that case I'm afraid I can't help you, but I can ask around if you'd like. You're welcome to stay as long as you please, though." she offered. Velvet felt a surge of happiness inside of her, at the Queen's words. "But there are a few rules," she warned, at the sight of Velvet's excitement. "First of all: you can't eat the sloths. Second of all: you can't threaten any of the dragons here, you're a guest so you must be respectful. Last but not least: you are not permitted to go inside the tunnel to the volcano, because that's where I keep prisoners―" Glory paused, and looked down at Velvet. "Of course, I don't keep prisoners without their Queen's permission; I think they should have a say on what happens to their subjects. Also two of three of them are from this tribe."
Who's the third prisoner?
"Firefly, escort Velvet to the place where she will be staying." A bright orange Rainwing with a light blue snout, and curly horns spread out her wings to bow. Then, stood up, and Velvet thought she saw a flash of red ripple through her scales before flicking her tail to take off.
"Oh, and Velvet―one last thing: I am going to send forth a message to your father telling him that you're safe." Glory said. "Ok, just don't tell him too much. Just... Just say that I'm gone looking for my mother, and that I'll be back soon." She requested.
Velvet was amazed by how big Firefly's wingspan was, as she flapped awkwardly, trying to keep up with her long smooth wing beats. "Come on!" She snarled, turning her head to look at Velvet impatiently. But it wasn't her fault she was going so slow. She was constantly slamming into tall trees, and getting her tail tangled in vines; not to mention ALL THE DRAGONS swooping in every witch way, knocking her off balance.
Eventually, they reached another hut. Except this one was much smaller, and wasn't decorated with as many flowers; instead there was a small balcony, and a chain of light pink Hibiscuses hung from all the way around the hut. Velvet also noticed that there were lots of huts above, and below this one that were very similar.
The two dragons gracefully landed on the balcony―well, Firefly did at least. Velvet's landing was more shaky, and had a lot of wheezing involved. "Here's where you're staying," she said. "Thanks?" Velvet said, "enjoy" she spat. Firefly spread her big orange wings to soar up into the air, and Velvet could have sworn Firefly thwacked her with her tail on purpose.
Yeesh, what's up with her? She doesn't even know me, but she acts like I pulled off all her scales, then shoved them in her mouth. Oh well, I probably shouldn't take it personally; maybe she just has a natural hate for all Mudwings.
The word Mudwing echoed through her head. She wasn't really a Mudwing... She was a Skywing too. All her life she'd been thinking that she was a Mudwing, a pure Mudwing―a real Mudwing, and then to find out that it all was all a lie.
Then she realized: what did she like better? Being a Mudwing or a Skywing? She liked the thought of having huge wings. She would race Firefly, and be the one shouting "hurry up!" at her. But having strong muscles, to be able to lift a dragon off the ground and to say "run!" like Clay did to a guard in the Sky kingdom once. The thing was, Velvet had similar traits to both of her parents (so Clay had told her). But none of the ones she wanted. Instead she was slim like a Skywing, and had Mudwing size wings. Which are still big, but not as big as she would have wanted.
Velvet shook off those thoughts, as she squeezed herself through the narrow doorway. Inside, there was a pile of soft leaves, and a few Cordylines were placed on top of it. There was an immense window behind the bed of leaves, that let in long beams of sunlight that filled the space with light. On the ceiling were small melted glass balls that looked to have miniature bugs inside of them. To the back of the hut was a wooden cabinet with a woven basket, and fruit in it.
She gently opened the door to the cabinet, inside was a thin gold necklace that looked like it had been crafted very quickly.
As she pulled the necklace out of the cabinet, a ripped piece of scroll fell onto the ground. She picked it up to read:

Welcome to the Night-Rain kingdom! We give every visitor a gold necklace that will temporarily be your's in the time that you are staying here. You must wear it whenever you leave your hut, so we can know that you're visiting.
Go hunting as you please, and feel free to explore and interact with other dragons here. Enjoy your stay!
―Queen Glory
Velvet's stomach grumbled like thunder, she hadn't eaten since this morning. Clay always said that "the key to success is eating enough food," and for him that was a LOT of food. So she decided it was the perfect time to go hunting. She put on the necklace, and tossed her bag on the bed.
Each RainWing had a sloth around their neck, and now Velvet could see why they were off limits.
She soared through the trees, well, technically she smashed into trees every ten seconds. There were not as many dragons as Velvet thought there would be. She guessed that there were probably more RainWings than NightWings. She had heard that the years that they lived in the volcano they had lost dragons, because of the lava and there was barely any food. But most of the dragons seemed happy here, they also all seemed to know each other.
Glory must be a great queen.
Velvet was staring at some dragonets playing when a black dragon bumped into her. "Ouf! Sorry. Are you ok?" Velvet stared up at the young black dragon, who looked to be her age. He had two silver teardrops beside his eyes, and a goofy smile. "Hey, you're a MudWing ― oh, I meant MudWing-SkyWing. You're a hybride!" he said enthusiastically. "Yes, I'm aware, but how did you know?" she asked. "I'm a NightWing. Most NightWings in our generation can read minds; and some even have visions, including me. Because I was born when two of the moons were full. If you're born when one of the moons are full you just have mind reading powers or visions. If you're born when two of the moons are full you can have visions and read minds. Did I already say that?"
Wow, this dragon will not shut up.
"My name's Stargazer by the way." he added. "What's your name?" he asked, "Velvet's a cool name." he replied himself. "Stop reading my mind!" she growled. "Sorry Velvet, can't help it," Stargazer said casually. "But my grandfather Mastermind is working on a vaccine for that." he said quickly.
She turned around to leave, "I have to go hunting," she said. "Wait! Can I come with you?" he shouted after her. "Sure, why not?" Velvet sighed