Wings and Warriors

Chapter 2: The Ruins

(Cover art by Wanxing Wang on Art Station)

I could tell this was to be an exciting friendship...

The music began blasting even louder than before and the ruckus began to shake the floor. The sheer amount of noise and chaos was enough to make me feel scared. I looked around nervously as dragons around us shuffled and bustled.

I looked up at Baltic, nervously darting my eyes away from his gaze. He could see that I was uncomfortable and decided to speak up.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly. His face wore a worried expression, perfectly reflecting my own. I shook my head in response, and brought my legs and tail closer to my body, making myself smaller. Everything felt overwhelming, the shouting and cheering, the whispering, the laughing and screaming, all with loud party music playing overhead, I had to get out of there. Tears were welling in my eyes and the world felt like it was closing in on me, dragons left and right were squishing past me, so I hugged myself tighter. I looked at the ground and prayed for the booming and thundering to stop.

I felt a wing cover over my body, hiding me from the ruckus around. I glanced up to see Baltic looking around for an exit, his wing holding my small body. Finally there was an opening in the crowd and he ushered me to follow him out from the pavilion. I weakly stumbled behind him as we pushed our way through the large mass of celebrating, loud dragons. He led me towards the southern exit, the gateway just ahead. As we neared closer to the archway there seemed to be less dragons and the noise was quieter, the further away we got from the center of the courtyard.

My heart finally started to settle as we exited through the gates and into the open air over the ocean. The noise started to drown itself out and I felt as if I could finally breathe again.

"Thank you," I said to Baltic calmly.

We walked away from the gate, along the sandy beach. The sun was high in the sky, no clouds in sight. The small waves gently crashed against the shoreline. It was quite a warm day, the cool, gentle breeze coming in from the sea whispered in my ears. Baltic had released his wing from over me and was walking next to me in peaceful silence. I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the calmness completely.

"Loud parties aren't for everyone, huh," he joked. I opened my eyes, smiling at his remark.

"I get really frightened at loud noises. That's why I spend most of my time in the ruins, alone with no one to bother me, just me and the beautiful architecture surrounding me." I sighed, thinking about my safe place. The ruins of the old summer palace were far from here, on the other side of the sea. After being destroyed many years ago the ruins were abandoned and a new palace was built closer to the mainland.

"The ruins?" Baltic stopped walking and looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"From the ancient Island Palace," I replied, did he seriously not know the geography of his own kingdom? "The ruins of the old summer palace are still too crowded for my standards, only the royal family and some of the subjects know where the ruins of Lagoon's island palace is."

"Oh, right," he sounded like he was upset with himself for knowing less about the kingdom of the sea than a meek little subject, that he wasn't holding up to his 'prince' title.

"It's one of the places that only get talked about over here. I'm not sure the other kingdoms even know it exists," I tried to cheer him up. "I can show you if you want."

His head perked up, he looked excited to go on a small adventure. "Sure," he was trying to sound cool and collected, and it was hilarious to watch.

"I hope you like swimming," I smirked. "The only remaining entrance is underwater."

I had assumed that since he had grown up in the Ice kingdom that he hadn't had many swimming lessons, the water would have been freezing.

"I love swimming," he replied, bounding ahead of me and turning to face me. A giant grin was plastered upon his face once more.

Right, part icewing he can withstand the cold easily, I thought to myself.

We stopped walking and I grinned at him, "Alright then, let's go."

We walked into the water, it was cool and felt amazing against my scales. I felt the water deep into the crack between my armoured body, easing the tension I held in my shoulders and back, it was freeing.

I powered along with my tail and flashed my scales.

"This way," I signed in our underwater language. Baltic swam up to me. His wings were dragging behind him awkward and it got me wondering what it would be like to swim with the extra weight and drag behind you.

I swam ahead, entering a current that flowed above a coral reef. Turtles and fish swam below, scurrying out of the dragons sight. I swam down as the coral reached an underwater cliff.

In the cliff there was an underwater cave that led to a naturally formed tunnel. We followed the tunnel until it spat us out into the open ocean on the other side of the large island that the new summer palace sat upon. I turned to make sure Baltic was keeping up with my fast pace.

He was a slower in the water than I was, his wings and lack of time spent in the water were slowing him down.

I continued to swim forward once he was next to me again. After a while of swimming above an abyss of water another sea cliff could be seen. Similar to before a cave was carved into the side of the cliff, this one wasn't quite so natural, rather dragons of the past had dug out a tunnel to the surface. We followed the tunnel until it reached the surface.

We emerged into a very overgrown courtyard. Trees and vines had completely overpowered the stone structure. A large canopy had been formed from the trees. Birds and other animals inhabited the abandoned landscape.

"I can see who's no one knows where it is," Baltic said. "From above it must be just another island, and I don't think many dragons would be too fond of venturing inside random caves."

"Well observed," I smiled. "No one comes here, it's always quiet and peaceful, only the animals to keep me company. I often bring scrolls and drawing pads with me."

"It's amazing," he was in awe of the ecosystem that had built itself on top of the ruins.

The canopy cast green shadows on the ground, covering the ancient buildings from above. The birds were squawking in the treetops, singing their harmonies and creating a vibrant sound that illuminated the space with music.

I was zoning out, enjoying the melody, when I heard something rustle in the branches. I stepped back, that wasn't normal. It sounded like a large animal was hiding up there. I tried to find where it was hiding without luck.

Baltic noticed my worried glances as I continued to creep backwards, awaiting a sudden drop from the creature in the canopy.

The birds chirping quietened as they noticed that something was cloaked in the treetops right next to them.

The ruins fell silent and all eyes were searching for the perpetrator.

My heart race increased as I continued to struggle to find whatever was hiding up there.

More rustling and some scratching sounds were created above the branches. It sounded like the creature, whatever it was, was struggling to hold itself to its hiding space.

Apparently I had guessed correctly as a few moments later a dragon fell from the treetops crash landing on its back.

The loud thud sent the birds flying from the branches, away from the commotion. I had yelped and jumped backwards when the dragon hit the floor.

Baltic leapt towards me, as if to protect me. Awwwh, he cares about me.

My attention was brought back to the stranger when it stood up groaning, stretching its wings in the air. It's scales shifted colours from the light greens that blended with the canopy to a mix of reds and oranges.

The dragon turned to face Baltic and I with narrow eyes and an annoyed expression...