An Assassin's Choice {Wings Of Fire Fanfic/AU}

Chapter 78: The Churning Sands

[Nevermind, I made a mistake- XD I thought that yesterday (June 19th) was the one year anniversary of An Assassin's Choice's publishment, and I wanted to post then, but I got really busy and I was sad that I couldn't finish the chapters until today.  Well, I just realized that the publish date was actually JULY 19th, so I have a month to go. Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy the chapters nonetheless!]

     A cool nighttime breeze blew over the desert, kicking up sand and changing the dunes in the process. Two out of the three moons were full, the last one being barely over half. Because of this, the desert was lit up well enough to see without night vision; it was barely darker than if it were just regular day.

     Despite that, a fire had been lit. It crackled and sparked, illuminating the faces of all the dragons around it, though their bodies didn't cast shadows. They didn't have shadows. Not anymore.

    "This sucks!" Princess Blaze exclaimed, breaking the silence. Flint only saw General Sultan acknowledging her statement by slightly baring his teeth and growling at no one in particular.

     After Force had mostly imprisoned the entire Sky Palace, she and the dragons she was controlling went to chase after the General, who had fled. Once they found him, he was pinned down by some of the controlled dragons (not including Flint), whipped by Force's new whip she'd stolen from one of the SkyWing guards, and eventually finally had his shadow stolen.

     After recovering General Sultan (and a few other SkyWings they found on the way), they headed out towards the desert. According to Force, in order to get to the ShadowWing Kingdom, they needed to fly over the desert, to the peninsula at the southwest corner of the continent.

     Force was out collecting water and other supplies from a nearby oasis at the moment, and she had left the group of shadowless dragons with free movement of their entire bodies except their legs; this also meant that they could have conversations.

    "I, for one, wholeheartedly agree," Mako replied to Blaze's outburst. While the others began talking, Flint noticed that Mako's little apprentice, Odyssey, was acting strangely. She had her wing covering her entire front, and she was glancing around nervously as if she had smuggled something out here that she wasn't supposed to have.

    "Is something wrong Odyssey?" Flint spoke up, looking directly at the strange SeaWing. Mako stopped talking as well, glancing back at his apprentice. Odyssey lowered her head while pressing her wing tighter to her chest, or, as close to her chest as it could get with something in between.

    "Nope! Nothing! Everything's fine!" she loudly, and obviously lied. Everyone around the fire stopped their talking to stare at her.

     There was a long period of silence until the SkyWing next to her, Skylar, impatiently nudged her. At this Odyssey blurted out the truth. "Before they left and we all were caught by Force, RedRunner and Feather left me to egg-sit their egg because they said they could trust me, but obviously they couldn't because we're in this whole mess and Force will find their egg and probably smash it then me and-"

    "Woah, woah, woah, you have RedRunner's egg?!" Flint interjected, appalled. Odyssey nodded guiltily, moving her wing out of the way of where she was clutching the white-shelled egg. What appeared like liquid gold slightly shifted inside.

     Everyone there that personally knew RedRunner or Feather looked at the egg, astounded. Flint was about to say something, but before he could speak up, somebody warned, "SHE'S COMING BACK!"