Wings of Evolution (WoF AU)

Chapter 55

Slow of body, not of mind

Turtle felt the currents pulling him along, he saw the soldiers chasing him, and he felt the panic and utter terror as he resigned himself to his death. 

But… no. he had to help them. He had to free his tribe from the unjust rule of his oldest sister. He had to make himself free from her. 

Turtle was the only one who might be able to help Tsunami get the throne. He was the only one who could save the world. Turtle would be lying if he said he didn’t feel a little bit of glee and horror at that thought at the same time. 

He glanced backward to see how much longer he had before his inevitable demise, and nearly choked on the water rushing through his gills as he saw a large sky blue SeaWing reaching forward to snag his tail. Turtle yelped and dodged to the side, moving over as he tried to maneuver into a different current. 

In the process, he completely lost the current and twisted to the side as the soldier was whisked past him. Too bad that wasn’t the only soldier. That would have been a pretty cool turn of events otherwise. 

Two other soldiers were able to leave the current in time, so Turtle was forced to find another one which took him jarringly backward. He twisted in the current to make himself go faster, but he was by no means the most athletic dragon out there, he was already getting tired even though they could still see the deep palace in the distance. 

Wow, I’m pathetic…  he thought of his plain golden armband. Well, you’ll have some use now I suppose. Usually he would have freaked himself out from overthinking it by now, but in the heat of the moment, he squeezed his eyes shut and enchanted the armband. 

I enchant this armband to take me… er… to take the dragon wearing it wherever they wish to go when they speak the words… ‘squid brain.’

He opened his eyes and examined the three soldiers who were closing in, apparently the first had returned from his little trip. Turtle opened his mouth, remembering belatedly that he was underwater and words don’t work down there. Would the enchantment count aquatic? He thought it would, Turtle would count aquatic if he was a magical armband. 

He took too long though and felt a flood of water enter his gills as a spear was thrust through his left wing and into his tail. Turtle blinked at the pain and finally closed his mouth just in time to bite his tongue from the instinctual yelp of pain. 

‘Squid brains…’ Turtle flashed his scales and thought of the surface, the mainland. He’d only been there once when Orca had first made a treaty with the NightWings. 

Turtle felt an immediate relief as the water disappeared and suddenly he was somewhere else, exactly where he’d imagined. It was technically Resistance territory, though it was on the coast. He tried to take a step but found that the spear was still lodged through his wing. 

Apparently the enchantment not only counted aquatic as speaking words, but it also counted a spear stabbed into him as him. 

Next time Turtle clearly needed to be more specific. 

His legs collapsed beneath him, tired from his mad rush away from the deep palace. He tried to drag himself forward or back onto his feet, but his body disagreed. Apparently Turtle wasn’t going anywhere. 

He was going to get something though, he insisted that if he was going to have to rest, it would at least be in the shade. It was hot out here. 

So, like a good little SeaWing, Turtle wormed his way up the beach until he found the treeline, finally letting his tired body collapse beneath him as the cooler area met his scales. Now he just had to hope that the resistance found him before his evil sister did. 

Oh, and hopefully whoever found him would deal with the spear… he figured that taking it out now might make it bleed more and he had no idea how to get himself in the proper position to remove it. 

Now he had plenty of time to mourn about the fact that he hadn’t had the courage to lie to the lie detector. 

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Every vote gives Orca another slap in the face!