Wings of Fire; Creature / ✅

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"Gleam!" the Queen of the SkyWings said cheerfully. In her palms she held a star-shaped light blue sapphire. A dreamvisitor.

Gleam slipped over in a haste to get away from Scarlet. Scarlet chuckled. "Gleam, darling, don't be afraid."

"What do you want?" Gleam rasped. Scarlet was in some sort of cave - there were rocks behind her.

"Why did you run away? Burn was going to treat you thrillingly," Scarlet said.

"No, she wasn't," Gleam growled. "She threw me in a dark cave far from the sunlight. Also, why would you care if I escaped? You sold me, remember?" she spat the last words out like rotten meat.

Scarlet's spikes stood up.  "She never told me about that. She was supposed to treat you as a guest," she growled. "Anyway, where are you?"

Gleam scoffed. "As if I'd tell you." 

Scarlet hissed a long, deep hiss. Finally, she said, "fine. I'll find you by myself, then." And Gleam was flung from the dream so abruptly her stomach lurched, and she woke up.

Outside it was dark. It must've just been past midnight.

Gleam's chin dropped to her claws, closing her eyes, but then they flew open again. Scarlet. She must've seen the cave of where they slept, because if Gleam was correct, that was how dreamvisitors worked. Which meant if she had seen the back of Gleam's cave, Elk, Blue and herself were in terrible danger, because Scarlet knew the mountains like every length of her claws.

Gleam turned and shook Blue. "Wake up," she said, not caring if she was quiet or not. They had to leave immediately. When Blue didn't react, she shook her harder and said louder, "wake up!"

"What?" Blue groaned, and a flash of orange flicked across her scales. She opened her eyes. "Gleam, it's the middle of the night! Go back to sleep."

"No, you don't understand, we are in danger," Gleam said desperately.

"Gleam, the only one who is in danger is you, because the moment I get up you'll suddenly get papayas up your nose!"

"Blue, seriously. Scarlet dreamvisited me!" Gleam growled.

"What's a dreamvisitor?" Blue asked.

Gleam stared at her. "You don't know-" she stopped herself, suddenly realising Blue was a RainWing and wouldn't know much about treasure. "It says it in the name. A gem which if you use, you can visit someone's dream. Now get up!"

Blue was on her feet in an instant. "Why didn't you say so?" she cried. "Wake up Elk, and let's get out of here!"

Gleam shoved passed Blue and nudged Elk. "Get up, lazy legs."

Elk was awake quickly. "What is it?" he yawned.

Gleam hurriedly explained what was happening and he widened his eyes in amazement. "We need to go right now!" he leapt to his talons and raced out of the cave. Gleam and Blue followed, and soon they were up high in the sky, flying away from the Sky Kingdom and its mountains.

"Where will we go now?" Blue asked Gleam. Elk looked at Gleam for an answer. Gleam liked how they asked her, like she was the leader of their trio.

"I'm not sure," Gleam admitted, which didn't seem very leader-like to her.

"Maybe we can try Jade Mountain?" Elk suggested.

"Ughh, away with these mountain and away-from-sun suggestions," Blue groaned.

"Well, we can't camp out in the middle of the continent," Elk pointed out. "That would be basically saying, 'yep, we are the dragons Burn and Scarlet are looking for, maybe if you take us to them you will get a reward'."

"If anyone tries to take me, they will face my wrath," Blue hissed.

"Oh no, will you cuddle with them in your sleep until they are smothered?" Elk teased.

Blue opened her mouth wide and bared two long fangs which Gleam hadn't noticed before. Then two jet black drops fell from them and landed on some shrubs below them. The shrubs the droplets had touched withered and disintegrated. 

Gleam and Elk stared at Blue for a long while. Finally, Elk spoke. "Well, that was a surprise."

"How, though?" Gleam asked Blue. 

Blue shrugged. "How do you have ridged claws? Genetics and science, I guess."

Gleam turned around to check on the mountains they had just left, and her heart dropped. A whole wing of dragons was flying around the mountain, checking every crevice and cave. There was one dragon who stood out - the rubies on her eyes shone, and the golden chest plate glittered like sunlight. Scarlet herself was in the patrol to find Gleam.

"Duck. Now," Glema hissed through her teeth, and without waiting for an answer, dived behind a boulder which hid her from sight. Elk soon followed, and who knows where Blue had disappeared to.

There was a roar which made the whole of Pyrrhia tremble. Gleam was kind of scared that Scarlet had knocked down every mountain with that ear-splitting bellow and felt kind of bad for the dragons around her.

"What was that?" Elk whispered.

"Scarlet being angry," Gleam responded, grinning. Elk grinned back.

"They couldn't have gone far," Scarlet's voice suddenly came into earshot. There were lots of different wingbeats behind her voice. "Search every place around this area, and don't stop looking until you find her!"

Gleam stopped breathing and pressed her talons into her face in fear. Her wings began to tremble, and Elk touched his wing tip with hers to try reassuring her, and sent a mental message saying, 'don't worry, we're in this together, if she finds you, she finds me too'.

The thunder-like wingbeats spread out, but one stayed in the same place. Gleam could barely breathe. Scarlet was scanning the area, and she was right above them. One look down, and that could be the end of her and Elk's life.

Gleam looked up and found Scarlet's head twisting, looking around. Her amber eyes were narrowed into slits, and her forked tongue slipped in and out of her mouth every couple of seconds. 

Gleam tried shifting to the side of the boulder so they were out of sight, but suddenly her tail knocked into a bush, making leaves shift and quiver. At once Scarlet's head snapped their direction, and as their eyes met, an even smile spread across her face. "Aha."