The gemstone war

A prisoner

Rosefire was taken to the HiveWing castle off the shore of Pyrriha. The castle was on an island and had been painstakingly carved out of white marble, brick by brick.

It had taken three generations to build, and Queen Lilly was only the third queen to enjoy it fully.

She spent most of her time there.

Still bundled up in the net, she was dragged down into the dungeons.

The dungeon was a narrow, elegant hallway cut deep into the white stone of the island. Large chambers had been carved into the walls, and each had a ledge for the prisoner to sit on. Even the metal gates on each cell were perfectly fitting.

One of the HiveWings cut her out of the net, then rushed out of the cell and slammed the gate closed.

Rosefire struggled out of the netting and flopped out onto the ledge. On the other side, through an elegant barred window, she could see the outline of another prisoner.

"Hello?" she asked hesitantly.

The pale blue dragon looked up. It was a SeaWing, Rosefire realized.

"Oh, hi!" the SeaWing said.

"Oh, um, hi?" Rosefire asked. "My name is Rosefire, and... um...can you tell me what's going on? Please? I'm so confused!"

"Well, Rosefire, I'm Otter. I'm sorry to end up meeting you in this, unfortunate manner. I'm pretty sure you know what's going on."

"What?" Rosefire asked blankly.

"The war," Otter explained. "Don't you know how it started?"

"No," Rosefire admitted. "I know about it, though. I was heading to my aunt's house in Possibility because of it."

"Well," Otter said politely. "You clearly aren't at your aunt's house in Possibility."

"Um, yeah," Rosefire said sadly. "I got kidnaped by Queen Lilly."

Otter sucked in a sharp breath. "You what?" she spluttered.

"I got kidnapped by Queen Lilly," Rosefire admitted.

"Oh, oh dear, this is bad," Otter said nervously. "Do you know why you were kidnapped?"

"No!" Rosefire cried.

"Lilly only ever kidnaps dragons she deems useful, or dangerous" the SeaWing explained.

Rosefire sighed. She did not like this one bit. "She didn't say that, though," she said. "She just said that I was too young to be in a war, then offered to find my parents."

"Well, that's just Lilly speak for 'I think you're pretty and you are a good fighter so I'm just going to kidnap you,'" Otter said sadly. "She never just tells you directly."

A HiveWing guard stepped out of the shadows and began to unlock Rosefire's cell. She instinctively shrank back.

The guard grabbed her roughly and began to drag her out of the dungeon. "Otter! Otter!" Rosefire cried.

But there was nothing Otter could do but watch as Rosefire was taken away, up towards the throne room.

"Hello, little dragonet. Do you remember me?" Queen Lilly said jokingly.

"Of course I do! You witch! Why would you take me away from my home and my family!" yelled Rosefire accusingly.

"But don't you remember the battle?" Lilly asked, taken aback by Rosefire's outburst. "I was just saving you."

"NO YOU WEREN'T, YOU SAID I WOULD BE GOOD IN YOUR ARMY!" yelled Rosefire, shocked by what Lilly was saying.

"SHUT UP!" Lilly screamed, surprised at Rosefire's newfound knowledge of her plans.

There was a moment of silence after, then Lilly let out a choked, ashamed noise, then yelled, "GUARDS! TAKE HER TO THE DUNGEONS!"

The guards rushed up to restrain Rosefire and dragged her back to the dungeons.

"Otter where are you?" cried Rosefire, sounding panicked.

"Here" replied Otter

"Hi," Rosefire said sadly.

"What's wrong?" Otter asked.

"Queen Lilly lied to me, then yelled at me and sent me back to the dungeons," Rosefire said tiredly.

"That's so horrible, I can't believe she is doing that to you. Wait yes, I can! It's just her personality," Otter said. "Don't take it personally."

"Haha," Rosefire said sarcastically.

"Hey, that hurts my feelings!" Otter said.

"Oh, sorry then," said Rosefire apologetically.

"Oh, I was just joking, you don't have to worry," Otter reassured her.