Wings Of Fire: Fallen Kingdoms (Book 1)

Chapter 14

     The rain beat down on Jellyfish's wings.

     No one was speaking. Everyone's eyes were trained on the red-brown shape that was winging through the storm.

    Stratus wasn't stopping. If he were really innocent like he claimed to be, why was he fleeing? Any reasonable dragon would stop and tell them that they didn't do it, and maybe even remove the ring that prevented Jeweldreamer from seeing the truth in his mind.

   Jeweldreamer sighed beside her. "You're right. That would be nice." He must have been listening to her thoughts. She didn't blame him, she would be reading thoughts if there was nothing to do but fly. 

    "There's a cave up ahead," Aconi said. "It'll be dry there."

    "How do you know?" Jasmine asked.

    "My mother and I stayed at the cave for a bit while we waited to make contact with your village. We moved in about a year ago."

    "Good to know," Jasmine muttered under her breath.

    "Someone ought to keep an eye out on Stratus," Cloudy observed. Stratus was spiraling down in the sky towards the sky. "We can switch keeping watch as well." 

    "Sounds good to me." Bermuda said. 

    "Hey, what's that?" Jellyfish said, noticing a dark slash carved into the landscape. The pine trees went from their dark emerald green to a dark blackish brown twisted mass.

    "That... looks like an old town," Jeweldreamer said, swooping toward the wreckage.

    "I'll keep watch if you guys want to look," Cloudy said.

    "No, I'll do it," Aconi said. "You stick out like a sore claw out here. I can camouflage myself against the pine tree and I'll be fine.

    "If you say so," Cloudy said. Jellyfish and Aconi exchanged a smile.

    The rest of the group dove down to the old town. In the middle, there was a raised stage with a partially collapsed roof, and four stone pillars on each of the four corners. There also appeared to be an old bronze bell that had been crushed in the roof collapse. On one side of the roof, there was a large wooden sign that read Pinerock. 

   "Pinerock was the name of the town that my dad lived in, before the Last Day," Jasmine said. "In fact, a lot of dragons back home used to live here before that. I think Fearless was visiting on behalf of the queen here."

     "Interesting," Jeweldreamer said, picking up what appeared to be a broken spear. "Look, you can see where the old breath of evil sprouted. He was right- there were several spots where the stone tiles had been upthrown and gaping holes were left in the ground."

    "Did you grow up here?" Bermuda asked Jeweldreamer.

    "No," he said with a sigh. "I grew up on a coastal cliff village inside the Night Kingdom. I was there when everything happened."

    "I sort of did," Cloudy said. "My older sister and I moved here about seven years ago. It had always been her dream to study the ocean. See, the ocean in the Ice Kingdom was just too cold to hold much microscopical life, so she came down here where it's warmer."

     "Is she... you know, still around?" Bermuda asked. To Jellyfish's surprise, they nodded. "She's still alive, but she got really hurt on the Last Day. She can't walk anymore and has trouble speaking."

    "Oh... that's awful," Jellyfish said. Cloudy shrugged.

    "It's just what happens," they said.