Eternity of Pain (FINISHED)

Chapter 13: Fiery Secrets

GrayWind brought ShineSwift to a nearby village. There were guards posted just about everywhere. Dragonets even younger than her jostled on the streets.

Wow. Very peaceful despite the war.

The smoky dragon led her towards a small hut made of volcanic rock. Inside, several other dragons were playing cards.

"What have you brought us, GrayWind?" a dragon spoke. She had a fire red body, with an orange underbelly. Her tail was a fin, yellow against the black stone. She also had similar colored horns that opened behind her head like a sunflower. The dragon had a weird eye color, as if somebody started a wildfire in the forest, and the color was the lake reflecting the water. For one second, ShineSwift thought that the dragon had fins instead of talons. Turns out, the dragon did have fins, but they covered and hid her talons. She had two pairs of flame colored wings that basically trails her body.

"A SunFlight, RainFire," GrayWind replied smoothly. When he said the red dragon's name, dragons around snickered. They cut off abruptly when RainFire stared at them with a weird look in her eyes.

"Well, do you have a message from SunFeather?" RainFire turned her head towards ShineSwift.

I'm not a SunFlight!

"Actually, let's take this conversation somewhere more. . . private. That includes you, GrayWind." The smoky dragon bowed his head down in acceptance.

ShineSwift followed RainFire to a nearby WHAT. The river was just water. Water. Pure water.

Without thinking, ShineShift plunged herself into the river. The water was also somehow cold. She heard a splash as RainFire joined her.

"Wait!" ShineSwift lifted her head above the water. "You're a FireTail! You can't get in water without getting hurt!"

"That's the upside of having both water and fire as an element," RainFire said smoothly. Her tail worked calmly, flicking slowly up and down in the water. Somehow, ShineSwift missed the gills that lined RainFire's neck and the underside of her wings. "And that's also the downside."

"The other FireTails don't like the fact that you also have the element water?" ShineSwift spread her wings to lift a bit of the pressure off of her legs and arms.

"You saw what they did when GrayWind said my name." RainFire's wings were dragonfly wings, floating calmly on the water. Her talon somehow retracted into the fin, leaving only the flippers that were so at home in the water. Her yellowish orange horns behind her head retracted in annoyance. "They almost despise me. Not that I'm not strong enough to claw the smug expression off their faces."

ShineSwift took a deep breath and dove deeper into the cold water. She thought about how RainFire was judged for what powers she had, not what she can bring to the world.

This isn't what the world is supposed to be.

"Now, time to get serious." RainFire watched as ShineSwift surfaced beside her. "Tell me everything. I seriously don't what to go back with only a dragon that won't unzip her jaw." There was amusement in the FlameTail's voice.

Suddenly, after several days of wanting to spill the beans, ShineSwift felt strangely reluctant.

You got yourself into this.

ShineSwift began, starting from the ocean race all the way to the Sun Fire caves. In all that time, one question still bounced around her mind.

How did I get here?

Through and through, RainFire was a good listener. Moments turned into minutes, and minutes turned to hours. Hot rain started to pour down on the volcanic town.

After ShineSwift was done, RainFire leapt out of the water and shook her wings off. ShineSwift followed.

"We'd better go." Before ShineSwift could reply, RainFire bounded away towards the houses. ShineSwift took a second to shake the water out of her feathers, and flew towards the bright red dragon. 

When they finally arrived at the black hut again, the dragons had returned to their card game. GrayWind was sitting nearby, examining his talons. He looked up and smiled at ShineSwift and RainFire arrived. The dragons playing the card game set their cards down and looked up at RainFire. ShineSwift noticed a few annoyed looks here and there.

"Let her stay here for now," RainFire commanded. ShineSwift noted how she seemed so confident, but was basically falling from the disrespect that she was getting.

"Alright." A green red dragon spoke. There was something that looked like burning wood wounding around his head, wings, talons, and tail. He spread his wings. "Welcome to the hut! Nothing very special here except a very grumpy group of . . . ah . . . army grunts." Several dragons around him laughed. 

"I'll leave this group to you two, CereFlame and GrayWind. I'll be out patrolling the border with Blackcano and BeeSting." A black and yellow dragon and a completely fuzzy and flaming dragon followed RainFire out of the door. It shut with a thud.

"Well, that was quick." CereFlame turned to the rest of the dragons. "Go back to your games!" 

Every dragon quickly when back to whatever they were doing, though there were a few grumbles.

"Now. . ." CereFlame turned to ShineSwift. There was a questioning look in her eyes. "What do we do with you?"