Wings Of Fire: Fallen Kingdoms (Book 1)

Chapter 17

 mild nsfw

    Even though Jade Mountain had collapsed about a century and a half ago, the mound it left was massive. There was a rocky valley that was filled with overgrown gardens and statues commemorating the teachers and students that had died in the collapse. Jellyfish couldn't remember exactly why the mountain fell, but she knew that it was a pretty terrific event. 

     Some of the statues were missing talons or heads, but most of the damage was just plants that were outgrowing their gardens and latching around and onto the statues. Jellyfish wanted to go visit them, she had remembered reading about the temple that had been built for the Dragonets of Destiny when she was little and being so sad that the temple had pretty much been abandoned since the Last Day.

     They couldn't go down there, though, since Stratus was down there peering at statues.

     She of course hadn't told her friends about their meeting, or when they met up the night after, or last night. They surely wouldn't trust her.

    Aconi was down closer to Stratus than the rest of the group, her scales camouflaged from him. She had left a patch on her back so her friends could see her from their cliffside hideout. 

    They were much higher up, on probably the tallest mountain in the world after Jade Mountain. About half a foot of snow blanketed the ground, freezing Jellyfish's talons off.

    "I wonder what was going through everyone's minds as the mountain fell," Jasmine said beside her. She had her thinking face on and was picking at a shedding scale on her talon absentmindedly. 

    "No idea," Jellyfish said with a shrug. "If only Jeweldreamer could read the minds of the past."

    "Agh," Jasmine said with a grimace. "I think if you could read the minds of dragons during the collapse, I think all you could hear is, 'AAHH, THE CEILING IS FALLING AHHH!' "

    Jellyfish giggled. "Yeah, you're probably right. That may be unpleasant."

    Jasmine snorted. " 'May be',"

     Movement caught Jellyfish's eye as Stratus flew up to a cliff, and stretched his wings to sun them in the rich light. Aconi's spot shimmered out of view as she climbed and fluttered back up the cliffside.

    Jellyfish couldn't help but feel angry at her. After what happened last night, she had seen an entirely different side of Aconi than what she was used to. Yes, she had seen bits of it during Aconi's argument with her mother, and sometimes when arguing with her friends. But it was much different when that rage was directed at her. 

     And all because she didn't want to wake up.

     Jellyfish walked away from the cliffside before Aconi reached the top. Jeweldreamer was holding two rabbits, skewered on a single stick, over a fire. Cloudy was happily rolling in the snow, with a very relieved look in their eyes. Jellyfish realized that in the caves, they probably didn't get the snow they needed very often, but up here, high up on the mountains where snow fell, was something of a miracle for a deprived IceWing.

      Bermuda, on the other talon, was quite the opposite. She had swept a large area of ground free of snow and sat right next to the fire. Her talons and tail were tucked beneath her body, and her neck was curled up into her wings, like a chicken. Bermuda looked positively pissed about the weather.

    "Smells good," Jellyfish said as she approached Jeweldreamer. He nodded and blinked at Jellyfish.

     "Is Aconi a vegetarian?" he asked.