Scarab the Fierce

Chapter Fourteen

This wasn't happening.

This wasn't happening.

How could this be happening?

Scarab could feel the anxiety and fear she had gotten so good at hiding lately start to bubble to the surface once more.

I'm dreaming. This is a terrible nightmare. A horrible nightmare where I was found by my fa- by Vulture and my friends died on the NightWing island and the Talons of Power are going to declare war on Phyrria with the help of the NightWings. Maybe if I just let myself fall out of the tree I'll wake up when I hit the ground. I'll jolt awake and I'll still be in the rainforest hut Queen Glory gave us to sleep in. Arid will ask me what's wrong...

Or better yet, I won't be here at all. I'll be in the desert, warm in the sand. Arid and Qibli are still asleep and the sun has barely started to rise.

Scarab hadn't realized she was staring off into space until was snapped back to reality by Deathbringer grabbing her shoulders.

"Are you alright? You almost fell out of the tree." His whisper was barely audible.

Stupid NightWing. "Fine," Scarab whispered back, shrugging his talons off a little too forcefully. "We need to go." She swooped out of the tree as quietly as she could, not waiting for a response. She winced as her sore muscles ached with the effort, but she refused to let it show.

She glided carefully through trees until she was far enough away that she was sure Vulture and the NightWings wouldn't hear her wingbeats. She found a tall tree with a wide canopy that was easy to perch in and settled on one of the branches. Deathbringer caught up shortly.

"Do you know who that was? The dragon talking?" Scarab asked him when he landed, interrupting what was surely going to be a question about why she had run off.

Deathbringer shook his head. "I probably would if I saw his face though."

"His name is Vulture." Scarab hissed. She looked away at the dark forest below. Night was falling, and stars barely peeked out from a downy layer of clouds accumulating above the trees. "He's one of the most dangerous dragons on Phyrria and is intending to take over the other kingdoms. He's allied with the NightWings." Her claws were digging into the bark of the tree, gouging brutal marks.

"I kinda figured that." Deathbringer said uneasily. "What else?"

"He's also Qibli's grandfather. Qibli's one of my friends. One of the friend's I might have lost." Scarab clenched her jaw, avoiding what she knew Deathbringer was asking.

"And?"

"He's not my father!" Scarab shouted suddenly. Deathbringer flinched.

Breathing was getting difficult. Why was breathing difficult?

"Sorry," Scarab said painfully. "He... was my father. Adopted. Well, no, more like kidnapped and manipulated. But I ran away after learning who my real mother was and that I was a Dragonet of Destiny."

Deathbringer raised his eyebrows. "I thought...?"

"Viper was a replacement for me when the Talons of Power got to me before the Talons of Peace did. At least, that's how I understand it." Scarab explained. "So I left the Scorpion Den with Qibli and met Arid on the way," her mind wandered to when she and Arid were young dragonets and would spend every day together. "We found a tunnel that led us here and found the Dragonets of Destiny. Which was convenient."

Deathbringer filled in the rest. "You helped the RainWings defend against the NightWings, but the plan went sideways."

Scarab snorted. "You could say that. I don't actually remember almost anything that happened on the NightWing island. I just woke up injured and alone with RainWing bodies all around me." Her throat tightened when she remembered searching desperately for Arid and Qibli and not finding as much as a scale.