Claws of time

Chapter 1- The scorching

Alpine and I flew closely behind Queen Ibex and her army heading south towards the border of the SandWing territory. As we approached the SandWing's territory we saw in the distance Queen Amber and her army flying in the same direction. Alpine looked over to me and said "Looks like the Queens really did get the message!" I nodded, "I was sure they would." In reality I wasn't as sure if it would work. I've only ever used this power four times, but so far it's always seemed to do exactly what I want. We flew farther south out of the SandWings territory and towards the more rocky part where the SkyWings territory is. Up ahead I saw on the side of a mountain was a cave with the SkyWing Queen, Canary, SandWing Queen, Amber, and the MudWing Queen, Autumn, gathered in a circle waiting for the other queens to arrive. As we flew closer to the cave, the RainWing Queen, Lavender also approached as well. We landed inside the cave with the other queens and gathered in the group they formed. "Where are the Seawings, Nightwings, Rainwings, Beetlewings, and Leafwings?" Queen Canary asked. "The Rainwings are almost here," Queen Autumn pointed out towards the crowd of brightly colored dragons, "But I'm not sure about the others..." she finished. The RainWings arrived and landed on the ledge with the rest of us, and we all started waiting for the others to arrive. One by one the rest of the tribes finally flew in from all different directions, and once all we're together the meeting started. Queen Ibex was the first to speak up in the group, "My animus was the one to gather us all, and because of that he should be the one to speak up first. Shiver, what do you have to say?" All the queens turned their attention towards me as I cleared my throat. "In the message I described how scavengers have been stealing eggs, not only in the IceWing territory, but everywhere. While I'm not sure the reason they're doing this, the reasoning doesn't matter. We need to put an end to this once and for all. Does anyone have any suggestions?" the queens muttered amongst themselves, "I have an idea," Queen Bluegill spoke up, "What if we combined our animus magic, with all the known animuses in each tribe to just get rid of all scavengers?" Some of the queens nodded in agreement. "Wait!" Queen Amber shouted, "If we get rid of the scavengers, we'll be out of one easy food source." Queen Lavender and Bluegill made a disgusted face at her, while Queen Canary nodded, "Amber is right, some tribes do eat scavengers, they are fairly easy to catch if you know where to look. So we can't get rid of them completely, instead we should just instill fear among them and show them who's boss." Some of the queens seemed to like this idea, and were talking about how to go about this idea. "Burn their villages." Queen Nightshade said, stepping out of the shadows, "What a brilliant idea Canary." Queen Canary hissed, "How many times do I have to tell you, stay out of my head." Queen Nightshade just dismissed her, "Oh but Lavender does bring up a good point, what about the rainforest? It could get burnt if we're not careful... hm what could we do about that?" Queen Lavender blinked in surprise and then nodded. "Bluegill, that's a wonderful idea! Let's all call upon our animuses and see what they can conjure up!" Nightshade clapped her talons together, "Shiver, I can tell you're worried, but so far no animus enchantment hasn't worked!" I thought about what she said for a moment, she was right, everything I've ever enchanted has done its job. "I guess... but who's going to do it?" Queen Canary spoke up, "I'll send my aniums over and protect the forest." It seemed that all the queens had made a decision, the plan was to burn the villages, and scare the scavengers. Hopefully that would work.
All the tribes that could breathe fire gathered, The SkyWings, The MudWings, The NightWings, The SandWings, and also the BeetleWings. They were hovering above the mountain, reviewing maps of where the known scavengers' dens were, while the other tribes that couldn't breathe fire stood near the woods and rainforest in case the enchantment failed. As the blazes fanned across the villages, and scavengers ran out in panic Icewings combated flames that drew near the forest with their frost breath. Dragons flew across the continent scoping out more scavenger dens, and burning anyones they could. Eventually it turned into a scorched land, which once used to be small villages, now burned, and charred. I noticed that some scavengers made these small flotation devices out of wood and ropes, and started taking to the sea. I wasn't sure where they were going, there were no other continents out there, were there? Who knew what was going through those tiny creatures' minds? I know if I was one I would be terrified, but it was necessary if we wanted our eggs to stop being stolen.
It took a very long time for all the ash and char to clear, eventually some of the scavengers that stayed re-built their homes, but so far they never tried stealing anything again, which would mean our plan worked. Life went on more peacefully now for all the tribes.
It was a clear day out in the Ice kingdom, the air was the perfect chilly temperature and the snow crunched softly underneath my talons as I peacefully walked the edges of the water looking for what I was going to eat for dinner. Suddenly Alpine swooped down from the sky towards me, "Shiver!" she cried out. I looked up in surprise, "What?" "Queen Canary needs help, and Queen Ibex sent me to get you!" I blinked in confusion, "Why me and not a tribe closer to her?" I asked. "She does have help from the nearby tribes, but she needs you as well because all the Animuses are acting weird..." I tilted my head, "Hm... alright, I'll get there as soon as possible, where does she want me to meet?" "She's at the diamond spray river." I nodded, spread my wings and took to the sky flying east towards the river. I stopped halfway to the river to rest my wings from all the flying, and to find something to eat, nearby as well, there was a burnt scavenger den, and I ended up finding a silver ring on the ground, which I enchanted to help me fly faster and not get as exhausted. Once I got something to eat I took to the sky again and continued on my way. I was nearing the river and heard roaring, and saw smoke rising into the sky. I landed on the bank of the river and saw Queen Canary and her army fighting off a Skywing with dark red scales. The rogue Skywing was winning the battle so far because they were enchanting things to protect themselves and to throw at the approaching army. I saw a Seawing with light blue scales launch up from the river, but immediately struck down by a falling rock the Skywing threw. Three Skywings charged at the rogue one and scratched them on the side, but the Skywing fought back and knocked them off. An idea came to me, I had never tried this before, but I gave it a shot anyways. I picked up a nearby rock and whispered to myself, "Enchant this rock to put any dragon to sleep the moment it touches them." I threw the rock towards the attacking Skywing, it hit one of their talons and bounced off. The Skywing immediately fell to the ground with their eyes closed. The Skywing army looked at the dragon very confused. "You're welcome." I called out. The group turned around and thanked me. "How did you do that?" Queen Canary asked. "Oh, I enchanted a rock to put them to sleep the moment it touched them." I pointed to the rock laying near the river water. "So whatever you do, don't touch it until the enchantment is removed." I walked over to the rock and whispered the enchantment to be removed. The SkyWing army picked up the sleeping SkyWing and flew off towards the mountain, "How long will he be asleep?" Queen Canary asked. I shrugged, "I'm not sure...I never set a time limit." Queen Canary nodded and flew off after her army, and I flew back to the Ice kingdom.