Claws of time

Chapter 3- The breath of evil

I was flying in a mixed group of BeetleWings and LeafWings. I knew I was getting strange looks from the others, but I didn't care. As we were flying there was an Island I spotted in the distance. The group I was flying with started to dive towards the island to land and rest for a bit. We landed on the island and I pulled out some of the food and water from my pack, and started eating it. Once I finished I walked over to a BeetleWing I recognized. "Hey Glowworm, do you know what time it is?" Glowworm looked at me, "And why should I tell you, IceWing?" he retorted, annoyed. "I suppose you don't have to tell me, but there is no need to be rude about it." Glowworm lashed his tail, "Why are you even here?" he asked angrily, "You actually had a place you were welcomed, and not kicked out of!" I paused for a moment, "Actually, no. I was also kicked out." Glowworm laughed, "Ha, sure you were." I shook my head, "No really, I was. Queen Ibex feared that I would be a threat with my powers, so she sent me away with you guys." I gestured to all the other dragons resting on the island. Glowworm thought for a moment, "Whatever, I guess, but I'm still angry. It was your tribe's fault that Queen Citrus Was killed." I shrugged, "Well... maybe she shouldn't have tried invading the RainWings and killing Queen Lavender." Glowworm was getting ready to protest, but decided not to, "Whatever IceWing... I'm going to sleep. And by the way, It's almost midnight." Glowworm turned and walked away. I sighed and curled up on a patch of grass to fall asleep. I was awoken by the sound of wingbeats and noticed some of the group started taking off once again, so I ate something really fast and joined the rest of the group. We were flying for hours, almost another day had passed when the group of dragons spotted more land. I flew up to the front of the group and saw a string of islands, there were at least five of them going in a semi spiral farther out into the ocean. I flew down towards the closest island and landed on the sandy bank, next to me a few BeetleWings and LeafWings also landed next to me. I decided I could rest here for the night. As I got ready to fall asleep, I started wondering, how long will we be flying tomorrow, what if this is the last time we see land... if there's nowhere to rest, we will all crash into the ocean. My mind started racing through all the possibilities. As I was thinking of all these terrible possibilities, I got an idea. I pulled out the scroll and ink and started thinking of how to word my newest enchantment. After thinking of how to word it I finally got the idea and wrote down on the scroll, "Enchant the IceWing that goes by the name, Shiver, to be protected from anything that is to come." I looked at the words happily with the enchantment in mind, the only question is, would it work? And if it worked, how would I know it did? I shrugged, I guess I'll find out in the morning. The sun shined brightly as I woke up from my sleep. Dragons were already taking to the sky and following the string of islands. I decided to join them, I stood up and stretched, then spread my wings and followed behind the group. I flew past the string of Islands but noticed something in the distance, it looked like even more land, although it was bigger than the small islands. The object was so far away though, I couldn't really tell. After hours of flying it was starting to turn night and my wings were growing tired, but I had to keep flying, I was already too far away from the islands, and still so far away from the object in the distance. More time kept passing, and my wings were growing more and more tired, my flying had slowed down, but I still continued on. Beside me to my left, Glowworm was keeping pace with me. I turned to him and asked the time, "Almost early morning." He said. I groaned, "I've been flying for a day straight!" Glowworm looked at me worriedly, "Really? Are you trying to fly to that land over there?" He said pointing to the place in the distance. I nodded, "Yeah. I hope I can make it..." Glowworm shook his head, "I don't think so, since you didn't rest on that final island before leaving, this trip will take a whole another day at least." I looked at him dreadfully, "I can make it..." I clutched the pouch where I had my enchantment stored. Glowworm shook his head worriedly, "Hopefully." he said before he flew off ahead of me.
I kept flying all through the night, my wings so sore from the long journey, but I could make the land out much better. I saw trees growing on the side of a cliff, water splashing up towards them from the ocean. I had to push myself, I had to make it. Groups of BeetleWings and LeafWings had already passed me and were almost to the island. I guess I had started dozing off in the middle of flying because I woke up when Queen Weevil came up to the side of me, "Hey IceWing, you better wake up or you'll probably become food for whatever lurks in the ocean below." I jolted awake when she spoke to me, "Huh, yeah... yeah, I'm awake!" I shook my head to clear my mind. "Are you going to make it? And also, what are you even doing here?" I nodded, "Yes, I'll make it, we're already almost here! And Queen Ibex sent me with your groups because my Animus powers 'might be a danger to the tribe'." I said the last bit in a mocking sort of voice. She looked at me with a little resentment, "Oh, so she sent you with us so you can massacre our whole tribe?" I blinked in surprise, "What! No, I'm not going to massacre your whole tribe, or anyone as a matter of fact." Weevil just stared at me, she tried to act like she believed my story, but I knew better than that. "I would actually like to help the tribes. I can use my magic to build homes for everyone, and so much more!" I exclaimed excitedly. Weevil shook her head, "No. I forbid you to use any magic, got it IceWing." I nodded, "That's fine." Weevil nodded, "Good." I thought to myself that it would be impossible to completely give up my magic, however I could limit it. I kept flying next to Weevil until finally we reached the land. The moment I touched down, I immediately flopped down on the ground. I lifted up my head after a minute of resting to look at the surroundings. This place was big, it stretched out with miles of forests around, and beaches lining the shore of the land. I wasn't sure how big this place was, but I was sure it was big enough to be a new continent.
Before I did anything I took a very long nap, I was exhausted and sore from flying for days. Eventually though I was jolted awake by dragons roaring around me. I snapped my head to attention where the sounds were coming from and saw there was a huge swarm of bees attacking some BeetleWings and LeafWings. Some of the BeetleWings were using their flamesilk to burn them, and some were using venom. I ran over to the group and charged back my frost breath, before blasting and instantly freezing the bees. As the group was in the middle of thanking me, one of the dragons roared in pain as a snake bit their ankle. One of the LeafWings snared it with a vine in order to crush it. I looked at the snake carefully and realized it was a dragonbite viper, the only snake known to kill dragons in one bite. As I was inspecting the snake, I heard another dragon next to me yell, "Fly!" As soon as they said that, a large group of dragonbite vipers swarmed the area. I quickly spread my wings and flew upwards. The vipers below us tried jumping to reach us but couldn't. "What is going on?" Queen Weevil asked as flew over frantically. "This is so weird! It's almost like something or someone is controlling them!" When she said someone she looked at me. I shook my head, "I'm not doing it!" She narrowed her eyes skeptically, "Sure..." She looked down at the jumping snakes and then back at the crowd of dragons in the air. Glowworm flew forwards "What do we do about this?" he said gesturing towards the snakes. I flew forwards away from the crowd and charged back my frost breath and blasted it onto the snakes. The snakes touched by the frost froze instantly, I kept flying over all the snakes until all of them were frozen. Eventually it was safe enough to land back on the ground. Queen Weevil stood in front of us, "We have to get to the bottom of what's causing these animals to behave this way. This is out of the ordinary, I have one suspect already of what could be causing this." Queen Weevil looked towards me, "You, IceWing, come here." She pointed to the spot next to her. I walked over to the spot she asked me to stand, "Yes your majesty?" "You're an animus, right?" Weevil asked, "Yes, that is correct." "These animals are behaving as if someone was controlling them with... magic... and there are no BeetleWings or LeafWings with known animus powers, therefore I believe that it is you." some of the dragons huddled around us gasped and started muruming. "Your majesty, I can promise you I would never do something like this! Why would I control the animals nearby to attack us all?" She thought for a moment, "Because, Queen Ibex wants us gone! And I bet she sent you to finish the job." I looked at her with wide eyes, "I don't know how I can prove my innocence, but I promise it's not me." Queen Weevil shook her head and was about to say something but was interrupted, "Wait," Glowworm stepped forward, "The animals that are attacking us have white eyes, now I'm not sure what it would look like if Shiver were to enchant a snake or bee or any other animal, but I don't think he would give them white eyes, I believe it's something else." Queen Weevil looked at him annoyed, "Great input Glowworm, I suppose we could look for someone else as a suspect. Let's start an investigation, we'll make groups of three to four dragons, they will always have one of their group members with them at all times. I'm going to go gather the rest of the tribes, everyone stay put unless something happens." Queen Weevil spread her wings and flew off in the opposite direction to go gather everyone she could.
A while later, almost dusk, Weevil returned with almost the rest of the tribe, she split everyone into groups. I was in a group with Glowworm, a LeafWing named Chamomile, and another BeetleWing named Ladybug. I met with my group members in a small cave near the peninsula of the island where we first arrived. "Well, since one of us has to stay with each other at all times I say we pick someone to stick with in case we have to separate." The other three nodded. "I can go with Chamomile." Ladybug chimed in. Chamomile nodded in agreement. "Well, guess we're stuck together?" Glowworm added. I nodded, "I guess we are."
Weeks had gone by on the continent, enough to start getting some small homes built, however most of the new places we tried building would always be stormed by the animals of the island acting strange, it was still an ongoing investigation, however none of us were aware it would start affecting the dragons around us. It was a pretty peaceful evening, I was working on decorating my cave to make it feel more like how it used to be back in the ice kingdom when I heard some roaring from the dragons outside. I walked out to the entrance of my cave and saw a BeetleWing and LeafWing attacking some of the other dragons. I flew out and over to the group and hovered over trying to assess the situation and figure out what I could do. I flew over to a nearby tree and enchanted one of the vines growing on it to wrap around the two dragons and keeped them snared so they couldn't escape. The vines started growing in tendrils and eventually wrapped around the two dragons, holding them in place. I flew back over to them and landed on the ground in front of the dragons that were attacking and noticed that their eyes were white. "What's wrong with them?" Glowworm asked. I shrugged, "I don't know... who else was in their group?" I asked, turning back to the crowd of dragons. Two more LeafWings walked forwards, "We are." the darker green one said. "Okay, do you have any idea what could've happened to make them like this?" I said gesturing towards the two ensnared dragons. The two LeafWings started trying to think of the reason to why they were acting this way when all of a sudden the ensnared BeetleWing spoke, "It's useless to try and figure it out ice dragon, soon enough I will clear out all the other dragons here, or better yet I can clear out these useless four winged ones, and keep the leaf dragons to help me grow!" The BeetleWings voice came out weird and unnatural, as if someone else was speaking through them. One of LeafWings, a part of their group, spoke up, "That doesn't sound like Emerald..." they said, their voice shaky. I looked at them curiously, "What do you mean?" "Well... it sounds like them, but as if someone was trying to impersonate their voice." I hummed. The other lighter colored LeafWing stepped forward, "I remember what they were doing, they were out in the forest gathering wood for their house, and Emerald, the BeetleWing, had to burn some thick vines in order to clear a path, an once they burned the vines and inhaled the smoke, they started trying to attack me, but I managed to get back here." I looked at them oddly, "So... they inhaled the smoke from some burned vines and this happened?" The LeafWing nodded to confirm what I had just said. I thought to myself how this could even be possible, "Could you take me to the vines?" The LeafWing hesitated, "I guess..." Glowworm stepped forwards, "I'm coming!" The three of us all spread our wings and headed into the forest to go find the vines.