Heart of the storm

Chapter 4

Oh no, he thought as he flew down to the sprawled dragon. Oh no no no no no.
Whirlwind.
What—how—I don’t… Thunder knelt and felt Whirlwind’s chest. It was silent, unmoving. Just like his eyes and face, etched in an eternal shock. Thunder shot away his talon. Tears welled up in his eyes.
His brain was failing to comprehend this. Whirlwind was dead. Gone forever. Though Thunder had never gotten on with him, it still tore up his heart to see Whirlwind lying on the ground, breathless, never coming back.
With a pang, Thunder wondered how Sprite would handle this. She could never see him in this state. It would be too much. He grimaced.
Who had done this?
He was about to call for help, but he had to check one thing first.
Swallowing, he rolled Whirlwind over. But there were no injuries. No wounds at all. Just like Electron. Just like Static.
And probably like Charge. The killings had probably started that long ago, right under their snouts.
Whenever it had started though, one thing was certain. Someone was killing off the VoltWings. One by one, secretly. Using a horrible fly to do the job for them. The theory made perfect sense. A fly could make it into the Storm unsuspectingly. So if the fly had a master, how could they control it? Mind control felt unlikely, but he had to accept all the possibilities. If this was true, they needed to be stopped.
It was official: the Storm was no longer safe. Until Queen Cloudburst decided to find that creature, and (if there was one) its  master, the VoltWings would continue to perish. It wasn’t a pretty fate. What could he do?
“Hey you!” someone shouted. Thunder turned to find an older male VoltWing was glaring at him. “What’ya do to him? Did’ya get in a fight eh? Little rascals.”
Thunder didn’t know what to say. “I—I—”
“Get outta da way,” the VoltWing grumbled. He pushed past Thunder and knelt down next to Whirlwind. “Are ya okay laddie?”
He put a talon to Whirlpool’s back. After a few seconds, he looked up at Thunder with wide eyes. “Oh on Twister’s grave…” he mumbled. Stumbling away from Thunder, he started screaming. “Guards, someone help!”
“No, I—” Thunder started. This was not good.
“GUARDS!!!”
In an instant VoltWings started flowing onto the level and shrieking. Out of the corner of his eye, Thunder saw Sprite and looked away.
“He… he… KILLED HIM!” the old dragon gasped. “GUARDS!”
“What? No, I didn’t do anything!” Thunder shouted. Before he knew it, his talons were shoved behind his back and a dragon grabbed his body. “No!” Thunder wiggled and thrashed.
A bag was shoved over his head, throwing his world into darkness. He wasn’t a murderer!
Thunder could feel himself lifting, but only saw black. “Help!” he screamed. “I—” A talon was clamped over his mouth.
There was nothing he could do. Thunder felt the guard's claws digging into his skin. He twisted, but even more talons held him down.
This was crazy. Only a few minutes ago he hadn’t even known Whirlwind was dead.
But he was, and now he was probably getting arrested. This was all wrong. They should be looking for the fly, anything else.
Thunder was paralysed from moving a centimetre the whole trip to wherever they were going.
A short while later, Thunder was thrown onto the floor. His body hit rock with a thump, causing pain all over his body.
Now that his hands were free, he gasped and ripped the bag off of his head. And came face to face with the Queen.
Thunder was in a small musty stone room
“Please sit down,” she said.
For a moment, Thunder didn’t move.

*(Ignore what’s below for now)

Thunder realised that he had a whole day of scouting ahead of him. Out in the open, he could find the fly with no one stopping him, or at least the flys trainer. I mean, what was the likelihood that it would kill the queen, out of all dragons?

Thunder decided he would get some rest before tomorrow. It was going to be a long day.

The Storm was dark and quiet, the air still. The dappled light shone on Thunder’s wings as they flapped towards the scout office. The plan was simple. That day, when others were scouting, Thunder would be hunting. Not hunting for food, but hunting for the fly. The fly that had plunged the Storm into temporary chaos.