|| TAIGA || Wings of fire [Reader insert]!FEM

Chapter eleven

Moon and Taiga had followed Turtle down a dark tunnel, There were few torches down this far, but Taiga's eyes adjusted to
the dark, and Turtle's scales glowed just enough for them to see the floor
beneath their talons.

Here and there she saw slick, glowing trails along the rocks, and after a
while she realized they were left by luminescent snails as long as her claws.
Soon after that, she noticed a faint dripping sound up ahead, and then all at once, the passage opened up into a huge cavern studded with stalactites,
shimmering with glowworms - and surrounding an enormous underground
lake.

" Oh, " Taiga whispered. At first she thought there were glowworms in the
water, too, and then she realized she was seeing the reflections of stars. Far
above them was a hole in the roof, big enough for a dragon to fly through
with her wings outstretched. Big enough for the moons to shine through,
casting broken silvery-green light across the still water. Two of the moons
were visible through the hole, half full and swathed with clouds in the
growing twilight.

Taiga looked around for Pike and Tamarin, but although a faint burnt
smell still hung in the air, there was no sign of the injured RainWing or the dragons taking care of her. They must have immersed her and then taken her
to the healing cave.

Turtle nodded at the lake, " You two should go in the water to clean your wounds, I'd take you to the infirmary but I bet Clay is busy with Tamarin. "

Taiga went into the water, with no reaction. However, Moon yelped in shock when the water touched her scales, it must have been to cold for her. Taiga hummed in amusement.

Taiga submerged herself completely in the water, feeling it wash out the dry blood and cleaning the wounds. Her neck started bleeding again but stopped after a few minutes.

There was a small splash as Turtle dove into the lake. He surfaced and studied Taiga's wounds, then went over to Moon to do the same. Taiga squinted and saw a tiny prickly thing, much like the ones scattered over the floor of the history cave.

" This might hurt, " Turtle said, and without any more warning than that,
he pincered his claws around the object and yanked it out of the wound.

" Ow! " Moon cried. Turtle pressed his talons to her shoulder as another
spurt of blood fountained out.

" Yowch, that must've hurt. " Taiga wrinkled her snout in amusement.

He lifted his claws, checked that the blood had stopped, and then dipped
his talons in the lake to wash them off. He was still holding the strange
object, and now he rinsed it off and peered at it.

" What is that? " Moon asked, scooping water over her shoulder.

" I think I know, " he said, " but I should look at it in better light, and maybe check the library. How's your shoulder? Can you fly? "

" Probably, " Moon said.

" Go ahead and try, " Turtle suggested.

Moon hesitated for a moment, then took to the air, soaring over the lake
and circling in the moonlight.

Moon tilted her wings and sailed down until she landed on a craggy boulder that jutted out of the lake. Spongy, bluish moss clung to its sides andsquelched under her claws. Turtle and Taiga swam over and clambered up beside her.
" How did you find this place? " Moon asked.

He shrugged. " I went exploring. There are a couple of underground lakes,
but this is the biggest, and the only one with a view of the sky. "

He leaned back to look up at the visible moons. Taiga studied him for a
minute.