Wings of Fire; Claws of Betrayal (EDITING)

CHAPTER TEN

Taking a deep breath, Blue stepped forwards in front of the NightWing guards and tried to put a confident face on.

"Can we help you?" one of the NightWings, who was quite scrawny, (but then again, all NightWings were scrawny) growled, glaring at her.

"You would help me very much if you let me into this hole," Blue said coolly.

"And why would we do that?" interjected another NightWing, a she who was quite strongly built compared to all of the other half-starved creatures around her. Her tone was deep with suspicion.

OK, then, Plan B, Blue said. She flicked her wing slightly, casually, and Elk came out from the shadows.

"And who might this be?" the same dragoness snarled. The other guards straightened and lifted their spears threateningly.

"Don't you know?" Elk said snottily, lifting his snout arrogantly. "I'm one of the very special Dragonets of Destiny."

"That's not true," another NightWing interjected, glaring at Elk. "The SandWing Dragonet of Destiny is a female. You aren't."

Elk and Blue looked at each other. Just by the fearful look on Elk's face, Blue could tell he was thinking, now what?

"Well... uh, the other SandWing died, and we had to replace her with him," Blue growled, regaining her confident status. "Obviously. Everyone knows that."

"Exactly," Elk hissed.

"Why do you need to go into the tunnel anyway?" the dragoness growled.

"Morrowseer said to take this sand-snorter into the desert for a while. This weakling has been lying around moaning all the time about the air, and Morrowseer's got sick of it," Blue said.

The dragoness paused, contemplating whether to believe Blue or not. Blue waited patiently, trying not to show her nervousness. Finally, the dragoness hissed, "fine. Take Courage with you, though. Any funny business, you'll be having a very excruciatingly hot meeting with the volcano."

Only one NightWing? Too easy, said her brain, but her mouth said, "fine."

Together, with Elk, the NightWing named Courage and her thumping heart, they went into the claustrophobic, dark tunnel. As Blue entered, a shiver started from the tip of her horns all the way down to the end of her tail. Her body usually did this when she's near or touching an animus-touched object.

Her heart thumped louder in her ears. She was finally going home!

After a while of walking in the darkness, Blue felt the air change around them. It got denser and warmer, and then she burst out into the rainforest.

Home! Her body cried. She couldn't stop the yellow scales of happiness that splashed across her gloomy black scales.

"What- you're the RainWing?" cried Courage. 

Blue whipped around to face him. Elk growled from beside her, raising his poisonous tail threateningly. "That's right. And if you don't want venom on your face, you're going to stay right there."

Courage began shaking with fear. "What do you want with me?" he asked in a high-pitched, scared voice. Blue couldn't stop the sympathy that welled up underneath her scales. He's only an innocent NightWing, working under the evil, ambitious orders of his queen. Does he really deserve to die, just for being loyal? One side of her brain said, but then an angrier side said, yes. Imagine all those RainWings he tortured just to test what their venom would do. 

Blue shook her head to scatter her thoughts irritably. Now wasn't the time. "I want you to tell me what you did with the SkyWing," she hissed, sidling closer.

Amidst the fear, a look of confusion crossed Courage's face. "SkyWing?" he echoed. "What SkyWing? Do you mean Flame?"

"Stop messing around," Blue growled. "Your life's on the line, if you haven't noticed yet."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Courage cried, covering his head with his talons. "Flame is the only SkyWing we have in NightWing talons right now, and we haven't done anything with him!"

Blue sat back. "Really?" she asked.

"Y-yes," Courage said, looking her in the eye shakily. He looked like he was about to cry. "Please, please don't kill me."

"You're not going to tell the other NightWings where we went, are you?" Elk interjected, taking a step forwards.

"You're going somewhere?" Courage asked, confused.

"Obviously. I'm not going back to that rank air when I have this," Blue threw up her wings towards the sunshine and let rainbow colours spill all over her scales.

"But you aren't going to tell everyone, are you?" Elk repeated, poking Courage.

"But they'll kill me if I return and tell them you escaped," Courage said, looking troubled.

"Just say that the SandWing tried to escape, and I flew after him," Blue suggested.

"OK, but what's your name?" Courage agreed.

"Erm, what's a NightWing-y name?" Blue asked.

Courage thought for a while. "I'll just say the SandWing flew off and Daring tried to catch him."

Blue nodded. "Good enough. Thank you."

Courage nodded back. As he turned around, a question suddenly perked up in Blue's mind. "Wait!" she called.

Elk looked at her, surprised, as Courage turned back around questioningly.

Blue's talons were shaky as she asked, "do you know a RainWing named Papaya?" she recalled her mother mentioning something to do with a RainWing named Papaya, spying and NightWing. Maybe Papaya had to do with Gleam's disappearance.

"Oh, him," Courage nodded. "The utterly useless RainWing. Don't know why we ever relied on a lazy, stupid RainWing to do the spying. He got caught so easily - but then again, what had we expected from a RainWing?"

"Hey, watch what you're saying," Blue snapped, taking immediate offense. 

"Sorry, sorry," Courage shrunk back, instantly realising what he said. "But anyways, yes, I know him, why?"

"Do you happen to know where he is located?" Blue asked.

"Blue, time's ticking," Elk hissed in her ear. "The longer we take asking useless questions about RainWings that have absolutely nothing to do with Gleam, the less time we have to find her."

Blue ignored him. He'd soon realise why she's so interested about Papaya.

"Hmm. I think he mentioned something to do with joining the Talons of Peace if he gets caught," Courage said thoughtfully.

Blue leaned forwards, even more excited. "And where's the Talons of Peace?" she asked.

But Courage was shaking his head. "This I don't know. Only Morrowseer knows, and he hasn't shared the location to any of his ordinary Tribe members."

Blue hissed in frustration, until Elk piped up. "I think I know."

Blue whirled around to face him. "Where?" she demanded.

"Before I met you and Gleam, I was travelling around in the Sky Kingdom, looking for supplies, and then I spotted who I thought was a member of the Talons of Peace. It was a red SkyWing, and she was acting very secretive, and she-" Elk said.

"OK, I don't care about that," Blue interrupted. "Get to the point!"

"The Talons of Peace," Elk said, "live in the mountains near Queen Scarlet's palace."

~

A/N:

I'm going to pretend that the Talons of Peace still live somewhere close to those mountains, since I don't think or at least remember if it was mentioned in the books where the ToP went after they were caught.