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

Chapter eighteen

Soon the four of them were soaring through the trees. Well, most of them - Winter kept getting his wings tangled in unexpected vines or spiderwebs or branches or, once, snagged on the nest of a large-beaked indignant red bird.
After a few minutes of flying, Queen Glory stopped abruptly and swung around.

" That is a level of noisy that makes me think you aren’t even trying to be
stealthy, " she said. " Come on out. "

Qibli emerged sheepishly from behind a tree with huge leaves. " I was trying to be stealthy, " he protested. " But there’s too many things to crash into. I’m a wide-open-desert kind of dragon. "

" What did I say about staying put? " Glory asked.

" You’re a great queen, I hear, but with all due respect, you’re not my queen, " Qibli said, setting his jaw. " I go where they go. Besides, Winter wants me along, he just can’t admit it. "

" I don’t, " Winter said. " You can send him back to the Kingdom of Sand for all I care. "

" He adores me, " Qibli said.

Glory rolled her eyes. " Fine, enough arguing. Let’s go. "

Qibli shot Winter a delighted grin and flapped over to fly beside Moon and Taiga.
They were surprisingly dexterous at moving between the trees and dodging stray
branches. Even Glory still ran into things occasionally, but Moon and Taiga slipped
easily through the forest.

Soon they were descending toward an absolutely enormous fat tree with bulging branches and knobbly roots sticking out of the undergrowth. From the air, Taiga spotted the circle the Rain wing had mentioned. The frozen berries had melted into mushy puddles of purple, while the leaves and undergrowth were all black and damp.

Glory, Taiga and Moon circled the tree while Winter and Qibli landed and studied the rainforest floor.

The layers of leaves and bracken were disturbed here, as if something had been dragged away. Qibli noticed it, too; his snout wrinkled with concern. Winter followed the trail.

Winter paced over to a wall of bushes where the ground began to slope up. The banyan’s roots extended this far, some of them nearly as fat around as a dragon.

Between one of the roots and the bushes was a mound of leaves, dirt, moss, and mulch that looked too big to be natural.
Winter started to clear away the debris. Moon, Taiga and Qibli joined him, helping silently.

Taiga's heart sank.

The corpse of a Night wing guard lay beneath the dirt in a hastily dug hollow, his face contorted in frozen rage, his throat slashed, and his scales ravaged by frostbreath.

Icicle was definitely here.

" Moons, " Glory muttered, staring over Winter’s shoulder at the corpse.
Clouds of dark red were gathering along her wings and spine.

" This is bad, Winter. Bad for your sister, bad for the peace of the rainforest. "

" The Night wings are going to set their heads on fire, " Qibli agreed. " No, wait. They’re going to set the closest Ice wing’s head on fire. Winter, I hope your skull is as thick as it looks. "

" If Icicle sees you four, she’ll know you’re here to stop her, " Glory said. She gave Moon and Taiga a worried glance. " Let’s get you two somewhere safe. "

" And you, " Taiga pointed out.
The queen snorted as though she was pretty sure she could handle anything, and led the way back to the royal pavilion.

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