Sands of Time

Chapter 12

The sun was beginning to rise above the horizon as the newfound gang of hatchlings made their way through the overcast foliage. Spark and Storm had settled to the back of the group, balancing Fire's weight between them, while Clouddusk had taken his dutiful place at the head of the group (something he already appeared very comfortable with, Sun noticed). Violet was hauling Snowfall with Cyclone at her side, ready to assist if assistance was needed. Sun lingered near the group's heart, balancing Cloud tenderly over his shoulders and tiptoeing his way through the bushes.

Fire had been right, the blue drake was heavier than Sun had anticipated. The others had offered to help but Sun had declined. They were already doing much more than they had to. They knew nothing about him and yet they were risking their lives to help his friends. Especially, Cloud whom they should have feared. But they don't, he thought. Because the Winged Five is different. They were exactly the way the scrolls had depicted them. They may have been tentative of him--with valid reason--but unlike the rest of the planet, they weren't immediately trying to kill him, and that made them better than most of the Realms.

1039 Post-Scorching. He sighed. The height of danger and fear. Of all times to be spelled, this was not the one he would have chosen.

"So, if you're not from our time," Storm piped up, shifting gaits and breaking formation to bound up beside the sand drake, leaving Spark staggering with the jungle drake's weight alone. "And you definitely aren't, so how did you end up here? You made the future sound so perfect. Why here, of all places?"

"I wish I could say it was our choice," Sun began slowly. How much could he safely show? Time travel wasn't a subject he considered himself versed in, but he knew something about temporal paradoxes and how even a slight alteration to the timeline could destroy everything in the future. And he was definitely not about to be the one to mention mangos and cause the universe to explode. "But I guess the simplest explanation would involve a very bad dragon trying to rewrite history for the escalation of the Frost Kingdom's power."

Cyclone blinked. "The Frost Kingdom?" he echoed. "You mean the Tundrae-dwellers? What's wrong with them in your time?"

Nothing except their prince is Dark Realm-bent on ruling the galaxy. Sun shrugged. "I have no idea. He didn't give us an explanation before she blasted us here." He thrust a claw toward Snowfall, earning bewildered glances from the vigilantes. 

"The raynbow did this?" Violet barked. "Huh, I guess she did deserve to lose half of her face after all. Which one of you did that?"

"Er, I'm not sure, but it wasn't one of us." At least, not any of us here. Cotton was not entirely clear yet, however. I still very much want to hear her side of the story at some point.

"Well, it could have been and I wouldn't have said anything. The Raynbows are a nasty tribe to get mixed up with."

"Says the dragoness who married one," Storm remarked.

"And did I stutter, bolt-brain?"

"She's not wrong though," Clouddusk muttered under his breath. Sun blinked his way. Wasn't he a raynbow drake? Where was all of this harbored resentment festering from? So, even the mighty leader of the Winged Five has got secrets. Sun looked forward to uncovering each and every one of them.

That was his role on his team after all; the quiet, observant therapist, a badge that he had learned to wear with pride. 

It was still questionable how much good that had done him in the long run if he hadn't even been able to sense something was off about Fahrenheit. 

But he had, he just hadn't understood what it had meant at the time.

He had felt it the first time he'd met the drake (more than the quick nod in passing as they left Torch Mountain to save his sister), the moment he'd emerged from the cavern of ice where he had led Cotton's party to protect them. The way his talons had been curled inward, possibly shielding the shrapnel of ice and blood from where he had cracked the ice and tried to drown the dragoness, the cold expressionless way he had addressed the other Defenders, as though he was purposely trying to turn them away. And when they stubbornly refused to leave, he was forced to take more drastic measures.