A Vision of Happiness: The Cursed Dragonet (Book 3)

Chapter 12

VISIONER

Visioner landed on the small ledge by the entrance to the cave. Tamarin, Anemone, and Mink squeezed on, and Visioner held his breath, listening to the conversation inside.

"Where is your brother?" He almost fainted at Destroyer's familiar, awful snarl. "He's not in his cave. Only a small, pathetic, golden...thing. A SandWing, maybe."

Sunny! Visioner wondered how terrible the teacher must be feeling, to find five of her students vanish without a trace. 

"Perhaps I was mistaken...perhaps he's still in the mountain." Visioner's stomach lurched as he heard heavy talonsteps echoing closer towards them.

"Destroyer's coming out!" He whispered. Mink's sky-blue eyes widened, and she took off immediately. Visioner and the others made to follow, but before they could fly away, Destroyer emerged from the shadows. Frozen with terror, Visioner stared at his cold amber eyes. A thin smile split the NightWing's snout.

"Aha," Destroyer said. "Both of my dragonets are back."

He looked up at Mink, who was hovering in the sky, watching with horror, and then down at Tamarin and Anemone. Destroyer's cruel grip tightened around Visioner's neck, and he gagged, trying to breath in air. He squirmed helplessly, wings fluttering. 

"I wonder how your...friends...will react when I do this."

And he took in a deep breath and blasted Visioner in a blistering hot ball of flames. 

MINK

"Visioner!" Mink yelled. She watched helplessly as Visioner screamed in agony, and Anemone flew into the air, carrying Tamarin in her talons. Destroyer kicked Visioner into the cave, and roared something inside. 

To Mink's surprise, a beautiful dragon with shimmering scales of pink peeked out, wincing as Destroyer grabbed her by the upper arm. She held out her wrists, and Mink finally noticed the four large, overlapping wings that sprouted from her back. The strange dragon was a SilkWing.

Thick gray silk shot out of the SilkWing's wrists, and twisted around Anemone and Tamarin's talons. Anemone let out a startled yelp, and the SilkWing jerked her claws back, dragging the two dragonets with her. After a moment, the SilkWing pushed them both into the cave and darted into the air, flying away.

Destroyer tilted his head towards Mink, and he shot into the air like a dart, and swooped down on Mink before she could do anything. With a growl, Mink fired her frostbreath at him, but he dodged it swiftly, and caught her by the wings.

"You're not going anywhere, IceWing," Destroyer snarled, and flew back to the cave. He shoved her inside, and Mink saw that Anemone and Tamarin's talons were bound with a sturdy rope. Destroyer roughly tied the same kind of rope on Mink's talons, and tied another around her mouth.

So I can't use my frostbreath, Mink thought. Now we're truly captured. 

But where's Visioner?

She looked around, and spotted familiar pure-black scales lying just a few meters away from her. The flames had started to die down, but they still crackled furiously on his body. Mink noticed that his head was turned away from them, but she could see that his sides had stopped moving up and down.

No...it can't be...

But she couldn't deny the truth.

Visioner's dead!