Wings Of Fire: Whisper In The Shadows (book 1)

Chapter 6-Gale

At night I was consumed by the creepy feeling of being watched. By morning it had faded, replaced by confusion about what Tempest and I heard last night.

The morning air is crisp and dewy as Tempest and I soar over the rocky peaks of the Sky Kingdom, both of us silent and puzzled.

Finally, Tempest swoops up beside me, her beautiful bluey-aquamarine scales shimmering in the sunlight.

"Hey, who do you think those dragons we heard last night were?" Tempest asks.

"Well, if what we heard was correct," I inform. "They were Altitude, Toad and..." I trail off, my brow furrowed in concern. "Queen... Scarlet."

Tempest rolls her eyes.

"Well, duh." She smiles playfully. "I know that. But why were they talking about... rebels and taking over Pyrrhia and stuff." She asks.

I shrug. "I guess they are rebels or something. But I doubt they'll be much of a threat, Pyrrhia is stronger than ever." I explain.

Tempest nods in agreement before tilting her snout down to the rocky mountains, scattered with homes built into the cliff faces. The sheer peaks jutt out of the peachy coloured clouds like sharp talons reaching for freedom.

I watch as hundreds of amber orange and ruby red dragons swoop over the stony alps.

Tempest's eyes widen beside me, and I smile at her. The Sky Kingdom really is beautiful. Bustling and enormous, completely unlike the Sea Kingdom's elegant and petite state.

After flying for a couple minutes over the rocky cliffs, we finally spot Queen Ruby's palace, built into the gargantuan side of Dragon Wing cliff. I angle my wings and we swoop downwards towards the Skywing Palace, passing over hundreds of dragon homes.

What really surprises me is the amount of humans scattered across the rugged ground and mountains, even crossing little bridges built over hulking chasms and clifftops.

I do a double take when I spot a group of tiny newly born dragonets play fighting with two female scavengers (sorry, humans) with a flop of blonde fur on their heads and roughspun tunics on.

Well not fur, I correct myself. According to many scrolls on humans, the 'fur' they have is called hair.

"Crazy isn't it." Tempest grins, flying up beside me and indicating a small human flying on the back of a mahogany Skywing.

"Yeah," I breathe in awe. "I mean, I've read about them in scrolls, and I know that they're way more part of dragon life than before, but I guess I just never quite..." "Believed it?" Tempest finishes. We exchange soft smiles.

Not only are there humans here, I notice. There are dragons from other tribes here too!

I watch as a midnight black Nightwing and a shimmering teal Silkwing swoop down to a rock ledge, handing a human a plucked, dead chicken ready to eat.

The human smiles and says something to the two dragons, a mix between human language, (or 'humanspeak' as some authors call it,) and Dragon. Which, when you mix the two languages together, it comes out in a very odd mixture of squeaks, growls and roars.

Despite the garbled Dragon language, the Silkwing seems to understand what the human said and the Silkwing scoops up the human, places him gently on her back, and spreads her four glittering violet wings wide and launches to the air.

I watch them spin in twirls until the Silkwing drops the human down on the grass and the little human runs off to join his friends. I stare in awe at the small two-legged creatures, wondering why they aren't toppling over or tripping on their skinny legs.