Wings of Fire: A Ruined Dream (Book 4)

Chapter 11

"Fuck," Beige said, pulling a dagger from his bag.

"Hi! Hello." One dragon said, a spindly SandWing. "How are you guys? Great? Fantastic."

"What do you want?" Rosetta hissed.

"Oh, jeez, introduce yourself! Here, I'll get the ball rolling. My name is Hare, and these are my friends."

"I asked what you wanted, not what your names are." Rosetta snapped.

"Oh," Hare said. They folded their talons, their black tail barb flickering back and forth behind them. "I didn't realize we were going to be so informal."

"Okay, cool, that's been established," Jasmine piped up, pressed against Stratus's side. "What do you want from us?"

"Oh, wow, you guys really are an ugly bunch. Inside and out." Hare said, taking slow steps towards the group. Stratus saw that they had gold-plated claws and golden stingers on their wrists. They immediately saw Stratus's gaze and laughed. "Yes, they are pretty," Hare said, lifted a talon to catch the dying sunlight. "Gold can make anyone pretty. Except you guys, such a shame. Especially the one with the missing eye. You won't amount to anything, will you, dear?"

"Hey!" Jellyfish shouted. "He can't help that."

"I wasn't talking to you, mutt." Hare snapped, whipping their head to glare at Jellyfish.

"Maybe you should," Jellyfish snarled. "I've got a few things to say to you."

"Oh, wow! Such a creatively scary insult. Quit writing that down!" Hare bellowed, spinning on one of the other raiders. "I suppose we can tell you why we're here. We won't take anything that's yours."

"You want the animus weapons?" Jeweldreamer said. He reached out and grabbed a mace, swinging it above his head. "Come and get them."

He slammed it to the ground, and a veil of green-purple smoke choked the raiders, pushing them back.

A SeaWing popped through the smoke, crashing into Rosetta.

Big mistake, Stratus thought, watching as she quickly snapped his arm.

Hare dashed through the smoke, their name appropriate for their speed, and collided with Beige. He was much bigger than they were, but Hare's agility made up for it.

An IceWing rolled into a summersault at Stratus, kicking him into the nose. Well, that was dramatic.

He grabbed the IceWing's shoulders and spun his axe around to hit him with the handle. The polished wood thwacked against his snout, breaking his nose. The IceWing spat a curse and blasted a sheet of ice at Stratus, which promptly landed on his tail.

"Ouch! Fuck!" Stratus snarled, combatting his flames spilling from his mouth. The IceWing ducked, and sprung underneath the arch of flames and tackled Stratus.

The two rolled, and Stratus felt the serracted claws rake his side. He turned and clamped his jaw down on his wing, tighter and tighter until he hit bone. The IceWing thrashed and yowled. The shaking definitely did not help the IceWing, with Stratus teeth deep in his flesh, because he forfeited pretty quickly after that, flying lopsided out of the Vault with a bloody side.

Ha, bitch.

Stratus turned back to the battle and grabbed his axe off the ground. It looked like they where winning. Stratus spied another pair of cuffs on Jellyfish's wrists, silver and diamond cuffs, and then another copper pair on Jeweldreamer's wrists. I'm pretty sure one of those is the weather bracelets.

Pretty sure. Stratus's schooling was very survival based, mostly being trained on combat and being resourceful. His mother wanted him to be trained in that- after her escape from the Last Day and the event of him getting his eye popped out as a kid. Since it was so "don't-die" based, there was not much offered for core classes, like history, and literature, and math. Stratus had to schedule those classes himself, and he obviously did- what good was fighting if you weren't smart?