Wings of Fire: The Hidden Kingdom | ✔️

~ The Hidden Kingdom: Chapter One ~

"I think there's something wrong with them."

"Do you think they killed them by accident?"

"That'd be fine with me. Then I could take his place."

"That's not how it works, Fierceteeth."

"I bet they'd wake up if I bit them."

"And I bet Morrowseer would throw you in the volcano if he found tooth marks on his prophecy pet."

"What about that one?"

Hare felt a sharp jab in her side. She groaned and rolled over. Her head was pounding, it felt like she'd been slammed into a rock over and over again.

She remembered the fight with Deathbringer and him slamming her into the rocks. She remembered going unconscious and the headaches that followed. But where had she been when that happened? She vaguely remembered a hut and a group of different colored dragons...

Right, the RainWing village. She remembered now. She'd gone there with her friends for protection after escaping the SeaWings and SkyWings. They'd joined in a search to help the RainWings find some of their missing dragons.

"Ooh, I have an idea!"

Oh, and the tunnels! That's where she'd met Deathbringer, and her aunt, Blaze. One tunnel led to the Kingdom of Sand and the other led to the secret home of the NightWings. Hare remembered the warmth that flowed from the tunnel in the tree. It was an awful lot like the warmth she felt now, only she was a little hotter. The Kingdom of Sand was hot too, though. So which tunnel had she been dragged down?

SPLASH!

Hare gasped and shot up. Her head whipped around. She saw a dragon with a bucket of water splash some onto another shape, which shot up with a yelp. Hare blinked the blurriness away from her eyes. She recognized the other dragon, it was Starflight.

"Drat, he's alive," one dragon snarled.

She walked up to Starflight. She poked at his mouth and peered at his teeth, jabbed at his chest so he coughed, inspected his claws, and sighed huffily.

"Weak," she declared. "I'd have sent him back, too."

"You're just saying that because you're hoping they'll pick you instead," said another dragonet, pushing forward. He patted Starflight's head in an almost friendly way. "But prophecies don't work like that."

"We'll see," she muttered.

"That's Fierceteeth," said the friendlier dragonet to Starflight. "Don't mind her. Older sisters always think they can do whatever you're doing better than you can. I know, I've got one, too. I'm Mightyclaws, by the way."

"Older sister?" Starflight echoed.

"Yes, this is the touching family reunion part," she said. "Same mother, different fathers, we assume. How do you feel?" She eyed him from horns to tail. "Ill? Very ill? Dying, perhaps?"

"What part of brightest night are you having trouble with?" said another dragonet behind Fierceteeth.

"Where are we?" Hare demanded, drawing all attention to her. She forced herself to not hold her breath.

"Is this her?" one dragon asked. She looked about the same age as Hare. The NightWing dragonet was black with a dark blue underbelly and deer-like eyes. Hare was surprised to see a NightWing with such brown eyes. She bounded forward and grabbed Hare's talon. "Wow, you are so pretty! Your scales have so many pretty colors. I've never seen colors like these before." She lifted Hare's arm. The sudden movement caused Hare to go back enough to whack her head against the rock. "Oh, sorry! Anyway, it's so nice to get to meet you. My name is Courage! Do you see that dragon over there? The one that's looking at me like she wants to rip my head off? That's my sister, her name is Spinningmind. I have a brother, too! But he's not here. He's waaaaay older than us. Like nine years older than us. And he's an assassin! He's on the mainland right now doing a very important job. I don't know what, he didn't tell us, but I'm sure it's really special!"

Hare groaned and rubbed her head. "Your brother's name doesn't happen to be Deathbringer, does it?"

"Oh, you know him!" Courage cried.

"Of course I do," Hare snarled. "He tried to kill my friends."

Courage blinked. After a few minutes, the dragonet shook her head. "Well, that is his job. Anyhow, welcome to the Night Kingdom!"

Hare scanned her surroundings. It looked like a dormitory. Hot coals smoldered in alcoves in the walls, lending a red glow to the room. A skylight at each end of the cave allowed a bit of dim gray light to filter in. There were at least fifty sleeping spots that she could see, but only about eleven of them looked slept in. Several had rough blankets heaped on them in messy piles, while others were scattered with objects that looked like seashells and twisted bits of rock. A few of the blanket-covered beds had a scroll lying next to them, but most of the beds were completely bare.

The dragonets were horribly thin, too. Hare swore they were skinnier than Alder, the dragonet she'd met in the Sky Kingdom.

"I want to hear about the mainland," one dragonet said eagerly. "I heard the trees there are bright green, and that in some places the sky is blue. Is that true? And is there really live prey there?"

"I've heard that you guys on the mainland eat rabbits and wolves. Is that true?" another dragonet asked.

"Haven't you ever been?" Starflight asked.

"No," Mightyclaws said. "Apparently we can't be trusted to keep NightWing secrets until we're ten years old, so we're stuck here."

"You're the only exception," Fierceteeth said.

"You and Deathbringer," Courage said, bounding over to Starflight and propping her talons up on his bed.

"Why am I here?" Starflight asked.

"Probably because you failed," Fierceteeth said with a shrug.

"But what about Hare?" Starflight went on. "What does Hare have to do with any of this?"

"We don't know," Fierceteeth hissed, her voice dripping with frustration. "The adults tell us nothing, moron."

The scrabble of claws in the hall outside heralded the appearance of a dragonet smaller than the others, perhaps one year old. She raced into the room and gasped, "He's coming!"

Immediately the dragonets scattered to their sleeping spots. Half of them dove into their blankets and pretended to be asleep. A few of them grabbed their scrolls and looked studious; others fussed busily with the objects around their beds. Fierceteeth sat down on her bed, folded her wings, and glared at the doorway.

Hare reached out and grabbed Courage as she tried to run past.

"Who's coming?" she asked.

"You'll see," Courage whispered, ripping her arm away. She leaped into the sleeping spot next to Hare's and buried herself under the covers.

Hare and Starflight exchanged a look. With a scraping, hissing sound, Morrowseer slithered into the room. He frowned at Fierceteeth, then looked coldly down his long nose at Starflight, then glanced at Hare.

"Up," he snarled. "The queen of the NightWings wants to see you."