Wings of Fire: Dawn of The Stars

Chapter 7

It was a really, long, boring trip. It took longer than Sapphire expected as they flew across the blankets of pine trees and so. It had been nearly a hour when they took their first stop. Futureseer glided down into the open area and sat on a rock. Sapphire flew down towards him, her wings demanding rest. She landed as her talons sank in the soil and turned when Amber landed behind her.
     "I cannot believe that you had to ride on Futureseer twice!" Amber pointed out. "I'm smaller and younger than you and I didn't need any rest!"
     "Sorry. Maybe I haven't noticed that I wasn't a SkyWing?" Sapphire responded sarcastically.
     "Oh, right, that. Whoops!" Amber replied cheerfully. She danced around and sang as she wandered around the area. Sapphire turned and walked towards Futureseer.
     "Hey, Futureseer," Sapphire said.
     "Hey," Futureseer responded. He clasped his talons together and smiled at Sapphire. "I'm glad you're coming along with me. I had an overwhelming day two days ago."
     "Oh. What happened?" Sapphire asked curiously. She slightly twined her tail with Futureseer's and bumped his shoulder.
     "I had to go to the Night Kingdom," Futureseer began. "But they still don't know I hang out here." He waved his talons around the forest that surrounded them.
     "Apparently, the Queen had a few changes to our strategy in the war," he continued. "And I just want you to be a little more cautious around here now.
     "The Queen is training dragonets to be part of the war now," he stopped smiling and turned it into a low, twisted scowl. "She tries to force us into her bidding — but like, no way! Why would she suddenly change our lives all of a sudden?"
     "You're rebellious," Sapphire beamed. "You're pretty stubborn against your own Queen."
     "Isn't that a bad thing though?" he asked.
     "Of course not! If your Queen wants to change your lifestyle or — won't allow you who you want to love," Sapphire thought of the NightWing, Nightroar and his partner, Emerald. "Then don't listen to her. I like how you think." She smiled wider, her teeth grinning.
     It seemed like Futureseer blushed a little and he continued on. "My mother tries to force me to become the same thing as her, but I don't want to. She's disappointed in me that my egg wasn't brought into the moonlight quick enough. She would always say, 'You hatched too quick! You must've stayed in that egg of yours!'"
     Amber flew around collecting twigs and branches off the ground. "Moonlight? Why did your egg have to be brought into the moonlight?" Sapphire asked wonderingly.
     "It's how most NightWings get their powers," Futureseer said. Sapphire was bewildered at this statement. "One full moon grants them either mind reading or forseeing. Two give them both. And three, I'm not so sure. It only happens once in a few centuries. I think it gives them a third power."
     "Woah, I wish I could have cool powers like that," Sapphire said looking down at her talons as though they might start spraying sparkles everywhere. "All I have is this." She slowly took off the golden horn ring and presented it to Futureseer.
     "I see you have gotten more stylish," he said, grinning. Sapphire laughed and slipped the horn ring back on.
     "And the funny thing is that it fits me perfectly!" she exclaimed.
     "So you didn't make it?" Futureseer asked.
     "I—" Sapphire was cut off as Amber marched towards them.
     "I've made us a fire!" she announced. Amber waved her wings at the pile of sticks that were lit aflame. Futureseer gasped and gave Amber a congratulating look. "All we need is prey now!" she exclaimed.
     "We could work on that," Futureseer said, slightly leaning on Sapphire.
     "Of course! I could look for a lake and catch some fish," Sapphire said cheerfully. "I cannot wait to eat fish. It's felt like years..."
     "Then the plan is set!" Amber exclaimed. "We could take turns going out to hunt. You could go first Sapphire, me and Futureseer will look around for shelter!"
     "So, we're staying here for a while?" Sapphire asked him.
     "Oh, well. We're sorta close to the Night Kingdom, but we would have to pass the Kingdom of Sand's territory," Futureseer explained. "So, I decided if we stop here, we could figure things out before continuing. We have to be careful of any SandWings. Er, you do." Futureseer glanced at Sapphire with dark eyes.
     "Alright, are we going to hunt now?" Sapphire asked.
     "Yup," Amber said at the same time Futureseer said, "Uh-huh."
     "See you soon then!" Sapphire called as she lifted off into the thick trees. Sapphire's wings brushed against the tree branches as she flew in between them. The area became wider and broke into a fork between the path of trees. She hovered for a moment then turned left. The trees slowly got slimmer so Sapphire landed and walked in between them. She heard the sound of a flowing river and followed it. As she walked deeper into the forest, Sapphire could hear little scraping sounds. Stopping, she crept towards a bush and poked her head out.
     There was a large pond big enough for fish to live in. Sapphire perked her head towards the sound of the scraping. There was a pale, yellow dragon scraping at the trees. She growled and turned towards the pond. Her tail ended with a dangerous looking barb. Sapphire then knew she was a SandWing.
     "Arghhh," the sand dragon moaned. She suddenly raised her head scanning the area. Sapphire quickly bent down before the SandWing could spot her. Sapphire listened as the dragon murmured to herself. "Desert Rose, don't give in. Just use your animus magic."
     This made Sapphire get interested again. She had only heard about an animus in her favorite scroll. It mentioned the Twilight Stars' maker, Twilight. Sapphire heard that an animus could do anything.
     Like stopping the war.
     Sapphire looked up and saw the SandWing pick up a fallen twig. The twig had a leaf at one end of it.
     "I enchant this stick to point its leaf to the direction of my home town, Town of The Cactus," the dragon said. The stick wagered in her talon and suddenly turned on its own. It pointed to the west and wriggled even more. The animus flew up and vanished into the forest. Sapphire let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and crept out of the bush.
     Who was that? Sapphire thought.
     She brushed away the thought and ran towards the lake. She crouched and tried to look in without going inside the water. She saw small shadows rippling in the currents. Sapphire held still, waiting for one of the shadows to come closer.
     She sat for a while and nearly fell asleep when a fallen branch woke her up. A large shadow crept up towards Sapphire and she prepared her claws. Just a little bit closer— she threw her claws in and wrapped them tightly around the large fish. It squirmed between her talons, but Sapphire pulled it out of the water and bit into it. The fish lied dead in her claws and Sapphire grabbed it in her mouth. It was surprisingly heavy and probably big enough for the three dragonets to share when Sapphire got back. She looked around the area once more to make sure no one was there. Sapphire looked up towards the sky and saw it was the afternoon. She steadied her wings and crept to the narrow path between the trees.
     Sapphire squeezed through the tight area and kept walking. The area began to get wider as Sapphire went. She stretched out her wings and saw the same fork. Sapphire remembered her way back and turned right. The path was wide enough for Sapphire to fly through them now. She took off into the open wide sky and hovered above Amber and Futureseer.
     "Sapphire!" Amber exclaimed. She flew up next to Sapphire and grinned. "That's a really big fish!"
     "Mhm," Sapphire nodded.
     "Come down here!" Futureseer called to them. The two dragonets flew over to the NightWing.
     Sapphire dropped the fish on a stump and sat down, her tail curled around her back talons. Futureseer looked at it and tried to cut the fish in three even parts. A few scales flicked off, but nothing else.
     "Hm." Futureseer looked around wonderingly. Sapphire looked down at her pouch.
     Oh, Sapphire thought. She opened her pouch and dug around inside until she pulled out the wooden dagger Jellyfish had given her.
     "Woah! Where did you get that?" Futureseer asked.
     "From Catfish's mother, Jellyfish," Sapphire answered. She slightly ran down a talon across the dagger and looked at the fish. After thinking where the parts would fit, she cut across it until it became three even pieces. Amber immediately grabbed a piece and put it over the campfire.
     Futureseer also cooked the fish he held.
     "Sapphire?" Amber asked.
     "No thank you," she replied.
     "Okay!" The small SkyWing bounded off toward a rock along with her fish and started eating. Futureseer took his fish and walked over to Amber. Sapphire slowly slid the dagger back into her pouch after wiping the fish slime off.
     Hm. If we're going to the Night Kingdom to save Catfish, wouldn't we have to have a plan of some sort? Sapphire wondered. Maybe disguises. Although, what could disguise us?

     After eating, Sapphire was helping Futureseer to make shelter. Futureseer was looking for large, strong branches while Amber was drawing in the dirt. Sapphire had to look for large leaves around the forest. Although, it would've been much easier if they were in Reef Beach. The palm trees there had leaves as large as blankets. The dark blue dragonet flew up to another tree and pushed her talons around through them. She saw four large leaves and yanked them all off the tree. The leaves fell to the ground and she went over to Amber.
     "Aren't you supposed to be searching for spiderweb silk?" she asked. "Besides, what are you drawing?"
     "A plan for the rescue mission!" Amber exclaimed. Sapphire looked down at the drawings and saw a bunch of scribbles.
     "Is that a turtle?" Sapphire tried, remember her drawings of turtles.
     "What? No!" Amber yelled. "It's a plan! I'll tell you and Futureseer later when I'm done planning." Sapphire nodded and walked away.
     Sapphire was a little relieved when Amber told her she was making a plan. But it made Sapphire worried. She wasn't sure how confident Amber was about her plan. Sapphire walked over to the four giant branches in the ground.
     "Hey, Sapphire," Futureseer said. He flew down to Sapphire and glanced at the leaves in her talons. "Are you sure that's enough?"
     "It's not like I'm done!" Sapphire protested.
     "Well, you better hurry. It's already dusk." He pointed at the rising moons and the dark sky.
     "Alright. Could you look for spiderweb silk?" Sapphire asked him.
     "Of course." Futureseer flew away into the trees and Sapphire began to put the leaves on top of the branches to make a roof.
     She looked around for more leaves and ducked into the trees. It wasn't too hard to search for them since she had night vision. She yanked two leaves off a tree and flew back to the shelter. Futureseer arrived with a couple of long strands of thick silk. Sapphire took them and started to finish the roof. She went over to find more leaves around their campsite. Sapphire made two walls on either side with four leaves on each with the help of Futureseer's placement and silk.
     The tent was done. Futureseer called over to Amber and the dragonets stared at their creation.
     "Wow, it's amazing!" Amber exclaimed.
     "I'm quite proud," Sapphire complimented.
     "We should put out the fire and hide everything. We can't let anyone know we're here," Futureseer said. He walked to the campfire and stomped it out. He then threw the twigs and sticks near their tent and looked up. The full moon and half moon lit up the sky. The third moon was like a dragon's tail. Sapphire stared at the beautiful stars that were scattered across the sky. Amber and Futureseer had went in while Sapphire stargazed.
     It's like the Twilight Stars are twinkling right above us. It's like I could just reach out and grab them, Sapphire held up her talon to the sky and closed it. She opened her pouch and pulled out her The Twilight Stars Legend scroll. Sapphire unrolled it and read the first paragraph.

     From a far, distant land, five objects were enchanted by a dragon by the name of Twilight. Twilight enchanted these objects to have power to make a major event. As long as the five dragons who obtained these talismans all agreed and truly wanted deep in their hearts to the same wish. The objects were named to be called the "Twilight Stars" after their maker, Twilight.

     It was getting late and Sapphire rolled up her scroll. She slid it back into her pouch and felt something in her talons. It was the wooden rose she had took.
     I forgot to tell Futureseer! She frantically thought in her mind. Sapphire ran one claw down the carved object. It was quite beautiful in the moonlit sky. Sapphire carefully put it back in her pouch. I can tell him in the morning.
     Sapphire got up, took off her horn ring, put it in her pouch, and closed it. She walked to the tent and saw Amber curled up next to Futureseer. His tail was around Amber's body and two peacefully slept. Sapphire found a place and curled her tail around her back talons. Sapphire laid her head on her talons and went to sleep.