Wings of Fire: Greed and Glory

Chapter 1

"You can't go," Scorch begged, "Queen Volcanic is going to use her army for evil! You can't go fight for her!" Scorch's older sister, Sulfur, dismissed his thoughts to the side with a wave of her talon. "Nonsense," Sulfur replied calmly, "all the HeatWing queens in history have been great leaders. Queen Volcanic just has a... a different way of leading our tribe. You see, being a soldier isn't bad, it's a good thing. I'm serving our tribe. It's my job."

Scorch rolled his eyes. He was 5 years old, and Sulfur still didn't respect him as much as she should. Obviously Sulfur didn't see how bad their queen really was. The six dragon tribes have always maintained peace throughout Skardaska. The previous queens didn't let small conflicts start a war that would cause great grief and large amounts of death. Now, with Volcanic being the queen, all of the grief and deaths were going to become reality.

Volcanic's "different way of leading" wasn't something good. Queen Volcanic lived for battle. You could tell by all the scars on her scales. She's also been doubling up on soldier training. Volcanic also hasn't been in contact with the other tribes since she became queen.

Sulfur grabbed her spear that leaned against the wall of their hut then headed out. "Don't get into any trouble!" She called back to him. Then she flew off towards the Heat Kingdom.

Scorch was supposed to fly to the Ring of Wings for some battle training. The Ring of Wings was located in the center of Skardaska and dragons from every tribe lived there. That place is what really keeps the peace going. The Ring of Wings shows that no matter what tribe they come from, they're all the same on the inside.

The reason why he was going there in the first place was so he could get some battle tips from another type of dragon.  Sulfur convinced him to go since she thought I was a great idea.

Scorch headed out the door but almost immediately, he ran into another HeatWing. This one was female with bright red scales like his but her scales had unique orange scales scattered along her back and wings like freckles. She also had this one-of-a-kind black chain necklace around her neck. At the end of the chain, hanging right on her chest was a large ruby, about the size of half a talon. It had an eerie red glow to it.

He found himself staring at the necklace until he realized she was blinking at him. "Um, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there," he finally said as he figured out what the black chain was. He guessed it was made out of the same black rock that the castle in the HeatWing kingdom was made out of. "No no no, I'm sorry," she finally blurted out. As he started to walk away she called out, "By the way, my name's Magma!" Scorch turned his head around and called back, "I'm Scorch," then took off towards the Ring of Wings.

As Scorch flew closer to the Ring of Wings, the landscape around him started changing from a mountain-less plain to green valleys.

Scorch had been to the Ring of Wings before when he came there to interact with other types of dragons (Of course it was Sulfur's idea), so he already knew the way. At first he thought it was all for nothing until he met Synthesis, a TreeWing. They had become great friends since then and he was going to meet up with her soon because she was also coming to the Ring of Wings. Synthesis wasn't going to do battle training, though. She was coming to study medicine from the best healers on Skardaska, the LightWings.

The LightWings lived up north, near the northern lights. They believed in all those crazy spiritual stuff and were amazing at medical care.

Everything was going smoothly as Scorch got lost in his thoughts until massive throbbing pounded into his head. He shut his eyes tight in pain. Then all of a sudden, strange words crashed into his head like a StoneWing was screaming right into his ears.

When all the land seems safe and sound,
Greed will rise and earn the crown.
All will be swallowed by heat and fire,
Letting evil gain all it desires.
For when a queen gets caught up in all the fame,
Greed and glory becomes the same.

But this can be avoided, if one fights back,
Convincing others not to attack.
For the one hidden from evil, who's heart is true,
A dragon of heat will come through.
Because when all hope seems to drop to zero,
Someone shall rise and become the hero.

When the pain was over, and he opened his eyes, he was falling towards the ground, his wings flailing, and diving head-first.