Wings of Fire: The Hurricane BraceletBook One of: The New Seven

Chapter 11

             Thunderclap led them to a clearing not far from Deathbringer's treehouse. It was rather big, and easily gave everyone enough room to move. When everyone was in the clearing, Thunderclap started them off with basic front-claw combat. Oasis was relieved to finally be doing something other than travel whereas Indigo didn't like fighting. "I will only do it because its necessary," he said when Star-sky brought it up.

After their warm-up, Thunderclap started having them do complex maneuvers, such as back-claw swipes, tail-whipping (which Hurricane didn't have to practice because SeaWings have large tails), and the most difficult of all, airborne combat.

Thunderclap also had them practice skills that they should learn depending on their species. For Hurricane it was underwater combat. Fire-Claw did more complex airborne maneuvers, Indigo did camouflage fighting with another RainWing, and so on. They even had to take the tunnel to the Sand Kingdom so Oasis could do her exercises.

This went on for the next two days, in which the rain kept pouring and pouring until it finally cleared. "About time!" remarked Oasis. "This rain is SO not good for my scales."

"Good," said Hurricane. "Let's go find that diamond mine!"

With that, they took off and headed to the Mud Kingdom, Deathbringer wishing them luck.

During the flight, Fire-Claw tilted in Hurricane's and said, "One step closer, huh?"

      "Yep!" replied Hurricane. He had high spirits now that they had an idea of where Splash may be. "Whoever is behind this will pay!"

"Do you think it was Puffin who was behind this?" queried Fire-Claw.

"I don't think so," said Hurricane. "She looked reluctant during the kidnapping, as if she wanted to drop Splash and go hide."

"Hmmm," replied Fire-Claw.

They flew for another two hours until at last the Mud Kingdom came into view. Dusty inhaled saying, "Home sweet home."

When they landed, they noticed that there were no MudWings to greet them. Neither were there any in the numerous mud streets.

"Something isn't right," said Hurricane.

"Agreed," replied Star-Sky. "I visited here once, I remember it. There were lots of MudWings wandering around. It isn't like them to hide."

"Maybe we could try looking in Queen Moohren's palace?" asked Oasis.

"Good idea," said Hurricane. "Let's go."

When they arrived at the enormous palace, they saw that the entrance was covered with boulders almost the size of Dusty! Dumbstruck, Hurricane turned to his friends and said, "Stand back. This is going require animus magic to get through."

When his friends were well out of the way, he focused on the boulders blocking the way. He looked for the infinite store of magic in his bracelet. When he had found it, he ordered the boulders to slowly clear the entrance. When he released the power, each boulder floated out of the entrance in two's and three's. He was amazed at how many boulders were blocking the way. It had been thirty minutes when the last five boulders cleared the way, revealing the entrance to a dark corridor. Thanks to his SeaWing night vision, Hurricane could make out blood-stained walls and over-turned tables within the tunnel as well as unlit torches.

     "Let's go," said Hurricane, as he lit his glowing scales and entered the mysterious passageway. His friends followed close behind, Fire-Claw and Star-Sky taking two of the torches and lighting them with a short burst of flame. They wandered down the dark passage for about ten minutes until the came to a three-way fork. "We'll split up," said Hurricane. "Oasis and Indigo. You two will take the left one. Star-Sky and Dusty will take the right. And me and Fire-Claw will take the middle."

With that, he and Fire-Claw headed down their tunnel. "Look at you," teased Fire-Claw. "Quite the almighty leader." Hurricane gave her a grin. "Just doing what I think is right."

                 He turned back forward and almost hurled at what he saw. Three, dead MudWings lay before them, all of them laying in puddles of blood. "Let's just keep going," said Fire-Claw quickly. After avoiding the corpses, Hurricane and Fire-Claw went further down the corridor and gasped at what they saw...