Wings of Fire: Greed and Glory

Chapter 11

Scorch ran out of the circular room and headed down the stairs, back the way he came. He was just going to have to worry about Sulfur later. He'd tucked his spear underneath his right wing so he wouldn't accidentally stab himself while running.

He slipped into the armor room quietly. Still no one there. He took off his armor and put them on the correct shelves, then laid the spear against the wall. It was like he was never there.

Scorch kept heading for the entrance of the castle. He tried not to overwhelm himself with all the information he just heard. He was just one dragon out of millions; how was he supposed to save them all? But he knew if he didn't try, who would?

Finally. He could see sunlight at the end of the entrance hall. It was slightly too bright for him since he was used to the dim light of the embers.

His head was starting to throb as he stumbled over his talons towards entrance. He'd never been in a situation like this before. The Kingdom was always safe under the rule of Queen Ember. It's all Volcanic's fault, he thought bitterly. Nothing good is inside that evil dragon.

Scorch held his arm up in front of the sunlight as he stepped out of the castle. He knew he had to fly for the Ring of Wings right away but, he was so hungry. He hadn't eaten in the longest time. In order to fix that, on the way swooped down and snatched up a coyote, just like Sulfur had taught him to.

Sulfur.
He looked back at the towering volcano and the great HeatWing palace leaning against it. He wanted more than anything to fly back as fast as he could and warn her, tell her he was right, that Volcanic was an awful Queen and to tell her to convince everyone else to rise up against her for the sake of the Kingdom. But he couldn't. So he kept beating his wings towards the city in danger.

"Scorch!" A sudden distant voice called to him. "Scorch, wait up!" He turned his head to see none other but the mysterious Magma. Her unusual orange and red scales flashed bright now that they were in sunlight. He didn't like how confusing she was. How come she always slipped away so fast and why did she always know what he's up to?

As much as he wanted to fly away and leave her and her mysteriousness behind, he wanted to know how she did all those things. So Scorch slowed down and let her catch up. "Thanks for waiting for me," she said with a friendly smile.

"I have some questions for you," Scorch replied as he avoided Magma's wings from touching.
"Oh, okay, what do you want to ask me?"
"How did you know I was looking for Queen Volcanic when I came to the palace?"
Magma opened and closed her mouth a few times, probably not sure how to answer that. "I- uh, I just could tell by- you were just in a rush and..." She fumbled around with her front talons a little bit then quickly said,"We should just focus on getting to the Ring of Wings so we can save everyone from the queen."

What? Scorch thought with a bit of impatience. He took a sharp turn in front of her, then hovered in place, keeping Magma in front of him. "How did you know they were planning to ambush the city? I never said anything about that. I was the only dragon in that room listening in on that conversation the Queen was having."
"No no, you were. I-"
"What are you hiding?" He growled.

She grabbed his arm and stared sternly into his eyes to the point where he was almost afraid to blink. "If I tell you, you have to promise to keep it a secret." He nodded, his scales tingling with a bit of excitement. What could the secret be?

She grabbed the ruby at the end of her necklace gently between her claws. It glowed dimly against her vibrant orange/red scales. "This ruby, it's special. I found it abandoned on the beach in HeatWing territory. I- I don't know how or why but if I hold it tight in both talons and really focus, I can see visions like no one has ever seen on Skardaska."

Scorch didn't know what to say. Magic? On Skardaska? That's insane! Magma gave him a wounded look as if she was guilty for having such a mysterious item.

Wait, didn't I hear something like this before? He remembered that Sulfur used to tell him stories of powerful dragons in a far off land, and were once here a long time ago. So powerful, they were a danger to all dragons. They could enchant whatever they wanted to do whatever they wanted. In order to maintain peace, all the Queens in Skardaska agreed to get rid of them.

He couldn't remember much more. Sulfur only told those stories to him when he was a small dragonet as a scary story. A mere fairytale.

"I saw a vision of you," Magma said to him, "Right before I bumped into you. Then I used the ruby again and just words piled into my mind, with a vision of you falling out of the sky." Is that what happened to me? Scorch thought as the pieces started falling into place. "That's why," Scorch started to explain to her,"I had the same message on my way to Ring of Wings." The same message that made me go crashing down and hurt my leg. "Wired..." Magma said, trailing off as if she were getting lost in thought.