Sands of Time(Soon undergoing HEAVY revision)

Chapter 2

It had been a week with no sign of Coyote. Calypso had eaten most of the food in the cave, and knew she had to hunt soon. Unfortunately, the sandstorm had coated everything in sand. When Calypso rolled the boulders out of the door what looked like half a sand dune poured inside the cave. The valley looked as a gigantic dragon dumped a bucketful of sand all over the place. Thankfully, the oasis was not completely filled.

What I really need to do is find my father. Her mind whispered as she crept up on a fat lizard sunbathing on a rock. The desert sun glinted off her uniquely patterned scales, with her legs and the bottom half of her wings being cactus green, but the rest of her body being normal yellowish-tan. Her black eyes glinted as she sprang at her prey. She killed the lizard and looked up at the desert sky. Victory!

"OK, Calypso, don't burn the lizard this time." she muttered to herself as she readied her fire. She spat out a burst of fire which completely covered the lizard and undercooked it, but not by much. She took an experimental bite out of the lizard and was pleasantly surprised.

Woop woop! I actually cooked food successfully! Calypso gulped down the rest of the lizard and stretched out her wings. She flicked her ear at a fly buzzing about her head.

The sun was about to go down when she heard shouting and wingbeats across the sand. All of her father's warnings from the last six years crashed through her mind as she scrambled towards the cave. What? How? OK, Calypso, get to the cave. Just do not panic.

Three SandWings were circling the valley and shouting to each other. She tried to be sneaky, but one of the sandwings spotted her cyan crest and swooped down towards her.

"Hey! Who are you?" The dragon called, winging his way down to Calypso. She looked at him, her face showing pure terror, and bolted away. She fled toward the cave as fast as her legs would carry her, weaving between rocks and cacti. If I hide in the cave, they'll be able to corner me. Her mind whizzed at a hundred miles an hour as she looked for a place to hide. She dashed out of sight of the dragon who was following her and buried herself in the sand, making sure her crest and wings were buried so any scales showing blended in.

A brown scorpion crawled out of its nearby burrow and stared at Calypso's face, which was showing so she didn't suffocate. It gave her what looked like a haughty get-out-of-my-spot look and sat on her nose. She was very tempted to eat it as it settled itself down on her nose. It investigated her nose as the three SandWings flew around, looking for her. The scorpion decided to try seeing if it could make a nest inside her nostrils and it began to creep inside her nose. GAAH! Get OUT, you stupid bug! She sneezed the scorpion out, and it shot away into a pile of sand, legs flailing. Unfortunately, her sneeze alerted the SandWings to her location, and the three of them converged on her hiding spot. She shook off the sand and growled at the SandWings.

"Hey, little dragonet, what are you doing here?" A female SandWing with what looked like a spatter-shaped burn scar on the side of her head said to her.

"What are you doing here?" Calypso shot back at her.

"Come with us, a little dragonet shouldn't be all alone in the desert." The dragon said in a honeyed voice. She held out her talon to Calypso. Calypso backed away from them, raising her wings to take off.

"We should grab her, shouldn't we, Acacia?" The dragon who spotted her said.

"Yeah, probably, Caracal." Acacia said in a mocking voice, lunging at Calypso.

"Oh no you don't!" Calypso roared, whipping her venomous tail around at Acacia. Caracal jumped at her from the side, but Calypso whipped around and shot a burst of flames at him. The third SandWing tackled her and pinned her down. She struggled to get out from under him but he was much older and larger than her. Think, think! How can I get out? She remembered some of the battle training her father had taught her and she went limp. The older dragon seemed surprised she had 'given up' so easily and he loosened his grip. With the bit of leeway this gave her, Calypso surged up and slashed her venomous tail over the larger dragon's face. He roared in agony and fell back, letting her escape, and she took the opportunity to fly away as fast as she could.

She could hear the other two SandWings chasing after her and yelling, but that only fueled her wings to fly faster. Calypso heard a blast of flame and the scorching heat of fire as Acacia barely missed her back talons with a burst of flame. Calypso swung her tail wildly at the dragons chasing her. She looked back to see the oasis disappearing into the dunes far behind, and Acacia and Caracal alarmingly close. She shot a blast of flame at them, hitting Caracal in the mouth as he yelled. Caracal fell down to the sand screaming, flames scorching the inside of his mouth. Acacia looked back at Caracal and stopped in midair, debating whether to go after Calypso or help Caracal. She flew down to Caracal and landed beside him, and Calypso flew off into the desert as fast as she could.

It was well into the night by the time Calypso stopped. One of the moons was full, and it lit up the desert sands. She collapsed onto a dune, exhausted from flying for so long. She staggered over to a sandstone arch and curled up underneath. She buried herself in the sand and was asleep almost the second she finished burying herself.

She woke up the next morning to the harsh sun blazing onto her. She shook off the sand and wondered what to do next. First thing I need to do is find a place to stay. This arch is nice but the sun is going to cook me if I sleep here. She saw a group of crags in the distance. "If there's a cave anywhere around here, it would be over there." Calypso muttered to herself. She began to fly over to the crags.

It was past noon by the time she got there. She was surrounded by jagged, red rock spires and sandstone arches. Cacti and bushes were scattered around, and Calypso noticed some fat spiny lizards sunbathing next to a cactus which looked like a bunch of balls of wicked white thorns. Sure enough, the crags and boulders sheltered a cave mouth which looked perfect. Calypso entered the cave and saw that it was much bigger than it looked, with room for several dragons to stand with their wings spread. She picked a small dent in the floor of the cave to be her nest and brought in cool, soft sand that had been in the shade to lay on. She curled up in the dent, and settled into the sand. This is nice. Hopefully I didn't bring in a scorpion with this sand. She wrapped her wings around herself and, before she knew it, she was asleep.

She woke up to muttering and the click-clack of talons on stone. She shot upright and looked around the back of the cave. She saw nobody in the back of the cave, but she looked behind her at the entrance and, sure enough, two dragons stood in the entrance.