Wings of Fire | The Half-Breed Tales

Chapter 10

Leopard tore through the portals, pulling everyone along with her. First she saw the RainWing kingdom, and pulled everyone through it. Leopard tightened her grip on the others as best as she could, focusing. She could Mango screaming from wherever she was in the warp, and then a distant " shut up! " from Sobek. Mango didn't listen. Instead she grabbed on to Leopard's head, covering her eyes. "Mango, stop covering my eyes! I can't see where we're going!"

Mango didn't hear over her screaming. At this point, Sobek tried to swing over and drag Mango off of Leopard, but ended up slamming into Quill because they're traveling through pockets of space- nothing goes perfectly. Quill yelled in surprise, and the impact sent him flying and loosing his grip on Crimson's talon. Leopard noticed this, and her eyes widened. "QUILL!" She tried to turn to him, but she couldn't risk transporting everyone into hostile territory- she didn't even know if she was on the right track at the moment. She watched helplessly as Quill was flung into the abyss. Crimson wrenched her talon from Leopard, and flew after Quill. It didn't help that they were now traveling through many portals- Leopard didn't know which was which now. She frantically tried to reach for Crimson, but both of them were gone. "CRIMSON!"

She felt her focus beginning to slip away as she tumbled through the portals. She closed her eyes, feeling dizzy. Finally, she felt herself exiting the warp, and crashing onto the ground below.

***

Sobek awoke to a blur of yellow. He blinked a few times to clear his vision, and then he realized he was in the desert. He looked around, and saw a cyan colored lump, slightly buried in sand. He quickly realized that it was Leopard. He ran over, and started to dig her out. She didn't even stir. He was hesitant to wake her, as she might snap at him. Instead, he looked around. Where was everyone else? Then he remembered- the warp, losing Quill and Crimson, blacking out. Even still, Leopard got them to the desert. Amazing.

Where was Mango? He thought. Then again, he didn't really even care for Mango. Or any of them... Or did he?

He glanced at Leopard again, this time more closely. Something was missing. He walked up further to her, and finally realized what was missing. Leopard's dolphin necklace was gone. Wasn't that important to her, or something? He thought questioningly.

He searched around her, tossing sand everywhere. He realized it probably wouldn't have landed that far from her, and started to investigate closer to her. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of shiny blue and his gaze snapped towards it. He darted to where he saw it and brushed the sand off of it. He held it up, and he could have sworn the dolphin was glowing.

Before he could examine it further, he heard an angry yell from behind him "THIEF!" He turned around and was tackled into by Leopard, her expression filled with fury. She slammed into him, and he went flying backwards- almost hitting a cactus. "WOAH WOAH WOAH!" He exclaimed as Leopard was about to knock him out. "It's me, Sobek! You know, the really cool SandWing from the SeaWing Palace! A friend? An ally? Someone you admire? Whatever! IT'S ME!"

Confusion flashed across Leopard's face, and then realization must've hit her. Her eyes widened, and she frantically backed up, kicking up sand. "Woah, I'm sorry Sobek- I didn't even realize... it was you!"

Sobek winced as he got up, cautiously avoiding the cactus behind him. "You really got me there, Leopard..." Yikes. He thought. His side really  hurt from that...

"Are you alright?" Leopard asked, looking him over. "I didn't push you into the cactus, right?"

Sobek looked at her like she grew another head. "Since when do you care that much about me?"

Leopard looked taken aback "Excuse me? I always look out for others."

Sobek shrugged. "Yeah, okay." I don't think Leopard is that concerned about everyone.

Leopard frowned at him, looking annoyed "You're being sarcastic," she said.

Sobek rolled his eyes at her. "Gee, I wonder how you knew."

Leopard growled and shoved him into the cactus. Sobek panicked, flailing his wings wildly in the air in an attempt to stop his fall, "Hey HEY  WOAH WOAH  WHAT'RE YOU- OUCH!"

"Why is there a SandWing on the cactus?" The voice came out of nowhere, and it was almost as if it was coming from the sand itself. "Do SandWings take naps on cactus? That seems awfully uncomfortable.

Sobek scrambled away from the cactus, the prickly thorns now embedded in his sandy yellow scales. He perked up at the voice, identifying it as Mango. At least, he thought it was Mango. It was almost impossible to tell considering the voice was coming from an invisible dragon.

"Mango?" Both Sobek and Leopard questioned in unison.

"How do you know my name? Who are you? Are you spies?"

Sobek tilted his head. "Mango, it's Sobek and Leopard. Where are you?"

Leopard shook her head. "She's camouflaged, but she's nearby. Her mind is all over the place."

"How can I know that you're the real Sobek and Leopard?! How do I know you're not imposters?!"

Leopard looked to Sobek, an exasperated expression on her face. "Mango, it's us. We got separated from the others in the warp."

Mango finally camouflaged, revealing the tiny on-edge RainWing. Sobek frowned at Leopard. "If Mango is here with us, that means Quill and Crimson are alone somewhere in Pyrrhia

...." He stopped and glanced at Leopard, looking for any type of sadness or anger in her lime green eyes. He couldn't find anything in the depths, and it was only when Leopard spoke again that he stopped staring at her for a moment.

"I will find my brother and Crimson..." he tuned out the rest until Leopard finally said, "Sobek, you're staring at me."

Sobek blinked and shook his head. "Sorry."

Leopard looked at him in a funny way. Something like realization flashed in her eyes, but then it was gone. Wait-

The thought was cut off as Leopard started talking again. "I hope the others are okay, but we don't know where they are. Seeing as we're in the desert already, we should head for Scorpion Den and rest- or mainly, I should rest. I'm exhausted. Gosh this place is so hot I could just lay here and have suntime all day long."

Sobek finally noticed how tired she looked- her wings were drooping and was slumping. "Well, I'd agree to that, but I have no idea where we are right now."