Wings of the Crystal : The Lost City

:: Chapter 1 ::

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It was very dark. Cactus could sense something was near. The crystal dragonet's eyes opened wide as she scanned the desert floor. This place was familiar, but the scents drew her onward somewhere different. Her stomach growled, reminding her of her hunger.  She knew they were serving breakfast back in the palace, but she wanted to hunt in her own.
      She opened her jaw slightly, to let the warm smells of the desert reach the scent glands on the roof of her mouth. Musty odors of cacti mingled with the tempting aroma of a small lizard creature.
           Suddenly a flash of dark tan raced past her. Cactus stopped still, listening. Her wings and claws haunched closer to her body. It was hiding in the little tunnel that it had built, less than a neck length away. Cactus new it was a lizard- she could feel the rapid pulsing of a tiny heart deep within her ear. She swallowed, stifling her rumbling stomach. Soon her hunger would be satisfied.
          Slowly she lowered her body into position. She knew it was aware of her, surely, but with one final check on her prey's position, Cactus pushed back hard and leaped to the hole. The lizard ducked its head for cover. She reached her claw down into the narrow hole. She felt the warm scales of the lizard lay in her claws as she scooped it out into the air, hooking the helpless creature with her thorn claws.
         The lizard landed dazed, but alive. It tried to run, but Cactus snatched it up again. She tossed the lizard once more, this time a little farther away. The lizard managed to scramble a few paces before Cactus caught up to it.
           Suddenly, a noise roared nearby. Cactus looked around, and as she did so the lizard was able to pull away from her claws.
         When Cactus turned back, she saw it dart across the desert floor and fall threw the whole and crawl deeper.
            Angry, Cactus gave up the hunt. She spun around, her brown eyes glaring, intent on searching out the noise that had cost her, her kill.
          The sound knocked on, becoming more familiar. Cactus blinked her eyes open. The desert had disappeared. She was inside her room,  laying on her soft flame proof bed.
         She wondered why she didn't catch the lizard in her dream on fire. (She has firescales, where when they touch anything that's flammable it will catch on fire.)
                She covered her eye, rubbing against the scar across it. A stand with a rusty worn
lamp sat beside the bed, and the door slipped open as her mother walked in with a tray.
The tray had a glass cup with water and a lizard on a plate. Her mother shuts the door, sitting the tray on her bed. Cactus sat up to face her mother, Sniffing.
"I hope you had a great sleep," her Mother said. Her mother Happened to be Egypt, the Mate of the second in command of the army. Which is Snake. "I brought you some breakfast." She dipped her head as Cactus gazed up at her mother.
Her mother met her gaze, and for a brief moment it felt like there was nothing. "Well, I'll go, um-be careful. School starts in a couple minutes." Her mother turned and headed out the door, Cactus Wincing.
        She hated going to school. She was never comfortable, even though her winglet surprisingly loved her. For the fact that she can touch something and it will burst into flames.
       She looked down a the lizard, disinterested.  She glanced at her flat stomach. She hadn't ate in days because of how sick she felt. She slid off the bed and dumped the whole tray into the trash can beside her bed.
         She pulled out a silver, flame proof bandana. A lot of things in the kingdom were flame proof, just for her. They didn't want there whole kingdom to be on fire, and she had to agree.
      She wrapped it around her horns steadily, tying the end together. She drooped her wings as she rushed out the house.

She had landed in front of the school entrance, just a few dragons at the gate. Cactus walked past them, her wings close to her body. There eyes gazed and followed her, thєn leaving her sight as Cactus disappeared into the school.
      Her winglet always wαítєd in the lunch room for her, always staying at a far back table(there group would rather stay together and not socialize with anyone else, most likely for safety reasons.).
There was a new dragon coming in their winglet today, and she was mostly nervous.(there winglet is a bit mixed up, since not enough of every tribe came to the school.).
She hoped it wasn't another NightWing, out of all the tribes on the continent. Maybe a RainWing would be fine. She has an IceWing, that was left on the island(MudWings and IceWings were forced to leave the continent) NightWing, and Skywing in her Winglet.
She heard the tapping of her claws on the floor, as she turned the corner and walked into the large lunch room. Sweet scents of roasted Lizards and crows, along with fried Chicken and fish.
She made it through the tables without getting tripped, finding her table. "Well hello Cactus," the Small IceWing said. She had glittering Silver scales, with Grayish-Blue eyes. She looked as if she was blind, for the most part. Cactus always thought she was the kindest out of her winglet. Her winglet was the Silver winglet, below the Golden Winglet.
"Hello Flurry," Cactus dipped her head and looked at the others. "Hello, Starseer and Ash." Cactus Sighed.
Flurry tilted her head at Cactus. "Hey, you alright? You seem...different..then you usually are." Flurry backed up, letting Cactus sit at the stone Table.
"I'm fine, I just don't feel too good. You know, Long journey Sickness." She pressed one claw against her head, Sitting down.
Ash gave her a questioning look. " is it because of the new Dragonet in our winglet?" Ash's tail wrapped around himself and Starseer snickered.
Cactus stiffened. "Of Course not! You know I'm always eager to meet new dragons!" Cactus's head jerked up as Starseer sneered.
"Well then you better clean up your act to show it," hissed Starseer.
Cactus Growled. "Just-Shut up, FireBreather!"
Starseer rolled her eyes. "You're telling me that." She spat.
Cactus looked away, snorting. Flurry tilted her head, whispering into Cactus's ear. "Don't listen to her."
Cactus gazed over at the table across from her. The golden winglet. Fierce and strong, where most used claws instead of words. One act against them, and you're in the Healer's Cave.
She listened closely and her eyes searched to find a younger dragon being pulled away by an adult. The Dragonet wailed. "Why can't Pyramid help me?"
"Because Pyramid lives in the town of Vengeance, she has no time to help young brats like you." The older dragon snorted.
A voice from the far doors of the lunch room drew everyone's attention. Two SandWings, one a Dragonet with Yellow scales and a tint of brown, with a brown crest and a black barbed tail.
His eyes were like dark chocolate, almost black as the night sky above. He looked to have the same height as Cactus.
The other was taller and a fade-ish yellow, and just shoved him into the lunch room. They no h said a few words as everyone stared,and the taller SandWing pointed to Cactus's Winglet. The other dipped his head, then lurked ahead.
Cactus's heart skipped a beat as he stood over their table, looking much taller then before. Cactus gulped, her head lifting up to meet his eyes. His cold brown eyes searched around the group of dragons, then focused back on her.
"This is the Silver Winglet, Correct?" His voice was low, but very Hoarse. He cleared his throat.
"Yea, it is." Starseer said with a hint of annoy. His head turned to her, then back at everyone else. One talon lifted to his chin. "You guys seem friendly. Names?"
Cactus huffed, her eyes clouded with Tiredness. "Thats Flurry, and that's Ash." She continued, turning her head to every dragon. "And, that's Starseer. Then there's me, Cactus."
"So I have a Crystal Dragonet in my Winglet, eh?" he slightly grinned. Cactus just sat her head on the table. "Mhm." She frowned.
Everyone always grumbles when they hear the name "Cactus." She understood, because no one would want to be with a dragon that could catch anything including them on fire.
Cactus Followed his gaze, studying the other Winglets. "Well I'm Jackal, the son of Gazelle and Heat." He said with a triumphant tone.
I didn't need to hear who your parents are, thank you very much. Cactus remained silent. She didn't understand why his parents were so important, but she sensed something off about him. She hid her confusion by sitting up straight, putting her "serious face" on.
He looked at her for a moment, narrowing his snout. "Anyway," Jackal said, using his claws to tap on the tile floor. "What are the other winglets?"
Cactus sat in silence for a brief moment. Jackal let out an impatient hiss. Cactus looked up at him, flinching. She pointed to each one of the tables steadily, as he followed where she was pointing.
"That's the diamond winglet, the highest class. Then the Golden winglet. There so fierce, they would have ripped you to shreds, no questions asked." She breathed.
"Then the Amethyst Winglet. The ruby, and lastly is the Metal Winglet."
Then a Skywing sitting where the Metal winglet was shot her a questioning look. Cactus shivered and looked away.
"What do we have first?" Said Jackal, as the bell rang. Everyone sprang from there seats and pushed threw to get to class.
Ash got up and hurried out the door when there was an advantage. "History." The rest of the Silver Winglet raced each other to the door, as Cactus and Jackal laughed.
Maybe this won't be so bad.
Maybe some dragons can understand me better.
Maybe they'll think I'm a normal dragon again.
A dragon who wants to be their friend.

Ack! Sorry for such a long Chapter! I'm currently retyping this, since I wrote this story on my iPad instead of my phone. And on my iPad I wrote it on notes...
So, I might just retype the whole first book as well, but that will take a while too. So when I get that done, and if I do, you might just read that first. But that might take a while. I'm trying to email it to myself.
Hope you like it!