How to Find Your Fire

(WoF) Chapter 22: Hope

By Puffnut
Starscale's POV

Starscale isn't sure if she is glad or not to have Otter help them. Sure, she is strong and smart, but she is also cocky and arrogant and Starscale worries that she will get them in trouble. Diamond seems like an okay person once one got to meet her. She owns a pet scavenger she called Paisley and claims to understand the squeaking noises it produces. The only people she seems to hate are Starscale and Queen Ember; apparently, she even thought Skywings weren't too bad. Luckily, she still hadn't discovered that the "Skywing" she was slowly starting to like was really the Nightwing she wanted to kill ever since she had challenged and beat her in the arena...

"Starscale?" she hears TidalClaws ask. She turns her attention to him. "Do you have any ideas?"

"Not a clue," she admits. "The only way I see us getting out of here is if we either disguise ourselves as Skywings or somehow find a way to put a new queen on the throne." She sighs. "And neither of those are happening any time soon."

"Actually," pipes up Diamond. "I have some information that could help with one of those plans."

Starscale looks at her. "Really? Do tell," mutters Otter.

"You sound like you don't believe I have information that can help," Diamond says, sounding slightly hurt.

"I'm the type of dragon who believes it when I hear it," retorts Otter, glaring at Diamond.

Starscale sighs and feels a headache coming on. "Just tell us your idea Diamond. At this point, anything is helpful."

Otter turns her glare to Starscale as Diamond nods her thanks. "Like I was saying," she continues. "I know something that could help with your second plan. Queen Ruby is alive."

The room is deadly silent after her announcement; you could hear a pin drop. "What?" TidalClaws whispers.

Diamond nods her head. "Well, at least I think she still is. I heard Ember forced her into the arena after capturing her son, Cliff."

Starscale's mind flashes back to the hurt Skywing champion. "The champion, it was her."

Otter looks horrified. "I almost killed Queen Ruby?!"

"Be quiet. It's ok," Starscale says. "At least we know that's she's safe and alive. All we have to do is convince her to help us and we'll be able to escape pretty easily."

"If she even wants to help," mutters Otter.

"It's our only hope for escape," Starscale reminds her. "We have to try."

Otter shrugs and starts to leave the room. When she realizes no one is following her, she looks back. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm kinda in a hurry to escape." The rest of the dragons follow her.

They walk along the lavish hallways to Ruby's room. Starscale can't help feeling a twinge of guilt that she hadn't realized who the Queen was sooner. She also feels as though a thousand questions are pounding on her brain concerning this Queen Ember. Why didn't she just challenge Ruby as any wannabe queen should do? Or, why didn't she just kill Ruby and be done with it?

They enter Ruby's room to find her lying on a bed, breathing heavily. As they walk in, she cracks open one eye, groans, and closes it again. "I half hope you guys have come here to kill me and relieve me from this pain," she croaks out.

The dragons turn to Starscale. Their eyes seem to say, "This was your idea." She wants to point out that it is all their idea, but she decides to keep quiet. Starscale gulps and steps forward.

"Hey," she says.

Ruby opens her eyes and looks at her inquisitively. "Uh, hey?"

Starscale tries to swallow her fears. "So, you're Ruby, right?"

Ruby's eyes narrow. "Who told you I am?"

Starscale pauses, hesitant. "It's a rumor that's been going around," she finally replies slowly.

"I see." Ruby sighs and puts her head on her paws. "Well, it's not true."

TidalClaws speaks up now. "What do you mean it's not true? You look exactly like the Queen..."

She lifts her head high and growls, "I'm not the Queen!" Her eyes go soft. "Ember is." She puts her head down again and refuses to speak to them for the rest of the time. The dragons reluctantly start to exit.

Starscale is about to follow them when Ruby speaks again. "What was that?" Starscale asks, turning around.

"If I was Queen Ruby, I wouldn't want to help you unless Cliff was rescued from Ember's clutches," Ruby repeats.

Starscale smiles. "Ok. Thanks for the tip." She exits and closes the door behind her. Turning to face the other dragons, she smiles. "I think I know how we can get out of here..."

*    *    *

"Are you sure this will work?" whispers Otter.

"Nope," Starscale replies. She looks carefully around the dark hallway before sneaking to the next corner.

"Then why are we even doing this?" asks Diamond. She follows behind Starscale, straining her ears to hear any approaching Skywings.

"It's the best chance we've got," whispers Starscale.

"And what if the Skywing really isn't Ruby? What if she was telling the truth?" demands Otter.

Starscale glares at her. "We're figuring this out as we go," she reminds them. Otter mutters something about them being amateurs before quickly following them.

They travel down the dark corridors to where Cliff is supposed to be held. So far, they had managed to escape any detection by the guards, but it was getting riskier every step they took. Starscale, however, figures that they are too far to turn back anyway.

"I heard something!" hisses Diamond. "Hide!" Starscale quickly spreads her wings and covers TidalClaws and Otter, grateful that only the undersides of her wings are covered with blue stars. Diamond has the best advantage and easily uses her Rainwing power to blend in with the darkness. Starscale quickly ducks her head as a guard makes her rounds up the hallway. For a painstaking moment, Starscale hears the guard stop just a tail length away. Trying to control her breathing, Starscale stays absolutely still, hoping the guard's eyesight wasn't enough to see the strange hump in the dimly lit area. Luckily, the guard soon starts to continue up the hallway again. "She's gone," Diamond finally whispers.

Starscale sighs in relief and lifts her wings from Otter and TidalClaws. "That was too close," Otter growls. "We almost got caught."

"Correction, you did get caught." Starscale turns around to see two more guards advancing towards them, both with smirks on their faces. "You four are in big trouble..."