Wings of Fire • Dragon of Storms [1]

Chapter Four

Thank you for trusting me and being my friend :)

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Mother stood back on all four talons again. She turned to look at Lightningtail and Thunderclap, who were sitting beside her.

     "Would you like to go hunting today with your Aunt?" Mother asked.

      Lightningtail turned eagerly to Thunderclap. Seeing as he had livened due to the opportunity, Lightningtail nodded back at Mother. "Good. Follow her, and do as she tells you, alright?"

     Thunder and Lightning nodded again, scampering off after their retreating Aunt Falconeye.

     "What do you want us to do?" Lightningtail and Thunderclap asked in unison. The older dragon chuckled at this.

     "Hurry and find Speedscar and Quickclaws. I want them to be the guards for our trip." Lightningtail nodded again and she and her brother ran out the Council Chamber. They looked down the hall and found the black-scaled dragon easily. Thunderclap bolted after him and Lightningtail followed.

     "Speedscar, wait!" Lightningtail called. Speedscar turned around, surprised they followed him.

     "Your Highnesses, what do you need?" Speedscar asked formally.

     Thunderclap skidded to a halt and frowned at him. "Stop calling us that. You're like our Uncle-but-technically-not-our-Uncle."

     Lightningtail smacked her talon into her face.

     "Alright, dragonets, what do you want?" Speedscar tried again.

     Thunderclap nodded approvingly. "Much better. Aunt Falconeye wants you and your apprentice Quickclaws to come on the hunt with us now."

     Speedscar nodded and kept on walking down the tunnel. "I'll come as soon as I can find him."

     Lightningtail and Thunderclap trotted beside each other to the exit of the Royal Caves they were in. They took off at the same time and raced to the Hunting Center, landing awkwardly on the entrance ledge.

     "I beat you!" Thunderclap called and ran off into the tunnels.

     "You wish, I'm still faster!" Lightningtail hissed back playfully.

     The siblings chased each other into the waiting cave. Aunt Falconeye was already there, along with a few other dragons. One of them was a dragonet, about a year younger than Lightningtail. She had darkish gray scales and lighter gray underbelly scales. The dragonet was covered in blue streaks.

     Lightningtail recognized her immediately; her cousin! "Rain!" Lightningtail called and ran over, Thunderclap on her heels.

     The younger dragooned squeaked in delight and leapt up to meet her halfway. "Lightningtail, Thunderclap! Oh, I missed you guy's sooooo much!" She giggled as Lightningtail and Thunderclap wrapped her in a warm embrace.

     "I missed you too, Rainwind. Glad you're back!" Lightningtail replied. Rainwind (who Lightningtail sometimes called "Rain") was Albatrosswing's and Petralclaw's daughter. Rainwind stayed true to their lineage and thus her scales were oddly coloured (more so than usual, hence the blue accents).

     Lightningtail remembered that Rainwind and Petralclaw had been gone on a 'father-daughter' bonding trip at the beginning of the summer. Rainwind's father took her all across Ventus ever since she was a little dragonet. This time, they had left for the whole summer.