Wings of Fire: The Forgotten World

chapter 2

By thedragonshifter
Pleiades's PoV

     "Pleiades, run!" Pleiades could hear her mother's familiar yet distant voice behind her as she sprinted across the border between Sunwing and Cloudwing territory. She never stopped running, and never looked back. Then, as she rounded a corner, she felt a talon grab her foot and drag her backwards. She screamed, kicking the hand, but it wouldn't let go. And when she turned around, she saw a very evil looking Sunwing lift her into the air, its mouth wide open. The dragon drew her closer to its mouth, and then, with a sickening crunch, the dragon ate her alive.

     Crack! Pleiades's eyes snapped open as her foot smashed a stick that had blown into her cave. Sunlight beamed in through the large cave mouth opening, the sun almost fully up into the sky. I slept in today! Why does this always happen? Her eyes flitted back the the stick under her foot and watched as it turned black and shriveled into a pile of decomposed, toxic twigs. She sighed and slumped back into a heap on the cold stone floor. This power is a curse! I have to sleep on a freezing stone floor and live in a freezing windy cave that seems like it crawls with nightmare elves. I can't touch anything without it being poisoned a decomposed and I have to hunt alone because I can't even hold currency!

     She huffed moodily at the wall, black poison gas coming out in a cloud and blowing away with the black stick. This was pretty much her life. She sat in her cave all day, day dreamed, drew pictures in the walls with her claws, and hunted for food. Nothing exciting happened other then her frequent nighttime horrors or when a nervous Cloudwing dragonet strays into her cave and then runs away. But, that was about it.

    Pleiades's cave was nothing exciting. She had no furniture, no pets, just the bones of dead animals that she had eaten. Oh how much she would love to have furniture in her cave, but it would be ruined the moment she touched it. She also wished that she could have friends, but why would anybody want to be friends with a walking death machine like her? All she would have to do wad accidently brush one of them her her toe and their scales would start to decompose in that spot.

    Pleiades was a Sunwing. Except she had unnatural powers that no other Sunwing had. She was born with too much poison.

     When she hatched, Pleiades had a twin brother, but instead of sharing the poison that all Sunwings had, Pleiades somehow absorbed her normal amount of poison and her brother's causing him to hatch with no poison and die shortly after. It was all very jumbled though as to what really happened. But after she had hatched, Pleiades's parents had tried to smuggle her into the nearest tribe's kingdom, which just happened to be the Cloudwings. However, on the way, her parents were caught taking her into another kingdom and taken in as Sunwing prisoners, but Pleiades managed to escape. Though, she couldn't remember how she had done it.

     Pleiades scales were dark colors. Her main scale color was a very dark red with a slightly lighter shade of red on her back. She had dark green eyes and unusually long and curvy horns on her head. Her underbelly was a very dark grey along with the spikes on her back and under her neck. The fins on her chin and on her back were a purple-red color that faded in a gradient to yellow. All Sunwings have glowing spots on their scales where they are poisonous and these spots are usually a very vivid and bright color, however; pleiades's spots were black. This was the same with the "whiskers" on her back, behind her ears, and under her chin. Lastly, on the lighter colored armor plates on her back, incredibly bright, vein- like lines ran through them like lightning bolts. The bright viens and black patterns were signs of her deadly touch.

     Pleiades forced herself to her feet. As she looked back out the mouth of her cave, she realized how bright the sun was. Do I really need to leave my cave to find food? Her stomach responded to her with a loud growl and she trudged outside. Why should I even go out here? Wherever I go, things die and dragons stare. Its really getting old. Yet again, her stomach rumbled and Pleiades continued on her way,"yah yah just shut up. I'm getting food right now." She growled to herself as she made her way down the rocky path that led to the hilly- forest area below.

     Over the years, Pleiades had grown very skinny. Sometimes, she didn't feel like stepping outside, and when she did hunt, her food usually disintegrated in her talons if she didn't eat it fast enough. Gravel clattered down the cliff's edge beside the path that she was walking down as she sulked all the way down to the foot of the mountain. And when she was at the bottom, she blocked out the bustling noises of the nearby city.

    The city at the foot of her mountain was the main city in the Cloud kingdom. It was the home of the grand Cloudwing palace that floated regally in the center of a ring of giant mountains. Dragons were always flying to and from the palace as it shined in the sun. The outside looked as if it were made from rainbow crystal. It reflected the sun's rays in every direct and in rainbow streams of light. Pleiades could only guess what it looked like on the inside, but she had never even set foot in the courtyard.

     She wandered deeper into the tall- treed forest, her hopes rising every time there was a rustle in the bushes that she would finally be able to eat. As she walked further into the trees, the shadows darkened and there seemed to be more prey filled foliage around her. Then, there was sudden galloping noise and a deer whisked past her in a full on gallop. Pleiades didn't hesitate. She took off after her prey, and when it was finally in sight, she spun in a circle and, as fast as a snake, shot the poisonous spikes from her tail at the deer. Some of the spikes missed and some of then struck it right in the back, and in a quick five seconds, it was already twitching on the forest floor.

    She trotted over to her kill in satisfaction. Finally, she would get to enjoy a decent meal.