Dusk Falling: A Wings of Fire Fanfiction

Chapter Two

As they soared over the Mud Kingdom, Dusk and her traveling companions decided to land for a rest stop. "It'll be fun! We can check out the Mud Kingdom!", Dusk's mother reasoned. So they landed on a patch of not-so-boggy ground, and started off into the midst of the Mud Dragons.
As they passed the clay buildings and mushy mud patches the MudWings were ever so fond of, they noticed a strange thing: groups of five or six MudWings would be together, socializing, laughing, chatting with each other, while completely ignoring other groups. Dusk had been taught briefly about these groups, knowing the MudWings inside the groups as 'sibs'. She had always looked, half longingly, half disgusted at them, at how tight and loyal they were. She was an outcast, and never was or, hopefully, would be the center of attention
   Soon, however, they came upon a young MudWing, about seven or eight, the same age as Quetzal and Dusk. He had carob scales, a lighter brown underbelly, with a small curl of string around his left forearm. He was somberly pacing about, muttering to himself. Oddly, he was alone, which, when surrounded by these tight-knit sibs, made him an astounding misfit.
   Quetzal noticed immediately, and padded over to him quietly, but not so she could surprise him. She just wanted to cheer him up, whatever the case.
   She tapped him on the broad shoulder. His head swiveled up from its downward pointing position, and stared at her as if to say, "A RainWing? In the Mud Kingdom? What?".
   She introduced herself. "Hello. My name is QUETZAL! What's YOURS?", She happily exclaimed in an uplifting tone. The mud dragon muttered something unintelligible.
   "WhAT? Sorry, bad ears!", Quetzal again happily bellowed.
   "It's Carob. Sorry." Carob did not look sorry.
   "What's wrong, Carob? Where are your sibs? Why are you pacing like this? What's up?"
   "It's okay, you can tell us. Oh, it's Dusk.", Dusk quietly interjected, surprisingly, for she was usually such a quiet dragon.
   "Yeah"  That was Quetzal again.
   "Alright.", Carob begrudgingly replied. "I'm here, because I have nowhere else to go. My sibs were all injured in a dragonflame cactus explosion a couple days ago by some dragons against MudWings or something. I was, luckily or not, out retrieving more water from a spring not far away. I saw the explosion, and rushed to my sibs. They were only at the edge of the explosion, but they were still gravely injured. They were sunning themselves, so they were lying on their backs, wings submerged in mud. They can still fly, but barely. They are trying to use the mud to heal them, but it's making slow progress, and I fear they will be dead soon. I can't bear losing them, much less being an Unsib. I think we need to get to Queen Ruby's hospital, but as I said, they can barely fly, and I have no idea how to get there. Queen Ruby's doctors would come here, but I still have no way to contact them."
   "Well,", Quetzal started, shooting a glance at Dawnshreader and Harshheart. "I guess, we could take you there...?", With another glance at Dusk's parents.
   "I don't have a problem with it, in fact, if it means saving these dragons' lives, then GREAT MOONS! LET'S GO RIGHT NOW!!!", And with that, Dawnshreader spread his wings and took to the air.
   "Really? Thank you so much!", Carob took to the air after Dawnshreader.
   The remaining NightWings and the RainWing glanced at each other and followed suit.

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They visited briefly Carob's sibs. The burns were bad, but they still managed to smile when they heard the news.
   After thanking them vigorously, Carob took to conversing with Quetzal. He had a relaxing voice and a relaxing, outgoing attitude. He actually seemed to counter, in a way, Quetzal's constant ecstatically happy mood, with his laid-back, anything goes style. Dusk listen to their happy conversation, wishing she could do that. She intervened then and there ("MY favorite color is black." That one got a strange look from Quetzal. "Well, I know NightWings like you are black, but still... how can you like black more than SUPER SUPER SUPER BRIGHT YELLOW! YELLOWYELLOWYELLOWYELLOW!". Carob just shook his head. "My favorite color is carob. Could have guessed, I bet.") ("Actually, I think that alligators and caimans are different things." That one earned her a large smile, one to her and one to Carob. The one for Carob was much smugger, though. "I told you, I TOLD you!", Quetzal gleefully bragged. Carob didn't seem to mind. They already were fast friends.)