Wings of Fire: The Forgotten World

chapter 21

By CamsterDragon
Hemlock's POV

Hemlock led Pleiades inside the Sunwing's house, occationally calling back softly to let her know where he was. He stayed closer to her than he had in the caverns, consciously aware of all the things that could die with her touch. He had wanted more than anything to get Pleidias as far away from here as possible, but there were more guards than he had anticipated, and he would've felt bad for not replying his debt to the Sunwing family. So, he was now faced with the problem of escorting her inside.

"Stop," he hissed, trying desperately to smell any Sunwings through the burning smell coming from Pleiades. He hoped no one else would notice it. "Ok, this way." He tried his best to navigate her through the small doorway, but ended up burning a small bush in the process. Fortunate enough, the doorway itself remained unharmed and unburnt.

To his great relief, the room was big enough for them both to lie down and have a little wiggle space without Pleiades melting Hemlock or the furniture or the walls. "You are welcome to lay down for a second," Hemlock whispered to Pleiades. "You won't burn anything within a tail swipe." Clearly relieved, Pleiades sat down, tucking her long tail to her body. "I'll be right back. You can sleep. I just need to get some food and cover our tracks." Pleiades gave a faint nod of her head and, reassured, Hemlock closed the back door behind him quietly. The first thing he did was to brush away the dead material that made a pathway straight to their hiding place. Then, he shot electric sparks into the ground to make it look like they had traveled a different way. Finally, he gathered some stray roses to conceal Pleiades's scent.

Before he could go back to the Sunwing's house, he smelled the queen on the wind. Panicking, he shot off into a larg bush, feeling the thorns scrape against his fur. Another scent followed the first one. "I want you to be on the lookout captain." Hemlock heard the queen's voice echo in the still air. "I just got word from Princess Frost that Prince Hemlock is missing." She growled. "It seems Pleiades wasn't the only one working for the traitors, and the coward prince fled as soon as he knew they were on to him." Hemlock's fur bristled with anger. I am not a coward! "She reassured me that, if he were to come to our city, he would arrive in the next day. Even Cloudwings are not faster than animus magic." Hemlock smirked and wondered how long it had taken his sister to discover he was missing if she thought he hadn't already arrived. I suppose she doesn't know about my daily trips outside either...

"Yes your majesty," a deep voice responded, the voice Hemlock presumed to be the Captain's. "I will have all my guards on high alert."

"Good." The scents walked away, and Hemlock's shoulders visibly relaxed.

"Who ya hiding from?" whispered a voice next to him. He practically jumped out of the bushes with fright, turning to stare at the dragon who had startled him. She was around the same age as Hemlock and evidently not a Sunwing. Instead, Hemlock identified her as a Viperwing, which explained how she found him, and he didn't smell her. Some people called them tracking dragons as they hunted in packs, were very fast, could hear and smell very well, and noticed the small things. Cloudwings and Sunwings may have brain smarts, but Viperwings had street smarts.

Her scales were a pale yellow color: especially good in the Sunwing's desert, but not so good where the Viperwings lived. She had brown stripes along her sides and brown lightning bolt shaped patterns on her wings. The typical long horns on her head were slightly stunted and so were her claws, making her look more friendly than not.

"No one," Hemlock quickly said, jumping out of the bushes and wincing as some of them drew blood.

"It sure didn't look like no one," replied the obnoxious Viperwing. "And what are you doing stealing as well?"

Hemlock looked down at the roses still in his hands. "It's called picking, not stealing."

The dragon raised her eyebrow. "What if I were to tell you 'picking' is against the law?"

Hemlock stood a little taller, his fur prickling with indignation. "Then I would tell you that I'm not dumb and I've read every Cloudwing book there is about this place, and it specifically says, 'All wild flowers are for public use.'"

The Viperwing shrugged. "Should've known a Cloudwing would say that, but I didn't expect you to be so rude about it." She stood on her back two legs and held out a paw. "I'm Velocity." When Hemlock eyed her hand as though it were a snake, she sighed. "This is the part when you tell me your name, and we shake paws."

"Shake paws?" asked Hemlock. He had heard the expression, but never actually been put in a position of its use, hearing it was a thing Viperwings did to greet one another.

"That's a strange name," Velocity joked. Her paw was still hanging out in front of her. Reluctantly, Hemlock shook her paw.

"I'm not going to tell you my name, but I'll at least be polite," he told her.

She shrugged again. "Fair enough." She turned around. "Meet me tomorrow morning by the lake! You still have to explain," she called out to him as she raced away. Hemlock opened his mouth to protest, but she lived up to her name and was gone by the time he could say anything.

After placing the flowers around the back door and getting some food, he crept back inside. Pleiades was still awake, her ears perked expectantly towards him. "I brought food," he whispered. "Do you want me to feed you." Seeing her ruff flatten, Hemlock hurried to explain. "I figured it was already hard for you to not burn your food when you weren't blind, and it would be even more so now." She sighed and relented. Hemlock smiled at her childish behavior. "Okay, open your mouth. I'm feeding you the first bite."