Wings of Fire: A Game for Glory

Chapter 6: A Salamander as Black as Night

The plains stretched for miles, the grass rustling softly as he rested his cramping muscles in his wings. Envy wiped his eyes, blinking, tear stains still marked underneath his eyes. Envy spots a narrow brook that coursed through the heathlands. A took a moment to drink from it, cold water trickling down his chin. He looked up at the mountains that were miles away. They lay in a great line like the spine of the land, high to the west and low to the east, curling at the end like a tail. They are the reason why half of the continent in this area is so lush and the other side is scorching desert, where the SandWings lived. Envy snorts. No more landscape viewing. Find allies to help you, Envy mentally told himself.

Envy took flight, steadily flying over the meadows. The meadow was a riot of color. The burnt orange Butterflyweed stood tall amongst the grasses and the prairie Black-eyed Susans appeared to reflect the brilliant yellow of the sun itself. The fact was that it was so beautiful out here. Yes, it was foreign land Envy has never discovered before, but it was more peaceful than the NightWing palace or the NightWing territory.

While flying somewhat low to the ground, Envy's ears perked up. Wingbeats.

Hastily, the prince dove towards the ground, frantically looking for a ditch. His gray and green colors would never blend in with the bright, colorful flowers in the meadow. He prayed to the moons as he created his own little ditch, sinking into the dirt hiding into the thick plants. Above, a dark red blob shot past. An orange dragon flew closer behind the first, followed by four more. SkyWings, Envy thought as he shuffled his body, trying to loosen up dirt and sink lower into the floor. More SkyWings whooshed overhead, their deafening wingbeats going silent as they flew off... towards his home?

Envy poked his head from the flowers. Maybe a SkyWing could become allies with him? It was a risky thought, but for the moons' sake, he may as well give it a try.

Envy shook off the dirt and flowers off of his scales, snorting. He was sure that he had to be in the outskirts of the Sky Kingdom, though, both the SkyWings and NightWings owned half of all of the mountains in Pyrrhia, so Envy had a tough time even knowing when the SkyWing kingdom started, or when the NightWing kingdom ended, though it shouldn't be too difficult to find a sky dragon within the area.

Envy flapped into the sky. All he had to do was find a SkyWing. Shouldn't be too hard, right? It's not like their bright orange or red colors blend with the mountains, anyway.

It wasn't long until Envy spots a sunset orange dragon fly towards the ground. Bingo!

Envy glided towards the sky dragon, putting on a friendly smile. "Hello?" He says, landing softly a few feet away from the SkyWing. The dragon's long neck turned towards Envy, the SkyWing folding its large wings. Though, Envy sensed that the dragon's atmosphere wasn't... pleasant nor friendly. "My name is Prince Envy," Envy introduces himself. "You know what the Gem of Tyranny is, correct? Well, I was hoping if you'd like to join sides with me, to search for that gem ourselves and put an end to this war for power."

"You. You're an NightWing, correct?" The SkyWing's voice was husky, yet somewhat smooth, but his tone never changed, he sounded angry. Envy nodded slowly, taking a small step back as he grew anxious. "A prince. Tsk tsk-- the prince of the damned NightWing royal family. Queen Starflicker, right? Oh, and Beastslayer. That MONSTER, and YOU'RE one of their offspring."

The sky dragon began to circle around Envy, making the dragonet cower lowly. "YOU'RE family took half of my tribe's land! My tribe's resources! My tribe's HOMES, and YOU think I'll just, oh, fly with you to Caspian's gem just to end a WAR? Well, you. Are. Wrong."

Smoke shot from the SkyWing's nostrils, followed with a hiss, and a blast of flame shot from the dragon's jaws. Envy yelped as he narrowly dodged the attack, leaping to the left, however the SkyWing charged at the dragonet. There was no use in flying away. SkyWings were the fastest flying dragons in Pyrrhia-- Envy could be feet away and the SkyWing can catch up to him at the speed of lightning. Envy rolled under the SkyWing's underbelly, raking his talons across the dragon's soft, light tan under-scales. The sky dragon howled in pain, but did not give up. Once Envy realized the SkyWing wasn't down, he bolted back, giving him some space to recover. The SkyWing hissed and shot flame at Envy, but the prince jumped into the air as high as he could, using his wings to propel him onto the SkyWing's back. The SkyWing roared as he thrashed around, bucking and kicking as he flew into the sky. Envy yelled, the wingbeats of the SkyWing sounded like he was stuck in the middle of a hurricane. He couldn't afford to fall off, so, he grappled the dragon's horns. From there, he shot fire at the dragon's neck repeatedly, ignoring it's pained cries. All of a sudden, Envy felt his left talons scratch through something thick, and a warm liquid soaked onto his talons. The SkyWing hurtled towards the ground, crashing into the lush plains of flowers as Envy was thrown off. He tumbled a few times, but was no injured too badly. Envy looked down at his talons-- they were covered in blood. He then looked back towards the SkyWing, trotting to him. He nudged the dead dragon onto his neck, it's entire body completely limp, showing a large scratch mark across it's throat.