Wings of Fire: A Game for Glory

Chapter 9: The Refuge

"Urgh--" Envy grunts as he slowly regained his consciousness. The prince blinked, his vision so severely blurry he could barely make out his surroundings. Something was tightly wrapped around his haunches, and Envy curled his body inwards, seeing that he had ran into a trap. He huffs.

Captured. Isn't this great?

Envy blinked away the blurriness as he examined his surroundings. A sliver of moonlight spilled through the leaves from above, not enough to light Envy's way, however. Lucky for him, his night-vision was already working. "..Newt?" He says quietly, swiveling his head back and forth for his friend. Where did that little dragon go?

The trees would be black trunks against a bluish charcoal sky, the pathways through the forest become deepest brown and the moonlight would bleach the stones within it. The darkness pressed in on him from all sides, suffocating, and his body screamed for him to run. Any dragon could be in these woods. Dragons who want to kill him, just for fun, or even torture just for trespassing. Envy shivered slightly at those thoughts, before beginning to struggle, whipping his body around in an attempt to escape the trap, but unfortunately, he failed. He could dimly see how the mechanism worked.

A considerably long, yet thick vine was tied to a rock that was a few feet away from Envy, large enough to support the NightWing's weight. The vines lead up to the branches of the tree, which overlapped and looped around numerous branches until it could handle the weight of the victim that crossed paths with the trap. Envy eyed the vines. All he had to do was burn them.

He inhaled deeply, however, he felt no warmth within himself. Instead, he felt fatigue and dizzy when he even tired to blast flame; all he had gotten was a cough of smoke. What..? No. Come on! Not now.. Envy bit the bottom of his lip. He tried again, but he only got the same outcome-- smoke.

He began to breathe the cool air more rapidly as began to panic-- why can't he breath fire? This is impossible! The one, dire moment he needed his flame and it doesn't even work.

Growing more tired, Envy gives up, settling within the darkness, not bothered by hanging upside down, as he waited for dawn to come; all the while he listened for the bears and the wolves that were enclosed by the forest. Eventually, Envy allowed his tiredness to overcome him, and he dozed off into a deep sleep...

"Well I'll be damned!"

Envy's eyes popped open as he heard the sudden voices, flaring his wings as his heart raced. He was turned the opposite way from the sounds of crunching footsteps of talons on grass and years of fallen leaves, the noise getting closer and closer.

"It's that runaway prince! From the NightWings!"

Envy craned his head upwards to look at the dragons who ran to him. There was a small group of three dragons; a dandelion-yellow SandWing, a matte purple NightWing, and another NightWing who was completely black in color. The dragons approach Envy, galloping down a hill.

"I'd never expect Ceiba's little trap things to actually work... wow," the SandWing says as he halted, unfurling his wings as he inspected the NightWing prince. "Damn, are you sure that's a dragonet?" The dark purple NightWing says. "He's-- like, huge. Really big for his age."

"The NightWing royals were always big," the other NightWing answers. "Maybe it's genetic."
Envy gave the dragons a scowl as the purple NightWing trotted up to him. "You've been a real pain in my rear," he said, grinning. "I bet you were a problem for your family, too."

Envy whipped his head upwards, slamming his forehead onto the other dragon's head. "AGH--" The NightWing yelps as he stumbled back, rubbing his head as smoke rose from his nostrils. "Son of a---"