Wings of Fire: The Forgotten World

chapter 42

By thedragonshifter
Pleiades's PoV

     Staying in Velocity's home was just as terrible as Pleiades expected it to be. Everywhere she went, Coyote was practically hovering over her, just waiting for Pleiades to make one wrong move so that she could kick her out for good and never see her again. She appeared around corners muttering angry comments on Pleiades's appearance and tribe. Sometimes, she would even attempt to threaten her By saying things such as: "I'll shred you if you go anywhere near Gopher," Or something along the lines of: " you're dead as dinner missy!"

     Coyote wasn't the only dragon who hated her presence. Raptor was always attempting to make her look bad in front of his family by pointing out every little thing that was damaged by her acidic touch. And when nobody was looking, he would break something that was nearby and blame it on Pleiades, even if what he broke was on the other side of the house. The Viperwings would still believe him though, for they would much rather believe that the 'scheming, savage, untrustworthy Sunwing' destroyed their priceless pottery rather then the angelic Raptor.

     However, not everyone disliked Pleiades just because she was a Sunwing. The only exceptions in the Viperwing family were Dash and Antelope. They didn't mind that Pleiades was a Sunwing, but they still didn't like her for whatever reason. Though, Pleiades guess that it was just because of how she looked. Something tells me that a dragon with a torn up face would automatically earn a bad reputation amongst others dragons. She thought bitterly.

     But other then that, none of the other dragons really did much to her. They usually kept their distance, glared, complained about her destructiveness, and overreacted when she stepped a little to close to them. Coyote and Raptor were definitely the worst.

     Now, Pleiades sat outside Velocity's home, grumpy as always, and glaring at everything that passed. Hemlock sat next to her, his eyes intensly staring at all the engravings on the side of each of the Viperwing buildings. Pleiades could care less about the history of Viperwings. She could care less about Viperwings themselves. All i've learned is that they treat Sunwings like dirt.

     With the spikes on her back rising angrily, she ducked away as a shower of dirt flew at her and Hemlock when a pair of young dark green Viperwings flashed past, laughing and smiling as if nothing bad were happening in Tarliin. It only made Pleiades angrier to see all the happy faces of Viperwings, racing happily through their golden home. And she couldn't help but feel jealousy prickling throughout her scales. That could have been me. I could be living happily in the Sun kingdom with my family. But no! I need these stupid death scales to make my life miserable! If only I could be a normal Sunwing living a normal life with a nice loving family...

     "Come on guys! Don't you wanna run with us?" Velocity's voice rang from a little ways away. Pleiades looked up and saw her standing on two feet, Raptor and Gopher beside her, their tails twitching impatiently. Rattler and Basilisk were just a few feet ahead, checking to make sure the path was clear.

     Velocity was looking at her and Hemlock expectantly, her eyes alight with joy and excitement. She expects me to run with those three? No way! Though, Pleiades felt bad declining Velocity's offer once her face fell in disappointment, she didn't regret her decision. Besides, Hemlock didn't go either.

     Pleiades turned towards the artwork that Hemlock was studying and saw was was obviously a Viperwing battling a dragon she had never seen before. "What tribe is that?" She asked, pointing to the lithe figure with curled horns and wide, slender wings. Hemlock turned to face her with a weird expression as if he didn't think the question was serious. "Well, it's an Emberwing of course." He said. And when Pleiades looked at him with a bewildered expression, he elaborated upon what an Emberwing was.

     "Erm, the Emberwing tribe was an ancient dragon tribe the lived here on Tarliin thousands of years ago, many years before Shatteredmoon and Dragonkiller were born." He said. "Though they are still widely believed to be extinct, some dragons still claim that the tribe of dragons still exists and is just in hiding. Some dragons even refuse to believe that such dragons existed in the first place.

     "Emberwings used to live on the border of Viperwing and Sunwing territory and at one point having as much land as from across the North side of the Red Sands desert all the way to the Stormwings in the North Eastern part of Tarliin." Hemlock paused to draw in a long breath before he continued.

     "Some dragons say that the Emberwings' extinction was for the greater good and that the entire dragon species benefited greatly after they disappeared." Pleiades was still confused. "What was wrong with the Emberwings to make it okay for them to go extinct?" She asked, stoked at why the extinction of any dragon tribe good. "How did they all die out anyway?" To her surprise, Hemlock shrugged.

     "The problem is, nobody knows what happened to the Emberwing tribe. One day, they all just disappeared and they've all been long gone for too many generations to count. So I guess it's better safe to say that they are extinct. From what I've read though, Emberwings weren't bad dragons. They just had a couple of skirmishes with the Viperwings over territory, but that was about all."

     Pleiades turned back to the artistic engravings, her eyes narrowing. "If they were good dragons, then still, why would it be good if they were extinct?" She asked again, still confused at why any dragon would feel that way about any tribe.

     The fur on Hemlock's back rose a little with apparent unease,"their power." He said,"or powers. Emberwings were very secretive dragons and nobody ever really figured out what they could do. The only thing we know for certain in that they could breath a smoldering blue flame that was hotter then any other fire-breathing dragon's fire. In my books, many dragons claimed that when an Emberwing was angry, their scales would alight with flame, and when they flew, they were said to look like a great phoenix.

     "And for their powers, a few dragons claimed that they had empathic abilities- the power to feel others' feelings." He added at Pleiades's confused look. "Apparently, animus dragons were common in the Emberwing tribe, though they mostly used their powers for good reasons."

     At that moment, Velocity sped around the corner of the building with her cousins not far behind her. "We need to get inside the house, now." She growled. "Something is happening to the Viperwings, and we aren't sure how. All of a sudden, dragons all around began to turn black and then just... Die! It looked like what happens when you touch someone, Pleiades." Velocity said quickly. Great! Just what we needed.

     Velocity opened the door for everyone to enter the house, but Pleiades didn't budge. Something engraved high up, semi-hidden by years worth of vines, had captured her eye. She reached up and burned the flowers and plants away to see a group of words, set near at least ten engravings of evil- looking Smokewings, staring ominously back at her. However, she didn't get to read it on time, for Hemlock was trying very hard to pull her arm towards the door.

     For some reason, as she and Hemlock rushed into Velocity's house, she felt as if that group of words engraved on the golden wall was important. She felt as if they were calling to her, just asking to be read. For a moment, Pleiades was thinking of taking the risk to go out and read what the words said, but as she looked out the window and saw the blackened, Sunwing- like poisoned, dead bodies of Viperwings littering the ground, she decided that they could maybe wait until another time.