Heart of Fire

Chapter 8:

Emberice dragged the dead SandWing into the witch doctor's stall, and said, "I did it!" "Good, dear! Bring her back!" Emberice dragged the SandWing into the back room, where the NightWing was waiting for her. "Put her on the floor." the NightWing instructed. Emberice did, and stepped back. "I am going to ask you to step outside while I work, IceWing." The NightWing pushed Emberice out the door, and shut the door behind her. Emberice listened, and noticed that the NightWing seemed to be chanting something, then something exploded with a little burst of light.

There was a weird odor, then something gasping, which sounded like Heatwave, like prehaps the NightWing was choking him. Emberice scrabbled at the door trying to get in, but wasn't able to. Emberice heard the NightWing talking to someone, most likely Heatwave. "Breathe easy. There, that's good. Just like that. Breathe easy. Slow and steady." The gasping sound started sounding faster, and more pained, like something was hurting the dragon who was making the sound. "There now, there now. Shhhh. Breathe easy. Slow and steady. Breathe easy." the NightWing said.

There was a long silence, then talonsteps around the room, a dragging sound, and then more talonsteps coming towards the door. The NightWing oened the door, and said, "Quietly now, IceWing. Your friend's alive, he's just unconcious." Emberice stepped in, and saw that Heatwave was breathing. She hadn't realized she was holding her breath, before she let it out. "You can stay here for the night, IceWing." the NightWing said, before slithering off into the main part of the tent. "Um, thanks..." Emberice muttered, before laying down on the floor of the room and falling asleep.

The next morning, Emberice was woken by a strange NightWing shaking her awake. "What?" she grumbled. "Time for you and your friend to get going, IceWing." "All right." "I'll wake your friend." the NightWing said. She tapped Heatwave on the shoulder, and said, "Time to get up, Dragon-Who's-Not-Dead." "Huh?" Heatwave mumbled, taking a shaky breath in and letting it out. "Time to get up." the NightWing repeated. "Oh. But I just woke up, Mommy." "Heatwave..." Emberice said, looking at the SandWing SkyWing hybrid. Heatwave peered at her, and said, "Who...?"

"Emberice. My name is Emberice." "The little spark of fire who... fought me in the Arena." "Yes." Heatwave got up, and walked over to her, sort of unsteadily at first, and gripped Emberice's talon in hers. "I'm sorry I hurt you... I-I wasn't myself. Scarlet... sh-she drove me mad. Insane. She locked me up as a dragonet for seven years, and when I tried to escape, to kill her, I failed. She ordered the guards to not feed me or give me any water, to the point where I almost went blind for a few months. They threw me in the arena, and I fought and killed every dragon I was put up against. I was so far gone, that I started drinking from my own veins, eating the corpses of the dragons I killed. Until you... You made me remember something, something I remembered my mother saying to me as I was taken away from her. She said, 'Be safe, my little spark of fire. You'll do great things someday.' I still miss her. But now, I have you."

"My father, an IceWing named Dominus, always called me his little spark of fire. He said that I had a personality similar to my Mother, a SkyWing named Sheer." "Sheer was your mother?" "Yeah. Why?" "My parent's names are Caracara and Sheer." "Sheer is... your mother, too?" "Dominus told me that Sheer died after being killed by her mother, Kite seven years ago." "I hatched eight years ago." "We're siblings?"