Jade Mountain's Next Generation

Chapter 14 - Evacuation

Qibli and Winter were quickly assigned tasks. They ran away to do them, and Fatespeaker and Sunny sent a message to Queen Glory. "Go back to your cave. Tell your winglet that we're evacuating, if you want to." Sunny told us. I nodded. "Okay." We said nervously. Indigo lead the way back to our cave.

I stopped at Rose's cave. "Rose! Sahara! Wake up!" I shouted. "We're already awake, Darkshine." Rosebud sighed. "I'll go wake Copper and Alligator." Suggested Indigo. "No, I'll do it." Rose protested. Indigo shrugged. "Don't worry, I know that we're evacuating. One of Queen Glory's animuses contacted Rosebud, and she told me." Sahara told us. That fast? "Oh, okay." I flew out of the cave, with Indigo and Sahara behind me. We stopped at the exit.

The whole exit was blocked off by ice. Fatespeaker and Starflight were frozen inside it, their screams barely heard from the outside. Slowly, but quickly enough that we could see it, more ice froze the area as it started to form around us. Sahara breathed fire everywhere, but the ice didn't stop. Igloo had blocked our way out, and was now freezing us. Sahara desperately hissed fire at the ice that had frozen Starflight and Fatespeaker. Starflight fell out, gasping, and the two of them helped release Fatespeaker. Then all of them ran. "We need another exit!" Indigo panted, taking to the air. "Make one!" Fatespeaker suggested. "The walls aren't very sturdy here," Starflight explained. "So you can break them with enough strength."

Sahara and Indigo hurled themselves at the wall. Again. After a few more tries, I joined in. The wall crumbled away, but the ice was catching up. Just as it reached the start of the sleeping caves, dragons of all tribes rushed out, panicking. They raced through the hallways and surged outside, into the light of dawn. Sunny, Winter, Qibli and Anemone soon followed. Fatespeaker glanced around to make sure no one else was inside. The ice brushed her wing, freezing it. She yelped and, with great difficulty, pulled it out and yanked Starflight outside with her. Sahara, Indigo and I followed. As the ice closed off the doorway, we went airborne, searching for Rose and our winglet. No Igloo, but he was probably back in the Ice Kingdom, letting the magical ice do its work. We searched the rest of the crowd, but we didn't see Alligator. Or Copper.

Or Rose.