Wings of Fire: Missed | The Turning Tides #1

Chapter 7

The glint of blue, green and dark feathers rustled along the clear path of trees. Gelid tucked her wings. The air whistled past her scales and she succumbed into a dive with her talons outstretched. The sun angled perfectly so that her shadow was too far behind for her prey to notice.

The bird had a thin and long neck with a small head. It never noticed as Gelid descended closer and closer, carefully spreading her wings. She reached forward, hoping to grab the neck and let it dangle from her talons before killing it.

The bird stood still but turned its neck at the last second as Gelid lurched to grab it and her talons missed instead, flying past its neck.

Missed.

Gelid spread her wings out fully, letting her speed drag her back into the heights of the sky.

"Crashing glaciers!" Gelid roared. She circled twice in the air and then hovered, beating her wings with fire along the edges of her wings. The bird ran across the field of bushy-short shrubs and thin trees, and disappeared into the cloak of taller trees and shadows.

Hunting in and near the rainforest was enough for her to turn into a red skywing. Though, she knew and expected things to be different. First of all, there wasn't any snow, no white or pale colours except the sky to camouflage into. And it didn't help that her scales were all the wrong colours for this.

Except for nightwings and rainwings. One had camouflage scales to turn invisible or into different colours. The other had scales perfect for hiding in shadows and dusk.

And Gelid? She might as well have been shouting.

Not in the ice kingdom though, Gelid thought. The nightwings would definitely stick out. Too cold for any other dragon. The Great Ice Cliff would probably kill them anyway.

Blackout and Lava approached, watching. Lava swerved upwards, circling above Gelid. Blackout hovered by her, with a carcass of a plump, brown furry animal that looked almost like a bear cub but without the large teeth and with short legs.

"It's alright!" Blackout shouted to Gelid. "Those things are hard to predict. That's why I don't try to catch them!"

Gelid scanned the horizon, spinning around as she did, her eyes predicting a black dot to appear out of nowhere. "Where's Deception?" Gelid asked, finally giving up.

"Chasing a peacock," Blackout said, nodding towards the dark valleys between the mountains. "She likes collecting their tail feathers. You should see her home."

Gelid snorted. She did imagine it. She imagined a house carpeted by green and blue feathers, some hanging by the ceiling and the walls decorated by them. Honestly, it didn't seem too bad of an idea. Swan's headdress had peacock feathers if she remembered correctly.

Strong gusts fell on her wings and Gelid twisted out of way, eyeing Lava who was above her in the air. He stared towards the sun and then pointed to a decrepit mountain wall between two rivers with fresh greenery on the other side.

"I think I saw some small horses over there. Want to go have a look?" Lava asked Gelid.

"Sure."

"I'll wait for you two over at Hunter's Rock." Blackout flew away to a smaller mountain with ridged rock claws around the base but had a flat plateau at the peak.

Gelid and Lava flew side by side until they arrived close to the ridge. Lava soared over the ridge and above the lush and vine-filled treetops, while Gelid broke off and swerved around.

She landed as silently as she could behind a rocky outcropping with a single eroded hole in the thin rock. Her scales stuck out easily, especially in the brightness of the day. Hiding and watching carefully was a good attribute to have.