If Everything Went According to Plan...

Under the Mountain

A/N: once again, this was originally meant to be a prologue, but inspiration/motivation never hit for the rest of the story. There's no cliffhanger here, but be aware that this isn't going to be added to. If that's a deterrent for you, then you've been warned.

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A blue-green SeaWing paced in the cave. The normally calming sound of the rushing river now did nothing to soothe his nerves.

"Will you stop that?" Dune snapped from near the fire. "Your pacing won't get them here any faster or any safer."

I have a right to be worried, Webs thought, biting at one claw. Out loud, he said, "We only have three of the eggs we need. Asha, Kestrel, and Hvitur are somewhere out there in the wilds of Pyrrhia, and we have no idea what's happening to them or if they're all right. If anything's going to happen to mess up the prophecy, it's going to be now."

Dune stood, stretched his maimed wing, then limped over to the SeaWing. "What the prophecy says will come true." He gestured at the tan-colored SandWing egg. "Take Thorn's egg, for instance. We thought we would have to scour the desert for a single SandWing egg that none of the queens knew about, dodging Burn's and the other sister's forces as we went. Instead, Thorn told me about her egg, her single egg, that she would hide from Burn in the Scorpion Den. 'Hidden alone from the rival queens, a SandWing egg awaits unseen.' And you. What were the odds that you would see Queen Coral's egg, the egg of deepest blue, due to hatch on the brightest night, before you fled the Kingdom of the Sea? And that then, when you joined the Talons of Peace and heard about the prophecy, that you would be able to get back into the Royal Hatchery and retrieve her egg?" Dune's black eyes met Webs's green ones. "Fate is on our side."

Webs blinked at Dune. That was one of the longest speeches he had ever heard the usually taciturn SandWing make.

Webs sighed. "I wish—"

He was cut off by a scrabbling at the hidden door. Webs whipped around, crouching low and staring at the stone. Dune bared his teeth and raised his tail. Maimed or not, he would fight to defend the eggs they had.

The door rolled open and a brown-and-tan shape stumbled in. Dune turned his head and sent the blast of fire into the river. Webs hurried forward and placed his shoulder under the MudWing's splayed wing. A red SkyWing hurried in behind Asha and propped her up on her other side.

"What happened?" Dune gasped as he took in the MudWing's wounds. A long gash was scored down the side of her neck, and half her tail was black with frostbite.

"She got caught in a battle between Blister and Blaze's forces on her way here," Kestrel reported as Asha gently laid a blood-red egg in the nest beside the SeaWing's. "Just about the worst thing that could have happened."

"The egg's here," Asha breathed out. "That's what's important."

Dune shook off his surprise. "Webs, Kestrel, there are medical supplies in the chest by our cave. Go get them. Asha, hang on. You'll be all right."

The SkyWing and the SeaWing hurried off, and Dune placed his talons over the gash in her neck, holding the torn scales together. Asha had winced as Webs moved in to support her, and Dune probed gently with his stump of an arm along her side. Asha gasped with pain, and Dune swallowed a curse. "Broken ribs," he muttered.

"Really?" Asha smiled weakly. "I hadn't noticed."

Kestrel hurried back into the cave, a wooden box under her arm. She slapped it down on the floor and pulled out a roll of bandages. Webs opened a clay jar and scooped out some minty-smelling ointment. He smeared it over the frostbite on Asha's tail, and the big MudWing let out a sigh as the paste numbed the pain. As Dune pressed the edges of Asha's gash together, Kestrel plastered the bandages over it. Bit by bit, they covered Asha's wounds until not a trace of blood could be seen.