Wings of Fire: The Forgotten World

Chapter 61

By CamsterDragon
Hemlock's POV

Hemlock didn't want to admit how much his shoulder hurt. It pained him every step, every jostle, every small movement. Even words themselves seemed to disturb the hairs around his wound enough to send sharp pains through his body. He just managed to keep it all in with a grimace: After all, they had bigger problems to worry about at the moment.

The biggest one currently was the annoying Spiralwing jogging along with them like they were all old buddies. After being saved by Fig, he had started to change his earlier notions about him. Until he was in Fig's presence for more than two minutes.

Despite running away from one of the most powerful dragons in Tarliin, Fig didn't seem concerned in the least. And Hemlock hadn't missed the condescending looks Fig had been giving him when he thought Hemlock and Pleiades weren't looking. I forgot that glares are a common day occurrence when you're an animus. Another building exploded behind them. Also, dragons constantly trying to kill you.

"You call that a little distraction?!" Hemlock exclaimed. "Are you sure no one will be hurt by the explosions."

"No," Fig replied. "But, those dragons are bad. They deserved what's coming to them."

Hemlock gritted his teeth to refrain from yelling Fig's ear off. Now was not the time.

As they raced through the forest of wherever they had landed this time, Hemlock realized the second thing that irked him about Fig being here. It was that Pleiades never seemed to notice the Spiralwing was bad news. But, she seemed so relieved that Fig wasn't actually bad. Hemlock was torn between telling her his theories or letting her live in the moment and forcing the responsibility of watching Fig onto himself.

Besides Fig being here, Hemlock was also thinking about his encounter with Shatteredmoon. Something about the simplicity in which they were able to escape grated on Hemlock's nerves. And his request: "And you, my little animus, make me a god..." At first, Hemlock had assumed Shatteredmoon had wanted Hemlock to make him an animus. But, as he thought back on it, that wasn't Shatteredmoon's style at all. He enjoyed making other dragons do what he could easily do himself because he liked watching them suffer. Becoming a god, therefore, more likely meant he wanted to rise above all his inferiors by a landslide without needing to rely on "worthless trinkets". Hemlock just couldn't understand his motivations. Sure, conquering the world was a thing, but dragons don't decide to do such things on a whim.

After running farther than Hemlock thought he would ever have to run again, the trio finally decided to take a break. Fig, crazily enough, was the one to find them a cave. Hemlock thoroughly inspected the cave but found no reason they shouldn't camp there for the night.

As they settled in, Pleiades muttered, "Man, I never want to go through that ever again. Shatteredmoon is the worst." She settled in next to Hemlock, and he felt a little thrill go through him as their scales touch.

Fig hesitated. Then, he piped up. "You know, I think Shatteredmoon isn't as bad as we may think."

"First off," Hemlock growled. "There is no we. Second, Shatteredmoon is evil, not bad. In fact, he's ridiculously good at being evil."

Pleiades frowned at Hemlock. "I know Fig betrayed us, but he did just save our lives. The least we could do is hear him out." Hemlock didn't like this at all.

"Right." Fig didn't even look nervous as Hemlock bared his teeth at him. "Like I was saying, I think the only reason Shatteredmoon is doing this is so he can save the Smokewings." Hemlock couldn't help the low growl that rumbled in his chest. He didn't know where all this pent up anger was coming from. He thought he understood Pleiades a little better now. All of this stuff is hard to control. Guess I've never had to deal with it with my "privileged life".