Wings of Fire - The CloudBorn (Fanfiction)

Chapter 16

Pulsar and Fog emerged into chaos.

When the two exited the Portal Centre to return to Cloud with the scroll, the skies were seemingly normal. Fog had shoved the scroll into the sheath around his neck, stuffed in with his own enchanted scroll and enchanted necklace.

The two took to the air and began making their way towards Cloud's cave when Pulsar paused in the air, staring at the palace.

"What's wrong?" Fog asked, pivoting to hover in the air. Turning his gaze towards the tower he called home, he spied what Pulsar was staring at. The palace was buzzing with dragons, more than usual. Almost every dragon glinted in the sunlight, meaning they were wearing armor. It looked like the entire Storm Guard was surrounding the palace.

"Should we go look?" Pulsar offered, her eyes holding amounts of worry. "Maybe something happened that we should know about,"

"I agree," Fog nodded, following Pulsar to the palace. He pondered what could've happened. Did Downpour strike while he was away? Did Mudslide slip up and get caught? Did something happen that would jeopardize his entire plan?

As predicted, the tower was surrounded by armed soldiers, all chatting furiously with each other. Fog gazed around and spotted the jewelry of his mother and the sandy scales of Sandstorm from the crowd. They were sitting in the tavern area.

"There," Fog called to Pulsar, pointing to his mother. Pulsar nodded and the two dived to meet land on the edge of the tavern level. Fog now was able to spot Blizzard, Comet, and Supercell as well. Seeing that his mother, Sandstorm, and Blizzard were all speaking quite feverously, Fog opted to turn and lead Pulsar over to the prince and princess.

"Hey, what happened?" Pulsar asked over the sound of the wingbeats.

"Sirius!" Comet cried out, his white eyes filled with tears. "Comet's little brother Sirius is missing! First Fog, now Sirius... Is Comet next? Is Supercell next?!"

"The chain of events lately has led to mass panic," Supercell explained as Comet collapsed onto the ground in tears. She wrapped a wing around him and held his talon tightly. "The disappearance of two sovereign sons has instilled a rumor within the populous. They are convinced that a malevolent entity is embezzling royalty and slaughtering those who lack elemental training,"

This bad? Fog gasped within his mind. His mind returned to Sirius' rocky state, and that heavy feeling settled back into Fog's chest. Fog focused all his might to push the feeling back. He didn't have time to dwell on this weird emotion.

"Comet is scared, Comet doesn't want to disappear!" Comet cried out. Supercell tried her best to comfort her brother, something Fog recalled her doing before every time he was down.

"Pulsar!" came another voice. Turning, Fog and Pulsar saw Waterspout diving into the Tavern, skidding to a stop and running up to his daughter. "Oh, thank the MoonWings you're alright!"

"Father, what is happening? A rumor of something stealing royalty?" Pulsar exclaimed, grabbing onto Fog's arm instead of running up to meet her father, who seemed to be waiting for some sort of returned embrace.

"There are dragons saying it's Permafrost's ghost coming back to haunt us," Waterspout confirmed, glancing at Fog with confusion swimming in his eyes. "Others say it's some MoonWing punishment. But right now, squadrons and search parties are being established,"