Wings of Fire: A Twisted Future - Broken Visions

Chapter 14

Eel had an unusually somber face today. She led the arts and music class toward the Hospital Winglet, her tail dragging on the stone. Quietkeep was worried that someone didn't make it, that their wounds were too heavy, though he couldn't tell: Eel was usually quite happy, so it seemed that anything could ruin her mood. Perhaps she just wanted to talk to someone. Hopefully?

The sapphire dragoness lead them up winding tunnels, her phosphorescent scales lighting up naturally once the globe placement began to lengthen, and the other two SeaWing students, Flounder and Hydra, flattened their ears, exchanging glances. Or did Eel just say something in Aquatic? She led extra Aquatic lessons every day after school.

Finally, the floor flattened and spread into a wide cave with an opening in the tilted ceiling, overlapped with leaves and flowers, letting in a green hue into the cave. There were at least twenty comfortable-looking nests spread out across the cave, about ten of them occupied. Many of the dragonets either gasped or clutched their chests, or instantly threw themselves towards friends or siblings.

Quietkeep couldn't see anyone he cared about; those two SandWings were weeping, twining their tails together, and he recognized Tumbleweed as the one with the broken bone, lying in one nest. There was Morningflower with an odd contraption on one of her wings, there was Glisten with a gash down one side, and the last one he could match with a name was Topaz, curled asleep on her nest, a dark crimson dragonet sitting beside her, stroking her bright orange scales with his tail. 

To his surprise, a RainWing and a SandWing stepped toward him, staring at his leg. Oh, yeah, about that: he'd pulled the stick out, perhaps during last night's escape, he couldn't really remember, and he now had a pretty large, nasty hole in his leg. He hadn't realized the blood and pain. Now when he put pressure onto it, he winced. The SandWing, who wore a chain with a tiny obsidian raven on it and a name tag with the word 'Sidewinder' scriggled in brown ink, a similar brown to the freckles on her snout, down her spine and tail barb. The RainWing, on the other talon, was a pale cherry-pink with red fade limbs and wings like yellow rose petals, the name 'Ara' neatly written in a similar color to the emerald of the RainWing's toes.

''What is this?'' Sidewinder asked, straightening up and taking Quietkeep to the side. She coiled her tail in safely, nudging Quietkeep over to a nest. He wanted to sink into that so bad, so for once, he didn't mind being in the hospital wing. Usually, he was absolutely terrified of those weird contraptions, the weird herbs and medicine and liquids and scalpels, and BLOOD. BLOOD. BLOOD. That hideous, goopy red substance, the symbol of death, something that was an absolute no-no for Quietkeep. However, the thought of a proper sleep sounded great. But his claws still trembled. 

''Don't get too comfortable,'' Ara warned, padding up with a mask of leaves over her snout. Horror. Why would she say that?! Why would anyone say that? To such a young dragonet? Who so obviously had a fear of the hospital? Was Ara blind? His claws were literally freaking out! Her golden eyes softened a little, her narrow, tall pupils getting rounder edges. ''But first, we have to see what's wrong and how it happened.'' That was bad either way. His wings exploded open away from his side as the claws of the RainWing neared, and it knocked a few little shelves and platforms with jars away. Ara turned a slightly more cherry-like shade, trying to stifle her annoyance, but she let her ruff turn a deep hibiscus-sunny yellow fade.

''Don't worry,'' Sidewinder assured Quietkeep, spreading her wings to shield the view from the visiting two Winglets. She pulled a pale blue curtain on all three sides of the nest, then dipped under the curtain and padded away, probably to other patients. Ara blinked at him once, bending down and staring at his wound. 

This escalated quickly.

He only came to have a little chat with the wounded... though, honestly, he hadn't expected anyone to actually want to talk to him, or even recognize him. That was good, though. Minimum socializing is always appreciated. With a sudden flash of pain, he jumped up, pulling his leg in and curling his tail around his foot. Ara flinched, shooting him an exasperated glare, her scales turning pale purple, her underbelly fading into icy blue and her limbs fading into rose-gold. Quietkeep shook his head ferociously at the RainWing, angling his ears back. 

''Hun, how am I supposed to operate and find out what is wrong if you don't let me even examine the wound?'' She sighed, shaking her head and holding her snout up. Quietkeep bristled, making his spines tap against one another.

''CAN'T YOU SEE THE HOLE IN MY LEG?!'' he hissed, leaning forward and spreading his wings wide. ''This!'' he pointed at the red and blank gap in his flesh, still bleeding, still terribly painful, still hideous. ''Is what you're seeing. There was a branch in my leg, I pulled it out, here we are now.'' Ara arched her brow, and Quietkeep flopped back, wrapping himself in his wings as if he were in a cocoon. Maybe it was the wrong thing to do? Talk back to the doctor? She knew what she was doing... and he probably just ruined his reputation: weird aggressive NightWing. He didn't want that! He didn't want to be known as anything! He wanted to be that one character who's just always there, quiet, just a filler for the sake of a story. Let the real heroes with heroic personalities do the heroic hero stuff heroically. He wasn't anything important. Sighing, Quietkeep waved his talons at the medic.

''Do you wish for anesthesia?'' Ara asked, reaching for a jar that had fallen, luckily wrapped in thick leather so that, in case of patients like Quietkeep, they'd be safe. The liquid was greenish-blue, like the inside of a blueberry but a liquid body. Quietkeep nodded, tucking his head near his chest. Would it hurt? Would it hurt less if he looked at it or less if he didn't look at it? There was one way to find out. 

The NightWing dragonet gently raised one wing and then the other peering over the sheet of black, letting out a whimper and hiding under the night sky wings again. A needle. A needle. One of the many things he was afraid of! He'd forgotten that was the more efficient way to get anesthesia into a dragon, through a needle into their bloodstream. ''Can you explain its contents, doctor?''

''Cloudberry flesh ground until it leaks with this,'' she answered in an uninterested tone, staring at the jar as she pulled the liquid up into the syringe. It was a tiny but terrifying contraption, made with very delicate and careful claws. Also, cloudberries. Basically, a drug that made dragons see crazy things. The first experiments got a conclusion that they made dragons insane, paranoid, hallucinating. It was later also proven that it reliefs pain, which was helpful. Quietkeep took a deep breath and reached out with his right forearm, letting the needle get closer... and closer...

prick!

Quietkeep muffled a shriek, letting his claws on his hind legs twitch nervously. Obviously Ara wouldn't hurt him, she wasn't allowed to, it was illegal. However, his strong phobia was piercing at his heart.

Oh, wait... that anesthesia! Cloudberries made you see weird thiiiiings... was that why the stars on his wings were flashing and throbbing and changing colors... and dashing around his entire wings, and everything wobbled... and when he unfurled his wings, everything looked weird. Ara had hideous bright yellow scales, but the yellow that was closer to green to orange, her wings and ruff were azure, her wrists and ankles were royal purple, her fingers emerald green... or maybe she just turned that color. She was a RainWing, after all. No, wait. Sidewinder was padding up, and she was entirely metallic blue with a silver underbelly and pearlescent claws, eyes, tail barb and chin...

A cloud of black surrounded his vision as if he was stumbling through a tunnel and the light at the end was this crazy image. Vines of the black fog split from the main body and draped across the image, and Quietkeep couldn't comprehend the next scenario. A dragon with glinting red rubies on her chest flew across, her wings covering the entire image, hiding it. From the darkness slithered out a grey smoke shape of a dragon, blood staining his claws, his eyes blue as sapphires, white teeth like quartz glinting in the dark. The shape whipped away like in the wind, and from the ashes rose yet another figure, absolutely enormous with silver eyes... but most troubling of all... five claws scratches lashed across that, tearing it in half, and in its place stepped another smoke shape, emeralds for eyes and wide wings. She held something in her talons, tossed it into the air and it filled Quietkeep's vision. Just before darkness engulfed everything, the ink from the parchment washed away and dropped down, glistening like black blood.

Quietkeep didn't know what that was. What it meant. But frankly, for now, at least, he didn't care. All he wanted to do was to escape the strangling claws of the operation...