Battle Scars | Book 1 (DISCONTINUED)

Ch. 13: The Nest

As they approached the island, Alice and Flash quickly lost Bloodtusk in the giant swarm of dragons. There were thousands, probably even millions of the flying reptiles on the giant island. Some of them were crawling in and out of the volcano, some were perched on the sides of mountains, but most of them were up in the air and made it very difficult to fly. However, Flash still managed to fly through the flock like he'd done it a thousand times before, making Alice wonder if he knew this place.

She wanted to go to the volcano since she could hear the strange song reverberate inside it, but Flash seemed intent of flying down to the bottom of the mountains. Trusting her dragon wasn't taking her somewhere dangerous, Alice steered Flash down towards the mountain he was looking at. They plummeted through the dragon flock, and past the mountains' summits. When they reached the bottom, Alice was surprised to see a small entrance into a cave. She directed Flash towards it and he flew through the narrow tunnel, awaking a few dragons that were clinging onto the walls.

The cave split off into smaller caves, but Flash didn't seem interested in any of them. Unsure of what to do, Alice adjusted Flash's wing so he could somewhat control his flight path. As they flew up and down through the cavern, Alice marveled at the dragon-covered walls. It was a blurry rainbow of scales as they raced past.

Finally, Flash made a quick turn into one of the tiny caves. He flew straight through, and before Alice could even process what was going on they suddenly entered a massive glowing cavern, the walls covered with what appeared to be shimmering gemstones and sunlight filtering through a hole in the ceiling. Flash landed at the end of the cavern, on a small ledge big enough to fit a few dragons that were Flash's size. Right next to them was what Alice thought to be one of the glowing crystals, but at a closer glance was actually three other Flightmares piled on top of each other! Flash ran towards them, letting out a joyful roar and tackling into their pile. The three Flightmares screeched in surprise as they tumbled out of their small nest, quickly standing back up to see what had awakened them. The dark blue one was the first to see Flash, running over to him and nuzzling his chest. The other two, a pink and a green one, realized he was there and bounced over to him. Flash roared happily, running around the ledge with his friends.

Alice stared in disbelief for a few seconds, but then let out a small laugh. Flash had a family! She turned around the view the rest of the cavern, and realized the rest of the "crystals" were other Flightmares as well. They all stared at Flash in shock, a few of them flying over to greet him. But a few had seen Alice and shot her a glare. She shrunk back awkwardly, turning towards Flash again. His friends were pretty much piled over him, licking his face and sniffing his saddle and prosthetic wing. As he was playing with the other Flightmares, a smaller Flightmare with turquoise scales crawled up to to his side, sniffing his prosthetic wing. Flash didn't realize that the small turquoise dragon was growling at his prosthetic until it snapped its jaws at the wing's membrane, nearly tearing it off. Flash screeched in surprise, causing all the other Flightmares to fly away. He tugged his wing away and growled at the turquoise Flightmare before limping over to Alice.

That was when all the Flightmares in the cavern had noticed her. The joy of their friend coming back was gone, replaced with anger and confusion at the sight of a human in their nest. Flash whimpered, curling his tail around his friend protectively.

The room when silent when a giant purple and blue Flightmare stood up, perched on one of the highest nests in the cavern. Its entire body looked like it was burning with purple flames, and it was almost too bright to look at. It spread its massive wings, revealing swirling blue patterns on its wings' membrane. Alice watched with both terror and awe as the strange looking Flightmare lifted itself off the ledge, gliding down towards her and Flash. It was twice the size of Flash, so big that the both of them almost had to back up against the wall. The Flightmare flicked its tail, revealing a flame-like tail fin the tip. It stared blankly at Flash, but once it spotted Alice its eyes narrowed. It stepped forward, letting out a low rumble while its eyes were still locked on her.