Wings of Power: The Rising Tribe [SERIES CLOSED]

Chapter 11

The bars of Vein's cell went flying, smacking Marble on the face. She crumpled to the floor with a cry of pain, and Vein could see that her arm really was burnt. Blizzard, who was parallel to her, crouched, covering his head and cowering in fear. The bars zoomed passed him and impaled themselves into the wall with such force that cracks grew way out of its epicenter.

Blizzard slowly rose up, after checking to make sure that he wasn't dead. Vein advanced on him, and when Blizzard noticed him, he jumped a good three meters away from him. Vein still stalked towards him, and Blizzard backed up until he was at a wall.

"Oh, please! Don't kill me!" He blubbered on an on. "I don't wanna die!"

Vein rose over him, front talons blazing. He would have slit him and burned him and threw him into the ocean for the CoralFins to get, but he suddenly remembered what Blizzard had said earlier.

"Should we free him?"

Vein froze, but he didn't die down the fire. Blizzard still was down, covering his head with his wings, even though that wouldn't do much good. He decided to leave Blizzard, after some thought, and when he went to Marble, he leered over her with a scornful look. Behind him, Vein saw with the corner of his eyes that Blizzard's expression was infinitely better. But when he tried to stalk up the stairs, Vein turned and shot a bolt of fire at the nearest thing to Blizzard, which was a mini pine tree. It exploded by the intense heat and forced Blizzard to back away from the stairs.

"Don't try to escape," Vein warned. "Or you'll end up like that tree!"

Blizzard ducked down, probably expecting another blast of flame.

"All right, Marble," he sneered over her unmoving body. "Let me tell you this---I wasn't a traitor. I didn't cover up my assassination with laughing. I wasn't even going to assassinate anyone! Now, these will be the last words you'll ever here: I'm not a traitor."

He raised his talons, and---wait, hold on. He raised his talons and---he couldn't do it. He just couldn't kill someone as helpless as Marble. That wasn't the BloodWing thing to do. You kill them in battle---not in their sleep. That's assassinating, and Vein wasn't here to do that. He wasn't going to be a BloodWing or TimeWing traitor. He would try and make peace, but not by war.

Unfortunately, Vein hesitated way too long. Marble sprang up and gave a solid kick right on Vein snout. The pain flared in Vein's nostrils, and the force sent him skidding towards Blizzard. With one thought, he shut off his fire seconds before slamming into Blizzard, getting another cut from Blizzard's spike. It raked across his back, which caused Vein to arch it. He reared up on his hind legs before charging towards Marble.

He bodychecked her, sprawling her up the stairs. Her extra-puffy part on her tail unfurled, revealing a razor-sharp spike. The thought of that spike made Vein wince. The slice on his back was still throbbing, but he didn't let that stop him.

He swung his tail at the exact moment Marble swung hers. Vein was risking his tail doing this, as a TimeWing's spike could slice bone as easy as slicing clay. Their tails both clash and Vein's multiple spikes overpower Marble's one spike. 

Vein looked up and saw Marble gritting her teeth. With one stump, it was hard for her to balance. A disadvantage . . .

Back at the BloodWing camp,  Vein had been told to look for disadvantages while fighting dragons and use that as their weakness. Marble's stump made her teeter with each swing of her tail, so Vein decided to risk his mortality trying this.

As soon was Marble's tail went over his head, he sprang up, turned in the opposite direction of the tail (so it wouldn't slam into the back of his head) and jumped on her back. She roared with such fury that he nearly tumbled off, but he managed to get to the side parallel to her stump. Then, with the force that he could muster, shoved her into the water fountain. She shrieked and flailed and cursed as she splashed into the cold water, and Vein assumed it was cold.

And he turned around to see that Blizzard was gone.