Wind and Flames: Talons United

Chapter 2

"Who's here?" Nevara growled, trying to make out the foggy shape in the distance. It looked like a dragon, but one that she hadn't ever seen before. "I'm warning you! Come any closer and I'll..."

The dragon figure stopped moving. "Or you'll what?"  It taunted in a cold voice that sent chills down Nevara's spine.

"I'll....I'll....."

The air was getting thicker, and harder to breathe. Exhausted, Nevara tried to sit down, but the world started to spin around her as if she were in a tornado. It spun and spun, making her dizzy and lightheaded.

Then suddenly when she opened her eyes, there was a dragon standing over her. He looked made of crystals, with his frozen blue eyes staring directly at hers.

She tried to speak, to open her mouth, but she found that she couldn't. It was like someone had super-glued it shut.

The dragon smiled. "Shh," she said, putting a talon on her mouth. "Don't speak. You'll wake the no-wings."

Nevara couldn't see behind the dragon very well, but she could make out the figure of several monkey-looking creatures lying on the ground and snoring.

Is that what no-wings look like?

She shook her head, and closed her eyes again. It's all a dream. Don't think about it. Just wake up now.

"You know how they get when angry?" The dragon continued. "It's like they're on rampage: they could probably rip a dragon in two if they were grumpy enough."

Nevara tried her best to ignore him.  Its all a bad dream, just wake up now and save yourself. Wake up, wake up, wake up, WAKE UP.

She suddenly jolted awake from the dream, her thoughts racing and her heart beating. She was lying on her rocks, with Deep and Tala next to her on their own. They were still asleep, probably having better dreams than hers.

She shook her head, and decided to go out of her dorm and have a drink of water or something. Hopping down from her rocky ledge, she slowly opened the door, and crept out of the room.

When she was about halfway down the hall, she looked outside and saw that one of the big windows had been cracked.

Like somebody had unsuccessfully tried to escape.

Nevara shook it off, telling herself that a little creature had just tried to get in and cracked the window in the process.

"What's happening to me?" she wondered aloud as she finished drinking from the water stream. "Just a couple days ago I wasn't having these dreams.

Maybe it's because of Deep's story, a voice in the back of her brain said. Maybe now you're terrified that one day, you'll get devoured by a bunch of  no-wings.

She glared, trying to focus her vision on the floor. Growling, she said softly, "Now I know that  won't happen."

Then she heard it: talon-steps. They were running steps, frantic ones. Like a bunch of dragons hustling away from a certain area at once. Nevara's neck prickled, her her muscles tensed. The ground was shaking now, hard.

There were cries of dragons as the stampede moved down the hall towards her. She leaped into the air, gliding as high and as fast as she could without bonking her head on the ceiling or getting trampled by the sharp dragon talons.

"SMASH THE WINDOWS!" One  of the guards of the Queen and King yelled. "EVERYONE GET OUT OF HERE NOW."

Nevara's flight faltered as the running dragons underfoot swerved to the windows, each one of them banging. Loud noises echoed through the halls.

She was about to fall onto the stampede, but she caught one of the lace curtains just in time and clung to it for dear life as the still night air was filled with sounds of shattering glass.

She looked to her right, seeing not only Tala below her, but a dark cloud of smoke coming right their way.

And then she knew.

Fire.