Wings of Fire: The Forgotten Legend

Epilogue

The clouds were parting to reveal a bright morning. The birds flew to catch the worms, twittering that normally was a beautiful sound to the ears. But not today. In the air was the pungent smell of murder. The fleeing dragon knew it was. What he was fleeing from was evil fate. History had just shifted in a new direction. He had the option to tell Vigilance what had transpired. He had the chance to tell her that he was an animus; tell her that he could time-shift. He shook aside what would have been. There is only the present now he told himself. And onward he flew toward the Ice Kingdom.

The world was frozen. All she could do was stare. She couldn't process what happened. She was in her room, looking at her vast collection of diamonds. There were some noises coming from the hall. She first ignored them. But they continued. Then there was sobbing. She walked out. It had come from her mother's room. As she opened the door; "Mother, what's..." In the life-altering moment, there was the queen on the floor, eyes closed, and Shdowhawk looking at her with a sad look, then flying away. No, it was too soon. And she screamed.

Changes. That's all that happened in the last two weeks. Changes that involved death. But not just one. Two deaths, in two days. The first was a complete mystery. No one knew who the dragon was. But the second was not so mysterious, at least to Shadowhawk. It was probably going to be a lot more mystifying for others, though. The timing was absolutely horrible. This was horrible. All his life, nothing really major happened. Nothing impacted him. But fate just felt like dumping everything bad right then and there. It was, well, still quite a shock. Not totally unprepared though, since he knew something like this was going to happen. He would find his father, and...what would happen after that? He would have to think about that. He obviously knew he wouldn't be allowed back to the Night Kingdom.

"My queen, what should we do?" the general asked her. Vigilance was still in disbelief. Her mother, dead, because of her brother. And in consequence, she was now declared queen. Yes, she did want to be queen. But not his way. And her brother, the thoughtful, easy, placid and forgettable Shadowhawk, killing their mother? Unthinkable. But that's what happened. "General, put a bounty on his head. And get the army ready for a search."

As the last two days flew by, he had almost reached the Ice Kingdom. With the sun setting behind him, he flew on. He looked down. The landscape of the desert seemed very small. The clouds below him soon hid it. Looking forward, he caught the glimpse of a white peak. Not much further he told himself. Then his mind felt like it was being smashed. He roared in surprise and pain. The world suddenly lost color and faded into nothing as he felt himself plummet to the ground.

There! A small flicker of light! As he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in a cave of ice. It was semicircular in shape, but in the middle laid the remains of a dragon skeleton. How did I get here? And whose remains are those? He went up to the remains and was just about to touch them when a dragon landed in the front of the cave. He looked to see that it was himself.

The general walked out into the cold and breezy air. He was both happy and disappointed at the same time. Looking at Ironlock, his right-hand dragon, he said: "I want all of our search party out there." Ironlock nodded and flew off. The general a little later stood in front of the army. "We are searching for the murderer of the queen, the prince Shadowhawk. He is a slippery one, so be sharp. Form up!" he shouted, and they divided themselves into six ranks. "One rank for each kingdom. I will go with the Icewing rank. We will catch him, and bring him to justice. But remember this: I want him alive."

He continued to stare at himself. How is this possible? The other continued to move into the cave. He can't see me? So this looks like the future. But I don't remember entering the twilight zone. He was about to speak when, once again, his head was smashed and he entered the realm of the unconsciousness. Shadowhawk woke up and realized that he was freezing. As he looked around, it dawned on him that he had crashed into a snow bank. He counted himself lucky for landing there. Rising up, he shook the snow off himself. Oh, I know what that was! It was a vision! No wonder it hurt my head that much! Well, I know now that I have to find and go to that cave. But he froze when he heard the sound of flapping wings that sounded like they were getting closer. Oh, by the moons, have they found me already? To his relief, it was only two Icewings on patrol. Well, thank goodness I brought what I needed. In a small pouch he had on him he produced a gold ring and slipped it onto a talon. They both landed in front of him.